Bluster: Meet Hyperbole = Impasse

"They've already developed missiles that can threaten Europe and our bases overseas, and they're working to build missiles that will soon reach the United States of America."

"They were warned to make no future attempts to rebuild their weapons program, and in particular nuclear weapons, yet they continue."

"They're starting it all over."

U.S. President Donald Trump

 

"[Trump and his administration is conducting a] disinformation and misinformation campaign [against Iran]."

"Whatever they're alleging in regards to Iran's nuclear program, Iran's ballistic missiles, and the number of casualties during January's unrest is simply the repetition of 'big lies'."

Iranian Foreign Minister spokesman Esmail Baghaei 

Thousands were reportedly killed in the demonstrations. (Photo by Contributor/Getty Images)

 

Should negotiations between the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran fail, the threat by the Trump administration that an attack is imminent could become reality. In the face of that impending -- yet to be discarded -- reality, the U.S. has assembled its largest aircraft and warships deployment in decades in the Middle East, part of the plan to convince Tehran to forego its nuclear ambitions. Expecting to convince the mullahs that the time is right; its violent reaction to the people of Iran assembling in huge protests against the strictures of the theocratic regime held to have weakened it, in the wake of the June attack by Israel and the U.S. against the nation's nuclear installations.

 

The protests were the largest in Iran's history and were met with a brutal government crackdown.

Morteza Nikoubazl/NurPhoto/Getty Images

 

Planet Labs PBC shot satellite photographs, analyzed by The Association Press that appear to indicate that U.S. naval vessels typically docked in Bahrain, home of the U.S. navy's 5th Fleet, have been deployed in their entirety out to sea; scattered ostensibly to protect them and the thousands of U.S. navy personnel against a possible attack launched by Iran as a retaliatory strike should the U.S. make good on its warning that a strike is imminent.

 

Additional sanctions were imposed by the Trump administration on individuals and companies said to be enabling Iran's ballistic missile program, drone production and illicit oil sales. The satellite photos show Iran has been rebuilding its missile-production sites and carrying out reconstruction at the three nuclear sites attacked in June's U.S. strikes.  Iran, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, had been enriching uranium to 60 percent purity up to the June attack; attaining a degree of purity that is but a short technical step from 90 percent weapons-grade enrichment.

 

Over 7,000 dead Iranian protesters in the government crackdown occasioned President Trump to warn Tehran of American intent to put a stop to the massacre. That number was supplied by the Human Rights Activist News Agency in the U.S. which believes the actual figure of those killed by the regime to be much higher. There are some internal sources in the country claiming that up to 30,000 Iranians might have been killed, and many more injured and imprisoned in the protest crackdowns. 

 

US military builds up the largest force of warships and aircraft in the Middle East in decades   Associated Press

"If you choose the table of diplomacy  a diplomacy in which the dignity of the Iranian nation and mutual interests are respected -- we will also be at that table."

"But if  you decide to repeat past experiences through deception, lies, flawed analysis and false information, and launch an attack in the midst of negotiations, you will undoubtedly taste the firm blow of the Iranian nation and the country's defensive forces."

Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, Parliamentary Speaker, Tehran