Iran’s Army Chief is Correct: End of Israel Not Far Away

Iran’s Army Chief: End of Israel Not Far Away

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Zionist regime of Israel is on its last legs, Iranian Army Commander Major General Abdolrahim Mousavi said, adding that fall of Israel is going to happen in the not too far distant future.

Tasnim News Agency

In comments in the city of Qom on Friday, the Iranian Army commander said the axis of resistance is going to beat out the US hegemony and win the ultimate victory.

The general also said that everyone will see the end of the “ominous Zionist regime” in future, stressing that the day is not far away.

The evil Zionist regime has brought about nothing during its existence but aggression, plundering, barbarism, bullying and brutality, the commander said.

“The enemies are well aware that any outbreak of insecurity and tension in the region will put them in the most insecure conditions,” Mousavi further warned.

He added that the US government has become confused and disillusioned after suffering successive defeats in the region and the failure of its policy of maximum pressure on Iran.

Back in December 2016, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei expressed high optimism that the Israeli regime will perish within the next quarter of a century.

“The Zionist regime – as we have already said – will cease to exist in the next 25 years if there is a collective and united struggle by the Palestinians and the Muslims against the Zionists,” Ayatollah Khamenei said.

As for any move against the Islamic Republic, the Leader has frequently warned the adversaries that they would face a “harsh reaction” in case of any offense against Iran, stressing that the era of hit and run is over.

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Iran’s militias will continue to act autonomously

Baghdad’s crackdown on Iran-allied militias faces resistance
BAGHDAD (Reuters) – At checkpoints leading into the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, the flags of Brigade 30, a paramilitary force, still fly nearly two months after the Baghdad government ordered all militias to leave.
Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi’s decree gave Iran-backed paramilitary groups, which have wielded increasing power in Iraq, a month to fully integrate with the armed forces, leave checkpoints and sever ties with political groups.
Brigade 30’s refusal to abandon its positions on the eastern edge of Mosul — instead it cut off roads and whipped up angry protests — underlines Baghdad’s struggle to assert its authority and raises the risk of further instability in a region marked by U.S.-Iranian rivalry.
Washington warned this year it would take action against Iran-backed militias if Baghdad failed to control them, and imposed sanctions on groups and their leaders, including Brigade 30’s Commander Waad Qaddo. It blamed paramilitaries for attacks on bases hosting U.S. forces in May.
Tension ramped up in the past month when alleged Israeli air strikes hit weapons depots and bases of paramilitary factions in western and central Iraq. Israel has hinted it was involved but has not explicitly said so. The Israeli military declined to comment.
Paramilitaries in turn accuse the United States of helping Israel attack their positions, and have threatened to retaliate.
The Pentagon denies involvement. No evidence has been provided for the mutual allegations.
Rivalry between Iraq’s two biggest allies, Tehran and Washington, has put the region on edge this year. Oil tankers in the Gulf have been attacked and Israel has bombed Iranian allies in Syria.
If Iraq cannot rein in its paramilitary groups, which have more than 100,000 members, there could be further violence, Iraqi officials and analysts say.
In parts of Salahuddin province, north of Baghdad, flags of some factions still fly at checkpoints and paramilitaries man roadblocks in neighboring Anbar province.
The armed groups dominate local security in some towns and cities across the country, especially territory formerly occupied by Islamic State (IS) militants. Their allies, meanwhile, occupy parliamentary seats, exercising new political strength that has deepened their influence on the government.
“Abdul Mahdi failed … to make a small group leave its positions near Mosul. It raises the question, what could he do against more powerful Iran-backed groups?” said Baghdad-based security analyst Jasim al-Bahadli.
The prime minister’s office did not respond to a Reuters request for comment. In an interview with local journalists broadcast on Aug. 9, Abdul Mahdi said the integration was complicated and would take more time.
PARAMILITARY POWER
The Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) – Iraq’s umbrella grouping of mostly Shi’ite Muslim paramilitaries backed by Iran – played a key role defeating IS and formally became part of the armed forces last year, reporting to the prime minister.
In Baghdad, its influence is growing through new senior military appointments, security sources and analysts say.
A commander from one PMF group was appointed inspector-general of the defense ministry this month.
The retirement in May of the military’s Mosul commander – a U.S. ally since the fight against IS – has made it easier to resist government efforts to bring paramilitaries in line, sources with knowledge of the appointments said.
Abdul Mahdi set a July 31 deadline for PMF factions to integrate with the armed forces, including handing over roadblocks.
PMF chief Falih al-Fayyadh said last month most factions were already complying. A PMF spokesman declined to comment for this story. The U.S. Department of Defence did not respond to a request for comment.
LEVERAGE
Analysts say Brigade 30, like other groups that took territory in northern Iraq as they fought IS, is reluctant to give up power.
The faction, controlled by Iraq’s Shi’ite Shabak minority, is one of a number of paramilitary groups in Iraq’s northern Nineveh province believed to control parts of the local economy. The PMF has denied its members are involved in trade..
“Brigade 30 have gained quite a bit of leverage in Mosul … they feel like they made some good gains during the fight and are now being told to give up major checkpoints,” said Renad Mansour, a research fellow at Chatham House.
Commander Waad Qaddo’s office declined to comment. Washington placed him on a sanctions list in July over alleged human rights abuses and corruption.
In response to Abdul Mahdi’s decree, Qaddo’s group bulldozed dirt barriers onto a highway leading into Iraq’s second-largest city in early August. Supporters blocked roads and burned tires as the army stood by.
Demonstrating the group’s political heft, the PMF’s top leadership negotiated joint checkpoint control between Brigade 30, the army and local officials.
Supporters said abandoning checkpoints could leave the Shabak open to the same abuse and killings minorities suffered at the hands of the Sunni extremist IS in Sunni Arab majority Mosul.
“We’ll stay in the area to protect our people,” pro-PMF lawmaker Qusay al-Shabaki said.
Mosul lawmakers and security sources say the episode showed how easily one faction could oppose the government, even as the PMF says it is obeying the prime minister.
“Nineveh is under the pressure of the PMF. It’s the main power in the province now – the army has become a secondary force,” MP Shirwan Dubardani said.
Additional reporting by Ghazwan Hassan in Tikrit, Kamal Ayash in Falluja, Ali Idrees in Washington and Dan Williams in Jerusalem.; Editing by Carmel Crimmins.

America’s presence in Iraq will precipitate World War III

Israeli strikes raise questions about US presence in Iraq
The likely spillover of an expanding tit-for-tat between Israel and Iran into Iraq has left the Donald Trump administration nervous about sustaining a long-term US presence in the war-weary nation.
A suspected Israeli strike against an Iran-backed convoy crossing the border between Iraq and Syria on Sunday night prompted the Pentagon to rush out a rare statement denying American involvement. The attack on the convoy, which was en route to Damascus, Popular Mobilization Units (PMU) bases and ammunition dumps, killed nine Shiite militants.
“US forces did not conduct the recent attack on a convoy or any recent attacks that resulted in the explosion of ammunition storage facilities in Iraq,” the Pentagon said on Monday. “Statements to the contrary are false, misleading and inflammatory.”
Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and President Barham Salih quickly decried the airstrikes as an “attack on Iraqi sovereignty.” While the US military has a long-standing invitation from Baghdad to fight the Islamic State, Israel has no formal authorization to conduct cross-border attacks.
Israel has not claimed responsibility for the strikes, but the move has raised suspicions among experts that the Israel Defense Forces did not check in with the Pentagon ahead of the attacks.
“I don’t think the Pentagon was in the loop on this. I don’t think the State Department was either,” a former US official told Al-Monitor. “The people who are vested in the long-term Iraq project weren’t in the loop on this and they’re pissed, because now all of a sudden the question of US presence is back on the table again, when we had this firmly off the table.”
The Trump administration had to deal with questions from Iraqi lawmakers about the long-term American presence in the country earlier this year, when President Trump told CBS’ “60 Minutes” in February that US troops would remain at al-Asad air base to “watch” Iran.
In the Pentagon’s first press conference since August 2018, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said today that the US focus in Iraq remains “to go after” the Islamic State but did not address allegations that Israel was involved in the strikes. US officials told the Associated Press earlier this month that Israel targeted a PMU ammunition dump in Amerli in July.
But the reemergence of questions about the US presence comes as Israeli forces have started to hit Iranian proxy groups throughout the region. In the past week, the Israeli air force has also destroyed sites in Syria and exploded two drones in Beirut, prompting a stern televised speech from Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
Israeli observers have been keen to point out that difficult political realities underlie the recent spate of attacks. Trump’s close ally, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, faces a tight reelection race in little over two weeks, after the Israeli leader was unable to secure a majority of seats in the Knesset earlier this year.
“Elections,” said Alon Pinkas, a former chief of staff to Israel’s prime minister, when asked about the motivation for the strikes. An Israeli security source told Al-Monitor earlier this week that Iran’s intensification of belligerence against Israel was “all Soleimani,” in reference to Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force.
Pinkas, who was a foreign policy adviser to Prime Minister Ehud Barak, said the strikes inside Iraq were unlikely to deter the Iran-backed PMU from operating in the war-torn country, where Israel has limited experience in operations since striking a nuclear reactor there in 1981.
“How could they? With random bombings every four to six weeks,” he said. “Netanyahu can’t even change the Iranian dynamics is Syria, a few miles from the Golan Heights. And that’s after bragging shamelessly about his close relationship with Putin and how Trump does what he wants.”
But experts said Israel’s suspected hand in the attacks could strengthen Iran-backed forces in the country in the short-term, giving them political leverage to shirk Baghdad’s efforts to assert more control.
“This is just contrary to US national interests in Iraq in all kinds of ways,” said the former US official, adding that Iran-backed groups “have the upper hand now. They’re now seen as the martyrs to the Israelis, which gives them a lot of moral capital.”

Sorry No US-Iranian Talks

Iranian president: No talks with US until sanctions lifted
By Yaron Steinbuch
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani threw cold water Tuesday on President Trump’s suggestion that the two could meet to try to end a nuclear standoff — saying the US must “take the first step” by lifting sanctions imposed on Tehran.
Trump said Monday during the G-7 summit in France that he was ready to meet with the Iranian leader within weeks should the Muslim theocracy change its behavior.
The president’s overture followed a surprise intervention by French President Emmanuel Macron at the summit to try to bring Washington and Tehran together after decades of conflict.
“Without the US’s withdrawal from sanctions, we will not witness any positive development,” Rouhani said during a televised speech Tuesday, adding that Washington “holds the key” to what happens next.
“If someone intends to make it as just a photo op with Rouhani, that is not possible,” he said, adding that Iran had already ruled out ever doing what worries Washington the most — building an atomic bomb.
“If honestly this is your only concern, this concern has already been removed” through a fatwa issued by supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Rouhani said.
“We don’t (intend to) make an atomic bomb … our military doctrine is based on conventional arms,” he added.
Khamenei issued a fatwa — a religious decree — against nuclear weapons in 2003 and has reiterated it several times since.
Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif — who made a surprise trip to Biarritz for talks on the sidelines of the summit — said the prospects for a meeting between Trump and Rouhani were “unimaginable” without the US rejoining the 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran.
Speaking at the summit, Trump ruled out lifting economic sanctions to compensate for losses suffered by Iran, which has scaled back its commitments under the pact in retaliation for the US sanctions.
“We will continue to scale back our commitments under the 2015 deal if our interests are not guaranteed,” Rouhani said in his speech Tuesday. “Tehran has never wanted nuclear weapons.”
Before his U-turn, Rouhani on Monday expressed readiness to negotiate a way out of the crisis, which has deepened after Trump unilaterally pulled the US out of the accord last year.
Under the deal, Iran agreed to limit its enrichment of uranium in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.
“If I knew that going to a meeting and visiting a person would help my country’s development and resolve the problems of the people, I would not miss it,” he said.
“Even if the odds of success are not 90 percent but are 20 percent or 10 percent, we must move ahead with it. We should not miss opportunities.”
Since the US pullout from the nuclear accord, Iran has lost billions of dollars in business deals as Washington reimposed and escalated sanctions largely blocking Tehran from selling crude abroad, a crucial source of revenue for the Islamic Republic.
Trump and Rouhani are both due to attend the UN General Assembly in September.
With Post wires

Iran Will Cross Trump’s Redline

Will Iran-backed factions attack US troops in Iraq?
Following a series of airstrikes that Israel is suspected of conducting against Iran-backed groups of the Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), calls for US troops to be attacked in revenge for the attacks is on the rise in Iraq.
Ayatollah Sayed Kazem al-Haeri, who is an Iran-based Shiite cleric close to Iran-backed PMU factions, issued a fatwa Aug. 23 calling upon the PMU and all other Iraqi armed forces to fight US troops and exile them from the country.
“I declare from the position of religious responsibility that the presence of any US military force in Iraq is forbidden [haram] under any title: military training, advice or the rationale of fighting terrorism,” Haeri said in his fatwa.
Although the United States denied any involvement in the strikes against the PMU and said it is cooperating with Iraqi authorities in the investigation of the attacks, the pro-Iranian militias accuse the United States of being behind the assaults.
But Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shiite cleric who leads a military faction within the PMU, called Aug. 26 for patience and asked all parties to not react unilaterally, saying, “Iraq can no longer afford such careless conduct.”
This is despite the fact that Haeri is considered the spiritual father of the Sadrist movement; Sadr has said previously that he is following Haeri in religious matters and Haeri has a great influence among Sadr’s supporters.
Sadr called for a special urgent meeting of top Iraqi officials to discuss the attacks, insisting on preventing “any interference from even the resistance axis (in reference to Iran and its allies), not to mention the countries at peace with Israel.” Such a meeting was held the same day between the three top Iraqi officials — President Barham Salih, Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi and parliament Speaker Mohammed al-Halbusi. They have condemned the series of airstrikes, including the most recent attack on a PMU group Aug. 25 that resulted in two dead and two injured.
Last week, US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said Israel had struck a PMU base in Amirli in Salahuddin province on July 19. The officials did not say who had conducted other attacks on the PMU.
Salih, Abdul Mahdi and Halbusi called the strikes an “attack on Iraqi sovereignty,” calling upon the UN Security Council to hold an urgent session on the matter; the council was to meet to discuss the Iraq situation Aug. 28.
In another meeting where the three leaders gathered with the top PMU brass, Salih reiterated that the attacks against the PMU are not acceptable, pointing out that anyone who committed the strikes wants to pull the PMU into political conflict and distract it from its main task, which is fighting the Islamic State.
Al-Monitor has learned from a source who attended the meeting that the president, premier and parliament speaker wanted to ensure that the PMU will not attack US interests in Iraq.
Faleh al-Fayadh, who is the head of PMU, attended the meeting, but PMU deputy head Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis did not. Muhandis was the first to accuse the United States in the attacks and warned that US interests in Iraq could be attacked. Soon after Muhandis spoke, Fayadh said Muhandis’ statement was a personal opinion that does not represent the PMU.
Al-Monitor also learned from the same source that Iraq has advised the United States that it cannot stop the PMU if any further attack takes place. This interchange was said to have taken place during a meeting between Iraqi Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Hakim and the charge d’affaires at the US Embassy, Brian McFeeters. Hakim summoned McFeeters on Aug. 24 and is said to have urged the United States to commit to the Iraq-US Strategic Framework Agreement, pointing out that Iraq is not a ground of conflict and that Iraq would use all diplomatic and legal options to prevent any foreign interference in the country.
The PMU’s Fatah bloc in parliament announced Aug. 24 that it will support Haeri’s fatwa in the legislature. Asaib Ahl al-Haq’s Qais Khazali also supported the fatwa. The Sadiqoun bloc, which is Asaib Ahl al-Haq’s bloc in parliament, called on the Iraqi government to warn the United States to close its embassy and consulates and take its personnel and troops out of the country before they are targeted by the Iraqi resistance movement.
Katayeb Hezbollah also issued a statement warning the United States that any further attack on the PMU will result in attacks on the US presence in Iraq across the country.
However, Haeri’s fatwa has not received support or attention from Iraqi religious and political parties outside of pro-Iranian groups. Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who is the religious authority for the majority of Iraqi Shiites, remained silent about the attacks on the PMU. Other high religious authorities also remained silent.
Haeri has limited followers among Iraqi Shiites and is only respected as a religious cleric among Shiite parties close to Iran such as the Dawa party. He was one of the main supporters of Shiite militias, including the Mahdi Army, when they fought US troops in Iraq following the 2003 invasion. He is an Iranian cleric, studied in Najaf and now lives in Qom. He previously issued a fatwa calling for people to go to Syria to fight to protect the Bashar al-Assad regime.
Moreover, Haeri possesses an undesirable image among many Iraqis due to his reputation for radical and violent fatwas. During the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq War, Haeri published a book, “Dalil Al Mujahid,” that contained fatwas calling for killing prisoners of war or innocent individuals if necessary and other matters that are considered war crimes.
Finally, the question of whether the militias will attack US interests in Iraq depends on Iran’s willingness to take the confrontation against the United States further or turn to the negotiating table; the latter seems to be a greater possibility again after Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif met with French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of G-7 meeting.

Israel Damages the Oil (Revelation 6:6)

Israel cuts Gaza fuel transfers in half after rocket attack
The Associated Press
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered the military on Monday to cut fuel transfers to Gaza in half, in response to rocket attacks from the coastal strip, raising tensions along Israel’s southern border in addition to those stemming from a renewed threat from the north amid reported Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, Iraq and Lebanon.
Netanyahu also instructed his staff to prepare plans for building a new neighborhood in a West Bank settlement near where a teenage Israeli girl was killed in an explosion last week. Israel said the blast was a Palestinian attack.
The flurry of activity comes amid a massive manhunt by Israeli troops for the 17-year-old’s killers and dire warnings from Lebanon’s Hezbollah leader of an imminent attack, just weeks before an unprecedented repeat Israeli election.
Netanyahu ordered the Gaza measure to take effect immediately and until further notice. The cut is expected to exacerbate the already dire flow of electricity in the impoverished coastal strip.
By Monday afternoon, one of the three turbines at Gaza’s lone power plant was shut down, the strip’s electricity distribution company said, further scaling down production amid the shortages. The rotating blackouts for households, now on an eight-hour-on, eight-our-off supply schedule, would also see further disruptions, it said.
The move follows airstrikes the military carried out overnight in the Gaza Strip, after three rockets were launched from the territory into southern Israel.
The military said the airstrikes included one on the office of a Hamas commander in the northern Gaza Strip. There were no reports of casualties.
Air raid sirens warning of an incoming attack wailed late on Sunday during an outdoor music festival in the Israeli border town of Sderot, sending panicked revelers scurrying for cover. The military said two rockets were intercepted by its missile defense system.
The rocket attack was the latest in a recent uptick following a relative lull that has threatened to unleash another round of fighting along the volatile Gaza-Israel border.
Israel accused the Iranian-backed militant Islamic Jihad group of orchestrating the rocket attacks, as part of what it considers Iran’s region-wide campaign of chaos.
“Hostile elements near and far, attempting to ignite a war, are dragging you into violence and destroying the stability and security of your home,” wrote Maj. Gen. Kamil Abu Rukun, the coordinator of government activities in the territories, in a direct message to Gaza residents in Arabic on his Facebook page.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers say that Israel’s slow-moving approach to implementing an unofficial Egyptian-brokered truce aimed at alleviating the enclave’s dire living conditions could lead to further escalation.
The continued impasse, in which Gaza’s humanitarian crisis has been highlighted by the occasional outburst of violence, has also begun to spark a different tone in Israel, where critics have been advocating for a stronger military response alongside a need to address the civilian needs of Gaza’s impoverished 2 million residents.
“Israel’s strategy over the past few years has been to maintain the situation as it is,” retired general Guy Tzur told Israel’s Army Radio. “Therefore we are in a strategy of ’rounds’ (of violence) and this does nothing to change the situation … we need to establish deterrence on the one hand and provide serious humanitarian relief on the other.”
In the West Bank, the search was still on for the attackers behind the deadly blast Friday at a water spring that killed Rina Shnerb, 17, near the settlement of Dolev, and wounded her brother and father. As politicians paid the family condolence visits, Netanyahu announced he had ordered his staff to prepare plans for building a new neighborhood in Dolev that would have about 300 residential housing units.
Dolev is a small settlement northwest of Jerusalem and, if approved, the new housing plans would herald a significant boost in its population. Most of the world considers settlements to be illegal and Netanyahu is typically careful in announcing such plans. But with Sept. 17 elections looming, he is wary of losing the backing of hard-liners who supports such measures.
“We will deepen our roots and strike at our enemies. We will continue to strengthen and develop the settlements,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
The flare-ups come as Israel has also dramatically stepped up its campaign against the growing Iranian military activity in the region. In recent days, Israel has acknowledged attacking targets near the Syrian capital, Damascus, to thwart what it called an imminent Iranian drone strike against Israel.
Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes in Syria in recent years, most of them aimed at arms shipments believed to be headed from Iran to its Shiite proxy Hezbollah. But direct clashes between Israel and Iranian forces have been rare, and Israel has typically been wary of publicly acknowledging them for fear of sparking a fierce response that could deteriorate into all-out war.
Lebanese officials reported that Israeli warplanes also attacked a Palestinian base in eastern Lebanon near the border with Syria early Monday, a day after an alleged Israeli drone crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut while another exploded and crashed nearby.
In recent days, U.S. officials have said that Israeli strikes have also hit Iranian targets in Iraq.
Israel Security Cabinet was convening Monday to discuss the next steps in the various fronts the country currently faces.
Israel considers Iran to be its greatest enemy and has repeatedly vowed that it will not allow Iran to establish a permanent military presence in Syria, where Iranian troops have been supporting President Bashar Assad during the country’s eight-year civil war.
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Associated Press writer Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.
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