Even with a Deal, the Mullahs Will Pursue Nukes

The argument that negotiating and reaching a nuclear deal with the mullahs of Iran will curb their nuclear ambitions and prevent the Iranian regime from obtaining nuclear weapons is, sadly, a dangerous fantasy.

The nuclear deal has sunset clauses that soon remove restrictions on Iran’s nuclear program after the deal expires. In short, the nuclear deal, rather than preventing Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, as it was falsely touted to do, in fact paves the way for Tehran to become a legitimized nuclear state after it concludes.

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How Hamas’ Assault Serves as Iran’s Testing Ground

Hamas’s war effort against Israel is of importance to Iran as a testing ground for a certain strategic hypothesis. As [Hamas representative in Tehran Khaled] Qaddoumi put it, the movement this time “applied a strategic shift in the concept of resistance, from defending Gaza against Israeli attacks to defending all Palestinians living in historic Palestine.”

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Biden’s Iran Deal Will Weaken U.S. National Security

For weeks, the Biden administration and the Iranian regime have been sequestered at a posh hotel in Vienna, negotiating the terms of their mutual return to compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA). After four rounds of negotiations, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani was quoted proclaiming that “almost all the main sanctions have been removed.” If that’s true, then it would be epic negotiating malpractice and, worse, an indefensible surrender of U.S. national security by  President Joe Biden’s lead negotiator Rob Malley to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

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Blast at Iranian drone factory days after Israel’s Hamas accusation

A factory that makes Iranian drones has suffered a major explosion days after Israel had claimed that Iran was providing drones to Hamas in Gaza.

The blast at the weekend injured at least nine workers at the petrochemical factory in Isfahan. The Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (Hesa), which produces a variety of aircraft and drones for Iranian and pro-Iranian forces, is located in the complex owned by Sepahan Nargostar Chemical Industries.

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Iran condemns Ontario court’s ruling that destruction of Flight PS752 was a terrorist act

Iran condemns Ontario court’s ruling that destruction of Flight PS752 was a terrorist act

Iran’s foreign ministry has denounced as “shameful” an Ontario Superior Court of Justice ruling that found Iran intentionally shot down Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in an act of terrorism.

The judge issued the judgment Thursday against Iran in a civil lawsuit filed by four families who lost loved ones in the destruction of the plane shortly after takeoff in Tehran on Jan. 8, 2020.

In a statement issued today, ministry spokesperson Saeed Khatibzadeh said the court’s decision lacked legitimate evidence.

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Is the worst yet to come in the Middle East?

Is the worst yet to come in the Middle East?

Almost the entire Israeli military and political establishment see an Iranian bomb as a flying holocaust

We can’t say yet if the latest fighting between Israel and Hamas is the start of ‘the big one’, a new Palestinian intifada, or uprising. That possibility was raised by the grandest of Middle East commentators, Thomas Friedman, in the New York Times. Friedman is sometimes mocked for his prognostications. A ‘Friedman’ is defined as six months because of his repeated statements that the ‘next six months’ would be critical for the US in Iraq, the light at the end of the tunnel visible only then. He also praised the ‘new ideas’ of Saudi Arabia’s ruler, Mohammed bin Salman, before it turned out that one of those new ideas was to dismember his critics with a bonesaw. Perhaps there will be another intifada, though as I write events are not moving that way. We should worry more about what the conflict between Israel and Hamas tells us about the real ‘big one’: war between Israel and Iran.

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Victim families, others urge Liberal government to act on ruling that Iran intentionally shot down airliner

Victims’ families, an opposition critic and an academic expert all implored the federal government Friday to seize on Ontario court ruling that concluded Iran intentionally shot down an airliner full of Canadians in an act of terrorism.

The decision in a lawsuit filed against the Islamic Republic on behalf of some relatives has no direct bearing on government affairs.

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Iran’s downing of Flight 752 was act of terrorism, Ontario court rules

The downing of Flight 752 by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards was a deliberate act of terrorism, the Ontario Superior Court has ruled in a decision released on Thursday.

Justice Edward Belobaba found “on a balance of probabilities that the missile attacks on Flight 752 were intentional.”

“The plaintiffs have established that the shooting down of Flight 752 by the defendants was an act of terrorism and constitutes ‘terrorist activity,’” the judge added.

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Israel shot down armed Iranian drone – Netanyahu

The drone Israel shot down near the border with Jordan on Tuesday was Iranian, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

“While we were busy fighting, a few days ago, Iran sent an armed drone into Israel from Iraq or Syria,” Netanyahu told German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who was in Jerusalem. “Iranian forces launched an armed drone, which our forces shot down at the border between Israel and Jordan.

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As Iran’s Mullahs Incite Hamas Terrorism, Biden Administration Wants Sanctions Lifted

Amidst the Iranian regime’s clear role in inciting terrorism against Israeli civilians, talks to lift sanctions against the regime are advancing in Vienna. The Biden administration is apparently offering even more concessions and sanctions relief to Iran’s leaders, concessions that “go beyond the nuclear-specific sanctions.”

Meanwhile, these leaders from Iran are openly encouraging Hamas to launch more rockets at a longtime US ally in the Middle East, Israel. Additionally, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Esmail Ghaani, in a phone call with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, recently applauded Hamas for its attacks.

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With Iranian support, drones are becoming a larger threat to Israel -analysis

An incident on Tuesday where a UAV was shot down in northern Israel after it approached the Israeli border represents a growing drone threat to Israel. An Iranian drone flown from Syria’s T-4 base in February 2018 also penetrated the same area carrying explosives. Israel shot down the Iranian UAV with an Apache helicopter near Beit She’an.

Israel has had to contend with growing drone threats during this war in Gaza as well. By Monday, at least six drones had been shot down. Israel used Iron Dome for the first time in combat to take down at least one of the drones. An F-16 shot another down.

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How Hamas became so deadly

Funded and equipped by Iran, it could overwhelm Israel’s Iron Dome

Gaza in spring is vertiginous. Half-bombed tower blocks dot the cityscape like broken Lego; satellite dishes cluster on roofs; the streets are thick with people. They drive cars and motorbikes and scooters. They ride horses and, occasionally, carts pulled by donkeys. They walk, talk and gesticulate; they smoke furiously.

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Biden and Iran: Temptation to Save the Zombie

Judging by what Iranian and US diplomats involved in the current talks to revive the moribund “nuclear deal” say, the widow of opportunity opened by Joe Biden’s victory in last year’s presidential election is likely to shut within the next few weeks.

The Iranian side claims that only an agreement reached while President Hassan Rouhani’s team is still in charge, at least nominally, would have a real chance of being pushed through the hurdles set against any international accord by the Islamic Republic. For the US side, however, the problem is that while President Biden is keen to clinch a deal in the hope of normalization with the Khomeinist regime, he cannot be sure that the Iranian team in Vienna would be able to deliver on any promises it makes.

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