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TOP STORIES
U.S. Central Command chief General
Kenneth McKenzie said on Saturday the United States would deploy the
necessary resources to counter any dangerous actions by Iran, Sky
News Arabia reported. "We're going to continue to reach out to
our partners and friends in the region to ensure that we make common
cause against the threat of Iran," McKenzie, on an official
visit to the Gulf region, was quoted as saying by Sky News Arabia.
FOX NEWS' CHRIS WALLACE: You just
heard Iran's top diplomat charge the president's national security
advisor with working with key leaders in the Middle East to bring
about regime change in Iran, and joining us now to respond, John
Bolton. Ambassador, as you just heard. Foreign Minister Zarif says
you're part of the "B" team, a small group of leaders, you
in the U.S., others in the Middle East, Bibi Netanyahu, Bin Salman Al
Saud, who are working to try to steer President Trump into a conflict
with Iran. Your response? JOHN BOLTON: Well, he also said in another
interview he wished he were working with the "A" team. In
the past few days, North Koreans have also called me dim-sighted, the
Cubans upset I'm a pathological liar. i say i've had a pretty good
week.
U.S. President Donald Trump and
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe on Saturday confirmed a joint
desire to eliminate oil imports from Iran, a U.S. official
said. The two leaders also discussed a "desire to see Iran
change its path and seek a more peaceful course forward," U.S.
Ambassador to Japan William Hagerty said in a call with
reporters. Trump and Abe also confirmed a joint desire to see
China cease militarization of disputed territories in the East China
Sea, Hagerty said.
SANCTIONS,
BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran said on Sunday it could quit a
treaty against the spread of nuclear weapons after the United States
tightens sanctions, while an Iranian general said the U.S. Navy was
interacting as before with an elite military unit blacklisted by
Washington. Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen
since the Trump administration withdrew last year from a 2015
international nuclear deal with Iran and began ratcheting up
sanctions.
Tighter U.S. sanctions against Iran
could fuel inflation to the highest level since 1980, according to
the International Monetary Fund, as the Islamic Republic's economy
grapples with a weakening currency and tighter U.S. sanctions on oil
exports. Consumer prices could average 50 percent higher this year
after the U.S. moved last week to end sanctions waivers granted to a
handful of countries buying Iranian oil, said Jihad Azour, head of
the IMF Middle East and Central Asia department.
Turkey is seeking ways to buy more
oil from Iraq, already a major supplier of crude to the Middle East's
biggest economy, as the U.S. looks to squeeze exports from Iran,
according to two people familiar with the matter. Turkey could
consider oil imports from Iraq's southern port of Basra and may also
try to secure more shipments via an existing twin pipeline that runs
to the Turkish Mediterranean terminal of Ceyhan, despite its state of
disrepair, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity
because they aren't authorized to speak to the media.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said
on Saturday he hoped Iranian oil exports would continue despite
Washington's efforts to stop them. Washington has demanded that
buyers of Iranian crude halt purchases by May 1 or face sanctions, a
move to choke off Tehran's oil revenues. The United States
expects Saudi Arabia and its Gulf allies to boost output in order to
offset the cut in Iranian supplies.
Tighter U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil
planned for May are adding to a wealth of factors curbing global
supply of heavy-medium crude, driving up prices for scarcer barrels
and setting up a stand-off between buyers and sellers. The new
curbs on Iranian exports come on top of Washington's earlier ban on
Venezuelan crude and output snags in Angola, another big producer of
the dense crude grades that best yield lucrative refined products
like jet fuel.
Russia will not immediately raise oil
output after the United States ends sanctions waivers for buyers of
Iranian crude in May, President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday. The
United States announced this week that, in a bid to reduce Iran's oil
exports to zero, it would from May 2 end US waivers that
countries such as India, China, South Korea and Turkey currently have
on buying Iranian crude. Eight countries including China, India and
Turkey had been given temporary waivers by the US when it re-imposed
sanctions on Iran last year.
This week, the Trump administration
piled more pressure on Iran, announcing that it will no longer
exempt any countries from sanctions if they continue to buy Iranian
oil. The move was made as part of the administration's "maximum
pressure" strategy that aims to eliminate all of Iran's revenue
from oil exports. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the move
will choke off Iranian income amounting to more than $50bn a year.
PROTESTS &
HUMAN RIGHTS
The husband of Nazanin
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman detained in Iran since
2016 on spying charges, has accused the authorities in Tehran of
"playing games" with his family's hopes, as he called on
the Foreign Office to escalate its attempts to secure her release by
the summer. Richard Ratcliffe said he was still hopeful his wife
would soon be released on health grounds, after she was finally
allowed to have tests and MRI scans to determine whether the lumps in
her breasts are cancerous.
Less than four days ahead of the
International Labor Day, May 1, several members of the Free Workers
Trade Union of Iran (FWTUI) have been detained in Tehran on Friday 26
April, reports say. The detainees had reportedly gathered in a park
in the capital city, Tehran, to plan for celebrating the
international Labor Day. Tens of labor activists had assembled in the
capital city's Jahan Nama Park, off the Tehran-Karaj motorway, when
security forces stormed the place, detained and took away up to
twelve of them
Human rights defender Narges
Mohammadi who is incarcerated at Iran's notorious Evin prison must
immediately undergo surgery, according to her attorney. Mahmoud
Behzadi Rad told the official IRNA news agency that Mohammadi was
taken from prison to hospital April 27 and after an MRI exam was
returned to prison.
U.S.-IRAN
RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad
Javad Zarif appeared to pull back from his offer of a prisoner swap
with the U.S. during an interview with CBS News. Earlier this week
Zarif publicly floated the possibility of releasing some of the five
Americans imprisoned back to the U.S., but when pressed by "Face
the Nation" moderator Margaret Brennan on how the mechanics of
such an exchange would work, Zarif said the U.S. first "needs to
prove that it's serious" before the two countries can begin
negotiations. THE interview will air on Sunday.
U.S. Central Command chief General
Kenneth McKenzie said on Saturday the United States would deploy the
necessary resources to counter any dangerous actions by Iran, Sky
News Arabia reported. "We're going to continue to reach out
to our partners and friends in the region to ensure that we make
common cause against the threat of Iran," McKenzie, on an
official visit to the Gulf region, was quoted as saying by Sky News
Arabia.
The influential chief commander of
Iran's Quds force said on Monday that the country's clerical
establishment would never negotiate with the United States under
enforced economic pressure, the semi-official Fars news agency
reported. "By putting economic pressure on Iran, America
wants to force us to enter talks with this country ... any
negotiation under the circumstances is surrendering to America and it
will never happen,' Qasem Soleimani was quoted as saying by
Fars.
Iran's foreign minister Javad Zarif
said in an interview airing Sunday that the U.S. must "prove
that it's serious" before prisoner exchange negotiations
begin. Zarif made the comment after CBS host Margaret Brennan
asked him whether he would, "as a show of...seriousness"
release some of the at least five Americans who are incarcerated in
Iran, according to a transcript provided to The Hill Saturday.
President Trump doesn't want
conflict. Ayatollah Khamenei doesn't want economic collapse. Yet that
is where things are headed. Put yourself in the shoes of Iran's
80-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. His regime is
beset by nearly 50 percent inflation, a collapsed currency,
persistent labor strikes, and an irrepressible women's
rights movement. Epic floods recently killed over 75 people
and caused nearly $3 billion in damage.
MISSILE PROGRAM
Leading European countries are
pursuing ways to contain Iran's ballistic missiles work, amid growing
concerns about Tehran's large-scale weapons program and in the wake
of a campaign by Washington to galvanize support for pressuring the
Islamic Republic over its missiles. The European Union's new efforts,
which include tighter export controls and pressure on non-EU
countries to clamp down on sales of sensitive technology to Iran,
come after the bloc refused to back Washington's call for more
extensive penalties.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE
MATTERS & PROXY WARS
"Iran's powerful Revolutionary
Guard successfully managed a surveillance flight over a U.S. aircraft
carrier, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Saturday. The
report included footage apparently from a Guard drone that flew over
the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and another U.S. warship in the Persian
Gulf. The images show fighter planes parked on the carrier deck.
Tasnim did not say when the footage was shot."
IRANIAN INTERNAL
DEVELOPMENTS
Iran's top leader called on Sunday
for a crackdown on illegal weapons after the rare shooting of a
cleric, and said easy access to guns in the United States served only
a "mafia of gun manufacturers", his website reported.
"In some countries, such as the United States, weapons are
freely sold in the interest of the mafia of gun manufacturers and
this causes problems for the people," Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei was quoted by his website as saying.
Accusation about Iranian Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's wealth has stirred controversy in
political circles in Iraq as Shiite factions close to Iran have reacted
to a Facebook post about financial corruption in the Islamic Republic
of Iran. The Facebook page of U.S. Embassy in Baghdad wrote in
an April 25 post, "Corruption is rife in all parts of the
Iranian regime, starting at the top," adding that "The
possessions of the current supreme leader Ali Khamenei alone are
estimated at $200 billion..."
This year, the Nowruz holidays in
Iran were accompanied by unpleasant events. Heavy
rainfall in the final days of March caused massive flooding in
different regions across Iran, especially in the northern province of
Golestan, the western province of Lorestan, the southern province of
Khuzestan and some regions in the east. The Iranian Red Crescent
Society soon announced a bank account where Iranians could make
donations, and also offered to collect nonmonetary
contributions.
Iran's version of "Who Wants to
Be a Millionaire?" has been banned from airing after leading
clerics issued a fatwa against the game show. Supreme leader Ali
Khamenei warned that such game shows endangered Iran's 'culture of
hard work and productivity.' For his part, cleric Naser Makarem
Shirazi issued a fatwa this week against these shows, saying they are
a "form of gambling", which is forbidden under Islamic
law.
IRANIAN REGIONAL
AGGRESSION
Kuwait is looking at Iranian threats
to block the Strait of Hormuz with concern, the Kuwait News Agency
(KUNA) on Sunday quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled al-Jarallah as
saying. KUNA said Jarallah was commenting on tensions in the
region after Iran's Revolutionary Guards made a threat to close the
strategic waterway. "We are looking at these threats with
concern, and hoping as always to distance our region from this tension,"
KUNA quoted him as saying.
NORTH KOREA &
IRAN
Iran's foreign minister says he will
visit North Korea as both countries struggle under U.S.
sanctions. Iran's official IRNA news agency on Sunday quoted
Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying that the visit is being planned and a
date will be announced soon. The United States has ramped up
sanctions on Iran since President Donald Trump withdrew from its 2015
nuclear accord with world powers last year. The U.S. has tightened
sanctions on North Korea to try to persuade it to give up its nuclear
weapons.
Earlier this week, Russian President
Vladimir Putin hosted North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, welcoming him
with a lavish reception in the East Russian city of Vladivostok.
The picture was at odds with the clumsy February summit in
Vietnam between Kim and US President Donald Trump, who walked out
during the crucial negotiations. In Vladivostok, Kim called
Trump's approach "a unilateral attitude in bad faith"
and instead described ties with Moscow as "strategic and
traditional relations."
RUSSIA, SYRIA,
ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
US Central Command head Gen Kenneth
McKenzie said on Saturday that his forces will have the necessary
resources to stop Iran from "taking any action that might be
dangerous," Sky News Arabia reported. The Abu Dhabi-based
television channel cited Gen McKenzie as saying: "We communicate
with our allies and friends in the region to ensure that we are
united against the Iranian threat," according to alerts in
Arabic by the channel.
Iran and Russia will conduct a joint
maritime drill in the Persian Gulf, Iran's Mehr News agency reported
on Monday. "Based on negotiations with the Russian Navy, the
force will dispatch a fleet to the southern regions of Iran this
year," Iranian Army Commander, Navy R.-Adm. Hossein Khanzadi was
quoted as saying, without giving a date for the drills. In early
January, Khanzadi said that the two countries were preparing for a
joint naval drill in the Caspian Sea region and that the drill would
focus on tactical, relief, rescue and anti-piracy issues.
GULF STATES, YEMEN
& IRAN
Attacks by Houthi rebels in southern
Yemen have killed 12 civilians over two days, government officials
said on Sunday. A mother and four children were killed by a rebel
rocket in the government-controlled Jebel Habashi area of Taez
province on Sunday, a local official told AFP. "The rebels
targeted the village of Musharraf between the districts of Maafer and
Jebel Habashi near to besieged city of Taez, killing the five family
members," local media reported.
IRAQ & IRAN
Concerns have been growing in Iraq
that it will be dragged into the raging conflict between the United
States and Iran that has reached new heights after Washington
announced Monday that it will no longer issue exemptions to buyers of
Iranian oil. Earlier this month, the United States blacklisted Iran's
Revolutionary Guards and earlier this week the US embassy in Baghdad
further stoked tensions when it accused Iran's supreme leader of Ali
Khamenei of corruption.
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