AP: McCain, the ranking member of the Senate Armed Forces Committee, says the U.S. has “too much invested” in Bahrain to consider shifting the U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet to another country. The 5th Fleet is the Pentagon’s main counterweight to Iran’s expanding military presence in the Gulf.
Sen. McCain: US committed to naval hub in Bahrain
Iran’s Quds force may deploy Syria’s Chemical weapons
Ya Libnan: Mamlouk, Qudsiya and Zaitoun have proposed that special units of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, rather than the Syrian Army, be asked to carry out security leaders’ orders to use chemical weapons, the source said.
Iranian warships’ visit risks straining Sudan-Gulf ties
Reuters: A second visit by Iranian warships to Sudan in little over a month risks widening divisions inside the African country’s government and upsetting its Gulf Arab donors.
Iran police confiscate over 11 tons of narcotics
AP: Iran’s state TV says the country’s border police have confiscated over 11 tons of narcotics after fierce clashes with drug traffickers in southeastern Iran, the biggest single consignment ever seized in Iran’s war against drugs.
Iran warships dock in Sudan
AFP: Two Iranian warships docked in Port Sudan on Saturday, a witness said, marking the second port call by the Iranian navy in Sudan in five weeks.
Iran condemns US nuclear test
AFP: Iran condemned arch foe the United States on Saturday for conducting a limited nuclear test, saying it showed Washington’s “inattention to full disarmament,” the state television website reported.
HSBC, Standard Chartered close to resolving Iran claims
Bloomberg: HSBC Holdings Plc (HSBA) and Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) may settle U.S. charges involving money-laundering violations and dollar-clearing transactions on behalf of Iranian clients as soon as next week, two people familiar with the negotiations said.
Iran time bomb no longer just a hypothetical
Sydney Morning Herald: Robertson, a QC and probably the world’s best-known human rights lawyer, is now 66. He has lived most of his adult life in London, but was born in Australia. He says Iran’s nuclear ambitions are by far the biggest threat to world security because they will trigger a new arms race.
Iran’s long-range missiles said to lag U.S. intelligence fears
Reuters: An internal report for the U.S. Congress has concluded that Iran probably is no longer on track, if it ever was, to having an ocean-crossing missile as soon as 2015.
Inspecting Iran’s Parchin site would be ‘useful’: IAEA
AFP: UN nuclear inspections at a military complex near Tehran would be “very useful” despite extensive earth-moving work there by Iranian authorities, the head of the UN atomic agency said.
