Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Iran) - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – June 20, 2025

Mark Armstrong — Sat, 21 Jun 2025 00:48:26 +0000

Greetings from Tyler,

Everyone’s mind is on the war in the Middle East. Civilians have been killed as Iran fires off rockets indiscriminately into civilian enclaves. They apparently are firing rockets toward Tel Aviv not knowing where they’ll land, and you hear the reports, civilians killed.

Donald Trump is talking tough, like the U. S. may enter the war against Iran. We might already have. Nobody rightly knows the situation with the Ayatollah. Apparently they’ve hit places where they thought he was hiding. At this writing who knows whether we’ll be hearing any more from him? It looks like sheer defiance, and there are concerns about the other Arab states. They’ve all been talking behind the scenes and we don’t know what’s being said.

The other Gulf states will be seen to be complicit if they don’t do something. We’ve been watching videos that reveal that some of the leaders in the Arab world have the highest regard for our President. Whether that means they can sit on their hands and do nothing… You can only imagine the urgency assuming they’re still in touch with Iran.

Over the decades it’s been shown that the Iranians’ top leadership will engage in deceit. I’m not calling them liars, but deceiving the enemy has a long history. It’s not uncommon in times of war. These guys are acting like they can blow up the world. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that. Trump has extended the olive branch. His only demand is they not enrich uranium, and put up with the humiliation of having inspectors reporting on facilities. The maintenance of pride is a big deal in that part of the world. Go figure.

If Israel comes out of this intact and is seen to have won the war it might not sit well with the other Islamic nations. None of those kingdoms want to see a victorious Israel over a Muslim nation. Hopefully this thing doesn’t spread. Trump is hoping for a deal, but when he says it’s too late, it is.

The militant groups Iran was sponsoring have already been dealt huge blows ever since October 7, 2023. What those imbeciles did is unspeakable, and you can only imagine the outrage that swept Israel. The Arab countries don’t want Israel seen as triumphant over their ally.

Trump says the U. S. could get involved. The media is already speculating that the bunker busting bombs that are being deployed against the Ayatollah’s hiding places are U. S. bombs. Trump is non-committal when asked if the U. S. will enter the war. Maybe next week, we’ll still be saying maybe. Let’s hope his strategy succeeds and some nuclear bombs don’t start wrecking everything. The FBI is currently monitoring the potential for Iranian sleeper cells in the U. S.

Against this backdrop, the war in Ukraine has almost slipped our consciousness. We’ve got that on the side burner, and are trying to get it stopped. The President is trying everything, but it may have gone too far. Once one side gets a taste of victory, all bets are off.

Mark

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Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – September 23, 2022

Mark Armstrong — Fri, 23 Sep 2022 22:39:58 +0000

Greetings from Tyler,

The world watched this week as Queen Elizabeth was laid to rest. The dignity with which all this played out was impressive. When they showed the line to Westminster Abbey where people came to pay their final respects, I couldn’t help thinking what that line would be like in a heathen nation. There wouldn’t be a line. People would be crammed and jammed around the building. There would be trampling, suffocation and a slew of subsequent funerals.

They’ve blacked out the video for whatever reason, you know. The part where the body of the Ayatollah is jostled out of the coffin and nearly falls off the truck carrying it? You can’t see that, but allow me to quote from the L. A. Times. “TEHRAN — Millions of frenzied mourners carried away with grief tore the white shroud from the body of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, toppling his half-naked corpse to the ground, before the Iranian leader was buried today…” (the scene was so gruesome it had to be blacked out). Jumping ahead, “Eight people were killed Monday in the packed square, some suffocating and others trampled to death. About 500 mourners were injured or collapsed in temperatures of 104.”

Contrast that with the Queen’s funeral. There’s no comparison. It’s a shame that the younger generation wasn’t old enough to witness it. We have to show them. It may not be necessary knowledge for salvation, but it is a recognition that explains what is playing out here below. The polite cultural habits of Israelite nations are quite a contrast from the rest of the world. That’s a hated comparison especially for those who don’t believe in the authenticity of the Bible or the need to keep the Laws of God. If you consult the “experts” it’s a dangerous point of view.

Media is hard at work trying to convince us that we’re on our own. WE have to save the planet by turning our backs on God’s abundant blessings and living by the mandates of fools. Can you remember a time when freedom meant breaking God’s Laws? Our take is that freedom comes from obeying them. Freedom is experienced within those Laws, not in defiance of them.

It’s a little worrying to see our own government declare war on the citizens who love the country and want to retain civility. If you look around the world, maybe at our own southern hemisphere you know why so many are crossing the border, illegally. The culture, or lack of it, led to an environment they want to escape. We have paved streets and underground infrastructure. There’s no need to dramatize the situation where they come from, it’s available on every device. What will the importation of millions do to the United States? The evidence is already in, whether it’s accepted or not. Is it racism to acknowledge the reality of the situation?

Wherever you look, we’re being asked to accept false realities. Europe would not be in the vulnerable position they’re in if not for trying to go green. We wouldn’t be paying through the nose for things we formerly took for granted, if not for all the “experts” that have decided man can alter the weather. On that basis, electric cars are being preached as the future of personal transportation. It used to be carpooling and public transportation, but these new cars can do everything but fly, and they’re pushing them hard despite the impracticality. We hate to tell you what you already know, but batteries have a life span.

It turns out that solar panels and battery storage systems are not quite as advertised. Consider the Pink company, formerly Power Home Solar of North Carolina. Lawsuits are flying and customers are furious. It turns out that these energy devices they were sold are not performing as advertised. Imagine that! These systems were supposed to free customers from high monthly energy bills. Now they’ve still got high energy bills from the electric company and they’re on the hook for payments to the alternative energy company for the equipment, despite it being subsidized. This green nonsense is not pretty, especially for homeowners who bought into the hype.

The U. S. better start transitioning back to the values of its foundation, including its acknowledgment of God and His Divine power, or it will all be lost.

Mark

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South Korea as virus kills at least 8 in Iran

Travis Fedschun | Fox News — Sun, 23 Feb 2020 23:02:58 +0000

The number of novel coronavirus cases in Italy and South Korea leaped upward on Sunday, spurring authorities to take new steps in an effort to fight a soaring viral outbreak now blamed for at least eight deaths in Iran.

Italian authorities announced they were shutting down carnival events in Venice as at least 133 people have been reported to have been infected with COVID-19 in the country. Nearly all of Italy’s cases are clustered in the north, including in the northeast Veneto region, which includes Venice.

The dozens of newly confirmed cases have caused all schools and universities to be closed not only in Milan, but in the entire region of Lombardy, for an indefinite period of time as movie theaters, concerts and public gatherings have also been banned.

TRUMP FURIOUS AMERICANS INFECTED WITH CORONAVIRUS FLEW BACK TO US WITHOUT HIS PERMISSION: REPORT

Italy’s first cases — that of a married Chinese couple who were on vacation in Rome — surfaced in early February. To date, two deaths have been reported in the country while 27 are reported to be in intensive care as of Sunday, officials told Fox News.

People wearing sanitary masks walk past the Duomo gothic cathedral in Milan, Italy, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Italian health officials have said they have not found the “ground zero” patient who may be behind the outbreak in the northern part of the country. A man who had traveled to China and was thought to have sickened another 38-year-old man in the northern part of the country has tested negative, health officials said.

Among the “extraordinary measures” announced by Italian officials include effectively quarantining about a dozen towns in the northern regions of Lombardy and Veneto, where some 50,000 people live, according to the BBC.

“The contagiousness of this virus is very strong and pretty virulent,” Lombardy’s health chief Giulio Gallera said Sunday.

Bishops in several dioceses in northern Italy issued directives Sunday that holy water fonts be kept empty, that communion wafers be placed in the hands of the faithful and not directly into their mouths by priests celebrating Mass and that congregants refrain from shaking hands or exchanging kisses during the symbolic Sign of the Peace ritual, according to the Associated Press.

In this file photo taken on Friday, Feb. 21, 2020, Ambulance cars are parked while medics check passengers where a passenger was identified with suspected coronavirus after arriving from Kyiv at Kievsky rail station in Moscow, Russia. (Denis Voronin, Moscow News Agency photo via AP)

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, a Vatican official whose siblings live in one of the hardest-hit towns, Codogno, declined to dramatize the measures.

“It’s obvious that we need to use all necessary prudence” to avoid spreading the virus among the faithful, he said.

SACRAMENTO CONFIRMS FIRST CORONAVIRUS CASE IN PATIENT WHO TRAVELED TO CHINA

South Korean President Moon Jae-in said Sunday that he was putting his country on its highest alert for infectious diseases and ordered officials to take “unprecedented, powerful” steps to fight the soaring viral outbreak that has infected more than 600 people in the country in the past few days.

Moon said his government had decided to increase its anti-virus alert level by one notch to “Red,” the highest level that allows authorities to order the temporary closure of schools and reduce the operation of public transportation and flights to and from South Korea.

The South Korean leader said that the outbreak “has reached a crucial watershed,” and that the next few days will be “critical.”

Workers wearing protective gear spray disinfectant as a precaution against the COVID-19 coronavirus in a local market in Daegu, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. (Im Hwa-young/Yonhap via AP)

South Korea announced 169 more cases of the new virus, bringing the country’s total to 602. The country also reported three more fatalities, raising its death toll to six.

Ambulances carrying patients infected with the novel coronavirus arrive at a hospital in Daegu, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. (Lim Hwa-young/Yonhap via AP)

While the number of patients worldwide is increasing, some virus clusters have shown no link to China and experts are struggling to trace where those clusters started. The World Health Organization said Saturday that at least 18 confirmed cases have been reported in Iran.

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Iran’s health ministry said Sunday that at least eight people have died in that country’s outbreak, which was first reported on Wednesday and centered mostly on the city of Qom.

Iran’s health ministry raised Sunday the death toll from the new virus to 8 people in the country, amid concerns that clusters there, as well as in Italy and South Korea, could signal a serious new stage in its global spread. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

While WHO has not yet said where the Iran cases may have originated, the country’s health minister, Saeed Namaki, told state TV that officials were nearly certain the virus came from China to Qom in central Iran. Among those who’ve died from the virus was a merchant who regularly shuttled between the two countries using indirect flights in recent weeks, after Iran stopped direct passenger flights to China, according to Namaki.

He did not say when the merchant had returned from China to Iran nor what steps health officials had taken to quarantine and check on those he’d come into contact with.

Health officials said they would help make face-masks and sanitizers available for Iranians, amid concerns that inventory was running low in the capital’s pharmacies.

A poster detailing precautions to take against the coronavirus is seen at a bus station in Goyang, South Korea, Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Iranians also went to the polls on Friday for nationwide parliamentary elections, with many voters wearing masks and stocking up on hand sanitizer. Iran’s interior ministry on Sunday said voter turnout in last week’s parliamentary elections stood at 42.57 percent, the lowest ever since the country’s 1979 revolution that ushered in a Shiite clerical government to power.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei claimed that Iran’s enemies tried to discourage people from voting by exaggerating the threat of the virus, according to Reuters.

“This negative propaganda about the virus began a couple of months ago and grew larger ahead of the election,” said Khamenei, according to his official website Khamenei.ir. “Their media did not miss the tiniest opportunity for dissuading Iranian voters and resorting to the excuse of disease and the virus.”

Fox News’ Courtney Walsh in Rome and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Travis Fedschun is a reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @travfed

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/health/coronavirus-infections-italy-south-korea-iran-outbreak-europe-spread

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TV report: Israel silent as Iran hit by computer virus more violent than Stuxnet

Times of Israel staff — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 10:08:42 +0000

Tehran strategic networks attacked, Hadashot TV says, hours after Israel revealed it tipped off Denmark about Iran murder plot, and days after Rouhani’s phone was found bugged.

In this Feb. 3, 2007 file photo, an Iranian technician works at the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the city of Isfahan 255 miles (410 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

Iranian infrastructure and strategic networks have come under attack in the last few days by a computer virus similar to Stuxnet but “more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated,” and Israeli officials are refusing to discuss what role, if any, they may have had in the operation, an Israeli TV report said Wednesday.

The report came hours after Israel said its Mossad intelligence agency had thwarted an Iranian murder plot in Denmark, and two days after Iran acknowledged that President Hassan Rouhani’s mobile phone had been bugged. It also follows a string of Israeli intelligence coups against Iran, including the extraction from Tehran in January by the Mossad of the contents of a vast archive documenting Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and the detailing by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN in September of other alleged Iranian nuclear and missile assets inside Iran, in Syria and in Lebanon.

“Remember Stuxnet, the virus that penetrated the computers of the Iranian nuclear industry?” the report on Israel’s Hadashot news asked. Iran “has admitted in the past few days that it is again facing a similar attack, from a more violent, more advanced and more sophisticated virus than before, that has hit infrastructure and strategic networks.”

The Iranians, the TV report went on, are “not admitting, of course, how much damage has been caused.”

On Sunday, Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran’s civil defense agency, said Tehran had neutralized a new version of Stuxnet, Reuters reported.“Recently we discovered a new generation of Stuxnet which consisted of several parts … and was trying to enter our systems,” Jalali said.

The Stuxnet virus was uncovered some eight years ago, and was widely reported to have been developed together by US and Israeli intelligence. It penetrated Iran’s rogue nuclear program, taking control and sabotaging parts of its enrichment processes by speeding up its centrifuges.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu delivers a speech on an archive brought out of Iran by the Mossad that documents Iran’s nuclear program, at the Defense Ministry in Tel Aviv on April 30, 2018. (AFP/Jack Guez)

Netanyahu is adamant that the Iranian regime remains determined to attain a nuclear weapons arsenal, and has bitterly opposed the P5+1 powers’ 2015 deal with Iran. US President Donald Trump, with whom Netanyahu is closely allied, withdrew from the accord in May.

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Referring to Stuxnet, Wednesday’s TV report noted that “in the past, the US and Israel have been alleged to have worked together on operations.” Trying to establish whether Israel had any role in the latest cyberattack, the TV report said: “We’ve tried to clarify here. They’re refusing to comment.”

The TV report noted that “behind the scenes lately, the Mossad,” under its director Yossi Cohen, has been “fighting a real shadow war.”

Without attributing responsibility to the Mossad, the report mentioned the tapping of Rouhani’s phone, noting that the Iranians “had to switch it for an encrypted model because they understand that someone has been listening to him for days and weeks.”

On Sunday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei urged intensified efforts to counter enemy “infiltration,” Reuters said.

In a speech to officials in charge of cyber defense, Khamenei said: “In the face of the enemy’s complex practices, our civil defense should… confront infiltration through scientific, accurate, and up-to-date… action,” the report said, quoting Iranian state TV.

Yossi Cohen, the head of the Mossad, is seen in a committee meeting at the Israeli parliament on December 8, 2015. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90

Read: Mutually assured cyber destruction?

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. (Screen capture: Khamenei.ir)

Earlier Wednesday, Israeli officials said the Mossad provided its Danish counterpart with information concerning an alleged plot by Tehran to assassinate three Iranian opposition figures living in the Scandinavian country. According to the officials, the Mossad gave Denmark information about a plot to kill three Iranians suspected of belonging to the anti-regime Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz.

The intelligence reportedly provided by the Mossad prompted the arrest of a Norwegian national of Iranian origin earlier this month. Denmark on Tuesday recalled its ambassador to Iran over the incident.

“What Iran hides, Israel will find,” Netanyahu declared in his September UN speech.

Agencies contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/tv-report-israel-silent-as-iran-hit-by-computer-virus-more-violent-than-stuxnet/

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The post TV report: Israel silent as Iran hit by computer virus more violent than Stuxnet first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Lieberman to Saudi media: If Iran attacks Tel Aviv, Israel will attack Tehran

i24 news [Israel] — Thu, 26 Apr 2018 02:59:45 +0000

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman (R) and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif

AFP

Iran’s Supreme Leader says Arab nations that befriend Israel ‘bring misery to Muslims’

Israel’s defense minister Avigdor Liberman issued a stark threat to Iran through Saudi Arabia’s Elaph news outlet on Thursday, warning the Islamic regime that its days are numbered and asserting that if it were to attack Tel Aviv, Israel would retaliate with an attack against Tehran.

“These are the final days of the Iranian regime,” Liberman said during an interview with the London-based news portal. “Israel doesn’t want war…but if Iran attacks Tel Aviv, we will hit Tehran”.

“Every outpost in which we see Iran positioning militarily in Syria, we will destroy, and we will not allow this no matter what the price,” he added.

Liberman’s interview with the Saudi-owned outlet came as tensions brew between Iran and its main rivals Israel and Saudi Arabia on multiple fronts, with analysts warning that the Middle East power players could be entering an escalatory spiral of proxy fights that threatens to destabilize the entire region.

While Saudi Arabia and Israel have no formal diplomatic relations, behind the scenes improvements in their ties have accelerated in recent years over a multitude of shared interests — prime among them stemming Iran’s growing influence in the region.

Both countries see Iran as their biggest outside threat and the United States as their key ally, and both see danger from armed Islamist extremists.

Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman watching military drills in the kingdom’s eastern region fo Dhahran in a handout picture provided by the palace on April 16, 2018

BANDAR AL-JALOUD (Saudi Royal Palace/AFP)

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman has presented Shiite-dominated Iran as seeking control of the whole region and earlier this month gave unprecedented recognition to Israel’s “right” to existwhile extolling the possibility of future cooperation with the Jewish state.

The powerful Crown Prince previously warned that if Iran were to ever develop a nuclear bomb his country would quickly follow suit and said that Saudi Arabia was not prepared to accept any of the risks posed by the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

Israel has expressed similar concerns over the accord, the fate of which is to be decided by US President Donald Trump in May, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urging Washington to either “fix it or nix it.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Thursday lambasted Arab nations who maintain friendly ties with Israel, saying that they “bring misery to Muslims.”

“Friendship with the unbelievers brings misery to Muslims, like the friendship some Muslim states have with the Zionist regime, exchanging kind words and establishing economic or political relations,” Khamenei wrote in a tweet.

In this picture released by the office of the Iranian supreme leader on Wednesday, March 21, 2018, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to his supporters during his visit to Mashhad, 900 km (540 miles) east of Tehran, Iran

Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP

He called on Muslims to unite against American “bullying”, slamming countries for aligning with the United States without explicitly naming them.

“Unwise and reactionary governments of certain countries have entered into wars against other countries,” Khamenei said. “Look at the calamity Yemenis are afflicted with! Their wedding celebrations turn into mourning ceremonies: People are bombarded on streets, at bazaars and mosques.”

Iran and Saudi Arabia are backing opposite sides of a war raging in Yemen.

Liberman is currently in Washington D.C. where he is set to meet his US counterpart, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, and US National Security Adviser John Bolton, with Iran and Syria expected to dominate the security chiefs’ talks.

Liberman’s unusually explicit threat published in Elaph followed an April 9 air strike on the Iran-operated T-4 airbase in Syria, which killed 14 people including seven Iranian personnel.

Israel did not claim responsibility, but the raid was widely seen as its first direct attack on Iranian assets and a worrying sign of how Syria’s seven-year conflict could escalate into a wider regional war.

Iran has vowed on several occasions to retaliate for the deadly strike on its forces.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman at a local government conference in Tel Aviv on Wednesday February 14 2018.

Ariel Harmoni/Ministry of Defense

Liberman’s interview, while rare, is not the first time a senior Israeli official has taken to Elaph — which runs interviews with Israeli officials for the Arabic-speaking word — to warn of the Iranian threat.

Israel Defense Force (IDF) chief-of-staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot became the first senior Israeli military official to be interviewed by the Saudi-owned publication in January 2016, telling Elaph that there is a “complete consensus” between Israel and Saudi Arabia on the issue of mutual arch-rival Iran, and that Jerusalem is ready to share intelligence with one of the world’s most powerful Muslim states.

Israeli Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz was interviewed by Elaph a month later, during which he threatened to send Iran’s Lebanese proxy Hezbollah “back to the stone age” if they dared to fire missiles at Israel.

Source: https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/israel/diplomacy-defense/173255-180426-liberman-to-saudi-media-if-iran-attacks-tel-aviv-israel-will-attack-tehran

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Liberman, Netanyahu to Iran: Israel has never been more prepared to fight

i24 news[Israel] — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 05:36:56 +0000

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, speaks with Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman during a special cabinet meeting to mark Jerusalem Day in Ein Lavan, on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Thursday, June 2, 2016. (Abir Sultan/Pool Photo via AP) Israel celebrated its 70th Independence Day this week, where Iran was mentioned several times in speeches

Following Friday’s threat by Iranian general Hossein Salami, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu fired back at Iran, saying Israel has never been more ready to defend itself.

Asked about the Iranian threats by reporters on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman said Israel was fully prepared for a “multi-arena” conflict, referring to fire from both Gaza and Lebanon.

“We have been hearing these threats for many years now, and I am suggesting that all those on the northern border [in Lebanon] really think hard about what they do — they really should not test the IDF or the State of Israel,” Liberman said in response to Salami’s threat that Israel’s air bases are within reach.

“We are ready for a multi-arena scenario and I don’t remember a time of such preparedness and readiness, both in the army and among the people of Israel,” the defense minister said as he was touring the Gaza border amid Friday’s protests in the Strip.

Salami, the vice commander of Iran’s revolutionary guards, issued a harshly-worded threat to Israel on Friday, warning that the Jewish State’s air bases were “within reach” for Iranian missiles and once they strike the only escape will be the sea.

In this picture released by an official website of the office of the Iranian supreme leader on Wednesday, May 20, 2015, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, arrives at a graduation ceremony of the Revolutionary Guard’s officers, while deputy comm (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

“Israel: Don’t trust in your airbases; they’re within reach,” Salami wrote on Twitter.

“Don’t have hope in US and UK; when they arrive, you’re not there… Smallest goal will be your existence.You can’t bear. When you escape, you’ll have no way but to the sea,” he added.

Tensions between arch-foes Israel and Iran have reached a crescendo in recent weeks since Israel’s pre-dawn attack on an Iranian-operated T-4 (Tayfur) airbase that killed 14 people, reportedly including 7 Iranian personnel.

In an earlier tweet on Friday, Salami wrote: “Hands are on the trigger and missiles are ready and will be launched at any moment that enemy has a sinister plot… North and west of Israel are at the intersection of fire; you will not escape. You live in the dragon’s mouth.”

Prime Minister Netanyahu fired back at the Iranian general’s threats, saying the IDF will fight whoever tries to harm the Jewish state.

“We hear the threats from Iran. The IDF and the security forces are ready for any development. We will fight whoever tries to harm us. We will not shy away from the price and we will exact a price from those who want to hurt us. The IDF is ready for the job and the people will stand strong.”

Israel celebrated its 70th Independence Day this week, where Iran was mentioned several times in speeches by President Reuven Rivlin and Netanyahu.

At a reception for ambassadors, diplomats and military attaches from around the world at Rivlin’s residence in Jerusalem on Thursday, the President stated that Iran continues to be a threat to the stability of the region.

“Of course there are others who do not want peace. The Iranian regime – not the Iranian people – continues to support terror and hatred and to endanger world’s security. This is a challenge for the whole world, and the whole world must face it together. We all must do everything we can to stop these evil regime.”

Netanyahu appealed to the foreign diplomats by calling Iran an enemy of the entire international community.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at Israel’s 70th Independence Day ceremony in Jerusalem, April 18, 2018 i24NEWS

“There are two things that you can do to help Israel celebrate this great Independence Day. The first thing is – speak out against Iran. Iran is the enemy of us all – of Israel and the Arab world. It openly speaks about liquidating Israel in the 21st century.”

Netanyahu’s comments came a day before the Iranian general threatened to annihilate Israel.

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Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman says Israel has a ‘right’ to homeland

Deutsche Welle — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 04:30:37 +0000

Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader has explicitly acknowledged Israel’s right to its own homeland, a first for a senior official from the kingdom. However, he also made a bizarre comparison between Hitler and Iran’s leader.

Israel has a “right” to a homeland alongside the Palestinians, Saudi Arabia’s influential crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, said on Monday in an interview with US magazine The Atlantic.

Asked whether the “Jewish people have a right to a nation-state in at least part of their ancestral homeland,” bin Salman said: “I believe the Palestinians and the Israelis have the right to have their own land.”

Riyadh has sponsored an initiative supporting a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 2002, but Salman is the first senior official to explicitly acknowledge Israel’s right to any territory in the region.

The 32-year-old prince, who is widely seen as Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader and a reformer, added that “we have to have a peace agreement [between Palestinians and Israelis] to assure the stability for everyone.”

The German Israeli Society welcomed what it described as the “very reasonable position” taken by the Crown Prince. “Israel would, of course, have a strong partner on its side with Saudi Arabia, if indeed this is the overall political view and not only that of the Crown Prince,” society president Hellmut Königshaus told Germany’s Deutschlandfunk radio station. However, Königshaus added a note of caution. “He is just one person, and Saudi society has still not come that far.”

Warming up to each other

Saudi Arabia does not officially recognize Israel and has said any normalization of relations requires Israel to withdraw its claim to Palestinian territory seized during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

But the crown prince’s acknowledgment marks the latest sign that diplomatic ties between Riyadh and Tel Aviv are growing closer amid their common opposition to regional rival Iran.

Saudi Arabia opened its airspace in March for the first time to a commercial flight to Israel and in November an Israeli Cabinet member confirmed speculation of back-channel communication between the two countries when he admitted that he had secret contacts in Riyadh.

On one condition

Speaking with The Atlantic, bin Salman said he had no “religious objection” to Israelis and Palestinians living together in any permanent settlement.

But any settlement with Israel would, he added, need to ensure protection for the main Islamic holy site in Jerusalem, the Al-Aqsa mosque.

The crown prince, who is in line to succeed his 82-year-old father, King Salman, said: “This is what we have. We don’t have any objection against any other people.”

‘Hitler of the Middle East’

Bizarrely, Salman went on to compare Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to German dictator Adolf Hitler, going so far as to say Khamenei was worse.

“I believe that the Iranian supreme leader makes Hitler look good,” said bin Salman. “Really?” the interviewer exclaimed, before allowing bin Salman to continue.

“Hitler tried to conquer Europe. This is bad,” said bin Salman. He added: “The supreme leader is trying to conquer the world. He believes he owns the world. They are both evil guys. He is the Hitler of the Middle East.”

Each evening at 1830 UTC, DW’s editors send out a selection of the day’s hard news and quality feature journalism. You can sign up to receive it directly here.

Source: http://www.dw.com/en/saudi-crown-prince-mohammed-bin-salman-says-israel-has-right-to-homeland/a-43229551

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Netanyahu tells Macron to take Trump seriously, fix Iran deal

Michael Wilner - The Jerusalem Post — Sun, 14 Jan 2018 04:54:37 +0000

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Paris. (photo credit: PHILIPPE WOJAZER / REUTERS)

PARIS – A day after President Donald Trump set an ultimatum to fix “disastrous flaws” in a deal curbing Iran’s nuclear program, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told French President Emmanuel Macron in a phone call that “Trump’s remarks should be taken seriously, and whoever wants to keep the nuclear deal would be wise to fix it.”

According to a statement from Netanyahu’s office, he also told Macron the free world should “strongly condemn the five crimes of the Iranian regime,” listing “efforts to obtain nuclear weapons, developing ballistic missiles against UN Security Council resolutions, supporting terror, regional aggression,” and “the cruel repression of Iranian citizens.”

A senior US administration official said that Trump would not sign any more such waivers going forward – starting a 120-day clock for negotiations over what the White House describes as a supplemental accord with Europe that will impose new terms on Iran over its future nuclear work.

Russia – one of the parties to the Iran pact alongside the United States, China, France, Britain, Germany and the European Union – called Trump’s comments “extremely negative.”

While approving the waiver on US sanctions related to the nuclear deal, Washington announced other sanctions against 14 Iranian entities and people, including judiciary head Ayatollah Sadeq Larijani, a close ally of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

Iran said on Saturday it would retaliate against new sanctions imposed by the United States Describing sanctions against Larijani as “hostile action,” Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the move “crossed all red lines of conduct in the international community and is a violation of international law and will surely be answered by a serious reaction of the Islamic Republic,” state media reported.

It did not specify what any retaliation might involve.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had earlier said on Twitter that the deal was “not renegotiable” and that Trump’s move “amounts to desperate attempts to undermine a solid multilateral agreement.”

Trump’s move creates a deadline on talks over a nuclear deal the European Union says is working, and that it will not touch. Should Trump fail to issue future waivers, European entities and businesses will bear the brunt of secondary sanctions, creating a crisis in US-EU relations, in addition to whatever actions Tehran might take in response.

The senior official said that Trump seeks a multilateral deal negotiated without Iran at the table, but with European nations willing to set “triggers” for additional sanctions on Tehran upon the expiration of critical provisions of the 2015 accord.

The president is seeking an agreement that “never expires,” and that “denies Iran all paths to a nuclear weapon forever – not for 10 years or any other shorter period of time,” the senior official said, referring to controversial “sunset” clauses within the nuclear accord.

“I do want to stress also that this would not entail direct negotiations with the Iranians, this would be something the United States works out with our European partners only,” the official added. “It would be an agreement amongst the United States and our European partners to reimpose multilateral sanctions should the Iranians surpass the new triggers that we would lay out.”

Trump had come under heavy pressure from European allies to issue the sanctions waiver.

The US administration also said it hopes for an amendment to congressional legislation that imposes triggers on Iran of its own – and that for the first time characterizes Tehran’s ballistic missile program as “inseparable” from its nuclear work, bringing with it harsh sanctions. The nuclear deal does not address Iran’s ballistic missile program.

The US Treasury Department also announced 14 new sanctions designations on Iran, including against entities in its aviation sector, the Revolutionary Guards Corps cyber units and the head of Iran’s judiciary.

Trump in October chose not to certify the country’s compliance and warned he might ultimately terminate the accord. He accused Iran of “not living up to the spirit” of the agreement even though the International Atomic Energy Agency says Tehran is complying.

In a written statement, Trump said the following: “Today, I am waiving the application of certain nuclear sanctions, but only in order to secure our European allies’ agreement to fix the terrible flaws of the Iran nuclear deal. This is a last chance. In the absence of such an agreement, the United States will not again waive sanctions in order to stay in the Iran nuclear deal. And if at any time I judge that such an agreement is not within reach, I will withdraw from the deal immediately.

“No one should doubt my word. I said I would not certify the nuclear deal – and I did not. I will also follow through on this pledge. I hereby call on key European countries to join with the United States in fixing significant flaws in the deal, countering Iranian aggression, and supporting the Iranian people. If other nations fail to act during this time, I will terminate our deal with Iran. Those who, for whatever reason, choose not to work with us will be siding with the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions, and against the people of Iran and the peaceful nations of the world.”

Reuters contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Netanyahu-tells-Macron-to-take-Trump-seriously-fix-Iran-deal-534656

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