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Iraq Says Iran’s Shift Toward West Is Serious

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Iran soldiersIraq’s foreign minister said Saturday that the new Iranian government led by President Hassan Rouhani offers “the best chance after 34 years of animosity” to improve relations with the United States and should be taken seriously.

Hoshyar Zebari also told The Associated Press in an interview that he is working behind the scenes to try to unite disparate Syrian opposition groups ahead of a November peace conference and to promote a thaw in Tehran’s relations with the United States.

Zebari said U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked Iraq at their meeting Saturday to press the opposition to come with one delegation and one position. The U.N. chief also told him he heard no opposition to Iran, an ally of Syrian President Bashar Assad, participating in the upcoming Geneva peace conference.

“Before he would hear outright rejection,” Zebari said. “This time, everybody was quiet. Nobody objected.”

Iraq is in a unique position in the Middle East. Its Shiite-dominated government has comfortable ties to Shiite Iran — an important ally of Bashar Assad’s Syrian regime. And according to Zebari, Iraq also has good relations with both sides in the Syrian conflict. It also has strong ties to Washington following the 10-year, American-led war that ousted dictator Saddam Hussein.

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Will Obama Fall for Iranian President’s Deception?

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

He’s been portrayed by the mainstream media as the anti-Ahmadenijad—a pragmatic moderate who’s set to strike a grand bargain with the United States and save the world from a looming military showdown over Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

But as Iranian president Hassan Rowhani takes center stage at the U.N. General Assembly this week, full of reassuring smiles and promises of peace, the Obama administration would be wise to keep a peculiar-sounding Arabic word in mind.

That word is taqiyya (pronounced ta-kee-ah). Translated into English, it means “deception.”

Taqiyya has long been a favorite tactic utilized by radical Shia Islamists—like those that comprise the current Iranian regime—to confound their enemies and lull them into a false sense of security, even complacency.

If President Obama ends up meeting with Rowhani on Tuesday when both men speak before the General Assembly (an encounter White House officials have hinted may take place), expect nothing less than a full-on taqiyya-fest.

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Benjamin Netanyahu Warns of Iran ‘Honey’ Trap

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benjamin-netanyahu-speech__13223894__mbqftemplateidrenderscaledpropertybildwidth465Prompted by growing alarm over the prospect of rapprochement between Iran and the West, the Israeli prime minister will warn that Mr Rouhani’s conciliatory tone conceals the same hostile intent voiced explicitly by the combative Mr Ahmadinejad when he addresses the UN general assembly on October 1.

He will also warn the West to avoid being caught in a honey trap laid by Mr Rouhani, who was elected in June on a promise to end Iran’s international isolation. “This is not honey, this is venom,” the prime minister will say, according to Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper, which claimed to have seen a preview of his planned delivery.

Israeli officials have been trailing excerpts from Mr Netanyahu’s speech more than a week in advance in a desperate effort to counteract the effects of Mr Rouhani’s arrival in New York, where he is expected to call for a fresh diplomatic engagement in his own UN speech today.

By contrast, the Israeli leader will respond to Iranian overtures seeking a resolution to the impasse over its nuclear programme by warning that no deal is better than a bad agreement. He will remind diplomats that a deal was struck in 2005 over North Korea’s nuclear activities only for the Communist regime to test a bomb a year later.

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Iranian President Rejects Meeting with President Obama

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani declined to talk to President Barack Obama after White House aides offered to arrange “an encounter” between the two leaders.

“What we indicated was we were open to the two leaders having an encounter here on the margins, officials said,” according to the White House pool report.

“The Iranians have an internal dynamic that they have to manage and the relationship with [the] United States is clearly quite different than the relationship that Iran has with other Western nations,” the pool report quotes a senior administration official as saying.

The official explained that the meeting was just “too complicated for Iranians to do at this point.”

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Federal Government to Seize NYC Skyscraper Tied to Iran

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Photo Credit: AP

Photo Credit: AP

It was once known as the Piaget Building because the Swiss jeweler used to have offices in the skyscraper near Rockefeller Center.

In the near future, it will be known as property of the federal government.

U.S. District Judge Katherine Forrest has granted a summary judgment that clears the way for the government to seize the 36-story office building owned by a corporation and foundation with ties to the Iranian government. The move is the latest chapter in a short but storied history that includes design by John Carl Warnecke, the same architect who drew up the John F. Kennedy Eternal Flame gravesite at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia, Logan International Airport in Boston and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md.

A statement by the U.S. Justice Department says the ruling “paves the way for the largest-ever terrorism-related forfeiture.”

The building at 650 Fifth Ave. in Manhattan is owned by the Alavi Foundation and Assa Corp., which took part in money laundering, the statement says. Assa is a front for Bank Melli, which is a “a front for the government of Iran,” according to the statement.

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Russia ‘to Renew Offer to Supply S-300s to Iran’

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Photo Credit: France 24

Photo Credit: France 24

Russian President Vladimir Putin will offer to supply Iran S-300 air defence missile systems as well as build a second reactor at the Bushehr nuclear plant, the Kommersant business daily reported Wednesday.

Putin will renew an old offer to supply Iran with five of the sophisticated ground-to-air missile systems at a meeting with Iranian President Hassan Rowhani on Friday, Kommersant said, quoting a souce close to the Kremlin.

Putin is set to meet Rowhani at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation held in Kyrgyzstan on Friday.

Russia in 2007 signed a contract to deliver five of the advanced ground-to-air weapons — which can take out aircraft or guided missiles — to Iran at a cost of $800 million.

In 2010, then-president Dmitry Medvedev cancelled the contract after coming under strong US and Israeli pressure not to go ahead with the sale of the weapons system, drawing vehement protests from Tehran.

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Iran Threatens Brutal Attacks on Americans, Obama Family if US Hits Syria (+video)

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Photo Credit: Daily Caller

Photo Credit: Daily Caller

As Congress debates whether to support President Obama’s call for a limited strike against Syria for the alleged use of chemical weapons, Iran is vowing to back Bashar al-Assad’s regime to the hilt and threatening to unleash terrorism should the U.S. strike.

Qassem Soleimani, the head of Iran’s Quds Forces, Wednesday told the Assembly of Experts — the body that chooses the supreme leader — that “[w]e will support Syria to the end.”

And in an unprecedented statement, a former Iranian official has warned of mass abductions and brutal killings of American citizens around the world and the rape and killing of one of Obama’s daughters should the United States attack Syria.

Alireza Forghani, the former governor of southern Iran’s Kish Province, threw down the gauntlet last week. Forghani is an analyst and strategy specialist in the supreme leader’s camp and closely aligned with Mehdi Taeb, who heads the regime’s Ammar Strategic Base, a radical think thank, and thus speaks with the blessing of the Islamic regime.

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U.S. Intercepts Iranian Order for Attack on U.S. Interests in Iraq

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iran_gamesThe United States has intercepted an order from an Iranian official instructing militants in Iraq to attack U.S. interests in Baghdad in the event the Obama administration launches a military strike in Syria, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The American embassy in Baghdad was a likely target, according to unnamed U.S. officials quoted by the newspaper. The Journal said the officials did not describe the range of potential targets indicated by the intelligence.

In addition, the State Department issued a warning on Thursday telling U.S. citizens to avoid all but “essential” travel to Iraq.

President Barack Obama has asked the U.S. Congress to back his plan for limited strikes in response to a chemical weapons attack on civilians that the United States blames on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

The Journal reported that the Iranian message was intercepted in recent days and came from the head of the Revolutionary Guards’ Qods Force. The newspaper said the message went to Iranian-supported Shi’ite militia groups in Iraq.

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Iran Unveils New Warship Ahead of Potential Syria Strike

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Photo Credit: Free Beacon

Photo Credit: Free Beacon

The Iranian Navy unveiled on Tuesday a new warship equipped with “advanced weapons and radar systems” and warned that Israel would be the “main loser” if America decides to launch a military strike in Syria, according to regional media reports.

Iranian Navy commander Habibollah Sayyari announced that Iran had overhauled a warship, installing new radar and weapons systems that would “improve its performance and fire power,” according to Iran’s state run Fars News Agency.

“The warship needed an overhaul and equipment with the state of the art and novel technologies and therefore the warship’s weapons have been modernized,” Sayyari was quoted as saying by Fars.

“Sonar and radar systems, weapons and information-gathering sensors of the warship” have been significantly upgraded, according to Sayyari.

Iranian military leaders also announced on Tuesday that the military had enhanced its “electronic warfare” capabilities by testing a domestically made radar system that can reportedly detect “stealth targets and cruise missiles,” according to Fars.

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Video: Shock Report Reveals Alarming Iranian Recruitment Efforts in Central and South America

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TheBlaze’s senior Washington correspondent Sara Carter appeared on TheBlaze TV Monday to discuss the growing issue of Islamic extremism in Central and South America — an issue both she and Glenn Beck have warned about for years.

Carter noted that the Washington Post recently came out with an article about a man named Moshen Rabbani, who is an Islamic cleric from Iran and a former cultural attache at the Iranian Embassy in Buenos Aires. He has also been accused of being the mastermind behind the bombing of a Jewish Community Center in 1994 that killed 85 people.</p>

“He is the head of a group, a department in Iran, that actually spends all their time building cultural centers in South [and Central America]…recruiting young Latinos that he can take back to Iran to train and indoctrinate in the religious city of Qom,” Carter said.</p>

According to the article in the Post, once the young men and women arrive in Iran, they are put into intensive courses in “perfect Spanish” on subjects like “anti-Americanism and Islam.” Experts estimate roughly 1,000 people have gone through the program since 2007.</p>

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