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Iranian Soumar Nuclear-Capable Cruise Missile |
2 February 2017: Almost exactly twelve years ago (February 2005) I became aware of a 2001 nuclear weapons smuggling conspiracy that occurred between Ukraine, the Russian Federation and the Islamic Republic of Iran. Through OSINT research I learned the smuggling involved the theft of 12 nuclear-capable Raduga KH-55SM cruise missiles by Russian/Ukrainian military intelligence operatives, and their transfer through a now long deceased (murdered) arms merchant by the name of Sarfraz Haider and his company, SH Heritage Holdings Ltd., in Cyprus to an IRGC front company, Satak Co, Ltd. Some analysts even maintain that four 200kT nuclear devices were also part of the smuggling conspiracy.
In 2015, after 10 full years of reverse engineering efforts, the Iranian's first launched their new and upgraded cruise missile which they branded as the Soumar. The Soumar is a virtual twin of the KH-55SM designed and built by the former Soviet Union to carry a 200kT nuclear warhead to its target 1,800 miles distant at a speed of approximately 500 miles per hour and under 300 feet in terrain following or sea-skimming altitude. No knowledgeable officer of the US government has ever had any illusions about the purpose of the Iranian Soumar nuclear-capable cruise missile - it is to directly and openly challenge the United States of America at a range of 1,600 to 1,800 miles. Note: Obama made his disastrous JCPOA nuclear deal with the Iranian mullahs, which they have also yet to fully ratify, after the very first Soumar nuclear-capable cruise missile had been successfully tested.
Fast forward to last Sunday. For about the 12th time since the JCPOA nuclear accord the Iranian's successfully launched a medium range nuclear-capable ballistic missile in a provocation that is forbidden according to the terms of the nuclear agreement and UNSC R-2231. Remember, as we recently learned, UNSC resolutions are supposed to be regarded as international law. Or maybe that's only when the UNSC resolutions apply to Israel? Nevertheless, within 48 hours of that Iranian ballistic missile test the Trump Administration put Iran on "official notice." Iran's response within hours of that "official notice" was to successfully test another Soumar nuclear-capable cruise missile.
Notice one more time the 1,600 to 1,800 mile range of this cruise missile, and realize that an Iranian commercial freighter crossing the Atlantic Ocean enroute to Venezuela, or Cuba, could potentially strike an American east coast city with one of these cruise missiles with almost no warning. And everybody knows Iran's military likes to shoot volleys of missiles all at once, as if they were arrows.
Two weeks into his new administration and President Donald Trump has a really serious problem to resolve. Make no mistake, this is a problem that economic sanctions will have no chance of mitigating in the slightest, never mind that there is also a near iron-clad certainty that Iran has transferred the Soumar nuclear-capable cruise missile to North Korea and their miniaturized nuclear warhead arsenal.
If there ever was a time for Jeremiah 49:34-39 to come to its fulfillment, I'd have to say that we're also really, really close to that time as well.