NEWS DESK IRAN (CLICK HEADLINES FOR FULL TEXTS)

ANALYSIS

Syria: It’s not just about freedom
Imperial regimes can crack when they are driven out of their major foreign outposts. The fall of the Berlin Wall did not only signal the liberation of Eastern Europe from Moscow. It prefigured the collapse of the Soviet Union itself just two years later.

A nuclear Iran would put us over a barrel
A nuclear Iran could shift the balance of power in a crucial part of the world against democratic values and American interests, writes Wendy Rosen.

Iran: We will help ‘cut out the cancer of Israel’
Iran will help anyone willing to “cut out the cancer” of Israel, its Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said.

Quake felt 70 km from Iranian nuclear plant.
An earthquake measuring 5 on the Richter scale was felt some 70 km from Iran’s Bushehr nuclear power plant, the US Geological Survey reported on Sunday.

War of nerves: Iran’s warships arrive in Saudi Arabia
Two Iranian naval ships have docked in the Saudi port of Jeddah. Iranian officials say the move aims to project the country’s “power on the open seas” and “confront Iranophobia.”

UAE, Qatar stop trade finance to Iran over sanctions
The central banks of UAE and Qatar have told lenders to stop financing trade with Iran, bankers said on Thursday, cutting another source of credit for a country struggling under Western economic sanctions imposed over its nuclear programme.

Iran throws a party – but don’t mention the Syrian elephant
It was meant to be a crowning moment in which Iran put its own Islamic stamp on the Arab Spring. […]But there was a catch. No one was invited from Syria, whose autocratic president, Bashar al-Assad, is a crucial Iranian ally.

Iran-Turkey Ties Under Increasing Strain From Mideast Sunni-Shiite Divide
Turkey’s ties with Iran are under growing strain as the countries split on sectarian lines over Middle East conflicts, depriving the Islamic republic of an ally against western nuclear pressure.