Software Engineer Turns Out To Be Sleeper Agent For Iran-Backed Hezbollah

The media office of the parliament's first deputy speaker, Hakem al-Zameli, said in a statement on Saturday that the deliberative meeting will also include Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein and the senior undersecretary of the Foreign Ministry, Nizar al-Khairallah.

The session was planned upon an official correspondence submitted by the head of the Sadrist bloc, and more than 50 lawmakers also signed it.

Last Monday, Turkey carried out air and land operations -- dubbed Operation Claw Lock – against Kurdish militants in northern Iraq that targeted camps and ammunition stores.

The military action was part of a long-running Turkish campaign in Iraq and Syria against the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, both regarded as terrorist groups by Ankara.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which in the past was mainly focused on southeast Turkey.

Iran also has armed Kurdish opposition in Iraq, although they are distinct from the PKK, which mainly operates in Turkey and Iraq.

On March 13, Iran itself attacked sites in the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan Erbil with a dozen ballistic missiles, with reports saying the unprecedented assault was meant to derail a plan to pump Kurdish gas to Turkey and Europe.

Iran says the attack targeted Israeli intelligence sites operating in the autonomous Kurdish region.

Okaz cited informed sourcesas saying on Wednesday that the extra funds may be spent to finance the group’s activities for parliamentary elections in Lebanon, which will be held next month.

According to the unnamed sources, Hezbollah asked Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s office to make its utmost efforts to secure a minimum amount of $25 million in addition to the annual budget it receives from Iran, noting that this amount will be allocated to finance media campaigns for personalities and parties allied with the Shiite group that wants to preserve its considerable influence in Lebanese politics.

The sources said Hezbollah understands the difficult economic situation in Iran as the nuclear agreement has not yet been signed and Iranian funds frozen in banks are not released but said that strengthening its own and Iran’s political position in Lebanon is worth the funding.

Lebanese media say the latest visit by Iran’s foreign minister to Beirut was also related to this request by Hezbollah.

Hossein Amir-Abdollahian travelled to Lebanon late in March to bolster relations with senior Lebanese authorities.

During his visit, Amir-Abdollahian met with President Michel Aoun, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, Prime Minister Najib Mikati, and Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib.

Late in 2021, a large group of Lebanese politicians established a new opposition group to end what they call Iranian occupation of Lebanon represented through Hezbollah.

If confirmed by the Senate, Ratney, who was previously the charge d'affaires at the US Embassy in Jerusalem and the US special envoy for Syria, would be the first career diplomat to serve as ambassador to Riyadh in three decades.

US-Saudi ties have been strained by Biden's decisions last year to curtail US support for the Saudi-led military campaign in Yemen and to publish intelligence that the kingdom's de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, approved an operation to capture or kill murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.

The Saudi government has denied any involvement by the crown prince, who is known as MBS, in the murder of Khashoggi.

Relations between the United States and the world's largest oil exporter have also been frayed by Biden's efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which US allies in the Persian Gulf argue does too little to prevent Tehran from getting an atomic bomb.

Washington has also been trying, so far without success, to persuade Saudi Arabia to pump more oil beyond the small increase it has agreed within the OPEC+ production group to offset potential losses in Russian supplies after Moscow was sanctioned by the West over its invasion of Ukraine.

Ratney, whose official biography says he speaks Arabic and French, has previously been deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Doha.

Report by Reuters

According to the Saudi government-owned al-Arabiya Thursday, Minister of Water Resources Mahdi Rashid al-Hamdani said Iran had cut off more than 90 percent of water tributaries and was not cooperating with Iraq to limit damage during drought. He said meetings were taking place with the Iraqi Ministry of Foreign Affairs to prepare the lawsuit.

Last year, Hamdani accused Iran of digging tunnels and trying to alter the water flows, and said Iraq had completed procedures to file a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice.

Iraq faces acute water shortages. A senior adviser at the water resources ministry, Aoun Diab, said reserves were “far lower than what we had last year, by about 50 percent, because of poor rainfall and the quantities arriving from neighboring countries.”

The United Nations Environment Program’s in 2017 ranked Iraq as the fifth most vulnerable country globally to water shortage and food availability. The Tigris and Euphrates, flowing from Turkey and Syria, supply 98 percent of Iraq’s surface water.

Smaller rivers come from Iran, which has suffered drought for at least a decade. According to the al-Arabiya report, Hamdani claimed Iranian projects had somehow deprived Iraq of 20 percent of its total water resources.

Across the Middle East, water shortages have led to tensions between countries and within countries. Iranian officials have warned of a further fall this year in precipitation.

The military action was part of a long-running Turkish campaign in Iraq and Syria against militants of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia, both regarded as terrorist groups by Ankara.

Alongside the air operation, commandos and special forces also participated, both by land and air.

"Our operation is continuing successfully as planned," the state-owned Anadolu news agency quoted Defense Minister Hulusi Akar as saying. "The targets identified in the first phase have been captured."

Artillery also fired on militant targets in the military action, it said. No information on casualties was given.

The action, called "Operation Claw Lock", aimed to "prevent terror attacks" and ensure border security following an assessment that the PKK was planning a large-scale attack, the ministry added.

Turkey regularly launches air strikes into northern Iraq, a region into which it has repeatedly sent commandos, to support its offensives.

The PKK took up arms against the Turkish state in 1984. More than 40,000 people have been killed in the conflict, which in the past was mainly focused in southeast Turkey.

Iran also has armed Kurdish opposition in Iraq, although they separate from the PKK, which mainly operated Turkey and Iraq.