The US, Iran and the Middle East

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has said United States sanctions must be lifted to reach a nuclear agreement, and there must be guarantees established to ensure their “lasting removal”. Speaking exclusively to Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar in Uzbekistan, the Iranian president also said that it was not yet time to have face-to-face talks with the United States, and he questioned the sincerity of Washington in wanting to reach a deal with Tehran...

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said on Friday that thwarting "draconian" U.S. sanctions required new solutions, asserting that an expanding central Asian security organisation could help defy Washington's unilateralism. Speaking at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in the Uzbek city of Samarkand, Raisi also called for an expansion of free trade among the SCO's member countries, alongside financial and banking cooperation...

As U.S. officials roundly condemn the ongoing series of Iranian strikes against Kurdish rivals in northern Iraq, Washington has also expressed concern over a separate Turkish campaign against Kurdish forces in the same region. In the wake of the fourth and latest round of strikes against targets tied to exiled Kurdish dissident groups such as the Komala Party of Iranian Kurdistan, the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) and the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK), Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ground forces commander General Mohammad Pakpour hailed the results of attacks against "about 40 targets with more than 70 missiles and dozens of suicide drones, with 99% accuracy" in some areas, as reported by the Iranian Labour News Agency...

Blaming Kurds for unrest, Iran threatens Iraq with offensive 

A senior Iranian military official visiting Baghdad this week threatened Iraq with a ground military operation in the country's north if the Iraqi army does not fortify the countries' shared border against Kurdish opposition groups, multiple Iraqi and Kurdish officials said.

Such an offensive, if carried out, would be unprecedented in Iraq, and raise the specter of regional fallout from Iran's domestic unrest, which Tehran has portrayed as a foreign plot without offering evidence.

The warning was delivered this week to Iraqi and Kurdish officials in Baghdad by Iran's Quds Force commander Esmail Ghaani, who arrived in the capital Monday on an unannounced two-day visit. The force is an elite unit within Iran's Revolutionary Guard...

Tehran and Baghdad Tuesday identified fighting "terrorism", maintaining mutual security and extending economic cooperation as key priorities during the new Iraqi prime minister's first official visit to Iran.  Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was received by President Ebrahim Raisi, who expressed hopes of bolstering ties that have lately been hit by tensions over Iran carrying out cross-border strikes against exiled opposition groups... Iraq has announced in the past week that it will redeploy federal guards on the border between Iraqi Kurdistan and Iran, rather than leaving the responsibility to Kurdish peshmerga forces -- a move welcomed by Tehran...

Drones equipped with explosives targeted an Iranian defense factory in the central city of Isfahan overnight, the Iranian Defense Ministry announced on January 29, causing some damage at the facility. The Iranian Defense Ministry released few details on the attack and did not say who it suspected was behind it. Iran has been targeted in the past by suspected Israeli drone strikes. Israeli officials declined to comment on the attack in Isfahan...

Israel carried out a drone strike targeting a defense compound in Iran, as the U.S. and Israel look for new ways to contain Tehran's nuclear and military ambitions, according to U.S. officials and people familiar with the operation. Iranian officials said that the country's air defenses had fended off an attempted attack by three small quadcopters targeting a munitions factory in the city of Isfahan, right next to a site belonging to the Iran Space Research Center, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. for its work on Iran's ballistic-missile program...

CIA Director Bill Burns on Sunday said he estimates that Iran has not yet decided to resume its nuclear weapons program despite reportedly enriching its uranium to levels just below the nuclear threshold. "To the best of our knowledge, we don't believe that the Supreme Leader in Iran has yet made a decision to resume the weaponization program that we judge that they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003," Burns told CBS News' Margaret Brennan...

Israel cabinet approves $2.8 billion for potential strike on Iran nuclear program 

Israel's cabinet has approved a multi-year draft general budget which, amongst other things, grants an increase by approximately $2.8 billion for a potential strike on Iran and its nuclear program. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, and Defence Minister Yoav Gallant agreed on Wednesday night on a multi-year defence budget which will reportedly largely be used to prepare for a potential strike on Iran's underground nuclear facilities...

In comments that should raise eyebrows around the Middle East and the wider region, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Commander Hossein Salami met with Iraq’s Defense Minister Thabet Mohammad Said Reda, offering support for Iraq’s armed forces. It is not entirely clear what the IRGC might provide but it is already in the spotlight since the US views it as a terror organization and it has received more EU attention...

The agreement between Iran and Saudi Arabia to restore diplomatic and economic ties is the latest development in the geopolitical shifts in the Gulf region that have been taking shape since January 2021.  The Saudis have been engaged in talks with Iran from around the same time as that month’s Al Ula Summit, which ended the blockade of Qatar and mended the rift within the Gulf Cooperation Council. In the two years since, the United Arab Emirates has restored its diplomatic relations with Iran and even replaced China as Iran’s top import partner; Kuwait, too, has returned its ambassador to Tehran...

After thaw with Iran, Saudi Arabia sends negative signals to Israel

Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen was forced to cancel his trip to Saudi Arabia scheduled for Sunday, in what is considered by Israeli officials as a negative diplomatic signal by Riyadh. Cohen decided not to travel to Saudi Arabia after Riyadh repeatedly ignored requests to discuss security measures for the visit...

The Russian news agency 'Sputnik' reported on Monday evening, quoting informed sources, that important talks are currently underway between Iran and Bahrain in order to normalize relations. It reported, quoting the mentioned sources, that the consultations that have taken place between the two countries so far have been on a bilateral level and without mediation, and it is likely that the results will be announced soon if there is an agreement on all the disputed issues...

Two and a half tonnes of uranium have gone missing from a site in Libya, the UN's nuclear watchdog has said. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sounded the alarm after a visit by its inspectors to the undisclosed site earlier this week. They found that 10 drums containing uranium ore had disappeared, the IAEA said. Inspectors fear the uranium could pose a radiological risk, and also have concerns over nuclear security. The IAEA said that the site where the uranium was stored was not in government-controlled territory...