Is Iran really friendly with other nations, plotting to attack them? Illustrative. Photo Courtesy of UN Photo/Evan Schneider
The region received another reminder this week of Iran’s long reach, as a would-be terrorist in an Iranian group was arrested in Jordan with 45 kilograms (99 pounds) of explosives. The incident was reported by Al Rai and republished by Al Arabiya, and a source was quoted in the article as saying the explosives uncovered made it the “most serious case in a decade.”
The official Jordanian Petra News Agency said the country’s State Security Court elected not to disclose much about the suspect. Said the Petra report, “The suspect faces charges of possessing large amount of explosives and planning to carry out terrorist attacks in the Kingdom.” Iran, not surprisingly, denied that the terrorist was linked to them, with a source claiming to the Fars News Agency instead that they respect the nations around them. However, that claim of Iranian regional respect has been proven wrong again even before the Jordanian incident.
“Recently we saw an Iranian-Hezbollah terror cell uncovered in Cyprus that had reportedly five tons of ammonium nitrate in one apartment,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu highlighted in comments on Monday. “That’s roughly the amount that took down the Federal Building in Oklahoma City. That’s just one apartment.
“But this terror network expands to over 30 countries in many continents.”
Netanyahu, whose comments were released by his office, noted that this comes as the world powers are negotiating a nuclear deal with Iran that would provide the Iranians with sanctions relief. Said Netanyahu, “It will give them a jackpot of hundreds of billions of dollars with which to continue to fund their aggression in the region, terror throughout the world.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, July 7, 2015)