Israeli Airstrikes Hit Near Syria's Capital Damascus

"We are united in our resolve against threats and provocations, and we will work with partners and allies around the world and in the region to deter and to respond to any attacks that may be carried out by Iran," State Department Spokesman Ned Price said at his briefing Wednesday.

The comment was made in response to a question on an IRGC commander's remarks Tuesday who said Wednesday that the killing of all American leaders would not be enough to avenge the US assassination of Qods Force commander, Ghasem Soleimani in January 2020.

Brigadier General Mohammad Pakpour, commander of IRGC's Ground Forces, made the remark after a visit to Soleimani's grave in Kerman. "Therefore, we must avenge him by other methods," Pakpour said.

"Also, there were shattering responses to the moves of the Zionist regime and the US in the region," he added, reminding that the IRGC had fired missiles at US bases in Iraq a few days after the assassination.

Price argued that most of the Biden administration's sanctions on Iran were imposed on the IRGC. "We are committed to seeing to it, using every appropriate tool, that we respond to, that we deter, the malicious activity that the IRGC engages in."

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State Department's Deputy Spokesperson Jalina Porter also said at the briefing that out of the 107 designations made by the Biden administration in relation to Iran, 86 specifically targeted the IRGC-related persons as well as affiliates. She also told reporters that Biden shares the view of General Milley that "the IRGC's Qods Forces are terrorists" but declined to comment on any of the topics in the nuclear talks.

President Joe Biden’s administration, while committed to restoring the JCPOA, has been hesitating in delisting the Guards, that are not just a military organization but also an internal security force and a business conglomerate.

Mohammad Marandi, the Iranian negotiation team's media adviser, told Fars news agency Thursday that it was pressure from Biden's opponents at home and Israel's supporters that caused "Americans' change of behavior" and the slowing of the progress of the talks.

"Eventually this had led to the Biden administration's loss of courage to achieve a deal … The halt in the talks is more detrimental to the US than to Iran," he added.

Republicans in the US have strongly opposed the administration's consideration of removing Foreign Terrorist Organization designation from Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) whereas Tehran insists that without that there will not be a deal.

"The removal would betray our allies in the region including Israel," said conservative Republican Senator Bill Hagerty in a tweet Wednesday. In a letter to Biden Monday, Hagerty and several other Republican senators called such a step "wildly misguided" and said the IRGC is "actively trying to kill US politicians and public servants on UA soil."

Talks that began between the new administration of President Ebrahim Raisi on November 29 were halted over a month ago after negotiators reached a deadlock over Iran's demand for delisting of the IRGC.

At a meeting with heads of the three branches of government and some other current and former senior officials on Tuesday, Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei who closely supervises the talks described the progress of the talks as "good", but this was later changed into "the country's diplomacy is moving in a good direction" on all his social media accounts and website as well as most media outlets.

Esmail Ghaani (Qaani) also issued a threat that Iran will harshly confront Israel "wherever it feels necessary", local media reported.

"Wherever we identify a Zionist threat, we will harshly confront them, they are too small to confront us," he said.

He was speaking at a memorial service for the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) general, Mohammad Hejazi who passed away last April, in what was said to be injuries he sustained in a chemical attack during the Iran-Iraq war. However, reports after his death mentioned Covid-19 as a possible cause.

Ghaani praised recent terror attacks against Israeli civilians that has killed 14 people. “The youth of the resistance [front] with their operation have disrupted the whole system of the Zionist regime. One Palestinian youth shakes the foundations of the Zionists, who make noise that they want to fight Islamic Iran,” the commander of IRGC’s extraterritorial force said.

Ghaani assumed the command of the Qods Force after Qasem Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020. Former US president Donald Trump had approved the targeted killing, for which Tehran has vowed revenge against former US officials.

Vice Admiral Brad Cooper, who oversees the Navy’s 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, said on Wednesday that the task force would ensure a force presence and deterrent posture in the “strategically important” Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait and Gulf of Aden.

The force will be commissioned Sunday to target arms smuggling as well as trafficking of people and drugs, Cooper told reporters.

The announcement comes as Washington is seeking to reassure Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates by providing additional military support following a series of missile and drone attacks on the Persian Gulf nations in recent months. Vessels in waters around Yemen are crucial for global trade, including oil supplies, and vessels have in the past been targeted by the Houthis and other forces.

According to Cooper, the new task force will impact the Yemeni Shia rebels’ ability to obtain the weaponry needed for such attacks.

Iran has long been accused of smuggling weapons to the Houthis, a charge Tehran denies.

The new naval task force will consist of up to eight vessels and will be part of the 34-nation Combined Maritime Forces, which has three other task forces in nearby waters targeting smuggling and piracy.

Its launch comes amid a two-month truce in the nearly seven-year Yemen war that has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more.

With reporting by Reuters

The two Arab countries announced in March that they will develop the Durra natural gas field, which is adjacent to Iran’s offshore Arash field at the tip of the Persian Gulf. At the time, the Kuwaiti government said that Durra is "entirely a Kuwaiti and Saudi field" and that the issue to be settled with Iran is just the demarcation of the area offshore a neutral zone shared by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia lying adjacent to Iran's maritime zone.

Iran denounced the Kuwaiti announcement on March 26, saying a joint Saudi-Kuwaiti project would be illegal without Iran’s participation.

Foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh said, "The Arash/Al-Durra gas field is a joint field between Iran, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Parts of it are located in areas between Iran and Kuwait whose water boundaries have not been defined. The Islamic Republic of Iran also reserves the right to exploit the gas field".

The two Persian Gulf Arab monarchies reaffirmed their right to develop the Durra natural gas field, located in this area, the Saudi Press Agency added, citing a Saudi foreign ministry statement.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait expect to produce one billion standard cubic feet per day of gas and 84,000 barrels per day of condensates.

The Washington-based magazine reported on Monday that Iran has helped Hezbollah become “the most sophisticated and influential Middle Eastern terrorist organization in cyberspace after the collapse of the Islamic State caliphate”.

The report, titled “How Iran Built Hezbollah Into a Top Cyber Power”, said the country sees the militants as a “key part” of its cyber program.

The first reason why Iran is “increasingly utilizing Hezbollah as a cyber proxy” is because “it grants Tehran a degree of deniability”, it said

“By training and enhancing the cyber forces of its Lebanese ally, foreign powers may not retaliate against Iranian targets after a Hezbollah-initiated cyber attack”, the article reads.

According to some reports, the Hezbollah cyber unit is likely based in Beirut's southern neighborhood of Dahieh and has computer equipment that is similar to Tehran's Sharif University.

The unit is said to work under the direction of the elite Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC), and is primarily tasked with gathering intelligence on Lebanese state institutions as well as conducting cyberattacks on strategic targets in the Persian Gulf states such as gas and oil companies.

According Western cyber security experts, a Hezbollah-affiliated cyber unit, known as Lebanese Cedar APT, launched attacks in January 2021 that lasted for more than a year on telecommunications companies and internet providers in the United States and many other countries.

In 2010, the Obama administration described Hezbollah as "the most technically-capable terrorist group in the world."