The United States issued a new 120-day sanctions waiver allowing Iraq to purchase electricity from Iran. In total there is roughly $10 billion in Iraqi payments held in escrow in Iraq. The waiver kept a provision in place that allows some of the proceeds from the payments to be transferred into accounts in Oman, where they can be converted to other currencies for Iran to spend on humanitarian goods after a vetting process.
News Briefs
November 14, 2023
-- Associated Press
November 13, 2023
Iran's Deputy Defense Minister Mahdi Farahi said that his country's arms exports totaled about $1 billion in the year ending March 2023. Defense Minister Mohammad Reza Ashtiani had said in June that exports of items developed by Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics (MODAFL) had tripled in the Iranian calendar year ending in March, compared to earlier years.
-- Tasnim News Agency
November 9, 2023
Yemen's Houthi rebels shot down a U.S. drone on November 8. The Houthis have also launched three rounds of attacks against Israel. In the first, in late October, a U.S. Navy warship operating in the Red Sea shot down projectiles launched by the group. In the second, on October 27, drones caused explosions in two Egyptian Red Sea towns. In the third, on October 31, Israel used its Arrow defense system to destroy an incoming ballistic missile.
-- Al Jazeera
October 26, 2023
Malaysian authorities seized two ships, the Artemis III and the Ocean Hermana, that were allegedly engaged in an illegal ship-to-ship transfer off the coast of Malaysia. According to the U.S.-based nonprofit United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), the tankers were transporting Iranian oil. The Artemis III is registered in Honduras but managed by Chinese companies, while the Ocean Hermana is registered in Panama and managed from India.
-- The Maritime Executive
October 24, 2023
Over a one-week span, Iran-backed groups launched 10 drone and rocket attacks against bases housing U.S. troops in Iraq, and another three against a base in Syria. For more than six months previously, the groups had refrained from such attacks as part of an apparent undeclared truce between the United States and Iran. The U.S. Department of Defense believes that Iran may now be encouraging the strikes. According to U.S. officials, the United States is sending air defense systems to locations in Kuwait, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
-- Wall Street Journal
October 20, 2023
A U.S. Navy warship operating in the Red Sea shot down four cruise missiles and 15 drones over the course of nine hours, according to a U.S. official, who said that the projectiles' trajectory left "little doubt" that their intended target was Israel. A Pentagon spokesman said earlier that the weapons had been launched by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen and were headed north, "potentially" toward targets in Israel.
-- CNN
October 12, 2023
The United States and Qatar agreed to deny Iranian requests to access the $6 billion in funds that had been transferred from South Korean to Qatari bank accounts as part of a U.S.-Iran prisoner swap agreement. Previously, the funds were available to be used for humanitarian purposes, with the U.S. Treasury Department reviewing transaction requests on a case-by-case basis. A White House spokesman said that none of the funds had been spent to date, however.
-- New York Times
October 9, 2023
Iran and Sudan announced they would restore diplomatic relations. Sudan had severed ties with Iran in 2016 after protestors stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran. Iran and Saudi Arabia agreed to restore relations seven months ago, in an agreement brokered by China.
-- Associated Press
October 9, 2023
U.S. and Israeli officials said they had no firm evidence of a direct Iranian role in Palestinian militants' surprise attack against Israel on October 7, but, according to U.S. Deputy National Security Adviser Jonathan Finer, Iran was "broadly complicit" in supporting Hamas. In recent years, Iran has supplied the group with funding, military training, and technical assistance in manufacturing rockets and drones with advanced guidance systems. Iran's mission to the United Nations denied a direct Iranian role in the attack, while Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi praised the Hamas operation.
-- Washington Post
September 27, 2023
Iran successfully placed an imaging satellite dubbed Noor-3 into low-earth orbit, according to state media. Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) conducted the launch from what appeared to be its launch facility at Shahroud.
-- Associated Press