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TOP STORIES
Iranian officials rebuffed an offer by Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo for talks between the U.S. and Iran without
preconditions, saying his suggestion amounted to "word
play," given the Trump administration's escalating campaign of
maximum pressure. The response by Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman
Abbas Mousavi, carried in state media, came as the two countries have
ratcheted up tension in recent weeks and as the U.S. has built up its
military forces in the region.
Iran called U.S. sanctions "economic war" on
Monday, and said there could be no talks with the United States until
sanctions are lifted, a day after Washington suggested it could hold
talks without pre-conditions if Iran changed its
behavior. "#EconomicTerrorism against Iran targets innocent
civilians. Like this little boy, whose heartbroken mother can't get
him prosthetic legs as he grows. They're sanctioned," Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Monday...
A U.S. aircraft carrier ordered by the White House to
rapidly deploy to the Mideast over a perceived threat from Iran
remains outside of the Persian Gulf, so far avoiding any
confrontation with Iranian Revolutionary Guard forces, amid efforts
to de-escalate tensions between Tehran and Washington. Officers
aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln repeatedly told The Associated Press
on Monday they could rapidly respond to any regional threat from
their position, at the time some 320 kilometers (200 miles) off the
eastern coast of Oman in the Arabian Sea.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
China has reiterated its support for Iran's 2015 nuclear
deal with world powers and said that implementing it is the only way
to resolve the Iran nuclear issue, official Xinhua news agency said
on Monday, citing a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson. In
May 2018 President Donald Trump pulled the United States out of the
accord between Iran and six powers including Britain, France,
Germany, Russia and China, then reimposed tough U.S. sanctions on
Iran, saying the deal was flawed.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Iran has told OPEC that it opposes delaying the oil
producer group's next meeting, setting the scene for another fight
with fellow members as U.S. sanctions put Tehran under unprecedented
economic pressure with its oil exports down to just a trickle.
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, in a letter seen by Reuters,
said he disagreed with an OPEC proposal to reschedule the meeting to
early July. The talks are currently set to take place on June 25-26.
Iranian politicians affiliated with various political
factions have been speaking against negotiations with the United
States in recent days. Some Iranian officials say there could be no
talks with the United States until sanctions are lifted. In one of
the latest remarks in this regard, Iran's powerful hardliner
Judiciary Chief Ebrahim Raeesi has said on Monday June 3 that U.S,
officials are "begging for negotiations" with Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif called the
United States sanctions an economic war, and said there could be no
talks with it until sanctions are lifted, following US Secretary of
State Mike Pompeo's remarks that Washington was prepared to engage
with Tehran without preconditions. Zarif accused the US of practicing
economic terrorism against Tehran.
Saudi Arabia ramped up oil production last month by the
most this year, largely filling the gap created by tougher U.S.
sanctions on its political rival, Iran. Iranian output plunged in May
to the lowest since 1990 as the Trump administration threatened
penalties for anyone trading with the Islamic Republic, according to
a Bloomberg survey of officials, analysts and ship-tracking data.
Bank of Kunlun, a Chinese lender, said it doesn't own a
ship that the U.S. pinpointed last week as carrying Iranian oil. A
senior U.S. official said May 28 that the ship, the Pacific Bravo,
was the property of the bank and was headed toward Hong Kong. The
official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, warned that any entity
in the Asian financial hub that did business with the ship would be
exposed to U.S. sanctions.
MISSILE PROGRAM
The Islamic Republic of Iran is involved in the illicit
procurement of technology for weapons of mass destruction, the German
intelligence agency for the northern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
wrote in its May report. In the 206-page report, that was reviewed by
The Jerusalem Post, the intelligence agents wrote: "The fight
against the illegal proliferation of nuclear, biological or chemical
weapons of mass destruction and the materials needed for their manufacture,
as well as the corresponding delivery systems [e.g. rockets],
including the necessary knowledge, in cooperation with other
authorities, is also the responsibility of counterintelligence."
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
An Iranian lawyer has been jailed for 30 years after
setting up a channel on the popular social media platform Telegram,
highlighting human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic. Amir Salar
Davoudi was convicted by a revolutionary court for "propaganda
against the state" and "insulting officials" and is
set to be flogged 111 times. According to his lawyer Vahid Farahani,
Davoudi was also accused of "collaborating with an enemy
state" after giving an interview to Voice of America
Persian-language television.
Iran has taken new steps against two detained
journalists who covered domestic labor unrest and government
corruption, sending one to a notorious women's prison and sentencing
another to a two-year jail term. Two human rights groups said Iranian
journalist Sepideh Ghaliyan, who covered labor issues in the
southwestern city of Ahvaz, was transferred to Qarchak women's prison
near Tehran on Monday.
The lawyer for a Lebanese man held in Iran since 2015
said Monday that his client will be released in the "next few
days." Majed Dimashkiyeh told The Associated Press that Nizar
Zakka's expected release comes after mediations by top Lebanese
officials, including President Michel Aoun and Prime Minister Saad
Hariri. Aoun is a close ally of Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian-backed
Lebanese group. Some Iranian media outlets reported earlier Monday
that Zakka would be released soon without giving further details.
Amnesty International has blasted the Iranian
authorities for handing down a reported 30-year prison sentence and
111 lashes to a human rights lawyer, calling it an "outrageous
injustice." With this "shockingly harsh" sentence, the
London-based human rights watchdog said on June 3, Amirsalar Davudi
became "the latest victim of a vicious crackdown" waged by
the authorities against human rights lawyers over the past two years.
Iranians in the capital Tehran set fire to effigies of
President Donald Trump, while in the Iraqi capital, Iran-backed
militiamen marched over a large Israeli flag as part of rallies
Friday marking Quds, or Jerusalem Day. The annual protests come as
the Trump administration tries to market its long-awaited
Israeli-Palestinian peace plan. Held each year on the last Friday of
the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan, Iran has marked Quds Day
since the start of its 1979 Islamic Revolution by the late Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and his Dutch
counterpart will discuss Iran and Venezuela during talks in The Hague
on Monday, Dutch Foreign Minister Stef Blok said. They were
meeting on the sidelines of a U.S.-Dutch entrepreneurship conference
in the Netherlands. "We will talk about Venezuela, Iran,
our commitment to address malign cyber activity and our strong
commitment to the trans-Atlantic alliance," Blok said in a tweet
after Pompeo arrived.
From the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln, avoiding a war
with nearby Iran looks an awful lot like preparing for one.
When CBS News arrived, the carrier was at full throttle in the
Arabian Sea, flying 80 to 100 surveillance and training runs a day.
U.S. forces regularly patrol these waters, but this is anything but
routine. The carrier was specifically sent here as a deterrent in
response to what the Trump administration believes are threats from
Iran.
In a sign of President Donald Trump's growing impatience
with stalled nuclear diplomacy with Iran and North Korea, Secretary
of State Mike Pompeo generated headlines when he offered Sunday to
hold talks with Iran without any preconditions, even as he subsequently
insisted that the position was not a new one. "We're prepared to
engage in a conversation with no preconditions," Pompeo
told journalists at a press availability with Swiss Foreign
Minister Ignazio Cassis in Bellinzona, Switzerland, on Sunday.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made headlines June 2
when he said that the United States is ready to negotiate with Iran
with "no preconditions." Pompeo added that the Donald Trump
administration simply wants Iran to act like a "normal nation."
The United States unilaterally reneged on the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) between Iran, the five
permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and
the European Union in May 2015.
The recently intensified US pressure on Iran is,
according to many observers, bridging the gap between the country's
rival political camps. But on the ground, signs indicate otherwise.
Indeed, Iran's multilayered politics remains plagued by
fundamental internal strife - and the US pressure is exacerbating
it. Calls for unity from Iranian politicians have in recent
months grown louder than ever. In a May 12 speech, President
Hassan Rouhani urged all to stand together against US
hostility.
Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Brigadier General
Ahmad Vahidi told Iranian Tasnim News Agency on Monday that Iran's
missile power and defense capabilities will not be subject to
negotiations. "Negotiating defense capabilities would be like
making our homeland an easy target for our enemies," Vahidi told
the news agency close to the IRGC, "no sane mind will accept
this and no country in the world is willing to negotiate its defense
capabilities. Iran is no exception," he added.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
A new report filed by the Islamic Republic Ministry of
Industry, Mines, and Trade (MIMT) shows a dramatic drop in Iran's
industrial output in 2018. Based on the Ministry's 153-page
report published on Monday, June 3, the production of various
industrial commodities, including TV sets, refrigerators, washing
machines, air conditioners, vehicles, petrochemical and aluminum
products have significantly dropped.
On the night of July 3,1989, Ayatollah Ruhollah
Khomeini, the spiritual and political leader of Iran's
1979 Islamic Revolution, died after a long illness. In the
next three days, the country came to a halt as millions of people
took to the streets to mourn the death of an iconic figure who
brought an end to the 2,500-year-old Persian Empire, and had
symbolised an unyielding defiance of the West.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Radio Farda, Jerusalem - Israel Prime Minister, Benjamin
Netanyahu, says the Islamic Republic of Iran transfers $700m a year
to Hezbollah in Lebanon. Celebrating Jerusalem Day on Sunday, June 2,
Netanyahu said: "Every year, Iran's foreign Ministry transfers
over $100m under diplomatic cover, by seemingly innocent means, to
Lebanon and from there to Hezbollah."
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Intelligence indicating that Iran is responsible for
sabotaging four oil tankers off the coast of the United Arab Emirates
last month was sourced by Israel's Mossad, the Kan public broadcaster
reports. An Israeli describes the purported Iranian attack on the
tankers as "a pretty good commando operation." The
Emirati-flagged oil tanker A. Michel, May 13, 2019, one of four ships
damaged in what Gulf officials called a 'sabotage' attack off the
coast of the United Arab Emirates.
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