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TOP STORIES
Iranian officials said Monday that within weeks they could
exceed an internationally agreed cap on their stockpile of low-enriched
uranium, as tensions between Iran and the U.S. escalated.
Iran threatened earlier this month to step up its nuclear program,
saying it would initially stop respecting limits set on its stockpiles of
enriched uranium and heavy water, both of which can be used in the
production of nuclear weapons.
President Donald Trump warned on Monday Iran would be met
with "great force" if it attacked U.S. interests in the Middle
East, and government sources said Washington strongly suspects Shi'ite
militias with ties to Tehran were behind a rocket attack in Baghdad's
Green Zone. "I think Iran would be making a very big mistake
if they did anything," Trump told reporters as he left the White
House on Monday evening for an event in Pennsylvania. "If they do
something, it will be met with great force but we have no indication that
they will."
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said his government needs
more powers to push back against the "economic war" the U.S. is
waging, while vowing his nation will stand fast against the Trump
administration's campaign rather than submit to its demands. During
Iran's war with Iraq in the 1980s, a wartime supreme council was set up
and "held all powers, and even the parliament and the judiciary did
not intervene," Rouhani told a gathering of clerics, according to
the official Islamic Republic News Agency.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Iran quadrupled its uranium-enrichment production capacity amid
tensions with the U.S. over Tehran's atomic program, nuclear
officials said Monday, just after President Donald Trump and Iran's
foreign minister traded threats and taunts on Twitter. Iranian
officials made a point to stress that the uranium would be enriched only
to the 3.67% limit set under the 2015 nuclear deal with world
powers, making it usable for a power plant but far below what's needed
for an atomic weapon.
Iran is ramping up its uranium output, a provocative step
that threatens to further inflame simmering tensions with the United
States and deepen regional conflict following a series of dangerous
escalations in the Middle East. Iranian production of low-enriched
uranium has recently increased fourfold, putting the nation on a path to
exceed limits on nuclear materials set out in a 2015 agreement with world
powers, a spokesperson for Iran's atomic energy agency told Iranian news
outlets on Monday.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Oil prices edged up on Tuesday on escalating tensions
between the United States and Iran and on signs that producer club OPEC
will continue withholding supply this year. However, gains were
checked by concerns that a prolonged Sino-U.S. trade war could lead to a
global economic slowdown. Brent crude futures, the international
benchmark for oil prices, were at $72.03 per barrel at 0118 GMT, up 6
cents, or 0.1 percent, from their last close.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
President Trump on Monday played down tensions with Iran,
saying his administration currently has no signs of threatening actions
by Tehran but that if that changes, the United States "will have no
choice" but to respond forcefully. "They've been very hostile.
They've truly been the No. 1 provocateur of terror," Trump told
reporters as he exited the White House for a campaign rally in
Pennsylvania.
President Donald Trump is a "crazy president"
whose threats against Tehran aren't going to work, a senior Iranian
official said Monday, adding that if the President wants to talk, he'll
not only have to show some respect, but come up with a consistent
message. Trump is "crazy" and his administration is
"confused," Iran's director of foreign affairs for the
country's parliament, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, told CNN in an exclusive
interview Monday.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said he favors talks and
diplomacy but not under current conditions, state news agency IRNA said
late on Monday. "Today's situation is not suitable for talks
and our choice is resistance only" IRNA quoted Rouhani as
saying. U.S. President Donald Trump said earlier on Monday that
Iran would be met with "great force" if it attempted anything
against U.S. interests in the Middle East, adding that Tehran has been
very hostile toward Washington.
Top officials from President Donald Trump's administration
will brief the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives about Iran on
Tuesday afternoon, congressional aides said, after lawmakers clamored for
more information about tension between the two countries. The
briefers will be Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Acting Secretary of
Defense Patrick Shanahan, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Joseph
Dunford and an unnamed representative of the intelligence community,
congressional aides said.
Ordered by the White House to the Persian Gulf, the USS
Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier has become a 100,000-ton barometer of
the tensions between Iran and the U.S. So far, the Lincoln and its
accompanying ships have yet to enter the gulf through the Strait of
Hormuz. It has been filmed by the U.S. Navy on Friday carrying out
exercises with other American warships in the Arabian Sea, which is over
1,000 kilometers (620 miles) away.
Leading Iraqi Shiite figures warned Monday against attempts
to pull their country into a war between the U.S. and Iran, saying it
would turn Iraq into a battlefield yet again, just as it is on the path
to recovery. The warning came hours after a rocket slammed into Baghdad's
heavily fortified Green Zone, landing less than a mile from the sprawling
U.S. Embassy. No injuries were reported and no group immediately claimed
the Sunday night attack.
Whatever other assets and liabilities he brings to the
table, President Trump certainly offers this: He is a master at sowing
uncertainty, so neither friend nor foe really knows what he's up to. And
so it is right now with Iran, where Mr. Trump and his aides have in the
past two weeks alternately raised and lowered fears about armed
conflict. American warships moved toward Iran amid intelligence reports
on pending Iranian attacks on U.S. targets in the Middle
East.
Former U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis says America
"needs to engage more in the world and intervene militarily
less." Mattis, a retired Marine general, spoke on Monday night at a
previously unannounced speech before a Ramadan lecture series in honor of
Abu Dhabi's powerful crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
According to a report in the state-linked newspaper The National, Mattis
stressed that "Iran's behavior must change."
As tensions grow between Tehran and Washington, the British
foreign secretary warned Iran not to test the United States' resolve; the
EU called on both sides to calm down and Iraqi politicians expressed
concern over Baghdad being dragged into a possible conflict as rockets
landed near U.S Embassy. Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif
angrily responded to U.S. President Donald Trump's Tweet in which he had
said Sunday evening, "If Iran wants to fight, that will be the
official end of Iran, and warned," Never threaten the United States
again!"
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday that
national security adviser John Bolton had briefed him on
escalating tensions with Iran, and urged President Trump to
"stand firm." "Just received a briefing from
National Security Advisor Bolton about escalating tensions with Iran. It
is clear that over the last several weeks Iran has attacked pipelines and
ships of other nations and created threat streams against American
interests in Iraq," Graham said in a pair of tweets.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
US President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Sunday night to
threaten Tehran: "If Iran wants to fight, that will be the official
end of Iran." The statement came two weeks after the US deployed an
aircraft carrier to the region, and just over a month after the Trump
administration blacklisted Iran's Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist
entity.
Iranian activists on social media have been sharing a video
purporting to show Iranian Revolutionary Guards transporting made S-300
air defense systems to areas along the Gulf. According to the Arab
Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz, an activist group, the
vehicles transporting the defense systems and other military equipment in
the coastal city of Asaluyeh in the southern province of Bushehr.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Jorf News, a Syrian news site, reported that Iranian Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps began a naval combat training course in Latakia
province in northern Syria. Latakia is where Russia's Khmeimim airbase is
located. A "source" told Jorf News that 100 men from the Afghan
Fatemiyoun were involved in the training along with members of the
Shi'ite Imam Muhammed al-Baqir brigade and also IRGC members. The report
said it was the first course of its kind. The report claims that the
"IRGC share many positions with the [Syrian] regime's forces and its
officers and members wear the uniform of the regime' soldiers and raise
the Syrian flag."
Hundreds of lawmakers led by senior members of the House and
Senate foreign policy committees have written to President Trump calling
for a new U.S. strategy in Syria to counter Russia and Iran, deter
terrorists and safeguard Israel. The letter, sent Monday and which was
signed by a bipartisan complement of nearly 400 members of the House and
Senate, warns "pockets of ungoverned space have allowed terrorist
groups, such as [Islamic State], Al-Qaeda, and their affiliates, to keep
parts of Syria in their stranglehold."
GULF STATES, YEMEN & IRAN
Saudi Arabia said on Monday that it had intercepted two
missiles in Mecca province fired by Yemen's Iran-aligned Houthis, who
earlier denied having targeted Islam's holiest site. The foiled strike
comes at a time of heightened tensions between Tehran and Gulf Arab
states and a roughly four-year conflict in Yemen largely seen as a proxy
war between the two sides.
Saudi Arabia intercepted two Houthi ballistic missiles
launched towards Makkah and Riyadh on Monday after the Yemeni rebels said
they planned to strike at hundreds of Saudi and UAE targets. Air defences
destroyed the missiles above the western cities of Taif and Jeddah, Saudi
media reported. Yemen's internationally recognised government condemned
the rebel attack and accused Iran of ordering the strikes.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
As long-simmering tensions heat up between the United States
and Iran in the Middle East, a look at the various countries or players
involved, and what could happen: The U.S. has tens of thousands of troops
scattered across military bases in the Middle East. It recently sent the
USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and strike group to the region, as
well as B-52 bombers.
The foreign minister of Oman, which in the past helped pave
the way for negotiations between Iran and the United States, visited
Tehran on Monday as tensions rise between the Islamic Republic and the
United States and its Gulf allies. Yousuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah
discussed regional and international issues with Iranian Foreign Minister
Mohammad Javad Zarif, Iranian state news agency IRNA said. However, IRNA
gave no details and it was not known if the visit was aimed at calming
Iran-U.S. tensions.
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