TOP STORIES
Iran Nuclear Deal Could Weaken U.S. Efforts To End Israel-Gaza Violence | CNBC
The U.S. plans to revive the Iran nuclear deal, and that could undercut efforts to end the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, one analyst told CNBC on Monday. Escalating violence in the Middle East — including Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip and rocket assaults from terrorist group Hamas on Israeli cities — have killed at least 188 people in the Gaza Strip and eight in Israel since tensions flared last week. Among the dead are 55 children in Gaza and a 5-year-old boy in Israel, reported the Associated Press.
U.S. Tiptoes Through Sanctions Minefield Toward Iran Nuclear Deal | Reuters
As the United States searches for a path back to the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, it is tiptoeing through a minefield laid by former U.S. President Donald Trump. The mines are Iran-related sanctions Trump imposed on more than 700 entities and people, according to a Reuters tally of U.S. Treasury actions, after he abandoned the nuclear deal and restored all the sanctions it had removed. Among these, Trump blacklisted about two dozen institutions vital to Iran's economy, including its central bank and national oil company, using U.S. laws designed to punish foreign actors for supporting terrorism or weapons proliferation.
Iran’s Veteran Oil Minister Zanganeh To Retire After Vote | Bloomberg
Iran’s veteran oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, will retire when President Hassan Rouhani’s term ends this year, closing a career that started with the birth of the Islamic Republic in 1979 and has often been defined by his country’s turbulent relationship with the U.S. OPEC’s longest-serving oil minister said he won’t accept any proposal from Rouhani’s successor -- who’ll be chosen during next month’s election -- to continue in his post. “If they offer me the presidency I won’t accept it, let alone the ministry,” the 68-year-old engineer told reporters in Tehran, according to state-run Shana news agency. “I won’t take another official post.”
UANI IN THE NEWS
Middle Eastern armed conflicts involving Israel inevitably produce outpourings of cliché and muddled thinking: talk of “cycles of violence”, calls for both sides to “exercise restraint” and for immediate ceasefires. Most convey no more than virtue-signaling moral equivalence.
How Baseball Saved An Iran Hostage, Not Once, But Twice | UANI Advisor Barry Rosen For The LA Times
Four decades ago, Rosen was one of 52 Americans held hostage for 444 brutal days in Iran. Not long after their release in January 1981, Rosen and the other hostages received a rare gift from Major League Baseball, a “golden ticket.” Signed by then-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, under the words “In Gratitude And Appreciation,” the brass lifetime pass entitled each hostage and a guest admittance to any regular-season game.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Fox News senior strategic analyst Jack Keane argued on "America's Newsroom" Monday that the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal likely allowed Iran to equip Hamas with more weapons that are now being used against Israel. The retired general responded to anchor Bill Hemmer's question about whether funds from the U.S. have been used to purchase rockets. JACK KEANE: Here is the irony. Right now the Biden administration is negotiating with Iran to remove sanctions that were imposed on them for Iran supporting terrorism in the region and supporting the development and manufacture of missiles.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran's Petropars To Develop Farzad B Gas Field, Oil Minister Says | Reuters
Iran has signed a $1.78 billion contract with Petropars Group to develop the country's Farzad B gas field, Oil Ministry website SHANA said on Monday, after the failure of talks with Indian companies to develop the offshore site. Under the deal, the subsidiary of state-run National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) will produce 1 billion cubic feet of gas per day within five years from the field, which is estimated to hold 22 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of reserves, of which 16 tcf are deemed recoverable.
Iran Cracks Down On Crypto Miners Using Household Electricity: Report | Yahoo Finance
Cryptocurrency miners in Iran who use household electricity for their operations will face heavy fines, according to the country’s energy ministry. Furthermore, miners will have to pay for damages caused to the electricity network, a spokesman for the ministry said, as reported Sunday by English-language newspaper the Tehran Times. The measure comes in response to concerns over the burden cryptocurrency mining is placing on the country’s electricity supply, which has been under strain this year thanks to reduced rainfall limiting the output of hydropower plants.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Amnesty International has marked the International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersex-phobia, and Transphobia by renewing its calls on Iran to repeal laws criminalizing consensual same-sex relations. The London-based human rights watchdog said in an analysis published on May 17 that the recent "horrifying" killing of a 20-year-old gay man in Iran "has shed new light on how the criminalization of consensual same-sex sexual conduct and gender nonconformity perpetuates systemic violence and discrimination" against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people (LGBT).
British-Iranian Labour Activist Faces Minimum 10-Year Jail Term After Arrest In Iran | The National
A British-Iranian labour activist arrested in Iran faces a minimum 10-year jail term after being accused of being the leader of a communist cell, his supporters have learned. Mehran Raoof, 64, has been held in solitary confinement at Tehran’s Evin jail since he was detained in October last year, along with other labour and human rights activists who gathered in a Tehran café. He has only been seen once by his lawyer at a hearing last month when he was accused of unspecified security offences, but a 200-page file seen by his legal team now accuses him of being the leader of a banned communist group.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Hamas Representative In Iran: Latest Round Of Fighting Is Strategic Shift For Group | Al Monitor
This is not just another normal round of confrontation between the Palestinian factions in the Gaza Strip and Israel — at least this is what Hamas believes. The group’s representative in Tehran told Al-Monitor in an exclusive interview that, this time, his group along with other Palestinian factions “applied a strategic shift in the concept of resistance, from defending Gaza against Israeli attacks to defending all Palestinians living in historical Palestine.” Khaled al-Qaddumi told Al-Monitor that another strategic change is that “the resistance will not allow Israeli occupation forces to attack civilian targets in al-Quds [Jerusalem].”
CHINA & IRAN
What Is Iran’s Game Plan With China Amid Israel-Gaza Conflict? | The Jerusalem Post
Iran is emphasizing China’s opposition to the current conflict between Israel and Hamas. China’s foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said on Friday that the US was “standing on the opposite side of the international community.” Her comments were about efforts at the UN to press for an end to Israel’s strikes on Gaza. “What we can feel is that the US keeps saying that it cares about the human rights of Muslims… but it was ignoring the suffering of the Palestinian people,” Hua said.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Over a decade has passed since the first Iranian arms shipment en route to Houthi militias in Yemen was officially seized. A few days ago, the US Navy stopped a stateless vessel carrying a massive cache of illicit weapons in northern Arabian Sea waters. Tehran’s cleric-led regime has been tied to training thousands of Houthi combatants in both Iran and Lebanon and setting up Revolutionary Guard spy cells in Yemen. Iran is exploiting political turmoil and security instability in Yemen, local intelligence sources speaking under the conditions of anonymity reported, pointing out that it was using the northeastern governorate of Hajjah’s Red Sea offshore islands.
TURKEY & IRAN
'Turkey, Iran Can Cooperate In Fight Against Terrorism' | Daily Sabah
Turkey and Iran can conduct close cooperation in the fight against terrorism, Saeed Mohammad, a presidential candidate for the upcoming elections in Iran, said Monday. The Iranian executive director and second brigadier general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and former commander of its Khatam-al Anbiya Construction Headquarters told Anadolu Agency (AA) that Turkey and Iran together can take the main role for regional security, adding: "Turkey and Iran can be in close and good cooperation in the fight against terrorism. There are some problems in Syria and northern Iraq. They can play a positive role in the establishment of peace in Afghanistan and Yemen and Palestine issues."
