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TOP STORIES
Iran said it would exceed limits on its enriched-uranium
stockpiles before the end of this month, as the U.S. said it would
send an additional 1,000 troops to the Mideast in response to
"hostile behavior" by Tehran. Iran's threat on Monday came
days after the U.S. accused Tehran of orchestrating a second set of
attacks on oil tankers near a vital global-shipping route. If carried
out, Iran would violate the 2015 nuclear deal by breaching the pact's
enriched-uranium cap.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo plans to meet with U.S.
military commanders overseeing American forces in the Middle East
after promising to provide more proof that Iran was behind
attacks on two tankers last week, the State Department said
Monday. Pompeo is scheduled to fly on Monday to U.S. Central Command
headquarters in Tampa, Florida, amid mounting tensions with Iran
following the attacks on the two commercial ships last week in the
Gulf of Oman, which the Trump administration has blamed on Iran.
Iran said Monday that by the end of June it will exceed
the limits it had agreed to on its stockpile of enriched uranium, and
the question now is whether Europe will take this lying down.
Exceeding the cap would violate the 2015 nuclear deal and force
European leaders to decide if they want to acquiesce to Iran or join
the U.S. in an effort to pressure Tehran to renegotiate the failed
nuclear deal.
UANI IN THE NEWS
...Michael Pregent of United Against Nuclear Iran
(UANI), who witnessed Iran's brutality firsthand while serving in
Iraq, wrote in November 2017 that "Iran has been
responsible for the deaths of more than 1,000 American soldiers over
the years. In August, Brigadier General Esmail Quaani, deputy
commander of Iran's Quds Force, boasted to Iranians about the number
of Americans the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) has
murdered, saying, 'Americans have suffered more losses from us then
we have suffered losses from them.'
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Iran said Monday that its stockpile of enriched uranium
will surpass limits set by the 2015 international nuclear deal 10
days from now, unless European partners in the agreement do more to
help it circumvent U.S. sanctions - a step by Tehran likely to add to
growing U.S.-Iran tensions. The announcement, made by the spokesman
for Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, was the first time Tehran
explicitly said it was on track to violate the agreement.
Iran threatened on Monday to accelerate its
nuclear program in violation of a 2015 nuclear agreement, moving it
closer to the ability to build an atomic weapon - something that
President Trump has vowed to prevent. But it was Mr. Trump who
withdrew the United States from the Obama-era nuclear agreement
in May 2018, saying the deal wasn't tough enough. Since then the
administration has steadily imposed ever harsher sanctions on Iran as
the country's economy has sharply declined.
After coming to office vowing to solve two very
different nuclear crises, President Trump finds himself in a bind
familiar to his predecessors: careening toward a confrontation with
Iran and stalemated with North Korea. Iran's announcement on
Monday that it expects within 10 days to blow past the limits on
how much nuclear fuel it can stockpile opens a new and perilous phase
of its confrontation with the West.
Britain will look at all available options if Iran
breaches its commitments around its nuclear activities, a spokesman
for Prime Minister Theresa May said on Monday. "We have
been clear about our concern at Iranian plans to reduce compliance
with the JCPOA. Should Iran cease meeting its nuclear commitments, we
would then look at all options available to us," a spokesman for
May told reporters.
The United States says Iran's plan to breach the limit
on its stockpile of enriched uranium, which was set under a 2015
nuclear deal with world powers, amounts to "nuclear
blackmail" and must be met with "increased international
pressure." White House National Security Council spokesman
Garrett Marquis made the comments on June 17 after Iran followed
through on its threats to further scale back its compliance with the
agreement that curbed Iran's nuclear program in exchange for relief
from crippling economic sanctions.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
The future of oil prices will be decided by how the
U.S. and its allies react to new attacks last week on fuel tankers in
the Gulf of Oman. So far, the U.S. and Saudi Arabia have blamed Iran,
citing unspecified intelligence, but haven't taken military action in
response to Thursday's incident, or to attacks on four tankers last
month in the same area.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged world
powers on Monday to step up sanctions against Iran swiftly should it
go through with a plan to exceed an enriched uranium limit set by a
2015 nuclear deal. Locked in a stand-off with Washington after
the Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear agreement, Tehran
said earlier on Monday it would breach internationally agreed curbs
on its low-enriched uranium stock in 10 days.
The global oil market is "unstable and
fragile", Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh told Russian
Energy Minister Alexander Novak in a meeting in Tehran, Iran state
broadcaster IRIB said on Monday. "We discussed the global
oil markets and I said the market is highly manipulated by political
agendas," Zanganeh was quoted as saying by IRIB.
The Trump administration's Iran sanctions are
hurting the country's economy and recent events are exposing Tehran's
strategy to deal with the matter, Gen. Jack Keane claimed. In
the time since President Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal and
reimposed the sanctions, Iran has been growing increasingly
"desperate," Keane said on "Fox News @ Night."
"I think what the Trump administration is doing
is fundamentally trying to change Iran's behavior, not just
with nuclear weapons, but their aggressive behavior in
the Middle East..."
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
FIFA says it was wrong for people campaigning for women
to be allowed into Iranian soccer stadiums to be removed from a
Women's World Cup game in France. Stadium security officials
intervened in Grenoble during Saturday's game between New Zealand and
Canada when they spotted T-shirts campaigning for women's rights in
Iran. In a statement to The Associated Press, FIFA says the
"fans should not have been asked to remove their T-shirts or to
leave the stadium by local security."
When Pooyeh Nourian tweeted her outrage with a
Tehran cab driver she had ordered through a popular ride-hailing
app, she probably had no idea that her tweets would open a Pandora's
box on Iran's controversial hijab rules. Minutes into embarking
on the trip from Tehran's affluent north, the young Iranian
woman was criticized by the driver over her failure to observe
proper hijab. In the ensuing angry exchange, Nourian was dropped off
halfway to her destination, according to her account.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
The United States was quick to blame Iran for
last week's attack on two tankers in the Gulf of Oman. Iran
has denied involvement, and there is considerable
skepticism around the world about American claims. We don't yet
know what really happened, and may not for some time. But what the
attacks and subsequent fallout show - regardless of who carried them
out - is that President Trump's policy of "maximum
pressure" is not working.
Iran's announcement Monday that it is stepping up
uranium enrichment frames almost perfectly the real story behind
the rapidly escalating tensions in the Persian Gulf region. What the
world is seeing isn't so much a march toward war, but rather a battle
for leverage: the considerable leverage the Trump administration has
gained over Iran on the one hand, and, on the other, the leverage
Iran feels it badly needs to acquire over the U.S. to balance the
score.
Iran said on Monday it had exposed a large cyber
espionage network it alleged was run by the U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), and that several U.S. spies had been arrested in
different countries as the result of this action. U.S.-Iran
tensions are growing following accusations by U.S. President Donald
Trump's administration that Tehran last Thursday attacked two oil
tankers in the Gulf of Oman, a vital oil shipping route. Iran denies
having any role.
Iran will not wage war against any nation, President
Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday, a day after the United States
announced the deployment of more troops to the Middle East amid rising
tensions between Tehran and Washington. Fears of a
confrontation between Iran and the United States have mounted since
attacks on two oil tankers at the entrance to the Gulf on Thursday,
which Washington has blamed on Tehran.
The Pentagon plans to send about 1,000 more troops to
the Middle East as tensions rise between the U.S. and Iran, though
President Donald Trump called two recent tanker attacks blamed on the
Islamic Republic "very minor." "I have authorized
approximately 1,000 additional troops for defensive purposes to
address air, naval, and ground-based threats in the Middle
East," Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said in a
statement Monday evening.
What's on tap today: The United States weighs all
options, including military force, after attacks on tankers
near the Persian Gulf, the United States readies cyberattacks on
the Russian grid, and Turkey displays a mock-up of its own
fighter jet a week after the Pentagon announced new steps to cut
Ankara out of the F-35 program.
The U.S. face-off with Iran reached a new phase Monday
as Tehran's nuclear agency announced it will exceed in 10 days the
amount of low-enriched uranium it is allowed to stockpile unless
Europe intervenes. The announcement ramps up pressure on European
officials to try to save an international deal spearheaded by former
President Obama that is now on life support.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Standing in the line at a currency exchange shop on a
warm afternoon near Ferdowsi Square in Tehran, Nafas Anvari, 26,
waited for her turn to change all her savings into U.S. dollars
before the value of the Iranian rial dropped even
more. "It was the first thing I knew I had to do this
morning, because every single day my money loses value," Anvari,
an English teacher, told ABC News.
A key member of Iran's Assembly of Experts, a body that
will select the country's next Supreme Leader to replace Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei says "it is not prudent and expedient" to
reveal the names of potential successors. Only a few days after
another prominent member of the Assembly, Mohsen Araki talked about a
top secret list of prospective supreme leaders, Ayatollah Hashem
Hashemzadeh Harisi, also a key member of the Assembly said on Monday
the names on the list will not be disclosed.
Iranian Reformists are getting serious about boycotting
the upcoming 2020 parliamentary elections. In the disputed 2009
presidential vote, the camp rallied behind contenders Mir Hossein
Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi as they faced incumbent hard-liner Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad. The outcome was shocking for many, leading Reformist
candidates to allege the ballot was rigged, with mass protests
ensuing. The two Reformist candidates promised supporters they would
stick to their commitment to "take back" their votes.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Russia told the United States on Tuesday that it should
drop what it called provocative plans to deploy more troops to the
Middle East or risk war with Iran. The comments, from Deputy
Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov to Russian news agencies, followed an
announcement from Acting U.S. Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan who
said on Monday that Washington planned to send around 1,000 more
troops to the Middle East for defensive purposes.
Iran's oil minister met his Russian counterpart in Iran
on Monday, industry sources said, raising hopes of progress in
resolving an impasse over when OPEC and its allies will hold their
next policy gathering. The Organization of the Petroleum
Exporting Countries and partners including Russia, an alliance known
as OPEC+, have been considering since last month moving the date of
their policy meeting in Vienna to July 3-4 from June 25-26.
Iran and Russia have signed a memorandum of
understanding over cooperation in the energy sector, the Iranian oil
ministry's SHANA news agency reported on Monday. The
preliminary agreement covering oil, gas, petrochemicals, electricity
and nuclear power was signed in Tehran by Iran's deputy oil minister,
Amir Hossein Zamaninia, and his Russian counterpart, SHANA said.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Iran accused its main regional rival Saudi Arabia on
Monday of adopting a "militaristic, crisis-based approach"
for accusing Tehran of carrying out last week's attack on two oil
tankers at the entrance to the Gulf. Saudi Crown Prince
Mohammed bin Salman on Sunday urged the international community to
take a "decisive stand" over the attacks - but said the
kingdom did not want a war in the region.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday he
regretted Iran's announcement that it would exceed the allowed
enriched uranium limit, but that Paris would hold talks with Iran and
its partners to avoid any further escalation in the region.
"I regret the Iranian announcements made today, but as the IAEA
(International Atomic Energy Agency) has underlined, Iran is
respecting its commitments and we strongly encourage it to be patient
and responsible," Macron told a news conference alongside his
Ukrainian counterpart.
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