White House Releases Executive Order

White House Releases Executive Order

New Sanctions rolled out Monday in retaliation for downing a U.S. drone and aimed at the core of Iran’s leadership as Trump escalates his ‘maximum pressure’ campaign on Iran.

Executive Order:
Read President Trump’s order imposing sanctions on the $100 billion financial empire belonging to the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Iran’s supreme leader has a vast financial empire from the backs of the Iranian people far greater than the wealth accumulated by the late Shah of Iran.

Trump Sanctions

Iranian Leaders

The new sanctions that Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin announced will also target the assets of the senior military leaders responsible for threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz and the commander of Iran’s air force, who Mnuchin said was responsible for shooting down the American drone in international waters on Thursday.

Mnuchin said he will announce sanctions later this week against Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, one of Iran’s most public figures who served an instrumental role in crafting the 2015 nuclear agreement brokered by the Obama administration.

The White House decision follows Iran’s lashing out at existing, punishing sanctions – including against Qassem Soleimani, the shadowy head of Iran’s elite Quds Force – that have crippled the Iranian economy and choked off its ability to sell oil.

It also comes at a time of perceived military escalation between Iran and American assets in the region.

“There’s no question that locking up the money worked last time. And locking up the money works now,” Mnuchin said from the White House briefing room, shortly after meeting with Trump in the Oval Office.

Trump Releases Economic Vision for Mid East Peace Today in Bahrain!

Trump Releases Economic Vision for Mid East Peace Today in Bahrain!

Trump Economics for Peace

“Without a strong, vibrant economy, there can be no peace”

 We tell the Palestinian leadership: ‘Stop blaming the State of Israel for all your woes. Stop blaming the U.S. for all your woes.’ 

The $50 billion, Trump economic plan will be rolled out Tuesday and Wednesday, June 25-26 at the, “Peace to Prosperity,” Bahrain Peace Summit.

White House Releases Highlights of the Trump Economic Plan Ahead of Summit

Trump Peace Plan

Unveiled This Week

 
The historical event marks the first time an American peace proposal will be launched in an Arab State and for the first time, seven Arab nations have agreed to attend a Middle East Peace Summit:
  • Jordan
  • Egypt
  • Morocco
  • UAE
  • Saudi Arabia
  • Qatar
  • Bahrain

Unfortunately, two governments have said no to attending the summit:

  • The Palestinian Authority (PLO)
  • Lebanon (Controlled by Iranian proxy Hezbollah)

After 50 years of failed Israeli/Palestinian peace proposals, President Trump is thinking outside the box!

For starters, a $50 billion global investment fund, designed to lift the Palestinian and neighboring Arab economies will be launched at this week’s Bahrain Peace Summit, President Trump’s adviser Jared Kushner told Reuters on Saturday.

The investment fund covers 179 infrastructure and business projects, including a $5 billion transport corridor linking the West Bank and Gaza. Did you get that? 179 different projects to help the Palestinian people improve their economy and their way of life! In addition, there are plans for creating and building up the Palestinian tourist sector.

More than half of the $50 billion will be directly spent in the Palestinian territories over 10 years with the rest of the money split between Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and the Sinai Peninsula.

True to form, the Palestinians are bad-mouthing and boycotting the Bahrain summit and the Trump peace plan. They never seem to miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity!

Jared Kushner said some Palestinian business executives have confirmed their participation in the conference, but he declined to identify them.

The Trump administration hopes that other countries, principally wealthy Gulf states, and private investors, will foot much of the bill, Kushner told Reuters.

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US Military Moves Dangerously Close to Iran: Hot Line Established!

US Military Moves Dangerously Close to Iran: Hot Line Established!

U.S. Military Moves into Position Across the Persian Gulf from Iran

BREAKING: US-Iran Hot Line to Divert War

The map above shows the US Navy’s 5th Fleet HQ in Manama, Bahrain linked with a direct communication line to Bushehr, Iran the base of the Revolutionary Guards Navy HQ

Breaking News: Commander-in-Chief establishes channel of communications with the Iranians… “Let’s talk!”

A New U.S. – Iran Hot Line:

Direct Channel for Both

Miscommunication and Dialogue

President Trump gave Tehran prior notice ahead of the US attack on Iranian missile sites that was aborted last Thursday, June 20. The commander and chief warned the Iranians the US attack was “imminent,” but added he is against war and wants to talk.

Iranian officials replied that it was up to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to decide on this issue but they believe he is against any talks. The exchange stopped there.

DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources report exclusively that some of the messages the US and Iran exchanged shortly before and after the Iranian surface-to-air missile shot down a Navy drone over the Strait of Hormuz on Thursday did not go through any third party.

They were channeled directly through a new hot line established to create a direct link between the US Fifth Fleet in Manama, Bahrain and the Bushehr based Revolutionary Guards Navy HQ.

The main stumbling block in this communications process is there is no way of knowing for sure which messages actually reached the supreme leader. Washington channeled a second set of communications through Qatar both US and Iranian officials told reporters.

Hot lines especially in the Middle East are designed for emergency contacts between opposing powers to avert unintentional war. They are already maintained by the US and Russia, the US and Israel and Russia and Israel.

This mechanism works only when it suits both parties. When one of the sides is intent on concealing its actions from the other, the link goes silent.

This breakdown of communications through the new hot line was behind the complaint heard from Gen. Amir Hajizadeh, chief of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Aerospace Command: “Iran warned the US drone four times, and the drone would have transmitted the warnings to its central stations.

Unfortunately, when they failed to reply, and the aircraft made no change to its trajectory… we were obliged to shoot it down.”

That’s the Iranian side… the US insists the drone was shot down in an “unprovoked attack” in international airspace over the Strait of Hormuz.

It appears the actual decision by Trump is more complex and that he has gambled on diplomacy and sanctions while being wary of starting an unpredictable, new military interaction.

For now, President Trump gave the Iranians a pass… stay tuned!

Pentagon Takes Out Iranian Missile Computers!

Pentagon Takes Out Iranian Missile Computers!

Pentagon cyber-attacks took down Iranian computer networks last Thursday used to control Iran’s missile launches

US Struck Iranian

Military Computers

With an OK from the US president, the Pentagon launched cyber strikes that took down Iranian computer networks used to control missile launches, says a report in The Washington Post.

U.S. military cyber forces launched the strike against Iranian military computer systems on Thursday as President Trump backed away from plans for a more conventional military strike in response to Iran’s downing of a U.S. surveillance drone, U.S. officials said Saturday.

Two officials told The Associated Press that the strikes were conducted with approval from President Trump.

The cyberattacks — a contingency plan developed over weeks amid escalating tensions — specifically targeted and disabled Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps computer systems that controlled its rocket and missile launchers, officials said.

The IRGC, which was designated a foreign terrorist group recently and slapped with sanctions by the Trump administration, is a branch of the Iranian military.

 

Trump Increases

US Cyber Strategy

 

The action by U.S. Cyber Command was a demonstration of the U.S.’s increasingly mature cyber military capabilities and its more aggressive cyber strategy under the Trump administration.

Over the last year under the Trump Administration, U.S. officials have focused on persistently engaging with adversaries in cyberspace and undertaking more offensive operations.