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TOP STORIES
Iran's regime has not stopped its drive to secure
technology and scientific knowledge to produce weapon of mass
destruction, the intelligence agency of the German state of
Baden-Württemberg disclosed in a report last week. "Iran
continued to undertake, as did Pakistan and Syria, efforts to obtain
goods and know-how to be used for the development of weapons of mass
destruction and to optimize corresponding missile delivery
systems," said the intelligence document...
The head of the United Nations' nuclear watchdog is
renewing calls for Iran to provide "timely and proactive
cooperation" in inspections that are part of the deal meant to
prevent it from developing nuclear weapons.
Iran's two leaders have often been perceived to be at
loggerheads as Mr Rouhani has drawn the ire of hardliners for
attempting to ease social restrictions and open up the economy. But
as the Islamic republic grapples with the fallout from US president
Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal with
Tehran, Mr Khamenei is determined to demonstrate that hardliners and
reformers are united in the face of what Iran's rulers see as an
existential threat to their survival.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
The world should stand up to Washington's bullying
behavior, Iran's foreign minister was quoted as saying on Sunday by
state media in a letter to counterparts, as the top diplomat
intensifies efforts to save a nuclear deal after a U.S. exit.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Indian state refiner Bharat Petroleum Corp has requested
an extra one million barrels of oil from the National Iranian Oil Co.
(NIOC) for June, two industry sources said, amid a looming threat of
stringent U.S. sanctions. The move by BPCL indicates that refiners
will try to frontload their purchases from Iran ahead of a November
U.S. deadline for re-imposing sanctions on the country's petroleum
sector.
Numerous individual aircraft and front companies were
added to the Treasury sanctions list, but naming even more of them
could boost U.S. efforts to pressure Iran and close the IRGC's Syrian
air bridge.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
The U.S. military has floated the possibility of
stationing a new missile defense system in Germany that would have
the capability of protecting Europe from both Russia and Iran,
according to reports.
Iran's security chief, General Ali Shamkhani, says his
country "has no military presence whatsoever in southern
Syria." This comes as Russia's UN envoy tells reporters about
Moscow's agreement with Tel Aviv on the withdrawal of Iranian forces
from southern Syria. Shamkhani's statement was made after Russian
officials, including Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, stressed that
Iranian forces and Lebanese Hezballah militia should leave southwestern
Syria as soon as possible.
SYRIA, RUSSIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Well-informed military sources said on Friday that
Iranian forces and Lebanese Hezbollah militias have begun withdrawing
from areas in Southern Syria and Daraa. The military source said that
only a small number of forces are left behind and are expected to
continue their withdrawal in the coming few days. Iran's withdrawal
comes in response to Israeli demands and as a prelude to a Russian
deal that could allow Assad's forces to control the southern border
in exchange for Iran's removal.
Russia's Ambassador to the UN Vasily Nebenzya said
Friday he believed Israel and his country had reached an agreement on
the withdrawal of Iranian forces from the Syrian-Israeli border.
Western diplomatic sources told Asharq Al-Awsat on
Friday that Washington expressed its reservations on the
Russian-Israeli agreements that allow Syrian regime forces to control
three strategic positions south the country, because "the US
administration wants to continue exerting pressures on the
regime."
A top Iranian general denied reports his military and
Tehran-backed militias were withdrawing from Syria, Iranian media
reported Sunday. "Iran and Syria enjoy deep relations that would
not be influenced by the propaganda measures of anyone," Brigadier
General Massoud Jazayeri told the private Iranian news agency Tasnim.
Israeli officials have denied claims by Russia's
ambassador to the UN that it has reached an agreement with Moscow on
the withdrawal of Iranian forces from southwest Syria, Chanel 10
reported Saturday.
Since Iran and Russia reached an agreement in the summer
of 2015 to coordinate a military campaign to save the regime of
Syria's dictator, that war has held together an unholy alliance of
those three states. It worked. Bashar al-Assad has withstood the
uprising. Now, as that war comes to a close, the Iranian-Russian
alliance that saved the Assad regime appears to be fraying.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
While Iran's environmental challenges have reached
crisis level, the country's judicial and security authorities have
stepped up crackdown on the very experts and activists who are
leading efforts to address the country's growing water scarcity and
environmental problems, adversely affecting tens of millions of
Iranians on a daily basis.
Several Iranians posted screenshots on their social
media accounts May 26-May 29, 2018, stating that accounts in their
names had been created without their consent on the Iran-based,
state-approved messaging app, Soroush.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
It sounds like the days of Ayatollah Mohammad-Taghi
Mesbah Yazdi leading Iran's hard-liners are coming to a close. At 83,
he appears ready to step aside for a new ayatollah. It has recently
been reported by local news agencies that Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei, plans to appoint Mohammad-Mahdi Mir-Baqeri, 57, as
Tehran's Friday prayer leader. Remarkably, Mir-Baqeri has not denied
the rumors.
Sixty wetlands in Iran, including nearly 44 percent of
the country's total marshlands, have dried up, according to the
deputy head of the Department of Environment (DOE) for wetlands.
The taboo issue of sexual abuse in Iran has reignited
after allegations that a string of indecent activities involving more
than a dozen students were carried out by an adult at an all-boys
high school in Tehran... In the wake of this case and previous
similar incidents, Iranians have taken to social media using the
global hashtag #MeToo, sharing stories of their own experiences - and
confessions.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
A senior Qatari official said Sunday his country will
not be dragged into any conflict with Iran.
The Trump administration is weighing an appeal from the
United Arab Emirates for direct U.S. support to seize Yemen's main
port for humanitarian aid from Iranian-backed Houthi fighters,
according to U.S. officials, a move they worry could have
catastrophic effects on the country.
IRAQ & IRAN
Iraq and Iran have begun exchanging crude oil, the
Iranian oil ministry's news agency SHANA said on Sunday, in a deal
that will position Tehran to expand its interests in its most
important Arab ally in the face of growing pressure from Washington.
Two pro-Iranian militias active in Iraq and Syria
declared that possible US sanctions targeting them would be
ineffective and claimed that such sanctions would actually strengthen
their presence and expansion in the Middle East. The US House of Representatives
on May 24 passed sanctions against Asaib Ahl al-Haq and Harakat
Hezbollah al-Nujaba as an amendment to annual defense legislation.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is heading to
Europe in a bid to rally support from key allies for amending the
international nuclear deal with Iran and for pushing Iranian forces
out of neighboring Syria.
NATO's secretary-general says the alliance wouldn't come
to Israel's defense in case of attack by arch enemy Iran. Jens
Stoltenberg told the magazine Der Spiegel in comments published
Saturday that Israel is a partner, but not a member and that NATO's
"security guarantee" doesn't apply to Israel.
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg's remark that the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization would not come to Israel's aid in a war
with Iran is "strange" considering that Israel has never
requested or expected this type of assistance, former Foreign Ministry
director-general Dore Gold said on Sunday.
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Deputy Prime
Minister and Minister of Defense, held a telephone call with British
Prime Minister Theresa May to discuss the latest regional
developments. A statement from the British premier's office said that
the two officials stressed "the need to tackle Iranian
destabilizing activity in the (Middle East) region," reported
Reuters on Sunday. "As part of this the Prime Minister noted the
importance of cooperation between their two countries to protect
Saudi Arabia from ballistic missile attacks" launched by the
Iran-backed Houthi militias in Yemen.
MISCELLANEOUS
An Argentine federal appeals court confirmed Friday that
special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, found dead in 2015 while
investigating a 1994 Jewish center bombing, was murdered. The Federal
Court of Buenos Aires said there was no doubt that Nisman's death was
a homicide rather than suicide, El Pais reported, and came as a
"direct consequence" of his accusations that then-president
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up Iran's role in the attack
on the Buenos Aires AMIA center that left 85 dead and hundreds
wounded.
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