TOP STORIES
Following a meeting between top Hamas officials and
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Monday, a joint
statement was released saying, "We concluded that it's time to
turn a new leaf in order to address our shared enemy." The
delegation of Hamas officials included Saleh al-Arouri, the military
commander who oversees West Bank terror cells. He is believed to have
orchestrated the kidnapping of three Israeli teens in 2014.
Iran's newly re-elected President has not included any
women in his proposed list of 17 ministers, according to Iranian
state media, reneging on an election pledge to his largely reformist
base. Hassan Rouhani presented his list of Cabinet nominees for all
but one of the 18 minister roles on Tuesday. The exclusion of women
from the proposed list was widely expected, though appointing a
female minister was a central promise made by Rouhani during the
election campaign.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani presented his cabinet
to parliament for a vote of confidence on Tuesday, keeping in place
the chief architect of Tehran's nuclear accord with global powers. In
his first term, Rouhani championed an agreement with the United
States and five other powers in 2015 that led to the lifting of most
sanctions against Iran in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
The cabinet list, published on state media, shows Rouhani has
re-appointed Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, the lead
negotiator in the nuclear deal, and Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh, who
is credited with increasing oil production after the lifting of
sanctions.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
The commander of the Air Force of the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard, Brigadier General Ali Hajizadeh, said that the
United States wants to apply the Libyan model in Iran in response to
reports about the United States pressuring the International Atomic
Energy Agency to inspect suspicious military sites in Iran. According
to Fares news agency, Haji Zadeh said in a press statement that
"through manipulations such as sanctions, pressure and
psychological warfare, the Americans are seeking to disarm Iran and
are in the process of implementing the Libyan model on us, but we
will not surrender to their methods."
EXTREMISM
Iran's intelligence ministry says its forces have
detained 27 militants linked to the Islamic State group who planned
to carry out terrorist operations in religious cities inside the
country. The ministry says Monday in a statement on its website,
vaja.ir, that they were identified during an exchange of intelligence
with one of the regional services, ahead of President Hassan
Rouhani's inauguration. The report did not say which country Iran
exchanged the intelligence with, or mention where they were arrested.
It said 10 of them were detained at a "control center"
abroad, and sent to Iran, while 17 others were arrested in Iran. The
ministry added five of them had planned to carry out terror attacks
inside Iran and the others were their supporters.
IRAQ CRISIS
Iran and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) have
become entangled in a war of words as the referendum on Iraqi
Kurdistan's independence nears. Both sides are now making veiled
threats, which - if they materialize - could have serious
consequences on stability in the region. Iran is stepping up pressure
on Iraqi Kurdish political parties to refrain from holding their
upcoming referendum on independence. The Iranians, whether under the
shah or the Islamic Republic, have worked hand in glove with the
Kurds to undermine the Iraqi central government's authority and thus
should not be expected to be adamant about preserving the authority
of the state at any cost... Iran should be expected to continue its
unrelenting pressure on the Kurds to halt the referendum, partly
worried about the impact an independent Kurdish state in northern
Iraq would have on its own 8-million-strong Kurdish community, which
fought a bloody battle for independence in the 1980s.
The Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran (KDPI), which seeks
Kurdish autonomy in the country and has been exiled to Iraq, has been
intensifying its presence along the border area in recent days. The
separatist group helped to defend northern Iraq against the Islamic
State of Iraq and the Levant group (ISIL, also known as ISIS), and
with the battle for Mosul now over, it is focusing on consolidating
its control over parts of the Iraq-Iran border. Last month, the KDPI
and local villagers reported an Iranian shelling attack near the
party's bases in Iraq, which they described as an escalation of
military operations. The upcoming Iraqi Kurdish independence
referendum in September could also change the game in this crucial
border area.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani proposed the
reappointment of its longest-serving oil minister, Bijan Namdar
Zanganeh, who fought to restore crude production and closed a
landmark deal with Total SA to develop the Persian Gulf country's
share of the biggest natural gas field... During the first of his two
terms as oil minister, from 1997 until 2005, Zanganeh enticed foreign
companies including Total and Royal Dutch Shell Plc to help revive
Iran's oil and gas fields after years of under-investment. He
returned to the post in 2013 and boosted the nation's oil exports as
production rose by about 1 million barrels a day after the easing of
economic sanctions in January 2016.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Most non-Isis powers-including Shia Iran and the leading
Sunni states-agree on the need to destroy it. But which entity is
supposed to inherit its territory? A coalition of Sunnis? Or a sphere
of influence dominated by Iran? The answer is elusive because Russia
and the Nato countries support opposing factions. If the Isis
territory is occupied by Iran's Revolutionary Guards or Shia forces
trained and directed by it, the result could be a territorial belt
reaching from Tehran to Beirut, which could mark the emergence of an
Iranian radical empire.
Hezbollah announced last month that it had captured the
Syrian-Lebanese border area of Juroud Arsal from Islamic State
forces. Far from being a minor development in a violent and unstable
region, this marks another Iranian success in its quest for power and
dominance across the Middle East... An essential part of Tehran's
grand strategy is to control a land corridor from Iran to the
Mediterranean Sea. Under the cover of Syria's bloody civil war,
Hezbollah is helping to build such a highway... Controlling this
corridor would directly connect Iran with its proxies in Syria and
Lebanon, allowing it to transfer advanced weapons cheaply and
quickly. The highway would let Iran build its military presence on
the Mediterranean, bringing much of Europe into the range of its air
force, navy and midrange missiles. Iran could even build arms
factories outside its borders. Iranian apologists frame Hezbollah's
capture of the border area as a victory over ISIS, as if the U.S.-led
coalition ought to be cheering. ISIS needs to be stopped, but Iran is
a far greater problem in the long run. Tehran shouldn't be mistaken
for part of the solution.
As part of the 'Astana Process,' technical experts from
Russia, Turkey and Iran will meet in Tehran this week to discuss
further details of the "de-escalation regime" now in place
in Syria. On their agenda are monitoring and enforcement mechanisms
for local ceasefires, detainee release arrangements, and preparation
for implementing their May 4 agreement on de-escalation in the Idlib
province... To-date, Moscow has vetoed an Assad-Iran plan to attack
Idlib partly in response to US and Turkish opposition to such an
attack.. The de-escalation regime put in place by Russia with US
blessing, is increasingly decreasing the odds of the orderly
political transition solution that is endorsed by the US in Syria.
While the two countries will continue to pay lip service to the
long-term objective of a territorially and politically unified Syria,
the most likely interim scenario is a de-facto fragmented Syria that
is divided between government-controlled areas and zones ruled by
"acceptable" local governing councils. By hosting the
discussions on de-escalation zones, Tehran is signaling that it is
signing off on this de-facto political reality in Syria.
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