Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting the United States, and the best way to get on his good side is to hype up the Iranian “threat,” and make moves against Iran. Unsurprisingly, the US is headed down that route once again.
Despite a recent statement from former CIA Director William Burns that the agency has concluded Iran hasn’t even decided to try to build a nuclear weapon, unnamed US officials are being quoted in the New York Times as saying Iran is planning a “faster, but cruder approach” to nuclear arms.
The narrative concedes that Iran hasn’t actually made any decision to make nuclear arms, though that concession is somewhat downplayed, and instead the emphasis is that Iranian scientists are “looking for a shortcut” in making arms.
Iran has repeatedly disavowed the idea of ever making nuclear arms, and has promised the IAEA that they will not attempt to enrich uranium above 60%. A nuclear weapon would require uranium enriched to a minimum of 90%.
Once again, the narrative attempts to side-step key factors like this, and argue that the sitting Iranian government doesn’t even know about the nation’s nuclear activities. Instead some Iranian “deep state” is pulling the strings, though obviously actual evidence of that is sorely lacking.
The high-profile report is a perfect opportunity for Netanyahu to push for a US attack on Iran, and President Trump will reportedly sign a new memorandum escalating his “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran.
This “maximum pressure” campaign involves threatening third party countries if they do any business with Iran’s oil industry. Trump is said to want to drive Iran’s oil exports down to zero, though that seems very ambitious.
The expected threats from Trump are already driving the price of oil futures up internationally, though recent reports have suggested that Iran’s petrochemical exports are actually on the rise. There may be more resistance to US demands than the administration expects.
