At WSJ, "Iran Accord Stokes Anxiety Among Its Rivals":
Foes worry about how Tehran will use billions of dollars of unfrozen oil receiptsMore.
Iran celebrated the removal of economic sanctions on Sunday, even as regional rivals warned that it was still out to destabilize the Middle East and needed to be closely monitored.
Western officials said the implementation of Iran’s nuclear deal with six world powers, which allowed for the lifting of some economic sanctions, raised prospects for overhauls within Iran’s political system. The deal has been a priority for President Hassan Rouhani, a relative moderate in the conservative clerical regime who was elected on a platform of engagement with the world in 2013.
Mr. Rouhani hailed the implementation of the deal, saying this had turned a “golden page” in the country’s history and heralded an economic revival.
“Conditions will be better than before for political and economic relations with regional countries, and we can resolve regional problems,” Mr. Rouhani said in a televised news conference, pointing to hope that the deal would create an atmosphere of reconciliation in the region.
But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that his country would continue to monitor Iran’s behavior closely.
“Even after the signing of the nuclear agreement, Iran has not relinquished its aspiration to obtain nuclear weapons and it will continue to undermine stability in the Middle East and spread terrorism around the world while violating its international obligations,” a statement from Mr. Netanyahu’s office said.
In Saudi Arabia, there was concern that the lifting of sanctions would bolster Iran and its allies. A statement by 140 Sunni Muslim clerics urged Muslims to unite against the threat of Shiite Iran. It criticized actions by some minority groups in Muslim countries and accused them of “serving foreign agendas,” a veiled reference to what they view as the loyalty of Shiites in Sunni-majority Arab countries to Iran.
Iran’s rivals are also worried that Tehran will spend some of the billions of dollars of oil revenue unfrozen by the lifting of sanctions on aiding regional allies that include Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, the Shiite group Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Shiite-linked Houthi rebels in Yemen.
Iran’s central bank governor, Valiollah Seif, estimated these funds at $32.6 billion on Sunday. But Treasury Secretary Jack Lew estimated last July that Iran would have access to about $50 billion after sanctions relief.
Mr. Seif said on Saturday that bringing the funds back to Iran would be unreasonable, adding they would likely be used to purchase imports, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. In his speech on Sunday, Mr. Rouhani only said the money “will be at the disposal of our people for economic activities.”
Mr. Seif and other Iranian officials such as Foreign Minister Javad Zarif held up the sanctions relief as a catalyst for investment in Iran and for future cooperation in the fight against terrorism...
0 comments:
Post a Comment