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The debate over what kind of capability to give to Israel and how quickly is an old one in Washington. In 2008, President George W. Bush deflected requests from Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for specialized bunker-busting bombs and the B-2 bomber, and to rent about 10 flying tankers, which Mr. Olmert said would be needed in any Israeli attack on Irans main nuclear complex at Natanz. Part of the operation would have involved borrowing U.S. refueling capabilities.

Vice President Dick Cheney argued at the time that the United States should give Israel exactly what it sought, but he lost the argument, Bush administration officials later said. Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney allude to the episode in their memoirs, but they do not mention that they told the Israelis that they were authorizing covert action intended to sabotage Irans effort with a new generation of cyberweapons.

That program, code-named Olympic Games, ultimately became the joint Israeli-American effort that produced the Stuxnet worm and ultimately destroyed more than a thousand Iranian centrifuges.

Israel later developed other capabilities and trained for them. On several occasions during the Obama administration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel was on the brink of ordering a strike, according to Israeli officials and a Times interview with Mr. Netanyahu in 2019. But the prime minister backed off at the last minute, in large part because of fear of an irreparable breach with Washington.

But in 2017, when the Israeli air force determined that it needed to replacing its refueling planes, Mr. Netanyahus government did not immediately place an order. Irans nuclear program seemed under control largely because it had shipped 97 percent of its nuclear fuel out of the country under the 2015 agreement that Mr. Netanyahu had vociferously opposed. Training for strikes against Iran slowed.

They have been revived. Israeli planners, according to several current and former officials, believe that if they do conduct an attack, it will take many repeated bombings of some of the facilities especially Fordow, a fuel enrichment center buried deep in a mountain on an Iranian military base. But time will be short, they contend, and so they would have to refuel quickly.

U.S. officials say that they do not believe an attack is imminent and that they think Mr. Bennett, in so publicly preparing for military action, may be seeking far tougher terms in an ultimate deal between Iran and the West.

David E. Sanger and Helene Cooper reported from Washington, and Ronen Bergman from Tel Aviv. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting.

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Israel Finds Planes That Could Be Key to a Strike on Iran Badly Back-Ordered - The New York Times

Iran is negotiating with Chinese and Turkish companies for building affordable government housing in a possible oil barter deal oil, an official said on Saturday.

Irans President Ebrahim Raisi (Raeesi) has promised to build one million apartment every year, during his four-year term to solve rising housing costs for ordinary Iranians squeezed by high inflation and a worsening economic crisis.

Ahmad Donyamali, a member of the state housing council told the Iranian Labour News Agency (ILNA) that the government is in talks with Chinese, Turkish and even a European company for contracting out part of the construction job and pay for it in oil.

News about Chinese companies participating in the construction project emerged in October but it was swiftly denied at the time.

Tehran faces two impediments in contracting with foreign firms. The first hurdle is to pay for goods and services amid a US banking sanction that threatens foreign banks with third-party sanctions if they deal with Iran. The second problem is lack of foreign currency.

US oil sanctions have substantially reduced Irans dollar earnings since 2018, forcing the country to dip into its foreign currency reserves, which observers say declines substantially in three years, although they might have marginally recovered this year.

An oil barter deal might specially work for Chinese companies that already import Iranian oil under the radar of US sanctions.

However, the promise to build 4 million apartments in 4 years amid an economic crisis might be more of a wish than a reasonable project for Iran.

Nuclear talks with the United States that could help lift sanctions are stalled at the moment and the outlook for Irans economy is bleak. The national currency that has declined tenfold in four years might dip to unprecedented lows if sanctions continue for another year.

The US has threatened to tighten the application of sanctions. Diplomats visited the United Arab Emirates this week to pursue the issue of actors in the region abiding by the US sanctions.

Donyamali, without naming any companies, said that negotiations have proven foreign firms are offering much better prices than their Iranian counterparts. A price of $100 per square meter ($9 per sqf) has been offered for building cheap, prefab apartment buildings. This means more than a $24 billion investment for 4 million apartments, money that Iran does not have now. He emphasized that Irans position is not pay any cash to foreign companies and is basing the talks on the principle of oil barter.

Iranian companies are asking almost double of what foreign firms are ready to accept, Donyamali said. Most Iranian companies in such a large project would be state or quasi-sate entities, some possibly linked with the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, IRGC.

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Iran Wants To Barter Oil With Foreign Firms To Build Housing - Iran International

An Iranian human rights group says rights defenders in Iran in 2021 received a total of 479 years in prison and were subjected to a host of inhumane treatments.

Human Rights in Iran, based in New York, in a report issued on December 16, titled 100 Iran Human Rights Defenders 2021, has provided updates on the status of 100 human and civil rights defenders who are either in prison, released on bail or were subjected to harassment by authorities. Those who were convicted this year received a total of 479 years in prison and 907 lashes.

In every case, the accused were tried without due process of law, being either denied a lawyer or forced to accept government-approved attorneys, without full access to case material.

Iran Human Rights Director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said: The world must not be a silent witness to the high price Iranian human rights defenders are paying for fundamental rights.

Human rights defenders, activists and families of victims who received sentences or were subjected to harassment and intimidation doubled in 2021, the report says. The 100 people profiled in the report are lawyers, journalists, teachers, womens, workers and civil rights activists, environmentalists, minorities and whistleblowers.

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Rights Defenders In Iran Received A Total Of 479 Years In Jail In 2021 - Iran International

Under-Secretary-General Rosemary DiCarlo briefed ambassadors on developments surrounding the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which sets out rules for international monitoring of the countrys nuclear programme.

Iran signed the JCPOA in 2015 alongside China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the United States, together with Germany and the European Union.

Negotiations are underway in Vienna to revive the deal after the US pulled out in 2018 under the Trump administration.

In recent days, both Iran and the United States have again affirmed their seriousness in seeking to return to full implementation of the JCPOA, Ms. DiCarlo told the Council.

The Secretary-General is encouraged by these pledges and calls on both countries to expeditiously translate these commitments into a mutually acceptable agreement.

Ms. DiCarlo recalled that the JCPOA is widely regarded as a cornerstone of nuclear non-proliferation, and an example of what dialogue and diplomacy can achieve.

A Security Council resolution endorses the deal, and guarantees that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will have regular access to Irans nuclear programme.

The Secretary-General hopes that in their current negotiations, the United States and the Islamic Republic of Iran will mobilize the same spirit and commitment that resulted in the JCPOA. There is simply no viable alternative to the full and effective implementation of the Plan and the resolution, she stressed.

In this regard, Ms. DiCarlo said that alongside the UN chief, she appealed to the US to lift or waive sanctions against Iran, as outlined in the plan, and extend waivers regarding oil trade with the country.

Also important is the extension of US waivers regarding certain civilian nuclear-related activities taking place at the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant, the Fordow Facility, and the Arak reactor, she continued.

Waiver extensions are also required for the transfer of enriched uranium out of the Islamic Republic of Iran in exchange for natural uranium.

The UN official also called on Iran to reverse the steps it has taken that are not consistent with its nuclear-related commitments under the Plan.

The IAEA has indicated that research and development activities related to uranium metal production continue.

Furthermore, although the agency has been unable to verify Irans stockpile of enriched uranium, estimates indicate more has been accumulated at limits that exceed the agreement.

The IAEA has also reported that its verification and monitoring activities have been seriously undermined by Irans decision to stop implementing its nuclear-related commitments, while continuity of knowledge on its nuclear activities has also been hampered.

Ms. DiCarlo also reported on measures under the Council resolution, including concerns by several countries surrounding a ballistic missile launch in May and two space launch vehicle tests by Iran a month later.

She said debris from six ballistic missiles, a cruise missile and several unarmed aerial vehicles (UAVs) used in attacks against Saudi Arabia has been examined. Saudi authorities believe the weapons had been transferred to Houthi fighter in Yemen.

Similarly, debris from an alleged Iranian UAV that had entered Israeli airspace via Jordan was also examined. Israeli authorities believe the UAV was launched from either Iraq or Syria.

Ms. DiCarlo said the information collected is being analysed and a report is forthcoming.

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'Additional effort and patience' needed to revive Iran nuclear deal - UN News

The Iranian flag waves in front of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) headquarters in Vienna, Austria May 23, 2021. REUTERS/Leonhard Foeger/File Photo

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UNITED NATIONS, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The door to resuscitating the 2015 Iran nuclear deal is open for now but "we are rapidly reaching the end of the road" to revive a pact that is being gutted by Iran's nuclear advances, France's ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday.

"We are nearing the point where Iran's escalation of its nuclear program will have completely hollowed out the JCPOA," Nicolas de Riviere told reporters, referring to Iran's 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action deal with six powers - Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

"Iran has to choose between the collapse of the JCPOA and a fair and comprehensive deal...Iran's continued nuclear escalation means that we are rapidly reaching the end of the road," he said, flanked by the U.N. ambassadors from Britain and Germany, a group known as the E3.

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He added: "Iran's nuclear program has never been more advanced than it is today. This nuclear escalation is undermining international peace and security and the global non-proliferation system."

Under the 2015 accord, Iran limited its nuclear program - which the West feared would be used to develop weapons, something Tehran denies - in return for relief from U.S., European Union and U.N. sanctions.

In 2018, then-U.S. President Donald Trump abandoned the deal and reimposed U.S. sanctions, prompting Iran to begin violating its nuclear restrictions about a year later.

Indirect talks to salvage the deal are now underway in Vienna between Iran and the United States in which officials from the other nations shuttle between the two sides because Tehran rejects direct contact with U.S. officials.

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Reporting By Arshad Mohammed and Daphne Psaledakis in Washington; Writing by Arshad Mohammed; Editing by Mark Heinrich

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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Nearing 'end of the road' to save Iran nuclear deal -France - Reuters