Tuesday 16th of December 2025
Home » Blogs » Gus Leonisky's blog

iran in the crosshairs......

US–Israel manoeuvring over Gaza is already widening the conflict. As Sudan burns and propaganda intensifies, Iran may be the next target — with Australia again at risk of being drawn in.

The ‘Board of Peace’ in Gaza that the US and Israel got the UN Security Council to agree on will be anything but that. And the Palestinian Authority went along with it. Now watch the Zionists’ war elevator as it moves up another level: Iran.

 

Alison Broinowski

After Gaza, the next target is Iran

 

Before that, however, we have Sudan. Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) surprised President Trump by asking for US intervention on behalf of Saudi Arabia’s neighbour. Trump, calling MBS “your Majesty”, quickly promised to help the Saudis, Egyptians and others. They oppose the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), paramilitary fighters who control the western half Sudan. In the conflict that began long before Israel’s current war, even more civilians have been killed and displaced than in Gaza. The RSF are reported since April 2023 to be responsible for mass atrocities, using weapons supplied by the United Arab Emirates (UAE), whose close military ties to the US and Australia are little reported.

The confusion over Sudan challenges Trump’s Nobel Peace Prize aspirations. Ending the war there would be a greater contribution to peace than what the US president has already achieved, MBS flatteringly told his host, without providing a single example of Trump’s successes. He didn’t mention Trump’s accurately renamed Department of War, nor did he recall that since the mid-1990s – as Wesley Clark details in Winning Modern Wars – Sudan has been on the Pentagon’s list of seven middle eastern countries to be destabilised.

Of those, the last nation standing is Iran – the only neighbour of Israel that is a potential nuclear rival. The US and Israel waged a 12-day war in June that killed some 1000 civilians and destroyed much of Iran’s uranium enrichment capacity.

That country became an obsession for President Jimmy Carter after Iran, under the Ayatollah Khomeini in 1979, took captive the US ambassador along with 52 American diplomats and citizens in Tehran. Americans failed to connect the embassy siege to the hospitality the US provided to the exiled Shah of Iran and his family. Most forgot the CIA coup d’état in 1953 that overthrew Iran’s first and only elected prime minister, Mohammed Mossadeq, and prevented him nationalising Iran’s oil industry, then dominated by the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Carter, his predecessors and successors also failed to observe that when Iran lights a fuse of revenge, it may smoulder for years, with an eventual explosion, or none. Real revenge for Trump’s assassination in 2021 of Iran’s General Soleimani may still come.

When American neo-conservative Richard Perle and his Jewish-American colleagues in 1996 wrote Clean Break: A new strategy for securing the realm, they proposed seizing a strategic initiative against Hezbollah, Syria and Iran as “the principal agents of aggression in Lebanon” against Israel. Ten years later President George W Bush asserted that Iran’s stated objective was to destroy Israel, and that the US would “use military might to protect our ally.”

Later US presidents responded to even more of Israel’s demands. By 2010 the relationship became what Canadian author Greg Felton compared to a host organism and a parasite that feeds on it. What he calls the US-Israel “junta” had decades earlier decided to ostracise, attack, and expel the Ba’ath government in Syria for its support of Hezbollah in Lebanon. That happened in 2023 after a sustained propaganda onslaught, and Bashar al-Assad fled to Russia. The US replaced him with an Islamist group led by a formerly designated terrorist, who has changed his name. The US million-dollar bounty for the capture of Ahmed al-Sharaa is a thing of the past.

President Trump, who claims he hates wars, boasted that he was in charge of the June attack, while Iran promised to pursue accountability and compensation. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Israel had taken unilateral action to defend itself, without allowing the same right to Iran. That again showed the capacity of the US and Israel – both of which had already killed numerous senior Iranian and Hezbollah leaders – to commit war crimes with impunity, and their determination to go on doing it, keeping Israel the only nuclear-armed state in the region.

The US and Israel, soon to be freed of the ‘distraction’ of the Palestinian genocide, have for years been fuelling the ta’amulahand hasbara propaganda machine against the Ayatollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) that they and Australia designate as ‘terrorist’.

Loyal to friends and allies, ABC Radio National recently broadcast a non-stop tirade against Iran by an American Irano-phobe, unchallenged by Sally Sara. If that is a portent of more to come, we can expect reiterations about the brutality of the Iranian morality police and their prison system. We will be reminded that Kylie Moore-Gilbert’s close association with Israel resulted in her being accused of espionage in 2018 and jailed for 18 months until a prisoner-swap with Iranians in Thailand was organised with Israeli participation.

Compare that with the Australian government expelling the Iranian ambassador in August, following an unspecific allegation by ASIO that an unnamed Iranian somewhere had organised a series of anti-semitic incidents in Sydney and Melbourne last December. These, said Lydia Khalil of the Lowy Institute, were orchestrated by the ‘terrorist’ IRGC. She added that Iranian agents were harassing the diaspora community in Australia, although police in New South Wales have been hesitant about identifying the motives and motivators of these events.

Progressively, Australia is being softened up by Israeli propaganda for war against Iran, in which US intelligence operations in Pine Gap and Northwest Cape will involve and implicate us. In 2024, the US used both Australian airspace and Cairns airport to facilitate air strikes on  Yemen. The same could happen if the US and Israel again invade Iran. The Albanese Government knows that this is in prospect. Having not opposed Israel and the US in their 12-day war on Iran, Australia is likely to support the next round, for whatever reason.

The pretext for war will be Israel’s claims of self-defence against Hamas or Hezbollah ‘terrorists’ in Palestine, the West Bank, Lebanon, or Yemen. In reality, it will be about preserving Israel’s territorial ambitions and its monopoly on nuclear weapons.

It will not secure Trump a peace prize, but will confirm him as the American host to the Israeli parasite. If Australia is involved as their satrap, we will compound our complicity in their war crimes.

https://johnmenadue.com/post/2025/11/iran-will-be-next/

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

19 centuries....

 

===============

 

 

STILL CONTINUING....

Israeli army launches major operation in northern West Bank

The Israeli military said Wednesday it had launched a broad operation in northern parts of the occupied West Bank, where deadly violence has soared since the start of the war in Gaza. The army said the operation was separate from the "Iron Wall" operation launched earlier this year that has displaced tens of thousands of residents in the Palestinian territory.

https://www.france24.com/en/middle-east/20251126-israeli-army-launches-major-counterterrorism-operation-in-northern-west-bank

 

COUNTER-TERRORISM? MY FOOT ! IT'S SHEER ROBBERY.....

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

 

 

peculiar.....

SEE ALSO: 

the peculiar relationship ..... (2007)

 

 

==================

 

the value of real estate ..... (2007)

 

 

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

west's deceit....

 

Betrayed by western snapback: Iran dumps IAEA deal
Tehran’s attempt at diplomatic detente was met with an escalation by the US and the E3. Now Iran has pulled the plug on a key nuclear safeguards deal brokered by Cairo.

BY Fereshteh Sadeghi

 

Just hours before his visit to France to discuss Iran’s nuclear file, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned:

“International relations face unprecedented crises due to militant unilateralism. Repeated violations of international law – including ongoing conflicts in West Asia – reflect the backing of the United States and the tolerance of certain European states.”

This underscores Tehran’s defiant stance as it moves in its nuclear diplomacy. Just three months after Israeli-US airstrikes targeted Iranian nuclear sites, Tehran signed a significant security agreement with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). It did not last long. 

The so-called Cairo Agreement, signed in September and brokered by Egypt, was meant to defuse tensions. Yet that same month, the western-backed IAEA was warned against “any hostile action against Iran – including the reinstatement of cancelled UN Security Council resolutions” in which case the deal would become “null and void.” 

Of note, Iran–IAEA relations had been deteriorating since June during the 12-day US-Israeli war on Iran. The IAEA and its director general, Rafael Grossi, refused to condemn the attacks on Iranian civilians and nuclear facilities, and the targeted assassinations of nuclear scientists and senior military officers.

The IAEA’s refusal to condemn the US-Israeli violations made Iranians furious. They accused Grossi of paving the ground for the strikes and being Israel’s footman. The Islamic Republic formally lodged a protest with the UN Secretary General and the Security Council against Grossi, arguing he breached the IAEA’s neutrality.

Resistance to western coercion

The Iranian parliament – or Majlis – raised the bar by ratifying legislation that suspended cooperation between Tehran and the international nuclear watchdog. The law was passed immediately after the war ended on 25 June. 

It declared Grossi and his inspectors “persona non grata” and forbade them from travelling to Iran or visiting Iranian nuclear facilities. The law stipulated that the suspension will continue so long as the security and safety of Iranian nuclear installations and scientists have not been guaranteed.

Nevertheless, the Egyptian-mediated Cairo Agreement appeared to thaw the standoff, if temporarily. It was signed in the presence of Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi and Grossi, and ambiguously framed as a deal on “implementing the Safeguards Agreement.”

Few details were made public then; while the IAEA called it a deal on “practical modalities and implementation of the Safeguards Agreement”, the Iranian side insisted it was “a new regime of cooperation.”

State news agency, IRNA, elaborated, “the agency will not engage in monitoring activities provided Iran has not carried out environmental and nuclear safety measures at its bombed facilities.” IRNA referred to the Supreme National Security Council as the sole body that “could greenlight the IAEA monitoring missions inside Iran, case by case.”

Iran’s diplomatic maneuvering, including the deal with the IAEA, was obviously part of the broader strategy to prevent the UK, France, and Germany from activating the snapbackmechanism, in the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany.

The European Troika (E3), who were clearly dissatisfied with the Cairo Agreement,reiterated “Tehran needs to allow inspections of sensitive sites and address its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.”

Snapback triggers collapse

A threat to terminate the Cairo Agreement actually came three days after it was clinched, when Iran’s Foreign Ministry warned that “launching the snapback mechanism would put the ongoing cooperation between Iran and the IAEA at risk.” Nevertheless, the UK, France, and Germany moved ahead with the snapback activation.

Araghchi’s first reaction noted that “in regards to the E3’s move, the Cairo agreement has lost its functionality.” Iranians had also vowed to halt cooperation with the IAEA. However, they did not fulfill that threat and collaborated in silence.

The IAEA inspectors visited some Iranian nuclear sites in early November. However, they were not given access to the US-bombed Fordow, Natanz, and Isfahan facilities.

Even this tactical compliance failed to shield Tehran from a new IAEA censure. On 20 November, the agency’s Board of Governors passed a US-E3-backed resolution ignoring Iran’s cooperation and demanding immediate access to all affected sites and data.

It was the straw that broke the camel's back. Iran condemned the move as “illegal, unjustifiable, irresponsible, and a stain on the image of its sponsors.”

Araghchi on his X account posted, “like the diplomacy which was assaulted by Israel and the US in June, the Cairo Agreement has been killed by the US and the E3.”

For the second time, Iran’s top diplomat announced the termination of the Cairo Agreement, “given that the E3 and the US seek escalation, they know full well that the official termination of the Cairo Agreement is the direct outcome of their provocations.”

Iran’s representative to the IAEA, Reza Nadjafi, told reporters that “If the US claims success in destroying Iran’s Natanz and Fordow facilities, then what is left for inspections?” and further warned, “any decision (by the IAEA) has its own consequences.”

Back to confrontation

By applying pressure through the IAEA, the E3 and the US seek to coerce Iran into opening the doors of its bombed nuclear sites to the IAEA inspectors, to hand over the 400 kilograms of uranium enriched to 60 percent, which the US believes is still intact, and “to eliminate Iran’s ability to convert that fuel into a nuclear weapon.”

The collapse of the Cairo Agreement marks a return to the kind of standoff that defined US–Iran relations from 2005 to 2013, when Iran's nuclear file was sent to the UN Security Council, and sanctions were imposed under Chapter VII.

Some skeptics believe US President Donald Trump's administration would not only take Iran to the Security Council but would also cite the chapter in question, which sanctions the use of military force against any country deemed a threat to global peace.

While Iran signed the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in hopes of avoiding that scenario, the US's unilateral withdrawal under Donald Trump's first term in 2018 and the E3’s failure to meet their obligations rendered the agreement toothless. 

June’s US-Israeli bombing campaign against Iranian nuclear infrastructure confirmed for Tehran that western powers have no intention of engaging in diplomacy in good faith.

Toward a new strategy 

According to IRNA, which echoes the official line of the Iranian government, “Iran feels that the goodwill gestures it has shown towards the IAEA and the United States, have drawn further hostility. Therefore, maybe now it is the time to change course and revise its strategy and the rule of engagement with international bodies, including the IAEA.”

Some observers believe Iran’s first step to map out a new strategy is pursuing the policy of “nuclear ambiguity, remaining silent regarding the whereabouts of the stockpile of the highly-enriched uranium and quietly halting the implementation of the [Nuclear] Non-Proliferation Treaty, without officially admitting it.”

In the latest development, the chairman of the Parliament’s National Security Committee has vowed that “Iran will sturdily pursue its nuclear achievements.” Ibrahim Azizi has cautioned the US and Europe that “Iran has changed its behavior post June attacks and they’d better not try Iran’s patience.”

That posture is hardening. In September, over 70 Iranian lawmakers urged the Supreme National Security Council to reconsider Iran’s defense doctrine – including its long-standing religious prohibition on nuclear weapons. 

They argue that the regional and international order has changed irreversibly since Israel and the US jointly bombed the Iranian nuclear facilities. While citing Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei’s 2010 fatwa banning nuclear weapons, they assert that in Shia jurisprudence, such rulings may evolve when conditions change – especially when the survival of the Islamic Republic is at stake.

Iran is also working to immunize itself against any escalation at the UN Security Council. Here, it banks on the veto power of Russia and China to neutralize any western effort to reimpose sanctions.

The collapse of the Cairo Agreement marks a turning point in Tehran’s nuclear diplomacy. It is a conclusion drawn from years of unmet commitments and military escalation that western multilateralism has exhausted its credibility.  

https://thecradle.co/articles/betrayed-by-western-snapback-iran-dumps-iaea-deal

 

READ FROM TOP.

 

YOURDEMOCRACY.NET RECORDS HISTORY AS IT SHOULD BE — NOT AS THE WESTERN MEDIA WRONGLY REPORTS IT — SINCE 2005.

 

         Gus Leonisky

         POLITICAL CARTOONIST SINCE 1951.

 

SEE ALSO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgxVDGqQXbE