Iran Is Asking for a Continued Military Campaign
Iran’s recent actions necessitate that the United States and Israel continue their military campaign against the Islamic Republic. The Islamic Republic has started putting mines up in the Straits of Hormuz, and the United States responded by destroying at least 16 of those vessels. Iran has also struck three cargo vessels in the Straits. The Islamic Republic has also threatened to attack U.S. and Israeli “economic centers and banks” in the Middle East, and to deprive the U.S. and Israel of access to any oil.
Iran’s escalations don’t stop there. The regime has also targeted NATO member Turkey at least twice, with the first time being an attempted attack on the U.S./NATO Incirlik Air Base. Iran has also issued yet another threat against President Trump’s life. A recent report highlighted that Iran might still be able to reach and move highly enriched uranium from a site hit by the U.S. in Isfahan last June, so the U.S. and Israel are [logically] contemplating sending in limited special operations troops to secure all of Iran’s highly enriched uranium. Additionally, Hezbollah, though significantly degraded by previous Israeli strikes, is still able to fire over 200 rockets into Israel since the terror organization started re-attacking the Jewish state earlier this month. Meanwhile, the remaining leadership in Iran remains intransigent, with the head of parliament stating that the Islamic Republic is not seeking a ceasefire, and the foreign minister remarking that Iran would fight on for “as long as it takes.”
Furthermore, in recent days, the Islamic Republic has increased its bloodlust for global civilian deaths beyond the neighbors that it is mauling with missiles and drones, showing a brazen willingness to instigate a world war. The U.S. believes it has intercepted communications from Iran suggesting that the Islamic Republic aims to activate “sleeper” terrorist cells in the United States, possibly to avenge the death of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Azerbaijan stated that it foiled several recent IRGC attacks, with targets including “the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, the Israeli embassy in Azerbaijan, an Ashkenazi synagogue, and a leader [of] an ancient Jewish community in Azerbaijan called the Mountain Jews,” as reported by Reuters. The United Kingdom foiled an Iranian-backed spy ring that was surveilling British Jews. A Lebanese-born, alleged Hamas member was caught in Cyprus after being suspected of smuggling over 300 rounds of ammunition for “Hamas assassination attacks on Israeli or Jewish institutions in Germany and Europe.”
While too early to tell, Iran may have supported recent attacks on U.S. embassies in Oslo and Baghdad, the U.S. consulates in Lahore and Karachi, Pakistan, three synagogues in the Greater Toronto area, and a synagogue in Liege, Belgium. If the Islamic Republic were involved with these, history would merely be repeating itself, echoing when Iran’s Islamist students stormed the U.S. embassy in 1979, and Iran supported the Hezbollah attack on the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires in 1994. (RELATED: Did Iran Orchestrate The Hannukah Murder of Jews at Bondi Beach?)
And despite recent polls saying that only 40 percent of Americans approve of the war against Iran, an earlier poll showed only 27 percent support, suggesting that the war may be becoming more, not less, popular.
For its part, Israel continues to degrade Iran and its axis. In Iran, Israel has destroyed an estimated 75 percent of Iran’s ballistic missile launchers, in addition to the factories that make those missiles and their engines, and a facility in Isfahan that stored and produced Ghadr missiles. In Isfahan, the IDF also hit an IRGC and Basij base and the IRGC police headquarters. Israel destroyed 16 planes used by the IRGC in an attack on Tehran’s international airport. Israel also killed Abu al-Qassem Baba’iyan, the new Head of the Military Office of the Supreme Leader and the Chief of Staff of the Khatam al-Anbiya Central Headquarters.
In Lebanon, Israel continues to execute arch-terrorists. It killed six IGRC Quds Force senior commanders in Lebanon, including: the commander of the Lebanon Corps; the commander of the intelligence sector of the Lebanon Corps; one of his operatives; a financial liaison between Iran and Lebanon; a Hezbollah operative in the Palestine Corps; and the Head of Intelligence of the Palestine Corps. Israel also killed the head of Hezbollah’s Nasser Unit, Hezbollah’s head of artillery in southern Lebanon, and a Hamas operative who trained terrorists in Lebanon. It also struck a Hezbollah terrorist cell that had used Christian villagers as human shields.
Due to the success of the U.S. and Israeli strikes, Iran is firing 92 percent fewer ballistic missiles and 92 percent fewer drones than at the beginning of this latest conflict. The United States continues to target Iran’s military capabilities abroad as well, having recently designated the Sudanese Muslim Brotherhood, long supported by the IGRC, as a terrorist organization.
But in the face of all this, Iran doesn’t want to negotiate, nor is there a hint that it would ever negotiate in good faith. Case in point: The Islamic Republic pledged to cease attacking its neighbors, but then almost immediately attacked: the Dubai International Airport; Abu Dhabi’s oil refinery Ruwais, which had to shut down; oil refineries in Basra, Iraq; and the social security building in Kuwait City. Since its pledge, Iran’s attacks have caused the death of at least one woman in an apartment building in Bahrain and caused two deaths near Al-Kharj, Saudi Arabia, with its ballistic missiles. Almost half of the 300 ballistic missiles that Iran has fired into Israel have contained cluster munitions.
Iran’s continued belligerence toward its neighbors continues to bring several U.S. allies in the region, besides Israel, to shore up defenses against Iran. In addition to the Muslim states’ interceptions of Iranian drones and ballistic missiles, Turkey has deployed 6 F-16s and air defense systems to defend Northern Cyprus. Saudi Arabia is reportedly considering retaliating against Iran’s attacks on the Kingdom. Some media claimed that both Qatar and the UAE have already retaliated against Iran, though both Qatar and the UAE denied these claims. (RELATED: US and Israel Continue to Degrade the Islamic Republic)
The ongoing belligerence of Iran makes a continued U.S. and Israel military campaign necessary. Only with the fall of the Islamic Republic can the U.S., Iran’s neighbors, and the world truly know peace.
READ MORE from Steve Postal:
US and Israel Continue to Degrade the Islamic Republic
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