by:Akbar Ganji
Is there any hope for positive political developments and move toward democracy in Iran, or the hardliners have shut all the doors for the foreseeable future? Perhaps the fate of the leaders of Iran’s Green Movement – former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi and his wife Dr. Zahra Rahnavard, and former Speaker of the Majles [parliament] Mehdi Karroubi – can provide some clues to this important question. Read More »
by:Mohamed Kawas
Crisis in Syria continues to reveal outlines of new international competition we thought was dead and buried. Read More »
The path to a possible US-Iran detente
By: Sina Azodi 24 December 2016
U.S.-Iran relations have been affected by a series of tragic historical incidents and a long-running geopolitical competition over power and influence in the Middle East. Iran views the U.S. presence in the region not only as a security threat, but as a deterring force against its ambitions. The United States also views Iran’s actions as destabilizing and seeks to contain its rise by employing a variety of diplomatic and economic tools. This mutual hostility and mistrust have created an atmosphere that fosters miscalculation, and could easily escalate to another conflict in the region. Read More »
An Airbus A321 with the Iranian flag and description ”The airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran” is parked at the Airbus facility in Hamburg Finkenwerder, Germany, December 19, 2016.
By Tim Hepher | 22 December 2016
Europe’s Airbus signed a firm contract on Thursday to sell 100 jets to IranAir, completing a return by Western plane giants and paving the way for deliveries to start next month, a year after sanctions against Iran were lifted.
The deal took weeks of shuttling between Airbus headquarters in Toulouse, France, and Tehran, complicated by a shortage of expert legal advice as Iran completes its biggest commercial deals with the West since its 1979 Islamic revolution.
Confirming details first reported by Reuters, Airbus said almost half the jets would be for short to medium routes and that deliveries would start early next year.
The contract includes 46 of the narrrow-body A320 family which includes the A321 model, 38 long-haul A330s and 16 of Europe’s newest long-range model, the A350.
Such a deal would be worth $18-20 billion at list prices, depending on variants flown, but Iran is expected to receive steep discounts from foreign manufacturers as its aviation renewal coincides with a drop in demand elsewhere.
The head of IranAir was quoted earlier as saying the value of the contract would not exceed $10 billion.
It is expected to be followed by a formal deal to buy turboprop aircraft from ATR, half-owned by Airbus.
The breakthrough comes days after Iran signed a $17 billion deal with Boeing for 80 jets and is expected to sharpen efforts by the U.S. company to persuade the incoming U.S. administration to allow the trade to go ahead, aviation experts said.
The first jet, an Airbus A321 already painted in IranAir livery, may arrive before the Jan. 20 inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, who has opposed an international deal to lift sanctions in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear activities.
“When Airbus and ATR aircraft start going into Iran, Boeing will point to that to argue that it should implement its own deal,” said an aviation source who closely followed the talks.
Boeing declined to comment.
MOVING QUICKLY
Despite rivalries, the Airbus and Boeing deals with Iran are unusually intertwined because each depends on continued U.S. clearances for the sale of planes built with U.S. parts.
“Everyone has an interest in moving quickly. The Iranian government wants to show results from the nuclear deal; Airbus wants to get deliveries moving and Boeing wants the leverage it can get from European deliveries to Iran,” another source said.
The ability to renew Iran’s ageing and accident-prone fleet is widely viewed as a test of the pragmatist policies of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ahead of presidential elections in May.
Airbus said the deal was subject to U.S. Treasury export licences granted in September and November 2016.
Republican critics of the nuclear pact want Trump to block the aircraft deals and have sought to hamper them by voting to tighten restrictions on use of the U.S. financial system.
Airbus is expected to be paid in euros instead of the usual dollars and is likely to provide its own financing for the first few jets, adding to cash strains caused by a spike in customer financing for Turkey this year.
Planemaking chief Fabrice Bregier called the deal “a significant first step” in modernising Iranian aviation, adding it included training, airport operations and air traffic management.
However, both sides confirmed the Airbus A380 had been jettisoned from a provisional list first agreed in January.
Reuters first reported in June that the original proposal for 12 A380s – seen as a symbol of Iran’s determination to catch up with Gulf rivals and a shot in the arm for Airbus as it struggled to sell the world’s largest airliner – was threatened by domestic opposition in Iran.
U.S. regulatory delays further reduced the order by six planes, lowering the total order to 100 from 118 jets
BY:AKBAR GANGI
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been ill for quite some time, and over the years there have been speculations on his possible successor. The developments over the past year indicate that a possible successor is emerging. Though it may be hard for some to believe, the possible successor is someone who was a prime figure in a grave crime that occurred in 1988 at the end of Iran-Iraq war. Read More »
THE WASHINGTON POST
John Podesta speaks in Washington
By John Podesta
John Podesta was chairman of Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
The more we learn about the Russian plot to sabotage Hillary Clinton’s campaign and elect Donald Trump, and the failure of the FBI to adequately respond, the more shocking it gets. The former acting director of the CIA has called the Russian cyberattack “the political equivalent of 9/11.” Just as after the real 9/11, we need a robust, independent investigation into what went wrong inside the government and how to better protect our country in the future. Read More »
In this Sept. 21, 2008 file photo, Iranian Revolutionary Guard members march during a parade ceremony, marking the 28th anniversary of the onset of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), just outside Tehran, Iran. Iran’s paramilitary Revolution Guard faces a new enemy in the Islamic Republic’s opening economy. That can be seen in a Guard general criticizing a $650-million deal struck with South Korea’s Hyundai Heavy Industries, Friday, Dec. 9, 2016. Analysts say the Guard wants to maintain its hold in Iran’s economy, as well as slow any demand for change in the clerically overseen government it’s sworn to protect.
By Jon Gambrell | AP December 15
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s Revolutionary Guard faces a new enemy: the gradual opening of the country’s economy after the nuclear deal with world powers. Read More »
A Boeing 747 belonging to Iran’s national airline at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran in 2003
By THOMAS ERDBRINK
TEHRAN — Iran and Boeing signed a deal for the sale of 80 airplanes on Sunday, five weeks before the inauguration of President-elect Donald J. Trump, whose Republican supporters in Congress have tried to block any aircraft sales to Iran. Read More »
The Simons Center is pleased to formally congratulate Dr. Cumrun Vafa and all of the winners of the 2017 Breakthrough Prize In Fundamental Physics: Read More »
By Dominic Evans, Maher Chmaytelli and Patrick Markey | Wed Dec 7, 2016
In the early days of the assault on Islamic State in Mosul, Iran successfully pressed Iraq to change its battle plan and seal off the city, an intervention which has since shaped the tortuous course of the conflict, sources briefed on the plan say. Read More »
khalijefars News, Blogs, Art and Community