ISIS’s conquest on Sunday of the Iraqi city of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, was the result of choices made by the Iraqi government interested in preserving Shiite political power and maintaining ties with Iran, Jacob Siegel and Michael Pregent wrote today in The Daily Beast. “Ramadi is predominantly Sunni, and...

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In order to ensure that the emerging nuclear deal will effectively prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the United States must insist on implementing eight principles to “achieve a sound, enforceable deal,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R – S.C) wrote in an op-ed (Google link) in The Wall Street Journal today. Graham...

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Noting that “Iran’s security apparatus has tightened around domestic opposition in a sign of the regime’s growing self-confidence,” Abdulrahman Al-Rashed, former general manager of the Saudi TV network Al Arabiya, argued in a column Thursday in A Sharq Al Awsat that a nuclear agreement with the West will strengthen Iran’s hardliners, During the...

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The Czech Republic stopped Iran from making a major purchase of equipment that could be used in its nuclear program, Reuters reported Wednesday. Some details of the attempted purchase were described in the latest annual report of an expert panel for the United Nations Security Council’s Iran sanctions committee, which has...

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As President Barack Obama is making his case for a nuclear deal with Iran, a former Saudi intelligence chief, Prince Turki bin Faisal, is arguing that the deal will have the opposite effect of what the president intends by “open[ing] the door” to nuclear proliferation, The New York Times reported today. “Whatever...

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Five Iranian naval vessels fired on a Singapore-flagged cargo ship sailing through the Straits of Hormuz CNN reported today, citing a U.S. official. It is not yet clear if any of the rounds hit the Alpine Eternity. There were no U.S. citizens or cargo on board. The Pentagon is still gathering...

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Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, Vitaly Churkin, said that Moscow would not support the automatic snapping back of sanctions, mentioned by the Obama administration as a central enforcement mechanism of the emerging nuclear deal with Iran to counter possible violations, Bloomberg News reported today. “There can be no automaticity,...

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The former American ambassador to Syria said that last week’s discovery of traces of chemical weapons in that country shows that the regime of President Bashar al-Assad is in violation of the Russian-sponsored agreement, and a related United Nations Security Council Resolution, to rid Syria of chemical weapons, Josh Rogin reported today...

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The number of demonstrations protesting the state of the Iranian economy doubled in the last month, even as the Islamic Republic continues its massive spending on military and nuclear infrastructure. For the first time since the Green Revolution, the 2009 democratic protests that were violently crushed, opposition activists are now...

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An Iranian general threatened that any attempt to blockade a ship headed to Yemen “will spark war,” The Times of Israel reported today. Iran claims that the ship, the Shahed, is headed to Yemen to provide what humanitarian aid. Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier-General Massoud Jazzayeri warned that any attack on...

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