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TOP STORIES
Iran's supreme leader said Monday that his country will
neither go to war nor enter into negotiations with the United States
as the Trump administration restores sanctions lifted under the 2015
nuclear deal.
British renewable energy investor Quercus said it will
stop building a 500 million euro (445.8 million pounds) solar power
project in Iran due to recently imposed U.S. sanctions on Tehran.
Iran's supreme leader made his sharpest criticism yet of
his country's president on Monday, faulting him for having crossed
"red lines" in nuclear negotiations with the United States
and other failures that have created an economic crisis.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
U.S. President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on Iran
last week - completing his torching of the historic nuclear deal, and
putting the Middle Eastern country in a tight spot. But Iran knew it
was coming, and devised a strategy to counter the sanctions. Iranian
President Hassan Rouhani and senior officials met with at least 23
countries over three months to try to convince them they could keep
doing business with Iran.
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi Monday walked back
on his commitment to abide by new US sanctions on Iran, saying his
government would only respect the dollar ban in transactions with Iran.
"I did not say we abide by the sanctions, I said we abide by not
using dollars in transactions. We have no other choice," Abadi
told a news conference in Baghdad.
MISSILE PROGRAM
Iran just unveiled a new short-range ballistic missile
on Monday, just a few days after test firing a variant of the missile
over the Strait of Hormuz. The Fateh-e Mobin missile is an
"agile, radar-evading and tactical missile with pinpoint
accuracy," said Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Amir Hatami,
according to Defense News, citing the Iranian Tasnim News Agency.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
The ISIS extremist group has up to 30,000 members
roughly equally distributed between Syria and Iraq and its global
network poses a rising threat - as does al-Qaeda, which is much
stronger in places, a United Nations report says. The report by UN
experts circulated Monday said that despite the defeat of ISIS in
Iraq and most of Syria, it is likely that a reduced "covert
version" of the militant group's "core" will survive
in both countries, with significant affiliated supporters in
Afghanistan, Libya, Southeast Asia and West Africa.
The United States on Monday imposed sanctions on the
Iran-based leader of the Bahraini al-Ashtar Brigades militant group
for allegedly engaging in plots to overthrow the U.S.-backed
government of Bahrain.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Iranian rights groups say authorities have jailed a
civil society activist in central Iran while releasing another
activist who completed a 10-year prison term for photographing an
alleged mass grave.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
Iran will not rein in its influence in the Middle East
despite mounting U.S. pressure on Tehran to curb its regional
activities, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told Qatar's al
Jazeera TV.
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