For weeks, Iranian officials have downplayed the fall of their ally in Syria. But an important general has offered a remarkably candid view of the blow to Iran, and its military’s prospects.

We were defeated and defeated very badly, we took a very big blow, and it’s been very difficult,” Esbati noted.

A leader of Japan's Yakuza crime syndicate who tried to sell Iran weapons-grade plutonium has pleaded guilty to charges of trafficking narcotics, weapons and nuclear material.

A Japanese Yakuza leader pleaded guilty in New York federal court to conspiring to traffic nuclear materials from Burma to other countries, prosecutors said. The Yakuza member Takeshi Ebisawa also pleaded guilty to international narcotics trafficking and weapons charges,