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Iran could now produce “one bomb’s worth of fissile material” in “about 12 days,” a top US Defense Department official said Tuesday. Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl offered one of the most striking US government assessments to date of Iran’s “breakout time” as efforts to try to restore the Iran nuclear agreement remain halted and Tehran continues to breach the restrictions set out by the deal. Kahl said that “Iran’s nuclear progress since” the Trump administration withdrew the United States from the 2015 nuclear deal “has been remarkable.” “Back in 2018, when the previous administration decided to...

During President Barack Obama’s administration, the State Department worked to negotiate and implement the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) as a method of limiting Iran’s nuclear ambitions for at least a while. Both Saudi Arabia and Israel see Iran as a threat and opposed the deal. But Obama, along with Secretary of State John Kerry, pushed on with the deal and signed it in 2015.In 2018, President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the JCPOA and instituted heavy sanctions on Iran. Trump saw the JCPOA as a bad deal and was closer to Israel and Saudi Arabia than the Obama...

WASHINGTON — President Biden said last month that the Iran nuclear deal “is dead” but added that “we are not going to announce it — long story,” according to a video that resurfaced Tuesday. Biden made the remark Nov. 4 to Iranian American protesters who trailed him to an event in California. “President Biden, could you please announce that JCPOA is dead? Can you just announce that?” a woman asks, using the formal acronym for the 2015 agreement that softened US policy toward Iran in exchange for promises that Tehran wouldn’t seek a nuclear bomb. “No,” Biden replied. “No? Why...

Al Arabiya English Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to become the Prime Minister of Israel for the third time. He has until December 21 to form a government before taking office. In a wide-ranging interview with a group of print and television journalists at Al Arabiya, Mr. Netanyahu discussed Israel’s relations with Arab states, the US alliance structure in the Middle East, unrest in Iran, Israel’s new hard-right government, the future of the US-brokered maritime border agreement with Lebanon, and the Russia-Ukraine war. Mr. Netanyahu reiterated the paramount importance of normalization with Saudi Arabia, which would be a “quantum leap” toward...

The Islamic Republic could be faced with global snapback sanctions which would apply even to Russia and China. Iran is trying to maintain an uncompromising stance in every area, but is up against the wall more than it has been in prior years both regarding the IAEA nuclear standoff and in confronting domestic protests. Normally, when the Islamic Republic tries to govern its foreign and internal problems using an iron hand, those it is up against retreat or back down. What is unique now is that Tehran has pulled out the stops against both the IAEA and domestic protesters, and...

Iran has begun producing uranium enriched up to 60% in its underground Fordow nuclear facility, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) Director General Rafael Grossi said on Tuesday, bringing the country closer to weapons grade material. “Iran had started producing high enriched uranium – UF6 enriched up to 60% - using the existing two cascades of IR-6 centrifuge....

This is the point in the story when we should probably summon Dr. McCoy to say, ‘he’s dead, Jim.’ The “he” in question would be the Iran nuclear deal, known around the White House as the JCPOA. The secretive, four-party talks that have been going on for well over a year never really came close to producing a functional deal, though most of us never heard any of the details. But now, at least according to one Trump administration official who was privy to the process, the entire thing is shut down with “no path forward.” The culprit is supposedly...

A senior Israeli official representing Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Monday declared that Iran talks are “dead”.The official called on Europe and the US on Monday to begin talking about demands for a “longer, stronger” nuclear agreement with Iran, saying current talks aimed at reviving a 2015 pact were dead after Jerusalem provided proof that Tehran had not been forthright during negotiations.Lapid and his top aides were in Berlin Monday, where the Israeli Prime Minister says he passed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz “sensitive and relevant intelligence information” on Iran’s nuclear program.The day prior, Germany, France, and the UK issued a...

The UN’s IAEA has reported that Iran has 55.6 kilograms (122.6 pounds) of 60% enriched uranium. The body says this means Iran is able to produce up to 25 kg (55 lbs) of 90% enriched uranium, enough for a nuclear bomb. The real story could be even more concerning. Consider the hoary phrase, “There’s more than one way to skin a cat.” Similarly, there’s more than one way to make a nuclear bomb. The Union of Concerned Scientists has said that it might be possible to produce a fission-type nuclear weapon with as little as 15kg (33 lbs) of highly...

An Islamic studies academic dubbed the "Professor of Peace" at Oberlin College in Ohio endorsed the campaign to assassinate U.S. and British writer Salman Rushdie because the famous novelist depicted the Muslim prophet Muhammad irreverently. A 24-year-old man named Hadi Matar allegedly stabbed Rushdie on Friday in the neck and liver during the author’s speech in Chautauqua, New York. Rushdie is on a ventilator and cannot talk. According to law enforcement officials, Matar’s social media footprint showed that he was a fan of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a U.S.-designated foreign terrorist organization. Matar was also sympathetic to radical Shia...

The attempted murder of author Salman Rushdie prompted social media users, including several members of Congress, to voice criticism of the Biden administration’s pursuit of a nuclear deal with Iran in light of the country’s past support of a fatwa against Rushdie’s life. "Iran has offered a bounty to anyone who assassinates Salman Rushdie," Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio tweeted on Friday. "Today he was stabbed in America. Why is Biden still negotiating a ‘deal' with these terrorists in Tehran?"

Iran boasts about its nuke program: 'When Will Iran’s Sleeping Warheads Awaken' The Iranian regime’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on Saturday said that it can develop a nuclear weapon within a rapid-fire amount of time and obliterate New York with ballistic missiles. The London-based Iran International news organization reported that the Bisimchi Media (Radioman Media) Telegram Channel aired a short video titled, "When Will Iran’s Sleeping Warheads Awaken." The video said the Islamic Republic of Iran is capable of building nuclear bombs in a compressed period of time "if the US or the Zionist regime make any stupid mistakes."

An Iranian senior missile engineer died in southern Iran several days ago, according to a report by an Iranian dissident group published on Saturday night. Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps engineer Said Thamardar Mutlak was described in alleged funeral announcements shared by the National Iranian Congress as having been made a shahid (martyr) and murdered in Shiraz. The report stated that Iranian authorities did not want news of the death to be published, and that Mutlak’s family had been threatened not to share the news. Did Iran hint to alleged assassination? “Cowardly assassination of heroes of our scientific prowess didn’t help...

A recent intelligence leak report indicates that Iran is plotting to kill or capture former President Donald Trump as well as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.According to the Mirror, Iran is seeking to avenge the death of its beloved commander, Major General Qasem Soleimani, who was killed in a drone strike two years ago.The claim comes after a recent National Counterterrorism Center report, which said Iran is "waging a multi-pronged campaign against select U.S. officials."The report also mentioned threats of international legal maneuvering, the issuance of Iranian arrest warrants, as well as sanctions, and lethal action.Soleimani was considered one...

Many observers believe leaking this information is tied to the Biden administration's efforts to revive the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. As President Biden prepares to visit Israel and Saudi Arabia next week, experts and former officials are warning that an often-overlooked issue risks undermining efforts to increase cooperation among U.S. allies in the Middle East. That issue is anonymous U.S. officials consistently leaking information to the media about alleged covert Israeli operations against Iran, from targeted killings to explosions at nuclear sites. "It's a sign of extraordinary incompetence and unprofessionalism from Biden and his foreign policy team," said Fred Fleitz,...

Russia summons Israeli Ambassador following airstrike on Damascus airport attributed to Israel Israeli Ambassador to Russia Alex Ben-Zvi was summoned for a reprimand by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov following last week's attack on the Damascus airport Bogdanov protested to the ambassador and claimed that the attack caused damage at the civil and humanitarian level and that he also claimed that the justification for the attack provided Israel was not convincing and therefore Russia was awaiting clarifications.

Who benefits most from Joe Biden’s obsessive pursuit of a renewed JCPOA nuclear deal with Iran? Tehran’s mullahs, obviously, as well as the IRGC when Biden orders them removed from the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations. But coming in a close second will be Vladimir Putin and the Russian oligarchs that support him, as Adam Kredo outlines at the Washington Free Beacon this morning:Several of Russia’s top state-controlled nuclear companies stand to gain billions of dollars in revenue as part of a new nuclear accord with Iran that will waive sanctions on these firms so that they can build...

Israel sees the likely U.S. decision to refuse Iran’s demand to remove its Revolutionary Guards from its terror blacklist, as reported Saturday by the Washington Post, as a sign of success of concentrated lobbying efforts in recent weeks, led by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. While U.S. President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken are leading talks in Washington to reach a final decision on the matter, an informed Israeli source told Haaretz that Israel expects Biden to make the announcement soon. "It's not final, but that's where it's headed," the source said. The...

Republican Senator Rand Paul told a friendly audience of conservatives Thursday that he is standing firm on his principles as a constitutional restrainer, and while he thinks Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is wrong and unjustified, he does not think that military escalation or regime change policies — or even sanctions with no defined goals — are right. “If you say you don’t want to get involved in this war … people immediately think you’re on the other side, that you’re sympathetic with the other side,” he told the “Up from Chaos” foreign policy conference in Washington. “I have not sympathized...

The prices of risk hedges against “nuclear” sanctions and their knock-on effects shrank back to pre-war levels as Russia continues to sell oil and gas, and major trading nations continue to use the American dollar as the main instrument of exchanges. Fears of a dislocated energy market and a rush out of dollars following the seizure of half of Russia’s $630 billion in foreign exchange reserves haven’t materialized, as both the United States and Russia showed a certain amount of restraint. Oil fell sharply March 15 after Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that the United States had accepted Russian...