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TOP STORIES
Most French companies hoping to continue doing business
in Iran after the US imposes new sanctions on the country will find
it impossible to do so, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said Tuesday.
The United States and human rights watchdogs have
condemned Iran's execution of a Sufi man who was convicted of killing
three police officers during clashes between police and a Sufi sect
in February... Salas's supporters have said he maintained his innocence
but claimed he was tortured into a forced confession.
The chief of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard has
criticized Iranian activists who signed an open letter last week
asking Iran's leaders to take part in direct talks with Washington,
saying they have "sided with the U.S., the enemy of the people."
UANI IN THE NEWS
Unreliability, half measures and intermittent chest
thumping won't result in stability in the Middle East. It's past time
to get serious - and detailed - about countering the Iranian threat.
Investing in the region, supporting our allies and stymieing our
enemies are far more important than the circular firing squad in
Washington on what to do about the Iran nuclear deal.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Pending policy decisions on reimposing sanctions will
give Washington opportunities to calibrate its arsenal of measures
against illicit Iranian financial activity.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
The possible withdrawal of French oil major Total from
Iran's South Pars gas field has not slowed down the project, a senior
Iranian official said, adding that Tehran is in talks with Russia's
Gazprom over the development of two other fields.
In the wake of President Trump's summit with Kim Jong
Un, might it be worthwhile to propose a similar meeting with Iran's
supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei? Such an offer isn't as
fanciful as it sounds, and could put useful pressure on the Iranian
regime.
CONGRESS & IRAN
Congress is headed for a probable showdown over
President Trump's recent deal to lift certain penalties against
Chinese telecom giant ZTE after the Senate overwhelming passed its
version of an annual defense authorization bill that would reimpose
those punitive measures... ZTE was effectively banned from the U.S.
market because the company broke U.S. restrictions to sell products
in North Korea and Iran.
SYRIA, RUSSIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Israel declined to comment on Tuesday on a weekend air
strike against an Iraqi paramilitary base in eastern Syria after its
US ally implicated it in the attack. The Sunday evening strike
against the Al-Hari base on the Syrian side of the border with Iraq
came less than 24 hours after Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu said
Israel would strike Iran's "proxies" anywhere in Syria.
Tehran must re-adjust its policy in Syria a day after an
airstrike killed and wounded dozens of Iranian-backed Shi'ite Kata'ib
Hezbollah members in Syria near the Iraqi border. The first of its
kind strike, targeting Iraqi militias who have been crossing into
Syria to aid the Assad regime since last year, sought to cut off
Iran's "road to the sea" by striking at a strategic area
near the border town of Albu Kamal.
A former Israeli government minister, once imprisoned
for trying to smuggle drugs, is back behind bars after being charged
with spying for archenemy Iran, the country's internal security
agency said Monday.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
UN human rights experts* are making an urgent appeal to
the authorities in Iran to halt the execution of Mohammad Kalhori, a
young man who was sentenced to death at 15 years old for killing his
teacher.
OTHER IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
How Recent Protests Could Revive Ahmadinejad's
Fortunes in Iran | Giorgia Perletta for the Atlantic Council
Until recently, few observers inside or outside Iran gave
much weight to the notion of a comeback for discredited former
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad... Yet the challenge to the political
system from this current appears not only to have persisted but to
have grown in light of widespread protests that erupted late last
year in provincial towns and cities. The protests, over the high cost
of living, corruption and unemployment, have echoes in Ahmadinejad's
political propaganda and his perceived role as the champion of the
"dispossessed" (mostazafan), the urban and rural poor.
The former chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces,
Hassan Firouzabadi, is squatting in a mansion that belonged to the
former Shah of Iran, according to a letter published by a
conservative university group.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Troops backed by a Saudi-led coalition stormed the
airport compound in Yemen's main port city Hodeidah on Tuesday after
fierce battles with Iran-aligned Houthis, residents and Yemeni
military sources said.
The UN's hopes of negotiating a ceasefire with Houthi
rebels in the vital port of Hodeidah in Yemen appear to have been
dashed after the Saudi-led coalition backing the Yemeni government
said it would only accept the rebels' unconditional withdrawal from
the area.
In a telephone call with Iranian President Hassan
Rouhani, Qatari Emir said he reiterated that relations between Doha
and Tehran were "developing on daily basis."
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
Lebanon's Foreign Ministry has rejected claims that it
is obstructing the extradition of a Lebanese national in Paraguay for
his alleged drug trafficking and money laundering activities, arguing
that the "contents of a Foreign Policy article are inaccurate
and out of the scope of reality."
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