JEWISH KING JESUS IS COMING AT THE RAPTURE FOR US IN THE CLOUDS-DON'T MISS IT FOR THE WORLD.THE BIBLE TAKEN LITERALLY- WHEN THE PLAIN SENSE MAKES GOOD SENSE-SEEK NO OTHER SENSE-LEST YOU END UP IN NONSENSE.GET SAVED NOW- CALL ON JESUS TODAY.THE ONLY SAVIOR OF THE WHOLE EARTH - NO OTHER. 1 COR 15:23-JESUS THE FIRST FRUITS-CHRISTIANS RAPTURED TO JESUS-FIRST FRUITS OF THE SPIRIT-23 But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.ROMANS 8:23 And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.(THE PRE-TRIB RAPTURE)
DISEASES-ANIMAL TO HUMAN
REVELATION 6:7-8 (500 MILLION DEAD EACH FROM THE 4 JUDGEMENTS)(2 BILLION TOT DEAD HERE)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8
And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that
sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given
unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 billion) of (8 billion)
to kill with sword,(WEAPONS)(500 million) and with hunger,(FAMINE)(500
million) and with death,(INCURABLE DISEASES)(500 million) and with the
beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE)(500 million).
THE COVID-19 TOTALS.
WORLD OVER ALL CASES 148,481,490 DEAD 3,136,649 AS OF TUE APR 27,21
DR ZELENKO ON COVID-19 RECOVERY-TAMAR YONAH
https://soundcloud.com/israel-news-talk-radio/while-cautious-im-not-so-afraid-of-the-coronavirus-anymore-the-tamar-yonah-show
DR VLADMIR ZE'EV ZELENKOS MIXTURE FOR RECOVERY OF COVID-19
https://www.vladimirzelenkomd.com/
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TaRDwXMhQHSMsgrs9TFBclHjPHerXMuB87DUXmcAvwg/editReuters
Israeli
aid team heads to Uruguay, where COVID dream has turned to
nightmare-The South American country hardly felt the virus last year,
but now has the world’s second-highest infection rate and hospitals are
under pressure-By Nathan Jeffay-APR V27,21-Today, 1:42 pm
An
Israeli aid delegation was set to land Tuesday in Uruguay, a country
that went almost overnight from a low-COVID oasis to a notorious hotspot
with the world’s second-highest rate of new cases.The four-person team
from Sheba Medical Center’s weeklong mission will focus on helping
hospitals struggling to cope with the sudden skyrocketing of cases in
recent weeks to establish new coronavirus facilities.For most of 2020,
Uruguay, which has a population of just 3.5 million, had very low virus
stats. It ended the year with just 181 COVID deaths, but has now seen
2,391, and aside from Cyprus, which just had a sudden spike, has the
highest incidence of new cases in proportion to the population.Some
187,000 Uruguayans have been diagnosed — almost three quarters of them
since mid-February, apparently as a result of a variant from neighboring
Brazil.“As cases rise in Uruguay, we’re here to give whatever help,
advice and information proves useful in fighting the crisis,” Moriya
Suliman, a nurse from the Sheba delegation, told The Times of Israel.
“We’re excited to help.”The delegation includes senior doctor Moshe
Ashkenazi and Sheba’s logistics coordinator Shai Swissa, who was
responsible for identifying spare areas at the hospital, including
parking lots, and converting them into coronavirus wards.He will be
helping hospitals in Uruguay to do the same — to open new intensive care
facilities and wards for COVID-positive psychiatric patients, dialysis
patients and others — as done in Sheba. Swissa is the son of Uruguayan
parents who moved to Israel, and will do his coaching in fluent
Spanish.The team will mainly help and advise in hospitals, but will also
provide consultations to authorities on vaccination strategies. Uruguay
has been racing to vaccinate since it became the last country in South
America to start its vaccination campaign on March 1. Almost a third of
its population has now received at least one shot.Members of the Sheba
Medical Center aid team to Uruguay (in T-shirts) before departure, with
the ambassador of Uruguay to Israel Bernardo Griever (in suit) next to
Prof. Arnon Afek, deputy director general of the hospital. (courtesy of
Sheba Medical Center)-Authorities in Uruguay asked Sheba’s Israel Center
for Disaster Medicine and Humanitarian Response for help, and the
hospital responded by shipping equipment, including ECG machines and
ventilators, and assembling the aid team.“They came to us because we’re
the first nation to beat coronavirus and return to normal routine,” said
Suliman. “At Sheba we’ve closed all our coronavirus wards and we can
share all our knowledge, allowing them to learn from our experiences,
including from our mistakes.”Delegation head Amit Gutkind, a nurse who
masterminded Sheba’s rapid vaccination program, said: “They ask a lot
about what’s happening in Israel and how we improved things in such a
short time, and we’re pleased to now be on the ground to provide some
answers.”
WELL WE AT THE
VILLAGE WERE LUCKY. OUR PRECAUTIONARY ISOLATION WAS LIFTED AT 6AM
YESTERDAY MORNING. SO JUST OVER NIGHT WE WERE IN ISOLATION IN OUR ROOMS.
THEY MUST HAVE CAUGHT THE FALSE POSSITIVE QUICK. SO WERE BACK TO WERE
WE WERE. IN LOCKDOWN. BUT NOT ISOLATED IN OUR ROOMS.
Green
body petitions High Court over right to info on Israel’s natural
resources-With so little money paid into sovereign wealth fund, Adam
Teva V’Din seeks to fix transparency rules for details on natural
resources owned by public, exploited by private sector-By Sue Surkes-APR
27,21-Today, 2:57 am
The environmental advocacy organization
Adam Teva V’Din filed a Freedom of Information petition at the High
Court on Monday to clarify the status of natural resources in Israeli
law and the obligation for transparency, given that those resources are
owned by the public.In 2014, the Israeli Citizens’ Fund Law was passed,
setting out the mechanism for the creation of a sovereign wealth fund
aimed at ensuring that Israeli citizens — not only investors — reap
benefits above and beyond corporate taxes and royalties from the massive
natural gas reserves discovered off the Mediterranean coast in recent
years.The law was subsequently amended to add levies on profits from
natural resources such as mines as well.The wealth fund needs NIS 1
billion ($291 million) to start operating. But despite predictions at
the time that it would contain billions of dollars by 2022, to date only
around NIS 450 million ($130 million) has been collected, 75 percent of
it paid in 2013 for the Mari-B Yam Tethys gas field, which closed in
2012. The rest came from ICL, which, in addition to the Dead Sea Works,
also mines phosphates in the Negev Desert.The petition addresses the
balance that should be struck between commercial confidentiality and the
duty of transparency where publicly owned natural resources are
concerned.It names the Tax Authority, the official in charge of Freedom
of Information at that authority, and seven companies that have
franchises to explore for, or mine, natural resources, including
gas.“This is another step in our long journey to ensure that the public
receives its share of the profits from natural resources,” a statement
from the organization said.The filing came the same day Israeli energy
giant Delek Drilling announced that it had signed a memorandum of
understanding to sell its entire stake in Israel’s Tamar offshore gas
field to the Abu Dhabi government-owned Mubadala Petroleum, potentially
handing the United Arab Emirates a major share in one of the Jewish
state’s key strategic and economic assets.
Birthright resuming
trips to Israel for vaccinated or recovered US Jews from May-The
organization, which canceled its visits for over a year due to COVID-19,
says it expects hundreds of tour groups over the next few months-By TOI
staff-APR 27,21-Today, 10:25 am
After a yearlong hiatus,
Birthright Israel will resume its trips to the Holy Land, the
organization announced Tuesday.Starting in May, vaccinated or recovered
participants from the United States will be able to travel to Israel to
participate in a 10-day tour. Birthright discontinued its trips in March
2020 due to COVID-19.The free 10-day trip takes participants throughout
the country — from the stone streets of Jerusalem and the beaches of
Tel Aviv to the ancient plateaus of Masada and the Golan Heights.Gidi
Mark, CEO of Birthright Israel. (Erez Uzir / Courtesy of Birthright
Israel-Taglit)“With the input of Israel’s Health Ministry, we’re
confident that we’ve developed the best plan to safely and efficiently
resume our trips, which play such a critical part in strengthening the
Jewish identity of hundreds of thousands of young people around the
world,” Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark said in a statement.“The last
year has been hard, but we never lost hope that there was light at the
end of the tunnel. Now, the wait is over, and it is time to come back to
Israel on Birthright Israel,” Mark added.Participants will be required
to present a negative PCR test before they fly and undergo a serological
test upon arrival in Israel, which tests for antibodies. They will also
be asked to maintain social distancing and mask-wearing measures in
accordance with the Health Ministry guidelines.Groups will be limited to
20 participants, half the size of Birthright groups pre-pandemic.“When
the first Birthright Israel groups took off in December of 1999, we
could never have imagined all of the incredible milestones we would hit
in just 20 years,” said Charles Bronfman, co-founder of Birthright
Israel.“The pandemic has been heartbreaking for all of us. Needless to
say, the pause in our program was so sad, but I’m thrilled to know that
our participants will soon be back in Israel. The magic continues,” he
said.While the trips to Israel were in hiatus due to COVD, Birthright
organizations offered several virtual alternatives, such as Birthright
Excel, a 10-week internship program delivered via Zoom last summer, the
organization said.Birthright Israel announced that over 400 tour groups
are planned for July, August and October. It also expects dozens of
trips to take place in May and June.Before COVID-19 stopped Birthright’s
operations, the organization provided tours for over 750,000 young
Jewish Adults hailing from 68 countries. To be eligible, participants
must have at least one Jewish parent or have converted to Judaism, and
be between the ages of 18 and 32.Last summer, it was estimated that the
cancellation of Jewish heritage trips — including Birthright — would
cost Israel’s economy $200 million. According to the organization,
Birthright Israel trips have contributed approximately $1.825 billion to
the Israeli economy in the past two decades.
EU to push Israel
on Jerusalem voting as Abbas set to delay election – report-Lebanese
newspaper says bloc wants time to pressure Jewish state on formally
allowing voting in capital, a matter on which Israel has been silent-By
TOI staff-APR 27,21-Today, 9:45 am
Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas has told the European Union, Egypt and Jordan of
his decision to postpone the upcoming elections, but the EU has asked
for a delay to a formal announcement on the matter so that it can
pressure Israel to allow voting in East Jerusalem, a Lebanese newspaper
reported Tuesday.As justification for the postponement, Abbas is set to
cite Israel’s silence on whether East Jerusalem Palestinians can
participate.The report in the Lebanese daily Al-Akhbar, widely
considered a mouthpiece for the terror group Hezbollah, came amid
mounting indications that the elections will be delayed.Palestinians are
currently scheduled to head to their first national vote in 15 years on
May 22. The last Palestinian national elections were held in 2006, when
Hamas defeated Abbas’s Fatah movement in a landslide.At a Monday
meeting of the Fatah Central Committee, Abbas reiterated that he would
not permit the elections to take place without the residents of East
Jerusalem being permitted to vote.The Palestinian leadership — including
leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad — is scheduled to meet on Thursday
to decide whether the elections can go forward without Israel officially
permitting East Jerusalem Palestinians to participate. According to
Al-Akhbar, the EU has asked Abbas to wait until at least after those
discussions before making a formal announcement.Egyptian officials said
Monday that the Palestinian Authority intends to call off the elections
at Thursday’s meeting. An Egyptian diplomat and an intelligence official
said they had been briefed on the decision. They said Egypt was in
talks with Israel to reach a compromise to allow the vote but those
efforts have so far failed.The intelligence official said Hamas wants
the elections to go ahead but that no faction wants to proceed without
guarantees from the international community that voting will be held in
East Jerusalem. The official said the factions are discussing the
formation of a unity government instead that would include Hamas.Abbas’s
opponents have charged in recent days that the widely unpopular PA
president, fearful of political defeat, is using Israel’s refusal to
formally permit East Jerusalem voting as a pretext to back away from
holding the election. The vote, originally scheduled for 2010, sees his
once-dominant Fatah movement under challenge from breakaway factions as
well as Hamas.Sources from Gaza’s ruling terror organization told
Al-Akhbar on Monday that the potential cancellation of the elections
could lead to an escalation of violence.According to the Kan public
broadcaster, top-level discussions are now taking place in Hamas to
decide how the terror group will response to the expected postponement
of the elections.Israel has yet to say whether it will permit voting in
East Jerusalem, which it captured from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War
and later annexed in a move not recognized by most of the international
community. Palestinians there have Israeli residency rights, and in
principle can apply for Israeli citizenship.The Oslo Accords, a series
of bilateral agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation
Organization, stipulate that Palestinians can vote at designated post
offices throughout Jerusalem.The Palestinian election commission says
150,000 voters will be able to cast ballots on the outskirts of East
Jerusalem, in a process that does not require a green light from Israel.
And a symbolic 6,300 will get to vote within the holy city itself under
Israeli supervision.But Palestinian authorities fear that arrangement
could still leave thousands of the city’s inhabitants
disenfranchised.The Palestinians view East Jerusalem as the capital of
their future state, while Israel considers the entire city its undivided
capital and bars any PA activity from taking place in the city. About
60 candidates in the Palestinian elections are from East Jerusalem.Aaron
Boxerman and agencies contributed to this report.
UK’s Johnson
denies saying thousands of ‘bodies piled high’ better than
lockdown-British PM calls reports of leaked remarks from debate over
imposing a third UK lockdown ‘total, total rubbish,’ as pressure on him
mounts ahead of local elections-By Jill Lawless-APR 27,21-Today, 5:52 am
LONDON
(AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson dismissed as “total
rubbish” a press report which quoted him as allegedly saying he would
rather see “bodies pile high in their thousands” than impose a third
national lockdown on the country.The Daily Mail claimed that Johnson
made the comment during a heated discussion in late October, when his
government imposed a second lockdown to combat a surge in coronavirus
cases. A third lockdown was ordered in January as infections shot up
again, driven by a new, more contagious variant of the virus.The Daily
Mail didn’t cite a source for the claim, but there has been a spate of
leaks from Johnson’s 10 Downing St. office, which are being investigated
by government officials. Broadcasters BBC and ITV said they had also
been told of the “bodies” remark.Johnson said Monday that the allegation
was “total, total rubbish.”Britain has spent much of the last year
under restrictions on business and daily life as it tried to contain a
COVID-19 outbreak that has left more than 127,000 people dead, the
highest toll in Europe. Restrictions are gradually being eased alongside
a mass-vaccination campaign that has given at least one dose of vaccine
to half the UK population.Cabinet Minister Michael Gove said Johnson
had treated decisions about lockdowns extremely seriously.“This is a
prime minister who was in hospital himself in intensive care” with the
virus last year, Gove said. “The idea that he would say any such thing I
find incredible.”The claim is the latest in a swirl of allegations of
cronyism and ethical breaches against Johnson and his Conservative
government that have been piling up ahead of local and regional
elections next week.The prime minister’s former top aide, Dominic
Cummings, claimed last week that Johnson planned to get Conservative
Party donors to fund the refurbishment of the prime minister’s Downing
Street apartment. Cummings, who left his job late last year, said he had
told Johnson the plan was “unethical, foolish, possibly
illegal.”Johnson’s office said the prime minister paid to renovate the
apartment, where he lives with fiancée Carrie Symonds and their baby son
Wilfred, though it did not say whether he had been lent the money for
the work.The Electoral Commission, which regulates political finances in
the UK, has said it is seeking answers from the Conservative Party over
whether any sums should have been declared under the law on political
donations.Johnson has also denied doing anything wrong when he exchanged
text messages with a wealthy industrialist and promised he would “fix”
the tax rules for him.The exchange occurred in March 2020 when Johnson
was trying to encourage vacuum cleaner tycoon James Dyson to make
ventilators for the hard-pressed National Health Service.
Singapore-based Dyson sought assurances that his staff members would not
have to pay extra taxes if they came to Britain to work on the
project.Johnson said he would not apologize “for shifting heaven and
earth” to secure vital medical equipment in an emergency.One of
Johnson’s Conservative predecessors, former Prime Minister David
Cameron, is also facing cronyism allegations over his lobbying for a
now-bankrupt financial services firm, Greensill Capital, whose founder
he had employed as an adviser. Cameron denies wrongdoing.Keir Starmer,
leader of the opposition Labour Party, said the “drip, drip, drip of
allegations” was damaging people’s trust in politics.“We need to get to
the bottom of it, we need strong recommendations for change,” he said.
“Because I think, for a lot of people, this is beginning to feel like
very strongly like one rule for them and another rule for everybody
else.”
PROOF HALF ON EARTH DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD (8 BILLION ON EARTH)
REVELATION 6:7-8 (8 BILLION- 2 BILLION = 6 BILLION)
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see.
8
And I looked, and behold a pale horse:(CHLORES GREEN) and his name that
sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given
unto them over the fourth part of the earth,(2 BILLION) to kill with
sword,(WEAPONS) and with hunger,(FAMINE) and with death,(INCURABLE
DISEASES) and with the beasts of the earth.(ANIMAL TO HUMAN DISEASE).
REVELATION 9:15,18 (6 BILLION - 2 BILLION = 4 BILLION)
15 And the four(DEMONIC WAR) angels were loosed,
18
By these three was the third part of men killed,(2 BILLION) by the
fire, and by the smoke, and by the brimstone, which issued out of their
mouths.(NUCLEAR ATOMIC BOMBS)
HALF OF EARTHS POPULATION DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION.(THESE VERSES ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
LUKE
17:34-37 (8 TOTAL BILLION - 4 BILLION DEAD IN TRIB = 4 BILLION TO JESUS
KINGDOM) (HALF DIE DURING THE 7 YR TRIBULATION PERIOD JUST LIKE THE
BIBLE SAYS)(GOD DOES NOT LIE)(AND NOTICE MOST DIE IN WAR AND
DISEASES-NOT COMETS-ASTEROIDS-QUAKES OR TSUNAMIS)
34 I tell you, in
that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken,(IN
WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other shall be left.(half earths population 4
billion die in the 7 yr trib)
35 Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
36 Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
37
And they answered and said unto him, Where, Lord? And he said unto
them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered
together.(Christians have new bodies,this is the people against
Jerusalem during the 7 yr treaty)(Christians bodies are not being eaten
by the birds).THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-NOT RAPTURE
SCRIPTURES.BECAUSE NOT HALF OF PEOPLE ON EARTH ARE CHRISTIANS.AND THE
CONTEXT IN LUKE 17 IS THE 7 YEAR TRIBULATION OR 7 YR TREATY PERIOD.WHICH
IS JUDGEMENT ON THE EARTH.NOT 50% RAPTURED TO HEAVEN.
MATTHEW 24:37-42 (THESE ARE JUDGEMENT SCRIPTURES-SURE NOT RAPTURE SCRIPTURES)
37 But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
38
For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and
drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe
entered into the ark,
39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
40
Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3
JUDGEMENT) and the other left.41 Two women shall be grinding at the
mill; the one shall be taken,(IN WW3 JUDGEMENT) and the other left.
42 Watch therefore:(FOR THE LAST DAYS SIGNS HAPPENING) for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come.
AMERICA (POLITICAL BABYLON)(NUKED BY SNEAK ATTACK FROM RUSSIA)
IN
REVELATION 17 & 18 IS THE DESTRUCTION OF THE RELIGIOUS AND
POLITICAL BABYLONS.IF YOU CAN NOT DECERN BETWEEN THE 2 BABYLONS IN REV
17 & 18.YOU WILL JUST THINK THEIR BOTH THE SAME.BUT NO-THERES A
RELIGIOUS BABYLON (THE VATICAN IN REV 17)(AND THE POLITICAL BABYLON IN
REV 18 (AMERICA OR NEW YORK TO BE EXACT)
ISAIAH 34:10
10 It
(AMERICA-POLITICAL BABYLON) shall not be quenched night nor day; the
smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it
shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.
JEREMIAH 51:29-32 (CYBER ATTACK 1ST)
29
And the land shall tremble and sorrow: for every purpose of the LORD
shall be performed against Babylon,(AMERICA-NEW YORK) to make the land
of Babylon (AMERICA) a desolation without an inhabitant.
30 The
mighty men of Babylon (AMERICA) have forborn to fight, they have
remained in their holds: their might hath failed; they became as women:
they have burned her dwellingplaces; her bars are broken.
031 One
post shall run to meet another, and one messenger to meet another, to
shew the king of Babylon (NEW YORK) that his city is taken at one end,
32
And that the passages are stopped,(THE WAR COMPUTERS HACKED OR EMP'D)
and the reeds they have burned with fire, and the men of war are
affrighted.(DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO)
COMPLETE SILENCE AFTER AN EMP GOES OFF
REVELATION 8:1
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour.
JEREMIAH 50:3,24
3
For out of the north (RUSSIA) there cometh up a nation against her,
which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they
shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast.
24 I have laid a
snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O Babylon,(AMERICA) and thou
wast not aware: thou art found, and also caught, because thou hast
striven against the LORD. (RUSSIA A SNEAK CYBER,EMP ATTACK,THEN NUKE
ATTACK ON AM
WELL AFTER
READING THESE HEADLINES THIS MORNING. NOW I KNOW WHY CNN IS TALKING
ABOUT ISRAEL SO CALLED DEDPRIVING THE POOR ARABS OF EVERYTHING IN A
REPORT. NO-CNN IS JUST TRYING TO GET THE WORLD AGAINST ISRAEL - BECAUSE
ISRAEL IS READY TO NUKE IRAN OUT OF HISTORY.
Amid
nuclear deal talks, Iran, US warships in 1st tense Mideast brush in a
year-Incident follows a series of events attributed to a shadow war
between Iran and Israel, including attacks on regional shipping and
sabotage at Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility-By AP and TOI staff Today,
12:08 pm
American and Iranian warships had a tense encounter in
the Persian Gulf earlier this month, the first such incident in about a
year amid wider turmoil in the region over Tehran’s tattered nuclear
deal, the US Navy said Tuesday.Footage released by the US Navy showed a
ship commanded by Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard cutting in
front of the USCGC Monomoy, causing the Coast Guard vessel to come to an
abrupt stop with its engine smoking on April 2.The Guard also did the
same with another Coast Guard vessel, the USCGC Wrangell, said Cmdr.
Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet.
Such close passes risk the ships colliding at sea.Iran did not
immediately acknowledge the incident in the southern reaches of the
Persian Gulf, which resulted in no injuries or damage.“The US crews
issued multiple warnings via bridge-to-bridge radio, five short blasts
from the ships’ horns, and while the (Iranian) Harth 55 responded to the
bridge-to-bridge radio queries, they continued the unsafe maneuvers,”
Rebarich said. “After approximately three hours of the US issuing
warning and conducting defensive maneuvers, the (Iranian) vessels
maneuvered away from the US ships and opened distance between them.”The
Wall Street Journal first reported on the incident, which involved the
Iranian Harth support ship and three Iranian fast-attack craft. The
Coast Guard units operate out of Bahrain as part of Patrol Forces
Southwest Asia, its biggest unit overseas.The interaction marked the
first “unsafe and unprofessional” incident involving the Iranians since
April 15, 2020, Rebarich said. However, Iran had largely stopped such
incidents in 2018 and nearly in the entirety of 2019, she said.In 2017,
the US Navy recorded 14 instances of what it describes as “unsafe and or
unprofessional” interactions with Iranians forces. It recorded 35 in
2016, and 23 in 2015.The incidents at sea almost always involve the
Revolutionary Guard, which reports only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei. Typically, they involve Iranian speedboats armed with
deck-mounted machine guns and rocket launchers test-firing weapons or
shadowing American aircraft carriers passing through the Strait of
Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20 percent of
all oil passes.Some analysts believe the incidents are meant in part to
squeeze President Hassan Rouhani’s administration after the 2015
nuclear deal. They include a 2016 incident in which Iranian forces
captured and held overnight 10 US sailors who strayed into the Islamic
Republic’s territorial waters.“US naval forces continue to remain
vigilant and are trained to act in a professional manner, while our
commanding officers retain the inherent right to act in self-defense,”
Rebarich said.The incident comes as Iran negotiates with world powers in
Vienna over Tehran and Washington returning to the 2015 nuclear deal,
talks due to resume Tuesday. It also follows a series of incidents
across the Mideast attributed to a shadow war between Iran and Israel,
which includes attacks on regional shipping and sabotage at Iran’s
Natanz nuclear facility.Earlier this week, Iran’s Armed Forces chief
Mohammad Bagheri threatened to “teach Israel a very good lesson,”
appearing to hint the Jewish state was behind a reported attack on an
Iranian tanker off Syria’s coast over the weekend, but stopping short of
blaming Jerusalem explicitly for the incident.Bagheri’s threat came the
day before Israel sent a delegation to Washington on Monday to voice
objection to the US return to the Iran nuclear deal. Israeli officials
believe Iran poses an existential threat to the Jewish state, and
adamantly oppose the US returning to the deal, putting Jerusalem at odds
with the new White House administration.
Iran warns Israel that
regional ‘mischief’ will be met with great force-Revolutionary Guards
commander makes comments after reported strike on Iranian ship off
Syrian coast and amid unrest in Jerusalem and on Gaza border-By TOI
staff-APR27,21-Today, 12:58 pM
Iran’s powerful Islamic
Revolutionary Guard Corps warned Israel on Monday against carrying out
any further “mischiefs,” saying they will be responded to with great
force.The comments, made by commander Gen. Hossein Salami in an
interview with the Arabic-language al-Mayadeen news channel, apparently
referred to the recent unrest in Jerusalem and at the Gaza border, as
well as the shadow maritime war between Tehran and Jerusalem and a
recent explosion at a nuclear facility that Iran has attributed to
Israel.“The mischiefs that the Zionists commit in the region will
backfire on them. The Islamic Republic of Iran will give an equal and
more powerful reaction to any evil act,” said Salami, according to the
Fars news agency.In the past few days, you have witnessed how their evil
deeds did not go unanswered and how some developments happened in the
occupied territories, and these incidents and developments will
definitely be repeated and will grow greater in the future,” he said.The
comments followed similar remarks on Sunday by Iranian Armed Forces
Chief of Staff Major General Mohammad Bagheri, who also referred to a
reported attack on an Iranian tanker off the Syrian coast on
Saturday.“The Zionists imagine that they can continuously target the
Syrian territories and conduct mischief in different places and in the
sea and receive no response,” Bagheri said.Bagheri threatened to “teach
Israel a very good lesson,” but stopped short of blaming Jerusalem
explicitly for the incident.Bagheri told reporters: “We don’t announce
anything about the incidents that happened recently, nor do we know who
did it, but the Resistance Front will teach Israel a very good lesson,”
according to several Iranian journalists.The comments by the military
officials came amid recent rising tensions with Iran that have seen the
two countries blame each other for attacks on their ships in the region,
which caused minor damage, and also an operations-disrupting explosion
at a key Iranian nuclear facility that Tehran attributed to
Israel.Further stoking tensions, Gazan armed factions, some of which
receive Iranian support, launched over 40 rockets into Israel over the
weekend. On Saturday, a number of Palestinian terror groups fired
experimental rockets toward the Mediterranean Sea as a show of
force.Palestinian terror groups have said that the weekend’s rocket
attacks were in response to ongoing unrest in Jerusalem, where Arab
residents demonstrated for several days against Ramadan restrictions on
congregating near Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate.Those restrictions were
lifted by police on Sunday evening.Hamas, the de facto ruler of the Gaza
Strip, has at times been supported by Iran, but resisted openly moving
too close to hardliners in Tehran. However, last year Hamas leader
Ismail Haniyeh spoke at the Tehran funeral of Iranian general Qassem
Soleimani, crediting the Quds Force leader with building his and other
Palestinian groups.
Facing outcry, Kerry denies he told Iran’s
Zarif about Israeli strikes in Syria-Former US secretary of state cites
Israeli minister’s 2018 speech mentioning raids, and State Department
notes generally that such operations were public knowledge-By TOI
staff-APR 27.21-Today, 11:09 am
Former US secretary of state John
Kerry on Monday denied Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif’s
claim that the top US diplomat told him Israel had carried out 200
strikes on Iranian targets in Syria.“I can tell you that this story and
these allegations are unequivocally false. This never happened — either
when I was Secretary of State or since,” Kerry tweeted.The tweet cited a
2018 article by the Reuters news agency in which then-intelligence
minister Israel Katz said that Israel had carried out over 200
airstrikes against Iranian targets in Syria over the previous two
years.Kerry’s denial came amid pressure from some parts of the
Republican party after The New York Times published a report on a leaked
interview Zarif gave last year.Zarif said that he was often kept in the
dark about security matters, and that “to his astonishment,” Kerry told
him that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200
times.In the recording, Zarif told the interviewer that he hadn’t been
told about key issues.“Kerry has to tell me that Israel has attacked you
200 times in Syria?” said Zarif.“You did not know?” the interviewer
asked twice, according to direct quotes published by the Times for the
first time on Monday evening, to which Zarif responded “no, no” on both
occasions.Zarif did not clarify when the purported conversation with
Kerry took place. Kerry served as a chief negotiator for the 2015
nuclear deal between Iran and world powers and dealt closely with Zarif
over the years.Israel acknowledges having launched hundreds of strikes
in Syria since the start of the civil war there in 2011, aimer to
counter Iranian moves to establish a permanent military presence in the
country and to transport advanced, game-changing weapons to terrorist
groups in the region, principally Hezbollah.Still, Israel’s official
policy is to neither officially confirm nor deny specific operations in
Syria, save for those in retaliation for an attack from the
country.State Department spokesman Ned Price on Monday noted the
widespread reporting on Israel’s strikes and implied that even if Kerry
had made the comments, the existence of the strikes was public
knowledge.“I would just make the broad point that if you go back and
look at press reporting from the time, this certainly was not secret,”
Price said. “And governments that were involved were speaking to this
publicly, on the record.”Some Republican officials attacked Kerry in the
wake of the Times report, accusing him of leaking Israeli military
secrets. Kerry, who now serves as US President Joe Biden’s special envoy
on the climate crisis, was already under fire from the GOP over those
policies.“People are talking about treason — and I don’t throw that word
around a lot,” said Alaska’s Sen. Dan Sullivan. “John Kerry does all
kinds of things that I can’t stand. But this is the one that broke the
camel’s back.”Nikki Haley, who served as US ambassador to the UN under
the Trump administration and is widely thought to be considering a 2024
presidential run, called the reported conversation between Kerry and
Zarif “disgusting.”However, others in the party urged a more cautious
approach to Zarif’s comments.“I don’t know if we should trust that tape
or not. If it’s true, it’s very damaging,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham. “I
like John Kerry, but that would not be helpful and it would be very
problematic if it were true. But let’s wait and see how authentic this
is.”Ahead of Kerry’s public response , Sen. Mitt Romney also said that
the matter should be examined in light of the fact it was based only on
the Iranian envoy’s comments, Politico reported.“It’s very troubling,
and there needs to be full transparency to understand exactly what was
done, by whom, for what purpose, and an accounting of what occurred,”
said Romney, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. “We
have one recording by an Iranian official, but this is something that
has to be evaluated and looked into.”The most recent time a high-level
US official was accused of divulging Israeli military secrets was 2017,
when then-president Donald Trump told Russia of intelligence that
reportedly came specifically from a spy embedded in the Islamic State
terrorist group on behalf of Israel. The spy was also reportedly a major
asset in gaining information on the actions of Iran in Syria — through
its Revolutionary Guard Corps and Lebanese proxy Hezbollah. The leak
reportedly placed the person’s life at risk and Israeli intelligence
officials were said to have been outraged by Trump’s actions.Zarif made
the comments about Kerry in an hours-long taped conversation that took
place last March as part of an oral history project. A copy was leaked
to the UK-based Persian language news channel Iran International, which
is viewed as hostile to Iran and is owned by Saudi Arabians.In the
interview, Zarif also criticized the power of Qassem Soleimani, saying
the assassinated head of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps had been
setting Tehran’s policy.Zarif said that Soleimani had worked with Russia
to sabotage the nuclear deal and acted in Syria’s long-running war in a
way that damaged Tehran’s interests, as well as undermining him on a
number of occasions, the Times reported.“In the Islamic Republic the
military field rules,” Zarif said. “I have sacrificed diplomacy for the
military field rather than the field servicing diplomacy.The extracts
also suggested Soleimani refused to listen to a request by Zarif’s
Foreign Ministry that Tehran show less overt support for Syrian leader
Bashar Assad, including not using state airline Iran Air to transport
military equipment and personnel to Syria and not deploying ground
forces to the war-torn country.Zarif also criticized Soleimani for
allowing Russian planes to fly over Iran on their way to bomb
Syria.According to the Times, Zarif could be heard on a number of
occasions in the interview emphasizing that his words were not for
publication.Zarif also claimed that Soleimani traveled to Moscow to
“demolish our achievement” and try to stop Russia’s support for the
nuclear deal struck with world powers.
