Tel Aviv. Israel has warned the US that Iran’s proxies in Saudi Arabia may act against American targets in the kingdom in the near future. This is in response to the recently signed peace agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain. Tehran sees Washington being behind those agreements and behind another planned agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Saudi Arabia announced on September 23 that it has uncovered a terrorist cell whose operatives were trained by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards. A spokesman for the kingdom said 10 activists have been arrested, three of whom were trained in Iran and the others had links in one way or another to them. Weapons and explosives were also recovered from them.
He added that the operatives have been trained in Iran in 2017. The training included instructions for the preparation of explosive devices, and individual training in the use of weapons.
The Saudis earlier this week showcased the large amount of equipment seized from the possession of the detainees in the cell to prove that it is a well-organized and well-trained cell with a serious body behind it and not a local organization. By the way, there are rumors throughout the network that intelligence information about the activities of the squad members was passed on to Saudi intelligence by the Israeli Mossad.
Lt. Col. (Res.) Michael Segal, a former commander in one of the IDF intelligence units and now a researcher in the Jerusalem center for political studies told Raksha Anirveda that Bahrain also announced that it had thwarted an attempted attack on a diplomatic delegation in the kingdom by a cell whose members had been trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.
The Bahraini newspaper Ahab al-Khalij reported that a recently formed organization, Qassem Suleimani Brigades, had planned to carry out attacks against security forces and public buildings in the kingdom.
“Iranian explosive devices found in Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Bahrain are all from one source – Iran,” Segal said
The experts added that an initial analysis of the captured explosive devices and their photos shows that similar operating systems linked to Iran have been documented in both Yemen and Bahrain and in the past in a slightly different configuration in Iraq as well.
It should be noted that explosives similar to those seized by the Saudis in the current exposure are also increasingly used by the Houthis in Yemen and some of them may have been smuggled from Yemen to Saudi Arabia in recent years, as the Houthis sometimes conduct subversive military activity within Saudi territory
According to the Israeli expert the Iranians are infuriated by the Israeli intelligence presence on the Socotra Island.
As reported by the international media the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel are working silently to establish an intelligence base on the Yemeni island of Socotra. This is according to J Forum, the official site of the Jewish and French-speaking community, According to the report, the two countries, which normalised relations earlier last month, have already undertaken steps to install a secret station on Socotra, which is strategically located in the Arabian Sea some 350 kilometers (217 miles) south of Yemen and currently under the control of the Emirates.
The JForum report said a delegation of Israeli and Emirati intelligence officers recently visited Socotra and examined various locations for establishing the planned intelligence base. The purpose of such a spy station would be to collect intelligence across the region, particularly from the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a sea route chokepoint between the Horn of Africa and the south of Yemen, along with the Gulf of Aden and the West Asia.
The report alleged that Israeli intelligence center would monitor the actions of Houthi militants in Yemen and Iranian naval movements in the region, as well as examine sea and air traffic in the southern part of the Red Sea.
According to Segal only recently an Iranian military spokesman admitted that Iran provides the Houthi rebels in Yemen with “defensive technology” and that they are assimilating and producing it themselves and “with great talent: missiles, drones and other weapons systems, including electronic warfare systems.” He denied that Iran was sending missiles to Houthi “we are only passing on experience and knowledge
Segal told Raksha Anirveda that it is possible that Iran, through the Shiite organizations operating in Saudi Arabia, including Hezbollah-al-Hajjaz, will also want revenge in the United States, where it sees Saudi Arabia responsible for the peace agreements between Israel and the Gulf states. In this context, American interests and military bases in Saudi Arabia may be the target of Iranian showcase attacks, through Hezbollah-Hajjaz, in order to “kill two birds with one stone”.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist
