Iran Focus
London, 31 Oct – Saudi Arabia has begun doubling down on its nuclear programme in order to counterbalance the threat posed by Iran as evidenced by a statement released on Monday.
The statement said that Saudi Arabia would begin uranium extraction efforts in order to achieve nuclear self-sufficiency.
Although it is not clear whether Saudi Arabia would then enrich the uranium (a process needed to create nuclear weapons), this statement is a huge turning point.
Iran Focus
London, 31 Oct – The President of Iran, which has been dubbed the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, has viciously attacked the opposition party with baseless claims about their links to terrorism.
On October 29, Hassan Rouhani made a speech to the Iranian Parliament in which he showcased exactly how scared he- and by extension the rest of the Regime- is of the Iranian people’s organised resistance forces (the People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran or PMOI), who have much support across the world, by hysterically attacking them.
Iran Focus
London, 30 Oct – For months now, Middle East experts have been warning that Iranian-backed militias would set out to steal land, recovered from ISIS as part of a joint mission, along the Syria-Iraq border.
As it turns out, these predictions weren’t strong enough.
The proxies of the Iranian Regime have stolen almost the entire Iraq-Syria border zone, stretching almost all the way from the northern border with Turkey to Iraq’s Anbar province in the south.
Their biggest land grab occurred just last week, when Kurdish forces withdrew from disputed territory that they reclaimed from ISIS after receiving threats from Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
Iran Focus
London, 30 Oct – In 2013, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani promised to improve the everyday lives of the Iranian people within the first 100 days of his presidency and 100 days following his take over, he declared that he had achieved this.
This declaration was as much a lie as his promises were. He hadn’t achieved this by the end of his first term in office, let alone at the 100-day mark.
In 2017, he made similar promises and now, as we close in on the 100-day deadline, Iran analyst Taher Khaljani assessed on Zamaneh Media that it is doubtful that Rouhani will achieve these promises in the little time he has left, if he ever intended to at all.
Iran Focus
London, 30 Oct – In 1983, a suicide bombing of a Marines barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, killed 241 American service members, 58 French military personnel and six civilians, and injured hundreds more.
On October 23, the suicide bomber drove a truck into the barracks and detonated about 1,000 kg of explosives (roughly 15,000 to 21,000 pounds of TNT).
The Islamic Jihad organisation, which claimed responsibility for the attack, was actually a special ops branch under the joint command of the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC).
Iran Focus
London, 30 Oct – A little over two weeks ago, Donald Trump decertified Iranian compliance with the 2015 Nuclear Deal, which was supposed to impose strict limits on the rogue state’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief.
Now Congress must decide whether or not to reimpose sanctions waived under the nuclear deal by mid-December.
The hope for the deal, signed by the permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, UK, Russia, France and China) plus Germany, were high. Iran would give up its nuclear programme in order to obtain sanctions relief and then be slowly convinced through interaction with other countries to dispose of its other troubling behaviours, like support for terrorism and destabilisation of fellow nation states.
Iran Focus
London, 30 Oct – It is now time for the US Congress to get on with the task of fixing the flawed Iran nuclear deal and amend any loopholes that the Iranian Regime can exploit in it.
This is perfectly within the remit of the US without violating the deal as it stands.
Some will argue that the deal is “working” and Iran is “complying”, while accusing Donald Trump of not decertifying Iran solely on their noncompliance with the nuclear deal.
Actually, they are half right. The deal is not working and there are numerous instances where Iran clearly violated the term or the agreement without being punished, but Trump did not decertify them for this reason alone.
On Sunday October 29, 2017. Iranian authorities prevented a gathering at the tomb of ancient Persian king Cyrus the Great and arrested a number of suspects. A statement from the National Council of Resistance of Iran said that officials have taken repressive measures since a few weeks ago “To prevent people from entering Pasargadae, Revolutionary Guards, Basij, police and plain-clothed forces were sent from neighboring provinces and cities to Fars province and the surrounding areas of Pasargadae.
Iran Focus
London, 28 Oct – The blacklisting of Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Treasury Department after President Trump’s October 13th Iran policy speech, was a major blow to Tehran.
Hessam-edin Ashena, an advisor to Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, remarked to a state daily, “Sanctions against the IRGC are nothing new… The IRGC is not an economic entity for them to attempt to impact its future through sanctions. The IRGC is a military entity that will negotiate with no one regarding its duties.”
Iran Focus
London, 28 Oct – On October 13th, President Trump announced the new US strategy towards Iran. The reaction to this strategy have been varied. Those who advocate the for continuing the JCPOA condemned it, claiming it will cause a loss of trust in America. Others believe the new strategy will serve both the interests of the US as well as the Iranian people.
