Jul 19, 2020
Over the past few weeks, a series of suspicious fires and explosions have occurred at Iranian civilian and military facilities, including the country’s main missile-production and nuclear complexes. While a few of these incidents might have been accidental, the timing and specific targets suggest that at least some were the result of sabotage by Israel, and the provocations raise the possibility of a spiraling conflict in the Middle East just in time to become an issue in the upcoming U.S. presidential election.
Via anonymous leaks to major media outlets, Israeli intelligence sources have more or less copped to the country’s involvement in some of the incidents. After an explosion at the Natanz nuclear-fuel-enrichment complex in early July, which may have set back Iran’s progress toward a nuclear warhead by months or years, a “Middle Eastern intelligence official with knowledge of the episode” told the New York Times that Israel was behind the attack. Right-wing Israeli politician Avigdor Lieberman implicitly accused Mossad chief Yossi Cohen of being the Times’ source, suggesting that the leak was part of Cohen’s campaign to succeed legally embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as head of the Likud Party.
Read more at http://www.defenddemocracy.press/could-war-with-iran-be-an-october-surprise/
Experts blame Israel for the recent explosions. Why won’t Iran?
By Farhad Rezaei
July 23, 2020
Since late June, there have been dozens of fires and explosions at or near nuclear, military, and industrial facilities in Iran. Experts see the clear possibility of Israeli sabotage in many of these incidents and describe an attempt to disrupt Iran’s re-emerging nuclear program, but Iranian officials have refrained from pointing the finger. Is it plausible for Israel to be behind these serial explosions? And, if it is, why are the Iranians not responding? To answer these questions with any degree of accuracy, an examination of the timing and the locations of these explosions is crucial.
Khojir missile facility. The first episode took place on June 25, when a massive explosion struck an underground tunnel system of the Shahid Bakeri Industrial Group at the Khojir Missile Facility, located in eastern Tehran. As far back as 2010, an Iran expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies had identified Khojir as a “site of numerous tunnels, some suspected of use for arms assembly,” although some of its other functions remain unknown. The facility is also close to the Parchin military complex, a more familiar name because of the reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and a place that has been on the minds of US and Israeli intelligence services for over 20 years because they believe Iran conducted illicit nuclear activities there in the past, including tests of explosive triggers that could be used in atomic bombs.
Read more at http://www.defenddemocracy.press/experts-blame-israel-for-the-recent-explosions-why-wont-iran/
France-Turkey naval clash: Proxy war in Libya enters a new stage
By Dr. Karin Kneissl
Jul.27, 2020
A confrontation between the two NATO states France and Turkey continues to trouble the Mediterranean region; Egyptian forces are mobilizing. And many other military players are continuing operations there.
In March 2011, during a hectic weekend, the French delegation to the UN Security Council managed to convince all other member States of the Council to support Resolution 1973. It was all about a “humanitarian corridor” for Benghazi, which was considered the “good opposition” by the government of Nicolas Sarkozy. One of his whisperers was the controversial philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy, who supported a French intervention. Levy, fond of the “humanitarian war,” found a congenial partner in Sarkozy.
Read more at http://www.defenddemocracy.press/france-turkey-naval-clash-proxy-war-in-libya-enters-a-new-stage/
