How the Nuclear Deal EnrichesIran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps

Introduction

During the first week of September, Iranian speedboats twice harassed U.S. Navy ships in international waters near the Strait of Hormuz. Those boats belonged to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
In the same week, news emerged that the IRGC had arrested another dual Iranian-American national during a family visit to the country. The commander of the IRGC’s Quds Force, meanwhile, was in Aleppo, in the company of Iraqi Shiite militias currently engaged in the siege of Syria’s second-largest city. Indeed, only a few days earlier, the IRGC announced the formation of a Shiite liberation army composed of Shiite militias that Iran has been nurturing across Mesopotamia and the Levant. That did not stop France’s mobile phone giant, Orange, from beginning talks with Iran’s largest mobile phone operator, Mobile Telecommunication Company of Iran (MCI), over acquiring a stake in the Iranian company. The IRGC controls MCI through a 50-percent-plus-one stake in its parent company, the Telecommunication Company of Iran (TCI).

Imad Abdul Reda Bakri

Imad Abdul Reda Bakri is a Hezbollah financier and Weapon smuggler. He is a major shareholder in vast number of businesses worldwide. Through some of those businesses he used to launder and transfer money to Hezbollah. Since this structure was never touched, we believe he is still doing it today. Part of the weapon shipments he used to smuggle into Africa, were delivered by Bakri to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Restructuring the National Army with Turkish Support to Confront Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham

According to information acquired by Asharq Al-Awsat, the initiative encompasses a comprehensive restructuring of the constituent forces within the National Army.

Sources within the Syrian opposition have unveiled a strategic plan aimed at revamping the Turkish-backed National Army. This initiative involves consolidating certain units, streamlining manpower, and ultimately enhancing security measures in northern Syria. The overarching goal is to bolster the authority of the Ministry of Defense of the Syrian Interim Government, which has faced persistent criticism for perceived inefficacy.

Syria Today – Hezbollah Training Russian Drone Operators in Homs; Cross Border Aid Extended Three Months

Ukraine says Russian troops are being trained on the use of Iranian drones at the Shayrat airfield in Syria’s western province of Homs. At the same time, Syria has extended permission for the United Nations to deliver aid to opposition-held areas in the northwest of the country via two Turkish border crossings for another three months.

Arrests of Dozens of Syrians Working with Iranian Militias in Deir-ez-Zor

The wave of arrests appears to have been triggered by recent U.S. military strikes targeting the headquarters and warehouses of Iranian militias in Deir-ez-Zor, Syria TV writes.

In recent days, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) militia, along with military intelligence units associated with regime forces, have detained numerous Syrian individuals affiliated with Iranian militias.

THE WAR OF THIEVES

Sudan’s current conflict, which erupted in April 2023, is the latest chapter in a story of rival
predatory networks competing for control over formal and illicit economies, the information
environment and the use of organized violence. As the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid
Support Forces (RSF) spread death and destruction across the country, fuelling a humanitarian crisis,
their battle is driven by the desire to preserve their vast economic empires and the systems that
support them.