Exclusive: Attack On Iran Has Become A Priority, Israeli Official Says

The Israeli military declined to comment.

A Syrian foreign ministry source said Israel had committed "a new aggression in the southern region" at dawn, the Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

Israel has mounted regular strikes against what it has described as Iranian-linked targets in Syria, where Tehran-backed forces including Lebanon's Hezbollah have deployed in support of President Bashar al-Assad during Syria's war.

A pro-Assad source familiar with the incident said an Israeli drone had struck several sites including a base operated by Hezbollah in al Baath city in Quneitra province and a second target. A third missile hit a reconnaissance tower near a Syrian army base, the source said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organisation which reports on the war, said an Israeli aircraft had fired rockets at two positions held by Syrian government forces and their allies in Quneitra province.

The attack had caused material damage and there was no information yet about casualties, it said.

Syria was discussed last week at a meeting in Sochi between Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Assad's most powerful ally.

Bennett told his cabinet on Sunday the two secured "stable and good" understandings over Syria - an allusion to deconfliction efforts with Russian forces amid continued Israeli air strikes on suspected Iranian assets.

Syria affirmed its right to respond to the attacks, the foreign ministry source quoted by SANA said.

"I will meet (EU) coordinator in Brussels on Wednesday to continue our talks on result-oriented negotiations (between Iran and the six powers)," Bagheri Kani tweeted, alluding to Mora's initial round of discussions in Tehran on October 14.

Initially, Iran had said that the meeting would take place on October 20, but later the EU said no date was fixed. Meanwhile the US State Department said that no additional meeting was necessary in Brussels.

In April, Iran and six powers started talks to reinstate the deal, which then-US President Donald Trump ditched three years ago before reimposing sanctions that have crippled Iran's economy. But the talks were put on hold after Iran's presidential election in June that brought anti-Western hardliner Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi) to power.

The United States and European powers have urged Iran to return to negotiations, warning that time is running out as the Islamic Republic's uranium enrichment program is advancing well beyond the limits set by the nuclear pact.

Meanwhile, US Special Envoy for Iran Rob Malley told reporters after a long trip to the Middle East and Europe that the reasoning behind the suspension of the Vienna talks is “wearing thin.” He said it was hard to find an “innocent explanation” for the delay.

Malley added, “I think all of our interlocutors, whether they’re in the region, or in Europe, shared a deep and growing concern about the pace and direction” of Iran’s nuclear activities.

In reaction to Trump's reimposition of sanctions, Tehran has breached the deal by rebuilding stockpiles of enriched uranium, refining it to higher fissile purity and installing advanced centrifuges to speed up output.

In having a separate meeting with the EU, Iran seems to try to re-negotiate what has been already agreed in Vienna in six rounds of talks from April to June, without the US being present.

Iran has repeatedly said it will return to negotiations “soon”, but it has yet to specify a date.

"Iran is determined to engage in negotiations that would remove unlawful and cruel sanctions in a full & effective manner, secure normalization of trade & economic relations w/ Iran, and provide credible guarantee for no further reneging," Bagheri Kani tweeted.

On Monday, Mikhail Ulyanov, the Russian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, took a jab at Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian who had just repeated Iran’s refrain of returning to the talks “soon”. Ulyanov asked in a tweet what ‘soon’ means in diplomacy.

With reporting by Reuters

Seven followers of Lebanon's Shiite Iran-backed Hezbollah group and its ally, the Amal Movement, were killed on Oct. 14 in the worst street violence in Beirut in over a decade.

The gunfire began as protesters assembled for a demonstration called for by Hezbollah and Amal against Judge Tarek Bitar, who is leading an investigation into an explosion at Beirut port that killed over 200 people on Aug. 4 last year.

Monday's charges were filed by Judge Fadi Akiki, a government representative at the military court. They also include charges of attempted murder, possession of unlicensed weapons and destruction of public and private property.

The case was referred to an investigative judge.

Hezbollah has accused the Christian Lebanese Forces party of targeting demonstrators with sniper fire.

The party's leader, Samir Geagea, has denied the allegations and said residents of the Christian-majority Ain al-Remmaneh area, where the violence took place, had acted in self-defense.

In a local television interview last week, Geagea said the trouble began when supporters of the Shi'ite Muslim parties entered the neighborhood and vandalized cars, and that four residents were wounded before a shot was fired.

Footage released later appeared to show at least one person being shot by a soldier.

Report b y Reuters

Ali Shamkhani, who has the rank of an admiral in the IRGC Navy, tweeted in Persian and Arabic referring to new reports that Israel has appropriated an additional $1.5 billion budget to confront Iran’s nuclear threat.

Shamkhani wrote that instead of spending the money on “mischief” Israel should prepare to spend tens of billion of dollars to rebuild after a “decisive” attack by Iran.

Israel media had reported on October 18 that the additional money set to be approved by the government in November, would pay for aircraft, intelligence-gathering drones and armaments needed for a strike against hardened Iranian nuclear targets.

Iran has suspended negotiation with world power over restoring the 2015 nuclear agreement knowsn as JCPOA since June as it enriched uranium and building a stockpile that could reduce the time for building a nuclear device.

Israeli officials have warned on several occasions since August that if no options are left they would "go it alone" to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

"Does anybody know what it can mean in practical terms?" Ulyanov said in a tweet in a rare biting language Saturday quoting Hossein Amir-Abdollahian that talks with world powers on the revival of the 2015 nuclear agreement would resume "soon".

Since taking office on August 25, Amir-Abdollahian has repeatedly said Iran would be returning to the suspended talks in Vienna, but despite pressure from other participants, Iran has never set a date. On Saturday he once again said multilateral nuclear talks in Vienna will resume “soon”.

In his joint press conference with the visiting Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Moscow last week, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Russia believes the way to restore the nuclear agreement lies only in "consistent and full implementation by all parties based on the initially recorded balance of interests". He declared that both Moscow and Tehran believe the Vienna talks must be resumed as soon as possible and that Tehran has indicated to him that it is ready for this.

Tehran has strong relations with Moscow, but it appears that even Moscow's patience is running out with Iran delaying its return to the talks. Iran suspended the talks two days after its presidential elections of June 18. Meanwhile, it is continuing to enrich uranium creating concern in many capitals that it is getting close to having enough fissile material for a bomb.

Iran asked the European Union to have a meeting in Brussels to clarify issues related to the first six rounds of talks in Vienna, but the United States objected, saying such a meeting was not necessary. It appeared Tehran wanted to open a new negotiating track without the presence of Washington.

Iran and Russia may also have other disagreements behind the scenes over Russia's cooperation with Israel regarding Syria, tension between Iran and Azerbaijan which makes large purchases of Israeli weapons including Arrow-3 missiles and surveillance drones, and Iran's wishes to procure military equipment from Russia.

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Israeli Prime Minister Naphtali Bennet. Israel's Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin has said that Putin and Bennet held “deep” discussions on Iran’s nuclear program and a “very wide” conversation on maintaining a coordination mechanism regarding Syria, but there are no details so far about the discussion. "It was decided to keep policies vis-à-vis Russia in place [regarding airstrikes] in Syrian territory,” Ze'ev added.

Iran and Russia both support Bashar al-Assad but have different interestsand do not always see eye to eye in Syria where Iranian presence and influence can be considered as a threat to Israel, which has been targeting Iranian military bases and weapons transfers in Syria since early 2017 while Russia has looked the other way.

In his press conference with the Iranian foreign minister Lavrov said Russia is opposed to "building up military activity" in the Caucasus region or "conducting any exercises of a provocative nature" and added that Azerbaijan has expressed concern over the exercises that were recently held by Iran near its borders." Lavrov also stressed that Russia opposes the "presence of military forces or any non-Caspian states in the Caspian Sea as soon as possible."

The exercises held by Iran in early October near the border with Azerbaijan were one of the largest ever carried out in the northwest of the country.