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TOP STORIES
The United States on Thursday presented for the first
time pieces of what it said were Iranian weapons supplied to the
Iran-aligned Houthi militia in Yemen, describing it as conclusive
evidence that Tehran was violating U.N. resolutions.
The United States will work to build an international
coalition to "push back" against Iran, U.S. Ambassador to
the United Nations Nikki Haley said on Thursday, as she presented
physical evidence she said firmly linked Iran to weapons used in
Yemen.
The House passed a bill today that could inhibit the
sale of commercial aircraft to Iran, potentially running afoul of the
landmark 2015 nuclear accord.
UANI IN THE NEWS
"For months, we've seen Iran disregard
international laws and norms by continuing its provocative ballistic
missile testing. Now, with the evidence unveiled today by Ambassador
Haley, Iran has been caught red-handed flagrantly violating the
prohibition on transferring missile technology to third
parties-namely the Houthis in Yemen," former Sen. Joe Lieberman,
now the chairman of the advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran,
responded.
UANI Senior Adviser Norman Roule: For months, the U.S.,
the Saudis and others have complained that Iran has provided advanced
weapons technology to the Houthis. The amount of evidence provided
today is significant. The fact that the administration is encouraging
P5 members to examine the weapons shows the administration's
confidence in its narrative.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Ahead of the Joint Commission for the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in Vienna on Dec. 13, Frederica
Mogherini, the European Union foreign policy chief who led the talks
between Iran and the permanent members of the United Nations Security
Council, spoke at the European Parliament and rekindled the debate in
Iranian media on whether or not the nuclear deal was intended to open
the door for other talks. In her comments, Mogherini said the
preamble of the nuclear deal says the nuclear agreement "could
pave the road toward another interaction or a more constructive
engagement in the region and create the framework for that."
Mogherini added, "Maybe I am revealing a secret, but that
sentence was inserted at Iran's request." She said Iranian
negotiators had intended to use the agreement as a mandate to engage
with the rest of the world and sideline domestic critics opposed to
more engagement.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS
Successive U.S. administrations have warned of Iran's
malign influence in the Middle East, but lying in a hangar at Joint
Base Anacostia-Bolling here is concrete proof that the Iranian regime
is exporting arms to sow instability and promote violence throughout
the region. In the hangar are three intact Iranian weapon systems and
debris from a fourth, recovered from the battlefields of the Middle
East that can be directly traced to Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is dismissing U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley's claim of evidence she
says proves Iran is supporting Yemeni rebels. Zarif likened her
presentation Thursday to former Secretary of State Colin Powell's
claim in 2003 that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
The Obama administration pursued a regional policy that
sought to reintegrate Iran into the regional and international
systems in the hope of stabilizing the Middle East. This policy has
attempted to reestablish Iran, as a regional power similar to the
pre-1979 period. In fact, this unrealistic desire to set the clock of
the Gulf region back to the pre-1979 security architecture was the
primary intention behind the negotiation of the 2015 nuclear deal.
SANCTIONS ENFORCEMENT
As Iranian-Turkish businessman Reza Zarrab was telling a
New York court about how he devised ways to scuttle sanctions on
Iran, shadily documented and hard-to-justify levels of gold trade
between Turkey and United Arab Emirates have appeared once again.
Before the United States put gold on its list of Iran sanctions, the
surge in Turkey's gold exports to Iran and the UAE was a clear
indicator of Turkey paying for its oil and natural gas imports with
gold. There is no other way to explain how Turkey's gold exports to
Iran went from $54 million in 2011 to $6.5 billion in 2012. After the
blocking of the SWIFT transfer route in March 2012 meant banks could
no longer transfer payments for oil and natural gas, Turkey began
depositing its payments into an account Iran opened at Turkey's major
public bank, Halkbank.
Mehmet Hakan Atilla, a Turkish banker accused of taking
part in a scheme to help Iran evade U.S. sanctions, plans to testify
in his own defense at his trial in New York, his lawyers said
Thursday.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
India's refiners imported nearly half as much crude oil
from Iran in November as the month before, ship tracking data showed,
cutting purchases to a 21-month low in protest at Tehran's decision
to award a giant gas field to a Russian company.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
A top Israeli politician said he would form a new
"anti-Iran axis," together with Saudi Arabia and other
Sunni powers, to counter the Iranian threat in the region, if he
succeeds embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
MILITARY MATTERS
As the battle against ISIS is winding down in Iraq and
Syria, some military leaders and hardliners in Iran call for not only
keeping a long-term military presence in both countries but also
expand the country's "military advisory missions" to other
conflict zones in the region, including Yemen and Palestine, warns
reformist Iranian daily Bahar.
Israel has been left abandoned by the United States to
deal alone with the Shi'ite Iranian, Russian and Turkish axis.
PROXY WARS
The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Yemen welcomed the
UN report on Iran's hostile interventions and support of the Houthi
terrorist militias and called for confronting Tehran's threats. They
also welcomed the American position announced by the United States
Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, and its condemnation of Iran's
hostile activities in supporting and arming terrorist groups.
SYRIA CONFLICT
The head of Khatam al-Anbia Construction Base, the main
engineering and construction arm of the Islamic Revolution Guards
Corps (I.R.G.C.), has said that the conglomerate is ready to play a
leading role in Syria's reconstruction process, Tasnim News Agency
reported.
IRANIAN DOMESTIC ISSUES
As international pressures against Iran increased,
including stifling sanctions and an intensified proxy war with Saudi
Arabia, the sense of nationalism continued to rise in the country.
Regime media-makers began to consciously highlight this sentiment in
all their cultural productions after the Green Movement. Although
this strategy began in some regime media circles before 2009, it has
exponentially intensified since the suppression of the Green
Movement. Today, the crescendo of this nationalist turn in the
Islamic Republic is clear for all to see.
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