Iran Claims Israel Attack Was A False Flag

This report was originally published by Tyler Durden at Zero Hedge

In the aftermath of one of the most severe Israeli attacks on Syria “in decades,” Iranian lawmakers said Thursday that Iran had no role in the attack, and that Shia nation doesn’t operate any bases in Syria.

Mohammad Javad Jamali Nobandegani, a member of the Iranian Parliament’s national security and foreign policy committee, said Israel’s claim that Iran had provoked Israel by firing first was “a lie,” adding that “Israel’s history of carrying out unprovoked attacks in Syria has been well-documented.”

“Iran does not have military base in Syria,” Nobandegani added.

And while Iran maintains that last night’s skirmish between the Israeli Defense Force and Syrian Army forces was a false flag, and that the IDF struck first (continuing its pattern of airstrikes and other military assaults in Syria), the IDF boasted Thursday morning that Tehran “will need a lot of time to recover” from the most extensive Israeli attack in Syria since 1974.

Meanwhile, Israel said Iran paid a “heavy price” for its (nonexistent) aggression following multiple Israeli airstrikes against what Tel Aviv said were targets belonging to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corp’s Quds Force.

Unsurprisingly, the alleged Iranian attack resulted in no casualties or damage to Israeli infrastructure, with no rockets hitting Israeli-held territory (the Golan Heights border region is considered Syrian territory occupied by Israel).

“Iran will need a lot of time and resources to rehabilitate its operational, military and intelligence infrastructures we hit tonight,” an IDF spokesman said. The spokesman warned that “any other attempt” to hurt Israel will “pay even more.”

A map of the military targets published by the IDF shows multiple sites near Damascus and also near the Syria-Israel border.

Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman claims “all the Iranian infrastructure” in the Arab republic was hit.

The IDF has struck dozens of Iranian military targets in Syria in response to the Iranian rocket attack against Israel. Quds force is behind attack and has played the initial price. IDF remains ready for various scenarios but does not seek to escalate the situation. pic.twitter.com/4rC8gHK2LG

— Jonathan Conricus (@LTCJonathan) May 10, 2018

During the attack, Israeli jets and mortars struck intelligence sites and arms depots, among other military targets allegedly operated by the Iranian forces. Syria’s SANA state news channel said earlier that a Syrian radar installation was hit in the attack while “tens” of missiles were intercepted.

Though the IDF says it’s not seeking “further escalation,” the IDF says that “the Syrian regime will be held accountable for everything happening in its territory,” and has warned against any retaliatory attack.

“They must understand that if it rains here, it will pour there,” said Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who spoke at the Herzliya security conference near Tel Aviv several hours after the skirmish began.

Lieberman added that Israeli forces remain on high alert, but said he hopes this “chapter” is finished.

Naturally, most Western media like the New York Times – which has repeatedly demonstrated a fervent pro-Israeli bias – opted to take the IDF at its word, a move that drew consternation from independent Syrian journalists.

Maybe don’t let the Israelis dictate headlines pic.twitter.com/XCMywDP1AH

— Rania Khalek (@RaniaKhalek) May 9, 2018

Of course, in the aftermath of recent attacks on Syria over “chemical attacks” which were alleged but never actually proven, why even bother to verify Iran’s claims when it’s easier to just quote Israel.

WAR ALERT: Iran DIRECTLY ATTACKS Israel In Retaliatory Strikes, Israel Returns Fire

After reports surfaced the immediately after president Donald Trump announced that the United States would withdraw from the Iran nuclear agreement, Israel attacked Iran in an airstrike raid.  Now, Iran has retaliated sparking fears that this could be the beginning of another war.

The initial airstrikes against Iran by Israel were said to have killed 23 people, both Syrian and non-Syrian, but all military personnel.

According to The Daily Mail UK, Iran and Israel traded blows on the Syrian border overnight, marking the first time Tehran has directly attacked Israel. Last night, Iranian forces fired 20 rockets from Syria at Israeli front-line military positions in the Golan Heights, the Israeli military said.

Israel said the 20 Iranian rockets were either shot down by its Iron Dome air defense system or fell short of the Golan targets, claiming the Quds Force, an external arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, carried out the launch.  And Israel has already retaliated to some extent. In retaliation, Israel launched dozens of missiles on Iranian positions in Syria, which hit a radar station, air defense positions, and an ammunition dump, Syrian state media said.

This exchange of fire came less than a day after US President Donald Trump pulled out of the 2015 Iran atomic agreement, which lifts sanctions on Tehran in exchange for a halt on its nuclear program. Israel has been on heightened alert in recent days, anticipating an attack from Iran following the Iranian regime’s vows to retaliate to what it says are recent Israeli strikes in Syria targeting Iranian outposts.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani told a cheering crowd of thousands [last] Tuesday that if any country decides to betray the 2015 nuclear deal, there will be “severe consequences.”  Although Rouhani didn’t specifically name the United States, he did say that Tehran is “prepared for all possible situations.” –SHTFPlan

This was the heaviest artillery barrage by Israel against Iran since the beginning of the Syrian civil war in 2001. “We hit nearly all the Iranian infrastructure in Syria,” Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman told a security conference on Thursday morning. “They need to remember the saying that if it rains on us, it’ll storm on them. I hope we’ve finished this episode and everyone understood.”

 

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WW3 ALERT: Iran Threatens ‘Strikes Will Be Met With Force’ After US-led Syria Attacks

Iran has issued a chilling new warning to the United States an allied forces which allegedly coordinated an attack on Syria on Sunday. Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei has warned that attacks on Iranian military bases by the US or its allies will not be tolerated and will be met with “firm force.”

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of Iran, has launched a blistering verbal attack against the US in the wake of missile strikes on Syrian bases in Hama and Aleppo on Sunday night, according to The Daily Star.  In a bellicose speech on Monday, Khamenei accused the US of causing a “regional crisis” in the Middle East by creating “instability” that has “brought misery to people.”

The Syrian government says that rockets struck several military bases outside of Hama and Aleppo in new “aggression” by unidentified enemies. “Syria is being exposed to a new aggression with some military bases in rural Hama and Aleppo hit with enemy rockets,” an army source reported to state television, according to TelesurTV. The state news agency says the source of the blasts is being investigated by authorities.

Missiles struck a number of Syrian military facilities in strikes that a UK-based war monitor said killed at least 26 troops, many of whom were Iranians.  Iran will respond in kind to missile strikes on any of its bases in Syria or elsewhere, Khamenei was quoted as saying by Israeli state media.  “The era of ‘hit and run’ attacks has ended, and from now on attacks will be met with firm force,” Khamenei said just hours after the missile attack on Syria that has been blamed on Israel, the US, and Britain.

Allegations RAF jets were involved were denied by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) but the US military is yet to comment. According to Russian, Syrian, and Iranian media reports, Sunday’s strike on military bases in Hama and Aleppo appears to have been carried out by Israel, which has been accused of bombing Iranian military bases in the past, most recently on Syria’s T4 air base earlier this month.

“All these reports over [an] attack on an Iranian military base in Syria and the martyrdom of several Iranian military advisers in Syria are baseless,” an official told Iran’s Tasnim news agency.

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Israel May Strike Russian Systems In Syria After Threats Of ‘Catastrophic Consequences’

As we seem to be inching ever closer to World War 3, heated rhetoric and threats between nations are becoming everyday occurrences. Israel has threatened to strike Russian systems in Syria after it was threatened with “catastrophic consequences” if it does.

Russia will send advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles to Bashar al-Assad, officials said Monday, warning Israel not to attack the new air defense systems or suffer “catastrophic consequences.”  But Israel, in turn, threatened to strike those very systems anyway. Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Tuesday that Israel may strike the Russian-made S-300 anti-aircraft defense systems in Syria if they are used against Israel, according to Haaretz.

As of now, all of the threats appear to be nothing more than heated rhetoric as neither side has made a move to actually strike the other. “One thing should be clear – if someone fires on our planes, we will destroy them,” Lieberman said in an interview with the Israeli website Ynet. “What’s important to us is that the weapons defense systems that the Russians transfer to Syria are not used against us. If they are used against us, we will act against them.”

Lieberman’s comments come a day after senior Russian officials told the Kommersant newspaper that Russia is expected to provide Assad’s government with S-300 anti-aircraft defense systems very soon. If Israel attacks the new air defense systems, then it will suffer “catastrophic consequences,” the officials said. The S-300 PMU-2 “Favorite” version of the anti-aircraft systems will be provided to the Syrians for free and very soon, the Kommersant reported.

Lieberman also said that the S-300 are already being operated on Syrian soil, though they are only being used by the Russians and not being employed against Israel. Yet he still found it necessary to make the threats to strike. Lieberman added that Israel will not allow an Iranian foothold in Syria, saying that this is the principle guiding Israel. “If someone fires on us, we will respond. Let there be no doubt, it doesn’t matter what system – S-300, S-700 or something else.”

Russian air defense systems have, in fact, been deployed in Syria for years. Syria’s air defenses are Russian made, and Israel has struck them several times since the downing of its F-16 jet in February. The Wall Street Journal revealed that Israeli military targeted a Russian-made Tor advanced air-defense system after Iran deployed it to the T4 base in Syria earlier this month. In addition, Russia has deployed their own S-400 systems to protect its soldiers deployed in Latakia.

 

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Israeli police: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should face corruption charges

In a stunning turn of events that has thrown Israel into a state of chaos, Israeli police revealed Tuesday that they believe that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu should be charged in multiple corruption cases that involved alleged bribery of media outlets and others the powerful politician sought to control.

The police recommendation came in a statement that claimed that Netanyahu should be charged with bribery, fraud, and breach of trust after a yearlong graft investigation that concluded Tuesday with clear evidence of gifts-for-favors.

All together, Netanyahu is accused of accepting $300,000 in gifts over 10 years, including back-room dealings with an influential newspaper publisher that the prime minister sought to ensure more favorable coverage from.

The New York Times reports:

Concluding a yearlong graft investigation, the police recommended that Mr. Netanyahu face prosecution in two corruption cases: a gifts-for-favors affair known as Case 1000, and a second scandal, called Case 2000, in which Mr. Netanyahu is suspected of back-room dealings with Arnon Mozes, publisher of the popular newspaper Yediot Aharonot, to ensure more favorable coverage.

All told, the police accused Mr. Netanyahu of accepting nearly $300,000 in gifts over 10 years.

Mr. Netanyahu, addressing the nation live on television shortly before the police released their findings around 9 p.m., made clear that he would not step down. “I feel a deep obligation to continue to lead Israel in a way that will ensure our future,” he said, before embarking on a 12-minute defense of his conduct.

“You know I do everything with only one thing in mind — the good of the country,” he said. “Not for cigars from a friend, not for media coverage, not for anything. Only for the good of the state. Nothing has made me deviate, or will make me deviate, from this sacred mission.”

The police recommendations must now be examined by state prosecutors and the attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit. The final decision about whether to file formal charges lies with Mr. Mandelblit and is subject to a hearing beforehand with Mr. Netanyahu’s lawyers. Reaching that threshold alone could easily take months.

While the charges against Netanyahu seem clear cut, one can imagine that he, along with his numerous allies throughout Israel and the United States, will attempt to claim that they are nothing more than an attack on the Jewish people as a whole, a tactic that Mr. Netanyahu has perfected throughout the last decade.

What do you think? Is this a political hit job against the Israeli Prime Minister or is this actual evidence of widespread corruption carried out by both Netanyahu and his political allies?

Via Daily Sheeple

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Israel: The Arabs’ Not so Secret Friend

Apparently, it is the persistent ISIS threat that is driving Israel and Egypt closer in the great Sinai desert, leading the former to use its air force in support of the former against the extremist elements. We have seen in last one decade or so that the global ‘war on terror’ has brought forth many fresh alliances and broken a few of them as well. But Israel’s increasing engagement with the Arab countries isn’t simply a result of co-operation against terrorism—which doesn’t exist in the form and manner it has been thought and projected to be—it is rather rooted in their shared enmity of Iran. With the passage of time, and as Iran’s influence, presence and expansion becomes crystal clear, this alliance is coming out of the mysteries of secrecy. It is becoming public, and it is acquiring a strategic character too, which means that the leading ‘Sunni’ Arab countries are no longer aversive to Israel, are ready to compromise on the Palestinian issue to have Israel on their side of war against Iran and may even be willing to establish formal diplomatic relations by recognizing Israel as a nation-state. Interestingly enough, the Arab countries, currently romancing with Israel, have not faced any backlash at home against this relationship, which means that aversion to Iran is a lot more overwhelming and overpowering than aversion to Israel.

Although an overwhelming projection has been that both Israel and Egypt are following a covert counter-terrorism pact, there is always more to it than meets the eye when it comes to the Middle Eastern politics. Israeli officials have disclosed in the past that they have been secretly meeting with officials from the Persian Gulf countries in their bid to establish a grand alliance with them against a common enemy: Iran. Therefore, even if the immediate reason for joint Israel-Egypt operations is the threat of terrorism, there is no gainsaying that the actual objective of this alliance is Iran. These joint operations only serve as the platform where the countries involved can test each other’s reliability and expand their co-operation from. Besides it, by coding their cooperation in anti-terrorism terms, Israel’s Arab allies can easily pacify their public, who are then forced to think that the benefits of cooperation with Israel, an enemy, outweigh the dangers of fighting the ISIS alone, which is a much bigger enemy and has done horrible things in the region. Therefore, by playing on the fear of terror, the covert alliance with Israel is now being converted into an overt relationship, and with few strikes here and there in the Sinai, momentum for bigger strikes is being developed. And, with deliberately leaked news of this co-operation, the public mind-set is being prepared for the eventual transformation of the Arab people’s perception of Israel as an inherent enemy.

Military co-operation, therefore, notwithstanding, Egypt has also become the place where both Saudi and Israeli officials have started to meet very often. While the reports said that the purpose of the meeting was to discuss things of expanding economic interests, it has also been reported that the both Saudi Arabia and Egypt are preparing the ground, and impressing upon the Palestinian authorities, for an eventual acceptance of the ‘deal of the century’ and the US’ peace plan, which is yet to be officially revealed. In this context, regional newspapers are carrying reports, citing un-named officials, on how a number of Arab countries are impressing upon Mahmoud Abbas to accept the deal. What these stories reveal is that a pro-Israel lobby, with its presence in highest echelons of politics, does exist in the Middle East and that the mind-set for accepting the deal is being developed.

Saudi Arabia is spearheading the process. In January, Mahmoud Abbas was in Riyadh, where he met with the Crown Prince Mohammad Bin Salman, and was informed of the ‘utmost necessity’ of accepting the ‘deal of the century’, forcing him to return home in a state of shock. Before that, in December 2017, Saudi Arabia already had officially stated that they had their own plan to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel, a plan the central part of which is obviously making the Palestinians accept the ‘deal of the century.’

The plan, although not yet revealed, seems to be to first resolve the Palestine issue and then clear the roadmap for a greater alliance against Iran. But all this might not be just as smooth a going as it seemingly looks.

The Saudi-led group of Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAE and Jordan) is, therefore, also active on silencing the potential ‘spoilers of the deal’, such as Turkey, which has been the most forceful campaigner of the rights of the Palestinians. A policy disagreement does exit, evident from the UAE Foreign Minister’s recent statement, targeting Turkey for its ‘malicious’ campaigns in the region, asking it to ‘respect’ the sovereignty of the Arab states—something, the minster added, was essential for Ankara to return to a ‘normal state of stability.’

‘Silencing the spoilers’ is necessary because without first leaping forward on Israel-Palestine issue, the Arab countries might not be able to convince their public about the necessity of establishing formal relations with Israel. This was recently confirmed by an Israeli military official, Brig. Gen. Udi Dekel who said that “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not as important for them (the Arab states) as it was before, but they (the Arab states) are afraid of making official relations with Israel without any major movement on the Israeli-Palestinian issue.”

In this context, the not-so-secret talks between Israel and Saudi Arabia and military cooperation between Israel and Egypt have all cleared the emphatic pursuit of de-mystifying the Arab-Israel ties, indicating how differently they, the Arab states, see the Palestinian issue, and how they are now prioritizing their relations with Israel over Palestine against the changing regional dynamics wherein Turley, Iran and Qatar have found new grounds of cooperation, giving the Saudis reasons to become public with Israel.

Salman Rafi Sheikh, research-analyst of International Relations and Pakistan’s foreign and domestic affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

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