UK and US fighter jets act, while EU27 leaders talk about sanctions - Iran Part II

The latest from Brussels offers Israel little hope

Montage © Facts4EU.Org 2024

Iran Part II – The overthrow of the Shah, the new Islamic Republic, policies, state-sponsored terrorism

Israel is debating how to respond to the attack on it by Iran on Sunday. We fully expect it to act in its self-defence with an attack on Iran, despite all calls for restraint from the UN and other international bodies.

The Islamic Republic of Iran is bordered by Iraq to the west. Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia, the Caspian Sea and Turkmenistan are to the north, Afghanistan to the east, Pakistan to the south-east, and the Gulf of Oman and the Persian Gulf to the south. The country numbers around 90 million people and geopolitically it matters.

A Brexit Facts4EU.Org Series

Part I – Summary – Why does this affect the UK and what difference has Brexit made?
Part II - The overthrow of the Shah, the new Islamic Republic, policies, state-sponsored terrorism (This report)
Part III – Nuclear threat, Obama’s appeasement (JCPOA), EU's enthusiasm, Trump's renunciation of JCPOA, UK's opportunities
Part IV - Iran’s de facto act of war directly against Israel on Sunday 14 April 2024

Following a coup d'état in 1953 allegedly backed by the CIA, the Shah became the supreme ruler. Following his chronic illness and subsequent death from cancer the Ayatollah Khomeini returned from exile in Paris in 1979 and formed an extremist Islamist government.

Readers may recall two major events regarding Iran

The seizing of the US embassy in 1979 and the holding of US hostages for a year
The London Iranian Embassy siege of 1980, ultimately overcome in spectacular fashion by the UK’s SAS, authorised by the then Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and which captured the world’s attention

It was from the Islamic Revolution in 1979 that Iran started to become a pariah state. For several years it was involved in a bitter war with its neighbour Iraq. It then turned its attention to sponsoring a variety of extremist terrorist organisations intent on destabilising the region and overthrowing legitimate states.

This brings us to Sunday’s attack on Israel

Yesterday Facts4EU.Org spoke to the Israeli Ministry of Defence. For security reasons most of this was off the record but they confirmed that over 300 drones and ballistic missiles were launched by Iran against Israel. Both the RAF and the USAAF were involved in shooting these down, together with the IDF’s sophisticated air defence systems.

Israel’s Ministry of Defence also confirmed to us that there are still 133 civilian hostages who were taken from Israel by Hamas and who are unaccounted for in Gaza. We can’t imagine how awful this is for them – and for their families.

What is the EU doing about this?

The EU Council of the 27 leaders of the EU member countries met on Tuesday and yesterday. On the agenda was Iran.

While the UK acted immediately in putting its jets into combat, the EU27 discussed Iran’s attack on Israel and came to a form of decision to impose sanctions on Iran, at some point in around two weeks’ time. The details of this have yet to be announced.

Yesterday (17 April 2024) the EU High Representative/Vice-President Josep Borrell and Commissioner for Crisis Management, Janez Lenarčič, issued the following statement:

"It is essential to avoid any further escalation in the Middle East, in particular following the attacks from Iran targeting Israel. At this crucial time, we yet again call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, in line with UN Security Council Resolution 2728, demanding an urgent and unfettered expansion of the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza to prevent further escalation of this humanitarian crisis and the catastrophic, predictable and avoidable outcome for its population.”
- EU Commission, 17 Apr 2024

Iran’s state-sponsored terrorism

All western countries agree that Iran has been responsible for funding terrorism across the Middle East and beyond and has been doing so for years.

The United Kingdom is part of the highly-effective “Five Eyes” intelligence organisation, which includes Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK, and the United States. No EU country has any involvement. Because of the need to restrict information about what they know, and how they know it, it is not possible to reveal the information they have on Iran.

What is accepted universally however is that the Iranian government, and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), has been funding terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah, the Houthis, and Hamas, amongst others. There have been many calls for the IRGC to be declared a proscribed terrorist organisation but this has not yet happened.

The IRGC is responsible for Iran's ballistic missile program and has conducted several tests since the EU’s and Obama’s ‘JCPoA’ deal which we will explain in the next two reports in this series. Its missiles can reach Israel and in March 2016 it launched a ballistic missile with the words "Israel must be wiped out" in Hebrew.

Observations

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[ Sources: Israeli Ministry of Defence | UK MoD | EU Council | EU Commission ] Politicians and journalists can contact us for details, as ever.

Brexit Facts4EU.Org, Thurs 18 Apr 2024

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Reader Comments 4

1. Sparky , Thursday, April 18, 2024, 06:58:

Was the US and UK the only countries to defend against the Iranian drone attacks. No!, the Jordan air force and the French Airforce based in Jordan also took part, why is there no mention of this here?
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The Iranians are a serious concern for peace in the Middle East and the World. They have been supplying Russia with drones for attacks on Ukraine. But Iran telegraphed this attack on Isreal days in advance, it was designed to be a show of force and has been successfully defended by Isreal and its allies. Iran were confident the attack would be fended off.
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Israel must not over react, the USA and UK Gov are right to defend the attack but must not get dragged into any attack by Israel on Iran. If they do it will turn into another Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam level of conflict where the West ultimately ends up with a bloody nose.

2. There is no 'g' in Brexit , Thursday, April 18, 2024, 09:43:

Sparky: for once I mostly agree with you. The article should have mentioned, in particular, the French involvement. I don't know the extent of that involvement though: my usual source for French news, France24, has been silent.
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However, I would like to know why you think that Iran was confident the attack would be fended off. If so, it would seem very counter-productive in both physical cost and psychological cost in making the regime seem impotent in its ability to respond to Israeli actions.

3. terence patrick hewett , Thursday, April 18, 2024, 12:38:

Iran is run by 7th century religious fanatics: the only way to deal with them is militarily. Everything else is BS. No talky-talky: you exterminate them, as they would you.

4. Gazzablack , Thursday, April 18, 2024, 13:01:

1 sparkless
.
You know, I said the very same thing when Japan stacked Pearl Harbour.
I immediately phoned old FDR and said:
"Now now Frankie boy, don't overreact, we don't want to escalate things do we"?
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He didn't listen.
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This was no mere "show of force" by Iran.
330 missiles and drones was an attempt to overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome and inflict both casualties and damage.
The forwarning was intended to intimidate, not allow for countermeasures.
(Incidently - while 330 combined drones and missiles were successfully launched, it is reported that many many more failed to launch, had they done so then the Iron Dome may have actually been overwhelmed resulting in many deaths).The
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I don't know how many Palestinians HAVE been killed in Gaza, but It's a safe bet that NONE of them would have been killed had it not been for the Oct.7th attack.

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