In the central dessert, a day after the at-sea short-range missile tests. “Iran tests ballistic missiles, drones in military exercise, state TV says,” Reuters, January 15, 2021.
“Iran tests suicide drones that look similar to those used in Saudi attacks,” Jon Gambrell, AP, Defense News, January 15, 2021.
“Iran Deems Signal ‘Criminal Content,’ Removes From Local App Stores,” Golnaz Esfandiari, RFE/RL, January 15, 2021.
“‘Tactical cooperation’ marks Iran-al-Qeda ties, experts say,” The Arab Weekly, January 15, 2021.
An open message to Iran—Il Milano is where the Quds Force was to blow up the entire restaurant, including the Saudi Ambassador to the U.S. several years ago. So now this story—“Earlier this week, Israeli warplanes apparently targeted positions and arms depots of Iran-backed forces in Syria. At least 57 fighters were killed and dozens of others wounded. Israeli airstrikes on Iranian targets in Syria is nothing new. But what is new about this episode is how those strikes were carried out. A senior U.S. intelligence official with knowledge of the attack told The Associated Press that the airstrikes were carried out with intelligence provided by the United States. The official said the strikes targeted a series of warehouses in Syria that were being used in a pipeline to store and stage Iranian weapons, as well as serving as a pipeline for components supporting Iran’s nuclear program. The U.S. official, who requested anonymity to speak about the matter, said U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed Tuesday’s airstrike with Yossi Cohen, chief of Israel’s spy agency Mossad, at a public meeting in the popular Washington restaurant Café Milano on Monday. This series of events is significant for two reasons. Not only is it a rare incidence of publicized cooperation between the two countries over choosing targets in Syria, but it comes at a fraught moment in U.S. foreign policy. American public cooperation with this latest Israeli airstrike came after a bitter presidential election, punctuated by a deadly siege of the Capitol and all while the incoming Biden transition team has complained of a lack of cooperation by Trump’s Pentagon. Pompeo on Tuesday accused Iran of having secret ties with the al-Qaida network and imposed new sanctions on several senior Iranian officials. Pompeo’s comments come just a week before the Trump administration leaves office and appeared aimed at Biden’s stated desire to resume negotiations with Iran over the 2015 nuclear deal. Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018. In a speech to the National Press Club just, Pompeo attacked Iran for alleged secret ties with al-Qaida, citing newly declassified intelligence suggesting Tehran harbored the group’s No. 2, Abu Muhammad al-Masri, who was killed in August, reportedly by Israeli agents.” Fascinating. See “In waning days, Trump shakes up CENTCOM to increase Arab-Israeli efforts against Iran,” Howard Altman, Military Times, January 15, 2021.