Wall Street Journal: Nuclear negotiations between Iran and six major powers hit a fresh hurdle this week when the country’s Supreme Leader said Iran needs significantly greater enrichment capacity. Khamenei’s comment in a speech Monday to senior level technocrats and military personnel came as negotiators in Vienna struggle to complete a final nuclear agreement by the July 20 deadline.
Iran nuclear negotiations hit fresh hurdle
France says Russia, other powers have differences over Iran talks
Reuters: France’s foreign minister said on Tuesday “differences in approach” between Russia and some of the other five world powers negotiating with Iran over its nuclear programme had appeared in the past few days. Speaking to parliament’s foreign affairs committee, Laurent Fabius also said none of the major outstanding issues in the talks had been settled and that the United States wanted foreign ministers to join the negotiations in Vienna.
Iraq VP to U.S.: stay out of our civil war
Daily Beast: “It’s a really annoying development. The U.S. is in the process of committing itself into another set of grave mistakes. Definitely we consider all this military support to Nouri al-Maliki an alliance with Iran against the Arab Sunnis,” Iraq’s exiled Vice President said. “Try to avoid any use of military means, try to be fair, try to diffuse the bomb by asking Nouri al-Maliki to immediately to establish a caretaker government. Try to be neutral at least.”
U.S. Scrutiny for Banks Shifts to Commerzbank and Germany
New York Times: A trail of illicit money led the American government on a hunt through the European financial system, generating criminal cases against banks in Britain, Switzerland and most recently, France. Now the crackdown is bound for another European financial center: Germany. State and federal authorities have begun settlement talks with Commerzbank, over the bank’s dealings with Iran and other countries blacklisted by the United States.
Democratic leaders join GOP in condemning Obama’s breaking promises to MEK
Breitbart: America’s credibility in the world is at risk due to President Barack Obama’s failure to keep U.S. commitments to protect Iranian dissidents, a distinguished bipartisan group of top foreign policy and military leaders declared in a letter to the White House. Camp Liberty is a facility in Iraq where 3,000 men and women of Mojahedin-e Khalq (MEK) have been kept since 2011.
Diplomats: Iran nuke talks make little progress
AP: Diplomats say Iran continues to resist efforts to crimp nuclear activities that could be used to make weapons, with the clock ticking down on a July 20 target date for a deal. As experts for both sides meet Monday, two diplomats say that a draft agreement still contains large blanks, reflecting disagreement on constraints Iran can accept in exchange for an end to sanctions.
Iran said to name U.S.-trained economist its new UN envoy
Bloomberg: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani may name his American-educated chief of staff to be the country’s next envoy to the United Nations, after the U.S. denied a visa to his previous choice. In April, the Obama administration denied a visa to Hamid Aboutalebi after Bloomberg News reported on his involvement with the militant group that seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979 and held 52 Americans hostage for 444 days.
Obama tested by Iran
The Hill: The Obama administration faces a major test of its foreign policy later this month as negotiators push to complete a deal that would prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. A July 20 deadline for completing the deal is fast approaching. And regardless of whether there’s a deal, no deal or an extension of talks, Congress may threaten to impose more sanctions on Iran.
Iranian pilot killed fighting in Iraq
Al Jazeera: An Iranian pilot has been killed while fighting in Iraq, in what is thought to be the first military casualty that Tehran officially acknowledged during battles against Sunni fighters led by the Islamic State group. Iran’s official IRNA news agency said on Saturday that Colonel Shoja’at Alamdari Mourjani was killed while “defending” the Shia Muslim holy sites in the city of Samarra, north of Baghdad.
Why we stuck with Maliki — and lost Iraq
Washington Post: To understand why Iraq is imploding, you must understand Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki — and why the United States has supported him since 2006. With Iran’s assistance, Dawa operatives bombed the Iraqi Embassy in Beirut in 1981 in one of radical Islam’s first suicide attacks. They also bombed the American and French embassies in Kuwait and schemed to kill the emir. By 2010 I had come to realize that if he remained in office, he would create a divisive, despotic and sectarian government that would rip the country apart and devastate American interests.
