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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Unmasking Iran's strategy to take over the Middle East
2024-06-13
[YNet] Iran is spending billions of dollars to enact a four-part strategy to dominate the Middle East. The plan has been in place for years and is now showing clear-cut results.

On September 26, 2020, Commodore Ali Fadavi, the deputy commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — the regime’s sponsor of non-state armed groups — provided some figures about Iran’s effort to erect a "Resistance Front" to confront Israel and oust the United States from the Middle East.

Interviewed on Iran’s state TV channel Ofogh, he was asked, "From the beginning, when we got involved in the Resistance Front, how much do you think we spent? The numbers are very low, a lot less than the war (with Iraq which he put at $19.6 billion between 1980-1988) but the results (have been significant)."

Of course, this and many other statements of Iran’s officials must be taken with great skepticism. For example, Iranian lawmaker Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh was quoted by Iran’s media in May of that year as saying that Tehran might have spent between $20 billion and $30 billion just on its involvement in Syria, where Iranian-backed forces and militia have propped up the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The U.S. State Department estimated that Iran spent more than $16 billion on support for the Assad regime and its proxies between 2012 and 2020. In 2018, the U.S. Treasury disclosed that Hezbollah had been receiving $700 million a year from Iran, making up 70% of the terrorist army’s revenues.

Similarly, Yahya Sinwar, the Gaza head of Hamas, declared in 2017 that "Relations with Iran are excellent, and Iran is the largest supporter of the Izz ad-Din al Qassam Brigades (Hamas’s military wing) with money and arms."

However, like Iran, Hamas is likely manipulating the data. For example, in 2020, the U.S. State Department concluded that Iran had provided more than $100 million annually to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. However, an Israeli "security source" was quoted by Reuters on October 13, 2023, as indicating that Iran had significantly increased funding for Hamas' military wing "in the past year" from $100 million to about $350 million a year.

Whatever the exact figures, this question naturally arises — what did Iran accomplish through these malign "investments?"

The short answer is that Iran’s money financed a highly productive strategy to project its power in the Middle East at the expense of Israel and the United States. The goal is twofold— by carving a zone of influence, the Islamic Republic is seeking to protect the Shia regime from the surrounding Sunni-dominated countries.
So far, they only succeeded in Western Universities. And, in April, IDF have shown that they're a bunch of monkeys.
...The use of proxies in war is a practice with long historical roots. The Iranian innovation in this respect is not only the development of multiple proxy forces spread over a large geographical area, but also intensive effort to coordinate between them so they can collaborate operationally during conflict.

Today, Iran can boast of its proxy forces operating in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen. Increasingly, there are signs of two other Iranian-sponsored fronts emerging in the West Bank and Jordan. All these fronts are involved in attacks on Israel and some are also fighting to eject the U.S. from the Middle East.

...As Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei put it on June 3, the Hamas October 7 onslaught on Israel had happened exactly at the moment the region needed it, when there had been a plan "by the U.S., Zionist individuals, their followers and some of the region’s countries to change the equation in the region... Operation Al-Aqsa Flood [Hamas’ codename for the October 7 attack] disrupted the Zionist regime’s comprehensive plan to dominate the politics and economy of the entire region of West Asia, and there is no hope that they will be able to revive this plan."

Interestingly, the Palestinian Authority Presidency indirectly confirmed Iran’s proxy strategy of using other agents for its own purposes when it denounced Khamenei's comments the same day. It issued a statement saying that the Palestinians "are the first to be affected by this war (in Gaza) which has shed their blood" and that Khamenei’s comments "clearly announce that (Iran’s_ goal is to sacrifice the blood of Palestinians and to destroy Palestinian land."

Secondly, Iran’s proxies have been built up as a deterrent vis-a-vis Israel and the U.S. Hezbollah especially serves as Iran’s "second-strike force" in case Israel dares attack its nuclear installations.

...Importantly, the use of proxies is not only for the purpose of shielding Iran from possible retribution and affording the mullah's deniability. The maneuver provides a strategic advantage. Proxy use allows Iran to flaunt the rules of war while shirking responsibility as those doing the actual fighting are "autonomous" subnational groups.

The targets of this strategy, which are uniformly states, are in turn confronted with another difficulty associated with engaging in asymmetric warfare. Accordingly countries, especially those signed on to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, are expected to follow the rules of war even when fighting terrorist armies even though the latter are bound by no such commitment.
Otherwise the subhuman scum of Western "elites" - from gensec of UN down to an, effectively, illiterate American students - run riot.
...The Western-crafted rules of warfare are the cornerstone of the Islamist battlefield tactic which systematically uses them to its advantage. It is unclear to what extent Islamists break the rules of warfare as an indication of their general rejection of the Western "world" or because of tactical necessity given the asymmetry in the military balance. Still, it is indisputable that Iran-sponsored jihadist armies like Hamas and Hezbollah take the Western norms of conflict as signaling their enemy’s weakness and irresolution if not downright dimwittedness.
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Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Iran says Hamas ready to release hostages if Israel stops airstrikes as at least 199 now known taken
2023-10-17
[NYPOST] Iran
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate Jews Zionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol...
tried to pressure Israel into ending its Dire Revenge Arclight airstrike
...KABOOM!...
s on Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response...
 by claiming Monday that the Hamas
...a regional Iranian catspaw,...
 holy warriors long sponsored by Tehran would be willing to free the 199 hostages now known to have been taken during the slaughter of more than 1,400 people.

Iranian Foreign Ministry Nasser Kanaani claimed that Hamas is "ready" to release the hostages, but doing so would be "impossible" under Israeli airstrikes in the region.

He reckoned that the terror group "stated that they are ready to take necessary measures to release the citizens and civilians held by resistant groups, but their point was that such measures require preparations that are impossible under daily bombardment by the Zionists against various parts of Gaza," Kanaani said.

Despite this, Hamas has yet to make such an offer publicly.

The terror group did, however, speak out Monday to maintain that its unprecedented Oct. 7 attack was a solo effort not driven by Iran, despite widespread belief among Israeli and Western officials.

The war in Gaza is "a Paleostinian battle and the decision to enter it was a Paleostinian decision" made by Hamas and its military wing, the Izz ad-Din al Qassam Brigades, "together with the Paleostinian resistance factions," according to Hamas’ rep in Leb
...an Iranian satrapy currently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
, Ahmed Abdul-Hadi.

Although no government worldwide has offered direct evidence to support the widely held belief that Iran orchestrated the attack, Tehran has long sponsored Hamas, including training, funding and providing it with weapons.

Abdul-Hadi said that Hamas allies Iran and Hezbollah will not allow Israel "to crush Gaza" or to launch a "comprehensive ground attack," but that the groups have deliberately left ambiguity about when and how they would respond. "This is up to the developments in the situation at the time."

In case of a "ground attack, regardless of its level," or if "more and more massacres continue to be committed" in Gaza and Hamas is using up its resources, he said, there will be "surprises announced."

Israel held firm Monday, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office stating, "There is no ceasefire."

It came as the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Monday confirmed that at least 199 hostages are known to be held in Gaza, a number much greater than previously believed.

Military front man Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said families have been notified. He did not say how many held captive were foreigners, or who was holding them, though most are believed to be held by Hamas, which rules Gaza.

The holy warriors have previously threatened to post footage of hostages being executed in Dire Revenge for Israeli counterstrikes.

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Terror Networks
Counterterriosm Blog: Buried Videos and Documents in Backyard Show HAMAS Links
2007-08-01
The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) trial resumed this Monday with hours of video evidence, some of which had been buried in the backyard of unindicted co-conspirator Fawaz Mushtaha, a former resident of a Northern Virginia suburb of Washington DC.

The videos show HLF fundraising festivals (involving singing, lectures and sermons, presumably for charitable purposes), including one in which defendant Muhammad El Mezain is sandwiched between two leaders of HAMAS at that time, Mahmoud al Zahar and Jamil Hamami. Along with Mezain, several other defendants in the trial are clearly visible.

Mufid Abdulqader, a member of the musical troupe al-Sakra can be seen performing at these festivals where crowds chanted slogans such as “Khaybar, Khaybar ya yahud. Jaish Muhammed soufa ya’oud.” (“O Jews of Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning!”) ***

Skits were performed on stage at the festivals, including one that portrayed Israeli soldiers shooting at Palestinian children as well a skit starring defendant Abdulqader as a HAMAS activist who chokes a Jew in one skit and stabs a soldier in another.

One such festival in Los Angeles makes reference to Sheikh Abdullah Azzam, the charismatic Palestinian cleric who was close with and greatly influenced Osama Bin-Laden in the 1980s. (Azzam was also a popular speaker at Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP) conferences; IAP is an unindicted co-consopirator in this case).

Several of the videos also praise the military wing of HAMAS, the Izz ad-Din al Qassam Brigades, as well as Hamas spiritual leader Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

At the end of two of these fundraising videos, a flashing banner rose from the bottom of the screen urging people to donate to The Occupied Land Fund, the name used by HLF until the early 1990s.


*** Khaybar, an oasis near Medina inhabited mainly by Jews in the 7th century. In the year 628, Muhammad led the Muslims against it, defeating the Jews in battle and subjugating the survivors, who would later be expelled from Arabia. Chant implies that history will repeat itself.
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