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Iran has ramped up its nuclear enrichment at the underground Fordow nuclear site, according to a confidential report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that was seen by Reuters.
The document reportedly states that Tehran is making good on its threats to use a second cascade of the advanced IR-6 centrifuges at Fordow, which can more easily switch between enrichment levels. Fordow is said to be the Islamic Republic’s most impenetrable nuclear site and cannot be taken out by a missile strike due to it being located beneath a mountain.
Iran is said to have informed the nuclear watchdog that it had started on a process known as passivation of the cascade, which is the final stage before actual enrichment.
The leak of the confidential report comes as talks to revive the moribund 2015 Iran nuclear deal — known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) — have stalled. It is thought that the accord could be killed off permanently, amid growing doubts that Tehran will agree to any new agreement limiting its nuclear ambitions.
Meanwhile, the commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Gen. Hossein Salami claimed that Israel was experiencing “political collapse” following news the Knesset would be dissolved after months of coalition infighting.
In a rambling speech, Salami said the “Zionist regime has collapsed politically, and the US is seeking a reputable escape from the Islamic world,” adding: “The enemies have become depressed and withered, lack the power to pursue their objectives, are desperately looking for a way to withdraw, and suffer injuries from widespread defeats.”
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US Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke to both Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Tuesday following Bennett’s announcement to bring forward a bill to dissolve the Knesset in the coming days.
In a statement released following his talk with the Israeli premier, Blinken said that he expressed “our respect for democratic processes, our unwavering commitment to the strong US-Israeli strategic relationship, and our mutual concerns about Iran’s malign influence in the region.”
In a similar vein, both Blinken and the US ambassador to the United States confirmed that US President Joe Biden’s July visit to Israel will go ahead regardless of the political upheaval.
Lapid emphasized the importance of this upcoming trip, saying the visit has “significant implications for the region and for the struggle against Iran, and great potential to significantly upgrade regional stability and security.”
Bennett’s decision to disband the Knesset and draw Israel into a fifth round of national elections in less than four years came in the wake of his government’s failure to renew the West Bank emergency law, a routine piece of legislation that was recently voted down by right-wing opposition parties and renegades from his own coalition.
The Knesset passed the initial bill to dissolve the Knesset on Wednesday. The vote passed overwhelmingly by a vote of 110-0.
Upon dissolution of the Knesset, Yair Lapid will become the caretaker prime minister until after the election.
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The past few weeks have seen a slew of warnings from both the Israeli government and security officials against travel to Turkey, citing the real possibility that Iranian agents will target Israelis for revenge attacks following the killing of a senior Revolutionary Guard member last month.
However, even with the recent announcement that Israeli and Turkish forces had identified and apprehended a number of Iranian agents, there seems to be little change in the day-to-day lives of Israeli tourists and expats as well as Turkish Jews, with many seeming unfazed by the government warnings.
According to Turkey’s Ashkenazi chief rabbi, there has been no significant drop in the number of kosher meals being prepared for Turkey-bound flights, a sign that these travel advisories could be going unheeded.
Home to a large Jewish community, Turkey has seen a number of attacks against its local Jewish population, including an Al Qaeda bombing attack against Istanbul synagogues in 2003.
The Israeli warning over travel to Turkey comes as relations between the two countries are the warmest that they’ve been in the past decade.
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The new United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on Palestinian issues has once again sought to justify terrorist violence by Palestinians against Israelis.
In an interview this month with an Italian magazine, Francesca Albanese stated: “Israel says ‘resistance equals terrorism,’ but an occupation requires violence and generates violence,” before adding: “Palestinians have no other room for dissent than violence.”
In addition, Albanese repeated disproven claims that Israel maintains a system of apartheid and suggested that Israelis who are in possession of dual citizenship could be tried for “crimes” in their second citizenship country if they lived in “occupied Palestinian territory.”
In May, Albanese described violence against Israelis as “inevitable,” while claiming the “right to exist of the Palestinian people has been denied for 55 years—almost three generations.”
In other remarks, she is said to have compared the displacement of Arabs during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War to the Holocaust: “Just as tragic, terrible, unspeakable, is the tragedy that befell the Jewish people in the [Holocaust], so for the Palestinians, the Nakba represents the crumbling of the connective tissue of a people.”
Recommended Reading
- Palestinian Terror Groups May Increase Attacks Ahead of Israeli Elections (Khaled Abu Toameh, Jerusalem Post)
- UN Human Rights Council Report Aims to Put Israelis Behind Bars (David May, Foundation for Defense of Democracies)
- Jew-Hatred Is on the Rise: 10 Ways to Fight Back (David Harris, Algemeiner)
- What Europeans and Palestinians Have in Common (Karni Eldad, Jewish News Syndicate)
- Can Herb-Infused Chocolate Solve Prediabetes Without Meds? (Brian Blum, Israel21C)
