Thursday’s Iran Mini Report – Apr. 5, 2018

• US seeks 20-year sentence for Turkish banker in Iran sanctions case

US prosecutors on Wednesday asked a federal judge to sentence a Turkish banker convicted of helping Iran evade US sanctions to about 20 years in prison in a case that has strained diplomatic ties between the United States and Turkey.

A federal jury in Manhattan found Mehmet Hakan Atilla, 47, a former deputy general manager at Turkey’s state-controlled Halkbank, guilty in January.

• Firefighters’ strike in Assaluyeh oil and Gas Company in Bushehr city

On Thursday, April 05, firefighters from the Assaluyeh oil and gas company staged a protest gathering against the non-payment of their 3-month salary.

The protesters stopped working and blocked the entrance to oil and gas 1 site.

South Pars gas field located in Asalouyeh port is the largest gas source in the world, located on the common borderline of Iran and Qatar in the Persian Gulf.

• Activites of the “Total oil company’ in Iran depends on the decision of Trump

In a recent interview with the Economics Corp. (CNC), Patrick Pooyane, director general of the French company Total, said that the company’s economic activity in Iran would depend on the will of the President of the United States.
The French company Total leading a consortium including China has signed a contract to take advantage of the eleven South Pars gas fields, the world’s most important gas field. This field, discovered in the 1970s, is shared between Iran and Qatar.

• Iran: Maryam Akbari goes on hunger strike to support Golrokh Iraee

Political prisoner Maryam Akbari Monfared declared on Wednesday, April 4, 2018, that she will to on hunger strike for three days in solidarity with the hunger striking political prisoner Golrokh Iraee. She urged international human rights organizations to take urgent action to save the life of Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee.

After 60 days of hunger strike, political prisoner Golrokh Ebrahimi Iraee fainted, suffered seizures and subsequently went into coma on Tuesday, April 3.

• Iran: Kurdish activist woman, Ronak Aghaii, jailed in Mahabad

Kurdish activist woman, Ronak Aghaii, was taken to the Prison of Mahabad (Iranian Kurdistan) to serve her jail sentence.
Ronak Aghaii was arrested by intelligence forces in September 2017 and taken to Orumiyeh on the charge of “hoisting the flag of Kurdistan” in the gatherings of Mahabad residents in support of the referendum on independence of the Iraqi Kurdistan.