city:tehran

Tehran Sends Hundreds of Iraqi Fighters to Join Iran-backed Militia in Aleppo

Sources confirm around 400 mercenaries, most of them from Iraq, arrived at Aleppo’s #Al-Mulhib barracks during the past few days

http://syrianobserver.com/tjcgArtImages/images/IMG-KQI-98582.jpg

Oman Air apologizes for maps using ‘Persian Gulf’ label

▻https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/oman-air-apologizes-maps-using-persian-gulf-label

C’est pour @reka bien entendu !

Sabah, la grande chanteuse libanaise, chante en anglais - Maximum you can touch me (du film A Man from Tehran, 1966)
▻https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flDreSTJfUI

c’est du twist?

#Musique #Musique_arabe #Sabah

IRGC’s Su-22 Fighter Jets Show Off Power in Air Show over Persian Gulf - Farsnews
▻http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950631000580

http://media.farsnews.com/media/Uploaded/Files/Images/1395/04/20/13950420000510_PhotoI.jpg

This was the first official public show of the Su-22 warplanes by the IRGC Air Force.

The IRGC’s EMB312 Tucano training aircraft also flew during the nationwide parades. 

Various units of the Islamic Republic Army, IRGC, Law Enforcement Police and Basij (volunteer) forces started nationwide parades in Tehran and other cities across the country on Wednesday morning.

In Tehran, the ceremony took place at the mausoleum of the Founder of the Islamic Republic, the Late Imam Khomeini, South of the capital.

The parades mark the start of the Sacred Defense Week, commemorating Iranians’ sacrifices during the 8 years of the Iraqi imposed war on Iran in 1980s.
[…]
The latest military and defense achievements made by Iranian experts were put on display at the parades, including the long-range Qadr F missile system with a range of 2,000km, Sejjil missile system with a range of 2,000km, Qadr H missile system with a range of 1,650km, Emad missile system with a range of 1,650km, Qassed smart bombs, Qaem, Nasr, Fakour 90 and a range of air-launched missiles, torpedoes, sea-based and coast-to-sea missiles.

Scores of other new products including different types of modernized tanks, armors, missile and rocket launchers, electronic, communications and CentCom systems as well as the long-range S-200 and S-300 air defense missile systems, mid-range Shalamche and Mersad missile systems and various naval vessels and coast and sea-based weapons systems went on display in the parades in the Southern port city of Bandar Abbas today.

The most important military product that went into display today was Zolfaqar Multiple Re-entry Vehicle.

Iran rolls out its own domestic, national internet

▻http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37212456

The government says the goal is to create an isolated domestic intranet that can be used to promote Islamic content and raise digital awareness among the public.

According to a report by Mehr, another Tehran-based news agency:
• the first phase of the rollout [which has just been completed] involves providing access to e-government services and domestic web pages
• a second phase, due in February 2017, will add domestic video content
• a third phase, due in March 2017, will introduce further services and provide support for companies involved in international trade

Does Saudi Arabia need relations with Israel?
Jamal Khashoggi
▻http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2016/09/04/Does-Saudi-Arabia-need-relations-with-Israel-.html

The worst thing Riyadh could do in terms of its public relations in the Muslim world is be allied with Israel against Iran. That would be the long-awaited gift Tehran is waiting for.

Farsnews
▻http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13950601001196

Les services secrets turcs en visite à Damas. Un signe supplémnetaire d’un réarrengement régional en #syrie.

TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT) Chief Hakan Fidan has sent one of its deputies to Damascus for talks with the Syrian officials on the latest developments in the Northern parts of the Arab country, Arab media outlets reported on Monday.

Al-Safir newspaper quoted informed sources as saying that one of Fidan’s deputies arrived in Damascus on Sunday to meet with the high-ranking Syrian security officials on the latest developments in Northern Syria.

Iran Executes Nuclear Scientist Who Was Convicted of Spying - The New York Times
▻http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2016/08/07/world/middleeast/ap-ml-iran-mysterious-scientist.html

Iran executed a nuclear scientist convicted of spying for the United States, an official said Sunday, acknowledging for the first time that the nation secretly detained and tried a man who was once heralded as a hero.

Shahram Amiri defected to the U.S. at the height of Western efforts to thwart Iran’s nuclear program. When he returned in 2010, he was welcomed with flowers by government leaders and even went on the Iranian talk-show circuit. Then he mysteriously disappeared.

He was hanged the same week that Tehran executed a group of militants, a year after Iran agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Les 28 pages:
▻http://intelligence.house.gov/sites/intelligence.house.gov/files/documents/declasspart4.pdf

Lire absolument: The Slow Death of the Syria Cease-Fire Brings a Hybrid War With Russia Closer
▻http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alastair-crooke/syria-cease-fire-russia_b_10510126.html

In brief, the cease-fire has failed. It was not observed. The U.S. made no real effort to separate the moderates from Nusra around Aleppo (as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has affirmed). Instead, the U.S. reportedly sought Nusra’s exemption from any Russian or Syrian attack. It reminds one of that old joke: “Oh Lord, preserve me from sin — but not just yet!” Or in other words, “preserve us from these dreadful jihadist terrorists, but not just yet, for Nusra is too useful a tool to lose.”

The cease-fire did not hasten any political solution, and Russia’s allies — Iran and Hezbollah — have already paid and will continue to pay a heavy price in terms of casualties for halting their momentum toward Aleppo. The opposition now has renewed vigor — and weapons.

It is hard to see the cease-fire holding value for Moscow much longer. The original Russian intention was to try to compel American cooperation, firstly in the war against jihadism and, more generally, to compel the U.S. and Europe to acknowledge that their own security interests intersect directly with those of Moscow and that this intersection plainly calls for partnership rather than confrontation.

The opposition now has renewed vigor — and weapons.
The present situation in Syria neither facilitates this bigger objective nor the secondary one of defeating radical jihadism. Rather, it has led to calls in Russia for a less conciliatory approach to the U.S. and for the Kremlin to acknowledge that far from preparing for partnership, NATO is gearing up for a hybrid war against Russia.

It is also hard to see the cease-fire holding any continuing value for Tehran either. While the Iran nuclear agreement seemed to hold out the promise of bringing Iran back into the global financial system, such expectations seem now to be withering on the vine. As a result, Iran is likely to feel released from self-imposed limitations of their engagement in Syria and in other parts of the Middle East. Damascus, meanwhile, only very reluctantly agreed to leave its citizens in Aleppo in some semi-frozen limbo. Iran and Hezbollah were equally dubious.

All this suggests renewed military escalation this summer. Russian President Vladimir Putin will probably not wish to act before the European summit at the end of June. And neither would he wish Russia to figure largely as an issue in the U.S. presidential election. Yet he cannot ignore the pressures from those within Russia who insist that America is planning a hybrid war for which Russia is unprepared.

America manages to infuriate both Sunni and Shia — FT.com
▻https://next.ft.com/content/aa1a17dc-3255-11e6-bda0-04585c31b153

But the reasons for Iran’s disaffection are very different. Euphoria greeted the lifting of punishing international sanctions in exchange for Tehran agreeing to externally monitored curbs on its nuclear programme. Iranians saw the chance to re-enter the world and reintegrate with its markets. Foreign investors scented an emerging markets bonanza of a scale last seen when the Soviet empire collapsed.

That optimism has largely evaporated, and the reason goes by the prosaic name of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, a branch of the US Treasury with extraordinary power and extraterritorial reach. International sanctions related to Iran’s nuclear programme have been lifted but #Ofac maintains in place robust “secondary sanctions” on individuals and entities the US accuses of “state-sponsored terrorism”, chief among them the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the regime’s enforcer at home and strike force abroad. Ofac’s sanctions brought Iran to the negotiating table but the economic dislocation they caused enabled the IRGC to build a business empire. Any foreign investor, or bank financing deals with even tangential ties to the revolutionary guard, risks being shut out of the US banking system.

[...]

As Adam Smith of Gibson Dunn, a leading US law firm, explains, Ofac’s power is greater than its formal regulatory role suggests, based on “ambiguity” that makes banks in particular do more than what the law strictly requires. “They have educated international banks to do this,” he says. “We don’t live in a purely legal world.”

Part of that education has been through punitive fines for breaking Iran sanctions, such as the nearly $9bn on BNP Paribas or around $1bn on Standard Chartered. The risk of being cut off from US credit markets is a formidable deterrent to any contact with Iran. “There is no institution so big that it can’t be de-banked,” says Mr Smith.

Some deals, such as Tehran’s plan to purchase more than 100 Airbus jetliners, are supposedly protected by the nuclear accord. Even that deal, requiring billions in credit, is on hold.

Ofac staff, Mr Smith points out, are the “same people who have spent their entire professional lives trying to eliminate access to Iran … and the banks steer clear of them. It’s a dissonance problem as much as a policy one.”

What makes the problem even more intractable is the number of actors, of which the US executive is just one (Ofac accounted for only about $1bn of the BNP Paribas penalty). Aggressive actors on Iran include the US Congress, different layers of the judiciary, state banking regulators, states that divest from companies with links to Iran — the list goes on. Iranian officials looking at Washington probably find their own famously convoluted structure of power straightforward by comparison. But if their leaders feel swindled by the historic nuclear deal, then its future is moot.

#Etats-Unis #hors_la_loi #lois

Hezbolá captura a varios oficiales de EEUU y de Francia en Alepo - HispanTV, Nexo Latino
▻http://hispantv.com/newsdetail/siria/256259/hezbola-captura-oficiales-eeuu-francia-alepo-frente-alnusra

Selon un site proche du Hezb au sud du Liban, les Hezbollah fait prisonnier des membres des forces spéciales (ou juste des mercenaires) étasusniens et français à Alep. Il s’agirait d’une réponse aux morts iraniens de Khan Touma ou à la mort de Mustafa badreddine près de Damas.

El Movimiento de Resistencia Islámica de El Líbano (Hezbolá) capturó a varios oficiales de EE.UU. y Francia que apoyaban a los grupos terroristas en la ciudad de Alepo, en el norte de Siria.

«En una operación compleja y precisa, las fuerzas especiales de Hezbolá arrestaron a un cabecilla de la llamada oposición armada de Siria, junto a varios oficiales de la Inteligencia de EE.UU. y Francia en las proximidades de Alepo», ha informado este sábado Southlebanon, página Web cercana al movimiento libanés.

Los militares detenidos, según indica la fuente, que cita fuentes de Hezbolá, han formado un centro de operaciones militares, desde donde dirigían los ataques de los grupos takfiríes como el Frente Al-Nusra, rama siria de Al-Qaeda, contra el Ejército sirio y sus aliados.

#syrie #mercenaires

La toponymie politique entre soft et hard power | NEOTOPONYMIE
▻http://neotopo.hypotheses.org/577

La nomination des lieux (place naming) a toujours une dimension politique par le biais de la sélection ou de la hiérarchisation qu’elle opère dans la commémoration et la mise en scène des mémoires et références collectives ou communautaires. Elle a aussi une dimension géopolitique lorsqu’elle promeut certaines représentations territoriales et/ou place certains espaces ou lieux en position dominante ou centrale.

#toponymie

Hajj Closed to Iranians After Year of Discord | Foreign Policy
▻http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/05/12/hajj-closed-to-iranians-after-year-of-discord

Last year, almost 75,000 Iranians went on the hajj — the annual pilgrimage to Mecca, a requirement of Islam, that many scrimp and save for years to afford.

This year, the Islamic Republic is set to send zero.

Since last year’s hajj, tensions between Shiite Iran and Sunni Saudi Arabia have peaked. Disaster marked the 2015 pilgrimage: A stampede, one of many in the hajj’s history, cost at least 2,426 lives, 464 of them Iranian. Iran said Saudi “incompetence” and “mismanagement” were to blame.

Relations between Riyadh and Tehran worsened in January, when Iranian protesters ransacked part of the Saudi Embassy after Saudi Arabia executed Shiite cleric Nimr al-Nimr. And both countries back different factions in the civil wars, which have come to serve as proxy battles, in Syria and Yemen.

On Thursday, an Iranian official told the country’s state media that negotiations to keep hajj open had come to an impasse. “We did whatever we could, but it was the Saudis who sabotaged” it, said Ali Jannati, Iran’s minister of culture and Islamic guidance.

Saudi officials contested that narrative. “The decision not to participate in this year’s hajj is a decision made solely by the Iranian government in what is clearly an effort to politicize the hajj,” a spokesperson for the Saudi embassy in Washington said in an email to Foreign Policy. “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has always welcomed all pilgrims. Any government that hinders or prevents its citizens from exercising their right to perform the pilgrimage, shall be held accountable before Allah and the entire world.”

Even if Tehran decided not to closed off the 2016 hajj, however, few Iranians would be able to go. Saudi Arabia cut diplomatic ties with Iran after January’s embassy incident in Tehran. Without the help of consulates or an embassy, Iranians looking to obtain hajj visas would have had to travel to other countries to apply. Even those willing and able to travel abroad for visas would likely have been wary, given last year’s tragedy and the mounting discord between the kingdom and the Islamic Republic.

U.S. launches long-awaited missile defense shield - CNNPolitics.com
▻http://edition.cnn.com/2016/05/11/politics/nato-missile-defense-romania-poland

The U.S. launched a new ground-based missile defense system in Romania Thursday, sparking fresh tensions with Russia, which quickly blasted the system as a threat to its security.

The system, to be operated by NATO, is getting up and running nearly a decade after the U.S. first announced plans to do so, only to encounter pushback from Russia. The U.S. has long insisted that the shield is directed against rogue states like Iran and not intended to target Moscow’s missiles, but Russian officials have slammed the move as an “attempt to destroy the strategic balance” in Europe.
“The United States’ Aegis ashore system is declared certified for operations,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Thursday at the ceremony launching the system.

“Missile defense is for defense,” he added. “It does not undermine or weaken Russia’s strategic nuclear deterrent.”
Russia has described the U.S. anti-missile shield in Europe as a “threat” and says it is taking “protective measures” to guard against it, the country’s state news agency TASS reported.
President Barack Obama scrapped the George W. Bush administration’s planned bilateral deployment of a different system to Poland and the Czech Republic and has instead pursued a NATO-centric approach using alternate technology.

The system is to be turned over to NATO command and will be housed at a U.S. naval support facility in Deveselu, Romania, the site of a Romanian military base. Construction will begin on an additional anti-missile platform in Poland on Friday.

The Aegis Ashore Missile Defense System unveiled Thursday is capable of firing SM-3 defensive missiles that can “defeat incoming short and medium range enemy missiles,” according to Lt. Shawn Eklund, a spokesman for the U.S. Navy.

Eklund told CNN that the facility will be manned by approximately 130 U.S. sailors. The inaugural ceremony for the new system will be attended by top U.S. and NATO military officials.
The Romania installation is the first land-based defensive missile launcher in Europe and will join other elements of the NATO defensive shield, including a command-and-control center at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, a radar installation in Turkey and four ships capable of identifying enemy missiles and firing their own SM-3s based in Rota, Spain.

The U.S. and NATO have continually stressed that the system is intended to defend Europe from Iran and its expanding arsenal. Tehran has continued to test-fire ballistic missiles following the internationally negotiated deal to limit its nuclear program.
But Russia has dismissed the justification.

“From the very outset we kept saying that in the opinion of our experts the deployment of an anti-missile defense poses a threat to Russia,” Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, according to the Tass News Agency. “The question is not whether measures will be taken or not; measures are being taken to maintain Russia’s security at the necessary level.”

Russia believes the missile defense system breaches a 1987 agreement it signed with the U.S.

In October, at a meeting of the meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club in Russia, Russian President Vladimir accused the U.S. of “lying” about a “hypothetical Iranian threat, which never existed” and called the system “an attempt to destroy the strategic balance.”

At a Wednesday press conference in Romania, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Frank Rose pushed back on Putin’s perspective.
“Russia has repeatedly raised concerns that U.S. and NATO missile defenses are directed against Russia and represent a threat to its strategic nuclear deterrent,” he said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”

He added that the “U.S. and NATO missile defense systems are directed against ballistic missile threats outside the Euro-Atlantic area. NATO and the United States have explained this to Russia many times over the years.”

Heather Conley, the director of the Europe Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told CNN that Russia has previously suggested that it could retaliate for the missile defense system by stationing S-300 surface-to-air missile systems in Crimea and Kaliningrad, its European enclave located between Poland and Lithuania.
[…]
But she added, “Despite an incredible amount of consultations with Russia, the Russians never bought the argument that the system was not directed at them.”

Article très intéressant d’Elijah Magnier sur les divergences actuelles entre Damas, Téhéran et le Hezbollah d’un côté et la Russie de l’autre quant à la cessation des hostilités :
Russia equivocates in Syria, Iran is confused and al-Qaeda takes the initiative
▻https://elijahjm.wordpress.com/2016/05/11/russia-equivocates-in-syria-iran-is-confused-and-al-qaeda-takes-
Morceaux choisis :

The Damascus and Moscow alliance faced with the cooperation of the Middle Eastern regional countries and the United States in Syria is failing at the moment. Al-Qaeda in al-Sham (Jabhat al-Nusra) although excluded from the Cease-fire, grabbed the initiative on the ground and counter attacked south of Aleppo with many allies: Ahrar al-Sham, Jund al-Aqsa, Jaish al-Sunnah and the Turkestan forces (all not excluded from the Cease-fire) fighting within the ranks of Jaish al-Fateh, the “army of conquest,” which includes more jihadist organizations and others more moderate.[...]
Now that over 97 cities and towns are engaged in the cessation of hostilities (COH), the Russian President Vladimir Putin needs a strong case to return to the Syrian arena in full force. Today, Moscow has placed itself alongside flexible American diplomacy, which in Syria changes according to developments and is unwilling to re-initiate a military campaign that could be considered aggressive to various countries in the Middle East. Such a flexible Russian attitude has angered Tehran and Damascus and their proxy allies, forcing them to alter plans of deployment.[...]
Decision makers in Syria say “Moscow gave the time for rebels to regroup and reorganise their offensives. There is no point in fighting and dying in areas we don’t need to hold on to. Before the Russian intervention, we were defending the main cities and no force could have managed to break in. Now we are on several fronts without serious coordination between all forces. It is time to change tactics and reduce military deployment”.[...]
“Countries in the region are prepared to wait seven more months for a new U.S. President who would interact with Assad more aggressively than President Barack Obama. These countries will continue supporting the rebels in the next 7 months, sending money and weapons so they are prepared for another confrontation. The allies of Damascus consider Russia has repeated what the late President of Egypt Anwar al-Sadat did in 1973 when he stopped the war suddenly and gave Israel the opportunity to regroup its forces, returning to regain the initiative and overcome the Egyptian third army, all of which resulted in the Camp David agreement”.[...]
It is therefore expected that Hezbollah, a strong and effective ally of Damascus, will modify its deployment plans on the battlefield to mitigate the human losses as long as there is an unclear horizon and that Russian politics in Syria are unclear, say the sources. Six months ago, Damascus and its allies decided to retreat to the main cities and abandon distant and rural areas, difficult to supply logistically and considered less strategic. Today, Hezbollah refuses to engage in all on-going battles when military plans are drawn up but not implemented, even with limited officers. If Russia is willing to hit only ISIS in the East of Syria and refrain from hitting al-Nusra and other jihadists spread in vast area around Aleppo, Hezbollah is not willing to lose more men to keep a status quo. There will be no withdrawal from Syria but redeployment and reduce participation in many forthcoming battles, according to sources on the ground.
A fuzzy future is overwhelming Syria. It seems that the appeasing Russian policy of appeasement with regard to Jahbat al-Nusra, Ahrar al-Sham and other jihadists will negatively affect the Syrian army provided that there are no other changes in the Syrian dynamic. The war in Syria is not expected to end soon.

Article original en arabe dans le journal koweïtien al-Raï ici : ▻http://www.alraimedia.com/ar/article/special-reports/2016/05/10/678502/nr/syria

Why America Needs #Iran in Iraq - POLITICO Magazine
▻http://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/05/why-america-needs-iran-in-iraq-213865

It’s time for some serious dialogue with Iran about Iraq. The chaos in Baghdad, culminating in the temporary occupation of the parliament by followers of Shiite Islamist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, is undermining the war against the Islamic State, weakening Iraq’s economy, and accelerating the country’s disintegration. Without cooperation between the United States, Iran and Iraq’s top Shiite cleric, Ayatollah Sistani, the crisis could very well lead to the collapse of the entire political system set up in Iraq during the temporary U.S. occupation. And that in turn could open the door to permanent occupation by the Islamic State and other violent anti-U.S. terrorist organizations.

To prevent this Washington needs Tehran’s help. And Iran should be as motivated to seek stability as much as Washington because currently it is losing favor in Iraq; [...]

#Irak #Etats-Unis #ISIS

Four reasons Sisi won’t turn against Iran - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/iran-saudi-egypt-sisi-rapprochment-salman-visit.html

Avoiding confrontation: Does Egypt even want to confront Iran? There is no clear cut answer to this question, although its regional policy and strategic choices toward Middle Eastern hotspots — such as Syria and Yemen — show a tendency for rivalry with Riyadh and especially Ankara rather than any sort of inclination to confront Tehran. Although there is no such thing as regional cooperation between Egypt and Iran, confronting Iran is not on Sisi’s agenda. The Egyptians are reflecting Riyadh’s rhetoric toward Iran obviously for economic reasons, but the economic dimension has its limits in shaping politics, especially when it comes to strategic choices.
Limited potential: What can Egypt add to Saudi’s regional effort against Iran? The answer is “not much.” In fact, Egypt’s strategic potential in the Middle East is so limited that it couldn’t stop Qatar from backing the Egyptian opposition. Although having Cairo within its anti-Iran camp would have some political ramifications, Riyadh is putting a lot of effort into getting more than just political backing from Sisi. Faced with a lack of a much-needed strategic — and effective — ally, Riyadh is struggling to create one out of Egypt. Yet on a cost-benefit analysis, Egypt is perhaps too much of a cost for Saudi Arabia to raise any concern in Tehran.

Read more: ▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/05/iran-saudi-egypt-sisi-rapprochment-salman-visit.html#ixzz47gNYqyef

Dans un article du Financial Times sur le refroidissement des relations saudo-américaines, on nous balance une petite bombe, comme ça, avec l’air de ne pas y toucher.
Selon FT, le ministre des affaires étrangères saoudien (jusqu’en 2015), feu le prince Saoud al-Faysal, aurait déclaré à Kerry après la prise de Mossoul par Da’ich en juin 2014 : « Da’ich est notre [aux Sunnites] réponse à votre soutien à Da’wah »
Da’wah est le parti chiite irakien dont sont issus aussi bien l’actuel 1er ministre irakien, al-Abadi, que le précédent, alors en poste au moment de cette supposée déclaration, Nouri al-Maliki.
En clair nous, les Saoudiens, soutenons Da’ich car vous, les Américains, soutenez les chiites en Irak.

Mutual suspicion frays historic US-Saudi ties
Financial Times / 20.04.16
▻http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/876a971c-0644-11e6-a70d-4e39ac32c284.html#axzz46V6HcJMi

After the Iraqi city of Mosul fell to a lightning Isis offensive in 2014, even the late Prince Saud al-Faisal, the respected Saudi foreign minister, remonstrated with John Kerry, US secretary of state, that “Daesh [Isis] is our [Sunni] response to your support for the Da’wa” — the Tehran-aligned Shia Islamist ruling party of Iraq.

Via Moon of Alabama

Le Washington Post nous avait déjà rapporté, en janvier 2016, cette parole de Moshe Yaalon (ministre de la Défense israélien) selon laquelle s’il avait à choisir entre Da’ich et Assad, il choisirait Da’ich : ►https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2016/01/19/israeli-defense-minister-if-i-had-to-choose-between-iran-and-isis-id-choose-isis/?tid=sm_tw

Speaking at the Institute for National Security Studies’ (INSS) conference in Tel Aviv on Jan. 19, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon made a bold statement: If he had to choose between Iran and the Islamic State, he told the audience, he’d “choose ISIS.”

Pour confirmer, Michael Oren, ex-ambassadeur aux USA et associé à l’actuelle coalition au pouvoir en Israel nous a fait un remake, rapporté dans le Wall Street Journal ce 17 mars :
▻http://www.wsj.com/articles/israels-main-concern-in-syria-iran-not-isis-1458207000

“If we have to choose between ISIS and Assad, we’ll take ISIS. ISIS has flatbed trucks and machine guns. Assad represents the strategic arch from Tehran to Beirut, 130,000 rockets in the hands of Hezbollah, and the Iranian nuclear program,” said Michael Oren, a prominent lawmaker from Israel’s governing coalition and a former ambassador to Washington.

Parce que comme l’explique Dore Gold, du ministère des affaires étrangères :

Asked in an interview to state Israel’s main objective in Syria, Dore Gold, the director-general of the foreign ministry, said: “At the end of the day, when some kind of modus vivendi is reached inside of Syria, it is critical from the Israeli standpoint that Syria does not emerge as an Iranian satellite incorporated fully into the Iranian strategic system.”

Comment l’Iran perçoit le retrait partiel des forces russes de Syrie ?
Selon cet article d’al-Monitor, assez sereinement, même si l’on se demande quel genre d’accord a pu être passé par les Russes avec les USA.
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/03/iran-reaction-russia-withdrawal-syria.html

Mehdi Mohammadi, who was an adviser to the hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili, believes that due to the high probability of the cease-fires being extended, Russia decided to pull some troops from Syria because of the costs of provisioning operational forces. He added that there are enough troops to carry out attacks against terrorist groups when needed.

Mohammadi wrote in Tansim March 15 that Russia had informed both Damascus and Tehran of the details of the withdrawal. The main question, according to Mohammadi, is, “What concession has America and the opposition agreed to in exchange [for the Russian withdrawal]?” Mohammadi, without specifying to whom he might be referring, added, “Whatever it is, there is a great strategist standing behind these events.”

Moscow informed Washington, Damascus and Tehran of its intention to reduce forces in Syria
▻https://elijahjm.wordpress.com/2016/03/16/moscow-informed-washington-damascus-and-tehran-of-its-intention-

Russian aircraft continue leaving Hammymeem military base daily for two destinations: One back home and another to continue bombing ISIS positions. Six months ago, Russia has managed, in few days, to establish a vast military operation in Syria and turn the course of the war. If the Cease-fire falls apart, the over hundred jets will return also in a matter of days for the “plan B”.

#Syrie #Russie

Selon Robert Fisk dans the Independent, qui consacre un article aux rapports de plus en plus tendus de l’Arabie saoudite vis à vis du Liban (et notamment du Hezbollah), l’Iran aurait proposé une aide de 7 milliards à l’armée libanaise pour compenser les plus de 3 milliards que la monarchie saoudienne vient de lui retirer :
▻http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/saudi-arabia-turns-on-lebanon-for-its-unfaithfulness-and-lack-of-grat

The Saudis will probably regret this assault. Pulling Lebanon’s financial magic carpet away opens the country up to other “friends”, not least Iran which, according to the latest Beirut reports, would be happy to fund the Lebanese army to the tune of £7bn – providing, of course, the newly purchased weapons come from Tehran, and not from Paris.
The Americans and the British, desperate to prop up the secular Lebanese army with enough weapons to protect the country from Isis – which briefly took over the north-eastern Lebanese town of Ersal and still holds nine Lebanese soldiers captive – are pleading with the Saudis to keep their original £3.2bn promise.

Oman Port Targets Bigger Iran Shipping Ties - gCaptain
▻https://gcaptain.com/oman-port-targets-bigger-iran-shipping-ties

Oman aims to expand shipping and trade links with Iran and get ahead of rivals after the lifting of international sanctions on Tehran, leading port officials involved say.

Measures were lifted last month as part of a nuclear deal with world powers, ending years of isolation which saw the international shipping sector cut ties and disrupt supplies to import-dependent Iran.

The United Arab Emirates previously enjoyed greater shipping activity with Iran but Oman’s nearby Sohar port is looking at expanding ties.

Oman could also benefit from a spat between rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran which saw Riyadh cut ties last month and others like the UAE to downgrade relations. Annual UAE-Iran container trade pre-sanctions was estimated at 1.5 million TEUs (20-foot equivalent units).

Reports cited by ship insurers pointed to a ban on all Iranian flagged ships calling at Saudi ports and neighbouring ally Bahrain.
[…]
Sohar, a 50-50 joint venture between the government of Oman and the Dutch port of Rotterdam, acts as the port authority and landlord and runs its 45 km freezone.

Women win big in Iran’s parliamentary elections - Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East
▻http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/02/iran-parliamentary-elections-women-elected-double-mps.html#

The Islamic Republic’s 10th parliamentary elections have yielded a significant victory not only for Reformists, but also for women pushing for change in Iranian society. While the final nationwide results are not expected until March 1; early numbers show twice the number of female members as in the previous parliament. Though ballots from many districts are still uncounted, it is clear that the number of women will reach at least 22. Thus far, 15 women have won seats in Parliament, and 14 of them are Reformists. These include all eight women on the Reformist-moderate “List of Hope” in Tehran, where the results are set to be finalized on Feb. 29.