Iran’s Revolutionary Guards threatens retaliation on American army and bases

Commander of Irans Revolutionary Guard said the U.S. should move its military bases farther from Irans borders if it imposes new sanctions against Tehran, the official IRNA news reports

 Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps has warned the US not to designate it as a terrorist organisation, suggesting the US military could be at risk of attack if the elite force is targeted with sanctions. US president Donald Trump is this week expected to decertify the nuclear accord that Tehran signed with major powers in 2015 and could impose additional sanctions on the Islamic Republic. If that happens, it would be the first time since the 1979 Islamic Revolution that Iran’s military has faced sanctions. So far, entities and individuals affiliated to the Guards — one of the most powerful arms of the regime with numerous business interests — have been the target of international sanctions but not the Guards themselves. “If media speculations on a foolish [decision] by the US administration to designate the Guards as a terrorist organisation are correct, the Guards would treat the US army similar to [the way it treats] Daesh [Isis] in the world, particularly in the Middle East,” said Brigadier General Mohammad-Ali Jafari, the Guards’ senior commander, referring to Iran’s fight against Isis in Iraq and Syria. Jafari said Iran would consider enforcement of the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) — which Mr Trump signed into law in August to enact new sanctions on Iran, North Korea and Russia — as the unilateral exit of the US from the nuclear accord. This, he said, would give the Islamic Republic “an opportunity to boost its conventional defensive, missile and regional programmes”. He added that “should this new US sanctions law be enforced [against Iran], this country [the US] must transfer its regional [military] bases away from the reach of Iranian missiles within a range of 2,000km”. Last week, Mr Trump accused Iran of supporting terrorism and exporting violence, bloodshed, and chaos across the Middle East. Iranian troops and Tehran-backed Lebanese militant group Hizbollah have fought on the same side as Bashar al-Assad in Syria’s six-year civil war and have sided with Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen. Western diplomats in Tehran say a US move against the Guards would further complicate the crisis in the Middle East and could make Iran’s role more disruptive. 
“We have told Americans repeatedly that the Iranian regime will close ranks and become a more dangerous force in the Middle East if the Guards are cornered,” said a senior western diplomat in Tehran. “But this [US] administration may not listen to us.” European countries continue to back the nuclear deal — signed by six major powers and endorsed by the UN Security Council — which restricts Iran’s enrichment activities in exchange for limited sanctions relief. Mr Trump, who has called the accord “embarrassing” and the “worst deal ever”, is expected to decertify it by October 15 which gives the US Congress 60 days to decide on the fate of the deal. 

Trump plans to declare that Iran nuclear deal is not in the national interest

The move would mark the first step in a process that could eventually result in the resumption of U.S. sanctions against Iran

The Washington Post- October 5 , 2017- President Trump plans to announce next week that he will “decertify” the international nuclear deal with Iran, saying it is not in the national interest of the United States and kicking the issue to a reluctant Congress, people briefed on an emerging White House strategy for Iran said Thursday.

The move would mark the first step in a process that could eventually result in the resumption of U.S. sanctions against Iran, which would blow up a deal limiting Iran’s nuclear activities that the country reached in 2015 with the U.S. and five other nations.

Trump is expected to deliver a speech, tentatively scheduled for Oct. 12, laying out a larger strategy for confronting the nation it blames for terrorism and instability throughout the Middle East.

Under what is described as a tougher and more comprehensive approach, Trump would open the door to modifying the landmark 2015 agreement he has repeatedly bashed as a raw deal for the United States. But for now he would hold off on recommending that Congress reimpose sanctions on Iran that would abrogate the agreement, said four people familiar with aspects of the president’s thinking.

All cautioned that plans are not fully set and could change. The White House would not confirm plans for a speech or its contents. Trump faces an Oct. 15 deadline to report to Congress on whether Iran is complying with the agreement and whether he judges the deal to be in the U.S. national interest...

“The administration looks forward to sharing details of our Iran strategy at the appropriate time,” said Michael A. Anton, spokesman for the White House national security council.

Other people familiar with the nine-month review of U.S. military, diplomatic, economic and intelligence approaches toward Iran spoke on condition of anonymity because aspects of the policy are not yet set and Trump has not announced his decision.

Trump’s senior national security advisers agreed within the past several weeks to recommend that Trump “decertify” the agreement at the Oct. 15 deadline, two of those people said.

That would start a 60-day congressional review period to consider the next steps for the United States. On its own, the step would not break the agreement among Iran, the United States and other world powers, but would start a clock on resuming sanctions that the United States had lifted as its part of the deal...

Trump expected to decertify Iran nuclear deal, official says

U.S. President Donald Trump speaks after meeting with police at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department in the wake of the mass shooting in Las Vegas, Nevada, U.S., October 4, 2017.

WASHINGTON, Reuters, October 5, 2017  - President Donald Trump is expected to announce soon that he will decertify the landmark international deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program, a senior administration official said on Thursday, in a step that potentially could cause the 2015 accord to unravel.

Trump has been weighing whether the pact, which he has called an “embarrassment,” serves U.S. security interests as he faces an Oct. 15 deadline for certifying that Iran is complying with it.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Trump is also expected to roll out a broader U.S. strategy on Iran that would be more confrontational. The Trump administration has frequently criticized Iran’s conduct in the Middle East.

If Trump declines to certify Iran’s compliance, U.S. congressional leaders would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran suspended under the agreement.

The Washington Post first reported Trump’s plans to say that he will decertify the deal.

Trump has long criticized the pact, a signature foreign policy achievement of his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama which was signed in 2015 by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia, China, the European Union and Iran.

Many of Trump’s fellow Republicans who control Congress also have been critical of the deal, whereas the other powers that signed it strongly support it.

Supporters say its collapse could trigger a regional arms race and worsen Middle East tensions, while opponents say it went too far in easing sanctions without requiring that Iran end its nuclear program permanently.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a close ally of Trump, last month said that unless provisions in the accord removing restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program over time are eliminated, it should be canceled.

“Fix it, or nix it,” Netanyahu said in a speech at the U.N. General Assembly annual gathering of world leaders on Sept. 19.

An administration official previously said the administration was considering Oct. 12 for Trump to give a speech on Iran but no final decision had been made.

In April, the administration said it would review whether the lifting of sanctions against Iran was in the U.S. national security interest. Trump is weighing a strategy that could allow more aggressive U.S. responses to Iran’s forces, its Shi‘ite Muslim proxies in Iraq and Syria and its support for militant groups.

Trump’s defense secretary, Jim Mattis, told a Senate hearing on Tuesday the United States should consider staying in the deal unless it were proven that Tehran was not abiding by it or that it was not in the U.S. national interest to do so.

When Mattis was asked by a senator whether he thought to stay in the deal was in the U.S. national security interest, he replied: “Yes, senator, I do.”

Last week, Iran’s foreign minister said Tehran may abandon the deal if Washington decides to withdraw from it. A senior European Union diplomat said this week European countries would do their utmost to preserve it. While Europeans have concerns about Iran’s role in regional affairs, those issues are not part of the nuclear accord, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

A State Department official said the Trump administration was “fully committed to addressing the totality of Iranian threats and malign activities and seeks to bring about a change in the Iranian regime’s behavior.”

The official said that behavior includes ballistic missiles proliferation, “support for terrorism,” support for Bashar al-Assad, “unrelenting hostility to Israel,” “consistently threatening freedom of navigation in the Persian Gulf,” cyber attacks against the United States and its allies, human rights abuses and “arbitrary detentions of U.S. citizens.”

”The JCPOA was expected to contribute to regional and international peace and security, and Iran’s regime is doing everything in its power to undermine peace and security,” the State Department official added.

The move also would represent another step by Trump that would undo key parts of Obama’s legacy.

Fake News on Secretary Mattis and the Iran Nuke Deal

US Defense. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis

Supporters of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran (the JCPOA) have been very active on social media this afternoon claiming that Secretary of Defense James Mattis broke with President Trump when he told the Senate Armed Services Committee today that the United States should remain in the Iran deal.

JCPOA supporters are worried that President Trump will not certify to Congress by an October 15 deadline that the JCPOA is in America’s national security interests and that Iran is in compliance. But after the president called the agreement “an embarrassment to the United States” in his speech to the U.N. General Assembly last month, JCPOA advocates are even more worried that he will withdraw the U.S. from the agreement, possibly using a plan drafted by Ambassador John Bolton, which National Review published on August 28.

Prodded by JCPOA supporters, the media is playing up Mattis’s statement today as showing that the Secretary has suddenly turned on the president.

This is not the case. In fact, General Mattis made clear during his Senate confirmation hearing on January 12, 2017, that he supported America’s remaining in the Iran nuclear deal. Mattis also sided with other cabinet members in April 2017 and July 2017 in recommending that Trump certify the nuclear deal to Congress. Media stories that Mattis suddenly decided to oppose the president on the JCPOA are fake news.

General Mattis is a good man and an American hero. I wish Mattis would follow Ambassador Bolton’s plan and implement a “clean” withdrawal from the deeply flawed Iran nuclear deal. The experts said in their letter: “It is time to move beyond President Obama’s appeasement of Iran and to begin work on a comprehensive new approach that fully addresses the menace that the Iranian regime increasingly poses to American and international security.”

This letter was signed by many former senior U.S. government national-security experts, including the former director of Sandia National Laboratory, Paul Robinson; former undersecretary of state for arms control, Robert Joseph; former undersecretary of defense for policy, Douglas Feith; former undersecretary of defense for intelligence, General William Boykin; and dozens of other former State Department and Defense Department officials.

We will soon learn President Trump’s decision on how he wants to proceed on the Iran nuclear deal. The deal is so extremely flawed that there is no realistic chance of fixing it. The only option is a clean withdrawal using the Bolton plan.  

Two years later: 5 recommendations for a new Iran nuclear policy

Iran will remain a threat to the U.S. and its allies as long as the clerical regime remains in power

The Hill, Oct. 3, 2017 - Two years into the nuclear deal with Iran — known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — it has become clear that neither the people of Iran nor the region are better off.
The previous administration’s policy of engagement failed to address rampant human rights violations, regional aggression, a burgeoning missile program and the export of terrorism, all of which are crippling Iran’s own population. 
President Trump came into office as a force of change; here are five ways he can change Washington’s culture of politics as usual and respond positively to the long-suffering Iranian people’s call for change: 
1. Protect Pro-Democracy Iranians
In signing the JCPOA, the P5+1 (namely the UN Security Council's five permanent members, plus Germany) opted to trust a regime that boasts of deceiving the West, rather than the Iranian people, who are generally acknowledged to be pro-western and anti-regime. President Trump acknowledged this in his remarks this September to the UN General Assembly: 
“The entire world understands that the good people of Iran want change, and, other than the vast military power of the United States, that Iran's people are what their leaders fear the most.  This is what causes the regime to restrict internet access, tear down satellite dishes, shoot unarmed student protesters, and imprison political reformers.” 
Instead of protecting Iran’s people, the JCPOA ignores their aspirations and suffering at a terrible cost. The deal does nothing to slow rampant arrests and mass executions, not to mention the regime’s continuing concealment of its nuclear facilities. Let's stop giving the mullah’s a free pass to murder the Iranian people. 
2. Challenge Iranian Meddling 
The JCPOA did nothing to deter the violence, terror and displacement that Iran exports to its neighbors. In the two years since signing the JCPOA, the P5+1 have turned a blind eye to the expansion of Iranian influence in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon. Western credibility with its regional allies has suffered as a result; the prospects with a host of regional actors have increased; and the Iranian regime has been emboldened. An agreement that ignores Iran’s  extraterritorial incursions, chemical weapons and terrorism isn’t an agreement; it’s capitulation. 
3. Get Tough on Ballistic Missiles
An essential element of any nuclear program is the ability to deliver a warhead via ballistic missiles. While the JCPOA was able to pause projects related to the nuclear fuel cycle for 10 (now eight) years, ballistic missile testing was left unchecked. 
President Trump has addressed the ongoing development of Iran's missile program, saying, “We cannot let a murderous regime continue these destabilizing activities while building dangerous missiles, and we cannot abide by an agreement if it provides for the eventual construction of a nuclear program.” 
4. Stop Funding the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)
The JCPOA released billions of dollars in frozen assets to Iran and opened the door to deals worth billions more. The IRGC and its Quds Force, Iran’s weapons of choice in spreading terror, control a financial empire comprising easily 40 percent of Iran’s total economy. An estimated 80 percent of the profits of newly signed deals will directly benefit the ruling regime, not the Iranian people, with the Quds Force as perhaps the biggest winner. 
Last August, Congress overwhelmingly passed H.R. 3364, which subjected the IRGC to sanctions under Executive Order 13224 issued by President George W. Bush. The United States should immediately and strictly enforce this legislation, with zero tolerance of any violations.
5. Get Serious About Regime Change 
Iran will remain a threat to the U.S. and its allies as long as the clerical regime remains in power. If the United States is serious about changing Iranian behavior, it has to consider changing the regime. Secretary of State Tillerson and Secretary of Defense Mattis have publicly spoken about U.S. policy moving in this direction. 
Key U.S. regional partners are also increasingly outspoken on this issue. Saudi Arabia, the Syrian opposition, Egypt, Yemen and the Palestinian Authority all sent official delegations to a gathering of around 100,000 supporters of the Iranian opposition in Paris. In his remarks to the gathering, former Saudi Intelligence Chief and Ambassador to the United States Prince Turki bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz al Saud said, “The behavior of the regime in Tehran does not make it a democratic system, but a murderous dictatorship.” 
He called on all sectors of Iranian society to free themselves from the rule of Velayat-e Faqih (theocratic despotism). President Trump’s reference to the “murderous regime” in Tehran that “cannot endure forever,” was spot-on.  
If President Trump is looking for genuine change, the circumstances are ripe and the time is now.  
Ambassador Adam Ereli was the U.S. Ambassador to Bahrain and deputy State Department spokesperson during the Bush administration.

Defense Secretary Mattis suggests sticking with Iran nuclear deal

U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis testifies before a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Political and Security Situation in Afghanistan on Capitol Hill in Washington U.S. October 3 2017

WASHINGTON (Reuters) OCT. 3, 2017 - U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Tuesday the United States should consider staying in the Iran nuclear deal unless it were proven Tehran that was not abiding by the agreement or that it was not in the U.S. national interest to do so.
Mattis said he supported U.S. President Donald Trump’s review of the agreement curbing Iran’s nuclear program.
Trump is weighing whether the deal serves U.S. security interests as he faces a mid-October deadline for certifying that Iran is complying with the pact, a decision that could sink an agreement strongly supported by the other powers that negotiated it.
“If we can confirm that Iran is living by the agreement, if we can determine that this is in our best interest, then clearly we should stay with it,” Mattis told a Senate hearing.
The White House had no immediate comment on Mattis’ remarks, which once again highlighted the range of views on key policy issues within the Trump administration.
If Trump does not recertify by Oct. 15 that Iran is in compliance with the agreement, Congress would have 60 days to decide whether to reimpose sanctions on Tehran suspended under the accord.
That would let Congress, controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, effectively decide whether to kill the deal. Although congressional leaders have declined to say whether they would seek to reimpose sanctions, Republican lawmakers were united in their opposition to the deal reached by Democratic former President Barack Obama.

 

    U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis

Last month, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani said the nuclear accord cannot be renegotiated.

Trump has said he has made a decision on what to do about the agreement but has not said what he has decided.
The prospect of Washington reneging on the agreement has worried some U.S. partners that helped negotiate it, especially as the world grapples with North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic missile development.
The deal was signed by Britain, China, France, Germany, Iran, Russia and the United States.
White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster has defended Trump’s criticism of the deal, saying it had the “fatal flaw” of a ‘sunset clause,’ under which some of the deal’s restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program expire from 2025

Iran regime imprisons Sunni activists in Ahwaz

Arresting Sunni activist for his faith 

According to informed sources, agents of the notorious intelligence ministry in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz have arrested a Sunni activist. 
The arrest, according to the source, came in the midnight of Thursday, Sept. 28 where the repressive agents of the mullahs' ministry in Ahwaz raided the house of Ali Khanfari. There was no reason giving for his arrest and he has been transferred to an unknown location. The source says it was the second time that intelligence ministry agents arrested Mr. Khanfari. 
In another news, in the city of Shush, southern Iran, the intelligence ministry agents summoned and apprehended a Sunni religious missionary in the last week of September. The man was identified as Hassan Salah, 32, and married. He receives a call from the ministry and when he replies, the agents arrest him. 
His family was told that he would be released in one week, but the family says he has not been released yet. 
A source close to the case says the reason behind his arrest is his Sunni religion teaching.