Iran

Spotlight on Iran (November 3, 2022 – November 17, 2022)

On the night of November 8th, a convoy of fuel trucks was struck with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) near the Iraq-Syria border crossing. The pro-regime Syrian newspaper al-Watan reported, based on sources in Tehran, about a decision of the Iranian government to increase the export of oil to Syria to three million barrels per month. The secretary general of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought visited Syria and met with the Syrian minister of religious endowments and Syrian clerics and discussed ways to further religious cooperation between the two countries. In mid-November, the commander of the Qods Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) arrived for a visit to Baghdad, where he met with senior Iraqi government officials and leaders of pro-Iranian Shia factions. The chief of staff of the Iranian Armed Forces spoke on the phone with Iraq’s incoming minister of defense and expressed willingness to expand Iranian military and security assistance to Iraq. In early November, the Iranian ambassador to Damascus met with representatives of Palestinian factions in Syria.
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The Pro-Iranian militias in Iraq – the current situation

The US invasion of Iraq in 2003 undermined the internal order in the country and brought about, among other things, the establishment of several pro-Iranian militias affiliated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force. The militias were set up with the purpose of driving the US forces out of Iraq and establishing Iranian involvement in the country. Prominent among the militias are Asa’ib Ahl al-Haqq (“League of the Righteous”), Kata’ib Hezbollah (“Hezbollah Battalions”), Harakat al-Nujaba (“the Movement of the Noble Ones”), and Kata’ib Sayyid al-Shuhada (“The Master of Martyrs Brigade”). The militias indeed operated in Iraq over the years against the US-led Global Coalition forces and contributed to the pullout of the forces from Iraq in late 2011. In 2014, they were integrated into the Popular Mobilization Forces (hereinafter: the PMF), which was intended to fight against ISIS, and since then they have become an integral part of the military establishment in Iraq and also integrated into Iraqi politics. The militias continue working to strengthen the Iranian involvement in Iraq and sever Iraq’s ties with the United States. They are also part of the Axis of Resistance, where they also operate outside Iraq, especially in Syria, including the border area with Israel. Following the assassination of Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps’ Qods Force, and Abu Mahdi Al-Muhandis, the deputy chief of the PMF and commander of the pro-Iranian militia Kata’ib Hezbollah (Hezbollah Battalions), on January 3, 2020, in a targeted killing by the US, there have been changes in the activity of the Iraqi pro-Iranian militias. These changes included personal changes in the leadership, the establishment of new militias as façades of the existing ones in order to maintain a low profile while carrying out attacks, and the expansion of the militias’ involvement in internal Iraqi as well as regional and global issues, such as the struggle a
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Spotlight on Terrorism : Hezbollah, Lebanon and Syria (October 26 – November 7, 2022)

The Israeli Knesset election results caused concern in Lebanon regarding Israel's abiding by the terms of the maritime border agreement, which could lead to a military confrontation. Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is working to create a large parliamentary bloc to elect a Lebanese president sympathetic to the Shi'ites. With Iranian support, Hezbollah has become a significant Internet and cyber power, part of Iran's battle for hearts and minds.
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Spotlight on Iran (October 20, 2022 – November 3, 2022)

Syrian outlets reported on three separate waves of airstrikes, attributed to Israel, against targets of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), pro-Iranian militias and the Syrian regime. Iran welcomed the end of the political deadlock in Iraq and the formation of a new government headed by Mohammad Shaya’a al-Sudani. The deputy Iranian minister of foreign affairs visited northern Iraq and discussed with senior Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) official bolstering of trade ties between Iran and the Kurdistan region.
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ISIS’s attack on a Shiite shrine in Shiraz, Iran: analysis and possible implications

On October 26, 2022, an armed ISIS operative carried out a shooting attack in the Shiite Shah Cheragh shrine in the city of Shiraz, southern Iran. The attack took place during the protests sweeping Iran,. The Iranian president claimed that the riots had paved the road to the attack, and the IRGC commander declared that the Iranian regime would act strongly against ISIS and even escalate its activity against the protesters.
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Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi and his impact on the dissemination of radical Islam

Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, considered for many years one of the senior scholars in Sunni Islam, died on September 26, 2022, at 96. Qaradawi, born in Egypt, arrived in the early 1960s from Egypt to Qatar, which became the center of his activity. Among other things, he established a network of global Islamic organizations. Until 2018, he headed the radical Islamic organization World Association of Muslim Scholars. Through this organization, he concentrated and coordinated the activity of radical Islamic scholars around the world, many of them members of the Muslim Brotherhood, but there were also members of other streams, shaping together the current radical Islamic discourse. Qaradawi was mainly known as a key figure in shaping the concept of violent jihad and the one who allowed carrying out terror attacks, including suicide bombing attacks, against Israeli citizens, the US forces in Iraq, and some of the Arab regimes. Notwithstanding his contribution to the development of jihad movements, Qaradawi opposed Al-Qaeda and ISIS.
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