Iran worried....

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Iran Worried U.S. Might Be Building 8,500th Nuclear Weapon
FEBRUARY 9, 2012 | ISSUE 48•06

TEHRAN—Amidst mounting geopolitical tensions, Iranian officials said Wednesday they were increasingly concerned about the United States of America's uranium-enrichment program, fearing the Western nation may soon be capable of producing its 8,500th nuclear weapon. "Our intelligence estimates indicate that, if it is allowed to progress with its aggressive nuclear program, the United States may soon possess its 8,500th atomic weapon capable of reaching Iran," said Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi, adding that Americans have the fuel, the facilities, and "everything they need" to manufacture even more weapons-grade fissile material. "Obviously, the prospect of this happening is very distressing to Iran and all countries like Iran. After all, the United States is a volatile nation that's proven it needs little provocation to attack anyone anywhere in the world whom it perceives to be a threat." Iranian intelligence experts also warned of the very real, and very frightening, possibility of the U.S. providing weapons and resources to a rogue third-party state such as Israel.

 

[Swagga]

I see what you did there.

 

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ISIS Threatens More Terror Against Iran...

Islamic State Threatens More Terror Against Iran
June 08, 2017 — Near simultaneous terror attacks on Iran’s parliament and the tomb of former leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini could set off a new round of hostilities in a tense Middle East.

At least 12 people were killed and another 42 wounded in Wednesday’s brazen strikes by machine-gun-wielding assailants and two suicide bombers, claimed almost immediately by Islamic State. In a new twist, the terror group’s Amaq news agency also quickly distributed a 24-second video of the attack showing a bloody, lifeless body inside the parliament complex, and threatened it would strike again. Iranian security officials late Wednesday confirmed IS involvement, saying the attackers, many disguised as women, were Iranians who had joined the terror group.

Attackers

They said Iranian forces killed six of the attackers. Another five suspects were arrested, and two suicide bombers blew themselves up. Officials suggested a third attack had been foiled. “These fireworks have no effect on Iran,” Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told state-run television, vowing the terrorists “will soon be eliminated.” Islamic State and Iran have long been at odds, with IS fighters facing off against Iranian proxies and Iranian-led forces in Syria and Iraq. But Wednesday’s attacks marked the first by the Sunni terror group in the majority Shi’ite country.

U.S. intelligence called the incident the worst domestic terror attack in Tehran since the 1980s, but an official said there have been signs IS was, at least, hoping to strike. “ISIS has expressed a growing interest in conducting attacks on the Iranian homeland,” the official said, using an acronym for the militant group. And pointing to increasingly virulent propaganda over the past six months, the official added it had become clear “Iran has been at the top of ISIS’ enemy list.”

Police officers patrol the scene, around the shrine of late Iranian revolutionary founder Ayatollah Khomeini, after an attack by several perpetrators in Tehran, Iran, June 7, 2017.​

Still, Iranian officials immediately placed the ultimate blame on Saudi Arabia. “This terrorist attack happened only a week after the meeting between the U.S. president and the [Saudi] backward leaders who support terrorists,” according to statement by Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps. “The fact that Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they were involved in the brutal attack.”

World reaction

See also:

IS Attacks Show Iran's Vulnerability to Terror
June 07, 2017 - Tehran has bragged for years that Islamic State could not deeply penetrate inside Iran, saying it kept a chokehold on any IS roots by arresting possible suspects and monitoring movements along its borders.

But Wednesday's attacks, claimed by IS, on Iran's parliament and the shrine of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini that left at least 12 people dead, exposed Iran's vulnerability, analysts say. It shows, too, that IS will follow through on its threats to terrorize Iran, which it sees as a battlefield enemy and religious persecutor. IS has long accused Shiite-led Iran of executing thousands of the Sunni minority in the country. Iraq's Iran-backed Shiite paramilitary force has inflicted hundreds of casualties on IS and driven IS from land outside Mosul. In Syria, Iran has been a major military backer of the Syrian regime, first in its war with rebel groups across the country and later against IS.

Combat troops in Syria

About 10,000 Iranian combat troops are in Syria fighting alongside thousands of fighters from Hezbollah, Lebanon's Tehran-affiliated Shiite militia, and assorted Shiite militias made up of renegade Pakistanis, central Asians and other nationalities. "With its direct involvement in fighting IS in Iraq and Syria, a retaliation from IS shouldn't be a surprise to authorities in Iran," said Alex Vatanka, a senior analyst at the Washington-based Middle East Institute.

Members of Iranian forces are seen during an attack on the Iranian parliament in central Tehran​

Iran intelligence has boasted about layers of security applied by agents protecting the country from IS infiltrations. Several times in recent months, Iranian officials have spoken about breaking up IS-related terror cells and arresting IS-affiliated militants planning attacks inside Iran. "We have built a complicated network of security nets from Karbala all the way to Tehran that allows us to trace every single move of Daesh [IS]," Hojatoleslam Toyserkani, representative of Iran's supreme leader to the Basij paramilitary forces, said last week.

Until Wednesday, the alleged security veneer seemed intact even though officials' claims of the public's protection from IS lacked many details, including when alleged incidents took place, the identity of most suspects, and concrete links to IS. "Iranian authorities were good in preventing IS from conducting operations inside Iran, but this attack put a crack on the bubble of invincibility Tehran tried hard to project," analyst Vatanka said. Wednesday's twin synchronized attacks on two of the most visible and secure sites in the capital were intended by IS to put Tehran on notice, analysts said.

Video of attack

 

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Steep Slide in Currency Threatens Iran’s Economy...

Steep Slide in Currency Threatens Iran’s Economy
APRIL 11, 2018 — All this week panicked Iranians have gathered in throngs outside banks and other financial businesses hoping to buy dollars, as the government seeks to head off a collapse in the rial, the national currency.

But they have met with nothing but frustration, told there were no dollars or other currencies for them to buy at the official government rate. In an effort to stop the run on foreign exchange, the government has forbidden anyone from holding more than the equivalent of $10,000 in dollars or euros, which account for most of the foreign exchange in Iran. Long on a downward path, the rial plunged this week, losing 35 percent of its value against the dollar and hitting what has been widely described as a record low. The government is seeking to impose an exchange rate of 42,000 to the dollar, but in Tehran’s black-market exchanges this week the going rate was 60,000. When President Hassan Rouhani took office in 2013, the rate was 36,000. In an effort to squelch currency speculation, the government sent riot police into the bazaars on Wednesday, where they arrested several money changers. One senior cleric, Ayatollah Nasser Makarem-Shirazi, said that some money changers ought to be executed to set an example.

However, many of those changing money in the bazaars were ordinary people seeking to protect themselves against rising prices and fearful of further declines in the currency. Others, like Mohsen Yekta, a university professor, said they needed the foreign exchange for personal business. “Every month I send some money to my daughter in Paris,” he said. “I need foreign exchange to help her out. I don’t know what to do.” Amid rising tensions in the region, the national currency has been sliding for weeks, but it went into free fall on Saturday. The government blames unilateral United States sanctions that continue to limit bank financing, despite the 2015 nuclear agreement that lifted international banking sanctions. Market insiders say that fears are also rising that President Trump will withdraw from the nuclear agreement next month, when it comes to him to be certified once more.

A briefcase on display at a currency exchange market in Tehran in January. Several money changers were arrested this week.​

Ordinary Iranians agree with most of these explanations, but also blame the government for poor planning and bad management of the economy. They also view the black-market rate as one of the few trustworthy indicators of the country’s economic health. Earlier this year, complaints about economic conditions and corruption exploded into a more general protest against political conditions in more than 80 cities across Iran. There are no signs so far that the current troubles are leading to unrest.

The currency slide is taking its toll on business, with many firms selling foreign products halting all sales, unable to determine prices. The manager of a paint factory said that he had sent his 70 employees on a paid vacation, because he did not know what price to ask for products that were based on foreign ingredients bought with foreign exchange. While Iran has endured similar currency crises in the past, some commentators said they were not seeing light at the end of this particular tunnel. “Our economy is based on bad planning — it’s wishy-washy,” said Farshad Ghorbanpour, an analyst close to the government. “Don’t expect things to get any better.”

Steep Slide in Currency Threatens Iran’s Economy

See also:

Potential for big oil price spike grows after provocative missile strikes
11 Apr.`18

* The missile attacks by Iran-aligned Houthis aimed at Saudi Arabia's civilian areas and oil facilities have proven unsuccessful, but they are a provocation at a time when the Middle East is already at risk of a widening conflict.
* President Donald Trump has said the U.S. would soon respond to a Syrian chemical attack on civilians last Saturday.
* With oil prices at a three-year high, it's possible prices could flare up even more if hostilities spread beyond Syria or Yemen, two hot spots that are seen as proxy wars pitting Iran against both Israel and Saudi Arabia.
* "If this is all contained to Syria we've probably seen the bulk of the rise. The issue you get into is if there's a strike on Iranian assets in Syria, a direct hit on Saudi, or a scenario where the Saudis and Israelis team up to take it to Iran directly, that's where you get into triple-digit oil price land," said one oil analyst.

Huthi rebel fighters inspect the damage after a reported air strike carried out by the Saudi-led coalition targeted the presidential palace in the Yemeni capital Sanaa on December 5, 2017.​

The missile attacks by Iran-aligned Houthis aimed at Saudi Arabia's civilian areas and oil facilities have proven unsuccessful, but they are a provocation at a time when the Middle East is already at risk of a widening conflict. With oil prices at a three-year high, it's possible prices could flare up even more if hostilities spread beyond Syria or Yemen, two hot spots that are seen as proxy wars pitting Iran against both Israel and Saudi Arabia. The U.S. is set to strike Syria in the very near future because of its chemical attack on civilians, and both Russia and Iran have said they stand with Syria. "We're at the pivot point. It's a binary outcome. If it's a pinprick in Syria, we've seen the price gains. We'll sell off afterwards. If Iranian assets, in particular in Syria, get hit, it's a game changer," said John Kilduff, energy analyst and founder of Again Capital.

U.S. oil prices are up nearly 8 percent this week so far, as tensions rose surrounding Syria. West Texas Intermediate futures temporarily rose above $67 per barrel, and Brent crude futures were above $72 per barrel. "Now you're talking about $75 WTI being on the table, and $80 Brent," said Helima Croft, global head of commodity strategy at RBC. She said oil would rise much higher if the proxy war escalates to a real war between Iran and Saudi Arabia or Israel. Trump said the U.S. would respond in Syria, after its government again used chemical weapons against civilians Saturday, killing dozens and wounding hundreds more. Syria has denied it. "If this is all contained to Syria we've probably seen the bulk of the rise. The issue you get into is if there's a strike on Iranian assets in Syria, a direct hit on Saudi, or a scenario where the Saudis and Israelis team up to take it to Iran directly, that's where you get into triple digit oil price land," said Kilduff.

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