And this is AP. “Outgoing Iran president says government not always truthful,” AP, August 1, 2021.
As the inauguration of Pres. Raisi is upcoming, it is only appropriate today to put on the blog this article—Force and Intimidation will be the coin of the realm. “Middle East Newsletter: Ship Attack Precedes Iran Inauguration,” Gwen Ackerman, Bloomberg, August 1, 2021.
Here’s the point. This article is about the UK. Israel and the U.S have spoken. Romania will soon. But what about Oman, where the ship was attacked? And what must Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq be thinking now about his neighbor? “Britain believes Iran attacked Israeli-managed tanker off Oman,” Reuters, Financial Express, August 1, 2021.
A message for Oman, and of course a message for the U.S. “Another Iran Message for Biden,” Editorial, Wall Street Journal, August 1, 2021.
“’Iranian regime feels it has divine intervention helping it’,” Yaakov Lappin , Israel Hayom, August 1, 2021. The Islamic republic is pursuing long-term nuclear goals and feels that events are generally moving in favor of its vision of the “Shiite revival,” warns Lt. Col. (ret.) Michael Segall, an expert on Iranian strategic issues.
“Report: Iran building new uranium enrichment facility in Natanz,” Dan Arkin, Israel Defense, August 1, 2021. “Artificial intelligence and machine learning enable the tracking of what is being done at the nuclear sites in Iran, even underground.”
“Lebanon is sliding back to the Stone Age, and Iran couldn’t be happier about it,” Avi Issacharoff, op-ed, Times of Israel, August 1, 2021.
“Iranian sharpshooter Olympian should be arrested, not given gold medal – opinion,” Abraham Cooper, Jerusalem Post, August 1, 2021. “Iran’s olympian sharpshooter honed his craft during Syria’s civil war – where civilians, mostly women and children, were often put in the crosshairs of live bullets. He shouldn’t be rewarded.” Uh oh. “Like other members of the Basij militia, a US-designated foreign terrorist group affiliated with Iran’s International Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Foroughi honed his craft during Syria’s civil war – where Syrian civilians, mostly women and children, were often, and intentionally, put in the crosshairs of live bullets. Foroughi isn’t ashamed of his service to the Iranian regime, nor is anyone even trying to hide it. Iran boasted of his service on state TV where Foroughi actually declared that the greatest honor in life was to fight on behalf of Iran’s genocidal, Holocaust-denying leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.” Sounds like he was a sniper. He certainly shot Syrians.