By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 16 April 2024
The West Needs a Strategy to Counter Iran’s “Ring of Fire”
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Tag Archives: wilayat al-faqih
Iran Admits Responsibility for the 1983 Marine Barracks Bombing in Beirut
Britain’s Latest Surrender to its Unspoken Islamic Blasphemy Law
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 13 June 2022
Muslim protesters outside the Cineworld in Birmingham demand ‘The Lady of Heaven’ film is banned, 5 June 2022 [image source]
Islamic State Announces the “Harvest of the Good” Campaign
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 17 March 2021
Abu Umar al-Baghdadi, the implied caliph of the Islamic State movement between 2006 and 2010, gave his sixteenth speech on 17 March 2009. The title of the speech was, “Harvest of the Good (The Gathering Will Be Defeated, and They Will Turn Their Backs and Flee)”.[1]
Israel is Losing Ground to the Iran-Russia Axis
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 18 April 2019
Israeli opinion generally regards the country’s efforts to contain Iran, especially in Syria, as having been successful. In fact, the trendline runs the other way: Iran is constraining Israel, entrenching all around the Jewish state. Continue reading
Iran Raises the Stature of One of Its Shi’a Jihadist Militias: Harakat Hizballah al-Nujaba
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 22 September 2017
Logo of Harakat Hizballah al-Nujaba
Reuters has published a profile of Harakat Hizballah al-Nujaba (HHN), sometimes simply called Harakat al-Nujaba, a Shi’a militia made up of Iraqi citizens that is loyal to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamene’i and the revolutionary theocracy’s ideology of absolute wilayat al-faqih (guardianship of the jurist). HHN, which first emerged in the summer of 2013, is one of a web of overlapping Shi’a jihadist groups recruited from Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and beyond—as far afield as the Ivory Coast—that have been used to spearhead Tehran’s imperial push into the Arab world, particularly the rescue of Bashar al-Asad’s regime in Syria that would otherwise have fallen to a popular rebellion. In recent months, Iran has been raising the profile of HHN. Continue reading
How Powerful is the Islamic State in Saudi Arabia?
Originally posted at The Henry Jackson Society
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 27 April 2017
The U.S. Department of State designated Mubarak Mohammed Alotaibi, also transliterated as Mubarak Muhammad al-Utaybi, as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT), because he has “committed, or pose[s] a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism that threaten the security of U.S. nationals or the national security, foreign policy, or economy of the United States.” Al-Utaybi is a citizen of Saudi Arabia and is the “Syria-based deputy leader” of the Islamic State’s (IS) branch in the Saudi Kingdom. Continue reading
America Pushes Back Against Iranian Subversion on the Gulf
Originally posted at The Henry Jackson Society
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on 17 March 2017
Protesters march through Manama, Bahrain in March 2011 (Photo from Al-Jazeera)
The U.S. State Department today imposed sanctions on two men, Ahmad Hasan Yusuf (Abu Maryam, Sajjad Hassan Nasir al-Zubaydi) and Alsayed Murtadha Majeed Ramadhan Alawi (Murtadha Majeed Ramadan al-Sindi), labelling them Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGT). Both men are members of a group, Saraya al-Ashtar or al-Ashtar Brigades (AAB) that has conducted terrorism in Bahrain and is part of the Iranian revolution’s long reach in the region. Continue reading
Does Iran Support The Islamic State?
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on May 26, 2015
Qassem Suleimani, Iran’s spymaster, believed in some Mid-East conspiracy theories to control ISIS
In 2010, Farzad Farhangian, an Iranian diplomat based in Belgium, defected to Norway. Farhangian has now emerged with the extraordinary accusation that the Islamic Republic of Iran is controlling the Islamic State (ISIS) and using it as part of Tehran’s war against the Gulf States, especially Saudi Arabia. Farhangian’s accusations are lurid and (literally) incredible, but the question of Iran’s role in ISIS’ creation and growth, and Iran’s manipulation of ISIS to further its own ends, is one well worth asking. Continue reading
Shi’a Holy War and Iran’s Jihadist Empire
By Kyle Orton (@KyleWOrton) on February 12, 2015
In watching the Syrian conflict, one of the most extraordinary tendencies of the reporting is the way “foreign fighter” and “jihadist” have become synonymous with the Sunni militants who have descended on that tormented country. This is one among many illusions that will hopefully be ended by Phillip Smyth’s monograph, “The Shiite Jihad in Syria and its Regional Effects“. You should read the whole thing but below are the salient points I took away. Continue reading
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