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The Trump administration is planning to step up its lobbying against parts of a bipartisan Senate bill slapping new sanctions on Russia and Iran, a senior official said - an effort that comes as Congress works to clear up an unexpected roadblock to the measure that could give the White House more time to air its concerns to sympathetic House Republicans.

The White House opposes provisions that could be seen as pre-empting the president's powers, the official said. Of particular concern is a congressional review process that would allow the House and Senate to block the president from lifting sanctions.

The House blocked progress on the Senate-passed Countering Iran's Destabilizing Activities Act earlier this week, arguing that it flouted the constitutional provision requiring revenue-raising bills to originate in the House. That prompted accusations from Democrats that the House Republican leaders were trying to stall the bill at Trump's request.

While the procedural snag could be cleared as soon as next week, it remains unclear when the House will take final action.

The Trump administration has publicly warned against impeding presidential prerogatives to relieve sanctions. "We would ask for the flexibility to turn the heat up when we need to, but also to ensure that we have the ability to maintain a constructive dialogue," Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last week.

The White House official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk more freely, said the administration's concern is one of separation of powers and not policy toward Russia. The official said the White House expects to see previous officials from Democratic administrations voicing the same concern as the debate plays out in the House.

For Trump, however, the issue is politically fraught because his relationship with Russia and whether Moscow interfered in the 2016 presidential election have become central themes of his presidency and is the subject of investigations by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III and congressional committees. The sanctions bill was passed by the Senate in response to Russia's continued involvement in the wars in Ukraine and Syria and for its alleged meddling in the election.

The president continues to express anger and annoyance at the focus on Russia's role in the election even as his public comments on the matter, such as calling it "all big Dem HOAX!" in a series of tweets earlier this week, have kept the issue in the news.

White House aides this week said the president isn't denying Russia tried to meddle in the election.

"I think he's made it clear and been consistent that while everyone agrees the result of the election wasn't influenced, he think that it probably was Russia," deputy press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Thursday.

House aides said Thursday a solution was being crafted in coordination with the Senate to address the constitutional issue, which dealt with possible revenue from fines that could be levied under the bill.

"Absent Senate action to return the bill and cure the Origination Clause issue, the House will act to preserve its Constitutional rights and 'blue slip' the Senate-passed bill," a Ways and Means Committee aide said, using Capitol Hill lingo for the constitutional objection.

Senate leaders have not said whether they will accept the House's proposed fix, and House leaders have not committed to schedule the bill for a floor vote. But if senators sign off on the proposed changes - which one House GOP aide described as "technical, not substantive" - the bill could be on the floor in July. While the four House committees with jurisdiction over sanctions have not committed to whether they will formally review the legislation a course of action, at least some, including the Foreign Affairs Committee, are expected to waive their right to hold hearings to expedite its passage.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward R. Royce, R-Calif., told reporters this week that he was prepared to move the bill. "One way or the other, we have to do it very quickly," he said Wednesday, according to the Hill.

If the House takes up the measure, it could set up a veto fight with the White House that Congress is likely to win. A veto-proof majority of senators already voted in favor of the measure. But a showdown between Trump and the Republican-controlled Congress over Russia sanctions would be politically problematic for the party.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., told reporters Thursday that he personally supports the new sanctions and that Royce is "very eager to move this bill."

"So we want to get this bill cleaned up. We need Foreign Affairs to do their scrub of this legislation, which is what we do every time a bill comes over from the Senate," he said. "But Chairman Royce has indicated he wants to get moving on this quickly, and we want to honor that."

Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.

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White House will step up lobbying against Iran, Russia sanctions bill now stalled in Congress - Chicago Tribune

A profound disappointment. The reform-oriented and recently re-elected president, Hassan Rouhani, has capitulated. A member of the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution, it was he after all who approved the decision not to implement the UNESCO education agenda in Iran.

Many Iranians tweeted comments such as: "Rouhani said: I will forgo many things, but not the Education 2030 agenda. Today, as chairman of the Council of the Cultural Revolution, he definitively scrapped the agenda's action plan."

The global Education 2030 agenda was approved by ministers from all over the world in 2015. The Iranian government, led by President Rouhani, also signed on. Signatories committed themselves to - among other things - guaranteeing access to education for all people, irrespective of age, sex and religion. The Education Agenda is one of the UN's 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

For Iran's most senior political and religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, this is tantamount to a conspiracy. "What was conceived as sustainable development is merely a plan to spread Western values and culture throughout the world," Khamenei declared abruptly last spring, shortly before the presidential election. He sharply criticized Rouhani for his cooperation with UNESCO. Iran would "not bow" to the UNESCO education agenda, said Khamenei. Rouhani responded that the religious leader had been wrongly informed - the agenda would be adapted to the Islamic culture of Iranian society.

This was the start of a battle between the government and the conservative opposition for and against the UNESCO education agenda, which has ended with the aforementioned defeat for Rouhani. Khamenei, who has the last word on everything in Iran, declared tersely, "We ourselves know best what's good for us!'

Angry Iranians gave free rein to their sarcasm on social media. "The religious leader doesn't like the Education 2030 agenda because it was written in the West. What he's happy to take from the West are ballistic missiles, nuclear energy and cranes for public executions," tweeted one user.

Baha'i banned from studying

For many Iranians, the rejection of the education agenda has tangible consequences. "Our children are not allowed to study. Since the Islamic Revolution in Iran this has been forbidden to all adherents of the Baha'i religion," said Simin Fahandej in an interview with DW. Fahandej is the spokesperson for the international Baha'i community at the UN in Geneva. The Baha'i are one of the biggest religious minorities in Iran. There are no official statistics, but Iranian media estimates that there are between 40,000 and 300,000 Baha'i in the country.

Other religious minorities, such as Zoroastrians, Mandaeans, Jews and Christians, who make up 2 percent of the country's 80 million people, are protected in Iran. However, the Iranian government does not recognize Bahaism as a religion, because its founder, Baha'u'llah, lived after the Prophet Muhammad, whom Muslims believe was the last of the prophets. The Islamic Republic regards Baha'u'llah's followers as apostates, and subjects them to numerous forms of repression.

Unlike the Baha'i people, religious minorities like Jews and Christians are protected in Iran

After the Iranian government rejected the action framework of the Education Agenda, activists posted photos online of Baha'i people who were executed in 1983 on account of their faith. One of the photos shows 17-year-old Mona Mahmudnizhad. She taught children who had had to leave school because they were Baha'i. For this, she was condemned to death.

"In 1993 a secret Iranian government memorandum found its way into the public domain. It said that the Baha'i should be kept illiterate and uneducated. The Iranian authorities don't want to change that," said Fahandej.

Discussion of women's rights is banned

Women are also discriminated against in matters of education. The UNESCO agenda's demand that they be granted equal rights also provoked fierce debate in Iran. The UNESCO Education 2030 Agenda aims to achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls, and the regime hardliners don't like that one bit.

"As soon as people start talking about women and their rights, all conversations and any kind of cooperation are over," Farideh, a women's rights activist, told DW. "The rulers see any kind of discussion about women's rights as an attack on their culture."

Women are barred from majoring in numerous subjects at Iranian universities

Farideh is one of the activists who started an initiative for women to have equal status under Iranian law - the "One Million Signatures Campaign for Women's Rights." Many of her associates, like the human rights activist and journalist Narges Mohammadi, are now in jail. Many of them also supported President Rouhani in the election, because he promised equal rights for women. He frequently spoke out against segregation of the sexes in universities, giving rise to hope that he would put an end to gender-specific education. Iranian women students are currently excluded from majoring in 77 subjects, such as accountancy and engineering.

"There could be many advantages for us in working with UNESCO," said Farideh. "We don't have to implement every item; the Iranian government isn't obliged to do this, anyway. But we could have greatly improved our education system through this international exchange."

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Education for all? Not in Iran - Deutsche Welle

Irans atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi, who helped forge the 2015 nuclear agreement, warned the United States on June 23 against upsetting the balance of power in the Middle East by siding with arch-rival Saudi Arabia.

Writing in the Guardian newspaper, Salehi said Tehran views a lavish" deal U.S. President Donald Trump's administration recently announced to sell Saudi Arabia $110 billion in weapons as "provocative."

"This is especially the case if the national defense efforts of Iran...are simultaneously opposed and undermined," he said, alluding to steps the Trump administration has taken to increase U.S. sanctions on Iran for developing ballistic missiles even as it has ramped up arms sales to Riyadh and its allies.

"It would be unrealistic to expect Iran to remain indifferent to the destabilizing impact of such conduct," said Salehi, an MIT graduate who has also served as Iran's foreign minister and was a senior negotiator on the nuclear deal.

Salehi stressed that Washington's strong tilt toward Tehran's rivals in the Middle East not only risks setting off a regional arms race and "further tension and conflict" in the region, but it imperils the "hard-won" nuclear deal, which took two years to negotiate.

If the nuclear deal is to survive, he said the West must change course. "The moment of truth has arrived."

Trump, who visited Saudi Arabia on his first trip as president earlier this month, seems largely unconcerned that his showy support for the kingdom threatens to blow up the nuclear accord or set off a renewed arms race in the Middle East. He has openly shown disdain both for Iran's leaders and the nuclear deal.

Trump and the Saudis frequently blame Iran for wars ranging from Yemen to Syria, as well as for restive minority Shi'ite populations within the borders of the kingdom and other Persian Gulf states ruled by Sunni Muslims.

The Saudis, like Trump, were strongly opposed to the nuclear deal. But while Trump has promised to dismantle the disastrous deal, he has not so far taken any concrete steps to do so.

His administration has indicated it will adhere to the deal, which requires Iran to curb its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions, as long as Tehran continues to do so.

But Salehi's article in the Guardian suggested that Iran's so far strict honoring of the deal may come into doubt in the future if the United States continues to disregard Irans "genuine security concerns" and "stokes Iranophobia" in the region.

Salehi urged the United States and its Western partners to "save" the nuclear deal with "reciprocal gestures" showing a commitment to engagement with Iran.

Iranian voters recently showed their preference for engagement with the West by re-electing President Hassan Rohani with his pro-Western platform, but engagement is simply not a one-way street and we cannot go it alone," Salehi said.

"Unfortunately, as things stand at the moment in the region, reaching a new state of equilibrium might simply be beyond reach for the foreseeable future, he said.

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Iran's Nuclear Chief Warns US Against Tilting Power Balance In Middle East - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

ISIS, through its news agency, said US warplanes were responsible for the loss late Wednesday of the Great Mosque of al-Nuri and its leaning minaret. US officials told CNN the ISIS claim was "1,000% false."

Iraq Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said the ISIS act amounts to "an official announcement of their defeat." His military commanders said militants blew the mosque up after troops closed in.

The destruction could amount to a war crime, according to the UN Human Rights Council.

"Such intentional destruction is an attack on the religious and cultural heritage of the Iraqi people -- and the whole world," the UN said Friday. "International humanitarian law clearly prohibits such acts, and perpetrators who target these objects while being aware of their religious and historical character may be held accountable for war crimes."

It's difficult to overstate the symbolic importance of the Old City mosque, whose landmark minaret rose over the city for more than 800 years.

Baghdadi's declaration effectively broke down borders between Syria and Iraq, creating a magnet for foreign fighters wanting to join ISIS' cause. For years, the militant group's black and white flag fluttered from the minaret, a symbol of ISIS' control.

But in recent months western Mosul has witnessed fierce fighting between ISIS militants and coalition forces who are determined to liberate what was the country's second-largest city.

The Islamic complex has been very much on the mind of the Iraqi forces, who believed taking control of the mosque would be a highly symbolic victory. Federal police earlier this year said they looked forward to praying in al-Nuri -- but the resistance continued.

Now the centuries-old mosque complex lies largely in ruins.

Several US officials have told CNN in recent days that US and coalition officials had been observing the mosque in recent days and saw fighters and explosives at the site. The Iraqi military said "ISIS terrorist gangs" blew up the mosque as Iraqi forces were approaching.

The UN children's agency, Unicef, said Thursday that children in west Mosul "are being deliberately targeted and killed to punish families and deter them from fleeing the violence." In less than two months, at least 23 children have been killed and 123 injured in just that part of the city, it said.

About 100,000 civilians remain in the complex battlefield.

Lt. Gen. Abdul Ghani al-Assadi, commander of Iraqi counterterrorism, said Wednesday that he was shocked by the destruction of the mosque but it was not the first time ISIS had targeted Iraq's cultural heritage.

"ISIS had prepared to blow it up, they were only waiting to see how far our forces can reach," he said. "We are no more going to drive them out of the Old City, we are going to kill all of them in the coming days."

American military officials deplored the destruction of the mosque.

"As our Iraqi Security Force partners closed in on the al-Nuri mosque, ISIS destroyed one of Mosul and Iraq's great treasures," said US Maj. Gen. Joseph Martin.

Lt. Gen. Stephen Townsend, the top US commander in the fight against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, said: "I was just in Mosul Wednesday afternoon and close enough to see the mosque and its famous leaning minaret. Little did I know it was for the last time. This is just another example that ISIS is a cruel, heartless and godless ideology that cannot be permitted to exist in this world."

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Iraq, Jan Kubis, said Thursday that ISIS fighters' destruction of the mosque was a "barbaric act" which "shows their desperation and signals their end."

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation's Director-General, Irina Bokova, tweeted that the loss of the mosque was "a cultural (and) human tragedy," adding: "We must protect heritage to protect people."

Bokova also issued a statement deploring the destruction of the ancient structure. "The Al Hadba Minaret and Al Nuree Mosque in Mosul were among the most iconic sites in the city, and stood as a symbol of identity, resilience and belonging.

"When Daesh targeted the mosque and minaret a few month ago, the people of Mosul formed a human chain to protect the site, proving once again that the protection of heritage cannot be delinked from the protection of human lives," she said.

"This new destruction deepens the wounds of a society already affected by an unprecedented humanitarian tragedy, with 3 million internally displaced persons and 6,2 million in need of immediate humanitarian assistance. This calls for immediate and strengthened international mobilization."

Fighters also destroyed Iraq's ancient Assyrian city of Nimrud in March 2015.

Earlier that year, militants shoved stone statues off pedestals in the Mosul Museum and took sledgehammers to them and other artifacts. In July 2014, extremists in Mosul also destroyed what was believed to be the tomb of Jonah, a key figure in Christianity, Judaism and Islam.

Iraq's Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities said in 2015 that it had received reports the ancient Assyrian capital of Khorsabad had been destroyed.

CNN's Arwa Damon, Ryan Browne, Nick Paton Walsh, Paul LeBlanc, Jennifer Deaton and Salma Abdelaziz contributed to this report.

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US, Iraq say ISIS blew up famous Mosul mosque - CNN.com

WASHINGTON In a highly unusual intervention, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to remove Iraq and Myanmar from a U.S. list of the world's worst offenders in the use of child soldiers, disregarding the recommendations of State Department experts and senior U.S. diplomats, U.S. officials said.

The decision, confirmed by three U.S. officials, would break with longstanding protocol at the State Department over how to identify offending countries and could prompt accusations the Trump administration is prioritizing security and diplomatic interests ahead of human rights.

Tillerson overruled his own staffs assessments on the use of child soldiers in both countries and rejected the recommendation of senior diplomats in Asia and the Middle East who wanted to keep Iraq and Myanmar on the list, said the officials, who have knowledge of the internal deliberations.

Tillerson also rejected an internal State Department proposal to add Afghanistan to the list, the three U.S. officials said.

One official said the decisions appeared to have been made following pressure from the Pentagon to avoid complicating assistance to the Iraqi and Afghan militaries, close U.S. allies in the fight against Islamist militants. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.

Foreign militaries on the list can face sanctions including a prohibition on receiving U.S. military aid, training and U.S.-made weapons unless the White House issues a waiver.

Human rights officials expressed surprise at the delisting, which was expected to be announced on Tuesday, the officials said, as part of the State Department's annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report.

A State Department official said the TIP report's contents were being kept under wraps until its release and the department "does not discuss details of internal deliberations."

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Under the Child Soldiers Prevention Act of 2008, the U.S. government must be satisfied that "no children are recruited, conscripted or otherwise compelled to serve as child soldiers" in order for a country to be removed from the list and U.S. military assistance to resume.

In the lead-up to Tuesday's report, the State Department's Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, which researches the issue and helps shape U.S. policy on it, along with its legal office and diplomatic bureaus in Asia and the Middle East concluded that the evidence merited keeping both countries on the list, the officials said.

Officials said that although the report had been finalized there was always the possibility of last-minute changes.

BETRAYING CHILDREN

Human Rights Watch said removing Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, from the list would be a "completely premature and disastrous action that will effectively betray more children to continued servitude and rights abuses."

The decision also would put the Trump administration at odds with the United Nations, which continues to list the Myanmar military, along with seven ethnic armed groups, on its list of entities using and recruiting child soldiers.

"What's particularly astonishing is this move ignores that the U.N. in Burma says that it is still receiving new cases of children being recruited" by the Myanmar military, said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Rights groups have long accused Myanmar of using child soldiers. Bordering both China and India, Myanmar is also of growing strategic importance to the United States at a time of increasing encroachment in the region by China, which has sought closer relations with its neighbor.

Iraq, which has received more than $2 billion in U.S. arms and training over the last three years, was added to the State Departments "Child Soldier Prevention Act List"in 2016. However, the flow of U.S. assistance has continued.

Former President Barack Obama handed out full or partial waivers regularly, including last year to Iraq, Myanmar, Nigeria, South Sudan and others out of 10 countries on the list.

Last year's State Department report said some militias of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), an umbrella group of mostly Shi'ite Muslim factions with ties to the Iraqi government and backed by Iran, "recruited and used child soldiers."

The report said that despite the PMF being funded by the government, Baghdad struggled to control all of its factions.

"The government did not hold anyone accountable for child recruitment and use by the PMF and PMF-affiliated militias."

Human Rights Watch said in January that it had learned that militias had been recruiting child soldiers from one Iraqi refugee camp since last spring.

The broader TIP report, the first of Trump's presidency, is sure to be closely scrutinized for further signs that under his "America First" approach there will be little pressure brought to bear on friendly governments, especially strategically important ones, for human rights violations at home.

The Obama administration, while more vocal about political repression around the world, also faced criticism from human rights groups and some U.S. lawmakers that decisions on annual human trafficking rankings had become increasingly politicized.

(Additional reporting by Antoni Slodkowski in Yangon and Phil Stewart in Washington; Editing by Grant McCool and Leslie Adler)

CARACAS A man describing himself as a former boss and friend of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro on Friday urged an investigation into the killing of his son in anti-government unrest convulsing the OPEC nation for nearly three months.

DUBAI Saudi security forces on Friday foiled a suicide attack on the Grand Mosque in the Muslim holy city of Mecca, cornering the would-be attacker in an apartment, where he blew himself up, the Interior Ministry said.

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Exclusive: US list to drop Iraq, Myanmar as worst offenders on child soldiers - Reuters