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TOP STORIES
Iran has asked Oman to transmit to Washington a set of
new proposals designed to prevent a showdown with the Trump
administration over the controversial nuclear deal reached with six
major powers, sources in Tehran confirmed yesterday... Trump has
three objections to the deal, all of which are expected to be
addressed in the compromise formula Zarif has taken to Muscat.
Iran must pay $63.5 million to a former U.S. Marine who
was jailed in that country for more than four years, according to a
ruling by a U.S. judge announced Monday. Judge Ellen Huvelle of the
U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Friday granted Amir
Hekmati's motion for a default judgment after Iran failed to respond
to the complaint. Hekmati, who was released in January 2016 as part
of a prisoner exchange, alleged he was falsely imprisoned and
tortured. It's unclear if Hekmati will get any of the money, which
consists of economic and punitive damages as well as those for
"pain and suffering" during and after imprisonment.
A top Iranian military official was quoted Friday in state
media as saying Tehran won't be pressured by U.S. threats to pull out
of the nuclear deal and would be better off without it anyway.
Regardless, Iran still appears to be trying to keep the deal from
collapsing, and the country's foreign minister admitted as much this
week, according to an interview published Friday in the Financial
Times.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
A prominent Washington, D.C. think-tank funded by a
who's who of organizations that played a key role in misleading the
American public about the nature of the landmark Iran nuclear deal
will hold a massive forum aimed at preserving the accord, a sign that
the so-called pro-Iran deal "echo chamber" is scrambling to
save a deal President Donald Trump could kill in the coming weeks.
The Center for a New American Security, or CNAS, will hold a forum on
Tuesday titled, "Consequences of a Collapse of the Iran Nuclear
Deal," which will feature a plethora of prominent speakers
advocating in favor of preserving the deal, including former senior
Obama administration official, Colin Kahl, a chief proponent of the
agreement.
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
President Donald Trump might soon toss the Iran nuclear
deal back to Congress to decide its fate - but it's no sure thing
that lawmakers would kill it for good... Naysayers in Congress are
vowing to take advantage of a fast-track mechanism that would allow
lawmakers to reinstate sanctions against Tehran with a simple
majority vote. But while congressional Republicans unanimously
opposed the nuclear deal two years ago, there's far less unity on how
quickly the GOP-led Congress should move to "snap back"
sanctions that were lifted as part of the Iran agreement. Doing so
would effectively dismantle the 2015 deal.
US President Donald Trump has repeatedly indicated that
he won't find Iran to be in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal
later this month. If he follows through, the agreement's fate will
lie with a Republican-controlled Congress for whom the easiest solution
- both politically and legislatively - will be to reimpose
nuclear-related sanctions that could well blow up the deal.
SANCTIONS ENFORCEMENT
A United Arab Emirates appeals court has upheld a
10-year jail sentence against an Iranian convicted of breaching
international sanctions against Tehran, state media reported on
Tuesday. The State Security Court upheld the man's conviction on
charges of "sharing intelligence with Iran, importing electricity
generators and devices used in the Iranian nuclear program from the
United Kingdom and attempting to illegally re-export these devices to
Iran," the official WAM news agency reported. The man, whose
identity has not been disclosed, was found guilty by a lower court in
April and sentenced to 10 years in jail to be followed by
deportation.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Seven reformists in Iran including a brother of
ex-president Mohammad Khatami have been given one-year jail terms and
banned from all political and media activity for two years, one said
Monday... [A] lawyer said all five had been found guilty of
"anti-regime propaganda"...
A young woman banned from the Iranian national chess
team, allegedly for attending an international competition without
wearing an Islamic headscarf, has joined the U.S. team, an Iranian
news agency reported Monday. The semi-official ISNA reported that
Dorsa Derakhshani refused to wear the headscarf, known as the hijab,
during a February competition in Gibraltar, and joined the U.S.
national team. Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, Iran has required
women to wear the hijab in public places.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
While Iran has not yet taken a public position on the
Catalan independence referendum in Spain, Iranian media has given the
vote widespread coverage. Scenes of violence by Spanish police, which
so far has left over 700 people injured, have featured prominently on
media websites... The Iranian media's coverage of the Catalan
referendum can be contrasted with their coverage of the recent
Kurdistan referendum vote, which the Islamic Republic of Iran
publicly opposed and its media widely criticized. Nearly all of the
headlines in Iranian media described the Catalan referendum as an
"independence" referendum. The Kurdistan referendum in
northern Iraq was described as a "separatist" vote. The
double standard of coverage spanned across both Reformist and
conservative outlets, newspapers and websites.
IRAQ CRISIS
Iran deployed a dozen tanks supported by artillery at
its border with Iraq's autonomous Kurdish region on Monday, a Kurdish
official said, adding that the move was a dangerous escalation in the
crisis triggered by Iraqi Kurdistan's independence vote.
GULF STATES AND IRAN
Iran's foreign minister on Tuesday met with Qatar's
ruling emir as a quartet of Arab states continues its boycott of the
energy-rich nation, in part over relations that Doha maintains with
Tehran. Mohammad Javad Zarif's visit is likely to further inflame
officials in Bahrain, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab
Emirates, which began their boycott nearly four months ago, on June
5.
The ruler of Oman received Iran's foreign minister on
Monday, the state news agency ONA reported, in a rare official
appearance for the long-time leader. Sultan Qaboos, who is in his
late 70s, was pictured in conversation with Iran's Javad Zarif at
al-Shumoukh fort in the state of Manah, south-west of Oman's capital,
Muscat. The agency said Qaboos and Zarif discussed cooperation
between the two countries and regional issues, but gave no further
details.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Today, we are seeing the same old opponents of tough
sanctions on Iran come out of the woodwork to warn President Donald
Trump against threatening to reimpose a global financial embargo on
Iran... former Obama administration officials argue that the United
States has no choice but to keep its most powerful sanctions options
in a lockbox for fear of European and Asian noncompliance. Their
arguments ring as hollow today as they did in the past. European and
Asian businesses will oppose the reimposition of sanctions on Iran
right up until the point they are reimposed. And then their lawyers
will force them to comply - choosing continued access to the $19
trillion American financial system over Iran's $400 billion... Trump
should decertify Iran's compliance with the nuclear agreement and
hold a sanctions Sword of Damocles over the Iranian economy: change
your behavior or risk total economic collapse before you could ever
reach the point of a nuclear weapon. Cry as they might along the way,
no European or Asian corporation is going to choose a terrorist
regime over access to the U.S. dollar.
Barack Obama undertook two supremely ideological foreign
policy moves. In both cases he seemed largely motivated by myths
about American "crimes" in the past, and for that reason
failed or refused to bargain hard for American advantage. Instead, he
appeared to see the new negotiations as including a bit of
restitution for previous American wrongs. The more significant case
was Iran, where he spoke of the crime of overthrowing the leftist
Iranian prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, in 1953... Obama was never
much concerned about the Iranian people, and his human rights efforts
in Iran were weak to the point of disappearance-- even, or
especially, when the Iranian people rose up against the regime in
June 2009. Today we see the results, in both cases. Iran has received
many commercial, political, and diplomatic benefits from the Obama
deal, but there is no reform, no change. Internally, repression is at
least as bad as ever. In the region, Iran's aggression and subversion
have increased. And its nuclear ambitions have not been abandoned, or
it would not be trying to perfect advanced centrifuges and longer-
and longer-range ballistic missiles.
Iranian diplomats can reassure with calm words, but in
the Islamic Republic it's the Supreme Leader and the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps who call the shots and direct policy. And
yes, that goes for nuclear policy as well. That is why it is so
important that the International Atomic Energy Agency, if it is to
retain any credibility, not shy away from inspecting Iranian military
sites where weapons design and warhead work might be ongoing.
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