Nuclear Iran

[Jimbuna]

Yemen's Houthis claim attack on vital target in Israel's Haifa

CAIRO (Reuters) - Yemen's Houthis said on Tuesday that they, along with the Islamic resistance in Iraq, have conducted a joint military operation, attacking a vital target in Israel's Haifa.

The military operation has been carried out with "a number of winged missiles," Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a televised statement, without identifying the target that was attacked.

The Houthi group has been launching drone and missile strikes in shipping lanes since November, in what it says is in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.

The Iran-aligned Houthis first launched drone and missile strikes in shipping lanes in November. In dozens of attacks, they have sunk two vessels, seized another and killed at least three seafarers.
(Reporting by Muhammad Al Gebaly and Jaidaa Taha; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...46f93264&ei=15

[Jimbuna]

US strikes Houthi radar sites and vessels in Yemen

US Central Command cited imminent threats to US and coalition forces as justification for the attack.

US Central Command (CENTCOM) said on Wednesday its forces destroyed two Houthi radar sites in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen in the past 24 hours.

CENTCOM said the forces also destroyed two uncrewed surface vessels (USV) in the Red Sea.

"It was determined the radar sites and USVs presented imminent threats to US, coalition forces, and merchant vessels in the region," it added.

The Houthis have been targeting Israeli-linked cargo ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden in solidarity with the Gaza Strip, which has been under an Israeli onslaught since Oct. 7 last year.
https://tribune.com.pk/story/2476544...ssels-in-yemen

[Jimbuna]

The struggle for Iran's future may have just opened a new chapter

This was an upset, by Iranian standards, though all things are relative. Pezeshkian is a reformist and his election is a surprise.

Iran has successfully but brutally crushed a popular uprising and many had expected his hardline rival to prevail.

The presidency has control of foreign policy and some domestic matters so many expect a shift in Iran's diplomatic outlook now - perhaps a more conciliatory tone towards the West.

But any immediate race back to nuclear negotiations is unlikely and much depends on whether Trump returns to the White House.

Masoud Pezeshkian has promised a softening on the hijab or headscarf policy, but has expressed a willingness to bend to the will of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.

If there is change on that front, expect it to be incremental and not sudden.

Elections in Iran are not free or fair, the government strictly controls who can run. The fact Khamenei tolerated Pezeshkian's participation and victory hints at a sense of pragmatism from Iran's ultimate ruler.

Khamenei knew a miserably low turnout would be another nail in the already well-hammered coffin of his regime's legitimacy.

A slightly more "real" contest, especially in its second round, lifted numbers voting as people sensed a chance to return a reformist.

Khamenei also knows the demand for change may have been brutally crushed, but its strength of spirit remains. His government must adapt to that. A "reformist" president might ease some of the pressure.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...2aaebd01&ei=20

[Jimbuna]

Iranian naval destroyer 'capsizes and sinks' in port as several people treated in hospital

Several people have been injured after an Iranian naval frigate capsized and sunk while repairs were being carried out on it at a port, state media has said.

Pictures on social media showed the Sahand destroyer rolled over on its side.

The incident happened in the southern port of Bandar Abbas, near the Strait of Hormuz, after water got into the ship's tanks, said the IRNA news agency.

It said it was possible to rebalance the frigate as the incident happened at a low depth in the water.

State media also said several people were taken to hospital with minor injuries.

"As Sahand was being repaired at the wharf, it lost its balance due to water ingress. Fortunately... the vessel is being returned to balance quickly," IRNA reported, citing a navy statement.
Sahand, which was named after a mountain in northern Iran, took six years to build and was launched into the Persian Gulf in December 2018.

The 1,300-tonne vessel had surface-to-surface missiles and surface-to-air missiles, as well as anti-aircraft batteries and sophisticated radar and radar-evading capabilities.

There have been reports that since it was built, the ship had been upgraded to include a new radar, four to eight medium-range air-defence missiles and double the number of anti-ship missiles.

This may have raised her centre of gravity, it has been reported by navalnews.com.

It is not the first time an Iranian warship has sunk.

The same thing happened to Damavand in the Caspian Sea in January 2018 after it crashed into a breakwater - a permanent structure built to protect against tides, currents, waves, and storm surges.

In June 2021, another warship, the Kharg, sank after catching fire in the Gulf of Oman, Iranian media reported.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...7b93f3c4&ei=24

[Jimbuna]

Exclusive-Satellite photos show Iran expanding missile production, sources say

WASHINGTON/DUBAI (Reuters) - Recent satellite imagery shows major expansions at two key Iranian ballistic missile facilities that two American researchers assessed are for boosting missile production, a conclusion confirmed by three senior Iranian officials.

The enlargement of the sites follows an October 2022 deal in which Iran agreed to provide missiles to Russia, which has been seeking them for its war against Ukraine. Tehran also supplies missiles to Yemen's Houthi rebels and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, both members of the Iran-backed Axis of Resistance against Israel, according to U.S. officials.

Images taken by commercial satellite firm Planet Labs of the Modarres military base in March and the Khojir missile production complex in April show more than 30 new buildings at the two sites, both of which are located near Tehran.
The images, reviewed by Reuters, show many of the structures are surrounded by large dirt berms. Such earthworks are associated with missile production and are designed to stop a blast in one building from detonating highly combustible materials in nearby structures, said Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

The expansions began at Khojir in August last year and at Modarres in October, Lewis said, based on images of the sites.

Iran's arsenal is already the largest in the Middle East, estimated at more than 3,000 missiles, including models designed to carry conventional and nuclear warheads, experts say.

Three Iranian officials, who asked not to be identified because they were not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed that Modarres and Khojir are being expanded to boost production of conventional ballistic missiles.

"Why shouldn't we?" said one official.

A second Iranian official said some of the new buildings would also allow a doubling of drone manufacturing. Drones and missile components would be sold to Russia, drones would be provided to the Houthis and missiles to Hezbollah, the source added.

Reuters was unable independently to confirm the Iranian officials' comments.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...bd6f0a79&ei=53

[Jimbuna]

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has dismantled an armed group, says state TV

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard forces have dismantled armed bandits in the northwest of the country, state TV reported Tuesday.

The report said ground forces of the Revolutionary Guard, known as IRGC in West Azerbaijan province, dismantled a counter-revolutionary terrorist team that was planning to enter Iran from its northwestern borders.

Several members of the “terrorist” team were killed and wounded in the operation, and their equipment was confiscated by the Guard, said the state TV.

The Guard warned that any action against the security and territorial integrity of Iran would be met with a decisive and firm response, it added.

The TV report did not elaborate on the exact location of the operation.

The province has borders with two countries, Turkey and Iraq. The border with Turkey is 550 kilometers (341 miles) long.

The area has seen occasional fighting between Iranian forces and Kurdish separatists as well as militants linked to the extremist Islamic State group.

In 2022, Iran’s intelligence forces dismantled the biggest spy network affiliated with Israel that allegedly tried to hire thugs to carry out sabotage in the country.
https://apnews.com/article/iran-arme...b6be35b7d6806c

[Jimbuna]

Iran encourages Gaza war protests in US to stoke outrage and distrust, intelligence chief says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Iranian government is covertly encouraging American protests over Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza in a bid to stoke outrage ahead of the fall election, the nation’s top intelligence official said Tuesday.

Using social media platforms popular in the U.S., groups linked to Tehran have posed as online activists, encouraged protests and have provided financial support to some protest groups, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines said in a statement.

“Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts, seeking to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions,” Haines said.

This effort noted by the top U.S. intelligence official is the latest evidence that America’s adversaries are harnessing the internet to warp domestic debates and widen political divides ahead of the election.

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said it was important to warn Americans to help them “guard against efforts by foreign powers to take advantage of or coopt their legitimate protest activities.”

She also warned Iran that “meddling in our politics and seeking to stoke division is unacceptable.”
https://apnews.com/article/gaza-war-...332feda95b4e4f

[Jimbuna]

Oil tanker held by Iran for over a year heads toward international waters, tracking data shows

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An oil tanker held by Iran for over a year after being seized amid tensions between Tehran and the United States was sailing Thursday toward international waters, tracking data showed.

The Marshall Islands-flagged tanker Advantage Sweet traveled toward the Strait of Hormuz, where it was seized in April 2023 by Iran’s navy while carrying $50 million worth of oil from Kuwait for Chevron Corp. The strait is the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.

Tracking data analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Advantage Sweet had been unloaded while in Iranian custody and that the vessel listed as its destination Khor Fakkan in the United Arab Emirates, which has been the first port of call for other ships leaving Iranian detention.

Iran did not acknowledge the ship’s departure. It came after an Iranian court earlier on Thursday ordered the U.S. government to pay more than $6.7 billion in compensation over a Swedish company stopping its supply of special dressings and bandages for those afflicted by a rare skin disorder after Washington imposed sanctions on the Islamic Republic.

Iran’s government initially said it seized the Advantage Sweet because it hit another vessel, something not supported by any evidence. Then Iranian officials linked the Advantage Sweet’s seizure to the court case decided Thursday.

The developments follow the recent election of the reformist President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian, who has vowed to improve relations with the West.

A report by the state-run IRNA news agency described the $6.7 billion order as being filed on behalf of 300 plaintiffs, including family members of victims and those physically and emotionally damaged. IRNA said about 20 patients died after the Swedish company’s decision.

Epidermolysis bullosa is a rare genetic condition that causes blisters all over the body and eyes. It can be incredibly painful and kill those afflicted. The young who suffer from the disease are known as “butterfly children” as their skin can appear as fragile as a butterfly’s wing.

The order comes as U.S. judges have issued rulings that call for billions of dollars to be paid by Iran over attacks linked to Tehran, as well as those detained by Iran and used as pawns in negotiations between the countries — something Iran has responded to with competing lawsuits accusing the U.S. of involvement in a 2017 Islamic State group attack.

The United Nations’ highest court also last year rejected Tehran’s legal bid to free up some $2 billion in Iranian Central Bank assets, frozen by U.S. authorities.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S. from Iran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, apparently sparking the Swedish company to withdraw from the Iranian market. Iran now says it locally produces the bandages.

Chevron, based in San Ramon, California, has maintained that the Advantage Sweet was “seized under false pretenses.” It since has written off the cargo as a loss.

The withdrawal from the deal effectively ended an accord in which Tehran drastically limited its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. It also sparked years of attacks and tensions on land and at sea.

The U.S. Navy has blamed Iran for a series of limpet mine attacks on vessels that damaged tankers in 2019, as well as for a fatal drone attack on an Israeli-linked oil tanker that killed two European crew members in 2021.

Tehran denies carrying out the attacks, but a wider shadow war between Iran and the West has played out in the region’s volatile waters. Iranian tanker seizures have been a part of it since 2019. The last major seizure came when Iran took two Greek tankers in May 2022 and held them until November of that year.

Since then, the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels of Yemen have launched a series of attacks targeting vessels in the Red Sea corridor over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. A new report from the U.S. military says the Houthis likely fired an Iranian-made anti-ship cruise missile at a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea in December, an assault that now provides a public, evidence-based link between the ongoing rebel campaign against shipping and Tehran.
https://apnews.com/article/iran-us-b...2d00d0ec327e48

[Jimbuna]

Hamas says Gaza cease-fire talks haven't paused and claims military chief survived Israeli strike

MUWASI, Gaza Strip (AP) — Hamas said Sunday that Gaza cease-fire talks were ongoing and the group’s military commander was in good health, a day after the Israeli military targeted Mohammed Deif with a massive airstrike that local health officials said killed at least 90 people, including children.

Deif’s condition was still unclear after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Saturday night “there still isn’t absolute certainty” he was killed. Army chief Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi told journalists Israel attacked a compound where Deif “was hiding” but added: “It’s still too early to summarize the results of the attack, which Hamas is trying to hide.”

Hamas representatives gave no evidence to back up their assertion about the health of a chief architect of the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war. His killing would mark the highest profile assassination of any Hamas leader by Israel since the war began.

Deif has long topped Israel’s most-wanted list and has been in hiding for years.

The Israeli military said Rafa Salama, a Hamas commander it described as one of Deif's closest associates, was killed in Saturday's strike. Salama commanded Hamas' Khan Younis brigade. Netanyahu said all of Hamas’ leaders are “marked for death” and asserted that killing them would move Hamas closer to accepting a cease-fire deal.

Hamas rejected the idea that mediated cease-fire discussions had been suspended. Spokesperson Jihad Taha said “there is no doubt that the horrific massacres will impact any efforts in the negotiations” but added that “efforts and endeavors of the mediators remain ongoing.”

Hamas political officials also insisted that communication channels remained functional between the leadership inside and outside Gaza after the strike in the territory's south. Witnesses said it occurred in an area that Israel had designated as safe for hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians. Israel’s military would not confirm that.

On Sunday, some survivors were angry that the attack targeting Deif occurred without warning in an area they were told was safe.

“I heard the first hit, and my son came screaming, 'Daddy, daddy,' and took cover with me," said Mahmoud Abu Yaseen, who clutched his children but then woke up in the hospital to find his son had died. The family had already been displaced five times since the war began. “Where do we go?” he asked.

A United Nations official described utter chaos at Nasser hospital where victims were taken, many treated on bloodstained floors with few supplies available.

“I witnessed some of the most horrific scenes I have seen in my nine months in Gaza,” Scott Anderson said in a statement. “I saw toddlers who are double amputees, children paralyzed and unable to receive treatment and others separated from their parents.” He said restrictions on humanitarian aid to Gaza hamper efforts to provide needed medical and other care.

On Sunday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant praised the pilots who carried out the strike and said Hamas is being eroded every day, with no ability to arm itself, organize or “care for the wounded.”

At least 300 people were wounded in the strike, one of the deadliest in the nine-month war sparked by Hamas’ Oct. 7 assault on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took more than 200 hostage.

More than 38,400 people in Gaza have been killed in Israeli ground offensives and bombardments since then, according to the territory’s Health Ministry. The ministry does not distinguish between combatants and civilians in its count.

On Sunday, an Israeli strike in Nuseirat in central Gaza killed at least 14 people at the gate of a school used as a shelter for displaced people, according to an Associated Press journalist who visited two hospitals. Children were among the 15 others wounded. Israel's military in a statement said it struck “terrorists” operating in the area of a school run by the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees.

“They are targeting everything,” said a displaced Palestinian, Um Fadi Al-Zeer.

Also on Sunday, police said a Palestinian resident of east Jerusalem carried out a car-ramming attack in central Israel that injured four Israelis, two of them seriously. Israeli border police at the scene shot the attacker dead after he hit people waiting at two bus stops along a busy road. Israel's military said four of its personnel were wounded, two of them severely.

Israeli police commissioner Kobi Shabtai said such attacks were often triggered by events like Saturday’s airstrike in Gaza.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/hamas-says...1JGd5s_ktP4ZSY

[Jimbuna]

Iran rejects US reports on alleged plan to assassinate Trump

Iran has rejected reports over an alleged plan to assassinate former US president Donald Trump, who was injured in an attempt on his life at a campaign rally last weekend.

US broadcasters CNN and NBC, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, reported the US Secret Service ramped up security for Trump in recent weeks after receiving information on a potential Iranian plot to kill him.

A spokesman for Iran's UN mission rejected the reports as "baseless and politically motivated."

For Iran, Trump is a "criminal" who gave the order to kill Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in 2020, the spokesman was quoted as saying by Iranian news agency Mehr on Wednesday.

"Trump must be condemned and punished for this, but Iran has chosen the legal path in this regard," he added.
Soleimani, who had led the elite Quds Force of Iran's powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), was killed in a US drone strike in Iraq in 2020, while Trump was president.

According to the reports, there is no evidence that the alleged Iranian plot is connected to Saturday's shooting at a Trump campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Trump, who is vying for a second presidential term, survived the attack with injuries to his ear, but one person in the crowd was killed.

The US Secret Service declined to comment on the reports, with a spokesman saying the agency constantly receives new information about threats and reacts to them.
https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world...16f70f80&ei=11

[Jimbuna]

Tel Aviv hit by drone attack claimed by Iranian-backed Houthis

TEL AVIV, July 19 (Reuters) - A long-range Iranian-made drone hit the centre of Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday in an attack claimed by the Yemen-based Houthi militia that killed one man and wounded four others, the Israeli military and emergency services said.
The explosion, which footage shared on social media suggested came from the sea and did not trigger air raid alarms, occurred hours after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.

Chief spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said the military assessed that the drone, which hit a building near the beachfront close to U.S. Embassy premises in Tel Aviv, was an upgraded Iranian-made Samad-3 model.
"Our estimation is that it arrived from Yemen to Tel Aviv," he told a press briefing.
A spokesman for the Houthis, which like Hezbollah are aligned with Iran, said the group had attacked Tel Aviv with a drone and would continue to target Israel in solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza war.

The attack, which took place ahead of a visit to Washington by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu next week, is likely to fan fears about further fallout from the Gaza war as the Houthis and other Iranian proxies side with the Palestinian militant group Hamas.
Defence Minister Yoav Gallant met military commanders to review air defences and said the country had to be ready for all scenarios. "We must be prepared for defensive and offensive actions," he said, according to a statement from his office.

An Israeli official said the military was still investigating why the drone did not trigger the alarm, but initial reports suggested the aircraft was identified but the sirens were not sounded due to human error.
"We're talking about a large UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) that can fly large distances," the military official told journalists after the strike.

The military said air patrols had been increased to protect Israeli airspace but said it had not ordered new civil defence measures. The mayor of Tel Aviv said the city, Israel's economic centre, had been moved to a state of heightened alert.
In the hours following Friday's attack, sirens sounded repeatedly in areas close to the border with Lebanon and Israeli air defences intercepted at least one aerial target that crossed into Israel.

"OPERATION ACHIEVED ITS GOALS"
Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree called Tel Aviv a primary target "within the range of our weapons".
He said the strike was carried out using a new drone called "Yafa", which he said was capable of bypassing interception systems and undetectable by radars.
"The operation has achieved its goals successfully," Saree said in a televised speech.
Israel's emergency services said the body of a 50 year-old man was found in an apartment close to the explosion and four people were taken to hospital with slight shrapnel injuries. Four others were treated for shock. All of them were later released, health services said.
Israel has been exchanging daily missile and artillery fire with Hezbollah along its northern border and in southern Lebanon since the start of the war in Gaza, prompting fears of a wider regional conflict if the situation escalates.
The Houthis have also stepped up attacks against Israel and Western targets, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians, after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip following last year's attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel.
Hamas-led fighters stormed Israeli towns on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages back to Gaza, according to Israeli tallies. Since then, nearly 39,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel's assault on the Gaza Strip, according to health authorities in the enclave.
https://www.reuters.com/world/middle...ne-2024-07-19/

[Jimbuna]

Major warning as Iran 'just days away' from becoming nuclear weapon threat

The US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal in 2018, three years after the agreement aimed at enforcing restrictions on Tehran's critical nuclear facilities was struck.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has warned "we are not in a good place" as Iran is feared to now have the ability to produce enough weapons-grade material for a nuclear weapon within two weeks.

This timespan is normally referred to as "breakout time" and is the shortest ever noticed by US officials.

In recent months, Iran has taken bold steps to boost its production of fissile material as tensions between the West and the so-called new "axis of power" - including North Korea, China and Russia alongside Tehran - continue to grow.

Mr Blinken said on Friday, as he appeared at the Aspen Security Forum: "Where we are now is not in a good place.

"Iran, because the nuclear agreement was thrown out, instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, is now probably one or two weeks away from doing that.

"They haven’t produced a weapon itself, but that’s something of course that we track very, very carefully."

US national security adviser Jake Sullivan, also at Aspen, said he has "not seen a decision by Iran to move" in the direction of building a nuclear bomb yet.

Also speaking in Aspen, Mr Sullivan said: "If they start moving down that road, they'll find a real problem with the United States."

The official added that since April, when Tehran launched its first direct attack on Israeli soil, the US noticed "an uptick of public commentary from Iranian officials musing about that possibility", which "got our attention".

Last year, a top US Defense Department official said Iran could produce "one bomb's worth of fissile material" in "about 12 days".

In his warning, Mr Blinken was referring to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action - commonly known as the Iran Nuclear Deal - from which the Donald Trump administration pulled out in 2018.

Three years prior, the deal had been struck between Tehran and Washington as well as China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and Germany.

The deal placed significant restrictions on Iran’s nuclear programme in exchange for sanctions relief, and the Biden administration has engaged in talks with Iran over the past several months in a bid to revive it, but the two sides haven't yet found a common ground on their demands.

Iran has repeatedly claimed its nuclear programme is for civilian purposes.
https://www.express.co.uk/news/world...antony-blinken

[mapuc]

If it's true in which Iran is only a fortnight from developing their first atomic bomb. I wonder when Israel and/or USA is going to strike Irans atomic areas.

Or are they going to do absolutely nothing ?

Markus

[Jimbuna]

Too late for that now. Besides it was reported over a year ago (iirc) that the Iranians had reinforced their nuclear facilities.

[Reece]

Wonder if those reinforcements would hold back a nuclear blast? I reckon it's worth a try!