02/07/2025 lewrockwell.com  14min 🇬🇧 #282933

 Cessez-le-feu entre l'Iran et Israël : déclaration du Conseil suprême de la sécurité nationale

Behind the « 12-Day War »

By  Thierry Meyssan

 Voltairenet.org

July 2, 2025

Operations "The Rising Lion" and "Midnight Hammer" were massive demonstrations of force. They lasted no more than 12 days in total. Their results are unknown, but much has been learned about those who planned them. The International Atomic Energy Agency, which relied on AI software rather than the observations of its inspectors, is now demonetized. The damage done to Iranian nuclear research sites is questionable. Only the assassinations of military leaders and civilian scientists have been documented.

Several elements of the "12-Day War" remain unexplained, but this does not prevent each major player (Israel, the United States, and Iran) from claiming to have won it. Above all, the questions raised about fundamental elements do not allow us to establish with certainty whether Washington deliberately violated international law or whether it believed it had to do so to avoid much worse.

Iran's nuclear research program

We have, in these columns, explained at length the conflict surrounding Iranian nuclear research [1]. It began in 1981 when the Islamic Republic of Iran demanded the enriched uranium to which it was entitled under the Iranian-French nuclear program, proposed by President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing and Prime Minister Jacques Chirac to Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, as part of the US "Atoms for Peace" program. It was in this context, and in the face of France's refusal to give the Islamic Republic what it had planned for imperial Iran, that attacks by the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, linked to Iran, eliminated US and Israeli diplomats in France.

This conflict developed from the Anglo-Saxon invasion of Iraq (2003). Washington and London, who had invented the poisoning of Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction, extended it by that of Iranian weapons of mass destruction. They succeeded in having the United Nations Security Council adopt resolutions 1737 (December 23, 2006) and 1747 (March 24, 2007) which were to prepare for a war against Iran. However, following the Iraq Study Group , known as the "Baker-Hamilton Commission", these wild ideas were abandoned by Washington and the conflict with France could be resolved [2].

The conflict flared up again when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a vast research program on nuclear fusion; a project that was by nature dual, meaning it could have both civilian and military applications [3]. Supported by a majority of UN member states, he rightly refused to allow the Security Council to demand that Iran surrender one of its rights in order to "restore the confidence" of others in it (resolution 1696 of July 31, 2006); a polemic that exemplifies the drift that the West has influenced the United Nations with the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Iran, which had already experienced the overthrow of Mohammad Mossadegh, when he attempted to nationalize Iranian oil, could not fail to resist this Western attempt to prevent it from finding an inexhaustible source of energy. The controversy worsened when the Security Council adopted Resolution 1929 on 9 June 2010, again against the General Assembly.

The "revisionist Zionists" (that is, the disciples of the fascist Vladimir Jabotinsky) - not to be confused with the "Zionists" tout court, that is, with the disciples of Theodor Herzl - took up the subject. It was they who, fifteen years later, managed to infiltrate the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), of which Israel is not a member, and to influence its director, the Argentinian Rafael Grossi [4].

On April 2, 2025, Jean-Noël Barrot, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, told the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly: "We only have a few months before the expiration of this agreement [the JCPOA, from which the United States withdrew]. If it fails, a military confrontation seems almost inevitable." [5] He added that new EU "sanctions" against Iran related to the detention of foreign citizens would be approved in the coming weeks.

On 28 April 2025, the United Nations Security Council held two closed-door meetings on the "Non-Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction." We do not know precisely what was said, but the meeting was stormy, as evidenced by the publication the following day of a letter of protest from the Islamic Republic of Iran (S/2025/261 [6]). According to this document, Jean-Noël Barrot, French Minister of Foreign Affairs, who had flown in from Paris specially for the occasion, allegedly claimed that "Iran [is] on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons."

Jean-Noël Barrot and his Minister Delegate for Europe, Benjamin Haddad, joined Michel Barnier's government and were reappointed in François Bayrou's. While Barrot's thinking is not well known, that of his Minister Delegate is. Benjamin Haddad is not just a former senior official in the European Union's foreign service; he was also a long-time employee of the Tikvah Fund of the "revisionist Zionist" Elliott Abrams [7]. He was the one who defined Benjamin Netanyahu's strategy for convincing Europeans to support Israel against the Palestinians [8].

A month later, the IAEA claimed in its two quarterly reports on Verification and Monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015) [9] and on the NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran [10] that Tehran was hiding something. However, these documents were not based on objective observations, but on the findings of the artificial intelligence software Mosaic. This software, designed to detect terrorist plots from an infinite amount of data, did not simply analyze them, but presented warnings as certainties. For the first time, an AI, designed to detect anomalies, was used to describe reality. As a result, the anomalies detected in Iran were interpreted as the preparation of an atomic bomb. On this grotesque and expensive basis, Rafael Grossi alerted the Agency's Board of Governors on June 12.

Mosaic software is a product of Palantir Technologies, a company whose main clients include the CIA, the Pentagon, the IDF, and the Mossad, as well as the French Directorate General for Internal Security (DGSI). It is owned by the South African-American-New Zealander Peter Thiel, a director of the Bilderberg Group.

In a particularly heated meeting on 12 June, the IAEA Board of Governors adopted a resolution [11] stating that "the Director General, as stated in document GOV/2025/25, cannot provide assurance that Iran's nuclear programme is exclusively peaceful." Although China and Russia protested, the IAEA referred the matter to the UN Security Council. The Russian delegation to the UN then urgently circulated an analysis (S/2025/377) denouncing the duplicity of Germany, France and the United Kingdom and their misleading interpretation of IAEA data [12]. Reading this document, it is clear that these three countries were not fooled by Rafael Grossi, but participated in his staging.

Only US radars cover Iran. To reach Iranian nuclear research centers, Israel needed access to satellite data from the US Middle East Command (CentCom).

Operation "Rising Lion"

Without waiting, Israel launched Operation Rising Lion. At this point, it is not certain that the three European countries conspired to pave the way for this operation. They may just have been manipulated into supporting it. However, previous episodes, such as that of June 2024 [13], attest that these states and their allies were no longer respecting their obligation to lift their "sanctions" against Iran, particularly as signatories to the Vienna Agreement (JCPoA). Just as in the 1980s they no longer considered themselves bound by their signature of the nuclear agreement with Iran after the Islamic Republic succeeded the Iranian Empire, so today they no longer consider themselves bound by their signature of the JCPoA after the United States denounced it.
The first hypothesis is therefore the most likely.

On July 14, 2023, the United Nations repealed the sanctions imposed on Iran under Annex B of Resolution 2231 (2015), pursuant to the Joint Comprehensive Peace Agreement (JCPoA), but Germany, France, and the United Kingdom continue to apply them. They now constitute only "unilateral coercive measures" and are clearly contrary to international law. Berlin, Paris, and London consider themselves released from their commitments under the JCPoA, although, unlike the United States, they have not denounced it.

Officially, US President Donald Trump was also said to be convinced that Iran was preparing to build a nuclear bomb within two weeks. At least, that's what he said, shutting up his National Intelligence Director, Tulsi Gabbard, who said Iran had no military nuclear program [14].

In any case, informed by the same Tulsi Gabbard of the imminence of an Israeli atomic attack on Iran ("Samson Option") against its nuclear research centers, President Trump proposed to support a conventional Israeli attack on Iran, rather than allowing it to carry out a nuclear bombing. The Israeli Air Force therefore launched a massive attack against Iranian nuclear research centers, against its ballistic missile system and against several of its military leaders and nuclear scientists. All this while relying on intelligence from US radars at Camp al-Udeid (Qatar), as Israeli radars do not cover Iran.

According to the presentation that Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar made to the Security Council (S/2025/390 [15]), Israel claims that it wanted to "neutralize the existential and imminent threat posed by Iran's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs." It relies on IAEA discussions (based not on observations, but on the artificial intelligence of the Mosaic software) to falsely claim that Iran is not complying with its obligations to the IAEA and has "accelerated its clandestine efforts to develop nuclear weapons." But even assuming that Israeli leaders believed that Iran would soon have an atomic bomb and would use it against them, "Rising Lion" also targeted the ballistic missile system, as well as several of the military's leaders and nuclear scientists. The Israeli attack is therefore not aimed at the announced objective, but at the destruction of Iranian defense and research resources.

The question of the violation of international commitments by Israel and the United States, that is, of international law [16], arises once again. Israel's permanent representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Danny Danon, spoke of a "preventive and preemptive" war. Thus, Israel would have acted without being provoked (preventively) and in the interest of the international community (preemption). In this game, anyone could assassinate their neighbor at any time. It has already been noted, even before the "Iron Swords" operation in Gaza, that Israel behaves without taking into account the human lives of civilians, that is, to use the words of the Hague Conference of 1899 (foundation of international law), not "like a civilized nation, but like barbarians." The military participation of the United States, with the radars of the al-Udeid base, allows us to formulate the same judgment on Washington's behavior.

Israel has not limited itself to bombing from its planes. The IDF has also used drones, present in Iran, to assassinate military leaders and nuclear scientists in their homes. This is the second time this method has been used, the first being the Ukrainian attack by Russian strategic bombers (Operation "Spider's Web") on June 1, 2025. How can we not draw a parallel between the two operations, especially since it was noted at the time that this action had been coordinated with a foreign secret service, American or Israeli? Besides the fact that we should reconsider the possibility that Israel could have declared war on Russia, we must remember that the "integral nationalist", General Vassyl Maliuk, director of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), is a great admirer of the SS officer Otto Skorzeny [17]. However, after World War II, Skorzeny, protected by the CIA and MI6, founded an agency, the "Paladin Group," which worked for Israel, among other things. Of course, Israel did not bomb the Bushehr nuclear power plant, where many Russian engineers worked.

Furthermore, the day before the Israeli attack, the Iranian press published the first nuclear documents stolen by Iranian intelligence in Israel. One of them is a list of nuclear scientists provided to Tel Aviv by Rafael Grossi. It turns out that this is the exact list of scientists assassinated during Operation "The Rising Lion." This does not mean that the IAEA director himself designated the men to be killed, but it does make him complicit in their deaths.

Operation "Midnight Hammer"

President Donald Trump, for his part, launched Operation Midnight Hammer on the night of June 21-22. The aim was to destroy three Iranian nuclear research sites. According to the official version, the GBU-57 bombs could be launched one after the other into the same hole so as to penetrate 80 meters of granite. Maybe, maybe not. In any case, by assuring that the mission was accomplished, the US president intended to deprive West Jerusalem of any justification for continuing its attack on Iran. Benjamin Netanyahu made no secret of the fact that he was also working to overthrow the "regime," and Donald Trump appeared not to be opposed to it.

While a controversy with the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) was raging in Washington, the IDF continued to bomb Iran, destroying fuel stocks and various infrastructure. This was a far cry from the stated objectives, just as in Gaza, starving the civilian population has no bearing on the sole stated objective of defeating Hamas.

President Trump then banged his fist on the table, and the Israeli planes still heading towards Iran were forced to stop their mission and return to their bases.

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[1 ] "  Who is afraid of Iranian civil nuclear power? ", by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, June 30, 2010.

[2 ] However, under pressure from the United States, Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, the leader of the Lebanese Revolutionary Armed Factions, is still imprisoned in France, although, according to the law, he should have been released long ago for good behavior. He is the longest-serving French political prisoner.

[3 ] "  The unspoken aspects of the Iranian nuclear program ", by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, June 24, 2025.

[4 ] "  Argentinian Rafael Grossi, director of the IAEA, almost triggered a nuclear war," by Alfredo Jalife-Rahme, Translation Maria Poumier, La Jornada (Mexico), Voltaire Network, June 28, 2025.

[5 ] "  International situation: hearing of Jean-Noël Barrot ", Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, April 2, 2025 (listen at the 34th minute).

[6 ] "  Iran protests against Jean-Noël Barrot's false statements ", by Amir Saeid Iravani, Voltaire Network, April 29, 2025.

[7 ] "  The Straussian coup in Israel ", by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, March 7, 2023.

[8 ] "  The place of the United States and Israel in the governments of the EU and France ", by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, October 1, 2024.

[9 ] Verification and monitoring in the Islamic Republic of Iran in light of UN Security Council Resolution 2231 (2015), Report by Director General Rafael Grossi, International Atomic Energy Agency (ref: GOV/2025/24), 2 June 2025.

[10 ] NPT Safeguards Agreement with the Islamic Republic of Iran, Report by Director General Rafael Grossi, International Atomic Energy Agency (ref: GOV/2025/25), 4 June 2023.

[11 ] "  Resolution of the IAEA Board of Governors ", by IAEA, Voltaire Network, June 12, 2025.

[12 ] "  Russia recalls that Germany, France and the United Kingdom are solely responsible for the reduction of IAEA verification activities in Iran ", by Vassily Nebenzia, Voltaire Network, June 12, 2025.

[13 ] "  Vienna Agreement on the Iranian Nuclear Program (JCPoA): Iranian Perspective ", by Amir Saeid Iravani, Voltaire Network, June 5, 2024. "  Update from China, Russia and Iran on the verifications of the Iranian nuclear program ", by Amir Saeid Iravani, Fu Cong, Vassily Nebenzia, Voltaire Network, June 12, 2024.

[14 ] " Annual Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community ", Office of the Director of National Intelligence, March 2025.

[15 ] "  Israel's presentation of Operation"Rising Lion" ", by Gideon Sa'ar, Voltaire Network, June 17, 2025.

[16 ] "  What international order? ", by Thierry Meyssan, Voltaire Network, November 7, 2023.

[17 ] "  Who is controlling the drones in Kiev? ", by Manlio Dinucci, Translation M.-A., Voltaire Network, June 9, 2025.

 The Best of Thierry Meyssan

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