Iran has significantly stepped up military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in recent months, solidifying its position alongside Russia as the government’s lifeline in an increasingly sectarian civil war, Western diplomats said.Iranian weapons continue to pour into Syria from Iraq but also increasingly along other routes, including via Turkey a…
Adding weight to its announcement of a nuclear upgrade, Tehran has shown high-level U.N. officials high-tech equipment positioned at its main uranium enrichment site meant to vastly accelerate output of material that can be used for both reactor fuel and atomic arms, a senior diplomat said Thursday.The diplomat spoke to The Associated Press shortly after…
An Iranian independent news website is reporting that a senior commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard has been killed in Lebanon.The website — mashreghnews.ir — says Gen. Hassan Shateri was killed by “mercenaries of the Zionist regime,” but provided no details about his death.Shateri led Guard forces in Lebanon and oversaw Iranian-financed recon…
Iran considers any attack against Syria an attack on itself, an advisor to the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader was quoted as saying Saturday, the strongest warning to date by a top Iranian official that Tehran will use any available means to keep the regime of President Bashar Assad in power.Ali Akbar Velayati, an aide to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Sy…
U.N experts returned from Tehran on Friday without sealing a long-sought deal that would restart a probe of suspicions that Iran worked on atomic arms, adding to doubts that upcoming separate talks between six world powers and the Islamic Republic willsucceed in reducing fears about Iran’s nuclear ambitions.Herman Nackaerts, who headed the team of Interna…
Iran’s navy said Monday it test-fired a range of weapons during ongoing maneuvers near the Strait of Hormuz, the passageway for one-fifth of the world’s oil supply.IRNA quoted Adm. Amir Rastgari, spokesman for the exercise, as saying the Iranian-made air defense system Raad, or Thunder, was among the weapons tested, along with various torpedoes and underw…
Syria's increasingly powerful Islamist rebel factions have rejected the country's new Western-backed opposition coalition and unilaterally declared an Islamic state in the key battleground of Aleppo.The move highlights the struggle over the direction of the rebellion at a time when the opposition is trying to gain the West's trust and secure a…
The Sudanese government is blaming Israel for an explosion at a munitions plant in Khartoum early yesterday morning that Israeli media say was owned by Iran's Revolutionary Guard and made arms for Hamas.The Sudan Tribune reports that Ahmad Bilal Osman, Sudan's media minister, said in a press conference yesterday that the government had proof that…
France's foreign minister says Iran appears on track to reach the ability to produce a nuclear weapon by the first half of next year.France is one of six countries that have negotiated with Tehran over its nuclear program, which Iran insists is peaceful.Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told Europe-1 radio Sunday that unspecified experts "have estab…
U.S. authorities believe that Iranian-based hackers were responsible for cyberattacks that devastated Persian Gulf oil and gas companies, a former U.S. government official said. Just hours later, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the cyberthreat from Iran has grown, and he declared that the Pentagon is prepared to take action if American is threatened b…