A prominent Iranian human rights activist has been sentenced to 16 years in prison, The New York Times reported Wednesday. Narges Mohammadi, a human rights lawyer, who “has been in and out of jail over the past 15 years” was sentenced by Abolghassem Salavati, the head of an Iranian revolutionary court, to...

The leader of a coalition of Sunni rebels fighting against the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad expressed that his group, which includes Islamists, has no desire to go to war with Israel, Eli Lake of Bloomberg View reported Thursday. Mohammed Alloush, the political leader of Jaish al-Islam, which translates to “Army of Islam,” which...

In an interview two weeks ago, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani consistently lied and evaded questions put to him by NBC News’s Chuck Todd. Todd first asked why Iran was claiming that the United States was not living up to the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). Rouhani responded that the deal...

The United States signed a secret agreement to lift United Nations sanctions on two Iranian banks that were designated for financing their country’s ballistic missile program on the same day that Tehran freed four American hostages, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. The Obama administration’s decision to delist Bank Sepah and Bank Sepah International...

Iran is seeking increased sanctions relief from the West by leveraging concerns that it will back out of last year’s nuclear deal, two experts from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) wrote in an analysis for U.S. News and World Report on Wednesday. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s speech at the United...

Thousands of Iran-backed Shiite troops are massing in northern Syria for a battle to take the rebel-held eastern part of Aleppo, The Guardian reported Thursday. Around 5,000 of the estimated 6,000 fighters come from countries outside Syria, such as Iran, Iraq, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. Most of the troops’ commanders are Shiites devoted to...