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U.S. | I'm a Death Row Pastor. They're Just Ordinary Folks

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In the early 1970s I was a North Carolinian, white boy from the South attending Union Theological Seminary in New York City, and working in East Harlem as part of a program. In my senior year, I visited men at the Bronx House of Detention. I had never been in a prison or jail, but people in East Harlem were dealing with these places and the police all the time. This experience truly turned my life around.

Iran executes four ‘Israeli saboteurs’ after top IRGC general is killed by IDF strike

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Iran and its proxy groups in the Middle East pose a serious threat to the West

IRAN has executed four “saboteurs” linked to Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, the Mizan news agency affiliated to the judiciary said.

The killings could be seen as a possible revenge move after Senior Iranian general Sayyed Razi Mousavi was killed on Christmas Day in Syria.

"Four members of a sabotage team associated with the Zionist regime ... were executed this morning following legal procedures," the news agency said, accusing them of "extensive" actions, guided by Mossad officers, targeting Iran's security.

The executions in West Azerbaijan province on Friday came after Iran executed a fifth accused Mossad agent in the southeastern region of Sistan-Baluchestan in mid-December.

The four executed on Friday were identified as Vafa Hanareh, Aram Omari, Rahman Parhazo, and Nasim Namazi by the semi-official Tasnim news agency.

They were the main prisoners in a case involving ten defendants, it noted, but it was unclear if the others would also face the death penalty, Reuters reports.

Iran - known for its brutal execution tactics - has previously announced the arrests and executions of alleged agents working for foreign countries, including Israel.

Tehran frequently claims to foil Mossad operations in the country, but the veracity of such claims is unclear, The Times of Israel reports.

It comes after a senior Iranian general was allegedly killed by an Israeli airstrike in Syria.

Tehran has since vowed to seek revenge, swearing that Israel "will certainly pay for this crime".

General Razi Mousavi, a high-ranking official in Iran's Revolutionary Guard, was killed on Christmas Day according to state media reports.

Iran's Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian wrote on X/Twitter that “Tel Aviv faces a tough countdown", following his death.

An Iranian official told state TV that he was working in the embassy in Damascus, Syria's capital and was struck by an Israeli missile while heading home from work.

Thousands of Iranians gathered on the streets on Thursday after the top Iranian general was killed.

Mourners chanted: "No compromise! No surrender! Battle with America!

Slogans like "Death to America, Death to Israel" were chanted as many waved yellow flags with the message "I am your [Israel's] opponent".

A US Republican official has since called for a massive attack on Iran, urging Biden administration to blow the country "off the map".

Amid rising tensions in the Middle East, Senator Lindsey Graham told Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin not to show "weakness" after Iran-backed militias attacked US troops in the region.

The killing of Iran's top military general comes amid the ongoing fears of the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza broadening into a major Middle-Eastern conflict.

Iran's proxy war groups including the Houthi rebels in Lebanon as well as those in Syria and Iraq have joined Hamas in attacking Israel.

In recent weeks daily strikes from land and air have escalated between Hezbollah and Israel along its border with Lebanon.

Houthi rebels have also attacked countless ships linked to Israel or its allies the UK and US to disrupt trade, even hijacking one entirely with an armed ambush onboard.

Houthi attacks on commercial shipping and US Navy vessels in the Red Sea can "threaten the global economy, endangering the vital Suez Canal trade route," wrote John Bolton for The Telegraph.

US president Joe Biden announced plans to directly intervene in the rebels' ocean attacks after it vowed to continue striking cargo ships in one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.

Just days ago the leader of the Houthi rebels swore to target American warships if Biden ordered any strikes against them.

Iran also claimed that Hamas's October 7 attacks were in revenge for a 2020 assassination of a top Iranian general.

IRGC spokesman Ramazan Sharif branded the US strike that killed Qasem Soleimani a "terrorist act" - but Hamas denies it was their motivator for their massacres in Israel.

The military commander was blown up by a US drone in a strike ordered by former President Donald Trump.

It provoked a furious response from Iran who called on the UN's Security Council to take formal action against both the US and Israel - which it also accused of assisting in the assassination hit.

But Commander Sharif has now backtracked and claimed his comments about the October 7 attacks being in "revenge" for the assassination of Soleimani were "misunderstood".

Hamas has also denied the claim and reiterated the massacres were related to "the dangers threatening the Al-Aqsa Mosque", referring to the key Islamic site on the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem.

Source: the-sun.com, Juliana Cruz Lima, December 29, 2023


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Location: Iran
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