by Mati Tuchfeld, Yoni Hersch, Eli Leon, Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters
Sources close to PM Benjamin Netanyahu say Iran nuclear deal is regional issue that has many Middle Eastern countries, including Israel, worried • Under terms of deal, dozens of companies tied to Iran's Revolutionary Guards will win sanctions relief.
U.S. President Barack Obama
on vacation in Martha's Vineyard, Saturday
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Photo credit: AP  |
Sources close to Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu have declined to respond to comments made by U.S. President
Barack Obama about Netanyahu in an interview with CNN's Fareed Zakaria
that aired in full on Sunday.
"This is not a personal matter, so the prime
minister has no interest in heating things up with the president," an
associate of Netanyahu said on Sunday.
In the interview, Zakaria said Netanyahu had
"injected himself forcefully into this debate on American foreign
policy," and then asked Obama: "Is it appropriate for a foreign head of
government to inject himself into an American debate?"
Obama responded: "You know, I'll let you ask
Prime Minister Netanyahu that question if he gives you an interview. I
don't recall a similar example.
"Obviously, the relationship between the
United States and Israel is deep. It is profound. It's reflected in my
policies, because I've said repeatedly and, more importantly, acted on
the basic notion that our commitment to Israel's security is sacrosanct.
It's something that I take very seriously, which is why we provided
more assistance, more military cooperation, more intelligence
cooperation to Israel than any previous administration.
"But as I said in the speech [last week at
American University], on the substance, the prime minister is wrong on
this. And I think that I can show that the basic assumptions that he's
made are incorrect.
"If, in fact, my argument is right -- that
this is the best way for Iran not to get a nuclear weapon -- then that's
not just good for the United States, that is very good for Israel."
On Sunday, a source close to Netanyahu
criticized Zakaria's line of questioning, saying, "The interviewer's
question about Netanyahu's intervention in internal American politics
was unfounded, as [the Iran nuclear deal] is not an internal American
issue. ... It is also not exclusively an Israeli issue. Rather, it is a
regional matter about which many other countries [in the Middle East]
are also worried."
And an Israeli diplomatic official said, "How
can one accuse Netanyahu of intervening in internal American politics
regarding the deal when a majority of Americans oppose the deal and this
opposition is only growing?"
In the CNN interview, Obama was also asked
about the ongoing venomous anti-U.S. rhetoric by Iranian leaders
following the signing of the nuclear deal. Obama appeared to be
undisturbed by Iran's behavior, saying, "You don't negotiate deals with
your friends. You negotiate them with your enemies. And superpowers
don't respond to taunts. Superpowers focus on what is it that we need to
do in order to preserve our national security and the national security
of our allies and our friends."
Meanwhile, Reuters reported on Sunday that
dozens of companies tied to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps,
the military force that commands a powerful industrial empire with huge
political influence, will win sanctions relief under the terms of the
nuclear deal.
The corps will act in many ways as a gatekeeper for Western firms to some of the most lucrative areas of Iran's economy.
Such is the clout of companies with ties to
the IRGC, which sees itself as the defender of Iran's Islamic
revolutionary ideals and bulwark against U.S. influence, that its
release from financial curbs could help ease the return of swathes of
the economy to the mainstream of world trade.
The process is complex and will unfold in
stages, with some firms obliged to wait eight years for sanctions
relief. Others can expect no concession even then from Washington -- a
reflection of concerns over activities beyond Iran's borders.
Among the latter is the IRGC's construction
arm Khatam al-Anbia, which controls at least 812 affiliated companies
worth billions of dollars and is deemed by Washington "proliferators of
weapons of mass destruction."
The European Union will delist the company for
sanctions in eight years, while the U.S. will maintain its measures
against the firm. Foreign businessmen must gauge at that time to what
extent they can trade with such partners without themselves inviting
U.S. measures.
In all, about 90 current and former IRGC
officials, entities such as the corps itself, and firms that conducted
transactions for it will be taken off nuclear sanctions lists by either
the U.S., the EU or the United Nations, according to a Reuters tally
based on annexes to the text of the nuclear deal.
A handful will see EU sanctions removed once
the nuclear deal is enacted on implementation day expected within the
next year. Others, such as Bank Saderat Iran, accused by Washington of
transferring money to terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas,
will have EU sanctions lifted in eight years; but U.S. measures will
remain in place.
Any IRGC companies delisted at the
implementation stage would be able to "move money through global banks,
access the SWIFT financial system, obtain and extend credit," among
other activities, said Mark Dubowitz, executive director of the
Foundation for Defense of Democracies. They could also get the backing
of European export financing.
Most IRGC entities such as the elite Quds
Force, which carries out overseas operations, and its air force and
missile command will not be delisted by the EU until the second phase in
some eight years. But all will remain then under U.S. sanctions for
"terrorism support activities" or as "proliferators of weapons of mass
destruction."
These groups include names likely to cause
controversy, at least in the West. Among them is Quds commander Ghasem
Soleimani, who has had a high-profile role in advising Shiite militia
leaders in Iraq as well as the forces of President Bashar Assad in
Syria.
Also on the list for EU sanctions relief in
around eight years is Ahmad Vahidi, a former head of the IRGC wanted by
Interpol for his alleged role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community
center in Buenos Aires.
The EU will delist Soleimani for nuclear sanctions but maintain measures for issues related to Syria and terrorism.
The benefits that will accrue to the IRGC, its
recent annual turnover from all business activities estimated at around
$10 billion to $12 billion by one Western diplomat, have been the focus
of much of the outrage in U.S. Congress over the deal.
Western critics say the deal does not in any
case go far enough to ensure Iran will never be able to develop a
nuclear weapon. Republicans in Congress, and some Democrats, are
pursuing a motion to scrap the deal.
Dozens of smaller companies linked to the
IRGC, some of which are directly involved in the purchase or manufacture
of military materials, are also scheduled for sanctions relief.
Among those is the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing
Company, which builds military aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicles,
and Marine Industries, responsible for marine military acquisitions for
both the IRGC and Iran's navy, according to the U.S. Treasury. The EU
will lift sanctions in about eight years while the United States will
retain them.
Under sanctions, the IRGC was still able to
thrive by controlling the smuggling of banned goods across the Persian
Gulf and from neighboring countries, experts say.
So widespread are IRGC business interests that
providing significant sanctions relief in Iran may be hard without
relaxing restrictions on some key companies to some degree.
"Without delisting certain parties on
implementation day -- some of the banks or oil-related companies, for
example -- sanctions relief would have been hard," said Zachary Goldman,
a former adviser at the U.S. Treasury and now executive director at New
York University's Center on Law and Security.
Now, the IRGC will be able to lever its
dominance in Iran's economy to serve as a conduit for the new business
flowing into Iran, and will likely demand joint ventures, shared profits
and other benefits from companies seeking to access Iran's lucrative
markets, Dubowitz said.
"Any company that wants to do business in a
key strategic sector of Iran's economy will have to do business with the
Revolutionary Guards," he said.
The Obama administration has sought to play
down benefits potentially accruing to the IRGC from the deal. James
Clapper, the U.S. director of national intelligence, said Iran would
likely spend most of its sanctions relief on domestic priorities and
that groups like the corps never lost funding even during the worst of
the country's economic crisis.
"They've been funded anyway even with the
sanctions regime," Clapper said at an Aspen Institute security forum in
July. "So I'm sure they'll get some money, but I don't think it'll be a
huge windfall for them."
Foreign firms will have to act with caution in
opening ties with Iranian companies even as EU sanctions unravel. EU
and U.S. policies diverge at points, leaving some room for uncertainty.
In testimony to Congress in July and August,
senior Treasury officials said their department would continue to
enforce sanctions targeting the Revolutionary Guards.
"A foreign bank that conducts or facilitates a
significant financial transaction with Iran's Mahan Air, the
IRGC-controlled construction firm Khatam al-Anbiya, or Bank Saderat will
risk losing its access to the U.S. financial system, and this is not
affected by the nuclear deal," said Adam Szubin, the Treasury's acting
undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, in written
testimony to the Senate Banking Committee in August.
The Iranian airline Mahan Air is accused by Washington of shipping arms for the IRGC and providing transport for Hezbollah.
Szubin acknowledged that some companies sanctioned in the past for dealings with the IRGC will see sanctions relief.
"There are companies who have done
arm's-length transactions with the IRGC over time that we've designated
for conducting business for the IRGC. We have companies like that, that
are due to receive relief at various phases under the deal," Szubin
said.
But the Obama administration's statements have
done little to alleviate the concerns of members of Congress who argue
that the Revolutionary Guards will benefit greatly from the lifting of
sanctions.
"They're going to be the number one beneficiary of the
sanctions lifting," said Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the
Senate Foreign Relations Committee, at a hearing about the deal last
month.
Mati Tuchfeld, Yoni Hersch, Eli Leon, Israel Hayom Staff and Reuters
Source: http://www.israelhayom.com/site/newsletter_article.php?id=27477&hp=1
Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.
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