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Students Harshly Criticize Iran in Meeting with Supreme Leader - Nasser Karimi (Associated Press)
    Iranian university students in a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Monday offered harsh criticism of the country's direction, in an unusually frank discussion. University student Sahar Mehrabi read a speech in which she recounted the "numerous crises" now facing the country.
    Among them, she listed Iran's "intensified systematic inequality in social classes, the decline of public trust, and the increase in environmental crisis and shantytowns." She also mentioned high unemployment, the challenges faced by minority groups and the way hard-line elements within Iran's judiciary and security system "fabricate security cases in a delusional way" to target activists.
    In his own speech, Khamenei acknowledged many of the shortcomings, saying that "removing problems is not as easy" as the students expect.

Hizbullah Chief's Net Worth Is $250 Million, Mainly Thanks to Drugs - Daniel Siryoti (Israel Hayom)
    Hizbullah chief Hassan Nasrallah has amassed a net personal worth of around $250 million due to his organization's illegal drug smuggling operations, Al-Ittihad, an Arabic language newspaper published in the United Arab Emirates, reported on Monday.
    According to the report, which relies on senior Lebanese government sources, the scope of Nasrallah's fortune was discovered within the framework of a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigation against Hizbullah - which aside from its designation as a terrorist organization also operates as one of the largest drug cartels in the world.

Capital Flight from Iran $59 Billion since March 2016 - Saeed Ghasseminejad (Twitter)
    In a report, Iran's Parliament Research Center estimates the value of capital flight between March 2016 and March 2018 to be around $59 billion, $13 billion in the last three months. The report expects an even higher number for March 2018-March 2019 period due to the return of sanctions.
    The report shows country's currency reserve decreased $16.3 billion between March 2016 and January 2018 with an accelerating trend. If sanctions cut the inflow of foreign currency, one can expect Iran's currency reserve to decrease more and its access to it even at a faster rate.

Clay Seal of Prophet Isaiah to Be Unveiled at Joint Israel-U.S. Event - Tamara Zieve (Jerusalem Post)
    Clay seals believed to have been used by the biblical prophet Isaiah and King Hezekiah are set to be unveiled at a June event, which will be held simultaneously in Jerusalem and Oklahoma via a live stream.
    While the seals and nearly three dozen other pieces loaned by the Antiquities Authority will be on display in Oklahoma, the archeologist who made the discoveries, Dr. Eilat Mazar, will deliver a keynote address in Jerusalem.
    View the video trailer "Seals of Isaiah and King Hezekiah Discovered"

Russia Holds the Key to Nearly Half of Syria - and With It, the Power to Keep Iranian Dominance at Bay - Hassan Hassan (The National - UAE)

• After Russia intervened directly in Syria in September 2015, it was able to achieve a sequence of military and political gains for the regime. The latest of such gains might be the most important. It is clear that the Russian intervention had put an end to any serious attempt by backers of the rebels to topple the regime.
• Almost all the countries that once backed the opposition now depend on Russia to salvage the situation for them in Syria. Israel, Jordan, the United States, and the Gulf states had all viewed the role of Russia with hope at various times, either because it would make the regime in Damascus less dependent upon Iran or because of a perceived Iranian and Russian divergence in their approach and future vision for the country.
• The regime is under less military pressure than before and so it can now do with less Iranian help. Strengthening the regime would gradually enable Syrians to take control of their country rather than to continue to be under the influence of Iran, whose militias, resources, and expertise are indispensable as long as fighting continues.
• The U.S. and Turkey control close to 40 per cent of the country in the east and north. Israel also has a de facto veto power in any regime military operations near its borders, by virtue of an agreement between it, Russia, and the U.S.
• Russia, not Iran or Syria, is the country that has existing channels with those countries. In other words, the regime and Iran are currently locked out from about 40 percent of Syria - and Russia holds the key.
• Once the regime's military and security forces control the country, the thinking goes, outside pro-Iranian militias could be forced out. For those countries, Russia could enable such a scenario.

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