National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan presented President Biden with options to bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities during a secret meeting held a few weeks ago, Axios reported on Thursday.
The report said the US was considering bombing Iran’s nuclear facilities if Tehran moves toward making a nuclear weapon, but there’s no evidence Iran has decided to take that step, a fact recently acknowledged by the CIA.
Sources told Axios that Biden did not greenlight a strike on Iran during the meeting and did not make any final decision. The report said the purpose of the meeting was only to discuss how they would respond if Iran began enriching uranium at 90%, the level needed to produce a weapon.
One source said there are no “active discussions” about bombing Iran before President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated on January 20.
Israel has reportedly been considering strikes on Iran’s nuclear program during the US transition period and saw the regime change in Damascus as a potential opportunity to do so since it took out Syria’s air defense following the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
The Wall Street Journal recently reported that the Trump transition team was also considering the idea of strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The report said Trump had discussed the possibility with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iran is currently enriching some uranium at 60%, a step that it took in 2021 in response to an Israeli sabotage attack on Iran’s Natanz nuclear facility. The 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the JCPOA, that Trump withdrew from in 2018 with encouragement from Netanyahu, capped Iran’s uranium enrichment at 3.67%.
Israeli aggression in the region has prompted calls from members of Iran’s parliament to rethink the ban on building nuclear weapons, but there’s no sign that Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is considering lifting his 2003 fatwa that prohibited the development of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
Iran is also a signatory to the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and all of its nuclear facilities are for civilian purposes. In contrast, Israel is not a signatory to the NPT and has a secret nuclear weapons program that the US does not officially acknowledge. It’s estimated that Israel has somewhere between 90 and 300 nuclear warheads.
Strange, wonder why this was leaked. I suppose so we all know what's on the agenda next year, war against Iran.
Maybe they leaked it so we don't forget the demented old man is still alive and kicking?
Like a dinner menu: options.
Mr. President, what country would you like to devour today, hmm?
He could choke on Iran before he gets a chance to retire.
You mean being choked by…!?
Any appetizers with that?!…
;-}
Yea, but this dinner menu will give you either a major heartburn or you’ll be on the toilet for a while.
And the toilet is already clogged. 🪠
And the toilet is already clogged. 🪠
Or you may end on the toilet, and never get up.
apropos of not much:
"Biden considered attack on Iran nuclear sites – Axios"
What a grotesque caricature, and he keeps on giving every fucking day. Dig deep buddy, and make sure to pull the dirt in after you.
It will not be enough to just bomb Iran to stop them from making a nuclear bomb. It will take a war the size of 1991 Gulf war.
A war with Iran will be much more devastating than 1991 . If it happens you'll see.
I'm sure it will be. I am also sure the West will win the war and Iran's government will fall.
More death and destruction, all for that insipid little country and its representatives whose money rules ours.
What was the last war the West won? The wars they instigated and all they won is nothing but scorched earth, the price for the winner, scorched earth, dust and rubble and blood and death for the people. But MIC made profits, the real winner.
The 1991 Gulf war.
What did we “win” there, really?
I participated in the first wave of that war — the end of Desert Shield, all of Desert Storm, and a little after. There was certainly military success in ejecting the Iraqi forces from Kuwait.
But then the war continued at lower intensity for another 12 years before the full-on US invasion and the fiasco of an occupation that followed.
Big deal, after the Iraqis had a weak army after they fought a war against Iran for 8 bloody years, encouraged by the sneaky Reagan regime. NATO members funded much of the 1991 Gulf war as they did in Afghanistan. For the Americans war is big business, Trump likes big business.
Really, all our ruling elite knows is how to bomb and destroy. Look around you and see what kind of disaster, scorched earth they created and then just walked away, and all on other continents, thousands of miles away, and all they can do is whining because they are the victims, when you listen to them. They are evil elected maniacs.
That was more than 30 years ago, today there is a powerful Russia allied with Iran. It will be a big war Israel may not survive, and when did the USA win the last war? The Trump administration does not look like a promising, competent government either. Intellectually and morally as bankrupt as the Biden regime.
But with more pomp and show and glory.
Russia will not do anything to support Iran if a war between the Iran and the West breaks out.
Both nations have common interests and competent, rational governments. Something the USA/NATO nations don’t have, the USA is stabbing their so-called allies in the back, destroying their economies in order to destabilize the nations. Many NATO members are EU members and the destruction of the pipeline destroying the leading EU economy is hitting NATO nations too. But the neocons are too insane and stupid to consider the consequences.
i hope you realise "competent rational governments" is a massive load of bullshit
The competence and rationality of a regime consists of two factors:
1) Remaining in power; and
2) Serving the interests of its own perpetuity.
"Western democracy" has been a pretty good instrument for those two goals; because it's secular and usually not particularly personality-based, many "western democratic" regimes have long lives. The figureheads change, the system either thrives or declines, but it's not a sudden thing.
Iran's theocracy has remained in power for 45 years under lots of adverse circumstances. Not a bad run. I wouldn't count on it lasting a century, though.
Russia's post-Soviet kleptocracy got off to a shaky start under Yeltsin, but Putin did a pretty good job of firming its hold on power. Whether its future survival is linked to his is an open question.
But you cannot say the Iranian people like their regime
Sure, Russia has surprisingly high approval ratings, but that is due to Putin’s cult of personality and the governmental power myth we see in a fascist state like Russia
In any country, some percentage of the population dislikes the regime ruling them, and those regimes have different ways of trying to deal with / suppress dissent.
The purpose of political government is to continuously transfer wealth and power from the hands of the productive class to to wallets of the political class. Some regimes are more “competent and rational” at doing so than others. I’ve seen little evidence that Iran and Russia are near the bottom of the competence/rationality scale.
My objection to our form of government is not that it purports to be a representative democracy, but that it has over the course of almost all its history been hijacked by a political class that plays the Zero Sum game, as in what I have you do not have and vice versa, which is used to (as you've rightly said many times) redistribute wealth toward the already monied, politically dominant class, the outcome of which produces the inevitable side effect of a capitalistic society, which is poverty, ie, winners and losers.
My objection to our form of government is not that it purports to be a representative democracy, but that it has over the course of almost all its history been hijacked by a political class that plays the Zero Sum game, as in what I have you do not have and vice versa, which is used to (as you've rightly said many times) redistribute wealth toward the already monied, politically dominant class, the outcome of which produces the inevitable side effect of a capitalistic society, which is poverty, ie, winners and losers.
Buckminster Fuller was warning us all the way back in his youth of the utter catastrophe of the zero-sum game, a game he observed being played by the political classes everywhere.
I believe the game was invented by members of the Simian Class.
Do you like your regime? I don't like my regime and I did not vote for it.
The Iranians and Russians have the regime they want, what is it to us what they have based on their history and culture, just as we do, they are sovereign countries or not. Yes we did put the Shah in power in Iran, we forced a government that suited us upon the Iranians and they hated him and his brutal Savakis.
But that is our God given right to force unwanted governments on others to serve our sacred, holy American interests.
You don’t like your regime and didn’t vote it …. but for some reason you assume that in any OTHER country, the elections aren’t at least as rigged as those here.
Thomas our consortium of elected millionaires and billionaires is as corrupt as they come. How else can we have the richest people on earth, and lots of poverty in the richest nation on earth. We have a very overpriced stock market, mostly finance and MIC and, not the little 401K accounts, but when the hot air balloon explodes it will wipe out the retirement 401K ACCOUNTS, not the billionaires Musk and Trump and family, they will invest in properties and TB, they will have insider knowledge and of course use it.
Yes, the US ranks pretty high on the metric of wealth inequality — 25th in the world. That’s only 11 places below Russia.
I am sure sanctions and fighting a war against the wealthiest NATO power explains a lot. The US is a war profiteer, the stock market for big money shareholders is blooming, but when it crashes, because it is overvalued, the 401K owners will be holding the empty bag. The big shareholders have plenty of insider knowledge to get out in time investing in TB.
Do you really believe there’s ever been a time when Russia DIDN’T rank highly on the wealth inequality scale? It’s always been ruled by one kind of kleptocracy or another. Call the rulers tsars/nobles, commissars, or oligarchs, the end of serfdom was only ever a talking point.
There is the ideal democracy and the pretense of democracy. Good government depends on the quality of serving the people by working for humane and just societies, social-democratic societies have been the best societies, not perfect but better than others. Chinese and Russian government have been successful governments. The Chinese have lifted some 800 million people out of poverty in just 30 years. Our Governments, with neo-liberal economics have increased poverty and homelessness, redistributing the nations wealth to the top. They lowered the standard of living and quality of life. Working people depend on credit cards.
Our 3 branches of government are a syndicate of millionaires and billionaires, the Trump administration will consist of billionaires. President Trump is a billionaire and his best friend Musk is the riches man on earth.
They sure know what it feels like not to be able to put food on the table and pay the mortgage and medical bills. They are not men of the people, they could not care less about the people. $$$$ bills is all they know.
Just because you don't know competent rational governments does not make it so.
Take a look across your border, take down your blinders.
Competent does not stand for infallible, but you can't tell the difference.
They just signed a mutual support treaty last month. Unlike in the US, treaties mean something in Asia.
Since when does evidence bother the US in bombing the hell out of people.
Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction was all based on BS
And what the heck was the excuse for Libya? Was it Hillary saying that we had to protect their women and children?
The problem was he was going to use the gold Dinar to trade for Libyan oil as opposed to the US dollar. Beating the global reserve currency by having a new currency backed by the value of gold. If other oil producing countries begin accepting the Gold Dinar in addition to the US dollar, then the value of the Dollar is now in trouble. Since it is propped up partly by being pegged to oil.
The economy is just a hot air balloon, the stocks are extremely overvalued, no telling when the thing will explode and come crashing down on us.
The petrodollar is now looking shaky, China and Saudi Arabia are trading in national currencies, Iran and India are about to (or just started to), Russia has sold more petroleum all of the last three years than they ever did before without access to SWIFT, and every major petroleum exporter except the US and Canada are joining BRICS+.
That's right. The famous "list of 7" has all been accomplished except Iran … and that only for the fact that Russia has supplied them with hypersonics … a sufficiently poison pill.
"We're going to take out seven countries in 5 years, starting with Iraq, and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Iran". (www.Democracy Now.org/Wesley Clark/Amy Goodman, March 2, 2007)
A statement supposedly made in, what, 2001? Iraq was in 2003. The other four certainly weren’t “taken out” as of 2008.
One of my problems with 9/11 conspiracies is they usually connect to a claim that the USG needed to rile up the population with a false flag attack in order to carry out the Iraq war(s.) Americans and the government however prove time and again that we don't at all need even a reasonable justification for attacks upon our victims. I believe we bombed Laos there for a while so the bombers would come back lighter. That's not a society that needs reasons.
There is also the lack of a credible investigation, we can only wonder what they hide from the people. Psychopathic maniacs are capable to kill millions of people, why not some Americans, almost like an Israeli Hannibal order.
It’s pretty easy to fly an airplane into 3 of the world’s largest buildings by volume when you don’t even need to take off and if something is in front of you, you’re going to hit it.
One of my problems with 9/11 conspiracies is they usually connect to a claim that the USG needed to rile up the population with a false flag attack in order to carry out the Iraq war(s.) Americans and the government however prove time and again that we don't at all need even a reasonable justification for attacks upon our victims. I believe we bombed Laos there for a while so the bombers would come back lighter. That's not a society that needs reasons.
"all of its nuclear facilities are for civilian purposes" That is not how nuclear engineering works. All enrichment fayalites can be used to make fuel for power reactors or make U-235 for weapons. It is just a matter of how far the Uranian is enriched.
"enriching uranium at 90%, the level needed to produce a weapon" And that is not true either. The bomb dropped on Hiroshima was 80% enriched. 90% is better but not necessary.
And Iran is not obligated to ask for US permission to produce nuclear weapons. They have every reason and right to build a nuclear deterrence against US and NATO aggression.
Iran signed Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). If they want to build nuclear weapons they should drop out of the treaty. Israel never signed the treaty thus they can and do build nuclear weapons without violating any international agreements.
Israel did not sign the NPT, why should the Iranians sign, if they did, they can break it, laws and treaties are useless, who needs them? All nuclear treaties have been destroyed we are back to MAD, SQUARE ONE .
Mutually Assured Destruction.
What else do you want?
Sure, Israel didn’t sign it because they just refuse to confirm them. That’s the Israeli way. Even if they did, they would lie about it. No one with half a brain believes anything Israelis say anymore, as it should be.
Iran gets threatened constantly when they are abiding by the NPT, and you suggest they just drop out and do what Israel does. Can anyone be more thick-headed than you? Or are you just pretending?
Why didn't you mention Israel?
I forgot to mention it, you know they don't like to mention it much.
Could an attack of this magnitude trigger a MAD scenario where Iran sees an incoming bunker buster missile coming in, then replies with everything conventional that its got against Israel?
A serious attack on Iran will go after their ballistics missiles firing sites on the first day. It is unlikely that Iran could fire its entire stock of missiles.
Do you ever consider the moral issue of being the aggressor in every war the US is involved? The aggressor is the war criminal. All NATO military actions were started by the USA based on American interests, at NO time was a NATO MEMBER THREATENED or attacked by any other nation.
I don’t know how much advanced warning Iran would have. But I doubt that they would wait until they were hit to retaliate.
https://www.presstv.ir
Tempest in a teacup…
The tempest is about to swap over the cup.
!!!
”It’s every man’s war, that keeps us apart! With stalwart convictions and affairs of the heart… To struggle for victory, until we are free!…”
The time of humankind is always at hand…
;-}!!!
Nostalgic!!!
https://www.presstv.ir/Live
UNSC now.
War Crimes discussed, by Israel!
How can a demented man be president and stay in power? How sick is our ruling elite to support a genocide criminal government? How sick is the nation to tolerate it and a MSM to stay silent?
Answers:
1) easily (USA is the exceptional power)
2) extremely (USA is infected with wealthy bloodthirsty creatures)
3) astronomically (see answers 1 and 2)
"How can a demented man be president" That is simple, he got more votes than Harris.
What a stupid reply, his signature, not being of sound mind, would not even count on his will.
I only regret that he didn't invade and annex land from neighboring countries under auspices of them being Neo nazis to protect those Americans living across borders.
Really demented for not doing that.
Are you normal?
The best way to protect Americans is to bring them home where they belong. What business do they have on other continents and what right do they have to annex land in the ME and what for?
Lindsey Graham will be happy. He even suggested a nuke not too long ago.
Are we really supposed to believe that Joseph Robinette Biden Jr is "greenlighting" anything or making "final decisions" about anything other than what flavor ice cream he gets for dessert?
Really…! Like the "It's Not Working" Kind of Bombing he is doing to Yemen…!?
Bombing and sanctions is all he ever knew, even in his better times and so did the people with which he surrounded himself with.
Trump is doing the same.
The only difference is that Trump is a better salesman and he just fires off missiles and kills a general but declares no war so he is a peace president.
Only yesterday Fox news used the dead Iranian general as an example of Trump not going to fool around and clean up the Middle East without wars – just kill a few and scare the manure out of them.
I didn't see the Fox news example, but that is a terrible example. After the death of the Iranian general, Iran blasted a US airbase in Iraq and Trump did nothing about that. Trump looked weak in that exchange.
Would it be smart politics to start a third WW for one assassinated general who can easily be replaced anyway? The level headed Iranian response made sense.
Trump should've invaded and annexed Iran just like Putin is doing in Ukraine.
A US invasion of Iran would probably work out about as well, if not less well, for the US than the Russian invasion of Ukraine has worked out for Russia.
I’d say it definitely worked out a lot less well for Ukraine than it did for Russia.
It would almost certainly combine the worst aspects of the US invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Vietnam. A country three times the size of Iraq, with twice the population, an intact infrastructure, a fairly well equipped and trained military, some really nasty terrain in places, and a mostly unified population who is well aware of who has been making their lives miserable for the last century. There is no way that ends well for an invader.
And Iraq had no army left after years at war with Iran, the Gulf war and the war crime of H. W. Bush the destruction of the RETREATING IRAQI ARMY INSIDE IRAQ. Bush senior's big war crime we don't mention.
We are a nation with criminal presidents.
Plus the US had bribed many of the Iraqi generals to stand down, which probably wouldn’t work in Iran.
Indeed. Invaders are almost universally unpopular.
But the NYT says that we’ll be greeted with roses and rice water! Of course they’ll love us, we’re bringing democracy! (Such were the claims before the Iraq and Afghanistan invasions.)
If that were the case, why not do what Russia did?
Well, the US makes a habit of doing what Russia did in Ukraine. Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan come to mind.
It can't seem to stop itself from sticking its teats in no-win wringers.
So I won't be SURPRISED if the US makes the same mistake in Iran that Russia made in Ukraine.
You're a Devil of an Advocate, Thomas 😉
By the way, Happy New Year.
As for myself, I expect the US invasion of Iran would work out about as well as a combination of the invasions of Vietnam and Afghanistan.
Happy New Year to you as well!
Do you make any comments without referencing Putin?
Have you lost your mind? You don't sound normal, do you have a moral compass and a conscience?
It would be fun
Iran response may have made sense, but Trump's response to attack on US airbase showed the Iranians that he is weak.
Iran has normal people governing the nation. They have to deal with deranged and impulsive people in the USA and Israel. How is one to know how dangerously deranged minds with nuclear weapons at their fingertips might react? Biden/Trump’s response can be impulsive, that is not good.
And the Iranians didn't kill any civilians in the process, like the US did. Their attacks on Israel have all specifically been military/intel targets as well. Shiia Islam apparently is quite strict about leaving civilians out of conflicts as much as possible.
Fox news… not a true station…!
https://www.presstv.ir/Live
Israel watch on now…
pssst Joe — Think about the US 40,000 military, commercial people and dependents on bases around the Persian Gulf. They might object to being killed.
This is a holy war –
This is a god given war to protect against the Iranian Nazis and their sort, and to protect all Americans in Iran from an iranian-sponsored genocide of their culture!
Iran dareth to mess with OUR culture? OUR people?
Then perhaps we shall mess with them
OUR SPECIAL MILITARY OPERATION WILL BEGIN FEBRUARY 24TH, 2025!
If you had a brain you would know the best way to protect Americans in Iran is to bring them back home.
BTW, what are they doing in Iran anyway???
" protect all Americans in Iran from an iranian-sponsored genocide of their culture!"
What are you talking about? That is as crazy as it gets, even demented Biden could not come up with such nonsense.
How could you not know about the Iranian genocide of Americans?
Are you daft?
Google "Iranian Genocide of Americans"
You'll get like a million results
There are no results because there were no Americans in Iran.
You have a reading comprehension problem.
There was no genocide in Iran.
You have no link about “Iranian Genocide of Americans”
I WAS CLEARLY MOCKING RUSSIAS PRETENSE TO INVADE UKRAINE
It just came across like any other lie. There was no need for Russia to pretend, the provocations were in the public domain. But such lying has become the normal deliberate misinformation, ignorant people believe and spread it. It is more than mocking, it is deliberate deception, misinformation. That is the reason why I double checked it.
Sounds like a Nazi spewing…!
I WAS CLEARLY MOCKING RUSSIAS PRETENSE TO INVADE UKRAINE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No, you weren't…! You only thought you were…!
March 1, 2002: Israeli military expert Ze'ev Shiff (Haaretz) said, "Whoever believes that Israel will ever sign the UN Convention prohibiting the pro liberation of nuclear weapons … is day dreaming."