WarSclerotic

Argentina’s Federal Police confirmed recently that ‎they have apprehended a fundraising network enlisted ‎by Hezbollah that operated in the tri-border area of ‎Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. ‎

The raid, carried out by the Financial Information ‎Unit of the Argentine police focused on the al-‎Barakat ‎clan, headed by Assad Ahmed Barakat‎, a group ‎of Lebanese nationals living in Argentina, who are believed ‎to be ‎‎involved in money laundering and financing ‎acts of terror carried out by Hezbollah, a Lebanon-‎based Shiite terrorist group backed by Iran.‎

Hezbollah has been linked to the 1992 attack on the ‎‎Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, which killed 29, ‎‎and the 1994 attack on the AMIA Jewish center in ‎‎Buenos Aires that killed 85.‎

Authorities arrested 14 suspects and seized the ‎group’s assets, estimated at some $10 million. ‎According to local media reports, the raid was made ‎possible largely due to American and Israeli ‎intelligence.‎

This was the first time Argentina’s government ‎targeted a ‎Hezbollah fundraising network in the ‎country.‎

A statement issued Friday by the Financial ‎Information Unit said the Barakat clan is suspected ‎of smuggling, counterfeiting, falsifying ‎documents, ‎extortion, drug and ‎trafficking, money ‎laundering and terrorist ‎financing.‎

‎”In relation to this illegal act, it is suspected ‎‎that it [the Barakat clan] would raise funds for the ‎Lebanese Hezbollah ‎organization,” the agency said. ‎

Barakat has been designated a terrorist by ‎the U.S. ‎Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets ‎Control, meaning his assets are frozen there as well ‎and ‎that he is unable to operate financially in the ‎United States.‎

Earlier this year, the U.S. and Argentina agreed to ‎work together to cut off Hezbollah funding networks ‎and money laundering that finance terrorism across ‎Latin America.‎

The true colors of Hamas, the Islamist terrorist ‎group that rules the Gaza Strip, must be exposed if ‎any progress is to be made in the efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, top U.S. officials told CNN Sunday.‎

In a joint opinion peace penned by U.S. Ambassador ‎to the U.N. Nikki Haley, senior White House adviser ‎Jared Kushner, U.S. Ambassador to Israel David ‎Friedman and U.S. Special Representative for ‎International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, the ‎four lambasted the U.N. for its anti-Israel bias ‎and urged the international community to acknowledge ‎that it is Hamas’ policies that jeopardize Gaza’s future more ‎than anything else.‎

The international community must hold Hamas ‎accountable for its actions, the piece asserted, ‎noting that “unfortunately, Hamas’ malign activity ‎is pushing Israel to engage in increasingly ‎significant acts of self-defense. As in the case of ‎past conflicts, Hamas starts a clash, loses the ‎battle and its people suffer. That is the reality ‎that needs to change.‎”

‎”That foundation of reality underscores our ‎administration’s approach to the Israeli-Palestinian ‎conflict,” they explained. ‎”Recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was a ‎reflection of reality. Any realistic person knows ‎that Jerusalem will remain the capital of Israel ‎under any peace agreement. But as President Donald ‎Trump said when he made that decision, he made no ‎judgment about the final borders of Jerusalem; the ‎President directly called on all parties to maintain ‎the status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites. Those ‎questions are for the parties to decide.”‎

‎”Peace can only succeed ‎if it is based on ‎‎realities,” the piece said with respect to the ‎‎Israeli-Palestinian peace plan the White House is ‎‎devising, adding that ‎”no one will be fully pleased ‎‎‎with our proposal, but ‎that’s the way it must be if ‎‎‎real peace is to be ‎achieved.”‎

They further contended that “the peace proposal we ‎‎will make will be ‎realistic, recognizing the ‎‎legitimate needs of both ‎Israel and the Palestinians ‎‎as well as the interests ‎of the broader region.”

Israeli aircraft attacked a weapons production plant in northwestern Syria on Sunday but caused only material damage, Syrian state television reported.

According to the report, the target of the missile strike was a site in the city of Misyaf, in Syria’s Hama province. Reports from Lebanon noted secondary explosions near the site, suggesting that the location was used to store weapons.

Online images showed heavy smoke billowing from the purported weapons factory . An intelligence source said a major military research center for chemical arms production was located near the city and believed to house a team of Iranian military experts involved in weapons production.

Conflicting reports cited an unspecified number of casualties while social media reports alleged that Hezbollah and Iranian fighters were among the deceased.

An IDF spokeswoman declined to confirm or deny the incident, saying “We do not comment on foreign reports.”

Last week, Syrian state media said Israeli rockets had struck a Syrian military position near Nairab airport, on the outskirts of the city of Aleppo.

Opposition sources said several Iranians were killed at a logistics site used by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards near the airport.

Some of Iran’s military bases in Syria are located next to Syrian military compounds or within army barracks, according to the intelligence source, adding that this complicated the task of singling out Iranian military assets from Syrian army units.

In recent months, driven by concern that Iran’s mounting presence in Syria poses a threat to Israel’s security, the Israeli military has escalated its strikes on suspected Iranian and Iran-backed positions in Syria.

In May, Israel said it attacked nearly all of Iran’s military infrastructure in Syria after Iranian forces fired rockets at Israeli-held territory for the first time in the most extensive military exchange between the two adversaries.

Israel has vowed to hit hard in areas along its border and elsewhere in Syria where it suspects Iranian-backed forces are stationed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that “we are continuing to act in Syria to prevent Iranian entrenchment there.”

Earlier Sunday, Russian and Syrian jets bombed an Islamic State bastion along the Jordan-Israel border in southwestern Syria, diplomatic and opposition sources said.

Islamic State-affiliated forces entrenched in the Yarmouk Basin, which borders the Israeli Golan Heights and Jordan, also repelled a ground attack by the Syrian army and its allies, the sources said.

The Syrian army said its aerial strikes and shelling of militants in the Yarmouk Basin had killed “tens of terrorists” in a campaign the army described as aiming to “crush militants.”

An intelligence source told Reuters that 1,000-1,500 Islamic State fighters had been holding their ground despite the 10-day bombing campaign that he said had hit villages and caused an “untold number” of civilian casualties.

Another source familiar with the situation said Islamic State had been able to expand its territory recently by seizing at least 18 villages abandoned by other rebels under the banner of the Free Syrian Army.

The Syrian army wants full control over Quneitra province, where Israel has deep concerns over the presence of Iranian-backed militias.

The area is a bastion of Iranian-backed militias including Hezbollah, according to Western intelligence sources.

The Israeli government has signaled it would not impede the Syrian army’s presence in Quneitra as long as Syrian forces steered away from a demilitarized zone along the border.

Also Sunday, the evacuation of hundreds of rebels and their families resumed for a third day from villages along the Golan frontier as part of a Russian-brokered surrender deal, sources said.

The deal brings the area back under government control and lets Syrian army brigades return to where they were stationed before Syria’s seven-year-old conflict – posts near the 1974 demilitarized zone with Israel on the Golan frontier.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned Iranian President Hassan Rouhani late Sunday not to threaten the United States or face dire consequences, hours after Rouhani told Trump that the U.S.’s hostile policies toward Tehran could spark “the mother of all wars.”

In a late night all caps Twitter message directed at Rouhani, Trump wrote: “NEVER, EVER THREATEN THE UNITED STATES AGAIN OR YOU WILL SUFFER CONSEQUENCES THE LIKES OF WHICH FEW THROUGHOUT HISTORY HAVE EVER SUFFERED BEFORE. WE ARE NO LONGER A COUNTRY THAT WILL STAND FOR YOUR DEMENTED WORDS OF VIOLENCE & DEATH. BE CAUTIOUS!”

Iran’s state-owned news agency IRNA dismissed Trump’s warning tweet as a “passive reaction” to Rouhani’s remarks.

IRNA, a government mouthpiece, added that Trump’s Twitter missive was only mimicking and copying Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, who had in the past warned the West to “never threaten an Iranian.”

The escalation in rhetoric came as the Trump administration launched an offensive of speeches and online communications meant to foment unrest in Iran and pressure Iran to end its nuclear program and its support of militant groups, according to U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

Iran has faced increased U.S. pressure and looming sanctions following Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from a 2015 international accord on Iran’s controversial nuclear program. Tehran has said its nuclear work is just for electricity generation and other peaceful projects.

Meanwhile on Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo denounced Iran’s leaders as a “mafia” and promised unspecified backing for Iranians unhappy with their government.

He called the religious leaders of Iran “hypocritical holy men” who amassed vast sums of wealth while allowing their people to suffer, part of a highly critical broadside issued as the republic approached the 40th anniversary of its Islamic revolution.

Pompeo talked about increasing the media outreach to the Iranian people. He said the U.S. Broadcasting Board of Governors is taking new steps to help Iranians get around internet censorship and is launching a new 24/7 Farsi-language channel across television, radio, digital and social media formats, “so that ordinary Iranians inside Iran and around the globe can know America stands with them.”

Pompeo castigated Iran’s political, judicial and military leaders, too, accusing several by name of participating in widespread corruption. He also said the government has “heartlessly repressed its own people’s human rights, dignity and fundamental freedoms.”

Iran “is run by something that resembles the mafia more than a government,” Pompeo said, citing what he called Iranian leaders’ vast wealth and corruption.

He said despite poor treatment by their leaders, “the proud Iranian people are not staying silent about their government’s many abuses.”

Earlier Sunday, addressing a gathering of Iranian diplomats, Rouhani said: “Mr. Trump, don’t play with the lion’s tail, this would only lead to regret,” according to a report by IRNA.

“America should know that peace with Iran is the mother of all peace, and war with Iran is the mother of all wars,” Rouhani said, leaving open the possibility of peace between the two countries, at odds since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Rouhani also scoffed at Trump’s threat to halt Iranian oil exports and said Iran has a dominant position in the Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz, a major oil shipping waterway.

Rouhani’s apparent threat earlier this month to disrupt oil shipments from neighboring countries came in reaction to efforts by Washington to force all countries to stop buying Iranian oil.

Washington initially planned to shut Iran out of global oil markets completely after Trump abandoned the deal that limited Iran’s nuclear ambitions, demanding all other countries stop buying Iranian crude by November.

But the United States has somewhat eased its stance, saying it may grant sanction waivers to some allies that are particularly reliant on Iranian supplies.

Separately, a top Iranian military commander warned that the Trump government might be preparing to invade Iran.

“The enemy’s behavior is unpredictable,” Tasnim quoted military chief of staff General Mohammad Baqeri as saying.

“Although the current American government does not seem to speak of a military threat, according to precise information it has been trying to persuade the U.S. military to launch a military invasion [of Iran],” Baqeri said.