The President's Daily Brief - PDB Afternoon Bulletin | March 7th, 2024: Anxieties Mount Over Iran's Nuclear Ambitions & China's Aggressive Shift On Taiwan

Episode Date: March 7, 2024

In this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin:     U.S. officials denounced Iran’s efforts to further enrich their uranium stockpiles on Wednesday and urged Iranian leaders to dilute all of the uranium it has already enriched to near weapons-grade levels. We’ll look at China’s increasing aggression towards Taiwan, as the CCP moves away from the idea of "peaceful reunification" and steps up their military harassment of the island democracy. To listen to the show ad-free, become a premium member of The President’s Daily Brief by visiting PDBPremium.com. Please remember to subscribe if you enjoyed this episode of The PDB Afternoon Bulletin.  Email: [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Kickstart your day with a cup or two or even three of American-made Blackout Coffee. Family-owned, premium coffee, fresh-roasted, and shipped out within 48 hours of roasting. It goes from the roaster to the package to your doorstep into your cup. Go to blackout coffee.com. promo code PDB for 20% off your first purchase. It's Thursday, 7 March. Welcome to the PDB afternoon bulletin. I'm Mike Baker, your eyes and ears on the world stage.

Let's get briefed. First, as anxieties grow around Iran's nuclear program, the U.S. is calling on the regime to dilute its entire stockpile of near-weapons-grade uranium. Also, we'll look at China's increasing aggression towards Taiwan, as the Chinese Communist Party, the CCP, moves away from the idea of peaceful reunification and steps up their military harassment of the island. democracy. But first, our afternoon spotlight. I want to begin with our ongoing coverage of Iran's nuclear ambitions and how increasingly anxious Western leaders are responding to the regime's

continued belligerence on the global stage. U.S. officials denounced Iran's efforts to further enrich their uranium stockpiles on Wednesday and urged Iranian leaders to dilute all of the uranium that's already enriched to near-weapons-grade levels. The statement came at a quarterly meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, or the IAEA, and that's the UN's nuclear watchdog. As we've previously covered on the PDB, Iran has ample stores of 60% enriched uranium, putting them alarmingly close to the 90% threshold that is considered weapons grade. Now, nuclear experts note that it would not take much time or effort for Iran to further enrich their supplies from 60% to the 90% threshold.

Despite spending the past year, accelerating their enrichment operations, a confidential report given to IAEA member states last week revealed, somewhat surprisingly, that the regime's stock of uranium enriched to up to 60 percent had fallen slightly over the past few months. Iran, for unknown reasons, opted to dilute or downblend more of its highly enriched uranium than it produced over the last quarter, according to a report from Reuters. Now, while we can only speculate as to what the Iranian motivation is, the IAEA report stressed that the regime still has enough near-weapons-grade uranium to build at least two nuclear weapons.

U.S. officials chastise the regime, that always works well, in a statement Wednesday, saying, quote, Iran should downbend all, not just some, of its 60% stockpile, and stop all production of uranium-enrich-265. percent entirely, end quote. Officials added that the U.S. still has, quote, serious concerns related to the stockpile of highly enriched uranium that Iran continues to maintain, so thereby stating the obvious, we have serious concerns about your nuclear ambitions. We should note that while Iran denies any intention of building nuclear devices,

no other country has ever reached the same enrichment threshold without developing nuclear weapons capabilities. But you could say to yourself, well, there's always a first time, and the Iranian regime certainly seems trustworthy, so I'm sure the administration can take them at their word. However, it's also worth remembering that the former head of Iran's nuclear agency recently suggested that Iran has all the component parts to immediately build a nuclear device, but that they are currently in a disassembled state. It would be comforting, I suppose, to dismiss that statement as simply more empty saber-rattling from the Iranian regime. However, the claim reflects the findings of the Institute for Science and International Security,

and that's another major nuclear watchdog group. In a report published last month, the group said Iran has the capability of building a nuclear bomb in just one week and enough weapons-grade uranium to produce six bombs over the course of roughly a month. Now, given the Biden administration's attitude of appeasement towards the Iranian regime over the past three years and their inability to deter Iran from using its various proxy groups to destabilize the Middle East, there's little reason to believe that harshly worded memos or calls from the White House to reduce their weapons-grade stockpiles will have any impact on Iran's behavior. Coming up after the break, we'll discuss China's increasing aggression towards Taiwan as they

boost defense spending and step up their harassment campaign against the small island democracy. I'll be right back. USAA knows dynamic duos can save the day, like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With USAA, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a quote at usa.com slash bundle. Restrictions apply. Kayak gets my flight, hotel, and rental car right, so I can tune out travel advice that's just plain wrong. Bro, Skycoin, way better than points.

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Thousands of delegates are converging on Beijing at the National People's Congress. That's the nation's legislature, which is largely considered a rubber stamp for the Chinese Communist Party. Now, the Congress is always a good time, with lots of concerts and all-night club raves, cool CCP swag, and lots of celebrity sightings. Actually, I don't know. I have never been invited to a CCP rubber stamp gathering, so my description might be way off. But during the meeting, the nation's finance ministry did release its annual military budget for the year, announcing that it will boost defense spending by a little over 7% in 2024, and that's the same amount by which it increased last year.

Now, the new budget will total approximately 1.7 trillion yuan, which is around, if my math, is correct, $236 billion U.S. dollars. For comparison, the proposed budget for the Department of Defense this year totals just over $840 billion. However, the communist nation's spending levels might be the least interesting thing that's found in its defense budget. This year, the CCP used tougher language when it comes to neighboring Taiwan, dropping any references to what's referred to as peaceful reunification. That's been a long-standing goal of China, which considers Taiwan part of its own territory. The move is reminiscent of North Korea's recent decision to declare that peaceful,

reunification with South Korea is no longer possible, and to label their neighbor to the south as their primary foe and principal enemy. Now, of course, China's decision to drop this peaceful reunification language isn't happening in a vacuum, and it's part of an increasingly aggressive approach toward Taiwan. Today, the Taiwanese Defense Ministry reported that the CCP has stepped up what's referred to as gray zone warfare against the island. According to Reuters, the ministry reported to its parliament that Beijing has launched multi-front saturated gray zone tactics to harass Taiwan. And now, in case you're not an expert on gray zone warfare, think of it as the shadowy middle ground between peace and the clear-cut intensity of traditional war, hence the name

gray zone. It's like a country trying to push its agenda and undermine another country without actually declaring war or engaging in open combat. It often includes things like hacking into another government's computer systems to steal information, spreading false information to mislead or divide people, or even using economic pressure like sanctions or trade restrictions to bully another country into doing what they want. In the case of Taiwan, they're accusing China of saturating the area around the island with balloons and drones, aircraft, and civilian boats in order to overwhelm Taiwan's Navy and Air Force. It added that China has also incorporated research and other vessels into their Navy in a move to disguise its military activities with civilians.

And that, my friends, is the PDB afternoon bulletin for Thursday, 7 March. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me at pdb at thefirsttv.com. And be sure to check out our new premium membership at pdb premium.com. I'm Mike Baker, and I'll be back tomorrow. Until then, stay informed, stay safe, stay cool. Not loving your AT&T or T Mobile Bill? Yeah, we've been hearing that a lot. Good news. Bring your AT&T or T Mobile Bill to Verizon and we'll give you a better deal.

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