⁠This #InternationalWomensDay we honor the women who have heroically resisted capitalism, imperialism, fascism & colonialism and sacrificed their lives to fight for a better and just world.

From Cuba to Vietnam, from Palestine to the Philippines and all over the world. #IWD2021

Clockwise above:
Cuba, Chiapas, Kurdistan, Soviet Union

Clockwise below:
Spain, Vietnam, United States, India

Clockwise:
Vietnam, Nicaragua, Palestine, Philippines

Clockwise:
Eritrea, Nicaragua, Cuba, Vietnam

Clockwise: Yugoslavia, El Salvador, Italy, Soviet Union

A quick thread on the Tondar 69, a missile that is often forgotten but played an important role in Iranian missile development.

Like so much of Iran's missile program, the history of the Tondar 69 goes back to the Iran-Iraq war when the Iranians were seeking ballistic missiles from a variety of sources. Among them were the Soviet Union and Syria, both of which rebuffed their requests for Scuds.

Libya and the DPRK proved more cooperative but there was also a third country willing to sell ballistic missiles to Tehran – China. For reasons of secrecy, negotiations with the Chinese were held in Thailand and on the Iranian side they included both Moghaddam and Vahid Dastjerdi

At first, the Iranians wanted a missile with a range of 300km but were surprised to learn that despite having ICBMs, the Chinese had no such system. Chinese officials told them to look at a map of China to see why. They simply had no need for such ranges.

However, there was one missile they could offer: the B610 (CSS-8), a ground-to ground version of the HQ-2 surface-to-air-missile which itself was a Chinese copy of the Soviet SA-2. Originally, the missile had a range of merely 125km.

13 years ago, Imad Mughnieh was unlawfully assassinated in #Damascus. Both the CIA and the Mossad claimed credit. Haj Imad managed to survive for 25 years away from his killers (incl some Arab States) and transformed #Hezbollah to another level of deterrence against #Israel.+

He introduced changes within #Hezbollah structure and was known to be fair with all militants. He has created an innovation sector within Hezbollah and handsomely paid for any qualified person to materialise new ideas related to science, health and military fields.+

During the last year, around 2006-2007, Haj Imad became more visible domestically and regionally. He was the one meeting political and military leaders, including allies and his name became more known as the "assistant of the Jihadi council Leader (Sayyed Nasrallah) +

#Hezbollah has lost an important leader and a very close friend and companion to Sayyed Nasrallah. However, Hezbollah moved from domestic to regional power, operating in #Lebanon to defend the country from #Israel's intentions and imposed deterrence that Israel has lost. +

#Hezbollah moved to #Syria to the request of the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad & to #Iraq when Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki asked the help of Hezbollah against #ISIS and to #Yemen to the request of Sanaa' government to stand against a very large coalition led by US and Saudi.