WASHINGTON President Obama continued selling the idea of an Iran

nuclear agreement to a key Arab ally on Monday, the crown prince of

the United Arab Emirates.
Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and Saudi
Arabia as well as the UAE have expressed concern about the Iran deal and are
scheduled to meet with Obama as a group next month.
Obama and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan of the UAE also planned
to discuss efforts to defeat the Islamic State, "our cooperation with respect to Yemen;
and how best to resolve the conflicts in Libya and Syria," said the White House
schedule.
The president did not comment during a brief pool spray Monday.
Some Arab nations have expressed varying concerns about a proposed agreement in
which the United States and its allies would reduce economic sanctions on Iran if it
gives up the means to make nuclear weapons.

Critics, including some U.S. lawmakers, say Iran would not live up to such
an agreement and have protested Iranian adventurism in other countries,
including Syria and Yemen.
Obama said the proposed deal would block Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon while
avoiding a military confrontation. Negotiators are working on the precise details of the
agreement and face a June 30 deadline.
A May 13 meeting between Obama and the Gulf Cooperation Council will be held at
the White House; a May 14 session is at Camp David, Md.

Iranian authorities have charged Washington Postreporter Jason Rezaian with espionage and
three other serious crimes, the newspaper reported.
Although Iran's Revolutionary Court, which will try the case, hasn't officially revealed the charges,
Rezaian, who's been held in an Iranian jail since last July, is accused of collecting classified
information, "collaborating with hostile governments," including writing to President Obama, and
"propaganda against the establishment," the paper said, citing his lawyer in Tehran, Leila Ahsan.
An indictment also accuses Rezaian of allegedly gathering information "about internal and foreign
policy" and providing it to "individuals with hostile intent," the report said.
Rezaian was informed of his charges after Ahsan visited him on Monday for 90 minutes, his first
consultation with a lawyer since the arrest on July 22, the report said.
"It is absurd and despicable to assert, as Iran's judiciary is now claiming, that Jason's work first as
a freelance reporter and then as the Post's Tehran correspondent amounted to espionage or
otherwise posed any threat to Iranian national security,"Martin Baron, the Post's executive editor,
said in a statement.
The California native, who is held in the notorious Evin Prison in Tehran, has been in an Iranian
jail longer than any other Western journalist. His Iranian wife and journalist, Yeganeh Salehi, and
the others detained with him have been released.

The FBI has arrested six men in Minnesota and San Diego described as friends who conspired to join
the Islamic State in Syria "by any means necessary." The U.S. attorney said the suspects are part of
a larger terror recruitment network in Minnesota. VPC
E

Six men have been arrested on terrorism charges in two states, accused in
elaborate attempts to travel toSyria and join the ranks of the Islamic State,
also known as ISIS or ISIL, federal authorities said Monday.
The charges were announced by Minnesota U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger, who said the
group sought to join the terrorist organization for the past 10 months "by any means
possible.''
Zacharia Yusuf Abdurahman, Adnan Farah and Hanad Mustafe Musse, all 19, and
Guled Ali Omar, 20, were arrested in Minneapolis Sunday. Abdirahman Yasin Daud
and Mohamed Abdihamid Farah, both 21, were arrested Sunday in California after
driving from Minneapolis to San Diego.
The arrests follow a string of recent ISIL-related cases, charging men and women
throughout the country with various attempts to join the group or carry out attacks in
the name of the terror organization.
At least nine Minnesotans have now been charged in connection with a conspiracy to
provide material support to ISIL, the Justice Department said. And since 2007, about
two dozen Somali men have traveled from Minnesota to Somalia to join the terror
group al-Shabab.
"To be clear, we have a terror recruiting problem in Minnesota,'' Luger said.
Luger described a difficult-to-penetrate "peer to peer, brother to brother'' recruiting
effort in the city where there is a large Somali community.
Although most of the terror suspects have been stopped during various stages in their
attempts to reach Syria, Luger said the group charged Monday has been receiving
encouragement from Abdi Nur, an associate who left Minnesota last May and is
believed to be in Syria with the terror group.
Nur boarded a May 29 flight bound for Turkey, a well-traveled gateway to Syria, and
has not returned to the United States. He called a relative June 6 from a telephone
number bearing the country code for Turkey, "90". Nur told the relative that he had
reached his destination and that he would not be calling again. This same telephone
number was used three weeks later by another man who traveled from the Minneapolis
area to join ISIS.
Luger said that since Nur's arrival in Syria, he has been serving as the chief "foreign
fighter recruiter'' for associates in Minneapolis.
But the federal prosecutor said the radicalization effort in Minneapolis is even more
deeply embedded. He warned residents Monday that those directing the radicalization
of young residents there "may be their best friends.''