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Iran holds military exercises in response to US sanctions – Washington Post

ISTANBUL Iran on Saturday began extensive military exercises in a defiant response to a week of warnings from the Trump administration, including new sanctions, with a senior Iranian military commander calling the actions futile and threatening to rain missiles down on the countrys enemies.

The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, Irans most influential security institution, said it would test missile and radar systems as part of the drill, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency. A statement on the IRGC website said that the aim of the exercise was to showcase the power of Irans revolution and to dismiss the sanctions, Reuters reported.

Should the enemy make a mistake, our roaring missiles will rain down on them, IRGC Air Force commander, Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, told the semiofficial Tasnim news agency.

Iran also threatened its own sanctions on unnamed U.S. individuals and companies, saying it would take action against those it deemed to have played a role in generating and supporting extremist terrorist groups. The statement from Irans foreign ministry came a day after the Trump administration announced new sanctions on individuals working on Irans ballistic missile programs, as well as those who have helped the IRGC support U.S.-designated terrorist groups.

Those sanctions were in response to Irans successful testing of a medium-range ballistic missile last week, which the United States says is a violation of the 2015 nuclear deal aimed at curbing Irans nuclear weapons development. President Trump said that Iran was playing with fire and that Iran had been put on notice for the missile test. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis also called Iran the biggest state sponsor of terrorism on Friday.

[Trump administration sanctions Iran over missile test]

At least three types of missiles were scheduled to be tested during the drills in Iran on Saturday, the privately owned Mehr News Agency reported, as well as radar systems and cyber warfare technology. The drills capped a week of rising tensions between the United States and Iran, which the Trump administration has also faulted for an attack by Iran-aligned Houthi rebels on a Saudi Arabian frigate off the coast of western Yemen.

For nearly two years, the United States has supported a Saudi-led coalition in a devastating war in Yemen that the United Nations says has killed 10,000 civilians.

Experts say the escalation between the United States and Iran probably wont unravel the nuclear deal, a multilateral agreement made to ease sanctions on Iran exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program. . The deal was negotiated by China, France, Russia, Britain, the United States and Germany.

Trump is unlikely to tear up the deal and shoulder the full wrath of the international community, Cliff Kupchan, chairman of political risk firm, Eurasia Group, wrote in a briefing note.

In addition to the multilateral deal, a follow-up resolution from the U.N. Security Council calls on Iran to refrain from testing ballistic missiles capable of nuclear payloads. But there is disagreement over whether such tests violate the resolution Iran insists the missile tests are part of its conventional weapons program and do not violate the nuclear agreement.

[ Iran bars U.S. wrestlers from tournament in response to Trumps travel ban]

Throughout his campaign for the presidency, Trump blasted the nuclear deal and vowed to renegotiate the terms.

US-Iran relations will be volatile under the Trump Administration, Kupchan wrote. And Trump will likely implement sanctions more frequently.

Iranian officials reiterated the countrys right to maintain defense capabilities. Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted Friday that Iran was unmoved by the threats.

We will never use our weapons against anyone, except in self-defense, he said.

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February 5th, 2017

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The Trump Administration Is Recklessly Escalating Tensions With Iran – The Nation.

There could be dire consequences.

National Security Adviser Michael Flynn speaking at a news briefing at the White House on February 1, 2017. (AP Photo / Carolyn Kaster)

The Trump administration is continuing to make reckless threats against Iran. On Wednesday, in response to recent missile tests, National Security Adviser Michael Flynn announced that the White House was officially putting Iran on notice, and refused to say whether military force is under consideration. The administration is now escalating sanctions against Iran, which will further ratchet up tensionseven though the missile tests are not a violation of the Iran nuclear agreement, and the White House hasnt even tried to say they are. But thats not stopping Trump. Just hours ago, he tweeted: Iran is playing with firethey dont appreciate how kind President Obama was to them. Not me!

The escalation is also taking hold in the mainstream press. Earlier this week, Business Insider published a piece with the headline US May Have to Consider Firing on Iranian Boats After Latest Houthi Attack, further raising tensions across the region. Seriously, the United States might have to attack Iran? The article was about an attack by Houthi rebels in Yemen against a Saudi warship that is part of the continuing US-backed Saudi assault against Yemen. There have been baseless claims that the Houthi attack was actually aimed at a US shipand the administration and now some in the mainstream press are continuing a popular but false claim that the Houthis are merely a proxy of Iran.

The realities are that

1) The Houthis are a longstanding part of Yemeni society with their own grievances; Iran has provided some funds, but they are not controlled by Tehran. The Houthis are fighting against the Saudi-backed former government in Yemen, in an internal war that predates the direct Saudi assault on Yemen that began in early 2015.

2) The Saudi war against Yemen is brutal, killing thousands of civilians through bombing and hunger, shutting off access to ports needed for food and medicine, and leaving the already-impoverished country to face near-famine conditions, with 50 percent of its population food insecure and dependent on UN food aid for survival.

3) The United States is already part of the war in Yemenselling billions of dollars worth of warplanes, weapons, and other war materiel to Saudi Arabia, and participating in the war directly by providing in-air refueling by US Air Force planes flown by US Air Force pilots.

4) Congress has never authorized any US involvement in the Saudi war against Yemen.

The biggest dangerat least right nowis less a direct US military assault on Iran than a massive escalation of the US war against Yemen, in the name of going after Iran. It will no longer be US support for the Saudi war, but instead risks becoming Washingtons own Yemen War against Iran. The humanitarian consequences for Yemenis would be horrifying.

The stakes are higher now than ever. Get The Nation in your inbox.

This weekends US special forces raid in Yemen killed 14 suspected Al Qaeda militants, according to the Pentagon, and reportedly as many as 16 civilians, including childrenone of whom was an 8-year-old US citizen. So the press headlines that the raid killed one American, referring to the Navy SEAL who died in the assault, are false. This raid, against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the Yemeni branch of Al Qaeda, is being treated by the United States as separate from US engagement in the Saudi war against Yemen. But it sets the stage for much greater direct military involvement.

Representative Ted Lieu from California has asked for a Pentagon briefing on the Yemen raid, but no one in Congress so far has demanded that the War Powers Act provisions be brought to bear on the ongoing unauthorized US military involvement in the Yemen war.

And things could escalate even further. There is a particular danger of even more reckless actions by a president unlikely to walk back his tweeted threats against Iran, even if advisers warn him of the dire potential consequences. And with the National Security Council now seemingly run largely by White House strategic adviser Steve Bannon, a leading white supremacist and Islamophobic ideologue, its not clear which advisers might do so.

Further, can we really assume that Trump Inc.s investments in Saudi Arabia, and newly confirmed Secretary of State and former Exxon-Mobil CEO Rex Tillersons oil connections, are playing no role in the decisions that could send the United States to war in Yemen on the side of Saudi Arabia against Iran? Trump has complained that Iran is taking too much in Iraqand he has also said that the perhaps there will be another chance to take the oil from the country. Maybe instead hes thinking about taking the oil in Iran?

Stay tuned.

Originally posted here:
The Trump Administration Is Recklessly Escalating Tensions With Iran - The Nation.

February 5th, 2017

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