via Lobe Log
by Farideh Farhi
Much about various Iranian and non-Iranian narratives and reporting on the assassination of General Hassan Shateri (aka Khoshnevis) is unclear or contradictory. Let’s just say that reports cannot even agree on the date he died on. So I leave it to others to practice the art of speculation [...]
via Lobe Log
by Farideh Farhi
This Washington Post article about Iran and Hezbollah building networks in Syria in the event of Bashar al-Assad’s fall is certainly eye-catching. It’s also suggestive of Iranian shrewdness in trying to make the best out of every situation they face in the region.
Assad’s turmoil was supposed [...]
via Lobe Log
As the Iranian leadership prepares to engage in negotiations with the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany (P5+1), the conversation inside Iran has moved beyond the nuclear issue to include a debate about the utility of or need for engaging in direct talks, even relations, with [...]
via Lobe Log
Benoit Faucon reports for Dow Jones News Service on measures that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps — which is subject to US sanctions under the Treasury Department’s “Designated IRGC Affiliates and Designated Iran-Linked Financial Institutions” list — has taken to tighten its economic control in Iran:
The withdrawal of Western [...]
via Lobe Log
On Monday the Wall Street Journal published a breathless article about Iran sending troops to bolster Syria. Quite a bit of the piece is a re-write of a previous story based on anonymous sources and speculation about Iranian hostages in Syria, some of whom are reportedly retired members of [...]
Despite well-informed skepticism about the likelihood that the alleged “Iranian plot” was organized by the Iranian government, prominent U.S. hawks and neoconservatives are beating war drums for retaliatory trikes against Iran. According to IPS News Washington Bureau Chief, Jim Lobe:
Key neo-conservatives and other right-wing hawks who championed the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq are [...]
The facts behind the alleged “Iranian plot” are being buried beneath leaked intelligence reports which have been distorted and fed to the media writes regular Inter Press Service contributor, Gareth Porter:
The primary objective of the FBI sting operation involving Iranian- American Manssor Arbabsiar and a Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) informant that was started last [...]
Cigarettes, Wrigley’s chewing gum, Louisiana hot sauce, weight-loss remedies, body-building equipment, and sports rehabilitation equipment. These are just some of the items which, thanks to a lengthy investigative article published by The New York Times, we now know are exempt from the “biting” sanctions which the Barack Obama administration has imposed against Iran.
The [...]
We’ve already covered the announcement of new sanctions against Iran ahead of upcoming talks in Istanbul, but recent reports have provided a troubling broad and detailed picture that suggests the U.S. dual-track approach — pressure and engagement — might be going off the rails.
Here’s the Wall Street Journal’s Jay Solomon on Tuesday, [...]
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Hawks Warn that Iran hyperinflation no cause for US celebration (yet)
via Lobe Log
Commentary magazine’s Jonathan Tobin warns the Obama Administration that it should not chalk up Iranian hyperinflation (the rial fell to 35,000:1 against the US dollar this week) and the outbreak of bazaar protests over the situation as a sign of success in forcing the Islamic Republic to abandon its [...]