White House shifts toward preemptive strike on Iran – Israeli media

Israel's Diaspora Affairs and Combating Antisemitism Ministry alerted security and transportation officials on October 19 to allegations circulating on X about the pilot, Sina Amjadian, according to a ministry letter obtained by Ynet.

The letter included two posts from X. One alleged that Amjadian, who was said to have previously worked for flydubai, had shared content supporting Iran's government, including a video in which he purportedly kissed and saluted its emblem.

The other alleged that he had expressed support for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Hezbollah and called on United Airlines to investigate his conduct.

Ynet said it could not independently verify the allegations and that the material submitted to Israeli authorities did not include original statements or social media posts by Amjadian.

The allegations nevertheless prompted a security review and a decision to prohibit Amjadian from serving as a crew member on flights to Israel, senior Transportation Ministry officials told Ynet.

Security review follows flydubai incident

The Diaspora Affairs Ministry said the warning followed an attempted attack aboard a flydubai flight bound for Israel in late September, during which a co-pilot attacked the captain and attempted to seize control of the aircraft.

The incident prompted Israel's National Command and Control Center for Combating Antisemitism to expand its monitoring to people who might pose a threat to aviation security, according to the ministry.

It said the allegations concerning Amjadian warranted security scrutiny because of the responsibilities of an international airline pilot and the potential risks to passengers and crew.

Transportation Ministry officials told Ynet that the ministry did not independently monitor social media or gather intelligence but coordinated with security agencies when information raised aviation safety concerns.

They said preventing a pilot from operating flights to Israel was separate from denying the individual entry to the country, which falls under the authority of border control officials.

Ynet said it remained unclear whether Amjadian had previously flown to Israel, had been scheduled to operate a flight to Ben Gurion Airport or was qualified to fly aircraft used by United Airlines on its Israel routes.

There was no indication that any flight had been canceled or prevented from reaching Israel because of the restriction.

Iraqi government spokesperson Haider al-Aboudi said the Sheeb crossing, known as Chazabeh in Iran, was closed because it lacked sufficient technical, technological and developmental readiness, according to the official Iraqi News Agency.

He said trade was proceeding normally through several other crossings with Iran.

But Al Jazeera cited an Iraqi government official on Tuesday as saying Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi had ordered Sheeb closed indefinitely and several other crossings gradually shut in the coming days. No reason was given for the planned closures.

Separately, AFP reported Wednesday, citing two Iraqi political sources, that Washington was pressing Baghdad to close crossings with Iran as part of efforts to increase economic pressure on Tehran.

One source said the US Treasury Department raised the issue with Zaidi during his visit to New York for the UN General Assembly last month and that the proposed restrictions would leave only two crossings open, one in federal Iraq and another in the Kurdistan region.

The second source said Washington had asked other countries bordering Iran to take similar measures.

Reuters reported that Sheeb had been closed to passengers, vehicles and commercial trucks. An Iraqi border official told the agency the closure would allow security arrangements to be reviewed and detection equipment installed to prevent the smuggling of prohibited materials.

Tehran seeks reopening

Iranian officials said they had received no advance warning of the closure.

Valiollah Hayati, a security official in Iran's southwestern Khuzestan province, said consultations were under way with Iraqi authorities to reopen Sheeb and advised passengers and commercial trucks to use the nearby Shalamcheh crossing.

Iranian Interior Ministry spokesperson Ali Zeinivand said Iraq was required to notify Tehran of extended border closures but had not done so.

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also criticized disruptions at Iran's borders on Wednesday, saying they had become places where traffic was held up rather than allowed to pass. He said the Foreign Ministry would seek to resolve obstacles originating in neighboring countries.

The uncertainty comes days after Pakistan suspended commercial activity at two major crossings with Iran, Taftan-Mirjaveh and Gabd-Rimdan, on October 17.

Iranian authorities said the border reopened on Tuesday, although the resumption of normal commercial traffic at both crossings has not been independently confirmed.

Iran and Iraq share a border of more than 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) and have extensive political, religious and economic ties.

The measures extend Washington's pressure beyond ships carrying Iranian cargo to businesses that register them, manage their operations and provide port services.

The US Treasury said four firms were designated under Operation Economic Outcast, a campaign Secretary Scott Bessent launched in August with a pledge to “sever every economic lifeline” sustaining Tehran.

Central to Wednesday's action was Karnakis and Karnakis, a law firm operating in Panama and Greece.

The Treasury said it registered companies used to move hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of Iranian petroleum, petrochemicals and steel while obscuring the ownership of vessels involved in the trade.

Those companies included previously sanctioned Skyros Maritime and Trading, Corfu Maritime and Trading and Elias Shipping and Trading Group.

The Treasury said Elias Shipping had served as a front for Syria's Al-Qatirji Company, which sold Iranian oil benefiting the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force and the Houthis.

The Treasury said Karnakis and Karnakis also helped establish companies associated with sanctioned Iranian energy trader Seyed Asadoollah Emamjomeh and acted as corporate agent for Roxette Maritime Shipping and Trading, a Panama- and Greece-based ship operator also sanctioned Wednesday.

Seven Panama-flagged cargo ships associated with Roxette were designated as blocked property. The law firm's two owners and three associates were also sanctioned.

The measures also targeted Singapore-based Amigoz Singapore, which the Treasury accused of assisting Iranian crude shipments and servicing vessels linked to Tehran's shadow fleet, and Dubai-based Whales Shipping Line, accused of facilitating Iranian petrochemical shipments.

Two vessels owned by Whales were also blocked.

Also on Wednesday, the US Financial Crimes Enforcement Network ⁠issued an administrative ‌subpoena ​to advance an investigation ​into a Greek ⁠bank over potential ‌ties to Iran, ​according to a Treasury statement, ‌which did not ​name the bank.

FINCEN also issued requests for ​information to six other banks in Europe over relationships with Iranian financial institutions under US sanctions.

Amin Yousefijam, a former Tehran police lieutenant who has lived in Canada since 2016, helped coordinate shipments of restricted equipment from the United States to Iran through the United Arab Emirates, the board found, according to the report.

The shipments included electronics, motors and other dual-use goods with both civilian and military applications. Global News reported that some of the materials could potentially be used in the manufacture of weapons of mass destruction.

The deportation order was issued in July but only released to Global News this week. The board found that Yousefijam played an essential role in an operation that violated Canadian and US sanctions, although his involvement was more limited than that of his brother, Arash Yousefijam, who led the scheme.

Yousefijam was arrested in Toronto in 2021 and extradited to the United States, where he pleaded guilty to sanctions violations, the report said. After returning to Canada, he legally changed his name to Ameen Cohen.

The immigration board found that he intentionally failed to disclose his US conviction when applying for the name change, rejecting his explanation that he had been advised not to report convictions outside Canada.

The Canada Border Services Agency argued that Yousefijam posed a threat to national security. The board found insufficient evidence that he remained a security threat, however, and instead ordered his deportation on the grounds of membership in a criminal organization.

Global News quoted Yousefijam as saying he remained in Canada and was considering his legal options. He declined to say whether he had appealed the deportation order.

The case comes amid a broader Canadian effort to remove people with ties to the Islamic Republic, although Yousefijam's deportation is separate from proceedings targeting senior Iranian government officials.

According to Canada Border Services Agency figures, authorities had identified 40 senior Iranian officials living in Canada as of October 1. Two had been deported, eight had left voluntarily and two more were awaiting removal.

The meeting adds to signs that Moscow is positioning itself as both an ally of Tehran and a potential intermediary with Washington as diplomatic efforts remain deadlocked over Iran’s nuclear program and the sequencing of commitments.

Earlier this month, Putin said Russia was prepared to do everything it could to help resolve the crisis and subsequently conveyed Tehran’s position to US President Donald Trump. Neither the contents of the message nor Washington’s response was made public.

In Tehran on Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the two countries had “never” worked as closely as they do now, while Lavrov described Iran’s cause as “just” and said Russian specialists who left the Bushehr nuclear power plant during the war were gradually returning.

Yet Iranian media and commentators questioned how much Moscow could achieve as an intermediary given the fundamental differences between Tehran and Washington.

Tabnak, a news website considered close to Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei, said Moscow could help by conveying messages, consulting with both capitals and supporting a political solution, but cautioned that no mediator could overcome the underlying disagreements on its own.

“As long as fundamental disagreements over the terms of an agreement persist, no mediator can guarantee success,” it wrote, citing differences over the sequencing of negotiations and the scope of commitments.

The reformist outlet Rouydad24 said there was little evidence Moscow had brought a comprehensive plan capable of breaking the deadlock.

“What has so far been presented by official Iranian and Russian sources points less to a ‘grand peace plan’ than to the continuation of Russia’s traditional role as a facilitator of dialogue,” it wrote.

Uranium emerges as key obstacle

A central obstacle in the diplomatic impasse is Iran’s stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%.

Russian officials, including Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, have indicated that Moscow is prepared to receive the stockpile, a move that could address one of the central concerns surrounding Iran’s nuclear program.

Tehran, however, has rejected the idea of transferring its enriched uranium abroad and denied that nuclear negotiations with Washington are under way.

The position was reiterated during Pakistani army chief Asim Munir’s visit to Tehran on Tuesday. Rezaei told Munir that none of Iran’s enriched material would leave the country, describing it as a national asset intended for domestic use.

Before Lavrov’s arrival, conservative political activist Ali Gholhaki claimed Russia had been partly persuaded by an Iranian proposal, advanced when Ali Larijani was secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, to establish a framework for transferring uranium enriched to 60%.

But following the visit, Gholhaki said Lavrov had produced no tangible result and had left “without any particular achievement.”

The conservative newspaper Khorasan argued that negotiating over Iran’s enriched uranium could increase rather than reduce the danger of another attack.

It argued that while Iran did not possess a nuclear deterrent, its stockpile of highly enriched uranium itself acted as a form of deterrence by raising the risks of further US escalation.

Mohammad-Sadegh Alizadeh, a journalist interviewed by the conservative Farhikhtegan newspaper, said Tehran’s immediate priority should instead be ending the war on terms acceptable to Iran.

“Whether the Russians have agreed to accept Iran’s 440 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60% is a secondary issue to be addressed later,” he said. “First, the question of ending the war must be settled.”

Doubts over Moscow’s interests

Doubts about Russia’s intentions extend beyond whether it can bridge the divide between Tehran and Washington.

Reformist journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi argued that Iranian decision-makers should nevertheless welcome any Russian initiative capable of stopping another war.

“Russian interference is an evil, of course, but compared with the prospect of another war, it is the lesser evil,” he wrote on Telegram.

Commentator Mehran Tabatabaei argued that Moscow’s approach to Iran remained subordinate to its negotiations with Washington over Ukraine.

“Russia will not take any positive steps until it resolves the Ukraine issue and obtains the concessions it wants from the United States over Ukraine,” he wrote.

Journalist Mohammad Aghazadeh offered a starker assessment, saying failure by Lavrov to make progress would suggest diplomacy itself was approaching a dead end.

“Either the current state of uncertainty will continue, or an intense war will begin,” he wrote, “one that will probably not be as easy to end as it is to start.”