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TOP STORIES
High above the Persian Gulf, an Iranian drone crosses
the path of American fighter jets lining up to land on the USS
Nimitz... for the senior Navy commanders on the ship, the presence of
the enemy drone so close is worrying. Their biggest fear is the
surveillance aircraft will start carrying weapons, posing a more
direct threat to U.S. vessels transiting one of the world's most
significant strategic and economic international waterways.
"It's just a matter of time before we see that," said Navy
Rear Adm. Bill Byrne, commander of the carrier strike group that
includes the Nimitz.
The Trump administration is giving "strong
indications" that it is preparing a case to decertify Iran's
compliance with the international nuclear agreement, an expert says.
If you're a woman and are infertile or have "too
much facial hair" you can't become a teacher in Iran, according
to a new list of conditions and illnesses issued by the Iranian
Education Ministry that disqualifies applicants from being hired as
teachers. According to the list, a "thick accent," getting
"migraines and cluster headaches," cancers that affect the
head, face, or neck and, in the case of women, breast or ovarian
cancer, are all taboo for would-be teachers.
UANI IN THE NEWS
MARK KIRK: I think the key question is to have the
president say what he really thinks, to decertify Iran as not
complying with the Iran agreement and bring the full weight of
congressional sanctions against Iran.
The failure of these companies to shun business with
Iran has prompted criticism by United Against Nuclear Iran, or UANI,
a prominent watchdog organization working to prevent Iran from
obtaining a nuclear weapon. These companies have thus far declined to
sign a UANI-sponsored pledge from business leaders to cut business
ties to Iran. "While Boeing, General Electric and other
companies should be commended for immediately denouncing the events
of Charlottesville, it also shines light on their decision to do
business with Iran," David Ibsen, UANI's executive director,
told the Washington Free Beacon in a statement. "The regime in
Tehran is a leading state sponsor of terror, and has deliberately
advanced anti-Semitism and hate, while oppressing their own citizens
including on the basis of sexual orientation. These companies should
immediately sign our Iran Business Declaration and immediately pledge
to cease all business with Iran."
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley
traveled overseas Wednesday on the hunt for information about Iran's
nuclear program, a hunt that Iran is trying to make difficult. Haley
flew to Vienna, Austria, to meet with officials of the International
Atomic Energy Agency. Her trip was part of an initiative by the Trump
administration to review the Iran nuclear deal signed by former
President Barack Obama... Haley's trip to the IAEA was a part of that
process. Iran's foreign minister wrote a letter to nuclear inspectors
warning them not to share any information with Haley that the United
States is not entitled to under the deal. Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif said Haley and the United States were "openly
hostile to the (deal) and determined to undermine and destroy
it."
Iran's boast this week that it needs only days to ramp
up the uranium enrichment needed to produce a nuclear bomb added a
new layer of complexity to an internal White House debate over
whether President Trump should declare Tehran in violation of the
2015 nuclear accord The assertion by Iranian Atomic Chief Ali Akbar
Salehi on Tuesday was a veiled threat, according to analysts, who say
Tehran was sending a message about how bad things could become if Mr.
Trump decides to pull out of the agreement when it next comes up for
review in October. Mr. Salehi, who said Iran is poised to
"surprise" Washington if the deal crumbles, may also have
sought to deepen disagreements within the administration over the
accord, which Mr. Trump vowed during last year's campaign to pull out
of if he got elected.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
The auto industry is one of the few sectors outside oil
in which multinationals are backing their talk of interest in the
Islamic republic with substantial investment, 20 months after a nuclear
deal Tehran signed with world powers was implemented. Renault signed
a €660m agreement with Iran this month to increase its production
capacity from 200,000 to 350,000 cars annually from next year, with
two more models on offer in the country. Peugeot, which pulled out of
the market in 2012 because of sanctions, signed a joint venture last
year to invest €400m by 2020 to produce 200,000 new cars.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
"Don't worry about us," an
Israeli security official told his American counterparts while
visiting Washington... "We will be all right. We're strong,
we've seen greater challenges than this. Think what would happen to
all your allies. What would happen to Saudi Arabia, what would happen
to Jordan. Think what could happen to the Gulf states, to Egypt.
There's no vacuum in the Middle East. Victory over the Islamic State
[IS] won't make the Sunnis disappear. It will only strengthen their
will for revenge and make you miss IS." Another Israeli security
official had spoken to the Americans in the same vein, explained the
source. "Take heed," this second official told the
Americans. "A few days before President Donald Trump arrived for
his visit in Saudi Arabia in May, the rebels in Yemen fired missiles
toward Riyadh. It's a clear message. The Iranians are already
building the capacity to strike with surface-to-surface missiles
across a huge belt in the region, which will strike fear among the
Sunni regimes. Do you think the king of Jordan would survive
this?"
Turkish Defense Minister Nurettin
Canikli and the U.S. Secretary of State James Mattis discussed the
issue of Iran's "malign influence in the region" on Aug.
23, according to a statement released from the Pentagon. Mattis and
Canikli discussed the topic during the former's visit to Ankara,
where he also held talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Qatar says it has decided to restore
full diplomatic relations with Iran and strengthen ties with the
country "in all fields", disregarding the demand of Arab
nations locked in a regional dispute with Doha that it lessen ties to
Tehran. In a series of tweets directed at the move, the UAE Minister
of State for Foreign Affairs Dr Anwar Gargash tweeted on Thursday
saying: "Doha has escalated its troubles by announcing plans
they had in mind in Yemen or Iran". He blamed Qatar for
mismanaging the crisis and prolonging it.
The Iraqi Shiite political scene is
witnessing remarkable developments ahead of the parliamentary
elections scheduled for 2018. With a mix of internal and regional
political coalitions, the National Iraqi Alliance will not remain as
it was in the 2010 and 2014 elections. Ammar al-Hakim, leader of the
Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq party and head of the National Iraqi
Alliance, withdrew from the council and established a new party in July
called the National Wisdom Movement. Also, Muqtada al-Sadr,
leader of the Sadrist movement, visited Saudi Arabia and the United
Arab Emirates at a time when conflict is intensifying in the region,
with Saudi Arabia and the UAE on one side, and Iran and its allies in
Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Bahrain and Yemen on the other. These two
events are seen by some as an attempt to form an Iraqi Shiite
movement that is independent from Iran and open to Sunni Arabs in
Iraq as well as its Arab and Gulf neighbors.
Turkey and Iran escalated on Thursday
their attacks against the Kurdistan Region's upcoming referendum on
independence, scheduled for Sept. 25. While Ankara alluded that a
similar step could lead to a civil war in Iraq and would shaken
regional stability, Tehran spoke on Thursday about a US conspiracy,
saying that the Kurdish actions "is in line with the US policy
of partitioning the regional countries." Deputy Chief of Staff
of Iran's Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri said on
Thursday that Iran is definitely opposed to the referendum.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
After granting a vote of confidence to 16 of 17 nominees
of President Hassan Rouhani for cabinet positions, Iran's pro-Rouani
MPs -- who hold a majority in the parliament -- face criticism for
not being harsh enough on some of the president's picks.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
During June's presidential election in Iran, many
Westerners strongly hoped for a Hassan Rouhani victory. Rouhani, the
incumbent president, was a "moderate," the argument went,
and during the campaign he had criticized the Revolutionary Guard
Corps (IRGC) and promised to have women and minorities in his
cabinet. Now it is mid-August, and it is already evident that there
will be no reform, and that Rouhani's promises were meant only to
attract votes-not to bring about any change, liberalization, or
reform in Iran.
As if President Donald Trump isn't facing enough
problems already (some, unfortunately, of his own making - see
Charlottesville, Virginia), here's one more to add to the list: If
he's not careful, the president risks going down in history as the
man who defeated the Islamic State only to make the Middle East safe
for Iranian hegemony.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's Moscow visit on
Wednesday can be seen to signal a change for the worse and a
significant, national security risk in the making. The civil war in
Syria is nearing an end, and it appears that the coalition of
President Bashar al-Assad, Hezbollah, Iran and Russia has won. If
this victory would lead solely to the stability of Assad's regime,
Israel should have been able to accept this. The problem is that Iran
demands compensation for the many resources it invested in the war:
already the de facto ruler in Lebanon through its control over
Hezbollah, Iran is now looking to recreate a similar power dynamic
for itself in Syria.
In August of 1990, 27 years ago, Saddam Hussein
unleashed his massive army to invade Kuwait. In just over a day, Iraq
occupied the small emirate and set in motion a war that still
reverberates today in the region. Now Saudi Arabia, which helped form
the coalition against Saddam, is trying to patch things up with Baghdad...
Riyadh wants to try to encourage Baghdad not to fall totally into the
clutches of Iran.
From Israel's point of view, there is a desperate need
to convince the Trump administration it is being outflanked and
outmaneuvered by a combination of Russian and Iranian diplomacy.
First the Iran deal on nuclear weapons and now the acceptance of Iran
on the border of Israel. With missiles that can reach every major
Israeli city, the Iranians are effectively saying
"checkmate"... When Iran and Iraq were preoccupied with the
defeat of ISIS, Israel was generally safe from mobilization against
it. That condition has changed as quickly as the weather. And whether
one agrees or not, Israel will probably be obliged to act against
Hezbollah, increasing the chances of all-out war and increasing the
odds blood will flow.
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