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The strikes are the first time Iran has fired missiles at another country in three decades and represent a major escalation of Iran's role in the war in Syria.

Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on its official news website, Sepah News, that several "ground-to-ground, mid-range missiles" were fired from bases in Kermanshah province, western Iran.

The operation "targeted Takfiri forces in the Deir Ezzor region in Eastern Syria."

Iran's Revolutionary Guard uses the term Takfiri to describe ISIS.

Iran backs Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his fight against anti-government rebel groups and ISIS, which is primarily based in the Syrian city of Raqqa.

Lt Col (ret) Rick Francona, CNN military analyst, described Iran's move as a "real escalation."

"The selection of targets is interesting. They say they are firing at the same people who planned the attacks in Tehran but it also bolsters the Syrian army effort right now."

Amir Daftari, a CNN producer in Tehran, said that Iran hadn't hidden its support for Assad "but up until now they've led us to believe that they've provided things like military advisers, volunteers and money."

Shiite-majority Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia have long been embroiled in a sectarian feud.

CNN's Nadeem Muaddi, Shirzad Bozorgmehr and Angela Dewan contributed to this report.

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Iran launches missiles into Syria - CNN.com

A file picture taken on August 16, 2008 shows an Iranian flag fluttering in front of an Iranian Safir rocket designed to carry a communications satellite before it's test launch in a space station at an undisclosed location in the Islamic republic.

VAHIDREZA ALAI/AFP/Getty Images

Last Updated Jul 27, 2017 9:32 AM EDT

TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran successfully launched a satellite-carrying rocket into space on Thursday, the country's state media reported without elaborating.

Iranian state television described the launch as involving a "Simorgh" rocket that is capable of carrying a satellite weighing 550 pounds. The state media report did not elaborate on the rocket's payload.

"Simorgh" means "phoenix" in Farsi.

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The White House is saying that Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal put in place by the Obama administration in 2015. CBS News' Margaret B...

The website YJC.ir, which is affiliated with Iranian state television, as well as the semi-official Fars news agency, also reported the launch on Thursday, saying it was successful.

The launch comes as the United States has criticized Iran's ballistic missile tests.

Such tests are allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran struck with world powers. However, American officials argue that they violate the spirit of the accord that saw the Islamic Republic limit its uranium enrichment program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Iran has pursued a satellite launch program for years. The U.S. and its allies worry that the same technology could be used to develop long-range missiles.

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Report: Iran successfully launches satellite-carrying rocket into space - CBS News

Iran could be on the verge of decriminalising some forms of drug use to allow the government to distribute drugs to addicts.

By allowing the government to give out diluted rugs to addicts, the proposal aims to cut the relationship between drug addicts and drug traffickers.

The plan to distribute [low-grade] drugs is similar to what used to be implemented before the [1979 Irans Islamic] Revolution, said Hassan Norouzi, the spokesperson for the Parliaments Judicial and Legal Commission, according to IFPNews.

Global commission call for legalisation of drugs

Mr Norouzi said diluted drugssuch asMethadone wouldbe distributed instead of opium, cannabis and other common drugs in Iran. He went on to say all relevant authorities had given the proposal the go-ahead.

He added: Given the special emphasis that the Establishments macro-policies put on the necessity of cutting off the relationship between drug addicts and narco-traffickers, we decided that the government hand out diluted drugs to addicts, so that they will be able to give up their addiction gradually and, instead of being drawn to drug-traffickers, turn to the Establishment and meet their needs through official channels."

The spokesperson said the Judicial and Legal Commission will continue its work to finalise the plan's approval.

When he was asked what kinds of narcotics the government would distribute among addicts, he said:These drugs include methadone and substances more diluted than previous ones, and the authority to decide on that rests with bylaws which are to be jointly drawn up by the Ministry of Justice and [Irans] Drug Enforcement HQ, and which could come into effect after getting the all clear from the Cabinet."

The judicial committee has also proposed a draft law halting the death penalty for carrying and distributing less than 100kg of traditional drugs such as opium or less than two kilograms of synthetic drugs.

Irans Drug Control Organisation said there are now 2.8 million people regularly consuming drugs" in the strictly conservative country.

The figure increased from 1.3 million users in the Islamic Republics 80 million strong population six years ago, spokesperson Parviz Afshar said, with opium fuelling 67 per cent of consumption.

Last year, the UN said Iran has one of the worst addiction crises in the world, affecting people from all walks of society.

See more here:
Iran plans to decriminalise drug use allowing government to give diluted drugs to addicts - The Independent

The U.S. Congress has struck a deal to send President Donald Trump a bill that could limit his power to lift sanctions against Russia.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker said he reached an agreement with leaders in the House of Representatives to act on their version of the legislation, passed Tuesday in a 419-to-3 vote. It includes sanctions onNorth Korea that Corker previously said could hold up the bill. The original Senate bill addressed only Iran and Russia and passed that chamber by 98-2 last month.

The Senate will move to approve the Iran and Russia sanctions it originally passed six weeks ago, as well as the North Korea sanctions developed by the House, Corker, a Tennessee Republican, said in a statement. Going forward, the House has committed to expeditiously consider and pass enhancements to the North Korea language, which multiple members of the Senate hope to make in the very near future.

Passage would force Trump to either sign away part of his authority for unilateral action on sanctions against Russia or veto a bill that appears to have enough support to override an attempt to block it from becoming law.

He may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians, White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci said of the president in an interview with CNN Thursday.

Russian relations are a sensitive topic for the Trump administration, as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a special counsel in the Justice Department, and congressional committees are investigating connections between the presidents campaign and the Kremlin. Emails published by Trumps son show that members of his family and inner circle met with Russians in the run-up to last years election.

Read More: Russia Ponders Its Limited Options to Strike Back at Sanctions

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Taking a tough stance on Russia gives Republicans something to talk about as they head back to their districts for August recess after months of squabbling over health-care proposals and failure to produce a draft of their tax plan. The House is scheduled to leave Washington after this week, and the Senate has two more weeks to tackle its backlog of nominations and legislation, including this bill.

Threats of retaliation from Russia were almost immediate, following the Houses approval of this bill on Tuesday.

The sanctions are pretty sad from the viewpoint of Russian-American relations and prospects for developing them, and no less depressing from the perspective of international law and international trade, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Wednesday on a conference call. Russian President Vladimir Putin will decide on a response if the bill becomes law, he said.

Trump will likely sign the law because hes a prisoner of Congress and anti-Russian hysteria, Alexei Pushkov, a senator in Russias upper house of parliament, said on Twitter. The sanctions are a new stage of confrontation, he said.

The Senates original bill focused on Iran sanctions that were modeled after executive orders from previous administrations. The Russia part was later added in an amendment.

That bill was sent to the House before Trump met Putin at the Group of 20 summit earlier this month, but Republican leaders said they couldnt hold a vote that week due to procedural concerns. Officials from the Treasury and State departments met with a bipartisan group of House lawmakers to oppose the provision allowing lawmakers to block the presidents decision to lift sanctions.

The delay then gave time for companies to scale up their lobbying against parts of the bill, including a provision that would have restricted participation in international projects with even small Russia participation. That measure was changed last week to apply to only ventures with a 33 percent stake from Russian firms.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy also insisted in including North Korea sanctions as a way to force the Senate to vote on a bill the House passed by a large margin months ago. Corkers statement about an agreement on this measure resolves concerns about further delays.

With assistance by Stepan Kravchenko

Link:
Deal Struck on Russia-Iran Sanctions Bill Curbing Trump's Power - Bloomberg

A U.S. Navy patrol ship known as the U.S.S. Thunderbolt fired warning shots at an armed Iranian vessel after the vessel came within 150 yards of it on Tuesday. Both boats were stationed in the northern end of the Persian Gulf, according to U.S. defense officials, who said the Iranian vessel ignored repeated warnings from the U.S. As the Iranian ship advanced toward the Thunderbolt at a high speed, the Navy issued radio communications, flares, and five blasts from their ships whistle, signaling that the boats were headed toward a collision. But U.S. officials claim that the Iranian ship, which belongs to the nations military, only halted its approach after the Navy fired two warning shots into the air at around 3 p.m. local time on Tuesday.

The Navy has since described the incident as an unsafe and unprofessional interaction, arguing that the Iranian vessel ignored the rules of the road and created a risk for collision. The Iranian military provided a much different account to its state news agency on Tuesday, where it claimed to have foiled the U.S. warships provocative move. The statement added that the warning shots from the U.S. aimed to instigate and frighten the Iranian boat, which continued its mission before leaving the zone.

While its common for U.S. and Iranian ships to come within close proximity of one another in the Persian Gulf, its far less common for the U.S. to issue a warning shot. In April, an Iranian military ship that came within 1,000 yards of the U.S.S. Mahan was accused of unprofessional and provocative conduct, but did not elicit any fire from the U.S. Aside from Tuesday, the last major conflict between U.S. and Iranian ships occurred in January, when the Mahan fired three warning shots at an approaching fleet of Iranian vessels. Before that, the U.S.S. Squall fired multiple warning shots into the water after an Iranian boat came within 200 yards of it in August 2016.

Tuesdays incident marks the closest encounter between a U.S. ship and Iranian vessel in the Persian Gulf in at least a year. The incident comes a week after the U.S. slapped a new round of sanctions on Iran over its ballistic-missile program. A day before the sanctions, President Trump certified that Iran was in compliance with a 2015 nuclear agreement with the U.S. and other world powers. Under the agreement, the U.S. administration must inform Congress of the status of Irans nuclear program every 90 days. Trump has previously called the deal the worst ever and expressed doubts over whether Iran will continue to comply.

At a Tuesday night speech in Youngstown, Ohio, Trump warned Iran that it could face big, big problems if it failed to conform to the terms of the deal. Telling the crowd that Iran had become emboldened by the agreement, Trump repeated a pattern of issuing advisories to Iran at his rallies. At a campaign event last year in Pensacola, Florida, Trump directly referenced the close encounters between U.S. and Iranian ships in the Persian Gulf, telling supporters that when the Iranian military circle[s] our beautiful destroyers with their little boats they will be shot out of the water.

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US Navy Fires Warning Shots at Iranian Ship - The Atlantic