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TOP STORIES
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday
blamed the United States for instability in the Middle East and said
Washington's fight against the Islamic State militant group was
"a lie". "You (the United States) and your agents are
the source of instability in the Middle East...who created Islamic
State? America ... America's claim of fighting against Islamic State
is a lie," Khamenei said in a meeting with high-ranking Iranian
officials, according to his official website. Iran and the United States
cut diplomatic ties shortly after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution and
enmity to Washington has long been a rallying point for hardline
supporters of Khamenei in Iran. Khamenei has made several statements
denouncing the United States since the start of the Muslim holy month
of Ramadan, while U.S. President Donald Trump has spoken out against
Iran in harsh terms since taking office, indicating that he will
reverse the previous administration's attempts at rapprochement with
Tehran.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday
said Saudi Arabia was supporting militants inside Iran, days after
hardline Sunni group Islamic State claimed attacks in Tehran
Relations between the two neighbors are at their most tense in years.
Last week Riyadh, along with other Arab governments, severed ties
with Qatar, citing its support of Iran as one of the main reasons for
the move. Two days later, the suicide bombings and shootings in
Tehran killed 17 people. Iran repeated accusations that Saudi Arabia
funds Islamic militants including Islamic State. Riyadh has denied
involvement in the attacks. "We have intelligence that Saudi
Arabia is actively engaged in promoting terrorist groups on the
eastern side of Iran, in Baluchistan," Zarif told a news
conference held on the sidelines of a conference on peace mediation
in Oslo.
Iran's foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said on
Monday the Trump administration will end up abiding by the 2015
nuclear deal despite its protestations to the contrary because it is
in the national interest of the United States. Trump has previously
said that the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran is a "disaster"
and the "worst deal ever negotiated". "Unfortunately
the behavior from the new administration in Washington is not very
promising," Zarif told reporters after meeting his Norwegian counterpart.
"We believe that at the end of the day they will find it
necessary to abide by the deal. "I believe the U.S.
administration will find it in the interest of the United States, as
well as the interest of international peace and security, to live up
to its commitments."
CONGRESSIONAL ACTION
Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn plans to introduce an
amendment to an Iran sanctions measure that would target the
country's largest commercial airline. Cornyn, R-Texas, in a Senate
floor speech, said his amendment would require Homeland Security to
list airports where Mahan Air operates and come up with increased
security measures for Americans traveling to those airports. Mahan
Air, Cornyn said, "doubles as a preferred mode of transportation
for terrorists and their weapons," and "is a conduit for
personnel, weapons, and a violent ideology throughout the
region." Cornyn said Mahan has been expanding international
routes, including airports in Europe. "This is an obvious threat
to the safety and security of the people where these planes are
allowed to land," Cornyn said.
SYRIA CONFLICT
New efforts by Iranian-backed militias to control supply
lines in southern Syria highlight an alarming trend in the war-torn
region: Militias and their foreign backers are accelerating their
rivalry for power as the U.S.-led coalition shrinks the Islamic
State's territory. "You can see everyone maneuvering
frenetically," said Michael Knights, an analyst at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy. The problem surfaced in
recent weeks when Iranian-backed militias maneuvered close to a U.S.
outpost in southern Syria. The outpost at al-Tanf is a base for
several hundred coalition advisers and the local forces they are
supporting. Last week, U.S.-led coalition aircraft struck the
militias for a third time to warn them away from U.S. forces. An
American warplane also shot down an Iranian-built armed drone
operating in the same area after it fired at U.S. advisers and their
partner forces.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Since the start of the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan, about 90 case files were reportedly opened in the
city of Qazvin (central Iran) for individuals who were caught eating
or drinking during the fasting hours. The Iranian state-run media,
Mehr, announced the news, citing the Prosecutor of Qazvin.
According to the Qazvin Prosecutor, 20 individuals were issued
flogging sentences and fines on the same day as their arrests, and
their sentences were reportedly carried out on the same day as well.
Flogging is a clear example of torture and a violation of
Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states:
No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment.
DOMESTIC POLITICS
Police in Iran killed four Daesh (ISIS) suspects, two of
them foreigners, in the southern province of Hormuzgan and seized
explosives, guns and the group's flag, an Iranian news agency said
Monday. A major security operation is underway after 17 people were
killed last Wednesday in suicide bombings and gun attacks in Tehran,
the first to be claimed by the hard-line Sunni Islamist group Daesh
inside Iran, a Shiite power. "Police forces clashed with the
four men and killed them in a mountainous area in southern
Iran," the semi-official Tasnim news agency quoted a local
police chief as saying. Two of those killed were not Iranian, he
said, without elaborating. Guns, ammunition, explosives and the flag
of Daesh were seized during the operation, Tasnim reported, citing
the police chief. A local official at the port town of Jask, also in
Hormuzgan, said five suspects linked to Daesh were detained Monday,
Iran's Mizan news agency reported.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
My remarks today are based on a recent Iran Watch report
about transparency under the JCPOA. The agreement promised more
information on Iran's nuclear program and greater access to Iranian
facilities. Such transparency was described as one of the primary
benefits of the JCPOA by architects of the agreement and its
supporters. However, this promise has not been fulfilled. Instead, a
sort of diplomatic veil has been drawn over Iran's nuclear status,
obscuring important parts of it from view. Initially, the veil may
have been drawn to preserve the agreement, but it is our view that
the lack of transparency now raises questions about whether the
monitoring, verification, and enforcement measures of the JCPOA are
functioning properly.
As all acts of terrorism go, Wednesday's twin attacks,
carried out by the Islamic State against Iran's parliament and the
tomb of the Islamic Republic's founder, were heinous crimes that shed
the blood of defenseless civilians. The attacks drew condemnations
from heads of state and political figures across the world. President
Trump also reminded that "states that sponsor terrorism risk
falling victim to the evil they promote," a reference to Iran's
destabilizing role in the region. However, the difference between an
attack taking place in Tehran and recent terrorist attacks in London
and Manchester is that the Iranian regime is not a victim but a beneficiary,
and will use it to justify suppressing dissent and expanding its
nefarious agendas in the region.
The rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran is consuming
the Middle East in proxy conflicts from Yemen to Syria - and now in a
diplomatic spat with Qatar. But their struggle is also one of
narratives, a war of words that has reached the shores of the United
States and is raging in the nation's capital. The recent
juxtaposition of images of Donald Trump in Riyadh - showered in Saudi
ostentation, his hands on a glowing orb - and of jubilant Iranians on
the streets of Tehran celebrating the re-election of President Hassan
Rouhani provoked a flare-up of Twitter volleys and op-eds over a few
days defending or attacking the Iranians and the Saudis. In response
to praise on Twitter about Iran's elections, Ali Shihabi - a former
Saudi banker who recently set up the Arabia Foundation in Washington,
D.C. - shot back: "Iran had a revolution, killed hundreds of
thousands of its people, 'elections' to posts with no power while
unelected Supreme Leader rules."
Two terrorist attacks that recently rocked the capital
of Tehran illustrated the truth behind the well-worn adage, "You
reap what you sow." Karma, meet the extremist mullahs of Tehran.
First and foremost, the Islamic State's terrorist attacks are
truly a human calamity, and there is never any justification for
terrorism. As fellow global citizens linked through our humanity, we
sympathize with the relatives and friends of the 17 people killed at
Iran's parliament in Tehran, and certainly with the victims. It is
also important to recognize the significant role that symbolism plays
in both Iranian and Middle Eastern cultures. Which is why the second
terrorist attack targeting Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's tomb
complex, the leader of Iran's Islamic revolution, was a veritable
attack at Iran's core. These twin terror attacks, striking the
mullahs' parliament and shrine to the Khomeini, represent a very
painful bitter pill for the Iranian regime to swallow.
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