Narges Mohammadi, a leading Iranian human rights activist, was arrested on Tuesday. The arrest comes after Iran’s foreign minister and lead nuclear negotiator, Mohammad Javad Zarif, said that “the Islamic Republic doesn’t imprison journalists or dissidents over their views” last week. The New York Times reported: Ms. Mohammadi is one of the...

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Sunni Gulf states are seeking security assurances and weapons from the United States in return for their support of any future deal made with Iran over its nuclear program, increasing instability in a region that is already combustible. Over the weekend, The Wall Street Journal reported that key Gulf states,...

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The seizure of the ship Maersk Tigris by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) last week was a “flagrant breach of international law,” Northwestern University law professor Eugene Kontorovich wrote Sunday in The Washington Post. Iran has claimed that the ship was seized in order to settle a lien against the Maersk shipping line imposed by...

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In a presentation last week at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew failed to convince skeptics of the emerging nuclear deal with Iran that the deal would prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons or discourage its destabilizing behavior in the Middle East, Josh Rogin of Bloomberg Views reported...

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Despite recent reports of battlefield reversals suffered by the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the embattled dictator is still relatively secure, Jonathan Spyer, director of the Rubin Center, wrote in an analysis published Friday in The Jerusalem Post. Spyer argued that two factors—Assad’s ability to consolidate his rule over critical...

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The terrorist organization Hezbollah has begun recruiting children as young as eight to join the Mahdi Scouts, which prepares boys to become armed jihadists when they grow up. The scouts number some 50,000 members ranging in age from 8 to 18 and has branches in areas such as Beirut and south Lebanon, according to the Lebanese newspaper...

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An article (Persian link) published in the influential Persian-language Iranian website Alef claimed that Jews are “human history’s most bloodthirsty people.” The article provided “evidence” based on “historical events” drawn from some of the most infamous blood libels in Europe, which were previously used to justify the mass killings of...

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The Obama administration is attempting to reassure the United States’ Gulf Arab allies, who fear the consequences of a potential nuclear deal with Iran. The New York Times reported Friday that the White House, State Department, and Pentagon have been “scrambling” to find a way to allay the Arab countries’ anxieties...

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In Argentina, the fallout from the probable murder of Special Investigator Alberto Nisman is rapidly turning into an ugly round of “accuse the Jews.” That turn of events was perhaps inevitable, given last week’s epic Twitter rant by Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner depicting Nisman as the local representative...

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Rep. Dan Kildee (D – Mich.) introduced a bipartisan Congressional resolution Thursday calling on Iran to “release all detained Americans immediately,” The New York Times reported. Characterizing the resolution as the product of legislative anger at Iran, the Times reported: The latest evidence of indignation was seen on Thursday when...

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