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TOP STORIES
Iran has dismissed a top U.S.
diplomat's demand for the inspection of Iranian military sites by the
U.N. nuclear watchdog, shrugging off comments by America's ambassador
to the U.N. as only a "dream." Iran's government spokesman
Mohammad Bagher Nobakht told reporters that the demand by Ambassador
Nikki Haley wasn't worth any attention. Iran will not accept any
inspection of its sites and "especially our military
sites." He says the sites and all information about them are
"classified." Iranian state TV broadcast his Nobakht's
remarks. Earlier last week Haley said the United States wants
inspection of Iranian military and non-military sites to determine
its compliance with the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and
world powers.
Hamas has managed to increase its military capabilities
recently and Tehran is again its biggest backer after years of
tension, according to Hamas' leader in Gaza Strip Yehya al-Sinwar.
Sinwar told reporters that Iran is now "the largest backer
financially and militarily" of Hamas's armed wing. It was his
first meeting with journalists since taking up his post in February.
"Relations with Iran are excellent and Iran is the largest
supporter of the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades with money and
arms," Sinwar said in a meeting in his office in the strip.
Sinwar said that with Iran's help, Hamas is accumulating military
power in preparation for a battle for the liberation of Palestine.
"This will be reflected in the resistance and in the agenda to
achieve the liberation," he said.
An Iranian-American businessman and his father, who are
serving 10-year prison sentences in Iran over their ties to the U.S.,
have lost a court appeal, a lawyer said Monday. Siamak Namazi and his
81-year-old father Baquer -- who are among several dual nationals
detained in Iran -- learned Sunday that the Tehran Appeals Court
denied their appeal, Washington-based lawyer Jared Genser said.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar
Salehi, told reporters there is a chance that Iran could call for a
meeting of the foreign ministers of the P5+1 during the United
Nations General Assembly in September. The meeting would be the first
between Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and US
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, should both attend.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
After no developments last year, Iran is concluding the
financial aspects of a handful of deals with foreign oil and gas
companies, its energy minister said. In January, the Iranian Oil
Ministry published a list of 29 foreign oil and gas companies
qualified to take part in any upcoming tenders for exploration and
production.
Kish Airline CEO Mohammad Taqi Jadidi was quoted by the
domestic media that the plan envisaged buying 10 planes from Boeing
and 6 more from Airbus. Jadidi told Iran's IRNA news agency that the
new Airbus planes would be added to his company's fleet before the
end of the current Iranian calendar year (21 March 2018). He added
that Boeing planes would be purchased in the next Iranian year.
RUSSIA-IRAN COOPERATION
Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
held talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at Putin's Black Sea
residence in Sochi. It was their sixth meeting over the last two
years, since Russia's air force began its military operation in
Syria. Netanyahu came to express his concern over the intentions of Iran
and its allied Shiite militant movement, Hezbollah, to establish a
permanent presence in an area of Syria currently being surrendered by
the Islamic State (IS)... The Syrian army and Hezbollah are
conducting a successful military operation against IS along the
Lebanon-Syria border. There are positive developments on other fronts
as well. Thus, against this backdrop, who will be able to point Iran
and its allies to the door, and how? Could Putin be useful to
Netanyahu to this effect? The answer is no.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
[Israeli] Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman warned
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres Monday that the
situation taking hold in Lebanon in which Iran is seeking to
establish precision weapons is "intolerable for Israel."
During his talks with Guterres in the capital Jerusalem, which took
place shortly after separate discussions with President Reuven Rivlin
and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Lieberman told the UN chief
that Israel was "determined to prevent any security threat
against Israel's citizens."
MILITARY MATTERS
Iran on Monday unveiled four indigenously developed air
surveillance systems that complement its Russian-made missile defence
network. The unveiling of the new systems came one day after Tehran
announced that the S300 missile-defence system supplied by Russia
last year had been "fully integrated" into its air defence
network. The new air surveillance systems increase Iran's monitoring
and data analysis capabilities, and allow it to track objects from
drones, the Tasnim news agency reported, while the S300
missile-defence system, considered one of the most advanced of its
kind in the world, provides long-range protection against both
aircraft and missiles. Together, they give Iran the ability to
quickly detect, identify, track and destroy incoming aerial threats.
SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS
Members of an Iranian-backed spy ring currently on trial
in Saudi Arabia received training at military sites of the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps, Saudi daily Okaz reported on
Monday. According to the report, the spy ring - made up of Saudi
nationals - utilized religious pilgrimages to a Holy Shiite shrine in
the Iranian city of Mashhad to be trained at IRGC camps.
In a diplomatic icebreaker between political foes, tens
of thousands of Muslim faithful from Iran have flocked to Saudi
Arabia for the annual hajj pilgrimage to Islam's holiest sites. This
week's hajj marks Iran's return after their absence last year
following a massive stampede in 2015 that killed around 2,300 people,
including 464 Iranians. The tragedy sparked bitter recrimination from
Tehran over the kingdom's custodianship of the sites in Mecca and
Medina, western Saudi Arabia.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
The international community must work collaboratively on
reining in the Iran-North Korea alliance to ensure that Iran does not
follow in Pyongyang's footsteps regarding nuclear weapons capability
To prevent this, the U.S. must disrupt the sea and air procurement
networks between North Korea and Iran, which have operated largely
free of interference... The U.S. must also monitor Iranian efforts to
outsource elements of its illicit nuclear program to North Korea...
The U.S. should make clear that it regards Iran carrying out
extraterritorally nuclear activities forbidden by the Iran nuclear
deal as a violation, and will seek activation of the agreement's
sanctions "snap-back" mechanism as a result. Lastly, the
Trump administration must address entities assisting North Korea's
access to critical parts and technologies from countries like Iran...
The threat that North Korea poses to the United States has been
ignored far too long and at our own peril. The U.S. should remain
vigilant as it monitors Iranian and North Korean efforts to share
weapons technology, particularly following North Korea's recent
missile test. Pyongyang and Tehran remain two pieces of a greater
national security puzzle that Americans and their elected
policymakers must address.
Although candidate Donald Trump repeatedly criticized
Barack Obama's Iran nuclear agreement, his administration has twice
decided to remain in the deal... Before the second certification,
Trump asked repeatedly for alternatives to acquiescing yet again in a
policy he clearly abhorred. But no such options were forthcoming,
despite "a sharp series of exchanges" between the president
and his advisers, as the New York Times and similar press reports
characterized it... In fact, Steve Bannon asked me in late July to
draw up just such a game plan for the president - the option he
didn't have - which I did. Here it is... There is no need to wait for
the next certification deadline in October. Trump can and should free
America from this execrable deal at the earliest opportunity. I offer
the Iran nonpaper now as a public service, since staff changes at the
White House have made presenting it to President Trump impossible.
When President Trump recently signed the Countering
America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), most of the
public attention centered on his objections to the sanctions it
imposed on Russia. Therefore, it went largely unnoticed that a key
provision of the law could create serious legal liability for Boeing
if it goes through with its announced sale of 30 B737 Max aircraft to
Iran's Aseman Airlines. Boeing's excuse for selling new airplanes to
a terrorist state is that the U.S. government has determined Iran is
adhering to the 2015 nuclear deal. However, that Obama administration
deal left Iran's global terrorism apparatus intact and enhanced it
with lavish new funding, which it is now using to try to upgrade its
logistics capabilities with modern commercial aircraft. The Trump
administration must use the new authority contained within CAATSA and
all other tools at its disposal to prevent this sale.
From the perspective of Iran's long-held pursuit of
leadership over the world Islamic umma, resuming participation in the
Hajj makes perfect sense. The alternative would have isolated the
Islamic Republic from the world's Muslims, leaving the country increasingly
vulnerable to propaganda campaigns waged by Sunni governments and
Salafi entities Iran's role in the Syria crisis has made such a move
all the more urgent. Indeed, heavy Iranian involvement in the war has
fed a historical perception that the minority Shia are illegitimate
Muslims who harbor imperial ambitions and heretical ideas, thus
threatening the larger Muslim community... In the coming years, a
breakthrough in Saudi-Iran diplomatic relations is virtually
unimaginable, but the Islamic Republic will nevertheless likely
continue its efforts to divorce the Hajj from broader bilateral
diplomacy, thereby leaving the door open for Iranian pilgrims.
Illicit military cooperation between North Korea and
rogue states such as Iran and Syria is perhaps one of the major
untold stories of our time. In the 1990s, before Iran's nuclear
program was common knowledge, dozens of Korean technicians were
working in Iranian nuclear and ballistic facilities and both states
benefited from the AQ Khan nuclear smuggling network based in
Pakistan. Iranian flagship ballistic missiles such as Shahab-2 and
Shahab-3 are based on North Korea's Hwasong-6 and Nodong-1, and
Iranian modifications for incorporating a nuclear device were
subsequently shared with Pyongyang. When North Korea stages nuclear
tests, Iranian experts are VIP guests. Korean nuclear delegations
visited Iran up to a month before the 2015 agreement to curb Tehran's
nuclear program.
There are many questions about Tehran's long-term
foreign policy following the lifting of western sanctions in 2016. To
answer these questions, it is helpful to consider Iran's geography
and the way it affects the country's behavior in terms of
international relations. Iran's geopolitical imperatives to defend
its core land, project power where necessary, and limit foreign
encroachments have remained largely unchanged throughout many
centuries of its history.
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