The Israel Defense Forces received the first of a series of new spy aircraft, dubbed the Oron, on Sunday that it said would improve its ability to gather intelligence and identify targets for attack in Iran, Iraq, Yemen and other far-flung areas in the Middle East.
Saudi Arabia said on Friday that its air defense systems had intercepted a ballistic missile over the southern city of Najran. It was the latest in a series of escalating attacks by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels, who have consistently targeted Saudi infrastructure in retaliation for the Saudi-led war against their insurgency in neighboring Yemen.
The U.S. State Department says Secretary of State Antony Blinken has “strongly condemned” recent attacks against Saudi territory from “Iranian-aligned groups” in the region, and discussed cooperation to end the war in Yemen in a call with Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister.
Iran has made threats against Fort McNair, an Army base in the nation’s capital, and against the Army’s vice chief of staff, two senior US intelligence officials said.
“The Customs and Border Protection agency confirmed to Congress today that four people arrested at the southern border since Oct. 1 match names on the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Database,” a congressional aide briefed on the correspondence told Axios.
Multiple blasts shook Riyadh on Saturday as Saudi state television reported that a missile attack launched by Yemen’s Huthi rebels had been thwarted.
The United Nations says time is running out for Yemenis, as malnutrition rates hit record highs and the war-torn country speeds towards “the worst famine the world has seen in decades.”
US President Joe Biden will announce in his foreign policy speech on Thursday that the US will no longer support the “offensive operations” in the Yemen war, his National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said.
The newly inaugurated Biden administration announced Wednesday it has temporarily suspended arms sales to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, DW reports. Noting it is standard practice for a new administration to review arms deals worth billions of dollars, a US State Department official described the suspension as “routine administrative action.”
The Open Doors persecution watchdog has published its 2021 list of countries where it is most dangerous for Christians to practice their faith, Christianity Today reports. Published this month, the list is based on grassroots reports from Open Door workers between November 1, 2019, and October 31, 2020.
The U.S. military is exploring the possibility of using a Red Sea port in Saudi Arabia and an additional two airfields in the kingdom amid heightened tensions with Iran, the military said Tuesday.
According to an Israeli military spokesman, Israel anticipates that an Iranian attack may come from Iraq and Yemen – two countries that are considered Iran’s proxies in its conflict with the Jewish State, the Jerusalem Post reports.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that France will continue to make economic and defense deals with Egypt, despite Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s heaviest crackdown on dissent in the Arab country’s modern history, the Washington Times reports. While he gave this assurance during the Egyptian leader’s two-day state visit to France, Macron emphasized that he and el-Sissi have “disagreements” on human rights issues.
Saudi Arabia has announced it will consider obtaining nuclear weapons if Iran acquires them, the Times of Israel reports. The Saudi Minister for foreign affairs Adel al-Jubeir made the announcement during a recent interview with the German news agency DPA.
The United States says it has seized a variety of missiles that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ (IRGC) Quds Force shipped to Yemen and announced the sale of Iranian oil it seized in August before it reached Venezuela, saying the proceeds will benefit victims of terrorism.
A senior official in Iran’s Islamist regime has described the recent normalization of ties between Israel and Arab states as a US-Israeli plot against Iran, which will ultimately fail, Jerusalem Online (JOL) reported. Secretary of Iran’s Expediency Council Mohsen Rezaei made his comments Wednesday at an international conference in Tehran on the decline of America.
The Justice Department announced that it was filing a forfeiture complaint related to two large shipments of Iranian missiles the U.S. Navy seized that were bound for Iranian-backed militants in Yemen sent by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which has been designated a foreign terrorist group by the United States.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has had talks with Greek Prime Minister Kyrias Mitsotakis about possibly transferring its highly strategic US airbase from Turkey to Greece, DEBKAfile sources have revealed. The US is also reportedly in talks with Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Zayed of the United Arab Emirates about moving the Turkish base to the Gulf state.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo spoke on the phone with Saudi Foreign Minister Faisalbin Farhan Sunday, discussing the Abraham peace accords between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Israel National News reports. Following the signing of the Abraham Accords on September 15, President Donald Trump said he expected Saudi Arabia to also normalize ties with Israel “when the time comes.”
As the US believes Iran has continued to develop nuclear weapons, and as the United Nations arms embargo on Iran expires next month, the State Department announced Wednesday that it is pressing forward with “snap back” sanctions that are provided for under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) Iran Nuclear deal, Fox News reports. Under the terms of the JCPoA, snapback sanctions can be re-imposed if Iran is perceived to be violating the terms of the agreement. However, as the Trump administration withdrew from the JCPoA in 2018, UNSC members Britain, China, France, Germany, and Russia have unequivocally stated the US has no authority to unilaterally enforce snapback sanctions once the current embargo is lifted on October 18.
