IAEA Chief to Visit Tehran Following Increased Enriched Uranium Levels
Chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Rafael Grossi has expressed interest in visiting Tehran due to Iran’s increasing levels of enriched uranium in late 2023 (Reuters)
Iran Calls for Restraint Against U.S. Forces
According to regional officials, senior Iranian leaders are privately cautioning their proxies to avoid provoking the United States and escalating the conflict to the “point of no return” in the region, as the Iran-backed militia groups continue to fight on different fronts (WaPo)
NYT: U.S. Conducted Cyberattack on Iranian Vessel
The cyberattack targeted an Iranian vessel that was helping Yemen-based Houthi rebels pinpoint merchant ships in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, an unnamed U.S. official told the New York Times; the attack was part of the Joe Biden administration’s response to an Iran-backed militia attack in Jordan that killed three U.S. soldiers last month (NYT)
Explosions Hit Natural Gas Pipeline in Iran
An official called explosions at a natural gas pipeline in western Iran today an act of “sabotage and terrorist” action as regional tensions run high amid the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas; the area where the strike occurred is not known to be home to insurgent groups, and the Iranian official did not immediately name a suspect (AP)
UN Watchdog Warns About Iran’s Atomic Program
Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that Iran was “not entirely transparent” about its nuclear program, following a remark by an Iranian official that alluded to Tehran’s ability to build an atomic weapon (AP)
Blinken Kicks Off Latest Mideast Diplomacy Trip With Talks in Saudi Arabia
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Riyadh to discuss a potential deal that would pause fighting and release hostages in the Gaza Strip; Blinken is on his fifth trip to the region since Palestinian militant group Hamas’s October attack on Israel and will travel on to Egypt, Israel, Qatar, and the West Bank as diplomacy over the deal continues and as the United States seeks to contain further escalation with Iran-aligned forces in the region (NYT)
Yesterday, an Iran-backed militia in Iraq took responsibility for an attack on a Syrian base that killed six U.S.-backed Kurdish fighters (CBS)
Despite the recent attacks between U.S. and Iranian-backed forces, the United States “will not escalate the conflict,” an unnamed senior State Department official told reporters traveling with Blinken; Washington also aims for any potential deal to allow increased humanitarian aid to reach civilians in Gaza, the State Department said (WaPo)
U.S. Carries Out Retaliatory Strikes on Iran-Backed Groups in Iraq, Syria, Yemen
U.S. forces conducted dozens of air strikes on targets in Iraq and Syria on Friday in what National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan described as “the beginning of our response” to the killing of U.S. troops in Jordan last month; on Saturday, U.S. and United Kingdom (UK) forces launched strikes against dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen in reaction to Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping (NYT).Yesterday, U.S. Central Command said it struck a Houthi cruise missile that was preparing to launch (CENTCOM)
Sullivan told CNN that Iran-backed militia attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria are “distinct but related” to those on shipping in the Red Sea; while top U.S. officials “are not looking to take the United States to war,” he said, they aim to respond to the attacks “with force and clarity” (CNN)
Reuters: Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Pull Senior Officers From Syria
Iranian forces in Syria decided to scale back their deployment after a series of Israeli strikes on their positions, five unnamed sources told Reuters; while Iran says it has no intentions to leave Syria entirely, the decision indicates how the escalating war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas is affecting the broader region (Reuters)
United States Targets Iranian and Hezbollah Financial Network Through Sanctions
Sanctions imposed on three entities and one individual based in Turkey and Lebanon aim to cut critical support to the financial network used by Iran’s Quds Force and Lebanon’s Hezbollah for terrorist activities (Reuters)
Iran-Backed Militia in Iraq Announces Halt to Attacks on U.S. Forces
The Kataib Hezbollah group was likely responsible for the deaths of three U.S. troops in Jordan over the weekend, the Pentagon said; the militia group said it would suspend “military and security operations against the occupation forces,” suggesting that both Iran and Iraq had pressured it to do so (NYT)
A Pentagon spokesperson said in reports following the statement by Kataib Hezbollah that “actions speak louder than words” (CNN)
Kataib Hezbollah has carried out most of the attacks on U.S. outposts in Iraq and Syria since the current war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas began on October 7 (Reuters)
Pentagon: U.S. Does Not Seek War With Iran
A Pentagon spokesperson added that the United States does not see Tehran seeking one either when discussing the aftermath of strikes that killed three U.S. troops in Jordan on Sunday; the Biden administration is weighing options for its response to the attack (Reuters)
Biden Pledges Retaliation After Drone Strike Kills U.S. Troops in Jordan
A drone attack on a U.S. military outpost in Jordan killed three U.S. troops and wounded at least thirty-four; U.S. President Joe Biden said that Iran-backed militant groups carried out the attack in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border (Reuters)
It was the first strike to have killed U.S. forces in the Middle East since the war between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas began last October; Iran’s mission to the United Nations denied involvement in the attack, while Biden said the United States will respond “at a time and in a manner of our choosing” (WaPo)
The strike was a major escalation in the ongoing war and comes at a time when U.S. and other foreign envoys are trying to reach a deal for a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip and for Hamas to release the hostages it is holding (The Guardian)
Iran-backed groups have carried out a series of attacks on U.S. and other international forces in Iraq and Syria in recent weeks, but had not killed any U.S. service members until now (BBC)
Twenty-three-year-old Mohammad Ghobadlou had been detained in connection to large anti-government protests in 2022 and was accused of killing a police officer; Tehran has executed at least eight people over the demonstrations (NYT)
Iran, Pakistan Seek to Rebuild Trust Following Missile Strikes
Islamabad wants to work together with Tehran on “all issues” after each country struck targets in the other’s territory last week; a phone call on Friday between the countries’ foreign ministers reportedly de-escalated tensions, which have been at their highest in recent years (Reuters)
Iran: Israeli Strike Killed Five IRGC Members in Syria
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) claimed an Israeli air raid killed five of its military advisors in a residential building in Damascus, Syria; Al Jazeera reported the target was an IRGC intelligence unit (UN)
China Offers to Mediate After Pakistan, Iran Trade Strikes
Beijing is willing “to play a constructive role in de-escalating” current relations between Iran and Pakistan after the two countries carried out air strikes on each other’s territory earlier this week, a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said; both Iran and Pakistan have close ties with China and are members of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (Economic Times)
Pakistan Launches Retaliatory Strikes in Iran, Reportedly Killing Nine People
Pakistan’s military said today that it conducted strikes on what it called terrorist hideouts in southeastern Iran in response to an Iranian air strike Tuesday in Pakistan’s Balochistan province (NYT)
Nine people died in the attack, Iranian state media said (Al Jazeera)
While a statement from Pakistan’s military calling Iran a “brotherly country” left an opening to contain further escalation, the events underscored the current volatility in the Middle East amid a conflict that has expanded well beyond the Gaza Strip (ABC)
Iran-Pakistan tensions have prompted calls for restraint from countries including China and Turkey; Iran’s strikes in Pakistan were part of a series of direct attacks this week by Tehran in nearby countries that also included Iraq and Syria (FT)
The strikes were rare in that they were claimed outright by Iran and not one of its proxies (CNBC)
Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps Claims Attack in Iraqi Kurdistan
Iran said it targeted the espionage center of Israel’s intelligence agency; a U.S. State Department spokesperson called the attacks, which occurred near a U.S. Consulate, “reckless” (WaPo)
Iran Sentences Nobel-Winning Activist to Additional Fifteen Months in Prison
An Iranian court added a fifteen-month sentence to Narges Mohammadi’s prison term and two years of living in exile outside Tehran over accusations that she spread propaganda against the government while in jail; Mohammadi, the 2023 Nobel Peace Prize winner, has been in and out of prison for two decades for her activism (BBC)
Iran Seizes Oil Tanker in Gulf of Oman
The tanker has been involved in a yearlong dispute between Tehran and Washington that included the U.S. seizure of one million barrels of the ship’s oil (AP)
Meanwhile, authorities arrested thirty-five people in a probe concerning explosions at a January 3 ceremony marking the fourth anniversary of the killing of commander Qasem Soleimani, Iran’s semiofficial Tasnim news agency reported today (Reuters)
Iran Releases Detained Italian Journalist
Iran has freed journalist Cecilia Sala from her detention last month, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said today; Sala quickly became the focus of an Italian government campaign to release her (WSJ)
It was not immediately clear if Rome had released Iranian businessman Mohammad Abedini, whose detention just days before Sala’s was objected to by Tehran (Reuters)
Explosions in Iran, Lebanon Raise Fear of Regional Escalation in Israel-Hamas War
Explosions at a ceremony marking four years since the killing of a senior Iranian commander killed at least 73 people and wounded more than 170 others, Iranian state-run media reported (AP)
They come a day after a blast in a suburb of Beirut, Lebanon, killed a senior political leader of Palestinian militant group Hamas, which the Iran-backed Lebanese militant group Hezbollah has blamed on Israel; both events have triggered fears that the war between Israel and Hamas could expand beyond the Gaza Strip (WaPi)
UN Nuclear Watchdog: Iran Has Reversed Slowdown in Uranium Enrichment
The slowdown to a level near weapons-grade began in June after backdoor talks between Iran and the United States, but the International Atomic Energy Agency said yesterday that Iran has approximately tripled the output of enriched uranium that it produces since the end of November (Reuters)
Iranian Journalist Sentenced to Six Months in Prison for Tweet
Journalist Sara Massoumi and her lawyer said yesterday that she was sentenced to six months in prison and banned from working in media for two years after she tweeted about a woman who died in Tehran in October under disputed circumstances; she was charged with publishing lies and propaganda against the government, Massoumi said. (Al-Monitor)
Iran Puts EU Official Accused of Spying for Israel on Trial
Johan Floderus, a Swedish national, has been held by Iran for more than six hundred days despite repeated calls by the European Union to release him (NYT)