Tensions in the Middle East

[ThePrince]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

Almost all of the Persians/Iranians in the West today fled Iran when the clerics took over and loathe the regime that runs the country today. I imagine Iranians in Iran have a different outlook.

“Almost all”

Where do people come up with this ####. No they didn’t, many Iranians have emigrated over time. And no, many Iranians don’t have a different outlook about about their authoritarian regime. That doesn’t mean they are going to welcome Israel bombing and killing in the capital city of 15 million people, nor do many Iranians welcome additional western influence in their country and politics.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by Pointman

While USA does seem to have a lot of internal problems, globally it is more dominant than ever. Some former USSR countries are NATO members. Russia is very isolated. In middle East Iranian proxies are significantly weakened in last two years, Iran is under heavy bombardment. USA is clearly advancing at least on those two fronts.

So.

You left Russia to escape the War and fled to Israel right?

And now Israel have just recently started two new ones.

You're not planning on going anywhere else are you?

[GreenLantern2814]

Iranian State TV reported the Iranian Navy intercepted a British destroyer today.

These are the exact sorts of encounters can so very easily go sideways and cause everything to spiral out of control.

[sarge]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

Iranian State TV reported the Iranian Navy intercepted a British destroyer today.

These are the exact sorts of encounters can so very easily go sideways and cause everything to spiral out of control.

Iranian State TV? It’s more than likely that this is fake news.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by sarge

Iranian State TV? It’s more than likely that this is fake news.

How dare you besmirch the integrity of Iranian State TV!?!

[TherapyforGlencross]

Strikes certainly intensified tonight.

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by Locke

So.

You left Russia to escape the War and fled to Israel right?

And now Israel have just recently started two new ones.

You're not planning on going anywhere else are you?

Israel started Gaza war? That's how propaganda works. If propaganda repeats that Israel is "bad guy" in Gaza war long enough, people will eventually become to think that since Israel is bad guy, it is him who started it.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/c...tack-on-israel

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by activeStick

Seeing clips now from March of this year where US Intelligence confirmed that Iran in fact is not building a nuclear weapon and their Supreme Leader has not has not authorized the suspended nuclear program from 2003 to restart.

The full report reads differently:


The IC continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme leader Khomeini has not authorized the nuclear weapons program that he suspended in 2003. We continue to monitor closely if Tehran decides to reauthorize its nuclear weapons program. In the past year, we've seen an erosion of a decades long taboo in Iran on discussing nuclear weapons in public likely emboldening nuclear weapons advocates within Iran's decision-making apparatus. Iran's enriched uranium stockpile is at its highest levels and is unprecedented for a state without nuclear weapons. Iran will likely continue efforts to counter Israel and press for U.S. military withdrawal from the region by aiding, arming, and helping to reconstitute its loose consortium of like-minded terrorists, actors, which it refers to as its “Axis of Resistance.” Although weakened, this collection of actors still presents a wide range of threats including to Israel's population, U.S. forces deployed in Iraq and Syria, as well as U.S. and international military and commercial shipping and transit.

https://www.dni.gov/index.php/newsro...t-as-delivered

Later, as a result of aforementioned "continues monitoring":

Last week, the IAEA said in its latest quarterly report that Iran had amassed enough uranium enriched up to 60% purity - a short, technical step away from weapons grade, or 90% - to potentially make nine nuclear bombs. That was "a matter of serious concern", given the proliferation risks, it added.

The agency also said it could not provide assurance that the Iranian nuclear programme was exclusively peaceful because Iran was not complying with its investigation into man-made uranium particles discovered by inspectors at three undeclared nuclear sites

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cn840275p5yo


The statement that Ayatollah "didn't authorize building a weapon", when taken out of whole report, is misleading. In order to authorize building a weapon, you need to have 90%-enriched uranium at the first place. So you have something to build a weapon from. Until then it was pointless to authorize building a weapon, so he never did it. And Iran was well on its way to getting uranium enriched enough to make bomb. It was way beyond levels required for peaceful program. They were a short technical step from it

Also, Ayatollah did "authorize" the destruction of Israel, whether via nukes or otherwise, long before Gaza war. For example, this is from 2020:

“The Zionist regime is a deadly, cancerous growth and a detriment to this region,” Khamenei said. “It will undoubtedly be uprooted and destroyed.

https://apnews.com/article/a03304230...83a95222d51b83

[Snuffleupagus]

There is only one reason to enriched uranium to 60% and that's to build a bomb, or at the very least a dirty bomb, for power plants I believe it's around 3 or 4% purity.

[Looch City]

Only an approved list of nations have the allowance to defend themselves!

[Pointman]

Took a walk this evening, but walked a bit too far. Got a notification on my phone that Iran has launched a volley of missiles. Ran back home. I am decent runner, I run 10 km in amateur runs.
When I was about 2 minutes from home, siren started. I knew it's about a minute between a siren and a missile. I had to make a choice between continuing running home or laying down in some fairly suitable place on the street. So I looked up in the sky over my shoulder and saw missiles coming from the East. And interceptors, then some explosions. There are many videos online about how it looks like, and it is similar in real life. Then I kept running and made it home about a minute after explosions ended. Later I learned that a house was hit about 5 kms away from my home, but no deaths.

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by Looch City

Only an approved list of nations have the allowance to defend themselves!

Every nation is allowed to defend itself. Not every nation is allowed to build a nuclear bomb after signing a nuclear non proliferation. Also, no nation is allowed to make a destruction of another nation their official goal.

[Bill Bumface]

Originally Posted by Pointman

Also, no nation is allowed to make a destruction of another nation their official goal.

Right, you have to take the important first step of denying the existence of your enemy's nation before you start bombing them into oblivion to exterminate their people. I don't need to tell you about this part, however.

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by Bill Bumface

Right, you have to take the important first step of denying the existence of your enemy's nation before you start bombing them into oblivion to exterminate their people. I don't need to tell you about this part, however.

The nation you are talking about was given a state. For the first time in their history. On the next day, instead of getting on with building their state, they declared a war on Israel promising to "drive them into the sea". Not surprisingly, they don't have their state still..

[Pointman]

Ironically, it was Iran's proxy Hamas - not Israel - who murdered and expelled Palestinian authorities from Gaza, effectively making Gaza independent (from Palestine) breakaway exclave.

Iran doesn't care about Palestine. Iran isn't even an Arabian state. About 2% of their population are Arabs. About 20% of Israel citizens are ethnic Arabs. Even in absolute numbers, Israel has slightly bigger Arabic population.

[Looch City]

In the end, it's actually Iran committing genocide in Gaza.

Got it bro! Thanks for the clarification.

[Looch City]

I also like how this terrorist regime is able to make super uber precise attacks on buildings and key targets in Iran but when it comes to their neighbor Gaza it's like meh, spray and pray boys!

[Doctorfever]

Originally Posted by Pointman

Took a walk this evening, but walked a bit too far. Got a notification on my phone that Iran has launched a volley of missiles. Ran back home. I am decent runner, I run 10 km in amateur runs.
When I was about 2 minutes from home, siren started. I knew it's about a minute between a siren and a missile. I had to make a choice between continuing running home or laying down in some fairly suitable place on the street. So I looked up in the sky over my shoulder and saw missiles coming from the East. And interceptors, then some explosions. There are many videos online about how it looks like, and it is similar in real life. Then I kept running and made it home about a minute after explosions ended. Later I learned that a house was hit about 5 kms away from my home, but no deaths.

Glad you are ok Pointman.

I’m sure it must be difficult living through this, especially with children.

Stay safe.

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by Looch City

I also like how this terrorist regime is able to make super uber precise attacks on buildings and key targets in Iran but when it comes to their neighbor Gaza it's like meh, spray and pray boys!

It's easy. Iran has an official army and army infrastructure. Which is separated from civilian infrastructure. Gaza, on the other hand, doesn't have army in uniform nor separated and marked army infrastructure. Which is a war crime, if anyone cares about war crimes.

[Pointman]

Originally Posted by Looch City

In the end, it's actually Iran committing genocide in Gaza.

Got it bro! Thanks for the clarification.

Nobody's committing genocide in Gaza. Killing 2% of population (50K out of 2 mils) in 1.5 years is not genocide. For comparison, during the Holocaust 2/3 of Jews (6 mils out of 9) were murdered in 4 years.