Tag Archive for: IAF

Trump Defies Expectations: The Peacemaker the World Never Saw Coming

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President Donald J. Trump has once again done the unthinkable — demonstrating his willingness to pursue peace over conflict and proving his critics wrong. For years, Democrats and the liberal media painted Trump as a reckless leader who would strip away freedoms and plunge the world into chaos. During the 2016 presidential debates, Secretary Hillary Clinton warned that a man with Trump’s temperament would “create more wars than peace.” Yet today, history tells a different story.

Rather than ignite conflict, President Trump has worked tirelessly to prevent wars and resolve long-standing disputes. The recent truce between Hamas and Israel stands as a testament to his resilience and his relentless desire to achieve peace at all costs. In an era where many world leaders have struggled to restore stability in the Middle East, Trump has once again proven that decisive leadership and unconventional diplomacy can deliver results.

Democrats, who once mocked his foreign policy, must now confront a hard truth: the war that spiraled under their watch could have been avoided if the United States had maintained its rightful position of global leadership. Some prominent Democrats — including Secretary Hillary Clinton, Vice President Kamala Harris, President Bill Clinton, President Joe Biden, and Senators John Fetterman and Tim Kaine — have acknowledged Trump’s historic achievement. Their recognition, though belated, underscores the magnitude of this moment in American and global politics.

However, not everyone within the Democratic Party seems ready to face reality. Members of the far-left congressional group known as The Squad — Rashida Tlaib, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and former members Jamaal Bowman and Cori Bush — were once vocal advocates for a “Free Palestine” and demanded an immediate ceasefire during Trump’s administration. Yet now, when a genuine ceasefire has been achieved, their silence is deafening. It raises the question: were their protests truly about peace, or about the attention and political theater that came with them?

In the end, one fact stands tall above the noise — the real president has made peace. Whether Democrats choose to align with this new reality or continue down a path of denial will determine not just their party’s future, but America’s standing as a global leader in peace and diplomacy.

©2025 . All rights reserved.

RELATED VIDEO: Thank you to the brave IDF soldiers who fought bravely for two years, and won!

Israeli General Avivi On Iran’s Many Miscalculations

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Israeli Brig. Gen. (Ret’d) Amir Avivi has published here a piece on Iran’s many mistakes that made the IDF’s stunning successes in its war with the Islamic Republic possible.

In just under two weeks—and after years of mounting pressure—Iran has suffered a series of devastating blows. Key military commanders and nuclear scientists have been killed, strategic infrastructure and nuclear sites destroyed, and the regime’s grip on power shaken. Iran’s once-feared regional influence has revealed itself to be lacking, with its proxies unable or unwilling to act on their sponsor’s behalf.

Speaking to The Media Line hours before President Donald Trump announced a ceasefire between Israel and Iran, Brig. Gen. (res.) Amir Avivi told The Media Line that such a result wasn’t the predestined outcome of a clash between Iran and its archenemy, Israel. Had Iran acted more strategically, he said, the Islamic regime and its proxies probably “would have managed to bring Israel to the verge of destruction or destroy Israel.”

Avivi, founder and chair of the Israel Defense and Security Forum, described a series of miscalculations on the part of Iran that led to the regime’s significant losses. Chief among them was Hamas, an Iranian proxy group, initiating the October 7 attack before Iran had acquired nuclear weapons.

“They could have waited a year or two to become completely nuclear,” he said. “It would have been much wiser for them to move towards nuclear weapons while all the proxies are fully in readiness to attack. This would have put Israel, as it did for many years, in a big dilemma because then you attack Iran, you immediately go into a multifront war with all the proxies shooting at you at the same time.”

The October 7 attack by Hamas also lacked coordination with other fronts, a move Avivi says doomed it from the start.

“I remember at 6:30 in the morning when the war started, the first question I asked myself—as someone who is leading an organization that two years before the war, saw the war is coming—was why isn’t Hezbollah attacking? Why aren’t the Iranians attacking? How can it be only Hamas? Once it was only Hamas, I can tell you that four hours into the October 7, it was crystal clear to me they lost the war and we’re going to win decisively. They did a huge mistake,” he said.

Hezbollah joined the war the next day but without coordination, leading to what Avivi described as the group’s effective collapse….

“I don’t think they can really threaten anybody,” he said. “And I think that if they decide with the remaining capabilities they have to try to close Hormuz or shoot American bases or allies, Saudis maybe, Emirates, this will be the end of the regime….

Closing Hormuz would mean closing off the shipment of Emirati and Saudi oil to their customers. Neither Saudi Arabia nor the UAE would stand for that, but would attack Iranian shipping in the Gulf, and perhaps even Iran’s oil terminals at Kharg Island. Nor will the Iranians dare to attack American bases in the region; they lobbed a few missiles at the Al-Udeid airbase, but made sure none of them would cause damage, by warning the Qataris well in advance, and the result was what Trump described as a “very weak response.” But if the Iranians were again to attack American bases in the region, Trump has warned that they “would be hit so hard like you can’t believe.” And Israel’s multi-tiered defense system includes the Sling, Arrows 1,2, and 3 for short- and middle-range missiles, and the Iron Dome interceptors for long-range ballistic missiles.

Avivi insists that regime change in Iran cannot be imposed, but the conditions that would cause enough Iranians to rise up against their oppressive rulers can be created from outside. He offers the example of Hezbollah, battered by the IDF, and so weakened that the Lebanese army is at last now prepared to challenge Hezbollah militarily. The humiliation of Iran’s rulers who have suffered a devastating military defeat will weaken the regime’s power to intimidate the people. The spectacle of Iran’s nuclear program, that cost the country $500 billion in sunk costs and in other costs resulting from sanctions, blasted to smithereens, will certainly enrage Iranians, not only with the U.S. and Israel, but with their own rulers, for such a colossal waste of the country’s money.

Hamas, meanwhile, now knows there is no chance of any help coming to it from Iran, that has itself been knocked from pillar to post by the IDF and, most recently, by the US air force, and reduced to pleading for a ceasefire with Israel. Nor can Hezbollah, or Syria, help Hamas. It is on its own, and the IDF, no longer having to put its main effort into the war with Iran, can concentrate on dealing with the remnants of Hamas in Gaza, for whom the future will be — as was said of a different people in Gaza long ago — dark, dark, dark, amid the blaze of noon.

AUTHOR

 Hugh Fitzgerald

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

BREAKING: IDF and IAF Attack Yemen During Speech by Houthi leader

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An Israeli source confirms to Sky News in Arabic: We attacked the international airport in Sanaa. Another channel also reported an attack on the power plant in the area. 

According to initial reports in Yemen, there are deaths and injuries in attacks in the airport area.

The IAF attack in Yemen is spreading in several locations and is more widespread and affecting the country’s infrastructure.

Brief background leading up to IDF attack on Houthis

In recent days, there has been a real debate in Israel about how to respond to the Houthis’ aggression — whether to act directly against them and be satisfied with that, or whether to also act directly against Iran, as recommended by Mossad head Dedi Barnea.

Prime Minister Netanyahu, as we reported last night, expressed reservations about the Mossad head’s position and believed that direct action should be taken against the Houthis. “We will deal with Iran separately,” the Prime Minister said.

Senior officials in his entourage added that his position was formulated, among other things, in light of the additional challenges Israel now faces, including the changes in Syria.

ANALYSIS: This is the start of a campaign against Houthis

The current attack on Yemen is not just another one, but a new campaign that Israel will wage against the Houthis. As long as the terror on their part continues, the security establishment will continue to attack from the other side with great force.

Reports indicate that 7 attacks have been carried out on Sana’a and 3 attacks were carried out on the port city of Hodeidah.

“Our planes disabled the international airport in Sana’a by destroying its control tower, among other things. At the same time, they attacked the seaport in Hodeidah.”

In addition, the attack on Sana’a airport resulted in the destruction of several civilian aircraft.

WATCH: This is the start of an IDF and IAF campaign against the Houthis

YEMEN: 2nd wave begins: IAF attacks the airport in Hodeidah

Top Israeli officials: Our response is not complete

Reports of at least 10 attacks in Yemen’s capital and the port city of Hodeidah. The attacks are still on going!

Al-Arabiya reports: Dozens of Israeli Air Force planes are participating in the strikes

A senior Israeli official tells me: 

If the Houthis don’t understand with force, they will understand with more force. They had better draw the conclusions from what happened in Gaza and Lebanon as soon as possible.

Moriah Ashraf and Doron Kadosh — Telegram

In addition, a member of the political council of the terrorist organization Ansar Allah, Hizam al-Assad, tweeted on the social network X in Hebrew the words: “In times of trouble, even shelters will not save them.”

Sana’a airport has been shut down

There are reports coming in that the U.S. is participating in the attacks, unverified as yet. 

Sana’a airport was shut down, the runways were destroyed, the control tower was destroyed

Sources for Al Arabiya: Israel attacked the Houthi headquarters in Sanaa

An Israeli attack targeted the Ras Qutib power station, north of the city of Hodeidah.

EDITORS NOTE: This Newsrael News Desk column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

UNPRECEDENTED: Israel is Destroying the Army of Syria

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Many people have asked: After all the Israeli resilience, the special surprising attacks, the list of historic military achievements – what more can they do? Here we have the answer: Israel is, in a matter of days, aiming to destroy the infrastructure of the Syrian army. 

I don’t know how much headlines this has grabbed up to now in our endless news wave, but for those who haven’t noticed yet: Israel has been conducting an airstrike operation unprecedented in recent decades, for the destruction of a country’s army, in the last two days.

In hundreds of airstrikes that are going on this very minute, the air force destroys Assad’s army: tanks, planes, helicopters, ships, air defense systems, missiles, military factories, intelligence facilities, and everything that the army of the Syrian state has held and built for decades – is literally being destroyed in these days.

Israel made a strategic decision to destroy all advanced and strategic military capabilities remaining in Syria after the fall of the regime, and if this operation is completed successfully – the new rebel government will have to start from the beginning, with M16s and Kalashnikovs (Ak-47), to build their military capabilities as a new state.

NEWSRAEL: Someone is going to have to ask, one of these days: With the thousands of missions, with the hundreds of quality enemy air defense systems – How many Israeli jets have been shot down? The answer is ZERO. Think about that for a moment or two!

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EDITORS NOTE: This NEWSRAEL Editor column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Operational update on the IDF battle in Rafah

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NEWSRAEL: While National Security Advisor of the United States, Jake Sullivan is arriving today for talks in Israel — the Biden opposition to a Rafah operation is mute. Israel is in Rafah. Fact.

Despite the slow advance of the IDF to the center of Rafah, due to US envoy Sullivan’s visit, there is fighting and the cleaning of the neighborhoods that have been occupied so far in East Rafah.

Let’s hope that after Sullivan leaves the IDF will quickly advance to the center of Rafah, the Philadelphia axis is partially occupied (semi-fast) and the city itself is almost completely empty

  • The mayor of Rafah admits that since the beginning of the IDF operation, a total of over 950,000 refugees have evacuated from the city
  • Israeli tanks are advancing from the Brazil neighborhood towards the Kashta neighborhood and Saladin Gate
  • Tanks arrive at the Al-Shawi land in the Jenina neighborhood from the direction of the Al-Tanur neighborhood
  • Fighting around the eastern cemetery – at the end of the Jenina neighborhood, and in the Al-Tanur neighborhood (in orange)
  • Aerial bombings and artillery shelling in Jenina neighborhood, Al-Salam neighborhood, Brazil neighborhood, Kesheta neighborhood, Al-Balad neighborhood, Barbara neighborhood
  • The IDF blows up houses in East Rafah
  • The IDF found dozens of tunnel shafts in eastern Rafah

The occupation of Rafah expands — another division entered Rafah

The Reserve Brigade “Hangev” (12), entered Rafah and joins Givati, Commando and Brigade 401, now there are 4 brigades in Rafah — twice as many as at the beginning of the occupation of Rafah.

NEWSRAEL: It will be very interesting to talk with the National Security Advisor of the United States, Jake Sullivan who claimed earlier this month that it would take weeks to remove the residents of Gaza, and such an operation would mean “horrific cost of innocent lives”.

IDF BATTLE VIDEO: IAF takes out top Hamas officer

Abu-Daqa was an operative in the terrorist organization Hamas who served as a leading figure in the supply department of the terrorist organization Hamas and promoted the transfer of weapons and funds intended for terrorism in the Gaza Strip.

During the last day, the Air Force forces attacked dozens of terrorist targets, in one of the attacks an Air Force aircraft, directed by the 215th Fire Brigade, eliminated two commanders in the tactical level of the terrorist organization Hamas who were preparing to attack our forces in the Rafah area.

Dramatic IDF VIDEO of destruction of Rafah tunnel

IDF engineer unit blows up and destroys a large terror tunnel.

The 7th Brigade Combat Team fights in the heart of Jabaliya

IDF spokesperson: Identification and elimination of RPG squads, encounters with terrorists and destruction of launchers; The 7th Brigade Combat Team fights in the heart of the city of Jabaliya

The forces of the combat team of the 7th brigade are fighting in an intensive manner and are conducting battles with terrorists in the heart of the city of Jabaliya.

The fighters of Unit 636 and the fire complex of the 7th Brigade identify armed terrorist squads and direct attacks to eliminate them, and direct dozens of attacks to assist the forces operating on the ground.

The fighters located many weapons including explosives, anti-tank missiles, Kalashnikov-type weapons, anti-aircraft missiles and grenades.

Also, as part of the attack on Hamas’ launch capabilities, the forces located rocket launchers and a lathe for the production of weapons.

EDITORS NOTE: This 301 The Arab World column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

Did Iran Order the Rocket Attack from Syria on Northern Israel?

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Yesterday, four rockets fired from the Syrian side of the Golan frontier hit near Kfar Sold in Northern Israel causing fires in the area. In response the IAF dispatched aircraft and attacked 14 positions inside Syria, while the IDF on the Golan opened up artillery fire on suspected targets. According to aTimes of Israel  (TOI) report six civilians were killed, seven wounded in an IAF  attack on a vehicle 10 kilometers from the Syrian Israel frontier  in the Quneitra region of  Southern Syria.  That Israeli attack may have targeted members of a Palestinian Islamic Jihad cell. However, Daud Shihab a spokesman for the Palestinian Islamic Jihad continued claiming no responsibility for the attack. Nevertheless, he suggested that they knew were to attack saying:

We’ll know when to respond to an Israeli attack — and that will be where the Iron Dome was installed yesterday,” he said, referring to Israeli missile defense systems deployed the southern cities of Ashdod and Beersheba on Thursday.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights in London suggested five of the casualties may have been members of the National Defense Force.  Early Friday morning, August 21, 2015, the Syrian military fired a missile at an Israeli aircraft.

An IDF senior officer contend that the group behind these attacks the Palestinian Islamic Jihad based in Gaza, with headquarters in Damascus, was ordered by Iran to execute the attacks. The TOI cited an Israel source who said:

We were monitoring this cell and it was attacked some 10-15 kilometers from the border, on territory firmly in the control of the Syrian military. This is an Islamic Jihad cell directed by Iran.

The Iran-controlled Al-Mayadeen TV in Damascus reported that three of those killed were Palestinian.

The pretext for these attacks may have been the hunger strike, just ended, by an Israeli held prisoner, Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, Mohammed Allan. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad said it would undertake reprisal attacks of its own choosing in response to those killed and wounded in the Israel drone attack.  Israel PM Netanyahu cautioned that he didn’t want this incident to escalate into a wider conflict saying:

We have no intention of ratcheting up this confrontation, but our policy [of retaliating for attacks against Israeli civilians] remains as it was.

Notwithstanding Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said:

The strike against the cell was proof that Israel will not tolerate efforts to harm the security of its citizens.

“We have no intention of compromising on this issue, and I suggest no one test our resolve on this matter,” he said in a brief statement after the attack.

i24News reported  an IDF officer commenting:

It’s clear that Iran is behind all of the terror attacks here [in the Golan] in the past two years. The Iranians are using the border – they establish units – whether it’s [Imad] Mughniyeh, [Samir] Kuntar, and more – to carry out [the attacks].

The officer added that the Iranian regime was transferring funds, providing training and sending advisers to Syria to help the Islamist group Hezbollah.

Remember the IAF attack in January 2015 on the Syrian side of the Golan frontier that took out a senior Iran IRGC general and Hezbollah officers including Jihad, the son of the late master terrorist Imad Mughniyah? That led to an abrupt series of clashes with Hezbollah in the disputed Shebaa Farms area on the Lebanese border.  Today’s rocket attacks in Israel’s north  and immediate IAF air attacks and IDF artillery fire demonstrates both resolve and concern by Israeli PM Netanyahu and his security cabinet to stifle a possible rocket war in the country’s North. Given the huge arsenal  of rockets and missiles  held by Hezbollah, Israel wants to  avoid a much larger onslaught than  the Hezbollah rocket attacks during the Second Lebanon War in 2006 that displaced over a million Israelis during the 34 day war.

We have argued that Israel may have to undertake incursions across the UNDOF demilitarized zone to clear out Iranian Quds force supported Palestinian Jihad fighters. As my colleague Ilana Freedman and  this  writer noted in a  January 2015, NER article the IDF also needs to address detection and destruction of  possible cross border tunneling  in Israel’s north by Hezbollah. Given Tehran ” success” with the P5+1 nuclear deal and this week’s sale of S300 Russian advanced air defense systems to Iran’s Quds Force commander Gen. Soleimani feels emboldened to foment more proxy conflicts destabilizing the Middle East region. Clearly with this week’s attacks in the country’s north Israel is in the Quds Force gun sights. Ayatollah Khamenei’s playbook called “Palestine” suggests that Israel will be routed not with nuclear weapons but low intensity warfare.

Back in January we noted this comment from Maj. Gen. (ret.) Yaakov Armidror and former National Security Advisor:

Yaakov Armidror, former IDF Maj. Gen. (ret.) and National Security Advisor in a recent strategic evaluation of  Terrorist  threats  facing Israel, published by the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies , reported by the Jerusalem Post, noted Hezbollah capabilities:

Looking ahead to 2015, Israel faces threats posed mainly by non-state entities motivated by Islamic ideology.

“The strongest of them is Hezbollah, which was formed with a dual purpose in mind.  It represents Iran’s long reach in the area and against Israel, while at the same time it aims to control Lebanon, where the Shi’ites are the largest ethnic group,” Amidror added.

Hezbollah most closely resembles an army, and its arsenal totals some 150,000 missiles and rockets, several thousand of which can target any area in Israel.

“This rare and substantial firepower apparently even exceeded the firepower possessed by most of the European states combined,” Amidror said in the report.

Additionally, Hezbollah is armed with surface-to-sea missiles, anti-aircraft missiles, drones and modern anti-tank missiles.

“It is well organized into a military-style hierarchy and appears to possess command and control systems of high quality. It was established by Iranian leaders, but its leadership has always consisted of Lebanese people who were closely linked to Iran’s interests,” the report continued. “Hezbollah assisted the Shi’ites by providing for their needs in the civilian sphere as a base for building its military power.”

We concluded:

Hezbollah’s possible invasion threat would be costly to the Shi’ite terrorist army.  Especially in view of both Israeli intelligence penetration of the Iranian proxy. Nonetheless, the Israel’s military command must be on alert for possible retaliation by Hezbollah in the Shebaa Farms area adjacent to the Golan and in the Galilee.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared in the New English Review. The featured image is of Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on a tour of the northern border, August 18, 2015. Source: Amos Ben-Gershom/GPO.

Iran/ North Korean Nuclear & ICBM Development Precludes a P5+1 Agreement

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Reuel Marc Gerecht, Senior Fellow of the Washington, DC-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies published a book review in Friday’s Wall Street Journal by former Pentagon official, Matthew Kroenig, A Time to Attack: The Looming Iranian Nuclear Threat. Matthew Kroenig is an Associate Professor and International Relations Field Chair in the Department of Government at Georgetown University. Kroenig, who served under former Secretary of Defense, Robert Gates, presents a thesis that the only way to stop the Islamic regime in Tehran from achieving nuclear hegemony is for the US, not Israel, to bomb several key facilities in Iran. The suggested targets are the centrifuge enrichment centers at Fordow and Natanz, the uranium conversion facility at Isfahan, and the plutonium producing heavy water reactor at Arak.

timetoattackbookcoverWhy? Because as Gerecht relates, the sanctions regime has not deterred Iran from investing over $100 billion in the project to achieve nuclear hegemony replete with the means of delivery. Further, as he points out in his review, the US has the means to seriously cripple those facilities with 30,000 pound bunker busting deep penetrating bombs. The hoped for Stuxnet malworm and other cyber warfare is past. Gerecht notes in his review, they have only “gummed up” the whirling centrifuges enriching weapons grade uranium. Neither does he believe that targeted assassination of Iranian nuclear scientists, allegedly by Mossad, has put a dent in Iran’s pursuit of a nuclear capability. Given that the current P5+1 discussions with Iran seeking to perfect a final agreement with a deadline of July 20th, Gerecht makes this prediction:

Next month in Vienna, Iran and the P5+1 world powers will extend the interim agreement they struck six months ago on Iran’s nuclear program. Secretary of State John Kerry will hold a press conference, offering both sides solemn praise for finding common ground. All the while, through this tough compromise and historic collaboration, the Islamic Republic’s 9,000 spinning centrifuges will keep on enriching uranium; the other 10,000 installed centrifuges won’t be dismantled. Eventually these centrifuges, or thousands of new-and-improved ones, will be able to produce bomb-grade fuel.

Kroenig cautions:

Why would anyone believe that we would fight a nuclear war with Iran if we didn’t even have the stomach for a conventional war with a nonnuclear Iran?

Gericht’s conclusion from his review of Kroenig’s, A Time to Attack:

Mr. Kroenig readily admits that there will be costs for preventive military action. Tehran will likely respond with terrorism, directly or through proxies. But Mr. Kroenig contends that those costs are much lower than allowing Iran to go nuclear. Whether or not he’s right, we will soon find out.

Watch this May 12, 2014  C-SPAN Book TV discussion with Prof. Kroenig about A Time to Attack.

Problem is that the Obama Administration failed to foster regime change in Iran in the fraudulent elections of June 2009. Israel and many others concerned over Iran’s rising hegemony in the Middle East believe that America doesn’t have the will and the unity to undertake what Kroenig suggests. Just look at the President latest tracking poll numbers; less than 37% of American thinks that he is pursuing foreign policies protecting our nation’s interests.

Claudia Rosett in the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal  published an op ed, Iran Could Outsource Its Nuclear –Weapons Program to North Korea. Rosett commented:

The pieces have long been in place for nuclear collaboration between the two countries. North Korea and Iran are close allies, drawn together by decades of weapons deals and mutual hatred of America and its freedoms. Weapons-hungry Iran has oil; oil-hungry North Korea makes weapons. North Korea has been supplying increasingly sophisticated missiles and missile technology to Iran since the 1980s, when North Korea hosted visits by Hasan Rouhani (now Iran’s president) and Ali Khamenei (Iran’s supreme leader since the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1989).

In the March edition of the NER, we published a piece entitled, Has Iran Developed Nuclear Weapons in North Korea?  We wrote:

The UN nuclear watchdog agency, the IAEA has no access to North Korean nuclear facilities. These developments corroborate the assessment of private intelligence and national security analyst Ilana Freedman. See The Freedman Report on January 31st, “A Friendlier Iran? Or Have They Just Moved Their Nukes to North Korea?“

Rosett in the WSJ op ed lays out the case for what the NER article demonstrated was a plausible means of evading sanctions. The evidence for that we noted was North Korean/ Iranian cooperation with Assad’s Syria creating a plutonium reactor on the Euphrates at Al Kibar destroyed by Israel’s Air Force in September 2007. We drew attention to Iranian/ North Korean joint development of large rocket boosters sufficient to loft nuclear MIRV warheads and the likelihood that Iran might have that capability within a few years. In June 2014, The Algemeiner reported an Iranian official announcing that it possessed a 5,000 kilometer (approximately 3,125 miles) range missile that could hit the strategic base of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean:

“In the event of a mistake on the part of the United States, their bases in Bahrain and (Diego) Garcia will not be safe from Iranian missiles,” said an Iranian Revolutionary Guard adviser to Iranian leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Majatba Dhualnuri.

Kroenig wrote in his book:

Iran is building ICBMs No country on Earth, not even the United States, mounts conventional warheads on ICBMs. Traditionally, ICBMs have had one purpose: to deliver nuclear warheads thousands of miles away. If Iran is not developing nuclear weapons, then why does it have such a robust ICBM development program?

The clock is ticking on  P5+1 and Iran endeavoring to reach an agreement by July 20th. Five days of talks in Vienna ended yesterday. They will reconvene on July 2nd and may or may not conclude with an agreement on July 20th.  The Wall Street Journal in a report on those negotiations contrasted the views of US Negotiator, Deputy Undersecretary of State Wendy Sherman, with those of Iran’s Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.  It noted that the talks ended without a joint statement. Sherman said: “We are at a very crucial moment in these negotiations. Our Conversations this week have been very tough but constructive.”  Zarif commented that only a deal could emerge if the US backed away from what he termed were “excessive demands.” “I advised them to think more seriously and to be realistic and to look for a solution.” Translated that means, we are poles apart. Meanwhile those centrifuges at Fordow and Natanz keep whirling enriching uranium while Iranian/ North Korean joint ICBM and MIRV development continue.  If we were bettors, we’d put even money on Gericht’s prediction: no agreement by July 20th or even six months hence.

EDITORS NOTE: This column originally appeared on The New English Review.