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IDF names Iranian general as mastermind of thwarted drone attack plot

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IDF names Iranian general as mastermind of thwarted drone attack plot

Launching new Persian-language social media accounts, the Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday identified an Iranian general as the mastermind behind a thwarted drone attack against Israel from Syria.

The army said Javad Ghafari, a brigadier general in the Revolutionary Guards’ Quds Force, oversees Iranian forces in Syria and is in charge of Tehran’s efforts to establish a military presence in the country.

The army said Ghafari was in charge of a cell in Syria that planned to fly explosives-laden drones at Israeli territory, which the IDF thwarted over the weekend.

The statement was the first released by the IDF’s new Persian-language social media channels. The military said its newly launched Instagram, Twitter and Telegram channels were “official information platforms designed for an Iranian audience.”

Alongside the Persian-language statement statement, the IDF published an organizational chart that showed the links between Quds Force head Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, Ghafari and the two Hezbollah fighters that were killed in the Israeli strike on Saturday night.

At least five people were killed in the raid, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. Israel identified two of those killed as Lebanese nationals Hassan Yousef Zabeeb, 23, from the town of Nabatieh, and Yasser Ahmad Daher, 22, of Blida, both of whom were Hezbollah members.

The military on Monday distributed photographs of the two men traveling together on Iran’s Mahan airline, which Israel and the United States have identified as a major transporter of weaponry and materiel to Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies in Syria and Lebanon. It said Zabeeb and Daher were working under the direct command of Soleimani.

The IDF chief of staff had previously blamed Soleimani for the plot.

 

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IDF names Iranian general as mastermind of thwarted drone attack plot IDF names Iranian general as mastermind of thwarted drone attack plot

U.S. Warns Iran’s Regime After ‘Threats’ Against US Citizen

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U.S. Warns Iran’s Regime After ‘Threats’ Against US Citizen

U.S. Warns Iran’s Regime After ‘Threats’ Against US Citizen

U.S. Warns Iran’s Regime After ‘Threats’ Against US Citizen

The United States warned the Iranian regime on Saturday that it is taking Tehran’s threats seriously and will hold it accountable if it compromises the safety of American citizens.

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‘Israeli strikes’ target Palestinian group in Lebanon

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‘Israeli strikes’ target Palestinian group in Lebanon

The Israeli military carried out air strikes on a Palestinian militant group backed by Syria’s government in eastern Lebanon overnight, Lebanese media say.

A position of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command near Qusaya was hit, the state-run National News Agency reported.

The group responded with a barrage of anti-aircraft fire, it added.

On Sunday, the Iran-backed Hezbollah movement accused Israel of trying to carry out a drone attack in Beirut.

After two drones came down in the capital, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah said its fighters would shoot down any drones that entered Lebanese airspace.

Two Hezbollah members were killed on Saturday night when Israel struck targets in Syria to prevent what it said was a drone attack by Iranian forces and their allies.

The National News Agency reported that Israel carried out three air strikes on the outskirts of Qusaya, a village in the Bekaa valley near the border with Syria, early on Monday.

A top official from the PFLP-GC told the BBC that a drone carried out the raid.

There were no reports of any casualties and the Israeli military did not comment.

The PFLP-GC has been operating in Lebanon for decades and has close ties to the Syrian government, whose forces it has supported in the country’s eight-year civil war along with Hezbollah.

“This aggression is a continuation of what happened in Beirut and a provocative attempt that is a direct reaction to Nasrallah’s statements,” Khaled Jibril, a PFLP-GC official, told al-Mayadeen TV.

Early on Sunday, two drones that the Lebanese army said were Israeli crashed in the southern Beirut district of Dahia, which is dominated by Hezbollah.

One of the drones hit a building that houses Hezbollah’s media office, while the other exploded and crashed nearby, causing material damage.

 

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Iran Briefing

Security Forces In Iran Arrest 12 of 14 Activists Demanding Khamenei’s Resignation

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Security Forces In Iran Arrest 12 of 14 Activists Demanding Khamenei’s Resignation

Security Forces In Iran Arrest 12 of 14 Activists Demanding Khamenei’s Resignation

Security Forces In Iran Arrest 12 of 14 Activists Demanding Khamenei’s Resignation

The provincial intelligence department in Mashhad in north-eastern Iran says 14 activists who had called on Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to resign are advocates of regime change and wanted to bring about insecurity.

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Sweden ‘receives indications’ Iran is ready to release British tanker

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Sweden ‘receives indications’ Iran is ready to release British tanker

Sweden has reportedly received “very strong indications” from Iran that it will release the British-flagged Stena Impero oil tanker sometime in the coming days.

Sweden’s foreign ministry believes that the ship, which is operated by a Swedish firm, will be set free in the near future, according to Swedish public television.

The report emerged after Javad Zarif, Iran’s foreign minister, met with his Swedish counterpart, Margot Wallstrom, in Stockholm earlier this week. The Iranian minister also met with the chief executive of Stena Bulk, the ship’s operator.

A spokeswoman for Sweden’s foreign ministry would not confirm or deny the STV report.

“We look positively at what Foreign Minister Zarif himself has said publicly about hopes for a possible quick solution for Stena Impero, but we do not disclose what is said in the meetings,” the spokeswoman said.

The Stena Impero was seized by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on July 19 in apparent retaliation for Royal Marines seizing the Iranian Grace 1 tanker off the coast of Gibraltar on July 4.

The Grace 1, renamed the Adrian Darya 1, was released from Gibraltar over the weekend. British officials hoped its release would pave the way for the release of the Stena Impero.

Iran has so far given no indication when, or if, it plans to release the British-flagged tanker.

Iranian officials initially indicated that the Stena Impero had been seized in response to the Grace 1’s seizure but now claims that the ship violated maritime rules in the Persian Gulf.

Tehran has said that a court in the southern port of Bandar Abbas will decide the ship’s fate. British officials believe Tehran is hiding behind legalism when the ship’s seizure and release are in reality in the hands of political decision makers.

 

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Sweden ‘receives indications’ Iran is ready to release British tanker

Iran-backed rebels in Yemen claim to shoot down U.S. drone

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Iran-backed rebels in Yemen claim to shoot down U.S. drone

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed Wednesday to have shot down a U.S. drone in Yemen earlier this week in what would be the third downing of an American aircraft at the hands of Tehran and its Middle East allies in less than three months.

Yahia Sarie, a spokesman for the Houthis in Yemen, said the group took down the MQ-9 drone near the city of Dhamar on Tuesday. He claimed that the weapons used to target the drone were built inside Yemen and would soon be shown publicly.

“The rocket which hit it was developed locally and will be revealed soon at a press conference,” he said.

U.S. officials confirmed that the drone had been shot down, Reuters reported Wednesday, though the Pentagon said little publicly. Military officials said they’re still gathering information.

“We are investigating reports of an attack by Iranian-backed Houthis forces on a U.S. unmanned aerial system (UAS) operating in authorized airspace over Yemen,” U.S. Central Command spokesman Army Lt. Col. Earl Brown said in a statement Wednesday. “We have been clear that Iran’s provocative actions and support to militants and proxies, like the Iranian-backed Houthis, poses a serious threat to stability in the region and our partners.”

If confirmed, the attack would be the third downing of American drone this summer.

In early June, another American drone was shot down by Houthi forces in Yemen. Later that same month, Iran downed a U.S. Global Hawk aircraft that Tehran claimed had entered Iranian airspace — an assertion the Pentagon denied.

President Trump said that he nearly launched retaliatory airstrikes against Iran following the incident but ultimately decided against the move, citing the high number of civilians that would’ve been killed.

 

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Family of UK resident jailed in Iran urge No 10 to secure her release

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Family of UK resident jailed in Iran urge No 10 to secure her release

Family of UK resident jailed in Iran urge No 10 to secure her release

Family of UK resident jailed in Iran urge No 10 to secure her release

The family of a UK resident detained in Iran on spying charges have urged the UK government to do more to secure her release after a 10-year prison sentence against her was upheld without a hearing.

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Iraq Enters the Israel-Iran Proxy War

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Iraq Enters the Israel-Iran Proxy War

Iraq Enters the Israel-Iran Proxy War

Iraq Enters the Israel-Iran Proxy War

Iraq has become another front in the Israel-Iran proxy wars in the Middle East. Last July, two suspected attacks were conducted against Iran-allied Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), one in Amerli in Salahuddin governorate north of Baghdad and the other against Camp Ashraf in Diyala governorate, which was previously used by American troops.

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Attacks in Iraq raise the question: How does Iran view its neighbor?

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Attacks in Iraq raise the question: How does Iran view its neighbor?

Four recent incidents in Iraq, in which Iranian-backed paramilitary bases were struck or exploded mysteriously, have brought to the foreground a quiet conflict that has been brewing. Iran’s role in Iraq has expanded over the last decade and a half, raising questions about Tehran’s goals and how it views Iraq.

On the one hand, Iran pays lip service to the concept of Iraq as an ally. It has sought high level meetings with Iraqi officials and discussed joint defense. In March, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani traveled to Iraq. Bilateral agreements have been signed, including economic agreements and also visa-free travel for Iranians doing pilgrimage to Shi’ite sites in Iraq.

However, Iraqis have also protested against Iran’s role. In the summer of 2018, protests targeted Iran and Iranian-backed paramilitaries in Basra. There are complaints about Iran hogging resources that could go to Iraq’s electrical grid. Also, there are rumors that Iran enabled drug smuggling to Iraq.

It is not a simple picture, though. Iranian-backed paramilitaries helped defeat ISIS, and many locals are loyal to different groups within the Hashd al-Shaabi or Popular Mobilization Forces. These paramilitaries, sometimes called “militias,” helped arm locals and provide security.

Young men see work in the militias as a way out. But those groups are also accused of involvement in corruption and even running secret prisons. For some, this is a form of justice against alleged ISIS members. But for other Iraqis who fled the ISIS war in 2014, it means they have difficulty returning home, fearing reprisals from these paramilitaries.

 

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Iran has most advanced missile technology in Middle East, IRGC general claims

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Iran has most advanced missile technology in Middle East, IRGC general claims

A senior commander in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps claimed his country has the most advanced missile technology in the Middle East.

“Today, we rank first in the missile technology at the regional level and are placed among the few global powers in this regard,” Brig. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the IRGC Aerospace Force, was quoted as saying Sunday by Press TV.

Hajizadeh claimed Iran was the leading regional power on drone technology and said the IRGC’s downing of a US unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in June showed the capabilities of Iranian radar and air-defense systems.

He also said Iran could not let up on its efforts to develop new military technologies.

“We shall stall and lag behind the enemy should we stop pedaling. Therefore, we need to go ahead with our deterrent activities in a round-the-clock manner and also make every effort in boost [our military] capabilities,” Hajizadeh said.

The IRGC general has previously talked up Iran’s military prowess, saying last year that Tehran is capable of extending the range of its ballistic missiles beyond its current 2,000 kilometer (1,240 mile) limit.

Earlier this month, Iran unveiled three new precision-guided missiles, with its defense minister saying they show that the country is ready to defend itself in the face of US “viciousness and conspiracies.”

The new lineup of air-to-air missiles dubbed the “Yasin,” “Balaban” and a new series of the “Ghaem” were developed jointly by the ministry and Sa Iran, also known as Iran Electronics Industries.

They were unveiled amid tensions between Iran and the US and its allies in the Strait of Hormuz — a vital corridor linking oil producing countries in the Middle East to markets in Asia, Europe and North America.

 

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