Iran News Round Up - March 8, 2017

Sarmeye Bank International Affairs Manager Ahmad Hajii Mohammadi stated that an unnamed EU country and Iran will launch a joint bank in the EU country early in the forthcoming Iranian calendar year, which begins March 21, 2017. Mohammadi stated that Iran will hold 47 percent of the shares of the bank, while the EU country will hold 53 percent. (Mehr News Agency)  

Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi discussed a Luxembourg federal judge’s 2016 decision to freeze $1.6 billion in assets belonging to the Central Bank of Iran. A group of victims of the September 11 attacks persuaded the judge to freeze the assets in 2016 as an attempt to enforce an U.S. federal judge’s judgement which found Iran had aided the attacks by assisting al Qaeda. The victims sent a letter to Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel recently asking him to assist in stopping Iran from recovering the funds. Takht Ravanchi stressed that while Iran continues to work to undo the freeze, no new developments in Iran’s recovery of the funds have occurred recently. The CBI as well as the Luxembourg system holding the CBI assets, Clearstream, have been working to undo the freeze. (Ghatreh)

Iranian news outlets circulated reports that the Iraqi government recently accepted the credentials of IRGC Quds Force member Brig. Gen. Iraj Masjedi as the new Iranian ambassador to Iraq. News outlets had reported earlier on Iran’s appointment of Masjedi as the new ambassador. Masjedi previously served as a senior advisor to IRGC Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani. (Tabnak News Agency)

Deputy Foreign Minister for European and American Affairs Majid Takht Ravanchi reacted to President Donald Trump’s new executive order banning citizens of Iran and five other Muslim-majority countries from obtaining U.S. visas for 90 days and suspending “admission of refugees into the US for 120 days.” The new order exempts legal U.S. permanent residents and those traveling to the U.S. with valid visas and takes effect on March 16. Takht Ravanchi stated that Iran rejects the new order and believes that “its bases are shaky.”

• Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Ghassemi stated that Iran will place “bans and other legal restrictions” on U.S. individuals and entities which have supported terrorist groups or assisted regional dictators in suppressing their populations. Ghassemi stated that Iran will announced the list of impacted U.S. individuals and entities “in due time.” (Fars News Agency) (E) (Fars News Agency) (E) (Ilna News Agency)

The Damavand, a Mowj-class corvette, and Derafsh, a Sina-class missile boat, departed Bandar Anzali for the Russian port of Makhachkala on the western shore of the Caspian Sea. Russian vessels previously docked at the Iranian port of Anzali in October 2016. Artesh Navy vessels previously docked at the Russian port of Astrakhan in October 2015. The Russian and Iranian navies also conducted joint exercises in the Caspian Sea in August 2015. (Mehr News Agency)

Ahmad Montazeri, the son of the late Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri, was released from prison on March 4. Montazeri began serving his a six-year prison sentence on February 22. He was arrested in August 2016 after publishing a recording of his father, who was originally slated to succeed Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini, criticizing the Islamic Republic’s execution of 5,000 political prisoners in 1988. An unnamed, high-ranking cleric was responsible reportedly for pressing for the suspension of Montazeri’s sentence. Montazeri was released on the grounds that he would not take “further action against the regime.” (ISNA) (Fars News Agency)

Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, the chairman of the Assembly of Experts, criticized President Hassan Rouhani’s implementation of the Resistance Economy doctrine during an Assembly of Experts meeting on March 7. Jannati urged President Rouhani to provide the people with a report on the performance of the Resistance Economy doctrine. Jannati stated, “If the Resistance Economy has not been carried out as it should and ought to have been, he must apologize to the people and explain why.” Rouhani reportedly promised at the end of the meeting that his administration “would provide a detailed report on the implementation of the Resistance Economy” by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (March 20, 2017). (Fars News Agency)

Michael Rubin argues that understanding Iranian soft power requires recognition of Persia’s imperial past, its religious evolution, Persian language and culture, and its history in “Strategies Underlying Iranian Soft Power.”