By Dr. Reza Parchizadeh, August 26, 2020
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) was originally intended by the Islamist regime to be an ideologically oriented militia that would compensate for the regular Iranian army’s lack of revolutionary zeal. It has since replaced the regular army as Iran’s main military force and has spent decades working doggedly to export the regime’s Islamist brand of imperialism and conquest to the rest of the region and around the world. The IRGC is responsible, either directly or indirectly, for most of the worst terrorist outrages the world has ever seen. The US declared the Guards a state terrorist organization in 2019, but it needs to be completely dismantled.
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Its debt is massive, its political class corrupt, and terrorists call the shots
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s constant machinations and tricks leave Blue and White in the dark as to whether he intends to push for new elections next week.
Forbes
August 20, 2020
https://www.meforum.org/61411/a-us-sale-of-f-35-stealth-fighters-to-the-uae
The spokesperson of Sudan’s Foreign Ministry Haidar Badawi al-Sadiq said yesterday that his country is in contact with Israel to advance a peace agreement. Sadiq also hailed the agreement reached between Israel and the United Arab Emirates. A few hours later, Sudan’s acting Foreign Minister Omar Qamar al-Din Ismail, denied the statement, saying the government was “surprised” by the claim by his spokesman that Khartoum and Jerusalem were edging toward reconciliation. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the initial statement. Netanyahu quietly met with the head of Sudan’s transitional government, Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan, in Uganda in February to discuss normalizing relations.
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timesofisrael.com
Michael Shellenberger, Manhattan Institute
The Quiet Revolution In Emerging-Market Monetary Policy
Piroska Nagy-Mohacsi, Project Syndicate
Israel’s intelligence chief Yossi Cohen arrived in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, in the first such visit since the two countries announced they had reached a historic agreement to normalize relations last week. Cohen met with Emirati national security adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan. “The two sides discussed prospects for cooperation in the fields of security as well as exchanged points of view on regional developments and on issues of common interest,” the official Emirati official WAM news agency said. The US-brokered deal, in which Israel agreed to suspend its plan to annex parts of the Palestinian West Bank, was seen as a new move to bolster opposition against Iran’s regional influence.
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al-monitor.com
Lessons from Conflicts Between Nuclear and Non-Nuclear States by Alexander Lanoszka
The Pandemic and U.S. Defense Spending with Matt Vallone
NEWLY EMPOWERED HARDLINERS MOVE AGAINST ROUHANI
Iran’s newly empowered hardliners will undermine President Hassan Rouhani for the remainder of his term and likely facilitate the election of a far-right president in 2021. Rouhani lost vital political support when former IRGC Air Force Commander Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf replaced Ali Larijani as parliament speaker in May. Hardliners are using their newfound legislative influence to promote aggressive and authoritarian policies, undermining Rouhani’s political promises.
Ghalibaf is also likely coordinating with hardliners outside Parliament to politically neutralize Rouhani. A hardliner will likely become president in 2021 as Rouhani is further discredited. Expanding hardliner control will facilitate increasingly aggressive and authoritarian Iranian behavior while exacerbating economic turmoil and domestic dissent.
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Iran’s entrenchment of strategic infrastructure in Syria threatens balance of deterrence in the Middle East
Iran is realigning its force posture in Syria to retain and expand its deterrence, freedom of action, and leverage with the US, Israel, and Russia. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) began moving some of its forces in Syria away from the front lines in the spring of 2020 while expanding and consolidating its footprint in eastern Syria. This shift offers Tehran more secure bases more directly under its control to threaten Israel and the US as instability risks some of its positions in Iraq and Lebanon. Read the full article here.