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 previous production declines from mid-2023.” Reuters also noted in its report that “Iran has enriched up to 60%, close to about 90%, of weapons grade at its Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) and Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, located within its vast Natanz facility. ” FFEP), it is dug into the mountain. ”
In a report titled “How fast 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 pillar in the tent of producing nuclear weapons is essentially complete.'' We can quickly produce enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon, which we weren't able to do in 2003.'' Albright said Iran had a “nuclear conflict program'' until 2003, but has since moved on to “a more dispersed nuclear weapons program.'' The plan has been changed.
“Currently, the time required to produce enough nuclear weapons for a first nuclear weapon would only take about a week,” Albright, a former U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq, said in the report. It can produce enough weapons-grade uranium, and in five months it will be able to produce 12 barrels of weapons-grade 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.” Stated. We continue to use a variety of tools to pursue that goal, and all options are on the table. As the Secretary stated, we always prefer diplomacy to achieve that goal, but given Iran's escalation of its nuclear program and failure to cooperate with the IAEA. [International Atomic Energy Agency]Unfortunately, we are far from that at this point. ”
“Biden's hope was to bribe Iran not to pursue 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. Told. Iran went ahead with its nuclear program anyway and used the additional revenue from oil sales to fund its terrorist organization. Although we have never won a match against Iran over the past three years, we have seen their power recover from a state weakened by the policy of maximum pressure. ”
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 is “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 against the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its proxies, including Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis. Dozens of Western countries have not sanctioned these groups, thus making it a place where these terrorist groups can raise funds and operate without proper oversight,” Noronha said. Ta.
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.
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.
Noronha, who is also a research fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security in the United States (JINSA), said: “The United States is committed to providing maximum economic support to the Iranian regime in order to cut off its ability to finance and support terrorism.'' “We need to revive the campaign to put pressure on people.” proxy. Oil sales are the regime's lifeblood for funding terrorism, and the United States should aggressively impose sanctions, as it did from 2018 to 2020. Instead, the Biden administration admitted that it was turning a blind eye in the misplaced hope that it would help 'de-escalate' tensions in the Middle East. ”
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.” The security of America and Western citizens, and sticking to the old strategy, will ultimately tempt Iran to develop nuclear weapons. Therefore, Iran and her proxies should stop their violence and impose a heavier price. ”
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 one of the world's leading state sponsors of terrorism and a serial violator of human rights.'' We work with a wide range of like-minded partners to confront the full range of security threats and challenges emanating from Iran. And our policy focuses on practical ways to counter these threats. That said, we are constantly evaluating our approach to Iran and finding additional ways to apply pressure. ”
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.
