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Reuters:
"The U.S. Senate voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to pass a bill
giving Congress the right to review, and potentially reject, an
international agreement with Iran aimed at keeping it from developing
nuclear weapons. The 98-1 vote sent the measure to the House of
Representatives, which could consider it as soon as next week. The White
House said President Barack Obama would sign it into law if it also
passes the House, as expected, without significant changes. 'I look
forward to House passage of this bill to hold President Obama's
administration accountable,' John Boehner, the Republican speaker of the
House, said in a statement supporting the bill shortly after the Senate
vote. The bill gives Congress 30 days to review a final nuclear deal
after international negotiators reach such an agreement, and during that
time bars Obama from temporarily waiving any U.S. sanctions on Iran that
were passed by Congress. If the Senate and House pass a resolution of
disapproval of the deal, it would prevent Obama from offering any waiver
of congressional sanctions, the overwhelming majority of U.S. sanctions
on Iran. Such sanctions can only be permanently lifted by Congress.
Lawmakers made clear another battle, over a final nuclear deal, lays
ahead. 'Make no mistake, that will not be the end of the story,' Senate
Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said in a speech urging the
bill's passage. 'There is bipartisan concurrence that we do not trust
Iran,' said Democratic Senator Ben Cardin, a bill co-sponsor and the top Democrat
on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee." http://t.uani.com/1H6eiqD
NYT:
"While the Obama administration spent the past two years getting
within striking distance of a deal to delay Iran's race for a nuclear
bomb, North Korea went on an atomic spending spree: an expansion
officials here fear Washington has little hope of stopping. Satellite
photographs of the North's main nuclear facility at Yongbyon, released in
2013, have shown a doubling in size of the nuclear enrichment plant
there, which the United States did not know about until 2010, and
American officials strongly suspect there is a second one. A consensus is
emerging that the North most likely possesses a dozen or so nuclear
weapons and could be on the way to an arsenal of as many as 20 by the end
of 2016. 'In my view, 20 is a hell of a lot of bombs,' Siegfried S.
Hecker, a former director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and a
professor at Stanford, said in an interview... The apparent buildup in
nuclear bombs, after 20 years of failed efforts by the United States to
keep North Korea from reaching this point, has become a rallying call for
both sides debating the agreement with Iran." http://t.uani.com/1P62skG
Fars (Iran):
"Lieutenant Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC)
Brigadier General Hossein Salami played down the US officials' war
rhetoric against Iran, and stressed that the country has prepared itself
for the worst case scenario. 'We have prepared ourselves for the most
dangerous scenarios and this is no big deal and is simple to digest for
us; we welcome war with the US as we do believe that it will be the scene
for our success to display the real potentials of our power,' Salami said
in an interview with the state-run TV on Wednesday. His remarks came after
US Secretary of State John Kerry, who leads his country's team in the
nuclear talks with Iran, in a charm offensive to rebuild ties with Israel
over the Iran policy said recently that military action is still among
possible options for Washington. Salami underlined that the era of using
force and military power is over, and said the US has gained victory over
some countries which had 'rotten' armies and couldn't resist against
aggression and Washington shouldn't compare the Islamic Republic's
powerful Armed Forces with them. The top General warned that Tehran will
set fire to every military base from which a hostile US plane takes off
for bombing Iran, and said, 'We warn their pilots that their first flight
(to target Iran) will be their last one and no one will be allowed to go
back safe and sound and they should call their flights as their last
flight.'" http://t.uani.com/1H3HQT0
Nuclear Program & Negotiations
Fars (Iran):
"Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major
General Mohammad Ali Jafari dismissed the US officials' renewed military
threats against Iran as ridiculous remarks. 'Today, the Islamic Iran's
pride and might has made the world's biggest materialistic and military
powers kneel down before the Islamic Republic's might,' Jafari said,
addressing a ceremony in the Northern city of Semnan on Thursday. 'The
military option that the westerners speak of constantly is ridiculous and
they know that if the military option could have produced any result,
they would have already used it many times, and today they have shifted
their focus to other types of threat and to the soft war front,' he
added. The IRGC top commander further warned of enemies' attempts to
create insecurity in the neighboring countries to make Iran insecure, and
said despite all these plots Iran is considered as an island of stability
and tranquility in the region." http://t.uani.com/1Qt8Gby
AFP:
"Iran is a destabilising force that must not be allowed to have a
nuclear weapon, top US diplomat John Kerry said in Saudi Arabia Thursday,
aiming to calm Riyadh's worries... 'We made clear that we remain
concerned about Iran's destabilising actions in the region,' Kerry said
after talks with King Salman. Because of those concerns 'we believe that
it is so important that Iran not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon and
we will continue to work with our friends and allies in the region,' said
the US secretary of state." http://t.uani.com/1zJLf9s
Reuters:
"Concerns over a final nuclear deal with Iran and civil war in Yemen
will top the agenda of talks in Paris on Friday between U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry and Gulf Arab states. After marking the 70th anniversary
of the end of World War Two in Europe at the Arc De Triomphe, Kerry met
counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Qatar,
Oman, and Bahrain, as well as the head of the Gulf Cooperation Council.He
was joined by Washington's chief Iran negotiator Wendy Sherman and U.S.
Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz, a nuclear specialist. The Paris meeting
will lay the groundwork for a summit next week in Washington and Camp
David between U.S. President Barack Obama and the six-nation GCC. Obama
faces a formidable challenge to allay Gulf Arab fears over a nuclear deal
with Tehran which is due by June 30." http://t.uani.com/1zResQ5
Reuters:
"The United Arab Emirates is seeking some form of U.S. security
guarantee from President Barack Obama's Camp David meeting with the six
Gulf Cooperation Council nations, the ambassador of the United Arab
Emirates to Washington said on Thursday. 'We are looking for (some form
of) security guarantee given the behaviour of Iran in the region,'
Ambassador Youssef Al Otaiba said at a Washington think tank. 'In the
past, we have survived with a gentleman's agreement with the United
States about security ... I think today we need something in writing. We
need something institutionalized.' Obama has invited GCC leaders for
meetings in Washington and at the Camp David presidential retreat May
13-14, an offer he made following the conclusion of a framework nuclear
agreement with Iran." http://t.uani.com/1JvRr5a
Congressional
Action
Politico:
"Picking up where Sens. Tom Cotton and Marco Rubio left off, House
conservatives plan to press House GOP leaders to allow a series of
hard-to-oppose amendments to the Iran nuclear review bill. The move by
the conservative House Freedom Caucus could put Speaker John Boehner in a
bind. He'll have to decide whether to clamp down on attempts to change
the bill as Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) did in the Senate,
angering his right flank - or to allow votes on their amendments at the
risk of tanking the legislation authored by Sens. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)
and Ben Cardin (D-Md.)... 'The current Corker deal gives the illusion of
government oversight while actually just providing political cover,' Rep.
Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), a Freedom Caucus member, said in an interview. 'A
number of conservative House members want to encourage our leadership to
allow meaningful amendments.' ... Senior House Republicans are split over
how leadership should handle the amendments. Some top GOP aides and
lawmakers want to kill the Corker bill, arguing it's weak and gives a
stamp of approval to Obama's talks with Iran. But a larger contingent of
leadership officials seems to want quick passage - including Boehner
himself, who in a statement Thursday called the legislation
'important.'" http://t.uani.com/1ImiB1h
Roll Call:
"In a major signal of public support, 150 House Democrats signed a
letter Thursday supporting President Barack Obama's framework for a
nuclear deal with Iran. 'As negotiations over Iran's nuclear program
continue, we urge you to stay on course, building on the recently
announced political framework and continuing to work toward a strong and
verifiable agreement between the P5+1 countries and Iran that will
prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon,' the letter begins. The 150
Democrats - 145 of whom can vote - is a significant number. As the
Washington Post points out, if Congress voted to reject the Iranian
nuclear deal, and Obama vetoed the rejection, there would appear to be
just enough Democrats to sustain the president's veto. The Senate
advanced language Thursday, 98-1, that would give Congress a say over the
deal. But the current language would effectively require a two-thirds
majority, meaning the 150 Democrats signed onto Thursday's letter - which
was written by Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, Lloyd Doggett of Texas and
David E. Price of North Carolina - could essentially render input from
the rest of Congress meaningless. Of course, that assumes all Democrats
on the letter remain supportive of a deal that would hypothetically be
voted down by the rest of Congress. Notably, there are more than 40
Democrats who did not sign the letter, including Minority Whip Steny H.
Hoyer of Maryland. Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California did
sign." http://t.uani.com/1JTSS0K
Al-Monitor:
"Republicans have signaled that they know they don't have the votes
to override a veto. Rather than schedule a difficult and ultimately
doomed vote on disapproval, which would put them on the record as
pro-actively trying to undermine a final deal, they are considering
instead a resolution of approval that's destined to fail but would
publicly demonstrate the lack of congressional support for Obama's
diplomacy. 'There's a couple ways that you can look at it,' Corker told
reporters after the vote. 'A resolution of disapproval would stop the
deal if you were successful. If the majority of people in the Senate
thought that the deal was not a good one, but you didn't have enough
votes to disapprove, you could move to a resolution of approval.'
McConnell suggested last week that this might be his intention. 'A failed
resolution of approval, as the bill before us would permit, would send an
unmistakable signal about congressional opposition to lifting sanctions,'
he said on the floor April 30. 'Let me say that again. A failed
resolution of approval, permitted under this bill, would send an
unmistakable signal about congressional opposition to lifting sanctions.'
Congress may also decide to hold two votes: one on approval, and another
on disapproval. 'There will definitely be a vote,' a senior Republican
aide told Al-Monitor. 'The question is, on what?'" http://t.uani.com/1FTHuiV
Sanctions
Relief
Press TV (Iran):
"Minister of Petroleum Bijan Zangeneh says Iran plans to splash out
$180 billion to revive and renovate its oil, gas and petrochemical
industries by 2022. Addressing an energy security summit in Berlin, the
minister said Iran has always been a reliable energy supplier, adding the
country wants to regain its position in the energy market... Zangeneh
held important talks with German leaders, including Energy Minister Sigmar
Gabriel on Thursday. The minister was reportedly set to hold more talks
with energy giants, including Siemens, Linde and Lurgi, about the release
of Iranian LNG equipment and parts seized by German companies under the
European sanctions regime. According to Zangeneh, Germany was Iran's
prime energy partner in the downstream oil industry as well as its
petrochemical, refinery, turbines and industry parts sector before
sanctions. The three energy companies have a history of two decades of
operation in Iran's giant South Pars gas projects. Linde had undertaken
to build equipment for gas liquefaction of Iran's LNG plant. According to
CEO of National Iranian Gas Company Ali Reza Kameli, the company has
completed construction of the equipment but is refusing to deliver it
because of sanctions." http://t.uani.com/1F9XgaE
Reuters:
"PSA Peugeot Citroen is in talks to cooperate with Iranian carmaker
Iran Khodro if sanctions against the Islamic Republic are lifted,
Germany's Manager Magazin cited Peugeot brand chief Maxime Picat as
saying. 'We are speaking to our Iranian partners on a weekly basis about
how and when we can start our activities,' the monthly magazine on Friday
quoted Picat as saying in an interview... 'We are thinking about
launching a joint venture with Khodro with which we could cover the whole
spectrum from procurement to manufacturing and the sale of spare parts,'
Manager Magazin quoted him as saying." http://t.uani.com/1EUS47k
Yemen Crisis
FT:
"They are hundreds of miles apart and their local struggles have
little in common, yet Lebanon's Shia force Hizbollah and Yemen's Houthi
rebels are opening up about a relationship forged by sectarian politics
transforming the Middle East. With regional tensions exacerbated by a
Gulf-backed coalition striking the Houthis, the long rumoured but never
proven ties are becoming visible. Some sources say Iran-backed Hizbollah
may even be providing direct support to their Yemeni allies - a sign of
how the rivalry between Sunni Gulf states and Shia Iran is reshaping
local conflicts. Linked by Iranian patronage and emboldened by the fight
in Yemen, the Hizbollah-Houthi relationship may fuel rival Sunni states'
fears of expanding Shia alliances, analysts say. Officially, Hizbollah
has made no comment on its role with the Houthis, but a political source
close to the group's leadership said the relationship goes back several
years and hinted it may be playing an advisory role to Houthi forces.
'Perhaps a limited role, giving advice and counsel, but there is no presence
on the ground,' the source said. Other Hizbollah fighters say they have
played a more active role on the ground in Yemen. A Houthi official who
met the Financial Times in Beirut said relations with the Lebanese
movement stretch back over a decade." http://t.uani.com/1H3Fi7n
Human Rights
UN News Centre:
"Two United Nations human rights experts have condemned the sharp
increase in executions across Iran in recent weeks, urging the Government
in Tehran to heed the Organization's appeal for an immediate halt on the
use of the death penalty. 'When the Iranian government refuses to even
acknowledge the full extent of executions which have occurred, it shows a
callous disregard for both human dignity and international human rights
law,' Ahmed Shaheed, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human
rights in Iran, stressed in a press release issued earlier today...
Iran has witnessed a surge in executions over the past two years. At
least 852 individuals were executed between July 2013 and June 2014 - the
last reporting period for which data is available - representing an
'alarming' increase in the number of executions in relation to the
already-high rates of previous years, according to UN estimates. In
addition, more than 340 persons, including at least six political
prisoners and seven women, were reportedly executed since January
2015." http://t.uani.com/1ImkB9M
NYT:
"Furious over the unexplained death of a chambermaid, ethnic Kurds
in an Iranian provincial capital rioted on Thursday, apparently setting the
fire that roared through the hotel where she had worked. Police officers
used tear gas to disperse the crowds, according to news accounts,
witnesses, and images posted on social media. The anger, which appeared
to have been smoldering for days in the city, Mahabad, spread over the
mysterious circumstances surrounding the fate of the chambermaid, Farinaz
Khosravani, 25, who on Monday plunged from a fourth-floor window of the
city's only four-star hotel, the Tara, Kurdish news media reported.
Mahabad is the capital of West Azerbaijan Province, and its population is
mostly Kurdish. The protesters suspected foul play in Ms. Khosravani's
death, according to the Rudaw news website, based in the neighboring
Kurdish region of Iraq... He said that many in the city of 280,000, had
read news on the Internet saying that Ms. Khosravani had been trying to
escape an Iranian official who was threatening to rape her. According to
those reports, the official had the help of the hotel's owner, who had
been promised a fifth star for helping arrange the official's stay
there." http://t.uani.com/1EUTYF9
RFE/RL:
"Thousands of teachers across Iran have again taken to the streets
to call for higher wages. Iran's semiofficial ILNA news agency, which
focuses on labor issues, reports that silent protests were held on May 7
in more than a dozen Iranian cities, including Tehran, Tabriz, Shiraz,
Isfahan, and Sanandaj. Reports say that, in the Iranian capital, an
estimated 3,000 teachers protested peacefully in front of the parliament
amid the heavy presence of security forces. Silent protests in other
cities were reportedly held in front of the buildings of the Islamic
republic's education ministry. ILNA reported that, ahead of protests,
numerous teachers were summoned by security officials and allowed to go
free on the condition that they would not participate in the May 7
rallies. Photographs of the protests show demonstrators holding signs
warning against 'discrimination' and 'poverty' among teachers due to
their low wages." http://t.uani.com/1Ehrnai
Opinion &
Analysis
John Hannah in FP:
"And to what end? What's the likely payoff for running these
extraordinary risks? If there were serious analytical grounds for
believing that this kind of deal was likely to transform the Islamic Republic
into something approaching a normal state, well, there'd be something to
argue about. But not even the administration is willing to make that
case, not publicly at least, or at least not as anything more than a
vague aspiration rather than a realistic expectation. But if not
transformation, then what exactly are we buying with this deeply flawed
deal? The answer seems to be time. Ten to 15 years to be exact - if (and
this is a very big if) Iran does not lie, cheat, and steal its way to
sneak out before then. So there's a reasonable bet to be made that we
might get a decent interval of sorts, a chance to kick the can down the
road until ... well, frankly, until it becomes a future president's
problem to deal with, at a time when the mullahs are likely to be
infinitely richer and more powerful than they are today. Now, time is not
nothing. It can be a very valuable commodity in foreign affairs -
especially when alternative courses of action are not obviously superior
and entail their own set of serious downsides. But a Faustian bargain
that maybe buys us 10-15 years of quiet before giving Iran virtually
everything its ever wanted in terms of its nuclear program, sanctions
relief, and international legitimacy is one thing. Doing all that while
also throwing wide open the Gates of Hell in the Middle East is quite
another. Problematic as it is, the administration's deal with the devil
begins to look a whole lot worse when you realize that the fine print
includes provisions likely to unleash regional mayhem and a nuclear arms
race. It seems belatedly to have dawned on the administration that this
all could pose a slight problem. Witness the forward-leaning posture in
support of the recent Saudi-led intervention in the god-awful mess that
is Yemen. Witness next week's summit at Camp David with leaders of the
Gulf Cooperation Council and the flurry of poorly thought-out proposals
to deluge them with military hardware and promises of U.S. support.
Whether this signals a serious strategy to mitigate some of the worst
regional consequences that the Iran deal is likely to trigger is far from
clear. A cynical observer could be forgiven for wondering if it really
isn't just a short-term effort to anesthetize the Arab leaders against
the world of pain that's about to rain down on them, a means of keeping
them supine until the dirty deed is done... Taken on its own, the Iran
deal looks like a highly risky proposition. Add in the most likely
knock-on effects in the region and we're potentially flirting with real
disaster. So much has been given away already on the nuclear front that a
deeply flawed agreement now looks all but inevitable. Damage limitation,
risk mitigation and making the best of a truly awful situation may be all
that we're left with at this point - both inside the negotiating room and
beyond it. Difficult and distasteful as that thought may be for the
world's sole remaining superpower, it's likely the harsh reality that we
now have to confront. We can only pray that the administration shows more
resolve and strategic foresight in handling this phase of the Iranian
nuclear challenge than it has heretofore. And by all means, let's hope
that the president is feeling very, very lucky. We're going to need
it." http://t.uani.com/1Iml1Ne
William Kristol in
The Weekly Standard: "Now, one could imagine a
sophisticated case for a not-fully-reassuring deal, made by a more
sophisticated negotiator than John Kerry: It's not perfect, but some
visibility into the program is better than none; we'll probably pick up
cheating once it's been going on for a while; and, as Clint Eastwood put
it, 'If you want a guarantee, buy a toaster.' But we don't have a serious
or sophisticated negotiator. We have John Kerry. So the deal will be
catastrophic. And the defense of it will be dishonest. That's why a group
of senators fought over the last couple of weeks to strengthen the
Corker-Cardin legislation-seeking to add to it standards that would make
clear what an acceptable deal would be, and to create a process that
would establish a fair playing field for debate and votes on the deal.
The junior senators did their best. We salute them for struggling against
the odds. But they could not overcome Corker's resistance to modifying
what he'd negotiated with the Democrats, other senior Republicans'
unwillingness to challenge a committee chairman's work, the pro-Israel
establishment's commitment to bipartisanship, and a general lack of
urgency about acting now to stop a bad Iran deal. The effort was not
entirely in vain. These senators at least began to educate their
colleagues and the country in the many ways in which the deal toward
which the Obama administration is hurtling is a very bad one. And perhaps
the House will improve the legislation as it comes over to that body.
What is crucial now is that the broader anti-nuclear Iran effort not take
the next two months off while Kerry negotiates. What is crucial now is
that opponents of a nuclear Iran put aside tactical differences to focus
on the fundamental task: preventing-or laying the groundwork for
defeating-a deal that paves the way toward a Middle East dominated and
intimidated by a terror-sponsoring, America-hating, Israel-denying,
nuclear-weapons-capable Iran, whose economy will be strengthened with
sanctions removed and whose nuclear weapons infrastructure the
'international community' will have blessed. For our part, we 'absolutely
guarantee' that if there is no further effort to rally opposition to this
deal until after it's signed, it will be too late. That's why some
senators had a sense of urgency about shaping the debate now. They were
rebuffed by their elders in the Senate. But the fight goes on. It is a
fight against strengthening the Iranian regime at home and abroad, a
fight against a nuclear shield for Iranian terror, a fight against a
nuclear arms race in the Middle East, a fight for a strong America and
for a secure Israel. The battle over Corker-Cardin may be over. The fight
to stop the Iran deal has just begun." http://t.uani.com/1Qt71CF
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