He points out that Iran has been supportive of
Russia’s war on Ukraine and Tehran will likely expect to be rewarded for providing Moscow with one-way attack drones. “If Iranians don’t have nuclear weapons, they
are on the eve of having nuclear weapons,” Holt said.
Despite the fact that the Russians were never
“crazy” about Iran having nuclear weapons, he said that feeling “seems to have changed,” as both nations have their “designs” on the U.S. “Everyone is taking advantage of American weakness,”
Holt said. With missiles on hand, Peters said the next component
of a nuclear weapons program is fissile material, which is typically plutonium or uranium that creates a nuclear yield. Peters said intelligence assessments indicated that Teh-
ran had enough enriched uranium to produce a nuclear weapon within two weeks. “What that means is they are basically a virtual nuclear
actor,” he said. “They are already there.” The last piece is the warhead design, which Peters described as the “actual explosive package that creates the nuclear yield when combined with the fissile material.” While reports indicate that Tehran doesn’t have an active nuclear weapons program because there is no evi-
While reports indicate that Tehran doesn’t have an active nuclear weapons program because there is no evidence it knows how to build a nuclear warhead, Peters called that assessment “disingenuous.”
dence it knows how to build a nuclear warhead, Peters called that assessment “disingenuous.” He points out that nuclear warhead design dates back 80
years and is not new technology. Peters said even “second-generation warhead designs”
can be found “floating around on the internet.” With a “general” overview of warheads available online,
he finds it hard to believe that Tehran wouldn’t know how to create even a “rudimentary but effective implosion device.”
Considering Iran is a country of 80 million people that is
five times the size of Texas, Peters said he doesn’t have a lot of confidence that the intelligence community can say with “definitive accuracy” that Tehran doesn’t have a nuclear weapons program or a mock-up of a warhead design. “Iran is basically a virtual nuclear power,” he said.
Turkey: Friend or Foe? Erdoğan plays a duplicitous role in U.S. foreign policy, says commentator John Rossomando.
T
urkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan only takes part in NATO
because of its economic benefits, according to Abdullah Bozkurt, who runs the Stockholm-based Nordic Monitor. But in reality, “Erdoğan hates and
despises anything the West stands for and NATO as well.” Since Hamas launched its brutal Oct. 7
invasion of Israel that killed 1,200 civilians, Erdoğan has denounced Israel, putting him at odds with the U.S. and most NATO members. Israel’s end is near, he told the Turkish parliament on Nov. 15: “You can have as many nuclear bombs as you want, you can have whatever you want. But you are on your way out.”
Speaking earlier to lawmakers in his ruling AK party, he said: “Hamas is not a terrorist organization, it is a liberation group, ‘mujahideen’ waging a battle to
protect its lands and people.” The U.S. and NATO rely on Erdoğan to
prevent Russia from reinforcing its Black Sea fleet through the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits against Ukraine. Yet Turkey is playing both sides in the
two-year-old conflict — facilitating the sale of Russian gas in violation of NATO sanctions while supplying badly needed drones to Ukraine. Israel’s Shin Bet has accused Turkey of
ERDOĞAN
using a private military company with ties to Erdoğan to train and equip Hamas. Turkey has become a major hub of Hamas operations. In 2018, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned Zaher Jabarin, who ran Hamas’ financial operations out of Turkey. Jabarin was among the founders of Hamas’ military wing in the West Bank. He also became a primary point of contact between Hamas and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force. Erdoğan met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in July.
Erdoğan has also threatened its neighbor Greece, also a NATO member, over lands it lost after World War I. He has also made rhetorical claims to northern Syria and Iraq that were part of the Ottoman Empire. “Because of Turkey’s regional location,
large population, modern military, and intricate alliances with rogue actors, the West remains tied to this increasingly inconvenient alliance,” says geopolitical analyst Irina Tsukerman. “If nothing else, Erdoğan’s influence is
growing, as is his capacity to do maximum damage.”
FEBRUARY 2024 | NEWSMAX 49
ERDOĞAN/GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
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