The day after Hassan Nasrallah was killed in an Israeli air raid that targeted Hezbollah headquarters in a suburb of Beirut, obituaries for Hezbollah’s secretary general appeared on behalf of high-ranking members of different Muslimic communities outside of Lebanon.
Saleh Ashour is a former member of the Kuwaiti National Assembly and represents the Justice and Peace Alliance, a Shia party, as its leader (i.e. Emir of Jamaat-e-Islami). He studied economics and served in the Kuwaiti Air Force before being elected to the National Assembly in 1999. His political agenda is rather progressive and anti-racist; and he supports women’s rights reforms while being simultaneously engaged in philanthropic projects.
In his obituary, dedicated to Hassan Nasrallah, he refers to the fact of Nasrallah’s steadfastness in support of the people of Gaza and the Lebanese people while praising Nasrallah's attitude to refrain from appeasing Israel in the Palestinian question "unlike most Arab leaders and presidents." His influence on the social media can be seen as remarkable, based on 167,000 followers on X.
Even more interesting and unambiguous is what Siraj ul-Haq, a prominent Pakistani politician, writes on his X-account:
„ … now the need of the hour is for the Muslim world to unite and fight and liberate Jerusalem from the clutches of the Jews “.
As to Siraj ul-Haq, he is the Emir of Shia Muslims’ Jamaat-e-Islami in Pakistan and held the office of a Senior Minister in the Pakistani government as well as a Provincial Minister of Finance between 2002 and 2015. From 2015 until 2021 he was a member of the Senate of Pakistan. He gained immense popularity in his support for Imran Khan who became Prime Minister of Pakistan between 2018 and 2022. The number of his followers on X reaches an amazing 1,300,000.
So, when it comes to their influence on the social media, both political and religious leaders quoted here might be able to guide the next generation of jihadists and anti-Zionists on their way to 'liberate' Palestine .....
..........................
A rare visitor from the Himalaya state of Bhutan, the
only country where 'the right to personal happiness'
is included in its constitution. From there the official term
of 'Gross National Happiness' (=> Bruttonationalglück).
Today, my blogspot provides the information delivered by some Hezbollah near X-account describing Hezbollah operations that were taking place during the last 24 hours.
There are lots of videos showing Israeli sites burning like hell. It's not quite clear whether these videos are really genuine or rather mere Hezbollah propaganda. However, some local sites appear more often in Arabic language posts and, by the way, there must be a result worthy of remark when hundreds of missiles are regularly raining on Israel. Iron Dome counter measures might be efficient but explosive 'waste' will, anyway, continue falling from the sky. In addition, internal migration from heavily shelled areas of Israel has already been officially mentioned as a problem.
Only hours after Israel used the wireless pager network to blow up pagers together with their carriers, another wave of bombings targeted other wireless communications devices on Wednesday afternoon, September 18.
The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health released the information that, this time, 20 persons died and more than 450 were injured.
[المنار Hezbollah TV, Lebanon, on September 19]
Pagers used for communications instead of cell phones have been stuffed with explosives in order to detonate them together with their carriers. This is considered to be possible when delivery chains of electronic pager elements are spoilt by some foreign intelligence agency. According to one expert, the pager battery might have been replaced by one that had been prepared with an explosive. Others, like the Chinese commentator who wrote the following article, are considering a more complex manipulation of the pager's motherboard. Some experts could even imagine a special design of the motherboard that should be serving the pre-planned destruction and would need support from specialists of the motherboard's original manufacturer. [凤凰, China on September 19]
As there are different types of pagers that exploded in different places, killing or injuring different kinds of carriers, some of them obviously civilians, this might be seen as an indiscriminate attack trying to hit at least one or another member of Hezbollah.
A simultaneous explosion of 3,000 pagers could possibly be explained by an electronic signal delivered to different locations at the same time. This resulted in overheating of the devices and led to the ignition of a small explosive charge of about 20 g. The Taiwanese distributor Gold-Apollo stated that, even though devices carried their logo, the pagers were produced by a Hungarian company [Source: Deutsche Welle].
I remember having learnt much earlier from the media of a similar handy explosion that killed some "Arab terrorist" on behalf of Israel's security agency Mossad. The incident took place already years ago.
According to official Iranian sources, Iran's ambassador to Lebanon has been injured as well when his pager exploded.
As a result of today's organized attack, different international airlines (Air France, Lufthansa, Swiss Air) cancelled their flights to Ben Gurion / Tel Aviv for the next 48 hours.
The Official Facts:
On 17 September 2024, around 15:30 local time, thousands of handheld pagers used by Hezbollah, a Lebanese political party and militant group, simultaneously exploded across Lebanon and Syria. At least 12 were killed and over 2,750 wounded, including Hezbollah members and civilians.
North Korea is no longer hiding! For the first time, Kim Jong-un made public the equipment for uranium enrichment, [some kind of a] 'rocket provocation'. By disclosure of nuclear facilities, North Korea intimidates the West, adding bargaining chips [=> for negotiations]. Inspecting the enriched uranium makes Kim Jong-un happy: Only by looking at it, he is brimming with energy.[Global Keywords 2024-09-13 by 三立 iNEWS]
Additional Information about Visitor Region Wichita (Kansas/USA):
The town of Wichita has a history of aircraft building. It is going to host a "Drone Light Festival" on September 20-22, turning the sky over Wichita into the canvas of a tremendous light show.
DJI, a Chinese tech company, has produced about 90% of the drones used by roughly 250 Kansas law enforcement agencies. DJI drones are said to be among the cheapest on the market, costing between $12,000 and $35,000 each, depending on the type.They are of the highest quality available.
Some Kansas lawmakers are now looking to prevent land from being purchased by corporations from foreign countries. A bill was brought up to prohibit companies domiciled or controlled by China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, Cuba and Venezuela from purchasing or leasing land within 150 miles of any U.S. military installation.
Official voice from Kansas: “It is clear that we are facing a new type of threat in the People’s Republic of China, which is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The CCP has the goal of global dominance and usurping the United States as the world’s premier military and economic power.” [Info from different public US sources published in 2024]
The Iranian ambassador to Iraq
officially informed about Mossad
activity in Erbil / Iraq and Iranian
countermeasures in his speech
published on September 7, 2024.
[إيران بالعربية, official Iranian site]
لدينا وثائق تؤكد وجود خلايا و عملاء للموسد في أربيل و اضطررنا لقصف أربيل
"We have documents confirming the presence of cells and agents of the
[Israeli spy agency] Mossad in Erbil, and we had to bomb [them in] Erbil".
تزايد نشاط شبكات الموساد الإسرائيلي في العراق منذ التسعينيات إنطلاقًا من شماله، مثلاً باعتراف صحيفة «تايمز إسرائيل في عددها الصادر في 12 نوفمبر تشرين الثاني العام 2012» خططت شبكات الموساد في العراق مرتين لاغتيال الرئيس العراقي الراحل صدام حسين، الأولى في العام 1992، والثانية في العام 1999، وهو نفس العام الذي اغتيل فيه المرجع العراقي آية الله محمد الصدر
The activity of Israeli Mossad networks in Iraq has increased since the nineties from its north. For example, as the Times of Israel admitted in its November 12, 2012 edition, Mossad networks in Iraq planned twice to assassinate the late Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, the first time in 1992, and the second time in 1999, the same year that Iraqi cleric Ayatollah Muhammad al-Sadr was assassinated.
وتدور الشبهات كذلك حول ضلوع شبكات الموساد في العراق بتصفية أكثر من 5500 عالم ومفكر وباحث عراقي منذ العام 2003 بحسب مجلة المشاهد السياسي البريطانية والقناة الخامسة الفرنسية. كما وجهت إيران ضربات عسكرية على مواقع في مدينة أربيل في مطلع العام الحالي 2024، ووصفت هذه المواقع بـمراكز تجسس الموساد
Mossad networks in Iraq have been suspected of killing more than 5,500 Iraqi scientists, intellectuals and researchers since 2003, according to the British magazine Political Viewer and French Channel Five. Iran also launched military strikes on sites in the city of Erbil in early 2024, describing these sites as "Mossad espionage centers."
[صوت العراق, an Iraqi news center on August 11, 2024]
Historical Background:
Muhammad Sadiq al-Sadr (1943-1999) was born to a Lebanese family.
Following the Gulf War, Shiites in Southern Iraq went into open rebellion. A number of provinces overthrew the Baathist entities and rebelled against Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party. The leadership of the Shiite rebellion as well as the Shiite doctrine in Iraq was split between Ayatollah Al-Sistani and Ayatollah Al-Sadr.
Al-Sadr, based in his Baghdad ghetto where he was unreachable by Saddam's forces, appealed to the younger, more radical Shiites from the impoverished areas of Southern Iraq. The Shiites travelled to Baghdad from these poor areas to join Al-Sadr and his Shiite leadership, and al-Sadr began to establish his secret network of devoted followers. At the same time he became an increasingly prominent figure in the Iraqi political scene.
Shias in Iraq, as well as most international observers, suspect the Iraqi Baathist government of being involved in, if not directly responsible for, the 1999 assassination of Al-Sadr and his sons. Widespread anger at the government's alleged involvement in Sadr's death helped spark the 1999 Shia uprising in Iraq.
Following the fall of Baghdad, the majority-Shia suburb of Revolution City (Saddam City) was unofficially but popularly renamed to Sadr City in his honour. Sadr City was the first part of Baghdad to overthrow the Baath Party in 2003.
تركيا تعلن توقيف عميل للموساد
نفّذ حرباً نفسية ضد فلسطينيين وموّل عملاء لجمع معلومات ميدانية من سوريا
Turkey announces the arrest of a Mossad agent.
He carried out psychological warfare against Palestinians
and funded agents to gather field information from Syria.
[الشرق الأوسط on September 8, 2024. Photo of the alleged agent
arrested in Istanbul, as distributed by Turkish security services.]
Inserted Videos: Origin of the Palestinian People and the Ashkenazi Jews - by AncestralBrew -
Among the Jewish communities of Israel, Ashkenazi Jews have been chosen for an analysis of their genetic origin as they represent the politically dominant group in contemporary Israel. There are, as well, two other Jewish groups that might enjoy an even closer connection with the historic population of Roman times, originally settling in the West Asian region of Palestine.
Democratic nominee Kamala Harris has opened up her biggest polling lead yet over former President Donald Trump, according to a top polling tracker.
FiveThirtyEight's poll tracker, which complies the results of national and statewide polls and weights them according to reliability, shows that nationally Harris is on average ahead of Trump by 3.3 points, with 47 percent to the Republican's 43.7 percent.
Since she became the official candidate, the Democrat's position in the polls has steadily improved, with polls moving in her direction after previously showing Trump leading Biden.
[Newsweek on August 22]
Republican candidate Donald Trump and the philosophy of Elon Musk,
Trump's propaganda aide and alleged future member of cabinet, in
case an alliance between big money and fake news should prevail.
Latest Update on 'Regional Terrorism'
included further down on August 21:
Rare interview with Houthi leader Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi:
مقابلة نادرة جدا للسيد عبدالملك الحوثي مع قناة المنار وهو يقول ان الكيان الصـhـيوني هو عدو للإسلام والمسلمين، وداعيًا الأمة إلى استشعار المسؤولية لمواجهته.
وقال أيضاً أن زعماء العرب العملاء يحاولون إقناع شعوبهم بأن العـ.ـدو الإسـ.ـرائيليّي صديق ويمكن التعايش معه
وقال أن الكيان قائم على الفساد الاجرام ولا يمكن التعايش معه على الإطلاق ولن نقبل به أن يكون بيننا
A very rare interview with Mr. Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi on Al-Manar TV [i.e. Lebanese Hezbollah TV], in which he says that the Zionist entity [i.e. the State of Israel] is an enemy of Islam and Muslims, and calls on the [Arab] nation to feel responsible to confront it.
He also said that the Arab client leaders [i.e. essentially the leaders of Saudi Arabia and the Emirates] are trying to convince their people that the Israeli enemy is a friend and can be coexisted with.
He said that the entity is based on corruption and crime and cannot be coexisted with at all and we will not accept it among us.
Abdul-Malik Badruldeen al-Houthi [عبد الملك بدر الدين الحوثي], also known as Abu Jibril, is a Yemeni politician and religious leader who serves as the leader of the Houthi movement, a revolutionary movement principally made up of Zaidi Muslims, a Muslimic minority in Yemen. His five brothers are or were also leaders of the group.
Born in 1979, Abdul-Malik al-Houthi is the leading figure in the Yemeni Civil War which started with the Houthi takeover in Yemen in the Saada Governorate in northern Yemen in January 2015.
US secretary of state Antony J. Blinken revoked the designation of Abdul-Malik Al-Houthi as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist.
Political Analysis published by
Israel's liberal paper 'Haaretz'
Some days ago, on August 15, an official Iranian X-account announced that Iran is going to launch their brandnew SAMAN rocket system, intended to transport space payloads between Earth orbits.
Saman is capable of transporting light satellites from an orbit of 300 km to an orbit of 5,000 km. Iran is said having successfully conducted its first launching test of that system on October 3, 2020.
The rocket system 'Saman' [سامان] seems to have been named after
an ancient Iranian nomadic people in the Central Asian region of
Khorasan and Bukhara and who had founded the Samanid dynasty
[الدولة السامانية], such getting independent from the Abassid kingdom.
The Samanids are seen today as the founders of Persian identity,
speech and culture after 900 AC. During the rule of the Samanides,
the 'Holy Quran' was expanded to Central Asia.
An earlier Chinese evaluation from January 30 this year, already discussed the test launch of another system when Iran's carrier rocket PHOENIX successfully positioned three satellites in orbit, a system the Chinese named 'One Arrow and Three Stars' in their own pictorial language.
By the way, the Chinese source appeared to be unusually well informed on this matter, giving a comprising overview on Iran's satellite program, however, without mentioning neither name nor location of the launching site.
Iran's first successful launch of "One Arrow and Three Stars"
can it enhance military space capabilities?
Iran has made a major breakthrough in the development of space technology, and successfully launched "one arrow and three stars" for the first time.
According to a report by Xinhua News Agency on January 28, Iran successfully launched three satellites for the first time using the "Phoenix" carrier rocket on January 28.According to the report, on the same day, the "Phoenix" carrier rocket launched three satellites, "Maheda," "Payam," and "Khatif," into orbits about 1,110 kilometers above the earth's surface.
Some Western countries claim that Iran's satellite program could be used to develop ballistic missiles.A recent United States intelligence assessment suggests that the launch of the satellite "shortened" Iran's time to develop an ICBM.But Iran has repeatedly denied such speculation, saying that the satellite project falls under the category of scientific research.
[澎湃新闻, 'Upcoming News' on January 30, 2024]
.....................................
في صفقة محتملة
إيران تبحث عن مساعدة الصين لزيادة دقة مراقبتها للأهداف العسكرية في الشرق الأوسط
ذكرت صحيفة "واشنطن بوست" نقلا عن مسؤولين أمنيين غربيين، أن إيران طلبت من الصين دعمها في مجال الأقمار الصناعية بهدف تعزيز قدراتها في المراقبة عن بعد وجمع المعلومات الاستخباراتية، بما في ذلك إمكانية الحصول على صور عالية الدقة لأهداف عسكرية في إسرائيل ومناطق أخرى في الشرق الأوسط.
In a possible deal:
Iran looking for China's help to increase the accuracy
of surveillance of military targets in the Middle East.
The Washington Post, citing Western security officials, reported that Iran asked China for its satellite support to enhance its remote surveillance and intelligence-gathering capabilities, including access to high-resolution imagery of military targets in Israel and elsewhere in the Middle East.
وقد شهدت الفترة الأخيرة بحسب مسؤولين غربيين وشرق أوسطيين، تبادل الوفود بين الحرس الثوري الإيراني والشركات الصينية المعنية، والتي تختص في تصنيع وتشغيل أقمار صناعية مزودة بكاميرات متطورة.
وقال المسؤولون، الذين طلبوا عدم الكشف عن هويتهم لمناقشة معلومات استخباراتية حساسة، إن "سعي إيران للتعاون مع الشركتين يتم مراقبته عن كثب بسبب المخاوف من أن أي اتفاق قد يعزز بشكل كبير قدرة إيران على التجسس على المنشآت العسكرية الأميركية والإسرائيلية، بالإضافة إلى المنشآت العسكرية للدول العربية المنافسة في الخليج الفارسي".
وتقدم الشركات الصينية المعنية أقمارا صناعية مزودة بأجهزة بصرية حساسة تفوق في دقتها أقمار إيران الحالية.
وتأتي هذه الزيارات في سياق العلاقات الوثيقة بين بكين وطهران، والتي تعززت بعد توقيع اتفاقية التعاون السياسي والاقتصادي الممتدة لـ 25 عاما بين وزيري خارجية البلدين قبل ثلاث سنوات.
وسعت إيران سابقا للحصول على مساعدة من روسيا لتطوير شبكة من أقمار المراقبة التي تسيطر عليها طهران، وقد توسعت هذه المساعدة مع اعتماد روسيا على إيران كمورد للطائرات المسيرة الهجومية المستخدمة في حربها ضد أوكرانيا.
According to Western and Middle Eastern officials, delegations exchanged delegations between the IRGC and relevant Chinese companies, which specialize in manufacturing and operating satellites equipped with advanced cameras.
The officials, who asked not to be identified to discuss sensitive intelligence, said Iran's quest to cooperate with the two companies is being closely monitored because of concerns that any agreement could significantly enhance the Iran's ability to spy on U.S. and Israeli military facilities, as well as military facilities of rival Arabic countries in the Persian Gulf.
The Chinese companies involved offer satellites with sensitive optical equipment that are more accurate than those of the current Iran.
The visits come in the context of the close relations between Beijing and Tehran, which were strengthened after the signing of the 25-year political and economic cooperation agreement between the foreign ministers of the two countries three years ago.
Iran has previously sought help from Russia to develop a network of Tehran-controlled surveillance satellites, and this assistance has expanded as the Russia relied on Iran as a supplier of attack drones used in its war against the Ukraine.
Added on August 16:
Evaluation of the military situation in
Northern Israel / Galilee according to
Hezbollah near sources => further down
While many Lebanese live in a state of anticipation and concern about the possibility of the expansion of the war with Israel, especially after Hezbollah confirmed that its response to the killing of its senior leader, Fouad Shukr, late last month (July 30) is inevitable, it seems that some Israeli military voices are rising in order to carry out a quick attack south of Lebanon.
The IDF's Northern Command has begun pushing for a more aggressive approach against Hezbollah, current and former Israeli officials have confirmed.
A senior Israeli security official said that "any disproportionate response by Hezbollah could lead to an Israeli attack that creates a new reality on Israel's northern border," according to the New York Times.
"Necessary justification"
Amos Yadlin, a former intelligence official and head of 'Mind Israel', a national security consultancy, said Israel should wait even after Hezbollah attack and its response to Shukr's killing to have the necessary justification for a quick and vigorous campaign that could cripple the Iranian-backed party in a matter of days or weeks with U.S. support.
"With the destruction of the bulk of Hamas's capabilities, it is time to move to the Lebanese-Israeli border," he claimed.
Invasion of southern Lebanon
This analysis is in line with some voices within the Israeli government headed by Benjamin Netanyahu.
The far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has repeatedly called in the past to strike Allah and invade southern Lebanon, as have some members of Netanyahu's right-wing Likud party.
Yoav Kisch, Israel's education minister and a member of Netanyahu's coalition, said in a radio interview Sunday that he saw "no way to return residents to northern Israel without a strong war against Hezbollah within Lebanon."
Even a number of centrist Israeli politicians, such as National Unity Party leader Benny Gantz, have called for hitting Lebanon's infrastructure, an offensive move likely to trigger a wider war.
War between Israel and Hezbollah has long been considered inevitable, and its outbreak is only a matter of timing, according to many security analysts.
But some argued that Hezbollah's response for now could give Tel Aviv the justification it needed to strike hard enough to prevent attacks for many years to come.
The analysis comes as Netanyahu's government is under immense pressure to repatriate more than 60,000 Israelis displaced from northern Israel to escape the Allah's near-daily attacks since Oct. 7.
It also coincides with leaks from officials of Iranian-backed factions and militias who reported that Tehran told them that it does not want to expand the war and confrontation with Israel, fearing that the latter will target nuclear sites inside the Iran.
The region has been witnessing an unprecedented escalation since the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh Israel on July 31 in Tehran, hours after Shukr's killing in the stronghold of the Allah Party in the Genovese suburb of Beirut, and both Iran and Hezbollah vowed to respond to these assassinations.
[العربية on August 15]
US envoy Hochstein says he thinks Israel and Lebanon's Hezbollah can avoid war
..........
Amos Hochstein, a senior adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, landed in Beirut on Wednesday to deter an escalation between Hezbollah and Israel, after the latter killed a senior Hezbollah commander in Beirut's southern suburbs last month.
"We continue to believe that a diplomatic resolution is achievable because we continue to believe that no one truly wants a full-scale war between Lebanon and Israel," Hochstein said after talks with parliament speaker Nabih Berri, a strong Hezbollah ally.
Hochstein's visit coincided with an Israeli airstrike in Lebanon's Tyre district on Wednesday around noon that left 10 people injured, including three in critical condition, according to the Lebanese Health Ministry.
The U.S. envoy said he talked with Berri about the framework agreement on the table for a Gaza ceasefire, adding that a deal would also help enable a diplomatic resolution in Lebanon that would prevent an outbreak of a wider war.
[Reuters on August 14]
In depth translation of an X-Post
provided by 'Al-Menassa' [Tribune],
pro-Hezbollah news center in Lebanon
"Report broadcast by Channel #المنار [Al-Manar] detailing with numbers and information the importance of the northern region, industrially and economically, for Israel, especially for the advanced technology industry, which Secretary General of #حزب_الله [Hezbollah] Mr. #حسن_نصر_الله [Hassan Nasrallah] indicated could be destroyed within an hour or half an hour."
Editor's Note:
Al-Manar is a Hezbollah related TV station in Lebanon and
source of the reconnaissance video below. As to Hezbollah's
armory, Israel's liberal paper 'Haaretz' is estimating their
inventory to comprise 150,000 rockets.
Official propaganda video transmitted via Arabic news channels
is showing an extended underground missile armory containing
precision and non-precision rockets for every occasion:
Latest News of the Day:
دبي / بيروت (رويترز) - قال ثلاثة من كبارمسؤولون إيرانيون: وقف إطلاق النار في غزة هو فقط ما قد يؤجل الرد على إسرائيل
Dubai / Beirut (Reuters) - Only a ceasefire in Gaza could delay a response to Israel three senior Iranian officials said.
Here a related article published the next day (August 14):
اعتبر الرئيس الأميركي جو بايدن الثلاثاء، أن التوصل إلى اتفاق لوقف إطلاق النار في غزة قد يدفع إيران الى الامتناع عن شن هجوم على إسرائيل، رداً على اغتيال رئيس المكتب السياسي لحركة حماس إسماعيل هنية في طهران، الذي أجج التوترات الإقليمية.
رفض إيراني
جاءت تعليقات بايدن إثر رفض إيران الثلاثاء، دعوات غربية للتراجع عن تهديدها بالردّ على إسرائيل بعد اغتيال هنية، في وقت تسود المخاوف من توسّع الحرب في قطاع غزة إلى المنطقة. وتعهّدت الانتقام لاستشهاد هنية، الذي جاء بعد ساعات من ضربة إسرائيلية في الضاحية الجنوبية لبيروت قتلت القائد العسكري في حزب الله فؤاد شكر. وتوعّد حزب الله بالردّ.
ولدى سؤاله الثلاثاء عما إذا كانت هدنة بين إسرائيل وحماس قد تحول دون وقوع هجوم إيراني، قال بايدن للصحافيين "هذا ما أتوقعه"، وأضاف في نيو أورلينز إنه على الرغم من أن المفاوضات "أصبحت صعبة"، إلا أنه "لن يستسلم".
إلا أن وكالة "رويترز" نقلت عن ثلاثة مصادر إيرانية في وقت سابق، تأكيدهم أن اتفاق وقف إطلاق النار في غزة هو وحده الذي سيمنع رداً مباشراً إيرانياً على إسرائيل.
US President Joe Biden said Tuesday that reaching a ceasefire agreement in Gaza could prompt Iran to refrain from launching an attack on Israel, in response to the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran, which has inflamed regional tensions.
Iranian refusal
Biden's comments came after Iran on Tuesday rejected Western calls to back down from its threat to retaliate against Israel after Haniyeh's assassination, at a time of fears that the war in the Gaza Strip could expand to the region. It vowed revenge for Haniyeh's death, which came hours after an Israeli strike in Beirut's southern suburbs killed Hezbollah's military commander Fouad Shukr. Hezbollah vowed to respond.
Asked Tuesday whether a truce between Israel and Hamas might prevent an Iranian attack, Biden told reporters that "that's what I expect," adding in New Orleans that although negotiations were "becoming difficult," he "won't give up."
However, Reuters quoted three Iranian sources earlier as confirming that only the ceasefire agreement in Gaza would prevent a direct Iranian response to Israel.
[المدن, Lebanese online news on August 14]
.........................
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke on Monday with the Iranian president as part of international efforts to calm tensions in the Middle East.
The 30-minute phone conversation with Massoud Bizeshkian followed a joint statement issued Monday with France, the United States and Germany calling on Iran and its allies not to "jeopardize the chance of agreeing on a ceasefire and the release of hostages" in Gaza.
There are growing fears that Iran will retaliate against Israel over the killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, prompting the United States to order the deployment of a guided missile submarine to the Middle East.
[إيلاف, independent Arabic news center, London, on August 12]
عاجل| أمريكا: إيران ستشن هجوما كبيرا على إسرائيل ومستعدون لها
تتصاعد التوترات بين إيران وإسرائيل بشكل ملحوظ، حيث تشير تقارير عديدة إلى احتمالية وقوع هجمات كبيرة من الجانب الإيراني ضد إسرائيل في الأيام المقبلة، يأتي هذا التصعيد في ظل تبادل التحذيرات بين الأطراف المعنية وتزايد المخاوف الدولية من اندلاع صراع واسع النطاق في الشرق الأوسط.
تحذيرات البيت الأبيض واستعدادات دولية
أعلن البيت الأبيض أن هناك ضرورة للاستعداد لما قد يكون "هجمات كبيرة" من إيران. هذا التحذير يأتي بعد تقارير استخباراتية مشتركة بين الولايات المتحدة وإسرائيل تشير إلى أن الهجوم الإيراني قد يكون وشيكًا، على الرغم من التقييم الحالي الذي يفيد بأن الهجوم لن يحدث الليلة. فيما أكد مصدر أميركي أن إيران عازمة على تنفيذ هجوم أكبر من الذي نفذته في أبريل الماضي.
Urgent | America: Iran will launch a major attack on Israel and we are ready for it.
Tensions between Iran and Israel are escalating significantly, with numerous reports indicating the possibility of major attacks by the Iranian side against Israel in the coming days, this escalation comes in light of the exchange of warnings between the parties concerned and growing international fears of a large-scale conflict in the Middle East.
White House warnings and international preparations
The White House has said it is necessary to prepare for what may be "major attacks" from Iran. The warning follows joint U.S.-Israeli intelligence reports suggesting an Iranian attack may be imminent, despite the current assessment that the attack will not happen tonight. A U.S. source confirmed that Iran was determined to carry out a larger attack than the one it carried out in April.
With ballistic missiles and swooping drones. Israel prepares for 'unprecedented' Iranian response
Amid a major state of alert in the Israel and assurances that a response is inevitable, Hebrew media reported that there are several scenarios about the nature of that response, the latest of which was reported by the newspaper "Israel Hayom", which said that estimates go to the likelihood of Tehran launching an "unprecedented" attack through "huge" missile barrages.
The Hebrew Broadcasting Corporation reported that the state of alert is at its highest, especially with expectations that the Iranian response will not exclude camps or strategic sites amid Israel.
[إرم on August 3, 04:49 AM]
Iranian official sends message to Israel residents
Iranian Foreign Ministry adviser Mohamed Marandi said in a tweet on the X website:
"They left for Israel, they (the missiles) are coming."
قال مستشار وزارة الخارجية الإيرانية محمد مرندي، في تغريدة عبر موقع إكس: غادروا إسرائيل إنها (الصواريخ) قادمة
The US Navy announced the arrival of the aircraft carrier "Roosevelt" to the Strait of Hormuz off Iran today.
Earlier, Israel's Channel 12 reported that the website of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport was disrupted due to heavy pressure from travelers, in light of security tensions, airlines canceling flights to Israel and Israelis seeking to travel.
Israeli media reported that the official website of the Airports Authority was disrupted on Israel on Friday and a cyber attack was suspected.
This comes at a time of high alert in Israel in preparation for possible attacks by Iran and its proxies in the region.
Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei vowed to inflict "the most severe punishment" on Israel in response to the assassination of Hamas political bureau chief Ismail Haniyeh.
[خبرني on August 3, 06:14 AM]
Israel asks for "friends and allies" help to counter multi-front offensive
Along with the Iran's threat of a harsh response to any "disproportionate attack," political sources in Tel Aviv revealed that the Israeli government is in contact with friendly and allied countries to rally cooperation in the face of a multi-front offensive.
In this context, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the White House, where he held a call with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on ways to jointly respond to a ballistic missile and drone attack, and Biden told him that US forces in the region have made new equipment for their forces to abort any attack that threatens Israel, but asked him to cooperate with US efforts to reduce tension in the region and refrain from sliding into a regional war.
Netanyahu asked to increase the quantities of weapons and ammunition, and to release smart bombs, which Biden promised him without expressing reservations about the smart bombs that he [Biden] had decided to delay sending to Israel.
[المركزية,Lebanon, on August 3, 06:20 AM]
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Rare visitors from
Iran and Lebanon
August 1-4, 2024
“In an ever-changing, incomprehensible world the masses had reached the point where they would, at the same time, believe everything and nothing, think that everything was possible and that nothing was true. ...
Mass propaganda discovered that its audience was ready at all times to believe the worst, no matter how absurd, and did not particularly object to being deceived because it held every statement to be a lie anyhow.
The totalitarian mass leaders based their propaganda on the correct psychological assumption that, under such conditions, one could make people believe the most fantastic statements one day, and trust that if the next day they were given irrefutable proof of their falsehood, they would take refuge in cynicism.
Instead of deserting the leaders who had lied to them, they would protest that they had known all along that the statement was a lie and would admire the leaders for their superior tactical cleverness.”
On Stability and Chaos ...
“The point is that both Hitler and Stalin held out promises of stability in order to hide their intention of creating a state of permanent instability.”
On the Quality of Followers ...
“Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty.”
Hannah Arendt, a Jewish activist
from Germany, in her famous book
'The Origins of Totalitarianism'
