News and Analysis (9/30/18)

“The only way to portray Iran as a terrorist state is to define terror as opposing American power…. Zarif’s job is to persuade the world to rebel against Trump’s dictates. He has already had some success, notably in India, China, Russia, and Turkey” …

• Iran’s Best Diplomat Takes on US Power (Boston Globe)

… Zarif “said the European countries’ efforts in recent months to find ways to maintain trade with Iran following the reinstatement of unilateral US sanctions”:

• Zarif: 7 Central Banks Will Join EU’s New Iran Payment System (Financial Tribune)

… Bolton threatened “that Iran could have ‘hell to pay’ if it doesn’t fall in line with the U.S., but experts say his strategy is bunk. ‘It didn’t work with North Korea,’ said one, ‘and it won’t work with Iran’”:

• “A Pathetic Strategy”: Bolton’s Saber-Rattling Fuels Fear of War with Iran (Vanity Fair)

“Iran did not act to stop these attacks by its proxies in Iraq, which it has supported with funding, training and weapons,” said the White House …

• U.S. Closes Consulate In Basra, Citing Iran-Backed Violence (NPR)

… which has never stopped its proxies in Iraq and Israel:

• Palestinians Say Seven Killed as Israeli Troops Fire on Gaza Protest (Reuters)

Muslim Advocates “said Hyatt is the first hotel firm to make such a commitment to his group. He said Airbnb, the online home-sharing site, has also committed that it will not do business with hate groups”:

• Hyatt Hotels Won’t Rent to Hate Groups, CEO Says; Muslim Group Claims a Victory (LA Times)

“For the first time in their modern relations, neither Iran nor Saudi Arabia have a political pawn in Islamabad that they can manipulate”:

• Why Saudi Arabia and Iran Are Desperately Trying to Court Imran Khan (Middle East Eye)

“Pictures of soldiers shielding women and children with their bodies or carrying them away from the scene were widely shared, while more than 20 newspapers used a photograph on their front pages of a commando cradling a baby while holding an AK-47”:

• Iran’s Revolutionary Guards May Turn Parade Attack into Political Win (Reuters)

Palestinians say that “the 1961 Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations … dictates embassies must be established on the territory of the receiving state and that the ‘special status of Jerusalem’ means that the US violated its international obligations when it moved its embassy“:

• Palestine Sues US at International Court over Jerusalem Embassy (Al-Jazeera)

“Musicians started playing heavy metal in Iran in the late ’80s and early ’90s. … But all had to stay underground, excluding a few whose music did not include elements from racier subgenres of metal.” In the past three years an increasing number of bands have been permitted to play in public:

• Iran’s Metal Bands Inch Toward Acceptance (Al-Monitor)

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