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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Friday that Iran’s testing of space-launch vehicles is really cover for the further development of nuclear-capable ICBMs. Speaking in Abu Dhabi in advance of private meetings with Gulf States to discuss Iran’s ongoing support for terrorist groups, Pompeo said U.S. intelligence agencies have determined that Iran’s satellite launches are part of Tehran’s quest to continue advancing its ballistic missile technology. Such ICBM testing violates United Nations rules prohibiting such activity, Pompeo told reporters, in describing Tehran’s actions as provocative in nature. The secretary also said the Trump administration planned to rally countries in the...

In his Speech last Wednesday Iran's supreme leader Ali Khamenei show his fear to the current fragile and chaotic state of the country. Nothing is more frightening to Khamenei and the Iranian authorities than the social unrest unleashed by protests which began Dec 2107 inside the country, the endless strikes that have shaken the government, and indeed threatened the existence of the ruling Iranian regime. Iranian people from all walk of life protest over high prices, inflation, corruption, incompetence. On Wednesday, during a speech in Qom (150 KM south of Tehran), Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei implicitly expressed his fear...

Early in his presidency, Barack Obama gave a speech in Cairo that he referred to as "A New Beginning." In that speech in June, 2009, Obama identified the United States as one of the causes of turmoil and violence in the Middle East. He never said the words, "I'm sorry," but his tone was apologetic as he viciously criticized the Israeli "occupation and the US invasion of Iraq. Yesterday, almost 10 years later, American Secretary of State Mike Pompeo gave the speech that Obama should have given. It was unabashedly pro-American and identified America as a force for good in...

MANAMA/Bahrain—The Trump administration, via Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, is beginning to build a coalition of Arab allies that will help the United States expel "every last Iranian boot" from Syria and ensure the Islamic Republic's march across the Middle East is stopped in its tracks, according to U.S. officials.Pompeo arrived in Bahrain early Friday to hold the first of a series of meetings with Arab leaders in key gulf nations, including the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Oman. During this leg of Pompeo's weeklong trek across the region, the secretary of state will continue his behind-the-scenes...

Israel’s ambassador to the U.S. on Monday contemptuously dismissed White House deputy national security advisor Ben Rhodes’ denials that the Obama administration played a key behind-the-scenes role in getting a resolution condemning Israel through the U.N. Security Council, describing him as an “expert at fiction.” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s government says it has “iron-clad” information indicating that the Obama administration had a role in the crafting and passage of the resolution that passed Friday in the absence of a U.S. veto. Ambassador Ron Dermer told MSNBC the Israeli government had proof that it would share that evidence with the incoming...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Thursday launched an astonishing rebuke of former President Barack Obama’s foreign policy at the site of Obama’s famous speech to the Muslim world -- declaring that “the age of self-inflicted American shame is over.” Pompeo delivered his remarks in Cairo, where Obama famously spoke in 2009 and promised a new beginning with Muslim and Arab countries. He was criticized by conservatives for placing too much blame on the U.S. for strife in the region. Pompeo, while not mentioning Obama by name, said that “it was here, in this city, another American stood before you”...

This doesn’t come as any surprise given the eagerness of both Facebook and Twitter to be Sharia-compliant. Facebook’s Vice President Joel Kaplan traveled to Pakistan in July 2017 to assure the Pakistani government that it would remove “anti-Islam” material. And Facebook has done so assiduously, banning numerous foes of jihad terror and twice now blocking the Jihad Watch Facebook page on spurious technical grounds. And Twitter has recently been notifying people that they’re in violation of Pakistan’s blasphemy laws, which violation carries a death sentence. But this shows how sick and degenerate the social media giants really are. CAIR has...

The U.S. case against the chief financial officer of China’s Huawei Technologies, who was arrested in Canada last month, centers on the company’s suspected ties to two obscure companies. One is a telecom equipment seller that operated in Tehran; the other is that firm’s owner, a holding company registered in Mauritius. U.S. authorities allege CFO Meng Wanzhou deceived international banks into clearing transactions with Iran by claiming the two companies were independent of Huawei, when in fact Huawei controlled them. Huawei has maintained the two are independent: equipment seller Skycom Tech Co Ltd and shell company Canicula Holdings Ltd. But...

The Egyptian President, accompanied by religious, military and international dignitaries, witnesses ceremony to inaugurate the Nativity of Christ Cathedral and Al-Fattah El-Alim17:43 US President Donald Trump tweeted, "Excited to see our friends in Egypt opening the biggest Cathedral in the Middle East. President El-Sisi is moving his country to a more inclusive future!" 17:40 In a short video message aired before the attendees, Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, congratulated the Egyptian people, government and president on the inauguration of the new cathedral.17:30 Following the moment of silence, the celebration on stage started with a live performance of Islamic chants and Christian hymns...

The substantial request for military support included air raids, logistics and transportation so Turkish forces could finish off the remaining fighters of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) in Syria, senior US officials were quoted as saying by the WSJ on Friday. "The Turkish requests are so extensive that, if fully met, the American military might be deepening its involvement in Syria instead of reducing it," the newspaper reported. The unidentified American officials told the Journal there was little chance Washington would agree to Ankara's requests in full. US President Donald Trump announced...

The Iranian navy will send warships to deploy in the Atlantic from March, a top commander said on Friday, as the Islamic Republic seeks to increase the operating range of its naval forces to the backyard of the United States, its arch foe.

PARIS: Saudi Arabia has threatened military action against Qatar if it goes ahead and acquires Russia's top of the range S-400 air defence missile system, Le Monde daily reported. Citing information it had obtained, Le Monde said Friday that Riyadh had written to French President Emmanuel Macron asking him to intervene to prevent the deal going ahead and to help preserve regional stability. There was no immediate official reaction from the president's office or the French foreign ministry to the report. Saudi Arabia, backed by other regional powers including Bahrain and the Unite Arab Emirates, broke off relations with Qatar...

The U.S. military plans to scale back its role in Somalia and curtail airstrikes against al-Shabab insurgents after having taken out many of the group's senior operatives, two senior U.S. officials told NBC News, the latest signal the Trump administration is looking to cut the number of troops deployed around the world. The move reflects an assessment by the administration that while the Shabab insurgency remains a threat to the Somali government and neighboring countries, it does not pose a direct danger to the U.S., current and former officials said. And it follows President Donald Trump's abrupt announcement last month...

Less than two months after he was given prominent op-ed space in the Washington Post, a video has surfaced of Houthi rebel leader Mohammad Ali al-Houthi launching a shoulder-fired missile and then reciting the Houthi slogan, which calls for “Death to America.” The Washington Post contributor chants, “Allah is the greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. Curse the Jews. Victory to Islam.” He has also taken to his unverified but media– and think tank-cited Twitter account to repeat the infamous Houthi slogan. Ali Shihabi, the founder of the Arabia Foundation, a Washington D.C.-based Middle East think tank, confirmed to...

Iran’s president submitted next year’s budget to parliament on Tuesday (Christmas), the first since the United States restored sanctions that had been lifted under the nuclear deal. The $47.5 billion budget is less than half the size of last year’s, mainly due to the severe depreciation of the local currency following President Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with world powers. The Iranian rial has fallen from around 42,000 to the dollar a year ago to around 100,000 today.

Trump was right! The #FakeNews media is the ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE… The Washington Post has a guest contributor who ordered the deaths of 26 journalists in Yemen. The Islamist contributor Mohammed al-Houthi likes to carry an AK47 with him even to interviews. And now this… Mohammed al-Houthi was recently filmed launching a shoulder-fired missile while chanting “Death to Israel!… Death to America!”

On December 14, 2018, Prince Reza Pahlavi, the son of Iran's last monarch, participated in a discussion forum at the Washington Institute. He presented an opening statement, followed by taking questions from the host and reporters from major news outlets, including Persian-language Western media. His remarks were met with mixed reactions from the Iranian community across the globe, as well as from self-proclaimed Iran experts, leading to endless discussions among proponents as well as detractors on various social media platforms. Some of his more controversial statements were sensationalized by mainstream media, which created a controversy of its own. In the...

The Iranian Supreme Court has vacated the murder convictions of a group of serial killers because their victims were engaging in un-Islamic activities, the British Broadcasting Corp. reports.The men were convicted for a series of grisly killings in the southeastern city of in 2002. The vigilantes were said to believe that Islam condoned the killing of anyone engaged in illicit activities if they issued two warnings to the victims, the BBC reports.

Al Jazeera spoke to Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of the Houthi rebels' Supreme Revolutionary Committee, about the ceasefire in Hodeidah, his movement's relationship with Iran, and the Houthis' endgame in Yemen.

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) - Syrian President Bashar Assad authorized Iraqi forces on Sunday to attack the Islamic State group inside Syria without waiting for permission from authorities in Damascus, the state news agency SANA said, as the two allies coordinate their fight against extremists ahead of a planned U.S. withdrawal from Syria. ... On Saturday Assad received a letter from Iraq’s Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi calling for both countries’ coordination in “fighting terrorism.” ... In Tehran, Iran and Syria signed Sunday a long-term strategic and economic agreement as the war winds down in Syria where Iran and Russia were the main...