Iran

The U.S. is prepared to take “preemptive” military action to prevent future attacks on U.S. forces, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Thursday.

At the direction of the President, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization. General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members …

Major General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), have been killed in US airstrikes in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

Iran is pursuing a variety of methods in an effort to preserve its influence in Iraq and Lebanon in the face of protests against existing power structures.

“We have the right to question any vessels entering the Straits of Hormuz and Iranian territorial waters,” naval commander Admiral Alireza Tangsiri said.

Top officials in Beirut reacted with outrage on Tuesday after comments by an adviser to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, threatening to attack Israel from Lebanese territory.

Russia, Turkey and Iran are concerned about the increased presence of terrorist groups in Syria’s Idlib province, the three countries said after talks in Kazakhstan, pledging to coordinate actions aimed at eliminating the militants.

There is fresh intelligence of a potential Iranian threat against US forces and interests in the Middle East, according to several US defense and administration officials.

U.S. officials confirmed to Fox News on Wednesday that a U.S. Navy warship has intercepted a “significant cache” of what is thought to be missile parts from Iran headed to rebels in Yemen.

A Russian state company suspended a research project with Iran because of its decision to resume enriching uranium, a move a senior official said Thursday was necessary after the U.S. canceled a waiver to allow the joint venture.