KOENIG

Iran might have been hiding an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile testing site in plain view, until a group of California-based experts figured it out while watching public Iranian TV and obtained new photos of the area.

 President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia appreciated efforts by Europe to save the Iran nuclear deal despite the withdrawal of the United States and warned of "lamentable consequences" if it was not preserved.

Putin made the comment in a news conference with French President Emmanuel Macron, who has proposed broadening talks with Tehran to cover Iran's ballistics program and its role in the Middle East.

A military air base in western Syria was hit in an airstrikes Thursday night, sparking large explosions, which were heard throughout the area, state media reported.

The targets of the strike were munitions depots belonging to the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group, located on an air base south of the city of Homs, according to the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group, which also said the strikes were most likely carried out by Israel.

“Six missiles were fired at the Daba’a military airport and surrounding area in the western sector of Homs province, targeting Lebanese Hezbollah weapons warehouses,” Rami Abd el-Rahman, director of the Observatory, told AFP.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday set conditions for Europe for Tehran to remain in the 2015 nuclear accord, following the US withdrawal from the deal earlier this month.

Khamenei, addressing government officials on the occasion of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, said European powers must vow not to seek new limitations on Iran’s ballistic missile program or its activities in the Middle East, as demanded by the Trump administration.

They must also “fully guarantee Iran’s oil sales,” he said, adding that if the US “damages” oil sales through renewed economic sanctions, “Europeans should make up for that and buy Iranian oil.

Protesters in the southern Iranian city of Kazerun represent wider percolating unrest that has continued in Iran since the large protests in December and January.

Several protesters were reportedly killed on May 16 when police used deadly force to disperse them.

Video posted online on Tuesday showed hundreds of people chanting that they would “avenge” the dead during renewed protests.

The seeds of this week’s protests lie in the mass protests that broke out in Mashhad last December.
 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Israeli Air Force plays a “crucial role” in the government’s policy to prevent Iranian entrenchment in Syrian and acquisition of nuclear weapons.

“We will not let Iran establish military bases in Syria, and we will not let Iran develop nuclear weapons. The Israeli Air Force plays a crucial role in implementing this policy and has done so consistently and effectively for the past several years,” Netanyahu says, speaking at the International Air Force Commanders Conference.

“Israel deeply appreciates the strong leadership of President Trump and Secretary Pompeo’s 12-point plan to block Iran’s aggression and I can tell you with confidence that the appreciation that I just expressed is broadly shared by many others in the Middle East. This is not just an Israeli position,” the prime minister adds.

The Pentagon plans to take “new measures” to counter Iran’s influence in the Middle East, a Pentagon spokesman said on Monday after US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced a new US strategy with regard to Tehran.

“We are going to take all necessary steps to confront and address Iran’s malign influence in the region,” Department of Defense spokesman Rob Manning said at a Pentagon press conference. “We are assessing if we are going to double down on current actions or implement new actions.”

He insisted that the entire government was working together on the issue. “We are part of a whole-of-government approach to addressing Iran,” he said.