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TOP STORIES
Two oil tankers came under attack on Thursday in the
Gulf of Oman, forcing their crews to abandon ship and setting at
least one vessel ablaze, a month after four tankers were damaged in
the same waterway, a vital thoroughfare for much of the world's oil products.
The early morning attacks escalated tensions in an already tense
region, where Iran has long been at odds with Saudi Arabia and the
United Arab Emirates, and they are backing opposite sides in the
civil war in Yemen. Relations between the United States - allied with
the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia - and Iran have also worsened.
The United States on Wednesday sanctioned an Iraqi
company and two of its associates, which it said had helped Iran's
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds force evade sanctions by
smuggling hundreds of millions of dollars worth of weapons.
"Treasury is taking action to shut down Iranian weapons
smuggling networks that have been used to arm regional proxies of the
IRGC Qods Force in Iraq, while personally enriching regime
insiders," Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a
statement.
Saudi Arabia has said it will carry out urgent
reprisals as it accused Iran of being behind a late-night cruise
missile attack by Houthi rebel fighters on a Saudi international
airport that injured 26 people. The Saudi foreign ministry said the
Command of Joint Forces of the Coalition promised it "will take
urgent and timely measures to deter these Iranian-backed terrorist
Houthi militias".
UANI IN THE NEWS
Well, I think, of all the challenges China and Russia
represent to the United States, the biggest threat to our country is
Iran. I mean, this is a country that's been taken over by a terrorist
group. The previous administration, the Obama administration, made
what I think is a very bad deal on nuclear weapons with Iran.
President Trump has the guts to do exactly what he promised to do,
break out of the agreement. He squeezed the Iranian economy, now with
sanctions. We've got Iran on the ropes.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe said Wednesday that he
discussed with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani ways to avoid
instability in the region, adding he strongly hopes Iran continues to
observe the nuclear deal, in a joint press conference in Tehran. The
Japanese leader stressed that an armed clash in the Middle East needs
to be prevented at all costs.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Iran's president pressed Shinzo Abe, Japan's prime
minister, to break with U.S. economic sanctions on Tehran,
highlighting the challenge Mr. Abe faces in trying to help ease
a military standoff between the U.S. and Iran. Mr. Abe arrived
in Tehran on Wednesday hoping that his close relationship with
President Trump and warm ties with Iran would enable him to help
defuse a crisis triggered by Mr. Trump's decision to pull out of
a 2015 international deal to cap Iran's nuclear program.
The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday imposed
sanctions on an Iraqi company it said had trafficked hundreds of
millions of dollars in arms for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps Quds Force. Treasury's blacklisting of the South Wealth
Resources Company, or Manabea Tharwat al-Janoob General Trading
Company, is part of the Trump administration's broader pressure
campaign against Tehran that the White House says is meant to
coerce the government into a nuclear and regional security
pact.
Iran may change how it treats the nuclear deal if the
Islamic republic cannot sell its oil, said Iran's Speaker of
Parliament Ali Larijani on Wednesday, according to Radio
Farda. "The situation will change if Iran can't sell
oil," said Larijani to reporters on Wednesday. Larijani did not
elaborate on what those changes would be. In order for Europe to help
Iran with its oil exports and international banking, Iran must be
able to sell oil, Larijani added.
Iran might change its approach to the way it treats its
nuclear deal with the west if Tehran is not able to sell its oil,
says the Speaker of Iran's parliament Ali Larijani. Speaking to
reporters during a visit to Bojnourd in northern Khorasan Province on
Wednesday June 12, Larijani said, "The situation will change if
Iran cannot sell oil," however, he did not elaborate on what
precisely Iran will do.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
An otherwise standard press conference
in Tehran got turned up a notch on Monday when a German
reporter hit Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif with a
somewhat surprising question. "Why are homosexuals executed in
Iran because of their sexual orientation?" asked Paul Ronzheimer,
the Berlin-based chief correspondent for the tabloid Bild.
Zarif, who conducted the press conference alongside his visiting
German counterpart, Heiko Maas, responded that his "society has
principles."
More than a million people in more than 200 countries
and territories across the globe have come together to express their
outrage at the sentencing of prominent Iranian human rights lawyer
Nasrin Sotoudeh to 38 years and six months in prison and 148 lashes
after two grossly unfair trials, Amnesty International announced
today, as signatures demanding her release were handed in to Iranian
embassies around the world.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says that
Tehran "will in no way repeat" negotiations with the U.S.
amid tension over its unraveling nuclear deal with world powers.
Khamenei made the comment on Thursday, during a meeting with Japanese
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who traveled to Tehran as an interlocutor
for President Donald Trump to ease tensions between Washington and
Tehran. But the comments by Khamenei could indicate that Abe's visit
may not have succeeded.
Shinzo Abe arrived in Tehran on a mission to ease
tensions between Iran and the U.S., becoming the first Japanese prime
minister to visit since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Abe's flight
touched down at Tehran's Mehrabad International Airport on Wednesday
afternoon. His visit is seen as an effort to mediate amid rising
tensions in the Persian Gulf region. Just ahead of his arrival, Saudi
Arabia said Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels attacked one of the
kingdom's airports, wounding 26 people.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe traveled to Tehran on
Wednesday to warn that an "accidental conflict" could be
sparked amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S., a message
that came hours after Yemen's Iranian-backed Houthi rebels attacked a
Saudi airport, wounding 26 people. Abe's trip is the highest-level
effort yet to de-escalate the crisis as Tehran appears poised to
break the 2015 nuclear deal it struck with world powers, an accord
that the Trump administration pulled out of last year.
A Lebanese man and permanent U.S. resident who was
released after spending years in an Iranian prison called on
President Donald Trump and Western countries to "please get back
your hostages from Iran," adding that he saw American detainees
during his nearly four-year imprisonment. In an interview with The
Associated Press, Nizar Zakka said he was subjected to "all
kinds of torture," both physical and mental, during his
detention in the notorious Evin prison in Tehran, including standing
on one leg for hours, extended periods of interrogation and lack of
food.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe travels to Tehran on Wednesday
on an unusual mission for a Japanese leader: to reduce
tensions between the US and Iran. Abe will likely be more
messenger than mediator between the two adversaries. But he may
also encourage Iranian leaders to negotiate directly with
the Trump administration. The unlikely prospect of a meeting between
Presidents Donald Trump and Hassan Rouhani has captivated
media attention.
Iran's malign behavior regularly generates
headlines, as the nation's leaders threaten peace and global
security. But the Iranian regime's terror activities and nuclear
proliferation have overshadowed what should be our top line focus:
the release of American hostages. The United States cannot rest until
every single American hostage held by Iran has been brought
home safely.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
A move to boycott a popular Iranian ride-hailing
application has gained momentum among social media users in the
country after a controversy over a female
passenger's hijab, a headscarf worn by many Muslim women
who feel it is part of their religion. It all began last week when
the woman was asked by a driver of the Snapp app to put on the
headscarf that had fallen off her head, according to Tasnim News
Agency.
Iranian state TV reported on Wednesday June 12 that the
burning of an overheated power generator has caused a fire at one of
the platforms of Southern Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf.
According to state TV (IRIB) the platform is located 92 kilometers
off the Iranian coast in Assalouyeh at the border with Qatar in the
Gulf. Firefighters have dealt with the incident on platform number 9,
and the fire has left no casualty, said the report.
A new tax in Iran that imposes a 10% levy
on concert revenues has raised the ire of artists, concertgoers
and even some of the country's culture bureaucracy. Many musicians in
Iran - who face red tape, censorship and poor
salaries - believe this new tax is the final nail in the
coffin for concerts and other musical events. Parliament passed the
new tax in late February, a month after the beginning of the Iranian
fiscal year. A brief but far-reaching amendment to the budget, it
took effect right away.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah is bypassing US
sanctions against Iran by laundering many millions of dollars in the
drug trade in Europe. This news comes as the result of a study about
how Hezbollah's political wing serves its military wing and further
enshrines that there is no real distinction between the two. It
showed that Hezbollah acts as intermediaries in the global drug route
from South America to West Africa to Europe, with only 5-10% of total
drugs being intercepted.
A cease-fire negotiated between Syrian rebels and
government forces in the country's war-battered northwest was on
shaky ground after intermittent bombing and shelling resumed
overnight Thursday in Idlib Province, the country's last piece of
rebel-held territory. Russia and Turkey, two of the dominant foreign
powers in the area, had negotiated the cease-fire between the groups.
It took effect on Wednesday, and was aimed at ending more than six
weeks of fighting, bombing and shelling as the Syrian government
moved to reclaim parts of the northwest.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Saudi Vice Minister of Defense Khalid bin Salman said
the targeting of Abha Airport by Iranian-backed Houthi militia is
"a continuation of their immoral and criminal behavior that is
in line with the malign behavior of their patrons." In
a series of posts on Twitter, the minister said for 40 years
the Iranian regime has been "spreading chaos, death and
destruction, by sponsoring and financing terrorist organizations
including the Houthis."
Saudi Arabia's Deputy Defense Minister, Prince Khalid
bin Salman, said that "for 40 years, the Iranian regime has been
spreading chaos, death and destruction, by sponsoring and financing
terrorist organizations including the Houthis." Referring to the
Wednesday's attack on the Abha International Airport in the Kingdom,
he added that the targeting of Abha Airport by Iranian-backed Houthi
militia and injuring innocent civilians, is a continuation of their
immoral and criminal behavior that is in line with the malign
behavior of their patrons.
A missile fired by Iran-allied militias in Yemen injured
26 civilians in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, according to a U.S.-backed
military coalition fighting the insurgents, an attack that comes
amid heightened tensions between Washington and Tehran. The
Saudi-led coalition said the projectile struck an arrivals hall at
Abha airport in the southern part of the kingdom in what it said was
a deliberate targeting of civilians that could amount to a war crime.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The United Arab Emirates and Germany expressed concern
over growing tensions in the Gulf region, calling on Iran to refrain
from steps that escalate the tension, a joint statement on UAE's
state news agency (WAM) said on Wednesday. The statement comes
after Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan
official visit to Germany. The statement said both countries
reaffirmed "the urgency for all actors in the regions to refrain
from any actions that could escalate existing tensions".
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