Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, with a ballistic missile on Tuesday, specifically targeting the Saudi royal palace.
This move by Iran is an extraordinarily bold one, and provides insight into just how much this rogue jihadist nation has risen in confidence.
Americans, and in fact the world, can thank Barack Obama and his signing of the Iranian nuclear deal that saw at least 100 billion dollars flow into the jihadist state of Iran, strengthening it in its quest for regional hegemony, aiding it in its mission against anyone it considers to be an enemy of Islam (in the case, its Sunni opponent Saudi Arabia), and enabling it to continue to train and arm its proxies globally.
The United States recently presented hard evidence that Iran has violated multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions by supplying the Houthis with advanced weapons, including ballistic missiles.
Meanwhile, Canada is inching its way into reestablishing diplomatic ties with Iran. In 2012, the then-Conservative government shut down the Iranian Embassy after the discovery that it had “been using its embassy in Canada to mobilize loyalists of Islamic Republic to infiltrate the Canadian Government and, some terrorism experts worry, attack the United States.”
“Yemen’s Iran-Backed Rebels Target Saudi Royal Palace with Ballistic Missile”, by John Hayward, Breitbart, December 19, 2017:
Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels attacked the capital of Saudi Arabia, Riyadh, with a ballistic missile on Tuesday, specifically targeting the Saudi royal palace.
Saudi media reports that air defenses were able to intercept the missile. Reporters in Riyadh heard an explosion and saw a “plume of smoke” in the sky above the city.
A meeting to prepare for the release of the Saudi budget was reportedly underway in the Yamamah palace at the time of the attack. King Salman bin Abdulaziz was scheduled to announce the budget from the palace later today.
Debris from the intercepted missile fell on residential areas of Riyadh, but no casualties have been reported.
A spokesman for the Saudi military identified the intercepted weapon as a Volcano H-2 ballistic missile. The Houthis themselves also used that designation for the missile when announcing their attack on Riyadh. The Houthis reportedly stated that the royal palace was the target of their attack.
The Volcano H-2, also known as the Burkan H-2, is a variant on Iran’s Scud missile design that was first deployed in July of this year in attacks on Saudi oil refineries.
The United States recently presented hard evidence that Iran has violated multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions by supplying the Houthis with advanced weapons, including ballistic missiles.
Today’s attack was the third Houthi ballistic missile strike on Saudi Arabia in the past two months. One of the previous attacks targeted the King Khalid airport in Riyadh and would have caused hundreds or thousands of civilian casualties if the missile had struck its target.
The airport attack triggered tougher Saudi sanctions against Yemen and a tighter blockade to keep Iranian weapons out of the country, prompting complaints that humanitarian aid could not reach sick and starving civilians in Yemen…..
brane pilot says
When the POTUS commits high-treason, as B Hussein Obama did, your options are limited.
But he gets a pass.
The skin and all.
Dum Spiro says
POP QUIZ! 😀
The palace attackers were:
A. Fundamentalist Christians
B. Rabid Atheists
C. Mormon Missionaries
D. Buddhist Monks
E. Mossad Agents
F. Trump Supporters
G. Muslims from a Different Sect of Islam
Multiple choice should make this easier…
— Spero
Michael Copeland says
Quakers
Keys says
Crusaders
Linnte says
Dumb question but, I thought Houthis were Sunni?
CRUSADER says
IRAN / DEAL …according to politi-fact—
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/mar/17/donald-trump/no-donald-trump-we-are-not-giving-iran-150-billion/
Trump’s statement makes it sound like we’re cutting Iran a $150 billion check. In reality, the money is already Iran’s to begin with, just frozen under the many economic sanctions levied against the country.
Restrictions on Iranian assets — such as the $1.9 billion the National Iranian Oil Company was restricted from collecting from Shell for delivering crude supplies — began to thaw this year. Per the Iran deal, nuclear inspectors verified in January that Tehran was doing enough to curb its nuclear program, prompting the United States and other countries to lift the sanctions.
Just how much money was being held up?
Experts say $150 billion is the high end of estimates or, as Malloy put it, “what it could possibly be in the broadest imagination.” Most peg the the total value of Iranian assets at around $100 billion, but Iran probably still won’t be able to access all of it.
The deal only releases assets frozen because of Iran’s nuclear program. Assets blocked because of other sanctions (on terrorism, human rights, and missile technology) won’t change as a result of the agreement.
Also, Iran won’t suddenly have all the assets at its disposal because some of it is tied up in debts. For example, about $20 billion is obligated to China, which worked around the sanctions to finance infrastructure projects in Iran.
The actual amount available to Iran is about $60 billion, estimates Garbis Iradian, chief economist at the Institute of International Finance. U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew pinned it at $56 billion, while Iranian officials say $35 billion, according to Richard Nephew, an expert on economic sanctions at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.
In return, no bomb
While the United States doesn’t get a cash bonus for lifting sanctions, Trump’s claim that we got “nothing” in return misses the point of the deal: blocking Iran from building a nuclear bomb.
“We got major restrictions and intrusive transparency on Iran’s nuclear program. Beyond being not ‘nothing,’ this is the entire reason why we put the sanctions on in the first place,” Nephew said. “Reasonable people may disagree whether we got enough for the sanctions relief, but it wasn’t nothing.”
“There’s a long list (of things we got), such that even the Israeli intelligence community has concluded that, for the duration of the deal, Iran will not acquire a nuclear weapon,” said George Perkovich, an expert on nuclear strategy at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Under the deal, Iran agreed to lose 97 percent of its stockpile of enriched uranium and give up 14,000 of its 20,000 centrifuges, which are needed to enrich uranium. It also agreed to curb production of plutonium (the other element that can be used to build a bomb) and dismantle its one plutonium reactor.
To make sure Iran holds up its end of the bargain, the deal also permitted international inspectors to “implement continuous monitoring.” (What that means and whether it’s enough are up for debate.) In other words, said Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Jim Walsh, we got Iran to nip its nuclear ambitions in the bud before the cash was released.
Experts also pointed out that there’s also a host of diplomatic advantages gained from the deal, such as the goodwill of the five other countries involved in the deal and potentially more cooperation from Iran in the Middle East.
For example, the deal has “reduced the chances of a war between Iran and Israel,” and Iran “could eventually de-escalate tensions with Saudi Arabia and contribute to a political settlement of the crisis in Syria,” said Iradian.
“In the big game, that counts for something,” said Malloy.
Our ruling
Trump said under the Iran nuclear deal, “we give them $150 billion, we get nothing.”
Trump is referring to the amount of previously frozen Iranian assets the deal releases. To be clear, this is money that already belongs to Iran so we’re not “giving” them anything. The $150 billion is a high estimate, and most experts say the real figure is closer to $100 billion, while Iran is probably only able to access a fraction of that.
In exchange for lifting the sanctions, the United States and its allies get to block Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon in the near future. One can argue whether we got enough, but we didn’t get “nothing.”
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/mar/17/donald-trump/no-donald-trump-we-are-not-giving-iran-150-billion/
concerned canadian says
call up Trump and ask to be on Team USA instead then !
Billy Chickens says
Amish or Mennonites
Carolyne says
I think it was Fundamental Baptists. They’ve been working on missiles for along time, doncha know?
DFD says
And they say the spirit of Christmas is dead. No it isn’t, it is the season (or reason?) to be jolly!!!
Sarah says
What a shame the Palace wasn’t hit.
We all know war is coming. It is inevitable. This is not a war that can be averted with some concerted and dedicated diplomacy. The causes behind it are not remotely negotiable. This is a war over Islam. Sunni vs Shiite.
Yemen is being systematically destroyed by the god-rotting Saudis and the god-rotting Iranians, both sides of which are standing by, frothing at the mouth in hatred at one another.
Over some slight ideological differences. And they are slight in the grand scheme of things.
I wish the Iranian leaders and the Saudi leaders would just hurry up and bomb each other. It’ll save the rest of the world a whole lot of drama. But they wouldn’t be so accommodating. Nor are they competent enough. We all know that the Saudi army is an embarrassment. I’m actually not sure how the Iranian army is viewed?
All I care about is the impact on the Western world. I flat out do not support Western troops going in to fight in this war. I do not want to see Western troops fighting because the cowardly Saudis are turning tail and running; like they always do. And I especially do not want to see any goddamn ‘refugees’ spilling out of the Middle East and into the West. None of you are welcome. Fix your rotten region and stay there.
nicholas tesdorf says
There is nothing better or more refreshing than seeing Muslims attacking other Muslims and ignoring Jews and Christians, Polytheists and Atheists.
Johan Elzinga says
I was going to write something of the same content, but you beat me to it, well spoken, Sarah! I could not agree more! Daily a number of civilians are slaughtered in yemen by this fascist Saoudi regime and we keep providing them with weapons. Both sides.