TOP STORIES
A top Senate Republican is shelving draft legislation
that would have triggered nuclear-related sanctions back on Iran over
its ballistic missile activity, acknowledging it cannot garner the 50
votes required for passage and would ostracize foreign allies, The
Jerusalem Post has learned. Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tennessee), chairman
of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, continues to work with
members of his own party, Democrats, European envoys and the Trump
administration hoping to construct legislation that will send a
message of toughness to Tehran while keeping the nuclear accord
intact. But the amendment he initially previewed one month ago with
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), alongside President Donald Trump's
national address on Iran policy, will not advance as planned.
As the war against Islamic State winds down, older
fault-lines are resurfacing -- along with some new alliances. Many
signs point to a deepening understanding, encouraged by the U.S.,
between Israel and an Islamic kingdom it doesn't even have diplomatic
relations with: Saudi Arabia. The two countries share a common enemy
in Iran. They're both urging action against the Iranian-sponsored
Hezbollah -- and increasingly taking action themselves... And they're
both central to the new American strategy for the Middle East
outlined, if not yet detailed, by Donald Trump.
Following the surprising resignation of Lebanon's prime
minister, Israel is planning a diplomatic offensive to step up
pressure on Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah at the United
Nations, a senior Israeli government minister said Thursday.
UANI IN THE NEWS
[Iran and North Korea] have a common interest and it's
not a coincidence they need each other. They're both outlaw nations,
they're two-thirds of which George Bush correctly called the Axis of
Evil and their cooperation on nuclear weapons development really is
now an axis of evil because together they represent a security threat
to the rest of the world. The development, the pace of development of
North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile program has been
stunning, it's been so quick and it worries me that they're not doing
it alone... The worst interpretation - again I'm theorizing - while
they were complying with the technical requirements of the JCPOA [the
Iran deal], Iran is effectively outsourcing their nuclear missile
program to North Korea.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
The European Union will make sure that the Iran nuclear
deal "will continue to be fully implemented by all, in all its
parts", the European Union's foreign policy chief said on
Friday.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS
US pressure to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal could
push Tehran into deciding to build its own nuclear weapons, French
President Emmanuel Macron warned in an interview published Thursday.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
When he's not taking orders from Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is trolling people on Twitter.
Here's what he's been up to over the past couple of weeks. On Oct.
22, Zarif claimed that the U.S. is stealing Iraq from its people.
This is a popular Iranian claim, but one with a simple, sustaining
purpose: to distract from Iran's effort to steal Iraqi and Lebanese
democracy. The next day, Zarif claimed that U.S. policy is driven by
the arms trade and Iran's policy by the pursuit of mutual
understanding. What he neglected to mention, however, is that Iran's
notion of dialogue has a distinctly explosive character.
CONGRESS & IRAN
During a visit to Washington, British Foreign Secretary
Boris Johnson on Wednesday argued for maintaining the international
accord intended to prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons.
Johnson met with Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., and Sen. Ben Cardin,
D-Md., on Capitol Hill to discuss the importance of strictly
enforcing the pact that President Donald Trump has derided.
SANCTIONS ENFORCEMENT
French President Emmanuel Macron hinted at the
possibility of imposing sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile
program, while stressing the need to add to the Nuclear Deal two
clauses pertaining to Tehran's ballistic activity and discussions on
curbing its control over the region.
TERRORISM AND EXTREMISM
Millions of gallons of fuel illegally
exit Iran each month-some 26.4 million from Sistan and Baluchestan
province alone, according to state media. The government has tried a
number of measures to stop the flow, like slashing fuel subsidies,
erecting fences and walls along the border, and imposing steep fines
on smugglers who get caught. But they don't address the underlying
problems that cause people to smuggle in the first place.
"Drought, unemployment, and low fuel prices in Iran are the main
cause of fuel smuggling, which has caused most of the youth in this
province to perform this risky and lucrative job," Souri says.
HUMAN RIGHTS
A movie about a young girl whose fantasy world helps her
escape the hard realities of growing up in the countryside near
Tehran in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic Revolution is Iran's
first-ever submission for the Academy Awards' foreign film directed
by a woman. But not everyone is celebrating.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
A diplomatic battle is under way to prevent Iran's
election to the post of UNESCO Executive Board chairman to replace
Michael Worbs of Germany.
SYRIA CONFLICT
The Iranian Revolutionary Guards established a new
militia named Brigade 313 in South Syria, it has been revealed.
Syrian opposition figures warned that the militia, which consists of
young men from Daraa and which is trained and funded by the Iranian
Revolutionary Guards, aims to sabotage the de-escalation agreement in
South Syria.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, AND IRAN
[T]he reaction from the Islamic Republic to Saudi
bellicosity has been uncharacteristically muted. While strongly
denying any role in arming the Houthis, Tehran has limited itself to
calling for peace and unity and blaming Mohammad bin Salman's
accusations on problems inside the kingdom... For Iran, an escalation
of the proxy wars into a direct confrontation with Saudi Arabia would
be counterproductive to say the least, especially since events on the
ground are going their way, at least for the time being.
Saudi Arabia would like to see sanctions on Iran for its
support of terrorism and for violating the ballistic missile
resolutions of the United Nations, foreign minister Adel al-Jubeir
has said.
Saudi Arabia advised its nationals to leave Lebanon,
further fueling fears of a heated confrontation with Iran in a
country long known for being a battleground for proxy wars in the
Middle East.
Rising tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, as well
as the kingdom's weekend crackdown, have rattled markets in the
region.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to
Russia, Kuwait and Qatar next week to press for a more robust
diplomatic response to the escalating crisis between Iran and Saudi
Arabia that Turkey fears could unleash chaos throughout the region.
French President Emmanuel Macron held talks late
Thursday with Saudi Arabia's powerful crown prince as tensions
between Tehran and Riyadh soar over crises in Yemen and Lebanon.
It's not only struggles for political office or military
dominance that are rocking Saudi Arabia and Lebanon this week.
Increasingly, Saudi officials and their Lebanese allies are banking
on the idea that control over financial levers of power is the key to
achieving their foreign-policy objectives and domestic political
ambitions.
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