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TOP STORIES
Iran has completed a facility to build advanced
centrifuges, Iran's nuclear chief was quoted on Sunday as saying, as
Tehran prepares to increase its uranium-enrichment capacity if the
nuclear deal collapses after the United States exits.
South Korea has become the first of Iran's top-three oil
customers to fulfill a hard-line U.S. demand that buyers cut imports
to zero.
The firing of rockets toward American diplomatic
missions in Iraq after protesters torched the Iranian consulate in
Basra raised tensions as the U.S. and Iran vie to shape the country's
next government.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Syrian President Bashar Assad has launched his opening
salvo to take back Idlib, the last major stronghold of organized
rebel forces. The northwestern province is teeming with internally
displaced Syrian civilians who have fled other parts of the
country-Aleppo in December, Eastern Ghouta in April, and Daraa in
June-under the weight of indiscriminate bombing by Russia and the
Syrian regimes. U.N. officials say 800,000 people may be forced out
of the city and the province in the assault. Refugees are running out
of places to go.
"Wrap your head around this: an elected American
official is parroting Russian/Assad Regime/Hezbollah propaganda on a
TV channel closely affiliated with (if not under the direction of) a
designated foreign terror org, Hezbollah," tweeted David Daoud,
a Washington-based research analyst at the think tank United Against
Nuclear Iran.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran's oil exports have been falling much faster than
expected, but Tehran is hoping to avoid the worst, deploying some
creative solutions to keep exports from crashing too much. Iran's oil
exports may have plunged as much as 600,000-700,000 bpd in August,
falling as low as 1.66 million barrels per day (mb/d), according to
the Wall Street Journal and SVB Energy International.
The head of Iran's Planning and Budget Organization,
Vice-President Mohammad Baqer Nobakht says his organization will
introduce five economic packages to tackle the impact of renewed US
sanctions and to control drastic fluctuations of the exchange rate.
Meanwhile, administration-owned daily newspaper Shahrvand on Saturday
August 9 has quoted Anoshirvan Mohseni Bandpey, the caretaker of
Iran's Ministry of Labor and Social Welfare as saying that the
government is considering several plans including the introduction of
"electronic coupons" to help the "fair"
distribution of essential commodities; euphemism for
"rationing."
U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry will meet his
counterparts from Saudi Arabia and Russia starting on Monday, sources
familiar with the matter said, as the Trump administration encourages
oil-producing countries to keep output up two months before it is due
to renew sanctions on Iran's crude exports.
Washington's demand for countries to cut all Iranian oil
imports is going to be a massive headache for India. As the world's
third-largest oil importer and the second-largest buyer of Iranian
crude after China, complying with the U.S. sanctions - enacted
following President Donald Trump's withdrawal from the 2015 Iranian
nuclear deal - will require India to find new sources of crude at a
higher cost.
With new U.S. sanctions now starting to bite, Iran's
airlines are being forced to return to old habits by patching up
their aging planes rather than firing up the engines on newer
models.
Iran gave permission to money exchange offices on
Saturday to start importing foreign currency banknotes, state media
reported, in an apparent attempt to stop the rial from plunging to a
new low against the dollar.
America's rivals are increasingly turning to
bitcoin-style cryptocurrencies after their economies were brought to
their knees thanks to crippling U.S. sanctions, experts have warned.
Iran, North Korea, Russia and Venezuela are all investing in the
technology in an attempt to counter American economic might - and an
expert says these nations are forming alliances through the
technology.
Two months before renewed U.S. sanctions on its oil
exports take effect, Iran has already suffered a sharp drop in sales
and lost key buyers in Asia and Europe. That slump will continue in
coming weeks. Meanwhile, rising output from other OPEC members is
fueling tensions within the producer group that could come to a head
at a meeting in Algeria later this month.
Iran will reimburse French oil and gas major Total for
its investment in the South Pars natural gas field but not until
phase 11 of the multibillion-dollar project becomes operational,
Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said on Saturday.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
An extraordinary propaganda film released by Iran's
hardline Revolutionary Guards has revealed deep splits between the
country's parallel intelligence agencies and suggested that
imprisoned dual nationals could be victims of the infighting.
Iran executed three Iranian Kurdish men accused of
belonging to a militant group and taking part in attacks against
civilians and security forces in the Kurdish region of western Iran,
the judiciary's news service reported on Saturday.
Iranian authorities have detained two artists over a
theatre production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Saturday that
the United States continually sends messages to Iran asking it to
begin negotiations.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
The U.S. Navy is conducting exercises this month to
ensure its readiness to guarantee freedom of movement through Persian
Gulf and Red Sea waterways amid escalating threats from Iran to
disrupt shipping across important choke points.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged Iran's armed
forces on Sunday to increase their power to "scare off" the
enemy, as the country faces increased tension with the United
States.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's efforts to counter worsening dust
storms have been hampered by conflicts in the region, the deputy head
of the environment department said on Saturday.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN.
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has approved the use
of chlorine gas in an offensive against the country's last major
rebel stronghold, U.S. officials said, raising the prospects for
another retaliatory U.S. military strike as thousands try to escape
what could be a decisive battle in the seven-year-old war.
The three foreign powers negotiating an end to Syria's
conflict failed Friday to agree to a cease fire that would have
halted a decisive but potentially devastating battle for the
country's last rebel stronghold. The Russian, Turkish and Iranian
presidents convened in Tehran for a high-stakes and ultimately tense
summit to discuss a deal for Idlib province, where Syrian government
forces are threatening an all-out assault on a region housing some 3
million civilians.
Despite dire U.S. warnings and fears of a humanitarian
disaster, the Trump administration has little leverage to stop
Russia, Iran and Syria pressing ahead with a massive military assault
against Syria's northwest Idlib province. Washington has threatened
military action in case of a chemical weapons attack but its mixed
messaging on retaining a U.S. presence in Syria and a cut in aid has
diminished its already limited influence over the seven-year
conflict.
Russia rejected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's
call for a cease-fire in Syria after he warned of a looming
"catastrophe" as the Damascus regime's forces prepare to
fight the last major battle of the seven-year civil war.
It has recently become clear that Israel is engaged in a
secret war against Iran in Syria. The war is conducted mainly by
means of air power, presumably combined with the intelligence work
necessary to provide the country's airmen with the relevant targets;
there is also evidence that targeted killings are among Israel's
tactics in Syria.
Iran and Russia can work together to restrain America,
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a meeting with
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, according to Fars
News.
Plans for a deal under which Russia and Kazakhstan are
to supply wheat to Iran have stalled as "no progress" has
been made in its financing, the secretary general of the Iran
Federation of Food Industry Associations said.
Hezbollah's caretaker Industry Minister Hussein Hajj
Hasan met with the Syrian economy minister Wednesday to push for
stronger economic relations between Lebanon and Syria, the state-run
National News Agency reported.
The IDF's many successful attacks on the transfer of
improved rocket technology to Hezbollah missed significant transfers,
former deputy Mossad chief Naftali Granot said on Thursday.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Authorities in Bahrain say they've arrested 14 Iranians
they allege entered the island nation on "forged Asian
passports."
IRAQ & IRAN
Angry protesters stormed the Iranian consulate in the
southern city of Basra on Friday, setting a fire inside amid a wave
of demonstrations that have turned deadly in the past few days, a
security official and eyewitnesses said.
Iran's Revolutionary Guard on Sunday claimed
responsibility for a missile attack targeting an Iraqi base of a
Kurdish separatist group. Iranian state television aired footage of
surface-to-surface missiles launching Saturday toward the Democratic
Party of Iranian Kurdistan base in Iraq, as well as drone footage of
the base in the aftermath of the strike, which the separatists say
killed at least 11 people and wounded 50.
Iraq's foreign ministry protested an attack on its
territory as Iran's Revolutionary Guards confirmed they'd attacked
rebels in the Iraqi Kurdistan area.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran
claimed credit for a missile attack on Kurdish opposition groups in
Koya in northern Iraq. The attack on Saturday killed a dozen and
wounded numerous others. It was the first time Iranian forces had
used this kind of precision missile attack deep inside Iraq.
Iran has its tentacles all over Iraq, and the United
States has no one to blame but itself.
MISCELLANEOUS
Armin Laschet, the powerful governor of the largest
German state North Rhine-Westphalia, wrapped up a three-day visit to
Israel on Thursday, with the opening of his state's first trade and
culture office in Israel, but he refused to outlaw Hezbollah and stop
trade with the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Labour was last night probing claims that two Iranian
sympathisers 'infiltrated' the party to try to oust a pro-Israel MP.
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