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National security adviser H.R. McMaster said Thursday
that President Donald Trump's forthcoming decision about whether to
recertify Iran's compliance with a multilateral nuclear agreement
will follow "lengthy" discussions the president has had
with his advisers about the 2015 pact. "We've all been in
lengthy discussions not just about the Iran deal but really about
what to do about Iran's destabilizing behavior broadly,"
McMaster said on CNN's "New Day."
Iranian President Hassan Rohani has said that Tehran
will continue its missile program and boost the country's military
capacities, despite U.S. President Donald Trump's demand that Iran
stop developing "dangerous missiles."
President Donald Trump has determined how he wants to
approach the Iran nuclear deal - which he has called the worst
agreement ever negotiated by the United States - but has not told
even his top national security advisers what his decision is.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that Trump had not
informed him or others in the administration about his decision and
had refused to share it with British Prime Minister Theresa May when
she asked him about it.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Four blocks away, at "Iran Summit 2017,"
speakers including former Florida governor Jeb Bush, former senator
Mike Kirk, General David Petraeus, former senator and vice
presidential candidate Joe Lieberman, and other diplomats and
congressmen gave a similar assurance: Support for the Iran deal is as
low as ever. The summit, held by the bipartisan group United Against
Nuclear Iran, involved a series of panel discussions during which
speakers explored the threat that Iran poses to the United States and
its allies. Speakers agreed that preventing a nuclear Iran should be
Trump's top priority.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
President Donald Trump has determined how he wants to
approach the Iran nuclear deal - which he has called the worst
agreement ever negotiated by the United States - but has not told
even his top national security advisers what his decision is.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that Trump had not
informed him or others in the administration about his decision and
had refused to share it with British Prime Minister Theresa May when
she asked him about it.
The Trump administration is unlikely to brief senators
about the Iran nuclear deal until the president has decided whether
Tehran is complying with its terms, according to correspondence cited
by a senior congressional aide. Senior Senate Democrats have been
urging the administration to send the secretary of state, the
director of national intelligence, the defense secretary and the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and potentially the energy and
treasury secretaries, to Capitol Hill sometime before Oct. 6 to brief
senators about Iran's behavior under the nuclear deal. That is the
last day senators will be in Washington before President Trump's Oct.
15 deadline to certify whether Tehran is compliant.
A Donald Trump administration effort to reopen
negotiations on the landmark Iran nuclear agreement collapsed on
Wednesday as key European powers persevered in their effort to rescue
the deal from an American walkout, and Iran's president made clear
his government wouldn't revisit the terms of the pact. During a
closed-door meeting Wednesday night of foreign ministers from Iran,
the European Union, and five other big powers, U.S. Secretary of
State Rex Tillerson, who was joined by Nikki Haley, the U.S.
ambassador to the United Nations, conceded that Iran was in full
compliance with its obligations under the 2015 nuclear pact.
Iran's president said on Thursday its nuclear accord
with world powers cannot be renegotiated, after the Trump
administration warned it was weighing whether the deal signed by its
predecessor served U.S. security interests. Under the 2015 deal, Iran
agreed to limit its disputed nuclear program in return for the easing
of economic sanctions. U.S. President Donald Trump called the deal an
"embarrassment" during his first speech at the United
Nations on Tuesday.
Iran's foreign minister rejected on Thursday any new
negotiation with the United States over extending the length or
conditions of the 2015 nuclear accord, saying that Iran would talk
about changing the accord only if every concession it made -
including giving up nuclear fuel - were reconsidered. In an
interview, the foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said that
would mean Iran would retake possession of the stockpile of nuclear
fuel it shipped to Russia when the accord took effect.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS
Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Friday unveiled its latest
ballistic missile capable of reaching much of the Middle East,
including Israel, while the country's president vowed that Tehran
would press ahead with its missile program in defiance of U.S.
demands to the contrary. The unveiling came during a military parade
in Tehran that commemorated the 1980s Iraq-Iran war. The move was a
direct challenge to President Donald Trump, who in August signed a
bill imposing mandatory penalties on those involved in Iran's
ballistic missile program and anyone who does business with them.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Iranian
Foreign Minister Javad Zarif spoke directly during talks at the
United Nations on Wednesday in what a European diplomat described as
a "very difficult" meeting. "Tillerson and Zarif spoke
directly for a relatively long time. There was no real great surprise
in the positions expressed," the diplomat said.
The commander of Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards
urged his country to use "all its options" and take
unspecified "actions" in the next few months to cause pain
to the United States in the wake of criticisms of Iran by US
President Donald Trump this week. "Time is now ripe for
correcting the US miscalculations," General Mohammad Ali Jafari
said Wednesday, a day after Trump addressed the UN and called Iran a
"corrupt dictatorship" and a "murderous regime."
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Oberbank on Thursday said it had signed
a deal with Iran, enabling it to finance new ventures there and
making it one of the first European banks to do so since sanctions
were eased. The deal Tehran struck in 2015 with six major powers
lifted many sanctions against the country in exchange for
restrictions on its nuclear activities and paved the way for
international business deals. But many banks have stayed away for
fear of inadvertently breaking remaining U.S. sanctions, which could
lead to huge fines.
IRAQ CRISIS
Turkey, Iran and Iraq have agreed to consider
counter-measures against Kurdish northern Iraq over a planned
independence referendum, Turkey's foreign ministry said on Thursday.
In a joint statement, the foreign ministers of the three countries
voiced concerns that the referendum would endanger the gains Iraq has
made against Islamic State, and reiterated their fears over the
potential for new conflicts in the region.
The Nujaba group, which has about 10,000 fighters, is
now one of the most important militias in Iraq. Though made up of
Iraqis, it is loyal to Iran and is helping Tehran create a supply
route through Iraq to Damascus, according to Iraqi lawmaker Shakhwan
Abdullah, retired Lebanese general Elias Farhat, and other current
and former officials in Iraq. The route will run through a string of
small cities including Qayrawan. To open it up, Iranian-backed
militias are pushing into southeast Syria near the border with Iraq,
where U.S. forces are based.
HUMAN RIGHTS
U.N Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed to
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani for the release of an
American-Iranian dual citizen and former UNICEF official, Baquer
Namazi, a U.N. spokesman said on Thursday. Guterres and Rouhani met
on Monday, September 18, on the sidelines of the U.N. General
Assembly, UNGA. "The Secretary-General did raise the issue and
again appealed for the release of Baquer Namazi on humanitarian
grounds," Reuters cited U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric, as
saying.
Radio Farda's Elaheh Ravanshad has prepared some
straightforward questions on the themes for Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Shirin Ebadi. Here's an extract.... [Ebadi: "]Sadly,
the conditions necessary for peace in Iran are missing since the
human dignity has been damaged and human rights have systematically
and frequently been violated there. Looking at the number of
journalists behind bars leaves you with no option other than
concluding that if there's peace in Iran, it's the same as the
calmness and tranquility ruling over cemeteries. Sooner or later,
such peace and tranquility are doomed to be disturbed.["]
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani suffers, or benefits,
from what the shrinks call "projection" - seeing in other
people one's own faults. "Moderation is the inclination as well
as the chosen path of the great Iranian people," Rouhani told
the UN General Assembly Wednesday. This from a man who told supporters
back in May, after winning an election that included only
mullah-approved candidates, "We are proud of our armed forces,
the Revolutionary Guards, the Basij and the security forces."
Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei lashed out at
President Donald Trump's speech to the United Nations General
Assembly and claimed that Trump used "hostile and
gangster-style" language against Iran because of America's
"defeats" in the Middle East... Like Khamenei, other
Iranian political and military leaders have reacted angrily to
Trump's speech and have threatened "painful" retaliatory
measures. All Iranian leaders maintained that Tehran would resist
American pressure and will not renegotiate the nuclear deal.
Hardliners in Iran are also increasing pressure on President Hassan
Rouhani not to give further concessions to Washington and leave the
nuclear deal if the U.S. levies more sanctions against the Islamic
Republic.
A prominent Iranian-sponsored Iraqi militia group has
rejected a U.N.-sponsored initiative on the Iraqi Kurdistan and
warned that Erbil's plan to hold an independence referendum is a
"foreign conspiracy" that will destabilize Iraq. Earlier
today, the political bureau of Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a unit within Iraq's
Popular Mobilization Forces (P.M.F.), issued a statement calling for
unity in Iraq and rejected a U.N.-sponsored initiative on
Kurdistan... As the Iraqi Kurdistan is set to hold an independence
referendum on Monday, Tehran and its Iraqi proxies have warned that
the consequences of such a move would be dire. "If tension over
the Iraqi Kurdistan's referendum continues, it will certainly
culminate in civil war" Hadi al-Amiri, the head of Iranian-supported
Badr Organization, was quoted as saying by Iran's Fars News Agency.
"Unfortunately, when the civil war breaks out, blood will be
shed," he added.
On Thursday, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the operational
chief commander of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces, announced the
start of the first phase of a military operation to liberate the town
of Hawija in the disputed province of Kirkuk. The P.M.F.
vice-chairman explained that the offensive began from four main
fronts: the Iraqi security forces and P.M.F. paramilitary troops will
first capture al-Shirqat, a Sunni Arab town in Salahuddin Province,
and then advance into Hawija. Al-Muhandis traveled ti Kirkuk on
Monday and met with Abu Reza al-Najjar, the military commander of the
northern zone in the province... he offensive comes just four days
before the Iraqi Kurdistan is set to hold an independence referendum,
including in Kirkuk. Most of Kirkuk is under the control of Kurdish
Peshmerga forces, which seized the areas three years ago after
Islamic State fighters drove out the Iraqi security forces from the
region.
Trump has every right, even an obligation, to identify
UNSCR 2231 as a related agreement, and to tell Congress that he
cannot certify compliance because Iran's missile tests and weapons
movements via commercial airlines are serial violations. This would
set in motion numerous options for reapplying sanctions on Iran's
nuclear program. It should also prompt all elements of the U.S.
government to fix, renegotiate or, ideally, eliminate the deal, and
to take action to actually stop Iran's nuclear program.
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