“For two decades, Fakhrizadeh was the driving force behind what American and Israeli officials describe as Iran’s secretive nuke weapons program.
His **work continued** after Iran’s push to develop a bomb was formally disbanded in 2003... nytimes.com/2020/11/27/wor…
... according to American intelligence assessments and Iranian nuclear documents stolen by Israel nearly three years ago.”
For all those falsely claiming that he was a scientist simply in charge of Iran’s peaceful nuclear program, facts are stubborn things.
And for those falsely claiming that Iran’s nuclear weapons program was disbanded in 2003, please see as facts: SPND and its now former head Mohsen Fakhrizadeh. Images from @TheGoodISIS and @rich_goldberg: nypost.com/2020/11/27/let…
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Israeli PM just revealed Hezbollah missile depot next to gas company near Beirut airport, saying depot could be cause of catastrophic explosion similar to Beirut port.
Long past time to sanction Hezbollah for war crimes under human shields law passed 535-0 & signed in Dec 2018.
Hezbollah’s precision-guided missile manufacturing site is located under four seven-story apartment buildings in Beirut that are home to 70 families.
Hezbollah should be designated by @USTreasury for war crimes.
Multiple Hezbollah precision-guided missile manufacturing sites in civilian areas in Beirut.
Hezbollah is using civilians as human shields in violation of U.S. law and international norms.
Even UNGA passed a resolution condemning use of human shields.
Quoted: “Protections already exist for humanitarian trade,” but this “has a major chilling effect on any financial entities considering doing business with Iran.
Note: humanitarian transactions take place through the central bank of Iran thanks to General License No. 8 and not through these 14-16 banks. OFAC also gives comfort letters to foreign banks and a Swiss channel exists to facilitate this trade: sanctionsnews.bakermckenzie.com/ofac-issues-ne…
The blacklisting of the financial sector is a logical extension of the FinCEN 311 finding and the reimposition of countermeasures by FATF. The entire financial sector supports regime’s illicit activities.
“The government-aligned Kayhan newspaper called the series an “anti-Iranian production” that reveals the “pro-West and promiscuous” agenda of anti-Iran activists.”
No. Iran had patient pathways to build an advanced nuclear program *under* the JCPOA. And it would have done so with a powerful economy and regional dominance.
Now it has been severely weakened by maximum pressure, Suleimani’s death & Israeli Air Force & Mossad operations.
This was @vali_nasr analysis of Obama policy just before JPOA. He writes that administration’s current policy toward Iran (its assumptions & strategy now “hardly distinguishable,” he says, “from those of the Bush White House”) will “eventually turn Iran into a failed state...
... that will “pose a new set of security challenges to the region and the United States”. Reminder: this was his analysis just before Iran was forced to sign the JPOA. nytimes.com/2013/04/19/boo…
“Arab-Israeli normalization is a powerful reminder for Iranians of both the venality & abject failure of the Islamic Republic’s imperialist policies, triggering backlash that has left them increasingly isolated, impoverished & insecure.” @FDD John Hannah: realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/…
“Reducing what would have been a several thousand mile problem to a few hundred miles resolves a lot of operational obstacles, significantly boosting the credibility & success of any independent Israeli military option to destroy Iran’s nuke program, should it prove necessary.”
“It goes without saying that seeing not just one of its Arab-Muslim rivals, but a group of them in fairly rapid succession overcoming their differences with Israel to join hands under an American umbrella would be a genuine nightmare for the Iranian regime.”