Monday, December 07, 2020

12/07 Links Pt1: Dore Gold in Bahrain: "Abraham Accords a Whole New Paradigm for Diplomats"; Plagued by intelligence failures, Iranian security apparatuses aim to clean house

From Ian:

It's a Mistake to Go Back to the JCPOA
- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu interviewed by Michael Doran, Dec. 3, 2020 (Hudson Institute)

Netanyahu: Jews have been fighting for our place under the sun for almost four millennia. And we haven't made this extraordinary odyssey for it to end by a whim of ayatollahs who are ideologically committed to destroy us. That's not something that an Israeli leadership should sit by and allow to happen.

Some Arab leaders have come to realize, especially in the last decade, that Israel, far from being their enemy, was their indispensable ally in securing stability, peace and prosperity in the Middle East. Some of them say so fairly openly, most of them say so quietly.

They're concerned with Islamic radicalism of a Shiite or a Sunni variety. They're concerned with developing their economies for the betterment of their peoples. They're concerned with countering Iran's aggression and terrorism, which is spread all over the area. And they see Israel as the power in the area that is willing to stand up, and often speak up, for something that they all agree with.

Far from blocking Iran's path to the bomb, the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) paved its way with gold, literally, with an enormous amount of money that was put into Iran's coffers. They promptly used it to fund an unbelievable campaign of conquest. Right after the JCPOA, you see them expanding into Iraq, into Yemen, into Iraq, seeking to establish military bases in Syria, supporting Hizbullah with greater funds, supporting the Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

If the idea was this tiger will be tamed, in fact, what the JCPOA did was to open the gates of the cage and let the tiger loose to a campaign of plunder and conquest that was threatening to overrun the Middle East in horrible ways.

Iran with nuclear weapons is a very dangerous thing for the United States. It's developing ICBMs which it wants to tip with a nuclear payload (because you don't use ICBMs for anything else) to reach America. You say that's not a real problem? Well, take North Korea, a smaller country that has a fraction of Iran's GDP. You understand what the arming of North Korea with ICBMs and nuclear weapons means to the United States. Iran is many times more dangerous than North Korea because it has a radical ideology. It chants death to America, death to Israel. They mean it.

We have peace breaking out now. And I think the United States has a vested interest to expand that peace, to support those countries that seek to broaden the circle of peace, and to constrain or roll back Iran and its proxies that seek to bring us back to a violent medievalism. The fact that we're willing to stand up and protect ourselves, but thereby also protect the neighborhood, our allies in peace, I think is a vital interest of the United States.


Dore Gold in Bahrain: "Abraham Accords a Whole New Paradigm for Diplomats"
- Amb. Dore Gold interviewed by Omar Shariff

At the 2020 Manama Dialogue in Bahrain, sponsored by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS), Israeli diplomat Dore Gold, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, said, "The Abraham Accords represented a whole new paradigm for diplomats. It gave the Arab states the freedom to make peace with Israel, while not denying the Palestinians the right to join the process when they are ready. This new structure will make peace more likely."

"Senior leadership in the [Iranian] Revolutionary Guards and even more importantly the senior religious leadership in Qom have spoken about the need 'to wipe Israel off the map.' You cannot wipe a country off the map without physically destroying its population. Among polite company we call that genocide." (Gulf News-Dubai)

See also Questions for Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal - Amb. Dore Gold Amb. Dore Gold asked Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal a number of questions at the 2020 IISS Manama Dialogue in Bahrain on Sunday:

"Do we want to be caught up in the accusations of the past, many of which are false, or do we want to present the young generation in the Middle East with a positive vision and really give leadership for a better future?...Do you, Prince Turki al-Faisal, think we have something to learn from each other...with respect to the challenge Israel has faced from the north, from Hizbullah, since the early 1980s, and the challenge you face from the south, from the Houthi militants?"
Plagued by intelligence failures, Iranian security apparatuses aim to clean house
Hossein Shariatmadari, Kayhan's editor-in-chief and Khamenei's representative, directed an editorial (Nov. 28) at Iran's leaders: "How can the Zionist regime, which is on the brink of decay today and surrounded by resistance forces on all sides, so easily murder our nuclear scientists?!"

He added, "Today, all the attention of the Iranian people and the Iranian regime must be focused on two targets: the first, the harsh retaliation against the criminal Zionists that will make them regret, and the second is identifying internal elements and possible infiltrators of the enemy into Iran's intelligence security systems."

Shariatmadari also called for "attacking the important port city of Haifa, destroying the strategic facilities, and causing heavy human casualties" to reach a "real deterrent point." Dr. Sadollah Zarei, an Iranian scholar and political analyst, wrote in Kayhan that Iran's reaction to suspected Israeli airstrikes that killed IRGC forces in Syria wasn't enough to deter Israel, while "striking Haifa … will definitely lead to deterrence because the United States and Israel are not ready to participate in a war and a military confrontation."

In Iran, the dilemma is growing with regard to how and where to respond to Fakhrizadeh's assassination, and how far to stretch the regime's restraint. So far, Iran has not responded as it is "required" to by the threats it issued following the deaths of Hezbollah international operations chief Imad Mughniyeh, Soleimani, operatives associated with Hezbollah's precision missile program, IRGC personnel in Syria, important figures among the pro-Iranian militias in Iraq, and others.

It is possible that Iran will continue its policy of restraint and choose to strike "easier" targets that are allied to the United States and Israel, such as the oil facilities and strategic infrastructure in Saudi Arabia. Such an attack took place on Sept. 19, 2019, with precision cruise missiles hitting the Saudi oil processing facilities in Abqaiq and Khurais.

In this regard, on Nov. 23, the Iranian Mehr news agency broadcast a video of an Aramco oil distribution site in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, being hit by Quds-2 missiles launched by the Houthis in Yemen. Iran could be waiting for the new US administration, which might limit Israel's aggressive activities while negotiations are in the offing and test Israel-American relations, which reached new heights during Trump's presidency.

With the long-range missile attacks on Abqaiq and Khurais and periodic Houthi missile launches against strategic targets in Saudi Arabia, Iran demonstrated that it has the operational know-how to launch surprise attacks on strategic sites, including in Israel, with stealthy, precision cruise missiles.

One way or another, Iran must conduct a thorough house-cleaning in response to the repeated infiltrations and attacks on its security and intelligence establishments. These recurring intelligence operations have targeted Iran's scientists, nuclear infrastructure (such as the explosion in the Natanz enrichment facility in July 2020) and sometimes its electricity and oil facilities. As it has in the past, the regime will publicize over the next few weeks and in the run-up to presidential elections the arrests of people ostensibly involved in the attacks and espionage, so that it may salvage some of its honor among the Iranian people, who are exposed to details of the calamities via social media, international reports and the joyful Iranian opposition.


Good prince, bad prince: Israelis should not be shocked by Saudi royal’s rant
Some have posited that Turki’s speech may have been intended to drive up the price of normalization — a signal that Riyadh won’t normalize without getting something significant out of the deal for itself — but Teitelbaum doubts that bargaining positions were behind Turki’s speech.

The Saudi government is still interested in advancing ties with Israel, but “they don’t need Turki to drive up the price,” Teitelbaum argued. “They are doing it on their own, and they will move ahead when they are offered more than they are currently offered. They’re looking for the Saudi version of the UAE saying they prevented annexation. That could take a long time.”

The comments from the prince stood as a stark counterpoint to Bandar bin Sultan, another Saudi prince and ex-top official who recently made headlines with comments about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

In an October interview with Al Arabiyah, Prince Bandar, the grandson of King Abdulaziz, launched an unprecedented attack on Palestinian leaders, whom he described as ungrateful “failures.”

Guzansky noted that beyond Bandar’s browbeating of the Palestinians, Riyadh has taken several steps to demonstrate goodwill to Israel, including allowing Israeli planes to cross its airspace and giving tiny Bahrain the green light to sign the Abraham Accords, Guzansky went on.

Turki al-Faisal’s speech, then, can be understood as the kingdom’s effort to “put some balance in their approach, so it doesn’t look like they’re leaning too much toward Israel,” he said.


MEMRI: Senior Member of International Union Of Muslim Scholars In Antisemitic Article Against Normalization With Israel: Muhammad Expelled The Jews From His Territory By Force
Against the backdrop of the normalization agreements signed recently by the UAE and Bahrain with Israel, Islamist Malaysian politician Abdul Hadi Awang, who is the deputy chairman of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), published on the organization's website an antisemitic article against the agreements. The article quotes Quranic verses and Islamic traditions presenting the Jews as treacherous plotters who are hostile to Islam and cannot be trusted to honor treaties.

In reply to Muslim scholars in the Gulf who expressed support for the normalization agreements on the grounds that the Prophet Muhammad reconciled with the Jews, Awang states that the Prophet actually called to expel the Jews from the city of Medina by force due to their treacherous character and in compliance with the directives of the Quran. He added that, when the Muslims conquered Palestine in the seventh century, the Covenant of 'Umar was applied to the Jews there because of they were "in a wretched state, just like their infidel forefathers."

Awang stated further that normalization with Israel is an act of humiliation and capitulation that legitimizes its crimes against the Palestinians and constitutes recognition of its right to exist in Palestine. Given that the founding of Israel is one of the signs of Judgement Day and of the imminent demise of the Jews, he says, "any country that shelters behind Israel will [ultimately] be buried under its ruins."

The following are translated excerpts from his article:[1]
"These are the words of Allah, the most reliable of speakers: 'You will surely find that those most hostile toward the believers are the Jews and the polytheists' [Quran 5:82]. Accordingly, it was the Jews and their Zionist parties that founded the state of Israel, which has violated every international law… This state was founded to realize the cursed Balfour Declaration, in the wake of the cursed Sykes-Picot agreement, in an unjust and tyrannical manner, for the lands were stolen from their owners [and handed over] to those who did not own them. Later they tried to turn it into a [normal] state, that is, to normalize the [Jewish] nation that had incurred Allah's wrath by rejecting His verses, unlawfully killing prophets and killing those who enjoined it to be just. For this reason Allah told them that they would [suffer] torment in this world and in the world to come…

"The most puzzling thing is that Arab countries, whose leaders speak the language of the Quran, have entered the circle of normalization, based on pretexts that were invented by the countries that defend Israel with the aim of causing [the Arabs] to become allies of Israel in the face of every move against it… We saw the normalizing countries hold a conference with [Jared] Kushner as a central [participant], [Kushner] who is an ally of Israel and the envoy and son-in-law of the American President, who now seeking [a second term in office]. It is said that more countries mean to join them, in order to found a new NATO [organization], ostensibly with the aim of fighting terror…


Israel Can Link Middle East, European Ports, DP World Chairman Says
Israel is a logical, strategic link between ports in Europe and the Middle East, DP World’s chairman said on Monday, estimating initial UAE-Israel bilateral trade could be worth $5 billion.

Dubai state-owned DP World, one of the world’s largest port operators, is partnering with an Israeli group to bid for one of Israel’s main ports.

“The port facilities (in Israel) will allow us to link our ports in Europe to the Middle East,” Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem told a United Arab Emirates-Israel conference in Dubai.

DP World, whose European operations include ports in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands, runs the Middle East’s largest transshipment port in Dubai.

It said in September it had signed a series of agreements with Israel’s DoverTower, including a joint bid in the privatization of Haifa Port on the Mediterranean.

The UAE in August broke with decades of Arab policy when it agreed to forge ties with Israel in a move that angered Palestinians and some Muslim states. Bahrain and Sudan followed suit in establishing relations.
UAE's Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa purchases 50% of Beitar Jerusalem FC
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, a member of the United Arab Emirates’ royal family has officially completed a purchase of 50% of the Israeli soccer team Beitar Jerusalem for NIS 300 million, the club announced on Monday afternoon.

Beitar Jerusalem, a team that has been mired for decades in controversy due to never having had an Arab player in their ranks along with their allegedly racist fans, will now have an Arab as their owner. However, the injection of much-needed funds into the club may be able to take the team and possibly the entire league into a new chapter of prosperity and success.

The move comes on the heels of the Israel-United Arab Emirates normalization agreement, which has seen the borders of the UAE open to Israeli businesses, including the sports sector.

“On the eve of Hanukkah, Beitar’s menorah is lit in a new and exciting light,” stated Moshe Hogeg following the signing of the agreement. “Together, we all march the club to new days of coexistence, achievements and brotherhood for the sake of our club, community and Israeli sports.”

The funds will be used primarily for infrastructure investment, growing the youth academy as well as acquiring players for future development. A brand-new board of directors will be established and will include the sheikh’s son, Mohamed bin Hamad bin Khalifa, who will be his representative in everything related to the club.
Israeli broadcaster, UAE's leading outlet sign historic collaboration deal
The international news network from Israel, i24NEWS, and Abu Dhabi Media, the United Arab Emirates' top public service broadcaster, announced on Monday that they have signed a memorandum of understanding that will see the outlets collaborate in a variety of fields, including through a shared reporting and library content and product exchange.

"The MoU is in line with Abu Dhabi Media and i24NEWS' aim to deliver innovative, audience-centric content, while enhancing and expanding the digital offering," i24NEWS said in a statement.

Frank Melloul, CEO and founder of i24NEWS said: "As an international news network, we aspire to expand collaborations with platforms around the world. This is another step that will enable the expansion of our activities and we especially welcome it, as this is a leading partner in the Middle East, which we are covering extensively. This partnership between i24NEWS and Abu Dhabi Media illustrates the many possibilities that have opened up to us in the wake of the Abraham Accords. Such collaboration between two media outlets will benefit first and foremost our viewers around the world, who will receive comprehensive coverage and diverse voices that together optimally reflect the events in the new Middle East."

AbdulRaheem Al Bateeh Al Nuaimi, Acting General Manager at Abu Dhabi Media echoed Melloul. "Abu Dhabi Media is always keen to work with media agencies and television service providers who seek to offer diverse and quality content with the highest levels of professionalism. This agreement is a reflection of our commitment towards the UAE vision as well as its ambitions by establishing strong and solid relationships with various institutions and media organizations on a regional and global level," he said.


Israelis aid COVID-stricken Italian region, with billionaire Abramovich paying
A team of Israeli medics, funded by Chelsea soccer club owner Roman Abramovich, is helping a hospital in a northern Italy to cope with a deluge of coronavirus cases.

“There are around 300 patients in the hospital and 165 of them are coronavirus cases, which is on a completely different scale from what I see in Israel,” said Elhanan Bar-On, director of the Israel Center for Disaster Medicine and Humanitarian Response, which is running the delegation.

Bar-On and his colleagues arrived in Piedmont on Wednesday after the region’s local government sent Israel’s Foreign Ministry a request for help.

They have been integrated into the local teams, and are helping with the hour-to-hour care of COVID-19 patients at the Ospedale Michele e Pietro Ferrero Hospital, including the most serious patients in the intensive care unit.

“This hospital is the central place in the Piedmont region for treating COVID-19 patients, where two weeks ago they were completely overwhelmed, and now still, the place is basically full to capacity,” said Bar-On, whose aid organization is based at Sheba Medical Center.

He described the situation in the Piedmont hospital as “intense, very intense, but not frantic,” and said that while some Israelis may question the wisdom of dispatching medics overseas as coronavirus cases rise at home, it made sense.

“People say there are plenty of people in Israel who need treatment but Sheba sees part of its role as impacting the way medical help is provided in the world,” Bar-On said. “It’s easy to give when your resources are unlimited, but when you’re under pressure, that’s true giving.”
Matrix of new highways could pave way for massive settlement growth
In the coming years, Israelis will be able to commute into Jerusalem and Tel Aviv from settlements deep inside the West Bank via highways, tunnels and overpasses that cut a wide berth around Palestinian towns.

Rights groups say the new roads will set the stage for explosive settlement growth, even if the incoming US administration somehow convinces Israel to curb housing construction. The costly infrastructure projects signal that Israel intends to keep large swaths of the territory in any peace deal, and would make it harder to establish a viable Palestinian state.

“This is not another hundred housing units there or here,” said Yehuda Shaul, an Israeli activist who has spent months researching and mapping out the new projects. “This is de facto annexation on steroids.”

Construction already is underway on a huge tunnel that Shaul says will one day allow residents of Maale Adumim, a settlement town east of Jerusalem, to drive into the city and onward to Tel Aviv without passing through a military checkpoint or even hitting a traffic light.

South of Jerusalem, work is underway to expand the main highway leading to the Gush Etzion settlement bloc and settlements farther south, with tunnels and overpasses designed to bypass Palestinian villages and refugee camps.
Six Israeli Border Police Wounded When Riots Break Out During Arrest Raid Near Ramallah
Six Israeli Border Police officers were wounded on Monday morning when riots broke out during an arrest raid in the Palestinian city of Kalandia, according to Israeli media reports.

Some of the locals took to the rooftops, hurling bricks and other heavy items—including a washing machine—at the security forces. Some were treated by medics on the scene; others, who lost consciousness, were evacuated to the hospital, where their injuries were designated as “light.”

During the clashes, the officers fired rubber bullets and live ammunition, wounding four Palestinians. Backup from the Israel Defense Forces arrived to complete the operation. Two of three suspected car thieves were apprehended.

A similar incident occurred in May, when IDF Staff Sgt. Amit Ben-Yigal was killed by a cinder block to the head during a raid in the Palestinian village of Ya’bad in search of suspected terrorists.
PreOccupiedTerritory: Palestinians Insist Original Mysterious Monolith Theirs But Jews Stole It (satire)
The bizarre story of a series of metallic standing stones that appear and then disappear in various places around the world – first in Utah, then California, then Romania, then the Isle of Wight – gained a political wrinkle today as Palestinian officials claimed that just like their homeland, the structure belongs to them but that the Jews usurped it and that the international community must punish the Jews for that act, or at least enable the Arabs to punish the Jews in whatever degrading, violent manner Palestinians see fit.

Hikers discovered a strange, silvery monolith in a mountainous region of Utah last month, only to discover several days later that someone had removed it. The same, or a similar, monolith then turned up in California, followed by an appearance in Romania. Speculation on social and other media has centered around the bizarre phenomenon as possible buildup to some promotional campaign such as a Super Bowl commercial, or perhaps merely an elaborate prank. Palestinian officials and activists, however, always eager to co-opt any publicity to suit their own ends, have now sought out NGOs and media personalities to advance the argument that the monolith or monoliths are the rightful property of the Palestinian people, just like the land that those dastardly Jews stole from them by returning to the indigenous Jewish homeland and reestablishing Jewish sovereignty there after nearly two thousand years.

“This is yet another instance of Zionists usurping our national heritage,” charged Nabil Shaath, once an adviser to the late Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. “Countless numbers of our ancestors lived, uh, did, uh, whatever it is people do with monoliths, I guess, until the Jew came along and raped the land and took its treasures for themselves. And the world does nothing as they pile on injustice after injustice. The appearing-disappearing monoliths are an integral part of Palestinian culture and history!”
Israeli Defense Officials: A Fast-Paced Return to the Iranian Nuclear Deal Would Be Disastrous
Both Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps' Quds Force, and Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the mastermind behind Iran's nuclear program, were irreplaceable strategic assets. Since Soleimani's killing by the Americans in January 2020, Western intelligence has detected an Iranian pullback from various arenas and difficulty in maintaining its hold on parts of Iraq and Syria. The level of Iran's determination in this regard has also plunged, since he was the one who constantly agitated for continued investment in Iran's regional expansion and entrenchment.

Israel is looking ahead at Biden's administration with concern over a fast-paced return to the nuclear agreement forged in 2015. Biden's people have yet to establish an intensive dialogue channel with the Israelis that would allow them to weigh in on the existential threat from Iran. "Much has changed in the five years since the nuclear agreement was signed," said an Israeli intelligence source. "We want to update the Americans and illustrate the rare opportunity that the United States now has to take advantage of Iran's situation."

The main U.S. mistake, Israel says, is the urgency it feels to revert to the way things were before Trump pulled the U.S. out of the deal. Such a move would be disastrous, according to high-level Israeli defense officials. "Iran is far more vulnerable these days and susceptible to powerful levers, and there is no reason to volunteer to go easy on them and return to the agreement without ensuring that real amendments can be introduced into the deal," said a top-ranking Israeli security source.
Targeted killings: The legality vs. the morality
It was with good reason that General (ret.) John "Jack" Keane, formerly Vice Chief of Staff of the United States Army, took exception to Brennan’s remarks.

In a Fox News interview, he remarked tersely: “…that’s pretty extraordinary. It takes a lot of gall to say something like that in the face of what Israel is dealing with, with Iran.”

He went on to clarify: “ I mean Iran is a threat to the United States. They've proven it. They've blown up our embassies they've killed our soldiers in Iraq. They've killed thousands of us in the [last] forty years. But they are not an existential threat… They are not challenging the survival of the United States. Nuclear weapons in their hands with ballistic missiles and the continuous and repeated threat to destroy the State of Israel. Iran is an existential threat to the survival of Israel…that is why their actions are so different than ours”.

“Arrogant & Dismissive…”

With some surprise and disapproval, Keane added: “I’m stunned that a former CIA director would not recognize this level of intensity and determination for what it really is--it is to protect the security of the Israeli people.”

Elsewhere, Keane robustly disputed Brennan’s earlier tweets: “I’ll take issue with … those statements… It’s the arrogance that comes out of America at times when we are so dismissive of what our allies are really dealing with…what they deal with every single day in terms of a threat. So here we have the Iranians, that for every single year for 40 years have stated that they want to destroy the State of Israel and they want nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them as the means. And they talk openly about it. But we’re just dismissing that. We're not going to take it seriously. The Israelis shouldn’t be doing anything that could potentially lead to a “lethal reaction’. ”

So, it seems that it is not that Israel’s detractors do not recognize that states have a right to undertake actions that Israel has undertaken. It is just that that they feel that Israel should be denied that right!

If it walks like a duck…

But surely if Jews as individuals or as a collective are denied the rights recognized for others, if individual Jews are denied the right to personal safety, and the Jewish collective is denied the right to provide itself security—is that not blatant Judeophobic discrimination?

If there is call for a unique and prejudicial standard to be applied to Jews alone—both as individuals and as a collective—then there is little choice but to conclude that what we are witnessing is not mere hypocrisy—but blatant anti-Semitism—little more than an expectation the Jews should in fact consent to die meekly.

It should be exposed as such—and treated accordingly.
Ex-CIA Chief: Israel Helped U.S. Kill Bin Laden
I asked former CIA director John Brennan whether Israel was involved in the operation to kill Bin Laden.

"It was a U.S. operation," he replied, "but the intelligence that went into the ultimately successful raid against that compound in Pakistan was the result of many, many years. And the thousands of bits and pieces of intelligence do include some which were provided by the Israelis."

"You know, Israel has always been one of the main providers of those puzzle pieces to U.S. intelligence."
Gun that killed Iran’s nuke scientist used ‘artificial intelligence,’ IRGC says
A satellite-controlled machine gun with “artificial intelligence” was used in last week’s assassination of a top nuclear scientist in Iran, the deputy commander of the country’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told local media Sunday.

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, long regarded by Israel and the US as the head of Iran’s rogue nuclear weapons program, was driving on a highway outside Iran’s capital Tehran with a security detail of 11 Guards on November 27, when the machine gun “zoomed in” on his face and fired 13 rounds, said Rear-admiral Ali Fadavi.

The machine gun was mounted on a Nissan pickup and “focused only on martyr Fakhrizadeh’s face in a way that his wife, despite being only 25 centimeters (10 inches) away, was not shot,” the Mehr news agency quoted IRGC chief Fadavi as saying.

It was being “controlled online” via a satellite and used an “advanced camera and artificial intelligence” to make the target, he added.

Fadavi said that Fakhrizadeh’s head of security took four bullets “as he threw himself” on the scientist, and that there were “no terrorists at the scene.”
JCPA: Why Was Iran’s Nuclear Expert Fakhrizadeh Secretly Decorated After the JCPOA Went into Effect?
The Iranian Islamic Republic made a considerable effort to explain to the Iranian people how grateful they should be to the late Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Brigadier-General Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the mastermind and longtime director of the Iranian military nuclear program. In this context, the government issued portraits of Fakhrizadeh hugging the late commander of the IRGC Quds Force, Qassem Soleimani, clarifying how these two generals were responsible for the two parallel vectors to turn Iran into a hegemon superpower in the Islamic world and on the global dimension – exporting the Islamic revolution and acquiring an arsenal of nuclear weapons. Two Revolutionary Guard martyred generals

The Iranian regime released scores of photographs after Fakhrizadeh’s death, and it was prone to making mistakes. One picture showed the camera-shy “scientist” joining others in a January 2019 meeting with Iran’s Supreme Leader Khamenei.2

Besides showing Fakhrizadeh meeting with the Supreme Leader Khamenei, from their perspective, the Iranians showed too many pictures, some showing Dr. Fakhrizadeh receiving a special award from President Rouhani for his role in achieving the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, also known as the Iran nuclear deal, concluded with the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Russia, and China in 2015. The award was given to Fakhrizadeh on February 9, 2016, shortly after the JCPOA came into effect, following the approval of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that certified Iran shared all necessary information about the potential military dimensions of its nuclear program. In attendance was one of Iran’s negotiators on the JCPOA, head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi. While the other members of the Iranian negotiating team were awarded similar tokens of appreciation publicly a day earlier, Fakhrizadeh was honored in a closed-door ceremony because of the secrecy that surrounded him.


Europeans slam Iran plan to boost enrichment, warn it not to boot UN inspectors
Plans by Iran to install advanced centrifuges at its main nuclear enrichment plant in Natanz are “deeply worrying,” France, Germany and the UK said on Monday.

The three governments, dubbed the E3, said the plans were contrary to the 2015 agreement between Tehran and world powers that aimed to restrain Iran’s nuclear program by barring sophisticated centrifuges. The E3 also warned Iran not to move ahead with a law that would see it boot UN inspectors and increase uranium enrichment.

The development came days after Iran informed the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it planned to install several cascades, or clusters, of advanced uranium-enriching centrifuges at the Natanz plant in violation of its commitments under the nuclear deal.

“In a letter dated 2 December 2020, Iran informed the Agency that the operator of the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) at Natanz ‘intends to start installation of three cascades of IR-2m centrifuge machines at FEP,” a confidential IAEA report to its member states said, Reuters reported Friday.

Under the deal, Iran is only permitted to use the less advanced, less efficient first-generation IR-1 centrifuges at the fortified underground plant.
Iranian Official Denies Rumors of Decline in Supreme Leader’s Health
An official close to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei denied rumors on social media on Monday that the 81-year-old’s health was deteriorating.

“By the grace of God and with the good prayers of devotees, the gentleman (Ayatollah Khamenei) is in good health and is busy vigorously carrying out his plan according to his routine,” the official, Mehdi Fazaeli, said on Twitter.

Fazaeli has worked in an office publishing Khamenei’s work. His tweet was also reported by Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency.

The statement about Khamenei’s health appeared to be a response to reports by several news organizations, which referred to a tweet by a journalist in Arabic who said Khamenei had transferred duties to his son because of his health.

Khamenei has served as supreme leader since 1989, with the final say on all state matters. His health has been the subject of speculation for years.
Senior Quds Force general dies of coronavirus
A senior member of Iran's elite Quds Force died of coronavirus, state-run Tasnim news agency reported Sunday.

Iran is widely considered the world's top state-sponsor of terrorism. The Quds Force is its extraterritorial black-ops arm and is heavily involved in the country's attempts to expand its control over the Persian Gulf and the Middle East.

Brig. Gen. Abdolrasool Ostovar, formerly the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Ground Forces, contracted coronavirus while on an "advisory mission" in Iraq in September, Tasnim reported.

Iranian media often uses the term "advisory mission" to describe Iranian military presence in countries such as Iraq and Syria.

According to the report, Ostovar had been in a coma for over two months before dying in an IRGC-run hospital in Tehran.



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