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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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Rumors of an Iranian assassination plot offer lessons that Trump can't seem to learn - Business Insider - Business Insider

An Iranian woman looks at her mobile phone outside a shopping mall in Tehran in 2019. ( Vahid Salemi/AP Images)

Iranian lawmakers have proposed banning all foreign-owned social messaging apps and replacing them with domestic versions run by the regime.

Dozens of lawmakers have signed the August 24 proposal to create a committee to license and monitor domestic social networking sites and impose punishments of up to two years in prison for violating the new rules, Radio Farda reports.

But as Irans regime moves to further restrict everyday Iranians access to the internet, many senior regime officials still freely use U.S.-based social media technologies to spout propaganda.

Irans Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has several foreign language accounts on Twitter. He posted numerous tweets on September 1 bashing apeace deal between the United Arab Emirates and Israelas a betrayal of Arab nations that wont last long. Since then, Bahrain has also joined the UAE in normalizing ties with Israel.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif also have active Twitter accounts. Butthe regime already blocks everyday Iranians access to Twitter, as well as Facebook and YouTube.

The move to further restrict internet access comes after the regimeblacked out the internet to mask its violent crackdownon nationwide protests in November. Regime forceskilled about 1,500 peopleand rights groups say the regime tortured protesters after the demonstrations.

The Iranian regimes security and intelligence agencies apply filters to disrupt internet connections or restrict access. Telegram, the most popular messaging app in the country, is often censored, according to Radio Farda.

Since 2005, Irans leadershave spent at least $4.5 billion to build a domestic intranetthat would block data requests from going outside the country and allow the government to censor content. Regime officials recently announceda deal with China to build the national intranet.

The proposal in Irans parliament, called Organizing Social Media Messaging, would establish a committee to license and monitor messaging apps. The committee of regime entities would include a representative of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a U.S.-designated terrorist organization that answers directly to Khamenei.

The plan would require that an Iranian citizen own at least 50 percent of any domestic app, which must be hosted in Iran and comply with the nations laws. Individuals or entities that produce a messaging app outside the law or distribute virtual private networks would be in violation.

The U.S. government supports the right of the Iranian people to the free flow of information through its policies, such as theU.S. Treasury Departments General License D1, which facilitates the use of personal communications services in Iran.

By U.S. Embassy Tbilisi | 17 September, 2020 | Topics: Human Rights, News | Tags: freedom of expression, Iran, technology

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Who gets to use messaging apps in Iran? - US Embassy in Georgia

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I have the honour of speaking on behalf of France, Germany and the United Kingdom.

We would like to thank the Director General for his report contained in document GOV/2020/47 on the NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran.

We commend the Agency for its continued and intense efforts over almost a year to engage Iran in a substantial dialogue to clarify information relating to the correctness and completeness of Irans declarations under its Safeguards Agreement and Additional Protocol. We appreciate the Director Generals intensive personal efforts aimed at securing access to two specified locations in Iran and clarifying questions related to possible undeclared nuclear material or nuclear-related activities in Iran.

We welcome the Joint Statement reached on 26 August between the Agency and Iran. The Statement paves a procedural way forward towards the resolution of the safeguards implementation issues specified by the Agency and towards implementation by Iran of its legal obligations to provide access to sites identified by IAEA.

We take note of Irans encouraging statements on its intention to further strengthen its cooperation with the IAEA, and that access to one specified location has already been provided and the date for access to the second location has been scheduled. Furthermore, we note that the Agency has also conducted an additional inventory verification activity at a facility in Iran, in line with the above-mentioned Joint Statement. We expect Iran to fully implement the Joint Statement and provide full access to the second site on the date agreed with the Agency.

We call on Iran to provide the IAEA with the requested information and clarifications needed to resolve all open safeguards questions, including on the origins of anthropogenic natural uranium particles detected by the Agency at an undeclared location in 2019. This is a matter of Irans legally binding safeguards obligations.

We have confidence in the robustness and comprehensiveness of standard practice whereby the Agency evaluates all available safeguards-relevant information, including third-party information. The IAEA has robust procedures in place to corroborate and verify the veracity of third party information.

We encourage the Agency to continue to provide updates on the aforementioned issues to the Board as appropriate.

For transparency reasons, we would welcome the publication of the Director Generals report contained in GOV/2020/47.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Published 18 September 2020

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E3 statement on NPT Safeguards Agreement with Iran - GOV.UK

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier safely transited on Friday through the Strait of Hormuz, the worlds most important chokepoint for oil shipments, the U.S. Navy said, as tensions with Iran continue to simmer.

In a scheduled maneuver, the U.S. sent the carrier and several other warships through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. Navys Bahrain-based 5th fleet. The Nimitz, Americas oldest carrier in active service, carries some 5,000 sailors and Marines.

American aircraft carriers have for decades sailed through the international oil shipping route in what the U.S. describes as defensive operations aimed at keeping the strait open.

The show of force follows months of escalating incidents in the crucial waterway, which led earlier this year to an American drone strike that killed a top Iranian general in Baghdad. Tehran responded to that strike by firing ballistic missiles that wounded dozens of American troops in Iraq.

The Nimitzs arrival in the Mideast saw Iran conduct a live-fire drill targeting a mockup aircraft carrier resembling it, underscoring the lingering threat of military conflict between the countries.

The Nimitz strike group is at the peak of readiness, said Rear Adm. Jim Kirk, its commander.

The Nimitz, whose homeport is Bremerton, Washington, has patrolled the Arabian Sea since late July. It replaced the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower, which had spent months in the Arabian Sea on its deployment, breaking the Navys previous at-sea record. Navy officials have limited port calls due to the coronavirus pandemic.

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US carrier transits Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with Iran - Yahoo News

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) For the third straight day, federal prosecutors have announced criminal charges accusing Iranian nationals with conducting cyberattacks in the U.S., with the charges this time targeting a member of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard.

The most recent charges announced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Virginia, accuse a member of the Revolutionary Guard and two others of stealing the identities of individuals working in aerospace and satellite technology. The hackers would then use those identities to launch phishing campaigns on the tech workers' peers in order to launch malware and commandeer sensitive data and intellectual property, officials said.

The accused Revolutionary Guard member is Said Arabi, 34. The other two are Mohammad Reza Espargham, 25, and Mohammad Bayati, 34, all Iranian nationals residing in Iran. Espargham is identified in a leader in the Iranian Dark Coders Team, described in the indictment as a notorious group of Iranian hackers responsible for numerous computer intrusions worldwide.

All three are living in Iran. Court records do not list an attorney for any of the men.

The use of malware, the theft of commercial data and intellectual property, and the use of social engineering to steal the identities of United States citizens to accomplish unlawful acts will not be tolerated," said U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia G. Zachary Terwilliger, whose office is prosecuting the case.

Prosecutors say the conspiracy stretched from 2015 through 2019. The indictment spells out one phishing attack that uses the name of an unidentified college professor who purportedly was seeking help on a project related to the processing of satellite images. The email asks recipients to click on a link to assist with the project.

Earlier this week,prosecutors in Boston obtained indictmentsagainst an Iranian national and a Palestinian national for allegedly defacing websites across the U.S. in retaliation to thetargeted killingof Iran Gen. Qassem Soleimani, replacing the websites' content with pictures of the top Iranian general and messages such as Down with America.

And on Wednesday, the department announced charges against two Iranian nationals accused of stealing hundreds of terabytes of data in a hacking campaign targeting institutions in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East.

On Thursday, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced sanctions against an Iranian cyber threat group known as Advanced Persistent Threat 39 (APT39) and 45 individuals associated with the group. In a statement, Pompeo called Iran one of the worlds leading threats to cybersecurity and human rights online.

We will continue to expose Irans nefarious behavior and impose costs on the regime until they turn away from their destabilizing agenda. Pompeo said.

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More Iranian Nationals Charged with Hacking Crimes - Manufacturing.net