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A new attempt by Hamas to entice Israeli children to play with incendiary balloons includes choosing colorful balloons and attaching lights and toys to them, Yediot Ahronot reported. According to the report, a cluster of balloons recently found in the Eshkol Region was attached to an explosive toy. The balloons, found late at night, were colorful and included colorful flashing lights. Kibbutz Be'eri's secretary, Yaniv Hagi, told Yediot Aharonot: "Incendiary balloons land in our kibbutz at all hours of day and night. They arrive with flashing and sparkling lights, and some of the balloons have smiley faces on them, so...

Iran feels it can target Israel, the US or Saudi Arabia when the time comes. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) fired six ballistic missiles “east of the Euphrates” in Syria to retaliate for an attack on the IRGC in Ahvaz on September 22. The attack shows Iran’s reach throughout the region and that Iran is willing to strike wherever it pleases and knows that air defense systems in Iraq and those by the Coalition in eastern Syria will not interdict it. The targeting of ISIS in Syria by Iran is a major escalation, primarily because the missiles overflew Iraq...

This is the reality: A career diplomat crossing European borders in a rented car while carrying a professionally-made bomb, which bears a design favored by jihadists. In Luxembourg, he hands over the bomb to two would-be terrorists, long-standing residents of Europe who just look like any ordinary young married couple. They accept it with a clear mission in mind: to bomb a political rally in the largest convention center in France, located in the suburbs of Paris. If the plot is successful, it will kill many among the tens of thousands of people in attendance, among who were hundreds of...

Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) – A Saudi-owned newspaper has claimed that Islamic State chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has moved to Afghanistan via Iranian territories. Quoting Pakistani security and other extremist group sources, Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported that Baghdadi arrived in Nangarhar Province in eastern Afghanistan after crossing Iranian territories via the eastern city of Zahedan. According to the sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity, IS manages a location to host its fighters in Zahedan in cooperation with the Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). Al-Baghdadi has been reported killed or wounded on a number of occasions. Last month, Baghdadi was reported to be...

Kurdish fighters vow to resist regime's crackdown as groups search for more united strategy amid sanctions on Tehran. The Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said on Sunday that they had killed “10 militants” in the Kurdish region of Iran. The same day the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) said they had engaged in “heavy clashes” with the IRGC near the city of Oshnavieh and had killed 12 “IRGC terrorists.” The battles come amidst a rise in tensions in Iran with US sanctions kicking in and after six months of protests in various parts of the country, including the Kurdish...

The U.S. Navy stands ready to ensure free navigation and the flow of commerce, the U.S. military’s Central Command said on Thursday, as Iran’s Revolutionary Guards warned they would block oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz if necessary. Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and some senior military commanders have threatened in recent days to disrupt oil shipments from the Gulf countries if Washington tries to cut Tehran’s exports.

In the background of the strike stands Iran's attempt to construct a network of friendly forces stretching from Iraq through Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon. In 2016, pro-western sources in Iraq warned that Iran was building just such a conduit. In December 2017, The New Arab reported that convoys of unmarked vehicle had passed into Syria from Iraq through checkpoints manned by the Hashd al-Shaabi, the mostly Shi'ite militias that are known as Popular Mobilization Units (PMU). These militias play a complex role, forming one of a patchwork of similar groups that Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has enlisted to...

A senior Iranian military commander on Tuesday threatened that Iranians would punch U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in the mouth, a day after the top American diplomat announced that Washington would impose unprecedented sanctions against the Islamic Republic. “The people of Iran should stand united in the face of this and they will deliver a strong punch to the mouth of the American Secretary of State and anyone who backs them,” Ismail Kowsari, the deputy commander of the Sarollah Revolutionary Guards base in Tehran said, as quoted by Reuters. Limiting Iran’s missile capabilities was one of Pompeo’s main demands...

Doomed? Why Iran's Economic Mess Will Get Worse Simon Constable The matter at hand is the decision earlier this month by the Trump administration not to certify the so-called nuclear deal, and that means Iran will soon be subject to harsh U.S. sanctions. Overall the result will be a squeezed economy. Current situation Even the latest official statistics for the Iranian economy don't look good. The unemployment rate stands at 11.9% and the inflation rate at 8.3%, according to TradingEconomics.com. However, at least some of the government figures may be more aspirational than actual. Take, for instance, the inflation rate....

The Department of Justice has alleged that nine hackers with ties to the Iranian government engaged in a massive cybertheft scheme to steal scientific data and intellectual property from hundreds of U.S. and foreign universities, private companies and government agencies.

EDITED EXCERPT An Iranian businessman accused by the US government of violating sanctions on Tehran donated money to the Clinton Foundation, The Daily Beast has confirmed. Vahid Alaghband’s Balli Aviation Ltd, a London-based subsidiary of his commodities trading firm tried to sell 747's to Iran, despite a US federal ban. The company pleaded guilty to two counts of criminal information. The hefty sum imposed was “a direct consequence of the level of deception used to mislead investigators," Thomas Madigan, a top DOJ official, said at the time. Balli Aviation agreed to pay a $2 million criminal fine, serve five years...

France on Saturday urged the US Congress not to rip up the Iran nuclear deal, after President Donald Trump decertified Iran’s compliance with the 2015 agreement. “We strongly hope that Congress, which is now responsible for a possible rupture, does not jeopardize the deal,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said in an interview with AFP. “If we denounce a deal that has been respected, it will set a dangerous precedent,” particularly in the context of negotiations with North Korea, Le Drian said, echoing other signatories of the Iran deal Britain, France, Germany, China and Russia. On Friday, Trump ignored...

Iran’s response to President Trump’s decertification of the nuclear deal, teased all week and finally made official on Friday, includes a mixture of belligerent rhetoric, ominous threats, and uncertainty about whether the deal can survive. Belligerent rhetoric poured in for days as decertification became a certainty. Among the latest examples was Brig. General Esmail Ghaani, deputy commander of the infamous Quds Force, declaring that Iran is ready to “bury” President Trump. “We are not a war-mongering country. But any military action against Iran will be regretted. … Trump’s threats against Iran will damage America,” Ghaani said to Iran’s Tansim News...

On the eve of President Trump's decision on the certification of the Iran nuclear deal, CIA Director Michael Pompeo lashed out Thursday at the Islamic Republic in a speech at the University of Texas, calling it "a thuggish police state" and a "despotic theocracy," and comparing its ambitions to those of ISIS.

General Hossein Salami, the Deputy Chief Commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), said that Iran would be better off and more powerful without the 2015 nuclear agreement, adding that U.S. President Donald Trump can in no way pressure Iran through his threats to scrap the deal. “We have not built our life on the basis of interaction with the U.S., as the life of the Iranian nation is independent from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA)”, Salami said on Thursday, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency. “If you intend to abort the deal, you’d better know...

Note: The following text is a quote: http://www.treas.gov/press/releases/hp1330.htm December 17, 2008 HP-1330 Treasury Designates Bank Melli Front Company in New York City Washington, DC--The U.S. Department of the Treasury today designated ASSA CORP., a front company created and controlled by Iran's Bank Melli and domiciled in New York, and its parent organization, ASSA CO. LTD, located in the Channel Islands. "This scheme to use a front company set up by Bank Melli -- a known proliferator -- to funnel money from the United States to Iran is yet another example of Iran's duplicity," said Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial...

U.S. slaps sanctions on Iranian bank over missile programs (Kyodo) _ The Treasury Department said Tuesday it has cut off Iran's state-owned Bank Sepah from access to the U.S. financial system for its alleged support for developing missiles. The sanctions, issued under a presidential executive order aimed at freezing the assets of proliferators of weapons of mass destruction and their supporters, prohibit the bank's any transactions in the United States and freeze any assets it may have under U.S. jurisdiction. "Bank Sepah is the financial linchpin of Iran's missile procurement network and has actively assisted Iran's pursuit of missiles capable...

A U.S. Navy surveillance ship was harassed by an Iranian fast attack craft while entering the Persian Gulf on Saturday, a defense official confirmed to USNI News on Monday. USNS Invincible (T-AGM-24) was transiting the Strait of Hormuz in the early morning on March 4 with three other coalition ships when the ships were approached by several Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy fast attack craft, the official told USNI News. One of the IRGCN craft maneuvered 600 yards in front of the 2,300-ton Invincible and “went dead in the water,” the official said.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration is considering a proposal that could lead to potentially designating Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter. The officials said several U.S. government agencies have been consulted about such a proposal, which if implemented would add to measures the United States has already imposed on individuals and entities linked to the IRGC. The IRGC is by far Iran’s most powerful security entity, which also has control over large stakes in Iran’s economy and huge influence in its political system.

Donald Trump promised during the campaign to get tough on radical Islamic terror groups as well as force Iran to renegotiate terms on Barack Obama’s nuclear deal. The next executive orders from the president may address both pledges — and create more controversy. According to Reuters, Trump will designate the entire Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as a foreign terrorist organization (FTO), expanding current sanctions applied at the moment to only its Quds Force: A designation of the entire IRGC as a terrorist group would potentially have much broader implications, including for the 2015 nuclear deal negotiated between Iran and...