Herzog: Israel confronts Tehran’s ’empire of evil’
Israeli President Isaac Herzog called on the international community on Tuesday to intervene and bring calm to the Middle East by stopping Iran.”We are being challenged by an empire of evil emanating from Tehran, and therefore, we are fighting,” Herzog told the ambassadors of Sweden, Slovakia, Belgium, Switzerland, and Papua New Guinea. At the same time, he said that the army is fighting the militant group Hezbollah in order to “change the equation and enable a better life” in both Israel and Lebanon. He added that the current operation only aims to bring calm to the region, especially to the border with Lebanon, so that families can return to their homes.
Israel warns of ‘intense fighting’ in southern Lebanon…….Israel: Raids will target Hezbollah strongholds
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) warned Tuesday of “intense fighting” in southern Lebanon between the country’s troops and Hezbollah. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, urged Lebanese civilians to avoid driving south of the Litani River due to escalating clashes with the militant group. “For your safety, we ask you to avoid movement in vehicles from the north to the south of the Litani River,” he said.
Israel: Raids will target Hezbollah strongholds
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari said on Tuesday that the military is conducting “limited and targeted raids” along the border with Lebanon as a response to Hezbollah’s threat to northern Israel. He stressed that the raids will target Hezbollah strongholds. “Hezbollah turned Lebanese villages next to Israeli villages into military bases all ready for an attack on Israel,” he said, claiming the militant group planned to use them as a “staging ground for an October 7-style invasion into Israeli homes.” He said southern Lebanon is “swarming with Hezbollah terrorists and weapons” and that Israel “has no choice” but to push Hezbollah back. He repeated that Israel does not want to harm Lebanese civilians but insisted that it will “continue to do everything necessary so that the citizens of Israel can return to their homes in safety and security.”
NN: Its a different Israel. They regrew a hairy set of balls!! FROM Pussy Cats to LIONS
OPEC+ Is Sacrificing Market Share To Support Price
“Yes, we are probably deliberately moving, temporarily losing market share, but we are looking forward not to today, but to the future,” Novak told Al Arabiya in an interview. He added that Russia will remain a member of OPEC+ beyond the end of 2025 when the current output cuts are supposed to be phased out.
“Everything is based on the agreements we have here and now,” Novak told Al Arabiya’s Hadley Gamble. “We will see how the situation develops in the markets. Probably we will decide to prolong our relations restricting development on this level or that level.” Speaking about the long-term outlook for oil and the goals of the supply control agreement, Novak said “It is important that, firstly, the energy sectors in exporting countries develop so that investments continue. This requires prices that would satisfy both exporters and importers, so as not to slow down the growth of demand, prices should not be high.” OPEC together with Russia and the Central Asian oil producers, accounts for close to half of global oil production, Reuters noted in a report on the interview. This gives the extended group a bigger influence over global prices although in the past couple of years, this influence has been eroded by the shift to algorithmic trading on the oil market. Indeed, algo trading has come to dominate oil markets, ousting some traditional players and making the price outlook even harder to analyze. This has been a big part of the reason why OPEC+ delayed the start of phasing out the output cuts, initially planned for this month. Now, OPEC+ expects to start bringing back supply to market in December, if the market conditions are more favorable.
NN Audio Note:
Bear trap forming
Israel Lebanon War LIVE |Israel Battle Tanks Ready For ‘Ground Invasion’ |….. Israel allegedly informs US of imminent ground op in Lebanon
The Israeli government informed United States President Joe Biden’s administration that it intends to launch a limited ground operation against Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, a US official told the Washington Post on Monday. According to the report, the ground incursion could start immediately. Additionally, the source said that this operation would focus on destroying the militant infrastructure along the Israel-Lebanon border. Earlier in the day, reports claimed that Israeli special forces entered Lebanese territory and conducted targeted raids aimed at crushing Hezbollah’s tunnel network.
BlackMask Pod Cast:
Time to go get your virgins
Middle East Braces for Iran’s Next Move After NaIsraeli special forces allegedly launch raids into Lebanonsrallah Killing……
When an Iranian consulate building was destroyed in Syria in April, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei vowed to punish Israel. What followed was a huge, yet telegraphed assault and no all-out war. Three months later, the military chief of Iran-backed Hezbollah and Hamas’s political head were killed within hours of each other. The wider regional conflict seen by some as imminent didn’t end up erupting. Israel’s assassination of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Friday in Beirut dealt an even bigger blow. But it’s still unlikely to trigger a direct war with the Islamic Republic, according to current and former US and Middle East government officials and regional experts. Instead, Iran will focus on rebuilding the militant group in Lebanon and keeping its network of proxies in action for as long as possible, they said. For all the saber rattling, what Iran calls its powerful “axis of resistance” in reality has seen its soft underbelly exposed again. Both Hezbollah, the most important asset in that axis, and Iran itself have been weakened and have few options, making it unlikely they will escalate the conflict, according to a person familiar with US’s thinking. More of a wildcard is whether Israel pursues further targets to hurt Hezbollah while the US is focused on the presidential election campaign, one Arab official said. Already, the killing of Nasrallah followed an attack on the group’s nerve system by exploding pagers and walkie talkies they used for communication. “Iran will be cornered into responding, with a bigger chorus of people demanding revenge,” said Dina Esfandiary, senior adviser on the Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group. “But this administration doesn’t want to embroil themselves in a conflict they can’t win. So they will have to measure their response.” Khamenei’s first statement a day earlier, meanwhile, emphasized the fact that Hezbollah has enough people who can replace Nasrallah and that the “axis of resistance will decide the fate of the region.” The rhetoric from Tehran reflects the desire of the clerical and military establishment to keep war at arm’s length. In the immediate term, the task will be to recoup the strength of the militant groups it backs in the region and ensure it isn’t baited into a full-blown war. In Lebanon, the priority is to preserve what’s left of Hezbollah, according to Vali Nasr, a former senior adviser to the US State Department and professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University. The group, like Hamas, is considered a terrorist organization by the US and many of its allies. “The priority for Iran is deterrence — it does not want a larger war right now and it suspects that Israel wants one,” said Nasr. “It’s not about avenging Nasrallah, it’s about rebuilding their position.”Iran will now try to move thousands of fighters to border areas of Lebanon and Syria, the source said, adding that for the past two months several thousand fighters have gone from Iraq to Syria, suggesting that Tehran has been preparing to reinforce its deterrence. “Iran doesn’t fight for its proxies, its proxies fight for it,” said Jonathan Lord, a former Pentagon official and director of the Middle East Security program at the Center for a New American Security. “The regime is most interested in self-preservation and won’t knowingly put itself at risk.” A foreign affairs think tank in the US. “Iranians are going to remain cautious, they understand that Israel is still in a mood to escalate and strike. They will go back to guerilla tactics and strategic patience.”
Israeli special forces allegedly launch raids into Lebanon
Israeli special forces have conducted targeted raids into southern Lebanon, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the incursions. The move is allegedly focusing on Hezbollah’s tunnel network and intelligence gathering, likely ahead of a ground incursion. Despite the report, the newspaper quotes a person as saying that the Isreli government is under pressure because of the possible repercussions of the event. In addition, there is no precise timing for the likely ground incursion. The news comes as Israel has heightened its military operations against Hamas and Hezbollah in the region. NN:
An Israeli airstrike hits central Beirut for the first time in nearly a year of conflict…… Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen
JERUSALEM (AP) — The first apparent Israeli airstrike on central Beirut in nearly a year of conflict leveled an apartment building early Monday. It came after Israel hit targets across Lebanon and killed dozens of people, as Hezbollah sustained heavy blows to its command structure, including the killing of its leader, Hassan Nasrallah. The airstrike hit a multistory residential building, according to an Associated Press journalist at the scene. Videos showed ambulances and a crowd gathered near the building in a mainly Sunni district with a busy thoroughfare lined with shops. A Palestinian leftist faction in Lebanon said three of its members were killed in the airstrike. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said in a statement early Monday that its military and security commanders in Lebanon, and a third member, were killed in the attack. The group has not played a significant role in the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. An official with Lebanon’s Civil Defense had earlier said that a member of the al-Jamaa al-Islamiya was killed in the strike and that 16 other people were wounded, but the Sunni militant group, which fights alongside Hezbollah, has not confirmed the death of any of its members.
Israel strikes Houthi targets in Yemen
Hezbollah on Sunday confirmed the death of high-ranking official Nabil Kaouk in an Israeli airstrike, a day after the Lebanese militant group acknowledged the killings of multiple commanders, including longtime leader Hassan Nasrallah. Israel struck Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the militants’ recent attacks, and is continuing to carry out strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon. Meanwhile, the number of people displaced by the conflict from southern Lebanon has more than doubled and now stands at more than 211,000, according to the United Nations. Hezbollah and Israel have traded near-daily strikes since the Israel-Hamas war started after the Gaza-based Palestinian militant group stormed into Israel almost a year ago on Oct. 7, sparking fears of regional war.
Big Netanyahu Assassination Scare Houthis Try To Kill Israel PM, Target His Plane ……. Israeli targets power plants and oil facilities in Yemen
Netanyahu was returning to the country from New York, where he had given an address to the United Nations Assembly on Friday. Houthi spokesperson Yahya Saree said in a statement: “The operation was carried out with a Palestine 2 ballistic missile. “The Yemeni armed forces – along with all the honourable and free people of the nation – continue to respond to the crimes of the Israeli enemy, and will not hesitate to raise the level of escalation in response to the requirements of the stage and participate in the defence of Gaza and Lebanon. “These operations will cease only after the cessation of the aggression against Gaza and Lebanon.” Iran’s Supreme leader vowed to avenge the death of Nasrallah, saying others would continue his work and take the fight to Israel. “Nasrallah was not an individual. He was a path and a school of thought and the path will be continued,” Ayatollah Khamenei said in a statement read on state television. It added: “The blood of the martyr shall not go unavenged.” Netanyahu said this evening that the death of Nasrallah was a “historic turning point”. He added that Israel had “settled the score” with those responsible for the deaths of “countless Israelis” and many foreign citizens. The Israeli Prime Minister said he gave the order for the attack, as airstrikes on Hezbollah had not done enough damage. He called Nasrallah a “master murderer” and said he was “the central engine of Iran’s axis of evil”.
Israeli targets power plants and oil facilities in Yemen
The Israeli army launched airstrikes on the Yemeni port city of Hodeidah, targeting power plants and oil facilities, the military confirmed, adding it used “dozens of air force aircraft” in the operation. According to their statement on X, these sites were allegedly used by Houthi rebels to transfer Iranian weapons into the region. Hodeidah, a key port city, has seen repeated military actions due to its strategic importance.
BlackMask Pod Cast:
be a war profiteer
Israel and Hezbollah Are Close to All-Out War
In the days since pagers began exploding in Lebanon, Israeli forces have stepped up their attacks on Hezbollah, pounding targets across the country and assassinating top leaders. Hezbollah has fired hundreds of rockets at northern Israel in response — including its first-ever attempt to target Tel Aviv with a ballistic missile — in the worst violence between the two sides since a 2006 war. Israel’s military said it killed Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, in an air strike on Beirut on Friday evening. Israel targeted Nasrallah with its strike on Hezbollah’s headquarters in the heaviest attack on the Lebanese capital in almost two decades. State-run television in Lebanon reported that six buildings were leveled. In a Friday speech at the United Nations General Assembly, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to press ahead with the fight against Hezbollah. “As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice and Israel has every right to remove this threat,” Netanyahu said. “We will continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are met.” Israel on Thursday said it was not interested in a three-week ceasefire deal being pushed by the US, the European Union and several Arab nations. Far-right national security minister Ben Gvir has threatened to break Netanyahu’s coalition and resign from government if a permanent ceasefire is agreed upon. Israel is gearing up for a potential ground invasion to push Hezbollah at least five kilometers (three miles) from the Israel-Lebanon border. Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor, has so far refrained from intervening, even though Hezbollah requested greater support. Its president, Masoud Pezeshkian, called escalations in Lebanon “traps” for a wider conflict. That restraint might end in the event of an Israeli ground invasion. For months, Israel and Hezbollah have engaged in cross-border exchanges of fire. Hezbollah began firing rockets on Oct. 8, 2023, in what it called a “support front,” one day after Hamas fighters crossed into southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages. Israel has since killed more than 41,000 people in Gaza. Hamas is designated a terrorist organization by the US. The Israeli government evacuated villages in northern Israel on Oct. 16, 2023, and it recently made returning these people to their homes one of its goals in the current conflict. Attacks from both sides of the border increased over the summer. On July 30, Hezbollah’s most senior military commander, Fuad Shukr, was killed in a Beirut suburb. Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets in response. Since the pager blasts on Sept. 17, Hezbollah’s leadership and command structure has also been targeted with as many as six top commanders killed by Israeli strikes, including Ibrahim Aqil, who was considered to be one of the party’s most senior members and led its elite Radwan force. Along with striking both the aerial and rocket units’ commanders, the Israeli Air Force has also targeted the militia’s commander of the southern front, Ali Karaki, but he reportedly survived. Prior to July, Hezbollah’s senior leadership had not been hit even though Israel had targeted Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri on Jan. 2 in the group’s stronghold, the Beirut suburb of Dahieh. Israel said it believes that in the past week it has destroyed about half of Hezbollah’s short-range rockets, which can fly up to 45 kilometers (28 miles), and their medium-range equivalents, which can hit targets 125 kilometers (78 miles) away, according to an Israeli official who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter. US officials have argued the Lebanon ceasefire still has a chance, and France’s foreign minister was headed to Beirut for more talks. One person familiar with the US stance said the Biden administration believes Israel wants to maximize its military gains ahead of any potential truce.
Israel to launch ‘limited’ ground offensive in Lebanon, sources say
The Israel Defense Force (IDF) is preparing to launch a “limited ground” incursion into southern Lebanon, ABC News reported, citing a senior unnamed official from the United States. No further details were provided. Previously, Israel’s Chief of Staff Herzi Hallevi said the army is preparing for a possible ground operation in Lebanon and the intense air strikes against Hezbollah could be a preparation for a ‘ground maneuver.” The Chief of the IDF’s Northern Command Major General Ori Gordin made similar comments, stating the military needs to be “strongly prepared” for a land offensive against Hezbollah. The Pentagon, however, said on Wednesday the US saw no indication that the Israeli ground offensive in Lebanon was imminent. At the same time, the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah continued to escalate, culminating in the death of the militant organization’s leader Hassan Nasrallah in an IDF airstrike in Beirut.