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Countdown To Launch Former Iranian Official Launches ‘Countdown To An Attack On Israel’

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Photo Credit: Free BeaconAn ally of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has launched a “countdown to an attack on Israel” following the Jewish state’s launching of an operation to destroy weapons in Syria last month.

Alireza Forghani, a Khamenei confidant and former governor of Iran’s Kish province, published an article arguing that Tehran and Syria should launch a tag-team attack aimed at the total “eradication [of] Israel from the planet.”

“There remains no excuse for not [waging] a total multipartite attack on Israeli soil, with hopes of completely eradicating Israel from the planet (Allah willing),” Forghani wrote, according to a new translation of his Jan. 29 essay by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI).

“Attacking and completely eradicating Israel from the planet is the only solution to this problem,” Forghani wrote. “If this problem isn’t resolved with this golden opportunity, it is not known when there may be another.”

Iran has provided logistical support for embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad as he battles rebel forces and is well positioned to provide more assistance.

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Lawmakers Urge Kerry To Push Iran For Jailed Pastor’s Freedom

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Photo Credit: Fox NewsMore than 80 lawmakers have signed a letter urging Secretary of State John Kerry to step up efforts to free American citizen and Christian Pastor Saeed Abedini from an Iranian prison.

Abedini, who was sentenced to seven years in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison last month, has been unable to see his wife or two children, who are at the family home near Boise, Idaho. While Kerry has already called for his release, the senators and members of Congress called on him to “use every diplomatic avenue” to free Abedini.

“While there are countless important issues that come before you, few are more sacred than defending the most fundamental human rights,” states the letter, signed by dozens of members of both parties. It is even more incumbent upon us to stand against persecution when it is levied against our own citizens.

“As an American citizen, Mr. Abedini deserves nothing less than the exercising of every diplomatic tool of the U.S. government to defend his basic human rights.”

Saeed, 32, traveled to his native land last summer to help build a secular orphanage. Once there, supporters say he was arrested on charges that stem from decade-old efforts to establish a home-based Christian ministry in the Islamic republic.

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Short-Circuiting Sanctions: E.U. Courts Overturn Sanctions On Iranian Banks

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Photo Credit: APEuropean Union courts have quietly rolled back economic sanctions on several Iranian banks that have long been suspected of transferring funds to terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

The Wednesday announcement of the removal of Iran’s Bank Saderat from the E.U.’s sanctions list has caused concern among experts and some on Capitol Hill who warn the E.U.’s decision could erase years of progress on the economic sanctions front.

Bank Saderat is at least the third Iranian bank to have won an E.U. sanctions reprieve since December.

An E.U. court recently ruled that the sanctions against Bank Saderat were “illegal” and ordered they be removed, according to reports in Iran’s state run media.

“The General Court of the European Union consequently ruled that the sanctions imposed against the Iranian bank were illegal and accepted the bank’s request to lift the restrictions,” Iran’s Press TV quoted the bank as saying in a statement.

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Israel tests new SMS missile alert system, to be fully functional in September

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Israel this week began testing an SMS system for warning the public of an imminent missile attack as chatter over a possible strike on Iran dominated the Israeli press headlines.

As testing began, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had chalked up “a significant improvement” in its home front defence capabilities, mentioning its highly-vaunted anti-missile systems such as Iron Dome and Arrow 2.

“There has been a significant improvement in our level of defence capacity on the home front: with Iron Dome, with the Arrow, in terms of protection and shelters, in advanced warning systems and in other areas,” he said at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

“But all the threats which are directed towards the Israeli home front are dwarved by another threat — different in both its scope and its essence. And so I repeat: Iran must never be allowed to get nuclear weapons.”

With front page stories in two papers suggesting Tehran had made progress towards the manufacture and assembly of a nuclear warhead, Israel’s Home Front Command began final tests of the SMS warning system which is expected to be operational by September.

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