TOP STORIES
Expanding Sanctions Choke Flows of Russia, Iran Oil to China for Now | Bloomberg
Expanding sanctions on Chinese ports and refiners are choking flows of Russian and Iranian oil to the world’s No. 1 importer, although emerging workarounds suggest the slowdown may be fleeting. The big state-owned processors have paused purchases of ESPO, the crude that makes up the bulk of China’s imports from Russia, following US sanctions on producers Rosneft PJSC and Lukoil PJSC. Washington’s targeting of the Rizhao oil terminal, which handled about a 10th of China’s crude imports, is also crimping Iranian flows.
Pro-Iran Camp Reunites to Form Majority in Iraq Parliament | Agence France Presse
Iraq's pro-Iran Coordination Framework alliance announced on Monday it had formed the majority bloc in the newly elected parliament, and said that it will nominate the next prime minister.
3 Iranian Men Face Execution After Supreme Court Rejects Final Appeal | IranWire
Farshad Etemadifar spent his entire life in a remote village without running water, where residents still transport goods by donkey. Now the 30-year-old faces execution after Iran’s Supreme Court rejected his third and final request for a retrial. The court’s decision last week also applies to two co-defendants: Masoud Jame’i, a teacher who spent 25 years educating impoverished children, and Alireza Mardasi, according to documents obtained by IranWire. All three men received sentences of two executions and one year in prison each on charges of “moharebeh”—waging war against God—and “corruption on Earth,” along with membership in the Mujahedin-e-Khalq Organization, a banned opposition group.
UANI IN THE NEWS
In short, the Guards’ anti-Americanism is not a relic of 1979. Rather, it is the ideological architecture of Iran’s modern state, a doctrine that turns enmity into identity and converts prophecy into policy. In other words, the Islamic Republic’s leaders do not treat America’s decline as mere rhetoric for ‘domestic consumption’, as is often portrayed by Western policymakers or in mainstream media. Rather, they have built an entire intellectual, bureaucratic and policy infrastructure around the idea that the United States is a weakening power—one whose retreat from the Middle East and the world more broadly is both inevitable and can be exploited strategically. That the IRGC’s commitment to this ideological doctrine is genuine can be most clearly underscored by the fact that – despite incurring major direct US strikes on its nuclear facilities and suffering irreparable strategic losses to both its military commanders and arsenal—it is spending significant time, resources and capital to bring together commanders, officials and scholars to produce research and policy proposals on how Iran and its allies should position themselves for a post-American world. . . . Ultimately, this doctrine, which is central to the DNA of the Islamic Republic – dominated as it is by the IRGCmakes reconciliation and normalisation with the US impossible. And, in the same light, it renders confrontation and conflict with Washington, in one form or another, inevitable.
Exhausted Iran Faces USSR-Style Reckoning, DC-Based Experts Say | Iran International
Iran's military and economic setbacks have deepened this year after it was worsted in a US-Israeli war and hit by mounting sanctions, two prominent experts told an Iran International panel, drawing parallels with the waning days of the Soviet Union. “I do think there are people inside of Tehran who say in their quiet moments, we're a fading regime,” said [UANI Senior Advisor] Norman Roule, a veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency for over 30 years who once oversaw its Iran desk. “We’re not so far off from the Soviet Union in our final days, our leadership is not going to crawl into the grave when the Supreme Leader dies with him, and we need to survive,” he added. "How do we modulate these dials, and how do we play this?"
NUCLEAR DIPLOMACY & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
700 Russians Working on Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Facility, Rosatom Says | Iran International
About 700 Russian specialists are taking part in the construction of the second and third units of Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, the head of Russian state nuclear firm Rosatom said on Monday.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran’s dairy industry is facing sharp cost pressures after the price of raw milk jumped roughly 60% in five months, a surge that industry officials say matches half a century of previous increases and is driving daily price changes across supermarket shelves.
Iran’s government said the real cost of importing gasoline has climbed to 700,000 rials per liter (about $0.62), far above the heavily subsidized pump prices that remain unchanged as policymakers debate fuel-pricing reform amid rising import bills and fears of public backlash.
PROTESTS AND HUMAN RIGHTS
6 Baha’i Citizens Begin Five-Month Prison Sentences in Iran | IranWire
Six Baha’i believers were detained on Sunday and transferred to Kachuei Prison in Karaj to begin serving five-month prison sentences. Mona Zakaei, Naghmeh Mirza Agha, Mahin Sa'adatmand, Mahshid Sefidi, and Samar Masoudi, along with Naser Rajab, were summoned to the Enforcement of Judgments Branch, where they were taken into custody and transferred to prison.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Tehran City Official Confirms Traffic-Camera Images Were Used by Israel | Iran International
A member of Tehran’s city council has implicitly confirmed reports that images from the capital’s traffic-camera network were sent abroad and used by Israel, and called for tighter security controls on foreign-made surveillance equipment.
CONGRESS & IRAN
US President Donald Trump said on Sunday that Republican lawmakers are preparing legislation that would impose sweeping sanctions on countries conducting business with Russia, with Iran potentially included in the scope of the measures.
EUROPE & IRAN
Oxford Union: Israel is a Greater Threat than Iran | Jewish News Syndicate
Members of the Oxford Union, the world’s best-known debating society, last week voted in favor of a motion that called Israel a greater destabilizer than Iran, prompting criticism from Jewish community leaders.
GULF STATES & IRAN
MBS Receives Letter from Pezeshkian Before Washington Trip | Jerusalem Post
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman received a letter on Monday from Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, the Saudi state news agency SPA reported, a day ahead of the Saudi de facto ruler's visit to the US for talks with President Donald Trump. The state news agency did not clarify what the letter entailed or whether it was related to the US visit.