JERUSALEM – Top U.S. and Israeli Iran experts tell President Biden that his administration's de-escalation and containment strategy targeting the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world's worst state sponsor of terrorism, has failed and that the U.S. It warns that deterrence needs to be re-established. Tehran faces growing concerns that the regime may acquire nuclear weapons.
Since last month, alarming reports have emerged that Iran is moving toward acquiring nuclear weapons at an alarming rate.
Reuters reported in December that a confidential IAEA report released to member states said it had “increased production of highly enriched uranium, reversing a previous production decline from mid-2023.” Reuters also noted in its report that “Iran has enriched up to 60%, close to about 90% of weapons-grade, at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) and Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant within the vast Natanz complex. ” FFEP), it is dug into the mountain. ”
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President Joe Biden and Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei (Getty Images)
In a report titled “How quickly could Iran build a nuclear weapon today?” A paper published earlier this month by David Albright, a physicist and founder and director of the Institute for Science and International Security, said that “the long pole in the tent of nuclear weapons production is essentially complete. Iran will soon have enough.” We can produce weapons-grade uranium.” We've developed many nuclear weapons, something we couldn't do in 2003.'' Albright said Iran had an “impact nuclear weapons program'' until 2003, but then changed to a “more distributed nuclear weapons program.'' Stated.
“Currently, it takes only about a week to produce enough nuclear weapons for a first nuclear weapon,” Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, wrote in the report. After five months of producing weapons-grade uranium, you will have 12 units of uranium.”
Asked by Fox News Digital about Iran's nuclear ambitions, a State Department spokesperson said, “As the president and the secretary have made clear, the United States will provide some form of guarantee that Iran will never acquire a nuclear weapon. will continue to use nuclear weapons.” As the Secretary stated, we always prefer diplomacy to achieve that goal, but given Iran's nuclear escalation and failure to cooperate with the IAEA, we have a variety of means available to achieve that goal. All options are left on the table. [International Atomic Energy Agency], unfortunately, we are far from that at the moment. ”
An Iranian military truck carrying a surface-to-air missile passes in front of a portrait of Iran's Supreme Leader during a parade in Tehran on April 18, 2018. (Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
“Biden's hope was to bribe Iran not to proceed with its nuclear program through economic concessions and non-compliance with sanctions,” Gabriel Noronha, a former U.S. Department of State adviser for Iran, told Fox News Digital. He went ahead with his nuclear program anyway, wooing Iran.” “There was additional revenue from oil sales to increase funding for terrorist proxies. We have not won any Iran cases in the past three years, but we have not been successful in bringing Iran back from a state weakened by maximum pressure policies. We have seen Iran's power restored.”
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This photo released by Iran's Atomic Energy Organization shows engineers working on the secondary circuit of the Arak heavy water reactor as officials and media visited the site 150 miles southwest of Tehran in December 2019. (Iran Atomic Energy Organization/AP)
In addition to nuclear fears, critics worry that Iran's proxies will disrupt the global economy. Experts say the lack of a counterattack against the regime further risks international navigation in the crucial Red Sea route, which connects Israel's Eilat port to Egypt's Suez Canal.
The United States and Britain launched pinpoint airstrikes against Houthi terrorists in Yemen on Friday and Saturday. Its slogan was “Allah is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse the Jews, Victory to Islam.”
“The United States needs to renew its diplomatic pressure campaign on countries around the world to impose terrorism sanctions on Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. “Dozens of Western countries do not sanction these groups and are therefore places where these terrorist groups can raise funds and operate without proper oversight,” Noronha said. he said.
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The Biden administration removed the Houthis as a terrorist organization in 2021, after former President Trump designated them as a foreign terrorist organization in January of the same year. (Getty Images)
The Trump administration has designated the Houthis as a foreign terrorist organization. However, shortly after entering the White House, Biden removed the Houthis from the list of terrorist organizations in February 2021.
Asked last week if the Houthis are a terrorist group, he said, “I think so,” but declined to say whether there were plans to redesignate them as a foreign terrorist organization.
Houthi leaders say their goal is to thwart Israeli efforts to eradicate Hamas in the Gaza Strip and to allow aid to Gaza. However, the Houthis have been launching missile attacks against Saudi Arabia's oil facilities and its cities for years.
A Royal Air Force Typhoon aircraft takes off from Royal Air Force Akrotiri, Cyprus, on a mission to attack targets in Yemen, January 11, 2024. (British Ministry of Defence, Sergeant Lee Goddard, via AP)
Ostensibly sensing US weakness against Iran and the Houthis, Saudi Arabia is a key US ally in the Middle East, but has fallen out of Washington's orbit during the Biden presidency towards US adversaries. It's starting.
Iran is an avid supporter of Hamas, providing missiles to the terrorist group and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip.
Hamas terrorist attack in Gaza City on July 20, 2017. (Chris McGrath/Getty Images)
Noronha, who is also a researcher at the Jewish Institute for National Security in the United States (JINSA), said, “The United States will exert maximum economic pressure on the Iranian regime to cut off its ability to finance and support terrorism.'' We need to revive this campaign.” Oil sales are the regime's lifeblood for terrorist financing, and the United States should begin imposing sanctions aggressively, as it did from 2018 to 2020. It will help “de-escalate” tensions in the Middle East. ”
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Noronha is one of many veteran Middle East experts advocating for the Biden administration to use more economic pressure and force to counter Iran's clerical regime.
Brigadier General Yossi Kuperwasser, an Israeli intelligence and security expert who is currently a senior fellow at the Israel Defense and Security Forum, told Fox News Digital that the Biden administration “is committed to protecting America's national security from this war.” “We must recognize that this is as much about our national security and global standing as it is about our global standing.” “Protecting the security of America and Western citizens and sticking to the old strategy will ultimately tempt Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Therefore, we need to encourage Iran and its proxies to cease violence,” he said. A heavier price should be imposed.”
Members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard march in a parade to commemorate the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq War. (Reuters)
A State Department spokesperson told Fox News Digital: “We take the overall Iranian threat very seriously and are committed to confronting the full range of Iran's problematic behavior, from human rights abuses to advancing its nuclear program. I am working hard to do so.” , for supporting terrorist and lethal plots. ”
The spokesperson added: “Iran is the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism and a serial violator of human rights. “Our policy is focused on practical ways to counter these threats. That said, we are constantly evaluating our approach to Iran and finding additional ways to apply pressure.” “I'm there”
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The Trump administration has implemented a policy of maximum pressure, a powerful combination of diplomatic isolation, economic sanctions, and military strikes, to reverse Iran's malign activities. Supporters of President Trump's maximum pressure strategy argue that it deterred communism and terrorism in Iran and that the Middle East was more stable between 2016 and 2020. The Biden administration favors diplomatic paths that influence changes in Iranian behavior.
Fox News Digital sent numerous press questions to Iran's mission to the United Nations in New York and the Iranian Foreign Ministry in Tehran.
Reuters contributed to this report.
