“Heshmat Alavi”“Heshmat Alavi” who has published anti-Iran screeds in Forbes, the Daily Caller and other substandard rightwing venues, does not, according to The Intercept, actually exist.

The name is a front propaganda efforts of the People’s Jihadis (Mojahedin-e Khalq or MEK). The MEK has committed numerous acts of terrorism in Iran and then collaborated with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. It was listed as a terrorist organization the the US until a few years ago and it is mysterious why it was ever taken off the list. My own suspicion is that bribes were taken or influence peddling was practiced. ››read more

Iran says comments made by the French president in his meeting with US President Donald Trump will be of no help to saving the Iran nuclear deal and will just further deepen distrust among its signatories.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Mousavi made the remarks on Friday, reacting to Emmanuel Macron's call for fresh negotiations to "extend the terms of the JCPOA," as the nuclear deal is officially called.

"Under the current circumstances, their move to raise issues beyond the JCPOA will not only fail to help save the JCPOA, but will also prepare the grounds for further distrust among the parties remaining in the agreement," the spokesman said.

Such moves will also take the US closer to the goal behind its withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, namely the collapse of the multilateral deal, he added. ››read more

The fight against sanctions and military threats on Iran, which is the
objective of our campaign in CASMII, is without any doubt closely
connected to the liberation of Palestinian people. In fact, there
would have been no sanctions and pressure on Iran under the phoney
pretext of a nuclear weapons programme which has never existed in the
country, had the Islamic Republic of Iran not provided consistent and
staunch support to the cause of Palestinian struggle for freedom.
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While the Trump administration expects "maximum pressure" to leave Iran with no choice but to capitulate, the near-unanimous consensus in the country is that whatever happens, Iranians will resist.

The Islamic Republic's leadership has made it a point to convince the Iranian public that any appeasement of the US would amount to a surrender. It has responded to the Trump administration's threats with defiant rhetoric, which so far has worked.

While Iranians are suffering from the economic crisis, the US "maximum pressure" strategy is compelling them to rally around the flag, rather than try to "take down the regime". This is not only because the cultural value of resistance is relatively high, but also because the more the Iranian leadership resists foreign pressure, the more legitimacy it gains.

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Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has described new US sanctions against Iran as "economic terrorism," warning of “consequences" if the US keeps up its pressure against the Iranian nation.

In an exclusive interview with ABC news on Sunday, Zarif said Washington’s maximum pressure policy "targets ordinary Iranian people" and that Iran will respond in self- defense. ››read more

Juan ColeHe said that “War on Iran will not remain within that country’s borders, rather it will mean that the entire [Middle East] region will be set ablaze. All of the American forces and interests in the region will be wiped out, and with them the conspirators, first among the Israel and the Saudi ruling family.”

He said that all the flash points in the struggle between the Israeli-Saudi axis with Iran would be turned into active fronts. ››read more

Mohammed bin ZayedAbu Dhabi is panicking. Its crown prince, Mohammed bin Zayed, has supported every measure against Iran.

The US exit of its the nuclear accord with Iran; sanctions on Tehran; the creation of an Arab Nato; the holding of an "anti-Iran" conference in Poland; the designation of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation.

All this in an attempt to position his tiny emirate as the key pillar of Washington's policy towards the Islamic Republic. And now it's come back to bite him. ››read more

The US embassy in Sanaa may be closed today, but it was open on 9 December 2009 when Stephen Seche, the US ambassador, sent a detailed report to the State Department titled: “Who are the Houthis? How are they fighting?” Citing numerous sources, it says that the Houthis “obtain their weapons from the Yemeni black market” and by corrupt deals with government military commanders. A senior Yemeni intelligence officer is quoted as saying: “The Iranians are not arming the Houthis. The weapons they use are Yemeni.” Another senior official says that the anti-Houthi military “covers up its failures by saying that the weapons [of the Houthis] come from Iran.” ››read more

The IAEA has issued their latest regular statement on the P5+1 nuclear deal with Iran, confirming that once again Iran remains in full compliance with all of the limits on the deal. This has consistently been the case since the deal went into effect.

Even with Iran removing some voluntary limits on production and boosting the number of advanced centrifuges in use, Iran remained below stockpile limits on heavy water, and far below the stockpile limits on low-enriched uranium. ››read more

By any reckoning, the claim made this week by al-Qaeda-linked fighters that they were targeted with chemical weapons by the Syrian government in Idlib province — their final holdout in Syria — should have been treated by the western media with a high degree of scepticism.

That the US and other western governments enthusiastically picked up those claims should not have made them any more credible.

Scepticism was all the more warranted from the media given that no physical evidence has yet been produced to corroborate the jihadists’ claims. And the media should have been warier still given that the Syrian government was already poised to defeat these al-Qaeda groups without resort to chemical weapons—and without provoking the predictable ire (yet again) of the west. ››read more

A senior Iranian diplomat has described dialog with regional countries as a priority for Tehran, saying that the signing of a non-aggression pact — an Iranian initiative — can boost confidence among the Persian Gulf littoral states.

Iran’s Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Abbas Araqchi, who is on a three-nation tour of regional countries, made the remarks in a meeting with Qatari Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Doha on Tuesday. ››read more

During a press conference in Japan U.S. President Donald Trump today said (video):

"And I think we’ll make a deal."

Iran said: "No nuclear weapons." It said that several times. It continues to say that.

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Tehran says it pays little attention to the change in US President Donald Trump’s rhetoric on Iran, and that it will not hold talks with Washington until it also changes its behavior towards the Islamic Republic.

In early May, the Trump administration announced plans to build up Washington’s military presence in the Middle East to counter unspecified Iranian “threats,” shortly after toughening oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

However, in parallel with his belligerent policies, Trump has, on several occasions in the past weeks, offered to hold talks with Iran. ››read more

Pau PillarDisturbing similarities between the run-up to the Iraq War of 2003 and the Trump administration’s bellicosity toward Iran keep accumulating. They include war-selling rhetoric seemingly derived from the same script. But in some respects, the more striking parallel to the present occurred over half a century ago, beyond the living memory of most Americans. The time was August 1964, and the place was the dark nighttime waters of the Gulf of Tonkin. ››read more

"We've just recovered from Islamic State. Iraq must not be used as a base to try to harm any country. America doesn't want Iraq to be stable," protester Abu Ali Darraji told Reuters.

Sadr, whose political bloc won the most seats in Iraq's parliamentary election last year, is not considered a close ally of either the US or Iran.

The United States once described Sadr as the most dangerous man in Iraq, and designated his militia at the time, the Mehdi Army, a bigger threat to its forces than al-Qaeda during an insurgency against US troops after their 2003 invasion. ››read more

US military officials involved in planning wars in the Middle East say that despite all the talk of buildups against Iran, there exist no actual, executable plans for a large scale troop deployment into the Middle East, let alone for confronting Iran. ››read more

President Hassan Rouhani says the Islamic Republic will not surrender and stop defending its independence even if it is bombed and its men are killed, wounded, and captured.

The Iranian president made the remarks in a Thursday address to a group of war veterans in Tehran, amid heightened tensions between Tehran and Washington, and growing concerns about a possible military confrontation between the two sides.

"Iran won't give up [pursuing] the goal of maintaining its independence and dignity even if it is bombarded and its men are martyred, wounded, and captured," Rouhani said. ››read more

The world is increasingly alarmed at Donald Trump’s escalation of conflict with Iran - take action here! ››read more

WastnidgeAny informed reader will know how we got here. It started with Trump’s violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), otherwise known as the Iran nuclear deal. And let us just pause a moment here to think of the language used.

The US violation of this deal, agreed as it was between Iran and world powers, is rarely cited as such. Instead, we see repeated use of "withdrawal" "pulling out", "leaving", which all help sanitise a clear international treaty violation by the current US government. ››read more

GallegoUS Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego says that the United States has exaggerated what it describes as threats posed by Iran amid escalation of tensions between the two countries.

Gallego, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said he learnt during a classified briefing on Friday that intelligence had been manipulated into exaggerating the so-called threat, The Washington Post reported. ››read more