Tuesday – super – I’m thrilled

I suppose I should be looking for silver linings but my attention keeps drifting to the massive dark clouds on the horizon.

Iran dismisses concerns over space program: Iran said Tuesday that its space program should not cause fear in the US, a day after Tehran launched a research rocket and Washington called it a troubling technological development. Iran has long declared the goal of developing a space program, but the same technology used to fire rockets into space can also be used to deliver warheads.

"I don't see any reason for others' concern over the achievement," Iran's official news agency IRNA quoted government spokesman Gholam Hossein Elham as saying Tuesday when asked about US comments on Monday's rocket launch. Elham said Iran's space program was exclusively focused on scientific research, not weapons delivery.

Iran testing advanced centrifuge: Iran is testing an advanced centrifuge at its Natanz nuclear facility, diplomats in Vienna said Wednesday. The new centrifuge would help Iran boost its speed of uranium enrichment. … Reuters reported that a senior diplomat familiar with the International Atomic Energy Agency's file on Iran confirmed that it recently began testing centrifuges based on a "P-2" design, able to enrich uranium 2-3 times as fast as the P-1.

There is of also speculation that the first martyrdom homicide in over a year in Israel was a message from the Mullahs.

China Confidential: Analysts tell China Confidential that Dimona was probably deliberately chosen because of its close proximity to Israel's (far from) secret nuclear research center. The Iranian message could well be: suicide bombers today; missiles tomorrow; if pressed, Iran will find a way to hit Israel's nuclear program.

I’m quite sure the Iranian regime understands Western politics and knows full well the next American administration is going to rely almost exclusively on tossing words at them.