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U.S. officials have confirmed to CBS News that plans have been approved for a series of strikes over a number of days against targets — including Iranian personnel and facilities — inside Iraq and Syria. The strikes will come in response to drone and rocket attacks targeting U.S. forces in the region, including the drone attack on Sunday that killed three U.S. service members at the Tower 22 base inside Jordan, near the Syrian border. Speaking at the Pentagon Thursday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told reporters that the U.S. won't tolerate attacks on American troops. "This is a dangerous moment in the Middle East," Austin said, noting that Israel's ongoing war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip and attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen on commercial shipping in the Red Sea were also happening in the region. "We will continue to work to avoid a wider conflict in the region, but we will take all necessary actions to defend the United States, our interests and our people, and we will respond when we choose, where we choose and how we choose."
Exclusive: US Believes Drone That Killed Soldiers Was Iranian-Made, Sources Say | Reuters
The United States has assessed that Iran manufactured the drone that slammed into a U.S. base in Jordan over the weekend, killing three American soldiers and wounding more than 40, four U.S. officials told Reuters. Washington has blamed the attack - the first to kill U.S. troops in the Middle East since the start of the Israel-Hamas war in October - on Iran-backed militants, and President Joe Biden's administration has promised a multi-tiered response that will include strikes. But it has stopped short of publicly saying where the actual weapon that killed the Americans came from, even as it acknowledged Iran's ultimate responsibility for funding and even in some cases training the militants responsible. The officials, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, did not provide the model of the drone and said analysis was still ongoing.
Austin Says Iran Trains And Funds Militias Targeting U.S. Troops | Washington Post
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III stopped short on Thursday of blaming Iran for attacks that killed three U.S. service members on Sunday in Jordan but said that Tehran trained and funded the militia groups that have targeted American troops and commercial shipping in the Middle East. Mr. Austin, in a rare show of bravado, continued the Biden administration’s promises of retribution. Asked why the administration was forecasting a dayslong campaign of retaliation, Mr. Austin said the Iran-backed militias “have a lot of capability.” He paused and added, “I have a lot more.” President Biden has promised that the United States will respond to Sunday’s attacks at a remote base used by American troops in Jordan.
UANI IN THE NEWS
IRAN crossed America's "red line" by killing its troops and Washington "must strike NOW" to prevent World War 3, a former US ambassador warned. Mark Wallace told The Sun that Iranian terror chiefs should be preparing to be wiped out as the only "correct action" is a large-scale blitz of their military bases inside Iran. Wallace, former US ambassador to the UN, said: "President Biden established his red line with Iran, which was that if any US soldiers were killed, he would act decisively - that line has been crossed." He stated that it's taken over 160 Iran-backed attacks on US assets for this moment to arrive but he hopes Biden "will honour the red line". He said: "This is key to preventing World War 3. "Without deterrence - war will break out with Iran.
US Senators Urge Biden To Enforce Iran Oil Sanctions Amid Attacks | Iran International
... Iran now exports oil more than any time in the past five years, according to Japan’s influential daily Nikkei, with as much as 90% of the total exports going to China. This is confirmed also by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), which tracks Iranian oil exports.
The United Kingdom just banned Hizb-ut Tahrir (HT), an extremist Islamist group with affiliates in at least 32 countries, including the United States, that calls for re-establishing the Islamic Caliphate and implementing Sharia (Islamic law). Given its outsized role in radicalizing several convicted terrorists, including notorious ISIS executioner “Jihadi John,” HT Britain has a far more notorious reputation than its still-active Transatlantic cousin, HT America. Still, every branch is steeped in the same deeply radical, antisemitic and anti-Western rhetoric for which HT America finds a platform every year at its annual “Caliphate Conference” in Chicago.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Iran Slows Production Of Enriched Uranium, The U.N.’s Nuclear Watchdog Says | New York Times
In another indication that Iran may be seeking to de-escalate its confrontation with the United States, United Nations nuclear inspectors are seeing some signs that Tehran is lifting its foot, if just a bit, on the acceleration of its nuclear program. Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in an interview that Iran was still adding to its supply of uranium enriched to 60 percent purity — which can rapidly be further enriched to the level needed to produce nuclear weapons. But the surge in production that began just after the Israeli military action in Gaza in response to Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror attack appears to have abated, he said. “There is a bit of a slowing down,” Mr. Grossi said, adding, “They are still adding to the stockpile but more slowly.”
Iran Begins Building 4 More Nuclear Power Plants Amid IAEA Warnings | Al-Monitor
... In an interview with Al-Monitor in January, the director general of the UN’s nuclear watchdog, Rafael Grossi, warned that Iran was already capable of enriching weapons-grade uranium. Western officials have long suspected Tehran of looking to produce nuclear weapons, though Iran denies this. Meanwhile, on Thursday, Iran’s Ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani accused representatives of the E3 countries — France, Germany and the UK — of purposefully spreading misleading and false information regarding Iran’s commitments to the 2015 nuclear deal and its nuclear program, which the envoy described as for “peaceful purposes,” IRNA reported.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
A coalition of rights activists and writers have penned an open letter to Nada Al-Nashif, the UN deputy high commissioner for human rights, urging her to reconsider her planned visit to Iran saying the government will not allow her to see the "truth" about the situation in the country. Al-Nashif is scheduled to visit Iran from February 2 to February 5 and focus on women's rights and the death penalty, two issues that have sparked civil unrest for months, leading to a brutal crackdown by authorities. "We firmly believe that OHCHR has a responsibility not to let its legitimate engagement activities be instrumentalized to undermine other mechanisms that are critical to the promotion and protection of human rights in Iran. To avoid this, we urge you to reconsider the timing of this visit," the letter says. In November 2022, the Geneva-based UNHRC formed a fact-finding committee to investigate human rights violations amid a violent crackdown on anti-government protests that erupted over the death of Mahsa Amini.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Attack Against US Forces In Jordan Caught Iran Off Guard | Iran International
Citing multiple US intelligence sources, CNN reported that the Iranian leadership was “surprised” by the recent deadly attack against US forces in Jordan. According to the report, Iran is now concerned about actions carried out by its proxies in the region. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, responsible for the attack Sunday which killed three US troops and left 47 wounded, has since said they are halting actions as Tehran grows ever more nervous about rising tensions. CNN further added that Tehran is particularly anxious about Yemeni Houthis’ attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sea as they potentially endanger the economic interests of Iran’s allies China and India. “There is no sense that Tehran’s growing wariness is likely to change its broader strategy of supporting proxy attacks on US and Western targets - although it could signal adjustments around the margins,” CNN quoted US officials as warning.
Iraq's Pro-Iran Al-Nujaba Movement Vows To Keep Up Attacks On US Troops | AFP
Iraq's pro-Iran Al-Nujaba movement said Friday it intends to press on with attacks on US troops in the Middle East, despite Washington's threat to hit back after three of its soldiers were killed in Jordan. "Any (US) strike will result in an appropriate response," Al-Nujaba leader Akram al-Kaabi said in a statement, adding the group would continue its actions until its demands are met for US troops to leave Iraq and an end to Israel's war on Hamas in Gaza. The Al-Nujaba movement forms part of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an alliance of Iran-backed armed groups that the United States has blamed for last weekend's deadly drone attack just over the border into neighbouring Jordan. Another of the alliance's factions, Kataeb Hezbollah (the Hezbollah Brigades), announced earlier this week that it was suspending its attacks on US forces in Iraq and Syria, a decision that Al-Nujaba said it understood and respected.
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iran's reaction to the looming threat of American retaliation against what the Biden administration calls Iranian proxy groups has been a consistent denial of any responsibility for the attacks on American forces — and a warning that any strike on Iranian territory or personnel would escalate tension in the tumultuous region, not make U.S. forces safer. Iranian officials insist the country does not have proxies, and that the loosely affiliated collection of armed groups it supports across the Mideast, which it calls the "axis of resistance," act independently. The head of Iran's mission at the United Nations, Ambassador Amirsaead Irvani, has said there have been no direct messages exchanged between Iran and the U.S. over the Jordan attack. He's warned that Iran would respond "strongly" to any strike by the U.S. on Iran or Iranians inside or outside of the country.
CONGRESS & IRAN
GOP Lawmaker Says Biden Waiting Too Long On Iran Response | The Hill
Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) said President Biden is taking too long when it comes to responding to Iran over its connections to groups it is supporting and their aggressions toward the U.S. “It’s been too long for a while. If you look at the attacks that have taken place since October 7, on U.S. interests, U.S. military, 160 times, what are we waiting for?” Wenstrup said on “The Hill on NewsNation” Thursday. “When you know that it is Iran that is behind these militias, behind Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthis, they’re funding them, they’re providing the training, they’re providing dollars and the weapons as well,” Wenstrup continued. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin warned militias with Iranian support who have attacked U.S. forces of a coming response. He said it was “time to take away even more capability than we’ve taken in the past” from groups that have attacked the U.S. “We’ve not described what our response is going to be, but we look to hold the people that are responsible for this accountable,” Austin said. “And we also look to make sure that we continue to take away capability from them as we go.”
United States Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN), a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, joined Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), along with 16 other Senate colleagues, in sending a letter to President Joe Biden calling on him to enforce current law and act against Iran’s illicit oil trade through sanctions. The Senators also encouraged support for proposed legislation pending in the U.S. Senate. Since the start of Hamas’s brutal assault against Israel on October 7, 2024, there have been more than 140 attacks against U.S. troops. “Our bipartisan Stop Harboring Iranian Petroleum Act, or SHIP Act, the End Iranian Terrorism Act, and other legislative proposals would deny Iran the financial resources it employs to attack U.S. forces and U.S. allies throughout the Middle East,” the Senators wrote. “We urge you to use all available authorities to proactively implement these sanctions while Congress considers enacting legislation.”
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Exclusive: Iran's Guards Pull Officers From Syria After Israeli Strikes | Reuters
Iran's Revolutionary Guards have scaled back deployment of their senior officers in Syria due to a spate of deadly Israeli strikes and will rely more on allied Shi'ite militia to preserve their sway there, five sources familiar with the matter said. The Guards have suffered one of their most bruising spells in Syria since arriving a decade ago to aid President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian war. Since December, Israeli strikes have killed more than half a dozen of their members, among them one of the Guards' top intelligence generals. As hardliners in Tehran demand retaliation, Iran's decision to pull out senior officers is driven partly by its aversion to being sucked directly into a conflict bubbling across the Middle East, three of the sources told Reuters.
IRGC Member Killed In Alleged Israeli Airstrikes Near Damascus | Jerusalem Post
A member of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was killed in alleged Israeli airstrikes targeted a site south of Damascus early on Friday morning, according to Iranian reports. The Iranian Entekhab news site identified the killed IRGC member as Saeed Alidadi. The strikes targeted the Aqraba, south of Damascus, according to Nour Abo Hassan, a journalist in southern Syria. The Syrian state news agency SANA reported that the airstrikes were carried out from over the Golan Heights and that the airstrikes only caused material damage without any casualties.
CHINA & IRAN
In case it wasn’t already clear, the challenges of working with Iran became apparent again in Beijing. Tensions in the Middle East have been steadily escalating, and Tehran and its proxies are at the center of much of it. After a year of headlines about China’s growing clout in the Middle East, recent events have provided a useful reality check; despite China’s interests in the region being threatened, Beijing has apparently been able to exert little influence over Iran. China has long tried to maintain a tricky balancing act in the Middle East, working with every country while trying to avoid alienating any of them. This friend-to-all logic makes sense for an extra-regional actor without aspirations of playing a significant political or security role. It allowed Beijing to build up its regional interests, enhance its economic presence, offer mediation that few took seriously, and release five-point plans that few read. The expectation has long been that China’s considerable interests in the region would result in a larger political role, and Chinese leaders have been saying as much for at least a decade.