As the White House tries to mend fences with the Zionist Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who is upset about nuclear talks with Iran, Vice President Joe Biden says the US is ready to risk a military confrontation in support of the Israeli regime.

A Senior Defense Department official confirms to CBS News that U.S. Naval forces have begun accompanying American-flagged maritime traffic in the Strait of Hormuz.

The move is in response to what Washington views as provocative Iranian behavior in the Persian Gulf. Earlier this week Iranian naval vessels reportedly fired warning shots near Maersk Tigris, a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship, and detained it and its crew. Iranian officials say the Maersk shipping line owes it money.

Is there any strategy behind this apart from generating a nice pro-Israel credential for Rubio’s resume that he can show off to GOP primary voters this summer? What I mean is, is there any chance that this somehow improves — or kills — the final deal between the U.S. and Iran or at least puts Obama and the Democrats in a verrrry tough spot in defending it?

Last week, the student senate at Earlham College, a Quaker liberal arts institution in Indiana, passed a resolution demanding divestment from US companies that profit from Israeli violations of Palestinians’ rights.

The resolution was passed by consensus — requiring the approval of all members of the student government — and targets the college’s investments in Motorola Solutions, Hewlett-Packard and Caterpillar.

American neocons are in a lather over Russia’s decision to go ahead with the sale of anti-aircraft missiles to Iran. The apparent outrage is that Iran thinks it has a right to protect its citizens from Israel’s right to launch airstrikes into Iran’s territory, as ex-CIA analyst Ray McGovern explains.

While the Senate’s upcoming Iran bill, aiming to give Congress veto power over any pact negotiated by the P5+1, already put the deal in serious jeopardy, a new amendment to it proposed by Sen. Marco Rubio (R – FL) seems to be the silver bullet that will kill any chance of the deal.

The Rubio Amendment would require that any nuclear deal with Iran include an explicit public endorsement from Iran of Israel’s status as a “Jewish state.”

Iran has for the first time in a decade been able to export seven million barrels of oil in one day from a southern terminal, said an official on Tuesday.

Jets of a Saudi Arabian-led coalition bombed Sanaa airport on Tuesday to prevent an Iranian plane from landing in the war-torn country, Yemeni officials and Iranian state media reported.

A runway, a civilian aircraft and part of a terminal building at Sanaa international airport were destroyed after being struck by missiles.

The attack forced two Iranian planes that had flown into Yemen over neighboring Oman to turn back, according to a Yemeni official.

"The planes were carrying medical aid and entered Yemeni airspace this morning," the official told Middle East Eye via Skype.

In an attempt to limit the prospects for overseas meddling, US law requires foreign military aid to be delivered direct to host countries, as opposed to just any old armed faction the US wants to throw weapons at.

That might seem like a straightforward rule, but House Republicans are seeing a pretty straightforward way to circumvent it, announcing their intention to declare Iraqi Kurdistan, as well as some Iraqi Sunni Arab militias, as “countries” of their own for the sake of aid shipments.

The Iranian authorities have released a Marshall Islands-flagged cargo ship seized earlier on Tuesday, no crew members were detained, according to Al Arabiya television.

The Iranian navy detained a 34-men crew cargo ship after a local court issued an order for its confiscation, the Iranian FARS news agency reported, citing informed sources.

According to the report, the ship was seized at the request of Iran's Ports and Maritime Organization, which had financial disagreements with the owner of the vessel.

CNBC reported the Iranian navy seized the Tigris after being ordered to do so by the Iran Ports Authority, and under a court order. Reuters reported the United States is monitoring the situation from the sky, also, and has sent at least one plane to the area.

The State Department says the United States maintains authority over securing and defending the Marshall Islands.

The ship, a Marshall Islands flagged vessel, was transiting the Strait into the Persian Gulf on an internationally recognized maritime route when the the Iranian military contacted the vessel and directed the ship master to "divert further into Iranian Waters," according to Pentagon spokesman Col. Steve Warren.

The Iranian Navy has reportedly seized a US ship with 34 crew members on board, for violating Iran's waters in the Persian Gulf. The Pentagon denies the vessel belongs to the US, claiming it is registered in the Marshall Islands.

A Pentagon spokesman has confirmed that Iranian forces boarded the Marshall Island-flagged Maersk Tigris vessel after patrol boats fired warning shots across its bow and ordered it deeper into Iranian waters, Reuters reports.

The vessel initially ignored the warning but complied after the shots were fired, U.S. Army Colonel Steve Warren said.

Iran has fired at a U.S. cargo ship and has directed it to Bandar Abbas port on the southern coast of Iran, Al Arabiya News Channel has reported on Tuesday.

Up to 34 American sailors are believed to be onboard the ship, Al Arabiya reported.

Already his year, we’ve seen how Israel, its lobby, and US Republicans on their payroll, have constantly obsessed over Iran’s supposed ‘nuclear program’. They’ve also actively undermined international P5+1 accords with Iran ever since negotiations began in 2014. But who is the real nuclear threat in the region?

Iranian researchers have produced a nano-drug which has proven effective in battling treatment resistant cancers.

The Cancer Research Center of Tehran University of Medical Sciences produced the polymer-based nanocarrier for the targeted release of the anti-cancer drug curcumin, ISNA reported on Sunday.

“This nanocarrier was made without the use of poisonous catalysts and has proven successful in clinical trials on a number cancer patients,” said Dr Ali Mohammad Alizadeh from the Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council.

The worse kept secret is the joint plans of Israel and their American stooges for a sneak attack on Iran. Succumbing to the militaristic legacy of imperial Japan, the joint chiefs of staff are ready to facilitate or even lead a stealth charge against purported WMD targets. So what is their rationale? Since the deadly weapon facilities could not be found in Iraq, maybe they will be found in Iran? If Iran was ready to develop nuclear weapons, how is that any different from Israel already deploying 200 plus warheads? Especially since the Zionist belligerent is poised to strike Iran in a repeat of their “Operation Opera” against the Iraqi Osirak reactor in 1981.

Former President George W. Bush said the United States must show that it can follow through on its promises, and argued against the lifting of sanctions against Iran during rare remarks about foreign policy in a meeting with hundreds of Jewish donors here Saturday night.

A US aircraft carrier and a guided-missile cruiser are leaving the waters off Yemen and heading back to the Gulf after an Iranian naval convoy also turned back from the area, officials said Friday.

The Pentagon ordered a fleet of war ships to the coast of Yemen Monday, including the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, the guided-missile cruiser USS Normandy and several destroyers carrying special boarding teams,

The ships have been deployed to secure the shipping lanes passing through the Bab al-Mandab strait, according to official Pentagon spokesman Colonel Steve Warren.

According to an anonymous Pentagon source cited by Reuters, however, the real purpose of the deployment is to confront Iranian ships allegedly seeking to deliver aid to the Houthi insurgents who seized power in the country in January.

"Our priority is to make sure the bill gets passed with the strongest possible bipartisan majority so that Congress is guaranteed the opportunity to pass judgment on the final agreement," an AIPAC source said.

The issue of Iran’s nuclear capabilities is something which anyone who cares about a safe America as well as a safe Israel must stand against. And perhaps no community more than Republican American Jews must stand together in the interest of shared values – and a safer world – work to do everything they can to thwart a nuclear Iran.

No doubt you’ve heard a lot about Iran in the media. And it’s true, Iran is a truly evil and terrifying place. Here we present 19 reasons you should never, ever, visit this godforsaken land.

In the world according to Netanyahu, the great threat, what he called "the foremost sponsor of terrorism", remains Iran. "We must," he insisted, "stop Iran's march of conquest, subjugation and terror."

Scientists there are dedicating themselves to figuring out technical formulas that could stop Iran from developing a weapon.

Last week’s announcement by the Russian government that they are cancelling a ban on selling S-300 defensive missiles to Iran seems to be sparking a flurry of comments from US and Israeli officials insisting they can attack Iran whenever they want, with or without the S-300.

Yesterday it was President Obama, but today was Israeli Air Force commander Major General Amir Eshel’s turn, insisting he is confident he can “get the job done” if ordered to attack Iran.

Eshel confirmed the S-300 is a “very sophisticated system,” but said he had no doubts that Israel, which had invested “immense resources” in preparing to attack Iran, could get around it in a strike.

“It remains our assessment that Iran does not exert command and control over the Houthis in Yemen,” Bernadette Meehan, a spokeswoman for the National Security Council, told The Huffington Post.

Instead of rescuing US citizens trapped in Yemen, the US has been rescuing Saudi bombers, refueling Saudi bombers, directing Saudi bomb-attacks from within and outside of Saudi Arabia, and re-arming Saudi Arabia with bombs and ammunition – all openly announced by US officials in public statements. Such behavior is standard operating procedure and unsurprising to people who seriously follow US actions.

A fleet of Iranian warships arrived near the southern coast of Yemen on Wednesday in a move likely to add greater tension in a developing U.S.-Iranian standoff in the region, according Iranian military leaders.

Just days after the United States announced it would send its own warships to Yemen in order to prevent Iran from smuggling weapons to terror forces fighting there, a flotilla of Iranian destroyers docked in the same area.

He noted that the nine ships in the Iranian convoy were cargo ships, but he declined to specify what they were carrying beyond "containers." International officials are concerned that Iran could surreptitiously attempt to transfer weaponry to the Houthis.

Once more Vladimir Putin and his team have managed to undercut Washington’s geopolitical strategy, this time regarding the secret bilateral US negotiations with Iran outside the G5+1 talks that included Russia. What Russia has done, with dazzling speed, is to defuse what could have been a devastating US move to turn Iran from an ally of Russia into a bitter adversary. Were that to happen it would deal a devastating blow to Russia’s resistance to the Washington dictates.

Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif is scheduled to come to New York to address the five-yearly review conference of the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that will be held from April 27th to May 22.

During the daily foreign ministry press briefing in Tehran, the ministry's Spokeswoman Marzieh Afkham confirmed Zarif's trip to New York and added that, "given the presence of Iranian diplomats as well as other members of the P5+1, there may be talks on the nuclear negotiations on the sideline."

Speaking with reporters on Tuesday, ex-Mossad Director Efraim Halevy summed up the current chilly relationship between the United States and Israel with a joke.

"When we had problems with the United States, people in Israel jokingly said we should go to war with the United States," Halevy said. "And the problem would be not what would happen if we would lose the war, but what happens if we win the war?"

Halevy, speaking on a conference call sponsored by the Israel Policy Forum, said that the old line shed light on the Israeli government's current opposition to the Obama administration's ongoing negotiations with Iran over the country's nuclear program.

"That of course highlights the somewhat ridiculous situation we might be in if an Israeli effort to derail the entire process would succeed," the former intelligence chief said.

President Barack Obama reportedly said he will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the June 30 deadline for the Iran nuclear talks.

Iran and the six international negotiators have coordinated provisions of the final document on Tehran's nuclear program, a Western diplomatic source taking part in negotiations told TASS.

The source also said a regular round of talks between Iran and the six international negotiators on Iran’s nuclear program (P5+1) may be held already next week in New York.

"Experts are highly likely to meet next week in the United States to continue work on the text of a comprehensive agreement," the source said. "Political directors may join them."

He said the issue will be specified in Vienna within the next few days.

'We've indicated to the Iranians that they need to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem,' Obama said in an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday night.

'What we need to do is bring all the parties together and find a political arrangement. It is not solved by having another proxy war in Yemen,' he stated, according to Press TV.

The US president added 'that we can settle down the situation in Yemen.'

Infuriated by Moscow's decision last week to revive a long-shelved S-300 missile deal to Tehran, officials here reiterated Israel's right to target those batteries or any other high-end Russian arms transferred to regional terrorist organizations via Iran or Syria.

In the meeting held on the sidelines of the 60th Asia-Africa Summit Meeting in Indonesia the two sides in addition to reviewing bilateral relations exchanged views on most important regional and international issues.

President Rouhani and Prime Minister Abe both agreed that further expansion of Tehran-Tokyo comprehensive relations and cooperation under the current conditions was a must.

In an exclusive interview with IRNA, he said this is the first Boeing 757 aircraft which joins the commercial fleet of the country and the second Boeing will be added to the Taban Air fleet by next month.

With the framework for an agreement to lift international sanctions against Iran finally in place, Tehran is poised to become a battleground for international arms sales, which has neighboring Arab countries watching closely.

If the U.S. ships intercept the Iranian convoy, they may find it is carrying humanitarian supplies to Yemen to relieve a populace facing massive shortages, Schenker said. Iran for years has provided humanitarian and military assistance to Shiite militias in Iraq and Lebanon, and in the past it has provided similar assistance to Sunni militias fighting Israel in the Gaza Strip.

"There is the possibility of a humanitarian crisis of immense proportions," he said. "Nobody wants to go into Yemen to do this kind of work. But one thing we've learned over the past few years is that the Iranians always stand by their friends."

The 'proxy' war is escalating very rapidly. As AP reports, Navy officials confirm that the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt is headed to Yemeni waters to intercept an Iranian weapons shipments. Just as we warned 10 days ago, the probability of a major escalation over the latest proxy Middle Eastern civil war escalated substantially when Iran parked two warships off the Yemeni coast.

Haaretz’s managing editor, Aluf Benn, published a series of articles (this is the main one) about an ill-fated Israel-Iran oil venture, the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Company (EAPC), that began in 1968 and ended in 1979, just after the Iranian Revolution. The most criticial part of the project was a pipeline running from Eilat to the major Israeli port of Ashdod. The Shah agreed to ship his oil via the pipeline, thus avoiding the Suez Canal, and then transport it, via tankers jointly owned by the venture, to Europe. Israel received approximately $200-million in oil from Iran before the Shah’s regime collapsed and Iran withdrew from the venture.

President Obama appears to have won another round in the high-stakes domestic battle that is the Iran deal. The Bob Corker-Ben Cardin bill that passed Senate Foreign Relations the other day giving Congress the ability to review the deal once it’s cut seemed like a victory for opponents of the deal; but by the end of the weeks neoconservatives were scrambling, because they sensed the legislation doesn’t give opponents much power to stop a deal.

What, exactly, was remembered during Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day this week?

Not the victims of Israel’s latest slaughter in Gaza, where more than 2,200 civilians were killed less than a year ago. In the propagandistic world of “Holocaust memory” only Jews can be victims, so mainstream media marginalize the hundreds of Jewish Holocaust survivors and their descendants who publicly condemned “the massacre of Palestinians in Gaza” (their words). Instead, a leading Israeli newspaper informed us this week that “adult children of Holocaust survivors in Israel tend to be more anxious than their peers … about the Iranian nuclear threat” — even though Iran has no nuclear weapons and has never attacked Israel.

U.S. military officials are concerned that Iran's support for Houthi rebels in Yemen could spark a confrontation with Saudi Arabia and plunge the region into sectarian war.
Iran is sending an armada of seven to nine ships — some with weapons — toward Yemen in a potential attempt to resupply the Shia Houthi rebels, according to two U.S. defense officials.

What's unusual about the new deployment, which set out this week, is that the Iranians are not trying to conceal it, officials said. Instead, they appear to be trying to "communicate it" to the U.S. and its allies in the Gulf.

Too many cooks spoil the broth, and that appears to be precisely what the Senate had in mind. Not just Israel’s friends in Congress, but the preponderance of the liberal foreign policy establishment worries that Obama has sacrificed urgent national security concerns out of personal ambition or sentiment. Steadfast Obama supporters like the Times’ Thomas Friedman expressed grave reservations, and the elders of the Republican establishment, Henry Kissinger and George Shultz, authored an extraordinary joint statement published April 7 in the Wall Street Journal. 39 Senators and 447 Congressmen signed a letter to the Islamic Republic of Iran warning that a future administration might void the present deal.

People in the West tend to have a monolithic view of Iran. But there's a lot more to the country than the mullah-led theocracy, and it often gets ignored. And national pride is alive and well.

Israel may start sending arms to Ukraine in response to Russia’s decision to lift its five-year embargo on the delivery of the S-300 missile system to Iran, NRG reports Tuesday, citing unnamed Israeli military source.

Former Prime Minister Ehud Barak Wednesday urged the United States to present Iranian leaders with a clear choice: abandon your nuclear aspirations "or else."

"The Pentagon and the forces of America under the backing and probable directive of the [US] president [could] create an extremely effective means to destroy the Iranian nuclear military program over a fraction of one night," the former Israeli leader told CNBC.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey sought to downplay the impact of Russia removing a long-standing ban on selling S-300 defensive missiles to Iran, saying the US option to attack Iran remains “intact.”

After decades of waging war in Iraq and beyond with disastrous results, now is the time for the US to use a bargain with Iran to bring peace to the region

Since Hillary Clinton announced without any surprise that she was running for president, it is worth taking a look at her record. As U.S. Secretary of State during the conflict between Russia and Georgia, Clinton claimed that the U.S. was committed to “Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” and that the “United States does not recognize spheres of influence.”

In the meantime she was pushing for the military integration of countries from the former Soviet Union with NATO. Rick Rozoff commented at the time: “Despite Clinton’s claim to the contrary, the United States most decidedly recognizes spheres of influence. In its own hemisphere – the entirety of it – in the South Caucasus and everywhere else on the planet.”

Also in the double standard category, Washington is applying sanctions on Iran for its non existent nuclear weapons, even though the Pentagon has “officially” recognized that Israel is a nuclear power.