|
TOP STORIES
US. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said on
Tuesday Iran must be held responsible for "its missile launches,
support for terrorism, disregard for human rights, and violations of
U.N. Security Council resolutions." Haley was responding to
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who said earlier on Tuesday that
Iran could abandon its nuclear agreement with world powers
"within hours" if the United States imposes any more new
sanctions. "Iran cannot be allowed to use the nuclear deal to
hold the world hostage ... The nuclear deal must not become 'too big
to fail'," Haley said in a statement, adding that new U.S.
sanctions were unrelated to the Iran nuclear deal. Haley will
travel to Vienna next week to discuss Iran's nuclear activities with
U.N. atomic watchdog officials as part of Washington's review of
Tehran's compliance with a 2015 nuclear deal.
An Israeli television report said on Tuesday that Iran
is building a facility in northwest Syria to manufacture long-range
rockets, and showed satellite images it said were of the site under
construction. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned last
week that Iran was strengthening its foothold in its ally Syria as
Islamic State fighters were being displaced, and said Israel was
watching developments and would act against any threat. "Our
policy is clear: We vehemently oppose the military buildup by Iran
and its proxies, primarily Hezbollah, in Syria and we will do
whatever it takes to protect Israel's security," he said in a
speech. The Channel 2 television news report showed images it said
were taken by an Israeli satellite showing a site in northwest Syria
near the Mediterranean coastal town of Baniyas, saying some of the
construction indicated explosives would be stored there
Despite increasing Iranian provocation, the "US
Navy will continue to operate as it always has", a senior
commander told Al Arabiya English. The latest of these provocations
came on August 13 when an Iranian drone came within 300 meters of US
fighters near the USS Nimitz, and only six days earlier, the Navy
said an Iranian drone came within only 30 meters of an F-18 preparing
to land on the carrier. Since January, Iranian forces were involved
in 14 unsafe or unprofessional interactions, said Commander Bill
Urban, spokesman for the US Naval Central Command (NAVCENT), in
Bahrain. "The US Navy will continue to operate as it always has
in the region; with professionalism and in accordance with widely
accepted maritime rules and norms, grounded in international law. We
expect the same from any nation's professional maritime forces,"
Cmdr Urban said in an emailed interview. Last year, Iranian maritime
forces have engaged in 35 unsafe or unprofessional engagements.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Iranian lawmakers voted to raise spending on the
nation's missile program and elite forces, bolstering twin pillars of
the security establishment that are at the center of a growing
dispute with the United States. The Iranian Parliament on Sunday
overwhelmingly approved a bill allocating an additional 20,000
billion rials ($524 million) for Iran's missile program and the Quds
Force, an arm of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps. The legislation
cited "hostile" US policies against Iran and American
"adventurism in the region" for the move, Tasnim News
Agency reported. US President Donald Trump has expanded sanctions on
Iran and swung behind its Persian Gulf rivals since taking office,
amid signs he might attempt to sink the 2015 nuclear accord that opened
the Islamic Republic for business. The extra funding-on top of two
years of increased defense spending-serves as a
"multifaceted" message, according to a senior associate
with the Proliferation Prevention Program at the Washington-based
Center for Strategic and International Studies.
EXTREMISM
Islamic State is seeking to radicalize
disaffected ethnic minorities in majority Shi'ite Iran to encourage
attacks intended to avenge Tehran's offensive against the group
across the Middle East. Sunni Islamic State, in decline in Iraq and
Syria, claimed responsibility for an unprecedented attack on June 7
in which suicide bombers and gunmen attacked the Iranian parliament
and Ayatollah Khomeini's mausoleum in Tehran, killing 18 people. The
attackers were Kurdish Iranian Sunnis. In interviews, dissidents and
representatives of Iran's minority Kurds, Baluchs and Arabs said that
decades-old liberation movements are evolving into sectarian-tinged
struggles, spurred on by geopolitical rivalries in the region. They
told Reuters some Iranian separatist groups, several of which have
pursued armed insurgencies for their nationalist or civil movements,
increasingly see themselves as part of a struggle between Sunnis and
Shi'ites in the region.
RUSSIA-IRAN COOPERATION
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday
he hoped that Iran would not quit the agreement Iran reached in 2015
with world powers to curb Tehran's nuclear work in return for the
lifting of most sanctions. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said this
week that Iran could abandon the deal "within hours" if the
United States imposed any more new sanctions.. Lavrov also said he
hoped the United States would not violate its obligations under the
nuclear deal with Iran. "I think unilateral sanctions ... are
irresponsible actions that can hurt and undermine the balance achieved,"
Lavrov said, commenting on new restrictions recently imposed by
Washington on Iran.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iran's chief of staff arrived in Ankara
yesterday for "unprecedented" talks with Turkey's
leadership reportedly aimed at narrowing differences on the Syria crisis
and coordinating policy on Iraq. General Mohammad Hossein Bagheri is
due to meet Defence Minister Nurettin Canikli and President Recep
Tayyip Erdogan during his three-day visit. He kicked off the visit by
meeting his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar, the state-run Anadolu
news agency said. Pro-government Turkish Daily Sabah quoted
diplomatic sources as saying the visit was a "milestone"
and would not have been possible unless both sides were willing to
make deals on both Syria and Iraq. Iran's official IRNA news agency
meanwhile described the visit as "unprecedented" in the
history of bilateral relations.
SAUDI-IRAN TENSIONS
A Saudi official on Wednesday said that the Kingdom has
never requested Iranian mediation in its affairs. Any news that says
otherwise is false, he added. According to an SPA report, the
official said: "Saudi Arabia affirms its strong stance which
rejects any association in any shape or form with the Iranian regime which
spreads terrorism and extremism in the region and internationally,
and interferes in other countries' matters."He continued noting
that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia "sees that negotiations are not
possible with current Iranian system after time has shown that it is
one that doesn't respect rules, diplomatic norms and the principles
of diplomatic relations." "It is a system that continues to
lie and distorts facts. The Kingdom affirms the dangers of the
Iranian regime and its hostile tendencies towards international peace
and stability, he added."
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Former judiciary chief, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi
Shahroudi, has been appointed to serve a five-year term as chairman
of the state arbitration body, Expediency Council. In a decree on
Monday, Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei
appointed the senior cleric as the new head of the top body,
according to the Leader's official website. Ayatollah Khamenei also
reappointed veteran general, Mohsen Rezaei, as secretary of the
44-member council, which was created in 1988 following a revision of
the Constitution. Its main task is to mediate in disputes between the
parliament and the 12-member Guardians Council, a body that checks
parliamentary ratifications in terms of consistency with the
constitution and Islamic law. The council also serves as an advisory
body to the Leader in shaping the general policies of the Islamic
Republic. Born in Iraq, the 69-year-old Ayatollah Shahroudi is well
known for his 10-year tenure as judiciary chief, from 1999 to 2009.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Mosul is back in the Iraqi government's hands and the
war against the Islamic State seems to finally be approaching its
end. This is the good news. But one of the byproducts of the campaign
is that Iran's reach now extends even deeper throughout Iraq and seems
unlikely to go away any time soon. A crucial fighting force in the
battle for Mosul and other areas liberated from the Islamic State was
provided by paramilitary groups that receive supplies and support
from Iran, and cross the Iran-Iraq border at will. These were
sanctioned by the Iraqi government in November 2016 and made part of
the Popular Mobilization Forces, a coalition of paramilitary groups,
some of which have multiple loyalties. Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, a
paramilitary commander who is considered one of Iran's closest Iraqi
allies, declared on July 4 that the Popular Mobilization Forces will
not go away, even if the government orders them to dissolve.
The Iranian regime has constantly tried to downplay the
role and influence of the opposition coalition, the National Council
of Resistance of Iran, and its main constituent, the People's
Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), by portraying them as
marginal and insignificant. Yet, its mainstream media and top
officials are constantly betraying the regime's real feelings and
fear of the group. The latest episode came after U.S. senators
visited the organization's headquarters in Tirana, Albania. Sens. Roy
Blunt, R-Mo., John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., met with
NCRI President Maryam Rajavi and members of the MEK, and discussed
the latest developments in Iran and the Middle East as well as
solutions to end the current crisis in that region.
No international political expert understands the ruling
Mullahs of Iran better than the country's average citizen, who has
experienced the tyranny and repression of the theocratic elite for
almost four decades. During his election campaign, Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani (himself a mullah) vowed greater participation in
decision-making for the youth, women as well as the ethnic and
religious minorities. He even promised that his new cabinet would
have members from "these sections of society, who belong to the
Iranian motherland". However, in the president's new cabinet -
which he describes as having the most qualified individuals - there
is no trace of the promised representation.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment