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Reuters: "Iran unveiled a new
underground missile depot on Tuesday with state television showing Emad
precision-guided missiles in store which the United States says can take
a nuclear warhead and violate a 2010 U.N. Security Council resolution.
The defiant move to publicize Iran's missile program seemed certain to
irk the United States as it plans to dismantle nearly all sanctions on
Iran under a breakthrough nuclear agreement. Tasnim news agency and state
television video said the underground facility, situated in mountains and
run by Iran's Revolutionary Guards, was inaugurated by the speaker of
parliament, Ali Larijani. Release of one-minute video followed footage of
another underground missile depot last October. The United States says
the Emad, which Iran tested in October, would be capable of carrying a
nuclear warhead and U.S. officials say Washington will respond to the
Emad tests with fresh sanctions against Iranian individuals and
businesses linked to the program. Iran's boasting about its missile capabilities
are a challenge for U.S. President Barack Obama's administration as the
United States and European Union plan to dismantle nearly all
international sanctions against Tehran under the nuclear deal reached in
July... The Revolutionary Guards' second-in-command, Brigadier General
Hossein Salami, said last Friday that Iran's depots and underground
facilities are so full that they do not know how to store their new
missiles." http://t.uani.com/1SxhS14
AFP: "The UN Security Council on
Monday strongly condemned an attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran by
protesters angered by Riyadh's execution of a prominent Shiite cleric.
The statement by the 15-member council, which called on Iran to protect
diplomatic personnel and property, made no mention of the execution of
Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr... 'The members of the Security Council condemned in
the strongest terms the attacks against the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's embassy
in Tehran, and its Consulate General in Mashhad in the Islamic Republic
of Iran, which resulted in intrusions into the diplomatic and consular
premises, causing serious damage,' said the council statement. Expressing
'deep concern' over the attacks, the council 'called on the Iranian
authorities to protect diplomatic and consular property and personnel,
and to respect fully their international obligations in this regard.'
Council members urged the sides to 'maintain dialogue and take steps to
reduce tensions in the region.'" http://t.uani.com/1OKevha
AFP: "Iran's supreme leader said
Monday the United States was seeking to influence next month's elections
in the Islamic republic but said such efforts would receive a 'punch in
the mouth.' Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's comments related to parliamentary
polls and a ballot for the Assembly of Experts, a powerful committee of
clerics who will pick the country's next supreme leader when the
incumbent, who is 76, dies. Both elections take place on February 26.
Khamenei told a meeting of prayer leaders that attempts by 'enemies' to
distance Iran from its revolutionary mandate - the Islamic republic was
formed in 1979 after the overthrow of a U.S.-backed shah - would fail.
'Americans have set their eyes covetously on elections but the great and
vigilant nation of Iran will act contrary to the enemies' will, whether
be it in elections or on other issues, and as before will punch them in
the mouth,' he said. The supreme leader, whose authority outweighs all
politicians including Rouhani, has warned in recent months that July's
nuclear deal - which is yet to be implemented - would be followed by U.S.
attempts to 'infiltrate' Iran. Reiterating such sentiments on Monday, he
said the U.S. goal was to bring the Islamic republic closer to 'their own
goals rather than Iran's goals of the revolution'. 'Those who have access
to information know what traps have been laid or are being laid for the
country in order (for them) to infiltrate the nation's will and
decisions,' Khamenei said. 'We must all be vigilant with regards to
infiltration,' he warned, comparing any such person who managed to find
their way into parliament or the Assembly of Experts to 'termites who
would gnaw and weaken (Iran's) foundations from within.'" http://t.uani.com/1JVgNsT
Embassy
Attack
WSJ: "Kuwait recalled its ambassador
to Iran on Tuesday, becoming the latest Sunni Muslim ally of Saudi Arabia
to cut or downgrade ties with Tehran amid an escalating sectarian crisis
in the Middle East. Kuwait's Foreign Ministry said the move was in
response to Sunday's attacks by Iranian protesters on Saudi diplomatic
compounds in Tehran and Mashhad, which it denounced as a 'flagrant breach
of international conventions' and a failure by Iranian authorities to
protect foreign diplomatic missions and property in the country. It
wasn't immediately clear whether Kuwait was fully severing relations with
Iran or only recalling its ambassador. Kuwait's deputy foreign minister
also summoned the Iranian ambassador and handed him a protest note over
the attacks on Saudi facilities, according to Kuwait's state news
agency... Turkey joined in condemning Iran on Tuesday, with Prime
Minister Ahmet Davutoglu saying that the breakdown of security for Saudi
diplomatic missions in Iran was 'unacceptable.'" http://t.uani.com/1PKEHh9
Reuters: "Saudi Arabia widened its rift
with Iran on Monday, saying it would end air traffic and trade links with
the Islamic republic and demanding that Tehran must 'act like a normal
country' before it would restore severed diplomatic relations. Foreign
Minister Adel al-Jubeir told Reuters in an interview that Tehran was
responsible for rising tensions after the kingdom executed Shi'ite Muslim
cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday, describing him as a terrorist. Insisting
Riyadh would react to 'Iranian aggression', he accused Tehran of
dispatching fighters to Arab countries and plotting attacks inside the
kingdom and its Gulf neighbours. 'There is no escalation on the part of
Saudi Arabia. Our moves are all reactive. It is the Iranians who went
into Lebanon. It is the Iranians who sent their Qods Force and their
Revolutionary Guards into Syria,' Jubeir said... 'We will also be cutting
off all air traffic to and from Iran. We will be cutting off all
commercial relations with Iran. And we will have a travel ban against
people travelling to Iran,' Jubeir said... Jubeir, a former ambassador to
Washington where the FBI in 2011 said he had been the target of an
Iranian assassination plot, said the break in ties was a response to
older problems as well as the embassy storming. '[It] is a reaction to
Iran's aggressive policies over the years, and in particular over the
past few months. The Iranian regime has been a sponsor of terrorism, they
have set up terrorist cells in Saudi Arabia and a number of other
countries,' he said... Asked what steps Iran needed to take before Riyadh
would consider restoring diplomatic ties, Jubeir said Tehran must
'respect international norms and treaties and conventions' and 'act like
a normal country [that] respects the territorial integrity of its
neighbours.'" http://t.uani.com/1O2Z9XX
Reuters: "The Gulf Cooperation Council
(GCC) of Gulf Arab states announced on Tuesday it will hold an
'extraordinary' meeting in Riyadh Saturday to discuss tensions with Iran
after attacks on Saudi missions there. Saudi-Iranian tensions threaten to
derail efforts to end Syria's five-year-old civil war in which Saudi
Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies back rebel groups against Iranian-backed
Syrian President Bashar Assad. They also cast doubts over chances for a
peaceful solution in Yemen, where a Saudi-led military coalition has been
bombing the Iran-allied Houthi movement for nine months. 'Foreign
ministers of the GCC States will hold an extraordinary meeting in Riyadh
on Saturday ... to discuss the repercussions of the attack on the Embassy
of Saudi Arabia in Tehran and the Saudi consulate in the Iranian city of
Mashhad,' GCC Secretary-General Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani said in
an emailed statement." http://t.uani.com/1Jrtalm
NYT: "When a Saudi state executioner
beheaded the prominent Shiite dissident Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr on Saturday,
the Shiite theocracy in Iran took it as a deliberate provocation by its
regional rival and dusted off its favored playbook, unleashing hard-liner
anger on the streets. Within hours of the execution, nationalist Iranian
websites were calling for demonstrations in front of the Saudi Embassy in
Tehran and its consulate in the eastern Iranian city of Mashhad. The
police, outnumbered, looked the other way as angry protesters set the
embassy ablaze with firebombs, climbed the fences and vandalized parts of
the building. Now, Iranian leaders are suddenly forced to reckon with
whether they played into the Saudis' hands, finding themselves mired in a
new crisis at a time they had been hoping to emerge from international
sanctions as an accepted global player. Iran might have capitalized on
global outrage at the executions by Saudi Arabia, but instead it finds
itself once again characterized by adversaries as a provocateur in the
region and abroad." http://t.uani.com/1PImjn6
Trend: "Storming the Saudi Arabia's
embassy in Tehran was a 'fully organized' move, the Islamic Revolution
Guards Corps (IRGC) top commander in Tehran province, Brigadier General
Mohsen Kazzemeini said. He further rejected any involvement of the forces
close to the government in the attack, saying the 'believers and
followers of Hezbollah ideology' did not take part in the attack, Iran's
official Mizan news agency reported Jan. 4. Kazzemeini did not unveil
further information about the group or groups which he believes were
responsible for the attack... Kazzemeini further said that storming and
burning the Saudi embassy in Tehran was very wrong and 'dirty' move and
can not be justified anyway." http://t.uani.com/1O30Epb
AFP: "Demonstrators took to the
streets of Tehran for a third consecutive day of protests Monday after
Saudi Arabia executed a prominent Shiite cleric and broke off ties with
Iran. Some 3,000 demonstrators gathered in Imam Hossein Square in eastern
Tehran, chanting slogans against Saudi Arabia's Al-Saud royal family
following the kingdom's execution on Saturday of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr...
Some protesters on Monday criticised Iran's foreign ministry, saying it
should have taken the initiative and broken ties first with Riyadh over
the execution of Nimr, a force behind 2011 anti-government protests in
Saudi Arabia. Others torched the flags of Israel, Iran's arch-foe, and of
the United States which is one of Saudi Arabia's key Western
allies." http://t.uani.com/1TC974e
FT: "They took selfies and posted
cheery photos on social media as if they found setting ablaze the Saudi
embassy in Tehran hilarious. Earlier, dozens of protesters chanted
'Mashallah, Mashallah' - 'God willed it' - as they ransacked the embassy
in protest against Riyadh's execution of Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent
Shia cleric. The Sunni Arab kingdom responded by severing ties with
Tehran, with Bahrain and Sudan following Riyadh's example. The United Arab
Emirates also downgraded relations. At first glance, it may appear that
Islamic vigilantes had created a diplomatic crisis that fuelled tensions
between the two regional superpowers. But reform-minded analysts warned
that Iran's hardliners have exploited public outrage to undermine
President Hassan Rouhani and his allies. 'Without doubt, the incident is
related to the current tense political infighting,' said one analyst.
'More bad news will come soon. There will be a further build-up of
pressure on the reformists.' ... 'It is hard to believe that some people
threw Molotov cocktails at the Saudi embassy and confiscated it for one
or two hours without being supported by some [power] centres,' said
Mohammad-Sadegh Javadi-Hesar, a reformist politician. 'That's why they
easily take selfies and seem confident they will be rewarded for their
radical stances.' ... Ayatollah Khamenei cannot afford to allow severe
prosecution of those embassy demonstrators as they have come to the
Islamic Republic's aid before and carried out brutal crackdowns on
opposition movements. 'Hardliners need to radicalise the political and
social atmosphere so they can eliminate their rivals under the pretext of
national security,' Mr Javadi-Hesar added. 'Their number in various
centres may be equal to a few brigades who can be quickly organised to
confront people with moderate groups who are now identified with Mr
Rouhani.'" http://t.uani.com/1VFayjD
Free
Beacon:
"Iranian authorities waited at least 12 hours before sending
reinforcements to help defend a Saudi Arabian embassy compound that had
come under attack by protestors, according to a timeline of the incident
released by the Saudi government. Saudi Arabia announced on Sunday that
it was severing diplomatic ties with the Iranian government after
protestors stormed the Saudi embassy in Tehran, setting fire to many
portions of the building. Iranian protestors attacked the Saudi compound
late Saturday following the execution in Riyadh of prominent Shiite
Muslim cleric Nimr al-Nimr. Saudi officials in Tehran say they became
aware early Saturday morning of threats by Iranians 'to kill its
personnel' at the Tehran embassy, the Saudi government's news agency
stated in a release describing the attack... Iran did not send support
until later in the morning on Sunday." http://t.uani.com/22IWNVS
Nuclear
Program & Agreement
Free
Beacon: "A
leading Iranian political scholar has stated that the 'knowledge and
capability to build the atomic bomb is necessary' for its global
standing, according to recent comments carried by the country's state-controlled
Persian language press. Mahdi Taeb, a prominent mullah and political
figure tied to the country's hardline regime, said in recent comments
that Iran must obtain the knowledge and technology necessary to build a
nuclear weapon in order to boost the Islamic Republic's global
standing... 'The Islamic Republic's centrifuges are, in reality, getting
power for this divine government,' said Taeb, whose brother, Hossein,
heads the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence branch. 'In this
important path, we consider accessing the knowledge and capability to
build the atomic bomb necessary, even though we call it haram,' or
prohibited, Taeb said, according to Persian language comments published
by the Iranian Students' News Agency that were translated and provided to
the Washington Free Beacon. 'We consider having the knowledge essential
to gain power for the system, so we can assist the Imam of the Age
[Mahdi].' ... Saeed Ghasseminejad, an Iran expert at the Foundation for
Defense of Democracies, said that Taeb's comments reflect the Iranian
regime 'apocalyptic' roots." http://t.uani.com/1PKvmps
U.S.-Iran
Relations
AP: "One of the more than 50 U.S.
Embassy employees held in Iran for 444 days urged the federal government
Monday to quickly distribute money from a new financial compensation fund
to the aging former hostages and their families. Moorhead Kennedy, who lives
on Mount Desert Island in Maine, appeared with his family at the state
Capitol in Connecticut, where his son Philip lives. Now 85, Kennedy
recalled waking up at night screaming after he returned home in 1981.
Kennedy later learned he was suffering from post-traumatic stress
disorder. He spoke of a fellow hostage who hasn't slept a full night in
the last 36 years because of the 'psychic torture' they often endured,
including times when their heads were shrouded with blankets and they
were led to believe they'd be executed. Others have separated from their
families and their whereabouts are unknown. 'I think what has kept us
going is not just the compensation, which of course means a great deal,
but it's the feeling that justice should be done. That this was an international
wrong,' Kennedy said. 'It should be compensated for.'" http://t.uani.com/1R9d6Y6
Congressional
Action
The Hill: "A group of Senate Republicans
is slamming President Obama as having failed to respond to Iran's
ballistic missile tests. 'A continued failure of the administration to
impose consequences on Tehran for its ballistic missile tests... will
confirm the dangerous perception of the regime in Iran that it can ignore
its obligations with impunity and the Obama administration will do
nothing,' Republican Sens. Kelly Ayotte (N.H.), Richard Burr (N.C.),
Lindsey Graham (S.C.) and Mark Kirk (Ill.) said on Monday. Obama is under
pressure from both parties to take a firm line in response to Tehran's
two ballistic missile tests late last year. The Republican senators said
the administration should roll out a 'strong set of sanctions' and
refrain from lifting sanctions against Iran under a separate nuclear
agreement until Iran ends any military dimensions to the program." http://t.uani.com/1ReCpIG
Sanctions
Relief
Reuters: "JX Nippon Oil & Energy
Corp, one of Japan's biggest lifters of Iranian crude, has renewed its
annual term oil purchase volumes from Tehran for 2016, senior company
officials said on Tuesday. JX Nippon Oil, a core unit of JX Holdings,
kept its volume 'unchanged' in the new term contract starting this month,
one of the officials said. Sources have said JX had a contract to buy
53,000 barrels per day (bpd) of Iranian crude in 2015. JX Holdings
Chairman Yasushi Kimura said on the sidelines of an industry gathering
the refiner's annual term crude contract with Iran had been renewed,
although he could not confirm the volumes. Asked if JX would increase its
Iranian volumes once international sanctions put in place against Tehran
over its nuclear programme are lifted sometime this year, Kimura said:
'That would depend on the economics.' ... Showa Shell Sekiyu and trading
houses Toyota Tsusho and Mitsubishi Corp also buy Iranian oil
regularly." http://t.uani.com/1S1QFEs
Human
Rights
ICHRI: Despite "President Hassan
Rouhani's pledges during his election campaign in 2013 that 'All
ethnicities, all religions, even religious minorities, must feel
justice,' the targeting of Christian converts for state persecution and
prosecution has continued unabated under his administration. Most
recently, two days before Christmas, officials from the Administration's
Intelligence Ministry arrested a Christian convert in Isfahan, according
to the Alliance of Iranian Churches known as Hamgam, carting him and an
assortment of his personal belongings off to an undisclosed location. The
arrest of leaders of minority faiths in Iran, especially those that
engage in proselytizing, and the systematic discrimination of members of
such faith in all walks of life, have led the UN Secretary-General and
the UN Special Rapporteur for Iran to consistently cite the denial of
freedom of religion as a major human rights violation in Iran. 'Agents of
the Intelligence Ministry in Isfahan entered the home of Meysam Hojati on
December 23, 2015, scolded him in front of his parents, slapped him on
the face, searched his home and took personal belongings including his
computer, phone, Holy Book and Christian pamphlets,' Mansour Borji, a
spokesperson for the Alliance told the International Campaign for Human
Rights in Iran. 'They took him away handcuffed and blindfolded. The
agents even took the Christmas tree. That's really strange. Why would
they care about a Christmas tree?' he added." http://t.uani.com/22ISdHc
Asharq Al
Awsat: "Kurdish
opposition sources in Iran have revealed yesterday that the executions
carried out by the Iranian regime against the Kurds and other components
are increasing annually, indicating that during the past nine months,
according to the Iranian calendar, executed more than 750 people,
majority of whom are Kurdish. These parties condemned the Iranian
campaign against Saudi Arabia, and demanded the international community
to end his silence regarding the crimes committed by the regime in Tehran
against humanity, particularly the attack on the Saudi embassy in Tehran
the night before last." http://t.uani.com/1Sxo217
IHR: "On the morning of January 4, a
prisoner sentenced to death for murder was hanged in public in a town in
the province of Mazandaran (northern Iran). A source who asked to be
anonymous identifies the name of the young prisoner as Abbas Bazari
Jamkhaneh." http://t.uani.com/1O2V2eH
Opinion
& Analysis
Josh
Rogin & Eli Lake in Bloomberg: "As the cold war between Iran and Saudi Arabia heats
up, the Barack Obama administration is trying to straddle the fence and
not take sides, but its actions tell a different story -- they all seem
to favor Tehran. Following the Saudi government's announcement Saturday
that it had executed 47 prisoners, including a popular Shiite cleric, the
U.S. State Department did two things. First, it issued a statement
expressing concern that Riyadh's actions were 'exacerbating sectarian
tensions.' Then Secretary of State John Kerry called Iranian Foreign
Minister Javad Zarif, urging him to try to de-escalate the crisis.
Spokesmen for the White House and State Department on Monday insisted
that the U.S. was not taking a side, and that Kerry was set to call Saudi
Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir. But U.S. and Arab diplomats tell us that
America's Gulf allies, who feel most threatened by Iran, see things very
differently. The State Department has criticized Saudi Arabia before for
executions and its human rights record. But this time, its spokesman,
John Kirby, undermined the Saudi claim that Iran's government was
culpable for the attacks on its embassy, noting in his opening statement
that Iran appears to have arrested some of those responsible... At the
root of the problem for Sunni Arab states is the nuclear deal reached
last summer by Iran and Western nations. When the White House sold the
pact to Congress and Middle Eastern allies, its message was clear:
Nothing in the deal would prevent the U.S. from sanctioning Iran for
non-nuclear issues. Yet that has not been the case. Last week, the
Treasury Department balked at the last moment on sanctioning 11 entities
and individuals it deemed responsible for helping the Iranian government
develop its ballistic missile program in violation of United Nations
sanctions. Treasury officials had told lawmakers the new sanctions would
be announced Dec. 30, but then the announcement never came. Hill staffers
briefed on the issue said that the State Department had intervened at the
last minute, following objections by the Iranian government. A senior
administration official told us the sanctions weren't dead and that the
U.S. was still working through some remaining issues, but didn't specify
any timetable... Yet Iran's sentencing of a U.S. journalist on espionage
charges in November, and its detention of a U.S.-Iranian dual national in
October, have led to no downgrade in relations. The State Department also
supported the International Atomic Energy Agency's closing of its file on
Iran's nuclear program, despite a report from that agency which found
weapons-related activities had continued to at least 2009, and despite
being denied unannounced on-site inspections at key Iranian military
facilities. U.S. officials tell us Iran has extraordinary leverage at
this moment, as the world waits for it to implement all of its
obligations in the nuclear deal. Iran has begun to remove stocks of low
enriched uranium per the agreement, but it still hasn't made all of the
modifications to its nuclear reactor at Arak or completed other tasks it
promised in the deal. When Iran makes good on its obligations, most of
the assets now in foreign banks will be unfrozen, giving the regime a
windfall of tens of billions of dollars. Critics of the administration
say the U.S. should take advantage of the power it has before that money
is freed up. 'Our maximum leverage to respond to serious non-nuclear
issues is before implementation day,' said Representative Mike Pompeo, a
Republican member of the House Intelligence Committee. 'After
implementation day, the Iranians get the money and the sanctions are
lifted.' Aaron David Miller, a former Middle East negotiator who is a
vice president at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars,
said that the Obama administration sees the Iran deal as the one
stabilizing factor in a region that is increasingly spinning out of
control, and is therefore giving the U.S.-Iranian relationship top
priority. 'The Iranians hold the Obama legacy in their hands,' he said. 'We
are constrained and we are acquiescing to a certain degree to ensure we
maintain a functional relationship with the Iranians.' At the same time,
though, the U.S. is losing leverage over Iran and its ability to
influence the actions of the new Saudi leadership is also waning. The
Saudis have given up on building ties to the Obama administration and are
pursuing their own course until the next president takes office. 'It is
the worst position for the great power, because everyone says no to us
without cost or consequence,' Miller said." http://t.uani.com/1PInrar
Dennis
Ross in NYT: "Saudi
Arabia and the United States have been partners - not allies. Typically,
America's allies share values and not just interests. With the Saudis we
have been bound by shared interests and shared threat perceptions. Indeed
over the years, those who threaten the Saudis have also threatened us,
and vice versa... The Saudis, too, are now threatened by ISIS, and are
trying to root out its followers within the kingdom. But as the conflicts
in Syria and Yemen demonstrate - and as the breaking of relations with
Iran now highlights - the Saudis see the Iranians and their Shiite
militia proxies as their preeminent threat. They are far more ready to
challenge them, particularly in the aftermath of America's nuclear deal
with Iran. The Saudis see the Obama administration as unwilling to
challenge the Iranians and worry about how Iran will exploit the
sanctions relief it will soon receive. In effect, by provocatively
executing the nation's leading Shiite cleric, the Saudis are drawing
their own red line with Iran because they doubt that the U.S. will. For
understandable reasons, the Obama administration does not want to see a
worsening of the Sunni-Shiite conflicts in the region. But are the Saudis
the sole source of this? Or has Iran, in Iraq, in Syria, in Bahrain and
in Yemen added much to this? And will they provide additional material
support to their proxies once they receive sanctions relief? Nearly all
of America's friends in the region, including both Arabs and Israelis,
are convinced they will and are watching to see how the U.S. responds.
This is a delicate moment. Distancing from Saudi Arabia will raise
further questions with America's traditional partners in the Middle East
and might mislead the Iranians into thinking the U.S. will never hold
them to account on the nuclear deal or their regional behavior. And, yet,
the Saudis, too, need to see that future U.S. commitments to Saudi
security could very likely be affected by how much they seem to want to
add to current conflicts rather than contain or resolve them." http://t.uani.com/1mCQz8Z
WSJ
Editorial:
"President Obama imagined he could end his second term with an
arms-control detente with Iran the way Ronald Reagan did with the Soviet
Union. It looks instead that his nuclear deal has inspired Iran toward
new military aggression and greater anti-American hostility. The U.S. and
United Nations both say Iran is already violating U.N. resolutions that
bar Iran from testing ballistic missiles. Iran has conducted two
ballistic-missile tests since the nuclear deal was signed in July, most
recently in November. The missiles seem capable of delivering nuclear
weapons with relatively small design changes. The White House initially
downplayed the missile tests, but this week it did an odd flip-flop on
whether to impose new sanctions in response. On Wednesday it informed
Congress that it would target a handful of Iranian companies and
individuals responsible for the ballistic-missile program. Then it later
said it would delay announcing the sanctions, which are barely a
diplomatic rebuke in any case, much less a serious response to an
arms-control violation. Under the nuclear accord, Iran will soon receive
$100 billion in unfrozen assets as well as the ability to court investors
who are already streaming to Tehran. Sanctioning a few names is feckless
by comparison, and Iran is denouncing even this meager action as a U.S.
violation of the nuclear deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani responded
to the sanctions reports on Thursday by ordering his defense minister to
accelerate Iran's missile program. Your move, Mr. Obama. Opponents of the
nuclear accord predicted this. Mr. Obama says the deal restricts Iranian
action, but it does far more to restrict the ability of the U.S. to
respond to Iranian aggression. If the U.S. takes tough action in response
to Iran's missile tests or other military provocations, Iran can threaten
to stop abiding by the nuclear deal. It knows the world has no appetite
for restoring serious sanctions, and that Mr. Obama will never admit his
deal is failing. The mullahs view the accord as a license to become more
militarily aggressive. Further proof came Wednesday when U.S. Central
Command acknowledged that Iranian Revolutionary Guard vessels last week
fired several rockets that landed within 1,500 yards of the aircraft
carrier Harry S. Truman. A Revolutionary Guard spokesman Thursday denied
the incident but a day earlier the semiofficial Tabnak news agency quoted
an unnamed Iranian official as saying the rockets were launched to warn
the U.S. Navy away from 'a forbidden zone' in the Persian Gulf. The
Strait of Hormuz is one of the world's most heavily trafficked waterways,
and the USS Truman carrier group has every right to sail there. By any
measure the rocket launch was a hostile act that could have resulted in
American casualties. This follows Iran's arrest in October of
Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi, who according to Iranian
media reports is being held in Evin Prison though no charges have been
filed. The reports suggest that Mr. Namazi is suspected of spying because
he is one of the World Economic Forum's 'Young Global Leaders.' That's
the dangerous outfit that sponsors the annual gabfest in Davos. Iran has
also shown its gratitude for the nuclear deal by convicting Washington
Post reporter Jason Rezaian on absurd charges of espionage. The
Iranian-American has been held for more than 500 days. The White House's
media allies are blaming all of this on Iranian 'hard-liners' who are
supposedly trying to undermine President Rouhani for having negotiated
the nuclear deal. Memo to these amateur Tehranologists: The hard-liners
run Iran... The sages now blaming hard-liners for Iran's nastiness are
the same folks who told us that the nuclear accord would empower the
'moderates' in Iran by showing America's peaceful intentions. When will
this crowd figure out that Iran's rulers don't want better relations with
the U.S.? They want to become the dominant power in the Middle East while
driving the U.S. out of the region. Mr. Obama's ambition to emulate
Reagan's success was never realistic because he pursued the opposite of
the Reagan strategy. The Gipper stood up to Soviet aggression, rebuilt
U.S. defenses, and then negotiated from strength. The Soviets bent to his
terms. From his first days in office Mr. Obama begged Iran to negotiate,
making concession after concession until even the Ayatollah had to
accept. It's no surprise Iran has concluded that it can now press its
military ambitions with impunity." http://t.uani.com/1mD1IH5
WSJ
Editorial:
"President Obama has staked much of his foreign-policy legacy on the
Iran nuclear deal, but does that deal effectively give the Iranians veto
power over legislation by the U.S. Congress? That's the question at the
center of Tehran's 'outrage' at a security law passed by Congress after
the Paris and San Bernardino attacks. The December omnibus budget law
includes a measure revising the Visa Waiver Program. Expedited entry into
the U.S. is no longer available to foreign travelers who have visited
Iraq, Syria or countries that 'repeatedly provided support for acts of
international terrorism' on or after March 1, 2011. Thus the law covers
those who have visited Iran, a U.S.-designated state sponsor of
terrorism. Foreign travelers affected by the new law will no longer have
visas automatically waived. Instead, they must submit a visa application,
pay a fee and submit to an in-person interview at the local U.S. Embassy
or consulate, like every other businessman or tourist. The law passed the
House 407-19. Proponents of the nuclear deal fear the visa rules would
deter the flow of foreign investors into Iran. So naturally the Iranians
went, well, ballistic. In a Dec. 18 interview with the New Yorker,
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif said, 'This visa-waver thing is absurd: Has
anybody in the West been targeted by any Iranian national?' Well, yes,
unless you exclude the hundreds of U.S. soldiers and Marines killed in
Iraq by the roadside bombs supplied by Iran, or Iran's support for Hamas
and Hezbollah terrorists, or an Iran-backed attempt in 2011 to
assassinate Saudi Arabia's ambassador to the U.S. in Washington, D.C.
Secretary of State John Kerry replied the next day, writing to Mr. Zarif
that the Administration 'has the authority to waive' the visa changes
passed by Congress, and that the measure won't 'prevent' the U.S. from
fulfilling its nuclear-deal commitments and won't 'interfere with
legitimate business interests of Iran.' But Iran is still threatening to
file a complaint to the Joint Commission, a body set up by the U.N.
Security Council to arbitrate disputes over the nuclear deal. The mullahs
would count on the good offices of Commission representatives from Iran's
commercial partners in Europe, Russia and China. Congress is up in arms,
and for good reason. In a Dec. 22 letter to Secretary Kerry and
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, House Majority
Leader Kevin McCarthy and four GOP committee chairmen note that Congress
'expressly refused' carve-outs for Iranian businessman during the debate
over the new visa rules. 'The simplest way to eliminate this
restriction,' they wrote, 'is for Iran to end its support of terrorism.'
Iran's role in destabilizing the Middle East has worsened since signing
the nuclear deal. Now it's invoking an implied veto over a
domestic-security law passed by Congress. President Obama signed that
law, and John Kerry signed the nuclear deal last July. Time for choosing
whether Iran or Congress poses the greater danger to the U.S." http://t.uani.com/1S20fXZ
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Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against
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