Iranian Missile launched (?) - target Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

[Bob]

Bet you didn't see this one coming... During the period of "enhanced tensions" (the 4-6 window), it was reported as follows (assorted news groups, AP, O&G News, etc.)

"Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman said Iran committed “an act of war” after a missile launched in Yemen on Nov. 4 was destroyed before reaching its target in Riyadh. Bin Salman said Iran supplied the missile to its Houthi rebel proxies in Yemen—a charge Iran denied.

"The countries are among 12 Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members limiting oil production to defend the price of crude. Saudi Arabia leads that effort, which Iran agreed to join after being allowed a slight increase in output.

"With relations between the traditional antagonists fraying anew, the oil market must accommodate conflicting possibilities: collapse of the OPEC agreement leading to unbridled supply and further escalation of hostilities leading to warfare and physical threats to production.

"Oil prices were rising on news from the region even before the missile attack.

"Bin Salman made his charges against Iran only days after arresting 11 Saudi princes, 4 government ministers, and numerous former officials and business leaders in what the government characterized as a crackdown on corruption. Most area specialists called it a consolidation of power by the 32-year-old reformer appointed in June to be successor to King Salman, his father.

"The crown prince has instigated aggressive economic and cultural changes as well as the anti-Houthi militancy in Yemen.

"As news spread of the arrests another surprise emerged from normally sedate Riyadh.

"Speaking on satellite television there Nov. 4, Saad Hariri announced his resignation as prime minister of Lebanon.


He mentioned an assassination plot against him and accused Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, of destabilizing the country.

"Just a day earlier, he had received Ali Akbar Velayati, foreign policy adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in Beirut.

"Hariri’s appearance in Riyadh might signal Saudi readiness to reengage with Lebanon, with which the kingdom has lost patience in recent years because of Iran’s growing influence through Hezbollah.

"Against this background, Saudi Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir sharpened the point on Bin Salman’s accusations against Iran by telling CNN on Nov. 6 that the missile targeting Riyadh had been launched but by Hezbollah itself from territory occupied by Houthis.

"Earlier that day, according to CNN, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qassemi described Saudi allegations about Tehran's involvement in the attack from Yemen as “false, irresponsible, destructive and provocative.”


https://media1.britannica.com/eb-media/14/189714-004-FFDBF05F.jpg

ref: http://www.arabnews.com/node/1188336/saudi-arabia

bright light is missile:


http://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/ph3_660_400/public/2017/11/04/1027141-38284852.jpg


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxE2i1XOXVA

[Bubu]

This accusations was preceded by accusations from the US which was preceded by accusations from Israel. just saying.

[Bob]

More -

Saturday night, Yemeni Houthis—who are backed by Iran—escalated their conflict with Saudi Arabia by firing a Burkan 2-H ballistic missile at the airport in the capital Riyadh. Thankfully, as Saudi Arabia reports, it was intercepted by a U.S.-supplied Patriot missile system.

ref: - Al Jazeera - http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2017/11/yemen-houthi-fire-missile-saudi-arabia-riyadh-171104180946302.html


[..] they (Houthi) fired a long-range ballistic missile that traveled more than 800km over the border with Saudi Arabia.

A spokesman for the rebels told Al Jazeera they launched a Burkan 2-H missile - a Scud-type missile with a range of more than 800km - towards Riyadh late on Saturday.

" Saudi forces used a surface-to-air Patriot missile to destroy the missile, which shattered into fragments in an uninhabited area east of the airport.

" He added that there were no reported casualties.

" In an interview with Al Jazeera earlier this month, Mohammed Abdul Salam, a spokesman for the Houthi rebels, threatened to escalate operations on the Yemeni-Saudi border and target deep inside the Kingdom."


http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2017/10/4/7278ceaef79143f9bb528fd4c1c89441_6.png

Saudi-Israel ALLIANCE

ref: "Alliance" - https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/1.796215


Saudi Arabia and Israel are negotiating the establishment of economic ties, The Times reported on Saturday. 

The British daily quoted Arab and American sources as saying that the first steps toward ties between two of Iran's staunchest enemies would start small, including allowing Israeli businesses to operate in the Gulf and letting Israel's El Al airline fly over Saudi airspace.



The Palestinians are opposed to the idea, fearing it would normalize ties between Arab states and Israel without ensuring the establishment of a Palestinian state. 

More - http://www.middleeasteye.net/columns/saudi-arabia-enlists-israel-drumbeat-war-768675850


Netanyahu's new alliance with Saudi Arabia's crown prince might provide the military punch he needs to forge a successful series of attacks on regional enemies

Israeli military bases are also within range of the Yemen missiles.


A spokesperson for Yemeni rebels warned Israel not to intervene in the country's civil war, saying Israeli military bases in Africa are within range of their missiles.

Colonel Aziz Rashid, a member of the rebel alliance that ousted Yemeni President Abbed Rabbo Hadi in 2014, accused Israel of fighting alongside a Saudi Arabia–led coalition that is attempting to reinstate the exiled Yemeni leader, and threatened to strike Israeli military installations. He said his forces would also soon have missiles capable of reaching bases in Israel itself.

Instigated by Israel, maybe we think not.. Instituted by Iran, most likely..

Yemeni rebels, consisting primarily of the Houthi movement and loyalists of previously overthrown Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, overtook the capital of Sanaa amid mass protests that demanded Hadi resign after the chaos and increased jihadist activity that followed Saleh's removal in 2012. Hadi fled to the southern city of Aden, and Saudi Arabia assembled a coalition of Arab countries in an effort to defeat Houthis and their allies and bring Hadi back to power.

Saudi Arabia has accused the Houthis of being a proxy force for the majority-Sunni Muslim kingdom's greatest regional rival, Iran. Majority-Shiite Muslim Iran has offered the Houthis political support, and both the Gulf and the West suspect Iran of also delivering weapons to Houthi fighters. The Houthis accuse Israel of also conducting strikes against their fighters.

Israeli naval bases in Eritrea's Dahlak archipelago and Massawa, and a listening post in Amba Soira, were uncovered in a 2012 report by intelligence group Stratfor, but no verified attacks on Yemen have been reported. The Stratfor report found an Iranian military installation in Assab, Eritrea.

Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel as a state, but the two powers have converged amid a U.S.-led campaign to curb the expanding foothold of their mutual foe, Iran, across the Middle East. The U.S. has offered Saudi Arabia political and military support in its aerial bombing campaign in Yemen.

http://crudeoilpeak.info/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Marib_oil_field.jpg

OIL - follow the money..

File photo - Reuters

http://defence-blog.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/scud-missiles-696x464.jpg

[Bob]

.. Yemeni rebels, consisting primarily of the Houthi movement and loyalists of previously overthrown Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh, overtook the capital of Sanaa amid mass protests that demanded Hadi resign after the chaos and increased jihadist activity that followed Saleh's removal in 2012. Hadi fled to the southern city of Aden, and Saudi Arabia assembled a coalition of Arab countries in an effort to defeat Houthis and their allies and bring Hadi back to power.

Who else have the Houthi's targeted?

ref: Daily Mail, UK - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3830215/US-Navy-destroyer-targeted-Houthi-rebels-two-missiles-coast-Yemen.html



Pro-Iran rebels fire two missiles at US Navy ship off the coast of Yemen
Two missiles failed to hit the USS Mason on Sunday night in the Red Sea
Came from territory in Yemen controlled by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels
No sailors were injured and the ship wasn't damaged, spokesman said

Where is Iran getting is parts for missiles?

ref: - https://www.pri.org/stories/2016-06-01/where-did-iran-get-its-military-arms-over-last-70-years

The supply of arms from the US started to climb in 1953 after Iran's democratically elected prime minister Mohammad Mosaddegh was overthrown in a coup engineered by the British and American intelligence services. The Iranian shah, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, returned from exile to rule and become a close ally of the US.

According to a Senate Committee on Foreign Relations staff report in 1976, Iran was the largest single purchaser of US military equipment then. Military sales had increased more than sevenfold from $524 million in 1972 to $3.91 billion in 1974.

SIPRI data shows that the amount rose and peaked in 1977.

(Note: The import values shown in the chart are not actual transaction price. They are measured using a common unit formulated by the SIPRI called trend-indicator value expressed in US dollars at constant 1990 prices to allow comparison and identification of general trends.)

The staff report stated that in 1972 President Richard Nixon and his then-national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, agreed for the first time to “sell Iran virtually any conventional weapons it wanted.” With its oil revenue, Iran acquired some of the most sophisticated US military equipment and received training and technical assistance from American personnel.

The report explained the rationale behind the sales.

“Iran is and will remain an extremely important country to the US and its allies because of its geographical location and oil. Iran, on the other hand, places great importance on its relationship with the US, in large part because of the Iranian belief that the US may come to Iran's defense if it is threatened.”

With that level of support from the US, Iran emerged as a dominant military power in the Middle East, paving the way for nuclear weapon development.

The US-Iran alliance collapsed in 1979 when the shah's authoritarian rule led to riots, protests and eventually the Iranian Revolution. The shah was again forced into exile. An Islamic fundamentalist force, led by anti-American cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, took power and turned Iran into an Islamic republic.

US arms export to Iran was ceased abruptly and earlier orders canceled after Islamic militants took 52 Americans hostage inside the US embassy in Tehran in November 1979.

China and the Soviet Union soon replaced the US becoming major supplier of arms to Iran from 1980s until now.

Due to their close financial ties with Iran, both China and Russia only supported the sanctions after parts of them were watered down. Russia was then building a nuclear power station in Bushehr, Iran, which would be completed in 2011.

The sanctions banned the supply of nuclear-related technology and materials and called on members states to “exercise vigilance and restraint” in the transfer of arms to Iran. A ban on major conventional weapons transfers was only imposed in 2010 when the UN tightened the sanctions.

From 2008 to 2015, China and Russia still maintained a smaller volume or arms trade with Iran, as indicated in the first chart.

The Iran nuclear deal has opened up a window for China and Russia to revive their arms relationship with Iran.

In April 2015, Russia lifted its self-imposed ban on the delivery of a powerful missile air-defense system to Iran when the Iran nuclear deal negotiation — of which Russia was a part — was yet to be completed.

The $800 million deal, signed in 2007, was suspended by Russia in 2010 due to the UN sanctions.

Russia started the delivery of the missiles in April 2016, only three months after the implementation of the nuclear deal.

[Bubu]

Nothing new at all just part of the elites lies and effort to control. this time however they are getting some real opposition. But of course we need to tell the world that its Irans fault just like it was N koreas fault and everything else before.

Here’s Who the US and Israel Are Preparing to Go to War With After Syria
October 20, 2017 at 9:31 am

http://theantimedia.org/us-and-israel-war-after-syria/

¤=[Post Update]=¤

more reason to go to war with Iran
Russia, China, and Iran Join Forces to Bring Down the US Dollar
http://theantimedia.org/russia-china-iran-us-dollar/?utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fzen.yandex.com

[Bob]

Who launched? Here is an objective highlight analysis of the Ansar Allah group.

The Houthis (Yemen), officially called Ansar Allah, is a Zaidi predominantly Shia-led religious-political movement that emerged from Sa'dah, northern Yemen in the 1990s.

Ansar Allah - Multiple factions. In the Gaza Strip, known as: Jund Ansar Allah, an armed Islamist organization operating in the Gaza Strip. On August 14, 2009, the group's spiritual leader, Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa. Actions define them as a radical Islamist group, attempting to rally youth into their "cause".

Ideology: Zaydi Revivalism; Anti-imperialism; Anti-Zionism; Antisemitism

ref search: radical Islamist group, terrorism, brings up numerous references. https://www.trackingterrorism.org/group/jund-ansar-allah-gaza. Attempts to force "Sharia Law" (radical tyrannic doctrines) "Radical Islam"

Palestinian faction:


n 2009 the group's spiritual leader, Sheikh Abdel Latif Moussa, announced the establishment of an Islamic emirate in the Palestinian territories and criticized the ruling power, Hamas, for failing to enforce Sharia law.

In response, Hamas attacked the organization. 24 people died during the fighting, including Moussa. According to Egyptian officials: "There is a high probability that those who committed the massacre (see Incidents below) of the 16 soldiers are members of Palestinian Islamic Jaljala Army, which is a group considered an offshoot of Hamas but with more radical beliefs.

Al Jazeera, the Arab news service, explains the Yemeni faction, the "Houthi".. - http://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2014/08/yemen-houthis-hadi-protests-201482132719818986.html

This "group" is far from being a freedom of religion like group. They used the term, "peaceful change" for freedom but are quite the opposite, saying one thing, and obviously doing another (as we have frequently seen with rabble rousers trying to detract from objective reality).


Yemen - The Houthis began as a theological movement preaching peace, but now find themselves at the centre of an international conflict.

After a breathtaking rise to power, a Saudi-led coalition stepped in on March 25, 2015 and began air strikes on Yemen in an effort to stop the Houthis' advances.

The rise of the Shia rebels began to pick up momentum in August, 2014, when thousands of supporters of the movement protested in the streets of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, urging the government to step down.

Among other demands, Houthi leader Abdulmalek al-Houthi requested that fuel subsidies, which had been cut significantly in late July, be reinstated.

If the government failed to meet an ultimatum, he said, "other steps" would be taken. The Houthis were also demanding a more representative form of government that would reflect the seats allocated to political groups and independent activists during Yemen's 10-month National Dialogue Conference, which mapped out the political future of Yemen after its 2011 uprising.

"Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi had called for dialogue with the Houthis, inviting the group to join a "unity government", and the two sides ultimately signed a peace deal brokered by the UN envoy to Yemen, Jamal Benomar.

"It demanded that the Houthis withdraw from Sanaa and cease hostilities in other provinces in exchange for their demands being met. But the rebels did not comply, as their fighters pushed into other provinces, taking over the strategic port city of Hodeida on the Red Sea.

Officially known as Ansar Allah (Partisans of God), the Houthi rebels began as a theological movement that preached tolerance and peace in the early 1990s.

To hook the youth, the group started as a gathering called the 'Believing Youth Forum' in the early nineties.

In 2004, the "peaceful" group turned to using open arms against the Yemini government, to force their will and ideology.

Far from religious "peace" Houthis' are attempting to become a dominant political force in the north of Yemen and in the national government.

How did Saudi Arabia become involved?

A military intervention was launched by Saudi Arabia in 2015, leading a coalition of nine African and Middle East countries, to influence the outcome of the Yemeni Civil War in favour of the government of President Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi.

Code-named Operation Decisive Storm (Arabic: عملية عاصفة الحزم‎‎ `Amaliyyat `Āṣifat al-Ḥazm), the intervention initially consisted of a bombing campaign on Houthi Rebels and later saw a naval blockade and the deployment of ground forces into Yemen.

Which legitimate international countries supported the Saudis in this operation? Fighter jets and ground forces from Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Academi mercenaries also took part in the operation. Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia made their airspace, territorial waters and military bases available to the coalition. The US provided INTEL and logistical support, including aerial refueling and search-and-rescue for downed coalition pilots. US and Britain have deployed their military personnel in the command and control center responsible for Saudi-led air strikes.


History: Abdrabbuh Mansur Hadi, running unopposed for president, won the 2012 Yemeni elections.

The Houthis (or Ansar Allah), a Zaidi Shia movement and militant group thought to be backed by Iran, took control of the Yemeni government through a series of actions in 2014 and 2015.

Saudi Arabia and other countries denounced this as an unconstitutional coup d'état.

During the Houthis' southern offensive, Saudi Arabia began a military buildup on its border with Yemen.

In response, a Houthi commander boasted that his troops would counterattack against any Saudi aggression and would not stop until they had taken Riyadh, the Saudi capital.

The rocket attack against Saudi Arabia, by the Houthi is consistent with the statements made by the Houthi commanders.

[Praxis]

Bob,


I am shocked and surprised at such transparent posts.

[Bob]

Saudi Arabia won't back down - after the missile attack directed at Riyadh, Saudi has issued a "bounty" against certain Houthi leaders.

ref: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-07/saudi-offers-440-million-for-intelligence-on-houthi-rebels


Saudi Arabia has put a $440 million bounty on the heads of 40 leaders of pro-Iranian Yemeni rebels amid escalated regional tensions between the kingdom and the Islamic Republic.

The individual rewards range from $5 million to $30 million, with the highest for help in capturing rebel leader Abdulmalik Al-Houthi, according to a government statement on PR Newswire.

The bounty offer escalates a showdown between Sunni-led Saudi Arabia and Shiite-Iran that was heightened by a missile strike on Riyadh’s international airport over the weekend, which was intercepted by the Saudi military.

The two regional powers are on opposite sides of a rivalry that spans Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

[Bob]

From DEBKA - https://www.debka.com/iran-threatens-hit-saudi-abu-dhabi-dubai-air-sea-ports-ships-missiles-yemeni-houthis/


Iran threatens to hit Saudi, Abu Dhabi and Dubai air and sea ports, ships more missiles to Yemeni Houthis

"Tehran has warned Riyadh that unless the Saudi blockade of Yemeni ports is lifted, Revolutionary Guards missiles supplied to the Yemeni Houthi insurgents will be loosed against the seaports and airfields of Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The warning was forwarded to their governments through the Omani back channel.

"The Iranians informed Riyadh that by cutting off Yemen’s lifeline, the oil kingdom exposed itself and its allies to retaliation in kind.

"DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources add that, to give their warning sharp teeth, the Revolutionary Guards have been pumping fresh supplies of new surface missiles to Yemen by sea.

"Although the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates maintain fleets in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea routes of access around Yemen, none ran interference to the missile shipments. Such action would entail halting the Iranian freighters and confronting the missile-armed Iranian warships and submarines escorting them.."

[Praxis]

gotta try harder than that Bob. Still way too transparent.

https://www.debka.com/about/


"DEBKAfile was founded by a team of journalists in June 2000 as an independent Internet Web site, providing an intelligence and security news service.

DEBKAfile pioneered intensive news coverage and analysis of global terror before it hit the front pages. Indeed, our profound knowledge of the subject gave DEBKAfile‘s earliest readers advance notice of 9/11 and its target, the World Trade Center.

It has evolved as a niche site specializing in Strategic Analysis. We have stayed a step ahead of Islamist terrorism up until the present day, and provided the same forward-looking coverage on the Iranian nuclear program and its links with North Korea; Al Qaeda’s expansion into North and East Africa and latterly, Syria; the recent convulsions in Arab lands; the rise of radical Islam; shifting Middle East alliances and conflicts; big power rivalries in these volatile regions; trends in oil and energy; and new military weapons and tactics.

Our unique angle on these subjects – and strong intelligence dimension – has earned DEBKAfile a global reputation and a steady readership – which skyrockets in times of crisis."

Emphasis and italics added by me

[Ewan]

Bob,


I am shocked and surprised at such transparent posts.

Please clarify Praxis.

As far as I can see Bob is sharing what various media outlets are reporting about an alleged event in Saudi.

[Bob]

Hi Ewan, One can find through various threads those who push the anti-community spirit and use variants of lame ad hominem assaults trying to stay under the radar. Generally a sense of forum malaise is the resultant derived from their actions. Seasoned posters just ignore the noise.

Present information that one finds interesting because one HAS been in the Mideast and met and discussed issues with a lot of the business leaders, or "rulers" and let the people know, and of course, one will find those who want to attack, derail or assault, just because it challenges "their" opinion. Or it could be more insidious..

As to Yemen. Last time I was in UAE, I had met one of the backers behind the "Houthi" movement (they called him the "bag man"), who wanted to spirit me out of Abu Dhabi and into Yemen to be one of their "scientists" to guess what, build their terroristic tools of destruction.. So I speak from first hand experience.. They are deceptive, and try to recruit innocents, or those who appear to not be aware of the behind the scenes, when and where they can. Another yahoo attempted to get me to bring high tech equipment into Iran. Never..

The messing with "youth" is widespread, and they are using the tools at hand - through social media. ref: http://theconversation.com/heres-how-radical-groups-like-islamic-state-use-social-media-to-attract-recruits-58014


It is not surprising that radical groups use popular social media to recruit supporters. These services are free, and censorship is still quite difficult. Most importantly, young people tend to trust the information they read or hear on social network or micro-blogging sites. The perceived trustworthiness of the platforms can affect a person’s evaluations of posts or messages from radical groups, making them seem more valid and convincing.

This is due to a well-established phenomenon known as the “halo effect”: when you make an overall positive judgement of a person or product, based on one specific positive characteristic. For instance, research has shown that if we think that a teacher is enthusiastic, we also believe that she or he is knowledgeable – even if this is not the case.

"Propaganda is most effective when it is emotionally involving. That is why radical groups include well-curated multimedia in their online newsletters, magazines, and social media posts. Many groups even develop multi-player games, and make them available for free via online gaming platforms. The games often endorse violence and, crucially, allow users to perform an idealised version of themselves; users feel pride and a sense of community while fighting with others against enemies.

"Over time, online experiences can influence users’ expectations about how they wish to live. If they feel that these expectations are not being met in their everyday life, users may reach out to radical groups (or respond to their outreach) to become part of what they see as a great cause, and an opportunity to do something worthwhile."

[Bob]

In Post 6 above, there is mention of "Zaydi Revivalism". And, what is that?

ref: - https://reliefweb.int/report/yemen/factbox-roots-yemens-conflict-northern-rebels-0 "Roots of the rebellion"


The rebels, known as the Houthis after the family name of their leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, are fighting government troops in the north, complaining of social, religious and economic discrimination.

Here is some background about the Houthi rebels:

WHO ARE THE HOUTHIS?

* The Houthis, like most tribesmen in Yemen's northern highlands, belong to the Zaydi sect of Shi'ite Islam, whose Hashemite line ruled for 1,000 years before the 1962 revolution.

* Zaydis, who make up about a third of Yemen's 23 million people, have coexisted easily with majority Sunnis in the past, but Badr al-Din al-Houthi, a cleric from the northern province of Saada, promoted Zaydi revivalism in the 1970s, playing on fears that Saudi-influenced Salafis threatened Zaydi identity.

* After north and south Yemen united in 1990, the movement spawned the al-Haq party and the Houthi-led Believing Youth group. Houthi's son Hussein was elected to parliament in 1993. Saada remained neglected economically by the Sanaa government.

* President Ali Abdullah Saleh, himself a Zaydi, at first used the Houthis to counter-balance the Salafi groups. The government later portrayed Believing Youth as a fundamentalist group out to subvert the state and restore the Zaydi imamate.

* After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on U.S. cities, Saleh declared support for Washington's "war on terror", in part to enlist U.S. support against the Houthis, whom Yemeni officials accuse of having links to al Qaeda, Iran or Lebanon's Hezbollah.

* The Houthis retort that the government, with U.S. and Saudi backing, is targeting Zaydis in general, forcing them to take up arms to defend their villages against oppression.

"CONFLICT BEGINS:

* Conflict began after Houthis embarrassed Saleh by shouting "Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on the Jews, victory to Islam" in his presence in a Saada mosque in 2003.

* Security forces killed Hussein al-Houthi in September 2004, only for further rounds of fighting to erupt in the mountains around Saada city, each more violent than the last.

* Qatar brokered a short-lived ceasefire in June 2007 and sponsored a peace deal signed in February 2008, but clashes soon broke out again. Saleh unilaterally declared the war over in July last year. Full-scale fighting resumed a year later.

SAUDI OFFENSIVE:

* In November, Saudi Arabia launched a military offensive against the rebels after a rebel cross-border incursion. "

[Bubu]

its easy to be mislead by news articles, mainstream or alternative, So I just focus on simple easily verifiable facts; anything that the puppet gov. (US) supports is not good for humanity.

[Bob]

Understanding Yemen - why would they attack their neighbors?

Corruption - Yemen is listed as the MOST corrupt country in the MidEast..

Corruption in Yemen is a highly serious problem. Yemen is the most corrupt country in the Gulf region.

It is also the poorest country in the Middle East, “with an exceptionally high birth rate, acute rates of child malnutrition and rapidly dwindling reserves of oil and water.”

In Yemen, according to Chatham House, “corruption, poverty and inequality are systemic”; in the words of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, corrupt activity is “so entrenched and pervasive” that many citizens feel powerless.

Absent any “system of control and accountability,” corruption is now present throughout the public and private spheres, so much so that in the words of the World Bank, “corruption and patronage networks are running the country’s public affairs.”

This ubiquitous corruption has resulted in weak government and “corrupt power blocs that control public resources.”

As a consequence of civil-service corruption, there are large numbers of so-called ghost workers.

Corruption in the energy, communications, and health and education sectors have resulted in inadequate service or no service at all.

Jane Marriott, Britain's Ambassador to Yemen, stated in December 2013 that corruption in Yemen was so pervasive that it was credibly undermining the security and economy of the nation. She also noted that institutionalized corruption of such a grand scale discourages development and innovation.

According to 2016 results of Corruption Perception Index of Transparency International, Yemen ranks 170th place out of 176 countries.

Trump's platform of "Draining the Swamp" should extend to Yemen if the US is desirous of helping house of Saud facilitate a cleanup. It has been noted on other threads, that Trump's actions to date (US actions) have resulted in "cleanup activities". US being the bad-boy, hardly.. except through tinted biased "ad hominem" glasses no doubt.. sad, but we can see that in the mindset of "second raters", they always bite the ankles of those who have achieved greatness. That is the mark of the "second rater" (Ayn Rand, https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/319959-do-you-know-the-hallmark-of-a-second-rater-it-s)

Ayn Rand - "the mark of the second rater" - below - understanding human greatness verses the mediocrity, or the back-biter, manipulator.. (smiles, talks "fruity" but really is morally spent)


“Do you know the hallmark of a second rater? It's resentment of another man's achievement.

Those touchy mediocrities who sit trembling lest someone's work prove greater than their own - they have no inkling of the loneliness that comes when you reach the top.

The loneliness for an equal - for a mind to respect and an achievement to admire.

They bare their teeth at you from out of their rat holes,thinking that you take pleasure in letting your brilliance dim them - while you'd give a year of my life to see a flicker of talent anywhere among them.

They envy achievement, and their dream of greatness is a world where all men have become their acknowledged inferiors.

They don't know that that dream is the infallible proof of mediocrity, because that sort of world is what the man of achievement would not be able to bear.

They have no way of knowing what he feels when surrounded by inferiors - hatred? no, not hatred, but boredom - the terrible, hopeless, draining, paralyzing boredom.

Of what account are praise and adulation from men whom you don't respect?

Have you ever felt the longing for someone you could admire? For something, not to look down at, but up to?"

"I've felt it all my life," she said.”


― Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged

Very easy to see in threads, posts, where FOCUS is or isn't, where community is or isn't..

[Praxis]

Ewan,

The real question is not what he is doing, which is posting clearly biased propaganda as why I highlighted the terms I did in post 10, it is why he is posting.

BOB is clearly pro war. Clearly wants war with Iran.

I will give you one example.

Which legitimate international countries supported the Saudis in this operation?

What exactly is an international country? Can you think of just a national country? That makes no sense. So lets remove it

Which legitimate countries supported . . .


What is a legitimate country and who gets to decide? So like Spain and Catalan? Or maybe Palestine because it isnt legit?
So that is a clearly biasing term meant to make the countries feel , well legit.


So lets remove it.

Which countries supported Saudi in murdering people in Yemen?(because it is murder even if it is a legitimate War, you just dont get punished for it.

kSemsddBnPM

SO which countries support MURDERING people in Yemen.

"Fighter jets and ground forces from Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Academi mercenaries also took part in the operation. Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia made their airspace, territorial waters and military bases available to the coalition. The US provided INTEL and logistical support, including aerial refueling and search-and-rescue for downed coalition pilots. US and Britain have deployed their military personnel in the command and control center responsible for Saudi-led air strikes."

Eygpt? A totalitarian puppet of America which receives millions in arms "aid". Jordan, A Kingdom puppet of America. UAE, a kingdom puppet of US. Kuwait, A kingdom puppet of US, Qatar, A kingdom puppet of US. Bahrain (where the 7th fleet is stationed) and a Kingdom puppet of US (and a majority Shia country with a Sunni King) and of COURSE BLACKWATER which now goes by the name Academi, which by the way if you care Bobby Ray Inman serves on their board of directors.




What is funny is bob is exactly guilty of what he claims I was doing. I didnt ad hominem attack. I said his sources are bad, the information he is pushing is clearly pro war BS, and what he is doing with that information is far too transparent. Also since he is a seasoned poster, implying I am not, and that I create malaise, again implying that he does not, and i create anti community spirit(whatever nonsense that means), implying he does not, I think that if anyone is tossing around ad hominem its the pro community spirit anti-malaise warmonger.

and in case you think that is an ad hominem attack

https://www.etymonline.com/word/monger

[Bob]

hilarious, and more noise.. clearly not worthy of discussion. Choosing one's data is arbitrary. Being there, getting first hand experience is tantamount. Funny watching bias in action. Yemen is no pretty country. Eager to see what appears to be the rant. Please go on. Calling me pro-war is clearly YOUR opinion, you have no background on my beliefs, therefore, your action are ad-hominem attacks. clearly. And your posts clearly are focused on derailing the OP post 1, that Saudi Arabia took notice, and shot down 2 missiles sent from Yemen, the Houthi group.. Again, derailing and trying to take focus OFF the OP post 1. Clear and obvious the intentions noted. Do you do this often to members who state their opinions?

Having reviewed your posts, I see "reactivity", not compassion for the members. When one offers observations, having experienced FIRST HAND on-site, on location, one gets a very good handle on what biases are happening in-the-moment. I use reference that I find that match what personal experience I have, on site, at the moment. I don't see such experiences being noted by yourself nor do I see anything changing my belief that there is extreme bias and assumed prejudice against my personal experiences. I see what I observe - and you choose to "flavor" my observations "in the field" as assumptions based on your clearly non-objective bias with no background. Interesting.. I have seen this being done to others who touch truth.. But that is my opinion is it not? Very interesting watching the dance in action.

I report what I note, first from being there, and secondly from noting references which match my in the field, first hand observations. I take your posts as insulting and demeaning of my personal experience in the MidEast with the topic at hand. But of course you are entitled to "Your Opinion" provided that you don't try to derail posts, nor attack members' opinions.

[Bob]

DEBKA - https://www.debka.com/iran-threatens-hit-saudi-abu-dhabi-dubai-air-sea-ports-ships-missiles-yemeni-houthis/

As some are extremely biased about a "security group" deriving data, let's post this anyway as it is needed data to get a viewpoint..

Iran threatens to hit Saudi, Abu Dhabi and Dubai air and sea ports, ships more missiles to Yemeni Houthis.

And what does that mean?

Tehran has warned Riyadh that unless the Saudi blockade of Yemeni ports is lifted, Revolutionary Guards missiles supplied to the Yemeni Houthi insurgents will be loosed against the seaports and airfields of Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Abu Dhabi. The warning was forwarded to their governments through the Omani back channel.

The Iranians informed Riyadh that by cutting off Yemen’s lifeline, the oil kingdom exposed itself and its allies to retaliation in kind.

DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources add that, to give their warning sharp teeth, the Revolutionary Guards have been pumping fresh supplies of new surface missiles to Yemen by sea.

Although the United States, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates maintain fleets in the Gulf of Aden and Red Sea routes of access around Yemen, none ran interference to the missile shipments.

Such action would entail halting the Iranian freighters and confronting the missile-armed Iranian warships and submarines escorting them..

Other internet sources say the Missiles are Yemeni designed. Seems hardly the case, although I did point out that the "bag man" tried to spirit me out of Abu Dhabi and into Yemen to be one of their weapons scientists.. I did escape barely with my life, but I was infected with Mers NcOV (other post on PA describe this incident and the parties involved, apparently the Lebanese instigators in Abu Dhabi thought I had high level contacts in the States which they could assume I would infect, and create more terror for their "cause"... I have no "such contacts", but that didn't stop those insane people from being insane and highly monstrous...)

Within range of the extended-range missiles are the UAE’s Khalifa Port, Zayed Port and Mirfa Port, the backbone of the emirate’s free trade zone and the main source of its prosperous economy. With the rising military tension in the Gulf region in the last few days, air defense missile batteries have been deployed at those ports and the UAE air force, one of the largest in the Gulf, placed on high alert.

The derailers can go on cherry picking all they wish, such never-the-less will not stop the reporting of what is happening.

[Bob]

Iranian clerics can't just shut their mouths..

World Watch Today (http://worldwatchtoday.org/archives/3188) is observing/bloviating on this -


As we continually see, Middle East relationships are layered with intrigue and complications. The geopolitical reality is that Israel and Saudi Arabia are working together to fight Iran in Syria. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel and Saudi Arabia have been supporting rebels in Syria who are fighting against the pro-Iranian Assad regime in Syria. The Saudis are providing weapons to the rebels, while Israel has been providing them with food, fuel and medical supplies.

The Saudis are Sunni and Iran is Shia. The Saudis and Iranians hate each other. The geopolitical reality is that Israel and Saudi Arabia are working together to fight Iran in Syria. The Wall Street Journal has reported that Israel and Saudi Arabia have been supporting rebels in Syria who are fighting against the pro-Iranian Assad regime in Syria. The Saudis are providing weapons to the rebels, while Israel has been providing them with food, fuel and medical supplies.

Saudi Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman – the man who is now in charge of Saudi oil policy – ruled out any dialogue with Iran and pledged to protect his traditionalist kingdom from what he called “Tehran’s efforts to dominate the Muslim world.” Saudi Deputy Crown Prince who is also Defense Minister for the kingdom recently said, “We will work to have the battle in Iran rather than in Saudi Arabia.” Iran, never one to leave a pugnacious comment by its Saudi archrival unanswered, responded when its defense minister said on that Iran would hit back at most of Saudi Arabia with the exception of Islam’s holiest places if the kingdom does anything “ignorant”. “If the Saudis do anything ignorant, we will leave no area untouched except Mecca and Medina,” Defense Minister Hossein Dehghan was quoted by the semi-official Tasnim news agency as saying.

Adding yet another layer to this row… Saudi Arabia has cut off ties with Qatar because Qatar is too friendly with Iran. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt severed diplomatic ties with Doha and closed their air, sea and land borders to the tiny Persian Gulf state. Iran has come to the rescue of Qatar having sent hundreds of tons of food to Qatar in recent days, because Qatar is almost entirely dependent for food from foreign exports. So this means Iran is now more engaged in the affairs of the Arab world because they are helping Qatar; remember most of the Arab monarchies loathe Iran. Qatar needs to get food somewhere so now they are relying on Iran. This proxy war will only get worse in the months ahead—there is no solution in sight!

Another interesting perspective, indeed..

[Bob]

from Arab News, today, Saudi Arabia is suggesting to its citizens who may be in Lebanon to get out of there sooner, not later..

This is the posted statement:


http://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/ph3_660_400/public/2017/11/09/1029976-1906572563.jpg - (that's from a Saudi foreign minister's post on twitter)

What is the concern about Lebanon? Could it be Hezbollah, Iranian backing them? - ref: https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-11-09/hezbollah-calls-on-saudi-arabia-to-cease-interfering-in-lebanon-statement


BEIRUT (Reuters) - Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc called on Saudi Arabia on Thursday to stop interfering in Lebanese affairs after Lebanon's prime minister quit in a weekend broadcast from the kingdom.

Hezbollah MP Hassan Fadlallah said the bloc supports the approach of Lebanon's president, who has refused to decide on whether to accept the shock resignation until Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri returns home.

(Reporting by Ellen Francis and Laila Bassam; editing by Mark Heinrich)

[Bob]

The Gulf Affairs minister, Thamer al-Sabhan of Saudi Arabia, "explained" the resignation of Lebanon's Prime Minister..


Saudi Gulf Affairs Minister Thamer al-Sabhan on Monday went on with his threats against Lebanon and its resistance.

Sabhan said Lebanon has “declared war against Saudi” because of what he called “aggression” by Hezbollah resistance movement.

“We will treat the government of Lebanon as a government declaring war on Saudi Arabia due to the aggression of Hezbollah,” Sabhan said during interview with Saudi-owned Al-Arabiyah TV network.

The Saudi minister said Riyadh will use all political and other means to confront Hezbollah.

“We expect the Lebanese government to act to deter Hezbollah,” he added.

Sabhan remarks come few days after Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced resignation from Riyadh in a controversial move seen by many commentators as a blatant violation of the Lebanese sovereignty and interference in Lebanese affairs.

ref: assorted Arab news agencies

[Bob]

US Air force doing a forensic analysis of the remains of the missiles over Riyadh, shot from Yemen, are indeed Iranian products of mass destruction.

ref: http://time.com/5018612/missile-saudi-arabia-iran-air-force/?xid=gonewsedit&google_editors_picks=true (derived from AP news feeds)


[..] the ballistic missile fired by Yemeni rebels that targeted the Saudi capital was from Iran and bore “Iranian markings.”

Lt. Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, who oversees the Air Forces Central Command in Qatar, made the comments Friday at a news conference in Dubai.

Harrigian said authorities were investigating how the missile was smuggled into Yemen amid a Saudi-led coalition controlling the country’s airspace, ports and borders.

In an earlier post in this thread, it was pointed out that the Iranian vessels are NOT searched because of the Iranian warships and submarines "escorting" those vessels. It seems that may be the way how the weapons are being imported into Yemen (and elsewhere).

From the Maritime Executive news - https://maritime-executive.com/article/defense-officials-considered-searching-iranian-ship

In the reference one can see WHO decided to NOT do the searches for weapons.


Defense Officials Considered Searching Iranian Ship
According to sources within the National Security Council, the Trump administration's top defense officials recently explored the possibility of boarding an Iranian ship in international waters to look for contraband weaponry.

The vessel was believed to be carrying munitions for the Houthi insurgency in Yemen. U.S. intelligence officials have long contended that Iran is aiding the Houthi rebel insurgency in its fight against the Saudi-backed Yemeni government; specifically, they believe that Iran is using ports in Oman to land weaponry, then trucking the ordnance overland.

Secretary of Defense Gen. James Mattis (ret’d.) ultimately decided not to proceed with the boarding operation because the plans were leaked to the press, according to the White House. In addition, the vessel was in the international waters of the Arabian Sea, and several top aides told the New York Times that they were concerned that a boarding could lead to a firefight with Iranian forces.

[Bob]

Apparently, the French president (Macron) believes that Iran did indeed manufacture the missiles fired by Yemeni Houthis over the weekend.

ref: https://www.rferl.org/a/french-president-macron-blames-iran-yemeni-huthi-rebel-missile-launch-riyadh-calls-for-negotiations-ballistic-missile-development/28845939.html


"There are extremely strong concerns about Iran" among its Arab neighbors in the Persian Gulf region over the missile launch, and "there are negotiations we need to start on Iran's ballistic missiles," Macron said.

In an Al Jazeera analysis, Iran possesses numerous missiles capable of carrying out mass destruction (depends on the payload contained within)..

Who gave them the kick start? The US with the Shah and currently Russia. Iran has been working on its ballistic missile programme for several decades, using both Soviet and proprietary technology.

Here is the current known list:


http://www.aljazeera.com/mritems/Images/2017/9/23/75c570944a324dd7bb03afaf28abc671_6.jpg

From the Center for Strategic and International Studies - https://www.csis.org/analysis/iran-missiles-and-nuclear-weapons Iran's ballistic missiles do have a capability to carry any of these:


Chemical payloads
Explosive payloads
Biological payloads
Nuclear payloads


Iran in addition has purchased long range Russian Cruise missiles.

[Jayke]

If Iran really do have Russian made cruise missiles, then maybe the Neocon news outlets and the Saudis might want to tone down their monthly, bomb-dropping, marketing campaigns. Especially if there’s any validity to The Sakers latest analyses.

http://thesaker.is/the-two-great-us-american-myths-which-can-result-in-a-war-with-russia/

Besides, the Saudis have been bombing Yemeni schools, villages, weddings, hospitals etc for months with total impunity, death toll (which includes innocent women and children) are in the thousands. Why focus on 1 rocket that got intercepted and caused no casualties when the Saudis are creating death and destruction by the bucket load all over the Middle East?

And implicating Iran with nothing but conjecture isn’t going to work out well for those who like to jump to conclusions based on limited evidence in the long run. More fabrication from the neocon warhawks, which just like all the hoo-ha around the pleas to bomb North Korea last month is going to fizzle out into nothing. What we’re seeing with this current marketing campaign is just blow back from Iran helping to destroy ISIS and put a stop to Saudi Arabia’s plans in Syria.


The House of Saud’s bid to engage with Iraq after almost a quarter century is perfectly illustrative of the former’s renewed push to create a regional wedge against the fast increasing Iranian influence in Iraq, as also in the Middle East, where Iran has played a no small role in defeating the self-styled Islamic State. This renewed engagement has also received blessings from Washington, which is actively seeking to use its leverage and military presence in Iraq to change its pro-Iranian foreign policy orientation, and thereby use it to contain Iranian influence. Whereas this anti-Iran thrust is a part of the Trump administration’s policy of ‘isolating’ Iran, it also reflects that even the drastic failure that the US-Saudia sponsored ‘terrorism project’ has received has not led them to making a sane policy, one that may introduce stability than inject new flashpoints of conflict.

But this is not happening. Containment of Iran was, in fact, the central agenda in the last meeting Rex Tillerson had with Saudi Arabia’s king Salman and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi in Riyadh on October 22. That the meeting and the diplomatic momentum that preceded it had been blessed by the US is evident from the role that Brett McGurk, the US special presidential envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, has been playing in the region. As such, while McGurk is supposed to coordinate with anti-ISIS activity in the region, he often tweets about Saudi Arabia and Iraq. “Breakthrough diplomacy over last 9 months by secretary Tillerson, Iraqi, Saudi leaders…. vital to post-ISIS stabilization in region,” he tweeted on the day of the October 22 meeting, referring obviously to drive Iran out of Iraq in accordance with the image the US has built of Iran that shows the latter as a ‘destabilizing element’ in the region. A lot more is to come yet!

https://journal-neo.org/2017/11/07/how-is-saudia-engaging-iran-in-a-new-regional-conflict/

[Bob]

Iran tests new Russian-made S-300 missile system

For 10 years, Iran had been trying to get its hands on a Russian air defense system but was held back by embargoes. It finally has a chance to show off its newly allowed firepower.

http://www.dw.com/en/iran-tests-new-russian-made-s-300-missile-system/a-37808317

This is a "DEFENSIVE" system, short range and designed to shoot down slow speed attacking missiles.

"The air defense system was finally delivered by Russia in February after years of delay. Iran had been trying to acquire the system in response to repeated threats by Israel to bomb its nuclear facilities, but Russia had held off delivery of the 750 million euro ($800 million) project for years, in line with UN sanctions imposed over the nuclear program."


a domestically manufactured air defense system dubbed Bavar 373, which was "more advanced than the S-300," would be tested very soon. "The S-300 is a system that is deadly for our enemies and which makes our skies more secure," he said.

http://www.nti.org/learn/countries/iran/delivery-systems/ - Iran's homegrown missile systems report

FACT Check

1) The Islamic Republic of Iran has numerous programs for the development of ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, long-range artillery rockets, and space launch vehicles (SLV). It currently possesses the largest number of ballistic missiles of any country in the Middle East.

2) Iran acquired the Soviet R-17 (R-300; NATO: Scud-B) from Libya, resulting in the War of the Cities, a campaign of air and missile raids in which both Iran and Iraq targeted each other’s major cities.

3) Since the late 1980s Iran has actively sought to develop an indigenous missile program, relying heavily on missile components imported from North Korea in the 1980s and 1990s to establish this capability.

"Iran claims to have developed several liquid-propelled ballistic missiles, two space launch vehicles (SLV) and solid-propelled missiles."

Designs to date

Iran's ballistic missile program has developed along two parallel tracks: (1) liquid-propellant engines based on imported Soviet and North Korean missiles; and (2) solid-propellant motors based on solid-propellant rocket artillery.



Liquid-propellant missiles

The most common types of ballistic missiles in the Iranian arsenal are the Shahab-1 and Shahab-2 short-range ballistic missiles (SRBMs), which are derived from the Soviet R-17/R-300 (Scud-B) and R-17M (Scud-C), respectively.

A longer-range missile, the Shahab-3, is derived from North Korea’s Nodong missile.

Iran has the capacity and infrastructure to assemble all of its Shahab missiles.

The Shahab-3 is capable of reaching all of Iraq, Afghanistan, and western Saudi Arabia from permanent missile bases in Iran’s interior.

The Shahab-3 missiles are road-mobile and are capable of carrying chemical, biological, or nuclear warheads, and can likely reach Israel if placed nearer to the western Iranian frontier.

This design was what Iran had apparently supplied to the Houthi's which was then fired on Riyadh. If the US made Patriot missile defense system was not operative at the time, and deployed, these missiles could have created severe damage. " The rocket was targeting the populous areas of Riyadh at/near the airport, but was intercepted by a surface-to-air Patriot missile and turned to shrapnel .." (possible contractor for the Patriot system - Raytheon MIM-104 Patriot anti-missile system)


Tehran has extensively modified the Shahab-3 missile to increase its range and accuracy.

Since 2004 Iran has conducted several tests of a Shahab-3 variant, the Ghadr-1, a medium-range ballistic missile (MRBM) with a range of up to 2,000km.

In 2014, the Iranian Defense Ministry claimed the successful flight test of a multiple independent re-entry vehicles (MIRV)-capable ballistic missile, the Barani, but analysts from Jane's Defense dispute this capability on technical grounds. In 2015, Iran test-launched the Emad, a Shahab-3 variant with a more advanced guidance system.

MIRV re-entry systems are used for deploying nuclear devices to multiple intercontinental targets, simultaneously. (Union of Concerned Scientists - http://allthingsnuclear.org/emacdonald/the-end-of-mirvs-for-u-s-icbms)

Solid Fueled Missiles

In addition to its liquid-propellant missile program, Iran is actively pursuing solid-propellant missiles. Solid-propellant missiles offer a number of advantages.

Solid propellant has a longer storage life than liquid propellant and is less combustible, thereby reducing worker safety risks and enabling fuel to be stored in the missile. This eliminates the several day fueling process required for liquid-propellant missiles prior to any launch decision, offering a significantly reduced response time and other strategic advantages (e.g., solid-propellant missiles are less likely to be detected by an adversary pre-launch, because of the absence of major preparatory activities).

Furthermore, solid-propellant missiles accelerate faster than liquid-propellant missiles and are thus less vulnerable to interception during takeoff.

Since about 2004, Iran has deployed the Fateh-110, a solid-fueled short-range ballistic missile (SRBM).

A guided variant of the Iranian Fateh-110 missile, the Zolfaghar, was reportedly used against Islamic State targets in the Syrian Civil War in June 2017.

Iran has conducted a number of tests of a longer-range solid-fueled ballistic missile, the Sejjil.

First tested in 2007, the Sejjil is an indigenously developed MRBM capable of reaching Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey from deployments deep within Iranian territory.

Iran has not tested the Sejjil since 2011. On 22 September 2013, during the annual military parades in Iran, Iranian armed forces showcased several different models of ballistic missiles, including the Sejjil.

CRUISE Missile Program

In September 2012, Iranian Brigadier General and Director of the Defense Ministry Aerospace Organization Mehdi Farahi announced that Iran has, or is developing, 14 different cruise missiles.

Iran's cruise missile program began in 2001 when Tehran imported 12 X-55 (NATO: AS-15 Kent) air-launched cruise missiles (ALCM) from Ukraine.

The X-55 is launched exclusively from heavy bombers, which Iran does not possess, making it likely that Iran acquired the missile exclusively for research, design and feasibility studies.

In March 2015, Iran revealed a new ground-launched cruise missile known as the Soumar, which reportedly bears a close resemblance to the Russian Kh55SM cruise missile, though no specific design information for this missile is available at this time.

The majority of Tehran's cruise missile arsenal consists of anti-ship cruise missiles (ASCMs).

The Kosar (range = 3-15 km), Nasr (range = 8-35 km), Noor (range=120 km) and Ghadir (range = 200 km) are all short-range subsonic platforms with high explosive warheads, primarily intended for coastal defense (land-to-sea) and ship-to-ship warfare.

These missiles are currently deployed along Iran's coast and on various naval ships including frigates, corvettes, coastal and inshore patrol vehicles (such as speedboats), in the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz. In particular, the Iranian navy announced in April 2014 that both destroyers and missile launching warships have been outfitted with Ghadir cruise missiles.

Iran has one medium-range subsonic ASCM, the Ra'ad, reportedly based on the Chinese HY-2 airframe. The Chinese HY-2 can carry a 500kg warhead, indicating that a similarly designed Ra'ad derivative could hypothetically carry a well-designed nuclear warhead up to a range of 105km. However, the limited range makes such a scenario unlikely. The Ra'ad is deployed for coastal defense on various naval vessels and along the Iranian coast.

History

The Shah's Rockets: 1970 to 1979

Iran's missile program originated in the late 1970s under Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi.

Beginning in 1975, the Iranian Defense Industry Organization began developing and testing the Arash 122mm system, a short-range unguided rocket based on the Russian Bm-11.

The Shah initiated a massive military modernization program in order to supplant the United Kingdom as the traditional military protector of the Sunni Gulf Monarchies, believing that his alliance with the United States and access to U.S. military technology would allow him to control the Strait of Hormuz and shipping access to the Indian Ocean.

Despite the Shah's close relationship with the United States, open source evidence does not suggest that the United States played a significant part in the Shah's missile program.

Reliance on Israel by Iran

The Shah relied on Israel for assistance in establishing a missile program.

Iran and Israel partnered in a multi-billion dollar project to modify advanced Israeli surface-to-surface missiles for sale to Iran.

The project, codenamed "Flower," was one of six "oil for arms" contracts Iran and Israel signed in 1977.

Project Flower reportedly aimed to extend the range of an Israeli Gabriel anti-ship missile by replacing American-supplied parts with Israeli-manufactured components, which would have enabled Israel to re-export the missile to Iran without violating American export control laws.

To support this project, a team of Iranian experts began construction of a missile assembly facility near Sirjan, in south-central Iran, and a missile test range near Rafsanjan.

The downfall of Iran, and change of status to "ENEMY" a Transition From PEACEFUL Prosperity to becoming the Mideast piriah

The Iranian Revolution significantly changed Iran's international standing. With the Shah's overthrow and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's assumption of power in 1979, Israel canceled all military cooperation with Iran.

Iraq's Saddam took this advantage to strike at Iran. Iraq invaded Iran on 22 September 1980, triggering a bitter eight-year war which destabilised the region and devastated both countries. The then Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein claimed as a reason for the invasion a territorial dispute over the Shatt al-Arab, the waterway which forms the boundary between the two countries.

In June 1987, Iran and North Korea concluded a $500 million arms agreement, which included between 90 and 100 Scud-Bs, and North Korean construction of a missile production facility inside Iran.

Iran designated the imported Scud-B the "Shahab-1," and first deployed it with the special Khatamol-Anbya force attached to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), which successfully attacked a number of Iraqi cities (killing civilians) 1988. Duncan Lennox, editor of Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems, believes that Iran launched 120 Shahab-1 missiles at Iraqi cities between 1987 and 1988.

The attacks of Saudi on Yemen are PALE by comparison to the devastation and loss of life created by Iran/Iraq during their "war''. More than 1 million people were dead by the end of the war. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/sep/23/iran-iraq-war-anniversary

ARMS Merchants
During this war, Iran acquired conventional heavy arms from the Soviet Union but was forced to rely heavily on China and North Korea for missiles and missile components.

North Korea was the biggest supplier of SCUDs to Iran. Iran though had an other goal, to become the biggest offensive missile manufacturer in the region.

Between 1990 and 1991, Iran and North Korea concluded several new agreements involving the Scud-B and Scud-C.

While exact numbers are unknown, it is estimated that Iran imported between 100 and 300 Scuds during this time. Iranian military commanders dubbed the Scud-C the Shahab-2.

The missile's range was still rather limited, forcing the IRGC to deploy Shahab-2's along the Iranian coast and border, a deployment that made the missiles vulnerable to preemptive attack.

In 1993, Iranian delegations reportedly made six trips to North Korea to discuss ballistic missile cooperation.

Iran provided North Korea with a significant amount of money to fund its ballistic missile program in exchange for development and operational training, complete missile systems and infrastructure for missile production.

The immediate result of the meetings was the purchase of complete Nodong missiles, which Iran renamed the Shahab-3.

The full scale and scope of North Korean-Iranian missile cooperation is unknown.

From 1993 to 1999 Iran sought to increase its missile capacity through cooperative agreements with North Korea, China, Russia, and Syria. While Iran imported complete missile systems and missile kits, a focus was placed on developing indigenous capabilities.

North Korea and China, in particular, helped Iran establish missile production and assembly plants.

In 1998, President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani stated, "Missile production has truly become a local technology in Iran.... we have reached the level we needed to get to...Iran is today a proper missile producer which does not need any country, not China, not Russia and not others."

By 1998, Iran was domestically producing the Shahab-1 and Shahab-2, and by 2003 it was producing the Shahab-3.

However, despite Rafsanjani's assertions about indigenous production capabilities, Tehran continued to import critical components from foreign suppliers.

Did the "Revolution" ousting the Shah create the JOY that was promised, the Peace that was promised? Hardly.

The Iranian Revolution of 1979 began with Ayatollah Khomeini promising Iranians full freedom and a government by the people and for the people. In his speeches leading up to the Revolution, the Ayatollah proclaimed that, “A nation that doesn’t have freedom does not have civilization. A civilized nation is one that is free.” He also said that, “There should be freedom of the press and people should have the right to their opinion” and “In our government, clergy will not govern but help you with your spirituality. In our government, women will be free, and officials can be publicly criticized.”

People, joyful of his positive messages, turned their backs on the Shah–who had brought them peace, respect, and luxury–in the hope of the political freedom that was nonexistent during the Shah. Sadly, this joy quickly turned to horror. Instead of the freedom he’d promised, Khomeini snatched back the liberties women had begun to gain under the Shah, reducing them to second-class citizens without the right to inheritance, child custody and divorce. Khomeini and his cohorts forced women to wear the Islamic hijab–whipping them if they didn’t–and reverted to stoning woman for adultery. The Islamic regime claimed that anyone speaking against them was mohareb, an enemy of God. Because the regime purported to be representatives of God on Earth, they ordered the execution of all opposition. Teenage girls were raped before their deaths because the regime felt this would prevent them from going to heaven. Boys were rounded up and hanged from cranes.

Still, this was not enough. The regime insisted on exporting their religion to the world, expanding their terror network by helping establish Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad, killing Americans and Israelis, destabilizing the Middle East and effectively destroying any chance for a negotiated settlement between Palestine and Israel. They fought a war with Iraq where more than half a million Iranians lost their lives and tens of thousands more were maimed before Khomeini bitterly accepted peace.

Things got progressively worse. In the late 1980s Khomeini issued a fatwa to kill all opposition in jails around Iran. A Death Commission carried out mock trials behind closed doors, interrogating prisoners about their associations, affiliations, and allegiances with a series of questions designed to elicit an answer that assured the death sentence. The fatwa led to the execution of thousands of innocent men and women of all ages in a very short period. Another fatwa by hard-line clerics in the 1990s led to the murder of dozens of dissident intellectuals, journalists, poets, writers and political activists. Hundreds of students were killed and hundreds more tortured in response to their attempts at generating an uprising. The nightmare continues to this day.

The Islamic regime has taken hundreds of thousands of lives while making a mockery of terms like compassion, love, mercy and justice. However the revolution that the overwhelming majority of Iranians once embraced now faces resentment and disgust. The people want to be free from the tyrannical rule of the mullahs.

As remarkable as it might seem, there are signs that such freedom is not only possible but imminent. Today the divide within the regime’s establishment is sharper than it has ever been. There is dissent in the Revolutionary Guards. The very force that has kept this regime in place is now in disarray. Mohammed Jafari, the chief commander, has replaced many of those who served him. Some others have been arrested, while others, having lost their sense of loyalty to the regime, have defected. Meanwhile, the hard-liners are at each other’s throats. The Parliament, former Ahmadinejad’s government, the Guardian Council, the Assembly of Experts and the Supreme Leader’s office are all in a struggle to stop the dissension within their forces that started after last year’s fraudulent presidential elections. Ayatollah Khamenei has lost all credibility, and the legitimacy of the Islamic Republic which they claimed for so many years is now completely lost.

Unrest is everywhere: among students, teachers, union workers, Iranian regular army officers and, most importantly, the merchants at Tehran’s bazaar, who had until now been supportive of the regime and who helped finance Khomeini’s rise. The traders in the bazaar went on strike in early July to protest an increase in income taxes, and the regime let loose their thugs to intimidate them and force an end to the strike, even stabbing a merchant to death.

The Islamic rulers are losing control of their people and their economy. Inflation is on the rise, government workers are not being paid in a timely fashion and people are suffering to make ends meet. Recent sanctions will put more pressure on an already destabilized situation in Iran.

All we in the West need to do now is become more vocal in our support of the Iranian people and their aspiration for freedom.

We need to let them know we are on their side while applying much more pressure on the regime. After more than three decades of repression, the Islamic government in Iran seems ready to implode. They have never been more blustery in their protestations to the rest of the world, but they have never been more vulnerable. (Article quoted in part from FORBES)

Current ruling Mullah - The current longtime Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khamenei, has been issuing decrees and making the final decisions on economy, environment, foreign policy, education, national planning, and everything else in Iran.

The Supreme Leader

He chooses the ministries of Defense, Intelligence and Foreign Affairs, as well as certain other ministries, such as the Science Ministry. Regional policy is directly controlled by the office of the Supreme Leader with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ task limited to protocol and ceremonial occasions. All of Iran’s ambassadors to Arab countries, for example, are chosen by the Quds Corps, which directly reports to the Supreme Leader.

The Supreme Leader is more powerful than the President of Iran and appoints the heads of many powerful posts in the military, the civil government, and the judiciary.

Ali Khamenei, has held this position since Khomeini's death in 1989.

Is Ali Kamenei a poor misunderstood leader just desirous of helping freedom for women, minorities, freedom of speech, hardly..

Asking the question "How much is Ali Khamenei worth?"

A six-month investigation by Reuters has said that Khamenei controls a "financial empire" worth approximately US$95 billion that is not overseen by the Iranian Parliament, a figure much larger than the estimated wealth of the late Shah of Iran. ref: https://www.ncr-iran.org/en/news/iran-world/18735-iran-ali-khamenei-s-family-wealth


Supreme leader Ali Khamenei and his family have amassed a huge fortune, amounting to billions of dollars, even as the people of Iran including a majority of the working class have been living in poverty and destitution.

Much of Khamenei's personal wealth is in the hands of his sons and daughters, large amounts of which are held in banks in the United Kingdom, Syria and Venezuela.

Mojtaba Khamenei, the supreme leader's second eldest son, has more than $3 billion, according to a report by the Arab-language Alquds Alarabi Newspaper. Most of his wealth is held in banks in the United Arab Emirates, Syria and Venezuela, and several African countries, the paper wrote on July 7.

Mojtaba is estimated to have $300 million of assets in gold and diamonds. Some $1 billion of this wealth has been obtained from special taxes in oil sales: $1 for each barrel sold to China and India, and between $5 to $15 for each barrel of Iran’s general oil sales.

Mojtaba has also begun to take over vast stretches of land near the city of Mashhad, north-east Iran, turning it into his personal property.

Mojtaba owns the largest shopping center, the largest building project, a private plane and helicopter for urgent trips, and a variety of state of the art Mercedez-Benz vehicles and horses.

The Mayor of Tehran, Mohammad-Bagher Qalibaf, has given thousands of hectares of the best areas of Abbas Abbad and other districts in the capital to Mojtaba as a 'gift.' Qalibaf is a former senior commander of the regime's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) with other close ties to the mullahs' supreme leader.

The supreme leader's third son Masoud, a former law student from Tehran University, is in charge of many of his father’s institutions. He is the director of Ali Khamenei's personal website.

Masoud holds more than $400 million in banks in France and the UK and a further $100 million in banks in Tehran. Masoud also has control over the sales of the French car company Renault in Iran.

Khamenei’s youngest son Meysam is a former theology student from Tehran University and is married to the daughter of one of Iran’s most famous bazaar merchants. He also has a key role in many of Khamenei’s institutions. He is partner to his brother Masoud in the Renault company and receives 5 million Rials from each vehicle that his brother sells in Iran. Meysam has accumulated a wealth of more than $200 million and he owns liquidity valued at around $10 million used for trade in the country’s own market.

Boshra, Khamenei’s daughter, who is married to the son of Mohammad Golpaygani, Khamenei’s chief of staff, is well looked after as the eldest daughter in the family. Boshra’s wealth is estimated at around $100 million.

Khamenei’s youngest child is Hoda. Her husband comes from a well-known religious family. Hoda has a keen interest in fashion and jewelry. She has a women’s salon in her home. Her wealth is also estimated at $100 million.

Khamenei’s famous uncle Hassan is the contractor of Iran’s state television corporation and responsible for purchasing the cameras and electric equipment and assembling the necessary machinery. He is also the representative of Sony in all of Iran. Sony's sales in Iran are estimated at $600 million each year, and 7% of the sales revenue goes to the supreme leader's uncle.

Against capitalism? Hardly it seems. A dictator/tyrant trying to bite the heals of those who have amassed more wealth, more likely it seems.

[Jayke]

Let’s not forget that it was the Anglo-Zionist deep state that created the Iranian revolution to begin with, throwing that country into turmoil.


According to a book by F. William Engdahl, A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order, a conspiracy to overthrow the Shah was hatched by the British and Americans in 1978 coinciding with the Iranian Revolution.

When "negotiations ... under way between the Shah's government and British Petroleum for renewal of the 25-year old extraction agreement ... collapsed". According to Engdahl, the end of the agreement meant "Iran appeared on the verge of independence in its oil sales policy for the first time since 1953." To prevent this independence, Engdahl claims "American 'security' advisers to the Shah's SAVAK secret police implemented a policy of ever more brutal repression" against anti-Shah demonstrators, while American President Carter "cynically began protesting abuses of 'human rights'" caused by the American advisers policy. The British Petroleum company "reportedly" organized a "capital flight" from Iran," and so on.

Mohammad Reza Pahlavi himself asserted that, "If you lift up Khomeini's beard, you will find MADE IN ENGLAND written under his chin," in the later days of his reign as monarch. This statement by Pahlavi was an adaptation of another saying, "If you lift a mullah's beard, you will find 'Made in Britain' stamped on his chin."

There’s corruption at the leadership level in every country at the moment, the only reason Iran is being singled out with this current bomb scare is due to their pivot towards Russia and China, which will take Syria, Turkey (once they resolve their tension with Syria) and Iraq with them, creating a strengthened northern front of the Middle East. Those that supported ISIS in Syria—mainly Israel and the Saudis—will be left out in the cold. The fight at the moment is over Lebanon and if they’ll join the Northern group that aligns with Russia/China or the Southern group that aligns with the Deep state zionists (those that have been sanctioning murder, rape, pillage and plunder through their various vassals over the last several decades).

Not much of a choice if you ask me. The current “Iranian markings found on bomb” story is just part of the act to paint Iran in a negative light and sway public opinion enough for Lebanon to join the southern front rather than northern. Highly unlikely it’ll work and the situation in the Middle East is still far too tender and mutable for the Saudis to be playing victim to Iranian and Yemeni transgressions. They’ll at least have to wait until the Syrians have buried their dead before they can ask for any sympathy. No amount of rebranding with internal coups or restructuring is going to convince anyone they’re not partly responsible for the Syrian atrocities, they’ve still got blood on their hands and penance to pay (along with the other countries involved) and being left out in the cold to fight amongst themselves is the first price they’ll pay.

Anyway, for those that want to understand the “big picture” dynamics of what’s happening in the geopolitics of the Middle East right now, this following article goes into more detail than my two paragraph summary can depict.

http://theduran.com/the-new-middle-east-a-northsouth-divide-where-israel-is-losing-its-narrative-and-its-old-game-plan/

[Bob]

The Supreme Leader, billed by some as a kindly old benevolent gentle man has stated quite clearly.. If one is not with them one is against them and then is an ENEMY of God.. It was NOT Israel who created the Supreme Ruler of Iran.

In post 25 above it was pointed out quite clearly, Israel was a staunch supporter of the Shah of Iran as a steward for Sunni stewardship in the MidEast.

The Shi-ite infiltration, and deceptions presented to the Iranian People allowed the ayatollah access, to allow for a "revolution" which provided NOTHING of the freedom promises which they had made to the People to let them "take over".

There is no "goodness" offered by the Shiite Supreme ruler's package to ultimate slavery of the Iranian People.

Enemy of God? What arrogance challenges the world saying everyone not Shi-ite muslim is an enemy that is supposed to be killed.

The Hirabah Practice - Hirabah (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hirabah), The related term moḥareb (محارب) (perpetrator of moḥarebeh) has been translated by English language Iranian media as "enemy of God".

In the Shi-ite interpretation of the Quran, the punishment of those who wage war against Allah and His Messenger, and strive with might and main for mischief through the land is: execution, or crucifixion, or the cutting off of hands and feet from opposite sides, or exile from the land: that is their disgrace in this world, and a heavy punishment is theirs in the Hereafter.

There is no "innocent" until proven guilty protection in that society. That society feels it needs to dominate the rest of the world, to have the rest of the world follow the laws passed down through Supreme Leader. Anyone able to connect the dots about a "real one world" overlord?

The charge of "enemy of God (against God)" in Iran includes, the charge is levied against people who commit acts against the government. (one cannot speak up or challenge anything that the government or Supreme Ruler states, does, carries out). It is an ultimate tyranny.

Another related crime is Mofsede-fel-arz, which is "spreading corruption on the earth", which can be applied for political crimes such as treason. Corruption is anything which deviates from the Supreme Ruler's interpretation of the Shiite Law.

Prior to Supreme Leader's malevolent manipulation of the population, there was stability, and a working peace even with Israel.

The same radicalization mindset now influences other youth, such as in Yemen. To create deception, but to yet bring in a "revolution" to establish their "religion and doctrine" over freedom. That is the radicalization process at work, using social media, group influence to evoke a mindset (the Halo Effect for instance), where some outspoken "emotional" charisma centered presenter woo's the masses seeking "change", but leads them into a dangerous deception.. (Black sheep phenomena)..

Ignorant to what the mullahs did since the 1979 take over? To remain ignorant, purporting to be an "expert" in Mideast affairs (without even one first hand experience over there with the people and rulers) and playing into their (the Iranian mullah's horrific hands) while acting as an "armchair" researcher bloviating and not getting the data by hands on experience, and spinning it against those who are trying for real freedom seems quite lame in my opinion.

Iranian Shiite doctrine pushes that they are the legal representatives, the speakers whom God talks through.

http://iranprimer.usip.org/resource/iran-and-islam


Iran is a theocracy that mixes religion and state more thoroughly than any other country in the world.

Shiite Islam gives a special place to its clerics and demands blind obedience to their rulings on religious law.

The commemoration of the martyrdom of holy figures is central to Shiite religious sensibilities and plays out in Iran’s populist politics.

Since 1979, the Islamic Republic has imposed a strongly patriarchal order, but pious women have found ways to assert themselves in society and education.

The contemporary Shiite revival has given Iran influence in the Muslim world and especially among other Shiite communities in the Arab world and South Asia, challenging the Sunni secular nationalists and traditional monarchies.

Overview

The 1979 revolution unseated the last dynasty to rule Iran from the Peacock Throne. But it also represented a revolution within Shiism, which had traditionally shunned direct clerical involvement in politics. Revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini introduced the idea of clerical supervision of a modern republican state that has all three standard branches of government—the executive, legislature and judiciary.

Iran is today the world’s only clerically-ruled government. Shiite Islam is not just the religion of state, but also forms the framework for a theocracy. As such, religion and politics are inseparable. The starting point for debates in Iran is not secular law and civil rights, but the tradition of Muslim jurisprudence and practice called the Sharia. Lively debates center on issues such as the nature of a just government, women’s rights in Islam, economic justice and the extent of limits on personal liberty. Since the mid-1990s, the Iranian political divide has also played out over the balance of power between the republican and religious nature of the state.

Shiite history

Only 10 percent of the world’s Muslims belong to the Shiite branch of Islam; most of the rest are Sunnis. The initial split between Islam’s two main branches followed the Prophet Mohammed’s death in 632 AD. It was triggered by a dispute over leadership of Islam. Shiites believed that the Prophet should have been succeeded by the relatives or descendants most familiar with his thinking and practices. In contrast, the group that later evolved into the Sunnis believed that the early Muslim community had the right to select elders from the noble tribe of Mecca, even if they had no blood ties to the Prophet.

Many Shiite traditions—which heavily influence practices and policies in Iran today—emerged during that early schism. Shiites hold that the Prophet’s son-in-law and first cousin, Ali, should have been his immediate successor. Shiite is the short form of Shi‘atu ‘Ali, or followers of Ali.Ali did become the fourth caliph for five years, but was murdered in 661 AD.

The new Umayyad Dynasty then assumed leadership of the young Islamic empire. Ali’s son Hussein and his followers decided to fight against harsh governance, knowing that they were likely to be massacred. But they believed it was better to die fighting for justice than to live with injustice—a concept that today defines Shiite beliefs. Hussein was killed in the battle of Karbala. His tomb is one of Shiism’s two holiest shrines and Shiites annually mourn his death in reenactment passion plays. His martyrdom also defines contemporary Shiite beliefs.

Clergy’s powers

Twelver Shiites, the branch to which most Iranians belong, hold that the twelfth imam, or divinely-appointed successor of the Prophet, disappeared as a child in 874 AD and will one day become visible again in this world to restore it to justice as the Mahdi, or the promised one. In the absence of the Mahdi, Twelver Shiites believe that clerics trained in seminaries can substitute for his authority on some issues.

So clerics in Shiism are powerful in interpreting God’s word for their followers. And the faithful are obliged to give blind obedience to cleric’s religious rulings. Khomeini transferred this religious power to Iran’s new theocracy after the revolution.

At the core of Shiite belief and history is a basic contradiction. Shiites believe in the need for divine authority in this world. But the disappearance of the Twelfth Imam in the ninth century left the community rudderless. Over time, Shiites have tried to answer this power vacuum in their faith in several contradictory ways. They came to hold that, in general, seminary-trained clergymen could substitute themselves for the absent Imam. Thus, they could authorize the state to collect and distribute the poor tax. They could authorize the appointment of Friday prayer leaders. But the trained clergymen only solved half the problem posed by the absence of the Imam, since no one alleged that they had the prerogative actually to rule, as the Imam did. Instead, they uneasily co-existed with lay monarchs, who exercised authority on a customary, common-law, not an Islamic-law, basis.

Sunni clergymen do not have the same prerogatives or powers as Shiite ayatollahs; they are more pastors than priests.

The Sunni faithful do not owe blind obedience to their sheikhs. As a result, most Sunni Muslims are today organized, like Europeans, on the basis of the nation-state, and many have chosen a relatively secular national framework. The Sunni world is thus dominated by nationalist republics and by conservative monarchies. As a result, many Sunni governments, whether secular nationalists or monarchs, view Shiite Iran as a dire threat because it offers an alternative vision of the state based on religion and clerical authority. Sunnis are also concerned by the appeal of Khomeini-ism among Shiite communities outside Iran, especially in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Lebanon, part of the so-called “Shiite crescent.”

Khomeini-ism

Khomeini’s reform of Shiism proclaimed that there is no place for the monarchy in Islam. He described secular nationalism as a tool of the devil. Under Khomeini-ism, only clerical rule in accordance with Shiite law can create just government in the absence of the Prophet and the imams. But the Islamic Republic he founded in 1979 represented a unique blend, since the supreme cleric or leader presided over a government formed by parliamentary and presidential elections that implied popular sovereignty.

During the revolution’s first decade, many popular Shiite themes melded with regime goals. This was the height of Khomeini-ism—and the last decade of his life. During the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War, young men who died at the front fighting the secular Arab nationalist regime of Saddam Hussein were commemorated as martyrs. Fountains spewing red water—symbolizing blood—were set up in Tehran’s main cemetery. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was founded as a sort of Shiite national guard to defend theocratic rule. Imbued with the passions of popular religion, it often competed with the regular army for preeminence—and won. Khomeini brought Friday prayer preachers from all over the Muslim world to Iran in hopes of influencing even Sunnis with his theocratic ideals.

The balance between religion and republicanism shifted from the late 1990s during the reform era. President Mohammad Khatami, who served two terms between 1997 and 2005, emphasized popular sovereignty over the clerical authority of the supreme leader. He sought to increase the scope of personal liberties and freedom of speech. Shiite philosophers began debating ideas about Islamic democracy. By the time Khatami left office, however, this second political tendency was crushed by clerical hardliners.

A third tendency emerged after the 2005 election of populist Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president. He led the so-called “principlists,” a faction named for adhering to the strictest interpretation of the revolution. The principlists attacked both the wealthy upper echelon of clergymen as fat cats preying on the people, and the Khatami liberals as traitors to the ideals of the Islamic Republic. Ahmadinejad often invoked the Twelfth Imam and predicted that he would soon return.

The reform tendency reemerged in 2009, when Muslim liberals launched the Green Movement to protest what they saw as the stealing of the presidential election by Ahmadinejad and his clerical allies. They too employed the symbols of Islam to prove legitimacy. Green is associated with the descendants of the Prophet and is considered the color of Islam. And their rallying cry was Allahu Akbar, or “God is great.” The Green Movement leaders sought less stringent controls on personal liberties and speech. But they insisted their mission was to defend the ideals of Khomeini’s Islamic Revolution, even though they emphasized the sovereignty of the Shiite populace over high clerical authority. The regime effectively curbed this movement, reasserting the joint control of the high clergy and the principlist populists.

Shiism and women

The 1979 Islamic Revolution proved a turning point for women in Iran and in the Muslim world generally. Khomeini, the theocrat-in-chief, and the new regime, imposed veiling on women and forbade them from serving as judges. The regime insisted on segregating beaches, sporting events and universities, on gender lines. Yet the populist character of Iran’s revolution also led to the establishment of many new provincial schools and resulted in impressive advances in female literacy.

The Iran-Iraq War also drew large numbers of women into the work force for the first time, so that practical developments often offset patriarchal law-making, and unexpectedly gave women a prominent place in Iranian society. The strongly patriarchal Islamic Republic has paradoxically created an active, literate and idealistic class of women who will increasingly shape its society, to the dismay of many male ayatollahs.

Factoids

Iran was largely a Sunni area until the 1500s, when the Safavid dynasty began imposing Shiite Islam on the population as the state religion. This era also saw international competition between the Safavids and the Sunni Ottoman Empire.

The most important religious holiday for Shiites is Ash

oura, which commemorates the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, the Prophet’s grandson, who Shiites believe was unjustly killed in 680 AD. Shiites recite elegiac poetry, tearfully tell the tales of Hussein and his family and companions, and march in processions with banners. Some practice flagellation, whipping themselves with chains or cutting themselves with knives—folk rituals frowned upon by the educated clergy.

Twelver Shiite-majority countries include Bahrain, Iraq and Azerbaijan, along with Iran (though Azerbaijanis are mostly secular in outlook). Countries with Shiite minorities include Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.

Understanding the above, one can see the differences between the Sunni (Saudi Arabian) variant of Islam and the Iranian bastardization of Islam.

Iran holds itself above all rational concepts, declaring itself the sole representative of God. Anyone NOT then adhering to its Supreme Ruler's interpretation are in their words, an "Enemy of God". In that right they believe they can exterminate, any and all "enemies of God". All whom are not believers then in their doctrine and the 'authority' of Supreme Ruler are "mohareb" or "Enemy of God".

A few examples of the "doctrine" that others seem to ignore pushing that Iran's current ruler(s) are so much in grace and light (snicker..)


https://themuslimissue.wordpress.com/2014/03/13/iran-hang-and-torture-kurds-you-are-an-enemy-of-god-you-must-be-hanged-very-soon/

Iran tortures and hangs Kurds: ‘You are an enemy of God. You must be hanged very soon.

98 people have been hanged so far in 2014 — a period of only two and a half months.

“The court told me, ‘You are an enemy of God. You must be hanged very soon.’ That was the sum of my entire court process. I don’t have any lawyer to defend me.” — Ms. Zainab Jalalian.

Iran’s grotesque human rights violations, the rise in executions, or the fate of three Americans — Amir Hekmati, Pastor Saeed Abedini and Robert Levinson — held as political prisoners inside Iran, were not even discussed during the historic negotiations between the United States and Iran in late 2013.

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979, the Kurdish provinces have been neglected economically by the current government of Iran, an exclusion that gave rise to rampant poverty. Furthermore, Kurdish political, social and cultural rights are badly repressed by the present regime, causing widespread resistance, including armed conflicts, inside Kurdistan. As such, the majority of Kurds, who sympathize or hold a membership to Kurdish opposition groups, are viewed as possible “[armed] combatants,” trying to overthrow the regime by the Islamic Republic.

This trend can be seen in the nature of the charges and the sentences handed down to large numbers of Kurdish political prisoners, who are systematically tortured, given death sentences or long prison terms. Although there are many Kurdish prisoners, the exact number is unknown. The following are two cases where the families or the victims had the courage to contact human rights organizations, an outreach banned and punishable by the authorities.

Al Jazeera reports - Iranian poet executed for 'waging war on God' (excuse me a POET is a threat to the Supreme Ruler?)

An Arab-Iranian poet and human rights activist, Hashem Shaabani, has been executed for being an "enemy of God" and threatening national security, according to local human rights groups.

Shaabani and a man named Hadi Rashedi were hanged in unidentified prison on January 27, rights groups have said.

Shaabani, who spoke out against the treatment of ethnic Arabs in the province of Khuzestan, had been in prison since February or March 2011 after being arrested for being a Mohareb, or "enemy of God".

Seems MSM and Iranian Mullah supporters have forgotten the Iranian atrocities, trying to spin their propaganda that Iran is a kindly benevolent state looking out for The People..

Iran supplying weapons to militants in the Mideast is no savior. Iran is indeed achieving it's goal, to be the largest weapons supplier, to ensure that millions are killed.

Is there any wonder that the rational West seeks to address those radicals who are the allies of Iran's mullah "god complex" mindset? To put a peg in the Shiite war machine? When Trump says Muslim Radicals, he is referring to the Shiite fundamentalist maniacs.

[Jayke]

“The rational west” lmao and you’re suggesting my observations are biased by the halo effect. There’s a whole lot of ‘pot calling kettle black’ in those statements. The hypocrisy of the West knows no bounds it seems, as millions of Syrians are still being buried due to Western sponsorship of arms sales in the area. But hey, don’t just take my word for it, I’m only an armchair researcher afterall :facepalm:

But anyway, if you feel my analysis of the situation isn’t valid, there’s plenty of experienced, in-the-field researchers saying the same thing.

http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO4Nov2017.php


On October 25 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi met with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, a significant thaw in their relations. The US-Israeli-backed Kurdistan independence ploy of Barzani has completely backfired. Again, Washington geopolitical stupidity and neoconservative war mania has driven hitherto geopolitical foes to cooperate in ways unimaginable just three years ago.

Russia has shrewdly played a game of geopolitical chess. Moscow knows that if Rosneft holds the trump card in the Iraqi Kurdish energy economy, the Kurds have no option to get their oil out but via Turkey. Two years ago, before Erdogan offered a rapprochement to Russia over the shooting of a Russian jet over Syria, Turkey was financing ISIS against the regime of Bashar al Assad and at the same time reportedly facilitating export sales of oil from Syria via a Turkish state company. Qatar was spending billions of dollars to finance Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and other Salafist terror groups in Syria. Now Turkey has to deal with Rosneft for Iraqi gas and with Damascus where Bashar al Assad remains firmly entrenched with Russian support. And Turkey seems to be doing just that, one reason for the growing hostility between Ankara and Washington.

Further setback for Washington is the development around Qatar. Since Washington and Israel goaded the incalculable Saudis last summer into the laughable idea of creating an “Arab NATO” of Sunni oil states (plus Israel), aimed at Iran, that “Arab NATO” as its first act imposed an economic embargo against former Gulf Cooperation Council ally and Muslim Brotherhood-backed Qatar. Qatar was targeted by the Saudis because they had openly sought the cooperation of former arch foe Iran in building a common gas route to the EU. Now Qatar is working with Iran, Turkey, Russia and China in a new geopolitical alignment opposed by Saudi Arabia.

Russia, placing herself in the midst of the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria has managed a brilliant political coup against the Anglo-American and Israeli designs for a Greater Kurdistan and a NATO-controlled Greater Middle East.

Checkmate! Washington. You have just lost the Middle East. The unfolding of further events with Russia and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, are just a matter of time, as the unprecedented recent visit of the Saudi King to Moscow to ask for Russian weaponry suggests.

The neocons around D.J. Trump and his neophyte son-in-law, 36-year-old “Senior Advisor” Jared Kushner, and the increasingly pathetic ExxonMobil Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, are a sad bunch. The world has tired of their wars of destruction. It’s time to build up new.

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

[Bob]

Back to Topic - which is the Iranian (?) missile. The background summary on the atrocities perpetrated by Iran's revolutionary takeover was about creating harm, while alleging peace, prosperity, freedom is quite clear. It appears to be repeatedly glossed over by those attempting to create an illusion that the bad boyz are the heroes. A million deaths by Iran and Saddam of Iraq is a quite clear statement of who the bad boyz are. Iran killing dissidents cause they may use poetry to say peace is better than tyranny.. It's obvious to those who are able to see a horror story and know a monster when they see it. There are sufficient documentation in this thread detailing enough that further documentation could be posted in a full length treatise should one care to.

Launching a missile out of a Shiite stronghold, into a Sunni civilian area is what happened. Indications have shown, (although I haven't seen pictures of the "Iranian Markings" which would lock up any doubt) that Iran by it's own statements, intends to destroy (that means kill civilians, and anyone else) Sunni's (or those who are of the different sect of Islam), branding them a Mohareb, or "enemy of God". Then telling the world they are the legal representatives of God and are justified to be the "keeper of the Law", judge jury and executioner. That is insane and horrific.

As I dig further into this "Iranian created fiasco", I am starting to understand more-so President Trump's reasoning behind pointing out the "Radical Muslim" viewpoint. It is eye opening. I can only think back on my trips to the Mideast, how much personal danger I was in, should I have questioned Shiite dogma.

I can imagine the evil in the hearts by those who told me a few years back, "Go to Iran", help them by finding minerals, water, energy.. Certainly those who tried to get me to go there only held some devious malice in their heart. They certainly weren't for helping the Iranian People, only interested in their own agenda.

I can only imagine what will happen to other dissidents, who seek peace and come up against the "radical" hell bent on terrorism; terrorists who are no representative of "God".

Gulf Business news reports a missile launched from Yemen hit a school on Tuesday. Are those kids government soldiers? Hardly.


Saudi Arabia’s southern regions have repeatedly been the target of missile attacks from Yemen

http://gulfbusiness.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/Saudi-school-missile-e1507700476818.jpg

Saudi Arabia’s southern regions have repeatedly been the target of missile attacks by opposition forces in Yemen since the country entered the civil war on the side of the internationally recognised government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in 2015.

[Ewan]

Iran supplying weapons to militants in the Mideast is no savior. Iran is indeed achieving it's goal, to be the largest weapons supplier, to ensure that millions are killed.


Woah Bob, come on. Nobody was claiming Iran a saviour. Try and at least get a balanced view here. Every other arms producer/seller is eagerly shipping/selling their weapons to the region including 'one country' that seems hell-bent on regime change whenever it suits them.

I don't think you can accuse anyone on here as being particularly manipulated by the MSM, although a lifetimes indoctrination can take some effort to be free of. (esp. when you are not aware you are being indoctrinated into a false view).

Why, for instance, would anyone be willing to accept the mainstream view that this missile even had the origins they claim?
Is it possible, yes of course it is but it is also possible that it was a manufactured event to escalate the situation. That certainly wouldn't be unheard of.

Not a source I usually rely on but look what I found on Wiki.


Mossadegh had sought to audit the documents of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), a British corporation (now part of BP) and to limit the company's control over Iranian petroleum reserves. Upon the refusal of the AIOC to co-operate with the Iranian government, the parliament (Majlis) voted to nationalize Iran's oil industry and to expel foreign corporate representatives from the country.[10][11][12] After this vote, Britain instigated a worldwide boycott of Iranian oil to pressure Iran economically.[13] Initially, Britain mobilized its military to seize control of the British-built Abadan oil refinery, then the world's largest, but Prime Minister Clement Attlee opted instead to tighten the economic boycott[14] while using Iranian agents to undermine Mosaddegh's government.[15] Winston Churchill and the Eisenhower administration decided to overthrow Iran's government, though the predecessor Truman administration had opposed a coup.[16] Classified documents show that British intelligence officials played a pivotal role in initiating and planning the coup, and that the AIOC contributed $25,000 towards the expense of bribing officials.[17] In August 2013, 60 years after, the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) admitted that it was in charge of both the planning and the execution of the coup, including the bribing of Iranian politicians, security and army high-ranking officials, as well as pro-coup propaganda.[18][19] The CIA is quoted acknowledging the coup was carried out "under CIA direction" and "as an act of U.S. foreign policy, conceived and approved at the highest levels of government".[20]

[Flash]

Hypocrisy of the East knows no bounds either Jayke, Middle East, Extreme East, Northern East (Russia), all over the planet the story and the history looks alike. Early Americans killed the locals here, French killed the English and vice-versa, and lately Russia killed millions of its own citizens (20th century).

The root problem is within human thinking and soul. This is where it has to be solved.

Bob is right about religious Shiite - they have a very skewed view of the world. But not all Iranians have this view even if Shiite. For Shiite, we are all, non Muslim and non Shiites, below the level of dogs, comparable to pigs and less, which they truly despise. For them, we are NOT human because not of their views of GOD. Very primitive thinking if you want my opinion. And the whole planet is still caught in this primitiveness, tribe against tribes (call them countries or tribes, this is basically the same thinking = tribal). IT is easy to manage tribes when you have an overview of their primitiveness and their local situations, like PTB has.


“The rational west” lmao and you’re suggesting my observations are biased by the halo effect. There’s a whole lot of ‘pot calling kettle black’ in those statements. The hypocrisy of the West knows no bounds it seems, as millions of Syrians are still being buried due to Western sponsorship of arms sales in the area. But hey, don’t just take my word for it, I’m only an armchair researcher afterall :facepalm:

But anyway, if you feel my analysis of the situation isn’t valid, there’s plenty of experienced, in-the-field researchers saying the same thing.

http://www.williamengdahl.com/englishNEO4Nov2017.php


On October 25 Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi met with Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, a significant thaw in their relations. The US-Israeli-backed Kurdistan independence ploy of Barzani has completely backfired. Again, Washington geopolitical stupidity and neoconservative war mania has driven hitherto geopolitical foes to cooperate in ways unimaginable just three years ago.

Russia has shrewdly played a game of geopolitical chess. Moscow knows that if Rosneft holds the trump card in the Iraqi Kurdish energy economy, the Kurds have no option to get their oil out but via Turkey. Two years ago, before Erdogan offered a rapprochement to Russia over the shooting of a Russian jet over Syria, Turkey was financing ISIS against the regime of Bashar al Assad and at the same time reportedly facilitating export sales of oil from Syria via a Turkish state company. Qatar was spending billions of dollars to finance Muslim Brotherhood, ISIS and other Salafist terror groups in Syria. Now Turkey has to deal with Rosneft for Iraqi gas and with Damascus where Bashar al Assad remains firmly entrenched with Russian support. And Turkey seems to be doing just that, one reason for the growing hostility between Ankara and Washington.

Further setback for Washington is the development around Qatar. Since Washington and Israel goaded the incalculable Saudis last summer into the laughable idea of creating an “Arab NATO” of Sunni oil states (plus Israel), aimed at Iran, that “Arab NATO” as its first act imposed an economic embargo against former Gulf Cooperation Council ally and Muslim Brotherhood-backed Qatar. Qatar was targeted by the Saudis because they had openly sought the cooperation of former arch foe Iran in building a common gas route to the EU. Now Qatar is working with Iran, Turkey, Russia and China in a new geopolitical alignment opposed by Saudi Arabia.

Russia, placing herself in the midst of the Kurdish regions of Iraq and Syria has managed a brilliant political coup against the Anglo-American and Israeli designs for a Greater Kurdistan and a NATO-controlled Greater Middle East.

Checkmate! Washington. You have just lost the Middle East. The unfolding of further events with Russia and Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, are just a matter of time, as the unprecedented recent visit of the Saudi King to Moscow to ask for Russian weaponry suggests.

The neocons around D.J. Trump and his neophyte son-in-law, 36-year-old “Senior Advisor” Jared Kushner, and the increasingly pathetic ExxonMobil Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, are a sad bunch. The world has tired of their wars of destruction. It’s time to build up new.

F. William Engdahl is strategic risk consultant and lecturer, he holds a degree in politics from Princeton University and is a best-selling author on oil and geopolitics, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

[Foxie Loxie]

I still think we here on Earth are caught up in someone else's war & that is why it is all SO confusing! :facepalm: It would seem REAL change can only come at the local level & we must beware of those who wish to pit us one against the other. :noidea: Maybe that is simplistic.....

[Bob]

Iran's government has said over and over, it intends to be the missile producer.

references:

http://thehill.com/policy/international/357718-iranian-president-no-letup-in-missile-production


Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Sunday that Tehran has no plans to let up on its missile production

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/iran/1.819693


"We have built, are building and will continue to build missiles, and this violates no international agreements," Rohani said in a speech in parliament.


http://www.businessinsider.com/r-rouhani-says-irans-ballistic-missile-program-will-continue-tv-2017-5


"The Iranian nation has decided to be powerful. [..] American officials should know that whenever we need to technically test a missile, we will do so and will not wait for their permission," Rouhani said in a news conference, broadcast live on state TV.

This one is particularly revealing: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/iranian-president-need-missiles-confront-trump-admin-enemies/


Recently re-elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at the Trump administration this week, describing it as ignorant and saying that Iran "needs missiles" to confront the United States and its allies, according to recent remarks certain to rile leaders in Washington, D.C.

The Iranian leaders remarks support recent comments by senior military leaders in the country, who have repeatedly declared that Iran will "never stop" developing ballistic missiles, a program that has raised concerns with the U.S. intelligence community, which assesses that Iran's missile program could be used to carry a nuclear weapon.

The remarks came as Iran announced the construction of a third underground ballistic missile production factory, helmed by Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC.

Iranian General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, and IRGC leader, said the factory is meant to boosts Tehran's "missile power" and intimidate the United States and "Zionist regime," or Israel.

https://www.debka.com/the-largest-missile-inventory-in-the-middle-east/- Iran is the largest producer of missiles in the mideast


( back in 2010 ) The Largest Missile Inventory in the Middle East
Ahmedinejad vowed that the upcoming national anniversary will mark "the total annihilation of the capitalist liberal regime.”

February 2, written testimony to Congress by Director of US Intelligence Dennis Blair revealed: "Iran already has the largest inventory of ballistic missiles in the Middle East" and it continues to expand the scale, reach and sophistication of its ballistic missile forces, "many of which are inherently capable of carrying a nuclear payload,"

https://www.algemeiner.com/2016/02/10/us-intelligence-threat-assessment-iran-has-largest-ballistic-missile-arsenal-in-the-middle-east/


Threat Assessment: Iran Has Largest Ballistic-Missile Arsenal in the Middle East

Additionally in the testimony, which covered the wide array of challenges facing US intelligence agencies, Klapper noted that Iranian intelligence still saw the US as its primary threat. He said that Iran’s regional expansion and the spread of Shiite Islam, as well as Tehran’s partnership with Moscow, especially in Syria, were security concerns to Turkey, a US ally and NATO member.

He said its “intent” in the Middle East was “to thwart US, Saudi, and Israeli influence, bolster its allies, and fight ISIL’s expansion.” Iran’s allies include Syrian President Bashar Assad and proxies, such as Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militias.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_military_equipment_manufactured_in_Iran - list of military equipment made in Iran


In recent years, the Iranian government states that it has self-sufficiency in essential military hardware and defense systems.

Since 1992, Iran has manufactured its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles, radars, boats, submarines, unmanned aerial vehicles, and fighter planes.

After the Iranian revolution, developments in military technology were carried out with the technical support of Russia, China, and North Korea; building upon the foundations established by western contractors. Iranian reliance on these countries has rapidly decreased over the last decade in most sectors as Iran sought to gain total independence; A major exception however, is the aerospace sector, where Iran is still dependent on external help. Iran has, at present, reverse engineered existing foreign hardware, adapted it to their own requirements and then mass-produced the finished product. Examples of this abound, such as the Boragh and the IAMI Azarakhsh. In an attempt to make its military industries more sustainable Iran has also sought to export its military products, see Iranian Military Exports.

Iranian Military Arms EXPORTING - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defense_industry_of_Iran


Iran's military industry manufactures various types of arms and military equipment. According to Iranian officials, the country sold $100 million worth of military equipment in 2003. As of 2006 had exported weapons to 57 countries.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerospace_Force_of_the_Islamic_Revolutionary_Guard_Corps


Iranian military industry started the missile development program in earnest during Iran's long and costly war with Iraq. At times, throughout the war Iran found that it could not strike certain Iraqi facilities or targets with its own forces. This resulted in an ambitious missile development programme that is still continuing. Today, Iran is developing space launch vehicles and sophisticated medium-range ballistic missiles. Iran's ballistic missiles possess the capability to deliver a variety of conventional high explosive and submunition, as well as MIRVs. Iran's achievements in missile development has been called "impressive" by IISS.

Iran has an arsenal of short-range, liquid-fueled missiles including the Scud B and Scud C, and is now able to produce SCUD type missiles on its own, such as the R-17E, a variant of the Russian Scud B. The Aerospace Industries Organization, a subsidiary of Iran's Ministry of Defense, supports the manufacturing process by engaging in SCUD missile restoration.

https://news.usni.org/2013/05/31/report-new-iranian-missiles-could-overwhelm-israeli-defenses


New Iranian Missile Launchers Could Overwhelm Israeli Defenses

Iran could have enough launchers to send a salvo of medium range ballistic missiles that would overwhelm Israeli ballistic missile defense systems, according to a Wednesday report from IHS Jane’s.

A May, 26 broadcast on Iranian television showcased a collection of transporter erector launchers (TELs) capable of launching the Iranian Shahab-3 guided ballistic missiles.

“Iranian television footage showed at least 26 TELs lined up in two rows for the event, which marked their purported delivery to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Aerospace Force, which operates the country’s ballistic missiles,” according to the report.

“The delivery of such a large number of missile launchers demonstrates the Islamic Republic of Iran’s self-sufficiency in designing and building the strategic system and shows the Iranian Armed Forces’ massive firepower and their ability to give a crushing response to the enemy,” Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi said in a report carried by Iranian state news.

The more missiles Iran can launch at once, “the greater its chances of overwhelming defensive systems, such as Israel’s Arrow, which only have a limited number of interceptors ready to launch at incoming targets,” according to the Jane’s report

Threats to the Region made by Iran


The Iranian regime is not populated by Nazis, but it is led by people who do, in fact, seek the physical elimination of the Jewish state and its replacement by a Muslim state. It works toward this end, by sponsoring terrorist groups that regularly kill Jews, both in Israel and elsewhere.

So, as a reminder to those who argue that Jews should stop worrying so much about people who threaten to kill them, here is some (just some) of what Iran's leaders, and leaders of its proxy militia, Hezbollah, in Lebanon, have said about Israel:

Mohammad Khatami, the former president of Iran: “If we abide by real legal laws, we should mobilize the whole Islamic world for a sharp confrontation with the Zionist regime … if we abide by the Koran, all of us should mobilize to kill.” (2000)

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei: “It is the mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to erase Israel from the map of the region.” (2001)

Hassan Nasrallah, a leader of Hezbollah: “If they [Jews] all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.” (2002)

Nasrallah: “Israel is our enemy. This is an aggressive, illegal, and illegitimate entity, which has no future in our land. Its destiny is manifested in our motto: ‘Death to Israel.’” (2005)

Yahya Rahim Safavi, the former commander of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps: “With God’s help the time has come for the Zionist regime’s death sentence.” (2008)

Mohammad Hassan Rahimian, Khamenei’s representative to the Moustazafan Foundation: “We have manufactured missiles that allow us, when necessary to replace [sic] Israel in its entirety with a big holocaust.” (2010)

Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the commander of the Basij paramilitary force: “We recommend them [the Zionists] to pack their furniture and return to their countries. And if they insist on staying, they should know that a time while arrive when they will not even have time to pack their suitcases.” (2011)

Khamenei: “The Zionist regime is a cancerous tumor and it will be removed.” (2012)

Ahmad Alamolhoda, a member of the Assembly of Experts: “The destruction of Israel is the idea of the Islamic Revolution in Iran and is one of the pillars of the Iranian Islamic regime. We cannot claim that we have no intention of going to war with Israel.” (2013)

Nasrallah: “The elimination of Israel is not only a Palestinian interest. It is the interest of the entire Muslim world and the entire Arab world.” (2013)

Hojateleslam Alireza Panahian, the advisor to Office of the Supreme Leader in Universities: “The day will come when the Islamic people in the region will destroy Israel and save the world from this Zionist base.” (2013)

Hojatoleslam Ali Shirazi, Khamenei’s representative in the Revolutionary Guard: “The Zionist regime will soon be destroyed, and this generation will be witness to its destruction." (2013)

Khamenei: “This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated.” (2014)

Hossein Salami, the deputy head of the Revolutionary Guard: "We will chase you [Israelis] house to house and will take revenge for every drop of blood of our martyrs in Palestine, and this is the beginning point of Islamic nations awakening for your defeat." (2014)

Salami: "Today we are aware of how the Zionist regime is slowly being erased from the world, and indeed, soon, there will be no such thing as the Zionist regime on Planet Earth." (2014)

Hossein Sheikholeslam, the secretary-general of the Committee for Support for the Palestinian Intifada: "The issue of Israel's destruction is important, no matter the method. We will obviously implement the strategy of the Imam Khomeini and the Leader [Khamenei] on the issue of destroying the Zionists. The region will not be quiet so long as Israel exists in it ..." (2014)

Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander-in-chief of the Revolutionary Guard: "The Revolutionary Guards will fight to the end of the Zionist regime ... We will not rest easy until this epitome of vice is totally deleted from the region's geopolitics." (2015)

https://www.timesofisrael.com/iranian-commander-we-can-destroy-israel-in-under-8-minutes/


Iranian commander: We can destroy Israel ‘in under 8 minutes’
If supreme leader gives order, Revolutionary Guards 'will raze the Zionist regime' quickly, says senior adviser of elite al-Quds unit

(It has been mentioned in a previous post in this thread, the power that the Supreme Ruler (Iran) has to issue a death decree over anyone they believe is a threat to God)


Ahmad Karimpour, a senior adviser to the Iranian Revolutionary Guards’ elite unit al-Quds Force, said if Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei gave the order to destroy Israel, the Iranian military had the capacity to do so quickly.

“We test-fired a missile with a range of 2,000 kilometers and a margin of error of eight meters,” Brigadier General Ali Abdollahi was quoted as saying at a Tehran science conference. The eight-meter margin means the “missile enjoys zero error,” he told conference participants.

Iran in March tested ballistic missiles, including two with the words “Israel must be wiped off the earth” emblazoned on them

there are hundreds if not thousands of references citing the current Iranian regime's statements, and intentions.

[Bob]

[..]

The root problem is within human thinking and soul. This is where it has to be solved.

Bob is right about religious Shiite - they have a very skewed view of the world. But not all Iranians have this view even if Shiite.

For Shiite, we are all, non Muslim and non Shiites, below the level of dogs, comparable to pigs and less, which they truly despise.

For them, we are NOT human because not of their views of GOD.

Very primitive thinking if you want my opinion. And the whole planet is still caught in this primitiveness, tribe against tribes (call them countries or tribes, this is basically the same thinking = tribal). IT is easy to manage tribes when you have an overview of their primitiveness and their local situations, like PTB has.



Great observations Flash ! Thank you for pointing that out.

I can understand why I was infected, being "less than a dog", with MERS nCov my last trip to the Mideast. It wasn't accidental, after they had evaluated my "worth" (which was no worth when I refused to be a weapons scientist for them). The most dramatic encounter was with their "bag man" (a mobile funder who delivers $$ to the radical terrorists), who started the conversation lecturing me about how not being a Shiite Muslim that I had no clue about their high spiritual purposes, their mission to purge the world of impurity.. (OMG, didn't Hitler want a similar purge?)..

A sickness in the soul probably, something that pits friends against each other, an infiltration of Spirit maybe. Any clearing of such radical harm needs to have LIGHT shown on it. Iran claims it has plenty of light while displaying it's missiles. (Intimidation and a reverse slap in the face of those who say LOVE and LIGHT heals all).. Someone who does that, tries to turn the light around it seems to me eventually will learn, life will not allow ultimate harm to stay in place, bringing misery to many. Who benefits from such misery? Certainly not the Iranian People, but those who RULE the people benefit. By keeping the people in fear (of being branded "against God") a tyranny goes on.

Some of the Iranian People tried to revolt against the atrocity that they fell for in 1979, calling out from a position of needing HELP.. They called out to the West and Obama at the time, totally ignored them, thereby cowtowing to the Iranian Supreme Ruler.. And we wonder, why have folks said Obama was pro Muslim, certainly not pro-Sunni.

I agree with you Flash, something is wrong with a ruling class that treats those not of that sect to be less than dogs..

https://qz.com/423537/obamas-a-shia-yes-unless-hes-a-sunni/

reference - "Barack Obama turned his back on Saudi Arabia and its Sunni allies " - Obama a Shia? How's this below for "conspiracy theory" if one wanted to get into speculation instead of citing quotes by Iranian leaders, vowing to kill the "enemies of God" as their "mission"..


When an Iraqi Sunni politician hints on an Arabic TV station that Barack Obama is a Shia Muslim, he’s not only saying, “He’s one of them,” but also, “He’s not one of us.” In the madness that accompanies the escalating Shia-Sunni conflict across the Middle East, perceptions of which side the American president is on have come full circle.

(And never mind that Obama is not a Muslim at all. If that hasn’t stopped many Americans from thinking he is, why should it stop Arabs?)

The Iraqi politician, former parliamentarian Taha al-Lahibi, is a well-known crank and conspiracy theorist. He once suggested that the regimes in Syria and Iran created ISIL, blithely ignoring the fact that those two regimes are Shia, and that the terrorist group is Sunni—and enjoys nothing so much as slaughtering Shia.

But Lahibi isn’t the only commentator to peddle the Obama-is-Shia theory. In recent months, it has popped up with some frequency on Arab TV. (For a small sample, see this video from the Middle East Media Research Institute (http://www.memri.org/clip/en/0/0/0/0/0/0/4871.htm) (MEMRI.)

Where have I heard this before? Ah yes, in Iraq, in the weeks after Obama’s election in 2008. Back then, there was a little jostling among Arab conspiracy theorists, with Shia and Sunni each claiming him as their own.

The Shia said they had the stronger claim, since “Hussein,” Obama’s middle name, is the name of one of their most revered imams. But plenty of Sunnis use the name, too. As I wrote at the time, Shia scholars pored over ancient texts—and Obama’s own history—to bolster their claims.

My personal favorite: O-ba-ma, translates to “He’s with us” in Persian.

Barely five months later, many Shia joined Obama’s American critics in hyper-ventilating when the president appeared to bow before Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah, a Sunni. This was proof that the president must be a closet Sunni. My Iraqi Sunni friends thumbed their noses at my Iraqi Shia friends: ‘He’s with us.’

That notion also took hold in Egypt in 2011, after the Arab Spring revolution toppled the dictator Hosni Mubarak and free elections brought the Muslim Brotherhood—a mostly Sunni movement—to power. Many secular Egyptians loathed the Islamist party as much as Mubarak, and would later join forces with the military to bring down the Brotherhood government.

In the febrile climate that accompanied the anointing of Abdel Fatteh al-Sissi as dictator, Egyptian liberals denounced Obama as a secret member of the Brotherhood—and, by implication, a Sunni.

Today, conspiracy theorists of each sect are no longer claiming the American president as one of theirs. Obama has become so unpopular, they expend great energy to argue that he must be on the other side. And all his actions in the Middle East are viewed through a sectarian lens.

Some Sunnis believe his eagerness for a nuclear deal with Iran is informed by his father’s Shia faith. (Iran’s state media insists Iranians hate Obama.) Many Shia see his backing of the Sunni coalition against the Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen as proof of his Sunni leanings.

==post update==

Not quite "off topic" but Strangest thing.. Just got an invite (phone call) asking me if I would head over to Dubai (in the Emirates, united arab emirates, or uae) to "listen to viewpoints and hear offers" (they would sponsor). My feeling on that, "no thank you". I was told they want to "find water", as water is more precious than Oil for certain MidEast countries (apparently trying to appeal to my humanitarian viewpoints, clean water is crucial to human life). With the current climate, I don't feel safe in that region. Follow this reference to understand the "Water Wars" may be a factor in the MidEast turmoil.. https://e360.yale.edu/features/mideast_water_wars_in_iraq_a_battle_for_control_of_water

another recent coincidence: from https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2015/09/iran-kayhan-newspaper-future.html


A semi-official Iranian news agency says authorities have ordered a two-day ban on hard-line newspaper Kayhan after it ran a headline saying Dubai was the "next target" for Yemen's Houthi rebels.

ISNA reported Wednesday that Kayhan has been ordered not to publish on Saturday and Sunday, after it ignored a previous notice from the Tehran prosecutor.

Kayhan ran the headline after Yemen's Houthi rebels fired a ballistic missile that was intercepted near the Saudi capital. Iran supports the Houthis but has denied Saudi and U.S. allegations that it has given them missiles and other weapons.

Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, home to Dubai, are close allies and have been battling the Houthis since March 2015.

Iran has a long history of shutting down local media over security charges.

AP report more on the missiles that were downed over in Riyadh:


Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Culture and Information contacted the AP and sent military briefing papers alleging Iran smuggled weapons into Yemen by boat and truck.

"The parts are later assembled under supervision of Iranian military experts, who also help the Houthi militia plan attacks targeting Saudi civilians," the ministry said in a statement to the AP.

"Smuggled Iranian Qiam or Zelzal warheads are mounted onto Yemeni-made Burkan ballistic missiles."


---------------

More Background:

When the Houthis seized Sanaa in September 2014, their allied fighters also took control of the country's ballistic missile stockpile. The Yemeni military was widely believed to possess around 300 Scud missiles at the time, though exact figures remain unknown.

The Saudi-led coalition entered the war in March 2015 on the side of Yemen's internationally recognized government.

It then attacked Sanaa's ballistic missile base in April 2015, touching off massive explosions that killed several dozen people. Saudi Arabia implied at the time that the Scud arsenal in Yemen had been seriously degraded, if not entirely destroyed, as a result of the airstrikes.

But by June 2015, the rebels fired their first ballistic missile into Saudi Arabia near the southwestern city of Khamis Mushait.

In the time since, Yemen's rebels have fired over 70 ballistic missiles into Saudi Arabia, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' missile defense project.

For its part, Iran long has denied offering any arms to Yemen, though it has backed the Houthis and highlighted the high civilian casualties from the Saudi-led coalition's campaign of airstrikes.

But others in Iran have been coy about the ballistic missiles in Yemen.

Mehdi Taeb, an influential hard-line cleric who is a brother to the intelligence chief of the hard-line Revolutionary Guard, said in April that Iran tried three times to send missiles to Yemen.

The Guard, answerable only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, oversees Iran's missile program.

ref: "Purge from Impurities" - book, https://books.google.com/books?id=lTVkCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA13&lpg=PA13&dq=purging+the+world+of+impurity+shiite&source=bl&ots=6ss1iOQHdG&sig=1mPMBiWUB0uK5gqoywFIAJv0GKM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiWzfy-27nXAhUj24MKHXNgAxIQ6AEIRTAG#v=onepage&q=purging%20the%20world%20of%20impurity%20shiite&f=false

referencing QUTB - https://www.counterextremism.com/content/sayyid-qutb Osama bin Laden, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi have each built their respective terrorist organizations on the pillars of Qutbism.


Qutbism is an extremist ideology that advocates the use of terrorist violence to establish governance according to Islamic canonical law.

Horrific -


“Let us…plant the seeds of hatred, disgust, and revenge in the souls of these children. Let us teach these children from the time their nails are soft that the white man is the enemy of humanity, and that they should destroy him at the first opportunity.”
- Sayyid Qutb

The "Programming and Programmer"


As the forefather of modern jihadism, Sayyid Qutb (1906-1966) profoundly influenced virtually every ‘Islamic’ extremist group operating today.

According to the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point, the diverse jihadist movement cites Qutb more frequently than any other modern author. Esteemed Egyptian political commentator Aly Salem writes, “It is not an exaggeration to say that Qutb is to Islamism what Karl Marx is to communism.”

So who is Sayyid Qutb? In one respect, he is one of the most provocative and controversial Islamic writers in history. Qutb is responsible for the concept of “new jahiliya,” the idea that the modern world exists in a deplorable state of barbaric ignorance akin to the pre-Islamic societies as described in the Qur’an.

He is also responsible for theorizing the solution to jahiliya by introducing the concept of “offensive jihad,” as well as conveniently resurrecting the excommunication practice of takfir, in order to sanction the killing of uncooperative Muslims.

from Counter-Extreme-ism dot com - https://www.counterextremism.com/blog/sayyid-qutb-philosophical-foundation-modern-jihadism

The insidious attack methods - TakFiri


Here is what the term "Takfiri" means and how extremist groups and the Iranian regime use it against their rivals.

Takfir is an Arabic word used to describe a Muslim as infidel or non-believer. The practice of accusing another Muslim of apostasy or declaring another Muslim as infidel is called Takfir.

Shia claimed its their "Right", as legal representative of God, to declare another as "against God" - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takfiri , the "justification" interpretation.


The accusation itself is called takfir, derived from the word kafir (unbeliever), and is described as when "one who is a Muslim is declared impure."

If a person (or a group) claims to be Muslim but deny any of the basic tenets of Islam, then the one who declares him (or that group) kafir, is not counted as takfiri.

This is used for groups like the Ahmadiyya, who are considered kafir by many Muslims because they deny the basic tenet, The Finality of Prophethood (http://www.ahlus-sunna.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78&Itemid=139).

Accusing other Muslims of being takfiris has become a sectarian slur (used most often by Shia muslims against Salafis, Wahhabis, Sunni.

Takfiris believe that one who deliberately kills himself whilst attempting to kill enemies is a martyr (shahid) and therefore goes straight to heaven.

According to that belief, all sin is absolved when a person is martyred, allowing carte blanche for the indiscriminate killing of non-combatants, for example.

The Finality of Prophethood - The unanimous Belief of Muslim world is that Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) is the Last and Final Messenger/Prophet of Allah.

In other words Prophet-hood has ended with Prophet Muhammad (صلى الله عليه وسلم) and those who do not believe in it are ventured out of the bounds of Islam.

About that THESIS (treatise) that was mentioned in an earlier post - https://www.sciencespo.fr/psia/sites/sciencespo.fr.psia/files/Diffusion%20of%20Islamic%20discourse_Master%20thesis_Tore%20HAMMING.pdf

Brief sampling from Chapter 1, Introduction, the polarization concept between Sunni and Shia

From INSTITUT D’ÉTUDES POLITIQUES DE PARIS - PARIS SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS


INTRODUCTION
On February 1st 1979, as many as five million Iranians took to the streets in Teheran to celebrate the return of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the ensuing establishment of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The popular protests and Khomeini’s institutionalisation of Vilayat-efaqih (governance of the jurist) in Iran symbolises the commencement of a formalised Islamic Cold War between Iran and its religious archenemy, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the initiation of what I refer to as a soft power supremacy dilemma between the two states.

In a regional climate characterised by fierce contention for power, both states perceive themselves as entitled to a hegemony status.

This struggle became formalised with the 1979 Iranian Revolution as the emergence of an Islamic Shia republic produced a competition between two formal political entities, despite the rivalry’s foundation well entrenched in religious animosity being much older.

With the revolutionary Shia clergy regime in Iran and the Sunni Al Saud monarchy in Saudi Arabia, religious differences have consistently been at the centre of the two states’ relationship and are central in explaining historical events.

In other words, Shiite Iranian Supreme Ruler, could very well decree and fully believe in his "righteousness to do so", support of Houthi, supplying missiles to anyone (no doubt those who say they fight to eliminate "enemies of God"), supplying support to any "radical Shiite" any Salafi that supports the Shia viewpoint, in "purging" the world of whom he believes is a threat to God (or his regime). And it has been stated (see above quotes), that they view Israel for instance, the US, apparently Saudi Arabia, as "enemies of God".. It would seem that their only logical conclusion is to carry out their belief's citing their interpretation of Qur’an.

Iran backs Hezbollah - "God, according to Hezbollah theology, cursed all Jews as blasphemers damned for all time and throughout history. Hezbollah (as well as the political/religious leaders of Iran) believe that the destruction of Israel will bring about the "reappearance of the Imam (the Shiite Islamic Messiah)". Saudi has said there is a difficulty with Lebanon supporting Hezbollah, and the recent abdication (more likely than a simple "resignation") of the Prime Minister (Hariri) of Lebanon, could be related to the issues described in this thread looking deeper, than superficially at MSM headlines..

reference - the "Hezbollah" situation - https://clarionproject.org/us-warns-hezbollah-planning-attacks-americas/ (from the Clarion Project)


‘Hezbollah Planning Terror Attacks in the Americas’
Home > World > Iran > ‘Hezbollah Planning Terror Attacks in the Americas’
BY CLARION PROJECT Sunday, October 1, 2017

Lebanese terror organization Hezbollah is sending operatives into Peru and preparing for attacks, said the director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center, Breitbart reported.

Testifying before a Senate committee on threats to national security, the head of the center, Nicholas Rasmussen, also noted the Iranian-funded and armed Hezbollah is active in the U.S. and posed a threat to the homeland.

“In the [U.S.] homeland, FBI’s arrest two months ago of two operatives charged with working on behalf of Hezbollah was a stark reminder of Hezbollah’s continued desire to maintain a global attack infrastructure that poses an enduring threat to our interests,” he said.

The NCTC is part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and brings specialists together from federal agencies – including the CIA, the FBI and the Department of Defense – to spearhead national and international counter-terrorism efforts.

In 2016, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration uncovered an enormous operation of Hezbollah, showing how the terror group is funding its efforts and purchases weapons from international drug trafficking.

Over the last number of years, Hezbollah established business relationships and money laundering schemes with the leading drug cartels in South America.

Peru is considered one of the largest countries in South America for the trafficking of cocaine, the majority of which ends up in Europe and the U.S.

According to Michael Braun, a former DEA operations chief, the cocaine trade in America “provides a never-ending source of funding” for Hezbollah’s operations in Syria and around the world.

In addition, Iran is a major backer of Hezbollah, providing up to an estimated $100 million a year to the terrorist organization. Hezbollah militias fight alongside Iranian units in Syria for President Bashar al-Assad. Russia also supports Assad.

In addition to the threat posed by Hezbollah, Rasmussen told the Senate panel, “Iran remains the foremost state sponsor of terrorism, providing financial aid, advanced weapons and tactics, and direction to militant and terrorist groups across the Middle East, all while it cultivates its own network of operatives across the globe as part of its international attack infrastructure.”

Those are some more "dots", many not out of MSM. Would Iran provide a missile or more to Yemen to attack whom they have stated are the Enemies of God..? Sure seems like it.