CIA Says Nuclear Deal Won’t Contain Iran’s Threat To Middle East

According to a report published in Ettela'at newspaper on Tuesday, the hour-long gun battle erupted between the border guards over the Sikhsar (Sekhsar) water canal in the Keng district of the province.

The report said the Iranians wanted to dredge the Sikhsar, but Taliban forces tried to stop them, saying the canal belonged to Afghanistan.

The report added “heavy weapons” were used (video)and an Iranian bulldozer also caught fire during the skirmish.

There are conflicting reports about the clash in Afghan local media, but Taliban and Iranian officials have not confirmed the report.

Afghan sources said local farmers began digging a canal in the Sekhsar area and Iranian border guards crossed into Afghanistan to stop them.

A Taliban source said they responded to the incursion of Iranian border guards, which led to a gun fight during which a Taliban vehicle caught fire.

Similar clashes have taken place in the past along the border region as Iran and Afghanistan have for a long time been at loggerhead over the waterway.

An Israeli attack on the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday killed two civilians and left some material damage, Syrian state media had reported citing a military source.

The IRGC statement Tuesday evening local time said Col. Ehsan Karbalaipur and Morteza Saeednejad “were martyred” on the outskirts of Damascus by an Israeli missile attack. “Without a doubt the Zionist regime will pay for this crime,” the IRGC said.

Iran has been deeply involved in the Syrian civil war for more than a decade, deploying tens of thousands of its own forces as well as hired Afghan, Iraqi and Pakistani Shiite fighters, who helped save Bashar al-Assad’s regime, with help by Russia.

However, since 2017 Iran has been trying to set up a presence on the Israeli border possibly to create a new front to compliment what the Lebanese Hezbollah has in southern Lebanon against Israel.

The Israeli air force has conducted hundreds of strikes against Iranian bases in Syria since 2017, targeting mostly weapons transfers and warehouses.

The deputy head of Iran’s Construction and Development of Transportation Infrastructures Company, Abbas Khatibi, said on Tuesday that negotiations are underway for the construction of the 225-kolometer cross-border Khaf-Herat railway project that was halted following the Taliban takeover of the country.

"Due to the political developments in Afghanistan and the change of government in the country, the construction and completion of the project was stopped for a while”, Khatibi said, adding that "This project will somehow revive the Silk Road. It can connect the East to the West and play an important role in reducing export and transit costs”.

In December 2020, Iran and Afghanistan inaugurated their first shared railway network, linking Khaf with the Afghan town of Rozanak about 140 kilometers (90 miles) from the border, but the part of the railroad that was supposed to reach Herat was never completed.

A further 85 kilometers (53 miles) of railway is needed from Rozanak to be connected to Afghanistan's third largest city.

Once completed, the railway would help transport six million tons of goods and up to a million passengers annually running along the East-West transit corridor connecting China to Turkey and Europe via Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Iran.

The prominent human rights defender will return to the notorious Gharchak (Qarchak) Prison on Tuesday to continue her sentence.

In a five-minute trial late in January, she was sentenced to eight years in jail and 70 lashes by Branch 26 of the Revolutionary Court.

Taghi Rahmani, her husband, told Radio Farda that doctors believe she needs a longer period of recoverytime since surgeons cut through the breastbone and spread the ribs to access the heart in such operations, requiring the patient to rest for at least 6 to 12 weeks.

Mohammadi was arrested in November last year at the death anniversary of a victim shot dead by security forces during the November 2019 protests, reportedly while shopping.

In a letter from prison, Mohammadi said the court in its ruling had stated her nomination by the Norway branch of Amnesty International in March 2021 as evidence of her criminality.

She has been to jail several times over the past two decades. She was freed from Evin Prison in September 2020 after serving more than five years when she had no contact with her husband and children for long periods of time.

Persecution of human rights and political activists and executions have increased since hardliner president Ebrahim Raisi took office last August.

The announcement by the Revolutionary Guard, that needs to be verified independently, came as talks to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement known as JCPOA have paused in Vienna after last-minute snags.

Satellite images from Maxar Technologies seen by The Associated Press last week showed scorch marks at a launch pad at Imam Khomeini Spaceport in Iran's rural Semnan province on February 27.

A rocket stand on the pad appeared scorched and damaged, with vehicles surrounding it. An object, possibly part of the gantry, sat near it.

Successful launches typically don't damage rocket gantries because they are lowered prior to takeoff.

The United States has maintained that space launches by Iran could be a cover to develop intercontinental ballistic missiles that would be able to deliver nuclear warheads.

Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, has suffered several failed satellite launches in recent years due to technical issues.