State TV reported that the missile has solid fuel and a range of 1450km.

It is called the Khaibar-buster, a reference to a Jewish castle overrun by Muslim warriors in the early days of Islam.

It said the missile has high accuracy, is manufactured completely domestically, and can defeat missile shield systems. The information has not been independently verified.

Israel’s closest point to Iran is some 1000km away.

The report comes as negotiations continue in Vienna to revive Tehran’s tattered nuclear deal with world powers. Iran, which has long said it does not seek nuclear weapons and insists its missile program is only a deterrent.

Earlier in January Iran tested an engine for a solid-fuel rocket designed to launch satellites.

Source:  https://au.news.yahoo.com/iran-unveils-long-range-missile-092200642.html

The post Iran unveils new long-range missile first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

–They have mostly avoided open clashes, but their ongoing campaigns have been punctuated by high-profile attacks and assassinations.

After the US unilaterally withdrew from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, tensions between Washington and Tehran have steadily risen.

For leaders in Israel — one of the US’s closest partners and Iran’s biggest foes — those tensions have confirmed their misgivings about the deal and about Iran, and they’ve gone on the warpath.

Iran has worked on nuclear technology for decades. The US has long suspected Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as cover for developing weapons. That suspicion is also held by the Israelis, who have been ensnared in a potentially existential struggle with Tehran since the 1979 Iranian revolution.

A nuclear weapon, or the ability to produce one quickly, would offer Tehran some much-needed security against its real and perceived adversaries. But Iran has vowed to destroy Israel, and Israel fears a nuclear weapon would allow Tehran to back up its provocative talk.
While much of that talk may be for propaganda purposes, Iran has shown the lengths it will go and pain it will endure in order to attack US, Western, and Israeli targets directly or through proxies, giving some weight to its nuclear threats.

To counter that threat, Israeli military and intelligence services have conducted a shadowy covert-action campaign of espionage, sabotage, and assassinations against Iran’s nuclear facilities and the people running them.

Israel has also shown that it will go to great lengths to ensure its security, and Tel Aviv is willing to pursue other, more dramatic courses of action in response to threats from Iran.

“We have a duty to be brave and responsible for the fate of our children and grandchildren. We have used force against our enemies in the past, and we are convinced that in extreme situations, there is a need to act using military means,” Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Alon Schuster said in a recent interview.

Indeed, Israel has long followed a no-holds-barred strategy in which the threat justifies the means. Its shadowy campaign against the Iranian nuclear programs uses complementary diplomatic, military, and intelligence tactics.

While Israel’s military has been heavily involved in that campaign, Mossad, Israel’s main intelligence service, has landed many of the blows against Iran itself.

According to a recent report by The Jewish Chronicle, which didn’t name or describe its sources, Mossad successfully infiltrated the Iranian supply chain and used the opportunity to sell Tehran faulty materials that caused fires at the Natanz nuclear-enrichment facility in July 2020.

The report also said Israeli intelligence officers recruited Iranian nuclear scientists who conducted sabotage at Natanz in April 2021 before being smuggled out of the country. Mossad is said to have used an unmanned aerial vehicle to attack the Iran Centrifuge Technology Company, a factory making centrifuges crucial for producing weapons-grade uranium.

Facilities are easier to replace than expert knowledge, and Mossad has also gone after the hard-to-acquire know-how necessary for a nuclear-weapons capability by killing Iranian scientists working on the nuclear program.

Attacks against Iranian scientists have become more brazen. The November 2020 assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, reportedly with a remote-controlled machine gun using advanced artificial-intelligence technology, on a highway in Iran is something straight out of a Hollywood movie.

Israel’s manhunting effort likely draws on experience going back to Israel’s creation in 1948. In the years that followed, Israelis hunted down numerous ex-Nazis, including Holocaust architect Adolf Eichmann. Following the 1972 killing of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics by Palestinian terrorists, Mossad conducted a similar campaign.

But Tel Aviv understands that this is a stalling tactic that can only frustrate Tehran’s efforts and not permanently undo the work its done in pursuit of nuclear technology.

In addition to those clandestine actions, the Israeli Defense Forces has been preparing and presenting Israeli policymakers with military options to take out targets associated with Iran’s nuclear program. This is standard planning for any military, and the IDF has received nearly $3 billion in additional funds to do it.

Israel would also have to take into account second- and third-order effects of such strikes, such as how Iranian proxies, including Hamas and Hezbollah, would react. Those groups, based in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon, respectively, would be more likely to try to attack Israel.

Israeli officials are lobbying other countries to take a stronger stance against Iran while refraining from directly discussing what actions they’ve taken.

“We hope the whole world will be mobilized for the mission. For that, we’ve allocated a significant sum to increase our readiness. What hit Natanz? I can’t say,” Schuster, the deputy defense minister, said last month.

As Iran remains committed to its nuclear program, Israel is sure to continue its shadowy campaign against Tehran.

Stavros Atlamazoglou is a defense journalist specializing in special operations, a Hellenic Army veteran (national service with the 575th Marine Battalion and Army HQ), and a Johns Hopkins University graduate.

Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/attack-inside-iran-nuclear-facility-latest-in-battle-with-israel-2022-1

The post Attacks inside one of Iran’s most secure nuclear facilities are the latest blows in a shadowy battle with Israel first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

While Iran’s political and military leaders are not exactly known for making measured, reserved or unprovocative remarks, stating that “Israel could be blown up in a single operation,” would be considered an aggressive comment even for Iranians.

At the same time, Iranian national documents and philosophies do specifically call for the destruction of Israel. Thus, these comments from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami align with the kind of well-known, consistent anti-Israel rhetoric coming from Iran.

Hossein’s comments were also filled with hints and suggestions that his forces may have been behind a recent explosion at an Israeli plant for advanced weapons, according to a news report from Al-Monitor. Israel, the report specifies, said the blast hurt no one and took place during a “routine test.”

Hossein, made many references to Israel’s supposed “vulnerabilities” to “domino-style” attacks, according to the report. While easily dismissed as hyperbole in many respects, Hossein’s remarks as quoted by the report introduce a few interesting things to consider. For instance, Israeli is without question very experienced when it comes to the realm of missile defense given its recent history, as it deploys systems such as Iron Dome and other kinds of ground-based systems. This reality might seem to make Israeli less vulnerable to Iran’s large arsenal of ballistic missiles, some of which potentially able to reach Israel should they be maneuvered within range. Israel is about one thousand miles from Iran, a range which is just at the outer limits of the striking distance of most long-range ballistic missiles.

The distance between the two countries speaks to another, even potentially more pressing issue, such as how Iran could actually get close enough to the Israeli border to launch an attack. Iranian ground forces would need to travel through Iraq or Turkey, or somehow cross the Persian Gulf area to deploy on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula. Any approaching Iranian force would, it goes without saying, be highly vulnerable to Israeli air attack. Therefore, apart from the concerning prospect of Iran at some point having nuclear weapons, there do not appear to be a wide sphere of ways Iran might actually be able to attack Israel with any measure of success.

Unless, of course, Iran were to employ terrorist tactics, something by no means beyond the realm of possibility. In fact, small, covert hit-and-run types of terror attacks may be the kind of thing Hossein was referring to by hinting that several targeted strikes could bring down Israel. Added to this equation is the well-known fact that Iran has been, and likely continues to be, a state sponsor of terrorist organizations. However, just as is likely the case with air defenses, Israel is certainly experienced and likely adept at counterterrorism tactics for obvious reasons.

Kris Osborn is the defense editor for the National Interest. Osborn previously served at the Pentagon as a Highly Qualified Expert with the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Army—Acquisition, Logistics & Technology. Osborn has also worked as an anchor and on-air military specialist at national TV networks. He has appeared as a guest military expert on Fox News, MSNBC, The Military Channel, and The History Channel. He also has a master’s degree in Comparative Literature from Columbia University.

Source: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/iran-getting-ready-attack-israel-184907

The post Is Iran Getting Ready to Attack Israel? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

I have been a loyal American and friend of Israel for as long as I can remember. Although the two are not mutually exclusive, they are not a contradiction in terms, either. In our current environment of conveniently blaming Israel and, by extension, Jews for everything bad that occurs at any time or any place in the world, we must keep in mind that Jews seek justice in order to survive; whereas its enemies seek fabrications to justify their lies, defamations and curses, all the while motivating their children to kill.

The tactics of repeating false accusations over and over at every opportune moment appears to be successfully gaining converts. Even from within the Jewish community, some members of the tribe succumb to the scurrilous beliefs being promoted. Some hate promoters employ misdirection, double standards and outrageous slander and libel to achieve their goals. For too many non-Jews, it appears easier to just join their ranks than extend the effort and thinking skills to appreciate the flaws in their baseless war of words, which identify Israel as an ethnic-cleansing, Apartheid, Nazi-like agent who massacred Palestinians with the May, 1948 rebirth of State of Israel and episodically thereafter.

Such nonsense has been enabled since the traditionally Jewish/Israel supporting US Democratic Party swung its influence towards “new” underdogs favored by progressive US Reps including Ilhan Omar (D-Minnesota) and Rashid Tliab (D-Michigan), among others. No matter what they do, there appears to be no consequential actions forthcoming from their immediate boss, Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi (D-California) or from her boss, US President Joe Biden. So they escape unscathed.

My parents, both loyal Democrats, reminded me on many occasions, especially when they were targets of antisemitism that bullies do what they do because they can. Carrying this sad state of affairs forward; Americans find themselves confronting racism, while putting the other equally offensive ‘ism,’ antisemitism, on the back burner as it lacks sufficient popular willingness to initiate legislative means to effectively combat it whenever and wherever it raises its ugly head.

On the world stage, anti-Israel acts and antisemitism are indirectly being alluded to in Vienna, Austria as the “re-upping” of the original Obama advocated 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action Iran nuclear accords/protocols are being discussed. Unfortunately its nuclear enrichment and ballistic missile development limits were dismissed by the principal signatory, Iran.

This led to financial and other sanctions being levied by former President Trump’s administration to bring Iran into line. It didn’t work.

Even with total visibility, the consequences for regional destabilization and existential threats to Israel fell upon an enemy that does not appear to respect Israel or the United States. This being most especially so, when we recall chants emanating from within Iran threatening, “death to Israel’’ and “death to America.”

President Biden’s actions may eventually be judged by future generations not so much for what he did, but rather for what he should have done to assure Israel and our American constitutional way of life, its permanence in the face of an angry, unswerving Iran.

Iran makes indelible demands seemingly to intimidate others, rather than to launch legitimate negotiations. It shows no willingness to concede positions on pivotal issues including: 1) perceived proxy based terrorism; 2) perceived human rights abuses; including hostage taking; 3) perceived destabilizing militia sponsorships; 4) intercontinental ballistic missile development and testing; 5) removal of sophisticated, strategically located missiles throughout Lebanon, as well as rockets housed within Gaza; each presumably intended to challenge its avowed enemy, Israel; and 6) its inhibiting of monitoring International Atomic Energy Agency nuclear inspectors, accessing all Iranian nuclear sites; operational and those in development.

The Vienna attending nations including, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, China, Russia, the European Union and the US must wisely determine, before adjourning if; 1) Iran is more reliable now than it was in 2015? 2) America can be safeguarded from adversarial use of its contributed money ($10b. demanded by Iran as an initial show of good will), as well as expected sanction relief flowing funds; being used against itself or our ally Israel? This potential commands oversight; and 3) Biden can be counted upon to keep his pivotal promise to assure Israel’s solidness. “The United States will… never allow Iran to obtain a nuclear weapon.”

The answers to the following may likely not be known unless and until Iran assumes a wartime footing. They include: is Iran developing terrorist infrastructures in Syria, Gaza, Judea and Samaria, while transferring strategic weapons to Hezbollah?; Has Iran put into place infrastructure so as to facilitate attacks on Jewish and Israeli targets abroad?; Besides Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps forces, are Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Houthi movement in Yemen, agents in Iraq, militias in Syria, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PA and Hamas on active alert to engage suspected enemy forces?

Were ostensibly menacing circumstances reported by a number of news sources on March 21 and 22; that allege potential threats sourced to Iran to target Fort McNair, a US Army post in Washington, as well as alleged threats to the army’s vice chief of staff, on base proven credible?

If so, Iran should not be rewarded with its demanded incentives. It needs to prove itself as something other than an active threat to America and its only proven ally in the Middle East – Israel.

The stakes are too high and the risks too great to ignore or minimize Iran’s budding capabilities, which the US can ill afford; since the relatively recent debacle of seemingly abandoning the citizenry of Afghanistan to the Taliban.

The writer is author of the geopolitical thriller First the ‘Saturday People’ and Then the… and an op-ed contributor to The Miami Herald, The Washington Examiner, The Jerusalem Post, American Thinker and other media resources.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-689415

The post Stakes too high for US to underestimate Iran threat – opinion first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The Islamic Republic has made it clear that no agreement can be discussed, let alone reached, unless all sanctions hindering the regime’s operations are removed. It has also been engaging in double-speak, bragging about its strides in uranium-enrichment, on the one hand, while insisting that its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, on the other.

Nobody buys the latter assertion, but the other parties to the JCPOA have convinced themselves that the interests of all concerned are best served through diplomacy. Never mind that Tehran refuses to allow American representatives anywhere near the room where the talks are being held. Washington is willing to have the mullahs dictate the terms of the entire arrangement, and let European, Russian and Chinese envoys enjoy face-to-face contact with their Iranian counterparts.

This makes chief Iranian army spokesperson Brig. Gen. Abolfazl Shekarchi’s interview on Saturday—a mere 48 hours before the start of the kowtowing in Austria—all the more relevant and chilling. Though the powers-that-be in Tehran have never hidden their desire for the destruction of the United States (the “Great Satan”) and Israel (the “Small Satan”), Shekarchi’s words in the current context should serve as sufficient cause for America to call off the whole charade.

Speaking to the regime-controlled Iran Students News Agency (ISNA), Shekarchi announced that Israel’s annihilation is his country’s “greatest ideal before us and the greatest goal we pursue.”

He additionally mentioned the assassination of the head the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force in a US drone strike nearly two years ago, saying that the “highest level of revenge for martyr [Maj. Gen. Qassem] Soleimani’s blood is the withdrawal of Americans from the region.”

Asked why the “arrogant” global powers, particularly the United States and the “Zionist regime,” have come to the conclusion that they cannot confront Iran, and therefore have no choice but to negotiate, he replied: “When we refer to ‘the Zionists,’ many … think of the occupying regime in Jerusalem … [but] we recognize the occupying regime in Jerusalem as a tool of international Zionism.”

He went on to describe how this “occupier regime” came and took over an “important part of the Islamic world [by] raping and oppressing Muslims.”

“Anyone with a Muslim name, like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and any regime that helps this fake regime [Israel], is a part of this regime,” he added, alluding to the Abraham Accords, which he slammed, while asserting that it’s impossible to get along with the America.

“The oppressed nations that are being forcibly enslaved by the United States today are having their underground facilities and resources looted,” he claimed, describing the “new ignorance fed to the people by the infidel world” as “civilization.”

Yes, he continued, “in terms of thinking, there is no gap between Britain, France and America.”

Given the shared supplicatory stance of the above three Western countries, he was pretty accurate, though he was actually trying to lump them together as colonialist/imperialist invaders, rather than peace-and-quiet-seekers at all costs.

Ditto for his final remark about America, the intent of which was to illustrate the inevitable victory of Islamist forces against the West, but is not far from an apt depiction of its decline in the eyes of its enemies.

“Every day since the Islamic Revolution 43 years ago, the United States has fallen several hundred meters from the mountain peak, and is now near the valley,” he said. “Is it wise to go after an America that is falling into the valley!? Naturally, you have to abandon America, which is on a downward slope. Not only has it achieved nothing, but it’s also lost its dignity.”

Coming from a despotic, ayatollah-led regime whose people are abused and impoverished, the assertion that the United States hasn’t accomplished anything over the past four decades is ridiculous. But there is more than a grain of truth to the second allegation, and not merely because former President Jimmy Carter sat by helplessly while Islamists took over Iran and held dozens of US embassy staff hostage for 444 days.

Former President Barack Obama’s administration, too, humiliated itself by pleading with Iran to sign the disastrous JCPOA in the first place—rewarding it with tranches of cash, and proceeding to ignore its multiple and egregious violations of the pact. Today, it’s President Joe Biden’s team that’s bowing down and bending a knee.

Sadly, it doesn’t matter that The Jerusalem Post’s Benjamin Weinthal exposed Shekarchi’s pre-Vienna interview, which ISNA posted solely in Farsi, with no traces on its English-language website. Biden and his European, Russian and Chinese bidders in the Austrian capital are perfectly capable of and happy to put Iran’s intentions aside in order to push their agenda forward.

Ruthie Blum is an Israel-based journalist and author of “To Hell in a Handbasket: Carter, Obama, and the ‘Arab Spring.’ ”

The opinions presented by Algemeiner bloggers are solely theirs and do not represent those of The Algemeiner, its publishers or editors. If you would like to share your views with a blog post on The Algemeiner, please be in touch through our Contact page.

Source: https://www.algemeiner.com/2021/11/30/irans-military-gears-up-for-vienna-talks-by-vowing-to-annihilate-israel/

The post Iran’s Military Gears Up for Vienna Talks by Vowing to Annihilate Israel first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

The post Iran takes steps to make enriched uranium metal; US, Europe powers dismayed first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Illustrative: An Israeli submarine sails during Independence Day celebrations marking 70 years since the founding of the state in 1948, in Tel Aviv, April 19, 2018. (AP/Ariel Schalit)

After an Israel Defense Forces spokesman told a Saudi newspaper on Friday that Israeli submarines were quietly operating “everywhere,” an unnamed Iranian official told Al Jazeera Saturday that “Tehran’s response to any attack on national security will be strong and wide.”

The anonymous source claimed that Israel “is looking for excuses to drag the region into tension that will create chaos” in the final days of US President Donald Trump’s term.

And the top naval commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that Iran was ready to defend itself and was prepared for any scenario.

“Forces, systems, and equipment are at the desired level of readiness to defend the water borders, the interests and security of our country,” said IRGC Navy Commander Admiral Alireza Tangsiri.

Tangsiri’s comments came after IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman told the Saudi Arabian Elaph news outlet that Israel was tracking Iranian movements around the region and that Israeli submarines were quietly “sailing everywhere.”

Zilberman gave the interview after an Israeli submarine reportedly openly crossed the Suez Canal last week in a show of force directed at Iran. The move was approved by Egypt, according to the Kan public broadcaster, which cited Arab intelligence sources. The submarine reportedly surfaced and faced the Persian Gulf, which lies on the other side of Saudi Arabia.

The intelligence sources said the move was meant to “send a message” to Iran.

Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman, who was nominated to take over as the next IDF spokesperson on June 13, 2019. (Israel Defense Forces)

Zilberman additionally said that although Israel was not aware of any specific plans by Iran to attack the Jewish state, Iranian forces could carry out an attack from Iraq or Yemen, according to a translation of the interview by the Ynet news site.

He said Israel had information indicating Iran was developing unmanned aerial vehicles and “smart missiles” in Iraq and Yemen, and that the weapons could have the ability to strike Israel.

Zilberman said Israel had attacked targets in Syria in the past year, and used 500 smart missiles, without any response from Iran or the Syrian regime. He added that Israel had no intention of letting up its pressure campaign against Iran in Syria.

The IDF has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 against moves by Iran to establish a permanent military presence in the country and efforts to transport advanced, game-changing weapons to terrorist groups in the region, principally Hezbollah.

Zilberman’s comments were not immediately available in English and the interview contained few direct quotes.

On Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi warned Iran against attacking Israel, saying that the Jewish state will retaliate forcefully against any aggression.

Iran has threatened to attack Israel since the assassination of its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, in late November, in a raid blamed on the Jewish state.

In this Sept. 18, 2016 file photo Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Revolutionary Guard commanders in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In a strikingly similar move to the reported Israeli submarine crossing of the Suez Canal, a US nuclear submarine crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Monday as the anniversary of the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani by a US drone approached.

US military officials fear an attack by Tehran to avenge the powerful Soleimani, leader of the IRGC’s elite Quds force, who was assassinated on January 3, 2020, in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport in Iraq.

Agencies contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-warns-israeli-submarines-sailing-everywhere-iran-says-will-defend-itself/

The post IDF: Our subs sail everywhere; Iran: Our response to any attack will be strong. first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Illustrative: An Israeli submarine sails during Independence Day celebrations marking 70 years since the founding of the state in 1948, in Tel Aviv, April 19, 2018. (AP/Ariel Schalit)

After an Israel Defense Forces spokesman told a Saudi newspaper on Friday that Israeli submarines were quietly operating “everywhere,” an unnamed Iranian official told Al Jazeera Saturday that “Tehran’s response to any attack on national security will be strong and wide.”

The anonymous source claimed that Israel “is looking for excuses to drag the region into tension that will create chaos” in the final days of US President Donald Trump’s term.

And the top naval commander in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that Iran was ready to defend itself and was prepared for any scenario.

“Forces, systems, and equipment are at the desired level of readiness to defend the water borders, the interests and security of our country,” said IRGC Navy Commander Admiral Alireza Tangsiri.

Tangsiri’s comments came after IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman told the Saudi Arabian Elaph news outlet that Israel was tracking Iranian movements around the region and that Israeli submarines were quietly “sailing everywhere.”

Zilberman gave the interview after an Israeli submarine reportedly openly crossed the Suez Canal last week in a show of force directed at Iran. The move was approved by Egypt, according to the Kan public broadcaster, which cited Arab intelligence sources. The submarine reportedly surfaced and faced the Persian Gulf, which lies on the other side of Saudi Arabia.

The intelligence sources said the move was meant to “send a message” to Iran.

Brig. Gen. Hidai Zilberman, who was nominated to take over as the next IDF spokesperson on June 13, 2019. (Israel Defense Forces)

Zilberman additionally said that although Israel was not aware of any specific plans by Iran to attack the Jewish state, Iranian forces could carry out an attack from Iraq or Yemen, according to a translation of the interview by the Ynet news site.

He said Israel had information indicating Iran was developing unmanned aerial vehicles and “smart missiles” in Iraq and Yemen, and that the weapons could have the ability to strike Israel.

Zilberman said Israel had attacked targets in Syria in the past year, and used 500 smart missiles, without any response from Iran or the Syrian regime. He added that Israel had no intention of letting up its pressure campaign against Iran in Syria.

The IDF has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 against moves by Iran to establish a permanent military presence in the country and efforts to transport advanced, game-changing weapons to terrorist groups in the region, principally Hezbollah.

Zilberman’s comments were not immediately available in English and the interview contained few direct quotes.

On Monday, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi warned Iran against attacking Israel, saying that the Jewish state will retaliate forcefully against any aggression.

Iran has threatened to attack Israel since the assassination of its top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, in late November, in a raid blamed on the Jewish state.

In this Sept. 18, 2016 file photo Revolutionary Guard Gen. Qassem Soleimani, center, attends a meeting with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and Revolutionary Guard commanders in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

In a strikingly similar move to the reported Israeli submarine crossing of the Suez Canal, a US nuclear submarine crossed the Strait of Hormuz on Monday as the anniversary of the killing of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani by a US drone approached.

US military officials fear an attack by Tehran to avenge the powerful Soleimani, leader of the IRGC’s elite Quds force, who was assassinated on January 3, 2020, in a US drone strike near Baghdad airport in Iraq.

Agencies contributed to this report.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/idf-warns-israeli-submarines-sailing-everywhere-iran-says-will-defend-itself/

The post IDF: Our subs sail everywhere; Iran: Our response to any attack will be strong. first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Iran’s top nuclear scientist, long identified by U.S. and Israeli intelligence as the guiding figure behind a covert effort to design an atomic warhead, was shot and killed Friday in what Iranian media called a roadside ambush as he and his bodyguards traveled outside Tehran.

For two decades, the scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was the driving force behind what U.S. and Israeli officials describe as Iran’s secretive nuclear weapons program. And his work continued after Iran’s push to develop a bomb was formally disbanded in 2003, according to U.S. intelligence assessments and Iranian nuclear documents stolen by Israel nearly three years ago.

One U.S. official — along with two other intelligence officials — said that Israel was behind the attack on the scientist. It was unclear how much the United States may have known about the operation in advance, but the two nations are the closest of allies and have long shared intelligence regarding Iran, which Israel considers its most potent threat.

Iranian officials, who have always maintained that their nuclear ambitions are for peaceful purposes, not weapons, expressed fury and vowed revenge over the assassination, calling it an act of terrorism and warmongering that they quickly blamed on Israeli assassins and the U.S.

The White House, CIA and Israeli officials declined to comment. But Fakhrizadeh’s assassination — only 10 months after the U.S killed the powerful spymaster at the head of Iran’s security machinery in a drone attack in Iraq — could greatly complicate U.S. President-elect Joe Biden’s plans to reactivate the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and six other nations, which curtailed Iran’s nuclear activities.

Biden’s transition team had no immediate comment on the assassination.

President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the nuclear accord in 2018, unraveling the signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, Barack Obama, and isolating the U.S. from Western allies who tried to keep the agreement intact. Since then, Iran has begun to increase its nuclear capacities once again, arguing that it is not bound by the nuclear accord because the U.S. reneged on its commitments.

The assassination of Fakhrizadeh had the hallmarks of a precisely timed operation. Iranian state media said gunmen waited along the road and attacked as his car was driving through the countryside town of Absard, an area known as a bucolic escape with majestic mountains about 65 kilometers east of Tehran.

Pictures posted by state and social media of the attack aftermath showed the scientist’s vehicle, a black SUV, with its windshield shattered from bullets and the side windows blown out. Blood streaks and shards of glass and metal were scattered on the road.

Protests erupted outside government buildings in Tehran to demand revenge, much as they did after the Jan. 3 attack that killed Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian general who ran the elite Quds force of the Revolutionary Guard.

“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today,” Iran’s foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, wrote on Twitter. “This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role — shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators.”

Prominent Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh (right) in an undated photo. | OFFICIAL KHAMENEI WEBSITE / WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY / VIA REUTERS

Zarif, who negotiated the Iran nuclear deal and remains one of Iran’s most recognizable figures, said in the post that the international community should “end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror.”

Brig. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff for Iran’s armed forces, said in a statement that “we will not rest until we track down and take revenge on those responsible for the assassination of martyr Fakhrizadeh.”

On Friday night, Iran sent a letter to U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, condemning what it called “a terrorist attack” and warning that the country “reserves its rights to take all necessary measures to defend its people and secure its interests.”

It is difficult to predict the precise fallout from the killing. A weakened Iran, having lost two of its most celebrated military and nuclear figures in the last year alone, may be eager for new negotiations with the Biden administration.

Yet the twin assassinations may have poisoned the well. Hard-liners in Iran may win the argument that they cannot bend to outside pressure and should redouble their efforts to resist the West in memory of Fakhrizadeh, who they declared had been martyred.

The former CIA director under Obama, John Brennan, called the killing “a criminal act & highly reckless” in a tweet. “It risks lethal retaliation & a new round of regional conflict,’’ he wrote, urging Iran to “wait for the return of responsible American leadership” and resist temptations to strike back.

The Pentagon’s former top Middle East policy official, Michael P. Mulroy, said the death of Fakhrizadeh was “a setback to Iran’s nuclear program.” He noted that the scientist “was also a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, and that will magnify Iran’s desire to respond by force.”

It was unclear whether U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, one of the most vocal Iran hawks in the administration, had been given any advance warning of Iran’s plans when he visited Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel last week.

But some U.S. officials argued that the death of Fakhrizadeh, the latest in a string of such killings of Iran’s top nuclear scientists that date back a dozen years, amplifies the chilling message to the country’s other top scientists working on that program: If the well-guarded head cannot be protected, neither can anyone else.

It also remains unclear how much the killing will set back the Iranian program. Fakhrizadeh had the background and oversight to understand the challenges of physics and politics the Iran nuclear program faced.

But Iran recovered from the assassinations of lower-level scientists, and from the cyberattacks from 2007 to 2010 on the nuclear fuel production site at Natanz, a joint Israeli-U.S. operation code-named “Olympic Games.” That operation set Iran back by a year or so.

The killing of Fakhrizadeh comes just two weeks after intelligence officials confirmed that al-Qaida’s second-highest leader was gunned down on the streets of Tehran by Israeli assassins on a motorcycle on Aug. 7, at the behest of the United States.

The scene of the attack that killed prominent Iranian scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh outside Tehran on Friday | WEST ASIA NEWS AGENCY / VIA REUTERS

The al-Qaida figure, Abdullah Ahmed Abdullah, went by the nom de guerre Abu Muhammad al-Masri and was accused of being one of the masterminds of the deadly 1998 attacks on two U.S. embassies in East Africa. He was killed along with his daughter, Miriam, the widow of Osama bin Laden’s son Hamza bin Laden.

But the al-Qaida official was a foreign national; Fakhrizadeh was a national hero, a figure of resistance to the West and a symbol of its insistence that Iran could not have its own nuclear technology.

Iran never agreed to demands from the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations’ nuclear monitor, to let U.N. inspectors question Fakhrizadeh, saying he was an academic who lectured at the Imam Hussein University in Tehran.

Fakhrizadeh was an academic, but a series of classified reports, notably a lengthy 2007 assessment done by the CIA for the George W. Bush administration, said the academic role was a cover story. In 2008, his name was added to a list of Iranian officials whose assets were ordered frozen by the U.S.

That same year, his activities were disclosed in an unclassified briefing by the IAEA’s chief inspector. Later, it became clear that he ran what the Iranians called Projects 110 and 111 — an effort to tackle the most difficult problems bomb designers face in creating a warhead small enough to fit atop a missile and make it survive the rigors of re-entry into the atmosphere.

He stayed out of sight for years. But an Israeli operation in early 2018 that stole a warehouse full of Iranian documents about “Project Amad,” what the Iranians called the nuclear weapons effort 20 years ago, included documents about Fakhrizadeh, and at least one handwritten by him, the Israelis contended.

Shortly thereafter, Netanyahu singled out Fakhrizadeh in a televised presentation, when he described the secret Israeli operation to seize the archive. Iran had lied about the purpose of its nuclear research, he charged, and he identified Fakhrizadeh as the leader of the Amad program.

Iran said Netanyahu’s presentation was fiction.

Israeli officials, later backed up by U.S. intelligence officials who reviewed the archive, said the scientist had kept elements of the program alive even after it was ostensibly abandoned. It was now being run covertly, Netanyahu argued, by an organization within Iran’s defense ministry known as SPND. He added: “You will not be surprised to hear that SPND is led by the same person who led Project Amad, Dr. Fakhrizadeh.”

The assassination comes at a time of greatly heightened tensions between Iran and the Trump administration. Trump was dissuaded from striking Iran just two weeks ago, after his aides warned it could escalate into a broader conflict during his last weeks in office.

Trump had asked senior advisers in an Oval Office meeting on Nov. 12 whether he had options to take action against Iran’s main nuclear site at Natanz in the coming weeks. Days later, Pompeo visited Israel on what could be his last trip there in office.

Such a strike on the eve of a new administration could poison relations with Iran to such an extent that negotiating a restoration of the nuclear deal, or toughening its terms, could be impossible.

Since Trump dismissed the secretary of defense, Mark T. Esper, and other top Pentagon aides earlier this month, Defense Department and other national security officials have privately expressed worries that the president might initiate operations, overt or secret, against Iran or other adversaries at the end of his term. Others have said that Netanyahu, who at various moments has been on the edge of attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities, might seek to act while Trump is still in office.

While Trump’s top advisers — including Pompeo and Gen. Mark A. Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — argued against a military strike against Iran, top U.S. officials and commanders still warn of what they call Iran’s malign activities.

In Iran, some officials and commentators acknowledged that Fakhrizadeh’s loss had created a significant void in the country’s pursuit of nuclear science, but vowed that it would not be halted. Others also voiced concern over what apparently was a yawning security hole that they said had allowed Israeli operatives to infiltrate Iran.

“Israel has camped out here in a bad way. The recent events of this year make this clear,” a former vice president, Mohammad Ali Abtahi, said on Twitter. “Iran’s security strategy should be to find Mossad’s spies and informants.”

Source: https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2020/11/28/world/iran-assassination-nuclear-scientist/

The post Gunmen assassinate Iran’s top nuclear scientist in ambush, provoking new crisis first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Iran navy wargames – Reuters

Iranian diplomat Amir Al-Moussawi reports of a plan to create an “axis of resistance” against Israel that will include a united military front comprised of Iran, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip, which would work together in any future military confrontation.

In an interview with the Felesteen al-Yawmwebsite, which is affiliated with the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, al-Moussawi estimated that a recent visit to Tehran by a senior Hamas delegation was linked to the creation of the new front, and was aimed at coordinating positions on the economic and security levels as well as assisting “Palestinian refugees” in Lebanon.

Al-Moussawi said the talks with Hamas in were successful, and that Hamas conveyed a message to Iran’s leader from Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh about his organization’s preparedness for any confrontation with Israel in a scenario of war between Iran and Israel and the US.

Al-Moussawi also said that Iran intends to work to bring Hamas back to Syria and intends to discuss the matter with the Syrian leadership. During the civil war in Syria, Hamas relocated its leadership office to Turkey after it refused to support Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad, a close ally of Iran’s, in the uprising against him.

Speaking about alleged Israeli airstrikes in Syria, al-Moussawi said that the new axis of action has plans for a response, but he does not want to expose them to the “enemy” at this point. He also estimated that Syria would respond if Israel attacked its territory again.

Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/266667

The post ‘Iran building military front against Israel’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.