Iran publishes list of sensitive sites in Israel

Under the guise of reporting on reports by Beirut-based Al Mayadeen, a pan-Arabist satellite news channel, media outlets close to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) have published a list of “sensitive” sites that could be targeted in a future war. The reports listed a number of buildings and sites in Israel in what was clearly intended as a threat, reported The Jerusalem Post.

Iran’s Tasnim News Agency on Monday reported, “In this regard, Al Mayadeen network has published a report on the analysis of Israel’s target bank and the sensitive positions of this regime that can be targeted in any war. At the beginning of this report, the general situation of the Zionist regime at the military level and its equipment has been examined.”

The article included a list of sites in Israel, such as the Knesset, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Defense Ministry. It included what Tasnim characterized as nuclear sites and facilities. In the list of warehouses and facilities, the report included a Rafael Advanced Defense Systems site in Haifa, the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot and the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.

The report also examined airports and military and intelligence bases. It mentioned civilian airports, such as Ben-Gurion Airport and Ramon Airport near Eilat. A list of military bases followed.

This appears to be one of the few times that Iranian media close to the regime have so openly published what it claims is a list of Israeli sites that could be targeted in a future war. This appears to point to Iran and its proxies’ estimates of their targeting ability.

In the last conflict with Hamas, the terrorist group claimed to have targeted Ramon Airport. Operations at the airport were briefly suspended during that conflict. Hamas also appeared to target other sites that have infrastructure, using large-scale salvos of rockets to try to overwhelm the Iron Dome air-defense system.

Hezbollah has also made threats regarding targeting Israel’s infrastructure, including threatening gas rigs off the coast and industrial sites near Haifa.

The overall context of Iran can be seen as merely bragging and threatening. But it also illustrates the shift in thinking in Tehran and among Iran’s proxy groups. The proxies include Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Houthis in Yemen and members of Hashd al-Shaabi in Iraq.

Recent reports that an Iranian IRGC member linked to Iran’s drone program was killed in Syria, and that Iran wants to move air-defense systems to Syria, show Iran’s possible concerns regarding these latest tensions and threats.

Publishing the kind of list that Iran’s pro-regime media published on Monday, listing sites that Iran thinks are sensitive, can be seen as a message to Israel.

It can also be seen as illustrating that Tehran believes the conflict with Israel is entering a strategic stage in which Iran would like to supply proxy groups in Lebanon and Syria with more advanced weapons, including drones and precision-guided munitions that can target the sites Al Mayadeen listed.

Iran has increased its drone threats against Israel in recent years, and Tehran works closely with Hamas and Hezbollah to try to learn from past conflicts and tensions with Israel.

 

 

 

Can Iraqi mediation bring Saudi Arabia and Iran closer?

According to a report by Saudi Gazette, Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi paid a visit to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, during which he met Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. The visit was followed by another visit to the Iranian capital Tehran, during which he met senior Iranian officials of that country.

What emerged from these two visits was an attempt of mediation to ease the atmosphere and reduce tension in the region, through dialogue between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

There has been no halt for the Iraqi attempts of mediation over the past few years, especially after the assumption of office by Al-Kadhimi as prime minister of the country. Al-Kadhimi is a respectable leader for Saudi Arabia, as the Kingdom sees him as a patriotic figure who works sincerely to resolve the huge crises that are afflicting Iraq.

The Iraqi viewpoint is that crises in inter-regional relations produce negative impact on Iraq internally. The more the region moves towards resolving crises and easing tension, the more this gives a comfortable ground for rulers in Mesopotamia.

It is true that the crises in Iraq are structural and it is very difficult to overcome most of these without understanding all the crises in their entirety. There is a possibility to mitigate the impact of these dilemmas, and perhaps the most important of them is the security dilemma.

It is ironic that Saudi Arabia, in its understanding and approach, is betting on Iran, which is striving to be a national state, and this is a major point of contention with Iran. The latter is betting on pre-state groups, and even supports them through illegal channels far from what is supposed to be from a national state, whether the militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon and others.

Restoring the national state will not be an easy matter after years of tampering with the social fabric in the countries of the region, which negatively affected the security and stability of the entire region.

It goes without saying that restoration of the state’s presence and roles through internal dialogue and negotiations and by stopping states from interfering in the internal affairs of other states, all of this would contribute to averting these states and the entire region from bloodshed.

Saudi Arabia spares no effort in extending the hand of dialogue to all who want to reach to this end, despite the pile up of discouraging experiences in terms of dialogue.

A point of concern is the arms race that Tehran wants to launch. It will not serve anyone, and it will cause serious consequences for Iran itself. Here we are talking about two aspects: The first is the nuclear program and the anxiety it causes to countries in the region and the lack of confidence in Iranian promises, especially with the increase in the enrichment rate and the secret aspects that Iran seeks to hide.

The second aspect is the program of drones and ballistic missiles that pose a serious threat to the entire region, and in this also there is a threat to the arms race that has already begun.

Serious dialogue to reach a security system can be a window not to resolve crises, as we all wish, but at least to manage them. As for the idea of dialogue for the sake of image, it will not work as the region had tried it during the past decades, a dialogue that results in smiles in front of cameras but fears remain.

What is worst is that Tehran is using this dialogue to continue its troubling policies, all of which will not be useful.

Saudi Arabia, under the leadership of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, continues its efforts in the region to restore stability, avoid tension, and defuse crises whenever it is possible.