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TOP STORIES
Iran "won't be quiet" after the U.S. missile
attack that hit a number of military targets in central Syria, Iran's
parliament news agency, ICANA.ir reported Friday.Allaeddin Boroujerdi,
head of parliamentary committee on national security and foreign
policy, declared "Russia and Iran won't be quiet against such
acts which violate interests of the region," according to the
report. Boroujerdi warned serious consequences would follow the U.S.
action. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif took to Twitter
on Friday to denounce the strikes, saying: "Not even two decades
after 9/11, U.S. military fighting on same side as al-Qaida &
ISIS in Yemen & Syria. Time to stop hype and cover-ups."
Zarif also called the allegation that the Syrian military used
chemical weapons as "bogus." "US aids Saddam's use of
CW against Iran in 80's; then resorts to military force over bogus CW
allegations: 1st in 2003 and now in Syria," Zarif tweeted.
Iran denounced as "destructive and dangerous"
U.S. missile strikes against a Syrian airbase from which a suspected
chemical weapons attack was launched, Iran's state news agency IRNA
quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman as saying on Friday. "Iran ...
condemns use of chemical weapons ... but at the same time believes it
is dangerous, destructive and a violation of international laws to
use it as an excuse to take unilateral actions," IRNA quoted
Bahram Qasemi as saying. "Iran strongly condemns any such unilateral
strikes... Such measures will strengthen terrorists in Syria ... and
will complicate the situation in Syria and the region." An
Iranian diplomat at the Iranian embassy in Damascus said families of
Iranian diplomats in Syria had not been transferred to another country
following the U.S. strike, the ENTEKHAB news website reported.
This week's suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria -
believed to have been carried out by Syrian President Bashar Assad's
regime - showed why the Trump administration should designate Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist
organization, a prominent former US senator and vice presidential
candidate said on Wednesday. "The chemical attack in Syria - one
of the worst atrocities we have seen in years - was made possible by
Iran and Russia's ongoing support of President Assad," Joseph
Lieberman, the current chairman of the United Against Nuclear Iran
advocacy group, stated. "The IRGC is the main means of support -
financial and otherwise - for the Syrian regime and terrorist
organizations throughout the region. This is why Iran remains,
according to the US State Department, the leading state-sponsor of
terrorism in the world. The gas attacks in Syria demonstrate the
urgent need to designate the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization
and show that this behavior will not be tolerated by the United
States."
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
At a House subcommittee meeting Wednesday, the deep
partisan divisions over the Obama administration's Iran nuclear deal
were on display once again as Republican-selected witnesses
criticized the deal as allowing Iran to continue its nuclear
capabilities and destabilizing the region. "The Iran nuclear
deal gives Iran a clear road to the bomb," said Rep. Ron
DeSantis, the chairman of the House National Security Committee
Subcommittee of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He
said the hearing was held to highlight defects of the nuclear deal.
Iran, more than any other country in the world, is
carefully taking note of the US missile attack in Syria overnight,
former National Security Council head Yaakov Amidror said Friday.
"More than any place in the world, the decision makers in Iran
are learning the reaction of the Americans, taking into account that
if they don't behave, the military option is on the table, unlike the
previous administration," Amidror said during a conference call
organized by The Israel Project. Amidror, a fellow at the Begin-Sadat
Center for Strategic Studies, said that Iran bears responsible for
Syrian President Bashar Assad's actions, since they and Hezbollah
have given him unqualified support over the years regardless of his
brutality. Amidror said that Iran supported Assad after his previous
use of chemical weapons, and that there was no question that even if
they did not have prior knowledge of the attack in Idlib, they are
"morally responsible."
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE
PROGRAM
Hungary will cooperate with Iran on setting up a small
nuclear reactor for scientific-educational purposes, Prime Minister
Viktor Orban's chief of staff told a news conference on Thursday.
Janos Lazar said in response to a question that the cooperation will
be within the framework of an agreement between Iran, the EU and the
United States. He said the cooperation had been agreed during a visit
by Orban to Iran in 2015. "When the Prime Minister was there, we
undertook to take part in jointly creating a mini nuclear plant with
educational, scientific purposes, and now this agreement will be
implemented," Lazar said.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
The Justice Department has paid more than $800 million
from a special compensation fund to hostages held by Iran and victims
of embassy bombings and the 2000 attack on the U.S.S. Cole. The money
was paid out of the U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund,
which was established in 2015. The department said Thursday that the
money has been provided to thousands of victims, their family members
and survivors. More payments are expected in the coming weeks, with
the total expected to exceed $1 billion. The fund is being
administered by Kenneth Feinberg, who has performed a similar role
for funds set up after the Sept. 11 attacks, the BP oil spill and
other disasters.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
BP and Iran's state-run oil company received a license
from the U.S. Treasury last year to operate their joint gas field in
the North Sea following the lifting of Western sanctions on Tehran,
BP said on Thursday. Production at the Rhum field was suspended
in 2010 when Europe imposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear
program and only resumed four years later after Britain agreed to set
up a temporary management scheme whereby all revenue due to Tehran
would be held until sanctions were lifted. Following the removal of
European Union and United Nations sanctions on Iran in January 2016,
the temporary management scheme ceased. Iran regained control of its
stake and on Sept. 29, 2016 BP obtained a license from the U.S.
Treasury, through its sanctions enforcement arm - the Office of
Foreign Asset Control (OFAC), to continue operations at the field, BP
said in its 2016 annual report.
HUMAN RIGHTS
An additional 91 days were added to
civil rights activist Atena Daemi's seven-year prison sentence for
her peaceful activism. The sentence was issued to Daemi and her two
sisters after the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) responded
to her complaint about their use of excessive force with a complaint
of their own."The strange thing is that when the IRGC makes
charges, the authorities quickly prosecute, but Atena filed a
complaint against the IRGC for violent arrest and nothing was
done," an informed source told the Center for Human Rights in
Iran (CHRI) on April 3, 2017. "In fact, the authorities are now
saying that her complaint has been lost." "When we asked
the judge about her complaint during the trial, he had no clue,"
added the source. The 91-day sentence was issued by Branch 1163 of
the Qods Criminal Court, which suspended Onsieh and Hanieh Daemi's
sentences for one year, said the source.
Hundreds of runners took part in
Tehran's first-ever marathon on Friday, but many women were outraged
to find they could only run a short distance in a closed-off
stadium.While men ran through Iran's capital in the morning, women
were allowed to run just 10 kilometers (six miles) in Azadi stadium
in the afternoon - with no male spectators or officials permitted.
Many were baffled by the move, since there are no rules against men
and women running together in Iran - and joggers of both sexes are
often seen in parks and public areas. "I registered but I quit.
I took back my 500,000 rials ($15) because we were deceived,"
Nasim, an architect in her 30s, told AFP.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Iran's hardliners have nominated five candidates,
including Ibrahim Raeisi, a powerful cleric, to contest next month's
crucial election as they attempt to put on a united front to defeat
Hassan Rouhani, the centrist president. The Islamic Revolution Forces
Popular Front, a new umbrella group, said it had been agreed that the
candidate who emerges as the frontrunner in the days ahead of the May
19 poll would contest the vote, while the other four would step
aside, Iranian media reported. Hardliners hope the tactic will enable
them to launch a multipronged challenge to Mr Rouhani on the campaign
trail, but also avoid a repeat of the 2013 presidential election when
several hardline candidates ran against each other, diluting their
support.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
As someone characterized as part of the Iran Deal
"echo chamber" in 2015, many might anticipate that I would
oppose the sanctions against Iran presently being developed in both
the House of Representatives and the Senate. But, with
modifications and in the right context, the bills being developed in
the House and in the Senate may actually point the way for the kind
of approach to sanctions against Iran that preserves and advances the
common cause of JPOCA proponents and skeptics alike. Though sometimes
lost in the public debates of 2015, the United States neither gave
away all of its sanctions leverage over Iran in the JCPOA nor did it
lose the right and the ability to impose targeted measures against
Iran for actions incompatible with the JCPOA or outside its aegis.
Under the JCPOA, what was agreed is that we would exchange nuclear
relief for sanctions relief, offering Iran the promise of some
economic renewal and securing for the United States the relief of
Iran being unable to produce a nuclear weapon undetected and in less
than a year.
Freedom of speech and press are the
Islamists' top enemies. They are targeted on a regular basis, making
it difficult or impossible for the truth to be revealed to the world.
While others may take their privacy for granted, the people living
under this kind of tyranny must think about everything they say and
do. Sometimes even the bravest of souls turn away in the face of such
intimidation Can it really be as restrictive as described? Yes, and
far worse than you can imagine. Sina Dehghan, 21, for example, was
arrested by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) when he
was 19 for "insulting Islam". Charges were brought against
him for insulting the Prophet Muhammad on the messaging app LINE.
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