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PRI.org 8:30 a.m. ET Feb. 16, 2017

Esteghlal players celebrate after winning the 2017 AFC Champions League Play-off soccer match between Esteghlal FC and Al Sadd SC at the Azadi Stadium in Tehran, Iran, Feb. 7, 2017.(Photo: STRINGER, EPA)

In Iran, soccer stadiumsare a male-only affair: Women are banned from attending games. Not all female sports fans are so easily dissuaded, however. On Sunday,eight women found their own way to try to watch a match at Tehran's Azadi Stadium.

All eight are reported to have dressed as men, with closely cropped hair and caps to hide their faces. Not well enough, apparently according to the Tasnim News Agency, security guards spotted them as they entered and blocked them from the stadium.

Soccer is hugely popular in Iran across sexes, but it isconsidered inappropriate for women to view games in person.According to Rana Rahimpour of the BBC's Persian Service, attendance has been barred to women since the Islamic Revolution. "Some authorities [have said that] men tend[to] behave badly, they get into fights, they swear a lot and some clerics say there is a possibility for boys and girls to mingle [and] exchange phone numbers."

This is not the first time that women have smuggled themselves into Iranian soccer stadiums. Several women have filmed themselves attending matches in disguise, and videos of them doing so have gone viral.

Female spectators are also banned from other sports. In 2015, Ghoncheh Ghavami, a British-Iranian citizen, was sentenced to a year in jailafter she attempted to watch a men's volleyball match. She had attended the match carrying a banner protesting the rules. She was eventually released before the end of her sentence after Amnesty International declared her a prisoner of conscience.

This article originally appeared on PRI.org. Its content was created separately to USA TODAY.

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Women in Iran dress as men in bid to watch soccer game - USA TODAY

For the eight years of Barack Obamas presidency, the United States treated Iran as if it were a major rising power in the world dominating the Middle East. But Iran is not a First World or even Second World power. Iran, as a Third World country, is far weaker than either the superpower United States or the rising First World power Israel.

Look at the figures. The American GDP of over $18 trillion is more than 40 times the GDP of Iran ($450 billion). American GDP/capita is $53,000 while Iranian GDP/capita of $4,800 is not even 10 percent of that figure.

On the military front, there is no comparison. The United States spends over $600 billion a year on defense while Iran spends a paltry $6 billion. The United States has over 1,500 strategic nuclear weapons while Iran has none. The Business Insider rates the American military the best in the world and Iran is not even rated in the top 20.

The United States has 10 high end aircraft carriers while Iran has none. The United States has 72 destroyers, Iran none. The United States has a staggering 14,000 planes to Irans 480 planes. The United States has 62 destroyers while Iran has none. The Americans have 72 submarines, Iran has three.

The Iranian military is weak, with very limited naval and air force capability. In the eight year war with Iraq in the 1980s the Iranian military was unable to beat Saddam Husseins military. By contrast, in 2003 the American military destroyed it and took Baghdad in only 22 days. Iran has been struggling, sometimes slowed by sanctions, to build nuclear weapons ever since 1984. After 33 years it still has not yet succeeded.

The United States can also likely count on help from three regional powers-- Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Israel, rated #8 in the world in a recent survey of military power, has 700 advanced fighters (including the F-35), 5 German Dolphin class submarines, 4,200 tanks and 100-200 atomic bombs. It has one of the worlds top 5 intelligence services in Mossad and Shin Beth. Bloomberg rates Israel #2 in the world for its anti-missile missiles (Iron Dome, Davids Sling, Arrow 2 and 3). Having fought 11 wars since 1948, Israel has the most experienced military in the world.

Egypt, direly afraid of Iran, has 470,000 troops, 4,600 tanks and 1,100 planes. Saudi Arabia, a limited military power, has announced it will go nuclear if Iran develops atomic bombs.

Iran lags far behind in strong universities that are important on the field of battle. The United States has 15 of the top 20 universities in the world (including Cal Tech, MIT, Harvard, Yale, Columbia and the University of Chicago). By contrast, Iran does not have a single university in the top 100 or even the top 800 universities in the world. Irans four best universities are rated #895 (Iran University), #2,273 (Iran University Medical University), #3,363 and # 5,142 in the world! In education they rate 112th in the world alongside lagging African countries.

In global innovations, while the United States is a world leader with Silicon Valley, Iran rates 120th out of 143 countries. Iran takes 58th in the world in research and development. In business Iran rates 137th in the world for ease of doing business and 67th for entrepreneurship. Fully 20% of the adult population is illiterate. In doctors per thousand patients it runs in at 138th in the world and its national health system rate 93rd in the world. Women do especially badly with a 103rd rating of 109 countries for gender empowerment.

Finally, there are key domestic problems for Iran. Beset by massive corruption, blatant authorianism, strong opposition group (the Green Movement), large-scale emigration (4-5 million Iranians) and a rising young generation not enamored of isolation from the world, the future does not look bright.

Given all this the fear of Iran getting nuclear weapons still remains real. But, even more real is the notion that the biggest power in the world, plus three significant regional powers, could handle Iran if they would put their minds to it.

Only time will tell if that will happen in the days of the new American administration.

Jonathan Adelman is a professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. Adelman has written several books on Russia and was Condoleezza Rice's doctoral adviser.

Read more:
The surprising truth about Iran and the West - Fox News

U.S. President Donald Trumps administration has put Tehran on notice. Earlier this month, Washington imposed fresh sanctions on Iran in response to its latest ballistic missile test, which defied the UN Security Council resolution tied to the July 2015 nuclear agreement. The days of turning a blind eye to Irans hostile and belligerent actions toward the United States and the world community are over, said Michael Flynn, then U.S. national security adviser. Although the full contours of Trumps Iran strategy still remain unclear, this long overdue measure marks an important first step in resuscitating a chief casualty of the landmark deal: U.S. deterrence.

The ongoing debate surrounding Trumps Iran policyshould the president enforce the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, tear it up, or renegotiate it?poses the wrong question and, in so doing, misconstrues the challenge facing Washington. For Tehran, the JCPOA now functions as an instrument of leverage that Tehran can rely upon to pursue its broader regional ambitions. By repeatedly threatening to abandon the accord if Washington reimposes sanctions for any reason, Tehran deterred the administration of former President Barack Obama from enacting meaningful economic penalties for the regimes regional aggression, human rights abuses, ballistic missile tests, and, most troubling, violations of the JCPOA.

Trump must seek to reverse this dynamic by raising the costs for Tehrans misbehavior so dramatically that it is Iran, rather than the United States, that will seek a new deal aimed at relieving those costs. Washington can then use its regained leverage to negotiate new terms more conducive to its interests. Put differently, the best way to advance the JCPOAs objective of nonproliferation may lie in shifting the debate over its survival from Washington to Tehran.

STRATEGIC LEVERAGE

After negotiating the JCPOA, the White House explicitly pledged that nothing in the agreement would prevent Washington from challenging Iran for its regional aggression, human rights abuses, and ballistic missile tests. Critically, Obama stated, I made

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How Trump Can Win in Iran - Foreign Affairs

Iran says that Frances Total may have to compensate it if the company has disclosed data about South Pars to neighboring Qatar, with which the Islamic Republic shares the worlds biggest gas field.

Iranian media cited the countrys oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zangeneh, as issuing the warning on local TV.

Total operates in Qatar, in what Qatar calls the North field, where production of natural gas began in 1998. Qatar has signed development deals with international companies including Total, Italys Eni SpA, and Norways Statoil. The whole of the gas field - both Qatari and Iranian parts - has proven natural gas reserves of 14 trillion cubic meters, or 7.5 percent of the global gas reserves.

According to what Irans Mehr new agency reported today, Zanganeh said that data about only two of the 30 South Pars phases has been assigned to Total. But if it is manifested that Total has passed on Irans secret information to the Qatari side, the issue will end up in a dispute since the French company will be required to pay reimbursement, the agency quoted Zanganeh as saying.

Total, which last year signed a preliminary agreement to develop phase 11 of the South Pars gas field in Iran, is taking a cautious approach to final investment decisions in Iran, pending still unknown U.S. policies towards Tehran.

Related:Total Going On The Offensive

Last week, Totals chief executive Patrick Pouyanne said that the company was waiting for an extension of the waiver on U.S. sanctions against Iran before it makes the final decision on a US$2.2-billion investment.

Pouyanne told media in Paris that the waiver, first introduced by President Obama, should be renewed before this summer and should last for another 18 months. He noted that the new administration in Washington would have to provide proof of Irans breach of the 2015 agreement with Western powers in order to avoid extending the waiver.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Iran Hints At Fears Of South Pars Data Leaks To Qatar - OilPrice.com

An explosive new report given to the Trump administration could fuel discussions by the presidents inner circle about adding Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to the official list of foreign terrorist organizations.

Issued by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, the report claims the IRGC has set up at least 14 terrorist training camps across Iran to teach foreign fighters terrorist tactics. According to the report, fighters are streaming in from Afghanistan, Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, all countries where Iran has expanded interests.

Iran already is part of the U.S. State Departments State Sponsors of Terrorism list, along with Syria and Sudan. However, new calls are coming from leading critics of the regime to designate the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization and the Trump administration is said to be considering that.

"The people of Iran would welcome the designation of the IRGC, which is responsible for thousands of political executions and tortures in prison. It is also responsible for training terrorists supporting and engaging in terrorist activities outside Iran," said Maryam Rajavi, the leader of The National Council of Resistance of Iran, which is the largest Iranian opposition group.

"I believe the time has come for a firm policy on Iran. The failed policy of appeasement has hurt the Iranian people, as well as global peace and security," she said.

The resistance group used a news conference in Washington, D.C., this week to expose what it says is a new case against the Revolutionary Guard. The report issued by the organization claims the IRGC-sponsored terrorist camps are designed to train fighters from various Middle Eastern nations who could be dispatched in terrorist cells to attack the United States, its Arab allies, and other nations.

"It was the activities of the Iran regime, particularly the Revolutionary Guards Corps, that paved the way for the rise of extremism and sectarian violence in Iraq and Syria. Particularly, it was the IRGC activities that led to the rise of ISIS," said Alireza Jafarzadeh, deputy director of the councils Washington office, who first revealed the extent of Iran's surreptitious nuclear program a decade ago.

"It is part of the regime's strategy to export terrorism," he said. It has the full blessing of the Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei."

The group displayed satellite photographs of what it said were the camps, with names like the "Imam Ali Garrison, the "Lowshan Garrison," and "Badindeh Garrison." The group said the foreign recruits are taught various methods of terrorism, including training for heavy weaponry, missile launching, and teaching how to use "Kalashnikovs, machine guns, mortars, tactics, sniper, among others." At one camp, the group said recruits even learn about the "use of motorcycles for terrorist operations."

"What you want to do is dry up their resources, and limit their access," Jafarzadeh said. "You want to send a signal to anyone else in the region that the IRGC is a terrorist organization."

The Guard was founded during the Islamic revolution in 1979, and continues to play a dominant role in Iran's economic and security life.

Others, however, caution that designating the Guard as a separate terrorist group could backfire.

"The foreign terrorist organization designation is typically reserved for foreign terrorist organizations, not for governments. We have a state sponsor of terrorism list for governments and Iran is on that list, it really does fit the bill," noted Joel Rubin, who served as a deputy assistant secretary of state in the Obama administration and is now president of the Washington Strategy Group.

He points out that portions of the IRGC are currently under U.S. sanctions, but that other nations such as Russia, China and the European countries are unlikely to follow suit. Rubin also worries that such a move could harm the U.S. effort against ISIS and put American troops in the region at risk.

"Iranian behavior is weakening many parts of the region and that needs to be pushed back against. The question is how to do it?" he said.

"There is a bigger picture at play here," Rubin said. "We need to continually call for the Iranian government to treat their people well, and to open up, but the way to do that is not to isolate Iran completely, but to try to put pressure through engagement as we have been doing over the last several years."

But Rajavi says stronger steps need to be taken to force change in Tehran.

"Our objective is to overthrow the dictatorship ruling Iran, which is the desire of the Iranian people. This must be done by the Iranian people and the Iranian resistance," she said. "I believe the people of Iran and our movement are capable to bring about change in Iran.

"We want the American people to know that this regime does not represent the Iranian people and the people of Iran reject this dictatorship. We want the American people to support the Iranian desire for freedom and democracy. We expect the U.S. to fairly abandon the policy of appeasement of previous administrations."

The White House is expected to make a decision on the designation soon.

Fox News Ben Evansky contributed to this report.

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Opposition group claims Iran sponsoring new terror training camps - Fox News