Despite the decisive air strikes by the U.S. in June, the radical Iranian regime remains defiant, declaring it intends to fight another day.
When its 10-year nuclear deal with the rest of the world expired October 18, Iran announced it is no longer bound by the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the 2015 agreement brokered by the Obama administration. While prepared to engage in talks about its nuclear ambitions, Iran says its missile program is not up for discussion.
"We are ready to talk to address concerns about our nuclear program," Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told Al Jazeera. "We emphasize the peaceful nature of our nuclear program. It is possible to reach a fair agreement, but Washington has set impossible and unacceptable preconditions."
While officials maintain their enrichment of uranium is for domestic use only, Iran has long been enriching uranium at a level consistent only with the building of nuclear bombs, according to International Atomic Energy Agency chief Rafael Grossi; it has been developing missiles that it intends to use to strike Israel again.
Tehran reportedly expects "hostile behavior from the Zionist regime" and the top diplomat says, "We are at the apex of preparedness at all levels. Israel will suffer another defeat in any future war."
"The fact is that the war against Israel is in Islamic Jihad, and as such, it never ends," notes Robert Spencer, director of Jihad Watch.
He says they will never agree to stop fighting Jihad against Israel.
"That's not how Jihad works," he asserts. "It's a 1,400-year struggle … that is considered to be divinely ordained, and consequently, there is no end to it unless all the non-Muslims are subjugated under the rule of Islamic law."
Spencer is certain Iran has a new lease on life and is absolutely going to fight again – "no doubt about it whatsoever."
He sees the regime "flaunting" its nuclear ambitions and attributes it to a combination of Islamic religious zeal and leftist appeasement.
"This did not have to happen," he tells AFN.
