WarSclerotic

In defiance of international sanctions on nuclear program and amid European criticism, bill also calls for operating metal uranium production plant

By TOI STAFF and AGENCIESToday, 10:07 am  1Technicians work at the Arak heavy water reactor’s secondary circuit, as officials and media visit the nuclear site, near Arak, 150 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of the capital Tehran, Iran, December 23, 2019. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP)

Iran’s parliament on Tuesday passed a bill requiring the country’s atomic agency to build a new heavy water reactor and operate a metal uranium production plant as part of efforts to challenge international sanctions on its nuclear program, state media reported.

The parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission spokesman, Abolfazl Amouei, was quoted by various Iranian news outlets as saying the bill was officially called “Strategic Action to Lift Sanctions.”

He said the law requires the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to redesign and optimize a new 40-megawatt heavy water reactor in Arak within four months.

Since US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal with world powers and began imposing crushing economic sanctions on Tehran, the Islamic Republic has retaliated by producing more and more highly enriched fissile material in violation of the agreement, getting closer and closer to a bomb, while still leaving room for a return to negotiations.

The UN’s atomic watchdog agency said earlier this month that Iran continues to increase its stockpile of low-enriched uranium far beyond the limits set in the accord and to enrich it to a greater purity than permitted.

German Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Andrea Sasse said this week that Iran was systematically violating the accord, ahead of a meeting between the German, French and British foreign ministers on the matters.

In this November 10, 2020 photo, US President-elect Joe Biden at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Delaware (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

US President-elect Joe Biden has said he hopes to return the US to the accord, under which Iran agreed to limit its nuclear activities in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions.

Biden has argued that Trump’s withdrawal from the deal signaled to American allies that the US could not be trusted to stick to agreements and that while the accord may not have been perfect, it had been effective at blocking Iran’s path to a nuclear weapon.

Taking a step back from the brink, Iran’s foreign minister said last week that Tehran was willing to return to the deal if Biden lifts sanctions on Iran after entering the White House.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned against reengaging with Iran on the nuclear deal, saying, “There can be no going back to the previous nuclear agreement. We must stick to an uncompromising policy of ensuring that Iran will not develop nuclear weapons.”

His comments echoed his bitter opposition to the deal when it was being negotiated by the Obama administration, and contrast starkly with Biden’s pledge to “rejoin” the accord.

Trump admin announced a drawdown of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq Tuesday

By Paul Best, Lucas Tomlinson | Fox Newshttps://static.foxnews.com/static/orion/html/video/iframe/vod.html?v=20201112170543#uid=fnc-embed-1

Pentagon announces plans to cut troop levels in Afghanistan, Iraq

Fox News senior strategic analyst Gen. Jack Keane (Ret.) joins ‘Fox News @ Night’ with reaction

The U.S. military deployed B-52 bombers to the Middle East Saturday, just days after the Trump administration announced a partial withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. 

U.S. Central Command said the U.S. Air Force B-52H “Stratofortress” aircrews conducted the mission on “short notice” to “deter aggression and reassure U.S. partners and allies.”

“The ability to quickly move forces into, out of and around the theater to seize, retain and exploit the initiative is key to deterring potential aggression,” said Lt. Gen. Greg Guillot, 9th Air Force commander.

“These missions help bomber aircrews gain familiarity with the region’s airspace and command, and control functions and allow them to integrate with the theater’s U.S. and partner air assets, increasing the combined force’s overall readiness.” 

ACTING US DEFENSE SECRETARY CHIEF LAUDS ‘STALWART AND CAPABLE ALLY’ UK FOR INCREASE IN MILITARY SPENDINGhttps://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1330212506703368196&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.foxnews.com%2Fus%2Fus-military-deploys-b-52-bombers-middle-east&siteScreenName=foxnews&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px

President Trump’s new acting defense secretary Christopher Miller announced Tuesday a drawdown of troops to 2,500 in Afghanistan and 2,500 in Iraq by Jan. 15 of next year. There are roughly 4,500 troops in Afghanistan and 3,000 in Iraq right now. 

“In light of these tremendous sacrifices, and with great humility and gratitude to those who came before us, I am formally announcing that we will implement President Trump’s orders to continue our repositioning of forces from those two countries,” Miller said Tuesday. 

“This is consistent with our established plans and strategic objectives, supported by the American people, and does not equate to a change in policy or objectives.”

US TO DRAW DOWN TROOPS IN AFGHANISTAN, IRAQ BY JAN. 15, PENTAGON SAYS

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was in Doha, Qatar, Saturday to take part in what could be his last round of negotiations with the Taliban and Afghan government about a peace deal. 

Violence in Afghanistan soared this year, as eight people were killed just hours before peace talks were set to begin Saturday when mortars hit a residential area of Kabul. 

A B-52H “Stratofortress” at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota Friday.

It is unclear where the B-52H bombers went in the Middle East Saturday, but they left from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota.

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Minot Air Force Base is the only base in the United States that houses both intercontinental ballistic missiles in underground silos as well as a fleet of bombers also capable of carrying nuclear warheads. 

It marks the first B-52 mission to the Middle East in several months. In January, after the U.S. military’s elite Joint Special Operations Command killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike, six B-52 bombers were dispatched to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor, who runs UAE conglomerate, is looking forward to doing business with Israelis; says Iran threatens region while supporting ‘all terrorists in the world’

By TOI STAFFToday, 1:41 pm  1Emirati businessman Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor (Channel 13 screenshot)

A top Emirate businessman has told an Israeli TV network that Iran, Hezbollah and global terrorism are major threats that must be dealt with, and that he hopes Israel will make Hezbollah “disappear from the Earth.”

Khalaf Ahmad Al Habtoor is the head of Al Habtoor group, a major conglomerate that deals in real estate, education, hospitality, automotive industries, publishing and other areas. He is responsible for one of Dubai’s more iconic buildings, the Burj Al Arab hotel.

The billionaire had been a proponent of normalization with Israel even before the United Arab Emirates and the Jewish state signed an agreement to establish formal ties this year.

“I don’t really like the word of peace because we have no argument, we have no dispute between us and the Israelis,” he told Channel 13 in a report that aired Thursday night.

Al Habtoor said Iran presented a threat to the whole Middle East. “It supports all the terrorists in the world. I am against war personally, but I am with erasing all the terrorists on Earth,” he said.

He also cited Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group as a major regional problem.

“Hezbollah must disappear, must disappear from the Earth,” he said. “Hezbollah controls everything [in Lebanon], if Hezbollah’s there we cannot help. Somebody, someone, some country must get rid of this, and the only one I think [can do it] which is on the border is Israel.”

Asked then if he meant Israel should deal with Hezbollah, Al Habtoor replied: “One hundred percent. These are the only people, because they know them. And to make peace with Lebanon, that will be excellent, for Israelis and Lebanese to move [closer] to each other… This will be a great gift.”Hezbollah terrorists stand in formation at a rally to mark Jerusalem Day, or Al-Quds Day, in a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, on May 31, 2019. (AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Al Habtoor’s company was one of the first to announce plans for joint business in Israel following normalization. In September it said it was working with Israeli airline Israir on launching direct routes between the countries, as well as further as-yet-unannounced collaborations.

He said the two nations were currently in “a period of engagement. Not the marriage — engagement. And we see each other, how we help each other, how we can cooperate.”

With their economies hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic, the UAE and Israel are hoping for rapid dividends from the normalization deal.

They have already signed treaties on direct flights, along with accords on investment protection, science and technology.

Earlier this month, Abu Dhabi gave its final okay to a visa exemption program with Israel. That agreement still must be ratified by the Israeli cabinet and Knesset before it enters into force. The Knesset last month approved Israel’s normalization deal with the UAE by an overwhelming majority, all but ensuring that the visa program will be confirmed in the near future.Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas speaks in the West Bank city of Ramallah on September 3, 2020. (Alaa Badarneh/Pool/AFP)

Israel’s deals with the UAE and Bahrain infuriated the Palestinians, who condemned the Gulf nations’ actions as a “stab in the back” and a “betrayal.” They recalled their ambassadors to the countries.

However, media reports Wednesday in Reuters, Saudi-backed al-Arabiya and the major Palestinian news agency Ma’an indicated those envoys had been quietly returned recently.

In mid-September, the Arab League struck down a draft resolution presented by the PA that would have condemned normalization with Israel. While the Palestinian Authority attempted numerous strategies since then — such as beginning unity talks with its rival Hamas and engaging with the UAE’s regional rivals Turkey and Qatar — they bore little fruit.

JERUSALEM — Israel will receive the first of four Sa’ar 6 ships in December as part of a broad shift in naval doctrine that will see the country defend more areas at sea at a longer distance for a longer period of time, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The coming shift in maritime activity comes in the wake of Israel signing a pipeline deal with Cyprus and Greece in the summer, and joining an Eastern Mediterranean gas forum with Cyprus, Greece, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. It also comes amid new investments in Israeli’s Haifa Port that could involve the United Arab Emirates; the two countries recently agreed to improve relations.

A Nov. 11 ceremony will see the Israeli flag replace the German flag on the ship, which was made in Kiel, Germany, by Thyssenkrupp Marine Systems. The IDF expects the Sa’ar 6 to defend offshore infrastructure — making up an area over twice the size of Israel’s land territory. The discovery of natural gas reserves and Israel’s desire to protect its exclusive economic zone were the main motivations behind the 2013 decision to order the ships.

The gas rigs and sea infrastructure, including Israel’s Karish-Tanin, Leviathan and Tamar fields, are essential and must be defended, the IDF has said.

“According to assessments, terror armies in our region possess the ability to fire high-trajectory rockets of a wide range that are able to reach the gas rigs,” the IDF explained. “We want to deter enemies from even aiming at the rigs. It [the Sa’ar 6] has an enormous radar so it can be a standalone unit. Abilities and probability of protection increases, as it is connected to Iron Dome, David’s Sling and other air defense. If it detects threats, it can transfer data to land networks to engage targets.”

Gas rigs are vulnerable strategic platforms; one missile strike could be catastrophic. In addition, the IDF said, the Navy reports Israel receives 98 percent of its imports by sea.

The commander of the Israeli Navy, Maj. Gen. Eli Sharvit, also noted that “the mission of defending Israel’s exclusive economic zone and strategic assets at sea is the primary security mission of the Israeli Navy. These assets are essential to the operational continuity of the State of Israel, and having the ability to protect them holds critical importance.”

What can the ship do?

Several of the ships will be deployed to protect the gas fields, leaving one or two to conduct other missions with the rest of Israel’s fleet, which consists of submarines, Sa’ar 5 corvettes and missile boats. The first of the Sa’ar 6 corvettes will be commissioned as INS Magen.

In a briefing with the IDF naval commander, who could only be identified by the initial N for security reasons, the chief said the INS Magen was custom made for Israel’s operational needs, underlining that the main task of the ships will be the defense of Israel’s exclusive economic zone. This also means the ship has a kind of plug-and-play setup so Israel can incorporate domestic combat system add-ons, most of which have an open architecture for interoperability with other Israeli systems.

ThyssenKrupp fit the ship’s hull and installed the mechanical and electric systems, and the company will conduct training near the shipyard before sailing to Israel.

The IDF has said more than 90 percent of the Sa’ar 6-class corvette’s battle systems will be of Israeli design. Expect the installation of systems from Israel’s top three defense companies, including:

Multimission Adir radar by Israel Aerospace Industries.
The naval version of the Iron Dome defense system by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.
Barak missile interceptors from IAI.
An electronic warfare suite from Elbit Systems.
Rafael’s C-Gem offboard decoy to counter missile threats.
A 76mm cannon for the ship’s main gun.
The IDF naval commander said “many of the systems” on the ship are brand new, highlighting the vessel’s detection systems, such as a radar with a range exceeding 100 kilometers, and its weapons and defense systems that can react to high-trajectory rockets and missiles. In September, the Navy and the Defense Ministry’s Directorate of Defense Research and Development successfully conducted a trial of a sea-to-sea missile system from IAI meant for the Sa’ar 6.

Israel says the Sa’ar 6 is stealthy and has a low radar cross-section. The country intends for these ships to form the backbone of its naval fleet for three decades.

In apparent message to Biden administration, US secretary of state says lifting sanctions would ‘weaken new partnerships for peace in the region’ and only benefit Tehran

By AP18 November 2020, 7:55 pm  3US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo looks on during a press conference with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Bahrain’s Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Alzayani after their trilateral meeting in Jerusalem on November 18, 2020. (Menahem Kahana/Pool via AP)

WASHINGTON — The United States hit Iran with new sanctions on Wednesday, as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made the case that undoing the actions of the Trump administration would be foolish and dangerous.

The Treasury and State departments announced they had targeted a leading Iranian charity and numerous of its affiliates for human rights violations. At the same time, Pompeo released a statement titled “The Importance of Sanctions on Iran,” which argued that the Trump administration’s moves against Iran made the world safer and should not be reversed.

The sanctions announced Wednesday target Iran’s Mostazafan Foundation and roughly 160 of its subsidiaries, which are alleged to provide material support to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for malign activities, including the suppression of dissent.

“While (it) is ostensibly a charitable organization charged with providing benefits to the poor and oppressed, its holdings are expropriated from the Iranian people and are used by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to enrich his office, reward his political allies, and persecute the regime’s enemies,” Treasury said in a statement.Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi smiles at the end of his press briefing after registering his candidacy for the Experts Assembly elections at the interior ministry in Tehran, December 19, 2015. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi)

Also targeted was Iran’s Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi, who it said “played a central role in the Iranian regime’s human rights abuses against Iranian citizens.”

Many of the sanctions supplement previously announced penalties by simply adding another layer to them. But they come as the administration seeks to ramp up pressure on Iran before President-elect Joe Biden takes office. Biden has said he wants to return to the rapprochement with Iran that started in the Obama administration but was ended by outgoing President Donald Trump.

In an apparent nod to the incoming Biden administration’s stated plans to rejoin or renegotiated the 2015 Iran nuclear deal that Trump withdrew from, Pompeo said sanctions imposed against Iran had been “extraordinarily effective” in reducing the threat from the country. He said they had slashed Iran’s revenue by hundreds of billions of dollars since the pullout in 2018.

“Sanctions are part of the pressures creating a new Middle East, bringing together countries that suffer the consequences of Iran’s violence and seek a region more peaceful and stable than before,” he said in a statement. “Reducing that pressure is a dangerous choice, bound to weaken new partnerships for peace in the region and strengthen only the Islamic Republic.”Then-US vice president Joe Biden discusses the Iran nuclear deal with Jewish community leaders at the David Posnack Jewish Community Center in Davie, Florida, September 3, 2015. (AP/Joel Auerbach)

Pompeo said that in its remaining time, the Trump administration would continue to impose sanctions on Iran as well as on foreign governments and companies that violate them.

“Throughout the coming weeks and months, we will impose new sanctions on Iran, including using our nuclear, counterterrorism, and human rights authorities, each reflecting the wide range of malign behavior that continues to emanate from the Iranian regime,” he said. “These sanctions are a critical tool of national security to preserve the safety of the region and to protect American lives.”

The announcement came as Pompeo was visiting Israel.

Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.

Military points finger at secretive Unit 840 for placing mines uncovered Tuesday, also blames it for similar incident in August

By ALEXANDER FULBRIGHT and JUDAH ARI GROSSToday, 12:47 pmUpdated at 1:13 pm  0Three anti-personnel mines that Israel says were planted inside Israeli-controlled territory along the border with Syria, which were uncovered on November 17, 2020. (Israel Defense Forces)

The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday blamed a unit in Iran’s elite Quds Force for planting explosives in Israeli territory along the border with Syria, drawing retaliatory Israeli strikes.

The IDF said the Quds Force’s Unit 840 was responsible for planting three anti-personnel mines that were discovered and disarmed by military engineers on Tuesday.

Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said the secretive unit was in charge of planning and setting up “terror infrastructure” outside Iran against Western and Iranian opposition targets.

The military said Unit 840 was also behind a similar attempt in August by four armed men to plant explosives inside an unmanned military outpost along the border. The four were killed by IDF troops when they crossed into Israeli territory.

“Iran, we’re watching you,” the IDF wrote on its English-language Twitter account. “We will not allow Iran to entrench itself in Syria.”https://platform.twitter.com/embed/index.html?dnt=true&embedId=twitter-widget-0&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1329366711485804545&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.timesofisrael.com%2Fidf-says-irans-quds-forces-responsible-for-explosives-placed-on-syrian-border%2F&siteScreenName=timesofisrael&theme=light&widgetsVersion=ed20a2b%3A1601588405575&width=550px

The Quds Force is a branch of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tasked with carrying out overseas operations.

Apparently responding to the Israeli strikes in Syria earlier in the week, the head of the IRGC appeared to warn Israel on Thursday.

“There won’t be any safe place for whoever wants to harm Iranian interests,” Maj. Gen. Hossein Salami said during a ceremony held by the IRGC’s navy. “The defense of Iran’s security and interests knows no geographical border.”

In response to this week’s incident, Israel struck targets linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Syrian military around Damascus early Wednesday. The military later said the strikes were meant to send a message to Iran to leave Syria, specifically the border area.

In a rare move, the IDF released images of some of the strikes and on Thursday morning also published aerial before-and-after photographs of two sites that it bombed: a military complex used by the Quds Force, and a command center of the Syrian military’s 7th Division, which Israel says cooperates widely with Iranian forces in Syria.

Syrian state media reported that three Syrian soldiers were killed in the strikes. All three appeared to have served in air defense batteries that were destroyed by the IDF after they fired on Israeli jets.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition organization based in the United Kingdom, said 10 people in total were killed in the Israeli strikes, some of them Iranian. This could not be immediately confirmed and was not reported by other groups in Syria. The Observatory has in the past been accused of inflating and even inventing casualty figures.Footage of Israeli strikes on Iranian and Syrian targets in southern Syria following an attempted explosive attack by Iranian-backed operatives against Israeli troops on the Golan Heights, November 18, 2020 (Israel Defense Forces)

In general, Israel does not intentionally target people in its strikes, instead focusing on infrastructure, as this has been found to reduce the likelihood of retaliation by Iran and its proxies.

The IDF generally maintains a policy of ambiguity regarding its activities against Iran and its proxies in Syria, refusing to publicly acknowledge its actions, with the exception of retaliations to attacks, as was the case this week.

The mines uncovered Tuesday were planted within Israeli territory, but on the Syrian side of the security fence, an area where Israeli troops routinely conduct patrols, indicating that the explosives were meant to be used against those soldiers. IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman told reporters on Wednesday that the mines were planted by Syrian nationals who live near the border, at the instruction of the IRGC Quds Force.

Zilberman told reporters on Wednesday that the retaliatory strikes were intended as both a message to Iran that “we won’t allow Iranian entrenchment at all and next to the border specifically,” and a message to Syria that it will be held responsible for allowing Tehran to maintain a presence in its country.

He also said the military was prepared for the possibility of retaliation from Iran or Syria, with Iron Dome and other air defense systems on high alert.An Iron Dome anti-missile battery is seen in the Golan Heights near the border with Syria on November 18, 2020. (Jalaa Marey/AFP)

Israel views a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria as an unacceptable threat, which it will take military action to prevent.

The IDF has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 against moves by Iran to establish a permanent military presence in the country and efforts to transport advanced, game-changing weapons to terrorist groups in the region, principally Hezbollah.

Nov 18, 2020 @ 7:53Golan, Iranian targets, Israeli air strike

The IDF said that air strikes ranging across a line of Iranian and Syrian targets from the Golan to Damascus early Wednesday, Nov. 18, responded to the bombs planted on Israeli Golan from Syria that were defused a day earlier. The fighters struck Iranian Al Qods weapons depots, command posts, military posts and anti-air missile batteries. The targets also included an Iranian military compound used by high officials, a Syrian army Division 7 command post and mobile surface-to-air missiles.  Syrian opposition sources reported at least 10 killed, including 5 members of Iran’s al Qods Force, three Syrian officers and air defense operators, two Iraqi or Lebanese troops and several seriously wounded.
The Syrian state SANA news agency earlier reported three military personnel dead. Syrian air defenses were said to have intercepted the “Israeli aggression” in the south of the country and downed a number of missiles. 

Israel rarely confirms its air strikes over Syria. The last such episode occurred 58 days ago. However, the IDF spokesman this time issued a detailed statement early Wednesday. He said that the bombs disarmed on the Israeli Golan on Tuesday were placed near the Syrian border fence some weeks ago by a local Syrian team acting under the orders of the Iranian al Qods command. The operation had been followed closely by Israeli patrols and reconnaissance drones.

“Iranian weapons continue to enter into Syria and Iranian forces continue to act on the Golan which is not acceptable,” he added.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who was inspecting the Northern Command on Tuesday, held Syria responsible for any aggression emanating from its territory. “We have long been prepared for the possibility of terror attacks in the northern sector,” he said. “The IDF has the capabilities and the determination to respond severely to any incident both on the Lebanese and Syrian fronts.”

Iron Dome batteries are deployed to the northern borders and ground units are on elevated alert for any further escalation.

Adel al-Jubeir says Riyadh ‘will do everything’ to protect itself from Tehran; calls for pressure on Islamic Republic, says ‘we will have to see’ what Biden’s policies will be

By TOI STAFFToday, 5:15 am  0Saudi Arabia’s Adel al-Jubeir speaks to the media during a press conference in Prague, Czech Republic, January 10, 2020. (AP Photo/Petr David Josek)

Saudi Arabia’s minister of state for foreign affairs said the kingdom will consider arming with nuclear weapons if Iran acquires them.

Adel al-Jubeir said in an interview with Germany’s DPA news agency that nuclear armament was “definitely an option.”

“Saudi Arabia has made it very clear that it will do everything it can to protect its people and to protect its territories,” Jubeir said. The report said the interview was held recently but did not give a specific date.

Jubeir said that if Iran acquires nuclear weapons, other countries will follow, and expressed support for taking a harsh stance against Tehran.

“We believe that the Iranians have only responded to pressure,” he said.

“We will have to see” what US President-elect Joe Biden’s policies will be, Jubeir said.

Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shiite Iran are regional powers and fierce rivals in a struggle for hegemony in the Middle East, and have sparred through proxies in other countries, especially Yemen.

Iran is the region’s leading Shiite power and tied to groups in the region including its proxy Hezbollah, the Syrian regime and Palestinian terror groups in Gaza.

Saudi Arabia views itself as the leader of Sunni states in the Middle East, and is allied with countries including the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, which both signed normalization pacts with Israel in September. Riyadh is also an ally to the United States, which brokered the normalization deals.

Iran has marched toward nuclear armament since US President Donald Trump in 2018 withdrew the US from Tehran’s 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and levied punishing sanctions against Tehran.

Taking a step back from the brink, Iran’s foreign minister said Tuesday that Tehran was willing to return to the nuclear deal if Biden lifts sanctions on Iran after entering the White House.

Biden pledged to return to the accord during his presidential campaign if Iran also adheres to its commitments again.

“We are ready to discuss how the United States can reenter the accord,” Zarif told Iranian media, according to a translation by the Reuters news agency.

“If Mr. Biden is willing to fulfill US commitments, we too can immediately return to our full commitments in the accord… and negotiations are possible within the framework of the P5+1,” Zarif said, referring to the six world powers that signed onto the deal.

Biden was vice president when former US president Barack Obama signed the deal with Iran. The pact was stridently denounced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who argued that it did not put in place sufficient safeguards to prevent Iran from seeking nuclear weapons capabilities.

Israel is widely believed to possess nuclear weapons and views the possibility of a nuclear Iran as an existential threat.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning a bevy of wide-ranging sanctions on Iran to make it more difficult for the incoming administration to reenter the nuclear deal.

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani called on Biden last week to “compensate for past mistakes” and return to the deal, opposed to Zarif, who did not call for restitution.

Israel’s Ambassador to the US Ron Dermer said Monday it would be a “mistake” for the incoming US administration to reenter the deal.

The remarks appeared to mark the first time an Israeli official publicly spoke out against Biden’s plans to reenter the nuclear accord since he defeated incumbent Trump earlier this month.

During the recent presidential campaign, Biden and his aides slammed Trump’s 2018 decision to bolt the agreement, arguing that it allowed Iran to progress toward acquiring a nuclear weapon.

They pledged that a Biden administration would work to renegotiate a “longer and stronger” deal.

Last week, former Biden aide Amos Hochstein told Channel 12 that rejoining the Iran nuclear deal was “high on his agenda” and that the US president-elect would move to do so shortly after taking office.

IAEA says Tehran is using advanced technology at underground Natatz plant prohibited by 2015 nuclear agreement with world powers

By TOI STAFF and AGENCIESToday, 11:56 am  0A lift truck carries a cylinder containing uranium hexafluoride gas for the purpose of injecting the gas into centrifuges in Iran’s Fordo nuclear facility, November 6, 2019. (Atomic Energy Organization of Iran via AP)

The UN’s atomic watchdog agency has reportedly found that Iran is pumping uranium gas into advanced centrifuges at an underground part of the Natanz nuclear facility, in the latest breach of the 2015 nuclear deal signed with world powers.

The International Atomic Energy Agency reported in a document distributed to member countries that Iran is feeding uranium hexafluoride (UF₆) gas feedstock into the advanced IR-2m uranium-enriching centrifuges installed at the Natanz plant, Reuters reported Wednesday.

“On 14 November 2020, the Agency verified that Iran began feeding UF₆ into the recently installed cascade of 174 IR-2m centrifuges at the Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) in Natanz,” the IAEA report was quoted as saying.

The nuclear deal Iran signed in 2015 with the United States, Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA, only allows Iran to use first-generation IR-1 machines, and states that those are the only ones it was allowed operate at Natanz’s underground plant.

The report comes a week after the UN atomic watchdog said that Iran continues to increase its stockpile of low-enriched uranium far beyond the limits set in the nuclear deal and to enrich it to a greater purity than permitted.In this February 3, 2007, file photo, an Iranian technician works at the Uranium Conversion Facility just outside the city of Isfahan 255 miles (410 kilometers) south of the capital Tehran, Iran. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi, File)

The IAEA also reported that Iran has also been continuing to enrich uranium to a purity of up to 4.5%, higher than the 3.67% allowed under the deal.

Iran has openly announced a number of violations of the nuclear deal in advance, which have followed the decision by the US to pull out unilaterally in 2018.

The deal promises Iran economic incentives in exchange for the curbs on its nuclear program. Since the US withdrawal and imposition of new sanctions, Tehran has been putting pressure on the remaining parties with the violations to come up with new ways to offset the economy-crippling actions by Washington.

At the same time, the Iranian government has continued to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors access to its nuclear facilities, a key reason the countries that remain parties to the JCPOA say it’s worth preserving.

The goal of the agreement is to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, something the country insists it does not intend to do.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Tuesday that Tehran was willing to return to the 2015 nuclear deal if US President-elect Joe Biden lifts sanctions on Iran after entering the White House.US President Barack Obama, right, with Vice President Joe Biden, delivers remarks in the East Room of the White House in Washington on July 14, 2015, after an Iran nuclear deal is reached. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, Pool)

Biden pledged to return to the accord during his presidential campaign if Iran returns to fulfilling its commitments. Tehran began breaching the terms of the deal after President Donald Trump withdrew the US in 2018 and began sanctioning Iran.

“We are ready to discuss how the United States can reenter the accord,” Zarif told Iranian media, according to a translation by Reuters.

“If Mr. Biden is willing to fulfill US commitments, we too can immediately return to our full commitments in the accord… and negotiations are possible within the framework of the P5+1,” Zarif said, referring to the six world powers that signed onto the deal.

Biden was vice president when former US president Barack Obama signed the deal with Iran.

The Trump administration is reportedly planning an array of wide-ranging sanctions on Iran to make it more difficult for the incoming administration to reenter the deal.

Military says Iranian command base near Damascus airport also among targets hit overnight in response to attempted border attack; army goes on high alert for possible retaliation

By JUDAH ARI GROSSToday, 8:01 am  0Illustrative. Syrian air defenses respond to alleged Israeli missiles targeting south of the capital Damascus, on July 20, 2020. (AFP)

The Israel Defense Forces said a round of airstrikes it carried out in Syria on Wednesday morning was meant to send a message to Iran to leave the country, specifically the border area, following an attempted attack on the Golan Heights that was thwarted this week.

In the predawn hours of Wednesday morning, Israeli fighter jets struck eight targets in Syria — roughly half near Damascus and half along the Golan border — in response to an Iranian-directed effort to set off anti-personnel mines against Israeli troops, IDF Spokesperson Hidai Zilberman said. The explosives were disarmed on Tuesday morning.

According to the spokesman, the strikes targeted a number of facilities controlled by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ expeditionary Quds Force, which commands and supports proxy militias in Syria. In addition, the Israeli fighter jets bombed a Syrian military base, as well as several Syrian anti-aircraft batteries that fired at them.

The Syrian state news agency SANA said three soldiers were killed and one was injured in the attack, which it said targeted sites in southern Syria. There were no immediate reports of casualties from the IRGC.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition organization based in the United Kingdom, said 10 people in total were killed in the Israeli strikes, some of them Iranian. This could not be immediately confirmed. The Observatory has in the past been accused of inflating and even inventing casualty figures. In general, Israel does not intentionally target people in its strikes, instead focusing on infrastructure, as this has been found to reduce the likelihood of retaliation by Iran and its proxies.

Zilberman told reporters that the retaliatory attack was intended as both a message to Iran that “we won’t allow Iranian entrenchment at all and next to the border specifically,” and a message to Syria that it will be held responsible for allowing Tehran to maintain a presence in its country.

The spokesman said that Israel tried to send a similar message to Iran and Syria in August after a previous attempt to plant bombs along the border, but it evidently “wasn’t received.”Three anti-personnel mines that Israel says were planted inside Israeli-controlled territory along the border with Syria, which were uncovered on November 17, 2020. (Israel Defense Forces)

Zilberman said the military was prepared for the possibility of retaliation from Iran or Syria, with Iron Dome and other air defense systems on high alert.

Israel views a permanent Iranian military presence in Syria as an unacceptable threat, which it will take military action to prevent.

Defense Minister Benny Gantz threatened further action if Iran again attempted to carry out attacks on Israeli forces or continued to establish a permanent military presence in Syria.

“The IDF last night struck military targets belonging to the Iranian Quds Force and the Syrian military in response to the planting of bombs on the Syrian border within Israeli territory. I say again to our enemies: Israel will not accept violations of our sovereignty anywhere, and we will not allow a dangerous force build-up on any border,” Gantz said in a Hebrew video statement.

Zilberman did not reveal the nature of all eight targets of the predawn attack, but said they included: a military base used by Iran to direct its forces in the country located just next door to Damascus International Airport; a secret barracks used by top Iranian commanders in Syria, which is also used to host visiting delegations from Tehran, southeast of Damascus; a base of the Syrian military’s 7th Division, which cooperates widely with Iran; and mobile Syrian surface-to-air missile batteries.Illustrative: IDF troops near the Israel-Syria border, in the Golan Heights on January 3, 2020. (Basel Awidat/Flash90)

According to the spokesman, the military knew there were Iranian officers in the barracks when the attack was carried out, but did not specifically target them or the areas in the building where they were located.

In addition, the IDF said it targeted arms warehouses in Syria. Zilberman did not comment on the nature of the sites that were bombed on the Golan border.

The Syrian state news outlet also said Syrian air defenses shot down several incoming Israeli missiles, though war analysts generally dismiss the regime’s regular claims of interceptions as false, empty boasts. Zilberman said the military was still reviewing the results of the attack so he could not say definitively if the claim was true, but that if the Syrian military had succeeded in downing any incoming missiles, it was “extremely marginal if it happened at all.”

Though Israel officially maintains a policy of ambiguity regarding its activities in Syria — in the hopes of not giving Iran and Syria a pretext to respond — the IDF consistently acknowledges carrying out airstrikes on targets in Syria that either are in response to specific attacks from the country, as was the case this week, or were attempts to preempt and prevent such attacks.Three anti-personnel mines that Israel says were planted inside Israeli-controlled territory along the border with Syria, which were uncovered on November 17, 2020. (Israel Defense Forces)

According to Zilberman, the three Claymore-style mines planted along the border were set there by Syrian nationals who live near the border, at the instruction of the IRGC Quds Force. The mines were uncovered in a buffer zone near the border that is under Israeli control but is on the Syrian side of the security fence, where the IDF regularly conducts patrols, indicating that the explosives were meant to be used against soldiers.

It was the same area where Iranian-backed Syrian operatives tried to plant mines in August, though in that case the four men were spotted by the IDF at the time and killed.A map showing the approximate location of where Israel says three anti-personnel mines were planted by Syrian nationals working on behalf of Iran, in a buffer zone between the ceasefire line between Israel and Syria and a security fence, on November 17, 2020. (Israel Defense Forces)

Since that attempt, the IDF has more closely monitored the area to prevent a similar attack.

Zilberman said the military did not yet know when the three mines were planted along the border, but that it seemed to have been several weeks ago. The IDF was investigating how the Iranian-backed operatives were able to evade detection and plant the bombs.

On Tuesday morning, the IDF sent a team of combat engineers into the area to disarm the mines.Volume 0%

Zilberman said the military called on the UN peacekeeping force that is meant to maintain the 1974 ceasefire between Israel and Syria to prevent such attacks in the future.

The IDF has launched hundreds of strikes in Syria since the start of the civil war in 2011 against moves by Iran to establish a permanent military presence in the country and efforts to transport advanced, game-changing weapons to terrorist groups in the region, principally Hezbollah.