Just as the Chinese are prodding Taiwanese air defenses, the Iranians are stepping up their game as well. They know we cannot project power the way we used to and the Ukrainian War is our focus. Various officials and publications here and in the region report on the matter and comment further on the Iran nuclear deal.

WSJ: “The Biden administration’s hell-bent pursuit of a new nuclear deal with Iran grows harder to understand with each provocation from Tehran. The latest came Sunday in a missile attack near a U.S. consulate under construction in northern Iraq.

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Iran typically commits mayhem through proxy militias, but this time Tehran took credit. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the regime’s paramilitary group, said it carried out a missile attack on what it claimed were Israeli targets inside Iraq. The group said it was in response to an Israeli airstrike in Syria last week that killed two IRGC commanders.

Notably, however, the missiles landed in Kurdish territory in northern Iraq. The Kurds are America’s best allies in that country. No one was killed but at least two individuals were injured. It’s likely the IRGC wants to send a message about the vulnerability of U.S. interests and allies in the region as the two sides close in on a renewed nuclear deal.

The deal would hand Iran tens of billions of dollars in money and investment. Iran also wants the U.S. to remove the IRGC from its list of terrorist groups as part of the deal. Iran knows the U.S. is preoccupied at the moment with Ukraine and Russian aggression.”

Haaretz: “Iran’s Revolutionary Guards released later on Sunday a statement taking responsibility for missile attacks against Israeli ‘strategic centers’ in Erbil, state media reported.

‘Any repetition of attacks by Israel will be met with a harsh, decisive and destructive response,’ the statement added. Israel killed two Iranian members of the Revolutionary Guards earlier this week in Syria.

Hezbollah-affiliated Al Mayadeen news outlet, however, cited Iranian sources as saying that the attack was not related to Israel’s alleged killing of two Iranian Revolutionary Guard members in Syria last week, but rather to other Israeli operations against Iranian targets.

The report said that the ballistic missiles were fired at Mossad headquarters in Erbil, alleging that four Israeli officers were killed and seven wounded in the attack. It also mentioned that Iranian intelligence agents took down an Israeli spy ring operating in the country in an attempt to recruit local agents.”

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“Iran had carried out attacks against American targets and did not shy away from publicizing this,” said Hamidreza Azizi, a Visiting Fellow at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “I see this more as a warning sign to Israel and a show of force in the negotiations.”

Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi tweeted: “The aggression which targeted the dear city of Erbil and spread fear amongst its inhabitants is an attack on the security of our people.”

Masrour Barzani, prime minister of the semi-autonomous Kurdish-controlled region, condemned the attack. He said Erbil “will not bow to the cowards who carried out the terrorist attack.”