Repeat: Iran Does Not Wish To Develop Nuclear Weapons!

"[Operations are likely to last four to five weeks but could] go far longer than that."

"This was our last, best chance to strike -- what we're doing right now -- and eliminate the intolerable threats posed by this sick and sinister regime."

"[Iran] remains one of the largest, if not the largest, state-sponsors of terrorism in the world."

"[It] continues to seek the means to possess and employ nuclear weapons."

"Its array of ballistic, cruise, anti-ship and other missiles pose a direct threat to and are attacking US forces, commercial vessels and civilians, as well as those of our allies and partners."

U.S. President Donald J. Trump

Getty Images

 

Israeli and American forces have been pounding Iran, even as the Islamic Republic's military forces have demonstrated their capacity to respond in kind, attacking Israel and U.S. bases established in the Middle East with missiles and drones. Nothing prepared the Gulf states for the situation they now find themselves in; this was not their war, but one that Iran brought on itself. That Iranian forces schemed to attack its Sunni Arab neighbours in a display of furious payback for their amicable links to the United States likely escaped the imagination of even those states like Qatar and Oman who have always supported Iran.

 

Since the death of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the stage was set for a prolonged conflict and its resulting far-reaching consequences where Dubai  has been struck with incoming fire, where hundreds of thousands of airline passengers are now stranded around the globe, where oil prices have shot up and allies of the United States though not having offered to form a coalition 'of the willing' still have pledged to assist in stopping the fast-and-furious Iranian missiles and drones.

 

A military evacuation flight for Czechs who were stranded in the Middle East landed in Prague on Tuesday, March 3, at the Vaclav Havel Airport.    Roman Vondrous/AP

 

President Trump has tasked U.S. forces to destroy Iran's missile capabilities, to extinguish its naval capacity, to put a stop to the country succeeding in obtaining nuclear weapons, and to make completely certain that the Islamic Republic will be incapable of supporting proxy terror groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has joined Iran, distracting Israel from its mission there to retaliate against Hezbollah's missile attacks. 

 

Even as airstrikes struck Tehran, its top security official, Ali Larijani vowed: "We will not negotiate with the United States", fulfilling the uncompromising orders given him by Ayatollah Khamenei before his death, to continue to guide the country, to ensure that the Islamic Republic lives on. The Iranian Red Crescent Society stated that 555 people have been killed in the U.S.-Israel operation. Hezbollah, in attacking Israel, invited a return of Israeli bombardments. Iran's missiles striking its neighbours caused the death of three people in the United Arab Emirates and one each in Kuwait and Bahrain.

 

Iran's ballistic missile facilities were struck with 2,000-pound bombs unleashed by U.S B-2 stealth bombers, even as President Trump announced Sunday that nine Iranian warships had been sunk, leaving the Iranian navy's headquarters "largely destroyed". The situation did bring a response from Britain, France and Germany declaring Sunday they were prepared to work with the U.S. to aid in the goal of putting an end to Iran's attacks. 

 

People gather in front of the destroyed center of a Lebanese Islamic group which hit by an Israeli strike, in the southern port city of Sidon, Lebanon, Tuesday, March, 3.   Mohammed Zaatari/AP

 

The paramilitary Basij force set up checkpoints across Tehran; known for their violent repression, the streets of the capital are silent with the absence of protesters, reminders of the violent crackdowns still fresh in memory. The Basij checkpoints are a pointed reminder to Iranians that this time, even more than last, any encouragement by them toward the invaders would be seen as treason, punishable by death. 

 

Iran's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency informed news media that the Natanz nuclear enrichment site was hit by airstrikes on Sunday. "Their justification that Iran wants to develop nuclear weapons is simply a big lie", said Reza Najafi.

 

Social media videos showed heavy damage to the Assembly of Experts building in Qom. Social Media via Reuters

 

Designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a Terrorist Organization

"We need urgent action by our government to protect all Canadians now. Designate Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization now."

"[The Muslim Brotherhood is a] real and immediate threat [to Canada's democracy]."

"Canada will undoubtedly fall [if the government does not act against] Canadian Islamist organizations connected to the Muslim Brotherhood."

Amir Epstein, Tafsik executive director

 

"Chapters of the Muslim Brotherhood purport to be legitimate civic organizations while, behind the scenes, they explicitly and enthusiastically support terrorist groups like Hamas."

U.S. Treasury Department  

The White House

"The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in Egypt in 1928, has developed into a transnational network with chapters across the Middle East and beyond.  Relevant here, its chapters in Lebanon, Jordan, and Egypt engage in or facilitate and support violence and destabilization campaigns that harm their own regions, United States citizens, and United States interests. "

"For example, in the aftermath of the October 7, 2023, attack in Israel, the military wing of the Lebanese chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood joined Hamas, Hezbollah, and Palestinian factions to launch multiple rocket attacks against both civilian and military targets within Israel."

"A senior leader of the Egyptian chapter of the Muslim Brotherhood, on October 7, 2023, called for violent attacks against United States partners and interests, and Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood leaders have long provided material support to the militant wing of Hamas.  Such activities threaten the security of American civilians in the Levant and other parts of the Middle East, as well as the safety and stability of our regional partners."

The White House  

B'nai Brith and other Jewish groups have called on the government of Canada for years, to list the Muslim Brotherhood as a  terrorist organization. Those calls have increased since the terrorist attack in southern Israel of October 7, 2023, when six thousand Palestinian terrorists led by Hamas, Islamic Jihad, the PLFP and Fatah streamed across the border from Gaza in an orgy of sadistic mass rape, torture and slaughter of 1,200 Israelis, along with the  hostage-taking of 250 children, women, the elderly civilians, soldiers and foreign farm workers.  

"Unlike Al Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood has evolved and learned the hard way that the use of violence will be met with superior violence by state actors. The clever thing to do, it now turns out, was to be patient and invest in a bottom-up movement rather than a commando structure that risked being wiped out by stronger forces."

" Besides, the gradualist approach is far more likely to win the prize of state power. All that Khomeini did before he came to power in Iran was to preach the merits of a society based on Islamic law. He did not engage in terrorism. Yet he and his followers took over Iran – a feat far greater than bin Laden ever achieved. In Iran the violence came later."

Ayyan Hirsi Ali, resident scholar, American Enterprise Institute, Washington 

Policy Alert: New Report Sheds Light on Muslim Brotherhood Terror Ties  Foundation for Defense of Democracies

 

More latterly, members of the Jewish advocacy group Tafsik called on Canada's Liberal government to finally follow the lead of the United States in designating the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. While the MB does not itself act as a terrorist group, it is the founding enterprise that has launched countless terrorist groups whose violence on display with the hard power of jihad complements the MB's jihadist soft power. Hamas itself is an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. 

 

By stealth and presenting as a reasonable alternative to democracy's secular rule, the Muslim Brotherhood portrays Islam as a gentle, peace-loving religion, omitting its instructions to the faithful to dedicate themselves to jihad, Islam's deep drive to convert the world to the worship of Islam through a type of proselytism unique to its founder, the Prophet Mohammad who launched countless wars of conquest, a heritage that encompassed the Middle East, stretched into North Africa, India, Spain, France and the Balkans.

 

Originating in the 1920s in Egypt, the century-old movement employs gentle 'suasion, establishing mosques, hospitals and social centres in the non-Muslim-majority countries it enters to extend its goodwill and influence as far as its  tentacles can reach. And they reach the very heart of governments, social welfare, elite society and the news media through operative contacts made by its adherents with key sympathizers.  

 

The U.S. took the step last month of designating the Lebanese, Egyptian and Jordanian branches of the Muslim Brotherhood, giving them the status of Specially Designated Global Terrorists. A report prepared last year by two French civil servants for the government of France issued a warning that the Muslim Brotherhood movement represented a "threat to national cohesion within the country". France is a country overrun with Muslims, and among them are ample numbers of groups hostile to French values, laws and culture. 

 

Groups linked with and originating from the Muslim Brotherhood, recognized as terrorist organizations, have been listed as such in Canada, including Hamas which, according to the listing identifies Hamas as having "emerged from the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in 1987". According to Middle East researcher Thomas Juneau, the Muslim Brotherhood is a complex movement with individual chapters in multiple countries worldwide. Its very complexity in relation to its offshoots makes it difficult to list the MB. 

"[Some of those offshoots are] undeniably [terrorist organizations, but others are not]." 

"Even individual chapters are often more loose movements than unified groups."

"Some Muslim Brotherhood groups are clearly not violent, they are clearly not terrorists."

"They adhere to a fairly conservative and pious version of political Islam, but they are not terrorists."

Prof.Thomas Juneau, Graduate School of Public and International Affairs, University of Ottawa  

Imam Mohammad Tawhidi/Imam of Peace, while acknowledging the complexity of designating the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist entity, nevertheless pressed Canada to make the move to identify it formally as a terrorist group as a reflection of its stealth influence, its undeniable links to violent groups that reflect its totalitarian quest for dominance using the hard power of jihadist terror, while behind the scenes as an innocent, well-meaning interlocutor for Islam, the Muslim Brotherhood does its part on the 'diplomatic' front. 

 

 

"Just because they are difficult to put a finger on, and it's somewhat technically challenging to designate the entire organization ... it does not mean that we do nothing about it at all."

"Ultimately, the Muslim Brotherhood will be designated. The question is, when will the courageous people, the lawmakers, take this stand?"

Mohammad Tawhidi, Imam of Peace 

Hezbollah Intransigence

"[The government's decision to remove] the defensive weapons of the resistance, its people and Lebanon during an aggression [facilitates the killing of] resistance fighters and their families and evict them from their land and homes."

"[The government should have instead] spread its authority and evicted Israel from Lebanon."

"The government is serving the Israeli project."

"The resistance will not hand over its weapons as the aggression continues and occupation remains." 

"The party will fight a [historic)]battle if necessary in the face of this Israeli-US project, whatever the cost."

"There will be no life in Lebanon if the government tries to confront the party."

"[The government in Beirut] bears full responsibility for any internal explosion and any destruction of Lebanon." 

Naim Kassem, leader, Hezbollah 

Hezbollah troops pledging fealty   Photo: AP

 

Lebanon's hostile factions continue to rent the country asunder, a country once peaceful and the centerpiece of the Middle East's manifold tribal, clan and sectarian heritage communities living tolerably amongst one another in their mostly separate geographic internal Lebanon locations, with a degree of respect for one another. That tolerance was not only social and cultural but political as well, with the government comprised at its elite levels of representatives of the majority groups; Christian, Sunni Muslim and Shia Muslim.

 

Within society itself, the Maronite Christians, Druze and Sunni Muslims dominated, the Shia Muslims relegated to a lower social tier mostly living in poverty and accorded less respect than its sectarian peers. In the 1980s Iran's al Quds division of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as well as the Syrian Alawite government of Bashar al Assad were tweaking Lebanon's social and political system. The IRGC persuaded Lebanese Shiites that the revolutionary Islam they promoted would help them prosper.

 

Under the tutelage of the IRGC, Lebanon's Shiites received instructions as a non-state military group with an emphasis on jihad. Trained and supplied with weaponry they became a formidable guerrilla group for whom suicide bombing and threats against the presence of French and U.S. peacekeeping troops in Lebanon became a rehearsal for their budding role in the Middle East as a force to be reckoned with, squaring off against Israel during its invasion of Lebanon to oust the Palestine Liberation Organization from its cross-border raids into Israel.

 

Lebanon was transformed into a dysfunctional, violence-addicted state, with its multifarious tribal/sectarian groups at threateningly hostile odds against one another. As the civil war disrupted civic life and Lebanese factions bombed and strafed each other and Western attempts at intervention were attempted, kidnapping and hostage-taking for ransom purposes became world news. As Lebanon eventually attempted to restore itself to a vestige of its peaceful past, efforts at disarming Hezbollah failed and it remained an armed adversary even as it became part of the government in taking political office.

 

Its goal has primarily been the destruction of Israel, as a client of the Islamic Republic. With Hezbollah in Israel's north and Hamas in the south, Iran the ultimate threat to Israel's existence, manipulating its terrorist proxies saw all three engaged in the past several years in an ultimately failed effort to attack and destroy Israel. Hezbollah's decision to support the Hamas 7 October 2023 invasion of southern Israel when thousands of terrorists streamed from Gaza into Israel to slaughter Israeli civilians, and Israel responded by invading Gaza to rout and destroy Hamas, Hezbollah began sending rockets from Lebanon into Israel.

 

Supporters of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group block the streets with burning tires as they rally in cars and motorbikes to protest the government’s endorsement of a plan to disarm it, in Beirut’s southern suburbs, August 8, 2025. (Ibrahim AMRO/AFP)

 

Lebanon has been in crisis mode for decades; coping with the sinister manipulation of Syria and Iran, along with Hezbollah. It has been facing, along with social disruptions, a dire economic situation; it has been limping along, a bare skeleton of survival of its former nationhood as a tolerant society. Latterly the national government has made a decision that Hezbollah must agree to their demand to surrender their weapons and rockets stockpiles, in favour of a tentative agreement with Israel, with the potential of a peace agreement brought into effect by the two nations.

 

The internal crisis is threatening once again to become an internal conflict, another destructive civil war. Hezbollah, aligned with the Shia Amal movement, one of the main armed groups in the 1975-1990 civil war, represented by Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, threaten together to contest the government's decision. Protesters, warned Kassem, "will be all over Lebanon and head to the U.S. embassy". The groups within Lebanon that want a return to good government and peace between factions, are opposed to Hezbollah retaining its weapons, insisting only the state should carry arms.

 

Last week the Lebanon government voted for a U.S.-backed plan to disarm Hezbollah by year's end, and a ceasefire with Israel be implemented. International pressure applied on Lebanon to force Hezbollah to surrender its arms following the 14-month conflict with Israel until a U.S.[brokered ceasefire in November is behind the government's move and Hezbollah's resistance. 

 

Hezbollah insists it would only be prepared to discuss a national defence strategy relating to its weapons possession on the condition that Israel withdraw from Lebanon and halts its airstrikes that have killed Hezbollah members since the  end of the conflict. Hezbollah's political leadership and much of its military, along with many of its weapons caches were destroyed in its war with Israel. Just as it has been defanged, so too has its sponsor, Tehran, been weakened militarily. 

 

People raise their fists as Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem delivers a televised speech in Dahiyeh, a southern suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, July 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein)

 

 

 

Canada's Liberal Government, True to Form

 

"[It was] irresponsible and unacceptable [that Heritage Canada] conducted no research or background checks before they distributed this money]."

"If the government cannot conduct a simple background check on the institutions they distribute money to, they need to reconsider their use of grants and contributions."

"According to Heritage Canada’s own Departmental Reports, in 2020-21 they employed 194 full-time employees and spent $134,607,209 to promote diversity and inclusion. How is it possible with those resources that they did not see fit to evaluate an organization before deciding to grant it $133,000?"

Shadow Minister for Canadian Heritage, MP John Nater

 

"Regardless of the hate and propaganda he promotes, for years [Marouf] was able to sell himself to the government as a legitimate enterprise, regardless of how absolutely offensive his communications were. This is problematic."

"It is profoundly troubling that this individual was supported and enabled in his hate speech, and the government needs to overhaul whatever problem is in these programs."

Jaime Kirzner-Roberts, director of policy, Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies 

Laith Marouf   Photo by Peter McCabe/The Gazette

The man at the centre of this controversy in 2022, Laith Marouf, is a flaming antisemite and all-'round racist. He was the top consultant for the Community Media Advocacy Center (CMAC); in fact its founder and only 'employee'. He was given to referring to Jews as 'bags of human feces' deserving of a 'bullet to the head'. He posted regularly on social media sites such as X, and the quality and quantity of those posts were readily available for viewing in a strictly cursory, casual search. Yet, even though a Liberal MP had flagged the content of these posts to then-Minister of Canadian Heritage Ahmed Hussen, they were dismissed. 

The Community Media Advocacy Center in the six years prior to and including the 2022 revelations, received contracts from the federal government valued at $500 million representing cost support, research and advocacy (for equity and diversity programs) from the Canadian federal broadcasting agency. When the scandal of the absurdity and outrage of the federal government having hired a racist consultant to operate training sessions in anti-racism for government employees led to the contract's withdrawal and attempts to recover the funding given the CMAC, little was heard of this man and his agency again.

Now it has been revealed that he was recently arrested, then released by Lebanon's Military Intelligence Directorate, in an area adjacent to the border with Israel. The restricted area that this took place in was a border town in Lebanon, called Mais al-Jabal. Marouf had evidently failed to present the required media credentials. Held incommunicado under "extensive interrogation" at Lebanon's Defense Ministry's headquarters just outside Beirut, he was released on Tuesday, evidently without charges or conditions. 

 

This man, who was known to refer to Quebecers as 'frogs', Black people as slaves, and characterizing Israelis as 'loud-mouthed bags of human feces, aka the Jewish White Supremacists' who would one day be forced to 'go back to where they came from' had been suspended from X for hateful commentary and advocating violence. He had regularly appeared as a pundit for Iran's Press TV and the Kremlin's Sputnik propaganda platform as a supporter of the Assad regime in Syria. He began his career, in violent 'anti-Zionist' protests at Concordia University decades earlier as the son of a Syrian diplomat in Montreal. 

 

After Justin Trudeau became prime minister in 2015, Marouf's Community Media Advocacy Centre collected some $517,480 in Broadcast Participation Fund grants. Once the uproar over his having been hired as an expert anti-racist, prepared to school federal civil servants in equity and diversity had subsided from the public eye and ear, Heritage Canada which had hired him, saw their officials undergoing workshops on identifying antisemitism, with instructions on identifying racists and antisemites among grant applicants.

 

Marouf had busied himself with pro-Hezbollah 'Free Palestine Television' in Beirut, insisting his FPTV is "unaffiliated with any political party or groups", while relying heavily on interviews with fellow 'anti-Zionists', leading to sympathetic coverage of the problems facing Hezbollah after it decided to join Hamas in its conflict with the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza, post-7 October 2023. Combat videos featuring Hamas, the Mujahideen Brigades and the Al-Qassam (IRGC) Brigades figured large in Marouf's FPTV series.

 

Mais al-Jabal, the border town where Marouf was picked up on Sunday, was a Hezbollah stronghold. The IDF last October destroyed lookout posts and weapons caches and tunnels in the town, mere metres from the Israeli border. On Marouf's arrival in Mais al-Jabal, he was detained at a checkpoint, and informed he lacked authorization to be in the area. Taken to a detention centre, his driver, Hadi Hoteit, a FPTV producer and correspondent for Tehran's Press TV, was released. 

 

View overlooking the Hula Valley and the town of Kiryat Shmona in northern Israel.  Alexey Protasov/stock.adobe.com

 

About 20 kilometres from Israel's northernmost city Kiryat Shmona, Mais al-Jabal is in a strategic location, one that Hezbollah used to rain rockets down over the Golan Heights to Jewish communities below. About 22,000 Israelis lived in Kiryat Shmonia before Hezbollah joined Hamas's war on Israel in October 2023. At least fifty percent of the city's buildings had been destroyed by Hezbollah rockets, its population evacuated to temporary safety in central Israel. 

 

Israeli reserve soldiers take part in a military drill in the Golan Heights, northern Israel, May 8, 2024

(photo credit: AYAL MARGOLIN/FLASH90)

 

"[FPTV launched] with the outbreak of the Al-Aqsa Flood — the name Hamas and other Palestinian groups have given to the Oct. 7 massacre. The online station is based out of Lebanon, staffed primarily by students, professors and community members."

"FPTV’s goal is to support the resistance from a media standpoint and to incite free peoples to move and fight Zionism and imperialism wherever they exist."

"Knowing that there is a huge gap left in news programming in English that is supportive of resistance and the right to liberation … we decided to bring together our communities here to start a project, a community television station."

FPTV Website 

 

"The Middle East Forum, an American conservative think tank, published a report that FPTV had links to the Lebanon-based group Al-Tajammu. According to Michael Barak, a researcher at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at Israel’s Reichmann University, Al-Tajammu is “an international pro-Iranian platform to leverage the resistance axis against the U.S., Israel and their allies”."

"Marouf described the attacks on Al-Tajammu as “frivolous” and accused the Middle East Forum of being a “racist organization”."

National Post 

 

 

Restoring Syria, Stabilizing the Middle East

"[Syria is at a] turning point [as is the rest of the Middle East]."

"If we can now all come together to support the Syrian people and the Syrian government in actually taking charge, and building a prosperous stable secure Syria, that will impact all of the region."

Prince Faisal bin Farhan, foreign minister of Saudi Arabia 

 

"[Gulf countries see an opportunity to] reshape the regional order, [as Syrians devote  themselves to rebuilding lives for themselves out of the rubble of 14 years of civil war]."

"[We still have Yemen that's in trouble -- Sudan, Libya -- but for one time in many years, one story is not one of blood and war and destruction and that's where we want to go."

"A healthy region means a healthy Gulf."

Bader Al-Saif assistant professor of history, Kuwait University 

Ahmed al-Shara and his delegation welcomed in the UAE  Stimson

 

While now-ousted Alawite Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was still barrel-bombing and chemical weapons-spraying majority Sunni Syrians, the Arab League which had banished him from their midst, did a U-turn and welcomed him back to be seated amongst them as a member in good standing. This, while Assad continued his loyalty to the Islamic Republic of Iran which sponsored Syria's persecution of its defiant majority Sunni population, when Russia had entered the civil war to aerially bombard Sunni strongholds in Syria.

 

The sectarian violence that internally displaced millions of Syrians, with millions more becoming refugees reflected traditional violent antipathy between the two major branches of Islam, Sunni and Shia. While Iran established its two-pronged 'axis of resistance' by cultivating, training and arming proxy militias in Lebanon, Iraq, Yemen and Gaza for its long-range aspiration of Shi'ite conquest of the Middle East, its plans also included the destruction of the sole non-Muslim state in the region, the Jewish state of Israel.

 

When Hamas took agency to invade southern Israel with thousands of its terrorist operatives to launch a massive bloodbath among Israeli farming communities near the Gaza border, deliberately and with detailed planning to impose a horrendous savagery of mass rape, mutilation, and widespread carnage that saw entire families burned to death in their  homes -- children, the elderly, women and foreign farm workers violently abducted to serve as hostages, an unprepared Israel while mourning its losses responded by invading Gaza to root out and destroy the Palestinian terror groups to completely neutralize their functionality.

 

Iran's related terror proxies attacked Israel in defence of Hamas; Hezbollah on the northern border, and the Houthis from Yemen. Shia militias in Iraq, and Assad's Syrian forces as well as the Islamic Republican Guard Corps al Quds division driving Iran to send missiles into Israel posed a pincer threat to the Jewish state. The Israeli military fought them all, and decimated both Hezbollah and Hamas, targeting their leaders, their command posts and their weapons caches, leaving them utterly diminished as organized fighting forces. 

 

The Israeli aerial bombardment of Iran neutralized many of the terror state's primary political, scientific and military figures, targeted military bases destroying missile production sites, and bombing the country's nuclear sites and facilities with the intention of destroying its capacity to further enrich uranium to weapons-grade state. Israel, in the course of several years militarily responding to the Hamas imposition of conflict was able to dismantle and neutralize the rabid threat of Islamist terrorism cultivated by Iran.

 

An opportunity that was grasped by a coalition of Syrian 'rebels' comprised of Syrian Islamist groups that were themselves terrorists, events leading to Bashar al-Assad fleeing to Russia for haven, and a former terrorist linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL, Ahmed al Sharaa, ensconced as Syria's new president, seeking to present as a moderate, a reformer, to take Syria into a new direction and restore it as a fulcrum of the Middle East, taking its place among the other nations with full accreditation. 

"I am 'ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria to give them a fresh start'." 

"It gives them a chance for greatness. The sanctions were really crippling, very powerful." 

"I felt very strongly that this would give them a chance. It's not going to be easy anyway, so gives them a good strong chance. And, it was my honour to do so."

"We made a speech last night, and that was the thing that got the biggest applause from the room."

U.S. President Donald Trump at Gulf Cooperation Council

In this photo released by the Saudi Royal Palace, Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa, left, shakes hands with U.S. President Donald Trump in Riyadh. (Bandar Aljaloud/Saudi Royal Palace/The Associated Press)

 

Saudi Arabia and Qatar paid off Syria's $15.5 million World Bank debt, a pittance for them, but enabling Syria to be once more eligible for grants to fund reconstruction. The Mediterranean port of Tartus in Syria once handed to Russia as a naval base, is now to be developed by D World owned by the gulf emirate of Dubai. Once an integral part of Tehran's 'crescent of influence' along with Iraq and Lebanon, Syria is now poised to return to the Sunni Islam majority world of the Middle East. 

 

The hostility between the Sunni states and Iran, fearing that the Islamic Republic's brand of Islam could penetrate their own minority Shia populations with its  revolutionary ideology zeal leading to mass instability is being put to rest. As is the fear that Iran could succeed in its conquest aspirations to become the premier influence in the region. Iran's interference in Saudi Arabia, bombing its oil fields, its missiles shot at Qatar to hit American bases there, signed its influence death-warrant.

 

And now that the Arab majority Sunni Muslim states recognize Israel's critical role in vanquishing the aspirations of the Persian Shi'ites, and greater cooperation leading to normalization between them with Israel through membership in the Abraham Accords has been accepted, their mission to restore relations within the Arab League and to establish opportunities for economic development and political stability has sprung into action.  

 

In this photo provided by the Saudi Ministry of Media, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman greets Syria's interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, left, during his arrival at the royal palace in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025. (Saudi Ministry of Media via AP)

 

Canada, Fundraising Haven for Palestinian Terrorism

"It is such an honour to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasralla and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine."

Charlotte Kates, Canadian citizen, co-founder, Samidoun Terrorist group, Vancouver-based

 

"Today, I attended the funeral of Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut."

"During the ceremony, Israeli warplanes flew low over the stadium on two occasions, provoking a defiant response from tens of thousands of mourners."

Dimitri Lascaris, lawyer 'activist journalist', Canadian citizen 

"Barakat [Khaled Barakat, Samidoun co-founder] has previously publicly acknowledged Samidoun's affiliation with the PFLP [Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist group outlawed in Canada], despite direction from PFLP leadership to maintain the confidential nature of the relationship."

U.S. Treasury Department statement

Charlotte Kates posted this photo on her X account with the following caption: "It is such an honor to be here in Beirut today, one among a sea of over a million people in collective tribute, mourning, love and commitment to the road of resistance and liberation exemplified by Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayyed Hisham Safieddine." Photo by Charlotte Kates /X

Charlotte Kates, who styles herself an 'international coordinator' for Samidoun, circulated photographs of herself at the Beirut 'funeral' of Hezbollah's leader Hassan Nasrallah, while holding a Samidoun flag. Apart from her presence at the event, two other Canadians were in attendance to mourn the assassination by Israeli airstrikes of Hassan Nasrallah and Hashem Safieddine, leaders of the Islamist terror group. Representatives of Islamist terrorist groups gathered in their tens of thousands to pay homage to the two acclaimed terrorist leaders, beloved of the Islamic Republic of Iran theocratic leadership and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

 

Lebanon's largest sports arena was used as a venue for this public funeral, where mass chants of 'death to Israel, 'death to America' rang out. The current head of Hezbollah, Naim Qassam, gave a keynote address to the crowd -- remotely, in fear he would become the third in succession to be assassinated by the military of the country that remains the sole target of Islam's terrorist contingent. 

It is telling just how deeply Islamist terrorism has infiltrated Canada at all levels of society, from its growing Muslim population, ascending to become stealth-acting members of government at every level. Dimitri Lascaris, one of the three Canadians attending this notorious event was a candidate for the leadership of the far left Green Party of Canada in 2020; a former chair of the board of directors for Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. Yet another innocuous-sounding title for yet another group whose purpose is to slander Israel, to mount divestment campaigns in BDS and to persuade others that Palestinians are entitled to the Judean ancestral land that present-day Israel sits upon.

 

The Israel Air Force flyby Lascaris referred to in a video he shot of the warplanes buzzing the funeral was confirmed by Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz to include the very types of aircraft used to assassinate both Nasrallah and Safieddine in separate incidents; intended to send a 'message' to the faithful in Hezbollah. "You will specialize in funerals, and we will [specialize] in victories", he had stated. 

Born in the United States, Kates claims Canadian citizenship, living in Vancouver since 2009, founding Samidoun with her husband Khaled Barakat, a high-ranking member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, recognized as a terrorist group in Canada since 2003. Samidoun was also declared a terror entity following Samidoun organizers seen burning a Canadian flag on the steps of the Vancouver Art Gallery, leading chants of "death to Canada", during one of their pro-Hamas demonstrations following the events of October 7, 2023 when Hamas operatives by the thousands that included PFLP members, stormed across the border from Gaza into Israel to perpetrate a savage bloodbath killing 1,200 and taking 120 Israeli children, elderly, women and men along with foreign farm workers into Gaza as hostages.

 

To say that the current Liberal-led Justin Trudeau government is soft on Palestinian terrorism is a bit of an understatement. Despite the fact that these terrorist groups are classed as such in Canada, no level of government has acted to outlaw them and arrest those supporting them in Canada. Their ongoing representations on behalf of Palestinian terrorism, openly supporting the sadistic savagery of October 7, the mutilation and rapes of Israeli girls and women, the torching of Israeli homes with entire families inside, the wholesale slaughter of a high percentage of Israelis living in border kibbutzim (communal farming villages), with no official intervention, much less action on the part of Canadian police forces.

 

The United States assigning terror status to Samidoun, stated that the group headquartered in Canada functions as an "international fundraiser" for the PFLP. While in Lebanon, Barakat writes openly about co-ordinating 'resistance' activities with Hezbollah. "This country Lebanon, will fight, and will emerge stronger and unified, trampling the criminal Zionists and imperialists", he stated while praising the Al-Aqsa Flood, so named by Hamas as a titular nomenclature for the massive bloodletting October 7 campaign of 2023. 

Also present for the funeral last Sunday for Nasrallah, Barakat made an on-camera appearance for the English-language propaganda outlet of the Islamic Republic of Iran: "Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah was an exceptional historical leader and we are very lucky that we lived in his time", he stated, lauding the Hezbollah leader whose butchery against Israel gained him fame in the Islamist world of terrorism. Barakat also boasts Canadian citizenship.

 

Despite having been designated by Canada as a terrorist group, Samidoun's website and social media channels continue to function openly with no intervention by any government agency. They continue their solicitation of donations, while continuing to support the BDS movement, and although under suspicion of terrorism activity and subject to court-ordered conditions barring Kates from attending public protests she was still able to travel to Iran where she accepted an Islamic Human Rights Award in recognition of her "anti-Zionist activities". 

Khaled Barakat — the husband of Samidoun leader Charlotte Kates — is seen at a 2015 protest in Brussels in a photo posted on the Samidoun website. Israel’s internal security service alleges that Barakat is a senior figure in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a listed terrorist organization in Canada and elsewhere. Photo by samidoun.net

 

Neutral UN Agencies in the Middle East

"We regret the harm to UNIFIL soldiers, and we are doing our utmost to prevent such harm."

"But the simplest and most obvious way to ensure this, is simply to withdraw them from the danger zone." 

"It is time for you [UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres], to withdraw UNIFIL from Hezbollah strongholds and from the areas of combat."

"The IDF has repeatedly asked for this, and has been met with repeated refusals, all aimed at providing a human shield to Hezbollah terrorists."

"Your refusal to evacuate the UNIFIL soldiers makes them hostages of Hezbollah. This endangers both them and the lives of our soldiers."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Vehicles of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) patrol in Marjayoun in southern Lebanon amid the ongoing war between terror group Hezbollah and Israel, October 11, 2024. (AFP)

 

UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701 tasked the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in 1978 to the critical role of maintaining peace between Israel and Lebanon with UNIFIL set by mandate to monitor and prevent hostilities from breaking out into active conflict. Hezbollah, the Shi'ite militia recognized as a terrorist group, had established itself in southern Lebanon as a challenge to the legitimate, albeit weak and fractured Lebanese government. Its self-appointed role was to obey its masters in Iran as a proxy militia of the terrorist mold in helping the Islamic Republic in its mission to destroy Israel.

Hezbollah was ordered by the United Nations under UNIFIL peacekeepers to surrender its weapons, leaving only the Lebanese military to carry and use weapons. Hezbollah never did surrender its weapons; the Lebanese military was too weak to do anything about it and UNIFIL was too uncertain to react. Since then, Hezbollah has been provided with vast stockpiles of weapons by Iran slipping them by the deliberately unobservant UNIFIL troops, aware of the armaments being provided by Hezbollah, for one purpose, to eventually seek to destroy Israel.

UNIFIL was obviously in no position given its clear abandonment of its orders to disarm Hezbollah and ensure there was no armed presence south of the Litani river. From its guard towers it was easily able to observe illicit, threatening activities, including tunnel infrastructure and weapons depots being methodically built over time, when its mandate schooled them to put a stop to any such actions. Hezbollah's constant bombardment with rockets of northern Israel from Hezbollah's perches in southern Lebanon continually breached Israel's  sovereign territory and led to the forced evacuation of some 60,000 Israelis.

 

When the IDF was finally ordered to seriously respond to the daily multiple shelling, and engage in some limited ground invasions they discovered the  reality of what had been assumed for decades; Hezbollah had assumed control of a vast shipment of military infrastructure over the years. The IDF discovered hundreds of weapons caches, tunnel shafts and underground command centres mere metres from the border with Israel. Also uncovered was an 800-square metre underground base used as a command centre.

 

Spanish peacekeepers of the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) coordinate their patrol with the Lebanese Military Police, in Marjayoun in south Lebanon on October 8, 2024. (AFP)

 

It would not have been remotely possible for the UNIFIL personnel to overlook extensive tunnel networks, military bases and caches of weaponry, leaving the impression that an extensive network of tunnels, military bases and weapons caches were built under the watchful eye of a peacekeeping force meant to prevent such actions; an impression that reflects a reality. While tasked with ensuring security, the international peacekeeping force has been privy to outlawed activities taking place directly in their eyesight and with total impunity. Like its sister agency UNRWA which also sees no evil under its mandate, it demonstrate the sham that these UN agencies represent.

A Hamas central headquarters was located in the basement of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, its schools used as weapons depots, its rocket launchers placed within crowded civilian areas in Gaza. It was the discovery that UNRWA staff included hundreds who were also members of terrorist groups, some of whom had taken part in the October 7 massacre in southern Israel.That the UN system, its agencies and international courts were selectively weaponized against Israel became abundantly clear. 

 

Hezbollah has been permitted by UNIFIL to make use of its outposts. More recently, an Israeli tank, coming under direct fire from Hezbollah, attempted to seek cover to protect its crew and other Israeli soldiers when, backing up in tight circumstances, inadvertently backed into a UNIFIL post and he UN body promptly charged Israel with deliberately firing on its personnel. When charged by Israel for neglecting its duty in preventing Hezbollah from firing across the border into Israel, UNIFIL responded by saying that the terror group's building of tunnels and weapons depots took place on 'private property', taking the issue out of their hands.

 

The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) has long struggled to enforce United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 1701, adopted in 2006, which aimed to prevent Hezbollah’s military buildup in southern Lebanon   Alma

Odd Man Out -- Singing From a Different Hymnal

"When we talk about [Israel's] ability to defend [itself], certainly that would include missile launch sites, military installations, airfields from which these attacks are being launched."

"Israel has a right to defend itself against such attacks and diminish Iran's capabilities of attacking them."

"I think [retaliation] needs to be carefully considered because that isn't the purpose of military response from Israel, but rather to diminish Iran's ability to continue to attack them."

"Israel has a right] to knock those missiles down from the sky [and] target the source of those missiles."

Federal Defence Minister Bill Blair

Minister of National Defence Bill Blair   Canadian Press

"We absolutely need to make sure that this does not become a full-scale war, and that's why we need a ceasefire."

"We need this war to stop."

"[Escalation of hostilities between Israel and Iran could plunge the region into] all-out war."

"Canada's role right now, Canada's goal, is to make sure that there's no full-scale war in the Middle East, and so that's why we'll continue to engage diplomatically."

Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly 

Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly says Canada’s goal right now ‘is to make sure there is no full-scale war in the Middle East.’  Still from video/CBC

Under the Liberal government of Justin Trudeau the federal Cabinet is unusually heavy with Muslim ministers and Members of Parliament, all of whom make no secret of their hostility toward Israel and their support for Palestinians and that includes the terrorist groups who claim to represent the best interests of Palestinians. Among their Canadian supporters these are 'freedom fighters' against Israeli oppression and occupation, an 'occupation' necessitated by the Palestinian penchant for lethal violence against Israel and its population.

In the Liberal caucus and Cabinet there are a few who express a level of empathy for Israel facing an existential dilemma courtesy of Palestinian terrorism, made more acute in the public eye since the horrors of the October 7 massacre, mass rape and abduction of hundreds of Israelis into Gaza as  hostages. Anthony Housefather, Marco Mendicino and Bill Blair have on occasion, defied the Liberal insistence that a 'ceasefire' is called for, effectively giving Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad the opportunity to regroup, rearm and recruit to continue its promise to destroy Israel.

Both Justin Trudeau and Melanie Joly have made it clear that nothing is clear about their position regarding Israel's right to exist; on the one hand declaring Israel has every right to defend itself, on the other placing a moratorium on defensive weapons from Canada to Israel, (playing to the Canadian Muslim voting bloc, since Canada does not supply Israel with weapons to begin with) and constant declarations of 'proportionality' and 'ceasefire', going so far as to abandon Canada's traditional position at the UN in support of Israel, to vote against Israel.

The barbaric events of October 7, 2023 in their horrifyingly sadistic details were documented in videos by Hamas terrorists, demonstrating the exultation felt by the thousands of terrorists that flooded Israel's southern border with Gaza in the unfolding bloodbath of savage intensity. Despite the appalling details that have been revealed of sub-human actions against innocent civilians from infants to the elderly, Israel's support has been diminished in the rush to condemn it for its response to the pogrom; a response permitted any other country, but not Israel.

Even Bill Blair, Canada's Minister of Defense, delivers responses that are both supportive of Israel and negatively contradictory as he hews to the Liberal government's playlist. On the one hand he supports the right of the Jewish State to do whatever it considers is required to defend itself from attacks by Iran, including attacks on its oil and gas infrastructure as representing an "appropriate" response to the barrage of missiles unleashed by Tehran against Israel. Yet on other occasions he will withhold approval.

At times declarations of support issuing from Mr. Blair are in direct contradiction to those aired by both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly. On the previous April occasion when Iran bombarded Israel, Joly urged the Jewish State to "take the win" without retaliating. Canada, obviously has never been besieged on its borders by groups of bloodthirsty terrorists determined to destroy the country and savage its population; 'advice' comes easy to those who have no intimate knowledge of terrorism's effects.

Still from video    CNN

"To Help Israel Defend Itself"

"Israel was considering a presumptive attack against Hezbollah, but that such a decision would be conditional on approval from the United States, which has recently established a] robust American presence in the region, coupled with an enormous U.S. pressure, not seen in recent years, on Iran to de-escalate."

Yoel Guzansky, senior fellow, Institute for National Security Studies, Tel Aviv

"Israel will be as flexible as needed."

"[Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] now understands that he needs a deal, that the country is in favour of a deal, that leaving the hostages behind would be a traumatic wound that Israel may not recover from."

Unnamed Israeli official

USS Georgia transits the Gulf, outbound from a sustainment and logistics visit in Manama, Bahrain.

Spc. William Gore/US Navy/Reuters/

Events are moving swiftly in the Middle East as eyes swivel toward the Islamic Republic of Iran and its vacillating plans: to attack once again ... or not? Rumour has it that the new president of Iran urges not to. Little doubt that the IRGC Quds group feel otherwise. Then again, the Republic's faithful proxy might just be given the order to attack in lieu of its puppet-master, leading Israel to believe an emphatic pre-emptive strike may be in order. Regardless, Iran's penchant for twisting a knife in a raw wound serves its interests for the time being, holding the Israeli population in a period of apprehensive suspense until such time as the fateful move is made.

A situation that has animated an equally suspenseful U.S. whose patronage is so very vital, leading the U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to order the USS Georgia guided-missile submarine to post-haste to the Middle East, with the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier strike group speeding its voyage to the region. A bit of release of tension for Israeli security officials. Talks between Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant preceded the announcement of the U.S.'s latest deployment, leading to efforts to "deter aggression" by Iran and Hezbollah.

The bold assassination of Ismail Haniyeh both mortified and infuriated Iranian authorities, with Ayatollah Khamenei making it quite clear in his pontificating statements that Israel must pay for its unpardonable sins against the 'international order'. Aside from the fact that he has declared the United States equally guilty. According to an Israeli official privy to conversations with security officials, Israel's assessments reveal that Iran is determined to respond by directly attacking Israel.

 

Iranian "Kheibarshekan" missile on display

 

Targeting civilian population centres -- Israel has warned Iran and Hezbollah -- would be a red line for Israel, in preparation for a spectrum of potential scenarios, none palatable, one including a scenario where Hezbollah attacks first, and then followed by Iran, revealed Yoel Guzansky, formerly an official on Israel's National Security Council.

Acting Iranian foreign minister Ali Bagheri stated "Iran will make the aggressions of the ... Israeli regime costly in a legitimate and firm action". That he actually spoke the word "Israel", bypassing the usual contemptful "Zionist entity" may be an indication of just how outraged the Republic's leaders are that Haniyeh died in the security-shelter of a Tehran government-guesthouse for particularly esteemed 'guests'.

Hezbollah's focus is on retaliation for Israel's targeting last month of one of its top commanders, Fuad Shakur, for payback in ordering the shelling of a Bedouin playground in Israel's Golan, leading to the deaths of twelve children and teens. All of this rising tension has spurred the U.S. to increase its presence since in an instance of escalation it "will want to be on the ground to help Israel to defend itself, to prevent damage, and then ensure that Israel does not respond", commented Yaakov Amidror a former major general and National Security Advisor of Israel.

 

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with the guests of the Islamic Unity Conference in Tehran, Iran   Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS

A Day of Mournful Remembrance in Argentina

"The years go by, but nothing happens."

"On these anniversaries, the government has very important announcements that never serve any purpose."

Diana Malamud, 64, member, Active Memory

 

"It's unbelievable that thirty years have passed since that cold morning of 18 July 1994, 30 years without a single person answering for this attack."

"We are speaking about October 7 here because the origin is the same: Iran."

"Always Iran is supporting terrorism, the common factor between AMIA and October 7 is the hate, the hate against Jews and also the hypocritical reaction of the world."

Amos Linetsky, head, AMIA (Argentinian Israelite Mutual Association)

People hold photos of bombing victims as sirens blare during a ceremony marking the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center that killed 85 people in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP/Natacha Pisarenko)

 Thursday marked the 30th anniversary of the truck bombing of the largest Jewish community center in Argentina in 1994, that killed 85 people and wounded another 300. Since that time, there has been no one named as responsible for the bombing. Those who know, however, point to Iran and its proxy militia, Hezbollah. In those three decades, governments have come and gone, each one pledging attention to the event, so that justice would be done. Nothing has come of any of those promises.

Argentina's new President, Javier Milei, the 11th leader in the 30 years that have passed, has renewed that pledge. That efforts will be vigorously pursued to finally bring the perpetrators of the mass killing to justice. He also signed new legislation so that July 18 was declared a national day of mourning in Argentina. Despite his obvious good intentions and his professed admiration for Israel and interest in Judaism, many Argentine Jews remain unconvinced.

 

The aftermath of the bombing at the Argentinian Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 1994. (AFP)

 

 

At the community centre which the Spanish acronym AMIA identifies, at 9:53am precisely a memorial siren wailed as it does on every year's anniversary of the dreadful event, reflecting the precise time to the very minute that the attack occurred. That signal commenced a day of speeches and solemn vigils.

In the audience at the community centre to show his personal support, President Milei held a portrait of one of the 85 victims of the bombing. The day previously the World Jewish Congress had hosted a conference, where the president denounced Iran as "the dark hand" behind terrorist attacks, ranging from Argentina, to Israel. 

In the certain knowledge that Iran had dispatched Hezbollah to execute the attack under the Islamic Republic's direction, Interpol disseminated notices for the arrests of several Lebanese and Iranian citizens accused of having been involved in the attack -- among them, Iran's interior minister. All of those represented by the Interpol notices remain free and at large.

 

The names of bombing victims and the Spanish phrase “Memory and Justice” cover a wall where a ceremony was held to mark the 30th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center that killed 85 people in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Thursday, July 18, 2024. (AP/Natacha Pisarenko)