Are Iran and the United States heading for war? - Yochanan Visser - http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/262315
Reports of US Naval buildup near Middle East as Iran threatens shipping lanes in response to US sanctions.
The United States and Iran came one step closer to war this week after the Trump Administration announced it would not renew waivers on sanctions against importers of Iranian oil.
The new measure aims to stop Iran's oil exports altogether and will result in a critical loss of revenues since these exports make up 40 percent of the state budget in the Islamic Republic.
Trump's decision was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who thanked Trump and said that the decision was of "great importance in increasing the pressure on the Iranian terrorist regime."
"We're going to zero. We're going to zero across the board," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told reporters in Washington.
"There are no (oil) waivers that extend beyond that period, full stop," Pompeo added.
Iran reacted furiously to the new American measure and threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz a narrow waterway in the Persian Gulf where 18 million barrels of oil pass through each day.
This accounts for 30 percent of the world's oil supply and a closure of the waterway could result in a worldwide economic crisis since the price of Brent crude oil is already at a six-months high.
In reaction to the Iranian threats US Special Representative for Iran Brian Hook assured the public that the US military will keep the waterway open at all costs.
"The US military will fly, sail and operate wherever international law allows, that's partly to ensure protection of the global commons so that it can be safe for commercial and non-commercial traffic," Hook said during a press conference.
Iran's Foreign Minister Javad Zarif later said that the Iranian military top -which is made-up of anti-Israel and anti-US hawks- will decide on the closure of the Strait of Hormuz when the annulment of the waivers comes into effect at the beginning of May.
Immediately after the announcement of the new measure against Iran's continuing aggression in the region, reports came in that the US military had started to build-up its forces in the Middle East.
The Washington Examiner reported that the Trump Administration sent two aircraft carriers to the Persian Gulf and the Mediterranean Sea this week.
The USS Abraham Lincoln left the port of Palma in Majorca and headed for the Persian Gulf while the USS John C. Stennis sailed through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea where it will cruise in international waters opposite the coast of Syria.
The Stennis has 50 F-18 warplanes aboard and the Lincoln will join the USS Kearsarge Amphibious Ready Group a collection of warships which was already stationed in the Persian Gulf.
The United States, furthermore, deployed an unspecified number of F-35 stealth fighter planes to the United Arab Emirates and has reportedly a number of submarines in the region.
The deployment of the naval forces and the F-35's is the clearest signal to date that the Trump Administration will not hesitate to use force to keep the Strait of Hormuz open and comes after increased cooperation between the Israeli military and the US army over the past few months.
As reported on April 15th, the US military recently brought its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) system to Israel where it was integrated in Israel's multi-layered missile defense systems such as the Arrow a mid-altitude missile interceptor during an unique drill with the IAF.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, furthermore, recently didn't rule out the possibility that the Administration would make use of the 2001 Congress Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Terrorists (AUMF) to start a war against Iran.
The law came into effect after Al-Qaeda carried out the largest terrorist attack in world history and destroyed the Twin Towers in New York city.
Pompeo, during a testimony on Capitol Hill, said "there is a connection between the Islamic Republic of Iran and al-Qaeda. Period, full stop."
Asked by Senator Rand Paul if the Administration contemplated use of the AUMF to start a war with Iran Pompeo ducked the question and responded he would "leave that to the lawyers."
Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei , meanwhile, this week decided to appoint Hossein Salami the hawkish deputy commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as the new head of the organization.
Pundits pointed out that "no Iranian commander has threatened the United States, Israel and Europe more than Salami."
Salami is a "absolutely obedient commander and a vocal advocate of aggressive military diplomacy and Iran's missile program," Iran expert Reza Haqiqatnezhad told Radio Farda.
Salami's appointment makes a military confrontation with the US more likely, experts think.
The appointment of Salami came after the Washington Free Beacon reported that Ali Nasiri, a former IRGC brigadier general who once headed Iran's counterintelligence operations had defected to the US.
Nasisi fled Iran with "a cache of secret documents said to contain information on Tehran's military plans" according to the news site.
The former IRGC commander requested political asylum at an US embassy in one of the Gulf States and his defection could constitute a major coup for US intelligence.
The EU Still Appeasing the Mullahs - by Majid Rafizadeh -
The European Union, in an unfathomable move, has been taking the side of the Iranian government, and turning its back on its old transatlantic partner, the United States, which recently announced plans to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), reportedly to take effect this week.
The Trump administration has taken a tougher stance towards Iran's dark and hegemonic ambitions. Meanwhile, despite Iran's destructive behavior, such as support for terror and militia groups across the region, the European Union has chosen to help the ruling mullahs of Iran, ostensibly to maintain the flimsy, illegal, never-signed, unratified "nuclear deal" -- but possibly even more as an embarrassingly transparent attempt, if the EU could be embarrassed, to navigate around US economic and political pressure and continue doing business with Iran's regime.
This loyalty to a tyranny has taken place has despite terror and assassination plots that Iran has brought to the EU since the establishment of the nuclear deal, such as several political assassination attempts committed in the EU by Iran's agents.
One evening in November 2017, as Ahmad Mola Nissi returned to his home in The Hague, an assassin gunned him down at his front door. The 52-year-old Dutch citizen of Iranian origin had been a critic of the Iranian government and prominent figure in the Arab Struggle Movement for the Liberation of Ahvaz. He had fought for the safety and liberation of others and was gunned down where he should have felt the safest.
The Dutch authorities publicly announced for the first time that it had "strong indications" the Iranian government had commissioned the murder.
Not only was Nissi targeted for his political beliefs, but, despite supposedly friendly dynamics between Iran and the EU, his murder was carried out on European soil.
His death is not an isolated case. Another of Tehran's political opponents, Mohammad Reza Kolahi Samadi, was killed in similar circumstances in Amsterdam in 2015. He had apparently been targeted for his opposition to the Iranian government the 1980s. Without any trial, without any valid proof, his life had been taken, again with complete disregard to the political alliance between the EU and Iran.
Tehran, in fact, has a long and distinguished track record of complete disregard for human rights (for example, here, here and here) and international law (here, here, here and here )
The evidence does not stop there. In fact, in recent years, a series of four assassination and terrorist plots across Europe, some successful and others not, have been traced back to Tehran. These include a foiled a terrorist attack in Paris in July of 2018 that targeted a large convention, attended by high-level speakers including former US House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, ex-New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and former Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird. In another case -- in which an Iranian diplomat and several other individuals of Iranian origin were arrested in France, Belgium and Germany -- French officials concluded that the Iranian regime was behind a foiled bomb plot.
Iran's latest acts of terror in Europe reveal that those leaders who are appeasing Tehran, despite its terrorist plots, are most likely damaging their nations' national security and leaving their countries more vulnerable to the Iranian government's violent behavior.
Ever since the nuclear deal, Iran's destructive actions in its own surrounding region have also increased, as has its funding and arming of known terrorist sects or militia groups. These include Hezbollah, the Houthis and Hamas. The militant groups' indiscriminate firing of rockets into other countries has made peace in the region impossible.
Iran's series of assassinations and attacks highlights that its government will resort to acts of terrorism to achieve its fundamentalist, extremist and revolutionary objectives, such as sponsoring and funding terrorist groups, as well as inciting anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.
The theocratic establishment of Iran -- the same Iran that the EU is aiding -- continues to be the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism.
The Iranian leaders are making a mockery of the EU, and benefiting from the chaos it sows throughout Europe, the Middle East and South America. If the EU does not change its position and continues its support of Iranian leaders and the nuclear deal, Tehran's aggressive policies in the Middle East will persist, and Tehran will keep on pursuing its subversive agenda of attacking Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States via Yemen, Israel through Syria and Lebanon, and the US via Venezuela.
While President Donald Trump may have his critics, his hard-line sanctions are the only kind of political message that Iran's leaders can understand. Coming into force last November, Trump's secondary sanctions have hit most of Iran's major industries, including oil, shipping and banking. Commercial relations with all blacklisted entities are prohibited. Anyone who trades with Iran can no longer trade with the US. This policy may seem harsh, but it is well-informed and ultimately can significantly damage the ruling clerics' ability to carry out their aggressive goals. This policy might also win the US back its leverage.
The more the EU appeases the ruling clerics of Iran, the more it will also empower them to continue carrying out terror and assassination plots on European soil. How long will the EU continue its misinformed, dangerous policy of kissing up to the mullahs? The EU instead, for its own security, would do better to suspend its business transactions with Iran for a while and commit itself instead to putting a stop to the Iranian government's unending rapacious behavior.
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