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TOP STORIES
President Trump's National
Security Council asked the Pentagon to provide the White House with
military options to strike Iran last year, generating concern at the
Pentagon and State Department, current and former U.S. officials
said. The request, which hasn't been previously reported, came after
militants fired three mortars into Baghdad's sprawling diplomatic
quarter, home to the U.S. Embassy, on a warm night in early
September. The shells-launched by a group aligned with Iran-landed in
an open lot and harmed no one.
Iran is taking preliminary steps
to design uranium fuel with a purity of 20 percent for reactors
instead of having to copy foreign designs, Iran's nuclear chief said
on Sunday. Iran's 2015 nuclear accord with world powers caps the
level to which it is able to enrich uranium to 3.67 percent purity,
well below the 20 percent it was reaching before the deal, and the
roughly 90 percent that is weapons-grade. Iran is, however,
allowed to produce nuclear fuel under strict conditions that need to
be approved by a working group set up by the signatories to the deal.
The United States is not looking
to grant more waivers for Iranian oil imports after the reimposition
of U.S. sanctions, the U.S. special representative for Iran said on
Saturday, underlining Washington's push to choke off Tehran's
income. "We are not looking to grant any waivers or
exemptions to the import of Iranian crude," Brian Hook told a
industry conference in the United Arab Emirates capital Abu
Dhabi.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Well, to me, it was a very reasonable and rational thing
for John Bolton to do. Think about it. Iranian-backed militias,
extremists fired mortars in the vicinity of our embassy in Baghdad
and our consulate in Basra, Iraq. That's a sort of declaration of
war. But let's not go that war. It was a hostile act. And if you let
a county like Iran get away with it, they'll do it again. And next
time, they'll hit our embassy or our consulate. So I think what John
Bolton did in asking for military options for the President who will always
make the decision in the end was rational.
National Security Advisor John
Bolton has not commented on the claims, but speaking in defense of
the reported request on Sunday was Joe Lieberman, a former Democratic
senator who chairs the bipartisan lobby group, United Against a
Nuclear Iran. In an interview on Fox News' "Sunday Morning
Futures," Lieberman said asking the Pentagon for options would
be "a very reasonable and rational thing for John Bolton to
do." "Think about it: Iranian-backed militias, extremists,
fired mortars in the vicinity of our embassy in Baghdad and our
consulate in Basra, Iraq," he said. "That's a sort of
declaration of war," Lieberman said. "But let's not go that
far. It was a hostile act. And if you let a country like Iran get
away with it, they'll do it again. And next time, they will hit our
embassy or our consulate."
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
The head of Iran's nuclear
program said Sunday that the Islamic Republic has begun
"preliminary activities for designing" a modern process for
20-percent uranium enrichment for its 50-year-old research reactor in
Tehran, signaling new danger for the nuclear deal. Restarting
enrichment at that level would mean Iran had withdrawn the 2015
nuclear deal it struck with world powers, an accord that President
Donald Trump already pulled America out of in May.
Iran on Friday said the United
States is suffering from "hysteria" over its inability to
find alternatives to the landmark nuclear deal it walked away from
last year. Washington "pulled out of a comprehensive and
legitimate agreement achieved through negotiation, and is now
afflicted with chronic hysteria as it can't find an alternative to
it," foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said on his
Telegram channel.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
A major Iranian oil buyer that
shut out supplies last year even before U.S. sanctions on the Persian
Gulf state took effect is finally set to receive cargoes once again.
National Iranian Tanker Co.'s Silvia I is expected to reach South
Korea -- Tehran's third-biggest customer before it stopped purchases
in August -- on Jan. 15, according to vessel-tracking data
compiled by Bloomberg.
India's oil imports from Iran
fell by 41 percent in December to 302,000 barrels per day oil (bpd),
ship tracking data reviewed by Reuters showed, as pressure from U.S.
sanctions took effect. The United States introduced tough
sanctions aimed at crippling Iran's oil revenue-dependent economy in
November but gave a six-month waiver to eight nations, including
India, which allowed them to import some Iranian oil.
The reimposition of US sanctions
on Iran has created many difficulties for Iranian students who are
studying abroad - including in Europe. The root of these hardships
seems to be European companies' fear of potential US penalties. Sima
is an Iranian student pursuing a doctorate in mechanical
engineering who traveled to Spain in September to take part in a
one-year research program.
The United States is determined
to drive Iran's oil exports down to zero in its effort to maximize
economic pressure and force Tehran back to the negotiating table to
discuss a "comprehensive deal" in place of the nuclear
agreement US President Donald J. Trump abandoned last year, Brian
Hook, the US special representative for Iran and senior policy
advisor to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, said at the Atlantic
Council's 2019 Global Energy Forum in Abu Dhabi on January 12.
MISSILE PROGRAM
France on Friday called on Iran
to immediately stop all activities linked to ballistic missiles that
could carry nuclear weapons after Tehran said it could put two
satellites into orbit in the coming weeks. "France recalls
that the Iranian missile program (does) not conform with U.N.
Security Council Resolution 2231," Foreign ministry spokeswoman
Agnes von der Muhll told reporters in a daily briefing. "It
calls on Iran to immediately cease all ballistic missile-related activities
designed to carry nuclear weapons, including tests using ballistic
missile technology."
Iran called on France to avoid
repeating "irresponsible and incorrect" claims about
Tehran's ballistic missile work, Iranian state TV reported.
France earlier on Friday called on Iran to immediately stop all
activities linked to ballistic missiles that could carry nuclear
weapons, after Tehran said it could put two satellites into orbit in
the coming weeks.
About once a day, little satellites
zip over northern Iran and snap a few pictures of the Imam Khomeini
Space Center. The satellites, operated by a company in San
Francisco called Planet, haven't recorded much - until recently.
"We're seeing all kinds of activity," says Jeffrey
Lewis, a scholar at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies
at Monterey, who is analyzing the images as they come in. In recent
days, he's noticed cars and trucks moving around the site.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
Danish Foreign Minister Anders
Samuelsen announced January 8, along with other officials on behalf
of 28 members EU bloc, new sanctions targeting the Iranian
regime's terrorist plots and assassinations in France, Denmark and
the Netherlands. The clerical regime used to getting free rides and
actions without consequences in the West was hard hit with the
reality. It planned a series of terrorist attacks against its
opposition in both sides of the Atlantic last year, but payback time
has come in 2019.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
The head of the Thomson Reuters
Foundation said Monday she's "sincerely worried" about a
detained British-Iranian national going on hunger strike to protest
her treatment in the Islamic Republic. Monique Villa said in a
statement that Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe's "health is already at
its poorest" and that she hasn't received access to serious
medical care after discovering lumps in her breasts. "This is
slow and cruel torture, yet one more injustice inflicted upon
her," Villa said.
The Islamic Republic of Iran
unleashed yet another crackdown on the country's
struggling Christian minority before and after Christmas,
prompting international calls for help - and for much tougher action
against the repressive regime. The Iranian group Alliance for Rights
of All Minorities reported on December 30 that "nine Christians
were arrested in Karaj, Iran on alleged charges of affiliation with
Christian Zionists and recruitment of Muslims to home
churches..."
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
They seemed an unlikely pair of spies. The older man,
Majid Ghorbani, worked at a posh Persian restaurant in Santa Ana's South
Coast Village Plaza. At 59, he wore a thick gray mustache and the
weary expression of a man who had served up countless plates of rice
and kebab.
The family of Michael R. White,
a Navy veteran imprisoned in Iran half a year ago, said Friday that
he had traveled there with a valid visa to visit a female friend,
rejecting any suggestion that he might have been engaged in
espionage. "We want to be very clear - Michael spent much of his
time in the Navy as a cook and recently worked as a commercial
janitor - he is not now, nor has he ever been a spy," the family
said in a statement.
The U.S. State Department said
on Tuesday it was aware of reports of the detention of a U.S. citizen
held in Iran for more than six months, amid heightened tensions
between the countries following the reimposition of U.S.
sanctions. The New York Times reported on Monday that Michael
R. White, a 46-year-old U.S. Navy veteran, was seized while visiting
Iran and has been held in jail since July on unspecified
charges.
On the eve of its 40th
anniversary, the Islamic Republic of Iran faces an uncertain future.
The nation is grappling with rising protests, strikes, acts of civil
disobedience and an aging supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, who is
rumored to have cancer. While the last of these might seem like the
least significant, the illness of a previous Iranian leader had an
oversized impact on the political direction of the country and its
relationship with the United States.
A distinguishing feature of the
world's pariahs is their hypocrisy. During the 20th century, the
examples of hypocrisy could be witnessed in the Eastern bloc
countries, where the elites were living separately from the people,
positioning themselves as the working class advocates. For example,
while the country was desolated by famine, the North Korean leader
Kim Jong-il became the biggest private buyer of Hennessy Paradis
cognac.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo revealed on Friday that
Washington plans to host in February a two-day global summit focused
on the Middle East, mainly Iran. Pompeo told Fox News that the
international gathering would be held Feb. 13 to Feb. 14 in Poland to
"focus on Middle East stability and peace and freedom and
security here in this region, and that includes an important element
of making sure that Iran is not a destabilizing influence."
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
A Boeing 707 cargo plane
traveling from Kyrgyzstan crashed on Monday while trying to land west
of Tehran, the Iranian capital, state media reported, and an
emergency official said that only one of the 16 on board was known to
have survived. Fire immediately engulfed the aircraft after it
skidded off a runway and crashed into a wall separating the Fath
Airport from a residential neighborhood. Images carried by Iran's
state-run media showed the burned-out tail of the plane sticking out,
surrounded by charred homes.
A construction group owned by
Iran's Revolutionary Guards will develop 250 kilometers (155 miles)
of metro rail in cities across Iran. The chief of the Guards' Khatam
al-Anbia Construction Headquarters unit, Saeed Mohammad, announced
the plan Saturday at the launch of one section of the project -- a
4.5 trillion rial line linking southern Tehran and its outskirts to
the city's center, according to a statement on the company's website.
The Iranian president, Hassan
Rouhani, can hardly be billed as a reformist. For that reason, he
maintained his position as Iran's Supreme Leader's confidante while
acting as his representative in the Iranian Supreme National Security
Council for twenty-three years, from its inception until his first
term election as president in 2013. Rouhani also escaped unscathed
from the 2009 controversy-marred re-election of his predecessor, Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu made a rare acknowledgment of specific Israel strikes
targeting Iranian military assets in Syria, touting the campaign as
the U.S. prepares to withdraw troops from its neighboring country.
Speaking at the beginning of a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Mr.
Netanyahu said Israel has struck Iranian and Hezbollah targets in
Syria hundreds of times in recent years in a bid to prevent Iran's
efforts to entrench militarily in Syria, including an attack over the
weekend.
Top U.S. diplomats are
stridently pledging the Trump administration's determination to drive
Iran out of Syria, even as it prepares to withdraw its military
presence. Doubling down on the Trump's administration's anti-Iran
message, the senior policy advisor to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo,
Brian Hook, vowed no U.S. reconstruction assistance to the war-torn
country until Iranian forces and its proxies are completely driven
out.
"The heads of Israel's
defense establishment believe that Qatar's financial grant to Gaza
played a major role in preventing an armed conflict between Israel
and Hamas, but now the third installment of that grant is at
risk," reports Shlomi Eldar. "As of Jan. 8, Israeli
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has given an order that the
money is not to be transferred to the Gaza Strip, and Hamas is once
again threatening Israel."
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
United States Special
Representative for Iran Brian Hook told Al Arabiya English that
Washington "would save no effort to prevent Iran from
Lebanonizing Yemen". He added in an exclusive interview with Al
Arabiya English that US is committed to the efforts led by UN Special
Envoy Martin Griffiths and that they have called to an urgent end to
the fighting in Yemen.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
reinforced support for the U.S. relationship with Qatar on Sunday
while promising to renew attempts to resolve a standoff between the
tiny Gulf nation and its rivals led by Saudi Arabia that has
complicated the Trump administration's efforts to isolate Iran.
During a visit to Doha as a part of a nine-country Middle East tour,
Mr. Pompeo signed a memorandum of understanding with his Qatari
counterpart on expanding Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, which hosts the
largest U.S. military installation in the Middle East with some
13,000 troops from the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State.
IRAQ & IRAN
Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif met with his Iraqi counterpart in Baghdad on
Sunday for wide ranging talks, including on US sanctions against
Tehran. The visit came just days after US Secretary of State Mike
Pompeo made a surprise stop on his regional tour to urge Iraq to stop
relying on Iran for gas and electricity imports.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iran's foreign ministry summoned
a senior Polish diplomat to protest at Poland jointly hosting a
global summit with the United States focused on the Middle East,
particularly Iran, state news agency IRNA reported on
Sunday. U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday said the
summit - to be held in Warsaw over Feb. 13-14 - would focus on
stability and security in the Middle East, including the
"important element of making sure that Iran is not a
destabilizing influence".
Angered by U.S. Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo's announcement that Poland will host an
international conference on Iran in mid-February, Iranian authorities
on Sunday summoned Warsaw's top diplomat in the country and called
off a Polish film festival. The moves followed a tweet by Iran's
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif who denounced the upcoming
summit as America's anti-Iran "circus." Pompeo is currently
on a Mideast tour, bringing the Trump administration's anti-Iran
message to the region.
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