WarSclerotic

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday said US sanctions were “economic terrorism,” and would harm efforts to fight terror and drug-smuggling, as well as lead to an increase in the number of asylum seekers.

“I warn those who impose sanctions that if Iran’s ability to fight drugs and terrorism are affected… you will not be safe from a deluge of drugs, asylum seekers, bombs and terrorism,” he said, according to the Reuters news agency.

Washington has reimposed an oil embargo and other damaging sanctions on Iran since pulling out in May from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers.

“America’s unjust and illegal sanctions against the honorable nation of Iran have targeted our nation in a clear instance of terrorism,” Rouhani said in a televised speech from a conference on terrorism and regional cooperation attended by parliament speakers from Afghanistan, China, Pakistan, Russia and Turkey.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani (center) gestures in a group photo with Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi (2nd left), Afghan Parliament Speaker Asad Qaiser (3rd left), Pakistan National Assembly Speaker Chen Zhu (right), vice chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress Binali Yildirim (2nd right), Turkey’s Grand National Assembly Speaker; and Ali Larijani (4th right), Iran’s Parliament Speaker, during the 2nd Speakers’ Conference in Tehran, Iran, on December 8, 2018. (AFP)

“We are facing an all-out assault which is not only threatening our independence and identity, but also is bent on breaking our long-standing ties,” he added.

Rouhani drew parallels with the sanctions and other pressure faced by the countries attending the conference.

“When they put pressure on China’s trade, we are all  harmed… By punishing Turkey, we are all punished. Any time they threaten Russia, we too consider our security to be endangered,” he said.

“When they impose sanctions on Iran, they deprive all of us of the benefits of international trade, energy security and sustainable development. And in fact, they impose sanctions on everyone.

“We are here to say that we don’t intend to tolerate such insolence.”

Rouhani also warned Europe — which has strongly objected to the US withdrawal from the nuclear deal — that much is at stake in its efforts to bypass US sanctions and maintain trade with Iran.

“They should know that by sanctioning Iran, they would harm our ability to fight drugs and terrorism,” Rouhani said, referring to Iran’s efforts to combat smuggling, particularly from Afghanistan.

The European Union is working on a payment system, known as the “special purpose vehicle,” to keep money flowing into Iran, but has struggled to find a host since many countries fear repercussions from the Trump administration.

The conference in Tehran was the second regional meeting on terrorism — the first was held last December in Islamabad.

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said Saturday that the United States is selling weaponry to Middle Eastern countries beyond the region’s needs and turning the area into a “tinderbox,” Reuters reported, citing state news agency IRNA.

“The level of arms sales by the Americans is unbelievable and much beyond regional needs, and this points to the very dangerous policies followed by the Americans,” Zarif said.

Putin emphasized the importance of upcoming consultations between defense experts from the two countries during the conversation, which was held at the initiative of Netanyahu, the Kremlin said.

The two leaders were said to be considering holding a meeting in person.

Ties between the two countries have been strained since Russia’s delivery of the the S-300 missile defense system to Syria following the September 17 downing of a Russian spy aircraft by Syrian forces, which were responding to an Israeli strike over Syrian airspace.

Russia has blamed Israel for the incident, which killed 15 Russian crew members. Israel has emphatically denied responsibility.

Russian S-300 air defense missile systems drive by during the Victory Day military parade marking 71 years after the victory in WWII in Red Square in Moscow, Russia, on May 9, 2016. (AP/Alexander Zemlianichenko, File)

Although Putin initially told reporters that the incident was due to a “chain of tragic accidental circumstances,” the Russian defense ministry later declared Israel was responsible, saying the Israeli Air Force jets used the Russian plane as cover. Israel rejected the accusation.

Israel has repeatedly said it will not allow Iran, or its Shiite proxies, to establish a permanent presence in postwar Syria. It has launched numerous attacks on targets it says are a threat to its security.

Russia, which is a main backer of Syrian President Bashar Assad, has maintained a deconfliction hotline with Israel, allowing the Jewish state to carry out the attacks as long as it is informed beforehand.

Putin and Netanyahu also discussed Israeli operations on the border with Lebanon, according to the statement.

On Tuesday the Israel Defense Forces announced the start of Operation Northern Shield to find and destroy cross-border attack tunnels dug by the Lebanese Hezbollah terrorist group. It has said it has found two such tunnels thus far.

Israeli soldiers show UNIFIL commander Maj. Gen. Stefano Del Col a Hezbollah tunnel that penetrated Israeli territory from southern Lebanon on December 6, 2018. (Israel Defense Forces)

Putin “stressed the importance of ensuring stability in the region in strict accordance with Resolution 1701 of the UN Security Council,” the statement read, referring to the 2006 UN Security Council resolution calling for Hezbollah to withdraw from southern Lebanon following the Second Lebanon War, the last major conflict between the IDF and the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.

A senior Israeli minister said Friday that Israeli forces may need to go into Lebanon to deal with the tunnels.

“If we think that, in order to thwart the tunnels, one needs to operate on the other side, then we will operate on the other side of the border,” Israel Katz, who holds the Intelligence and Transport ministries, told Radio Tel Aviv, according to Reuters.

An IDF incursion into Lebanon would likely spark a major confrontation with Hezbollah.

Russia on Wednesday expressed tacit support for the efforts to expose Hezbollah’s cross-border attack tunnels, while calling on both sides to show restraint lest the volatile situation on the Lebanese border escalate.

Russia does not consider Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

The Israeli army on Friday revealed that it has been using “passive seismic” technology to locate the attack tunnels Hezbollah has been digging under the border into Israel.

The IDF this week launched an ongoing operation to locate and destroy the tunnels, and has so far announced that two have been identified. On Tuesday, it released footage from inside the first of the two, with alleged Hezbollah members still inside, and on Thursday asked UNIFIL, the UN force in Lebanon, to deal with the second.

The IDF’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot announced Tuesday that Israel has “in its possession” Hezbollah’s tunnel plans. Military sources have said Israel believes several other cross-border tunnels have yet to be exposed.

An officer in the IDF’s Engineering Corps, Col. Ziv Nimni, told Israel’s Hadashot TV news Friday that the IDF, aware for years of Hezbollah’s tunnel ambitions, utilizes “passive seismic technology” throughout the northern border area in order to locate the tunnels.

The technology enables the IDF to identify where tunnel drilling is taking place — not only in limited, specific areas, but throughout the Israel-Lebanon border area, he said.

The sensors in the ground relay information to sensors at the border fence, as well as to receptors in patrol vehicles along the border, Nimni added.

He said locating and dealing with the tunnels “could take weeks or longer,” but that the IDF was operating as quickly as possible.

Nimni said he felt a tremendous sense of pride that the IDF was proving capable of grappling with the threat. It was “a once in a generation” event, he said, when, hours after the operation began, a camera placed by the IDF in a Hezbollah tunnel — which was being dug toward the northern Israeli town of Metulla — filmed Hezbollah operatives inside the tunnel. The camera was protected by a small explosive device, which detonated when a Hezbollah operative approached it, sending him hurriedly backwards.

Nimni assessed that Hezbollah had not reached the stage where it could utilize the tunnels. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week that Hezbollah planned to send “entire battalions” into Israel, to seize territory and kill and kidnap Israeli civilians and soldiers. Netanyahu noted that the tunnels were far wider than tunnels dug by the Hamas terror group under the border into Israel from Gaza.

Nimni said Hezbollah, which has remained silent since Tuesday on the Israeli counteraction, “is watching what we’re doing,” and that there was potential for military confrontation. Israeli ground, air, and sea forces have been deployed to the north as the IDF engineers and related teams tackle the tunnels, but military sources have indicated they see a low potential for escalation at the moment.

This could change if Israel decides it needs to tackle the tunnels inside Lebanese territory, which it has not done so far, or if Israel decides to tackle Hezbollah’s large arsenal of missiles, which some analysts believe could be a next step.

Senior Likud Minister Tzachi Hanegbi told Hadashot on Friday night that Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the head of the Hezbollah terror group, was “embarrassed” by the intelligence breakthrough that has seen Israel expose his “audacious” cross-border tunneling aggression.

Israeli soldiers on Saturday opened fire at three suspected Hezbollah fighters on the Israeli-Lebanese border, the army said.

The military said the three men attempted to approach an “area of technological work” in an enclave north of the security fence, as the IDF continues Operation Northern Shield to destroy Hezbollah attack tunnels dug under the border.

The army said it believed the three attempted to use the cover of stormy weather to approach the Israeli forces.

Troops fired towards the three “in accordance with the standard operating procedures” and they fled the scene.

“Work in the area continues as usual,” it said.

Israel announced on Tuesday that it had launched an operation dubbed Northern Shield to uncover and destroy subterranean passages dug by Hezbollah into Israel.

The Israeli military said it believes the tunnels were meant to be used by Hezbollah as a surprise component of an opening salvo in a future war, alongside the mass infiltration of operatives above ground and the launching of rockets, missiles and mortar shells at northern Israel.

The army has so far uncovered two tunnels and is working to reveal a third.

A senior Israeli official on Thursday said the tunnels discovered inside Israel were large enough to be used by “entire battalions” to enter Israeli territory in order to “carry out killing sprees and kidnappings and to capture Israeli towns and villages.”

The number of tunnels the IDF believes the Lebanese terror group has dug into Israel, as well as other information connected to the army’s tunnel-busting operation, cannot be published by order of the military censor.

The army on Thursday called for assistance from the peacekeeping force UNIFIL and the Lebanese Armed Forces in neutralizing the threat of one of the tunnels from within Lebanon as it was struggling to locate an opening to the underground passage on the Israeli side of the border.

An army spokesperson said the military was confident that the tunnel existed and had penetrated into Israeli territory, but the IDF had thus far been unable to locate a specific opening to it due to the rocky earth and recent inclement weather.

A senior Israeli minister said Friday that Israeli forces may need to go into Lebanon to deal with some of the tunnels.

“If we think that in order to thwart the tunnels that one needs to operate on the other side, then we will operate on the other side of the border,” Israel Katz, who holds the intelligence and transport ministries, told Radio Tel Aviv, according to Reuters.

An IDF incursion into Lebanon could spark a major confrontation with Hezbollah.

On Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah seeks to send “entire battalions” into Israel, including via the tunnels Israel is now tackling, in order to seize land, and kidnap and kill Israelis.

Netanyahu warned that Hezbollah seeks to infiltrate “several battalions” into Israel — to seize territory, “murder and kidnap.” Hezbollah’s tunnels are “broader” than those of the Gaza-based Hamas terror group, the prime minister said.

“If you look at the Hamas tunnels, they’re very narrow, basically for one person. The Hezbollah tunnels are broad. They enable several people to come at one and also to put motorcycles, I’m pretty sure tractors and so on,” Netanyahu told a group foreign envoys as they toured the area.

This, he elaborated, was “in order to bring in many forces, simultaneously, which means several battalions into our territory, with the purpose of cutting off communities here, towns, kibbutzim, and then going into a campaign of murder and kidnapping, which could happen simultaneously.”

Netanyahu urged the foreign diplomats to condemn and sanction the Shiite terror group for its aggressive actions.

“Israel expects an unequivocal condemnation of Hezbollah, the imposition of additional sanctions on Iran, a condemnation from the Lebanese government and a demand that it stop giving its approval for the use of its territory for these attacks against Israel,” he told the group of senior ambassadors from across the globe.

Judah Ari Gross and Michael Bachner contributed to this report.