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Tuesday, December 08, 2020

12/08 Links Pt1: Three decades to get here: Israel’s leading expert looks back at Gulf ties; Banner Over Busy Tehran Street Reads, ‘Thank You, Mossad’

From Ian:

Seth Franzman: Three decades to get here: Israel’s leading expert looks back at Gulf ties
Around twenty years ago, there were few experts in Israel on the Gulf and a paucity of knowledge about the monarchies and the countries that stretch from Oman to Kuwait. Israel had spent most of its formative years in conflict with powerful states like Egypt in the 1950s, and the Jewish state had relations with countries like Iran and Turkey.

Now things are a bit reversed: Iran is a major threat, Turkey is hostile and the Gulf states offer the promise of peace and prosperity. Among Israel’s leading experts on these states is Yoel Guzansky, a senior Research Fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies. Twenty years ago, he felt the need to concentrate on the Gulf, he says in an interview. There were just a handful of researchers then, mostly gathered around Yossi Kostiner at Tel Aviv University.

“I fell in love with the Arabian Gulf. And I was fortunate enough when I left the [Prime Minister’s] Office that I could start going to the Gulf. I was invited many times with my Israeli passport and it wasn’t a problem – and for a decade I went back and forth, and I met Gulfies in the US and Europe,” he says.

According to Guzansky it’s important to make a distinction between diplomatic and security ties. Israel has had connections in these countries going back many years, but most of this was not public.

For instance, he recounts a story relating to Oman where Omanis thanked him for Israel’s support. “I said what are you talking about? I knew about some of the connections,” but not the depth of the ties. “Israel helped Sultan Qaboos and others, and even the Saudis in the war in Yemen, so the connections are long term,” he says. After the Oslo Accords, a new era began and Israel had limited open ties in the 1990s.


GOP Congress Members Move to Ensure US Embassy in Jerusalem Stays Put
Ahead of the three-year anniversary of US President Donald Trump recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, more than three-dozen Republican members of Congress have called for language in an upcoming must-pass appropriations bill that would prohibit American funding from being used to move the US embassy in Israel from Jerusalem.

In a Dec. 4 letter, a group of 43 Republicans in the US House of Representatives called on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) to ensure that the 2021 State, Foreign Operations and Related Agencies bill, primarily funding the US State Department, which oversees embassies, includes language that prohibits funding from “being used to move the United States’ embassy out of Jerusalem.”

Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Dec. 6, 2017, and moved the US embassy to there from Tel Aviv five months later.

“In a time when we are seeing the increasing normalization of relations between Israel and its Arab neighbors, we must ensure that the United States does not take a step backward by moving the US embassy out of Jerusalem, which is why we seek the prohibition of any FY21 funding in the State, Foreign Operations and Related Agencies bill being used to move the United States’ embassy out of Jerusalem,” wrote the GOP congressional members.


153 UN states call on Israel to 'renounce possession of nuclear weapons’
The United Nations General Assembly called on Israel to “renounce possession of nuclear weapons” in a 153-6 vote on Monday, with 25 abstentions.

Israel was asked “not to develop, produce, test or otherwise acquire nuclear weapons.”

The UNGA further called on the Jewish state “to renounce possession of nuclear weapons and to place all its un-safeguarded nuclear facilities under full-scope Agency safeguards as an important confidence-building measure among all States of the region and as a step towards enhancing peace and security.”

Israel is presumed to be one of the world’s nine nuclear powers, but it has never admitted to the possession of nuclear weapons.

There are eight countries acknowledged to be nuclear powers, five of which having signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The five signatories are: China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Three additional countries, which are not signatories to the treaty, have admitted to testing and possession nuclear weapons: India, North Korea and Pakistan.

Overall, 191 countries are party to the treaty, including Iran but not Israel.

In New York on Monday, 153 countries called exclusively on Israel to sign the Non-Proliferation Treaty and renounce its weapons in the resolution titled, “The Risk of Nuclear Proliferation in the Middle East.”


Daniel Gordis: A New Strategy for Israel’s Arabs: Aiding Netanyahu
In the late 1970s, when Egyptian President Anwar Sadat negotiated with Begin over the Sinai, he insisted that Israel grant the Palestinians some form of autonomy. Begin refused, and Sadat backed down; he signed the first Arab peace treaty with Israel having gained nothing for the Palestinians. Fifteen years later, when Jordan’s King Hussein made peace with Israel, he, too, demanded nothing substantive for the Palestinians.

Ever since, the Palestinians have banked on the U.S. assumption that, as for Secretary of State John Kerry famously put it, “there will be no separate peace between Israel and the Arab world” without the Palestinian question being settled.

But Kerry’s assertion has crashed on the rocks of a changed reality. The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain have normalized relations with the Jewish state. They paid lip service to the Palestinians, but again, made the deal while getting nothing tangible for them. This month, Netanyahu and the head of Israel’s intelligence agency flew to Saudi Arabia for meetings with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, another indication that the Saudis are also weighing changing their stance.

So it seems sensible for Israeli Arabs, too, to seek a different kind of peace with Israel’s ruling party. It is for now a tentative step, but Mansour Abbas specifically declined to rule out being part of an Israeli coalition. That means that he wants in, and the time will likely come, sooner or later.

As the Joe Biden administration begins to plan its strategy for the Middle East, some American Jewish groups – in yet another split with Israel on foreign policy issues – are hoping that Biden will undo some of Trump’s norm-smashing Middle East policy, even the changes that were intended to benefit Israel.

But Mansour Abbas gives us reason to wonder if that would be wise. The greatest hope for the Palestinian people lies not in the U.S. giving a lifeline to their longstanding but failed strategy, but in the Palestinians’ finally recognizing the inevitability of the Israel state and negotiating with it for the betterment of their own future – precisely as it seems Israel’s Arabs are now beginning to do.
Dermer: What keeps me awake is not proposed F35 sale to UAE, but Iran
Israel's Ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer, said on Monday that Israel believes that the UAE is an ally in confronting Iran and does not think that the proposed arms sales to the Arab state will violate the US' commitment to maintaining Israel's qualitative military edge.

In a joint interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Dermer and Yousef al-Otaiba, the UAE's ambassador to Washington, addressed the decision to normalize ties between the countries.

"What keeps me up at night is actually not the proposed F-35 sale to the Emirates," said Dermer. "What keeps me up at night is the idea that somebody would return to the nuclear deal with Iran."

He noted that "both Israel and the Arab States in the region don't support returning back to the JCPOA, and we hope that the administration will talk to us when they come in."

"I would hope that the incoming administration would understand that 2020 is not 2015," Dermer continued. "[We] hope what the new administration would do is to speak to your allies in the region, speak to Israel, speak to the Arab states. Try to forge a common policy with us because we are on the front lines, and we are in danger from an aggressive Iran," he added.

He also addressed the proposed arms sales to the UAE. He said that one of the most important commitments that Israel has is the United States' commitment to maintain Israel's qualitative military edge. "And the way we turn that commitment from a principle into practice is we have our security officials sit down with US security officials anytime there is an arms package that is being proposed," Dermer added. "And we did that in September and October when the Emirates asked for certain weapon systems. And we went through that process with the United States. And we strongly believe that this agreement, this arms package, will not violate America's commitment or undermine the commitment to maintain Israel's qualitative military edge."


Will Austin’s appointment see Israel move from EUCOM to CENTCOM?
During testimony before Congress in 2015, Gen. Lloyd Austin, then head of the US Central Command, told members of the House Armed Services Committee that he had a “great relationship” with former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz.

“My hope, and I know this will be the case, is that we will continue to have a very, very strong relationship going forward,” he said at the time. On Monday, CNN reported that US President-elect Joe Biden had decided to nominate Austin to be his defense secretary. He would be the first African-American to hold the post.

Back in 2015, Austin spoke about the military-to-military relationship with Israel. Even though Israel is not in the CENTCOM area of operations – it is under the European Command – the general noted that Israel bordered his region of responsibility. “We certainly see a need to maintain good connectivity,” he told the committee.

Austin made several important points about Israel in that March 2015 testimony to Congress. Asked about Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon, he responded: “To your point that you made earlier, sir, I think the people – the leaders in the region – certainly believe that Iran’s quest for a nuclear weapon is a threat to the region.”

Austin was head of CENTCOM from 2013 to March 2016 – he also commanded US troops in Iraq. Gantz was chief of staff from 2011 to 2015, so their terms overlapped. With Israel heading into a new election, the relationship with Gantz may be important, depending on the outcome. What is surely important is that Austin had a keen interest in Israel and wanted a close relationship with the Jewish state. News of his planned appointment comes amid increased talk of shifting Israel from EUCOM to CENTCOM.


Russian envoy: Israel - not Iran - is the problem in the Middle East
Israel destabilizes the Middle East more than Iran, Russian Ambassador to Israel Anatoly Viktorov said on Tuesday.

“The problem in the region is not Iranian activities,” Viktorov said at the Russian Embassy in Tel Aviv. “It’s a lack of understanding between countries and noncompliance with UN resolutions in the Israel-Arab and Israel-Palestinian conflict.”

Asked if the relatively limited scope of Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians destabilizes the region more than Iran does through proxies around the Middle East, like the Houthis in Yemen and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Viktorov balked at the notion of Iranian funding the Shi’ite terrorist group.

“Israel is attacking Hezbollah, Hezbollah is not attacking Israel,” he added, referring to Israel bombing Iranian and Hezbollah and weapons convoys in Syria.

Viktorov said he has seen the tunnels from Lebanon into Israel, which Hezbollah operatives have used to attempt to attack Israel, and argued there is “no proof Hezbollah created the tunnels.”
New bill seeks to transform Israel into free trade zone
A new bill seeks to transform Israel into a free trade zone by applying various reforms to customs fees and other tariffs, Israel Hayom learned Monday.

The Israel Free Trade Zone bill, sponsored by Likud MK Ariel Kellner and lobbied for by the Our Interest advocacy group, aims to "transform Israel into a modern, progressive economy and a significant player of the global economy."

The legislative proposal names simplifying customs regulations as its main objective. It further aims to reduce the levies imposed on each imported item to no more than 8% and remove unnecessary market entry barriers and regulatory requirements.

Kellner plans to present the bill for its preliminary Knesset reading in the next few days.

"The bill will transform the Israeli economy so that it will benefit ordinary citizens, who are underrepresented by advocacy groups," Kellner said.

"The removal of market entry barriers and the new customs policy will reduce the price of products, especially of staple foods. This will ease the financial burden on everyone, especially those from the lower [socioeconomic] echelon. This policy will eventually make local production more efficient and will increase the wages of the local workers.
Sheikh who bought into Beitar Jerusalem vows to show anti-Arab fans the light
The new co-owners of the Beitar Jerusalem soccer team said Tuesday that they are determined to demonstrate that Jews and Muslims can cooperate and do wonderful things together, and that sports is a good place to begin that mission.

At an online press conference in Dubai, Beitar owner Moshe Hogeg introduced his new partner, Emirati businessman Hamad bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family who has bought 50 percent of the team.

“It’s a historic moment for the club, for Beitar Jerusalem. It’s obviously a historic moment for both nations, Israel and the United Arab Emirates,” Hogeg said. “It’s the first real fruit of the peace agreement between the nations and I am excited and honored to introduce our new co-owner, my new partner, at Beitar Jerusalem, His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa, and his son, Sheikh Mohammed.”

Mohammed, who said that he did not have any previous experience in managing a soccer team, will become Beitar’s vice chairman and be responsible for the “professional side” of the UAE-Israel venture, Hogeg said.

“It’s a great moment, because in the end in football, we want to win. We want to win titles, we want to score goals, we want to make the fans happy. And we want to show people, after so many people think that Muslims and Jews cannot do things together and cannot get along — we want to prove them otherwise,” Hogeg said in his opening remarks.

“We want to show that Muslims and Jews can do great things together, can do beautiful things together. And sports is the ultimate way to start. Real peace is between the people, not only between the leaders,” he added.

During the question-and-answer session, Hogeg and his new Emirati partner dismissed any concerns about the club’s reputation as a haven of Arab-hating racists.

“We want to set an example to both nations that Jews and Muslims can work together,” Hamad bin Khalifa said.
Israeli delegation appears at UAE’s major Gitex tech summit for the first time
Israeli and Emirati business leaders met in Dubai this week for the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (Gitex) Technology Week, one of the world’s largest annual tech summits.

It was the first time Israelis participated in the conference, a development that followed the normalization deal signed between Jerusalem and Abu Dhabi in September.

Organizers said the conference was hosting the largest official meeting of business, tech and investment leaders from Israel and the UAE, with some 200 Israeli entrepreneurs and businesspeople in attendance.

The event was significantly smaller than previous years due to the pandemic, but Israel’s participation and several events focusing on Israel-UAE collaboration gave this year’s Gitex a boost.

The conference features two events centered on Israel — the inaugural UAE-Israel Future Digital Economy Summit on Monday and the Israel Innovation Discovery Day on Tuesday.

The events are aimed at fostering networking between the two countries for business collaboration, investments and the sharing of ideas, with discussions focused on artificial intelligence, 5G technology, mobility, fintech and cybersecurity. Israeli representatives are also holding one-on-one business meetings with their international counterparts.
Israelis flock to UAE as travel corridor opens in midst of COVID lockdown
The multiple flights to Dubai on Monday were crowded, with no seats left for last minute arrivals. On the arrivals board at Dubai International Airport, more flights from Tel Aviv were listed on December 7 than any other single point of origin that afternoon. This appears to be the brave new world of Israel’s relations with the United Arab Emirates. People are rushing as fast as possible to get to Dubai.

On arrival, passengers had to show that they had had a COVID-19 test up to 96 hours before arriving and then had to do a second test. After the nose swabs, they were permitted to move on to collect their baggage and go through passport control.

Issues with visas on arrival that had encumbered a flight on the morning of December 7 had been fixed by the afternoon, and Israelis were welcomed to Dubai. The terminal was not the usual hive of activity because, besides those coming in from Israel, there is apparently not the usual number of flights. Costa Coffee and Starbucks were relatively deserted, with just a few customers grabbing a coffee and donut for the ride to their hotels.
Seth Franzman: Unique event in Dubai brings together museum and Israeli Heritage Center
The Heritage Center for Middle East and North Africa Jewry in Jerusalem and Israel and the Crossroads of Civilizations Museum in Dubai signed a Memorandum of Understanding at an event in Dubai on Sunday evening. The unique event comes in the wake of the Abraham Accords and as travel between Israel and the United Arab Emirates has skyrocketed. Eran Taboul, president of The Heritage Center for Middle East and North Africa Jewry, signed the MOU along with Ahmed Obaid Al Mansoori, museum founder.

“The event tonight was an attempt to build bridges between Arabs and Jews through the prism of the Jews of the Middle East and North Africa. In preserving the culture and heritage of the Jews of MENA we can build a bridge from the past to a brighter future for the good of all peoples in the region,” said Ashley Perry, CEO of the Heritage Center for Middle East and North Africa Jewry in Jerusalem.

The event took place at the museum in Dubai where Mansoori hosted the delegation from Israel. Last week, Mansoori held a virtual tour of the museum with Culture and Sport Minister Chili Tropper. The event Sunday was designed to celebrate new relationships in the region.


Israeli Mayors Visit Dubai in Historic Delegation



Mika Dagan-Fruchtman advances to finals in UAE tennis tournament
Tennis player Mika Dagan-Fruchtman, the first Israeli tennis player to receive an official invitation to participate in a ranking tournament in Dubai, qualified on Monday for the final.

Dagan-Fruchtman will go on to face Dalma Gálfi of Hungary on Tuesday afternoon in the final of the Al Habtoor Challenge tournament, after defeating Mariam Bolkvadze of Georgia 5-7, 6-2 and 8-10 on Monday.

The athlete is also the first Israeli tennis player to compete in the United Arab Emirates since its normalization agreement with Israel was signed.

She received a free ticket to Dubai from the organizers of the Al Habtoor Challenge tournament, which is offering $100,000 in prize money and ranking points in the world round at stake. The tournament is taking place for the 23rd time in Dubai with the message: "Bring the stars of tomorrow to Dubai today."

Dagan-Fruchtman, 17, is from Ra'anana and is an athlete for the National Tennis Academy. She is ranked among the top eight tennis players in Israel and among the top 200 in the world.


In First, IAF Chief Names Female Officer as Bureau Chief
In a first, Israeli Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin on Monday named a female officer to serve as his bureau chief.

Maj. N., who serves as deputy commander of the 119th Air Force Squadron, will be the first female officer to serve in the highly sensitive role, for which only the corps’ top officers are selected, an IAF officer told Israel Hayom.

The 27-year-old became an F-16 navigator in 2015. The 119th “Bat” Squadron is an F-16I fighter squadron based at Ramon Airbase in southern Israel.

The nomination placed N. on the path of future senior roles in the IAF, and all but clears her path to the position of squadron commander.

Norkin has previously named two other female officers as squadron commanders.
It's time to stop the Palestinian sports boycott of Israel - opinion
The bad news continues to roll in for Jibril Rajoub. According to an Israeli media watchdog, Rajoub violated the International Olympic Committee’s policy of political neutrality by condemning the “crime of normalization” with Israel and calling to boycott and isolate the Jewish state.

Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Football Association and Palestine Olympic Committee, had, until recently, used these titles as a means to delegitimize Israel in the world of sports, and to then leverage that popular strategy to position himself as a successor to octogenarian Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Perhaps, his strategy is no longer effective.

Rajoub is a veteran politician. He rose to the rank of major general in the nascent Palestinian Preventive Security Forces from 1994-2002 and then served as Yasser Arafat’s and Mahmoud Abbas’s national security adviser until 2006. He switched careers to the world of sports in 2006, when he lost a parliamentary race to his younger brother Nayef, a Hamas leader. He became the head of the Palestinian Football Association in 2006 and the Palestine Olympic Committee in 2008.

Rajoub has never been afraid to mix politics and sports. He recently called the Gulf-Israel peace deal a “circus” and a “ridiculous, stupid, and cheap comedy” and referred to Arab leaders as “worms.” He then headed a Fatah party delegation to Istanbul for political dialogue with the terrorist group Hamas. Increasingly, Rajoub appears desperate.
Palestinians vow to continue ‘struggle’ against Israel
Palestinians on Tuesday marked the 33rd anniversary of the outbreak of the First Intifada and vowed to pursue the “struggle” against Israel until the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state.

The First Intifada, also known as the Rock-Throwing Intifada, began on December 9, 1987 and ended in September 1993 with the signing of the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO.

The violence during the First Intifada was not limited to rock-throwing and Palestinians also used Molotov cocktails, hand grenades, guns and explosives in attacks on IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians.

The Palestinian ruling Fatah faction, whose members played a major role during the First Intifada, said on this occasion that Palestinians were more determined than ever “to continue their legitimate national struggle until the end Israel’s occupation in all its forms and until we achieve our goals, including the right of return [for Palestinian refugees] and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.”

According to Fatah, Israel “has not learned that the Palestinian people won’t surrender and won’t agree to live under occupation.”
PMW: PA: “I'm coming towards you, my enemy… with cleavers and knives” - a song that “fascinate us with values”
The Tune of the Homeland is a PA TV quiz about Palestinian nationalistic songs. Each quiz question is introduced by a narrator telling viewers that the songs “express our national identity… and fascinate us with values.” Some of the songs glorified by the PA in this quiz – and which are broadcast repeatedly – specifically promote violence and terror.

I’m Coming Towards You, My Enemy explicitly calls for murder and promises Israel – “my enemy” - to attack with rifles, cleavers and knives:

Official PA TV narrator: “Because songs are a basic part of our culture and they express our national identity… and because these songs are present in our consciousness and still fascinate us with values and meanings… It’s here: The Tune of the Homeland…

Lyrics: “I'm coming towards you, my enemy, from every house, neighborhood and street
I'm coming with my rifle and my faith I'm coming towards you, my enemy
Our war is a war of the streets…
I'm coming towards you, my enemy, from every house, neighborhood and street
We're going down from every house with cleavers and knives”
[Official PA TV, Nov. 27, 30, Dec. 1. 3, 2020]

The narrator further stressed that this song is the quintessence of the time when the Palestinians created their “identity” and implemented “the spirit of sacrifice in the souls of the masses”:
PA: I'm coming towards you, my enemy…with cleavers and knives - a song that fascinate us with values

PA: No force in the world can remove the weapon from my hand - a song that fascinate us with values

PA: Wave the rifle…we will not cast our weapons from our hands-a song that fascinates us with values

Hamas Environment Minister Vows to Cut Flag, Effigy Burning 20% by 2030 (satire)
In one of the region’s most ambitious initiatives to address climate change, Hamas Minister of the Environment Ahmet al-Buluti has vowed to reduce flag and effigy burning emissions 20% by 2030.

“We must all do our part to confront the reality of global warming, and these targets will be an important step towards reducing our carbon footprint,” al-Buluti said in a press conference. “By 2050, we hope to cut flag and effigy burning emissions in half, because all nations must make sacrifices to ensure that our planet remains inhabitable.”

While Hamas’s environmental targets-to-meet are the most aggressive to date, Gaza’s is just one of many Middle Eastern governments looking to reduce emissions. Syria has begun transitioning from high-carbon carpet-bombing to zero-carbon sarin gas, ISIS is on its way to phasing out burning prisoners alive, beheading them instead, while al Qaeda has promised only to hijack environmentally-friendly aircraft in future attacks.
Turkey: Legitimizing Extremist Violence
Then there is the Turkish Hezbollah, a Sunni violent organization that aims to found a Kurdish-Islamic state based on sharia. Although the Turkish Hezbollah is not to be confused with the Lebanese Hezbollah, it too has links with the Shia regime in Iran.

Journalist Ismail Saymaz detailed in his column how the former Turkish Hezbollah, now the Free Cause Party (Hüda-Par), has infiltrated into scores of schools in Diyarbakir for wider future influence in the Kurdish provinces.... Saymaz says the Free Cause network has spread around Turkey so successfully that the movement now runs a television station and publishes a daily newspaper.

With democratic voting since 2002, Turkey has evolved from a secular state that had strong institutional bonds with the West to a religious, fundamentalist state hostile to the Western civilization and Israel. The next two decades may see even Turkey's non-violent religious institutions evolving into violent ones.
Iran president vows to help Syria confront Israel ‘until Golan liberated’
Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said on Tuesday that Tehran and Damascus share a common goal of confronting Israel and will continue on that path until the Golan Heights has been returned to Syria.

Rouhani’s website said the remarks came during a meeting with visiting Syrian Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue its support to the Syrian government and people as our strategic ally and we will stand by Syria until its final victory,” Rouhani said, adding that confronting “Zionist occupiers and terrorism” is the joint goal of both nations.

“Until the liberation of all occupied lands including the Golan, confronting Zionist occupiers” should continue, said Rouhani.

According to the Tasnim news agency, Rouhani also denounced US President Donald Trump for his endorsement last year of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.
MEMRI: Report In Qatari Daily: Pro-Iranian Militias Continue To Dig An Extensive Network Of Tunnels Along The Syria-Iraq Border
On December 3, 2020, the London-based Qatari daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi, published an article which reports that in order to evade aerial attacks, Iran and its allied militias have developed the network of tunnels used by the Islamic State (ISIS) in the Al-Bukamal area on the Syria-Iraq border, and utilize them to transport people and weapons from Iraq to Syria and also as a place to store weapons.[1]

Reports have been published in the past in both Arab and Western media about Iran's use of tunnels in this area. For example, the Syrian opposition, Eye of the Euphrates Facebook page posted on July 17, 2020, that Iran and its allied militias were digging tunnels in the Deir Al-Zour Governorate.[2]

According to the Al-Quds Al-Arabi article, Iran began to use the tunnels to a limited extent in July 2020 and expanded the tunnel project following aerial attacks which paralyzed the movement of convoys from Iraq to Syria.

Several workers from the city of Deir Al-Zour and the western rural area of the governorate who are digging the tunnels, told the paper that an extensive network of tunnels is being dug which includes enormous weapons storerooms and field hospitals, along the Iraqi-Syrian border and in the Al-Bukamal area, and especially close to the Al-Hamdan airport.
Richard Kemp: Terrorism: A Warning from Iran to Europe
Now they [the Europeans] find themselves locked into what they know is a phoney and highly dangerous nuclear agreement that simply consigns confrontation with a nuclear-armed Iran to future generations.

They [the Iranian leadership] look at Europeans, as well as Americans, with contempt, as weak and decadent, lacking the courage or resolve to stick up for their own interests.... President Trump gave them pause for thought, especially when he ordered the death of Qasem Soleimani.... They have higher hopes of Biden, whom they expect to be more supine.

We can be sure the Supreme Leader has rejoiced at the results of his message: cowering in Europe, with only weak and token response, accompanied by a desperate, pleading assurance that the targets of his aggression are still his friends. If ever there was a lesson that appeasement fails and strength succeeds, surely this is it.

European governments must now show their own strength or face continued Iranian coercion -- coercion that will be witnessed by malign actors around the world from Moscow to Beijing to Pyongyang, with obvious implications.

Can the Europeans really afford to allow such an egregiously hostile and manipulative regime as Tehran to acquire nuclear weapons?
Ex-CIA, MI6, Israeli officials doubt new Iran deal with Biden in 2021
Top former CIA, MI6, Israeli defense officials, and other key officials are doubtful that there will be a major comprehensive deal between Iran, the incoming Biden administration and global powers in 2021.

Speaking as part of an Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) virtual conference, former Trump national security advisor John Bolton and former MI6 chief Sir John Sawers both explicitly said that if any deal could be struck, it would take more than a year.

Likewise, former top CIA official Norman Roule strongly implied that the negotiating positions of the incoming Biden administration and the Islamic Republic were far apart and that any comprehensive deal would be a drawn-out endeavor.

Similarly, top Israeli Defense Ministry official Zohar Palti said that “the Iranians are not going to compromise about anything… I do not come to 2021 with a lot of expectations.”

Bolton acknowledged that President-elect Joe Biden has said that he would like to negotiate with Iran to rejoin the nuclear deal, but thinks that he will find “the whole region more complex” than his administration might expect.

US President Donald Trump's former US national security advisor also said that if the main dynamic leading into the 2015 Iran nuclear deal was US-EU cooperation, then Israeli cooperation with moderate Sunni countries had upended all expectations and past trends.
MEMRI: Assassinated Iranian Nuclear Scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh In Archival Speech: Iran Must Establish Nuclear Infrastructure To Balance Regional Nuclear Development By KSA, UAE, Pakistan, And India
On December 6, 2020, Iran's Tasnim news agency aired an archival speech by Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the Director of Iran's Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research, who was assassinated on November 27, 2020. Fakhrizadeh stressed the importance of establishing a nuclear infrastructure in Iran as a balancing measure against nuclear development elsewhere in the region. Fakhrizadeh elaborated that Iran had been caught off-guard by Iraq's chemical warfare during the Iran-Iraq War, and he argued that it is necessary to establish nuclear infrastructure in Iran in order to avoid similar vulnerability in the nuclear field. He added that the IAEA and the United Nations remain silent in face of nuclear threats against Iran. Fakhrizadeh's remarks were made at a dedication ceremony for a clinic for victims of nuclear reactions at Iran's Chamran Hospital. The date of the speech is unknown, and it was posted online on December 6, 2020.

"We See How The Superpowers Make Nuclear Weapon-Related Threats, And These Threats Are Escalating"

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh: "[Saddam's use of chemical weapons] was a bitter experience that taught us that we must be careful on all fronts, so that we will not be surprised. Currently, we see how the superpowers make nuclear weapon-related threats, and these threats are escalating.

"When such matters surface we see that no international body, not even the IAEA or the U.N., says anything about it.

"Nuclear Expansion [In The Region] Requires Us To Establish Balancing Infrastructure"

"As for our region it is becoming nuclear. Look at Saudi Arabia. It has vast nuclear plans, like the King Fahd plan. The UAE are also vigorously pursuing this path.
Indy columnist compares killing of Iran nuke chief to assassination of Rabin
Inspired, it seems, by an attempt to fill the shoes of the late Robert Fisk, Mid-East columnist Patrick Cockburn provided Indy readers, whose appetite for anti-Israel vitriol, editors understand, is insatiable, with a simply unhinged moral equivalency: the killing of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the head of Tehran’s nuclear weapons program, and the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

The op-ed, “State sponsored assassinations in foreign countries are becoming the new norm – it is simply a form of gangsterism”, begins his piece with a paragraph about Rabin’s murder in Tel Aviv, an assassination, he noted, that “was universally condemned”, before pivoting to the incident outside Tehran on Nov. 27.

Twenty-five years later almost to the day [after Rabin’s assassination], another assassination took place, this time in Iran, of a nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, as he was driving in a car east of Tehran. He was ambushed and killed by a squad of gunmen, alleged to be Israeli, who shot him and exploded a bomb in a car prepositioned at the scene of the attack.

This time there was no international condemnation of the action of what was, going by different accounts, a death squad operating in a foreign country against a foreign citizen. This free pass was because the target was an Iranian and Fakhrizadeh had been accused by Israel of playing a leading role in a secret plan to build a nuclear device. But these allegations were unproven, mostly dated from long ago, and the current activities of the dead man are unclear.

Contrary to Cockburn’s claims, it isn’t only Israel which has accused Fakhrizadeh of playing a leading role in Iran’s efforts to build a nuclear weapon. In 2011, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) identified Fakhrizadeh as a central figure in suspected Iranian work to develop technology and skills needed for atomic bombs. As Reuters reported recently, Fakhrizadeh has “the rare distinction of being the only Iranian scientist named in the IAEA’s 2015 ‘final assessment’ of open questions about Iran’s nuclear programme and whether it was aimed at developing a bomb”.


Banner Over Busy Tehran Street Reads, ‘Thank You, Mossad’
In what can only be considered a remarkable sight, a banner thanking Israeli spy agency Mossad, with an Israeli flag draped over it, was seen on a pedestrian bridge over a busy thoroughfare in the Iranian capital of Tehran on Monday.

A photograph and video of the banner and flag were uploaded to social media. The sign was written in English and said, simply: “Thank you, Mossad.”

The message was apparently in reference to the Nov. 27 assassination of top Iranian nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh in the city of Absard, east of Tehran.

Iranian authorities have accused Israel of being behind Fakhrizadeh’s death. Senior officials in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have threatened military retaliation.

Users online were quick to point out that the road over which the unusual sign was placed is named after former IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani, who was assassinated in a US missile strike in Baghdad on Jan. 3.

The upper-middle-class neighborhood where the banner was placed is considered educated and liberal-leaning.


Iran top court upholds death sentence against dissident journalist Zam
Iran's Supreme Court has upheld a death sentence against dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam for fuelling anti-government unrest in 2017 on social media, a judiciary spokesman said on Tuesday.

"Yes, the Supreme Court ... has upheld the sentence passed by the Revolutionary Court in this case," spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili told a news conference streamed live on a judiciary website.



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