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Both men are wanted by the FBI.

The case was filed on Tuesday in federal court in New Jersey, and several of the alleged targets were based in that state. Numerous others are spread across the country and abroad, including in Israel, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.

The targets of the attacks include higher education institutions, human rights activists, telecommunications and media agencies and defense contractors, according to the indictment. The attacks go as far back as at least 2013, it said.

One allegedly targeted group was a New York-based international organization that promoted the nonmilitary and safe use of nuclear technology. Heidarian and Farhadi hacked sensitive nuclear information in the lead-up to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, commonly known as the Iran nuclear deal, in 2015, according to the indictment.

Another target was a government agency in Afghanistan that allowed the hackers to access internal communications going up to the Afghan president, the indictment said.

We will not bring the rule of law to cyberspace until governments refuse to provide safe harbor for criminal hacking within their borders, John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security, said in a statement. Todays defendants will now learn that such service to the Iranian regime is not an asset, but a criminal yoke that they will now carry until the day they are brought to justice.

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Iranian nationals indicted in hacking of U.S. networks - POLITICO

Members of an Irish group arrested on terrorist charges after seeking arms from Hezbollah met with officials at Irans Dublin Embassy, security sources have told The National.

It can also be disclosed that the former members of the Provisional IRA have reactivated Hezbollah contacts to get finance and weapons for the New IRA terror group (NIRA).

The Irish terrorists have been seeking advanced bomb-making technology developed in Iran and Lebanon that would allow them to successfully penetrate police armoured vehicles in Northern Ireland, intelligence sources said.

Nine members of the NIRA, including three women, were arrested last week following a long-running undercover operation run by MI5, the British security service.

Among those who appeared in court after the arrests was Dr Issam Hijjawi Bassalat, a Palestinian, who was held on remand by a court this week charged with a single count of preparatory acts of terrorism. He reportedly travelled to a NIRA meeting where he was alleged to have briefed the accused about the situation in Palestine.

Security sources have disclosed that at least two people now in custody were at a commemoration ceremony in the embassy following the assassination of Iranian general Qassem Soleimani who was killed in a January drone strike by America.

It appears that they were forging the links between the New IRA, Iran and Hezbollah, said an intelligence source. No weapons from Hezbollah had been received although they were on the verge of concluding some form of agreement but now the whole thing has been shattered.

It is understood the embassy event also commemorated the death of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, who has a street named after him in Tehran.

Following Soleimani's death the political wing of NIRA, Saoradh, put out a statement saying they were "outraged at the murder".

There are warnings of a bombing campaign in Europe by Hezbollah after US intelligence disclosed that caches of ammonium nitrate had been hidden in several countries including France, Italy and Spain.

Going into an Iranian Embassy just shows that the links are strong because that's not been done on a whim, said Doug Beattie, an Ulster Unionist politician. Its a deliberate move to show that the New IRA have allegiance to the Iranian regime and Hezbollah and thats of great concern. It's clear that without a shadow of a doubt that the links between the new IRA and Hezbollah are increasing. They are getting ever more sophisticated in their technologies and passing on their bomb-making technology.

Mr Beattie, a decorated former British soldier who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, warned if the political situation in Northern Ireland deteriorated over Brexit or Covid there was a real fear that experienced former Provisional IRA terrorists might join NIRA.

There was also a concern that contacts with Hezbollah might improve NIRAs ability to detonate bombs via remote control or other methods. There is higher level of sophistication that NIRA might be looking bring in from Hezbollah and that is a serious danger to police.

MI5 moved in on the terror group after it was established NIRA were close to securing weapons from Hezbollah following a visit to Lebanon in 2018 by the Irish dissidents.

Much of the information was gathered from covert bugging devices placed behind a private bar set up at a house in Scotland used by the undercover agent after taking the NIRA members to Celtic football matches in Glasgow.

Former police Detective Superintendent Dr Bill Duff, an intelligence academic, warned of shipping containers being used to bring in weapons and explosives from the Middle East. If Iran or Hezbollah were to load up a container with AK47's and plastic explosives in say, Karachi, bound for Dublin via several other container hubs then it is possible that it will get through."

He added that while the dissident republicans were mad, desperate and pathetic people that did not make them any less dangerous because if they manage to establish links with groups like Hezbollah who will certainly be inclined to support them".

Colin Breen, a former police officer and author, said that it appeared the Hezbollah connection had been made by old campaigners from the Provisional IRA.

They are making connections with Hezbollah for arms and cash but also because Hezbollah has international status as a terrorist group and that's a status the New IRA don't have.

In the past the IRA got weapons and other support from the Palestine Liberation Organisation, Libya, the Colombian insurgents FARC and Spanish terror group ETA.

Updated: September 19, 2020 01:02 AM

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Irish terrorists in Hezbollah weapons sting met with Iranian embassy officials - The National

BAGHDAD An explosive device blew up late Thursday night inside the American Institute for English Learning in the holy city of Najaf, adding to concerns about an increase in such attacks in the country.

The blast damaged the facade of the institute without causing any casualties, Iraqi police said in a statement, noting that an investigation has been launched into the incident.

The American Institute is an educational centre that teaches English language. It is not formally affiliated with any institution in the US and all of its employees are Iraqis.

Shia militia leader Muqtada al-Sadr warned against targeting cultural and diplomatic sites in Iraq, which he said could lead the country to a dark tunnel and into a spiral of violence.

Whoever is behind the attack exposes Iraq and Iraqi to danger, he added.

Iran-backed militias are suspected of targeting the US presence in Iraq.

Hours before the attack on the English-language site Thursday, a roadside bomb targeted an Iraqi convoy transporting equipment destined for the US-led coalition in the Babylon governorate without causing any casualties.

Over the past few weeks, attacks targeting the US presence and forces of other countries in the international coalition against ISIS have been on the rise.

Washington accuses armed Iraqi factions linked to Iran of being behind the attacks. Such factions have previously targeted the US embassy and military bases where American soldiers are deployed.

Analysts see that these attacks as part of efforts to embarrass the US administration before the November presidential elections, while others see them as aimed at pressuring the Iraqi government to follow through with an earlier vote in parliament demanding the withdrawal of US forces.

Armed Shia militia, including the Iraqi Hezbollah Brigades, threatened to target American troops in the country if they did not withdraw, in compliance with the Iraqi parliaments decision.

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Pro-Iran militias suspected of attack on US school in Iraq | | AW - The Arab Weekly

Irans supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said in a televised address that Iran will expand its nuclear program and will not negotiate with the United States, doubling down on his defiance of the Trump administrations maximum pressure policy.

In a Friday speech for the Eid al-Adha holiday, Ayatollah Khamenei said that entering talks with Washington over Irans nuclear program, as President Trump has urged Tehran to do, would only improve Mr. Trumps chances of being re-elected in November. That, the ayatollah said, was Mr. Trumps reason for suggesting such talks in the first place.

He is going to benefit from negotiations, Ayatollah Khamenei said. This old man who is in charge in America apparently used negotiations with North Korea as propaganda, he added a reference to Mr. Trumps high-profile nuclear diplomacy on another front, which to date has been mostly fruitless.

Ayatollah Khamenei also said that Iran would maintain its close alliances with militia groups in the region that it uses as proxies, defying another demand from the Trump administration.

The Iranian leader was not the first to connect the possibility of talks with the United States to the presidential election. Last month, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that Iran could make a better deal if it did so before November. Dont wait until after U.S. Election to make the Big deal, he wrote. Im going to win. Youll make a better deal now!

The United States has continued to tighten sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program, which have had a crippling effect on the Middle Eastern countrys economy. On Thursday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the State Department would expand the sanctions to cover 22 materials believed to be used in Irans nuclear, military and ballistic missile programs.

Ayatollah Khamenei said that Iran would not try to negotiate its way out of the sanctions and that it would be better off relying on its own industrial development. He said the Americans were targeting his countrys economy in the hope that Iranians would rise up against their government, which the ayatollah dismissed as pipe dreams.

Mr. Khamenei said that developing the nuclear program was an absolute necessity for Irans future. He dismissed the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and several world powers, which Mr. Trump abandoned in 2018, as very damaging, saying that Iran had suffered economic setbacks because of it.

Iran has insisted that its nuclear program is meant exclusively for peaceful purposes, but the United States and other countries believe it is pursuing the capacity to build a nuclear weapon.

The Iranian foreign minister, Javad Zarif, who was in charge of the negotiations for Iran, said as recently as last month in Parliament that the negotiating team had Ayatollah Khameneis full support and blessing to reach a deal.

The ayatollah, who recently directed his closest economic advisers to cement a 25-year military and economic partnership with China, said in his speech that European countries involved in the nuclear deal were unreliable, and that their attempts to salvage the pact such as creating a secure financial channel so that Iran could maintain a limited amount of trade were useless games.

Some Iranian officials and analysts have said that Irans strategy was to wait out the remainder of Mr. Trumps term in hopes of a Democratic victory that could revive the deal, which was reached under President Barack Obama.

Khamenei has always believed that accommodating to one U.S. demand would bring about another demand and another, said Sina Azodi, a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington. For him, every solution would bring about another problem.

But analysts, entrepreneurs and businessmen inside Iran have warned that the economy risks collapse if the current situation continues.

Since the United States pulled out of the nuclear deal in May 2018, Irans currency has dropped sharply and inflation has surged. The government said it faced a budget deficit of nearly 30 percent this fiscal year. Oil sales have plummeted from 2.5 million barrels a day to about 300,000, nearly eliminating Iran from the global crude oil market.

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Iran Will Expand Nuclear Program and Wont Talk to U.S., Ayatollah Says - The New York Times

A group of Iranian and American musicians are using digital media to create music together, which they hope will spread joy and promote unity at a time when the two countries with strained relations are reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.

A video of the performance, produced with help from the North American Iranian Friendship Association (NAIFA), was released this week.

In the video, 19 musicians performed the musical composition in a socially distanced setting at Tehran's famed Roudaki Hall, while seven American opera singers in Washington sang along.

The performance was overlaid with recitations of poetry from Rumi, the 13th century Persian poet and philosopher.

Fatemeh Keshavarz, director of the Roshan Institute for Persian Studies at the University of Maryland, and Vahid Abideh, founder of the NAIFA, came up with the idea in April.

Besides a beautiful performance, Abideh told CNN they wanted to combine Western music with Persian poetry to help bridge the cultural divide between the United States and Iran.

"The musicians on both sides are tremendously excited about helping us transcend the toxic threats of war and sanctions, rise above politics, and acknowledge each other's art and humanity," Keshavarz said in a statement.

"This is particularly needed at a time like this when the world is in the grips of a ferocious pandemic," she said. "It is a time to see each other's humanity and help each other heal. Nothing can do this better than art."

Timothy Nelson, artistic director for IN Series, described the collaboration as an effort to "make the impossible possible."

Correction: A previous version of this story misstated which Iranian orchestra participated in the musical collaboration. It was the Solidarity Chamber Orchestra of Tehran.

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Iranian and American musicians join forces to spread joy amid the pandemic - CNN