WarSclerotic

 Nov 2, 2021 @ 12:042015 nuclear accord, Barack Obama, Joe Biden, negotiations, Nuclear Iran

The US has dropped demands for Iran to halt ballistic missile development and regional destabilization aggression from the drive to renegotiate a nuclear deal with Iran. This was indicated by US President Joe Biden at the G20 summit taking place last week in Rome. He merely “pledged” that “if the US returns to the Iran nuclear agreement, it will only subsequently leave if Tehran clearly breaks the terms of the deal.”

These demands were integral to Israel’s support for the diplomatic path Biden has advocated for the resolving the issue of a nuclear-armed Iran.

However, the European signatories of the original 2015 nuclear accord (JCPOA) hailed this pledge as the key to unlocking the diplomatic impasse reached on the Vienna track. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and the UK’s Boris Johnson stated: “We welcome President Biden’s clearly demonstrated commitment to return the US to full compliance with the JCPOA and to stay in full compliance, so long as Iran does the same.”

No wonder Tehran was suddenly accommodating and agreed to resuming negotiations next month..

Seen from Israel, the Biden administration has backtracked from its earlier acceptance of the need to restrain Iran’s regional belligerence and ballistic missiles, along with the drive for a nuclear weapon capability:

1. Iran has already committed numerous breaches of the terms of the 2015 accord, stripping it of content by strides forward its nuclear goal. What do Biden, Johnson, Merkel and Macron propose to do to turn Iran’s nuclear clock back as well as their own?
2. How much is the Biden pledge worth if his presidency ends in 2024? It won’t be binding on his successors since the Senate has never endorsed the JCPOA and indeed it was never formally signed by Barack Obama and rested only his personal pledge which Biden now offers to renew.
3. By reverting to the Obama position, Biden too is ready to give Iran free rein on its ballistic missile program and regional warmongering by using terrorist organizations like the Lebanese Hizballah the Iraqi Shiite militias and Yemen’s Houthi rebels.

These omissions from Washington’s Iran agenda concern Israel no less than the nuclear issue.

Tehran, for its part, did not miss seizing the moment as a chance to push all the way back to the starting point. Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian said succinctly: “There is no need for the negotiation and the simplest solution is for Biden to issue an executive order saying he was returning to the nuclear deal and lifting sanctions.” In other words, eliminating Donald Trump’s “maximum pressure” policy and reverting to Barack Obama’s conciliatory mode.

However, in assumping that Biden had totally abandoned all military options, Tehran may have jumped the gun – especially when it comes to American lives or interests,

On Oct. 30, the US President also said: “With regard to the issue of how we’re going to respond to actions taken by them against the interests of the United States – whether they’re drone strikes or anything else – is we’re going to respond, and we’re going to continue to respond.”

He was referring to the pro-Iranian combined armed drone-artillery assault of Oct. 20 on the US garrison at al-Tanf in southern Syria on the Iraq and Jordanian borders. Washington had made no response until then. The delay may have occurred in view of the president’s long absence from Washington at the G20 summit and the climate conference in Glasgow.  However, the impression gained in Tehran was of an American president who was vacillating on resorting to military action in the face of aggression.

State media says surface-to-surface rockets launched from northern Israel caused ‘material damage,’ no casualties; attack comes days after rare daytime strike in same region

By JUDAH ARI GROSS and TOI STAFFToday, 3:38 am  

Illustrative: A Syrian anti-aircraft missile is fired into sky near Damascus during an alleged Israeli airstrike on January 6, 2021. (Screen capture: SANA)

The Israeli military struck targets using surface-to-surface missiles near the Syrian capital of Damascus early Wednesday morning, Syrian media reported.

The SANA news agency said the missiles hit sites in the Zakia region outside Damascus and caused “material damage” shortly before 1 a.m. on Wednesday. The outlet gave no details on the targets that were hit, and there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Syrian media reported that the strike was carried out with surface-to-surface missiles fired from northern Israel, similar to an alleged Israeli attack conducted earlier this week.

There was no comment from the Israel Defense Forces, in line with its policy of ambiguity regarding its activities in Syria.

Israel’s alleged use of surface-to-surface missiles — in place of munitions fired from aircraft — has been linked to a recent meeting between Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Russian President Vladimir Putin, one of Syrian dictator Bashar Assad’s main allies who has supplied much of Damascus’s air defense system. To avoid embarrassing Russia and its military technology, Israel reportedly agreed to rely less on airstrikes, which had repeatedly defeated the Russian batteries.Get The Times of Israel’s Daily Editionby email and never miss our top storiesNewsletter email addressGET ITBy signing up, you agree to the terms

The reported strike comes some three days after the Israeli military bombed a number of locations surrounding Damascus in a rare daytime strike, according to Syrian media, reportedly targeting advanced weapons heading to the Hezbollah terror group and other Iranian proxies.

SANA said those strikes were carried out using surface-to-surface missiles fired from northern Israel and that explosions were heard in the countryside surrounding the Syrian capital.

Strikes were reported in the areas of al-Dimas, Qudsaya and al-Mezzah military air base — all located west of Damascus. Although not unheard of, daytime strikes on Syrian targets are relatively rare.

The United Kingdom-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a pro-opposition group of unclear funding, said Saturday’s raid killed at least five pro-Iranian fighters and wounded others. The nationalities of the people killed were not immediately known.

According to the Observatory and Syrian media reports, the strike targeted advanced weaponry and ammunition depots belonging to Hezbollah, Iranian forces and allied militias.

There was no comment from the Israel Defense Forces, in line with its policy of only publicly acknowledging strikes that are in response to attacks from Syria.

The targets of the strike were all located in areas known to host Syrian air defenses as well as arms warehouses.

Israeli officials have expressed increasing concern over the proliferation of Iranian-made surface-to-air missile systems in Syria, as well as the Syrian military’s improved air defense capabilities, which have made it more difficult for the IDF to operate over Syria.

Israel has carried out hundreds of airstrikes inside Syria over the course of the country’s civil war, targeting what it says are suspected arms shipments believed to be bound for Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group, which is fighting alongside Syrian government forces.