Europe's Business With Iran 'Enriches' Sponsors Of Terror: Khamenie Regime The Most Dangerous
19 February 2018CNN & CNBC Interview
• European companies engaged in business with Iran are enriching the country's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir
told CNBC on Sunday.
• 'We believe that a large percentage of the Iranian economy is controlled by
the Revolutionary Guards and companies associated with the guards,' Al-Jubeir
said.
• Tasked with defending the state and Iran's Islamic ideals, Iran's elite
Revolutionary Guard is a branch of Iran's military founded after the 1979
Islamic Revolution.
European companies engaged in business with Iran are
enriching the country's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and
inadvertently fueling its military activities in the wider Middle East, Saudi
Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir told CNBC on Sunday.
'We believe that a large percentage of the Iranian economy is controlled by
the Revolutionary Guards and companies associated with the guards. And we
believe that any dealings with those companies only serve to enrich the
Revolutionary Guards and cause them to cause more mischief within the region
and the world,' Al-Jubeir said, referencing the billions of dollars' worth of
deals struck between European companies and Iran since the lifting of
international sanctions in 2015.
Tasked with defending the state and Iran's Islamic ideals, the powerful IRGC —
the branch of Iran's military founded after the 1979 Islamic Revolution — is
widely alleged to support militant activity by groups like Hezbollah around
the region, from Iraq and Lebanon to Syria. It is also believed to control
around a third of the country's economy.
The passing of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in 2015, which
lifted international sanctions on Iran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear
development, saw a wave of new investment and business come into the country
from Europe, led by Germany, France and the U.K. European multinationals
Airbus, Siemens, Peugeot and Total have all struck major deals in the country
worth billions.
Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard march during a parade to
commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq war (1980-88), in Tehran
September 22, 2011.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, America's top national security
advisor H.R. McMaster described European nations like Germany doing business
with Iran as essentially writing a blank check to the IRGC.
Asked if he agreed with McMaster's assessment, Al-Jubeir said yes.
'We are talking to our friends in Europe about this. We are letting them know
that the nuclear agreement that was signed with Iran is lacking,' Al-Jubeir
said, describing what he believed were flaws within the agreement's sunset
clause (the timeframe for restrictions on its nuclear development) and the
thoroughness of United Nations (UN) inspections.
'We also believe the nuclear agreement itself does not resolve the issue of
Iran's radical behavior which has to do with the ballistic missile resolutions
of the United Nations … They also do not deal with the issue of Iran's support
for terrorism,' Al-Jubeir said.
Speaking Sunday to NBC News, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said the
U.S. was jeopardizing the nuclear deal.
'I believe President Trump has tried to walk away from that deal from day one
of his presidency, and he has done everything in bad faith to prevent Iran
from enjoying the benefits of the deal already. So we believe the United
States is already in violation of very serious and important provisions of the
nuclear deal,' he said.
Between the signing of the JCPOA and February 2017, Iran conducted up to 14
missile tests, in violation of UN resolutions. The minister emphasized his
government's belief that Iran should be punished for these alleged violations.
Sanctions on the IRGC have not been lifted, and many businesses remain wary of
investing in Iran because any transaction that touches an IRGC-affiliated
entity could be met with severe fines from the U.S.
While the U.S. has listed Iran as a state-sponsor of terror, it has not
labeled the IRGC a terrorist organization, though in October of last year
President Donald Trump said that the Corps had played 'a central role to Iran
becoming the world's foremost state sponsor of terror.'
Iran Most Dangerous Nation For Cyberattacks
The most dangerous regime for cyber threats is Iran, Saudi Foreign Minister
Adel Al-Jubeir told CNBC on Sunday, saying that the country had been attacked
'repeatedly' by its adversary.
Asked who he believed was the most dangerous regime in terms of cyber attacks
and Al-Jubeir was unequivocal.
'The most dangerous regime behind cyber attacks? Iran,' Al-Jubeir said.
'Iran is the only country that has attacked us repeatedly and tried to attack
us repeatedly. In fact they tried to do it on a virtually weekly basis.'
Speaking at the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the foreign
minister repeatedly criticized Iran for what he called 'mischievous behavior'
in the region, with particular reference to its support for Shia militant
group Hezbollah, which holds influence in Lebanon and elsewhere in the Middle
East.
The Sunni monarchy's interests have for decades been diametrically opposed to
Iran's, but the past year has seen tensions escalate against a backdrop of
proxy conflicts in Yemen and Syria.
Al-Jubeir said his country was taking steps to combat the perceived cyber
threat from Iran.
'We are taking all the steps necessary to provide defenses for our data banks
and for our internet and so forth. And we are also taking steps necessary to
train our own people in order to be able to engage in offensive operations to
make it hopefully impossible for people to penetrate those systems,' he said.
Cyber experts have also pointed to what they see as the country's seemingly
increasingly sophisticated cyber-espionage capabilities.
Last September, the U.S. Treasury Department added two Iran-based hacking
networks and eight individuals to a U.S. sanctions list, accusing them of
taking part in cyber-enabled attacks on the U.S. financial system in 2012 and
2013, Reuters reported. Iran denied any role in the cyber attacks although it
has also been linked to cyber attacks closer to home too.
Hackers believed to be linked to the Iranian government attacked Saudi state
oil giant Aramco in 2012, successfully wiping 30,000 computers and paralyzing
operations.
In addition, security experts have traced a number of subsequent attacks back
to Iran, including hacks on Saudi and Western aerospace and petrochemical
companies. Cyber security firm FireEye has said it detected coding containing
Farsi references in the malware that hackers left behind
Ever since the Stuxnet virus that destroyed the equipment controlled by
computers in Iran's Natanz Uranium Enrichment Facility in 2011, Iran's cyber
capabilities are said to have developed at an incredibly fast pace.
FireEye in September 2017 named a hacker group it believed was behind recent
attacks on Saudi, U.S. and South Korean aviation and oil firms as 'APT33' and
said it was gearing up for attacks that might cripple entire computer
networks. 'Iranian fingerprints are all over this campaign, and government
fingerprints in particular,' FireEye's director of cyber espionage analysis
was quoted as telling Reuters.
Iran neither confirmed nor denied accusations that it was behind the attacks.
Cyber security has been a major focus of the Munich Security Conference, which
has brought together more than 450 senior decision makers and heads of state
to discuss current and future threats to international stability.
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