Ayatollah Ali Khamenei
Ayatollah Ali KhameneiReuters

Last Friday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei held a very rare sermon after the obligatory Friday prayers.

The move was clearly related to the assassination of Qassem Soleimani the commander of the Quds Force of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) by the US Army on January 3rd.

The IRGC can take the fight against Iran’s arch enemies Israel and the United States beyond its borders said Khamenei who continued by saying that “resistance must continue until the region is completely freed from the enemy’s tyranny.”

The Iranian leader called the Iranian response to Soleimani’s assassination - Iran launched about 21 cruise missiles at two US bases in Iraq on January 8th - a “slap” that showed “the hand of God.”

Khamenei also labeled the Quds Force “a humanitarian organization with human values that protects people across the region.”

As we will see, the head of the octopus may have been cut off as the Americans put, it but the tentacles of the Quds Force still try to hurt the Western world.

This week, three Katusha rockets were launched at the American embassy in Baghdad’s Green Zone in Iraq.

The missiles didn’t cause any damage or casualties but the message was clear: Iran is still responding to Soleimani’s assassination.

Then there is Afghanistan where Iran is now trying to turn the Taliban into another proxy army against the US.

Taliban operatives are in the Iranian city of Mashad and intercepted communication between these Taliban members and their counterparts in Afghanistan revealed that there is a form of operational cooperation between the Taliban and Iran.

Experts warn that this cooperation aims to generate a new escalation in the war-torn country and also aims to undermine the effort to come to an agreement that would solve the current stand-off.

“Should Afghanistan become the venue for a U.S.-Iranian conflict, it’s hard to imagine then that it would be possible for the U.S. to withdraw forces, which would essentially make it very difficult to consider any kind of peace arrangement with the Taliban,” Richard Olson the former US envoy for Pakistan and Afghanistan said.

In short, Iran is trying to fan the flames in Afghanistan in the hope that US forces can become cannon fodder.

Iran could also try to assassinate a high-ranking US official experts warn.

An Iranian lawmaker indeed said this week that US President Donald Trump has already a $3 million bounty on his head but the White House laughed it off.

“On behalf of people of Kerman province, we will pay 3 million dollars award in cash to whoever kills Trump,” Iranian MP Ahmad Hamzeh told the Iranian parliament (Majlis).

It remained unclear whether Hamzeh was talking about his own initiative or that of the regime.

Israel also witnessed a sudden uptick in Palestinian terror attacks which were clearly inspired by Hamas’ call to start a new uprising over alleged Israeli crimes against the el-Aqsa mosque.

Hamas calls the new terror wave “the Great Fajr” after the pre-dawn prayer Fajr and called upon the Palestinian Arabs to flood the Muslim holy places in Hebron where the Jewish patriarchs are buried in the Ma’arat Machpela (Cave of the Patriarchs) and in Jerusalem (al-Aksa mosque).

The timing of the new terror wave, as Hamas was discussing a long-term truce with Israel and expressed a desire to keep the calm that existed before four rockets were launched at Israel last Wednesday, suggests that the new commander of the Quds Force Esmail Qaani had something to do with it.

The Sunni Islamist terror group that sent a delegation to Tehran to participate in the mourning for Soleimani also made clear that nothing has changed since the assassination of the Quds Force commander and that Hamas is still receiving financial and military aid from Iran.

Newsweek, furthermore, reported that the US military in Germany had received intelligence indicating a terrorist was about to carry out an attack against US soldiers who are still stationed in the country.

"Third-party information stating there was a (sic) possible imminent attack against U.S. Soldiers located at either Tower Barracks in Grafenwohr or Tower Barracks, Dulmen, exact location, date and time unknown," the magazine reported.

Arutz Sheva was able to obtain more information about this imminent attack from sources who wished to remain anonymous.

The would-be terrorist is a Jordanian citizen residing in Sweden where he spends his time writing inciting posts against the US and Israel on social media.

The man, Alaa Alfaaza, wrote an inciting post 9 days prior to his arrival in Germany where he stayed near the US base Dulmen near Coesfeld reported by Newsweek.

In the tweet, Alfaaza wrote that he felt sorry no US soldiers were killed in the Iranian missile strikes on Jan.8 and wished the Iranian announcement that 80 US soldiers had died in these strikes had been true.

In another tweet, the Jordanian praised the Iranians for attacking US bases in Iraq and expressed regret that Arabs didn’t do the same.

“Despite my previous expectations, a part of me envies the Iranians, at the end of the day, they will go to bed with the memories of videos documenting that their (Iranian) forces have hit the bases of the mightiest power of the world, and their army has retaliated even if symbolically, I feel sad for us Arabs (now),” Alfaaza wrote.

Alfaaza is a member of the fanatical anti-American and anti-Israeli platform Expatriate Jordanian Forum and endorses introducing Sharia law.

He is now reportedly in German custody.

This all makes clear that the Iranians are trying to make good on their promise after the Jan. 8 attacks that the response to Soleimani’s assassination had yet to come.