Connecting The Dots (Or Headlines)

UN watchdog says Iran building new underground nuclear facility

DAVID RISING

Inspectors from the UN’s atomic watchdog have confirmed Iran has started building an underground centrifuge assembly plant after its previous one exploded in what Tehran called a sabotageattack over the summer, the agency’s head told The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Following the July explosion at the Natanz nuclear site, Tehran said it would build a new, more secure, structure in the mountains around the area. Satellite pictures of Natanz analyzed by experts have yet to show any obvious signs of construction at the site in Iran’s central Isfahan province.

Ali Akbar Salehi, the head of Iran’s nuclear department, last month told state television the destroyed above-ground facility was being replaced with one “in the heart of the mountains around Natanz.”

Bipartisan House bill will encourage US to sell bunker buster bombs to Israel

JACOB MAGID and JUDAH ARI GROSS

Bipartisan legislation will be introduced in Congress this week requiring the US Department of Defense to consider selling Israel bunker-buster bombs capable of penetrating heavily fortified underground infrastructure, one of the bill’s co-sponsors announced Tuesday.

The massive munitions, reportedly long sought by Jerusalem, are seen as an essential component should Israel ever attempt to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities, some of which are located deep underground and out of the range of ordnance currently in Israel’s arsenal.

The bill would be the latest piece of legislation aimed at bolstering Israel’s regional military advantage — or Qualitative Military Edge — which the US already is legally bound to maintain. An agreement was signed between Israel and the US last week promising to keep to the QME, paving the way for Jerusalem to okay the Trump administration’s planned sale of F-35 stealth fighter jets to the UAE despite concerns about the move diluting Israel’s edge.

Speaking during a Zoom call with US Special Envoy to combat anti-Semitism Elan Carr, Rep. Josh Gottheimer said the goal of the US-Israel Common Defense Authorization Act will be to “help sure-up Israel’s QME in the region and secure both of our countries from the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran.”