Iran Is ‘A Cancer’ That Finances Hamas, Hezbollah: Israeli FM

In an interview on Face the Nation, Burns told Margaret Brennan that Iran’s military ties with Russia is “moving at a pretty fast clip in a very dangerous direction right now…”

At the same time, he said despite Iran’s uranium enrichment program which has advanced far and can produce bomb material in a matter of weeks, the United States believes a decision to produce nuclear weapons has not been made yet.

Manufacturing a bomb can be a more secretive process in comparison with enrichment, which the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is somewhat monitoring inside the country. While the enrichment installations are being monitored, the bomb-making process can take place in a completely separate and secret location.

The United States believes that Iran stopped its nascent weaponization program in 2003 when news about its secret nuclear program became public and Western powers began exerting pressure on Tehran.

“To the best of our knowledge, we don't believe that the Supreme Leader in Iran has yet made a decision to resume the weaponization program that we judge that they suspended or stopped at the end of 2003,” Burns said during the interview.

Iran began breaching an enrichment limit imposed by the Obama era JCPOA accord after the Trump administration imposed full oil export sanctions in 2019. First, Tehran began enriching to 5 percent, beyond the agreement’s 3.67-percent limit, but when the Biden administration signaled its readiness to revive the deal, Iran announced enrichment to 20 percent in early 2021.

As negotiations were taking place in Vienna that year, Iran increased enrichment to 60 percent, which is very close to the 90-percent purity needed for nuclear weapons.

This month Bloomberg reported that IAEA inspectors found 84-percent enriched uranium particles in an Iranian nuclear facility. The UN watchdog has not denied the report, while Tehran has said that unintentional over-enrichment can sometimes happen in the fast-spinning centrifuges.

Burns also warned that the close military ties between Moscow and Tehran can pose a threat not only to Ukraine but also to regional countries. Iran has already provided hundreds of Kamikaze drones that Russia has used against Ukraine. Burns revealed that Iran has also provided Russia with ammunition for artillery and tanks.

“Russia is proposing to help the Iranians on their missile program and also at least considering the possibility of providing fighter aircraft to Iran as well,” the CIA director said.

Iran already has medium-range missiles that could be modified to carry nuclear warheads but any Russian assistance in this regard could be extremely dangerous for the region and possibly beyond.

Israel has vowed that it will not tolerate a nuclear Iran and is preparing to use military force if needed to neutralize its nuclear program.

US officials have also been increasingly signaling that President Joe Biden will not tolerate a nuclear Iran, after JCPOA talks hit a dead-end in September. "If they start getting too close, too close for comfort, then of course we will not be prepared to sit idly by," US Special Representative for Iran Robert Malley told National Public Radio in November.

The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force is an inter-state organization that leads global action to tackle money laundering, terrorist and proliferation financing. Its recommendations impact decisions by governments and private sector firms in making banking and investment decisions.

Iran and North Korea are the only two countries on FATF’s black list, and all member states are urged to apply enhanced due diligence in dealing with them.

Experts say that even if sanctions imposed by Western countries on Iran are lifted, Tehran must adhere to FATF standards in banking and financial controls to be considered a safe business partner by international actors.

Most important are measures to prevent money laundering and financing of terrorism.

Although FATF’s decision comes as no surprise given Tehran’s refusal to accept its demands, it coincides with unprecedented financial and economic chaos in Iran in recent days.

Iran’s previous government submitted legislation to parliament in 2017 to adopt laws to implement FATF’s standards, but the hardliners have since prevented the final approval of the laws.

Opponents argue that if Iran accedes to FATF demands it will not be able to provide financial help to allied groups in the region that are part of Tehran’s “axis of resistance”.

These groups, such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and some Palestinian militant organizations, are designated as terrorist by some countries and act as proxy forces to help the Islamic Republic spread its influence in other countries.

The measure comes after two brothers of Iranian origin in Sweden were indicted on spying for Russia last year.

The act applies to both public and private organizations engaged in "security-sensitive activities" that are important to Sweden's national security and infrastructure. The act includes almost 100,000 Iranians living in the country as well.

Any company handling "security-sensitive information," will need to conduct a personnel security assessment before hiring new staff.

According to the Swedish security service, authoritarian governments can force the families of people who want to be employed in sensitive positions to spy.

The act has been criticized and Ardalan Shekarabi, an Iranian-born member of the Swedish Parliament.

In November 2022, Sweden charged two Iranian-born brothers, Peyman and Payam Kia, with spying for Russia and its military intelligence for about a decade.

Iranian-Swedish relations have been soured in recent years after Ahmadreza Jalali, an Iranian-Swedish doctor and researcher visiting Iran was deatined in 2016 on charges of espionage and after a sham trial sentenced to death.

Stockholm also issued a life sentence for Hamid Nouri, the former deputy prosecutor of Gohardasht prison in Sweden, on his role in the mass killing of political prisoners in Iran in 1980s.

An Iranian official implicitly accepted the accusation, telling state television's English-language arm, Press TV that the allegation is a part of a “conspiracy” against Tehran amid tensions over its nuclear program.

Iran’s Nuclear Agency Spokesman Behrouz Kamalvandi said on Friday that finding highly-enriched uranium particles in the pipes connecting centrifuges was a “normal issue.”

“For example, we are producing 5 percent enriched [uranium], 11 percent particle is seen in it, or we are producing 20 percent [enriched uranium], 47 percent particle is seen in it. We had several correspondences about this in the past… it’s a natural thing in enrichment,” he noted.

“The machine is spinning fast. If the amount of the feed decreases for a moment, the enrichment will increase by a few percent; but it doesn’t matter because the end product is what matters.”

The allegation international inspectors found 84% enriched uranium threatens to further escalate tensions between Iran and the West. Should the claim be true, it would put the clerical regime closer than ever to weapons-grade material.

Iran now produces uranium enriched to 60% purity. Any accusation of enrichment higher than that further ratchets up tension over the program.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already threatened to take military action similar to when Israel previously bombed nuclear programs in Iraq and Syria.

Romanian law enforcement authorities took Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi into custody after he arrived in Bucharest on Friday, the Associated Press reported.

Bazzi, 58, who was labeled a “global terrorist” by the United States in 2018 when $10 million was offered for information about his whereabouts, has funneled millions of dollars to Lebanon’s Hezbollah over the years, officials said.

Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York on Friday charged Mohammad Ibrahim Bazzi and Talal Chahine, both Lebanese citizens, with conspiracy “to conduct and cause American persons to conduct unlawful transactions and money laundering conspiracy.”

“As alleged, Mohammad Bazzi thought that he could secretly move hundreds of thousands of dollars from the United States to Lebanon without detection by law enforcement. Today’s arrest proves that Bazzi was wrong,” stated Peace, adding that “Our office is committed to ensuring that sanctions imposed by the US government are respected and that terrorism financiers are starved of funds.”

“The defendants in this case attempted to provide continued financial assistance to Hizballah, a foreign terrorist organization responsible for death and destruction,” stated DEA Acting Special Agent-in-Charge Daniel J. Kafafian.

“The men and women of DEA are committed to working with our law enforcement and foreign counterparts to disrupt and dismantle the operations of these organizations and those who choose to support them financially,” he added.