RSVP Here For
This Thursday's UANI Event In Washington On Hezbollah
TOP STORIES
Iran has unveiled a series of new homemade
nuclear-capable ballistic missiles during military parades held this
week.
The son of an 81-year-old Iranian-American jailed in
Iran urged the authorities on Monday to allow his father to serve his
sentence at home after he was admitted to hospital for a second time
in a week.
United States Secretary of Defense James Mattis
staunchly supported Israel's right to defend itself amid the
country's rising tensions with Syria, saying on Monday Israel
"has an absolute right to defend themselves."
UANI IN THE NEWS
Former US Senator Joe Lieberman
expressed support for airstrikes conducted by Israel against Iranian
targets deep within Syrian territory on Saturday, and said that the
preceding incursion by an Iranian drone into Israeli airspace was
"inevitable" given Washington's past inaction on Syria
which allowed Iran's entrenchment there.
Policy makers don't often get crystallizing moments that
tell them action is required to avert bigger dangers. But Iran's
attempted attack and Israel's response is such a moment and the
administration would be wise to mobilize a wide diplomatic response
before the next shoe falls.
NUCLEAR & BALLISTIC-MISSILE PROGRAMS
The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) said today
that Iran is the most powerful country in the Middle East and will
defy international pressure on defense capabilities, particularly its
missile program.
The former chief-of-staff of Iran's armed forces said
Tuesday that Western spies had used lizards which could "attract
atomic waves" to spy on the country's nuclear programme.
ISRAEL-IRAN-SYRIA CLASH
British foreign minister Boris Johnson said London was
concerned at Iran's role in a confrontation at Israel's border with
Syria.
The European Union's executive on Monday said the
warring Syrian parties and their regional allies should show
restraint to avoid a further spiral of violence in the region.
Iran's determination to destroy Israel has never slacked
since the current regime came to power in 1979 and Tehran's
objectives in Syria continue to confirm this strand of its policy...
Elsewhere, meanwhile, it continues its campaign to destabilize the
entire Middle East and especially Sunni regimes that have
historically been pro-American. For its part, Israel has made clear
that it will not permit Iranian military bases in southern Syria near
its borders and will retaliate against any effort to establish bases
or this direct link to Hezbollah there. These contending interests
and recent actions duly set the stage for possible direct warfare
between Israel and Iran while the civil war in Syria, if anything,
continues to defy military let alone political resolution.
IRAN PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
The wife of a Swedish resident imprisoned in Tehran has
revealed the way her husband, Ahmadreza Djalali, was coerced into
making potentially incriminating statements before he was sentenced
to death for allegedly engaging in espionage.
In an open letter released yesterday, 25 prominent
intellectuals and experts in human rights law called on Mohammad
Javad Larijani, Head of the High Council for Human Rights in Iran, to
acknowledge the long-standing state-sponsored persecution of Baha'is
in Iran in light of newly-released and abundant evidence.
Kaveh Kazemi's images of the Iranian revolution and its
aftermath reveal the country's transition from a different era, and a
contrast with its social upheaval today.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS
Over the past several years, and especially since the
signing of the nuclear deal in 2015, I have become increasingly
convinced of the need for the United States to adopt a more
confrontational policy toward Iran... So over the course of the next
six days, I am going to contribute a series of essays that flesh out
the idea of pushing back on Iran. Today, I am going to start by
explaining why I think such a strategy is necessary.
CONGRESS & IRAN
A change in leadership among Democrats on the Senate
Foreign Relations Committee could alter the politics of the Iran
nuclear deal in U.S. Congress, and possibly play to the advantage of
the White House and its Republican allies. Barely noticed amid a
brief government shutdown and budget deal over the past week, Sen.
Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) quietly took back his spot as the top Democrat
on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, nearly three years after
being forced out while battling corruption charges.
The deputy chair of the Democratic National Committee,
Rep. Keith Ellison of Minnesota, was among three Democratic
congressmen who attended a private dinner in 2013 with Iranian
president Hassan Rouhani. Louis Farrakhan, the Nation of Islam leader
who has long been accused of anti-Semitism and whom Ellison had
previously denounced, was also in attendance.
OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
A Russian-built Sukhoi Superjet 100 landed at Tehran's
Mehrabad International airport on Feb. 12 with a team of engineers on
board, as part of a renewed attempt by the company to find customers
in Iran for its passenger jet. It could prove to be a fruitful
venture for the firm, given the difficulty Iranian airlines have had
in securing new aircraft from Western manufacturers over the past two
years.
HEZBOLLAH & LEBANON
A February 9, 2018 article on the pro-Hizbullah Lebanese
website Dahiya claims that Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad recently
rejected an Israeli demand, relayed by Russian President Vladimir
Putin, to remove some 70,000 Iranian long-range missiles that
Hizbullah has deployed throughout Syria and are aimed at Israel. The
article claimed further that Syria and Hizbullah will wage a
"joint missile campaign" against Israel, and that Iranian
experts are ready to launch missiles at Israel from every part of
Lebanon and Syria. According to the article, Assad has instructed his
army to help Hizbullah construct and camouflage missile silos across
the country; moreover, intense activity is underway to bring more
Iranian missiles to Syria via Iraq, so that within a year Hizbullah
will have 500,000 missiles in Syria, in addition to the ones it has
already deployed in Lebanon.
OTHER TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
Polish far right leader Robert Winnicki paid homage at
the Iranian Embassy in Warsaw on Friday, attending ceremonies marking
the 39th anniversary of the Islamic Revolution - a sign that the
regime in Tehran, which actively promotes Holocaust denial, spots a
potential propaganda opportunity from the diplomatic row between
Poland, Israel and the US triggered by widely-censured legislation
that makes any discussion of Polish collusion with the Nazi genocide
of the Jews a criminal offense.
Some Iranian citizens who had joined the Islamic State
in Iraq and Afghanistan have tried to enter Iran to conduct terrorist
attacks, revealed Mohsen Rezaei, the secretary of Iran's Expediency
Council and former chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards
Corps (IRGC).
FOREIGN AFFAIRS
Iran's President Hassan Rouhani will visit India this
week for three days, local media reported on Monday (Feb 12). Rouhani
is due to leave for India on Thursday to discuss "the latest
regional and global developments", the semi-official ISNA news
agency said. He was invited by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last
year, ISNA said.
SYRIA & IRAN
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said on
Monday that Russia, Turkey and Iran had discussed a possible meeting
of their foreign ministers on Syria, which could be held in Kazakhstan's
Astana in March, the TASS news agency reported.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
The commander of Khatam al-Anbia Construction
Headquarters, a conglomerate of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps
(IRGC), has dismissed latest criticism of the organization's
increasing role in the Iranian economy.
I was in the Italian city of Milan on April 15, 2015,
when I decided to attend the local soccer match at San Siro
Stadium... Since emigrating from Iran in 2012, I had often dreamed of
the day. In fact, I had been dreaming of the day since I was 10 years
old.
"You are no artist if you are drawing on a wall
with spray paint. You are either a vandal or a political activist
scribbling a slogan," Iranian graffiti artist "Mad"
said of the longstanding public's opinion on street art. The first
generation of Iranian underground graffiti artists started painting
on Iran's walls around the beginning of the 21st century, and the new
generation of Iranian artists continue to transform the walls of
Iran's cities - from Tehran to Tabriz, from Mashhad to Shiraz.
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