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olitics
Tehran Ruler Threatens Genocide, Sustains a Cyber-Blow Israel and Iran Trade Increasingly Punitive Cyber Attacks on One Another’s Infrastructure by Joseph Braude As the first wave of the coronavirus outbreak appears to have crested, older patterns of conflict and foreign policy are re-asserting themselves. Iranian leader Khamene’i took the occasion of Qods Day to return to genocidal rhetoric. In so doing, he elicited harsh denunciation from Western capitals and an ominous warning against escalation from Jerusalem. Such an escalation appears to be well underway in cyberspace, with Israeli and Iranian militaries trading increasingly punitive attacks on one another’s infrastructure.
KHAMENE’I DRAWS CONDEMNATION AND WARNING On May 22, during Iran’s annual Qods Day — observed
virtually this year out of coronavirus concerns — Ayatollah Khamene’i declared that “the Zionist regime is a deadly, cancerous tumor in the region,” and added that “it will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed.” While this marked no notable departure from Tehran’s decades-old position, it succeeded in generating a chorus of opposition from Western capitals. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, “We sharply condemn what the Iranian leadership said,” and, in a gesture to Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s thenongoing visit to Germany, noted that “we are not in agreement on all questions, but we are friends, we are partners.” U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo swiftly condemned Khamene’i’s remarks, tweeting that “The United States condemns Supreme Leader Khamenei›s disgusting and hateful anti-Semitic remarks,” and
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