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TOP STORIES
US President Donald Trump said Monday that chances of
negotiating with Tehran were dwindling, as he cited increasing
tensions in the Gulf and blasted Iran as the world's top "state
of terror." The president cited a series of recent conflicts
involving Tehran, including the downing of US and Iranian drones and,
most recently, Tehran's announcement that it arrested 17 people in
connection to a CIA spy ring, a claim Trump rejected as
"lies."
Britain announced plans Monday to develop and deploy a
Europe-led "maritime protection mission" to safeguard
shipping in the vital Strait of Hormuz in light of Iran's seizure of
a British-flagged tanker in the waterway last week. Briefing
Parliament on the budding crisis, Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt
accused Iran of "an act of state piracy" that must be met
with a coordinated international reaction.
UANI IN THE NEWS
"This is really two sides of the same terror coin
that Iran employs. This is part of their strategy. It's coordinated,
and it is part of developing their own leverage to match the U.S.
maximum pressure campaign."
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Britain took new steps on Monday to distance itself from
the Trump administration's escalating confrontation with Iran, even
while pushing for the release of an oil tanker seized by Tehran three
days earlier. British efforts to bolster maritime security in the
Persian Gulf "will not be part of the U.S. maximum pressure
policy on Iran," Foreign Minister Jeremy Hunt said after an
emergency cabinet meeting about the tanker. Mr. Hunt's pointed
statement was the first indication that a broad disagreement over
Iran still persists between the two allies despite the Iranian
seizure of the British-flagged tanker on Friday.
Amid rising tensions in the Gulf, Iran is
pushing the boundaries to see how far it can go - but U.S.
President Donald Trump has so far not been
"compelled" to retaliate militarily, according to analysts.
That could change if Tehran crosses the "red line" - which
may include deaths or injuries of American personnel, they said,
warning of its dangers. Tensions between the U.S. and Iran were
already building up after Washington pulled out of a nuclear deal
with the Islamic state.
President Barack Obama called it "the strongest
non-proliferation agreement ever negotiated". President Donald
Trump derided it as "one of the worst deals ever". Now the
Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)-the unwieldy name given to
the multinational nuclear deal signed between Iran and six world
powers in 2015-is on life support. Mr Trump dealt it a near-fatal
blow last year by withdrawing America from the accord.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC
NEWS
The U.S. is imposing new sanctions against a Chinese
company for transporting Iranian crude, a move that widens the U.S.
campaign of pressure on the Islamic Republic amid weeks of
escalating tensions. China bridled at the action, which comes as
Beijing and Washington search for ways to restart trade talks and
grapple over Chinese technology firms, especially the
telecommunications giant Huawei Technologies Co.
Stay-at-home mom Maryam Alidadi used to lead a
comfortable middle-class life. The 35-year-old and her husband, a
mechanic, could afford a spacious rental apartment in a central
neighborhood of Tehran, along with a car, occasional restaurant meals
and holidays abroad. Now they are barely hanging on, even after
drastically cutting spending. Like most Iranians, the family was hit
hard by the collapse of the national currency, accelerating inflation
and eroding wages - fallout from unprecedented U.S. sanctions.
A federal grand jury has indicted a Florida businessman
on allegations of conspiring to violate the U.S. embargo against
Iran. The five-count indictment against the Pensacola entrepreneur,
James P. Meharg, came after a joint investigation between the FBI and
the U.S. Department of Commerce looking into the sale of a
power-generating turbine to a client in Iran.
The rise in new suppliers of oil and gas has reduced the
ability of Iran to influence global oil markets, U.S. Energy Secretary
Rick Perry said on Monday. The price of crude LCOc1 jumped on
Monday following Iran's seizure on Friday of a British-flagged oil
tanker in the Strait of Hormuz, but had pared initial, steep gains by
1507 GMT. "I am concerned about it," Perry told a news
conference in Jerusalem, referring to the price rise that followed
the ship's capture.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
British-Iranian aid worker Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has
been transferred back to an Iranian prison from a hospital
psychiatric ward, her husband said on Monday.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe, a project manager with the Thomson Reuters
Foundation, was moved to the psychiatric ward of Imam Khomeini
hospital in the capital on July 15, the "Free Nazanin"
campaign group run by her husband said last week. "Nazanin
has been returned from psychiatric hospital, and is now back in Evin
prison," her husband, Richard, said in a statement.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
Amid escalating tensions with Iran, Kellyanne
Conway said Monday that the message from the White House is
clear -- the country's "maligned" behavior cannot
continue. Conway told "America's Newsroom" co-anchors
Bill Hemmer and Sandra Smith, "The president's been very, very
clear -- even in his tweets this morning -- how he feels about the
developments." Iran said it has arrested 17 Iranian nations
allegedly recruited by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to spy
on the country's nuclear and military sites.
President Trump on Monday denied Iran's claim that it
dismantled an elaborate U.S. spy ring tasked with monitoring key
military sites, dismissing the reports as a "totally false
story" amid rising tensions between Tehran and the
West. Iran said that its intelligence forces identified
and arrested 17 Iranians suspected of spying for the CIA and that
some of them have been sentenced to death. The announcement adds to
concerns about Tehran's nuclear program and its efforts to impede
shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.
Iran observes all U.S. ships in the Gulf region and has
an archive of images of their daily movements, the head of Iran's
navy, Rear Admiral Hossein Khanzadi, said on Tuesday, according to
the Young Journalists Club news site. Iran and the United States came
to the brink of war last month after the Islamic Republic shot down a
U.S. drone, nearly prompting a retaliatory attack which U.S.
President Donald Trump called off at the last minute.
The United States and Iran pushed full steam ahead, each
country launching a new round of verbal volleys, as military tensions
between Tehran and the West rose to new heights Monday. U.S.
President Donald Trump did his part to ramp up the rhetoric, telling
reporters at the White House that Washington was ready for "the
absolute worst" from Iran. "They are really the number one
state of terror in the world," Trump said during a photo-op with
Pakistani President Imran Khan in the Oval Office Monday.
British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to chair
a meeting of an emergency response committee on Monday, days after a
British-flagged tanker was seized by Iran in the Gulf. But London
has few obvious options at a time when the United States has
already imposed the maximum possible economic sanctions, writes
Reuters. The latest seizure was widely seen as retaliation for
Britain's seizure of an Iranian tanker off the coast of Gibraltar
that was allegedly transporting oil to Syria, as tensions skyrocket
between Tehran and the West.
Cooler heads keep struggling to hold their ground
in the confrontation between Iran and the West. Iran today said
it planned to execute several Iranians it accused of being
part of a CIA spy network. President Donald Trump responded by
declaring that Iran's pants were on fire, something that happens to
liars. Iran continues to hold the British oil tanker it seized in the
Strait of Hormuz on Friday, in retaliation for Britain taking an
Iranian tanker a few weeks ago.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
As masked Iranian gunmen descended from a helicopter
onto a British-flagged ship in the Strait of Hormuz, a crew member
yelled to his shipmates that it was time to give up. The Stena
Impero's crew had put out distress calls to nearby U.S. and U.K. navy
warships Friday evening as they tried to evade four Iranian Navy
boats, said a person familiar with the events. But Iran's boats
ultimately swarmed the oil tanker. In broken English, the Iranian
commandos shouted to sail north to Iran, as some crew members put
their hands behind their heads.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
The Associated Press reported last week that there is a
boom in bitcoin use - in Iran. "Some observers have warned that
cryptocurrencies could be used to bypass the Trump administration's
sanctions targeting Iran over its unraveling nuclear deal with world
powers," explained AP. Or, as I've said in past columns,
these cryptocurrencies allow rogue nations to get rogue-ier.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Iran's supreme leader was quoted Monday as saying during
a meeting with a delegation from the Palestinian militant group Hamas
that his country won't give up its stance in support of the
Palestinians. "Supporting Palestine is an ideological and
religious matter," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said, according to
state TV. The Hamas delegation was headed by its deputy chief, Saleh
al-Arouri. The delegation also met with Kamal Kharrazi, an adviser to
Khamenei.
A visit by a senior Hamas delegation to Iran has
strengthened ties between the two sides for the first time in eight
years, since the deterioration of relations due to a dispute over the
Syrian crisis. Sources from the movement told Asharq Al-Awsat that the
relationship with Iran was restored few years ago, but remained tense
and went through unstable stages before being strongly boosted in the
recent period.
The Syrian war was largely over by the end of 2018, but
the country remains a bleeding hotspot that can threaten Israeli and
American interests. There is one way to minimize the risks of further
instability, give hope to war-weary Syrians and meet big-power
strategic objectives: forging an American-Russian deal. That's not as
far-fetched as it sounds. By the end of 2018 when the worst of the
fighting ended, Syria had suffered more than 500,000 deaths and $400
billion in damage. Half of the population had been forced to flee
their homes; more than 5.5 million refugees left Syria and the rest
were displaced internally.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
An international coalition to protect the Gulf will
bring insecurity, Iranian Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said on
Tuesday, according to the IRIB news agency. Britain called on
Monday for a European-led naval mission to ensure safe shipping through
the Strait of Hormuz, days after Iran seized a British-flagged tanker
in what London described as an act of "state piracy" in the
strategic waterway.
From ballistic missiles to unmanned drones, Yemen's
Houthi rebels appear to have bolstered their fighting capabilities,
posing a serious threat to mighty neighbor Saudi Arabia. In June
alone, the Iran-aligned Shiite Houthis launched at least 20 missile
and drone attacks on the oil-rich kingdom, Iran's regional foe, some
resulting in casualties and damage.
Yemen's Houthi rebels claimed a drone attack on the King
Khalid airbase in southern Saudi Arabia on Tuesday. In a statement,
rebel spokesman Yahya Sarei said the attack targeted radars and
military sites at the base in the city of Khamis Mushait. "The
attack was in response to Saudi-led coalition raids in the past 24
hours," he said. The Saudi-led coalition, meanwhile, said it had
shot down drones fired from Yemen toward the southwestern Asir
region.
OTHER FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China will meet
Iran in Vienna on July 28 to discuss how to save the 2015 nuclear
deal, the EU's foreign policy service said in a statement on Tuesday.
"The meeting has been convened at the request of France,
Germany, the United Kingdom, and Iran, and will examine issues linked
to the implementation of the JCPOA in all its aspects," the
statement said.
Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi is
traveling to France to meet French President Emmanuel Macron as a
crisis between the Islamic Republic and the U.K. threatens to further
complicate Europe's efforts to save the 2015 nuclear accord. Araghchi,
who left for Paris on Monday night, intends to pass on a message from
President Hassan Rouhani to Macron, Abbas Mousavi, a spokesman for
Iran's foreign ministry, said in a tweet.
Britain will seek to put together a European-led
maritime protection mission to ensure safe shipping through the
Strait of Hormuz after Iran seized a British-flagged vessel in what
London said was an act of "state piracy". Iran's
Revolutionary Guards seized the Stena Impero in the Strait on Friday.
British Royal Marines seized an Iranian tanker off the coast of
Gibraltar two weeks ago.
Boris Johnson picked a hell of a week to become prime
minister. Debates over the path forward on Brexit have dominated the
leadership contest between Johnson-the overwhelming favorite-and his
rival, Jeremy Hunt. But the new prime minister, who is due to be
announced on Tuesday, is going to face an even more pressing issue
when he takes over this week: an escalating standoff with Iran.
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