Iran
From an article in The Times today.
Iran fears sabotage plot after new ‘attack’
Iran fears sabotage plot after new ‘attack’
Suspicions that Iran is the victim of an international sabotage operation have intensified after a fire at a power station, the third incident in nine days.
Times story paywalled, but Sky News coverage here :-
https://news.sky.com/story/coinciden...-iran-12021907
https://news.sky.com/story/coinciden...-iran-12021907
Times story paywalled, but Sky News coverage here :-
https://news.sky.com/story/coinciden...-iran-12021907
https://news.sky.com/story/coinciden...-iran-12021907
Iran fears sabotage plot after new ‘attack’
The great thing about remote sabotage is that it means the bad guys have to spend a lot of effort "just in case" and every glitch will be pinned on the opposition - like shooting your own gun boat..............
Latest report in The Times.
Iran hit by latest in series of explosions
Iran hit by latest in series of explosions
The Iranian capital has been hit by another in a series of explosions, with the latest blast reportedly at a missile plant to the west of Tehran. The explosion was heard in the western suburbs in the early hours of this morning and was powerful enough to knock out electricity supplies in two areas where it is known there are military facilities.
Iran has been struck by a series of explosions and disasters in the past three weeks, including one that destroyed a key unit of its main uranium enrichment plant. The authorities believe that may have been the result of a bomb planted by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. The head of Mossad, Yossi Cohen, has been accused of leaking confirmation to a journalist.
However, Israeli sources have played down the country’s possible involvement in other incidents, which included a fire at a power station and an explosion at another missile plant, east of Tehran. Iran regularly suffers accidents to its infrastructure, including parts with no military application, owing to the difficulty of maintenance while under western sanctions.
The sound of the latest blast was reported as coming from near Garmdareh, a suburb on the edge of west Tehran on the road to the city of Karaj. There are known to be Revolutionary Guard sites in the area. Several early reports said that the explosion had been in a missile storage facility or similar. The mayor of Garmdareh was quoted as saying there had been an accident at a “gas canister workshop”.
Israeli defences are on alert after there were threats of retaliation by Iran if reports of the attack on the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz last Thursday turned out to be true. That blast was reported to have put back Iran’s nuclear programme by a year.
Israel has been attacking Iranian militias across Syria extensively in recent years.
Iran has been struck by a series of explosions and disasters in the past three weeks, including one that destroyed a key unit of its main uranium enrichment plant. The authorities believe that may have been the result of a bomb planted by Mossad, the Israeli intelligence agency. The head of Mossad, Yossi Cohen, has been accused of leaking confirmation to a journalist.
However, Israeli sources have played down the country’s possible involvement in other incidents, which included a fire at a power station and an explosion at another missile plant, east of Tehran. Iran regularly suffers accidents to its infrastructure, including parts with no military application, owing to the difficulty of maintenance while under western sanctions.
The sound of the latest blast was reported as coming from near Garmdareh, a suburb on the edge of west Tehran on the road to the city of Karaj. There are known to be Revolutionary Guard sites in the area. Several early reports said that the explosion had been in a missile storage facility or similar. The mayor of Garmdareh was quoted as saying there had been an accident at a “gas canister workshop”.
Israeli defences are on alert after there were threats of retaliation by Iran if reports of the attack on the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz last Thursday turned out to be true. That blast was reported to have put back Iran’s nuclear programme by a year.
Israel has been attacking Iranian militias across Syria extensively in recent years.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/s...hehr-f00b0qbw3
Sabotage fears after fire rips through Iranian port of Bushehr
A fire has damaged seven large cargo boats at the Iranian port city of Bushehr, the latest in a series of incidents which have aroused suspicions of widespread sabotage. Thick black smoke in the Delvar shipyard was visible for miles but was brought under control, the Iranian authorities said, and there were no casualties. It was the second significant blaze yesterday in southern Iran, with reports of another at a new aluminium smelting plant at Lamerd, also in the south.....
As debate continued in Iran over whether foreign saboteurs were responsible, Tehran appears to have engineered the escape of an oil tanker that had been held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for allegedly breaching US sanctions.
The Gulf Sky, which is registered in Dominica but linked to an associate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, was initially said to have been “hijacked”. The reappearance of the 900ft vessel in Iranian waters suggests a covert operation may have been carried out to remove the tanker from UAE custody. Most of the Indian crew of 28 have been repatriated, though two are said to still be in Iran because of problems with their passports.
The tanker had been held at the UAE port of Khor Fakkan for the last four months as part of a US investigation into Amir Dianat, 55, an Iranian, described as a long-time associate of the Quds Force, the powerful unit which engages in clandestine overseas operations. In May the US Justice Department charged Mr Dianat, and Kamran Lajmiri, 42, another Iranian, with purchasing the tanker, previously called Nautic, through a series of front companies on behalf of the Quds Force.
The tanker, which had been issued with a “prohibition to sail order”, had disappeared and turned its automatic radar transponder off at 4.30am on July 5, but has now reappeared in Iranian waters off Hormuz Island, according to tankerstrackers.com, which had been asked to find the missing vessel.
The captain told a seafarers charity, human Rights at Sea, that the vessel had been hijacked...
The US Central Command confirmed to The Times that there had been no “hijack” of the Gulf Sky and that the tanker was being tracked by the 5th Fleet based in Bahrain.
Sabotage fears after fire rips through Iranian port of Bushehr
A fire has damaged seven large cargo boats at the Iranian port city of Bushehr, the latest in a series of incidents which have aroused suspicions of widespread sabotage. Thick black smoke in the Delvar shipyard was visible for miles but was brought under control, the Iranian authorities said, and there were no casualties. It was the second significant blaze yesterday in southern Iran, with reports of another at a new aluminium smelting plant at Lamerd, also in the south.....
As debate continued in Iran over whether foreign saboteurs were responsible, Tehran appears to have engineered the escape of an oil tanker that had been held in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) for allegedly breaching US sanctions.
The Gulf Sky, which is registered in Dominica but linked to an associate of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, was initially said to have been “hijacked”. The reappearance of the 900ft vessel in Iranian waters suggests a covert operation may have been carried out to remove the tanker from UAE custody. Most of the Indian crew of 28 have been repatriated, though two are said to still be in Iran because of problems with their passports.
The tanker had been held at the UAE port of Khor Fakkan for the last four months as part of a US investigation into Amir Dianat, 55, an Iranian, described as a long-time associate of the Quds Force, the powerful unit which engages in clandestine overseas operations. In May the US Justice Department charged Mr Dianat, and Kamran Lajmiri, 42, another Iranian, with purchasing the tanker, previously called Nautic, through a series of front companies on behalf of the Quds Force.
The tanker, which had been issued with a “prohibition to sail order”, had disappeared and turned its automatic radar transponder off at 4.30am on July 5, but has now reappeared in Iranian waters off Hormuz Island, according to tankerstrackers.com, which had been asked to find the missing vessel.
The captain told a seafarers charity, human Rights at Sea, that the vessel had been hijacked...
The US Central Command confirmed to The Times that there had been no “hijack” of the Gulf Sky and that the tanker was being tracked by the 5th Fleet based in Bahrain.
Article in The Times today.
President Trump sends B-52s to Gulf in final show of strength with Iran
President Trump sends B-52s to Gulf in final show of strength with Iran
The US sent a long-range bomber force to the Middle East at short notice over the weekend as leading American, Israeli and Saudi officials held an unprecedented diplomatic meeting on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast.
The show of American air power was headed by B-52H strategic bombers which flew 7,000 miles to the Middle East from their Minot air force base in North Dakota on Saturday.
B-52Hs, the largest of the US Air Force’s bombers, and the longest in service, appear to have been deployed both to deter Iran — the arch regional rival of both the Saudis and Israel — and to provide a show of force in the region as the leaders of Israel and Saudi Arabia and Mike Pompeo, America’s secretary ofstate, gathered for the unprecedented diplomatic exchanges at Neom.
US officials would not confirm how many of the bombers were deployed but a statement from US Central Command said B-52H Stratofortress “aircrews” assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot air force base had “conducted a short-notice, long-range mission into the Middle East on November 21”, the day before the arrival of Mr Pompeo and, reportedly, Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, in Saudi Arabia.
Central Command said the B-52Hs had been sent “to deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies”.
The long-range bombers, which can carry nuclear as well as conventional bombs and missiles, were joined in the show of force by F-15E Strike Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons.
“The ability to quickly move forces into, out of and around the theatre to seize, retain and exploit the initiative is key to deterring potential aggression,” Lieutenant-General Greg Guillot, commander of US 9th Air Force, said.
According to Israeli sources the meeting in Neom also involved Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Yossi Cohen, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service. It is the first time the Israeli leader has officially met the crown prince.
Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, the Saudi foreign minister, denied that the Israeli leader had taken part, dismissing confirmation of Mr Netanyahu’s presence by Israel’s education minister.
The Saudis meanwhile have been targeted by the Houthis, the Iran-backed rebel movement in Yemen, which has given a striking indication of its advances in missile technology with a precision attack on an oil distribution plant in Jeddah. The missile, fired from a distance of more than 400 miles, was accurate enough to knock a hole in a storage tank at a site run by Aramco, the Saudi oil and gas company.
The rebels have fired a series of missiles at Saudi Arabia, which is backing the recognised government in Yemen’s civil war, but none is known to have been so accurate over a distance before. They released a claim of responsibility saying that the ground-launched missile was a new type, called the Quds-2.
The Quds-1 is known to be a variant of an Iranian cruise missile, itself developed from an old Soviet model.
“Unfortunately the facility was hit yesterday by a projectile, by a hostile attack,” said Abdullah al-Ghamdi, manager of the Jeddah facility, on a tour for journalists to show the damage. He said that production had been restored within three hours. He added: “As you know Aramco has been a target of such hostile attacks. It was a big fire, it was a big explosion but it was controlled.”
UN mediators have been frustrated in their attempts to engineer a sustained ceasefire to the war in Yemen. Hopes for a resolution in the conflict now depend in part on the attitude of the incoming Biden administration.
The president-elect, during his campaign, promised to rejoin the Iran nuclear accord abandoned by President Trump, seek negotiations with Tehran, and put more pressure on Saudi Arabia to come to a resolution in Yemen.
The show of American air power was headed by B-52H strategic bombers which flew 7,000 miles to the Middle East from their Minot air force base in North Dakota on Saturday.
B-52Hs, the largest of the US Air Force’s bombers, and the longest in service, appear to have been deployed both to deter Iran — the arch regional rival of both the Saudis and Israel — and to provide a show of force in the region as the leaders of Israel and Saudi Arabia and Mike Pompeo, America’s secretary ofstate, gathered for the unprecedented diplomatic exchanges at Neom.
US officials would not confirm how many of the bombers were deployed but a statement from US Central Command said B-52H Stratofortress “aircrews” assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot air force base had “conducted a short-notice, long-range mission into the Middle East on November 21”, the day before the arrival of Mr Pompeo and, reportedly, Binyamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, in Saudi Arabia.
Central Command said the B-52Hs had been sent “to deter aggression and reassure US partners and allies”.
The long-range bombers, which can carry nuclear as well as conventional bombs and missiles, were joined in the show of force by F-15E Strike Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons.
“The ability to quickly move forces into, out of and around the theatre to seize, retain and exploit the initiative is key to deterring potential aggression,” Lieutenant-General Greg Guillot, commander of US 9th Air Force, said.
According to Israeli sources the meeting in Neom also involved Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia and Yossi Cohen, the head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence service. It is the first time the Israeli leader has officially met the crown prince.
Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, the Saudi foreign minister, denied that the Israeli leader had taken part, dismissing confirmation of Mr Netanyahu’s presence by Israel’s education minister.
The Saudis meanwhile have been targeted by the Houthis, the Iran-backed rebel movement in Yemen, which has given a striking indication of its advances in missile technology with a precision attack on an oil distribution plant in Jeddah. The missile, fired from a distance of more than 400 miles, was accurate enough to knock a hole in a storage tank at a site run by Aramco, the Saudi oil and gas company.
The rebels have fired a series of missiles at Saudi Arabia, which is backing the recognised government in Yemen’s civil war, but none is known to have been so accurate over a distance before. They released a claim of responsibility saying that the ground-launched missile was a new type, called the Quds-2.
The Quds-1 is known to be a variant of an Iranian cruise missile, itself developed from an old Soviet model.
“Unfortunately the facility was hit yesterday by a projectile, by a hostile attack,” said Abdullah al-Ghamdi, manager of the Jeddah facility, on a tour for journalists to show the damage. He said that production had been restored within three hours. He added: “As you know Aramco has been a target of such hostile attacks. It was a big fire, it was a big explosion but it was controlled.”
UN mediators have been frustrated in their attempts to engineer a sustained ceasefire to the war in Yemen. Hopes for a resolution in the conflict now depend in part on the attitude of the incoming Biden administration.
The president-elect, during his campaign, promised to rejoin the Iran nuclear accord abandoned by President Trump, seek negotiations with Tehran, and put more pressure on Saudi Arabia to come to a resolution in Yemen.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
Lots of changes of allies and alliances going on - especially as Saudi and Turkey seem to be emerging as competing Sunni and Shia power bases as well as Iran.
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/...eo-ottomanism-
Arab states are fighting back against Turkey’s ‘neo-Ottomanism’
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/...eo-ottomanism-
Arab states are fighting back against Turkey’s ‘neo-Ottomanism’
70% of the population of Turkey are Sunni
ORAC I think you've got it wrong - they're not "competing Sunni & Shia power bases" - the article says that Turkey is ANOTHER Sunni power
"Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seems determined to reinvent the secular Muslim country he inherited as a sort of Sunni Iranian ‘Mini-Me’: draconian, Islamist and with vaunting regional ambitions. For Western powers and their allies, the urgent question is how to deal with the mutation of a Nato ally into a ‘neo-Ottoman’ threat."
Turkey is just moving to be a big local player -102 years after they were gutted after WW1
ORAC I think you've got it wrong - they're not "competing Sunni & Shia power bases" - the article says that Turkey is ANOTHER Sunni power
"Recep Tayyip Erdoğan seems determined to reinvent the secular Muslim country he inherited as a sort of Sunni Iranian ‘Mini-Me’: draconian, Islamist and with vaunting regional ambitions. For Western powers and their allies, the urgent question is how to deal with the mutation of a Nato ally into a ‘neo-Ottoman’ threat."
Turkey is just moving to be a big local player -102 years after they were gutted after WW1
In The Guardian this afternoon.
Iran's top nuclear scientist shot dead near Tehran
Hmmm, I wonder who...
Iran's top nuclear scientist shot dead near Tehran
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, identified by Israel as director of nuclear weapons programme, ambushed in street
An Iranian nuclear scientist described as the guru of Iran’s nuclear programme has been gunned down in the street in a town near Tehran.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was ambushed in the town of Absard, 70km east of Tehran. Four assailants opened fire after witnesses heard an explosion. Efforts to resuscitate Fakhrizadeh failed, and his bodyguard was also wounded.
An adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed that the country would retaliate against the perpetrators. “We will strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr and will make them regret their action,” tweeted Hossein Dehghan, a military commander.
The Iranian ministry of defence confirmed Fakhrizadeh’s death in a statement. “During the clash between his security team and the terrorists, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was seriously injured and taken to hospital,” it said.
“Unfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving him, and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist, after years of effort and struggle, achieved a high degree of martyrdom.”
Fakhrizadeh was identified by Israel’s prime minister in a 2018 public presentation as the director of Iran’s nuclear weapons project.
“Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” Benjamin Netanyahu said during the presentation.
He accused Iran at the time of hiding and expanding its nuclear weapons knowhow, saying that Israeli intelligence had obtained a half-tonne cache of nuclear archive materials from the country.
The attack was confirmed by Iranian state TV but then denied by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) before being confirmed separately by the defence ministry. Pictures of the purported site of the attack also appeared on the Iranian news sites. Security forces blocked the boulevard where the attack occurred.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military said: “We don’t comment on reports in the foreign media”. The prime minister’s office said it would not comment “on those reports”.
The confusion in the Iranian media reflects the high tensions inside Iran, amid reports that Israeli intelligence and secret service have been given the green light to mount attacks on Iranian nuclear installations before Donald Trump stands down as president.
Many Iranian officials believe Trump, in conjunction with Israel and Saudi Arabia, is determined to weaken or antagonise Iran before the US handover of power on 20 January.
The US president-elect, Joe Biden, has said he is willing to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal and lift some economic sanctions so long as Iran comes back into compliance with the agreement, especially over its excess stocks of enriched uranium. Israel and Saudi Arabia want the US to remain outside the deal and continue with a policy of maximum economic sanctions.
Fakhrizadeh, on a US sanctions list, was regarded as the main keeper of Iranian knowledge of its nuclear programme. A brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and a professor of physics at the Guard’s Imam Hussein University, Fakhrizadeh was a man cloaked in mystery.
Until April 2018, no photograph of him was publicly available, and after the killing of several other nuclear scientists, a further shield of secrecy and security had been thrown around him, in an effort to protect him against Israeli assassins.
He took charge of Iran’s Physics Research Centre in 1988, and then became head of research at its successor, the Institute of Applied Physics, from where Iran’s secret nuclear research programme was conducted.
He had never been interviewed by a member of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, but was named in one of their reports.
An Iranian nuclear scientist described as the guru of Iran’s nuclear programme has been gunned down in the street in a town near Tehran.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was ambushed in the town of Absard, 70km east of Tehran. Four assailants opened fire after witnesses heard an explosion. Efforts to resuscitate Fakhrizadeh failed, and his bodyguard was also wounded.
An adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed that the country would retaliate against the perpetrators. “We will strike as thunder at the killers of this oppressed martyr and will make them regret their action,” tweeted Hossein Dehghan, a military commander.
The Iranian ministry of defence confirmed Fakhrizadeh’s death in a statement. “During the clash between his security team and the terrorists, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was seriously injured and taken to hospital,” it said.
“Unfortunately, the medical team did not succeed in reviving him, and a few minutes ago, this manager and scientist, after years of effort and struggle, achieved a high degree of martyrdom.”
Fakhrizadeh was identified by Israel’s prime minister in a 2018 public presentation as the director of Iran’s nuclear weapons project.
“Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” Benjamin Netanyahu said during the presentation.
He accused Iran at the time of hiding and expanding its nuclear weapons knowhow, saying that Israeli intelligence had obtained a half-tonne cache of nuclear archive materials from the country.
The attack was confirmed by Iranian state TV but then denied by Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI) before being confirmed separately by the defence ministry. Pictures of the purported site of the attack also appeared on the Iranian news sites. Security forces blocked the boulevard where the attack occurred.
A spokesperson for the Israeli military said: “We don’t comment on reports in the foreign media”. The prime minister’s office said it would not comment “on those reports”.
The confusion in the Iranian media reflects the high tensions inside Iran, amid reports that Israeli intelligence and secret service have been given the green light to mount attacks on Iranian nuclear installations before Donald Trump stands down as president.
Many Iranian officials believe Trump, in conjunction with Israel and Saudi Arabia, is determined to weaken or antagonise Iran before the US handover of power on 20 January.
The US president-elect, Joe Biden, has said he is willing to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal and lift some economic sanctions so long as Iran comes back into compliance with the agreement, especially over its excess stocks of enriched uranium. Israel and Saudi Arabia want the US to remain outside the deal and continue with a policy of maximum economic sanctions.
Fakhrizadeh, on a US sanctions list, was regarded as the main keeper of Iranian knowledge of its nuclear programme. A brigadier general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and a professor of physics at the Guard’s Imam Hussein University, Fakhrizadeh was a man cloaked in mystery.
Until April 2018, no photograph of him was publicly available, and after the killing of several other nuclear scientists, a further shield of secrecy and security had been thrown around him, in an effort to protect him against Israeli assassins.
He took charge of Iran’s Physics Research Centre in 1988, and then became head of research at its successor, the Institute of Applied Physics, from where Iran’s secret nuclear research programme was conducted.
He had never been interviewed by a member of the UN nuclear watchdog IAEA, but was named in one of their reports.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/i...-mps-6mjtldtjd
Iranian ‘bomb plot’ targeted Tory MPs
An Iranian diplomat planned to carry out a terrorist attack in France that could have killed five British MPs and Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer, a court has been told.
Assadollah Assadi, 48, failed to appear yesterday for the opening of his trial at which he is accused of masterminding a foiled attack on an event held by Iranian opposition activists in June 2018. The event, near Paris, was attended by the Conservative MPs Bob Blackman, Matthew Offord, Theresa Villiers and Sir David Amess and Labour’s Roger Godsiff, as well as 30 other British officials.
Mr Assadi and three alleged co-conspirators are being tried in Antwerp. Two of them, Amir Saadouni, 40, and his wife Nasimeh Naami, 36, were arrested in Belgium, supposedly en route to the event. Mehrdad Arefani, 57, was arrested in Villepinte, on the outskirts of Paris, where the event was taking place, and Mr Assadi was arrested in Germany and extradited.
Belgian prosecutors claim that the plot was concocted with support from Tehran. Representatives of the Mujahidin-e-Khalq opposition group, whose annual rally was the alleged target, claimed that Mr Assadi had been ordered by Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, not to attend. Thousands of activists and politicians were there, and police believe that the plot would have caused mass loss of life had it succeeded.
Yesterday Mr Assadi’s lawyer, Dimitri de Beco, said that he would be arguing that his client had diplomatic immunity, which is denied by the European authorities. They claim that he did not have immunity in Germany, where he was arrested.
Mr Assadi is accused of being an undercover intelligence operative. He was officially serving as the third counsellor in Iran’s embassy in Vienna at the time, but is also an officer of the Iranian intelligence and security ministry. Prosecutors say that he boarded an Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna from Tehran carrying the explosive device in his baggage.
He is accused of driving to a Pizza Hut in Luxembourg and handing over the bomb to Mr Saadouni and Ms Naami. The couple, who are of Iranian origin but had been granted political asylum in Belgium, were arrested in their car, in which police found explosives. The European authorities had received a tip-off from Israeli intelligence.
All four defendants deny the charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group. The trial is expected to last for three or four days, with the vedict to be delivered a month later. The defendants could face prison sentences of 20 years or more if convicted.
It is the first time that a European country has put an Iranian official on trial for terrorism charges. Tehran has threatened a “proportionate response” against countries involved in the trial......
Iranian ‘bomb plot’ targeted Tory MPs
An Iranian diplomat planned to carry out a terrorist attack in France that could have killed five British MPs and Rudy Giuliani, President Trump’s lawyer, a court has been told.
Assadollah Assadi, 48, failed to appear yesterday for the opening of his trial at which he is accused of masterminding a foiled attack on an event held by Iranian opposition activists in June 2018. The event, near Paris, was attended by the Conservative MPs Bob Blackman, Matthew Offord, Theresa Villiers and Sir David Amess and Labour’s Roger Godsiff, as well as 30 other British officials.
Mr Assadi and three alleged co-conspirators are being tried in Antwerp. Two of them, Amir Saadouni, 40, and his wife Nasimeh Naami, 36, were arrested in Belgium, supposedly en route to the event. Mehrdad Arefani, 57, was arrested in Villepinte, on the outskirts of Paris, where the event was taking place, and Mr Assadi was arrested in Germany and extradited.
Belgian prosecutors claim that the plot was concocted with support from Tehran. Representatives of the Mujahidin-e-Khalq opposition group, whose annual rally was the alleged target, claimed that Mr Assadi had been ordered by Mohammad Javad Zarif, the Iranian foreign minister, not to attend. Thousands of activists and politicians were there, and police believe that the plot would have caused mass loss of life had it succeeded.
Yesterday Mr Assadi’s lawyer, Dimitri de Beco, said that he would be arguing that his client had diplomatic immunity, which is denied by the European authorities. They claim that he did not have immunity in Germany, where he was arrested.
Mr Assadi is accused of being an undercover intelligence operative. He was officially serving as the third counsellor in Iran’s embassy in Vienna at the time, but is also an officer of the Iranian intelligence and security ministry. Prosecutors say that he boarded an Austrian Airlines flight to Vienna from Tehran carrying the explosive device in his baggage.
He is accused of driving to a Pizza Hut in Luxembourg and handing over the bomb to Mr Saadouni and Ms Naami. The couple, who are of Iranian origin but had been granted political asylum in Belgium, were arrested in their car, in which police found explosives. The European authorities had received a tip-off from Israeli intelligence.
All four defendants deny the charges of attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group. The trial is expected to last for three or four days, with the vedict to be delivered a month later. The defendants could face prison sentences of 20 years or more if convicted.
It is the first time that a European country has put an Iranian official on trial for terrorism charges. Tehran has threatened a “proportionate response” against countries involved in the trial......
This sort of thing turns into a long running tit-for-tat exercise
problem is innocent people get killed in the cross-fire
problem is innocent people get killed in the cross-fire
B-52 moved to the Middle East before and then the Saudi summit. Is there more going on?
Now USS Nimitz is returning to the gulf.
Now USS Nimitz is returning to the gulf.
Last edited by Less Hair; 28th Nov 2020 at 12:51.
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Hanging off the end of a thread
Posts: 32,722
Received 2,714 Likes
on
1,152 Posts
The sooner the US is shot of Trump the better, the guy isn't playing with a full deck of cards, watching him on CNN and his irate rantings it is sad to see, he is not all there, and this guy is in a position to cause havoc in the region over the next month or so.
I can see him totally falling apart when he is finally ousted from the White House, what I cannot believe is how a lot of Americans just can't see he is not the full ticket.
I can see him totally falling apart when he is finally ousted from the White House, what I cannot believe is how a lot of Americans just can't see he is not the full ticket.
More on the Iran’s nuclear chief's assassination in The Times.
Iran’s nuclear chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh killed by ‘remote-controlled weapons’
Iran’s nuclear chief Mohsen Fakhrizadeh killed by ‘remote-controlled weapons’
A leading Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated in his car with gunfire from remote-controlled automatic weapons in an operation that took less than three minutes, reports from Tehran suggest.
Israeli intelligence services and the UN’s nuclear weapons experts believed that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was instrumental in Iran’s atomic programme. He was killed as he travelled with his wife towards their house in the suburb of Absard, a weekend destination for the capital’s wealthy residents. Iran has blamed Israel for the attack.
Locals reported hearing a loud blast and sustained gunfire at about 2pm on Friday. Photos show the wreckage of his blacked-out vehicle, which was travelling in a convoy with three other vehicles, strewn across the road.
Dr Fakhrizadeh’s death has embarrassed the Iranian regime 11 months after Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Quds expeditionary force and architect of Iran’s regional expansion, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad. The scientist had been the target of an assassination attempt in 2008, when a hit squad on motorcycles attached explosives to his moving car.
Initial reports suggested that the latest attackers ambushed the convoy in a bomb and gun assault before vanishing. Other accounts suggested that a team of 12 was involved.
The Fars news agency, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that the shots initially fired at Dr Fakhrizadeh’s car came from a remotely-operated machinegun mounted on a Nissan pick-up truck, which exploded with a self-destruct mechanism.
It claimed that Dr Fakhrizadeh stepped out of the car, thinking it had hit an object or that there was a problem with the engine. No one has claimed to be behind the attack but Tehran has said that it holds Israel responsible.
Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said that there would be “definitive punishment” of the perpetrators.
Israeli intelligence services and the UN’s nuclear weapons experts believed that Mohsen Fakhrizadeh was instrumental in Iran’s atomic programme. He was killed as he travelled with his wife towards their house in the suburb of Absard, a weekend destination for the capital’s wealthy residents. Iran has blamed Israel for the attack.
Locals reported hearing a loud blast and sustained gunfire at about 2pm on Friday. Photos show the wreckage of his blacked-out vehicle, which was travelling in a convoy with three other vehicles, strewn across the road.
Dr Fakhrizadeh’s death has embarrassed the Iranian regime 11 months after Qasem Soleimani, the leader of the Quds expeditionary force and architect of Iran’s regional expansion, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad. The scientist had been the target of an assassination attempt in 2008, when a hit squad on motorcycles attached explosives to his moving car.
Initial reports suggested that the latest attackers ambushed the convoy in a bomb and gun assault before vanishing. Other accounts suggested that a team of 12 was involved.
The Fars news agency, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, said that the shots initially fired at Dr Fakhrizadeh’s car came from a remotely-operated machinegun mounted on a Nissan pick-up truck, which exploded with a self-destruct mechanism.
It claimed that Dr Fakhrizadeh stepped out of the car, thinking it had hit an object or that there was a problem with the engine. No one has claimed to be behind the attack but Tehran has said that it holds Israel responsible.
Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, said that there would be “definitive punishment” of the perpetrators.
Join Date: Jul 2002
Location: across the border....
Posts: 181
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
I'd be more interested as to why five British MP's and thirty 'officials' were attending a conference hosted by what was previously deemed a terrorist organisation and who funded their trip? and was it sanctioned by the FO? I'd be disappointed if my MP was involved in anything other than their constituents' needs.
Ecce Homo! Loquitur...
Thread Starter
You mean the rally also attended by:
Anna Elzbieta Fotyga, MP, representing the delegation from the Belgian parliament; Nejat al-Astal, Member of Parliament representing the Palestinian parliament; Saleh al-Qalab representing the Jordanian parliament.
A bipartisan delegation from the US Senate including Newt Gingrich plus Judge Michael Mukasey, former US Attorney General and Judge Louis Freeh, former Director of FBI. Frances Townsend; former assistant secretary for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism,
A Canadian delegation, led by John Baird, former Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Former Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France and Rama Yade, former French Minister of Human Rights; Minister of Foreign Affair Giulio Terzi of Italy and Italian Senator Roberto Rampi.
Eduard Lintner, former German deputy Interior Minister and Martin Patzelt, a Member of Germany Bundestag; Marcin Swiecicki, a Member of Parliament from Poland.
A delegation from Albania included Pandeli Majko, former Prime Minister, and Fatmir Mediu, Leader of the Albanian Republican Party.
Amongst others....
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation...stance_of_Iran
The NCRI, along with the MEK is regarded by the governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Iraq as a terrorist organization, and was classified as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States, alleging that the NCRI "is not a separate organization, but is instead, and has been, an integral part of the MEK at all relevant times" and that the NCRI is "the political branch" of the MEK. However, it is no longer considered terrorist. On September 28, 2012, the US State Department formally removed MEK from its list of terrorist organizations in a decision made by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ahead of an October 1 deadline set by a US appeals court.
Dick Armey (the former House majority leader 1995–2003) suggested that the State Department wrongly included MEK in the terrorist list from the beginning. Alireza Jafazadeh was its official representative in the US until the Washington office was closed by the US State Department in 2002 on the grounds that it was only a front group for the MEK by then listed as a terrorist organization in the US. It has been alleged that the inclusion of NCRI and MEK in the list was a token offered to the theocratic regime of Iran rather than based on the facts of the matter.
According to the Wall Street Journal "Senior diplomats in the Clinton administration say the MEK figured prominently as a bargaining chip in a bridge-building effort with Tehran." The Journal added that: In 1997, the State Department added the MEK to a list of global terrorist organizations as "a signal" of the US's desire for rapprochement with Tehran's reformists, said Martin Indyk, who at the time was assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs. President khatami's government "considered it a pretty big deal," Indyk said.
The European Union in May 2004 implied that NCRI is part of the people's Mujahedin of Iran and excluded the NCRI itself from a list of organisations considered to be terrorist organisations, including the People's Mujahedin of Iran "minus the National Council of Resistance of Iran" on its list of terrorist organisations. On January 26, 2009, the EU Council of Ministers agreed to remove the MEK from the EU terror list....
Anna Elzbieta Fotyga, MP, representing the delegation from the Belgian parliament; Nejat al-Astal, Member of Parliament representing the Palestinian parliament; Saleh al-Qalab representing the Jordanian parliament.
A bipartisan delegation from the US Senate including Newt Gingrich plus Judge Michael Mukasey, former US Attorney General and Judge Louis Freeh, former Director of FBI. Frances Townsend; former assistant secretary for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism,
A Canadian delegation, led by John Baird, former Foreign Minister and former Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
Former Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner of France and Rama Yade, former French Minister of Human Rights; Minister of Foreign Affair Giulio Terzi of Italy and Italian Senator Roberto Rampi.
Eduard Lintner, former German deputy Interior Minister and Martin Patzelt, a Member of Germany Bundestag; Marcin Swiecicki, a Member of Parliament from Poland.
A delegation from Albania included Pandeli Majko, former Prime Minister, and Fatmir Mediu, Leader of the Albanian Republican Party.
Amongst others....
I'd be more interested as to why five British MP's and thirty 'officials' were attending a conference hosted by what was previously deemed a terrorist organisation
The NCRI, along with the MEK is regarded by the governments of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Republic of Iraq as a terrorist organization, and was classified as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the United States, alleging that the NCRI "is not a separate organization, but is instead, and has been, an integral part of the MEK at all relevant times" and that the NCRI is "the political branch" of the MEK. However, it is no longer considered terrorist. On September 28, 2012, the US State Department formally removed MEK from its list of terrorist organizations in a decision made by then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, ahead of an October 1 deadline set by a US appeals court.
Dick Armey (the former House majority leader 1995–2003) suggested that the State Department wrongly included MEK in the terrorist list from the beginning. Alireza Jafazadeh was its official representative in the US until the Washington office was closed by the US State Department in 2002 on the grounds that it was only a front group for the MEK by then listed as a terrorist organization in the US. It has been alleged that the inclusion of NCRI and MEK in the list was a token offered to the theocratic regime of Iran rather than based on the facts of the matter.
According to the Wall Street Journal "Senior diplomats in the Clinton administration say the MEK figured prominently as a bargaining chip in a bridge-building effort with Tehran." The Journal added that: In 1997, the State Department added the MEK to a list of global terrorist organizations as "a signal" of the US's desire for rapprochement with Tehran's reformists, said Martin Indyk, who at the time was assistant secretary of state for Near East Affairs. President khatami's government "considered it a pretty big deal," Indyk said.
The European Union in May 2004 implied that NCRI is part of the people's Mujahedin of Iran and excluded the NCRI itself from a list of organisations considered to be terrorist organisations, including the People's Mujahedin of Iran "minus the National Council of Resistance of Iran" on its list of terrorist organisations. On January 26, 2009, the EU Council of Ministers agreed to remove the MEK from the EU terror list....
