Iran unveils underground naval base in Persian Gulf with vessels ‘capable of destroying US warships and destroyers’
The Islamic Republic has been on a war footing with the U.S. for decades. See here for details.
Iran unveils new underground naval base in Persian Gulf amid tension with US, Israel
Times of Israel, January 19, 2025:
Iran unveiled an underground naval missile base at an undisclosed Gulf location on Saturday, state TV said, two days before the start of US President-elect Donald Trump’s second term in the White House.
It was unveiled at a time when tension with Washington is widely expected to rise. Iranian leaders are concerned that Trump might empower Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to strike the country’s nuclear sites, while tightening US sanctions on its oil industry.
During his first term, Trump pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” against Iran, abandoning a landmark nuclear agreement and reimposing sweeping sanctions.
Trump also oversaw the killing of a top Revolutionary Guards general, Qasem Soleimani, in a drone strike on Iraq.
State television showed Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps chief General Hossein Salami visiting the secret base during war games. He said it was one of several built underground for vessels capable of launching long-range missiles and carrying out distant warfare.
“We assure the great nation of Iran that their young people are capable of coming out honorable and victorious from a battle on the seas against enemies big and small,” Salami said.
State television said the base was built at a depth of 500 meters (1,650 feet) somewhere in the Gulf, showed tunnels with long rows of what it said were a new version of Taregh-class radar-evading speedboats that can launch cruise missiles, and said that some of the vessels were “capable of destroying US warships and destroyers.”…
It's too bad Iran has nothing better to do with all its money.
The U.S. Sent Over $3 Billion to Hezbollah’s ‘Army’
And the Biden administration recently sent millions more.
In 2006, after a Hezbollah invasion, Israel launched a military campaign against the Islamic terrorist group. After a month of fighting, the Bush administration forced a ceasefire under UN Security Council Resolution 1701 that required the disarmament of Hezbollah and its replacement by the Lebanese Army and a United Nations ‘peacekeeping’ force.
How can Hezbollah claim victory, President George W. Bush wondered, when they were “going to be replaced by a Lebanese Army and an international force?”
The answer was quite obvious. The Lebanese Army and UNIFIL didn’t replace Hezbollah, they were co-opted by it. And nearly two decades later, Hezbollah had far more firepower and attempted to launch its own version of Oct 7 until Israel neutered it with its pager operation.
And then the Biden administration negotiated another ‘ceasefire’ under which Hezbollah is supposed to be replaced by the Lebanese Army and a UN peacekeeping force. Just like Hezbollah, the LAF and UNIFIL were supposed to have done 18 years ago. But didn’t.
To disarm Hezbollah, the Lebanese Army would need permission from a cabinet that includes Hezbollah. And Hezbollah is not likely to authorize a government it controls to disarm it.
Hezbollah spokesman Mohammad Afif responded by bragging that no one would be “able to sever the connection between the army” and the terror group which is “strong and solid and will remain so.” Sizable portions of the Lebanese Armed Forces are loyal to Hezbollah including officers trained by Hezbollah or in Syria so that by funding LAF, we’re funding Hezbollah.
And the United States not only made the mistake of falling for the same failed policy again, but since 2006, Americans have provided over $3 billion to the Lebanese Armed Forces.
That money was not used to disarm or replace Hezbollah. It was not used to bring peace to the region. Even the LAF and Hezbollah campaign against ISIS in 2017 ended with a ceasefire agreement between the Sunni and Shiite Islamic terror groups while the LAF looked away.
And the United States had to fight the ISIS terrorists because the LAF and Hezbollah wouldn’t.
During the same period in which the U.S. poured over $3 billion into the LAF, Hezbollah’s arsenal rose from 15,000 rockets to over 150,000. The Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that Hezbollah had “dramatically improved its military since 2006” and while much of that assistance had come from Iran, it is all too likely that American military training and weapons provided to the LAF also ended up directly or indirectly benefiting Hezbollah.
Israel’s 2024 conflict with Hezbollah conclusively demonstrated that UN Resolution 1701, the LAF and UNIFIL not only did not disarm the Islamic terror group, but covered up for it. Despite that, the Biden administration turned around and forced a nearly identical agreement on Israel.
What had not worked for the last 18 years was somehow going to work this time around.
After over $3 billion which did nothing but prop up Hezbollah’s front army, the Biden administration pulled money from military aid to Israel and diverted it to the LAF, reprogramming $95 million in security assistance from Egypt and $7.5 million in security aid to Israel to the LAF.
Last year, Rep. Greg Steube introduced the PAGER Act (Preventing Armed Groups from Engaging in Radicalism) to stop “sending U.S. taxpayer dollars to Lebanon when they are complicit in empowering a terrorist organization whose primary mission is to destroy America and Israel.”
“For two years I filed an amendment to the annual State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations bill to eliminate funding to the Lebanese Armed Forces, as the money goes to Hezbollah. Republicans and Democrats continue to vote it down,” Rep. Steube complained.
The State Department has spent nearly two decades selling the myth that empowering the LAF will weaken Hezbollah, but after $3 billion in spending, Hezbollah is more powerful than ever, while American taxpayers are stuck with financing its auxiliary force in the hopes of defeating it.
Hezbollah won’t disarm, nor will the LAF disarm it or prevent it from attacking Israel, because Lebanon’s entire balance of power depends on aiming Hezbollah’s weapons at Israel.
Under the 1989 Taif agreement, all of Lebanon’s militias were supposed to disarm and cede power to the LAF. That’s the basis for UN Resolution 1701 and the latest ceasefire deal. Hezbollah’s basis for an exemption from the Taif agreement is its campaign against Israel. By waging war against Israel, Hezbollah secures its legal right to run a separate army.
If Hezbollah really stopped attacking Israel or if the Lebanese government secured the border, Hezbollah would lose its legal basis for having an army. Then either the Lebanese government would have to disarm Hezbollah or admit that the Taif agreement was a charade that turned over Lebanon to Hezbollah, and to its backers in Tehran. And Hezbollah would have to admit that the real purpose of its military is to dominate Lebanon’s Christians for the Shiites.
Everyone in Lebanon knows all of these things are true, but no one can say them out loud.
Allowing Hezbollah to control the border and attack Israel is the price for keeping the Hezbollah puppet regime in power in Beirut. It allows the various players in the government, including Hezbollah and its Christian Dhimmi puppets, to pretend that Hezbollah doesn’t rule Lebanon.
Actually disarming Hezbollah would lead to another civil war. One that without Israeli military intervention, the terrorist group would win, and that would officially turn Lebanon into another Iran, Syria or Iraq: a nation ruled by Shiite clerics and their terrorist militias. Eventually that day will come, but maintaining the illusion that Hezbollah is an anti-Israel “resistance” movement allows the other factions to delay the moment of truth for a few more years.
Regular wars with Israel are part of the price that they pay for this arrangement.
The $3 billion dollars that America squandered on the LAF, like the even larger sums wasted on arming and training the Iraqi military, didn’t counter Shiite Islamic rule, it enabled it.
Rep. Steube’s PAGER Act would cut off further funds to the LAF until the “Lebanese Armed Forces ceases coordination and support with Hezbollah” and the “Lebanese Armed Forces cease coordination and support with Iran”.
If the LAF is really a counterweight to Hezbollah, then why oppose the bill?
The only reason for opposing the PAGER Act is because the politicians know quite well that the LAF coordinates with Hezbollah, and are content to keep sending money based on the promise that if we arm the Lebanese military enough, it will one day be ready to take on Hezbollah.
That day has not come for 18 years. It will not come. Ever.
The LAF is perpetually short of money, renting out its helicopters for sightseeing tours and delaying payments to soldiers, forcing us to step in and write more checks, because it’s a corrupt organization of toy soldiers who do almost no actual fighting, and are there to shield the terrorists. Lebanon’s government is a Hezbollah puppet regime. The LAF is a puppet army.
It’s time to take away the shield, the excuses and stop sending more money to terrorists.
EU commissioner hopes Ukraine conflict continues
As the fighting continues in Ukraine, NATO states may be gaining additional time to prepare for a potential military confrontation with Russia, Andrius Kubilius, EU commissioner for defense and space, has said.
Kubilius, a noted hawk on Russia and two-time prime minister of Lithuania, was approved by the European Parliament in November as the EU’s first-ever defense commissioner. He made the remarks on Wednesday during an address to the annual conference of the European Defense Agency.
“Every missile, every drone shot down by Ukraine – is one that will not threaten Europe, one that will not threaten NATO,” he claimed, adding that “Every day Ukraine fights on is a day the European Union and NATO can grow stronger.”
That's the dumbest thing I've heard in a long time. Every drone that's shot down will be replaced by two or three or ten more. Kubilius is in 'Empire-building mode'. About to open another storefront for the West's War Industry.
The EU commissioner called on governments to boost military support for Kiev, suggesting this would supplement the time needed to present a deterrent to potential “Russian aggression.”
Citing NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte’s claims about a threat of a potential attack by Russia, Kubilius also urged conference attendees to “turbo charge” defense spending at national and EU levels.
Obviously, these men don't know that they will have to stand before Jesus Christ one day and give an accounting for what they said and did. Otherwise, they wouldn't flat-out lie like that for the benefit of making filthy rich War Industry oligarchs filthier.
“Russian factories are working day and night, pouring out weapons and ammunition,” he claimed, stressing that it is crucial to “outspend, outproduce – and outgun Russia.”
The EU is investing €300 million (over $312 million) into five cross-border projects to produce ammunition, air and missile defenses, as well as modern armed vehicles, Kubilius said, praising it as a true “big bang” in defense production.
Similar statements were made on Wednesday by the EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who claimed that, by fighting Russia, “the Ukrainians are buying us all time.”
The EU officials’ remarks come amidst growing concerns over a potential sharp reduction in US foreign assistance under President Donald Trump, who took office on Monday.
NATO chief Rutte has repeatedly called on members of the US-led military bloc to adopt a “wartime mindset” and to significantly increase defense spending, citing supposed threats from Russia and other nations. Last week he said that, in five years, member states would not be safe and, unless they act decisively, they’ll have to get “Russian language courses or go to New Zealand.”
Rutte - War Industry's #1 salesman
NATO - War Industry's #1 storefront
Moscow has denied assertions that it represents a threat to any NATO member state and has accused the West of waging a proxy war “to the last Ukrainian.” The US-led bloc’s expansion in Europe and its increased cooperation with Ukraine after the 2014-armed coup in Kiev, caused the ongoing hostilities, Moscow claims.
Kabilius getting support from EU's foreign Policy Chief who is just as dumb or dishonest as everyone else in the EU upper echelon.
EU’s top diplomat warns against putting social welfare before defense
The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has warned bloc member states against prioritizing social welfare over defense and urged them to increase weapons production to address what she termed a Russian “threat” to which, she warned, Europeans “need to wake up.”
Russia is spending 9% of its GDP on defense whereas the Brussels-based bloc’s member states collectively spend an average of 1.9% of GDP, Kallas told the annual conference of the European Defenсe Agency on Wednesday. “We spent billions on our schools, welfare, healthcare, but if we do not invest more in defense, all of this is at risk,” she said.
”Russia’s defense industry is churning out tanks, glide bombs, artillery shells in vast quantities. In three months, they can produce more weapons and more ammunition than we can in twelve,” the senior EU diplomat warned.
Russia is “an existential threat to our soul” she claimed, adding that by fighting, “the Ukrainians are buying us all time.” Kallas denied that she was a “Russia hawk,” saying she views herself as a realist.
EU Commissioner for Defense and Space Andrius Kubilius echoed her concerns and called for a “big bang” in European military production, regardless of cost. “We need to spend more. Spend better. Spend together. Spend European,” he said. “We can outspend, outproduce, and outgun Russia.”
He credited Ukrainians for fighting Russia, claiming that “every missile, every drone shot down by Ukraine is one that will not threaten Europe, one that will not threaten NATO.” As a Lithuanian, he said he “may be a bit prejudiced.”
Kubilius previously served as the prime minister of his home country and joined the second commission led by President Ursula von der Leyen last December, along with Kallas.
Kiev’s European backers are bracing for a sharp reduction in US foreign assistance under President Donald Trump, who took office on Monday. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned last week that member states would not be safe in five years, and will have to take “Russian language courses or go to New Zealand” unless they act decisively.
Moscow has denied having any aggressive intentions towards NATO and maintains that the expansion of the US-led military bloc in Europe, as well as its role in Ukraine after the 2014 armed coup in Kiev, had caused the ongoing hostilities. Russian officials accuse the West of waging a proxy war “to the last Ukrainian.”
Last November, former British prime minister Boris Johnson, a vocal supporter of Kiev, referred to Ukrainians as “our proxies,” as he called for the level of military support provided by the West to be increased.
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