Saeid Iravani told Al-Monitor that Saudi Arabia’s normalizing relations with Israel in the foreseeable future has reached an impasse following war in Gaza.
Iran’s United Nations envoy said Tehran is not seeking to instigate any regional wars and would only get involved in the Israel-Hamas conflict if its national security interest is threatened, but he warned that an increased US presence in the region leaves it more exposed to an attack.
On November 8, 2023, Reuters news agency, quoting its own sources, reported that Hizbullah had the Soviet-designed Yakhont universal medium-range anti-ship missile,[1] which, called the P-800 Onix, can be launched from the air, from land, and from underwater. According to the agency, Hizbullah may have acquired the Yakhont from Syria, where its fighters have been fighting on the side of the country’s President Bashar Al-Assad and government forces since 2011.
The infographic from the official website[2] of Yakhont manufacturer NPO Mashinostroeniya[3] demonstrates the operations of the Bastion”stationary coastal missile system equipped with a unified Yakhont supersonic homing anti-ship cruise missile. In the image, red lines depict data from combat and homing systems, green lines depict data moving between command points, and blue lines depict the data of land- and air-based homing systems. The missile is designed to engage ships of various classes and types, landing formations, convoys, ship and aircraft carrier strike groups, and land-based targets in conditions of intensive fire and electronic countermeasures.
Battles continued for the second day in Jebel Aulia, a city in southern Khartoum state, on Monday, causing mass displacement of citizens towards White Nile state. Clashes also continue in Omdurman and El Obeid in North Kordofan.
Residents near Jebel Aulia told Radio Dabanga that the sounds of explosions and shelling renewed on Monday, to a lesser extent than on Sunday when the RSF launched a major attack on the city that guards a dam across the Nile.
Deputy secretary-general of Hizbullah Sheikh Naim Qassem said on a November 9, 2023 show on Al-Alam TV (Iran) that it doesn’t matter whether Hizbullah new in advance about the October 7 attacks as long as it was a success. He said that the October 7 attacks required secrecy in order to be successful. Qassem said that this does not mean that Hizbullah will not be part of the second stage of the war, and in fact Hizbullah’s cooperation “was an indivisible part of the resistance and defense.”
Hamas leaders continue to threaten a repeat of the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel[1] and to incite the people of the West Bank to attack Israelis and take part in terrorist activity. Telegram channels identified with Hamas’ student organization, the Islamic Bloc, and especially with its branches in the West Bank, are especially active in spreading threats and incitement of this kind.[2] In a November 16 post on its Telegram channel, for example, the Islamic Bloc urged the people of the West Bank to emulate the October 7 attack by storming Israeli localities within their reach. Other posts on this channel likewise incite terrorism and provide operational advice on carrying out effective attacks.
The recent announcement of an assassination of the commander of the Security Belt forces (in South Yemen), Brigadier General Abdul Latif Al-Sayed, by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is yet another reminder that not only have the security and terrorism concerns in South Yemen have not been put to rest, but that growing sectarianism and political battles over the direction and future of this area plays into the hands of the international terrorist organizations. AQAP took credit for the attack, which also killed several other leaders, according to Aden Al Ghad. Yemen security researcher Elisabeth Kendall pointed out that Abdul Latif Al-Sayed had a falling out with Al Qaeda in 2011, and since then had been a repeat target of assassination attempts.
The Quds Force (Persian: نیروی قدس, romanized: niru-ye qods, lit. ’Jerusalem Force’) is one of five branches of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) specializing in unconventional warfare and military intelligence operations. U.S. Army’s Iraq War General Stanley McChrystal describes the Quds Force as an organization analogous to a combination of the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the United States. Responsible for extraterritorial operations, the Quds Force supports non-state actors in many countries, including Hezbollah, Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Yemeni Houthis, and Shia militias in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.
Hamas is a Palestinian Islamic organization, with an associated military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere in the Middle East including Qatar. Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Canada, Israel, Japan and the United States. Australia and the United Kingdom have designated the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades as a terrorist organization.
Sheikh Ibrahim Rida, an Islamic scholar at Egypt’s renowned Al-Azhar University, said on a November 6, 2023 show on Sada Al-Balad TV (Egypt) that the Jews are quarrelsome people who killed many prophets and spread corruption on earth. He said that no one should find it strange that they are annihilating children, homes, and schools.
Al-Azhar Sheikh Ahmad Al-Tayyeb (Image: Facebook.com/OfficialAzharEg, October 2, 2023)
In the recent weeks, the Cairo-based Al-Azhar institution, the leading center of religious learning and supreme source of religious authority in the Sunni Muslim world, and senior members of this institution, have been voicing support for Hamas and for terrorism and inciting against the U.S. and Israel, while using virulently antisemitic rhetoric. For example, a fatwa (religious ruling) recently issued by Al-Azhar praised the Palestinian resistance and even called on Israeli Arabs to join the struggle against Israel, saying that this country is destined to perish. Senior Al-Azhar clerics, including Muhammad Omar Al-Qady, dean of the Faculty for Islamic and Arabic Studies at Al-Azhar University, and Abbas Shuman, formerly the deputy of Sheikh Al-Azhar and currently the inspector general of the institute’s fatwa committees, incited against Israel and made antisemitic remarks, calling the Jews “descendants of apes and pigs,” “killers of the prophets” and “enemies of humanity” and hoping for their perdition. Al-Qady also directed his invective at the U.S., calling it the “greatest Satan” and a “mafia” state with a “drunken” president.
