On September 15, President Donald Trump said that he could make a “good deal” with Iran if reelected in November. “I would say, right after the election — within a period of a week, maybe a month … you’ll have Iran coming back and saying, ‘Let’s get this whole thing worked out,’” he told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Emirati Foreign Minister Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Iran vigorously condemned the new U.S.-brokered agreements—known as the Abraham Accords—between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed at the White House on September 15, 2020. The new Middle East peace deals, the first in more than a quarter century, dramatically changed the core alliances in the world’s most volatile region and increased pressure on Iran. They created a new Arab-Israeli bloc, backed by the United States, aligned against the Islamic Republic, which has the largest military in the Middle East.
Health: Iran recorded the highest daily rise in COVID-19 fatalities since mid-August. More than 150 patients died in a single day which put overall official death toll at 23,313.
Health: Iran recorded 407,353 cases and 23,632 deaths from COVID-19.
On August 19, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al Kadhimi arrived in Washington to meet with President Donald Trump and continue a U.S.-Iraq strategic dialogue that kicked off in June. The talks between senior officials covered security and counterterrorism, economics and energy, political issues, and cultural relations. In various forums, Iraqi leaders underscored the importance of having working relationships with Iran and the United States. But they also said that they wanted to keep the U.S.-Iran rivalry out of Iraq's domestic affairs.
On August 24, Rafael Grossi, the U.N. nuclear watchdog’s chief, arrived in Tehran to press for access to two suspected former nuclear sites. The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) met with top officials, including President Hassan Rouhani, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO). “Our conversation today was very constructive.
On August 20, the United States notified the U.N. Security Council that it would reimpose multilateral sanctions on Iran for violating terms of the 2015 nuclear deal. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notified U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres and Security Council President Dian Triansyah Djani that the United States had triggered the so-called snapback mechanism negotiated as part of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). In New York, Pompeo declared that all U.N. sanctions suspended under the JCPOA would resume after 30 days.
The UAE leadership has long viewed Israel as a model for how a small nation can nonetheless thrive in a region filled with security threats. The Emiratis have studied how Israel, Singapore and others have harnessed strong leadership, high tech, a certain amount of risk-taking regionally and globally as well as their highly educated populace to succeed diplomatically, economically and in terms of security.
On August 19, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned two companies based in the United Arab Emirates for providing parts and logistics services to Iranian airline Mahan Air. “The Iranian regime uses Mahan Air as a tool to spread its destabilizing agenda around the world, including to the corrupt regimes in Syria and Venezuela, as well as terrorist groups throughout the Middle East,” said Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin.
Iranian leaders have roundly condemned the U.S.-brokered agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates to normalize diplomatic relations, which was announced on August 13. President Hassan Rouhani called it a “clear betrayal of the Palestinian people, the cause of al Quds (Jerusalem) and Muslims.”
