Iran's Zarif Resigns As Vice President Just Days After Appointment (2024)

August 12, 2024

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August 13, 2024

Yahya Sinwar, the alleged architect of the deadly October 7 attack on Israel and surprise appointment as the new leader of the U.S.- and EU-designated terror group Hamas, is known to have close ties to Iran.

His appointment on August 6 as the head of the Palestinian group's political bureau followed the assassination of his predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh, in Tehran on July 31, an act that Iran and Hamas blame on Israel.

Following the death of Haniyeh, who had strong relations with Iranian officials, the most prominent names to be considered as his successor were Khaled Meshaal, a former politburo chief of Hamas, and Khalil al-Hayya, a prominent figure within the bureau with close ties to Haniyeh.

The appointment of Sinwar, who has been the Hamas chief in Gaza since 2017, came as a big surprise because many did not take into account the Iran factor, analysts say.

"None of us experts on Palestinian affairs -- especially here in Israel -- thought about Sinwar as the person who would replace Haniyeh," said Yohanan Tzoreff, a senior researcher at the Tel Aviv-based Institute for National Security Studies who specializes in Israeli-Palestinian relations.

"One [major] reason why Sinwar is the [new] leader is Iran," he added.

Sinwar was appointed after two days of deliberations in Qatar by the Shura Council -- a consultative body that elects the group's politburo and has members in Gaza, the West Bank, Israeli prisons, and the Palestinian diaspora.

Tzoreff said Meshaal's criticism during the 2011 Arab Spring of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad -- a close ally of Tehran -- made him a deeply unpopular figure among Iran's top brass.

Tzoreff argued that Mashaal's return to power could have jeopardized the Palestinian group's relations with the Islamic republic and "[the Iranians] may have stopped giving Hamas everything it needs [to fight Israeli forces]."

But Sinwar is reportedly stuck in Gaza, where he has been in hiding since the start of the war with Israel in October 2023. The constraints on his movement and restricted ability to communicate with the world mean Sinwar is very limited in what he can do.

"I don’t expect him or Hamas to become closer to Iran. At this point, the relationship will likely stay the same," said Joost Hiltermann, the Middle East and North Africa Program director at the Belgium-based International Crisis Group.

Molded By Israeli Prisons

Also known by his supporters as Abu Ibrahim, the 61-year-old Sinwar was born in the Khan Younis refugee camp in Gaza. His parents, like Haniyeh's, fled the coastal town of Ashkelon during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War that resulted in the establishment of the state of Israel -- or what Palestinians call the "nakba" (catastrophe).

Sinwar joined Hamas shortly after it was formed in 1987 and set up its feared internal security organization, Al-Majd, whose main purpose was to find Israeli spies within the group. He gained a reputation for violence and was nicknamed the "Butcher of Khan Younis."

Sinwar was captured by Israeli forces and sentenced to multiple life terms for a variety of offenses -- including the killing of two Israeli soldiers -- and spent more than two decades in prison.

"He is a guy who was hardened in Israeli prisons, like many longtime Palestinian ex-prisoners," Hiltermann said.

He said Sinwar learned Hebrew while in prison and, crucially, this helped him to learn how Israeli leaders think.

"Sinwar's really tough. He is ruthless. He is very much a leader in the mold of any Israeli leader," Hiltermann said.

While in prison, Sinwar organized strikes to improve working conditions and emerged as a leader among incarcerated Palestinians.

His experience in prison "prepared him very well for the leadership of Hamas" and in planning the October 7 attack, Hiltermann said.

Nearly 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed when Hamas militants raided communities in south Israel in October and took hostages back to Gaza. The attack prompted Israel to launch a major offensive in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, which Palestinian sources say has killed more than 40,000 people.

Sinwar was released from prison in 2011 as part of an exchange that saw more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners freed in return for one Israeli soldier held by Hamas. Soon after his release, Sinwar accompanied Haniyeh on a trip to Tehran where he met Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The same day Sinwar was announced as Haniyeh's successor on August 6, Khamenei's account on X posted a short video of that visit showing Sinwar meeting with the Iranian leader in February 2012.

Hamas's Message

Traditionally, Hamas's political bureau chief is based abroad so he can travel and maintain contact with regional allies, such as Iran and the Lebanese Islamic militant group Hizballah.

But Sinwar, who U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken once joked is "buried 10 stories underground" in Gaza, is unable to leave the enclave because of the war.

Tzoreff said that, by appointing a Gaza-based leader, Hamas was "sending a very strong message" to both Israel and Arab states that "the resistance of Hamas has not collapsed."

"The main message is that nobody can push them out of the area," he added.

Sinwar himself may not be keen on leaving Gaza, because his legitimacy is based on his being in the enclave.

"If Sinwar were to leave Gaza, Palestinians would say he is abandoning them, like a captain leaving the ship," Hiltermann said.

Sinwar has been in Israel's sights since the beginning of the war, with army spokesman Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari describing him as a "dead man" following the October attack.

Killing Sinwar remains a priority for the Israeli army.

Chief Lieutenant General Herzi Halevi vowed on August 7 that his troops would target Sinwar and force Hamas to "replace the head of the political bureau again."

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August 12, 2024

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August 12, 2024

The United States on August 12 said it agrees with intelligence assessments that Iran and/or its proxies in the Middle East could “attack Israel as early as this week” and it urged Tehran to “stand down” with regard its ongoing threats.

U.S. national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that President Joe Biden had spoken to leaders of key Western allies to discuss the situation and said Washington takes seriously reports that Iran could soon attack Israel in retaliation for the killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the EU- and U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in Tehran on July 31.

Iran blames Israel for the killing of Haniyeh and has vowed revenge, raising fears of a wider war in the region.

“We have to be prepared for what could be a significant set of attacks, which is why, again, we have increased our force posture capabilities in the region even in just the last few days,” Kirby said.

“We've got significant force capabilities in the region. We've changed some of that posture in just the last few days. The president is confident that we have the capability available to us to help defend Israel,” Kirby added.

The Pentagon has bolstered its forces in the Middle East amid the mounting tensions as Washington reiterated its support for long-standing ally Israel.

In a joint statement later with Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, the White House said: “We expressed our support for the defense of Israel against Iranian aggression and against attacks by Iran-backed terrorist groups."

“We called on Iran to stand down its ongoing threats of a military attack against Israel and discussed the serious consequences for regional security should such an attack take place,” the statement added.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer urged Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian in separate phone calls to avoid escalation of military tensions in the region, their offices said. Washington does not have diplomatic relations with Tehran.

Following the call with Scholz, the Iranian president was quoted by the official IRNA news agency as saying that, "while Iran welcomes the expansion of interactions with all countries and stresses the need for resolving problems through negotiations, it will not give in to pressure, sanctions, bullying, and aggression."

"Rather," he added, "it considers it a right to respond to aggressors based on international rules."

The Western allies' joint statement also said they “expressed our full support for ongoing efforts to de-escalate tensions and reach a cease-fire and hostage release deal in Gaza."

It said the group endorsed the joint call by Biden, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, and Amir Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani of Qatar “to renew talks later this week with an aim to concluding the deal as soon as possible, and stressed there is no further time to lose.”

“All parties must live up to their responsibilities. In addition, unfettered delivery and distribution of aid is needed,” it said.

Israel's air and ground offensive has killed more than 38,900 people in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials from Hamas.

Israel launched its action after Hamas extremists surged across the border into southern Israel on October 7, killing some 1,200 people and taking more than 250 people hostage.

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August 12, 2024

Washington has warned Tehran of “swift and severe” consequences if reports that it is planning to send hundreds of ballistic missiles to Russia are confirmed.

We are prepared to deliver a swift and severe response if Iran were to move forward with the transfer of ballistic missiles, which would, in our view, represent a dramatic escalation in Iran's support for Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine," State Department spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters on August 12.

The warning matches one issued by the United States earlier this year after Reuters -- citing six unidentified sources -- reported that Iran had shipped a “large number” of powerful surface-to-surface ballistic weapons to Russia.

The United States and the European Union have imposed sanctions on Iran's ballistic missile program over concerns Tehran could send such weapons to its Middle East allies and proxies and to Russia for use in Ukraine.

Russia has suffered from weapons shortages as its full-scale invasion of Ukraine – launched in February 2022 – has dragged on with heavy losses of troops and military hardware, leaving it to look to allies such as Iran and North Korea to replenish its arms stock.

On February 22, the U.S. administration also warned Iran of a "swift and severe" response from the international community if Tehran provided ballistic missiles to Russia,

National-security spokesman John Kirby said at the time that Washington had yet to confirm the missiles had been transferred by Iran to Russia, but he said the move appeared likely.

"In this press reporting, the Iranians are clearly indicating that they will ship ballistic missiles to Russia, and we have no reason to believe they will not follow through," Kirby said.

Tehran has been providing Russia with unmanned aerial vehicles or drones, guided aerial bombs, and artillery ammunition, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials following widespread evidence of Iran-made Shahed drones causing damage and casualties in Ukraine, leading to additional Western sanctions.

"Iranian officials also continue to deny providing any UAVs [unmanned arial systems] to Russia when evidence is plain for the world to see that Russia has used these UAVs in relentless attacks against the civilian population in Ukraine, against civilian infrastructure," Patel told reporters.

Newly elected Iranian President Masud Pezeshkian, considered by many to be a reformist leader, has spoken of hopes of improving relations with the West, but Patel expressed skepticism.

"This duplicity is only the latest reminder to the international community that the Iranian regime lacks in credibility," he said.

In January, the State Department issued a similar warning against North Korea in a joint statement with the European Union and dozens of others countries, including many in Asia.

“The transfer of these weapons increases the suffering of the Ukrainian people, supports Russia’s war of aggression, and undermines the global non-proliferation regime,” it said on January 9.

With reporting by AFP and Reuters

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August 12, 2024

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August 12, 2024

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August 11, 2024

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August 11, 2024

As the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris draw to a close on August 11, RFE/RL relives some of the most memorable moments of our regions' athletes as they pursued Olympic gold.

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August 10, 2024

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August 09, 2024

Central Asian athletes at the Paris 2024 Olympics have been punching above their weight this summer, taking home numerous medals in martial arts, shooting, and boxing events, among others. Iran and Pakistan have scored big too.

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August 09, 2024

Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi and other women inmates in Tehran's Evin prison were injured earlier this week in clashes that erupted after a spate of executions, Mohammadi’s family says.

Mohammadi’s husband, Taghi Rahmani, said Mohammadi suffered breathing problems and severe chest pain after being punched in the chest and was transferred to the prison's clinic.

Rahmani, who spoke by phone to RFE/RL from Paris, said several women came under attack by guards during the clashes on August 6. Mohammadi was hit in her chest, and her arm was bruised, he said.

The injured women were later taken to the prison clinic for treatment and were returned to their ward.

Rahmani said the news agency of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps claimed the clash was a riot, but he said it should be made clear that it was a protest in which the women in Evin prison chanted in the prison yard against the death penalty.

He added that he and the rest of Mohammadi’s family were worried about her health especially because she was hit in the chest. Mohammadi had surgery for blocked arteries in 2022.

Rahmani added that Mohammadi, who is renowned as a staunch advocate for the Women, Life, Freedom movement, cannot contact her sister in Iran and she hasn’t been allowed to contact her children for 2 1/2 years. She also has had no contact with her lawyer.

"These restrictions make all of us worried about her situation in that ward where other women are also facing difficult conditions," Rahmani told RFE/RL.

Before Rahmani spoke with RFE/RL, Mohammadi's family issued a statement about the clash on August 8. It said several women who stood in front of the security forces were severely beaten.

It said the women in Evin prison had been actively protesting against executions in Iran, and following the execution of Reza Rasaei, several prisoners gathered in the prison yard to voice their dissent, chanting slogans against the death penalty.

One woman suffered a nervous breakdown and passed out and another prisoner also fainted from the emotional strain, the statement said, adding that Mohammadi and several other prisoners protested against the locked doors that were preventing the critically ill inmates from being taken to the prison clinic.

Iranian authorities acknowledged a confrontation took place on August 6 but blamed Mohammadi for a "provocation" and denied any of the prisoners had been beaten.

Two prisoners "had heart palpitations due to the stress," but medical examinations determined that their general condition "is favorable," Iran's prison administration said in a statement, according to the Tasnim news agency.

Mohammadi, 52, has been campaigning for human rights in Iran for decades and has been in and out of prison for the last 20 years. She has been convicted five times since March 2021 and is currently serving a 12-year prison sentence for "spreading propaganda" against the Islamic republic.

The executions that took place this week drew outrage from rights groups. The Norway-based Iran Human Rights group said 29 people were executed at two prisons in the Tehran satellite city of Karaj on August 7 alone.

Rasaei, 34, was the 10th man executed by Iran in connection with the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests that erupted after the death of a woman in police custody. The Iranian judiciary said Rasaei was executed on August 6.

With reporting by AFP

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August 09, 2024

A video of an Afghan teenager allegedly being violently pinned to the ground by Iranian police on August 5 has gone viral, sparking regional outrage. The family of Sayed Mahdi Musavi, 16, say he has hearing and speech disorders and couldn't hear the police officers properly when approached.

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August 09, 2024

Russia and Iran have both seen their international standing diminish in recent years. And as each seeks a way to boost their military and diplomatic influence, Africa looks like a land of opportunity.

There are no signs that Moscow and Tehran, whose bilateral ties have become closer as they each try to counter punitive international sanctions, are working in lockstep in Africa.

But their aims in the continent often align, and experts say the two are each attempting to capitalize on similar situations, including political instability, war, and apathy toward the influence of Western powers.

"Both Iran and Russia, what they see in Africa is an opportunity to break their diplomatic isolation," said Cameron Hudson, fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "They have been isolated by the West, financially, politically -- essentially branded as pariah states. And so, in Africa, they see 54 opportunities to break that status."

Russia and Iran have stepped up their engagement with African states, some of which are wary of the West and open to finding alternative trade and investment partners. Tehran and Moscow are notably active in places of conflict, such as West Africa and the Sahel, where juntas have made clear that Western forces are not welcome.

Hudson said Moscow's and Tehran’s involvement in Africa also has the "ancillary benefit of thumbing their nose" at the Western states behind the crippling international sanctions imposed on them.

The sanctions -- imposed over Russia's war in Ukraine and Iran's controversial nuclear program, among other things -- have effectively cut both Russia and Iran off from the global financial system and harmed their lucrative trade in arms and oil.

New Avenues

By opening new avenues of trade and influence in Africa, Moscow and Tehran can show that the attempts to isolate and punish them "is only marginally successful, and that they can build coalitions of states who support their interests," Hudson said.

The two countries see Africa as "a battleground where they can supplant the West and better position themselves economically, politically, and even militarily for prolonged tension with the West," said Liam Karr, an analyst with the American Enterprise Institute's Critical Threats Project.

Karr noted that Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger -- former French colonies in the central Sahel where anti-Western military juntas have taken power -- "have increased cooperation with Iran and Russia as they distanced themselves from France."

The situation has already led to the expulsion of French troops from Niger and Mali. U.S. forces battling Islamist insurgents in the region have withdrawn from Niger's capital, Niamey, and will completely leave the country by September.

The rapidly changing landscape has led to some uncomfortable situations, such as when Russian troops backing Niger's junta were deployed in May to an air base housing U.S. soldiers.

Both Iran and Russia "use military engagement to 'get their foot in the door' with unstable or other isolated countries to pursue greater economic and political cooperation," Karr explained. Such military engagement, he added, also "allows them to use limited resources to threaten critical waterways, such as the Mediterranean and the Red Sea."

'Opportunity In Chaos'

Moscow's influence is marked by high-level political engagement, business dealings including arms sales, and the ubiquitous presence of pro-Kremlin mercenaries in conflict areas.

"Russia finds opportunity in chaos. And so, when there is political instability in a country, when there is a kind of organic rejection of the West, which we have seen in a lot of states in Africa that view the West as a kind of neocolonial actor, then that creates openings and opportunities for Russia to come in with its narrative," Hudson said.

Russia's military footprint is also the most hazardous, as evidenced by the deaths of scores of Russian Wagner mercenaries in fighting against Tuareg separatists linked to the Al-Qaeda terrorist network in Mali last month.

Iran is playing catch-up to its Russian ally, working to expand its influence on the continent through trade ties, arms sales, and the use of proxies and militant partners as part of its "axis of resistance" against Israel and the West in general.

In West Africa, Iran has reached out to the trio of juntas in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. In Nigeria, Tehran has established a proxy group called the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, which functions like other proxies and partners.

Tehran has also used proxies to make its presence felt across the Sahel to the Horn of Africa, allowing it to put more pressure on regional adversaries, primarily Israel.

'Aligned Interests'

Iran's and Russia's interest in Africa sometimes overlaps, as is the case in Niger and in Sudan, where both are playing a role in the yearlong civil war between the Sudanese military and rebel forces.

"Sudan is a clear area where they both have military interests. Iran and Russia have both offered military support to the Sudanese Armed Forces hoping to secure a military base on Sudan’s Red Sea coast that would enable them to improve their military posture in the area vis-à-vis the West," Karr said. "Iran has offered drones, whereas Russia has offered 'unrestricted qualitative military aid.'"

Juntas that have taken power in Mali and Niger, meanwhile, are looking to Moscow and Tehran to fortify their positions.

"They certainly lack legitimacy in the West and among international institutions, and so building relations to Iran or to Russia helps them build legitimacy, because all of a sudden they look like state actors," Hudson said. "They look like they're doing the trade and diplomacy that a legitimate government would do."

Both Karr and Hudson say there are no clear signs that Russia and Iran are coordinating their strategies in Africa.

Karr said that "similar aims and methods mean that most of their efforts mutually reinforce each other," while Hudson noted "a set of aligned interests, but not interests that are being explicitly coordinated."

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August 09, 2024

Autocracies around the world have become increasingly mutually reinforcing in their competition with democratic societies, Pulitzer Prize winning U.S. journalist and historian Anne Applebaum said in an interview with Current Time.

"Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, Venezuela, and Zimbabwe, Azerbaijan, and Angola don't have a common ideology," Applebaum said. "But they have places where they can cooperate and common interests. And some of their interests are financial."

"The Chinese invest in autocratic regimes all over the world and help prop them up," she added. "The Russians do the same…. They offer mercenaries to dictators in Africa who are in trouble. They look for areas where they have something in common and where they can help one another."

"They don't need a common ideology to do that," Applebaum said.

In her new book, Autocracy, Inc.: The Dictators Who Want To Rule The World, Applebaum writes that such governments are undergirded by "sophisticated networks composed of kleptocratic financial structures, surveillance technologies, and professional propagandists, all of which cooperate across multiple regimes," the book argues, according to the author's website.

Applebaum told Current Time this is a fundamental difference from the geopolitical situation in the 20th century, "when there was a thing called the communist bloc and they all used the same language…and they even had very similar political and social systems."

Despite the lack of a centralizing ideology, the world's autocracies share a "common enemy," she noted.

"The common enemy is…anybody who lives in the democratic world and anybody who uses the language of democracy…of human rights, transparency, accountability, the rule of law, justice," Applebaum said. "That language is threatening to them and, of course, it is most threatening to them when it comes from their own opposition movements and their own internal critics and…dissidents."

In addition, freed from ideology, modern authoritarian regimes have much greater scope to influence political and social developments in open societies.

"Authoritarian propaganda can now reach people in the United States in a way that communist propaganda could not," Applebaum said. "The money that autocratic states have gives them a kind of power that, again, the Soviet Union never had, whether it's to invest as investors, whether it's to buy influence among politicians or…the business community, whether its even in the form of dark money to fund political campaigns."

"All those things give them more tools to influence the internal debates and political conversations of democracies, as well as their economies, than they used to have," she added.

Media outlets like the Kremlin's RT network, Applebaum added, "turned out to be good at…crafting an authoritarian narrative that described autocracies as safe and secure and stable, and democracies as divided, chaotic, and degenerate."

"And some version of that, in millions of forms, is now available on the Internet," she said. "And that…chimed with a part of the American political spectrum that is…feeling disgruntled, that doesn't like social change, demographic change, economic change, and political change over the last couple of decades and is seeking to reverse it."

Authoritarian regimes did not cause the "backlash against democracy" in the United States and other democratic countries, "but they helped give it language," she said. "They make existing divisions deeper."

Nonetheless, these regimes understand that democratic values and language remain in demand. In Venezuela, for instance, people have taken to the streets to call for transparency, justice, and the rule of law despite the country's "really ugly dictatorship."

"People want to live in a society where there's rule of law, where judges are real judges," Applebaum told Current Time, a Russian-language TV and digital network run by RFE/RL. "I think you can see this in a lot of places. It's about the innate appeal of the idea of living in a more fair society where citizens have some influence."

"I think this one of the reasons why the autocratic world has, if you will, rearmed itself or has girded itself against the democratic world in a much more dramatic way than it did two decades ago," Applebaum said.

Written by RFE/RL's Robert Coalson based on reporting by Current Time correspondent Ksenia Sokolyanskaya.

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August 08, 2024

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August 08, 2024

Iran appears to be readying the public for war as it weighs its options in response to Israel's suspected killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran last week. State TV in recent days has aired interviews with Iranians calling for Iran to retaliate against the country's archenemy. But in messages sent to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, some Iranians say they fear a direct war against Israel.

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August 07, 2024

Iran executed 36 people on August 6-7, including 26 in a group execution in one prison, a rights group said on August 7, a day after Tehran faced international condemnation for executing an Iranian activist arrested during the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests.

The Norway-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) group said 26 men, including two Afghan nationals, were executed in a group hanging in Ghezelhesar prison in Karaj outside Tehran.

IHR said that a group execution on this scale in Iran was unprecedented, with the last comparable example dating back to 2009.

Those executed had been convicted of murder as well as drug-related and rape charges, according to both IHR and the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI).

Human rights groups have repeatedly accused Iran of making use of the death penalty to instill fear in society in the wake of the 2022 protests that swept the country after the death of Mahsa Amini in police custody.

"Without an immediate response from the international community, hundreds of individuals could become victims of the Islamic republic's killing machine in the coming months," IHR director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.

In addition to the 26 men executed at Ghezelhesar prison, three other men were executed in Karaj's city prison, one man was executed in Sabsevar in Khorasan Razavi Province, three were executed in Shiraz in Fars Province, and three were executed in Badar Abbas in Hormozgan Province, according to the CHRI.

“These are only the known executions; there are often additional executions that take place without public knowledge,” the organization said in a news release.

Reza Rasaei, 34, was the 10th man executed by Iran in connection with the "Women, Life, Freedom" protests that erupted in September 2022 after the death of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who was arrested for an alleged breach of the country's strict dress code for women.

Rasaei, a member of the Kurdish ethnic minority and follower of the Yarsan faith, was convicted in connection with the death of an officer for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) during unrest in the Kurdish city of Sahneh. He denied the charges.

Amnesty International said he was executed in secret with neither his family nor his lawyer being given prior notice. It said his family was then forced to bury his body in a remote area far from his home.

"Iranian authorities have carried out the abhorrent arbitrary execution in secret of a young man who was subjected to torture and other ill-treatment in detention...and then sentenced to death after a sham trial," said Diana Eltahawy, Amnesty International's deputy director for the Middle East and North Africa.

She said the execution was another instance of Iran using the death penalty as a "tool of political repression to instill fear among the population."

France's Foreign Ministry on August 7 condemned Rasaei's execution and reiterated its "unchanging opposition to the death penalty in all places and circ*mstances," calling it an "unfair and inhumane punishment."

IHR said Iran has now executed at least 345 people this year and there has been no let-up in the use of the death penalty since reformist President Masud Pezeshkian was sworn in last week.

With reporting by AFP

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August 07, 2024

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August 07, 2024

The Middle East faces its biggest crisis in years as it braces for a potential full-blown war between Iran and Israel that could drag in the entire region.

Israel's suspected killing of Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of the EU- and U.S.-designated Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, in Tehran on July 31 has pushed the region to the brink.

A major military response by Iran against Israel, which Tehran has promised, could spark an all-out war that would pit Iran and its regional proxies against Israel and the United States, experts say.

"I think this is the first time we're really heading toward a potential full-scale regional confrontation," said Raz Zimmt, a senior researcher at the Israeli-based Institute for National Security Studies.

'Only A Matter Of Time'

The region has been bracing for an Iranian response since the assassination of Haniyeh, who was killed in an affluent neighborhood of Tehran hours after attending the inauguration of President Masud Pezeshkian.

Iran has directly blamed Israel, which has not claimed responsibility for the killing. Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has vowed, and reportedly approved, a military response.

Haniyeh's killing came just hours after Israel killed a top commander of Hizballah, the Iran-backed Lebanese extremist group, in Beirut. A member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps was also killed in the July 30 Israeli air strike.

In April, Iran and Israel appeared to be on the verge of war after Tehran launched an unprecedented direct air attack against its archfoe.

Days later, suspected Israeli strikes hit a military base outside Iran's central city of Isfahan.

Iran's attack was in retaliation for a suspected Israeli air strike on the Iranian Embassy's compound in Damascus on April 1 that killed seven Iranian commanders.

Tehran's barrage against Israel was highly telegraphed and aimed at deterring future Israeli attacks, experts said. But its response to the killing of Haniyeh on Iranian soil could provoke a harsher response.

"It's much more likely that we will see a combined, orchestrated attack against Israel" from Iran and the so-called axis of resistance, Tehran's loose network of militant groups and proxies that aid it in opposing Israel and the United States, said Zimmt.

"This makes the situation much more complicated because the consequences of an Iranian and Hizballah attack would probably be worse than what happened in April," he added. "That certainly brings us closer to the possibility of a regional campaign."

Hizballah and Iran-backed militant groups in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen have carried out attacks against Israel after it launched its devastating war in Gaza, which came shortly after Hamas's October 7 attack in Israel that killed around 1,200 people.

Even as Iran's hostilities with Israel decreased after April, it was "only a matter of time before the next phase of direct confrontation" between the archfoes, said Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs.

"This might be the most dangerous moment in the region in the past few years," he added.

Hard To Rein In

There has been a flurry of diplomacy in the region aimed at easing the escalating tensions between Iran and Israel.

Jordan's foreign minister made a rare visit to Tehran on August 4, during which he pleaded for peace.

Iran has insisted that it is not looking to escalate tensions but that it has a "legitimate right" to hit Israel.

"As far as the violation of our territorial integrity is concerned, we will not make any compromises," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani said on August 5.

A direct Iran-Israel war would likely drag in the entire region, including Tehran's proxy allies, including Hizballah in Lebanon, the Huthi rebels in Yemen, Hamas in the Palestinian territories, and pro-Iranian militias in Iraq.

Any conflict would also likely draw in the United States, Israel's key ally, which has sent additional warships and fighter jets to the region.

On August 5, a U.S. spokesperson confirmed that "several" American personnel were injured in a rocket attack claimed by pro-Iran fighters on a military base in Iraq.

Ali Vaez, the director of Iran Project at the International Crisis Group, said that signals from Tehran suggest that "they are intent on a larger response" with more drastic consequences.

If Iran's potential attack causes significant damage and casualties, "containing the escalatory cycle becomes far more difficult," Vaez warned.

"This is without doubt the closest we've been to" a direct face-off between Iran, Israel, and their allies, he said.

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August 06, 2024

The United States on August 6 charged a Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran in connection with a foiled murder-for-hire plot to assassinate a U.S. politician or government officials in the United States.

The U.S. Justice Department identified the suspect as Asif Merchant, 46, who is in U.S. custody. The department did not name the politician whom the suspect allegedly wanted to assassinate, but said in a news release that law enforcement foiled the plot before any attack could be carried out.

With reporting by Reuters

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UpdatedAugust 06, 2024

Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Iran-backed Lebanon-based group Hizballah, which has been designated a terrorist organization by the United States, said Israel's recent actions will not go without a "strong and effective" response amid fears of a full-blown war in the region.

Hizballah said six of its fighters were killed in Israeli attacks on August 6, while it claimed to have launched missiles and drones at Israel, though no casualties were immediately reported.

For months, Israel and Hizballah have traded constant cross-border attacks -- including a deadly rocket attack from Lebanon on July 27 that hit the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, killing 12 youths and children -- that have killed many and displaced thousands of people.

Pressure has continued to build since strikes killed top military commander Fuad Shukr in a Beirut suburb and Ismail Haniyeh, the political leader of Hamas, which has also been designated a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union, in Iran.

Tehran is Hizballah's main ally, and the Lebanese militant group is a key member of Iran's so-called axis of resistance, a loose network of militant groups and proxies that aid it in opposing Israel and the United States.

Hizballah is also considered a key part of Iran's efforts to deter Israel or Washington from going to war against Tehran.

Tehran "finds itself obliged to respond, and the enemy is waiting in a great state of dread," Nasrallah said in a televised address on August 6 to mark one week since Shukr's death.

“Whatever the consequences, the resistance will not let these Israeli attacks pass by," he added, saying that Hizballah will respond "alone or in the context of a unified response from all the axis" of Iran-backed groups in the region, "whatever the consequences."

Experts say no side wants an all-out war in a region that has been reeling since Israel launched its war against Hamas after it killed some 1,200 people in a raid and took 240 people hostage on October 7.

Hizballah has not usually shied away from claiming attacks on Israeli targets. But it issued a rare denial of responsibility after the attack that killed the children and youths in the Golan Heights.

Israel has not claimed responsibility for the two recent assassinations, but it has admitted to killing other senior Hamas leaders, including Saleh al-Arouriand Mohammed Deif, the movement's military commander.

Hamidreza Azizi, a fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, recently told RFE/RL that if war did break out, members of the "axis of resistance" would likely intensify their attacks against Israel while also targeting U.S. troops and bases in the region in a bid to pressure Washington to rein in Israel.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on August 5 called it a "critical moment" for the region and said Washington was "engaged in intense diplomacy, pretty much around the clock" to help calm tensions amid fears Iran is preparing a retaliatory strike against Israel over Haniyeh's assassination in the Iranian capital.

As the world waits to see how and when Iran carries out its promised response to Haniyeh's assassination, Hamas named its Gaza leader, Yahya Sinwar, as Haniyeh's successor.

Sinwar is considered the architect of the October 7 attack on Israel, and is believed to be in hiding in Gaza, evading Israeli attempts to kill him since the start of the war.

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August 06, 2024

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