Iran has openly declared itself to be a “nuclear state,” as FOX News reported in the first link below. The report adds that Iran is now enriching uranium to a higher level, and that Iran “will not be bullied by the West into curtailing its nuclear program.” Presumably, Iran has declared itself a “nuclear state” due to its enriching uranium toward a weapons grade level. One possibility is that Iran is exaggerating its nuclear achievements, but it is also possible that Iran’s nuclear weapons program has advanced faster than Western nations expected and that Iran is now openly declaring the true state of its nuclear development.
The link also mentions that the USA has imposed some new sanctions on Iran. Sanctions have always failed in the past to halt Iran’s nuclear weapons program, and the new sanctions will likely fail to stop it as well. Consider the responses of Iran’s other main partners in the “Gog-Magog” alliance prophesied in Ezekiel 38. The second link below reports that China is ignoring any new sanctions program against Iran, so China will supply whatever the West refuses to ship to Iran. This means that the new sanctions will end up costing the West some business and they will open up new business for Chinese companies with Iran. The West warns that China will risk a “backlash” if it doesn’t cooperate with the sanctions. This seems to be a very empty ploy by the West. What backlash? China doesn’t need the West for much of anything, and what nation will refuse to do business with cash-rich China because of a sanctions disagreement re: Iran. China can pay hard currencies for whatever commodities and goods it wishes to purchase on the world market, and I doubt any nation will deny business to China if it ignores the West’s sanctions against Iran. The West’s warning that China risks a “backlash” by ignoring the sanctions seems to be a weak bluff to me. Russia issued some tough talk about Iran that indicated that Russia might help with sanctions. Russia is good at diplomatic double-talk which promises one thing while it actually does something else. Russia was the nation that enabled Iran to develop its nuclear weapons program, so I doubt Russia will help with the sanctions in any meaningful way.
Iran’s declaration muddies the waters about just how far along Iran’s nuclear weapons program is in its goal of having deliverable nuclear weapons. However, as I’ve mentioned in previous blogs, Iran doesn’t need to have the technology to mate a nuclear warhead to a long-range ballistic missile to deliver nuclear warheads to Israeli port cities or any port city on the Western world. All it needs to do is have a rudimentary nuclear bomb which can be put in a tramp freighter flagged by an innocuous third nation which can sail into Haifa or Tel Aviv’s coastal waters and blow itself up. Other possible destinations for such a nuclear-equipped freighter could include London, Amsterdam, Galveston/Houston, New Orleans, Los Angeles, Seattle, etc.
The final link below, from Israel National News, reports that Iran intends to “quintuple its enrichment level of uranium for atomic weapons.” Iran is not backing down; it is accelerating its nuclear program. The link also cites the USA’s respected former UN Ambassador, John Bolton, as saying that the current situation means “that military force against Iran is the only option” if the West wants to stop Iran from having nuclear weapons. I agree with him. The West is fast approaching a “put up or shut up” moment. President Obama, the leader of the western world, and the other western nations will either need to wimp out and accept Iran having nuclear weapons or they will have to find the backbone to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities with a hard enough blow to stop or delay Iran’s nuclear program. There seems to be no third alternative for the West.
The wild card in the equation, of course, is the Israeli response to Iran’s near completion of its nuclear weapons program. Israel cannot negotiate away or risk its existence no matter what Obama and the West want it to do. If the Israelis act, it seems inevitable that the Western nations will also have their assets attacked by Iran and their homelands perhaps attacked by Hezbollah sleeper-cells activated by Iran. Therefore, the West could just as well join any Israeli attack to lessen damage to the West’s assets. However, Iran may decide to strike first to use as many of its military assets before any western/Israeli strike can take them out. We are approaching a moment of truth. Something is going to have to give on this crisis. Iran has made it clear that it is not backing down. To put it in poker terms, Iran is calling the West’s bet. The western world will soon have to show its cards.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585461,00.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,585452,00.html
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/135928
