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Iranian Subversion in Bahrain: The United States designates the Saraya al-Mukhtar as a Bahraini terrorist organization handled by Iran

On December 15, 2020, the American State Department announced it was designating the Bahraini terrorist organization Saraya al-Mukhtar as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist organization. According to the announcement, the organization receives "financial and logistic support" from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps. The organization's "self-described goal is to depose the Bahraini government with the intention of paving the way for Iran to exert greater influence in Bahrain" (State Department website, December 15, 2020).
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More countries have recently declared all of Hezbollah a terrorist organization but some EU countries still refrain from doing so.

On March 1, 2019, Britain designated all of Hezbollah (i.e., both its military and political infrastructures) as a terrorist organization. Thus, Britain joined Israel, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands. In the wake of Britain, a new wave of similar declarations began, with American encouragement, from European and Latin American countries.
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Shooting attack carried out by an ISIS supporter in Vienna (initial overview)

On the evening of November 2, 2020, a shooting attack was carried out against passersby in the Vienna city center by a young ISIS supporter. Four people were killed and over 20 were wounded. ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack. In the ITIC's assessment, this was not an ISIS, preplanned and orchestrated attack, but a local initiative. However, the perpetrator may have had accomplices in Austria or even outside the country.
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (October 29- November 4, 2020)

The main event of the week was a shooting attack in the Vienna city center, carried out by a young ISIS supporter of Albanian descent who grew up in Austria. In addition, two terrorist attacks were carried out in France this week, as part of the wave of jihadi terrorism following the beheading of a history teacher. Concurrently with the wave of jihadi terrorist attacks, ISIS is conducting a media campaign calling its supporters to carry out terrorist attacks against Western countries in general and France in particular. As part of this campaign, ISIS supporters were called on to carry out attacks in every possible way: using bombs, knives, bullets, vehicles “and even kicking or punching.”
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Law, politics and Terrorism: Special Tribunal for Lebanon for the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri – the verdict and its weaknesses

On February 14, 2005, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated by a truck bomb detonated near his convoy on the Beirut promenade. The blast left 22 people dead and more than 200 wounded. Blame was directed at the Assad regime (which was in control of Lebanon at the time) and Hezbollah, its political ally, both of which had a clear interest in eliminating Hariri, a prominent opponent of the “Syrian order” in Lebanon and of Hezbollah. Hariri’s assassination led to political turmoil in Lebanon.
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Spotlight on Global Jihad (July 23-29, 2020)

The ceasefire is being maintained in the Idlib region of northern Syria, but there has been an increase in the intensity of the incidents between the Syrian army and the rebel organizations. On July 22, 2020, ISIS launched a synchronized wave of attacks known as the Raids of Attrition, (which has not yet ended). The most notable was a large-scale combined attack in the northern Sinai Peninsula, near the village of Rabi’a, west of Bir al-Abd (near the coastal highway, about 30 km from the Suez Canal). Another notable attack carried out as part of the Raids of Attrition was the killing of a senior Syrian Military Security operative in Daraa by an ISIS suicide bomber.
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