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TOP STORIES
Iran has given ballistic missiles to Shi'ite proxies in
Iraq and is developing the capacity to build more there to deter
attacks on its interests in the Middle East and to give it the means
to hit regional foes, Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources said.
President Donald Trump said the Iranian regime may
collapse because of his administration's policies, including leaving
the international nuclear agreement with Tehran negotiated by his
predecessor.
A decade ago, a captive Iraqi terrorist leader told his
U.S. interrogators all about how Shiite militias worked with Iran,
Hezbollah and each other to attack American soldiers in Iraq. Now, as
that terrorist is set to wield significant political power in Iraq,
the details of his interrogations are being released for the first
time.
UANI IN THE NEWS
We see a flight of companies from Iran - Total, Siemens,
Maersk - major corporations that are refusing to do deals with the
Iranian regime regardless of what the capitals of Europe and EU
Central is encouraging them to do, and that's because they recognize
what most of the rest of the world recognizes: that Iran is not open
for business.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Honouring the 2015 nuclear deal is not Iran's only
option, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday in a
Twitter post.
The United Nations' nuclear watchdog said Thursday that
Iran continues to comply with the terms of a 2015 nuclear pact,
despite the United States' withdrawal from the deal and renewed
sanctions that have contributed to an economic crisis.
Iran's foreign ministry on Friday dismissed a French
call for more negotiations with Tehran over the international nuclear
accord as "bullying and excessive".
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran's most senior general has threatened to shut down
the world's busiest oil chokepoint if the U.S. manages to completely
cut his country's oil and gas trade.
Japan remains firmly committed to seeking US exemption
for Iranian oil imports as it sees the supplies as important for the
country's energy security and businesses, a top government official
told S&P Global Platts on Thursday.
MISSILE PROGRAM
Satellite photos published Thursday purported to show
the establishment of an Iranian surface-to-surface missile factory in
Syria, raising fresh concerns over the extent of the two countries'
military cooperation on Israel's northern border.
Iran "cannot avoid" talks on thorny issues
like its ballistic missile program and role in Middle East conflicts,
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian warned Thursday, as
European powers work to rescue the beleaguered nuclear deal with Tehran.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
The US military is changing up its Middle East war games
to deal with perceived Iranian threats short of entering into armed
conflict, Al-Monitor has learned.
Suicide terrorism was virtually unknown until the
creation of the Islamic Republic of Iran and became a useful tool of
the regime, which it used through proxy forces such as Hezbollah, to
carry out strikes against overseas facilities and assets of more powerful
nations like the US and Israel, the attacks of which it could claim
plausible deniability.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
Chief of the Joint Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces
Mohammad Hossein Baqeri has threatened that foreign forces sailing
through the Strait of Hormuz will face action by the Islamic
Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) if they violate international
regulations.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN.
Israel's defence minister described Iran on Friday as
having slowed down its long-term force deployment in Syria,
attributing this to Israeli military intervention as well as an
economic crisis gripping Tehran as U.S. sanctions are restored.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
President Trump should pick up the phone - or get on
Twitter - and tell Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani that the U.S.
won't use expanded base facilities in Qatar and will consider
relocating the U.S. military out of Qatar entirely. Unless, that is,
Qatar realigns its foreign policy towards greater support for
regional stability and counterterrorism.
MISCELLANEOUS
As if the free world didn't have enough to worry about
with Russian fake news, now the world leader in state-sponsored
terrorism is getting into the act: Iran is running a disinformation
campaign on social media, and it is bigger than previously believed.
A closer look though at this propaganda, however, reveals a paper
tiger. Iran's network of Twitter handles, websites and Facebook fakes
are amateurish and clumsy.
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