From November 2020, after US President Donald Trump was announced the loser of the presidential election, there’s been constant chatter of an incoming US and Israeli strike against it.
On January 1st, CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr reported Iran’s forces in the Persian Gulf are now on high alert, possibly in preparation for some level of either offensive or defensive action. She cited an unnamed US official.
“Iranian maritime forces in the Persian Gulf raised readiness levels in last 48 hours,” Starr writes based on a US defense official. But it remains that it’s “not clear if moves are ‘defensive’ because expect US attack, or are signals Iran preparing for operations in the Gulf against the US,” the official said.
Just In: Iranian maritime forces in the Persian Gulf raised readiness levels in last 48 hours: US official with latest info. Not clear if moves are “defensive” because expect US attack, or are signals Iran preparing for operations in the Gulf against the US, official said. #Iran
— Barbara Starr (@barbarastarrcnn) January 1, 2021
The top commander of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hossein Salami said on January 1st that his country was fully prepared to respond to any U.S. military pressure as tensions between Tehran and Washington remain high in the waning days of President Donald Trump’s administration.
Gen. Salami said at a commemoration event Friday at Tehran University that “Today, we have no problem, concern or apprehension toward encountering any powers. We will give our final words to our enemies on the battlefield.”
By committing a craven act of terror against Gen Soleimani, the US violated int'l law & the UN Charter in a blatant violation of Iraqi sovereignty.
The US' lawlessness in full show.#Iran won't rest until bringing those responsible to justice.#WillNeverForgetWillNeverForgive pic.twitter.com/nUscWM2CDo
— Iran Foreign Ministry ?? (@IRIMFA_EN) January 1, 2021
However, the USS Nimitz was sent back to the US from the Persian Gulf in a presumed sign of deescalating tension, but this is likely not the case.
In mid-December, reports surfaced that Iran has begun construction on a site at its underground nuclear facility at Fordo amid tensions with the U.S. over its atomic program, according to satellite photos obtained by The Associated Press.
While the purpose of the building remains unclear, any work at Fordo likely will trigger new concern in the waning days of the Trump administration before the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden.
Construction on the Fordo site began in late September. Satellite images obtained from Maxar Technologies by the AP show the construction taking place at a northwest corner of the site, near the holy Shiite city of Qom, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) southwest of Tehran.
Iran is also building at its Natanz nuclear facility after a mysterious explosion in July there that Tehran described as a sabotage attack.
“Any changes at this site will be carefully watched as a sign of where Iran’s nuclear program is headed,” said Jeffrey Lewis, an expert at the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies who studies Iran.
Asked for comment, Iran’s mission to the United Nations told the AP that “none of Iran’s nuclear activities are secret,” given the ongoing inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
We have always maintained that our current activities, which are in line with (the nuclear deal), can and will be immediately reversed once the other parties, including the U.S., come into full compliance with what was agreed upon, in particular on removing sanctions,” mission spokesman Alireza Miryousefi said.
The Vienna-based IAEA, whose inspectors are in Iran as part of the nuclear deal, declined to comment. The agency as of yet has not publicly disclosed if Iran informed it of any construction at Fordo.
On January 1st, reports surfaced that Iran plans to enrich uranium up to 20% at its underground Fordo nuclear facility.
This was confirmed by the IAEA.
The decision comes after parliament passed a bill, later approved by a constitutional watchdog, aimed at hiking enrichment to pressure Europe into providing sanctions relief. It also serves as pressure ahead of the inauguration of President-elect Joe Biden, who has said he’s willing to reenter the nuclear deal.
“Iran has informed the agency that in order to comply with a legal act recently passed by the country’s parliament, the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran intends to produce low-enriched uranium … up to 20 per cent at the Fordo Fuel Enrichment Plant,” the IAEA said in a statement.
The IAEA added Iran did not say when it planned to boost enrichment, though the agency “has inspectors present in Iran on a 24/7 basis and they have regular access to Fordo.”
Mikhail Ulyanov, Russia’s permanent representative to the Vienna-based IAEA, wrote on Twitter on Friday that Tehran planned to resume enrichment up to 20% after a Wall Street Journal journalist reported the news.
IRNA later reported Ulyanov’s comments, linking the decision to the parliament bill aimed at restarting higher enrichment at Iran’s underground Fordo facility. It also offered no timeframe for starting the higher enrichment.
Alireza Miryousefi, a spokesman for Iran’s mission to the United Nations, called the letter “self-explanatory,” but declined to answer questions about when the 20% enrichment would begin.
Many experts expect that the upcoming Biden administration will work to at least partly de-escalate the situation with Iran by limiting the Trump-initiated ‘maximum pressure’ campaign against the country and considering to return to the nuclear deal (JCPOA). At the same time, Israel and its best friends in the White House have been undertaking active actions to create conditions in which any de-escalation with Iran would become almost impossible.
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way to go Iran! everything else would be interpreted as weakness… if Zionist c u n t ‘ s want WW-3 they will have it….Russia and China are ready also.
Have you asked your girlfriend if she’s ready?
I just cant forget that you are pro Nato (an enemy) and that pi$$es me off when terrorist supporting organization is supported.
pro nato is badand pro israel is terribly wrong and bacon is both and can and should be ignored.
you r right, I’ll stop talking to him…
I blocked the Bacon twat over a year ago now.
I’m not pro Nato. I am Nato.
At least honest answer,so has russian borders headed to your home yet?
The strangesr phenomenon Russia is still struggling to understand is that beyound Russia’s borther, there are other countries that do things inside their birders – without asking Russia for permission.
bacon inferior insecure —ctrashna,,,nobody want sex w fat bacon…not enough attention in Alabama trailer park…bacon fat paid w meth by CIA…some block crude tiresome stupid bacon ….I pity gypsy peasant that needs attention—attention helps bacon reduce her suicidal ideation
You just called me a Russian?
Uki Nato d**k sucker!
Sad Ruskie is sad. Ded Moroz was stingy this year.
The more they enrich – the closer we get to bombing them. Keep that in mind.
You better make sure that nuke of yours doesn’t detonate in Israel first.
Don’t worry about us Shia man, I hope you know we aim all of our Arsenal at you.
Make sure those arsenals work when the time comes because the ultimate surprise awaits.
I like surprises, we have few of our own for you. Goodluck.
but if it did there will be a measure of justice in the fact and nobody would shed a tear for the jews obliterating themselves, helped on the way with a nuke or three or eleven from Iran.
I would cry with laughter, Verner :)
LOL.
20% is a long way from 90% bomb requirement so whats the big deal, I cant see them going beyond that ever
What is the big deal? if you were an Israeli you would have understood. For a leadership that is openly declaring they want us dead, even 20% is too much. Let them enrich, it just brings the closer for them.
Silly chit of a boy.
And you are an Hindu traitor, the lowest of the low. Coming from the same Jāti too?
and you’re apparently a jew, straight from the gutter, smelling of rat poison and the lowest of the low on the human beings scale
20% to 90% enrichment is not a very long or difficult process as India and Pakistan showed. Iran has a very large nuclear infrastructure and can move to that grade in a few weeks. RAW estimates the Iran already has half a dozen 5-10 kt bombs and that is why the US does not want to tangle with it.
Silly idiot, you are just a child. You can’t even remove them from Syria, let alone bomb the largest power in the region. The US is gone and you are next.
is that so? we are very much still here. Infact, We (and by we I mean myself personally) were ready to enter Lebanon 3 months ago to show your Shia terrorists what happens when you fuck with us. Luckily for them, Nasrallah was smart enough not to respond.
Lucky for you nasrallah is your covert partner cough’cough’to war, hmm must be corona’
Why would Nasrallah respond, when IAF was in the middle of committing a large blunder ?
Hahaha little Jew boy shim shim in diaper,,,,,,haha mamtu
Iran has now too many enemies, not only USA but also Turkey that is determined to occupy what they call Southern Azerbaijan (they did in Northern Cyprus and SW Syria), and nobody will come to its side if attacked. After what North Korea did I think that it is wise to develop atomic bombs for self defence, after that you will become unattackable
For all practical purposes, like India and Pakistan, Iran is a nuclear state and should just test a nuclear device and officially gate-crash the club. No one can stop Iran anyway.
Yeah, nukes would certainly shield the Iranian regime from attacks. But it’s too late now. Iran has alarmed the entire region with its uncontrollable urge to build parallel armies in foreign lands – something that has being a Shiite tradition for centuries. From Lebanon to Iraq and Yemen, there is no stable government due to militias. This single fact has made almost every country weary of Iran. Hence, they won’t allow a nuclear-armed Iran.
I’ve said here before that Saudi Arabia and the U.A.E both wish for a U.S attack on Iran. Some trolls doubted it. Now, reports emerge that Saudi Arabia and Israel have been mounting pressure on Trump to attack Iran. The U.S also has deployed more troops and bombers to Saudi Arabia than what the media is reporting.
It’d be a miracle for Trump to leave office without some major military operation
Hahaha you too stoopid,,,,,,
Iran brother STRONK!
the one thing that will provide some safety from the more than mad and murdering jews in palestine is nukes, more than one is needed so Iran is right in securing access to such missile fitted devises with which they can obliterate the jews in palestine from the world map – after all the party driving the agenda of destruction, murder and thievery in the middle east is the jews in palestine so their illegal occupation of palestine must be brought to an end and it seems it’s Iran and Turkey, Syria and Iraq that will end the illegal occupation – they, the jews, don’t deserve to be party of mankind.