|
TOP STORIES
The planned meeting between President Donald Trump and North
Korean leader Kim Jong Un by May will make it more likely the
administration will kill the Iranian nuclear agreement, some current and
former western officials said.
Trump told Netanyahu that until now the three European
powers only proposed "cosmetic changes" that he doesn't find
satisfactory. Trump said he demands "significant changes" in
the Iran deal itself and not simply the addition of a supplemental agreement
between the U.S. and the European countries, according to the officials.
The bottom line: Trump stressed that if his demands are not met, the U.S.
will withdraw from the deal.
U.S. and Israeli contingency plans for a joint response to
an Iranian missile attack could be activated at any moment, with U.S.
forces arriving in Israel from Europe in 72 hours, officers from both
countries explained.
UANI IN THE NEWS
With the Syrian civil war-a conflict in which nearly 500,000
people have been killed and over 12 million have been displaced-entering
its eighth year, the Assad regime's Iranian-backed brutality shows no
signs of abating. The Islamic State has been largely uprooted in Syria,
and Assad and his allies have resumed focus on reconquering and
consolidating their control over lost territory. Priority one has been
Eastern Ghouta, a Damascus suburb which is the last rebel-held enclave in
the capital region.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
An Iranian news website says Revolutionary Guard troops have
thwarted a twin suicide attack near the Pakistan border, killing both
would-be bombers.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNAL DISCONTENT
British broadcaster the BBC said on Monday it was appealing
to the United Nations to protect its journalists in Iran after it said
persecution and harassment by the Iranian authorities escalated in
2017.
Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has accused
foreign "enemies" of funding recent protests over the
compulsory hijab.
Two women human rights defenders jailed for defending
women's rights and opposing the death penalty are being subjected to
escalating ill-treatment in Shahr-e Rey prison, a former industrial
chicken farm in Varamin, a town on the outskirts of Tehran, Amnesty
International revealed.
From Dec. 30, 2017, to Jan. 13, at the height of this
winter's protest movement in Iran, there was a temporary ban on both
Instagram and the messaging app Telegram... [N]ew evidence indicates that
the government throttled or slowed connection speeds to the platform in
the days after it lifted the block on Telegram. This adds a new layer of
concern to the issue of Iran's attempts to control and tighten the net.
In light of the recent protests that swept Iran at the
beginning of the year, calling for the removal of the country's
theocratic regime lead by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, Iranian
women have hopped on the bandwagon and are demanding their basic rights.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Passive Defense
Organization was the first unit within Iran's security structure to
address cyber defense in a systematic way, and it remains an influential,
if not paramount, voice in setting Iran's cyber policies. In the
excerpted article from Tasnim News Agency, a news agency close to the
Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Passive Defense Organization
head Gholamreza Jalali accuses Telegram, one of the most popular social
media apps in Iran, of active engagement in espionage.
SANCTIONS RELIEF
Questions have emerged about whether the US Treasury
Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has issued new
licenses to Canadian plane manufacturer Bombardier Inc. to sell passenger
aircraft to Iran. If true, it would be the first such approval since
President Donald Trump took office and comes at a time when Tehran is trying
to overcome financing challenges associated with aircraft deals signed in
the aftermath of its nuclear accord with the six world powers.
OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran's crude and condensate exports are set to fall to a
two-year low this month as loadings for its main Asian buyers will tumble
by one-third from the previous month, said a person with knowledge of the
country's tanker loading schedule.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the West
should mind its own business in response to concerns raised by U.S. and
EU diplomats about Tehran's involvement in the affairs of neighboring
countries.
NORTH KOREA & IRAN
The Iranian and North Korean nuclear programs, drastically
different but often spoken of in the same breath, are now being thrust
together, as President Trump's determination to kill the landmark 2015
accord limiting Tehran's capabilities is colliding with his scramble to
reach a far more complex deal with Pyongyang.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
A knife-wielding man was shot dead outside the Iranian
ambassador's residence in Vienna Sunday night, following an attack on a
guard, police said.
IRAQ & IRAN
The spokesman of Asa'ib Ahl al-Haq (AAH), an Iraqi militia
group with close ties with Iran's Revolutionary Guards and the Lebanese
Hezbollah, described the US presence in Iraq as "illegal" and
called for the withdrawal of American troops from the country.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
The operation of fighting corruption and implementing
reforms in Saudi Arabia is no longer an internal affair. In fact, its
echoes have gone further beyond the Kingdom's borders to reach other
countries. The actions taken in this regard have resulted in a positive
response at both the official and popular levels in the world. This had
led some Iranian media to try and distort the steps taken by Saudi
Arabia. Nevertheless, Iranian civil and popular societies were thrilled
with Saudi Arabia's actions, especially regarding women's rights.
|
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment