Iran Focus
London, 26 Jul – A propaganda campaign is being run by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to highjack the victory in Mosul and the broader war against the Islamic State as their own, in an attempt to play down the impact of the U.S. military support, which has been critical in the campaign.
The IRGC coordinated directly or indirectly with the U.S. during the war, but Iran continues to reject the presence of the U.S. in the Middle East.
Iran Focus
London, 25 Jul – On the second anniversary the nuclear deal with Iran, that was repeated criticized by President Trump during his campaign for the White House, he continues to voice his displeasure with Iran’s dangerous behavior.
On Tuesday, The State Department announced new sanctions on 18 Iranian entities and individuals for their support of Iran’s ballistic missile program and involvement with the nation’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
Although the Islamic Republic was certified to be in compliance with the letter of its agreement to limit its nuclear weapons program, the State Department said Iran is violating the spirit of the agreement, and that the U.S. “remains deeply concerned about Iran’s malign activities across the Middle East which undermine regional stability, and prosperity.”
Iran Focus
London, 25 Jul – While we know that Iran monitors Christians and other religious group within the country, a worldwide Christian ministry warns that this observation continues even after members of the faith have moved to the West.
“In Iran, Christians are monitored closely and their activities filmed. When the authorities decide to crack down on Christians, they are beaten up, arrested or sometimes they just disappear. One of the main organizations responsible for this is the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The Iranian constitution gives the IRGC a specific responsibility for protecting the Islamic revolution ideology in Iran and exporting it to other countries. Closely associated with the IRGC is the Basij, which has a similar ideological basis but whose members, recruited from school age, hold other full-time jobs,” officials with Barnabas Fund report.
Iran Focus
London, 25 Jul – “The situation in Gorgan Gulf is critical, with haze and pollutants as two of the factors that are seriously threatening the region”, says state-run ‘Mardom-Salari’ newspaper on July 23, 2017, quoting regime’s Deputy Governor of Golestan on Development Affairs.
Iran Focus
London, 24 Jul – London, 24 Jul – As the Trump White House is reviewing its Iran policy there is increasing support for regime change in Iran, according to an opinion piece on the Forbes website.
Iranian dissident writer Heshmat Alavi, wrote on 24 July that advocates of appeasement toward Iran are boosting their efforts of claiming any firm policy on Tehran will lead to war.
“The question is do the measures professed by this party truly prevent war?”
Iran Focus
London, 24 Jul – Iran is home to one of the world’s oldest continuous major civilizations, with historical and urban settlements dating back to 7000 BC. The southwestern and western part of the Iranian Plateau participated in the traditional Ancient Near East with Elam, from the Early Bronze Age, and later with various other peoples, such as the Kassites, Mannaeans, and Gutians. Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel names the Persians as the first Historical People. The Medes unified Iran as a nation and empire in 625 BC. The Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC), founded by Cyrus the Great, was the first of the Persian empires to rule from the Balkans to North Africa and also Central Asia, spanning three continents, from their seat of power in Persis (Persepolis). It was the largest empire yet seen and the first world empire.
Iran Focus
London, 24 Jul – Trump Plans to Decertify Iran, Sidelines State Dept.
President Donald Trump angrily sidelined the State Department and assigned trusted White House staffers with making the potential case for withholding certification at the next review of the Iran nuclear deal, Foreign Policy reported. Cathy Burke wrote in ‘News Max’ on Sunday, July, 23 and the article continues as follows:
The decision came after a “contentious meeting with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson,” according to the article.
Iran Focus
London, 23 Jul – Because of its relationship with North Korea, in a few years Iran may have have intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that will enable them to attack targets in the Middle East, Europe and the United States. Additionally, after the expiration of the Iran nuclear deal, those missiles could be armed with nuclear weapons.
Foreign policy analysts can predict trends but are hesitant to do so in these tumultuous times. The American people didn’t vote for such dithering when they elected Donald Trump to the presidency last November, though. They wanted America to confront challenges before they become a threat. President Trump has done this by taking on North Korea’s nuclear and missile programs as well as calling out Iran for its missile plans.
Iran Focus
London, 23 Jul – Iran has been arresting Westerners, mainly dual citizens, allegedly to use them as bargaining chips to advance objectives and politics in negotiations. In fact, Ellen R. Wald recently reported in Forbes that, “On July 16, news came out that an American graduate student at Princeton University named Xiyue Wang had been sentenced to 10 years in an Iranian prison for ‘espionage’.”
Iran Focus
London, 21 Jul – According to Iran’s state run television, Mohammad Ali Jafari responded to the new U.S. sanctions over Iran’s ballistic missile program by warning, “If the United States wants to pursue sanctions against Iran’s defenses and the Guards, then it has to move its regional bases to a distance of about 1,000 km (620 miles) around Iran.” He said additionally, that the U.S. should also “be aware that it would pay a high price for any miscalculations.”
