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A prominent Iraqi militia backed by Iran, Harakat
Hezbollah al- Nujaba, said on Thursday U.S. President Donald Trump's
decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital could become a
"legitimate reason" to attack U.S. forces in Iraq."
The Pentagon has revealed its intention to keep troops
in Syria after the defeat of the Islamic State militant group,
despite calls from the country and its Russian and Iranian allies to
expel U.S. forces, whose presence they consider illegal.
Iran "seriously condemns" the U.S. decision to
move its embassy to Jerusalem and its recognition of the city as
Israel's capital, read a statement on Wednesday from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs carried by state media. The move violates
international resolutions, the statement said. Supreme Leader Ayatollah
Ali Khamenei said earlier that the United States was trying to
destabilize the region and start a war to protect Israel's
security.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Tehran has created a dynamic in which a range of
well-armed surrogates are capable of sparking sudden regional
conflicts. Just as ISIS hid its fighters behind innocent civilians,
Iran has embedded proxy groups among civilian populations that have
already endured years of violence and likely will suffer further in
any retaliation by third countries that fall victim to their attacks.
The international community needs to communicate clearly to Tehran
that such a callous strategy is unacceptable.
IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL
NATO has warned that U.S. concern over Iranian terror
activity should not spell the end of a fragile nuclear deal.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani blasted his US
counterpart Donald Trump's plan to recognise Jerusalem as the Israeli
capital on Wednesday, saying it would not be tolerated.
The November 22, 2017 Sochi conference gave Iran a
diplomatic opportunity to celebrate the triumph of the Iran-led
resistance axis over the Islamic State (ISIS), as well as over the
Western forces headed by the Global Arrogance - the U.S. - and over
Zionism, against which Iran has been waging a massive propaganda
campaign, accusing them of establishing and supporting ISIS.
SANCTIONS ENFORCEMENT
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has called the
New York trial of a Turkish banker accused of conspiring to help Iran
evade U.S. sanctions "blackmail" and a "blemish"
on his country.
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that
NATO allies share a common view of the regional threat that Tehran
poses over its destabilizing activities in Yemen and Syria.
Turkmenistan has agreed to seek international
arbitration of a dispute with Iran over $1.8 billion Ashbagat says
Tehran owes for deliveries of natural gas, Turkmen media report. The
energy-rich Central Asian state halted shipments of natural gas to
Iran at the start of the year, saying Iran owed $1.8 billion for
supplies it never paid for.
IRAQ CRISIS
The head of Iraq's state oil marketer SOMO is currently
holding talks in Iran to determine a start date for oil exports from
Iraq's Kirkuk oilfields, Iraqi Oil Minister Jabar al-Luaibi said on
Wednesday. An oil official told Reuters last week that some Kirkuk
crude would be shipped "in the near future" by trucks to
Iran's Kermanshah refinery, at a rate of 30,000 barrels per day.
Geographic proximity and shared religion, specifically
Shia Islam, give Iran deep influence in Iraq, as shown in a new
Atlantic Council issue brief entitled "Iran in Iraq,"
by American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Kenneth M. Pollack.
Despite advantages in geography and demography, Pollack argues that
Iranian influence in Iraq is not insurmountable. The United States
should therefore seek to implement policies that strengthen Iraq's
government and unify its people in order to keep Iran at bay.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, LEBANON, AND IRAN
Former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh has paid his
life for supporting an Arab positions and standing up against the
Iran-styled state in Yemen, analysts said.
IRANIAN DOMESTIC ISSUES
The chairman of the influential Guardian Council and
speaker of the Assembly of Experts, Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati, says
"sedition" has not yet been rooted out of Iran and a number
of "neo-hypocrites" are attempting to keep it alive.
Jannati was referring to the controversial presidential election in
2009 followed by months of bloody unrest in major cities, including
the capital, Tehran. The uprising against the re-election of Mahmud
Ahmadinejad was labeled "sedition" by Supreme Leader
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Israeli Tech
Puts Iranian Ride-hailing Startups in Bind | Al-Monitor
Iran's recent decision to once again block Waze, a
mobile navigation app developed in Israel, has created a great deal
of controversy in the country. The GPS-based software had become
popular both among the public as well as Iran's leading ride-hailing
apps, Snapp and Tap30.
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