Replies to post #458662 on Tornado Alley (PROG)

[brooklyn13]

In a revealing 1977 interview with the Dutch newspaper Trouw, PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein stated:
“The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct 'Palestinian people' to oppose Zionism.
"For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa. While as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”

[fuagf]

After Strikes, Iran Says It Won’t Hold Back on Using Its Military Might

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The country has hit Syria, Iraq and Pakistan with missiles this week. Its defense minister said any threats would be met with “tough and decisive” action.


A billboard in Tehran shows a missile and writing in Hebrew and Farsi that reads “Prepare your coffins.” Agence France-Presse —
Getty Images

By Vivian Yee and Farnaz Fassihi

Jan. 17, 2024Updated 1:20 p.m. ET

The morning after Iranian attacks .. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/world/asia/iran-pakistan-strike.html .. on neighboring Pakistan and Iraq, Iran’s defense minister vowed Wednesday that his country would “not set any limits” on using its missile capabilities against enemies whenever necessary.

“We are a missile power in the world,” the minister, Mohammad Reza Ashtiani, told reporters .. https://en.mehrnews.com/news/210929/Iran-has-no-restrictions-in-defending-national-interests .. at a cabinet meeting, according to state media. “Wherever they want to threaten the Islamic Republic of Iran, we will react, and this reaction will definitely be proportionate, tough and decisive.”

Iran has demonstrated its willingness to use its military might — even when it involves striking the territory of its allies and neighbors — with back-to-back attacks on Syria late on Monday, then Iraq and Pakistan on Tuesday. The strikes could further inflame a widening conflict across the Middle East.

Map image[ - Iranian strikes in neighboring countries
Source: Institute for the Study of War By Pablo Robles

Iran said it had launched the missiles at targets connected to a major terrorist attack earlier this month, the country’s deadliest ever, as well as in retaliation for the targeted killings of Iranian and Iran-allied commanders, which Iran has blamed .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/world/middleeast/iran-military-official-israel-syria.html .. on Israel.

Analysts say Iran is walking a fine line, hoping to flex its strength to show conservative supporters of the government at home that it can hit its enemies — without getting directly entangled in a fight with Israel, the United States or their allies.

By Tuesday morning, murals and banners had gone up around the Iranian capital, Tehran, praising the missile attacks and vowing revenge. At Palestine Square, a mural on the side of a building depicted a missile being fired. It bore a caption that warned, in Hebrew and Farsi, “Prepare your coffins.”

Some conservative Iranians celebrated the missile strikes as appropriate vengeance, a defiant show of force against regional foes.

One of those foes is the Islamic State, which claimed responsibility for a bombing in Kerman, Iran, that killed nearly 100 people this month. Iran said its attacks had also targeted “anti-Iran terror groups in occupied territories of Syria.” It hit Idlib province in Syria, which is controlled not by President Bashar al-Assad, a close ally of Iran, but by a Syrian opposition group.

Iran accused Israel .. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/26/world/middleeast/iran-military-official-israel-syria.html .. of being behind the targeted killing of a senior Iranian commander in Syria in December. On Tuesday, Tehran claimed it was targeting Israel in one of the strikes on Iraq’s northern Kurdistan region, accusing it of operating a spy outpost there.

Officials in Iraq rejected the charge, and the country pulled its ambassador from Tehran in protest.

Militants in Pakistan were also apparently in Iran’s sights in one of the missile strikes on the country’s Baluchistan region. Iran said it had struck a remote mountainous area believed to be the base of Jaish al-Adl, a Sunni militant group that claimed responsibility for a December attack that killed 11 security officers in Rask, a town near Iran’s border with Pakistan.

Pakistan also denounced the strike.

Government supporters had been incensed over the recent attacks inside Iran, which seemed to expose the authoritarian clerical regime’s weaknesses and security failings.

The bombing in Kerman, in particular, rattled a country that has tried as much as possible to maintain stability by keeping Iran’s regional conflicts from bleeding onto Iranian soil.

Iran usually prefers to confront its enemies at a distance, relying on the armed groups it funds and supports in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and the Houthis in Yemen, instead of committing its own forces.

Still, said Sanam Vakil, an Iran expert at Chatham House, the fact that Iran suffered such a deadly Islamic State attack on its own soil suggested the risks of its activities across the region.

Iran has tried to “export” its conflicts abroad “rather than manage them closer to home,” she said. Yet “the great irony for Iran,” she added, “is that being so present beyond its borders has attracted high-level security risks inside Iran.”

Vivian Yee is a Times reporter covering North Africa and the broader Middle East. She is based in Cairo. More about Vivian Yee

Farnaz Fassihi is a reporter for The New York Times based in New York. Previously she was a senior writer and war correspondent for the Wall Street Journal for 17 years based in the Middle East. More about Farnaz Fassihi

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/01/17/world/middleeast/iran-missiles-pakistan-iraq.html