US Navy Seizes Illicit Weapons Originating From Iran Aboard A Vessel

The operation, which the coalition said destroyed seven drone and weapons stores at the camp, was in response to a drone the coalition said had been launched from Houthi territory towards Saudi's Red Sea city of Jizan.

The coalition has intensified attacks against targets in Sanaa in recent weeks, as Houthi forces continue to fire drones and missiles at Saudi Arabia.

The Yemeni capital is held by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement, which has been battling the coalition, which backs Yemen's internationally recognized government, for seven years.

Houthi-run Masirah TV said the strikes had hit the Sabaeen neighborhood of Sanaa in the early hours, damaging some civilian homes and causing some damage to a maternity and children's hospital.

During the conflict, which has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions, Houthi forces have regularly sent drones and fired missiles into Saudi Arabia, and the Saudi-led coalition has retaliated with air strikes inside Yemen.

The coalition said it carried out the operation in accordance with international humanitarian law.

Report by Reuters

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This report has been updated with new information.

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Suspicions about the Iranian ambassador's real identity rose to new heights Tuesday after in its obituary, the official news agency (IRNA) said ambassador Hassan Irloo "was also known as General Shahlaei" but later in the evening removed the reference to Shahlaei from its website.

General [Abdolreza] Shahlaei is a mysterious figure never shown in photos in the Iranian media.

Hasan Irloo (Irlu), Iran’s ambassador with Houthi rebels, died Tuesday at aged 63, two days after his repatriation from Yemen on an Iraqi plane in coordination with Saudi Arabia that maintains an air blockade over Yemeni territories controlled by Iran-aligned Houthis. Iran insists he was evacuated from Yemen because he was suffered from Covid-19, but he could not be saved.

"He was one of the commanders of resistance and his pivotal role alongside martyr Ghasem Soleimani in forcing the US out of Iraq (during Obama’s first term) as well as in the expulsion of Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) from Iraq are among his unforgettable feats," IRNA wrote in the obituary which referred to Irloo as a martyr.

The title shahid (martyr) is usually reserved for those killed in battle and 'resistance' is a term the Islamic Republic uses to describe its allies and proxies in the region.

At Irloo's funeral ceremony Wednesday, deputy commander of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), Ali Fadavi, also named him as a “fighter in the resistance front" and accused the US and its allies of delaying Irloo’s evacuation from Sanaa and his death.

Irloo was appointed as Iran's ambassador to the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capital, Sanaa, in October where he presented his credentials to Houthi Foreign Minister Hisham Sharaf but how he arrived in Yemen despite the blockade remained a mystery.

The Wall Street Journal in a report last week claimed that Houthis had asked Tehran to remove Irloo from Sanaa. Both Iran and the Houthi leadership denied the report, insisting that the ambassador suffered from Covid and needed to receive medical attention in Iran.

The US State Department Spokesman Ned Price said in a tweet October 21 that Irloo was an IRGC member tied to the Lebanese Hezbollah who had been "smuggled" into Yemen "under the guise of ambassador to the Houthi militia".

In December 2019, the US Special Representative for Iran, Brian Hook, announced that the State Department was offering a $15 million reward for information on an Iranian Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) Commander in Yemen known as Abdul-Reza Shahlaei for his financial activities, networks, and associates. "We remain gravely concerned by his presence in Yemen and potential role in providing advanced weaponry of the kind that we have interdicted to the Houthis," Hook said.

The US Treasury Department in 2011 had accused Shahlaei of coordinating a failed plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the US at a cafe in Washington. “Shahlai approved financial allotments ... to help recruit other individuals for the plot, approving $5 million as payment for all of the operations discussed.” Irloo, also a member of Iran's Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), was sanctioned by the US Treasury Department in December 2020 due to his connections to the IRGC's Qods Force.

In January 2020, two unnamed US officials told Reuters that on January 3, 2020 when a US drone killed Qods Commander Qasem Soleimani, another US military unit was tasked with killing a second senior Qods Commander, Abdolreza Shahlai, but he escaped unscathed.

Head of Iran’s Trade Promotion Organization, Alireza Peyman-Pak and Sri Lanka Minister of Plantation, Ramesh Pathirana signed the barter agreement in Colombo on Tuesday.

Pathirana said that the deal makes it possible for the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation to settle its debts with the National Iranian Oil Company without violating US sanctions.

“This scheme will not violate any UN or US sanctions since tea has been categorized as a food item on humanitarian grounds while none of the black-listed Iranian banks will be involved in the equation,” read a statement by Sri Lanka’s plantation ministry.

According to the agreement, Sri Lanka’s Treasury will release equivalent of $5 million in rupees every month to the Sri Lanka Tea Board - a state-run industry regulator– that will then pay individual exporters in rupees at the central bank’s exchange rate.

Iran is among the top 10 importers of Ceylon Tea for the past several decades although purchases have declined following US sanctions.

Iran is trying to increase barter deals amid sanctions. “We have the lower hand and we have to make concessions, which means we have to accept any goods at any price”, Hamidreza Salehi, a member of Tehran’s Chamber of Commerce, has said.

Major General Tomer Bar, who is slated to take the helm in April, said in an interview with Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth that he is probably the officer who will need to command the strike against Iran's nuclear program if the ongoing talks in Vienna between Tehran and world powers fail.

"I have to assume it will happen in my time, and my shoulders already understand the weight of the responsibility," said the former fighter pilot, who currently commands the Force Design Directorate.

He said that despite reports on Israel’s lack of readiness or other factors hindering a possible strike on Iran, he is certain that it can complete the mission successfully. “There is no way that…I will return home without being able to say “I completed the mission”, he stressed.

"From the moment I sat here at the head of the Force Design Directorate, and the chief of staff spoke with me, the mission of the 'third circle' (Iran) was there… We are not starting from zero. We equipped ourselves with F-35s, we procured thousands of Iron Dome interceptors for multi-layer defense," Bar added.

The third circle, whose primary focus is Iran, refers to the three levels of direct threats facing Israel, the first being small terror groups on Israeli borders, like Hamas; the second being larger threats, like the Syrian army and Hezbollah; and the third being countries that do not share a border with Israel, like Iran and Iraq.

Bar said he believes that as soon as Israel strikes Iran, the next war with Hezbollah will break out. “I have to assume that he [Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah] will automatically be all in. Thirty years he has waited for this order and there is no way that he will not be there and with the highest intensity. We have to be prepared for this".

He noted that the next war with Lebanon will definitely involve a ground operation, but it will not be comparable to the previous wars. In 2006, Israel waged a ground and air war against Hezbollah with limited success, but critics said ground force level committed was limited.

"This is not raising the volume on the same radio. The familiarity with Hezbollah, the number of targets, the strength built over the years in matters of intelligence and attack capability, electronic warfare, cyber, make it something else entirely. I can stand by my word,” Bar said, adding that Hezbollah cannot imagine Israel’s power.

"Maybe they will try to bring in special forces or shoot at the home front, but we are no longer on this scale. We want a clear victory this time, in a shorter time and with fewer losses," the commander said.

Earlier in the day, visiting US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett discussed Iran and the ongoing nuclear talks, stressing the need for a joint strategy. Sullivan said he had been sent to Israel by President Joe Biden "because at a critical juncture for both our countries on a major set of security issues, it's important that we sit together and develop a common strategy, a common outlook".

A senior Iranian commander said on Monday that Israel does not have the ability to strike Iran’s nuclear or military bases without US approval, and repeated threats to attack Israel, as the Revolutionary Guard launched large-scale air and naval drills in the Persian Gulf.

"If Israel carries out attacks against Iran, our armed forces will immediately attack all centers, bases, routes, and spaces used to carry out the aggression," Iranian commander Gholamali Rashid said.

Following weeks of reports of Israeli preparations for attacking Iran's nuclear installations, the Tehran Times published an article -- headlined "Just One Wrong Move"– with a map of purported missile targets in Israel on its front page.

Israel has long threatened military action against Iran, and recently reportedly allocated $1.5 billion for an attack if Iran gets dangerously close to obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The comparison between prices in December 2015 and now is revealing in one important respect. Iran was still under international sanctions six years ago after the nuclear agreement was concluded but economic restrictions were officially still in place. Prices did not change much after sanctions were lifted in early 2016 until the United States imposed new sanctions in 2018, with a devastating impact on the country’s economy.

Fararu website in Tehran has compared prices for this period, without any commentary but the comparison is interesting in the sense that rising prices are closely linked with the fall in the value of Iran’s currency.

The rial has dropped by 732 percent in six years, or rather from December 2017, when it became apparent that Donald Trump was likely to pull out of Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran and impose sanctions.

One can argue that Iran had held up much better during international economic sanctions from 2011-2015, compared with how it has coped with Trump 'maximum pressure'. One reason could be that around the time when international sanctions were imposed global oil prices were hovering around $100-110 a barrel, which provided Iran with a cushion of dollar reserves. In contrast, Trump imposed sanctions on Iran’s oil exports when the average price was $70 a barrel in 2018.

The oil price of $100 in early 2010s was equivalent to 120 dollars in 2018. So, Iran was earning substantially more from its oil exports around 2010 than it did in 2018 after a big price collapse that had started in 2014.

While the US dollar rose 730 percent, housing costs climbed 740 percent on average. This has put a tremendous pressure on wage earners as in some cases rents eat up almost all of a worker's salary.

The main reason why housing costs have increased in par with the value of the dollar is that Iranian real estate owners regard their investment as a hedge against devaluation and ask prices and rents that keeps their income intact in dollars. Sale of properties can decrease, but no one is willing to sell homes and apartments at a loss calculated in dllars. Rents are a different story, as owners ask for more knowing that renters have no other choice.

Beef and chicken prices have also increased by over 300 percent, while Iranian-produced rice, which is a main food staple, has gone up by 500 percent.

The Fararu report calculates that in contrast with much higher prices, wages and salaries have increased by around 270 percent in six years, reaching a maximum of around $140 per month. There is little difference of income between a factory worker and an office employee or a young professional.

In fact, the income of workers in large industrial companies is safer than in smaller services firms which in many instances pay less to employees.

Iranian labor groups say that the minimum monthly salary needed for a family of 3.3 persons should be $400 to afford basic food and housing.

The economic hardship people face has created a potentially explosive political environment where a repeat of mass protests can take place at any moment, according to even government-controlled media in Iran.