WarSclerotic

Source: Iran completes facility to build centrifuges

Iran has completed a facility to build advanced centrifuges, Iran’s nuclear chief was quoted on Sunday as saying, as Tehran prepares to increase its uranium-enrichment capacity if the nuclear deal collapses after the United States exits.

In June, Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the facility at the Natanz nuclear plant would be completed within a month.

Salehi’s statement in June came days after Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he had ordered preparations to increase the country’s uranium enrichment capacity if the nuclear agreement with world powers collapsed.

Ali Akbar Salehi (Photo: AP)

On Sunday, the official news agency IRNA quoted Salehi as saying: “(Ayatollah Khamenei) had ordered us to set up and complete a very advanced hall for the construction of modern centrifuges, and this hall has now been fully equipped and set up.”

Salehi said Iran’s announced plans to build nuclear reactors for ships, while staying within the limits set by its atomic deal with major powers, was “advancing well but would take 10 to 15 years to complete”, IRNA said.

“A third step (in reaction to the US withdrawal) might be to suspend some of the limitations within the nuclear agreement, for example on the volume and level of enrichment,” Salehi said, according to IRNA.

“And the final scenario can be a complete exit from the nuclear accord, which I hope will never happen, with the help of (remaining signatories), because everyone would suffer,” Salehi added.

Iranian officials have said they would decide whether to quit the 2015 nuclear deal after studying a planned European package of economic measures that could help offset US sanctions.

When asked what he thinks Trump was trying to achieve by withdrawing from the nuclear deal, Salehi replied that he believes Trump is attempting to reverse all decisions made by of his predecessor Barack Obama’s, and “break the spirit of Iran.”

“He has decided to sabotage the US relationship with Cuba, and hurt the Climate Deal,” said Salehi.

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (Photo: Reuters)

“Trump has always believed that the nuclear accord was bad for the US and its allies in the Middle East, Israel and Saudi Arabia,” he continued.

Following Iranian President Hassan Rouhani’s statement on Saturday saying that the United States is continually sending messages to the Islamic republic asking it to begin negotiations, Salehi implied that Trump has a lot to gain from such a move.

“Trump understands Iran’s power, and can become a legend in his own lifetime if he manages to sign a new financial and political agreement with it,” Iran’s nuclear chief opined.

Salehi also said that Iran was willing to discuss other matters alongside the nuclear deal but Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei refused, saying the US cannot be trusted since it breaks all of its promises. “Trump quitting the deal reinforces that decision,” he said.

“Even prior to the nuclear deal, Khamenei approved sporadic talks with US officials. Iranian and US ambassadors secretly met in Baghdad,” Salehi disclosed.

He added that Khamenei have said recently that the meeting between Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and Former US Secretary of State John Kerry was a mistake, since he did not approve it personally.

They must have changed the name of the operation, it was “Operation Orchard” previously I believe.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/air-force-marks-planes-to-commemorate-bombing-syria-reactor-in-2007/

At Hatzerim Air Base ceremony, stickers with the operation’s symbol placed on F-15i and F-16i jets that destroyed facility in Deir el-Zour

The Israeli Air Force marked the 11-year anniversary of its destruction of Bashar Assad’s secret nuclear reactor, in a ceremony that saw special markings placed on the warplanes that took part in the strike.

The strike against the reactor in the Deir el-Zour region of Syria took place on the night between September 5 and 6, 2007, but was only officially acknowledged by Israel earlier this year. The reactor had become operational a short time earlier, leading then-prime minister Ehud Olmert to order its destruction.

Three squadrons took part in the attack, dubbed by the military “Operation Outside the Box”: Squadron 69, known as “Hapatishim,” or “The Hammers” flying F-15i fighters; Squadron 119, “Ha’atalef,” or “The Bat” and Squadron 253, “The Negev,” flying F-16is.

The ceremony at the Hatzerim Air Force Base, west of Beersheba, saw the marking of the planes from squadrons 69 and 253. Squadron 119’s planes will be marked in a separate ceremony on September 14.

Pilots who took part in the operation, technical crews who armed the planes in 2007 and the commander of Squadron 69, Lt. Col. G., placed on the planes stickers bearing the symbol of the operation, the army said in a statement.

The symbol includes a triangle, symbolizing an attack and painted in the colors of the Syrian flag, with a radioactivity symbol at its center, symbolizing the nuclear reactor.

Below this article from the JPost I have copied in a link to the source Foreign Policy article.

The picture of the tanks is from the FP article. I wouldn’t mind having a large version of this pic up on my wall at home….

https://www.jpost.com/Arab-Israeli-Conflict/Foreign-report-Israel-aids-rebels-to-fight-Iran-proxy-and-Isis-566713

According to foreign reports, Israel’s aim in providing weapons and cash to rebel groups in Operation Good Neighbor was to keep troops belonging to Hezbollah and Iran away from Israel’s border.

Israel reportedly armed and funded at least 12 rebel groups in southern Syria to prevent Iranian-sponsored insurgents affiliated with Islamic State from becoming embedded near the Golan, according to a report in Foreign Policy magazine.

Testimonies from more than 20 commanders in Foreign Policy noted that Israel supplied the weapons and cash to rebel groups throughout “Operation Good Neighbor” – launched in 2016 and shut down in July once the Assad regime regained control of the Syrian side of the Golan Heights – to keep troops belonging to Hezbollah and Iran away from the border of the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights.

On Monday, the IDF maintained its position that the IDF did not interfere in the Syrian Civil War.

In addition to allocating funds for Syrian insurgents to purchase arms on the Syrian black market, Israel reportedly paid $75 monthly per soldier, according to testimonies from journalists and rebel fighters in Syria.

Through Operation Good Neighbor, the Israeli military provided more than 1,524 tons of food, 250 tons of clothes, 947,520 liters of fuel, 21 generators, 24,900 palettes of medical equipment and medicine.

Reports first surfaced of Israel providing arms and cash to rebel groups several years ago. The regime of Bashar Assad claimed Israel was providing arms to terrorist groups, and that its forces regularly seized arms and munitions stamped in Hebrew.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Israel had been arming at least seven different rebel groups in Syria’s Golan Heights, including the Fursan al-Joulan rebel group which had around 400 fighters and was given an estimated $5,000 per month by Israel. “Israel stood by our side in a heroic way,” the group’s spokesperson, Moatasem al-Golani, told the The Wall Street Journal in a January 2017 report. “We wouldn’t have survived without Israel’s assistance.”

Israel has repeatedly warned against Iran’s entrenchment in Syria, has stressed that the country cannot serve as an Iranian forward operating base, and warned against Damascus becoming a way station for arms smuggling to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

While Israel’s military had been carrying out operations against Iranian targets in Syria for several years, its extent only became public after an IAF F-16 was downed by Syrian air defenses in February.

On Monday, the military announced that in the past year and half alone, Israel has carried out 200 strikes against Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria.

Last year former Israel Air Force head Maj.-Gen. (res.) Amir Eshel stated that the IAF carried out 100 airs trikes in Syria over the past five years.

The Syrian army, backed by Russian airpower and Iranian Shi’ite militia fighters, has recaptured large swathes of territory formerly held by rebels, and is now believed to have control over 70% of the war-torn country.

While Syrian troops have once again been deployed to the border with Israel, in order to prevent an escalation between the two enemy countries, Russian military police have been deployed along the Golan Heights border along with UN Peacekeepers.

Inside Israel’s Secret Program to Back Syrian Rebels

Inside Israel’s Secret Program to Back Syrian Rebels

Article from a few days ago…

U.S. Seizes Thousands of Iranian Weapons From Mystery Ship

September 6, 2018

U.S. military officials confirmed Thursday the seizure of more than 2,000 Iranian arms stockpiles that had been stashed on a mystery ship floating in international waters near the Gulf of Aden.

The seizure of the ship was first announced last week, but at the time Central Command officials said the origin of the weapons was unclear.

This afternoon, Centcom confirmed the USS Jason Dunham, a guided missile destroyer stationed in waters near the Persian Gulf, had discovered 2,521 AK-47 rifles “that plausibly derive from Iranian stockpiles, according to Conflict Armament.”

The stateless skiff was first discovered floating in the Gulf of Aden on Aug. 28.

“As a part of our counter-trafficking mission, we are actively involved in searching for illegal weapons shipments of all kinds,” Vice Adm. Scott Stearney, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Central Command, U.S. 5th Fleet, and the Combined Maritime Forces, said at the time. “Ensuring the free flow of commerce for legitimate traffic and countering malign actors at sea continue to be paramount to the U.S. Navy and its regional partners and allies.”

The mystery ship “was determined to be stateless following a flag verification boarding, conducted in accordance with international law,” according to U.S. military officials. “The origin and intended destination of the skiff have not yet been determined.”

This is the fourth weapons seizure in the area since 2015.

“Over the centuries, the Jewish people have suffered unthinkable persecution, yet you have not only endured, you have thrived and flourished as an example of humankind”

Never a truer word has been said.

Jewish People Have ‘Flourished and Thrived as an Example of Humankind,’ Trump Declares in Rosh Hashanah Message

US President Donald Trump spoke once again of his “personal connection” to Judaism on Thursday, as he held a telephone call with American Jewish leaders to mark Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year which begins on Sunday night.

“I am the very proud father of a Jewish daughter, Ivanka, and my son-in-law, who I’m very proud of also — I will say that very loudly — Jared, and my several Jewish grandchildren, namely three beautiful Jewish grandchild that I love,” Trump declared.

Over a period of 20 minutes, the president spoke glowingly about Jewish contributions to the US, his efforts to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, the recent deportation to Germany of Nazi collaborator Jakiw Palij, and his determination to combat antisemitism in America.

“Over the centuries, the Jewish people have suffered unthinkable persecution, yet you have not only endured, you have thrived and flourished as an example of humankind,” Trump said.

On Israel, Trump emphasized that he had “kept my promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, as we have since moved our embassy to Tel Aviv to its rightful home in the holy city.”

Regarding his peace efforts, Trump praised his team’s progress on the issue. “Ambassador Friedman, Jason [Greenblatt], Jared [Kushner], and others are working hard to reach a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians.”

Said Trump: “All my life I’ve heard that’s the hardest deal to make, and I’m starting to believe that maybe it is. But I will say that if it can be delivered, we will deliver it.”

Both Kushner and Friedman were present on the call, along with Norm Coleman, the chairman of the Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC), and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, a Jewish Democrat now widely viewed as a Trump confidante. “It’s an honor to be asking you a question,” Dershowitz told the president, going on to inquire whether the Jewish community should “be optimistic that you can help bring about a peaceful resolution of the conflict that we all pray for all the time?”

“I think the answer to that is a very strong yes,” Trump responded.

While there was no discussion of the current storm over an anonymous oped by a White House official in The New York Times that accused Trump of acting “in a manner that is detrimental to the health of our republic,” Trump was candid in his explanation of his evolving policy toward Iran.

“I had a secretary of state that didn’t like terminating [the 2015 Iran nuclear deal],” Trump said, referring to his first selection for that post, Rex Tillerson, who was fired in March. “I played that little game for a while, and then ultimately I decided I’m just doing it. And I did it.”

Withdrawing from the Iran deal had “a tremendously positive impact on, I think really, world security — because Iran is no longer the same country,” Trump added. “From the day I did it, they’ve lost their mojo.” [Hahahah!]

Peter KORZUN | 07.09.2018 |

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/09/07/new-alliance-emerges-in-eastern-mediterranean-reshape-regional-security-landscape.html

The military-political landscape in Europe and the Mediterranean is changing. NATO is not as unified as it once was, and Turkey’s membership has become more of a formality than a real thing. A pro-US group consisting of Great Britain, Poland, and the Baltic States has emerged as part of a North Atlantic Alliance that is divided by differences and the open rift over the 2% financial contribution, a decree that is largely ignored, along with the other divisions that are weakening the bloc. Other groups are arising that also have common security interests. A new pact, an Arab NATO allied with the United States, will soon materialize in the Middle East.  Changes are coming, but they are hard to predict as everything is currently in a state of flux.

“The United States is interested in increasing its use of military bases and ports in Greece,” said General Joseph Dunford, the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS), on Sept. 4 during his visit to Athens.  “If you look at geography, and you look at current operations in Libya, and you look at current operations in Syria, you look at potential other operations in the eastern Mediterranean, the geography of Greece and the opportunities here are pretty significant,” he added. According to the Military Times, “[N]o specific bases have been identified, but that Supreme Allied Commander Europe Army Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti is evaluating several options for increased US flight training, port calls to do forward-based ship repairs and additional multilateral exercises.” US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross came to Greece right after the CJCS’s visit to take part in the annual Thessaloniki International Trade Fair.

Washington’s relations with Ankara continue to deteriorate. The idea of expelling Turkey from NATO is being discussed in the most prestigious American media outlets. The view that Ankara is more of an adversary than an ally is commonly held among American pundits.  General Dunford pointedly did not include Turkey on his itinerary, as top US military officials would normally do in order to maintain balance in their relationship with Athens and Ankara. This is a clear message to Turkey.

It was reported in May that the US military had started to operate MQ-9 aerial vehicles out of Greece’s Larissa military base.  That same month, the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier was one of the American ships making a port call. Greece’s Souda Bay naval base is being used to support US operations in Syria. US Ambassador to Greece Geoffrey Pyatt has often cited the strategic significance of the ports of Alexandroupolis and Thessaloniki.

Washington is interested in helping the Greek military conduct more effective operations in the Aegean and the Mediterranean. Greece is a crucial element in dealing with the challenges of the Eastern Med, the Maghreb, the Balkans, and the Black Sea region.

There can be no doubt that Ankara’s dispute with Cyprus and Israel over drilling rights in the Mediterranean was also on the agenda of the talks during Gen. Dunford’s visit, although no comments were made to the media in regard to this issue. Greece wants to transform Alexandroupoli into a hub for the gas being exported from Israel and Cyprus to Europe. The pipeline’s approximate length is between 1,300 to 2,000 kilometers, and it will begin in Israel and cross through the territories of Cyprus, Crete and Greece to eventually end in Italy. The hub will also have a rail link to Bulgaria. A floating LNG reception, storage, and regasification unit will be part of this project, to make it possible to bring in US LNG supplies.

The planned route of the EastMed pipeline, a project supported by the EU, will bypass Turkey, despite the increased cost. Ankara will hardly sit idly by and watch this turn of events. Turkey claims that part of the exclusive economic zone of Cyprus is under Turkish jurisdiction.  According to Turkey’s President Erdogan, the “Eastern Mediterranean faces a security threat should Cyprus continue its unilateral operations of offshore oil and gas exploration in the region.” The countries involved in the project may need US protection and help in order for this to come to fruition.

For the US, strengthening its relations with Greece means expanding support for the emerging Greece-Israel-Cyprus Eastern Mediterranean Alliance (EMA) that has been driven by the discovery of hydrocarbons in Israeli and Cypriot waters and by opposition to Turkey. As Ambassador Pyatt put it, “Americans are back in a really big way.”

A year ago the US opened its first permanent military base in Israel run by the US military’s European Command (EUCOM). Officially, the primary mission of the air-defense facility located inside the Israeli Air Force’s Mashabim air base, west of the towns of Dimona and Yerucham, is to detect and warn of a possible ballistic missile attack from Iran. This is part of a broader process as a new military alliance with its own infrastructure emerges.

In 2015, Greece and Israel signed a military cooperation agreement. Bilateral and trilateral military drills, such as Nobel Dina, a multinational joint air and sea exercise conducted under the partnership of Greece, Israel, and the United States, have become routine. In March 2014, Israel opened a new military attaché office in Greece to signify this ever-closer relationship.

Israel has a strong defense and military relationship with Cyprus. The three nations are pledging deeper military ties, in keeping with the declaration they issued at the first-ever trilateral defense summit last year.  Both Greece and Cyprus are EU members and Israel needs allies within the bloc. Greece opposed the EU’s decision to label products from Israel’s settlements. In May, the leaders of the three allied Eastern Mediterranean nations paid a joint visit to Washington.

Albania, Greece’s neighbor, has recently offered to establish a US military base on its soil. Albania‘s defense minister, Olta Xhacka, made the proposal in April during her visit to Washington.

Of all the members of the emerging alliance, only Israel is not a NATO member, but it’s an enhanced partner and a member of the Mediterranean Dialogue. What we actually have is a new alliance within the alliance, which was unofficially established to counter Turkey, a full-fledged NATO member.  Under the circumstances, it would only be natural for Ankara to distance itself from NATO to move toward Russia, Iran, China, the SCO, and, perhaps, the Eurasian Union.

The alliance of the US and the three Eastern Mediterranean states has emerged as a political and military “petite entente,” a force to be reckoned with at a time when NATO is facing serious challenges to its unity and the EU’s future is in question.

The two large entities that bring together nations sharing the same “values,” or the desire to counter China or Russia, are giving way to smaller groups of countries pursuing shared regional interests, thus undermining the very concept of what is known as the United West.

Source: Trump Administration to Close Palestine Liberation Organization Office in Washington – WSJ

National security adviser John Bolton also plans to threaten sanctions against International Criminal Court, in a Monday speech

The Palestine Liberation Organization Office in Washington, D.C. PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES

87 COMMENTS

By

Michael R. Gordon

Updated Sept. 10, 2018 12:10 a.m. ET

WASHINGTON—The Trump administration is expected to announce Monday that it will close the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington, administration officials said Sunday night, widening a U.S. campaign of pressure amid stalled Middle East peace efforts.

“The United States will always stand with our friend and ally, Israel,” national security adviser John Bolton planned to say in prepared remarks he is scheduled to deliver Monday, according a draft reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

“The Trump administration will not keep the office open when the Palestinians refuse to start direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel,” he planned to add.

PLO mission officials couldn’t be reached for comment late Sunday.

Mr. Bolton also planned to threaten to impose sanctions against the International Criminal Court if it moves ahead with investigations of the U.S. and Israel.

“If the court comes after us, Israel or other allies, we will not sit quietly,” Mr. Bolton planned to say, according to his prepared remarks.

Among the responses, Mr. Bolton says, the U.S. would ban ICC judges and prosecutors from entering the country.

“We will sanction their funds in the U.S. financial system, and we will prosecute them in the U.S. criminal system,” Mr. Bolton adds. “We will do the same for any company or state that assists an ICC investigation of Americans.”

The PLO office in Washington has long been the focus of controversy. The Trump administration warned last year that it might close the office after Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbascalled for the investigation and prosecution of Israeli officials by the ICC and other bodies.

Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian Authority negotiator responded at the time that such a move would undermine prospects for peace. The PLO opened its mission in Washington in 1994 and joined the ICC after receiving observer state status at the U.N. in 2012.

Explaining the decision to close the PLO office, Mr. Bolton planned to say that it reflects longstanding congressional concerns with Palestinian efforts to prompt an ICC investigation of Israel, according to his prepared remarks.

The closure follows other steps by the Trump administration that have angered Palestinians, including moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and ending funding for the U.N. agency that helps Palestinian refugees.

Mr. Bolton planned to say, however, that the Trump administration is still committed to negotiating a peace accord between Israel and the Palestinians.

“The United States supports a direct and robust peace process, and we will not allow the ICC, or any other organization, to constrain Israel’s right to self-defense,” he planned to say, according to the prepared remarks.

The ICC recently said it has jurisdiction to investigate Myanmar officials for the violence against the Muslim Rohingya minority. It also has pursued charges of genocide against people in the former Yugoslavia, Rwanda and the Darfur region of Sudan.

The U.S. and Russia aren’t members of The Hague-based court, formed under an international treaty, and the Philippines has moved to quit it.

In the U.S., the ICC has long been the bane of conservatives, including Mr. Bolton, who consider it biased against the U.S. and a danger to U.S. sovereignty. Mr. Bolton is scheduled to deliver his speech, “Protecting American Constitutionalism and Sovereignty from International Threats,” to the Federalist Society, a conservative group, on Monday.

A particular concern has been a request last year by the ICC prosecutor to investigate U.S. military and Central Intelligence Agency personnel who served in Afghanistan for alleged detainee abuse and possibly other war crimes.

In the prepared remarks planned for Monday, Mr. Bolton offers an extended critique of the court, which he asserts is rife with abuses, and vows that the U.S. will use “any means necessary” to protect American citizens and those of friendly allies from prosecution by the court.

If the court moves against the U.S. or its allies, he planned to say, the administration will negotiate binding agreements to prohibit other nations from turning over U.S. citizens to the court.

Nations that cooperate with ICC investigations of the U.S. and its allies will also risk losing foreign aid and military assistance, he will state, according to the prepared remarks.

Other responses, he warned, include economic sanctions against the court itself. The U.S., he said, also will consider asking the U.N. Security Council to constrain the court’s authority.

ICC officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Write to Michael R. Gordon at michael.gordon@wsj.com

Appeared in the September 10, 2018, print edition as ‘U.S. to Oust PLO From Washington.’

Source: Iran nuclear chief: New Natanz nuclear facility producing advanced centrifuges | The Times of Israel

Ali Akbar Salehi says Tehran mulling withdrawal from 2015 nuclear deal, warns ‘everyone will suffer’ if accord collapses entirely

By TOI STAFFToday, 4:33 am 

Iranian nuclear chief Ali Akbar Salehi told state media on Sunday that a facility to produce advanced centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear plant has been completed.

Salehi, the head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization, told the official IRNA news agency that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali “Khamenei ordered us to set up and complete a very advanced hall for the construction of modern centrifuges, and this hall has now been fully equipped and set up,” according to Reuters.

Salehi said Khamenei also ordered the development of nuclear-powered ships, and that project would take 10-15 years to complete.

Though he said the nuclear-powered ships and new centrifuges would operate within the limits of the nuclear deal Iran signed with world powers, Salehi warned that Tehran was considering abandoning the accord in the wake of the US withdrawal earlier this year.

Salehi suggested Iran “might… suspend some of the limitations within the nuclear agreement, for example on the volume and level of enrichment.”

Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz,300 kms 186 (miles) south of capital Tehran, Iran, April, 9, 2007. (Hasan Sarbakhshian/AP)

“And the final scenario can be a complete exit from the nuclear accord, which I hope will never happen, with the help of [the remaining signatories], because everyone would suffer,” he was quoted as saying.

Under the 2015 deal — which limits Iran’s nuclear program in return for sanctions relief — Tehran is allowed to build and test parts for advanced centrifuges with certain restrictions on quantity.

Following the withdrawal of the United States in May, the other parties — Britain, France, Germany, China, Russia and the EU — have vowed to provide Iran with enough economic benefits to keep the agreement alive.

But Tehran is increasingly skeptical that those countries can counter the effects of renewed US sanctions, which have already battered Iran’s economy.

Iran has repeatedly said it will resume high-level uranium enrichment if the agreement falls apart.

In this picture released by his office’s official website, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks at a meeting in Tehran, Iran, on August 13, 2018. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)

Earlier this month, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said Iran should be ready to “set aside” the agreement if it is no longer in the country’s national interests.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has repeatedly stated that Iran is sticking to its commitments.

The administration of US President Donald Trump says the deal did not prevent Iran from eventually working towards a nuclear weapon — which Tehran has denied it is seeking.

Agencies contributed to this report.