The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, despite a series of setbacks and defeats on the battlefield, has “moved aggressively to prevent regime collapse” with backing from foreign troops and Iranian financial support, according to an analysis written by Phillip Smyth yesterday in Foreign Policy. Smyth noted that many Iraqi Shiite fighters...

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There is a third option beyond a bad nuclear deal or war with Iran, Yishai Schwartz argued in a post Tuesday for the Brookings Institution’s Lawfare blog. Schwartz acknowledged the weaknesses in the emerging deal—the sunset provision allowing Iran an unconstrained nuclear program in ten years, the unlikelihood of being able to...

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Pushing back against recent statements insisting that Iran be required to make its military sites available to nuclear inspectors, Iranian foreign minister and lead nuclear negotiator Mohammad Javad Zarif said that a nuclear deal between the West and Iran was possible in a “reasonable period of time,” if the West doesn’t...

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Speaking at a conference on Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon argued that Iran has no interest in securing a stable Iraq, The Times of Israel reported. “He who did not allow stability in Iraq since 2003 is Iran,” Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said at the Fisher Institute for Air...

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French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that any nuclear deal with Iran must allow for inspections of all sites, “including military sites,” that inspectors suspect may be used or have been used for nuclear purposes, The Hill reported today. “France will not accept (a deal) if it is not clear that...

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Yukiya Amano, director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog, said that inspection of military sites would be an essential part of any nuclear with Iran to ensure that the Islamic Republic cannot develop nuclear weapons, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported today. In an interview with AFP and...

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Ambassadors from European countries engaged in nuclear negotiations with Iran said that they will likely miss their June 30 deadline, while the sanctions regime that forced Iran to negotiate continues to erode, The Times of Israel reported Tuesday. Gerard Araud, the French ambassador to the United States, told a panel...

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The espionage trial of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian began today in Tehran, with the prosecution citing a letter Rezaian sent to the White House promoting closer ties between Iran and the United States as evidence, The New York Times reported today. Jason Rezaian, the Washington Post correspondent accused by...

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A Hezbollah-allied newspaper, As-Safir, recently published a series reports on the massive infrastructure, including a network of tunnels, that the Iranian-backed terrorist organization has been building on Lebanon’s border with Israel, The Times of Israel reported Saturday. According to the Times, Hezbollah is “painting a picture of a military force highly prepared for...

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Iranian-backed Iraqi militias have claimed that they will lead the Iraqi campaign to free the recently captured Sunni-majority city of Ramadi from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Reuters reported today. The announcement raised fears that such a move will exacerbate sectarian strife even further. Iraq’s Shi’ite militia announced on Tuesday...

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