Secret Iranian Unit Fueling Mideast Bloodshed With Illicit Arms Shipments
By Jennifer Griffin. As conflicts and civil wars rage across the Middle East and North Africa, a shadowy covert cell operating under the Iranian government is fueling the bloodshed.
Unit 190, a secret arm of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s Quds Force made up of about two-dozen employees, has for years smuggled arms to these conflict zones.
After an extensive investigation tracing the land, air and sea routes used by the Quds Force to move weapons to Hezbollah, Hamas and now the Houthis in Yemen, Fox News has also learned from western intelligence sources the name of the Iranian man who is a key player in Unit 190: Behnam Shahariyari, born in 1968 in Ardabil, northwest Iran.
According to western intelligence sources, Shahariyari runs a network of straw companies — which skirt sanctions packing RPG’s, night-vision equipment and long-range rockets in powdered milk, cement and spare vehicle parts.
“Very often arms and explosives were placed in trucks underneath legal cargo in order to hide them,” said Michael Eisenstadt, director of Military and Security Studies programs for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. (Read more about the illicit arms shipments HERE)
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Iran Marks 36th Anniversary of Islamic Revolution Amid Nuclear Talks
By Associated Press. Iran is marking the 36th anniversary of its 1979 Islamic Revolution as the country continues negotiations with world powers over its contested nuclear program.
State television aired footage of commemorations in Tehran and elsewhere across the country Wednesday. Some participants chanted “Down with the U.S.” and “Death to Israel.”
On Feb. 11, 1979, followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini ousted U.S.-backed Shah Reza Pahlavi. America helped orchestrate the 1953 coup that overthrew Iran’s popularly elected prime minister, Mohammad Mossadegh, which brought Pahlavi to power and set the stage for decades of mistrust between the countries. (Read more from this story HERE)
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