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TOP STORIES
The White House secretly reached out to Iran in December
to propose creating a direct channel to negotiate the release of
prisoners held by each side, according to U.S. officials and people
briefed about the discussions, marking the first U.S. diplomatic
overture to Iran on the issue under President Donald Trump. However,
Iran didn't respond and, despite at least three subsequent offers
from Washington, so far has refused to engage with U.S. officials on
the offer, according to the people briefed about the discussions.
Britain said on Thursday it was working with its
partners to tackle U.S. concerns over a landmark 2015 nuclear deal
between Iran and major powers, but said Tehran must avoid actions
that threaten regional security.
The White House on Wednesday warned Iran that it will be
held responsible for the health of 81-year-old American citizen
Baquer Namazi, who was recently sent back to prison after medical
treatment.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
France will continue to encourage its firms to do
business in Iran despite uncertainty surrounding a landmark 2015
nuclear deal, which has put the business environment in
"limbo", a senior French finance official said on Thursday.
A shuffle in Democratic leadership on the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee may change the course of negotiations among
lawmakers and the Trump administration on the Iran nuclear deal, as
the president presses for legislation that would "fix" his
concerns with the accord. After surviving a federal corruption probe,
Sen. Bob Menendez of New Jersey will take back the reins of the
committee's ranking committee chair from Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland.
Both men disapproved of the agreement when it reached Congress for a
vote in 2015, but Menendez, in particular, has been a vocal critic on
the Democratic side.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS
Countries like Iran, North Korea and Pakistan have
robust missile development programs. And the similarity of some of
their missiles indicates that they have collaborated to share
technology.
IRAN PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Iranian women are defying the government by pulling off
their head scarfs in public, joining a growing protest movement that
places them on the front lines of a debate between Iran's Islamic
conservatives and proponents of greater social freedoms.
It was the quietest protest Iran has ever witnessed.
Vida Movahed, a thirty-one-year-old mother of a toddler, stood atop a
large utility box on Tehran's busy Enghelab Street and removed the
hijab head covering that all women are required to wear by law. Her
jet-black hair cascaded far down her back. She then tied her white scarf
to a stick and, as shoppers scurried beneath her on a busy
thoroughfare, silently waved it like a flag... Thus began the
so-called Girls of Revolution Street protest, on December 27th, and
with it Iran's most robust debate about both women's rights and religious
restrictions in the four decades since the fall of the Shah.
Iran executed at least three child offenders across the
country in January 2018, Human Rights Watch said.
The Iranian authorities must immediately and
unconditionally release human rights activists Atena Daemi, Golrokh
Ebrahimi Iraee and her husband Arash Sadeghi, Amnesty International
said today, amid reports all three have begun a hunger strike to
protest the unlawful transfer of Atena Daemi and Golrokh Ebrahimi
Iraee to the dangerous Shahr-e Rey prison in Varamin outside Tehran.
Iran's Supreme Court has rejected a request to review
the death sentence given to university professor Ahmadreza Djalali,
accused of passing information to Israel, his lawyer said on Tuesday.
A proposed bill aimed at designating public spaces in
Iran for protests will lead to "more limits" on the
people's right to voice their demands, Nobel Peace Prize laureate
Shirin Ebadi told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
Police arrested more than 30 protesters on the fourth
day of a strike by hundreds of workers on February 4, 2018, at a
major sugar plant near the city of Shush, in Iran's Khuzestan
Province.
During the recent protests in Iran, dissidents both
inside and outside the country asked the U.S. government to enforce
sanctions against Tehran's state-run media enterprise, the Islamic
Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB). Despite Congress imposing
sanctions on IRIB in 2012, the Obama and Trump administrations have
continually issued waivers suspending IRIB sanctions every 180 days
for the last four years. Since IRIB and its partners continue to
facilitate human rights abuses inside Iran, this IRIB waiver policy
should be reversed.
The bravery of the women recently protesting in Iran
stiffened my resolve to participate in the 2018 Women's March in Los
Angeles. As a decadelong advocate for women, I felt compelled to use
my freedom of expression to demand theirs.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
When Baquer Namazi, the oldest American known to be held
in Iran, was released on medical leave Jan. 28 from Tehran's infamous
Evin Prison, it was an unexpected and unusual act of mercy. There was
even some hope that Mr. Namazi, an 81-year-old former diplomat for
Unicef, might be granted parole. On Tuesday, those hopes were dashed
as the authorities ordered the ailing Mr. Namazi to return to jail, a
decision so lacking in compassion that the Trump administration must
intervene.
SANCTIONS ENFORCEMENT
South Korean officials say they will not provide Iranian
and North Korean players with Samsung smartphones which are available
free to all other athletes at the Winter Olympics starting Friday.
State news agency Yonhap quoted PyeongChang Olympic organizers as
saying Wednesday that the decision had been taken in line with
sanctions on the two countries.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
Iran said on Thursday there was no link between its
influence in the Middle East region and its 2015 nuclear deal with
major powers that has now come under fire from the Trump
administration.
SYRIA & IRAN
Turkey and Russia agreed on Wednesday that their next
three-way summit with Iran to discuss the conflict in Syria will be
held in Istanbul, a Turkish presidential source said.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has discussed the war in
Syria with visiting Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu and
offered Iranian assistance in helping allay Turkey's concerns about
Syria's future.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Bahraini authorities say police have arrested four men
suspected of being behind a blast that ripped through a state-run oil
pipeline in November. A statement by the Interior Ministry says two
of those arrested received "intensive training" in Iranian
Revolutionary Guard camps in Iran. Iran denies allegations it is
behind Shiite insurgents in Bahrain.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
A political crisis in Iran aggravated on Wednesday after
deputies garnered the needed votes to question President Hassan
Rouhani over the country's economic and financial policies.
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