Iran Super Thread- Merged

[CougarKing]

Please note the South China Sea parallels in the rest of the full article at the link below:

Forbes

Iran Threatens To Close Oil Shipping Lanes, Could Beijing Do Likewise In South China Sea?

Tim Daiss ,

Contributor

Geopolitical analyst and energy markets journalist based in Asia.


    Iran’s threats also pre-shadows what the future could hold in the South China Sea, also one of the most important oil and natural gas transport choke points in the world

News from late last week that Iran had threatened to close oil shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz if the U.S. proceeds with further military drills in the area is disturbing enough, but it also provokes questions about actions China could also take in the not too distant future in the South China Sea.

Oilprice.com reported on the Iran story on Friday, citing remarks made on Iranian television by General Hossein Salami, the deputy commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard. “If the Americans and their regional allies want to pass through the Strait of Hormuz and threaten us, we will not allow any entry,” Salami said.

Salami was referring to an early April large-scale military drill “International Mine Countermeasures Exercise (IMCMEX),” which saw 30 nations participate. According to an April 9 Reuters report, the drills kicked off in Bahrain where the U.S Navy’s Fifth Fleet is based, in part as a bulwark against Iran.

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[CougarKing]

Iranian casualties of the war in Syria:

Canadian Press/Associated Press

13 members of Iran's elite force killed in Syria
[Albert Aji And Nasser Karimi, The Associated Press]

May 7, 2016

DAMASCUS, Syria - More than a dozen members of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards were killed this week during an attack by militants in northern Syria in what shows Tehran's deep involvement in the Syrian civil war.

Iran has been one of President Bashar Assad's strongest backers and has, along with Lebanon's Iran-backed militant Hezbollah group, sent fighters to battle on the government's side.

Iran's semi-official Fars news agency quoted Hossein Ali Rezaei, a spokesman for the Revolutionary Guard in the northern province of Mazandaran, as saying that 13 members were killed and 21 were wounded.

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[CougarKing]

Even as this occurs to think Trudeau wants to re-establish Canadian ties with Iran:

Bloomberg

US Taxpayers Are Funding Iran's Military Expansion

JUNE 9, 2016 6:00 AM EDT
By
Eli Lake
One of the unexpected results of President Barack Obama's new opening to Iran is that U.S. taxpayers are now funding both sides of the Middle East's arms race. The U.S. is deliberately subsidizing defense spending for allies like Egypt and Israel. Now the U.S. is inadvertently paying for some of Iran's military expenditures as well.
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[tomahawk6]

It should read President Obama is funding Iran's military modernization.I would hope that Congress looks at this nonsense instead of what Trump says or doesnt say.

 

[CougarKing]

I'm supposing Bombardier wants a slice of this market as well especially since Trudeau's following Obama's footsteps when it comes to re-establishing links with the radical Iranian regime?

ABC News

Iran Aviation Official Says Boeing Sale Involves 100 Planes

    By nasser karimi and jon gambrell, associated press

TEHRAN, Iran — Jun 19, 2016, 11:43 AM ET



Boeing Co. is negotiating a deal to sell 100 airplanes to Iran, state-run media reported Sunday, a sale potentially worth billions that would mark the first major entry of an American company into the Islamic Republic after last year's nuclear deal.

Chicago-based Boeing declined to discuss details of the talks or the figure of 100 planes, attributed to Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization.

Regulatory hurdles and U.S. sanctions that remain in place after the nuclear agreement could complicate the deal. Despite efforts by the U.S. State Department to encourage trade to Iran, many American firms remain worried about the legal and political ramifications of any agreements with the country.

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[The Bread Guy]

Here we go again ....

An international Holocaust cartoon exhibition kicked off in the western Iranian city of Hamedan on Friday.

The expo, which was launched on the occasion of the International Quds Day, features 35 cartoons, Seyed Yunes Ashrafi, a cultural official in the city said.

He said works by artists from Iran, Venezuela, Morocco, Belgium, Turkey, Indonesia, France and Colombia are on display at the exhibition.

The works are the selected cartoons of the second International Holocaust cartoon festival, he noted.

A selection of 150 cartoons from 50 different countries was showcased at the festival back in May.

Iran’s House of Cartoon and the Sarcheshmeh Cultural Complex organized the second edition of the festival.

:facepalm:

 

[tomahawk6]

Iranian gun boats harrased the USS New Orleans,onboard was GEN Votel the CENTCOM commander.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2016/07/12/iranian-military-boats-veer-dangerously-close-to-us-warship.html

Boats from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps maneuvered dangerously close to a U.S. military vessel in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, part of a pattern that the top American general in the region—who was on the ship at the time—said risked grave miscalculation.

“What concerns me is our people don’t always have a lot of time to deal with those interactions,” said Gen. Joe Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, as he stood on the bridge of the amphibious ship later in the day. “It’s measured in minutes to really have the opportunity to make the right decision.”

 

[a_majoor]

That "Smart Diplomacy" the Obama administration practices sure has interesting results:

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/iran/iran-violates-deal-now/

Iran Violates the Deal. Now What?
JONATHAN S. TOBIN / JULY 8, 2016
Iran

In the months since the Iran nuclear deal went into effect, the Obama administration has acknowledged that the behavior of the Islamist regime hasn’t changed much. The Iranians continue to act as the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism, test illegal ballistic missiles, threaten their neighbors, and seek regional hegemony while its leaders spewed hate at the West, the United States, and Israel. Indeed, in April, the president admitted that the Iranians were undermining “the spirit” of the pact while insisting that they were nonetheless observing the letter of the agreement. But it turns out his trust in the law-abiding nature of his negotiating partners was misplaced. A new report published by German intelligence that was backed up by a statement in the Bundestag by Chancellor Angela Merkel revealed that the Iranians have violated the letter of the deal via a clandestine effort to obtain “high-level” nuclear technology without permission from the United Nations Security Council.

The report from the German FBI—the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution spoke of Iran’s support for terrorists inside Germany including Hezbollah and Hamas. But just as alarming was the finding that Iran made at least ninety recent attempts to acquire technology for nuclear arms development. Though it claimed the majority of those attempts were thwarted by German intelligence, the agency said there was no doubt the Islamist regime would continue “its intensive procurement activities in Germany using clandestine methods to achieve its objectives.”

The implications of this report cannot be overestimated.

This means that despite all the happy talk from the United States and its Western allies about compliance with the terms of the nuclear pact, their confidence is unfounded. Instead of merely reaping the enormous benefits that have accrued to it from the ending of sanctions and waiting patiently for the pact to expire in ten years before resuming their push for a weapon, Iran has never stopped working to achieve its nuclear ambition. President Obama made concession after concession and allowed Iran to keep its nuclear infrastructure and research programs because he believed the regime wanted to “get right with the world.” But as the Germans have made clear, critics who have said all along that the president’s trust was misplaced were correct.

The facts published by the Germans can’t be viewed in isolation. That can’t be the only country where Iran is working to cheat its way to a nuclear weapon. Iran’s overseas reach is considerable both in terms of its secret intelligence operatives as well as the vast terror network that it helps orchestrate via its Hezbollah auxiliaries.

Moreover, if the German FBI knows this, it is highly likely that American intelligence also is aware of these activities. That raises questions about whether U.S. officials in the White House and the State Department that have continued to assure us that the letter of the agreement is being observed have been lying to the American people. The revelations also put President Obama’s comments in recent months about the need to encourage Iran to be more open to the world in a different light.

What action can the West take to deal with these violations?

A year ago when the president and Secretary of State John Kerry were selling the virtues of the deal to a dubious Congress and American people, they told us that sanctions would be snapped back in the event of violations. But this is highly unlikely. As deal skeptics predicted, the administration and the West are too heavily invested in the notion of détente with Iran to respond with the sort of alacrity that might impress Tehran. America’s European allies were never enthusiastic about the Iran sanctions in the first place, and the gold rush of Western businesses to Iran has created a vast constituency for continued appeasement.

Yet that should not deter Congress from taking up the issue of Iranian cheating at its earliest opportunity.

The first order of business should be to call a halt to the deal the Boeing Company has struck with Iran to sell it commercial aircraft and related goods and services. That agreement was already raising concerns on both sides of the aisle because of the possibility that companies controlled by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the entity that runs Tehran’s terror networks would be involved with Boeing. But, given the evidence of Iranian nuclear espionage, a strong message must be sent, and that should mean Congress putting a stop to the effort to allow Boeing to get into bed with terrorists. In addition to that Congress must also make it clear that it will not allow the administration to further relax sanctions or to let foreign companies use dollars to conduct business with Iran.

Just as important, this report should signal both Donald Trump—an avowed opponent of the nuclear deal—and Hillary Clinton—who supports it but didn’t take part in the negotiations and isn’t as invested in the myth of Iranian moderation as the president—that U.S. policies toward Iran must change in January. No matter the identity of the next president, President Obama’s successor must begin the work of clawing back the West’s leverage over a rogue regime that cannot be trusted and which presents a clear and present danger to world peace.

What the next American Administration does about this is going to have a great deal of impact on regional stability one way or the other.

 

[tomahawk6]

Iran has named a new chief of staff for the armed forces MG Bagheri.His mission seems to be to consolidate control of the armed services together with the IRG.A more streamlined operation perhaps.

http://ifpnews.com/translation-iran-media-farsi-to-english/2016/07/general-bagheris-appointment-new-chief-irans-armed-forces-sends-important-message/

 

[a_majoor]

CNN, ever loyal water carriers for the Democrats, are playing an episode of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown where he goes to Iran and visits people and eats the food. The show only makes a few references to the Basji, the government and no references at all to the Iranian government's support of terrorism, nuclear program or propping up of the Syrian regime. Showing one side of the story to downplay other aspects of the Iranian regime.

Kind of ironic when the biggest story *should* be the payment of $400 million dollars in cash to free four American hostages.

Nothing to see here, move right along...

 

[tomahawk6]

CNN, ever loyal water carriers for the Democrats, are playing an episode of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown where he goes to Iran and visits people and eats the food. The show only makes a few references to the Basji, the government and no references at all to the Iranian government's support of terrorism, nuclear program or propping up of the Syrian regime. Showing one side of the story to downplay other aspects of the Iranian regime.

Kind of ironic when the biggest story *should* be the payment of $400 million dollars in cash to free four American hostages.

Nothing to see here, move right along...

Excellent pints.The regime admitted today that they had executed a nuclear scientist for spying.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/iran-nuclear-scientist-us-spy-mystery-reportedly-executed-093152564.html

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran executed a nuclear scientist who defected to the U.S. in 2009 and later returned to the Islamic Republic under mysterious circumstances a year later, authorities said Sunday, acknowledging for the first time that they had secretly detained, tried and convicted a man authorities once heralded as a hero.

Shahram Amiri vanished in 2009 while on a religious pilgrimage to Muslim holy sites in Saudi Arabia, only to reappear a year later in a series of online videos filmed in the U.S. He then walked into the Iranian interests section at the Pakistani Embassy in Washington and demanded to be sent home.

In interviews, Amiri described being kidnapped and held against his will by Saudi and American spies, while U.S. officials said he was to receive millions of dollars for his help in understanding Iran's contested nuclear program. He was hanged the same week as Tehran executed a group of militants, a year after his country agreed to a landmark accord to limit uranium enrichment in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

 

[CougarKing]

Months after the deal, the rift remains between these 2 allies:

Defense News

US-Israel Reignite Rift on Iran Nuke Deal
Barbara Opall-Rome, Defense News 9:04 a.m. EDT August 7, 2016

TEL AVIV – After an extended truce over opposing positions on the US-led nuclear deal with Iran, the US and Israel rekindled their public rift on the issue, with President Barack Obama suggesting Israel own up to misplaced hysteria while Israel’s Defense Ministry likened the accord to pre-World War II appeasement of Nazi Germany.

The firestorm provoked banner headlines Sunday in Israeli daily newspapers and hit as Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) chief of staff, and his head of planning, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin, were returning after a week of US-based discussions on an historical expansion of bilateral cooperation and US funding to Israel.

It was sparked by Obama’s Aug. 4 Pentagon press conference, in which he noted that the military and security community of Israel – “the country that was most opposed to the deal” now realizes that “this has been a game changer.”

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[The Bread Guy]

CNN, ever loyal water carriers for the Democrats, are playing an episode of Anthony Bourdain's Parts Unknown where he goes to Iran and visits people and eats the food. The show only makes a few references to the Basji, the government and no references at all to the Iranian government's support of terrorism, nuclear program or propping up of the Syrian regime. Showing one side of the story to downplay other aspects of the Iranian regime.

1)  I don't know which CNN feed you get, but there appears to be one or two stories from them on the $ issue -- almost as many as Fox News over the past few days -- or is Google in the Dems' pocket, too? 
2)  I've watched a lot of food shows, and I don't remember seeing a lot of them with politics/human rights mentioned - can you share any you've encountered that CNN could have shown instead?

Not having your "white hot anger" story as the lead all day, every day =/= Democratic sympathies

Excellent pints.The regime admitted today that they had executed a nuclear scientist for spying.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/iran-nuclear-scientist-us-spy-mystery-reportedly-executed-093152564.html

Live by the sword, indeed - a good reminder for those who say negotiating can solve ALL woes with ALL foes ...

 

[tomahawk6]

Iran is back to threatening the destruction of Israel.Just one minor detail is Israel's nuclear force. >

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/majid-rafizadeh/iran-is-ready-to-attack-i_b_11382198.html

The tension between Israel and Iran appears to be heightening. Hossein Salami, deputy commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), recently said: “Hezbollah has 100,000 missiles that are ready to hit Israel to liberate the occupied Palestinian territories if the Zionist regime repeats its past mistakes.”

He added: “Today, the grounds for the annihilation and collapse of the Zionist regime are [present] more than ever.” Salami warned that if Israel made the “wrong move,” it would come under attack.

A few weeks ago, a senior adviser to the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, Ahmad Karimpour, said Iran could destroy Israel “in less than eight minutes” if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gave the order.

 

[The Bread Guy]

Just one minor detail is Israel's nuclear force. >

"Allegedly", anyway ... 

 

[CougarKing]

Although this was such a short stint, their strikes last week demonstrated that the Russians were capable of launching strikes from Iran against Syrian rebels:

Canadian Press

Iran: Russia has stopped using Iran base for Syria strikes
[The Canadian Press]

August 22, 2016

Iran: Russia has stopped using Iran base for Syria strikes

TEHRAN, Iran — Russia has stopped using an Iranian air base for launching airstrikes on Syria for the time being, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman said Monday, just hours after the Iranian defence minister criticized Moscow for having "kind of show-off and ungentlemanly" attitude by publicizing their actions.

Moscow, which had used the Shahid Nojeh Air Base to refuel its bombers striking Syria at least three times last week, confirmed that all Russian warplanes that were based in Iran have returned to Russia.

A statement issued by the Russian Defence Ministry said Monday that as long as Iran agreed, Russia could use the Iranian air base again, "depending on the situation" in Syria.

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[CougarKing]

The IRGC at it again, tempting fate with the USN:

Reuters

Iran vessels make 'high speed intercept' of U.S. ship - defence official
Reuters

5 hrs ago

WASHINGTON, Aug 24 (Reuters) - Four vessels from Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) "harassed" a U.S. destroyer on Tuesday by carrying out a "high speed intercept" in the vicinity of the Strait of Hormuz, a U.S. defence official said on Wednesday.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said two of the Iranian vessels came within 300 yards of the USS Nitze in an incident that was "unsafe and unprofessional."

"The Iranian high rate of closure...created a dangerous, harassing situation that could have led to further escalation including additional defensive measures by Nitze," the official said.

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[Lumber]

The IRGC at it again, tempting fate with the USN:

Reuters

Having been there

 

[jollyjacktar]

The IRGC at it again, tempting fate with the USN:

Reuters

Shame the USN didn't have an directed EMP weapon they could zap them with.  Let them drift with the tides then.

 

[CougarKing]

A T-90 copy?

National Interest

Iran's 'New' Karrar Tank: "One of the Most Advanced Tanks in the World"?
The National Interest 15 hours ago

In March, Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan — Iran’s defense minister — claimed that a new, unseen Iranian tank called the Karrar “is one of the most advanced tanks in the world.” He further suggested that the “tank [is] 100 percent Iranian made and it can even be superior than [the] T-90 in some degrees.” Then in August, a tank with a close resemblance to the Russian-made T-90MS appeared on Iranian television. It flew a green, white and red Iranian flag from the turret … while spinning donuts. It’s impossible to draw any conclusions about the new tank based on a grainy split second of video footage. It could be the Karrar — but even that raises more questions. A “Karrar” might be the Iranian name for ...

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