Syria talks focusing on planned 'congress' in Russia 12/22/2017 9:13:46 AM Since the start of Syrias war in 2011, numerous diplomatic attempts to halt the conflict have stumble AFP, DEC. 20, 2017 --The main powerbrokers in Syria's nearly seven-year conflict were heading towards a second day of negotiations in Astana as uncertainly loomed Thursday over a Moscow-driven plan to quickly reach a political settlement. Chief Russian negotiator Aleksandr Lavrentyev told journalists that Russia was forging ahead with plans to host a 'National Dialogue Congress' in the Black Sea resort of Sochi to accelerate discussions over a political deal that have sputtered in Geneva. The  United Nations  ' special envoy for Syria, Staffan de Mistura, has refused to say if the UN will back a plan promoted by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad but viewed warily by opponents of his government. Speaking after the first day of talks Thursday, Lavrentyev said...

VIDEO: Obama administration undermined anti-Hezbollah task force to help secure Iran nuke deal, report says 12/18/2017 8:59:43 AM The Obama administration gave a free pass to Hezbollah’s drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations US officials warn of potential Hezbollah threat By Frank Miles Fox  News ,   DEC. 18, 2017 -- The Obama administration gave a free pass to Hezbollah’s drug-trafficking and money-laundering operations — some of which were unfolding inside the U.S. — to help ensure the Iran nuclear deal would stay on track, according to a bombshell exposé in Politico Sunday. An elaborate campaign led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, known as Project Cassandra, reportedly targeted the Lebanese militant group’s criminal activities. But by tossing a string of roadblocks holding back the project, Obama administration officials helped allow the 35-year-old anti-Israel criminal enterprise to evolve into a major global ...

Decoding Iran and Hezbollah’s desires for Lebanon 11/18/2017 1:57:59 PM   facebook Google+ ► Print Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah addresses his supporters through a screen during a rally in Jebshit village, southern Lebanon By Tony Duheaume Al Arabiya, 18 November 2017  - The importance of Hezbollah for Iran as an overseas fighting force, which operates alongside its own military, cannot be underestimated. Since its establishment in Lebanon in the early 1980s by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and Quds Force, Hezbollah has fought wars and carried out deadly attacks against civilians in foreign lands that have proven its worth as a terror group. Terrorist attacks carried out by Hezbollah, which have targeted various nations over the years, can only be construed as attacks carried out by the Iranian administration through proxy. As by using its Quds Force, the regime itself can claim plausible deniability from ...

ANALYSIS , Iranians,  neighbouring ,  theIranian,  alsothe ,  Bashar al-Assad,Houthis. Supporters of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (the JCPOA) have been very active on social media this afternoon claiming that Secretary of Defense James Mattis broke with President Trump when he told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the United States should remain in the Iran deal. JCPOA supporters are worried that President Trump will not certify to Congress by an October 15 deadline that the JCPOA is in America’s national-security interests and that Iran is in compliance. But after the president called the agreement “an embarrassment to the United States” in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly last month, JCPOA advocates are even more worried that he will withdraw the U.S. from the agreement, possibly using a plan drafted by Ambassador John Bolton, which National Review published on August 28. Prodded by JCPOA supporters, the media is playing up Mattis’s state...

ANALYSIS : The disintegrating moral fabric of Iranian society Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini had nothing but contempt for the ordinary citizens of Iran. In his own words, he saw them as “ignorant, incomplete and imperfect”. Such was his contempt for those he was destined to enslave that he described them as nothing more than brutes, who would eventually destroy each other if left to their own devices. In his arrogant mind, he believed that it was only through his astute and strict leadership, they could be moulded into a unified nation. He never really recognized the people’s part in bringing him to power, such was his egotism. He believed that it was he had reached the pinnacle through his own devices, having judiciously chosen his goals by unveiling the truth of religion, through which he was able to attain a position of absolute power and would lead Iran toward eventually dominating the world. Iranians shop in a supermarket in north Tehran, Iran, on April 29, 2015. (AP)...