02/03 Links Pt1: Joe Biden needs to understand that the Middle East has changed; Biden’s New Asst Sec of State Worked for Islamic Terror State That Funds Hamas

From Ian:

Joe Biden needs to understand that the Middle East has changed

It is very apparent that America will not stand against its interests in the Gulf in order to favour Iran. However, what America is required to know, is that if the Gulf states are forced to make a firm decision, they will do so. As they did during the presidency of Obama. During March 2011 the GCC responded to the request from Bahrain by sending its Peninsula Shield Force to assist the Bahraini government in defeating Iranian backed riots in the country (which were supported and backed by Obama’s administration).

Times like these cannot be forgotten, as countries like the Emirates and Bahrain have a strong and resolute ally, which is the State of Israel. Over the years, this ally has not changed its position and has continued to refuse any negotiations with the Iranian regime. However, the USA has and will continue to change its positions and allies with every change of presidency.

What needs to be made clear to Biden, is that the Arab world view and can compare the Iranian regime to the Nazis, however, the only difference is that Iran located within the Middle East. The Iranians have continuously proven to be fascist and racist towards all kinds of Arabs. Since the 1970s, the Iranians have occupied three of UAE’s islands. Iran has murdered millions of Arabs by inflicting and supporting multiple wars such as the ones located within Iraq, Syria, and Yemen and they’ve supported every terrorist attack in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.

The citizens as well as the governors of GCC people know that Israel were not responsible for blast explosions near the Kaaba, and they did not target Makkah with its missiles. Israel did not manufacture militias that kill the people of Iraq and Yemen, nor did they swing pictures of Netanyahu in southern Lebanon, or occupy Syria, Ahwaz, and the Emirates Islands. Israel did not kill 4,000,000 people and make 7,000,000 migrate. Rather, Iran is responsible for all of the aforementioned situations and Iran continues to prove that they are the enemy of humanity as well the enemy of the Arab nations.

Now is the time that we should unite together in order to thrive together and to stand together as one against one enemy. Regardless of Biden’s suggestion to take a step back to square one by re-joining the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, we need to live in peace and prosperity and coexistence and have a mutual culture and religious understanding.

MEMRI: A New Alliance Rising In The East – Turkey, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, China – And Its Enemies – The U.S. and India

The year 2021 marks the emergence of a new Eastern alliance. MEMRI has been the first to richly document its rise, illustrated by a wide variety of media content.[1] Brought into sharp relief by the bloody November 2020 war between Azerbaijan and the Armenians of Artsakh, the alliance between three authoritarian regimes – in Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan – seems to have acquired a surprising silent partner in the People's Republic of China. This is surprising because the first three countries are Muslim states, which are not shy about using religion as a tool of statecraft, but not so surprising because this alliance is as much about mutual cooperation as it is directed against a disparate group of potential adversaries large and small – India, Armenia, and the United States.[2] Some might add Russia and Iran to this list, but both countries are as often collaborators as they are rivals of their authoritarian neighbors.

The connections are not new. Religious, political, and emotional ties between the Muslims of then-British India and Turkey date to the end of the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th century. Both Turkey and Pakistan (along with Pahlevi Iran and Hashemite Iraq!) were members of the ill-fated U.S./U.K.-supported Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) in the late 1950s. Pakistan reportedly facilitated the sending of 1,500 Afghan fighters belonging to Gulbuddin Hekmatyar's faction to fight against Nagorno-Karabakh Armenians in 1993. But it is with the rise of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as Turkey's president and the failed 2016 coup against him that these trilateral ties have blossomed. The first trilateral summit between Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan was held in 2017, while the second just concluded last month in Islamabad.[3] Islamabad has supported Turkey on Northern Cyprus and Azerbaijan on Nagorno-Karabakh, while those countries have reciprocated in supporting Pakistan on Kashmir.

Turkey's ties now make it Pakistan's second-largest arms supplier, after Islamabad's longtime patron China.[4] Pakistan has been helpful to Turkey in the defense field as well, especially in pilots after the Turkish purge of its air force after the failed 2016 coup. Of greater concern is the specter of Turkish-Pakistani nuclear cooperation.[5] Some observers were startled by Pakistan's recent reminder that it is not bound by the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (no nuclear power is a signatory).[6] But perhaps more significant was the latest (the 15th) session of the Turkey-Pakistan High Level Military Dialogue Group (HLMDG) and the fact that Turkish engineering students are the second-largest group by nationality studying nuclear science in Russia (Russia is building four nuclear power plants for Turkey).[7]

While China has been an ally of Pakistan for decades, there was a time when the Islamist Erdoğan was an open critic of China and its treatment of Uyghur Muslims. Those years are long gone.[8] Since then, the Turkish leadership has been able to appease China, even on the Turkic Uyghur issue, where Turkey hosts a significant exile community of Uyghurs. China and Turkey are now linked by rail, bypassing a jealous Russia, with Turkey becoming an enthusiastic partner of China's Eurasian ambitions.[9] In December 2020, the first transport train from Turkey to China (through Azerbaijan) carried household appliances from Istanbul to Xian in just two weeks, having covered 5,402 miles, two continents, two seas, and five countries.[10]

Seth J. Frantzman: America Gets Middle East 'Withdrawal Fever' Again

To underpin the new bout of fatigue in dealing with the Middle East a group of experts have been publishing articles that they hope will be required reading in the new administration.

Robert Ford, former ambassador to Syria, argued recently that the U.S. had failed in eastern Syria and that it could rely on Turkey and Russia in Syria. Turkey's authoritarian regime, which is buying Russia's S-400 system and working with Iran, likes this idea. Russia surely likes it. The argument is that the U.S. isn't good at "nation-building." This is a false reading of the successful U.S. role in Syria.

Washington never tried "nation-building" in eastern Syria. The U.S. actually did very little there but its partners in the Syrian Democratic Forces accomplished a lot. It seems a bit strange the U.S. help would rid eastern Syria of ISIS and then just turn the area over to adversaries or countries like Turkey which have proven that their role in Syria is to ethnically cleanse minorities, the same minorities like the Kurds the U.S. was working with.

The strange thing about the constant argument that the Middle East is a "quagmire" and the U.S. "failed" and should "leave" is not how other countries view the region.

Russia doesn't view the region as a quagmire. It is building influence in Syria and Libya, as well as offering weapons for sale across the region. Turkey is working with Iran, Russia and China to do trade. Iran wants to do more business with China and Russia and is increasing influence in Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon. China is moving into the region also.

None of these countries appear worried about open-ended commitments or state-building or forever wars. They want influence and to increase trade and military sales and support for proxy groups or governments. Only the U.S. appears to get a fever every four years about its role in the Middle East. It would be good to take a short rest, and disabuse ourselves that another haphazard withdrawal is helpful.

The region is not a quagmire and the U.S. should play a role supporting allies and friends in the Middle East.

Biden’s New Asst Sec of State Worked for Islamic Terror State That Funds Hamas

“I was inspired by the Palestinian intifada,” Hady Amr wrote a year after September 11, discussing his work as the national coordinator of the anti-Israel Middle East Justice Network. Biden has now chosen Amr as a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israel-Palestine. "I have news for every Israeli," Amr ranted in one column written after Sheikh Salah Shahada, the head of Hamas' Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, was taken out by an Israeli air strike. Amr warned that Arabs "now have televisions, and they will never, never forget what the Israeli people, the Israeli military and Israeli democracy have done to Palestinian children. And there will be thousands who will seek to avenge these brutal murders of innocents." He also threatened Americans that "we too shouldn't be shocked when our military assistance to Israel and our security council vetoes that keep on protecting Israel come back to haunt us" The future State Department official was making these threats less than a year after 9/11. Hady Amr had accused Israel of “ethnic cleansing” and coordinated an organization that had accused Israel of “apartheid” making his appointment, like that of Maher Bitar, an anti-Israel activist appointed as the Senior Director for Intelligence on the NSC, a statement about the Biden administration’s hostile relationship to the Jewish State.

Peace Now and J Street applaud Biden's appointment of Hady Amr to Israel-Palestinian desk officer at the State Department. I wonder if they did so despite or because of his support Hamas and Islamic Jihad and his justification of suicide bombings.https://t.co/P6fCIVxoJ1

— Caroline Glick (@CarolineGlick) February 3, 2021

President Biden: Assure Decency Toward Israel When Reengaging With Institutions

President Joe Biden takes pride in the fact that he is a decent person. His warning to the newly appointed in his administration that that he will fire “on the spot” any official, however senior, for disrespectful behavior toward either their colleagues or their juniors won him justifiable praise. Receiving even more attention are Biden’s repeated statements that he will undo former President Donald Trump’s legacy and reengage with international institutions. On this point, Biden’s word appears indeed to be his bond: the newly installed president announced that the US will rejoin the World Health Organization, which the US under Trump left on the grounds that it had kowtowed to Beijing by delaying warning the world of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China. Hopefully, the new administration will wed these two fundamentals — decency and a renewed commitment to international institutions — together to counter the great indecency (if not outright discrimination) many international institutions and the member states operating within them display toward the State of Israel. Implementing an integrated policy that conjoins these elements can begin at the UN, the cornerstone of the international institutional architecture supported by successive US administrations. There is nothing decent about the fact that over 60% of UN General Assembly resolutions condemning the behavior of states are addressed toward Israel. There are too many gross violations of human rights to count in Darfur, the Central African Republic, Iran, North Korea, Russia, China, and almost everywhere else in the majority of states that are not liberal democracies. Often, the initiators of the resolutions condemning Israel are themselves some of the world’s worst human rights offenders. But the General Assembly is only the tip of the iceberg of indecency at the UN.

Tell that to the Arab world. https://t.co/DQ26ojzze6

— Noam Blum (@neontaster) February 3, 2021

Biden administration vows to champion IHRA definition of anti-Semitism

The administration of US President Joe Biden "embraces and champions" the definition of anti-Semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, a State Department official said Monday. The message came from US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Kara McDonald, who was speaking at an OSCE meeting. "As prior US Administrations of both political stripes have done, the Biden Administration embraces and champions the working definition," she said at the Expert Meeting on Combating anti-Semitism in the OSCE Region. "We applaud the growing number of countries and international bodies that apply it," she added, urging more nations to embrace the IHRA definition. "Anti-Semitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews," the IHRA working definition asserts, going on to list a number of possible examples of the phenomenon. These include Holocaust denialism, "claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor" and criticizing it through the lens of double standards.

Arriving in Morocco, Israeli envoy makes expanding ties his mission

On December 10, then-White House adviser Jared Kushner told reporters that Morocco had agreed to establish “full diplomatic ties” with Israel. In fact, as Morocco’s King Mohammed VI made clear soon after, Rabat had agreed to re-establish a liason office with an eye toward expanding ties in the future. Nearly two months later, Israel’s man in Rabat says he’s laying the groundwork for that anticipated deepening of government and civil ties, though the Moroccans appear to prefer taking the rekindled relationship slow. “We are trying to expand our bilateral ties with the Moroccans in many different fields,” envoy David Govrin told The Times of Israel this week. “The potential is very high.” Govrin is currently the head of Israel’s liaison office in Rabat, and is likely to become Israel’s ambassador should full diplomatic ties be established. In a December 2020 statement reestablishing ties, the countries agreed to immediately reopen liaison offices, while working to “resume official bilateral ties and diplomatic relations as soon as possible.” “Israel would like to establish our full diplomatic relationship as soon as we can,” Govrin said, but the Moroccan government prefers a gradual process.

I signed the #PeoplesAbrahamAccords because I believe in the promise of a better tomorrow, one of hope, peace and real friendship between the people of #Israel and the #Arab world.

Sign here 🖋️ and join this inspiring campaign led by @StandWithUs: https://t.co/1jqr312YLp pic.twitter.com/Ce6wtPIeVt

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 2, 2021

High Court approves demolition of Esther Horgen killer's home

The High Court of Justice on Wednesday approved the demolition of the home of the Palestinian terrorist who killed Esther Horgen on December 20. In a split 2-1 decision, the High Court voted to demolish both the second and third floors of the building where Mohammad Maroh Kabaha and his family have lived, as requested by the IDF. Justice Anat Baron dissented from the decision, saying that only the third floor should have been demolished since Kabaha lived there separately from his family, who lived on the second floor and were unaware of his murderous plans. However, Justice Yitzhak Amit and Justice Daphne Barak-Erez ruled that whether a family is aware of their family member’s criminal intent is only one factor in deciding how much of a building to demolish, in connection with a nationalist murder committed as an act of terrorism. They said that the High Court should generally not question the IDF’s discretion about what deterrence message is needed in a given case to help prevent future terrorism. In contrast, the petitioners in this case and global critics have said that Israel is isolated among current democracies in carrying out house demolitions against international law. Israel argues that there is a basis for house demolitions in international law if the purpose is preventative and not punitive.

Shin Bet: Israelis sold airsoft rifles, easily made into real ones, to West Bank

Three Israelis were charged on Wednesday with smuggling air-powered rifles into the West Bank, where they were converted into lethal weapons, the Shin Bet security service said. The Shin Bet and Israel Police also arrested three Palestinian residents of Hebron, in the West Bank, in the operation, the Shin Bet said. Israel’s Southern District state prosecutor filed “severe indictments” against all suspects in the case on Wednesday in a Southern District Court, the Shin Bet said, without specifying the charges. Airsoft guns are toy firearms that fire spherical rounds, typically made of plastic, at a low velocity. They are often replicas of actual guns and are used for recreational purposes. They are, for the most part, not dangerous if used with eye protection. Airsoft guns are available for purchase in Israeli stores for as little as NIS 300 ($90). A small industry has sprung up in Israel and the West Bank that specializes in converting these toys into lethal weapons by changing the barrel and the internal mechanism to allow it to hold live rounds. These “converted weapons” are less powerful than proper firearms, and also far, far cheaper, but they can easily still harm and even kill people, according to the Shin Bet.

Seth Frantzman: Israel’s Skylock pioneers defending against drones

Drones increasingly pose a threat to countries, including critical infrastructure such as energy facilities or airports. They have also been used to target political leaders and conduct surveillance, sometimes by criminal organizations or terrorists. To counter these threats, Israeli companies have been pioneering various technologies to detect and stop drones. Skylock, a leader in the design of anti-drone technology and a part of Avnon Group, is one of the Israeli companies that have new technology to stop the rise of complex drone threats. The company began several years ago to predict a rising drone threat. “We anticipated that in a few years we would see the drone threat increasing,” Asaf Lebovitz, Skylock’s vice president of sales, told The Jerusalem Post. These threats exist in all spheres now, but they are increasingly impacting civilian areas. This also includes terrorist groups such as the Houthi rebels in Yemen, who are increasingly using drones. Hamas and Hezbollah also use drones, and ISIS uses them as well. Technology is needed not just to stop one quadcopter from flying into an airport’s area, but to stop a kind of “drone swarm,” or multiple drones. Having 100 drones swarm in for an attack is a situation that Skylock thinks could materialize in coming years.

IDF: Anti-aircraft missiles fired at Israeli drone from south Lebanon

Surface-to-air missiles were fired at an Israeli drone over southern Lebanon on Wednesday afternoon in a major escalation of conflict, amid lingering tensions along the border, the military said. “Anti-aircraft missiles were just fired toward an IDF remote-piloted aerial vehicle during routine activity over Lebanese territory,” the military said in a statement. According to the IDF, the aircraft was not damaged in the attack and continued on its mission as planned. A Hezbollah-affiliated journalist, Ali Choeib, indicated that the terror group was behind the attack, which was part of a new policy by Hezbollah of trying to repel all Israeli incursions into Lebanese airspace. “What is certain is that [Hezbollah’s] decision to try to prevent the enemy from continuing to violate its airspace has been made permanent,” Choeib, who works for multiple outlets linked to the terror group, wrote in a tweet. The missiles fired at the UAV represented a significant increase in the level of violence along the border. Unlike in a case on Monday in which a small, off-the-shelf IDF drone was allegedly downed by Hezbollah as it performed a reconnaissance mission along the Lebanese border, the drone that was fired upon on Wednesday was a much larger and more advanced military model. In the incident on Monday, the small quadcopter drone was allegedly brought down with small arms fire, whereas on Wednesday surface-to-air missiles were used.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: No to Normalization with the 'Zionist entity'

The anti-normalization campaign, which is also waged by Palestinians, means that any Palestinian leader or negotiator who is seen sitting with an Israeli will be condemned by Palestinians and possibly other Arabs as a traitor.... and accused of committing treason. The last thing any Palestinian officials wants is to be labeled a traitor because, in the world of Fatah and Hamas, that crime is punishable by death. If... Abbas wants to avoid such a fate, he must do an about-face and put an end to the anti-Israel incitement that is coming, first and foremost, from his very own loyalists.

In shot at Trump, Biden official says cutting aid to Palestinians ineffective

A US State Department spokesman said Tuesday that the previous administration’s slashing of aid to the Palestinians had failed to produce results and reiterated the new American leadership’s intention to restore such financial assistance. “The suspension of aid to the Palestinian people has neither produced political progress, nor secured concessions from the Palestinian leadership. It has only harmed innocent Palestinians,” Ned Price said at a press briefing. “The US will reinvigorate our humanitarian leadership and work to galvanize the international community to meet its humanitarian obligations, including to the Palestinian people. This is something we’re working on very quickly to restore and announced,” Price added. Before the Trump administration began tightening the screws on the PA in 2018 for refusing to engage with its peace efforts, the United States was the single largest donor country to the Palestinian Authority. The US paid hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the PA’s creditors, such as the Israeli state utility companies from which the Palestinians purchase water and electricity. They paid for training for the PA’s security forces and numerous infrastructure projects.

The 4 Arab states that normalized with Israel committed “treason” – top PA official

Fatah Central Committee Secretary Jibril Rajoub: “There are four [Arab] states that have normalized their relations with Israel. Some of them have [demonstrated] a lot of unprecedented treason, lowliness, and contemptibleness… They want to play sports and the like as if it were nothing. This did not happen, for example, with a state like Jordan or Egypt, because there is a sea of blood there, but there is also affiliation there with the Arabs’ central cause, which is the cause of Palestine.” [Official PA TV, Jan. 2, 2021] Jibril Rajoub also serves as Head of the PLO Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Chairman of the Palestinian Football Association, Chairman of the Palestine Olympic Committee, and Chairman of the Palestinian Scout Association (PSA). PA instructs banks not to close terrorist prisoners’ accounts PA instructs banks not to close terrorist prisoners’ accounts, works to incorporate released terrorists into PA institutions Director of PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs Qadri Abu Bakr: “We’ll talk with the banks and take a position against closing any existing account… Starting from Jan. 1, [2021], we paid [salaries] two months in advance, so that there would be time to find a mechanism to pay the prisoners and released prisoners. The prisoners also raised the topic of being absorbed [into the PA institutions]… There are forms. Not everyone filled them out, but we want to start with the forms that are ready. The prime minister promised that in a few days there will be a decision on the matter... It was emphasized that the prisoners’ cause – both those inside prison and those outside – is a sacred cause that must not be harmed…

Red Cross spokesman on visits to Palestinians in Israeli prisons

We report “if something contradicts international humanitarian law” [Official PA TV News, Jan. 15, 2021] Red Cross Spokesman in the West Bank and Jerusalem Yahya Maswadeh: I want to emphasize that the visits of the International Committee [of the Red Cross] representatives to the prisons still continue [during the Coronavirus pandemic]… … Official PA TV newsreader: You mentioned that… the provision of the necessary services are a right for everyone who is behind bars and for the prisoners. In the occupation’s prisons [they] neglect providing all these services to the Palestinian prisoners. What is the Red Cross’ role in exerting the necessary pressures on the occupation authorities and the Israeli Prison Service to provide all that the prisoners need?… Yahya Maswadeh: We are conducting activities and regular visits. Almost every week we have visits to monitor the situation inside the prisons. If we notice anything, the picture is conveyed in full and forcefully to the detaining authorities in order to change these matters. - That is if we find something that contradicts or goes against international humanitarian law inside these prisons.”

Hamas urges Abbas to lift Gaza sanctions to facilitate elections

Hamas’s participation in the upcoming Palestinian general elections is contingent on the outcome of a meeting of Palestinian factions in Egypt next week, Hamas political bureau member Khalil al-Hayya said on Wednesday. Speaking to reporters in the Gaza Strip, Hayya said that Hamas has still not decided regarding its participation in the elections. The leaders of several Palestinian factions are expected to launch a “national dialogue” in Cairo on February 8 in a bid to reach agreement on the general elections. Hayya was referring to the elections for the Palestinian parliament, Palestinian Legislative Council and the Palestinian National Council, the PLO’s legislative body. The parliamentary election is scheduled to take place on May 22, while the election for the Palestinian National Council has been set for the end of August. The presidential election is scheduled to take place on July 31. Hamas is unlikely to participate in the presidential election.

Perhaps if @UNRWA did not keep the Palestinians in perpetual state of refugeeism and actually sought to elevate them out of the camps and find proper solution, instead on flaming the conflict, this would not be the case? https://t.co/k7iZsEEdqx

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 3, 2021

Fmr. Lebanese FM Farès Bouez: Biden’s Team Dominated by Jews; Benjamin Franklin Warned Americans that the Jews would Eat Their Children @fares_bouez #Lebanon #Antisemitism pic.twitter.com/QE4RN9dkyA

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 3, 2021

Hizbullah’s Nightingale Ali Barakat: I Wish the Day Will Come When Nasrallah Allows Me to Blow Myself Up #Lebanon #Hizbullah #Terrorism pic.twitter.com/beg2XXuWMp

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 3, 2021

President Biden, Listen to Iranian Pro-Democracy Dissidents

Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to unify the country. For unity to be real and not a mere facade, Biden needs to show openness to the principles and priorities of those who did not vote for him. This is as true on foreign policy as on the domestic front, and when it comes to national security, the threat of Iran is more fraught with bad-faith partisanship than any other issue. To put the national interest first, Biden should craft a new approach to Iran that has as its defining strength bipartisan consensus. By turning what has become a political football between America's two parties into a coherent, consistent approach to Tehran, Biden can show the Islamic Republic and other brutal anti-American regimes that the American political establishment speaks with one voice. He can show tyrants and terrorists that they cannot play one American political party off the other, sow discord and distrust among our intelligence and national security communities and divide American society to their benefit. The administration is inheriting tremendous leverage on Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's regime from the Trump administration's maximum pressure campaign. Using this leverage wisely and patiently can help forge new engagement with Tehran that achieves far more than the JCPOA did. The regime is the weakest and most desperate it has been since the 1979 revolution. For the Iranian people and for the entire Middle East, the gruesome reality of Tehran's wars, terror, repression, ineptitude and corruption is more evident than ever. This awareness has forged the new Abraham Accords between Arab countries and Israel. It is the reason for the deep resentment and repeated protests against Khamenei's cabal in more than 200 Iranian cities and across Tehran's imperial dominion, from Kabul to Beirut. It drives the fury against the so-called Iranian moderates who massacred over 1,500 peaceful protestors in November 2019 and drove the annihilation of Syria, with hundreds of thousands killed and many millions displaced, not to mention the countless other innocents killed and terrorized throughout the region and hundreds of American soldiers killed.

Says @JZarif, after #Iran literally funnels billions of dollars worth of weapons to Hamas, Hezbollah and Assad! https://t.co/v8fsNEY4Xf

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 2, 2021

Sullivan, Blinken and Malley Seek to Establish New Parameters For ‘Escalating Nuclear Crisis’

Jake Sullivan, President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, suggested an expedited timeline for rejoining the Iranian nuclear deal, which the Trump administration exited in May 2018. The comments come as the Biden administration announced its decision to select veteran diplomat Robert Malley as its special envoy on Iran talks. In remarks to the US Institute of Peace on Jan. 29, Sullivan said that it was key for the United States to put the nuclear program “in a box” as the first order of business. “We are going to have to address Iran’s other bad behavior, malign behavior, across the region, but from our perspective, a critical early priority has to be to deal with what is an escalating nuclear crisis as they move closer and closer to having enough fissile material for a weapon,” said Sullivan, according to The Washington Post. “And we would like to make sure that we re-establish some of the parameters and constraints around the program that have fallen away over the course of the past two years.” In recent weeks, Iran has begun to accelerate its nuclear program. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said last week that Tehran will not reverse the acceleration of its nuclear program until the United States lifts sanctions against the country. Iran recently announced that it had begun enriching uranium to 20 percent, in violation of the nuclear accord. The comments by Sullivan may indicate a disagreement among Biden administration officials on how to approach the Iranian nuclear program.

Iran diplomat on trial for terror had Europe-wide network - report

Ahead of Thursday’s verdict in the trial for the Iranian regime diplomat Assadollah Assadi’s alleged plot to blow up a dissident conference in France, the British Daily Express reported that he crisscrossed European countries as part of a widespread Islamic Republic network. “A green notebook, found in Assadollah Assadi’s car when he was arrested in Germany, meticulously detailed 289 places across 11 European countries where he is believed to have made contact with agents of the regime,” reported Express defense and diplomatic editor Marco Giannangeli on Sunday. “Though ostensibly a diplomat based at Iran’s Viennese embassy, only 38 were in Austria, barely 13% of the total. Germany featured most heavily, with 114 locations, followed by 42 locations in France,” wrote Giannangeli. He added that “other countries he visited include Italy, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and Luxembourg.” The article was titled “Iranian spy chief behind bomb plot in Paris ‘had contacts all over Europe.’” According to the British paper, “In reality, he was Europe bureau chief for the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security.”

UN court says it can hear case brought by Iran against US

The United Nations’ highest court ruled Wednesday that it can hear a case brought by Iran against the United States in a bid to end sanctions the Trump administration re-imposed in 2018 after pulling out of an international deal aimed at curtailing Tehran’s nuclear program. Lawyers for the United States argued at hearings last year that the case should be thrown out by the International Court of Justice for lack of jurisdiction and admissibility. However, the court’s president, Abdulqawi Ahmed Yusuf, said that judges rejected US arguments. Iran filed the case in July 2018 a few months after then-President Donald Trump said he was pulling the US out of a 2015 international agreement over Iran’s nuclear program and would re-impose sanctions on Tehran. Washington also threatened other countries with sanctions if they don’t cut off Iranian oil imports by early November. In its case, Iran alleges that the sanctions breach a 1955 bilateral agreement known as the Treaty of Amity that regulates and promotes economic and consular ties between the two countries. The ruling Wednesday comes as new President Joe Biden is seeking to enhance diplomacy toward Iran while Washington looks at restoring constraints on the country’s nuclear program and reining in its regional ambitions.

US says sides ‘a long way’ from return to Iran nuclear deal

The United States and Iran are “a long way” from a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, US State Department spokesman Ned Price said Tuesday. Price said US President Joe Biden has been “very clear” that “if Iran comes back into full compliance with its obligations under the [deal], the United States would do the same, and then we would then use that as a platform to build a longer and a stronger agreement that also addresses other areas of concern. “Of course, though, we are a long way from that.” Price said the first steps for Washington were “consulting with our allies, consulting with our partners, consulting with Congress before we’re reaching the point where we’re going to engage directly with the Iranians and willing to entertain any sort of proposal.” US State Department spokesman Ned Price holds a press briefing in Washington, February 2, 2021 (video screenshot) He added: “We haven’t… had any discussions with the Iranians, and I wouldn’t expect we would until those initial steps go forward.” An unnamed US official told Reuters the American “priority” was to consult with its regional partners and the partners to the accord first.

What is Iran's mega-missile and what does it mean for nuclear deal?

Iran launched a new satellite-carrying rocket recently, according to reports on February 3. Forbes has reported that it could carry a nuclear warhead, while other media have pointed out that the launch was done as the new Biden administration is discussing the Iran deal. The importance of the launch looks to be multilayered, both signaling to the US the power of Iran’s missile program, and also potentially threatening Israel. Tal Inbar was the head of the UAV research center at the Fisher Institute for Air and Space Strategic Studies until 2019, and he is an independent analyst on missiles, UAV and space. He frequently covers new Iranian missile technology. “This is an important development,” he told The Jerusalem Post in an interview. Iran introduced a totally new launch vehicle, according to Inbar. “We knew about it from Iranian sources more than a year ago, and it was fired and launched without a satellite as a test flight, and it is a three-stage launch vehicle.”

Former Iranian diplomat Amir Mousavi: Iran Doesn’t Need Nuclear Weapons to “Put an End” to Zionist Entity – However Khamenei Might Resort to Changing Fatwa Banning Nuclear Weapons pic.twitter.com/IlGk5KR5zi

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) February 3, 2021

Honest Reporting: Double Standard: CNN’s Amanpour Grills Israelis, Lets Iranian FM Off Hook

In an interview with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour seemingly failed the most basic test of journalism. In the 15 minute long TV segment, she barely challenged the man who has become the international face of a regime accused of lying again and again about its nuclear program. By contrast, when interviewing Israeli politicians, Amanpour appears to have no problem asking tough questions. Over the last few years, the CNN anchor has grilled Israeli leaders from across the political spectrum, often interrupting them while attempting to interject her own opinions into the conversation. CNN has a responsibility to present the facts about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, instead of providing its top diplomat with a platform to manipulate the truth. Christiane Amanpour’s track record with Israelis shows she can – if she wants to…

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