US and Iran

[The Mechanic]

Trump Sanctions Have Cost Iran Billions More Than Obama Gave Them for the Nuclear Deal

Donald Trump is hitting Iran where it hurts.

For 40 years, the murderous mullahs who lead the Islamic Republic have never needed much of a reason to hate an American president.

Even milk toast Jimmy Carter — a man whose presidency is a byword for American weakness — was hated by the ayatollahs who took over the country after the revolution of 1979.

But as Bloomberg reported Tuesday, the tyrants of Tehran have some especially good reasons to detest the current president:

About $50 billion worth, and that’s likely to keep rising.

According to Bloomberg, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani gave a speech Tuesday declaring that the sanctions Trump renewed on Iran after pulling out of the nuclear deal negotiated by President Barack Obama had cost the country $100 billion in oil revenue and the same amount in foreign investment credit.

That adds up to about $200 billion the hard men of Iran didn’t have on hand to fund terrorism against Americans, Israelis or any other group of people that stand in the way of their twisted views of religious order.

And as Breitbart News pointed out on on Wednesday, that amount dwarfs the $150 billion in Iranian assets Obama released as part of the deal. (Not to mention the planeloads of cash Obama flew the mullahs.)

In other words, tangling with Trump has already cost Iran at least $50 billion in net loss from their salad days with Obama.

And unless the regime is willing to come to the table for a new nuclear deal that actually has teeth, that net cost is going to keep going up as Trump tightens sanctions even further.

The American relationship with the Shiite theocracy of Iran has been hostile for four decades — even including the craven outreach of the Obama years. (Remember the 10 American sailors who were detained and humiliated by Iranian naval forces in January 2016?)

But Trump’s decision to impose staggering sanctions on the country — the policy of “maximum pressure” — is hitting the Iranian leadership in ways that hurt.

In April, Reuters reported that the Iranian economy was expected to shrink by 6 percent in 2019 after shrinking 4 percent in 2018. Inflation was expected to reach 40 percent.

And this is a country that thinks it’s in a position to take on the “Great Satan” of the United States — the world’s largest economy that has exploded with jobs and wealth creation since Trump took office?

The rapid end of the crisis surrounding the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad could well be a signal that Iranians are starting to understand that Trump is not an American president who could be rolled.

On Tuesday, the sprawling grounds were surrounded by militants with Iranian backing.

On Wednesday, the militias withdrew after Trump took several steps to show how seriously the U.S. was taking the situation.

The relatively peaceful ending isn’t going to be repeated in every confrontation between the two countries, but there were definitely lessons to be learned from it.

Unlike his predecessor Obama, Trump appears to understand just how big of a threat the terrorist regime of Tehran poses to the country — and he’s not willing to meekly submit to it, as Obama was.

Instead, he’s hitting back where it hurts — and even the Iranian president is admitting it.

BOOM!!

https://www.westernjournal.com/trump-s ... rn-journal

[Black Orchid]

Iranian Major-General Qassem Soleimani, head of the elite Quds Force, and Iraqi militia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were killed early on Friday in an air strike on their convoy at Baghdad airport, an Iraqi militia spokesman told Reuters.

"The American and Israeli enemy is responsible for killing the mujahideen Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and Qassem Soleimani," said Ahmed al-Assadi, a spokesman for Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces umbrella grouping of Iran-backed militias.

Strikes had been carried out against two targets linked to Iran in Baghdad on Thursday, U.S. officials told Reuters. The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to give any further details.

Iraqi paramilitary groups said on Friday that three rockets hit Baghdad International Airport, killing five members of Iraqi paramilitary groups and two "guests."

The rockets landed near the air cargo terminal, burning two vehicles, killing and injuring several people.

Soleimani, who has led the foreign arm of the Revolutionary Guards and has had a key role in fighting in Syria and Iraq, acquired celebrity status at home and abroad.

He was instrumental in the spread of Iranian influence in the Middle East, which the United States and Tehran's regional foes Saudi Arabia and Israel have struggled to keep in check.

He survived several assassination attempts against him by Western, Israeli and Arab agencies over the past two decades.

Soleimani's Quds Force, tasked with carrying out operations beyond Iran's borders, shored up support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad when he looked close to defeat in the civil war raging since 2011 and also helped militiamen defeat Islamic State in Iraq.

Soleimani became head of the Quds Force in 1998, a position in which he kept a low profile for years while he strengthened Iran's ties with Hezbollah in Lebanon, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and Shi’ite militia groups in Iraq.

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ne ... 077547.cms

[Black Orchid]

Hadi al-Ameri, a leader of the Iranian-backed siege of the US Embassy in Baghdad that visited the White House with other Iraqi officials in 2011 during the Obama administration has been arrested by U.S. marines, according to a reports.

Hadi Al-Amiri was spotted at the scene of the embassy attack -- where crowds chanted “Down, Down USA!” following U.S. airstrikes that killed fighters of an Iranian-backed militia -- underscores how the figure once seen as a potential partner is now viewed by the U.S. government as a dangerous Iran proxy.

Khazali is known as the founder and leader of the Special Groups in Iraq.

http://redstatewatcher.com/article.asp?id=157725

Told you big things were about to happen!

[Black Orchid]

Celebrations have begun in Tahrir Square at the news of the death of Qassem Solemani in #Baghdad, #Iraq and other senior officials of #PMU/#PMF/#Hezbollah. https://twitter.com/IRaqiRev/status/121 ... 48/video/1 …

https://twitter.com/AuroraIntel/status/ ... wsrc%5Etfw

[Black Orchid]

Hours after Newsweek reported the drone attack, Trump tweeted the image of the American flag.

The Defense Department then released a statement saying, "At the direction of the president, the U.S. military has taken decisive defensive action to protect U.S. personnel abroad by killing Qasem Soleimani, the head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force, a U.S.-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

"General Soleimani was actively developing plans to attack American diplomats and service members in Iraq and throughout the region. General Soleimani and his Quds Force were responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounded of thousands more."

Leading Trump administration officials including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Secretary of Defense Mark Esper had warned Iran that the U.S. would respond to any attacks on American interests.

https://www.newsweek.com/iraq-militia-o ... ns-1480181

Another promise kept.

[billy the kid]

Shit is starting to hit the fan in the ME...gold is going thru the roof....always does when the shit starts flying....

[The Mechanic]

There’s a new boy in town now... TRUMP... and he wan’t be sending pallets of CASH to Iran when threatened... he’ll be sending MOABs!!

BOOOOM!!!!

[billy the kid]

How much of a dump did the American people get from Obumma….fuck me.....

[The Mechanic]

How much of a dump did the American people get from Obumma….fuck me.....

The 16 year plan to Destroy America...

Obama did 8

Hillary was meant to finish the job

“They never thought she’d lose”

[Black Orchid]

And as usual "they" would be wrong.