Iran Focus

London, 13 August – It is not hard to see the cracks emerge in Iran’s so-called “Shiite crescent” across the Middle East. Iran has inserted itself into regional conflicts to prop up despotic dictatorships (Syria) or remove ISIS, while still supporting terrorism (Iraq) and that made Iran’s important ally to their regional partners, but now Bashar Assad has reclaimed Aleppo and ISIS has been more or less removed from Iraq, which makes Iran dispensable.

This breakup of the Crescent has been furthered by outside forces that want to limit Iran’s power in other countries, like Russia who struck a deal with Israel to keep Iranian forces away from the Syria-Israel border and is striking deals between Turkey and the Kurds to rebuild Syria.

Iran Focus

London, 11 August – Most countries try their hardest to avoid war at any cost, knowing the peace talks and compromises are worth the protection that they provide and the lives that they spare. Iran is not most countries.

Ali Reza Farqani, the editor-in-chief of Iran’s Arman newspaper, said recently that Iran “needs a foreign war” and proceeded to threaten the US with pro-Iranian suicide bombers that would hit US military bases in 112 countries. He then repeated the “war is a blessing” slogan that former Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini used during the Iran-Iraq war; a war that notably ended when the UN forced Iran into a ceasefire, something that Khomeini likened to drinking poison.

Iran Focus

London, 10 August – The four-star US general in charge of military operations in the Middle East has heavily condemned the leader of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force for his influential role in the majority of Iran’s destabilising activities in the region.

General Joseph Votel, the head of US Central Command, told reporters on Wednesday that Qasem Soleimani is the “individual who is perpetrating a lot of this destabilizing activity” and called him out for his “aggressive nature”.

Votel said: “Wherever you see Iranian activity, you see Qasem Soleimani, whether it is in Syria, whether it is in Iraq, whether it is in Yemen, he is there and it is the Quds force, the organization which he leads, that I think is the principal threat as we look at this and the principal ones that are stoking this destabilizing activity.”