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TOP STORIES
Britain, France and Germany have proposed fresh EU
sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missiles and its role in Syria's
war, according to a confidential document, in a bid to persuade
Washington to preserve the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker
said Sunday that he believes President Donald Trump is likely to pull
the U.S. out of the Iran nuclear deal in May.... Corker (R-Tenn.)
told CBS's "Face the Nation" that such a move by Trump
could be avoided if the president's concerns, which deal largely with
Iran's actions outside the specifics of the nuclear deal, are
addressed as part of a multilateral framework. Such an agreement
seems unlikely, Corker said.
Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrives Monday in
Washington, D.C., bringing the brash foreign policy that has shaped
Saudi Arabia's more muscular stance in the Middle East to counter
archenemy Iran.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Former U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, an MEK supporter who
chairs the nonprofit group United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), also
spoke at the luncheon and urged the two senators and congressional
staffers in attendance to build relationships with the dissident group,
which he said leads an "organized" opposition that played a
role in Iran's recent anti-government protests and that is ready to
serve as a new Iranian government with U.S. help.
NUCLEAR DEAL
Washington wants its European allies to agree on further
measures against Iran in return for keeping a landmark nuclear deal
with Tehran alive, U.S. officials said Friday. Speaking after
closed-doors meetings between the U.S., Iran, Russia and other major
world powers in Vienna, U.S. diplomats indicated that an American
walkout from the deal isn't a foregone conclusion yet, despite harsh
words about the agreement from U.S. President Donald Trump.
France urged the European Union on Monday to consider
new sanctions on Iran over its involvement in Syria's civil war and
its ballistic missile program, as Paris tries to persuade Washington
to preserve a 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
[T]here would be no point for the U.S. to withdraw [from
the nuclear deal] if everybody else was just allowed to go on buying
Iranian oil. If he does succeed in imposing new measures to slash the
country's exports -- as he will surely seek to do -- the result would
be a slump in Iranian flows that would make the decline in Venezuelan
supply look modest by comparison.
As the Iranian regime ramps up efforts to spread its
malign influence in this region, failures at the core of the 2015
nuclear deal are being increasingly laid bare. Amid conflicting
expectations and discord among its signatories, the agreement looks
ineffectual at best and enabling at worst... The deal is increasingly
becoming a political football with Britain, France and Germany
proposing fresh EU sanctions on Iran, hoping to persuade Mr Trump to
preserve it. But the deal is flawed from inception and fresh
sanctions are unlikely to generate substantive change in the regime's
behaviour.
President Trump's nomination of Mike Pompeo as secretary
of State probably augurs the end of the 2015 accord that has blocked
Iran from building nuclear weapons, an agreement praised by world
powers but detested by Trump - and by Pompeo, a notable hawk on the
Islamic Republic.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS
Iran's Assembly of Experts has said that Tehran will not
negotiate with Western powers over its defense matters and called on
the government to further enhance the country's ballistic missile
program.
SANCTIONS ENFORCEMENT
French oil major Total is committed to the development
of an Iranian gasfield and will apply for a waiver if US President
Donald Trump unilaterally withdraws from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal
and re-imposes sanctions on Tehran, the company's chief executive
said.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Iran has nearly doubled gas production at South Pars,
the world's largest gas field, in the past year, Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani said Sunday, according to state media.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
A former Iranian vice president and chief-of-staff of
hardline ex-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was arrested on Saturday,
the website of the Tehran prosecutor said.
The March 6 arrest of Hossein Shirazi, son of prominent
Iraqi Persian cleric Ayatollah Sadeq Shirazi, has triggered protests
by non-Iranian Shiites - signifying the inherent tensions between the
Iranian state and transnational Shiite clergy institutions.
Escalating street protests by Iranians against water
shortages in a rural part of central Iran have inspired more domestic
criticism of the government's handling of the nation's water
resources.
Iranian state media says the country's foreign minister
was briefly hospitalized due to severe illness.
"I am proud to have received an award from the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps [IRGC] and Maj. Gen. Qasem
Soleimani for making this film." [...] Iranian director Ebrahim
Hatamikia made these comments at the 36th International Fajr Film
Festival in Tehran last month. During the event, Hatamikia received
the award for best director as well as best music and best sound mix
for his film "Damascus Time" [...] Hatamikia's comments at
Fajr... sparked various debates in Iranian media and social networks
regarding independent versus state-owned cinema, sources of funding
and the IRGC's role in Iran's film industry.
SYRIA & IRAN
The foreign ministers of Iran, Russia and Turkey were
locked in talks on Syria in Kazakhstan Friday, almost a month after
the Moscow- and Tehran-backed regime began pounding an opposition
enclave just outside of Damascus.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince will meet with U.S.
President Donald Trump in Washington on March 20, with the two men
likely to discuss strategies to counter Iran's influence in the
Middle East and Gulf region.
The Arab Coalition spokesperson, Colonel Turki
al-Maliki, said the coalition will hold a press conference on Monday
to reveal new evidence that exposes Iran's involvement in smuggling
ballistic missiles and weapons to the Houthis. The press conference,
which will be held at 16:10 KSA time, will show the ballistic
missiles which Iran smuggled to militias in Yemen and detail how Iran
threatens regional and international security and spreads chaos.
IRAQ & IRAN
Iraq's Vice President Ayad Allawi has called on Iran to
stop interference in the Iraqi internal affairs...
Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq, an Iranian-supported Iraqi militia
group, has accused the US military forces of trying to rig Iraq's
upcoming parliamentary elections in Sunni regions... AAH Spokesman
Naeem al-Abudi said the group is concerned that the American forces
will not leave Sunni areas prior to the May 12 vote.
ISRAEL AND IRAN
Israeli soccer player Maor Buzaglo, who is in London for
treatment of a knee injury, posted an unusual photo on his Facebook
page Sunday: a shot of him in the smiling company of a fellow
midfielder - from Iran, Ashkan Dejagah.
The Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment movement, better
known by the acronym BDS, targeting Israel has largely been viewed as
a Palestinian- and Western European-driven campaign with the alleged
goal of advancing Palestinian statehood. Yet the Islamic Republic of
Iran's key role in stoking the BDS movement has increasingly become a
key factor in economic warfare against the Jewish state.
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