Trump spoke with Kurdish leaders in Iran war effort – Axios

The Wall Street Journal editorial board said on Monday Iran’s attacks on Arab states, regional partners and European targets are further isolating Tehran and strengthening the coalition against its regime.

“Iran’s retaliation since the US-Israeli bombing began is so far helping to build the coalition against the ruling regime. By attacking Arab states and partners, Tehran makes a broader case against its own survival,” the editorial said.

“The Gulf states are angry. ‘They want to fight,’ Mr. Trump said Monday. ... Iran has even involved Europe by striking a French naval base in the UAE and a Kuwaiti air base used by Italy. ... Iran’s regime still has useful idiots on whom it can rely, but its retaliation has increased the need and grown the constituency for regime change,” the editorial added.

The Israeli army targeted the Islamic Republic of Iran’s state broadcasting complex on Monday, calling it the “beating heart” of the IRGC’s propaganda and repression machinery.

"The network had long portrayed regime opponents as instigators of unrest while glorifying security forces as national heroes. This institution has reached the end of its path," Kamal Panahasi, the IDF’s Farsi spokesperson said in a video.

"The state broadcasting complex acts as an inseparable part of a vast system of repression in Iran, where state media has been used to legitimize the use of force and to instill fear among the people. For years, through programs presented under the cover of maintaining regime stability, it has labeled protesters and opposition figures, serving the regime’s control," he added.

The State Department on Monday issued an urgent security alert advising American citizens to depart immediately from a number of Middle Eastern countries amid escalating regional tensions and serious safety risks.

The advisory applies to Bahrain, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Israel - including the West Bank and Gaza - Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

President Donald Trump said on Monday his decision to withdraw from the 2015 Iran nuclear deal prevented Tehran from obtaining a nuclear weapon “three years ago,” calling the agreement “the most dangerous transaction” ever made.

"If I didn’t terminate Obama’s horrendous Iran Nuclear Deal (JCPOA), Iran would have had a Nuclear Weapon three years ago. That was the most dangerous transaction we have ever entered into, and had it been allowed to stand, the World would be an entirely different place right now. You can blame Barack Hussein Obama, and Sleepy Joe Biden," Trump said.

Israel spent years hacking Tehran’s traffic cameras and penetrating mobile phone networks to monitor the movements of Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his security detail ahead of his assassination, the Financial Times reported, citing multiple current and former Israeli intelligence officials and other people familiar with the operation.

Nearly all traffic cameras in Tehran had been hacked for years, with footage encrypted and transmitted to servers in Tel Aviv and southern Israel, according to two people familiar with the matter cited by the newspaper.

One camera angle proved particularly useful in determining where bodyguards parked their personal cars and provided insight into the routines inside the compound near Pasteur Street, one of the people said.

Complex algorithms were used to add details to dossiers on members of Khamenei’s security guards, including their addresses, duty hours, routes to work and which officials they were assigned to protect, building what intelligence officers call a “pattern of life,” according to the report.

The Financial Times said Israel also disrupted components of roughly a dozen mobile phone towers near Pasteur Street, making phones appear busy when called and preventing members of Khamenei’s protection detail from receiving possible warnings.

A current unnamed Israeli intelligence official told the newspaper that long before the strike, “we knew Tehran like we know Jerusalem,” describing a dense “intelligence picture” built through data collection involving Israel’s signals intelligence Unit 8200, human sources recruited by the Mossad and analysis by military intelligence.

Israel also used a mathematical method known as social network analysis to sift through billions of data points and identify decision-making centers and new targets, a person familiar with its use told the Financial Times.

According to two people familiar with the matter, Israeli intelligence relied on signals intelligence, including hacked traffic cameras and penetrated mobile phone networks, to confirm that Khamenei and senior officials were present at the compound on the morning of the strike.

The Americans had an additional human source providing confirmation, the sources said, according to the report.