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The European Union (EU)’s general court has annulled sanctions on seven Iranian companies and one individual. The court in Luxembourg ruled there was insufficient evidence to justify sanctions on several companies – Post Bank Iran, Iran Insurance Company, Good Luck Shipping, and the Export Development Bank of Iran – and that the EU had erred in its assessments of Persia International Bank, the Iranian Offshore Engineering and Construction Company and Naser Bateni, managing director of Hamburg-based Hanseatic Trade, Trust & Shipping. Bank Refah Kargaran’s appeal was also upheld on the basis that the EU’s claim it had taken over operations from a previously sanctioned bank, Bank Melli, lacked detail.

One of the more bizarre arguments put forward by the Obama administration as it pushed for military intervention in Syria was that failing to respond to the horrific chemical attack on Ghouta would send the wrong ‘message’ to Iran. On 3 September, secretary of state John Kerry mentioned Iran four times in his brief opening statement to members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as he sought to convince them of the need to strike. “Iran is hoping you look the other way,” Kerry said. “Our inaction would surely give them a permission slip for them to at least misinterpret our intention if not to put it to the test.” Defence secretary Chuck Hagel took a similar tone. “Our refusal to act would undermine the credibility of America’s other security commitments, including the president’s commitment to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon,” he said.

Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said became the first foreign leader to visit Iran since Hassan Rouhani assumed the presidency when he flew into Tehran’s Mehrabad airport on 25 August. He was greeted by new foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who also saw him off three days later. It was Qaboos’ first visit to Iran since 2009; on his schedule were meetings with Rouhani, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani.

South Africa’s Sasol has sold its stake in the Iranian joint venture Arya Sasol Polymer Company. In a statement on 19 August, Sasol said Sasol Investment Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sasol, had sold 100% of its shares in SPI International (the indirect owner of a 50% interest in Arya) to Main Street 1095, a South African subsidiary of an Iranian investor, on 16 August. “As a result of this transaction, Sasol has no ongoing investment in Iran,” the statement said.

President Hassan Rouhani’s chosen cabinet emerged from the parliamentary vetting process relatively unscathed, attesting to the new leader’s astute political antennae, and his capacity to balance pro and anti-reform individuals without upsetting Iran’s complex factional interplay. In mid-August, MPs approved 15 of the 18 cabinet nominees, who include both some deemed close to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and some identified as being more pro-western, such as foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, seen as likely to push for a grand bargain with the West.

A report on farsnews.com says that newly installed Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al-Thani is due to participate in the 4 August inauguration ceremony of Iranian president-elect Hassan Rouhani. Asharq Al-Awsat said on 29 July that representatives of 40 countries were due to attend the ceremony. Rouhani himself has tweeted (@HassanRouhani) that this is the first time foreign officials have been invited to the ceremony, and that the emir of Qatar will “certainly” attend, alongside ten presidents, three prime ministers, five heads of parliament (including Oman’s), five vice-presidents and ten foreign ministers.

With just weeks to go before his inauguration as president of Iran, Hassan Rouhani has been deploying his extensive connections within Tehran’s business and political elites. As a special appointments committee works on the cabinet list, Rouhani – due to be inaugurated in early August – has been seeking to bring together a clutch of effective administrators disposed to delivering economic gains, rather than focusing on anti-western gesture politics. He is keen to put distance between himself and current president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Muscat has maintained its policy of regular consultations with the Iranian government, promoting rapprochement and acting as a back channel for other allies to connect with the leadership. Sultan Qaboos Bin Said Al-Said sent a cable of congratulations to president-elect Hassan Rouhani after his election, and on 20 June, the Islamic Republic’s deputy foreign minister for Arab and African affairs Hoseyn Amir-Abdollahian held talks with Omani foreign minister Yusuf Bin Alawi Bin Abdullah in Muscat.

On 14 June, Iran held a presidential election in which Ahmadinejad – who has already served two terms – did not stand.The winner was Hassan Rouhani, the most moderate of the six candidates, who took 50.71% of the vote, way in front of Tehran mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who came second with 16.56%. Top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, talked about previously as a front-runner, was third, and Mohsen Rezaie fourth. Rouhani’s victory was something of a surprise.

Hassan Rouhani’s election win prompted a string of congratulatory cables from the leaders of the Gulf Co-operation Council, adding to the sense of optimism that his election has the potential to reverse some of the damage done during the Ahmadinejad years.

Iran’s famously mercurial presidential elections proved as unpredictable as ever on 14 June, when the moderate conservative cleric Hassan Rouhani swept to victory, winning over 50% of the vote in a poll that also saw an unexpectedly high turnout of 72%. The streets of Tehran and other major cities were transformed into street parties, with thousands of young people and families honking horns, blaring music and chanting support for the country’s imprisoned opposition leaders.

Hassan Rouhani earned his ‘diplomatic sheikh’ nickname from the Iranian press during his years as chief nuclear negotiator under President Mohammad Khatami. With Rouhani at the table, Iran came closer than ever in recent years to striking a deal with the West. But his agreement to suspend uranium enrichment during negotiations as a trust-building measure provoked major backlash in Iran, and was the first real blot on a long career in the top echelons of the security establishment.

Rafsanjani: Iran’s former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani lashed out at the authorities after he was barred from standing in June’s presidential election. According to the opposition Kaleme website, he accused the leadership of being ignorant. “I don’t think the country could have been run worse, even if it had been planned in advance,” he was quoted as saying. “I don’t want to stoop to their propaganda and attacks, but ignorance is troubling. Don’t they understand what they are doing?”

France’s Total has agreed to pay more than $398m to settle charges brought by the US authorities over the alleged payment of $60m in bribes to help win lucrative oil and gas contracts in Iran in the 1990s.
The allegations, which relate to contracts for Sirri A and E and South Pars fields fields, have been pursued by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which settled with Total through an administrative order, and the Department of Justice (DoJ), which filed a criminal case in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia. Total has also been charged with violation of French laws by the Paris prosecutor.

The bold decision to bar former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani from standing in Iran’s 14 June presidential election has come as a shock to supporters who viewed the 78-year-old founding father of the Islamic Republic as the best chance of reform. The unelected 12-member Guardian Council had previously hinted he might be unsuitable on the grounds of his age – all the more controversial for the fact that its head, Ahmad Jannati, is himself 86. The Guardian Council also barred Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, a close aide to outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who has fallen out of favour with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei since assuming office in 2005.