In an increasingly desperate move to maintain credibility in the Middle East, the Iranian regime’s defense minister, Aziz Nasirzadeh, has resorted to saber-rattling. Earlier this month he warned that Iran would retaliate against any U.S. military action targeting his country by attacking American bases in the zone. “If we are attacked – if a war is imposed on us – we will respond forcefully. We will target their interests and their bases,” the minister said in an interview with state TV, emphasizing that U.S. bases located in neighboring countries would be regarded as legitimate targets. To underline his threat, the theocratic regime unveiled its latest ordnance – the ‘Qassem Basir,’ a solid-fuel ballistic missile with a range of 1,200 kilometers (746 miles).
The provocative saber-rattling has come as President Donald Trump counts down the days of a two-month deadline he has given Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to dismantle his clandestine nuclear program and sever relations with its proxy groups such as Hezbollah in Lebanon, the Shi’ia militias in Iraq and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Trump has warned that failure to agree to a deal will lead to dire consequences, including a threat to bomb Iran’s nuclear sites. In tense indirect talks in Oman and Rome, the mullahs have resorted to their time-worn game of delay and obfuscation, while behind the scenes they race to build a nuclear weapon and the ballistic missile systems capable of delivering it.
Threats of missile strikes on U.S. bases in the Middle East are unlikely to go down well with President Trump. Having previously warned the Iranian regime that he would hold them directly responsible for any Houthi terrorist attacks on Israeli targets, or on commercial shipping in the Gulf of Hormuz, Trump and his close ally, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are outraged at the May 4 attack on Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv, by the Houthis. Following the attack, which led to the closure of international flights, Netanyahu said: “Attacks by the Houthis emanate from Iran. Israel will respond to the Houthi attack against our main airport and, at a time and place of our choosing, to their Iranian terror masters.” The Israeli military confirmed that a missile had been launched from Yemen and despite several attempts to intercept it, it had gouged a large crater near the runway at Ben Gurion airport. The Iran-backed Houthis, who have claimed responsibility for the attack, say their aggressive tactics are in support of the Palestinians in Gaza.
The mullahs have always denied that they are trying to develop a nuclear bomb. An article in Kayhan, a state-run newspaper closely linked to the Supreme Leader, claimed that uranium enrichment under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is “Iran’s explicit right” and that the “shameless possessors and users of atomic bombs” cannot deprive NPT members of the right to the “peaceful production of enriched uranium.” On May 2, the regime’s foreign minister - Abbas Araghchi, wrote on X (Twitter) that Iran has the full right to possess the complete nuclear fuel cycle. He said that several countries that are signatories to the NPT, including several in Asia, Europe, and South America, fully reject nuclear weapons and still engage in uranium enrichment.
When the mullahs signed Barack Obama’s deeply flawed nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), in 2015, they were already accomplished liars, denying they were trying to develop a bomb and claiming their nuclear program was solely for peaceful energy purposes. With vast reserves of oil and gas it was clear that the Islamic Republic had no need for nuclear energy. But the JCPOA nuclear deal was raced through by Obama, determined to leave his footnote in history after two terms of relative inaction in the White House. The JCPOA deal prohibited the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) from access to military sites, despite almost all the theocratic regime’s nuclear activities being undertaken by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) on these military sites. President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew the U.S.from the deal in 2018, during his first term in office, describing it as “the worst deal in American history.”
Rafael Grossi, the Director General of the IAEA, told the World Economic Forum in Davos in January that “Iran is “pressing the gas pedal” on its uranium enrichment program, aiming to achieve weapons grade purity. Grossi warned the UN Security Council on April 17 that the mullahs have continued to increase their stockpile of enriched uranium, much of which is now at 60 percent purity, a hair’s breadth away from weapons grade. They could complete the building of a nuclear bomb within weeks, he claims. Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu are determined that this will never happen. On May 8th, at a special press conference in Washington, D.C., the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) revealed a new and previously hidden nuclear site, called "Rainbow" at Semnan, 216 km (134 miles) east of Tehran. Showing aerial photos, the NCRI said the site operates under the IRGC-run Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (known by its Farsi acronym SPND), the key organ in the regime's weaponization program. NCRI also said that Tehran had a project to extract tritium, a radioactive material used to increase the destructive power of nuclear weapons. Unlike uranium, tritium has almost no peaceful or commercial uses, raising further doubts about the true intentions of Iran's nuclear program.
Despite such devastating revelations, the EU and UK continue to seek ways of resurrecting the defunct JCPOA, oblivious to the Iranian regime’s record of repression and human rights abuse against its own people and support for proxy wars and international terrorism abroad. Fervent believers in the benefits of protracted negotiation and diplomacy, EU leaders turn a blind eye to repeated Iranian terrorist outrages on European soil, including bomb attacks, assassinations and espionage. On May 3, the UK arrested eight men, including seven Iranian nationals, as part of two separate investigations regarding alleged threats to national security.
Western appeasement has simply emboldened the mullahs. It is time to back the main democratic opposition movement and the 90 million Iranians who clamor for regime change. Diplomacy and pointless negotiations must stop.
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