US demands wholesale changes in Iran policies post-nuke deal

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US demands wholesale changes in Iran policies post-nuke deal

2018-05-22 12:02 Last Updated At：18:38

The Trump administration on Monday demanded that Iran make wholesale changes in its military and regional policies or face "the strongest sanctions in history," as it sought to turn up heat on Tehran after President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw from a landmark nuclear deal.

In speech that called Iran out for a wide range of "malign activities" apart from its nuclear program, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called for the negotiation of a new deal that would go far beyond the single focus of the 2015 agreement and would have the status of a formal treaty. The 2015 deal concluded under the Obama administration dealt only with the nuclear program and was not a treaty but rather a U.N.-endorsed executive agreement between the parties.

Unless such a treaty can be reached, Pompeo warned that Iran would face tough sanctions that would leave it "battling to keep its economy alive." But he laid out no strategy for convincing Iran, the other participants in the original deal — Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the European Union — or others to open such a negotiation.

"These will end up being the strongest sanctions in history by the time we are complete," Pompeo said at the conservative Heritage Foundation in his first major policy speech since taking over as top diplomat.

Pompeo vowed Trump's approach would ensure Iran would never develop a nuclear weapon. A new pact should require that Iran stop enrichment of uranium, which was allowed within strict limitations under the previous deal. Iran would also have to walk away from core pillars of its foreign policy, including its involvement in Syria, Yemen, Lebanon and Afghanistan, he said.

"This list may seem long to some, but it is simply a reflection of the massive scope of Iranian malign behavior," Pompeo said. "America did not create this need for changed behavior. Iran did."

In response, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani described Pompeo's speech as unacceptable and took issue with the fact that the secretary of state previously led the CIA, long demonized in Iran for its role in a 1953 coup.

"A guy who had been active in an espionage center for years now wants to make a decision for Iran and other countries from the position of a foreign minister. It is not acceptable under any circumstance," Rouhani said to a group of university teachers in Tehran. "Who are you to make a decision for Iran and the world and to tell Iran what to do and what not to do in the nuclear field?"

Pompeo did offer Iran a series of dramatic potential U.S. concessions if it agrees to make "major changes." Under a new agreement, the U.S. would be willing to lift all sanctions, restore full diplomatic and commercial ties with Iran and even support the modernization of its economy, Pompeo said.

"It is America's hope that our labors toward peace and security will bear fruit for the long-suffering people of Iran," Pompeo said.

Still, Pompeo's list of 12 requirements included many that Iran is highly unlikely to consider. He said Iran must allow nuclear inspectors "unqualified access to all sites throughout the country," Pompeo said, alluding to military sites that were off-limits under the 2015 deal except under specific circumstances. To that end, he also said Iran must declare all previous efforts to build a nuclear weapon, reopening an issue that the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency has already deemed a closed matter.

Pompeo also demanded that Iran cease from a range of activities throughout the Middle East that have long drawn the ire of the U.S. and its allies. He said Iran must end support for Shiite Houthi rebels in Yemen, "withdraw all forces" from Syria, halt support for its ally Hezbollah and stop threatening Israel.

Iran must also "release all U.S. citizens" missing in Iran or being held on "spurious charges," he said.

Taken together, the demands would require a complete transformation by Iran's government, and they hardened the perception that the administration is really seeking regime change. A longtime Iran hawk, Pompeo has spoken positively about regime change in the past, but in his confirmation hearing last month he sought to soften that stance.

Laying out Trump's new approach Monday, Pompeo said he couldn't put a timeline on how long the strategy might take.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, speaking to reporters in Argentina, said he believed packaging all of Iran's concerning behavior into one agreement would be a heavy lift.

"If you try to pull all of those into a giant negotiation, a new jumbo Iran negotiation, a new treaty . I don't see that being very easy to achieve in anything like a reasonable timescale," he said. "The idea of a jumbo Iran treaty (is) very difficult."

European Union foreign policy chief Federica Mogerhini said in a statement that Pompeo had not shown how resolving any of Iran's problematic non-nuclear activities would be easier done outside of the deal, which is known as the JCPOA, the acronym for the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

"Secretary Pompeo's speech has not demonstrated how walking away from the JCPOA has made or will make the region safer from the threat of nuclear proliferation or how it puts us in a better position to influence Iran's conduct in areas outside the scope of the JCPOA," she said. "There is no alternative to the JCPOA."

Pompeo said he understood that Trump's decision "will pose financial and economic difficulties for a number of our friends." But he warned them that the U.S. planned to follow through with threats to punish European companies that continue doing business with Iran that is allowed under the deal but will violate reimposed U.S. sanctions.

"I know our allies in Europe may try to keep the old nuclear deal going with Tehran. That is their decision to make," Pompeo said. "They know where we stand."

The Latest | World leaders call in Iran and Israel to avoid allowing conflict to worsen

2024-04-20 02:07 Last Updated At：02:12

World leaders called on Iran and Israel to try to avoid escalating tensions following the apparent Israeli strike on Friday near an Iranian air base and nuclear facility.

Group of Seven foreign ministers warned of new sanctions against Iran on Friday for its drone and missile attack on Israel last weekend, and urged both sides to avoid worsening the conflict.

Meanwhile, an apparent Israeli drone attack on Iran saw troops fire air defenses near the central city of Isfahan. It came days after Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on Israel.

Israel also carried out a missile strike on an air defense unit in southern Syria, causing material damage, Syria's state-run SANA news agency said, citing a military statement.

Israel had vowed to respond to Iran’s weekend attack.

Regional tensions have increased since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad — two militant groups backed by Iran — carried out a cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has caused widespread devastation and killed more than 33,900 people, according to local health officials.

Currently:

— Iran fires at apparent Israeli attack drones near Isfahan air base and nuclear site

— Israel gave U.S. last-minute warning about drone attack on Iran, Italian foreign minister says

— Ukraine, Israel aid advances in rare House vote as Democrats help Republicans push it forward

— S&P becomes second major U.S. agency to downgrade Israel’s long-term credit rating

— U.S. vetoes a widely supported resolution backing full U.N. membership for Palestine.

Here is the latest:

Leaders from around the Mideast and the world called on Iran and Israel to try to avoid escalating tensions following the apparent Israeli strike near an Iranian air base and nuclear facility.

Group of Seven foreign ministers meeting in Italy urged both countries to show restraint, with the host nation’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani, saying the meeting’s agenda was changed Friday to address the latest Mideast developments and that the “political objective is de-escalation.”

Tajani also said the G7 ministers condemned Iran’s weekend attack on Israel.

Jordan’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign affairs, Ayman Al-Safadi, stressed the need to ease regional tensions. He also reiterated that Jordan, which is situated between Iran and Israel, will not allow itself to be “turned into an arena of conflict between Iran and Israel,” according to a statement issued by Jordan’s Foreign Ministry.

In a call with Iran’s foreign minister, Hussein Amir Abdullahian, after Friday’s strike, Al-Safadi stressed that Jordan will not allow Iran or Israel to violate Jordan’s airspace, according to the statement, which noted that Abdullahian said his country respects Jordan and wants to ensure the security of the region.

Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Iran-ally Russia, told several Russian radio stations Friday that Moscow informed Israel that Iran isn’t seeking to escalate the conflict. He said Russian leaders were in contact with their Iranian counterparts as well as with the Israelis.

“We very clearly outlined in these conversations and conveyed to the Israelis that Iran does not want escalation,” Lavrov said after news broke of the strike on Iran.

Iran couldn’t “not respond to a gross violation of international law and status of a diplomatic mission, but it doesn’t want escalation,” Lavrov added, referring to the apparent Israeli airstrike that killed two Iranian generals in Syria on April 1.

The leaders of Britain, Germany and the European Commission, and China’s foreign ministry also called for Iran and Israel to avoid worsening the conflict.

“We have condemned Iran’s reckless and dangerous barrage of missiles against Israel ... and Israel absolutely has the right to self defense,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said. “But as I said to (Israeli) Prime Minister Netanyahu when I spoke to him last week, and more generally, significant escalation is not in anyone’s interest. What we want to see is calm heads prevail across the region.”

RAMALLAH, West Bank -- An Israeli military raid Friday on a refugee camp in the northern West Bank killed at least four Palestinians, including three militants, according to the Israeli military, Palestinian health officials and a militant group.

The raid took place in the Nur Shams urban camp, which is in an area of the occupied West Bank where the military frequently operates.

Palestinian health officials said a 16-year-old boy, Qaid Fathi Nasrallah, was shot dead by Israeli fire. The Islamic Jihad militant group also confirmed the deaths of three members, including Mohammed Jaber, who it said was its military commander in the area.

The Israeli military said its forces killed a number of militants, made arrests and found explosives there. Four Israeli soldiers were slightly wounded, it said.

Violence has flared in the West Bank since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on southern Israel. More than 460 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, Palestinian health officials say, as Israel stages frequent raids into towns and cities in the volatile territory.

The dead have included militants, but also stone-throwers and bystanders. Some have also been killed by violence from Israeli settlers.

WASHINGTON — The reported strikes Friday near an Iranian air base and Iran-backed targets in Syria and Iraq appear to show a limited response to Iran's attack on Israel last weekend, according to a pro-Israel think tank based in Washington.

The apparent Israeli drone attack near a major air base and a nuclear site around the central Iranian city of Isfahan activated the country's air defenses, just days after Tehran launched a drone and missile assault on Israel.

No Iranian official directly acknowledged the possibility that Israel had attacked, and the Israeli military did not respond to a request for comment.

But analysts said the relatively limited scope of the Israeli attack and subdued response by Tehran seem to indicate the threat of an immediate escalation had diminished.

The pro-Israel Jewish Institute for National Security of America, based in Washington, said that in addition to showing that Israel doesn't appear to want to escalate tensions, the strikes seem intended to signal that Iran can't attack Israel with impunity.

“Since Isfahan lies in the center of Iran and hosts both a military base and a nuclear site, the Israeli strike also demonstrated Israel’s ability to penetrate Iranian air defenses and reach key Iranian assets, should it decide to launch a larger strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities,” the group said in a statement.

BERLIN — The head of the U.N. atomic watchdog says there was no damage at the Isfahan nuclear facility after an apparent Israeli drone attack on a major air base near the Iranian city.

When asked about the nuclear facility on Sky News, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi said “there hasn’t been any damage at the site or anything that would indicate that (there) were hits nearby or something that could lead you to believe that there was an intention to reach these places.”

The facility at Isfahan operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors, as well as handling fuel production and other activities for Iran’s civilian nuclear program.

Isfahan also is home to sites associated with Iran’s nuclear program, including its underground Natanz enrichment site, which has been repeatedly targeted by suspected Israeli sabotage attacks.

Iranian authorities have said that air defenses fired at a major air base in Isfahan, which long has been home to Iran’s fleet of American-made F-14 Tomcats — purchased before the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

BAGHDAD — Remnants of a missile were found Friday near Latifiya, southwest of Baghdad.

An official with an Iranian-backed militia in Iraq, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to speak to journalists, said the missile had been shot down as a result of jamming operations. The Iraqi army doesn't have jamming devices of the type apparently used to down the missile, but Iran has provided such devices to its affiliated militias.

It wasn't immediately clear whether the missile was part of an Israeli attack on Iran or part of last weekend's Iranian attack on Israel. In photographs from the scene published by local media, it appeared to be a air-to-surface missile. There were no reports of Iran using air-to-surface missiles in Saturday’s barrage, which included more than 300 drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles.

Tehran launched the attack in retaliation for a suspected Israeli strike in Syria on April 1 that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building.

— By Qassim Abdul-Zahra.

Israel’s long-term credit rating is being downgraded by S&P, which cited the risk of military escalation with Iran. It is the second major U.S. credit ratings agency to do so.

There was an apparent drone attack at a major air base and a nuclear site near the central city of Isfahan early Friday, which is suspected of being part of an Israeli retaliation for Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country days ago.

S&P’s downgrade was issued shortly before the strike in Iran and almost three months after Moody’s, another major U.S. credit agency, downgraded Israel’s rating due to the “ongoing military conflict with Hamas.”

S&P Global Ratings lowered its long-term foreign and local currency sovereign credit ratings on Israel to ‘A+’ from ‘AA-’ and the short-term ratings to ‘A-1’ from ‘A-1+.’

ISTANBUL — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that statements issued by Iran and Israel after an apparent drone attack on Friday in Iran are “illogical.”

Erdogan, who is highly critical of Israel’s actions in Gaza, also criticized the U.S. for continuing to support Israel in the U.N. Security Council as tensions escalate between Israel and Iran.

Erdogan told journalists that neither Iran nor Israel is taking “ownership” of the situation.

“Currently Israel is saying different things. Iran puts forward different views. There is no ownership (of the situation). There is not one statement that isn’t illogical,” he said.

Erdogan accused the U.S. of making conflicting statements about having prior knowledge of the drone strikes. He also reiterated that he would host Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday. When asked what would be on their agenda, Erdogan refused to give details.

CAPRI, Italy — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday the United States was not involved in any “offensive operations” in the apparent Israeli drone attack in Iran, but declined to respond to claims that Israel gave the U.S. advance notice of the action.

“I’m not going to speak to that except to say that the United States has not been involved in any offensive operations,” Blinken said.

Asked to describe the current U.S.-Israel relationship, Blinken noted that Israel makes its own decisions, but the United States is committed to its security.

“We are committed to helping Israel defend itself and as necessary participating in its defense, as you saw just a few days ago,” Blinken said. “Again, Israel makes its decisions, but we have a commitment to defending it.

"And you saw an unprecedented attack from Iran, and Israel and the United States and others worked with Israel to make sure that that attack would not have devastating consequences. And thankfully, it did not.”

CAPRI, Italy — The United States told the Group of Seven foreign ministers on Friday that it received “last minute” information from Israel about a drone action in Iran, Italy’s foreign minister said.

Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said the United States provided the information at a Friday morning session that was changed at the last minute to address the apparent attack. Tajani said the U.S. informed the G7 ministers that it had been “informed at the last minute” by Israel about the drones. “But there was no sharing of the attack by the U.S. It was a mere information.”

He said Italians living in Iran were all accounted for and “without problems.”

BEIRUT — Israel carried out a missile strike targeting an air defense unit in its south and causing material damage, Syria’s state-run SANA news agency quoted a military statement as saying Friday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said the strike hit a military radar for government forces. It was not clear if there were casualties, the Observatory said.

The Observatory’s chief Rami Abdurrahman said six Israeli fighter jets entered Syria’s airspace and were flying east when they were spotted by the radar. He added that the fighters jets were flying east.

The warplanes were seen around the time loud noises and drones were reported near a major Iranian air base and nuclear site early Friday. That area of Syria is directly west of Isfahan, some 1,500 kilometers (930 miles) away, and east of Israel.

Iranian state television described all atomic sites in the Isfahan area as “fully safe.” The United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, also said “there is no damage to Iran’s nuclear sites” after the commotion.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran fired air defense batteries early Friday morning at a major air base and a nuclear site near its central city of Isfahan over drones being spotted, raising fears of a possible Israeli retaliatory strike following Tehran’s unprecedented drone-and-missile assault on the country.

Iran then grounded commercial flights in Tehran and across areas of its western and central regions. Loudspeakers informed customers of the incident at Imam Khomeini International Airport in Tehran, online videos purported to show. Iran later restored normal flight service, authorities said.

Air defenses fired in several provinces over reports of drones being in the air, state television reported. However, Iranian state-run media sought to immediately downplay the incident, airing footage of an otherwise-peaceful Isfahan morning.

The facility at Isfahan operates three small Chinese-supplied research reactors, as well as handles fuel production and other activities for Iran’s civilian nuclear program.