TOP STORIES
Washington And Arab States Scramble To Avert An All-Out Middle East War | The Washington Post
The Biden administration is racing to avert an explosion of violence across the Middle East, a high-stakes moment that threatens to derail a long-awaited cease-fire deal in the Gaza Strip and underscores the limits of American influence over Israel, its closest ally in the region. President Biden and Vice President Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, huddled with their top advisers in the White House Situation Room on Monday to discuss an anticipated Iranian assault against Israel and an attack by an Iranian-backed Iraqi militia that injured U.S. troops, a strike to which Washington vowed to respond “in a manner and place of our choosing. "The United States has scrambled to position additional military assets, including a squadron of F-22 jets and naval destroyers, closer to Israel to help defend against what officials believe will be an imminent attack by Tehran in retaliation for last week’s killing of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in the Iranian capital.
A Pakistani man alleged to have ties to Iran has been charged in a plot to carry out political assassinations on U.S. soil, including potentially of former President Donald Trump. The case disclosed by the Justice Department on Tuesday comes two years after officials disrupted a separate scheme that they said was aimed at former Trump administration national security adviser John Bolton. Asif Merchant traveled to New York in June for the purpose of meeting with men he thought he was recruiting to carry out the killings, even paying a $5,000 advance to two would-be assassins who were actually undercover law enforcement officers, federal officials said. He was arrested in July as he prepared to leave the United States, after having told the men that he would provide further instructions, including the names of the intended targets, in August or September after he returned to Pakistan.
Hamas on Tuesday named Yahya Sinwar, its top official in Gaza who masterminded the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel, as its new leader in a dramatic sign of the power of the Palestinian militant group’s hardline wing after his predecessor was killed in a presumed Israeli strike in Iran. The selection of Sinwar, a secretive figure close to Iran who worked for years to build up Hamas’ military strength, was a defiant signal that the group is prepared to keep fighting after 10 months of destruction from Israel’s campaign in Gaza and after the assassination of Sinwar’s predecessor, Ismail Haniyeh. It is also likely to provoke Israel, which has put him at the top of its kill list after the Oct. 7 attack, in which militants killed 1,200 people in southern Israel and took about 250 as hostages.
NUCLEAR DEAL & NUCLEAR PROGRAM
Iran Growing Ever Bolder About Its Nuclear Capabilities, US Warns | Iran International
The latest report from the US Office of the Director of National Intelligence accuses Iran of becoming ever bolder in boasting about its nuclear weapons as the chances of a return to the JCPOA nuclear deal look to be fading away. "There has been a notable increase this year in Iranian public statements about nuclear weapons, suggesting the topic is becoming less taboo,” the report stated. In May, Iranian MP Ahmad Bakhshayesh Ardestani said openly that Iran might already possess a nuclear weapon. It followed closely on the heels of remarks by Kamal Kharrazi, senior foreign policy advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who had said that Tehran will change its nuclear doctrine if its archenemy Israel were to attack its atomic facilities.
MISSILE PROGRAM
US Officials Claim Iran Is Moving Missile Launchers Ahead Of Expected Attack | Middle East Monitor
Iran has been moving missile launchers and conducting military exercises since the end of last week, ahead of an expected attack against Israel in response to the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran and senior Hezbollah official Fuad Shukr in Beirut last week, the Wall Street Journal has reported, citing unnamed US officials. The newspaper said that the administration of US President Joe Biden has been working to repel a possible Iranian attack on Israel, but the fear is that this time the attack will be accompanied by strikes from Hezbollah and other Iranian proxies. Senior US officials have also been urging Tehran not to escalate the war in the region.
PROTESTS & HUMAN RIGHTS
Iran Executes Protester Accused of Killing IRGC Officer | Bloomberg
A man who was arrested after he took part in Iran’s nationwide 2022 uprising and later accused of killing a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps during the protests was executed on Tuesday, state-run Mizan Online reported. Reza Rasaei, a 34-year-old Kurdish-Iranian who had joined protests in the city of Sahneh in northwestern Kermanshah province, was sentenced to death after a forensic scientist testified that the knife used to kill IRGC intelligence officer Nader Bayrami was the same as one owned by Rasaei, according to Mizan, which added that he’d confessed to the crime.
U.S.-IRAN RELATIONS & NEGOTIATIONS
US Has Communicated Need To Not Escalate Conflict To Iran And Israel, Says Blinken | Reuters
The United States has communicated to Iran and Israel that conflict in the Middle East must not escalate, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Tuesday, even as the Pentagon warned that it would not tolerate attacks against its forces in the region. The Middle East is bracing for a possible new wave of attacks by Iran and its allies following last week's killing of senior members of militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah. Five U.S. troops and two contractors were injured in an attack on a base in Iraq on Monday, which U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin blamed on Iran-backed groups. Officials had been in constant contact with allies and partners in the region and there was a "clear consensus" that no one should escalate the situation, the top U.S. diplomat said.
US Charges Man With Alleged Ties To Iran In Foiled Assassination Plot | Reuters
A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran has been charged in the United States in connection with a foiled plot to assassinate a U.S. politician or government officials, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. Asif Merchant, 46, sought to recruit people in the United States to carry out the plot in retaliation for the U.S. killing of Iran's Revolutionary Guards' top commander Qassem Soleimani in 2020, according to a criminal complaint. Former President Donald Trump, who as president approved the drone strike on Soleimani, was discussed as a potential target of the plot, but the scheme was not conceived of as a plot to assassinate the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter. Merchant, who prosecutors allege spent time in Iran before traveling to the United States from Pakistan, was charged with murder for hire in federal court in New York's Brooklyn borough. A federal judge ordered him detained on July 17, according to court records.
MILITARY/INTELLIGENCE MATTERS & PROXY WARS
Sinwar To Replace Haniyeh As Hamas Political Leader, Cementing His Power | The Washington Post
Yehiya Sinwar, 61, the elusive leader of Hamas in Gaza and the chief architect of the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, will replace Ismail Haniyeh as head of the militant group’s political bureau, Hamas announced Tuesday. Sinwar is an ideological hard-liner who spent more than two decades in Israeli jails and is thought to have eluded Israeli forces by hiding in the vast tunnel network underneath Gaza. His ascension to the top political position solidifies his role as the paramount leader of Hamas — and underscores how its Gaza-based faction has consolidated control of the movement after Oct. 7. Haniyeh, who was based in Qatar and seen as a more moderate face of the movement, was killed Wednesday while visiting Tehran in an attack Hamas blamed on Israel. Israel has not commented on the attack but informed U.S. officials immediately afterward that it was responsible.
RUSSIA, SYRIA, ISRAEL, HEZBOLLAH, LEBANON & IRAN
Putin Asks Iran To Avoid Civilian Casualties In Israel Response, Sources Say | Reuters
Russian President Vladimir Putin has asked Iran's Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for a restrained response to Israel's suspected killing of the leader of Hamas, advising against attacks on Israeli civilians, two senior Iranian sources said. The message, according to the sources, was delivered on Monday by Sergei Shoigu, a senior ally of the Kremlin leader, in meetings with top Iranian officials as the Islamic Republic weighs its response to the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh. Tehran also pressed Moscow for the delivery of Russian made Sukhoi Su-35 fighter jets, the two Iranian sources, privy to the meeting in Tehran, the sources told Reuters.
As Israel braces for a possible attack from Iran, Israel Defense Forces on Tuesday said it carried out an airstrike in southern Lebanon, reportedly killing four Hezbollah operatives. The strike was carried out in the Nabatieh area, where the IDF said its fighter jets targeted a building used by Hezbollah in the Southern Front. A second building in which Hezbollah operates was also struck in Khiam, the IDF said. While the IDF did not immediately note any casualties, Lebanese security sources told the AFP that four Hezbollah members were killed in the strike, according to the Times of Israel.
MISCELLANEOUS
Meet Tim Walz, Harris’ VP: Progressive Favorite With Mainstream Views On Israel, Iran | Al-Monitor
US Vice President Kamala Harris announced Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her running mate in the presidential race on Tuesday. Walz served in Congress for over a decade before becoming governor of Minnesota and held mainstream Democratic positions on the Middle East during his time on Capitol Hill, including support for Israel, favoring US withdrawal from Iraq and backing the Iran nuclear deal. Walz, 60, has been governor of the midwestern state since 2019. He previously served in the House of Representatives from 2007 until he left to begin his gubernatorial tenure. Before entering politics, Walz was a teacher and served in the Army National Guard. Walz served throughout the United States while in the military and deployed to Italy after the Sept. 11 attacks in support of the war in Afghanistan and wider US operations against al-Qaeda, according to Minnesota Public Radio.