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The Iranian Government’s 40 Years Of Hatred Towards America
It was Iran, not the US, that breached international law by carrying out the US Embassy takeover in Tehran . . . It was also Iran, not the US, that immediately began using its proxies, such as Hezbollah, to commit terrorism and incite antagonism towards America.
Should the mullahs be appeased for killing thousands of Americans? For continually taking Americans as hostages? For being the leading executioner of iichildren in the world? For ranking the first in the world per capita when it comes to executing people? For being the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism? For making every zpossible effort to damage US national security and scuttle US foreign policy objectives?
The Iranian government’s hatred towards the US often seems the most important reason for its existence. As long as the ruling mullahs remain in power, the Islamic Republic will continue its acts of terror and deep antagonism against Americans, their Sunni neighbors, the lands they try to control — such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, parts of Gaza and Venezuela, Lebanon — and the West.
The argument that the US must take an apologetic stance towards the theocratic establishment of Iran is being repeatedly made without the evidence of any effectiveness to back it up.
Former President Barack Obama created this policy, and insisted that it would be successful. Even as Iran flaunted its disregard for the American government, as well as human life, President Obama would continually apologize to the Iranian leaders. He <made it sound as if America was to blame for initiating the hatred that the Iranian government projects toward the United States.
But let us get the historical facts straight. Hatred and deep antagonism towards the US, Israel and the Jews are indispensable pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran. When the ruling mullahs came to power in 1979, it was not the US that started the hatred by criticizing or opposing the ruling clerics. In fact, former President Jimmy Carter welcomed the Islamic Republic and viewed Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a good religious holy man. According to recently declassified documents, the Carter administration even paved the way for Khomeini to return to Iran.
Such amicable behavior and support from the US, however, did not change Tehran’s policies. The Islamic Republic still publicly declared its revolutionary ideals, which, from the outset, included standing against Israel and the US.
It was Iran, not the US, that breached international law by carrying out the 1979 US Embassy takeover in Tehran. Iran detained and humiliated 52 Americans and did not release these hostages for 444 days, the longest hostage-taking in modern history.
This was the beginning of the journey of hatred. It was also Iran, not the US, that immediately began using its proxies, such as Hezbollah, to commit terrorism and incite antagonism towards America.
Hezbollah has been accused of terrorist attacks, including the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marines barracks in Beirut, in which 241 U.S. Marines were killed; the 1983 U.S. Embassy bombing in Beirut; the 1984 United States Embassy annex bombing in Beirut; as well as the 9/11 attacks in the United States, for which federal courts ordered Iran to pay $7.5 billion to the families of the victims of the horrific attack. Hezbollah and Iran were also reportedly behind the 1992 attack on Israel’s Embassy in Buenos Aires during which 29 people were killed, as well as bombing the USS Cole.
It was the Iranian government that provided aid to Al Qaeda to carry out terrorist attacks against the US. A New York court found that ” The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran (“Iran”) has a long history of providing material aid and a range of financial, political, training and material support to terrorists and terror organizations. The New York federal court added that “Iran had been the preeminent state sponsor of terrorism against the United States and its interests for decades. Throughout the 1990s — at least — Iran regarded al Qaeda as a useful tool to destabilize U.S. interests. As discussed in detail below, the government of Iran aided, abetted and conspired with Hezbollah, Osama Bin Laden, and al Qaeda to launch large-scale bombing attacks against the United States by utilizing the sophisticated delivery mechanism of powerful suicide truck bombs.”
While former President Barack Obama was busy apologizing to, and appeasing Iran, the Islamic Republic continued its terror against the US by carrying out unneighborly acts such as detaining ten U.S. Navy sailors, humiliating them, and releasing a video of the episode. The list goes on.
The US has nothing to apologize for. Why should the US appease the Iranian leaders? Should the mullahs be appeased for killing thousands of Americans? For continually taking Americans as hostages? For being the leading executioner of children in the world? For ranking the first in the world per capita when it comes to executing people? For being the world’s top state sponsor of terrorism? For making every possible effort to damage US national security and scuttle US foreign policy objectives?
The Iranian government’s hatred towards the US often seems the most important reason for its existence. As long as the ruling mullahs remain in power, the Islamic Republic will continue its acts of terror and deep antagonism against Americans, their Sunni neighbors, the lands they try to control — such as Iraq, Syria, Yemen, parts of Gaza and Venezuela, Lebanon — and the West..
Preparing A Worldwide Terror Network
An Iranian network of terrorist cells is spread out around the world, ready for activation at any time as tensions in the Persian Gulf remain high. Threats by the Islamic Republic to escalate its standoff with the United States mean that the chances of an Iranian proxy terrorist activation are rising.
Biting American sanctions are causing unprecedented damage to the Iranian economy. In response, the radical Shi’ite regime has already provided the world with a sample of its ability to order attacks that destabilize the Middle East.
Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen recently launched explosive drones and cruise missiles, targeting Saudi Arabian oil installations and airports. An Iranian-backed Shi’ite militia in Iraq, Katai’b Hizbollah, is suspected of firing rockets at U.S. interests, and the Islamic Republican Guards Corps (IRGC) launched mine attacks on civilian oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf of Oman.
These incidents represent a small sampling of Iran’s capabilities. The Iranians have built up a wide-reaching network of radical surrogates which extends beyond the Middle East. Members of this network range from hierarchical terror armies like Hizbollah, armed with massive arsenals of projectiles, to sleeper terrorist cells active in Europe, North America, and Latin America.
Israel, a frontline state that defends itself against Iran and its proxy network, has taken a lead role in identifying, monitoring, and preventing attacks, as well as alerting Western intelligence agencies to threats.
Mossad Director Yossi Cohen provided a glimpse into this shadow war in remarks delivered Monday at the Hizbollah Conference. The IRGC and the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence are responsible for overseas terror operations, he said.
While the Ministry of Intelligence is responsible for setting up murder squads targeting Iranian opposition figures abroad, the IRGC, together with Hizbollah, seeks to hit Israeli targets, as well as soft Jewish targets.
This would explain the discovery and recent announcement of a Hizbollah bomb factory in London. It appears highly likely that the bombs were intended for Hizbollah cells intent on attacking Israeli targets in Britain.
In addition, Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence activated a European terror network in June last year, sending it on a bombing mission against an Iranian opposition event that featured former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. The cell reportedly had half a ton of explosives. In recent years, Iranian opposition figures were murdered in Turkey and Holland, while another assassination plot in Denmark and Sweden was thwarted.
An Iranian diplomat in Vienna headed” the France bomb plot, Cohen said. “He is now under arrest, and other [members of the cell] are under arrest in Belgium.”
Cohen also said that Iran’s overseas operations unit, the Quds Force, recruited 300 fighters in Iraq and Syria and brought them to Africa to create a terror network capable of striking Western targets across the African continent.
Iranian agents gathered “intelligence on the Iranian opposition, and on Israeli targets in Azerbaijan, the U.S., Denmark – and this is only the top of the iceberg,” Cohen cautioned. “The Mossad and the Israeli intelligence community are deeply involved in the effort to thwart these threats before the deaths of innocents occurs. We are working shoulder to shoulder with other countries to prevent more deaths.”
Part of Iran’s plans, he said, involved preparing attacks on American overseas assets.
Iran could also order its network to attack European and Israeli targets at any time, Cohen warned, noting that Tehran accuses Israel of being behind the Trump administration’s economic pressure campaign. “One of the easiest ways to do it [strike] is through attacks on Israeli targets in Europe, and around the world,” Cohen said.
Iran has done this before. In 2012, for example, it ordered a wave of attacks on Israeli targets in Bulgaria, Cyprus, India, and Kenya in retaliation for a sabotage campaign of its nuclear program that it attributed to Israel. This included a suicide bombing attack on a bus of Israeli tourists in Burgas, which murdered six people.
Past incidents have seen Hizbollah operatives scope out Israeli targets in countries as far away as Peru.
More recently, German domestic security forces noted that Hizbollah kept a permanent presence of more than 1,000 operatives on German soil
These networks have also penetrated North America, according to a series of recent reports.
Canadian media revealed last month that a Hizbollah ‘’operative collected detailed information on Toronto’s Pearson airport in 2017. Canada’s Air Transport Security Authority had reproduced an article about a Hizbollah sleeper cell agent named Ali, who was a member of Hizbollah’s Unit 910, an overseas tat Kourani ack unit.
Based in the U.S., Kourani reportedly visited Pearson airport seven times before being arrested. He also “scouted New York’s JFK airport and U.S government facilities. He passed the results of his surveillance activities to his Hizbollah handler in Lebanon on digital storage devices,” the report said, as part attack planning surveillance operations.
In May, an American court convicted Kourani of eight counts related to his work as a Hizballah “deep-cover operative. He is scheduled for sentencing on Sept. 27,” Canada’s Global News reported.
“Kourani’s chilling mission was to help procure weapons and gather intelligence about potential targets in the U.S. for Hezbollah terrorist attacks,” a U.S. Department of Justice press release said.
Kourani reportedly married a Lebanese-Canadian woman to evade the intelligence radar. He also befriended a Canadian airport employee, and talked him into agreeing to carry a bag on-board an aircraft.
Unit 910 was even more active in Canada than in the United States, Kourani told the FBI. It would likely try to smuggle explosives into the U.S. from Canada.
Meanwhile, in the Middle East, the Mossad director revealed that Iran had transferred $100 million to Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in the Gaza Strip.
Intelligence agencies around the world will need to be on high alert for Iran’s active and lethal international terrorism network.
Yaakov Lappin is a military and strategic affairs correspondent. He also conducts research and analysis for defense think tanks, and is the Israel correspondent for IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly. His book, The Virtual Caliphate, explores the online jihadist presence.
The Iranian Government’s 40 Years Of Hatred Towards America
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Last Updated: 05/2022
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