TOP STORIES
Israel, Hamas, Iran And Biden | Editorial Board Of The Wall Street Journal
As the latest war between Hamas and Israel enters its second week, the narrative is following a familiar script. Hamas fires rockets at Israeli cities, Israel retaliates by bombing the source of the rockets in Gaza, Hamas plays up the civilian casualties, and the world leans on Israel to stop defending itself. Let’s hope this isn’t the trap the Biden Administration falls into as the fighting continues. So far the White House has supported Israel’s right to self-defense.
Hardliner Ebrahim Raisi To Run In Iran Election, Could Hurt Biden's Nuclear Deal Hopes | Newsweek
Conservative hardliner Ebrahim Raisi has registered as a candidate in Iran's presidential elections which he is favored to win, potentially complicating talks between President Joe Biden and the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program. Biden wants to restore the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) struck between Tehran and Washington, DC in 2015 which promised Tehran economic incentives for curbing its nuclear program. Biden's predecessor, Donald Trump scuppered the deal, reimposing heavy sanctions to try to strongarm Tehran into new talks.
The nuclear weapon that Iran sought to build in the early 2000s was based on designs that were both innovative and original, according to a new book that warns that Tehran’s scientists could produce a bomb quickly if they acquire the necessary fissile material and an order from the country’s leaders to do so. Newly examined technical documents stolen from inside Iran in 2018 reveal that the country’s top-secret weapons program was preparing for a “cold test” of key components for a nuclear bomb by late 2003, and could have quickly progressed to true nuclear detonations.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Iran Uranium Plant Stalls As Talks On Nuclear Deal Inch Forward | Bloomberg
Iran said that a uranium metal factory that was scheduled to become operational this month still isn’t ready, a possible sign that talks over the country’s nuclear deal with world powers are poised for progress. Abolfazl Amouei, spokesman for parliament’s national security commission, said the plant is in the final stages of development and will be launched “when the time comes,” state-run Young Journalists’ Club reported Sunday. Amouei acknowledged the Biden administration wants to revise former President Donald Trump’s tough stance toward Iran, but said his country would press on with its current nuclear program unless it secures “the lifting of sanctions and ensuing verifications.”
Iran Inspections Show High Stakes For Vienna Nuclear Diplomacy | Bloomberg
A global nuclear watchdog carried out around three snap inspections of Iranian atomic facilities a month last year, underscoring the pressure on world powers as talks to rescue their landmark 2015 deal with Tehran approach next week’s expiry of a key monitoring agreement. The International Atomic Energy Agency’s overall inspections in Iran also held near record levels in 2020, according to a restricted report circulated to diplomats and seen by Bloomberg. A fifth of the 161 snap inspections called worldwide last year took place in Iran, according to the report.
Zarif’s Canceled Visit To Vienna Raises Doubts Over Nuclear Deal | Asharq Al-Awsat
The news of a surprise visit by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif to Vienna on Saturday raised doubts about the possibility of reaching an agreement in the nuclear talks. However, confusion mounted when the Austrian Foreign Ministry later confirmed the cancellation of the visit. Austrian newspaper Die Presse, which confirmed the visit the night before, reported that Zarif told his counterpart Alexander Schallenberg that he would not come to Vienna because the country raised the Israeli flag on the Foreign Ministry building.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iranians To The Biden Administration: Do Not Lift Sanctions On Iran | Newsweek
The Biden administration is considering easing sanctions on the Iranian regime before reaching a nuclear agreement, a move that would only jeopardize the national security interests of the U.S and its Middle East allies. The Iranian people also consider such a move to be dangerous. The Biden administration must maintain and even increase sanctions related to Iran's support for terrorism, its ballistic missile program and ongoing human rights violations. Some in Washington are urging the Biden administration to lift U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic, saying they are hurting the people in Iran.
Iran Gears Up For Return To Oil Market As U.S. Talks Advance | Bloomberg
Iran is preparing to ramp up global oil sales as talks to lift U.S. sanctions show signs of progress. But even if a deal is struck, the flow of additional crude into the market may be gradual. State-controlled National Iranian Oil Co. has been priming oil fields -- and customer relationships -- so it can increase exports if an accord is clinched, officials said. Under the most optimistic estimates, the country could return to pre-sanctions production of almost 4 million barrels a day in as little as three months. It could also tap a flotilla’s worth of oil that’s hoarded away in storage.
MISSILE PROGRAM
If It Gets Nukes, Iran Could Fire Using Cruise Missiles – Exclusive | The Jerusalem Post
If Iran gets nuclear weapons, it could potentially deliver them not only using land-based ballistic missiles, but also by ship-fired cruise missiles, one of the top Iran nuclear experts has told The Jerusalem Post. In a new book, Iran’s Perilous Pursuit of Nuclear Weapons, obtained first exclusively by the Post, Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) president David Albright and researcher Sarah Burkhard say that “the most straightforward way to dramatically reduce Iran’s prospects of building nuclear weapons is to focus on the nuclear explosive production and nuclear weaponization pillars.”
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Gay Iranian Man Allegedly Killed By Family Days Before Seeking Asylum | ABC News
Alireza Monfared, a 20-year-old who was gay, was allegedly killed by family members, just days before he could leave Iran to seek asylum, according to multiple reports. News of his early May death made headlines in the U.S. this week thanks in part to LGBTQ news sites and actors such as Dan Levy and singer Demi Lovato sharing the story on social media. Some reports say Monfared was beheaded around Ahwaz, a southwestern city of Iran. Deputy police of the province confirmed that "bleeding from the neck area" was the cause of his death, Saednews reported Tuesday.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
With rockets flying and violence escalating in the Gaza Strip, the Biden administration announced Wednesday that it dispatched Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Hady Amr to the region, in an effort to broker calm between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas. The likelihood of a successful mission is low. But that’s not Amr’s fault; it’s President Joe Biden’s. His Middle East foreign policy is simply out of sync with this mission. In past conflicts, senior American officials often found ways to steer both sides to a ceasefire, even when Israel wasn’t quite satisfied with the results on the battlefield.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iran's Hard-Line Judiciary Chief Registers Presidential Run | Associated Press
Iran’s judiciary chief, a hard-line cleric linked to mass executions in 1988, registered on Saturday to run in the Islamic Republic’s presidential election next month, a vote that comes as negotiators struggle to resuscitate Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers. The cleric, Ebrahim Raisi, is among the more prominent hopefuls — he garnered nearly 16 million votes in the 2017 election. He lost that race to Iran’s relatively moderate President Hassan Rouhani, whose administration struck the atomic accord.
Explosion At Industrial Park Near Iran’s Capital Kills Two | Bloomberg
A blast at an industrial park near Iran’s capital killed two people, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported. The explosion happened at an aluminum melting furnace on the outskirts of south Tehran on Sunday, according to IRNA, which initially said that three people had been killed. The report didn’t say what may have caused the blast or give any more details. Last year Iran reported several mysterious fires and explosions at sensitive facilities across the country that analysts have blamed on sabotage.
Iranians Find Their Voices On Clubhouse Ahead Of Poll | AFP
As Iran gears up for a presidential election, people from across the political spectrum are taking to the audio app Clubhouse as a rare forum for debate inside the country. Chat rooms have been sprouting up every day on the invitation-only social media platform, some of them attracting thousands of listeners. Politicians from opposing factions have found their way to the app, along with an array of analysts, journalists and Iranians both at home and abroad.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Iran Reveals Its Strategy Advising Hamas On War Against Israel | The Jerusalem Post
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force head Esmail Ghaani spoke with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh over the weekend and they discussed the latest developments in the situation and the conflict in Gaza. Tasnim news reported the discussion in Iran. It comes amid an Iranian regional push to support Hamas, including pro-Iran leader Hadi al-Amiri in Iraq indicating his support for Hamas. Turkey and Iranian-backed Houthis and Hezbollah also support the Hamas war against Israel.
A group of pro-Iran Twitter accounts flooded the platform with "massive surges of unmitigated antisemitism" and disinformation, enough to get it trending, as Israel stepped up military strikes against the Tehran-backed Hamas terrorists in Gaza responsible for launching hundreds of rockets at civilian targets this week, according to a nonprofit, politically neutral research institution. The Network Contagion Research Institute, or NCRI, has unveiled its findings, showing a coordinated effort to push hateful content that called for "Death to Israel" and claimed "Hitler was right."
