The US, Iran and the Middle East

The Radical Think Tank Harassing Critics Of Trump’s State Department

The Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a think tank that has promoted U.S. military strikes on Iran and is funded by one of President Donald Trump’s biggest campaign megadonors, served as a messaging hub for a controversial taxpayer-funded project, the Iran Disinformation Project, that engaged in harassment of American critics of the Trump administration’s foreign policy in the Middle East.

Two congressional sources who attended a briefing with State Department officials from the Global Engagement Center confirmed to Responsible Statecraft that Saeed Ghasseminejad, an FDD senior adviser, was a contractor on the project, marking the second time within the past month that an FDD employee was implicated in harassment campaigns against critics of the Trump administration...

Documents acquired via a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit* with help from Protect Democracy details FDD staff scheduling multiple meetings with State Department officials to discuss “communications,” and an FDD executive introducing Ghasseminejad to officials at the State Department’s Iran Action Group that was created by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to coordinate U.S. policy toward Iran following Washington’s withdrawal from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, a nuclear accord with Iran brokered under the Barack Obama administration...

Iran sees no arms buying spree as it expects U.N. embargo to end

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iran said it was self-reliant in its defense and had no need to go on a weapons buying spree as a United Nations conventional arms embargo was due to expire on Sunday despite strong U.S. opposition.

“Iran’s defense doctrine is premised on strong reliance on its people and indigenous capabilities ... Unconventional arms, weapons of mass destruction and a buying spree of conventional arms have no place in Iran’s defense doctrine,” said a Foreign Ministry statement carried by state media.

The 2007 Security Council arms embargo on Iran was due to expire on Sunday, as agreed to under the 2015 nuclear deal among Iran, Russia, China, Germany, Britain, France and the United States that sought to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons in return for economic sanctions relief...

Treasury sanctions Iran's ambassador to Iraq

The Treasury Department on Thursday announced that it was sanctioning Iran’s ambassador to Iraq for his role in carrying out the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force’s (IRGC-QF) “destabilizing foreign agenda” in Iraq, according to a press release from the department.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets and Control said in the statement that Iraj Masjedi, a general in the Revolutionary Guard, “has directed or supported groups that are responsible for attacks that have killed and wounded U.S. and coalition forces in Iraq.”

“The Iranian regime threatens Iraq’s security and sovereignty by appointing IRGC-QF officials as ambassadors in the region to carry out their destabilizing foreign agenda,” Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the press release...

U.S. issues fresh Iran-related sanctions targeting state oil sector

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States on Monday imposed fresh Iran-related sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic’s oil sector, including the Iranian Ministry of Petroleum, in Washington’s latest action to increase pressure on Tehran...

Turkish Bank Case Showed Erdogan’s Influence With Trump

WASHINGTON — ​Geoffrey S. Berman was outraged. The top federal prosecutor in Manhattan, Mr. Berman had traveled to Washington in June 2019 to discuss a particularly delicate case with Attorney General William P. Barr and some of his top aides: a criminal investigation into Halkbank, a state-owned Turkish bank suspected of violating U.S. sanctions law by funneling billions of dollars of gold and cash to Iran...

The bank had the right to try to negotiate a settlement. But his prosecutors were still investigating key individuals, including some with ties to Mr. Erdogan, and believed the scheme had helped finance Iran’s nuclear weapons program...

Turkey had mounted an elaborate influence campaign in Washington to deal with Halkbank. It predated Mr. Trump’s election but came to encompass a broad cast of players, including Rudolph W. Giuliani, the former New York mayor; Michael T. Flynn, Mr. Trump’s first national security adviser; and Brian D. Ballard, a lobbyist and fund-raiser for the president...

Khamenei says Iran's U.S. policy not affected by who wins election

DUBAI (Reuters) - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Tuesday the U.S. presidential election’s result will not impact Tehran’s policy towards Washington.

“Our policy towards the United States is clearly set and does not change with the movement of individuals. It does not matter to us who comes and goes,” Khamenei said in a speech carried live on state TV...

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told U.S. network CBS on Monday that he wants the United States to rejoin the accord, but that “re-engagement does not mean renegotiation” because “if we wanted to do that [renegotiate], we would have done it with President (Donald) Trump four years ago.”

Zarif told CBS that “the statements by the Biden camp have been more promising, but we will have to wait and see”.

Trump has said he wants to strike a broader accord that would also address Iran’s missile programme and regional activities. Iran has ruled out any negotiations unless Washington first returns to the agreement.