World Markets Tremble, Iran Sneers, Israel Accuses

"Oil prices moved sharply higher Monday as Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accused Iran of nuclear deception in a televised address that was also seen live on YouTube. This follows his meeting over the weekend with U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo regarding Iran's nuclear deal." "Netanyahu referred to the nuclear deal as 'terrible' and accused Iran of having a 'secret nuclear bomb program'. The U.S. is due to decide whether or not to extend waivers for sanctions on Iran by May 12. If sanctions are reinstated, that could contribute to tighter global oil inventories."
"The loss of Iranian oil on from sanctions will be 500,000 barrels a day or 'perhaps less depending on [European Union] participation', said James Williams, energy economist at WTRG Economics."
"The impact of Netanyahu’s comments sent crude up almost $2 per barrel, at one point, 'as it raises the prospect that the U.S. will return to sanctions. It also indicates a higher probability that Israel will attack Iranian nuclear facilities', said Williams."
MarketWatch

Israel's prime minister says his government has obtained "half a ton" of secret Iranian documents proving the Tehran government once had a nuclear weapons program. (April 30) AP

"These facts are consistent with what the United States has long known: Iran has a robust, clandestine nuclear weapons program that it has tried and failed to hide from the world and from its own people."
"The Iranian regime has shown it will use destructive weapons against its neighbors and others.  Iran must never have nuclear weapons."
White House official statement 

"Anniversaries are usually celebrations of happy times, but not every milestone is worth celebrating. Thursday marks one year since Iran sealed its nuclear deal with the P5+1 world powers, and evidence is emerging that the Islamic republic is still working on its weapons of mass destruction. Peace, an alien concept in the Middle East, is as distant as ever. If the agreement is worth more than the paper it was printed on, the proof is elusive."
"Germany’s intelligence service reports that the regime has been making illicit attempts to purchase banned nuclear technology from German companies 'at what is, even by international standards, a quantitatively high level'. In other words, a lot. The findings by the German equivalent of the FBI, covering 317 pages, contradict Iran’s pledge to halt its nuclear program in return for $100 billion in frozen assets and a lifting of international sanctions."
"Iran is moving ahead to develop and test-fire long-range missiles that could be fitted with nuclear warheads in contravention of the nuclear deal and United Nations regulations, a move that brought quick condemnation from Chancellor Angela Merkel. 'Iran continued unabated to develop its rocket program in conflict with the relevant provisions of the U.N. Security Council', she told the German Parliament last week. Iran’s evil twin, North Korea, test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile last week, also in violation of U.N. resolutions."
"Iran’s subterfuge has caught the attention of U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who periodically urges the mullahs to knock it off. 'I call upon Iran to refrain from conducting such ballistic missile launches since they have the potential to increase tensions in the region', he wrote in a recent report scheduled for discussion next week by the 15-member U.N. Security Council."
The Washington Times, June 2016 

Israel's intelligence services, through undoubtedly insider information and assistance somehow took possession of hugely incriminating data belonging to the Islamic Republic of Iran, spiriting it to Israel enabling its experts to authenticate the intelligence, copy it and then return the originals to their source a mere day later, and none would have been the wiser had Israel not used that data to inform the world at large what many have suspected before and after the signing of the nuclear agreement.

All of which enabled Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu to engage in a news scoop verifying what he and his intelligence authorities have claimed from day one, that Iran is not to be trusted and is skilled at buying time to enable it to ripen its incendiary programs of domination linked to ownership of nuclear devices and the powerful long-range missiles they accompany. And so, the evidence clearly demonstrating all of that and more has been presented by Israel to the United States in hopes of persuading President Donald J. Trump that the time has never been better to abandon the agreement.

"The nuclear deal is based on lies. It is based on Iranian lies and Iranian deception", said Mr. Netanyahu, revealing what is generally understood to be reality, the existence of which is quite inconvenient. What Barack Obama invested his political capital in as a legacy project it remains for his successor to deconstruct. Neither France, Britain nor Germany, much less the European Union will be pleased to displease Iran. World energy markets are experiencing somewhat of a micro-panic at the prospect of reinstated sanctions.



Wily, seasoned and determined Iranian negotiators had been through it all before; the current Iranian President had himself headed a team of Iranian negotiators who bargained through an adversarial agreement on a previous occasion letting Iran off the nuclear hook, and laughing about it afterward, as the 'moderate' Hassan Rouhani, the quintessential insider of the top echelon of the Iranian Republic. Iran's linkage with North Korea, sharing ICBM and nuclear technology sees this confrontation with the truth at the very time when Kim Jong Un is himself flirting with rebewed deception.

Israel has good reason to be wholly involved in Iran's future plans for the region, since Iranian authorities have never been shy of boasting loudly and publicly of their plans to destroy the "Zionist Entity". That's some sense of humour, placing messages for Israeli destruction on the bodies of Iranian missiles. No less droll than Iran now stating it plans to move its 'embassy' to Jerusalem since most of its files are already there awaiting their entrance.

Israel sees its only line of defence as offence against the Iranian moves to establish itself firmly on  Israel's borders; in Lebanon and in Syria. Iran has been inordinately busy on many fronts; establishing self-contained military bases in Syria, providing updated missiles for Hezbollah in Lebanon, trucking in new high-grade arms into Syria, leaving Israel little option but to conduct aerial missions to destroy those intentions.

Iran's clandestine activities in continuing to develop nuclear weapons, along with openly testing ballistic missiles, more powerful and far-reaching than those before, leaves a clear enough message for the State of Israel. Iran's secretly-located depots, its test sites and engineering facilities may have been scheduled for shut-down but obviously were not. The very same Iranian scientists involved in the original research continue their work in perfecting what they began.

Now it's the turn of French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to determine whether their blandishments toward President Trump will bear fruit. British Prime Minister Theresa May has already stated her cabinet's position that they will continue to support the nuclear agreement hammered out with an outwardly reluctant but inwardly joyful Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, a master manipulator and particular favourite of the EU's Federica Mogherini. 

EU Council Newsroom - Europa EU    Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, and Federica Mogherini