WarSclerotic

TEHRAN, Iran — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said “enemies” were trying to drive a wedge between Tehran and Baghdad in a tweet on Monday following deadly unrest in neighboring Iraq.

“#Iran and #Iraq are two nations whose hearts & souls are tied together… Enemies seek to sow discord but they’ve failed & their conspiracy won’t be effective,” Khamenei was quoted as saying on his office’s Twitter account.

State news agency IRNA said the supreme leader was reacting to recent violence in Iraq.

More than 100 people have been killed in Iraq since clashes erupted last week between protesters and security forces, the majority of them demonstrators struck by bullets.

The Iraqi authorities have accused “saboteurs” and unidentified snipers of targeting the protesters.

Anti-government protesters set fires and close a street during a demonstration in Baghdad, Iraq, October 5, 2019. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)

The unrest is the most serious challenge facing Iraq two years after the victory against the Islamic State terror group. The chaos also comes at a critical time for the government, which has been caught in the middle of increasing US-Iran tensions in the region. Iraq is allied with both countries and hosts thousands of US troops, as well as powerful paramilitary forces allied with Iran.

Iran has urged its citizens planning to take part in a major Shiite pilgrimage in Iraq to delay their travel into the country over the violence.

Tehran has close but complicated ties with Baghdad, with significant influence among its Shiite political groups.

The two countries fought a bloody war from 1980 to 1988 and Iran’s influence in the country grew after the US-led invasion of Iraq toppled veteran dictator Saddam Hussein in 2003.

In this photo from June 23, 2017, supporters of Iraqi Hezbollah brigades march on a representation of an Israeli flag with a portrait of late Iranian leader Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in Baghdad, Iraq. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban, File)

The war against IS has given unprecedented clout to Iranian-backed militias known collectively as the Popular Mobilization Forces, which fought the extremist group alongside Iraq’s army and are now part of the country’s security forces. They have accumulated immense political and economic power, challenging the authority of the central government.

Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi, who came to power a year ago, promised to introduce change and fight corruption, but he has been unable to bring meaningful reform. He also been powerless to rein in the militias, and many Iraqis have grown frustrated with a government they see as increasingly subservient to Iran.

There are already indications that regional tension is at play. Some demonstrators in Baghdad have blamed Iranian-backed groups within the security forces for the violence. Media affiliated with the Iranian-backed groups have pointed toward the US and Saudi Arabia for the unrest.

In the first official statement from the government accounting for the violence, Interior Ministry spokesman Saad Maan said Sunday that 104 people had been killed in the six days of unrest, including eight members of the security forces, and more than 6,000 wounded. He said an investigation was under way to determine who was behind the most deadly day of violence, in Baghdad on Friday.

Iraq’s most senior Shiite spiritual leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, has urged the protesters and the security forces to end the violence while the country’s prime minister has called on the protesters to go home. Abdul-Mahdi also pledged to meet with the protesters wherever they are and without any armed forces, to hear their demands.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing to advance a huge air-defense project aimed at countering the threat of an attack from Iran, the Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday.

The NIS 1 billion ($290 million) project would place particular focus on defending the country against cruise missile attacks, similar to strikes on Saudi oil facilities last month blamed on Iran.

Treasury officials told the Kan broadcaster that the air-defense project has been under discussion for some time, but that much of the funding can only be approved after the next government is sworn in. Coalition and unity government talks have made no progress since elections last month failed to resolve a political deadlock that began after previous elections in April.

The Finance Ministry has put forward some options for funding the defense project, including from the Defense Ministry’s existing budget. However, that option seems unlikely, the report said, and costs are more likely to be covered by cutbacks in civilian budgeting and tax increases.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the opening of the 22nd Knesset, on October 3, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

On Sunday, the high-level security cabinet convened for the first time in two months, amid cryptic warnings by Israeli leaders in recent days of a growing security threat from Iran. The meeting began in the late afternoon and continued for nearly six hours.

The discussions are based on concerns that Iran, emboldened by a recent string of attacks that drew no military response from the West or its Middle Eastern foes, could set its sights on attacking Israel, Channel 12 reported.

Officials believe Iran may have publicized information about an allegedly foiled “Israel-Arab” plot to assassinate General Qassem Soleimani, the head of the elite Quds Force in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, as a pretense to attack Israel, according to Channel 12.

Both Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin have mentioned crucial security needs in recent days as they called for the formation of a broad unity government.

Netanyahu, during a speech Thursday at the swearing-in of the new Knesset, also called for a “broad national unity government,” saying the country’s security challenges demanded political stability.

“This isn’t spin, it’s not a whim, this is not ‘Netanyahu trying to scare us,’” he said. “Anyone who knows the situation knows that Iran is getting stronger and is attacking around the world, saying clearly, ‘Israel will disappear.’ They believe it, they are working toward it, we need to take them seriously.”

Netanyahu has sought to press rival Blue and White to join a coalition led by him and including right-wing and Haredi parties. Blue and White leader Benny Gantz has so far refused to sit in a coalition with Netanyahu, as long as the Likud leader faces corruption indictments, and is also unwilling to join a government made of hard-right and ultra-Orthodox parties. Blue and White has said a unity government with Likud could be formed “within an hour” if Netanyahu were to step down.

A September 14 cruise missile and drone attack on Saudi Arabian oil facilities knocked out half the kingdom’s oil production. Although Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility, the US, Britain, France, Germany, and Saudi Arabia have blamed Iran of being behind the attack.

Damage to the infrastructure at at Saudi Aramco’s Kuirais oil field in Buqyaq, Saudi Arabia, on September 15, 2019. (US government/Digital Globe, including annotations, via AP)

Iran regularly threatens Israel, viewing the country as a powerful enemy allied with the United States and Sunni countries in the region against Tehran and its nuclear ambitions.

Israel has also thwarted Iranian operations in neighboring Syria where its fighters and those of Iranian proxy Hezbollah have been fighting alongside forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad since 2011.

Israel has vowed to prevent Iran’s regional proxy militias from obtaining advanced weapons to use against the Jewish state and has carried out hundreds of air strikes in Syria that it says were to prevent deliver of weapons and to stop Iranian military entrenchment in that country.

The Security Cabinet will convene Sunday for the first time in two months, amid cryptic warnings by Israeli leadership in recent days of a growing security threat.

Members of the top forum will meet at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem in the afternoon.

In recent days Hebrew media has on several occasions quoted unnamed security officials as warning of the rising threat of an attack orchestrated by Iran.

On Friday, Channel 13 news was the latest to report concerns that Tehran, emboldened by military successes against the US and Saudi Arabia, will seek to attack the Jewish state.

Both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin have mentioned crucial security needs in recent days as they called for the formation of a broad unity government.

The Blue and White party’s Gabi Ashkenazi, newly appointed head of the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, also spoke Thursday of “many challenges in the security realm, some known to all and some that are only discussed behind closed doors.”

On Saturday evening Yisrael Beytenu chief Avigdor Liberman repeated his call for Netanyahu and Blue and White chief Benny Gantz to form a unity government, citing a “national emergency, economic challenges and security threats from south, north and further away.”

Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman speaks to press while touring the Sarona Market in Tel Aviv on election day, September 17, 2019. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

Liberman noted in a Facebook post that the country on Sunday will mark 46 years since the Yom Kippur War, the most traumatic conflict in the nation’s history and one in which the country was caught off guard by its enemies, and said it was imperative to remember its legacy “of leadership and love of country.”

“We are at a political crossroads,” Liberman wrote. “The election results can lead to only one conclusion — the people want unity… I once again call on Prime Minister Netanyahu and MK Benny Gantz: Show responsibility and leadership, set aside your egos and stops the games, spin and time-wasting.”

Netanyahu, during a speech Thursday at the swearing-in of the new Knesset, also called for a “broad national unity government,” saying the country’s security challenges demanded political stability.

“No one faces as many challenges as we face, no other country. And democracies that don’t grasp that you need to unite in a time of danger suffer a heavy price,” he said.

“This isn’t spin, it’s not a whim, this is not ‘Netanyahu trying to scare us,’” he said. “Anyone who knows the situation knows that Iran is getting stronger and is attacking around the world, saying clearly, ‘Israel will disappear.’ They believe it, they are working toward it, we need to take them seriously.”

Blue and White party leaders Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid at a faction meeting at the opening of the 22nd Knesset, on October 03, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

But Blue and White MK Ofer Shelah rejected claims of an emergency, saying: “There is no greater cynic than Netanyahu in using matter of security for political ends. Don’t believe his fear-mongering. Everything is political with him.”

Netanyahu has sought to press Blue and White to join a coalition led by him and composed of right-wing and Haredi parties. Gantz has so far refused to sit in a coalition with Netanyahu as long as the Likud leader faces corruption indictments, and is also unwilling to join a government comprised of hard-right and ultra-Orthodox parties. Blue and White has said a unity government with Likud could be formed “within an hour” if Netanyahu steps down.

Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad terror group on Saturday marked 32 years since its establishment, holding a rally in the Gaza Strip in which it showed off what it said was a new type of rocket.

“Gaza’s resistance is ready to fight together against any action directed at the Strip,” said organization leader Ziyad Al Nahale.

On Friday night two projectiles fired at Israel from Gaza fell short of the border fence, landing inside the Hamas-held territory, the Israel Defense Forces said, which triggered incoming rocket sirens in the Gaza border community of Kissufim in southern Israel.

A young protester waves a Palestinian flag while demonstrating by the border fence with Israel east of Gaza City on October 4, 2019. (MAHMUD HAMS / AFP)

The incident came hours after a Palestinian man was killed during riots along the Gaza-Israel border fence on Friday, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, as thousands took part in weekly protests.

Channel 12 reported that the IDF was bolstering troop readiness in the south, the West Bank and the northern border due to the tense situation, as well as the standard heightened alert around the Jewish holiday period.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday said that he supports a plan by European countries to bolster his country’s unraveling 2015 nuclear deal with world powers, but the proposal was scuppered by US President Donald Trump openly threatening to impose more sanctions.

Speaking during a weekly cabinet meeting in Tehran, Rouhani said: “We agree with the general framework” in which France, Britain and Germany urged Tehran to enter talks about a new arrangement on the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

Rouhani said the plan included preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, securing its support for regional peace, lifting US sanctions and the immediate resumption of Iranian oil exports.

He said the plan could have been discussed during his visit in New York last week for the UN General Assembly, but that Trump sank the chances by vowing in his speech to the assembly that not only would sanctions remain in place but “they will be tightened.”

Rouhani accused Washington of sending mixed messages by privately being open to compromise but publicly calling for increased pressure on Iran.

He also thanked French President Emmanuel Macron for his personal efforts to broker direct talks between himself and Trump.

“He did his best in those 48 hours, especially in the past 24 hours, and we were supportive,” Rouhani said, according to a report from the Iran Front Page news website.

“The one who prevented us from achieving a result was the White House,” he added, according to the report. “Neither Paris nor Tokyo and other countries are to blame. All parties, along with Iran, tried hard.”

US President Donald Trump speaks during the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York, September 24, 2019. (Don Emmert / AFP)

On Tuesday Politico reported that Trump and Rouhani agreed to a four-point plan drafted by Macron that would have seen the two leaders meet and declare a resumption of negotiations. However, the diplomatic effort fell through when Rouhani backed out, over what other reports characterized as his deep mistrust of the US administration.

Tuesday’s report followed a New Yorker report on Sunday that said Macron was close to brokering a phone call between Trump and Rouhani during the UN gathering, but the French president’s secretive effort fell apart because of the Iranian leader’s lack of trust in the US president.

Speculation was abuzz last month that the leaders could meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

But Rouhani said he would only hold talks with the US if Trump lifted economic sanctions on Tehran.

Macron used his 48 hours in New York to see Trump three times and Rouhani twice, urging them to engage directly.

Tensions have been escalating between Iran and the United States since May last year when Trump pulled out of the nuclear accord and began reimposing sanctions that have crippled the Iranian economy.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, right, shakes hands with French President Emmanuel Macron during their meeting on the sideline of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, September 24, 2019. (Iranian Presidency Office via AP)

Britain, France and Germany have repeatedly said they are committed to saving the deal that gave Iran relief from sanctions in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program, but their efforts have so far borne little fruit.

Tensions flared again this May when Iran began reducing its own commitments under the deal and the US deployed military assets to the region.

Since then, ships have been attacked, drones downed and oil tankers seized. Last month, twin attacks on Saudi oil infrastructure, which knocked out half the kingdom’s production, drew accusations of blame on Iran from Washington and Europe.

Tehran has denied any involvement in the attacks which were claimed by Iran-backed rebels fighting a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen.

Iran has since warned that any military retaliation would prompt a severe response that would lead to a wide conflict in the region.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday threatened that Iran would further breach the international accord that set limits on its nuclear program until it obtains the “desired results.”

Since May, Iran has taken a number of steps in violation of the 2015 agreement, including stockpiling uranium above the permitted limit and installing advanced centrifuges for uranium enrichment.

Iran says the moves ae in protest over a lack of economic relief from the deal’s European signatories since US President Donald Trump pulled out of the accord last year and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

“Regarding the nuclear issue, we will seriously pursue reduction of our commitments. The Government should precisely, thoroughly pursue that until we reach the desired results—and we will certainly by the Grace of God achieve the desired outcomes,” Khamenei wrote on his Twitter account.

He did not specify what additional steps Iran may take in breach of the pact.

The Iranian leader also declared that the Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaigned, aimed at forcing Iran to negotiate a more stringent agreement curbing its nuclear program, had failed.

“Recently and through their European friends, they also begged to force our president to meet (Trump) to make a symbolic status for making Iran surrender,” state TV quoted Khamenei as saying during a meeting with elite Revolutionary Guard members. “They eventually did not succeed and the policy will definitely fail until the end.”

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, has repeatedly expressed pessimism about Europe’s intentions for saving the nuclear deal, which aimed at preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons in return for lifting sanctions. Iran has routinely denied seeking a nuclear weapon.

Earlier Wednesday, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Iran supports a plan by European countries to bolster the nuclear deal.

Rouhani said the plan included preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, securing its support for regional peace, lifting US sanctions and the immediate resumption of Iranian oil exports.

French President Emmanuel Macron (L) and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speak after a meeting at the United Nations headquarters on September 23, 2019, in New York. (Ludovic Marin/AFP)

Speaking during a weekly cabinet meeting, Rouhani said: “We agree with the general framework by the Europeans.” France, Britain and Germany had urged Tehran to enter talks about a new arrangement on the nuclear deal.

Rouhani’s comments come amid heightened tension between Tehran and Washington following Trump’s decision to unilaterally pull out of the nuclear deal. The US has imposed sanctions that have kept Iran from selling its oil abroad and have crippled its economy.

Rouhani said the plan could have been discussed during his New York visit last week to attend the UN General Assembly but that Trump scuppered chances by openly threatening to impose more sanctions.

He said Trump in a private message had told the Europeans he was ready but later told media outlets he wanted to intensify sanctions. Rouhani expressed gratitude for efforts by French President Emmanuel Macron regarding the plan.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif told state TV later Wednesday that even though Macron’s four-point plan did not include Iran’s views, “it is necessary that negotiations continue in an accurate way. We will continue the communications.”

On Tuesday, Politico reported that Trump and Rouhani agreed to a four-point plan drafted by Macron that would have seen the two leaders meet and declare a resumption of negotiations. However, the diplomatic effort fell through when Rouhani backed out, over what other reports characterized as his deep mistrust of the US administration.

US President Donald Trump speaks during the 74th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN Headquarters in New York, September 24, 2019. (Johannes Eisele/AFP)

Tuesday’s report followed a New Yorker report on Sunday that said Macron was close to brokering a phone call between Trump and Rouhani during the UN gathering, but the French president’s secretive effort fell apart because of the Iranian leader’s lack of trust in the US president.

Speculation was abuzz last month that the leaders could meet on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

But Rouhani said he would only hold talks with the US if Trump lifted economic sanctions on Tehran.