TOP STORIES
U.S. Strikes Iranian-Backed Targets For Third Day In A Row | New York Times
The United States launched scores of strikes across the Middle East over the weekend as Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken set out for the region to push forward negotiations to secure the release of Israelis still held hostage in Gaza and get more humanitarian aid into the battered enclave. The latest strike came Sunday in Yemen, where the U.S. military said it had destroyed an anti-ship cruise missile that belonged to Houthi militants and posed “an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region.” It was the third American military action against Iranian-backed militias in as many days: The United States led strikes on Saturday against 36 Houthi targets in northern Yemen, and on Friday carried out airstrikes on more than 85 targets in Syria and Iraq. American officials insist that the strikes have been carefully calibrated to avoid setting off an open confrontation with Iran and say that they have degraded the ability of the militias to attack U.S. forces.
US Intends Further Strikes On Iran-Backed Groups, National Security Adviser Says | Reuters
The United States intends to launch further strikes at Iran-backed groups in the Middle East, the White House national security adviser said on Sunday, after hitting Tehran-aligned factions in Iraq, Syria and Yemen over the last two days. The United States and Britain unleashed attacks against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen, a day after the U.S. military hit Tehran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for a deadly attack on U.S. troops in Jordan. "We intend to take additional strikes, and additional action, to continue to send a clear message that the United States will respond when our forces are attacked, when our people are killed," White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC’s "Meet the Press" program on Sunday. The strikes are the latest blows in a conflict that has spread into the Middle East since Oct. 7, when the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas stormed Israel from the Gaza Strip, igniting war.
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Refuses To Rule Out Strikes Inside Iran | NBC News
National security adviser Jake Sullivan on Sunday did not rule out strikes inside Iran after the U.S. launched airstrikes Friday targeting Iranian proxies in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the killing of three American soldiers. During an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Sullivan was asked by moderator Kristen Welker about whether the U.S. has ruled out strikes inside Iran. “Well, sitting here today on a national news program, I’m not going to get into what we’ve ruled in and ruled out from the point of view of military action,” he said. “What I will say is that the president is determined to respond forcefully to attacks on our people. The president also is not looking for a wider war in the Middle East.” But is it off the table? Are strikes inside Iran off the table?” Welker pressed. “Again, Kristen, sitting here on television, it would not be wise for me to talk about what we’re ruling in and ruling out,” he replied. When Welker asked one more time, “So you’re not ruling it out?” Sullivan said, “I’ll just say the same thing one more time.” “I’m not going to get into what’s on the table and off the table when it comes to the American response,” he continued.
UANI IN THE NEWS
World War 3 Fears Explode As Iran Could Trigger Nuclear War ‘In The Blink Of An Eye’ | Daily Express
Iran is "hellbent on developing a nuclear weapon" and the Western world needs to wake up to this reality, an expert has warned. Mark Wallace, a former US ambassador to the United Nations, believes Tehran doesn't feel threatened by the West, accused of lacking the deterrence needed to prevent the regime from sparking World War 3. Mr Wallace, who is the CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), told The Sun: "UANI was founded on a first principle - that the number one state sponsor of terrorism, the most egregious and destabilising actor on the world stage could never get a nuclear weapon. Because the consequence of that would be too great. "Iran is hellbent on developing a nuclear weapon and it sees that it's not being checked in any way."
… They appeared to be “different in terms of power, number of targets, and use of not only airstrikes but also cyberoperations. There could also be covert action elements that we don’t know about,” said Jason Brodsky, the policy director of the Washington-based group United Against Nuclear Iran. But, he added in a post on X, “nothing that’s public suggests to me anything of significant strategic value that was hit. While the quantity of targets may have increased, the quality has more or less stayed the same.” Experts say the advance warning may partly have been to give Iran and its proxies a bloody nose without triggering an escalatory response, especially in Iraq, where the U.S. has important bases and is trying to maintain ties to a Shiite-led government that is also close to Iran.
Blaine Holt To Newsmax: Biden Must Address Americans On Airstrikes | Newsmax
Norman Roule, the senior adviser to United Against Nuclear Iran, also on Sunday's program, added that it is too early to say if the U.S. attacks have had an impact, if the goal is to degrade the capacity of Iranian proxies in the region. As far as deterring further proxy attacks, the U.S. strikes may have come too late to hit the leadership who have been involved in attempted attacks on U.S. and allies' targets, said Roule. His comments come after national security adviser Jake Sullivan Sunday did not rule out a longer campaign. "I did not hear the word deterrence," said Roule. "I heard the word degradation and I think that's the bottom line. Have we done something to stop further attacks on our troops and the international trade through Yemen? I don't think we can say yes yet."
… In a sobering assessment, Wallace, a former US ambassador to the UN and CEO of United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), said the world needs to wake up to fact that Iran has its claws dangerously near a nuclear weapon. “UANI was founded on a first principle - that the number one state sponsor of terrorism, the most egregious and destabilising actor on the world stage could never get a nuclear weapon. “Because the consequence of that would be too great. "Iran is hellbent on developing a nuclear weapon and it sees that it's not being checked in any way." He added: "It could happen in merely a blink of an eye".
Accused Shadow Fleet Aframax Sold For Recycling For The Second Time | Tradewinds
… The vessel, which at the time of its sale was managed by Global Tech Marine Services of Dubai, was reported back then to have been sold on an as-is basis in Singapore for $500 per ldt, or $8.2m That deal failed, according to recycling sector sources who believe the cash buyer got cold feet as the vessel, originally built as Sovcomflot’s Moscow University, had been accused by pressure group United Against Nuclear Iran as being a regular transporter of sanctioned Russian crude oil. Since then the ship has been languishing at anchor in the South China Sea just outside Malaysian territorial waters.
How The ‘AK-47 Of Tehran’ Changed Warfare And Set Fire To The Middle East | The Telegraph
“... In killing US soldiers, the regime in Iran has greatly overreached itself. It must now be put back into place,” wrote Kasra Aarabi, director of IRGC research at United Against Nuclear Iran, in a recent op-ed for the Telegraph. “This must now be remedied. Weakness emboldens the Iranian regime; strength cows it.”
Euronav Tanker Unwittingly Caught Up In $1bn Iran Oil Smuggling Probe | Tradewinds
... Euronav said last year it was investigating the STS operation after campaign group United Against Nuclear Iran raised the alarm after its 441,600-dwt Oceania (built 2003) was spotted alongside the Vietnamese-flagged Abyss inthe Malacca Strait. The Belgian tanker owner said that it had believed the Abyss was carrying Iraqi crude.
Great Britain: Danger From Propaganda | ZDF
UANI Director Of IRGC Research Kasra Aarabi Interview on ZDF.
Final Word | Iran International
UANI Director Of IRGC Research Kasra Aarabi Interview on Pouria Zeraati’s “Final Word.”
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
U.S. Hits Back At Iran With More Than Just Airstrikes | New York Times
In the hours before the United States carried out strikes against Iran-backed militants on Friday, Washington hit Tehran with more familiar weapons: sanctions and criminal charges. The Biden administration imposed sanctions on officers and officials of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, Iran’s premier military force, for threatening the integrity of water utilities and for helping manufacture Iranian drones. And it unsealed charges against nine people for selling oil to finance the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah.The timing seemed designed to pressure the Revolutionary Guards and its most elite unit, the Quds Force, at a moment of extraordinary tension in the Middle East. Although the sanctions have been brewing for some time and the charges were filed earlier under seal, the region has been in turmoil for months. The actions are part of a coordinated governmentwide effort to disrupt Iran’s efforts to use illicit oil sales to fund terrorism, and to push back on the country’s increasingly capable offensive cyberoperations.
Iran Used Lloyds And Santander Accounts To Evade Sanctions | Financial Times
Iran used two of the UK’s biggest banks to covertly move money around the world as part of a vast sanctions-evasion scheme backed by Tehran’s intelligence services. Lloyds and Santander UK provided accounts to British front companies secretly owned by a sanctioned Iranian petrochemicals company based near Buckingham Palace, according to documents seen by the Financial Times. The state-controlled Petrochemical Commercial Company was part of a network that the US accuses of raising hundreds of millions of dollars for the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Quds Force and of working with Russian intelligence agencies to raise money for Iranian proxy militias. Both PCC and its British subsidiary PCC UK have been under US sanctions since November 2018.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
Flight PS752 Victims Families Protest UN Official's Visit To Iran | Iran International
Families of the victims of Flight PS752 protested the visit of the deputy United Nations human rights commissioner to Iran outside the UN's Tehran offices on Saturday. Nada Al-Nashif is scheduled to arrive in Iran Sunday. During the three-day visit, she is due to address rights abuses in the Islamic Republic including spiking executions and deepening crackdowns on women's freedoms. Protesters were confronted by law enforcement and security forces who quickly dispersed the crowd who lost families in the downed Ukrainian airliner incident on January 8, 2020. Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) shot down the plane shortly after it took off near Tehran's Imam Khomeini International Airport, resulting in the deaths of all 176 passengers and crew on board.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Global Protests Erupt Against Iranian Executions | Iran International
The Iranian diaspora led demonstrations in the world's capital cities this weekend in a bid to protest the killing spree in Iran which is executing dissidents at record rates. Protests were held in cities including Berlin, Stockholm, Vienna, and Copenhagen with others slated to take place in Amsterdam, Bern, Paris, Dublin, Cologne, London and others. It follows growing calls globally to halt the executions. According to reports from HRANA, a human rights organization, the year 2023 witnessed the execution of at least 791 individuals in Iran, including 25 women and two juveniles—a staggering increase of over 33% compared to the preceding year. The intensification of executions in Iran has spurred widespread global outrage, precipitating numerous protests in various corners of the world. In its latest monthly assessment of the human rights landscape in Iran, HRANA documented that at least 90 people faced execution in December alone, underscoring the urgency of the international community's response to the escalating human rights violations within the country.
Iran’s Soccer Legend Daei Faces Retribution For Criticizing Islamic Republic | Iran Wire
In a recent interview, Iranian football legend Ali Daei said he had been prohibited from engaging in any business activities in the country for the past year and a half. Daei, a former German Bundesliga striker whose 109 goals at international level were long unsurpassed until Cristiano Ronaldo overtook him, has been a vocal supporter of the 2022-23 nationwide demonstrations and has repeatedly criticized the authorities for suppressing the protest movement. In 2019, Daei revealed that the then-CEO of Saipa FC, "Mustafa Modaber," was in reality Ghafoor Darjazi, a general of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) linked to controversial incidents. His stance against the government's policies has apparently led to the current ban on his business activists. This isn't the first instance of the Iranian government using economic restrictions as a tool to silence dissent.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Iranian officials warned the U.S. on Sunday about possibly targeting two cargo ships in the Middle East that are suspected of being spy ships for the country. The warning was issued after forces from the U.S. and U.K. launched an airstrike offensive against Houthi rebels located in Yemen. The Associated Press reported that the statement from Iran referred to the Behshad and Saviz ships, which are both registered commercial cargo ships with a company based in Tehran, which the U.S. Treasury sanctioned as a front for the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines. The statement also appeared to show Tehran’s increasing uneasiness with the U.S. strike in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, which targeted militias backed by the Islamic Republic.
Airstrikes Violate Iraqi And Syrian Sovereignty, Iran Says | Reuters
Iran's foreign ministry on Saturday condemned overnight U.S. air strikes in Iraq and Syria as "violations of the sovereignty and territorial integrity" of the two countries. In Tehran's first response to the U.S. strikes, ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said in a statement that they represented "another adventurous and strategic mistake by the United States that will result only in increased tension in instability in the region". The U.S. military launched air strikes against more than 85 targets linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and the militias it backs, in retaliation for last weekend's drone attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. troops. While the strikes did not target sites inside Iran, they signalled a further escalation of conflict in the Middle East from Israel's nearly four-month war on Hamas-ruled Gaza.
Iran Says 'Will Not Hesitate' To Respond To US Attack On Its Territory | AFP
Iran said Monday it "will not hesitate" to respond in the event of US attacks on its territory after the White House declined to say whether strikes on Iran were ruled out. White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday the US will press on with its retaliation against Iran-backed groups in Iraq and Syria. Asked whether the United States would rule out the possibility of striking Iran directly, Sullivan told NBC, "it would not be wise for me to talk about what we're ruling in and ruling out." "If (Iran) chose to respond directly to the United States, they would be met with a swift and forceful response from us," he said. Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani hit back on Monday, saying: "The Islamic Republic has shown that it has always reacted decisively to any threat to its security, territorial integrity and sovereignty."
IRANIAN INTERNAL DEVELOPMENTS
Iranian civil society organizations and professionals say suicide rates have reached crisis levels among school students and recent medical school graduates in the past month, with no sign of solutions from the government. Iranian state news agency IRNA acknowledged the worsening of the Islamic republic's suicide problem generally in a January 6 article. It cited Hamid Parvih, the vice president of Iran's Suicide Prevention Scientific Society, as saying about 120,000 people attempted suicide in the Persian year ending March 2023, a 51% increase from the seven years prior. He said more than 6,000 of those attempts ended in death. In a January 26 Telegram post, Iran’s largest teachers’ union said at least eight primary and secondary school students committed suicide in various parts of the country during the Persian month of Dey that ended January 20. The labor union, the Coordinating Council of Iranian Teacher Trade Associations, described the situation of student suicides as a "tsunami" in another Telegram post on the same date.
CONGRESS & IRAN
Graham Slams Biden On Middle East Strikes: ‘The Only Iranian We Killed… Is Some Dumba–’ | The Hill
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday dug into the timing of President Biden’s response to last week’s deadly drone strikes, arguing the U.S. gave Iraq and Syria a “weeks notice,” that only served to kill “some dumb***,” who did not know the counter-attack was coming. “If the goal is to deter Iran, you’re failing miserably. If the goal is to protect American troops, you’re not achieving your goal,” Graham said on “Fox News Sunday.” “If you’ve convinced Iran you don’t want a wider war, they believe you. ‘Oh, I don’t want a war with you,’ they got the message…they’re not afraid of us. They were afraid of [former President] Trump. The Biden administration came under scrutiny from some GOP lawmakers who said the U.S. response to last week’s drone strike was not swift enough.
House Intelligence Chair Says Biden Administration Has ‘No Policy’ On Iran | The Hill
House Intelligence Chair Mike Turner (R-Ohio) slammed the Biden administration Sunday for having “no policy” on Iran. Turner said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the Biden administration has “confusion among their goals and objectives” related to the recent U.S. strikes in the Middle East. His comments come just days after the U.S. launched strikes on Iranian-backed groups in Syria and Iraq in retaliation for the deadly drone attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. service members last week. “But this is a problem … They keep saying that they want to, you know, retaliate, but then they say it’s about deterrence, then they say it’s about diminishing capabilities,” Turner told CBS’s Margaret Brennan. “Those are all different goals and objectives. And they’re not doing any of those. We all know that this is just about Iran. These are all franchises of Iran.” “And the administration has no policy with respect to Iran, how to diminish their capability, diminish these attacks and diminish their nefarious activities in the Middle East,” he continued.
US Prepares Next Phase Of Strikes As Republicans Call For More Action Against Iran | The National
… But many from the Republican Party, which has long pushed for hawkish relations with Tehran, want to see Mr Biden do more. “These military strikes are welcome, but come far too late for the three brave Americans who died and the nearly 50 wounded,” said Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee. “Iran and its proxies have tried to kill American soldiers and sink our warships 165 times while the Biden administration congratulates itself for doing the bare minimum. Instead of giving the Ayatollah the bloody nose that he deserves, we continue to give him a slap on the wrist. … Senator Pete Ricketts, who sits on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, said that to restore effective deterrence, “President Biden must hit Iran where it hurts” “Weak, telegraphed responses will not cut it. We need leadership, not appeasement,” he said.
GULF STATES, YEMEN, & IRAN
The United States and Britain struck 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday in a second wave of assaults meant to further disable Iran-backed groups that have relentlessly attacked American and international interests in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war. But Washington once more did not directly target Iran as it tries to find a balance between a forceful response and intensifying the conflict. U.S. Central Command said its forces conducted an additional strike on Sunday “in self-defense against a Houthi anti-ship cruise missile prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea,” according to a post on X, formerly Twitter. “U.S. forces identified the cruise missile in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined it presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region. This action will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy vessels and merchant vessels,” the post added.
Iran Says US-British Strikes In Yemen Are ‘Fueling Chaos And Disorder’ In Mideast | Politico
Iran on Sunday denounced U.S. and British air strikes on Yemen as “fueling chaos and disorder” and risking an escalation of the war in the Middle East. Washington and London, with support from partner nations, on Saturday launched a fresh round of air and missile strikes on Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen in retaliation for the group’s continued attacks on international shipping. A day earlier, U.S. long-range aircraft bombarded Iranian military and proxy targets in Iraq and Syria. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Nasser Kanani, claimed that the strikes contradict U.S. and U.K. policy of wanting to avoid an escalation in the conflict. These attacks are “in clear contradiction with the repeated claims of Washington and London that they do not want the expansion of war and conflict in the region,” Kanani said, according to AFP. He added that further attacks on Houthi rebels in Yemen would constitute a “threat to international peace and security.”
IRAQ & IRAN
Iraq Condemns U.S. Airstrikes Against Iran-Linked Groups | NPR
Iraqi government officials on Saturday condemned U.S. airstrikes on Iran-linked targets in Iraq, saying the attacks showed that U.S. forces had become a threat to their host country — a sentiment that will likely hasten demands for the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq to leave. Militia officials named 16 fighters they said were killed in the strikes late Friday, including five medics they said died when an airstrike hit a base hospital in western al-Anbar province. The Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF) — made up of armed groups that are now part of Iraqi government security forces — said seven of the 16 fatalities were killed when the U.S. bombed its al-Anbar province operations headquarters. It said at least 36 more people were injured and searches were ongoing for missing fighters.
MISCELLANEOUS
Iran-Backed Houthis Issue Threat Against Italy | Iran International
Iran-backed Houthis, who have been attacking international commercial vessels and navy ships in the Red Sea, have threatened to target Italy if it takes part in the US-led naval coalition. Mohamed Ali al-Houthi, head of the Houthi's supreme revolutionary committee, told daily La Repubblica that Italy must be neutral in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and put pressure on Israel to stop attacks on Gaza. His remarks came as Italy announced Friday that it would provide the admiral in command of a European Union Red Sea naval mission to protect ships from attacks by the Houthi militia. "The European Union today asked Italy to supply the Force Commander for the Aspides Operation in the Red Sea," Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said on Friday. The mandate of the mission, which will be launched in mid-February, will be to protect commercial ships and intercept attacks, but not take part in strikes against the Houthis, EU's foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said.