The United States on Wednesday imposed broad sanctions targeting Iran, blacklisting a foundation controlled by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and taking aim at what Washington called Iran's human rights abuses a year after a deadly crackdown on anti-government demonstrators.
11th January 2021 - 10:45 GMT | by Richard Thomas in London RSS
Formed after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has developed a unique approach to maritime force projection, and represents the force of choice for Tehran when it wants to bring about a strategic effect in the Gulf region and beyond
A year on from the death of Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander Maj Gen Qasem Soleimani, head of its Al Quds force, in a drone strike in Iraq, the boarding and seizure of a South Korean-flagged merchant vessel on 4 January by IRGC assets proved once again that Tehran .
Type 23 frigate returns to operational duties after four weeks in drydock.
A JV between Babcock International and the Oman Drydock Company has completed a four-week time support programme for the UK RN frigate HMS
Duqm Naval Dockyard completed essential repairs and performance improvements, ensuring an on-time, on-cost return of the Type 23 frigate to operational duties in the Gulf and Indian Ocean.
Babcock noted in an 11 January announcement that the programme encompassed repair and maintenance of ‘more than 250 critical elements’ throughout
Montrose.
Extensive surveys determined a schedule for ship-wide pressure testing and maintenance, including anti-aircraft weapon systems, fire systems and ventilation.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says he plans to designate Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels as a foreign terrorist organization, a move the United Nations is warning will likely have “serious humanitarian and political repercussions.”
The decision has been expected as one of the State Department’s possible actions in the waning days of the Trump administration, amid its increased pressure on Iran. The designation will take effect Jan.
The mayhem at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021
(Shannon Stapleton / Reuters) The immediate reaction to their condemnation should be to expose the anti-democratic motives behind it.
The Capitol Hill mobs egged on by the president and his associates dealt the United States an unfathomable international embarrassment that doubled as a gift to its adversaries one they were all too eager to exploit. As packs of rally-goers stalked the halls of Congress, and soon after the violence was quelled by law enforcement, the chattering classes concluded that the day’s events have crippled U.S. global leadership.
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Council on Foreign Relations president Richard Haass wrote on Twitter that it’ll be a long time before Washington can “lecture others they are not stable enough to have nuclear weapons.” The