|
TOP STORIES
Iran's foreign minister offered publicly on Wednesday to
negotiate a prisoner exchange with the United States, saying he had
been authorized to conduct such talks. It appeared to be the first
time that the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, had made such a
proposal openly, in what seemed like a diplomatic overture in a
worsening relationship with the United States under the Trump
administration.
Hezbollah's on a fund-raising drive and wants everyone
in its Lebanese strongholds to be able to contribute.
The militant group's donation boxes, for years placed in shops
across Beirut neighborhoods and southern towns, are now also fixed to
street poles and have proliferated following an appeal from Hezbollah
leader Hassan Nasrallah for greater assistance. "Public support
is needed," the 58-year-old had said bluntly in one of his
regular televised addresses in early March.
Asian companies that had provided a lifeline to Iran
after the U.S. reimposed sanctions last year are pulling back,
hurting the hobbled Iranian economy and leaving the Islamic Republic
with less incentive to stay committed to a multination nuclear deal,
Western diplomats say. The companies are reacting to the Trump
administration's moves this month to squeeze Iran's oil exports and
impose a terror designation on its paramilitary force.
UANI IN THE NEWS
... Representatives of the so-called B-Team-"I wish
it was the A-Team at least," Zarif quipped at one
point-previously gathered at another meeting in New York as part
of the United Against Nuclear Iran conference in September.
The conference was attended by senior officials from Israel, Saudi
Arabia, the U.A.E. and the U.S., including Bolton himself-known in
Washington for decades for his hawkish views and disdain for
international agreements-and Pompeo.
NUCLEAR DEAL &
NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Much of the current debate on the Donald Trump
administration's "maximum pressure campaign" against
Iran concerns its decision not to extend waivers allowing
eight nations - including China, India and Turkey - to import
limited amounts of Iranian oil. However, it is the possible
revocation of waivers that allow the remaining parties to the deal
signed in 2015 to engage in civil nuclear cooperation with Iran -
with the aim of reducing the proliferation risks of the Iranian
nuclear program - that poses the greatest threat to the future of the
nuclear deal.
SANCTIONS,
BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
When the U.S. vowed to stop any sales of Iranian crude,
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo trumpeted America's ability
to help offset supply losses. Maybe, but it would be a stretch. Oil
condensate from the Eagle Ford shale basin in Texas is similar,
though a bit heavier than Iran's light South
Pars condensate. But the Eagle Ford produces only
about 150,000 barrels a day of its product, compared with Iran's
daily output of 600,000 barrels in 2017.
U.S. attempts to drive Iranian oil exports down to zero
come against the backdrop of a global market that is sufficiently
well supplied to avoid price disruptions, senior U.S. officials said
on Thursday. "There's roughly a million barrels per day (bpd) of
Iranian crude (exports) left, and there is plenty of supply in the
market to ease that transition and maintain stable prices," said
Brian Hook, U.S. Special Representative for Iran and Senior Policy
Advisor to the Secretary of State, speaking in a call with reporters.
The Trump administration on Wednesday granted important
exemptions to new sanctions on Iran's Revolutionary Guard, watering
down the effects of the measures while also eliminating an aspect
that would have complicated U.S. foreign policy efforts. Foreign
governments and businesses that have dealings with the Revolutionary
Guard and its affiliates will not be subject to a ban on U.S. travel
under waivers outlined by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in two
notices published in the Federal Register.
The Secretary-General of the influential Expediency
Discernment Council (EDC) in Iran says the designation of
Revolutionary Guards as a foreign terrorist group by Washington has a
significant impact on the fate of financial reform bills demanded by
the West. The Paris based international watchdog, Financial Action
Task Force (FATF) has demanded that Iran should adopt
anti-corruption, anti-money laundering and anti-terror financing
legal safeguards.
Iran will not allow any country replace its oil sales in
the global market, the Foreign Ministry said on Thursday, after the
United States told importers to halt Iranian purchases from
May. Washington has decided not to renew its exemptions from
U.S. sanctions against Iran that it granted last year to buyers of
Iranian oil. A senior U.S. administration official said on
Monday that President Donald Trump was confident Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates would fill any gap left in the oil market.
The Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, has said
Tehran will continue to defy US sanctions by finding buyers for its
oil and warned that Washington should "be prepared for the
consequences" if it tries to stop it. The US announced the
sanctions in November but some countries got temporary waivers that
allowed them to import Iranian oil. Washington now says those
waivers, which mainly affect China, India, Japan, South Korea and
Turkey, will expire on 2 May.
U.S. President Donald Trump's move to pressure Iranian
oil importers is turning into a headache for India's government in
the midst of a re-election battle. Indian Prime Minister Narendra
Modi, whose government is one of the world's biggest importers of
Iranian crude, is now facing opposition attacks over his inability to
win concessions from Washington. Criticism that his diplomacy has
failed to guarantee continued access to cheaper Iranian oil comes in
the middle of India's weeks-long general election, which began on
April 11.
U.S.-IRAN
RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif does not
believe U.S. President Donald Trump wants war with Iran, but he told
Reuters on Wednesday that Trump could be lured into a
conflict. "I don't think he wants war," Zarif said in
an interview at the Iranian mission to the United Nations in New
York. "But that doesn't exclude him being basically lured into
one." The White House did not immediately respond to a
request for comment on Zarif's remarks.
Iran's top diplomat said Wednesday President Donald
Trump's aim "is to bring us to our knees to talk" - but
national security adviser John Bolton and key U.S. allies in the
Mideast want "regime change at the very least" and the
"disintegration of Iran." Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad
Zarif said he doubts Trump wants conflict because the president ran
on a campaign promise "not to waste another $7 trillion in our
region in order to make the situation only worse."
Always give your enemy a way out, Sun Tzu advised. One
by one US president Donald Trump is closing the exits for Iran's
regime. Next week Washington will revoke waivers to Iran's five
remaining oil export markets. Earlier this month Mr Trump declared
Iran's Revolutionary Guard a terrorist organisation. In the coming
weeks the US will unveil more sanctions on top of the barrage it
imposed last year after quitting the Iran nuclear deal. As
non-declarations of war go, Mr Trump's gauntlet comes very close to
the edge.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE
MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Given the volume of valuable commercial shipping in the
Persian Gulf, Tehran is investing in improving its ASBMs-and
publicizing that effort to the world-as a means to build conventional
military deterrence in a context of rising tensions with Saudi
Arabia, Israel and the United States. In 2009, it became clear that
China had developed a mobile medium-range ballistic missile called
the DF-21D designed to sink ships over 900 miles away.
RUSSIA, SYRIA,
ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
The children of Eitam and Naama Henkin filed a $360
million civil damages wrongful death lawsuit against Iran and Syria
on Wednesday for their alleged involvement in the murder of their
parents in a West Bank terrorist attack in 2015. The civil case,
filed in a federal court in Washington, comes three years after the
Palestinian terrorists who murdered the Henkins had been sentenced to
life in prison by an Israeli military court in 2016. It also comes
just as the US campaign to pressure Iran and its Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is heating up. The IRGC is often
credited with supporting terrorist groups throughout the region,
including Hamas.
Two Lebanese nationals were sanctioned by the United
States under a program targeting Hezbollah. The U.S. Treasury's
Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) said it was targeting
Belgium-based Wael Bazzi because he acted on behalf of his father
Mohammad Bazzi, a Hezbollah financier. OFAC also took action against
two Belgian companies and a British-based firm controlled by Bazzi.
In addition, the U.S. Treasury designated Lebanon-based Hassan
Tabaja, who it said had acted on behalf of his brother Adham Tabajha,
also a Hezbollah financier. The U.S. action freezes their assets and
property and prevents U.S. citizens and businesses from dealing with
them.
The newly formed Committee to Ban Hezbollah in Germany
called on US consumers to boycott German automobiles in an
advertisement in The Jewish Journal of Greater Los Angeles, after
German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected outlawing Hezbollah. The
advertisement declares, "Boycott the German car industry until
Hezbollah is banned in Germany." The full-page advertisement
will run for the next four weeks in The Jewish Journal and leads with
the statement: "On June 25, 1996, at 9:50 p.m., Hezbollah,
Iran's terrorist arm, murdered 19 American airmen at the Khobar
Towers in Dharan, Saudi Arabia." The advertisement in the
community weekly reads: "Yet Germany allows Hezbollah to operate
openly on its soil. It's time to send a message to the German government.
Americans will not buy their cars while it allows the murderers of
our soldiers to raise money, recruit and propagandize on German
soil."
The war waged between Israel and the United
States and Iran is rapidly approaching its final stages. The
time frame everyone is focusing on is November 2020, when the
American presidential elections will take place. The
Iranians pray that the Democrats will win and that the
new president will return to the nuclear agreement, as this would
remove President Donald Trump's sanctions that are strangling the
Iranian economy. Israel prays for the reverse scenario: Trump's
continued rule is vital to the implementation of Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu's grand plan.
GULF STATES,
YEMEN, & IRAN
Saudi Deputy Defense Minister Prince Khalid bin Salman
stressed on Wednesday that Riyadh was keen on achieving security and
stability in the Middle East, while Iran has since 1979, been
pursuing sectarian and destabilizing agenda. "The regime in Iran
has been fueling sectarianism and division" and has been
violating international law through its malicious practices, he told
the eighth Moscow Conference on International Security.
Saudi Arabia's deputy defense minister on Wednesday
blamed Yemen's Houthi movement for a stalled peace deal in the main
port of Hodeidah, saying the Iran-aligned group was ignoring the
kingdom's call for a political solution to the four-year war. Saudi
Arabia is leading a Western-backed Sunni Muslim military coalition
that intervened in Yemen in 2015 to restore the internationally
recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which was
ousted from power in the capital Sanaa by the Houthis in late 2014.
"They are ignoring our calls for a political solution to this
crisis," Prince Khalid bin Salman said at a security conference
in Moscow, in his first comments on Yemen since becoming deputy
defense minister in February.
AFGHANISTAN &
IRAN
Abdul Saboor escaped poverty and instability in
Afghanistan three years ago with his wife and three children and
found work in neighboring Iran. Now he has returned home, despite the
fact that life there has not improved. His job at a grocery
store in the central Iranian city of Isfahan brought in about 280
dollars a month, enough to support his family. But the Iranian rial
took a dive last year and his employer cut his wages to less than 100
dollars a month.
Iran on Wednesday criticized US talks with the Taliban
on ending the Afghanistan war, saying Washington was elevating the
role of the militants. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
acknowledged that Iran had also opened dialogue with the Taliban but
said that the US push for a deal with the extremists was
"seriously wrong." "An attempt to exclude everybody
and just talk to the Taliban has alienated the government, has
alienated the region, has alienated everybody else and it achieved
nothing, as you've seen from the statement that came from the
Taliban," Zarif said, apparently referring to the militants'
announcement of a new spring offensive.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment