A semi-official Iranian news agency issued a report threatening Lebanon’s banking sector if it complied with a U.S. sanctions law targeting Hezbollah just hours before a bomb exploded outside a Beirut bank on Sunday, NOW Media news reported on Monday. “In the wake of the US sanctions law against Hezbollah…and after the financial confrontation...
Continue Reading >>
A prominent Canadian-Iranian scholar who was studying women in the Muslim world has been arrested in Iran, highlighting the continued risk that dual nationals face when they travel to the Islamic Republic. Homa Hoodfar, an anthropologist at Concordia University in Montreal, was first detained in March 10 by an intelligence unit of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, The...
Continue Reading >>
A $1.7 billion payment by the U.S. to Iran that coincided with the release of American hostages in January is helping Tehran boost its military budget by 90 percent in the next year, Eli Lake of Bloomberg View reported on Thursday. The $1.7 billion payment was transferred from a taxpayer-funded account called the Judgment Fund, which is used to pay...
Continue Reading >>
In June 2014, the Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani, the foremost Shia leader of Iraq, issued a fatwa encouraging Iraqi Shias to take up arms against ISIS. In the short term, this has had a resounding impact on the battle against the jihadist organization-turned-state. However, in the long term, it may invite...
Continue Reading >>
Iran has suspended one of its national soccer stars for wearing SpongeBob SquarePants-themed pants, The Guardian reported Wednesday. Goalkeeper Sosha Makani, a member of Iran’s 2014 World Cup team who plays for Persepolis in Tehran, has been banned from the sport for six months by the committee in charge of monitoring...
Continue Reading >>
Iran has rejected the visa applications of three congressman who sought to inspect the country’s nuclear sites and visit American hostages held in its prisons, the Washington Free Beacon reported on Tuesday. In a letter sent to the U.S. State Department last week, Iran’s foreign ministry dismissed visa requests from Representatives Mike Pompeo (R –...
Continue Reading >>
Footage has emerged on Twitter of an Iranian soldier from the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) embedded among Iraqi troops, the latest indication of direct Iranian involvement in its neighboring country’s internal affairs. “In the name of God, the compassionate the merciful. Friday afternoon, the operation to liberate Fallujah....
Continue Reading >>
The State Department’s annual report on global terrorist activity, which was released on Thursday, stated that Iran “remains the foremost state sponsor of terrorism in 2015.” The report noted that Iran provides “a range of support, including financial, training, and equipment, to groups around the world.” Iran continued to be deeply involved in...
Continue Reading >>
An Iran-backed militia leader whom the United States considers to be a terrorist has grown increasingly important to Iraq’s security apparatus, reflecting Iran’s rising influence in the affairs of its western neighbor, The Wall Street Journal reported (Google link) on Thursday. Jamal Jaafar Ibrahimi, popularly known by the nom de guerre of Abu...
Continue Reading >>
State Department Spokesman John Kirby admitted on Wednesday that the department lied last month about doctoring a video of a December 2013 press briefing that included a discussion of the Obama administration’s diplomacy with Iran. Contrary to previous assertions by the State Department, Kirby acknowledged that the exchange was deleted from...
Continue Reading >>
