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Wednesday, November 03, 2021

11/03 Links Pt1: David Singer: The key to peace: Israel and Jordan dividing Judea and Samaria; Whitewashing PA terror promotion in the UN Security Council; The Lasting Legacy of A.Q. Khan

From Ian:

David Singer: The key to peace: Israel and Jordan dividing Judea and Samaria
Two Australian politicians from Australia’s two major political parties – one of them Australia’s former Ambassador to Israel and Government backbencher Dave Sharma – have embarked on a trip to fantasyland in a rare show of bipartisan solidarity that has nothing to do with Australian domestic policy – but involves the self-titled “Palestinian People”.

Sharma (Liberal Party) seconded a motion by Chris Hayes (Australian Labor Party) which includes the following paragraphs:

That this House:
(1) notes that 29 November 2021 is the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People as declared by the United Nations in 1977;
(2) recognises the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including their right to self determination and a future built on peace, dignity, justice and security;

Their hyperlinking of “Palestinian People” clarifies who these two politicians are talking about:
The Palestinian people (Arabic: الشعب الفلسطيني‎, ash-sha‘b al-Filasṭīnī), also referred to as Palestinians (Arabic: الفلسطينيون‎, al-Filasṭīniyyūn; Hebrew: פָלַסְטִינִים‎) or Palestinian Arabs (Arabic: الفلسطينيين العرب‎, al-Filasṭīniyyīn al-ʿarab), are an ethnonational group[31][32][33][34][35][36][37] comprising the modern descendants of the peoples who have lived in Palestine continuously over the centuries and who today are largely culturally and linguistically Arab.[38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45]

This definition is fabricated - ignoring history, geography and demography by falsely claiming the existence of a Palestinian People with roots purportedly going back 3000 years ago when the Jewish People entered the Promised Land (the region was not called Palestine until the conquering Romans coined the name in the first century for the land of the Jews) – rather than to the year 1964 - when the term “Palestinians” was first defined.

History is clear:
1. The League of Nations 1922 Mandate for Palestine only recognised the Arab inhabitants of Palestine as forming part of “the existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine” whose civil and religious rights irrespective of race or religion were to be protected without any political rights to self-determination.
2. The 1947 United Nations Partition Plan only spoke of two states – one Jewish, the other Arab – not a Palestinian State.
3. The Palestine Liberation Organisation – the sole spokesman for the Palestinian Arabs recognised by the Arab League since 1974 – defined the term “Palestinians” for the first time in history in its founding 1964 Charter:




Whitewashing PA terror promotion in the UN Security Council
In his quarterly update to the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) regarding the implementation of infamous UNSC resolution 2334, the United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process (UNSCO) Tor Wennesland went out of his way to distort reality, whitewash the Palestinian Authority’s multi-million dollar terror promoting “Pay-for-Slay” policy and ignore PA incitement to violence and terror. In doing so, the UN once again proved its bias against Israel and its acceptance of Palestinian terror targeting Jews.

During his update, Wennesland gave a general overview of every potential - real or alleged - breach of UNSC 2334 allegedly committed by Israel or Jewish Israelis (referred to by Wennesland collectively as “settlers”). However, when it came to the active participation of the PA in inciting, promoting, and rewarding terror, suddenly Wennesland remained completely silent!

Whitewashing the PA’s “Pay-for-Slay” policy

Since the PA was created, it has spent billions of dollars paying monthly salaries to imprisoned and released terrorists and allowances to wounded terrorists and the families of dead terrorists. These payments are collectively know as the PA’s “Pay-for-Slay” policy.

In 2018, 2019, and 2020, the PA cumulatively spent no less than 1.85 billion shekels ($577,048,429/ €495,453,782) on salaries and allowances to terrorists and their families.

The PA terror reward payments are a direct incentive for Palestinians to participate in terror. The 2018 US Taylor Force Act described the payments as an “incentive to commit acts of terror.” The goal of the Israeli law, also passed in 2018, is to reduce “terror activity and to cancel the financial incentive for terror activity.”

While the PA payments clearly breach numerus UNSC resolutions that deal with the international war on terror and even UNSC 2334, when addressing the payments Wennesland merely noted that “Israelis and Palestinians should urgently resolve the impasse over the prisoner payments,” not condemning it with even one word.
The UNHRC's End of Year Report: UN Watch's Dina Rovner on ILTV
On ILTV: UN Watch's Legal Advisor Dina Rovner discusses the UN Human Rights Council's end of year report and how the UN's highest human rights body singles out Israel for special and disproportionate treatment.




Ted Cruz Praises Free Beacon on Senate Floor for Exposing Biden Admin Effort To Ban ‘Abraham Accords’
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) praised the Washington Free Beacon on the Senate floor on Monday evening for its exclusive reporting on an effort by the Biden administration State Department to ban U.S. officials from using the term "Abraham Accords," the name of the historic peace agreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors that were brokered by the Trump administration.

The Free Beacon reported in early June, based on internal State Department edicts, that U.S. diplomats were instructed to avoid calling the Abraham Accords by their official name, saying that they should only be referred to as "normalization agreements." The term "Abraham Accords" was also purged from State Department talking points, documents, statements, and official communications, multiple sources confirmed to the Free Beacon at the time.

The report sparked accusations that the Biden administration was downplaying the historic peace agreements, which marked the first time in history that Israel was officially recognized by the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and later other Arab nations. Following the Free Beacon’s exposé, the State Department altered its position, saying officials would now "refer to the Abraham Accords as such."

Cruz described the administration’s decision as Orwellian.

"At the beginning of the Biden administration, the State Department even issued internal guidance prohibiting the use of the phrase, ‘Abraham Accords.’ Those words were verboten—'You may not say those words,'" Cruz said. "The instructions were instead to call them the ‘normalization agreements.’ George Orwell is no doubt looking down from heaven and smiling at the power of language to be redefined. There are no Abraham Accords now, they’re normalization agreements. Once again, the only reason that the public knows about this is because journalists revealed it—this time it was the Washington Free Beacon."


The Next American Diplomatic Debacle
Ignoring the sovereignty of Israel in Jerusalem, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced America’s intention to reopen a consulate in Jerusalem, mainly focused on Palestinian affairs. This seemingly innocuous statement places Jerusalem squarely back in the center of any future negotiations with the Palestinian Authority—something that the Trump administration flatly refused as a matter of both present and future policy.

At the same time, the Biden administration’s plan proves that US intelligence, defense and foreign-service bureaucracies remain outlandishly ignorant of, or are consciously ignoring, a simple and basic fact: that the PA’s ability to lead its people, or control the violent agitators in its midst, is shaky at best and inadequate at worse.

The US publicly expressed concern last July over the precarious situation of the PA, which led it to a request that Israel to do everything in its power to stabilize floundering PA infrastructure.

Jerusalem is first and foremost the eternal and undivided capital of the State of Israel, and no Israeli or American governmental body has the authority to challenge its existence or wholeness. Yet, at the same time, the still-hegemonic United States must concede, before it’s too late to do so, that establishing a consulate in Jerusalem is a terrible mistake—not only for its own strategic interests, but for those of its primary regional ally, Israel, and that of any future Palestinian state, which the US remains committed to will into existence.

If America fails to recognize reality, both in the context of its relationship with Israel and to regional security as a whole, the Biden administration will find itself yet again embarrassed. Its detachment from reality and facts on the ground may have grave consequences on the pro-Israel Arab alliance, consisting of states that are vastly more disillusioned with Palestinian statehood than are their Western counterparts.

By opening an American consulate in Jerusalem for the Palestinians, the Biden administration is at risk of having the botched Afghanistan withdrawal be the most negligible of its blunders when history books are written.


Israel Marks Balfour Declaration 104th Anniversary



Governments Must Stop Supporting Terror if They Care About Human Rights
It is hard to imagine that anyone is truly baffled by the idea that a humanitarian NGO—which may legitimately do some very good things­—could also be engaged in providing some material support for terrorists on the side. It is especially surprising for the State Department to express confusion about such a determination, given the nature of their own obligations under U.S. counterterrorism law.

Moreover, 8 U.S.C. §1189 authorizes the Secretary of State to designate foreign terrorist organizations as such if they engage in terrorist activities. The statutory definition of “engage in terrorist activity” includes affording material support to a terrorist or terrorist organization even if such support is confined to non-terrorist activities. In addition, under 18 U.S.C. §2339, it is a federal crime to “knowingly provide material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization”—even if you happen to be a human rights organization that also does some good. Sadly, that happens not infrequently, and in 2014 the Financial Action Task Force, an inter-governmental money laundering and terror financing watchdog, issued a report specifically warning against the special risks proposed by non-profit organizations in this context. In fact, the leading U.S. case in this area, Holder v. Humanitarian Law, is literally and explicitly about human rights groups providing material support to terrorist orgs.

Price also claimed that Israel did not give the U.S. advance warning of the changes, but Israeli officials dispute this, saying they did give the Biden administration notice and proof, and are happy to do so again, with Israeli officials preparing to fly to Washington with evidence including “footage and receipts.”

To recap: The evidence that these six NGOs (at the very least) provided material support for terrorism is readily available and yet to be refuted; tellingly, none of the statements released by the various NGOs and activists condemning Israel bothered to actually address the underlying issue. Despite how it is being painted by reflexively anti-Israel groups and activists, including some members of Congress, the legal process Israel followed is not in any way unique. In fact, it is very similar to our own well-established practice. And if any of these organizations really do believe that a mistake has been made, there is an appellate procedure available, with claims to be submitted to the Advisory Committee regarding designations on Terror Organizations. Not surprisingly, none of the groups has yet appealed.

In the meantime, if all of those wringing their hands at the thought of these poor NGOs getting in trouble are really that concerned about their welfare, or even about human rights generally, there is one ready solution. The quickest way to solve this problem would be to stop focusing on how these groups ended up getting caught, and start pressuring them to actually stop supporting terror.
Israel hasn’t given us evidence linking NGOs to terror, Irish FM says
Israel hasn’t shown Ireland or the European Union credible evidence to prove that there is substance behind its decision last week to designate six Palestinian nongovernmental groups as terror entities, Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday.

“We have asked for, as has the EU, the evidence basis for designating those NGOs,” he explained as he sat with the paper in the Inbal Hotel, just before heading to meet with President Isaac Herzog.

But “we have not gotten any credible evidence to link the NGOs to terrorism, certainly not that I have seen,” said Coveney who has also served as his country’s defense minister since 2020.

The issue is high on his agenda, during his two-day visit to Israel. It is his fifth such trip since he became foreign minister in 2017.

The tall blunt-speaking diplomat is quick to describe himself as a friend of the Jewish state, but one who does not hesitate to criticize it on issues of disagreement such as the NGO terror labeling. In this instance the concern is personal, because Ireland provides funding to two of the NGOs targeted by Israel: Al-Haq and Addameer.

“We have very robust systems of knowing where our money is spent and how it is spent,” Coveney explained, adding that the two groups had passed inspection by his government.


Seth Frantzman: Turkey’s goal is endless uncertainty in Syria
Now the rumor is of another “trade” in Syria where Turkey will let the Russian-backed Syrian regime take some areas in Idlib and Turkey will take some areas near Tal Rifat or Manbij or Kobane. This would require some support from Moscow because Moscow controls the airspace in these areas. Turkey needs to be able to use the airspace so its drones and planes can launch attacks.

Turkey knows the SNA are reticent to sacrifice more lives in Syria. Turkey doesn’t want to be seen selling out Syrians. However it also needs a crisis to distract from economic failure at home. It also wants to send a message to Biden that it is Turkey that controls the keys to stability in Syria. In short it could be saying to Washington: Give us F-16s or we will cause you trouble in Syria. Then it tells Moscow: We want to humiliate the US-backed SDF, let us conduct some operations to do that and we will give you a win in Idlib.

In the end Turkey wins when everyone is guessing what it wants to do and when Russia and the US have to compete for Ankara’s support. That means that it wins when others are worried about what comes next. That is why Turkey leaks information to media hinting at a new invasion and war, because it wants to dominate and drive the narrative. It has done this before, stoking chaos every month and a new crisis. Last month it threatened to expel western ambassadors when they supported a detained human rights activists. That is the “crises-a-month” strategy. Sometimes Turkey’s bragging and bullying actually does lead to Ankara mounting a military attack. Other times Turkey rattles its swords and then backs down. For instance Turkey often creates fake crises with Greece and then climbs down.

Ankara has some other issues it wants to address also. It is selling drones to Ukraine and reports say Ukraine used a Turkish drone recently. This could be a setback for Russian backed groups in the Donbas that Ukraine sees as separatists. Turkey could be in hot water with Moscow over the drone sales. But Turkey could also be hinting to Moscow that it has its fingers now in Ukraine and in the southern Caucasus and could heat things up for Russia unless Moscow bends on Ankara’s demands in Syria. Meanwhile Turkey wants to say the same thing to France regarding Libya.

It may be no coincidence that open source intelligence monitors online have pointed to renewed movements by eastern Libya leader Khalifa Haftar. The Libya Observer claimed in an article that Haftar “plane lands in Israel.” It pointed to an Israeli report by Itay Blumental that tracked the plane. Nothing is known about the accuracy of these reports. What matters is that Haftar is in the news, Libya is in the news and Turkey is making noise about Syria. It may all be connected in a complex and roundabout way linking Moscow’s moves, Turkey, the US, and other countries.
Report: Israeli Missiles Target Damascus Area
Israeli missiles hit the Damascus area early Wednesday, according to SANA, Syria’s state media.

The strike targeted Zakia, a suburb of Damascus, causing some material damage.

The report said the missiles were launched from Israeli territory at 12:56 am.

Israel made no comment on the report, which it seldom does. The military has stated it will not tolerate Iranian proxies in Syria, including Hezbollah and foreign militias funded by Iran.

While the militants claim their presence in Syria is to combat Islamic State and “terrorists,” Israel fears Iranian entrenchment north of its border. Hundreds of alleged strikes have attacked Iran-linked groups in the country since the start of the Syrian civil war.

A rare attack during the day on Saturday left five fighters loyal to Iran dead, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. The attack was attributed to Israel, targeting Hezbollah and Iran-backed militants.
IDF holding amphibious drill in Eilat with US NAVCENT forces
The IDF have begun a joint, bilateral amphibious exercise with the US Naval Forces Central Command’s (NAVCENT) 5th Fleet in Eilat for the second time in less than a month.

NAVCENT’s 51/5th Marine Expeditionary Brigade is leading the American participation in the drill which will also see some 500 troops from the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, including a logistics battalion detachment, an infantry rifle company, a lightly armored reconnaissance company and a High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) platoon take part.

IDF troops will include forces from the Maglan commando unit, from the Lotar anti-terrorism unit and from the School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders.

“The troops will take part in a multi-branch exercise for two weeks, in which they will train with counter-terrorism forces, commando forces and expose-attack forces, simulating warfare techniques in open areas and urban environments,” the IDF said.

The two-week-long drill will include scenarios in urban terrain, infantry live-fire, HIMARS live-fire, and rapid maneuvering training. It will also see forces discuss various topics such as engineering, medical and explosive ordinance disposal.

“This exercise is part of the next chapter in the US Navy’s and Marine Corps’ longstanding relationship with Israel that is so vital to stability and security in the region,” Brig.-Gen. Farrell Sullivan, commanding general of the task force was quoted as saying.
Israel to place aerial reconnaissance balloon in North
As Israel continues to work toward significantly bolstering its air defenses, an advanced aerial surveillance balloon has been raised high in the sky in the North to provide additional early warning capabilities against aerial threats.

Following years of development and manufacturing, the Israel Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) at the Directorate of Defense R&D of the Defense Ministry has “begun initial inflation operations” of the balloon, the ministry said in a statement.

The High Availability Aerostat System (HAAS) developed by the American company TCOM, which specializes in aerostat surveillance solutions, is one of the largest in the world and is designed to carry an improved sensor system to provide detection and early warning of advanced threats. “In several flight tests conducted in recent months, we have demonstrated the outstanding capabilities of Israel’s multi-tier missile defense, including against cruise missiles,” said IMDO director, Moshe Patel.

“The IMDO and MDA, together with the IAF and defense industries are constantly improving Israel’s threat detection capabilities. This aerostat system will hover at high altitudes and provide exceptional, multi-directional detection capability against advanced threats.”
Iran Affiliated Hackers Leak Explicit Data of 290K Israeli Patients, 10K Credit Cards
Hackers from the Black Shadow group on Tuesday night leaked personal and sensitive medical information of 290,000 customers who used the internet access of the Mor Institute For Medical Data in Bnei Brak to contact specialists regarding medical issues. The hackers stole the contents of those medical inquiries and now leaked the detailed medical problems suffered by each user.

The Black Shadow hackers who say they identify with Iran broke into several Israeli sites last Saturday and shut them down. Apparently, they managed to invade the servers of the host company Cybersverse and hacked its client sites. Among those were the bus companies Kavim and Dan, the tourist site Pegasus, and the LGBTQ dating site Atraf.

On Wednesday morning, the hackers offered for sale thousands of credit cards of Israeli citizens they claim they collected from the hacked sites. According to Black Shadow, they are selling only two copies of the complete credit card data—10,000 cards altogether—at 10,000 NIS each ($3,200).
Government legalizes 3 unrecognized Bedouin towns, fulfilling Ra’am’s pledge
The government legalized three unrecognized Bedouin villages in the southern Negev desert on Wednesday, fulfilling a key demand by the coalition’s Islamist Ra’am party.

The three newly recognized townships are Rakhma, Hashm al-Zena, and Abda, according to Yair Maayan, who directs a government office charged with regulating Bedouin affairs. About 4,000 Bedouins live in the villages, according to the Negev Coexistence Forum.

The government on Wednesday also advanced a proposal for a new planned Bedouin municipality in the south, one not affiliated with any particular tribe, within 90 days.

Since Israel’s establishment in 1948, authorities have sought to relocate the largely pastoralist Bedouin to recognized towns. But many Bedouin insist on their right to remain where they are, and around 90,000 live in dozens of unrecognized villages scattered across the southern Negev desert.

Much of the construction in these villages is illegal, as the towns do not exist in the eyes of the law. While Israel rarely conducts mass expulsions, it does regularly demolish illegal homes and other structures in the villages. Residents also live without access to the national water and electricity supplies.

Improving the living conditions of Negev Bedouin was a major campaign pitch by Ra’am party leader Mansour Abbas in the previous election. The conservative Bedouin communities are a key constituency for his Islamist faction.
Latest BBC report on Israeli construction same as all the others
Last week we looked at BBC World Service radio news reports from October 24th/25th on the topic of what were described as “homes for Jewish settlers”.

On the evening of October 27th the BBC News website published a report on the same subject on its ‘Middle East’ page. Titled “Israel advances plans for 3,000 new homes in West Bank settlements”, that report follows the format long seen in BBC coverage of house building in locations in which the corporation seems to think Jews should not reside.

The long-standing partial BBC mantra concerning ‘international law’ is promoted in both the main illustration and the body of the report.

“More than 600,000 Jews live in 145 settlements built since Israel’s occupation of the West Bank and East Jerusalem in the 1967 Middle East war. Most of the international community considers the settlements illegal under international law, though Israel disputes this.”

The report includes a much-used partisan map sourced from the foreign funded political NGO B’tselem which is frequently seen in BBC coverage and which, inter alia, portrays the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem as a ‘settlement’.


Nazi flag with Star of David hung near West Bank settlement
A handmade Nazi flag with a Jewish Star of David was hung up near the entrance to Homesh, a West Bank settlement, in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

The flag was discovered and taken down by "Har Shalom" Homesh Yeshiva students on Tuesday morning.

A Jewish Star of David and a swastika can be seen on one side of the flag while two swastikas were sewn on its reverse.

Antisemitic graffiti and Nazi symbolism have become widespread in the West Bank in recent months.

In October, Yitzhar Yeshiva students found and erased swastikas sprayed on concrete blocks and road signs by vandals in Huwara, near Nablus. A month prior, the IDF took down a Nazi flag bearing a swastika after it was hoisted by unknown perpetrators in the Palestinian town of Beit Ummar near Hebron.

Perhaps the most extravagant display of antisemitism was August's flaming wooden Star of David with a swastika inside, put up by Palestinian rioters near the evacuated West Bank outpost of Evyatar.


Ex-PA Education Minister dedicates Italian award to imprisoned and dead terrorists

Abbas’ advisor: There was no Jewish history in Israel - “There never was a kingdom of Israel”

Egyptian international legal expert: “The world spat out [the Jews] because it knows… their crimes”



Bahrain Urges Citizens in Lebanon to Leave, Yemeni Gov’t Recalls Envoy
Bahrain’s foreign ministry on Tuesday urged citizens in Lebanon to leave immediately, the state news agency reported, amid a deepening row over comments by a Lebanese minister that were critical of the Saudi-led intervention in Yemen.

Saudi Arabia expelled Lebanon’s envoy and banned all Lebanese imports on Friday. Bahrain and Kuwait followed suit.

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government also recalled its ambassador to Beirut on Tuesday for consultations, the state news agency SABA reported, over the comments made by George Kordahi before he became Lebanese information minister.

In an interview he said was recorded on Aug. 5, before the formation of a new Lebanese government, Kordahi called the Yemeni war futile, said Yemen was subjected to an aggression and that its Iran-aligned Houthis were defending themselves.

A coalition of forces led by Riyadh intervened in Yemen in March 2015 after the Iran-aligned Houthis ousted the internationally-recognized government from the capital Sanaa.
The Lasting Legacy of A.Q. Khan
The Pakistani engineer who operated the world’s most prolific black market nuclear proliferation network—Abdul Qadeer “A.Q.” Khan—passed away on October 10 from complications related to COVID-19. Khan’s legacy: selling nuclear weapons capabilities to some of the worst regimes in the world and contributing to security crises that endure today.

In the early 1970s, Khan, a metallurgical engineer, exploited his employment at a Dutch company affiliated with URENCO, the European uranium enrichment consortium, to steal restricted gas centrifuge design drawings and documents. Khan later returned to Pakistan to lead Islamabad’s illicit procurement efforts to acquire components and materiel for a centrifuge program, taking advantage of weak European and Japanese export controls on nuclear dual-use equipment to achieve his goal. Khan’s efforts allowed him to rise in prominence within the nuclear weapons complex and, later, in Pakistani society.

Pakistan also benefited from significant Chinese assistance, which included designs for a nuclear weapon, supplies of weapons-grade uranium, and on-site technical help. As Pakistan’s plutonium-based nuclear weapons program faltered, Khan reportedly led Islamabad’s successful effort to develop atomic bombs fabricated with highly enriched uranium by 1984.

Khan also realized that selling Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities to other countries would turn a handsome profit. In 2009, the State Department reported that he “provided ‘one stop shopping’ for countries seeking to develop nuclear weapons. With the assistance of Khan’s network, countries could leapfrog the slow, incremental stages of other nuclear weapons development programs.”
Israel said to have provided intel on Iranian drones before latest US sanctions
Israel reportedly gave Washington officials information about Iran’s military drone industry before the US Treasury Department slapped sanctions on companies and related figures.

Last week the US hit Iran’s drone program with sanctions, targeting two companies and a number of individuals.

The information from Israel included Iran’s use of drones in recent years and top officials involved in their development, among them those who were put under sanctions by the US, Haaretz reported Sunday.

An Israeli source assessed that the sanctions were aimed at boosting pressure on Tehran ahead of the reopening of negotiations on the country’s nuclear program, and also to deter it from further use of drones in attacks, according to the report.

The developments came amid moves by Israel to raise Iranian drones as a threat requiring attention, alongside that of its nuclear program.

In announcing the sanctions Friday, the US Treasury said lethal unmanned aerial vehicles from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps have been used to attack US forces and international shipping in the Gulf region.
Seth Frantzman: Iran’s dangerous game in the Gulf of Oman  - analysis
Iranian media claims that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps humiliated the United States in a unique operation that supposedly prevented “piracy” against Iranian oil. Tehran claims that Washington interdicted an Iranian oil tanker and confiscated the oil, and that Iran then sent the IRGC, which landed on the tanker using helicopters and took it back to Iran. The Islamic Republic is under US sanctions and recent reports had said that it was trying to renew exports of oil to various countries, such as China.

This is not the first time that the US has offloaded Iranian oil. It seized fuel from four tankers in August 2020. More than a million barrels of Iranian oil were confiscated and sold in that incident, which involved four Iranian ships.

Back in 2019, the Iranian tanker Grace 1 was intercepted by British Royal Marines but was then released from Gibraltar. Renamed Adrian Darya, the tanker turned off its AIS tracking beacon and went to Syria after the incident. Meanwhile, Iran tried to intercept the British Heritage tanker and then seized the British Stena Impero tanker in the fall of 2019, eventually releasing it in September 2019.

Iran frequently tries to send fuel to Syria and now even to Lebanon. This has led to other tensions. The Wall Street Journal reported in March that Israel had attacked Iranian tankers bound for Syria. An alleged IRGC covert “mother ship” called Saviz was also attacked in April in the Red Sea, according to reports. The MV Helios Ray was attacked in February. That ship was said to be Israeli-owned in reports. Other incidents followed: the Lori was attacked in March and the Tyndall in July. The MV Hyperion Ray was also attacked in April.

The United States Naval Institute said in late July that “an exploding drone killed two crew members aboard a merchant tanker off the coast of Oman, US 5th Fleet said in a late Friday statement. The two were crew members aboard the Liberian-flagged tanker Mercer Street when the ship was hit with at least one explosive-laden unmanned aerial vehicle late Thursday, according to the statement.”
Iran says US tried to seize oil tanker, failed, ship now back in its waters
Iran said Wednesday it had thwarted an attempt by the US Navy to seize a tanker in the Sea of Oman carrying its oil, and that the vessel was back in Iranian waters, the state-owned Press TV reported.

It gave no details of the date of the incident or the country where the vessel is registered.

The report comes amid faltering efforts to revive Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers that would see a lifting of US sanctions on its oil exports.

The sequence of events reported by the television station left key questions unanswered.

“The United States stopped a tanker exporting Iranian oil and transferred its cargo to another tanker which it directed towards an unknown destination,” it said.

“The naval arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards then captured the tanker with air support,” it said, without specifying which vessel it was referring to.
Iran seized Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker in Gulf of Oman: US officials
Iran seized a Vietnamese-flagged oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman last month and still holds the vessel off Bandar Abbas, two US officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

One of the officials said paramilitary Iranian Revolutionary Guard troops took control of the MV Southys on October 24 at gunpoint. US forces had monitored the seizure, but ultimately didn’t take action as the vessel went into Iranian waters.

A motive for the seizure remains unclear. Officials in Vietnam could not be immediately reached for comment. Ship-tracking data analyzed by the AP from MarineTraffic.com showed the vessel still off Bandar Abbas on Tuesday.

The two US officials spoke on condition of anonymity as the information had yet to be made public amid ongoing attempts to restart talks in Vienna with Iran over its tattered nuclear deal.

The officials spoke to AP after Iranian state television offered a series of contradictory reports earlier Wednesday about a confrontation between the Guard and the US Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet. It described the incident as also happening in the Gulf of Oman, with the US Navy detaining the vessel and the Guard bringing it back to the Islamic Republic.
Iranian Oil Sales to China Skyrocket as Experts Say Biden Admin Turns Blind Eye to Sanctions Enforcement
Illicit Iranian oil sales to China have soared in recent months as the Biden administration attempts to reenter the 2015 nuclear accord, raising concerns from Iran experts that the United States is turning a blind eye to sanctions violations in a bid to entice Iran back to the bargaining table.

China imported nearly 800,000 barrels of Iranian crude per day on average during the last three months, almost double the amount it was illegally buying from Iran during the same period last year when the Trump administration was pressuring Iran with a crippling sanctions campaign. The increase comes amid an effort by China and Iran to boost diplomatic ties and force the Biden administration into removing sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Iran has also been building out a large "ghost armada" of ships that illegally transfer oil to China, Syria, and Russia, among others, and evade sanctions by turning off their onboard transponders, essentially making these ships invisible. The number of these ships known to be in operation has increased in recent months, according to research conducted by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), an advocacy group that tracks Iran's monthly oil exports and shipping industry.

China's importation of Iranian oil has drastically increased since January 2021, according to experts tracking the numbers, and has coincided with the Biden administration's efforts to revive nuclear negotiations with Tehran. The United States has promised to waive sanctions on Iran that were imposed by the Trump administration, including those on its oil trade, if Iran agrees to return to the deal. Experts say the Biden administration is already tacitly allowing these sales to increase by not enforcing sanctions still in place—giving the Iranian regime a critical financial lifeline as its economy teeters on the brink of collapse.

The increase in oil exports to China "has to do with a lack of enforcement on sanctions," UANI chief of staff Claire Jungman told the Washington Free Beacon. "I do believe there is just a lack of enforcement and a lack of interest from the Biden administration to enforce these sanctions."


Seth Frantzman: Iran Accuses Former Officials of Living the Good Life in Europe
Some officials from former Iranian president Hassan Rouhani’s administration moved to Europe under the pretext of “air pollution” being bad in Tehran. Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported the accusation, likely with the backing of the new government, which aims to showcase the feeble and bourgeois mentality of the previous administration.

Hojjatoleslam Alireza Salimi, the representative of Mahalat and Delijan in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, was quoted as saying officials up to the level of deputy ministers have moved to Vienna and Geneva for many months.

The report comes as Tehran seeks to ban officials from leaving the country after they complete their work.

“One of the problems of our country is that the second home of some officials is in Iran, and therefore in their plans and actions, they put all the eggs of the country’s problems in the basket of several Western countries,” the report said.

Indeed, it has been long suspected that Iranians, such as former foreign minister Javad Zarif, preferred to live in the West, even as he was a member of a regime that shouts “death to America.”

It is typical of the Iranian jet-set elite – who crush human rights at home and bash the West – to enjoy the good life when abroad. Many of them were educated at Western universities by the very system they claim to hate, enjoying their time in secular countries while their regime is busy chasing after women for wearing a headscarf improperly.

Western countries have generally tolerated this, even as citizens of the UK and elsewhere are kidnapped and held in Iran. While the West will not crack down, it appears Iran may be cracking down on its own.







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