|
TOP STORIES
While the Trump administration is still touting its
supposedly successful summit with North Korea - even claiming that
Pyongyang is "no longer a nuclear threat" - senior U.S.
intelligence officials worry that a new security challenge is emerging:
that the Kim regime could sell advanced, long-range ICBM missile
technology to rogue states like Iran.
Iran's nuclear chief said on Tuesday that Europe's proposals
to salvage the 2015 nuclear deal after the U.S. withdrawal from the pact
were not satisfying for Tehran, warning that all sides would lose if Iran
is sidelined by the West, the IRNA state news agency said
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has publically
opposed joining a global anti-money laundering convention... Earlier last
week the parliament suspended debate on joining FATF for two months out
of fear that membership could thwart helping Iran's allies abroad,
including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
US President Donald Trump's recent foreign policy moves make
it more likely that Iran will attempt to make a nuclear bomb and bring
Israel closer to war, former IDF intelligence chief Amos Yadlin said on
Sunday. Speaking at a Tel Aviv University conference on national security
and cyber issues, Yadlin said the North Korea summit will push Iran to
renew its uranium enrichment and eventually pursue a nuclear bomb.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran's oil minister said Tuesday he didn't expect OPEC to
reach a consensus on boosting oil output this week, saying Tehran was
against any increase and threatening to turn the cartel's meeting into an
unusually contentious one.
President Donald Trump's attempt to politicize the oil
market should be castigated by OPEC, according to Iran's energy minister.
The U.S. president has sought to publicly intervene in OPEC's
policymaking ahead of a key meeting for the 14-member oil cartel on
Friday, complaining in a pair of tweets that the Middle-East-dominated
group is to blame for crude prices recently soaring to multi-year highs.
Iran put itself on a collision course with Saudi Arabia at
this week's OPEC meeting, rejecting a potential compromise that would
allow a small oil-production increase to appease energy consumers.
Iran wants to discuss the scale of possible oil output
adjustment as part of a global deal with Russia, TASS news agency said on
Wednesday, citing two unnamed sources.
Iran oil minister Bijan Zanganeh says the real
responsibility for the current oil price hike lies with the U.S.
President.
SYRIA, RUSSIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Jarida reported on Tuesday that Israel
carried out an airstrike on a Shi'ite militia in Syria with the approval
of both Moscow and Washington.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
The United States says it is "deeply concerned" by
reports that Iran has arrested a lawyer who defended a religious minority
member executed by Iranian authorities on Monday for allegedly killing
policemen.
Tehran's largest football stadium is to admit thousands of
women together with men for the first time since the the Islamic
revolution of 1979 as World Cup fever grips Iran for its Wednesday
evening group game against Spain.
Iran captain Masoud Shojaei said on Tuesday that the World
Cup was the wrong place to discuss the issue of women being allowed to
watch football matches at stadiums in the Islamic republic. Iranian women
are expected to be in the crowd at the Kazan Arena on Wednesday when
their country takes on Spain, taking advantage of an opportunity not
available to them back home.
Twelve years ago Kat Khosrowyar arrived in Iran on holiday.
Now she's driving a revolution in women's football there
OTHER IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Both President Hassan Rouhani and First Vice President Eshaq
Jahangiri have publicly slammed underperforming government ministers, but
few believe it will lead to a Cabinet shake-up.
The Chief of Staff Iran's President is saying that the
administration plans to create two new government ministries - commerce
and roads - and add them to the Cabinet. The semi-official Tasnim news
agency on Tuesday quotes Mahmoud Vaezi as saying the ministries will be
headed by "younger and new faces," without elaborating.
In another era, Reza Pahlavi, the son of the last shah of
Iran, would be an ideal candidate to lead an Iranian government in
exile... Now, as Iran is reeling, why wouldn't the U.S. get the old band
back together? There are two reasons. President Donald Trump himself says
his goal is not to change Iran's regime, but to change its behavior. The
other more important reason is that Pahlavi himself is not interested in
the gig.
Seven weeks after Iran's conservative-led judiciary banned
the secure communications app Telegram inside the country, Iranians are
still reeling from the change.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Officials in a Saudi-led coalition battling Shiite rebels
for control of a crucial port in Yemen on Tuesday displayed weapons
captured on the battlefield that they say show Iran is arming the
insurgents.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
Soccer fans from Israel and around the world have called on
World Cup organizers to ban an Iranian player from the remainder of the
tournament, a year after he retweeted a post from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
anticipating the destruction of Israel.
TURKEY & IRAN
Iran's refutation of official Turkish claims that it
supports the military operation launched by Turkey against the outlawed
Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in Iraq's Qandil region has stoked more
resentment for Tehran in Ankara.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Liberal MPs from Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's
party joined conservative lawmakers in the House of Commons last week to
vote against the re-establishment of diplomatic relations with the
Islamic Republic of Iran.
MISCELLANEOUS
The Islamic Republic had interest and became involved in the
African country as a way to get to Israel long before the arrest the
former Israeli minister-turned spy, who spent recent years there; from
photographing Israeli embassy to weapons containers destined for Hamas
and Hezbollah.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment