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TOP STORIES
The United States said on Tuesday that Iran's work with
advanced centrifuges is a breach of the nuclear deal Washington has
already pulled out of, expressing its concern while repeating that it is
open to holding talks with Tehran. In a statement to a quarterly meeting
of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors, the United
States also said Tehran's acceleration of uranium enrichment would not
lead to Washington backing down in its policy of trying to isolate
Iran.
For the nearly four years Nizar Zakka was held prisoner in
Iran, an ordeal that lasted until he was released this week,
the knowledge that he was little more than a political pawn made a bad
situation almost unbearable. "It's just trading of human beings -
they just trade us," Mr. Zakka, a Lebanese citizen who had lived in
the United States for much of his life, and who arrived in Beirut from
Tehran on Tuesday, said in an interview after his release.
Iran has been racing to step up exports of petrochemicals
and tap new markets to compensate for sliding oil sales, Iranian and
international industry sources said, but now risks losing that crucial
revenue as Washington tightens the screw on sanctions. Tehran has
been selling increased volumes of petrochemical products at below market
rates, in countries including Brazil, China and India, since the United
States reimposed sanctions on Iranian oil exports in November, according
to the six sources who include two senior Iranian government officials.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran will ask Japan to mediate between Tehran and Washington
to ease oil sanctions imposed by the United States, Iranian officials
said ahead of a visit by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. Abe,
the first Japanese leader to visit Iran since its 1979 Islamic
Revolution, arrives in Tehran as brewing confrontation between Iran and
the United States stokes fear of another military conflict in the
crisis-ridden Middle East.
Iran has set July prices for crude oil it sells to its Asian
term customers at the largest discounts in more than a decade against
similar Saudi grades after the United States cut off legitimate channels
to buy Iranian oil. The National Iranian Oil Company discounted prices
for three crude grades against similar Saudi oil for a second straight
month as pressure builds for it to find buyers for its output.
A New Jersey woman has pleaded guilty to participating in a
scheme to illegally smuggle aircraft parts to Iran. Joyce Eliabachus
faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty Tuesday to helping
smuggle more than $2 million in components. An alleged co-conspirator,
Iranian resident Peyman Amiri Larijani, faces conspiracy and money
laundering charges. The U.S. attorney's office in Newark says the pair
used a company run out of Eliabachus's Morristown home to ship parts
through Turkey and the United Arab Emirates to Iran.
MISSILE PROGRAM
Iran has announced a new anti-aircraft missile system. But
is it new, or a knockoff of a foreign weapon? The new surface-to-air
missile is called the Khordad 15. Iran's Defense Minister, Brigadier
General Amir Hatami, said at the unveiling ceremony that the system is
"capable of detecting fighter jets and combat drones from 150
kilometers [93 miles] away and of tracking them within a range of 120
kilometers [75 miles]," according to Iranian state media.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Iran released a Lebanese national it detained nearly
four years ago on charges of spying for the U.S., amid attempts by
foreign powers to ease tensions between Tehran and Washington in the
Middle East. Nizar Zakka, a technology expert and free-speech
advocate who lived in the U.S. after fleeing the Lebanese civil war as a
teenager, was handed over to Lebanese officials on Tuesday, said
authorities in both countries.
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif on Monday cited
"moral principles" when asked why Iran executes homosexuals for
their sexual orientation, as he also attacked the US and Israel for
"violating human rights." At a press conference in the Iranian
capital with his German counterpart, Heiko Maas, Zarif was asked by Bild
reporter Paul Ronzheimer about the death penalty for gay people in the
Middle Eastern country.
The US on Wednesday accused Iran of violating fundamental
human rights after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Sarif endorsed
the execution of gay people. Sarif defended his country's draconian
policies at a joint press conference with German Foreign Minister Heiko
Maas in Tehran on Monday. A reporter from German
tabloid Bild asked: "Why are homosexuals executed in Iran
because of their sexual orientation?"
Iranian social media users are threatening to boycott their
country's popular taxi app Snapp after the company apologised to a woman
who had been ordered out of one of their driver's cars for failing to
wear the compulsory Islamic headscarf, or hijab. The passenger posted a
picture on Twitter of the driver who ordered her out of his cab.
"This is the driver who dropped me off his car in the middle of a
motorway [in the capital Tehran]," she wrote on 6 June.
Public floggings, economic disempowerment, social
stigmatization: These are daily reminders to the women of my country,
Iran, that in the eyes of their government they are lesser. Every day,
this reality is reinforced by untold abuses, restrictions, and insults -
perhaps none of which is more appalling than the travesty of girls, as
young as nine, who are forced to marry men decades their senior. When I
hear of these sickening acts, I can't help but think of my little sister,
Farah.
Iran's government is urging its citizens to use text
messages to report on their neighbors or on strangers if they believe
they are guilty of violating the country's public code of conduct. The
country's judiciary has set up a text messaging system that will allow
people to report on others for doing things like removing their Islamic
headscarf, throwing co-ed parties, drinking alcohol, or even posting
messages on social media that are considered inappropriate.
He's the founder of a globe-trotting hunting club that
caters to millionaires and billionaires who like to shoot rare and exotic
animals in far-flung countries. Robert Kern, the president of the Hunting
Consortium, has taken down exotic animals from a helicopter in Russia's
Far East and seen one consultant to his group entangled in global outrage
over an endangered rhino hunt. Now, court documents show that federal
prosecutors launched an investigation into Kern and his group over an
ill-fated hunting trip in Iran.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
The United States on Tuesday applauded the release of
Lebanese detainee Nizar Zakka, who has U.S. residency, by Iran as a
"great day" for him and his family and said it hoped the move
was a positive sign for Americans detained by Tehran. "It is
without a doubt a great day for Mr. Zakka, his family, and all those who
have supported him during his unlawful imprisonment," a State
Department spokeswoman said. "We hope that Mr. Zakka's release is a
positive sign for American detainees in Iran," she
said.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's trip to Tehran
represents the highest-level effort yet to de-escalate tensions between
the U.S. and Iran as the country appears poised to break the 2015 nuclear
deal it struck with world powers that America earlier abandoned. But
while Abe's trip to Iran marks the first visit of a sitting Japanese
premier in the 40 years since the Islamic Revolution, it remains unclear
if he'll end up going home with any success.
The Donald Trump administration OK'd sending a bevy of fresh
troops and weapons to the Middle East after receiving intelligence that
signaled Iranian plans for a "campaign" against American
forces, a top international policy official said today. Acting
Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Kathryn
Wheelbarger said at an Al-Monitor Middle East Mornings breakfast
event that sophisticated attacks against tankers off the coast of the United
Arab Emirates last month pushed the US administration to respond...
While Washington was focused on the highly visible
ratcheting up of tensions between the United States and Iran over the
past few weeks, the Trump administration quietly began
rolling out its first real red line on the Iran nuclear
program, which is that any reduction in the one year timeline it would
need to produce enough material for a bomb is unacceptable.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Iran's military expenditures have been declining, writes
Iranian military analyst Hossein Aryan in an analysis for Radio Farda's
Persian website based on data released by the Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The decline in Iran's
military spending comes against a backdrop of rising tensions between Iran
and Saudi Arabia, and these two countries as well as Qatar and the United
Arab Emirates have been calling for a more active role in regional
developments.
The spokesman of Islamic revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
has denied recent reports and rumors that several commanders have fled or
have been arrested. Ramezan Sharif was quoted Tuesday by IRGC-run Fars
news agency saying that the rumors are enemy tactics "using criminal
social media networks and media" have taken advantage of recent
changes in the IRGC command to spread rumors about top commanders, their
families to the effect that some have fled the country or arrested as
spies.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
To those on the ground, the vote result was obviously
rigged. The margin of victory by incumbent hardliner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
was grossly out of line with previous and subsequent Iranian election
results with high turnouts. The vote-counting process was completely
opaque. A system for verifying the vote and to prevent cheating on June
12, 2009, developed by lead opposition candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi's
campaign, was sabotaged by the unexpected shutting down of the
text-messaging system throughout the country.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
As tensions rise between Iran and some Arab countries in the
Middle East, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi
is proposing a four-point security plan. He spoke about
the plan recently at an urgent Arab summit convened by Saudi
Arabia in Mecca to discuss Iran's alleged role in recent attacks in
the region. During his May 31 speech, Sisi outlined the
plan's four requirements to address threats facing Arab
countries International condemnation of attacks on oil
facilities in Saudi Arabia and naval attacks on the United Arab
Emirates (UAE) by Yemen's Houthis.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
The Trump administration has accomplished something
extraordinary: Its aggressive sanctions have taken two million barrels a
day of Iranian oil off the market without driving global prices upward.
Tehran is also contending with a deep recession and 50% inflation.
Sanctions, according to the architects of the Iran nuclear deal,
shouldn't have been this effective. In 2015 Barack Obama warned that if
the U.S. walked away from his nuclear deal with Iran, "the sanctions
system unravels."
Hezbollah is reportedly feeling the pain of U.S.
President Donald Trump administration's maximum-pressure campaign against
Iran. Tehran, after all, contributes about $700 million to the
U.S.-designated terrorist group's estimated yearly budget of approximately
$1 billion. As sanctions squeeze Tehran, less money is supposedly flowing
to Hezbollah as a result.
Iran officially informed Lebanon it requests a strong and
public stance reflecting the strength of relations between the two
countries as a response to the comments delivered by Prime Minister Saad
Hariri at the extraordinary Arab summit held in Makkah last month. Iran
had expressed anger at Hariri's stances at the summit, which was held to
address its meddling in the internal affairs of several Arab countries,
including Lebanon, Syria and Yemen. Arab leaders also met in wake of
recent attacks on Gulf oil facilities.
The national security advisers of Russia, the United States,
and Israel are scheduled to meet in Jerusalem later this month for what
former US ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro called a potential
"game changer on pushing Iran's military out of Syria." Russia
has, with Iranian assistance, gained everything it set out to accomplish
in Syria. It expanded its naval and air bases and elevated its international
status, while diminishing and marginalizing America.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Egypt says it's standing by Saudi Arabia following the
attack by Yemen's Houthi rebels that wounded 26 people at a Saudi airport
arrivals hall. The Foreign Ministry, just hours after the attack took
place on Wednesday, said Egypt is calling for an immediate halt to all
attacks on Saudi territories and will "defy any attempt to
target" the kingdom.
The Saudi-led military coalition vowed to respond firmly to
a missile attack by Yemeni Houthi forces on a civilian airport in
southern Saudi Arabia on Wednesday which wounded 26 people. The
Western-backed, Sunni Muslim alliance that has been battling the
Iran-aligned Houthi movement in Yemen said the early morning attack
proved Tehran's support for what it called cross-border terrorism.
With just two weeks remaining before they're supposed to
gather in Vienna, OPEC and its allies are still struggling to settle on a
meeting date. It's the latest example of how bitter geopolitical rivalry
between Saudi Arabia and Iran can cause gridlock in the cartel. The
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners, an
alliance that spans 24 oil-producing nations, must choose whether to
extend production cuts into the second half of the year or end a pact
that has put a floor under prices.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Shinzo Abe's visit to Iran this week, the first to that
country by a Japanese prime minister in more than 40 years, is the latest
in a series of high-minded but long-shot efforts to lift Japan's
influence on the global stage. As he arrives in Tehran on Wednesday, Mr.
Abe is putting himself directly in the middle of a confrontation between
the United States and Iran that has raised fears of war.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a rare friend of both
President Donald Trump and Iran's leaders, left for Tehran with the
daunting task of bridging a divide that could plunge the Middle East into
renewed chaos. Abe's visit from Wednesday through Friday comes as the
U.S. has given scant indication it's ready to ease sanctions it reimposed
after abandoning a 2015 accord meant to prevent Iran from developing a
nuclear bomb. Tehran has said it can't sit down with the Trump team while
the U.S. is waging "economic war" on it.
With Japan's prime minister on the way to Tehran for a
historic visit, a hard-line Iranian paper published a front page image
Wednesday of a mushroom cloud from a nuclear blast - a reference to
America's bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II that
underscores the challenge ahead for Shinzo Abe. Abe's trip is the
highest-level effort yet to de-escalate tensions between the U.S. and
Iran as Tehran appears poised to break the 2015 nuclear deal it struck
with world powers...
German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas this week traveled to
Iran in a bid to save the international nuclear deal that Tehran struck
with world powers in 2015. His trip drew widespread coverage and
criticism in Iran, with the country's press saying the EU has been
ineffective when it comes to granting sanctions relief in exchange for
Iran's compliance of the agreement's terms.
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