Tuesday, May 31, 2022

05/31 Links Pt1: Meir Y. Soloveichik: ‘These Stones Are Not Silent’; Israel, UAE Boost Ties With Free Trade Pact; China threatens to downgrade Israel ties over 'Post' Taiwan interview

From Ian:

Meir Y. Soloveichik: ‘These Stones Are Not Silent’
Begin’s point is at once simple and profound, and what he wrote about the Western Wall is all the more true about the top of the Temple Mount itself, the site of “the great flame” and “the house that once stood” on that site. Are the stones silent or are they not? Is there still a profound Jewish connection to this site or not? If these stones are not silent, if they still whisper, “sending out their light across the generations,” how could a Jew possibly visit the sacred without being moved to prayer? And if the stones of the Temple Mount are indeed dead, silent, no longer linked to a living Judaism—if reverence for them is mere “old fashioned prejudice—then it makes sense to allow Jewish visitors as mere tourists, uttering nary a word, their silence paralleling those of the stones themselves. But then, why is the Western Wall itself a site of Jewish longing, and why should Jerusalem itself be of importance to Jews?

The question of what the Temple Mount embodies is bound up with the identity of the Jewish people, and of the State of Israel. Norman Podhoretz has suggested that the quest to divide Jerusalem is an attempt to assault the “scandal of Jewish particularity,” the notion that Jews have a unique destiny linked to one land on the earth. In the Bible, this “scandal” is made most manifest on the Temple Mount, where a universal God is described as choosing one mountain, among one people, as His eternal dwelling place.

It is just this that many seek to assault, denying the Jewish link to the land by seeking to ensure that the Mount remain devoid of Judaism if not of Jews. Begin similarly described the motivations of those who attempted to limit the sounding of the shofar and the singing of “Hatikvah” at the Wall: “Living testimony to a glorious past? A charter of rights hewn in ancient stone? Precisely for these reasons must the stones of the wall be taken from the Jews.” Thus a study of Jewish history reveals that the debate about Jewish rights in ancient Jerusalem, now as then, is linked to something larger: whether the Jewish reverence for this site, and the expressed longing for all that once occurred there, is mere “superstition,” or whether such faith is reified by the very stones that whisper still.

In the days before the May 6 Jewish pilgrimage, the newspapers of Israel, from the right-leaning Israel HaYom to the leftist Haaretz, published a poll revealing that at least 50 percent of Jewish Israelis believe that Jews should be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount. By the end of Independence Day, around 1,000 Jews had ascended to the Temple Mount, four times as many as those who had ascended on the last Independence Day before the pandemic. They were celebrated online by another minister of the government, Ayelet Shaked, heightening the contradictions in this coalition regarding a matter central to Israel’s identity. One fact is clear: The ancient stones are not silent, and the argument over the Temple Mount has only begun.
Jerusalem isn't unified until the Temple Mount is ours - opinion
When we promise not to forget Jerusalem, what is it that we conjure up in our minds and hearts? What is it that we associationally capture in order to never forget Jerusalem?

While we might have idealized visions of what the place might have looked like, we also have extensive descriptions of how the heart of the city appeared. That heart, that crown, was the Temple, of course. It was resplendent, magnificent and beckoning, yet also aloof.

If, as we learn, the nations of the world flocked to Jerusalem, it was not to visit the existing rendition of the Mahaneh Yehuda shuk (outdoor market). It was to be awestruck and moved by the presence of God’s abode on Earth: The Temple.

The Temple was the epitome of the magnificence of Jerusalem and Jerusalem as a place was indistinguishable from the Temple that crowned it. Today, we have been blessed to once again be part of the life of the city that we have sworn eternal association with. We can marvel at its old walls and we can explore, with head-shaking wonder, the newly unearthed tunnels and passages that link us to Davidic times.

But, alas, that which made Jerusalem the great city is no more, and even worse, we are hard-pressed to even visit the site of its crown. Today, those who respectfully wish to visit the Temple Mount, the enormous Herodian creation on which the Temple was built, will undergo a process of humiliation and debasement for their loyalty.

Ironically, while we triumphed miraculously some 55 years ago against an array of genocidal enemies and recaptured the Old City of Jerusalem, we almost immediately surrendered our greatest prize: the unfettered control of the Temple Mount. What ensued has been one of the greatest failures and embarrassments of the state of Israel: the willing severance of the connection of the Jewish people from its holiest site.




Israel Hosts OECD International Education Innovation Conference in Jerusalem
The Israeli Education Ministry and the Jerusalem Municipality jointly opened the OECD International Education Innovation Conference on Tuesday.

The conference, being held at the Jerusalem International Convention Center, will last from Tuesday to June 2. The opening was attended by Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton, Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Leon and other senior officials.

According to a statement by the Education Ministry, representatives from 48 countries are taking part, including leading educational professionals from around the world.

“We are excited to host, for the first time in the Israeli capital, a conference which presents unique programs of educational innovation in our education system. Israeli teaching personnel who are participating in the conference display impressive entrepreneurship capabilities and the development of programs, teaching methods and educational breakthroughs,” said Shasha-Biton.

“To host this conference is a source of great pride for the Israeli education system,” she added.

Dalit Stauber, director-general of the Israeli Education Ministry, added, “The mosaic of initiatives from our wonderful principals and teachers generates pride, bringing the Israeli education system to the forefront of the global stage.”
Israel, UAE Boost Ties With Free Trade Pact
Israel signed a free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, its first with an Arab state and one which eliminates most tariffs and aims to lift their annual bilateral trade to more than $10 billion.

It was signed in Dubai by Minister of Economy and Industry Orna Barbivai and her counterpart, UAE Minister of Economy Abdulla bin Touq Al Marri, after months of negotiations.

Tariffs will be removed or reduced on 96% of goods traded between the nations. The UAE predicted the Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement would boost annual bilateral trade to more than $10 billion within five years.

Emirati-Israeli trade stood at $1.2 billion in 2021, official Israeli data showed.

Tariffs will be reduced on goods including food, medicine, diamonds, jewelry, fertilizers and other chemicals.

Most duties are to be eliminated immediately, while others will be removed over 3-5 years. Some products will still be subject to customs tariffs but at a lower rate.

Emirati trade minister Thani Al Zeyoudi said the deal had written “a new chapter in the history of the Middle East.”

“Our agreement will accelerate growth, create jobs and lead to a new era of peace, stability, and prosperity across the region,” he wrote on Twitter.

Barbivai said in a statement the expected strengthening in trade, removal of barriers and promotion of new business opportunities and partnerships would form a “solid foundation” for the “joint path” shared by Israel and the UAE.
Israel and the UAE sign free trade agreement
'The UAE is fast becoming a major trade hub for Israeli companies to trade overseas,' says Dorian Barak, co-founder, UAE-Israel Business Council


US suspends Abraham Accords assistance to Sudan
The Biden administration has suspended assistance to Sudan, including assistance related to its normalization deal with Israel, and wants Israel to call out the bloody coup that removed the country’s civilian government last year.

“The United States is not moving forward at this time with assistance originally committed to Sudan’s civilian led transitional government in connection with its efforts to improve Sudan’s bilateral relationship with Israel,” a State Department spokesman said in an email Friday in response to a query. “This includes wheat shipments and certain development and trade and investment assistance.”

Jewish Insider first reported the development.

The spokesman noted that the United States also suspended foreign assistance unrelated to the Abraham Accords, the normalization agreements between Israel and four Arab states, because of the coup. He said the Biden administration expected Israel to join in the call for a return to a democratically elected government.

“Any moves made in this regard by Sudan’s military leaders would not enjoy credibility with the Sudanese people,” he said. “We strongly encourage the State of Israel to join us and the broader international community in vocally pressing for Sudan’s military leaders to cede power to a credible civilian-led transitional government.”
Taiwan FM to ‘Post’: China preps to invade us, Israel can't trust Beijing
Voicing concern about a possible Chinese invasion of his country, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu warned Israel – in an exclusive interview on Monday – from relying too heavily on China.

“China is an authoritarian country and they do business in a very different philosophy,” Wu told The Jerusalem Post in a video interview from his office in Taipei. “Sometimes they use trade as a weapon, and we have seen them practicing their weaponized trade relations with many other countries.

“They did it to Lithuania, they did it to the Czech Republic and they also did it to Australia. Sometimes they try to do that to Taiwan as well. So, when we do business with an authoritarian country, we need to be very careful. We shouldn’t allow these kinds of business relations to jeopardize our national security. And I understand pretty well that Israel also places national security very high on the government agenda,” he continued.

Complicated ties
Israeli-Taiwanese relations are complicated, mostly due to Israeli concerns that overt diplomatic ties with the island nation will upset China, one of Israel’s largest trade partners. Earlier this month, for example, the Foreign Ministry reportedly ordered Israeli diplomats stationed around the world to refrain from inviting Taiwanese officials to Israeli events or from participating in events organized by Taiwanese diplomats.

Another sign of the sensitivity is that Wu cannot visit Israel in his official government capacity. In addition, Taiwan’s top diplomat based in Israel – Ya-Ping (Abby) Lee – is referred to as a “representative” and not an ambassador.
China threatens to downgrade Israel ties over 'Post' Taiwan interview
A top Chinese diplomat threatened to downgrade relations with the State of Israel and sever ties with The Jerusalem Post unless the Post deletes an interview with the Taiwanese foreign minister published on Monday. Controversial article

"Got call from Chinese embassy," tweeted Post Editor-in-Chief Yaakov Katz on Monday. "Apparently I’m supposed to take down the story or they will sever ties with The Jerusalem Post and downgrade relations with the State of Israel. Needless to say, story ain’t going anywhere."

The request to remove the article came not long after the article was published on the website. The article will be available in print in the Tuesday edition of The Jerusalem Post newspaper.

In the article, Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu warned Israel in an exclusive interview that Israel was relying too much on China — and that Beijing was readying to invade Taiwan.


Israel Police officers injured, two arrested in Silwan clashes
Four Israel Police officers were lightly injured in attempts to control clashes in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon.

The clashes, which included stones thrown and pepper spray used, involved Israelis and Palestinian residents of Silwan, according to Palestinian sources.

Two suspects were arrested for assaulting the officers. In addition, three Palestinians were injured during the clashes, as per Palestinian media.

Earlier on Tuesday, it was revealed that Border Police forces foiled a stabbing attack on Monday in Jerusalem's Old City's Damascus Gate.

The Israeli forces identified the suspect, a 15-year-old east Jerusalem resident, who was carrying a knife. Following a chase by foot, police forces arrested the Jabel Mukaber teen near the entrance to Temple Mount.

During an interrogation of the suspect, it was revealed he planned on carrying out a terror attack in the capital, Israel Police Jerusalem District chief Doron Turgeman said.
Gun license applications spike by 600% in Israel since March terror wave
Israel has seen a 600% increase in applications for a gun license following the wave of terror the state faced, which killed 21 civilians in multiple acts of terror, according to data revealed at a discussion of the Firearms Licensing Committee of the Public Security Ministry on Tuesday.

Committee chairperson MK Merav Ben-Ari (Yesh Atid) said that a separate discussion will be held to add onto the existing criteria for acquiring a gun license in Israel, in which both the Justice Ministry and the Public Security Ministry will participate.

Despite the concerning increase in a desire to hold a weapon, Ben-Ari insisted that the committee "wants to help the public that meets the criteria to possess personal weapons."

Likud MK Nir Barkat, who attended the discussion, insisted that more requests must be approved in 2022.

"Everyone who serves in the reserve should be allowed to receive weapons in civilian life as well," he said. "We need 200,000 fighters to help the police protect their neighborhoods and families in the next state of emergency when attacked on several fronts. With the current system we will not reach these numbers because it can not provide an answer."
Hamas cell commander given life sentence for 2019 slaying of student
An Israeli military court on Tuesday sentenced a Palestinian man to life in prison for killing an Israeli teenager in 2019.

Ahmad Asafra was handed an additional 25-year sentence and ordered to pay NIS 1.5 million ($450,000) to the family of Dvir Sorek.

Sorek, 18, was stabbed to death near the West Bank settlement of Migdal Oz in August 2019. He was a yeshiva student enrolled in a program known as hesder that combines Torah study with military service. He was not in the military at the time of his killing.

In February, Asafra was convicted of intentionally causing the death of Sorek, as well as a series of security offenses. The main charge is equivalent to murder in the West Bank military court.

The court determined that Asafra was the commander of a Hamas terror cell that carried out the stabbing attack. The court accepted the prosecution’s position that Asafra was guilty of the attack, although he was not present at the time of the stabbing.

Another member of the cell, Yusef Zohar, was not present during the attack, but was convicted of a number of security offenses and was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 15 years.

In December, Qassem Asafra and Nasir Asafra were sentenced to life imprisonment for the attack. Qassem Asafra was handed an additional 40-year sentence, and Nasir Asafra an additional 20 years. The pair are cousins; it’s unclear how they are related to Ahmad Asafra.
Jerusalem's Arab population increased by 13% from 1980 to 2020
Survey shows demographic and economic shifts in Jerusalem Interview with Yair Assaf-Shapira, researcher, Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research.


Israeli Arab mayor: Israel's long-term plan is establishing their Temple in place of Al-Aqsa

Will the US revoke Mahmoud Abbas' visa?
Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu, Chief Rabbi of the city of Safed and a well known, law-abiding Religious Zionist leader who is also considered a halakhic expert, is accused of racism by Israel's left for calling on Jews not to rent apartments to Israeli Arabs and his US visa has been revoked.

Mahmoud Abbas heads the Palestinian Authority where Jews are stoned if they enter its areas by mistake. He calls for an judenrein Palestinian Arab state. There is a Palestinian Authority law calling for the death penalty for Arabs who sell property to Jews.

The State Department refuses to explain why they revoked Rabbi Eliyahu's visa. Perhaps that is because doing so would force them to revoke their visa from Abbas as well

Details:
On May 30, 2022 Arutz 7 reported "The US embassy in Israel recently informed Safed Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu that his Visa to enter the US has been revoked, USA Today reported. According to the report, this is an unusual move as the visa did not expire, but was revoked in a move initiated by the State Department. Rabbi Eliyahu is one of the most prominent rabbis in Israel, having served for decades as the Chief Rabbi of Safed and on the Chief Rabbinical Council. The US embassy refused to comment on the reasons for the move, stating that it does not address personal issues related to US visas.. Israeli officials believe the move may be related to Rabbi Eliyahu's past statements regarding Israel's Arab population, including a call not to rent apartments to Israeli Arabs."

Rabbi Eliyahu has called for Jews not to rent apartments to Arabs in Safed. Arabs, however, refuse to rent apartments to Jews in Israeli Arab communities and many are aggressive against Jews to the point where, if Jews by accident make a wrong turn into an Arab city, they are attacked with stones,

During the last IDF operation in Gaza, Guardian of the Walls, Arabs rioted in mixed poulation cities such as Lod, destroying property, burning synagogues and throwing large rocks that critically injured a Jewish man on his way home in Akko, The man later died.
Abbas says PA planning steps ‘to confront Israeli escalation,’ slams ‘US silence’
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi in Ramallah Tuesday that the Palestinian leadership is planning “steps to confront Israeli escalation,” the PA leader’s office said.

Abbas’s comments during a snap visit by Safadi came in the aftermath of weeks of tensions between Israel and the Palestinians, some of them centered around the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque holy site in Jerusalem’s Temple Mount.

Abbas slammed “daily aggression against Al-Aqsa,” as well as home demolitions and the approval of new Israeli settlement units in the West Bank by the Israeli government.

“The continuance of the current situation cannot be accepted and cannot be tolerated,” Abbas said, according to the official WAFA news agency.

Abbas slammed “American silence” and “international impotence” in preventing “Israeli provocations and practices.”

The international community had proven unable “to force Israel to comply with international law,” Abbas told Safadi.

While Ramallah was initially optimistic about the current US administration under US President Joe Biden, the PA has since become frustrated. Palestinian officials say Biden has failed to follow through on key promises, such as reopening the US consulate in Jerusalem and the Palestinian mission in Washington.

Biden is set to visit Israel and the West Bank in the coming weeks, his first trip to the area since he entered office last year.
Abbas libels Israel: “They are the ones who murdered Shireen Abu Akleh”

PMW: Palestinian mob tried to hijack Shireen Abu Akleh's funeral so it would not be “as if a Christian died”
Following a review of Al-Jazeera and PA TV recordings of Shireen Abu Akleh's funeral, PMW can report three striking facts:

1- The motivation of the Palestinians who took her coffin to carry it on their shoulders and by foot was to avoid a funeral “as if a Christian woman died.”

2- Abu Akleh’s family had wanted her body taken by hearse to the church for the funeral, and not carried through the streets of Jerusalem.

3- When the hearse arrived to take the coffin to the church, the Palestinian mob that had gathered at the hospital prevented the car from reaching the entrance and receiving Abu Akleh's body. Instead, it was the Palestinian mob that snatched the coffin and thereby disrupted the funeral. Israeli Police prevented further disruption.
• A few hours before the funeral, Abu Akleh’s brother told Al-Jazeera that the plan was for the coffin to be taken at 2:00 p.m. from the hospital to the church in the hearse on Highway One, the main North-South transit for cars in Jerusalem.
• In the same interview, Abu Akleh’s brother made it clear that although the Palestinian youth want to carry her coffin on their shoulders through the streets of the Old City, there had already been funerals of that kind (Palestinian Islamic Martyr style) in Jenin, Nablus, and Ramallah. In Jerusalem, the family wanted the coffin to be taken in the hearse as agreed with Israeli Police, so there would be no disruptions.
• 1:26 p.m.: The church’s hearse approaches the hospital to take Abu Akleh’s coffin, but the Palestinian mob, stops the car, bangs on its windows, and forces the hearse to leave without the coffin.
• 1:40 p.m.: Palestinian Jerusalem official: The Palestinian crowd prevented the church’s hearse from taking Abu Akleh’s body so she would not be treated “as if a Christian woman died”
• Same Jerusalem official: The crowd wants her body to be carried on their shoulders (according to Palestinian tradition for Shahids – Islamic Martyrs) and not taken in the church’s hearse (even though Abu Akleh was a Christian).
• 1:49 Unauthorized people in the crowd try to hijack the funeral and carry her body out of the hospital. Israeli Police stops them and demands the body be returned to the hospital for the funeral procession as planned in the hearse
• 1:51 The police officers use force to defend themselves and return the body to the hospital to await the hearse. The confrontation lasts about 3 minutes and the coffin is quickly returned to the hospital
• 14:00 Under police protection the hearse returns and takes Abu Akleh’s body from the hospital
• 14:13 Hearse arrives at the church for a Christian funeral and burial

PMW has examined the broadcasts on official PA TV and Al-Jazeera prior to and during the funeral of Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, which confirms the Israeli version of the events that led to the violence. The videos of Israeli Police hitting some of those who carried the coffin on their shoulders were disseminated around the world to make it seem as if Israeli Police were interfering with the funeral. In fact, it was the exact opposite. It was a Palestinian mob that had hijacked the funeral and Israeli Police who were forced to intervene and have the funeral return to be held as the family planned.
Palestinian Security Services Spokesman Praises Palestinian Women, Says Terrorists Are Role Models



‘The proof’: PM publishes seized papers he says show Iran spied on UN nuke watchdog
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Tuesday published documents he said were taken from Iran and show Iranian intelligence spied on the UN’s atomic agency in order to better cover up its rogue nuclear activities.

Bennett tweeted a link to the files, which are in Persian, along with a video in which he responded to remarks by Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian dismissing the spying allegations last week as “Zionist lies.”

“Spreading lies? Come on. I’m holding the proof of your lies right here in my hands,” Bennett said in the video, holding up copies of the documents. “You see, after Iran stole classified documents from the UN’s Atomic Agency, Iran used that information to figure out what the atomic agency was hoping to find, and then created cover stories and hid evidence to evade their nuclear probes.

“So how do we know this? Because we got our hands on Iran’s deception plan a few years back. And it’s right here in my hands,” Bennett said, referring to a daring 2018 operation that saw Israeli agents spirit out hundreds of thousands of documents about Iran’s nuclear program from a warehouse in Iran.

“Here it is, in the Persian language, hundreds of pages marked with the stamp of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence,” Bennett said.

He said that some of the documents have handwritten notes on them, including one by the Iranian defense minister to Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, regarded as the head of Iran’s nuclear program. Fakhrizadeh was assassinated in a November 2020 ambush near Tehran, in an operation attributed to Israel.

In the note, the minister wrote, “Sooner or later they (referring to the atomic agency) will ask us — and we’ll need to have a comprehensive cover story for them,” Bennett quoted.

“Iran lied to the world, Iran is lying to the world again right now, and the world must make sure that Iran doesn’t get away scot-free,” Bennett warned.


Israel Warns Against Travel to Turkey Citing Iran Assassination
Israel on Monday warned its citizens against travel to Turkey, citing Iranian threats of revenge for the assassination last week of a Revolutionary Guards colonel.

Teheran has blamed Israel for the killing of Hassan Sayad Khodai, who was shot dead at the wheel of his car by two people on a motorcycle and has vowed retaliation.

Israel’s National Security Council said in a statement that Tehran could be looking to harm Israelis in Turkey and classified it as a “high-risk country.”

Turkey is a popular tourist destination for Israelis and the two countries have been mending their ties after more than a decade of strained relations.

Israel has accused Khodai of plotting attacks against its citizens worldwide.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s office, which oversees intelligence agency Mossad, has declined to comment on the assassination but Bennett said on Sunday that Teheran would “pay the full price” for instigating attacks on Israelis.
Nuclear Iran NOT an "Acceptable Risk"
One might well wonder if the CNAS study is a "trial balloon" from the Biden Administration to begin preparing the nation and world psychologically for the advent of Iran's "Islamic bomb."

One might also wonder if the CNAS study is an attempt to justify consequent U.S. retreat from the Middle East, not as another humiliating defeat, but as a prudent and wise reprioritization of resources to meet the threat from China.

President Biden is defunding nuclear weapons critical to U.S. national security, such as the SLCM-N and B-83. He is also still seriously considering abolition of U.S. intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs), and is doing nothing to accelerate desperately needed modernization of the U.S. nuclear deterrent -- despite increasing nuclear threats from Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.

If America, the most benign and humane civilization that has ever existed in history, is capable of using nuclear weapons, what can be expected from the evil empires that are Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran?

At minimum, a nuclear Iran will be even more aggressive supporting terrorism against moderate Arab states, Israel, and the U.S.. Iran might well also arm its proxies -- many of which are officially designated as Foreign Terrorist Organizations -- with weapons of mass destruction, while relying on anonymity and its nuclear deterrent to escape retaliation.

Unlike North Korea, whose overt pursuit of nuclear weapons is used for atomic diplomacy and blackmail, Iran's nuclear weapons program is clandestine and may remain covertly secret -- because Iran plans actually to use its "Islamic bomb."

Expect the Center for a New American Security to weave more fig leaves rationalizing Biden Administration blunders and irresponsible policy as a species of wisdom. Coming soon, U.S. nuclear inferiority to Russia and China will be called an "acceptable risk."
IAEA: Iran yet to clarify presence of nuclear material at undeclared sites
Iran said Tuesday a report by the UN nuclear watchdog on undeclared nuclear material found at three sites was “not fair” and said pressure from Israel may have prompted a harsher summary.

“Unfortunately, this report does not reflect the reality of the negotiations between Iran and the IAEA,” foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh told reporters, referring to the Monday report by the International Atomic Energy Agency.

“It’s not a fair and balanced report,” he said, adding: “We expect this path to be corrected.”

The latest IEAE report came as talks to revive a 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and major powers remain deadlocked after stalling in March.

In it, the organization said it still had questions that were “not clarified” regarding undeclared nuclear material previously found at three sites — Marivan, Varamin and Turquzabad.

It said its long-running efforts to get Iranian officials to explain the presence of nuclear material had failed to provide the answers it sought.

Iran saw an Israeli hand in the IAEA’s findings. “It is feared that the pressure exerted by the Zionist regime and some other actors has caused the normal path of agency reports to change from technical to political,” Khatibzadeh said.


Seth Frantzman: Iranian-backed group attacks US base in Iraq with rockets - report
Iranian-backed groups may have targeted an oil field in Syria and Ain al-Asad air base in Iraq, according to reports on Monday.

Initial reports were unclear, but the overall picture is that Iran could be moving to target US forces in the region. This could be in response to the seizing of oil by the US off a Greek island several days ago. Iran has already moved to grab two Greek ships in retaliation. The US has condemned Iran, as have France and Greece.

“Horrific” explosions were heard at the Asad base in Iraq, Iranian media reported. The reports appear to confirm pro-Iranian groups were behind the attack or that Tehran wants to highlight its possible involvement.

Rising tensions in the region
What’s clear is that tensions are heating up in the region.

Reports of the rocket attack spread on social media on Monday evening, with numerous small Arabic websites and social-media commentators who follow Iraq reporting on the attack on Asad base. This base has been targeted by Iran before, specifically in January 2020, when Iran used ballistic missiles against it. Iran has targeted US forces at the base.

Elsewhere, there was a rocket attack on the Omar oil field in eastern Syria, Turkey’s state-run Anadolu news agency reported.

“Rockets were fired at the US-controlled Al-Omar oil field in eastern Syria early on Monday,” the report said, adding that US personnel were present at this area.
Iran Is Developing Preemptive-Strike Capabilities with Drones and Cruise Missiles
Iran is continuing to develop and expand its capabilities to deploy and produce drones. At the same time, it is producing air-launched precision weapons, launch platforms, and intelligence-gathering systems carried by drones. All this is part of its asymmetric-warfare doctrine against its enemies by air, land, and sea (in the latter case, using explosive suicide speedboats, midget-submarines, naval mines, and rocket-carrying speedboats). Iran also emphasizes that some of the drone models have already been launched at Israel over the past year and are intended for a “preemptive strike” against its Israeli enemy. Iran boasts that it is developing this capability with the help of lessons drawn from warfare in different world arenas. Meanwhile, Iran continues to “export” drones to members of the “resistance camp” in Yemen, Lebanon, Syria, and Iraq and is using Yemen as its main testing ground for drones, missiles, cruise missiles, and explosive boats, particularly against Saudi Arabia and some of the other Gulf States. Iran also inaugurated a drone factory in Tajikistan to manufacture Ababil-2 drones, a product of the Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA)

A Wide Variety of Drones
As part of Iran’s force projection in the region, and to soften the impact of recent injurious security incidents (including assassinations and mysterious explosions), Iranian TV broadcast1 a report on a “top-secret drone base” located “hundreds of meters underground.” The base is in the Kermanshah province, bordering Iraq in western Iran. Drones can be launched against Israel from that location.

Blindfolded, an Iranian TV reporter was taken to “Strategic Drone Base 313.” After his blindfold was removed, photographers from Iran’s broadcasting authority were not allowed to accompany him. Army photographers took pictures of the base for the report.

The video emphasized that the base contains “more than 100 drones,” including attack, patrol, and suicide drones. The reporter said the smaller UAVs are equipped with missile and bomb systems developed in Iran and electronic-warfare systems. The Fars News Agency, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards, showcased the kinds of drones at the base: Kaman-22, Kaman-12, Ababil-5 (equipped with Qaem-9 missiles, the Iranian version of the American Hellfire), Quds Mohajer 6 (an intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance drone capable of carrying four precision-guided munitions),2 Fotros, and the Karrar, which carries different kinds of ammunition including bombs, anti-ballistic missiles, and surface-to-air missiles.
Protesters Chant ‘Death to Khamenei’ Over Iranian Building Collapse
Protesters in several cities in Iran chanted anti-government slogans overnight, including “death to Khamenei,” over a deadly building collapse in the southwest of the country, videos posted on social media showed.

Officials said the death toll had risen to 34 on Tuesday, with another 37 injured in the May 23 collapse of the 10-story residential and commercial building in Abadan in the oil-producing region of Khuzestan. Rescue workers continued to search for victims under the rubble, they said.

Authorities are blaming the collapse of the Metropol Building on individual corruption and lax safety and say 13 people have so far been arrested for construction violations.

Iranian protesters, however, blame it on government negligence and endemic corruption.

Shouts of “death to Khamenei,” a reference to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, are heard on an unverified video shared on Twitter, which gives the location as the south Tehran district of Nazi-abad.

Anti-Khamenei slogans are considered a red line for the Islamic Republic.

Another unverified video shows riot police roaming on motorcycles in the same area, apparently to disrupt or intimidate protesters.




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