Iran: 'We'll make missiles for as long as US supports Israel' - http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-will-make-missiles-for-as-long-as-us-supports-israel/
Revolutionary Guards head hits back at US threat of sanctions over weapons tests, says regime has so many missiles it doesn't know where to put them
Iran will keep producing missiles for as long as the United States supports Israel, the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps vowed Friday, as a war of words between Washington and Tehran continued in the aftermath of Iranian rocket tests last week.
The US had warned that the tests violated the terms of previously signed agreements as well as those of a July 2015 nuclear deal struck between Iran and world powers, and could result in fresh sanctions on the Islamic Republic. Washington has since said that plans for new sanctions were on hold.
"Today the Americans speak about Iran's missile development program and they want to impose new sanctions on Iran," the semi-official Fars news agency quoted General Hossein Salami as saying in a speech during Friday prayers in Tehran.
"We tell the Americans that we will further expedite enhancement of our missile capabilities as long as they massacre the Palestinian children, as long as they bury Yemen's oppressed children in their houses, as long as they displace the Muslim nation of Syria, as long as they attack the houses of the Pakistanis, as long as they occupy the Islamic lands and as long as they support the Zionist regime to bomb Lebanon, Palestine and Syria."
Salami also said that Iran had so many missiles that it had nowhere to store them, AFP reported.
"We lack enough space in our stockpiles to house our missiles," he said. "Hundreds of long tunnels are full of missiles ready to fly to protect your integrity, independence and freedom," he told worshipers in Tehran, promising to never "stop developing our defense deterrent."
Iranian state television aired in October unprecedented footage of such an underground missile base.
Tehran on Thursday accused the United States of lying about it test-firing missiles near a US warship, as anger rose at the specter of new sanctions. The US has said that it has shelved plans for fresh sanctions.
The Revolutionary Guards denied that its naval forces had been involved in the December 26 incident, in which the US said missiles came close to the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in the strategic Strait of Hormuz.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has ordered his defense minister to speed up the production of missiles, following the US warning of new sanctions - the first since the landmark nuclear deal was signed in July.
Rouhani said Iran would not accept any curbs on its missile program.
A US military official said an Iranian vessel had test-fired several ballistic missiles near three Western warships, including the aircraft carrier. A French frigate and the USS Bulkeley destroyer were also in the area.
Though the missiles were not fired toward any warship, their proximity to them and several commercial ships - reportedly around 1,500 yards (meters) - was "highly provocative," said the US official, who was not authorized to be named.
Revolutionary Guards spokesman General Ramezan Sharif, quoted on the Guards' website, accused the US of fabricating the incident - which reportedly occurred after Iranian naval forces announced via radio that the test-firing was to begin.
"Publishing such lies in the current situation is more a psychological operation," Sharif said.
"The security and peace of the Gulf is of serious strategic importance to Iran. The Guards conduct exercises to increase our required preparedness at due times, based on our own schedule."
Ballistic missile tests by Iran are prohibited under Security Council resolution 1929, which was passed five years ago and remains valid until July's nuclear deal goes into effect. At that point, in line with another Security Council resolution, passed immediately after the summer's nuclear deal, Iran will be "called upon" to refrain for up to eight years from any work on ballistic missiles designed to carry nuclear weapons.
Both countries agree that the missile program is separate from the nuclear deal, which rewards Iran's agreement to curb its nuclear program with the lifting of sanctions.
The Strait of Hormuz, a strategic Persian Gulf waterway, sees nearly a third of all oil traded by sea pass through it and has been the scene of past confrontations between America and Iran, including a one-day naval battle in 1988.
Obama's Iran Missile Charade - Jonathan S. Tobin - https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/iran/obama-iran-missile-charade/
On Wednesday, the Treasury Department said it was prepared to impose sanctions on Iran for violating United Nations Security Council resolutions about its ballistic missile program. The proposed sanctions were a long-delayed response to Iran's missile tests conducted in October and again in December that breached measures that were enacted by the world body specifically to work in conjunction with the nuclear deal conclude between the West and Tehran. In response, Iran's President Hassan Rouhani raged at the West and, as the New York Times notes today, denounced the sanctions and asserted that the Islamist regime would continue building and testing missiles. But anyone thinking the disagreement was a sign the Obama administration was genuinely prepared to try and hold Iran accountable for its behavior was soon disabused of the notion. As the Wall Street Journal reports, the White House is making clear it has no intention of imposing these sanctions or taking any action about this or any other Iranian breaches of its agreements.
Apparently the White House decision to indefinitely put off the imposition of any sanctions on Iran was made only hours after the Treasury Department spoke of them in the first place. They were actually scheduled to be announced on Wednesday before being pulled back. Is it possible that there are some in the administration that want to get tough with Iran after years of concessions that gradually eviscerated America's previous tough stance aimed at curbing Iran's nuclear threat? Maybe. But perhaps it is also possible that what we have seen this week is just another version of the same tired show we've been watching throughout the course of President Obama's term of office. The talk of more sanctions was clearly as insincere as President Obama's 2012 campaign promises that said any deal with Iran would have to mean the end of its nuclear program.
Iran's public anger over the possibility is just as cynical. By now, the Iranians know very well this administration is obsessed with the chimera of d�tente. From his first moments in office, the president has constantly spoken of wanting to enact a historic reconciliation between the two nations. In pursuit of that dubious goal, it didn't merely initiate new negotiations but proceeded to discard previous consensus positions about the need for Iran to cease enriching uranium and keeping its nuclear infrastructure. It wound up agreeing to a deal that not only allowed the Iranians to keep their most advanced centrifuges, to continue research and also ultimately passed on any effort to make the regime come clean on their work on possible military dimensions of the nuclear project. The accord that was announced last summer also expires in a decade leaving Iran free at that point to proceed quickly to a bomb. In exchange for some Iranian concessions that don't close the door to a weapon, the West is about to transfer as much as $100 billion in frozen assets to Tehran. It will also lift sanctions that will open the floodgates to international commerce ahead of schedule that will enrich the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps and enable to give more aid to its Hezbollah and Hamas terrorist allies.
Tehran names Raafat Al-Bakkar as new Hezbollah Golan terror ring chief - http://www.debka.com/article/25114/IDF-Commando-Brigade-unveiled-amid-threats-from-Nasrallah-and-Al-Baghdadi
Tehran Monday, Dec. 28, further ramped up the tension between its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah, whose leader Sunday threatened to avenge the death of Samir Quntar, and Israel, which is conducting a military exercise along its northern borders. Four days after Quntar was assassinated in Damascus, Tehran appointed a successor to carry on building a new terrorist network for striking Israel from the Golan.
This successor is revealed by debkafile's exclusive sources as a Lebanese called Raafat Al-Bakkar, about whom very little is known. According to our sources, the Iranians spotted Al-Bakkar as promising talent earlier this year, shortly after the Israeli air strike which on Jan. 18 killed Iranian Gen. Ali Dadi and the high-profile Hezbollah leader Jihad Moughniyeh. They were caught touring the Golan around Quneitra in search of a site for a terrorist base. Al-Bakkar was sent to Tehran at that time for a course in building and running terrorist networks, and this week he was given charge of the new "National Resistance on the Golan" organization for deep strikes inside Israel.
When Nasrallah boasted Sunday that his jihadists were already on their way to punish Israel, he was looking forward to the arrival of Quntar's successor.
See DEBKA files' earlier report from Sunday, Dec. 27.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gady Eisenkott explained why it was necessary to bring forward the launching of the new Commando Brigade by two months, when he addressed the formation ceremony on Sunday, Dec. 27, at the Ein Harod National Park: "The Commando Brigade is more necessary than ever in light of the threats from Hezbollah and the Islamic State," he said, in reference to the boasts heard in the last 48 hours from Hassan Nasrallah and Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi.
The Chief of Staff introduced Col. David Zini as the first commander of the new Brigade.
The ceremony took place shortly after the Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah said, "Revenge for the death of Samir Quntar is on the way... The orders have been given and execution is in the hands of resistance fighters on the ground... The Israelis are worried and rightly so - those on the borders [soldiers] and those inside the country.... We shall not let the blood of our Jihadi fighters and brothers to be spilled anywhere in the world," he said.
debkafile's military sources report: Analysis of the kinds of threats posed by Hizballah (and ISIS) at this time, which are likely to focus more on terrorism than on tank or infantry border incursions, persuaded IDF leaders of the need for a new framework for bringing under one roof some of the top-notch, highly-trained, experienced, well-armed and determined fighting men who are willing to take on new challenges.
The self-styled Islamic State's "caliph" Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi, also devoted special attention to Israel, or rather "the Jews," in his first audio speech in seven months Saturday, Dec. 26, the day before Nasrallah sounded off. His message was similar to that of his Shiite enemy, albeit in his own inimitable style:
The Islamic State would soon be in Palestine to establish an Islamic state there, he said, "Jews, soon you shall hear from us in Palestine which will become your grave... The Jews thought we had forgotten Palestinian... Not at all, Jews...The pioneers of the jihadist fighters are getting closer every day."
If and when the Shiite Hezbollah and Sunni ISIS make good on their similar but separate threats - or sooner - they will encounter Israel's new Commando Brigade. Its fighting men are trained for combat in miscellaneous conditions of terrain, day or night, under deep cover. They are equipped with high-tech equipment, most of it classified, for gathering visual and electronic intelligence, communications, photography and targeting. They may either kill terrorists or take them captive.
In a word, these elite troops will hit the enemy in his back yard or at home, and blow the threats heard from Hezbollah and ISIS leaders' back on their own forces.
The 89th Commando Brigade is composed of four battalions:
Duvdevan specializes in operating amidst an Arab population under deep cover for locating and arresting terror suspects.
Egoz is a special kind of infantry battalion, whose commandos operate solo or in very small teams behind enemy lines, especially across the Syrian and Lebanese borders.
Maglan is skilled in the use of weaponry designed for precision operations against high quality enemy targets. These elite fighters go deep inside enemy territory to gather intelligence and use their specialized technology, exclusive for the use of this unit, for devastating assaults.
Rimon members are desert fighters who gained their experience in the terrain of the Gaza Strip and Egypt. Their experience as back-up for operations against drug smugglers is invaluable for urban combat in civilian environments.
Excluded from the new brigade are the separate IDF commando units: Sayeret Matkal, Shayetet 13 (Navy), the Oketz unit which trains dogs for anti-terror work, and Yahalom, of the Engineering Corps.
Iran ships uranium to Russia, fulfilling a key provision of nuclear deal - By Carol Morello - https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/iran-ships-uranium-to-russia-fulfilling-a-key-provision-of-nuclear-deal/2015/12/28/f0642280-ada0-11e5-b711-1998289ffcea_story.html
Iran shipped thousands of pounds of enriched uranium to Russia on Monday, a key commitment in the nuclear deal that had to be fulfilled before international sanctions can be lifted.
Secretary of State John F. Kerry applauded the transfer, calling it a "significant milestone" toward the deal's implementation. He said the one shipment alone more than triples the estimated two- to three-month "breakout time" needed for Iran to acquire enough weapons-grade uranium to build one nuclear weapon.
Under the agreement reached July 14 in Vienna, Iran was required to whittle down its stockpile of low-enriched uranium to no more than 300 kilograms, about 660 pounds. Low-enriched uranium can be used to generate electrical power, but it must be enriched further to create Âweapons-grade material.
Kerry said that Iran had transferred 25,000 pounds of low-enriched uranium and materials, including scrap metal and fuel plates. State Department officials said they believe Iran has now rid itself of almost its entire stockpile of enriched uranium.
Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is solely for peaceful purposes, despite a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency saying the country had actively worked until 2009 to design a nuclear weapon.
The nuclear negotiations aimed to ensure that Iran will have a breakout time - the time needed to amass enough weapons-grade uranium for one nuclear weapon - of at least a year. That is supposed to give enough of a lead for other countries to detect any potential cheating and decide how to respond. Monday's shipment, Kerry said, "is an important piece of the technical equation."
A Russian diplomat told the Tass news agency Monday that Russia had completed the procedure of withdrawing the stockpiled material, and Kerry later said the uranium had left Iran. In return, Iran will get 137 tons of natural uranium material, supplied in part by ÂKazakhstan.
The transfer suggests that Iran is well on its way to meeting its obligations under the nuclear deal it reached with six world powers, including the United States. The country still must complete a number of other steps, including dismantling centrifuges and pouring cement into the core of the Arak reactor. The International Atomic Energy Agency is responsible for verifying everything before sanctions can be eased.
Initially, Iran predicted it would finish all the work before year's end, but U.S. experts estimated it would take many months more and probably would not happen before spring. Now it appears likely Iran will be done by the latter half of January, paving the way for sanctions to be lifted before Iran holds elections in February.
Iran's pragmatist president, Hassan Rouhani, pursued talks that led to the nuclear deal after he was elected on a vow to bring sanctions relief. The deal has been strongly opposed by hard-liners, however, and the Iranian government is hoping to have at least the promise of imminent sanctions relief in place before election day.
Even as Iran was moving to complete one key commitment, the Foreign Ministry warned that Tehran would reciprocate if there is any breach in the deal. Last week, Iran said U.S. visa restrictions recently passed by Congress, prohibiting visa-free travel for visitors to Iran, violate the deal.
"Any steps taken outside the agreement are unacceptable to Iran, and Iran will take its own steps in response where necessary," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hossein Jaberi Ansari told a televised news conference when asked about the U.S. law.
Mark Toner, the deputy State Department spokesman, said that the administration does not consider the new law a violation and that it will not prevent the United States from meeting its commitments on sanctions relief.
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