Saturday 18 May 2019
As Australia Heads to Polls, Labor Vows to Reverse Jerusalem Recognition…..
17 May 2019
17 May 2019
Ahead of Saturday’s parliamentary elections, the Australian Labor party vowed to reverse the current government’s recent decision to recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
However, it stopped short of declaring that it plans to unilaterally recognise a Palestinian state, despite a resolution to that effect at the party’s national conference five months ago.
“We support the widely held view of the international community that the future of Jerusalem needs to be decided by the parties to the Middle East conflict as part of a negotiated peace settlement,” the party told the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, which conducted a survey among Australia’s major parties.
“That is why Labor does not support unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and in Government would reverse this decision.”
Tanker Sabotage Performed by Iranian Al Qods’Ultra-Secret Unit 400 and Unit 190….
18 May 2019
18 May 2019
Rather than risking a head-on clash with the US military might building up in the region, the Iranian regime preferred to hand its most proficient clandestine operations chief General Qassem Soleimani the task of paying the Americans and their allies back for the crippling sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.
Soleimani, whose Al Qods Force is the elite striking arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), turned the job over to his two top-secret units, specialists in assassination, sabotage, arms trafficking and terrorism.
Their second speciality is kicking over any traces leading to their masters in Tehran.
Reliable counter-terrorism sources can name the two forces as Unit 400 and Unit 190, whose members were enlisted for the sabotage attacks on four oil tankers near the Fujairah emirate of the United Arab Republic on Sunday, May 12.
Unit 400 conducts “sensitive covert operations abroad,” and is under the personal aegis of supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Unit 190 specialises in assassination and arms trafficking abroad. Both are seasoned tools of Soleimani and operate in the deepest hush.
Unit 400 can muster a maximum of around 2,000 officers and NCO's from the Al Qods pool of 10,000-15,000 men.
This unit’s commander is Majid Alavi, [pictured above] a former Deputy Minister of Intelligence and Information, the front he used for his contacts with the Lebanese Hizballah and other terrorist organisations serving Tehran in the region.
The “sensitive covert operations abroad” conducted by this unit are a polite euphemism for undercover terrorist attacks, assassinations, kidnapping and sabotage, say US intelligence sources.
This unit has a highly colourful record of supporting Iraqi Shiite extremist groups, providing weapons, equipment, training and money to Afghan insurgents, smuggling arms into Syria and Lebanon and arranging military training for Hizballah and Palestinian terrorists.
Unit 190 is adept at disguising the tools of war as harmless commodities, thereby concealing their Iranian provenance and averting premature discovery.
Iran Uses Sabotage & Mayhem against US Sanctions. Why Was This a Surprise?
17 May 2019
17 May 2019
Iran never intended to stand by and allow US sanctions to grind its economy small, without raising a finger.
But this week, the ayatollahs of Tehran caught the West by surprise simply by doing what they do best: Sneaking up on their enemy’s vulnerable points with a handful of saboteurs, small proxy units and a small team of frogmen – punishment on the cheap - while US and regional intelligence agencies were on the lookout in the wrong places.
And so, Washington was at a loss on Sunday May 12, when saboteurs blasted four oil tankers outside the Fujairah port in the Gulf of Oman and followed up with an explosive drone attack on Saudi pumping stations in the desert.
Although fully aware that Iran was on the war path, intelligence watchers missed the import of the powerful explosions that rocket the Saudi port city of Yanbu last week.
No group took responsibility and so, while Iran was plainly involved, the incident was sidelined by Washington and Riyadh – even though Yanbu is an important Saudi petroleum shipping terminal and home to three oil refineries, a plastics plant and several petrochemical factories.
Both the US and Saudis hoped that if they kept quiet, Iran would let it go.
They miscalculated, as they soon discovered.
The attacks on Gulf oil industrial infrastructure were not over. And on May 14, two of the IRGC’s tame journalists wrote that Yanbu was just the first in a series.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo went rushing to Baghdad on May 8 to caution President Barham Salih [pictured above] and Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi [pictured below]against allowing pro-Iranian or Shiite militias to attack US bass in their country.
He acted on intelligence information that this attack was imminent, which seems to have been a temporary distraction from Iran’s more immediate plans to target Gulf oil.
The sabotage attack on the four tankers outside Fujeirah port in UAE waters, one of the world’s largest bunkering hubs lying just outside the Strait of Hormuz, caught the Americans and Gulf emirates completely off-guard.
This event underlined the irrelevance of the US military build-up against the Iranian escalation - USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group, the B-52 bombers and the Patriot air defence systems.
They were totally disproportionate to the scope of Iran’s choice of low-tech, undersize weapons.
All the above demonstrated that Western intelligence had been successfully hoodwinked into missing Iran’s six months of secret preparations to launch its anti-sanctions campaign with attacks on Gulf oil infrastructure.
Our sources report that the sabotage attack on the four oil tankers outside the UAE was carried out by a squad of three frogmen.
They crept up on the vessels in fast boats, jumped overboard, swam up to the tankers and affixed low-grade explosives to their hulls.
The only tanker shown with a large hole in its hull just below the waterline was the Norwegian-flagged Andrea Victory, [pictured below] which was not in danger of sinking.
The UAE on Monday identified the other damaged vessels as very large crude carrier (VLCC) tanker Amjad and crude tanker Al Marzoqah, both owned by the Saudi shipping firm Bahri, and the UAE-flagged fuel bunker barge A. Michel.
The saboteurs were directed to go light on the four vessels, on orders from Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, so as not to provoke a major war escalation with the United States.
At the same time, the attack drove home the message that if Iran can’t export its oil, Washington’s Gulf allies would also be prevented from doing so.
At the same time, the attack drove home the message that if Iran can’t export its oil, Washington’s Gulf allies would also be prevented from doing so.
That was on Sunday, Two days later, Tehran raised the stakes: Yemeni Houthi insurgents loosed explosive drones against two Saudi pumping stations in the desert, midway on the 1.200km east-west pipeline from its eastern oilfields to the Yanbu terminal in the west.
Iran has developed those armed drones to take the place of its antiquated air force for air strikes. With three low-cost operations by small, well-trained teams of saboteurs and terrorists, Tehran proved itself capable of disrupting major sources of the world’s energy under the noses of a superpower.
Missiles Loaded onto Small Civilian Boats in Persian Gulf…..
A US official said Thursday that Iranian missiles loaded on small boats in the Persian Gulf were among the “threats” that have triggered a beefed-up military deployment in the region.
“The missiles on civilian boats are a concern,” said the official, who asked not to be named.
The person was confirming reports in The New York Times saying that Washington reacted to aerial photos from US intelligence agencies showing traditional boats carrying Iranian missiles in the Gulf, one of the world’s most strategic waterways.
The fully-assembled missiles were loaded on the boats by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which the US has designated a “foreign terrorist organization,” the newspaper reported.
The fully-assembled missiles were loaded on the boats by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, which the US has designated a “foreign terrorist organization,” the newspaper reported.
Where Is Trump’s Plan B for Iran Should Sanctions Fail?
17 May 2019
17 May 2019
It is hard to believe that President Donald Trump and his senior advisers, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser John Bolton, [below] did not have a Plan B ready to go should harsh sanctions fail to bring the Iranian regime to heel and to the table for a revised nuclear pact.
At the Hanoi summit between Trump and the North Korean ruler Kim Jong un, it was evident that sanctions would not work as the sole item in the US foreign policy toolbox against Pyongyang - any more than against Beijing or Moscow.
The hope that Tehran would bow low to buy sanctions relief was always a non-starter, and, given the radical, inflexible nature of the Islamic Revolutionary rulers, may even prove counter-productive.
On May 15, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei laid out the regime’s game plan, in a non-headline-making comment, when he said that there would be no war between Iran and the US, because “The Iranian nation has chosen the path of resistance.”
For this pointer to his next steps, the Iranian leader borrowed a term used by Palestinian extremists and their allies to coat their campaign of terror with a noble and moral aspect.
“Resistance” has long covered the malign tactics which the Iranian regime regularly employs in pursuit of its goals.
In Washington, there was no foundation to the reports carried in this week’s media of a rift in the administration between factions calling for war now, in response to Iran’s disruptions of Gulf oil vessels and infrastructure, and President Trump, who opposes a full-scale war.
Even hawks like Bolton and Pompeo are not in favour of a comprehensive war on Iran.
Having ruled out full-scale war, the White House is considering a pinpointed operation against a certain Iranian nuclear facility, one that is tied to Iran’s partial withdrawal from the nuclear pact signed with six world powers in 2015.
For instance, Tehran has announced it has gone back to topping up its enriched uranium stocks and heavy water; and is planning to renew the operation of its Arak plutonium plant.
A US attack could single out and halt the operation of any of those facilities.
It is hard to estimate how Tehran would respond to a one-off blow of this kind.
It may well result in an Iranian or surrogate assault on an American or pro-American target in the Gulf, Iraq or Syria.
Even that would not necessarily trigger a full-scale war between the US and Iran. But it could.
The new Revolutionary Guards commander, Major-General Hossein Salami, [pictured above] appeared to think otherwise, when he said on Wednesday, May 15, “We are on the cusp of a full-scale confrontation with the enemy”.
“This moment in history, because the enemy has stepped into the field of confrontation with us with all possible capacity, is the most decisive moment of the Islamic revolution.”
Khamenei [pictured above]may have elevated Salami to this high command due to his talent for bellicose rhetoric.
However, Salami did not name the United States as “the enemy” and, moreover, it is the supreme ruler who calls the shots in Tehran.
The way Khamenei has tipped the scales so far caused this week to end with Iran having the last word in the contest, rather than American sanctions.
As time goes by without US push-back, Tehran will exploit this non-response to pursue its pre-set roster of operations against targets linked to US interests in the region.
Washington also risks losing face with its allies in the region.
Developing rapidly…..
Is an American Nitro Zeus Cyberattack on Iran a Serious War Option?
17 May 2019
17 May 2019
One of the steps for attacking Iran reviewed at a White House conference in Washington last week was cyber warfare, US military sources report.
This option came under consideration, along with air strikes, in the light of a decision against an Iraq War-style land invasion of Iran.
“Nitro Zeus” is the project name for a comprehensive cyber war plan that was created after the Stuxnet malware campaign was used nearly a decade ago with destructive effect on Iran’s nuclear program.
Whereas Stuxnet, the world’s first known cyber weapon, was loaded on a system after the design phase to disrupt and destroy a targeted system, Nitro Zeus is different in that its objectives are built into the targeted system during the design phase, unbeknownst to the system’s users.
This built-in feature promises more certain and effective cyberattack on the users.
The widespread, long-term infiltration by Nitro Zeus of key Iranian systems was shown as capable of disrupting and degrading communications, power grids and selected essential systems by means of electronic implants in Iranian computer networks.
This project is now seen as one of the alternatives to full-scale war.
Washington sources now report that the latest round of White House deliberations on steps against Iran took a serious look at Nitro Zeus.
Plans for waging cyber warfare against Iran appear now to be under realistic consideration.
Apparently aware of this, Iran’s Telecommunications Minister Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi said on Thursday, May 16, in a post on his Instagram page, that his government had successfully tested a firewall to prevent cyberattacks on industrial facilities.
He said it was developed by Iranian students, without providing further details.
The Battle for Idlib Is Key to Russian Army’s Control of Latakia Coast…..
17 May 2019
17 May 2019
Untangling the multi-faction rebel grip on Idlib, the last large patch of Syria still under anti-Assad rebel control, is the key to safeguarding and perpetuating Russia’s military presence at the Khmeimim Air Base in Syria’s western coastal province of Latakia.
Hence the current battles waged by the Syrian army and Hizballah with Russian air force backing for the south-western slope of the Al-Zawiya Mountain in Idlib.
This matter was also high on the agenda of US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s talks with President Vladimir Putin [pictured below] and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday, May 14, at the Black Sea resort of Sochi.
Those talks finally unfroze the Trump administration’s strong objections to any kind of offensive against the extremist rebel Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) which rules Idlib.
It was made possible by the radical shift in the circumstances surrounding northern Syria.
Turkey has proved amenable to an agreement with northern Syrian Kurdish factions, including the US-backed YPG - for one; for another, Ankara’s transaction for the purchase of Russian S-400 advanced air defence systems appears to have stalled.
Turkey, which has stationed troops in Idlib, controls an important lever in the Idlib equation, namely, its influence with HTS leaders.
Moscow is pushing President Tayyip Erdogan to use that influence and force HTS fighters to pull back form a buffer zone around the province’s borders.
Russian and Turkish defence ministers spoke on Tuesday on how to de-escalate the Idlib imbroglio.
Pro-Assad forces have meanwhile captured several towns in southern Idlib in the three weeks since they launched this offensive but have not made major territorial gains.
If the deal the US Secretary reached with Putin and Lavrov this week holds water, Russian and Syrian forces will advance from Hama up to the edge of the Al Zawiya Mountain, and then come to a halt.
At that point, Turkey maintains its southernmost observation post out of the 13 located around Idlib.
Even when the battle is over, more than 50,000 rebel fighters will remain in Idlib – of whom 35,000 belong to HTS and Al Qaeda’s allies.
They are disciplined, well-armed and battle-hardened, many of them veterans of the various rebel factions which lost their territory to the Syrian army.
Although foreigners are a minority, and HTS has distanced itself from Al Qaeda to wage an exclusively Syrian jihad, an increment of some 3,000 Chinese Uighurs remain.
They are members of the Islamic Party of Turkestan, who have made their homes in the Jisr al-Shughour area of Syrian since 2015.
Angela Merkel says the postwar world order is over and calls for Europe to stand up to China, Russia,and the US…...
May 17, 2019
May 17, 2019
German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she thinks the post-World War II global order as we know it is over – and grouped the United States with China and Russia as adversaries of Europe.
“There is no doubt that Europe needs to reposition itself in a changed world,” Merkel said in an interview with a German newspaper and The Guardian.
“The old certainties of the postwar order no longer apply.” said she.
Less than three years ago, Germany was one of the US’s closest allies, and Merkel was working harmoniously with President Barack Obama.
Donald Trump, however, frequently insulted Merkel over the 2015 refugee crisis and has clashed with her on multiple occasions over NATO’s budget and the US’s trade deficit with Germany.
Merkel said in the recent interview that she thinks the postwar global order built over seven decades is over – and grouped the United States with China and Russia as rivals of Europe.
She further stated that the traditionally strong diplomatic and military alliance between the European Union and the United States forged after World War II is now on shaky footing.
“There is no doubt that Europe needs to reposition itself in a changed world,” Merkel said. “The old certainties of the postwar order no longer apply.”
“Simply stating that we’ve enjoyed seven decades of peace is no longer enough to justify the European project,” she said. “Without forward-looking arguments to justify Europe, the European peace project would also be in greater jeopardy than one may think.”
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