Iran on Sunday paraded through Tehran dozens of advanced missiles with ranges of up to 2,000km. Iranian media made clear what the take-away was supposed to be: The naval chief of the elite Revolutionary Guards was meanwhile quoted as saying that Iran has the capability to strike US warships in...

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Top officials from Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) warned Iranian diplomats over the weekend that they were courting danger by diplomatically engaging the United States. A statement issued by the IRGC was not very subtly directed toward “those who favor interaction”: “Historical experiences make it necessary for the diplomatic...

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Reports are slowly beginning to leak about the speech that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will give next week at the United Nations. In addition to reviewing how the North Koreans strung along the West while developing nuclear weapons, Netanyahu will make specific arguments about Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. Both Iran’s...

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Last month Iranian diplomats who spoke to Al-Monitor floated rumors that Hamas was seeking to reestablish close ties with Tehran, after a period that saw the Palestinian terror group drift toward Sunni extremist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. The Brotherhood’s decline in Egypt had, according to both those diplomats...

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is blaming Israel for – per Iran’s Fars news agency – being the “main cause of regional insecurity” across the Middle East. The recently inaugurated revolutionary-era cleric made the comments in an interview aired Thursday with NBC’s Ann Curry, blasting the Jewish state for bringing “instability...

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Deepening ties between Iran and Pakistan are triggering expressions of concerns – and, in the case of sanctions-busting energy deals, explicit warnings – from U.S. officials. Iranian media reported this week on overtures by Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, which involved emphasizing – according to state-controlled Press TV – “the cultural,...

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Newly inaugurated Iranian president Hassan Rouhani last night refused to answer a direct question from NBC journalist Ann Curry regarding his stance – agree or disagree – on statements made by his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad questioning the historical reality of the Holocaust. Rouhani answered “I’m not a historian, I’m a politician.” The...

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Video footage appearing to show members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) operating on the ground in Syria – training and coordinating with Syrian government troops – have renewed questions regarding the extent to which the Islamic republic is directly involved in fighting the Syrian conflict. Tehran has admitted to training Shiite...

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Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told NBC yesterday that Tehran has “never pursued or sought a nuclear bomb” and declared that that he has been given “complete authority” by Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to negotiate a nuclear deal with the West. Some analysts expressed skepticism regarding these claims. The Washington Post‘s Max Fisher, who described a...

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Iranian media today widely reported – Tehran Times, PressTV, Fars – that what it calls its 27th fleet had docked at Port Sudan along the Red Sea. The fleet includes the helicopter carrier Khark (also spelled Kharg) and frigate Sabalan – both British-built – and had previously visited China. The...

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