VANITY: Time for a Declaration of War Against Iran

https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2020/sep/16/timeline-iran-assassinations-and-plot

President Trump announces that the US will formally designate the Iran Revolutionary Guard Corps, Tehran’s most powerful military institution, as a foreign terrorist organization. The move is unprecedented, marking the first time that the US designated a part of another government as a terror group. Iran responds by declaring the US a “state sponsor of terrorism.”

In August 2022, the U.S. Department of Justice charged an Iranian operative (Shahram Poursafi) with "plotting to assassinate former President Donald Trump's national security advisor John Bolton."[62] Poursafi, a member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, was charged for "providing and attempting to provide material support to a transnational murder plot".[63][64][65][66] According to reports, Mike Pompeo was also a target,[67] where a bounty of $1 million was placed for his murder.[68] Masih Alinejad, a journalist and human rights activist, has been a target of Iranian theocracy since fleeing Iran in 2009. In 2021, the FBI intercepted a kidnapping plot against her by Iranian agents who had planned to kidnap her from her New York home. U.S. prosecutors charged an Iranian intelligence officer for the kidnapping plot. In 2022, U.S. police arrested a man who had tried to break into Alinejad’s Brooklyn home while in possession of an AK47.[69][70][71]

Iran is also accused of other acts of terrorism. Including: Mykonos restaurant assassinations. On September 17, 1992, Iranian-Kurdish insurgent leaders Sadegh Sharafkandi, Fattah Abdoli, Homayoun Ardalan and their translator Nouri Dehkordi were assassinated at the Mykonos Greek restaurant in Berlin, Germany. In the Mykonos trial, the courts found Kazem Darabi, an Iranian national who worked as a grocer in Berlin, and Lebanese Abbas Rhayel, guilty of murder and sentenced them to life in prison. Two other Lebanese, Youssef Amin and Mohamed Atris, were convicted of being accessories to murder. In its 10 April 1997 ruling, the court issued an international arrest warrant for Iranian intelligence minister Hojjat al-Islam Ali Fallahian[97] after declaring that the assassination had been ordered by him with knowledge of supreme leader Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and president Ayatollah Rafsanjani.[98]

The sponsorship of at least thirty terrorist attacks between 2011 and 2013 "in places as far flung as Thailand, New Delhi, Lagos, and Nairobi", including a 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the US and bomb the Israeli and Saudi embassies in Washington, D.C.[36][better source needed]

Iran International

Iran-Backed Hamas Unleashes Large Attack On Israel

Author: Iran International Newsroom
Middle East - Persian Gulf
October 07, 2023.

Iranian-backed Palestinian Hamas launched a coordinated and large attack on Israel on Saturday, with gunmen crossing from Gaza and a heavy barrage of rockets.

News reports said the attack presents the largest clash since 2021 when Israel and Hamas fought a ten-day battle. Israeli media reports and videos show bands of armed Hamas fighters engaging in gunbattles with Israeli forces on the streets in towns in Southern Israel.

Hamas military commander Mohammad Deif announced the start of the operation in a broadcast on Hamas media, calling on Palestinians everywhere to fight.

“This is the day of the greatest battle to end the last occupation on earth,” he said, adding that 5,000 rockets had been launched. Israeli media reported gunbattles between bands of Palestinian fighters and security forces in towns in southern Israel.

Adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Rahim Safavi, commended the operation dubbed Operation Al Aqsa Storm , saying , “We support the commendable operation of Al-Aqsa Storm... We will stand alongside the Palestinian freedom fighters until the liberation of Palestine and Al-Quds.”

Tasnim news agency in Iran, affiliated with the Revolutionary Guard, splashed a headline claiming Israeli soldiers and police were taken prisoner by Palestinians. It also claimed that many Israelis were killed and wounded. So far, initial reports say that at least 22 Israelis have died and more than 500 injured.

Palestinian media also reported that a number of Israelis had been taken captive by fighters and Hamas media circulated video footage apparently showing a destroyed Israeli tank. The Israeli military was aware of reports of captives, a security source said, but provided no further details. It said its forces were operating inside Gaza but gave no details.

Iran International reported in early September that some Israeli security experts believed a full-fledged conflict was possible within weeks. In the meantime, there have reports in recent months of the Lebanese Hezbollah massing forces near the Israeli border and threatening to join any Israeli military confrontation with Palestinians. The Israeli defense minister Yoav Gallant threatened in August that if the Iran-backed group engages in conflict, Israeli will bomb Lebanon back “to the stone age.”

Hezbollah issued a statement saying they were closely following the situation in Gaza and are in “direct contact with the leadership of the Palestinian resistance”. The statement added that it was a “decisive response to Israel’s continued occupation and a message to those seeking normalization with Israel.”

The Islamic Republic of Iran, which for decades has called for the destruction of Israel, intensified its rhetoric earlier this year, with officials repeatedly calling on Palestinians and other “resistance forces” to increase their attacks within Israel proper. Iranian officials began openly taking credit for support they provide to militant groups, such as the Lebanese Hezbollah that act as Tehran’s proxies in the region.

In August, after Israeli attacks on the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, the Revolutionary Guard issued a statement calling for the liberation of al-Quds (Jerusalem) and the removal of “the cancerous tumor, Israel” from the world map.

The Palestinian attack comes as talks are taking place to normalize relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia. Iran has strongly condemned any move by Arab countries to establish diplomatic relations with Israel, which can further isolate the Iranian regime in the region.

On October 3, Iran’s ruler Ali Khamenei repeated his fierce opposition, saying countries that seek to normalize relations with Israel are taking a big risk. “The position of the Islamic Republic is that countries that make the gamble of normalization with Israel will lose. They are betting on a losing horse.”

Jason Brodksy, policy director of United Against A Nuclear Iran, highlighted the meetings last month between Hamas, PIJ and the PFLP factions, in Tehran, attended by the groups’ leaders, which he says “provide some clues as to [the] organization of this assault on Israel today.”

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