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US and allies call Iran's recent rocket launch 'threatening' Columbus Ledger-Enquirer The United States and three Western allies are calling Iran's recent launch of a satellite-carrying rocket "a threatening and provocative step" that is "inconsistent" with a U.N. resolution endorsing the 2015 agreement to rein in its nuclear program ... At UN, Western powers warn Iran rocket test a 'threatening step'Reuters US, Europeans push UN for action over Iran rocket launchDaily Mail US Says European Allies Back Protest at UN on Iran Rocket TestBloomberg all 7 news articles »

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US and allies call Iran's recent rocket launch 'threatening' - Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

Iran or North Korea? Which threat should America confront first?

Heres a thought: both.

Save for the weather, North Korea wouldve tested an intercontinental ballistic missile last Thursday, at almost the same time as Iran did. It missed the date, coinciding with the anniversary of the 1953 armistice pact that ended the Korean War, likely thanks to a rain storm.

Nerveless, it tested the next day, creating a Mideast-East Asian stereo boom heard around the world.

American experts no longer think itll take North Korea years to be able to hit the continental United States. Most watchers now expect it sometime next year.

So President Trump has drawn the short straw. Three predecessors failed to stop the Kim regimes nuclear and missile advances. If he wants to stop the Norks, Trump has no choice but to act and all of his options are bad.

Meanwhile, much of President Barack Obamas Iran deal is expected to unravel during Trumps tenure as well.

What can he do?

Americans and others have long observed cooperation between these two rogue regimes. You dont need to be a trained missile expert to notice the design similarities between North Koreas home-built Rodong and its Iranian clone, the Shahab 3. Or the Rodong B and Shahab 4.

Iranian nuclear scientists were present at Pyongyangs first nuclear test. Iran-allied Syria modeled its nuclear plant (later eliminated by Israel) on a similar North Korean one. Rather than violating the Obama deal by experimenting at home, Iran can advance its nuclear program by observing North Koreas and contributing to its progress.

The mullahs have what Kim Jong-un needs most: cash. Pyongyangs only foreign-currency-worthy export is weapons and knowing how to build and use them, which Iran craves. Its a match made in hell.

So why are countries threatened by North Korea, like Japan, so eager to do business with Iran? After all, dont the mullahs enable the Norths quest to develop the missiles that get fired near Japan?

Theres no proof of such cooperation, Tokyo officials said when I asked them about it on a recent trip to Japan.

Theyre right. For decades, America shied away from revealing what the intelligence community knew about the Tehran-Pyongyang love affair because we dreamed of diplomatic breakthroughs on both fronts (and feared revealing spy methods).

After the Sunday ICBM test, such timidity is no longer an option.

Americas UN Ambassador Nikki Haley tweeted Sunday that China is aware they must act and that Japan and South Korea must increase pressure. Its not only a US problem but one that requires an international solution.

Yet, an international solution has eluded Haley since July 4, the last time North Korea launched a missile designed to reach the continental US. Russian diplomats have ridiculously argued theres no proof this was an ICBM, therefore no need to increase sanctions.

Such obfuscation will likely continue. Russia and China will block attempts to corner Kim and his henchmen especially now that administration officials like CIA Director Mike Pompeo are starting to push the idea of toppling the Kim regime, which both Beijing and Moscow oppose.

So one action the United States can take would be to put forth a UN resolution naming and sanctioning persons and entities involved in the Iran-North Korea arms cooperation.

Western diplomats tell me it likely wont pass. Yet theyre intrigued by publicly airing, Adlai Stevenson-like, Americas intel on Iran-Nork cooperation.

Irans missile program was, bizarrely, left out of Obamas nuclear deal. Revealing the Tehran-Pyongyang nexus might convince allies wobbly about Tehrans violations that the mullahs threat is global. It could also start the process of plugging a major cash source for the Kim regime.

And then, theres action beyond the United Nations: Obama rarely used the Proliferation Security Initiative, a treaty signed by 105 countries that allows search and seizure of ships carrying illicit arms. Expose the Iran-North Korea connection, then use PSI to disrupt it, with our allies help.

Weve long thought of Iran and North Korea as separate problems. Time for a holistic approach that will give a jolt to the diplomatic stalemate.

US flights over South Korean skies are helping. Talking publicly about adding Japan and South Korea to the global nuclear club may scare China into action. So will blacklisting companies that do business with Kim Jong-un. Regime change should be the ultimate target.

But a change in diplomatic strategy is needed too, and fast. Time to expose what everyone knows, but no one ever says out loud: Kim and the mullahs are BFFs.

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It's time to take on the Iran-North Korea nuke alliance - New York Post

DUBAI (Reuters) - Kuwait on Wednesday denied a Reuters report that Iran was using the Gulf Arab state's waters to smuggle weapons and equipment to Houthi forces in Yemen.

"The State of Kuwait refuted news by the Reuters news agency regarding Iran's exploitation of Kuwaiti waters to deliver arms and military assistance to the Houthis in Yemen," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

"A source at the ministry said that the country's waters were under the total control of the Kuwaiti navy and coast guard, adding that there were no reports of suspicious marine movements or activities," said the statement, carried by the official Kuwait news agency.

The ministry urged international media to investigate such matters "more thoroughly".

On Tuesday, Reuters cited sources familiar with the matter as saying that Iran's Revolutionary Guards had begun using a new route across the Gulf to funnel covert arms shipments to their Houthi allies in Yemen's civil war.

In March, regional and Western sources told Reuters that Iran was shipping weapons and military advisers to the Houthis either directly to Yemen or via Somalia. This route however risked contact with international naval vessels on patrol in the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

For the last six months, Western and Iranian sources say the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) has begun using waters further up the Gulf between Kuwait and Iran as it looks for new ways to beat an embargo on arms shipments to fellow Shi'ite Muslims in the Houthi movement.

Using this new route, Iranian ships were transferring equipment to smaller vessels at the northern end of the Gulf, where they face less scrutiny. The transhipments take place in Kuwaiti waters and in nearby international shipping lanes, the sources said.

Yemen is more than two years into a civil war pitting the Iran-aligned Houthis against the government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition. More than 10,000 people have died in fighting and a cholera epidemic has infected more than 300,000 in a country on the brink of famine.

Reporting by William Maclean; editing by Mark Heinrich

Originally posted here:
Kuwait denies its waters used for Iran supplies to Houthis - Reuters

Samantha Bee is globetrotting again.

While the travel plans of any of TVs late night hosts may not be of high interest to the average person, Bees viewers may take note. In previous outings, Bee has journeyed to Russia and Jordan among other places, to eye-popping effect: She met with people in the former who actively spread misinformation on social media hoping to confuse Americans and discovered in the latter Syrian refugees who wanted to come to America.

On Wednesday night at 10:30 p.m. eastern, she will be at it again. Her Full Frontal program on TBS will this evening kick off a two-part look at a recent trip she made to Iraq, where she surprisingly, perhaps found a few things to laugh at, including a young boy named Trump.

Traveling is a critical piece of the show that I would never want to do without, said Bee in an interview, and a reason why she would not want to do a daily program. It would really deprive me of the opportunity to go places and do field pieces and learn about the world. Its a nice opportunity to go places and travel on someone elses dime. Im only half kidding. During her reporting, Bee also met with female soldiers and people at refugee camps.

Her journeys are becoming a bigger part of TVs regular late-night hijinks, where several of the genres most popular hosts have discovered that exploring far-flung places can result in work that stands apart from the pack. Conan OBrien, Bees TBS colleague, has over the last few years traveled to Cuba and Armenia, among other places. HBOs John Oliver has raised eyebrows by visiting Edward Snowden in Russia and the Dalai Lama in Tibet. And CBS Stephen Colbert recently flew to Russia, and the segments he devised created a weeks worth of material.

Bee, field producer Razan Ghalayini and a crew spent about four days shooting material in Iraq (Ghalayini, who has proven instrumental in finding people on the ground to interview in past travel segments, was there for several more days). In tonights segment, Bee discovers Iraqi Kurds love President Trump so much so they are willing to name their kids after him.

Producers were trying to track down one child with the name they had seen on CNN, Ghalayini said, but security reasons prevented them from getting to find him. Instead, she says, we were tracking down four or five babies. Among Kurds, its a real buyers market for babies named Trump, Bee joked, noting that no one was trying to buy a child.

We really started to figure out that the Kurds loved Trump,and so we thought we should make our first pro-Trump field piece, said Ghalayini.

Bee and her producers and crew spent two-plus hours in 110-degree heat to get man-on-the-street interviews only to find they were not able to talk to any women. None made an appearance on the darkened street they were on, said Bee. It was a very pleasant outdoor summer evening scene, she said. It was just completely free of women. Her program, Full Frontal, is decidedly not.

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Samantha Bee Travels to Iraq in Latest 'Full Frontal' Journey - Variety

KABUL (Reuters) - Attacks on the Iraqi embassy and a Shi'ite mosque in Afghanistan have reinforced fears that Islamic State militants are seeking to bring the group's Middle East conflict to Central Asia, though evidence of fighters relocating from Iraq and Syria remains elusive.

Islamic State said it carried out Monday's attack against the embassy in Kabul, which began with a suicide bomber blowing himself up at the compound's main gate, allowing gunmen to enter the building and battle security forces.

The group also claimed responsibility for an attack Tuesday that killed at least 29 and wounded more than 63 at a Shi'ite mosque in Herat, an area in western Afghanistan that had previously escaped Islamic State's sectarian attacks.

The choice of target in the Iraqi embassy attack, three weeks after the fall of Mosul to Iraqi troops, appeared to back up repeated warnings from Afghan security officials that, as Islamic State fighters were pushed out of Syria and Iraq, they risked showing up in Afghanistan.

"This year we're seeing more new weapons in the hands of the insurgents and an increase in numbers of foreign fighters," said Afghan Defence Ministry spokesman Gen. Dawlat Waziri. "They are used in front lines because they are war veterans."

One senior security official put the number of foreigners fighting for both Islamic State and the Taliban in Afghanistan at roughly 7,000, most operating across the border from their home countries of Pakistan, Uzbekistan or Tajikistan, but also including others from countries such as India.

While such foreign fighters have long been present in Afghanistan, there has been growing concern that militants from Arab countries, who have left the fighting in Syria as pressure on Islamic State there has grown, have also been arriving in Afghanistan through Iran.

"We are not talking about a simple militant fighter, we are talking about battle-hardened, educated and professional fighters in the thousands," another security official said.

"They are more dangerous because they can and will easily recruit fighters and foot soldiers here."

The United States, which first came to Afghanistan in 2001 after Al Qaeda's attacks on New York and Washington, is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan, in part to ensure the country does not become a haven for foreign militant groups.

But while Afghan and U.S. officials have long warned of the risk that foreign fighters from Syria could move over to Afghanistan, there has been considerable scepticism over how many have actually done so.

In April, during a visit to Kabul by U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis, the commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen. John Nicholson, said that, while ISIS had an "aspiration" to bring in fighters from Syria, "we haven't seen it happen".

U.S. commanders say that, in partnership with Afghan security forces, they have severely reduced Islamic State's strength over the past year with a combination of drone strikes and Special Forces operations.

But according to Afghan intelligence documents reviewed by Reuters, security officials believe Islamic State is present in nine provinces, from Nangarhar and Kunar in the east to Jawzjan, Faryab and Badakhshan in the north and Ghor in the central west.

"In recent operations, we have inflicted heavy losses on them but their focus is to recruit fighters from this area," said Juma Gul Hemat, police chief of Kunar, an eastern province where Islamic State fighters pushed out of their base in neighboring Nangarhar have increasingly sought refuge.

"They are not only from Pakistan or former Taliban, there are fighters from other countries and other small groups have pledged their allegiance to them," he said.

Afghan officials say newly arrived foreign fighters have been heavily involved in fighting in Nangarhar province, Islamic State's main stronghold in Afghanistan, where they have repeatedly clashed with the Taliban.

Security officials say they are still investigating Monday's embassy attack and it is too early to say whether there was any foreign influence or involvement.

Islamic State put out a statement identifying two of the attackers as Abu Julaybib Al-Kharasani and Abu Talha Al-Balkhi, Arabic names that nonetheless suggest Afghan origins. Khorasan is an old name for the Central Asian region that includes Afghanistan, while Balkh is a province in northern Afghanistan.

What little contact is possible with fighters loyal to Islamic State in Afghanistan suggests that the movement itself is keen to encourage the idea that foreign militants are joining its ranks.

"We have our brothers in hundreds from different countries," said an Islamic State commander in Achin district of Nangarhar.

"Most of them have families and homes that were destroyed by the atrocity and brutality of the infidel forces in Arab countries, especially by the Americans," he said. "They can greatly help us in terms of teaching our fighters new tactics, with weapons and other resources."

Editing by Alex Richardson

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Embassy, mosque attacks fuel fears ISIS bringing Iraq war to Afghanistan - Reuters