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Two people died in an explosion that ripped through an explosive material production unit at a nuclear facility near Tehran, according to Iranian press reports on Monday. The incident occurred at the Parchin military compound, not far from the Iranian capital, according to the Iranian Students News Agency. The pro-opposition website Sahamnews reported a huge explosion that shattered the windows of surrounding buildings.

TEHRAN, Iran — Two people were killed in an explosion at a defense ministry plant east of Tehran for the production of explosives, Iran’s state news agency IRNA reported Monday. The Defense Industries Organisation, quoted by IRNA, said the fire broke out at the plant on Sunday night but it gave no further details. The BBC, citing a report from the semi-official Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), reported on Monday that the incident happened in an “explosive materials production unit” at the site south-east of the capital Tehran. According to ISNA the blast was so powerful it shattered windows up...

Iranian sites claim large explosion heard 'several kilometers away', shattered windows as far as 15 kilometers from blast. An explosion at Iran's Parchin nuclear plant has killed at least two people, according to Iranian media reports. The plant is located close to the Iranian capital Tehran, and the explosion has triggering speculation over a possible sabotage or assassination. The semi-official Isna news agency claimed the explosion took place after a fire erupted in an "explosive materials production unit".

In a stunning bi-partisan “Congressional Letter” from over 353 out of 435 U.S. congresspersons to US Secretary of State John Kerry, the 353 U.S. representatives issued a stark warning that, “As you wrote in the Washington Post earlier this summer, if Iran’s nuclear program is truly peaceful, “it’s not a hard proposition to prove. The only reasonable conclusion for its stonewalling of international investigators is that Tehran does indeed have much to hide.” The Congressional Letter’s signatories included almost all of both parties’ leaderships, and was greatly aided by Republican Congressman Peter J. Roskam (R-IL-06) of Illinois, a stalwart, and...

Glenn Beck presented a theory Tuesday about why the United States bombed targets from the Khorasan group last week, saying it’s possible that the United States did it to help prop up the Iranian government in return for increased cooperation from Iran’s leaders. “It is a theory, but remember, my theory was that you were being lied to in great detail on Benghazi,” Beck said on his television program. “I think this is going to fall in the same thing. I have an answer that nobody else does. [But] I want you to know again, it is a theory.” Beck...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivered a powerful and sobering speech to the United Nations General Assembly on September 29th. He said he came from Jerusalem to speak on behalf of the Israeli people and to “expose the brazen lies spoken from this very podium against my country and the brave soldiers who defend it.” “Truth must always be spoken, especially here, in the United Nations,” the prime minister said to an audience of government leaders and delegates not used to hearing the truth spoken in the UN on issues relating to the Jewish state. Israel’s leader emphasized that his...

Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, launched a scathing attack on a United Nations organization from the podium of the UN itself when he denounced its Human Rights Council as a “terrorist rights council”. […] In a controversial address to the General Assembly, he contended that the council’s treatment of Israel was “biased” and rooted in a global upsurge in anti-Semitism. Mr. Netanyahu argued that it was Hamas, the faction that controls the Gaza Strip, that should be investigated for war crimes as it used civilians as human shields and fired missiles at Israel from batteries planted by mosques and...

Iran says Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "baselessly" associated the Islamic world with the Islamic State group during his address to the United Nations General Assembly. In a reply to the Monday speech, Iran also said Netanyahu continued a policy to "sabotage and disrupt" Iranian negotiations with world powers over the country's nuclear program. The Israeli leader told the United Nations Iran is trying to trick the world into accepting an agreement to end sanctions while still allowing it to develop nuclear weapons. Iran has long declared its nuclear program to be for peaceful purposes. Netanyahu said Iran is on...

The US State Department said Monday in a press conference that it disagrees with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's assertion during his UN speech on Monday that "ISIS and Hamas are branches of the same poisonous tree." "Obviously, we’ve designated both as terrorist organizations, but ISIL poses a different threat to Western interests and to the United States," said State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki. "And that’s just a fact." Later on in the speech, Netanyahu said that Iran is still a great threat to Israel's existence. He also warned that Iran is not actually willing to give up nuclear weapons but...

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu addressed the UN general assembly on Monday in New York and warned the crowd of the threat of radical militant Islam. He said that the Arab world, for the first time, was beginning to recognize the benefit in aligning themselves with Israel and seeing they have a common enemy. He also said that he is willing to make a "historic compromise" with the Palestinians. The prime minister spoke in his speech of the correlation between Hamas and ISIS, saying the two are "branches from the same poisonous tree." He warned that the escalation of the radical...

French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said Friday that six-power talks with Iran being held at the United Nations had failed to yield progress on curbing Tehran’s nuclear program. “At this time as I speak, there is no significant progress,” Fabius told journalists on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. “We were due to have a meeting this morning of the P5+1 on one side and the Iranians on the other but because of a lack of progress, this meeting (had) to be called off,” Reuters quoted him saying. Israel, meanwhile, voiced vociferous objections to a reported American proposal to...

"But, may I add, the training also will service these troops in the same struggle that they've been in since the beginning of this conflict against the Assad regime"

Republican lawmakers are raising alarm that Secretary of State John Kerry is putting too much on the table in talks over Iran's nuclear program -- as Tehran reportedly tries to leverage its cooperation in the Islamic State crisis in return for nuclear concessions from the U.S. and its allies. The White House denies that any such trade-off is in the works. "The United States will not be in a position of trading aspects of Iran's nuclear program to secure commitments to take on ISIL," White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said Monday, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State....

The heads of Iran and Russia’s state-run nuclear agencies discussed the construction of new nuclear plants in Iran during a meeting held on Friday around the same time that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, also sat down for a chat about Tehran’s ongoing nuclear negotiations with the West, according to regional reports. Behrouz Kamalvanda, a top official at Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) met early Friday with Sergey Kirivenko, the director general of Russia’s state-run nuclear company, Rosatom, to discuss way the two nations can “boost nuclear cooperation,” according to Iran’s state run news agencies....

Iran calls on the United Nations’ atomic agency to condemn Israel over the drone Iran downed above the Natanz uranium enrichment site. Snip .... accused Israel of a "flagrant violation" of the Islamic Republic's territorial integrity "in contravention of the principles of international law and provision of the United Nations charter." The Iranian Revolutionary Guards' Air Force claimed that the drone was an Israeli-made "Hermes" drone with a maximum flight range of 1,600 km (994 miles) and a 800-km (500 mile) combat radius. Israeli officials declined to comment on the allegation by its arch foe, which the Jewish state and...

Those people who say that President Obama has no clear vision and no clear strategy for dealing with the ISIS terrorists in the Middle East may be mistaken. It seems to me that he has a very clear and very consistent strategy. And a vision behind that strategy. First the strategy — which is to get each crisis off the front pages and off television news programs as quickly as he can, in whatever way he can, at the lowest political cost. Calling ISIS a junior varsity months ago accomplished that goal. Saying before the 2012 elections that "bin Laden...

Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard said it has brought down an Israeli stealth drone above the Natanz uranium enrichment site in the centre of the country. "A spy drone of the Zionist regime (Israel) was brought down by a missile... This stealth drone was trying to approach the Natanz nuclear zone," the corps said in a statement on its official website sepahnews.com. In 2010, the Israeli Air Force launched an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), dubbed "Eitan," "Heron TP" or "Heron 2", which can stay in the air 24 hours and can reach Iran. “The ‘Eitan’ marks a technological breakthrough and a...

On July 19, 2014, the P5+1 (the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Russia, and China, coordinated by EU High Representative Catherine Ashton) and Iran affirmed that they will continue to implement the commitments described in the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) and the U.S. government has extended through November 24, 2014, the sanctions relief provided for in the JPOA. This extended relief comes into effect on July 21, 2014. The following documents are key components of the implementation of the JPOA as extended. Guidance Relating to the Provision Of Certain Temporary Sanctions Relief in Order to Implement the Joint...

Obama and Kerry Pressure Israel to Leave Hamas AlonePosted By Joseph Klein On July 28, 2014 @ 12:50 am In Daily Mailer,FrontPage | 12 Comments President Obama is seeking to pressure Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu into agreeing to an immediate unconditional ceasefire. In a phone call on Sunday, Obama reportedly told the Israeli prime minister that such a ceasefire was “a strategic imperative.” Obama specifically referred to the ceasefire proposed by Secretary of State John Kerry, which Israel’s security cabinet rejected unanimously last Friday.Israel has been willing to observe several humanitarian pauses, primarily on a unilateral basis. Hamas went along...

Iran said Wednesday it wants to greatly expand its uranium enrichment program despite Western fears that it could be used to make atomic arms. The position outlined by Iranian nuclear agency head Ali Akbar Salehi appeared to be the most detailed yet of what Tehran wants at its closed-door negotiations with six world powers. It also highlighted the huge obstacles in the way of an agreement by a July 20 target date, since the world powers want Iran to reduce its enrichment program. …