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TEHRAN, Iran (AP) The chief of Irans paramilitary Revolutionary Guard threatened Saturday to go after everyone who had a role in a top generals January killing during a U.S. drone strike in Iraq.

The guards website quoted Gen. Hossein Salami as saying, Mr. Trump! Our revenge for martyrdom of our great general is obvious, serious and real.

U.S. President Donald Trump warned this week that Washington would harshly respond to any Iranian attempts to take revenge for the death of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, tweeting that if they hit us in any way, any form, written instructions already done were going to hit them 1000 times harder.

The presidents warning came in response to a report that Iran was plotting to assassinate the U.S. ambassador to South Africa in retaliation for Soleimanis killing at Baghdads airport at the beginning of the year.

We took out the worlds number one terrorist and the mass murderer of American troops and many, many troops and many people all over the world, Trump said. Qasem Soleimani is dead. Hes dead. Bad guy. Bad guy. Very bad guy.

Salami rejected the report of an Iranian plot to assassinate Ambassador Lana Marks, but made clear that Iran intends to avenge the generals death.

Do you think we hit a female ambassador in return to our martyred brother? the general said. We will hit those who had direct and indirect roles. You should know that everybody who had role in the event will be hit, and this is a serious message. We do prove everything in practice.

In January, Iran launched a ballistic missile attack targeting U.S. soldiers in Iraq in response to the fatal drone strike.

Trump has stepped up economic pressure on Iran with sanctions since he pulled the United States out of Irans nuclear deal with world powers in 2018.

Tehran has continued to expand its stockpile of enriched uranium and pressured other nations to offset the harm of U.S. sanctions, while insisting it does not want to develop a nuclear weapon.

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Iran vows 'hit' on all involved in US killing of top general - The Associated Press

It is the latest move in the "maximum pressure" campaign against Tehran -- one that has left the US largely isolated. It comes after the administration failed to extend the conventional weapons embargo set to expire next month under the Iran nuclear deal.

Experts told CNN that this unilateral effort -- which comes less than two months before the presidential election -- is unlikely to have an impact on arms sales on its own. Some say the move further alienates the US from its E3 allies -- Germany, France and the United Kingdom -- and serves to further undercut the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the landmark 2015 Iran nuclear agreement.

Although the US withdrew from that deal in 2018, administration officials have argued they have the legal authority to trigger the sanctions that were lifted as part of the agreement.

Special Representative for Iran Elliott Abrams told reporters this week that come Saturday at 8 pm ET "virtually all UN sanctions on Iran will come back into place."

"We expect every nation to comply with UN Security Council resolutions -- period, full stop," Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday. "And the United States is intent on enforcing all the UN Security Council resolutions. And come Monday, there will be a new series of UN Security Council resolutions that we enforce, and we intend to ask every country to stand behind them."

But given that most countries have rebuffed the US' legal argument and are poised to ignore the snapback sanctions, "absolutely nothing will change," said Barbara Slavin, the director of the Future of Iran Initiative at the Atlantic Council.

"It has no practical meaning, and in a sense it just makes look ridiculous and and more isolated, because we are running around screaming, you know, 'This is the case,' and the rest of the world is saying, 'No, it's not,' " she told CNN.

"It is still illegal under US law for American companies to sell arms to Iran. There is a European arms embargo, which will continue until 2023. And the rest of the world will wait for US presidential elections and then make its decision about whether or not to sell weapons to Iran," Slavin said. "This is really more about the Trump administration trying to bury the JCPOA while it thinks it has the opportunity."

Slavin and Eric Brewer, deputy director and senior fellow with the Project on Nuclear Issues at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, both noted that the US could already take a broad range of sanctions actions under its own authorities without reimposing snapback sanctions.

"I do think this is mostly at this point about inducing the collapse of the JCPOA, because I think the administration has kind of realized at this point that that is really standing in the way of what they argue is their goal of putting enormous pressure on Iran, to the point where it comes back to the table and is willing to make a range of concessions on the demands that the United States has laid out," Brewer told CNN.

Richard Goldberg, a senior adviser at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued that "the JCPOA is basically dead already. We just haven't had the funeral."

Goldberg told CNN that he would expect President Donald Trump to issue an executive order "that authorizes sanctions to be imposed on any firm or individual connected to the transfer of advanced conventional arms to Iran going forward."

"This is a major threat to their global defense sales, both from Moscow and Beijing," he said. "They'll have to make a calculation, if the President is willing to enforce those sanctions, do they want to sacrifice or put at risk their other sales around the world just to help the Islamic Republic."

However, the experts said Russia and China are unlikely to move forward with any arms transfers until after the US election in November.

"Nobody is really in the mood to rush any of this before November, when we see what happens in the United States," Brewer said.

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Trump administration to attempt to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran despite international opposition - CNN

Iran appears to be in the grip of a third wave of the coronavirus outbreak, with the number of new infections above 3,000 a day as high as at any point since the virus first hit in February.

Iran was one of the first countries to be struck by the virus outside China. Its officials brought the disease under a form of control by early May, but then experienced an increase at the start of June that drifted down to fewer than 1,600 new cases a day in late August.

According to the latest figures released on Friday by the Iranian health department, 144 people had died and 3,049 new cases had been registered in the previous 24 hours. The total number of confirmed deaths from Covid-19 stands at 23,952, and 28 of the countrys provinces, including the capital, Tehran, are classified as red or yellow on a scale denoting the severity of outbreaks.

Earlier this week, Alireza Zali, the anti-coronavirus coordinator for Tehran, said forecasts showed the country was moving towards the third wave of the coronavirus, and it seems the wave will take shape in Tehran much earlier than other provinces.

Iraj Harirchi, the director of the National Coronavirus Control Centre, said the countrys colour coding system no longer made any sense. We no longer have orange and yellow, the whole country is in red, he said. He warned the death toll may reach 45,000, with the complication of influenza arriving soon.

Abbas Ali Dorsti, vice-chancellor for health at Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, warned that despite the observance of 70% of health protocols by Iranian people, events in recent weeks, including the increase in travel and non-observance of protocols by some people meant infections were back on the rise.

Schools and universities have reopened, but it has been left to parents to decide whether to send their child to class, and in many cases parents are keeping children at home.

With some Iranians warning of a health catastrophe this winter, the increasingly remote Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, said the health department was trying to assemble an extra 10,000 hospital beds.

More than 400,000 Iranians are officially recorded as having contracted the virus, although these official figures are widely regarded as an underestimate. The crisis is coming at a time of unprecedented pressure on the cost of living of ordinary Iranians as sanctions bite, hitting the currency, and driving up the price of everyday goods from cars, petrol and butter.

The political dispute between the US and Iran over sanctions is also intensifying ahead of the US presidential elections.

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Iran appears to be in grip of third wave of coronavirus outbreak - The Guardian

Criminal charges announced this week against multiple alleged hackers in Iran show the breadth of the cyber threat emanating from that country and the FBI and partner agency efforts to neutralize it and hold the individuals accountable.

The hacks included cyber intrusions and fraud, vandalism of U.S. websites, and intellectual property theft from U.S. aerospace and satellite technology companies. In each of the cases, the suspects were believed to be operating at the behest of the Iranian government, or in support of it.

While the cases filed in federal courts in Boston, Alexandria, and Newark are separate and unique, prosecutors and FBI investigators said they send a message that hackers will face consequences regardless of distance and borders.

No cyber actor should think they can compromise U.S. networks, steal our intellectual property, or hold our critical infrastructure at risk without incurring risk themselves, said Executive Assistant Director Terry Wade of the FBIs Criminal, Cyber, Response, and Services Branch. The FBI will continue to work with our partners to protect U.S. interests and to impose consequences on those cyber actors working on behalf of the Government of Iran in furtherance of their nefarious goals.

On Tuesday, Behzad Mohammadzadeh, of Iran, and Marwan Abusrour, of the Palestinian territories, were indicted in Massachusetts on charges of damaging multiple websites as retaliation for U.S. military action in January that killed the head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization.

On Wednesday, Hooman Heidarian and Mehdi Farhadi, both of Iran, were charged in New Jersey in connection with a coordinated cyber intrusion campaign. Investigators allege that the pair, sometimes at the behest of the government of Iran, targeted computers in New Jersey and around the world.

In addition to stealing hundreds of terabytes of sensitive data, the defendants also vandalized websites, often under the pseudonym Sejeal, and posted messages that appeared to signal the demise of Irans internal opposition, foreign adversaries, and countries identified as rivals, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.

On Thursday, an indictment unsealed in Virginia charged Said Pourkarim Arabi, Mohammad Reza Espargham, and Mohammad Bayati, all living in Iran, with engaging in a coordinated campaign of identity theft and hacking on behalf of Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a designated foreign terrorist organization.

According the charges, the defendants campaign began back in 2015. At one time, they had a target list of more than 1,800 online accounts, including those of aerospace or satellite technology and international government organizations in Australia, Israel, Singapore, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The three allegedly used social engineering techniques to make contact with those on the target list and assume their identities online. This allowed the defendants to send messages to other unsuspecting individuals that contained malware hidden in links and documents. The malware allowed the hackers access to many additional computer systems.

Also Thursday, the FBI released the details of eight separate and distinct sets of malware used by a front company in Iran to raise awareness of the threat and provide tools to help companies defend their computer networks. The company, Rana Intelligence Computing Company, helped Irans Ministry of Intelligence and Security, target at least 15 U.S. companies along with hundreds of individuals and entities from more than 30 countries across Asia, Africa, Europe, and North America. The investigation led to the U.S. Department of the Treasury issuing sanctions against Rana and 45 cyber actors.

The efforts were reflective of the FBIs new cyber strategy, which is to impose risk and consequences on cyber adversariesmaking it harder for both cyber criminals and foreign governments to use malicious cyber activity to achieve their objectives. The new strategy also emphasizes the role the FBI plays as an indispensable partner to federal counterparts, foreign partners, and private-sector partners. We want to make sure were doing everything we can to help our partners do what they need to do, said FBI Director Wray. That means using our role as the lead federal agency with law enforcement and intelligence responsibilities to not only pursue our own actions, but to enable our partners to defend networks, attribute malicious activity, sanction bad behavior, and take the fight to our adversaries overseas.

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Iran at Center of Cyber Crime Charges in Three Cases | Federal Bureau of Investigation - Federal Bureau of Investigation

Iran's alleged intent to assassinate US Ambassador to South Africa Lana Marks is odd news, to say the least.

Marks has no obvious connection to the US assassination of Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani, for which this exposed plot would be retribution. Nor has South Africa figured significantly in the last four years' deterioration of US-Iran relations.

But whatever the reason for Marks' implication, this suspected plot should be a lesson for US foreign policy: Reckless interventionism will have unintended consequences, which means Washington's lack of restraint and diplomacy can unwittingly make the United States less secure.

For Americans preoccupied with election season and COVID-19, the Soleimani killing may seem like a storyline that ended months ago. It is not. Iran doesn't share our short political memory, and it is not surprising that the Iranian regime may not consider its deathless retaliatory strike on Iraqi military bases housing US troops an end to the affair.

Lana Marks in Soweto, South Africa, in June 2020. Sharon Seretlo/Gallo Images via Getty Images

The step away from war Washington and Tehran chose at the beginning of this year was wise, particularly with the hindsight we now have regarding the pandemic.

Yet that pause should not be mistaken for any sort of resolution of the crisis which preceded it. This is not a dtente. We've managed to maintain a mutually hostile status quo instead of devolving into open conflict or forcible regime change, but US-Iranian relations are not mended.

On the contrary, all the context for the Soleimani strike and Iran's initial retribution measure remains intact eight months later. The Trump administration strategy's goal is still regime change.

President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are still committed to "maximum pressure," which is successful only in exacerbating Iran's humanitarian needs and incentivizing further covert violence and regional trouble-making from a Tehran desperate to demonstrate it won't be cowed into submission.

The United States still has ongoing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, flanking Iran with military deployments our president has said outright are useful for monitoring and, by implication, potentially attacking Iran "because Iran is a real problem."

Trump is also still backing Saudi Arabia in its brutal intervention in Yemen's civil war, simultaneously a proxy conflict with Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani still says he wants the US to rejoin the Obama-era nuclear deal Trump abandoned, but Iran's decision to increase its enriched uranium stockpile above the deal's limits in a bid for US concessions still hasn't led to productive negotiations.

Supporters of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani celebrate Rouhani's election victory, in Tehran, May 20, 2017. Ebrahim Noroozi/AP

Any appearance of resolution here was a mirage. The recent quiet from Iran is reportedly due to COVID-19 and attention to the US electoral calendar, not any new acquiescence to Washington's pressure.

Or, if our information on the Marks assassination plot is correct, Tehran has simply moved its antagonism out of sight since this past winter. The unintended consequences of our interventionist foreign policy weren't escaped or even suspended; we simply didn't see them for a little while.

Such repercussions can often be ignored in Washington because the sheer strength of the United States military, our natural geographic security advantages, and our unparalleled wealth make large-scale consequences like conquest unthinkable. There is no realistic scenario, for example, in which Iran could invade and vanquish the United States.

But that sort of conventional defeat is not the only risk belligerence and coercion toward Iran occasions. US military attacks on other countries' self-perceived core interests like assassinating a national hero in a position analogous to secretary of defensewill be met with retaliation.

The cost in blood and treasure will never do us existential damage, but it is not to be on that count dismissed or downplayed.

Supporters of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani celebrate after Rouhani's presidential election victory in May 2017. Majid Saeedi/Getty

Happily, this belligerence and coercion isn't necessary for our defense. We could trade threats and threat-inflation for deterrence and, eventually, effective diplomacy.

That's safe and feasible because Iran is not a substantial or imminent threat to the United States. It is a middling power already constrained by regional enemies (like Israel and Saudi Arabia). Its entire economy is exceeded by the Pentagon budget alone, and it receives wildly disproportionate attention in our politics and foreign policy.

For the US, the biggest danger connected to Iran is a risk of our own making: the possibility of yet another multi-decade war creating needless suffering and sapping American strength.

If Washington won't move toward restraint, living by the sword may not mean dying by the sword for the world's sole superpower, skirmishing against enemies armed with pocketknives. But enough small jabs will eventually bleed us dry.

Bonnie Kristian is a fellow at Defense Priorities, contributing editor at The Week, and columnist at Christianity Today. Her writing has also appeared at CNN, NBC, USA Today, the Los Angeles Times, and Defense One, among other outlets.

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