Iranian and Turkmen officials inaugurated a car bridge going from the Iranian province of Khorasan Razavi to the Turkmen region of Ahal. Iranian Roads and Urban Development Minister Mohammad Eslami noted that the initiative would increase cross-border trade and strengthen Iran's economic links to Central Asia.
News Briefs
June 9, 2020
The United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and cannot use the agreement to extend a United Nations arms embargo on Iran, according to European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. He said the United States "cannot claim that they are still part of the JCPOA in order to deal with this issue from the JCPOA agreement." Russia also expressed opposition to U.S. attempts to extend the arms embargo.
-- Associated Press
June 8, 2020
Economic sanctions that the United States had imposed on Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) and E-Sail Shipping Company, an IRISL subsidiary based in Shanghai, came into effect on June 8. The U.S. State Department warned the private and public sectors that they might violate the sanctions by doing business with IRISL and its affiliates. The United States also called on governments to investigate IRISL activity, accusing IRISL of helping Iran acquire materials for ballistic missiles and other military projects and violating UN sanctions.
-- Reuters
June 5, 2020
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) expressed concern about Iran's cooperation and reported on the status of Iran's nuclear fuel stockpile in two reports sent IAEA member states. Iran is refusing to answer questions about its possession of a metal disk made of natural uranium, what happened to the disk, and Iran's storage of undeclared nuclear material where explosives testing related to neutral detectors took place in the early 2000s. Iran has declined to grant the IAEA access to two sites related to these concerns and has sought to destroy or sanitize both sites. In addition, the IAEA reported that Iran's stockpile of enriched uranium has grown by about uranium 50 percent since February 2020, to 1,572 kilograms. This is above the 202.8-kilogram limit stipulated by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). The material has not been enriched beyond 4.5 percent.
-- The Wall Street Journal
June 5, 2020
U.S. federal prosecutors are seeking to withdraw a criminal case against Ali Sadr Hashemi Nejad, an Iranian banker convicted of moving $115 million from Venezuela to Iranian entities via the U.S. financial system, in violation of U.S. sanctions. Sadr was found guilty of setting up a network of front companies and bank accounts in order to move funds from a construction project in Venezuela to Iran and mask the involvement of his father, the head of an Iranian industrial conglomerate called Stratus Group. Prosecutors cited the likelihood of continued litigation over evidence suppression as the reason for their request to withdraw the case. A lawyer for Sadr had requested that the case be dismissed because prosecutors failed to share exculpatory evidence before the verdict.
-- Bloomberg
June 4, 2020
The United States alleged that Kenneth Zong, an Alaska man, used the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to launder $1 billion held by South Korea for Iran. Zong used a series of fake invoices for construction material to convince South Korean banks and regulators to release the money. Zong is in prison in South Korea after being convicted of criminal charges over the scheme. The United States is seeking his extradition. Through an asset forfeiture effort related to this case, U.S. authorities are also attempting to seize $20 million held by Ras al-Khaimah, an emirate in the UAE.
-- Associated Press
June 3, 2020
China's Huawei Technologies effectively controlled Iran-based Skycom Tech Co and acted to cover up its relationship, according to internal Huawei and Skycom documents. This counters Huawei's claim that the Iranian firm was just a business partner. Huawei dissolved Skycom in 2013 after Western banks expressed concerns that Huawei's relationship with the Iranian company violated economic sanctions on Iran. Huawei then transferred Skycom's past contracts to a new Iranian company under its control, Huawei Technologies Service. These revelations may support a case in which the United States is seeking to extradite the Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou from Canada for violating sanctions on Iran. Canadian authorities arrested Meng in December 2018 and a judge recently rejected an argument that the U.S. charges against her do not constitute a crime in Canada.
-- Reuters
May 25, 2020
Two banks owned by Iran’s armed forces, Mehr Eghtesad Bank and Hekmat Iranian Bank, will be merged into Sepah Bank. Mehr Eghtesad Bank was established in 1993 as Basijian Fund to provide banking services to Basiji paramilitary force members. It had an accumulated lost in 2018 of $106 million. Three other banks owned by the Iranian police will be merged with Sepah in the future, including Ghavvamin, Ansar, and the Samen Institute of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. Bank Sepah has been sanctioned by the United States for providing commercial and financial support to Iran's missile program.
-- Radio Farda
May 25, 2020
A tanker called "Fortune" carrying Iranian oil has reached Venezuela. It is expected to be followed by four additional tankers, delivering a total of 1.5 million barrels of oil from Iran. The United States criticized the transaction but did not say whether the U.S. intended to block or sanction future shipments.
-- New York Times
May 19, 2020
The U.S. Justice Department charged the Iranian online financial services company Payment24 and two of its executives, Seyed Sajjad Shahidian and Vahid Vali, with conspiracy to commit offenses against the United States, money laundering, identity theft, and wire fraud. According to an indictment unsealed in a federal court in Minnesota, the charges relate to transactions conducted with U.S. companies between 2009 and 2018, in violation of U.S. economic sanctions. The transactions involved purchases of computer software, software licenses, and computer servers. To execute the scheme, Shahidian and Vali misrepresented the destination of the purchases to U.S. companies. Shahidian was extradited from the United Kingdom to the United States and Vali remains at large.
-- The Wall Street Journal