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TOP STORIES
Israeli officials have reportedly accused the UN body
tasked with ensuring Tehran's compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal
of ignoring information it received detailing forbidden nuclear
military research and development being carried out at several sites
across Iran. The officials said that "a Western entity"
told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) of sites that Iran
failed to disclose under the deal - which offered Iran relief from
punishing sanctions in exchange for having it roll back its nuclear
program - but the body failed to investigate or carry our inspections
at the locations, Haaretz reported Sunday.
US. President Donald Trump is warning that Washington
will walk away from a nuclear deal it agreed to with Iran if it deems
that the U.N. agency monitoring the agreement is not tough enough in
monitoring it. In a message Monday to a meeting of the International
Atomic Energy Agency read by U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Trump
says "we will not accept a weakly enforced or inadequately
monitored deal."
UANI IN THE NEWS
United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) will host a
distinguished lineup of current and former foreign leaders,
lawmakers, and Iran experts at its second annual Iran Summit, a
public event to be held on Tuesday, September 19 at the Roosevelt
Hotel in New York. The day-long event of interviews and discussions
will examine the political and economic environment since the signing
of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran -- with particular focus on Iran's
role in the region, its relationship with North Korea, and the future
of Iran policy in the Trump administration.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
Mr Trump has been a frequent critic and on Thursday
again called it "one of the worst deals I've seen". His
words came as the US imposed fresh sanctions on people accused of
supporting Iranian cyber attacks. "Certainly at a minimum the
spirit of the deal is atrociously kept," Mr Trump told reporters
on Air Force One.
The 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers
faces a stern test at the United Nations this week as Europeans try
to persuade a skeptical Trump administration to keep it, while Israel
lobbies to turn up the pressure on its regional rival. U.S. President
Donald Trump, who must make a decision by mid-October that could
undermine the agreement, repeated on Thursday his long-held view that
Iran was violating "the spirit" of the deal under which
Tehran got sanctions relief in return for curbing its nuclear
program.
Iran and the United States on Sunday tore into each
other's behavior regarding the 2015 nuclear deal as America's top
diplomat and Iran's supreme leader traded accusations of backsliding
on agreed-to commitments. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson acknowledged
that Iran is in "technical compliance" with its obligations
under the pact negotiated by the Obama administration and five other
world powers. But he faulted Tehran for its non-nuclear activities in
the Middle East - backing militias in Yemen and Syria, supporting
terrorist groups and testing ballistic missiles.
On Iran, Trump will confront questions about whether he
plans to extend the life of the nuclear agreement his predecessor
struck with Tehran, and which he has described as "the worst
deal ever negotiated." The State Department must certify to
Congress that Iran is still complying with the Joint Comprehensive
Plan of Action, as the Iran deal is formally known, in mid-October,
creating a clean opportunity for Trump to abrogate the agreement next
month should he choose to follow through on campaign-era threats to
do so. The administration has not yet signaled whether Trump plans to
recertify the JCPOA in a few weeks. But H.R. McMaster, Trump's
national security adviser, told reporters at the White House on
Friday that the president would discuss Iranian provocations with the
leaders of France and Israel during separate bilateral meetings on
Monday.
Iran will not be bullied by the United States and will
react strongly to any "wrong move" by Washington on
Tehran's nuclear deal, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on
Sunday.
President Trump is weighing whether to nullify the Iran
nuclear deal next month, as proponents of the agreement rally to its
defense ahead of a key deadline that will force Trump to reevaluate
its future.
President Trump kept the Iran nuclear deal alive on
Thursday as a critical deadline lapsed, a sign that he is stepping
back from his threat to abandon an agreement he repeatedly
disparaged. He is moving instead to push back on Iran's ambitions in
the Middle East in other ways.
President Donald Trump will tote his "America
First" stance this week to the United Nations General Assembly,
the annual inundation of diplomats and world leaders who this year
await the new US leader with uneasy anticipation. The summit in
Trump's hometown -- New York City -- has become the quickest-paced
diplomatic event on the calendar for an American president. Trump
arrives to the soaring, green-hued assembly hall facing open
questions about his approach to hot-button issues like climate change
and the Iran nuclear accord.
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu will meet in New
York on Monday, at the start of a week in which they intend to launch
a concerted assault at the United Nations against the 2015 nuclear
deal with Iran. The US and Israeli leaders are expected to use their
speeches to the UN general assembly on Tuesday to highlight the
threat to Middle East stability and security represented by Tehran.
Tensions between
the US and UK over whether to tear up the Iran nuclear deal were
exposed on Thursday when the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, said
the US viewed Iran as being in default of the deal's expectations but
the British foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, urged the world to have
faith in its potential to create a more open Iran.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Iran's president says he is "inviting" the
U.S. to dinner as he heads to New York for the U.N General Assembly.
President Hassan Rouhani used an analogy of a dinner party on Sunday
to describe how countries are benefiting from the 2015 nuclear deal.
Rouhani described the Americans as "sitting in another
room" at the party.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
A Chinese state-owned investment firm
has provided a $10 billion credit line for Iranian banks, Iran's
central bank president said Saturday. The contract was signed in
Beijing between China's CITIC investment group and a delegation of
Iranian banks led by central bank president Valiollah Seif. The Iran
Daily said the funds would finance water, energy and transport
projects.
Iran's nuclear deal with world powers
and subsequent sanction relief have provided better access to foreign
goods, but few locals believe it has led to more jobs, a new poll
shows. Seventy percent of 700 Iranians surveyed nationwide by phone
said multinationals had been slow to commit to trading with or
investing in Iran, and most respondents cited concern about U.S.
pressure as the reason, according to a survey by Toronto-based
IranPoll in partnership with Bourse & Bazaar, an online business
publication focused on the country.
EXTREMISM
Two years after the nuclear deal was
signed by Iran and world powers, the Islamic Republic is reported to
have boosted its financial support to Hezbollah to $800 million a
year, a dramatic increase from the $200m. it was said to be giving its
proxy when sanctions were in place.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Mossad chief Yossi Cohen is leading Israel's
"hawkish line" on Iran, calling for immediate action to
ensure that Tehran cannot attain the bomb, an Israeli TV report said
Sunday. The report came as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepared
to address the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, with his
focus to again be on confronting Iran.
SYRIA CONFLICT
Thousands of Shiite Muslims from Afghanistan and
Pakistan are being recruited by Iran to fight with President Bashar
al-Assad's forces in Syria, lured by promises of housing, a monthly
salary of up to $600 and the possibility of employment in Iran when
they return, say counterterrorism officials and analysts.
HUMAN RIGHTS
Two Iranian-Americans serving 10-year prison sentences
on spying charges in Iran should be immediately freed and paid
restitution, a United Nations panel said on Monday, calling their
"arbitrary" detention part of an "emerging
pattern" by Tehran of targeting dual nationals. The decision by
a group of U.N. experts on the case of Siamak and Baquer Namazi comes
as Iranian President Hassan Rouhani attends the world body's annual
meeting in New York.
When Xiyue Wang sleeps in his cell in Iran's Evin
Prison, he sometimes dreams he is back at Princeton University,
working in the school's main library on his dissertation comparing
governance systems in Central Asia. When he wakes, Wang often does
not immediately remember where he is, his wife, Hua Qu, said in her first
extensive interview since his arrest in Iran about 13 months ago
while doing doctoral research. The 36-year-old naturalized U.S.
citizen, who was born in China, was convicted of espionage and
sentenced to 10 years in prison.
OPINION & ANALYSIS
Bloomberg News reported a doubling of nuclear
inspections in Iran following the implementation of the 2015 nuclear
deal known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Advocates
of the JCPOA have interpreted this new statistic as evidence
consistent with President Barack Obama's statement that the agreement
would entail "the most comprehensive and intrusive inspection
and verification regime ever negotiated." However, a closer
examination of the new data suggests there may be aspects of the
inspection program that have become less comprehensive and less
intrusive since the implementation of the JCPOA.
As world leaders converge on New York this week for the
U.N. General Assembly, a U.N. body is set to publicly call for the
release of two Iranian Americans imprisoned unjustly in Tehran. That
creates an opportunity for the Trump administration to make good on
its promise to ramp up efforts to bring American hostages home.
The deal has many flaws that should be addressed in
follow-on negotiations.. Even proponents of the deal, including
Democrats in Washington and European diplomats, agree on the need for
follow-on negotiations to address its shortcomings. The next ninety-day
deadline for [President Trump] to recertify Iran's compliance with
the deal to Congress is in October. Certifying Iranian compliance
would temporarily sustain this flawed deal, but failing to certify
could lead to the rapid unraveling of the accord before a clear
"Plan B" is in place.
Two frustrating years out of ten have passed since the
nuclear agreement was signed. The world is stepping into the third
year of an agreement described by US President Donald Trump as the
worst in ages. It is obvious that September will be decisive for the
nuclear agreement as the US administration is considering a
comprehensive strategy for all noxious Iranian acts - a strategy that
calls for more strictness against Iranian forces and its agents of
extremist Shi'ite groups in Iraq and Syria. Through its new strategy,
Washington aims to increase pressure on Tehran to curb its ballistic
missiles program and its support to extremists. It also targets
cyber-spying and possibly, nuclear proliferation.
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