Iran's Nuclear Option Isn't a Bomb

Trump’s delusions have ripped open a new war zone

In the first weeks of the US-led war against Iraq in 1991, my friend Christopher Hitchens, who opposed the war, had a classic clash on US television with the actor Charlton Heston, who supported it. “Two years from now, Iraq would have attacked Israel with nuclear weapons,” claimed Heston in justification for US military action, which Hitchens described as an act of “instantaneous barbarism”. “Can he [Heston] tell me clockwise what countries hav…

Iran leader vows oil pain in defiant first remarks

What happenedIran’s secretive new leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, vowed vengeance on the U.S. and Israel on Thursday for their ongoing strikes and said Iran would continue throttling the world’s oil shipments. The statement, Khamenei’s first since being named supreme leader earlier this week, was read on state TV. He has not been seen publicly since the war began. Who said what“We will not refrain from avenging the blood of your martyrs,” Kh…

In first public comments, Iran’s supreme leader pledges to keep fighting

Iran’s secretive new leader issued his first public statements Thursday, resolving to keep fighting, promising more pain for Gulf Arab states and threatening to open “other fronts” in a war that has already disrupted world energy supplies, the global economy and international travel.

Iran's Nuclear Option Isn't a Bomb

For decades, global attention has focused on the potential “red line” of Iran’s nuclear program. Intelligence agencies track centrifuge installations, debate enrichment levels, and speculate about the possibility of a nuclear breakout. But while the world has been watching Iran’s nuclear program, it has a far more immediate strategic lever. Iran’s most powerful weapon is not a bomb. It is the geography it controls. The Strait of Hormuz is a narr…

Iran’s leader vows to keep up attacks in first statement since being appointed

In the statement read by a state TV news presenter, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei vowed to avenge those killed in the war.

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei strikes defiant tone in first public statement

Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei gave his first public statement on Thursday, saying that Iran will not capitulate to demands from the United States and Israel. Khamenei was elevated to his current role after his father was killed in a joint air offensive by the U.S. and Israel. The new supreme leader of Iran called his father’s death a “deep wound” and vowed to avenge the deaths of Iranians who have been killed in ongoing conflict. His defiant statem…