WaPo Editorial: Reporter’s Trial Should be Warning for Companies Seeking to Invest in Iran

Companies and nations considering making an “unseemly rush” to open commercial ties with Iran in the wake of last month’s nuclear deal should take note of the ordeal of detained Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian before commencing business with the Islamic Republic, an editorial in the Post warned today.

A Post editorial in May used Rezaian’s case as a warning that tourists traveling to Iran could be used as hostages. Last year, an editorial in the paper asked how a government that couldn’t or wouldn’t protect an American reporter could be trusted to abide by an American-brokered nuclear deal.

…

The corruption referred to in the editorial will likely be magnified by the deal, as many organizations with murky government ties, such as EIKO, the slush fund for Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, will have sanctions against them lifted shortly after a final deal is signed. According to Jonathan Schanzer and Mark Dubowitz of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, EIKO allows Khamenei and Iran’s leadership “to hide billions of dollars in corporate profits earned at the expense of the Iranian people.”

… 

Read the full article here.