Iran resumed enriching uranium to 20 percent last week, well in excess of the threshold set out in its landmark 2015 nuclear deal with world powers and a short technical jump from the 90% level of enrichment needed to produce weapons.
Iran
Iran bans coronavirus vaccines from US, Britain
“Imports of US and British vaccines into the country are forbidden. I have told this to officials and I’m saying it publicly now,” Khamenei said in a live televised speech.
One year after the destruction of Flight PS752, Canada is pursuing the facts on its own, says Goodale
Iran’s pattern of behaviour since the destruction of Flight PS752 by its military has convinced Ottawa it can’t trust Tehran’s version of events, says the prime minister’s special adviser on the crash — which is why Ralph Goodale says he’s relying on a specialized team in Canada to chase down the facts.
FBI launches probe after voice message picked up by air controllers threatens to FLY PLANE into US Capitol to ‘avenge Soleimani’
A voice message threatening a 9/11-style attack on the US Capitol has prompted a federal probe after the audio was picked up on aviation radios, vowing to “avenge” the US assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani.
“We are flying a plane into the Capitol Wednesday. Soleimani will be avenged,” the mysterious message said, first received by air traffic controllers based in New York earlier this week, according to CBS News. The message refers to the American drone strike that killed the Iranian Quds Force leader near the Baghdad airport early last year.
Iran asks Interpol to issue ‘red notice’ for arrest of President Trump
Iran requested the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) to issue a “red notice” for the arrest of President Trump and 47 other U.S. officials on Tuesday due to the killing of top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani last year.
Iranian judiciary spokesman Gholamhossein Esmaili labeled Trump as “the main culprit” in Soleimani’s killing, which he called a “terrorist crime,” the semiofficial Mehr News Agency reported, according to NPR. Other U.S. officials included in the request are U.S. military commanders and officials in the region and at the Pentagon.
Congressmen Beating the Drum for Iran’s Mullahs
Amid the pandemic, some US Congressmen already appear to be spending their political capital on one thing: Appeasing the Iranian regime and pushing for a softer policy towards the mullahs. More than 100 Congressmen recently signed a letter expressing their support and urging presumptive President-Elect Joe Biden to rejoin the nuclear deal, which, incidentally, Iran never signed.
Video of ‘Simulated Iranian Attack’ on US Base Emerges Amid 1st Anniversary of Soleimani’s Killing
A video apparently showing a simulated attack by Iranian forces against a US military base has appeared on YouTube. The video emerged a day before the first anniversary of the assassination of Qasem Soleimani, head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force.
Iran ramps up uranium work as tensions with US rise over nuclear weapons
Iran said it is moving quickly to enrich uranium up to 20 percent purity at a site hidden inside a mountain, a level it achieved before the 2015 nuclear deal.
“We are like soldiers and our fingers are on the triggers,” Ali Akbar Salehi, the US-educated head of the civilian Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said on state television Saturday. “The commander should command and we shoot. We are ready for this and will produce (20 percent enriched uranium) as soon as possible.”
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Warns ‘Someone Inside’ US Could Take Revenge for Soleimani
On Thursday, Abdolrahim Mousavi, commander in chief of the Iranian Army, reiterated sentiments previously made by other officials that there was no one in the US political or military hierarchy of equal worth to Qasem Soleimani, the Quds Force commander slain in a US drone strike in early January 2020.
Actors within the United States may independently “respond” to Gen. Qasem Soleimani’s assassination, Brig. Gen. Esmail Ghaani, the officer who replaced Soleimani as commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Quds Force, has said.
Khamenei: ‘When Islam Dominated Non-Muslim Regions, Followers of Other Religions Were Grateful’
On the day after Christmas, the Iranian Islamic regime’s Ahlul Bayt News Agency published a collection of the sayings from Shia Islam’s Supreme Leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei, about Christianity and related matters. Khamenei denounced the claim that “Islam is hostile to other nations and to other religions” and insisted: “This is not true. Islam is not antagonistic toward other religions.” Digging even deeper, he added: “When Islam dominated non-Muslim regions, the followers of other religions were grateful to Muslims for their Islamic mercy.” Khamenei and his regime are known for their deceptive practices, but this one may be the biggest lie the ruthless 81-year-old autocrat has ever told.
US election 2020: FBI links Iran to websites targeting poll officials
Iranian cyber actors were “almost certainly” behind a number of websites and social media accounts which contained death threats against senior officials in charge of securing and managing the 2020 election, two US security agencies have announced.
In a joint statement published on 23 December, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) said they were in possession of “highly credible information” indicating Iran was responsible for the operation.
The operation “demonstrates an ongoing Iranian intent to create divisions and mistrust in the United States and undermine public confidence in the US electoral process”, it added.
To Europe with Love: “Diplomats” or Terrorists from Iran’s Mullahs?
While the European Union appears excited that Joe Biden will be the next US President and then they can immediately rejoin the nuclear deal and lift sanctions against the mullahs, Tehran continues its terrorism on the European soil.
As the High Representative of the EU for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell, is urging the US to rejoin the JCPOA, one of Iran’s active diplomats in Belgium is currently on trial, accused of orchestrating a terrorist operation in Europe in 2018. French officials foiled a planned bomb attack in Paris against a large “Free Iran” convention attended by tens of thousands of people, including many high-level speakers such as former US House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, and Canada’s former Prime Minister Stephen Harper and former Foreign Minister John Baird.
Iran’s Plan to Topple Arab Leaders
Iran’s Islamist proxies in the Arab world have resurfaced to condemn last week’s normalization agreement between Israel and Morocco just as they did with similar accords reached in the past few months with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan.
As usual, the Islamists and their patrons in Tehran, who seek the elimination of Israel, are using texts from the Koran and sayings attributed to the prophet Mohammed to justify their opposition to the normalization of relations between Arabs and Israel.
Iranian president happy ‘terrorist’ Trump’s presidency is ending
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani has told his cabinet that, while Iran isn’t excited about Joe Biden, he is “very happy” that Donald Trump is leaving office, labelling the US president “a killer” and “a terrorist.”
Speaking during a televised meeting, Rouhani issued scathing attacks on Trump, accusing him of hampering Iran’s ability to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak by blocking its efforts to acquire a vaccine through the World Health Organization.
Joe is more their cup of tea.
Kameel Ahmady: British FGM academic ‘jailed in Iran’
A British-Iranian academic has been sentenced to eight years in prison by a court in Tehran, his lawyer says.
Kameel Ahmady was convicted of “collaborating with a hostile government”, Amir Raesian tweeted.
One local news agency said he was given a nine-year sentence for illegally receiving funds from institutions trying to topple the Iranian regime.
Mr Ahmady is an anthropologist who has studied child marriage, female genital mutilation and sexuality in Iran.