Page 8 - Demo

The Regions This Week
June 30, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 8
Eurasia
A New York court granted largest Azerbaijani
bank IBA chapter 15 bankruptcy protection while it seeks to restructure $3.3bn of foreign debt. Some foreign creditors are angry the restructur- ing plan benefits domestic creditors dispropor- tionately and that smaller creditors’ votes will not hold much sway in the vote on the plan expected by mid-July.
The Mongolian People’s Revolutionary Party ac- cused the election board of twisting the results of the first round of the presidential election
to exclude its third-placed candidate Ganbaatar Sainkhuu from the second round run-off, set for July 7. Ganbaatar lost out to second-placed Enkh- bold Miyegombo (Mongolian People’s Party) by around 2,000 votes. Pre-election favourite Enkh- bold took 411,748 votes compared to 517,478 for second-favourite Battulga Khaltmaa (Democratic Party).
Iran’s parliament is said to be preparing a law to award IRR20tn ($600mn) to the Islamic Revo- lutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a counter- measure in response to US sanctions targeting the Islamic Republic’s military and economic (the IRGC by some accounts controls half the econo- my) backbone. US senators recently voted 98-2 to pass the “Countering Iran’s Destabilising Activi- ties Act” but it must still get through the House of Representatives.
Iranian independent airline Qeshm Air started operating a once-a-week direct return flight be- tween Tehran and Brussels. Around 25,000 Ira- nian expatriates are now said to live in Belgium’s “EU” capital. The airline is planning to launch several European routes to compete with Iran’s largest airlines, IranAir and Mahan Air.
Tehran’s two main airports, Imam Khomeini International and Mehrabad, increased stop- checks on people entering terminals amid ris- ing anxiety about terrorism following the June 7 twin attacks on the Iranian capital that left 17
dead. The IRGC staged a fake terrorist attack at Mehrabad’s main international terminal. Without warning they fired blanks into the air to test for preparedness.
Iran commenced natural gas exports to Iraq via pipeline as part of a long-delayed bilateral deal. The deal, originally signed in 2013, has been in the works since a Shi’ite government took power in Baghdad, but several years of hold-ups, includ- ing delays caused by Iraqi forces battling terrorist organisation Islamic State, throttled development.
Iran received an extended sanctions waiver from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the G7- initiated intergovernmental organisation founded to combat money laundering and terrorism financing. The extension was deemed “indefinite”. This disappointed Iranian banking officials who were hoping to have the restrictions entirely removed.
The Uzbek central bank upped its refinancing rate by as much as 5pp to 14%, changing the rate for the first time since January 2015. The decision was influenced by “growing inflationary risks”. Officially, inflation rate is in the mid-single digits but independent analysts estimate it as in the double digits.
Kazakhstan is to apply “special favourable tariffs” on container cargo transported via the China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran rail route. The trade route will eventually connect with India. China is ramping up infrastructure investments
in Kazakhstan as part of the One Belt One Road initiative.
The Kazakh and Kyrgyz foreign ministries refut- ed a suggestion that they were in talks to send troops to help implement the "de-escalation" plan for Syria. Head of the Russian State Duma's Defence Committee Vladimir Shamanov said such talks had taken place.