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Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has approved a set of terms and conditions for pardoning or commuting prison sentences of a number of Iranian convicts, Khamenei’s official website reported today. Judiciary Chief Sadegh Larijani had asked the Supreme Leader to review and authorize the conditions under which the Judiciary could grant clemency to certain convicts on the occasions of the birthday of Prophet Muhammad’s daughter and the upcoming Iranian New Year – which begins on March 21.

Ali al-Hussaini, a spokesman of the Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Forces), has claimed that PMF forces have made significant territorial gains in western Mosul and the operation to liberate the strategic city of Tal Afar will begin soon.

This article first appeared on Real Clear World.

While Iraqi forces are fighting to retake the western half of Mosul from Islamic State fighters, internal divisions regarding the future of Iraq’s political process are escalating ahead of provincial elections scheduled for September, especially within the country’s largest Shiite political bloc, the Shiite National Alliance.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei strongly

Iran seeks to be the “regional hegemon” and poses “the greatest long-term threat” to regional security and stability, the top U.S.

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

In a rare revelation, a senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) official

A powerful Iran-supported Iraqi Shiite militia group has announced the creation of a new brigade to “liberate” the Golan Heights from Israel, the Iranian media reports. “After the latest victories [in Syria and Iraq], we established the ‘Golan Liberation Brigade’.

Afghanistan’s largest daily Hasht-e Sobh has blasted the Iranian government for coercing Afghan refugees into fighting Iran’s proxy war in Syria.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (I.R.G.C.) has “successfully” test-fired a naval missile destroying a floating target more than 100 miles away, the Iranian media reported earlier today.

A report in Asharq al-Awsat

Twenty human rights organizations issued a joint statement today calling on the Iranian authorities to “stop the harassment, intimidation and prosecution of human rights defenders seeking truth and justice on behalf of individuals who were summarily executed or forcibly disappeared during the 1980s and their families,” the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI), one of the signatories of the statement

The Iraqi government has approved Tehran’s controversial ambassador pick to represent the Islamic Republic in Baghdad, the Iranian media reports.

In a new revelation on Monday, a senior Iranian official said that more than 2,000 combatants