12-Feb-2020: Cabinet approves MoU between India and Iceland

The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, was apprised of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between India and Iceland in the field of Fisheries. The MoU was signed on 10th September, 2019.

The salient features of the MoU are:

1. Creation of facilities for exchange of scientists and technical experts and their proper placement, especially in areas of estimating Total Allowable Catches in off shore and deep sea areas;
2. Provision of training to fisheries professionals from key fisheries institutions in the various management aspects on areas of modern fisheries management and fish processing
3. Exchange of scientific literature research findings and other information.
4. Exchange of experts / expertise to study the prospects of fishing.  Processing and marketing of products from high seas fisheries for entrepreneurship development.

The MoU will strengthen the existing friendly relations between India and Iceland and will enhance consultation and cooperation on Fisheries including consultation on bilateral issues.

3-Jan-2020: US kills top Iranian general in Baghdad air strike

Iran's most powerful military commander, Gen Qasem Soleimani, has been killed by a US air strike in Iraq. The 62-year-old spearheaded Iranian military operations in the Middle East as head of Iran's elite Quds Force. He was killed at Baghdad airport, along with other Iran-backed militia figures, in a strike ordered by US President Donald Trump.

Soleimani's killing marks a major escalation in tensions between Washington and Tehran.

Under his leadership, Iran had bolstered Hezbollah in Lebanon and other pro-Iranian militant groups, expanded its military presence in Iraq and Syria and orchestrated Syria's offensive against rebel groups in the country's long civil war.

Soleimani was widely seen as the second most powerful figure in Iran, behind the Ayatollah Khamenei. The Quds Force, an elite unit of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, reported directly to the ayatollah and Soleimani was hailed as a heroic national figure. But the US has called the commander and the Quds Force terrorists and holds them responsible for the deaths of hundreds of US personnel.

US said Soleimani had been "developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region". This strike was aimed at deterring future Iranian attack plans.

Meanwhile, global oil prices have soared by more than 4% in the wake of the attack.

Iran's most powerful military figure was regarded as the strategic mastermind behind its vast ambition in the Middle East and the country's real foreign minister when it came to matters of war and peace. As commander of elite special forces, he orchestrated covert operations, involving a web of proxy militias, across the region. He also commanded political influence inside Iran and was regarded as second only to Iran's all-powerful Supreme Leader. He was widely considered the architect of President Bashar al-Assad's war in Syria, the ongoing conflict in Iraq, the fight against Islamic State, and many battles beyond.

His death, Mr. Rouhani added, had redoubled Iran's determination "to stand against America's bullying".

Major General Qassem Soleimani: From 1998, he led Iran's Quds Force which handles clandestine operations abroad. Iran has acknowledged the role of the Quds Force in the conflicts in Syria, where it has advised forces supporting President Bashar al-Assad and armed thousands of Shia Muslim militiamen fighting alongside them, and in Iraq, where it has backed a Shia-dominated paramilitary force that helped tackle IS. These conflicts turned the once-reclusive Soleimani into a something of celebrity in Iran.

The Trump administration has alleged that the Quds Force is "Iran's primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting" US-designated terrorist groups across the Middle East - including Lebanon's Hezbollah movement and Palestinian Islamic Jihad - by providing funding, training, weapons and equipment.

The US designated Iran's Revolutionary Guards and its Quds Force as foreign terrorist organisations in April.

8-May-2019: Iran Sets 60-Day Nuclear Countdown Unless Europe Delivers Trade

Iran threatened to abandon limits on uranium enrichment unless Europe throws it an economic lifeline within 60 days, setting an ultimatum for the survival of a shaky 2015 accord meant to prevent the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear bomb.

The move is likely to inflame tensions with President Donald Trump’s administration, which walked away from the landmark nuclear deal a year ago and imposed strict sanctions that squeezed Iran’s economy, triggered a currency collapse and ushered in shortages of consumer goods.

Iran’s appeal was addressed to European signatories to the agreement, which are struggling to reconcile Trump’s hardline stance on Iran with their promise to continue trading and engaging with the energy-rich nation.

Germany and Britain have said they’ll continue working to salvage the multilateral agreement that succeeded in limiting Iran’s nuclear program, but urged Tehran to stick to its commitments and avoid escalation. The U.K. said it was not considering imposing sanctions at this stage.

German trade with Iran was worth 3.4 billion euros ($3.8 billion) in 2017 and 1.5 billion euros in the first half of 2018. Trade with France totaled 2.42 billion euros last year. But secondary U.S. sanctions, which punish non-American companies and financial institutions doing business with Iran, mean major European companies are already staying away.

The U.S. stepped up economic pressure early this month by allowing the expiration of waivers that permitted eight governments to import Iranian oil, in a drive to cut Iran’s oil exports to zero and force Tehran to end support for militant groups around the Middle East.

In a letter to other signatories, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it was no longer committed to restrictions on the storage of enriched uranium and heavy water stocks, and could stop observing limits on uranium enrichment at a later stage.

The level of nuclear enrichment Iran is allowed to pursue is at the heart of the nuclear agreement, because material enriched at a sufficiently high concentration could be used to produce a bomb.

If European partners meet pledges to facilitate Iran’s access to banking and oil markets, however, it will restore full compliance with the agreement, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA.

By leaving the JCPOA, the U.S. wanted Iran to exit the following day so it would take the file to the Security Council. Iran didn’t fall into that trap,” Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a televised address. We “know how important the JCPOA is and its crumbling will have a negative impact on the region and the world,” he said. “ We don’t want to leave.”

For months, Iranian officials have signaled they’re losing patience because they’re sticking to an agreement that curbs their nuclear activities but is providing few of the promised benefits. A significant loss of oil revenues would hit state coffers hard and present a challenge for Rouhani, who championed the nuclear deal and won two elections on a promise to end Iran’s isolation and revive its economy.

The Europeans would be put in a difficult spot if the Iranians re-attach some centrifuges or restart some questionable centrifuge research that may have dual uses.

8-Apr-2019: U.S. designates Iran’s elite military unit as a ‘terrorist organisation’

President Donald Trump announced the United States is designating Iran’s elite military force, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), a terrorist organisation. He said in a statement that the “unprecedented” move “recognises the reality that Iran is not only a state sponsor of terrorism, but that the IRGC actively participates in, finances, and promotes terrorism as a tool of statecraft.”

The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was formed after the 1979 Islamic revolution with a mission to defend the clerical regime.

All banks and business were warned of consequences to dealing with the Revolutionary Guards. Businesses and banks around the world now have a clear duty to ensure that companies with which they conduct financial transactions are not conducted with the IRGC in any material way.