Gulf and Arabian Peninsula

Mahmoud al-Zahar, one of the top members of the Hamas leadership is reported by the Iranian press to push for the resumption of relations between the Palestinian organization and the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad.

A number of leaders of Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) have told Iran’s Fars News Agency (FNA) that their forces will play a leading military role in “liberating” 3,000 square kilometers of Islamic State-held areas in western Mosul.

Iranian Intelligence Ministry authorities have violently arrested a 17-year-old ethnic Arab activist in the southeastern province of Khuzestan on February 8, the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran

Prominent Afghan jihadi leader Amir Ismail Khan has warned the Iranian government against providing military and financial assistance to the Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

The Iranian media welcomed the resignation of Michael Flynn as the U.S. national security adviser, but cautioned that Washington would continue to pursue hostile policies against the Islamic Republic.

The rise of Yehya Sinwar to lead the Hamas organization in Gaza has been welcomed by Tehran.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s official trip to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and Qatar has prompted anxiety in Tehran. Erdogan arrived in Riyadh on Monday night after a visit to Bahrain, and he is scheduled to go to Qatar next.

Iranian media have been speculating about reasons why Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitryi Rogozin this week canceled his planned trip to Tehran. Rogozin was due to hold talks with top Iranian officials, including Defense Minister Hossein Dehgan.

The U.S. Department of State released a statement this afternoon calling for the immediate release of former Iranian opposition leaders and presidential candidates Mehdi Karroubi and Mir Hossein Mousavi, as well as Mousavi’s wife and women’s rights activist Zahra Rahnavard.

Iran’s Basij forces today

In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Eran Etzion, Alex Vatanka, Gerald Feierstein, Randa Slim, W. Robert Pearson, and Marvin G.

The Iran-Syria Friendship Popular Committee on Friday

The New York Times reported on February 12 that Defense secretary Jim Mattis last week was exploring whether the U.S. Navy should “intercept and board an Iranian ship to look for contraband weapons possibly headed to Houthi fighters in Yemen.” But according to unnamed U.S.

U.S. media reports that the Trump White House might list Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) as a terrorist entity has been met by considerable trepidation in Tehran.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif has strongly defended the regional policies of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.). In particular, Zarif defended General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the Quds Force, which is the I.R.G.C.’s expeditionary force. “I have had a close relationship with General Soleimani for over 20 years. When I was the head of the [Iranian] negotiating team involving questions of Iraq and Afghanistan, I had a very good working relationship with General Soleimani,” Zarif stated.