The US struck first so Article 5 wouldn’t apply, Im also pretty sure that US possession in the Middle East wouldn’t be covered anyway (in the same way that the Falklands weren’t).
Earlier in the week I did read that Fordow couldn’t be destroyed with conventional munitions due to its depth, even using a bunker buster weapon, and that it would take a nuke to do it.
As such, it’s entirely plausible that the site is still usable.
Correct. Even the UK’s bases in Cyprus aren’t protected by treaty.
The thing is, America knows they don’t have nukes. It’s Iraqi WMD all over again.
Netanyahu has been saying Iran is weeks away from a viable nuke since the late 90s. It’s been nearly 30 years since they were ‘weeks away’.
Trump’s own Director of National Intelligence said herself a few weeks back, under oath, that Iran isn’t working on nukes and there is no evidence they have done so since 2003. Her exact words, under oath, was that the intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.”
Well we all know who lied for GW2, Blair and Campbell, and how and why did Dr David Kelly die?
Is anyone saying they have Nukes yet?
It’s all very odd, IAEA are claiming that Iran has stockpiled several hundred kilos of 60% enriched Uranium which is further enriched would be enough for 9 nuclear weapons.
Now I’m no expert so I’m happy to be corrected by people who know more than me, but fuel for reactors is enriched to less than 20%, most wester ones you are looking at under 5%.
What are they stockpiling 60% enriched Uranium for if not a Nuclear programme is there anything else it can be used for?
Personally I think the US and Israel can smell void in the water and they think a few strikes will weaken the regime enough for a revolution.
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Hopefully a revolution to overthrow a theocratic despot regime that hates women and minorities and even goes so far as to imprison, torture and murder them when they want freedom of choice.
Remember Israel is the only country in the ME that has equality under the law and rights for minorities. How many supported the England team going to Qatar for the World Cup and how will support them when it’s in Saudi Arabia, the BBC and ITV did summersaults over the subject.
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Until Trump’s last presidency, Iran was working well with the UN and the IAEA. Until Trump scrapped their deal because he didn’t like it, and never came up with another one. Then he massively sanctioned them, undoing years of diplomacy. Since then, the IAEA have certainly struggled with getting good answers and information out of Iran about what is going on.
The history of this whole region is complex and goes back decades, and I’m not going to pretend I know the intricacies. But fundamentally it’s about oil. Their oil, which we (UK/US etc) have historically made more money off than those whose land it’s actually on. BP and the UK strangled Iran for decades, pulling oil out of the country, until Mossadegh came along. But then of course the CIA led a coup against him. Bringing in the Shah. America literally led a coup against a democratic leader because the UK was sad it lost all of ‘it’s’ oil. Do I need to go on?
There’s a reason they hate us, it’s quite understandable really. What we need is more proper diplomacy. Not this constant rhetoric that’s just going to lead to more deaths.
You’re not going to successful negotiate with a Government who hates you. This Iranian Regime has sponsored death throughout the region for decades and I think this outcome was inevitable sooner or later. Israel knew who was really behind the October 7th attack and wasn’t going to let it go this time. Now the Nuclear angle may well just be pretext, but then again I’m yet to hear or find a rational reason for them to be stockpiling enriched Uranium.
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My understanding is that things were actually going quite well with the Obama-era negotiations, which Trump stopped purely because of his hate for Obama?
My point is that up until this previous deal, they weren’t. They had massively reduced their stockpiles and were allowing free access to their sites by the IAEA. Including hundreds of unplanned site inspections. This massive stockpiling of highly radioactive material has happened since. I agree, it’s not good. But we did have diplomacy in place, and it was working.
Maybe on paper, but the reality for Arab dominated villages or areas is very different. They get less allocation of all sorts of resources, for instance, they have far less access to bomb shelters.
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An interesting comparison, considering Iraq certainly did have WMD. The ‘45 minute’ claim in Campbell’s ‘sexed up’ dossier certainly wasn’t based on any credible intelligence, but where do you suppose all the stockpiles of CW that fell into ISIS’s hands came from?
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Do you enjoy spouting misinformed propaganda?
I was talking about Israel, because, obviously, areas controlled by Hamas or Fatah are not under Israeli jurisdiction.
For example: "there are more reasons that Kasem and the wider community in Tamra are angry about what happened.
Here - as is the case with many Arab-majority communities in Israel - there are no public bomb shelters for its 38,000 residents.
For comparison, the nearby Jewish-majority town Karmiel, population 55,000, has 126 public shelters."
Source: Iran missile strikes: Father's anger exposes divide in Israeli society - BBC News
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I don’t trust the BBC, but you’ve cast enough doubt for me to edit my reply.
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Obama and Biden rolled over and gave in to Tehran, hoping like the crocodile they would be eaten last, same happened in Afghanisatan.
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You trust the BBC who will not release the Balen Report into anti-Semitism within the BBC. They used thousands of pounds to stop the release under an FOI request.
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Same as places in the UK then. Ever been to Israel?
I trust them a heck of a lot more than anything you say.
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Have we even had reasonable confirmation that the bombs actually did hit the site properly?