AP: U.S. military forces stand ready to strike Syria at once if President Barack Obama gives the order, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Tuesday as the United States prepared to declare formally that chemical weapons had been used in the Syrian civil war.
US signals readiness to strike Syria if ordered
Mending ties with Britain to take time: Iran
AFP: Iran’s foreign ministry said Tuesday it would take time to resume ties with Britain severed in the aftermath of an attack on the British embassy in Tehran in 2011.
US threatens Syria over ‘obscene’ chemical strike
AFP: Washington warned Syria it would face action over the “moral obscenity” of a gruesome chemical weapons attack, as UN inspectors braved sniper fire to gather evidence about the incident.
Hassan Rouhani is not the moderate we thought he was
PolicyMic: Ever since the sham presidential elections in Iran, Western media have lost no opportunity to characterize new President Hassan Rouhani, long a senior figure among the regime’s ruling elite, as a “moderate.”
Wife of pastor jailed in Iran slams Obama silence
AFP: The wife of an Iranian-American pastor imprisoned in Iran said Monday she was “extremely disappointed” that US President Barack Obama had remained silent on the case.
Iran’s president appoints new head of central bank
AP: Iranian state television says that the country’s president has appointed a private banker as the head of the country’s central bank. Rouhani picked Valiollah Seif to run the country’s financial regulator. It said Seif will replace outgoing central bank head Mahmoud Bahmani.
Iranian court rejects American pastor’s appeal
AP: An Iranian court has rejected an appeal by an American pastor to reduce his eight-year prison sentence, a human-rights group representing his family in the U.S. said Monday.
UN to begin syria probe as U.S. alleges chemical weapons use
Bloomberg: The United Nations will begin investigating allegations of chemical arms use in Syria “within hours,” after the U.S. concluded President Bashar al-Assad’s regime probably used the weaponry against civilians.
Iraq denies halting services to Iranian exile camp
AP: An Iranian dissident group has accused the Iraqi authorities of cutting off water and electricity to a contested northern camp used by its members, a charge the Iraqi government denied Sunday.
UN political chief to visit Iran for Syria talks
AFP: The political affairs chief of the United Nations Jeffrey Feltman is to visit Iran on Monday to discuss the war in Syria and unrest in Egypt and Lebanon, a report said. Feltman is to hold talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, Mehr news agency reported.
