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Benjamin Netanyahu has accused Iran of using the Syrian civil war to gain a foothold to fight Israel amid fears over Iranian troops stationed along the border with the occupied Golan Heights.

Tehran is supporting Bashar al-Assad with deployments of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Basij militia and funding to allied militias including Hezbollah.

The IRGC are now reported to be present in Syrian-government controlled territory along the 1967 ceasefire line in the Golan Heights, which has seen months of Israeli air strikes met with rockets fired towards the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Naghdi, a commander in Irans Basij force, waspictured surveying the border, while a Shia paramilitary group has formed a Golan Liberation Brigade.

Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba, an Iraqi force backed by Iran, is ready to take action to liberate Golan from Israeli occupation, according to spokesman quoted byIranian state media this week.

The deployments have made the Iranian government a major power broker in the Syrian civil war, meeting with Russian and Turkish representatives at ceasefire talks in Astana, Kazakhstan.

In a meeting with Vladimir Putin on Thursday, the Israeli Prime Minister said that any truce must not allow the continued presence of Iranian forces in Syria.

Benjamin Netanyahu urges Theresa May to back fresh sanctions for Iran

We do not want to see Shia Islamic terrorism led by Iran step in to replace Sunni Islamic terrorism, Mr Netanyahu told the Russian President.

Iran continues attempts to destroy the Jewish state. They speak of this openly and write this in black and white in their newspapers.

Today, we have our own country and our army, and we can defend ourselves. But I want to say that the threat of Shia Islamic terror is directed not only against us, but against the region and the entire world.

He told reporters Iran was arming itself and its forces against Israel including from Syria territory and is, in fact, gaining a foothold to continue the fight against Israel.

After the meeting, the Israeli Prime Minister said the removal of Iranian forces from Syria were vital to prevent misunderstandings.

I made it clear that regarding Syria, while Israel is not opposed that there should be an agreement there, we strongly oppose the possibility that Iran and its proxies will be left with a military presence in Syria under such an agreement, Mr Netanyahu added.

A statement released by the Kremlin said he and Mr Putin discussed joint efforts to combat international terrorism and examined areas of bilateral cooperation.

Two years ago, Israel and Russia agreed to coordinate military actions over Syria in order to avoid accidentally trading fire but the risk of skirmishes is increasing as pro-Assad forces fight for more territory in the Golan Heights.

The region has been occupied by Israeli forces since the Six Day War in 1967 and waseffectively annexed in 1981, despite condemnation from the UN.

Despite maintaining cordial relations with Israel, Russia is a key ally of Iran in Syria as both sides continue to back the Assad regime against both opposition rebels and Isis.

The Iranian government claimed the IRGC were originally sent to Syria in an advisory capacity, but the troops have now taken a more frontline role, being found by The Independent fighting on the frontlines near Aleppo city last year.

Avi Dichter, the chair of Israel's foreign affairs and defence committee, said several attempts by Iran to move forces into the Syrian Golan Heights had been repelled last year, without giving details.

Israel says it has carried out dozens of strikes in Syria to prevent weapons smuggling to the Iranian-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah, with the Russian government denying it had given permission for the operations.

IRGC Brigadier General Mohammad Ali Allahdadi was among those killed in Israelibombing, as well as several senior Hezbollah commanders.

The Syrian civil war, now in its sixth year, shows little sign of slowing with fighting breaking out between rival rebel groups who have seized swathes of territory from Isis.

The US has sent hundreds of troops into the country in preparation for an advance on the terrorist groups de-facto capital of Raqqa, risking escalation with Turkey, which classes some American-backed groups as terrorists and wants its own troops to lead the assault.

The first UN-led Syria peace talks in a year ended without a breakthrough in Geneva last week, with further meetings scheduled for later this month.

Link:
Iranian Revolutionary Guards opposite Israeli troops on 1967 ceasefire line in Golan Heights as tensions mount - The Independent

As the Trump administration prepares to implement a revised immigration ban that affects people from six Middle Eastern countries, a Longmont woman is sharing her family's immigration story in the hopes that it will add a personal dimension to the political conversation.

Maryam Moore's father, grandmother and aunt legally immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s from Tehran, Iran.

Her father studied aerospace, her aunt studied at the University of Colorado in Boulder and her grandmother started an ice cream shop in Denver.

Moore's father met her mother, an American citizen, and the rest, she said smiling, is history.

Moore said she never thought much about her Iranian heritage until President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 27 banning immigration from seven Middle Eastern countries for at least 90 days.

The original immigration ban listed Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen and made no distinction between people trying to obtain a new visa and people who already hold valid visas or lawful permanent resident status.

The immigration executive order was halted by a federal judge and the federal appeals court upheld that ruling. The new immigration executive order, issued Monday and set to go into effect on March 16, removed Iraq from the list of countries and listed exemptions for people who have visas or green cards.

Critics of the revised ban told The Guardian that it's likely to alienate Iranian middle-class citizens who seek visas to the United States in order to study or visit relatives. That same group also tends to be critical of the Iranian government, The Guardian reported.

Moore said that after the original immigration order, she sat with her feelings for a few days.

"I couldn't stay silent anymore about the fact that my family immigrated to this country from one of the listed banned nations and that I owe all of my happiness and opportunity all that I hold dear to the ability that my family had to immigrate," Moore said.

Moore pulled together some of her family photos and wrote down her thoughts about her family's immigration story. Her daughter, Dani, used the iPad provided by the St. Vrain Valley School District to compile the photos and Moore's voice-over into a short video, which Moore posted on Facebook. The video has more than 1,100 views.

Moore said her hope is that the video promotes discussion about people from the six countries that doesn't just center on seeing them as the other.

"I wanted to show people that immigrants from these countries are valuable. We're families and we're people that feel so greatly blessed to have this opportunity," Moore said. "It's easy to group people or marginalize people and sometimes it's more convenient that way, but these issues are personal and they mean a lot."

Moore added that she understands that national security is a large part of the conversation around the immigration ban and she understands the importance of keeping the United States safe.

"I wholeheartedly agree that that's important. My message is specific that this is really personal for me. This is my family and my blood. We're not just an obscure people who want to do harm to anyone, let alone this great country," Moore said.

Moore said the conversation has been on her mind at work. She has taught fitness classes at the YMCA in Longmont for 10 years. Moore said that many of her most loyal fitness class attendees are Spanish-speaking immigrants.

"The most faithful group I have by far is the immigrant population. Many of my classes are taught with hand signals and nonverbal communication because we simply just have a language barrier," Moore said. "But it doesn't bother us much."

Moore said she wanted to create something around immigration that caused people to stop and listen to another perspective.

"This struck me in the heart because I knew that if this was in place in 1977, then my family wouldn't have come and I wouldn't exist and nothing that I love and value would have been possible," Moore said.

Karen Antonacci: 303-684-5226, antonaccik@times-call.com or twitter.com/ktonacci

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Longmont woman shares story of family's immigration from Iran - Longmont Times-Call

New York Times

Among Questions for Trump on Iran: What About American Prisoners? New York Times Equally uncertain are the fates of at least seven people in Iran, five of them American citizens. Four were imprisoned after the nuclear accord took effect and relaxed sanctions against Iran in exchange for its verifiable guarantees of peaceful nuclear ... New Iran Sanctions Risk the Threat of WarThe National Interest Online all 10 news articles »

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Among Questions for Trump on Iran: What About American Prisoners? - New York Times

Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) arrested two Christians a mother and her son in late February as part of a brutal crackdown on Catholicism in the countrys West Azerbaijan Province.

The familys bibles and literature on Christian theology were also seized during the draconian raid, according to a March 5 report on the website of the Iranian Christian News Agency, Mohabat.

The arrest of two newly Christian converts Anousheh Rezabakhsh and Soheil Zargarzadeh (mother and son, respectively) in Urmia, a northern city in Iran, is very sad and concerning, especially as they both are dealing with health issues. Its been more than two weeks that Iranian authorities have not provided any news on them, Eliot Assoudeh, an Iranian-American academic at University of Nevada, told Fox News on Wednesday.

He said Christianity is the fastest-growing religion in Iran, and many Christian converts have to risk their lives attending underground churches."

UNDERGROUND CHURCH MOVEMENT GROWS IN IRAN DESPITE REGIME'S EFFORTS

Assoudeh,who recently presented an article on The Islamic Republic of Iran: Between Theocracy and Clerical Fascism, said the U.S. should do more to protect Christians across the world who are under attack.

The United States, its Western allies, and the international human rights organizations should show their concern, call on the Islamic Republic authorities and demand the immediate release of these two Christians, he said.

The IRGC forced Rezabakhsh and Zargarzadeh, a psychology student, from their home and took them to an undisclosed detention facility. The Mohabat wrote that religious minorities arrested in Urmia are normally detained in the Revolutionary Guards Intelligence building.

Urmiaa city of nearly 700,000is famous for housing the Cathedral of St. Mary, the Mother of God whose origin dates back to the 16th century.

Julie Lenarz, the executive director of the London-based Human Security Centre, told FoxNews.com that many Christians are convicted in sham trials and linger in jail for years as prisoners of conscience. They face harassment, torture or even execution.

She said these groups are specifically targeting converts.

Leaving Islam or converting to another religion is punishable by death in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Lenarz said.

A recent report by Open Door USAan organization that tracks the persecution of Christiansranked Iran as the eighth worst country for Christians.

In December, 19 human rights organization called on international communities to protect the rights of Christians in Iran.

IRAN'S SECRET CHRISTIAN MOVEMENT GROWS, WITH HELP FROM ABROAD

Iran ramped up its persecution of Christians in 2016. In the past year, at least 79 Iranian Christians have been arrested.

In Irans post-1979 Revolution, unfortunately, we are dealing with an ideological system based on supremacy of a Shia culture, which has shown hostility towards ethnic and religious minorities, Assoudeh said.

Irans UN diplomatic missions in New York and Geneva did not immediately return phone calls from Fox News seeking comment.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani is slated to run for reelection in May. Critics say he has hoodwinked the West by depicting himself as a reformer when he is, in fact, a hardliner.

The Islamic Republic is master of spectacle politics to gain international legitimacy, Assoudeh said. Last December, in a theatrical ceremony President Hassan Rouhani signed Charter on Citizens Right, in which there is no indication of rights for citizens to practice their chosen faith.

"He said the Islamic Republic's ideology facilitates a "license to hate" to a "license to kill."

'Look at the mass persecution of religious minorities, including Bahai people in Iran, he said.

The 125,000-member IRGC has a long record of violently repressing Christians and democracy movements opposed to the mullah-regime. The long arm of the IRGC played a key role in the murder of 19 U.S. military members in the1996 Khobar Tower bombing in Saudi Arabia.

The IRGC also plotted to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the U.S. in Washington in a high-end Georgetown restaurant in 2011. In 2013, Mannsor Arbabsiar pleaded guilty for his role as the assassin hired to bomb ambassador Adel al-Jubeir. He was sentenced to a 25-year prison term.

President Donald Trumps administration is deliberating over a proposal to classify the IRGC as a terrorist organization.

A spokesman for Rep. Peter Roskam, R-Illinois, said the congressman is pushing to classify the Iranian force as a terror group and supports other sanctions against the Islamic republic as well.

"He believes we shouldstrengthen sanctions against Iran for their support of terrorism,illegal ballistic missile program, and human right record," the spokesman said.

The U.S. Treasury designated the IRGCs Qods Forcean elite commando groupa terrorist entity in 2007.

Individuals responsible for the persecution and murder of minorities should be held accountable through targeted sanctions by denying them entry into the U.S., Lenarz said, and freezing their assets under the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010.

Benjamin Weinthal reports on human rights in the Middle East and is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Follow him on Twitter @BenWeinthal

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Iran arrests two Catholics in new wave of brutality against Christians - Fox News

US-based HIV expert Dr Kamiar Alaei: This order would only harm exchange of knowledge and science. Photograph: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images

Donald Trumps revised executive order which keeps a blanket travel ban on all Iranians will punish a segment of Iranian society that is largely critical of the countrys regime, academics and analysts have warned.

The US president modified his previous travel ban on Monday by excluding Iraq from a previous list of seven predominantly Muslim countries. But nationals from Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen are still subjected to restricting measures that include a suspension of visa issuance for at least 90 days.

In Iran, the main victims of Trumps order are likely to be highly talented students and academics, said Kamiar Alaei, an HIV specialist who was jailed for three years after visiting the US to attend academic conferences.

A lot of Iranian students have already been admitted to MA and PhD programmes and even have secured university funding but now cant come to this country, Alaei, who is currently the director of the global of institute for health and human rights at the State University of New York at Albany, told the Guardian.

Alaeis pioneering research on HIV treatment and prevention programmes earned international recognition, but he was held for three years in Tehrans notorious Evin prison after attending international HIV treatment programmes and conferences held in the US.

Trumps ban will have a similar chilling effect on international study, he warned.

University professors, scholars and doctors who engage in mutual academic work have also been hit. This order would only harm exchange of knowledge and science, he said.

Last year, 12,269 Iranian students studied in the US, according to data from the Institute of International Education, compared with 5,085 from the six other countries including Iraq, which has now been excluded.

You can hardly go to any American university and not find an Iranian scholar there. Iranian doctors also have a significant presence in the US medical sector across the whole country, said Alaei.

Eighty-eight percent of Iranian students in the US are studying either an MA or a PhD degree. Per capita by city, Tehran comes third in the list of foreign students studying postgraduate degrees in the US, Alaei said.

According to Alaei, most Iranians who succeed in obtaining a visa are either students, scholars or those visiting relatives. They belong to a segment of Iranian society that either have a problem with the ruling establishment in Iran or are willing to have a free society, he said. This order harms those who can actually make positive changes in Iran.

Saeed Barzin, a London-based seasoned Iran watcher, echoed Alaei, saying that unlike sanctions targeting Irans military machine, the executive order will alienate the countrys middle class, which is generally perceived to be highly critical of the ruling system.

This travel ban will instigate enmity and grudge between the two nations, he said. When we are talking about sanctions, for example, people recognise that they are in place targeting the Revolutionary Guards, but this ban is different it is targeting everyone and people know that. This travel ban wont result in people blaming the Iranian government, it will result in people blaming the US because its unfair and discriminatory.

Barzin said people in Iran cannot understand why the countries that produced most 9/11 terrorists are not targeted, while all Iranians are. American officials said they would differentiate between the Iranian state and the Iranian people, [but] this order shows the complete opposite.

The 90-day ban is widely expected to extend indefinitely for Iranians because Tehran is unlikely to cooperate with Washington in counter-terror efforts.

In Washington, the state departments spokesman, Mark Toner, tied himself in knots on Tuesday to explain this paradox. When pressed on the presumed target of the order, he said: This is not about the Iranian people, its not directed to them, but when youre considering the safety and security of the American people here in the United States, you have to hold them in a different class.

Jamal Abdi, policy director at the National Iranian American Council, said there has been a spike in hate crimes against people believed to be Muslim or Middle Eastern. Last month, it emerged that a man charged with first-degree murder for shooting an Indian man in a Missouri restaurant had told a 911 dispatcher that he had shot two Iranian people.

Make no mistake: The new Muslim ban is still an unconstitutional ban that targets individuals based on their religion and nationality. And it is still a ban that undermines rather than enhances Americas security, Abdi said.

Donald Trump is turning the American dream into the American nightmare. There are already countless stories of Iranian Americans who have had to cancel weddings, who havent been able to have their parents visit to meet their newborn grandchildren in America, and who dont know when they will see their parents and siblings and friends again. There are stories of Iranian students, hopeful about the opportunity to study in the US and make their contribution to this country, who are now in indefinite limbo.

Additional reporting by Julian Borger

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Trump travel ban will hit Iranian critics of regime hardest, analysts warn - The Guardian