Khodayari was a senior aide to Qassem Soleimani, a former IRGC leader killed in Baghdad in January 2020. The Israeli media claimed that Khodari had plotted to kill Israelis. Israeli intelligence agencies were involved in the killing, and Iran has threatened retaliation.

A prominent Revolutionary Guards commander, Hassan Sayed Khodayari, was assassinated steps from his home in Tehran’s Mohahedin-e Eslam Street, on Sunday evening by gunmen riding on two motorcycles, killing him with five bullets. 

Iranian Radio Farda quoted Israeli Wi-Net, saying that the Israeli intelligence agency was closely aware of the commander's plots and had already foiled them. Several terrorist acts against Israelis were planned in Cyprus, Latin America, Africa, and Turkey.

Meanwhile, Israeli Channel 13 reported that Sayad Khodayari had ordered Mansour Rassoul to assassinate an employee of the Israeli consulate in Istanbul. The channel said the aim was to assassinate the Israeli consul general in Turkey. 

The incident appears to be related to an incident in recent weeks. Several Israeli intelligence officers in Urmia, East Kurdistan, obtained a confession from a man who intended to carry out several terrorist acts in Turkey and Europe.

After releasing Rasouli, he released a video of himself saying that several masked people had arrested him. He doesn't care about those things and is a farmer who is busy with his own life. However, the incident proved Rasouli's links to Iran's intelligence services, working as a mercenary of Iran's intelligence agency.

Most of the Israeli media covered the news last night after the killing of the commander, most indicated that the dead commander was a senior aide to former Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani.

Israeli television channel Kani quoted a security source saying that Tehran was chosen as the center of the attack to ensure that no target could escape Israeli hands.

Iranian media reported that the opponents of the revolution were involved in the killing. They said the commander was a guard of the sanctuary, referring to Shiite religious sites in Syria, and appeared to have worked with the Quds Force.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Monday he knew who was involved in the killing and would take revenge soon. The threat of retaliation comes as Iran has yet to take revenge on Qassem Soleimani and has hampered the nuclear deal.

This is not the first time Israeli intelligence agencies have hit targets inside Iran. They have previously killed several nuclear scientists, carried out several bombings in Iran's sensitive military and security facilities, and accessed Iran's most critical nuclear documents.

The US Treasury Department exempted West Kurdistan or Rojava which constitutes northern and eastern Syria, from sanctions and the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) Mazloum Abdi, said he appreciated the US decision to rebuild their infrastructure and economic support. 

The decision helps fight ISIS, and it will give hope to all Syrians, Abdi continued. 

The SDF chief invited all companies to invest in Rojava as the region faces shortages and an economic embargo from Turkey. 

Meanwhile, Mevlut Cavusoglu, the top Turkish diplomat, criticized the US decision, saying it was a form of support and legitimacy for the People's Defense Units (YPG), the backbone of SDF.

Ankara views YPG as an offshoot of the PKK, the outlawed Turkish party. PKK has been conducting an armed insurgency in Turkey since 1984. 

On Wednesday, Sanandaj Prosecutor General Hossein Hosseini said, they had seized 94 tons of cooking oil hidden by four companies. They had stored worth 2 billion Iranian Rials, almost 47 thousand USD. 

‘The security forces and market monitor teams of the Ministry of Commerce constantly monitor the market and firmly confront those who try to raise the prices of goods, the prosecutor added.

Storing goods to control supply and later overselling the good is common practice throughout Iran, especially after the sanctions as the country’s currency has hit a downfall. 

Several explosions were heard this morning, Saturday, in the city of Deir Ezzor and its surroundings. The Syrian regime and Iran backed militia control the town. Iranian militia sites in the "Hawija Kati'" area and the "new dirt bridge" became the target of a drone strike without information about human and material losses.

While the identity of the planes that targeted the area was not announced, which is the second targeting in less than a week, "My Channel and Al-Hadath" sources in Syria reported that American drones carried out the raid on Iranian militia sites in Deir ez-Zor.

The Syrian Observatory indicated at the beginning of the new month that unidentified warplanes launched raids targeting military points of the Iranian militias in the Al-Ashara desert in Deir ez-Zor countryside. On January 6, "unidentified" drones targeted a military site in the Al-Tabani area and Badiyat Al-Masr in the western countryside of Deir Ezzor.

On January 4, explosions were heard in regions where Iranian-backed militias in the eastern countryside of Deir Ezzor are present. The explosions were caused by unidentified drones, which targeted sites of pro-Iranian militias in the vicinity of the farms "Mazar Ain Ali", located on The outskirts of the city of Al-Quriah within the Al-Ashara desert in the eastern desert of Deir Ezzor.

Today, Sunday, the adviser to the Iranian negotiating delegation in Vienna, Muhammad Marandi, considered that the internal conflict in Washington is impeding reaching an agreement in Vienna.

However, he believed that the repercussions of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict would eventually force the United States to reach an agreement with his country.

In statements to IRNA, Marandi added that Washington had not taken the necessary political decision to reach a reasonable agreement in the Austrian capital.

He reiterated that various issues such as the need for the West to take basic measures to verify and guarantee agreements, the abolition of sanctions, and the removal of Revolutionary Guards from the list of terrorist organizations "are among the main factors in the sudden halt of negotiations by the United States."

Over the past weeks, the two sides have been exchanging blame for not reaching an agreement to revive the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and the West and throwing the ball into the other's court.

While Washington announced that if Iran wants to ease sanctions beyond what is stipulated in the nuclear agreement, in a clear indication of excluding the Revolutionary Guards from the American list of terrorism, it must address American concerns beyond those addressed in this agreement. 

Tehran has confirmed more than once that it adheres to the demand to lift the embargo imposed on those forces that enjoy great power in the country.

The issue of the IRGC had surfaced weeks ago, forming a difficult obstacle for negotiators, especially since the administration of US President Joe Biden is under extreme pressure from Congress not to remove IRGC from the US terror list.

The file of some sanctions also still constitutes one of the obstacles to reaching a final agreement between Iran, the three European countries (France, Britain, and Germany), Russia and China, and the United States, which participated in the marathon negotiations that began in April last year (2021) in the Austrian capital.

However, a new proposal circulated recently in the US Congress reveals that the administration of President Joe Biden is considering cancelling the sanctions imposed on the IRGC and keeping the Quds Force on the list of terrorism instead.

The Quds Force is on the terror list

The proposal removes the IRGC from the terror list to keep its Quds Force, a smaller unit primarily fighting abroad, on the US terrorism list to compensate for the move.

The circulated news estimates that the sanctions would be dropped from about 80,000 to 180,000 guards. At the same time, they would include only the Quds Force, consisting of 20,000 Iranian fighters, according to what was reported by the "Washington Free Beacon" website.

Break the deal

Iranian officials have confirmed the proposal recently, angering Republican foreign policy leaders, who say the IRGC should remain on the US terror list.

Republican leaders viewed the proposal as a deal-breaker if submitted to Congress for approval.

In turn, one prominent Republican familiar with the proposal said that "removing the IRGC and then putting only the Quds Force on the list would effectively mean removing another 80,000 or so fighters from the terrorism list, and they can now enter the United States."

According to a copy of that information viewed by Free Beacon, members were also briefed on how the proposal would allow Revolutionary Guard fighters to enter the United States.

Blinken worried

Some Democrats are speaking out against the move, too. On Tuesday, Senator Joe Manchin wrote to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken, saying he was "particularly concerned" about removing the Revolutionary Guards from the State Department's list of foreign terrorist organizations.

"We should not reward Iran with sanctions relief," he added until it showed its willingness to curb its "nuclear ambitions" and "terrorist financing."

The issue of removing the IRGC from the list of terrorist organizations by the United States had surfaced weeks ago, a difficult obstacle for negotiators, especially since the administration of US President Joe Biden is under extreme pressure from Congress to remove the IRGC from the terror list.

The sanctions are still the main obstacles to reaching a final agreement between Iran and the three European countries (France, Britain and Germany), indirectly with Russia and China, and the United States, which participated in the marathon negotiations in April last year in the Austrian capital.

Iran has confirmed the transfer of a centrifuge-making facility to its underground nuclear site in Natanz, state media reported, days after the International Atomic Energy Agency announced the installation of cameras to monitor the new plant at Tehran's request.

The report, carried out by the official Iranian news agency IRNA on Saturday evening, comes as diplomatic efforts to restore the nuclear agreement with Iran seem to be stuck.

The news agency quoted a spokesman for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Behrouz Kamalvandi, saying that the authorities had moved the operation to a safer place.

And the Iranian centrifuge manufacturing facility in Karaj was targeted in what Iran described as a sabotage attack last June.

Natanz itself has twice been targeted with sabotage attacks amid uncertainty over the nuclear deal, attacks that Iran has blamed on Israel.

"Unfortunately, due to the terrorist operation that took place in Karaj, we had to intensify security measures, according to which we transferred an important part of the machinery to Natanz and Isfahan," which host two nuclear facilities, Kamalvandi said.

On Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency said it had installed cameras and removed seals from machinery at the new workshop in Natanz two days earlier.

These machines will be used to make rotating tubes and centrifugal bellows, which are important parts of devices that rotate at very high speeds to enrich uranium gas.

Kamalvandi reiterated Iran's position that Tehran would not provide data from the cameras to the IAEA if it did not reach an agreement.

Talks between Iran and world powers in Vienna to revive the 2015 nuclear deal have stalled. There are fears that Iran is close to building a nuclear weapon if it chooses to pursue this path.

The nuclear deal collapsed four years ago as the United States withdrew from it and re-imposed sanctions on Iran. At the same time, Iran has significantly expanded the scope of its nuclear work.

"We discussed developments in Iraq and the region, bilateral relations between the Kurdistan Region and Turkey, and expanding cooperation to promote security and stability, " Barzani said in a statement. 

"We emphasized developing relations in all sectors, particularly in trade and investment." the statement added.

Barzani said both sides "explored new opportunities to increase bilateral trade and investment."

The head of the Foreign Relations Department in the KRG, Safeen Dizayee, usually dubbed as Kurdistan region foreign minister, accompanied Barzani in the meeting. They held talks focusing on trade and energy.

Hakan Fidan, the Turkish intelligence chief, was the only participant besides Erdogan in the meeting. 

The head of Kurdistan Foreign Media Relations, Lawk Ghafuri, said Barzani and Erdogan also spoke on gas, security and political developments in Iraq and the Middle East.

The visit comes when Europe is working to lessen its energy dependence on Russia. With its vast hydrocarbon reserves and close ties to Turkey, the Kurdistan region is an obvious choice. 

Libyan sources reported that more columns armed with heavy weapons entered Tripoli from the west and south.

According to local media, the moves are aimed at preventing Prime Minister-designate Fathi Bashagha a from entering the capital.

On Friday, large numbers of military vehicles were seen coming from Misurata, Zintan, and Al-Zawiya, carrying medium and heavy weapons heading toward Tripoli.

Those armed groups, which were reported to be affiliated with the unity government headed by Abdel Hamid al-Dabaiba, later arrived in the capital, chanting slogans, "The day of decisiveness is approaching."

These field moves came a day after a meeting held by Bashagha, with a number of the most prominent militia leaders in Misurata, at his residence in Tunis.

A Possible War

As fears escalate inside and outside Libya, that the prime minister-designate will be forced into the capital in order to seize power from the incumbent prime minister, who refuses to give it up, before elections are held in the country, that might spark fighting between the militias supporting him and those loyal to Bashagha.

The two deputies of Bashagha took over the headquarters of the government in eastern and southern Libya, but international mediation is still underway between the two parties regarding a peaceful transfer of power in Tripoli.

While the international position is focused on supporting the initiative of UN Chancellor Stephanie Williams to form a committee from the House of Representatives and what is known as the State Council to formulate a constitutional rule for the expected elections, which the parties failed to hold on a previously set date.

The National Interest magazine published a report issued by the Carnegie Endowment for Peace revealing that the Iranian team trained Hezbollah operatives, whose primary goal was to collect intelligence information on Lebanese state institutions and strengthen the cyber defences of the Iranian security apparatus.

According to the magazine, in 2015, the Iranian regime expanded its cybersecurity budget by 1,200 percent in just two years.

According to the American report, Hezbollah cells have launched attacks for more than a year on telecommunications companies and Internet providers in the United States, the United Kingdom, Israel and Arab countries.

Strategic Financial Goals

The Iranian-backed unit also launches cyber-attacks on strategic financial targets, such as gas and oil companies in the Gulf states. Reports indicate that the team is likely to be based in the southern suburb. 

Targeting countries in the region

It is now revealed that a Hezbollah electronic unit, known as "Cedar Abu Brians APT," had carried out attacks for more than a year on telecommunication companies and internet providers in the United States, United Kingdom, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian territories and the United Arab Emirates.

The magazine wrote that agents of Lebanon's Saber Cedar breached 95% of the company's internal networks, such as US-based Frontier Communications, to collect sensitive data.

In 2010, the Obama administration described Hezbollah as "the most technically capable terrorist group in the world."

The magazine also revealed that many of Hezbollah's cyber trainees are from Iraq and support the pro-Iranian group in the country, Kataib Hezbollah.

The report says that "Hezbollah" uses its cyber forces to expand Iran's regional influence by spreading Tehran's strategic messages in unstable countries, such as Iraq.

During the first meeting of the Coordination Committee for Foreign Economic Relations, he said that the United States had put forward new demands during the past weeks that contradict the terms of the agreement, according to Fars news agency.

He also considered that the US administration is interested in proposing and imposing new conditions while his country adheres to its red lines, calling on it to issue an executive order lifting some sanctions as a goodwill gesture. "We seek to lift the sanctions, but with dignity and in a sustainable manner," he said.

In addition, he pointed out that the Iranian delegation explicitly asked the US side to be realistic and not to obstruct the talks that started since last April in the Austrian capital.

He pointed out that his country reached results in the technical files with the three European countries during the talks.

He also added that "there is criticism from China, Russia and European countries against Washington and its increasing demands," he said.

The US administration had expressed a few days ago that it was not very optimistic about reaching an agreement with Tehran soon, despite the fact that all the European atmosphere had previously indicated that it had reached the final stage of the talks that extended for months.

However, the issue of removing the Iranian Revolutionary Guard from the list of terrorist organizations by America had surfaced weeks ago, a difficult obstacle for negotiators, especially since the administration of US President Joe Biden is under extreme pressure in Congress, in order not to remove it from the terrorism list.

The sanctions still constitute one of the obstacles to reaching a final agreement between Iran and the three European countries (France, Britain and Germany), along with Russia, China, and the United States, which indirectly participated in the marathon negotiations.

The country will unveil nine new atomic achievements on April 9 on the occasion of the National Day of Nuclear Technology, announced Mohammad Eslami, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran (AEOI),

Two other achievements are in the fields of plasma, which helps in curing cancer. Four achievements are in the industry related to lasers, and three are in the field of controlling, imaging systems and nuclear energy, Eslami added.

"We aim to increase nuclear electricity output by 10,000 megawatts (MW)," Eslami said.

Eslami explained that the projects would be financed by "local and foreign" investors based on the current budget law to reach their goal.

" Will pursue the construction of an indigenous 360-megawatt power plant" in Darkhovin, located about 70 kilometers south of Ahvaz in Khuzestan Province," Eslami explained.

On April 5, over 190 Iranian lawmakers signed a letter demanding that the government seek "stronger guarantees" from the US to revive the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), mainly known as the 2015 nuclear deal.

The announcement comes after the nuclear talks in Vienna have once again come to a halt, and the United States has introduced new sanctions against the Islamic republic.

On Saturday, the Iranian foreign ministry announced it has blacklisted nine individuals for “their involvement in terrorist acts.”

Iran has listed 24 United States officials and people on its blacklist of sanctioned individuals over charges of “terrorism” and violations of human rights of the Iranians.

On Saturday, the Iranian foreign ministry announced it had targeted nine individuals for “their involvement in terrorist acts.”

The list includes George W Casey Jr, former Chief of Staff of the US Army and Commanding General of Multi-National Forces in Iraq; Joseph Votel, former commander of the United States Central Command; former attorney to Donald Trump, Rudy Giuliani; and several current and former American diplomats in Palestine and Lebanon.

The foreign ministry also blacklisted 15 individuals for “gross violations of human rights.” This list mainly includes people who helped impose and expand punishing US sanctions on Iran during the Trump and Obama administrations.

Several former treasury department officials and several top executives at Kharon,a data analysis consultancy firm, were also blacklisted.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran reiterates that the promulgations and application of Unilateral Coercive Measures is a stark violation of the fundamental principles of international law set forth in the Charter of the United Nations and a blatant transgression of international law and impede enjoyment of human rights,” the foreign ministry statement said.

The sanctions, part of what US officials branded a “maximum pressure” campaign to bring Iran to the table, were increased during the coronavirus pandemic.

Previously, Iran had announced sanctions on US officials on two occasions, targeting 60 individuals overall. Those included Trump, his top officials, including former secretary of state Mike Pompeo, and dozens of officials representing US military and diplomatic interests across the region.

Before Saturday’s announcement, the sanctions were limited to individuals who played a role in the assassination of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani.

The sanctions are perceived to be largely symbolic as the mentioned individuals are unlikely to have assets that could be seized by Iranian authorities and do not travel to Iran.