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TOP STORIES
Iran warned it will take further steps to breach the
2015 nuclear accord in early September if it doesn't receive
long-sought relief from U.S. economic sanctions, as it began
enriching uranium above limits set out in the deal. Foreign Ministry
spokesman Abbas Mousavi said on Monday that Iran is prepared to take
harder and more steadfast measures than the modest steps it has
recently taken to expand its nuclear program, setting in motion what
is likely to become months of escalating tension with Washington.
Iran has enriched uranium beyond a 3.67% purity limit
set by its deal with major powers, the U.N. nuclear watchdog policing
the deal said on Monday, confirming a move previously announced by
Tehran. "(International Atomic Energy Agency) Director
General Yukiya Amano has informed the IAEA Board of Governors that
Agency inspectors on 8 July verified that Iran is enriching uranium
above 3.67% U-235," an IAEA spokesman said, referring to the
fissile uranium-235 isotope.
French President Emmanuel Macron is sending his top
diplomatic adviser to Iran this week, seeking to find ways
to get the Islamic Republic to dial back its violations of a landmark
2015 nuclear deal and avoid escalating tensions with European
partners and the U.S. Emmanuel Bonne, Macron's top sherpa, will meet
with Iranian leaders in Tehran Tuesday and Wednesday,
French officials said.
UANI IN THE NEWS
UANI Chairman Senator Joseph Lieberman on Iran's
decision to increase its level of uranium enrichment in violation of
the nuclear deal: Iran is systematically breaking out of the
agreement. To me, this is all about Iran trying to put pressure on
Europe to break away from the United States, and I don't think it
will work. We should be getting more support from Europe, because to
me, Europe is threatened at least as much, probably more than we are,
by the radical Islamist regime, a terrorist group that took over a
great country, Iran.
...Qatar's support for Iran - breaking regional
solidarity - is also an issue some hope Trump will raise with the
visitor. Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, chairman of the advocacy group
United Against a Nuclear Iran, told the Fox Business Network on
Monday Trump has the opportunity to say to al-Thani, "It's time
for you and your country to make a choice; you can't walk on both
sides of the street at the same time."
Amid Iran's tantrums over the Trump administration's
maximum pressure campaign, a consequential anniversary which marked
three decades since Ali Khamenei's ascension to the supreme
leadership has gone largely unnoticed. After Sultan Qaboos bin Said
al Said of Oman, Ayatollah Khamenei is the second-longest serving
head of state in the Middle East and, according to one recent estimate,
ranks fifth in longevity of current non-monarchical world
leaders.
...It's the latest escalation in the two months since
Trump's administration announced the revocation of waivers that had
allowed Iran to produce uranium and heavy water, two key materials
for a nuclear program, provided that the regime's excess supplies
were shipped out of the country. "This is what one of the
problems was with the Iran nuclear deal: the ease in which Iran could
reverse its nuclear program," Jason Brodsky, policy coordinator
at United Against Nuclear Iran, a U.S.-based nonprofit organization
with ties to the Trump administration, said Sunday.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
The International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed
Monday that Iran had resumed enriching uranium to higher levels
than permitted under a 2015 accord with the United States and other
world powers. The step inches Tehran closer to having the capacity to
build a nuclear bomb. President Trump's administration has vowed to
prevent Iran from developing such weapons. The escalating tensions
have rattled the region and the oil market, and last month brought
the United States to the brink of a military strike on Iran before a
last-minute reversal by Mr. Trump.
The United Nations' atomic energy agency has confirmed
Iran has surpassed the uranium enrichment limits spelled out in the
2015 nuclear deal. The International Atomic Energy Agency said its
inspectors verified Monday that Iran has surpassed the 3.67%
enrichment limit set in the accord, aimed at restraining Tehran's
ability to develop nuclear weapons in return for sanctions relief.
World powers will not be able to negotiate a better deal
with Iran than the landmark 2015 nuclear deal, Iran's Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted on Monday. Iran
threatened on Monday to restart deactivated centrifuges and ramp up
its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity as its next potential
big moves away from the agreement that Washington abandoned last
year.
U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday spoke to French
President Emmanuel Macron about Iran's threat to ramp up enrichment
of uranium, the White House said. "They discussed ongoing
efforts to ensure that Iran does not obtain a nuclear weapon and to
end Iran's destabilizing behavior in the Middle East," a White
House spokesman said in a statement.
The world knows that Iran is not pursuing a nuclear
weapon, the head of the elite Revolutionary Guards, Major General
Hossein Salami, said on Monday, according to the Tasnim news
agency. Iran threatened on Monday to restart deactivated
centrifuges and ramp up enrichment of uranium to 20 percent purity as
its next potential big moves away from a 2015 nuclear agreement that
Washington abandoned last year.
Iran's decision to further challenge the United States
by boosting its uranium enrichment beyond limits in its 2015 nuclear
deal has deepened fears among Iranians that their country will remain
in crisis mode over the long term. The United States' exit from the
pact last year, under President Donald's Trump's campaign to squeeze
Iran with sanctions, has so far failed to force its clerical rulers
to renegotiate. Iran confirmed on Monday it had enriched uranium to a
purity beyond that allowed by the pact.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
Tests have shown an Iranian supertanker seized in
Gibraltar last week was fully loaded with crude oil, the government
of the British territory said on Monday. British Royal Marines
boarded the ship, Grace 1, off the coast of Gibraltar on Thursday and
seized it over accusations it was breaking sanctions by taking oil to
Syria. "Her Majesty's Government of Gibraltar can now confirm,
after having received the results of comprehensive laboratory
testing, that ... the Grace 1, which was detained in the early hours
of Thursday morning, is loaded to capacity with crude oil," the
government said in a statement.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
The human rights global organization Amnesty
International has sent a letter to Iran's top judicial official
demanding the release of three anti-hijab women activists detained
since April. The letter is addressed to Ebrahim Raeesi (Raisi), a
conservative cleric appointed as head of the all-powerful judiciary
earlier this year. Amnesty says in the letter the women, Monireh
Arabshahi, Yasaman Aryani and Mojgan Keshavar have been arrested
arbitrarily with no access to lawyer.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
The United States will keep increasing pressure on Iran
until it abandons its pursuit of nuclear weapons and ceases its
violent activities in the Middle East, John Bolton, the White House
national security adviser, said on Monday. "We will
continue to increase the pressure on the Iranian regime until it
abandons its nuclear weapons program and ends its violent activities
across the Middle East, including conducting and supporting terrorism
around the world," Bolton said in a speech. Iran denies seeking
nuclear weapons.
U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Monday that the
United States is prepared to protect U.S. personnel and citizens in
the Middle East as tensions build with Iran over its nuclear
program. Pence made his remarks as Iran threatened on Monday to
take major steps away from a 2015 nuclear agreement that Washington
abandoned last year. "Let me be clear: Iran should not
confuse American restraint with a lack of American resolve,"
Pence said, speaking to an evangelical Christian group that advocates
for support for Israel.
For more than a year, Europeans have balanced between
Washington and Tehran as they sought to preserve the Iran nuclear
deal, under pressure from both sides and trying to avoid angering
either. But the next few days could be decisive as Europe desperately
tries to hold the agreement together while Iran increasingly flouts
it. After Iran announced Monday that it had surpassed
the 2015 accord's cap on uranium enrichment - the second breach of
the agreement in a week - European diplomats gave themselves another
week to encourage Tehran to come back into compliance.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Aficionados of Western classical music have carved out a
niche for themselves in Iran, where cultural expression remains
tightly controlled by strict rules imposed after the 1979 Islamic
Revolution. And perhaps surprisingly, musicians in their 20s and 30s
perform for overwhelmingly young audiences. Last week, the Tehran
Symphony Orchestra, including female musicians in burgundy
headscarves on cello, horn and harp, played works by 19th-century
Russian composers for an enraptured crowd in the capital's main
concert venue, Vahdat Hall.
An official at Iran's Ministry of Education says there
are 8 million illiterate people in the country, or 10 percent of the
population, but a lower figure than other official estimates. Earlier
last April, Iranian parliament's research center had reported that
nearly nine million Iranians are suffering from "absolute
illiteracy." Nonetheless, the Ministry of Education's director
of literacy, Leyla Rezaee insists that there are only eight million
illiterate Iranians.
One of the comforting illusions promoted by many critics
of President Trump's Iran policy is that his actions
have alienated and weakened the regime's
moderates. You hear this line from time to time, with the usual
caveat that "moderate" and "reformer" in the
context of Iran are quite different than what they mean in the
West. It is nonetheless the basis of a dream pursued by most of
Washington's foreign-policy establishment: If you treat Iran's regime
with respect it will bolster those who seek to reform it.
GULF STATES, YEMEN & IRAN
Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthi movement said on Monday that
it carried out drone attacks on Saudi Arabia's Abha airport and
Tihama power station, the group's Al-Masirah TV reported. There was
no Saudi confirmation of the attacks.
President Trump will be meeting with the Emir of Qatar
at the White House on Tuesday, July 9. The U.S. relationship with
Qatar has been strained by their continued support for terrorism and
ties with the mullahs of Iran. There is also still the ongoing
blockade and diplomatic conflict between Qatar and the other Gulf
states. Qatari involvement with Turkey has been problematic as well.
The Emir is likely bringing promises of significant investments in
the U.S. but we cannot let them simply buy their way out of the
problems they are causing.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iran's military vowed to retaliate against
the seizure by British Royal Marines of an oil tanker
loaded with the Islamic Republic's crude off the coast of Gibraltar
last week. "It will be reciprocated, at a suitable time and in a
suitable place," Mohammad Bagheri, the chief of staff for Iran's
armed forces, was quoted as saying by the official Islamic Republic
News Agency. The warning highlights mounting risks to shipping in a
region that exports about a third of all seaborne petroleum.
The capture of an Iranian oil tanker by Britain has set
"a dangerous precedent and must end now", Iran's foreign
minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Twitter on Monday.
"Iran is neither a member of the EU nor subject to any European
oil embargo. Last I checked, EU was against extraterritoriality. UK's
unlawful seizure of a tanker with Iranian oil on behalf of #B_Team is
piracy, pure and simple. It sets a dangerous precedent and must end
now," Zarif tweeted.
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