BEIRUT (Reuters) - The United States said on Saturday it would keep F-16 fighters and Patriot missiles in Jordan at Amman's request, and Russia bristled at the possibility they could be used to enforce a no-fly zone inside Syria.   Washington, which has long called for President Bashar al-Assad to step down, pledged military support to Syrian rebel ... Continue reading »

The decisive election of Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s next president is a message to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that the majority of Iranians reject Khamenei’s message of “resistance” and confrontation with the outside world.The Supreme Leader, who told the United States on Friday to “go to hell” for disparaging Iran’s qualified democracy, i ... Continue reading »

Iran is again cracking down on people with pet dogs, viewed as unclean in Islam, but Soroush Mobaraki says sales are booming despite fears the pooches might be "arrested" and their owners fined.     This veterinary pharmacologist, sitting in the small Tehran pet shop he owns, said "there has been a sharp increase in demand for dogs in recent years. ... Continue reading »

Statistics show that things are getting hot and heavy in Iran, where an unexpected sexual revolution is underway. Perhaps young Iranians’ active sex lives are the perfect passive resistance.   Thirty years ago, associating Iran with sexual freedoms would have earned you some fairly incredulous, perhaps even derisive, glances. Iran, with its strictn ... Continue reading »

The Obama administration will extend six-month sanctions exemptions to China, India and seven other countries for significantly reducing oil imports from Iran, officials said Tuesday, as the U.S. imposed new measures against companies believed to be acting as a front network to help the Iranian government evade international financial restrictions. ... Continue reading »

In Iran, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s term is coming to an end and elections are on for June 14. In the past, a change of Presidents tended to mark a change in European-Iranian relations. The government of the Islamic Republic was subject to some degree of change while EU policy was responsive and partly formed in reaction to such change. Howeve ... Continue reading »

Tens of thousands have attended the funeral of a senior dissident cleric, in what became Iran's biggest anti-government protest for years.   Ayatollah Jalaluddin Taheri died at the age of 87 on Sunday in Isfahan.   He was a vocal opponent of the hardliners in power in Iran and had resigned from his post in protest.   Mourners at the funeral chanted ... Continue reading »

An Argentine special prosecutor's accusation that Iran has established terrorist networks throughout Latin America has renewed debate over how big a threat that poses to the region and the United States.   Alberto Nisman, who is investigating the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people, said in a 500-page rep ... Continue reading »

ater this month, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will conclude his second term as president of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It's anyone's guess how he'll spend his time thereafter—the Ahmadinejad Global Initiative, anyone?—but it's probably safe to say that he's ready to leave Tehran’s presidential palace. The past year, after all, has been an extended lame d ... Continue reading »