RSVP Here for UANI's
Capitol Hill Event on Lebanon This Wednesday, May 16
TOP STORIES
National security adviser John Bolton warned Sunday that
the U.S. is prepared to impose sanctions on European companies if
their governments don't heed President Donald Trump's demand to stop
dealing with Iran.
Germany wants to help its companies continue doing
business in Iran after the U.S. decision to reimpose sanctions
against Tehran, but it could be difficult to shield them from any
fallout, Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Sunday.
President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that Iran would
remain committed to the 2015 nuclear deal if its interests were
protected, while his foreign minister hoped the pact could be
redesigned without Washington as a member.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Former senator says he always knew moving the U.S.
embassy would not lead to riots in the Arab world, and that reimposition
of sanctions will put more economic pressure on Tehran... Lieberman
chairs a group called United Against Nuclear Iran, an advocacy group
founded in 2008 by Dennis Ross and the late Richard Holbrooke, whose
goal, according to its website, is to "ensure the economic and
diplomatic isolation of the Iranian regime in order to compel Iran to
abandon its illegal nuclear weapons program, support for terrorism
and human rights violations." The group campaigned "very
strongly" against the original agreement signed in 2015,
Lieberman says, since "there was no indication this agreement
would change Iranian behavior and human rights behavior."
Lieberman, who today is the chairman of a bipartisan
advocacy group called United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), said that
from his perspective it seemed "weak for the US - because of
political fears - to single out Israel, our close ally, as the one
country in the world where we didn't have our embassy in the city
designated by the country as its capital."
I don't know if U.S. President Donald Trump is a fan of
the Pottery Barn rule of "you break it, you bought it." But
it now applies to his policy toward Iran.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
President Trump held up Iran's large military budget on
Saturday as evidence that Tehran's commitment to a deal curbing its
nuclear pursuits "was all a big lie."
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has
expressed hope for a "clear future design" for the 2015
nuclear accord at the start of a diplomatic tour aimed at keeping the
deal alive following the U.S. withdrawal.
With Chancellor Angela Merkel warning that faith in the
international order is at stake, Germany, France and the U.K. are
embarking on a diplomatic mission to salvage what they can of the
accord, both to keep Iran on side and to shield European companies from
U.S. sanctions that threaten billions of dollars of investment.
France urged Europeans to stand up to U.S. President
Donald Trump over the Iran nuclear deal and not act as
"vassals," as the region scrambles to save the 2015 accord
and billions of dollars in trade.
As Iran threatens to restart its nuclear program, the
U.N.'s top nuclear inspector is calling it quits. The International
Atomic Energy Agency didn't give a reason for Tero Varjoranta's
exit.
Iran is being "extremely cautious" following
President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the 2015 nuclear
deal, former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak told CNBC on Friday.
With two newly installed hardliners - Secretary of State Mike Pompeo
and National Security Advisor John Bolton - driving Trump's foreign
policy, Iran worries that the United States may be looking for an
excuse to strike militarily, Barak said on "Squawk Box."
A continued military buildup, with massive investments
in ballistic missile technology capable of carrying nuclear weapons
by Iran should have been enough to jettison the "Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)" negotiated by Obama...
President Trump should be applauded for finally declaring the JCPOA
what it should have been called in the first place: DOA.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
European nations are moving to protect their companies
from a resumption of stiff U.S. sanctions on firms doing business in
Iran, in a critical part of their bid to keep the Iranian nuclear
deal alive and ensure it continues to benefit Iran's economy.
The Trump administration's decision last week to pull
out of the nuclear deal with Iran will create an economic policy
challenge for the U.S.: How does it enforce sanctions that the rest
of the world no longer backs?
Italian oil and gas giant ENI may not have any
investments in Iran, but its CEO Claudio Descalzi sees disruption
ahead for oil markets thanks to the reimposition of U.S. sanctions on
OPEC's third-largest oil producer.
Boeing's top executive in the Middle East said the
company's conservative strategy will protect it from any loss of
business with Iran. Boeing is playing down an estimated loss of $20
billion of sales to Iranian airlines after the U.S. moved to withdraw
from a nuclear pact and re-impose sanctions on Tehran. Treasury
Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced Wednesday that Boeing licenses to
sell aircraft to Iran would be revoked following President Donald
Trump's decision.
As the federal government takes steps to re-impose
economic sanctions on Iran for allegedly cheating on the 2015 deal
that temporarily halted its development of a nuclear weapon,
officials in the Hoosier State won't be required to do the same.
That's because Indiana never lifted its Iran sanctions.
President Donald Trump's decision to tear up the Iran
nuclear deal and reimpose sanctions on buyers of its oil will have a
big impact on Iran's crude exports, but don't expect it to imperil
the output deal among OPEC and its friends.
Oil held losses below $71 as OPEC signaled it could fill
in any supply gap if renewed U.S. sanctions curtail supply from Iran,
the group's third-largest producer.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
White House national security adviser John Bolton, who
has in the past suggested the U.S. government should push for a
change in government in Iran, said on Sunday that is not the Trump
administration's current policy. "That's not the policy of the
administration. The policy of the administration is to make sure that
Iran never gets close to deliverable nuclear weapons," Bolton
said on the ABC program "This Week."
The time is ripe for a U.S. approach based on pushing
Iranian domestic politics into crisis.
SYRIA, RUSSIA, ISRAEL & IRAN
The fate of a remote U.S. military base in southern
Syria captures the contradictions at the heart of President Trump's
Iran policy. The tiny outpost at Tanf, surrounded by vast desert, was
established during the battle against the Islamic State. But its
purpose changed last year when Iranian-backed forces began bearing
down on the isolated garrison.
The Kremlin's military alliance with Tehran in Syria is
showing cracks after fierce Israeli strikes against Iranian forces,
testing the limits of the relationship.
New satellite images of Damascus International Airport near
the Syrian capital showed extensive damage following Israeli
airstrikes against Iranian targets earlier in the week.
A prominent Iranian cleric on Friday threatened two
Israeli cities with destruction if the Jewish state "acts
foolishly" and attacks its interests again, while thousands of
protesters demonstrated against President Donald Trump's withdrawal
from the Iranian nuclear deal with world powers.
Iran denounced President Donald Trump as
"feeble-minded" over Monday's controversial move of the US
embassy to Jerusalem, calling for resistance from the Palestinians
and the international community.
CHINA & IRAN
While the United States is now urging foreign companies
to wind down their operations in Iran, China appears to be doing the
opposite. Thursday's launch of a freight train connection was only
the latest measure that Beijing has taken to intensify trade
relations with Iran, and there seem to be no plans so far to give in
to U.S. demands.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
The Trump administration has called on Qatar to stop
funding pro-Iranian militias following revelations about the Gulf
state's dealings with terror groups in the Middle East.
IRAQ & IRAN
The political coalition of influential Shiite cleric
Muqtada al-Sadr took an early lead in Iraq's national elections in
partial returns announced late Sunday by the Iraqi electoral
commission. An alliance of candidates linked to Iraq's powerful
Shiite paramilitary groups was in second.
CYBERWARFARE
Government and private-sector cybersecurity experts in
the United States and Israel worry that President Trump's decision to
pull out of the Iran nuclear deal this week will lead to a surge in
retaliatory cyberattacks from Iran.
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