Tag: iran

Iran Responds To Trump Offer They Can’t Refuse

According to Al-Mayadeen and other informed sources, the Iranian response consists mainly of the following points, reports @Middle_East_Spectator.

1. Iran reaffirms that it will not negotiate directly with the United States, especially under the policy of maximum pressure, and it rejects the American approach categorically.

2. Iran states that it does not negotiate on behalf of any regional power, and that Iran does not dictate the foreign policy of other nations or groups, including Yemen’s Ansarallah, which is an independent ally.

3. Iran states that it will not accept Trump’s ‘unrealistic conditions’, and that the U.S. demands were so extensive that they cannot be entertained even hypothetically. 

4. Iran warns unequivocally that any military or hostile action, whether by the United States or any of its ‘stooges’, will be met with an Iranian response that will encompass all U.S. military assets in the Middle East.

Yesterday, CDM interviewed Ali Safavi from their camp in Albania , with the National Council of Resistance in Iran, on how to take down the regime from the inside, rather via a regional war that could spin out of control.

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The High Price of War With Iran: $10 Gas and the Collapse of the US Economy

Israel is currently in turmoil, marked by widespread protests demanding Netanyahu’s resignation. Critics accuse him of prolonging war for political gain, while his dismissal of top security officials and ongoing attacks on the judiciary have further intensified the unrest.

Meanwhile, Washington DC’s drumbeat for war never stops. It’s always at the expense of a decent and secure standard of living for people in this country and abroad.

The Trump Administration, after the series of heady airstrikes against Yemen, is at this moment being beseeched by Netanyahu and his associates to prepare for a seemingly consequence-free nuclear strike against Iran, completing the trifecta of Netanyahu’s long-standing dream.

I have consistently warned against the consequences of an attack on Iran, delivering 155 speeches to the House, 63 presentations alone in the 109th Congress, between 2005 and 2007, when the Bush Administration deliberated using nuclear “bunker-busters” as a means of bringing Iran to heel.

I understood the politics then and I understand them today. I warned hundreds of times that it was not in America’s interests to go to war against Netanyahu’s hit list: Iraq, Iran, Libya…

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US Intelligence Says Iran Is ‘Not Building a Nuclear Weapon’

US intelligence agencies have reaffirmed that there’s no evidence Iran is developing nuclear weapons or that Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has reversed his 2003 fatwah that banned the production of weapons of mass destruction.

“The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing.

Gabbard’s comments were based on the annual threat assessment, which is released by the ODNI with input from all US intelligence agencies. The report did note that there have been more calls inside Iran to reverse the ban on nuclear weapons, which have grown in response to Israeli aggression in the region.

“In the past year, there has been an erosion of a decades-long taboo on discussing nuclear weapons in public that has emboldened nuclear weapons advocates within Iran’s decisionmaking apparatus,” the report reads. “Khamenei remains the final decision maker over Iran’s nuclear program, to include any decision to develop nuclear weapons.”

The threat assessment comes amid increasing US sanctions and threats of military action over Iran’s nuclear program. Iranian officials have rejected the idea of talks with the US in the face of President Trump’s “maximum pressure campaign,” but have said the door is open for indirect negotiations.

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NSA Waltz Demands Iran Give Up Entire Nuclear Program, Including Civilian Enrichment

While continuing to closely tie the recent US attacks on the Houthis in Yemen to Iran, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz confirmed that the Trump Administration is demanding “full dismantlement” of Iran’s nuclear program, including its capacity to enrich uranium for civilian use.

Waltz made the comments on CBS’ Face the Nation, and when asked what full dismantlement meant and to clarify the distinction between it and the verification deal the US had with Iran before President Trump pulled out of it in 2018, he made it clear this is far broader, covering everything, including enrichment, “weaponization,” and strategic missile programs.

Iran’s enrichment program, which is under IAEA monitoring, has no military component in the first place. Enrichment was purely for making fuel rods for the Bushehr nuclear power plant along Iran’s coast and for making somewhat higher enriched fuel for its medical isotope reactor. Iran has a long history of having a substantial nuclear medicine program, and supplied its own isotopes for that.

The long-abandoned nuclear deal was meant to give Iran a design to produce isotopes without 20% enriched uranium through a heavy-water reactor. Like most of the promises to Iran under the deal this was never honored, and Iran is left with the old research reactor. Higher levels of enrichment were also done to try to encourage new negotiations, though Iran promised the IAEA that they would not go above 60% levels, and weapons-grade uranium is a minimum of 90%.

Waltz’ new demand is not that Iran goes back down to 20% or anything, it’s to stop enrichment entirely. It’s unclear in the context if Iran is even allowed to keep it’s power plant, though without the ability to enrich uranium to make their own fuel, it would be effectively useless in fairly short order.

Beyond that, Waltz demanded Iran scrap its “weaponization” program, which will be a challenge because Iran does not have one, and US intelligence assessments have repeatedly said Iran hasn’t decided to try to make such a weapon though such assessments never seem to inform the content of US demands.

He also demanded Iran get rid of its entire strategic missile program, which sense they haven’t even attempted to create nuclear warheads would exclusively impact conventional weapons in Iran’s arsenal. Though presented as something to do with nuclear dismantlement, it is effectively unrelated in the case of these missiles.

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Wars And Rumors Of Wars: Now We Are At War With The Houthis, And We Are Being Told That Iran Could Be Next

Did you know that we are bombing the Houthis in Yemen?  If so, you are far more informed than most of the population, because most Americans would have no hope of actually finding the nation of Yemen on a blank map of the world.  On Saturday, President Trump ordered a “decisive” bombing campaign to begin, and it will continue until the Houthis stop attacking U.S. targets in the Red Sea.  Of course the Houthis have no intention of ending their attacks, and so now we are at war with the Houthis for the foreseeable future.  On his Truth Social account, President Trump warned the Houthis that “hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before”…

Today, I have ordered the United States Military to launch decisive and powerful Military action against the Houthi terrorists in Yemen. They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft, and drones.

Joe Biden’s response was pathetically weak, so the unrestrained Houthis just kept going. It has been over a year since a U.S. flagged commercial ship safely sailed through the Suez Canal, the Red Sea, or the Gulf of Aden. The last American Warship to go through the Red Sea, four months ago, was attacked by the Houthis over a dozen times. Funded by Iran, the Houthi thugs have fired missiles at U.S. aircraft, and targeted our Troops and Allies. These relentless assaults have cost the U.S. and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.

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Iranian Intel Ship Sunk By American Forces During Gaza Surprise Attacks

It looks like forces in the Trump administration pushing for war with Iran are going to get their way.

The Iranian intel ship Zagros (SIGINT) was sunk by U.S. forces amid wide-ranging strikes against Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip by Israel happening simultaneously.

The ship was commissioned only two months ago.

Iran’s navy received its first signals intelligence ship on Wednesday, semi-official Tasnim news organisation reported, a few days after the country’s army took delivery of 1,000 new drones.

The Zagros is a new category of military vessel equipped with electronic sensors and the ability to intercept cyber-operations and conduct intelligence monitoring, Tasnim said.

“The Zagros signals intelligence ship will be the watchful eye of Iran’s navy in the seas and oceans,” Navy Commander Shahram Irani said, reported Reuters.

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Iran using drones and apps to enforce women’s dress code

Iran is using drones and intrusive digital technology to crush dissent, especially among women who refuse to obey the Islamic republic’s strict dress code, the United Nations has said.

Investigators say Iranian security officials are using a strategy of “state-sponsored vigilantism” to encourage people to use specialist phone apps to report women for alleged dress code violations in private vehicles such as taxis and ambulances.

Their new report also highlights the increasing use of drones and security cameras to monitor hijab compliance in Tehran and in southern Iran.

For women who defy the laws, or protest against them, the consequences are severe – arrest, beating, and even rape in custody.

The findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Republic of Iran come after it determined last year that the country’s theocracy was responsible for the “physical violence” that led to the death in custody of Mahsa Amini in 2022.

Witnesses said the 22-year-old Kurd was badly beaten by the morality police during her arrest, but authorities denied she was mistreated and blamed “sudden heart failure” for her death. Her killing sparked a massive wave of protests that continues today, despite threats of violent arrest and imprisonment.

“Two-and-a-half years after the protests began in September 2022, women and girls in Iran continue to face systematic discrimination, in law and in practice, that permeates all aspects of their lives, particularly with respect to the enforcement of the mandatory hijab,” the report said.

“The state is increasingly reliant on state-sponsored vigilantism in an apparent effort to enlist businesses and private individuals in hijab compliance, portraying it as a civic responsibility.”

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US Considers Plan To Disrupt Iran’s Oil With Navy Interventions On High Seas

The Trump White House is currently considering a plan that would take the recently reinstated ‘maximum pressure’ campaign back to the high seas, akin to Trump’s first term as Commander-in-Chief.

This would involve US Navy ships stopping and inspecting Iranian oil vessels transiting the sea under an international mechanism aimed at thwarting “spread of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs),” sources in Reuters said. This had been done at times under Biden as well.

The idea is to crack down once again on Iranian oil sales in order to cut off crucial funding for Iran’s nuclear energy program, which both Israel and Washington suspect could easily be converted to an atomic weapons program.

“Trump officials are now looking at ways for allied countries to stop and inspect ships sailing through critical chokepoints such as the Malacca Strait in Asia and other sea lanes. That would delay delivery of crude to refiners. It could also expose parties involved in facilitating the trade to reputational damage and sanctions,” the sources told Reuters. 

“You don’t have to sink ships or arrest people to have that chilling effect that this is just not worth the risk. The delay in delivery… instills uncertainty in that illicit trade network,” one source clarified. 

The legal mechanism reportedly being examined goes all the way back the ‘war on terror’ 2003 Proliferation Security Initiative, which seeks to prevent the trafficking of WMDs. (Nevermind that the Bush-era ‘Iraqi WMDs’ scare was based on a complete myth and lie advanced by the NeoCons at the time).

“This mechanism could enable foreign governments to target Iran’s oil shipments at Washington’s request,” another source told Reuters.

The Biden administration had at times also sought to seize Iranian oil shipments, especially to disrupt sales in places like China, or also Syria.

As for the Syria situation, this policy helped tighten the noose around Assad in Western regime change efforts which led to his ouster – but the Syrian people continue to starve and be largely without fuel.

The US Treasury Department has frequently alleged that the Islamic Republic maintains a “shadow fleet” which sends Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars abroad. Tehran in response has argued it is fully its right to sell its energy resources utilizing international waters and passage.

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No Talks With the U.S., Says Iran

In response to the Trump administration announcing another round of sanctions on Iranian oil as part of the “maximum pressure” strategy for dealing with the recalcitrant muslim theocracy, the Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi declared Tuesday that his country would not begin formal negotiations with the United States.

“Iran’s position regarding nuclear talks is clear, and we will not negotiate under pressure and sanctions,” he said during a press conference.

The country’s position could complicate a potential effort by Trump to create a deal regulating the Iranian nuclear program. The U.S. pulled out of the previous deal, the JCPOA, in Trump’s first term; the president argued that it was “the worst deal ever.”

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Netanyahu’s Quest To Attack Iran With the ‘Mother of all Bombs’

In a press conference with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “finish the job” against Iran with the support of President Trump.

Ever since his rise to power in the late 1990s, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has worked toward a war with Iran, presumably to demolish Tehran’s nuclear facilities but also to ensure its power projection in the region.

Now the emboldened Netanyahu wants to finish the job, decimate Iran’s nascent nuclear capabilities, undermine Tehran’s future and overthrow its rulers. After the misguided wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Washington’s neoconservative empire-builders are also back, pushing still another forever war for a “paradigm shift in the Middle East.”

The Israel-Iran scenarios

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has discussed with Trump several possible levels of American backing. According to Israeli observers, there are now four viable scenarios for an Israeli attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities, as seen in the light of US-Israeli relations. Let’s name them.

In the cooperative scenario, the US and Israel cooperate in an attack against Iran’s nuclear sites, which will be followed by Trump’s ultimatum that Iran must entirely dismantle its military nuclear program.

In the clash scenario, the Trump administration would build on diplomacy to seal a nuclear deal. Yet, Israel would attack on its own and thereby undermine Trump’s efforts causing a bilateral drift between the two countries.

In the investment scenario, Saudi Arabia would offer the US hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, to avoid a destabilization in the region that could undermine Riyadh’s 2030 modernization program.

In the solo scenario, Israel attacks Israel’s nuclear facilities without direct US cooperation, but with the tacit consent of the White House. This would happen after the Trump administration’s threats and coercive diplomacy against Iran.

Ultimately, US priorities will matter the most. But these can be elusive and contradictory. Some in the Congress have called for more US military action, including direct attacks against Iran. Others have echoed the Biden Administration’s calls for restraint and de-escalation.

Here’s the problem: any escalation with Iran, whether by the US, Israel or both would likely regionalize the Gaza devastation, which is mis-aligned with Trumps’ economic and geopolitical goals in the Middle East.

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