Archiv: US-supported Saudi nuclear energy program / optional nuclear weapons program


15.11.2024 - 18:00 [ AtlanticCouncil.org ]

JCPOA: A New Gold Standard for Non-Proliferation Agreements

(June 7, 2017)

The established pattern of constraints on Iran’s nuclear program could be held as the gold standard for the rest of the international community. This option is readily available to the United States and the partners with which it negotiated the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA): China, France, Germany, Russia, the United Kingdom and the European Union. The international community should draw on that agreement and turn its standards into general, global ones, applying them to all countries seeking to enrich uranium or attempting to use plutonium for any purpose.

15.11.2024 - 17:55 [ ]

IAEA chief tours two key Iranian nuclear facilities

In 2015, Iran proved the peaceful nature of its nuclear program to the world by signing the multilateral nuclear agreement, formally known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — with six world powers.

However, Washington’s unilateral withdrawal in 2018 and its subsequent re-imposition of sanctions against Tehran left the future of the deal in limbo.

In 2019, Iran started to roll back the limits it had accepted under the JCPOA after the other parties failed to live up to their commitments.

13.11.2024 - 17:26 [ Dawn.com ]

A summit to nowhere

After silently watching Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza for the past one year, the leaders of the Arab and Muslim countries have once more met in Riyadh to discuss the escalating conflict.

The so-called international alliance conceived by Saudi Arabia, with its aim of pressing for the establishment of a Palestinian state, failed to formulate a concrete plan of action to stop the Israeli invasion that has been extended to Lebanon.

24.10.2024 - 08:57 [ B’Tselem ]

The world must stop the ethnic cleansing of northern Gaza

For a year now, since the war began, the international community has shown utter impotence to stop the indiscriminate attack on civilians in the Gaza Strip. Now, when it is clearer than ever that Israel intends to forcibly displace northern Gaza’s residents by committing some of the gravest crimes under the laws of war, the world’s nations must take action.

Without immediate, decisive action from the international community, without using every tool available – political, legal, economic – the mass killings in the northern Gaza Strip will continue and the suffering of its besieged civilians will grow. All international bodies and institutions must act now to compel Israel to stop the war and end the carnage.

12.10.2024 - 05:10 [ Jonathan Cook ]

War on Gaza: Israel wants to finish the job Washington started after 9/11

In 2007, former Nato commander Wesley Clark recounted a meeting at the Pentagon shortly after the US invasion of Afghanistan. An officer told him: “We are going to attack and destroy the governments in seven countries in five years. We’re going to start with Iraq, and then we’re going to move to Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and Iran.”

Clark added of the neoconservatives: “They wanted us to destabilise the Middle East, turn it upside down, make it under our control.”

As I documented in my 2008 book Israel and the Clash of Civilisations, Israel was supposed to carry out a central chunk of Washington’s post-Iraq plan, starting with its war on Lebanon in 2006. Israel’s attack there was supposed to drag in Syria and Iran, giving the US a pretext to expand the war.

This was what the US secretary of state of the time, Condoleezza Rice, meant when she spoke of the “birth pangs of a new Middle East”.

The plan went awry largely because Israel got bogged down in phase one, in Lebanon. It blitzed cities like Beirut with US-supplied bombs, but its soldiers struggled against Hezbollah in a ground invasion of southern Lebanon.

The West subsequently found other ways to deal with Syria and Libya.

10.10.2024 - 06:08 [ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ]

The coming US-Saudi nuclear deal: Keep it honest

(January 5, 2024)

In 1988, the Central Intelligence Agency did discover that Riyadh bought SS-2 medium-range missiles from China but only after the deal was sealed. In 2003, when China exported DF-21 ballistic missiles to the Kingdom, the CIA again found out and was even allowed to verify the missiles were not nuclear-capable, but only after the missiles were delivered.

Several years later, when intelligence finally leaked out that China secretly built missile factories for the Saudis, the Trump administration was mum on whether there was an intelligence failure and allowed speculation that it had blessed the transaction. Then, in 2020, when US intelligence confirmed China was helping the Kingdom mill uranium domestically, it did so, again only after the mining and milling were well underway.

This track record of studied inadvertence, then, brings us to the next worry: MBS wants Washington to green-light the Kingdom enriching uranium…

10.10.2024 - 05:12 [ Institute for National Security Studies - INSS.org.il ]

Normalization for Proliferation? The Saudi Nuclear Strategy and the Price of Peace with Israel

(March 19, 2023)

In general, the Saudis wish to present themselves as Iran’s equals, and if Iran can enrich uranium, say the Saudis, then so can we. In addition, the Saudis want to keep all their nuclear options open, even if they are not intending to work on the development of nuclear weapons immediately.

10.10.2024 - 04:33 [ Jerusalem Post ]

Saudi nuclear program can be secretly managed – top Israeli sources

(September 14, 2023)

Top Israeli sources have told the Jerusalem Post that there are secret technological ways to ensure that the Saudis do not misuse civilian nuclear items, which the US may give them as part of a three-way normalization deal, for military purposes.

Although there are no guarantees, because the issue is highly technical and there are issues to address regarding the Palestinians and highly complex politics, these technological fixes could be key to locking in a normalization deal between Riyadh and Jerusalem, under Washington’s auspices.

10.10.2024 - 03:10 [ Reuters ]

U.S. approved secret nuclear power work for Saudi Arabia

(March 27, 2019)

Many U.S. lawmakers are concerned that sharing nuclear technology with Saudi Arabia could eventually lead to a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. (…)

Last month, Democratic House members alleged in a report that top White House aides ignored warnings they could be breaking the law as they worked with former U.S. officials in a group called IP3 International to advance a multibillion-dollar plan to build nuclear reactors in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.

10.10.2024 - 02:51 [ CommonDreams.org ]

Senators Express Concerns Over Reports That Saudis Want US Support for Nuclear Program

(Oct 04, 2023)

Amid reports that Saudi Arabia is seeking United States support for its nuclear energy program—whose capacities critics fear could be utilized to develop nuclear weapons—a group of 20 U.S. senators on Wednesday urged President Joe Biden to „seriously consider“ whether such a move is in the national interest as the administration brokers a possible normalization deal between the kingdom and Israel.

10.10.2024 - 02:24 [ ForeignPolicy.com ]

Peace With Israel Means War With Iran

(August 30, 2023)

Policymakers in Washington and the Middle East have been busy talking about the possibility of Saudi Arabia normalizing its ties with Israel in return, in part, for a formal defense pact with the United States. Receiving far less attention is a critical question, at least for Riyadh: Would such a move jeopardize Saudi Arabia’s recent diplomatic accord with Iran?

10.10.2024 - 01:30 [ JNS.org ]

US senators press Saudi Arabia for peace deal with Israel by end of year

“We are here at a historic time … and now it is an historic moment of opportunity,” Blumenthal stated. “It really is a magnificent potential achievement with enduring effect to match the successes of the battlefield with diplomatic successes.

10.10.2024 - 01:20 [ Reuters ]

In Jerusalem, US Senator Graham urges Israel-Saudi normalisation before year end

(October 8, 2024)

„We can get you a treaty through the Senate between the United States and Saudi Arabia, a defense agreement like you have in Japan and Australia, if you do it on President Biden‘s watch,“ Graham, who is seen as close to Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, told reporters in Jerusalem.

„The next president will have a very difficult time getting 67 votes,“ he said in reference to the two-thirds majority needed in the U.S. Senate for approving a defense treaty.

10.10.2024 - 00:12 [ JNS.org ]

US ‘highly vigilant’ of future Iranian attacks on Israel, Sullivan says at Oct. 7 memorial

“The challenge going forward is to turn tactical wins in battle into a strategy that secures Israel’s people and its future,” Sullivan said. “That takes real discipline. It takes courage. It takes foresight to match the conduct of war to a clear and sustainable set of objectives and to turn tactical advantage into enduring strategic gains.”

05.10.2024 - 18:41 [ Newsweek ]

Iran Braces for Israeli Attack That Could Change the Middle East Forever

(October 3, 2024)

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran‘s longtime supreme leader, has for decades officially banned the production of nuclear weapons. But Israel, which possesses its own semisecret nuclear arsenal, has long accused the country of also clandestinely pursuing weapons of mass destruction.

05.10.2024 - 05:42 [ Times of India ]

Trump says Israel should ‚hit Iran‘s nuclear facilities first‘ days after Biden urges restraint

„Isn‘t that what you‘re supposed to hit? I mean, it‘s the biggest risk we have, nuclear weapons,“ he said.

„When they asked him that question, the answer should have been, hit the nuclear first, and worry about the rest later,“ Trump added.

05.10.2024 - 05:27 [ CNN ]

Israel has given no assurances it won’t target Iran’s nuclear facilities, top State Department official tells CNN

The official added that it is “really hard to tell” if Israel will use the anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attacks to retaliate.

“We hope and expect to see some wisdom as well as strength, but as you guys know, no guarantees,” the official said when asked by CNN if Israel has assured the US that Iran’s nuclear sites are off the table.

03.10.2024 - 00:10 [ Antiwar.com ]

Israel Planning Major Attack on Iran

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that the US would work with Israel to ensure Iran faces “severe consequences.” President Biden has also said he is working with Israel on a response but said Wednesday that he wouldn’t support strikes on Iran’s nuclear facility.

“All seven of us agree that they have a right to respond, but they have to respond proportionally,” he said, referring to the Group of Seven nations.

02.10.2024 - 23:10 [ India Today ]

Biden opposes Israeli strikes on Iran‘s nuclear sites, urges proportional respons

US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he does not support strikes on Iran‘s nuclear sites in response to its missile attack against Israel.

„We‘ll be discussing with the Israelis what they‘re going to do, but all seven of us (G7 nations) agree that they have a right to respond but they should respond proportionally,“ Biden told reporters before boarding Air Force One.

02.10.2024 - 15:00 [ New York Times ]

Actually, We Absolutely Do Need to Escalate in Iran

…a theological explanation for why Israel had come into existence..
…“The Jews will gather from all parts of the world…
…the Antichrist and the end of the world but rather that Allah… final and decisive battle,,,“
…for killing all Jews…
…What if one of those missiles had been tipped with a nuclear warhead…
…Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned that Iran was within a week or two of being able to produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear bomb…

02.10.2024 - 03:34 [ CNN ]

Fmr. Defense Secy: Israel will conceivably target Iran‘s nuclear facilities

Fmr. Defense Secy William Cohen joins The Lead

02.10.2024 - 03:10 [ New York Tmes ]

Israel weighs a counterattack after the Iranian missile barrage.

But after Iran fired about 180 missiles in an attack that went on for roughly half an hour, Israel’s challenge was not whether to attack Iran, but how powerfully to respond, said Yaakov Amidror, a retired major general who served as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s national security adviser.

The only question, General Amidror said, was “how much can we harm them versus their capacity to harm us.” He added he believed that the damage Israel inflicted on Hezbollah had diminished the threat of Iran’s proxies.

Even an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities — long a source of fear for Israel, which worries about Tehran gaining a nuclear weapon — “should be considered,” General Amidror added.

12.04.2024 - 00:10 [ Times of Israel ]

As Iran vows revenge, Israel worries it could get even by going nuclear

After a week of being very careful regarding statements directed at Iran, the US gave Israel something to be satisfied about on Wednesday. US President Joe Biden said America’s commitment to Israel’s security, amid the threats from Iran and its proxies, is “ironclad.”

Biden’s statements are aimed directly at Iran, and it’s certainly possible that they’re the result of a worrying intelligence assessment Israel presented to the US.

08.04.2024 - 20:35 [ Reuters ]

Israeli military says it has increased its readiness for war in north

(April 7, 2024)

In a statement titled „Readiness for the Transition from Defense to Offense,“ the military said the phase completed centred on logistics „for a broad mobilization of IDF (Israel Defence Forces) troops“.

„The commanders of the regular and reserve units are prepared to summon and equip all the required soldiers in just a few hours and transport them to the front line for defensive and offensive missions,“ the military said.

08.04.2024 - 20:30 [ Hindustan Times ]

Readiness advances for ‚war‘ on Lebanon border: Israel

(April 7, 2024)

The Israeli army on Sunday said it had reached „another phase“ of preparation for war on its northern border with Lebanon, where it has spent months exchanging fire with Iran-backed Hezbollah.

08.04.2024 - 20:20 [ CNN ]

Inside President Biden’s pointed phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu

(April 7, 2024)

The prime minister’s office declined to comment on the exchange. The White House declined to comment for this story.

08.04.2024 - 20:17 [ New York Times ]

Biden Administration Presses Congress on $18 Billion Sale of F-15 Jets to Israel

(02.04.2024)

While Israel has used the F-15s it already owns to strike Gaza, its request for the planes appears to reflect longer-term concern about regional threats, including from Lebanon-based Hezbollah, Iran-backed militias in Syria, and Iran itself. The Israel Defense Forces would probably employ F-15s in any potential attack on Iran’s nuclear program.

31.03.2024 - 21:15 [ Bloomberg ]

Biden Says Arab States Ready to Recognize Israel in Future Deal

Biden’s comments came during a discussion with his fellow presidents at a star-studded fundraiser at Radio City Music Hall in New York intended to display Democratic party unity ahead of a general-election rematch with Republican Donald Trump. The presidents, though, were interrupted at least four times by pro-Palestinian protesters, highlighting the tensions within the party over Biden’s handling of Israel’s war with Hamas and the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

24.02.2024 - 06:15 [ MintPressNews.com ]

United Against Nuclear Iran: The Shadowy, Intelligence-Linked Group Driving the US Towards War With Iran

(12.01.2024)

UANI’s board is a who’s who of high state, military and intelligence officials from around the Western world. Among its more notable members include:

– CEO Mark Wallace, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and deputy campaign manager for George W. Bush’s 2004 reelection.

– Chairman Joe Lieberman, former senator and Democratic vice-presidential nominee for the 2000 election.

Tamir Pardo, Director of the Mossad, 2011-2016.

Dennis Ross, former State Department Director of Policy Planning and former Middle East Envoy under George H. W. Bush and Bill Clinton.

Field Marshall Lord Charles Guthrie, ex-Chief of Staff of the U.K. Armed Forces.

– Jeb Bush, former Governor of Florida.

– August Hanning, President of the German Federal Intelligence Service (BND), 1998-2005; State Secretary at the Federal Interior Ministry, 2005-2009.

– Zohar Palti, former head of the Political-Military Bureau, Israeli Ministry of Defense; former Director of Intelligence of the Mossad.

– Frances Townsend, Homeland Security Advisor to President George W. Bush.

– John Bolton, former U.S. National Security Advisor and former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N.

– Roger Noriega, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and Ambassador to the Organization of American States.

– Otto Reich, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs and architect of the 2002 U.S. coup against Venezuela.

– Michael Singh, White House Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs, 2007-2008.

– Giulio Terzi di Sant-Agata, former Italian Foreign Minister.

– Robert Hill, former Minister of Defense of Australia.

– Jack David, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Combating Weapons of Mass Destruction, 2004-2006.

– Mark Kirk, U.S. Senator for Illinois, 2010-2017.

– Lt. Gen. Sir Graeme Lamb, ex-Director of U.K. Special Forces and Commander of the British Field Army.

– Norman Roule, former CIA Division Chief and National Intelligence Manager for Iran at the Director of National Intelligence.

– Irwin Cotler, Canadian Minister of Justice and Attorney General, 2003-2006.
– Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones, U.K. Minister of State for Security and Counter Terrorism, 2010-2011.

07.02.2024 - 18:35 [ Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia / Twitter ]

A Statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs regarding the discussions between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the United States of America on the Arab-Israeli peace process.

07.02.2024 - 18:30 [ Breaking News / Twitter ]

Saudi Arabia declares diplomatic ties cut with #Israel until Palestine achieves statehood on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

06.02.2024 - 10:25 [ i24news.tv ]

Trump: Israel was in on Soleimani assassination, backed out at 11th hour

(04.02.2024)

The former president and current presidential candidate also told Fox News the Iranian regime was in the final stretch of their controversial nuclear drive, with the connivance of Joe Biden, the sitting U.S. president and Trump‘s main political rival.

„Iran is going to have a nuclear weapon in 60 days, and Biden is allowing them to do it! Now they are a very rich country and they are taking over Iraq.“

04.02.2024 - 12:10 [ Nino Brodin / Twitter ]

Saudi Arabia ready to back US air strikes on Houthi rebels

(09.01.2024)

02.02.2024 - 11:15 [ Daniel Neun / Radio Utopie ]

Sie wissen von der Bundeswehr-Beteiligung an der Kriegsflotte im Persischen Golf, oder?

(3. August 2021)

24. Juni 2019: Der damalige U.S.-Außenminister Mike Pompeo fordert eine „globale Koalition“ gegen den Iran. passenderweise vorgetragen bei einem Blitzbesuch Pompeos in Saudi-Arabien.

4. August 2019: Ich lege mich fest und prognostiziere, dass „Bundeswehr-Marine .. noch vor Weihnachten unter Oberbefehl einer ausländischen Macht in den Persischen Golf entsandt“ wird.

(…)

20. Januar 2020: Monate vor der Ausrufung des bis heute andauernden Ausnahmezustands und bereits im Windschatten von SARS II („Coronavirus“), beschließen die Staatsführungen von Frankreich, Deutschland, Griechenland, Italien, der Niederlande, Belgien, Dänemark und Portugal in einer gemeinsamen Erklärung die „European-led maritime surveillance mission in the Strait of Hormuz“ (E.M.A.S.O.H.), von der Sie und 80 Millionen Andere bis heute nie gehört haben.

02.02.2024 - 11:00 [ Daniel Neun / Radio Utopie ]

Deutschland zieht nicht, es kriecht in den nächsten Angriffskrieg

(25.Juni 2019)

Als vor dreieinhalb Jahren Pazifisten, Sozialdemokraten und politische Linke in Deutschland der Entsendung der staatlichen Luftwaffe in die Kriege im Irak und Syrien tatenlos zusahen, warnten wir bereits vor deren moralisch-politischem Zusammenbruch und Kapitulation. Die genau zu diesem Zweck exekutierte psychologische Kriegführung gegen die Bevölkerung setzt sich bis heute praktisch ohne Widerstand politisch links stehender Kräfte fort. Die Logik des Terrorkrieges (Behauptungen von Behörden / Autoritäten darf nicht widersprochen und muss alles abgekauft werden) wird von den Betreffenden weiter willig geschluckt.

Weder hinsichtlich der Tanker-Explosionen im Golf von Oman, nach der bereits das U.S.-Imperium einen “globalen Konsens” gegen den Iran beanspruchte, noch nach dem Abschuss einer U.S.-Spionage-Drohne an der Straße von Hormuz, welcher offensichtlich nach einer absichtlichen Luftraumverletzung des Iran und mehrfachen direkten Vorwarnungen durch das iranische Militär erfolgte und in dem das U.S.-Zentralkommando – nach glaubwürdigen Angaben des iranischen Militärs, mit Details zum Flugzeugtyp (eine Boeing P8 Poseidon) und sogar zur Anzahl der Insassen – auch das Leben von 35 Militärangehörigen an Bord eines begleitenden Kampfflugzeuges gezielt und bewusst als Bauernopfer für die angestrebte Eskalation anbot, erfolgte irgendeine nennenswerte Reaktion in Deutschland; nicht aus dem angeblich oder tatsächlich pazifistischen, sozialdemokratischen oder linken Spektrum, noch aus irgendeinem zuständigen parlamentarischen Gremium.

27.01.2024 - 23:00 [ JustSecurity.org ]

It’s Time to Close the Door on Biden’s Saudi Defense Deal

The day after Hamas’ horrific attack on Israel, Secretary of State Antony Blinken went on television to reiterate the Biden team’s claim that a grand bargain with the Saudi government “would really change the prospects for the entire region far into the future.”

In reality, a U.S.-Saudi mutual defense pact was a terrible idea before the Gaza war began, and it would be disastrous now.

22.01.2024 - 11:00 [ Middle East Eye ]

Gaza war: Why did Arab states not join South Africa‘s case against Israel in the ICJ?

All Arab countries, including Saudi Arabia and Egypt, have issued many statements condemning Israel‘s assault on Gaza, but they did not take any further action. Saudi Arabia and the Arab League waited for more than a month of onslaught in Gaza to hold a summit in Riyadh to discuss the issue.

The summit decided to break the siege and blockade, but Arab countries never turned this resolution into action. Instead, Egypt obeyed Israeli commands and refused to give access to move injured civilians for treatment outside of Gaza unless Israel approved their names.

10.01.2024 - 10:20 [ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ]

The coming US-Saudi nuclear deal: Keep it honest

(January 5, 2024)

In 1988, the Central Intelligence Agency did discover that Riyadh bought SS-2 medium-range missiles from China but only after the deal was sealed. In 2003, when China exported DF-21 ballistic missiles to the Kingdom, the CIA again found out and was even allowed to verify the missiles were not nuclear-capable, but only after the missiles were delivered.

Several years later, when intelligence finally leaked out that China secretly built missile factories for the Saudis, the Trump administration was mum on whether there was an intelligence failure and allowed speculation that it had blessed the transaction. Then, in 2020, when US intelligence confirmed China was helping the Kingdom mill uranium domestically, it did so, again only after the mining and milling were well underway.

This track record of studied inadvertence, then, brings us to the next worry: MBS wants Washington to green-light the Kingdom enriching uranium…

10.01.2024 - 10:11 [ Radio Utopie ]

Die Achse des Religiösen

(8. Mai 2013)

Israel, Saudi-Arabien, die Vereinigten Arabischen Emirate, Jordanien und die Türkei wollen einen Militärpakt gründen. Die U.S.A. befördern die Angelegenheit, so israelische „Offizielle“.