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TOP STORIES
Israel demands that as part of "fixing" the
nuclear deal with Iran, new sanctions and limitations be placed on
all Iranian missiles with a range of more than 180 miles (or 300
kilometers) - including the precision missiles Iran is providing
Hezbollah with. Israeli officials say Prime Minister Netanyahu is
going to raise this issue during his meeting tomorrow with President
Trump at the White House.
France's foreign ministry said on Sunday that Iran's
ballistic missile program was a major concern, a day before foreign
minister Jean-Yves Le Drian was due to visit Tehran.
Bahrain said on Saturday it had rounded up 116 members
of an armed network established and supported by Iran's Revolutionary
Guard, suspected of plotting attacks on Bahraini government officials
and security forces.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will roll into
Washington bloodied and bruised from a corruption scandal which is
quickly eating alive his inner circle. Despite the domestic turmoil,
we'll likely hear that there is no daylight-anymore-in the U.S.-Israeli
relationship. Yet tensions over Syria-namely the contours of the
mission and the dimensions of the de-escalation zones-and Iran are
lurking beneath the glad-handing, goodwill, and graciousness.
NUCLEAR DEAL
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian arrived in
Tehran as part of a European drive to salvage the nuclear deal with
Iran that President Donald Trump is threatening to scuttle and the
Islamic Republic has said it may be forced to abandon.
There is "no doubt whatsoever" that President
Donald Trump is prepared to walk away from the Iran nuclear deal if
it cannot be fixed to ensure Tehran will not attain nuclear weapons,
Israel's Ambassador to the United States said on Sunday.
Despite the fact that Iran has already embarked on a
quest to "annexe" both Iraq and Syria through stealth, and
is flexing its hegemonic muscles in Yemen; apart from Donald Trump,
most Western leaders are doing their utmost to keep the Iran deal in
place. According to its supporters, this agreement has supposedly
curtailed the Iranian regime's nuclear program, preventing it from
developing a nuclear weapon, and becoming a threat to world peace.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS
Iran will not negotiate over its ballistic missiles
until the United States and Europe dismantle nuclear weapons and
long-range missiles, a top Iranian military official said on
Saturday.
Iran said France's concern over Tehran's ballistic
missile program was "wrong", the semi-official Fars news
agency reported on Sunday ahead of the arrival of French Foreign
Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in Tehran.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNAL DISCONTENT
Over the past few months, the world has once again been
reminded of the gender apartheid long practiced in Iran - and of the
bravery of Iranian women languishing under it... So why is Gianni
Infantino, the president of FIFA, the world soccer federation, doing
his part to condone the Islamic Republic's misogyny?
FIFA is still
waiting for Iran to allow women into soccer matches, and still
resisting sanctioning the country. Just like predecessor Sepp Blatter
five years ago, FIFA President Gianni Infantino has returned from a
trip to Tehran with a reassurance from Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani that women won't be shut out of stadiums for much longer.
A small number of Iranian women, risking arrest to
protest compulsory head scarves, have rekindled debate about Iran's
so-called hijab rule.
ECONOMIC NEWS
After a four-year downturn, trade between Turkey and
Iran rose in 2017, as the two neighbors began collaborating in Syria.
Judging by figures from the past five years, the political climate
between Ankara and Tehran seems to directly affect commercial ties.
Their bilateral trade volume contracted during periods when Turkey's
Middle East policies led to closer cooperation with Saudi Arabia and
deeper differences with Iran, but perked up in 2017, when the two
countries engaged in joint efforts in Syria.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
The Israeli military was forced last month to engage an
Iranian drone launched into Israeli airspace from Syria. Israel's
defensive actions in this case were limited, but the world should
take note. There will be more such incidents if Tehran is permitted
to continue projecting force throughout the Middle East. To prevent a
full-scale crisis, North America and Europe must join Israel in
stopping Iran.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu hold talks on Monday that offer a chance to
project a common front against Iran but are expected to do little to
advance seemingly stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace prospects.
SYRIA & IRAN
French President Emmanuel Macron has asked his Iranian
counterpart Hassan Rouhani to put pressure on the Syrian government
to end attacks against Syria's besieged eastern Ghouta region and
allow humanitarian aid to flow.
It really is an axis of evil... Whatever their
differences, Iran, North Korea, Russia and China are all so-called
revisionist powers. What they want to revise, or erase, is Pax
Americana. In Syria, they had an ally, a cause and a plausible
outcome. America, by contrast, only had the bonfire of its
ambivalence.
When U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sit down in the Oval Office this week,
they will both have much on their minds... But the most pressing
issue on their agenda is Iran's efforts to entrench military
capabilities in Syria - as a base for attacks against Israel. With
Israel's warnings of this emerging threat proving well founded in
light of the February 10 incursion by an Iranian drone, Trump and
Netanyahu must consider how the United States can help Israel deter and
defend itself from those attacks.
Last month, an Iranian drone reportedly violated Israeli
airspace after taking off from a base in Syria. Israel shot it down
and then launched a wave of retaliatory strikes against both Iranian
installations in Syria and Syria's own air defenses. Tehran's brazen
provocation may have been surprising, yet is a natural extension of
Iranian efforts to transform Syria into a forward base for aggression
against Israel. There is still a chance, however, for the United
States to limit the Iranian presence in Syria, by putting an end to
the misguided policies that encouraged it in the first place.
After years of bloody warfare, Syria has become a
"Shi'a colony of Iran," a Syrian professor who lives in
Germany recently told an Israeli conference.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
The resigned head of Iran's wrestling federation has
asked the country's diplomats to take responsibility and support
athletes who refuse to compete against Israelis, the semi-official
ISNA news agency reported Saturday.
Iran inaugurated a gas processing complex on Wednesday,
February 28, that will help the country to stop flaring gas worth of
million of dollars.
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