Bi-Partisan Group Of US Lawmakers Ask EU To Designate Iran’s Guards

In a statement, the military announced a rocket hit the Mission Support Site Conoco, the US oil company in eastern Syria, and another rocket was found at the attack point of origin, but they did not cause any casualties or damage.

No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack. However, The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights that monitors human rights in Syria suggested Iranian-backed militias may have been behind the attack.

The US forces targeted the positions of groups related to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Syria with retaliatory airstrikes in late March.

The operation was a response to a suspected Iran-linked drone attack that killed a US contractor and wounded six other Americans in northeastern Syria.

Estimates show that currently, at least 900 US forces are present in Syria.

In late March, top US defense chiefs faced criticism from the Senate Armed Forces Committee claiming the response to Iranian attacks on US forces is weak and lacks deterrence.

Of 83 attacks in Iraq and Syria since President Joe Biden took office, just four retaliations have taken place.

The weak US approach to Iran has been a thorn in Biden’s side as the Democrats try to keep channels open with Tehran in the hope of reviving the nuclear deal, the JCPOA.

The US Navy Saturday announced the deployment of a guided-missile submarine capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk missiles to the Middle East, in what appeared to be a show of force toward Iran following recent tensions in Syria and rocket attacks on Israel.

Nasser Kanaani tweeted Sunday that “periodic news about sending submarines, rotating warships or dispatching bombers to West Asia when new regional developments help shape a new order, and eliminate the need for extra-regional military forces, is part of the American government’s struggle to cover up the trend of its declining global power.”

Kanaani was referring to Iran’s restoration of diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia and an apparent deal to search for peace in Yemen when he mentioned “new regional developments” and a “new order”.

Iranian regime officials and its ideological gurus have been making the most of the agreement being a US strategic defeat because Riyadh agreed to the deal with China’s tutelage, excluding Washington.

But the Saudis appear to be carefully implementing their diplomatic and security goals in restoring relations with Tehran, as it relates to pacifying Yemen. At the same time when Riyadh sent a team to Iran over the weekend to assess the technical aspects of reopening its diplomatic missions, a Saudi and Omani delegation traveled to Yemen to negotiate peace with the Houthis. After the Saudi-Iranian deal, the Yemeni rebel movement has completely changed its tone, praising regional reconciliation and speaking of an “honorable peace.”

But Iranian hardliners are praising Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s “wisdom” in predicting a decline of the American world order, citing the Chinese-sponsored agreement with Saudi Arabia.

The ultra-hardliner Kayhan newspaper in Tehran financed by Khamenei wrote Monday that “Iran has a special and undeniable role in the new world order” citing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who according to Kayhan told the US Congress in 2011 to be wary of Iran’s power.

Kayhan of course somewhat misquoted Netanyahu who in fact, was not talking about a new world order but warning about Iran’s nuclear program. The Israeli PM told Congress: "When I last stood here, I spoke of the consequences of Iran developing nuclear weapons. Now time is running out. The hinge of history may soon turn, for the greatest danger of all could soon be upon us.”

Kayhan retorted that since Netanyahu’s speech “Iran’s enemies headed by the United States have repeatedly tried to prevent the formation of a new world order,” and engineered several attempts to topple the Islamic Republic.

Kayhan insisted that the “resistance front” is winning in West Asia, referring to Iran’s proxies in the region. It even went as far as claiming that the war in Ukraine is a defeat for the West.

The hardliner newspaper also pointed out French President Emmanuel Macron for urging Europe to be independent of the United States on the Taiwan issue, after his recent trip to China.

All these signs, Kayhan argued show the ascendance of a new world order despite the will of the United States, United Kingdom, France Germany and “the Zionist regime”, failing to acknowledge the fact that Iran has single-handedly been the region’s most destabilizing influence in recent history, drawing multiple nations and continents into potential conflict.

Known as the Meraj 532, it will be used by the IRGC ground force with a one-way range of 450km.

Spokesperson Ali Kouhestani said the easy-setup drone can fly up to a height of 12,000 feet for 3 hours after taking off from a vehicle, adding that with its 50 kg warhead, it has high accuracy.

He boasted that domestic production of drones is progressing at a good speed, and in the near future, other combat, training and suicide drones will be unveiled.

There is no independent confirmation of the suicide drone’s production.

Iran’s provision of drones to Russia in its war against Ukraine - a claim it denies - has led to a host of new sanctions on the republic from countries including the US and Australia, and the European Union.

Drones have also become a key weapon for Iran’s proxies in the region, not least, the Houthis in Yemen, which have used drone attacks not only on domestic targets but further afield against Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.

Though Iranian officials are known to make claims about military capabilities that cannot be independently verified, the US based Analysts at the Defense Intelligence Agency outlined how Iran had turned from being a regional drone player in the Middle East to becoming Moscow’s most significant military backer in the war.

Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian told his counterpart Jeyhun Bayramov of the “necessity of Islamic solidarity between Iran and Azerbaijan against Israel”, Iran’s nemesis.

The two had frank discussions about what the state news agency, IRNA, termed the “existing misunderstandings” as both sides urged de-escalation.

It has been a tense few months between the two states. Iran angrily reacted to Azerbaijan’s opening an embassy in Tel Aviv in March, in addition to relations souring following an armed attack on Azerbaijan’s embassy in Tehran in January.

Just last week, Azerbaijan expelled four Iranian diplomats over “provocative actions” which have yet to become clear, with Iran promising to do the same in return. Six Azerbaijanis were arrested hours earlier accused of a Shi’ite coup plot, believed to have been led by Tehran.

This weekend, the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Azerbaijan, Aykhan Hajizada, rebutted the pressure from Tehran, asserting that Islamic solidarity does not mean interfering in the internal affairs of other countries nor supporting the occupation of Muslim countries' lands.

In a bid to drive a wedge between Azerbaijan and Israel, the spokesman of Iran's Foreign Ministry, Nasser Kanaani, called on Azerbaijan to show Islamic solidarity against Israel and the recent events in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Refusing to take the bait, Hajizada highlighted what it sees as Iranian hypocrisy: "The claim of Islamic solidarity by Iran comes as it did not protest against the occupation of the lands of the Republic of Azerbaijan by Armenia for 30 years."

Last Thursday saw the worst rocket attacks launched on Israel from Lebanon’s south in the most intense flare-up since 2006, at the same time as rocket attacks were being launched from Hamas-controlled Gaza in Israel’s south.

On Saturday night, that front extended to Syria, where rockets were fired into the Golan Heights. In both cases, Israel has strategically but moderately responded, attacking the likes of rocket launchers, radar and artillery positions in the wake of the attacks.

The turbulence continued after the announcement that the US Navy has deployed a guided-missile submarine capable of carrying up to 154 Tomahawk missiles to the Middle East in a show of force toward Iran following recent tensions. Just last month the US launched airstrikes against Iran-backed forces in Syria after a rocket attack killed a US contractor and wounded seven other Americans in that country’s northeast.

The latest deployment is believed to follow the uncovering of a plot by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Force which was preparing a drone attack against Israeli-owned civilian merchant vessels sailing in the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea, according to a report in The New York Times.

In a rare acknowledgment of the location and deployment of submarines, Commander Timothy Hawkins, a spokesman for the 5th Fleet based in Bahrain, said it can carry up to 154 Tomahawk land-attack cruise missiles and is deployed to US 5th Fleet “to help ensure regional maritime security and stability”.

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]The 5th Fleet patrols the crucial Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of all oil transits. Its region includes the Bab el-Mandeb Strait off Yemen and the Red Sea stretching up to the Suez Canal, the Egyptian waterway linking the Mideast to the Mediterranean Sea.

The US, UK and Israel have accused Iran of targeting oil tankers and commercial ships in recent years, allegations denied by Tehran. The US Navy has also reported a series of tense encounters at sea with Iranian forces that it said were being recklessly aggressive.

And now, many are waiting to see what Israel’s bigger response will be to the attacks from Lebanon, which at minimum, have the tacit approval of Hezbollah which controls the area, but no doubt, has the blessing of Tehran.

So far, Israel has cautiously attributed blame to Palestinian factions in Lebanon, compounded by the fact Hamas’ political chief, Ismail Haniyeh, had met with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on the eve of the rocket barrage.

The Israel Defense Forces’ spokesman alluded to the fact that investigations into Iranian involvement were underway in a press briefing Thursday but this weekend, Israel’s Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant spoke with his US counterpart, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and for the first time, claimed the attacks from both Gaza and Lebanon, were done "with the backing of Iran”.

While Hamas continues its campaign of chaos, the prospects for calm look slim. Carefully orchestrated riots inside the world’s third holiest Muslim site, Al Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, provoke often violent responses from Israel Police, appointed to safeguard freedom of worship.

Images of masked rioters in physical confrontations with police inside the mosque continue to stir the hatred and fuel Iran’s strategy for weakening Israel’s image in the public eye.

The Iranian regime’s media is boasting of its proxies destabilizing Israel and intimidating “the Zionists”.

On Sunday, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, speaker of Islamic Republic’s parliament, spoke in the public session of the legislative body and called Israeli retaliation “barbaric attacks”.

He left little to the imagination about the regime’s future plans. The multi-faceted war against Israel continues unabated. He warned: “The Zionist regime is in its weakest state in history and knows that a harsh and crushing punishment awaits them.”