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TOP STORIES
The Trump administration on Monday is set to reimpose
the first batch of Iran sanctions since the U.S. withdrew from the
nuclear deal. The more significant tranche of sanctions, including on
oil sales, won't come back into force until November. But Monday's
action fires a shot across the bow, telling businesses, European
allies and Iran that President Trump is serious about keeping the
United States out of what he's called the "worst deal ever
negotiated."
Sporadic protests broke out in several cities in Iran
for a fifth night on Saturday, a day after demonstrators attacked a
Shi'ite seminary, according to Iranian news agencies and social
media, as Iranians brace for a return of U.S. sanctions.
Germany's central bank is changing its terms and
conditions to provide for deeper scrutiny of cash transfers, a move
that comes as Iran seeks to repatriate cash held in a Hamburg-based
bank and the U.S. presses allies to get tough on Tehran.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Speaking on Fox News' "Sunday Morning
Futures," former Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who has long
criticized Obama's Iran deal, said Monday will be a "very
important day -- and a day I didn't think would happen"...
"I give credit to President Trump on this one, for getting us
out of the agreement," Lieberman said. "Hopefully it will
bring the Iranians back to the negotiating table. ... The regime in
Tehran has a lot of troubles. The economy is tanking."
"It's a very important day... Tomorrow's the day
that effectively the Iran nuclear agreement of 2015 dies... [Foreign]
business are not going back into Iran because it's risky business.
They basically don't want to make the choice that will shut them out
of the American economy, which is putting these sanctions back on. So
I think if the government in Tehran is sensible and not
extremist-which it usually is-it'll come back to the table for its
own well being or there may well be a second Iranian
revolution."
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
The United States intends to fully enforce sanctions due
to be reimposed against Iran early this week on orders from U.S.
President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on
Sunday. Washington's so-called "snapback" sanctions are due
to be reinstated against Tehran at 12:01 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, a U.S.
Treasury official said... Pompeo, speaking with reporters returning
with him from an Asian trip, said the White House would detail
implementation of the measures on Monday morning.
China has rejected U.S. requests to cut Iranian oil
imports, damaging Washington's efforts to isolate Tehran. While the
U.S. failed to persuade Beijing to stop importing Iranian oil, the
Chinese government did say it would not increase the imports, according
to Bloomberg, which cited two anonymous officials "familiar with
the negotiations."
Scania's entire sales into Iran could be lost if the
United States reinstates sanctions against the country, the Swedish
truckmaker's head warned on Friday, a day after first-half results
showed the company's Iranian order book was already being hit.
Iran's steel, metals and minerals trade with the rest of
the world may be severely curtailed following the United States' reimposition
of sanctions against the Middle Eastern nation from Monday.
Iran will ease foreign exchange rules, state TV reported
on Sunday, in a bid to halt a collapse of the rial currency that has
lost half its value since April due to fears about U.S. sanctions
likely to be imposed this week.
With the Trump administration set to re-impose some
sanctions on Iran on Monday, the country's Central Bank lifted a ban
on exchange offices, allowing them to resume work in a move aimed at
bringing in badly needed hard currencies. The bank also gave the green
light for Iranian "legal institutions and businesses" to
bring gold and foreign currency into Iran, according to the governor,
Abdolnasser Hemmati.
Iranians are hoarding gold as a safeguard against a
collapsing local currency and soaring cost of living as the U.S. is
poised to impose economic sanctions on Iran, pushing the metal's
price to records in Tehran.
Iran's state-run IRNA news agency reports that
authorities have detained the Central Bank of Iran's deputy chief as
part of a crackdown on financial fraud.
Threat of dwindling sales is forcing Tehran and its
clients to consider creative ways to keep the oil flowing
In three months' time, U.S. sanctions on Iran are due to
enter into force that could drive the Persian Gulf nation's exports
down toward zero and upend the global oil market. There are already
signs that it will be harder for the country to export, as some
international insurers stop covering shipments.
Speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Sunday,
Pompeo described Tehran's leadership as "bad actors" and
said the president's goal is to get Iran to "behave like a
normal country." He said the administration is willing to look
beyond the sanctions, but to do so, it would "require enormous
change" from Tehran.
The European Union on Monday said it deeply regretted
the re-imposition of sanctions by the United States on Iran, adding
it and other signatories would work on keeping financial channels
with Iran open.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
A slate of investigations into alleged terror plots and
killings sponsored by Iran has opened a new front in U.S. efforts to
persuade European governments to cut ties with Tehran following
President Trump's withdrawal from the nuclear deal in May.
Washington, Israel and Iranian dissident groups say the alleged recent
operations show that Iran has ended years of caution about hunting
its enemies in Europe.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
While anti-government demonstrations in Iran continued
for the fifth day and unconfirmed posts on social media called for
protests of a media blackout, the principal of a Shi'ite seminary in
Eshtehard, a small town west of Tehran, says some 500 demonstrators
attacked the seminary on August 3. The seminary is well-known in Iran
for its teachers and students' hard line on social and political
issues.
Across Iran's heartland, from the sweltering heat of its
southern cities to the bustling capital, protesters have taken to the
streets with increasing intensity in recent months, much to the
satisfaction of the Trump administration, which is hoping the civil
unrest will put pressure on Iranian leaders.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said renewed U.S.
sanctions on Iran will be rigorously enforced and remain in place
until the Iranian government radically changes course. Speaking to reporters
aboard his plane on his way home from a three-nation trip to
Southeast Asia, Pompeo said Monday's re-imposition of sanctions is an
important pillar in U.S. policy toward Iran. He said the Trump
administration is open to looking beyond sanctions but that would
"require enormous change" from Tehran.
President Donald Trump on Saturday said any meeting with
the Iranian regime is "up to them." "Iran, and it's
economy, is going very bad, and fast! I will meet, or not meet, it
doesn't matter - it is up to them!" Trump wrote on Twitter...
U.S. President Donald Trump and his allies in the Middle
East have become isolated by their hostile policies toward Tehran,
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Monday, state
TV reported.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Iran said its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps held a
naval exercise in the Strait of Hormuz last week "within the
framework of their annual training program."
Tehran would have the world believe that it quietly
developed its own stealth jet way back in February 2, 2013... It
didn't, however, look like something that could actually fly...
NORTH KOREA & IRAN
North Korea's foreign minister is scheduled to visit
Iran on August 7, as both countries deal with stepped up political
and financial pressure from the United States over their nuclear
programs.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN.
A newly released European Union report on terrorism
states that Lebanese nationals worked with organized crime
organizations to finance Hezbollah's terrorist activities.
Israeli lawmakers say Israel will not tolerate
Iranian-backed Shiite fighters remaining near its northern frontier
with Syria, signaling Israeli suspicion of Russian assurances that
Iranian forces have left the area.
The head of a Syrian research facility, who was
assassinated Saturday, had been linked to Syria's chemical weapons
program and the facilitation of several of Hezbollah's depots in the
country... The source also said that the scientist, who was close to
Syrian President Bashar Assad, had been the link between experts from
Syria, Iran, Russia and North Korea since the end of 2015.
European appeasement of Hezbollah begins and ends with
their failure to designate its political wing as a terrorist
organization, despite Hezbollah itself having no distinction between
its terrorist and political entities.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Saudi Arabia has agreed to admit an Iranian diplomat to
head an office representing Iranian interests in the kingdom, the
official Iranian news agency IRNA reported on Sunday, in a rare move
after the rivals broke off relations in 2016.
MISCELLANEOUS
Iran's former hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
quest to return to the spotlight now includes weighing in on a spat
between President Donald Trump and basketball star LeBron James.
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