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Al-Arabia – Iran’s culture of “Sacred Defense” can be exported to all of Iran’s proxies in the region according to a senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) strategist, the semi-official Tasnim news agency reported on Friday. “Today, what can be given to Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Popular Mobilization Forces in Iraq and Ansar Allah in Yemen is the Sacred Defense …

Al-Arabia – Britain will soon be “slapped in the face” for the capture of an Iranian supertanker last week, Iranian state TV quoted a cleric as saying on Friday, amid heightened tension between Iran and the West in the Gulf. “Iran’s strong establishment will soon slap Britain in the face for daring to seize the Iranian oil tanker,” cleric Kazem …

RFL/RE – Iran has again called on Britain to immediately release an oil tanker that the British Royal Navy seized last week. “This is a dangerous game and has consequences…the legal pretexts for the capture are not valid…the release of the tanker is in all countries’ interest,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Abbas Musavi said on July 12, according to state news …

RFL/RE – The United States has decided not to slap sanctions on Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif for now, an indication that Washington may not be closing the door to diplomacy in the countries’ tense dispute, Reuters reports.Reuters on July 11 cited two sources familiar with the matter in reporting the decision, although they did not give specific reasons …

RFL/RE – The Pentagon says it is moving closer to establishing military escorts for ships in the Persian Gulf, hours after Britain said armed Iranian boats “attempted to impede” a British oil tanker.General Mark Milley, who has been nominated to become chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, on July 11 said Washington was working to put together a …