Tuesday, July 31, 2018

Eye on Iran: Trump Says He Is Willing to Talk to Iran's Leader Without Preconditions



   EYE ON IRAN
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TOP STORIES


U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday he would be willing to meet Iran's leader without preconditions to discuss how to improve ties after he pulled the United States out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, saying, "If they want to meet, we'll meet."


Iran's currency traded at a fresh record-low of 119,000 to the dollar on Tuesday, a loss of nearly two-thirds of its value since the start of the year as US sanctions loom. 


Russia cannot compel Iranian forces to quit Syria, Moscow's ambassador to Tel Aviv said on Monday, rebuffing Israel's long-standing demand that it should work to ensure their total withdrawal from the country.

UANI IN THE NEWS


For a very long time, the governments of Europe have tended to downplay the threat posed to their own national security and to the stability of the world as a whole by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The overriding trend in Western strategies toward that country has involved misguided negotiations, often rising to the level of outright appeasement. Yet each instance of reaching out to so-called moderates like current Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ultimately reminded the world of Tehran's unwavering commitment to belligerence and the principles of Islamic extremism.


In early July, Iranian diplomat Assadollah Assadi was arrested and charged with acting as a foreign agent and conspiracy to commit murder following his alleged involvement in a failed bomb plot targeting a gathering of Iranian opposition groups in Paris. This thwarted terror attack, the latest in a long Iranian pattern of murdering its detractors, is symptomatic of the regime's expansive global agenda and highlights Iran's singular status as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. A successful response to this latest example of Iranian aggression must go beyond this incident, as Iran's effort to export its anti-Western, anti-U.S. Khomeinist ideology of terror is truly a global undertaking. 

NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM


Iranian officials reacted skeptically on Tuesday to President Donald Trump's comments that he's willing to negotiate with his Iranian counterpart, saying instead that if Trump wants talks, he needs to rejoin the international nuclear deal he unilaterally pulled out of earlier this year.


Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday the U.S. withdrawal from a nuclear deal was "illegal" and it was up to Europe to preserve the landmark accord with Tehran.

SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS


Iran's currency plummeted to a record low Monday, a week before the United States restores sanctions lifted under the unraveling nuclear deal, giving rise to fears of prolonged economic suffering and further civil unrest. 


Iran's Revolutionary Guards, in unusually pointed language, called on President Hassan Rouhani to do more to prop up the rial after the currency fell to a historic low this week in anticipation of renewed U.S. sanctions. 


The German sportswear company Adidas is the latest European business to pull out of Iran's increasingly volatile market due to pending US sanctions on the mullah regime in Tehran. 


An Iranian trade official said that Tehran is looking for potential solutions to maintain trade with Africa by bartering oil products for gold, Press TV reported on Monday. 


President Trump said Monday that he'd meet Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with "no preconditions," and after meetings with Kim Jong Un and Vladimir Putin this was probably only a matter of time. Mr. Trump has preternatural confidence in his negotiating ability-and every other ability. But give Mr. Trump credit for noticing at the same time that Iran's regime is "having a hard time right now," for which he can take some credit. 

MISSILE PROGRAM


Iran has begun mass production of a long-range air-to-air missile. And if it looks familiar, it should. The Fakour 90 is Tehran's knockoff of the U.S. AIM-54 Phoenix missile, once the prime weapon of the U.S. Navy's F-14 Tomcat fighter. 

PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS


An Iranian news agency says railway workers protesting unpaid salaries in northwestern Iran have received pledges of assistance from local authorities but no apparent timeline for getting their wages.  

MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS


When Iran threatens war with the U.S., it's not necessarily talking about war in the conventional sense. But where Tehran can cause damage is an escalation of activities that's likely to send further ripples across regional conflicts and oil markets.

U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS


Donald Trump has said he would "certainly meet" Iranian president Hassan Rouhani without preconditions, a move that was later rejected by Trump's own administration and one of Rouhani's advisers. 


Tensions between Tehran and Washington are building as new sanctions approach on August 6, the first set since the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal... This doesn't mean war is imminent between Tehran and Washington. The Trump administration's strategy still centers on economic pressure, rather than military measures. And Iran's leadership is nothing if not the master of snappy responses to threats from Washington, which offer a welcome distraction from mounting economic pressures at home.


Turns out that when Donald Trump recently warned Iran's president on Twitter that more threats against the United States would bring "CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE," it was just the first part of his message. The second was, essentially, "AND IF YOU'D RATHER TALK, I'D LOVE TO!"

CONGRESS & IRAN


President Donald Trump's comment that he's willing to meet with Iranian President Hassan Rouhani with no preconditions shows diplomatic over-confidence, a Democratic lawmaker on the House Armed Services Committee said Monday.

NORTH KOREA & IRAN 


North Korea has constructed two new buildings at a missile facility in the northern suburbs of Pyongyang and appears to be actively continuing production there, according to an analysis of newly available commercial satellite imagery, the latest sign of continued progress in the country's nuclear and missile program. The satellite imagery, which was captured on Sunday by San Francisco-based imagery provider Planet Labs Inc. and analyzed by experts at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey, Calif., shows two buildings-believed to be an administrative building and a museum-newly erected at the site.

RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN


The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria plans talks with Iran, Russia and Turkey in September to start finalizing the composition of the body intended to draft a new Syrian constitution, a statement said on Tuesday.  


While the intelligence community still thinks the probability of war initiated by Hezbollah is low, the main concern is that local events in Syria or Lebanon will trigger an escalation


Although Lebanon held its parliamentary elections in early May, the prime minister designate, Saad Hariri, has yet to form a new government. That's not surprising since the country is at a crossroads and clashing agendas and ambitions were always certain to delay what was never an easy process... It will take considerable time for a new government to see the light of day. Yet time is not a luxury Lebanon has in a severe economic crisis. Mr Hariri is walking a tightrope to get his government right. 


Russia wants to use the gains it made in Syria as a bargaining chip with the US on Ukraine and the economic sanctions.

IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS


Forty years after revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini described the Iranian Senate as a "stupid" entity, certain political figures are saying that such a chamber now is a "necessity" for the country. Prior to the 1979 Islamic Revolution, the Senate was part of the political structure of Iran. But the new constitution written by the revolutionaries abolished it and introduced unicameral government.

GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN


One of the West's key allies in the Middle East has called on the U.S. and Europe to resolve their differences over Iran. Speaking at the Policy Exchange think-tank in London last week, the UAE's minister of state for foreign affairs Anwar Gargash voiced concern about the split between the U.S. and European governments over how to deal with Tehran.


Yemen's Houthi rebels are still arming themselves with ballistic missiles and drones that "show characteristics similar" to Iranian-made weapons, a report by a UN panel of experts has found. In a confidential report to the Security Council, a copy of which was seen by AFP on Monday, the panel said it "continues to believe" that short-range ballistic missiles and other weaponry were transferred from Iran to Yemen after an arms embargo was imposed in 2015.

IRAQ & IRAN


A senior Iranian Kurdish official warned that Tehran is planning extensive attacks on Iranian Kurdish parties amid economic turmoil, electricity cuts, and protests inside Iran. Loghman H. Ahmedi, a senior member of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan's (PDKI) leadership, told Kurdistan 24 on Monday that Iran is worried about domestic problems posing an existential threat to the "regime," and is looking to divert attention from its internal issues by attacking Kurds.






Eye on Iran is a periodic news summary from United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) a program of the American Coalition Against Nuclear Iran, Inc., a tax-exempt organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Eye on Iran is not intended as a comprehensive media clips summary but rather a selection of media elements with discreet analysis in a PDA friendly format. For more information please email press@uani.com.

United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is a non-partisan, broad-based coalition that is united in a commitment to prevent Iran from fulfilling its ambition to become a regional super-power possessing nuclear weapons.  UANI is an issue-based coalition in which each coalition member will have its own interests as well as the collective goal of advancing an Iran free of nuclear weapons.

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