PDB Afternoon Bulletin | November 22nd, 2024: Netanyahu Arrest Warrant Divides Europe & Iran Accelerates Nuclear Enrichment
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It's Friday, 22 November. Welcome to the BDB Afternoon Bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage. Let's get briefed. First, Europe is divided over the International Criminal Court's decision to issue arrest warrants for Israeli leaders, with some, including the UK, indicating that they could apprehend Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu if he sets foot on their soil.

We'll discuss the fallout and the unusual political realignment that it's causing within the EU. Then, the Iranian regime has vowed to, quote, substantially increase their uranium enrichment program and install what they're calling new and advanced centrifuges at their nuclear sites after the United Nations nuclear watchdog censured the Iranian regime for their lack of cooperation on nuclear oversight.

But first, our afternoon spotlight. We begin with the fallout in Europe after the International Criminal Court, or the ICC, issued arrest warrants on Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Golent for alleged war crimes related to the conflict in Gaza.

The ICC's decision is leaving Europe split down somewhat unusual lines, with several countries vowing to arrest Netanyahu if he sets foot on their soil, and other European allies appearing, well, somewhat non-committal. Most notably, the UK on Friday suggested that they could arrest Netanyahu if he traveled to Britain. A spokesman for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said they would abide by their, quote, legal obligations, and that's according to a report from Politico.

As a reminder, all EU countries are members of the ICC and are, in theory, supposed to enforce the ICC's warrants. But despite the initial statement from the Prime Minister's office, British officials cautioned that such a scenario was hypothetical, noting that Netanyahu has no plans for a diplomatic visit to the UK and that no one facing an ICC arrest warrant has ever traveled to Britain.

The spokesman said they would not get drawn into discussing individual cases like the one regarding Netanyahu. At the same time, the prime minister's spokesman said Israel was still a valued ally and added that there was, quote, "...no moral equivalence, none, between Israel, a democracy, and Hamas and Hezbollah, which are terrorist organizations."

Ah, well, I'm glad that they cleared that up. We were all confused about that. Is there a moral equivalency? But Britain's contradictory rhetoric, frankly, does make them look like they're talking out of both sides of their mouth.

Which, to be fair, I guess, is what politicians do. We should note, under the leadership of Starmer, Britain has taken a decidedly more aggressive approach to Israel than their conservative predecessors, who had denounced previous actions by the ICC targeting the Jewish state. Since taking office in July, Starmer has banned some arms exports to Israel and restored funding to UNRWA, the UN's refugee agency that's been criticized for its ties to Hamas.

Meanwhile, Germany and France are also struggling with how to deal with the ICC's latest ruling. While officials in France initially said their response would align with relevant ICC statutes, on Friday, leaders in Paris toned down their reaction, saying the ICC's decision was not a concrete ruling, but rather a, quote, formalization of an accusation, whatever that means.

Germany simply declined to specify what they would do, saying they would not speculate unless Netanyahu planned to travel to Germany. They also said legal questions remained and needed clarifying regarding the ICC's warrant. While the UK, Germany, and France vacillate on how they'll proceed, the Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Finland, Portugal, Slovenia, and Ireland have all said that they will enforce the ICC's ruling.

Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris made his stance unequivocally clear on Friday when asked if Ireland would arrest Netanyahu, replying, quote, Yes, absolutely. We support international courts and we apply their warrants. We do whatever the bureaucrats tell us to do.

But Netanyahu apparently has an ally in Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is known for obviously frequently bucking the will of the EU, drawing clear distinctions between himself and his Western European peers.

On Friday, Orban invited Netanyahu to visit Hungary, assuring him that he would face no risk of arrest. In remarks, Orban condemned the ICC's ruling as a, quote, brazen, cynical, and completely unacceptable decision. He added, quote, the ICC ruling will have no effect in Hungary and we will not follow its contents, end quote.

Now, at least on this issue, that puts Orban, who also maintains friendly ties with Russian President Putin, squarely on the side of the U.S., which had swiftly blasted the international ruling from the ICC on Thursday, declaring the court has no jurisdiction over Israel.

Netanyahu himself seems to be unfazed by the whole drama, condemning the ICC action and accusing the court of holding quote anti-Semitic hatred toward Israel. Well, frankly, it's not the first time that the ICC has been accused of being anti-Semitic.

Oh, and look, speaking of anti-Semitic, coming up, the Iranian regime has vowed to substantially increase their uranium enrichment program and install what they're calling new and advanced centrifuges at their nuclear sites after the United Nations nuclear watchdog censured the Iranian regime for their lack of cooperation on nuclear oversight. I'll be right back.

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our top priority. So don't wait. Listen and subscribe to Bowling right now, wherever you get your favorite podcasts. Welcome back to the Afternoon Bulletin. Iran is once again thumbing their nose, and when was the last time you heard someone use that phrase, thumbing their nose, at the Western world after the United Nations nuclear watchdog voted to censure the Islamic regime for their lack of cooperation on nuclear oversight.

The controversial censure motion passed on Thursday with 19 votes in favor and a dozen abstentions, with only China, Russia, and Burkina Faso standing in opposition. Iran had intensely lobbied the body to forgo the vote, vowing to retaliate if it went forward. On Friday, leaders in Tehran made good on that threat.

Following the declaration from the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency, or the IAEA, Iran vowed to vastly expand their uranium enrichment activity and install new and advanced centrifuges at their nuclear sites. That's according to a report from CBS News.

In a joint statement on Friday, Iran's foreign ministry and atomic energy organization condemned the IAEA's latest resolution as politically motivated and said it would complicate efforts to hold substantive talks with the West. Not that they were going to. They claimed Britain, France, Germany and the United States pressured the body into making a rash decision.

A spokesman for Iran's atomic energy organization said Friday, quote, we will substantially increase the enrichment capacity with the utilization of different types of advanced machines, alluding to the new centrifuges being activated supposedly at their atomic facilities.

In an apparent attempt at humor, the Iranian spokesman said the enrichment would still be for civilian purposes, at which point the spokesman chuckled and said, seriously, I cracked myself up. The regime also said, quote, technical and safeguards cooperation with the IAEA will continue as in the past, end quote, despite Iran's ongoing violation of aspects of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, of which they are signatories. While

While details of the IAEA's resolution are confidential, it reportedly states that it is "essential and urgent" that Iran work to fulfill its obligations under the Non-Proliferation Treaty and come back into compliance with the UN's monitoring program.

As we've been reporting here on the PDB, Western concerns regarding Iran's atomic ambitions have been mounting in recent months, as intelligence shows the regime is accelerating their efforts to enrich uranium to near weapons-grade levels. A confidential report obtained by the Associated Press on Tuesday revealed that Iran has increased their stores of uranium enriched to 60% purity

tenfold since August, just since August. The regime is now in possession of some 400 pounds of 60% enriched uranium. And that, frankly, is enough material to produce roughly seven nuclear weapons, each one comparable in size to the one that was dropped on Hiroshima.

For context, uranium is considered weapons-grade at 90% purity, and the leap from 60% to 90% can be done in a matter of days or at most weeks by using advanced centrifuges like the ones that Iran is now supposedly installing.

And that, my friends, is the PDB Afternoon Bulletin for Friday, 22 November. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdbatthefirsttv.com. And remember, it's Friday. So, synchronize your watches for 10 p.m. this evening. We'll be unveiling a brand new episode of our weekend show, The PDB Situation Report.

It's also available on our YouTube channel. Check that out. It's found at President's Daily Brief and all podcast platforms, including, of course, Spotify and Apple. This weekend's show.

features a veritable smorgasbord of interesting news and insight. Our guests include Bill Roggio from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and Jessica Vaughn from the Center for Immigration Studies. We're talking Ukraine, we're talking nuclear war, that's always cheery, mass deportations, sanctuary cities, plus we're going to be making a festive holiday wreath out of nothing but classified documents and pinecones.

Okay, maybe we won't do that, but everything else I mentioned is included, so please tune in. To listen to the show ad-free, of course, become a Premium member of the President's Daily Brief by visiting pdbpremium.com. That's pdbpremium.com. It could not be any easier. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back over the weekend with the PDB Situation Report. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool.