Washington’s insistence that Iran has slowed down nuclear progress out of political motivations impelled the IAEA chief Yukiya Amano to offer proof that Iran is secretly continuing to develop nuclear weapons.

No one is listening to Ali Khamenei when he says there will be no substantial nuclear negotiations until sanctions are lifted on oil revenues and banks. Iran is furnishing the Assad regime with $1 bn per month in aid despite sanctions.

Obama has made it clear to Ayatollah Khamenei that lack of progress Iran abandoning its work on a nuclear weapon within the three-month framework for negotiations will lead to US approaching the UN Security Council as its penultimate move before a military offensive.

Iran was stunned to discover this week how easy it was to disrupt its nuclear program, even its underground facilities. The Fordo enrichment plant was disabled and damaged by the simple device of cutting its power lines by a series of blasts. No major military, air or missile operations ...

Emboldened by certainty that its nuclear program was safe from attack, Iran’s atomic energy chief Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani felt free to heap abuse on the International Atomic Energy Agency. In Vienna Saturday, Sept. 17, he accused the watchdog of a cynical approach and mismanagement, being influenced by “certain states” and infiltration by “terrorists and saboteurs [the US and Israel].” Abbasi was further bolstered by the US-Israel row on Iran and the fresh US-led bid to revive nuclear diplomacy with the Islamic republic.

In its bluntest message yet, the Obama administration declared that Israel is on its own if it attacks Iran. Thursday, Aug. 30, Gen. Martin Dempsey, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reiterated that an Israeli attack would “delay but probably not destroy Iran’s nuclear program,” adding impatiently: “I don't want to be complicit if they [Israel] choose to do it." Sanctions were having an effect, said the general. But as he spoke the IAEA reported a 31 percent jump in Iran’s enriched uranium stock.

After the UN gridlock on the Syrian crisis Thursday, an American delegation headed by Fred Hoff drew a blank in talks at the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow Friday, June 8, with Syrian expert, Mikhail Bogdanov. Russia flatly rejected President Barack Obama’s proposal to post 5,000 armed UN monitors in Syria, most of them Russian troops.  Moscow and Tehran calculate that the higher the flames of civil war in Syria, the more the US will be blamed for the bloodshed.They therefore refuse to join any international effort to stop it.

Because Israel received no answers from Washington about concessions Obama had made to Tehran in secret talks, and because Israel believes that Iran’s bomb-building capability will outrun progress in negotiations, Israel intelligence advise bringing forward the date for a military strike to stop Iran in its nuclear ...

Obama plans to confront Iran with seven conditions for keeping nuclear negotiations with the big powers going – from the word go. One is to sign NPT protocols authorizing spot IAEA inspections of suspicious site. Since no one expects Tehran comply, the military option will soon be back on ...

Under cover of its four-day military exercise starting Friday, Nov. 18, Iran is reported exclusively by debkafile to be transferring Palestinian terrorist units into Syria after training them at IRGC Al Qods facilities for cross-border raids into the West Bank and Israel.
Iran and Syria are hitting back for the rebel Free Syrian Army-FSA's armed offensive on military installations and commands centers.  Bashar Assad's cousin Rami Makhlouf warned last May: "Without stability in Syria, there will be no stability in Israel."

Not only has Iran managed to mount nuclear warheads on its Shahab ballistic missiles, they have been successfully tested four times. The IAEA report was only updated to the end of 2009, thereby missing this critical Iranian advance.

For the second time in four days, Iran has threatened to annihilate Israel. Sunday, Nov. 6, Tehran said four missiles would be enough to kill a million Israelis. Wednesday, Nov. 9, Gen. Masoud Jazayeri, deputy commander of Iran's armed forces, said an American or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear facilities would not only result in the Jewish state's extinction - "Dimona is the most accessible target" - but generate a response that "would not be limited to the Middle East." debkafile's sources report signs of exrreme edginess in Tehran.

The IAEA circulated its Iran report Tuesday night, Nov. 8. It establishes that Iran is clearly working on developing atomic weapons: Its clandestine computer-simulated and practical tests on nuclear detonators, uranium enrichment at hidden sites and tests for adapting nuclear warheads to missiles have no explanation other than work on nuclear weapon components. Israel may decide to delay its military option to give sanctions a chance - even though Washington has dropped them.

New revelations from US intelligence sources confirm day by day that Iran has attained a nuclear weapon capability: Implosion experiments at Parchin were uncovered Sunday; its six-year old ability to build detonators for triggering a nuclear chain reaction, reported Monday. Stuxnet  which invaded Natanz in June 2010 delayed but did not derail Iran's forward march towards a weapon. The US president and Israeli prime minister vowed never to let Iran attain a nuclear capability. So what are they going to do now?

Israeli timed the unveiling of its first nuclear-capable missile, Jericho 3, for the run-up to the IAEA report on Iran, called in Vienna a game-changer. Washington is preparing harsh sanctions against Iranian oil exports and international banking for slapping down straight after the report.

Israel successfully test-fired a new intercontinental ballistic missile Wednesday, Nov. 2. Foreign sources say the ICBM tested was an upgraded Jericho 3 able to carry a 750-kilo nuclear warhead to a distance of 7,000 kilometers - further with a smaller warhead. Soon after the test, the IDF announced the Israeli and Italian air forces had concluded a joint maneuver at Sardinia, and a large-scale exercise had just begun to prepare central Israel for missile attack.

The disclosure Tuesday, Nov. 1, by the International Atomic Energy Agency - that a spinning factory built in the northeastern Syrian town of Hasaka in 2003 was in fact an enriched uranium site - had a purpose: To crowd Bashar Assad into talking to the leaders of the revolt against him instead of slaughtering them. debkafile's intelligence sources report that although the NATO commander firmly denied an alliance role in Syria, NATO is already there – and not just  members like Turkey. 

Iran's 20 percent enriched uranium production exceeds its needs. debkafile' reports that this disclosure by Iran's atomic energy agency head Fereydoon Abbas enables the program to move into the production of 60 percent grade fuel, one step before weapons grade. This progress plus the relocation to an underground location near Qom of accelerated enrichment brings forward to the spring of 2012 the potential completion of between two and four bombs and Tehran's ability to conduct a nuclear test.

debkafile's intelligence sources report that the Stuxnet malworm which played havoc with Iran's nuclear program for eleven months was not purged after all. Tehran never did overcome the disruptions caused by Stuxnet or restore its centrifuges to smooth and normal operation as was claimed. Indeed, Iran finally resorted to the only sure-fire cure, scrapping all the tainted machines and replacing them with new ones – as was indicated Tuesday by an announcement in Tehran.

Iran struck another blow in its nuclear offensive against the world: Wednesday, atomic chief Fereydoon Abbasi Davani said Iran's 20-percent uranium enrichment would be transferred from Natanz to Fordo near Qom this summer. Improved centrifuges would triple purification capacity. debkafile's military sources report that this move will substantially shorten Iran's road to weapons grade uranium of 90 percent. The Fordo facility, burrowed deep in a mountainside and protected by anti-air missiles, is all but invulnerable to air attack.