Iran announced on Sunday that it completed the first of three stages to establish its government-controlled “national internet,” according to state media reports. While authorities are championing the National Information Network as a faster, less costly alternative to the World Wide Web, observers caution that the service will impose strict censorship on Iranian...

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The White House’s failure to stop the ongoing slaughter perpetrated by the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad stems from President Barack Obama’s “desire to accommodate Iran” so that last year’s nuclear deal will extend past his administration, the president’s former top Syria adviser charged in an analysis on Monday. Frederic Hof, formerly Obama’s special...

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The Iranian foreign minister’s visit to Latin America last week signaled the Islamic Republic’s intent to rebuild its missile program in the Western Hemisphere, Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote in an analysis on Monday. “Iran has long relied on Latin America to evade...

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Iran has arrested a member of its nuclear negotiating team on espionage charges, the country’s judiciary spokesman said on Sunday. Iranian media outlets identified the man as Abdul Rasoul Durri Esfahani, a dual citizen who participated in banking-related aspects of the negotiations that led to last year’s nuclear deal, The Guardian reported. “(News of) the arrest of the...

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Iran has deployed Russian S-300 anti-missile batteries, which are believed to be one of the most effective defense systems in the world, to protect its nuclear enrichment facility in Fordow, state media reported Sunday. Iran received a shipment of the weapons in April. Their delivery had been held up for several years...

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Talks with Supreme Leader of Iran Ali Khamenei

JNS.org – Still flushed with the success, for the Iranians anyway, of the 2015 nuclear deal reached with the United States and other powers, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif this week embarked on a five-nation tour of Latin America to spread the message that Tehran’s global influence is on the up....

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A series of encounters between Iranian and American naval vessels in the Persian Gulf this month were marked by Iranian violations of “international law and maritime standards,” the U.S. Navy said on Wednesday. New details have emerged about the incident in the southeastern part of the Persian Gulf near the Straits of Hormuz — a...

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An Iranian boat in the Persian Gulf sailed too close to a U.S. Navy ship for the second time this week, prompting the American vessel to fire warning shots, a U.S. official told Fox News on Thursday. The Iranian boat came within 200 yards of the USS Squall on Wednesday before the American patrol ship fired three...

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Four patrol boats operated by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps harassed an American destroyer on Tuesday near the Straits of Hormuz, a U.S. defense official told Reuters on Wednesday. Two of the Iranian boats came within 300 yards of the USS Nitze in a manner that the unnamed official called “unsafe and unprofessional.” The IRGC boats harassed the Nitze...

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The State Department updated its travel warning to Iran on Monday, warning U.S. citizens that they can be “unjustly detained” if they travel to the Islamic Republic. The announcement, which replaced a travel warning issued on March 14, was meant “to reiterate and highlight the risk of arrest and detention of U.S. citizens, particularly...

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