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Kerry called the Iran deals monitoring processes a system thats working, according to the San Francisco Chronicle,and criticized President Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress for pushing for new sanctions against the Iranian regime.

It doesnt make sense, folks, to risk a step that gets us nothing, Kerry said of proposed new sanctions onIrans ballistic missile program, according to theChronicle.

Kerry also blasted the Trump administration for withdrawing from the Paris Climate Accords, the Obama administrations other major foreign policy legacy. He reportedly defended his 2014 remark that climate change was a weapon of mass destruction and a threat to national security. Scientists, people whose life is invested in this are telling you, This is growing in instability, and the threat is that whole parts of the ice sheet will break off., Kerry said, according to theChronicle.

As Breitbart News Aaron Klein reported a year ago, the Ploughshares Fundhas been sponsoring national security coverage at National Public Radio (NPR) since 2005, as well as several think tanks that supported the Iran deal. It is also, Klein reported, funded in turn by George Soross Open SocietyFoundations.

NPRs ombudsman foundit had not disclosed Ploughshares funding in reporting on the group and interviewing itspresident and sponsored experts.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the most influential people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author ofHow Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution, is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.

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John Kerry Defends Iran Deal in San Francisco to Soros-Backed ...

Fighters in the Sheikh Maqsood district of Aleppo, Syria, in 2013. CreditPHOTOGRAPH BY JACK HILL / THE TIMES / REDUX

For the first time since the Syrian civil war began, Iranian-backed militias appear to have secured a road link from the Iranian border all the way to Syrias Mediterranean coast. The new land route will allow the Iranian regime to resupply its allies in Syria by land instead of air, which is both easier and cheaper.

The road network, which starts on Irans border with Iraq and runs across that country and Syria, was secured last week, when pro-Iranian Shiite militias captured a final string of Iraqi villages near the border with Syria. The road link zigs and zags across the two countries, but it appears to give Iran direct, uninhibited access to Damascus and the government of Bashar al-Assad, which the Iranians have been supporting since the uprising there began, in 2011. Since then, the Iranians have been Assads primary backer, sending men, guns, and other material by air and sea.

The news of the Iranian breakthrough comes from officials in the Kurdish Regional Government, the semiautonomous area in northern Iraq, and from an expert in Washington who has been tracking the Iranians progress. Kurdish officials have briefed the Trump Administration on the developments.

The corridor is done, a Kurdish official told me, speaking on the condition of anonymity. The Iranians can go from the Iranian border all the way to the Mediterranean. Officials with the K.R.G. oppose the Iranian road. In 2012, they rebuffed an Iranian request to transit their territory to Syria. They want the Trump Administration to help block it now. Its an Iranian road, Fabrice Balanche, a visiting fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said.

The development is potentially momentous, because, for the first time, it would bind together, by a single land route, a string of Iranian allies, including Hezbollah, in Lebanon; the Assad regime, in Syria; and the Iranian-dominated government in Iraq. Those allies form what is often referred to as the Shiite Crescent, an Iranian sphere of influence in an area otherwise dominated by Sunni Muslims.

The Iranians have sought to create such a sphere since the end of the Iran-Iraq War, in 1988, which they saw as a Western-backed effort to destroy their regime. Thats why Iranians helped create Hezbollah, the Shiite militia that dominates Lebanon, and trained and directed Shiite militias that attacked American soldiers during their occupation of Iraq. The Iranian push into the Arab Middle East has helped aggravate the Sunni-Shiite schism that is fracturing the region. The attack in Tehran this week by ISIS militants is emblematic of the enmity with which Sunni militants regard the Iranian regime.

No Iranian trucks or other vehicles have apparently used the route yet, and no Iranian official has spoken publicly about it.

A senior American official who deals with the Middle East contested the idea that the Iranian corridor was open, saying that there were still many actors on the ground who could frustrate the Iranians efforts to pass. Its an extremely long way through Syria, and they would not control those roads, the official said, of the Iranians.

The road network makes its way across a long stretch of Iranian-friendly territorythe majority of it held by the Iraqi government, which has little leeway in opposing Iranian demandsand areas controlled by the Assad regime, in Syria.

Much of the Iraqi territory that hosts the road was until recently held by the Islamic State, beforeit was cleared by Shiite militias, whose manpower is largely composed of Iraqis often trained and directed by Iranian operatives. In Syria, many of the areas that make up the road network are held by Irans allies and proxiesincluding Hezbollah and Shiite militias from Iraq and Afghanistan, which have done much of the Syrian governments fighting.

The one potential obstacle to the Iran-Syria land route is the Kurds of Syria, who dominate the northeast corner of the country and who operate independently of the Kurds of Iraq. Much of the Iranian corridor runs through Syrian Kurdish territory. In recent years, the Syrian Kurds have engaged in a precarious balancing act to preserve their autonomy amid the chaos that has overwhelmed much of the rest of Syria. In practice, that has meant entering into what amounts to a nonaggression pact with the Assad government, an arrangement that has evolved at times into moments of explicit military coperation.

And it has also meant coperating with American and other Western forces in the battle against the Islamic State. Like other Kurdish groups in the region, the Syrian Kurds are mindful of the fact that almost every state in the regionin particular, Turkeyis opposed to their independence.

Kurdish Syrian officialssay that they dont wantany Iraqi Shiite militias to cross into their territory. Thats code for not wanting any Iranians, either. Irans allies are already bringing pressure to bear on the Kurds to coperate: In recent days, the Kurds have said that Russiathreatened themwith an attack by Turkish forces.

The Iraqi Kurdish official whom I spoke with told me he believed that the Iranian corridor was inevitable, unless the United States weighs in to stop itpossibly by pressuring the Syrian Kurds. Much of the future of the Middle East will depend on who wins the tug-of-war. Everything depends now on the Americans willingness to stop this, the official said.

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Iran Extends Its Reach in Syria - The New Yorker

LONDON International energy companies including Total, Petronas and Inpex, have presented technical surveys for the development of the Azadegan oilfield, an Iranian oil official was quoted as saying on Saturday.

Tehran is looking to ramp up its crude output and with 37 billion barrels of oil, the Azadegan field is Irans largest, shared with its neighbor Iraq. It is located in southern Iran, 80 km west of the Khuzestan provincial city of Ahvaz.

The managing director of Iran's Petroleum Engineering and Development Company was quoted by Mehr news agency as saying that France's Total, Malaysia's Petronas, and Japans Inpex Corp. <1605.T, > have offered their surveys on the field.

Noureddin Shahnazizadeh added that some other companies like Royal Dutch Shell, Italy's oil and gas group Eni, and China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) are also interested in the tender for development of the oilfield.

Iran's oil minister said in May that the international tender for the Azadegan oilfield was underway.

(Reporting by Bozorgmehr Sharafedin; Editing by Alexander Smith)

MOSCOW The energy ministers of Russia, Saudi Arabia and Kazakhstan did not discuss any adjustments to output levels Kazakhstan agreed to as part of a global oil output deal, Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak was quoted as saying on Saturday.

LONDON OPEC's battle against an oil glut is under threat as unsold crude from members Nigeria and Libya, which are exempt from a global production-cutting deal, is swamping the Atlantic Basin.

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Oil majors submit surveys to develop Iran's Azadegan - Reuters

The Jerusalem Post

Hamas chief Haniyeh to visit Iran The Jerusalem Post Hamas announced on Saturday that Hamas Politburo chairman, Ismail Haniyeh, will soon visit Iran and lead a delegation of senior Hamas leaders. Hamas' foreign relations chief, Osama Hamdan, announced that "the delegation, headed by Ismail Haniyeh, ... and more »

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Hamas chief Haniyeh to visit Iran - The Jerusalem Post

ANKARA When Islamic State called on members of Iran's Sunni Muslim minority in March to wage a religious war on their Shi'ite rulers, few people took the threat seriously. And yet within three months, militants have breached security at the very heart of the nation, killing at least 17 people.

This week's attacks at parliament and the mausoleum of the Islamic Republic's founder Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini have exposed shortcomings among the Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) which was supposed to be protecting these potent symbols of Iran's revolution.

They have also undermined Tehran's belief that by backing offensives against Islamic State across the Middle East, it can keep the militant Sunni group away from Iran.

Undaunted, officials say Iran will step up the strategy, which includes sending fighters to battle Islamic State in Syria and Iraq alongside allied Shi'ite militia groups.

And with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the IRGC blaming Saudi Arabia for the attacks, tensions are only likely to deepen between the two arch rivals competing for influence in an already chaotic region. Riyadh denies the charges, describing Tehran instead as "the number one state sponsor of terrorism".

Wednesday's killings in Tehran by Iranian members of Islamic State drew a shocked response similar to that in Western countries when they too have been attacked by locally-born jihadists. Now Iranians are worrying about how many others are out there, planning similar assaults.

One senior Iranian official told Reuters that Islamic State had established a network of support in the country, and suggested that members' motivation was as much political and economic as to do with Sunni radicals' belief that Shi'ites are infidels.

"Sunni extremism is spreading in Iran like many other countries. And not all of these young people who join extremist groups are necessarily religious people," said the official, who asked not to be named. "But the establishment is well aware of the problem and is trying to tackle it."

Most Iranian Sunnis, who form up to 10 percent of the population, reject Islamic State's ideology. But some young Sunnis seem to regard policies of Shi'ite-led Iran as oppressive at home or aggressive abroad, such as in Iraq and Syria, pushing more of them into the arms of jihadist groups.

Iran has been trying to stem the spread of radicalism into Sunni majority regions, which are usually less economically developed. Authorities said 1,500 young Iranians were prevented from joining Islamic State in 2016.

Iran's Sistan and Baluchestan province, which borders Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to the Balouch minority and has long been a hotbed of Sunni insurgents.

Two Sunni groups, Jaish al-Adl and Jundallah, have been fighting the IRGC for over a decade. This has mostly been in remote areas but some say it was almost inevitable that violence would eventually spread to Tehran, as it did this week.

"It's not the attacks that are surprising. It's that Iran has been able to avoid one for so long. The attacks were a wake-up call for Iran's security apparatus," said senior Iran analyst Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group. "But so too will they probably serve as one for jihadists, who will be encouraged to exploit Iran's vulnerabilities."

"STRATEGIC FOLLY"

Since its creation shortly after the 1979 Islamic revolution, the IRGC has functioned as Iran's most powerful internal and external security force, with a sophisticated intelligence and surveillance network.

The IRGC has vowed revenge on Islamic State - known by its opponents under the Arab acronym of Daesh - but a top security official said this won't be easy.

"The attacks showed the vulnerability of our security system, at the borders and within Iran," the official said, asking not to be named. However, he added: "Many planned attacks by Daesh have been foiled by our security forces in the past years. Many terrorist cells were dismantled. Our Guards have been vigilant."

Syrian rebels and Iraqi forces are closing in on Islamic State in those countries, and the official said the group appeared to have tried to strike back in Tehran.

"The attacks are the result of Daesh being weakened in the region. They blame Iran for that ... But Iran will not abandon its fight against terrorism," he added.

Open discussion of security vulnerabilities is taboo in Iran. However, Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior Iran analyst at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies, criticized the idea that Syria and Iraq could form an effective first line of defense for Iran.

"Iranian officials have long justified their country's active military presence in Iraq and Syria as a way to keep the homeland safe," he said. "Wednesday's attacks expose the folly of that strategy."

SPIRALING TENSIONS

A senior official, who also asked not to be named, said the attacks would push Iran toward "a harsher regional policy".

Sanam Vakil, associate fellow with Chatham House's Middle East and North Africa Programme, dismissed any expectation that Tehran might try to ease spiraling tensions with Riyadh. "If we are expecting to see any change in Iran's regional policy or a retreat in any way - that is not going to happen," she said.

Newly re-elected President Hassan Rouhani has said the attacks will make Iran more united. Analysts, however, believe they will exacerbate domestic tensions between Rouhani, a pragmatist, and his rivals among hardline clergy and the IRGC.

They have repeatedly criticized Rouhani's attempts to improve relations with the outside world.

Rouhani has generally lost out to the hardliners, who through the IRGC's Al Quds force - expeditionary units which are fighting in Iraq and Syria as well as organizing Shi'ite allies - continue to call the shots. In the view of the hardliners' critics, they are helping to drive alienated Sunnis toward militant groups.

(Additional reporting by Jonathan Saul in London, Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Samia Nakhoul and David Stamp)

BRASILIA Brazil's top electoral court dismissed a case on Friday that threatened to unseat President Michel Temer for alleged illegal campaign funding in the 2014 election, when he was the running mate of impeached President Dilma Rousseff.

SEOUL/WASHINGTON South Korea does not aim to change its agreement on the deployment of a U.S. anti-missile system to protect against North Korea, in spite of a decision to delay its full installation, Seoul's top national security adviser said on Friday.

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Iran attacks expose security gaps, fuel regional tension - Reuters