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BEIRUT (Reuters) - A senior commander in Iran's Revolutionary Guards warned the United States on Monday that if it designated the group a terrorist organization and applied new sanctions its action could be perilous for U.S. forces in the region.

U.S. officials said earlier this year that President Donald Trump's administration was considering a proposal that could lead to potentially categorizing the powerful Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist organization.

In Mid-June the U.S. Senate voted for new sanctions on Iran over its ballistic missile program and other activities not related to the international nuclear agreement reached with the United States and other world powers in 2015.

To become law, the legislation must pass the House of Representatives and be signed by Trump.

"Counting the Revolutionary Guards the same as terrorist groups and applying similar sanctions to the Revolutionary Guards is a big risk for America and its bases and forces deployed in the region," said Armed Forces Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Baqeri, according to Sepah News, an official news site of the Guards.

He did not give details on what form of risk he foresaw for U.S. forces and bases.

The Revolutionary Guards are the most powerful security force in Iran, overseeing vast economic holdings worth billions of dollars and wielding huge influence in its political system.

Baqeri said on Monday that Irans missile program was defensive and would never be up for negotiation, according to Sepah News.

Three days after the U.S. Senate voted on the new sanctions, Iran fired missiles into eastern Syria, targeting bases of Islamic State which had claimed responsibility for attacks in Tehran which killed 18 people.

The Revolutionary Guards are fighting in Syria against militant groups which oppose President Bashar al-Assad.

Baqeri was also critical of recent remarks by U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis that regime change would be necessary before the United States could normalize relations with Iran.

"American officials should speak a little more wisely, thoughtfully and maturely about other countries, particularly a powerful country like Iran which has stood against all plots with strength and pride," he said, according to Sepah News.

Reporting By Babak Dehghanpisheh; Editing by Richard Balmforth

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Iran's Revolutionary Guards warn US against terrorist designation, new sanctions - Reuters

War between Israel and Iran could be "inevitable" by the end of the Syrian civil war, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's former national security advisor.

Iran is trying to build "an air base in Syria" and provide additional weaponry to terrorists in Lebanon in an apparent effort to threaten Israel from two directions, according to the Netanyahu ally. This fear has been brewing in U.S. and Israeli circles for years, but the Israelis think the terms of a nascent Syria ceasefire negotiated by the Trump administration, Russia and Jordan exacerbates the danger.

"Israel should take care for its strategic goal and this is to prevent the Iranians and Hezbollah from building launching pads in Syria," Yaakov Amidror, who counseled Netanyahu from 2011 to 2013, told reporters on a conference call hosted by The Israel Project. "If [the Iranians] begin to build infrastructure which might be used against Israel in Syria and will connect this land corridor into Iraq and begin to move materials from this area into Syria, that will make the war inevitable."

U.S. officials in both parties have raised the same concerns. "A permanent Iranian military base in Syria, potentially near the border with Israel or Jordan, would increase Iran's operational capacity to inflict serious damage against two of our closest allies in the region," Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Ill., and Rep. Ted Deutch, D-Fla., wrote in a May letter to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Netanyahu lobbied throughout the talks for Russia and the United States to keep Iran away from Israel's border and said Russian forces ought not to be trusted to police the southern Syria safe zone. But Israeli officials say their position was ignored in the final agreement.

"The agreement as it is now is very bad," an official told Haaretz. "It doesn't take almost any of Israel's security interests and it creates a disturbing reality in southern Syria. The agreement doesn't include a single explicit word about Iran, Hezbollah or the Shi'ite militias in Syria."

Russia and Iran have fought to protect Syrian President Bashar Assad for years, particularly after then-President Barack Obama declined to attack the Syrian regime in 2013 in response to Assad's use of chemical weapons. Tillerson's ceasefire negotiations may have been influenced by the Trump administration's overall determination to limit U.S. military deployments to Syria.

"They picked the best small footprint option that they could for the maximum amount of impact," House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes, R-Calif., told the Washington Examiner in June. "Meaning: small troop numbers, heavy involvement with our partners. But in the long run, I don't know if that's going to be successful."

Nunes and other lawmakers worry the United States will succeed in defeating the Islamic State in Syria, only to see Iran gain long-term strategic benefits from its decision to partner with Russia in support of embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad. Amidror hinted that Israel might tolerate some sort of Iranian presence in Syria that didn't impinge on Israeli security, but emphasized they will use their "military capability" to "destroy "enemy forces too close to their border.

"If that will not be taken into account by the those who are making those arrangements, the Americans the Russians and others, that might lead the IDF to intervene and to destroy every attempt to build infrastructure in Syria," the retired Israeli military intelligence general said. "We will not let the Iranians and Hezbollah to be the forces which will win from the long and very brutal war in Syria and to move the focus into Israel."

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Former Netanyahu adviser: Syria cease fire could make Israel-Iran war 'inevitable' - Washington Examiner

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region Iran has warned a visiting Kurdish delegation that an independence referendum will isolate and weaken Kurdistan.

Although this issue might be attractive in appearance, but actually, it will isolate and pressure the Iraqi Kurds and weaken Kurdistan and finally all of Iraq, Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Irans Supreme National Security Council, said in Tehran on Monday.

A peaceful, stable and united Iraq is what gives the country security and development. Friendly and neighboring countries should support Iraq, Shamkhani said, according to Mihr agency.

He accused regional and international countries of trying to weaken Iraq.

He made his comments in a meeting with members of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), including Kosrat Rasul and Mala Bakhtiar.

The PUK delegation reportedly thanked Iran for their support, noting historical ties between Tehran and Iraqi Kurds, according to IRNA.

The meeting was a friendly one, in which strengthening relations between Iran and the Kurdistan Region was stressed, Nazim Dabagh, the Kurdistan governments representative to Iran, told Rudaw.

He said Iran expressed support for the achievement of Kurdish rights within the framework of Iraqs constitution.

Iran, which backs the Shiite Hashd al-Shaabi armed force and holds influence over Baghdad, has expressed strong opposition to the Kurdish referendum, instead calling for a united Iraq.

Iraqs national sovereignty and integrity benefits all residents of the country and any change can make the country face chaos and crisis, a spokesperson for Irans foreign ministry, Bahram Qassemi, said in a weekly press conference, according to Fars News.

He said that Iraqs integrity is not negotiable, noting that Tehran has ties with the central government and Iraqi ethnic groups.

The PUK visit to Iran is at the request of Tehran, Dabagh told Rudaw on the weekend.

In a meeting in Erbil on Sunday with Irans ambassador to Iraq, Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani told Ambassador Iraj Masjedi that Tehran could play a positive role in resolving outstanding issues between Erbil and Baghdad.

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Iran: Independence referendum will isolate, weaken Kurdistan - Rudaw

WASHINGTON At the two-year anniversary of the signing of the Iran nuclear agreement, the Trump administration has hinted it will again certify that Iran is in compliance.

A senior State Department official noted the Trump administration is examining the United States entire policy toward Iran and that the administration, during its review, will adhere to the JCPOA [Iran nuclear agreement] and will ensure that Iran is held strictly accountable to its requirements.

Congress requires the administration certify every 90 days whether Iran is in compliance. Monday is the second of these 90-day deadlines during the Trump administration.

IRAN ILLEGALLY SEEKING WEAPONS TECH FROM GERMAN FIRMS, ACCORDING TO REPORT

The U.S., for the first time during the Trump presidency, certified in April that Iran was in compliance. Though in his letter informing House Speaker Paul Ryan of his decision, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson also announced his department will evaluate whether suspension of sanctions related to Iran pursuant to the JCPOA is vital to the national security interests of the United States."

For Mondays deadline, the State Department deferred to that policy review.

We have said, and the administration has said, that at least until that review has been completed that we will adhere to the JCPOA, said Heather Nauert, the State Department spokesperson. That has not changed. Well ensure that Iran is held strictly accountable to its requirements.

The administration has offered no timeline on announcing its Iran policy.Though four Republican senators said there is no reason to wait to declare Iran is failing to adhere to the agreement.

FRANCE AND US MUST UNITE IN STANDING UP TO IRAN

We believe that a change in that policy is long overdue, wrote Senators Macro Rubio (R-FL), Tom Cotton (R-AR), David Perdue (R-GA), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) in a letter to Secretary Tillerson. As we near the end of another 90-day review period, U.S. interests would be best served by a sober accounting of Irans JCPOA violations as well as the regimes aggressive and destabilizing behavior.

President Trump, during the presidential campaign, called the Iran nuclear agreement the worst deal ever and promised to rip it up.

For opponents like the president, there are challenges in backing out of the deal as Iran has already received many of the benefits. In exchange for Iran agreeing to controls over, and temporarily surrendering portions of, its nuclear program, the United States and its western allies have already reversed Iran sanctions and unfrozen tens of billions of dollars in Iranian assets.Iran now has those unfrozen assets and reintroducing international sanctions could be difficult.

The Trump administration has announced additional sanctions against Iranians for, as administration officials cite, their support to Irans ballistic missile program and providing material support to various terrorist groups, including Hezbollah and Hamas. Those sanctions are unrelated to the Iran deal.

Since the Obama administration agreed to the Iran deal, the U.S. has viewed Iran sanctions in two categories: those connected to, and lifted under, the nuclear agreement and those levied for Irans other provocative behavior. Secretary Tillerson said the Trump administration, in its examination, is considering all of Irans provocative behavior to guide its future policy toward it.

Rich Edson is a Washington correspondent for Fox News Channel. Prior to that, he served as Fox Business Network's Washington correspondent.

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TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran has imprisoned a Chinese-American man for ten years after accusing him of "infiltrating" the country and detained President Hassan Rouhani's brother over allegations of financial misconduct, authorities said Sunday.

Officials accused the U.S. citizen of "gathering information" and said he was "directly guided" by America.

The Chinese-American dual national was identified as Xiyue Wang, a 37-year-old history researcher, according to Mizan Online, a website affiliated with the judiciary.

He was not previously known to be among the handful of Americans detained in Iran.

"It was verified and determined that he was gathering [information] and was involved in infiltration," Judiciary spokesman Gholamhosein Mohseni Ejehi said during a routine press briefing.

Ejehi did not identify Wang by name. But hours after he spoke, Mizan published an article attributed to an unnamed source that revealed his identity and included several photos of him apparently taken from the internet.

His sentence can be appealed, CBS News foreign correspondent Debora Patta reports.

Princeton University

News of the detentions comes less than two months after relative moderate Rouhani beat a hard-line opponent to win reelection by running in large part on his record of pursuing greater engagement with the West. They were announced by the judiciary, a pillar of hard-liners' influence.

The Mizan article said Wang was born in Beijing and entered Iran as a researcher. It pointed to graduate studies he did at Princeton University in 2013 and 2014, and described him as a fluent speaker of Persian.

In a statement to CBS News, Daniel Day, Princeton's assistant vice president at the Office of Communications, said Wang is a fourth-year doctoral candidate in the history department.

"His field is late 19th and early 20th century Eurasian history. He was in Iran last summer solely for the purpose of doing scholarly research on the administrative and cultural history of the late Qajar dynasty in connection with his Ph.D. dissertation," the statement said.

"We were very distressed to learn that charges were brought against him in connection with his scholarly work, and to learn of the subsequent conviction and sentence," the statement said. "We cannot comment more at the present time, except to say that the University continues to do everything it can to be supportive of Mr. Wang and his family."

Wang was arrested on Aug. 8, 2016 and is accused of passing confidential information about Iran to the U.S. State Department, Princeton's Sharmin and Bijan Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Iran and Persian Gulf Studies, the Harvard Kennedy School and the British Institute of Persian Studies, according to Mizan. It alleged he recorded some 4,500 pages of digital documents.

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The U.S. State Department was not immediately able to provide details on the case. It said its citizens' safety and security is a top priority.

The U.S. does not maintain formal diplomatic relations with Tehran and warns its citizens traveling there that they risk arrest or being barred from leaving Iran.

"The Iranian regime continues to detain U.S. citizens and other foreigners on fabricated national-security related changes," it said in a statement to The Associated Press. "We call for the immediate release of all U.S. citizens unjustly detained in Iran so they can return to their families."

The arrest of the president's brother, meanwhile, stunned many in Iran.

Ejehi said the brother, Hossein Fereidoun, was taken into custody over allegations of financial impropriety and is eligible for bail, but has not paid it yet.

Fereidoun is a close confidante of the moderate president, a cleric who changed his surname to Rouhani, meaning "spiritual," after joining the seminary decades ago.

Fereidoun was part of the negotiating team that ultimately sealed Iran's landmark nuclear deal with world powers in 2015, winning the country relief from international sanctions in exchange for limits on its atomic energy program.

The deal was unpopular with Iranian hard-liners, whose influence runs deep within the judiciary. They saw the nuclear deal as giving too much away in exchange for too little.

Fereidoun has long been a target of hard-liners, who have accused him of misdeeds including money laundering and misappropriation of government funds.

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The unproven allegations were a flashpoint during the May presidential election, with the president's hard-line challengers demanding that the judiciary investigate accusations against Fereidoun.

Wang is one of several Americans in Iranian custody.

Iranian-American art gallery manager Karan Vafadari was detained along with his Iranian wife last year. They have yet to be convicted of a crime.

Iranian-American businessman Siamak Namazi and his 81-year-old father, Baquer Namazi, are each serving 10-year sentences for "cooperating with the hostile American government."

Another Iranian-American, Robin Shahini, was released on bail last year after staging a weeks-long hunger strike while serving an 18-year prison sentence for "collaboration with a hostile government."

Washington Post correspondent Jason Rezaian spent 18 months behind bars. CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reported Rezaian was arrested in Iran on vague spying charges and jailed in the notorious Evin prison for a year and a half, at times in solitary confinement. After his release in 2016, he said that he was repeatedly told by his jailers that nobody knew of his plight and the U.S. would not lift a finger for his release, CBS News' Patta reported.

Still missing is former FBI agent Robert Levinson, who vanished in Iran in 2007 while on an unauthorized CIA mission.

Also in an Iranian prison is Nizar Zakka, a U.S. permanent resident from Lebanon who advocates for internet freedom. He lives in Washington D.C. and has done work for the U.S. government. He was sentenced to 10 years behind bars last year after being accused of espionage-related charges.

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