• Trump’s security adviser to visit UAE this week
US National Security Adviser John Bolton will this week travel to the United Arab Emirates for talks, the US embassy in Abu Dhabi said Monday.
Bolton’s planned meeting comes as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the US have had rising tensions with Iran, and it coincides with key meetings planned in Saudi Arabia.
Regional tensions have spiked since Donald Trump’s administration re-imposed sanctions against Iran after unilaterally pulling out of a multilateral 2015 nuclear accord signed with the Islamic republic.
• Iran Regime tests scud missile from ‘secret’ underground facility
The Iranian Regime has tested their Qiam-1 missile in a ‘secret’ underground facility in an undisclosed location inside the Persian Gulf nation.
The Qiam-1 was modeled after the North Korean Scud missile, Hwasong-6; it entered Iranian military service in 2010.
This move by the Iranian military comes just weeks after the U.S. administration accused Iran of preparing to launch an attack on the American forces in the Middle East.
• Amid Tensions, Iran’s Crude Buyers Jump Ship
The Wall Street Journal: One month after the Trump administration said it would tighten its ban on Iran’s oil sales, the country’s direct crude buyers have all but vanished, traders and executives in the Islamic Republic say. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced in late April the end of exemptions to eight countries that had been allowed to buy crude despite a U.S. ban on Iran’s exports. Since then, China, India, Turkey, South Korea and Japan have ended all direct purchases of Iranian crude and condensates, they said.
• Iran Sees No Prospect Of Negotiations With U.S. – Foreign Ministry
Reuters: Iran sees no prospect of negotiations with the United States, a foreign ministry spokesman said on Tuesday, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump said a deal with Tehran on its nuclear programme was possible. Washington withdrew last year from a 2015 international nuclear deal with Tehran, and is ratcheting up sanctions in efforts to strangle Iran’s economy by ending its international sales of crude oil.
• Trump Says Iran Nuclear Deal Achievable As Sanctions Sting
Reuters: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday a deal with Iran on its nuclear program was possible, crediting economic sanctions for curbing activities Washington has said are behind a spate of attacks in the Middle East. “I really believe that Iran would like to make a deal, and I think that’s very smart of them, and I think that’s a possibility to happen,” Trump said during a news conference with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in Tokyo.
• US Sanctions On Iran Felt In Iraqi Shiite Tourist Districts
Associated Press: For years, Karar Hussein has sold sweets in his shop near the entrance to one of Shiite Islam’s holiest shrines, accepting whatever currency was offered to him by his clients, many of them religious tourists from neighboring Iran. But lately, when Iranian pilgrims ask about prices, he tells them he can only sell if they pay in Iraqi currency. They often walk out, disappointed. Hussein and many other shop owners in Baghdad’s northern Shiite holy neighborhood of Kadhimiya have seen sales drop sharply over the past year…
• German Business With Iran Down Sharply As US Sanctions Bite
Associated Press: A German business group says German companies’ trade with Iran has declined sharply as the United States turns up the economic heat on Tehran. Volker Treier, the foreign trade chief of the Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told news agency dpa in comments published Sunday that German exports to Iran were down 50 percent in year-on-year terms in the first quarter, while Iranian exports to Germany dropped some 42 percent.
• 40 Years Of Iran’s Sponsorship Of Terror
Asharq Al-Awsat: The escalation of Iran and its Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) in the Middle East has become apparent. It has mobilized the Houthi militias in Yemen to launch attacks against Saudi Arabia through the firing of ballistic missiles and explosives-laden drones. Four commercial vessels were victims of sabotage off the coast of the United Arab Emirates and two Saudi Aramco oil pumping stations were attacked.
• Iraq Offers To Mediate In Crisis Between Its Allies Iran, U.S.
Associated Press: Iraq offered Sunday to mediate in the crisis between its two key allies, the United States and Iran, amid escalating Middle East tensions and as Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers steadily unravels. Iraqi foreign minister, Mohammed al-Hakim, made the offer during a joint news conference in Baghdad with visiting Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif. “We are trying to help and to be mediators,” said al-Hakim, adding that Baghdad “will work to reach a satisfactory solution” while stressing that Iraq stands against unilateral steps taken by Washington.
• Trump Backs Abe Playing Intermediary Role In Standoff With Iran
Bloomberg: U.S. President Donald Trump expressed support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe playing a role in facilitating talks with Iran after the Japanese leader reportedly offered his services as an intermediary amid mounting tensions in the Middle East. Japan, a close ally of the U.S., has also maintained ties with Iran. It welcomed Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on a visit earlier this month and has expressed support for the 2015 multinational accord restricting Iran’s nuclear program that was rejected by the Trump administration.
• Pentagon Says Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Responsible For Oil Tanker Attacks
Fox News: American military officials said Friday that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is directly responsible for attacks on tankers off the United Arab Emirates earlier this month. The officials said the attacks were part of a “campaign” by the Iranian regime that prompted the U.S. to deploy additional troops to the Middle East. “The attack against the shipping in Fujairah we attribute it to the IRGC,” said Rear Admiral Michael Gilday, the director of the Joint Staff.
• Iran Threatens To Target US Warships With ‘Secret Weapons’
Asharq Al-Awsat: A senior Iranian military official said Iran can sink US warships sent to the Gulf region using missiles and “secret weapons,” semi-official news agency Mizan reported on Saturday. General Morteza Qorbani, an adviser to Iran’s military command, has threatened the US with targeting its warships. “America… is sending two warships to the region. If they commit the slightest stupidity, we will send these ships to the bottom of the sea along with their crew and planes using two missiles or two new secret weapons,” Qorbani stressed.
• Iran’s Parliament Reelects Speaker While Vice-Speaker Is Voted Out
Ali Larijani has been reinstated as the speaker of the Iranian Parliament (Majles) for the 12th consecutive year as the longest serving head of Iranian Parliament. The annual election for the posts on the Majles presidium was held on Sunday May 26, with the only surprise in the result being the replacement of outspoken conservative vice-speaker Ali Motahari, with another conservative figure Abdolreza Mesri.
• Former Iran Revolutionary Calls Khamenei A ‘Despot’
A former aide to Iran’s Supreme Leader has called Ayatollah Ali Khamenei a “despot” after being issued a new subpoena while already facing a three-year jail sentence. Abolfazl Qadiani (Ghadiani) must attend court within 10 days but, writing for foreign-based opposition website Kalameh, he said he will refuse to do so. The 73-year-old slammed the subpoena as an “overture to holding a session of the illegal Revolutionary Court dominated by intelligence agents, and both under the full control of Iran’s current despot, Mr Khamenei”.
• Iran Will Block Social Media In Case Of War With U.S.
Iran would block its citizens’ access to social media if war were to break out with the U.S., the head of the country’s Passive Defense Organization has said. In a speech on Sunday, May 26, brigadier-general Gholamreza Jalali of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said, the U.S. “uses social media for media and psychological operations to influence Iranians’ minds.”
• Tensions Grow Between Russia, Iran In Syria
Voice of America: Russian military police last week reportedly carried out a raid against Iranian-backed militiamen stationed at Syria’s Aleppo international airport, local media reported. In the aftermath, several Iranian militia leaders were arrested in what was seen as the latest episode of tensions between Iranian and Russian forces in Syria. Since the beginning of Syria’s civil war in 2011, Russia and Iran have built a strong military presence in the country in support of forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
• Coalition: Iran-Supplied Missiles To Houthis Pose Threat To The Region
Al Arabiya: The ballistic missiles owned by the Houthis continue to pose a threat to the region and point to the Iranian support to militias and terrorist groups, Arab Coalition Spokesman Colonel Turki al-Maliki said. Addressing a press conference on Monday, he said the Coalition intends to speed up military operations to neutralize the threat posed by the Houthi militias.
• Yemen’s Houthis Launch Fundraising Drive For Cash-Strapped Hezbollah
The National: A Yemeni radio station broadcasting in support of the Yemeni rebel Houthi movement has launched a fundraising drive on behalf of Hezbollah, which has come under pressure from ramped-up sanctions. Sam FM (99.1) on Friday called on its listeners to “support the masters of the mujahideen in this world, the purest people, Hezbollah” and donate to the “From Yemen the Faithful to the Resistance of Lebanon” campaign during the final 10 days of Ramadan.
• Saudi Arabia Shoots Down Houthi Drone Targeting Jizan Airport
Al Jazeera: Saudi Arabia said on Sunday it shot down a bomb-laden drone deployed by the Houthi rebels in Yemen to attack an airport in the kingdom, the latest in a series of attacks targeting the kingdom. The Saudi air force intercepted and destroyed the drone that targeted Jizan airport, close to the southern border with Yemen, the Saudi-UAE-led coalition fighting the rebels said.
• US Suspects 2 Iran Proxies In Baghdad Embassy Attack
Asharq Al-Awsat: Iranian proxies in Iraq have not claimed responsibility for the attack against the US embassy in Baghdad a week ago despite Washington’s accusation that Tehran was behind the incident. A senior security official told Asharq Al-Awsat that the US suspects the Sayyed of Martyrs Battalions and Imam Ali Battalions. He revealed that Iraqi authorities have been informed of these suspicions.
• Iran: Anti-regime protest against the killing of a young man
A number of residents of the city of Zahedan, southeastern Iran, attacked and clashed with the brutal plainclothes agents of the Iranian regime on Saturday for killing a young Balouchi man.
The repressive forces called for backup and fired shots in the air trying to disperse the crowd, fearing that the protest could draw more protesters and turn in to larger unrest.
The angry crowd attacked vehicles belonging to the state security forces throwing rocks at them as a means to push back those forces who were trying to arrest them.
Toward the evening on Saturday, the repressive forces shot at a young Balouchi man called Mousa Shah-Bakhash for not having a drivers’ license and ignoring a stop sign.
The bullet pierced the young man’s chest resulting in his death.