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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was arrested and held for seven hours Monday and warned to keep his mouth shut about matters detrimental to the Islamic regime before he was released, according to a source within the Revolutionary Guard’s intelligence unit.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's prime minister on Monday said that Iran is steadily edging closer to nuclear weapons capability but has not yet reached the "red line" he drew in a speech to the United Nations last fall. Benjamin Netanyahu delivered his assessment as Israel took delivery of the fifth of six advanced submarines it has ordered from Germany. The "Dolphin" class vessels are believed to be capable of carrying missiles with nuclear warheads and could play an important role in any future conflict between Israel and Iran. In Iran, an influential former president appeared to be trying to lower...

CAIRO (Reuters) - Senior aides to Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi made a rare visit to Tehran for talks with Iran on an Islamic initiative to seek a peaceful solution to Syria's civil war, the two sides said on Sunday. Tehran is Syria's closest ally and has provided money, weapons, intelligence and training for President Bashar al-Assad's forces, while Egypt has given political support to the opposition Syrian National Coalition fighting to oust him. Mursi's foreign affairs adviser Essam Haddad and his chief-of-staff Rifaa El-Tahtawy met Iranian officials in a follow-up to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's groundbreaking visit to Cairo in...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday defended his country’s controversial nuclear program while on a tour of West Africa, arguing that Tehran has no use for an atomic bomb. Speaking during a visit to Benin, the first stop on a three-nation tour, Ahmadinejad called nuclear energy a “divine gift” providing affordable electricity. … “We don’t need an atomic bomb. … And besides, it is not atomic bombs that threaten the world, but Western morals and culture declining in values.” …

It was the shot that was almost heard around the world. In September 2006, a US Secret Service Agent fired off a shotgun blast just as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was loading his motorcade at the InterContinental Hotel during a UN General Assembly meeting in New York—apparently by mistake. The incident is revealed in a short book excerpt from Marc Ambinder and DB Grady's Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry, published at the Atlantic today. The agent was adjusting a side-mounted shotgun on the motorcade, when he accidentally discharged it. "Everyone just stopped," one official recalls. "The Iranians looked at us...

Iran launched a domestically built destroyer in the Caspian Sea on Sunday, its first deployment of a major warship in the oil-rich region, state TV reported. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad inaugurated the guided missile destroyer Jamaran-2 in the port city of Anzali, about 250 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Tehran. He said the deployment aimed to bolster peace and friendship in the region. "The destroyer is there to meet those who want to jeopardize the security of surrounding nations," he said, without elaborating.....

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Ahmadinejad: Chavez Will Return With Jesus and 12th Imam A day after his death, Hugo Chavez is already being touted as a martyr and a messiah by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who equated the now deceased Venezuelan leader to Jesus and Shiite Islam’s 12th imam Wednesday, saying, “I have no doubt that he will return, along with the righteous Jesus and the perfect human.” Ahmadinejad also reiterated claims made by Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro that Chavez died of a “suspect illness” but didn’t go as far as Maduro had in equating Chavez’s death to that of late Palestinian Liberation...

Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been criticised for saying that Hugo Chávez will be resurrected along with Jesus Christ in his tribute to the Venezuelan president who died on Tuesday.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wins the crown for praise of Hugo Chavez, declaring in a letter to the Venezuelan people that Chavez will be resurrected with Jesus and a revered Shiite imam, reports the Guardian. “I have no doubt he will come again along with all the righteous people and the Prophet Jesus and the only successor of the righteous generation, the perfect human,” he said, the latter referring to the Hidden Imam, explains the New York Times. Ahmadinejad also agrees with Venezuela's government that Chavez's death is a little fishy.

The London-based Arabic newspaper Asharq al-Awsat reported Friday that Hush Husam Nawis, also known as Hassan Shateri, a senior Revolutionary Guard official who was killed in Syria on Thursday, was in fact named Hassan Shateri, while Nawis served as his alias. Shateri was a general in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and headed the Iranian operation to rehabilitate the war-scarred country. He reportedly also served as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's personal emissary to Lebanon. The paper quoted a source involved in the issue, who claimed that Shateri, 58, was one of the leading commanders of the elite Quds Force within the...

What Is Samantha Power Thinking?The charismatic Obama adviser believes that stopping "genocide" is the United States' top foreign-policy priority. On March 18, President Obama explained his decision to mobilize the United States military for international intervention in Libya. “Left unchecked,” he said, “we have every reason to believe that Qaddafi would commit atrocities against his people. Many thousands could die. A humanitarian crisis would ensue. The entire region could be destabilized, endangering many of our allies and partners.” (As if it hasn’t been already?) That last sentence was a Realpolitik, national-interest justification for the U.S. intervention. But it rang hollow....

Video captured what appeared to be a man using a shoe to try and strike Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today as the Iranian president greeted a crowd in Egypt. The video, uploaded to YouTube by the Anadolu Agency, a Turkish news service, shows Ahmadinejad in a crush of people smiling and shaking hands until a bearded man comes in the frame holding a shoe high over his head. The shoe comes down twice in Ahmadinejad’s direction, but too far from the Iranian leader to pose a threat. …

Republican Sen. John McCain’s tweet comparing Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to a monkey is drawing criticism from a fellow GOP lawmaker (Justin Amash) as racist. On Monday, McCain wrote, “So Ahmadinejad wants to be first Iranian in space—wasn’t he just there last week?” …

Egypt’s foreign minister says Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will visit Cairo this week, marking the first visit to Egypt by an Iranian leader in decades. … Iran and Egypt, both regional heavyweights, once had strong ties. Diplomatic relations deteriorated after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran and Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel. Relations remained cold until Egypt’s 2011 uprising. …

Asked in an interview on the Al Mayadeen news channel whether he would visit Gaza while in Cairo next week or before his term as president expires in June, he replied: "My wish is bigger than this. I wish to pray in Jerusalem after complete liberation." Iran does not recognize Israel. "If they allow it, I would go to Gaza to visit the people," he said, without saying whose authority he would seek.

-snip- “It’s somewhere between baffling and incomprehensible,” a member of Mr. Obama’s own team of advisers on Iran said on Thursday night when asked about Mr. Hagel’s stumbling performance on the question during the all-day hearing. The worry was evident in the voice of the official, who would not speak on the record while criticizing the performance of the president’s nominee. For those who question whether the no-containment cornerstone of the Obama approach to Tehran is for real, or just diplomatic rhetoric, Mr. Hagel clearly muddled the message, he said.

Distraught by his poor performance in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee, liberals viciously turned on Secretary of Defense nominee Chuck Hagel on social media.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is convening an emergency meeting Monday of his cabinet and others from the Supreme National Security Council over WND’s revelation of the Islamic regime’s secret nuclear facility. The exclusive WND report on Jan. 7 said the secret facility is in Khondab near the city of Arak in central Iran. According to a source in the Revolutionary Guards intelligence unit with access to Iran’s nuclear program, Iran is scrambling to find out who leaked the information. The regime is concerned about international ramifications of yet another secret site being exposed amid pressure and sanctions by the West...

Kerry Has Investments in Companies Accused of Violating Iran Sanctions Daniel Halper December 21, 2012 12:59 PM John Kerry, who will be nominated later today to be the next secretary of state, is the richest member of the U.S. Senate. His estimated net worth is, at minimum, $198.65 million, according to disclosure forms. Kerry's disclosure forms also reveal that he has invested in companies accused of doing business with Iran. One of the companies Kerry is invested in is called Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras (Petrobras), it's a Brazilian-based oil and gas corporation. Disclosure forms reveal that Kerry has between $150,000...