Iran regime officials concerned of “surprising” U.S. sanctions

As new US sanctions on Iran set, regime officials express greater concern

 Mike Pompeo and Steve Mnuchin, U.S. Secretaries of State and Treasury, respectively, announced the second round of economic sanctions imposed against the Iranian regime.

The two senior U.S. officials emphasized these sanctions will continue as long as the Iranian regime continues to support terrorism and its military meddling in Syria, and refuses to completely stop its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

Mnuchin said 700 Iranian individuals and entities have been added to the blacklist in the course of these new sanctions. This is a significant addition of Iranian regime individuals and entities to this blacklist; all involved in facilitating the mullahs’ efforts aimed at bypassing U.S. sanctions.

As more details of U.S. Treasury Department sanctions against the Iranian regime are revealed, Ahmad Amir Abadi Farahani, a member of the Iranian regime’s Majlis (parliament) governing board and a member of Qom Province said in his twitter account:

“Nearly all individuals and complexes involved in bypassing the previous sanctions are seen in this list.”

Surprised, he continued his remarks: “Where did the enemy receive this information?”
The German news agency, DPA, wrote in this regard, “According to Ahmad Amir Abadi Farahani, branches of these financial entities were secretly involved in bypassing U.S. sanctions and their blacklisting has been surprising.”

Senior Iranian regime officials, including the Central Bank chief, have claimed they have plans on how to bypass U.S. sanctions.

“Necessary measures have been carried out under the framework of precise planning for our currency resources and consumption” and “necessary negotiations with our trading partners have been carried out, and we have coordinated our engagement with them,” claimed Abdul Nosser Hemmati.

Despite the fact that not all European countries support U.S. sanctions against the Iranian regime, due to America’s economic and political weight, they will be facing a grave challenge in continuing their economic relations with the Iranian regime.

The European Union, especially the three signatories of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, had promised to continue their support of this agreement. However, to this day these countries have failed to present a clear plan on how to confront U.S. sanctions. Although they intend to implement a financial blueprint known as the “special payment vehicle” and continue legal trade and banking transactions with the Iranian regime, no nation has actually stepped forward to host this mechanism. On the other hand, the Iranian regime has not welcomed their efforts in general.

Iranian regime President Hassan Rouhani criticized French President Emmanuelle Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Europe’s suggestive financial package.

Read more:

The United States officially re-imposed Monday (Nov. 5) all sanctions lifted under the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal as the Trump administration adds nearly 700 regime targets, including 50 financial institutions linked to the mullahs’ regime.

The Treasury Department blacklisted hundreds of entities, including individuals, banks, vessels, aircraft and the Iranian regime’s energy sector as part of measures to reapply crippling measures. These sanctions follow the decision made by the Trump administration's decision in May to pull out of the highly flawed nuclear deal.

This recent initiative brings the total of Iranian regime targets blacklisted to 900 in less than two years and represents a significant increase in Washington's efforts to enforce economic pressure on the Iranian regime.

"The maximum pressure exerted by the United States is only going to mount from here," said Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a statement ahead of a briefing with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. "We are intent on making sure the Iranian regime stops siphoning its hard currency reserves into corrupt investments and the hands of terrorists."

Among the sanctioned entities are 92 entities owned or controlled by Ghadir Investment Company, previously identified the US government as an investment firm with links to the Execution of Imam Khomeini's Order, a regime-owned enterprise under direct control of Iranian regime Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

The Treasury Department also blacklisted 70 financial institutions linked to the Iranian regime, including their foreign and domestic units. These entities have assisted in funnelling billions of dollars to the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Quds Force, designated as a terrorist organization by the U.S. Those firms include Bank Melli, Arian Bank, Future Bank and the Export Development Bank of Iran.

Some of the banks sanctioned on Monday have served as "financial conduits" for the regime’s Ministry of Defence and Armed Forces Logistics and the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting, according to Washington.

"This action is aimed at cutting off Iranian banks that facilitate Iran's domestic repression and foreign adventurism from the international financial system, and will highlight for the world the true nature of the regime's abuse of its domestic banking system," Sigal Mandelker, Treasury's counter-terrorism chief, said in a statement.

The Trump administration also blacklisted more than 200 individuals and vessels involved in the Iranian regime’s shipping and energy sectors, including the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, being a maritime carrier, and the oil transport entity National Iranian Tanker Company.

"They're the strongest sanctions we've ever imposed," said President Donald Trump on Sunday evening (Nov. 4), hours before the sanctions on Iran's energy, shipbuilding and banking sectors kicked in at midnight. "We'll see what happens with Iran," adding "they're not doing very well."

Monday’s sanctions are yet another sign of the failed appeasement policy vis-à-vis the Iranian regime receiving a major blow and setback. The mullahs’ regime has enjoyed significant concessions under this approach, prolonging its rule through the infliction of enormous pains and suffering on the Iranian people in the past three decades.

Those who have chosen to appease the Iranian regime have blatantly neglected the mullahs’ atrocious human rights violations. This includes the 1988 massacre of over 30,000 political prisoners in prisons across the country consisting of mainly members and supporters of the main Iranian opposition People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK). These states have also allowed the mullahs to acquire weapons of mass destruction, export terrorism and fuel wars across the Middle East and beyond.

Maryam Rajavi

✔@Maryam_Rajavi

Appeasement of the mullahs’ religious fascism has been the most significant factor helping the regime to survive and prolonging the Iranian people’s pain and suffering over the past three decades.#Iran

10:44 PM - Nov 2, 2018

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Trump White House upping the notch on Iran after 9/11 remarks

Iran's Larijani admits to aiding Al-Qaeda before 9-11

According to reports posted on various outlets, the U.S. State Department is considering remarks made recently by a senior Iranian official over events associated to 9/11 terrorist attackers travelling through Iran as acknowledging this regime’s role in facilitating events leading to the tragic attacks that brought New York City’s World Trade Center buildings down.

Mohammad Javad Larijani, the “Human Rights Department” chief of Iran’s so-called judiciary, admitted to this matter in a recent interview that came as a shellshock especially on social media. Iranian authorities were involved in obfuscating and covering al-Qaeda militants’ tracks who found their way to eventually execute the 9/11 atrocities.

Iranian regime intelligence officials covertly provided aid to the al Qaeda attackers with passage and granted them refuge in Iran, according to media outlets.

The 9/11 al-Qaeda operatives enjoyed traveling in ease, without any concerns of Iranian authorities scrutinizing their documents, according to an English translation of the Farsi interview. The mullahs’ regime allowing their commuting through their controlled areas eventually ended in the al-Qaeda operatives attacking the NYC icons.

"Our government agreed not to stamp the passports of some of them because they were on transit flights for two hours, and they were resuming their flights without having their passports stamped. However their movements were under the complete supervision of the Iranian intelligence," Larijani was quoted as saying.

With initial reports sweeping across a variety of social media platforms, Iranian officials in the United Nations have gone the distance in recharacterizing Larijani's remarks, saying the translations were manipulated, media reports indicate.

The remarks are the first of their kind from senior Iranian officials to publicly admitting to aiding al Qaeda and playing a direct role in facilitating the 9/11 attacks.

Reports are quoting the U.S. State Department, from quotes provided to the media, saying how Larijani’s remarks represent what considers an admission to what the U.S. has long argued of Tehran aiding al-Qaeda operatives and facilitating their passage through various parts of the Middle East region.

"We understand an Iranian official affirmed what was previously documented in the 9/11 Commission Report—that Iranian officials helped conceal the travel of al Qaeda members through Iran, on their way to and from countries in the region, including by not placing Iranian stamps in their passports," a senior State Department official told the Washington Free Beacon.

"These actions once again confirm the egregious nature of the Iranian regime and are further evidence of the regime's malign role in the world," the official added.

The Trump administration is actively working on a number of fronts to counter the Iranian regime’s support for terrorism and will not hesitate to escalate the heat on Tehran, the official continued.

"The administration is determined to counter Iran's destabilizing behavior and will increase our pressure on the regime to change its behavior," the official said.

While Tehran is downplaying the comments and seeking to separate the mullahs’ regime from al Qaeda, the Trump administration's strong position is being viewed as even an indictment of Tehran’s role in facilitating and making the 9/11 attack possible.

This could eventually complicate new talks about the future of the Iran nuclear deal that Trump walked out of, and the entire future of how Washington will blueprint its policy vis-à-vis the mullahs’ regime.

More flaws unveiled in highly controversial Iran nuclear deal

The former U.S. President Barack Obama

 A new Senate Republicans investigation provides a shocking insight into how the Obama administration secretly went the limits to provide the Iranian regime access to the American financial system, according to an Associated Press report. Such measures would be carried out through sidestepping post-Iran nuclear deal sanctions, all the while claiming to Congress and the public no such plans were in place, reports indicate.

The Obama administration sought to guarantee Tehran enjoyed benefits while averting any actions that would eventually play into the hands of the nuclear deal’s opponents.

The Iran nuclear deal, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), was opposed by the Iranian opposition National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and People's Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI/MEK), arguing it would only buy Tehran time and provide the mullahs a window to further their deadly influence across the region.

The new Senate reports indicate how in February 2016 Obama’s Treasury Department issued a license allowing Tehran to convert $5.7 billion worth of Omani rials into euros by briefly exchanging them into US dollars, all at the Oman bank. Without such a license, the Oman bank would be found in sanctions violation barring the Iranian regime from transactions that access the U.S. financial system.

While the effort remained unsuccessful, it is worth noting that the Obama administration attempted to convince two U.S. banks to facilitate the rial-dollar-euro conversion.

These actions are being described as yet another “above and beyond” measure in line with appeasing the Iranian regime. Tehran was already provided billions of dollars, both in cash and sanctions relief, fueling a windfall to expand its support for terrorism and influence across the Middle East.

Following U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to exit the JCPOA, the NCRI issued a statementemphasizing:

“After several decades of appeasing the religious fascism ruling and victimizing the Iranian people and Resistance, and simultaneous with the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – JCPOA), the President of the United States declared that the lavish payments to the clerical regime by the previous U.S. administration had been disastrous, adding that the sinister regime ruling Iran, the leading state sponsor of terror in the world today, ‘has funded its long reign of chaos and terror by plundering the wealth of its own people.’

Known for blowing the whistle on the Iranian regime’s clandestine nuclear weapons program under the guise of a civil energy apparatus, the NCRI has a history of revelations warning the international community of Tehran’s dangerous intentions.

“As in the past, any future investment in this regime is doomed to failure. As the Iranian Resistance has persistently declared, standing with the criminal mullahs, and empowering those responsible for, and the perpetrators of, the massacre of the Iranian people’s valiant children, will only embolden the religious fascists’ warmongering, export of fundamentalism and terrorism,” the statement adds citing NCRI President Maryam Rajavi.

This new revelation further proves the completely flawed JCPOA nature and underscores the necessity to both maintain pressure on the Iranian regime and increase the tone to have Iran’s mullahs adhere to the demands raised by the international community.

John Bolton's arrival could mean an overdue turn on Iran

About time to try something different

 (KEVIN LAMARQUE/REUTERS)

John Bolton’s appointment as national security adviser has given rise to a lot of 

hand-wringing about the possibility of another U.S. war in the Middle East. Critics should pause before they rush to judgment.

The U.S. remains entangled in the Syrian war, attempting to mitigate the damage of Bashar Assad while searching for a way forward in what looks increasingly like a no-win situation. We have necessarily renewed our 15-plus year commitments in Afghanistan, where the Taliban appears poised to attempt a comeback. Meanwhile, our Middle Eastern allies are threatened by another civil war in Yemen. Discord undermines stability in Iraq and a number of other countries essential to national and international security.

There is a common factor underlying all these conflicts. The Islamic Republic of Iran has been Assad’s chief backer since the start of the Syrian civil war. Tehran backs the Houthi rebels in Yemen and provides them with weapons like the ballistic missiles aimed at Saudi Arabia.

Iran is striving to duplicate its Hezbollah model among paramilitary groups in Iraq and elsewhere. And Iran has begun expanding relations with the Taliban, ignoring sectarian differences in order to cause trouble for common enemies, just as it did with Al Qaeda in years past.

Every sensible policymaker recognizes that Iran’s fingerprints are prominent on every major crisis in the Middle East. This is true of Defense Secretary James Mattis, who has won mainstream acceptance.

Instead of portraying Bolton’s appointment as unreasonable, commentators could have opted for a perfectly reasonable discussion about the different approaches the U.S. might take to what is widely acknowledged as a serious and growing threat from the Islamic Republic. In the wake of the 2015 nuclear agreement, much of Iran’s behavior has gotten worse, including its antagonism of Western and regional adversaries and its intrusion into the affairs of neighboring countries.

A sober examination of Bolton’s positions might reveal that there are two basic approaches to Iran policy.

The first approach naturally tends toward appeasement; that’s what we’ve been mired in in for almost the entirety of the Islamic Republic — particularly during the nuclear negotiations, when the Obama administration gave away much of the political and economic leverage that the West had over Iran.

The other approach is more assertive in the face of Iran’s ongoing provocations — and that’s what we finally have a chance to try now.

What Bolton’s critics seem to ignore is that assertiveness does not necessarily suggest a rush to war. Rather than risking American lives or wealth, it should entail coordinated economic sanctions, international campaigns to hold officials to account for human rights abuses and other misbehavior, and the promotion of domestic elements that are friendly to American interests and to democratic values more generally.

Iran already has a broadly popular resistance movement, as was proven in late December and January when the entire country was rocked by a series of anti-government protests that went on for several weeks. Demonstrators were comprised of diverse demographics, including poor, rural Iranians who had long been assumed to be bedrocks of support for the regime. They explicitly called for regime change, a call echoed by a major opposition group, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

Soon after the Iranian people’s uprising began in December, Trump declared his support for their fight against tyranny. Bolton has long offered the movement his support, too.

This historic moment presents a unique opportunity, one that the U.S. could exploit by shifting its Iran policy away from appeasement and misplaced outreach in favor of support for the Iranian Resistance and the Iranian people’s long-frustrated desire for freedom and democratic governance.

In light of that opportunity, there is no better time for a figure like John Bolton to join the White House and help Trump shake the U.S. free from failed patterns.

Bolton no doubt understands that getting rid of Iran’s clerical regime will not require the U.S. to launch another foreign war. Quite the contrary, domestically-driven regime change is the only thing that will take war off the table altogether, and it would be a giant step in the direction of freeing the U.S. and its allies from several existing quagmires.

Ridge served as President George W. Bush’s secretary of homeland security and as governor of Pennsylvania.

U.S. weighs multinational military response to Syria attack: sources

U.S. President Donald Trump receives a briefing from senior military leadership accompanied by Vice President Mike Pence and new National Security Adviser John Bolton

The United States is weighing a multinational military response to the suspected Syrian poison gas attack, U.S. officials told Reuters on Monday, as experts listed several key facilities that could be viable targets.

U.S. President Donald Trump promised forceful action on Monday, saying a decision would be made soon following the suspected chemical weapons attack late on Saturday in the Syrian city of Douma that killed at least 60 people and injured more than 1,000 others.

U.S. officials who spoke on condition of anonymity did not disclose any plans, but acknowledged military options were being developed. The White House, Pentagon and State Department declined to comment on specific options or whether military action was likely.

Experts on Syria’s war cited France and perhaps even Britain and Middle East allies as potential partners in any U.S. military operation, which would aim to discourage future chemical weapons use in Syria’s brutal civil war.President Emmanuel Macron warned in February that France would strike Syria if it broke treaties prohibiting chemical weapons. France has more than a dozen warplanes in the Middle East and could look to strike from the sea.

John Bolton Is Good for the U.S. and Bad for Iran

Iran’s protests validate the wisdom of making John Bolton America’s National Security Advisor. If Iran thinks he’s bad, he must be good.

Judging by the rhetoric coming out of Tehran, John Bolton’s appointment as America’s National Security Advisor is the worst thing that ever happened.

The Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council labeled Bolton’s appointment “a matter of shame.” 

The Chairman of the Iranian Parliament's Committee on National Security and Foreign Policy declared,  'The use of hardline elements against the Islamic Republic of Iran shows that the Americans seek to exert more pressure on Iran.”

First Vice President Eshaq Jahangiri opined, “They (US officials) are wrong to assume that the Iranian nation will give in to their threats against the Islamic Republic.” 

The Fars News Agency, the mouthpiece of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) editorialized, “Bolton advocates a foreign policy that exaggerates threats, belittles diplomacy, shows contempt for international institutions, and is quick to use violence… Bolton wants to shred the Iran nuclear deal and bomb Iran, whose policy has consistently favored stability…. Experts and policy-makers in Tehran see the Trump theater as no more than a bluff as the U.S. lacks the needed economic, political and military potentials and legitimacy to go for yet another adventurism in the world.” 

Iran’s protests validate the wisdom of making John Bolton America’s National Security Advisor.  If Iran thinks he’s bad, he must be good.  One thing is certain:  the United States will no longer pursue a policy of appeasement toward the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Since 2008, U.S. policymakers have been bending over backwards to accommodate the mullahs in Tehran.  President Obama’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Iraq left that country at the mercy of Iran.  Obama’s capitulation in Syria allowed Iran (and Russia) to keep Assad in power and to wantonly massacre hundreds of thousands of Syrians with impunity.  The lifting of sanctions as part of the nuclear deal put $150 billion into the pockets of Iran’s leaders, which they have used to finance the terrorist depredations of the IRGC and to bankroll their proxies in Lebanon, Yemen and Bahrain.

Iran’s regional neighbors are not the only ones who have suffered from the revolutionary fervor of the Islamic Republic’s leaders. Iran is the most repressive country in the Middle East. It executes more of its citizens, per capita, than any other country in the world. Ninety percent of all executions throughout the Middle East take place in Iran. The recent uprisings in over 140 cities throughout Iran show that the people are sick to death of this theocratic dictatorship. They long for freedom, justice, democracy and the rule of law.

Whatever flaws one might ascribe to John Bolton, inconsistency is not among them.  He has been advocating a tough policy toward Tehran for the past two decades.  Struan Stevenson, a former member of the European Parliament from Scotland, put it best when he wrote of Bolton’s appointment: “Chamberlain’s policy encouraged Hitler to go to war.  Obama’s Iran policy encouraged the regime to export its terrorism and meddling in the region.  There is only one way to stop the current conflicts and wars in the region:  adopting a firm line with the Iranian regime and supporting the popular uprising for a democratic change in Iran.”

With John Bolton, America finally has a senior official who will translate these wise words into action.

Critics in Iran and the United States have condemned Bolton’s affiliation with the exiled Iranian opposition group, the Mujahedin-e Khalq (PMOI/MEK).  Here, John Bolton is in good company. A bipartisan group of American luminaries and international leaders have lent their support to the group. They include, among others, Senators Joe Lieberman and Bob Torricelli; Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Speaker Newt Gingrich; retired Generals James Jones, Hugh Shelton, and James Conway; former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge; former Attorney General Mike Mukasey; former FBI Director Louis Freeh; former Democratic National Committee Chairs Ed Rendell and Howard Dean; former Ambassadors Bill Richardson, Lincoln Bloomfield Jr., Marc Ginsberg, and Kenneth Blackwell; former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner; former Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi; former Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird, and former Algerian Prime Minister Sid Ahmed Ghozali.

Support for opposition political movements is not a crime, and the United States has a long history of helping the victims of political persecution.  Over the course of four months, during the summer of 1988, the Iranian regime executed an estimated 30,000 men, women and juveniles who had been imprisoned for their affiliation with MEK.  During Operation Enduring Freedom in Iraq, the U.S. Government pursued a policy of protecting MEK members there from attack by Iranian-affiliated forces.

On at least two issues, there should be no doubt:  accommodating the Iranian regime will not bring peace to the region and the people of Iran want change.  With John Bolton at the helm of the National Security Council, there is at last a glimmer of hope that the period of appeasement is over and that the mullahs’ days are numbered.

Mr. Ereli was the U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain and Deputy State Department Spokesperson during the George W. Bush administration.

Iran Uprising: Call for Regime Change, U.S. Policy Options

Rudy Giuliani at OIAC Iran Policy Briefing

Mayor Giuliani: MEK always sought democracy, freedom, rights for women, rights for everyone, and a nonnuclear, peaceful Iran

The uprisings [in Iran] were obviously not sporadic. They were very well organized… in every major city in Iran … and then continuing on to today”

 Rudy Giuliani

WASHINGTON, DC, USA, March 5, 2018 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Washington, DC; March 1, 2018 - At a National Press Club luncheon titled, “Iran Uprising: Call for Regime Change, U.S. Policy Options,” the fourth in a series of OIAC-sponsored forums on Iran policy, former New York City Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani urged the U.S. Government and the international community to impose further sanctions on the clerical regime and do more to stand with the Iranian people in their efforts to change the regime and bring freedom and democracy to Iran.
Ambassador Lincoln Bloomfield Jr., Assistant Secretary of State for Political-Military Affairs during the Bush Administration, moderated the event.
Mayor Giuliani praised the Iranian people for their uprising and the U.S. administration for supporting the protesters, adding, “I am very, very glad that at the very outset back in December, … President’s public support of anti-regime protesters, which riveted 142 cities in Iran, really basically changed American foreign policy.”
“The uprisings [in Iran] were obviously not sporadic. They were very well organized… in every major city in Iran … and then continuing on to today,” Mr. Giuliani said.

When asked about the street slogans of “reformers, hardliners—the game is now over,” Giuliani said, “The whole notion of reformers inside Iran… those are the people you see on the street. They’re not sitting in government offices.”
In regards to the organized opposition, Mr. Giuliani added, “the MEK [Mujahedin-e Khalq organization] is a significant movement in Iran…. There is no organization as comprehensive as the MEK or with the both internal and … foreign support… It should be clear at the outset that the MEK is not interested in dominating alone the politics in Iran…. it’s always been an organization seeking democracy, freedom, rights for women, rights for everyone, and a nonnuclear, peaceful Iran.”
Dismissing the concerns about a post-theocracy Iran, Mr. Giuliani said, “We have a great alternative in Madame [Maryam] Rajavi… We have a woman who’s proven herself, we have a woman that beyond anyone is popular inside Iran… extraordinarily popular … She’s in favor of freedom, economic democracy, the rights of women.”
He urged the U.S. government to, make sure Iranian people have “open access to the Internet without interference,” and called for added sanctions. “We should make sure that particularly access to banking is cut off,” he said.
Dr. Majid Sadeghpour
Organization of Iranian American Communities-US (OIAC)

Rudy Giuliani at OIAC Iran Policy Briefing

Graham: We must ‘stop the Iran-Assad machine’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is the Senate’s lead appropriator for the U.S. State Department and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

  War between Israel and Iranian proxy forces is imminent, a bipartisan group of U.S. senators warned Tuesday after a trip to the Middle East last week.
“Any time you leave a meeting where the request is ammunition, ammunition, ammunition, that’s probably not good,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said of a meeting with Israeli officials. Graham is the Senate’s lead appropriator for the U.S. State Department and a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Hezbollah — the powerful pro-Iranian Lebanese party — has built a plant in Lebanon to convert rockets into precision-guided munitions, and it has integrated its fighters into civilian infrastructure like apartments, schools and hospitals, Graham asserted.
“When they tell you we want help to deal with the blowback that might come from attacks on civilian targets where Hezbollah has integrated military capability, that was pretty striking,” Graham said of talks with Israeli officials.
Fresh from leading a bipartisan congressional delegation last week to Israel, Jordan, Greece and the U.K., Graham told reporters: “This was the most unnerving trip I’ve had in a while.”
The conflict is escalating, said Sen. Chris Coons, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee and a senior appropriator. Coons, D-Del., pointed to the Iranian drone shot down in Israel and the Israeli fighter downed by Syrian air defenses during a retaliatory offensive in Syria.
“The tempo in terms of potential for conflict in Syria has gone up; the technologies Iran is projecting into Syria and southern Lebanon has gone up; Iran’s willingness to be provocative, to push the edges of the envelope, to challenge Israel, has gone up,” said Coons, D-Del..
War isn’t what it used to be. As the threat evolves, so must tactics to respond.
Graham and Coons saw a link between increased pressure on Israel and the lack of a strategy to push back against Russia and Iran from the Trump administration and America’s European allies.
“We have done a pretty good job of dealing with ISIL,” said Graham, using an acronym for the Islamic State group. “But I don’t see a coherent plan.”
Graham described an array of threats on Israeli’s border with Syria. Near the Golan Heights, there are Syrian villages controlled, respectively, by rebel forces, ISIS fighters and forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad who are integrated with Hezbollah.
“Israel’s worst nightmare is to have Assad forces with Hezbollah and Iranian Revolutionary Guard elements on their border,” Graham said. “It’s in our interest to stop the Iran-Assad machine.”
Coons and Graham called on the administration to present Congress with a plan to counter Iran and Russia. Graham called on the international community, to “step up its game.”
The warning comes days after U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was worried about the possibility of a direct confrontation between Israel and various militia groups in Syria approaching its borders.
The United Nations , which operates an 11,000-member peacekeeping force in Lebanon, has maintained forces there since Israel occupied southern Lebanon in 1982. The Jewish state withdrew in 2000.

A debate that permeated a congressional panel at Munich Security Conference is the same question that often permeates Washington: whether an administration should seek congressional authorization for military acts of deterrence.
 “The lack of a clear next step or path forward — in Syria with regards to Iran, in Syria with regards to the Turks and the Kurds, in Israel with regard to Israel and Palestinians — was a theme in all our meetings,” Coons said. “It wasn’t uniformly positive or negative. It was: ‘We want to know where you’re going.’ ”
Without a resolution, Iran, through its proxy, Hezbollah, may “entice” Israel into a war in Lebanon, Graham said. The real question is: What’s Trump’s next move?
“What I want to tell the president is the Iranians are testing him,” Graham said. “This would not be happening if there was a coherent policy [toward] Russia and Iran in Syria.”

Millions in U.S. Cash Obama Gave to Iran Now Traced to Funding Global Terrorism

Iran builds and test fires nuclear capable missile despite UN Sanctions

 The U.S. government has traced some of the $1.7 billion released to Iran by the Obama administration to Iranian-backed terrorists in the two years since the cash was transferred.
According to knowledgeable sources, Iran has used the funds to pay its main proxy, the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, along with the Quds Force, Iran’s main foreign intelligence and covert action arm and element of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The U.S. money supplied to Iran as part of an arms settlement dating back to the 1970s also has been traced to Iran’s backing of Houthi rebels seeking to take power in Yemen. Iran has been supporting the Yemen rebels as part of a bid to encircle and eventually take control of Saudi Arabia.
The intelligence tracing the American funds to Iranian-backed terrorists is likely to further fuel President Trump’s effort to undo the Iran nuclear deal, the Obama administration’s main foreign policy initiative codified in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the Iran nuclear deal is called.
Despite promises to reject the deal during the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump announced in January the U.S. would not pull out of the Iran nuclear accord for now. But the president criticized the transfer of money to Tehran and signaled that Washington is going after Iran’s funding of terrorism.

Obama-era cash traced to Iran-backed terrorists

The U.S. government has traced $1.7 billion released to Iran by the Obama administration to terrorists

According to sources, Iran has used the funds to pay Hezbollah, Quds Force and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The money supplied to Iran

Washington Times, Feb. 7, 2018 - The U.S. government has traced some of the $1.7 billion released to Iran by the Obama administration to Iranian-backed terrorists in the two years since the cash was transferred.
According to knowledgeable sources, Iran has used the funds to pay its main proxy, the Lebanon-based terrorist group Hezbollah, along with the Quds Force, Iran’s main foreign intelligence and covert action arm and element of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps.
The U.S. money supplied to Iran as part of an arms settlement dating back to the 1970s also has been traced to Iran’s backing of Houthi rebels seeking to take power in Yemen. Iran has been supporting the Yemen rebels as part of a bid to encircle and eventually take control of Saudi Arabia.
The intelligence tracing the American funds to Iranian-backed terrorists is likely to further fuel President Trump’s effort to undo the Iran nuclear deal, the Obama administration’s main foreign policy initiative codified in the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, as the Iran nuclear deal is called.
Despite promises to reject the deal during the presidential campaign, Mr. Trump announced in January the U.S. would not pull out of the Iran nuclear accord for now. But the president criticized the transfer of money to Tehran and signaled that Washington is going after Iran’s funding of terrorism.
“The enormous financial windfall the Iranian regime received because of the deal — access to more than $100 billion, including $1.8 billion in cash — has not been used to better the lives of the Iranian people,” Mr. Trump said Jan. 12. “Instead, it has served as a slush fund for weapons, terror, and oppression, and to further line the pockets of corrupt regime leaders.”

Mr. Trump said the United States is countering Iranian proxy wars in Yemen and Syria and cutting the regime’s money flows to terrorists.
“We have sanctioned nearly 100 individuals and entities involved with the Iranian regime’s ballistic missile program and its other illicit activities,” he said.
The American money sent by the Obama administration was first flown to Switzerland aboard an unmarked chartered aircraft, and then converted into euros, Swiss francs and other currencies. An Iranian transport aircraft flew the cash to Iran in January and February 2016 in three shipments. The first aircraft arrived in Tehran on Jan. 16, 2016, with $400 million piled on wooden pallets. Two other aircraft shipments of cash were sent on Jan. 22, 2016, and Feb. 5, 2016, totaling $1.3 billion.
In all, Iran received $1.7 billion in U.S. cash that has been used to fund its covert terrorist support operations.
The first $400 million coincided with the release of four Americans held hostage by Iran, a move by Iran to make the money appear as if the Obama administration had paid a ransom to Tehran for the release of the Americans.
The Obama administration sought to justify the cash transfers to the world’s leading state-sponsor of terrorism by claiming the U.S. government was set to lose a legal arbitration case over arms purchases from the United States made by the government of the Shah of Iran, the predecessor government to the Islamist regime that took power in 1979. However, the primary motivation was President Obama’s effort to woo the Iranian regime and seek to change its backing for terrorism in the Middle East.
The Trump administration has sharply reversed course and is working hard to punish Iran for its terrorist activities. Iran has been linked to the deaths of scores of Americans through its backing for terrorism.
Defense Secretary James N. Mattis has been one of the administration’s main hawks on Iran, although he recently softened his opposition to jettisoning the Iran nuclear deal. In the administration’s recently released defense strategy blueprint, Mr. Mattis shifted the focus of American defenses from countering terrorists to confronting nation-states. He said Iran “continues to sow violence and remains the most significant challenge to Middle East stability.”
“In the Middle East, Iran is competing with its neighbors, asserting an arc of influence and instability while vying for regional hegemony, using state-sponsored terrorist activities, a growing network of proxies, and its missile program to achieve its objectives,” he stated.

Joint Staff revising strategy

The Pentagon’s Joint Staff is working on a revision of U.S. military strategy following the release of Defense Secretary James N. Mattis’ new national defense strategy and the updated Nuclear Posture Review. Both the strategy and review outline significant shifts in approaching foreign threats and in directing American responses.
Air Force Gen. Paul J. Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, announced the launch of the military strategy revision at a hearing Tuesday before the House Armed Services Committee.
“The national defense strategy provides detailed defense policy guidance for military strategy, planning and operations,” Gen. Selva said in his prepared statement. “Therefore, the chairman’s 2016 classified national military strategy will require an update to maintain complete consistency with the national defense strategy and the president’s national security strategy released in December.”
The process of revising military strategy began shortly after the new defense strategy was announced.
Gen. Selva did not provide any details on the revisions, but he noted that the revisions will be “a step toward increasing the lethality and flexibility of the joint force in light of the reemergence of great power competition.”
The revision is expected to alter the military’s approach to dealing with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, and terrorism — the main threat matrix that, like almost everything in the Pentagon, has been given its own acronym: CRIKT. Countering terrorism will continue to be focus but no longer the military’s main focus.
The Joint Staff, the military group at the Pentagon that supports the chairman and vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, also is getting a makeover.
“We have begun a review of the Joint Staff’s organization and processes to determine if we need to make adjustments to support the chairman’s global integrator responsibilities and to better position the chairman to support the secretary’s decision making,” Gen. Selva said.