Top Khamenei Aide Rules Out Military Strike Against Iran

Former Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Yahya Rahim-Safavi (Reuters)
Former Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Yahya Rahim-Safavi (Reuters)
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Top Khamenei Aide Rules Out Military Strike Against Iran

Former Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Yahya Rahim-Safavi (Reuters)
Former Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander Yahya Rahim-Safavi (Reuters)

The top aide of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, Rahim Safavi, downplayed the possibility of Iran being attacked by international powers days after the Israeli Prime Minister threatened to target Iranian nuclear sites.

Safavi said that Iran has grown too strong, and no power can attack it.

Speaking at the 40th anniversary of lifting the siege on the Abadan oil port, Safavi said: "Iran's defense power in the West Asian region is a great and influential power in the security defense equations."

"Both our nation and our armed forces have become so powerful that none of the trans-regional powers, such as the United States, can take any action against this power that would lead to a massive military attack on Iran," he underscored.

Safavi noted that the situation in Iran is different from that in Afghanistan and Iraq.

However, he called on the Iranian armed forces to always be prepared and never to underestimate the trans-regional enemies.

He hoped that "sustainable security" in Iran would create a suitable environment that leads to development and progress, solving local issues and reaching "required and better" conditions.

On Tuesday night, the Iranian television broadcast a 5-minute tv report entitled: "Death with a Thousand Knives" about neutralizing a terrorist cell carrying out subversive acts in favor of Israel without providing details about the identity of the group's members.

The report indicated that members of the cell were arrested, and Iranian security services killed the leader.

Meanwhile, speaking at the UN General Assembly on Monday, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett threatened military action against Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent it from developing weapons.

Iran has "made a major leap forward" in nuclear research and development, production capacity, and uranium enrichment, he said, adding that the country is "violating" safeguard agreements with the IAEA, "and it's getting away with it."

"Iran's nuclear program has hit a watershed moment, and so has our tolerance. Words do not stop centrifuges from spinning," Bennett told fellow leaders, asserting that "Israel will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon."

According to Axios website, Israeli National Security Adviser Eyal Hulata will travel to Washington next week for talks on Iran with his White House counterpart Jake Sullivan.

Axios quoted two Israeli officials saying that Bennett doesn't think Israel needs to change its "nuclear ambiguity" policy for now due to Iran's latest nuclear advances.



Trump Heads to a Deep-Red Part of Swing-State Wisconsin to Talk about the Economy

Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump addresses the Economic Club of New York at Cipriani's on September 5, 2024, in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP
Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump addresses the Economic Club of New York at Cipriani's on September 5, 2024, in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP
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Trump Heads to a Deep-Red Part of Swing-State Wisconsin to Talk about the Economy

Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump addresses the Economic Club of New York at Cipriani's on September 5, 2024, in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP
Republican presidential nominee, former US President Donald Trump addresses the Economic Club of New York at Cipriani's on September 5, 2024, in New York City. Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP

Former President Donald Trump heads to Wisconsin on Saturday for a rally that's intended to focus heavily on the economy, marking his first trip to the deep red, largely rural part of the key battleground state.
Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris have been talking more about their plans for the economy in the days leading up to Tuesday's presidential debate, where their dueling proposals are expected to take center stage, The Associated Press said.
Trump on Thursday promised to lead what he called a “national economic renaissance” by increasing tariffs, slashing regulations to boost energy production and drastically cutting government spending as well as corporate taxes for companies that produce in the US.
Harris this week called for increasing corporate tax rates, not taxing tips and Social Security income and expanding tax breaks for small businesses to promote more entrepreneurship.
Both Harris and Trump have been frequent visitors to Wisconsin this year, a state where four of the past six presidential elections have been decided by less than a percentage point. Several polls of Wisconsin voters conducted after President Joe Biden withdrew showed Harris and Trump in a close race.
Democrats consider Wisconsin to be one of the must-win “blue wall” states. Biden, who was in Wisconsin on Thursday, won the state in 2020 by just under 21,000 votes. Trump carried it by a slightly larger margin, nearly 23,000 votes, in 2016.
Trump was taking his economic message to the central Wisconsin city of Mosinee, with a population of about 4,500 people. It is within Wisconsin's mostly rural 7th Congressional District, a reliably Republican area in a purple state. Trump carried the county where Mosinee is located by 18 percentage points in both 2016 and 2020.
Democrats have relied on massive turnout in the state's two largest cities of Milwaukee and Madison to counter Republican strength in rural areas like Mosinee and the Milwaukee suburbs. Trump must run up the votes in places like Mosinee to have any chance at cutting into the Democrats' advantage in urban areas.
Republicans held their national convention in Milwaukee in July and Trump has made four previous stops to the state, most recently just last week in the western Wisconsin city of La Crosse.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, last month filled the same Milwaukee arena where Republicans held their national convention for a rally that coincided with the Democratic National Convention just 90 miles away in Chicago. Walz returned Monday to Milwaukee, where he spoke at a Labor Day rally organized by unions.
Biden was in rural western Wisconsin on Thursday, his first visit to the state since dropping out of the race. Biden used the visit to announce $7.3 billion in investments for 16 cooperatives that will provide electricity for rural areas across 23 states. The intent is to bring down the cost of badly needed internet connections in hard-to-reach areas.