WarSclerotic

Iran’s foreign minister extended an offer for Iranian military assistance to the U.S.-backed Lebanese army on Sunday, saying Iran is ready to assist in all sectors should the Lebanese government want it.

Mohammad Javad Zarif spoke to reporters Sunday at Beirut’s airport shortly after his arrival in the Lebanese capital for a two-day official visit.

“We are always ready [to support Lebanon militarily] and we have announced that on many occasions. This tendency does exist in Iran, but we are waiting for this desire to be there on the Lebanese side,” he said.

The comments came a few days after the leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah terrorist group urged Lebanon’s government to accept anti-aircraft weapons from Iran to confront Israeli warplanes. He also said Iran was ready to provide Lebanon with electricity and medicine.

“Will the Lebanese government be brave enough to accept an Iranian offer? Why should Lebanon be afraid to cooperate with Iran?” Nasrallah asked during a speech marking the 40th anniversary of Iran’s Islamic Revolution this week.

The United States, which lists Hezbollah as a terrorist group, backs the Lebanese army through a program that aims to strengthen the military as the sole armed force defending the country.

Lebanon’s Western-backed Prime Minister Saad Hariri formed a government late last month, after a nine-month vacuum that exacerbated the country’s economic woes. Hezbollah has three ministers in the new cabinet, reflecting the gains made by the powerful group in parliamentary elections held in May last year. The terrorist group named the health minister, marking the first time it controls a ministry with a large budget.

Zarif is the first senior official from the region to visit Lebanon since the new government was formed. He was met at the airport by a minister from Hezbollah and other officials from the Shiite group.

In his comments, Zarif congratulated Lebanese politicians and said Iran is ready to support the government in any way possible.

Mahmoud Qomati, a Hezbollah member and state minister for parliamentary affairs, said later that his group appreciates there is international pressure on Lebanon but that shouldn’t stand in the way of accepting Iran’s offer to help the country’s struggling economy.

He urged the government to take a “brave” stand and accept the offer extended to it.

Zarif is scheduled to meet with the Lebanese president, prime minister and foreign minister on Monday.

The United States is likely just weeks away from starting the withdrawal of ground troops from Syria ordered by President Donald Trump, the top U.S. commander overseeing American forces in the Middle East said on Sunday.

U.S. Army Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command, cautioned that the exact timing would depend on the situation in Syria, where U.S.-backed fighters have launched a final assault against Islamic State enclaves near the Iraqi border.

The U.S. military has already started withdrawing equipment from Syria. Asked whether the withdrawal of America’s more than 2,000 troops would begin in days or weeks, Votel said: “Probably weeks. But again, it will all be driven by the situation on the ground.”

“In terms of the withdrawal … I think we’re right on track with where we wanted to be,” Votel told reporters traveling with him during a trip to the Middle East.

“Moving people is easier than moving equipment and so what we’re trying to do right now is again [to] kind of clear out those materials, that equipment that we do not need.”

Trump’s surprise announcement in December that he was withdrawing American troops from Syria helped trigger the resignation of his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, and sent U.S. military officials scrambling to construct a withdrawal plan that preserves as many gains as possible.

Hundreds of additional troops have been sent to Syria to facilitate the withdrawal.

U.S. officials have long estimated that the Syria pullout could take until sometime in March or April to execute fully, but have been reluctant to set an exact timeline given hard-to-predict battlefield conditions.

Votel did not speculate about when the withdrawal would be completed.

One big question has been whether some U.S. forces in Syria might move to neighboring Iraq, where the United States has more than 5,000 troops helping Baghdad fight Islamic State and prevent the group’s resurgence.

Votel said he did not believe the United States would broadly increase overall troop numbers in Iraq. He did leave open the possibility of changing the composition of forces to help the United States keep pressure on the terrorist group.

Referring to future U.S. troop levels in Iraq, Votel said: “I think it’s going to remain more or less steady.”

“This isn’t just wholesale – ‘Everybody in Syria move over to Iraq.’ That doesn’t make sense,” Votel said.

Votel is one of many current and former U.S. officials who have warned of the risk of resurgence by Islamic State unless the United States and its allies can keep pressure on the group following the U.S. withdrawal. They say Islamic State still has enough leaders, fighters, facilitators and financial resources to fuel a menacing insurgency.

But a clear U.S. plan on how to keep up the pressure has yet to be articulated. It is also unclear whether the United States will be able to satisfy the security concerns in Syria of its NATO ally Turkey without sacrificing the interests of U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters there.

Washington views the Kurdish militia as loyal partners in the fight against Islamic State, whose help will likely continue to be needed to prevent the group’s resurgence.

The Pentagon’s own internal watchdog released a report last week warning about the risks still posed by Islamic State. It cautioned that, absent sustained pressure, the group would likely resurge in Syria within six to 12 months and retake some limited territory.

A U.N. report seen by Reuters last week estimated there are up to 18,000 Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, including up to 3,000 foreign fighters. It warned the group was interested in attacking aviation and using chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials.

The United States is likely just weeks away from starting the withdrawal of ground troops from Syria ordered by President Donald Trump, the top U.S. commander overseeing American forces in the Middle East said on Sunday.

U.S. Army Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command, cautioned that the exact timing would depend on the situation in Syria, where U.S.-backed fighters have launched a final assault against Islamic State enclaves near the Iraqi border.

The U.S. military has already started withdrawing equipment from Syria. Asked whether the withdrawal of America’s more than 2,000 troops would begin in days or weeks, Votel said: “Probably weeks. But again, it will all be driven by the situation on the ground.”

“In terms of the withdrawal … I think we’re right on track with where we wanted to be,” Votel told reporters traveling with him during a trip to the Middle East.

“Moving people is easier than moving equipment and so what we’re trying to do right now is again [to] kind of clear out those materials, that equipment that we do not need.”

Trump’s surprise announcement in December that he was withdrawing American troops from Syria helped trigger the resignation of his defense secretary, Jim Mattis, and sent U.S. military officials scrambling to construct a withdrawal plan that preserves as many gains as possible.

Hundreds of additional troops have been sent to Syria to facilitate the withdrawal.

U.S. officials have long estimated that the Syria pullout could take until sometime in March or April to execute fully, but have been reluctant to set an exact timeline given hard-to-predict battlefield conditions.

Votel did not speculate about when the withdrawal would be completed.

One big question has been whether some U.S. forces in Syria might move to neighboring Iraq, where the United States has more than 5,000 troops helping Baghdad fight Islamic State and prevent the group’s resurgence.

Votel said he did not believe the United States would broadly increase overall troop numbers in Iraq. He did leave open the possibility of changing the composition of forces to help the United States keep pressure on the terrorist group.

Referring to future U.S. troop levels in Iraq, Votel said: “I think it’s going to remain more or less steady.”

“This isn’t just wholesale – ‘Everybody in Syria move over to Iraq.’ That doesn’t make sense,” Votel said.

Votel is one of many current and former U.S. officials who have warned of the risk of resurgence by Islamic State unless the United States and its allies can keep pressure on the group following the U.S. withdrawal. They say Islamic State still has enough leaders, fighters, facilitators and financial resources to fuel a menacing insurgency.

But a clear U.S. plan on how to keep up the pressure has yet to be articulated. It is also unclear whether the United States will be able to satisfy the security concerns in Syria of its NATO ally Turkey without sacrificing the interests of U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters there.

Washington views the Kurdish militia as loyal partners in the fight against Islamic State, whose help will likely continue to be needed to prevent the group’s resurgence.

The Pentagon’s own internal watchdog released a report last week warning about the risks still posed by Islamic State. It cautioned that, absent sustained pressure, the group would likely resurge in Syria within six to 12 months and retake some limited territory.

A U.N. report seen by Reuters last week estimated there are up to 18,000 Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria, including up to 3,000 foreign fighters. It warned the group was interested in attacking aviation and using chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear materials.

An Iranian nuclear technician with information about the Islamic republic’s nuclear program was smuggled into the United Kingdom on New Year’s Eve last year in a joint operation involving MI6, the CIA and Israeli Mossad, the Sunday Express newspaper reported on Sunday.

According to the report, the 47-year-old nuclear technician had been “an Israel asset for years” who also “helped plan” the assassination of Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan in 2012. Roshan, a director at Iran’s Natanz uranium enrichment facility, was killed by a magnetic bomb attached to his car in Tehran. His driver also died. Iran accused the Mossad of carrying out the assassination.

The plan to smuggle the alleged Israeli nuclear spy out of Iran, meanwhile, reportedly involved a “3,000-mile dash across Europe” and a final 22-mile crossing of the English Channel in a dinghy, hidden among other illegal Iranian immigrants.

Initially, the alleged spy was reportedly smuggled out of his homeland and into neighboring Turkey by the Mossad.

Britain, the report said, tried to conceal its involvement in the operation because it opposed the U.S. withdrawal from the nuclear agreement with Iran and remained a party to it.

A British intelligence source told the Sunday Express: “[The nuclear technician’s] absence was noted quickly [by the Iranians] and we were informed that a special unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been dispatched. Once in France, the question of how to get him into Britain remained. We couldn’t simply fly him in. Though unusual, it was determined infiltrating him into a group of fellow migrants preparing to cross the channel by boat offered one solution.”

The report also said that MI6 agents debriefed the nuclear technician on Iran’s nuclear plans before he was flown to the United States.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday vowed for the first time to enact the “terrorist salaries law” – and even outlined a timetable for its implementation.

The legislation allows the government to deduct the amount the Palestinian Authority pays to terrorists and their families from the taxes Israel collects on the PA’s behalf. The law also requires the Defense Ministry to provide the cabinet with data on the amount the PA pays terrorists and their families. The Finance Ministry will then withhold that amount from the tax funds.

Netanyahu’s announcement came after the Shin Bet security agency said Sunday that the brutal slaying of 19-year-old Ori Ansbacher by a Palestinian near Jerusalem last week was a “nationalistic” terrorist attack.

Speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said: “By the end of the week we will finish the necessary administrative work to enact the terrorist salaries law. Next Sunday I will convene the cabinet and we will pass the necessary decision to deduct the funds. The funds will be deducted, let there be no doubt about that.”

The prime minister’s comments came following local media reports that in January Israel transferred the PA the entire sum of taxes it collects on its behalf. This was done despite that fact that in January the cabinet, as stipulated by the new legislation, was supposed to have deducted the sum of PA terrorist salaries from those taxes.

New Right party leader Naftali Bennett assailed Netanyahu after it was revealed that the entire amount had been transferred, saying that terrorists are no longer afraid because they know they will have secured lifetime economic benefits for them and their families.

“The prime minister must enact the terrorist salaries law that was passed but hasn’t been implemented yet,” he said.

The Choosing Life forum, which united dozens of families victimized by terror, also demanded that Netanyahu implement the law.

“Even though the deduction law was passed half a year ago, the prime minister and defense minister [Netanyahu is also the acting defense minister] insists on continuing to pay salaries to terrorists,” the group said in a statement. “Do we concede that Ori Ansbacher’s murderer will receive 12,000 shekels [$3,300] every month under the patronage of the State of Israel?!”

The law was spearheaded by MKs Avi Dichter (Likud) and Elazar Stern (Yesh Atid), who also sent a letter to Netanyahu demanding the payment deduction.

“The funds act as an incentive for the next terrorist attack,” Stern wrote.

Israel Hayom has learned, meanwhile, that the Defense Ministry’s initial draft of its report on the scope of PA terrorist salaries places the amount at about 250 million shekels ($69 million) per year.

However, officials in the National Security Council in the Prime Minister’s Office believe the amount is higher and requested additional inquiries into the matter. As stated, Netanyahu requested that the report be completed by the next cabinet meeting next Sunday ahead of the first deduction.

Earlier on Sunday, the IDF said it had surveyed the family home in Hebron of Arafat Irfaiya, suspected in the murder of Ansbacher, “in order to examine the possibility of its demolition.”