Tag: iran

Iran: America’s Next War Of Choice

Peace is not at hand in the Middle East, and Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu remains determined to expand the war. Syria’s de facto partition into Israeli and Turkish territories is the prelude to wider war with Iran. As the Times of Israel reported last week, the Israeli Air Force (IAF) has “continued to increase its readiness and preparations” for “potential strikes in Iran.”

Netanyahu’s top priority is the destruction of Iran before Russia wraps up its victory in Ukraine and Syria becomes a new battleground for Turks and Israelis. It’s not simply the end of Washington’s “rules-based international order.” It’s the onset of chaos. Israeli forces and Turkish auxiliaries (i.e. the Islamist terrorists who sacked Syria) are already staring at each other across a demarcation line that runs east–west just south of Damascus. Netanyahu harbors no illusions about the conflict between Ankara’s long-term strategic aims in the region and Jerusalem’s determination to claim the Syrian spoils of war. 

In addition to serious financial trouble and societal discontent on the home front, President-elect Donald Trump now confronts the dangerous distraction of wars he did not start, wars that will bring his administration and his country no strategic benefit. America’s underwriting of Netanyahu’s expanding war in the Middle East will endanger U.S. national security and guarantee that Washington, its armed forces, and the U.S. economy will be hostage to whatever strategic direction Netanyahu decides to take. 

Starting the war sooner, rather than later, is critical for Netanyahu. War with Iran presents Trump with a strategic fait accompli. In case Trump decides to distance the United States from another bloodbath in the Middle East, Israel’s ongoing conflict with Iran and Turkey’s potential confrontation with Israel will make disengagement impossible.

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Trading Iran for Al-Qaeda

In a reversal of the old proverb “Better the devil you know,” the U.S. and its partners in the Political West have embraced the devil they don’t. In Syria, they have traded Iran for al-Qaeda.

When Bashar al-Assad fell, many of his international partners suffered injuries. But none was hurt so badly as Iran. Unable to compete militarily with its far better armed enemies, Iran relied on a series of regional proxies. That front line of defense and deterrence has now been dismantled.

If Hezbollah was the heart of the proxy system, Syria was the logistical bridge between Iran and Lebanon upon which it depended. The effectiveness of Hezbollah was contingent upon the security of Syria. Syria was the bridge over which Iranian arms flowed to Lebanon. That bridge has now been broken.

Iran relied heavily on military bases and missile factories in Syria that have now all been lost. They have been lost both politically and physically. They have been lost politically because the new rulers of Syria, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), have sworn enmity to Iran. In his victory speech, HTS leader Abu Mohammad al-Jolani said that Assad had made Syria “a playground for Iranian ambitions.” No sooner had Damascus been captured than the Iranian embassy was stormed by Syrian rebels. Al-Jolani, has said, “We are open to friendship with everyone in the region – including Israel. We don’t have enemies other than the Assad regime, Hezbollah and Iran.”

They have been lost physically because, now with no air defenses at all, hundreds of air strikes have eliminated virtually all the military structures and weapons in Syria to ensure a toothless new regime. Israel has warned that “If the new regime in Syria allows Iran to re-establish itself, or allows the transfer of Iranian weapons to Hezbollah – we will respond forcefully and we will exact a heavy price.”

Asaad was a was an ineffective and brutal dictator. In the end, he fell, in large part, because he lost the support of his military and his people. The Syrian Army was not willing to die to save Asaad. But Asaad has been traded for al-Qaeda.

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Trump Team Weighing Options For Preemptive Airstrikes On Iran’s Nuclear Program

Just days after the rapid collapse of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad, and now with Israeli warplanes having complete domination over Syria’s skies for the first time in modern history, the priorities of US and Israeli officials in the region have drastically changed.

Both US and Israeli leaders are now mulling the possibility of striking Iran’s nuclear program, amid several reports in recent weeks saying the Islamic Republic is expanding its program and enriching more nuclear-grade material. Tehran is now much more on the defensive, and could be more desperate to achieve nuclear weapons.

A significant Friday report in The Wall Street Journal says that “President-elect Donald Trump is weighing options for stopping Iran from being able to build a nuclear weapon, including the possibility of preventive airstrikes, a move that would break with the longstanding policy of containing Tehran with diplomacy and sanctions.”

“Trump has told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in recent calls that he is concerned about an Iranian nuclear breakout on his watch, two people familiar with their conversations said, signaling he is looking for proposals to prevent that outcome,” the report continues.

“The president-elect wants plans that stop short of igniting a new war, particularly one that could pull in the U.S. military, as strikes on Tehran’s nuclear facilities have the potential put the U.S. and Iran on a collision course.”

Currently the United States still has some 1,000 troops occupying northeast Syria, and they have come under internecine attacks by Iran-backed militias over the recent years. In any broader US-Iran war, these troops would be sitting ducks for attack via Tehran’s proxies in the region.

Trump in his first administration tried but failed to bring the troops home, but deeper entanglement in striking Iran could surely draw these troops into a broader conflict. The Pentagon would in that case likely expand its deployed forces in the region as well.

“Iran has enough highly enriched uranium alone to build four nuclear bombs, making it the only nonnuclear-weapon country to be producing 60% near-weapons-grade fissile material,” WSJ has noted further. “It would take just a few days to convert that stockpile into weapons-grade nuclear fuel.”

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What The Hell Is All This About An ‘Iranian Mothership’?

Claims that an Iranian drone mothership is sitting off the east coast of the US and launching drones over New Jersey have added to the questions over what on earth is going on with the mystery.

For days now, large car sized drones sporting anticollision beacon lights have been seen hovering over at least 12 counties inNew Jersey, in particular close to the Trump National Golf Club of Bedminster, with a military base close by having made 11 sightings of the drones.

Now Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew says intelligence insiders have told him that Iran is behind the drones.

“I learned from very high sources, from very qualified sources, Iran launched a mothership a month ago that contains these drones, Van Drew said, claiming “It’s off the east coast of the United States.”

Van Drew claimed that China has supplied Iran with the technology, urging “These drones should be shot down!” adding that “We are not getting the full deal, and the military is on alert.”

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Congressman Warns Iranian Mothership Lurking Off Coast Responsible For New Jersey Drone Scare 

Republican Congressman Jefferson Van Drew of New Jersey, a member of both the House Judiciary Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, told Fox News’ Harris Faulkner around noon that government sources have informed him that mysterious drones in New Jersey skies at night originate from an Iranian “mothership” stationed off the US East Coast. 

“Here’s the real deal Harris …. and I’ve gotten to know people. And from very high sources, very qualified sources, and very responsible sources… I’m going to tell you the real deal: Iran launched a mothership – probably about a month ago that contains these drones and is off the US East Coast,” Van Drew said. 

Van Drew continued, “Know that Iran made a deal with China to purchase drones – motherships and technology to go forward. The sources I know are good.” 

He emphasized, “These drones should be shot down,” adding the military “is on alert with this.” 

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SYRIA: Country Likely To Be Divided, Russians Evacuate, Iranians Flee, Is Assad In Moscow? ISIS Takes Weapons

Iranian forces and officials have completely abandoned the Assad regime and left the country. Victorious Sunni jihadis have taken control of most of the area east of Damascus, and have seized Iranian/Hezbollah weapons stores in the country.

The country is likely to be divided into three parts, a Shia small zone around Damascus, the center of the geographical area to be Sunni, controlling the Sunni areas, and a Kurdish/Druze corridor to Israel, reported Amir Tsarfati.

The American government is behind this effort in conjunction with Turkey; likely, back room deals have made to fulfill Turkish President Recipe Erdogan’s long-held dream of a neighboring Sunni state, in trade for the blob’s long-held dream of removing Iranian/Russian influence from the region.

The Bide regime is leaving a terrorist disaster remnant of Syria for President Trump in the final ‘wag-the-dog’ days of The White House.

Is an American attack on Iran next?

No one is doubting the benefit or removing the mullah’s nefarious proxy armies from surrounding Israel; however, has anyone thought about the follow-on effects?

As Sunni jihadis gain weapons and power, could they align with the Afghan Taliban to create a Sunni jihadi terror pan-Central Asian bloc?

What ‘blow-back’ will American experience over this operation as the chess board changes in the Middle East?

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Syria, Iran Proxies In Danger Of Collapsing To ISIS Sunni Jihadis-Sunni Mega State In Middle East?

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called an emergency meeting of the cabinet to discuss the very possible collapse of the Iranian and Russian backed regime of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.

This development has massive complications as the power vacuum created by Israel’s destruction of Hezbollah and Hamas is being filled by Sunni jihadist rebels supported by Turkey. In other words, ISIS.

The rebels have taken the strategic Syrian city of Hama, and are now advancing on another important area – Homs, and are only 5km away. Rebel leaders have announced full control of Hama.

Reports from the area state the foreign ministers of Iraq, Syria, and Iran will meet today in an attempt to stop the bleeding of power centers, as a massive Sunni state develops in the region, controlled by jihadist extremists.

Turkish military elements, the SNA, are clashing with Kurdish fighters in northern Syria.

Russia has been largely silent as the rebels advance, surprising Israeli officials, wrote Israeli journalist Amir Tsarfati.

Fears are now rising of a massive Iranian effort to move large numbers of troops to Syria to support Assad.

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Tough Diplomacy, Not Invasion, Is the Way Forward With Iran

Back in September, Israel successfully destroyed a bunker buried 60 feet underground, killing virtually all of Hezbollah’s senior leadership. Executing the operation involved about a dozen F-15s, each carrying six 2000-pound GBU-31v(3) joint direct attack munitions (JDAMs) bunker-buster bombs. First the residential high rises over the underground bunker were systematically destroyed. Then a brilliantly planned operation was executed, involving dropping dozens of bunker-busters in a precisely timed pattern that eventually blasted through 20 yards of soil and rock to destroy the bunker. Only a few militaries in the world could have executed such an intricate and complex operation.

The point of the above description is not to praise Israeli military competence, but to show just how hard it is to destroy a bunker. This sheds concerning light on analysis by the Institute for Science and International Security that finds that two of Iran’s most important nuclear weapons facilities buried under at least 80 to 145 meters of rock (262 to 475 feet), with further protection from reinforced concrete that is very resistant to penetration and the ground shockwave produced by a bunker buster’s explosives. This makes taking them out problematic; the world’s most powerful conventional bunker buster, the United States’ 30,000-pound GBU-57 bunker buster can penetrate only about 40 meters of moderately hard rock.

Still, multiple precision strikes by massive ordnance penetrators delivered by our B-2 stealth bombers could almost certainly severely damage or destroy Iran’s less deeply buried facilities. Even the more deeply buried facilities could be crippled by collapsing their main entrances, although such facilities almost certainly have backup entrances that would allow them to continue with some level of function.

But even if our B-2s can evade Iran’s Russia-supplied anti-stealth radars and deliver enough GBU-57s to damage or destroy all the known facilities involved with nuclear weapons production and delivery, we still don’t really, truly know how much weapons-grade enriched uranium or plutonium—which can be quickly made into implosion-type fission bombs—the Islamic Republic has been able to acquire and hide away in secret locations.

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Iraqi Shia Militias Enter Fight In Syria

Reports from the Middle East confirm Iranian proxy-army militias have entered the conflict from Iraq.

Iraq’s Kataib Hezbollah and Fatemiyoun have arrived in Syria overnight.

These groups seek to establish a pro-Iranian regime in Iraq, and fought against coalition forces during the Iraq War. They are responsible for killing hundreds of U.S. soldiers.

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Officials: Musk Meets with Iranian UN Ambassador

Officials have claimed that Elon Musk met with Amir Saeid Irvani, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, on Monday. The purported meeting suggests a shift from the “maximum pressure” campaign undertaken by the first Trump administration.

The Iranian officials, who spoke to the New York Times about the meeting, reported the meeting as “good news” and “positive.”

Trump’s communications director, Steven Cheung, neither confirmed nor denied the existence of the meeting, telling the Times: “We do not comment on reports of private meetings that did or did not occur.”

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