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.



Pakistani Man Charged with Plotting Shooting at New York Jewish Center

The New York skyline glows at dusk during the men's singles semifinal of the US Open tennis championships, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
The New York skyline glows at dusk during the men's singles semifinal of the US Open tennis championships, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
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Pakistani Man Charged with Plotting Shooting at New York Jewish Center

The New York skyline glows at dusk during the men's singles semifinal of the US Open tennis championships, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)
The New York skyline glows at dusk during the men's singles semifinal of the US Open tennis championships, Friday, Sept. 6, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Julia Nikhinson)

A Pakistani man was arrested in Canada this week and accused of plotting a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn on the one-year anniversary of the Oct. 7 attack by Hamas that sparked the latest conflict in the Middle East, federal authorities announced Friday.

US Attorney General Merrick Garland said Muhammad Shahzeb Khan had attempted to travel from Canada, where he lives, to New York City with the “stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible,” The Associated Press reported.

The 20 year-old, who is also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was apprehended Sept. 4 and charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to the terror group.

“Jewish communities — like all communities in this country — should not have to fear that they will be targeted by a hate-fueled terrorist attack," Garland said in a statement.

It was unclear if Khan has a lawyer, where in Canada he was being held and when he may be brought to the US to face the charges.

Spokespersons for the Justice Department and the Manhattan federal prosecutor’s office, which is handling the case, deferred to Canadian national police, which didn't respond to an email seeking comment but said in a statement posted online that Khan will appear in the Superior Court of Justice in Montreal on Sept. 13.

“This planned antisemitic attack against Jewish people in the US is deplorable and there is no place for such ideological and hate-motivated crime in Canada,” Michael Duheme, commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said in the statement.

US authorities said Khan began sharing ISIS propaganda videos and expressing his support for the terror group in social media posts and communications with others on an encrypted messaging app last November.

In conversations with two undercover law enforcement officers, he said he was trying to start a “real offline cell” of ISIS in order to carry out attacks against “Israeli Jewish chabads” in America. Khan said he and another ISIS supporter based in the US needed to obtain AR-style assault rifles, ammunition, hunting knives and other materials, according to the Justice Department.

Khan also provided details about how he would cross the border from Canada and said he was considering conducting the attacks on either the Oct. 7 anniversary or on Oct. 11, which is the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur, authorities said.

On Aug. 20, he told the undercover officers that he had settled on targeting New York because of its sizeable Jewish population and sent a photograph of the specific area inside a Jewish center where he planned to carry out the attack, according to the Justice Department.