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Iran's hardline Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
said on Saturday Saudi Arabia's rulers faced "certain
downfall" for aligning themselves with the United States, hours
after the country's pragmatist president called for improved ties
with Gulf states. "They (Saudi leaders) act cordially towards
the enemies of Islam while having the opposite behavior towards the
Muslim people of Bahrain and Yemen," Khamenei told a religious
gathering, according to his Twitter account. "They will face certain
downfall," he told a Koran reading event marking the start of
the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan. Iran and the Gulf Arab states
are backing opposing sides in the wars in Syria and Yemen, and the
unrest in Bahrain. Relations were further hit last weekend when U.S.
President Donald Trump visited Saudi Arabia and accused Tehran of
supporting terrorism in the Middle East.
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei launched a
fierce attack against regional rival Saudi Arabia, saying it was
being pumped "like a milking cow" by "infidel"
Americans. "These people (the Saudis) appear to believe in the
Koran... but in practice they act against its teachings,"
Khamenei said at a meeting on Saturday to mark the start of the holy
month of Ramadan. "They are close with the infidels and offer
the enemy the money they should be using to improve the lives of
their own people. "But in reality there is no closeness and, as
the Americans have said, they are just there to pump them for money
like a milking cow, and later slaughter them," he added.
Secretary of Defense James Mattis said in an interview
with "Face the Nation" Saturday that Iran is at the center
of dysfunction in the Middle East and remains a threat around the
world, echoing President Trump's tough talk on the country.
"Face the Nation" host John Dickerson asked the retired
Marine Corp general, a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,
if he still stands by comments he made in 2011, when he ranked Iran
as his top priority while he was the head of U.S. Central Command
under President Barack Obama. "I had a more -- let's just
say, a narrower portfolio in those days," Mattis said. "And
in the U.S. Central Region, what we find is wherever there are
challenges, wherever there is chaos, wherever there is violence,
whether it be in Lebanon, in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, the attempts
to unsettle Bahrain. We always find Iran and the IRGC [Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps] at it."
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
President Trump, who has never made a secret of his
hostility toward Iran, called recently for a grand regional strategy
among Sunni nations to isolate the country. But Tehran received that
threat with surprising equanimity because, in practice, the Trump
administration has shown a willingness to do business with the
country. On the surface, it looked as if there was a lot of bad news
recently for the Islamic Republic. At the recent Arab-American summit
meeting in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Trump was the guest of the Saudi king,
Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud, a sworn enemy of Iran, and the
countries signed a record-breaking $110 billion arms deal.
"Until the Iranian regime is willing to be a partner for
peace," Mr. Trump said at the meeting, "all nations of
conscience must work together to isolate Iran, deny it funding for
terrorism."
Boeing's planned multibillion-dollar aircraft sales to
Iran are facing a growing backlash from Republicans in Washington,
but one key politician has stayed silent: Donald Trump. The proposed
sales have put the U.S. president in a tough spot, pitting his
hostility to Iran and the recent nuclear deal against his ambition to
boost American factory jobs. "My No. 1 priority is to dismantle
the disastrous deal with Iran," Trump said during the 2016 presidential
campaign. He's also promised to boost American manufacturing and
create 25 million new jobs. If he blocks the plane sales, Trump could
undercut that second goal. Boeing said its agreements to sell 110
aircraft for nearly $20 billion to two Iranian carriers would support
nearly 120,000 jobs.
BUSINESS RISK
It was only a couple of sentences but they were enough
to cause a major amount of concern in the aerospace industry. In a
hearing, US Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin announced his
intention to impose additional sanctions not only on Syria and North
Korea, but also on Iran. Then he added, "both in the case of
Boeing and Airbus, there are licenses that will be required and they
are under review." A lot of money is at stake. Airbus has an
order from Iran Air for 32 A320neo-s, six A320ceo-s, eight A321ceo-s,
eight A330-200s, 28 A330-900neo-s and 16 A350-1000s.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
The Moscow-led Eurasian Economic Union aims to finalise
a free-trade deal with Iran by the end of the year, in an attempt by
Russia and its fellow members to deepen ties with Tehran. The trade
overtures are taking place amid signs that Iran's relationship with
the US will deteriorate under the administration of Donald Trump. The
US president last week attacked Iran for fuelling "the fires of
sectarian conflict and terror" during visits to the country's
regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Israel, days after Iran re-elected
moderate President Hassan Rouhani on a platform of international
re-engagement. Russia and Iran co-operate on a number of geopolitical
issues, most notably in the war in Syria. The two countries have
sought to deepen their relationship since the EU and US imposed
sanctions on Moscow in 2014.
The tender for Iran's Azadegan oilfield has started, the
country's oil minister said on Monday, according to the Islamic
Republic News Agency (IRNA). "Right now the tender for
developing the Azadegan field is being carried out," said Bijan
Zanganeh. The Azadegan field, in southwest Iran near the border with
Iraq, is considered to be the biggest oilfield in the Islamic
Republic, IRNA reported. It has 37 billion barrels of oil,
Petroleum Engineering and Development Company Managing Director Seyed
Noureddin Shahnazizadeh told Mehr News agency this month.
French oil major Total still plans to conclude the Iran
South Pars gas deal before summer, its chief executive Patrick
Pouyanne told journalists on the sidelines of the company's annual
general meeting. Pouyanne said the signing of U.S. sanctions waivers,
among other hurdles, cleared the path for the deal to be signed.
Total said earlier in February that a final decision on the deal
hinged on the new U.S. administration renewing the waivers. Pouyanne
also added he had met Iranian oil minister Bijan Zanganeh in Vienna
on the sidelines of the OPEC meeting
SYRIA CONFLICT
The Syrian government has asked Iran to take over the
supervision and payroll of thousands of Shi'ite militiamen fighting
alongside Russian and Syrian troops in support of President Bashar
al-Assad, according to a government source and a news report. The
pro-opposition Syrian news website Zaman Al Wasel reported that it
obtained a Syrian defense ministry document saying the Assad regime
has approved a plan to give Iran responsibility for paying foreign
fighters - mostly Shi'ites of varying nationalities. Shi'ite fighters
mostly are paid in cash from Iran, the Syrian government and coffers
of the Lebanese-based, pro-Iranian Hezbollah, according to analysts.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani has told the Qatari Emir
that Tehran is ready for talks with Arab nations to reach a
"real agreement toward peace and brotherhood. "Rouhani's
website quoted him as saying in a phone conversation with Qatar's
ruler, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, that the Muslim world is
beset by divisions and should take steps "toward peace and
brotherhood." "In this direction we are ready for talks
aimed at reaching a real agreement," Rouhani was quoted as
saying. The report added that the Qatari Emir said in response that
talks between Iran and the Arab states of the Persian Gulf should
continue.
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called on Saturday for
improved relations with Gulf Arab countries during a telephone call
with the emir of Qatar, which has come under fire from its Gulf
neighbors over its relationship with Tehran. Iran and the Gulf Arab
states are backing opposing sides in the Syrian and Yemen conflicts.
Relations were further hit last weekend when U.S. President Donald
Trump visited Saudi Arabia and accused Tehran of supporting terrorism
in the Middle East. Iran denies such accusations and says Saudi
Arabia, its arch-foe, is the real source of funding for Islamist
militants. Rouhani responded to Trump's criticism by saying stability
could not be achieved in the Middle East without Iran's help.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iran's Hassan
Rouhani held a phone call in which the two leaders stressed the need
for more joint efforts to resolve the Syria crisis and discussed
economic ties, the Kremlin said on Saturday. The Kremlin added that Putin
congratulated Rouhani on his recent election win. It clarified that
the economic issues discussed included joint projects in the oil and
gas sector and peaceful nuclear projects.
Iranian mortar fire on Saturday killed a Pakistani
civilian in the western Baluchistan province that shares a long
border with Iran, a regional Pakistani official said. Relations
between Iran and Pakistan have been at a low ebb since 10 Iranian
border guards were killed by militants last month. Iran said that, in
that incident, Jaish al Adl, a Sunni militant group, had opened fire
from inside Pakistan. Earlier this month the head of the Iranian
armed forces warned Islamabad that Tehran would hit bases inside
Pakistan if the government did not confront Sunni militants who carry
out cross-border attacks. Abdul Jabbar, deputy commissioner of the
Panjgur district in Baluchistan, said Iranian border security forces
had fired "many" mortar shells and rockets over the last
two days.
TERRORISM
Iran has agreed in principle to renew its funding for
the Hamas terror group, according to a report published in a
London-based Arabic daily Tuesday.Palestinian officials told Asharq
al-Awsat that Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the Gaza-based
terror group, will visit Tehran in the near future to bridge gaps
between the parties and resolve old disagreements. The deal to
restore Hamas's financial support came after marathon meetings in
Lebanon between officials from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards,
Hamas, and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group, the report said.
PROXY WARS
Iraq's Iran-backed Shi'ite paramilitary force said on
Sunday it had dislodged Islamic State from a number of villages west
of Mosul, scoring further progress toward the border with Syria. The
villages taken by the Popular Mobilisation paramilitary force include
Kojo, where Islamic State fighters abducted hundreds of Yazidi women
in 2014, including Nadia Murad and Lamiya Aji Bashar, recipients of
the European Parliament's Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought. Kojo
and the other villages of the Sinjar mountain region will be returned
to the Yazidi community, a Popular Mobilisation leader, Abu Mahdi
Al-Muhandis, told Iraqi state television.
An Iraqi Shi'ite force backed by Iran said it pushed
Islamic State out of several villages on the border with Syria on
Monday, potentially reopening a supply route to send Iranian weapons
to President Bashar al-Assad. The maneuver could also be the prelude
to a connection with the Assad's Iranian-backed forces, although they
are yet to reach the Iraqi border from the Syrian side. Syrian rebel
sources have warned of advances by the Syrian army and Iranian-backed
militia to reach the border. The territory taken by the Popular
Mobilisation force on Monday is located north of the Islamic
State-held town of Baaj. For Popular Mobilisation, it is a step
towards achieving a linkup with Assad forces, giving him a
significant advantage in fighting the six-year rebellion against his
rule.
While Iraq's conventional military has been slowly
clearing the Islamic State group from inside Mosul's complex urban
terrain, Iraq's Iran-backed Shiite paramilitary forces have been
working their way through less glamorous territory: vast deserts west
and south of the city that run along and across Iraq's border with
Syria. The territory, dotted with small villages and dusty roads, is
home to key supply lines into neighboring Syria and connecting Iraq's
north to the capital Baghdad. Control of the Iraqi-Syrian border
would be a key strategic prize for the mostly Shiite paramilitary
forces and their backer Iran, who also supports the government of
Syrian President Bashar Assad. One division of the Iraqi
government-sanctioned paramilitary group known as the Popular
Mobilization Forces first reached Iraq's border with Syria on Monday
after securing a string of small villages west of Mosul and south of
Sinjar, according to Ahmed al-Asadi, the group's spokesman.
"This will be the first step to the liberation of the entire
border," he said.
Hundreds of Iranian worshippers have rallied in Tehran
to denounce a Bahrain police raid on the hometown of a prominent
Shiite cleric this week that left five of his supporters dead and 286
arrested. The Iranian demonstrators took to the streets after Friday
prayers in Tehran, chanting "Death to the House of
Khalifa," a reference to the ruling family of Bahrain, and also,
"Death to the House of Saud," a reference to the Saudi
royal family Iranian media said similar rallies took place in other
cities and towns across the country. Predominantly Shiite Iran sees
itself as a protector of Shiites across the Muslim world.
IRAQ CRISIS
The highway from Baghdad to Amman, Jordan, cuts through
the insurgent badlands of the western Iraqi desert, and these days
any truck driver risks confrontation with roving bands of gunmen. In
the future, though, the United States envisions the road as something
like the New Jersey Turnpike, with service stations, rest areas,
cafes and tollbooths. As part of an American effort to promote
economic development in Iraq and secure influence in the country
after the fight against the Islamic State subsides, the American
government has helped broker a deal between Iraq and Olive Group, a
private security company, to establish and secure the country's first
toll highway.
A senior commander of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary
Guards Corps (IRGC) was killed fighting Islamic State west of the
Iraqi city of Mosul, the Tehran-based Tasnim news agency reported on
Saturday. It is the first time Iran has announced the death of
a senior commander during the operations launched in October to drive
the Islamist militants out of Mosul. "Commander Shaaban Nassiri
was martyred in operations to free the area west of Mosul," the
Tasnim news agency quoted the Revolutionary Guards as saying. The IRGC
is the main backer of the Iraqi Shi'ite paramilitary force known as
Popular Mobilisation, fighting Islamic State west of Mosul. Nassiri
was killed near Baaj, one of the last cities which remain under
Islamic State control, near the Syrian border, according to Mashregh,
an Iranian news website. Baghdadi is believed to be hiding in this
region, according to U.S. and Iraqi officials.
HUMAN RIGHTS
In the week before the May 19
presidential election in Iran, the eventual victor, Hassan Rouhani,
criticised the judiciary and the powerful Revolutionary Guards with
rhetoric rarely heard in public in the Islamic republic. Now, in the
eyes of his supporters, it is time to deliver. Millions of Rouhani's
followers expect him to keep pushing on human rights issues.
"The majority of Iranians have made it clear that they
want improvement on human rights," said Hadi Ghaemi, the
director of the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), a New
York-based advocacy group. "Expectations are running high."
That message came through loud and clear shortly before Rouhani, who
won re-election with more than 57 percent of the vote, took the stage
at a gathering of supporters in Tehran last week.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Iranian newspapers say police dispersed dozens of
protesters who had gathered outside the country's central bank in
Tehran, demanding their money back from a credit company. The papers,
including the reformist Shargh daily, say Monday's rally was staged
by depositors of the Caspian Credit Institute, a government-backed
low-interest-rate loan fund now long defunct. The reports say the
protesters chanted "death to (Valiullah) Seif," the
governor until they were dispersed. Similar gatherings took place in
two other cities. The Caspian Credit Institute, founded in 1990s as a
local low-interest-rate loan fund, attracted thousands of investors
by paying higher interest rates but later failed to fulfill its
promises. Occasionally, depositors gather for protests. Hundreds of
similar funds are active across Iran but the government has struggled
to manage them under banking regulations.
Defeated hardline candidate Ebrahim Raisi has complained
of voter fraud in Iran's presidential election and called on the
judiciary and the election watchdog to investigate, the semi-official
Fars news agency said on Monday. The allegations, likely to stoke up
Raisi's conservative supporters, were among his strongest since losing
the bitterly contested May 19 vote to incumbent Hassan Rouhani by a
margin of 57 percent to 38. Indignant at Rouhani's re-election,
hardliners have vowed to press their conservative agenda. The head of
the judiciary on Monday separately criticised Rouhani's campaign
promises to work for the release of two opposition leaders under
house arrest. "Tampering with the numbers of people's
participation is inappropriate. Not sending ballots to centers where
the government's opponent has a chance of getting votes is very
inappropriate," Raisi was quoted as saying.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
President Trump has an Iran problem. He has inherited a
nuclear deal that he opposes but that he cannot change. The financial
and economic sanctions that forced Iran to negotiate are largely gone
and ending the agreement would remove controls over Iran's nuclear activities.
Trump's current approach is rhetoric, sticking to the nuclear deal,
minor sanctions, and a policy review. Instead, he needs a strategy to
fill President Barack Obama's policy gaps on nuclear weapons
research, missiles, and human rights. Trump's first step must be to
demand Iran reveal all its weaponization research. The world must
know exactly how far the Islamic Republic progressed and which
countries helped it. Without this knowledge, and given the regime's
record of cheating, Iran will seek a nuclear weapon when the deal's
restrictions start expiring after 2027. Without full disclosure, the
Iran agreement delays, but does not deny, the Islamic Republic's
nuclear weapons ambitions.
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