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TOP STORIES
Iran tested and deployed a Russian-made anti-aircraft
missile system last year that has long worried U.S. and Israeli
military officials because it gives the Islamic Republic a
"generational improvement in capabilities," the Pentagon's
Defense Intelligence Agency disclosed.
A Tehran prosecutor says a woman who removed her
obligatory Islamic headscarf in public in late December has been
sentenced to 24 months in prison.
Iran's oil-and-gas industry was supposed to take off
after the nuclear deal. Instead, one of the world's largest energy
sectors is languishing. International oil companies are staying on
the sidelines as the Trump administration threatens to rip up the
2016 deal and reimpose oil sanctions lifted in exchange for limits on
its atomic-power program.
UANI IN THE NEWS
Speaking to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee
(AIPAC) policy conference on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu was right to call on the Trump administration to join with
Israel to stand up to the dangerous Islamic extremist government of
Iran. It's in our mutual self-interest for America and Israel to join
together against Iran, which seeks regional dominance and is an
avowed enemy of both our nations. Our first step should be to
effectively eliminate the Iranian threat from war-ravaged Syria.
United Against Nuclear Iran has added Norman Roule, a
former CIA officer, as a senior adviser.
HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNAL DISCONTENT
Iran's top legal authority wants to prosecute organisers
of a party arranged by Tehran City Hall commemorating Iranian Women's
Day, the semi-official ISNA news agency reported. A video of
Tuesday's event, during which young girls danced in front of a mixed
audience in the Iranian capital, was widely broadcast on social media
networks and criticised by conservatives.
We are coming up on March 8, International Women's Day,
and on that day, the Girls of Revolution Street movement has pledged
to take to the streets of Iran in a non-violent protest. Using the
hashtags #GirlsOfRevolutionStreet and #WhiteWednesdays on Twitter,
they have asked for global support for what they are trying to do -
gain the freedom to choose - and it really is as simple and universal
as that... We owe these women our support and our outrage, we owe
them to remember their names and the names of those who turn their
backs on their struggle, and we owe ourselves to remember what
International Women's Day and feminism is all about.
How likely are women to win the battle of the headscarf?
And what do these protests tell us about the state of Iranian
politics? The veil has long been a proxy for politics in Iran.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on
Thursday that Tehran would not negotiate over its presence in the
Middle East region with the United States and Europe.
CHINA & IRAN
China will build a train line connecting the Iranian
port of Bushehr to the rest of the country's railway network under a
$700 million deal signed on Wednesday.
SYRIA & IRAN
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian on Thursday
pressed Russia and Iran to use their influence over Syria's President
Bashar al-Assad to ensure Damascus respects a U.N. resolution calling
for a 30-day ceasfire.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and Iranian President
Hassan Rouhani agreed in a phone call on Wednesday to speed up
efforts for the implementation of a ceasefire in Syria's eastern
Ghouta region, a source in Erdogan's office said.
Iran is building and testing short- to medium-range
missiles armed with chemical warheads in Syria, former Syrian general
Zuhair al-Saqit told [The Jerusalem Post's sister publication]
Maariv. Al-Saqit, who heads the Center for the Detection and
Monitoring of the Use of Chemical Weapons in Belgium, also said that
Iran's Lebanon-based proxy Hezbollah is in possession of chemical
weapons, mostly handed to it by the Assad regime in order to hide
their existence from international monitors.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
Saudi Arabia's crown prince said Iran, Turkey and
extremist groups represent a "triangle of evil," and
predicted the kingdom's confrontation with Gulf Arab neighbor Qatar
could last for years.
IRAQ & IRAN
Iran continues to face obstacles in silencing its armed
opponents in Iraqi Kurdistan, where authorities recently offered
Tehran assurances to prevent Iranian Kurdish militants from causing
tension with Tehran.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Two weeks before the Iranian New Year, which begins on
March 21, lawmakers in Tehran are maneuvering to impeach three
members of moderate President Hassan Rouhani's administration.
Intriguingly, Reformist parliamentarians appear to be spearheading the
move.
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