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Israel, Iran Threaten to Expand Revenge Operations

Revolutionary Guards leader at an official funeral procession for Quds Force Col. Sayyad Khudaei (Reuters)
Revolutionary Guards leader at an official funeral procession for Quds Force Col. Sayyad Khudaei (Reuters)
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Israel, Iran Threaten to Expand Revenge Operations

Revolutionary Guards leader at an official funeral procession for Quds Force Col. Sayyad Khudaei (Reuters)
Revolutionary Guards leader at an official funeral procession for Quds Force Col. Sayyad Khudaei (Reuters)

The hidden Iranian-Israeli war has moved to a higher degree of frankness, with senior officials on both sides speaking openly about the threat to escalate assassinations and bombings of all kinds.

After Iran published a list of names for Israeli officials who are candidates for assassination, Israeli officials made hints about assassinations and bombings that took place in recent weeks on Iranian soil by Israeli military cells operating from inside Iranian territory.

On Monday, security sources in Tel Aviv said that Israel takes Iranian threats with all seriousness.

Israel has intensified its warnings to its citizens against traveling to Turkey and other countries surrounding Iran.

The caveats come in anticipation of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards attempting to target Israelis abroad to avenge the killing of its Quds Force Col. Sayyad Khudaei, whom Israel accuses of having led the unit responsible for planning assassinations against Israelis abroad.

Khodaei was shot in front of his house in the heart of Tehran on May 22, and his assassination was attributed to Israeli authorities.

For its part, Israel’s National Security Council Counter-Terrorism Bureau released an updated travel warning regarding Israeli visitors to Turkey.

“For several weeks, especially since Iran has accused Israel of the death of a Revolutionary Guards officer last week, there is increasing concern in the security establishment regarding Iranian efforts to attack Israeli targets around the world,” the Bureau said in a statement.

“Therefore, the National Security Council and the security establishment underscore the travel warning to Turkey and reiterate that it is a country that currently has a high level of risk for Israelis,” it explained.

“According to the security establishment, the warning stems from a tangible threat to Israelis in Turkey. There is also a higher threat level in additional countries bordering Iran. Therefore, Israeli citizens should be alert and take care to show all due caution regarding travel to any of these countries,” the statement added.

The Iranian Fars News Agency published a list on Sunday of Israeli businessmen who it claimed have to “live in hiding” due to their being followed by Iranian and pro-Iranian security and intelligence services.

Fars described the listed Israelis as “experts in the field of military, security, defense, cyber and technology of the interim Zionist regime,” adding that they were “involved in sabotage against Islamic countries and the assassination of activists of the Islamic Resistance.”

The publication of the list comes as Iran blames Israel for the assassination of Khudaei and threatens revenge.

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US Waving a ‘Carrot and Stick’ Policy at Iran

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)
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US Waving a ‘Carrot and Stick’ Policy at Iran

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman (AFP)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave Iran a choice between focusing on itself and on trying to build a better country for its people, or bear the consequences of continuing its engagement in what he called “misadventures” throughout the region and beyond.
During a conversation Wednesday with Michael Froman, President of the Council on Foreign Relations, the outgoing Secretary of State reflected on the carrot-and-stick policy that the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump could adopt towards Iran.
He said there is a prospect of negotiations with Tehran to reach a new nuclear deal. However, he urged the policy of continued pressure on Iranian authorities to stop their nuclear policies in the Middle East.
Asked about the possibility of Iran accelerating its nuclear program in light of its failures in various parts of the Middle East, notably after Tehran lost its primary proxy Hezbollah in Lebanon and after the fall of the regime of its ally Assad, Blinken said “There’s no doubt this has not been a good year for Iran.”
He noted that Iran has to make some fundamental choices.
One choice, Blinken said, “is to focus on itself and focus on trying to build a better, more successful country that delivers for its people, which is clearly what most Iranians want, and to stop getting involved in these adventures – or misadventures – throughout the region and beyond.”
The outgoing Secretary of State also affirmed that Iran desperately needs to be focused on its economy, on growing the country, and delivering for people.
If they don’t make that choice, he said, “they have some hard decisions to make, yes, about where they’re going to go in the future to be able to sustain the kind of troublemaking that, unfortunately, they’ve been engaged in for many, many years.”
Blinken said he doesn’t think that a nuclear weapon is inevitable.
“I think this is something that may be more a question now because as they’ve lost different tools, as they’ve lost different lines of defense, sure, you’re going to see more thinking about that.”
He warned the costs and consequences to Iran for pursuing that route would be severe. “So I am hopeful that that remains in check,” he said.
Blinken then reiterated the position of President Joe Biden’s administration, saying that the so-called JCPOA, the Iran nuclear deal, was capable to take off the prospect of Iran getting to a nuclear weapon anytime soon by bottling up, tying up the fissile material, making sure their breakout time in producing enough fissile material for a bomb was pushed back beyond a year.
He said now that breakout time in terms of the production of fissile material is a matter of a week or two.
“They don’t have a weapon, and the weaponization piece would take them some time,” he added.
The Secretary of State then called on the next administration to find a way to engage this, because the production of 60 percent enriched uranium gives them the capacity, at least in terms of fissile material, to produce multiple weapons’ worth of material in very short order.
Asked about the prospect of a negotiation of a new nuclear deal with Iran, Blinken said there is the prospect of negotiations.
“Of course, it depends on what Iran chooses to do and whether it chooses to engage in meaningfully,” he said. “And of course, the incoming administration will have to make a decision.”
He recalled how President Trump last time around pulled out of the deal, and wanted, as he called it, a better, stronger deal. “Fine. Let’s see what’s possible,” Blinken said.
He then revealed that from administration to administration, whether it’s the Biden, the Trump or the Obama administration, there’s been a shared determination and a shared determination that remains to ensure that Iran does not get a nuclear weapon.
Huge Opportunity
Blinken’s comments came shortly after White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday that Iran is at its “weakest point in decades,” after the fracturing of the Axis of Resistance.
The advisor also spoke about the huge opportunity” to advance regional integration.
At an event in New York, he said recent events in the Middle East — including the weakening of Hezbollah in Lebanon and the toppling of Bashar Assad in Syria — present a “huge opportunity” to advance regional integration.
When asked about efforts to normalize ties between Israel and Saudi Arabia, Sullivan affirmed that Saudi leaders have already said in recent months that a deal cannot move forward without a commitment by Israel to the creation of a Palestinian state.