The United States is planning to send 400 military trainers to Iraq’s Anbar Province to help Iraqis, especially Sunni tribes, in their fight the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Reuters reported today. The U.S. deployment would likely entail around 400 trainers, one U.S. official said, adding an announcement...

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Iran will “take legal action” against the United States if the U.S. prevents an Iranian airline with ties to terrorist groups from flying recently purchased planes, Reuters reported today. Iran’s Mahan Air, blacklisted by Washington, bought eight second-hand Airbus A340s and one Airbus A321 in May in defiance of U.S. sanctions....

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The second hearing in the espionage trial of Washington Post reporter Jason Rezaian was held behind closed doors in Tehran on Monday, the Post reported. The first hearing occurred two weeks ago. Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency said Rezaian, a California native who has dual U.S. and Iranian citizenship because his father was...

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The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) is seeking to improve the safety of the city’s taxi fleet and has started installing Mobileye, the Israeli accident-avoidance system on all of its cabs, David Shamah reported in The Times of Israel today. Last week, the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission...

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In a 6-3 decision, the United States Supreme Court determined the Jerusalem Passport Law was unconstitutional in a ruling that the Associated Press wrote “underscores the president’s authority in foreign affairs.” The court ruled 6-3 that Congress overstepped its bounds when it approved the law in 2002. It would have...

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After a spat between the Obama administration and The New York Times over a report on the growth of Iran’s nuclear stockpile, the think tank whose research undergirded the Times report released a new analysis (.pdf) today, in which they observed that the administration’s flustered reaction underlines potential weaknesses in an emerging nuclear deal....

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South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley signed into law a measure prohibiting the state from doing business with any firm that boycotts Israel, The Jerusalem Post reported Thursday. The bill makes no mention of Israel directly, but prevents public entities from contracting with businesses engaging in the “boycott of a person or an...

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A retired ambassador with multiple postings in the Middle East warned the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Wednesday that Iran remained a threat to destabilize the region and that a nuclear agreement would not signal “a change of heart about its ultimate hegemonic goals.” Jennifer Rubin of The Washington Post reported on the...

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Administration officials have spent the last two days attacking a Tuesday report in The New York Times that Iran’s stockpile of low enriched uranium (LEU) is now 20% greater than when it signed the Joint Plan of Action (JPOA) in November 2013. The Times article noted that the growth of that stockpile contradicted the...

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As discussion continues over whether Americans jailed in Iran should be considered as elements of the negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program, Bloomberg View national security correspondent Eli Lake wrote Tuesday that doing so would embolden the Islamic Republic to take further hostages. The families of Jason Rezaian, Saeed Abedini, Amir Hekmati, and Robert Levinson have stated that the...

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