Posts tagged : "anti-Iran sanctions"

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Mission Accomplished: Tehran and Washington Trigger a Diplomatic Coup

Mission Accomplished: Tehran and Washington Trigger a Diplomatic Coup

Kourosh Ziabari - Fair Observer: The whole episode began in 2013 when a moderate, pragmatic cleric, popularly known as the “Diplomat Sheikh,” replaced Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the president of Iran. Hassan Rouhani, who spearheaded Iran’s nuclear negotiations with the big three in Europe under President Mohammad Khatami, won the hearts and souls of Iranians thanks to his promise of “constructive engagement” with the international community. President Rouhani was intent on ending more than a decade of political and economic isolation, originating from the international community’s goal of preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons—a charge that Iranian officials had denied over and over again. The determination to...

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How Iran’s economy will look after ‘Implementation Day’

How Iran’s economy will look after ‘Implementation Day’

Kourosh Ziabari - Middle East Eye: Iran has complied with all of its technical commitments under the comprehensive deal it struck with the six world powers in July 2015 to curb certain aspects of its nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief. As a result as much as $100 billion will pour into its scrambled economy and pave the way for more to come. It has shipped out 11,000 kilograms of its enriched uranium to Russia, reduced the number of its spinning centrifuges to reach the permitted limit of 6,105 active units, and dismantled the core of the heavy water reactor in the city of Arak and filled it with cement. Now, with the verification of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) director general Yukiya Amano and...

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The IPC Terms Demonstrate a Big Improvement on Iran’s Old Oil Contract Model

The IPC Terms Demonstrate a Big Improvement on Iran’s Old Oil Contract Model

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: Iran’s Ministry of Petroleum has recently introduced a new set of contracts for its upstream projects to draw international investment and rehabilitate the country’s injured oil and gas industry. The removal of sanctions placed on Iran over its nuclear program is imminent, and with the implementation of the comprehensive nuclear deal concluded in July 2015, international firms will be once more allowed to invest in Iran’s profitable energy projects. Oil and gas experts believe the new formula for the energy contracts, known as Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC), boasts many enticing provisions and persuasive advantages, including the exclusion of “buyback system” that had been in place for about...

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To combat ISIS, does the US need to punish Iranians?

To combat ISIS, does the US need to punish Iranians?

Kourosh Ziabari - Your Middle East: The bloody Paris attacks and the heartrending San Bernardino shooting spree – which were ultimately blamed on “Islamist terrorists” – have panicked the United States, and anti-Muslim sentiments are now on a seismic, mind-boggling surge across the country. Severed pig heads and burnt pages of the Holy Quran are thrown at the doorsteps of mosques in Philadelphia, Austin and elsewhere; Islamic centers are on the receiving end of threatening phone calls while their walls are being spray-painted with racist mottos by the xenophobic vandals; and profiling of Muslims at U.S. airports and removing of Muslims passengers from flights have resurfaced again. Even the Sikhs have been assaulted on the...

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The Story of the Iran Deal and the “Scraps of Paper” That Are Gone!

The Story of the Iran Deal and the “Scraps of Paper” That Are Gone!

Kourosh Ziabari - Huffington Post: While nearing the end of his first term, the former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad boldly termed the tough, cruel economic sanctions against Iran as "scraps of paper", naively advising the world powers to "issue resolutions and rejoice"; however, perhaps few of his advisors had told him that Iran's economy would move to the verge of an all-out collapse because of those "scraps of paper" and that an incredible international isolation would be what befalls the country in a matter of 3, 4 years. On various occasions, Mr. President ridiculed the sanctions imposed against Iran over its nuclear program, and irritated the Iranians suffering under the brunt of the most rigorous economically...

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The Congress Will Eventually Vote in Approval of Iran Deal and The Next President Will Honor It: Lawrence Korb

The Congress Will Eventually Vote in Approval of Iran Deal and The Next President Will Honor It: Lawrence Korb

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: As the high-ranking economic and political delegations from the European and Asian countries flock to Tehran one after the other to negotiate the resumption of their trade ties with Iran following the landmark conclusion of the nuclear talks between Iran and the six world powers earlier on July 14, the United States is the only nation that hasn’t yet taken a final decision on the adoption of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action and implementing it. The UN Security Council issued the resolution 2231 on July 20, endorsing the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, indicating that after a period of 10 years, Iran’s nuclear program would be treated as a normal and regular case within the...

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Nuclear Negotiations Demonstrated US – Iran Respectful Engagement

Nuclear Negotiations Demonstrated US – Iran Respectful Engagement

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: Since 2002 when the United States first accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons, there was barely a day when one couldn’t find a headline on the press about Iran’s nuclear program. Literally thousands of news stories, reports, articles and commentaries as well as video footage were released about Iran’s “dangerous ambitions” for manufacturing weapons of mass destruction and violating the terms of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. During these years, the climate of Iran’s relations with the international community was more or less gloomy, and tensions marred Iran’s ties with the European Union and aggravated it’s already contentious relations with the United States. Sanctions were...

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Lifting of Sanctions Contributes a Lot to Prosperity of Average Iranians

Lifting of Sanctions Contributes a Lot to Prosperity of Average Iranians

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: On the final day of the Global Media Forum 2015 and while I had only a couple of hours to pack my luggage and depart from Bonn to Frankfurt and catch my return flight to Tehran, I got the chance to talk to a leading British peace-worker and women rights activist for a 15-minute interview for Iran Review. Scilla Elworthy is the founder of the Oxford Research Group, an advisor of The Elders and a member of several international peace organizations. She has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize three times in recognition of her work on nuclear non-proliferation and the facilitation of dialog between weapons policy-makers and their critics. A member and councilor of the World Future Council, Ms....

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Iran’s Nuclear Deal: “The World Should Now Sigh in Relief”

Iran’s Nuclear Deal: “The World Should Now Sigh in Relief”

Kourosh Ziabari - Your Middle East: Let me jump to an early conclusion about the historic nuclear deal achieved by Iran and the six world powers (China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States) on July 14: the Iranian, American and Israeli critics of the deal, I bet, haven’t even bothered to read the text of the 159-page Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. To be honest, they’re either practically incapable of grasping and comprehending the highly technical, well-crafted, exhaustive deal or don’t have the time to review its content and simply crave for shouting something against it in general, like that it was a “historic mistake”. For the United States and its allies, who said they were seeking...

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EU Council Unanimous Decision Can Terminate Sanctions against Iran

EU Council Unanimous Decision Can Terminate Sanctions against Iran

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: A delegation of 7 members of European Parliament has just concluded its two-day trip to Iran, which was arranged at the invitation of the National Security and Foreign Policy Committee of Majlis (Iran’s parliament). The EU parliamentary group, traveling to Iran from June 6-7, was headed by Elmar Brok, the Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the European Parliament and included MEPs from different political factions such as the European People’s Party, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. The relations between Iran and the European Union have significantly improved in the past two years since President Hassan Rouhani...

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The rebirth of Iran through diplomacy

The rebirth of Iran through diplomacy

Kourosh Ziabari - Gateway House: In the last hours of the night of April 2, a historic primary agreement over Iran’s nuclear program, known as the framework for the Comprehensive Joint Plan of Action(JCPOA), was announced by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the French, British and German foreign ministers as well as representatives from China and Russia, in front of hundreds of news-thirsty journalists in the conference room of the Rolex Learning Center at the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne. Iran and the group of five permanent members of the UN Security Council...

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Nuclear Deal Can Be A Starting Point For Iran-US Rapprochement

Nuclear Deal Can Be A Starting Point For Iran-US Rapprochement

Kourosh Ziabari - Iran Review: Will Iran and the group of six world powers be able to reach a final solution on Iran’s nuclear standoff? It will have to wait until June 30, which is the self-imposed deadline for Iran and the P5+1 (Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States) to conclude the marathon talks. The negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program get closer to the critical phases, and now the two sides are wrestling over the most miniature details: when and how the sanctions against Iran will be terminated, whether or not the UN Security Council will endorse the removal of the sanctions, and what parts of Iran’s nuclear activities will be stopped or limited. The former U.S. Ambassador to NATO believes...

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