Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Confirms Drone Exercises With Russians

Cruz tweeted that “The Ayatollahs have been trying to murder Salman Rushdie for decades. Their incitement and their contacts with this terrorist resulted in an attack.”

Urging condemnation of “this vicious terrorist attack,” he said that “the Biden admin must finally cease appeasing the Iranian regime.”

On Monday, Iran’s foreign ministry denied any links with Hadi Matar, apparently a pro-Iran fanatic that stabbed the author at an event in New York state on Friday, nearly killing him. The ministry's spokesman Nasser Kanaani said, "Salman Rushdie exposed himself to popular outrage by insulting Islamic sanctities and crossing the red lines of 1.5 billion Muslims. During the attack on Salman Rushdie, we do not consider anyone other than himself and his supporters worthy of reproach, reproach and condemnation...No one has the right to accuse Iran in this regard."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was the first senior US official to mention Iran in relation to the attempted murder in a statement on Sunday.

Amid nuclear negotiations with Tehran, President Joe Biden avoided mentioning Iran in his August 13 statement condemning the attack on the renowned British-American author.

At the same time, Vice News reported on Sunday that the 24-year-old attacker had been in contact with elements of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to European and Middle Eastern intelligence sources.

A spokesman for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Monday, "Clearly it is ludicrous to suggest that Salman Rushdie was in any way responsible for this abhorrent attack on him.”

"This was not just an attack on him, it was an attack on the right to free speech and expression and the UK government stands both by him and his family, but equally we stand in defense of free speech around the world."

Earlier in the day, foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanaani repeated Iran's position that Rushdie had insulted Prophet Muhammed and is guilty. "Salman Rushdie exposed himself to popular outrage by insulting Islamic sanctities and crossing the red lines of 1.5 billion Muslims," Kanaani said. "We do not consider anyone other than himself and his supporters worthy of reproach and condemnation...No one has the right to accuse Iran in this regard."

On Saturday, prime ministerial candidate Rishi Sunak said the UK must sanction Iran over the attack on Rushdie as police believe the perpetrator was sympathetic to Shiite extremism and IRGC.

Hadi Matar, the pro-Iran fanatic that stabbed the author at an event in New York state on Friday, was charged with attempted murder on Saturday, August 13.

A preliminary investigation by police suggested he was sympathetic to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, as his Facebook account featured pictures of Qasem Soleimani, the IRGC general who was killed in a US drone strike in 2020, and Iran’s Supreme Leader.

According to the Syrian army, three servicemen were killed and three were wounded in two simultaneous attacks south of the province of Tartous, and another on the northeastern outskirts of capital Damascus.

Two Syrian military defectors familiar with the region said that the strikes on the capital hit outposts run by Lebanon's Iran-backed Hezbollah group. An Iranian base near the village of Abu Afsa, south of the port city of Tartous was targeted alongside an air defense and radar station nearby, a source said on condition of anonymity.

Israel has conducted hundreds of strikes mostly since 2017 against what it has described as Iranian targets in Syria, where Tehran-backed forces have deployed over the last decade to support Assad in Syria's war, but has mostly avoided hitting the coastal provinces where Russia's main military assets are concentrated.

Russian forces in Syria normally turn a blind eye to Israeli airstrikes against suspected Iranian-sponsored deployments and arms transfers.

Tartus, along with the Khmeimim air base in the nearby province of Latakia, are the main Russian bases in the country, which are reportedly being taken over by Iran forces and Hezbollah as Russia has begun pulling out its troops from Syria to bolster forces in Ukraine.

Mohammad Javad Karimi Ghoddousi (Qoddusi), a member of the Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said that Iran does not need to send Revolutionary Guard forces to the US to kill officials because it will be very dangerous, instead “if we pay thugs in New York’s Manhattan, they can do the job for us too.”

Wrongly claiming that the US said a member of Iranian Revolutionary Guard was sent to assassinate John Bolton, the former United States National Security Advisor, he also denied any connection between Hadi Matar, the man who stabbed author Salman Rushdie last week in New York and the IRGC. 

A statement last week from the US Justice Department alleged that an IRGC operative had attempted to pay individuals in the United States” $300,000 to carry out Bolton’s killing, “likely in retaliation for the January 2020 death of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps – Qods Force (IRGC-QF) commander Soleimani.”

Ghoddousi said that people like former president Donald Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo “deserve to die for their crimes,” particularly killing IRGC commander Qasem Soleimani, but the Islamic Republic has zealous supporters that back Tehran’s positions “and wherever they get this opportunity, they will take revenge on them.”

Bolton was National Security Advisor April 2018-September 2019 and was not in the post when President Donald Trump authorized the drone strike in Baghdad in which Soleimani and nine others died. The United Nations special rapporteur judged Soleimani’s death “unlawful killing.”

The ministry's spokesman Nasser Kanaani repeated Iran's position that Rushdie had insulted Prophet Muhammed and is guilty. "Salman Rushdie exposed himself to popular outrage by insulting Islamic sanctities and crossing the red lines of 1.5 billion Muslims," Kanaani said.

"During the attack on Salman Rushdie, we do not consider anyone other than himself and his supporters worthy of reproach and condemnation...No one has the right to accuse Iran in this regard."

Secretary of State Antony Blinken was the first senior US official to mention Iran in relation to the attempted murder in a statement on Sunday.

Amid nuclear negotiations with Tehran, President Joe Biden avoided mentioning Iran in his statement on August 13 condemning the attack on the renowned British-American author.

At the same time, Vice News reported on Sunday that the 24-year-old suspect Hadi Matar had been in contact with elements of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to European and Middle Eastern intelligence sources.

Earlier police had disclosed that Matar’s social media activities showed his affinity for Shiite extremist causes espoused by Iran, and even praise for the Revolutionary Guard.

Praising Rushdie’s life-long defense of freedom of expression and the press, Blinken said, “I am reminded of the pernicious forces that seek to undermine these rights, including through hate speech and incitement to violence.,” and went on to mention Iran.

“Specifically, Iranian state institutions have incited violence against Rushdie for generations, and state-affiliated media recently gloated about the attempt on his life. This is despicable.”

Iran’s foreign ministry's Kanaani on Monday said, “We categorically and officially deny” any links with the suspect. “No one has the right to accuse the Islamic Republic,” he said.

Since the knife attack last Friday [August 12], Iran International reported in detail about reactions by hardliner and government-owned media in Iran, praising a fatwa or edict issued in 1988 by then-Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini condemning Rushdie to death. There was even direct praise for the assailant, with the flagship ultraconservative paper Kayhan, published under the supervision of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, saying “a thousand bravos” to Matar.

Top Iranian officials, however, have remained silent as talks to restore the 2015 nuclear agreement, the JCPOA, have reached a critical stage and Tehran is expected to respond to a proposal submitted to all parties by the European Union.

Media reports last week claimed that the Biden Administration has made concessions to Tehran, possibly even on the issue of lifting existing sanctions on the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC).

The administration’s Iran envoy Rob Malley tried to dispel concerns that the US was ready to lift sanctions on at least parts of the military-intelligence organization, which controls Tehran’s regional policies and actions supporting militant groups.

Vice News quoted a NATO counter terrorism official from Europe who said the attack on Rushdie had all hallmarks of a “guided attack”, meaning that a spy agency or a terrorist network nudges a supporter toward committing a specific act, without getting directly involved in the operation itself.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and its extra-territorial unit the Qods (Quds) Force have extensive experience and networks throughout the world both in espionage and in nurturing militant individuals and groups. Their focus is on Shiites and they are aided by their strongest proxy force, the Lebanese Hezbollah, which has extensive networks in Latin America and fertile ground in Canada and the United States among Shiites.

Vice News also reported that the US is trying to find information from Lebanon about Matar’s possible links in the country after he travelled there and according to his mother returned a different person.

Hardliners in Iran who hailed the attack also threatened that former Trump administration officials would be next on the list of targets. Already, the US Justice Department last week said that former National Security Adviser John Bolton had been targeted for assassination.