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TOP STORIES
President Trump plans to keep
United States troops in Iraq to monitor and maintain pressure on
neighboring Iran, committing to an American military presence in the
region's war zones even as he moves to withdraw forces from Syria and
Afghanistan. "I want to be able to watch Iran," Mr. Trump
said in an interview aired Sunday on CBS's "Face the
Nation." "We're going to keep watching and we're going to
keep seeing and if there's trouble, if somebody is looking to do
nuclear weapons or other things, we're going to know it before they
do."
To be a European company with
links to Iran in the age of American sanctions can mean dealing with
challenges that, every day, verge on the existential. Suppliers
cut off their shipments with little warning. Phone lines get disconnected.
Even having the elevators repaired can be an ordeal, with service
contracts canceled. It is all related to the Trump administration's
extraordinary campaign to choke off not only American trade with
Iran, but European commerce with the Islamic republic as well.
Iran displayed a new cruise
missile with a range of 1,300 km (800 miles) on Saturday during
celebrations marking the anniversary of the 1979 Islamic Revolution,
state television reported. Iran has expanded its missile
program, particularly its ballistic missiles, in defiance of
opposition from the United States and expressions of concern by
European countries. Tehran says the program is purely
defensive.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Last month, the U.S. Department of State marked the 35th
anniversary of the U.S. designation of Iran as a state-sponsor of
terrorism. Tehran is part of an exclusive club-partners in crime with
other designees North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. Indeed, since at least
1996, in one country report on Terrorism after another, the State
Department has dubbed Iran as the "leading" or
"primary" state-sponsor of terrorism.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
A veteran CIA officer was
discussing Iran's future at an international security forum in Israel
on Tuesday when the moderator cut him off to cue up a breaking news
bulletin on the giant monitor overhead. Iran, Israel's Channel 2
announced, had just abandoned its landmark nuclear deal with world powers
and will start kicking out inspectors immediately.
Germany, France and the UK have
created a special financial channel to enable trade with Iran to
continue despite the reimposition of US sanctions on Tehran. The new
mechanism, unveiled by the so-called E3 last week, is an attempt to
save a landmark international nuclear deal after Donald Trump pulled
the US out of it last May. The Financial Times looks at the measures
announced by the Europeans, what's at stake - and whether they are
likely to succeed.
MISSILE PROGRAM
A video released by Iran's
Revolutionary Guards shows the apparent test-firing of the nation's
latest long-range cruise missile, the semi-official Tasnim news
reported, citing the ministry's public affairs office. The missile
has a range of up to 1,350 kilometers (839 miles), Tasnim said,
adding that the video, published online alongside its report, shows
the device was successfully fired and reached a distance of 1,200
kilometers.
Iran's Minister of
Telecommunications, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi says three Iranian
aerospace researchers have died in a fire that broke out at the
Iranian Space Research Center affiliated with the ministry. Jahromi
said that the fire at the Space Research Center broke out while
elsewhere at the center others were celebrating the 40th anniversary
of the Islamic revolution in Iran and did not notice what happened.
However, he did not elaborate on the reason for the fire and the
names of those who lost their lives in the incident.
On the morning of January 20,
2019, a six-by-six Mercedes-Benz truck in al-Kiswah, Syria crewed by
the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps began elevating a missile
mounted on its back into firing position. Once the nearly nine-meter
long missile attained a roughly seventy-degree angle, it solid-fuel
rocket blasted it on an arcing trajectory towards Mount Hermon,
twenty-miles to the west on the Israeli-controlled portion of the
Golan Height.
Iran has equipped its most
advanced, longest-range missiles, which can hit Israel and US bases
in the Gulf, with new precision guided warheads, state media reported
Sunday. According to the unsourced report in the Fars news
agency, the new home-made guided warheads have now been attached to
the Khoramshahr, a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers
(1,250 miles.)
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Iran's state-run IRNA news
agency is reporting that a court has handed down prison sentences for
13 protesters arrested during the August 2017 demonstrations over
economic hardships. The Sunday report said that Tehran's
Revolutionary Court sentenced eight of the defendants to six months
and the others to one year in prison for "acting against
national security by attending illegal gatherings." IRNA's
report said that five of protesters are women.
The Islamic Republic
of Iran executed a man in January for an alleged violation of
the country's anti-gay law, a shocking capital punishment meted out
as European countries implement a financial mechanism to evade U.S.
sanctions against the mullah regime in Tehran. Richard Grenell, the
U.S. ambassador to Germany, a former Fox News contributor and a
staunch critic of Iran, said Friday that Iran "publicly hanged a
31-year-old man for being gay should be a wake-up call for anyone who
supports basic human rights.
July 15, 2009 was a historic day
in Iran's recent history. Some three million people marched in
silence on Enghelab (Revolution) Street in the capital of Tehran to
convey their anger at the Islamic Republic in the most peaceful
manner. The regime had disconnected cell phone services in a
failed effort to prevent the march, which followed the manipulated
"re-election" of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and had
announced in advance that any demonstrations would be deemed
illegal.
Saba was just 25 when she left
her design job in New York to work on a project renovating an art
gallery back in her hometown Tehran. Within months, she won three
more contracts to do up galleries and the lobby of an apartment
complex. "I had dreamt of building my own company, but I hadn't
expected it to happen any time soon. If I had stayed in New York, I
wouldn't have had this chance," said Saba, now 27.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif chided the United States on Friday for saying it
may leave an arms treaty with Russia, and said on Twitter that
"any deal with US (government) is not worth the ink".
Earlier on Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the
United States would suspend compliance with the Intermediate-range
Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty with Russia on Saturday and formally
withdraw in six months if Moscow does not end its alleged treaty
violations.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani
on Saturday accused the United States of seeking "world
hegemony" and denounced Washington for trying to topple Tehran's
ally, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, state media
reported. "The Americans are basically against all popular
revolutions and independent countries and seek world hegemony by
suppressing them," Rouhani said in a meeting with Venezuela's
new envoy in Tehran, the state news agency IRNA reported.
Members of Hashd al-Shaabi, the
Iranian-backed Shi'ite militias in Iraq, can be seen warning US
troops near Mosul against "provocations," in a video posted
over the weekend. US troops on patrol in eastern Mosul were
confronted by gunmen who monitored their movements and blocked their
movement by placing an armored jeep across a road.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
One member of Iran's
Revolutionary Guards was killed and five were wounded in an attack on
a base in southeastern Iran on Saturday, Iranian media reported, as
the country holds official celebrations on the 40th anniversary of
its Islamic Revolution. "A (paramilitary) Basij base in
Nik Shahr came under ... fire this morning and several from the
Revolutionary Guards communications personnel who were wiring the
base were hit," Mohammad Hadi Marashi, provincial deputy
governor for security affairs, told the state news agency IRNA.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iran's parliament Monday gave an
overwhelming vote of confidence to President Hassan Rouhani's pick as
health minister, after his predecessor resigned over budget cuts and
criticism of the allocation of state funds. Saeed Namaki was voted
into office with 229 votes out of a total 259. He had been appointed
as caretaker by Rouhani after the former minister Hassan Ghazizadeh
Hashemi resigned on January 3.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Russian President Vladimir Putin
will meet the leaders of Turkey and Iran in the Russian Black Sea
resort town Sochi on Feb. 14, RIA news agency reported on Sunday,
citing the Kremlin. It gave no further details but Putin said
last month he would convene such a gathering to discuss the situation
in Syria, where Russia and Turkey have been trying to create a
de-escalation zone.
GULF STATES, YEMEN & IRAN
Yemen's government and its key coalition partners Saudi
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates expressed "growing
alarm" at what they say are "persistent, deliberate
violations" by rival Houthi Shiite rebels of the December
cease-fire agreement in the key port of Hodeida.
Despite international criticism, the small peninsula
state of Qatar has long played an outside role in harboring
Islamists, including violent jihadists - whether the political
leadership of Hamas, or the "unofficial Embassy" of the
Afghan Taliban. The recent decision by several Arab States to
designate a number of Qatari-hosted Islamists as terrorist entities
has once again raised the issue of Qatari's support for both violent
and non-violent Islamists. And perhaps no individual sheltered by
Qatar is as notorious or influential as the nonagenarian cleric Yusuf
Al Qaradawi.
The developments in Yemen in recent days have revealed
that the terrorist Iran-backed Houthi militias are providing cover
for the al-Qaeda and ISIS groups in the war-torn country through
Tehran's direct backing. The Yemeni Interior Ministry had revealed
the arrest of a Houthi terrorist cell that was operating under ISIS
and Qaeda guise to destabilize Yemen and target state leaderships.
The Yemen military also announced the launch of a wide-scale security
operation to crackdown on ISIS and remaining members of al-Qaeda who
are present in the western countryside of the southern Taiz province.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
In January, German
authorities arrested an Afghan-German dual national for spying on
behalf of an Iranian intelligence agency. The incident was far from
the first, and only underscored the potential threat lurking behind
each new revelation. Last summer, four individuals were arrested
in connection with an Iranian plot to set off explosives at a large
gathering organized near Paris by the Iranian opposition.
Iran's official IRNA news agency
says President Hassan Rouhani has his expressed support for
Venezuelan embattled President Nicolas Maduro. IRNA's report on
Saturday says Rouhani met with the Venezuelan envoy to Tehran, Carlos
Alcala Cordones, and voiced his support for Maduro's government.
"We believe the people of Venezuela though unity and standing by
the government will defuse the pressures by Washington," Rouhani
is quoted as saying.
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