Russia's top diplomat said excluding Tehran from the anti-terrorist coalition would be a mistake. Barring Iran from the anti-terrorist coalition on the basis of unsubstantiated allegations alone would not be sensible, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Sunday in his interview with the NTV channel.

"If there are suspicions, then let's consider them. But to exclude Iran from the anti-terrorist coalition on one's bare word is not sensible, and the United States are famous for being [not] sensible," Lavrov said.

The United States must admit that the Iran-supported Hezbollah, listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, is too fighting against the terrorists of Daesh, Lavrov said.

"Yes, [the US] relations with Iran are now much more troubled than they were under Barack Obama's presidency. But we speak for actions based on common sense. If President [Donald] Trump sees his main priority on the international arena in the fight against terrorism, then they have to admit that, say, in Syria, the main forces fighting against Daesh besides the Syrian army supported by the Russian Aerospace Forces are units of Hezbollah that have Iran's support," Lavrov said, adding that the United States will have to choose their priorities.

Speaking of Iran allegedly offering support to terrorist organizations, Lavrov underlined that the country is being monitored by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), an inter-governmental body combating terrorist financing. The minister reminded that on February 8, FATF presented another report regarding Iran's actions in fighting against financing of terrorism, and "the results were positive."

On February 3, the administration of US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions against 25 individuals and entities based in Iran, Lebanon, the United Arab Emirates and China for allegedly supporting Tehran's ballistic missile program after its latest medium-range ballistic missile test on January 29. The United States considers the test as a violation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and the UN Security Council resolution calling on Iran to refrain from nuclear-capable missile activity.

Internet retail giant Amazon may face sanctions after disclosing that it "processed and delivered" consumer products that are covered by US sanctions on Iran.

"We determined that, between January 2012 and December 2016, we processed and delivered orders of consumer products for certain individuals and entities located outside Iran covered by the Iran Threat Reduction and Syria Human Rights Act [ITRA] or other United States sanctions and export control laws," Amazon stated in a securities filing released on Thursday.

In 2012, former President Barack Obama enacted ITRA, which tightens trade restrictions on Iran, in an attempt to force the country to limit its nuclear activities. The measure imposes civil penalties on any US company found dealing with Iranian individuals or entities that appear on the sanctions list.

Some of these sanctions were lifted after a landmark multilateral agreement was reached with Iran in 2015, yet some remain in place. Last week, the US government beefed up the existing sanctions after Tehran conducted a ballistic missile test, blacklisting 13 more Iranian individuals and a dozen businesses.

As punishment for co-sponsoring a UN resolution against Israeli settlements on illegally-seized Palestinian territories, Jerusalem has downgraded its diplomatic relationship with Senegal and New Zealand. This week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Israel's ambassadors would not return to Dakar and Wellington, after they were recalled following the December 2016 passage of the resolution, according to the Times of Israel.


New Zealand's Foreign Minister Murray McCully wrote in a statement that the vote should "not come as a surprise to anyone," adding, "We have been very open about our view that the [Security Council] should be doing more to support the Middle East peace process and the position we adopted is totally in line with our long established policy on the Palestinian question."

While the move by Jerusalem is symbolic, and does not officially demote ties with the countries, Israel nonetheless canceled aid programs in Senegal. Despite this, Israel's official stance is that there has been no change in relations with the two countries, with the Foreign Ministry writing in a statement, that there has been "no decision to downgrade diplomatic relations with Senegal and New Zealand."

The hotly-disputed UN Security Council resolution stated that the presence of Israeli settlements on the West Bank has "no legal validity and constitutes a flagrant violation under international law and a major obstacle to the achievement of the two-State solution and a just, lasting and comprehensive peace." Senegal and New Zealand are two co-sponsors of the resolution, and Israel has no diplomatic relationship with additional sponsors, Venezuela and Malaysia.

North Korea on Sunday launched a missile in the direction of Japan, South Korean and Pentagon officials have said. Although the projectile landed into the sea before reaching Japan's economic zone, it alarmed the military amid Pyongyang's claim of developing an ICBM.

"The flight distance was about 500 kilometres, and South Korea and the United States are conducting a close-up analysis on additional information," South Korea's Office of Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement.

A Pentagon official has confirmed to Reuters they detected a missile launch and were assessing the type of the missile in question.

It was not immediately clear if the rocket was of a known type, or the alleged new intercontinental ballistic missile, which Kim Jong Un said Pyongyang was preparing to test in his New Year speech.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who spent hundreds of hours on the phone and in meetings with U.S. presidents and secretaries of state in the past 12 years, has tried unsuccessfully to reach out to President Donald Trump. Abbas and his aides are alarmed by the possibility of being sidelined at a time when the administration is embracing Israel's prime minister who heads to the White House next week. Here's a look at what's at stake for Abbas and Palestinian hopes for statehood.

Are the Palestinians being ignored?

In December, the Trump transition team refused to meet with Palestinian officials visiting Washington, putting them off until after the Jan. 20 inauguration, according to senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat, the main point man for official contacts with the United States. Other advisers say Abbas tried to arrange a phone call with Trump after the November election and again after the inauguration, but received no response to his requests. The White House did not respond to a January letter in which Abbas expressed concerns about possibly moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to contested Jerusalem.

In his first week in office, President Trump signed a temporary order banning immigration from seven Middle Eastern and North African countries, including Libya. According to Trump, the order's purpose was to keep America safe by banning groups of people who could not yet be properly vetted. Trump's critics called the ban unfair, mean-spirited, and racist, and one week later, federal judge James Robart ruled against it, putting into effect a restraining order on the ban. This Thursday, the U.S. court of appeals upheld that decision. Now, it appears that Trump will either sign a new executive order before, or perhaps in place of, appealing to the Supreme Court.

The question many are asking is this: Is Trump's executive order necessary, or over-the-top? A look at Libya may help answer that question.

Joining us again this week are James and JoAnne Moriarty. Continuing from our last discussion with the Moriartys and Libyan Sheik Khaled Tantoush, this week we will discuss the situation in Libya today. Specifically, the Moriartys will share what they know about the passports provided to terrorists in Libya from all over the planet. Just like Saudi Arabia in the 80s and 90s, Libya has become the one-stop-shop for jihadis who need new papers. And just as many terrorists have posed as refugees to get into Europe, many use Libyan passports to come to the U.S. Sometimes they're even welcomed with open arms.

Please support the Moriartys by visiting their website, Libyan War the Truth, where you can donate funds and buy their DVD, Escape from Al Qaeda.

Running Time: 01:57:31

Download: MP3

With the news cycle clearly far less interested in Trump's golf game or Abe's handicap, just before 8am local time (6pm ET), North Korea decided to provide CNN with some "exciting" news when it fired a ballistic missile into the sea off its east coast, South Korea's military said, in what was the latest test of Trump's resolve to retaliate to North Korean provocations.

This was the first missile launch by North Korea since Donald Trump - who has repeatedly threatened of taking retaliatory measures against such an act - took office. The launch also comes just one day after the US Air Force test-fired a Minuteman ICBM from California.

Cited by Reuters, a US official said that while the U.S. military had detected the missile launch and was assessing it, it was probably not an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The missile was launched from an area named Panghyon in North Korea's western region and flew about 500 kilometers (300 miles) before falling into the sea, the South's Office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said in statements. "Our assessment is that it is part of a show of force in response to the new U.S. administration's hardline position against the North," the office said.

Could Donald Trump be the president who brings high-speed rail to America?

The Obama administration spent nearly $10 billion to improve passenger rail service across the country. While it accomplished that goal to some degree, it did not build the faster trains passengers can ride in Europe, Japan and China.

Trains in other countries can travel 200 mph or more, but no train in the United States as yet travels faster than 150 mph. Most go much more slowly than that.

Trump has proposed a $1 trillion investment in U.S. infrastructure, and he has expressed interest in improving roads, bridges, airports and passenger trains.

The subject came up in a White House news conference Friday with Japan's prime minister, Shinzo Abe.

The situation with peace talks on Syria is currently "more favorable" for things to really get better in the war-torn country, Russia's FM Sergey Lavrov has said. Obama's team slowed down the process, but under Trump things might improve, according to the diplomat.

"We are currently in the situation... that is much more favorable to start working on a real settlement of the crisis. We were close to it in September last year, but the Americans failed to implement an agreement which had been coordinated with us earlier, which once more confirmed the Obama's administration inability to negotiate on many issues," Russia's foreign minister said in an interview with Russian television channel NTV.

"They took an agreement, and then couldn't do anything [within it]," Sergey Lavrov said, adding that "largely because of Obama's reluctance to have an argument with some countries in the region," a settlement through the UN's participation "turned to [result in] zero progress."

Newsflash: The Pentagon has been lying to you for years.

OK, OK, so this is hardly a "Stop the presses!"-type revelation.

After all, this is the same Pentagon that still can't account for trillions of dollars in "year end adjustments" on its books.

This is the same Pentagon that oversaw the theft of billions of dollars in cash that was sent to aid "reconstruction" efforts in Iraq following the 2003 invasion.

Heck, this is the same Pentagon that paid a British PR firm to make fake Al Qaeda videos for their black propaganda operations.

To appropriate an old joke: How can you tell if a Pentagon official is lying? His lips are moving.

So it shouldn't be a surprise to discover that years and years of official Pentagon airstrike data has just been proven to be a complete fabrication.

This latest revelation revolves around the database of airstrikes maintained by the US Air Forces Central Command. The "airpower summaries" provided by AFCENT are reassuringly thorough, precise, and to the point. They provide monthly breakdowns of the number and types of sorties flown in the US military's engagements in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, including the number of weapons released each month. Journalists, US allies, aid workers and even members of Congress rely on these numbers to make judgements about future military commitments and budgetary considerations, and this filters through to public perception of these conflicts and the US' role in them.