Orientul Mijlociu

Fada-Hossein Maleki, a senior Iranian legislator, said Saturday that although Iran and the P5+1 countries that are party to the Vienna talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear deal are close to reaching an agreement, a new round of talks is necessary to close the deal, the Iran Front Page news website reported. Maleki, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, said, “The United States has given a response that will make a new round of talks inevitable.”

Satellite photos reveal destruction at Scientific Studies and Research Center in Masyaf; firefighting planes try to bring blaze under control two days after attack

Satellite images obtained by The Times of Israel on Saturday showed heavily damaged structures at a Syrian weapons base near the northwestern city of Masyaf in a Thursday airstrike attributed to Israel.

Lapid calls for US to lay down a ‘credible military threat’ to force a better agreement; violence is ‘the language Iran understands,’ senior government official says

Mossad chief David Barnea will travel to Washington next week as part of Israel’s intensifying efforts to shape the emerging nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers, which in its current form both Barnea and senior government figures have lambasted as a bad deal.

Interestingly, none of the problems that nation-states might have with one another, problems such as border disputes, competition for sources of raw materials and markets, water-sharing disputes, irredentism, maltreatment of kith-and-kin, and bitter historic memories, exist between Iran and Israel.

Comparing only the weekly frequency of Friday prayers in the mosque and Sunday Mass in the church, the future is clear: 65% of practicing Catholics [in France] are over 50 years old. By contrast, 73% of practicing Muslims are under the age of 50.

Israel considers the presence of Iranian drones near its borders as a threat to its security, according to al-Modon.

Israel’s Alma Center for Research and Education reported in a tweet that technical members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), experts in Muhajer 4 and Ababil 3 suicide drones, may have arrived from Damascus airport to the military base in Hama where drones of this type are stored.

The Syrian Brotherhood said the Assad regime is by nature a criminal genocidal regime, that does not accept reform nor partnership, according to Baladi News.

The General Controller of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria, Dr. Mohammed Hikmat Walid, denied the group’s involvement in the “trap of reconciliation with the Assad regime.”

Meslet met with the Commander of the Military Police Force, Colonel Ahmed al-Kurdi, according to the SOC Media Department.

President of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC), Salem al-Meslet, is in Northern Syria to meet with civil and military actors.

The two sides stressed that there will no viable solution in Syria outside the UN resolutions, according to SOC Media Department.

The Political Parties and Movements Committee of the Syrian Opposition Coalition (SOC) visited the office of the Muslim Brotherhood in Istanbul to discuss the overall field, humanitarian, social and political situation in Syria, in addition to the political life in the future of Syria.

The circumstances of Abboud’s death were not disclosed, the regime only stating that he was killed in the Aleppo governorate, according to Baladi News.

A high-ranking regime army officer was killed on Tuesday, in mysterious circumstances, in Aleppo city.