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Pezeshkian Calls from Basra for ‘Unity’ in West Asia

A handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency shows President Masoud Pezeshkian receives a traditional robe as he attends a community ceremony during his visit to the Iraqi city of Basra on September 13, 2024. (Photo by Iranian Presidency / AFP)
A handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency shows President Masoud Pezeshkian receives a traditional robe as he attends a community ceremony during his visit to the Iraqi city of Basra on September 13, 2024. (Photo by Iranian Presidency / AFP)
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Pezeshkian Calls from Basra for ‘Unity’ in West Asia

A handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency shows President Masoud Pezeshkian receives a traditional robe as he attends a community ceremony during his visit to the Iraqi city of Basra on September 13, 2024. (Photo by Iranian Presidency / AFP)
A handout picture provided by the Iranian presidency shows President Masoud Pezeshkian receives a traditional robe as he attends a community ceremony during his visit to the Iraqi city of Basra on September 13, 2024. (Photo by Iranian Presidency / AFP)

On the final day of his visit to Iraq, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian called for “union” among West Asian countries to protect their interests, similar to the European Union.

Pezeshkian concluded his three-day tour of Iraq on Friday with a visit to Basra, the oil-rich southern province. He was received at Basra International Airport by local officials, including Governor Asaad Al-Eidani and Provincial Council President Khalaf Al-Badran.

Addressing tribal leaders and politicians at the Oil Cultural Center in Basra, the Iranian president said: “We have always been together, and we must unite again to ensure our scientific and economic progress.”

“We see how European citizens can travel seamlessly across France and other European countries. Why can’t we in this region travel easily between West Asian countries?”

Pezeshkian stressed the importance of advancing the Shalamcheh-Basra railway project, as a key step toward strengthening bilateral relations.

The president arrived in Baghdad on Wednesday and signed 14 MoUs with the federal government covering trade, training, labor, and religious tourism.

Meanwhile, a government official has denied reports that Iraq and Iran discussed a new mechanism for settling Iraq’s debt to Iran.

However, diplomatic sources revealed on Friday that Iraq had informed Iran of its commitment to repaying the debt without breaching US sanctions on Tehran.

Iraq compensates Iran for the gas it imports for electricity generation by depositing funds in non-Iraqi banks, with transactions monitored by US authorities. According to the sources, the Iraqi government “did not respond to Iranian proposals to alter this payment mechanism.”

Local and regional media reported that Iraq rejected an Iranian proposal during Pezeshkian’s visit to settle the debts using either the Iraqi Dinar or the Iranian Rial.

Sources noted that this Iranian proposal is not new and is often dismissed due to US sanctions. One source explained: “The matter is highly complex and sensitive, and the restrictions cannot be bypassed.”

Iraq relies on Iranian gas imports to meet its energy needs. However, paying off the debt has been challenging due to sanctions, leading to substantial arrears.

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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
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Former Israeli Spies Describe Attack Using Exploding Electronic Devices against Lebanon’s Hezbollah

An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)
An ambulance rushes wounded people to the American University of Beirut Medical Center, on September 17, 2024, after explosions hit locations in several Hezbollah strongholds around Lebanon amid ongoing cross-border tensions between Israel and Hezbollah fighters. (Photo by Anwar AMRO / AFP)

Two recently retired senior Israeli intelligence agents shared new details about a deadly clandestine operation years in the making that targeted Hezbollah militants in Lebanon and Syria using exploding pagers and walkie talkies three months ago.
Hezbollah began striking Israel almost immediately after Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that sparked the Israel-Hamas war, The Associated Press said.
The agents spoke with CBS “60 Minutes” in a segment aired Sunday night. They wore masks and spoke with altered voices to hide their identities.
One agent said the operation started 10 years ago using walkie-talkies laden with hidden explosives, which Hezbollah didn't realize it was buying from Israel, its enemy. The walkie-talkies were not detonated until September, a day after booby-trapped pagers were set off.
“We created a pretend world,” said the officer, who went by the name “Michael.”
Phase two of the plan, using the booby-trapped pagers, kicked in in 2022 after Israel's Mossad intelligence agency learned Hezbollah had been buying pagers from a Taiwan-based company, the second officer said.
The pagers had to be made slightly larger to accommodate the explosives hidden inside. They were tested on dummies multiple times to find the right amount of explosive that would hurt only the Hezbollah fighter and not anyone else in close proximity.
Mossad also tested numerous ring tones to find one that sounded urgent enough to make someone pull the pager out of their pocket.
The second agent, who went by the name “Gabriel,” said it took two weeks to convince Hezbollah to switch to the heftier pager, in part by using false ads on YouTube promoting the devices as dustproof, waterproof, providing a long battery life and more.
He described the use of shell companies, including one based in Hungary, to dupe the Taiwanese firm, Gold Apollo, into unknowingly partnering with the Mossad.
Hezbollah also was unaware it was working with Israel.
Gabriel compared the ruse to a 1998 psychological film about a man who has no clue that he is living in a false world and his family and friends are actors paid to keep up the illusion.
“When they are buying from us, they have zero clue that they are buying from the Mossad,” Gabriel said. “We make like ‘Truman Show,’ everything is controlled by us behind the scene. In their experience, everything is normal. Everything was 100% kosher including businessman, marketing, engineers, showroom, everything.”
By September, Hezbollah militants had 5,000 pagers in their pockets.
Israel triggered the attack on Sept. 17, when pagers all over Lebanon started beeping. The devices would explode even if the person failed to push the buttons to read an incoming encrypted message.
The next day, Mossad activated the walkie-talkies, some of which exploded at funerals for some of the approximately 30 people who were killed in the pager attacks.
Gabriel said the goal was more about sending a message than actually killing Hezbollah fighters.
“If he just died, so he’s dead. But if he’s wounded, you have to take him to the hospital, take care of him. You need to invest money and efforts,” he said. “And those people without hands and eyes are living proof, walking in Lebanon, of ‘don’t mess with us.’ They are walking proof of our superiority all around the Middle East.”
In the days after the attack, Israel's air force hit targets across Lebanon, killing thousands. Hezbollah's leader, Hassan Nasrallah, was assassinated when Israel dropped bombs on his bunker.
By November, the war between Israel and Hezbollah, a byproduct of the deadly attack by Hamas group in southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, ended with a ceasefire. More than 45,000 Palestinians have been killed in the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas militants, health officials have said.
The agent using the name “Michael” said that the day after the pager explosions, people in Lebanon were afraid to turn on their air conditioners out of fear that they would explode, too.
“There is real fear,” he said.
Asked if that was intentional, he said, “We want them to feel vulnerable, which they are. We can’t use the pagers again because we already did that. We’ve already moved on to the next thing. And they’ll have to keep on trying to guess what the next thing is.”