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Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is no fan of gender equality, which he routinely decries as a Western concept that damages women and distracts them from their vital roles as wives and mothers.

And again this week, at a speech on March 19 marking the birth of the daughter of the Prophet Muhammad, Fatima Zahra, Khamenei doubled down, suggesting that Westerners themselves are having second thoughts.

"Today, Western thinkers and those who pursue issues such as gender equality regret the corruption that it has brought about," said the man who has the final say in religious and political matters in a country of 83 million people.

He even blasted gender equality as a "Zionist plot" aimed at corrupting women's role in society.

"Making women a commodity and an object of gratification in the Western world is most likely among the Zionist plots aiming to destroy society," Khamenei was also quoted as saying.

Women in Iran are denied equal rights before the law in divorce, child custody, inheritance, and other areas. A woman's testimony in court is considered to be half the value of a man's. Women need the permission of their father or husband to travel. And women are forced to cover their hair and body.

There are rare reports of women being sentenced to death by stoning, although it is unclear how many such sentences are carried out under Iran's opaque justice system.

Khamenei suggested that Western views of women used to be "more decent," "more prudent," and "more suitable" with "the nature of men and women."

"When you look at the literature in European countries in the 18th and 19th centuries, it was absolutely different from the 20th century," Khamenei said. He added that "it is obvious that there has been political work from the Zionist and the colonial system."

Khamenei went on to say that Iran's overwhelmingly male, clerically dominated establishment does not aim to keep women at home. Yet he added that, in his eyes, the roles of mother and wife are the most important a woman can play.

"The role a woman can play as a family member is in my view more important than all other roles that a woman can play," the Iranian leader said. "The question is whether a woman has the right to ruin her role as a mother and a wife because of all the good, interesting, and sweet [opportunities] that could be there for her outside the family environment."

Khamenei has said in the past that the effort to establish equality between men and women was "one of the biggest intellectual mistakes" of the Western world. "Why should a job that is masculine be given to a woman? What kind of honor is it for a woman to do a man's job?" he asked in a 2014 speech.

Iranian hard-liners routinely accuse women's rights champions of promoting "obsolete" feminist views and claim that such views and demands are anti-Islamic.

In December, the head of Iran's female Basij militia called the promotion of gender equality illegal and demanded that the country's powerful judiciary take action against people who speak out against gender discrimination.

Women's rights activists have been persecuted by the Iranian state through interrogation, arrest, and jail sentences. Many have been forced to leave the country.

Homa Hoodfar, a retired professor at Concordia University in Montreal known for her work on gender relations, was imprisoned in Iran last year for more than 100 days for what a state prosecutor called "dabbling in feminism and security matters."

Iran's lone Nobel laureate, lawyer and 2003 Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, now lives abroad following years of persecution for her work on human rights cases.

In a 2009 contribution to The Guardian, Ebadi noted that "despite the cultural, social and historical heritage of Iranian women, the Islamic republic has imposed discriminatory regulations against them."

She added, "The laws imposed on Iranian women are incompatible with their status and, consequently, the equality movement is very strong."

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Iran's Supreme Leader Takes Fresh Shot At Gender Equality - RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty

Girls play near a sign at Mount Bental, an observation post on the Israeli side of the Golan Heights, overlooking the Syrian side of the Kuneitra crossing. (photo credit:REUTERS/BAZ RATNER)

The United States, Russia and Israel have reportedly reached a consensus on the need to restrict and eventually expel pro-Iranian forces from gaining influence in Syria, the Kuwati daily newspaper Al-Rai reported Saturday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to the Arab outlet, has reached an understanding with Washington and Moscow that pro-Iranian forces, including Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah, constitute an "existential threat" to the Jewish state.

This threat, therefore, necessitates Israeli action in Syria, including conducting airstrikes and other assaults to keep weapons and advancing militias as far as possible from Israel's northern border.

According to anonymous US officials who spoke to the Kuwaiti publication, Israel's targeting of pro-Iranian forces in the South of Syria is being accompanied by Russian pressure in the center and North to help stabilize the country. Russia is also reportedly open to withdrawing its forces in certain areas, leaving the Syrian army loyal to President Bashar Assad to take over.

Israel hopes, with the help of Russia and the United States, that this pressure will help weaken pro-Iranian military entities to the point where they can be removed from the battle-scarred nation.

But Iran's meddling in the Syrian Civil War, which has raged for nearly six-years now and has claimed over 400,000 lives, makes that a difficult proposition, one US senior official told Al-Rai. Theran helped prop up the Assad regime soon after civil strife broke out in 2011, giving them a foothold in Damascus.

This has officials in Jerusalem worried, who loath to see a Iranian presence so close to Israeli territory. So It remains to be seen what calculations Assad and Russia have for the pro-Iranian presence in Syria and whether or not their influence can be abated.

Israel has publicly admitted that it has previously conducted assaults in Syria, an unusual step for a country known for its reticence concerning military operations.

Just recently, while on a state visit to China, Netanyahu reiterated that the Israel Air Force will continue to execute missions in Syria to contain threats against the country, and said he made this clear to Russian President Vladimir Putin when the two leaders met in Moscow earlier this month.

We attack if we have information and have operational feasibility," Netanyahu stated, adding: "This will continue.

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Report: US, Russia agree to help Israel 'expel' Iran from Syria - Jerusalem Post Israel News

While the Washington, D.C., media was focusing on the status of the tottering Republican health care proposal Thursday, a group of U.S. senators did something quite remarkable. They introduced a bipartisan plan to hold Middle East terror sponsor Iran accountable for its actions.

The six sponsors include Bob Corker, R-Tenn., Marco Rubio, R-Fla., Tom Cotton, R-Ark., Ben Cardin, D-Md., Bob Menendez, D-N.J., and Bob Casey, D-Pa.

Five of the six voted for the 2015 congressional resolution disapproving former President Barack Obama's one-sided nuclear deal with Iran, which won a majority of votes but failed to get the needed 60 votes to keep Obama from having to veto it.

Only Casey voted against the resolution, but he's up for re-election in 2018 and may not want another pro-Iran vote on his record.

The Countering Iran Destabilizing Activities Act also has four Republican co-sponsors and four Democratic co-sponsors, so it is truly an outlier in bills that come before Congress these days.

Among other things, the bill would impose mandatory sanctions on persons involved with Iran's ballistic missile program and those entities that transact with them, would apply terrorism sanctions to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (a branch of the country's armed forces) and would list individuals who are currently sanctioned due to Iranian support for terrorism, and would require the president to block the property of any person or entity involved in specific activities related to the supply, sale or transfer of prohibited arms and related material to and from Iran.

Iran, of course, has violated the 2015 agreement several times, especially where the use of ballistic missiles is concerned.

Menendez said the measure would help the U.S. "speak with one voice" on keeping "Iran accountable for its continued nefarious actions across the world as the leading state sponsor of terrorism." He said it would not interfere with U.S. commitments under the Iran deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

However, Cardin said the JCPOA does not keep the U.S. from sanctioning Iran for its support for terrorism, human rights violations and pursuit of ballistic missiles.

"This legislation demonstrates the strong bipartisan support in Congress for a comprehensive approach to holding Iran accountable by targeting all aspects of the regime's destabilizing actions," Corker said in a news release. "These steps will allow us to regain the initiative on Iran and push back forcefully against this threat to our security and that of our allies."

Since President Trump said in February he was putting Iran "on notice" for missile tests and a missile attack on a Saudi ship, we hope Congress will speedily approve this bipartisan bill and put teeth behind the president's words.

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Cooper: A bipartisan(!) bill on Iran - Chattanooga Times Free Press

Foreign Policy (blog)

In Venezuela's Toxic Brew, Failed Narco-State Meets Iran-Backed Terrorism Foreign Policy (blog) Of no less concern is Venezuela's long history of collaboration with Iran, including sanctions evasion, terror finance, and ideological subversion. During the presidencies of Hugo Chvez and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Caracas was a key facilitator of Tehran ...

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In Venezuela's Toxic Brew, Failed Narco-State Meets Iran-Backed Terrorism - Foreign Policy (blog)

Leaders in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and Washington, DClong argued, without muchevidence,that Yemen's Houthi rebels are puppets of Tehran. Those arguments, which many saw as exaggerated, are now beginning to ring true.

The notion of a proxy war in Yemen is not new. Saudi Arabia and the US State Departmentcited theIran/Houthi connection to justify the launch of a massive military operation designed to drive the group from power. They argued that Iran would turn Yemen into a Shiitestronghold on Saudi Arabia's southern border, enabling Tehran to exert influence there as it does inLebanon, Syria and Iraq.

The Houthis, known in Yemen as Ansar Allah, usethe"Death to America"slogan which originated in Iran and is frequently invokedby the Iranian-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. But beyond the shared rhetoric, there is scant evidence that the Houthis aimto project Iranian power on the Arabian Peninsula.

The Houthis are homegrown. Their name comes from the Houthi family, who launched a religious revival in northern Yemen. In the 1990s, when Salafists began preaching the Saudi brand of Wahhabi Islam on what was essentially Houthi turf, the head of the family, Hussein al-Houthi, led a movement to reaffirm Zaidi Shiitetraditions that had guided Yemeni culture for centuries.

Yemens central government saw Houthi'sgrowing influence as a security threat.Under the leadership of then-President Ali Abdullah Saleh, Yemeni armed forces launched a series of wars to beat back the Houthis. In 2009, Saudi Arabia sent its own troops to join in the fight to subdue the Houthis.

By 2011, as populist fervor was coursing through the Arab world, the Houthis had joined with other anti-government groups in Yemen to hasten the downfall of President Saleh. They argued that his leadership had become corrupt, and they called for his ouster.

In 2012, Saleh was forced to transfer executive power to his vice president, Abdo Monsuer Hadi. The same year, the Houthis came to the negotiating table to help draft a power-sharing agreement with other Yemeni factions through a UN-sponsored National Dialogue Conference.

But the NDC came up with recommendations that would have provided the Houthis with less than complete control of their historic lands in the north.

The Houthis were having none of that, and in a political move that continues to confuse observers, they formed a political alliance with their longtime nemesis, the deposed Saleh, who was already seeking to regain power in 2013.

Reporter Iona Craig, who was then living in Sanaa, recalls that the Houthis, with Salehs formidable political and military connections, were able in 2014 to gain control of northern Yemeni cities including the capital, Sanaa. Certainly at the beginning of this war it was Saleh who was really the driving force behind the Houthis and, yes, they were politically aligned to Iran but there was very little evidence, really, of the Iranians supporting the Houthis.

There was no need for Iranian weapons in 2014. Saleh may have been out of office, but he still controlled much of the well-stocked, American-supplied Yemeni arsenal.

By March 2015, the Houthi/Saleh forces had conquered most of Yemens major cities anddrivenout the caretaker government of President Hadi, thoroughly alarming the Saudi government that supported him.

On March 26, 2015, Saudi Arabia leda bombing campaign to take out the Houthi military and its weapons. The Saudis also instituted a naval blockade aimed at preventing Iranian weapons from entering Yemen. Both the air and sea operations continue as of this writing.

And while claims of Iranian weapons deliveries were seen to be groundless in the opening months of the Yemen war, there is evidence now that the Iranians are assisting the Houthis militarily.

In the last few months as you know we're going into the third year of war now in Yemen there has been growing evidence of Iranian involvement on the weapons front, says reporter Craig. Ballistic missiles have clearly been modified, and new missiles have been built in Yemen to fire over the Saudi border long-range missiles that did not exist in the Yemeni arsenal before this warhave been used.

If Irans influence in Yemen was hard to detect before, it is unmistakeablenow. In the first months of 2017, the Houthis and Tehran have boasted of a newfound ability to attack Saudi Arabia. And as the war drags on, Iranian influence may grow.

This is the risk and this is the danger, says Craig. The longer this war goes on, the likelihood is of more Iranian involvement rather than less. That, says Craig, could drive Washington to step up its already significant material and logistical support of the Saudi-led military coalition.

And, Craig adds, it might even inspire the US to assume a more active role in Yemen. The Trump Administration[could start] their own proxy war with Iran by bombing the Houthis, she says, and that's the real danger now.

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If Yemen's Houthis weren't Iranian proxies before, they could be soon - PRI