AFP: With nuclear talks between Iran and western powers gathering steam, the Obama administration will likely face an uphill battle to convince Congress to back any deal rolling back its tough sanctions regime.
Any US-Iran nuclear deal faces hard sell in Congress
Netanyahu to prod Kerry on Iran after Vatican visit scrapped
Bloomberg: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, mistrustful of warming ties between world powers and Iran, flies to Rome today to discuss Iranian nuclear talks and Middle East peace efforts with Secretary of State John Kerry.
MP visits Iranian hunger strikers
Times Series: Finchley and Golders Green MP Mike Freer visited members of Barnet’s Anglo-Iranian community as they took part in a hunger strike outside the US Embassy. The Conservative politician spent time speaking to the protestors.
Iran claims it’s reverse-engineered ‘captured’ U.S. spy drone
UPI: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps reportedly gave Russia an unmanned aerial vehicle it claims is a copy of a U.S. Navy ScanEagle allegedly reverse-engineered from a craft they claimed to have captured in December.
West needs to heed Iran’s ‘kill, kill again’ message
UPI: When Iranian President Hassan Rouhani was elected, the U.S. media labeled him a “moderate” with whom rational discussions on the issues were plausible. After the Oct. 14-15 talks — surprise, surprise, surprise — no breakthrough was achieved.
Iran to re-examine banned books
AFP: Iran’s Culture Minister Ali Janati said Monday his department will review a ban imposed on certain books which censors have barred from publication, the official IRNA news agency reported. “Those books subjected to censorship or denied permission to be published in the past will be reviewed again and new decisions will be made,” IRNA quoted Janati as saying.
Iran holds talks with Russia to boost military cooperation
AFP: The head of Russia’s air force, General Viktor Bondarev, met his Iranian counterparts in Tehran to discuss boosting military cooperation between the countries, local media reported Monday. Talks centred on “electronic listening systems, radar and missiles,” Brigadier General Farzad Esmaili, head of Khatam-ol-Anbia Air Defence Base, said in comments quoted by daily Sharq.
U.S. tries to calm Saudi anger over Syria, Iran
Reuters: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry sought on Monday to calm rising tensions with Saudi Arabia, which has spurned a U.N. Security Council seat in fury at inaction over the crisis in Syria. Saudi Arabia rejected a coveted two-year term on the council on Friday in a rare display of anger over what it called “double standards” at the United Nations.
Iran sees nuclear talks with powers finishing within year -official
Reuters: Iran believes it can wrap up negotiations with world powers over its disputed nuclear programme in one year or less, Iranian media quoted its chief nuclear negotiator as saying.
Netanyahu’s mission: to head off Iran sanctions relief
Reuters: Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday will seek to dim the optimism after nuclear talks with Iran, cautioning that Tehran is strengthening its strategic regional position by calling the shots in Syria as President Bashar al-Assad’s puppet master.
