The Iranian military deployed reinforcements along the Iran’s border with Iraq during the past 24 hours, the Al-Arabi al-Jadid pan-Arab news site reported (Arabic link). Forces were concentrated in several locations and dug new outposts. The Iranian deployment stems from growing activity of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)...

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American weapons initially delivered to the Iraqi government are falling into the hands of Iran-backed Shiite militias in Iraq according to a report for Bloomberg View Thursday by Eli Lake and Josh Rogin. U.S. weapons intended for Iraq’s beleaguered military are winding up in the possession of the country’s Shiite...

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Kataib al-Imam Ali, an Iraqi Shiite militia with strong ties to Iran, is headed by a terrorist with a long record of attacking American interests according to terrorism experts Matthew Levitt and Phillip Smyth in a paper published by the Washington Institute of Near East Policy on Monday. Levitt and Smyth...

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After a quarter of a century of tensions, Saudi Arabia is moving to normalize its relations with Iraq. The improvement in relations between the two countries gradually began with the visit of Iraqi President Fouad Massoum to the Kingdom in November 2014. In addition, the fight against radical movements in...

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Amid recent Kurdish battle victories against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and promised American military aid, the Kurdish dream of an independent state may soon be getting at least tacit American support, according to a report Monday by Eli Lake of Bloomberg News. These battlefield victories underline an equally...

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This week, Iran hosted a private conference attended by Shiite and some Sunni Islamic militias from surrounding Arab states, the Al-Arab newspaper reported on Thursday (Arabic link). Diplomatic sources in Tehran said that the conference was intended to rebuild Tehran’s alliance in the Middle East and develop ways to confront...

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Even as he was blasting the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for corruption on Monday, President Hassan Rouhani of Iran increased the organization’s budget by 50%. Bloomberg News reports that Rouhani enacted this increase even as oil prices, a primary source of Iran’s revenues, are dropping: Rouhani proposed increasing the Islamic Revolutionary...

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Arab commentators believe that recent attacks attributed to Iran against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) positions in Iraq show a significant strengthening of Tehran’s efforts to help its allies in Baghdad and Damascus and maintain its regional influence through the fight against the threat of radical Islamists....

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Iraqi Kurds “see themselves as alone” in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) according to an analysis Monday written by Jackson Diehl, a member of The Washington Post’s editorial board. While Diehl observes that though the Kurds have given “Iraq’s central government another chance” and not immediately...

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Iranian sources are involved in shady weapon deals with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), an Iraqi security source told the Saudi newspaper Okaz (Arabic link). The source said Iranian “agents” are supplying ISIS in Iraq with weapons in exchange for oil. These transactions are alarming Western and...

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