Hezbollah claims ‘pinpoint’ Iranian missiles added to its arsenal – The Lebanese Shiite militant group and close ally of Iran said it has received more advanced missiles, with greater range, as talks over Iran’s nuclear program wind down in Vienna.
Hezbollah claims ‘pinpoint’ Iranian missiles added to its arsenal
On the eve of a deadline in nuclear talks between six world powers and Iran, Lebanon’s militant Shiite Hezbollah organization has revealed that it has acquired advanced Iranian missiles with “pinpoint accuracy” that it could use against Israel in any future war.
“They [the Israelis] are well aware that Hezbollah is in possession of missiles with pinpoint accuracy, and thanks to the equipment Hezbollah acquired, and with the Islamic Republic’s support and Hezbollah’s readiness for any future war, [the next] war will be much tougher for the Israelis,” Naim Qassem, the deputy head of Hezbollah, said in an interview with Iran’s Tasnim news agency.
Sheikh Qassem’s comments on Hezbollah’s enhanced missile capabilities and the threat they pose to Israel came amid waning hopes that a deal could be struck by a Monday deadline in Vienna between Iran and the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States plus Germany, the so-called P5+1. The six leading nations want Iran to curb its uranium enrichment capacity, which could be used to make nuclear weapons, in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions.
By late Sunday, negotiators were reportedly looking for a way to extend the talks beyond the deadline.
Watching the Vienna talks closely from the sidelines is Israel. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has said he is concerned that any final deal between the P5+1 and Iran will be insufficient to curb what he says is Iran’s goal of building nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian use only.
In an Israeli cabinet meeting Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu said that Israel is delivering a “firm stance” to its allies in insisting that Iran should not be allowed to become a “nuclear threshold state”.
“Therefore, no deal would be preferable to a bad deal that threatens Israel, the Middle East and all of humanity,” he said.
If there is no diplomatic breakthrough in Vienna, the drumbeat for military action against Iran will almost certainly be heard once more, raising tensions in a region already ravaged by conflict and radicalism.
Over the past decade, Iran has turned Hezbollah into a powerful military force with weapons capabilities unmatched by any other non-state actor. In May, a top Israeli army general said Hezbollah’s arsenal “would not shame any army in the world”.
Iran’s considerable military and financial investment in Hezbollah is intended to bolster Iran’s deterrence against a possible attack on its nuclear facilities. If Israel chooses to bomb Iran’s nuclear plants, it must first assess the response of Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
The stronger Hezbollah’s military capabilities, the greater the stakes for Israel in launching an attack on Iran. Twenty years ago, Hezbollah’s arsenal of unguided 12-mile range rockets allowed it to pepper parts of northern Israel only. Today, the missiles suspected to be in Hezbollah’s arsenal could slam half a tonne of high-grade explosive into specific targets in Tel Aviv, such as the Israeli defense ministry or Ben Gurion International Airport.
Two weeks ago, a senior officer in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said that Iran had provided Hezbollah with its indigenously produced Fateh A-110 short-range ballistic missiles.
“Considering the range of their [Hezbollah’s] missiles, they are able now to attack targets from southern to northern parts of the occupied territories [Israel],” said Brigadier General Sayed Majid Moussavi, the IRGC’s air defense commander, according to a report by the Iranian Fars news agency.
The specific missile system to which Moussavi and Hezbollah’s Qassem referred is likely to be the 4th-generation version of the Fateh which has a range in excess of 186 miles and can carry a 1,430 pound warhead. Armed with that missile, Hezbollah could launch it from its camouflaged bases in southern Lebanon and hit Israel’s nuclear reactor at Dimona in southern Israel, 140 miles south of the border with Lebanon, achieving a degree of reciprocity for any Israeli air strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Fears grow of Iran cyber attack – Fears are growing that Iran will unleash cyber warfare on U.S. companies if negotiators are unable to reach a nuclear deal by Monday that would require Tehran to limit its nuclear program.
Cyber-attacks from Tehran dropped after the U.S., Iran and other countries agreed to an interim nuclear deal in 2013, but observers expect a new offensive if discussions taking place in Vienna fall apart before a Nov. 24 deadline.
Fears grow of Iran cyber attack
“As soon they believe it’s to their advantage to begin again in more aggressive cyber activity toward the United States, they’re going to do it,” House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) told The Hill in an interview.
“It would be logical to conclude that if the talks fail completely, they’ll re-engage at the same level,” Rogers said.
U.S. financial firms, oil and gas companies and water filtration systems could be among the companies targeted.
“Out of any country on the planet, I can’t think of a country that has been more focused than Iran from the high levels of government on cyber, and that includes the United States,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, which monitors critical infrastructure attacks.
The U.S. has yet to bear the full brunt of Iran’s rapidly developing cyber capabilities.
Researchers describe Iran as a close fourth behind the U.S., Russia and China in terms of its ability to launch cyber attacks.
“But they make up for it in their apparent willingness to go on the offensive,” said Kristen Eichensehr, an international security professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Law and former State Department attorney.
Iran initially ramped up its cyber efforts in 2010, culminating with a barrage of simplistic attacks on the U.S. financial sector in 2012.
“Clearly, 2012 was the worst year that we saw of the Iranian effort,” Rogers said.
Still, those prolific attacks were easy to detect and relatively harmless.
Over the last two years, Iran has formed a Supreme Council of Cyberspace that meets once a month and includes President Hassan Rouhani.
Iranian officials also strengthened cybersecurity research partnerships with Russia, and have gone from being a nascent to a burgeoning cyber power.
An example of Iran’s new prowess was its ability to reverse engineer a U.S. drone it captured after the drone crashed within Iranian borders. It took advanced hacking techniques to access and understand the software within the drone.
U.S. officials cautioned last week they are suspect the quality is equal to that of the American drone.
Still, “it shows how bolstered their program really is,” said David Kennedy, CEO of information security company TrustedSec, which monitors cyber attacks. “That’s heavily sophisticated equipment.”
A recent report from cybersecurity firm FireEye also described how one popular Iranian hacking group went from website defacements in 2010 to “malware-based espionage” in a scant four years.
Iranian hackers reportedly went after oil giant Saudi Aramco, the world’s most valuable company, and deleted the contents of 30,000 computers. The same virus also hit Qatar-based liquid petroleum gas firm RasGas.
“It’s really important to understand,” Rogers said. “They have not abandoned their cyber operations around the world. They just have not.”
While the U.S. is bombarded with cyber attacks, it has never been the subject of a large-scale destructive attack. So far, Tehran’s hackers are mostly suspected of probing around U.S. infrastructure networks to understand their designs.
But that could change if the nuclear talks fall apart. And this time, an Iranian attack could be more advanced.
Kennedy thinks Tehran would use stealth malware to infiltrate bigger companies across more sectors.
Falling worldwide oil prices would also make U.S. oil companies an attractive target, Alperovitch said.
“That’s going to be a key interest of theirs,” he said.
While no security experts think Iran would launch a destructive attack on the U.S. if the nuclear talks dissolved, Tehran’s ability to embed malware in U.S. networks would give them the ability to do so.
“Once you’re in the system,” Alperovitch said, “it’s just a few keystrokes for you to delete those files.”
At a House hearing Thursday, National Security Agency Director Michael Rogers said China and “one or two” other countries are able to shut down portions of the U.S. critical infrastructure with a cyberattack. Researchers and Rep. Rogers suspect Iran might be on that list.
“My gosh, what if they actually hit one of our financial institutions and were able to take offline 30,000 computers and destroy and manipulate data in those networks?” Rogers said.
Iran said to give Hezbollah missiles that ‘can reach Dimona’ – Revolutionary Guard general says Israel’s nuclear reactor ‘an easy target’ for Lebanese terror group
Iran said to give Hezbollah missiles that ‘can reach Dimona’
Iran has supplied Lebanese terror group and Iranian proxy Hezbollah with missiles “that can reach Dimona,” according to a new report in the semi-official Fars news agency
The report said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards delivered a new class of missiles, “Fateh,” with ranges of 250-350 kilometers and which can fit a 500kg warhead.
Iranian Revolutionary Guards Brigadier-General Sayed Majid Moussavi told the news agency that the new missiles will allow Hezbollah to hit any place in Israel, “including targets in the south of the occupied territory.”
The Israeli nuclear facility at “Dimona is an easy target,” he was quoted as saying.
Iran’s muscle-flexing comes as negotiations are underway in Vienna between world powers and Tehran aimed at curbing Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for the lifting of sanctions. The deadline for an agreement is November 24.
Last week, the same Iranian general issued a similar threat to Israel, warning that Palestinian terror groups, in addition to Hezbollah, also had advanced Iranian weapons.
“Considering the range of their missiles, they are able now to attack all targets from southern to northern parts of [Israel],” Moussavi said last week.
Israel allegedly struck on several occasions last year weapons depots in Syria containing Fateh-class missiles en route to Hezbollah, according to foreign media reports. Israel never officially took responsibility for the attacks.
Uzi Rubin, a missile expert and former Defense Ministry official, told the Associated Press in May last year that Fateh-110 rockets would constitute a “game-changer” if they were to fall into the wrong hands.
Launched from Syria or south Lebanon, such missiles could reach almost anywhere in Israel with high accuracy, he noted in response to reports of Israeli strikes around Damascus.
“If fired from southern Lebanon, they can reach Tel Aviv and even [the southern city of] Beersheba,” Rubin said.
The rockets are five times more accurate than the Scud missiles that Hezbollah has fired in the past, according to Rubin.
“It is a game-changer because they are a threat to Israel’s infrastructure and military installations,” he said.
Iran supreme leader moves to break impasse over key cabinet post – Iran’s supreme leader moved on Saturday to break a factional deadlock over the sensitive Ministry of Higher Education by reinstating President Hassan Rouhani‘s moderate pick as interim minister, Iranian media reported.
Iran supreme leader moves to break impasse over key cabinet post
On Tuesday, the conservative-dominated parliament rejected his fourth nominee to lead universities, which have been centers of ideological battles between pro-democracy reformers and Islamist hardliners.
The ministry has been run by a caretaker, Mohammad Ali Najafi, since August, when a moderate technocrat appointed by Rouhani to the post was impeached for alleged ties to the ill-fated pro-democracy unrest that followed then-president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s disputed re-election in 2009.
Two other nominees for the post have failed to get a vote of confidence from the assembly, and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei‘s decision to keep Najafi in charge for another three months buys Rouhani time to fill the portfolio.
Iran’s constitution sets a three-month limit on running a ministry under a caretaker, leaving the final say to the supreme leader. The president has picked a fifth nominee – former health minister Mohammad Farhadi – to be reviewed by parliament on Wednesday.
Rouhani was elected by a large majority last year on a pledge to ease repression at home and promote reconciliation abroad, toward ending Iran’s punishing international isolation.
His year-long attempt to secure a negotiated settlement over the contested nuclear program has yet to bear fruit amid resistance from an entrenched conservative old guard.
Deterioration of Human Rights in Iran – Interview with Shabnam Assadollahi by Kaveh Taheri
Deterioration of Human Rights in Iran
What, in your opinion, is the cause of the surge in executions and arrests in Iran?
Shabnam Assadollahi: The executions seem to be politically motivated. According to data gathered by the United Nations, Iranian officials have pushed for the execution of those they see as a threat to their system. Iran’s president, Hassan Rouhani‘s, promises of bringing “dignity” and hope to the nation, freeing political prisoners, promoting civil rights, and bringing moderation for Iranians, were broken almost immediately upon his taking office. Not only have the promises made by Rouhani to the UN
HCR never been kept, but since Rouhani took office last August 2013, executions, persecution and human rights violations have significantly increased. According to the Latest report by Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the UN human rights rapporteur, ever since Rouhani became the president of Iran, the surge in executions has given Iran the world’s highest death penalty rate per capita. Dr. Shaheed reports that at least 852 individuals, including eight juveniles, were executed since June of last year. “He (Rouhani) is unable to address the issues, unable to arrest this trend, to convert his promises which spoke to arresting this trend into action,” Shaheed said.
Shaheed also expressed alarm about the pretexts for executions in Iran. “We have seen a person executed for making a donation to a foreign organization.” The surge in executions shows that Rouhani has failed to deliver on campaign promises to improve the human rights situation in his country, a year after taking office.
Shaheed also said that has been “shocked” by the hanging of 26-year-old Reyhaneh Jabbari, convicted of murdering a former intelligence officer she said had tried to sexually assault her. Shaheed said that he had repeatedly raised with Tehran questions about the fairness of her trial.
While the international community is focused on getting nuclear deals with Iran, it is easy to ignore the fact that Iran is also one of the world’s worst human rights violators. When the constitution of a country and the law of the land are based on Sharia and Islamic law, inequality between men and women, Retribution Law, execution for being enemy of God (Mohareb), death by hanging, there is little hope of anyone condemning these acts.
In what ways do you feel that the international community and the West could facilitate improvement of the human rights situation in Iran?
Assadollahi: After Rouhani became President of Iran, the U.S administration of President Obama, and the EU, under the pretext of diplomacy, took advantage of just engaging in “negotiations” to bring economic advantages to all three parties. The U.S. and private Western businesses, as well as the regime of Iran, took advantage of sanctions loosened by the U.S. to sell to the freshly-opened market. And Iran, absolved of sanctions, kept developing the nuclear program and increasing centrifuges as well as receiving billions of dollars.
As for the West, when the Iranian regime accelerated its nuclear program, people went the usual route, from being concerned to being indifferent to being complicit. The U.S. did not bring up the issue of human rights — or even releasing innocent prisoners.
The West seems so desperately eager to give Iran nuclear capability — perhaps from the pressure of business lobbies and perhaps out of Obama’s panic-stricken need for a “legacy.” What Obama does not realize is that if he does let Iran acquire nuclear capability, his “legacy” will be just like that of Britain’s Neville Chamberlain — a laughing-stock, who held up a piece of paper he thought assured peace with Hitler.
The U.S. and West should not accept any compromise on shutting down Iran’s nuclear-weapons program. It should not allow Iran any opportunity to blackmail the West into a compromise on the pretext of Iran “helping” to fight the Islamic State [ISIS]. United States Secretary of State John Kerry, cordially invited Iran to play a role in arresting the momentum of IS in Iraq and Syria: “There is a role for nearly every country in the world in turning back the militants and debunking their ideology, including Iran,” he said. But Iran’s leaders, who are Shiite, would be happy to fight ISIS, who are Sunni, anyway. Or, even better, let the West fight ISIS for them.
If Iran’s regime, with its open record of duplicity, continues to be appeased by the Obama Administration and the P5 + 1, any “deal” will only destabilize the Middle East — and the West, as country after country will also feel obligated to acquire nuclear weapons. Ironically, Iran’s nuclear weapons would also be used strengthen the very terrorist jihadist groups Iran has been funding all along – the ones the West is supposedly trying to counter. And if Iran is able to have nuclear-tipped missiles pointing at Berlin, Paris and London, it would not even have to use them. The threat would be enough.
The responsibility for disastrous results from any negotiations will lie at the feet of the P5 + 1 (the five permanent member of the UN Security Council plus Iran) in general, and U.S. President Barack Obama in particular. Another nail in the coffin of his totally failed foreign-policy legacy, starting with his embarrassing “reset” button with Vladimir Putin, a former member of the Soviet Union’s secret police (the KGB), then his even more embarrassing promise of “more flexibility” with Medvedev.
Do you think that the sanctions are effective against the Iranian regime, and will they help improve the human rights situation in Iran? Or are they just hurting the people?
Assadollahi: The Iranian regime together with its lobbyists and apologists, such as the National Iranian American Council [NIAC] in the U.S., continue their attempts to influence the Obama Administration to relieve sanctions and permit concessions to allow Iran to acquire its nuclear capability. Negotiations keep being delayed, foiled and extended by Iran, no doubt to run out the clock while it finishes acquiring nuclear capability. Concessions — including billions of dollars in sanctions relief — keep being given by the P5 + 1, for what?
To Iran’s supreme leader, Seyed Ali Khamenei, this burlesque just makes Obama and his administration look weaker by the day. And each concession only reinforces that perception.
Even more disturbing is that many people inside Iran have alerted the U.S. Administration for over three years about more — other — industrial facilities secretly being built in Iran; these have not been declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
So far, all the intelligence provided from within Iran has been willfully ignored by the Obama Administration. At this point, it is not possible to believe that this information is being ignored out of ignorance. That leaves the West’s motivation about being so accommodating to Iran pointing to one conclusion: the successful influence of Iran’s pro-nuclear lobbyists, whatever that might have entailed, combined with commercial interests exerted by individuals or companies already counting the millions they will gain from doing business with Iran.
Iran’s human rights atrocities are being fanatically ignored by the Obama administration in favor of sitting down at the negotiating table with those who are causing them. The U.S. does not seem to realize, as the former Soviet dissident, Natan Sharansky said, that a country that does not treat its own citizens well will probably not treat is neighbors well, either.
On November 5, 2014, Kerry stated that, “It’s easy to prove to the world Iran’s nuclear plan is peaceful.” No, Iran’s nuclear plan is not peaceful. You do not need centrifuges and enriched uranium for peaceful nuclear energy. This is another of the Obama Administration’s lies, from “You can keep your doctor, healthcare plan, it will cost less, not a smidgen of corruption;” the Benghazi movie, the IRS, and now his apparent bid to control the internet through the FCC. If you want the government to control your internet, you can move to China.
The regime of Iran needs to know that the international community is serious and Iran’s human rights abuses will not go unnoticed. But clearly the P5+1 are not serious. They eliminated the only non-military means of inducing the Iranian regime honor its international obligations: they lifted the sanctions.
As the Honorable John Baird, Canada’s minister of Foreign Affairs stated,
“All who have long despaired about the Iranian regime, want to believe that Iran is genuinely committed to positive change. But we do not have the luxury of being naive, nor do the Iranian people, who have suffered for far too long under the regime’s nuclear ambitions. Human rights, particularly executions, are actually getting worse under his watch and at the hands of Iran’s so-called Minister of Murder. Kind words, a smile and a charm offensive are not a substitute for real action, nor are they an effective mask to disguise the old hatred. That’s why I’m deeply skeptical about Iran’s intentions. Until we are given real reasons to trust their words, Canadian sanctions will remain in full force. I believe there remains a strategic problem with the very nature and conduct of this belligerent regime—a regime that oppresses with terror at home and sponsors it abroad. And until the Supreme Leader’s words and actions produce the human rights that the Iranian people deserve, or until he ceases his sponsorship of terrorism abroad in Syria, Lebanon and elsewhere, Canada will remain skeptical of the regime’s intentions.”
What is your perspective on future U.S. negotiations with Iran and on human rights, as a result of the recent election victory by the Republicans, who now hold the majority of seats in both the House and Senate?
Assadollahi: I am a Canadian citizen and live in Canada, but I closely follow the U.S. policy in Iran and the Middle East. But in the U.S., Republicans and the Iranian-American community have been extremely helpful in bringing Iran’s horrific human rights record to the forefront. Senators Mark Kirk and Marco Rubio introduced Iran Human Rights Accountability Act of 2014, not only to crack down on Iranian human rights abusers including Khamenei and President Rouhani, but also to support the Iranian people’s hopes one day to have a democracy.
What does the P5+1’s desperation to get a nuclear deal “at all costs” say to the modern-day Iranians rotting in Evin prison? Or to the young social-media generation who took to the streets in 2009 after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s fraudulent re-election? President Obama left these Iranians questioning — apparently correctly — the United States of America‘s commitment to their cause.
Finally, how do you foresee the future prognosis for improved human rights in Iran?
Assadollahi:The Islamic Republic of Iran continues to arrest journalists, members of student organizations and labor unions, lawyers defending dissidents, members of minority faiths and cultural groups, and civil rights activists. Iran ranks second only to China in number of executions. In the execution of juveniles, it leads the world. Gender discrimination continues to deny women educational, legal and professional opportunities. Public events, such as sports matches, remain segregated.
The permanent and peaceful solution to this crisis is something that only Iran’s democrats — now being silently murdered in the Iran’s prisons — along with the help of the free world, can change. We just saw in the U.S. how tired they are of being lied to by government operatives who call them “stupid.” Together, they can and will bring human rights back as a crucial value. When human rights are denied in one place, they can soon be denied every place.
Hossein Derakhshan, jailed Iranian-Canadian blogger, pardoned by Iran’s top leader – Man dubbed the ‘Blogfather’ for inspiring flourishing of Farsi blogs freed after 6 years.
An Iranian-Canadian blogger who was sentenced to 19 years in prison for his writings has been pardoned by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Hossein Derakhshan, jailed Iranian-Canadian blogger, pardoned by Iran’s top leader
The news of the pardon of Hossein Derakhshan, who helped ignite blogging in Iran, was first reported by Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency. It said authorities informed Hossein Derakhshan about his amnesty late Wednesday, when he returned to Tehran’s Evin prison from one of his occasional leaves.
“I was released after six years,” said a brief message posted on Hossein Derakhshan’s Google Plus web page. “I thank God. Very grateful to the Ayatollah Khamenei.”
The posting also thanked his supporters and his family, including his parents, his brother and sister and his wife.
The ISNA report did not elaborate on the reason for Hossein Derakhshan’s pardon by Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters. However, in the past, Hossein Derakhshan’s parents have reportedly sent letters to Khamenei seeking their son’s pardon.
A spokesman for Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs said in an email to CBC News that it was “aware of reports that a Canadian citizen has been pardoned in Iran.”
But François Lasalle said Canada remains concerned about human rights abuses in Iran that target women, religious minorities “or anyone who peacefully exercises their fundamental rights to freedom of speech, assembly and association” and noted that “hundreds remain imprisoned [in] Iran.”
“Canada will continue to call on Iranian authorities to respect their international human rights obligations, and meet the international norms of due process and transparency,” Lasalle said.
Inspired proliferation of Iranian blogs
Hossein Derakhshan moved to Canada in 2000 and studied sociology at the University of Toronto.
Hossein Derakhshan, the founder of one of the first Farsi-language blogs, was first detained in 2008. In 2010, a court sentenced him to more than 19½ years in prison for his writings. The term was later dropped to 17 years.
Hossein Derakhshan, now 39, helped ignite blogging in Iran by posting online simple instructions on how to create sites in Farsi in 2001, earning the moniker “the Blogfather.” The subsequent flourishing of blogs by Iranians at home and abroad gave the country’s reform movement a crucial online platform.
Writing from Canada, Hossein Derakhshan was initially a critic of Iran’s clerical leadership. Using his Canadian passport, he visited Israel, Iran’s archenemy, in 2006, saying he wanted to act as a bridge between the two peoples.
Hossein Derakhshan was convicted on charges of co-operation with hostile countries — a reference to the Israel visit — spreading propaganda against the ruling establishment, promotion of counter-revolutionary groups and insulting Islamic thought and religious figures.
But he later became a vocal supporter of former hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, praising him for standing up to the West and criticizing regime opponents.
Yemen’s Houthis proxy, not ally for Iran – Armed Houthis took over the reins of power in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in late September in a way that was reminiscent of Hezbollah’s takeover of the Lebanese capital, Beirut, in May 2008.
There appears to be an increasingly similar pattern between the actions of Hezbollah and the Houthis. However, despite all the similarities that emerge at first glance, the comparison between the two is still only in form and focuses on ideological rhetoric and some mechanisms used to achieve political goals. In fact, there are deep structural, political and social differences between Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis, or Ansar Allah, in Yemen.
Yemen’s Houthis proxy, not ally for Iran
Most important of all, any comparison between the Houthis and Hezbollah cannot ignore the fundamental difference in the political and social structure between Yemen and Lebanon. Sects are the most important and decisive factor among Lebanese society, while in Yemen sectarianism overlaps with regionalism. The Houthi takeover of Sanaa created a national and regional rift, not just a sectarian one. It enshrined the general idea that authority and the conflict for it is still based in the far north, which historically controlled Yemen and whose influence decreased, especially after President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who hails from the south, took office. In other words, Hezbollah emerged from the sectarian structure that existed in Lebanon, while the Houthis revived a sectarian conflict that had nearly gone extinct in Yemen. In any case, regionalism — not sectarianism — is still the most decisive factor in Yemen until now.
Furthermore, comparing what happened in Sanaa on Sept. 21 with what happened in Beirut in 2008 is a shallow and misleading comparison. This is because the agreement that resulted from the May 2008 events worked to end the political tension that was born in the heat of the moment, increased Hezbollah’s responsibilities as a political player among other factions and worked to achieve civil peace. In the end, it led to the election of a president in Lebanon.
In Yemen, however, the Houthis’ takeover of Sanaa resulted in their abandonment of the peace agreements with other parties, put a final stop to the political legitimacy of the presidency, degraded the state’s prestige and increased the Houthis’ political practices as a strong player without being accompanied by a parallel increase in responsibilities. And while the 2008 Doha Agreement achieved a level of social and political peace in Lebanon, the 2013 Peace and National Partnership Agreement in Yemen opened the door to new forms of sectarian and regional violence that were unprecedented in the country. This violence is growing with the Houthis’ insistence on taking on the role of the state toward other armed groups, which in turn strengthened the social legitimacy of these groups. The latter included al-Qaeda, as it emerged in the country from the anti-Houthi sectarian circumstances. Thus, sectarian justifications have given rise to wars that were not sectarian in the first place.
The Houthis are trying to take advantage of Hezbollah’s experience, and the Houthi-affiliated Al-Maseera Channel broadcasts from Beirut’s southern suburbs with technical support from the Lebanese Shiite party. Recently, relations between the two sides have grown deeper. This comes amid repeated accusations from the Yemeni state that Iran is supporting the Houthis, and after the United States put in place new sanctions in August 2013 against some Lebanese who were accused of providing funds to the Houthis in Yemen. The Houthis usually do not deny this strong link with Hezbollah, which is reinforced by common factors between the two sides, such as their presence in the same regional alliance with Iran at the political level. In addition, both groups have armed militias to support their political positions, which they use when necessary. Yet, for the Houthis, the militia is their most prominent — if not exclusive — tool and not the exception, as is the case with Hezbollah.
Upon deeper examination of the reality, we see that the majority of comparisons between the two do not go beyond the superficial comparisons that are common in global and regional media. And this is further confirmed by the coverage of the events in Yemen. From a geostrategic perspective, for example, Hezbollah constitutes a strong ally for Iran and engages in direct conflict with Tehran’s traditional enemies such as Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the Houthis are more akin to an Iranian tool — not an ally like Hezbollah — and their activity is geographically limited to Yemen, specifically the north of the country. Until now, the group has no role outside of Yemen.
The most prominent difference between the two groups is that Hezbollah is regarded as a political party that is legally recognized in Lebanon. It is not very different from other Lebanese parties, aside from the fact that it has not abandoned its armed militia. Yet, the Houthis in Yemen carry out their activities in the country by virtue of their strength on the ground, and the group is not even registered as a political party. Also, unlike Hezbollah, the Houthis’ experience and expertise is limited to war, not politics. The political arena is still an unsafe and newly established space for the Houthis, who emerged from 10 years of war. As for Hezbollah, its experience spans three decades during which war was the exception, not the rule.
On the other hand, the Houthis are still in the phase of expanding and forming their identity. Even their religious ideological identity has not yet been settled, at least for members of the group, who fluctuate between the Zaidi sect — an Islamic sect between Sunnis and Shiites, although historically attributed to the latter — and some Shiite literature that is not accepted by some Zaidis in Yemen. Furthermore, the Houthis do not publicly acknowledge their subordinate relationship with Tehran, even though they have declared their relationship with Iran as a state that represents a model for resistance to the West. The group has shown its admiration for Iran’s religious figures such as Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, welcomes any Iranian achievement and celebrates the same religious holidays as the Shiite sects in Iran, Iraq and Lebanon with a public show of numbers. Yet, these are new phenomena for the Zaidi sect that is affiliated with the Houthis, and their celebration is more of a political act than an ideological one.
On a structural and logistical level, Hezbollah has had a decades-long regional ally in Syria that is geographically close. This helped the party to develop its activity on the military and political levels. Meanwhile, for the Houthis, their geographical neighbor in Saudi Arabia is a traditional and ideological opponent. To some extent, this earned them the favor of Iran. However, Riyadh does not view the Houthis as negatively as it does Hezbollah. Although the United Arab Emirates just followed Saudi Arabia in adding the Houthis to its terror list, that doesn’t necessarily imply that the Gulf Cooperation Council countries are in an open war with the Houthis.
More importantly, despite the Houthis’ extensive human rights violations in Yemen, which is beyond what Hezbollah has ever done in its long life of more than three decades, the Houthis are still seen in a better light regionally compared to their actual behavior on the ground. This is of importance as the United States continues nuclear talks with Iran, and provides both sides with a new card to negotiate with. Depending on how important Yemen is at the moment to the United States, Washington can try to push Iran to influence the Houthis to be more constructive in Yemen.
U.N. Votes to Condemn Iranian Human Rights Abuses – The United Nations late Tuesday voted to condemn Iranian human rights abuses and single it out for executing upwards of 1,000 political opponents and prisoners in the past year.
The measure, originally drafted by Canada, garnered the support of 78 nations on the U.N. General Assembly’s human rights committee, with 35 nations voting against and 69 abstaining from the vote.
U.N. Votes to Condemn Iranian Human Rights Abuses
In addition to condemning the sharp rise in executions in Iran, which are said to top 1,000 in the past year, the U.N. resolution labeled Iran’s human rights infractions as systemic and “alarming.”
Approval of the measure came just days before the Nov. 24 deadline for nuclear negotiations between Iran and the West.
The measure “expresses deep concern at serious ongoing and recurring human rights violations” in Iran, particularly the “alarming high frequency” of state-sanctioned executions, according to a copy of the measure obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
This includes the killing of those under the age of 18.
Executions in the Islamic Republic have become a major issue in recent months, as Iran is on pace to kill a record number of citizens, many of them political dissidents.
Western nations such as the United States have been hesitant to criticize Iran’s human rights infractions, which are among the worst in the world, so as not to offend Iranian negotiators at a critical juncture in the talks.
Iran continues to bar international human rights activists from entering the country to take inventory of the extent of the regime’s state-sanctioned killings and other abuses.
The U.N.’s human rights rapporteur for Iran has not been permitted in the country since 2005, a situation that parallels Tehran’s ongoing refusal to permit nuclear inspectors full access to the country’s military sites.
Recent U.N. reports claim that, in addition to executing more than 400 people in the first half of 2014, Iran also has been burning political opponents and amputating their limbs, a point of concern raised in the resolution.
“Pervasive gender inequality and violence against women” also is raised as an issue in the resolution.
Much of the blame for these brutal atrocities has been placed at the feet of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, who was elected as a so-called moderate and vowed to reform Iran’s flawed judicial system.
Iranian dissidents long critical of Iran’s human rights record hailed the U.N.’s Tuesday vote.
“This resolution leaves no doubt that the appalling human rights record of the clerical regime must be referred to the Security Council for the adoption of binding and punitive measures and that those responsible for 120,000 political executions should face justice,” Maryam Rajavi, president-elect of the National Council of Resistance of Iran, said in a statement following the vote.
The U.N. has made “it palpably clear that this regime has trampled on all 30 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights,” she said. “Moreover, the resolution underscores that the mullahs are violating the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Law.”
Iranian officials lashed out at the U.N. following the vote, calling the organization “biased” and politically motivated.
“It is regrettable that the United Nations’ human rights mechanisms and tools have been and continue to be abused by the Western countries; therefore, the Islamic Republic of Iran categorically rejects the introduction, adoption and content of such resolutions,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Spokeswoman, Marziyeh Afkham, was quoted as saying on Wednesday in the Iranian press.
Afkham went on to claim that the resolution disregards “the realities on the ground and [is] being adopted on the basis of political motivations.”
“Yes, We Can,” “Iranian Bat,” “Inbama” (eds.: this is with us, in Persian), “The Eagle of the Persian Gulf,” “Pride,” “Phoenix,” and “Fearless.”
IRAN’S GAME OF DRONES
These are some of the names Iranians have suggested for an aircraft Tehran says it has manufactured based on a U.S. drone captured in 2011.
The suggestions come following a call by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) on Iranians inside and outside the country to offer names for the Iranian drone, which Tehran claims it successfully tested on November 12.
The Iranian replica has been praised by IRGC commanders and other Iranian officials as a major achievement and a blow to the United States. They claim that Iranian engineers have managed to improve the efficiency of the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel. The Pentagon has downplayed the claims and said that the Iranian replica is an inferior copy.
In a statement posted on Iranian news sites, the IRGC said that due to the “importance of naming” the Iranian drone, it was calling on “appreciative” Iranian citizens, particularly the youth, to text their suggestions to a number it provided.
In a separate statement, the Revolutionary Guards said that Iranians outside the country could also offer their suggestions via e-mail. The IRGC said it had been contacted by many Iranian expats and “fans of the Islamic Revolution” demanding to be able to take part in the naming of the “Iranian RQ-170.”
The individual with the best name will be rewarded with an “exquisite gift”, the IRGC has promised.
Dozens of names have already been posted under the IRGC statements by readers of the website of the hard-line Fars news agency, which is affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards. They include “Trophy 170″, “What You Can Do, I Can Do Better,” and “Swallow.”
In what appeared to be a show of force and sarcasm , the commander of the IRGC’s aerospace division, Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, was quoted last week by Iranian media as saying that Iran could offer the United States a copy of the captured drone.
“We will not extradite the US RQ-170 drone, since it is a [war] trophy, but if Iranian sanctions against the U.S. are lifted, maybe we will give the U.S. an Iranian model of the drone,” Hajizadeh was quoted as saying.
Basij Commander Calls U.S. Embassy In Baghdad ‘ISIS Command Center’ – The commander of Iran’s Basij paramilitary force has accused the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad of being the “Islamic State command center,” saying the United States wants to bring ISIS to Iran’s borders in order to pressure Tehran.
Basij Commander Calls U.S. Embassy In Baghdad ‘ISIS Command Center’
Naghdi also said that Iraq has its own “Iraqi Basij” volunteer paramilitary fighters.
Iran’s Basij paramilitary volunteer force operates under the auspices of the IRGC and has several branches.
The Basij commander claimed that Iranian Basij paramilitary volunteers would “like to go” to Iraq but said this was not necessary because Iraqi Basij volunteers were already there and had no need of Iranian help.
Naghdi alluded to Tehran’s official position that Iran is not sending ground troops to fight in Syria or Iraq, claiming that while there was no need for an Iranian military presence in Iraq, Iran had provided training.
The Basij commander’s remarks are reminiscent of comments he made back in 2012 when he said that Syrian militia loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were very similar to Iran’s Basij volunteer paramilitaries. In that 2012 interview to the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA), Naghdi said that the similarity between the Syrian paramilitaries and the Basij had led to accusations that Iran was sending ground troops to Syria.
However, presumably as a show of how loyal and committed Iranian Basij volunteers are to the the cause of “resistance” against the West, Naghi claimed that “millions” of Iranian Basij members are prepared to be dispatched to Syria and to Gaza.
