Is a ballistic missile war looming in the Middle East?  
10 August 2023

A ballistic missile show-down seems to be developing in the Middle East, with potential to develop into a nuclear confrontation, in which Iran, Israel and Saudia Arabia are the main players, with China, Russia and the USA all playing important support roles.
 
Iran announced this week that it had obtained technology to build supersonic cruise missiles. Journalist Yaakov Lappin writes that “the announcement serves as a stark reminder of Iran’s evolving and growing missile arsenal.” .
 
“In addition to supplying its terrorist proxies with missiles, rockets and drones, Iran is also building the Middle East’s largest missile arsenal on its very own soil. Iran’s stockpile of thousands of missiles enables it to project power and influence, issue threats and further its goal of exporting the Islamic Revolution across the Middle East.”
 
Iran is edging ever close to nuclear capacity. Last March, the website Iran Watch reported –
 
“Iran’s nuclear program has reached the point at which, within three to four weeks, Iran might be able to enrich enough uranium for five fission weapons. For that uranium to pose a nuclear weapon threat, however, it would have to be processed further, and the other components of a successful weapon would have to be ready to receive the processed uranium. Weaponization activities could take anywhere from several months to a year or more, although the timeframe is uncertain.”
 
At the same time, Saudi Arabia is building its missile capacity. And at Israel’s northern border, Iranian-sponsored terror organization Hezbollah is threatening aggression. The news service JNS reported this week that – .
 
“the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah has carried out a series of hostile acts at the frontier in recent months, including setting up a manned outpost in April a few meters on the Israeli side of the Blue Line border but beyond the Israeli security fence. The position, across from an IDF post, was reportedly manned by three to eight armed terrorists.”
 
According to Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan, “The Middle East is a powder keg on the cusp of being ignited” due to “Hezbollah’s violent escalations, blatant violations of Security Council resolutions and dangerous military advancements.”
 

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Iran’s nuclear program has reached the point at which, within three to four weeks, Iran might be able to enrich enough uranium for five fission weapons. For that uranium to pose a nuclear weapon threat, however, it would have to be processed further, and the other components of a successful weapon would have to be ready to receive the processed uranium. Weaponization activities could take anywhere from several months to a year or more, although the timeframe is uncertain.[1] Some of these activities could be done in parallel with the fissile material production and could take place on a laboratory scale, which would make them difficult to detect.