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TOP STORIES
In the most direct confrontation between Israel and Iran
to date, the two regional enemies exchanged fire for hours during a
volatile night in the Golan Heights.
Iran's supreme leader on Wednesday hinted that his
country might step up its nuclear program, signaling a possible
escalation in an already volatile relationship with Washington after
President Trump announced he was pulling the United States out of the
2015 nuclear deal.
President Donald Trump is preparing to impose new
sanctions on Iran, perhaps as early as next week, to ensure it does
not develop nuclear weapons, the White House said on Wednesday, a day
after Trump announced the United States was withdrawing from the 2015
Iran nuclear deal.
UANI IN THE NEWS
I think [U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear deal] is
overdue. I think it was a bold step and it was needed. Any sober,
realistic reading of the agreement would see that it was not in the
national security interests of the U.S., that it failed in its primary
and secondary objectives-mainly to verify the peaceful nature of
Iran's nuclear program and secondarily to increase the moderation, if
you can call it that, of the Iranian regime.
I would say the deal had certain advantages. However,
the deal was perceived by its opponents to have multiple constraints,
which were exploited by Iran to enable it to conduct an unprecedented
expansion inside the region and an expansion of its missile program.
UANI Senior Adviser Norman Roule on the Iran
Nuclear Deal | Bloomberg Markets: Americas
Supporters of the Iran deal will say that [the president's
withdrawal from it] sends a message to North Korea that perhaps the
U.S. cannot be relied upon, and the administration will have to work
through that. At the same time it tells the North Koreans that we are
not going seek a deal similar to the Iran deal, which as opponents
state, all the benefits were provided upfront, where the deal was
allowed to be piecemeal, where the deal allowed our adversary to
retain a large portion of its nuclear enterprise in what was
perceived as an unconstrained fashion.
The President, I believe, is concerned, and rightfully
so, that there has been little done to push back against Iran's
aggressive posture in the region, its development of new surrogates,
its proliferation of advanced missile technology against Saudi Arabia
and Israel, and of course its development of an unreasonably large
ballistic-missile program which is a threat to the entire
region.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Immediately on returning from North Korea on Thursday,
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will embark on talks with allies in
Europe, the Middle East and Asia to try to persuade them to press
Iran to curb its nuclear and missile programs, U.S. officials said.
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis held out hope that renewed
efforts to curtail Iran's nuclear program in consultation with
European nations could still work, a day after President Trump
announced his withdrawal from the Iran nuclear pact, upsetting some
of the Pentagon's most important allies abroad.
European countries are powerless to salvage the nuclear
deal with Iran after the United States pulled out, the deputy head of
the elite Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) said on Thursday.
The Iran nuclear deal will not "fall apart"
despite the United States withdrawing from the landmark accord, the
European Union's representative to China said Wednesday.
President Donald Trump could soon face the first public
test of his nuclear deal gambit as Iran weighs a formal complaint
against the United States for violating the agreement.
Here is a look at Iran's options after President Donald
Trump announced he will pull the U.S. out of the 2015 nuclear
agreement.
National Security Adviser John Bolton said in an
"Ingraham Angle" exclusive that the Iran nuclear deal has
been "flawed from the beginning"... "It's in our
security interest to get out of this flawed deal," he said,
adding that now, there is a better ability "stop this dangerous
[Iranian] regime."
French President Emmanuel Macron says U.S. President
Donald Trump's decision to exit the nuclear deal with Iran was
"a mistake."
Donald Trump pulling America out of the Iran nuclear
deal is the biggest thing he's yet done on the international stage,
with the greatest consequences. I understand entirely why people
might feel nervous: Iran's warning that it is ready to start nuclear
enrichment was frightening. But the President is, on balance, correct.
Either the world deals with Iran now, or it deals with a nuclear Iran
in the future.
Finally: A US president is pushing back on Iran's
dangerous and growing power. President Trump's decision Tuesday to
withdraw from Team Obama's badly flawed Iran deal and reimpose
sanctions sends a clear message to the mullahs: The jig's up.
Donald Trump pulling America out of the Iran nuclear
deal is the biggest thing he's yet done on the international stage,
with the greatest consequences. I understand entirely why people
might feel nervous: Iran's warning that it is ready to start nuclear
enrichment was frightening. But the President is, on balance,
correct. Either the world deals with Iran now, or it deals with a
nuclear Iran in the future.
The president is right to recoil from [the Iran deal's
shortcomings]. The challenge, as always, is to craft something
better. Presumably, the Europeans and Iran will attempt to preserve
the agreement. Much will depend on whether Trump is willing to
squeeze the Europeans with secondary sanctions that make them choose
between us and the Iranians. And it makes no sense to rip up the deal
if Trump isn't willing to back a comprehensive anti-Iran strategy
that means staying engaged in Syria and Iraq.
SANCTIONS & OTHER BUSINESS RISKS
President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the
Iran nuclear deal has left foreign firms with a choice: Stop doing
business in Iran or run the risk of U.S. sanctions. Multinational
companies have billions of dollars tied up in Iran. In 2016, the
European Union exported more than €8.2 billion ($9.7 billion) worth
of goods to Iran, while importing almost €5.5 billion ($6.5 billion)
from there, according to the European Commission.
Major companies like Boeing could see billions of
dollars in commercial deals canceled because of the U.S. decision to
reinstall sanctions on Iran, though the ultimate impact remains
unclear due to the possibility of renegotiations and exemptions,
experts say.
Washington's decision to reinstate Iranian sanctions is
likely to slowly cut off a chunk of the world's crude supply-a shift
that could redraw global supply lines and require Iran's big
customers to find alternative sources.
Billions of dollars of deals signed by international
companies with Iran are under threat after the US president, Donald
Trump, announced he was pulling out of a "rotten" nuclear
deal with Tehran.
The U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal means
Boeing's licenses to sell billions of dollars in commercial jetliners
to Iran will be revoked [as will those of its competitor Airbus],
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday.
European governments vowed on Wednesday to try to shield
their improved economic ties with Iran from the impact of renewed
U.S. sanctions, but business leaders struck a more pessimistic note.
President Donald Trump is pulling the United States out
of the Iran nuclear deal and bringing back harsh economic sanctions.
But it's how European governments and companies respond that may
matter most. Germany, France and the United Kingdom have vowed to
uphold the agreement, setting up a showdown with the Trump
administration over trade with Iran.
U.S. President Donald Trump's new ambassador to Germany,
Richard Grenell, warned German companies to halt activities in Iran
after the U.S. leader said Washington was pulling out of the Iran
nuclear deal and would reimpose sanctions.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
A coalition commander expressed confidence Tuesday that
U.S. and partnered forces in the Mideast are prepared for any
provocations stemming from President Donald Trump's scrapping of the
Iran nuclear deal. The estimated 2,000 U.S. troops in Syria and 5,000
in Iraq have already been bolstered by the arrival in the eastern
Mediterranean of the aircraft carrier Harry S. Truman, which began
airstrikes May 3 against Islamic State targets in Syria.
U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis moved to allay
concerns on Wednesday that the United States had alienated itself
from close allies with its decision to withdraw from an international
nuclear deal with Iran.
Iran hopes to set up a naval base on the Mediterranean
Sea for its warships and submarines that would pose a "palpable
threat" to everyone, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said
Tuesday in Nicosia.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that,
after he announced the United States would be withdrawing from the
Iran nuclear deal and imposing new sanctions, Iran would either
negotiate or "something will happen." It was not immediately
clear what actions he was suggesting would take place.
CONGRESS & IRAN
Congressional leaders are split, but not neatly along
party lines, over President Donald Trump's decision Tuesday to
withdraw from the Iran nuclear deal. Some welcomed the pullout,
believing the 2015 accord was unsound, but others worried the U.S.
was now in the position of reneging on an international commitment
and without a backup plan.
U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner said Tuesday that he supported
President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the Iran nuclear
deal, and he suggested the U.S. should work with its allies to seek
new economic sanctions against Tehran.
SYRIA, ISRAEL & IRAN
Syria said Tuesday that Israel carried out an attack on
a military base south of Damascus, which was used by Iranian forces.
According to reports, Israeli fighter jets entered Syrian airspace
and struck Iranian missiles aimed at Israel. The Israeli military
said it identified what it said was unusual movements of Iranian
forces in Syria, and it believed those forces were preparing for an
imminent retaliation against Israel.
Syrian opposition leaders on a visit to London on Wednesday
welcomed President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United
States from the Iran nuclear deal.
HUMAN RIGHTS
A day after U.S. President Donald Trump pulled out of
the Iran nuclear deal, several families of American prisoners held in
the Islamic Republic urged the White House to start humanitarian
talks with Tehran to win their release.
Relatives of Americans imprisoned in Iran implored the
Trump administration on Wednesday not to forget their loved ones,
whose fates may have just become murkier now that the United States
has quit the nuclear accord.
NORTH KOREA & IRAN
President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from the
Iran nuclear deal injects a new variable ahead of his coming talks
with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. The move could make it harder
to convince the North Korean regime that the U.S. is reliable in
standing by deals it makes. But it also signals a tougher line that
could give Mr. Trump more leverage with a counterpart that Washington
regards as having a history of backtracking on nuclear deals.
CHINA & IRAN
President Donald Trump put Iran back in the penalty box
on Tuesday - but the impact on the oil market could be determined by
how China responds. China, a voracious consumer of oil, holds great
sway because it's Iran's biggest customer.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Saudi Arabia is monitoring the impact of the U.S.
withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal on oil supplies and is ready to
offset any shortage but it will not act alone to fill the gap, an
OPEC source familiar with the kingdom's oil thinking said.
Gulf Arab countries were on Wednesday bracing for the
economic and security fallout after President Donald Trump announced
the United States was exiting the Iran nuclear deal. Three countries
led by Saudi Arabia immediately backed Trump while Qatar reacted
cautiously. Oman and Kuwait also gave circumspect positions.
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