Summary
November 21, 2017- The Middle East Institute hosted a conversation with Nader Hashemi and Danny Postel, editors of the new book Sectarianization: Mapping the New Politics of the Middle East. Their book critiques the reliance on religious identity as the explanation for the region’s violence, and analyzes the ways in which geopolitical rivalries or domestic grievances have become, or been mobilized into, sectarian wars. How, Hashemi and Postel ask, can the region’s politics be “de-sectarianized”?
The creation of an “international Islamic Basij” force to resist against the United States and its allies fulfills one of the main goals of Iran’s Islamic Revolution, said Major General Ali Jafari, the chief commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.).
A prominent Shiite leader based in the Iranian holy city of Qom has denounced a recent U.S.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei today called on the country’s military leaders to expand the country’s naval capabilities, the Iranian media reported. In a meeting with senior Navy commanders in Tehran, Khamenei said the Navy should boost its assets and capabilities both in terms of military gear and combat power. He praised the latest progress of the Navy but stressed that Navy officials should accelerate the development of its assets.
In this week’s Monday Briefing, MEI experts Charles Lister, Randa Slim, and Alex Vatanka provide analysis on recent and upcoming events including Egypt’s ongoing struggle with terrorism following the recent attack in Rawda mosque, the next round of intra-Syrian Geneva negotiations, and Iran’s anxiety over Russia’s plans in Syria.
The deputy commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps has warned Europe that if it acts against Tehran’s interests, the I.R.G.C. will increase the range of the country’s missiles beyond the current limit of 2,000 kilometers. “If we have kept the range of our missiles up to 2,000 kilometers and have not increased it, it is not because of technological limitations.
The head of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) has admitted that Iran is providing assistance to the Houthi “resistance movement” fighting the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen. “Our assistance to the resistance front has been provided at the request of their people and governments, and Yemen is one of those examples. In Yemen, the power today lies in the hands of Ansarullah and Iran’s assistance is at the level of advisory and spiritual support, which Yemen needs more,” Major General Ali Jafari said at a press conference in Tehran on Thursday.
The new head of Iran’s Navy has said that the country is planning on sending warships to America’s backyard, the Iranian media reported.
In a phone call on Tuesday, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani urged his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron not to support Washington’s policies vis-à-vis Tehran, particularly regarding Iran’s missile program and regional policies and actions.
With ISIS militarily defeated in Syria and Iraq, the Fatemiyoun Division, an all-Afghan Afghan Shiite militia group fighting in Syria, says its fighters will join the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iranian-sponsored Iraqi militia groups to fight Israel next.
Seventy five Nobel laureates have called on the Iranian government to release Ahmadreza Jalali, a Sweden-based scholar jailed in Iran on allegations of spying for Israel, the BBC Persian reported.
Hossein Sheikholeslam, a senior advisor to Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, credited Iran’s elite Quds Force for “defeating” the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq and “foiling the American plots and calculations” in the region. In an interview with Tasnim News Agency, the former Iranian ambassador to Syria, commended Quds Force Commander Major General Qassem Soleimani for having created a multinational force of Shiite groups from South Asia to the Levant region in order to secure Iran’s objectives in the region.
This piece was co-authored by Bilal Saab and Kenneth M. Pollack, resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Read the full op-ed on the Wall Street Journal.
