Israel’s defense establishment has raised the alert level in northern Israel, following an attack on Damascus widely believed to have been perpetrated by Israel.

In that attack, two Iranian officers were killed.

In an announcement aired on several Iranian media, the Revolutionary Guards warned that Israel “will pay for its crime.”

The Monday airstrike was reportedly carried out from Lebanese airspace, in the southern Beirut region.

On Tuesday, Iranian media reported that two members of the Revolutionary Guards had been killed in the strike.

Source: https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/323788

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The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK) announced on Sunday the death toll of the coronavirus has surpassed 32,200. The MEK’s revelation and the regime’s corruption and deadlock in handling the crisis have intensified the regime’s fear of an uprising and the mullahs’ infighting.  

In this regard, the regime’s First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri said: “This country has enemies and dissidents who are spread across the globe, and they have media outlets at their disposal. They are constantly pumping to take hope away from the people and leave them disappointed. [Media outlets and others] inside the country should not do the same. In such circumstances, it is not expected from us to take hope away from the people. Why should we be giving a goal assist to the satellite media networks, so they can question our entire state, and say they have lost billions of dollars and now they say we don’t have money?”  

“Our Health Ministry has coordinated numbers with the World Health Organization. Each day when they intend to announce their stats, there are voices who immediately say these numbers are not true. They pump these reports to leave the nation disappointed and hopeless,” he added.  

The regime’s bogus claims of inventing a new remote device that uses a “magnetic field” with a “bipolar virus inside” that can detect the novel coronavirus within 100 meters and has over 80 percent of accuracy; and that there is no other device like this in the world, was rather a joke and further exposed the regime’s duplicity.  

In a failed attempt to clean this mess, Hesameddin-e Ashena, an advisor to the regime’s president Hassan Rouhani, wrote on twitter: “In a situation where the public is confronted with strange news every day, do not advertise for innovative and unique virus– detecting devices without the official approval of the Ministry of Health.”  

In response to Ashena, the state-run Rah-e Dana wrote: “After the coordinated attack by the anti-revolutionary elements and the MEK to the Revolutionary Guards public service [by creating the device] to fight novel coronavirus, Ashena warned the national TV to not advertise virus-detecting devices without the government’s approval.”  

“What Ashena did was to copy the MEK. This happens under such circumstances that [the rival factions] media, politicians and critics of Rouhani’s government have sacrificed all their differences with the government and fully support the government despite its wrong decisions.”  

In another development, in an interview with Khabar Fori website on April 6, 2020, Akbar Torkan, former Minister of Defense and Transportation under Rafsanjani and former advisor to Rouhani, expressed fear over the disclosures of the facts by the Iranian Resistance. “The new Iranian calendar year is going to be a tough one… in addition to Coronavirus, we have to watch out for the Tirana virus. We are now facing two viruses, one is Coronavirus, and the other is the Tirana virus, which is the capital of Albania. Some 1,500 members of the MEK are based in camps there, where they sit behind computers in the state-of-the-art halls waging psychological and internet warfare against the Islamic Republic every day. All members of the MEK have been organized to wage psychological warfare against the Islamic Republic from there… They spread rumors and lies as much as they can.” 

The regime’s real fear, as reflected in its top officials’ speeches and writings in the state-run media, is of another wave of the Iran protests. On March 14, the state-run Mizan News Agency, which is affiliated with the Iranian regime’s judiciary, published an analysis conducted by the “Asra think-tank” over the Iranian society’s current situation after the coronavirus outbreak, titled “Coronavirus and confrontation at several fronts.” This think-tank, which is affiliated with the regime’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, wrote: “With a severe shortage of goods and commodities, there is a possibility of a rebellion. But whether there will be national uprisings against the regime, the extent of the people’s resilience to the crisis should be mentioned. Crossing the line of resilience and the lack of a centralized crisis management mechanism can turn local and regional uprisings into nationwide uprisings. Linking the corona crisis in Iran with past developments, including November 2019, creates a rebellion process.” 

On Tuesday, April 7, “Iran-Emrouz state-run daily wrote: “We are going to have a major social upheaval after the Coronavirus is over. The situation is not going to be calm. It is going to be exactly like the period after the 2017 elections (uprisings), and we are going to see repeated and powerful incidents.” 

In another development, Haghshenas, the head of Tehran City Council’s health commission told the state-run daily Asr-e Iran on April 19: “The wrong statistics could endanger people’s lives and cause irreparable damage to people’s lives and property, and bring about liability both legally and morally. If the NCCT officials do not provide accurate and clear information, they could be charged with manslaughter and should be held accountable for all these deaths for failing to make the right decision and perform duties properly.” 

On Sunday, state-run Aftab-e Yazd daily, while quoting Gholam Ali Jafarzadeh, a deputy of the regime’s parliament, wrote: “We have a high unemployment rate in the post-Coronavirus era … We currently have between 3 and 5 million unemployed. Just imagine what would be the situation if another one million is added, especially among the country’s active population.” “There will be a high unemployment rate, closure of small and large enterprises, rise in prices of goods, horrifying inflation rate. We are going to have a terrifying post-Coronavirus era; fever in our sick economy will rise, and we will face a severe economic fever,” he added. 

As it has been repeatedly said by Mrs. Maryam Rajavi, the president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI): “People’s health and lives are worthless to Ali Khamenei and Hassan Rouhani, the mullahs’ supreme leader and president. Their only objective is to preserve their own rule and protect it against popular uprisings in Iran.”  

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US forces walking past a drone in the Ain al-Asad airbase in the western Iraqi. Photograph: Ayman Henna/AFP via Getty Images

The US treated 11 of its troops for symptoms of concussion after an Iranian missile attack on an Iraqi base where US forces were stationed, the US military said on Thursday, after initially saying no service members were hurt.

The attack was retaliation for a US drone strike in Baghdad on 3 January that killed Qassem Suleimani, the commander of the elite Quds force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

Donald Trump and the US military had said there were no casualties after the strike on the al-Asad airbase in western Iraq and a facility in its northern Kurdish region.

In his speech on 8 January responding to the strike, Trump said: “The American people should be extremely grateful and happy no Americans were harmed in last night’s attack by the Iranian regime. We suffered no casualties, all of our soldiers are safe, and only minimal damage was sustained at our military bases.”

Capt Bill Urban, a spokesman for US central command, said in a statement on Thursday: “While no US service members were killed in the 8 January Iranian attack on the al-Asad airbase, several were treated for concussion symptoms from the blast and are still being assessed.”

As a measure of caution, some service members were taken to US facilities in Germany or Kuwait for “follow-on screening”, he added.

“When deemed fit for duty, the service members are expected to return to Iraq,” he said.

As many as 1,500 Americans were deployed at the vast base deep in Iraq’s Anbar desert.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jan/16/iran-missile-attack-us-military-troops-hurt

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Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was likely told of the US drone strike on General Qassem Soleimani before the attack.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is understood to have briefed Israel ahead of time about their plans to kill the revered military leader who was the powerful head of Iran‘s elite Quds Force.

Pompeo spoke to Netanyahu on the phone on Wednesday night, ostensibly to thank him for Israel’s help after the attack on the US embassy in Iraq, according to The Times of Israel.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was likely told of the US drone strike by Mike Pompeo before the attack (pictured together)

The Israeli Prime Minister tweeted hours before the drone strike that ‘very, very dramatic things are happening’ in the region

But on Thursday morning, hours before the attack in Baghdad, Netanyahu forewarned about ‘very, very dramatic things’ happening in the region.

He tweeted: ‘I want to make one thing clear: We fully support all of the steps that the US has taken as well as its full right to defend itself and its citizens.

‘Moreover, we know that our region is stormy; very, very dramatic things are happening in it. We are alert and are monitoring the situation.

‘We are in continuous contact with our great friend the US, including my conversation yesterday afternoon.’

Just hours later, Soleimani and other top officials were killed in the airstrike which could have far-reaching and catastrophic consequences.

But it appears the US did not brief allies other than Israel of the impending attack, with Britain not given any notice ahead of the airstrike.

The strikes resulted in the deaths of Qassem Soleimani (left), chief of the elite Quds Forces arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, as well Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, 66, (right) commander of a pro-Iran Iraqi militia

In a statement after Pompeo’s call with Netanyahu, the US State Department said: ‘Secretary Pompeo thanked Prime Minister Netanyahu for Israel’s unwavering commitment to countering Iran’s malign regional influence and its condemnation of the December 31 attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad.

‘The Secretary and Prime Minister reaffirmed the unbreakable bonds between the United States and Israel.’

After the strike, Netanyahu praised the US and Donald Trump and gave his full support behind the killing, saying the President acted with ‘determination, strongly and swiftly’.

Pompeo has since briefed other foreign ministers in Britain, Germany, and China, stressing that Trump was countering a real and imminent threat to US lives in the region.

He also said the President is committed to deescalating tensions despite the initial outcry after the attack.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7851877/Benjamin-Netanyahu-warned-plans-kill-Qassem-Soleimani-ahead-drone-strike.html

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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaks following a meeting of the UN Security Council at UN headquarters in New York, U.S., August 20, 2019. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson – Photograph: LUCAS JACKSON

The United States will take every action it can to prevent an Iranian tanker sailing in the Mediterranean from delivering oil to Syria in contravention of U.S. sanctions, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned on Tuesday.

Greece said earlier in the day that it had not had a request from the Adrian Darya 1, the vessel at the center of a dispute between Iran and the United States, to dock at one of its ports, as Washington warned Greece against helping the vessel.

The tanker, formerly called Grace 1, left Gibraltar on Sunday. Ship-tracking data on Tuesday showed the vessel was heading toward the Greek port of Kalamata on the southern coast of the Peloponnese and was scheduled to arrive next Monday.

“We have made clear that anyone who touches it, anyone who supports it, anyone who allows a ship to dock is at risk of receiving sanctions from the United States,” Pompeo told reporters at the United Nations.

“If that ship again heads to Syria, we will take every action we can consistent with those sanctions to prevent that.”

He said that if the tanker’s oil was sold, the revenue would be used by elite units of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. “We want to deny them the resources to continue their horrific terror campaign,” Pompeo said.

The tanker is carrying about 2 million barrels of oil.

“The vessel is cruising at low speed and there is still no formal announcement that it will arrive at Kalamata. The Merchant Marine Ministry is monitoring the matter along with Greece’s Foreign Ministry,” a Greek Shipping Ministry spokesman said.

The ship, which is now sailing under an Iranian flag, was released from detention off Gibraltar after a five-week standoff over whether it was carrying Iranian oil to Syria in violation of European Union sanctions.

Soon after the detention order was lifted, a U.S. federal court ordered the seizure of the vessel on different grounds, but that petition was rejected by Gibraltar.

Tehran said any U.S. move to seize the vessel again would have “heavy consequences”. The United States, in turn, has also conveyed its “strong position” to the Greek government over the tanker.

Washington wants the tanker detained on the grounds that it had links to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which it has designated a terrorist organization.

The European Union, of which Greece is a member, bans oil sales to Syria and the United States has sanctions on Iranian oil sales.

IMPACT ON DETAINED UK TANKER?

The fate of the Adrian Darya 1 could also have a bearing on that of a British-flagged tanker seized by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz leading into the Gulf two weeks after British Royal Marine commandos seized what was then known as the Grace 1.

Speculation has mounted that the Stena Impero could be freed once the Adrian Darya 1 had set sail, although Iranian officials have denied any link between the two cases.

Deputy Transport Minister Mohammad Rastad said the case of Stena Impero had been submitted to a court in the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, the semi-official news agency Tasnim reported, without giving a date when it would be heard.

The handling of the Adrian Darya 1 will be a major foreign policy test for Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, a pro-Western conservative elected in July.

Any efforts to assist the tanker could be construed as providing material support to a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization, which has immigration and potential criminal consequences, a U.S. State Department official said.

A Greek diplomatic source cited by the state Athens News Agency said the country was in communication with the United States on the matter but did not say what Greece would do.

“(The U.S.) position on the specific issue is known and has been communicated not only to Greece but other states and ports in the Mediterranean,” the source said.

It is standard practice for a vessel to give 48 hours’ notice before docking at a port, Greek officials said.

It was not clear where the ship might head if Greece refused it permission to dock.

Cyprus, farther east, has bitter experience from seizing Iranian products destined for Syria. Munitions it confiscated exploded in 2011, causing the island’s worst peacetime disaster.

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Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy commander of the elite Revolutionary Guards, criticized Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s 12-point plan for potentially reaching a new nuclear agreement with Iran after President Donald Trump withdrew from the 2015 deal earlier this month. In his first major policy speech as top U.S. diplomat, Pompeo said last week that any new agreement would have to include an Iranian commitment to end support for militant groups abroad and ballistic missile development, something Iranian officials have roundly rejected.

“They think Iran should end the development of its missile (program),” Salami said at a ceremony in Tehran, according to Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency. “Since they cannot force us, they ask us to do it, ourselves.”

“No one can destroy our missile power and if they are afraid they can go to shelters,” he added.

An Iranian military truck carries missiles past a portrait of Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during a parade on the occasion of the country’s annual army day on April 18, 2018 in Tehran. Iran’s production of non-nuclear missiles and support for foreign groups were not covered by the 2015 nuclear accords reached under the administration of former President Barack Obama.ATTA KENARE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The Revolutionary Guards are widely considered to be Iran’s top fighting force, and they have been involved in regional conflicts as well. Like the U.S., Iran is involved in the government-led battle against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) in Iraq, but Iran also supports the Syrian government against ISIS and insurgents, whereas the U.S. backs a mostly Kurdish coalition that also includes Arabs and other ethnic minorities operating mostly outside of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s control in Syria.

In both countries, Iran has backed Shiite Muslim groups considered terrorist organizations by the U.S., including the Lebanese Hezbollah movement in Syria and Kataib Hezbollah in Iraq. Iran’s successful anti-ISIS campaigns in both Iraq and Syria have expanded its regional foothold, but have also produced a violent flare in hostilities between international-backed campaigns. In past months, U.S. and Israeli forces have conducted deadly airstrikes against Iranian and pro-Iran groups in Syria.

Related: Iran Tells U.S.: We Were Invited to Iraq and Syria, What About You?

While not listed as a terrorist organization by the State Department, Yemen’s Zaidi Shiite Muslim Ansar Allah, or Houthi movement, has also been accused of receiving Iranian backing by the U.S. and its Saudi Arabian ally. The insurgents have fired missiles at Saudi Arabia as the kingdom leads a war to expel them from the Yemeni capital of Sanaa.

The U.S. has also alleged Iranian support for Sunni Muslim-designated terrorist groups such as the Palestinian Hamas, Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Iran has charged the U.S. with clandestine support of ISIS, which grew out of an Al-Qaeda-led insurgency following the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and a 2011 Syrian uprising backed by the West, Turkey and Gulf Arab states.

A graphic shows the extent of Iran’s ballistic missile program. The U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia accuse Iran of destabilizing the region, but Iran has warned it will continue developing its weapons to defend its borders.CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES MISSILE DEFENSE PROJECT

Trump’s May 8 withdrawal from the Iran nuclear agreement came despite pleas for the U.S. to remain by European allies and other leading powers. With U.S. nuclear-related sanctions going back into effect, Iran has expressed skepticism about staying a party to the deal, but Tehran’s diplomats have met with fellow signatories China, France, Germany, Russia and the U.K. in an attempt to salvage it.

The U.S. and Iran have been deeply mistrustful of one another since the 1979 Islamic Revolution brought the current theocratic leadership to power in Iran, ousting a pro-West absolute monarch who was reinstalled by a CIA coup in 1953. The countries have not maintained formal relations for decades and U.S. allies Israel and Saudi Arabia have pushed Trump to adopt a tougher policy against Iran.

Source: http://www.newsweek.com/iran-says-no-can-destroy-our-missile-power-not-even-us-948120

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