Reuters: U.S. senators pushing a bill to slap new sanctions on Iran if it goes back on an interim deal under which it agreed to limit its nuclear program have gained support since the legislation was introduced in December, aides said on Monday.
Iran sanctions bill opposed by Obama gains Senate backers
UN taps ex-US official to resettle Iranian dissidents
The Hill: The United Nations has tapped President Obama’s former Number 2 Homeland Security official to oversee the resettlement of Iranian dissidents outside of Iraq.
U.S., Russia to meet again to discuss Iranian participation
Wall Street Journal: The United Nations on Monday sent out invitations Monday for the latest peace conference on Syria and Iran wasn’t on the list, despite its role as a major backer of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
U.S. acts to block Turkish firm from sending GE engines to Iran
Reuters: The U.S. Commerce Department on Monday issued a rare emergency order aimed at blocking the illegal re-export of two large, used U.S.-built commercial jet engines to Iran by a company based in Turkey.
Ex-UK foreign minister Straw visiting Iran
AFP: Former British foreign minister Jack Straw was leading a delegation of lawmakers to Iran on Monday, his office said, as London and Tehran sought to improve diplomatic relations.
U.S. ex-Homeland Security official to advise U.N. on Iran dissidents in Iraq
Reuters: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has named former Deputy U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Jane Holl Lute as his special adviser to help with the relocation of a group of Iranian dissidents in Iraq to new countries, the U.N. said on Sunday.
Iran exiles call for UN probe into dissident deaths in Iraq
AFP: An exiled Iranian opposition group on Sunday called for the United Nations to probe the deaths of dozens of Iranian dissidents in Iraq, which it blames on the Tehran-friendly government of Baghdad.
Genocide of Iraq’s Sunni population is likely
Iran Focus: “Iraq is plummeting rapidly towards civil war and genocide,” senior EU lawmaker Struan Stevenson MEP who chairs the European Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq said in a press release. Stevenson says that an onslaught against supposed Al Qaeda terrorists in 6 Iraqi Provinces is no more than a cover for the “annihilation of Sunnis opposed to the increasingly sectarian Shia policies of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.”
Turkey’s Iran strategy
Daily Star: Unlike the majority of Iran’s Arab neighbours, Turkey unequivocally welcomed the interim nuclear deal concluded last month between Iran and the P5+1. But Turkish policymakers are keenly aware that the agreement may upend the Middle East’s fragile balance of power.
Bahrain accuses Iran of training opposition militants
AFP: Bahrain accused Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Friday of providing opposition militants with explosives training in order to carry out attacks in the Gulf kingdom, announcing that it had arrested five suspects.
