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TOP STORIES
A hard-line candidate in Iran's upcoming presidential
election says the United States should be made to fear Iran so that
it will back off on sanctions and threats. Ebrahim Raisi told a state
TV talk show Wednesday that "today Americans are afraid of the
word 'Iran,'" saying: "This is the solution. The solution
is not backing down. We must force them to retreat." Raisi is
challenging the incumbent, Hassan Rouhani, a moderate who has tried
to improve relations with the West and whose government reached a
landmark nuclear agreement with world powers. Iran's hard-liners
criticized the deal, saying Rouhani gave too much away.
Israel struck an arms supply hub operated by the
Lebanese group Hezbollah near Damascus airport on Thursday, Syrian
rebel and regional intelligence sources said, targeting weapons sent
from Iran via commercial and military cargo planes. Video carried on Lebanese
TV and shared on social media showed the pre-dawn airstrikes caused a
fire around the airport east of the Syrian capital, suggesting fuel
sources or weapons containing explosives were hit. Syrian state media
said Israeli missiles hit a military position southwest of the
airport, but did not mention arms or fuel. It said "Israeli
aggression" had caused explosions and some material losses, but
did not expand on the damage.
A congressional committee chairman has asked the Trump
administration to revive criminal cases against Iranian weapons
traffickers that the Obama administration "unwisely
abandoned." In a letter obtained by The Post, House Foreign
Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce called for a stepped-up law
enforcement effort to target individuals assisting Iran's nuclear and
missile programs. In addition, Royce wants to re-open criminal cases
involving Iranians that the Obama administration scrapped in effort
to make a nuclear deal with Tehran. "We hope you evaluate the
feasibility of re-opening the cases that were wrongly hindered,"
Royce (R-Calif.) wrote Tuesday to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson
and Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Relatives of U.S. citizens jailed in Iran are trying to
press the Trump administration to secure their release as worries
grow over the health of an imprisoned father and son. Baquer and
Siamak Namazi, convicted of espionage in a secret trial six months ago,
are being held in a section of Tehran's notorious Evin prison,
according to a petition their lawyer filed this week with the U.N.'s
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. The section of the prison is
known "for the use of cruel and prolonged torture of political
opponents of the government," the petition by lawyer Jared
Genser says.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Associated Press
published last week, President Trump suggested that Iran had broken
the "spirit" of a nuclear proliferation deal agreed under
President Barack Obama. Asked if he believed the United States would
stay in the deal, Trump replied: "It's possible that we
won't." The comment seemed to offer another hint that Trump may
plan to upend the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) approved
in 2015. As a candidate, Trump repeatedly criticized the
"horrible" nuclear deal, pledging to "tear up"
the accord if elected. But Iran's top diplomat doesn't seem to be
worried. According to reports in the Iranian news media, Foreign
Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told reporters at the sidelines of a
cabinet session on Wednesday that they shouldn't take Trump's
comments seriously.
SANCTIONS ENFORCEMENT
A court in the United Arab Emirates has sentenced an
Iranian businessman to 10 years in prison after being convicted of
trying to bring an electric motor and other devices there to further
Iran's nuclear program. A report by the state-run WAM news agency on
Wednesday only identified the businessman by the initials S.M.A.R. It
said he was convicted of "violating the international ban on
nuclear weapons." It wasn't clear how the material the Iranian
was convicted of trying to bring into the Islamic Republic would be
used to manufacture an atomic bomb.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Iran expects to sign its first oil deal under the new
Iran Petroleum Contract (IPC) model within a month, a senior Iranian
official said on Thursday. "We expect that very soon, hopefully
within a month we will have the first one to be signed," Deputy
Oil Minister Rokneddin Javadi told a conference in Paris. In January,
Iran said 29 companies from more than a dozen countries were allowed
to bid for oil and gas projects under the IPC, which Tehran hopes
will boost production after years of sanctions. But the IPC model has
been delayed several times due to opposition from hardline rivals of
President Hassan Rouhani.
SYRIA CONFLICT
Israel is seeking an "understanding" with the
Trump administration that Iran must not be allowed to establish a
permanent military foothold in Syria, Israel's intelligence minister
told Reuters on Wednesday. In an interview, visiting Intelligence
Minister Yisrael Katz said he was also using his meetings with White
House officials and key lawmakers to press for further U.S. sanctions
on Iran and the Iranian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah, which is
supporting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "I want to achieve
an understanding, an agreement between the U.S. and Israel ... not to
let Iran have permanent military forces in Syria, by air, by land, by
sea," Katz told Reuters, saying this should be part of any
future international accord on ending Syria's six-year-old civil war.
MILITARY MATTERS
Iran's special naval forces were equipped this weekend
with new anti-ship cruise missiles capable of advanced precision and
rapid deployment in the tense Gulf waters where occasional run-ins
with the U.S. military have drawn international attention. A large
quantity of the natively produced projectiles, known as Nasir, were
handed over to Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Navy
(IRGCN), the maritime branch of Iran's elite military forces that
take command from the country's religious leadership rather than its
political, in a formal ceremony held Saturday. The event was attended
by the nation's top military brass including Defense Minister
Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan and IRGCN Commander Rear Admiral
Ali Fadavi.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
As
Iran approaches its May 19 presidential elections, the conservative
candidates - who are determined to unseat incumbent moderate Hassan
Rouhani - are making new campaign pledges to attract votes. Opponents
of Rouhani have been focusing on unemployment and people's
livelihoods, saying Rouhani has been wholly unable to solve the
economic hardships many ordinary Iranians are facing. Conservative
Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who has registered to run for the presidency
for the third time, has said that if elected, he would provide 2.5
million rials ($77 at the official exchange rate) a month to every
jobless Iranian.
Ten Iranian border guards were killed by Sunni militants
in a cross-border attack on the frontier with Pakistan on Wednesday,
Tasnim news agency reported. The militant group called Jaish al Adl,
or the Army of Justice, has claimed responsibility, the report said.
"10 border guards of Mirjaveh county in Sistan and Baluchestan
Province were martyred in an ambush by the terrorists in the
Pakistani border's zero-point," Tasnim said. In a statement
carried on state media, the Iranian police said the guards have been
killed by long-range guns and "the Pakistani government bears
the ultimate responsibility of the attack." Sistan-Baluchestan
province in southeastern Iran has long been plagued by unrest from
both drug smuggling gangs and separatist militants. The population of
the province is predominantly Sunni Muslim; the majority of Iranians
are Shi'ites.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
As the Trump administration nears its 100th day in
office, it has taken much-needed steps internationally, particularly
in Syria. But while the latest U.S. military action retaliating
for the gassing of Khan Sheikoun was long overdue, even more can be
done. With over 400,000 deaths, five million registered Syrian
refugees, and the continuation of Assad's scorched-earth tactics,
Syria will not become an island of stability any time soon, and
especially after ISIS is ousted from its Raqqa stronghold.
Rather, Syria will remain polarized, politicized, and perilous
unless Assad and his enablers are removed from power. Over the last
few weeks, we have heard some argue that President Donald Trump's
'America first' organizing principle is fundamentally incompatible
with an 'Assad must go' strategy. However, promoting 'America
first,' while pursuing a future without Assad are not mismatched
goals in the era of Trump. One should look no further than the
guideposts of the president's emerging agenda on the world stage:
gutting ISIS; checking Iran; and toughening immigration controls.
Tackling any one priority successfully would necessitate
Assad's removal.
The Trump administration last week endorsed a narrative
long promoted by critics of the Iran nuclear deal: It's North Korea
all over again. "An unchecked Iran has the potential to travel
the same path as North Korea, and take the world along with it,"
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Thursday at a press
availability. He was explaining why President Donald Trump had
ordered a review of the Iran nuclear deal reached by his predecessor,
Barack Obama. "The United States is keen to avoid a second piece
of evidence that strategic patience is a failed approach,"
Tillerson said. "Strategic patience" is a rubbery term that
critics have applied loosely to presidents - Republican and
Democratic - who do not strike back swiftly at evidence of nascent
rogue weapons-of-mass-destruction programs, instead preferring
diplomatic and economic pressure.
On May 14, these seven people will mark the beginning of
their 10th year in prison for the crime of being leading members of
Iran's viciously persecuted and harmlessly devout Baha'i community.
These seven people formed the entirety of the Yaran, the "Friends,"
in Persian, a group that that looked after the needs of Iran's
Baha'is - in the Baha'i tradition there is no clergy. The Friends
served as the successor group to the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Baha'is of Iran, an administrative group whose several members
were "disappeared" during the Khomeinist revolution of
1979. The last eight members of the Spiritual Assembly were executed
by firing squad on Dec. 27, 1981. Ten years ago, the seven Friends
were arrested and held without charge for more than a year. In
January 2010 they were tried in a charade of secret criminal
prosecutions on a variety of preposterous allegations: espionage,
insulting religious sanctity, collaboration with Israel, propaganda
against the regime and "spreading corruption on Earth."
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