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...

• Kindle

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...

• Kindle

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...

• Kindle

While Democratic and Republican leaders in Washington have made defeating the Islamic State a top priority, “that’s not nearly as important as confronting the challenge posed by Iran,” former Israeli defense minister Moshe Ya’alon wrote in a Los Angeles Times op-ed published Thursday. Ya’alon said that while last year’s nuclear deal had certain benefits  — namely delaying Iran’s...

• Kindle

Iran released a video on Sunday showing the test-firing of a new ballistic missile that it has started mass producing, Tasnim News Agency reported. The domestically-designed missile, named Zolfaqar, is seen successfully hitting its intended target in the recording, which was released hours after Iran’s defense minister inaugurated a production line for the weapon....

• Kindle

Iranian leaders’ recent statements about the country’s nuclear program suggest that it is not strictly intended for civilian purposes, which would mean that the world must impose restrictions on Iran’s nuclear-related purchases, a former high-level official of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) wrote on Sunday. Mohammad-Javad Larijani, a foreign policy advisor to Supreme...

• Kindle

Asked if he was one of the Israeli defense officials who President Barack Obama claimed considered the nuclear deal with Iran a success, former Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said on Thursday that he didn’t know any security officials who felt that way. After a wide-ranging presentation at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy that partially...

• Kindle

The $1.7 billion cash payment that the White House recently sent to Iran suggests that Washington may have transferred Tehran more than $33 billion in untraceable cash and precious metals since 2014, giving the Islamic Republic greater flexibility to launder money and finance terrorism, a sanctions expert told Congress on Thursday. In his testimony before the House Financial...

• Kindle

Iran is systematically pushing the limits of the nuclear deal it reached with world powers last year without facing significant resistance, a leading non-proliferation told The Jerusalem Post on Monday. Emily Landau, head of the Arms Control Program at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies, offered her assessment in light of revelations last week...

• Kindle

The United States and its negotiating partners secretly granted Iran exemptions from some of its responsibilities under last year’s nuclear deal, which Tehran would have otherwise failed to fulfill in time to receive nuclear-related sanctions relief on Implementation Day, according to a report (.pdf) published Thursday by the Institute for Science and International Security....

• Kindle