Living by the sword and dying by the sword, Iran reaped what it sowed with its latest casualty, nuclear scientist Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, killed by most likely a joint operation between the U.S. and Israel. Iran can’t have peace while they’re at war with their neighbors, Israel and Saudi Arabia. It’s been five years since Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized Yemen’s Sanaa Feb. 6, 2015, starting their war with Saudi Arabia March 26, 2015, firing Iranian made missiles deep into Saudi Arabia, knocking out Saudi’s main Abaiq-Khurais oild refinery Sept. 14, 2019, causing a quarter of the world’s refined oil products to halt for several weeks. Iran likes to deny any responsibility for Houthi attacks, only recently hitting an Aramco Oil facility in Jeddah Nov. 23. It’s easy for Iran’s 81-year-old Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to threaten Israel when the Persian nation sponsors terrorism around the Middle East.
Since the 1979 Islamic Revolution when Iranian militants, including 65-year-old former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stormed the U.S. embassy in Tehran Nov. 4, 1979, essentially staying at war with the United States and its No. 1 ally in the Mideast Israel. Iran doesn’t let a day go by without threatening Israel’s existence or hosting Holocaust Deniers’ conferences, rubbing the Nazi Holocaust into Israel’s face. Supplying rockets-and-cash to Hamas terrorists in Gaza and Hezbollah militants in Beirut, Iran has tried to attack Israel from the North and the South, never letting a day go by without some kind of attack against the Jewish State. So when Israel retaliates against Iran, whether in Tehran or Syria, the Ayatollah knows they’ve perpetuated the ongoing proxy wars, leaving Israel no choice but to defend its sovereignty against an ongoing Iranian proxy war in Gaza and Beirut.
Trump didn’t pull any punches with Iran cancelling 58-year-old former President Barack Obama’s July 15, 2015 Iranian Nuke deal, handing Iran $1.6 billion and cash and giving $150 billion in sanctions relief. While Obama spent two years working on a nuclear deal with his 76-year-old Secretary of State John Kerry, Iran continued to create mayhem in the Middle East. When 74-year-old President Donald Trump saw the charade with Iran, he backed out of Obama’s Nuke Deal May 8, 2018, causing the P5+1, including U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany] to go apoplectic, refusing to accept Iran’s noncompliance with the agreement. From Day 1, Iran was never in compliance with its limits on uranium enrichment because it didn’t permit the U.N.’s Geneva-based International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] to inspect Iran’s secret military sites, something the IAEA didn’t admit until now.
Whatever Israel’s role in Fakharizadeh’s extra-judicial killing, Iran is fully at war with Israel and has been for years. Israel ‘s Mossad Security Service and Israeli Defense Forces [IDF] are tasked by 71-year-old Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to neutralize Iran’s threat to Israel’s national security. When Obama struck the Iranian Nuke Deal, he didn’t consideri Israel’s national security, especially if Iran’s proxy war Saudi Arabia disrupted world oil supplies. Trump recognized that the July 15, 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [JCPOA] actually gave Iran a clear path to an A-bomb, but, more importantly, all the cash it needed to cause mayhem in the Middle East. Trump cancelled the JCPOA to get more leverage on Iran, especially ordering the predator drone strike Jan. 3 on Al-Qud’s chief Qassem Solemani. Iran’s malign activities created the atmosphere for the Fakharizadeh incident.
Whether killing Fakharizadeh slows Iran’s nuclear program one bit is not the point of the mission. Killing the father of Iran’s military nuke program lets the Ayatollah know that he can’t sponsor revolution and proxy war without consequences. If Khamenei makes good on his promise to hit Israel or the U.S. on Trump’s watch, he knows the consequences would be severe for Tehran. “Definitive punishment of the perpetrators and those who ordered it,” Khamenei said, putting Israel or the U.S. on notice. “We will respond to the assassination of Martyr Fakhrizadeh in a proper time,” said Iranian President Hassan Rouhani. “The Iranian nation is smarter that falling into the trap of the Zionists. They are thinking to create chaos,” reluctant to strike Israel or the U.S. while Trump’s still president. When Biden takes the reins, it’s clear that foreign powers might be tempted to lash out at the U.S.
Khamenei and Rouhani are beating the war drums now that one their own went down in a blaze of glory. “The country’s prominent and distinguished nuclear and defensive scientist,” Khamenei said about Fakhrizadeh. When he speaks of Fakhrizadeh as “nuclear and defensive” he’s referring to his mission, like A.Q. Khan in Pakistan, to get Iran the bomb, a great equalizer in a world of “mutual assured destruction.” Continuing its proxy wars on Saudi Arabia and Israel, two of the U.S. closest allies, Iran really shows that it’s at war with the U.S. as well. Attacking U.S. allies, Iran knows it’s getting back at the U.S., something bound to spark reprisals. When Iran attacked the Ayan al-Assad Airbase Sept. 8, 2011 injuring 100 U.S. soldiers, he reserved the right to respond at a time of his choosing. Killing the father of Iran’s nuclear program showed that Trump meant business.
