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TOP STORIES
Iran is failing to fulfill the "spirit" of its
nuclear deal with world powers, President Donald Trump declared
Thursday, setting an ominous tone for his forthcoming decision about
whether to pull the U.S. out of the landmark agreement. As he often
had during the president campaign, Trump ripped into the deal struck
by Iran, the U.S. and other world powers in 2015 and said "it
shouldn't have been signed." Yet he pointedly stopped sort of
telegraphing whether or not the U.S. would stay in. "They are
not living up to the spirit of the agreement, I can tell you
that," Trump said of the Iranians, though he did not mention any
specific violations. Earlier this week, the administration certified
to Congress than Iran was complying - at least technically - with the
terms of the deal, clearing the way for Iran to continue enjoying
sanctions relief in the near term.
Iran and the United States traded barbs over the
landmark 2015 nuclear deal on Thursday, with the U.S. leader accusing
Tehran of not living up to the spirit of the accord and Iran's top
diplomat urging Washington to fulfill its own commitments. The
exchange came a day after U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent
a letter to Congress saying Iran was in compliance with the nuclear
deal but raising questions about Tehran's role in sponsoring
terrorism in the region. Tillerson accused Iran of "alarming
ongoing provocations" to destabilize countries in the Middle
East and said the Trump administration had launched a review of its
policy toward Tehran that will include the 2015 nuclear deal. In the
first reaction to Tillerson's remarks from a senior Iranian official,
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who tweeted that the United
States should "fulfill its own commitments."
A council that vets Iran's political candidates
disqualified former two-term president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on
Thursday - along with hundreds of others - from the presidential
election next month. No official reason was given for the
disqualifications in the May 19 election, which were announced on
state television Thursday night by an election official, Ali Asghar
Ahmadi. While Mr. Ahmadinejad's disqualification was not unexpected,
the timing of the announcement - just around midnight, two days
before what had been the scheduled unveiling of the final list of
candidates - was unusual.
UANI IN THE NEWS
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Moscow hopes Washington will realize that the Iran
nuclear deal is viable after reviewing it, Russian Deputy Foreign
Minister Sergey Ryabkov told TASS on Friday. "We took note of
information from Washington that an additional analysis of agreements
with Iran on its nuclear program is beginning there," Ryabkov
said. "We would like to hope that this analysis will confirm
that this agreement is viable and useful for enhancing international
peace and regional stability," he said. Ryabkov stressed that
Moscow "has been consistently working to enhance" the
implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley accused Iran and its ally
Hezbollah on Thursday of conspiring to destabilize the Middle East -
a charge "categorically" rejected by Iran's U.N. envoy as a
misleading propaganda campaign perpetrated by Israel and others in
the region. Haley is the current Security Council president and she
asked members to focus on the factors causing conflicts across the
region during their monthly meeting on the situation in the Middle
East instead of engaging in what she called routine "Israel
bashing." Her targets at the open meeting, where over 50
countries spoke, were Iran and Hezbollah who are supporting Syrian
President Bashar Assad, training "deadly militias" in Iraq
and arming Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen. "For decades, they
have committed terrorist acts across the region," Haley said.
Iran's Ambassador to the United Nations Gholam Ali
Khoshroo rejected recent allegations raised by the US authorities
against the Islamic Republic as "a misleading propaganda
campaign against Iran and its role in the region". "Today
we heard unsubstantiated allegations against my country which I
categorically reject as a misleading propaganda campaign against Iran
and its role in the region, designed and perpetrated hysterically by
Israel and certain countries in the region, including those who fully
supported Saddam Hossein's aggression against Iran," Khoshroo
said on Thursday, addressing the United Nations Security Council
(UNSC) Open Debate on "Situation in the Middle East, Including
Palestine".
SYRIA CONFLICT
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio told Fox News he's
"gravely concerned" about Iran's role in helping Syria
develop its chemical warfare program that ended up killing dozens of
people weeks ago Rubio, a Republican, said he was troubled by reports
that both Iran and Russia were complicit in Bashar Assad's chemical
weapons program. While the Trump administration accused Moscow of
covering up the Syrian regime's chemical weapons attack, the U.S
government has not mentioned Iran's possible role. "Congress and
the White House should work together to hold the Assad regime
accountable for its war crimes and impose harsh sanctions against its
enablers," Rubio told Fox News.
IRAQ CRISIS
As talk of an independence referendum for Iraq's
Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) grows, Iran's role is becoming
more visible, especially that of Qasem Soleimani, the powerful
commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force. But
it appears that this role is retreating in the face of Kurdish
ambitions for more independence. Iraqi Kurdish political forces have
recently increased their calls for a referendum on Kurdish
independence, but Iran may try to prevent this from happening.
Kurdish media outlets reported April 10 that Soleimani had met senior
leaders of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) in Sulaimaniyah.
Rudaw, a media organization aligned with the Kurdistan Democratic
Party (KDP), reported April 11 that the goal of the visit was to
prevent the KRG from holding an independence referendum.
SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS
Abdullah al-Maalami the Saudi Permanent Representative
in the United Nations, said that Iran supports sectarian militias and
tries to replicate the Hezbollah model wherever it gets an
opportunity. Maalami also stressed that Saudi Arabia is ready to
participate in any international efforts to eliminate terrorism. He
added that the criminal regimes in Iran and Syria are trying to take
advantage of Palestinian cause, highlighting that the way to peace is
ending the occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian
state as per the 1967 borders.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Iranian filmmaker Keywan Karimi has
been released after nearly five months in Evin prison in Tehran on
charges of "propaganda against the state" and
"insulting sacred values", the Human Rights Activists News
Agency (HRANA), a news site run by a collective of Iranian human
rights advocates, said on Thursday. Karimi, 31, was released on
Wednesday, HRANA said.The charges stem from a documentary about
political graffiti in Tehran made by Karimi called "Writing on
the City". In 2015, Karimi was found guilty and sentenced to six
years in prison and 223 lashes but an appeals court subsequently
reduced the sentence to one year in prison.
The family of two Iranian-Americans
imprisoned in Iran is imploring the Trump administration to help
secure their release, describing their situation as one of
"fear" and uncertainty as their cases languish for months
on end."I cannot begin to articulate the feeling of
hopelessness, of despair, of sheer fear, of what my family is going
through," said Babak Namazi, the son and brother of the
imprisoned Americans. "Every day I wake up and I wonder if today
is the day that I am going to get any bad news." The prisoners
are Baquer and Siamak Namazi, a father and son.
The low number of female participants
in Iranian elections is an indicator of inequality in the political,
social and cultural fabric of the country, women's rights advocate
Nahid Tavasoli told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).
Speaking from Tehran, the editor-in-chief of Nafe, an academic
women's periodical, said Iranian women are denied many rights as
citizens that affect their participation rate in politics. "Women
in villages work from dawn to dusk and carry out tough tasks,
sometimes even tougher than men's work," she said.
"Sometimes, the situation in Iran seems completely
paradoxical," said Tavasoli. "On the one hand, women can
take part in various political activities, but only with certain
restricting conditions. For instance, to become president, a women
should be a proven 'political personality.'"
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Campaigning officially started on Friday for Iran's May
presidential election, pitting pragmatist President Hassan Rouhani
against hardliners just as the United States reassesses its policy on
the Islamic Republic. A hardline watchdog body in charge of vetting
candidates and laws, the Guardian Council, approved six candidates on
Thursday for the May 19 vote - including Rouhani - but hardline
former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was disqualified. A witness who
was near Ahmadinejad's house in eastern Tehran on Thursday night told
Reuters that "around 50 police officers had blocked two ends of
the street to his house to prevent possible gathering of his
supporters". Iranian police fanned out across Tehran's main
squares overnight after the names of the candidates were announced,
according to videos posted on social media.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and hardline rival
Ebrahim Raisi were both approved to run in May's presidential
election by a government vetting body, while former President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad was disqualified, state media reported on Thursday. The
approval of Rouhani, a moderate, and Raisi, a political hardliner
thought to have the backing of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
sets up a showdown between rival political camps. Four other
candidates were also qualified to run. Among them are Rouhani's vice
president, Eshaq Jahangiri, and Tehran Mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf.
Khamenei had advised Ahmadinejad not to run, and his attempt to
become a candidate was widely seen as a public snub to the Supreme
Leader, which is nearly unheard of in the Islamic Republic.
Iran's interior ministry said Thursday there would be no
live debates in the run-up to next month's presidential election.
"Based on a decision by the Election Campaign Monitoring
Commission, the election debates of the candidates will be broadcast pre-recorded,"
said ministry spokesman Seyed Salman Samani. The commission also
released guidelines for the debates, telling candidates they are not
allowed to "blacken the image of the country... or the actions
of the executive, administrative, legislative or judicial
bodies".
Iran has announced the final list of candidates for next
month's presidential race, which will largely serve as a referendum
on the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. President Hassan Rouhani
is widely seen as the front-runner, but could face tough competition
from hard-line cleric Ebrahim Raisi, who is close to Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and popular among hard-liners. Former
hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sought to run but was
disqualified. The following candidates were approved by the Guardian
Council, which vets candidates for Iran's elections. Half of its 12
members are clerics appointed by Khamenei, who also makes all final
decisions on major policies.
Iran's presidential elections are perhaps among the most
unpredictable worldwide. Except for the 2001 landslide re-election of
Reformist President Mohammad Khatami, predicting the winner of the
past five presidential polls has truly been a challenge. The May 19
vote is shaping up to be the most unpredictable yet. Despite the
Principlist JAMNA coalition holding a preliminary vote to find a consensus
candidate, Iranian conservatives remain divided a month before the
country's presidential elections. In a new development this
election cycle, the Principlist movement formed the Popular Front of
Islamic Revolution Forces, popularly known by its Persian acronym,
JAMNA, and adopted a candidate selection mechanism akin to the
primaries held by Western political parties. The coalition, which
includes top conservative figures, hopes to forge agreement on a
consensus candidate to run against incumbent President Hassan Rouhani
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Just one day after the State Department officially
notified Congress of Iran complying with its commitments based on the
nuclear deal, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson's latest remarks
caught Tehran by surprise. The nuclear accord, known as the Joint
Comprehensive Plan of Action, has failed to quell Iran's capability
and willpower to develop nuclear weapons, Tillerson emphasized,
highlighting the fact that the mullahs' ambitions continue to pose
grave threats for international peace and security. Prior to
Tillerson's latest lashing at Tehran, the Iranian regime was boasting
the State Department's required 90-day report as a major
breakthrough. This was a first for the Trump administration in
stating anything with the potential of being weighed as positive.
After his campaign promise that he would "rip
up" the agreement, it must have galled Donald Trump for his
administration to certify to Congress that Iran is meeting its
obligations under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, otherwise
known as the Iran nuclear deal. That's probably why, in the certification
letter Secretary of State Rex Tillerson sent to Congress this week,
he added that little bit about the administration's review of the
deal and the possibility of revisiting the nuclear-related sanctions
the United States lifted to secure it. Of course, it was those very
sanctions that brought Iran to the table in the first place. Having
them lifted was Tehran's incentive for dismantling its nuclear
program. So, if we snap them back in place without cause, we -- and
not Iran -- would be in noncompliance. We -- not Iran -- would be the
ones sending a clear message that we are neither a credible nor
trustworthy negotiating partner.
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