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Iran's Rouhani says military power 'purely defensive' by Staff Writers Tehran (AFP) Feb 9, 2017 President Hassan Rouhani said Thursday Iran's military power was "purely defensive", after tensions with the United States over its missile programme and a nuclear deal soared following Donald Trump's inauguration. "The Islamic Republic of Iran has showed that it doesn't intend to interfere with the internal affairs of other countries," Rouhani told foreign diplomats in Tehran, according to the ISNA news agency. "Our military power is purely defensive," he was quoted as saying. The comments from Rouhani, a moderate expected to run for re-election later this year, come after the war of words between Iran and the US spiked following Tehran's announcement of a ballistic missile test and Trump's controversial travel ban. "At the current time, we must not allow some to create an unhealthy climate by conjuring illusions,...

This photo taken on November 7, 2016 shows Iraqi forces checking a body they pulled from a mass grave they discovered in Hamam al-Alil area after they recaptured it from the Daesh terrorist group during the ongoing operation to retake Mosul. (Photo by AFP) Iraqi soldiers have found two mass graves containing the bodies of people slaughtered by the Daesh Takfiri terrorist group during the extremists’ control of a desert town west of the country. “The Iraqi army found two mass graves in Rutbah containing the bodies of members of the security forces and of civilians,” a captain in the army's 1st division said Thursday. Rutbah, a small town in Anbar Province, was retaken from Daesh in May last year. The military official said the graves could have been dug as soon as Daesh took control of the town in mid-2014 and began executing civilians and security forces to wreak havoc. The mayor of Rutba, situated about 390 kilometers west of Baghdad, said one of the graves was located in ce...

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...

Sean Spicer, the White House press secretary, at the White House on Tuesday. Mr. Spicer denied reports that the purpose of the attack in Yemen was to capture or kill any specific Qaeda leader. WASHINGTON — Angry at the civilian casualties incurred last month in the  first commando raid authorized by President Trump ,  Yemen  has withdrawn permission for the United States to run Special Operations ground missions against suspected terrorist groups in the country, according to American officials. Grisly photographs of children apparently killed in the crossfire of a 50-minute firefight during the raid caused outrage in Yemen. A member of the Navy’s SEAL Team 6, Chief Petty Officer William Owens, was also killed in the operation. While the White House continues to insist that the attack was a “success” — a characterization it repeated on Tuesday — the suspension of commando operations is a setback for Mr. Trump, who has made it clear h...

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks to a group of Belgian reporters in this handout picture provided by SANA on February 7, 2017, Syria. SANA/Handout via REUTERS Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks to a group of Belgian reporters in this handout picture provided by SANA on February 7, 2017, Syria. SANA/Handout via REUTERS (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said U.S. President Donald Trump prioritizing the fight against jihadists by Islamic State was promising although it was too early to expect any practical steps, state news agency SANA reported on Tuesday. Trump has indicated he might cut U.S. support for Syrian rebels and might help Syria in the fight against Islamic State. He has made defeating Islamic State a core goal of his presidency and signed an executive order asking the Pentagon, the joint chiefs of staff and other agencies to submit a preliminary plan on how to proceed within 30 days. Assad was quoted by SANA as telling a group of Belgi...

This file photo shows a missile being fired from the direction of Yemen toward Saudi Arabia. Yemen's local media have reported a ballistic missile attack on Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh. The Yemeni army made the announcement of their first ever attack on the city via a  statement  released by the official state Yemen news agency on Sunday. In the statement, they claimed that the missile had been launched at a Saudi military base located to the west of the capital in retaliation for the kingdom’s relentless war against their country. It went on to stress that the attack shows that Riyadh is well within the range of Yemen’s missiles. Saudi officials have not made any comments on the reports yet, but locals have said on Twitter that the missile struck a military camp to the west of al-Mazahimiyah town near Riyadh. The regime in Riyadh has been incessantly pounding Yemen since March 2015 in a bid to reinstall the country’s ex-government and cru...

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...

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 navy officers pose for a picture with Kuwaiti officials next to a Harbin destroyer, which arrived as part of the Chinese fleet at Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait City, February 1, 2017. (Photo by AFP) A Chinese naval fleet has wrapped up visits to four Arab states in the strategic Persian Gulf region. The Chinese task force, consisting of the guided-missile destroyer Harbin, the guided-missile frigate Handan, and the supply ship Dongpinghu, departed Kuwait on Sunday after stopping in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates, media reported on Monday. The Chinese task force completed an assignment escorting commercial ships and patrolling for pirates in the Gulf of Aden. It was the 24th Chinese task force to be assigned such missions since 2008. Chinese navy officers pose for a picture with Kuwaiti officials next to a Harbin destroyer, which arrived as part of the Chinese fleet at Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait City, February 1, 2017. (Photo by AFP) China’s navy has used th...

Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani says   the Syria conflict cannot be resolved through political approaches as long as terrorist groups, including Daesh and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, an affiliate of al-Qaeda formerly known as al-Nusra Front, are operating in the Arab state and supported by certain regional countries. He said some regional countries have expressed concern over the political initiatives of Iran, Russia and Turkey in Syria and do not have any sympathy for people in war-ravaged countries, but are worried that the terrorist groups they have been supporting are losing ground and on the decline. An author and journalist believes as long as the United States supports the terrorists groups in Syria, there is no possibility of a political solution to the conflict in the war-torn country. “I have said many times and I have wrote in many articles that as long as Obama remained in power, there was no possibility...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attends the weekly cabinet meeting at his office in Jerusalem, January 15, 2017. (Photo by AFP) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called on British Prime Minister Theresa May and US President Donald Trump to take a tougher stance against Iran. "New admin in US, new gov in Britain, new diplomatic opportunities for Israel. I have meetings in London tomorrow and in Washington next week," Netanyhahu said in a tweet on Sunday. Earlier in the day, he told his cabinet that forming a united front against Iran was one of the main topics that he was going to raise with May and Trump during his upcoming visits. “In the diplomatic sphere, I intend to emphasize the need for a common front against Iran’s defiant aggression, which has raised its head in recent days. This must be done on an ongoing basis, but especially in light of Iran’s defiance against the international order,” Netanyhahu said. Tel Aviv’s renewed focus on Iran c...

Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs A senior Iranian official says any threat to Iraq's security and territorial integrity will affect the entire Middle East, stressing that the Islamic Republic opposes Iraq’s partition and any interference in its internal affairs. Speaking to reporters in Tehran on Sunday after a meeting with Jan Kubis, the UN special representative for Iraq, Ali Akbar Velayati, the senior adviser to Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said the two sides discussed ways to reinforce Iraq’s territorial integrity and national solidarity. He added that any measure to combat terrorism in Iraq must be carried out under the supervision of the United Nations. The Iranian official emphasized that the Islamic Republic and the UN opposed meddling by any country in the internal affairs of Iraq or any other state without thei...