January 23, 2020.  That’s the message—Stop Killing Americans.  The U.S. delivered the message again today, and we’ll see if Iran changes its actions.  “Top US Iran envoy: We will kill Soleimani’s successor if another American is murdered,” Alex Ward, Vox, January 23, 2020.

January 23, 2020.  The U.S. is moving to stop more Iranian oil sakes going directly to fund terrorism.  “The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) has sanctioned a network of companies helping Iran circumvent Washington’s sanctions selling products by the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).  In a statement issued January 23, the Treasury said hundreds of millions of dollars of sanction-busting activities were traced to these companies, which repatriated revenues to Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guard Corps (IRGC) and its Qods force. The statement says that the proceeds enabled the Islamic Republic to finance "terrorist" proxies and activities throughout the Middle East.  “Iran’s petrochemical and petroleum sectors are primary sources of funding for the Iranian regime’s global terrorist activities and enable its persistent use of violence against its own people,” Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin is quoted as saying.”  Here is the story—“US Treasury Targets A Network Of Companies Breaking Iran Sanctions,” Radio Farda, January 23, 2020.

January 23, 2020.  “Iran-backed militias continue to wage attacks on American outposts in Iraq, according to senior U.S. officials. James Jeffrey, the Trump administration’s special representative for Syria engagement and special envoy for the global coalition to defeat ISIS, said the United States continues to experience targeted strikes by Iran-backed militia groups seeking to foment unrest in Iraq. In the weeks since U.S. forces killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani, Iran-backed militants have scaled down their attacks but continue to launch strikes at U.S. positions in the war-torn country, Jeffrey told reporters in a briefing. "In terms of attacks, we’ve seen a few shellings of coalition—or bases where coalition forces are located," Jeffrey said on Thursday. "Other than several at the American embassy compound a couple of days ago, they have been intermittent, the kind of thing that we have—or all been used to in our years in Iraq. Nothing like the very targeted, precise, 30-plus rocket attacks we were seeing in those 11 incidents that led up to our response last month, so—this month. So—well, last month and this month. But so for the moment, that front is fairly quiet." Asked if these attacks have been orchestrated by Iran, Jeffrey told reporters, "We think so."”  See “Iran-Backed Militias Continue Attacks on U.S. Outposts in Iraq,” Adam Kredo, Washington Free Beacon, January 23, 2020.

“The crisis in Iran: An oppressive regime and its voiceless people,” Niki Kowsar, op-ed, The Middlebury Campus, January 23, 2020.

“Canada’s TSB says Iran has invited it to examine black boxes,” Rob Gillies, AP, January 23, 2020.

“Trump administration homing in on Iran-backed operations in Latin America,” Guy Taylor, The Washington Times, January 23, 2020.

“Iran: the unspoken battle to succeed Ayatollah Khamenei,” Najmeh Bozorgmehr, Financial Times, January 23, 2020.

“How Iran’s Military Outsources Its Cyber Threat Forces,” Dorothy Denning, The Conversation, NextGov, January 23, 2020.

January 23, 2020.  Another threat from Iran, now directed at American military in Kuwait.  As reported in Bloomberg, “Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said the U.S. drone used to kill a top Iranian general in Baghdad took off from a military base in Kuwait, the semi-official Fars news agency reported, citing Brigadier General Amirali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Guards’ aerospace force.”  Iran’s mentioning the base is a way of threatening that base, it is not simply reporting.  See “Iran Says Drone Used in Soleimani Strike Came From Kuwait,” Farah Elbahrawy and Golnar Motevalli, Bloomberg, January 23, 2020.

“Iran exploiting Iraq to achieve its regional goals,” Majid Rafizadeh, op-ed, Arab News, January 23, 2020.

January 23, 2020.  I don’t cover Hamas and general terrorism news on this blog, but will make an exception here to highlight one issue—Iran’s support for the Sunni terror group Hamas, and how there is a conflict within Hamas as to how much power to allow the Regime to have over Hamas.  As far as outside observers can see, Iran still wants to have as much control over Hamas as it can.  The killing of Soleimani though is affecting this effort.  See “Report: Hamas Officials Lock Horns Over Leader Haniyeh’s Iran Visit,” Israel Hayom, JNS, January 23, 2020.

“Iran says plane crash investigation will be made public,” Al-Monitor, January 23, 2020.

“In 1987, U.S. Navy SEALs Took on Iran' s Mines, Who won?,” Sebastien Roblin, The National Interest, January 23, 2020.

January 23, 2020. “‘Blood money’: Iranian strategist suggests ransoming US hostages 'to solve the sanctions problem',” Spencer Neale, Washington Examiner, January 23, 2020.  Americans, stay away from visiting Iran for whatever reason.  Read this article, copied here in full.  “A top political strategist and Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps officer told supporters that Iran should kidnap hostages and ransom them back to the United States for "blood money." "Here's how the IRGC generates funds. The IRGC detains a spy like Jason Rezaian," Hassan Abbasi can be heard saying in a video that surfaced on Wednesday. "The U.S. pleads for him to be released, and we ask them to pay for him. Our government gets paid $1.7 billion to hand over this spy. By detaining one spy, the IRGC earns the $1-2 billion, which it was supposed to receive from the government budget." Rezaian is an Iranian American journalist who served as Tehran bureau chief for the Washington Post before he was arrested and convicted of espionage in a closed-door trial in Iran in 2015. He was released during President Barack Obama's tenure as part of a prisoner swap on Jan. 16, 2016, the same day that U.S. officials paid Iran $1.7 billion. Earlier this year, President Trump ordered two airstrikes that killed top Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al Muhandis after Iranian-backed militants surrounded the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad on New Year's Eve. Abbasi, who was arrested in 2019 for criticizing Iranian Intelligence Minister Mahmoud Alavi, claimed that Iran made $3 billion in "blood money" from Qatar due to Soleimani's death before illustrating how Iran could use hostage money to build out the country's infrastructure. "Now, after they killed the IRGC's Qassem Soleimani, our government received $3 billion as blood money for Qassem just from Qatar. The IRGC creates dams, roads, highways, and brings security to Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, and elsewhere," Abbasi said. "Do you want to solve the sanctions problem?" he continued. "Our naval forces should take 10 or 20 Americans as hostage every month. For each one of them, we should get $1 billion. If we get $1 billion per week, and the year has around 50 weeks. That’s at least $50 billion." Iran threatened to unleash Hezbollah attacks in Israel and Dubai if America further escalates tensions, but rhetoric between the countries has quieted in the weeks following several airstrikes exchanged by Iran and the U.S.”