Iran
September 14, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Those who are doing their best to sell us out to Iran with another wrap on the JCPOA have given up for the time being. The AFP/Times of Israel story puts it this way: “Europe: ‘Serious doubts’ Iran wants nuke deal; program ‘way beyond’ civilian purpose.” The subhead cites a joint statement saying that France, Germany and the United Kingdom have reached the “limit of flexibility” while Tehran escalates its
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September 11, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Albania has announced another cyberattack by the Iranian regime, this time on one of its border systems. The AP reports the story here. The AP story quotes a statement released by Albania’s Interior Ministry as well as Prime Minister Edi Rama’s Twitter feed. As I understand the translation of Rama’s tweet below, the system is back up and running: “The systems of the border points have been in operation since
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September 10, 2022 — Scott Johnson
I noted in “The supremacy of Albania” that President Biden’s national security team had vowed to “take further action to hold Iran accountable for actions that threaten the security of a U.S. ally and set a troubling precedent for cyberspace.” The “troubling precedent” was Iran’s massive cyberattack on Albania government systems as spelled out in Prime Minister Rama’s statement. Yesterday the United States Treasury announced what I take to be
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September 9, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama severed diplomatic relations with Iran and gave the Iranian mission 24 hours to get out. When mission personnel had vacated the premises in Tirana, he sent in counterintelligence officers to scour the premises and ascertain what might be learned. Rama’s moves were prompted by an Iranian cyberattack on government digital services and web sites in July. The AP story quotes the video statement issued by
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September 7, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Times of Israel publishes a brief AFP story under a headline that might be filed under Laughter is the best medicine: “UN watchdog says it ‘cannot assure’ that Iran nuclear program is ‘exclusively peaceful.’” Please make sure you’re sitting down before taking this in: The UN’s nuclear watchdog says it cannot guarantee the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program, saying there had been “no progress” in resolving questions over
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August 29, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Times of Israel reports on the draft of the proposed nuclear deal submitted by the European Union to genocidal Iranian regime. Submitted for your approval, Twilight Zone style, without further comment: A draft proposal from the final stages of negotiations to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal envisions the Iranians halting all uranium enrichment, but holding on to the material they already have, and a final US return to
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August 19, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Matthew Lee is the AP’s excellent diplomatic reporter. In a story just posted this morning, Lee reports that a new Iran deal (worse than the old deal) may be “tantalizingly close.” Reading between the lines, Lee’s opening paragraph comes off like a subtle satire of the proposition that the deal in view is “tantalizing”: “Last week’s attack on author Salman Rushdie and the indictment of an Iranian national in a
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August 17, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Daniel Pipes is the founder of the Middle East Forum. He literally wrote the book on the Rushdie affair: The Rushdie Affair: The Novel, The Ayatollah, and the West. I pulled it down from the bookshelf and wrote him last week following the attempted assassination of Rushdie at the Chautauqua Institution. He kindly agreed to answer my questions by email. In the exchange below I allude to his prescient tracking
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August 16, 2022 — Scott Johnson
In 1989 Ayatollah Khomeni put out a hit on Salman Rushdie. He backed up the call for a hit with a $3,000,000 financial reward. Khomeni was of course the founder and Supreme Leader of the Iranian regime. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is Khomeni’s successor as the regime’s Supreme Leader. In 2005 he told Iranians that Rushdie is an apostate whose execution is authorized by Islam. In the words of Daniel Pipes,
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August 15, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Salman Rushdie has been severely wounded, but his physical condition is reportedly improving. He was wounded on American soil by a fanatic seeking to effectuate Ayatollah Khomeni’s fatwa. Rushdie may lose an eye, but he won’t be as blind as the Biden White House. The Biden administration refuses to acknowledge the evil reality of the regime they are treating with in Vienna. Jonathan Schanzer focuses on the evil reality in
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August 13, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Ayatollah Ruholla Khomeni was the architect of the Iranian revolution and the guiding spirit of the Iranian regime that has held sway since 1979. He was the regime’s Supreme Leader. Ayatollah Ali Khameni is his successor. Salman Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses was published in September 1988. A few months later, on February 14, 1989, Khomeni issued a fatwa proclaiming a death sentence on Rushdie “and all those involved in
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August 12, 2022 — Scott Johnson
Negotiations with the Iranian regime facilitated by our Russian “friends” have culminated in a final text of a new nuke deal announced in Vienna this week on August 8. FDD’s Richard Goldberg reviews the state of play in the disheartening essay “Five minutes from disaster.” Under the terms of a new deal: Iran would receive $275 billion of sanctions relief in the first year and $1 trillion by 2030, including
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August 1, 2022 — Scott Johnson
The Wall Street Journal reports this morning that a “New York man” possessing an illegal assault-style rifle was arrested near the home of an Iranian dissident who was previously the target of an alleged kidnapping plot by government operatives of the Islamic Republic. The New York Post has an accessible version of the story here. The brief Post story adds several telling details. The “New York man” is Khalid Mehdiyev.
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July 31, 2022 — John Hinderaker
I am not sure I understand this story, so I pass it on for what it is worth. From the Jerusalem Post: Iran expert Ben Sabti tweeted that an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) “Telegram channel threatens to produce atomic warhead for missiles,” citing the channel’s message: “Iran can immediately return to Emad project and build an atomic bomb if Natanz facilities are attacked.” This is the tweet. I take
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July 27, 2022 — John Hinderaker
As regular readers know, I am a fan of Ron DeSantis. I think other Republicans, like Marco Rubio, could also make good presidential candidates in 2024. And I think former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo should be included in that mix. Pompeo is a brilliant and extraordinarily competent guy who has succeeded spectacularly in every part of his career, from the military to academia to business to Congress to the
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July 22, 2022 — Scott Johnson
You may have read the news this week that the Iranian regime announced the capacity to build nuclear weapons. I tracked down the story in English-language regime mouthpiece Tehran Times. The story described the announcement as “a strong warning shot,” although it added the proviso that the regime has no intentions of using that capability (at this time). The story advises us to read carefully: “Kamal Kharrazi is usually reticent
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June 19, 2022 — Steven Hayward
It is very likely the case that the next major war has started. No—I don’t mean the Russia-Ukraine War, which could yet spread to the rest of Europe if we’re unlucky. I mean the Israel-Iran War. It has been said that Israel and Iran have been at open war for some time now. (Actually, Iran and the U.S. have likewise been at war since 1979, though don’t tell John Kerry.)
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