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TOP STORIES
U.S. President Donald Trump said he was prepared to talk
to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani but that there was always a
chance of U.S. military action against the Islamic Republic.
"So Iran is a place that was extremely hostile when I first came
into office," Trump told British television station ITV.
"They were a terrorist nation number one in the world at that
time and probably maybe are today." When asked if he
thought he would need to take military action, he said: "There's
always a chance. Do I want to? No. I'd rather not. But there's always
a chance."
During his state visit to Britain, U.S. President Donald
Trump said that Washington and London are "determined to
ensure" Iran does not develop nuclear weapons and stops
supporting terrorism. "Among the pressing threats facing our
nations is the development and spread of nuclear weapons -- perhaps
that's our biggest threat," Trump told a joint press with
British Prime Minister Theresa May on June 4 following a meeting at
her Downing Street residence.
Iran is "weaponizing uranium enrichment without
making a weapon," former senior UN nuclear watchdog official
said Wednesday, amid growing disagreement between Washington and
Tehran over the latter's nuclear program. Former Deputy
Director-General for Safeguards at the International Atomic Energy
Agency, Olli Heinonen, said in an interview with Israel's Army
Radio that according to his rough
estimations, Iran could have weapons-grade enriched uranium
in "perhaps half a year, seven to eight months maximum, if they
put everything into it."
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
When Donald Trump assumed the office of the president of
the United States in 2017, it was clear to many analysts and
individuals in foreign policy-making circles that relations between
Iran and the US would sour, especially when President Trump pulled
his country out of the Iran nuclear deal last May. However,
recent tensions between the United States and Iran have raised alarms
and led many to forecast a growing probability of full-scale war
between the two states.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Iran's oil output has plummeted to a record low since
1990 in May as a result of U.S. sanctions, Bloomberg reported on
Monday June 3. Saudi Arabi, however, boosted its oil production to
keep OPEC's commitments to the market by maintaining an overall
steady output for the cartel, keeping supplies mostly unaffected.
OPEC produces some 40 percent of the international demand for crude
oil.
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.
OPEC gatherings are often fraught due to acrimony between Iran and
its arch-rival Saudi Arabia, the group's de facto leader and top global
oil exporter.
The State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic (SOCAR) is
due to purchase crude oil from Iraq next month to process at the
SOCAR Turkey Aegean Refinery (STAR) inaugurated in October 2018 in
Izmir. SOCAR Turkey CEO Zaur Gahramanov said the refineries that
rely on Iranian crude oil might face future problems due to US
sanctions, and that his firm doesn't wish to violate the sanctions by
importing oil or exporting fuel to Tehran.
MISSILE PROGRAM
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on
Tuesday that Tehran would not be "deceived" by U.S.
President Donald Trump's offer of negotiations and would not give up
its missile program. Iran and the United States have been drawn
into starker confrontation in the past month, a year after Washington
pulled out of a deal between Iran and global powers to curb Tehran's
nuclear program in return for lifting international sanctions.
Iran's Fars News reported on Wednesday that the US has
been forced to keep its USS Abraham Lincoln carrier outside of the
narrow confines of the Persian Gulf due to Iran's missile threat.
"The difficulty of facing military movements in the Persian Gulf
and Iran's deterrence is the reason the Lincoln Strike Group has stayed
450 miles from the area of tension outside the Strait of
Hormuz," the report said. The US carrier is 200 miles off the
coat of Oman, according to recent reports in US media.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
In an apparent effort to sway Iran's public opinion in
favor of the regime's involvement in Middle East conflicts, the
Iranian government's television channels are airing a video that
glorifies a key anti-American Iraqi Shiite group. The music video,
titled "The Noble Ones," has been shown several times on
state TV channels. It praises Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi
Shiite paramilitary group that was designated as a terrorist
organization by the United States earlier this year.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Amirsalar Davoudi has become the third known
defense attorney to be sent to prison in Iran for his peaceful
activities in less than a year, the Center for Human Rights in Iran
(CHRI) said in a statement today. On June 1, 2019, his wife Tannaz
Kolahchian tweeted that Davoudi had been sentenced to 30
years in prison for the content of his social media posts, 15 years
of which he must serve according to Article 134 of the
country's Islamic Penal Code (subject to appeal).
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Tuesday that
Iran will continue resisting U.S. economic and political pressure.
Khamenei addressed thousands of people on the 30th anniversary of the
death of Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic
Republic, in Khomeini's mausoleum in the capital Tehran. Without
referring to the U.S. by name, Khamenei said "standing and
resisting the enemy's excessive demands and bullying is the only way
to stop him."
Iran said it will release US permanent resident Nizar
Zakka, the Lebanese foreign ministry said on Monday. President Hassan
Rouhani is ready to receive a Lebanese delegation for Mr Zakka's
extradition, the foreign ministry statement said. Mr Zakka's brother
confirmed his release, thanking all of those who helped to secure it.
The support of his friends and citizens of Lebanon "helped
[keep] Nizar alive and helped him overcome the dark days he endured
in Evin prison, especially during his numerous hunger strikes,"
his brother Ziad said.
In 1941, in the midst of World War II, two imperial
powers, the USSR and Britain, threatened Iran with
invasion, although the country had officially announced neutrality in
the conflict. While the Iranian leadership acknowledged the gravity
of the situation, it refused to cave in to the Soviet-British
ultimatum. For them, resistance and military defeat was more bearable
than "treason and capitulation."
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on
Wednesday slammed a US Middle East peace plan as a "great
betrayal of the Islamic world", and warned Gulf rivals not to
back it. Washington is gearing up to roll out economic aspects of its
long-awaited plan for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians --
dubbed the "deal of the century" -- at a conference in
Bahrain later this month.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
In Iran, hard-liners have recently intensified their
attacks on former judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Amoli Larijani. An
unpopular figure among almost all of the political currents, Larijani
was in December appointed chairman of the Expediency Council, which
is tasked with resolving disputes between the parliament and the
Guardian Council. During his tenure as judiciary chief, Larijani
tolerated little criticism - even from hard-liners and conservative
figures - leading to the judicial branch's lodging of constant
lawsuits against political activists.
Images of a controversial administrative order
went viral across Iranian social media in recent days,
enraging large sections of the country's religious minorities. The
internal document, a letter, announced new regulations
at kindergartens operated by Iran's Rehabilitation Organization.
"Recruitment of religious minority members for any position at
kindergartens is illegal unless those centers are exclusively hosting
children of religious minorities," the letter states, bearing
the signature of the director of the organization's Office
for Children and Adolescent Affairs.
Iran has marked the 30th anniversary of the death of the
leader of its Islamic Revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, by
recommitting itself to pursue his bedeviled path of
"resistance" against enemies. Khomeini died of cancer
on June 3, 1989, 10 years after leading a revolution that replaced
Iran's monarchy with an enduring theocracy that has become embroiled
in regional conflicts, struggled economically under U.S. sanctions
and faced more than a year of nationwide anti-government protests.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that he hasn't
seen "any material progress" by European countries to
recognize Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization.
"The American position is very clear," Pompeo told American
Jewish Committee CEO David Harris in a recorded video played at the
AJC Global Forum on Tuesday. "It is a unitarian entity. It is a
terrorist organization. It is underwritten by the Islamic Republic of
Iran, and it, in its entirety, must be designated as a terrorist entity."
The United States believes Russia may be more amenable
than in the past to addressing U.S. and Israeli concerns about Iran's
influence, including in Syria, when national security leaders meet in
Jerusalem this month, a U.S. official said on Tuesday. The
United States announced last week that John Bolton, White House
national security adviser, would meet his Israeli and Russian
counterparts in Jerusalem in June.
A Russian official has denied a deal between Moscow and
Washington over putting an end to Iran's presence in Syria in return
for the recognition of Bashar Assad's regime by the United States,
says Russian news agency Interfax. Meanwhile, a U.S. official
speaking to the UAE newspaper the National on Monday June 3, ruled
out a June 2 report by London-based Asharq al-Awsat daily which said
the United States is prepared to recognize the legitimacy of Bashar
al-Assad's government in Syria.
Syrian official told Russian media that there are no
plans for Iran to reduce its troop levels in the country, even if the
US and Israel seek to offer Russia a deal. Speaking to Izvestia and
later reported in Russia's TASS news agency, the report seeks to
downplay rumors that an upcoming US, Israel and Russia trilateral
meeting in Israel would examine Iran's presence in Syria. Last week,
the US and Israel said there would be a trilateral meeting with
Russia this month.
CHINA & IRAN
A rise in tensions in the Middle East owing to U.S.
pressure on Iran is worrying and all parties need to exercise
restraint, Chinese President Xi Jinping told Russian media ahead of a
visit to the country. Tensions between Iran and the United
States have escalated in the past month, a year after the United
States pulled out of a deal between Iran and global powers to curb
Tehran's nuclear program in return for lifting sanctions.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Saudi Arabia should be on the lookout for Iran's new
"shocking decision" if it does not stop support for U.S.
sanctions against Tehran, says Hossein Amir Abdollahian, a former
Iranian diplomat currently working as a special assistant to Iran's
Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani. Amir Abdollahian, who is widely
known as the man who determines Iran's foreign policy about the Arab
world, did not elaborate on what he called "Tehran's new and
shocking decision."
The Saudi-led military coalition in Yemen said on
Tuesday it evacuated a crew member for medical reasons from a
"suspect" Iranian ship northwest of Yemen's Hodeidah port
after Saudi Arabia received a request for help from Iran. Iran
and Saudi Arabia are arch-adversaries in the Middle East, backing
opposite sides in several regional wars including in Yemen where the
coalition has been battling the Iran-aligned Houthi movement for four
years.
A dispute over control of biometric data between the
World Food Programme and Yemen's Houthi group is straining
humanitarian efforts and threatens to disrupt aid distribution in a
country already on the brink of famine. In an unusually strong
statement the U.N. agency, which feeds more than 10 million people a
month across the Arabian Peninsula's poorest nation, said last month
it is considering suspending deliveries due to fighting, insecurity
and interference in its work.
Spoiling joy, Houthi militias forced Yemenis in areas
under militia control to fast on the day declared by the country's
religious authorities as Islam's Eid al-Fitr holiday, the day marking
the end of Ramadan, the Islamic holy month of fasting. Houthi
coupists, who abide by Iran's sectarian agenda, deployed banded
militants and armored wagons to entrances of mosques and cemeteries
to block worshippers from performing rituals due on the holiday.
IRAQ & IRAN
Iraq's government has offered to mediate between
the United States and Iran to reduce tension between its
two biggest allies. But many Sunni Iraqis say they have been
neglected by Shia-led governments for years. And they are concerned
their views on the issue are being ignored.
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