#Benjamin Netanyahu terrorism planner | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

freenewstoday · 3 years

Photo

New Post has been published on https://freenews.today/2020/11/27/irans-top-nuclear-scientist-killed-in-apparent-assassination-state-media-reports/

Iran's top nuclear scientist killed in apparent assassination, state media reports

Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, considered one of the masterminds of Iran’s controversial nuclear program, died after his car was apparently ambushed in a district east of Tehran. Photos from the scene showed the shattered windshield of a car, and blood on the road.

Iranian state media said the killing appeared to be an assassination. Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Amir Hatami was quoted by Iran’s semi-official news agency ISNA as saying Fakhrizadeh was targeted by gunfire and a Nissan vehicle explosion, before a firefight ensued.

Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif called the death “cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office declined to comment to CNN.

Fakhrizadeh was head of the research center of new technology in the elite Revolutionary Guards, and was a leading figure in Iran’s nuclear program for many years.

“Terrorists murdered an eminent Iranian scientist today,” Zarif said in a tweet. “This cowardice — with serious indications of Israeli role — shows desperate warmongering of perpetrators Iran calls on int’l community — and especially EU — to end their shameful double standards & condemn this act of state terror.”

US President Donald Trump retweeted prominent Israeli journalist Yossi Melman, who wrote: “Fakhrizadeh-Mahabadi assassinated in Damavand, east of Tehran according to reports in Iran. He was head of Iran’s secret military program and wanted for many years by Mossad. His death is a major psychological and professional blow for Iran.”

The Trump administration said it was closely monitoring the apparent assassination. The death “would be a big deal,” a US official told CNN.

Several top-level Iranian officials have condemned the attack and threatened to retaliate. The head of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, Hossein Salami, issued a statement calling the killing a “terrorist operation”, according to ISNA.

“The blinded enemies of Iran, particularly the planners and coordinators of this cowardly act of terrorism must understand that such savagery will not cause a single wrinkle in our collective will to conquer bright scientific horizons, and be aware that the difficult revenge awaiting them is already an integral part of our work!,” he said, according to the news agency.

Ali Akbar Velayati, international affairs adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said in a statement: “The Iranian nation will avenge the blood of this great martyr from the terrorist elements and their supporters.”

The Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces, Major General Mohammad Bagheri, warned of “severe revenge” against “the killers” of Fakhrizadeh, state-news agency IRNA reported.

“The assassination of this capable and worthy manager, although it was a bitter and heavy blow to the country’s defense complex, but the enemies know that the path started by the martyr Fakhrizadeh will never be stopped,” Bagheri said, according to IRNA.

Lebanon’s Hezbollah, the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, also condemned the killing. Hezbollah’s second-in-command, Naim Qassem, said that agents of the US and Israel were behind the assassination.

“We condemn this sinful attack, and we see that the response to this crime is in the hands of those concerned in Iran. We are not shaken by assassinations,” Qassem said during an interview with Hezbollah-owned al-Manar TV.

Trita Parsi, the co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, said it was not clear who was behind the apparent assassination, but that “there are not that many candidates.”

“At the end of the day the only countries that actually have the intent, the motivation and the capacity — and the capacity is really important — really reduces the number of candidates to no more than Israel and potentially the United States,” he told CNN’s Becky Anderson.

In April 2018, Netanyahu mentioned Fakhrizadeh by name when he unveiled a nuclear archive he said Mossad agents had taken from Tehran. He called him the head of a secret nuclear project called Project Amad. “Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh,” Netanyahu told reporters.

Iran began to withdraw from its commitments to the 2015 landmark nuclear deal in 2019, a year after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the agreement and unleashed crippling sanctions on the country.

In the last month, the International Atomic Energy Agency documented several new breaches of the agreement. Earlier this week, Iran said it had begun injecting Uranium Hexafluoride gas into centrifuges at its Natanz facility.

Why was Fakhrizadeh targeted?

Fakhrizadeh is the most prominent face of nuclear program that has been the main flashpoint in an international dispute. He is mentioned in multiple reports by the US State Department and the International Atomic Energy Agency as holding deep insight into Iran’s nuclear capabilities.

It’s unclear what role he held in Iran’s efforts — always officially denied — to develop a nuclear weapon. It is also not clear how much he would know of the most secret elements of anything Iran may be doing, given his profile. But he was a symbol of Iran’s past ambitions, and was protected heavily.

That did did not stop him being targeted and killed in broad daylight in the outskirts of Iran’s capital. The message is clear: Iran’s enemies can kill its nuclear celebrities anywhere.

Is the timing significant?

There are just over 50 days left in the Trump administration, before President-elect Joe Biden is inaugurated and diplomatic contacts between Tehran and Washington are likely to pick up again.

There are many in Israel and the US who see the current “maximum pressure” policy of sanctions and hostility as the only route to stop Iran from expanding its influence and getting the bomb eventually.

Fakhrizadeh’s killing makes that kind of diplomacy harder, and gives voice to hawks in Iran that peacemaking is futile. It also gives voice to Iran’s enemies, who can argue that taking on Iran head first is possible and can be palpably a deterrent.

While the apparent assassination is embarrassing to Iran, it wants diplomacy with Biden rather than outright conflict.

Iran has yet to respond, beyond condemnation, to the killing of Iranian military commander Qassem Soleimani earlier this year. Again, Tehran may prefer to blame its enemies loudly and then move on, rather than seek open conflict.

This story has been updated to standardize the spelling of Fakhrizadeh’s name.

Ramin Mostaghim reported from Tehran. Nick Paton Walsh wrote from London. Tamara Qiblawi wrote from Beirut. Mostafa Salem reported from Dubai. Ivana kottasová wrote in London. Additional reporting by Sara Mazloumsaki in Atlanta and Ghazi Balkiz in Beirut.

Source

#Iran nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh assassinated #middleeast #state media reports - CNN

0 notes

blamnews · 6 years

Text

Furious Palestinians Burn American Flags In Protest To Trump

President Donald Trump announced that America formally recognizes Jerusalem as Israel’s capital city that set off protests throughout the Middle East.

Appearing in the White House’s Diplomatic Reception Room against an elaborate backdrop of Christmas decorations, he changed decades of U.S. policy in a brief afternoon speech. He said the move was a bid to preserve, not derail, aspirations for regional peace.

He also said the United States embassy in Israel would, over time, be moved there from Tel Aviv. Israel is the only country where the United States has an embassy in a city that the host nation does not consider its capital.

His speech was greeted by demonstrations and a threat from Hamas. Hamas called Thursday and Friday ‘days of rage’ and that Trump had ‘opened the gates of hell.’

Meanwhile, in Gaza, thousands flooded the streets and burned U.S. flags. Palestinian secular and Islamist factions called a general strike on Thursday after tens of thousands took to the streets on Wednesday night.

Israeli security forces have braced for possible violence for days to come, and the U.S. embassy in Jordan was locked down.

The Pope and other world leaders spoke out against the measure, saying that it jeopardized the peace process. However, Trump was unrepentant that he was doing the ‘right thing.’

‘I have determined that it is time to officially recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel,’ Trump said. ‘While previous presidents have made this a major campaign promise, they failed to deliver. Today I am delivering.’

‘When I came into office I promised to look at the world’s challenges with open eyes and very fresh thinking,’ he said, leaning heavily on a mid-1990s federal law that demanded the embassy’s relocation.

‘We have declined to acknowledge any Israeli capital – at all,’ Trump added. ‘But today we finally acknowledge the obvious, that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital. This is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality.’

‘It is also the right thing to do. It is something that has to be done.’

Donald Trump officially recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital on Wednesday and launched a process to move the U.S. embassy there, casting his decision as an act of political courage

Days of rage on way: Hamas supporters stage a protest against the decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, in Jebaliya Refugee Camp, part of the Gaza Strip

Palestinian protesters chant slogans as they wave their national flags and pictures of late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat during a protest at the main Square in Gaza City, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2017. Defying worldwide warnings, U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday broke with decades of U.S. and international policy by recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.(AP Photo/Adel Hana)

The president signed a proclamation after his short speech, backed up by Vice President Mike Pence

‘Today we finally acknowledge the obvious, that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital; this is nothing more or less than a recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do,’ Trump said

Take to the streets: Young men in Gaza protested after Trump’s announcement, with Hamas asking for a ‘day of rage’ on Friday

Reaction spread around the Islamic world, with this crowd taking to the streets in Istanbul in front of the U.S. consulate to protest

In flames: In Gaza Palestinians burned the U.S. and Israeli flags as Trump’s announcement later on Wednesday was revealed

Trump spoke to cameras in the Diplomatic Reception Room at the White House, surrounded by Christmas trees as he spoke about tensions between Muslims and Jews

Trump said that has brought the world ‘no closer to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians,’ while every president since Bill Clinton has exercised a waiver in the Jerusalem Embassy Act. A major theme in Trump’s unprecedented statement was his claim that it shouldn’t interfere with longer-term peace negotiations between Israeli and Palestinian leaders.

The speech, however, did not say how that could be the case and there was no briefing from the White House afterward to expand on Trump’s case.

Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law is currently drawing up a Middle East peace plan. When it will appear and how Wednesday’s dramatic announcement will play a part in it, is unknown.

Kushner, 36, a former property developer, was not present for Trump’s speech and proclamation signing.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) said that the speech had destroyed hopes for a two-state solution. The terror group Hamas said Trump had opened ‘the gates of hell.’

The leader of Hamas, Sami Abu Zuhri, said that Trump’s decision ‘will not succeed in changing the reality of Jerusalem being Islamic Arab land.’

‘This decision is foolish and time will tell that the biggest losers are Trump and Netanyahu.’

Trump insisted that ‘this decision is not intended in any way to reflect a departure from our strong commitment to facilitating a lasting peace agreement. ‘We want an agreement that is a great deal for the Israelis and a great deal for the Palestinians.’

‘We are not taking a position on any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem or the resolution of contested borders,’ he continued.

‘Those questions are up to the parties involved. The United States remains deeply committed to helping facilitate a peace agreement that is acceptable to both sides. I intend to do everything in my power to help forge such an agreement.’

‘If agreed to by both sides,’ Trump said the United States would continue to support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian standoff.

‘In the meantime, I call on all parties to maintain the status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites,’ he said.

‘Jerusalem is today, and must remain, a place where Jews pray at the Western Wall, where Christians walk the Stations of the Cross and where Muslims pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque,’ Trump added.

Trump’s policy was called ‘historic’ by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and quickly pledged to continue giving Muslims and Christians access to their sacred places in Jerusalem’s Old City.

While Trump insisted that ordering a move of the embassy’s location would ‘immediately begin the process of hiring architects, engineers and planners so that a new embassy, when completed, will be a magnificent tribute to peace,’ America’s friends and foes unleashed fierce criticism before Trump made official what the White House previewed for reporters Tuesday night.

However, Trump stuck to his guns, calling his decision an act of political courage.

‘Israel and the Palestinians in the Middle East. And I think it’s long overdue,’ said Trump

‘Many presidents have said they want to do something, and they didn’t do it. Whether it’s through courage or they change their mind, I can’t tell you. But a lot of people have said we have to do something, and they didn’t do it.’

US and Israeli national flags were projected on the wall of Jerusalem’s Old City on Wednesday

The status of Jerusalem – home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian religions – has been one of the thorniest issues in long-running Mideast peace efforts. Pictured: Protesters in Gaza City tonight

A woman chants slogans during a sit-in in the Bourj al-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut, Lebanon

President Macron branded the decision ‘regrettable’, calling for efforts to ‘avoid violence at all costs’. Pictured: Protests in Istanbul after the announcement tonight

Rebukes spread: In Britain, Prime Minister Theresa May said she would challenge Trump and at the Vatican Pope Francis said he was ‘profoundly concerned’ and appealed that ‘everyone respects the status quo of the city’

More opprobrium: Turkey’s president Recey Tayyip Erdogan, who met King Abdullah of Jordan on Tuesday, had called the move on Jerusalem a ‘red line’. His spokesman on Wednesday said it was a ‘grave mistake that will virtually eliminate the fragile Middle East peace process’.

Tuesday, a senior administration official said that the president’s decision to move the embassy in the long term ‘is a recognition of reality.’

Israel welcomed the news, but the Palestinian officials declared the Mideast peace process ‘finished’ and Turkey announced it would host a meeting of Islamic nations next week to give Muslim countries’ leaders an opportunity to coordinate a response.

U.S. and Israeli flags were burned in Gaza, while the West Bank Hamas declared Friday a ‘day of rage,’ raising the specter of mass violence in the occupied territories. Security forces in Israel braced for violence as well.

The Pope pleaded for Trump to rethink immediately and spoke to his weekly general audience in Rome.

‘I make a heartfelt appeal so that all commit themselves to respecting the status quo of the city, in conformity with the pertinent resolutions of the United Nations,’ Pope Francis said.

The Roman Catholic Pontiff said: ‘I cannot keep quiet about my deep concern about the situation that has been created in the last few days.’

Turkish government spokesman said that the move would plunge the region and the world into ‘a fire with no end in sight.’

UK Prime Minister, Theresa May said she would challenge the country’s closest ally.

‘I’m intending to speak to President Trump about this matter,’ May said.

‘Our position has not changed, it has been a long-standing one and it is also a very clear one. It is that the status of Jerusalem should be determined in a negotiated settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, and Jerusalem should ultimately form a shared capital between the Israeli and Palestinian states.’

The intense global reaction cast questions about the feasibility of a brewing U.S. peace plan that is expected to be presented by the White House soon.

Trump would effectively be making a ‘declaration of war,’ the Palestinians’ chief representative to Britain said Wednesday before the president’s speech.

‘If he says what he is intending to say about Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, it means a kiss of death to the two-state solution,’ Manuel Hassassian said.

‘He is declaring war in the Middle East, he is declaring war against 1.5 billion Muslims [and] hundreds of millions of Christians that are not going to accept the holy shrines to be totally under the hegemony of Israel,’ Hassassian added.

Trump complained during a late morning cabinet meeting at the White House that ‘many presidents have said they want to do something, and they didn’t do it; whether it’s through courage or they change their mind I can’t tell you’

Contested city: Jerusalem is the holiest city of three religions and until now, never recognized by the U.S. or most other countries as Israel’s capital. Trump’s move upends what had long been U.S. policy, that recognition would be part of the peace process

‘There is no way that there can be talks with the Americans. The peace process is finished. They have already pre-empted the outcome,’ said Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi. ‘They cannot take us for granted.’ Ashrawi believes the Palestinians seek east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state and fear that Trump’s declaration essentially imposes on them a disastrous solution for one of the core issues in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Palestinian Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah said the U.S. decision ‘destroys the peace process.’ Top Palestinian officials were meeting Wednesday to plot their course forward.

Trump’s decisions received overwhelming support from congressional leaders on the Republican side in Washington on Wednesday.

‘This is a day that is long overdue,’ said Republican Speaker of the House Paul Ryan.

‘Jerusalem has been, and always will be, the eternal, undivided capital of the State of Israel.’

Democrats, however, were openly critical.

Trump’s decision ‘comes at the wrong time and unnecessarily inflames the region,’ Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia insisted.

‘This announcement upends long-standing U.S. policy and international agreements that the status of Jerusalem should be determined as part of a peace settlement between Israel and the Palestinians, not unilaterally.’

Nicholas Burns, a former member of the Foreign Policy Board while Democrat John Kerry as secretary of State and a faculty member at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, was among Trump’s critics.

‘I believe this decision is misguided. It will diminish U.S. influence among Palestinians and the wider Moslem World,’ Burns said.

‘The State Department is already warning Americans about the possible reaction worldwide. And we are getting nothing for this major, unilateral American concession.’ In addition, moving the embassy will be a long process.

‘This will be a matter of some years. It won’t be immediate, it won’t be months, it won’t be quick,’ a senior administration official said Tuesday night.

‘For instance,’ he said, ‘the United States was looking at moving out of Grosvenor Square in London for a long, long time. And I think that took something like eight years to get done and will be done in early 2018.’

‘It is a practical impossibility to move the embassy tomorrow,’ another official said. ‘There is about 1,000 personnel in the embassy in Tel Aviv. There is no facility they can move into in Jerusalem, as of today.’

‘It will take some time to find a site, address security concerns, design a new facility, fund a new facility – working with Congress, obviously – and build it. So this is not an instantaneous process.’

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, said on Facebook that ‘our historical national identity is receiving important expressions every day.’

Education Minister Naftali Bennett, head of the nationalist Jewish Home party, praised what he called Trump’s ‘bold and yet natural’ move, while other members of his cabinet were more forthcoming.

‘That they claim they want to announce [Jerusalem] as the capital of occupied Palestine is because of their incompetence and failure,’ Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said

A laborer hangs a U.S. national flag on a lamppost along a street where the U.S. consulate located in Jerusalem

‘The sooner the Arab world recognizes Jerusalem as our capital, the sooner we will reach real peace. A real peace that is not predicated on an illusion that we are going to carve up Jerusalem and carve up Israel,’ Bennett said on the sidelines of the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference.

American evangelical Christian group, The Family Research Council, was enthusiastic.

‘America’s foreign policy, as it pertains to Israel, is coming into alignment with this biblical truth: Jerusalem is the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish state,’ the group’s president Tony Perkins said.

Trump was quickly criticized by international leaders.

China expressed concerns over ‘possible aggravation of regional tensions.’

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said they have good ties with Israel and the Palestinians During a news briefing that the status of Jerusalem, a complicated and sensitive issue, China was concerned the U.S. decision ‘could sharpen regional conflict.’

‘All parties should do more for the peace and tranquility of the region, behave cautiously, and avoid impacting the foundation for resolving the long-standing Palestine issue and initiating new hostility in the region,’ Geng said.

Key Mideast player, Russia, expressed its concern about a ‘possible deterioration.’

Lebanese newspapers published front-page rebukes of Trump.

Boris Johnson, Britain’s Foreign Minister, who had already expressed concern about the U.S. decision, on Wednesday said it was now time for the Americans to present their peace plan for the region.

‘Jerusalem obviously should be part of the final settlement between the Israelis and the Palestinians – a negotiated settlement that we want to see,’ Johnson said. ‘We have no plans ourselves to move our embassy.’

While Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson was in Brussels, he tried to dampen down the reaction.

‘The president is very committed to the Middle East peace process,’ Tillerson told reporters at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

Tillerson said a small team led by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, has been ‘engaged in a quiet way’ in the region to try to revive peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.

‘We continue to believe there is a very good opportunity for peace to be achieved and the president has a team that is devoted to that entirely,’ Tillerson said.

Months of meetings with Israeli, Palestinian and Arab leaders have taken place. However, details of their long-awaited plan remain a mystery Trump’s Mideast team have spent.

‘Clearly, this is a decision that makes it more important than ever that the long-awaited American proposals on the Middle East peace process are now brought forward,’ Johnson told reporters in Brussels.

Trump was expected to instruct the State Department to begin the multi-year process of moving the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to the holy city. It was unclear, however, when he might take that step required by U.S. law but has been waived on national security grounds for more than two decades.

Trump’s relationship with Chinese President Xi Jinping could be in danger after Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the status of Jerusalem was a complicated and sensitive issue and the U.S. decision ‘could sharpen regional conflict’

Officials said Trump would delay the embassy move by signing a waiver, which is required by U.S. law, every six months. He said he would continue to sign the waiver until preparations for the embassy move are complete.

Speaking on condition of anonymity pending Trump’s announcement, the officials said the decision was merely an acknowledgment of ‘historical and current reality’ rather than a political statement and said the city’s physical and political borders would not be compromised.

Nearly all of Israel’s government agencies and parliament are in Jerusalem, rather than Tel Aviv, where the U.S. and other countries maintain embassies.

The declaration of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital carries deep symbolic significance and could have dangerous consequences. East Jerusalem, the section of the city captured by Israel in 1967, has frequently boiled over into deadly violence over the years.

The city’s most sensitive Jewish, Muslim and Christian holy sites, as well as its 330,000 Palestinian residents, are in East Jerusalem.

The U.S. has never endorsed the Jewish state’s claim of sovereignty over any part of Jerusalem and insists its status be resolved through Israeli-Palestinian negotiation.

Trump changing the status quo sparked a renewed U.S. security warning on Tuesday. America’s consulate in Jerusalem ordered U.S. personnel and their families avoid visiting Jerusalem’s Old City or the West Bank. They urged American citizens, in general, to avoid places with increased police or military presence.

Trump repeatedly promised to move the U.S. Embassy when he was a presidential candidate, U.S. leaders have routinely delayed such a move since President Bill Clinton signed a law in 1995 stipulating that the U.S. must relocate its diplomatic presence to Jerusalem unless the commander in chief issues a waiver on national security grounds.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, key national security advisers have urged caution, according to the officials. Trump has been receptive to some of their concerns.

Trump said his desire is to broker a ‘deal of the century’ that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Outside advisers to the administration and U.S. officials, said the president’s speech was not aimed at resolving the conflict over Jerusalem.

According to the officials, Trump is not planning to use the phrase ‘undivided capital.’ Such terminology is favored by Israeli officials and would imply Israel’s sovereignty over east Jerusalem.

Trump would insist that issues of sovereignty and borders must be negotiated by Israel and the Palestinians according to one official. Trump would call for Jordan to maintain its role as the legal guardian of Jerusalem’s Muslim holy places, and reflect Israel and Palestinian wishes for a two-state peace solution said the same official.

Reactions were skeptical, especially across the Muslim world. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the ‘whole world is against’ Trump’s move. The supreme leader of Iran, Israel’s staunchest enemy, condemned Trump.

The state quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying that ‘the victory will ultimately be for the Islamic nation and Palestine, ‘ on their TV’s website.

Iran does not recognize Israel. It supports anti-Israeli militant groups like Lebanese Hezbollah and Palestinian Hamas.

‘That they claim they want to announce Quds as the capital of occupied Palestine is because of their incompetence and failure,’ Khamenei said, using the Arabic name for Jerusalem.

If you know someone who might like this, please click “Share!”

Furious Palestinians Burn American Flags In Protest To Trump was originally published on BlamNews

0 notes