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TOP STORIES
[In his state of the Union address] Trump... upped the
ante in his stand-off with Iran, vowing US support for street
protests against Tehran's clerical regime... "America stands
with the people of Iran in their courageous struggle for
freedom," he promised, to applause from assembled lawmakers.
An Iranian court has sentenced a wealthy
Iranian-American art gallery owner and his wife to long prison terms
on espionage and other charges, according to a letter he wrote from
jail. Karan Vafadari, a 55-year-old landowner and member of the
Zoroastrian religious minority, was given a sentence of 27 years in
prison, 124 lashes and a cash fine of $243,000 and confiscation of
all his assets... Mr. Vafadari's wife, Afarin Nayssari, a 46-year-old
architect and U.S. green-card holder, was sentenced to 16 years in
prison...
Instead of blaming others Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei should take responsibility for Iran's economic and political
shortcomings, an opposition leader under house arrest said in a
letter published on Tuesday. In rare public criticism of Khamenei,
Mehdi Karroubi accused Iran's hardline top authority of abusing power
and urged him to change the way he runs the Islamic Republic before
it is too late.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Cipher Brief experts General (ret) Michael Hayden and
former CIA senior officer [and UANI Senior Adviser] Norman Roule have
had many conversations on the subject of Iran and the broader Middle
East-but not usually in front of a public audience... [Roule o]n
Iran's influence on the broader Middle East: "Iran has injected
into the region this sense of surrogates that follow an Iranian
lead-some to greater or lesser extent-and has provided them with
advanced weapons technology. This has changed the DNA of the region.
Can the DNA be changed back? I don't know... What you had in
December, and what you're having today... is unrest in...at least 6
or 7 cities. Crowds are in the thousands, not the millions. They are
rudderless. They are brought together by a common thread of
unhappiness with their standard of living, but they don't actually
have something they're running towards-they're running away from
something."
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs
Abbas Araghchi has expressed hope that Europe will remain committed
to the nuclear deal.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE
PROGRAMS
In a last-ditch attempt to prevent President Donald
Trump from exiting the Iran nuclear deal, European leaders have
finally promised to work with the United States to address Iran's
ballistic missile program. If Trump is serious about fixing the deal,
the transatlantic working group now tasked with forming a common
U.S.-EU position must produce nothing less than a commitment to
reimpose tough sanctions on Iran should the regime's missile
development and testing continue.
IRAN PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
An Iranian woman has been arrested and bail set at more
than US$100,000 (S$130,865) after she protested against the mandatory
headscarf, a lawyer said on Tuesday (Jan 30). Narges Hosseini, whose
age was not known, was jailed after posing in central Teheran on
Monday without a headscarf, lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh said.
Amnesty International is outraged by reports that the
Iranian authorities have executed a young man convicted of murder who
was only 15 years old at the time of the crime. The organization
learned that 22-year-old Ali Kazemi was hung earlier today in prison
in Busher province.
The U.S. already applies a number of sanctions against
Iran for its religious oppression. We should give greater support to
communications and information-sharing that are key to protecting
dissidents like this heroic woman and the freedom cause itself:
In Iran, a young woman with a growing Twitter reputation
as the world's bravest proponent of women's rights is now reported to
be facing serious criminal charges in that repressive theocracy for a
single act of peaceful defiance -- appearing in public without a head
scarf.
Protests have swept across Iran in recent weeks, the
largest in almost a decade, as Iranians take to the streets to
protest abysmal economic conditions and allegations of widespread
corruption. In recent days, however, at least six Iranian women have
captured the attention of the West by challenging the country's hijab
mandate. Images of these women taking off and waving their
headscarves are going viral on social media.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the people of Iran
will continue supporting the Islamic Republic despite foreign
pressure... Rouhani spoke during a visit to the mausoleum of the
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic.
Rouhani said in remarks broadcast by state TV: "The Iranian nation
will never give up Imam Khomeini's legacy; Islamism and
Republicanism. Return is impossible."
Now, Trump has warned that he will scrap the accord and
reimpose U.S. sanctions eased under it unless European allies
"join with the United States in fixing significant flaws in the
deal."
BUSINESS RISK
Kuwaiti citizens have lost hundreds of millions of
dollars as a result of the collapsing investment firms in Iran,
Kuwait's al-Qabas Arabic daily reported.
SANCTIONS RELIEF & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Non-oil trade between Iran and Oman during the first
nine months of the current Iranian year (March 21-Dec. 21, 2017)
amounted to more than 1.33 million tons worth $393 million,
registering a 24% rise in weight but a 12% fall in value, Iran's
commercial attaché to the neighboring country announced.
HEZBOLLAH & LEBANON
Maturing under Tehran's tutelage, Hezbollah's hackers
are quickly learning the art of cyber warfare. The formidable
militant organization is increasingly turning its attention to the
digital realm to engage in espionage, psychological operations,
disruption of critical services and criminal activity to fund its activities
on the ground.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
UN Ambassador Nikki Haley took her Security Council
colleagues on a field trip in the US capital, complete with a lunch
with President Trump. Did the Monday feel-good adventure make a dent?
Who knows? But it certainly should have - especially when it comes to
Iran, which along with North Korea presents the most burning
foreign-policy challenge for President Trump.
At
the Syrian border, Golan Heights - Who knew that the future of
warfare would present itself with such serene beauty - like one of
those warm 19th-century David Roberts landscapes of the Middle East.
How so? I'm traveling along the Israeli border road at the
intersection of Lebanon, Syria and Israel, and off in the distance
there's a freshly snow-capped Mount Hermon, begging for skiers. It's
framed by Lebanese and Syrian villages nestled into terraced
hillsides, crowned by minarets and crosses. The only sound you hear
is the occasional rifle burst from Lebanese hunters.
CYBERWARFARE
Iranian hackers reportedly targeted Israeli nuclear
scientists with phishing scams in an effort to gain access to
sensitive material.
SYRIA & IRAN
Iran won't withdraw from Syria unless President Bashar
Assad asks it to leave, a senior Iranian diplomat told reporters in
Russia, one day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
threatened military action to force Iran's departure. "They are
there at the Syrian government's request to resolve issues that the
Syrian people have been facing," Iranian deputy foreign minister
Jaberi Ansari said Tuesday.
The chief commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units
has said that the paramilitary forces are ready to go to Syria to
fight ISIS and defend Iraq's borders, Iranian and Lebanese media
reported.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Tensions between the Gulf states and Qatar developed
into an outright feud last June as a result of Qatar's drift toward
Iran, which led the Saudis and their partners to impose a boycott and
cut off air, sea, and land routes to Qatar. Instead of responding
positively to a demand that it cut ties with Tehran, Qatar defiantly
restored full diplomatic relations with Iran. Now, the battle between
Qatar and the quartet of Arab states led by Saudi Arabia has broken
out on a new front: Dueling media coverage of the protests in Iran,
with Qatar taking the side of the regime and the quartet backing the
protesters.
IRAQ & IRAN
The secretary general of Harakat al-Nujaba, an
Iranian-sponsored Iraqi militia group fighting in Syria and Iraq,
alleges that the US military has targeted the organization's forces
in Iraq, Lebanon's al-Mayadeen and Iran's Far News Agency reported.
AFGHANISTAN & IRAN
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has alleged
that the US is relocating elements of the Islamic State (Isis) from
the conflict-torn Middle East to Afghanistan in order to justify
Washington's presence in Kabul amid rising terror attacks against
Afghan interests in recent weeks.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the people of Iran
will continue supporting the Islamic Republic despite foreign
pressure. His comments came Wednesday, just hours after President
Donald Trump said the U.S. stands with the people of Iran against the
country's ruling establishment. Rouhani spoke during a visit to the
mausoleum of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the
Islamic Republic.
An Iranian opposition figure under house arrest has
voiced rare criticism of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
blaming him for the "disastrous results" of the
Revolutionary Guard's vast political and economic influence. In a
rare letter published Tuesday, Mahdi Karroubi says Khamenei violated
the constitution, and called on him to order the Guard to loosen its
grip on the economy.
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