Iran News and Discussions

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Y I Patel
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Y I Patel »

This is an interesting movie on an actual Iranian Air Force attack on an Iraqi Air Base. Do watch - very good action scenes:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nyc5z6SHQLM[/youtube]
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by mmasand »

IRINS Makran is the largest Iran-produced ship at 228 metres in length and 42 metres in width. It is claimed that the Makran, with helipads on the top deck, is capable of undertaking a three-year non-stop mission at sea.
Some ingenuity at play here, they took an oil tanker, put a deck on it, and voila you have helicopters on it.

Rony
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rony »

This article was written by a Chinese who lived and then got imprisoned in Iran.


China Won’t Rescue Iran
Some observers were quick to point out that this groundbreaking deal not only demonstrates China’s unrelenting ambition to succeed globally, but also shows the failure of the Trump administration’s so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran, which instead has pushed Iran into China’s orbit. Others noted that should President-elect Joe Biden try to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the China-Iran deal would potentially harden Iran’s bargaining position vis-a-vis the United States. These commentators all regard the deal as a fait accompli, as if it has already been signed—but they are exaggerating China’s will and capacity to aid Iran in defiance of the United States.
Indeed, following Xi’s visit, many large-scale Chinese companies arrived in Iran, optimistically expecting to explore new opportunities. Around this time, I was studying Persian in Tehran and conducting research for my dissertation on modern Iranian history. I was able to mingle and interact with many Chinese businessmen representing large state-owned enterprises through my social circles and witness firsthand the commercial dynamics between the two countries.

Despite initial optimism, Chinese commercial interests met a lukewarm reception and the preferential treatment for which China hoped fell short of expectations. Shortly after the implementation of the nuclear deal, many foreign companies suddenly started exploring Iranian markets. With potentially a wide range of alternative products and services becoming available thanks to the relaxation of sanctions, Iran’s business community suddenly made increasing demands on Chinese businesses.

Iranians have long had a clear preference for all things Western.
They also tend to be prejudiced against Chinese products and services, even when they are comparable in quality and lower in price than Western equivalents. Even Iranian state media was known for subtly insinuating the inferiority of Chinese-made goods and promoting other cultural and political biases toward China.

Chinese businessmen complained that, to their frustration, their Iranian partners often wanted a higher amount of Chinese investment but a lower proportion of Chinese products, services, and technologies in joint projects. Iran strongly prefers to partner with Western companies when possible, presumably due to a cultural reflex and a strategic consideration: It is politically and economically safer to cooperate with multiple partners than with just one. For example, even though China has long coveted South Pars, the world’s largest oil and gas field, Iran did not hesitate to give the South Pars Phase 11 project to the French oil and gas giant Total, making it the majority shareholder of the joint venture, with the China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) the second-largest shareholder in the project after Total.
After the Trump administration withdrew from the JCPOA and reimposed sanctions against the Islamic Republic, many Chinese businesses also suspended their projects or left Iran just as their Western counterparts did, due to the blockage of payment channels and increased financial risks in investing in the Iranian market because of U.S. secondary sanctions.

Although at the height of U.S. sanctions after 2018, China remained the biggest buyer of Iranian oil—with a steep discount since Iran is not in a position to dictate prices—Chinese payments for Iranian oil are not being remitted back to Iran in the form of much-needed foreign exchange. They are being used instead to pay down Iranian debts owed to Chinese oil companies for work done in Iran or held in China’s Bank of Kunlun, the sole Chinese bank handling oil-related transactions with Iran, only for “humanitarian transactions” of food and medicines. It reportedly costs the Iranian regime a fortune—at least 12 percent of the amount—to transfer, through illicit channels, some of these funds.

Iranian businesses are also finding it increasingly difficult to carry out business transactions in China after the reimposition of sanctions by the United States. As the Chinese-Iranian strategic deal became news this summer, an Iranian businessman who had been dealing with China questioned the media reports sarcastically. He pointed out in the Iranian press that Chinese banks were refusing to deal with Iran and closing the bank accounts of Iranian students and businesses in China because of pressure from U.S. sanctions, right at the time when Tehran was touting a deal that was supposed to save Iran from crushing U.S. sanctions.

The claim that the Chinese-Iranian partnership would include significant cooperation in the military sphere, especially China maintaining a military base on Iran’s Kish island, is also doubtful. The Iranian popular wariness of foreign military presence on its territory notwithstanding, China has been careful not to bring Iran too close in its security sphere. Since 2008, Iran has been eager to become a full member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO)—a Eurasian security and economic alliance effectively led by China.

Despite Russia’s recent explicit support, China has not allowed Iran to become a full member of the organization. Beijing will likely continue blocking Iranian membership in the SCO in the foreseeable future, since maintaining a balance of power among regional actors in the Middle East by not taking sides is clearly in China’s interest, and challenging a regional order adjudicated by the United States through bolstering Iran in a security alliance is obviously undesirable for China. Given Beijing’s aloofness, any permanent and close military cooperation with Iran appears improbable.

The purported deal is mostly an Iranian gambit at China’s expense and appears to be an Iranian public-relations ploy. Tehran is seeking to appease domestic discontent over the grim economic situation caused by the regime’s “maximum resistance” policy, by suggesting that China has Iran’s back. It also allows Iran to flaunt its so-called China alternative. News of the deal benefited only Tehran, as it exacerbated the heated U.S. debate on the efficacy of the Trump administration’s maximum pressure campaign and implied that the policy has failed.

From China’s perspective, the news of the deal was badly timed. It confirmed and aggravated the sense of a Chinese peril in the United States, at a time when U.S. policymakers from both sides of the aisle have serious concerns about China’s rise and apparent global ambitions—epitomized in its Belt and Road Initiative. Beijing has been trying to mitigate anti-Chinese sentiment and rhetoric in the United States and was probably not pleased by such high-profile media stories about China cementing a deal with America’s archenemy, Iran.

In fact, China has until now remained reticent about the deal. No Chinese media outlets have reported or analyzed the deal based on Chinese sources. When asked by reporters, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokespeople twice avoided making any comments. China’s silence on the matter is telling. Beijing understands that to sustain its own economic growth, it must manage hostilities and continue its modus vivendi with the United States. It should be apparent to Beijing that if China opts to closely cooperate with Iran, any future escalation of U.S.-Iranian tensions (which could easily happen) would also further strain already delicate relations between Beijing and Washington. Consequently, if the United States plays its cards carefully, China is unlikely to stand by Iran.
This does not mean Iran and China will not have limited cooperation, much like Iran’s relations with other Asian powers like India. Major economies such as China and India would like to diversify their oil supplies for energy security and have access through Iran’s transportation network to a broader international market. If Beijing is indeed negotiating the deal with Tehran, it will at least want to assess its options after the incoming Biden administration’s foreign policy has taken shape before deciding whether to formally commit itself to an approach that could anger Washington. China’s paramount foreign policy goal in the coming years will be to repair its relations with the United States. Any potential deal with Iran will only be subordinate to this larger imperative.
China’s interests in Iran would be best served by a situation of manageable tension between Iran and the United States—when there are sufficient sanctions to keep major international competitors away so that Chinese businesses can dominate Iranian markets, but not too much hostility or strong enough sanctions to stop the flow of capital. According to a recent interview with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif with a Chinese media outlet, Tehran is clearly expecting some kind of sanctions relief from the United States under the Biden administration.

Zarif shared his belief that the China-Iran deal will be signed soon if the U.S. sanctions are eased. This means that if the Biden administration offers political and financial concessions to Iran too soon, it will create a welcoming environment for Chinese investment in Iran. In such a scenario, Beijing could sign the deal or a modified version of it, and the China-has-got-Iran’s-back story would become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Judging from the current situation, however, if the United States decides to engage China as it crafts a new U.S. strategy toward Iran, China may well abandon Iran by delaying and remaining noncommittal about the bilateral deal as it works to ameliorate its relations with the United States. After all, China and the United States are the superpowers on the geopolitical chessboard—and even if Iran is more than a mere pawn, in Beijing’s view it is ultimately dispensable.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by venkat_kv »

Rony wrote:This article was written by a Chinese who lived and then got imprisoned in Iran.


China Won’t Rescue Iran
Some observers were quick to point out that this groundbreaking deal not only demonstrates China’s unrelenting ambition to succeed globally, but also shows the failure of the Trump administration’s so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran, which instead has pushed Iran into China’s orbit. Others noted that should President-elect Joe Biden try to rejoin the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the China-Iran deal would potentially harden Iran’s bargaining position vis-a-vis the United States. These commentators all regard the deal as a fait accompli, as if it has already been signed—but they are exaggerating China’s will and capacity to aid Iran in defiance of the United States.
....snip
China’s interests in Iran would be best served by a situation of manageable tension between Iran and the United States—when there are sufficient sanctions to keep major international competitors away so that Chinese businesses can dominate Iranian markets, but not too much hostility or strong enough sanctions to stop the flow of capital. According to a recent interview with Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif with a Chinese media outlet, Tehran is clearly expecting some kind of sanctions relief from the United States under the Biden administration.

Zarif shared his belief that the China-Iran deal will be signed soon if the U.S. sanctions are eased. This means that if the Biden administration offers political and financial concessions to Iran too soon, it will create a welcoming environment for Chinese investment in Iran. In such a scenario, Beijing could sign the deal or a modified version of it, and the China-has-got-Iran’s-back story would become a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Judging from the current situation, however, if the United States decides to engage China as it crafts a new U.S. strategy toward Iran, China may well abandon Iran by delaying and remaining noncommittal about the bilateral deal as it works to ameliorate its relations with the United States. After all, China and the United States are the superpowers on the geopolitical chessboard—and even if Iran is more than a mere pawn, in Beijing’s view it is ultimately dispensable.
A telling article that kind of re-reinforce what is discussed about china and Iran. Chinese seem to think they have arrived at the world stage as a superpower and others kowtowing to them as and when required and the iranians trying to hedge their bets.
A never has been power and a never arrived power- perfect match for each other.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rony »

Iranians are backstabbers and opportunists . They behave similarly with India as well.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Pratyush »

mmasand wrote:IRINS Makran is the largest Iran-produced ship at 228 metres in length and 42 metres in width. It is claimed that the Makran, with helipads on the top deck, is capable of undertaking a three-year non-stop mission at sea.
Some ingenuity at play here, they took an oil tanker, put a deck on it, and voila you have helicopters on it.

Just seeing this post.

These Iranians have some real copy Massa complex. Khans had added such a ship to its service so must Iran. At least with Khan they have global ambitions and need to police hotspots with cheap to operate ships. What is the requirement of Iran that this ship is expected meet.

Act a pirates mothership?
Or a ship that will be conducting boarding actions against US/Soudi/Kuwati/EU flagged ships?

Hypothetical question. What happens, if the Americans just conduct an air campaign without putting any boots of the ground.
mmasand
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by mmasand »

Pratyush wrote:
Act a pirates mothership?
Or a ship that will be conducting boarding actions against US/Soudi/Kuwati/EU flagged ships?

Hypothetical question. What happens, if the Americans just conduct an air campaign without putting any boots of the ground.
I'm not sure if you're aware of the Iran-Venezuela oil nexus, rogue tanker operators paint the vessel and transport oil from Venezuela to Iran, and in return they pick up gasoline and other products as they don't have any refining capacity. Makran is just an apparent projection of security for those super tankers that usually have have an exchange at an anchorage.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rony »

These Iranians like US are all talk no action when it comes to pakis and their proxies

Iran gets back 2 soldiers held by Pakistan terror group in operation ‘likely involving a swap’
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by vimal »

Rony wrote:These Iranians like US are all talk no action when it comes to pakis and their proxies

Iran gets back 2 soldiers held by Pakistan terror group in operation ‘likely involving a swap’
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rony »

That 'surgical strike' by Iran is fake news. It was a swap as the print noted
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Vinod Ji »

Curious if any thing for us to learn ?

https://sputniknews.com/military/202102 ... peedboats/
Aditya_V
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Aditya_V »

Seeing the size, at best these boats can carry MPATGM which when fired a few KM from warships if they get that close will leave a small hole above the waterline.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Manish_P »

^ given the progress of Pak economy, they will likely follow their Ummah birathers in adding such craft to their Navy.. perhaps develop a small irregular force. I would think that the IN ships have enough firepower to counter (detect and destroy) these small craft.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by chetak »

Manish_P wrote:^ given the progress of Pak economy, they will likely follow their Ummah birathers in adding such craft to their Navy.. perhaps develop a small irregular force. I would think that the IN ships have enough firepower to counter (detect and destroy) these small craft.
only one, a single solitary one, needs to get through. :mrgreen:

they are like manned, surface running torpedos, fired in salvo.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Manish_P »

I agree that one or two could get through, but would it have enough firepower to seriously damage/mission kill larger navy vessels? Doesn't look like it has torpedo carrying capacity. More like the standard heavy GPMG, Mortar/Grenade/Rocket launchers.

Then again Pakis could easily find and train jihadis to do suicide ramming (like the attack on the USS Cole)
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rony »

Iranian media says Iranian defense minister was at Aero India talking about boosting defense ties

Hatami hopes to boost military ties between Iran and India
In a meeting on Wednesday with Indian Chief of Defense Staff General Bipin Rawat in the city of Bangalore, Hatami said, “Tehran and New Delhi have cultural and historical commonalities, common approaches toward many regional and international issues and geographical capacities, particularly in the Indian Ocean.”

Highlighting the capacities of both states to expand ties, the Iranian defense chief noted, “These capacities can play a significant role in expanding the two countries’ relations, particularly in the defense and military sectors.”
What weapons Iran is eying to buy from India ?
Since the termination of the UN arms embargo on Iran in 2020, the Islamic Republic intends to buy advanced weapons from Asian states notably India and China.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rudradev »

Jummey Raat:
We have deep historical and cultural ties, we will establish a thriving trade and security relationship in the defence and energy sectors, we will be a model of regional cooperation, etc.
Jumma:
Grand Spiritual Panjandrum and Supreme Leader has condemned kaffir India's occupation and persecution of Momeens in Kashmir
Can't trust these people any further than you can spit.
Rony
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rony »

Rudradev wrote:Jummey Raat:
We have deep historical and cultural ties, we will establish a thriving trade and security relationship in the defence and energy sectors, we will be a model of regional cooperation, etc.
Jumma:
Grand Spiritual Panjandrum and Supreme Leader has condemned kaffir India's occupation and persecution of Momeens in Kashmir
Can't trust these people any further than you can spit.

+1008
Rony
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rony »

Iran guided Israeli embassy blast in Delhi through local Indian Shia module
More than a month after an improvised explosive device (IED) went off outside the Israel embassy in Delhi late January, India’s central counterterrorism agencies have drawn up a list of suspects, with their investigations concluding that the Iranian Quds force was behind the terror plot but that the bomb was planted by a local Indian Shia module, according to people aware of the developments.

Deliberate false-flag cyber markers were left by the perpetrators, pointing to the role of the Islamic State, but the counterterror agencies are clear that the blast was part of the asymmetric warfare campaign being carried out by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps against Israel, they added. “That the bomb was not of high intensity, with no human targets in mind was perhaps because the Iranians did not want to run afoul of a friendly nation like India. But the message was clear and the threat is real,” said a counterterror expert who asked not to be identified and who is now keeping an eye on the Iranian connection and the people associated with it.
Indian agencies recovered from the spot a letter addressed to Israel’s ambassador to India Ron Malka, calling him a terrorist and devil from a terrorist nation. The case is now being investigated by Indian agencies, with the involvement of experts from Israeli spy agency Mossad.

Investigations into the contents of letter — the style of writing and exact spellings of those named — reveal that the missive was written by an Iranian, and possibly handed over by an agent under diplomatic cover, the people quoted above said.
While Indian agencies have taken the attack very seriously, New Delhi is affronted that the Capital is being used by a friendly country to wage a proxy battle and the Modi government will take up the issue with Iran once the local supporters of the Iranian regime are taken into custody.
After three agents of the Iranian Quds force targeted the wife of the Israeli Defence Attache in India with a magnetic bomb on February 13, 2012 (in Delhi) through an Indian conduit, the Manmohan Singh government not only threatened to expel diplomats but also downgrade the diplomatic relationship with Iran. The Quds Force agents managed to escape out of India at that time.

The ramifications of Iranian involvement in the attack on Israel embassy this time will be very serious as the Modi government has gone out of the way to maintain ties with Tehran despite global pressure.
Indian agencies said there will definitely be some action this time
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by KLNMurthy »

Interesting perspective on the nature of the Iranian regime, from Xiyue Wang, Chinese-American academic who was a hostage in Iran:

The Princeton Historian Mugged by Reality
Wang is an unusual man. Born in Beijing, he came to the United States at the age of 20 and naturalized in 2009. He studied South Asia as an undergraduate at the University of Washington and learned Hindi living in India. He studied Central Asia in graduate school at Harvard; worked for the Red Cross in Kandahar, Afghanistan, for a year; and finally landed in a doctoral program in history at Princeton in 2013, with a Sovietist named Stephen Kotkin as his adviser. “Kotkin has a tendency to admit unconventional students” with knowledge of multiple languages and regions, Wang said. These students are dispatched “like guerrilla fighters” to work on historical topics that would escape the attention of historians who have only a single focus.
Cyrano
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Cyrano »

Iranian born author Dr Ali Sina's book Understanding Muhammad will give you more insights. Avl as pdf on web.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by srikandan »

From that atlantic article:
During that period, he said he met no regime supporters. “But to my surprise, when I came back to the United States, there were many sympathizers with the regime,” he said. These were in some cases people who disliked America—“people who thought because Iran is anti-American, there must be some redeemability there,” Wang told me. “Can you imagine how furious this makes me, every single day?”
Question for Indian interests here is if these US govt. types are sympathetic to Iran at this time, when they exhibit paki behavior and kidnap and assault US citizens, do we really think they will protest if Iran manages to acquire nukes after they get a "nuclear deal" with the USA? Or do we think they will ignore it for a decade or two and then start talking about a nukular flashpoint in India's neighbourhood? Which one is more convenient for the US, especially if they get a more stable route to their troops in Afghanisthan?
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Philip »

After Biden's arrival,India is upping the ante with Iran at speed as the Chins are making a huge play in the region. It will further develop Indo-Russian-Central Asian trade.

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india ... 57711.html
India plans expansion of Iran's Chabahar port, mulls linking it with INSTC: Report

Chabahar port had handled 123 vessels and 1.8 million tonnes of bulk and general cargoes from February 2019 to January 2021, India's Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said in March.
MONEYCONTROL NEWS APRIL 12, 2021 / 11:42 AM IST

India is planning to expand Iran's Chabahar port by supplying two more cranes.

India is also planning to link the strategically located port with the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) to boost trade with Russia and Eurasia, The Economic Times.

New consignments might be traded through the INSTC in near future, the report said.
Moneycontrol could not independently verify the story.

India is mulling supplying two mobile harbour cranes for the Chabahar port by the middle of 2021 to deal with the increasing traffic, The Economic Times reported. India had already supplied two similar cranes to the port earlier this year.

=
India's Shipping Minister Mansukh Mandaviya told Reuters in March that India might commence full-scale operations at the port by the end of May.
"I am expecting to visit Iran in April or May for the inauguration of full operations,"
Chabahar port had handled 123 vessels and 1.8 million tonnes of bulk and general cargoes from February 2019 to January 2021, Mandaviya said.

The port, situated on Iran's southeastern coast along the Gulf of Oman helps India transport goods to Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asian countries. The development of the port has been slowed by US sanctions on Iran.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rony »

Iranian Terrorist activities in India
When, on January 29th 2021, a small IED device went off outside the Israeli embassy in Delhi's high-security diplomatic zone, it brought back memories of the 2012 car bomb that injured Tal Yehoshua-Koren, wife of the Israeli defense attache to India. On March 26th, a missile targeted an Israeli ship en route to India, in the Arabian Sea.

The common denominator in all these attacks ? Evidence implicating Iran.

In 2012, Indian security agencies unearthed phone records and money transfers indicating the role of three Iranians and an Indian journalist; the Indian police report later concluded that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps planned the attack. The ongoing investigation into the two recent attacks has hinted at Iran and the IRGC’s role, without yet publicly confirming it.

Nevertheless, these alarming developments strongly suggest that Israeli individuals and installations will continue to face major security threats from Iran on Indian soil.

Iranian intelligence and hit squads have targeted Israelis, Israeli establishments and Jewish communities across the globe, but India never expected to become a serial location for Tehran’s surveillance and attacks.

India's security establishment has always tried to balance its growing strategic ties with the West and Israel and its historic-cultural and economic ties with Iran, and believed this would confer some form of immunity.

India has voted against Iran's nuclear program three times at the International Atomic Energy Agency, but it disapproved of U.S. sanctions, and continued to buy Iranian oil. Delhi also feels that the West employs double standards on terrorism: sympathy for Pakistan and an overly harsh attitude towards Iran.

In return, India expected Iran to make favorable gestures on the Kashmir issue, and to keep its rivalry with Israel and the U.S. off Indian soil.

However, the 2012 attack brought Iran's Middle East wars to India. Initially, India underplayed Iran’s role, to avoid a public confrontation with Tehran, but mounting evidence left little scope to turn a blind eye. Even after the recent attacks, one could again witness Delhi's reservations in naming Iran.

One could argue that Delhi’s diffidence arises from not realizing the gravity of the situation, or doesn’t want to acknowledge the unsustainability of its previous "see no evil" stance on Tehran’s activities within its borders. But what is clear is that Iran is increasingly perturbed by India's growing strategic partnership with the U.S. and Israel, particularly with the defense ties between India and Israel, and wants to send a warning.


Since Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP government won the 2014 elections, India's West Asian policy has undergone a paradigm shift. India shed its characteristic diffidence and openly embraced Israel. Over the last seven years, India's strategic, defense, and cultural ties with Israel have grown exponentially, deeply unnerving Islamist groups in India and their transnational sponsors: Iran, Turkey and Pakistan.

In response, Iran has shed its previous inhibitions in asserting antagonism towards India. Iran openly condemned India for its treatment of Muslims after the abrogation of Kashmir's special status and the Delhi riots. In Kashmir, Iran's regime has made massive inroads among the Shia community over the last two decades, resulting in their radicalization and drift towards separatism.


Kashmir's Shias have traditionally stayed loyal to India because of Sunni extremists' dominance in the separatist movement. However, during a recent field visit, I interviewed many Shia clerics in Kashmir who told me that Iranian leaders now insist they cooperate with the anti-India Sunni hardliners. One expression of this is the escalating anti-India sloganeering in Shia Muharram processions over the last three years.

Further, they said Iran-backed Shia clerics are importing Iran's martyr culture to Kashmir, glorifying fallen terrorists like Burhan Wani as religious martyrs in the same mold as Iranian transnational ‘revolutionary’ figures like Mostapha Chamran, who helped found Lebanon’s Amal movement, and Qassem Suleimani, head of the IRGC’s Quds Force, assassinated last year in Iraq.

Despite the shriller tone from Tehran, India is still reluctant to relinquish its ties with Iran. There are substantial reasons for Modi’s government to stay on the fence, from ensuring essential energy supplies (10 percent of its oil imports come from Iran) to the value India puts on historical and cultural ties to the desire not to alienate the BJP’s many Shia voters.

Even so, emerging geopolitical dynamics mean Delhi is unlikely to continue its delicate balancing act
.

Iran has already entered into a 25-year strategic partnership with China, India's number one adversary, whereas India is a critical pillar of the Quad, the contra-China grouping, which will, sooner or later, acquire a military dimension. While an informal, but formidable, anti-India and anti-West, alliance between China, Pakistan, Iran, Russia, and Turkey is emerging, Delhi has almost decisively thrown its lot with the Arab-Israel camp.

In Kashmir's popular separatist and jihadist discourse, India, Israel, and the U.S. are considered an evil trifecta and enemy of Islam. But there is a particular, and cross-denominational, hostility towards Israel.

India’s Pakistan-backed Sunni and Iran-backed Shia extremists find common ground, and tactical cooperation, in a pathological hatred for Israel, which overflows into violence towards Jews in general.

It was unsurprising that, during the 26/11 mass terrorist attack on Mumbai in 2008, the Pakistan-sponsored Sunni terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba chose a Chabad House as one of its prime targets. Security sources note that Iranian sympathizers enlisted sleeper cells from Lashkar-e-Taiba to commit the 2012 attack. Other transnational terrorist groups, such as the regional affiliates of ISIS and of Al-Qaida and their local cohorts like the Popular Front of India also pose a major threat to Israel.

The nascent India-Pakistan peace process, brokered by the UAE, Israel's friend and a critical player in the Abraham Accords, has raised hopes for a lasting peace in South Asia. However, it is premature to expect much more than a tactical respite, allowing Pakistan to salvage its economy (while preserving its terror infrastructure) and India to keep its western borders quiet, especially when China is disturbing the peace to the north.

Iran thus poses a concrete threat to Israeli interests in India. It is likely to exploit its robust intelligence footprint but utilize proxies to attack Israeli targets, from consulates to cultural centers, passenger flights to maritime cargo. Thanks to India’s lax and inadequate security structures, its poor intelligence mechanisms and unskilled police personnel, Israeli visitors, especially in destinations outside the major cities, are significantly vulnerable.

And while Iran wants to send a message through sabotage, if not injuries or deaths, it will be keen to employ smokescreens shielding its direct involvement and complicating law enforcement efforts, orchestrating attacks but with local or Pakistani-sponsored Sunni extremist groups taking responsibility.

As Iran’s uneasiness with India’s entrenched relations with Israel rises, so does the risk of further attacks. After the 2012 attack, former Indian Foreign minister Kanwal Sibal declared that Delhi was signalling to Iran: "Do not use India as a battleground for your problems with Israel."

But India’s lack of a convincing response to Iran-sponsored terror means that deterrence failed; it has actually encouraged Tehran to think it can get away with attacks, on Indian soil, with little more than a slapped wrist. As a counter-terrorism expert commented after the 2021 attack, Iran’s "message was clear and the threat is real."
Philip
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Philip »

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Last edited by Philip on 18 May 2021 08:29, edited 1 time in total.
Philip
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Philip »

India shafted by Iran.After a decade of negotiations ( typical MEA fillibustering,not wanting to upset massa Uncle Sam) the $3B deal for the Farzad-B gas field we discovered , has come to nought.We've been shown the door.Our pussilanimous attitude towards vital Indo- Iranian relations ,blowing hot and cold each time Uncle Sam farted, is seeing us rapidly lose what remaining influence we've had with Pakistan's flanking Shiite major power to the Chins.Yet another cock-up by the MEA. Even Chahbahar port is being looked at by the Chins with lust as they want to muscle in and oust us from even that last outpost of Indo-Iranian cooperation!
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Aditya_V »

On the contrary , This has been hapeening since 2011, Iran has shafted us, they discovered gas and thought they could make more money from the Europeans and Chinese after we did the hard work. Don't forget that these people kidnapped Khulbustan Jadhav and handed him over to the Pakis.

The Iranians/ Turks all think Indians are their slaves, they remember Nadir Shah's campaigns.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by sanjayc »

Iran is an enemy country and hostile civilization. Need to be firm with it.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by chetak »

Philip wrote:India shafted by Iran.After a decade of negotiations ( typical MEA fillibustering,not wanting to upset massa Uncle Sam) the $3B deal for the Farzad-B gas field we discovered , has come to nought.We've been shown the door.Our pussilanimous attitude towards vital Indo- Iranian relations ,blowing hot and cold each time Uncle Sam farted, is seeing us rapidly lose what remaining influence we've had with Pakistan's flanking Shiite major power to the Chins.Yet another cock-up by the MEA. Even Chahbahar port is being looked at by the Chins with lust as they want to muscle in and oust us from even that last outpost of Indo-Iranian cooperation!

just saying onlee

No country gives away its assets, even Russia didn't allow us to operate oil fields, while we let foreign companies one after the other to buy Indian companies

chabhar could well be next.


we should suck up to these persian jehadis even more.

we constantly keep quoting "ancient civilizational ties" when all they did was loot us and now they treat us with contempt.

we are better than these ola and uber drivers, have always been.

we should cut our losses and limit their access to shady organizations in India.
Philip
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Philip »

On the contrary,we were given every opportunity by Iran for well over a decade at Chahbahar,etc. to gain v.lucrative contracts.Ar*e licking Yanqui and Saudi backsides has cost us dearly.Fed up with delays,we lost the $2 B rail contract connecting CB to Afghanistan, plus the grand opportunity of outflanking Pak with a direct link to Afghanistan. Now the 23 trillion cubic-feet gas bonanza at Farhad-B. The $11B project dragged on by us has now seen us well and truly booted,not to mention cheap Iranian oil. This is what comes when we have a spineless,servile,White House butler as For. Min. whose foreign policy is made in Washington and served in India. List the number of catastrophic for. policy debacles under his time as FM.The worst being his China appeasement policy wooing XI like a semi-divine being from Gujarat,to the Ganga to Mahabalipuram,making Modi look like a juvenile in statecraft when XI played the Ladakh great game ,it caught us us with our pyjamas down.

The GOI still has not come clean as to the extent of Chin occupied territory that we considered as ours. We now have to spend billions just to stop future Chin aggression.Had we kept an eagle eye open, and pursued our Himalayan infra at speed after Doklam which was a severe warning of XI's mentality, we would not be in the situ today.If the utterly incompetent FM had any shame or self respect he would resign. Oh! We lost Sri Lanka too to the Chins thanks to him and I almost forgot about Nepal. Mea culpa!

PS: There is far less evidence of Persian ( and here is an important distinction, Persians are not Arabs, we tend to stupidly lump all Arabs,Persians, Egyptians,Syrians, Iraqis, etc.,together simply because they're Muslim nations, forgetting their distinct national identities and differing character and behaviour.) Shiite Iran supporting anti- Indian Islamic groups than the overwhelming evidence of Sunni Wahaabi Saudi funding of terror and fundoo groups in India. But yet we run to Riyadh to lick the backside of the Saudi despot-in-charge,why? Because Uncle Sam says so!
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

Iran’s largest warship catches fire, sinks in Gulf of Oman

The largest warship in the Iranian navy caught fire and later sank in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances

Iran’s largest warship catches fire, sinks in Gulf of OmanBy AMIR VAHDAT and JON GAMBRELLAssociated PressThe Associated PressTEHRAN, Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — The largest warship in the Iranian navy caught fire and later sank Wednesday in the Gulf of Oman under unclear circumstances, the latest calamity to strike one of the country’s vessels in recent years amid tensions with the West.

The blaze began around 2:25 a.m. and firefighters tried to contain it, the Fars news agency reported, but their efforts failed to save the 207-meter (679-foot) Kharg, which was used to resupply other ships in the fleet at sea and conduct training exercises. State media reported 400 sailors and trainee cadets on board fled the vessel, with 33 suffering injuries.

The ship sank near the Iranian port of Jask, some 1,270 kilometers (790 miles) southeast of Tehran on the Gulf of Oman near the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf. Satellite photos from Planet Labs Inc. analyzed by The Associated Press showed the Kharg off Jask with no sign of a fire as late as 11 a.m. Tuesday.




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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Ambar »

As if Iran wasn't having a bad enough month already just a couple of hours ago a a large fire struck one of Iran's largest oil refineries.
TEHRAN, Iran — A massive fire broke out Wednesday night at the oil refinery serving Iran’s capital, sending thick plumes of black smoke over Tehran. It wasn’t immediately clear if there were injuries.

The fire struck the state-owned Tondgooyan Petrochemical Co. to the south of Tehran, said Mansour Darajati, the director-general of the capital’s crisis management team.

Firefighters believe it struck a pipeline for liquefied petroleum gas at the facility, Darajati told Iranian state television. He did not elaborate.

Associated Press journalists in central Tehran, some 20 kilometers (12.5 miles) away, could see the black smoke rise in the distance. Another AP journalist saw flames shooting into the sky from the site.
RKumar

Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by RKumar »

Only one word - karma!
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rony »

Interesting long read

Checking White, Feeling Brown : Iranian-American Racial Ambiguity in Relation to Whiteness and Blackness

Regarding Iranian racist attitudes towards Indians from above
Amrita is a half-Iranian, half-Indian, 24-year old second-generation woman. Amrita is confident that she is not white, and that she has never been perceived as such. Unlike many of my interviewees, Amrita does not pass as white, because of her half-Indian roots and darker skin complexion. Throughout her life, she has endured different forms of prejudice from Iranian people because of her half-Indian racial identity. Amrita
was primarily raised by her Iranian mother, who divorced her Indian father, when she was only nine years old. Having grown up with her mother, she has always “felt more Iranian than Indian.” She loves the culture, always listens to Persian music, is fluent in Farsi, cooks Persian food, and takes Iranian familial obligations, customs, and values seriously. Despite internally identifying as more Iranian than Indian, Amrita does not consider her Iranian acquaintances, friends, or communities as her “real friends.” However, Amrita has never felt welcome in the Iranian groups, whom in her opinion have been “judgmental.” In fact, she purposefully separates herself from Iranian communities due to repeated incidents of being disrespected and excluded, mainly based on her half-Indian identity. When I asked her to elaborate on that point, she gave the example of being called Hendizadeh, which literally translates to “born to an Indian.” This is a derogatory expression in the Persian language and culture that refers to people of Indian descent. The fact that such an expression even exists suggests the prevalence of racial hierarchy and “Persian Exceptionalism,” all stemming from the Aryan myth, even outside of Iran.

I suggest that in addition, the prejudices toward Amrita stem from the fact that her half-Indian identity resembles proximity to blackness. It is also possible that Amrita’s negative experiences within the Iranian community (regarding her half-Indian identity), are in essence, rooted in anti-Black racist ideologies. In order to reinforce Iranian proximity to whiteness, many Iranians growing up in Iran or the U.S. were taught that people with darker skin were racially inferior.
In order to contextualize the anti-blackness that exists inside the Iranian community, I refer to Beeta Baghoolizadeh pioneering research on Black slavery in Iran. Her dissertation, titled Seeing Race and Erasing Slavery: Media and the Construction of Blackness in Iran 1830–1960, reveals a commonly untold reality that slavery did indeed exist in Iran. Baghoolizadeh argues that through different media depictions of Africans as slaves, Blackness was associated with enslavement, even after the emancipation of slaves in 1929. Outlining the history of slavery from 1830–1960 in Iran, Baghoolizadeh notes: “for centuries, major Persian poets, among them Firdawsi, Hafiz, Rumi, and Nizami Ganjavi, associated blackness with different groups, including the hindū (South Asian), habashī (Abyssinian) and zangī (Zanzibari).”. Indians, “once referred to as the Black slaves of the Safavid court” were slowly washed out and East Africans were the last group to remain enslaved in the nineteenth century. Like most counties in the world, an anti-Black racial hierarchy exists in Iran. Indians in Iran existed on the lower end of the racial hierarchy because they were once enslaved. This supports the idea that Amrita’s half-Indian identity is viewed as proximal to Blackness. As such, she is more susceptible to discrimination and bullying from those within her own Iranian community.

Researching the systemic erasure of slavery in Iran, Baghoolizadeh illuminates the fact that Iran’s participation in the transnational slave trade was never included in history textbooks during the Pahlavi era. She also states that instead of slaves receiving reparations, “they received citizenship, which was sometimes marred by the permanent naming of racial slurs.” Therefore “racial slurs” such as hendizadeh were used as words to replace terms that described “slaves.”

Iran’s historical legacy of slavery is vastly different compared to the U.S.’. However, they are characteristically similar in that
neither country has ever reconciled with the roots and lasting effects of slavery. The 1929 law granting slaves freedom in Iran did not engender in one fell swoop racial equality or eliminate racial hierarchies. Racial slurs have, and continue to, serve as tools used to establish and reinforce racial order and hierarchy. Hendizadeh is not then simply a term designating Indians, but an expression that—in Iranian nomenclature—denotes someone who is racially inferior. In linking blackness to enslavement, we can see that hendizadeh is an anti-Black racial slur, and thus Amrita experienced anti-Black racism from her own Iranian community. Other anti-Black racial slurs availed amongst Iranians include siyah sukhtih (Persian, lit. ‘burnt black’) and suskeh siyah (Persian, lit. ‘black roach’), both derogatory terms invoked to refer to people with darker skin or those of African descent.
Baghoolizadeh notes that in the 19th century, people from Afghanistan, along with other South Asian countries were considered “black slaves” in Iran
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by sanjaykumar »

And how do Hindus view Iranians? Whites? Or is it degenerate Muslims. Let’s not kid ourselves about the contempt for western asiatic people. It’s no less than for Chinese.

Poverty and colonialism have only suppressed racial attitudes of Indians not moderated them. There are historical records in Arabic recording this sense of civilisational superiority.

As the Indian economy and technological competence grow these deeply embedded memes will only flourish. One can discern the contours already.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by wig »

https://www.timesofisrael.com/in-stunni ... netanyahu/

In stunning, revelatory interview, ex-Mossad chief warns Iran, defends Netanyahu
extracts
Yossi Cohen, who retired as head of the Mossad last week, provided highly specific details of recent Mossad activity against Iran, his interactions with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his role in Israel’s normalization with the UAE, and his own undercover career in an extraordinary interview on Israeli television broadcast on Thursday night.

Cohen intimated that his agency blew up Iran’s underground centrifuge facility at Natanz, gave a precise description of the 2018 operation in which the Mossad stole Iran’s nuclear archive from safes in a Tehran warehouse, confirmed that Iran’s assassinated top nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh had been in Mossad’s sights for years, and said the regime needs to understand that Israel means what it says when it vows to prevent Iran attaining nuclear weapons.
on the Natanz centrifuges
Early in the more than an hour of conversations for journalist Ilan Dayan’s “Uvda” (Fact) documentary show on Israel’s Channel 12, Cohen indicated that he was deeply familiar with Iran’s various nuclear sites, and said that, if given the opportunity, he would take Dayan to the underground “celler” at Natanz, where, he said, “the centrifuges used to spin.”
“It no longer looks like it did?” Dayan asked.

“Indeed,” said Cohen.

“Unless they fixed it,” she said.
“It doesn’t look like it used to look,” insisted Cohen.

Cohen did not explicitly confirm responsibility for sabotage at Natanz in the interview, but said more generally: “We say very clearly [to Iran]: We won’t let you get nuclear weapons. What don’t you understand?”

Dayan noted that two major blasts at Natanz were attributed in foreign reports to the Mossad in the past year, and said “a huge quantity of explosives” were built into a marble platform used to balance the centrifuges. “The man who was responsible for these explosions, it becomes clear, made sure to supply to the Iranians the marble foundation on which the centrifuges are placed,” Dayan said. “As they install this foundation within the Natanz facility, they have no idea that it already includes a huge quantity of explosives.”
Fakhrizadeh
Fakhrizadeh “most troubled us from the point of view of the science, the knowledge, the scientists of the Iranian military nuclear program,” said Cohen, and therefore “he was a target for [intelligence] gathering for many years.”

Interviewer Dayan said of Fakhrizadeh’s killing: “Yossi Cohen cannot take responsibility for this action, but his personal signature is on the entire operation.”
Tehran warehouse
“We understood they were secretly storing their nuclear secrets — things we didn’t know… I decided we needed to see what the Iranians are planning for us,” Cohen said, “and I told my people to prepare to bring this home” because it would potentially show “the wider picture” of the Iranian program.

Twenty Mossad agents were involved on the ground — none of them Israeli nationals, said Dayan.
Mossad built a replica of the site, learned all about the containers holding the material, and knew how the containers were arranged, Cohen indicated. “We had a certain problem” on the night itself, said Cohen, regarding “something we recognized” that had apparently changed, but the decision was taken to proceed as planned.

Cohen said they knew they had seven hours maximum at the site — “after that trucks and guards and workers” would arrive and “you can’t be jumping off fences and bursting through walls.”

The team neutralized alarms, removed the warehouse doors, and reportedly opened 32 safes holding the material. Opening safes like those takes “more than minutes for each,” Cohen said.
When images of the Farsi documents and other material in the safes were screened in the Tel Aviv command center in real-time “and we realized that we have what we wanted, that we are ‘on’ Iran’s military nuclear program,” said Cohen, “there was incredible excitement for us all.”

Dayan indicated that Mossad had numerous decoy trucks driving around the Tehran area to throw the Iranians off the scent of the single truck bringing the 50,000 documents and 163 discs out of Iran over land, and Cohen did not deny this.

He said the Iranians knew by the morning that the warehouse had been emptied, and all exit points from the country were closed. “We knew they’d chase us,” he said. “We’d taken their most sensitive secrets.” Because of concerns that the material might not make it out, much of it was transferred digitally to Tel Aviv before the truck crossed the border, Dayan revealed.

Cohen said he told Netanyahu “once we had left the site… that the first part of the operation was completed,” and that now the challenge was to bring the material home.

He said all the operatives are alive and well, though some of them needed to be extracted from Iran.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rakesh »

https://twitter.com/TheWolfpackIN/statu ... 80229?s=20 ---> Iran, Russia and India will hold a joint conference on the significance of a corridor between Nhava Sheva Port in India, Chabahar and Anzali ports in Iran and the Russian port of Astrakhan: Senior Iranian official.
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Re: Iran News and Discussions

Post by Rudradev »

sanjaykumar wrote:And how do Hindus view Iranians? Whites? Or is it degenerate Muslims. Let’s not kid ourselves about the contempt for western asiatic people. It’s no less than for Chinese.

Poverty and colonialism have only suppressed racial attitudes of Indians not moderated them. There are historical records in Arabic recording this sense of civilisational superiority.

As the Indian economy and technological competence grow these deeply embedded memes will only flourish. One can discern the contours already.
It's not bigotry when we really are a better class of human being.
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