IRAN UPDATE: 2.24.17 - Iranian FM Warns U.S., Saudi Arabia, Israel: 'We Will Defend Ourselves'

 

Iranian FM Warns U.S., Saudi Arabia, Israel: 'We Will Defend Ourselves' - by Deborah Danan - http://www.breitbart.com

 

The U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia should not "get themselves into serious trouble" by taking military action against Iran, the Islamic Republic's top diplomat said in a BBC interview on Monday.

 

"First of all, we're not talking about the law of the jungle," Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told BBC's Lyse Doucet.

 

Referring to a proposal by the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia to renew sanctions on Tehran after the country conducted ballistic missile tests, Zarif said, "We're talking about the international law, and according to international law, those options are a violation of international law."

 

"I certainly hope that prudence will prevail because Iran is not an easy target," Zarif asserted. "We're not going to provoke anybody. We're not going to instigate any hostility. We've never started hostility, and we're not planning to do it. But we will defend ourselves."

 

"I do not believe that people looking at our history, people looking at our capabilities, will ever make the decision to engage in that misadventure," the foreign minister added.

 

Zarif further claimed that the Obama administration had been forced to sign the nuclear deal once it understood that sanctions were not a deterrent, and instead were having the reverse effect of strengthening Tehran's resolve. He added that the nuclear agreement was a fair one that must be maintained by all parties.

 

Following a meeting with Secretary of Defense James Mattis on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said, "The three main problems we must handle are Iran, Iran and Iran. We must build a genuine and effective coalition to deal with the terrorism [Iran] spreads around the world, the development of missiles it is engaged in and its nuclear arms race."

 

The defense chiefs' meeting occurred two days after President Donald Trump met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House.

 

According to the White House, Iran was also on top of the agenda for the two leaders.

 

Earlier this month, National Security Adviser Mike Flynn warned that he was "putting Iran on notice" following the tests and President Donald Trump vowed that "nothing is off the table" if the Islamic Republic refused to toe the line.

 

In response, chief of the IRGC's ground forces Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour warned the U.S. against making threats it couldn't back up.

 

"The U.S. statesmen should be very wise and avoid threatening Iran, because the entire world has admitted this fact that the Americans cannot do such a thing," Pakpour told the semi-official Fars news agency.

 

At a security summit in Munich on Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence on Saturday called Iran "the leading state sponsor of terrorism."

 

"Thanks to the end of nuclear-related sanctions under the [deal], Iran now has additional resources to devote to these efforts," Pence said.

 

"Let me be clear again: Under President Trump the United States will remain fully committed to ensuring that Iran never obtains a nuclear weapon capable of threatening ... our allies in the region, especially Israel," the vice president added.

 

Earlier this week, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed resistance to Trump's "measures and threats" and mockingly thanked the president for saving Iran a great deal of trouble by "revealing the real face of America," characterized by "political, economic, moral and social corruption."

 

 

Iran's supreme leader backs 'holy intifada' to destroy 'cancer' Israel - by Raphael Ahren - http://www.timesofisrael.com/iran-leader-hails-holy-intifada-against-cancer-israel/

 

At conference backing violent uprising, Khamenei says no people in history ever suffered as badly as Palestinians

 

Calling Israel a "cancerous tumor," Iran's supreme leader on Tuesday expressed support for a "holy intifada" to eradicate the Jewish state, arguing that the international community is headed toward confrontation with the "Zionist regime."

 

In the opening address of the regime's sixth international conference in support of the Palestinian violent uprising against Israel, Ayatollah Khamenei hailed the "resistance" against the "cruel occupation," which he described as the worst case of oppression against one particular people recorded in history. He also accused Israel's founders of being responsible for the current upheaval in the wider Middle East.

 

"The people of Palestine have no option other than keeping the flames of fighting alight by relying on Allah the Exalted and by relying on their innate capabilities, as they have genuinely done so until today," said Khamenei, according to a translation of his speech posted on his website.

 

A wave of terrorism some called a third intifada, which began last year and manifested itself mainly in stabbings and vehicular attacks against Israelis troops and civilians, is "moving forward in a bright and hopeful manner," the ayatollah declared. "And by Allah's permission, we will see that this intifada will begin a very important chapter in the history of fighting and that it will inflict another defeat on that usurping regime."

 

"From the beginning, this cancerous tumor has been developing in several phases until it turned into the current disaster," he went on. "The cure for this tumor should be developed in phases as well."

 

While the "resistance" so far failed to achieved its ultimate objective - "the complete freedom of Palestine" - it has made important inroads, he said. "The Palestinian intifada continues to gallop forward in a thunderous manner so that it can achieve its other goals until the complete liberation of Palestine."

 

Addressing some 700 delegates in a Tehran conference center, the supreme leader denounced what he called "compromise strategies" - referring to the Palestinian Authority's endorsement of a two-state solution based on the 1967 lines - and called instead for "all-out resistance."

 

Protecting Palestinian identity "is a necessity and a holy jihad," he said in the presence of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani. "The paradigm of heroic and continuous resistance and holy intifada stands against the compromise paradigm."

 

"The problem with 'compromise' is not only that it legitimizes a usurping regime by violating the rights of a nation," he said. "Rather the problem is that it is completely at odds with the current condition of Palestine and that it does not take into account the expansionist, oppressive and greedy characteristics of the Zionists."

 

The supreme leader declared the Palestinian plight as "the most important issue in the world of Islam and as the pivot of unity for all Muslims and all liberated individuals in the world."

 

No other people has ever suffered as much as the Palestinians, he said. "An intelligent quest in history shows that no people in any era of history have ever been subject to such pain, suffering and cruelty. ... It has never been witnessed that a real entity is ignored and that a fake entity takes its place."

 

The "Zionist regime" was created to harm the stability and progress of the Middle East by imposing a long-term conflict, Khamenei posited. These same forces are now responsible for the "seditions that exist in the present time as well," he said.

 

Hinting at the clandestine yet solid cooperation between Israel and some Sunni Arab states, the Iranian leader called on all Islamic and Arab countries to support the Palestinian cause. "Supporting the resistance is the responsibility of all of us," he said.

 

The Muslim world and the rest of the international community have different viewpoints but should rally around the liberation of Palestine, Khamenei said.

 

"With the emergence of signs of the collapse in the Zionist regime and the weakness that has dominated its main allies - in particular the United States of America - it is witnessed that the global environment is gradually moving towards confronting the hostile, illegal and inhuman activities of the Zionist regime," he declared.

 

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday evening, during a visit in Singapore, highlighted his recent trips to two Muslim countries - Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan - citing their religious tolerance and friendship to Israel as a model to be emulated by other states.

 

"I think there's an opportunity to do this today because I sense a great change in the Arab world in many Arab countries, and I hope ... to be able to use that newfound attitude towards Israel to help to solve the Palestinian Israeli conflict as well," he said.

 

The two-day conference is attended by delegates from 80 countries, including some allied with Israel, such as Kazakhstan and Uganda. The Jewish anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta also sent a senior representative to Tehran for the event.

 

A year and half after six world powers signed a landmark nuclear agreement with Iran, the regime has in recent weeks stepped up its provocative activities, including launching ballistic missile tests in violation of UN Security resolutions and threatening an attack on Tel Aviv.

 

Netanyahu discussed the nuclear deal and Tehran's increasingly belligerent rhetoric with US President Donald Trump last week in Washington. The new US administration has indicated that it would take a more aggressive position on Iranian provocations than its predecessor, having already imposed additional sanctions on the regime mere days after coming into office.

 

 

Is Iran Preparing for War in The Middle East? Russia To Send $1B In Weapons to Tehran - by Bruce Wright - http://www.ibtimes.com/iran-preparing-war-middle-east-russia-send-1b-weapons-tehran-2494993

 

Russia was set to send Iran about $1 billion worth of missile defense systems, Russian news agency Tass reported Monday. The deal was the result of a contract Iran signed with Russian defense manufacturer Rostec Corporation in 2007, but it was put on hold by Russia in 2010. Russian President Vladimir Putin recently ended the delay and paved the way for the contractual obligation for the S-300 air defense systems to be met in full starting this past November.

 

"The S-300 cost about one billion dollars," Rostec Corporation CEO Sergey Chemezov said. "We were through with the supplies of S-300. No plans for anything are on the agenda."

 

The timing of the resumption of the contract perhaps could not come at a better time for Iran, which Yemen has accused of trying to incite war with itself and countries in the region, Arab News reported.

 

Iran has indeed been posturing militarily in the region recently. Tehran's Revolutionary Guard launched a series of rockets Monday, though their capabilities and intended destinations were not announced. The apparent test firing, which was touted as a major accomplishment by military officials, came amid a three-day military exercise in the country, according to Sputnik News.

 

"Today, various classes of smart rockets with pinpoint accuracy were successfully test-fired, which showed the power of the Islamic Republic of Iran," Brig. Gen. Mohammad Pakpour said after the launches took place.

 

Iran also conducted a different test-launching of missiles earlier this month, which prompted the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to hit the country with a set of new sanctions.

 

That came just weeks after Iran was one of the seven Muslim-majority countries named on Trump's executive immigration order banning travel from those countries to the U.S. While that executive order was eventually struck down by the courts, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced Monday that a new, revamped version of the executive order would be revealed Tuesday.