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Iran blames Israel for sabotage at Natanz nuclear site

22 Comments
By JON GAMBRELL

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Tried to start centrifuges you weren’t supposed to, they “failed”. No less than you deserve.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

First, a few things that shouldn't need to be clarified, but given the amount of disinformation and conspiracy theories being treated as realistic, do need to be explicitly stated.

The Natanz facility is frequently recertified by the foreign IAEA inspectors to be a CIVILIAN site, involved solely in the peaceful use of nuclear technology, specifically to provide fuel for a nuclear electricity generating plant, and a medical and industrial isotopes plant.

Those plants themselves are frequently recertified by the foreign IAEA inspectors to be CIVILIAN sites, doing only those peaceful things that the NNPT, and even the NWPT that is superseding the NNPT, state that signatories to the NNPT are guaranteed the right to do.

And every microgram of enriched nuclear material that Natanz produces is frequently audited and confirmed by the foreign IAEA inspectors to be only at civilian sites, and being only used for peaceful purposes.

This is in contrast to the Israeli regime, that kicked out the IAEA inspectors long ago, and is known to have an active nuclear weapons program at its MILITARY nuclear sites.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Secondly, the JCPOA is not 'tattered', three of its signatories have completely respected its terms, 3 have publicly stated that they would if they could, and 1 signatory first prevented those three from being able to respect the JCPOA, then repudiated its signature.

There is one hole in the JCPOA, and it is precisely the size and shape of the US.

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Third, if a foreign military attack on a CIVILIAN site is not an example of state sponsored terrorism, the term is completely meaningless.

3 ( +6 / -3 )

There is no civilian site in Iran. All these sites are run by the government for the purposes of enrichment to weapons grade. That one of the world’s leading oil suppliers is seeking enrichment for medical or energy purposes is laughable.

-4 ( +3 / -7 )

Everyone seems spring loaded to accuse Israel while ignoring the Saudi led coalition arrayed against Iran. They are even fighting a proxy war in Yemen against Iranian supplied Houthis with attacks on Saudi Arabia by Houthis and in a few instances possibly directly from Iran. The Saudis certainly have the means and the motive to attack Iran. It would not surprise me if some of the recent attacks on Iranian ships were conducted by Saudi divers.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Third, if a foreign military attack on a CIVILIAN site is not an example of state sponsored terrorism, the term is completely meaningless.

The site is owned and operated by the government of Iran. It is notionally producing uranium enriched to a level suitable for use in power generating reactors for "civilian" nuclear power. I hope that clears up any confusion.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

They are probably correct! Israel is not trustworthy as a country, too!

1 ( +4 / -3 )

Netanyahu has vowed to stop the deal at all costs

Netanyahu will not stop until US soldiers are dying on Iranian soil.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

Think about things: Iran wouldn’t have increased enrichment levels or capacity had the previous president not pulled out of the nuclear deal.

Classic RF logic, has no clue as to how Obama undermined american interest world-wide and how Trump tried to undo that damage..that nuclear deal in the first place is what allowed them to increase enrichment levels, capacity.

-2 ( +1 / -3 )

Apart from the 1945 USA nuclear attack on Japan, this is the first nuclear attack on a country since then. Pakistan should give Iran 20 nuclear warheads. Then one of the worlds number one terrorist states would think twice.

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

As you can see, there is a reason I had to post some basic facts, and even then the misinformation brigade showed up.

Oh, and SuperLib, the American soldiers wouldn't be dying on Iranian soil, they'd be dying on Iraqi, Syrian, Afghan, Bahraini, Saudi Arabian, UAE, Egyptian, and Lebanese soils. American seamen would be dying in the Persian Gulf, and the Indian ocean. American airmen might end up dying on Iranian soil, but more likely the same soils as the soldiers and the same waters as the sailors.

Remember Iran is a space capable, resource rich, industrialized country, it won't be firing a limited number of obsolete missiles bought out of the American surplus store, but will be firing ones fresh of the production lines that are the newest upgrades to the ones that it showed could get through American defence systems pretty much as if they weren't there, and take out the individual target they were aimed at.

THAT is why the Israeli 'military' keeps a tight rein on the regime's politicians when it comes to open attacks on Iran. All Iran has to do is eliminate the Israeli regime's ability to violently oppress its population, and the regime is done for. And both the Israeli regime and the soldiers amongst America's commanders know that if the US decided to try and intervene in a hot war between Israel (or any of the other members of the Axis of Antidemocracies) and Iran, the American servicemen in the region would be scrambling for somewhere to hide with their bases and heavy equipment turned into smoking holes.

-3 ( +0 / -3 )

RichardPearce@If Iran were as tough as you say, they would have attacked already. The fact is, they weren't even able to defeat Iraq in eight years of warfare. Without air superiority, the Iranians are mainly left with asymmetrical forms of warfare, like medium-range missiles, drones and speedboats. If I were an Iranian military leader I would not feel myself ready to challenge countries armed with state of the art everything.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

 The fact is, they weren't even able to defeat Iraq in eight years of warfare.

Actually Iran was winning the war Saddam started with them until Iraq resorted to using chemical weapons, either mustard gas or a mix of mustard gas and a nerve agent, on Iranian troops.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Remember Iran is a space capable, resource rich, industrialized country, it won't be firing a limited number of obsolete missiles bought out of the American surplus store, but will be firing ones fresh of the production lines that are the newest upgrades to the ones that it showed could get through American defence systems pretty much as if they weren't there, and take out the individual target they were aimed at.

You greatly exaggerate Iran's capabilities. Nothing in their arsenal is even remotely comparable to the best western equipment. Their air defense equipment, air launched weapons and combat aircraft are purchased abroad, normally from Russia or China. They produce copies of some Russian and Chinese equipment locally, Iranian made copies of Chinese copies of old Soviet weapons but Iran isn't advancing the state of the art on any class of weapons. Against a modern western military they would fare very badly.

What they have that restrains Israel isn't technical prowess. No, they have armed Hezbollah with literally thousands to tens of thousands of inexpensive and crude surface to surface ballistic missiles. These don't need to be hugely accurate or be able to penetrate bunkers like modern US precision guided munitions. Hezbollah would fire them in large salvos at Israeli cities as terror weapons. A lot of homes and businesses would get blown up and civilians killed and it would force the Israeli Army to fight in Lebanon causing great destruction that will be used against them in a negative publicity campaign. In 2006 the IDF proved hopelessly incapable of finding and destroying Hezbollah's rockets. Today Hezbollah has vastly more rockets with ranges that allow them to reach anywhere in Israel. They don't need to be really accurate if you can fire them by the hundreds at an area and create a panic.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

For the folks dismissing the capabilities of Iran to actively defend themselves based on what happened decades ago, you should check out Dan Carlin's "Addendum" episode where he talks about how, for much of history, you could pretty much equate militaries from different CENTURIES, but in the present era, a few months can see so big a change in the weapons and tactics that they are in an entirely different class.

And those dismissing Iran's technical and industrial capabilities might want to consider that Obama tried to cripple Iran by 'sanctioning' their ability to import gasoline, but that would be ridiculous for Biden to try because not only isn't Iran having to import gasoline, or the additives and catalysts needed to make the complex mixture of things that make up modern gasoline, they are the MEs largest exporter of gasoline, and also export ALL the additives and catalysts needed, too.

That is, of course, if they're not going to ignore that the way they've chosen to ignore the direct demonstration of Iran picking and hitting individual targets on an American military base after publicly calling their shots days in advance.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

And it seems that the Iranian response to the attack has been swift, proportionate, and precisely crafted.

A 'civilian' Israeli owned ship (The quotes are because the company that owns it is known to be a front for the Israeli regime's spy and assassination agency) also suffered an explosion that has, at least temporarily, crippled it.

And Iran has also announced that it will be starting the process of getting to being able to enrich to the Medium Enriched Uranium level, the level that will allow them to fuel the sort of reactors needed to power ships without adding to climate change. Note that this is NOT a violation of anything as long as they continue to stay in compliance with the General Safeguards of the NNPT, and retain the ability to effectively turn what they do over 'in trust' to the IAEA for about 5 years in case the US finally, for the first time, gets into compliance with the JCPOA.

The first 'possible' action is a pretty clear message to the Israeli regime that Iran will respond in kind to Israeli attacks, and the second is a pretty clear message to Biden that Iran will make his domestic political cost of not coming into compliance with the JCPOA greater than what the Israeli regime and American warmongers can make his political cost of actually coming into compliance with the agreement Obama signed.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

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