New York Times | U.S. Wrestlers Find They Have Passionate Fans in Iran - The New ... New York Times The American Freestyle Wrestling team on Saturday in Tehran before returning to the United States. Credit Arash Khamooshi for The New York Times. |
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U.S. Wrestlers Find They Have Passionate Fans in Iran - The New ... - New York Times
Irans Foreign Ministry has dismissed as unconstructive Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu's recent anti-Iran claims, saying Turkeyand certain other "delusional" countries are responsiblefor instability and insecurity in the Middle East.
Those who have carried outmeddlesome, illegal and illegitimate measures, supportedterrorist groups and causedbloodshed and escalationof tensions and instability in the region cannot evade liabilityfor such moves by playing a blame game, Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Sunday.
They cannot free themselves from their self-imposed quagmire by leveling accusations against others, he added.
The Islamic Republic of Irans regional policy has always been and will be based on maintaining the stability and security of all countries and neighbors, the Iranian spokesperson said.
Qassemi emphasized that many fair governments and nations in the region and across the world have acknowledgedsuch a policy pursued by Iran and welcome it.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Sunday, the Turkish foreign minister criticized what he called an Iranian "sectarian policy" aimed at undermining Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, saying, "Turkey is very much against any kind of division, religious or sectarian.
Turkish minister's remarks came despite the fact that his country is widely known as a staunch supporter ofmilitants wreaking havoc in Syria, providing them with money and arms as well as free passage through Turkish soil to Syria.
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Iran rejects 'unconstructive' claims by Turkish FM - Press TV
MUNICH U.S. Republican senators plan to introduce legislation to impose further sanction on Iran, accusing it of violating U.N. Security Council resolutions by testing ballistic missiles and acting to "destabilize" the Middle East, a U.S. senator said Sunday.
"I think it is now time for the Congress to take Iran on directly in terms of what theyve done outside the nuclear program," Senator Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told the Munich Security Conference.
Graham said he and other Republicans would introduce measures to hold Iran accountable for its actions.
Tensions between Tehran and Washington have risen since a Iranian ballistic missile test which prompted U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to impose sanctions on individuals and entities linked to the country's Revolutionary Guards.
"Iran is a bad actor in the greatest sense of the word when it comes to the region. To Iran, I say, if you want us to treat you differently then stop building missiles, test-firing them in defiance of U.N. resolution and writing 'Death to Israel' on the missile. That's a mixed message," Graham said.
Senator Christopher Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told the same panel there was nothing preventing Congress from imposing sanctions beyond those that were lifted as a result of the 2016 nuclear agreement with Iran.
Murphy, a Democrat, told the panel that he had backed the nuclear deal in the explicit understanding that it would not prevent Congress from taking actions against Iran outside the nuclear issue.
"There's going to be a conversation about what the proportional response is," Murphy said, referring to Iran's missile test. "But I don't necessarily think there's going to be partisan division over whether or not we have the ability as a Congress to speak on issues outside of the nuclear agreement."
Murphy said the United States needed to decide whether it wanted to take a broader role in the regional conflict.
"We have to make a decision whether we are going to get involved in the emerging proxy war in a bigger way than we are today, between Iran and Saudi," he said.
Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammed Java Zarf told the conference earlier on Sunday that Iran did not respond well to sanctions or threats.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and John Irish. Editing by Jane Merriman)
BAGHDAD/SOUTH OF MOSUL, Iraq U.S.-backed Iraqi forces on Sunday launched a ground offensive to dislodge Islamic State militants from their remaining stronghold in Mosul, in the western part of the city, and put an end to their ambitions for territorial rule in Iraq.
KUALA LUMPUR Four North Korean suspects in the murder of the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un fled Malaysia on the day he was attacked at Kuala Lumpur airport and apparently killed by a fast-acting poison, police said on Sunday.
BEIRUT Syrian government forces fired rockets at a rebel-held area on Damascus's outskirts on Sunday, pressing an attack that began the day before and has killed up to 16 people, a medical worker and war monitors said.
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US senators consider sanctions against Iran for missile development - Reuters
As the General Michael Flynns political star sets amidst continued controversy, the Trump administration is facing its first foreign policy tests less than a month after the inauguration. Unsurprisingly, the two actors who are actively testing President Trumps resolve come straight from George W. Bushs axis of evil: Iran and North Korea, two of Americas most implacable adversaries.
What is more intriguing is whether the two are coordinating their ballistic missile tests and how much support they are receiving from their sugar daddies in Moscow and Beijing.
Future sanctions may involve not just the two terror-supporting states, but companies in Russia and China that are working to boost the missile efforts in both countries. Beyond that, the administration may consider broader deployment of missile defenses in the Middle East, South Korea, and Japan, and potentially, U.S. tactical nuclear weapons in vicinity of the two aggressors.
North Korea recently testedthe Pukguksong-2, mobile medium-to-long range missile capable of reaching Japan, with the estimated range of over 500 kilometers. Analysts believethat this missile, a modification of a submarine-launched model, is solid-fuel, which means it takes much less time to prepare and fire than an older, liquid fuel models. Kim also claims to developan intercontinental ballistic missile capable of striking U.S. homeland.
And then there is Iran. Sources in the Arab Gulf suggest that Tehran may be involved in testing its nuclear weapons and developing its ICBMs in North Korea. Since Trumps election, the Islamic Republic has testedtwo medium range ballistic missiles, violatingthe spirit of the UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which codified the Obama administration-initiated Iran nuclear program compromise known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Being derivatives of the Soviet SCUD-B missile and the North Korean No Dong, these weapons can become nuclear-capable.
The North Korean launch was timed to coincide with the visit by the Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to Mar-a-Lago, the Winter White House, with the clear aim of disrupting the visit. The Iranian launches were likely timed to send a signal to the U.S. and in invitation to test its mettle.
It is also significant that the patrons of the two aggressor states were also tested: Russia by Iran, and China by North Korea. Both came to the aid of the provocateurs. Moscow announcedthat Iran did not violate the UN Security Council resolution. Beijing took matters one step further. Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang accused the U.S. and South Korea of responsibility for the missile tests.
As a reaction to the provocation from Teheran, Gen. Flynn put Iranon notice, while the Treasury Department imposed rather mild sanctions on 25 Iranian individuals and companies.
So, what can the Trump administration do? As it is being tested by bullies, the administration needs to show the perpetrators the limits of their disruptive behavior, and the U.S. allies need to be called to help. This means it is Washingtons turn, too, to test its allies. It also needs to reach out to Moscow and Beijing.
The Trump administration and U.S. allies also need to broaden their focus from Irans nuclear program to take in Teherans aggressive and disruptive behavior in the Middle East. Today, four Arab capitals: Baghdad, Damascus, Beirut and Sanaa, are effectively being controlled by Teheran. Moreover, Iran is a strategic ally of Russia in the Middle East, and it allowsRussian bombers to use its air space for air strikes in Syria.
The Europeans need to limit their rush to trade with Iran by conditioning investment in the Iranian economy on cessation of the missile program and expanding JCPOA to permanently stop uranium enrichment.
The IRGC, which runs the missile testing and production, as well as the nuclear program, need all their numerous businesses sanctioned inside and outside Iran. This should include IRGC leaders, their family members, and their businesses.
Any companies that do business with Irans military proxies, such as Lebanese and Iraqi Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels, which threaten navigation off the coasts of Yemen and at the strategic Bab-el-Mandeb straits, should also be sanctioned.
North Korea, in turn, is a strategic lever of China that is used to apply pressure on South Korea, Japan and the United States, while allowing Beijing plausible deniability. This needs to stop.
The Asian-Pacific countries should join the U.S. in sanctioning the North Korean regime and especially its leadership. Sources of hard currency for North Korea need to be intercepted and shut down, be it from legal or illicit activities, such as cheap labor exports to ASEAN and the Arab Gulf countries, or drug trade.
All countries concerned should shame Iran and North Korea for their persistent and brutal violations of human rights.
North Korea and Iran will not react to sweet talk. The bullies in Teheran and Pyongyang need to be stopped by a steadfast application of pressure, and sooner rather than later.
Ariel Cohen, PhD, is Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and Director, Center for Energy, Natural Resources and Geopolitics at the Institute for the Analysis of Global Security.
The views expressed by this author are their own and are not the views of The Hill.
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Trump's trials: Iran and North Korea - The Hill (blog)
Iran's Revolutionary Guards
Reuters
Iran is continuing its verbal attacks on the United States, with the latest comments coming on Saturday from Mohammad Pakpour, a commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
Speaking at a press conference in Tehran and quoted by the semiofficial Fars news agency, the commander warned American officials to be wise and stop threatening Iran with military aggression.
"U.S. statesmen should be very wise and avoid threatening Iran because the entire world has admitted this fact that the Americans cannot do such a thing," said Pakpour, who added that attacking Iran would be unwise.
Tensions between Washington and Iran have risen in recent weeks, after the Trump administration imposed new sanctions on 25 individuals and companies connected to Iran's ballistic missile program and those providing support to the Revolutionary Guard Corps' Qods Force.
The sanctions came in response to a ballistic missile test conducted by Iran last week, in violation of UN Resolution 2231, which bars Iran from conducting ballistic missile tests for eight years and which went into effect after the nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powers was signed.
Irans Foreign Ministry reacted angrily to the sanctions, vowing that it too would ensure "legal restrictions" were imposed on the "American individuals and companies which have a role in aiding extremist and terrorist groups or contribute to the suppression and murder of the defenseless people in the region.
The countrys Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, later dismissed calls from the Trump administration to cease the countrys ballistic missile tests, and said that Trump had showed the "true face" of America.
Iran has also threatened to attack Israel in response to an American attack on Iran. A senior Iranian official recently threatened his country would immediately strike Israel if the United States "makes a mistake" noting that "only 7 minutes is needed for the Iranian missile to hit Tel Aviv."
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Iranian commander: Attacking us would be 'unwise' - Arutz Sheva