A high tech Russian nuclear submarine reportedly carrying a “doomsday weapon” has gone missing from an Arctic harbor where it was docked, according to media reports.
The Belgorod submarine, which allegedly can trigger a 1,600 foot ‘radioactive tsunami,’ had been stationed at a Russian base in the White Sea since July before disappearing recently.
NATO issued a warning that the Belgorod sub seemed to have vanished from the base, with officials worried that Russia may be in the process of testing its “Poseidon” weapons system, a nuclear weapon-carrying done that Russia claims has the capability to trigger a “radioactive tsunami.”
The drone when fired from the 600-foot submarine creates a 1,600-foot title wave that is strong enough to irradiate a coastline when it smashes into it, Russia has claimed.
The Belgorod is part of a class of “super weapons” that Putin announced in July were developed for the Russian Navy, FOX News reported.
According to experts, the weapon would be used as a last ditch tactic if Russia and the US found themselves in direct combat and Russia was on the losing end.
While the device is rumored to still be in the testing stages and not complete until 2027, it is possible Putin is testing it as a show of force against NATO and the US.
The Iranian flag waves outside of the UN building that hosts the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, office inside in Vienna, Austria, July 10, 2019. (AP Photo/Ronald Zak)
TEHRAN — Iran was awaiting the release of about $7 billion in funds frozen abroad, state media said Sunday, after it allowed an Iranian-American to leave the country and released his son from detention.
Baquer Namazi, 85, was permitted to leave Iran for medical treatment abroad, and his son Siamak, 50, was released from detention in Tehran, the United Nations said on Saturday.
“With the finalization of negotiations between Iran and the United States to release the prisoners of both countries, $7 billion of Iran’s blocked resources will be released,” the state news agency IRNA said.
Billions of dollars in Iranian funds have been frozen in a number of countries — notably China, South Korea, and Japan — since the US reimposed biting sanctions on the Islamic Republic in 2018 after unilaterally withdrawing from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.
Tehran has accused Seoul of holding $7 billion of its funds “hostage,” repeatedly calling on South Korean authorities to release it.
IRNA on Sunday said that “Washington is pursuing at the same time the release of its citizens detained in Tehran and the release of Iranian funds in South Korea.”
The development comes as on-off talks have been underway since April 2021 to revive the 2015 deal that gave Iran much-needed sanctions relief in return for curbs on its nuclear program.
Iran has repeatedly called for the lifting of sanctions, as well as guarantees that the United States will not again pull out of a revived deal.
Baquer Namazi is a former UNICEF official who was detained in February 2016 when he went to Iran to press for the release of his son Siamak, who had been arrested in October of the previous year.
Both were convicted of espionage in October 2016 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
The father was released on medical leave in 2018 and had been serving his sentence under house arrest.
Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday morning told his cabinet: “Over the weekend, Israel and Lebanon received the American mediator’s proposal for an agreement on a maritime line between the two countries. We are discussing the final details, so it is not yet possible to praise a done deal; however, as we have demanded from the start, the proposal safeguards Israel’s full security-diplomatic interests, as well as our economic interests.”
Lapid noted that “for over a decade, Israel has been trying to reach this deal. The security of the north will be strengthened. The Karish gas field will operate and produce natural gas. Money will flow into the state’s coffers and our energy independence will be secured. This deal strengthens Israel’s security and Israel’s economy.”
Opposition leader and Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu reacted swiftly to the announcement, saying, “Yair Lapid shamefully capitulated to Nasrallah’s threats. He gives Hezbollah a sovereign territory of the State of Israel with a huge gas reservoir that belongs to you, the citizens of Israel. He does it without a debate in the Knesset and without a referendum.”
Israeli law requires a national referendum whenever the government proposes to give away parts of Eretz Israel. It remains to be seen whether the proposed giveaway concerns an area within Israel’s territorial waters, which according to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea starts 12 nautical miles from shore, or economic waters, which starts where the territorial boundary ends and stretches 200 additional nautical miles, where Israel is not the owner outright but enjoys certain priorities in exploiting resources such as fish and energy.
The Karish rig, which is next door to the Lebanese proposed rig, is located 49 nautical miles away from Israel’s outer territorial waters.
“Lapid has no mandate to hand over to an enemy state sovereign territories and sovereign assets that belong to all of us,” Netanyahu said in a Facebook post. “If this illegal grab goes through, we will not be bound by it. On November 1, we will bring back to Israel a strong leadership, an experienced leadership, that will maintain security for all of us.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Energy Yuval Steinitz visit the Leviathan gas field off the shore of Caesarea, January 31, 2019. / Marc Israel Sellem/POOL
Lapid for his part called Netanyahu’s statement “irresponsible,” adding that Netanyahu “after failing for 10 years in reaching the agreement, he is helping Hezbollah.”
But Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah sounded as happy as blood-thirsty terrorists can manage with Lapid’s concession, telling his audience from the bunker on Sunday that “this is a very important step,” and, “We are approaching decisive days on this issue, and we hope that things will go in a positive direction in favor of Lebanon. If, with Allah’s help, things go in a good direction, it will open up great opportunities for Lebanon and the Lebanese people.”
Professor Eugene Kontorovich, Director of International Law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum, said on Sunday that “the proposed natural gas agreement between Israel and Lebanon represents a total capitulation to Hezbollah and a transfer of sovereign Israeli territory to an Iranian puppet state. As the people of Iran fight for their freedom, Israel is surrendering to Tehran via Beirut without even getting an acknowledgment of its existence in return, let alone peace. After being proposed and rejected a decade ago, the deal is being rammed through, just weeks before the Israeli elections – in violation of Israeli constitutional rules – because the Biden Administration and Hezbollah understand the desperation and weakness of the Lapid-Bennett government.”
