Iran Encouraging Houthis To Launch Attacks – US Envoy
The US special envoy for Yemen says the relationship between the Houthis and Iran has been mostly a “lethal” one, with the Iranians having encouraged the Houthis to launch attacks.
The US special envoy for Yemen says the relationship between the Houthis and Iran has been mostly a “lethal” one, with the Iranians having encouraged the Houthis to launch attacks.
Timothy Lenderking made the remarks in an interview with Arab News on Sunday in Riyadh, where he arrived as part of a diplomatic push to extend a UN-mediated truce in Yemen into a permanent arrangement.
He said the Islamic Republic has “supported the Houthis in developing their military capability, their UAV capability. And that’s been very negative,” criticizing Iran for fueling rather than tempering the conflict.
Describing the truce as an opportunity for the Houthis to show good faith and good will, he said, “From what we know after talking to Yemenis inside Yemen and around the world, there is no appetite for a return to war. There is no capacity for anybody to wish to see this happen.”
Washington’s point man for Yemen also expressed hope that Tehran’s actions would match its words -- welcoming the truce and backing an extended ceasefire -- by supporting the current positive situation as fuel ships and commercial flights are working again.
The Houthis receive military and political support from Iran in their conflict with other Yemenis, who have been backed by a Saudi-led coalition since 2014. Iran has been sharing its missile and drone technology with Yemen’s Houthis and has also supplied other proxy forces, such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Iraqi Shiite militias.
The most recent case of a destructive cyberattack attributed to Iranian intelligence operatives was an intrusion by hackers into Albanian government computer systems that began in 2021 and ended with a massive disruption in July, according to Microsoft’s security investigations. Information was stolen and public services disrupted by the Iranian hackers, because Albania is hosting an opposition group.
Last week, Albania cut diplomatic relations with Iran and expelled its diplomats and immediately its security forces entered the embassy compound looking for evidence.
The United States imposed sanctions on Iran’s intelligence ministry and its minister, with NATO also expressing support for its member state Albania.
According to information obtained from Backdoor cybersecurity firm the head of cyber warfare of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) is a person identified as 61-year-old Hamidreza Lashkarian (Lashgarian) living in Tehran and apparently a university lecturer with published articles. He has a background of involvement in various IRGC intelligence operations against commercial navigation and other clandestine activities.
Last year, a group called Sayyad Project had targeted the airport of Albania’s capital Tirana. An anti-Iran cyber group called Lab Dookhtegan or Read My Lips revealed the identity of the person directing the cyberattack as Mohammad-Bagher Shirinkar.
Iran International has obtained his photo from Backdoor and his alias is Mojtaba Tehrani, sanctioned by the United States for his tied with the IRGC.
His brother Mhammad-Hossein Shirinkar is also one of the main actors in the Sayyad group. He is reportedly the head of IRGC Intelligence Inspectorate, according to Lab Dookhtegan.
Another operator is Mehdi Hashemi Tughraljardi who is the brother-in-law of Shirinkar brothers. He is also sanctioned by the US and general director of a digital company in Tehran.
Microsoft’s investigation made clear conclusion about the cyberattacks on Albanian public digital infrastructure. “Microsoft assessed with high confidence that on July 15, 2022, actors sponsored by the Iranian government conducted a destructive cyberattack against the Albanian government, disrupting government websites and public services,” adding that Microsoft security intelligence assesses that a separate Iranian state-sponsored actor leaked sensitive information that had been exfiltrated months earlier through various websites and social media outlets.
“Microsoft assessed with moderate confidence that the actors involved in gaining initial access and exfiltrating data in the attack are linked to EUROPIUM, which has been publicly linked to Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS),” Microsoft said.
According to Microsoft, attackers were observed operating out of Iran and used tools and a wiper code previously used by other known Iranian attackers with a history of targeting other sectors and countries that are consistent with Iranian interests.
According to Iraqi authorities, the pilgrims and an Iraqi driver were killed on the road to the Shomali district in Babil Governorate in an accident involving a bus, a van and a truck.
An official of the Iranian Red Crescent, Taher Doroudi, said the accident happened near a gas station and the van hit the truck after a gas canister in it exploded. A video posted on social media shows smoke rising from the burning vehicles in the desert. And people wailing and running away from the scene of the explosion.
Thirty others were injured in the accident and explosion, authorities said. "It's not possible to identify the victims of the pilgrims' bus because of severe burns," Doroudi said.
The hot weather also left tens of thousands of pilgrims dehydrated and in need of medical care. Iran’s Red Crescent Society said Friday that at least nine people had died and about 10,000 people were referred to healthcare stations with signs of heatstroke.
Millions of Iraqi Shias as well as pilgrims from countries including Iran, Azerbaijan, Pakistan, Lebanon, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia have already arrived or are on the way to the holy Shiite city of Karbala, located about 100 kilometers (62 miles) southwest of Baghdad Arbaeen ceremonies which will be held on September 17 this year.
It was estimated that between one and 1.5 million people crossed Iranian land and air borders into Iraq seven days before Arbaeen last year. “The figure stands at more than two million people this year,” Iran's State-run English-language Press TV channel said Sunday.
So far this year, the Tehran-supported pilgrimage to Karbala has been associated with confusion and chaos, lack of planning and proper facilities.
On Friday, Iraq and Iran closed land borders citing “worrying and serious dangerous incidents at two border crossings” as the reason but the influx of pilgrims from Iran was resumed later.
A commander of Iran-backed Shiite militia Hashd al-Shaabi, also known as Popular Mobilization Forces, claimed Saturday that the group thwarted a "terrorist plan to target the pilgrims in the city of Karbala." He did not provide any details about the attack or attackers.
In a statement published on his personal Twitter account Sunday, the leader of Iraq’s Sadrist movement, Muqtada Al-Sadr, urged Iraqis to show the highest degree of cooperation with security forces, especially in Karbala, and stressed that neither the pro-Iran Hashd al-Shaabi (People's Mobilization Forces (PMF)) nor Saraya al Salam (Peace Companies), a paramilitary group loyal to Sadr himself, should be entrusted with any security work on the ground or at checkpoints during Arbaeen ceremonies this year.
Sadr also forbade Iraqis from attacking or insulting foreign pilgrims, “Iranian brothers in particular”, “by hand, tongue, leaflets, or in any other way”.
Clashes between Pro-Sadr paramilitary and pro-Iranian Hash al-Shaabi in late August left at least 30 dead.
Social media reports say Iraqis are not as welcoming to Iranian pilgrims as in previous years, but Press TV said Saturday that Iraqis were “extending hearty and sincere welcome” to hundreds of thousands of Iranian pilgrims and that Iraqi people and state official were working to resolve the difficulties arising from lack of adequate transportation facilities to move and unprecedented high number of Iranian pilgrims from Iran’s western borders to Karbala.
“Iraqis have driven towards the border crossings with their own cars to solve the problem,” Press TV wrote.
Lapid has argued that his tactful approach to France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Biden administration has been more productive than the assertive stance of his rival Benjamin Netanyahu, as the two men lead their respective political blocs towards Israel’s November 1 parliamentary election.
“Yesterday the E3 countries announced that a nuclear agreement with Iran will not be signed in the near future, that the IAEA’s open files regarding Iran are not about to be closed,” Lapid said Sunday. “Israel is conducting a successful diplomatic campaign to stop the nuclear agreement and prevent the lifting of sanctions on Iran.”
However, what pushed the Europeans to say that there are “no active negotiations” was Iran’s latest response to a European Union draft agreement submitted to Tehran and Washington on August 8. Iran’s response was called “non-constructive” by the Biden administration and seen by the E3 as a sign of lack of willingness to make a deal by Tehran.
If Iran’s response was different after 17 months of talks, the Biden administration had already agreed to the EU draft and the optimism prevailing in August would have been justified.
Iran insists that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) drop an enquiry into uranium traces found in sites linked to Tehran’s nuclear work before 2003. It also demands various sorts of guarantees from the US.
Time for ‘new agreement’
A “senior Israeli official” told journalists Sunday that the time had come to look for a “new agreement,” leading some Israeli media to proclaim the JCPOA dead. Unless the IAEA, Iran and the US together with the E3 change their minds, “there won't be any choice” but to abandon the 2015 deal, the Israeli official reportedly said.
Lapid said the aim of his trip to Germany was to coordinate “positions on the nuclear issue” and that he would be “finalizing the details of the strategic, economic, and security cooperation document we are going to sign.”
Lapid also stressed Israel was “working to prevent Iran from establishing terrorist bases throughout the Middle East and especially in Syria.” Israel regards Lebanon’s Hezbollah, a close Iranian ally, as well as most Palestinian groups as ‘terrorist.’ Lapid said there was a “growing terror threat in the West Bank,” according to the Jerusalem Post.
Consulting partners
The E3, apparently short of declaring the JCPOA talks dead as Lapid suggested, said it would “consult, alongside international partners” on how best to proceed, both over the continued expansion in Iran’s nuclear program and its failure to satisfy the IAEA over the uranium traces.
In Iran, some argue Europe’s attitude towards the talks may change as winter brings energy shortages due to sanctions on Russian energy exports and European leaders eye Iran’s 90 million barrels of oil in storage, which would be released with US sanctions eased should the JCPOA be restored.
Ali Akbar Salehi, who was head of the Atomic Energy Agency of Iran (AEOI) when the JCPOA was signed in 2015, defended the agreement this week against critics by arguing it had not fundamentally stymied Iran’s technological progress. Hence, Salehi argued, the AEOI had been quickly able to expand the program once parliament, in the wake of the November 2020 had passed legislation requiring a higher level of uranium enrichment and employing more advanced centrifuges.