We Have A Duty To Destroy Israel - Iranian Cleric

On Friday, the people of Zahedan silently marched in protest amid internet shutdowns in a highly securitised environment in response to a request by Abdolhamid.

Zahedan, which is the capital of Sistan-Baluchistan province, has been the epicenter of ongoing anti-government protests since the death of Mahsa Amini, a young Kurdish woman who was killed in police custody for improper hijab in September 2022.

In his weekly remarks during Friday prayers, Abdolhamid also spoke about the ongoing Hamas-Israel war and called it a “difficult situation.”

“The United States and Europe should not allow Israel a free hand,” Abdolhamid said referring to the bombings in Gaza. The cleric also said last week that the war had reached a “dangerous place” and called for the release of hostages brutally taken by Hamas.

Abdolhamid, renowned for his outspoken views, has expressed his criticism of Hamas' declaration of war against Israel on October 7.

"We will not blindly support a Muslim who goes too far and ignores international law and attacks women and kills children," he said, going against the regime's rhetoric that Hamas must continue to crush Israel until it no longer exists.

His remarks stand in contrast to the stance of the Iranian regime, which has consistently advocated for the "destruction" of Israel, effectively rejecting the notion of a two-state solution.

Iranian authorities exploit every opportunity to underscore the imperative of Israel's "destruction," a slogan that has been accompanied by substantial financial support for militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

The understanding, first reported by the Washington Post, was reached at a meeting in Doha this month between US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and the emir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, Reuters quoted a US official as saying.

There was no immediate response from Qatari officials to the news on Friday.

The tiny Gulf state, in coordination with the US, is leading mediation talks with Hamas and Israeli officials over the release of more than 200 hostages captured in the Palestinian group's October 7 cross-border terror attack.

On Wednesday, Qatar's prime minister said negotiations to secure the release of hostages held by Hamas were progressing and he was hopeful there would soon be a breakthrough.

Qatar's role and the Hamas presence in Qatar have faced criticism in Congress. A bipartisan group of 113 US lawmakers on Oct. 16 sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking him to put pressure on countries who support Hamas, including Qatar.

They asked that Qatar, a major non-NATO US ally, to expel Hamas leadership. "The country’s links to Hamas... are simply unacceptable," the letter said.

Hamas opened its political office in Doha in 2012 and several Hamas officials including the group's leader Ismail Haniyeh and former head Khaled Meshaal regularly spend time in Doha.

At an October 13 joint press conference with Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman al-Thani, Blinken said there could be "no more business as usual" with Hamas, when asked if the US wanted Doha to shut Hamas' political office.

Reporting by Reuters

The measures target additional assets in a Hamas investment portfolio and people facilitating sanctions evasion by Hamas-affiliated companies, the US Treasury Department said in a statement.

A Gaza-based entity that Treasury said has served as a conduit for illicit Iranian funds to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) group was also targeted, the department said. Iran backs Hamas and other militant groups in the Middle East.

"We will not hesitate to take action to further degrade Hamas’s ability to commit horrific terrorist attacks by relentlessly targeting its financial activities and streams of funding," Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo wrote, adding the sanctions aimed "to deny Hamas the ability to exploit the international financial system."

Adeyemo said some firms in the digital asset space were not doing enough to stop the flow of illicit finance.

Israel has bombed Hamas targets in the densely populated Gaza Strip following the October 7 terror attack that killed 1,400 people. Hamas took more than 200 hostages, some of them infants, in the assault.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that 7,028 Palestinians had been killed in Israel's retaliatory air strikes. The figure cannot be independently verified.

Friday's action freezes any US assets of the targeted groups and generally bars Americans from dealing with them. Those that engage in certain transactions with them also risk being hit with sanctions.

The Treasury said it imposed sanctions on a Jordanian national who lives in the Iranian capital, Tehran, and who it said serves as the representative of Hamas in Iran, as well as Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Qods Force (IRGC-QF) officials who train and assist members of Hamas and other militant groups.

An Iran-based commander of the Saberin Special Forces Brigade of the IRGC Ground Force was also targeted. The US Treasury said the Saberin Brigade has deployed to Syria and has provided training to Hamas and members of the Lebanon-based Hezbollah.

Hundreds of Iranian or Iran-linked individuals and companies are already under US sanctions for their illicit activities in the country’s nuclear, missile and terror-related activities.

Sudan and Spain-based companies were also targeted under Friday's measures, as were Turkey-based shareholders of a company previously designated as part of the Hamas investment portfolio.

The United States has said that the Hamas portfolio of investments, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, includes companies operating in Turkey, as well as Sudan, Algeria, the United Arab Emirates and elsewhere.

This month's violence has led to fears of a broader conflict in the Middle East.

The US military on Thursday carried out strikes against two facilities in eastern Syria used by Iran's Revolutionary Guards and groups it backs following a spate of attacks against U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria.

However, Iranian and Iraqi media reported on Friday that two US bases came under attack in Syria and Iraq following the US retaliatory strike.

With reporting by Reuters

Tasnim news agency affiliated with the IRGC reported at midday local time that “six missiles were launched from the vicinity of Bu Kamal and al-Mayadeen” at the US base near the al-Omar oil fields. The website said in its headline that “American forces were caught by surprise.”

Later Tasnim also reported that the Ain al-Asad airbase in Iraq hosting US troops was hit by drones. Tasnim and Iraqi news websites reported that Islamic Jihad, a front of Iraqi Shiite forces loyal to Tehran, had issued a statement accepting responsibility.

There has been no confirmation by Iraq or the United States about the reported attacks.

If true, these fresh attacks would constitute a quick response by Iranian forces to a limited US retaliatory attack launched hours earlier at two reportedly unmanned weapons depots of the Revolutionary Guard near Bu Kamal.

The Islamic Resistance in Iraq claimed that its drones had achieved a “direct hit at the Ain- al-Assad airbase.

Tasnim said in its report about the attacks, “These attacks have taken place in response to the continuous crimes of the Israeli occupiers against the Palestinian people and the support of the United States for this regime.”

Iran’s armed proxy forces in Syria and Iraq have launched nearly 20 drone and rocket attacks against US bases in the two countries since the October 7 Hamas terror raid into Israel.

President Joe Biden and other US officials had been warning this week of retaliation if Iranian-affiliated forces continued targeting American forces. However, multiple and consecutive attacks remained unanswered until Thursday night.

Earlier, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin had announced that US forces, at the direction of President Joe Biden, had launched strikes "targeting two facilities in eastern Syria used by the Revolutionary Guards and its affiliated forces."

Austin said the strikes were "a response to a series of ongoing attacks against U.S. personnel in Iraq and Syria by Iranian-backed forces that began on Oct. 17."

Iran had not attacked US bases in the region for nearly a year before the October 7th Hamas invasion. Tehran was holding secret talks with Washington to free billions of dollars of its frozen funds. The Biden administration agreed to release at least $8.7 billion blocked in South Korea and Iraq since June in exchange for five American hostages held by Iran and reportedly an agreement to deescalate tensions. However, the Hamas attack on Israel have led to the possibility of a serious conflict in the region.

Iran fully backs Hamas and has threatened the United States that if the attack on Gaza does not stop, it can engulf US interests.

Iran’s foreign minister told the United Nations on Thursday that US forces in the Middle East will not be spared if the Israeli offensive against Hamas continues.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian reiterated the regime’s warning during an emergency meeting of the UN General Assembly on the Israel-Hamas conflict in New York. "I say frankly to the American statesmen, who are now managing the genocide in Palestine, that we do not welcome the expansion of the war in the region. But if the genocide in Gaza continues, they will not be spared from this fire.”

Hengaw Organization for Human Rights said on Thursday that 39-year-old Ali Akbar Zaz has been accused of ‘Sab Al-Nabi’ or insulting the prophet and ‘Moharebeh’ or enmity against God. These are vaguely defined charges which carry a death sentence.

Zaz was arrested in June 2023 by security forces at his home in Tehran for criticizing the Islamic Republic on social media, according to Hengaw.

The human rights group also reported that Zaz has told his family on a telephone call that during his detention he has been subjected to torture and forced confessions.

The Islamic Republic has been ramping up execution practices since the anti-regime protests began last year after the death of Mahsa Amini. Arrested for not wearing her hijab properly, Amini was found to have been dealt severe blows to the head. 

Iran executed protestors for taking part in the nationwide uprising which human rights groups called “horrifying” and “chilling”.

“These executions are designed by the Iranian authorities to send a strong message to the world and the people of Iran that they will stop at nothing to crush and punish dissent.”

“In the absence of a robust international response, the authorities will continue to revel, unabated, in their impunity with lethal consequences for people in Iran,” said Amnesty International regarding the wave of executions in Iran.

Zaz remains in prison with no sentencing reductions made to his case, Hengaw said.