Iran wasn’t developing nuclear weapons: Anti-war commentator

Yahoo! ^ | June 19 | Yahoo!

[RandFan]

The editorial director of Antiwar.com is challenging Israel’s claims that Iran was mere days away from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Scott Horton, who also is director of the Libertarian Institute, said those assertions haven’t been confirmed by other nations, including the United States.

“What they had all along is a latent nuclear deterrent — it’s the same as Germany, Japan or Brazil, where they had shown they perfected the fuel cycle, they know how to make nuclear weapons fuel, but they’re not making it,” Horton told “On Balance” host Leland Vittert on Friday, a day after Israel launched military strikes against Iran.

“With this attack, they’re actually more likely to pursue nuclear weapons now, whereas before they actually were not pursuing them.”

Horton faulted President Trump for voiding a U.S.-Iran agreement in 2018 that would have restricted Tehran’s nuclear capabilities. It was brokered by the Obama administration.

“Trump could have just got back into the deal and called it the Trump Deal instead of the Obama Deal, and all of this would have been fine,” Horton said.

[montag813]

Justin Raimondo’s AntiWar.com?? LOLOL! Now this is an admired and quoted source on FR? I’ve seen it all. You libertardians are really too much.

[Fledermaus]

Libertarians are finger in the wind idiots

[RandFan]

I’ve been told to eff off and p off a few times. I’m used to it though but it’s not great fun is it... Not as much as usual. War fever has taken over

[RandFan]

Great post Jim at least someone is willing to see it

They call it unintended consequences. There are many.

[Brian Griffin]

WIKI

Raimondo supported abortion: “The libertarian position is unequivocal: the mother has the absolute right to abortion, period.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Justin_Raimondo

[DiogenesLamp]

They call it unintended consequences. There are many.

Thinking that *NOW* Iran is going to make a nuclear bomb is just wishful thinking. They always were going to make a nuclear bomb. 9, in fact, at least initially.

They believe it is their religious duty to rid the world of vile infidels, and they have no fear of nuclear retaliation. They *WANT* to burn the world. They *WANT* to die in the process.

[hardspunned]

Insane. I’ve never had an unfaithful wife or really horrible friend. I can honestly say being stabbed in the back by Trump is the worst treachery I have ever personally experienced. I’m as heartsick over it as I’ve ever been.

[RandFan]

You’ve been saying it for 30 years you admit that (yes I read every reply). I may come back to your response since it was polite and not the usual bile and contempt I get on issues like this

[Owen]

There isn’t any country in the world facing any sort of conflict that would not want nuclear weapons. Pursuing them is pretty much normal.

As for this uranium enrichment obsession, 99.5% of all nuclear weapons are Plutonium based, which comes from spent fuel rods of commercial reactors, of which Iran has 1, and 2 more recently in operation. And Russia has agreed to build them 8 more.

This is all silliness. There is a sense of unavoidable about it all. So why this uproar? It can’t be stopped unless all 92 million Shiites are eradicated, and no one would tolerate that.

[RandFan]

War fever has taken over look in any of the threads. FR wants blood. Persian variety

[Bruce Campbells Chin]

The IAEA toured the facility and Horton is saying they never enriched near enough for a bomb. It was latent deterrent and your famed Intelligence services AGREE why not listen to them?

Did you actually read that report yourself? Because this is a misrepresentation. What you are (deliberately?) confusing is the difference between saying "they aren't doing it", and "we can't prove that they are,/i> doing it". The reason that distinction is so critical is that Iran has broken its obligations with respect to allowing inspectors access, permitting monitoring equipment, etc..

In other words, Iran is deliberately taking actions specifically intended to prevent verification that they are in compliance. So when you say "they never enriched..." that's the exact kind of statement that cannot be made.

It's no different than barring election observers from a room, then saying there wasn't any cheating because the observers didn't report seeing any. Here is the actual summary from the IAEA report that you just referenced: 30. The Agency’s JCPOA-related verification and monitoring has been seriously affected by the cessation of implementation by Iran of its nuclear-related commitments under the JCPOA. The situation has been exacerbated by Iran’s subsequent decision to have all of the Agency’s JCPOA-related surveillance and monitoring equipment removed.

31. The Agency has lost continuity of knowledge in relation to the production and current inventory of centrifuges, rotors and bellows, heavy water and UOC, which it will not be able to restore as a result of not having been able to perform JCPOA-related verification and monitoring activities for more than four years.

32. Iran’s decision to remove all of the Agency’s equipment previously installed in Iran for JCPOA-related surveillance and monitoring activities has also had detrimental implications for the Agency’s ability to provide assurance of the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear programme.

33. It has also been more than four years since Iran stopped provisionally applying its Additional Protocol. Therefore, throughout this period, Iran has not provided updated declarations and the Agency has not been able to conduct complementary access to any sites and other locations in Iran.

34. The significantly increased production and accumulation of highly enriched uranium by Iran, the only non-nuclear-weapon State to produce such nuclear material, is of serious concern.

So sure, the IAEA and intelligence agencies cannot confirm that Iran is building nuclear bombs because Iran is refusing to permit the inspections of the relevant facilities.

[DiogenesLamp]

There isn’t any country in the world facing any sort of conflict that would not want nuclear weapons. Pursuing them is pretty much normal.

That other countries want nuclear weapons is normal, but it is in our best interest that they never get them, especially if they are a collection of insane lunatic religious fanatics who will suicide bomb us with nukes at the first opportunity.

We should do what is in *OUR* best interest, and that is preventing dangerous religious fanatics from getting Armageddon devices.

This is all silliness. There is a sense of unavoidable about it all. So why this uproar?

You would sit by and do nothing while madmen build weapons to kill you? Are you so fatalistic?

If someone intends for me to die by nukes, I want to at least *TRY* to stop it from happening!

It can’t be stopped unless all 92 million Shiites are eradicated,

That is silly. I'm pretty sure if you just eradicate a few thousand top bureaucrats in Iran, the survivors will have absolutely no interest in pursuing nuclear weapons further.

Where do you get this "92 million" nonsense? You think every man woman and child in Iran wants to kill "The Great Satan"?

Probably 91 million of them just want to live their lives and try to be happy, and will leave us alone if we show them that bad things happen to people who threaten us.

[DiogenesLamp]

War fever has taken over look in any of the threads. FR wants blood. Persian variety

Just a little bit, and it is Loooooooong overdue. We still owe them for the Hostage crisis and all the GI's they killed in Iraq, as well as fomenting world wide Islamic terrorism.

So yeah, we've got a lot to pay them back for, and this doesn't even include the necessity of stopping them from ever having an Armageddon device.

[ridesthemiles]

46 YEARS AGO

[Crusher138]

You think Trump is somehow changing direction on Iran? You haven’t been listening...

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple — you don’t have to go to too deep into it. They just can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (6/17/25)

“I want to see no nuclear weapon in Iran and we’re well on our way to making sure that happens.” (6/16/25)

“You can’t have peace if Iran has a nuclear weapon.” (6/14/25)

“They can’t have a nuclear weapon. Very simple. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. We’re not going to allow that.” (6/11/25)

“You have to view them as people and I don’t want it to be a violent thing, but they’re not going to have a nuclear weapon.” (5/16/25)

“I want them to succeed. I want them to end up being a great country, frankly, but they can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (5/15/25)

“I want to make a deal with Iran, I want to do something if it’s possible, but for that to happen, it must stop sponsoring terror, halt its bloody proxy wars, and permanently and verifiably cease its pursuit of nuclear weapons.” (5/14/25)

“Iran can have a much brighter future — but we’ll never allow America and its allies to be threatened with terrorism or a nuclear attack. The choice is theirs to make. We really want them to be a successful country … but they cannot have a nuclear weapon.” (5/13/25)

“We want it to be a great country. Let it be a tremendously successful, rich country … but they can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (5/6/25)

“I want Iran to be really successful, really great, really fantastic — the only thing they can’t have is a nuclear weapon. If they want to be successful, that’s OK. I want them to be so successful and, you know, the Iranian people are incredible — I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon because the world will be destroyed.” (5/4/25)

“Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (4/17/25)

“Iran has to get rid of the concept of a nuclear weapon. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.” (4/14/25)

“I want Iran to be a wonderful, great, happy country — but they can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (4/11/25)

“You cannot allow [Iran] to have a nuclear weapon.” (2/10/25)

“It’s very simple: Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.” (2/4/25)

President Trump made the same pledge no fewer than 40 times on the campaign trail and even earlier:

“Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons are the greatest single threat to our country, but to the entire world.” (11/3/24)

“I would have been very good to Iran. They — I had to have one thing, no nuclear weapons. You can’t have nuclear weapon. Nuclear weapons are the greatest danger to our country going forward, to the world going forward.” (10/29/24)

“And all I wanted was Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon … That’s all I wanted. Very simple. You can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (10/28/24)

“We don’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon.” (10/23/24)

“I didn’t want much. I wanted Iran to be very successful. I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.” (10/16/24)

“You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.” (10/14/24)

“I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple.” (10/10/24)

“I only wanted one thing. You can’t have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let them have a nuclear weapon.” (10/7/24)

“No, they can’t have nukes. No, they can’t have nukes.” (10/7/24)

“They can’t have a nuclear weapon — and now they’re very close to having one and it’s very dangerous for the world, very dangerous for the world … The biggest problem today, in my opinion, the biggest risk is the nuclear weapons.” (10/1/24)

“All I want them to do is not have a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (9/30/24)

“The only thing is [Iran] cannot have nuclear weapons.” (9/26/24)

“I wanted one thing from Iran — no nuclear weapon. I didn’t want much — no nuclear weapon. And now they’re very close to getting it, and you can’t let that happen.” (9/19/24)

“All we want is we don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon. Very simple. That’s all we want. We don’t want you to have a nuclear weapon.” (9/17/24)

“They can’t have a nuclear weapon. We just can’t let them have a nuclear weapon. I’ll say this. If they do have a nuclear weapon, Israel is gone. It’ll be gone.” (8/27/24)

“I don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.” (8/23/24)

“I just wanted to have a deal with Iran, very simple deal — can’t have a nuclear weapon. That’s it.” (8/23/24)

“They can’t have a nuclear weapon. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. And we were all set to make sure that they don’t have a nuclear weapon. Because once they do, it’s a whole different world, it’s a whole different negotiation.” (8/15/24)

“Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon — it’s very simple.” (8/8/24)

“They can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon.” (8/5/24)

“Iran should not have a nuclear weapon … Iran should never be allowed to have a nuclear weapon.” (7/10/24)

“The main thing is Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon. That was my main thing. The deal was a simple deal. Iran can’t have a nuclear. You know, it can’t have a missile, it can’t have a nuclear missile. It cannot have that nuclear capability.” (6/20/24)

“We have a very hostile country that wants nuclear weapons. You can’t let that happen.” (6/15/24)

“Iran should not be allowed to have a nuclear weapon. They would never have had even close to a nuclear weapon. They are very close to getting a nuclear weapon. You cannot let that happen.” (5/15/24)

“Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon — very simple. They cannot have a nuclear weapon.” (5/1/24)

“You can’t let Iran have nuclear weapons.” (4/30/24)

“Iran wanted to make a deal, and what the deal — 90% of the deal that I want to make is no nuclear weapon. That’s 90% — almost 100%. It might be 100%. That’s all I want. No nuclear weapon for Iran” (3/25/24)

“I want everybody to be happy. They just can’t have a nuclear weapon.” (2/23/24)

“I just didn’t want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. I said, ‘You know, we’re going to make a great deal. Everybody’s going to be happy. You’re going to be rich as hell again. Everything’s going to be great, but you cannot have a nuclear weapon.’” (1/20/24)

“They cannot have a nuclear weapon. That was the only thing — the one thing I said, ‘You cannot have.’” (1/5/24)

“I just don’t want them to have a nuclear weapon.” (1/5/24)

“They will have, within a short period of time, nuclear weapons — and that is never something that can be allowed to happen.” (12/30/23)

“No nuclear weapons. You can’t have nuclear weapons. Nuclear weapons are the single greatest threat to this world.” (11/9/23)

“They can’t have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. They can’t have nuclear weapons. It’s too destructive, too powerful. They can’t have it.” (10/29/23)

“Don’t let Iran have nuclear weapons. That’s my only thing I have to tell you today. Don’t let them have it.” (10/16/23)

“No nuclear weapons. You can’t give [Iran] nuclear weapons.” (7/15/23)

“You cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. You cannot let it happen because bad things will happen if that happens.” (6/24/23)

“IRAN WILL NEVER HAVE A NUCLEAR WEAPON!” (1/6/20)

“Iran cannot have Nuclear Weapons!” (6/22/19)

“We can’t let Iran get a nuclear weapon. We can’t do it. Can’t do it. We cannot let that happen.” (1/24/15)

“We can’t allow Iran to go nuclear.” (11/4/11)

I think his position has been pretty clear.

[cowboyusa]

Go get your sippy cup and sit in the corner.

[cowboyusa]

You are the crap on President Trump’s shoe.

[cowboyusa]

Oh be quit and sit 8m the corner, let the adults handel things.

[Owen]

92 million is the population of 99.5% Shiite. Replace the Supreme Leader, you will get the #2 guy in that religion numbering about 200 million people in the world.

The vast majority of that government is elected. The religious leadership has control, via the Iran Constitution, of the military but all the other ministries are elected. The president was killed last year in a helicopter crash so a snap election was held to pick another. That election had about 50% turnout and the candidates (there were many) were all approved by the religious Guardian Council.

The point being that has been their configuration for decades. A technocratic government that runs the country, including the Foreign Ministry, the Energy Ministry (they are the rotating president of OPEC this year), transportation ministry, etc. The religious hierarchy screens candidates, but it does not run the country.

The population are Shiite. Imagining that the government is opposed by them is like imagining the Vatican has dissidents just waiting to storm the Pope’s private apartments and remove him.

So yeah, sorry, that’s the way it is. If you want different policies, you’ll have to wipe out the populace, because they are all Shiites and follow their “Pope” and vote for their current foreign policies.

[Robert DeLong]

The editorial director of Antiwar.com, Scott Horton, who also is director of the Libertarian Institute, said those assertions haven’t been confirmed by other nations, including the United States.

That's all well and good, but on hat intelligence is Scott Horton relying on? Iran's word? Not exactly a source that is reliable source for telling the truth.

The truth is, that Iran refuses to allow inspectors free reign to go where they want to see what is really happening.