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TOP STORIES
U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is
considering a proposal that could lead to potentially designating
Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a
terrorist organization, according to U.S. officials familiar with the
matter. The officials said several U.S. government agencies have been
consulted about such a proposal, which if implemented would add to measures
the United States has already imposed on individuals and entities
linked to the IRGC. The IRGC is by far Iran's most powerful security
entity, which also has control over large stakes in Iran's economy
and huge influence in its political system. Reuters has not seen a
copy of the proposal, which could come in the form of an executive
order directing the State Department to consider designating the IRGC
as a terrorist group. It is unclear whether Trump would sign such an
order... The United States has already blacklisted dozens of entities
and people for affiliations with the IRGC. In 2007, the U.S. Treasury
designated the IRGC's Quds Force, its elite unit in charge of its
operations abroad, "for its support of terrorism," and has
said it is Iran's "primary arm for executing its policy of
supporting terrorist and insurgent groups." A designation of the
entire IRGC as a terrorist group would potentially have much broader
implications, including for the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated between
Iran and the United States and other major world powers.
Iran removed a powerful missile from a launchpad east
of Tehran within the past few days, Fox News has learned, as U.S. and
Iranian officials continued trading public barbs about the Islamic
Republic's missile tests. The Pentagon is concerned because Safir
missiles use the same components as those needed for an
intercontinental ballistic missile. Iran's ballistic program has
"expanded dramatically" in the past 10 years, a senior U.S.
defense official told Fox News. New satellite imagery from Feb. 3,
obtained exclusively by Fox News from ImageSat International and
verified by U.S. officials, showed Iran preparing a Safir for launch.
That missile is the type Iran has previously used to put a satellite
into space. It has been two years since Iran has launched a Safir
into space, according to officials. But there has been a flurry of
activity on an Iranian launchpad that U.S. officials have been
watching closely, since the launch of a ballistic missile from the
site last week. In a surprising about face, Fox News learned Tuesday
morning that Iran's missile had been removed from the launchpad. It
was not immediately clear why. On Jan. 29, Iran launched a new type
of medium-range ballistic missile prompting an emergency meeting of
the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 31.
The White House has issued a warning to Iran that
"there's a new president in town" and it would not
"sit by" and allow the country to pursue its military
ambitions... Mr Trump responded to the January 29 missile test by
saying Iran was "playing with fire" and imposed fresh
sanctions on individuals, some of them linked to Iran's elite
Revolutionary Guard... Last night Mr Trump's spokesman Sean Spicer
re-iterated his firm stance. "I think the Ayatollah is going to
realise there's a new president in office," Mr Spicer said.
"This president's not going to sit by and let Iran flout its
violations, or its apparent violations, to the joint agreement, but
he will continue to take action as he sees fit. The president has
also made clear time and time again that he's not going to project
what those actions will be, and he's not going to take anything off
the table. But I think Iran is kidding itself if they don't realise
there's a new president in town."
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
President Trump could come under new pressure to lift
the curtain on secret elements of the Iran nuclear deal struck by his
predecessor, especially as the Islamic Republic continues its war of
words with his administration. Only days after the Iran nuclear deal
was announced in July of 2015, news began to leak out about secret
side agreements made between the Islamic Republic and the
International Atomic Energy Agency. Some of those agreements have
been subsequently released, but with the tension ratcheting up
between Iran and Trump, who has criticized the deal, the White House
could reveal more details... Talk of secret "side
agreements" involving Iran's past testing and inspection methods
began almost as soon as the deal was reached. President Obama's
national security adviser Susan Rice acknowledged that the documents
between Iran and the IAEA were not public, but said Obama
administration was informed of their contents and planned to share
the details with Congress in a classified briefing.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei leveled
his harshest criticism so far at President Donald Trump, saying the
U.S. leader had exposed his country's "political, economic,
ethical and social corruption." "We are grateful to this
gentleman who has come, grateful because he made it easy for us and
showed the U.S.'s real face," Mr. Khamenei said on Tuesday,
referring to Mr. Trump... Mr. Khamenei also singled out a tweet by
Mr. Trump on Friday in which he said the Iranians "don't
appreciate how 'kind' President Obama was to them. Not me!"
"Why should we thank the previous U.S. government?" the
supreme leader said, appearing to dispute the notion that the Obama
administration had been generous to Iran. He cited American military
involvement in Iraq and Syria and pressure from sanctions before the
nuclear deal as examples of U.S. hostility toward Iran while Barack
Obama was president. "These are all examples of the velvet glove
that the previous U.S. government had covered its iron claw
with," he said.
Iran's supreme leader was in a supremely sarcastic
mood Tuesday as he gave a speech to a sea of military officials. His
target: Trump's first foreign policy moves. "We actually thank
this new president! We thank him, because he made it easier for us to
reveal the real face of the United States," said Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei, according to a transcript posted on his official website.
"... Now, with everything he is doing - handcuffing a child as
young as 5 at an airport - he is showing the reality of American
human rights." While Khamenei's intended point about the
ramifications of Trump's executive order on immigration was probably
broader, his choice to highlight the alleged handcuffing of a
5-year-old Iranian boy at Washington Dulles International Airport
imbued his speech with a tinge of fake-news fever. A viral photo of
the boy with his arms locked together has been shown to be from an
incident in Kentucky two years ago.
In recent months Iran has been heating up as a popular
off-the-beaten path destination for globe-trotting Americans. Now
several tour companies have had to cancel trips there because of visa
complications related to President Donald Trump's travel ban. After
Trump ordered a ban on travelers from Iran and six other Muslim
countries, Iran retaliated by saying it would no longer issue visas
for Americans, though the country's foreign minister suggested there
might be exceptions. Trump's travel ban is being challenged in U.S.
courts, but uncertainty persists over travel in both directions.
Wilderness Travel canceled April and May trips to Iran "with
great regret," said spokeswoman Barbara Banks. "The
increase of interest in travel to Iran had been a wonderful development;
cultural exchange and understanding is the foundation for a peaceful
world." The company had recently added three Iran itineraries,
including one by train, after a successful 2016 trip... Americans
contemplating travel to Iran should also consider the U.S. State
Department warning, which notes that Iranian authorities have
sometimes detained and imprisoned U.S. citizens, particularly
Iranian-Americans.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
It looks like Iran just blinked in the face of tough
talk - and new economic sanctions - from the Trump administration.
Fox News reports that new satellite imagery, verified by US
officials, shows Iran has abruptly removed a new missile that was
being prepared for launch as recently as Friday. It was a long-range
Safir missile - a class that Tehran last launched into space two
years ago, and that uses the same components as those needed for an
intercontinental ballistic missile. The images showed a flurry of
activity, including a host of visitors, on the launchpad Feb. 3, the
day the missile was first spotted. Then, on Tuesday, the missile was
gone. Perhaps it was a technical problem - but the timing suggests
otherwise... It's a sign that for Iran, the days of wine and roses -
and blind-eye treatment - are over. And perhaps an even more welcome
sign that tough talk, combined with tough action, really does work.
Does anyone know what's really in the Iran nuclear
deal with all its unpublished side agreements and secret verbal
pledges? Certainly not the American public, on whose behalf it was
putatively negotiated. And probably not most, if not all, members of
Congress who were bypassed in its negotiation and "signing"
in a manner that doesn't seem remotely constitutional. Despite the
yeoman efforts of Jay Solomon, Omri Ceren and others, the full extent
of the deal is still a mystery. We don't know in anywhere near full
detail what Obama and Kerry, with the aid and comfort of wannabe
fiction writer Ben Rhodes, hath wrought, though we do-pace Solomon,
Ceren, etc.-have some sense that where compromises were made they
almost universally favored Iran. Obama, for reasons again mysterious,
seemed desperate to get a deal... Perhaps I'm missing something, but
what reason could there be, at this point, not to release the
so-called terms of this so-called deal-other than the embarrassment
of the officials involved? America has a right to know what has been
done in its behalf. Instead of BS transparency, we need real
transparency. So do the citizens of many others countries that are in
the crosshairs of the newly enriched (by us) Iran with its
expansionist goals that have been brutally apparent since this
imaginary signing in Syria, Lebanon, Yemen and who knows where else.
The time is long since past for the complete details of this quondam
deal to be released. I suspect they would be more than a little
disturbing. Do it, Mr. President.
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