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The Dossier: The Iranian Regime’s ‘Death to America’ Deception

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Iranian leader falsely claims ‘Death to America’ is about Trump, not America

In a sermon Friday, Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of the terrorist regime in Iran, claimed that the infamous “Death to America” chants that he leads every Friday after prayers are not actually directed at America, but at President Trump and his associates.

“As long as America continues its wickedness, the Iranian nation will not abandon ‘Death to America’,” the Ayatollah pledged, seemingly contradicting himself. “‘Death to America’ means death to Trump, [National Security Adviser] John Bolton, and [Secretary of State Mike] Pompeo. It means death to American rulers,” he added.

Of course, the regime in Tehran has chanted “Death to America” during every presidency since the Islamic Revolution in Iran in 1979. It’s not about President Trump. Iran’s fundamental mission under the theocratic regime is to spread the Shiite Islamic revolution far and wide, through violent force, by arming jihadi terrorist organizations, and by circulating anti-Western, anti-American propaganda and messaging.

Khamenei is simply trying to garner support in the West for Iran’s ambitions, hoping he can fool gullible Western progressives into believing that his issues are with the president and not with the West as a whole.

US-China trade deal deadline approaches without resolution

As a March 1 deadline for the imposition of punitive tariffs nears, the U.S.-China trade talks appear to have stalled.

The Wall Street Journal reported Friday that “the two nations are far from an agreement” and that fears continue to grow that failing to secure an agreement will result in devastating economic consequences for the two superpowers.

U.S. and Chinese negotiators will meet next week in an attempt to strike a deal before tariffs go into effect.

Caravan migrants plot new US entry routes in response to border security boost

Central American migrants are said to be reconsidering their normal paths of illegal entry into the United States, as the Trump administration prepares to bolster security measures on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Reuters reports:

“Some Central American migrants seeking entry into the United States but stalled near a Texas crossing said on Wednesday they are considering moving to another part of the border, where they may have a better chance of lodging a speedy asylum claim.”

The report adds:

“Mulling their next move from the dusty Mexican town of Piedras Negras, just south of the Eagle Pass crossing on the U.S. side, the latest group of around 1,700 caravan migrants want to avoid a potentially months-long wait for a chance to plead their case for asylum.

Khashoggi madness continues in Congress

The Khashoggi-obsessed Congress is demanding that the Trump administration sanction Saudi Arabia for its role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a Saudi Islamist who had been living temporarily in the United States and contributing columns to the Washington Post prior to his demise.

For the truth on Khashoggi, read my columns at Conservative Review. (For more from the author of “The Dossier: The Iranian Regime’s ‘Death to America’ Deception” please click HERE)

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President Trump Is Right: The Intelligence Community Botched Iran Threat

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President Trump fired off a series of tweets Wednesday expressing his dissatisfaction with how Iran is presented in the latest Worldwide Threats Assessment produced under the direction of Dan Coats, who is responsible for the annual report as the director of national intelligence.

Anti-Trump pundits and television networks predictably attacked the president for refusing to blindly accept the totality of the report, claiming that this was more evidence of a president who must at once be removed from office and/or is unfit as commander in chief.

However, this is largely the same Intelligence Community (IC) that became hyper-politicized and weaponized during the Obama administration and relied on questionable information, such as the Clinton-funded Steele dossier, to substantiate Russia’s supposed impact on the 2016 election. Given that reality, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that this IC product appears at times to passive-aggressively take issue with President Trump’s foreign policy decisions.

The annual report sends confusing signals about the Iran nuclear deal, which the president withdrew from last year, citing the deal’s weakness and its severe lack of benefits to U.S. strategic interests.

For one, it reads as a politicized endorsement of the nuclear deal, falsely contending that the Iran deal, or JCPOA, somehow has enforceable limits in place that restrict Iran from advancing its nuclear program.

The Iran deal fundamentally empowered the terrorist regime in Tehran. Far from stopping the regime from acquiring a nuclear weapon, it provided a road map to a sophisticated nuclear weapons program. Moreover, the Iran deal was one agreement that was part of a comprehensive Obama administration strategy to realign the Middle East in Tehran’s favor.

The IC assessment incorrectly and bizarrely labels Iranian President Hassan Rouhani as a “centrist,” when he is anything but moderate. Rouhani is a Holocaust denier who has openly encouraged Iran-backed terrorist groups to export Iran’s ideology through force throughout the region. Additionally, in labeling Rouhani a centrist, the IC product contends that there is a strong ideological divide within the Islamic supremacist regime.

In an effort to sell the deal with the Tehran regime, the legacy media and Obama administration officials took pains to separate so-called regime “reformists” from “hardliners.” The 2019 IC assessment claims on three separate occasions that the influence of “hardliners,” and not the fundamental nature of the Tehran regime, is the driving force for anti-U.S. and anti-West hostilities. This is a serious misread.

This hardliners-versus-moderates or centrists distinction is deliberately deceptive. Any individual running for president or a seat in parliament in Iran goes through a substantial vetting process by trusted elements of the regime. Many who want to run for elected office are ruled out by those vetting authorities and immediately forbidden to run for office, if it is determined that they present a threat to the future of the regime. All “elected” officials in Iran are committed to the regime’s expansionist ideology. Only their tactical approach to pursuing that endgame is different.

Additionally, while the Worldwide Threat Assessment does in fact mention Iran’s strongest proxy terrorist organization in “Lebanese Hizballah,” the assessment fails to point out that the Lebanon-based Shiite jihadi group is entirely subservient to Tehran.

The threat assessment of Iran isn’t entirely inaccurate. It does take note of Iran’s growing and aggressive cyber warfare campaigns, its support for the Houthis and Hezbollah, the IRGC’s intrusion into multiple foreign countries, and Iran’s unjust detention of U.S. citizens. However, that doesn’t discount the Intelligence Community’s failure to understand that it is the regime’s radical ideology, which all of its officials are fully committed to, that is its driving force.

The IC’s high-profile annual report of course touches on many other issues, such as the growing threat from China and Russia, in addition to non-state actors such as international terrorist organizations. It also draws substantial attention to the increasing cyber warfare capabilities of our major adversaries. You can read it here. (For more from the author of “President Trump Is Right: The Intelligence Community Botched Iran Threat” please click HERE)

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Iran Nuclear Chief Confirms Iran Violated Nuclear Deal

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In yet another confirmation of Iran’s blatant violation of the terms of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), which is committed to translating into English otherwise-hidden primary source material from the Arab and Muslim world, has reported that the terrorist regime in Tehran secretly purchased replacements for its nuclear infrastructure that the nuclear deal had otherwise required it to destroy. Per MEMRI:

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, was interviewed on Channel 4 TV (Iran) on January 22, 2019. He said that the negotiations surrounding the JCPOA had required Iran to destroy the Arak reactor’s calandria by filling it with cement, but that Iran had secretly acquired replacement tubes ahead of time so that the reactor’s functionality would not be ultimately affected. He also said that pictures that had circulated that showed the Arak reactor’s pit filled with cement had been photoshopped. He explained that Iran has no intention to build a nuclear weapon, and that the Arak reactor is nonetheless incapable of producing weapons-grade plutonium. In addition, Salehi said that the yellowcake production facilities in Ardakan are operational and that Iran has been authorized to produce two additional IR-8 centrifuges. Salehi added that Iran has advanced rapidly in the field of nuclear propulsion.

(Read more from “Iran Nuclear Chief Confirms Iran Violated Nuclear Deal” HERE)

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The U.S. Should Always Be Ready to Deploy Military Strikes Against Iran

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The focus on the partial government shutdown has left little room for other news. But Washington elites still managed to find another reason to complain about the Trump administration over the weekend––they were shocked by the report that National Security Advisor John Bolton requested the Pentagon to provide the National Security Council (NSC) with military options to strike Iran last year.

Bolton made the request after Iranian-supported militias in Iraq fired rockets against the U.S. consulate in Basra and at Baghdad’s green zone, where the U.S. embassy is located, on September 6, 2018. Although fortunately no one was injured, the United States still regarded the militias’ actions as “life-threatening attacks” against the United States.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders made it known that “the United States will hold the regime in Tehran accountable for any attack that results in injury to our personnel or damage to United States government facilities.” She further promised that “America will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of American lives.”

As national security advisor, Bolton’s request to the Pentagon for military options to strike Iran is reasonable. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Pentagon developed some military options upon Bolton’s request. However, unnamed sources (of course) told the Journal that the request raised alarm within the Defense and State Departments, saying “People were shocked. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran.”

In the end, other than public statements, the United States didn’t really do anything to Iran as a response. But over the past weekend, Washington elites were still shocked that Bolton even made such a request in the first place. Apparently there are many weak knees in Washington. (Read more from “The U.S. Should Always Be Ready to Deploy Military Strikes Against Iran” HERE)

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Iran Tests POTUS, Taking First American Hostage During Trump Era

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The terrorist regime that rules Iran has confirmed that it is holding U.S. Navy veteran Michael R. White hostage.

Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told Iran’s state-run Tasnim News Agency Wednesday: “An American citizen was arrested in the city of Mashhad some time ago and his case was conveyed to the U.S administration on first days.”

The New York Times confirmed White’s capture on Monday after speaking to his mother.

“Iran has been holding an American Navy veteran in prison on unspecified charges since late July, when he was seized while visiting an Iranian girlfriend, his mother said Monday,” the Times reported.

Iranwire, a website for Iranian expatriates, also discussed White’s capture. In the piece, Irvar Farhadi, a former Iranian prisoner, said he met Mr. White at Iran’s Vakilabad Prison in the city of Mashhad.

According to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran (ICHRI), Vakilabad authorities conduct secret mass executions inside of the prison.

“He was not in a good psychological condition and is not allowed visitors or access to the phone. He is virtually a hostage without any charges against him,” Farhadi told Iranwire.

He added, “Michael is kept among dangerous criminals including murderers and professional drug smugglers and his life is in danger. I promised to myself that if I got out of prison one of the first things that I would do would be to inform people about the situation of this American prisoner.”

At least four U.S. citizens and one U.S. permanent resident are currently being held by Iran. CBS reports, citing sources, that Tehran is “holding the Americans to try to extract concessions such as those received in a deal reached with President Obama.”

President Obama set a dangerous precedent in paying a total of $1.7 billion dollars (in what appeared to resemble a ransom payment) for the release of four American hostages.

This is believed to be the first time that the Iranian regime has taken an American citizen hostage during the Trump era. The last known American detained by Iran was Xiyue Wang, a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton University. He was detained while conducting research in Tehran on August 8, 2016. Wang was later sentenced for espionage charges.

President Trump has a decision to make. He can follow in Obama’s footsteps and negotiate with the terrorist regime in Iran. He may instead choose to demand the unconditional release of the growing number of Americans held hostage by Tehran. The White House has not yet commented on the matter. The State Department said it was aware of the reports but did not comment further. (For more from the author of “Iran Tests POTUS, Taking First American Hostage During Trump Era” please click HERE)

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U.S. Fears Iran Planning ‘Massive Regional War’ in Middle East

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The Trump administration disclosed that Iran is behind the construction of several underground tunnels leading into Israel that Hezbollah militants and other terror forces have been using to conduct attacks, according to multiple U.S. officials who spoke to the Washington Free Beacon and communicated fears that Tehran is preparing to lead a “massive regional war.”

The public identification of Iran isn’t likely to surprise international observers, but signals aggressive moves by the Trump administration to tie Iran to the rise of terrorism not just in Israel, but across the Middle East, where Iranian-backed militants continue to strike U.S. interests and allies.

The Obama administration, in contrast to Trump, was careful to avoid singling out Iran as the chief force for terrorism against Israel and U.S. allies in the region in hopes of appeasing the hardline regime as it sought to ink the landmark nuclear pact that Trump abandoned earlier this year.

Senior U.S. officials familiar with Israel’s discovery of these new tunnels—a tactic long used by Hezbollah and Hamas to conduct cross-border raids against Israeli civilians and military personnel—say they mark a massive escalation by Iran’s terror proxies.

The Israeli military conducted operations to destroy the tunnels earlier this week, shortly after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a one-on-one meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on the sidelines of a NATO meeting in Brussels. (Read more from “U.S. Fears Iran Planning ‘Massive Regional War’ in Middle East” HERE)

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Parents Called Racist After Pointing out 30-Year-Old Man Is Not High School Age

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By Daily Wire. When a “teenager” from Iran joined students at Stoke High School in Ipswich (a county town of Suffolk, England), students and parents immediately noticed something was off.

The alleged 15-year-old boy, Siavash, was 6’1”, had stubble, a large Adam’s apple, and a hairline that some viewed as receding. Students and parents believed the “teen” was closer to 30 than 15.

When parents began complaining that an adult man was in school with their underage children, they say their concerns were “dismissed as racist,” according to the Daily Mail.

“I went in [to] complain but I was fobbed off. They are deluded and seem more worried about how the bloke might feel,” a father of two teenage students told the Mail. “I am not aware of this lad having done anything inappropriate, but it’s clearly wrong that he should be in a class with children.”

Another parent said she was told the man sat on a bench during lunch near teenage girls, “just looking.” (Read more from “Parents Called Racist After Pointing out 30-Year-Old Man Is Not High School Age” HERE)

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Parents Were ‘Dismissed as Racist’ by School Officials When They Complained About 6ft 1ins Iranian Migrant Posing as a 15-Year-Old Who Appeared in Their Children’s Classroom

By Daily Mail. . .It didn’t take long for the rumour mill to creak into action, as students began to speculate that the Iranian asylum seeker was brazenly lying about his age in order to get a free education, and indeed remain in the country.

According to playground gossip, Siavash even confided to one contemporary that he was a married father of two who had decided to pose as a teenager because his academic qualifications weren’t recognised in the UK.

The parent of a GCSE pupil was told the Iranian had confessed to being in his mid-20s. ‘My son asked him how old he was and he replied that he was aged 25 and married with two kids,’ she told the Daily Mail.

This being 2018, the rumours soon hit social media. Around the time of half term, an image of Siavash in a Year 11 classroom appeared on Snapchat, a networking app popular with teenagers, accompanied by the caption ‘How is there a 30-year-old man in our maths class?’

Around the same time, parents began asking awkward questions, taking an understandably dim view of the potential presence of a grown man being educated alongside their children. (Read more from “Parents Were ‘Dismissed as Racist’ by School Officials When They Complained About 6ft 1ins Iranian Migrant Posing as a 15-Year-Old Who Appeared in Their Children’s Classroom” HERE)

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Iran to Be Declared in Breach of Chemical Weapons Bans

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The Trump administration is set to announce that Iran is not in compliance with the Chemical Weapons Conventions, marking a significant departure from that of the Obama administration, which refrained from making such a declaration amid efforts to solidify the landmark nuclear agreement.

The declaration comes in the aftermath of a flurry of activity by both the White House and State Department highlighting Iran’s malign activities across the globe. A bevy of economic sanctions on Iran were reimposed earlier this month, and the chemical weapons action is likely to further tighten the noose on the Iranian regime as part of what the administration has called a “maximum pressure” campaign on Tehran. . .

Multiple sources with knowledge of the matter confirmed that next week the Trump administration will transmit a formal finding to Congress regarding Iran’s non-compliance with the conventions, which ban stockpiling and use of these lethal weapons. . .

“No one who’s actually an adult is surprised by this news,” said the source, who could only speak on background about upcoming actions. “The Iranians have never met an arms control agreement they didn’t violate. That’s why the nuclear deal was such a transparent joke. The IAEA verifies what it’s allowed to verify and on everything else the Iranians cheat. The Trump administration should draw the logical conclusion and force the Europeans out of the deal, which so far they’ve refused to do.” (Read more from “Iran to Be Declared in Breach of Chemical Weapons Bans” HERE)

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Israel Makes Huge Accusation About Iran

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By AP. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is accusing European nations of “appeasing” Iran by trying to renew trade despite Iran’s nuclear activity.

Netanyahu invoked historical European maneuvering in the Middle East while excoriating European leaders for sticking to the 2015 Iranian nuclear accord. It allows for a lifting of sanctions in exchange for curbing Iran’s nuclear activities.

After announcing what he said is new proof of Iranian secret nuclear activity, Netanyahu asked, “Have these European leaders learned nothing from history? Will they ever wake up?” (Read more from “Israel Makes Huge Accusation About Iran” HERE)

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‘Disturbed’ and ‘Disappointed’ Pompeo Slams EU Plan to Bypass Iran Sanctions

By CNBC. America’s top diplomat had harsh words for Europe and its fellow remaining members of the Iranian nuclear deal after it was announced they would develop a financial mechanism to bypass U.S. sanctions and continue doing business with Iran.

Speaking to the conservative lobbying group United Against a Nuclear Iran during the UN General Assembly meetings, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Wednesday he was “disturbed and indeed deeply disappointed” by the European Union’s decision to create a “special purpose vehicle” (SPV) designed to allow trade with Tehran in euros, which would eliminate the need for commercial and central banks who fear U.S. penalties.

Announced jointly with Russia and China, the mechanism as of yet lacks technical details.

“This is one of the of the most counterproductive measures imaginable for regional and global peace and security,” Pompeo said. “By sustaining revenues to the regime, you are solidifying Iran’s ranking as the number one state sponsor of terror.”

The initial announcement of the SPV from EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini this week came ahead of a second round of U.S. sanctions set to come down on Iran’s oil sector on November 4. (Read more from “‘Disturbed’ and ‘Disappointed’ Pompeo Slams EU Plan to Bypass Iran Sanctions” HERE)

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Iran Blames U.S. for Instigating Terror Attack

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Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday that an unnamed U.S.-allied country in the Persian Gulf was behind an attack on a military parade that killed 25 people and wounded nearly 70.

Rouhani did not identify those behind Saturday’s attack, which was claimed by an Arab separatist group. He could have been referring to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates or Bahrain — close U.S. military allies that view Iran as a regional menace over its support for militant groups across the Middle East.

“All of those small mercenary countries that we see in this region are backed by America. It is Americans who instigate them and provide them with necessary means to commit these crimes,” Rouhani said.

Saturday’s attack, in which militants disguised as soldiers opened fire on an annual Iranian military parade in Ahvaz, in the oil-rich southwest, was the deadliest attack in the country in nearly a decade. Women and children scattered along with once-marching Revolutionary Guard soldiers as heavy gunfire rang out, the chaos captured live on state television.

The region’s Arab separatists, once only known for nighttime attacks on unguarded oil pipelines, claimed responsibility for the assault, and Iranian officials appeared to believe the claim. Iran summoned diplomats from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands early Sunday for allegedly harboring “members of the terrorist group” that launched the attack.

The ministry later summoned the envoy of the United Arab Emirates as well over what it called the “irresponsible and insulting statements” of an Emirati adviser, according to the semi-official ISNA news agency.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had earlier blamed regional countries and their “U.S. masters” for funding and arming the separatists, issuing a stark warning as regional tensions remain high in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from the Iranian nuclear deal.

“Iran will respond swiftly and decisively in defense of Iranian lives,” Zarif wrote on Twitter.

The parade was one of many around the country marking the start of Iran’s long 1980s war with Iraq, commemorations known as the “Sacred Defense Week.”

The attack killed at least 25 people and wounded nearly 70, according to the state-run IRNA news agency. It said gunmen wore military uniforms and targeted a riser where military and police commanders were sitting. State TV hours later reported that all four gunmen had been killed.

At least eight of the dead served in the Revolutionary Guard, an elite paramilitary unit that answers only to Iran’s supreme leader, according to the semi-official Tasnim news agency. The Guard responded to the attack on Sunday, warning it would seek “deadly and unforgiving revenge in the near future.”

Tensions have been on the rise since the Trump administration pulled out of the 2015 nuclear accord with Iran earlier this year and began restoring sanctions that were eased under the deal. It also has steadily ramped up pressure on Iran to try to get it to stop what Washington calls its “malign activities” in the region.

The U.S. government nevertheless strongly condemned Saturday’s attack and expressed its sympathy, saying it “condemns all acts of terrorism and the loss of any innocent lives.”

Initially, authorities described the assailants as “takfiri gunmen,” a term previously used to describe the Islamic State group. Iran has been deeply involved in the fight against IS in Iraq and has aided Syrian President Bashar Assad in his country’s long civil war.

But later, state media and government officials seemed to come to the consensus that Arab separatists in the region were responsible. The separatists accuse Iran’s Persian-dominated government of discriminating against its ethnic Arab minority.

Khuzestan province also has seen recent protests over Iran’s nationwide drought, as well as economic protests.

Iran has blamed its Mideast archrival, the Sunni kingdom of Saudi Arabia, for funding Arab separatists. State media in Saudi Arabia did not immediately acknowledge the attack, though a Saudi-linked, Farsi-language satellite channel based in the United Kingdom immediately carried an interview with an Ahvazi activist claiming Saturday’s attack.

Hamid Baeidinejad, Iran’s ambassador to the U.K., called the channel’s decision a “heinous act” in a post on Twitter and said his country would file a complaint with British authorities over the broadcast. Early Sunday, a Foreign Ministry statement similarly criticized Britain and said Danish and Dutch diplomats were told Iran “already warned” their governments about harboring Arab separatists.

Danish Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen condemned the attack and stressed that there would be “consequences” if it turns out that those responsible have connections to Denmark.

Yacoub Hor al-Tostari, a spokesman for the Arab Struggle Movement to Liberate Ahvaz, told The Associated Press that members of an umbrella group of Ahvazi activists his organization leads carried out the attack.

The attack undermined the Iranian government “on the day it wants to give a message to the world that it is powerful and in control,” al-Tostari said. To bolster his claim, he gave details about one of the attackers that the AP could not immediately verify.

The Islamic State group also claimed responsibility for the attack, but provided no evidence it carried out the assault. They also initially wrongly said the attack targeted Rouhani, who was in Tehran at the time. The militants have made a string of false claims in the wake of major defeats in Iraq and Syria.

The Islamic State group carried out a coordinated assault in June 2017 on parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the leader of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution. At least 18 people were killed and more than 50 wounded.

In the last decade, mass-casualty militant attacks have been incredibly rare. In 2009, more than 40 people, including six Guard commanders, were killed in a suicide attack by Sunni extremists in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchistan province. (For more from the author of “Iran Blames U.S. for Instigating Terror Attack” please click HERE)

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