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The Justice Department today announced the filing of a forfeiture complaint against over 9,000 rifles, 284 machine guns, approximately 194 rocket launchers, over 70 anti-tank guided missiles and over 700,000 rounds of ammunition that the U.S. Navy seized in transit from Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to militant groups in Yemen.

The government of Iran, through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, remains bent on smuggling weapons of war to militant groups in violation of U.S. sanctions and international law, said Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen of the Justice Departments National Security Division. As this seizure demonstrates, the Department of Justice will work in lockstep with our U.S. Government partners to deny the Iranian regime the means to undermine our nations interest and threaten the security of our people.

The U.S. Attorneys Office has again taken action to prevent Irans Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps from spreading violence and bloodshed across the world and threatening the security of our nation and allies, said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves for the District of Columbia. As proven before, where we have jurisdiction, this office will use all the tools available in our power to prevent criminals and terrorists from threatening global stability.

It is paramount this significant amount of seized weapons and ammunition aimed to cause global devastation never reach its intended destination, said Special Agent in Charge Derek W. Gordon of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Washington, D.C. HSI Washington D.C., with the Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) and the assistance from U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, will continue to identify, disrupt and dismantle Irans illicit flow of weapons at every level. Offenders who violate U.S. export laws will be brought to justice, as we are committed to protecting our nation worldwide.

According to court documents, the noted weapons came from four interdictions of stateless dhow vessels: two from 2021 and two from 2023. These interdictions led to the discovery and seizure of four large caches of conventional weapons, including long arms and anti-tank missiles, and related munitions all of which were determined to be primarily of either Iranian, Chinese or Russian origin.

This action follows the governments March 2023 forfeiture action against over one million rounds of ammunition enroute from Iran to Yemen. The network for both actions was involved in the illicit trafficking of advanced conventional weapons systems and components by sanctioned Iranian entities that directly support military action by the Houthi movement in Yemen and the Iranian regimes campaign of terrorist activities throughout the region. The forfeiture complaint alleges a sophisticated scheme by the IRGC to clandestinely ship weapons to entities that pose grave threats to U.S. national security.

This forfeiture action is a product of the U.S. governments coordinated effort to enforce U.S. sanctions against the IRGC and the Iranian regime and are merely allegations.

The HSI Washington Field Office and the DCIS Mid-Atlantic Field Office are leading the larger investigation of the Iranian weapons-smuggling network, with substantial assistance from the U.S. Naval Forces Central Command in conducting the seizure. This team was also responsible for the March 2023 forfeiture action, which remains pending in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Stuart D. Allen, Brian P. Hudak, Rajbir S. Datta and Anna D. Walker for the District of Columbia and Trial Attorneys S. Derek Shugert and Joshua Champagne of the National Security Division are litigating the case, with support from Paralegal Specialists Brian Rickers and Angela De Falco.

The burden to prove forfeitability in a forfeiture proceeding is upon the government.

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United States Files Forfeiture Action Against Over Nine Thousand ... - Department of Justice

Mahsa Amini peers out from a mural by Rodrigo Pradel that covers an entire building side in a Washington, D.C. alley. Amini's death in police custody in Iran last year led to protests and a revolutionary movement. Rodrigo Pradel hide caption

Mahsa Amini peers out from a mural by Rodrigo Pradel that covers an entire building side in a Washington, D.C. alley. Amini's death in police custody in Iran last year led to protests and a revolutionary movement.

Mahsa Amini peers out from a mural that covers an entire building side in a Washington, D.C. alley, her head and shoulders floating over the words "Woman, Freedom, Life," and a lion and lioness flanking her.

The mural's painter is Rodrigo Pradel, a Chilean immigrant. He had no links to Iran or the large protests that erupted there when Amini, a young Kurdish woman, died in police custody last year. But it was his friend, Yasi Farazad, who inspired him to bring the movement half a world away to the streets of D.C., after seeing a similar piece in Los Angeles.

The project was a challenge. Unable to participate in the city's official mural program, Farazad had to seek out a site on her own, and finally found one with the help of a friend in a building that was owned by an Iranian American man. Pradel painted the mural in under 20 hours.

The mural shows Amini in the center with the colors of the Iranian flag. The lioness is a symbol of strong women in Persian culture.

"Mahsa is in the middle of it but she's not the only one who needs protection," Farazad told NPR. "I wanted this painting to represent all of us protecting women and men."

Rodrigo Pradel and Yasi Farazad stand in front of the mural Pradel painted in Washington, D.C. during the unveiling event of the mural on Jan. 15. Yasi Farazad hide caption

Rodrigo Pradel and Yasi Farazad stand in front of the mural Pradel painted in Washington, D.C. during the unveiling event of the mural on Jan. 15.

Before Pradel spray-painted the wall, a craft he has employed since the 90s, Farazad explained the history and context of revolutionary movements and protests in Iran to him.

"I felt honored to paint among many great muralists in D.C. but also be the extended paintbrush for all people who support life and liberty in Iran," he said.

Pradel then met local Iranian artists in the D.C. area and learned about their street art.

Many artists are fueled right now by the protests, working out their thoughts and emotions in bold, colorful pieces and trying to keep the fight of Iranian women from fading from view.

Amini was detained in Tehran on Sept. 16 by Iran's "morality police" for allegedly violating the country's dress rules. She died three days later in police custody. Her birth name was Jna, which means 'life' in Kurdish.

Protesters flocked into the streets, often shouting the slogan "woman, freedom, life," and men and women all across the world expressed their support. The #MahsaAmini hashtag was one of the most popular in Twitter history.

In the United States, artists were among the first to demonstrate their support in both traditional and innovative ways.

Art in major cities and globally "has awakened people about the struggle in Iran and kept them engaged with the ongoing fight of the Iranian people even when it stopped making headlines and the U.S. media largely stopped covering it," said Persis Karim, director of the Center for Iranian Diaspora Studies at San Francisco State University.

It has become an important vehicle to show what people in Iran are enduring, said Karim. She believes social media, particularly Instagram, has made Iranian art more accessible online. She highlighted MOZAIK's digital exhibitions as a significant example of collaboration between the diaspora around the world and local artists in Iran.

"It's not a revolution," she said. "It's a revolutionary movement, and it's not over yet."

The wall at 14th and U Streets in what is known as D.C.'s Harlem has already been vandalized twice, and Pradel is planning to repaint it.

For Farazad, who was born in Iran and had to leave when she was just 15 months old, everything about this wall is deeply personal.

Like the current revolution in Iran, this art has brought people together in ways she had never seen before, she said.

"There were two times in my life when I was really proud of myself," she said. "One was when my daughter was born. The second time was that evening when we finished painting the wall."

Since her family left Iran in 1979, Farazad has never been able to return.

"This wall is like my dream," she said. "I want to be able to go to Iran one day, not in shackles, not caged. I am raising a little girl to be a strong woman. I want all those little girls to have the same opportunities as my daughter does in America. And they don't."

Art supporting the protests in Iran has moved to the streets, affixed here on bikeshares in Washington, D.C. Hesam Mostafavi/Mina M. Jafari hide caption

Art supporting the protests in Iran has moved to the streets, affixed here on bikeshares in Washington, D.C.

Iranians have always used art to protest and communicate their ideas, said Mina M. Jafari, a Washington, D.C.- born Iranian American artist.

Since the protests last year, Jafari has noticed that Iranian art is moving out of the galleries and museums and onto the streets.

In Iran many artists don't have the luxury of exhibiting their work privately and they are constantly policed and censored, she said. So now they produce visual and performing art pieces literally in the street and at small community events.

"In Iran, art is many things. Sometimes it's a performance, sometimes it's a dream, sometimes it's anger and desperation, but it's always a way to live freely," she said.

Jafari quit her job working on Iranian-American issues at a progressive think tank because she thought Iranian voices, especially those of women, were being "ignored and excluded," she said. She and her Iranian husband now own an art studio called "Kucheh," which means "alley" in Farsi, less than three miles from Pradel's mural.

Jafari says her work is more nuanced than "hijab or removing the hijab."

In a bold, graphical piece called "Woman, Life, Freedom!" Jafari used black, white and red to relay a deeper meaning of the current revolution.

Two minarets of a masjid, or mosque, are formed by large hands, with a woman's face taking the place of the masjid's dome. A middle finger rises at the top of each minaret and flames flow from the mouth. The flames say "woman, life, freedom," in Persian, and Amini's name appears among the stars.

The face's unibrow represents all Iranian women, including queer Iranians, without eurocentric and gendered beauty standards, said Jafari.

Artist Mina M. Jafari uses a female head and arms to represent a masjid, or mosque, in this piece. Mina M. Jafari hide caption

Artist Mina M. Jafari uses a female head and arms to represent a masjid, or mosque, in this piece.

"My intention with this piece was to show that religion belongs to people," she said. "We deserve to take back our religion from those who use and abuse it for power."

The revolution begun less than a year ago is fizzling out, some scholars and observers say, not because the people have reached their aspirations but because of their economic struggles.

Many Iranians simply can't afford to sustain protests or strikes, said Assal Rad, author of State of Resistance: Politics, Culture & Identity in Modern Iran.

There are many pressures: U.S. sanctions, a record-high inflation rate of almost 50%, soaring youth unemployment. Over half of Iranians are now living in poverty, according to data from Iran's Statistics Center. On top of that, many Iranian artists who move to the U.S. say it is almost impossible to sell their work or send money home to their families' bank accounts.

In comparison to all past revolutions in Iran, this one was "leaderless," primarily spearheaded by young women, said Alex Shams, editor-in-chief of Ajam Media Collective, a platform focused on culture and society in Iran as well as Central and South Asia.

That fluidity has made the roles of artists even more important, he said.

"The artist movement outside of Iran can echo the voices inside of Iran and eventually create these connections across borders that both the Iranian government and the U.S. government have done a lot to prevent," he said.

Back to Jafari's painting of the woman and the mosque. At the time it was painted, an anonymous Iranian artist was dyeing fountains in Tehran blood-red. Jafari said, though, she also designed the flame coming out of the mouth of the woman to depict an Iranian symbol of rebirth.

"My art is not about destruction, but about bringing new life and leaving room for something else to grow," she said, adding that the women's revolution embodies that idea.

"It's infinite because it planted new seeds in us. Those who have lost their lives believed in women, life and freedom. And it's something that lives inside every Iranian," she said.

The slogan of the women's revolution on shirts hanging in Kucheh Art Studio + Shop in Washington, D.C. Hesam Mostafavi/Mina M. Jafari hide caption

The slogan of the women's revolution on shirts hanging in Kucheh Art Studio + Shop in Washington, D.C.

This digital story was edited by Lisa Lambert.

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Artists in the U.S. want to keep the Iran protests from fading from view - NPR

Hackers supporting the government of Iran are targeting experts in Middle Eastern affairs and nuclear security in a new campaign that researchers said involved malware for both Apple and Microsoft products.

Cybersecurity experts from Proofpoint attributed the campaign to a group they call TA453 but also is known as Charming Kitten, Mint Sandstorm or APT42, which has previously been tied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Intelligence Organization (IRGC-IO).

They found hackers pretending to be a senior fellow with the U.K. think tank the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) while attempting to spread malware to a nuclear security expert at a U.S.-based think tank focused on foreign affairs.

The hackers continue to adapt the tools used during their attacks, deploying novel file types and targeting new operating systems, specifically sending Mac malware to one of its recent targets, Proofpoint said.

TA453s capability and willingness to devote resources into new tooling to compromise its targets exemplifies the persistence of state-aligned cyber threats, said Joshua Miller, a senior threat researcher for the company.

The threat actors continued efforts to iterate their infection chains to bypass security controls demonstrate how important a strong community informed defense is to frustrate even the most advanced adversaries.

In a report published Thursday, Miller and other Proofpoint researchers explained that the group uses Google Scripts, Dropbox and CleverApps to disrupt the efforts of threat hunters.

The goal of the campaign is reconnaissance, with the hackers deploying several backdoors in victims systems to gather intelligence.

The hackers were forced to shift their tactics in May after Microsoft made changes last year to a popular feature in its Office suite of apps. Past campaigns analyzed by Proofpoint saw the hackers use Microsofts Visual Basic for Applications (VBA) macro to deploy malware but the tech giant announced that it is now blocking the feature by default in a variety of Office apps to limit its use among hackers.

Proofpoint attributed the campaign to Iranian actors based on both direct code similarities and similarities in overall campaign tactics, techniques, and procedures. Two of the backdoors found in the campaign date back to ones seen in 2021.

The campaign began in May with an email to an expert from a hacker purporting to be a senior fellow with RUSI.

The email said the researchers were working on a project called Iran in the Global Security Context and were looking for feedback from experts. To bolster its legitimacy, the hackers said the project was being worked on by other well-known nuclear security experts. The attackers had previously sent emails masquerading as those people, too. The hackers even offered to pay the expert for their take on the document.

TA453 eventually used a variety of cloud hosting providers to deliver a novel infection chain that deploys the newly identified PowerShell backdoor GorjolEcho, the researchers said.

At one point the hackers realized that a malicious file would not run on the victims Apple computer, so they sent another email with malware that would work on Mac operating systems.

Proofpoint said the likely goal is monitoring experts who are likely playing some role in the foreign policy positions taken by governments involved in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) negotiations, known colloquially as the Iran nuclear agreement.

Proofpoint noted that its investigation into the campaign was assisted by Dropbox and HSBC Cyber Intelligence and Threat Analysis. Dropbox removed the accounts that were associated with the campaign after being notified by Proofpoint.

In April, Charming Kitten was accused of deploying a new strain of malware named BellaCiao against several victims in the U.S., Europe, India, Turkey and other countries.

Microsoft reported earlier this year that the same Iranian hacking group spent much of 2021 and 2022 directly targeting US critical infrastructure including seaports, energy companies, transit systems, and a major US utility and gas entity.

The increased aggression of Iranian threat actors appeared to correlate with other moves by the Iranian regime under a new national security apparatus, suggesting such groups are less bounded in their operations, Microsoft explained.

Recorded Future

Intelligence Cloud.

Jonathan Greig is a Breaking News Reporter at Recorded Future News. Jonathan has worked across the globe as a journalist since 2014. Before moving back to New York City, he worked for news outlets in South Africa, Jordan and Cambodia. He previously covered cybersecurity at ZDNet and TechRepublic.

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Iran-based hackers targeting nuclear security experts through Mac ... - The Record from Recorded Future News

(July 6, 2023 / JNS)

The abduction of Elizabeth Tsurkov is an achievement that Iran and its proxies can claim against Israel after a long streak of failures. Just recently its plot to target Israelis was thwarted in Cyprus. Israels security agencies even managed to have the would-be perpetrator interrogated on Iranian soil.

But in Iraq, which has become Irans backyard, such a plot was easier to carry out. Tsurkov, a Princeton scholar, was captured by the Shiite militia Kataib Hezbollah, which was formed by Irans Quds Force. Now Iran has a bargaining chip for which it can demand a heavy Israel price.

For quite some time now, the Iranians have been warning that they will avenge a string of assassinations attributed to Israel by foreign sources, including ofseveral figures linked to its nuclear project. The most high-ranking of those officials was Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the chief of Irans military nuclear endeavors.

There is one ray of hope: The United States could use its clout with Iraqs government to secure the scholars release. After all, she was there just so she could conduct research as part of her PhD dissertation. The United States still has troops in the country and, more importantly, leverage.

One example that attests to its influence was the United States issuing a waiver that would let Iraq hand over some $2.7 billion to Iran for various utility and gas bills.

But the Iraqi government is clearly pro-Iranian today. It is composed of a Shiite bloc that supports Tehran, and thus, it is unlikely that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani would be keen to resolve this situation at the behest of Jerusalem.

Moreover, it is doubtful that Kataib Hezbollah would obey Iraqs central government in defiance of Iran. It was set up by Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, who was assassinated in 2020 together with then-Quds Force Commander Qassem Suleimani.

The militias stated goal is to rid the country of American forces. Striking a deal with the Americansand over an Israeli womanwould create problematic optics for the group holding her. Thus ultimately, the ball lies in the Iranian court. The release could hinge on what Iran gets in return.

The fact that Tsurkov has been missing for several months is not a good omen. Kataib Hezbollahs track record is also not encouraging. Only three years ago, Hisham al-Hashimi, a leading researcher on pro-Iranian militias, was shot to death by two armed men. Lets hope Tsurkov is spared a similar fate.

Originally published in Israel Hayom.

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Tsurkov's fate will ultimately depend on Iran - JNS.org

The US regularly updates its military options for threats from Irans evolving nuclear facilities, US Lt. Gen. and CENTCOM Air Force Chief Alexus Grynkewich told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview.

Israel also seeks regularly to gauge how much of a threat Irans nuclear program presents and how much backing Jerusalem would have from the US if it needed to confront that threat with preemptive strikes. The Post asked the AFCENT chief whether the US military would continue to be able to potentially handle the threat from the Islamic Republic of Iran, despite the construction of a new, deep, underground nuclear facility at Natanz.

You can assume we are keeping a very close eye on Iranian facilities out there, continuing our evaluation of what it means, what Iran is using it for, what options we might have for those facilities, Grynkewich said.

His comments were some of the most detailed to date in terms of the US regularly working on and updating military options including with respect to new Iranian moves.

Despite the impressive capabilities of the US military, Grynkewich was queried about the possibility that deterrence from Washington was not working. For example, in spite of US threats and capabilities, Tehran in the last two years has managed to move its nuclear program forward to enriching significant quantities of uranium to the very high 60% level, as well as having sufficient quantities of enriched uranium for around seven nuclear bombs if Iran chose to cross the nuclear threshold.

Grynkewich answered, When I talk about the deterrence of Iran, there are several different things we are attempting to deter, as a matter of the US position in the region. Were certainly trying to deter attacks on ourselves or any of our regional partnersThere is an interplay of a couple of different things with respect to Iranian attacks on us.

When I talk about the deterrence of Iran, there are several different things we are attempting to deter, as a matter of the US position in the region. Were certainly trying to deter attacks on ourselves or any of our regional partners, he said.

He added that There is an interplay of a couple of different things with respect to Iranian attacks on us, clarifying that now the US is trying to ensure that the Iranians understand that even though the US doesnt have the same amount of forces in the region as it had previously, we can still bring those forces back very rapidly.

That, I do think, contributes to the deterrent effect against Iran, he said.

Next, Grynkewich said the US deters Iran by ensuring the strength of its partnerships in the region.

The partnership with Israel is of course extremely important to us, he said. We have an ironclad commitment to Israeli security.

He also said that there are a lot of our Arab partners in the region as well, where we intend to maintain a true partnership and not just a transactional relationship and stitch the region together in a more integrated fashion. The more we can do that, the more of a deterrent effect that has on Iran because they see that they are facing a unified front.

With respect to the nuclear program, Grynkewich was adamant: Every recent president has said we will not allow Iran to get a nuclear weapon.

Our job is to ensure that Iran does understand we can bring forces in here quickly to respond to any provocation. There are plenty of options on the table with respect to preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. Our job is to ensure that the military options are well thought out and robust, the US general said.

One element that Grynkewich has emphasized in multiple public comments is Task Force 99s contribution to stability in the region, including confronting Iran. He discussed the role Task Force 99 could have in confronting Iran and other adversaries in the region. The AFCENT chief said that the use of drones had grown exponentially over the past several years, particularly one-way attack drones. He suggested that if there were one-way attack drones or something else of which we could have a fleet of a very large number of unmanned platforms, which are relatively inexpensive, it is possible that they could be used to impose dilemmas on our adversaries.

Questioned about which kind of drones he was contemplating tactically, including kamikaze drones, Grynkewich responded, It could be a kamikaze version or it could be a non-kamikaze version. You know if you send a swarm of several hundred intelligence surveillance drones and reconnaissance drones somewhere, your adversary is going to have to react to it in some way, either to prevent the collection youre doing or to prevent an attack.

GRYNKEWICH HONED in on regional air defense, which Israel has publicly said it now has with Abraham Accords countries, and even some countries who have not yet joined the accords without naming names.

There is a requirement to share information, to share threat intelligence, to give point-outs if something is approaching from some axis. If there is a country that sees that, it should be willing to pick up the phone and call the country that its a threat to.

Regarding different kinds of threats and communications between the regional air defense countries, he explained, So, for a one-way attack UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle], that kind of sharing is really important. That works for UAVs, but it doesnt necessarily work for other kinds of threats that might be out there, like ballistic missiles, he said. With missiles you have seconds of reaction time, as opposed to what could be minutes or even hours, depending on the length of a UAV flight.

And somewhere in between those two scenarios, he said, there is an air threat, but, he said, thats not a major concern.

Although recently we have seen reporting on Iran potentially getting SU-35s [aircraft] from Russia. If that happens, that would become a larger concern for us as well. But all those kinds of threats are out there.

In fact, he said, if Tehran got SU-35s from Russia, it could alter the entire regional dynamics, though some of that would also depend on what armaments Moscow would provide and how long it would take the Iranians to train with the new aircraft.

Cruise missiles are another one, he added, noting that information about the cruise missiles that Iran has in their own inventory, and some of their partners and proxies, was widely reported. And the aim was to be able to detect those and respond more quickly than phone calls.

That is where were trying to go, he said, and that is where we require some sort of a digital connection. It can be something which enables human-to-human contact, just at a faster speed than a phone call using a chat function or classified versions of that where we can share information quickly with a broad group of people.

He explained that There are IP-based systems, which are not datalinks kind of like using a signal on your phone, but think of that on a secret computer system. Such a system enables communication to remain flat and faster, he said.

But really, if you get to Link 16 [a military communications network], if I can pass an actual threat track from one country to another, it enables nations to provide mutual defense of each other, if they have that understanding that they will defend each other in response to that threat, explained the air force commander.

What we bring at AFCENT to this, is a way that information comes into one location, it can be fused, and then different countries are willing to share different qualities of information or different speeds of information, he said.

As to the various countries potentially involved in such information-sharing, Grynkewich said that some might not be willing to share information if the US was not in the middle. He called the US a very useful place for information to come together.

The US can be the middleman he said, between two or more countries. If countries are willing to share, if there are three countries, we can help triangulate and correlate the data from say the radars that are picking up from whatever threat it is. And then send out one authoritative location of that threat entity to whichever the threatened country is.

ASKED ABOUT views that Iran had succeeded in moving advanced weapons to Lebanon and Gaza, while much of the world was distracted by the Iranian nuclear threat, Grynkewich answered by referring to the IDF. He said that he had a tremendous amount of respect for the Israeli air force, and the Israeli defense forces. He told the Post that Some of the best work I have seen is the interdiction work that your countrys forces are able to execute when they stop the flow of those weapons. Its a very difficult problem to stop all of them, but I have a ton of respect for what they are able to do.

Regarding the broader picture of the nature of the Iranian threat, he answered: All of the above.

We are all very concerned about an Iran nuclear weapon, he said.

Yet, On the military side, we are equally concerned about other asymmetric capabilities which the Iranians have The first are their air threats, including ballistic missiles, UAVs and cruise missiles. Thats a very complex combination of capabilities.

And if Iran would have the will to use those kinds of weapons and use them against an undefended location, then Tehran could meticulously pick off wherever is least defended, since not all things can be equally defended.

It is an asymmetric threat that we have to think about deterring, he said. The other asymmetric capability that they have are their partners and proxies, which now when you pair that with the UAVs and ballistic missiles, and the proliferation of those to proxy groups, you end up having a 360-degree threat to almost every country in the region, where those partners and proxies operating in other countries besides Iran can come at you from different axes.

Many of the countries here in the region have been attacked by the Iranians or by their proxies over the last three to four years, he said.

Grynkewich agreed with Israeli intelligence views that it was very plausible that Iran has used human catastrophes, like earthquake aid, to smuggle weapons to Syria.

DISCUSSING US-ISRAEL military relations and his personal connection to IDF Air Force Chief Maj. Gen.Tomer Bar, Grynkewich said: We were just talking yesterday, exchanging text messages. Tomer and I are very close.

They have been working on building their relationship since July 2022, shortly after he took over. I came a little after him. I tell you, I have got a lot of respect for him. He is a really good friend, a very serious, thoughtful leader.

Bar and Grynkewich enjoy flying together when the occasion permits. I got to fly with Tomer in Israel. Asked who the main pilot in their joint flight was, he laughed, He was the main pilot. But I would have gladly taken control of it We are trying to find the time to fly together again, maybe in separate aircrafts and a formation together I hope to do it in the coming months.

Of course, he said in private, there are a lot of smiles around airplanes... He has a good sense of humor very much like mine, being a little dry. Grynkewich said he had enjoyed hosting [Bar] in the US for a Red Flag [military drill] event.

In his previous job at US CENTCOM in Tampa, he said, he was fortunate to already have a very good relationship with IDF Maj. Gen. [Operations Command Chief] Oded Basiuk.

In the course of my engagements over the two years, Grynkewich said, I built up a fairly strong mutual understanding, with the key senior Israeli defense officials.

Looking back, he said, he first started visiting Israel when I was at [the USs] European command, in the 2010s, around 2010-2012. I had seven or eight trips to Israel. At the time, we were working on defensive plans.

During flights with Israeli civilians at Ben-Gurion Airport, he said that he found Israelis are extremely talkative, they want to know what you are doing and they are very interested in America and generally supportive of the US military.

On the subject of how the ups and downs between the Israel-US political leadership and in this case the tense relations between the Netanyahu and Biden administrations have impacted military relations, the AFCENT commander responded with some insight into how militaries work with each other.

Political relationships between nations do go up and down, between the US and all of our friends and partners, in this region and in other regions. Theyll go up and down, as nations interests clash with each other or as they have different perspectives on issues of policy.

Yet, At the military level, what our overall objective is and this is irrespective of the region of the world the military-to-military remains relatively steady.

The general explained that although policy guidance could come down which constrains things that we do, typically even our policymakers keep that isolated across the board, so they allow strong military-to-military relationships to continue.

They know that that relationship is foundational to long-term success. So we end up having a longer view on the military side of things.

Additionally, liaison teams carry out a lot of exchanges for intelligence purposes and that battle rhythm has endured over the years. It was the same back in 2010-2012. It certainly goes at a faster pace sometimes or at a slower pace at other times.

He cited common values and experiences between the countries as keeping the military relationship solid, even when there may be friction at the political level. The military connection Grynkewich said, is driven by other things in the operational environment, threats that we see, rather than any type of political guidance.

And that relationship is not just me with Tomer Bar. It is repeated up and down the chain of command, including top commanders above and wing commanders below.

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US has military options for Iran nuclear threat - CENTCOM air force ... - The Jerusalem Post