BAITULMAQDIS – Leading Iran experts in the US and in Israel are warning President Biden that his administration’s strategy to reduce and contain terrorism targeting the world’s worst state sponsor of terrorism – the Islamic Republic of Iran – has failed and America needs to re-establish deterrence against Tehran because of concerns the regime’s acquisition of nuclear devices is increasing.
Alarming reports that Iran is moving at a breakneck pace to acquire nuclear weapons have emerged over the past month.
In December, Reuters reported that a confidential IAEA report released to member states said it had “increased production of highly enriched uranium, reversing previous production cuts from mid-2023.” Reuters also said in its report “that Iran is enriching up to 60%, close to about 90% weapons grade, at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) at the sprawling Natanz complex and at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant (FFEP), which dug into the mountain.”
In a report titled “How fast can Iran make nuclear weapons today?” published earlier this month by David Albright, a physicist and the founder and president of the Institute for Science and International Security, stated, “The tall pole in the tent of building nuclear weapons is essentially complete. Iran can quickly make enough weapons-grade uranium for many nuclear weapons , something that was not possible in 2003.” Albright said Iran had a “crash nuclear weapons program” until 2003, which it later switched to a “more diffuse nuclear weapons effort.”
Reports claim that Iran is close to completing the atomic bomb. Getty Images
In his report, Albright, a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, wrote, “Today, it only takes about a week to produce enough for its first nuclear weapon. It can have enough weapons-grade uranium for six weapons in one month, and after five months of producing weapons-grade uranium, it can have enough for 12.”
Asked by Fox News Digital about Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a State Department spokesperson said, “As the President and Secretary have made clear, the United States will ensure one way or another that Iran will never obtain a nuclear weapon. We continue to use various tools to achieve that goal, and all options remain on the table. As the Secretary said, we always choose diplomacy to achieve that goal, but given Iran’s nuclear buildup and its failure to cooperate with the IAEA. [International Atomic Energy Agency]unfortunately we are far from such a thing now.”
Gabriel Noronha, a former US State Department adviser on Iran, told Fox News Digital, “Biden’s hope is to bribe Iran not to advance its nuclear program through economic concessions and not implementing sanctions. Iran continues its nuclear program and reaps additional revenue from oil sales to increase funding to its terrorist proxies. We have zero victories in Iran’s file in the last three years, but see their strength return from their weakness during the policy of maximum pressure.”
The US and the UK on Friday and Saturday launched precision airstrikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen. via REUTERS
In addition to nuclear fears, critics worry about an Iranian proxy disrupting the world economy. The lack of a counter-offensive against the regime has added to the danger for international shipping on the vital Red Sea route, linked to Israel’s port of Eilat and Egypt’s Suez Canal, experts say.
The US and the UK on Friday and Saturday launched precise airstrikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen, whose slogan is: “God is great, death to America, death to Israel, curse the Jews, victory to Islam.”
“The United States needs to restart a campaign of diplomatic pressure for countries around the world to impose terrorism sanctions on Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), as well as its proxies such as Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis. Dozens of countries in the West disapprove of this group and, accordingly, are places where these terrorist groups can raise funds and carry out activities without proper scrutiny,” said Noronha.
The Trump administration has listed the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. However, after Biden entered the White House, he immediately delisted the Houthis as a terrorist entity in February 2021.
When asked last week if the Houthis were a terrorist group, he said, “I think they are,” but did not say whether he planned to re-designate the Houthis as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
Houthi leaders claim their goal is to stop Israel’s campaign to eradicate Hamas in Gaza and allow aid to reach Gaza. However, the Houthis have launched missile attacks on Saudi Arabia’s oil installations and its cities over the years.
Saudi Arabia – supposedly sensing US weakness against Iran and the Houthis – is an important American ally in the Middle East but has begun drifting out of Washington’s orbit towards America’s adversaries during the Biden presidency.
Houthi leaders claim their goal is to stop Israel’s campaign to eradicate Hamas in Gaza and allow aid to reach Gaza. Getty Images
Iran has been a strong supporter of Hamas and has provided missiles to the terrorist organization and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.
Noronha, who is also a fellow at the Jewish Institute for American National Security (JINSA), said, “The United States needs to reinstate the maximum economic pressure campaign against the Iranian regime to cut off its ability to fund and support its terrorism. proxy. Oil sales are the lifeblood of the regime’s terrorism financing, and the US should begin to aggressively enforce sanctions as the US did from 2018-2020. Instead, the Biden administration has admitted it is looking the other way in the misplaced hope that it will help ‘reduce’ tensions in the Middle East.”
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Noronha is one of the veteran Middle East experts urging the Biden administration to deal with Iran’s clerical regime with more pressure and economic force.
Brig. Gen. Yossi Kuperwasser, an Israeli intelligence and security expert who is now a senior researcher at the Israel Defense Security Forum, told Fox News Digital the Biden administration “must realize that this war is about their national security and their global status because it is about the security of the American people and the West, and sticking to the old strategy will eventually tempt Iran to go for nuclear weapons. Therefore, they should force Iran and its proxies to stop their violence and impose a much higher price on them.”
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital, “We take the Iranian threat seriously as a whole, as a comprehensive package, and we are committed to confronting Iran’s range of problematic behavior, from human rights abuses to the advancement of its nuclear program. , to support terrorism and deadly plots.”
The spokesman added, “Iran is the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism and serial human rights abuses. We are joined by a large number of like-minded partners in facing all threats and challenges to security emanating from Iran. And our policy is focused on practical ways to counter this threat. That said, we are constantly evaluating our approach to Iran and looking for additional ways to add pressure.”
The State Department claims “all options” remain on the table in terms of Iran’s nuclear goals. AP
The Trump administration introduced a policy of maximum pressure, a powerful combination of diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions and military strikes to reverse Iran’s malign activities. Proponents of Trump’s maximum pressure strategy argue that it prevents jingoism and terrorism in Iran and makes the Middle East more stable in the 2016-2020 period. The Biden administration chose the path of diplomacy to influence a change in Iran’s behavior.
Fox News Digital sent numerous press inquiries to Iran’s UN Permanent Mission in New York and its Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tehran.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
