Israeli Intelligence Minister Lobbies UK To Designate IRGC

Director Wray made the remarks during a presentation addressing prominent foreign and domestic threats to the United States at the International Spy Museum in Washington DC, on Thursday.

As reported by AP, Director Wray referenced a significant Iranian plot that unfolded in 2021, involving a foiled attempt to assassinate former National Security Adviser John Bolton. The motive behind this plot was purportedly retaliation for the US drone strike that had targeted Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani.

Additionally, Wray highlighted a cyber-attack on Boston's Children's Hospital orchestrated by Tehran in 2022 and Iran's covert influence campaign during the 2020 US presidential election.

He emphasized, "That's all on top of constantly trying to evade international sanctions and being the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism. So if that's not enough to convince people that this is a serious threat, I don't know what is."

On the domestic front, Wray underscored the FBI's elevation of racially-motivated violent extremism to a national threat priority in 2019, aligning it with the threat level posed by ISIS. More recently, the FBI has intensified its focus on anti-government and anti-authority violent extremism, spanning from militia groups to anarchist violent extremists.

The US House of Representatives is also expected to put the final stamp on the bipartisan Mahsa Amini Human Rights and Security Accountability (MAHSA) Act after it was submitted in June, seeking more sanctions on Iran’s leadership.

Named after Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini, whose death in morality police custody in September 2022 led to the boldest revolt against the clerical regime since its establishment in 1979, the Act won unanimous approval at the US House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee in April, before Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Alex Padilla (D-CA) introduced the bipartisan legislation to the Senate in June.

Essentially similar and a companion to the one passed in the House committee, the MAHSA Act will potentially commit the administration to report to Congress within 90 days of the date of the enactment and periodically thereafter, making determinations about whether certain existing sanctions apply to specific people and impose the applicable sanctions.

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The bipartisan bicameral move requires the executive branch to impose applicable sanctions on Ali Khamenei, his office and his appointees, as well as President Ebrahim Raisi and his cabinet officials, foundations and other entities affiliated with the Supreme Leader under section 105(c) of the Comprehensive Iran Sanctions, Accountability, and Divestment Act of 2010, section 7031 (c) of the Department of State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act, 2021, and Executive Orders 13876, 13553, 13224, and 13818.

“The Supreme Leader is an institution of the Islamic Republic of Iran … that holds ultimate authority over Iran’s judiciary and security apparatus, including the Ministry of Intelligence and Security, law enforcement forces under the Interior Ministry, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), and the Basij, a nationwide volunteer paramilitary group, subordinate to the IRGC, all of which have engaged in human rights abuses in Iran,” reads a paragraph of the MAHSA Act.

It follows moves earlier this year when Democratic and Republican leaders on the House Foreign Affairs Committee introduced a bill to target Iran’s production and exports of missiles and drones, with an eye toward the soon-to-expire United Nations restrictions on Iran’s missile program.

The Fight and Combat Rampant Iranian Missile Exports (Fight CRIME) Act levies additional sanctions on Iran and asks the administration to outline a strategy to prevent the UN restrictions from expiring.

Demands for harsher actions against the regime continue to blight the administration which has been dogged by allegations of its being too soft as it tightropes between negotiating to revive the JCPOA nuclear deal while Iran continues to forge ahead with acts against the US in the likes of Syria and Iraq. Since the Biden administration came to power, over 80 attacks have been made on US facilities and personnel overseas by Iran, with just five retaliatory attacks from the US.

On top of this, is the controversy surrounding suspended US envoy to Iran, Robert Malley, who is under investigation for alleged leaking of confidential information to Iran.

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Just this week, FBI Director Christopher Wray highlighted what the FBI sees as some of the leading foreign and domestic threats to the United States in an hour long program at Washington, D.C.'s International Spy Museum.

Among those mentioned was the Iranian plot to assassinate former National Security Adviser John Bolton in 2021 in retaliation for the US drone strike that killed Iranian commander Qasem Soleimani. Bolton is one of a list of targets from the Trump administration with threats to their life from the regime. Wray also brought up a cyber attack by Tehran on Boston's Children's Hospital last year and its covert influence campaign on the 2020 US presidential election.

"That's all on top of constantly trying to evade international sanctions and being the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism," Wray said, "So if that's not enough to convince people that this is a serious threat, I don't know what is."

Former US representative to Iran, Elliott Abrams, this week called on a total travel ban for Iranian citizens going to Iran for the high risk of kidnapping, following the $6 billion deal exchanging five US citizens for freeing up frozen funds in South Korea. It is an issue which has created huge divisions in Washington and allegations that the Biden administration has opened the door for yet further hostage diplomacy.

Next Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability is holding a hearing on Iran titled "A Dangerous Strategy: Examining the Biden Administration’s Failures on Iran”.

Gabriel Noronha, former US representative to Iran said it was a much needed step. “Next week's hearing on Iran is only the second during the Biden Administration and the first in 15 months. This despite Iran's nuclear program advancing, ~10 Americans living under assassination threat, failed negotiations, and the US envoy for Iran under security investigation.”

He said while Congress' attention is justly focused on China as the paramount threat to the United States, on Russia given its war against Ukraine, and on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, “it has taken its eye off the ball when it comes to Iran”, which he claims is now the US’ “number two threat”.

Jason Brodsky, Policy Director from United Against A Nuclear Iran welcomed the initiatives saying, "we're making progress. After the House had not held even one Iran-focused hearing since 2020, there are now two in one week next week".

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An Iranian transport aircraft recently departed from the closed Simferopol airport in Crimea, raising questions about the nature of Iranian involvement in the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The aircraft, the IL-76TD owned by Pouya Air, took off from Simferopol at 17:09 local time, having arrived in Crimea just two hours prior. Simferopol airport has been closed for civilian air travel since the commencement of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The development was reported by Flightradar24, a prominent air travel tracking service. 

Pouya Airlines has dismissed reports about the flight in the Crimean Peninsula to assist Russian forces as "pure fabrication." The airline stated that the aircraft had been parked at Mehrabad Airport for the past 48 hours.

Ukrainian military sources have previously alleged that Russian forces stationed in Crimea have been utilizing the Chauda training ground to launch Iranian-made Shahed-136/131 drones into Ukrainian territory. However, there is no confirmed information regarding the presence of Iranian personnel assisting Russian military operations during these drone launches.

It is noteworthy that Russia began employing Iranian-produced Shahed drones for attacks deep within Ukrainian territory the previous year. These so-called kamikaze unmanned drones possess the capability to operate without the need for a conventional runway, detonating upon impact.

Iran has publicly acknowledged sending drones to Russia but has maintained that these deliveries occurred prior to Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Moscow, on the other hand, has consistently denied employing Iranian drones in Ukrainian conflicts. Nonetheless, Ukraine has repeatedly reported the consistent bombardment from Iranian drones in Russian hands.

In an exclusive interview with Iran International, Nouripour voiced concerns about the alleged activities of the center and the broader network of Islamic centers established by the Islamic Republic within Germany.

Nouripour, during his conversation with an Iran International reporter in Berlin, highlighted the existence of what he termed a "spy network" created by the Islamic Republic through these Islamic centers. He said that regime officials used the network to engage in espionage activities targeting both the German populace and Iranians seeking protection within Germany.

The German domestic security apparatus has repeatedly issued warnings that the Islamic Center in Hamburg is promoting the ideology of the Shiite Islamic Republic. Furthermore, the deputy head of this center faced expulsion from Germany in November 2022 on charges related to connections with Hezbollah members, designated as a terrorist group in Germany.

Nouripour explained, "We have long been advocating for the closure of Islamic centers affiliated with the Islamic Republic in Germany and have exerted significant pressure in pursuit of this goal."

In July 2021, the Hamburg State Office for the Protection of the Constitution obtained new documents suggesting that the Islamic Center in Hamburg not only maintains ties to the Iranian government but has also evolved into one of the most important institutions of the Iranian regime in Europe.

Daniel Abed Khalife was in Wandsworth Prison when he escaped by clinging onto the bottom of a food delivery van. The 21-year-old is accused of trying to leak information to Iran and leaving fake bombs at a military base before his arrest in January.

Charged under the Official Secrets Act, he is accused of collecting personal information about soldiers from the Ministry of Defence joint personnel administration system while serving as a soldier.

Justice minister Alex Chalk told MPs that “strapping” had been found underneath the delivery vehicle and said an internal inquiry must report to him by the end of the week with a list of prison staff who were on duty at the time, notably those at the kitchens and security gates.

“No stone must be left unturned in getting to the bottom of what happened,” he told MPs.

Questions now remain as to how Khalife - labeled a flight risk and in turn, denied bail while awaiting trial - was allowed to work in the kitchen, giving him access to the delivery vehicle, a “privileged job” given usually only to the most trusted inmates, according to former Prison Governor, John Podmore.

Podmore told Times Radio: “Someone like him would not be allowed access to work the kitchen”, suspecting it was a premeditated escape with little chance of his being found. Further questions are being asked as to why, given the nature of the charges against Khalife, he was not in a maximum security category A or B prison such as Belmarsh.