Attiya Ahmad

Iran and Pakistan agreed Wednesday to work together to boost security along their shared border after Pakistan-based militants killed 10 Iranian border guards in the Iranian province of Sistan and Baluchestan last week. A militant group called Jaish al-Adl claimed responsibility for the attack.

Iran’s security forces threaten Afghans living in Iran to go to Syria to “fight for Syrian President Bashar al Assad or be deported to Afghanistan,” according to a report the Pakistani Dawn newspaper.

The image of the Russian aircraft carrier Admiral Kuznetsov steaming across the Mediterranean on its way to the Syrian shore became one of the symbols of Moscow’s military support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. When the aircraft carrier completed its mission in Syria in January this year and made a surprise port call in eastern Libya, analysts immediately suggested that Libya may become another country where Moscow will project its military power.

A court in Iran’s Isfahan Province announced today that Gholam Hossein Karbaschi, a senior reformist politician, will be prosecuted for questioning the Islamic Republic’s policies and actions in the Syrian conflict.

Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Hossein Dehghan held a meeting with lieutenant General Ali Abdullah Ayyoub, the chief of the general staff of the Syrian Army, in Tehran earlier today.

The commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) Navy

Abdul Jabar Qahraman, who recently resigned as the top official overseeing war efforts in Afghanistan’s volatile Helmand Province, has said that Iran facilitates contacts between Taliban leaders and Russian officials.

This article was first published on Real Clear World.

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Gonul Tol, Randa Slim, Alex Vatanka, Marvin G. Weinbaum, and Mabrouka M’Barek provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including Turkish President Erdogan’s upcoming meeting with Russian President Putin, the upcoming speech by Hezbollah Secretary General Nasrallah, the suprising popularity of Rouhani’s VP in the Iranian Presidential Race, the Taliban’s new Spring offensive, and protests in Tunisia over a government proposal to give amnesty to the country’s corrupt financial elite.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) has been setting up new offices in Mosul, the capital of Iraq’s Nineveh Province, according to a report in

The chief commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) has called for preparing Iran’s next generation to defend the country’s clerical establishment and export its revolution abroad. “The next phase of the Islamic Revolution is creating an Islamic government, Islamizing the society, and expanding the Islamic Revolution across the world,” Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari told more than a thousand teachers and school principals at a gathering organized by the Basij Organization on Sunday.

The chief commander of Iran’s Navy has said that crossing the Atlantic Ocean is on the agenda of the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy, the Iranian media reported.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei rejected President Hassan Rouhani’s claim that his administration’s engagement with the West has removed the “shadow of war” over Iran.

Iran’s Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani has thanked the country’s Ministry of Health for providing assistance to his forces and Iranian-controlled militiamen fighting in Syria under his command.

Former Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) Commander Mohsen Rezaei said the Rouhani administration “paid a price” and made “tactical and strategic mistakes” by “hastily” negotiating the 2015 nuclear agreement with the United States and five other world powers.