Reports:
Iran oil recovery should be "red flag" for White House, February will
be fourth consecutive month in Iran energy export growth
Calls grow for PM's resignation as Turkey rocked by second round of leaked wiretaps
As Syrian regime counter-offensives widen, Hezbollah "tipping the scales in Assad's favor"
Iraqi officials extend damage control campaign as U.S. lawmakers react to leaked Iraq-Iran arms deal news
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Reuters reported on Wednesday that
February figures will show Iranian oil exports having risen for the
fourth consecutive month, with "extra cargoes... headed to Syria and
South Korea" and the overall spike accelerating a recovery in Iran's
energy sector. The Washington Post had earlier in the
week noted that Iran has also "sharply increased its oil exports to
China and India over the past few months," spurring Nat Kern - the head
of Foreign Reports, a Washington-based energy consulting firm - to describe the dynamic as "a red flag for the [Obama] administration." The Post
more pointedly quoted Kern asking "what is the U.S. going to do at the
end of May if Iran has punched such a deep hole through the core
sanctions on oil?" Critics of the administration's diplomatic approach
to Iran have long insisted that
the White House squandered away the leverage it needs to secure
substantive concessions regarding Iran's nuclear program, assessing that
the interim Joint Plan of Action (JPA) gave away billions more in
relief than the administration acknowledged and set into motion a
feeding frenzy that will further erode the sanctions regime. Congress
had sought to boost negotiators’ leverage by pursuing legislation that
would impose a range of sanctions should Iran eventually refuse to
verifiably put its atomic program beyond use for weaponization, and the
White House responded by insisting that it had sufficient leverage and
by expending massive political capital to block the efforts. Ali Akbar Velayati, a senior advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader, on Monday reemphasized Tehran's broadly expressed position that it will not dismantle any centrifuges or shut down any uranium enrichment facilities.
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A second set of audio recordings
purporting to be wiretaps of phone conversations between Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his son Bilal - this time with Erdogan
instructing Bilal to hold out for more money in a business deal - was
anonymously uploaded to YouTube on Wednesday, days after a first set of
recordings, seemingly exposing efforts by the two to hide vast amounts
of money from authorities, set off national calls for Erdogan's resignation. Reuters described the new recordings, in
which Erdogan scoffs at the sum that a particular businessman is
willing to bring to a transaction, as "the latest and potentially most
damaging allegations in a graft scandal that Erdogan has cast as
concocted to unseat him." Erdogan had on Tuesday declared that the
first round of tapes were a "treacherous attack," and had lashed out at
among other elements a "robot lobby" that he maintained was attempting
to undermine Turkish institutions in general and him personally. The
Turkish leader had also insisted that the tapes were a composite created
by stitching together various quotes. McClatchy noted on Wednesday that
forensic analysis of the recordings indicated the opposite. The wire
conveyed statements by Joshua Marpet, a U.S.-based cyber analyst who has
served as an expert witness on the validity of computer evidence,
indicating that there was no sign the conversations had been faked.
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Veteran French-Lebanese journalist Mona Alami on Wednesday published an assessment in USA Today
detailing recent military campaigns by Hezbollah on behalf of Syria's
Bashar al-Assad regime, broadly concluding both that the Iran-backed
terror group has taken the lead in counter-offensives against rebel
elements and that those counter-offensives "now appear to be tipping the
scales in Assad's favor." A CNN report published on the same day described an ambush conducted
by forces loyal to Assad that day in which 175 rebels were said to be
killed. Alami's piece quoted Abou Ali, a Hezbollah commander, confirming
that the group has taken the lead in many Syrian battles and that it
has "recaptured about 70% of the Qalamoun territories," describing a
region that stretches about 50 miles into Syria from the Lebanese
border. Alami also contrasted quotes from President Barack Obama and
Secretary of State John Kerry declaring that there is "no military
solution" to the Syrian conflict with analysis from Washington Institute
Fellow James Jeffrey, who noted that Assad and his sponsors seem to
have a very definitive idea of what a military solution might look like:
"a de facto military victory in the very center of the Middle East by
an Assad rump state, Iran, Hezbollah and Russia, on top of the
humanitarian tragedy and attrition of U.S. global prestige."
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Top Iraqi officials on Wednesday deepened their efforts to stem the damage from a recently published Reuters report revealing
that Baghdad had inked a weapons deal with Iran worth $195 million,
breaking a U.N.-imposed arms embargo on the Islamic republic and fueling concerns that the Obama administration had allowed Iraq to slip into the Iranian orbit. Baghdad - facing what the Daily Star described as "heavy
pressure from the United States" - had quickly denied that a deal had
ever been signed. Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari on Wednesday doubled down on
the denial, flatly stating that "no agreement has been made for
purchasing weapons from Iran." The protestations come amid legislative
moves in Washington in response to news of the arms deals. On Tuesday,
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) insisted that the U.S. must reconsider a
coalescing agreement to sell 24 Apache helicopters to Baghdad. Reuters conveyed statements from
multiple lawmakers and Congressional aides noting that Congress had not
been informed by the Obama administration of the Iraq-Iran agreement.
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