Dutch Gov’t Halts Funds to NGO Linked to Terrorists
As a direct result of NGO Monitor research, the Dutch government is halting €8 million in funding, over three years, to the Palestinian NGO known as “UAWC.” The Dutch announced that it will also conduct an external investigation into UAWC’s ties to the PFLP terror group.PreOccupiedTerritory: European Gov’ts Aghast At Notion They Shouldn’t Fund Palestinian Violence(satire)
NGO Monitor has long warned of UAWC, a major recipient of Dutch funds, and its ties to the PFLP terror group. Our research shows that since 2013, UAWC has received nearly $20 million from the Netherlands. During the past year, NGO Monitor researched and published its findings in a detailed report, briefed officials, and wrote a number of open letters to Dutch officials on this issue. The evidence we provided led to a number of parliamentary questions.
The Dutch government initially denied the allegations. However, after an internal review in the framework of parliamentary discussions, the Minister of Development confirmed NGO Monitor’s findings. She admitted that its funds were used to pay the salaries of two senior UAWC employees who were arrested for the murder of a 17-year-old Israeli in August 2019.
NGO Monitor applauds the Dutch decision. We hope that the belated funding freeze will be followed by serious sanctions, a demand for return of Dutch funds, and the implementation of strict guidelines to prevent future misuse of public money.
Continental states voiced shock today upon encountering the criticism of their providing money to Palestinian groups and individuals who engage in terrorism against Israel, and asserted that objections to those aid policies constitute a violation of the countries’ sovereign right to violate the sovereignty of Israel.Mladenov warns: PA at risk of total collapse due to COVID-19, annexation
Various figures in the national governments of the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, France, Sweden, and several individual German states, as well as of the European Commission itself, expressed outrage this week at mention of the notion that they must not fund violent activities against Israel, Israeli Jews in particular. The figures gave indignant responses to questions highlighting the provision of European aid money to convicted Palestinian terrorists, to organizations run by Palestinian terrorists, and to Palestinians who have supported terrorism against Israel either in material or rhetorical form.
“What an absurd suggestion,” spat Anne Tijsemeit, a deputy minister in the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “Why would anyone think it improper to support Palestinian national self-determination by any means, including but not limited to paying Palestinians who murder Jewish teenage girls? It’s almost as if the parties suggesting it think it not coincidental that the Netherlands boasted the highest percentage of its Jews killed in the Holocaust among all Western European countries.”
“Impudence, that’s what it is,” remarked a German official in the state of Hesse. “It is the height of arrogance to tell Europeans they may not contribute to the curtailment of Jewish rights, as if such rights even exist in the European psyche. Whoever argues for us to take into account the concerns of Jews about their safety and security must have forgotten whom they’re addressing.”
The Palestinian Authority is on the verge of “total collapse” due to the twin combination of COVID-19 and Israel’s pending annexation plans, UN Special Coordinator to the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov warned on Tuesday.UN official, in recording, talks of getting US ‘off the UN's back,’ preventing cuts with whistleblower system
“May salary payments were delayed due to an 80 per cent reduction in Palestinian revenues,” Mladenov said. “It is unclear whether the Palestinian Government will have sufficient resources to make any future salary payments or, indeed, to continue to carry out its governing functions in the coming months,” Mladenov told the UN Security Council during its monthly meeting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
During the first wave of the virus Mladenov praised the joint Israeli-Palestinian efforts to combat the disease. Now that the second wave has hit, Mladenov said, the two sides were more at odds.
“We are far below the level of coordination that existed in the beginning of the year,” Mladenov said.
“This situation could have serious repercussions on the ability to control [COVID-19’s] spread and its impact on people’s lives,” he added.
Steps to combat the second round of the pandemic have been hampered by the PA’s response to Israel’s pending annexation plans, Mladenov explained. This has included the PA’s decision to “end” its security coordination with Israel and its refusal not to accept tax revenues from Israel.
A recording of a U.N. investigator talking about a system to speed up U.N. investigations that “gets the Americans off the U.N.’s back” and avoids the U.S. reducing its financial contribution is sparking fresh calls for the Trump administration to do exactly that.
Emma Reilly, a United Nations whistleblower who has faced retaliation for reporting illegal practices that she said put the lives of activists and their families in danger at the U.N. Human Rights office, has called on Secretary of State Michael Pompeo to implement a law that calls for the U.S. to defund the U.N. by 15 percent for noncompliance of its whistleblower protection policy.
Her letter includes a transcript of an undercover recording, which has been reviewed and verified by Fox News, where the head of U.N. investigations talks about cutting down investigative times while keeping the U.S. from complaining.
Ben Swanson, the director at the Investigations Division at the U.N. Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS,) is heard in the December 2018 meeting of his staff discussing an updated system to speed up investigations of staff accused of retaliating against the complainant.
Swanson, a U.K. national, starts by saying that “this whole thing of retaliation has got the potential to cause us massive, massive problems if we get it wrong.”
Melanie Phillips: China's persecution of its Muslim citizens
Detainees have been subjected to a “re-education” program that includes what one escapee described as horrific physical abuse, including forced organ removal, abortions and medical “experiments”.
Another smuggled document has revealed more about the scale and purpose of these abuses. As the BBC reported in February:
“In early 2017, when the internment campaign began in earnest, groups of loyal Communist Party workers, known as ‘village-based work teams’, began to rake through Uighur society with a massive dragnet.
“With each member assigned a number of households, they visited, befriended and took detailed notes about the ‘religious atmosphere’ in the homes; for example, how many Korans they had or whether religious rites were observed.
“The document detailed how China has used the concept of ‘guilt by association’ to incriminate and detain whole extended family networks in Xinjiang… In fact, the title of the document makes clear that the main individuals listed all have a relative currently living overseas – a category long seen as a key indicator of potential disloyalty, leading to almost certain internment”.
The document gives many reasons for internment. “The most frequently listed is for violating China’s strict family planning laws. In the eyes of the Chinese authorities it seems, having too many children is the clearest sign that Uighurs put their loyalty to culture and tradition above obedience to the secular state.”
Nor is such repression confined to the Uighurs of Xinjiang. Last year, Emily Feng reported that the regime was cracking down on the Hui Muslims, China’s third largest minority, who are concentrated in the Ningxia region and who do not share the radical profile of the Xinjiang Muslims.
In schools across the Xinjiang region, the Chinese Communist Party penalizes Uyghur students and members of other Muslim minority groups for speaking their native language and forbids praying and wearing any religious attire on campus. pic.twitter.com/AorX0AyWvH
— Department of State (@StateDept) July 21, 2020
China to UNSC: Palestinians can count on us to back their just rights
China stands behind the "just cause” of the Palestinians, its UN envoy Zhang Jun told the United Nations Security Council, as he pledged China’s backing for the internationally led peace process, rather than one headed by US President Donald Trump.
“China supports [Palestinian Authority] President [Mahmoud] Abbas’s call for an international peace conference and to enlarge the multi-lateral mechanism for peace,” Zhang said.
China “would positively consider participating” in such a conference “in appropriate ways,” he said.
“It is important for us to heed the voice and concerns of the Palestinian people as well as countries in that region,” Zhang said.
He referenced a solidarity call that Chinese President Xi Jinping made to Abbas on Monday, in which he reiterated Beijing's “firm support” for the Palestinian’s “just demand” for a two-state solution.
“China is a sincere friend of the Palestinian people. The Palestinian people can always count on China’s support for their just cause and legitimate national rights,” Zhang said.
He took an apparent swipe at United States support for Israel, when he called on “countries having influence on Palestine and Israel to stay impartial and just in promoting peace talks.”
Despite locking up 1 million Uighur Muslims in camps, disappearing whistleblowers and crushing Hong Kong, China's Communist regime will win a seat on the U.N.'s highest human rights body, here at the European Headquarters of the United Nations. Will any EU country speak out? 🇪🇺🚨 https://t.co/Hx2NUE6t0R
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) July 21, 2020
Report: Hamas, Fatah to join forces against Israeli annexation plan
Fatah and Hamas are set to cooperate on issues regarding Israel's plans to apply sovereignty to part of the West Bank, Palestinian officials told Lebanon's al-Akhbar newspaper on Tuesday. They did not say whether this would signal a rapprochement that would end the 13-year acrimony between the rival Palestinian factions.Turkey loses F-35s and gets pressured on Mediterranean drilling
Senior Fatah and Hamas officials met in Gaza on Tuesday to discuss a joint rally they plan to schedule in the coming days, Saudi television outlet Al-Resalah reported.
"This will open a new era of relations between Hamas and Fatah," said Hussam Badran, a senior Hamas official.
Hamas, designated as a terrorist group by the EU, US, Israel, and several other countries, ousted Abbas' Fatah-led government from the Gaza Strip in a military coup in 2007, effectively splitting the Palestinian territories into two political entities. All efforts made over the past decade to promote a reconciliation between the rival Palestinian factions – the latest brokered by Egypt in late 2017 – have failed.
Despite a possible speech by Mahmoud Abbas, many Palestinians remain deeply skeptical about the willingness of the two sides to reach an agreement.
Earlier this month, the rival movements pledged to "unite" against Israel's plan to annex parts of the West Bank.
During a rare joint press conference, Fatah and Hamas, respectively in power in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, had said they wanted to "turn a new leaf," but offered no details on how this may be done.
Turkey, whose government attempts to create regional crises every month in order to stoke tensions from Libya to Armenia, is now running into increased pressure to stop its escalation of activities in the Mediterranean. It comes as the US Air Force agreed to acquire the F-35s that were meant for Turkey but which Ankara lost because it prefers Russia and Russian S-400s to working with US NATO members.Erdogan Says Turkey Will Remain in Syria ‘Until Syrian People are Free’
Ankara is increasingly dominated by a militarist, nationalist and extremist government that has recently sent thousands of Syrian mercenaries to Libya, has been bombing minorities in Iraq and has also threatened to involve itself in the Azerbaijan-Armenia conflict. Turkey has also been involved in northern Syria, stoking extremists and spreading instability in areas from Afrin to Tel Abyad. But it is in the Mediterranean that the next clash may come.
Let’s start with the F-35 fiasco. Turkey was a partner in the F-35 program, was supposed to have had its soldiers training on the planes and was going to receive them. However, Ankara decided in 2017 to buy Russia’s S-400 air defense system instead. The US urged and begged Turkey not to, with one US senator even proposing that America buy the Russian system from Turkey to help Turkey save face. Now it is official: The US will buy eight F-35A warplanes that were meant for Turkey, according to Defense News. This also includes “six F-35As built for the Air Force and modifications that will bring the Turkish jets in line with the US configuration.”
Meanwhile, Turkey has been criticized by the US for Mediterranean activity that has raised tensions with Greece. The US State Department, which is usually very pro-Ankara, critiqued Turkey’s plans for operations around the Greek island of Kastellorizo and any work in disputed waters off the island. Kastellorizo is just two kilometers from the Turkish coast and around 40 km. from the larger Greek island of Rhodes. The island is the easternmost edge of Greece and is considered one of the prettiest and smallest of the Dodacanese islands. It has a population of several hundred, and Turkey likely views it as low hanging fruit to test Greece, because Greek fighter pilots have to fly furthest to get to it.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that Turkish forces, which have carried out several incursions into northern Syria since 2016, would remain in the country until Syrians can live in freedom and safety.Poland has an anti-Semitism problem. Here’s how the Trump administration could help fight it.
“Nowadays they are holding an election, a so-called election,” Erdogan said of a parliamentary election on Sunday in Syria’s government-controlled regions, after nearly a decade of civil war.
“Until the Syrian people are free, peaceful and safe, we will remain in this country,” he said in a speech in Ankara.
During my four years as the State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, I was exposed on numerous occasions to one of the great truisms of the past few centuries of Jew-hatred. There are two forms of evils that are frequently, inextricably linked— anti-Semitism and authoritarianism.Iranian Hezbollah Poised for Large-Scale Attack on Israel, Says Former IDF Officer
There is no better illustration of the relationship between rising authoritarianism and anti-Semitism than the recent presidential campaign in Poland.
The successful campaign of the ruling Law and Justice party to re-elect President Andrzej Duda was not just about Jews. It was a campaign that relied heavily on attacks against foreigners and minorities of all stripes, especially the LGBTQ community. Duda pledged to ban LGBTQ adoption and same-sex marriage. He said “LGBT ideology [was] more destructive than communist indoctrination.” The ruling party employed the slogan “LGBT are not people.”
They also displayed anti-Semitism in shocking, crude ways.
Though Poland once was the home of one of the largest Jewish communities in the world, today there are only approximately 10,000 Polish Jews remaining, a tiny minority in a country of 40 million. The attacks on Jews during this campaign demonstrate that in a nation where checks on state power, judicial independence and press freedoms are being rapidly eroded, anti-Semitism can thrive even when there are few Jews to target.
The Iranian terror group Hezbollah is laying the groundwork for a large-scale attack on Israel’s northern border, according to new warnings from a former member of the Israel Defense Forces' Intelligence Corps.Iranian retaliation: Not 'if' but 'when'
Hezbollah forces have been building complex tunnels and amassing arms along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon in recent months, generating concerns the Iranian-backed terror group is planning a large-scale attack reminiscent of its 2006 cross-border raid that resulted in the deaths of three Israeli soldiers and the capture of two others.
The militant group is consolidating its forces and conducting movements reminiscent of the lead-up to that 2006 attack, according to former IDF intelligence officer Sarit Zehavi, who spent 15 years in the Israeli military and now runs the Alma Research and Education Center, which has been investigating Hezbollah movements along the border area with Israel. Zehavi briefed reporters on the developing situation on Wednesday during a call hosted by Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Despite the coronavirus pandemic, which has hit the Middle East particularly hard, both Iran and its affiliates in Hezbollah have communicated a growing desire to strike Israel. A series of mysterious explosions across Iran targeting its military and nuclear infrastructure have exacerbated tensions with Israel, which Tehran suspects of conducting the recent attacks.
Zehavi, who lives near the Israeli border with Lebanon, said she has tracked a significant increase in Hezbollah traffic in the area, including recent operations likely meant to test Israel’s border security. In recent weeks, the IDF discovered at least six complex tunnels stretching from Lebanese territory into Israel. The tunnels stretch more than 250 feet into the ground and run for nearly a mile, enabling Hezbollah to smuggle hundreds of soldiers into Israeli border towns. These tunnels—which have electricity, air conditioning, and phone lines—"prove that somebody can actually cross with nobody noticing," according to Zehavi.
The Iranian sphere is experiencing one of its most tumultuous times in recent years. From mysterious explosions on military bases and in nuclear facilities to strikes on its assets in Syria, everyone naturally rushes to attribute every event to Israel's desire to prevent the Islamic republic from increasing its grip on the Middle East and obtaining nuclear weapons.Israeli Airstrikes Reportedly Kill 5 Militants in Syria as IDF Foils Iran-Backed Plot
A careful study of the details, however, shows that Israel – were it to admit anything – could take only part of the credit.
While it is not farfetched to see how Israel could have been behind the explosion in the advanced centrifuge plant in Natanz, which Iran admitted caused "significant damage" to the facility considered key to its nuclear program, its seems others may have been involved in the other "mishaps" across the country.
Israel has always made it a point not to systematically target civilian infrastructure and has only ever done so in retaliation to a similar attack against its own civilian setups.
Israel is also immediately named as being behind any incident in Syria, but while Jerusalem has made it no secret that it has – and will – target Iranian assets there, the real target bank is considerably smaller than foreign and social media reports would have you believe.
The most recent strike attributed to Israel – Monday's bombing of a weapon depot south of Damascus – teaches us that Iran is once again trying to deliver advanced weapons to Hezbollah in Lebanon via direct flights to Syria.
It also shows that, despite its own dire economic crisis and being crippled by the coronavirus pandemic, Tehran is determined to continue with its plan to entrench itself militarily in the Middle East.
Activity at the #Lebanon-#Israel border near Shebaa Farms. Unclear what the cause of the smoke is but IDF activity is suspected. pic.twitter.com/rEiavy7eKP
— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) July 22, 2020
Court gives Ari Fuld murderer life sentence; awards family damages
The Judea Military Court on Tuesday sentenced the convicted murderer of well-known American-Israeli activist Ari Fuld to one life sentence for murder and for three attempted murders.Six years after St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul was killed in Gaza, MKs demand action
In addition, the court granted a large “legal price tag” style monetary award of NIS 1.25 million to the Fuld family as part of the sentence.
Both the award and the jail time, which was less than multiple life sentences, were less than what the Fuld family had sought, but marked an end to the painful saga.
Palestinian Khalil Yusef Ali Jabarin was convicted by the Judea Military Court in January for the murder, as well as for three other attempted murders.
Fuld, 45, was stabbed in the upper back on September 16, 2018, outside the Gush Etzion shopping center by then 17-year-old Jabarin of Yatta, a village located south of Hebron.
"Every murder has two victims," said Ari's widow, Miriam Fuld in the lead up to the trial, "the victim and the family left in its wake."
"Ari was a hero in his life, loved his fellow man, loved the Land of Israel, loved the State of Israel," she continued. "And he protected them – whether serving in active military service still at the age of 45 or in educating the younger generation, or teaching self-defense or posting articles and videos in social media."
She said that even in the last moments of his life he chased his killer with a fatal wound in his back to make sure the terrorist did not hurt anyone else.
Six years after St.-Sgt. Oron Shaul’s body was taken by Hamas after he was killed during Operation Protective Edge in the Gaza Strip, MK Michal Cotler Wunsh has called for the terror group to be held accountable.
“For six years, discussions of prisoner swaps as the means of retrieving Oron Shaul, along with his comrade Hadar Goldin and Israeli citizens Avera Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, have been the norm, as if Israel and the international community should accept paradigms dictated by terrorist groups, and release those that have murdered its citizens in order to retrieve what is rightfully theirs,” she told the Knesset plenary on Tuesday.
“For six years, the world has for the most part remained silent, issuing statements without any follow up, in spite of the fact that Hamas is in overt violation of international laws. Exacerbating this is the continued provision of cash and humanitarian aid by foreign governments claiming to uphold these international laws,” she said, adding that “I ask that my colleagues in the Knesset and in parliaments around the world utilize the language of rights to hold Hamas to account and demand an end to this culture of impunity.”
On July 20, 2014, Shaul entered the Shejaiya neighborhood of Gaza City in an armored personnel carrier with six other soldiers. The APC was struck by a Kornet anti-tank missile fired by Hamas, killing all those inside.
On This Day 2017: A Palestinian terrorist broke into the house of the Salomon family in Halamish. They were sitting together for Shabbat dinner. He brutally stabbed 3 of them to death.
— Israel in Ireland (@IsraelinIreland) July 21, 2020
May their memory be a blessing. 🕯 #Israelpic.twitter.com/ycVFovDc9h
PMW: PA: Become a Martyr and “be led in a wedding procession” to 72 virgins
Since the Palestinian Authority started its terror campaign – the second Intifada - in 2000, it has been promising terrorist Martyrs that as Muslims they will be rewarded in Paradise with 72 Dark-Eyed Virgins. The promises are given in religious lessons, statements by political figures, and poems and music videos, while funeral notices are worded as “wedding” announcements. Becoming a Martyr, the PA teaches, represents the highest religious achievement that can be attained in Islam today.PA encourages Martyrdom:“The Martyr of the revolution will be led in a wedding procession”
Another two examples have joined Palestinian Media Watch’s collection of such music videos that are used by the PA to encourage Palestinians to seek death and become “Martyrs” for “Palestine.” One of them specifically repeats the promise of the Martyrs’ wedding.
The music video – which visually glorifies the Palestinian “armed struggle” by focusing on military training and weapons - reminds viewers that death as a “Martyr” is really a “wedding” to the 72 Virgins of Paradise:
“The Martyr of the revolution will be led in a wedding procession
on the day that Martyrdom-death is granted to him”
The other music video has been used in the PA’s recent attempt to incite the atmosphere among Palestinians and teaches that “the Martyrs’ blood illuminates our path”:
Song glorifies the rifle: “Now I have a rifle… the rifle is the cause… I'll wear death”
UN's @nmladenov warns 'PA at risk of total collapse due to COVID-19, annexation.' Perhaps if Palestinian Auth spent less on salaries to terrorist and more on investing in peace & their own people, situation would be different?https://t.co/b3pHTeL7ta
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) July 22, 2020
A 53-year-old Palestinian, detained by Hamas on charges of collaboration with Israel, has died in a hospital in the Gaza Strip. The man had been sentenced to death.
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) July 22, 2020
Nasser Salah al Din Brigades published a 17 minute video documenting its actions during the 2014 #Gaza war. A shooting operation against an IDF soldier is featured and various testimonials from family members of Nasser militants killed by the IDF. #Israel pic.twitter.com/I0GbvCgTGA
— Joe Truzman (@Jtruzmah) July 22, 2020
Gaza's beach just got an upgrade. This new complex, called "SeaSide Platform", opened a few days ago, and it includes food kiosks, large seating area and a kids' playground. #TheGazaYouDontSee pic.twitter.com/u8vDSyOwnX
— iTi (@iTiIL972) July 22, 2020
Jordanian MP Dr. Mohammad Nouh Qudah: Allah Created Arabs As Masters Of The World To Guide Non-Arabs While They Do The Actual Work; Arabs Have Different Genes And Traits Than Non-Arabs pic.twitter.com/jIAgSk8eKE
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) July 22, 2020
The "Maximum Pressure" on Iran's Regime
For almost four decades, Iran's regime has been squandering the nation's resources on terror and militia groups... It is estimated that the regime has spent more than $100 billion on its nuclear program.Covert Strikes on Iran See Success Where Diplomacy Found Failure
Many employees of the government, including coal workers and railroad workers, have been protesting unpaid wages and salaries. One protester told Iran News Wire, "I wish I would get COVID-19. Many of us do. Committing suicide is hard but we wish for death every day. What we have is not a life."
Some of Iran's authorities have publicly announced that they also do not have money to pay their mercenaries abroad.
Iran's mullahs have no one to blame but themselves for the country's drastic economic situation. They simply need to start prioritizing their own people over sponsoring and funding terror and militia groups across the region.
“Israel’s attack on Osirak was a major mistake,” the former director of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Hans Blix, told me a while back. Mr. Blix, a Swede, had then just ended his stint as top United Nations arms inspector in Iraq.MEMRI: IRGC Navy Commander Tangsiri: 'We Have Floating Underground Cities [sic] And Coast-To-Sea Missiles; We Have Cities With Missile-Launching [Capability]... We Are Your Nightmare'
Click Image to Enlarge
While Israel’s storied Operation Opera destroyed Saddam Hussein’s atomic plant In 1981, he said, it then motivated the Iraqi strongman to vigorously renew efforts to obtain a bomb, a headache for the non-proliferation community.
There is, though, a counter argument, one that is highly relevant right now. “To this day Iraq doesn’t have a nuclear weapon,” says Ephraim Asculai, an Israeli who had worked as an IAEA official in the 1980s. Saddam, Mr. Asculai told me, tried to revive his nuclear program, but he then got sidetracked, invading Kuwait and getting bogged down in confrontations that led to his demise — with no nukes in hand.
The pursuit of a bomb by the Assad clan at Syria ended similarly, never to be rebuilt, after Israel, in 2007, bombed its nascent nuclear facility in Deir ez-Zor. Iran’s nuclear program suffered a setback in 2010, after a joint Israeli-American cyber attack, Stuxnet, slowed its centrifuge production.
Five years ago, America changed its own strategy, collaborating with the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council, plus Germany, in negotiating with the Islamic Republic the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. The deal’s promise — stopping Tehran’s nuclear ambitions via diplomacy — is now fizzling. At the same time, the non-diplomatic approach once again looks promising.
To a degree that is hard to ignore, Tehran is blaming Israel and America for a series of explosions and fires that have shaken the country in the last couple of weeks. Jerusalem, as customary, won’t comment. An anonymous Mideastern intelligence source, though, is making the rounds, telling American reporters that Israel is responsible for, if nothing else, a July 2 explosion at Natanz that targeted a factory where Iran is building a new generation of centrifuges to speed up its enrichment capabilities.
In a wide-ranging July 5, 2020 interview with Sobh-e Sadeq, the weekly of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), IRGC navy commander Ali Reza Tangsiri reviewed his navy's latest innovations, including oceangoing helicopter carriers, underground cities with missile-launching capability,[1] and the creation of a naval Basij corps deployed along Iran's southern coastline in the Persian Gulf comprising 23,000 troops and hundreds of divisions, including aircraft and boats. He said that these underground cities were "floating," but what he meant is not clear.
Tangsiri stressed in the interview that his troops are loyal to the death to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and Iran's Islamic revolution, and called again on Western forces, headed by the U.S., to withdraw from the Persian Gulf region because it is "our territory."[2] He reiterated the IRGC's threats against the U.S., saying: "We will, with His [God's] help, press on the throats of the Americans in a place where they do not think [we can]."[3] He also explained that the engines of the Iranian boats are so noisy in comparison to the American vessels because the noise is aimed at frightening all those who oppose Islam.
The following are the main points of his statements in the interview, which was conducted on the phone and was broadcast live:
We Have Upgraded Our Helicopter Carriers To "Carry Larger Helicopters, So That [They] Are Now Oceangoing"
"The IRGC navy is in charge of the Persian Gulf and also [commands] the mission to defend the islands, coasts, continental shelf, oil rigs, and traffic in the Strait of Hormuz... As of now, the IRGC navy has two independent naval bases in the Gulf of Oman – Jask and Chabahar...
"The Martyr Sardar Nazri ship is a helicopter carrier... We have now moved on to a different model of this type, expanding the length of the first prototype to 65 meters and increasing its capability so that it can carry larger helicopters, so that it is now oceangoing.
"Looking at our domestic capability, 90% of the structures used by the IRGC navy are made in Iran, and, with God's help, we will, in years to come, [also] be [completely] independent in this field that depends [on] foreign [countries for manufacturing] ... It is true that the sanctions on the country and on the needs of the people are very cruel. But on the other hand, these sanctions were an opportunity [for us] to meet our own needs by ourselves. If we can manufacture from outside [i.e. with the help of foreign countries], we will not be able to acquire the capability and knowhow to build [by ourselves] at all. Indeed, [thanks to the U.S. sanctions] growth has been achieved, and our various missiles with various ranges are [now] produced domestically by [Iranian] experts – coast-to-sea missiles, sea-to-sea missiles, and missiles deployed on boats..."
Alireza Panahian, Deputy Head of Iran’s Ammar Strategic Advisory Base: We have Missiles and Soldiers throughout the Region, We Are Looking for the Opportunity to Launch Our Missiles pic.twitter.com/OmhnUIf3ww
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) July 22, 2020
German state bans burqas and face veils in schools, saying they do not belong in a free society https://t.co/Et5mEjaIxp
— Daily Mail Online (@MailOnline) July 22, 2020
Israeli PM Netanyahu congratulates the United Arab Emirates on launching #HopeMarsMission successfully. Israelis are congratulating us while many of our own Arab brothers are launching smear campaigns on us and insulting Mars Hope Probe !!! https://t.co/mIipAQLSGo
— حسن سجواني 🇦🇪 Hassan Sajwani (@HSajwanization) July 21, 2020