Mediaboss Marketing

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Tehran-based Imam Hossein University, a school affiliated with The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), said it recently deployed military leadership students to fight in Syria as part of an educational program designed for future officers, according to state-run media.

SIGN UP FOR OUR NEWSLETTER

Tehran says its forces are in Syria to protect the Zeinab Shrine in Damascus, a Shiite holy site. But since 2011, Iran has been a major backer of the Syrian regime in its war with rebel groups across the country, at first sending advisers, then forces from the IRGC expanding far beyond the shrine area.

Morteza Saffari, a senior IRGC commander who heads the brass hat division at Imam Hossein University, said at least 100 students from the school have been dispatched to Syria for training in combat situations.

Some of the students sent for two-month training sessions got martyred (killed), many were injured and some have been deployed in Syria for a longer period, he told Irans Danshjoo news agency in a recent interview.

VOA news observes that Syria presents Iran with its first opportunity to give military officers front-line combat experience since the end of the Iran-Iraq war in the eighties. Revolutionary Guards Corps deputy commander Brig. General Hossein Salami boasted his forces have gained technical and tactical advancements, militarily and in terms of intelligence collection from their deployment to Syria. Extensive field testing of Iranian weapons was another benefit.

Syrian rebel commanders enter the VOA story to confirm that IRGC units have been involved in heavy Syrian combat, particularly around the long-besieged city of Aleppo. One rebel leader said Iran sent many reinforcements to Aleppo, mainly new officers and students from its military academy. A significant IRGC presence was also reported in Homs and in the suburbs of Damascus.

In an op-ed for McClatchy News on February 14, Andrew Malcolm argues that Russia is using the Syrian civil war as a live-fire boot camp to train Iranian troops as the regions dominant military force.

Irans concerted buildup, including sophisticated new Russian missile defenses, is expanding its armed influence toward tipping the Middle Easts balance of power adversely to American interests, Malcolm warns. He notes that both Russia and Iran have rapidly cycled troops through the Syrian theater, aiming to give as many soldiers and commanders a taste of live-fire military experience as possible.

Malcolm quotes work from the Institute for the Study of War that makes precisely the same point as Voice of Americas new coverage, arguing that experience in Syria is dramatically increasing Tehrans ability to plan and conduct complex conventional operations as Iranian officers learn by seeing and doing.

The Institute warns that Iranians are learning important Russian military concepts such as cauldron battles, multiple simultaneous and successive operations, and frontal aviation by working closely with Russian forces in Syria. This will help Iran become a formidable conventional military power in the Middle East in relatively short order, permanently changing the balance of power and the security environment in the region.

According to the Institutes analysis, Iran is on track to become one of the few nations in the world able to conduct quasi-conventional warfare hundreds of miles from its borders, an achievement that would disrupt the balance of power in the Middle East.

Iran will add these improved capabilities to a demonstrated aptitude for coordinating local allies and proxy forces, such as Hezbollah fighters and Shiite militias. Thats the kind of force coordination President Trumps new National Security Adviser, General H.R. McMaster, has recommended the United States develop in a different way with different choices for local allies.

If Iran is already skilled at force coordination and weaponized politics, which it tends to exert through terrorism and subversion, and its also gaining advanced military training, battlefield experience, and battle-tested weapons by cooperating with Russia in Syria, it will become a formidable adversary for the United States and its regional allies.

Read more here:
Iran Uses Syrian Battlefields to Train Military Officers - Breitbart News

hajj

Shiite-dominated Iran and Sunni-majority Saudi Arabia have had no diplomatic ties since early last year.

The kingdoms minister in charge of pilgrimages, Mohammed Bentin, discussed with the Iranians arrangements concerning participation of the Iranian faithful in this years hajj, the official Saudi Press Agency said.

SPA said the talks occurred in the context of meetings organised by the pilgrimage ministry with various countries about accommodation and other logistics for the hajj, which will take place around early September.

For the first time in nearly three decades, Irans 64,000 pilgrims did not attend last years hajj after the regional rivals failed to agree on security and logistics.

Tensions remain as Saudi Arabia repeatedly accuses Iran of fuelling regional conflicts by supporting armed Shiite movements in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Bahrain.

Iran rejects the accusations and says Riyadh must stop its support for Sunni terrorists like the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda.

But Saudi media reported in December that Bentin had invited Iran to discuss arrangements for this years pilgrimage.

Irans policy is to send pilgrims to the hajj (this year), of course, if Saudi Arabia accepts our conditions, Irans Culture Minister Reza Salehi Amiri told state television on Wednesday, when he confirmed Iran had sent a team to Saudi Arabia.

In a letter Ive written to the Saudi hajj minister I have specified our conditions, he said.

If they accept our conditions, we will definitely send pilgrims (this) year, otherwise the responsibility will be on Saudi Arabia.

More than 1.8 million faithful took part in last years hajj. The pilgrimage is one of the five pillars of Islam and all Muslims who can must perform it at least once in their lives.

4 hours ago News

6 hours ago World

7 hours ago World

View original post here:
Saudi minister in talks with Iran team over hajj - Guardian

Bidding to ease public anger over a mounting environmental crisis, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Thursday visited an oil-rich southwestern province that has been crippled by sandstorms and power blackouts.

Residents of Khuzestan province have long struggled with high levels of dust because of desertification, but the problems worsened this month when severe rains washed the fine particles into power transmission equipment. That caused several days of electricity blackouts last week in Ahvaz, the provincial capital and home to more than 1 million people.

Schools and government agencies in much of the province were closed temporarily, and water supplies were disrupted, forcing residents to buy jerrycans of water to drink. Many residents took to the streets of Ahvaz to protest until police issued a warning than anyone participating in illegal gatherings would be punished.

Authorities in Tehran, the capital, also prevented a demonstration planned last week to show solidarity with Khuzestan.

Although power and water service has been restored to nearly all the affected areas, Iranian social networks continue to be filled with images of the suffering in the remote province along the Iraqi border. Bathroom sinks are shown lined with dust, which reportedly has seeped into the water supply. A thick brown sludge spills out of the kitchen taps in other photos.

The widening outrage prompted Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to express his concernthis week, saying, What has happened in Khuzestan province has caused heartache for any human being.

Meteorological reports from the area said that a large dust cloud approximately 60 miles long blew in from the drought-hit marshlands of Iraq and sat over Ahvaz. Residents said the particles settled on electricity transmission lines and caused blackouts.

Mansour Qasemi, a 52-year-old civil engineer in Ahvaz, said that whenever the city is lashed by such dust storms, life instantly goes back to the Stone Age.

There is dust everywhere in your mouth, hands, stomach. There is no electricity, no landline phone, no Internet. You are desperate, Qasemi said by phone. You are excommunicated from the 21st century for a few days.

The misery has become all the more sensitive because Khuzestan is the source of much of Irans oil production and hydroelectric power. Gas flared from oil facilities is blamed for high levels of pollution and respiratory problems that worsen during heavy rain and wind.

In fall 2013, following a rainstorm in Ahvaz, 12,000 people were admitted to hospitals and 3,000 were diagnosed with shortness of breath over 10 days, according to researchers. The World Health Organization has ranked the city as having some of the worst ambient air quality in the world.

The mainly ethnic Arab residents suffer from widespread unemployment and have long complained of ethnic discrimination and neglect by the central government in Tehran.

You ask yourself: Am I not living in Iran, in oil-producing Khuzestan? Qasemi said. Is Tehran the center of the universe?

On Thursday, Iranian state media reported that Rouhani visited a water-treatment plant and pledged to open a long-promised facility that would allow gas to be stored and generate electricity instead of being flared into the skies.

Agriculture officials also announced plans to plant more than 115 square miles of trees and green cover in an effort to stem the churning of the dust storms.

Unconvinced that the government will solve Khuzestans woes, many residents have moved.

Tapereh Sikaroudi, a 50-year-old retired English teacher, said the dust particles in the air in Ahvaz caused her to develop a skin allergy. She moved to Tehran but had to leave behind her husband, who remains in Ahvaz for work.

I think that in the years to come, we will witness the exodus of Ahvaz inhabitants to other towns and cities, she said.

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

shashank.bengali@latimes.com

Follow @SBengali on Twitter for more news from South Asia

ALSO

In Guatemala, Trumps Homeland Security chief contradicts new immigration directives

Irans supreme leader rejects calls to release leaders of 2009 Green Movement protests

Islamic State fires cluster bombs at Iraqi government forces

Original post:
Iran's president tries to defuse anger in an oil-rich province hit by dust storms, blackouts and protests - Los Angeles Times

Roghayeh Azizi Mirmahaleh, who was set tobe deported to Iran next week, has been granted a two-year temporary residency permit and can stay in Canada, her lawyer has confirmed.

The 60-year-old who lives in Montreal spent three years in an Iranian prison for political activism. Her husband was executed in Iran before she moved to Canada five years ago.

Federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen granted the woman a special temporary residency permit Thursday morning, and she was released from custody hours later.

Azizi Mirmahaleh and her daughter, Sahar Bahrami, emerged from the downtown MontrealImmigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada office with their arms linked.

"She said she's so happy that she's with me [and]that she wishes every political prisoner in Iran would be free," Bahramisaid, translating from Farsifor her mother.

"We went through a really difficult time, but we're happy that finally, finally..." she said, her voice trailing off.

Bahrami said the plan for today is to celebrate, but that her mother will continue to advocate for a free Iran.

AziziMirmahaleh will also be able to attend Bahrami's wedding next month.

Bahramihad said she fearedher mother could face torture or evendeath if she was returned to Iran.

AziziMirmahaleh's application for refugee status was refused in 2013. Her lawyer StphanieValoissaid she believes the rejection was due to her affiliation with Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK), an exiled oppositiongroup that backs the overthrow of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

AziziMirmahaleh and her husband had distributed pamphlets in Iran printed by the group.

Last month, aCanadian immigration officer decided it would besafe to send her back to Iran.Valois said that they will still be contesting that decision.

She hadbeen detained at the immigration detention centre in Laval sinceTuesday and was scheduled to return to Iran Feb. 28.

Roghayeh Azizi Mirmahaleh, 60, moved to Canada five years ago from Iran. Her refugee claim was denied. (CBC)

Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil was one of a number of politicians, including Montreal Mayor DenisCoderre and federal Transportation Minister MarcGarneau,who spoke in favour of allowing Azizi Mirmahalehto stay in Canada.

Quebec Immigration Minister Kathleen Weil had called on her federal counterpart to show compassion toward Roghayeh Azizi Mirmahaleh. (CBC)

She said while interventions at the provincial level carry a certain amount of weight, the decision was the result of group effort by politicians at all levels.

While she deferred specifics about what lies ahead for Azizi Mirmahaleh to her federal counterpart, Weil said she knows it will be a complex process.

"I think [Hussen has] found a good solution for now, for two years, and I think it's to better be able to find a solution that would be permanent," she said.

Opposition Qubec Solidaire MNA Amir Khadirsaid this is a good opportunity for the federal government to consider amoratoriumon deporting political dissenters to countries with harsh attitudes toward dissent, such as Iran and Saudi Arabia.

"It'sevident [AziziMirmahaleh] needs to be given permanent protection, to be allowed to stay here as a permanent resident," he said.

See original here:
Iranian Montrealer facing deportation can stay in Canada - CBC.ca

Foreign Policy (blog)

Trump Can't Deal With Iran If He Doesn't Understand It Foreign Policy (blog) 1, then-National Security Advisor Michael Flynn accused Iran of a provocative ballistic missile launch and an attack against a Saudi naval vessel conducted by Iran-supported Houthi militants. Two days later, Washington slapped sanctions on 25 ... Top general: No change in Iran's behavior since Trump put country 'on notice'The Hill Donald Trump intends to take on Iran. Right, but riskyThe Economist Iran Sends Military Students to Syrian FrontVoice of America wtkr.com -The Independent -Business Day (registration) -Reuters all 49 news articles »

Read more:
Trump Can't Deal With Iran If He Doesn't Understand It - Foreign Policy (blog)