Iran – Page 2 – The Faithful Watchman

Israel warns the world: Threat is ready to take it into ‘dark abyss’

RT – November 12, 2021

Israel’s Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has accused Iran of wanting to wipe out Tel Aviv and of seeking world domination via “radical militant Islam.” The warning comes after Tehran once-again threatened to destroy Israel.

In a pre-recorded message delivered during the Government Press Organization’s annual Christian Media Summit on Thursday, the PM remarked that “Here in Israel, we are fighting a very visible enemy, radical militant Islam that is sweeping across the Middle East.”

The premier’s remarks coincide with threats issued by the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, Aerospace Force Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh. He warned that any mistake made by Israel in its dealings with Tehran will only accelerate Iran’s eradication of the Jewish state.

In his address, however, Bennett also noted positive developments in regional relations for Tel Aviv, claiming that Israel was “facing a new dawn” after creating ties with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain under the Abraham Accords, inked last year. The agreement saw Israel normalize relations with the two nations.

Israel’s navy publicly participated in joint exercises with the UAE and Bahrain in a first-of-its-kind operation, which started on Wednesday. While it was not clearly declared anywhere, Tel Aviv’s media has surmised that the drills were also to send a warning to Iran.

Tensions between Tehran and Tel Aviv have simmered dangerously close to boiling point in recent months, with the latter expressing grievances over Iran’s nuclear program.

https://www.rt.com

Israel’s $1.5bn shopping list for a potential offensive on Iran’s nuclear program

Debkafiles – October 21,2021

Israel is said to have earmarked some 5 billion shekels ($1.5bn) towards the IDF’s price tag for a potential strike against Iran’s nuclear program. Military sources report that this sum would be spent on the acquisition of different types of aircraft, intelligence gathering, drones and dedicated armaments for enabling attacks on Iran’s fortified underground facilities.

IN other words, Israel is short at present of a full set of tools for going past a limited operation and conducting a comprehensive offensive for disabling Iran’s nuclear weapons program, say DEBKAfile’s military sources.

This shortfall is prominent in five main areas:

1. Assuming that a single raid would not finish the job, to conduct multiple waves, the Israeli Air Force would require to supplement its current force with dozens of additional F-35 and F-15 aircraft. This would also call for the recruitment of more flight crews.
2. Once the Israeli offensive is launched, Tehran may be counted on to activate allies from four fronts closer to Israel’s borders: Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Yemen. To forestall this potential proxy assault, the IAF has reorganized its assets by moving F-16 short range aircraft to the Ramat David base in the north. However, these aircraft are also in short supply and would have to be substantially augmented.
3. An urgent request has been put in for the advanced Boeing-built KC-46 tankers (see photo) to refuel aircraft in flight across the 2,000km distance to Iran and back to base. The Re’em Boeing 707 in-flight fuel craft used hitherto are 60 years old and not up to the new task.
  Interim landings in Saudi Arabia or a US Gulf airbase would solve the refueling problem. But this option has to be counted out in light of the contacts the Saudis and Emiratis are developing with Iran. Washington has indeed promised Israel eight advanced in-flight refueling tankers, but it will take years before they are available.
4. Israel is also asking for American MOAB GBU-43 bunker busters, that were designed specifically for targeting Iran’s fortified underground nuclear sites and tested once in the Afghanistan war. Israel has a small number of bunker busters. According to Western military observers, they were used against the Hamas’ underground “Metro” network last May in a mission dubbed “Lightning Bolt.” This was to have been a rehearsal for raids on Iran’s underground nuclear facilities. It turned out, however, that the Hamas bunker system had to be bombed multiple times to be effective and even then, sections of the Metro remained.
5. In a war situation, Israel’s satellite coverage could not be stretched to cover Iran’s vastness (1.650 sq.km) and the additional areas commanded by its four main allies. American satellites would be called on for backup. Consent would have to be authorized by President Joe Biden as US commander on chief.

https://www.debka.com

Report: Iranian VP threatens to hold Iran’s 10,000 Jews hostage

Gary Willig – October 13, 2021

Iranian Vice President for Economic Affairs Mohsen Rezaee warned that the country’s 10,000 Jews were hostage against Israel, Iranian opposition groups and the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) reported.

The “Iranian Regime Countdown” organization wrote a post on its Telegram account on Monday that Rezaee said in a speech that “he Israeli government knows very well that if it makes a mistake, the regime will treat the 10,000 Jews living in Iran differently.”

Rezaee, a former head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, made the remarks in an address to the members of the Tharollah Tehran organization.

According to Iranian Regime Countdown, this is the first time Iran has threatened the country’s Jewish community instead of threatening Israel directly.

Rezaee has made similar threats to take large numbers of hostages in the past. In June, Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born journalist living in the US, reported that Rezaee had threatened to take 1,000 Americans hostage in order to blackmail the US into providing relief for Iran’s struggling economy. Rezaee stated at the time that he would demand $1 billion for each hostage.

In January 2020, Rezaee threatened to “turn Tel Aviv and Haifa to dust” if the US attacked Iran.

https://www.israelnationalnews.com

Hamas punctuates Israeli air strike with another rocket – a shift in tactics

Debkafile – September 13, 2021

A fourth rocket punctuated the third round of Israeli air strikes over the Gaza Strip that responded to three nights of single Palestinian rocket fire. This last rocket like the others was aimed on Sunday night, Sept. 12 at Sderot and the Eshkol Council. All four Hamas projectiles were intercepted in time by Iron Dome rockets. The military spokesman reported that the fourth rocket prompted an expansion of the Israeli raid to five major Hamas facilities, including a “terror tunnel” as well as training compounds and arms production sites and depots.

The launching of the fourth rocket in the course of the latest Israeli counterstrike marked a change in Hamas tactics. Until now, the Palestinian terrorists ruling the Gaza Strip were wont to fire a rocket or two, wait for Israeli punishment and hold back for a while before launching their next small-scale rocket or arson balloon offensive against the Israeli population next door to the Gaza Strip. On Sunday night, Hamas changed the rules by initiating its next attack while an Israeli punitive operation was still ongoing.

DEBKAfile’s military sources note that Hamas’s decision to change the rules is worrying in the sense that it copycats Syria’s latest mode of retaliation for Israel’s alleged air strikes on pro-Iranian sites. On Sept.3, Syria aimed two SA-5 rockets at central Israel in direct response to a purported air raid over the outskirts of Damascus. Both were intercepted by Israel’s air defense system. This new government in Jerusalem downplayed that event as well another new feature of Hamas aggression. In the past fortnight, Hamas has been seen to direct heavy machine gun fire at its Israeli neighbors – so far without causing casualties. But there is no doubt that Hamas is diversifying its offensive tactics and very much on the warpath.

https://www.debka.com

Two missiles exploding off Israel’s coast marked Syria’s response to alleged IDF air raid

Debkafiles – September 3, 2021

A string of central Israeli coastal towns north and south of Tel Aviv were rocked Thursday night, Aug. 2 ,by a series of explosions around five minutes after one of the IDF’s alleged routine raids from Lebanon targeted another pro-Iranian site near Damascus.

The IDF spokesman said the explosion had come from a Syrian air defense missile over the sea off central Israel and was being investigated. However, multiple blasts were heard in a wide range of towns from Netanyahu in the north, through Herzliya, Rosh Ha’Ayin, Ramat Gan, Givatayim, Tel Aviv and Rishon Letzion. No warning sirens were switched on since, it was explained, no populated areas had been threatened. All the same, half a dozen pieces of missile shrapnel were discovered in a back garden of Neve Shalom south of Tel Aviv.

A second communique, this one from the police, said that a Syrian SA-5 anti-air missile (see picture) had exploded opposite the western Sharon region north of Tel Aviv. Falling shrapnel had dropped in the sea and a Tel Aviv back yard. The communique added that the |DF would be questioning why no warning siren was activated. This appeared to be the focus of the inquiry rather than the broad range and multiplicity of the explosions.

In the meantime, DEBKAfile’s military sources report, residents of Rishon Letzion south of Tel Aviv came up with an explanation. They testified to hearing two explosions – not one. It turned out that a second missile had been fired from Syria, this one a surface-to-surface Russian-made Scud. Our sources have learned that this one was intercepted in time by a David’s Sling, the missile system designed for protection against intermediate missile attack as part of Israel’s multi-tier shield.

This has not been confirmed by the military or the police. However, if that is how the purported Israeli raid over Damascus unfolded, it seems to indicate that the Syrians have decided to finally retaliate for each reported Israeli attack. On Aug. 20, a Syria anti-air rocket fired from Damascus exploded in the Dead Sea region of southern Israel. Rather than a stray rocket, as claimed at the time, that may have been the first harbinger of a new Syrian policy to raise the stakes and confront Israel directly over its long campaign to root the Iranian military presence from its borders. The Assad regime would have gained the nod of its supporters, Iran and Russia, before embarking on this course.

https://www.debka.com

Israel is accelerating operational plans to take action against Iran – IDF chief Kohavi

ANNA AHRONHEIM – August 25, 2021

Israel’s military is accelerating its operational plans against Iran due to the progress of the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Aviv Kohavi has warned.

“The progress of the Iranian nuclear program has led the IDF to accelerate its operational plans and the recently approved defense budget is earmarked for that,” he said.

Kohavi commented as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett landed in the United States ahead of a visit with US President Joe Biden and other senior officials. Bennett is expected during his first visit to the White House to push Biden to harden his approach to Iran and drop efforts to revive the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

“When we began to plan the visit, a return to the agreement seemed certain,” Bennett said ahead of his departure on Tuesday. “Since then, the time has passed, the president in Iran has changed, and things seem far less certain. In our view, it may be that there is no return to the agreement.”

With no diplomatic options likely to push Tehran to stop its nuclear program, Israel’s military believes that the Islamic Republic needs to be aware that should it continue with its program, it will face harsher sanctions and a true military option to stop it.

https://www.jpost.com

WAR DRUMS: Israel warns they are now ‘ready to strike Iran’ after new report reveals 10 weeks from nuclear weapon

ETH – August 5, 2021

(ETH) – Israel’s defense minister Benny Gantz has said that his country is ready to attack Iran and that there must be a global response to the threat that the Islamic republic poses.

According to MSN News, His comments come amid growing tensions following a deadly drone strike on an Israeli-operated tanker off the coast of Oman. Israel, along with the U.S. and the U.K. has blamed Tehran for the attack on Mercer Street last week that killed two people. Iran has denied involvement. “Israel is ready to attack Iran, yes,” Gantz told Ynet on Thursday.

“We are at a point where we need to take military action against Iran. The world needs to take action against Iran now,” he added according to a translation of his comments tweeted by Ynet journalist Attila Somfalvi.

This also follows the report from the Jerusalem Post, revealing that Tehran will be able to break out to a nuclear weapon within 10 weeks, Defense Minister Benny Gantz told diplomats from UN Security Council member states on Wednesday as tensions ratcheted up between Iran and the international community over its maritime attacks.

“Iran has violated all of the guidelines set in the JCPOA [nuclear agreement] and is only around 10 weeks away from acquiring weapons-grade materials necessary for a nuclear weapon,” Gantz warned. “Therefore,” he added, “it is time to act. The world must apply economic sanctions and take operative action against the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps,” which has targeted shipping vessels.

Lapid, Gantz, and other Israeli officials have addressed the Iranian nuclear issue with their American counterparts recently, delivering an “unusual warning,” according to a report from the Times of Israel. “Something has to happen with the negotiations with Iran,” a senior diplomat told Kan. “This ‘limbo’ cannot be a time when Iran is quickly advancing toward becoming a nuclear threshold state.”

https://endtimeheadlines.org

First Iranian kamikaze drone against Israeli tanker. As tension rises, Gantz vows “appropriate response”

Debkafiles – July 30, 2021

Iran for the first time launched a suicide drone on Friday, July 30, against an Israeli-operated merchant vessel, the Mercer Street, north of the Omani island of Masirah in the Indian Ocean. Two crewmen, a Briton and a Romanian, were killed as the ship caught fire. The US Navy rushed to the burning ship’s aid and escorted it to harbor in Abu Dhabi, in the UAE. It was attacked while on its way from Dar es Salaam to Fujairah with no cargo aboard.

The Israeli owners had transferred the vessel to Japanese ownership after previous less serious incidents against their ships in the same region, while continuing to operate it from their London-based Zodiac Maritime Office.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz called an urgent conference on Friday night with Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi and other senior commanders, following which Gantz announced that Israel would make an “appropriate response” to the attack.

DEBKAfile adds: The event broke new ground as indicated by the following:

1. It marked Iran’s first direct armed drone attack on an Israeli merchant vessel.
2. The drone was identified by a US official as a “one way” drone – although the Americans stayed clear of former incidents of this kind. He added that “other drones took part” indicating a concerted assault. This confirmed an earlier report from the private maritime intelligence firm Dryad Global of a drone sighting around the vessel prior to the attack.
3. Iranian sources, including the Al Alam Arabic language TV channel, reported that the Israeli vessel was attacked in reprisal for Israel’s air strike of July 22 against Revolutionary Guards bases at Qusayr, 25km from Aleppo in western Syria. They revealed that a number of Iranians were killed in that strike.
  (Russian officials claimed that all the missiles fired by Israeli jets in that attack had been intercepted by Russian-made air defense systems.)
4. This was the first time that Tehran had cited Israeli military action in Syria as justification for attacking an Israeli commercial vessel
5. Saudi sources disclosed that on that same Friday night, one of their ships was also attacked with armed drones wielded by Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels in the Red Sea.

https://www.debka.com

Pentagon Report Outlines ‘Increased Potential’ of Nuclear War

Eric Mack -July 8, 2021

A recently released Pentagon report warns of “increased potential” for nuclear war as the chief enemies of the U.S. are stockpiling nuclear weapons.

“No potential adversary has reduced either the role of nuclear weapons in its national security strategy or the number of nuclear weapons it fields,” according to the 2020 Pentagon report.

“Rather, they have moved decidedly in the opposite direction. As a result, there is an increased potential for regional conflicts involving nuclear-armed adversaries in several parts of the world and the potential for adversary nuclear escalation in crisis or conflict.”

The report, delivering “fundamental principles and guidance to plan, execute, and assess nuclear operations,” was finished in April 2020, but released publicly Tuesday, the U.K.’s Daily Mail reported.

Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are highlighted as the chief threats to nuclear war.

The report pointed out that the U.S. nuclear weapons program is designed as a deterrent, noting the goal will be “effectively assuring allies regarding the credibility of U.S. nuclear deterrence enables most to eschew possession of nuclear weapons, thereby contributing to U.S. nonproliferation goals.”

Failing deterrence of an attack on the U.S. or its allies, U.S. nuclear weapons will be reserved for “extreme circumstances,” according to the report.

https://www.newsmax.com

Iran is just 3-4 months from breakout, says Israeli intel. Who’s to stop it?

Debkafiles – April 23, 2021

Israel’s three security kingpins go to Washington next week to try and modify, if not halt, the Biden administration’s race for a nuclear pact with Iran. Mossad director Yossi Cohen, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, and national security adviser Mair Ben-Shabbat will not arrive as a delegation but separate and make tracks for their counterparts at the top of American military, intelligence and national security organizations. Unlike in 2015, Israel will not go face to face against the administration as it did over Barack Obama’s initiative to conclude the original nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers. Instead, the government in Jerusalem hopes to modify the finished product by inserting clauses that meet Israel’s most pressing security concerns and the threats that may be left open by the deal. The three officials will try and persuade the administration to accommodate those vital adjustments and talk down its fears of rejection by Tehran.

Washington, for its part, while not sharing the current state of its indirect dialogue with Tehran, is also making an effort to calm Israel’s concerns. On Monday, April 19, US ambassador to the UN, Linda Thomas Greenfield, stated: “The Biden administration will support Israel as it works to counter the threats posed by Iran’s aggressive behavior.” She was responding to Israel’s unease over possible premature sanctions relief by the US for keeping Iran at the table and the ongoing Vienna talks for reviving the 2015 nuclear accord afloat. For Iran, this is a major talking point. The release of frozen funds, following the example set by Obama, will enable Tehran to boost its support for proxies hostile to Israel like the Lebanese Hizballah, Iraqi Shiite militias and the Houthi insurgents of Yemen.

Israel’s apprehension was reinforced when President Hassan Rouhani commented on Tuesday, April 20: “Negotiations have achieved 60-70 percent progress. If the Americans act honestly, we will reach a conclusion in little time.” The US State Department spokesman Ned Price stepped in to cool this sentiment by saying: “There have been no breakthroughs and a long road lies ahead.”

DEBKAfile’s military sources note that for Israel, all this palaver is beside the point. Rouhani needs to sound upbeat to offer a ray of hope to a population sunk in a welter of disastrous crises. The Biden administration wants to convey the impression that there is a long way to go for nuclear negotiations and the US is in no hurry to hand out concessions to Iran.

But Israel’s overriding focus is on Iran’s furtive advance on its objective. According to its intelligence services, Iran hs been creeping forward to breakout time for a nuclear weapon and reached a point no more than 3-4 months away from this target.

https://www.debka.com