The Iranian government on Thursday claimed to have successfully launched a rocket carrying three satellite “research devices” into space.

It was not immediately clear if the research devices had been successfully launched into orbit, but the move follows increasingly provocative actions by Iran even as it engages in indirect talks with the U.S. over a mutual return to the 2015 nuclear deal, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

The State Department spokesperson said Iran’s space program, which Tehran describes as for civilian purposes, violates a resolution in the United Nations Security Council that calls upon Iran not to undertake activity related to ballistic missiles “designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons, including launches using such ballistic missile technology.”

“The United States continues to use all its nonproliferation tools to prevent the further advancement of Iran’s missile programs and urges other countries to take steps to address Iran’s missile development activity,” the spokesperson said.

Iran’s semiofficial Fars News Agency on Thursday quoted Iranian Defense Ministry Spokesman Ahmad Hosseini lauding the rocket’s successful launch into space as an achievement of the Islamic republic’s civilian space program.

“We will speed up work so that we can become one of the six countries that can launch satellites into the GEO (geostationary) orbit,” Hosseini is quoted as saying. Fars News Agency is owned by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which was designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. in 2019.

The Associated Press reported that Hosseini and other officials had yet to comment on the status of the objects launched into space hours after the launch, suggesting the rocket had failed to reach the speeds necessary to place its payload in the correct orbit.

The Trump administration viewed Iran’s efforts to launch satellites into space as provocative military actions. In 2020, then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo condemned Iran’s successful launch of a military satellite into space, saying the effort advanced Tehran’s ballistic missile program.

A launchpad rocket explosion in 2019 notably grabbed the attention of then-President Trump, who tweeted out an image of the destruction along with “best wishes and good luck” in determining the cause of the failure.

And in 2017, the U.S., United Kingdom, France and Germany issued a joint complaint to the United Nations over Iran’s launching of a satellite-carrying rocket, with then-U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Niki Haley calling the launch a violation of the nuclear deal.

The Trump administration pulled out of the JCPOA in 2018, and the Biden administration is engaging in an eighth round of indirect talks with Iran in Vienna over efforts to bring both parties back to the deal, which President Biden says is the best way to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear weapon.

Iran, which claims its nuclear activities are for peaceful purposes, began violating the terms of the agreement in 2019 and has since far exceeded the constraints of the deal, drawing the frustration of American negotiators who criticize Tehran as not engaging in the talks in good faith.

State Department spokesperson Ned Price on Wednesday told reporters that while the U.S. and Iran have made “some modest progress” during the last round of talks, it is too soon to say how substantive that progress is.

“At a minimum, any progress, we believe, is falling short of Iran accelerating [its] nuclear steps, and is far too slow,” he said. “As we’ve said before, this can’t continue or it will soon be too late to return to mutual compliance with the JCPOA.”

Source: https://thehill.com/policy/international/587732-us-concerned-over-iran-rocket-launch

The post US ‘concerned’ over Iran rocket launch 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.

(December 5, 2021 / JNS) As a Jew and an Israeli, current events are nothing short of bizarre. Iran, a terrorist state behind a global axis of evil, is once again getting the last laugh. It is hard to watch as the United States and Europe politely attempt to reach a deal with Tehran at the cost of an existential threat to Israel.

Murmurings in Europe, along with American ambiguity toward Israel on this issue, are a warning sign to Jerusalem. The lifting of sanctions will see billions of dollars pour into the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ coffers for the country’s transformation into a nuclear state. No less dangerous, it will boost their confidence ahead of military action against Israel on multiple fronts.

The next war on our northern front won’t be the Third Lebanon War, but the First Iran War. The Iranians are planning to strike Israel on six fronts: From Lebanon, Syria, the Gaza Strip, Judea and Samaria, internally with the assistance of some Arab Israelis, and through the use of long-range missiles from Iran and Yemen. This will be a conventional war, but it will be far from straightforward.

To date, Iran has succeeded in establishing a regional axis of evil through the creation of a ring of armed divisions around the State of Israel. In practice, Tehran is working toward the kind of warfare it is comfortable with, meaning far from its borders. Hundreds of thousands of Iranian missiles are dispersed on Israel’s borders, and they are launched from time to time, in accordance with Tehran’s interests.
The Iranian working model is to build a “security network” in the form of Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and other terrorist organizations.

The time, therefore, has come to change the equation. For every missile launched from Lebanon, the return address should be Tehran. Iran’s days of immunity are over. They need to pay a price at home, in Tehran and every other place they hold dear.

That is why the talks in Vienna do not tell Iran’s story. The question is not whether or not Iran will not obtain nuclear weapons. This is a terrorist state aspiring to world domination through the decimation of Western culture. Unfortunately, the West is always the last to know.

As a public official and Israeli citizen, I am personally unable to look on from the sidelines. This is why I headed to the United States to try and wake Washington from its stupor. I will embark on a public diplomacy campaign within the framework of which I will meet with senior members of Congress, opinion leaders and journalists. Every one of us must do everything we can to influence the situation. The window of opportunity may soon be closed completely.

Likud Knesset member Nir Barkat is a former mayor of Jerusalem.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

Source: https://www.jns.org/opinion/the-first-iran-war-is-just-around-the-corner/

The post The ‘First Iran War’ is just around the corner first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Israel’s goal is to persuade the United States to neither return to the original nuclear deal nor conclude a partial interim agreement, but instead to intensify sanctions on Iran and also present an explicit, credible military threat.

Diplomatic sources estimated that Iran’s hard line during the talks in Vienna has prepared the ground to influence Washington’s approach at the talks.

On Monday, Mossad director David Barnea will begin a round of meetings in Washington, including with CIA Director William Burns and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. On Thursday, Defense Minister Benny Gantz will arrive in Washington to meet senior American officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.

Gantz’s visit was arranged several weeks ago, long before obstacles in the nuclear talks arose. Last week, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett spoke with Blinken and expressed his concern over a possible return to the deal.

The Israeli officials will urge Washington to withdraw from the upcoming nuclear pact and to draw an alternative plan to address the Iranian nuclear program.

Israel also expects that the U.S. will immediately step up both economic and military pressure on Iran so that Tehran will arrive at the next rounds of talks from a significantly weaker position.

–Israel’s reaction to Iran talks: too much bravado, too little sense

–‘Self-delusion’: Former PM Barak slams Bennett and Netanyahu over Iran

–What AIPAC is telling Congress on Biden’s Iran negotiations

Another demand Israel will make is to guarantee that any future deal with Iran will be conditioned upon the withdrawal of its forces from Syria and other countries in the region, to ensure Israel’s aerial superiority.

Iran’s chief negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kani, presented last week a document with sweeping demands for the removal of American sanctions as a condition for any progress in the talks. It also requested a clear commitment from the U.S. and the other signatory countries not to reimpose sanctions in the future.

Israeli officials expect the U.S. administration to refuse to make such commitments and hope Iran’s uncompromising stance will help them persuade their American counterparts.

Israel views Sullivan as a powerful player who can influence U.S. decision makers and holds relatively hard line positions on the nuclear deal.

As opposed to him, Israel considers the head of the American negotiating team in Vienna, U.S. special representative to Iran Rob Malley, as an enthusiastic supporter of America’s return to the nuclear agreement. Due to Malley’s support for the deal, Bennett decided not to meet with him when he visited Israel prior to the resumption of the talks.

Israel’s assessment is that despite the hardened stance Iran has presented at the talks, it wouldn’t be quick to blow up the negotiations because its stifling economy desperately needs at least some sanctions removed.

Following the first week of talks, Israel is having trouble predicting whether the sides will ultimately reach an agreement. Contrary to the U.S. administration’s initial expectation, the talks didn’t end last weekend, and the parties are pursuing the negotiations this week.

Israel worries that if the talks will not terminate this week, they may drag on for months unless a deadline is set. It also fears that during that time, and with no international pressure, Iran will further advance its nuclear program.

Meanwhile, Mossad’s Barnea is expected to try to convince American officials that Iran has no intention of putting an end to the development of its nuclear program. On Thursday, Barnea made an unusual public statement describing Israeli intelligence’s outlook.

“It’s clear that uranium enriched to 60 percent isn’t needed for civilian purposes, and there’s no need for three facilities with thousands of centrifuges spinning unless they intend to develop nuclear weapons,” he said in a speech at the President’s Residence.

Addressing a ministerial cabinet meeting, Bennett said Sunday that the window between rounds of nuclear talks should be exploited to push the U.S. to “use a different toolbox” with Iran, adding that “Iran must start paying the price for violations.”

President Isaac Herzog also addressed the talks today at the presentation of U.S. Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides’ credentials, saying that “Israel will welcome a comprehensive diplomatic solution that can resolve the Iranian nuclear threat once and for all.” However, he further clarified that all options remain on the table, adding that if the international community does not take decisive action, Israel will.

Source: https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-iran-talks-israel-presses-u-s-for-more-sanctions-military-threat-1.10442155

The post Iran Talks: Israel Presses U.S. for More Sanctions, Military Threat first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. (Agencies)

Israel intelligence managed to recruit an Iranian official close to the recently assassinated Mohsen Fakhrizadeh and recorded the nuclear scientist speaking about his efforts to produce “five warheads” on behalf of the Islamic Republic, according to a Friday report in the Yedioth Ahronoth daily.

This top-secret recording was played in 2008 by former prime minister Ehud Olmert for then-president George W. Bush during a visit by Bush to Israel and was a key element in convincing the Americans to step up efforts to combat Iran’s nuclear program, the report said.

The report quoted several unnamed Israeli and Middle Eastern intelligence officials, along with recollections from former prime minister Ehud Barak, who was then serving as Olmert’s defense minister.

It said Olmert was so concerned about safeguarding the source of the recording that he refused to play it while anyone else was in the room, including Bush’s national security adviser Stephen Hadley.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert welcomes US President George W. Bush to Israel, at Ben Gurion International Airport on May 14, 2008. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

Fakhrizadeh, the scientist said by Israel and the US to head Iran’s rogue nuclear weapons program, was killed in a military-style ambush last Friday on the outskirts of Tehran. The attack reportedly saw a truck bomb explode and gunmen open fire on Fakhrizadeh.

Iran has accused Israel of carrying out the November 27 hit and threatened revenge. Israel, which has been linked to a succession of killings of Iranian nuclear scientists, has not publicly commented on the allegations that it was responsible. It has warned its citizens traveling abroad that they may be targets of Iranian terror attacks in the wake of the killing.

This photo released by the semi-official Fars News Agency shows the scene where Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in Absard, a small city just east of the capital, Tehran, Iran, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020. (Fars News Agency via AP)

According to the Yedioth report, written by the newspaper’s well-connected investigative reporter Ronen Bergman, Israel had been compiling a dossier on Fakhrizadeh for nearly three decades, long discounting the scientist’s claims that he had nothing to do with any weapons program.

For Israel, the recordings were the final proof that Iran’s nuclear program was not peaceful, as Tehran repeatedly claimed.

Olmert was methodical in the way he revealed the material to Bush, the report said.

The US president had come to Israel in May 2008 as the country marked the 60th anniversary of its founding.

Olmert hosted a dinner at the Prime Minister’s Residence in Jerusalem and just before dessert, Olmert, Bush, Hadley, and Barak, who was defense minister at the time, headed to a side-room. It was there that Barak asked Bush if the US could supply Israel with a series of weapons it did not have in its arsenal, according to the report. Yedioth said these were believed to be vertical take-off and landing aircraft, along with bunker-busting bombs.

Former National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush Stephen Hadley at the Saban Forum on December 5, 2015 (YouTube screengrab)

Hadley in the previous weeks had been briefing Bush about Israeli desires to carry out a strike against Iran’s nuclear program and Bush immediately understood what Barak wanted the weapons for.

According to Barak, Bush responded to the request by pointing at the defense minister and saying, “This guy frightens me.”

Bush then got to the point. “I want you to know the official position of the United States government. The US strongly opposes Israel taking action against the Iranian nuclear program,” Barak recalled the president replying.

“And in order not to be vague, I will tell you that the United States does not intend to act either as long as I serve as president,” Bush added, according to Barak.

Seemingly expecting the negative response from Bush, Olmert decided he’d make use of the recording the next day when he was meeting the president and Hadley at his office.

US President George W. Bush visits the historical Masada site together with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, May 15, 2008. (Ariel Jerozolimski/Flash90)

According to the report, Olmert asked the national security adviser to leave the room. Hadley insisted on staying, arguing that protocol required him to be present when matters of national security were being discussed.

But Olmert was adamant and Bush assured Hadley it was okay for him to be left alone with the prime minister, the report said.

“I’m going to play you something, but I ask that you not talk about it with anyone, not even with the director of the CIA,” the report quoted Olmert as telling Bush from within the closed-door meeting. Bush reportedly agreed to the request.

Olmert pulled out a recording device, hit play and a man could be heard speaking in Persian.

“The man speaking here is Mohsen Fakhrizadeh,” Olmert reportedly explained. “Fakhrizadeh is the head of the “AMAD” program, Iran’s secret military nuclear project. The one it denies exists at all,” Olmert told Bush according to the report.

The prime minister then revealed that Israeli intelligence services had managed to recruit an Iranian agent close to Fakhrizadeh who had been feeding Jerusalem information on the nuclear scientist for years.

Military personnel stand near the flag-draped coffin of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, a nuclear scientist who was killed on Friday, during a funeral ceremony in Tehran, Iran, November 30, 2020. (Iranian Defense Ministry via AP)

Olmert provided Bush with an English-language transcript of what Fakhrizadeh had said in Persian.

According to the report, Fakhrizadeh could be heard giving details about the development of Iranian nuclear weapons. However, the Yedioth report only quotes selected phrases, without the word nuclear. The scientist complains that the government is not providing him with sufficient funds to carry out his work. On the one hand, Fakhrizadeh says, in an apparent reference to his superiors, “they want five warheads,” but on the other, “they aren’t letting me work.”

Fakhrizadeh then goes on to criticize colleagues in the defense ministry and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the report.

Bush read the recording’s translation and reacted with silence. Yedioth claimed the recording served as a “smoking atomic gun” for Olmert.

The premier recognized that Bush would not sell Israel the weapons it was looking for, so he made a new request: full intelligence cooperation on the Iranian nuclear issue.

When Bush agreed, Olmert decided to up the ante and proposed that the two carry out joint operations against Iran’s nuclear project, Yedioth said.

This photo released by the semi-official Fars News Agency shows the scene where Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was killed in Absard, a small city just east of the capital, Tehran, Iran, Friday, Nov. 27, 2020. (Fars News Agency via AP)

The president agreed to this as well, the report said.

Senior officials in Olmert’s office at the time told Yedioth the recording served as a “defining moment” in the two countries’ joint effort to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear bomb.

One apparent instance of such cooperation was the Stuxnet computer virus, which was uncovered in 2010 and was widely reported to have been developed together by US and Israeli intelligence. Stuxnet penetrated Iran’s rogue nuclear program, taking control and sabotaging parts of its enrichment processes by speeding up its centrifuges. Up to 1,000 centrifuges out of 5,000 were eventually damaged by the virus, according to reports, setting back the nuclear program.

Yedioth speculated that the Stuxnet plan, called Operation Olympic Games, was born as a result of Olmert’s revelation of the Fakhrizadeh recording to Bush.

However, other reports have said that Bush gave the go-ahead for the operation as early as 2006.

The recording was just one part of the trove of evidence that Israel has gathered on Fakhrizadeh and Iran’s nuclear program over the years, Yedioth noted.

In 2018, the Mossad spirited a huge trove of documentation out of a warehouse in Tehran, detailing Iran’s rogue nuclear program.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands in front of a picture of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who he named as the head of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, April 30, 2018 (YouTube screenshot)

When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed in April 2018 that Israel had attained the archive, which he said proved that Iran had lied about not seeking a nuclear weapons arsenal, he specified that Fakhrizadeh oversaw the program and said: “Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh.”

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-has-tape-of-slain-iran-nuke-chief-talking-about-building-five-warheads/

The post ‘Israel has tape of slain Iran nuke chief talking about building five warheads’ first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Iran’s refurbished mockup aircraft carrier, used previously as a simulated U.S. target during a February 2015 Iranian naval war games exercise, is seen at its homeport of Bandar Abbas, Iran February 15, 2020  (photo credit: MAXAR TECHNOLOGIES/HANDOUT VIA REUTERS)

Iran has a giant fake aircraft carrier that it has used over the years to practice with during naval drills to show off that it can attack US carriers. Now the lumbering model boat is on the move, satellite photos show.

The US usually has at least one aircraft carrier somewhere near the Persian Gulf. Iran often harassed US naval ships in the Persian Gulf using fast boats of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. In April, President Donald Trump said the US would sink Iranian boats that harass American warships.

The aircraft carrier is usually docked near the Port of Bandar Abbas. In recent days there was a mysterious explosive noise heard in Qeshm Island, just offshore. In addition, the oil tanker Gulf Sky, which is at the center of an international dispute amid accusations that an IRGC front company bought it, is also anchored off the island, after being allegedly hijacked from the coast of the UAE on July 6.

Iran’s refurbished mockup aircraft carrier is seen towed by a tugboat near Bandar Abbas, Iran July 25, 2020 (Photo Credit: Maxar Technologies/via REUTERS)

A Maxar Technologies satellite image located the Iranian fake US carrier offshore from Bandar Abbas and now some 50 km. southeast of where it was before. It is estimated to be 200 meters long and 50 meters wide, some 50%-70% the size of a real aircraft carrier, depending on how you estimate its overall size or displacement.

It is thus not just a floating piece of wood, but a large lumbering beast of a ship – a potential danger to international shipping and one more of Iran’s bizarre attempts to intimidate the international community. Iran has been accused of mining six ships in May and June 2019 and also shot down a US drone over the Gulf of Oman in 2019.

Christoph Koettl@ckoettl

Here’s a close up of the mock aircraft carrier earlier this year in Bandar Abbas. Via @Maxar. #Iran

Christoph Koettl@ckoettl

THE SHIP has at least 16 fake airplanes on its carrier deck. It was being towed by a boat, and another Iranian fast boat was seen nearby. The carrier, one of the Iranian navy’s largest ships, was blown up by Iran in 2015 and then repaired. Iran’s navy is otherwise relatively small and no match for the US Navy. One US naval officer quipped last year that the US could destroy the Iranian navy in an afternoon if it wanted to.

At the moment, it appears that the USS Eisenhower, which was off the Persian Gulf earlier this month, is now in the Mediterranean Sea for a drill with the Hellenic Navy. Between July 14 and 20 it made its way from near Oman toward the Red Sea and Suez Canal.

The USS Nimitz has been working recently with the Indian Navy. With the Eisenhower and the USS San Jacinto in the Mediterranean, the Nimitz has now moved to take up station with the Fifth Fleet as part of the need to sustain a carrier strike group presence in the Middle East, joining the fleet on July 24.

The Nimitz brings with her nine squadrons of the Carrier Air Wing and a destroyer squadron with the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton and Arliegh-Burke-class guided-missile destroyers USS Sterett and USS Ralph Johnson, all under the command of Rear Adm. Jim Kirk. A native of Pennsylvania, he took up command of Carrier Strike Group 11 in May.

Kirk shares a name with the fictional television and movie character Admiral James Tiberius Kirk of Star Trek fame. The real-life Admiral Jim Kirk and his carrier group will now help secure around 2.5 million square miles of water, according to the US Navy. According to a 2013 Guardian profile, Kirk does not take offensive to comparisons with his fictional media counterpart.

Source: https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/irans-bizarre-giant-fake-us-carrier-towed-to-straits-of-hormuz-636457

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Hezbollah media said it suffered no casualties and that the incident was one simply born of Israeli paranoia. The Jerusalem Post reported that there were three to five fighters in the Hezbollah group. Whatever the outcome, the key issue here is why Hezbollah did this in the first place. The group’s leaders knew that there was a very significant risk that their fighters would be engaged and killed. Considering that Israeli forces are not engaged in a military campaign against Hezbollah, the group’s risk-reward calculation here would seem to skew toward not attacking.

But there are two other factors.

First, Hezbollah has been significantly undermined by recent losses inflicted on it by Israel and the United States. The death, in January, of Hezbollah’s primary Iranian interlocutor, Qassem Soleimani, was a serious setback for the group’s work with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. That work centers on establishing a missile launching capability in southern Lebanon and southern Syria to enable Hezbollah’s targeting of major Israeli population centers. Hezbollah suffered another loss last week when one of its fighters was killed while guarding such a missile stockpile in Damascus. Hezbollah again referenced this loss on Monday, warning Israel, “Our response to the martyrdom of the Mujahid brother Ali Kamel Mohsen… is definitely coming, and the Zionists only have to wait for the punishment for their crimes.”

Were Hezbollah in a stronger position, it might fear an escalation in the form of punitive Israeli strikes. Yet the group’s increasingly precarious domestic situation likely alters that assessment. Lebanon’s economy is collapsing under the weight of decades of artificial currency manipulation and sanctions that have isolated Syrian investors from the Lebanese banking system. An international bailout is desperately needed. Hezbollah, however, is refusing to agree to the necessary economic and political reforms being demanded by the European Union and the U.S. in return for any bailout. The group knows these reforms would undermine the sectarian cronyism in which its power is rooted. But with populist anger growing over its intransigence and the crisis no closer to being resolved, Hezbollah risks its erstwhile political allies forming new alliances without it. And if that happens, the group will truly be in trouble.

It’s in this context that Hezbollah might view an exchange of violence with Israel as serving its short-term interests. Lebanese civil society tends to unify around Hezbollah during the conflict with Israel. Even for those who oppose Hezbollah, populist antipathy toward Israel offers a rare opportunity for a pretense of nationalist unity. So if, for example, Hezbollah kills a few Israeli soldiers, it will hope that any ensuing Israeli retaliation only strengthens its Lebanese nationalist credibility.

Iran’s hard-line leadership is also likely to favor short-term escalation. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is deeply upset at being caught between his own collapsing economy, a coronavirus catastrophe, and restored American deterrence against his escalation. If Hezbollah can give Israel a black eye, even if Israel strikes back far harder, Khamenei and the Revolutionary Guards will see it as boosting their own credibility. Iran will also regard this as delivering a veiled “We’re still powerful” threat to Iraq’s new prime minister, Mustafa al Kadhimi, who is adopting an agenda to mitigate Iran’s influence.

In short, expect new Hezbollah attacks in the days ahead.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/why-the-lebanese-hezbollah-is-escalating-against-israel

The post Why the Lebanese Hezbollah is escalating against Israel first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

WASHINGTON — The U.S.’s special representative for Iran Brian Hook has said that more than 1,000 Iranian citizens may have been killed in recent protests.

On Thursday, Hook told reporters that the U.S. assessment, which was higher than previous reports by news organizations and rights groups, was based on crowdsourcing and intelligence reports.

“We know for certain it is many, many hundreds,” he said.

Iran has disputed any figures on the death toll at this stage as “purely speculative” and “highly inaccurate.”

NBC News could not verify numbers of protesters killed in nationwide demonstrations that broke out on Nov. 15 in response to a 50 percent hike in gas prices.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on Friday her office had information that suggested at least 208 people were killed in the protests and had received video footage that appeared to show security forces shooting at unarmed civilians as they ran away.

“Verified video footage indicates severe violence was used against protesters, including armed members of security forces shooting from the roof of a justice department building in one city, and from helicopters in another,” Bachelet said in a statement. “We have also received footage which appears to show security forces shooting unarmed demonstrators from behind while they were running away, and shooting others directly in the face and vital organs – in other words shooting to kill.”

Bachelet, former president of Chile, said the incidents represented “serious violations of human rights” and expressed “alarm” at what she called Iran’s lack of transparency over casualties.

Amnesty International reported earlier this week that more than 200 people had been killed in the demonstrations.

Some Iranian experts inside the U.S. government have expressed caution about reporting on the death toll in the protests. While not denying that hundreds may have been killed, one expert noted that early counts are often inaccurate and are prone to double-counting. That caution, he said, has been relayed to U.S. policymakers.

Hook said that in addition to the hundreds allegedly killed and thousands injured, at least 7,000 protesters had been detained in Iran’s prisons.

He went into detail about a reported incident in which the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an elite branch of the Iranian military, allegedly opened fire on protesters killing as many as 100 people in a Mahshahr in southwestern Iran.

The U.N. rights commissioner Bachelet said that her office had received information “partially corroborating reports” that security forces used machine guns to fire on protesters fleeing or hiding in reed-beds in Mahshahr, leaving at least 23 dead and “possibly many more.”

The New York Times first reported the incident in Mahshahr.

Hook said the U.S. officials had received videos of the incident after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made a public request for protesters to share accounts of what was happening with the U.S. through secure channels.

Hook did not offer details about how the U.S. verified the video of the incident. NBC News could not independently verify the reports.

Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, called the casualty numbers “purely speculative and highly inaccurate.”

Miryousefi told NBC News that an investigation into what he called “disturbances” and “those affected, whether injured or killed,” was ongoing and that results would be released.

“The government will also try to compensate people for damages that occurred due to vandalism or foreign-motivated and instigated riots imposed on ordinary citizens,” he wrote in an email to NBC News.

Iran acknowledged Tuesday that its security forces shot and killed what it called “rioters” in multiple cities — the first time that authorities have offered any sort of accounting for the violence they used to put down the demonstrations, according to the Associated Press.

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, called Wednesday for those detained in the protests to be treated with “Islamic mercy.”

“The faster these cases are considered, the better and those who are suspected of being close to any group should be dealt with in a way that is closer to Islamic mercy,” Khamenei said, according to state-run IRNA news agency.

Khamenei also said citizens killed in the protests “without playing any part in instigating them” should be considered martyrs and their families should receive government stipends.

The demonstrations began after authorities raised minimum gasoline prices to 15,000 Iranian rials per liter, an equivalent of about 50 cents a gallon. After a monthly 60-liter quota, it costs 30,000 rials a liter. That’s nearly 90 cents a gallon. An average gallon of regular gas in the U.S. costs $2.58 by comparison, according to the AAA.

Widespread economic discontent has gripped the country since May last year when President Donald Trump imposed crushing sanctions after unilaterally withdrawing from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Tensions between Iran and the U.S. and its allies in the Gulf have been growing, with the Pentagon saying on Thursday that the U.S. was formulating plans to potentially deploy more U.S. troops to the Middle East in response to a growing threat from Tehran.

“The secretary and others are continuing to look at that threat picture and have the ability to dynamically adjust our force posture,” John Rood, defense undersecretary for policy, told senators, adding that so far no decision has been taken.

Abigail Williams reported from Washington, and Saphora Smith reported from London

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/u-s-says-iran-may-have-killed-1-000-protesters-n1096666

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The post Israel has not fully deterred Iranian aggression in Syria first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

(UPI) — Those who watched the spectacular volcanic eruptions in Hawaii in June will have seen the tremors and earthquakes that were followed by massive explosions, as great floods of molten lava burst from the ground and clouds of ash and toxic gas spiraled into the air.

This geophysical phenomenon has many parallels with the volcanic political situation in Iran, where civil unrest and repeated public tremors and protests are a clear warning of a massive eruption that is sure to happen and that will sweep the corrupt, fascist mullah regime from power.

The uprising, which began late last year and continues to this day, has shaken Iran. The nationwide protests covered all 31 Iranian provinces and 142 cities. The 80 million Iranian citizens, over half of whom are under 30, have made it clear that they are fed up with fundamentalist rule. They are fed up with living in poverty as the venally corrupt mullahs siphon off the country’s wealth to fill their pockets and to finance conflict and terror throughout the Middle East. Their chants of “death to Khamenei,” “death to Rouhani,” “death to the dictator,” “no Gaza, no Lebanon, my life for Iran, death to Hezbollah, leave Syria alone, think about us instead, death to the Islamic Republic and shame on you, mullahs,” have clearly demonstrated their hatred for the current suppressive regime and their demand for change.

Of course, the mullahs reacted to the crisis in their usual, time-honored fashion, sending in the regime’s gestapo, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who gunned down dozens in the streets and arrested over 8,000 protesters, 14 of whom have been tortured to death in prison. But the brutal crackdown has only served to deepen public hatred of the regime and to harden resolve for its ultimate overthrow.

A typical and horrific example of the Iranian regime’s medieval approach to what they call justice can be found in the case of the 51-year-old Sufi bus driver Mohammad Salas, who was hanged on June 18. Salas was arrested around 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 19 outside a police station where thousands of Gonabadi dervish protesters had gathered peacefully to protest the persecution of the Gonabadi dervish community in Iran. The regime reacted by using a water cannon and firing live ammunition into the crowd.

During the early evening, as the protest became increasingly violent, a bus careered into a group of police officers, killing three of them. Although this happened hours after Salas had been taken into detention, the regime was desperate to find a scapegoat. Salas was brutally tortured. His fingers, ribs and teeth were broken and he was taken unconscious to hospital. When he regained consciousness, frightened and disorientated, he was forced under duress to sign a confession, which he later retracted.

Despite protests of his innocence and a massive campaign by Amnesty International, the regime hanged him from a crane last month, then took his body hundreds of miles from Tehran, where he was buried in a secret grave so that his relatives cannot have his corpse examined for signs of torture. Amnesty said that this amounted to vengeance, rather than justice.

It is time the EU condemned this brutality. It is time they adopted effective measures to compel the regime to release the prisoners of the uprising and to stop the arbitrary use of torture and the death penalty. Iran now carries out more than half of all executions worldwide and many of these involve political prisoners and people who oppose the regime.

As a former Member of the European Parliament, I am ashamed when I see the EU placing more emphasis on trade and commerce than on human rights. The people of Iran expect Europe to be on their side. They expect their calls for democracy to be taken seriously. Human rights and women’s rights cannot be compromised or marginalized on the pretext of political considerations, trade deals or the nuclear agreement. Former U.S. President Barack Obama‘s appeasement policy, lamely followed by the EU, is dead in the water.

I do not see any way in which the current Iranian regime can survive. The Iranian people are no longer prepared to stand aside as the mullahs plunder their national wealth and turn Iran into a pariah state. The latest uprising has revealed the emergence of a courageous new force from within the heart of Iran’s long-suffering cities; a new force, prepared to risk their lives, to struggle for their rights and to fight for freedom and equality. This new force has, I believe, the capability of overthrowing the theocratic regime.

The bubbling miasma of nationwide protests in Iran is about to explode into a revolution of volcanic dimensions, driving the hated mullahs from power. The main democratic opposition movement — the Peoples Mojahedin of Iran and the National Council of Resistance of Iran led by Maryam Rajavi, has called for the restoration of peace, freedom, democracy, human rights, women’s rights, an end to torture and the death penalty, an end to the nuclear threat and an end to foreign meddling. Some 80 million Iranians pray fervently for that day.

{i:Struan Stevenson is coordinator of the Campaign for Iran Change. He has served as a Member of the European Parliament representing Scotland (1999-2014), president of the Parliament’s Delegation for Relations with Iraq (2009-14) and as chairman of Friends of a Free Iran Intergroup (2004-14). He is an international lecturer on the Middle East and president of the European Iraqi Freedom Association.}

Source: https://www.upi.com/Iran-on-verge-of-political-volcanic-eruption/8341530791098/

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