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TOP STORIES
The United States has rejected an appeal from Britain,
France and Germany to grant broad exemptions to European firms doing
business in Iran, saying it would press ahead with sanctions intended
to exert "unprecedented" economic pressure on the Tehran
regime, U.S. and Western officials told NBC News.
New details from a trove of Iranian nuclear documents
stolen by Israeli spies early this year show that Tehran obtained
explicit weapons-design information from a foreign source and was on
the cusp of mastering key bombmaking technologies when the research
was ordered halted 15 years ago. Iran's ambitious, highly secretive
effort to build nuclear weapons included extensive research in making
uranium metal as well as advanced testing of equipment used to
generate neutrons to start a nuclear chain reaction, the documents
show.
New U.S. sanctions are likely to prevent the use of a
Lloyd's of London IT platform for any Iran insurance, adding to
difficulties for European insurers providing cover for the country.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Speculation persists of a possible deal with Russia on
Syria. Yet caution is required, for no decision is more likely to
affect the course of events in the Middle East in the coming years
than the question of how long to retain U.S. forces in Syria... Make
no mistake, these small U.S. forces have an outsize significance for
both our friends and enemies. At modest cost and risk, they offer
substantial benefit to U.S. national security. Carefully integrated
into a larger strategy, a small, nimble U.S. force presence offers a
powerful obstacle to two threats-a regenerated Islamic State, and
Iran's effort to use Syria as a power projection platform in the
heart of the Arab Middle East and against Israel.
Last month, I returned from a trip to Israel. In a
briefing we received from a former intelligence officer on Israel's
northern border, I heard two warnings that Israeli experts have
repeated on multiple occasions. First, they talk about the next war
not in terms of "if" but "when." Secondly, they
say that the next war won't only be with Hezbollah in Lebanon, but
also with Iranian forces and Shiite militias on the Golan
Heights.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Israeli agents covertly extracted documents detailing
Iran's nuclear program in a dramatic 6½-hour operation in Tehran in
January, removing a trove of materials that included partial designs
for a nuclear warhead, senior Israeli intelligence officials said.
The Mossad agents moving in on a warehouse in a drab
commercial district of Tehran knew exactly how much time they had to
disable the alarms, break through two doors, cut through dozens of
giant safes and get out of the city with a half-ton of secret
materials: six hours and 29 minutes.
A top adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump's suggestion that
Iran seek a deal with the United States to ease the economic
"pain" of looming sanctions.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
French reinsurer Scor SE said on Friday it will not sign
new contracts in Iran or renew existing deals because of U.S.
sanctions against the country.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov says he cannot confirm
the recent comments made by the top aide of the Islamic Republic's
Supreme Leader that Russia will invest money in Iran.
Iran said Russia is ready to invest as much as $50
billion in its oil industry even as Western majors are pulling out of
deals with the republic amid the threat of U.S. sanctions.
The U.S. Department of Commerce on July 13 lifted a ban
on U.S. companies selling equipment to Chinese telecom giant ZTE,
allowing the company to resume business. The department imposed the
ban in April over allegations that ZTE violated U.S. sanctions
against Iran and North Korea, but the company's warnings that the
penalty would put it out of business prompted the White House to
negotiate a reprieve for the firm.
Iran demanded its fellow OPEC members stick to crude
production ceilings and defied the threats of Donald Trump as the
U.S. president targets its crucial oil exports.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday the
United States was more isolated than ever over sanctions against
Iran, even among its allies.
A senior Iranian oil official urged U.S. President
Donald Trump not to use the nation's Strategic Petroleum Reserve to
push prices lower, and instead drop sanctions on Iran's crude
exports. "My advice to you, Mr. President, is to avoid touching
the SPR - to cool down and give up sanctioning Iranian oil,"
Hossein Kazempour Ardebili, Iran's representative to OPEC, said by
email.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Maryam Faraji, a 33-year old civil rights activist and
dissident, who mysteriously disappeared on Thursday, July 5, has been
found dead.
Najaf airport has been sacked. The border with Kuwait
has been occupied by protesters and roads to major oil fields blocked
in southern Iraq. The base of a Kata'ib Hezbollah pro-Iranian militia
was set on fire. In response Baghdad has cut off access to Internet
and social media apps, and sent elite counter-terrorism units, as
well as the army, to quell the spreading protests.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Elements of Iran's clandestine services are making
increasingly bold and potentially dangerous moves across Europe and
Africa, using diplomatic missions abroad as tools to project power in
ways not seen since the 1990s, say security officials and
counterterrorism experts. The alleged surge in activity includes
assassination plots, accusations of an attempted bombing, and the
reported arming of rebel groups far from Iran's borders.
The German intelligence agency of the state of Hesse
published a new document on countering the spread of weapons of mass
destruction, singling out the Islamic Republic of Iran as one of two
states seeking to obtain the ultimate form of powerful weapons.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
When President Donald Trump meets Russia's Vladimir
Putin on Monday, the Syrian conflict will be one of the most
immediately pressing issues on a wide-ranging and colorful agenda. As
fighting wanes after seven years of war, the U.S. has made curtailing
Iran's influence in post-war Syria a strategic objective - one
strongly backed by Israel.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke on the phone with
President Trump on Saturday. Israel is closely following the
Trump-Putin summit, which takes place Monday in Helsinki, Finland.
One of the main issues in the summit will be a possible deal on the
future of Syria. Israel wants Iranian forces, Hezbollah and
pro-Iranian Shia militias out of Syria in any future deal.
Israel on Sunday night attacked a military base near Aleppo
in northern Syria, the country's official news agency SANA reported,
citing a military source.
Israel is ramping up attacks against Iranian supply
lines in Syria to block the flow of weapons to Hezbollah and other
Tehran-backed militias, as it seeks to drive its foe away from its
borders.
US President Donald Trump's top security adviser said
Sunday that US troops would remain in Syria as long as Iran continues
to "menace" the region, seemingly reversing a promise by
the White House to pull out sooner.
Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior adviser to Iranian Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on Friday that Tehran coordinates
positions on its military presence in Syria with Moscow and
Damascus.
Iran has no intention of leaving Syria regardless of
U.S. and Israeli pressure, a senior envoy to Iran's leader said
Friday, reaffirming a tough stance on the issue expected to top the
agenda of the upcoming U.S.-Russian summit.
Shi'ite forces, managed by Iran, are being integrated
into the campaign currently waged by the Syrian army in the south of
the country, according to a report by the Meir Amit Intelligence and
Terrorism Information Center released on Thursday.
'Death to Palestine!" Iranians chanted at a large
antiregime protest recently. They also called for death to Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani. But why
would Iranians care about "Palestine" with such passion as
to wish it dead? Because hatred of Israel is a foundational idea of
the Islamic Republic. In calling for "death to Palestine,"
Iranians are subverting a regime whose raison d'être is antagonism.
Hamas leaders regret speaking out about their renewed
relations with Iran, some sources report, and certain foreign
advisers to Hamas have recommended that the Islamist movement stop
its boasting.
According to reports in both Syrian and English media,
Israel last month made what was essentially a devil's bargain with
Russia after weeks of intensive diplomacy: Israel will give Russia
and its Assad regime client the diplomatic "green light" to
attack rebel forces abutting Israel and Jordan, and in return, Russia
will ensure that Iranian proxy forces who back Assad do not join the
offensive. The demand regarding Iranian proxies is key, as many such
proxies have clear intentions to attack Israel. But Russia has not
held up its end of the bargain.
OTHER IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iran's supreme leader has called on state bodies to
support the government of President Hassan Rohani in fighting looming
U.S. economic sanctions, saying America's "conspiracy"
could be defeated, Iranian media have reported.
While Persian-speaking satellite channels in Iran have
been periodically subject to jamming since 2003, the information and
communications technology minister says that equipment for monitoring
"jamming signals" has been installed in the city of Shiraz
and several other cities across the country. Earlier, the Health
Ministry, along with Shiraz's representatives to the Iranian
parliament, had warned against the health risks of exposure to
jamming signals.
An Iranian pilot who recently made revelations about
gross safety violations by Iranian airlines was arrested on Sunday,
July 15 in Tehran for a few hours.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
Iran's countermeasures for fighting US economic
sanctions, which cripple Iranian oil exports, include blocking the
strategic Hormuz Strait, said Deputy Speaker of Parliament Ali
Motahari.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Yemen's rebel chief on Friday praised Shiite power Iran
and its ally Hezbollah, singling out the Lebanese group's leader
Hassan Nasrallah for his "solidarity."
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