Bloomberg: The U.S. wants to make Iran’s currency useless in global commerce through an executive order that gives financial institutions a July 1 deadline to stop dealing in rials or face sanctions, Treasury official David Cohen said.
Useless rial is U.S. goal in new Iran sanctions, Treasury says
Iran leader’s election bid: Taming the presidency
AP: At the height of Iran’s internal political clashes in late 2011, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei became so exasperated that he warned the Islamic Republic could someday drop the office of an elected president.
Trouble brewing in Tehran
The Diplomat: The Iranian regime is building up to the June presidential elections, which will shape an extremely significant period in that regime’s future. The incoming president will rule over a period in which disputes over Iran’s nuclear program will have to come to a head.
Arabs press Iran on atomic reactor safety
Reuters: Arab Gulf states sought reassurances from Iran at a U.N. nuclear agency meeting this week over the safety of its only atomic energy plant, which is located in an earthquake-prone coastal area, diplomats said on Thursday.
German-Iranian connection solid as ever
UPI: A curious spectacle unfolded May 29 in the European Parliament, as the U.N. Envoy in Iraq Ambassador Martin Kobler testified before the Foreign Affairs Committee.
Iran on our back porch
USA TODAY: The Iranian regime’s activities in Latin America are extensive – and evolving. Last week, Argentine state prosecutor Alberto Nisman dropped a bombshell when heissuedhis long-awaited indictment in the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israel Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires.
Lawmakers in new drive to slash Iran’s oil sales to a trickle
Reuters: U.S. lawmakers are embarking this summer on a campaign to deal a deeper blow to Iran’s diminishing oil exports, and while they are still working out the details, analysts say the ultimate goal could be a near total cut-off.
US renews exemptions to Iran oil sanctions
AFP: China and India on Wednesday were again exempted from US sanctions aimed at choking off Iran’s oil exports after significantly cutting back on purchases of crude from the Islamic republic.
A spiritual center of power is a required stop on Iran’s campaign trail
New York Times: Qum, home to some of Iran’s most influential clerics, is not just Iran’s holiest city, but one of its most powerful, a Shiite Vatican in the desert that can make or break any Iranian political career.
Iran presidential candidates debate freedoms
AP: The eight candidates running in Iran’s June 14 election for president took radically different stands on personal freedoms, women’s rights and censorship in the country’s second round of televised debates Wednesday.
