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    JANUARY 20, 2015
    Iranian army commander: Israel must wait for 'devastating thunderbolts'
    Better days in Iran:Jihad Mughniyeh meets with Ayatollah Khamenei.
    After confirming one of its generals was among those killed in the airstrike in the Syrian Golan on Sunday, Iran has aimed a direct threat at Israel on Tuesday.
    Mohammad Ali Jafari, the commander of the Army of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution (IRGC) said on Tuesday that Israel "must wait for devastating thunderbolts."
     This, he said, will be "a new beginning point for the imminent collapse of the Zionist Regime."
    Meanwhile, Iranian Defense Minister Hossein Dehqan said Tuesday in a meeting with his Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu that "the terrorist act by the Zionist regime in the Golan Heights was the continuation of the regime's crimes in Palestine, Syria, Iraq and Lebanon and their open support for Takfiri terrorists.”
     
    JANUARY 20, 2015
    Russia and Iran sign deal to widen military cooperation
    A Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missile system on display at an undisclosed location in Russia (photo credit: AP)
    Russia and Iran have signed an agreement to expand their military ties and resolve a long-standing dispute over the sale of a controversial air defense system to the Islamic Republic
    In remarks carried by Russian news agencies, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said in Tehran Tuesday that the new agreement includes expanded counter-terrorism cooperation, exchanges of military personnel for training purposes and an understanding for each country’s navy to more frequently use the other’s ports.
    The deal provides for joint exercises and military training, as well as “cooperation in peacekeeping, maintaining regional and international security and stability, and fighting against separatism and extremism,” the Iranian Defense Ministry website said.
    Russia has long been Iran’s principal foreign arms supplier but their ties took a major hit in 2010 when Moscow canceled a contract to deliver advanced S-300 ground to air missiles, citing UN sanctions imposed over Tehran’s nuclear program.
    JANUARY 19, 2015
    Thousands turn out for funeral of Hezbollah commander killed on Israel-Syria border
    Rose buds are thrown over Lebanon's Hezbollah members and supporters while they carry the coffin of Jihad Moughniyah during his funeral in Beirut's suburbs January 19, 2015. Photo by Reuters
    Hezbollah supporters turned out in force on Monday to bury the son of the group's late commander, one of six of the movement's fighters who died in an air strike on the Israel-Syria border, and in which six Iranian military men including a general were also killed.
    The killings raised the possibility of a retaliatory attack, with a senior Iranian official suggesting that Israel would be hit at "the right time and right place". An Israeli defense official said escalation was possible.
    Jihad Mughniyeh was buried in Beirut alongside his father Imad Mughniyeh, who was assassinated in Damascus in 2008.
    Though it was unclear what role Mughniyeh, who was in his mid-20s, played in Hezbollah, his death represented a symbolic blow to the Shi'ite Islamist group that his father helped to found with Iranian backing in the early 1980s.
    It was the biggest Hezbollah funeral since Imad Mughniyeh's own burial, underscoring Jihad's significance to the movement.
    JANUARY 19, 2015
    Mike Huckabee on why John Kerry's diplomacy is embarrassing
    JANUARY 19, 2015
    Iran confirms general killed in Syria strike attributed to Israel
    Iran's Revolutionary Guard confirmed Monday afternoon that Iranian General Mohammed Ali Allah Dadi was killed in Sunday's attack at Quneitra, which has been widely attributed to Israel.
    At the same time, a source close to Hezbollah told the French news agency AFP that the attack on Syrian soil killed six Iranian military personnel, in addition to the six Hezbollah activists whose deaths were reported Sunday night. This brings the total death toll in the attack to 12.
    A Hezbollah statement on Sunday named the six killed in the attack as Jihad Mughniyeh, 25; Mohammed Issa, 43 (the only one ranked as commander); Abbas Ibrahim Hijazi, 36; Mohammed Ali Hassan Abu Al-Hassan, 30; Razi Ali Dawi, 27; and Ali Hassan Ibrahim, 22.
    JANUARY 19, 2015
    Hezbollah will respond to attack, but not by opening a front in the Golan
    Jihad Mughniyeh with his Iranian patron, Qasem Soleimani.
    Analysis: The IDF has raised the alert on the Syrian border, but Nasrallah's response to the assassination of some of his senior commanders might lead to attacks against Israeli targets outside of Israel's borders. Hezbollah's massive arsenal of missiles and rockets will stay in the organization's bunkers until the day Israel strikes Iran's nuclear facilities.
    The sons of Imad Mughniyeh – first Mustafa, then the younger Jihad – graduated to the top of Hezbollah’s military arm shortly after their fathers’ s assassination in February 2008. It is unclear what Mustafa Mughniyeh's role was in Hezbollah's leadership or what he is currently doing. But in 2011, he was the target of an assassination attempt in the Dahieh district of Beirut.
    Jihad, Mughniyeh's younger son, also distinguished himself shortly after his father's assassination, but he was too young to take part in actual military operations. However, he was sent to Iran to meet with the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ extraterritorial arm, and three months ago he was even appointed a relatively senior field position: Lebanese newspaper Al Akhbar, a usually reliable source, announced that he was appointed holder of the Golan portfolio in Hezbollah.