Military analyst says Israel targeted Iran's 'economic lifeline' powering its nuclear program
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CTV's military analyst David Fraser breaks down Israel's strikes on Iran's natural gas facilities and how the conflict may escalate in the coming days and weeks.
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National Post
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- National Post
Conrad Black: Let's make a bonfire of Canada's ghastly wokeness
It is irritating and distressing to see Canada robotically following the British and French and two other countries in imposing sanctions on two Israeli cabinet ministers over their comments related to the West Bank. It is also annoying that our new prime minister, who squeaked to a minority victory through a histrionic imposture of a modern Churchill against Donald Trump's Hitler, trying to reconcile the extreme green zealotry of a lifetime with absolute commercial and political necessity, offers nonsense about 'decarbonized' oil. Their Canadian and Britannic Majesties the King and Queen were recently dragooned into making a 24-hour visit to this realm to read the prime minister's platitudinous throne speech, ritualistically beginning with what amounts to a false acknowledgment that we are occupiers of another people's land. The king was allowed to present this fake confession of stealing the country from the then 200,000 indigenous people, almost all of them nomads, as 'shared history as a nation,' (like the shared experiences of Poland, Germany, and the USSR from 1939 to 1945). We shout defiance at the Americans for reducing their trade deficit but prevail upon the King to tell us that we have no right to be here. Article content Article content Avowedly separatist parties are now leading the polls in Quebec. The last ten years of the Justin Trudeau government acting on the theory that Canada was leading the world into an era of post-national renunciation of sovereignty and denigration of national self-respect, spiced with false self-afflicted blood libels about attempted genocide toward Indigenous people, has predictably enfeebled French Canada's respect for this country. 'Reconciliation' in practice, has been grovelling to the native victimhood industry instead of improving the lot of the Indigenous. Article content Article content Article content What has no precedent in our history is that at the same time Quebec is agitating, the war against the petroleum and related industries, the country's principal potential source of prosperity, has pushed Alberta into serious and reluctant, but justified consideration of whether it too, would be better off seceding from this country. Quebec has been economically better managed than Canada for some years and the economic arguments against the independence of Quebec are not going to resonate as strongly as they did in the two referendums on Quebec's future, (and in 1995 a substantial majority of French-speaking Quebecers voted for a vague concept of sovereignty with association). In the last ten years, as we have officially denigrated ourselves as a racist society of dubious legitimacy 400 years after our ancestors first arrived here, Canada has sustained substantial negative cash flows and lost position in the rating of the world's countries by per capita income. This is the record of the government we have just reelected. Article content Article content The government of Quebec has been attempting under all parties that have governed there in the last 50 years to exterminate the English language and effectively drive out the non-French. This has assisted the nationalist elites in moving to larger homes and more sumptuous offices left behind by those who have moved to Toronto or New York, but it has done great damage to Quebec's respect for Canada as a country. The ancient ambition of French Canadians to have their own country has always been comprehensible and the only successful argument against it is the one espoused by Pierre Trudeau, of a much larger country in which French Canadians would have a coequal official position: Masters in our own house, but our house is Canada. ('Maitres chez nous, mais pour tout le Canada'). Canada is the only transcontinental, bicultural, parliamentary confederation in the history of the world, and of all large countries, our political institutions are senior to any except those of the United Kingdom and the United States. And the United Kingdom lost a large province, Ireland, a hundred years ago, and the United States had to fight a terrible civil war in which 750,000 people died in a population of 31 million, to prevent the secession of a third of the country. We don't respect our own history because we don't know it.
National Post
an hour ago
- National Post
Mohammed Rizwan: What I, a Muslim, did not know about Israel
Walking down a beautiful corniche walkway along Mediterranean in Jaffa district not far from downtown Tel Aviv, criss-crossing my way amidst evening joggers and jovial teenagers, I suddenly froze, as I heard sound of Azan — an Islamic call to prayer — blaring from a nearby mosque. None from my group of visiting Canadian journalists took much notice, as few of them have already been to Israel, but for me, it was a shocker. I live in Canada, where religious freedoms are guaranteed and enshrined, but I never heard Azan blaring from loudspeakers here, or in Europe or the United States, even though there are mosques, churches, synagogues, temples that remain busy throughout the year there. Article content Article content It heard it in Israel. A supposedly Muslim-enemy state, a Jewish national home, an 'apartheid' state that has been at war with its Muslim Arab neighbours for the last 75 years. Article content Article content Article content So, which Israel is real? The one that allows Azan to play from loudspeakers for its two-million Muslim population, the one that employs a Muslim IDF soldier, who I met at the Lebanese border, or one that houses a large and affluent Muslim population in Haifa. Article content The problem lies in perception and perspective, I would say. Article content People around the world see Israel through their television screens and in context of a 75-year-old conflict, territorial disputes, and the Palestinian question. For most of the world, this is the only lens they hold to look at Israel. Depending on where you live in the world, and what world outlook you grew up with, one essentially looks at Israel through a geo-political binary. Article content Article content I think this is not the only way to look at the history and national character of a country. But to look at Israel differently has a prerequisite: leave your preconceived notions out of the bubble you currently live in, get to know the country first-hand, wear the hat of tolerance and love for all faiths, and then try and see the Israel story. Article content Article content There is a good chance that you would still see enough to criticize foreign policy choices Israel has made over the years, or, if you know enough context, one should be able to see why those choices were made, when they were made, over the last few decades. Article content Take for example two-state solution theory. How many people care to remember that there were three occasions in history when Israel agreed to and accepted a two-state solution (1948, 1991, 2000) but Palestinians refused. And finally, when they got the autonomy for Gaza and West Bank (which, in a way, was two-state, what else?), they used that autonomy and aid to perpetuate terrorism.
CBC
2 hours ago
- CBC
Israel and Iran trade strikes for 3rd day as nuclear talks are called off
Social Sharing Israel unleashed airstrikes across Iran for a third day on Sunday and threatened even greater force as some Iranian missiles evaded Israeli air defenses to strike buildings in the heart of the country. Planned talks on Iran's nuclear program, which could provide an off-ramp, were cancelled. The region braced for a protracted conflict after Israel's surprise bombardment of Iran's nuclear and military sites on Friday killed several top generals and nuclear scientists, and neither side showed any sign of backing down. Iran said Israel struck two oil refineries, raising the prospect of a broader assault on Iran's heavily sanctioned energy industry that could affect global markets. The Israeli military, in a social media post, warned Iranians to evacuate arms factories, signaling what could be a further widening of the campaign. Around noon local time, explosions were heard again in the Iranian capital, Tehran. U.S. President Donald Trump has expressed full support for Israel's actions while warning Iran that it can only avoid further destruction by agreeing to a new nuclear deal. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday that if the Israeli strikes on Iran stop, then "our responses will also stop." He said the United States "is a partner in these attacks and must take responsibility." Could the U.S. get involved in the Iran-Israel conflict? | Hanomansing Tonight 1 day ago Duration 17:09 Explosions in Tehran New explosions echoed across Tehran and were reported elsewhere in the country early Sunday, but there was no update to a death toll released the day before by Iran's U.N. ambassador, who said 78 people had been killed and more than 320 wounded. In Israel, at least 10 people were killed in Iranian strikes overnight and into Sunday, according to Israel's Magen David Adom rescue service, bringing the country's total death toll to 13. The country's main international airport and airspace remained closed for a third day. Israeli strikes targeted Iran's Defense Ministry early Sunday after hitting air defenses, military bases and sites associated with its nuclear program. The killing of several top generals and nuclear scientists in targeted strikes indicated that Israeli intelligence has penetrated Iran at the highest levels. Death toll mounts in Israel In Israel, at least six people, including a 10-year-old and a 9-year-old, were killed when a missile hit an apartment building in Bat Yam, near Tel Aviv. Daniel Hadad, a local police commander, said 180 people were wounded and seven are still missing. An Associated Press reporter saw streets lined with damaged and destroyed buildings, bombed out cars and shards of glass. Responders used a drone at points to look for survivors. Some people could be seen leaving the area with suitcases. WATCH | Daniel Byman discusses the latest: CBC's Marianne Dimain speaks to Daniel Byman on the latest in the conflict between Israel and Iran 19 hours ago Duration 4:34 Another four people, including a 13-year-old, were killed and 24 wounded when a missile struck a building in the Arab town of Tamra in northern Israel. A strike on the central city of Rehovot wounded 42. The Weizmann Institute of Science, an important centre for research in Rehovot, said "there were a number of hits to buildings on the campus." It said no one was harmed. Israel has sophisticated multi-tiered air defences that are able to detect and intercept missiles fired at populated areas or key infrastructure, but officials acknowledge it is imperfect. Urgent calls to de-escalate World leaders made urgent calls to de-escalate. The attack on nuclear sites set a "dangerous precedent," China's foreign minister said. The region is already on edge as Israel seeks to annihilate Hamas, an Iranian ally, in the Gaza Strip, where the war is still raging after Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu brushed off such calls, saying Israel's strikes so far are "nothing compared to what they will feel under the sway of our forces in the coming days." Israel, the sole undeclared nuclear-armed state in the Middle East — said it launched the attack to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon. The two countries have been regional adversaries for decades. Iran has always said its nuclear program was peaceful, and the U.S. and others have assessed it has not pursued a weapon since 2003. But it has enriched ever larger stockpiles of uranium to near weapons-grade levels in recent years and was believed to have been able to develop multiple weapons within months if it chose to do so. WATCH | Iran's retaliatory strikes: Iran retaliatory strikes kill at least 3 after Israeli attacks on nuclear program 19 hours ago Duration 10:34 Iran launched retaliatory missile strikes on Israel into Saturday morning, killing at least three people and wounding dozens, after a series of blistering Israeli attacks on the heart of Iran's nuclear program and its armed forces. Iran's UN ambassador said 78 people were killed and more than 320 wounded in the attacks by Israel. The U.N.'s atomic watchdog censured Iran last week for not complying with its obligations. Araghchi, Iran's top diplomat, said Israel had targeted an oil refinery near Tehran and another in the country's Bushehr province on the Persian Gulf. He said Iran had also targeted "economic" sites in Israel, without elaborating. Araghchi was speaking to diplomats in his first public appearance since the initial Israeli strikes. Semiofficial Iranian news agencies reported that an Israeli drone strike had caused a "strong explosion" at an Iranian natural-gas processing plant. Israel's military did not immediately comment. The extent of damage at the South Pars natural gas field was not immediately clear. Such sites have air defence systems around them, which Israel has been targeting. An oil refinery was also damaged in the northern Israeli city of Haifa, according to the firm operating it. Bazan Group said pipelines and transmission lines between facilities were damaged, forcing some downstream facilities to be shut down. It said no one was wounded. Iran calls nuclear talks 'unjustifiable' The Arab Gulf country of Oman, which has been mediating indirect talks between the U.S. and Iran over Tehran's nuclear program, said a sixth round planned for Sunday would not take place. "We remain committed to talks and hope the Iranians will come to the table soon," a senior U.S. official said on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks. Araghchi, Iran's foreign minister, said Saturday that the nuclear talks were "unjustifiable" after Israel's strikes, which he said were the "result of the direct support by Washington." In a post on his Truth Social account early Sunday, Trump reiterated that the U.S. was not involved in the attacks on Iran and warned that any retaliation directed against it would bring an American response "at levels never seen before." "However, we can easily get a deal done between Iran and Israel, and end this bloody conflict!!!" he wrote. 'More than a few weeks' to repair nuclear facilities In Iran, satellite photos analyzed by AP show extensive damage at Iran's main nuclear enrichment facility in Natanz. The images shot Saturday by Planet Labs PBC show multiple buildings damaged or destroyed. The structures hit include buildings identified by experts as supplying power to the facility. U.N. nuclear chief Rafael Grossi told the Security Council that the above-ground section of the Natanz facility was destroyed. The main centrifuge facility underground did not appear to have been hit, but the loss of power could have damaged infrastructure there, he said. Israel also struck a nuclear research facility in Isfahan. The International Atomic Energy Agency said four "critical buildings" were damaged, including its uranium conversion facility. It said there was no sign of increased radiation at Natanz or Isfahan. An Israeli military official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with official procedures, said that according to the army's initial assessment "it will take much more than a few weeks" for Iran to repair the damage to the Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites. The official said the army had "concrete intelligence that production in Isfahan was for military purposes."
