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TOP STORIES
One week after the Rouhani administration announced the
government-imposed rate of 42,000 rials against every US dollar,
chaos and ambiguity in Iran's foreign exchange market continue.
Israel released details on Tuesday about what it
described as an Iranian "air force" deployed in neighboring
Syria, including civilian planes suspected of transferring arms, a
signal that these could be attacked should tensions with Tehran
escalate.
The U.S. Department of Commerce has banned American
companies from selling components to leading Chinese telecom
equipment maker ZTE Corp. for seven years for violating the terms of
a sanctions violation case, U.S. officials said on Monday. The U.S.
action, first reported by Reuters, could be devastating to ZTE since
American companies are estimated to provide 25 percent to 30 percent
of the components used in ZTE's equipment, which includes networking
gear and smartphones. The ban is the result of ZTE's failure to
comply with an agreement with the U.S. government after it pleaded
guilty last year in federal court in Texas to conspiring to violate
U.S. sanctions by illegally shipping U.S. goods and technology to
Iran.
NUCLEAR & MISSILE PROGRAMS
President Hassan Rouhani said Iran would make or buy any
weapons it needed to defend itself in a region beset by
"invading powers", as the military paraded missiles and
soldiers in front of him on National Army Day.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
John Bolton's appointment as national security adviser
has given rise to a lot of hand-wringing about the possibility of
another U.S. war in the Middle East. Critics should pause before they
rush to judgment. The U.S. remains entangled in the Syrian war,
attempting to mitigate the damage of Bashar Assad while searching for
a way forward in what looks increasingly like a no-win situation. We
have necessarily renewed our 15-plus year commitments in Afghanistan,
where the Taliban appears poised to attempt a comeback. Meanwhile,
our Middle Eastern allies are threatened by another civil war in
Yemen. Discord undermines stability in Iraq and a number of other
countries essential to national and international security.
Iranian-backed militants are operating across the United
States mostly unfettered, raising concerns in Congress and among
regional experts that these "sleeper cell" agents are
poised to launch a large-scale attack on the American homeland,
according to testimony before lawmakers. Iranian agents tied to the
terror group Hezbollah have already been discovered in the United States
plotting attacks, giving rise to fears that Tehran could order a
strike inside America should tensions between the Trump
administration and Islamic Republic reach a boiling point.
SYRIA
With tacit American support, the Israeli military
targeted an advanced Iranian air-defense system at a Syrian base last
week, said intelligence officials and others briefed on the matter,
the latest sign the Trump administration is working with Israel to blunt
Tehran's expanding influence in the Middle East.
President Trump intends to withdraw U.S. forces from
Syria as soon as possible following the defeat of the Islamic State,
senators said Tuesday following a classified briefing.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his Iranian
counterpart Hassan Rouhani agreed on Tuesday to maintain the
cooperation between Turkey, Iran and Russia for a political solution
to the conflict in Syria, a source in Erdogan's office said.
The U.S. and its British and French allies defied
Russian warnings Friday in a trilateral attack against Syrian
government facilities allegedly associated with the production of
chemical weapons. However, experts said the move was unlikely to end
the war unless the U.S. could establish a follow-up strategy and some
common ground with Russia and Iran.
HUMAN RIGHTS
The United Nations granted accreditation to American
groups focusing on human rights in North Korea and Iran on Tuesday,
overturning a committee's rejection and giving the groups the right
to speak at the Human Rights Council and other U.N. bodies.
On the same day the secretary of Iran's Supreme
Cyberspace Council told a radio program that the widely used Telegram
app could be blocked "at any moment," the Education
Ministry banned the app on campuses nationwide.
Lawmakers in Iran's mostly Arab-populated Khuzestan
Province have demanded a meeting with the head of the state-run
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) organization and its board
of supervisors "regarding insults against Iran's honorable
ethnic peoples, namely the honorable Arabs of Khuzestan."
Hundreds of people were arrested in Khuzestan in March 2018 after
protests initially aimed at IRIB's decision to air a children's program
excluding Arabs from a map ostensibly displaying the geographic
locations of the country's different ethnic minorities morphed into
larger demonstrations.
ECONOMIC WARFARE
The rial's freefall shows how vulnerable the Islamic
Republic's economy is, but does Trump have patience for economic
warfare?
ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran has switched from the U.S. dollar to the euro as
its official reporting foreign currency, state media reported on
Wednesday. The decision was taken in a cabinet meeting as the
government tries to manage the exchange rates and support the
plunging rial.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
An Iranian lawmaker on Tuesday criticised a recent
crackdown on environmental activists and officials, saying it risked
"bad consequences for the country", the semi-official ISNA
news agency reported.
Iranian rights activists are creating hi-tech solutions
to promote civil liberties, despite frequent internet shutdowns.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Iran is exploiting the situation in Yemen, arming
opponents of the internationally recognized government and using the
country as a "test bed" for malign activities, a top
Defense Department official told lawmakers today.
HEZBOLLAH & LEBANON
Israel and Iran are in "direct confrontation,"
Naim al-Qassem, Hezbollah's deputy secretary-general, warned on
Tuesday. His comments should be interpreted as a message to Jerusalem
that the gloves are coming off in Tehran and the Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps is angry about alleged Israeli strikes on
Iranian assets in Syria.
RUSSIA & IRAN
Russia's Energy Minister Alexander Novak said on Tuesday
that Russia and Iran could extend a bilateral deal on oil supplies
for five years when it runs out at the end of the year, the TASS news
agency reported.
Despite the recent and necessary American-Franco-British
airstrikes against President Assad's chemical weapons infrastructure,
the United States is losing in Syria and condemning its oppressed
citizens and freedom fighters to lose as well. As President Trump
plans to withdraw U.S. forces there, Presidents Putin of Russia,
Rouhani of Iran, and Erdogan of Turkey wrapped up another summit,
consolidating even more power and influence in the region at the
expense of America's allies. The order of the Middle East is at
stake, our country must re-engage. America, the most powerful nation
in the world, should be driving policy.
ISRAEL & IRAN
Iran has threatened to punish Israel for its airstrikes
in Syria, after reports emerged that an unnamed Israeli military
official had confirmed his country was behind an attack on an Iranian
drone base in Homs province.
Israel is making a new effort to engage the people of
Iran, as the two regional rivals trade increasingly tough rhetoric
and threaten to attack the other in self-defense.
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