Shahlai is a very senior IRGC Quds Force commander responsible for the deaths of US servicemembers and planning terrorist attacks on US soil. Shahlai planned an attack targeting a US base in Karbala, Iraq, in 2007 in which Asaib Ahl al Haq fighters kidnapped and executed four US servicemembers.[124] Shahlai was also sanctioned for providing weapons to Iranian-backed Iraqi militias to conduct attacks targeting US and Iraqi forces throughout Iraq.[125] Shahlai, as the commander of the IRGC Quds Force's external operations wing, also planned a terrorist attack in Washington, DC, in 2011 that attempted to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States.[126]
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/iran-update-october-30-2024
Russia Is Running an Undeclared War on Western Shipping
Supplying the Houthis with targeting data crosses every red line of maritime law.
One of the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members is actively supporting attacks on global shipping. It's a stark violation of the maritime rules, which grant merchant vessels the freedom and right to sail not only on the high seas but also through other countries’ waters and through internationally recognized straits without having to fear, let alone experience, acts of aggression.
The fact that Russia is giving the Houthis specific information about vessels’ exact presence in the Red Sea is making this strategic waterway even more dangerous for Western-linked ships. “If you're a Western-linked merchant ship traveling through the Red Sea with whatever naval escort is available, you'll not be signaling your position by using AIS [automatic identification systems, a maritime GPS],” said Nils Christian Wang, a retired rear admiral and former chief of the Danish Navy. “That means the Houthis would struggle to know what ships are arriving and where they are, so this data would be extremely useful.” (Western naval forces in the Red Sea escort vessels regardless of their flag registration and country of ownership.)
Russia's provision of targeting data may be followed by yet more support for the Houthis. According to Disruptive Industries (DI), a U.K. technology company that specializes in the closed-source discovery of global risks, there is extensive and unseen Russian activity in Houthi-held parts of Yemen, and there has been for some time.
For now, the continuing strikes against Western vessels present a massive risk for Western-linked merchant vessels in the Red Sea and the Western naval vessels that are there to protect shipping. And the discovery that Russia is providing targeting data could convince the few remaining Western shipping lines still sending vessels through the Red Sea to give up on it (and the Suez Canal) altogether. One of the oldest routes of modern shipping could be abandoned—until Russia and the Houthis are bought to heel.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/11/07/russia-houthis-targeting-data-war-western-shipping-gaza/
During the Cold War, we used to say that the Soviet Union was responsible for 80% of all conflicts in the world, this dropped to single digits in the early 90s. Now it has risen to almost 90%. We must put a stop to this.