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A prominent general in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard died in an Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Iranian media reported Saturday. The killing of Gen. Abbas Nilforushan marks the latest casualty suffered by Iran as the nearly yearlong Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip teeters on the edge of becoming a regional conflict. His death further ratchets up pressure on Iran to respond, even as Tehran has signaled in recent months that it wants to negotiate with the West over sanctions crushing its economy. Nilforushan, 58, was killed Friday in the strike in Lebanon in which Nasrallah died, the state-owned newspaper Tehran Times reported. Ahmad Reza Pour Khaghan, the deputy head of Iran’s judiciary, also confirmed Nilforushan’s death, describing him as a “guest to the people of Lebanon,” the state-run IRNA news agency said.
Iran's President Denounces Israeli Attacks On Tehran's Regional Allies | Reuters
Israel should not be allowed to attack countries in the Iran-aligned "Axis of Resistance" one after the other, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Sunday. Israel said it had bombed Houthi targets in Yemen on Sunday, expanding its confrontation with Iran's allies in the region after killing the Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah on Friday in an escalating conflict in Lebanon. Pezeshkian, in comments carried by state media, said Lebanon should be supported.
Iran Will Not Leave Israel’s ‘Criminal Acts’ Unanswered, Says Foreign Ministry | Reuters
Iran will not leave any of "the criminal acts" of Israel unanswered, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said on Monday, referring to the killing of Hezbollah's chief and an Iranian Guard deputy commander in Lebanon. Brigadier General Abbas Nilforoushan was killed in Israeli strikes on Beirut on Friday, in which Hezbollah's leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah also died. Israel's intensified attacks against the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon and the Houthi militia in Yemen have prompted fears that Middle East fighting could spin out of control and draw in Iran and the United States, Israel's main ally. "We stand strongly and we will act in a way that is regretful [for the enemy]" Kanaani told a weekly news conference, adding that Iran does not seek war but is not afraid of it. Kanaani said that Iran is closely following up on matters with the Lebanese authorities, referring to the strikes that killed Nasrallah and Nilforoushan.
UANI IN THE NEWS
As the death of Hezbollah secretary-general Hassan Nasrallah is confirmed, the immediate question is not whether Iran will respond, but how. Hezbollah is a creation of the Islamic Republic, built on decades of effort, and billions of dollars of support. Formed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in 1982, Hezbollah remains the regime’s primary proxy. The relationship between Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and Hezbollah’s secretary-general, Hassan Nasrallah, was almost familial – akin to that of father and son. But Nasrallah’s recent missteps, including intelligence failures and the assassinations of senior commanders, had left Khamenei to manage the fallout. His death now compounds that. Iran’s leadership cannot simply sit back while Hezbollah endures these levels of humiliation and harm. To do so would not only result in the weakening or loss of its most important proxy, but could signal the start of the unraveling of its entire regional strategy of eradicating the state of Israel, empowering Islamist groups, and expelling U.S. forces from the Middle East.
Is Iran’s ‘Axis Of Resistance’ Collapsing Under Israeli Attacks? | NBC News
Israeli airstrikes that wiped out Hezbollah’s top leadership and left its internal security in tatters are a devastating blow to Iran’s decadeslong project of wielding power in the Middle East through proxies, former U.S. intelligence officials and analysts say. In a matter of weeks, Iran and its most important proxy, Hezbollah, have suffered catastrophic security failures. Israel sabotaged the group’s communications, took out multiple senior figures and killed Hezbollah’s powerful and influential longtime leader, Hassan Nasrallah, who cannot be easily replaced. U.S. officials said the Israeli airstrikes, which continued Sunday, took out most of Hezbollah’s leadership and destroyed multiple weapons depots, causing unprecedented damage, both physical and psychological, to the militia group. […] Israel’s campaign has removed a generation of Hezbollah’s leadership, along with hundreds of key subordinates, added Roule, now on the advisory board of United Against Nuclear Iran, a nonprofit group that says it combats the threats posed by Iran. As long as Israeli attacks continue, Hezbollah’s decision-making will be in disarray, but the militia remains a significant force.
Iranian Plane Turns Back From Beirut Airport After Warning From Israel | The Telegraph
Israel hacked Beirut International Airport’s control tower to warn an Iranian plane not to land, The Telegraph understands. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday night said that they would shoot down planes ferrying Iranian weapons to support Hezbollah. Earlier, IDF jets had carried out an airstrike that killed Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the Lebanese terror group. With the Iranian plane in the air, Lebanese authorities intervened and ordered it to turn back so it would avoid being fired upon by Israeli forces. […] Dror Doron, the senior advisor at United Against Nuclear Iran who also served as a senior analyst in the Israeli prime minister’s office, told the Telegraph that the smuggling of ballistic missiles and other long-range precision-guided missiles caused Israel to launch a campaign of airstrikes in Syria in 2014 to target convoys carrying the missiles. Mr Doron said: “Israel identified Syria as being a critical element in the route of supplying those missiles.”
Not Welcome: Government Aides Plot Crackdown On Secret Iranian Agents Radicalising Brits | The Sun
Senior government aides are preparing to proscribe the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps by the end of the year. The Sun understands that plans are being drawn up for a major crackdown on agents of Tehran covertly radicalising Brits on UK soil. The IRGC is the principal supporter of Hamas and Hezbollah, both of which are proscribed in the UK. Amid threats of all-out war in the Middle East, officials want to expedite tightening domestic terror laws to ban IRGC operatives from nurturing Islamist terrorism at home. […] Kasra Aarabi, Director of IRGC Research at United Against Nuclear Iran, said: “The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is the most antisemitic armed Islamist extremist organization in the world. “The government needs to proscribe the IRGC as a matter of urgency. “The failure to proscribe the IRGC is putting British lives at risk, not least those from the British-Jewish community and British-Iranian diaspora —the two primary targets of IRGC terrorism in the UK.”
A senior general in Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps was killed in Friday’s Israeli airstrike in Beirut that eliminated Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah, state media reported Saturday. Gen. Abbas Nilforoushan, deputy commander of Guards operations, “was killed in Israel’s attack on Lebanon that assassinated the Hezbollah chief,” said the official IRNA news agency. Ahmad Reza Pour Khaghan, the deputy head of Iran’s judiciary, confirmed Nilforoushan’s death, describing him as a “guest to the people of Lebanon,” the state-run IRNA news agency said. Khaghan also claimed that Iran had the right to retaliate under international law. The killing of Nilforoushan further ratchets up pressure on Iran to respond, even as Tehran has signaled in recent months that it wants to negotiate with the West over its nuclear program and sanctions crushing its economy.
SANCTIONS, BUSINESS RISKS, & OTHER ECONOMIC NEWS
Iran's Currency Loses Value As Israel Hits Hezbollah Hard | Iran International
Iran's currency, the rial, has dropped 3.3% in value since last week, when Israel launched strikes against Hezbollah in Lebanon, raising concerns about a broader conflict involving the Islamic Republic. The rial was trading at 612,000 to the US dollar on Saturday, compared with 592,000 on September 20, when Hezbollah began to suffer mass casualties as a result of exploding pagers and walkie-talkies. As Israeli air strikes intensified in Lebanon earlier this week and culminated in the reported killing of Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, the rial dipped further. Since 2018, when the US withdrew from the JCPOA nuclear deal and imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and international banking, the rial has lost 15 times its value. In the past three years alone, it has depreciated by 50%.
TERRORISM & EXTREMISM
Safieddine Named New Hezbollah Leader, Report Says | Iran International
Hashem Safieddine, a prominent figure in Hezbollah's leadership, has been named by the group's executive council as the successor to Hassan Nasrallah as Secretary General, according to sources cited by Al-Arabiya on Sunday. Nasrallah was killed in his highly secure underground headquarters, built under a complex of six buildings in the heart of Dahieh, the southern suburbs of Beirut, in a massive Israeli airstrike on Friday. He reportedly died of suffocation in an unventilated bunker, which is why his body was recovered intact from the rubble. Safieddine (Safi Al-Din), a cousin of Nasrallah, was notably one of the senior leaders who were not present at the site of the strike that killed several top Hezbollah commanders.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
The Biden administration is worried that an attack from Iran is being planned in the wake of Israel’s killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and is working with Israel on defenses, a US official said Sunday night. Joint defenses are being prepared to ward off an attack with changes in US military posture, the official added. The Biden administration spearheaded a multi-national defense of Israel in mid-April when Iran launched over 300 drones and missiles at Israel in response to the Israeli bombing of senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers in Syria. The US official declined to say what kind of attack is expected from Iran or specify the moves the US military is making. Fears of a broader regional war in the Middle East have spiked in recent weeks as Israel intensifies its attacks on Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Iran-backed group vows to continue its fight, even as a growing number of its top commander have been killed.
US Boosts Air Support And Hikes Troop Readiness To Deploy For Middle East | Reuters
The U.S. military said on Sunday it was increasing its air support capabilities in the Middle East and putting troops on a heightened readiness to deploy to the region as it warned Iran against expanding the ongoing conflict. The announcement came two days after President Joe Biden directed the Pentagon to adjust U.S. force posture in the Middle East amid intensifying concern that Israel's killing of the leader of Iran-backed Hezbollah could prompt Tehran to retaliate.
US Indicts Multiple Iranians Over Alleged Hacking Of Trump's Campaign | Iran International
US grand jury has indicted several Iranian nationals on charges related to hacking efforts targeting Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign, according to a report by Politico on Thursday. While the specific names of the defendants and the exact criminal charges remain undisclosed, the grand jury reportedly approved the indictment in secret on Thursday afternoon. An official announcement from the Department of Justice is expected as early as Friday. The Trump campaign disclosed in August that its internal communications had been compromised, accusing the Iranian government of orchestrating the cyberattack.
IRANIAN REGIONAL AGGRESSION
Nasrallah's Killing Reveals Depth Of Israel's Penetration Of Hezbollah | Reuters
In the wake of Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah's killing, Hezbollah faces the enormous challenge of plugging the infiltration in its ranks that allowed its arch enemy Israel to destroy weapons sites, booby-trap its communications and assassinate the veteran leader, whose whereabouts had been a closely guarded secret for years. Nasrallah's killing in a command HQ on Friday came barely a week after the deadly detonation of thousands of booby-trapped Hezbollah pagers and hundreds of radios - attacks widely blamed on Israel but which it has not claimed. His assassination was the culmination of a rapid succession of strikes that have eliminated half of Hezbollah's leadership council and decimated its top military command.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Russian Prime Minister To Attend Eurasian Meeting After Iran Visit | Reuters
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will attend a meeting in Armenia on Tuesday of the Eurasian Economic Forum, the government said on Sunday, referring to a body within the framework of a grouping of former Soviet states. The government statement on Telegram followed an earlier announcement that Mishustin would visit Iran on Monday and meet President Masoud Pezeshkian. The statement said the meeting would discuss digitalisation, market operations and cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union, made up of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia.