US and Israel are aware that the North Korean nuclear test carried out Tuesday, Feb. 12, brings Iran that much closer to conducting a test of its own. Shortly before the test, Ahmadinejad’s boast that Iran will soon place a satellite in orbit at an altitude of 36,000 kilometers - and Tehran’s claim to have sent a monkey into space – highlight the longstanding division of labor and pooling of knowledge between North Korea and Iran: the former focusing on nuclear armament and the latter on long-range missiles to deliver it.

The Saudis offered Beijing $60 billion plus an oil bonanza for a single nuclear warhead.  China has agreed in principle to sell the Saudis medium-range Dong-Feng 21 ballistic missiles in return for the cash and/or having its oil requirements for the next 23 years guaranteed by Riyadh. The deal was ...

The Mossad ex-chief Meir Dagan's estimated timeline of 2015 for Iran to attain a nuclear bomb may well be superseded if Tehran takes advantage of available shorts cuts, debkafile's intelligence sources report. Iran is likely to have hidden still undiscovered uranium enrichment facilities and research labs. It could use allied facilities like those of North Korea to reach its target, or again outsource nuclear production like the North Korean plutonium plant in Syria which Israel destroyed in 2007.

The CIA and Mossad are presumed to maintain an undercover command center inside Iran for conducting major subversive operations against Tehran's nuclear program and military infrastructure. Iranian intelligence is fighting fire with fire. All three are caught up in the endless maze of double agents.

Saudi Arabia has jumped ahead of Iran by obtaining the use of two Pakistani nuclear bombs or guided missile warheads. debkafile's Gulf sources believe the weapons are ready for delivery upon royal summons in Pakistan's nuclear air base at Kamra in the northern district of Attock. Already delivered is a quantity of Pakistan's Ghauri-II missile with an extended range of 2,300 kilometers. They are tucked away in silos in the underground city of Al-Sulaiyil, south of the capital Riyadh.

Tehran has developed four systems for beating sanctions, including hawala, smuggling, recruiting ex-pats and big power help – except for the hard-hitting fuel penalties which bite deep. Certain that the next round of nuclear talks with the world powers will fail, Iran imposed austerity measures to build itself a ...

Jund Allah, the Iranian rebel Sunni Baluchi organization, announced  Wednesday, Dec. 22 its plans to execute Amir Hossein Shirani, a senior Iranian nuclear scientist, whom the organization abducted on Oct. 8 at the entrance of the secret Iranian nuclear facility in Isfahan. His fate was sealed when Tehran refused to trade 200 jailed inmates for his release. Amir Shirani may become the first high-ranking Iranian nuclear expert to be put to death by a terrorist organization.

Nuclear Energy Commission Director Ali Akhbar Salehi was appointed Iran's new foreign minister Monday, Dec. 13 – while renewed nuclear diplomacy was in midstream - to make sure the Six World Powers understood that Tehran was determined to go full speed ahead with its nuclear weapon program and would give no quarter in its drive to evict US influence from the Middle East and Arab world. Manoucher Mottaki learned he had been dropped while on an official tour of Africa.