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American   troops descend from a helicopter onto a green field peppered by palm-like tees. A fog hangs over the area and all the soldiers are faceless. Masks, mirrored goggles and technological doodads cover their features. Indistinct chatter fills the air as the soldiers move forward, their weapons raised. They’re ready for war. Fade into gunfire. The mirrored glasses of an American soldier pumping round after round into an unseen enemy. An armed robot outfitted with a sniper rifle moves along the outskirts of the soldiers, picking them off one by one. A dexterous commando rolls forward, unslings his sidearm and fires. It has no effect. Two ground combat drones encircle the soldiers, slaughtering them where they stand. The U.S. soldiers die, the drones prevail and Iran stops an American invasion. This isn’t the opening moment of a new Hollywood summer blockbuster, but a sample scene from an Iranian animated movie. In  The Battle of Persian Gulf 2 , Tehran kick...

Iran’s minister of information and communications technology says the country plans to send a new domestically-manufactured satellite into space by  the end of the current Iranian calendar year (ending on March 20, 2017). Mahmoud Vaezi said on Wednesday that the probe called Sharif Sat would be put into orbit by the end of the year, adding that Iran planned to send two more satellites into space by the end of the next Iranian calendar year (which ends on March 20, 2018). The three satellites have been manufactured by young Iranian experts in research centers at the country’s universities, the minister said. He also said that Iran was about to sign a contract with a Russian company on the manufacture of a remote-sensing satellite. “The contract is in final stages. The letter of credit to finance the contract has also been finalized and the work will begin within the next two or three weeks,” Vaezi said. The minister also said th...

Spokesman of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran Behrouz Kamalvandi (File Photo). Iran’s new domestically-manufactured IR-8 centrifuge machines will increase the country’s capacity to enrich uranium 20 times more than the existing IR-1 machines, the spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI) says. “The enrichment capacity of IR-8 centrifuge is 20 SWU per year and the [country's] enrichment capacity will increase 20 times after the mass production of this machine,” Behrouz Kamalvandi said at a Tuesday conference in the northeastern city of Mashhad. This is while the enrichment capacity of the existing IR-1 centrifuges is one SWU per year, he noted. The official pointed out that the IR-8 centrifuges are currently being tested with enriched uranium gas and it will be mass produced eight years after the implementation date of Iran's nuclear deal with the P5+1 group of countries, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). This file photo shows...

US President Donald Trump is expected to retreat from his campaign promise to rip up a nuclear deal signed by Iran and the P5+1 group of countries, including the US, the UK, France, Russia, and China plus Germany in 2015, says an analyst. “Despite President Trump’s campaign promises in which he called the Iran nuclear deal as the ‘worse deal’, we don’t think the White House will be killing the nuclear deal,” Roozbeh Aliabadi, managing partner of the Global Growth Advisors from New York, told Press TV on Tuesday. European states, Russia and China are behind the nuclear accord called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the analyst said adding, “it is highly unlikely that we will see killing of the deal.” “It is reasonable for all of us to assume that the nuclear deal will stay in place,” the analyst noted. He said the fact that Trump in his first three weeks in office has not yet discussed the JCPOA with the ...

International Atomic Energy Agency chief, Yukiya Amano, attends a panel discussion at the World Government Summit 2017 in Dubai on February 14, 2017. (Photo by AFP) The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has once again confirmed that Iran is implementing the landmark nuclear agreement it signed with the P5+1 group of countries in 2015. “Implementation is very important and that requires efforts by all and ... we have a very robust verification tool,” IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano told reporters on the sidelines of a summit in Dubai on Tuesday. “There is nothing political that will change our implementation," he added. Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council - the United States, France, Britain, Russia and China plus Germany - started implementing the nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) - on January 16, 2016. Officials and diplomats from Iran, the EU, and the P5+1 group of co...

PressTv  Turkey is getting more deeply involved in the Syria war. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is on a tour of Persian Gulf states, said in Bahrain on Monday that the ultimate goal of Turkey’s incursion into Syria is to create a safe zone and cleanse the border region from terrorist groups. The Syrian government, though, has on several occasions opposed Turkey’s intervention, which it views as a violation of its sovereignty. Press TV has conducted an interview with Richard Becker, with ANSWER Coalition, and Michael Lane, the founder of American Institute for Foreign Policy, to discuss the reasons why Ankara insists on creating a military safe zone inside Syria. Michael Lane expressed support for the idea of establishing safe zones in countries that are grappling with “civil war,” saying the only setback would be the need for a massive military support for the civilian population that would be left indefensible as a result. “Very curious move that President Erdogan wo...

The New York Times details an aborted operation that would have very likely started a shooting war with Iran Richard Brandt    Too close for comfort. Buried in the middle of the  New York Times'  story on the inner workings of Trump's National Security Council is a revelation almost too terrifying to believe: Last week, the U.S. Navy came close to intercepting and boarding an Iranian ship — allegedly in an attempt to stop the flow of weapons to the Houthis in Yemen. We don't want to believe it, but frankly Trump's team is so hawkish on Iran,  it's hard to completely dismiss : Last week, Defense Secretary  Jim Mattis  was exploring whether the Navy could intercept and board an Iranian ship to look for contraband weapons possibly headed to Houthi fighters in Yemen. The potential interdiction seemed in keeping with recent instructions from Mr. Trump, reinforced in meetings with Mr. Mattis and Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson, to crack down on Iran...

Iran says its production of automobiles has already seen an increase of around 40 percent over a period of 11 months starting 21 March 2016 compared to the same period last year. Iran says its production of automobiles has already seen an increase of around 40 percent over a period of 11 months starting 21 March 2016 compared to the same period in the previous year.  The announcement was made by Mansour Moazzami, the board chairman of the Industrial Development and Renovation Organization (IDRO) which is the operational arm of Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mine and Trade. Moazzami did not provide a figure on the number of automobiles that have been produced over the period. However, he said Iran’s total production of automobiles would reach to as high as 1.3 million by the end of the current Iranian calendar year (20 March 2017).  Iran is the Middle East’s largest auto market with a population of 80 million. The automobile industry is seen as Iran’s...

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi Tehran has once again slammed Washington’s recent belligerent rhetoric and measures against Iran, saying the world is currently witnessing age-old enmity of the United States towards the Islamic Republic under the administration of President Donald Trump. Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi made the remarks on Thursday in response to the latest anti-Iran claims by White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer. The Iranian official said the news coming out every day on Trump’s decisions, false remarks by some new US officials, in addition to widespread anti-Trump protests both at home and abroad “clearly show a change of president in the US.” After taking office, the new US president ordered sweeping travel bans against a number of Muslim-majority countries, including the Islamic Republic. The order was followed by widespread domestic and international backlash. Qassemi further sai...

Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin (Photo by AFP) A senior Russian diplomat has expressed surprise at an outcry provoked by the new US administration over Iranian missile work, saying Tehran’s missile tests are not violating any UN bans, legally speaking. “This outcry about Iran’s ballistic missile launches. I was surprised to hear even American experts speaking on CNN and calling it a violation of bans by the UN Security Council,” said Russia’s UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin in an interview with RT published Tuesday. He was referring to Resolution 2231 adopted by the Security Council in July 2015 to underpin the landmark nuclear deal inked days earlier between Tehran and the P5+1 group of states, namely Russia, China, France, Britain, the US plus Germany. The document terminated the provisions of previous UN resolutions, calling on Iran “not to undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles designed to be capable of delivering ...

A political analyst has described as "ludicrous" the US policy of demonizing Iran as a threat to the world stability and "sponsor of terrorism." Robert Inlakesh has criticized the United States for spreading Iranophobia, saying that labeling Iran as “the biggest problem and the biggest cause of terrorism in the world is complete lunacy." US President Donald Trump claimed in an interview with Fox News that the Islamic Republic of Iran is “terrorist state number one.” Inlakesh noted that Washington's anti-Iran policy is not reasonable because “Iran is one of the only [players] keeping the region from completely falling apart.” An image released on January 7, 2017 shows people gathering amidst the debris at the site of a car bomb attack in the town of Azaz in northern Syria. (Photo by AFP) The United States is angry with Iran over its steadfastness in opposing American regime change policy in the Middle East, he said, noting that Washington and ...

An American activist has slammed the US government for supplying militant groups in Syria with weapons, describing the United States as the source of violence around the globe. “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world is the United States government,” said Dakotah Lilly, from the Organization of Students and Youth for a New America (SYNA). “The United States has absolutely no problem with arming Wahhabi terrorists in Syria” and it has good relations with extremist groups in the Middle East and North Africa, Lilly told Press TV’s Top 5 on Wednesday. He also rejected US President Donald Trump's claims that the controversial travel ban on 7 Muslim majority countries was aimed at securing America. Back in January, the new US president signed an executive order to impose a 90-day entry ban on citizens from Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Somalia. The US administration is using hate crimes as a pretext to blame Muslims for the domestic viol...

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei delivers a speech in a meeting with military commanders in Tehran, Iran, February 7, 2017. Leader.ir/Handout via REUTERS Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves as he delivers a speech in a meeting with military commanders in Tehran, Iran, February 7, 2017. Leader.ir/Handout via REUTERS (Reuters) - Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei dismissed U.S. President Donald Trump's warning to Tehran to stop its missile tests, and called on Iranians to respond to Trump's "threats" on Friday's anniversary of the 1979 revolution. "No enemy can paralyze the Iranian nation," Khamenei was quoted as saying by his website in a meeting with military commanders in Tehran. "[Trump] says 'you should be afraid of me'. No! The Iranian people will respond to his words on Feb 10, (the anniversary of revolution) and will show their stance against such threats."

National flags of U.S. and China wave in front of an international hotel in Beijing February 4, 2010. (Photo by Reuters) China says it has protested to the US for putting Chinese companies and individuals on a new sanctions list targeting Iran.  Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday Beijing had "lodged representations" with Washington after Trump's administration imposed sanctions on 25 people and entities on Friday for trade with Iran. "We have consistently opposed any unilateral sanctions," Lu told a regular press briefing in Beijing. Unilateral US sanctions in the past have infuriated China. Last March, Beijing was outraged after the US government punished China’s largest telecom equipment maker ZTE Corps for alleged violations of sanctions on Iran. Read more:  China irate as US targets Iran trade China's Foreign Ministry expressed anger at the action, saying it is “opposed to the US citing domestic laws to place sanctions on Chinese ...

Saudi Arabia has pounded the port of Hudaydah in Yemen to stop the shipping of humanitarian aids into the war-ravaged country. Saudi forces have also prevented ships from entering the Yemeni port for over 20 days. The United Nations has voiced concern about the severe consequences of a long-term Saudi-imposed blockade on Yemen, which is facing a humanitarian crisis. Senior editor of Veterans Today from Ohio, Gordon Duff, believes that Russia is the power that can stand against the US-Saudi agenda in Yemen and stop the crippling war against the impoverished Arab state. “This is the war that is never going to end” unless the United Nations Security Council and one of its five permanent members, especially Russia, steps in to open the ports in Yemen, control humanitarian aid and bring about a reasonable ceasefire, Duff told Press TV. “There is a huge amount of silent complicity in the war on Yemen, which has been fought as a war against the people,” but Moscow has the capability to interv...

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with his Moldovan counterpart Igor Dodon at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, January 17, 2017. The Kremlin said on Monday it did not agree with U.S. President Donald Trump's assessment of Iran as "the number one terrorist state" and wanted to deepen what it described as already good ties with Tehran. The Kremlin was responding to comments Trump made to Fox News in an interview aired at the weekend in which he complained that Iran had "total disregard" for the United States. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters that Moscow saw things differently. "Russia has friendly partner-like relations with Iran, we cooperate on a wide range of issues, value our trade ties, and hope to develop them further," said Peskov. Trump and Putin say they want to try to rebuild U.S.-Russia ties, that were badly damaged by Moscow's 2014 annexation of Crimea and by Western sanctions i...

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani gestures as he speaks during a ceremony marking National Day of Space Technology in Tehran, Iran February 1, 2017. President.ir/Handout via Iran said on Monday a recent missile trial launch was not intended to send a message to new U.S. President Donald Trump and to test him, since after a series of policy statements Iranian officials uite well". Iran test-fired a new ballistic missile last week, prompting Washington to impose some new sanctions on Tehran. Trump tweeted that Tehran, which has cut back its nuclear program under a 2015 deal with world powers easing economic sanctions, was "playing with fire". Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted by Tasnim news agency as saying: "Iran's missile test was not a message to the new U.S. government. "There is no need to test Mr Trump as we have heard his views on different issues in recent days... We know him quite well." Iran has test-fired seve...

US President Donald Trump Iran has “total disregard” for the United States, says President Donald Trump, repeating his rhetoric against the nuclear deal between Tehran and the world powers, including Washington. The accord, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) is “the worst deal I’ve ever seen negotiated,” he said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. Since he started campaigning for the 2016 presidential election, the New York billionaire has on several occasions spoken ill of the JCPOA, giving promises ranging from an immediate repealing of the deal to renegotiating it. His Sunday appearance still  left the “door open,”  as Fox News put it on its headline. “We’ll see what happens,” Trump said. The new president also parroted the anti-Iran rhetoric, promoted by the GOP and his cabinet members,  accusing  Tehran of supporting terrorism. “They’re sending money all over the place and weapons, and you can’t do that,” he said. “That deal,...

Chinese Ambassador to Syria Qi Qianjin (R) shakes hands with Imad Sabuni, the head of the Syrian Planning and International Cooperation Commission, after signing two agreements in the Syrian capital Damascus, February 5, 2017. (Photo by Xinhua) China is set to provide Syria with some 16 million dollars worth of humanitarian aid under cooperation agreements with the Damascus government. On Sunday, the Chinese Embassy and the Syrian Planning and International Cooperation Commission (ICC) signed two agreements, under which Beijing will send two batches of humanitarian aid worth 16 million dollars to the Arab country. China’s envoy to Syria Qi Qianjin said the aid delivery will begin soon, adding that his country has been committed to providing crisis-hit Syria with aid over the past years. “We sympathize with the Syrian people for what has befallen their country, and we are signing this agreement with the aim of bolstering friendship between the Chinese and Syrian peoples an...

Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images When Snapchat parent company Snap Inc. goes public next month, its sale will prove a windfall for a handful of executives who helped grow the company from a tiny startup to a $25 billion juggernaut in five years. That includes one unlikely addition: chief strategy officer Imran Khan. Khan, only at Snap for about two years, has been granted $145 million worth of shares, the company said in a filing on February 2. Those shares will likely be worth a lot more at the IPO price.  And  he was paid a $5 million bonus last year. Not bad for a guy who, not long ago, was working for "some bucket research shop." That's how one Wall Streeter described Khan's early career. (He did indeed work at a small company, called Fulcrum Global Partners, until about 2004; it  shut its doors in 2006.) Khan, 39, joined Snap in early 2015, in part to help chart the company's path to an initial public offering, though his official role has been to build up rev...