Are we inching closer to war?
Today is the deadline to end nuclear negotiations with Iran. Not surprisingly, the international community and Iran have not struck a deal. good, bad or otherwise. Now, another seven months has been added to the discussions. Also not surprising.
Now we face several very serious questions.
- Is there any hope of ever concluding a solid, useful deal — or is Iran just running the clock?
- Will the lack of a deal cause the U.S., Israel, or any country to take preemptive military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities?
From my vantage point, I think the evidence is clear: Iran’s current leaders have absolutely no intention of curtailing much less dismantling their illegal nuclear program. They are gaming the world community as they make significant advances towards The Bomb.
As serious, a former CIA chief now says he doesn’t believe U.S. intelligence is prepared to catch Iran in building a Bomb in the current environment. “The former head of the Central Intelligence Agency warned Thursday that without an ‘invasive inspections regime’ attached to any deal, ‘I am unwilling to guarantee American intelligence can sufficiently verify the agreement on its own,'” reports Roll Call.
To be clear, I can’t say war is coming. I can say there are whispers here that Israeli leaders may increasingly feel they have no choice. If they conclude military action is the only way, they may also conclude this is the window to strike. A Jerusalem Post headline today reads: “Cornered but unbound by nuclear pact, Israel reconsiders military action against Iran.” It’s worth reading.
As I wrote about recently, here is the context by which Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders are evaluating their options:
- Iran is giving no evidence that it willing to make any significant concessions. It refuses to reduce its capabilities to enrich uranium to military/bomb grade, much less eliminate them all together.
- The Ayatollah Khamenei just issued a new call for the “elimination” of the State of Israel. He explained his approach and answering questions on Twitter. Yet most world leaders don’t seem bothered in the slightest or factor such maniacal thinking into their approach towards the rogue terrorist state of Iran.
- As more time goes by, Iran is actually increasing its uranium enrichment capacity, and moving closer to building the Bomb.
- The New York Times reports that Russia has just struck a deal with Iran to build two new nuclear facilities, and possible six more after that.
- What’s more, The Sunday Times of London is reporting that “Iran could have five times more advanced centrifuges capable of producing weapons-grade uranium than it has previously admitted, according to the former deputy chief of the UN nuclear watchdog. Olli Heinonen, who spent 27 years at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said Iran could have up to 5,000 IR-2m centrifuges rather than the 1,008 it has claimed. The IR-2m devices are up to five times more effective in enriching uranium than older IR-1 types.”
An exceeding dangerous moment is coming, largely due to the weakness of Western leaders, our own included.
Is war coming, or is there another way forward? I don’t want to see the U.S. or Israel or any other country have to go to war to destroy Iran’s nuclear capabilities. But we dare not allow the genocidal mullahs in Tehran to have the capacity to build nuclear weapons, much less the weapons themselves.
———————————-
- Learn more about The Joshua Fund (www.joshuafund.com). This is an organization my wife and I founded in 2006 to educate and mobilize Christians to bless Israel and her Arab neighbors in the name of Jesus, including caring for the poor and needy with food and other humanitarian relief. Please prayerfully consider making a generous, tax deductible, secure, on-line contribution.
- We are moving up release of my new thriller about the ISIS threat, THE THIRD TARGET. It will be published on Jan. 6.
- To pre-order THE THIRD TARGET, please click here.
You must be logged in to post a comment.