American sources told Fox News early Sunday, Nov. 6 that all the senior Israeli ministers formerly against attacking Iran's nuclear sites are now for it, after updates on Iran's clandestine progress toward building a nuclear weapon. The ministers also believe new sanctions would not be tough enough. debkafile: Washington's uncritical references to Israeli plans signal Tehran that because of the level it has reached in its weapons-geared nuclear program, the US can no longer hold Israel back from exercising its military option.

Regional leaders hope the US is ready for a fresh start to reestablish its influence after exiting Iraq. They count on an attack on Iran overturning the regimes in Tehran and Damascus although their rulers will fight to the death. NATO and Israel have embarked on joint maneuvers to ...

It is feared in Jerusalem that the war will develop from a Syrian-Hizballah attack on Israel. If the US opts out of a strike against Iran, it will be left to Israel to do the job singlehanded.

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.

A rush of military events was orchestrated Wednesday, Nov. 2, to persuade Tehran that the US, Britain and Israel are on the verge of a military operation unless it gives up its drive for a nuclear weapon - depending on President Barack Obama's okay. Israel would not participate in a US-led NATO strike on Iran but reserve its armed forces to defend the home front, guard the assault forces against Iran's allies and serve as a strategic reserve.

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.

Israelis are all of a sudden plunged into hot debate on the pros and cons of an IDF attack on Iran's nuclear sites. It was triggered by a report that the attack would go forward before winter. A senior cabinet minister then admitted he had sleepless nights over the 100,000 Syrian, Hizballah and Hamas rockets awaiting Israel when the attack begins.
So what is really going on? And what game plan?
The last  DEBKA-Net-Weekly provided some answers.
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The new US Intelligence estimate for Iran to attain a nuclear bomb is now 2015-2016. Tehran is years behind schedule due to its technical inability to construct a containment shell for a bomb and get its new, advanced centrifuges working properly for enriching uranium to 60 percent at Fordo.  However, US spymasters confirm that Iran had made progress in ballistics, building missiles with more powerful engines capable of longer ranges and greater accuracy than ever before.  

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.

The policy of military restraint pursued by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak was shown in the Tel Aviv attack by a Palestinian terrorist yelling Allah Akhbar Monday, Aug. 29, to have crossed a dangerous red line: Civilians are being left in harm's way to serve diplomatic interests such as not further straining relations with the new rulers in Cairo. An Israeli defense official has admitted that Iran fears American – not Israeli – military strength, thereby confessing to Israel's loss of deterrence. 

Twelve hours after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev warned Assad he faced a "sad fate" if he failed to introduce reforms, Moscow's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin accused the Western alliance of planning a military campaign against Syria to help overthrow the Assad regime "with the long-reaching goal of preparing a beachhead for an attack on Iran."
In an Izvestia interview Friday, Aug. 5, Rogozin added: "This statement means that the planning [of the military campaign] is well underway."

As Moscow prepares to block strong UN Security Council condemnation of Syrian violence against protest, Russian diplomats Monday, Aug. 1, launched a quiet effort to start freezing sanctions imposed on Iran over its military nuclear program in return for Tehran satisfactorily answering the International nuclear watchdog's "questions and concerns," debkafile's Moscow and Washington sources report.
Iranian Foreign Minister Saeed Jalili visits Moscow Aug. 17. Washington is standing by for results.

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.

Adm. Michael Mullen is rightly acclaimed as the American military leader who contributed most to the depth and breadth of US-Israeli security ties and to the IDF's preparedness for a potential war with Iran. While holding Israel back from attacking Iran, Mullen was responsible for making the IDF America's senior military partner.  Before he retires as Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff on September 30, Adm. Mullen arrived Monday, July 18, to take leave of Israel's top command.

Western and Israeli intelligence missed Iran's spectacular nuclear fast-forward by miscalculating its timelines. It now appears that by 2012, Tehran will have around four-to-six bombs or warheads in stock and have tested ICBMs for their delivery. Uranium enrichment will be raised to 60 percent by relocating the plants from Natanz ...

Former Mossad Direct Meir Dagan's campaign against an Israeli strike on Iran and his miscalculation of the rate of Iran's progress toward a nuke have brought down on him the ire of his predecessors on the job and former foreign colleagues in Western intelligence. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ...

The latest DEBKA-Net-Weekly out Friday uncovered Iran's surreptitious leaps and bounds toward a home-made nuclear weapon. Tehran has not only executed four nuclear-capable missile tests, but actually constructed a nuclear warhead prototype.
This issue showed how Tehran has crossed every red line set by the West against Iran acquiring nuclear arms by furtively exploiting the months of furious Arab unrest for high speed, undisturbed progress. Western and Israeli intelligence are now waking up to some unpleasant surprises.

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debkafile offers exclusive details on the British Foreign Secretary William Hague's allegation Wednesday, June 29, that Iran has carried out secret tests of missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload in breach of UN resolution 1929: Three of those tests, four in all, were carried out between October 2010 and February 2011and the fourth on Tuesday, June 28, in the course of the Prophet Mohammed war games currently in progress. Three tests by Sejjil and Shahab-3 Kadar were successful.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague stated Wednesday, June 29:  "Iran has been carrying out covert ballistic missile tests and rocket launches, including testing missiles capable of delivering a nuclear payload in contravention of UN resolution 1929." Hague was the first Western leader to confirm debkafile's disclosures in the past year. He spoke as American naval, air and marine forces built up in the Mediterranean, the Aden and Oman straits, the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea.  

The three scientists who planned, designed, built and operated Iran's first nuclear reactor at Bushehr died Tuesday night, June 20, when a Rusaero flight from Moscow crashed at Petrozavodsk in northwest Russia. debkafile reveals they were among the 44 passengers killed. Their loss is a blow to Russia's atomic reactor and energy industries because of their expertise in synchronizing different nuclear systems. Some intelligence sources say that Bushehr's amalgam of systems made it vulnerable to the Stuxnet virus two years ago.