President Barack Obama has selected former Pentagon official Ashton Carter to serve as his next Secretary of Defense, according to reports. Carter, who served as Deputy Secretary of Defense—the Pentagon’s second-highest position—from 2011-2013 and as Assistant Secretary of Defense under Bill Clinton, is perceived to be particularly strong on nuclear non-proliferation issues, which may have implications...

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Iran’s Arab minority has recently begun to intensify its protests against government discrimination, The Tower has learned from Iranian opposition media sites and organizations. The Ahwazi Arab minority living in Iran’s oil-rich southwest region is protesting pervasive unemployment, lack of basic urban services, severe shortage of appropriate infrastructure- including basic...

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The American cyber security firm Cylance released a report detailing massive Iranian hacking attacks, according to Reuters today. Aerospace firms, airports and airlines, universities, energy firms, hospitals, and telecommunications operators based in the United States, Israel, China, Saudi Arabia, India, Germany, France, England have been hit by the campaign, the research...

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Foreign investors from more than half a dozen major automobile corporations flocked to Tehran this week to participate in the country’s auto show, driving concerns that the Iranian economy is steadily recovering amid a de-escalation in sanctions pressure on the Islamic republic. Experts have for more than a year warned...

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Dropping oil prices are taking a toll on Iran’s economy. Last week many Iranians rushed to sell their local currency holdings out of fear for their savings, the Al-Arab newspaper (Arabic link) reported on Tuesday. This prompted a loss of more than 10% of the rial’s value in one week....

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The Shiite support to the Houthi rebels in Yemen is continuing. The Saudi newspaper “Okaz” reported  (Arabic link) that senior military personnel from the Lebanese Hezbollah militia recently arrived in Yemen in order to help the rebels in their attempt to take over the country. Local tribal sources told the...

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Armed, trained and funded by Iran, the Shi’ite terrorist organization Hezbollah has modified some of the tactics that characterized its fight against Israel in its recent clashes with Syrian opposition groups, The Tower has learned from review of Arab media reports. Changes include a repositioning and fortification of bases, increased...

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Last weekend Bahrain concluded a successful first round of parliamentary and municipal elections with a high voter turnout, despite attempts by Iranian-backed Shi’ite movements to disrupt the polling. These were the first elections in Bahrain since a failed protest against the monarchy in 2011. Some Shi’ite movements called for a...

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While Iran already possesses the necessary materials for a nuclear bomb, any additional concessions would make the regime “a virtual nuclear power,”  which is why allowing negotiations to expire with “no significant change” in Iran’s demands is better than concluding a bad deal, José María Aznar, the former premier of Spain...

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The Obama administration’s former special adviser on Iran, Dennis Ross, said Tuesday that the United States backed down on key demands in its nuclear negotiations with the regime, according to a report in The Times of Israel. A day after nuclear talks with Iran were extended until July 2015 after...

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