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BASRA, Iraq Protesters in this port city stormed the Iranian Consulate late Friday, setting it on fire and sharply escalating violent demonstrations that began over miserable living conditions but have grown into an indictment of Iraqs stagnant politics.

The consulate was the latest symbol of entrenched power to be torched by protesters in Basra during a week of demonstrations, raising concerns that the unrest would draw a firm response from Iran, which controls several powerful militias in the oil-export city.

The attack on the consulate also upended notions of solidarity between Iraqs Shiite heartland and Iran, the preeminent Shiite power in the region. The assault contributed to a growing sense that Iraq is slipping into a period of dangerous instability as powerful political parties remain locked in a struggle over the composition of the countrys next government.

Protesters said they targeted the consulate to vent their frustrations over abuses by Iran-backed militias in Basra, as well what they see as Tehrans outsize influence over their city and over Iraqs fractured politics.

The demonstrators complained that the militias run rampant in Basra, kidnapping and extorting money from their opponents and creating an atmosphere of fear. They said Iran has empowered the militias to enrich themselves at the expense of the citys residents.

Iran has destabilized Basra with their armed gangs, said Sattar Hamdi, 50, a day laborer. They have the upper hand here and with the politicians in Baghdad. Im appealing to any foreign country, even Israel, for help because weve already lost Iraq to Iran.

Protests over a lack of electricity and clean water during the scorching summer months began in early July in Basra and other Shiite-majority cities but have grown larger and more violent in recent days as politicians have failed to form a national government nearly four months after elections in May.

Iran and the United States have been deeply involved in the political gridlock, each supporting rival factions that claim a parliamentary majority and the right to appoint a new prime minister.

People in Basra have accused Iraqs political class of abandoning them, ignoring the peoples pleas for relief as the politicians jockey for control of a new government. They have expressed their displeasure by burning down the headquarters of nearly every political party in the city, along with offices belonging to Shiite militias that won parliamentary seats in the May elections.

Fresh graffiti outside the destroyed offices of the powerful Badr Organization, an Iran-aligned party that counts Iraqs interior minister among its senior leaders, announced: We demand blood.

Packs of young men surrounded the gated complex of the Iranian Consulate as the sun set on Friday, breaking past police checkpoints as they smashed their way into the empty building and set it on fire.

Dozens lingered afterward, taking photos and videos of the burning consulate as police stood by sometimes chatting or joking with the young demonstrators.

Police had repelled an attack on the consulate Thursday night but were overwhelmed by the growing number of young men Friday, one officer said. He said he was hesitant to draw his weapon on the protesters after at least eight were shot during other demonstrations this week, drawing widespread condemnation from the government and from the United Nations and human rights groups.

Visa services are officially suspended, cracked one of the demonstrators as he filmed the flames and dark plumes of smoke with his cellphone.

Shall we go for the Turkish Consulate next? a friend responded.

A group of protesters gathered around a young man who clutched papers he said he stole from a city council building that purported to show thousands of dollars in allocations to various city officials.

Theyre being given a fortune, but we cant even get clean water from the taps, the man shouted.

Iraqs Health Ministry said Thursday that 6,280 people have been sickened by the water in Basra, which residents have said is too salty for drinking or cleaning.

Protesters have said they were moved to action by the citys undrinkable water and crumbling infrastructure, bitterly noting that Basra is the top export hub for Iraqs oil yet remains one of the countrys least developed cities.

After Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis government failed to respond to their demands in July, protesters began to rally against Iraqs endemic corruption and the political figures that have dominated the country since the 2003 invasion by U.S. troops.

Hussein Hatem, 33, a welder, said that torching the Iranian Consulate was a message to Irans and Iraqs leaders alike that Basra does not belong to anyone.

Our government takes orders from Iran, he said. And no one is looking after us. Weve run out of patience. Theyre busy trying to form the biggest bloc in parliament and they cant fulfill the most basic demand for clean water.

Iraqs Foreign Ministry condemned the attack on the consulate, saying the assault harms Iraqs interests and is unrelated to demonstrators demands for basic services and clean water.

It was the latest security embarrassment for the ministry in two days. Late Thursday, three mortar rounds landed in an empty field near the U.S. Embassy in Baghdads fortified Green Zone. There were no injuries, and no group asserted responsibility for the incident.

Meanwhile, Basra is settling into a new rhythm.

During the day, diverse groups of protesters, including many women, chant against government corruption and unemployment, occupying major squares and boulevards to demonstrate peacefully.

As day gives way to night, large columns of young men in their teens and 20s take over the streets, stopping traffic as they walk swiftly or jog to any symbol of government power they can find to vandalize.

Despite the daytime protests and nighttime disturbances, residents go about their business, sipping tea in cafes or window-shopping at brightly lighted stores. On occasion, they step aside to make way for the clutches of young men chanting slogans such as Iran, out, out! and If we die, we die, as long as the nation survives.

Read more:

Deadly protests rage in Iraq over lack of services as political transition deadlocks

How Moqtada al-Sadr went from anti-American outlaw to potential kingmaker in Iraq

U.S. sanctions on Iran hit an unintended target: Ordinary Iraqis

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Chanting Iran, out! Iraqi protesters torch Iranian ...

PARIS/BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iran has given ballistic missiles to Shiite proxies in Iraq and is developing the capacity to build more there to deter attacks on its interests in the Middle East and to give it the means to hit regional foes, Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources said.

FILE PHOTO: A display featuring missiles and a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is seen at Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran September 27, 2017. Nazanin Tabatabaee Yazdi/TIMA via REUTERS

Any sign that Iran is preparing a more aggressive missile policy in Iraq will exacerbate tensions between Tehran and Washington, already heightened by U.S. President Donald Trumps decision to pull out of a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

It would also embarrass France, Germany and the United Kingdom, the three European signatories to the nuclear deal, as they have been trying to salvage the agreement despite new U.S. sanctions against Tehran.

According to three Iranian officials, two Iraqi intelligence sources and two Western intelligence sources, Iran has transferred short-range ballistic missiles to allies in Iraq over the last few months. Five of the officials said it was helping those groups to start making their own.

The logic was to have a backup plan if Iran was attacked, one senior Iranian official told Reuters. The number of missiles is not high, just a couple of dozen, but it can be increased if necessary.

Iran has previously said its ballistic missile activities are purely defensive in nature. Iranian officials declined to comment when asked about the latest moves.

The Iraqi government and military both declined to comment.

The Zelzal, Fateh-110 and Zolfaqar missiles in question have ranges of about 200 km to 700 km, putting Saudi Arabias capital Riyadh or the Israeli city of Tel Aviv within striking distance if the weapons were deployed in southern or western Iraq.

The Quds Force, the overseas arm of Irans powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has bases in both those areas. Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani is overseeing the program, three of the sources said.

Western countries have already accused Iran of transferring missiles and technology to Syria and other allies of Tehran, such as Houthi rebels in Yemen and Lebanons Hezbollah.

Irans Sunni Muslim Gulf neighbors and its arch-enemy Israel have expressed concerns about Tehrans regional activities, seeing it as a threat to their security.

Israeli officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the missile transfers.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Wednesday that anybody that threatened to wipe Israel out would put themselves in a similar danger.

The Western source said the number of missiles was in the 10s and that the transfers were designed to send a warning to the United States and Israel, especially after air raids on Iranian troops in Syria. The United States has a significant military presence in Iraq.

It seems Iran has been turning Iraq into its forward missile base, the Western source said.

The Iranian sources and one Iraqi intelligence source said a decision was made some 18 months ago to use militias to produce missiles in Iraq, but activity had ramped up in the last few months, including with the arrival of missile launchers.

We have bases like that in many places and Iraq is one of them. If America attacks us, our friends will attack Americas interests and its allies in the region, said a senior IRGC commander who served during the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s.

The Western source and the Iraqi source said the factories being used to develop missiles in Iraq were in al-Zafaraniya, east of Baghdad, and Jurf al-Sakhar, north of Kerbala. One Iranian source said there was also a factory in Iraqi Kurdistan.

The areas are controlled by Shiite militias, including Kataib Hezbollah, one of the closest to Iran. Three sources said Iraqis had been trained in Iran as missile operators.

The Iraqi intelligence source said the al-Zafaraniya factory produced warheads and the ceramic of missile moulds under former President Saddam Hussein. It was reactivated by local Shiite groups in 2016 with Iranian assistance, the source said.

A team of Shiite engineers who used to work at the facility under Saddam were brought in, after being screened, to make it operational, the source said. He also said missiles had been tested near Jurf al-Sakhar.

The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon declined to comment.

One U.S official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that Tehran over the last few months has transferred missiles to groups in Iraq but could not confirm that those missiles had any launch capability from their current positions.

Washington has been pushing its allies to adopt a tough anti-Iran policy since it reimposed sanctions this month.

While the European signatories to the nuclear deal have so far balked at U.S. pressure, they have grown increasingly impatient over Irans ballistic missile program.

France in particular has bemoaned Iranian frenzy in developing and propagating missiles and wants Tehran to open negotiations over its ballistic weapons.

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Thursday that Iran was arming regional allies with rockets and allowing ballistic proliferation. Iran needs to avoid the temptation to be the (regional) hegemon, he said.

In March, the three nations proposed fresh EU sanctions on Iran over its missile activity, although they failed to push them through after opposition from some member states.

Such a proliferation of Iranian missile capabilities throughout the region is an additional and serious source of concern, a document from the three European countries said at the time.

A regional intelligence source also said Iran was storing a number of ballistic missiles in areas of Iraq that were under effective Shiite control and had the capacity to launch them.

The source could not confirm that Iran has a missile production capacity in Iraq.

A second Iraqi intelligence official said Baghdad had been aware of the flow of Iranian missiles to Shiite militias to help fight Islamic State militants, but that shipments had continued after the hardline Sunni militant group was defeated.

It was clear to Iraqi intelligence that such a missile arsenal sent by Iran was not meant to fight Daesh (Islamic State) militants but as a pressure card Iran can use once involved in regional conflict, the official said.

The Iraqi source said it was difficult for the Iraqi government to stop or persuade the groups to go against Tehran.

We cant restrain militias from firing Iranian rockets because simply the firing button is not in our hands, its with Iranians who control the push button, he said.

Iran will definitely use the missiles it handed over to Iraqi militia it supports to send a strong message to its foes in the region and the United States that it has the ability to use Iraqi territories as a launch pad for its missiles to strike anywhere and anytime it decides, the Iraqi official said.

Iraqs parliament passed a law in 2016 to bring an assortment of Shiite militia groups known collectively as the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) into the state apparatus. The militias report to Iraqs prime minister, who is a Shiite under the countrys unofficial governance system.

However, Iran still has a clear hand in coordinating the PMF leadership, which frequently meets and consults with Soleimani.

Additional reporting by Phil Stewart and Jonathan Landay in Washington; editing by David Clarke

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Exclusive: Iran moves missiles to Iraq in warning to enemies ...

EXCLUSIVE An Iraniancivil aviation companyis suspected of smuggling arms into Lebanon, destined for the militant group Hezbollah and Iranian weapons factories -- and western intelligence sources said Monday they've uncovered the unexpected routes that Iran apparently took to try avoiding detection.

The sourcesidentified two rare and unusualQeshm Fars Air flights from Tehran to the international airport in Beirutduring the past two months.

The first flight, on July 9, involved a Boeing 747 that departed from an air force base in Tehran, stopped for a short layover at the international airport in Damascus, Syria, and then continued with a rather uncharacteristic flight path to the Beirut international airport, where it landed shortly after 4 p.m. local time.

One route passed over northern Lebanon after a layover in Damascus.(FlightRadar24/Google Maps)

According to flight data obtained by Fox News, the route passed over northern Lebanon, not following any commonly used flight path. A regional intelligence source who asked to remain anonymous said:The Iranians are trying to come up with new ways and routes to smuggle weapons from Iran to its allies in the Middle East, testing and defying the Wests abilities to track them down.

Western intelligence sources said the airplane carried components for manufacturing precise weapons in Iranian factories inside Lebanon. The U.S. and Israel, as well as other western intelligence agencies, have supplied evidence that Iran has operated weapons factories in Lebanon, Syria and Yemen.

Last week, citing Iranian, Iraqi and Western sources, the Reuters news agency reported that Iran had transferred short-range ballistic missiles to its Shiite allies inside Iraq in recent months.Tehran and Baghdad formally denied that report.

The second flight was conducted on August 2. Flight number QFZ9960 landed in Beirut at 5:59 pm, after departing Tehran's international airport two and a half hours earlier. This time, the plane did not stop in Damascus, but it followed a slightly irregular route north of Syria.

Another aircraft flew directly from Tehran to Beirut, following an unusual path.(FlightRadar24/Google Maps)

Qeshm Fars Airis considered one of the various pseudo-civilian airlines used forarms-smuggling by theIslamic Revolutionary Guard Corps(IRGC)and the elite Al-Quds force led byQassem Soleimani. Back in October 2017, President Trump imposed sanctions on the IRGC and the Al-Quds force.

IRAN STILL SEEKING WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION, GERMAN INTEL REVEALS

The airline had ceased operations in 2013, citing poor management, but restarted under new management in March 2017. It is said to have two Boeing 747s in its fleet.Among the members of the companys board are three IRGC representatives: Ali Naghi Gol Parsta, Hamid Reza Pahlvani and Gholamreza Qhasemi.

The United States is Lebanons primary security partner, according to the State Department. Since 2006, the U.S has provided Lebanon over $1.7 billion in security assistance, in part to counter Hezbollahs influences.

Qeshm Fars Air, an Iranian civil aviation company, is suspected of smuggling arms into Lebanon, destined for the militant group Hezbollah and Iranian weapons factories.(File)

NETANYAHU: IRAN 'BRAZENLY LYING' AFTER SIGNING NUCLEAR DEAL

Hezbollah is considered a terror organization by many U.S. officials and other western countries, and is backed and funded by Iran.

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Iran's secret weapons-smuggling air routes to Lebanon ...

Iran's president attempted to explain to parliament on Tuesday how he would pull the country out of its economic nosedive, taking shots at the U.S. before lawmakers voted to reject his explanation.

Iranian lawmakers had ordered President Hassan Rouhani to answer for his role in the faltering economy amid growing political divisions in the country. Rouhani claimed that newly reimposed U.S. sanctions after President Trump pulled out of the 2015 nuclear deal would only serve to unify the country, according to Reuters.

I want to assure the Iranian nation that we will not allow the U.S. plot against the Islamic Republic to succeed, he told parliament. We will not let this bunch of anti-Iranians in the White House be able to plot against us.

Iran's currency, the rial, has lost more than two-thirds of its value in a year while the official unemployment rate sits at 12 percent.Youth unemployment, however, is as high as 25 percent in a country where 60 percent of the 80 million population is under 30, according to Reuters.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks in a session of the parliament while answering questions of lawmakers, in Tehran, Iran, Tuesday, Aug. 28, 2018.(AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Earlier this year, nationwide protests erupted over economic anxiety, and lawmakers fired Rouhani's labor and finance ministers this month amid the economic crisis.

IRAN CLAIMS IT CONTROLS STRAIT OF HORMUZ, PROMPTING POMPEO DENIAL

Speaking Tuesday before parliament, Rouhani said those protests only strengthened Trump's hand to pull out of the atomic accord.

"This lured Trump into saying that he will not remain in the deal," Rouhani said.

Rouhani failed to convince parliament on Tuesday that his plans will pull the country out of an economic nosedive worsened by America's withdrawal from the nuclear deal, further isolating his relatively moderate administration amid nationwide anger. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

Lawmakers, however, were not satisfied with the president's answer and voted four separate times to say they were unconvinced of his answers about Iran's recession, its cratering currency, unemployment and smuggling, according to the Associated Press.

Those questions now could go to Iran's judiciary for further review, serving as a warning to the cleric his political stature is slipping.

IRAN NUCLEAR DEAL: WHAT IS IT?

In recent days, rhetoric from Iran has increased as a top Iranian Navy general said that the country has taken full control of the Strait of Hormuz and Persian Gulf.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded Monday night, saying: "The Islamic Republic of Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is an international waterway. The United States will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways."

Military officials echoed similar statements on Tuesday at a briefing with reporters at the Pentagon.

"For decades, our forces have been posted in the Gulf, to ensure freedom of navigation and we will continue to do that," said Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Travis Fedschun is a reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @travfed

Originally posted here:
Iran's president vows to overcome 'anti-Iranians' in White ...

A major shipping route located between Oman and Iran where nearly one-third of the world's sea-traded oil passes through daily may become a new flashpoint after a top Iranian Navy general said Monday that the country has taken full control of the Strait of Hormuz.

The head of the navy of Irans Revolutionary Guards, Gen. Alireza Tangsiri, said that Iran had full control of both the Persian Gulf itself and the Strait of Hormuz that leads into it,Reuters reported.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo responded Monday night: "The Islamic Republic of Iran does not control the Strait of Hormuz. The Strait is an international waterway. The United States will continue to work with our partners to ensure freedom of navigation and free flow of commerce in international waterways."

The strait, which at its narrowest point is 21 miles wide, has shipping lanes that are 2 miles wide in each direction and is the only sea passage from many of the world's largest oil producers to the Indian Ocean.

"It's a very contentious area," retired Lt. Col. Bob Maginnis told Fox News' "Your World with Neil Cavuto" earlier this month.

The Strait of Hormuz is where most of the oil from Saudi Arabia passes through, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The Saudis have constructed pipelines to bypass the strait, but a majority of crude oil is shipped by sea, meaning that any action by Iran to halt shipping may impact consumers across the world.

"The blockage of the Strait of Hormuz, even temporarily, could lead to substantial increases in total energy costs," the agency said in a 2012 report.

At the beginning of August, Iran began a large-scale exercise in the Strait of Hormuz involving more than 50 small boats, practicing swarming operations that could potentially shut down the vital waterway if ever deployed for real. The drill came after President Trump pulled the U.S. out of a landmark nuclear accord with Iran and leaders of both countries exchanged fiery rhetoric.

The country routinely operates small boats in the Strait of Hormuz and the surrounding area, and has often threatened to shut down the highly traveled waterway. Acheck of conditions on MaritimeTraffic.comon Monday showed that conditions appeared to be normal, with heavy maritime traffic through the strait.

In recent weeks Iranian President Hassan Rouhani renewed the threat, saying that if sanctions threatened Iran's crude oil exports, the rest of the Middle East's exports would be threatened as well.

"They're causing problems once again, as predicted, in the Strait of Hormuz," Maginnis said. "This is something we've grown accustomed too."

IRAN SAYS IT HAS CONTROL OF GULF AND STRAIT OF HORMUZ: REPORT

Military officials have said that U.S. and allies train to be able to insure that freedom of navigation continues in the Strait of Hormuz.(Reuters)

But if Iran were to follow through with any bluster to close down the vital shipping channel, a potential U.S. response would be swift.

"The U.S. and our partners provide and promote security and stability in the region on a daily basis," Lt. Chloe Morgan, U.S. Naval Forces Central Command spokesperson, said in a statement to Fox News on Monday. "Together, we stand ready to ensure the freedom of navigation and the free flow of commerce wherever international law allows."

Gen. Joseph Votel, head of U.S. Central Command, said earlier this month that Iran was showcasing its military capabilities and has the ability to plant mines and explosive boats in the waterway, as well as use missiles and radar along the coast. He stressed the U.S. and allies routinely train for that possibility and are prepared to insure that freedom of navigation and commerce continues in those waters.

U.S officials say that Iran has the ability to ability to plant mines and explosive boats in the waterway, in addition to using missiles and radar along the coast.(Reuters)

"We are aware of what's going on and we remain ready to protect ourselves," he told reporters.

Fox News security analyst Walid Pharestold Fox Business Network's"Varney & Co." that the Iranians can damage the international passage "if they want," but that the U.S. can easily "intercept them, stop them, and damage their own capacity."

"It's kind of a brinkmanship capacity of gaming with us," Phares said. "I think the United States is very much attentive to what they are doing, and will respond if the Iranians will cross that red line."

IRAN DEPLOYS 50 SMALL BOATS TO STRAIT OF HORMUZ FOR LARGE-SCALE 'SWARMING' EXERCISE

The Strait of Hormuz, which at its narrowest point is 21 miles wide, has shipping lanes that are two miles wide in each direction and is the only sea passage from many of the world's largest oil producers to the Indian Ocean. (Reuters)

President Obama's former National Security Adviser Jim Jones, a four-star general, said in an interview earlier this month the Iranian Navy should be "wiped out" if any action is taken to block maritime traffic.

I personally would like to see, if they ever did something in the Strait of Hormuz, I would like to see their navy disappear," Jonestold The National.

Jones, who served as national security adviser for Obama from 2009 to 2010, also told the National that Iran's government is an "an existential threat to the region."

Iran has been active in Syria, backing the government of President Bashar Assad, while also stoking violence in the southern part of the country and triggering military counterattacks from Israel. The U.S. and Saudi Arabia have condemned Iran repeatedly for providing missiles to Yemeni Houthi rebels, who have fired toward Riyadh.

The Iranian officials recently threatened to block the waterway in retaliation for any hostile action by the U.S. government amid President Trumps remarks in July, which were prompted by the Iranian President Rouhani saying the U.S. risks the mother of all wars" with Iran.

Trump called for Rouhani to stop the rhetoric or in caps lock suffer the consequences the like of which few throughout history have ever suffered before. We are no longer a country that will stand for your demented words of violence and death. Be cautious!

Just over two weeks ago, Iran test-fired a ballistic missile as a brazen display of defiance, which coincided with the naval exercise, three U.S. officials with knowledge of the launch told Fox News at the time.

While the U.S. military publicly acknowledged the naval activity, the missile test from an Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps base in Bandar-e-Jask in southeastern Iran has not been previously reported. The launch was detected by U.S. spy satellites.

Fox News' Nicholas Kalman, Lucas Tomlinson, Lukas Mikelionis and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Travis Fedschun is a reporter for FoxNews.com. Follow him on Twitter @travfed

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Iran claims it controls Strait of Hormuz, prompting Pompeo ...