Last week’s DOJ dragnet included Shiite religious websites, even ones at odds with Tehran’s regime. There is no love lost between Ayatollah Sadiq Shirazi and the Iranian government. In 2018, authorities arrested the dissident cleric’s son for calling Iran’s supreme leader a tyrannical pharaoh. Soon after, Shirazi’s followers stormed the …
Read More »Raisi’s election brings rise of Iran’s Hezbollahis
The election of Ebrahim Raisi as president of Iran reflects a more revolutionary turn under the direction of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Nothing came unexpectedly in the Iranian presidential race. While Ebrahim Raisi’s election was a done deal, the only questions were about the size of voter turnout …
Read More »Iran’s hard-liners may face power struggle despite Raisi win
Incoming Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi is widely discussed as Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s successor, but there may be rumblings of a power struggle in the conservative camp. Two days after the Iranian presidential election June 20, Vahid Haqqanian, a senior official in the supreme leader’s office, provided his analysis of …
Read More »US airstrikes hit Iran-backed militia after drone attacks in Iraq
CENTCOM is trying to deter militia attacks without starting a war. The United States launched airstrikes against targets in Iraq and Syria before dawn on Monday, in response to a series of drone attacks on facilities used by American personnel in Iraq, the Pentagon said. The three targeted sites — …
Read More »Six takeaways from Iran nuke negotiations – analysis
Issues include the use of ballistic missiles, the Islamic Republic’s destabilization of the Middle East and potentially extending nuclear limitations beyond 2030. Some major events have happened in the last week of the nuclear talks’ standoff between Iran, the US and other world powers, which give some additional insights into …
Read More »Pompeo to ‘Post’: Iran unwound nuclear deal in a matter of months
The Mossad-CIA story in the Mike Pompeo, Yossi Cohen era It would be foolish for the Biden administration to return to the Iran nuclear deal when it can see the Islamic Republic was able to unwind from the nuclear limitations in a mere matter of months, former US secretary of …
Read More »Iran’s Next President
The regime’s efforts to ensure the election of a president closely allied with Iran’s Supreme Leader succeeded with the victory of Ibrahim Raisi in Friday’s vote. The low voter turnout indicates widespread resentment at the regime’s narrowing of the candidate field to favor Raisi, foreshadowing potential future unrest. As president, …
Read More »Iran Ignores Demands by IAEA for Monitoring Extension
Iran has refused to engage with the United Nations’ watchdog tasked with monitoring its nuclear facilities, after an interim pact between the two that temporarily extended oversight over Iran’s activities following the Iranian parliament’s ending of a previous agreement, expired over the weekend. The International Atomic Energy Agency on Friday …
Read More »Iran president-elect takes hard line, refuses to meet Biden
Iran’s president-elect staked out a hard-line position Monday in his first remarks since his landslide election victory, rejecting the possibility of meeting with President Joe Biden or negotiating Tehran’s ballistic missile program and support of regional militias. The comments by Ebrahim Raisi offered a blunt preview of how Iran might …
Read More »Bennett appears to hint at Israeli involvement in attack on Iran nuclear site
In one of his first speeches as PM, leader says that while Israel will defend itself, it will also work with allies to block an Iranian bomb, breaking from Netanyahu’s policy Prime Minister Naftali Bennett appeared to hint at Israel’s role in a recent attack on an Iranian nuclear site …
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