Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
This week CENTCOM chief Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said that Iran is the “top priority” for American forces deployed across the Middle East.
“As I look at the theater, we remain focused on Iran as our central problem. This headquarters focuses on Iran, executing deterrence activities against Iran, and doing those things,” McKenzie said Wednesday at a think tank hosted defense conference.
Despite the Islamic State long being driven underground, though the Pentagon has lately claimed the terror group is making a comeback, McKenzie went so far as to blame Iran for any resurgent ISIS activity: “The threat against our forces from Shiite militant groups has caused us to put resources that we would otherwise use against ISIS to provide for our own defense and that has lowered our ability to work effectively against them,” the CENTCOM commander said.
Recall that the administration has long argued ISIS is the main reason for a continued US troops presence in northeast Syria. Despite Trump’s “secure the oil” statements, the Pentagon’s official reason for being there is to counter ISIS and ensure it can’t regain a foothold. Across the border in Iraq, there’s growing pressure for all US bases and deployments to exit amid tensions with Iran-backed Iraqi Shia militias.
Meanwhile, following last month’s headline-grabbing fire and explosion at Iran’s Natanz nuclear plant, widely seen as most likely an act of sabotage, Iran is actually moving to boost production of nuclear fuel at the damaged site.
Bloomberg details in a new report that Iranian authorities are “transfering new generations of advanced centrifuges used to enrich uranium — the heavy metal needed for nuclear power and weapons — from a pilot facility into a new hall at its primary fuel plant in Natanz, according to a one-page restricted International Atomic Energy Agency document seen by Bloomberg.”
If the July 2 incident was indeed an act of Israeli or US sabotage, it apparently didn’t do the job of derailing potential uranium enrichment capabilities at the site. There is consensus at this point that it was a covert attack, possibly via cyber operations.
Bloomberg concludes: “The addition of advanced centrifuges to Hall B of the Natanz Fuel Enrichment Plant — another technical violation of its 2015 agreement with world powers — suggests that last month’s attack at a nearby machine shop didn’t have the intended effect of disrupting production.”
In the Trump s administration the new responsible of us policy regarding Iran is Elliott Abrams. He is a neocon warmonger and he was the man behind the US war against irak in 2003. If Trump is reelected and Abrams keeps his job war in 2021 is a strong possibility. Abrams may be even worse than Bolton so…
Iron kaput is always against.) What a funny guy with his “truth”.
I prefer talking about war against a country than war for freedom and democracy. I am much closer to reality.
I am a psychiatrist and and have diagnosed him as a very disturbed teenager.
Can’t argue with the specialist, just adding: my own experience tells that even mature people can be a teenager inside.
Can you translate that into English please. It sounds like a pile of horse manure, but maybe I am wrong.
“Iron kaput” is our common friend “Iron Zion”. You have to read messages for last few days between him and others to understand sarcasm. He loves to down-vote. It’s his furious revenge, his kampf.
Ah, OK, I understand. Even though I have not followed his exchanges recently, I have seen them in the not too distant past, and have even had exchanges with him directly.
The one fact he really runs away from almost screaming is when you remind him of the complete defeat inflicted in 2006 by Hezbollah on the zioracist Hollywood army, of which IZ claims to be a reservist (reminds me of a member of “Dad’s army” hilarious TV series in the UK). A defeat that was admitted at the highest levels in the zioracist gangsterdom.
Ideally, it is time for Iran to test a nuclear weapon and stop all this needless speculation.
They will never have nuclear weapons, I hope you read it Garga we will never let you threaten us.
Iran is a turn key nuclear state, but then again children like you just rant. Wasn’t the Zionist entity supposed to have expelled Iran from Syria a decade ago?
As always, the west expects Iran to honor all agreements regardless. But they can willey-nilly dump agreements they make and still expect Iran to honor their part? What part of the often touted ‘international law’ is this? It’s the part where Iran must adhere to agreements, while the west can abrogate unilaterally…at the same time committing sabotage against Iran, assassinating their generals, infiltrating Iran and fomenting riots. At least this time around, weapon sales sanctions against Iran (that expires very soon) will likely not be renewed by the SC. Of course, the US will sanction any country or company that decides to sell to Iran. Russia and China will thumb their nose at that, as they are done with being their ‘sanction partners’. Finally, something Trump instigated that has positive effects.
But there was a glowing assessment on ‘real clear politics’ praising Israel for setting back Iran’s nuclear program by 2yrs because they destroyed the entire factory at Natanz that produced all of their advanced centrifuges. Therefore this story cannot be true unless China is giving them enriched uranium (note I said China and not Russia because China is today’s villain du jour, our Intel assessments always match what we want to believe because we are corrupt morons)
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when Iran develops nuclear weapons racist amerikans will not be able to threaten them—perhaps they already exist…Israel nukes r meaningless; they will radiate their entire sliver of a nation?