The Iraqi parliament recently passed a law allowing Iran-backed Shiite militias to keep their command structure in place, raising concerns among the country’s Sunni leaders, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. “The legislation legally empowers the militias and makes them ultimately answerable to Iraq’s prime minister, but it also allows groups that have...

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Iranian warnings against the passage of the Iran Sanctions Act (ISA) reflect “a broader strategy” in pursuit of additional sanctions relief, Benham Ben Taleblu, a senior analyst at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in a policy brief on Saturday. The ISA was originally passed in 1996, targeting Iran’s energy sector and expanding U.S. secondary...

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Half a million children are living under siege across Syria, with 100,000 trapped by government forces in eastern Aleppo alone, the United Nations Children’s Fund announced on Sunday. The children live in sixteen separate besieged areas across the embattled country, UNICEF said. “For millions of human beings in Syria, life has become an endless...

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Forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad have captured a key section of rebel-held Aleppo with the backing of Russia, Iran, and the terrorist group Hezbollah, the Associated Press reported Monday. Syrian forces now control some 40 percent of the rebel-held eastern portion of the city, while Syrian and allied troops have...

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Huge Wildfires Bring Out Best in Israel’s Friends, Worst in Enemies Wildfires that have threatened large portions of Israel continued to burn but were largely under control by Saturday. The more than 60,000 residents of Haifa, Israel’s third largest city, who had been evacuated from their homes were cleared to return to...

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Iran is threatening to retaliate against sanctions legislation that was overwhelmingly passed by the House of Representatives last week, shortly after the Institute for Science and International Security reported that Iran may be in violation of elements of last year’s nuclear agreement. “So far, the current US government has committed several violations...

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Iran is smuggling weapons to the terrorist group Hezbollah inside commercial flights to Lebanon, the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations has charged in a letter to the UN Security Council. Such actions would violate several Security Council resolutions. Citing reports from Israel’s intelligence agencies, Ambassador Danny Danon wrote that “the Iranian Al-Quds...

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The success of Iran-backed Shiite militias has bolstered the once-faltering Syrian regime and given Tehran increased influence over the outcome of the country’s civil war, The Washington Post reported Sunday. “They are building a force on the ground that, long after the war, will stay there and wield a strong military and...

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Hospitals on the rebel-held eastern side of Aleppo are no longer able to provide medical care for the estimated 250,000 remaining residents after continued damage from bombings by Syrian government forces, The New York Times reported Monday. It is uncertain whether any of the hospitals will be able to reopen,...

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The United Nations’ nuclear agency announced Thursday that for the second time since Iran signed the nuclear deal with global powers last year, it had violated its limits on stockpiling “heavy water,” a component that could be used to make a nuclear weapon. “It is important that such situations should...

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