U.S. lawmakers had already reacted poorly to the “antagonistic” speech given by Iranian president Hassan Rouhani at the United Nations General Assembly last week. Then the office of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei literally published an infographic explaining that Khamenei’s recent and celebrated speech promoting “heroic flexibility” meant among other things...

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke this afternoon to the United Nations General Assembly, questioning the assurances being voiced in some corners of the foreign policy community that newly inaugurated Iranian president Hassan Rouhani was willing or able to alter what is widely believed to be an Iranian drive to...

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Israeli officials over the weekend released details regarding the arrest of an Iranian-Belgian citizen accused of conducting extensive espionage against Israeli and American targets inside the Jewish state, deepening concerns regarding the scope of Iranian terror networks and the sophistication of Iranian tradecraft. Ali Mansouri, in his mid-50s, was arrested...

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The New York Times reports that Western sanctions against Iran have put the country on the brink of economic collapse, with restrictions on financial transactions in particular having created severe hard currency shortages. Businesspeople in Iran have seen this coming and have been adapting, said one economic analyst, who asked...

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Details are beginning to emerge about what the U.S. would minimally demand from Iran in the context of a deal over the country’s nuclear program. National Security Adviser Susan Rice explained on Sunday that Iran would, for example, not be permitted to continue enriching uranium under any potential deal with...

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The Wall Street Journal declared last Friday that it would “be happy to accept” an apology from CNN, after the cable network’s Christiane Amanpour declared on Twitter that the Journal had “jump[ed] into bed” with the “Iranian extremist mouthpiece” Fars news agency. Both the Journal and Fars criticized CNN for...

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Israel’s left-leaning Ha’aretz describes a “sense of anxiety,” being conveyed to the White House by Jerusalem and by the U.S.’s chief allies in the Arab world, regarding American diplomacy related to Iran and the Iranian regime’s nuclear program. Adel al-Jubeir – who is Saudi Arabia’s ambassador in Washington and who was...

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The Wall Street Journal revealed late last week that Iran has been hacking U.S. Navy computers in recent weeks. The allegations, coming as the Obama administration ramps up talks with Iran over its nuclear program, show the depth and complexity of long-standing tensions between Washington and Tehran. The U.S. officials said...

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Weekend violence and political developments inside Lebanon again have observers focusing on the role played by Hezbollah and its Iranian patrons in undermining the country’s stability. Debates over the degree to which the West should target Hezbollah have sometimes turned on claims that, in fact, the Iran-backed terror group is...

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Newly inaugurated Iranian president Hassan Rouhani came in for criticism last August when he nominated Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, who then headed Iran’s General Inspectorate Organization, to be his administration’s justice minister. Human rights groups had previously dubbed Pour-Mohammadi “minister of murder” for his key role in the 1988 executions of thousands...

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