Important Takeaways:
- U.S. says prepared to use all power to prevent nuclear Iran
- European diplomats consider ‘snap back’ sanctions to prevent nuclear weapon
- Iran accelerates uranium enrichment, denies pursuing nuclear weapons
- Iran’s deal with Britain, Germany, France, the United States, Russia and China is known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
- “Time is of the essence,” U.N. political affairs chief Rosemary DiCarlo told the Security Council, which enshrined the deal in a 2015 resolution.
- “We will take every diplomatic step to prevent Iran from requiring a nuclear weapon, including the triggering of snap back if necessary,” Britain’s deputy U.N. Ambassador James Kariuki told the council on Tuesday.
- They will lose the ability to take such action on Oct. 18 next year when the 2015 U.N. resolution on the deal expires.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- The outgoing Biden-Harris administration gave Iran $10 billion in sanctions relief just days after Donald Trump won the 2024 presidential election, despite Iran’s ongoing attacks against Israel and support for terrorist organizations.
- The Washington Free Beacon reported:
- Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined on November 8 that “it is in the national security interest of the United States” to waive mandatory economic sanctions that bar Iraq from transferring upward of $10 billion to Iran in electricity import payments.
- Though the first Trump administration did green-light the same waiver—causing tension with some congressional Republicans—it narrowly tailored the waiver to restrict Iranian access to the cash. The Biden State Department tweaked the waiver last year to allow Tehran to convert the funds from Iraqi dinars to euros, then hold those euros in bank accounts based in Oman. Access to a widely traded currency like the euro enables Iran to more easily spend the cash in international markets. Under the first Trump administration, Iran had to keep the cash in an escrow account in Baghdad, making it more difficult to access.
- The Biden State Department maintains that Iran is only permitted to use the funds for humanitarian needs, including medicines and other supplies. Republican critics argue that money is fungible, meaning that Tehran will have an easier time diverting its dwindling cash reserves to its regional terror proxies, such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthi rebels in Yemen, should it have access to the sanctioned cash for other purposes.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- The supreme leader of Iran, which backs the Hamas and Hezbollah militants fighting Israel in Gaza and Lebanon, said Monday that death sentences should be issued for Israeli leaders, not arrest warrants.
- Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was commenting on a decision last week by the International Criminal Court to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense chief and a Hamas leader, Ibrahim Al-Masri.
- “They issued an arrest warrant. That’s not enough. … Death sentence must be issued for these criminal leaders,” Khamenei said, referring to Netanyahu and former Israeli Defense Secretary Yoav Gallant.
- In their decision, the ICC judges said there were reasonable grounds to believe Netanyahu and Gallant were criminally responsible for acts including murder, persecution and starvation as a weapon of war as part of a “widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population of Gaza.”
- The decision was met with outrage in Israel, which called it shameful and absurd.
- Israel has rejected the jurisdiction of the Hague-based court and denies committing war crimes in Gaza.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Iran has defied international demands to rein in its nuclear program and has increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels, according to the UN nuclear watchdog.
- The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said that as of Oct. 26, Iran has 182.3 kilograms (401.9 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%
- Uranium enriched at 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
- The IAEA also estimated in its quarterly report that as of Oct. 26, Iran’s overall stockpile of enriched uranium stands at 6,604.4 kilograms (14,560 pounds), an increase of 852.6 kilograms (1,879.6 pounds) since August.
- Under the IAEA’s definition, around 42 kilograms (92.5 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% purity is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible — if the material is enriched further, to 90%.
- A senior western diplomat, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive matter, confirmed to the AP that the United Kingdom, France and Germany, with the support from the U.S., are going ahead with a resolution at this week’s IAEA Board of Governors meeting, censuring Iran for its lack of cooperation, leading to potential confrontation with Iran ahead of Trump’s return to the White House.
- “The Iranian regime continues to amass a growing stockpile of highly enriched uranium for which there is no credible civilian purpose and they continue to not cooperate fully with the IAEA,” he added.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- How long will it take to unwind the Biden-Harris Middle East policy? About five minutes, according to Mike Huckabee.
- The former Arkansas governor-turned-U.S. ambassador to Israel nominee suggested that President-elect Donald Trump’s return to the Oval Office would signal a dramatic change, bringing unwavering loyalty to Israel while “taking the money tree” away from terrorist groups.
- “To be fair, sometimes Joe Biden has been very supportive of Israel, and we’ve heard often he and Blinken and others talk about the ironclad relationship [between Israel and the United States], and then the next day, we would hear pressure on Israel not to continue their efforts against Hamas. You’re thinking, ‘well, why wouldn’t you continue your efforts against people who massacred innocent civilians and just had a bloodthirsty attitude about it?'”
- “The fact remains that the real problem here is not Hamas, Hezbollah or the Houthis. It’s Iran,” Huckabee told FOX Business’ Maria Bartiromo on Monday.
- “They’re the ones who fund it [terrorism], and when the Biden administration reversed the maximum pressure campaign that was effectively shutting down Iran’s ability to have money to fund this nonsense, that’s what changed everything, so I expect the president [Trump] will put the maximum pressure back on Iran, and that’s going to take the money tree away from some of these terrorist groups and make it much harder for them to do their incredibly horrible and dastardly deeds of murdering civilians.”
- More shakeups will come with the changing of the guard, Huckabee insisted, as he weighed in on Trump’s Cabinet nominees thus far.
- “[They are] disruptors, people who don’t come just to oil the machinery of DC, and if there ever was a time when this country needed a disruption in the ebb and flow of the unit party, the deep state, the establishment, call it what you will call it, the swamp, the sewer [it’s now]… this president has putting together a team that is going to be disruptive to Washington, but restorative to the American families living out here in the middle of the country. That’s why he was overwhelmingly elected, and it’s why there is a solid mandate that he carries into office on January 20th.”
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Tensions between Iran and Israel remain heightened as Tehran’s military heads on Thursday once again pledged a crushing response to Jerusalem’s strikes last month, and the U.N.’s atomic watchdog is scrambling to prevent a nuclear escalation.
- Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency Rafael Grossi traveled to Iran this week to hold high level meetings with Iranian officials in a move to hold Tehran accountable for prior nuclear safeguarding pledges and to get clarity on where Iran’s nuclear program stands.
- However, even as Tehran continues to develop its nuclear program despite international attempts to stall it, Grossi also issued a warning message to Israel, stating clearly that Iran’s “nuclear installations should not be attacked.”
- Grossi’s comments came during a news conference Thursday and just three days after Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz on Monday said that Iran was “more exposed than ever [for] strikes on its nuclear facilities.”
- “We have the opportunity to achieve our most important goal – to thwart and eliminate the existential threat to the State of Israel,” he added.
- The White House has repeatedly warned Israel to not go after Iran’s nuclear sites, though as the Biden administration prepares to leave come January, when President-elect Donald Trump retakes the Oval Office, the U.S. official stance on Israeli strike options could change.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- CIA official Asif William Rahman was arrested by the FBI in Cambodia on Tuesday and charged with disclosing classified documents allegedly showing Israel’s retaliation plans against Iran, the New York Times reported on Wednesday. He was brought to a federal court in Guam to face charges.
- Rahman was indicted by a US federal court in Virginia with charges of willful retention and transmission of national defense information, the report said.
- According to the New York Times, the documents were prepared by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, which analyzes US spy satellite information and photos.
- While both the US Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the leaked documents, they did not deny their authenticity.
- The leak occurred on Friday when the Middle East Spectator Telegram channel claimed it had received documents about Israel’s strike preparations from a source within the US intelligence community. This Telegram channel is known for publishing pro-Iranian propaganda, and its associated Twitter account states that its operators are based in Iran.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- U.S. federal authorities have disclosed an assassination plot by Iranian operatives, targeting former President Donald Trump.
- The plan, unveiled on Friday, involved recruiting criminal assets to monitor and ultimately kill him on American soil, the AP News reports.
- What Happened: The Justice Department released details of the plot following the indictment of Farhad Shakeri, an alleged Iranian government operative. Shakeri reportedly received orders from Iran’s Revolutionary Guard to organize surveillance on Trump and prepare for a possible assassination attempt, per federal court filings
- The instructions reportedly came with an urgent seven-day deadline. Authorities stated that Shakeri’s handlers implied the operation would be easier if Trump lost the election, expecting a potential delay if he remained in office, the AP reports.
- Shakeri remains at large in Iran, while two other suspects linked to separate Iranian-backed assassination schemes have been apprehended.
- According to the Department of Justice, Tehran’s attempts to disrupt the U.S. political landscape have included both physical threats and cyber operations. A previous incident involved Iranian hackers attempting to distribute stolen Trump campaign data to Joe Biden’s team. Intelligence sources confirmed that no response came from Biden’s camp regarding these phishing attempts.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said there would be a “crushing response” following Israel’s airstrikes on the country last week.
- Israel said it carried out “targeted and precise strikes” on Iranian military sites on October 26, almost four weeks after Iran launched around 180 ballistic missiles at Israel in retaliation to the killings of Hamas and Hezbollah leaders.
- “The United States of America and the Zionist regime will definitely receive a crushing response for what they do against #Iran and the #Resistance Front,” a post on Khamenei’s X account on Saturday read.
- Speaking at a press conference last week, a senior US official said that while the US was not a participant in the planning or execution of the Israeli operation, President Joe Biden and his national security team had encouraged Israel to respond to Iran in a “targeted and proportional” manner with “low risk of civilian harm.”
- Meanwhile, the Pentagon announced on Friday that it planned to send additional ballistic missile defense destroyers, fighter squadron and tanker aircraft, and “several” US Air Force B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers to the Middle East in the coming months.
- Khamenei’s comments have taken a more hostile tone from those he made in the immediate aftermath of the Israeli strikes in late October.
- Khamenei said then that Iranian officials should decide how to respond to the attacks, adding that they “should neither be magnified nor downplayed.”
- Experts had predicted that Iran may look “an off-ramp” or launch a small-scale retaliation following Israel’s strikes.
Read the original article by clicking here.
Important Takeaways:
- Our world is on fire. That which was ignited one year ago on October 7, when Hamas, backed by Iran, invaded Israel and massacred over 1,200 Israeli men, women, youths, children and babies now rages throughout the Middle East. Israel has struck Hezbollah. Iran has struck Israel. And the world now watches on edge in fear of the beginning of a regional war, if not a world war.
- What is happening? Is the world spiraling out of control?
- It was a Friday night when I was led to speak at Beth Israel, the congregation I lead in northern New Jersey on an ancient mystery. The mystery was over three thousand years old. It went back to the Bible, to the Book of Leviticus. It wasn’t what I fathomed would happen, but the mystery itself ordained that a calamity would come to the nation of Israel. More specifically, the mystery determined the following:
- Israel would be invaded. The invasion would catch the nation off-guard. It would result in calamity.
- The invasion would take place in the year 2023.
- It would happen in the autumn of that year.
- It would take place in the month of October.
- It would happen on a Saturday, the Sabbath, the Jewish holy day of rest.
- It would take place on an ancient Hebrew holy day, one that went back to Mount Sinai and the Book of Leviticus.
- It would lead to war.
- It would take place on the first Saturday of October of 2023.
- The first Saturday of October 2023 fell on October 7. On October 7, Israel was invaded, and the nation was caught off guard. The result was a calamity that would lead to war. It happened on the Sabbath and on a Hebrew holy day, Shemini Atzeret, that was given on Mount Sinai and went back to the book of Leviticus. In fact, it happened the very next day after I shared the mystery.
- It was this mystery and these events that led me to preempt the book I was about to write and begin working instead on what would become The Dragon’s Prophecy: Israel, the Dark Resurrection, and the End of Days. Something happened as I wrote the book that I never before experienced — what I was writing would come true in the world right after I wrote it — so much so, that I had to keep rewriting and updating the book up until now when it was released.
- In fact, after I finished the manuscript, three other events came true that were ordained in the same mystery. In fact, this single mystery may enable us to know what is coming, future events and exactly when they are to happen. For there is more to the world than meets our eyes. What is now taking place in the Middle East and threatening the peace of the entire world is all part of these mysteries. Yes, the world is at a most dangerous moment — but it is not out of control. In fact, the conflagration we are witnessing, from Israel to Hamas to Hezbollah to the Houthis and ultimately to Iran, is all part of a prophetic mystery that sits in the bookcases or night tables in our houses — the Bible.
- The ancient biblical and end-time prophecies foretell that in what is called “the last days,” the Jewish people will be gathered from the ends of the earth and brought back to the land of Israel. On that day, the nations of the world will be strangely focused, obsessed, with the tiny Jewish state the size of New Jersey. The world will rage against that stage. The Bible also speaks of the nation of Iran. One of the things it foretells is that in that time when Israel is back in the world, the nation of Iran will turn against the Jewish nation — will come against the Jewish nation — will attack the Jewish nation.
- There is so much more that was foretold and that is now unfolding literally before our eyes, far more than I can put here. Perhaps I was led to write books. But the takeaway is this — while we live in the most perilous times — there is a plan, there is a destiny. We can even know where it is heading, what the future holds and how to survive, stand and prevail in what is yet to come.
- But for that we must return to what the world around us, our culture, and our nation have forgotten — God is real. His word is true. And He remains the only answer to the crisis of our world — and of our lives. For there is more to the world than meets our eyes — and if we seek with our all hearts — we will find it.
Read the original article by clicking here.
