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Tag: Iran

A weakened Iran has Iraq looking to curb Tehran-backed extremists in country

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With Iranian influence waning in the Middle East, the Iraqi government wants armed groups, including factions within the Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq (IRI), to lay down their arms and join the state security forces or integrate into the state-recognized Popular Mobilization Forces.

Iraq’s foreign minister, Fuad Hussein, recently told Reuters that armed groups operating inside Iraq and outside state control are unacceptable.

“Many political leaders, many political parties started to raise a discussion, and I hope that we can convince the leaders of these groups to lay down their arms, and then to be part of the armed forces under the responsibility of the government,” Hussein told Reuters.

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There is also fear around the region, with the power vacuum left by the fall of Bashar al-Assad in Syria and a decimated Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon, that Iraq may be next to fall.

Jonathan Schanzer, executive director at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, told Fox News Digital that the collapse of the Assad regime was the precipitating moment for the Iraqi government to make its move against Iranian militias.

An Iraqi flag is flown at a protest. (AP Photo/Anmar Khalil)

“Right now, the Iraqis are wondering if they are next and everyone is fearful of the toxic influence and corrosive nature of Iranian influence in the state,” Schanzer said.

Foreign Minister Hussein told Reuters that he does not think Iraq is the next domino to fall.

The IRI is a group of armed Islamic resistance factions under the umbrella of the Iran-backed “Axis of Resistance.” These groups are the most difficult for the Iraqi government to manage and were responsible for the attack that killed three U.S. service members in Jordan in January 2024. The IRI is aligned with Iran and has been engaging in armed operations against Israel and U.S. coalition forces since Oct. 7.

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Also operating in Iraq are the Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF). The PMF was formed in 2014 after Iraq’s Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, called for Iraqis to rise up and fight against the Islamic State. Tehran sent IRGC advisers, weapons and other military support to the PMF to combat ISIS, according to the Defense Intelligence Agency.

The PMF are formally recognized as an official part of the Iraqi state security forces and report directly to the prime minister.

Mourners chant slogans against the U.S. during the funeral of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, deputy commander of Iran-backed militias in Iraq known as the Popular Mobilization Forces, in the shrine of Imam Hussein in Karbala, Iraq, on Saturday, Jan. 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Khalid Mohammed)

“Current discussions revolve around how to effectively manage the so-called Islamic Resistance factions, some of which have gained media prominence since Oct. 7 while conducting armed operations under the label of Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” Inna Rudolf, who studied the PMF at King’s College London, told Fox News Digital.

Many of these resistance factions, Rudolf said, have also registered brigades within the state-recognized PMF umbrella.

“The question for decision-makers remains how to neutralize these elements and mitigate the risk of dragging both the PMF and the Iraqi state into a poorly timed geopolitical escalation,” Rudolf said.

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Rudolf pointed out that although Iranian proxies have been significantly weakened since Oct. 7, pressure has intensified in light of reports suggesting Israel could retaliate against Iranian groups inside Iraq.

Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani attends a ceremony in Baghdad, Iraq, on Jan. 9, 2024.

Many observers of the region think Iraq’s attempt to rein in armed factions at this moment is a sign of Iran’s diminished position in the region.

“The fact that major security sector reform in respect to the Popular Mobilization Forces is being conducted at this time is representative of Iran’s weakened role in the country and an imperative amongst more moderate forces, as well as the U.S., to seize on this and create momentum,” Caroline Rose, a senior analyst and head of the Power Vacuums Program at the New Lines Institute, told Fox News Digital.

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Elections in Iraq are scheduled for this fall, and Prime Minister Sudani is attempting to negotiate an acceptable form of bilateral security cooperation with the U.S., including the status of U.S. forces inside the country. The U.S. currently has about 2,500 troops serving in Iraq as part of the anti-ISIS Operation Inherent Resolve effort.

Observers of the region agreed that if Iraq is unable to demonstrate its ability to rein in rogue groups conducting armed operations against the prime minister, sustaining security cooperation with the United States, especially under President Donald Trump, could be impossible.

January 28, 2025
Trump’s latest hires and fires rankle Iran hawks as new president suggests nuclear deal

If President Donald Trump’s personnel moves are any tell, he may come out of the gate toward Iran with a tone that is more diplomatic than combative.

And Trump on Thursday evening suggested he was open to a nuclear deal with Iran.

Asked if he would support Israel striking Iran’s nuclear facilities, Trump told reporters, “We’ll have to see. I’m going to be meeting with various people over the next couple of days. We’ll see, but hopefully that could be worked out without having to worry about it.”

“Iran hopefully will make a deal. I mean, they don’t make a deal, I guess that’s OK, too.”

Iran, at least, is hoping for just that. The Tehran Times, a regime-linked English language newspaper, questioned in a recent article whether the firing of Brian Hook, the architect of the “maximum pressure” policy on Iran during Trump’s first term, could “signal a change in [Trump’s] Iran policy.”

In November, news outlets reported that Hook was running the transition at the State Department. But Hook was relieved from the transition team shortly after in December, sources familiar with the move confirmed to Fox News Digital.

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This week, Trump knocked Hook back a step further by posting on social media that he’d be removed from his position at a U.S. government-owned think tank.

Trump revoked the security clearance of his former national security advisor, John Bolton, left, and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. (AP Photo/John Locher | Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

“Brian Hook from the Wilson Center for Scholars… YOU’RE FIRED!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

And after taking office, Trump removed the government-sponsored security details of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, a source familiar confirmed to Fox News Digital.

Former National Security Advisor John Bolton told CNN his detail was also pulled, as was Hook’s.

“You can’t have [protection] for the rest of your life. Do you want to have a large deal of people guarding people for the rest of their lives? I mean, there’s risks to everything,” Trump said.

Trump recently put his Middle East envoy, Steven Witkoff, in charge of addressing U.S. concerns about Iran, according to a Financial Times report.

Witkoff most recently helped seal negotiations on a ceasefire deal between Hamas and Israel, suggesting he may test Iran’s willingness to engage at the negotiating table on nuclear issues before ramping up pressure, sources told the Financial Times.

Experts warn that Iran is enriching hundreds of pounds of uranium to the 60% purity threshold, shy of the 90% purity levels needed to develop a nuclear bomb.

At the same time, the president hired Michael Dimino as deputy assistant secretary of defense for the Middle East, a foreign policy expert who has said the Middle East doesn’t “really matter” to U.S. interests any longer.

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Dimino is cut from the same cloth as undersecretary of defense for policy Elbridge Colby, who has argued for the U.S. to focus military resources on countering China and devote fewer resources to other regions.

Dimino, a former expert at the Koch-funded restraint advocacy think tank Defense Priorities, has strongly advocated for pulling U.S. resources out of the Middle East.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is hoping to make a deal with the U.S. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP/File)

“The core question is: Does the Middle East still matter?” Dimino said during a panel last February. “The answer is: not really, not really for U.S. interests. What I would say is that vital or existential U.S. interests in the Middle East are best characterized as minimal to non-existent.”

“We are really there to counter Iran and that is really at the behest of the Israelis and Saudis,” he added.

“Iranian power remains both exaggerated and misunderstood. Its economy continues to underperform, and its conventional military is antiquated and untested. Tehran simply doesn’t have the financial capital or hard power capabilities to dominate the Middle East or directly threaten core U.S. interests,” he wrote in a 2023 article.

Dimino has also argued the U.S. does not need to focus resources on an offensive campaign against the Houthis amid attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea.

“Put simply, there are no existential or vital U.S. national interests at stake in Yemen and very little is at stake for the U.S. economically in the Red Sea.”

Instead, he argued in a 2023 op-ed that working to increase aid into Gaza would rid the Houthis of their stated reason for their attacks in the Red Sea, which they’ve said are a means of fighting on behalf of Gaza.

“Working to increase aid shipments to Gaza would not just help to alleviate the humanitarian crisis there but would deprive the Houthis of their claimed justification for attacks in the Red Sea and provide the group with an off-ramp for de-escalation that would also serve to prevent indefinite U.S. participation in a broader regional war.”

Others in Trump’s foreign policy orbit historically have struck a more hawkish tone toward Iran, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Israel Ambassador Mike Huckabee.

Iran never forgave Trump, Pompeo, Bolton and Hook for the killing of Qassem Soleimani and other “max pressure” moves. (Press Office of Iranian Supreme Leader/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images/File)

Rubio has already said he will work to bring back the snapback sanctions that were suspended in the 2015 Iran deal, as indicated by written responses he provided to Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas.

“A policy of maximum pressure must be reinstated, and it must be reinstated with the help of the rest of the globe, and that includes standing with the Iranian people and their aspirations for democracy,” Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy to Russia and Ukraine, recently said.

The Dimino hiring – along with other recent personnel moves – has caused rumblings from prominent Iran hawks.

Mark Levin, a radio host who has the ear of Trump, has posted on X multiple times in opposition to Dimino: “How’d this creep get a top DoD position?” he asked in one post.

“While Dimino and Witkoff are very different issues, Witkoff is Trump’s best friend, [it] seems difficult to detangle, very concerning,” said one Iran expert. “Dimino is a mystery and does not align with Hegseth or Trump values on Iran or Israel.”

“There is an ongoing coordinated effort by Iran’s regime and its lobby network in the West to cause divisions in President Trump’s administration over policy towards Tehran,” Kasra Aarabi, director of research on Iran’s Revolutionary Guard at the group United Against a Nuclear Iran, told Fox News Digital.

“Having spent the past four years trying – and failing – to assassinate President Trump, the ayatollah has now instructed his propagandists to cause fissures between President Trump and his advisors so as to weaken the new administration’s policy towards [the] Islamist regime.”

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Aarabi warned, “In the past 48 hours, Ayatollah Khamenei-run entities in Iran’s regime – such as the “Islamic Propaganda Organization” – have been celebrating certain appointments across the broader administration in the same way as they praised some of former president Biden’s appointments.”

January 24, 2025
Task Force created in Africa to counter terror fears from Iran and jihadi groups

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JOHANNESBURG – To counter the perceived threat of terror from Iran and jihadi groups, South Africa’s chief rabbi is setting up a specialist task force.

Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein was spurred into creating the group after a bomb attack at a Jewish center in Cape Town last month. An improvised explosive device was thrown at the Samson Community Center but failed to detonate. The center is home to several South African Jewish organizations.

The “Counter-Terror Task Force” will make recommendations to protect places of worship, schools and community centers.

“South Africa’s Jewish community, like other Jewish communities globally, faces heightened risk of terror attacks,” Goldstein told Fox News Digital. “The Iranian regime is the world’s chief exponent of state-sponsored terror, and have made it their strategy to target Jewish communities worldwide. With this in mind, the findings of the task force will be applied not just in South Africa, but globally.”

GLOBAL RISE IN ANTISEMITISM LEAVES JEWISH COMMUNITY ISOLATED, RABBI SAYS WORLD AT ‘A TIPPING POINT’

A man brandishes a replica toy gun during a pro-Palestinian demonstration organized by the South African opposition party Economic Freedom Fighters in front of the Israeli Embassy in Pretoria, South Africa, on Oct. 23, 2023. (Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images)

He added, “In addition, Africa has over the past decade become a hub for global jihadi terror, with the threat indices dramatically increasing as groups such as al-Shabab, Boko Haram and ISIS operate throughout the continent.”

The task force comprises global authorities on terror: Admiral Mike Hewitt, former deputy director for Global Operations for the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the U.S. Defense Department, Dean Haydon, former senior national coordinator for counter-terrorism in the United Kingdom, Major General David Tsur, former commander of the counter-terrorism unit in the Israeli Police, and Andre Pienaar, co-founder of South Africa’s Directorate of Special Operations, also known as the Scorpions.

FILE- Members of the Iranian revolutionary guard march during a parade. The IRGC is designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the State Department. A large part of its work is to covertly operate outside of Iran. (Reuters.) (Reuters)

The chief rabbi added, “They will be marshalling additional resources and personnel as and when needed.”

Goldstein said the force’s immediate objective “is to secure the South African Jewish community against attacks. The broader objective is to better ensure the safety of all South Africans, and citizens of countries around the world.”

He continued, “Across Africa, especially, it is Christians far more than Jews who suffer the consequences of Jihadist terror. Each year, Jihadists murder thousands of Christians for their faith.”

South Africa Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein. (The Office of The Chief Rabbi)

Goldstein told Fox News Digital that the South African government’s stance at the International Court of Justice, where it has accused Israel of genocide over the war in Gaza, has “stigmatized Jews not only within the country but globally.”

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However, Goldstein added that the views of the government here are not necessarily the views of the people. “Against that it must be understood that the South African public generally holds moderate and pragmatic views on Israel, and levels of domestic antisemitism remain very low by Western standards.”

“There were 128 recorded antisemitic incidents in 2024 in South Africa,” Professor Karen Milner, national chair of the Jewish Board of Deputies in South Africa, told Fox News Digital. “This makes it the second-highest number of incidents since record keeping began in 1998. The highest number of incidents was recorded in 2023 (182). However, 63% of these occurred immediately following the events of October 7 (the Hamas attack in Israel).

Members of the Active African Christians United Movement pose as one of them blows through a shofar, a ritual musical instrument used to usher in the Jewish New Year, as others gather in support of Israel outside the Embassy of Israel in Pretoria, South Africa, on Nov. 17, 2023. (Photo by EMMANUEL CROSET/AFP via Getty Images)

“The early months of 2024 were impacted greatly by the wave of antisemitism that immediately followed the October 7 attacks in Israel,” Milner continued. “It is worth noting that the majority of the antisemitic incidents recorded in 2024 were verbal assaults, targeted hate mail, or antagonism, with very few incidents graduating into physical assault.”

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Milner concluded, adding, “with that said, antisemitism remains much lower than other comparable countries, and South Africa remains a safe space in which Jews can identify as Jewish and practice their religion in relative security.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the South African Justice and Police Departments but did not receive a response.

January 22, 2025
UN urges diplomacy as Iran hits nuclear ‘gas pedal,’ conservative commentator tells Trump ‘do not appease’

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The United Nations atomic watchdog on Wednesday sounded the alarm that Iran has hit the “gas pedal” on its nuclear development and urged diplomacy just two days after President Donald Trump re-entered the White House.

The Head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) told world leaders at the Davos World Economic Forum that Iran has roughly enough uranium, if enriched further, to develop nearly five nuclear weapons.

Rafael Grossi warned that Iran currently possesses roughly 440 pounds of near-weapons grade uranium that has been enriched to the 60% purity threshold, shy of the 90% purity levels needed to develop a nuclear bomb. Roughly 92 pounds of weapons-grade uranium is enough to create one nuclear bomb, reported Reuters.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi looks on as he addresses the media during their Board of Governors meeting in Vienna on Sept. 9, 2024. (REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo)

TASK FORCE CREATED IN AFRICA TO COUNTER TERROR FEARS FROM IRAN AND JIHADI GROUPS

“One can gather from the first statements from President Trump and some others in the new administration that there is a disposition, so to speak, to have a conversation and perhaps move into some form of an agreement,” Grossi said.

Conservative allies of Trump have called on the president to continue with his maximum pressure campaign that was implemented against Iran during his first presidency. Mark Levin, host of Fox News show “Life, Liberty & Levin,” on Tuesday urged the president to “not appease” Tehran when it comes to its nuclear deal.

“Do not embrace the discredited ‘diplomatic solutions’ of the Biden and Obama regimes and think deals can be made with mass murdering terrorists,” Levin said in a post on X. “You do not negotiate with genocidal maniacs, pure and simple.

“Do not appease, as their bloodthirsty ideology cannot be appeased only destroyed,” he warned.

According to the Grossi, Iran has increased its production of uranium enriched to 60% purity levels from an average of 15 pounds each month to more than 65 pounds.

“I think this is a clear indication of an acceleration. They are pressing the gas pedal,” Grossi told reporters, according to Reuters.

The IAEA chief said that while it will take time for Iran to develop the extra centrifuges needed to create more enriched uranium, he believes the international community can expect “to start seeing steady increases from now.”

Iranian newspapers that report Donald Trump has officially taken office as president of the United States are viewed on Jan. 21, 2025 in Tehran, Iran. (Photo by Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)

It is unclear what comments issued by the new Trump administration led Grossi to believe that it might be open to diplomacy given Trump’s repeated commitments to hit Iran with stiff sanctions in a move to end Tehran’s support of state-sponsored terrorism and counter its nuclear program.

Republicans have ardently objected to diplomatic efforts in the past, and Trump, in 2018, pulled the U.S. out of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, an international deal that looked to limit Iran’s nuclear program.

Reports this week claimed that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei had prohibited the development of a nuclear weapon in an apparent olive branch to Trump, though Fox News Digital could not independently confirm this. This alleged ban also would not necessarily prohibit Tehran from developing its nuclear program.

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President Donald Trump stands after delivering remarks on AI infrastructure at the Roosevelt room at White House in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 21, 2025. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

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Fox News Digital could not immediately reach the White House to confirm whether Trump plans to pursue any diplomatic efforts to counter Iran’s nuclear program.

January 22, 2025