|
TOP STORIES
The European Union on Friday pressed the U.S. to stick
to the full implementation of sanctions relief spelled out in the
July 2015 Iranian nuclear deal amid growing doubts about the Trump's
administration's plans for the agreement. The statement came after
the latest meeting among senior officials in Vienna of the body that
oversees compliance of the agreement, which wound back Iran's nuclear
program in exchange for lifting most international sanctions. Iran
and the six powers that negotiated the agreement are represented on
the so-called Joint Commission. With the Trump administration
reviewing its Iran policy and accusing Tehran of destabilizing the
region, Iranian officials vented frustration about increased U.S.
sanctions, including actions targeting Tehran's elite military unit
and ballistic missile program, according to people at the meeting.
The Iranians also complained about criticism of the agreement by
President Donald Trump and U.S. efforts to persuade other governments
to steer clear of doing business with Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump warned that Iran would face
"new and serious consequences" unless all unjustly detained
American citizens were released and returned, the White House said in
a statement on Friday. Trump urged Iran to return Robert Levinson, an
American former law enforcement officer who disappeared more than 10
years ago in Iran, and demanded that Tehran release businessman
Siamak Namazi and his father, Baquer. The statement capped a week of
rhetoric against Tehran. On Tuesday, Washington slapped new economic
sanctions against Iran over its ballistic missile program and said
Tehran's "malign activities" in the Middle East undercut
any "positive contributions" coming from the 2015 nuclear
accord. Those measures signaled that the Trump administration was
seeking to put more pressure on Iran while keeping in place an
agreement between Tehran and six world powers to curb its nuclear
program in return for lifting international oil and financial
sanctions.
After a contentious meeting with Secretary of State Rex
Tillerson this week, President Donald Trump instructed a group of
trusted White House staffers to make the potential case for
withholding certification of Iran at the next 90-day review of the
nuclear deal. The goal was to give Trump what he felt the State
Department had failed to do: the option to declare that Tehran was
not in compliance with the contentious agreement. "The president
assigned White House staffers with the task of preparing for the
possibility of decertification for the 90-day review period that ends
in October - a task he had previously given to Secretary Tillerson
and the State Department," a source close to the White House
told Foreign Policy. The agreement, negotiated between Iran and world
powers, placed strict limits on Tehran's nuclear program in return
for lifting an array of economic sanctions.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Iran decided on Friday for the second time since January
not to upset its nuclear pact with six world powers, two informed
sources said, despite public statements by Tehran accusing the United
States of violating the deal. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said
on Wednesday new U.S. economic sanctions imposed against Iran
contravened the nuclear accord reached with world powers in 2015 and
he pledged Tehran would "resist" them while respecting the
deal itself. The Trump administration slapped new sanctions on Iran
on Tuesday over its ballistic missile program and said Tehran's
"malign activities" in the Middle East undercut any
"positive contributions" coming from the nuclear accord,
which was reached during the Obama administration. Iran can use the
so-called Joint Commission meetings held every three months in Vienna
to trigger a formal dispute resolution mechanism set out for cases
where one party feels there is a breach of the deal.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC MISSILE PROGRAM
Iran announced the launch of a new missile production
line on Saturday, according to state media, against a backdrop of
tension between the United States and Tehran. The Sayyad 3 missile
can reach an altitude of 27 km (16 miles) and travel up to 120 km (74
miles), Iranian defense minister Hossein Dehghan said at a ceremony.
The missile can target fighter planes, unmanned aerial vehicles,
cruise missiles and helicopters, Dehghan said. Last week, the United
States slapped new economic sanctions on Iran over its ballistic
missile program, and said Tehran's "malign activities" in
the Middle East undercut any "positive contributions"
coming from a 2015 Iran nuclear accord. The measures signaled that
the administration of President Donald Trump was seeking to put more
pressure on Iran while keeping in place the agreement between Tehran
and six world powers to curb its nuclear program in return for
lifting international oil and financial sanctions.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Iran has demanded that the United States release all
detained Iranian citizens, the semi-official Tasnim news agency
reported on Saturday. The report quotes Iran's deputy foreign
minister Abbas Araghchi as saying he raised the issue Friday during a
meeting with an American delegation in Vienna, on the sidelines of a
meeting on 2015 nuclear deal. "We raised the issue of the
release of Iranians who are detained under the meaningless accusation
of bypassing sanctions," on Iran, Araghchi was quoted as saying.
He did not elaborate. Earlier on Friday the White House threatened
"new and serious consequences" for Iran unless it releases
all U.S. citizens who are detained there. The White House says
President Donald Trump is prepared to act in an attempt to end Iran's
practice of using detentions and hostage taking as state policy, but
it provides no specifics about potential consequences. Washington is
urging the return of former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who
disappeared in Iran in 2007 and Princeton graduate student Xiyue
Wang, who was arrested last year.
The future of U.S. relations with Iran hinges on Tehran
coming clean about the whereabouts of a former FBI agent who vanished
a decade ago in the Islamic republic, Sen. Marco Rubio told Fox News.
Robert "Bob" Levinson disappeared in 2007 from Iran's Kish
Island, where the retired FBI agent had traveled on an unauthorized
mission to recruit an intelligence source for the CIA. With the
exception of a proof-of-life video in late 2010, there has been no
credible sighting of Levinson or confirmation of who, specifically,
is holding him and why. Iranian leaders deny knowing his whereabouts
- a claim U.S. officials categorically reject. "Bob Levinson
went missing because of the Iranian regime," Rubio, R-Fla., said
Friday. "I believe with all my heart they know where he is, they
know what's happened to him and we should hold them completely and
entirely responsible for his fate, his whereabouts and the outcome of
this."
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
U.S. Republicans and Democrats have reached agreement on
legislation that allows new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North
Korea, leading congressional Democrats said on Saturday, in a bill
that would limit any potential effort by President Donald Trump to
try to lift sanctions against Moscow. The Countering Iran's
Destabilizing Activities Act, which was passed by the Senate a month
ago, was held up in the House of Representatives after Republicans
proposed including North Korea sanctions in the bill. The House
is set to vote on Tuesday on a package of bills on sanctions covering
Russia, Iran and North Korea, according to House Majority Leader
Kevin McCarthy's office. The measure will "hold them accountable
for their dangerous actions," McCarthy said in a statement Saturday.
IRAQ CRISIS
Iran's Revolutionary Guards engaged in heavy clashes
with gunmen on the border with Iraq on Thursday evening, killing
three of them and sustaining one fatality, the Guards said on Friday.
A statement on the Guards' Sepah News website identified their
opponents only as "terrorists". Clashes with Iranian
Kurdish militant groups based in Iraq are fairly common in the area.
After Thursday's fighting, four militants were wounded and fled back
across the border into Iraq and one was captured, the statement said.
As well as the one fatality, another Guard was wounded. On June 7,
Islamic State attacked parliament in Tehran and the mausoleum of
Ayatollah Khomeini, killing at least 18 people. All of the attackers
were Iranian Kurds. The Revolutionary Guards fired several missiles
at Islamic State bases in Syria on June 18 in response to that
attack.
Iran and Iraq signed an agreement on Sunday to step up
military cooperation and the fight against "terrorism and
extremism", Iranian media reported, an accord which is likely to
raise concerns in Washington. Iranian Defence Minister Hossein
Dehghan and his Iraqi counterpart Erfan al-Hiyali signed a memorandum
of understanding which also covered border security, logistics and
training, the official news agency IRNA reported.
"Extending cooperation and exchanging experiences in
fighting terrorism and extremism, border security, and educational,
logistical, technical and military support are among the provisions of
this memorandum," IRNA reported after the signing of the accord
in Tehran. Iran-Iraq ties have improved since Iran's long-time enemy
Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003 and an Iraqi government led by
Shi'ite Muslims came to power. Iran is mostly a Shi'ite nation.
SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have detained a Saudi
Arabian fishing boat and arrested its crew, an Iranian state news
agency reported on Saturday, at a time of increased diplomatic
tension between the two regional powers. Five Indian nationals
on the vessel were detained on Friday after they crossed into Iranian
territorial waters in the Gulf, Ardeshir Yarahmadi, a spokesman for
the fisheries department of Bushehr province, was quoted as saying by
the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA). Yarahmadi said it was the
second time in the past month that a Saudi boat and its crew had been
detained. Relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are at their worst
in years, with each accusing the other of subverting regional
security and supporting opposite sides in conflicts in Syria, Iraq
and Yemen. Riyadh, along with other Arab governments, has severed
ties with Qatar, citing its support of Iran as one of the main
reasons for the move.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
The Israeli political and defense establishment has
stated its intention to destroy Hezbollah in any future war. However,
the strategy that same establishment has adopted will certainly fail
to achieve that objective. Convinced Hezbollah has usurped the
Lebanese state, Israel's highest officials are threatening to target
Lebanon's institutions, army, and civilian infrastructure in its next
conflict with the Shiite organization. Instead of crippling
Hezbollah, this return to Israel's past failed strategies will
backfire by allowing the group to survive and reemerge stronger.
Instead, to decisively defeat Hezbollah, Israel should attack the
organization in Syria. Lebanon and Hezbollah have long had a
confluence of interests in repelling Israeli attacks on the country.
This led every Lebanese president, both pro-Syrian and pro-Western
prime ministers and all cabinets since 1989 to defend the group's
military exploits against Israel, and the Lebanese Army to cooperate
with it against the IDF's occupation of south Lebanon.
Six years. Half a million dead. Many millions displaced.
Untold thousands tortured and killed. The Syrian civil war is the
worst humanitarian disaster of our young century, and would have been
high on the list of the last one. But unlike the great world wars of
the past, this relatively local conflict seems to have no imaginable
solution, diplomatic or military. Even with the primary Western
concern -- the destruction of the Islamic State -- within sight, we
have to acknowledge that the aftermath may be even worse for Syria,
the Middle East and the rest of the globe. The only certainty: much
more destruction, suffering and death. Sorry for glooming up your
weekend. In great conflagrations, however, the future can often be
perceived in the past. Syria - like Iraq, Jordan and the Arab Gulf
states -- was always a fake construct, the result of a passel of
British and French mapmakers anticipating the collapse of the Ottoman
Empire, aka the Sick Man of Europe.
The Trump administration last week certified that Iran
is complying with the international agreement placing limits on its
nuclear program - but for a while it looked as if the certification
wouldn't happen. But then President Trump balked at signing off
on the recommendation of key advisors, including Secretary of State
Rex W. Tillerson, Secretary of Defense James Mattis and national
Security Advisor H. R McMaster. Eventually Trump agreed to the
certification, after being presented with a plan for tougher measures
against Iran in other areas. The next day the Treasury Department
imposed financial sanctions on 18 additional people and entities for
supporting Iran's armed services and Islamic Revolutionary Guard
Corps, a force commanded by Iran's Supreme Leader. The agreement
itself was never conditioned on Iran's good behavior in other areas.
But this wasn't a case of all's well that ends well.
Two years ago, the United States and its allies in
Europe, China, and Russia announced to the world that the diplomatic
coalition that had been negotiating with Tehran for the previous two
years finally arrived at an agreement on Iran's nuclear program. And
this week, one of the accord's loudest critics-president Donald
Trump-had to formally admit to Congress that the Iranians continue to
uphold their side of the bargain. The agreement was a classic
illustration of realpolitik: adversaries sitting down and haggling,
and walking away with a product requiring each side to give up
leverage to get something important. Tehran's uranium enrichment and
plutonium programs would be severely hindered; IAEA inspectors would
be permitted to roam Iran's declared nuclear facilities whenever they
wanted; two-thirds of Tehran's enrichment centrifuges would be
rendered inoperable and placed under IAEA seal; and Iran would be
prohibited from pursuing a nuclear weapon for the remainder of its
time as a nation.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment