Friday, March 30, 2018

Eye on Iran: Saudi Prince Calls for Stepped-Up Pressure on Iran



   EYE ON IRAN
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TOP STORIES


Saudi Arabia's crown prince called on the international community to squeeze Iran economically and politically to avoid a direct military confrontation in the region... "We have to succeed so as to avoid military conflict," said Prince Mohammed, who is Saudi Arabia's day-to-day ruler. "If we don't succeed in what we are trying to do, we will likely have war with Iran in 10-15 years."


A number of protests have broken out in Iran since the beginning of the year over water, a growing political concern due to a drought which residents of parched areas and analysts say has been exacerbated by mismanagement.


[T]he United States cannot effectively confront Tehran and its proxies until it appreciates Iran's role in state building in Middle Eastern countries decimated by conflict.

NUCLEAR DEAL


Eurasia Group's Chairman Cliff Kupchan said in a note Wednesday that the agreement is unlikely "to survive President Donald Trump's first term in office" and that the "re-imposition of U.S. secondary sanctions" - the sanctions that prevent other countries from doing business with Iran - is likely.


The efforts of the foreign-policy establishment to defend the Iran nuclear deal are boosting the case for Trump to change it. 

CONGRESS & IRAN


Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said to expect some "historic moments" coming in May in regards to Iran and North Korea.

U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS


The U.S. State Department granted a visa to a man in Iran hoping to donate bone marrow to his U.S. citizen brother with blood cancer, obtaining a rare waiver to President Donald Trump's travel ban, the family's lawyer said on Thursday.


There are no easy answers in a region with ever-changing interests and alliances, but one tool to consider for advancing American interests is the use of "consequences" against those who deliberately stick a finger in our eye. This is necessary with four regional players: Iran, Turkey, the Palestinians and Qatar..

GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN


The Criminal Court of Riyadh today sentenced two Saudi citizens on charges of engaging in acts of terrorism and conspiring with Iran and its regional proxies to destabilize Saudi Arabia, the Arab press reported.

HUMAN RIGHTS
  

The UN Human Rights Council last week passed a resolution extending the mandate of the special rapporteur on human rights in Iran by one year. The measure, which cleared the global body by a vote of 21 to 7 with 19 countries abstaining, reflects a recognition that Tehran's domestic repression constitutes an ongoing problem. At the same time, the large number of abstentions and opposing votes suggests that a significant percentage of the international community remains willing to overlook or deny the reality of Iran's abysmal record on human rights.

IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS


Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, a prominent Iranian Shiite religious leader, has called on authorities to prevent "infiltrators" from entering Iran's holy city of Qom, Radio Fardo reported today... Shirazi's comments reflect deep worries of Iran's religious establishment about growing anti-regime sentiments in the country. The holy city of Qom, a historic powerbase of the Iranian regime since 1979, was not immune to antigovernment protests that engulfed Iran in late December and early January.


When Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif began his tenure in 2013, the American-educated diplomat knew that he would need to bypass many of the traditional media outlets to spread Iran's message directly on the international stage. At the time, there was no platform better suited for this objective than Twitter. There was only one problem. Since the 2009 protests, Twitter, along with Facebook and YouTube, had been blocked in Iran. 

FOREIGN AFFAIRS


Until six months ago, the Lovimi family from Iran had never heard of Serbia. But here they are, currently in Belgrade, after arriving without visas last August, waiting to continue on to Germany, where they plan to build a new and better life in the future. The family of four comes from the town of Ahvaz in the province of Khuzestan in Iran's south west, where the majority of the population is Arabic. They complain that, as Arabs, they have few rights in Iran, their children are forced to learn Farsi and not Arabic in school, and they are treated as second-class citizens, with little hope of finding a job.

ISRAEL AND IRAN


Two Israeli F-35 fighter jets entered Iranian airspace over the past month, Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported on Thursday.






Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email press@uani.com.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

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