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TOP STORIES
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is warning that Iran
may be defying a U.N. call to halt ballistic missile development even
as it complies with the nuclear deal with six world powers.
As the U.S. military campaign against Islamic State
winds down in the Middle East, the Trump administration is turning
its focus to what it sees as a bigger threat: Iran. U.S. officials
are wrestling with where and how to repel what they describe as a
significant Iranian military expansion across the region, a
development of increasing concern in Washington, Tel Aviv and Riyadh.
US Ambassador Nikki Haley will present "irrefutable
evidence" that Iran has tried to cover up violations of
international obligations, the US mission said Wednesday.
CONGRESS & IRAN
Treasury Department officials must publish a report
chronicling the financial assets of Iran's top leaders, under a bill
that passed the House on Wednesday... It's a potential boon to
Iranian dissidents against the regime, who stand to gain insight into
corruption by top officials.
The US Congress is considering a bill to impose new
sanctions on Iran for its destructive role in Yemen and its policies
to destabilize the country by supporting Houthi militias and
supplying them with weapons.
BUSINESS RISK
Executives from major airplane manufacturers Boeing and
AirBus will reportedly head to Iran next week to hammer down
multi-billion dollar deals to sell the Islamic Republic a new fleet
of commercial planes amid a congressional crackdown on Tehran's
continued use of commercial aircraft to transport weapons and
terrorist fighters across the region. As controversy continues to
swirl around Boeing's and AirBus's efforts to sell Iran a fleet of
new jets, Congress has taken steps to mandate the U.S. government
release public reports outlining Tehran's continued use of commercial
aircraft for illicit terrorism purposes. The multi-billion dollar
deals with Iran have been opposed by many in Congress who have
disclosed evidence that the Islamic Republic routinely uses
commercial aircraft as cover when illicitly transporting weapons and
fighters across the Middle East.
SANCTIONS ENFORCEMENT
Lawyers for a Turkish banker on trial in New York on
charges that he helped Iran evade U.S. sanctions asked a judge on
Wednesday to declare a mistrial, saying testimony by a former Turkish
police investigator should not have been allowed in court.
TERRORISM AND EXTREMISM
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
said the United States is working with its allies and its European
partners to counter Iran's destructive and destabilizing policies in
the region and its support with weapons to terrorist organizations in
the region.
Argentina's beleaguered former president, Cristina Fernandez
de Kirchner, received a further blow from an unexpected quarter on
Wednesday, with the Iranian foreign minister's confirmation that her
government had asked Interpol, the global law enforcement agency, to
close its file on the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in
Buenos Aires. presentations to Interpol in that regard.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday all
Muslim nations should work together to defend the rights of
Palestinians following Donald Trump's decision last week to recognize
Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
Following various reports surfacing on the internet over
Iran conceding too much of its share of the Caspian Sea, a senior
Iranian diplomat has denied it, saying the inland lake is not a
"watermelon" that must be divided into five equal parts.
Last month, Yemen's Houthis, the Iranian-supported rebel
faction that now dominates the southern Persian Gulf's most volatile
state, fired a ballistic missile that came close to the Saudi
capital, Riyadh, before being intercepted by the country's military.
The incident was a clear sign of the deepening sectarian conflict
between Tehran and Riyadh now taking place throughout the Middle
East. But it was also an accurate reflection of the sort of
asymmetric tactics being prioritized by Iran in its strategy for
regional dominance. Such a focus is not new. Iran has a long history
of leveraging proxies and paramilitary techniques, dating back to the
earliest days of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's Islamic Republic,
when what was then known as "passive defense" was used to
secure the realm in the tumultuous early post-revolutionary period.
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