US Defense Secretary: Iran Is Present Everywhere We Find Trouble In Mideast
13 February 2018Al Arabiya And
Agencies
US Secretary of Defense James Mattis said that Israel has an "absolute right
to defend itself" against Iran in light of the Israeli strikes on Iranian
targets in Syria on Saturday, Haaretz reported.
Syrian air forces had shot down an Israeli F-16 fighter jet after Israel
intercepted an Iranian drone launched from Syria.
The US military had no involvement in these events, Mattis told reporters
before flying to Europe.
"Israel has an absolute right to defend themselves. They don't have to wait
until their citizens are dying under attack before they actually address that
issue," he said, according to Haaretz.
The Trump administration issued a few statements on the attack, supporting
Israel and criticizing Iran's actions. Mattis told reporters that the Iranian
regime is behind the Middle East's challenges.
"It is interesting that everywhere we find trouble in the Middle East, you
find the same thing behind it. Whether it be in Yemen or Beirut, or in Syria,
in Iraq, you always find Iran engaged," the newspaper reported Mattis saying.
"If you're in Bahrain, and the police there have captured explosives and that
sort of thing, clearly from Iran; if you're picking up debris in Saudi Arabia
of Iranian missiles; or you've got explosive boats, remote-controlled boats,
out in the Red Sea, you can see where Iran is either producing the wherewithal
for the fight or actually leading the fight, in some case," he added
UK is concerned at Iran's role in a confrontation at the border with Syria
British foreign minister Boris Johnson said London was concerned at Iran's
role in a confrontation at Israel's border with Syria. "We are concerned at
the Iranian actions, which detract from efforts to get a genuine peace process
under way," Johnson said in a statement on Monday. 'We encourage Russia to use
its influence to press the regime and its backers to avoid provocative actions
and to support de-escalation in pursuit of a broader political settlement," he
said. Foreign Secretary Johnson was referring to the events two days ago that
led to the downing of an Iranian drone after it entered Israeli air space from
Syria, and the shooting down of an Israeli F-16 by a surface to air missile
early Saturday. The retaliation raids that followed struck 12 targets in Syria
among them regime air defense installations, and 3 positions for Iranian
revolutionary deep inside Syria.
Another Iran-backed militia group threatens US troops in Iraq
A senior official of Harakat al-Nujaba, an Iranian-supported militia group
fighting in Iraq and Syria, issued a threat against the US military in Iraq
and called on Washington to pull out its troops from the country, the Iranian
media reported. "We will never forget the atrocities of the United States in
our country and we still have not settled a score with America," Nasr al-Shamri,
an executive director of the group said in a live interview with Al-Furat TV
in Iraq. He further called on the Baghdad government to formalize "an exact
timetable" for the US withdrawal from the country. The Nujaba official also
argued that the "resistance groups" need to continue their activities since
ISIS remains a threat and that the US also continues its "occupation" in Iraq.
He claimed that more than 9,000 American troops are currently stationed in
Iraq.
With the collapse of ISIS, Tehran and its militia allies have dialed up
propaganda against American troops and are pressuring the Baghdad government
to chart a timetable for the US withdrawal. Iran-backed militia groups within
Iraq's Popular Mobilization Force are also increasingly threatening violence
against the US troops advising and assisting the Iraqi security forces. This
week, several Iran-linked PMF groups issued veiled and direct threats against
the US military.
Harakat al-Nujaba - also known as Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba - is a prominent
Iraqi sectarian group that operates both in Iraq and Syria under the
leadership of IRGC Quds Force commander Qassem Soleimani. It has been fighting
in Syria since 2013. Akram al-Kaabi, the leader of al-Nujaba, has pledged
allegiance to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The IRGC uses the Nujaba
group not just to fight the Islamic State, but also as a pressure tool against
the Baghdad government, regional countries, and the United States.
In March, the Nujaba movement announced the creation of a new brigade to seize
the Golan Heights - claiming that "latest victories" against the Islamic State
and Sunni rebels in Iraq and Syria have allowed the group and its allies to
focus on Israel. Leaders of the group claimed that members of the new brigade
are highly-trained, well-equipped and capable of fighting the Jewish state.
"Israel is weaker than a spider web. Islamic resistance is capable of
confronting the axis of evil and annihilating the occupying Zionist regime,"
Kaabi told Lebanon-based Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news network.
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