Weak or brilliant? Israel’s response to Iran EXPLAINED



Last weekend, Iran launched a wildly unsuccessful missile attack against the nation of Israel, which reportedly shot down 99% of its opponent’s 300+ projectiles.

Iran warned it would attack with greater vigilance should Israel retaliate.

Regardless of the threat, Israel has indeed retaliated — just as Netanyahu promised. However, debates on the country’s strategy continue to circulate.

Compared to Iran’s large-scale attack, Israel launched a precision counterattack.

Upon initial evaluation, Glenn Beck thought Israel’s retaliation was “a wuss response.”

But former Department of Defense intelligence analyst Jason Buttrill may have just changed his mind.

“This was a brilliant response,” he said. Not only did Israel strike “in Syria and Iraq, but they also struck inside Iran.”

While the exact destinations of Israel’s missiles remain unclear, Jason says his analysis suggests that Israel hit “locations that have been given Iranian weaponry, specifically like cruise missiles and shorter range missile systems — like the kind that hit Israel.”

“[Israel] also struck near Isfahan in Iran,” which is the country's “main missile manufacturing area.”

According to Jason, what Israel did was demonstrate its ability to strike the country whenever and wherever it wanted, with Iran none the wiser.

“Iran launched 350+ missiles, [but] couldn't kill a single thing or destroy a single thing,” says Jason. However, Israel “showed Iran we can hit you whenever we want, you will never know it, and it will be precise.”

“It’s de-escalation through strength.”

“[Is Iran] basically not going to respond after this?” asks Stu Burguiere.

“I highly doubt against Israel proper ... because they are decades behind Israel” is Jason’s response.

To hear more of the conversation, watch the clip below.


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Iran set to produce uranium metal, a key material used in nuclear weapons, UN watchdog says



Iran has begun work on an assembly line to produce a key material used in nuclear warheads, the International Atomic Energy Agency said in a confidential report released to member states on Wednesday.

According to the report, allegedly viewed by the Wall Street Journal, the Islamic republic informed the United Nations watchdog agency that in coming months it was planning to manufacture equipment it will use to produce uranium metal at a site in Isfahan.

The Wall Street Journal story noted that the development was a significant one since uranium metal can be used to construct the core of a nuclear weapon. Here's more from the story:

Iran hasn't made uranium metal so far, senior Western officials said. The IAEA said Tehran had given it no timeline for when it would do so. Still, the development brings Iran closer to crossing the line between nuclear operations with a potential civilian use, such as enriching nuclear fuel for power-generating reactors, and nuclear-weapons work, something Tehran has long denied ever carrying out.

Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Kazem Gharib Abadi, said Wednesday on Twitter that Iran would produce uranium metal, saying it would allow the development of a new fuel for the Tehran civilian research reactor. Iran has said it would take four to five months to install the equipment to produce a uranium powder from which uranium metal is made.

The move will likely add to rising tensions between the United States and Iran in the early days of President-elect Joe Biden's term, as production of uranium metal is strictly prohibited by the Iran nuclear agreement forged in 2015 when Biden was vice president.

President Trump withdrew the U.S. from the agreement in 2018, but Iran is still part of the international agreement that also includes the U.K., France, Germany, China, and Russia. On the campaign trail last year, Biden signaled that he was open to re-entering the nuclear deal.

Iran appears to be testing the boundaries of late perceiving that the incoming Biden administration will be much more lenient.

In December, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani bragged he has "no doubt" the administration under Biden will "bow" to Iran by rejoining the nuclear deal and lifting sanctions reimposed on them by Trump.

Only a few days later, satellite photos obtained by the Associated Press appeared to show new construction underway at Iran's underground nuclear site at Fordo, another breach of the agreement.

Iran seizes oil tanker, ramps up uranium enrichment to near-nuclear weapon levels



Iran has begun enriching uranium at 20% — a technical step away from the 90% level needed to produce a nuclear weapon — at its underground facility at Fordo, officials in the country announced Monday.

What are the details?

The regime had previously been enriching uranium at 4.5%, which is still in violation of its 2015 nuclear agreement, though at a significantly lower level, NBC News reported.

The move is the latest in a series of escalating actions against the West and comes on the same day that Iran's Revolutionary Guard seized a South Korean oil tanker in the Strait of Hormuz.

The news also comes just days after satellite photos obtained by the Associated Press showed new construction under way at the facility. Under the nuclear pact, Iran is not permitted to enrich uranium at over 3.5% and is not permitted to enrich uranium at all at its Fordo site, which is located deep within a mountain near the holy city of Qom.

In exchange for limiting enrichment, Iran receives sanctions relief from other parties to the deal: France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia, and China.

President Donald Trump removed the United States from the agreement in 2018, arguing the regime could not be trusted and was in fact continuing to construct a bomb in spite of the pact's restrictions.

What else?

Iran has been ramping up its aggressive rhetoric and actions against the U.S. in the waning days of the Trump administration, making some worry that a military conflict may soon commence.

Just last week, top Iranian officials suggested they may attempt to assassinate Trump in retaliation for U.S. forces killing terrorist leader Qassem Soleimani in a drone strike a year ago. Soleimani was the commander of the elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, which is designated a terrorist organization by the U.S.

At the same time, U.S. military leaders said they were bracing for an attack as the anniversary of Soleimani's death approached.

Anything else?

Officials in Iran apparently feel much better about their prospects with new leadership coming to the White House.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani recently bragged he has "no doubt" the incoming U.S. administration under Democratic President-elect Joe Biden will "bow" to Iran and rejoin the nuclear deal forged when Biden was vice president.

While on the campaign trail, Biden indicated he would rejoin the deal as a starting point for future negotiations with the terror-sponsoring regime.

Satellite photos show Iran building something new at underground nuclear site as Iranian president boasts Biden will 'bow' and re-enter nuclear deal



Satellite photos obtained by the Associated Press on Friday reportedly show new construction underway at Iran's underground nuclear site at Fordo.

Though the purpose of the building project is not yet known, the news will almost certainly trigger new concerns in the United States especially as Democratic President-elect Joe Biden signals he is open to re-entering the nuclear deal forged in 2015 when he was vice president.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani bragged Thursday that he has "no doubt" the incoming U.S. administration under Biden will "bow" to Iran by rejoining the nuclear deal and lifting sanctions reimposed on the country by President Trump.

Iran has not publicly acknowledged the new construction, which the AP said began in late September, but the country has acknowledged re-upping its nuclear activities of late arguing that the U.S. departure in 2018 from the deal frees them from its obligations. The remaining countries to the agreement — Germany, France, Britain, China and Russia — continue to try and keep it from collapsing.

The news agency reported earlier this week that "Iran is now in violation of most major restrictions set out in the agreement, including the amount of enriched uranium it is allowed to stockpile and the purity to which it is allowed to enrich uranium."

Here's more from the Friday report:

Satellite images obtained from Maxar Technologies by the AP show the construction taking place at a northwest corner of the site, near the holy Shiite city of Qom some 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Tehran.

A Dec. 11 satellite photo shows what appears to be a dug foundation for a building with dozens of pillars. Such pillars can be used in construction to support buildings in earthquake zones.

The construction site sits northwest of Fordo's underground facility, built deep inside a mountain to protect it from potential airstrikes. The site is near other support and research-and-development buildings at Fordo.

Among those buildings is Iran's National Vacuum Technology Center. Vacuum technology is a crucial component of Iran's uranium-gas centrifuges, which enrich uranium.

The new construction was reportedly first unearthed by a Twitter account called Observer IL, who posted an image online this week, citing South Korea's Korea Aerospace Research Institute. The account owner identified himself to the AP as a retired Israeli Defense Forces soldier but asked that his name not be published.

#Fordow Uranium Enrichment Plan #IRAN - New construction activity located in the support/R&D area, 350 meters East… https://t.co/GXIYPV8VjK
— Observer IL (@Observer IL)1608131055.0

U.S. officials have long suspected that the Fordo nuclear site has a military purpose, but Iran has maintained the highly dubious claim that it is not interested in creating a nuclear weapon.

Due to the suspicion around activities at Fordo, Iran expert Jeffrey Lewis, who studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies, told the AP that "any changes at this site will be carefully watched as a sign of where Iran's nuclear program is headed."

"This location was a major sticking point in negotiations leading to the Iran nuclear deal," he added. "The U.S. insisted Iran close it while Iran's supreme leader said keeping it was a red line."

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