Iran - Signalling Their Plans?!

In 2018, Akram Al Kaabi, Secretary-General of the Hezbollah Nujaba movement in Iraq,  threatened to target the US in Iraq. The US government designated him a "terrorist" that same year. He is already on the Pentagon’s radar as a threat and part of the web of pro-Iranian dangers to US forces in Iraq. The US has singled him out, alongside Khazali and Badr’s Hadi al-Amiri, as keys to Iran’s role in Iraq.

On Sunday, February 15, 2020-​Akram Al Kaabi, the leader of Harakat Hezbollah al-Nujaba ("Movement of the Party of God's Nobles") in Iraq declared:
"The countdown has begun to attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq; Iraqi resistance attacks on American bases are inevitable and will be exhaustive, and surprising."

Then, Al Nujaba's spokesman/ the Assistant General Secretary posted a picture taken with night vision goggles/lens, of a U.S. armored vehicle allegedly near Anbar's al-Assad Air Base, with the wording:
"We are closer to you than you can imagine." 

Idle threats?   Sabre rattling?  Actual warnings and credible threats?   No one outside Iran knows for certain, but this week we can pose possible explanations and project/predict possible Iranian moves and revenge tactics we need to expect and plan for in Iraq, the Middle East-including Israel-and retaliatory/revenge attacks in North America.

Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei  of Iran, declared on Tuesday, February 18: “Taking part in the elections nullifies many of the vicious plots of the US and the Zionist regime against Iran. These #elections repel the schemes & ploys of the enemies of Iran.”    This statement- a call for votes as well as  pressure on voters; is to prompt a reasonable voter turnout on Friday for elections in Iran to prove to the world their system of government is "representative of the people" and is a viable, sustainable form of theocracy despite the massive protests over the last year.
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​Iran observers speculate if the  "hard-liners associated with the IRGC and more directly controlled by Khamenei win more seats on Friday, they will also gain various advantages to replace Rouhani with a hard-liner in the 2021 contest for president, a position with wide influence over the country’s day-to-day affairs."  www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Iran-election-expected-to-heighten-tension-with-West-617995 

If this happens, it is possible that Iran will try cyber attacks again on the US and Saudi Arabia.  Potential targets include the financial sector, manufacturing, oil and gas plants and transit systems. Iranian hackers carried out a series of disruptive attacks that knocked US banks’ websites offline prior to the Obama administration’s 2015 nuclear deal.  According to some cyber security analysts, Iran has been probing US industrial systems in recent years — trying to gain access — for destructive attacks to targets in the Middle East including the Saudi oil company, Aramco.   www.reuters.com/article/us-saudi-aramco-attacks-iran-special-rep/special-reporttime-to-take-out-our-swords-inside-irans-plot-to-attack-saudi-arabia-idUSKBN1XZ16H     
​Some suspect there are Iranians and Iranian "sleeper cells"  in the USA, which are waiting to be "activated" to carry out attacks on American soil and against American allies such as Israel and the KSA. 
"What Iran is going to do is engage in asymmetrical warfare. I think they are going to start activating their sleeper cells in the United States and other countries like Saudi Arabia. We are going to start seeing attacks on easy targets in places like Iraq and activation of cells within the United States.”   usawatchdog.com/iranian-sleeper-cells-will-attack-america-kevin-shipp/

Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Hosseini Khamenei called for the expulsion of all US troops from the Middle East.   The next Iraqi prime minister will almost certainly be nominated by the Bina coalition. Amiri’s Fatih leads the al-Bina Coalition, which includes prominent Sunni entities as well as the State of Law Coalition led by Nouri al-Maliki, Sadr’s main adversary.  
Sadr is head of the Sairoon alliance, the largest bloc in the Iraqi  parliament. He has headed the Saraya al-Salam (Peace Brigades) militia, which is  part of Iranian backed Popular Mobilization Forces (PMF), known as Hashd al-Shaabi in Arabic, since 2014.  He, too-is vehemently calling for the withdrawal of all American troops and bases in Iraq.

"There may be a huge difference between Iraq expelling American troops and the United States withdrawing from Iraq. If the United States punishes Iraq in one way or another then it may make the choice between Iran and the United States as the preferred partner a foregone conclusion:  Iraq may not always be an American ally, but it will always be Iran’s neighbor."  warontherocks.com/2020/01/iraq-still-might-force-the-united-states-out/

Demonstrations in Tehran after the killing of Solemani and Muhandis in Iraq in January

The USA has told all US nationals to leave Iraq and issued the highest level travel warnings. Historically, nations order their nationals out of a nation when it is is known or expected that a war will erupt either with a particular nation, or that war is imminent inside a nation’s borders. 

"The fact that many Iraqis supported the elimination of Iran’s General Solemani leads to an obvious conclusion: Iraq is edging toward a civil war or a partition of its three main groups that can barely live in the same nation. It is clear the Shiite supporters of Iran mourned the loss of Solemani while it was surely the Sunni Iraqis who rejoiced at his passing. The third group, the northern Kurds, have remained relatively quiet about this event, but they are clearly not grieving the loss of Solemani.   The severe divide between the pro-Iranian Shiite Iraqis and the pro-American Sunni and Kurdish regions of Iraq is now so great that it is hard to imagine how these groups can stay together in one nation much longer. This region is descending into a cycle that can only lead to war at some point.
With such intense and irreconcilable factions present in the nation of Iraq, it is drifting toward civil war or, hopefully, a peaceful partition."  stevenmcollins.com/usa-and-iran-nearing-open-war/     The world will soon see which it will be.
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​Closing tonight from Kurdistan with a song which is appropo of my situation here as the tension increases  in Iraq and Iran.   The "Talking Heads" performed this song in many countries and it is titled:  "Life During Wartime" but they were running on stage and singing about the US of A.    www.youtube.com/watch?v=jShMQw2H2cM

Bioweapons are weapons of "war" of course, and soon most of our planet will be having to cope with the COVID/Corona virus as well.

Stay healthy!   Prior preparation for possible quarantine is prudent.  Don't delay...

Jo