|
TOP STORIES
Iran began a major naval exercise near the Strait of
Hormuz Thursday, in an apparent response to rhetoric from President
Donald Trump in recent days that he would ratchet up pressure against
Tehran, U.S. defense officials said.
Anti-government protests by Iranians fed up with their
nation's economic woes have spread to 10 major cities, posing the
biggest challenge to Iran's Islamist rulers since January's
nationwide demonstrations.
The U.S. has been unable to persuade China to cut
Iranian oil imports, according to two officials familiar with the
negotiations, dealing a blow to President Donald Trump's efforts to
isolate the Islamic Republic after his withdrawal from the 2015
nuclear accord. Beijing has, however, agreed not to ramp up purchases
of Iranian crude, according to the officials, who asked not to be
identified because discussions with China and other countries
continue.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Iran's foreign minister said on Friday China was
"pivotal" to salvaging a multilateral nuclear agreement for
the Middle Eastern country after the United States pulled out of the
pact earlier this year.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Secretary of State Michael Pompeo arrived in Singapore
for a regional summit that will spotlight the challenges facing U.S.
efforts to keep up international pressure against both North Korea
and Iran.
Iranians are hunkering down for the return of US
sanctions on Monday with a run on gold and hard currency as they
scramble to protect their savings, and sporadic protests over the
already troubled economy.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
An Iranian court has ordered Shaparak Shajarizadeh, a
43-year-old woman from Tehran, to spend the next 20 years atoning for
an act that shouldn't be a crime. Last month she was sentenced to two
years in prison and 18 years' probation for removing her hijab, or
head scarf, in public. This sentence was the culmination of Ms.
Shajarizadeh's persecution by the Iranian government. In February,
she stood unveiled on a traffic island on Tehran's Gheitariyeh
Street, waving her head scarf on a stick. Minutes later police
officers slammed her to the ground, arrested her, and carted her off
to the Vozara Detention Center.
Feminists in Iran have expressed outrage after a video
emerged showing a hijab-wearing woman attacking another woman for not
covering up.
A glimpse into the conspicuous "luxury" of the
wedding of an Iranian ambassador's son has rekindled public criticism
of the high times enjoyed by children of Iran's elite while many of
the country's 82 million people face acute economic pressure.
Ordinary Iranians are mounting protests that refuse to
go away, despite a sharp response from the authorities. The
demonstrations began to make news late last year, focusing largely on
economic hardship. As those protests continued in cities around the country,
another movement re-emerged: young women standing up against the
enforcement of conservative Muslim strictures on their dress and
behavior.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Clearly, President Trump's offer to meet with Iranian
leaders wasn't appreciated by the Islamic Republic. Contrary to what
Iran's defenders suggest, history has consistently shown that the
nation's leaders treat offers of accommodation with contempt - just
as Jafari treated President Trump's offer for a meeting. The Iranians
negotiate faithfully only when they have no other recourse, and
change their behavior only when diplomacy is backed by the credible
imposition of costs for noncompliance.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned
Iran it would join military action to stop it blocking a key seaway
after Yemen's Iranian-aligned Huthi rebels attacked two Saudi oil
tankers.
Lebanon faces a political impasse three months after an
election produced a parliament tilted in favor of the Iran-backed
Shi'ite group Hezbollah, with no sign of compromises needed to form a
unity government.
Fars News, a subset of the Iranian revolutionary guard
corps, is crowing about the impending Syrian-Russian-Iranian axis
assault on Idlib governate in Syria. While Fars News is only
occasionally reliable, in this case, it is telling the truth. Axis
ground and air forces have moved into position to smash their way
into Idlib and pacify the province under Syrian President Bashar
Assad's dictatorial banner.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
As a third day of protests erupted across major Iranian
cities over the country's worsening economic situation, the clergy in
Iran is looking inward. Rather than only pointing the blame at US
sanctions, the most senior clerics in Iran - often referred to as
"grand ayatollahs" - are demanding that the administration
and the judiciary take a harder line fighting economic corruption.
The nationwide drought in Iran is triggering internal
migration and its water-rich areas are already suffering shortages.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
As far as the Iranian regime's policies are concerned,
they are based entirely on a revolutionary agenda, which is hell-bent
on facilitating a series of wars and disputes close to its borders,
which are designed to bring the targeted countries under its control,
allowing the regime to attain an iron grip on the region, through a
program of creeping hegemonic control.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
The Saudi-led coalition denied any responsibility behind
the air strikes on a fishing port and fish market that Yemeni medical
sources said it killed 26 people in Hodeidah on Thursday...
"Coalition did not carry out any operations in Hodeidah
today," the coalition spokesman, Colonel Turki al-Malki, told
Alarabiya television. "The Houthi militia are behind killing of
civilians in Hodeidah on Thursday," he said.
IRAQ, TURKEY & IRAN
Since U.S. troops completed their withdrawal from Iraq
in 2011, American policy towards Iraq has focused narrowly on
militarily defeating the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL),
with little attention to spare for Iraqi domestic politics. This has been
a mistake... The jockeying for a position in the coalition government
that inevitably follows Iraqi elections marks a dangerous period for
Iraq's stability but also provides an opportunity for the United
States to engage constructively with Iraq's future leadership, work
to prevent the reemergence of extremist groups like ISIL, and push
back against Iranian influence in Iraq.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
The Iranian government has summoned the Tajik ambassador
to Tehran to protest allegations linking Iran to an attack that
killed four foreign cyclists in Tajikistan.
MISCELLANEOUS
The United States Department of Homeland Security has
reopened the asylum applications of dozens of Christian refugees who
were denied resettlement earlier this year. In compliance with a
federal court order from last month, the agency is reevaluating the
cases of 87 religious minorities who fled their homes in Iran to
travel to Vienna, Austria on the invitation from the U.S. government
to seek asylum through the U.S. Lautenberg-Spencer refugee
resettlement program.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment