TOP STORIES
A senior Iranian official said on Tuesday that Tehran
might quit a treaty designed to stop the spread of nuclear weapons if
U.S. President Donald Trump scraps the nuclear accord Iran signed
with world powers in 2015.
French president Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte
arrived at the White House Monday evening to the pomp and
circumstance typical of a state visit, the choreography of which he
is expected to balance against a delicate diplomatic effort to
persuade President Donald Trump to remain in the Iran nuclear deal.
Macron, along with German Chancellor Angela Merkel are making
back-to-back visits with the president this week in a last-minute
lobbying push to prevent the president from potentially sabotaging
the agreement.
Senior members of the Israeli security establishment are
predicting that the month of May will be one of the most volatile
periods in the current era. Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Yadlin, the former
head of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Military Intelligence
Directorate, said in an interview published April 22, "I have
not seen a May this dangerous since May 1967."
NUCLEAR DEAL
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he
had agreed with his Chinese counterpart that Moscow and Beijing would
try to block any U.S. attempt to sabotage the Iran nuclear deal...
The European signatories of Iran's nuclear deal with
major powers should convince U.S. President Donald Trump not to exit
the accord as there is no "plan B" for the agreement,
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Tweeted on Monday.
"It is either all or nothing."
Amid the pomp and circumstance of a full state visit,
French President Emmanuel Macron is on a rescue mission to convince
President Donald Trump to stick with the Iran nuclear deal. But
despite the apparent warmth of the relationship between the two leaders,
he faces an uphill struggle.
Foreign ministers of Group of Seven nations are
wrestling with how and whether to change the Iran nuclear deal as the
U.S. wonders whether the pact can be saved. U.K. Foreign Secretary
Boris Johnson, speaking to reporters Monday at a G-7 summit in
Toronto, said he and counterparts discussed the Iran situation at
length. His hope is to preserve the Iran deal... preferably with the
U.S. -- rather than pick it apart.
The pendulum has swung decisively in favor of Donald
Trump "nixing" the Iran nuclear deal at the earliest
possible opportunity. The operative question is: what comes next?
On a "big day of reckoning," President Donald
Trump will decide on May 12 if the U.S. is going to restore economic
sanctions on Iran. Especially with oil prices now reaching three year
highs amid global tension, the oil market is taking note. Iran
produces about 5% of the world's oil and is a key global exporter.
It's estimated that today's prices have a $1-3 premium that assumes
the U.S. will pull out of the nuclear deal and/or deploy additional
sanctions that would hamper Iran's ability to sell its oil. Prices
could climb $5 per barrel if we completely opt out.
U.S.-IRAN
RELATIONS
Iran has been filling the airwaves and the Internet with
anti-American lies, slander and ridiculous conspiracy theories since
the U.S., Britain and France launched missile strikes on Syria April
14 in response to dictator Bashar Assad's use of chemical weapons to
kill his own citizens
ECONOMIC NEWS
Oil prices rebounded from an early slide to finish
higher and strengthen further in post-settlement trade, as investors
feared U.S. sanctions could dampen Iran's output.
ISRAEL & IRAN
The rumblings of an open conflict between Israel and
Iran in Syria are growing louder.
HUMAN RIGHTS
A grainy video of female officers from Iran's morality
police assaulting a young woman whose headscarf only loosely covered
her hair has sparked a new public debate on the decades-long
requirement for women in the Islamic Republic.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
The discovery in Iran of a mummified body near the site
of a former royal mausoleum has raised speculation it could be the
remains of the late Reza Shah Pahlavi, founder of the Pahlavi
dynasty.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Washington
Monday with a seemingly innocuous request for President Trump: Let
Europe keep doing business with Iran. But unless Trump wants to make
a bad nuclear deal even worse, he should flatly reject Macron's
request.
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