FrontPage Magazine: Under the new Islamist state, the Ayatollahs and ruling clerics utilized methods in order to control and exercise power over women to gradually take away their capacity to act in social affairs particularly by regulating their day to day activities, monitoring all their actions, as well as by having authority over their bodies.
Iran’s crackdown on women
Iran, the Islamic State, and the rise of Islamic extremism
The Diplomat: Those who closely follow Iran’s activities in the Middle East understand that its government and its Revolutionary Guards are the major driving force in the civil war that is still tearing Iraq apart. Moreover, Iran is central to the broader conflict that has seemingly put the entire Middle East beyond hope of stability.
Iran provided weapons to Iraqi Kurds; Baghdad bomb kills 12
Reuters: Iran has supplied weapons and ammunition to Iraqi Kurdish forces, Kurdistan President Massoud Barzani said on Tuesday at a joint press conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif in Arbil. The direct arming of Kurdish forces is a contentious issue because some Iraqi politicians suspect Kurdish leaders have aspirations to break away from the central government completely.
Sanctions hurt South Pars, Iran says
UPI: Sanctions targeting the Iranian energy sector have curtailed development of the South Pars natural gas field, the Iranian energy minister said Tuesday. Iranian Energy Minister Bijan Zangeneh said sanctions imposed in response to Iran’s controversial nuclear research program means the Iranian economy is using more fuel oil than it would if South Pars were fully developed.
U.S., Iran boats have brief hostile encounter
Wall Street Journal: A small U.S. Coast Guard boat fired a single shot toward an armed Iranian-flagged ship in the Persian Gulf during a brief encounter on Tuesday, a potentially provocative incident in a volatile area. U.S. officials emphasized that the situation didn’t escalate and that both vessels ended contact after the warning shot was fired.
Iran delays London oil conference to Feb 2015
Reuters: Iran has postponed by three months a conference to offer multinationals the rights to develop oil deposits, giving time for sanctions on the country’s oil sector to be lifted, a senior official said on Monday. “We want to provide for all the companies to participate and we know they will have difficulties before Nov. 24,” Mehdi Hosseini, the head of the Oil Contracts Revision Committee, told Reuters by telephone on Monday.
Iran says “completing” nuclear steps agreed with IAEA
Reuters: Iran is “in the process” of completing measures on transparency in its nuclear research that were agreed with the U.N. atomic agency, a senior Iranian official was quoted as saying, suggesting Tehran had at least partly met a Monday deadline for cooperation. Atomic energy chief Ali Akbar Salehi did not give details in remarks reported by the official IRNA news agency.
Hungary to run luxury trains to Tehran
AFP – Railway enthusiasts with a taste for nostalgia will soon be able to indulge their Orient Express fantasies after Hungarian Railways said it was launching a luxury Budapest-Tehran train service. With ticket prices of between 10,000 and 23,000 euros ($13,000-31,000) per person, guests will receive “five-star” treatment including complimentary alcohol right up to the Iranian frontier.
Iran says it downs Israeli drone near nuclear site
AP: Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards said Sunday its forces shot down an Israeli drone as it approached an Iranian nuclear site, recovering major parts of what it described as an advanced aircraft. Israeli officials could not be immediately reached for comment. Israel has not ruled out taking military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities if its capability to build an atomic weapon progresses.
Iran-backed Tawhid-Salam network targeted NATO radar base in Turkey
Today’s Zaman: Operatives of a secretive Iran-backed terrorist network in Turkey scouted the area hosting a radar site in Malatya’s Kürecik district that is part of a NATO early warning radar system, an ongoing investigation has revealed. According to an 854-page police investigation on the Tawhid-Salam terror network obtained by Today’s Zaman, suspects tied to Iranian intelligence had collected information about Kürecik.
