DUBAI, Dec 30 (Reuters) – Iran used a satellite launch rocket to send three research devices into space on last Thursday, a defense ministry spokesman said, as indirect U.S.-Iran talks take place in Austria to try to salvage a 2015 nuclear deal.
He did not clarify whether the devices had reached orbit, but suggested the launch was a test ahead of coming attempts to put satellites into orbit.
Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programs in the Middle East, has suffered several failed satellite launches in the past few years due to technical issues.
Washington has said it is concerned by Iran’s development of space launch vehicles and a German diplomat said Berlin had called on Iran to stop sending satellite launch rockets into space, adding that they violated a U.N. Security Council resolution.
The blast-offs have raised concerns in Washington about whether the technology used to launch satellites could advance Iran’s ballistic missile development. The United States says that such satellite launches defy a United Nations Security Council resolution calling on Iran to steer clear of any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons.
Iranian defense ministry spokesman Ahmad Hosseini said the Simorgh (Phoenix) satellite carrier rocket had launched the three research devices at an altitude of 290 miles and at a speed of 4.5 miles per second.
“The intended research objectives of this launch were achieved,” Hosseini told state television. “This was done as a preliminary launch … God willing, we will have an operational launch soon.”
State TV showed footage of what it said was the firing of the launch vehicle from the Imam Khomeini Space Center in northern Iran at dawn.
“By developing our capacity to launch satellites, in the near future satellites with a wide range of applications… will be placed into orbit,” Hosseini said.
“The payloads launched today were subsystems of satellites that were tested in vacuum conditions and high altitude as well as high acceleration and speed and the data was gathered,” he added.
State media quoted Information and Communications Technology Minister Isa Zarepour as saying: “I hope lessons learned from this research launch will pave the way for operational access to satellite system launch technology.”
Now understand, Saudi Arabia is an arch enemy of Iran.
Iran is Shiite Muslim (believes leader of the faith must be direct descendant of Mohammed.
Saudi Arabia is Sunni Muslim. Says leader of the faith does not have to be a blood relative of Mohammed.
So, firing this rocket into space has definitely gotten the attention of the Saudis.
DUBAI, Dec 30 (Reuters)
Saudi King Salman said on Wednesday that Saudi Arabia was concerned about Iran’s lack of cooperation with the international community on its nuclear and ballistic missile programs.
King Salman bin Abdulaziz said in an address to the kingdom’s advisory Shura Council that he hoped Iran would change its “negative” behavior in the region and choose dialogue and cooperation.
“We follow with concern the Iranian government’s policy which is destabilizing regional security and stability, including building and backing sectarian armed militias and propagating its military power in other countries,” the 85-old ruler said in a speech published by state news agency SPA.
“(We follow with concern) its lack of cooperation with the international community regarding its nuclear program and its development of ballistic missiles,” he added.
Saudi Arabia, a major Western ally in the Gulf, has been locked in a bitter rivalry with Iran across the Middle East where both sides have backed opposing factions in several conflicts including in Yemen, Syria and Lebanon.
Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries expelled Lebanese envoys in October in a diplomatic spat that has added to Lebanon’s economic crisis. Saudi officials said the crisis with Beirut has its origins in a Lebanese political setup that reinforces the dominance of the Iran-backed Hezbollah armed group.
In a step to ease tensions, Saudi and Iranian officials met in a series of direct talks earlier this year but they have yet to yield a breakthrough.
So, you can see that Iran is triggering a destabilization of the Middle East with these rocket launches.
With Iran in mind, Israel just signed deal with the US for heavy choppers and refueling planes
The Times of Israel
31 December 2021, 11:06 am
Israel on Thursday signed a long-awaited agreement to purchase a dozen heavy transport helicopters and two additional refueling planes from the United States, in a weapons deal worth over $3 billion, the Defense Ministry said.
These aircraft, along with a number of additional F-35 fighter jets that Israel plans to purchase from the US, are specifically meant to counter threats posed by Iran, including its nuclear program.
According to the ministry, in addition to the fighter jets, transport helicopters and refueling planes, this includes “advanced aerial munitions, air defense systems, new naval and land-based platforms, and cyber and digital systems.”
The 12 Sikorsky King Stallion heavy transport helicopters will replace Israel’s aging fleet of CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters, which have been in use for over half a century and have seen a number of maintenance issues in recent years. The first CH-53K helicopters are scheduled to arrive in Israel in 2026, according to the ministry.
Under the agreement, Israel has the option to purchase six more helicopters in the future as well.
In addition, the delegation of the ministry’s purchasing department signed a deal to buy two more Boeing KC-46 refueling planes, which would be needed in order to conduct strikes against targets in Iran, some (1,200 miles) from Israel and far outside the regular flight range of Israeli jets.
Israel has already agreed to purchase two of these refueling planes, which are scheduled to arrive in 2025.
The helicopter deal will cost Israel roughly $2 billion and the refuelers will cost another $1.1 billion, with the money coming from the $3.8 billion that Israel receives from Washington as part of the 10-year memorandum of understanding between the two countries, the ministry said.
“The purchase of these platforms is part of a wider effort, which is being led by the Defense Ministry with the IDF over the past year and a half to strengthen the capabilities and force build-up of the IDF against current and future threats, mostly those posed by the ‘third-ring,’” the Defense Ministry said.
In Israeli military parlance, the first ring refers to threats directly on the country’s borders, the second ring refers to slightly farther-flung enemies, like those in Iraq or Yemen, and the third ring refers to those yet further away — in practice, it is almost exclusively used in connection with Iran.
The Biden Team Knows Its Iran Policy Is Failing
By Anthony Ruggiero, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
DECEMBER 31, 2021, 6:00 AM
The Biden administration now admits a nuclear deal with Iran may not happen despite its continued outreach to Tehran. Of course, Biden wants to pin the blame on former U.S. President Donald Trump, whose withdrawal from the original nuclear deal supposedly provided Iran with the pretext to advance its nuclear weapons capabilities.
But the uncomfortable truth is Iran’s most aggressive moves came after U.S. President Joe Biden was elected.
What’s driving Tehran forward is not Trump’s maximum pressure campaign but Biden’s decision to ease that pressure. Simply put: Iran, like China and Russia, is doing what it can get away with.
In early December, the administration acknowledged it is discussing alternatives “if the path to diplomacy towards a mutual return to compliance [with the 2015 nuclear deal] isn’t viable in the near term.”
A U.S. State Department spokesperson made that comment while Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz was visiting Washington to propose joint military exercises to prepare for potential strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. The need for such consultations indicates a deal is slipping out of reach.
Earlier this month, an unnamed senior U.S. official also warned that “in the first quarter of [2022],” Tehran could “configure things and rapidly get one bomb’s worth of [highly enriched uranium].”
In other words, Iran has taken advantage of lengthy negotiations in Vienna to move toward nuclear breakout, which is when a state achieves nuclear weapons capability.
Washington’s European allies also know the talks are headed for failure. British Foreign Minister Liz Truss said this is Iran’s “last chance” for a deal.
Earlier this month, when an interviewer told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken “the path for diplomacy seems to be failing,” Blinken pivoted to blaming Trump.
He said Trump’s “decision to pull out of the [original] agreement was a disastrous mistake because what’s happened since is that Iran has used that as an excuse, despite the maximum pressure applied against Iran, to also renege on its commitments under the agreement and to relentlessly rebuild the nuclear program that the agreement had put in a box.”
The problem with that argument is Tehran’s most egregious nuclear advances occurred after Biden was elected, not after Trump pulled out of the deal in 2018.
Biden has incentivized Tehran’s march toward the bomb by refusing to impose any consequences on the clerical regime for its provocations. There were five key instances when Biden stuck to his “engagement only” strategy despite Tehran’s nuclear advances.
First, Iran began producing uranium metal, a crucial element in nuclear weapons, in February.
Second, Tehran has obstructed the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) investigation into Iran’s undeclared nuclear activities at several suspect nuclear sites.
Third, Iran reduced its cooperation with the IAEA at declared nuclear sites as of February. Since then, the agency cannot review data from surveillance equipment and other techniques used to monitor Iran’s nuclear program’s status.
Fourth, Tehran has increased production of advanced centrifuge parts since August but has not allowed the agency to inventory or verify the location of this equipment.
Fifth, the Biden administration has allowed each IAEA Board of Governors meeting this year to conclude without a censure resolution against Iran.
Tehran’s amassing of knowledge about the development of nuclear weapons will irreparably harm the global nonproliferation regime and lead to a more dangerous world.
If Biden hopes to stop it, he will have to recognize that his decisions as president have brought the United States to this point.
Anthony Ruggiero is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and a former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the U.S. National Security Council during the Trump administration. Twitter: @NatSecAnthony