US-Iran conflict - Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association

Biden Special Envoy Warns US Must ‘Prepare” for Fully Nuclear Iran

Samuel Chamberlain — Wed, 13 Oct 2021 07:26:49 +0000

The Biden administration’s special representative for Iran admitted Wednesday that America and its allies must brace for a world in which Tehran’s theocratic government “doesn’t have constraints on its nuclear program” as talks aimed at reviving the moribund 2015 nuclear deal grind on in Vienna.

During an event hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Robert Malley said that the US has made clear to Iran’s representatives that “we are prepared to remove all of the sanctions that were imposed by the Trump administration that were inconsistent with the [nuclear] deal, and therefore we could get back to the business that we should have been on.”

“That’s where we are today, and I think that’s the choice that Iran faces,” Malley said. “Are they prepared to go back to that or do they want to choose a different path?”

Despite the White House’s overtures, Malley added, “the Iranians have refused to have direct communication with us, direct contact with us, so everything has been done through intermediaries.”

“It’s not a particularly constructive [format], it’s one that lends itself to delays, it’s one that lends itself to misunderstandings, and all of that has happened.”

Then-President Donald Trump withdrew the US from the nuclear deal in May 2018. Representatives of the other five nations who signed the pact — China, France, Germany, Russia and the United Kingdom — have taken part in six rounds of face-to-face meetings in the Austrian capital this year, with the US participating indirectly.

Iran has hinted it’s ready for more talks, but has not committed to a date. Meanwhile, it has blown through limits on its nuclear activities that had been set by the deal.

Last month, a US-based think tank reported that Tehran could produce enough weapons-grade uranium for an atomic bomb within a month.

“Every day that goes by, we’re getting a piece of Iran’s answer,” Malley said Wednesday. “Every day where they [the Iranians] are not coming back to the table, every day where they’re making statements about how little was achieved in Vienna, which is what the current team is saying, is telling us that this is a team that may not, in fact, be prepared to come back into what we would consider … full mutual return to compliance.”

“And so, of course, we have to prepare for a world, which we’re doing now in consultation with our partners from the region … where Iran doesn’t have constraints on its nuclear program and we have to consider options for dealing with that, which is what we’re doing even as we hope that we can get back to the deal,” he went on. “That is by far our preference. But as I said, Iran is giving us its answer by what it’s doing and not doing every day and we need to take that into account.”

Malley said he would be traveling soon to Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar to discuss the matter with leaders there.

Meanwhile, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said Wednesday that they have opened discussions on “other options” for action should the US rejoin the nuclear deal and Iran reject an offer to come back into compliance with it.

“Time is running short,” Blinken said at a joint event with Lapid and UAE Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. “We are prepared to turn to other options if Iran doesn’t change course, and these consultations with our allies and partners are part of it.”

Blinken did not elaborate on what those “other options” were, but noted ominously that “it takes two to engage in diplomacy, and we have not seen from Iran a willingness to do that at this point.”

“There are moments when nations must use force to protect the world from evil,” Lapid chimed in. “If a terror regime is going to acquire a nuclear weapon we must act. We must make clear that the civilized world won’t allow it. If the Iranians don’t believe the world is serious about stopping them, they will race to the bomb.”

Lapid had met Tuesday with Vice President Kamala Harris as well as National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to convey Israel’s concerns about the US rejoining the nuclear deal and restoring sanctions relief.

With Post wire

Source: https://nypost.com/2021/10/13/biden-special-envoy-warns-us-must-prepare-for-fully-nuclear-iran/

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New Alarm In US Over Iran’s Progress Toward Nuclear Bomb

Eurasia Review — Wed, 06 Oct 2021 10:22:34 +0000

Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Plant. Photo by Hossein Ostovar, Wikimedia Commons.

The US is alarmed by Iran’s progress toward obtaining an atomic weapon and hopes to resume talks soon to curb Tehran’s nuclear program, a top official in Washington said on Tuesday.

Iran’s nuclear activity was also at the center of talks in Washington between US and Israeli national security teams.

Israeli national security adviser Eyal Hulata and his White House counterpart Jake Sullivan joined a meeting of the US-Israel Strategic Consultative Group of diplomatic, military and intelligence agencies.

US President Joe Biden wants to reverse his predecessor Donald Trump’s decision to pull the US out of the 2015 deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in return for the lifting of economic sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.

Talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the deal are stalled over whether Iran or the US should take the first step. “The path in Vienna for negotiations does remain open,” a senior Biden administration official said on Tuesday. “The Iranians are sending indications to a number of parties that they are preparing to come back to Vienna and of course we will have to see whether they re-engage in that process.”

Despite skepticism among Gulf states and Israel, the Biden administration believes “very strongly that the diplomatic path remains the best,” the official said.

However, the official said the White House and Israel’s new government agreed that Iran had made rapid advances since Trump quit the 2015 deal and restored sanctions. “We have a common assessment of the extent to which Iran’s nuclear program has dramatically broken out of the box,” the official said.

“The breakout time, meaning stockpiles of enriched uranium and other ways to look at this, it’s gone from about 12 months down to a period of a few months. So obviously that’s quite alarming.”

The official said the US believed diplomacy would be “the best way to put a ceiling on the program and roll back the gains that Iran has made in recent years.” However, there was no movement toward the US lifting sanctions and if diplomacy failed “there are other avenues.”

“We think the onus right now is on the Iranian side,” the official said.

Meanwhile Iran has admitted that an Israeli sabotage attack in June on a uranium centrifuge workshop caused “severe damage,” after previously claiming that it had been thwarted.

Tehran demanded that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, “clarify its position” on the attack on the plant in Karaj, about 50km from Tehran.

Source: https://www.eurasiareview.com/06102021-new-alarm-in-us-over-irans-progress-toward-nuclear-bomb/

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Amid Nuclear Talks, Biden’s Latest Middle East Airstrikes Give “More Fuel” to Conflict with Iran

Democracy Now! — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 10:58:41 +0000

The post Amid Nuclear Talks, Biden’s Latest Middle East Airstrikes Give “More Fuel” to Conflict with Iran first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Pro-Iran militias launch rockets at US base in eastern Syria after air strikes

France 24 - AFP — Tue, 29 Jun 2021 23:12:01 +0000

Pro-Iranian militias exchanged fire with a US-led coalition in eastern Syria Monday, a war monitor and the coalition said, in an escalation after deadly US air strikes in Iraq and Syria the previous night.

US forces “were attacked by multiple rockets” in eastern Syria, but there were no casualties and personnel “conducted counter-battery artillery fire at rocket launching positions”, said coalition spokesman Wayne Marotto on Twitter.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor reported shell fire by Iran-backed militias against the US base in eastern Syria’s Al-Omar oil field, and said the coalition fired heavy artillery at the militia-controlled town of Al-Mayadeen in response.

The exchange of fire came just hours after Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared that US air strikes on pro-Iran fighters in Iraq and Syria on Sunday night sent a “strong message” not to keep attacking US forces in Iraq.

The US air strikes were the second such deadly raid on pro-Iran targets since US President Joe Biden took office, and have sparked fears of a new US-Iran escalation amid faltering efforts to revive Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

“This action in self-defence… sends a very important and strong message,” Blinken told reporters on a visit to Rome.

“I would hope that the message… will be heard and deter future action,” he added, referring to repeated attacks against US interests in Iraq that Washington blames on pro-Iran groups.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhemi decried the strikes as an “unacceptable violation of Iraqi sovereignty and Iraqi national security”, while Damascus condemned a violation against both nations.

The Hashed al-Shaabi, an Iraqi paramilitary alliance that includes several Iranian proxies and has become the main power broker in Baghdad, said the strikes killed four of its fighters in the Qaim region, near the border with Syria.

The fighters were stationed there to prevent jihadists infiltrating Iraq, the group said, denying that they had taken part in any attacks against US interests or personnel and warning they had “the legal right to respond… and hold the perpetrators accountable on Iraqi soil”.

The Pentagon said the strikes targeted operational and weapons storage facilities at two locations in Syria and one in Iraq, all near the common border, used by militias engaged in drone attacks against US interests in Iraq.

‘Flagrant violation’

Kataeb Hezbollah and Kataeb Sayyid al-Shuhada, two Iraqi Shiite armed factions, were among the “several Iran-backed militia groups” that had used the facilities, the Pentagon said.

The Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria, said seven fighters were killed in the strikes and at least six more were wounded.

The targets included an arms depot near Albu Kamal, a Syrian border town on the Euphrates River, the Observatory said.

Syria’s state-run SANA news agency said one child was killed, while its foreign ministry condemned the raid as “a flagrant violation of the sanctity of Syrian and Iraqi territory”.

US interests in Iraq, where 2,500 American troops are deployed as part of an international coalition to fight the jihadist Islamic State group, have been targeted in more than 40 attacks this year.

The vast majority have been bombs against logistics convoys, but rocket fire and drones packed with explosive have also been used.

Some attacks have been claimed by pro-Iran factions hoping to press Washington into a full withdrawal, leaving Baghdad — which counts both Washington and Tehran as allies — caught in the middle.

Iraq’s foreign ministry said that the government was proceeding with investigations to “prevent any escalation”, while Kadhemi re-emphasised his country’s “refusal to be an arena for settling scores”.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian reaffirmed “France’s support for the stability and sovereignty of Iraq”, but deplored the “unacceptable attacks… against the interests” of the anti-IS coalition.

Lebanese Shiite movement Hezbollah “strongly” condemned the air strikes.

“What the US warplanes have done is a blatant attack on sovereignty… the region will not enjoy stability… until US forces are expelled” from Iraq and Syria, the pro-Iran group said.

Nuclear talks wobble

Some of the militia groups that form the Hashed al-Shaabi have been deployed in war-torn Syria over the years to support regime forces and to further Iran’s interests in the country.

In February, US strikes on facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran-backed militia groups left more than 20 fighters dead, according to the Observatory.

The latest US strikes come days after the US and France warned Iran that time was running out to return to the 2015 nuclear deal, voicing fears that Tehran’s sensitive atomic activities could advance if talks in Vienna drag on.

A return to that accord has been a key focus for Biden after the nuclear deal was trashed by his predecessor Donald Trump, who also imposed devastating new sanctions on Iran.

The UN’s nuclear watchdog said Friday it had received no reply from Tehran over the possible extension of a temporary agreement covering inspections at Iranian nuclear facilities, which expired a day earlier.

(AFP)

Source: https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20210629-pro-iran-militias-launch-rockets-at-us-base-in-eastern-syria-after-air-strikes

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Iran rejects ending 20% enrichment before U.S. lifts sanctions, state TV says

Ynet News — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 06:38:14 +0000

U.S. President Joe Biden and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani – Photo: AP, Office of the Iranian Presidency

Following reports Washington would offer new proposal to jump-start talks, Tehran threatens to further reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal if U.S. fails to comply with demands while window of opportunity is fast closing.

Iran will not stop its 20% uranium enrichment before the United States lifts all sanctions, Iranian state TV quoted an unnamed official as saying on Tuesday in reaction to a U.S. media report that Washington would offer a new proposal to jump-start talks.

The Biden administration has been seeking to engage Iran in talks about both sides resuming compliance with the deal, under which economic sanctions on Tehran were removed in return for curbs on Iran’s nuclear program to make it harder to develop a nuclear weapon – an ambition Tehran denies.

“A senior Iranian official tells Press TV that Tehran will stop its 20-percent uranium enrichment only if the U.S. lifts ALL its sanctions on Iran first,” state-run Press TV said on its website.

“The official said Tehran will further reduce its commitments under the 2015 nuclear deal if the U.S. does not lift all sanctions, warning that Washington is rapidly running out of time,” it added.

Politico said a U.S. proposal, the details of which it said are still being worked out, would ask Iran to halt some of its nuclear activities, such as work on advanced centrifuges and the enrichment of uranium to 20% purity, in exchange for some relief from U.S. economic sanctions.

Centrifuge machines in the Natanz uranium enrichment facility in central Iran – (Photo: AP)

Source: https://www.ynetnews.com/article/r1gjQNeB00

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Iran knows ‘how to drive a truck through American weakness,’ Mike Pompeo tells Arab News

Arab News — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 06:08:52 +0000

Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke, in an exclusive interview with Arab News, about the sustained threat the Iranian regime poses. (AN Photo/Screenshot)

Former secretary of state says protecting US soldiers in Middle East requires strong response to Iran’s actions
Says to deny Saudis “capacity to defend themselves is just crazy” and blames Houthis for blocking aid in Yemen

RIYADH: The US administration has a responsibility to push back against efforts to undermine Saudi Arabia, former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says in an exclusive interview with Arab News, adding that to deny the Saudis “the capacity to defend themselves is just crazy, and yet that appears to be the direction this administration is taking.”

He says “the Iranian leadership understands how to drive a truck through American weakness” and that deterring the regime will require “a consistent, sound message” and “a willingness to impose a cost.”

Pompeo has also voiced strong opposition to the Biden administration’s lifting of the Yemeni Houthi militia’s terrorist designation, pointing out that “no one disputes that the Houthis are terrorists and no one disputes that the Iranians are underwriting them.”

In the interview, he touched on a number of important issues including the spike in attacks on Saudi population centers and oil infrastructure, Iranian perceptions of the Biden administration’s foreign-policy moves, the Houthis’ role in exacerbating the humanitarian crisis in Yemen, and the Trump administration’s handling of US-Saudi relations.

“In the end, the Iranian leadership, the (Supreme Leader) Ayatollah (Ali Khamenei) and all those around him understand one thing: They understand power. And when they take action and they see weakness or they see appeasement or they have an expectation that there will be appeasement, they’re going to continue to act out,” Pompeo said.

Sounding a blunt warning, he said: “So, whether it’s the effort that you have seen from the missile strikes that (the Iranians) have undertaken, or the efforts they have taken to continue to put pressure on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to deny what we all know, their clandestine program, clandestine sites where they had WMDs that weren’t declared — those are the kind of things we will continue to see until the world, not just the United States, but the whole world, the E3 (UK, France, Germany) included, says that ‘That’s enough, we’re not going to allow this to happen anymore.’”

Pompeo was a congressman from Kansas who later served as CIA director under President Donald Trump before being nominated and confirmed as secretary of state in 2018. On his watch, the US adopted a campaign of “maximum pressure” to isolate the Iranian regime and kept open the option of a military strike to “keep Americans” safe.

Since leaving office in January, Pompeo has hit the speaking circuit and refused to rule out a potential 2024 presidential bid if his former boss, Trump, does not run. In addition to saying that he wants to help Republicans and advocate for conservatives, Pompeo has scolded the new US administration for refusing to put America first, especially in the context of the Middle East.

Pompeo told Arab News what makes him concerned is not just the “signals that the (Biden) administration sends; it’s the policy direction that they have indicated they intend to go.”

“They have made very clear that they would prefer to re-enter some kind of negotiation that’s closely tied to the 2015 JCPOA,” he said, referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal.

The deal was reached in July 2015 between Iran and the P5+1 (the five Permanent Members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) together with the European Union. The Trump administration withdrew the US from the JCPOA in May 2018, citing the flaws of its temporary nature, its lack of controls on Iran’s ballistic missile program and Iran’s “malign behavior” in Syria and elsewhere in the Middle East.

“Let’s go look at the actions. So far, the administration has de-designated a terrorist organization. No one disputes, no one disputes that the Houthis are terrorists. And no one disputes that the Iranians are underwriting them,” Pompeo said.

“This administration said: ‘We’re going to take them off the list.’ This administration worked alongside the IAEA to say ‘No, were not going to issue a report about this material that was at undeclared locations.’

“They now are going to allow money from the IMF and from the Republic of Korea to flow into Iranian coffers. These are the kinds of concessions, before there’s been any conversation about actually even entering into a negotiation. This connotes weakness and, I promise you, the Iranian leadership understands how to drive a truck through American weakness.”

Describing Saudi Arabia as “an important security partner” for the US, Pompeo said: “For an awfully long time, I think we neglected this (fact). When we get this right, we can put fewer of our young men and women, American young men and women, overseas in the Middle East facing risk, and we can support them.”

Elaborating on how this could be achieved, he said: “It always begins with a commitment, a diplomatic commitment, a commitment from the president of the United States, that says we understand that you in Saudi Arabia have the right to defend yourself when there are missiles being launched into your country. To deny them the capacity to defend themselves is just crazy, and yet that appears to be the direction this administration is taking.

“Second, we worked with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on a broader range of issues, weapons sales, things that would provide security for the people of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

Pompeo rejected the common critique that the Trump administration ignored human rights in the process. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” he said. “We supported the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as it began to open up inside, to allow women to be more active and to do many things which had been prohibited for an awfully long time. And real progress was made.”

He argued that the Trump administration did call out the Kingdom when mistakes occurred. And in the case of the killing of Jamal Khashoggi, the administration did sanction the operatives who were implicated.

At the time, the Kingdom admitted that a number of agents had exceeded their authority and ended up killing the journalist in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, in 2018. A trial followed and five Saudis were sentenced to death with another three given jail time over the killing.

Still, Pompeo reiterated that having a “deep security relationship with the Kingdom is central to American security and also to security throughout the Middle East.”

He drew a sharp contrast between Trump’s Middle East policy and that of his successor.

“We had three primary lines of effort. The first was to build a coalition against the largest state sponsor of terror in the world, the Iranian regime. And we did that,” he said.

“We built a coalition that included Arabs and Israelis. It included others too who were prepared to help us patrol the Straits of Hormuz. We built a real global coalition against Iran to deter military attack.

“Second, we put enormous economic pressure on the Iranian regime. We sanctioned them; we made sure that they couldn’t sell their crude oil around the world — all the things that would force the Iranian regime to make hard decisions about how to spend resources.

“If you want to underwrite Hezbollah, you have to have less money to feed and care for your people. If you want to support the Iraqi militias, if you want to help the Assad regime in Syria, we made them face difficult financial constraints with the hope that they would ultimately conclude that building out their nuclear program, and continuing to build their missile program, wasn’t in their country’s best interests.”

Pompeo continued: “The third thing we did is we supported the Iranian people. This is different to what the Obama administration did. We were very mindful that the Iranian people themselves want a life that is not terribly different than that people all around the world want — and that the theocrats, the kleptocrats in power in Iran today, (may) have the weapon systems but not the hearts and minds of the Iranian people.

“So, we did everything we could to support the Iranian people. Those three key pillars of our policy were the right direction. They were the thing that would create the best deterrent from Iran attacking Arab countries, provided the most assurance that the Iranian stated intent to wipe Israel off the face of the map, would not come to fruition.”

Pompeo says there is no reason to second-guess the Iranian regime’s mindset. “They’ve made it very clear they are prepared to do things all around the world, with what they see as securing their rights around the world,” he told Arab News.

“So, I talked about this when I was secretary of state a great deal, (about) their efforts to conduct assassination campaigns all across Europe.

“You’ve seen some of their actors arrested and imprisoned in Europe, after they’ve been caught. It always befuddled me to watch the E3 continue to cozy up to the Iranians and the JCPOA deal to say ‘No, this is the right direction,’ when in fact the Iranians were trying to kill people inside each of their countries.

“We certainly see that here in the United States too. We shouldn’t forget it wasn’t all that long ago that the Iranians had a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador right here, not very far from where I’m sitting here today in Washington D.C.

“They’ve a global campaign, a global espionage campaign, a global assassination effort, all in defense of a handful of senior leaders inside of Iran who are siphoning off the remaining funds available to the Iranians. We can’t continue to underwrite this.

“We can’t relieve these sanctions, until Iran releases all the American prisoners, until Iran comes to understand that it is unacceptable to engage in this kind of behavior. To reward that, to reward them with financial resources, only gives them an incentive to continue to do this and provides them with the capital to continue these programs.”

Moving on to his decision to designate the Houthis a “foreign terrorist organization,” Pompeo told Arab News: “Of course. It was a simple step that was made by the (Trump) administration. It was straightforward. It didn’t take any great heavy lifting.

“But, look, the (Biden) administration can’t deny that these are terrorists, yet (it has) now said (the Houthis) are not terrorists. I understand the concerns that the world has about the humanitarian challenges inside of Yemen. Indeed, the Trump administration spent a great deal of American taxpayers’ money — and we convinced the Saudis and the Emiratis to do the same — to make sure that ordinary people in Yemen didn’t suffer famine.

“We worked really hard on this. We made sure, the best we could, that food got into that country. But the people who were preventing global aid from reaching those who actually needed that food and that medicine were, in fact, the Houthis.”

Alluding to President Joe Biden’s decision to drop the militia’s “terrorist” label, he said: “The Houthis have now demonstrated that if you continue to block routes of transit, if you continue to threaten ports, if you continue to take real estate, as they’re trying to do in Marib today, if they continue down that path, they’ll be rewarded with sanctions relief. That’s the wrong direction. They understand power. We’ve now demonstrated that we’re prepared to give them something when, in fact, they gave up nothing.”

Last week, Brent crude futures jumped above $70 for the first time in more than a year after Saudi oil facilities were targeted by missiles and drones. A petroleum tank farm at one of the world’s largest oil shipping ports was attacked by a drone while a ballistic missile targeted Saudi Aramco facilities, according to state news agency SPA. Shrapnel from the intercepted missile fell near residential areas in the city of Dhahran.

“You’ll recall that when the Saudi Aramco facility was targeted during our administration, I made (it) very clear where those missiles came from. They didn’t come from Yemen. These were Iranian missiles launched by the Iranians,” Pompeo told Arab News.

“This continued effort to undermine the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and to threaten people, whether they’re in Dhahran — where there are many, many Americans — or they’re in Riyadh, is something that poses a real threat to stability throughout the Middle East.

“Our administration here in America, administrations all throughout Europe, have a responsibility to push back against this and impose real cost on the Iranians for this kind of misbehavior. It’s quite something that, somehow, missile launches of Iranian missiles have now become, (for) this administration at least, something that isn’t viewed as requiring a direct response.

“There are few places in the world where this would be permitted to happen without a serious response from the Western world, and that would include a serious response, at least rhetorically, from the United Nations. I hope that that takes place.”

Pompeo said while it is “hard to know day-to-day” whether the risk today is higher than what it was a week or two weeks ago, we know this: Deterring the Iranian regime requires a consistent, sound message and a willingness to impose costs on the Iranian leadership.”

So, what does Pompeo make of the US military strikes in Syria last month on a site used by two Iranian-backed Iraqi militia groups, ostensibly in response to rocket attacks on American forces in Iraq? President Biden later described the strike as a message to Iran: “You can’t act with impunity, be careful.”

Pompeo said that “if the response to Iranian aggression is to throw some missiles into the desert, or hit a supply building in Syria, which imposes almost no cost on the Iranian regime itself, if those are the responses, then there is little “likelihood of being able to establish deterrents to protect and defend our soldiers who are stationed all across the Middle East, not just in Saudi Arabia, but throughout all the Middle East.

In his view, “we have an obligation to get that right and it’s going to take a strong American response to deter them.”

Encouraged perhaps by the successful campaign to get Biden to end the Trump-era Houthi “terrorist” designation, some religious, political and humanitarian leaders have recently signed a letter calling on the US president to lift economic sanctions on Syria. But Pompeo considers the Caesar Syria Civilian Protection Act “really important.”

“The great news was it was a bipartisan effort, this wasn’t just the Trump administration,” he told Arab News. “It empowered me as then-secretary of state to take real actions and respond under the authority of the Caesar Act. It was very effective. It put pressure on Syrian businessmen who had deep connections to Iran. It put pressure on Hezbollah and businesspeople who were underwriting Hezbollah.

“It was incredibly effective. I hope the Caesar Act and the enforcement of that by the administration will continue.”

Note: several short videos of Mike Pompeo interview by Arab News

Source: https://www.arabnews.com/node/1823276/middle-east

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Iran’s president claims ‘big victory’ in legal efforts to end US sanctions

AP via The Times of Israel — Thu, 04 Feb 2021 14:41:51 +0000

Rouhani applauds UN court’s decision to hear case filed in 2018 over the legality of sanctions reimposed by Trump.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani delivers a speech before the heads of banks, in Tehran, Iran, January 16, 2020. (Office of the Iranian Presidency via AP)

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s president Thursday applauded a ruling by the International Court of Justice that it can hear Iran’s case against the US seeking to end sanctions, calling it a “big victory” for the Islamic Republic.

A report by state-run IRNA news agency said President Hassan Rouhani congratulated the nation on its legal “victory” over the US.

“I congratulate the Iranian people on a very big victory the government achieved yesterday at the Hague, and this is one of several victories that the government has gained against America at the tribunal,” he said in remarks carried by State TV.

The United Nations’ highest court ruled Wednesday that it can hear a case brought by Iran against the United States. It seeks to end sanctions the administration of former President Donald Trump re-imposed in 2018 after pulling out of an international deal aimed at curtailing Tehran’s nuclear program.

US President Donald Trump signs a document reinstating sanctions against Iran after announcing the US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House in Washington, DC, on May 8, 2018. (AFP PHOTO / SAUL LOEB)

Lawyers for the US argued at hearings last year that the case should be thrown out by the court for lack of jurisdiction and admissibility.

Iran filed the case in July 2018, a few months after then-President Donald Trump said he was pulling the US out of the 2015 international agreement and would re-impose sanctions on Tehran. Washington also threatened other countries with sanctions if they didn’t cut off Iranian oil imports by early November.

Iran alleges the sanctions breach a 1955 bilateral agreement known as the Treaty of Amity that regulates and promotes economic and consular ties between the two countries.

The ruling Wednesday came as US President Joe Biden is seeking to enhance diplomacy toward Iran.

The court based in The Hague, Netherlands, had ruled in favor of Iran in a preliminary ruling in October 2018, saying that Washington should “remove, by means of its choosing, any impediments arising from” the re-imposition of sanctions to the export to Iran of medicine and medical devices, food and agricultural commodities and spare parts and equipment necessary to ensure the safety of civil aviation.

The US sanctions do have specific carve-outs for medicine and humanitarian aid to Iran. However, international banks and financial institutions hesitate in dealing with Iran transactions for fear of being fined or locked out of the American market.

Source: https://www.timesofisrael.com/irans-president-claims-big-victory-in-legal-efforts-to-end-us-sanctions/

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Iranian missiles land within 20 miles of ship, 100 miles from Nimitz strike group in Indian Ocean: officials

Lucas Y. Tomlinson | Fox News — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 23:34:24 +0000

Officials say at least one missile landed 20 miles from a commercial vessel.

EXCLUSIVE: Long-range missiles from Iran splashed down close to a commercial ship in the Indian Ocean Saturday and 100 miles from the Nimitz aircraft carrier strike group, Fox News has learned, in the latest example of rising tensions in the region.

U.S. officials say at least one of the missiles landed 20 miles from the commercial vessel but refused to offer more specifics about the ship, citing privacy concerns. The officials requested anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence.

Iran tests missiles frequently. Senior U.S. military officials say 100 miles was a long way from the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz. Another source says these missiles did not cause alarm, and this was a fairly standard routine exercise.

Twenty miles near a commercial vessel is more concerning, but not seen as a threat by the U.S. military, another source said.

At least two Iranian ballistic missiles exploded on impact when they hit the ocean, sending shards of debris in all directions.

The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) steams ahead while participating in Malabar 2020 in the North Arabian Sea. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Keenan Daniels)

“We were expecting the missile launch,” one official said, but there was some concern just how close Iran was willing to push the envelope.

In May of last year, the Iranian Navy said more than a dozen people died during training when it hit one of its own warships with a missile, Forbes reported.

While 100 miles is well over the horizon and not visible from the aircraft carrier or its escort ships, American spy satellites orbiting high above in space tracked the missile launch from the Islamic Republic. It’s not immediately clear if the AN/SPY-1 radar aboard the guided-missile cruiser escorting the aircraft carrier Nimitz tracked the launch.

Nimitz has remained in the northern Arabian Sea on the orders of President Trump through the inauguration. Earlier this month, the Pentagon reversed course and ordered the Nimitz not to return home, but instead to turn around and remain in the region. The aircraft carrier put to sea in early April from Washington state after the crew quarantined onboard pierside for two weeks.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claims its’ long-range ballistic missiles fired off Saturday morning flew more than 1,000 miles into the northern portion of the Indian Ocean — just days before President Trump leaves office.

President-elect Joe Biden has expressed a desire to return the United States to the landmark nuclear deal with Iran that Trump abandoned.

Iranian forces have conducted a host of military exercises in recent days, including firing cruise missiles from Southeast Iran into the sea.

Earlier this week, in a show of force, an American guided-missile submarine armed with more than 150 Tomahawk cruise missiles lurked near Iranian naval exercises near the Strait of Hormuz.

An Iranian helicopter filmed the USS Georgia, which the submarine crept along at periscope depth. The “feather” behind the periscope was visible on the surface, as well as the broad outline of the submarine just beneath the surface. The video released in Iranian media made the submarine appear like a massive, manmade Great White shark in the clear water.

The U.S. Navy’s 5th Fleet, for the first time in nearly a decade, released photos of the submarine transiting the Strait of Hormuz near Iran in late December along with a pair of U.S. guided-missile cruisers.

The Iranian missile launches Saturday come days after the one-year anniversary of Iran firing ballistic missiles at a base in Iraq housing American troops. No Americans were killed, but more than 100 suffered head injuries. The Iranian attack came five days after U.S. forces killed Iran’s most powerful general, Qassem Soleimani, in Baghdad while he was leaving the airport, along with Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, leader of Iran’s proxy forces inside Iraq.

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In recent days, Iran has released new videos of both the killing of Soleimani in the U.S. drone strike ordered by President Trump and of the ballistic missile barrage fired into Iraq last year.

In December, more than 20 rockets were fired at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, the largest attack on the American diplomatic compound in a decade, officials said. There was concern Iran would strike again in the days leading up to the one-year anniversary of the U.S. killing of Soleimani.

Lucas Y. Tomlinson is a Pentagon correspondent for Fox News Channel. Follow him on Twitter: @LucasFoxNews

Source: https://www.foxnews.com/world/iranian-missiles-100-miles-nimitz-strike-group-indian-ocean

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Iran reveals new missile base on the Persian Gulf

Deutsche Welle — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 00:17:50 +0000

Iranian military forces have shown off their Naval Missile Facility on the coast of the Persian Gulf and boasted of their extended defensive capabilities.

The new facility was built on the Persian Gulf, a hotly contested maritime region that plays a key role in global oil exports

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) published photos of a new underground missile base on the coast of the Persian Gulf on Friday, amid increasing tensions between the Islamic Republic and the US.

“The base is one of several bases housing the Guards’ Navy’s strategic missiles,” state media quoted IRGC Chief Commander Hossein Salami, regarding the base located somewhere in the province of Hormozgan.

“Our logic in defending the territorial integrity, the independence of the country, and the achievements of the Islamic Revolution is strengthening,” Salami said, according to the national newspaper Mehr News.

Strengthened defensive capabilities

The commander also boasted that the new Naval Missile Facility held long-range missiles with pin-point precision and “huge destructive power.”

Salami claimed that the base would strengthen Iran’s defensive capabilities, especially against “the enemy’s electronic warfare equipment.”

Rising tensions between the Islamic Republic and the US came to a head-on Monday when Revolutionary Guards seized a South Korean tanker in the straits of Hormuz.

The relations between the two sides were put under extra strain after President Donald Trump pulled the US out of the 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed heavy sanctions on the country.

Open hostilities almost broke out in January 2020 after the assassination of Iran’s top general Qassim Soleimani by a US drone strike in Iraq.

Top Iranian lawmakers have shown a willingness to return to negotiations with President-elect Joe Biden, however, the country’s powerful conservative establishment has continued to stoke the flames with a promise to ramp up uranium enrichment.

A warning to Iran’s enemies

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also spoke on Friday in a live television broadcast praising the country’s defensive capabilities.

He claimed that with the ability to shoot down drones and hit the US Ain al-Assad air force base in Iraq — in response to Soleimani’s death — the country’s foes would have to take into account Iran’s ability to militarily defend itself.

The Persian Gulf has been a repeated zone of conflict between the US and the Islamic Republic

The IRGC said last year that they had built underground “missile cities” along the Gulf coastline, warning of a “nightmare for Iran’s enemies.”

Salami praised the developments of Iran’s defense systems highlighting the “great progress at the level of target intelligence systems, search systems, as well as missile radar systems.”

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/iran-reveals-new-missile-base-on-the-persian-gulf/a-56170071

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South Korea presses Iran over seized oil tanker as Gulf tensions rise

Deutsche Welle — Thu, 07 Jan 2021 13:11:14 +0000

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps troops on Monday seized the South Korean-flagged MT Hankuk Chemi

A South Korean delegation left for Iran on Thursday to negotiate the early release of an oil tanker and its crew seized in strategic Gulf waters this week.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps troops on Monday stormed the South Korean-flagged MT Hankuk Chemi as it navigated the Strait of Hormuz, a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman, and forced the vessel to a nearby Iranian port.

Iranian officials said the vessel was seized for violating maritime environmental laws as it was carrying 7,200 tons of “oil chemical products.”

The Guards said they arrested crew were from South Korea, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Myanmar.

“I plan to meet my counterpart at the Iranian Foreign Ministry and will meet others through various routes if it will help efforts to resolve the issue of the ship’s seizure,” Koh Kyung-sok, the chief delegate, and the director-general of the South Korean Foreign Ministry’s Middle Eastern affairs department, was quoted as saying before boarding the plane to Tehran.

The strait of Hormuz is a narrow waterway between the Persian Gulf and the Gulf of Oman

Tensions spiral in the Gulf

Iran’s seizure of the tanker came after Tehran had urged Seoul to release the $7 billion (€5.7 billion) of Iranian assets frozen in South Korea under US sanctions.

The money was frozen in South Korean banks after President Donald Trump withdrew the US from a multilateral agreement which limited Tehran’s nuclear enrichment activities in exchange for a relaxation of international economic and financial sanctions.

President Trump then slapped unilateral trade and financial sanctions on Iran.

The US had initially provided South Korea with a waiver to avoid implementing the new sanctions, but those lapsed, essentially forcing Seoul to freeze the Iranian assets.

Iran’s move to seize the vessel also coincides with Tehran’s announcement that it will increase the level of uranium enrichment at its Fordo nuclear facility to 20%, well above that agreed to with several countries, including the US, until Trump’s withdrawal from the deal in 2018. Uranium enriched to 90% is required to fuel nuclear weapons. Iran claims its nuclear program is strictly for peaceful purposes.

Meanwhile, January 2 marked the one-year anniversary of the assassination of General Qassem Suleimani, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force, in a US drone attack.

Tension between the Islamic Republic and the United States has been running high in recent weeks, as Tehran marked the assassination, and Washington deployed military assets to the region, including the return of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz and repeated sorties of pairs of strategic B-52 bombers over the Persian Gulf.

Concerns over the potential for a military confrontation between the US and Iran have been voiced from several quarters over the past few weeks. President Trump threatened Iran over a rocket attack by Tehran-backed Iraqi militants near the US Embassy in Baghdad on Christmas Eve.

Iran has responded to the US military moves, with its Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif accusing Trump of manufacturing a pretext to attack Iran in the waning hours of his administration.

The crisis also follows the assassination of Iran’s top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh on November 27, an attack still shrouded in mystery.

Washington has deployed more military assets to the Persian Gulf, including the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier USS Nimitz

A lot of uncertainty

All this adds up to a lot of moving parts and a lot of uncertainty, says Cheong Wook-sik of the South Korean NGO PeaceNetwork. Like most observers, Cheong places little credence on the validity of Iran’s “pollution” justification for seizing the oil tanker.

He suggests the move is more likely designed to generate leverage over the US in terms of a potential return to the Iranian nuclear agreement (formally called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA), initially negotiated when incoming US President Joe Biden was vice-president, and a supporter of the deal concluded under President Barack Obama.

“For South Korea to release the $7 billion in Iranian funds held in South Korean banks it would require some type of waiver from implementing the US sanctions, or for the US to return to the JCPOA,” Cheong told DW, adding: “The Iranian government also hopes the South Korean government will ask the new incoming Biden administration to lift the economic sanctions against Iran.”

Although there is significant concern frequently voiced in the public sphere over the potential for Trump to initiate a crisis in his last days in office, the incoming Biden administration provides hope for a significant drawdown of tension, said Cheong.

Changes in US policy will be required, he pointed out.

“In order to revive the Iranian nuclear deal, the United States, especially the new administration, should lift economic sanctions and return to the Iranian nuclear deal. At the same time, Iran should stop the enrichment of uranium fuel to 20% at the Fordo facilities,” he said. “These two things should be done simultaneously. If so, the Iranian frozen assets issue can be resolved, and the seized South Korean ship returned.”

A mediating role?

South Korea may represent a perfect intermediary between the US and Iran. South Korea had imported a significant portion of its oil from Iran prior to United Nations Security Council sanctions imposed before negotiating the JCPOA deal. Also, historically, Seoul has had good diplomatic relations with Tehran for decades. Cheong views the ship seizure very much through the lens of geopolitical strategy.

“The Iranian government wants to send a message to the United States, that if the United States does not lift economic sanctions, the Iranian government can exact revenge on US allies such as South Korea. At the same time, South Korea can play some kind of mediating role between Iran and the United States on these issues.”

Still, the risk of a military flare-up is there. The seizure, the enrichment, and the anniversary, says Cheong, “can trigger reactions from Israel and the United States.”

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu has argued for a strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, suggesting the increase in enrichment provides evidence Iran is seeking nukes and not nuclear fuel for peaceful purposes.

Although South Korea said it is committed to resolving the ship seizure issue diplomatically, that resolution will likely require the involvement of Washington and the next US administration.

“I hope that the Biden team sends some message — officially or unofficially — after its inauguration on January 20 … to seek dialogue with the Iranian government for resolving the current issues peacefully, such a message would weaken the hardliners in Iran, Israel, and the United States and strengthen the doves,” said the PeaceNetwork director.

Source: https://www.dw.com/en/south-korea-iran-oil-tanker-sanctions/a-56156528

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