Iran International and Al Jazeera reported on September 17, 2026, statements by leaders in the U.S., Iran and Israel (below). Those statements give a good picture of the U.S.-Iran-Israel standoff today. One should take into account campaigning for the upcoming elections with Trump's and Netanyahu's pronouncements.            I believe the betting is that Trump will wait until the midterms have taken place before pushing the ‘annihilate’ button. Noting the cry of alarm from Saudi Arabia and the expanding conflict, by then the interceptors supply in the region will be heading toward zero.  Trump says ‘big decision’ looms on whether to ‘annihilate’ Iran regime       “ I have a big decision coming up. Do I want to go in and annihilate them [the Iranian regime] or do I not? It's a big decision. Anything could happen with me ,” Trump told Axios.  Iran president says Tehran will not bow to US, Israel  ...

          Not surprisingly, Al Jazeera gave the fullest reporting on the nuclear-related developments with Iran on September 10. Their headline and subtitles were:            IAEA accuses Iran of ‘noncompliance’                      What has the IAEA accused Iran of?                      How has Iran responded?                      What is the UN Security Council expected to do?                      What impact could this have on the US war against Iran?                      What is the IAEA's history with Iran?  Iran International also posted on Sep 10 reports on numerous related developments....

          Today Reuters headlined:                                                                   Trump says US may hit Iran's Pickaxe Mountain soon .            Meanwhile, on the ‘diplomatic’ front, in advance of the September Board of Governors meeting next week, Reuters has reported that the U.S. is again leading a push for another Board resolution on Iran. This would follow Board Iran resolutions in June 2025, November 2025 and June 2026. This fourth one is the ‘ clincher ’; it would move the Iran nuclear case back onto the UN Security Council agenda, after a 20-year pause.            Why a Board resolution now? Why bomb Pickaxe now?            They...

          ISIS has published its analysis of the IAEA’s report on new developments on the clandestine nuclear program in Syria. As I wrote on August 20, more details “ can be expected to be discussed in the next DG report to the IAEA Board of Governors .”            In my August 20 blog, I went into what it would mean if the disclosed nuclear material was above the ‘ starting point of safeguards ’ or before that point. What has been revealed makes most of that not relevant or applicable.            To my surprise, the material is in the form of some 8,800 fabricated natural uranium metal fuel elements intended as the first core loading of the clandestine DPRK-duplicate graphite moderated, carbon dioxide cooled plutonium production reactor.            Yes, that was undeclared nuclear material that had to be reported to the IAEA under Syria’s NPT safeguard...