Victims’ Families Reject Trial In Iran For Downed Airliner

Netanyahu, who is working for a government with militant settler and Otzma Yehudit party leader Itamar Ben-Gvir as security minister, praised the Middle policies of former US President Donald Trump.

Israel’s US-sponsored 2020 ‘normalization’ agreement with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan had broken with an “old groove” and the “same rabbit holes” represented by the 2002 Saudi-drafted Arab Peace Initiative (API), Netanyahu said. The API, which remains Arab League and Saudi policy, made recognition of Israel dependent on a viable Palestinian state in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza.

Netanyahu, however, urged the United States to reaffirm its commitment to Saudi Arabia and pledged to pursue formal Israeli ties with Riyadh for a "quantum leap" in peace.

"The traditional (US) alliance with Saudi Arabia and other countries, has to be reaffirmed. There should not be periodic swings, or even wild swings in this relationship, because I think that the alliance...is the anchor of stability in our region," he said.

‘Atomic arsenal paved with gold’

Netanyahu called the JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action), signed by world powers in 2015, a “horrible agreement because it allowed Iran basically with international approval, to develop a nuclear and basically an atomic arsenal paved with gold, with hundreds of billions of dollars of sanction relief.”

Before Trump withdrew the US from the JCPOA in 2018, the International Atomic Energy Agency had extensive inspection powers that it used to verify Tehran’s compliance with strict nuclear limits. Iran has since 2019 responded to US ‘maximum pressure’ sanctions by boosting the nuclear program far beyond JCPOA limits.

However, the JCPOA had sunset clauses that over time would end many restrictions imposed on Iran’s nuclear program.

Netanyahu made clear his opposition to any agreement with Iran. “Who cares what they sign? It doesn’t mean anything. They sign and they violate, they cheat as fast as they sign. And you certainly shouldn't make agreements with them that are bad if they keep the agreement, which is what I think the JCPOA was.”

But the development of the Iranian nuclear program since 2019 has left Israel with little choice, the prime minister designate said, while a change of mood in Washington with the current unrest in Iran had made JCPOA renewal less likely.

Lebanon maritime agreement ‘tactical’

“A lot of people now across the board in many lands say: ‘You really cannot go back to the JCPOA and we have to do everything in our power to stop Iran from having a nuclear arsenal.’” Israel was prepared to take military action, with or without US support, to stop the Iran nuclear program, Netanyahu insisted.

He also ruled out agreement with Iranian “proxies,” calling “tactical” the October 27 US-brokered maritime agreement with Lebanon that designated sea areas to enable offshore gas exploration. Hezbollah, the Iran-allied Shia party, ruled in Lebanon, Netanyahu insisted: “Let’s be open about that. But without Iranian support, they’d collapse overnight.”

Netanyahu, whose Likud Party famously in 2019 raised a banner of him with President Vladimir Putin on its Tel Aviv headquarters, defended Israel’s relationship with Russia, emphasizing the need for intelligence cooperation with both states flying jets in Syria. He said he would “look into” Ukraine’s request for weapons from Israel once he took office.

While Israel attacks shipments of Iranian arms to Syria and Lebanon, new information indicates that Mahan Air, a sanctioned airline continues transferring weapons across the region. 

According to a report by Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth on Wednesday, the airline is pursuing its activities under cover of a travel agency with normal tickets. It presents itself as a privately-owned airline, established in 1991 by the son of then-Iranian President Akbar Rafsanjani and is headquartered at Tehran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport. 

The company was sanctioned by the US in 2008 for links to the Quds (Qods) Force of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, but that does not prevent it from flying to multiple countries around the world, including frequent and worrisome flights from Iran to Syria and Lebanon. It is barred entry by the United States, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Canada, Japan, Germany and France, but it continues to fly to countries outside of the Middle East, including China.

Data disclosed by the Alma Research and Education Center, an Israeli defense watchdog that specializes in threats from Lebanon and Syria, indicate that Mahan Air serves as the Islamic Republic’s main cover for transporting sizeable quantities of weapons to its proxies across the region. 

“Ostensibly, Mahan Air transports passengers and cargo, and is the largest Iranian private airline. It operates under an umbrella organization, the supposedly civilian Mullah El Muvaadin Charity,” Tal Beeri of the Alma Center told Jewish News Syndicate on Wednesday. 

“The charity is in fact an economic mask for the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), allowing it to operate legally and conduct its financial operations,” he said, adding that “Mahan Air operates as a civilian business, which is in actuality working as a full surrogate for Quds Force."

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The Alma report also includes a list of the 63 Mahan Air pilots allegedly involved in the smuggling of weapons. “These pilots are not officially affiliated with the IRGC. However, it is highly likely that some of these are IRGC pilots that were loaned to the company. Other pilots who may not be of the IRGC are simply turning a blind eye,” said Beeri. 

According to Beeri, the company works closely with Quds Force Unit 190 -- assigned to the mission of arming Iran’s proxies -- with fake passenger names to Syria and Lebanon. “As of now, so far this year, Mahan Air flew to Damascus International Airport at least 110 times, and 39 times to Beirut’s Rafiq Hariri Airport. It flew at least 12 times to Syria’s Aleppo Airport,” he said.

Mahan Air has direct connections to two Iranian travel agencies, the main being known as Hamrah and the second as Utab Gasat, Beeri said, adding, “Between 2018 and 2021, some 60,000 plane tickets were booked with Mahan, with many of these tickets going to Hamrah. A look at passenger names reveals that despite tens of thousands of tickets being booked, there are no more than nine names that appear and reappear on the passenger list. Out of 2,000 tickets, just 15 passenger phone numbers appear.”

The Alma report concludes that “From this, it can be understood that Hamrah is, in fact, an executive body of the IRGC whose task is to coordinate and organize the transportation of equipment, weapons and operatives.” 

Also on Wednesday, Israel’s military chief of staff strongly suggested that Israel was behind a strike on a truck convoy in Syria last month, a rare glimpse into Israel’s shadow war against Iran and its proxies across the region. Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said Israeli military and intelligence capabilities made it possible to strike specific targets that pose a threat. 

“We could have not known a few weeks ago about the Syrian convoy passing from Iraq to Syria. We could have not known what was in it, and we could have not known that out of 25 trucks, that was the truck. Truck No. 8 is the truck with the weapons,” he told a conference at a university north of Tel Aviv. 

Earlier in the month, Israel threatened to bomb Beirut’s airport if it is used by the Iranian regime to smuggle weapons. London-based Asharq Al-Awsat quoted on Saturday some political sources in Tel Aviv as saying that Israel will not be lenient with the transport of Iranian weapons through Beirut airport, warning to launch military strikes if the airport is used for Iranian ammo deliveries. Last week, Al-Arabiya reported that Iran’s Meraj Airlines had begun conducting direct flights from Iran to the Lebanese capital of Beirut.

According to the Jerusalem Post quoting a statement by the Israeli government Wednesday, the four countries held a series of meetings to discuss the issue at a conference in Bahrain on December 7.

The Times of Israel also said Wednesday that the meeting comes amid increased threats from Iranian hackers.

Based on the Jerusalem Post’s report, the statement said cyber chiefs from Oman and Kuwait also attended the same conference.

“There is life-saving value to the cyber defense dialogue, and in any case, the key is always to communicate, and to open different channels for joint research and reciprocal assistance,” reads the statement.

Meanwhile, Gaby Portnoy, the head of the Israel National Cyber Directorate told Kan public broadcaster, that “This is a historic meeting [in which] a statement by the parties [issued] regarding cooperation in the cyber field against common enemies.”

Earlier at a conference in Israel November 27 Portnoy noted that the cyber-style “Iron Dome” could employ using a mix of physical sensors with digital capabilities to “bring an awareness of the big picture to deal with our enemies and our attackers, using all of our assets and figuring out how to protect them.”

Earlier this month Human Rights Watch announced that hackers backed by the Iranian regime targeted activists, journalists, researchers, academics, diplomats, and politicians working on Middle East issues in a phishing cyber-attack.

Hacktivist group Backdoor (3ackd0or) provided Iran International with documents that proves Mohammad-Reza Ansari, was one of the commanders of the Quds Force unit 840 based in Syria who led the operation to assassinate former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and former national security advisor John Bolton, apparently in retaliation for the US targeted killing of top IRGC commander General Qasem Soleimani.

Soleimani was killed in Baghdad along with nine others in January 2020 by a drone strike ordered by President Donald Trump, a huge blow to the regime, which was heavily dependent on him to lead its proxies across the region. Many Islamic Republic officials and military commanders have vowed revenge for Soleimani, and every year around the time of his death anniversary, such threats are echoed by the regime.

According to the leaked documents, an IRGC envoy went to Washington January 16, 2022, to carry out the plan, but the IRGC was not unaware that an individual hired to kill Bolton in exchange for $300,000 was actually an FBI informant.

The planner of the botched plot, who had recruited agents in the United States, was Shahram Poursafi, who was charged by the Department of Justice in August with plotting to assassinate Bolton. Poursafi is a 46-year-old Quds Force officer operating under the pseudonym "Mehdi Rezaei".

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The Justice Department statement cited court documents suggesting Poursafi launched the plan to kill Bolton, either in Washington, the District of Columbia, or Maryland in October 2021 by asking an unnamed individual – whom he met online – to take photographs of Bolton, ostensibly for a book Poursafi was writing. The individual concerned introduced Poursafi to a second person whom he offered $250,000, later increased to $300,00, to eliminate the ex-presidential advisor.

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Poursafi, who is at large, had told the hired “killer” about the job that it did not matter how the murder was carried out but that he would need video confirmation of Bolton’s death. He had emphasized that it is better to assassinate Bolton before the second anniversary of Qassem Soleimani's death. Poursafi also promised the person to pay $1 million for his next target, who was supposed to be Pompeo. Poursafi is now apparently in Iran and participates in clubhouse chat rooms with his photo and under the name of "Mehdi Rezaei," defending the policies of the IRGC and the Islamic Republic. 

Poursafi, along with Mohammad Hossein Shahmoradi an intelligence commander in Tehran and Abolfazl Alizade, is a member of the team headed by Mohammad Reza Ansari, who is one of the commanders of Unit 840 of the Quds Force and is stationed in Syria. 

Unit 840 is a very secretive group within the Quds Force and there are usually no photos of its members available. The unit’s mission is to conduct operations against Western targets and Iranian opposition groups and individuals. There is no mention of Unit 840 in Iranian media. The existence of such a unit has only been reported by Israeli media which in November 2020 reported that Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) had accused Unit 840 of placing explosives at the Syrian border. Colonel Hassan Sayyad-Khodaei, who was shot dead behind the wheel of his car outside his home in Tehran on May 2022 was one of the previous commanders of the elite Qods Unit 840.

The emergency happened when Owji was attending a meeting to draft next year’s budget bill.

A source at Iran’s Oil Ministry said Owji has been under great pressure during this period to increase oil sales.

As the country is facing natural gas shortages amid the winter cold snap, Javad Owji has been at a dispatching center himself on Thursday to monitor the situation, the source has been quoted as saying.

Owji is currently under treatment at a hospital and according to the Oil Ministry-affiliated website SHANA, he is in a stable condition.

With cold weather gripping Iran in recent days and a surge in demand, shortages of natural gas have become acute.

ILNA news website reported Monday that Iran’s Oil Ministry has released the list of petrochemical units that must stop or reduce their gas consumption. In this letter, petrochemicals producers in Masjid-i Suleiman, Zagros, Shiraz, Bandar Imam, and several others must reduce their consumption.

Iran has the second largest reserves of natural gas in the world but is barely able to satisfy domestic demand as production steadily declines because of lack of investments in the oil and gas sector.