Keeping fingers crossed on December 29 did not work. President Trump spoke belligerently about further attacks on Iran. What his reaction was to Netanyahu’s Iran 2nd round attack options. i.e., how much he wants US military involved, has not yet been reported.
Iran responded as would be expected, but a new element emerged: to meet the existential threat posed by Netanyahu and Trump, Iran is reported to have started working on chemical and biological weaponry to mate with its missiles.
A sensible voice came from the Kremlin, calling for dialogue rather than military aggression. Here is a summary of what has been reported by Iran International and Al Jazeera.
Trump’s threats: I will knock the hell out of them.
US President Donald Trump said a lot on December 29, starting with this. Asked whether he would support Israel's attack on the Iranian missile programme: “If they will continue with the missiles, yes. The nuclear? Fast. OK? One will be: Yes, absolutely. The other is: We’ll do it immediately.”
“Now I hear that Iran is trying to build up again, and if they are, we are going to have to knock them down. We'll knock them down. We'll knock the hell out of them.”
"I hope Iran is not trying to build up, as I've been reading, that they're building up weapons and other things. And if they are, they're not using the sites that we obliterated, but they're using possibly different sites. We know exactly where they're going, what they're doing, and I hope they're not doing it, because we don't want to waste the fuel on B-2, it's a 37-hour trip both ways. I don't want to waste a lot of fuel.”
"I heard Iran wants to make a deal. If they want to make a deal, that's much smarter. You know, they could have made a deal the last time before we went through, you know, a big attack on them. And, they didn't, they decided not to make a deal. They wish they had made that deal. So, I think, again, they should make a deal."
Iran’s Response: Aggression will be met with harsh response.
Ali Shamkhani, top adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei: “Iran’s missile and defensive capabilities are neither containable nor in need of permission. Any act of aggression will be met with a harsh, immediate response beyond the imagination of its planners. In Iran’s defense doctrine, some responses are determined before a threat even reaches the execution stage."
Mohammad-Jafar Ghaempanah, Vice-President for Executive Affairs said. "Iran must have missiles; without them, we would be defenseless. We must stand for Iran’s dignity. If we are to bow our heads to whatever the United States says, then tomorrow we will have to answer to future generations."
Mohsen Rezaei, former commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps: “Iran’s missile and defense capability is neither negotiable, nor stoppable, nor containable. In the event of any new adventurism, the will and capability of the armed forces to respond to the enemy and defend the Iranian nation will be very different from the past."
Informed military sources told Iran International on Dec 28 that: “The Iranian leadership views potential Israeli and American attacks as a threat to its very existence and intends, in the event of a conflict, to significantly raise the cost for the opposing side.” The highest decision-making levels of Iran consider that “the use of unconventional weapons can be justified in situations of existential threat.”
Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) is developing biological and chemical warheads for the country's long-range ballistic missiles, anticipating scenarios of large-scale conflict. It is building capabilities that would serve as a “complementary deterrent factor” alongside Iran’s conventional missile program.
Russia’s response: Dialogue needed.
In response to President Donald Trump’s threats: “We believe it is necessary to develop a dialogue with Iran,” urging parties “to refrain from escalation.”
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