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"We're calling (Russia and Iran) out," Haley told "State of the Union" anchor Jake Tapper. "But I don't think anything is off the table at this point. I think what you're going to see is strong leadership. You're going to continue to see the United States act when we need to act."

Haley's comments came after Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told lawmakers he would look into stepping up sanctions on both countries, whose leadership supports Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who US officials say is responsible for a chemical weapons attack against civilians last week.

But the Russians are denying that Assad had anything to do with the chemical attack. A spokesman for the Russian defense ministry said the US had no proof of chemical weapons at the air base.

Haley disagreed, telling Tapper that the US government has evidence.

"What we've seen is, you know, in our meetings this week, we were told of the evidence," she said. "We saw the evidence. The President saw the evidence. All of that is naturally classified. And I'm sure when they can declassify that, they will."

"I was trying to give warning and notice to the members of the Security Council and the international community that (Trump) won't stop here," she said Sunday, adding. "If he needs to do more, he will do more."

"Yes, that will part of the discussions when I visit Moscow next week is to call upon Foreign Minister (Sergey) Lavrov and the Russian government to fulfill the obligation it made to the international community when it agreed to be the guarantor of the elimination of the chemical weapons," he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on "This Week." "And why Russia has not been able to achieve that is unclear to me. I don't draw conclusions of complicity at all, but clearly they've been incompetent and perhaps they've just simply been out-maneuvered by the Syrians."

Haley echoed his comments in somewhat harsher tones on "State of the Union." Asked whether she thought Russia was trying to help Assad cover up the use of chemical weapons, Haley said either Moscow knew Assad had weapons that would be used or they were "played for fools by Assad and kept in the dark."

"So they now have to answer for this," she said. "How can they with a straight face cover for Assad, because if they're covering for Assad, then what are they really saying? They're saying by covering for Assad that they knew that it was there, or they were incompetent by having chemical weapons there in the first place.

"There's a lot of answers that need to come from Russia," Haley said, adding that she thought some of those answers would come during Tillerson's meeting in Moscow.

"When the Trump administration uses the words regime change, they are talking about a military effort to remove Assad," Markey told Tapper. "And that would mean putting American young men and women on the ground in battlefield conditions in order to accomplish that goal. I don't think there's any appetite in the United States for a massive additional military presence."

Trump's national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, said Sunday that he saw the situation as a "great opportunity" for Russia.

"Well this is part of the problem in Syria, is Russia's sponsorship of this murderous regime," McMaster said on "Fox News Sunday." "And so we would want to appeal rationally to Russia -- this is a great opportunity for the Russia leadership to re-evalute what they're doing. Why they're supporting a regime that commits mass murder against its own people."

Meanwhile, Syrian state media reported Sunday that Russia and Iran are drawing red lines after the US strike.

"We will respond strongly to any aggression on Syria," the two Syrian allies said in a joint statement that flashed in a banner on Syrian state television. "Russia and Iran will not allow America to dominate the world."

The Kremlin also issued a statement Sunday on Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani's discussion of the situation in Syria by phone. They said the US actions against a sovereign state violatied international law and called for an objective, unbiased investigation of all the circumstances of the chemical weapons incident, the statement said.

"Here's what I think Assad's telling Trump by flying from this base: 'FU,'" Graham said.

Graham called that a "serious mistake."

"[I]f you're an adversary of the United States, and you don't worry about what Trump may do on any given day, then you're crazy," he said.

CNN's Hamdi Alkhshali and Merieme Arif in Atlanta contributed to this report.

Excerpt from:
Haley on Russia and Iran: 'I don't think anything is off the table' - CNN

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has ruled out any further US missile strikes against Syria unless, of course, Assad decides to use chemical weapons again.

Russia, in its odd triple alliance with Iran and Assad, has said it will meet force with force if the Americans attack again. Without a blink of irony, the joint HQ of the Russians and their Iranian allies said Fridays Tomahawk missile strike had crossed red lines.

The face-off has led to a renewed build-up of naval power in the Mediterranean and Gulf region. Russia has announced the dispatch of two missile-carrying destroyers.

The US has the George HW Bush aircraft carrier battle group in the eastern Mediterranean. From this the destroyers USS Porter and USS Ross launched 59 Tomahawk land attack missiles at the Sharyat air base in Syria in the early hours of last Friday.

Interestingly, Russian air defences made no attempt to stop the Tomahawks, though the Russians were told they were on the way.

Maybe they didnt want to test their S-300 and S-400 air defence missile systems they say are world beaters. Theres more than a suspicion the Americans know how to jam their command and control systems.

The Trump administration is more than concerned about the threats it sees coming from Iran, which has provided the backbone of Assads recent ground operations. Of particular concern is the development of new generations of rockets and intermediate missiles.

Linked to this is the focus of Trumps two leading strategists, James Mattis at the Pentagon and HR McMaster at the National Security Council, on new military developments in North Korea.

Iran and the Pyongyang regime share missile technology. It is now feared Kim Jong-un is planning some spectacular show of force around April 14 or 15, the 105th birthday of North Koreas now dead founder.

Continue reading here:
Backlash over Syria air strikes could see threats from Iran and North Korea - Evening Standard

Usually in the weeks before Nowruz, the Iranian New Year, downtown Tehran is jammed with traffic as shoppers pick up gifts in the brightly lighted shops surrounding the British and German embassies.

But this year, the streets were noticeably quieter, the popular clothing and home appliance stores reporting much less business around the holiday in March.

Compared to last year, our sales were down at least 10%, said Mehdi Mosavi, 27, standing idle in his fathers menswear shop. In fact, in the past five years our sales have been plunging.

The ongoing financial crunch in Iran, always the No. 1 topic on many Tehran residents minds, has taken on added significance ahead of next months presidential election, a test of voters support for President Hassan Rouhanis efforts to stabilize an economy battered by international sanctions and official mismanagement.

Moderates and reform-minded Iranians, who back Rouhanis reelection, argue that macroeconomic trends have improved and that inflation has dropped from stratospheric levels since he took office in 2013.

Bringing down 44% inflation to less than 8% in less than four years is an economic miracle, Majid Ansari, the vice president for legal affairs, said recently.

But conservatives who oppose the president argue that ordinary Iranians have seen their purchasing power drop. They find plenty of evidence among city dwellers, who make up 70% of Irans 80 million-plus population and report a slack job market and significantly less spending on nonessential items.

Ali Rezavand, who owns a barbershop near Tehran University, said clients who used to come for haircuts every two weeks now wait six to seven weeks between visits.

Haircuts are like sunglasses it is an elastic good, not a staple, said Rezavand, 40. I can tell you that my income has been diminishing year in and year out.

Mohammad Moradi, a 23-year-old working behind the counter at a small grocery, said he has lost nearly a third of his business.

People simply cannot afford to buy anything but their staple foods, said Moradi, cracking open sunflower seeds in his empty shop. When it comes to ice cream or biscuits, or anything to eat for fun, they think twice.

The Nowruz holiday served as a moment of stock-taking as the Persian calendar year drew to a close and campaigning for the May 19 election heated up.

Although most international sanctions against Iran were lifted more than a year ago, after Rouhanis government agreed to curbs on its nuclear program, some unilateral U.S. restrictions remain and have hampered economic recovery.

Conservatives seeking to unseat Rouhani, a relative moderate who has tried to patch up relations with the West, have mounted a political offensive, saying the president misled Iranians into believing the nuclear deal would bring economic relief.

Even conservative former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has joined the anti-Rouhani chorus. Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has told him not to run again, so the rabble-rousing Ahmadinejad is instead backing the candidacy of his former vice president, Hamid Baghaei, who served seven months in jail on corruption charges.

A populist who retains a following among working-class Iranians, Ahmadinejad has called on Rouhani to restore cash payments to civilians that the president discontinued because they contributed to runaway inflation.

At a recent news conference in Tehran, his first in years, Ahmadinejad rattled off a list of economic problems he ascribed to the current administration.

Our people are suffering from soaring prices, severe diminishing of purchasing power, unprecedented weakness in [factory] production, a widening gap between the haves and have-nots, widespread corruption and discrimination, unemployment and a reduction of social capital, Ahmadinejad said, accusing the government of manipulating figures.

Sayyid Laylaz, an economist close to the reformist camp, said Ahmadinejads policies were so detrimental to Irans economy that remedial measures will take four or five years.

Under Rouhani, Iran has all but ended costly gasoline imports and increased sales of Persian carpets to the U.S. and other countries, Laylaz said.

If people are patient, purchasing power will return to what it was more than 12 years ago, before President Ahmadinejad came into office, he said.

Rouhani remains popular, especially in urban areas, and the fractious conservatives have yet to coalesce around a challenger. Although the hard-line Guardian Council has the final say on the slate of candidates, many analysts believe Khamenei will support Rouhanis candidacy in order to preserve continuity amid growing tensions with the Trump administration.

But the economy will remain the key issue in the campaign.

Ali Amiri, a retired primary school principal who now sells imported cars, said his income has dropped by more than 50% as more Iranians opt to lease domestic vehicles. Luxury car sales have all but dried up, the 60-year-old said, and some of his remaining customers have tried to cheat him.

I have survived two heart attacks because of my clients bounced checks, he said, joking.

Special correspondent Mostaghim reported from Tehran and Times staff writer Bengali from Mumbai, India.

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia

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Why empty suit shops and barber's chairs could spell trouble for Iran's President Hassan Rouhani - Los Angeles Times

On July 17, 2016, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Irans supreme leader, turned 77. Rumors that he suffers from cancer have circulated for over a decade, and in 2014, the state-run news agency published photos of him recovering from prostate surgery. Although Khameneis prognosis remains closely guarded, the Iranian government is evidently treating his succession with urgency. In December 2015, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and a kingmaker, broached the usually taboo subject when he publicly admitted that a council within the Assembly of Experts, the body that selects the supreme leader, was already vetting potential successors. And last March, after new members of the assembly were elected to an eight-year term, Khamenei himself called the probability that they would have to select his replacement not low.

The death of Khamenei will mark the biggest political change in the Islamic Republic since the death of the last supreme leaderAyatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the revolutionary founding fatherin 1989. The supreme leader is the most powerful person in Iran, with absolute authority over all parts of the state. A new person in that position could dramatically alter the direction and tenor of Irans foreign and domestic policies.

But those hoping for a kinder, gentler Iran are likely to be disappointed. Since he took power in 1989, Khamenei has steadily built an intricate security, intelligence, and economic superstructure composed of underlings who are fiercely loyal to him and his definition of the Islamic Republic, a network that can be called Irans deep state. When Khamenei dies, the deep state will ensure that whoever replaces him shares its hard-line views and is committed to protecting its interests.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Tehran, April 2006.

PAST IS PROLOGUE

When Khomeini died, observers considered Khamenei just one of a handful of possible replacementsand not even the likeliest. A 50-year-old midranking cleric at the time, Khamenei lacked Khomeinis towering stature. But at a meeting on June 4, 1989, the day after Khomeinis death, Rafsanjani,

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Iran's Next Supreme Leader - Foreign Affairs (subscription)

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Hard-Line Cleric Ebrahim Raisi Launches Bid for Iranian Presidency - Wall Street Journal (subscription)