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TOP STORIES
German intelligence agencies have warned German
companies that Iran is still trying to circumvent restrictions on the
sale of dual-use items for its rocket and missile technology program,
according to a document seen by Reuters on Wednesday.
President Trump will announce his decision on the Iran
deal Friday, CBS News has learned... Mr. Trump, who has long been
critical of the deal, reiterated to Fox News' Sean Hannity on
Wednesday it was "one of the most incompetently drawn deals I've
ever seen."
President Trump was livid. Why, he asked his advisers in
mid-July, should he go along with what he considered the failed
Obama-era policy toward Iran and prop up an international nuclear
deal he saw as disastrous?... "He threw a fit," said one
person familiar with the meeting. "He was furious. Really
furious. It's clear he felt jammed." So White House national
security adviser H.R. McMaster and other senior advisers came up with
a plan - one aimed at accommodating Trump's loathing of the Iran deal
as "an embarrassment" without killing it outright. To get
Trump, in other words, to compromise.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), now chairman of
United Against Nuclear Iran, which lobbied hard against the
agreement, predicted lawmakers wouldn't reimpose sanctions. "My
guess is Congress will hold back if I'm hearing correctly from some
of the people who spoke out about this," he told reporters
Tuesday on a conference call. "We will see what pressure
builds."
Chairman of United Against Nuclear Iran, Former
Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman spoke with Brian Kilmeade about
reports President Trump is ready to decertify the Iran nuclear and
why he is not worried about the President's strong language toward
North Korea.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
President Donald Trump finds himself under immense
pressure as he considers de-certifying the international nuclear deal
with Iran, a move that would ignore warnings from inside and outside
his administration that to do so would risk undermining U.S.
credibility. Trump is expected to unveil a broad strategy on
confronting Iran this week, likely on Friday. There was always the
chance he could still have a last-minute change of heart and certify
Iran's compliance with the 2015 accord, which he has called an
"embarrassment" and the "worst deal ever
negotiated."
European countries are scrambling to cobble together a
package of measures they hope will keep the Iran nuclear deal on
track if U.S. President Donald Trump ignores their pleas and
decertifies the landmark 2015 agreement this week. The package would
include a strong statement backing the deal by European powers,
together with efforts to lobby the U.S. Congress and put wider
pressure on Iran, officials said.
Iran on Wednesday warned of a tough response if
President Donald Trump presses ahead with his threats to scuttle the
landmark 2015 nuclear deal. Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
told lawmakers during a closed session of parliament that Iran
"will never renegotiate" the deal brokered with the U.S.
and five other world powers, the semi-official Fars news agency
reported.
Decertifying the nuclear deal with Iran is the first
step toward fixing its severe deficiencies that place Iran on a North
Korean-style glide path to developing nuclear weapons and
intercontinental ballistic missiles. Decertification is the first
part of a strategy to "decertify, pressure and fix." A 2015
law requires the president to certify to Congress every 90 days not
just that Iran is fully implementing the nuclear deal, but also that
the suspension of sanctions remains vital to U.S. national security
interests.
CONGRESS & IRAN
This week, President Trump is expected to announce that
he doesn't think Iran is complying with a global 2015 nuclear deal -
and that he'll leave the fate of the pact in Congress's hands. From
there, lawmakers will have 60 days to act on a range of options. They
can tear up the United States' involvement in the deal, or try to get
Europe and the United Nations on board with making changes, or do
nothing at all. Here are the four main options available to them,
listed in order of most to least damaging to the deal itself. It's
not clear which option Congress will choose.
The Republican chairman of the U.S. House of
Representatives Foreign Affairs committee said on Wednesday the
international nuclear deal with Iran should be strictly enforced by
Washington working with its allies, but did not call for an end to
the agreement. "As flawed as the deal is, I believe we must now
enforce the hell out of it," Representative Ed Royce said at a
hearing. U.S. President Donald Trump is expected to announce on
Friday a new strategy for Iran that could include a first step toward
the United States exiting the agreement.
President Donald Trump's top advisers briefed lawmakers
Wednesday ahead of decision by the president on the fate of the Iran
nuclear deal. White House officials said the pending decision wasn't
shared, but several officials said they left the briefings convinced
that Trump plans to decertify the deal, three officials told NBC
News... Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, briefed
lawmakers on the president's pending decision on Wednesday and
proposed legislation to amend the original Obama-era agreement -
something Congress doesn't have the authority to do - two of the
officials said.
Members of Congress who have squared off on the Iran
nuclear deal since its inception strategized Wednesday in preparation
for President Trump's highly anticipated announcement on its fate.
Leading House Republicans huddled with national security adviser H.R.
McMaster Wednesday evening for a classified briefing on the
administration's plan for the 2015 agreement. Emerging from the
meeting, McMaster told reporters simply that it had been "Great,
thanks." If Trump decides to decertify Iran's compliance, as
expected, Congress will have 60 days to decide whether to "snap
back" sanctions that were lifted in exchange for curbs on Iran's
nuclear program.
IRANIAN DOMESTIC POLITICS
Will Iranian Reformists decide to once again support a
moderate-conservative as their candidate in the 2021 presidential
elections? This is a question that has come to occupy the minds of
observers as a rare scene in a ceremony captured the attention of
Iranian media outlets, leading Reformists to think more about their
choices when President Hassan Rouhani's second term ends. On Sept.
22, moderate parliament Speaker Ali Larijani was seen sitting next to
former Reformist President Mohammad Khatami, who is under a media
ban, and talking with him seriously - a scene that did not slip
through the fingers of photographers and was captured and then
released to the media.
On Oct. 5, unconfirmed reports about the detention of
First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri's brother surfaced in Iranian
media. One day later, Jahangiri confirmed the reports, but distanced
himself and President Hassan Rouhani's administration from his
brother, saying his brother never held a governmental position. While
it may be true that Mahdi Jahangiri, the detained brother, had no
position in government, he is known as one of the most prominent
merchants in Iran and a founder of the Tourism Bank.
Iran's intelligence minister on Wednesday defended a
nuclear negotiator imprisoned on spying charges in a rare implied
criticism of the judiciary. Abdolrasoul Dorri Esfahani, a
Canadian-Iranian, was given a five-year prison sentence this month,
with the judiciary saying he had provided "information for
foreigners and had links with two espionage services". But the
charges were dismissed by Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi in
comments carried by multiple Iranian news agencies, including the semi-official
ISNA.
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