Iran appoints Enayati new ambassador to Saudi Arabia

Iran has appointed Alireza Enayati, Director General of the Gulf Affairs Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as the new ambassador to Saudi Arabia, according to the Iranian media.

The Iranian semi-official news agency Fars and Iran judiciary’s news agency Mizan published the report about Enayati’s appointment as Saudi envoy. However, the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs is yet to confirm or comment over the media report about Enayati’s new assignment.

Enayati had served earlier as Tehran’s ambassador to Kuwait from 2014 to 2019. He previously served as assistant foreign minister of the country.

Enayati, a veteran diplomat who has extensive experience in Gulf affairs, was part of the delegation represented Iran in the rounds of talks with Saudi Arabia held in Iraq and China, to facilitate the resumption of diplomatic relations.

Saudi Arabia and Iran signed on March 10, 2023 a historic agreement, brokered by China, to re-establish diplomatic relations after a hiatus of seven years of severed ties at the end of tri-partite talks held in Beijing.

Under the historic deal, the two countries agreed to reopen embassies and consulates in each countries and implement security and economic cooperation agreements that were signed over 20 years ago. Saudi Arabia severed ties with Iran in 2016 following an attack by Iranian pro-regime protesters on its embassy in Tehran and consulate in Mashhad.

The news of Enayati’s appointment came a few hours after the Iranian media denied the reports about appointment of Ali Shamkhani as new ambassador to Saudi Arabia, following his dismissal from the post of secretary general of the Supreme National Security Council.

The Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) had reported earlier last month that Enayati was one of the candidates, being considered for the post of Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia. It is noteworthy that an Iranian technical delegation visited Saudi Arabia on April 12, in preparation for completing the procedures for the reopening of Tehran’s embassy in Riyadh, and this was about a week after a high-level ministerial meeting.

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir Abdollahian met in Beijing in their first official meeting between the two countries’ top diplomatic officials in more than seven years. Ahmadian said then that the announcement about appointment of the new Iranian ambassador to Saudi Arabia will be made in the near future.

Earlier this month, Abdollahian said that Saudi Arabia had introduced its new envoy to Tehran and that Iran would soon reciprocate by introducing its new envoy to Riyadh.

Iranian non-oil export to Pakistan up 41%

The value of Iranian non-oil export to Pakistan increased by 41% in the first month of the current Iranian calendar year, as compared to the first month of the earlier year, the spokesman of Trade Development Committee of the Iranian House of Industry, Mining, and Trade announced.

Ruhollah Latifi said that importing non-oil commodities worth US$116 million, Pakistan was Iran’s fourth export destination in the month under review.

As previously announced by the official, the value of Iranian non-oil export to Pakistan rose 18% in the Iranian calendar year 1401.

Latifi said that importing non-oil goods worth US$1.488 billion from Iran, Pakistan was the fifth top export destination of the Islamic Republic in the previous year.

Iran imported non-oil commodities valued at US$842 million from Pakistan in the past year, which was 170% higher than the figure of the preceding year, the official stated, adding that Pakistan was Iran’s fourth top source of import in the previous year.

On April 30, Iranian Ambassador to Pakistan Mohammad-Ali Hosseini and Pakistani Finance Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar discussed the ways for increasing trade between the two countries in a meeting in Islamabad.

Expressing their satisfaction that the trade between the two countries exceeded US$2 billion, the two sides emphasized the need to take more effective steps to strengthen economic cooperation and help expand trade relations.

During the meeting, the Pakistani minister said that Pakistan attaches great importance to its relations with the friendly and brotherly country of Iran.

Appreciating the efforts of the Iranian ambassador during his diplomatic mission in Pakistan in order to strengthen the brotherly relations between the two neighboring countries, Senator Ishaq Dar praised the measures taken especially in the commercial and economic fields.

Expressing their satisfaction with the value of trade between Iran and Pakistan, which has exceeded two billion dollars, the two sides emphasized the need to identify new ways to help increase trade and develop economic cooperation.

Emphasizing the country's economic outlook, Pakistan's finance minister expressed confidence that despite economic challenges, Pakistan is on the path of progress and development.

Iranian ambassador to Pakistan for his part, appreciated the cooperation and support of the Pakistani government for the development of bilateral relations in various fields, and stated that the potential capacities of Iran and Pakistan are the main factor for the expansion of joint cooperation.

He added that bilateral trade between Iran and Pakistan has now reached US$2.4 billion, but it is not compatible with the good political and people relations of the two neighbors and more efforts should be made to support the business community of the two countries.

Back in January 2023, Iran and Pakistan signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to facilitate bilateral trade between the two countries.

The MoU was signed by the former Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization (TPO) Alireza Peyman-Pak and Head of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) Muhammad Zubair Motiwala.

Based on the MoU, which was signed on the sidelines of Iran’s Exclusive Exhibition in Karachi, the parties pledged to exchange business information, support each other’s private sectors, and provide the conditions and context for the presence of their trade delegations in the other country.

It was also agreed that both sides would take all the necessary measures to facilitate holding exhibitions in the opposite country, whenever required.

Speaking in the signing ceremony, Peyman-Pak said that signing this MoU was indicative of the two sides’ determination for removing the obstacles in the way of bilateral trade and prepare the ground for the businesspersons of both sides to bolster cooperation.

He considered the holding of exclusive exhibitions, exchanging trade delegations and investment in joint production units as positive steps for knowing the capacities and needs of the two countries and expressed hope that such events would continue.

The TPO head further mentioned some obstacles and infrastructural problems that are hindering the two countries' mutual trade, including lack of banking relations, problems related to sea transportation and logistics, and tariff-related issues, saying that the Iranian government is willing to resolve such problems in collaboration with the Pakistani government.

Motiwala, for his part, said that the signed MoU is regarded as a major step to enhance bilateral trade to reach the target of US$5 billion annually.

 

Who should be held responsible for unabated smuggling of Iranian oil products into Pakistan?

In my earlier blogs I had raised concerns about influx of huge quantities of Iranian oil products into Pakistan. Lately, the oil marketing companies have accused Oil & Gas Regulatory Authority (OGRA) for the unabated influx of Iranian products into Pakistan.

The overwhelming perception is that being the regulatory authority entrusted with overseeing the petroleum sector, it is the responsibility of OGRA to take a proactive stance against the smuggling of Iranian petroleum products.

It is also being said that failure of OGRA to control this menace not only undermines the integrity of the regulatory, but also jeopardizes the national economy.

OMCs working under the legal ambient are already operating on a very thin margin. The smuggling of

Iranian products add to their miseries and make it even harder for them to compete with the vendors of smuggled products.

According to some sector experts, “OGRA is a ‘toothless watchdog’ and its prime duty has been to facilitate the government by raising prices of the petroleum products. It has failed in protecting the interest of consumers.” They add neither the Authority has the mandate nor the resources to curb the smuggling.”

OMCs have the right to ask the Government of Pakistan to take immediate and stringent measures to curb the smuggling of Iranian diesel/petrol.

These include strengthening border controls, enhancing coordination among the law enforcement agencies, and implementing robust monitoring mechanisms.

According to some analysts till recently the smuggled products were sold in Baluchistan Sindh, but now Punjab and even KPK are flooded with Iranian Petroleum products.

 

Iran: New Face of National Security

After ten years, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani was replaced with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a veteran Islamic Revolution Guards Corps commander who is set to transform the security body.

Rumors surrounding Shamkhani’s departure first came to the surface in January this year, when one of his close associates was put to death over espionage for the MI6. Nevertheless, Shamkhani remained in his post and continued to make the headlines by orchestrating a thaw in Iran-Saudi relations. Over the course of his tenure as a top security official, Shamkhani coordinated a lot of national security decisions ranging from nuclear talks to internal developments.

He is now being replaced with a hard-nosed IRGC general whose career within the IRGC is distinguished by strategizing and strategic planning. Ali Akbar Ahmadian is a quiet, cagey and taciturn general whose actions speak louder than words.

A dentist-turned-general, Ahmadian served in various positions in the IRGC and rose through the ranks to become the mastermind of many IRGC initiatives and policies. His entire career in the IRGC is characterized by leadership and strategic planning. The heady days of his youth coincided with the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s, which left a formative impact on his career as a navy admiral. During the war, he participated in many operations, including at sea. In some cases, he personally played a role in some maritime retaliatory operations, an experience that he would use to develop strategies for reciprocal operations in the IRGC Navy.

After the war, he was appointed as the deputy commander of the IRGC Navy. In this position, he theorized the maritime experience of the war in countering the aggressions of the US. In a sense, he is seen as the main architect of the IRGC Navy.

Also, he is one of the masterminds who developed the asymmetric warfare doctrine, which he put into practice when he later became the chief commander of the IRGC Navy.

In addition, Ahmadian reshuffled the IRGC during this later tenure as the chief of the force’s joint staff. In this position, he put the IRGC’s house in order administratively, something that earned him the approbation of Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei, the Leader of the Islamic Revolution. Five years later, the entire IRGC entered a new administrative stage under the supervision of Ahmadian.

At the same time, Ahmadian was appointed as the commander of the IRGC’s Imam Hossein University, which played a great role in providing the force with the qualified cadets.

The new security chief has obtained a PhD degree in strategic management from the National Defense University. In September last year, Ayatollah Khamenei appointed him as a member of the Expediency Council.

Ahmadian is taking up the reins of Iran’s national security at a time when the country is navigating through sensitive issues at home and abroad. These issues range from Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, and Saudi Arabia to the now defunct 2015 Iran deal, which is formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

Shamkhani handled some of these issues. He played a key role in paving the way for Tehran and Riyadh to sign a Chinese-brokered deal in Beijing on March 10 this year. The deal restored the Iran-Saudi diplomatic relations after seven years.

Shamkhani has held the position since September 2013. Since then, he has been overseeing major cases ranging from the nuclear talks to regional negotiations with Iran’s Arab neighbors.

In his recent weeks at the SNSC, Shamkhani highlighted the shift in the world order from unipolar to multipolar.

“We are now at a critically historical juncture, and a change in the world order is accordingly of paramount importance. The new world order and mechanisms to approach it would prompt us to review our macro policies,” he underlined.

The comments were delivered by Shamkhani in Tehran at the “New World Order Geometry” conference’s closing ceremony, which was held earlier in May 2023.

He stated that the opportunities and challenges of the new world order rely on how nations behave and prepare for such changes.

Shamkhani also remarked that the new world order may either present big and bright chances or pose threats and dangers.

“We must prepare ourselves and increase our resilience for global transformations,” he noted.

Shamkhani also emphasized the need of preparing for the conditions brought about by the new world order and the changes that follow, adding that being prepared for such developments will allow one to make the most of the new world order.

 

China bans chip giant Micron from key infrastructure projects

China says products made by US memory chip giant Micron Technology are a national security risk. The country’s cyberspace regulator announced on Sunday that America’s biggest maker of memory chips poses “serious network security risks”.

It is China’s first major move against a US chip maker, as tensions increase between Beijing and Washington. The firm’s products will be banned from key infrastructure projects in the world’s second largest economy.

The announcement is the latest development in a deepening row between the US and China over the technology crucial to economies around the world.

The long-running dispute has seen Washington impose a series of measures against Beijing’s chip making industry and invest billions of dollars to boost America’s semiconductor sector.

In a statement, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) said, “The review found that Micron’s products have serious network security risks, which pose significant security risks to China’s critical information infrastructure supply chain, affecting China’s national security.”

The CAC did not give details of the risks it said it had found or in which Micron products it had found them.

A Micron spokesperson confirmed to the BBC that the company had “received the CAC’s notice following its review of Micron products sold in China”.

“We are evaluating the conclusion and assessing our next steps. We look forward to continuing to engage in discussions with Chinese authorities,” they added.

In response, the US government said it would work with allies to address what it called “distortions of the memory chip market caused by China’s actions”.

“We firmly oppose restrictions that have no basis in fact,” a US Commerce Department spokesperson said.

“This action, along with recent raids and targeting of other American firms, is inconsistent with [China’s] assertions that it is opening its markets and committed to a transparent regulatory framework.”

Micron’s share price tumbled by 5.3% in pre-market trading in the US.

Analysts at investment banking group Jefferies said “the ultimate impact [of the ban] on Micron will be quite limited” because it does not rely on the Chinese government or telecommunication for most of the sales it generates in the country.

Micron’s chip customers in China are mostly concentrated in smartphones and personal computers.

But CJ Muse, an analyst at Evercore ISI, said there was a risk that Micron customers in China might move away from the firm to its rivals Samsung and SK Hynix, both of which are based in South Korea.

“The US, meantime, has urged South Korea not to fill any China shortfalls,” he said.

China is a key market for Micron and generated around 10% of its full-year sales. In 2022, Micron reported total revenue of US$30.7 billion, of which US$3.3 billion came from mainland China.

It also has manufacturing facilities in the country.

The CAC’s announcement came a day after a G7 leaders meeting in Japan issued a joint statement which criticized China, including its use of “economic coercion”.

On Sunday, US President Joe Biden said G7 nations were looking to “de-risk and diversify our relationship with China”.

“That means taking steps to diversify our supply chains,” he added.

Micron chief executive Sanjay Mehrotra attended the summit in Hiroshima as part of a group of business leaders.

Last week, the company said it would invest around US$3.6 billion to develop technology in Japan.

Iran-China trade exceeds US$5 billion in four months

The value of trade between Iran and China reached US$5.23 billion in the first four months of 2023, according to the data released by China’s customs administration.

The four-month trade between the two countries increased by 4% as the figure was US$5.02 billion in the first four months of 2022.

As reported, Iran’s exports to China during the period under review faced a 39% decrease as compared to the same period last year and reached US$1.52 billion. In the same period last year, China imported US$2.49 billion of goods from Iran.

During this period, China's exports to Iran increased by 46% to US$3.71 billion. China exported US$2.53 billion worth of commodities to Iran during January-April last year.

According to the data previously released by China’s customs administration, the value of trade between Iran and China increased by 7% in 2022 as compared to the previous year.

Based on China’s customs data, the Islamic Republic and China traded US$15.795 billion worth of commodities in 2022 that was US$1.035 billion more than the figure for 2021.

As reported, China's exports to Iran grew by 14% in the period under review as compared to the preceding year to reach US$9.44 billion. The Asian country exported US$8.258 billion worth of goods to Iran in 2021.

The value of Iran’s non-oil exports to China registered 2%decrease in 2022, reaching US$6.355 billion. Iran exported US$6.502 billion worth of goods to China in 2021.

Iran's share of China's total global trade last year was only 0.25%. China’s trade with the world reached $6.308 trillion in 2022, of which US$3.593 trillion was the share of the country's exports and US$2.715 trillion was related to imports. China's global trade grew by 4.4% last year.

China is one of Iran’s main trade partners that has maintained strong trade ties with the Islamic Republic despite the strict U.S. sanctions.

Iran and China officially signed the document for 25-year comprehensive cooperation in March 2021.

The document was signed between Iran’s former Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi at the Iranian Foreign Ministry.

Back in December 2022, Iran and China finalized 16 memorandums of understanding (MOU) under the framework of the two countries’ strategic 25-year agreement.

The MOUs were signed in an Iran-China comprehensive cooperation program summit which was held in Tehran on December 13 in the presence of Iran’s First Vice President Mohammad Mokhber and China’s Vice Premier Hu Chunhua.

The summit was focused on four areas explored by four committees between the two countries with the aim of paving the way for the implementation of the 25-year agreement.

 

 

What is the fate of US dollar?

The share of US dollar reserves held in central banks fell to 59% –its lowest level in 25 years – during the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the IMF’s Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves (COFER) survey. Some analysts say this partly reflects the declining role of the US dollar in the global economy.

Economic analysts expect that the US dollar’s share of global reserves will continue to fall as emerging market and developing economy central banks seek further diversification of the currency composition of their reserves. A few countries, such as Russia, have already announced their intention to do so.

On July 01, 1944, as the Second World War raged in Europe and the Pacific, delegates from 44 countries met at the secluded Mount Washington Hotel in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire.

This gave birth to ‘Bretton Woods Agreement’ to create a new world order in the post-World War II era. The agreement instilled the dollar as the de facto global currency.

Under the agreement gold was the basis for the US dollar and other currencies were pegged to the US dollar value. By 1971, former US President Richard Nixon ended the dollar’s convertibility to gold as US balance of payments deficits led to foreign-held dollars exceeding the US gold stock, implying that the US could not fulfill its obligation to redeem dollars for gold any longer.

Although the Bretton Woods was short-lived, the dollar standard remained as the currency for international trade and the price of the commodity that made the global wheels run, price of crude oil was fixed in dollars.

Today the dollar reigns supreme. The world’s biggest economy can print greenbacks at will to save itself from budget deficits, can lower or hike federal reserve interest rates to control the price of global crude and other commodities, can manipulate interest rates to pressure emerging and poor economies that hold their foreign reserves in the Greenback.

Recent US Federal Reserve’s historic interest rate rises raised indebtedness of emerging economies. The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) members are exploring how to promote the use of local currencies in their bilateral trade.

According to the IMF the greenback’s share of global foreign-exchange reserves has extended a two-decade decline, but it’s still used more than all other currencies combined.

The dollar continues to play the role of number one global currency as the American economy has been producing a shrinking share of global output over the last two decades.

Chinese trade and lending have been expanding in recent years as the renminbi (also known as yuan) use has risen.

With China’s share of global goods trade now around 15 percent, the renminbi’s reach will expand. The world’s second largest economy and the largest consumer of crude is bound to challenge the dollar’s hegemony with renminbi.

Kicking off his first visit since taking office in January 2023 to China, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula de Silva attacked the US dollar hegemony in international trade, asking “why can’t we do trade based on our own currencies?”

Lula called on developing nations to work towards replacing US dollar with their own currencies in international trade. He called on BRICS (acronym for five regional economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) to come up with their own alternative currency for use of trade.

Prior to Lula’s visit, China and Brazil agreed to settle trades in each other’s currencies. France also recently conducted its first liquefied natural gas sale in renminbi.

The rise of the Chinese currency will take some time as only three percent of central bank reserves are in renminbi. The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) puts global transactions in renminbi at 2.5%, compared to 39.4% for the dollar and 35.89% for the euro.

The US economic sanctions on many nations have prompted them to use alternative currencies and even barter trade for exchange of goods.

After sanctions were applied to Russia following the Ukrainian conflict and simultaneously many Chinese companies were sanctioned by US and EU, transactions between the two neighbors shifted to renminbi.

Official data shows yuan became the most widely used currency for cross-border transactions in China overtaking the dollar for the first time.

Imports of Russian oil, piped-gas, coal and some metals from its neighbor were settled in renminbi. According to Reuters, the bilateral trade stands roughly at US$88 billion. This accelerates China’s efforts to internationalize its currency.

Iran and India established a rupee payment mechanism to eliminate dollar transactions. The state-owned United Commercial Bank (UCO) has been the primary payment settlement bank for India-Iran trade ties due to US sanctions on Iran.

The payment mechanism to import crude from Iran had provided the state-owned lender good chunk of interest-free floating fund, which helped it reduce its cost of funds.

Last year in a meeting between Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian and his Indian counterpart Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Abdollahian pointed out that there are existing mechanisms within the framework of international law which can help in reviving the banking and financial interaction, pointing out that Tehran has implemented such a mechanism with a dozen countries already.

A landmark agreement was signed by Jaishankar and visiting Russian deputy prime minister Denis Manturov on April 18, 2023 in New Delhi, where India agreed to adopt the Russian SPFS financial messaging system for making banking payments to Russia.

The deal also allows acceptance of Indian Ru-Pay cards and India’s Unified Payment Interface (UPI) in Russia, and the Russian MIR cards and Fast Payments Systems (FPS) in India.

In 2022 UCO Bank received the necessary approval from the regulator – the Reserve Bank of India – to open a special rupee account with Russia’s Gazprombank to facilitate trade between the two countries.

The British pound sterling, the oldest global currency still used today, anchored the global economy, until its fall in the early, mid and late 20th century.

The imminent sudden decline of the Greeenback is one of those things that can take every analyst by surprise.

The dollar’s share of global foreign exchange reserves fell from 70% in 1999 to below 59% in the last quarter of 2021, extending a two-decade decline according to IMF’s Currency Composition of Official Foreign Exchange Reserves data.

The greatest threat to dollar comes from central bank digital currencies, which can provide more efficient ways to settle transactions. The US is waking up to this danger, but should accelerate efforts on digitizing the dollar.