Let me begin this news update by encouraging you to watch my Breaking News from Tuesday, 6/20. The information it contains is extremely important covering the falling of the Israeli government, the rapid potential approach of a third world war, and Iran’s upgrading of their centrifuges. I will touch on the information here, but it was covered much more in-depth in the update.
Israel’s government has collapsed. Prime Minister Bennett is out next week, and foreign minister Yair Lapid will step in on an interim basis until elections can be held, likely on October 25. The Israeli people are fed up with the increase in violence and the decrease in strength. The Prime Minister and his crew were focused much more on social issues than protecting the nation’s citizens at home and abroad. Now the government of change will be changed, and it can’t come soon enough. There is a very strong possibility that Benjamin Netanyahu could see another term. Again, please watch my Breaking News update for much more information.
Threats against Israel came from many sides recently. Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah warned Israel that if they begin gas drilling in the Karish field, they will consider it “a provocation and hostile act” and will respond accordingly. On Friday, a rocket launched from Gaza was intercepted by the Iron Dome system. Israeli jets attacked Hamas targets in Gaza in response. The threats against Israeli citizens by Iranian terror cells continue in Turkey, and now the concern has expanded to Egypt, Jordan, UAE, and Bahrain. So far, the attacks have been thwarted.
[On Thursday,] information came out that a 10 person Iranian assassination squad was arrested on June 16 & 17 in Turkey. Some of them were members of Iranian intelligence, others belonged to the Quds Force of the IRGC, and all were posing as students and tourists. The plan was to kidnap the former Israeli ambassador to Turkey while killing Israeli diplomats and tourists. The squad had already obtained the necessary weapons. The man identified as promoting this attack is Hossein Taeb, head of the IRGC intelligence arm. Moments after Turkey announced the arrests, Taeb, who has been in his position since 2009, was removed from his station to be replaced by IRGC commander Muhammad Kadhami.
We are closer to World War III than we have ever been. This past week, Lithuania declared that it will uphold EU sanctions against Moscow and not allow rail transfer of certain goods across its territory to Kaliningrad, Russia’s only warm water port. This amounts to 50% of the goods transferred to this exclave that is separated from its home country by two other nations. Russia is already reeling because of the EU’s recent agreement with Egypt and Israel for natural gas. The question is how will President Putin respond? Lithuania is a NATO nation, so if Russia responds with force the NATO alliance will be drawn into the conflict. The eyes of the world are watching to see who will blink first. Once again, I have more analysis of this crisis in my Breaking News.
Tensions continue to rise between Russia and the US in Syria. Earlier this week, Russian forces attacked targets near al-Tanf, an Iraq-Syria border crossing that houses a US military base. Russia was targeting a Kurdish group that is backed by the US.
Alliances are growing all over. Yesterday, in Tehran, Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov met with Iran’s president Ibrahim Raisi. In that meeting, the two men agreed on “a new era of strategic and economic cooperation.” Meanwhile, Turkish president Erdogan welcomed Saudi crown prince Muhammad Bin Salman (MBS) to Ankara. This meeting is particularly interesting. MBS has begun his transition from outcast following the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi to prominent world leader. The fact that he is now being sought out by not just Turkey but the US, both countries which accused him of personally ordering the killing of the journalist, demonstrates once again that politics is not about ideology but about interests. Yesterday they cared about human rights. Today they care about oil prices.
As I have been warning for many months, Iran is now increasing the enrichment of uranium to 90%. New generation IR-6 centrifuges have been installed at the underground Fordo nuclear facility, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The only reason to enrich uranium to 90% is for weapons. There are also reports that a large new network of tunnels is being constructed at Natanz, likely also for centrifuges.
A mysterious explosion on Friday in western Tehran has now been identified as a UAV attack on a strategic IRGC military base. Parts of the UAVs were smuggled into the country, then reassembled and launched from 10 kilometers away. The facility that was struck was a very important location that focused on research for the design and manufacture of ballistic and short-range missiles. Besides the damage to the facility, one engineer was killed, and another was wounded. Also on Friday, there was an attack on Iran’s Imam Ali base in Deir a-Zor district in Syria.
There was quite a bit of action in Iraq this past week. A 12-year-old child and several others were killed in a Turkish strike on the Yazidis in the northern region of Sinjar. Four ISIS militants, including Abu Mansour, the group’s leader in Anbar province, were killed by an Iraqi airstrike on Sunday. Then just yesterday in Kirkuk, a Katyusha rocket was fired toward the headquarters of the Emirati owned Dana Gas company. The notoriously unreliable Russian-made rocket caused no injuries or structural damage.
A Monday ISIS attack on a bus in Syria’s Raqqa province has left 11 government soldiers and two civilians dead. Three other soldiers were wounded in the violence that authorities say was carried out on a highway by a terrorist sleeper cell.
A 6.3 earthquake struck yesterday near the southern Iran city of Mohr, Fars province. Hours later, a 6.1 quake shook eastern Afghanistan near the Pakistani border.
At least 1000 were killed in the temblor and more than 1500 were injured. Many of those affected were in remote areas where rescue is very difficult.
