Familiar psychological operations against Iran
By Hassan Beheshtipour
Expert on international affairs
In the past days, some American and Israeli officials have taken anti-Iranian positions regarding Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. For example, the Israeli minister of defense has claimed that Tehran has enriched uranium to the extent of five nuclear bombs. Similarly, U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said on Friday, “As President Biden has repeatedly reaffirmed, he will take the actions that are necessary to stand by this statement, including by recognizing Israel’s freedom of action.”
These claims are nothing new and are made for the sole purpose of psychological operations (psycho-ops) and media war against the Islamic Republic of Iran to intensify the pressure.
Iran’s nuclear activities are under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and this international organization presents the status of these activities in its quarterly reports. There is no mention of the exaggerated claims of the Israelis in the IAEA’s reports.
Building a nuclear bomb is different from the amount of enriched uranium; increasing uranium enrichment does not mean achieving an atomic bomb. If a country intends to build a nuclear bomb, it will take at least one to two years from the time of reaching the required level of uranium enrichment to the process of building the bomb. However, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists that it does not intend to build a nuclear bomb.
In addition to these issues, the maintenance of a nuclear bomb also requires advanced and safe technologies that do not lead to damage to the nuclear bomb owner due to mistakes and errors. Israelis and Americans know this, but in line with the media war and psycho-ops, they make baseless claims to mobilize public opinion against Iran.
It seems that the goal of Israel and the United States is to create hype against Iran at the current stage, when Tehran is negotiating with the IAEA. If these negotiations bear fruit, a large part of the pressures and claims against Iran will be revealed and become ineffective.
But Israel does not want this pressure to be lifted from Iran, especially since it has been facing internal pressures for the past few months, and is trying to divert some of its internal crises to outside its borders by blaming other countries. Israel is also trying to force Iran to behave irrationally with this media hype in order to have more excuses for Iranophobia.
The recent claims of the Israeli and American authorities are nothing new; it is in line with their project of creating Iranophobia.