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IRAN’S FOREIGN MINISTER has warned US President Donald Trump he was mistaken to think a war between their countries would be short, as Washington sought NATO’s help to build an anti-Tehran coalition.
The latest developments in the Iran-US standoff came as a diplomatic source in Vienna said Tehran would not exceed a uranium stockpile limit agreed with world powers, contrary to what it had said earlier this month.
Iran had said it expected to surpass today the agreed 300-kilogram maximum reserve of enriched uranium because it no longer felt bound by certain limits contained in the 2015 deal, which the United States unilaterally pulled out of in May 2018.
“They won’t exceed it today,” the diplomatic source, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP in Vienna on the eve of a meeting by a commission that oversees the nuclear deal.
The source suggested there might be a “political reason” for this, given intensified efforts by European governments in recent days to de-escalate tensions in the Gulf region.
But an Iranian official who also spoke on condition of anonymity said the limit had not yet been breached for “technical” reasons, pointing out that today and tomorrow are the weekend in Iran.
The tensions, sparked by Trump’s withdrawal from the nuclear deal, were exacerbated earlier this month when Iran shot down a US spy drone over the strategic Gulf after a series of tanker attacks that Washington blamed Tehran for, despite its denials.
Since then the arch-foes have been locked in a war of words, which escalated this week when Trump announced new sanctions against Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei and top diplomat Mohammad Javad Zarif.
‘Short war is illusion’
“‘Short war’ with Iran is an illusion,” Zarif wrote on Twitter a day after Trump said he does not want a war with Iran but warned that if fighting did break out, it “wouldn’t last very long”.
The Iranian foreign minister added:
Whoever begins war will not be the one ending it.
Yesterday, Trump hinted that any conflict would be waged with air strikes, saying there would be no US boots on the ground.
In an interview on Fox Business Network, Trump was asked if America was going to go to war with Iran.
“Well, I hope we don’t but we’re in a very strong position if something should happen. We’re in a very strong position,” Trump said.
It wouldn’t last very long, I can tell you that. And I’m not talking boots on the ground.
His remarks came after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani tried to rein in the crisis between the two sides, saying that Tehran “never seeks war” with Washington.
The US envoy for Iran, Brian Hook, said today there would be no let up for the Islamic republic.
“We will continue to increase our pressure on Iran until it’s behaves like a normal regime and comes back to the negotiating table,” he said in Paris.
But as the tensions remained high, the acting US defence chief pressed NATO allies to join Washington’s efforts to squeeze Iran and ensure the safety of ships in the Gulf after the tanker attacks.
Mark Esper urged allies to “consider public statements condemning Iran’s bad behaviour and making the point that we need to have freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz”.
He also sought to “internationalise” the Iran issue, at a meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels devoted to discussing the Iran-US crisis.
‘Maximum pressure’
Many European countries have been alarmed at the Trump administration’s hawkish approach to Iran, fearing the US policy of “maximum pressure” is counterproductive and could lead to war.
Any NATO involvement in the Gulf would need unanimous support from all 29 member states, and given European unease this would be extremely difficult to achieve.
“We would like to see more calm from the two actors but we really don’t want this to become a NATO issue,” said a diplomat from the alliance in Brussels.
Under the landmark deal with world powers in 2015, Iran pledged to reduce its nuclear capacities for several years and to allow inspectors into the country to monitor its activities in return for relief from international sanctions.
The deal set a limit on the number of uranium-enriching centrifuges, and restricted Iran’s right to enrich uranium to no higher than 3.67%, well below weapons-grade levels of about 90%.
But after being hit by waves of crippling UN sanctions, the Islamic republic said in May it would gradually step away from its commitments.
Tehran has also threatened to start enriching uranium above the agreed purification level of 3.67% starting from 7 July.
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I think it’s about time someone took a hard line with Iran, they clearly don’t know how to maximise the profits from their oil reserves. Fair play to the Don I say.
@Graham Wilson: Graham give your phone back to a grown up and go to bed you clown.
@Graham Wilson: if trump causes war with Iran, I personally couldn’t defend him anymore. There’s taking a hard line, and then stupidity.
Sorry guys, I was being sarcastic about another Oil War by the Republicans.
@Graham Wilson: I had forgotten Obama was a Republican when he destroyed Libya.
@Shane Dignam: you might have a point if Trump wasn’t a republican. Nowhere did Graham say Democrats haven’t done it too.
@Dave O’Keeffe: He’s neither in any case. Just using them.
@Nathan Mawhinney: why and on what would defend him now?
@Shane Dignam: Obamwahwahwah
Weapons of mass destruction
Short war
No boots on the ground
Regime change
Now where have I heard all this before???
Afghanistan
iraq
Libya
Syria
Somalia
Look at the state of the places now after “American democracy”
@Liam O hAodha: kosovo are grateful for their help. West Berlin too. If you pick a power nation we can probably say what atrocities they done, england, russia. History must be shown to them so they dont repeat it but its rarely a good argument just to list them
@Stephen Coveney: Kosovo are happy for their help – are they? Only the Albanian immigrants are the happy ones I’d imagine. The actual ethnic Kosovars wouldn’t be so. Explaining this to you Anglophiles would take too much of my time though.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin:
What a
@Cormac Ó Braonáin:
What are you talking about? What do you even mean by ‘ethnic Kosovars’?? The population of Kosovo has always been made up of various ethnicities including Albanian, Serbian, Bosniak, Roma, Turk etc..
There is no such thing as ‘ethnic Kosovan’, just affiliation with one of the ethnic heritages living within Kosovo. Albanian Kosovars have made up the majority of the population for many years.
Your comment smacks of someone who’s trying to make political capital for whatever reason, but who is absolutely clueless.
I’ve met Iranian people. Spoken with them, studied with them. Kind, respectful people often badly represented by their leaders. Trump’s typically ignorant assessment of Iran is repugnant. ‘Knowledge is unnecessary,.’ Dialogue is the only way forward.
@Wood Jackson: 100%, great article in The Irish Times today on how Trump has destroyed over 30 years of careful diplomacy since becoming President https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/the-back-channel-brutally-frank-assessment-of-trump-s-wrecking-job-on-us-diplomacy-1.3919935
@Wood Jackson: i cannot get over how Trump pulled the US out of the treaty, which the Iranians were living up to – by all accounts, seemingly just because it was one of Obama’s policies. This Trump idiot just wants to bring down whatever Obama did, whatever the cost – and to all you trump supporting bottom kissers – just remember the birther movement trump was involved with before he was running for office – Trump is obsessed with Obama and will bring the world to war to try and destroy Obama’s legacy
@Wood Jackson: ive met with American people and they are the most hospitable and generous i found travelling the world. But i agree that their government have escalated everything since being in power. Do not try to paint Iran as innocent bystanders though
@Stephen Coveney: have you met any Iranians by any chance, Stephen?
A fanatical Islamic state is something the whole world can definitively do without. However it would be difficult to overthrow the regime without mass deaths. Saudi Arabia is actually worse than Iran but they’ve played their cards well, Iran hasn’t.
@Windom Earle: I agree with everything you’ve said but, given that Saudi Arabia is so much worse, can we also agree that America’s priorities are tainted by corruption?
@Windom Earle: When Iran starts blown other countries to bits and shoving they rubbish down my kneck then I’ll start towing the line!!
@Windom Earle: Iran has no extraterritorial ambitions other than self protection and protection of other Shia populations. Unlike the USA which is acting here only as a proxy for the Israel-Saudi axis
@Windom Earle: you do know how the Shah got into power and what 2 foreign countries eradicated democracy in Iran, right? I’ll give you a clue – they’re the same 2 foreign countries that have been roaming the world going from country to country demanding ‘regime change’ for a very long time, and now they’re back on Iran’s borders doing it again.
@De20: Bang on the money, it’s bizarre that 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were from Saudi Arabia, yet the current U.S. President Donald Trump crawls on his knees to worship them in Riyadh. Also in 1967 Israel attacked the USS Liberty murdering 34 American crew members on board in international waters, yet the Trump Administration lick their boots? Sounds about as treasonous as you can get to me.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: America and Russia?
If Trump’s poll numbers start to drop in the run up to 2020 election, would he start a war with Iran?
@Mushy Peas: yep
@Mushy Peas: remember both Trump and Clinton going head-to-head on stage, threatening to go to war with country after country to garner votes. Their teams knew exactly what the American people want and that is WAR. War, war, and more war. The problem here isn’t the politicians, it’s the American people. They’re absolutely obsessed with war. Look at their history. They’re possibly the most war-like nation/people that have ever existed in ratio to their existence.
@Mushy Peas: Not if he wants to keep his base happy.
@Mushy Peas: I cannot see his numbers dropping. He is running against a bunch of Democrats who are rather boring No clear leader in the pack. The only way trump will lose is if the dems can dig up some dirt on him and impeach him.
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: can you clarify which countries they threatened to go to war with? Because you come across as someone who knows very little
@Paul F. White: …boring is exactly what America should be voting for
@Stephen Coveney: Hillary Clinton said her mission was to bring Syria to the same place as Syria and said that she was willing to go to war with Russia to achieve it.
@Cal Mooney:
That’s not what she said.
I suspect Trump will start a war some time soon, because he wants to run for a second term.
IMO, denuking Iran would be fair if the entire ME was rid of nukes.
This would mean Israel giving up its nukes and all nuclear capable ships, subs and planes excluded from the zone.
At present, US pressure on Iran’s leadership since the Shah was debunked has led Iran
(Like North Korea) to go on the nuke path for self-protection.
Note: The US did not say bugger all to a nuclear Pakistan for harbouring Islamic terrorism & Osama bin Laden.The untended US message seems to be “nuke up and Uncle Sam wont touch you”
Hmm.. According to the Washington Post, The USA is planning to restart underground nuclear testing. I have a geiger counter and will be able to measure the radioactive plumes on the west coast of Ireland.
I am surprised that the journal did nt mention yesterdays UN meeting on the subject. Towards the end the Iranian spokesman mentioned that because of sanctions Iran cannot move the Enriched Uranium because of the US sanctions.
He also mentioned that sanctions are causing a young girl who needs medicine for her breathing after the Iraq gas attacks on the Iranian border (Gas supplied by supporters of Saddam ) to be unavailable.
And for complete hypocrisy highly Enriched Uranium (Over 90 percent) is on the open market and about 20 kilos was actually seized by police in Mumbai from terrorist sources. The value of this material was in the millions and the funding maybe came from ISIS in the levant when they sold the oil (That Russia eventually stopped).
I called on of the links “depleted uranium” instead of HEU to limit the reach of the story.
An interesting report here;
“Highly Enriched Uranium, a Dangerous Substance that Should Be Eliminated
“…. Furthermore, it is more difficult to detect by technical means. Therefore, in comparison to plutonium, HEU is much easier to divert, smuggle and hide. Moreover, a crude nuclear explosive made of HEU can be constructed in a much simpler way than one made using plutonium. For these reasons, HEU is the material most wanted by terrorists. A few tens of kilograms are sufficient for one explosive, but the quantities existing in the world add up to hundreds of tons…..” https://www.hsfk.de/fileadmin/HSFK/hsfk_downloads/prif124.pdf
I also posit the kiloton damage with 20 kilos of HEU (had it got out further into the wild).
https://europeannewsweekly.wordpress.com/2017/01/28/a-special-team-to-secure-the-bengali-republic-day-parade-from-nuclear-and-chemical-threats/
Point to note that making the HEU go critical (with a low kiloton yield described in the other linked article) is a simple matter and can be done with some basic tools found in most workshops and thats why the German report linked above is so concerned in its reporting.
In 1914 they said that it (First World War) would be over by Christmas. Many millions of men were dead by the time it ended in 1918….
What the Iran government is doing to its people is a extreme dictatorship. The poor are getting poorer and rich are getting richer. They are run by Islam extremists, so woman are force in bad relationship, mosque are abusing there power against humanity .. and we think Catholic Church is bad.
As Iran has more wealth than Saudi and UAE meaning dubai therfore if trump goes to war they would blow both countries out of it.As America are allies with both of these countries we will up with World War 3.
have your say