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TOP STORIES
When an Iranian drone flew into Israeli airspace this
month, it set off a rapid series of strikes and counterstrikes that
deepened fears over whether a new, catastrophic war was brewing in
the Middle East... [T]he day of fighting drew new attention to how deeply
Iran has embedded itself in Syria, redrawing the strategic map of the
region.
U.S. officials consider the commander of an elite
Iranian military unit a terrorist supporter and the man ultimately
responsible for the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and
their Middle East allies. But many Iranians view Gen. Qassem
Soleimani, the face of Tehran's growing regional clout, as their best
defense against foreign aggression.
A major and unexpected devaluation of the rial on the
free currency market has taken many in Iran by surprise. Analysis of
the behavior patterns in the Iranian foreign exchange market suggests
that six main parameters need to be assessed to understand what has
contributed to recent events.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
European Union official's threat this month that Europe
would block any attempt by the United States to reimpose sanctions on
Iran showed a new level of desperation to deter President Donald
Trump from leaving the Iran nuclear deal in May. But with their
access to the U.S. financial system hanging in the balance, European
banks know that, in the end, the EU must satisfy Trump's demands to
fix the deal or be prepared to fully comply when U.S. sanctions return.
Unless the Trump administration keeps a threat hanging
over the Europeans about quitting the Iran nuclear agreement, the EU
will not confront Tehran about plugging the deal's holes, [INSS Arms
Control Director Emily Landau] said on Tuesday.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS
Tehran will not place its missile program under
international control, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
said on February 19 in Moscow.
MILITARY MATTERS & PROXY WARS
The Iranian Navy will unveil a new domestically-built
submarine in coming days, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, the chief
commander of the naval forces of Iran's Artesh (regular army) has
announced.
IRAN PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Saeed Malekpour [an Iranian-Canadian]... has been in a
dungeonlike cell for nine long years.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
... I don't believe that regime change should be the
primary goal of [a pushback] strategy [against Iran] or a direct aim
of US policy at present, although I think the US needs to recognize a
change in the regime in Iran is probably going to be necessary over
the long term since the clerical regime continues to define itself as
America's enemy and to act aggressively in ways consistent with that
self-identification.
ECONOMIC NEWS
India and Iran sealed nine agreements during a visit by
the Iranian President to New Delhi including a key accord that leases
operational control of part of the Iranian port of Chabahar to New
Delhi for 18 months. India is helping develop the port to create a
strategic trade route to landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asian
Republics, bypassing rival Pakistan.
Iran has offered to raise the freight discount on oil
sales to India in return for New Delhi agreeing to boost imports, as
the OPEC member is keen to eat into the market share of other
producers including top rivals Saudi Arabia and Iraq.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
By focusing on Tehran's struggle to reach an acceptable
legal definition of terrorism, Washington can avoid further
politicizing the traditionally technocratic effort to bring Iranian
banks in line with international norms.
SYRIA & IRAN
... [W]e are seeing Turkey and its rebel allies
potentially squaring off against pro-Assad militias that are linked
to Iran and are operating in tandem with Syrian Kurdish units friendly
with the United States - which opposes both the Assad government and
Iran's presence in Syria. It is the sort of bewildering entanglement
that characterizes the ruinous seven-year conflict, its constellation
of warring parties and their tangled sets of interests.
While Assad may nominally hold reclaimed areas in the
south, he will never truly control them so long as Tehran tells its
militia proxies to secure that corridor for its own purposes.
A top Syrian opposition figure says government forces
along with Iran and Russia are committing a new "Holocaust"
in rebel-held suburbs of the capital Damascus. Mohammed Alloush of
the Army of Islam told The Associated Press Tuesday that the United
Nations is also to blame "because of its bankruptcy and lies
about protecting security and peace in the world."
Tehran appears to be losing the race for Syria's
reconstruction despite all the blood, treasure and political capital
the Islamic Republic has invested in the Assad regime's survival over
the past six years. Iranian authorities clearly expected otherwise.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
A spiritual leader of Iran's Sufi Muslim Dervishes
appealed for calm in an effort to defuse tensions that claimed the
lives of three policemen and two members of a civilian militia over
the weekend.
Fresh clashes between Iranian security forces and
Gonabadi dervishes follow years of tensions and persecution of
dervishes, whose houses of worship have been destroyed and members
detained.
There were no survivors among the 65 passengers and crew
on an Iranian plane that ploughed into a mountain top, where most of
the bodies lie buried under snow, the first rescue team to reach the
wreckage said on Tuesday.
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