Iran, Malaysia sign $16 billion oil deal Associated
Press (December 26, 2007) - Iran and
Malaysia signed a $16 billion agreement to develop two Iranian gas
fields, state-run television reported Wednesday, describing the deal as
the largest energy contract in Iran. Iran's Pars Oil and Gas Company (POGC)
and Malaysia's SKS Ventures signed the multibillion dollar contract to
develop Golshan and Ferdows gas fields in southern Iran. The contract
was formally signed by Ali Vakili, director of POGC, and Mokhtar Al-Bokhari,
director of SKS Ventures, in the capital Tehran on Wednesday, according
to the report. "This contract worth $16 billion. Some $6 billion is for
development of offshore and $10 billion for development of onshore gas
fields for a period of 25 years," Vakili told the official IRNA news
agency. Iran's Oil Minister, Gholam Hossein Nozari, said the deal was a
vindication of his country's efforts to counter pressures to isolate his
nation. "This is the biggest investment contract in the country's energy
sector," the official IRNA news agency quoted Nozari as saying. The
multibillion dollar contract was signed weeks after China's biggest oil
refiner, Sinopec, and Iran signed a $2 billion agreement on developing
the Yadavaran oil field despite U.S. calls for sanctions over Iran's
nuclear program. China rejected U.S. complaints about the deal. That
agreement, coinciding with U.S.-led efforts to pressure Iran with
threats of tighter economic sanctions to rein in Tehran's nuclear
program, drew a sharp rebuke from Washington. Nozari said an economic
boom in southeastern Asia has sharply increased its need for imported
oil and gas and that the contract with Malaysia has to be seen in that
light. The reserves at the Golshan gas field, 65 kilometers from the
southern port city of Bushehr, is estimated more than 50 trillion cubic
feet of gas and it is expected to produce 2.5 billion cubic feet of
natural gas per day. The Ferdows' gas reserves is estimated at around 10
trillion cubic feet and it would produce more than 880 million cubic
feet of gas on a daily basis.
Shiite/Sunni rapprochement? - Abdullah, Ahmadinejad Hold Wide-Ranging Talks
Arab News (December
21, 2007)
- Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah held talks here
yesterday with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on major regional and
international issues as well as ways of strengthening bilateral ties,
the Saudi Press Agency said. Ahmadinejad, the first Iranian president to
perform Haj as guest of a Saudi king, arrived in the Kingdom on Monday
accompanied by top aides. Nearly three million pilgrims from different parts
of the Islamic world including several thousands from Iran performed Haj
this year. “In my discussion with King Abdullah we discussed different ways
to consolidate the brotherly relations among Muslim nations,” Ahmadinejad
was quoted as saying by the Iranian media covering his trip. He described
Tehran’s relations with Riyadh as “friendly,” adding: “The message of my
presence here is boosting ties among Islamic nations.” Iranian pilgrims in
the Kingdom expressed their hope that Ahmadinejad’s participation in the
pilgrimage would help repair ties between the Islamic republic and its Arab
neighbors. “Ahmadinejad’s Haj, since it comes at the invitation of the
Saudi king, shows that Muslim nations are supporting one another in times of
need,” an Iranian teacher said. “Having ties with big Arab nations is
a sign of unity among Muslims, and the West will understand that it cannot
divide Shiites and Sunnis,” said Hossein, a trader from Mashhad in
northeastern Iran. Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad attended a summit of the
Gulf Cooperation Council in Qatar, becoming the first Iranian president to
attend a GCC summit. Addressing the summit, the president tried to allay
fears of his Gulf neighbors and presented a 12-point program to promote
relations between Tehran and the six-member GCC. In his speech at the
summit, Ahmadinejad offered to sign a security pact with the GCC that groups
Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman and the United Arab Emirates. “I
personally hope that President Ahmadinejad will be able to successfully
implement his plans and improve Iran’s international situation (as a result
of the pilgrimage),” said university student Ali Rahmati. Ahmadinejad was
elected president in 2005.
Assad: Syria-Iran alliance unshakeable
The
Jerusalem Post (December 13, 2007) -
Syrian President Bashar Assad rejected claims that Syria's alliance with
Iran had been weakened by Damascus' participation in last month's
US-sponsored Mideast peace conference, saying Thursday that the two
countries' ties will never be shaken. Assad made the comments as he
inaugurated two joint Syrian-Iranian industrial projects - factories for
cars and cement. He was joined at the ceremonies by the Iranian industry
and housing ministers. The November conference in Annapolis, Maryland,
which relaunched Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, was widely seen
as also aimed at isolating Iran by bringing together Arab nations. US
officials have expressed hopes that Syria's attendance would mark a
start to easing it out of its alliance with Teheran. Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other top officials denounced the conference,
and some officials expressed surprise over Syria's participation -
though none directly criticized it. Speaking at the auto factory, Assad
said, "inaugurating this plant in partnership with our Iranian brothers
and officials is a response to those who tried to circulate (reports)
... that relations between the two countries have been shaken." "I
confirm, on this occasion, that relations will not be shaken for any
reason or under any circumstance," Assad said at the factory in Hasya,
some 160 kilometers north of the Syrian capital, Damascus. according to
the official SANA news agency. Syria and Iran have growing economic
ties, with the annual two-way trade estimated at about US$200 million.
The size of Iranian investments in Syria has reached around US$2
billions in sectors such as power generation, automobiles, cement and
agriculture. Syria is Iran's closest Arab ally. The two countries have
had close relations since 1980 when Syria sided with Persian Iran
against Iraq in the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war. The $50 million International
Syrian-Iranian Factory for Cars is the second car venture between the
two countries in less than a year. It will have an initial production
capacity of up to 15,000 cars a year and would likely increase to reach
35,000 cars annually at its final stage, SANA said. In March, Syria and
Iran inaugurated the first joint car project in the industrial city of
Adra near Damascus. Assad and the Iranian ministers also inaugurated a
new cement plant in the northern city of Hama, some 210 kilometers
northwest of the Syrian capital. The factory that had cost US$250
million has a production capacity of 1.1 million tons annually, SANA
said. The project, which would create some 400 jobs, was initially
agreed upon during a visit by then Iranian President Mohammed Khatami to
Syria in mid 1999. The project is financed by the Kuwait Fund for
Economic Development and the Iranian company has provided all the
necessary equipment.
Ahmadinejad
invited to be pilgrim BBC
News (December 13, 2007) - It will be Mr
Ahmadinejad's third visit to Saudi Arabia, seat of the Kaaba. Iran's
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will this week become the first sitting president of the
Islamic republic to perform the pilgrimage to Mecca, his office said.
It follows a formal invitation from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, seat of the
Islamic holy places and a long-time regional rival of revolutionary Iran. It is
not clear if he has performed the Hajj before, or if past presidents have been
to Mecca after leaving office. An official said the invitation was an important
event in Saudi-Iranian ties. "It is the first time in the history of
relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia that the king of this country invites a
president of the Islamic republic to make the pilgrimage to Mecca,"
said presidential aide Ali Akbar Javanfekr. Relations between revolutionary,
Shia Iran and the conservative, Sunni monarchy of Saudi Arabia have been
steadily improving since the first visit to Riyadh by an Iranian president in
1999. Twelve years earlier, more than 400 people, mostly Iranians, were killed
in clashes between Iranians and Saudi security forces during the Hajj. Earlier
this month Mr Ahmadinejad became the first Iranian president to attend the
annual summit of six Arab Gulf states - all strong US allies - in neighbouring
Qatar. Iran and Mr Ahmadinejad in particular are among Washington's most vocal
critics in the region. It will be his third visit to Saudi Arabia as president.
The pilgrimage rites, which last for five days and are performed by at least 1.5
million Muslims, are expected to begin on 18 December.
Russia-Iran trade doubles to $2.2 bln in 9M07 - official Russian
News & Information Agency (December 12,
2007) - Trade between Russia and Iran more than doubled in
January-September 2007 to $2.2 billion, the Russian co-chairman of
the bilateral inter-governmental commission said on Thursday. Sergei
Kiriyenko, who was yesterday appointed by the Russian president to
head state-controlled nuclear power corporation Rosatom, and Iran's
Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki chaired on Thursday a session of
the inter-governmental commission. Iran has proposed that both
countries should establish consortiums in electric power, energy and
other spheres and set up an investment fund for the implementation
of joint projects, Mottaki said. "The establishment of a gas company
could become another area of mutual cooperation," Mottaki said. The
Iranian diplomat also said the drafts of Russian-Iranian agreements
on air transport and investment were almost ready and could be
signed soon.
Saudi king invites Ahmadinejad for haj-media
Reuters
(December 12, 2007)
- The king of U.S.-allied Saudi Arabia has invited Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to attend this year's haj in the Muslim holy city of
Mecca, Iranian media reported on Wednesday. It would be the first time
an Iranian president was officially invited to take part in the annual
pilgrimage, starting later this month, the official IRNA news agency
said. Like other Gulf Arab states, Sunni Muslim Saudi Arabia has long
been wary of its large Shi'ite Muslim neighbor and shares Western
concerns about Tehran's nuclear ambitions. "Saudi King Abdullah has
formally invited President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to take part in this
year's haj ceremony," Iran's ambassador to Saudi Arabia, Mohammad
Hosseini, was quoted as saying by state television. The five-day rites
are expected to begin on December 18. On Tuesday Ahmadinejad said he
would take part in the haj if formally invited. Last week he became the
first Iranian president to attend a summit of Saudi Arabia and five
other Gulf Arab states. It was not clear whether the 51-year-old had
attended the haj before. A duty for every Muslim at least once in a
lifetime, the grueling ritual is one of the world's biggest displays of
mass religious devotion and is held under tight security. At least 1.5
million people are expected to arrive from abroad in Mecca where
pilgrims follow a route around the mountains in line with a tradition
established by the Prophet Muhammad. In 1987, more than 400 people,
mostly Iranians, died in clashes with Saudi security forces at an anti-U.S.
and anti-Israel rally in Mecca.
Iran Drops the US Dollar Short
News (December 9, 2007) - Oil
Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari announced that "At the moment selling
oil in dollars has been completely halted, in line with the policy
of selling crude in non-dollar currencies." Sales of crude oil will
now be priced in euros. OPEC member nations exporting oil in USDs
have been hard-hit by the decline in value and have been urged by
Iran, the fourth largest producer of crude, to follow their lead.
Recently, Iranian banks have also been blacklisted by the US
Government for supporting terrorism, and pursuing nuclear weapons.
IAEA: US Iran report matches UN agency Associated
Press (December 4, 2007) - A new
U.S. intelligence review that concludes Iran stopped developing a
nuclear weapons program in 2003 is consistent with the U.N. atomic
watchdog agency's own findings and "should help to defuse the current
crisis," the organization's chief said Tuesday. "Although Iran still
needs to clarify some important aspects of its past and present nuclear
activities, the agency has no concrete evidence of an ongoing nuclear
weapons program or undeclared nuclear facilities in Iran," International
Atomic Energy Agency director-general Mohamed ElBaradei said in a
statement. ElBaradei said he viewed "with great interest" Monday's
release of a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate that said Tehran halted
nuclear weapons development in late 2003 under international pressure.
The chief U.S. envoy to the IAEA, Gregory L. Schulte, said the U.S.
assessment contained "some positive news" and raised hopes of a peaceful
and diplomatic end to the standoff. "It does make us more hopeful that
diplomacy can succeed, but for diplomacy to succeed, we still need to
keep the pressure on while giving Iran a negotiated way out," Schulte
told reporters in Vienna. But "Iran's nuclear file is not closed," he
said, adding that the U.S. report "shows we were right to be concerned."
The U.S. report noted that Iran continues to enrich uranium, and senior
officials in Washington said that means it still may be able to develop
a weapon between 2010 and 2015. Monday's finding was a shift from two
years ago, when U.S. intelligence agencies said they believed Tehran was
determined to develop a nuclear capability and was continuing its
weapons development program. It suggests that Iran is susceptible to
diplomatic pressure, the officials said. more...
Iran Says Ties With Syria Rock Solid
Associated Press
(December 3, 2007) - Iran's
adversaries cannot harm the strong ties between Tehran and Damascus,
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday, a week after Iran appeared to
chide Syria for its decision to take part in a Mideast summit in the
United States. State-run television quoted Ahmadinejad as telling
Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad that "enemies cannot
damage real and firm Tehran-Damascus relations." Though Iran never
directly criticized Syria for attending the summit in Annapolis, Md.
last week, Ahmadinejad and other top officials said the summit was
doomed to fail and scolded Arab nations for going. Tehran was not
invited to the meeting. But Syria's attendance and Iran's harsh
criticism of the meeting appeared to indicate at least some tension
between the two allies — a rare event in the past decades. During his
meeting Sunday with Ahmadinejad, Mekdad gave the Iranian president a
written message from Syrian President Bashar Assad and underlined the
strategic relationship between the two countries, Iran's official news
agency, IRNA, reported. No details of the message from Assad were given.
Both Ahmadinejad and Mekdad said Iran-Syrian ties remained strong.
Mekdad also said Syrian would "never let anyone harm the friendly ties"
between Iran and Syria, IRNA reported. Syria said it decided to send
Mekdad to the summit only after the issue of the Israeli-occupied Golan
Heights was added to the agenda. During the trip, the Syrian delegation
shook hands with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice — indicating a
slight thaw in the diplomatic chill between Washington and Damascus.
U.S. officials had hoped the Annapolis meeting could mark a start to
moving Syria out of its alliance with Iran and Hamas and Hezbollah, both
of which are Iranian-backed militant groups. more...
Deepening China-Iran Ties Weaken Bid to Isolate Iran Washington
Post (November 19, 2007) - The
rapidly growing relationship between
Iran and
China has begun to undermine
international efforts to ensure that Iran cannot convert a peaceful
energy program to develop a nuclear arsenal, U.S. and European officials
say. The Bush administration and its allies said last week that they
plan to seek new
U.N. sanctions against Iran, after the
International Atomic Energy Agency said
Iranian officials had given inadequate answers to questions about the
country's past nuclear activities. But U.S. and European officials now
worry more about a Chinese veto than about opposition from
Russia, which has previously assisted
and defended the Iranian nuclear energy program. U.S. and European
officials charged Friday that
Beijing is deliberately stalling to protect its economic interests.
"China needs to play a more responsible role on Iran, needs to recognize
that China is going to be very dependent in the decades ahead on
Middle East oil, and, therefore, China, for its own development and
its own purposes, is going to need a stable Middle East, and that an
Iran armed with nuclear weapons is not a prescription for stability in
the Middle East," national security adviser
Stephen J. Hadley told reporters Friday. China now gets at least 14
percent of its imported oil from Iran, making it China's largest
supplier and the source of as much as $7 billion worth of oil this year,
according to David Kirsch, a manager at PFC Energy. Tehran in turn gets major arms systems from Beijing, including
ballistic and cruise missiles and technical assistance for Tehran's
indigenous missile program. Dozens of Chinese companies are also engaged
in several other industries. On the eve of Chinese Foreign Minister Yang
Jiechi's visit to Tehran last week for talks with President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Beijing suggested that it could reject
U.S.-orchestrated efforts for a new resolution. "We believe that all
parties should show patience and sincerity over this issue, while any
sanctions, particularly unilateral sanctions, will do no good," said
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao. more...
Venezuela's Chavez comes to Tehran to further boost ties with Iran International
Herald Tribune (November 19, 2007) -
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made his
fourth trip to Iran in two years on Monday, state media reported, as the
two countries sought to strengthen ties while their leaders exhort the
international community to resist U.S. policies. Chavez, who
arrived in Tehran from Saudi Arabia where he attended the weekend's OPEC
summit, is expected to discuss various political and economic issues
with his Iranian counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the official Islamic
Republic News Agency reported. Chavez was accompanied by a string of top
Venezuelan officials for the hours-long visit, including the foreign,
industry, oil and communication ministers, as well as the mayor of
Caracas, the country's capital. Ahmadinejad also attended the
Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries summit in Riyadh. During
the gathering, the two firebrand leaders echoed one another, blaming
U.S. President George W. Bush's policies for the decline of the dollar
and its negative effect on other countries, and challenging Saudi
Arabia's reluctance to mention weak dollar concerns in the summit's
final declaration. Ahmadinejad claimed OPEC's member countries want to
convert their cash reserves into a currency other than the depreciating
U.S. dollar, which he called a "worthless piece of paper." Chavez said
the dollar was in free-fall and that its "empire" must end, and proposed
trading oil in a basket of currencies excluding the dollar. But the two
were unable to generate support from enough in the 13-member cartel —
many of whom, including Saudi Arabia, are staunch U.S. allies. Tehran is
in a bitter standoff with Washington over its nuclear program, which the
U.S. fears is a cover for a weapons program but which Iran insists is
peaceful. more... This and the story above in connection with how the Bible describes Iran and friends attacking Israel in Ezekiel 38,39 are why I don't think any sanctions on Iran will do anything. I also don't believe they will use nuclear weapons against Israel since the antichrist will cause the abomination of desolation on the Temple Mount in the future. According to prophecy, Iran will attack with Russia and Turkey among others when Israel is dwelling in safety and will be destroyed in the mountains of Israel. This means the attack will be a ground-based attack to occupy land, not a nuclear attack to destroy Jerusalem. Since the same principalities and powers are controlling the Western New World Order and the Eastern terrorists to control the world through fear and bring about global domination by one man, I think what is going on now is a method to clamp down on freedom in the name of peace and safety. Time will tell so keep watching!
Gulf states 'offer Iran uranium' BBC
News (November 1, 2007) - Gulf
states are willing to set up a body to provide enriched uranium to Iran,
Saudi Arabia's foreign minister is reported to have said.
Prince Saud al-Faisal told the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED) the
plan could defuse Tehran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear
programme. The prince was quoted as saying that Iran was considering the
Gulf states' offer, but the US was not involved. The BBC's Paul Reynolds
says it is doubtful the plan will go anywhere. It is similar to one
proposed by Russia in December 2005, which led to initially positive
talks between Moscow and Tehran, but in the end led nowhere, says our
world affairs correspondent. Prince Saud said the offer came from the
six states that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Bahrain,
Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. "We have proposed a solution, which is to
create a consortium for all users of enriched uranium in the Middle
East," he was quoted as saying. "[We will] do it in a collective manner
through a consortium that will distribute according to needs, give each
plant its own necessary amount, and ensure no use of this enriched
uranium for atomic weapons." He outlined the plan in an interview for
the MEED during Saudi King Abdullah's state visit to London. Prince Saud
said the GCC had developed the proposal to stave off a nuclear arms race
in the Gulf. Iran says its nuclear programme is for civilian energy
purposes, but the US claims Tehran is developing nuclear weapons. Prince
Saud is reported to have said: "They [the Iranians] have responded that
it is an interesting idea and they will come back to us. "The US is not
involved, but I don't think it would be hostile to this, and it would
resolve a main area of tension between the West and Iran." The UK
foreign office said the five permanent UN Security Council members - the
US, China, Russia, France and Britain - along with Germany would meet on
Friday in London to discuss the next step on Iran's nuclear programme.
'We must be ready to preempt threats' The
Jerusalem Post (October 23, 2007)
- Israeli Ambassador to the US Sallai Meridor declared Monday
that Israel should always
be prepared "to preempt, to deter and to defeat if we can" when
speaking about the threats facing the country. Chief among those
threats was Iran, said Meridor, who called for a unified
international as well as domestic American front to counter the
Islamic Republic's nuclear ambitions. "This will take a united
United States on this matter, that they would not have the
illusion today that come January '09, they [Teheran] have it
their own way," he said, referring to the inauguration of
President George W. Bush's successor, who could potentially
change US policy on Iran. Meridor said "very little time"
remained to keep Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to
avoid the worst-case scenarios, outlined by French President
Nicolas Sarkozy, of an Iranian bomb or a war with
Iran. "There may be a
third way still, but only if the diplomatic and economic steps
could be dramatically - not incrementally - intensified," he
said, adding that 33 percent of Iran's trade is with Europe.
Meridor's comments appeared to put Israel at odds with America's
approach to UN Security Council sanctions, in which the US is
pushing for a gradual increase of pressure on Iran through a
series of sanctions resolutions so long as Teheran refuses to
halt uranium enrichment. A third such resolution is currently
being considered. Israeli sources said that to their knowledge
the administration is also calling for tougher sanctions. The
ambassador said Iran
would only stop its quest for nuclear capabilities when "the
cost [is at] a level that in their minds will put at risk the
accomplishments of the [1979 Islamic] revolution." Meridor began
his remarks at an American Jewish Committee luncheon by saying,
"As strong as we are, we should always be prepared to preempt,
to deter, to defeat if we can, to protect, and not assume that
threats have evaporated. They have not." more...
Israeli TV Stations Showing 'Gog and Magog' Charts
Israel National News
(October 17, 2007) - Israeli evening newscasts prominently
featured George W. Bush's comments regarding a possible breakout of
World War Three Wednesday evening. Both Channel 2 and Channel 10 showed
the world map and sketched the basic alignment of the two opposing axes
in the possible world war, in a way that is bound to evoke associations
of the Gog and Magog prophecy for many viewers. On one side were Israel,
the United States, Britain, France and Germany. On the other were Iran,
Russia, China, Syria and North Korea. The prophecy of Gog and Magog
refers to a great world war centered on the Holy Land and Jerusalem and
first appears in the book of Yechezkel (Ezekiel).
Bush warns of World War III if Iran goes nuclear
Breitbart
(October 17, 2007) - US President George W.
Bush said Wednesday that he had warned world leaders they must prevent
Iran from getting nuclear weapons "if you're interested in avoiding
World War III."
"We've got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy
Israel," Bush said at a White House press conference after Russia
cautioned against military action against Tehran's supect atomic
program. "So I've told people that, if you're interested in avoiding
World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing
them from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon," said
Bush.
Putin Visits Iran, Sends Warnings to US
Associated Press
(October 16, 2007) - Russian leader
Vladimir Putin met his Iranian counterpart Tuesday and implicitly warned
the U.S. not to use a former Soviet republic to stage an attack on Iran.
He also said nations shouldn't pursue oil pipeline projects in the area
if they weren't backed by regional powers. At a summit of the five
nations that border the inland Caspian Sea, Putin said none of the
nations' territory should be used by any outside countries for use of
military force against any nation in the region. It was a clear
reference to long-standing rumors that the U.S. was planning to use
Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic, as a staging ground for any
possible military action against Iran. "We are saying that no Caspian
nation should offer its territory to third powers for use of force or
military aggression against any Caspian state," Putin said. Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also underlined the need to keep outsiders
away from the Caspian. "All Caspian nations agree on the main issue -
that all aspects related to this sea must be settled exclusively by
littoral nations," he said. "The Caspian Sea is an inland sea and it
only belongs to the Caspian states, therefore only they are entitled to
have their ships and military forces here." Putin, whose trip to Tehran
is the first by a Kremlin leader since World War II, warned that energy
pipeline projects crossing the Caspian could only be implemented if all
five nations that border the Caspian support them. Putin did not name
any specific country, but his statement underlined Moscow's strong
opposition to U.S.-backed efforts to build pipelines to deliver
hydrocarbons to the West bypassing Russia. "Projects that may inflict
serious environmental damage to the region cannot be implemented without
prior discussion by all five Caspian nations," he said. Other nations
bordering the Caspian Sea and in attendance at the summit are:
Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. The legal status of the Caspian
- believed to contain the world's third-largest energy reserves - has
been in limbo since the 1991 Soviet collapse, leading to tension and
conflicting claims to seabed oil deposits. Iran, which shared the
Caspian's resources equally with the Soviet Union, insists that each
coastal nation receive an equal portion of the seabed. Russia,
Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan want the division based on the length of each
nation's shoreline, which would give Iran a smaller share. Putin's visit
took place despite warnings of a possible assassination plot and amid
hopes that a round of personal diplomacy could help offer a solution to
an international standoff on Iran's nuclear program. Putin's trip was
thrown into doubt when the Kremlin said Sunday that he had been informed
by Russian intelligence services that suicide attackers might try to
kill him in Tehran, but he shrugged off the warning. Iranian Foreign
Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini dismissed reports about the
purported assassination plot as disinformation spread by adversaries
hoping to spoil good relations between Russia and Iran. Putin has warned
the U.S. and other nations against trying to coerce Iran into reining in
its nuclear program and insists peaceful dialogue is the only way to
deal with Tehran's defiance of a U.N. Security Council demand that it
suspend uranium enrichment. "Threatening someone, in this case the
Iranian leadership and Iranian people, will lead nowhere," Putin said
Monday during his trip to Germany. "They are not afraid, believe
me." more...
Turkey Forms Alliance With Iran Against Kurds
News Max
(October 15, 2007) - U.S. ally Turkey and
U.S. arch-enemy Iran have formed a military alliance to drive opposition
Kurds from bases in northern Iraq they have used since 2004 to launch
guerrilla operations inside Iran, rebel leaders told Newsmax at a secret
base in the Qandil mountains. Both Iran and Turkey have vowed to send
troops into northern Iraq, but until now evidence of active military
cooperation between them has remained a closely-held secret. Turkish
Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has stepped up political and
diplomatic threats in recent days, telling the United States he would
cut off U.S. access to the strategic Incirlik airbase in eastern Turkey
if the U.S. tried to prevent Turkey from sending troops against the
Kurdish bases in northern Iraq. Leaders of the Party of Free Life of
Iranian Kurdistan, known as PJAK, provided Newsmax with extensive
evidence of the Iran-Turkey alliance in two days of exclusive interviews
at a secret guerilla base deep in the Qandil mountains. An Iranian
Revolutionary Guards outpost was visible on a nearby mountain peak.
“Iran and Turkey attacked jointly on August 16 against our forces inside
Iran and against Turkish self-defense forces in northern Iraq,” a PJAK
commander using the nom de guerre Xerat told Newsmax at the Iranian
rebel base. The Iranian Revolutionary Guards “attacked us across a broad
front in the areas of Sardasht, Piranshahr, Shaho, Urmieh, and along the
border line,” Xerat said, citing the names of major cities in Iranian
Kurdistan where PJAK rebels have been operating. While those ground
operations were underway, Iranian and Turkish artillery simultaneously
began shelling civilian villages inside Iraqi Kurdistan from Metina,
Zaab, Haftani, and Hakurke in the north, to Haji Oumran, Qalatdizza, Zeh,
Marado, and Xinera in the south, he added. Turkish artillery hit the
northern villages, while Iranian gunners hit the southern ones. Iranian
troops attempted to cross into Iraq through the mountain passes, but
PJAK fighters held the line. “The goal of the Iranians is to drive us
from the border area,” rebel leader Biryar Gabar told Newsmax. “They
want to turn this area into a no-man’s land, so they can use it to
smuggle weapons and Islamist guerillas into Iraq to fight the
Americans.” He called the Iran-Turkey entente “an anti-American
alliance,” not just an anti-Kurdish agreement, and said that it resulted
from deliberate decisions from the ruling Islamist AKP party of Prime
Minister Erdogan to transform Turkey into an increasingly Islamist
state. A senior European official, who was involved in talks to bring
Turkey into the European Union, told Newsmax recently he had been
“stunned” by the hard-line toward the Kurds taken by AKP party leader
Abdullah Gul, now Turkey’s president. “He was totally uncompromising,”
the official said. “He took a harder line than the Turkish military.”
Iran has been offering Turkey an economic agreement with Iran in July to
build a strategic pipeline that will bring Iranian natural gas to
Europe, in defiance of a U.S. led effort to increase the economic
squeeze on Iran. During a press conference in August while he was still
foreign minister, Gul defended Turkey and Iran’s joint action against
Kurdish guerillas in Iraq. “They pose a threat to Turkey as well as to
other neighbors. Therefore, every country has the right to defend its
borders and take legitimate measures for its own security,” Gül said.
more... Shakings, Weighings and Divisions: Syria, Annapolis and the Return of YHVH - Part One - Syria David's Tent (October 13, 2007) - Israel has been in the headlines again – a mysterious Israel Air Force attack delves deep into Syria; an upcoming US-prompted peace conference in Annapolis MD discusses a major dividing up of the land of Israel; a brazen new book accuses the American Jewish community and Israel of acting against the interests of the USA, raising the ante of anti-Semitism in the USA. The sharks smell blood and are circling, while the Jewish David, one arm tied behind his back by world pressure and opinion, finds himself confronting many modern-day Goliaths. We are indeed living in significant days! Serious stirrings in Syria Some secret events in Syria have hit the headlines in recent days. Israel's strict censorship rules on military matters forbid direct reporting of certain military matters, but anonymous leaks to major journalists have somewhat dispersed the mists of war. London's Sunday Times (www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/middle_east/article2461421.ece) reported on September 16 2007 that just after midnight on September 6, the 69th Squadron composed of eight Israeli F-15Is, F-16s and a UAV crossed the Mediterranean coastline of Syria and headed to a military target 50 miles from the Iraqi border – Deir ez-Zour. Syrian radar was somehow blocked, and a pre-positioned Israeli special forces Shaldag team (air force commandos) painted the target with laser beams. The pinpoint accurate bombing destroyed what Israeli intelligence anonymously describe as either nuclear material or a nuclear device from North Korea which could be fitted on North Korean Scud-C missiles (already in Syria's arsenal). An Israeli source said, "We’ve known for a long time that Syria has deadly chemical warheads on its Scuds, but Israel can’t live with a nuclear warhead." Over the years the world's intelligence community has given us some context for this attack. A CIA report from June 2003 stated, "Broader access to foreign expertise provides (Syria) opportunities to expand its indigenous capabilities and we are looking at Syrian nuclear intentions with growing concern." (https://www.cia.gov/library/reports/archived-reports-1/jan_jun2003.htm#7) On November 12 2003 John R. Bolton, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the State Department, spoke at a public gathering in Washington DC (www.state.gov/t/us/rm/26129.htm):
On April 29, 2004 Bolton told the United Nations that the Pakistani nuclear scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan had "several other" customers for his nuclear bomb factories besides Iran, Libya and North Korea. Western diplomats said then that Bolton was clearly referring to Syria (see the Reform Party of Syria's article in www.aina.org/news/20050104115532.htm). The Road To Annapolis (2007) The past few weeks have seen a flurry of activity concerning a possible peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, a city that since American Colonial days has been known as the "Athens of America". Tony Blair recently stepped down from his position as Prime Minister and immediately was appointed Middle East Envoy of the Quartet (US, UK, European Union and Russia) on June 27 2007. He promptly stated that until Israel surrenders more land, there will be no peace in the Middle East. "The absolute priority is to try to give effect to what is now the consensus across the international community - that the only way of bringing stability and peace to the Middle East is a two-state solution" (PM Blair's final press briefing at Downing Street). According to Blair, it seems, Israel holds the key to Middle East and world peace. While there is a sense where Blair's words may be biblically true (Israel does hold the key to life from the dead, according to Romans 11:15), Blair's statement as it stands is grossly inaccurate, ignoring the bloody ongoing inter-Arab conflicts that churn across the Middle East on a daily basis – conflicts that have nothing to do with Israel in even the remotest way! See Dr. Daniel Pipes' article "Arab-Israeli Fatalities Rank 49th" at www.danielpipes.org/article/4990. The UK and the US seem to have come to a remarkable agreement regarding what to do with Israel. Speaking in Ramallah on October 15 2007 Secretary of State Rice said:
| Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Isaiah 17 | Dividing the Land | America |
Ahmadinejad: Iran Calls For Effective, Comprehensive Ties With Russia
Islamic Republic News
Agency
(October 11, 2007) -
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that the Islamic Republic
of Iran is not to set any limit for expansion of ties with Russia and
seeks a durable, effective and all-out ties with that country. "Iran's
authority would be to the benefit of Russia and vise versa," he said.
Ahmadinejad made the remarks in an interview with Russian news agency
Itar Tass and Russian TV network on Thursday. Given their geographical,
political, and cultural status, the two nations are to live together,
underlined the president. Iran and Russia are naturally united, he said.
Despite many ups and downs in two sides' relations in the past, the two
countries are determined to fully bolster and broaden their mutual
relations, he said. Mutual cooperation between Iran and Russia would
leave positive impacts on the region as well as the whole world, he
pointed out. The two sides enjoy ample economic potentials to meet each
other's requirements, he said. Expansion of mutual cooperation between
Iran and Russia would be to the benefit of both nations, regional
countries and the world, he said. Both Iran and Russia as two big powers
playing significant role in regional and global equations, he said. On
his latest trip to New York and his speech at the United Nations General
Assembly, he said the United Nations is an international venue for
exchange of views and expressing ideas and Iran did the same thing which
was welcomed by the whole world. All countries in the world including
Russia put the seal of approval on Iran's viewpoints about freedom and
justice seeking, he said. "Another positive result of the trip to New
York was that strong barrier of censorship in that country broke and the
American nation directly listened to our real points of view on various
global issues and welcomed them," he said. Iran's nuclear activities are
within IAEA rules and regulations and have a peaceful nature, he said,
adding that the reports released by the IAEA is a good proof of this
claim that Iran has not deviated from peaceful nuclear activities. Since
a number of western countries believe that they have lost their
interests in Iran they try to put the blame on Iran by raising such
claims as lack of confidence building in nuclear issue, he said.
more...
Putin To EJC: Israel, Russia Are 'Partners' In Facing Iran
The Jerusalem Post
(October 11, 2007) -
In a meeting with European Jewish Congress leaders on Wednesday, Russian
President Vladimir Putin said that the two countries most threatened by
Iran are Israel and Russia, and the two are "complete partners in this
matter," according to EJC sources familiar with the meeting. "The
president [Putin] also said he will do everything in his power to
continue to raise the issue in the upcoming Second Summit of Caspian
States [beginning October 16 in Teheran]," the source said. Earlier
Wednesday, following a meeting between Putin and French President
Nicholas Sarkozy, Putin declared that there was a lack of "objective
data" regarding an Iranian nuclear weapons plan, so "we proceed from a
position that Iran has no such plans." Even so, he said, "we are sharing
our partners' concern about making all Iranian programs transparent."
Russia has opposed the US-led push for tougher sanctions against Iran
and called for more checks and inspections of Iranian facilities by
International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN nuclear watchdog, instead of
an immediate third round of sanctions. Asked about the discrepancy of
apparent concern over an Iranian nuclear threat in the meeting with the
EJC and the calmer tones prevailing in Putin's message to the
international community, an EJC spokesman said the organization did not
have an immediate comment on Putin's earlier declaration. At the
meeting, EJC President Moshe Kantor asked Putin "to bring his influence
to bear on the Iranian President" since "Iran is the major state
supporter of International terrorism. If Iran gains the ability to
export nuclear weaponry to terror organizations, the danger and horror
that awaits the world is immense." The Kremlin meeting also discussed
anti-Semitism, where the EJC praised the Russian government's work to
combat the phenomenon in Russia. According to the EJC, Putin "committed
himself to using the full force of the law to bring to account people
who perpetrate such acts." In particular, the Jewish umbrella
organization heard "positive" responses from several Russian leaders,
including Putin, regarding the formal commemoration of International
Holocaust Memorial Day in Russia. The day, which falls on January 27,
the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz in 1945, is marked
officially in Germany, Poland, the UK, Denmark and elsewhere, and was
adopted this year by the UN.
Will the 12th Imam cause war with Iran?
YNet News (September
28, 2007) - Not since
the prime minister of the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada presented an
address claiming that UFOs posed a mortal threat to the future of
mankind has the United Nations been treated to such a bizarre spectacle.
Many people believe the greatest threat to world peace concerns Iran's
nuclear programme, so there was understandably great interest at this
week's general assembly in New York when the country's president,
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, took the platform. But instead of seeking to
reassure delegates that Iran's nuclear intentions were purely benign, Mr
Ahmadinejad took advantage of his official visit to a country deemed –
in the lexicon of the Iranian Revolution – "the Great Satan" to embark
on a discourse about the wonders of the 12th Imam. For those
unacquainted with the more obscure tenets of Islamic theology, the 12th
Imam is held by devout Shi'ite Muslims to be a direct descendant of the
Prophet Mohammed who went into "occlusion" in the ninth century at the
age of five and hasn't been seen since. The Hidden Imam, as he is also
known by his followers, will only return after a period of cosmic chaos,
war and bloodshed – what Christians call the Apocalypse – and then lead
the world into an era of universal peace. Rumours abound of Mr.
Ahmadinejad's devotion to the 12th Imam, and last year it was reported
that he had persuaded his cabinet to sign a "contract" pledging
themselves to work for his return. For many of the hundreds of delegates
who attended Mr. Ahmadinejad's speech to the UN this week, his discourse
on the merits of the 12th Imam finally brought home the reality of the
danger his regime poses to world peace. more... Hizbullah: If Israel attacks Syria, we'll respond Fulfilled Prophecy (September 27, 2007) - "If Israel dares to make an adventurous move against Syria, it will pay a heavy price," a member of Hizbulla's political council warned Thursday. In an interview with the Nazareth-based Kul al-Arab newspaper scheduled to be published on Friday, Dr Ahmad Malli warned Israel against considering an attack on Syria, saying that the Lebanese organization would respond to such an offensive with full force. "I believe that things have changed," Malli explained. "The times when everyone was afraid of the Israeli threats are over. The Zionist entity knows more than anyone that the price of such adventurousness would be heavy, and the Israelis know the price more than anyone. "Since 2006 we have begun a new stage in the Arab-Israeli conflict and have demonstrated this during the Israeli aggression in July (the Second Lebanon War). If anyone wants to make an adventurous move, it will baer responsibility for this aggression." Asked whether he was referring to aggression both against Lebanon and against Syria, Malli replied, "We are all in one Middle East." Ahmad Jibril, secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, also warned Thursday that if Israel attacked Syria or Hizbullah his organization would also respond. In an interview with the al-Hadat newspaper, which is published in Arabic in the Galilee city of Tamra, Jibril warned that Israel planned to invade Syria in coordination with Arab countries. The interview is scheduled to be published Friday. According to Jibril, if such an attack takes place, Iran and Hizbullah will stand by Damascus and respond in full force. "I believe that the Israelis and the Americans will carry out attacks against Syria as soon as possible, in other words in the near future. I do not reject the possibility that the Israeli aircraft will attack us – the Palestinians in Syria. more...| Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Isaiah 17 |
Bush
to U.N.: Lay Off Israel
Israel National News (September
25, 2007) - United States President George W. Bush urged the
United Nations to reform its Human Rights Council Tuesday, criticizing
the body for ignoring abuses in places like Iran "while focusing its
criticism excessively on Israel.” "The American people are disappointed
by the failures of the Human Rights Council," Bush said. "The United
Nations must reform its own Human Rights Council." In the course of his
speech, Bush pointed out several regimes which he termed "brutal" and
"cruel." He announced new sanctions against the military dictatorship in
Myanmar (Burma), accusing it of imposing "a 19-year reign of fear" that
denies the basic freedoms of speech, assembly and worship. "Americans
are outraged by the situation in Burma," the president said in an
address to the U.N. General Assembly. He purposely used the country's
old name, Burma: the military junta renamed the Asian country Myanmar
but the U.S. refuses to recognize the change. "Basic freedoms of speech,
assembly and worship are severely restricted," he said. "Ethnic
minorities are persecuted. Forced child labor, human trafficking and
rape are common. The regime is holding more than a thousand political
prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party was elected
overwhelmingly by the Burmese people in 1990. "The ruling junta remains
unyielding, yet the people's desire for freedom is unmistakable," Bush
said. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat in the chamber and
checked his watch during Bush's remarks. First Lady Laura Bush, also
present for the president's speech, walked by the seated Iranian
president without making contact, and Israeli Ambassador Danny Gillerman,
too, made a point of avoiding Ahmadinejad. Bush urged the world's
nations to support countries that are struggling for democracy.
more...
Iran promises response to Zionist allies by October 12
Islamic
Republic News Agency (September 19, 2007)
- Supporters of the Zionist regime will receive their response during
the world Qods Day's rallies, government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham,
said Wednesday. The spokesman made the remarks during his weekly press
conference while commenting on the current visit to the occupied
Palestine of the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Qods Day is
held each year on the last Friday of Muslims fasting month of Ramadan
after it was nominated by the late Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam
Khomeini, as a day to voice the protest of the Islamic Ummah against the
Zionists. The day falls on October 12 this year. "The US loses all
opportunities to cooperate with regional and other world states by
trying to support a regime (the Zionist regime) which is now at its
weakest political and social position," Elham said. He warned that
Washington's insistence on its wrong policies and arrogant approaches
would have no result "but further political disgrace" for itself.
Referring to the approaching World Qods Day, the spokesman stressed,
"Supporters of the Zionist regime will definitely receive the final
response for their support on that day."
Iran offers to aid Syria following tensions with Israel YNet
News (September 6, 2007)
- Iran's ambassador to Damascus, Mu , assured security
officials in Syria that Teheran would be ready to offer Damascus any
assistance it may need, Iranian media reported on Thursday afternoon
following a resurgence of tensions between Israel and Syria. Syria
claims that IDF aircraft entered Syrian airspace overnight.
Rafsanjani to head Iranian clerical body
Associated
Press (September 4, 2007) -
Hashemi Rafsanjani, a former president and longtime Machiavellian figure in
Iranian politics, was picked Tuesday to head a powerful clerical body — another
defeat for the current president's hard-line faction.
Rafsanjani's election as chairman of the Assembly of Experts means the
charismatic cleric will oversee the secretive body that chooses or dismisses the
Islamic Republic's ultimate authority, its supreme leader. The election focuses
new attention on Rafsanjani, a complex figure who at various times has been
viewed more as hard-liner and at other times as a pragmatist. It also is sure to
strengthen his image, tarnished by his loss to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the 2005
presidential runoff when he was viewed as arrogant and out of touch with the
lives of ordinary Iranians. Rafsanjani, who is considered more moderate than
Ahmadinejad, brokered the deal that made Ayatollah Ali Khamenei supreme leader
in 1989. It is unclear if the 73-year-old Rafsanjani has ambitions for the post
himself someday or prefers the role of behind-the-scenes kingmaker. Khamenei is
68. A wealthy man, Rafsanjani controls a multimillion dollar family business
empire, one of Iran's largest, and is believed to oppose Ahmadinejad's populist
economic policies. Above all, Rafsanjani, who served as president from 1989 to
1997, is thought to be more pragmatic on issues involving Iran's dealings with
the West and disturbed by Iran's growing isolation. He is believed to have
played a behind-the-scenes role in Iran's decision to release British sailors
who were seized earlier this year, for example.
more... Iran warns US over risks of military action YNet News (September 4, 2007) - New special military advisor to supreme leader Ali Khamenei says Washington could never foresee size of Tehran's response against US troops in region; adds reaction could affect Israel. Iran on Tuesday issued a stark warning to the United States over the danger of launching a military attack, saying Washington could never foresee the size of its response against US troops in the region. "The US will face three problems if it attacks Iran. Firstly, it does not know the volume of our response," said General Rahim Yahya Safavi, the new special military advisor to supreme leader Ali Khamenei. "Also, it can not evaluate the vulnerability of its 200,000 troops in the region, since we have accurately identified all of their camps," added Safavi, who stepped down last week as head of the elite Revolutionary Guards. Safavi also warned over how Iran's reaction to a US attack could affect Israel - Tehran's regional archfoe - and also crude oil supply from the world's fourth-largest producer. "Secondly, it does not know what will happen to Israel and, thirdly, the United States does not know what will happen to the oil flow," he was quoted by the ISNA news agency as saying. Washington has never ruled out taking military action against Tehran, and its tone has sharpened again over the past week, with President George W. Bush warning that Iran's atomic program could lead to a "nuclear holocaust." Iran has always insisted it would never launch any attack against a foreign country, but has also warned of a crushing response to any aggression against its soil. Tehran has an array of medium range missiles, and claims that its longer-range Shahab-3 missile has a reach of 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), which would put Israel and US bases on the Arabian Peninsula within reach. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has dismissed the chance of any US attack against Iran, but influential former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has warned of the dangers still posed by the United States. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | America |
Iran Ready To Fill Power Vacuum in Iraq, Ahmadinejad Says The
New York Sun (August 29, 2007) -
President Ahmadinejad of Iran said yesterday that American political
influence in Iraq is "collapsing rapidly" and said his government is
ready to help fill any power vacuum. The hard-line leader also
defended Prime Minister al-Maliki of Iraq, a fellow Shiite Muslim
who has been harshly criticized by American politicians for his
unsuccessful efforts to reconcile Iraq's Sunnis, Shiites, and Kurds.
"The political power of the occupiers is collapsing rapidly," Mr.
Ahmadinejad said at a news conference, referring to American troops
in Iraq. "Soon, we will see a huge power vacuum in the region. Of
course, we are prepared to fill the gap, with the help of neighbors
and regional friends like Saudi Arabia, and with the help of the
Iraqi nation." Mr. Ahmadinejad did not elaborate on his remarks, an
unusual declaration of Iran's interest in influencing its neighbor's
future. The mention of a Saudi role appeared aimed at allaying the
fears of Saudi Arabia and other Sunni Muslim nations that Iran wants
to dominate in Iraq. Even though Saudi Arabia and Iran have not
cooperated in the past, it "doesn't mean it can't happen," Mr.
Ahmadinejad said. Iran fought a brutal eight-year war with Saddam
Hussein's regime and welcomed the elimination of a deeply hated
enemy. But Iran also strongly objects to the presence of America,
another rival, over its eastern and western borders in Afghanistan
and Iraq. "Occupation is the root of all problems in Iraq," Mr.
Ahmadinejad said. "It has become clear that occupiers are not able
to resolve regional issues." more...
Ahmadinejad says his country now a 'nuclear Iran' The
Jerusalem Post (August 28, 2007)
- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
reiterated Tuesday that Teheran has achieved full proficiency in
the nuclear fuel cycle and warned the West that dialogue and
friendship - not threats - were the right way to deal with
Iran. "Today, Iran is a nuclear Iran," Ahmadinejad told a press
conference in Teheran. "That means, it fully possesses the whole
nuclear fuel cycle." Ahmadinejad, however, said his country was
committed to a "peaceful path" in pursuing its controversial nuclear
program. Ahmadinejad's comments followed an announcement Monday by
the International Atomic Energy Agency which said that Teheran was
offering some cooperation in the agency's probe of an alleged secret
uranium
processing project linked by US intelligence to a nuclear arms
program. The IAEA has said that Teheran also outlined its timetable
for providing other sensitive information sought by the Vienna,
Austria-based UN watchdog in its investigation of over two decades
of nuclear activity by the Islamic republic, most of it clandestine
until revealed more than four years ago. The US criticized the deal
with the IAEA, saying the agreement won't save Iran from a third set
of UN Security Council sanctions for refusing to halt uranium enrichment. Some in the
IAEA have suggested Washington may be trying to derail important
progress in the Iranian nuclear negotiations, in a drive to impose
new UN penalties. At the presser in Teheran, Ahmadinejad said the US
president was a "wicked, selfish and arrogant" leader who has abused
the UN Security Council in a push to stop Iran's nuclear program.
Although the Iranian leader did not name George W. Bush, his remarks
were clearly addressed to his US counterpart. "You saw that your
coercion ... was futile," Ahmadinejad said. "Some wicked and selfish
leaders stood arrogantly behind the podium to say, 'we won't let
them do this' ... You sold out your prestige and stood against a
cultured nation... I recommend that you don't repeat this ugly
behavior." The US and its allies fear Teheran is using its civilian
nuclear program as a cover to produce atomic weapons. Iran denies
the charge, saying its program is solely geared toward generating
electricity. more...
Are Turkey’s Relations With Israel Crumbling?
Today's Zaman (August
25, 2007) - Just as
Turkey is tackling domestic issues surrounding the election of its
next president, the decision of an influential Jewish group -- the
New York-based Anti-Defamation League (ADL) -- to recognize the
World War I killing of Anatolian Armenians as genocide, kicked the
genocide debates back onto Turkey’s agenda again. Israel and Jewish
lobbyists have so far pursued a policy of siding with Turkey on this
controversial issue, refusing to recognize those incidents as
genocide, but this long-time policy has been reversed with the ADL’s
move, arousing suspicion that something might be askew in
Turkey-Israel relations, which cannot be considered independent from
Jewish groups operating in the US. There is a widely held view that
Turkey’s improving relations with neighboring countries,
particularly Iran, has disturbed both Israel and the US, resulting
in such consequence. Milliyet columnist Taha Akyol speculates about
the possible reasons for such an attitude change among Jewish groups
in the US and connects this to recent political developments. Akyol
thinks it was the politics of yesterday that prompted Jews to take
sides with Turkey on this controversial issue and it is politics
again that has made their stance change. Akyol, for instance, shows
that Turkey’s rejection of a motion in 2003 that would have allowed
US troops to be deployed in Turkey during the Iraq War and Hamas
leader Khaled Mashaal visiting Turkey after winning elections in
Palestine as some of the reasons for deteriorating relations with
the Bush administration neocons, who are in political and economic
alliance with Zionism. He also talks about Turkey’s improving
relations with Iran and Syria as possible reasons for the change in
stance among Jewish groups. “The Jewish groups do no act
independently from Israel. So, their taking a stance against Turkey
will undoubtedly deal a severe blow to Turkish-Israeli relations.
Turkey, Israel and the US will all suffer from the deteriorating
relations,” argues Akyol. more...
Solanaman Fulfilled
Prophecy (August 24, 2007) - A
breakthrough may have been reached with Iran's nuclear program,
according to reports from the
Islamic Republic News Agency and the
Associated Press. During two days of talks in Tehran on Monday
and Tuesday, representatives from Iran and the International Atomic
Energy Agency (the UN's nuclear watchdog) reportedly finalized an
agreement that was previously made between Iran's top nuclear
negotiator, Ali Larijani, the IAEA secretary general, Mohamed
ElBaradei, and the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana. The
agreement follows on the heels of ongoing negotiations between
Larijani and Solana that Solana called "very constructive."
Read about the talks here. And in March, the Iranian foreign
minister said Larijani's meetings with Solana were helping to
materialize a solution. The agreement reportedly includes a
framework -- a plan and timetable -- for resolving the international
community's concerns over Iran's nuclear program. It comes a month
before the IAEA is scheduled to release a progress report on Iran's
nuclear program. A favorable report would keep new UN sanctions from
being imposed on Iran. Yet, Washington opposes the agreement and
believes new sanctions should be imposed, according to the
Associated Press article. The U.S. fears that the IAEA is giving
into Iran -- and just days after the United States labeled Iran's
Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization.
Read about it here. But European nations may see things
differently. This
Asia Times Online article today reports that European nations --
with the exception of the EU3 (France, Germany and Britain) feel
that Iran and the IAEA have reached an acceptable agreement. The EU3
have sided with the United States -- agreeing that Iran is not
complying with UN demands -- and, with the U.S., these three have
been negotiating with Iran outside of the UN efforts. Yet, their
efforts haven't produced the results Solana's have, causing the Asia
Times article to ask and then answer its own question: "Why is the
Larijani-Solana duet making progress while other channels are not?
The answer is persuasive diplomacy, for Solana has wisely used quiet
diplomacy and rationality, rather than the rhetoric of Washington
and London." If Solana's negotiations continue to deliver results
with Iran, then it will be interesting to see his diplomatic skills
resulting in yet another successful breakthrough -- one others
thought was impossible. Solana has a long history of such
negotiations, earning him a reputation as a diplomatic superhero.
That's why I call him "Solanaman." The funny thing is, after I
titled this article I found another article my dad had written about
Solana by the same name.
Read it here. I guess I really rubbed off on my dad. (Ha ha! ...
I can tease my him now, and he can't say anything ... at least where
I can hear him!) We're also waiting to see if Solana's
Euro-Mediterranean Partnership for Peace will deliver stability to
the Middle East. Staying tuned!
'Terrorist' label means U.S. set for Iran attack, experts say Ottawa
Citizen (August 16, 2007)
- A U.S. decision to designate Iran's Revolutionary Guard as a
foreign terrorist organization fuelled speculation yesterday that
the White House is laying the groundwork for air strikes against the
hardline Islamic nation before President George W. Bush leaves
office. Foreign policy analysts were surprised yesterday by the
reported White House decision, which would mark the first time in
history that the U.S. has formally declared the armed forces of a
sovereign nation to be terrorists. "The United States has chosen to
up the ante against Iran. This is a warning, or an indicator, that a
major policy shift is unfolding within the Bush administration,"
said retired U.S. air force colonel Sam Gardiner, an Iran policy
specialist and former war games planner at the National War
College. "From a policy perspective, it's huge. Never in the history
of warfare has another country declared another's armed forces to be
a separate instrument from the state." In Crawford, Texas, White
House spokeswoman Dana Perino said "it would be inappropriate for me
to comment on any possible actions" the U.S. is planning to curb the
activities of the Revolutionary Guard, an elite military force that
operates outside Iran's regular army. But several high-ranking U.S.
officials said Mr. Bush has already made a decision to sign an
executive order classifying the Revolutionary Guard a "specially
designated global terrorist" group that threatens the U.S. The
administration could formally announce the move as early as next
month ahead of United Nations Security Council meetings in New York,
when the U.S. will seek tougher sanctions against Tehran over its
nuclear program. The U.S. military has also repeatedly accused
Iran's Revolutionary Guard, particularly its covert al-Quds Force,
of supplying weapons to aid Shia insurgents fighting American troops
in Iraq. Iran's Revolutionary Guard "is well-known to be engaged in"
terrorist activities and the pursuit of weapons of mass destruction,
said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack. more...
Iran-Turkey-Message Islamic
Republic News Agency (August 8, 2007)
- A message from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was submitted to
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan Tuesday afternoon by a
senior Iranian official. Deputy Foreign Minister for Asia-Pacific
and Commonwealth of Independent States Mehdi Safari handed over the
message in a closed door meeting with the Turkish premier. Safari
arrived in Ankara on Tuesday to confer with Erdogan on issues of
mutual interest. An informed source at Iran's embassy in Turkey told
IRNA that the message focused on strengthening Tehran-Ankara
relations. The source added that Turkish Deputy Prime Minister and
Foreign Minister Abdullah Gul was also present at the meeting. The
Iranian and Turkish sides declined to make any comments at the end
of their 40-minute meeting. Safari immediately headed for Tehran
after the meeting.
Solana hopeful Iran, IAEA will resolve issues soon Monsters
And Critics (August 1, 2007)
- The European Union's foreign policy chief expressed hope on
Wednesday that Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA)
would soon resolve all issues relating to Tehran's nuclear programme.
Javier Solana said Iran was now 'trying to work with the agency of
IAEA in Vienna to clarify the outstanding issues that have not been
previously resolved.' 'Once this is done - and I hope this will be
done soon - we will have to resume meetings to see if we can pave
the way to start negotiations,' he told reporters on the sideline of
his meetings with foreign ministers of the Association of South-East
Asian Nations (ASEAN) in the Philippine capital. Solana said he and
Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani agreed to see how the
discussions with the IAEA go before they talk again 'to see if the
meeting is appropriate.' Solana arrived late Monday in Manila to
attend the 27-member ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), the only security
meeting in Asia, on Thursday. On Monday, an IAEA delegation
inspected the heavy-water reactor at Arak in central Iran, according
to Iran state news agency IRNA. Iran's readiness to allow IAEA
inspectors to visit the heavy-water reactor currently under
construction is widely considered a major breakthrough between the
relevant sides in the nuclear dispute. According to a draft
statement, the foreign ministers attending the ARF are expected to
express their 'deep concern' over the May 2007 report of the IAEA
director general that Iran had not suspended its enrichment-related
activities. 'The ministers stressed the urgent need for a diplomatic
solution and a comprehensive arrangement with Iran, while respecting
Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy under safeguards and in
accordance with its obligations under the Non Proliferation Treaty,'
the draft added. ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia,
Myanmar, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
Aside from the 10-member ASEAN, other members of the ARF are
Australia, Bangladesh, Canada, China, the EU, India, Japan,
Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, New Zealand, North and South Korea,
Pakistan, Russia, Sri Lanka and the United States.
F-14 Parts Sold Despite Sales Ban
Guardian Unlimited (August 1, 2007)
- The Pentagon sold more than a thousand aircraft parts that could
be used on F-14 fighter jets - a plane flown only by Iran - after
announcing it had halted sales of such surplus, government
investigators say. In a report Wednesday, the Government
Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, said the
Defense Department had improved security in its surplus program to
prevent improper sales of sensitive items. But investigators found
that roughly 1,400 parts that could be used on F-14 ``Tomcat''
fighter jets were sold to the public in February. That came after
the Pentagon announced it had suspended sales of all parts that
could be used on the Tomcat while it reviewed security concerns.
Iran, trying to maintain its F-14s, is aggressively seeking
components from the retired U.S. Tomcat fleet. The Pentagon's
surplus sales division - the Defense Reutilization and Marketing
Service - told investigators the parts were sold because it failed
to update an automated control list and remove the aircraft parts
before they were listed on its Internet sales site. The GAO's
investigation focused on F-14 parts. Iran is known to be seeking
those, and if the parts were publicly available, it could endanger
national security, Greg Kutz, the GAO's managing director of special
investigations, wrote. Iran has managed to obtain U.S. spares in the
past, he said. Kutz said he does not know if any of the Tomcat parts
sold in February made it to Iran. The GAO forwarded details about
some of the sales to federal law enforcement for possible
investigation, he said. more...
Iran, Russia discuss ME developments Islamic Republic News Agency (July 29, 2007) - Iran and Russia on Saturday discussed the latest developments in the Middle East region particularly the ongoing events in Lebanon. In a meeting between Iran's Ambassador to Russia Gholam-Reza Ansari and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Yakovenko, the two officials referred to negotiations as a solution to crises in the Middle East. They exchanged views on implementation of the UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Yakovenko highlighted the significance of complete implementation of the resolution by all parties involved in Lebanon's case and making a realistic assessment of situation following its enforcement. During the Zionist regime's imposed war on Lebanon last summer, Russia condemned the attack and fully supported Lebanon. Moscow has made great efforts at the UN Security Council to stop aggression of the Zionist regime and adopt Resolution 1701. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Iran says it will never stop nuclear activities Reuters (July 25, 2007) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Iran would never yield to international pressure to suspend its uranium enrichment work. "Iran will never abandon its peaceful (nuclear) work," Ahmadinejad told state television. "Our nuclear work is legal and why should we stop it?" Iran says its nuclear program is meant to generate electricity so it can export more of its oil wealth -- not to make bombs, as Western powers suspect after years of Iranian secrecy and evasions. Two sets of sanctions have been imposed on the Islamic state for defying repeated U.N. resolutions demanding it suspend all nuclear fuel activity. Ahmadinejad said U.N. resolutions could not prevent the Islamic state from obtaining nuclear technology. "Let's say they issue the resolution 300 ... what will happen? It should be remembered that Iran is obtaining nuclear technology," Ahmadinejad said. "They have to eventually accept that." In an attempt to avert tougher sanctions, Tehran has agreed to increase its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency to clarify the scope of its nuclear work. Inspectors of the U.N. nuclear watchdog will arrive in Iran on Thursday to visit the country's nuclear facilities, Iran's semi-official Fars news agency said on Wednesday. Tehran has warned Washington, which leads efforts to isolate Iran over its disputed nuclear program, to back off from broader sanctions, saying such measures would harm the new diplomatic opportunities. | Iran | Ahmadinejad Meets Assad, Nasrallah, Hopes there will be Victories this Summer Naharnet News (July 20, 2007) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed out Thursday at the region's enemies and called for Lebanese unity during meetings in Damascus with his Syrian counterpart Bashar Assad and Hizbullah chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. "The enemies of the region should abandon plans to attack the interests of this region, or they will be burned by the wrath of the region's peoples," the hardline Iranian leader said at a joint press conference with Assad. Both Iran and Syria face U.S. accusations of fueling violence in Iraq and supporting Hizbullah. They are also accused of supporting anti-Israeli militant Palestinian groups, like the Islamic Hamas. In a joint statement, the two leaders said that it "is necessary to consolidate national unity and harmony among all Lebanese to assure the stability and security of Lebanon." They expressed their "support for all decisions taken by all Lebanese," and called on the international community to help "stop repeated Zionist aggression against Lebanese sovereignty." The statement also referred to the "right of the Lebanese people to resist repeated Israeli aggressions ... and to recover land occupied" by Israel, calling on the international community to force a halt to those alleged aggressions. Later Thursday, Ahmadinejad met Nasrallah in what was believed to be the first encounter of the two since last summer's war between Israel and Hizbullah. Nasrallah vowed to "suppress any Zionist conspiracy." Nasrallah also declared that he would thwart any plot aimed at stirring inter-Lebanese strife. "We will not let this happen," he said. His remarks were carried by Lebanese newspapers on Friday. At the news conference, Ahmadinejad voiced support for Hizbullah, alluding to the 2006 war. "We hope that the hot weather of this summer would coincide with similar victories for the region's peoples, and with consequent defeat for the region's enemies," Ahmadinejad said. He described Syrian-Iranian relations as "amicable, excellent and extremely deep," adding that the two countries have common stands on regional issues and face common enemies. Assad mentioned those relations and said the "farsighted policies" of both governments have proven to be correct. The Syrian leader said they also discussed "ways of restoring dialogue among all Palestinian factions." Syria also backed Iran's right to pursue a nuclear program and the two called for the "departure of all occupation forces" from Iraq — a reference to U.S. troops. The Iranian president also held a meeting Thursday with a delegation from Hamas led by Khaled Meshaal, a senior Palestinian official told Agence France Presse. | Iran | Israel | Islam | 'Iran-Syria Ties Prevent Damascus Peace Talks' The Jerusalem Post (July 20, 2007) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's visit to Damascus proves that Israel must not open negotiations with Syria, GIL Chairman Rafi Eitan said Friday. "[Syrian President Bashar] Assad is not showing any indication that he will cut his strong ties with Iran, Hamas and Hizbullah even after he starts peace talks with Israel," Eitan told Israel Radio. | Iran | Israel | Islam | Isaiah 17 | Israel Slams Iran-Syria Alliance Africasia.com (July 20, 2007) - Israel on Friday denounced an alliance between Iran and Syria that it said cast doubts on Syrian peace intentions, following a visit by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Damascus. "The fact that the Damascus regime chose Ahmadinejad as a partner in a strategic alliance raises serious doubt on recent statements from Syria on its intentions for peace," foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev told AFP. "You cannot be friends with someone who embodies the most extreme refusal of peace (with Israel) and expect the international community to consider Syria a country working for peace," he added. Interior Minister Meir Sheetrit said the visit by Ahmadinejad -- who has caused fear and alarm in Israel over calls for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map -- had "weakened Syria's position as a partner for peace." Pensioner Affairs Minister Rafi Eitan, also member of the powerful security cabinet, ruled out an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights and said the visit was "further proof that Syria does not really want peace." Any withdrawal from the Golan, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed in 1981, would see the Jewish state "find itself without peace and without the Golan," Eitan said. During meetings in Damascus on Thursday with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Ahmadinejad openly mocked Israel, saying the Jewish state was "becoming weaker every day." The Iranian president also held talks with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah and a delegation from Hamas led by Khaled Meshaal, its exiled head in Damascus and another sworn enemy of Israel. Assad on Tuesday told Syria's parliament after being sworn in for a second seven-year term that he wanted direct and open talks with the Jewish state. Direct peace talks with Israel have been frozen since January 2000. Damascus demands the return of the Golan Heights. | Iran | Israel | Islam | Isaiah 17 | Ahmadinejad: It will be a 'hot' summer Jerusalem Post (July 19, 2007) - It's going to be a "hot" summer in the Middle East, said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad following a surprise meeting with Hizbullah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah in Damascus on Thursday evening, Channel 10 reported. Nasrallah allegedly entered Syria via an underground tunnel, the television channel said. "We hope that the hot weather of this summer will coincide with similar victories for the region's peoples, and with consequent defeat for the region's enemies," Ahmadinejad added, in an apparent reference to Israel. During his one-day trip to Damascus, Ahmadinejad held talks with counterpart Bashar Assad which focused on the Iraq situation, Palestinian territories and Lebanon, where both Teheran and Damascus wield influence. "The enemies of the region should abandon plans to attack the interests of this region, or they would be burned by the wrath of the region's peoples," the hardline Iranian leader said at a joint press conference with Assad. Ahmadinejad, accompanied by a high-level delegation, was greeted at Damascus airport by Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem ahead of the official reception by Assad at the People's Palace. Assad was sworn in Tuesday for a second seven-year term. He described Syrian-Iranian relations as "amicable, excellent and extremely deep," adding that the two countries have common stands on regional issues and face common enemies. Assad said Ahmadinejad's visit came in the context of the continuous developing relations between the two nations whose "farsighted policies" have proven to be correct. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Isaiah 17 |
Iran locked on to 600 targets in Israel Israel Today (July 15, 2007) - Iran has marked 600 targets for its long-range missiles inside Israel, the Qatari newspaper Al Watan reported on Sunday. According to the report, Iran is threatening to hit the Jewish state with a massive missile strike if either Israel or the US attack the Islamic Republic or its allies in Syria. Recent political talk in Jerusalem and Washington indicate the time is rapidly approaching that Israel and the US will have no choice but to intervene militarily to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. Likewise, Israeli military experts are predicting a full-scale war with Syria sometime in the coming six months, possibly set off by a renewal of low-level cross-border Hizballah aggression. | Iran | Israel | Russia gives priority to business with Iran in transit sector Islamic Republic News Agency (July 15, 2007) - Moscow gives great priority to deal with Iran in the field of goods transit, one of the senior officials of the Russian delegation participating in the Second Iran Transit Forum said Sunday. The two-day international gathering started in Tehran Sunday morning with a speech by Iran's Minister of Roads and Transportation Mohammad Rahmati. Iran is considered a "powerful country in the region as it is on the cross-road of the North-South Corridor," senior official of the Russian Eurosibl Logistic Company Pavel Smirnov told IRNA on the sidelines of the forum. He added, "We should work together and look for ways to cooperate." Smirnov stressed that Iran enjoyed "great potentials" to develop its transit sector in all fields including marine, rail and road transportation and that his respective company can provide the country with latest services and assistance to this end. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Considering Russia is prophecied to participate in the attack from the North on Israel with Iran, Turkey and Libya, I find this interesting. If nothing else, it shows the continued increasing cooperation between these two enemies of the nation of Israel. Here's a story from July 19, 2002, TRADE CORRIDOR COULD LINK RUSSIAN ARMS TO IRAN AND INDIA "Signs of a regional economic compact encompassing Iran and Central Asia are growing clearer. The nexus for such a compact could be the North-South trade route, a concept that Russia and Iran have been discussing since 2000. Development of such a corridor would extend the Helsinki-Petersburg-Moscow trade corridor across the Caspian Sea to Iran and India." Keep watching. Thanks for the stories BeTheMoon! Syria Advises its Citizens to Leave Lebanon by July 15 Monsters & Critics (July 9, 2007) - Syria has urged its citizens in Lebanon to leave the country before July 15 because of fears that the volatile political climate in the country will deteriorate, Syrian sources said Monday. 'In the past few days, all Syrian nationals were asked through the Syrian government to leave, as Lebanon's current political crisis may become violent,' said a Syrian construction worker who requested anonymity. 'We are asked to leave Lebanon before July 15.' Hundreds of thousands of Syrian workers, mainly farmers and construction workers, used to work in Lebanon. But their numbers have noticeably dwindled since the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri, which many Lebanese blame on Syria. July 15 comes one day before a special UN Security Council meeting which is expected to discuss the possibility of stationing international experts on the Syria-Lebanon border in order to monitor illegal arms trafficking to the Shiite Hezbollah movement, thought to be originating from Iran and Syria. The Security Council is also expected to meet next week to discuss a key report on the assassination of Hariri, a development which may bode ill for Syria. On July 5 the Iranian news agency IRNA reported that Syrian authorities had instructed all Syrian citizens residing in Lebanon to leave Lebanon in July. Observers believe that the Syrian authorities may resort to closing the border with Lebanon. The latest rumours have sparked caused anxiety and fear among the Lebanese. 'I am trying to take my kids out of Lebanon on July 10 to a nearby Arab country to observe the situation until the end of August,' housewife Amal Salameh said. 'If things stays the same I will return, if not I will take them back to the US.' 'There is probably nothing in it, but we're told to expect some major event on that day,' said Rana Naamani, another Lebanese housewife who decided to go to the mountains northeast of Beirut to stay away from the capital. Almost a year after the blistering July 12 war between Israel and Hezbollah, Lebanon is mired in political and economic crisis and faces a deadly new challenge from an al-Qaeda-inspired Islamist militia. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Isaiah 17 | War And Peace In The Middle East Unsealed Prophecy (July 8, 2007) - Perspective by Jack Kelley: In a study of contrasts, two major coming events were announced this week that demonstrate the volatility of the Middle East these days. The first was a report I received stating that a meeting between Quartet (US, UN, EU, and Russia), Palestinian Authority, and Israeli leaders will take place in Egypt in mid-July. The meeting was announced by the EU’s Javier Solana, and will feature Tony Blair in his first big assignment as the Quartet’s Middle East envoy. According to a report in the The Daily Star Egypt these countries are very close to finalizing a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians. It would feature a two-state solution similar to the one Yassir Arafat was said to have been offered at the 2000 Camp David meeting by then Israeli PM Ehud Barak and then US Pres. Bill Clinton. (Although it was practically everything he had demanded, Arafat turned it down and went home to begin the 2000 Intifada.) Apparently ‘moderate’ Palestinians are now ready to sign such a peace treaty with Israel. “It is looking positive in the West Bank,” the report says, where Israel has returned tax revenues to the Palestinian Authority and the EU has resumed relations with the PA. Palestinian President Abbas also enjoys the support of the US, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. Abbas is actually stronger than before as he and his Fatah party no longer need approval from Hamas, as was the case under their unity government. If this plan succeeds, Hamas will be relegated to the status of a terrorist organization in control of an isolated Gaza Strip, while the Palestinian State would occupy a substantially enlarged area of the West Bank. Hamas’ recent success in gaining the release of BBC reporter Alan Johnston was an attempt to counter this marginalization and get back into the mainstream. Some are saying that this meeting in Egypt could actually result in peace between Israel and the Palestinians before the end of July. If it really does, and if the treaty’s provisions are adhered to, it could begin the period of peace that leads us to the Battle of Ezekiel 38. Think of the possibilities. The security fence could come down, to be replaced by an international peace keeping force that gives Israel a false sense of security in a land of unwalled villages. The peace keeping force could even include Russians, giving them an excuse to have a contingent of troops in the Middle East. This one bears watching. The opposition believes that the Lebanese army will remain neutral in this coup attempt, and the UN troops, stationed there to prevent another war with Israel, will realize their safety cannot be assured and depart. Syria has also opened a border crossing with Israel that’s been closed for 40 years. It’s in the Golan and its purpose is to allow Syrian terrorists into Israel. These terrorists call themselves resistance fighters whose goal is to liberate the Golan. They’ll be following a strategy similar to that which the Palestinians have used against Israel in the south, with suicide bombings and other attacks against civilian and military targets. They’ve been training in Syria over the past year and are now ready to go on the offense. Observers believe that this is another attempt to lure Israel into a confrontation with Syria and its client Hizballah. It seems like new experts come forward with predictions for a summer war between Israel and Syria almost every day. The latest is Dennis Ross, the former senior American Middle East peace negotiator. If Syria’s coup attempt in Lebanon is allowed to mature, the odds are that the war everyone’s predicting will in fact take place. And as incredible as this sounds, Syria is arming missiles with chemical warheads for use against Israel, believing that if they launch them, Israel will flatten Damascus in retaliation. Accordingly they’re moving the country’s archives out of Damascus to preserve their records against such an eventuality. It’s like they’ve read Isaiah 17 and accepted the outcome as a reasonable price to pay. We’ll know in a week or two whether either or both of these events will take place as announced. If it’s not God’s timing something will happen at the last minute to stop them. But if they are at the top of His agenda, then by the end of July, it’s quite possible that the “birth pangs” we’re experiencing will have taken a big leap in both frequency and intensity, meaning that our “delivery” may be coming sooner than we think. If you still have one foot in the Kingdom and the other in the World, it’s time to take the final step and get serious about preparing for your next life. This one may be about over. You can almost hear the footsteps of the Messiah. 07-07-07 more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam |
Israel is our main enemy, Haniyeh tells Iranian foreign minister YNet News (July 5, 2007) - "Our main conflict is with the Zionist enemy," Dismissed Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki in a telephone conversation. According to a statement issued by the Iranian Foreign Ministry, "The Iranian foreign minister called on all the Palestinian factions to solve their differenced through a dialogue, as only unity between the Palestinians will bring about a solution to the situation." | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Lieberman: Iran Has Declared War Courant.com (July 2, 2007) - Connecticut Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman asserted Monday that the Iranian government has in effect declared war on the United States. Lieberman commented after a U.S. military spokesman said Tehran's senior officials were aware of efforts to encourage violence against Americans in Iraq. "The fact is that the Iranian government has by its actions declared war on us," said Lieberman, an independent who caucuses with Senate Democrats. As a result, he continued, "The United States government has a responsibility to use all instruments at its disposal to stop these terrorist attacks against our soldiers and allies in Iraq, including keeping open the possibility of using military force against the terrorist infrastructure inside Iran." He stopped short of advocating a military strike, but said that "while I sincerely hope that diplomacy alone can convince the Iranian government to stop these attacks, our diplomatic efforts are only likely to succeed if backed by a credible threat of force." Lieberman said he hoped the latest news about Iran would help quash calls in Congress to withdraw U. S. troops. Withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq at this time, he added, "will give Iranians exactly what they want most" -- an "epic victory" for forces of terrorism. "Iran's purpose in sponsoring these attacks against our soldiers is clear," he said. "The Iranian government wants to push the United States out of Iraq. "For Congress to mandate a retreat from Iraq," he said, "will give the Iranians exactly what they want most. A retreat would not only represent a catastrophic defeat for the United States, but an epic victory for Iran, Hezbollah and the forces of Islamist terrorism." more... | Iran | America | Israel Begins Major Military Exercise In Golan, Reassures Syria Combined Jewish Philantanthropies (July 2, 2007) - Text of report by Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv [Report by Amir Rapaport: "IDF Begins Large-Scale Exercise in Golan"] : Against the backdrop of the tension between Israel and Syria, the IDF will soon begin a broad series of training exercises on the Golan Heights. Jerusalem sent Damascus a message, according to which there is no plan to attack the Syrians, and that this is only defensive training. The current activity is part of the system of exercises decided on in the framework of the process of drawing lessons from the Second Lebanon War, in an effort to prevent a repeat situation in which forces are insufficiently trained. The Israeli-Syrian tension began to mount a short time after the war in Lebanon, in the wake of statements by Syrian President Bashar al-Asad. At the time, Al-Asad said that if Israel did not heed his calls to conduct negotiations for returning the Golan through peaceful means, Syria would also prepare for the possibility of war. Officials in Israel internalized the statements and, on the order of IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi, the IDF is currently completing its preparations in the event of war against Syria as early as this summer. Financial Assistance From the Iranians: The Syrian military is also in the midst of efforts to prepare for a possible war, including training and infrastructure work on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Recently, Syria has even accelerated procurement of advanced weapons from Russia, among other ways through financial assistance that it is receiving from its ally, Iran. A few days ago, Syrian Foreign Minister Faruq al-Shar'a [as reported] said that "Syria is taking seriously the preparations in Israel ahead of a war between the countries." According to him, "Syria prefers peace, but it is not interested in secret talks with Israel." He added that officials in Damascus have the impression that Israel, like the United States, does not want to move forward in the peace process. "Ehud Olmert is not serious about peace. Israel will make peace with us if we compromise on the return of all of our occupied land, but we won't do that." more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Solana suggests Iran behind Gaza, Lebanon attacks ABC News (July 2, 2007) - The European Union foreign policy chief suggested on Monday that Iran could be linked to the Hamas military takeover of Gaza, recent attacks on the Lebanese army, and on European peacekeepers in Lebanon. Javier Solana, who has led efforts to bring Iran back to the negotiating table over its nuclear programme, stopped short of blaming Tehran outright, but said the incidents could not be treated separately. "What happened in Gaza cannot be seen separately from what happened in Lebanon," he told a conference on the Middle East hosted by the Socialist group of the European Parliament. "There are new groups in the Palestinian camps," Solana said. "And the fact that UNIFIL has been attacked for the first time cannot be taken separately." Solana said that while the car bomb attack that killed six Spanish members of the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) on June 24 was carried out by "forces we don't know", he added: "It would be naive not to see this as part of a global approach." "Somebody I know well -- Ali Larijani -- has said 'we are supporting Hamas'," he said, referring to the chief Iranian nuclear negotiator, who made the statement in an interview with Newsweek published last month. "All this is connected," Solana said. "It didn't happen by accident or miracle, it was probably planned." "It would be difficult to understand without seeing other important regional players behind it," he added, referring to "other forces" in Iran and Syria. Solana also said a postponed meeting of Western and Arab Middle East mediators with Israeli and Palestinian leaders would probably now happen in Cairo in mid-July. He said it was important to provide a new political impetus to the peace process, not just financial and humanitarian aid to the Palestinian government. Solana also said that in the long run it would be necessary to have an international peacekeeping presence in the West Bank and Gaza, but this was not an immediate priority. | Iran | Islam | EU/UN / 4th Kingdom | Solana | In a follow-up to this story, Solana's spokesperson denies western news agency report on Iran, "The spokesperson of European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana dismissed Monday a western news agency report on statements attributed to Solana as "wrong interpretation". "It is wrong interpretation of what he said," Cristina Gallach told IRNA in Brussels Monday evening. She was referring to a dispatch by the British news agency Reuters from "Solana suggests Iran behind Gaza and Lebanon attacks". "We don't deal with suggestions. We are not in a business of suggestions. People take out sentences out of context to spin," noted Gallach." You read what he said above, what do you think he meant? Eventually when you try to play both sides, you run into problems like this. Israel braces for July war with up to five enemies World Tribune (June 25, 2007) - Israel is preparing for an imminent war with Iran, Syria and/or their non-state clients. Israeli military intelligence has projected that a major attack could come from any of five adversaries in the Middle East. Officials said such a strike could spark a war as early as July 2007. On Sunday, Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin told the Cabinet that the Jewish state faces five adversaries in what could result in an imminent confrontation. Yadlin cited Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, Hamas and Al Qaida. "Each of these adversaries is capable of sparking a war in the summer," Yadlin was quoted as saying. [On Monday, Al Qaida's No. 2 Ayman Zawahiri endorsed the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, Middle East Newsline reported. The Al Qaida statement came after Zawahiri repeatedly criticized Hamas for tolerating Palestinian Authority cooperation with the United States.] Yadlin said Hamas could be planning a major attack to divert attention away from efforts by the Palestinian Authority to isolate the Gaza Strip. He said Syria might be promoting such an attack. Officials said Iran has direct influence over Syria, Hizbullah and Hamas. He said Al Qaida has increasingly come under Iranian influence and was being used by Iran and Syria in such countries as Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon. Already, military intelligence has assessed that Hamas acquired more than 50 missiles with a range of 22 kilometers. Officials said this would allow Palestinian missile strikes on any part of Ashkelon, the largest city in southeastern Israel and which contains strategic sites. Hamas has also deployed at least 20 SA-7 anti-aircraft systems, officials said. They said the missiles threaten Israeli combat helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft that conduct missions over the Gaza Strip. On Monday, Palestinian gunners continued missile fire into Israel. Hours earlier, the Israel Air Force struck an Islamic Jihad squad said to have been driving toward the northern Gaza Strip to launch missiles toward Israel. One Jihad operative was killed and two others were injured. Israeli military intelligence has assessed that Hamas was being quietly supported by neighboring Egypt. Officials said that despite Egypt's announced ban, Cairo has continued to allow Hamas leaders to enter the Sinai Peninsula from the Gaza Strip. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Farouk al-Shara strongly supports Syria's ties with Iran Islamic Republic News Agency (June 22, 2007) - Syrian Vice President Farouk al-Shara here on Thursday strongly supports his country's ties with Tehran and underlined that it would be to the benefit of Arab countries. The Syrian official made the remarks in a press conference with domestic and foreign reporters in Damascus. "If Iran had remained under reign of its formal monarchical regime, the Zionist regime would have occupied the whole region," he said. "We always find friends for ourselves prior to any confrontation with the Zionist regime," he said. Relations between Iran and Syria in the past or at present have always safeguarded the interests of Arab states and Iran, he pointed out. Syria seeks to meet the interests of Persian Gulf littoral states by consolidating its ties with Tehran, he said, adding that "We have always tried to boost relations between Iran and these Arab countries." The Zionist regime has called on Syria to sever ties with Tehran as a precondition for resumption of talks, he said, adding that "If Syria calls on the Zionist regime to sever ties with the US, will they accept?" he asked. Those who set such preconditions are actually unwilling to make peace, he said. | Iran | Israel | Islam | Envoy: Iran open to nuclear compromise Reuters (June 22, 2007) - Iran is ready to provide answers on past suspicious nuclear activities to the International Atomic Energy Agency within the next few months, the agency's head said Friday after meeting with the country's top nuclear negotiator. But the Iranian official suggested the offer was conditional to an end of U.N. Security Council involvement in Iran's nuclear program. The council has already imposed two sets of sanctions on the Islamic republic over the past half year for its refusal to freeze uranium enrichment and is poised to impose new penalties. Such terms would likely be unacceptable to the five permanent council members plus Germany — the six powers that have spearheaded the effort to pressure Iran to give up its enrichment ambitions. The Security Council has demanded that Iran provide answers to the IAEA, the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, on activities that could be linked to a weapons program. But it has also called on Iran to freeze enrichment and stop building a heavy water reactor that will produce plutonium — like enriched uranium a material that could provide the fissile core of nuclear warheads. With the main emphasis on blunting the possible nuclear threat from Iran by depriving it of technologies that could be used for such weapons, any concession that falls short of suspending both enrichment and construction of the reactor was unlikely to be far reaching enough. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | EU/UN / 4th Kingdom |
Ahmadinejad: A Strong Iran Will Help Russia YNetNews (June 20, 2007) - "Iran's relations with Russia are strategically significant," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the state-run IRNA news agency reported Wednesday. "We believe a strong Iran will be beneficial to Russia," IRNA quoted the president as saying. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Islam | Iran, Libya Adopt Close Stand On Regional, International Issues Islamic Republic News Agency (June 20, 2007) - First Vice President Parviz Davoudi said on Wednesday that the Islamic Republic of Iran and Libya have common and close view points on regional and international issues. Speaking to reporters, prior to seeing off ceremony for Libyan Prime Minister al-Baghdadi al-Mahmoudi, he said the two sides exchanged views on current developments in the Middle East region and the entire world. He said that Tehran and Tripoli could adopt closer stand in dealing with regional developments. Davoudi said the two sides also reviewed latest developments in Iraq and called for forging unity between Muslims and avoiding factional disputes between the Shia and Sunni Muslims. He said withdrawal of occupiers is the only solution to Iraq's problem, adding that Tehran and Tripoli support the Iraqi territorial integrity. Deeply rooted ties between Iran and Libya along with all-out cooperation would leave significant impacts on regional and international cooperation, he said. Describing the current visit of the Libyan delegation to Iran as fruitful, he said the two sides are determined to broaden all-out ties. Iran and Libya could have constructive cooperation in Latin America and African continent relying on their capabilities and potentialities, Davoudi said. The Libyan premier arrived in Tehran Tuesday night for a two-day visit to Iran. Iran and Libya are scheduled to sign agreements on expansion of bilateral cooperation. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Islam |
Israel on the Brink, Again The Conservative Voice (June 19, 2007) - Last summer we saw a bungled war between Israel and Hezbollah that ended in a stalemate, which is not what Israel intended when it began. Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert sounded like he meant business when he declared that Hezbollah would be driven out of Lebanon. But Israel made the same mistake as we continue to make in Iraq. We are allowing too much concern for civilian casualties to interfere with winning the war. This is a mistake that neither Israel nor the US has learned to avoid, I'm sorry to say. To make things worse, Olmert gave the Gaza Strip to the Palestinians as a “peace offering.” He should have known better and we can only hope that he learned a lesson from it. Today, Gaza is now a threat to Israel’s very survival and any responsible leader should have seen this coming. Anything you give to Palestinians, they will take but instead of saying “thank you” they only demand more. Sound familiar? Things were kind of ok there for a while as long as President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah party was holding the guns and could control the militias. But the rivalry between Abbas and the democratically elected representatives of Hamas continued to heat up ever since the election in January, 2006. Hamas is not a political party. It is a terrorist organization which pretended to be a political party for the election. But let’s make one thing clear. Fatah party members are just as responsible for terrorism on Israel as is Hamas, if not more. It’s hard to know which is worse, but Fatah is considered a little more moderate and willing to work for peace. Hamas, on the other hand, has but one goal - the obliteration of Israel. Neither one is a friend to the US or Israel. In Gaza, over the past couple of weeks, fighting between Fatah and Hamas militias has reached the boiling point. Fatah soldiers have been killed or driven out of Gaza, leaving the entire region in the hands of Hamas. During the takeover, stockpiles of American weapons supplied to Fatah were seized by Hamas as were critical CIA records covering CIA activities in the Middle East and tactics to defeat the radicals. This Friday, Abbas dissolved the Palestinian government, kicked Hamas out of Parliament, and appointed a new Prime Minister who is currently without a cabinet. Fatah is the old Yasir Arafat P.L.O. party. Now the western media is naively asking “How is Hamas going to govern in Gaza when they don’t have access to government money and resources?” Do they really think Hamas took Gaza so they could “govern” it? Hamas’s only concern for governing consists of giving free stuff to the poor, just like the American Democrat Party does, for the purpose of holding their support. They have renamed Gaza to “Hamasistan”. Hamas doesn’t care about Gaza but it does put them in a valuable strategic position to attack Israel from the south. I’m sure they won’t have any trouble getting money from Iran and Syria which is where they get their weapons, except of course, the ones they just got from America. The media is calling this a “civil war” but I think it’s much more than that, just as Iraq is much more than a civil war. Now that they have Gaza, Hamas intends to take the West Bank as well which, will put them within shooting range of Tel Aviv. The Bush Administration is sending reinforcements to Fatah troops in the West Bank which so far have been holding off Hamas fighters. The question to be asked is should the US be taking sides and sending more arms to either Palestinian side? Considering what happened with them in Gaza, I don’t think so. A second shipment is under consideration. A little further north, Syrian troops have been gathering on the border in the Golan Heights and conducting war games to pass the time while they wait - for what? Just to their west in Lebanon, Hezbollah has recovered from last year’s war. They have rebuilt their tunnels along the northern Israeli border and stocked them with from 20,000 to 25,000 Russian made Kasam, Katusha and “tank buster” rockets. And all of this was done right under the watchful eyes of the UN peacekeepers planted there last year for the expressed purpose of preventing it. Is there really any question about whose side the UN is on? more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | EU/UN / 4th Kingdom | America |
DEBKAfile Exclusive: Hamas – and its Syrian and Iranian sponsors - capture priceless Palestinian Authority intelligence archives in Gaza putsch DEBKAfile (June 17, 2007) - The Fatah-led general intelligence and security services caved in too fast to shred, wipe or burn documents, computer disks and archives. The entire collection fell into Hamas' hands when they seized Palestinian Preventive Intelligence HQ at Tel Awa (henceforth Tel al-Islam) and the Palestinian General Intelligence center near Gaza port. DEBKAfile's intelligence sources say: Never before has a bonanza of Western intelligence secrets on this scale ever reached an implacably hostile Islamist terrorist gang. The US, British and Israeli intelligence services may have suffered their greatest debacle in the war on Islamist terror. It will take them many years to recover. Hamas has taken possession of hundreds of thousands of documents cataloguing the clandestine operations of Western intelligence services in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia and the oil emirates. It is now the owner of complete archives of Palestinian undercover links with foreign intelligence services going back decades, with names of spies, political collaborators and double agents. The documentation covers the secret ties Palestinian intelligence maintained from the 1970s, when Yasser Arafat was based in Lebanon, with the Americans, the British, the French, the Israelis and many others. Most intelligence experts say Israel should have bombed the two buildings and destroyed their contents rather than letting them fall into the hands of an organization and country dedicated to its eclipse. For Hamas, this booty is priceless – and not only as the repository of bombs for planting under Mahmoud Abbas and his cohorts. The Palestinian group's Syrian and Iranian sponsors will pay a king's ransom for this unique collection of explosive secrets hidden by many a Western intelligence agency and government. Damascus and Tehran will be hugely empowered with the means to stay a jump ahead of American moves in the region and tools to sabotage US policies at any time. They will have a store of national secrets and compromising information to hold over the heads of Western leaders and officials, lists of undercover agents, and records of covert operations carried out by the Israeli Mossad, Shin Bet and Military Intelligence, CIA, British MI6 and other Western agencies. Iran, Syria and Hamas will know the names of politicians, including Israelis, who worked secretly with Palestinians and their shady deals. One intelligence expert said that the Gaza hoard left in enemy hands by Abbas and Mohammed Dahlan are the crown jewels compared with the Saddam Hussein's intelligence archives. In the Palestinian security service building, Hamas found computer hard disks covering years of undercover activity and a complete set of sophisticated wiretapping and surveillance equipment and sensors which the CIA and MI6 gave Mahmoud Abbas and his forces. It was all in perfect condition ready to switch on. After the Nazi regime was defeated at the end of World War II and Eastern Germany fell in the 1990s, there were officials willing to make a desperate effort to destroy or hide their intelligence treasure. Palestinian intelligence officers did not burn a single page. | Iran | Israel | Islam | EU/UN / 4th Kingdom | America | Is Russia-Iran alliance, prophecy fulfilled? One News Now (June 13, 2007) - A Middle East expert and best-selling author says the increasingly cozy relationship between Iran and Russia continues to point to a 2,500-year-old prophecy. Hear This Report Recently Joel Rosenberg released the DVD version of his best-selling book Epicenter: Why the Current Rumblings in the Middle East Will Change Your Future, which features interviews with Israeli leaders such as former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about the crisis in the Middle East and focuses on the threat now posed by Iran. The author is hopeful the DVD will make people aware of a relationship developing between Iran and Russia that has him deeply concerned. Rosenberg says that the Book of Ezekiel, chapters 38 and 39, discuss a military alliance between Gog, or Russia, and Persia, now known as Iran. Scripture says the two entities will form an alliance with a group of other Middle Eastern countries in the last days to attack Israel. That alliance, says Rosenberg, has never happened until now. "As I note in the film, in the 2,500 years since Ezekiel wrote that prophecy, Russia and Iran have never had an alliance like what Ezekiel described," he explains. "Now, just in the last few years, this alliance is rapidly emerging." In an earlier report, he cited an increasingly close rapport between the two nations' presidents, Vladimir Putin and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Rosenberg also says that while this cozy relationship between the countries does not necessarily mean the prophecy will be fulfilled soon, he believes it very well could become a reality. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Turkish, Iranian cooperation against PKK irks US and Iraq Turkish Weekly (June 11, 2007) - News that Iranian and Turkish forces are shelling the PKK hideouts in northern Iraq from their own territories apparently in a coordinated manner has created deep discomfort in Baghdad, Erbil and Washington prompting the Iraqi government to hand a diplomatic note to Turkey calling "to act together" against the militants. Turkey's charge d'affair in Baghdad Ahmet Yzal was invited to the Iraqi Foreign Ministry on Saturday where he was handed the note. Turkish diplomatic sources stressed that this was not a protest note and that it was aimed to call for cooperation. Foreign news agencies, however, said Baghdad had protested Turkey for shelling border regions. A statement by the Iraqi Foreign Ministry said Deputy Foreign Minister Mohammed al-Haj Mahmoud called for an immediate halt to the shelling, saying such actions "undermine confidence between the two nations and negatively affect their friendship." The statement was the first government confirmation of the shelling. Mahmoud said the shelling had started large fires and caused serious damage, but gave no other details. The note said the recent security measures Turkey is taking in the border regions is causing scare among the people of the region on the Iraqi side and requested a concerted effort to prevent any harm to the locals. Turkey has been building up its forces along the border with Iraq, and its leaders are debating whether to stage a major incursion to pursue separatist Kurdish militants who cross over to attack Turkish targets. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Islam | America | Officials: Iran, Syria orchestrated raid on Jewish state WorldNetDaily (June 11, 2007) - An attempted Palestinian raid of the Israeli border this weekend, purportedly to kidnap an Israeli soldier, was orchestrated by Syria and Iran, according to security officials associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. The Israel Defense Forces on Saturday thwarted an attempt by the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad terror group to kidnap a soldier on the Israeli side of a major crossing into the Gaza Strip. Four terrorists approached the Israeli border in an SUV bearing "TV" signs in an attempt to disguise themselves as journalists. Reporters working in Gaza usually travel in cars with "TV" symbols to identify themselves. Upon reaching the crossing, the terrorists blew a hole in the border fence and attempted to storm an IDF position. IDF troops rushed to the scene, chasing three of the gunmen back to the Gaza Strip. One of militants, 19-year-old Mohammed Jaabari, became separated from the group and hid inside Israel. Jaabari was shot dead after he opened fire when soldiers approached him, the IDF said. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. "The aim of the operation was to retreat with a prisoner," said Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad. "This was prevented by the use of Israeli helicopters." This attempted kidnapping took place just before the one year anniversary of the kidnapping by Hamas and two other groups of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held in Gaza and is being used as a bargaining chip by the Hamas-led Palestinian government to release Palestinian prisoners, including arrested terrorists, held in Israeli jails. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Isaiah 17 |
Iran Threatens Gulf Blitz If US Hits Nuclear Plants Times Online (June 10, 2007) - IRAN has threatened to launch a missile blitz against the Gulf states and plunge the entire Middle East into war if America attacks its nuclear facilities. Admiral Ali Shamkhani, a senior defence adviser to the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned that Gulf states providing the US with military cooperation would be the key targets of a barrage of ballistic missiles. Shamkhani told the US journal Defense News that missiles would be launched not only at US military bases but also at strategic targets such as oil refineries and power stations. Qatar, Bahrain and Oman all host important US bases and British forces are based in all three countries. Any Iranian attack would be bound to draw in the other Gulf Cooperation Council states: Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait. The attacks on Arab states would be in addition to air strikes on Israel, which have been threatened repeatedly. An Iranian foreign ministry official said: “The objective would be to overwhelm US missile defence systems with dozens and maybe hundreds of missiles fired simultaneously at specific targets.” Shamkhani, a former Iranian defence minister, accused the Gulf states of “helping the US establish legitimacy for its anticipated aggression against Iran”. Shamkhani is the head of Iran’s Centre for Strategic Studies, a think tank made up of former foreign, defence and interior ministers that advises the supreme leader. Another Iranian official said to be familiar with the “retaliation plan” claimed it would be launched within an hour of a US attack and would be accompanied by increased support for terrorist groups. “The US will be as surprised with Iranian military capabilities as the Israelis were with Hezbollah in last summer’s war in Lebanon,” he said. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | America | Cyclone lashes Oman as Iran battens down AFP (June 6, 2007) - Cyclone Gonu lashed Oman on Wednesday as thousands of people were evacuated in the Gulf state and neighbouring Iran for the strongest tropical storm to hit the region in 30 years. As Gonu -- the Maldives word for a bag made of palm fronds -- hit the Omani capital strong winds snapped tree branches and blew over street signs. Roads were flooded and thick fog blanketed out the mountains encircling the city. Heavy rain and wind led to flights being suspended at Muscat airport, but the cyclone has so far not affected shipping in the Strait of Hormuz through which at least a quarter of world oil supplies passes, officials said. Oil experts said any impact on world oil prices would be temporary provided facilities in the area stayed intact. "If shipping is halted through Hormuz, I think there is going to be a panic in world oil markets and prices could shoot to as high as 80 dollars, but of course for a very short period," Kuwaiti oil expert Kamel al-Harami said. The streets of Muscat were almost deserted save for all-terrain vehicles after police asked people to stay indoors and thousands of residents were evacuated, but the storm weakened steadily after making landfall. Omani television showed rising seawater advancing some 500 metres (yards) inland, flooding coastal roads in the Sohar region 200 kilometres (125 miles) northwest of Muscat. The ministry of transport said the ports of Sohar and Qabus in Muscat were closed. Cyclone Gonu initially packed winds of 260 kilometres (160 miles) an hour but they have now dropped dramatically to some 90 kilometres (50 miles), weather officials said. They said the cyclone was expected to be the strongest to hit the Arabian peninsula since 1977. more... | Iran | Earth Changes | Gates: Taliban fighters use Iran weapons Associated Press (June 4, 2007) - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday that Iranian weapons are falling into the hands of anti-government Taliban fighters but he stopped short of blaming Tehran. Afghan President Hamid Karzai seemed to dismiss the matter. At a news conference at the presidential palace, Gates offered possible explanations for the flow of weapons from Iran to this war-scarred country, including smuggling. He mentioned no specific weapons, but NATO officials recently cited the discovery in Kabul of an armor-piercing roadside bomb, the same type U.S. officials have long complained are entering Iraq from Iran. "There have been indications over the past few months of weapons coming in from Iran," Gates told reporters with Karzai at his side. "We do not have any information about whether the government of Iran is supporting this, is behind it, or whether it's smuggling." Gates, on his second visit to Afghanistan since becoming Pentagon chief last December, said that while the weapons appear to be going to Taliban fighters, some may be headed to criminals in the Afghan drug trade. Asked his own view, Karzai appeared eager to give the Iranian government a pass. He said there was no evidence of Iranian government involvement, adding, "Iran and Afghanistan have never been as friendly as they are today." more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Iranian Leader: Countdown to Israel's Destruction Has Begun IsraelNationalNews (June 4, 2007) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday the countdown to Israel’s destruction has begun. Ahmadinejad said that Hizbullah began the countdown in its war with the IDF last summer. "With Allah’s help, the countdown button to this regime’s [Israel's] destruction has been pushed by the hands of Lebanon and Palestine’s children,” he said in a speech to foreign guests in Tehran in honor of the 18th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s first Supreme Leader. " By Allah's will, we will witness the destruction of this regime in the near future thanks to the endeavors of Palestinian and Lebanese fighters." Ahmadinejad’s previous statement, regarding Israel being “wiped off the map,” was a quote of Khomeini. Iran’s “Supreme Leader” Ayatollah Ali Khameini declared Monday that Iran refuses to “beg world powers for its right to develop nuclear technology” and has demonstrated that it will not retreat from the "field of danger" and will protect those rights. "The world has learned from experience that an Iranian will never step back from the field of danger when defending his rights," Khameini said during a televised address Monday. Ahmadinejad spoke with Syrian president Bashar Assad this past week, during which Assad is reported, by Iran’s state-run news agency, to have said that “added coordination between Iran and Syria in confrontation with the Zionist regime and the USA can bear better results in the future.” The Iranian president congratulated Assad on his reelection. Assad ran unopposed and won 97% of the vote. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Ahmadinejad: Israel's Destruction Getting Close Fox News (June 3, 2007) - Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday said the world would witness the destruction of Israel soon, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. Ahmadinejad said last summer's war between Israel and Hezbollah showed for the first time that the "hegemony of the occupier regime [Israel] had collapsed, and the Lebanese nation pushed the button to begin counting the days until the destruction of the Zionist regime," IRNA quoted him as saying. "God willing, in the near future we will witness the destruction of the corrupt occupier regime," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying during a speech to foreign guests who attended ceremonies marking the 18th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who is known as the father of Iran's 1979 Islamic Revolution. Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has lost public support after Israel failed to achieve its goals during last summer's 34-day war with Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon — freeing two captured soldiers and crushing the militant group. The war was sparked after two Israeli soldiers were kidnapped by Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah militants in a cross-border raid. The fighting ended with a U.N.-brokered cease-fire that called for deployment of U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanese troops in southern Lebanon along the border with Israel. Ahmadinejad has made anti-Israel comments in the past. In October 2005, he caused outrage in the West when he said in a speech that Israel's "Zionist regime should be wiped off the map." His supporters have argued Ahmadinejad's words were mistranslated and should have been better translated as "vanish from the pages of time" — implying Israel would vanish on its own rather be destroyed. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Tehran's Secret 'Department 9000' MSNBC (May 29, 2007) - President Bush said last week he expects a "bloody" summer in Iraq. What he didn't say is that a growing covert war between the United States and Iran may be one reason the conflict is escalating. U.S. intelligence has identified the principal unit behind Tehran's efforts to supply Shia insurgent cells in Iraq. It is a super secret group called Department 9000, which is part of the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to three U.S. officials familiar with intelligence reporting and analysis on the Iraqi insurgency who asked for anonymity when discussing sensitive material. Department 9000 acts as a liaison between the insurgents and the IRGC, the Iranian regime's principal internal-security mechanism, providing guidance and support. More recently, says one of the officials, these secret Iranian paramilitaries have even begun to help Sunni insurgent groups in order to keep the Americans bogged down. "The new developments with Sunni groups are more operational in nature and are more direct in terms of their involvement in groups attacking the Coalition," he said. Bush, meanwhile, has raised the stakes in the covert war himself. The president recently approved a secret order, or "finding," authorizing the CIA to use covert methods to harass-but not overthrow-Iran's theocratic regime, according to government sources familiar with the issue, anonymous due to the highly sensitive nature of the subject. The CIA operation that the president OK'd is meant as a response to what the administration sees as an Iranian government policy of arming Shia insurgents with ordnance designed to kill American troops. Precise details of what methods the CIA has been authorized to use to pressure Iran are unclear and highly classified. (A CIA spokesman said the agency never comments on allegations of covert action.) One former U.S. undercover operative (anonymous because of intel sensitivities) who has talked with current agency employees about the new CIA effort said that among the ideas that have been discussed are various methods for trying to extend the range of uncensored Internet service into Iranian border areas. According to the ABC News investigative unit, which first reported on the CIA operation last week, the CIA plan "reportedly includes a coordinated campaign of propaganda, disinformation and manipulation of Iran's currency and international financial transactions." more... | Iran | Islam | Iran, EU to hold nuclear talks on May 31: IRNA (May 15, 2007) - Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana will meet on May 31 for a new round of talks on Tehran's nuclear program, the IRNA news agency said on Tuesday. Larijani and Solana last met on April 25-26 in the Turkish capital Ankara to discuss Iran's nuclear row with the West. IRNA said they agreed to meet again during a telephone discussion in which they emphasized the need for a "logical and legal solution through diplomatic means." It did not say where the meeting would take place. A spokeswoman for Solana said she could not confirm a date or venue for the next round of talks but the EU foreign policy chief told a reporter on Monday he expected it would be around the end of the month. Solana made clear in an interview with a German newspaper that any talks with Iran would be difficult and take time to find a solution. "Our dispute over the Iranian nuclear program cannot be resolved in hours, or days or months. It will probably take years," he told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung according to extracts of an interview to be published in full on Wednesday. Iran is embroiled in a deepening standoff with major powers over its atomic ambitions, which the West fears are aimed at making nuclear weapons. Tehran says it only wants to produce electricity. more... | Iran | EU/UN / 4th Kingdom | Solana | New Insights into Ahmadinejad's Apocalyptic Beliefs (May 14, 2007) - If you're looking for some light summer reading, you might want to skip The Nuclear Sphinx of Tehran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the State of Iran by Yossi Melman, a leading Israeli investigative journalist, and Meir Javedanfar, an Iranian-born Mideast analyst who works closely with the BBC, Voice of America and the Los Angeles Times. But if you're interesting in revealing new insights in Ahmadinejad's apocalyptic religious beliefs, look no further. Major American news outlets like CBS's "60 Minutes," NBC News, CNN and Time have covered Ahmadinejad extensively -- even interviewed him exclusively -- yet missed the big story: the end of the world theology driving his foreign policy. But Melman and Javedanfar get it. Excerpts from their new book:
An additional indicator of the Mahdi's arrival, say the religious scholars to whom Ahmadinejad is listening, will be "the death of 80 percent of the world's population in a massive war." The authors note that Ahmadinejad is telling associates time is very short, noting that in 2005, he "made the timetable more specific, saying the Mahdi would reappear in 2007." He thus increased government funding for the leading Islamic school that teaches about the coming of the Mahdi by 1,000% to $3.5 million. "With Iran now able to enrich uranium, it could become nuclear in 2007," the authors conclude. "If that happens, Iran's nuclear arsenal might give the regime the confidence it needs to start a war, which could then become the 'platform' that Ahmadinejad has said he wants to create for the reappearance of the Mahdi." more... | Iran | Islam | Israeli Envoy: Syrian Build-up - the Strongest Since 1973 War (May 5, 2007) - Israel's Ambassador in Washington says Syria is developing its most serious threat against Israel since it attacked Israel in the Yom Kippur War of 1973. "We see Syria developing a very serious threat on the northern border," Ambassador Sallai Meridor told journalists in Washington on Wednesday. He said the threat is manifest in military activity, training, great investments in military equipment - and the build-up of a large arsenal of Scud missiles. "In the past," Meridor said, "the assumption was that the Syrians' tanks and air force were not among the most advanced. Now, however, we are concerned that they might think that with a large arsenal of rockets that can reach everywhere in Israel, they have the capacity... to threaten us." The last time Israel's north-eastern neighbor threatened Israel so fiercely build-up was the 1973 Yom Kippur War. That war was set off when Syria and Egypt simultaneously attacked Israel on the holiest day of the Jewish year. "We hope they do not have offensive intentions," Meridor said, "but we cannot be sure." The ambassador said that Israel is attempting to pass "calming messages" to Syria, but that Syria continues to "thwart attempts to create attempts to create an atmosphere that will promote peace." Syria has demanded for 40 years that Israel relinquish control over the Golan Heights - the mountainous area from which Syria often launched attacks against Israeli communities below until Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Six Day War. Long one of Israel's most implacable enemies, Syria continues to provide assistance, money and training to Hamas, Hizbullah, and other terrorist groups. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Isaiah 17 | Companion Story | An interesting link to make for sure! Final Trumpet, one of the watchmen at Fulfilled Prophecy, just recently shared with me an interesting observation that leads me to believe Syria, Russia, Turkey, and Iran among others may be planning for a September 22 attack on Israel. There's other news about an expected war in the summer of 2007. And September 22 is also Yom Kippur! Keep watching! Iran tops US list of state terror sponsors (May 1, 2007) - The US State Department has once again recognized Iran as the world's leading state sponsor of terrorism, accusing the Islamic Republic of aiding extremists throughout the Middle East, particularly in Iraq. Although the designation is not new, the release of the department's annual global survey of terrorism in which it is contained comes at a delicate moment - just days ahead of a possible meeting between Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Iran's top diplomat. Rice could meet Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki when they both attend a weekend conference of Iraq's neighbors aimed at boosting stability in a nation where the report says terrorist attacks, some backed by Iran, killed more than 13,000 civilians in 2006. "Should the foreign minister of Iran bump into Condi Rice, Condi won't be rude," President George W. Bush said Monday. "She's not a rude person. I'm sure she'll be polite." | Iran | America | Ashkenazi: Hizbullah trying to cross into southern Lebanon (April 29, 2007) - Even as the country was awaiting the Winograd Committee's report into why ground troops were not introduced into Lebanon last summer, chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi indicated at the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday that there may be no choice but to put IDF boots on the ground to stop attacks from Gaza. After telling the cabinet that the military buildup of Hamas was continuing, and that Hamas had also begun active involvement in attacks against Israel, Ashkenazi said that if this situation continued "there would be no choice but to stop it, as the prime minister has said." Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who is expected to be criticized by the Winograd Committee Monday over his handling of the summer's Second Lebanon War, said at the opening of the meeting that while Israel was not interested in an escalation with the Palestinians, "we will not in any way be prevented from taking the necessary steps to stop those who are trying to harm Israeli citizens in the South." During the meeting, Olmert said that one question that needed to be asked regarding a possible incursion into Gaza was what would happen the minute the IDF pulled out. He said that Israel needed to work intensively with the international community and Egypt in an effort to stop Hamas's military buildup before taking military action. Ashkenazi said that it was difficult to call the situation that had existed in Gaza over the last five months a truce, as Hamas called it, since there have been some 250 firings of rockets and mortars on Israel, and in addition there have been numerous attempts to infiltrate into Israel, fire on soldiers and set roadside bombs. Regarding Lebanon, Ashkenazi said that Hizbullah was only one government minister away from being able to veto the moves of the Lebanese government, something that was significant since the government would be called upon in the near future to renew the mandate of the UNIFIL force in southern Lebanon. Ashkenazi said that Hizbullah was trying to move forces south of the Litani River, and was having better luck penetrating cities in the area, rather than open spaces where UNIFIL forces blocked their penetration. While praising the coordination that exists between Israel and UNIFIL, Ashkenazi bewailed the continued smuggling of arms across the Lebanese-Syrian border, and said that Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora was not powerful enough to send an effective monitoring force to the long border. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Now what on earth would Iranian Hizbullah be wanting to get to Southern Lebanon for? The Countdown Has Begun (April 29, 2007) - The intelligence information gathered by the Unites States regarding Iran's technological breakthrough that could lead Teheran to an atom bomb in less than three years bodes well with President George Bush's political desperation. The new intelligence indicates that Iran is making accelerated progress in acquiring the required amount of enriched uranium for assembling its first nuclear bomb. Until recently, American intelligence estimated that this would only happen in 2015. Now US intelligence is falling into line with its colleagues in Israel and is estimating that an Iranian bomb can be expected as early as 2010. Contrary to the war in Iraq, the American public does indeed view Iran as a real threat. The combination of a radical religious regime and weapons of mass destruction is America's worst nightmare. Publication of the information is part and parcel of the imminent beating of war drums: On the one hand the Bush Administration is building a significant naval force along the Iranian coast, and on the other it is signaling to the public that the Iranian threat is approaching in great strides. When the information was revealed on CBS, senior officials at the Pentagon were quoted as saying that now there will be more pressure on Israel to carry out a preventative strike on Iran, just as it did in 1981 in Iraq. And indeed less than two days elapsed since the publication and Israel's prime minister was quoted in the German weekly Focus as outlining the possibility of such an attack, which would include firing 1,000 cruise missiles in 10 days. more... | Iran | Israel | Islam | America | 40 Syrian Generals on Secret Mission to Tehran (April 23, 2007) - Led by Maj. Gen. Yahya L. Solayman, War Planning chief at the Syrian armed forces General Staff, the delegation represents all branches of the Syrian armed forces. On their arrival on April 18, the Syrian officers went straight into conference with Iranian defense minister Brig. Gen. Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, Revolutionary Commanders chief Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim-Safavi and dep. chief of staff Maj. Gen. Hassani Sa’di, who is Iran’s chief of military war preparations. The Syrian visitors were taken around RG and armed forces training installations and given a display of the latest Iranian weapons systems, including stealth missiles, electronic warfare appliances and undersea missiles and torpedoes. They also visited the big Imam Ali training base in N. Tehran, where hundreds of Lebanese Hizballah and Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami terrorists are taking courses. In Washington and Jerusalem, there is little doubt that the two allies timed the Syrian delegation’s mission to Tehran as a rejoinder to US defense secretary Robert Gates’ Middle East tour last week. Israel sees four causes for concern: 1. The unusually large size of the Syrian delegation and the presence of operations officers from the various army corps. 2. The elevated positions of the Iranian officials hosting the Syrians: the top men with responsibility for preparing the RGs and armed forces for armed conflict. US and Israeli intelligence experts agreed in their talks during Gates’ two-day visit to Israel last week on the object of the Syrian mission: to tighten operational coordination at the highest level between the Syria military and Iran’s armed forces and Revolutionary Guards. 3. The installations and weapons shown the Syrian officers. The intelligence estimate is that they saw the weapons systems soon to be consigned by Iran to the Syrian army and Hizballah, as well as the types of assistance pledged for Syria in the event of a military showdown with the United States or Israel. Syrian-Iranian consultations must also be presumed to have cleared the routes by which these weapons would reach Syria and Hizballah in a military contingency. During the 2006 Hizballah-Israel war, Iran ran an airlift to Damascus through Turkish airspace and over the Mediterranean. 4. The unusual length of the visit. Monday, April 23 the Syrian officers were still busy in Tehran after six days and showed no sign of leaving. | Iran | Islam | Syria Deploys Iranian Missiles (April 23, 2007) - Israel's military has assessed that Syria deployed an Iranian-origin cruise missile. Military sources said Syria has obtained and deployed the Iranian version of the Chinese-origin C-802 anti-ship missile. They said the missile was used successfully by Hizbullah during the war against Israel in mid-2006. "Syria has ordered scores, if not hundreds, of such missiles," a military source said. "The C-802 would keep the Israel Navy away from the Syrian coast in any future war." The C-802 employs a small turbojet engine and contains a range of 120 kilometers. The missile could be launched from aircraft, ships, submarines and land-based vehicles. | Iran | Israel | Islam | Ahmadinejad to announce new N-breakthroughs (April 17, 2007) - Iran will announce unspecified new “nuclear achievements” if the United Nations takes fresh steps against it over its disputed atomic programme, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday. “If they (the United Nations) pass another resolution against Iran, our nation will reveal new nuclear achievements,” Ahmadinejad told a rally in the central province of Fars, the official Irna news agency reported. Defying a UN demand to halt uranium enrichment, Iran said last week it was capable of industrial-scale enrichment, a process the West fears Tehran will use for bomb-making. The announcement prompted the United States to say it was likely the UN Security Council would impose further penalties against Tehran. In Iran’s first public reaction to the US warning, Ahmadinejad had earlier accused world powers of using international organisations like the UN for their own ends and said Iran would not give up its right to N-technology. | Iran | Islam | Turkish daily: Pelosi to be welcomed in Iran (April 14, 2007) - A Turkish daily said Saturday that Iran would welcome the Democratic Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi if she wanted to visit Tehran. "We are ready to meet Mrs. Pelosi," the Saturday edition of daily Radical quoted deputy head of Iran's Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Mohammad-Nabi Roudaki as saying. Radical said exchange of meetings at the parliamentary level would help the two sides arrange dialogue on current problems, lead to closer ties among people of Iran, the US and Europe and clarify Iran's peaceful nuclear program. | Iran | Islam | America | Buoyant Teheran warns of further kidnappings (April 8, 2007) - Hardliners in the Iranian regime have warned that the seizure of British naval personnel demonstrates that they can make trouble for the West whenever they want to and do so with impunity. The bullish reaction from Teheran will reinforce the fears of western diplomats and military officials that more kidnap attempts may be planned. The British handling of the crisis has been regarded with some concern in Washington, and a Pentagon defence official told The Sunday Telegraph: "The fear now is that this could be the first of many. If the Brits don't change their rules of engagement, the Iranians could take more hostages almost at will. "Iran has come out of this looking reasonable. If I were the Iranians, I would keep playing the same game. They have very successfully muddied the waters and bought themselves some more time. And in parts of the Middle East they will be seen as the good guys. They could do it time and again if they wanted to." Americans also expressed dismay that the British had suspended boarding operations in the Gulf while its tactics are reassessed. "Iran has got what it wants. They have secured free passage for smuggling weapons into Iraq without a fight," one US defence department official said. It is also clear that the Iranian government believes that the outcome has strengthened its position over such contentious issues as its nuclear programme. Hardliners within the regime have been lining up to crow about Britain's humiliation, and indicated that the operation was planned. Conservative parliamentarian Amir Hassankhani, a former member of the country's Revolutionary Guard and supporter of the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, told the country's semi-official Fars news agency: "The arrest and release of the British sailors proved that if Iran's issues and demands are overlooked at the international level, the Islamic republic can create different challenges for the other side." However, a British Government official familiar with the negotiations said that while the abductions had provided Ahmadinejad with a platform from which to humiliate the West, such behaviour would have undermined Iran's ambitions for its nuclear programme. Countries which might otherwise have supported Iran would now be questioning whether a regime that took hostages could be trusted with sensitive nuclear technology. "Ahmadinejad may have got some short-term PR bounce out of this, but the more cerebral members of the regime may be quite alarmed that they have squandered their perceived right to be treated as a country that should be trusted with a nuclear enrichment programme," he said. "In the long term, they may have lost out." | Iran | Islam | EU/UN / 4th Kingdom | Iran, Syria Prepare For War In Mid-2007 (April 6, 2007) - Israel's intelligence community has assessed that Iran and Syria were preparing for war in mid-2007. Officials said the war was expected to be sparked by a U.S. strike on Iran's nuclear weapons facilities. At that point, they said, Iran, Syria and Hizbullah would also attack Israel with a range of missiles and rockets. "Nobody wants to initiate the war, but everybody is ready to join," an official said. On Sunday, Israeli military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin said Israel could be attacked in the summer of 2007 along the northern front. Yadlin said Israel was monitoring military preparations in Lebanon and Syria, which included the deployment of short- and medium-range missiles and rockets. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Russia Seeks Closer Ties With Iran, Not `Gas OPEC' (Update1) (April 6, 2007) - Russia, the world's biggest energy supplier, will seek closer ties with gas-producing nations at an industry meeting next week in Qatar, Energy Minister Viktor Khristenko said. Russia, however, won't sign an accord creating a pricing cartel or "gas OPEC,'' Khristenko told reporters today in Moscow. "To sign something, it has to be prepared first.'' Energy ministers from Russia, Iran and Qatar, holders of the world's biggest gas reserves, will meet April 9 with envoys from gas-producing nations under the umbrella of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum. Russia expects the group to evolve into a place where producers can share technology, investment and data, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in an April 4 interview. "Russia has been in a fortunate position, benefiting from high oil prices supported by an oil cartel while not being a member,'' said Kim Iskyan, co-head of research at UralSib Financial Corp. in Moscow. "It risks demonization if it joins a gas exporters group where it couldn't be neutral during a conflict between producers and consumers.'' Iran has been seeking to turn the forum into a cartel that would control more than 70 percent of the world's gas reserves. A cartel isn't possible until more gas is liquefied and shipped by tanker than is shipped through pipelines, Khristenko said today. President Vladimir Putin fanned concerns among energy- consuming nations when he said in February that Iran's proposal to unite gas producers in a group similar to the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries was "an interesting idea.'' The European Union, which gets a quarter of its gas from Russia, has criticized closer cooperation among producers of the fuel. "Russia hasn't had and will never have a goal of joining an organization that is against someone,'' Khristenko said. Consuming countries "demonize'' exporter nations "to draw attention away from internal problems,'' he said. "It's a traditional political tactic.'' | Iran | Gog/Magog | Kabbalist Elder: Israel on Brink of War (April 6, 2007) - A highly-regarded kabbalist elder from Bnei Barak has issued a warning that the next war in Israel is on the way. Rabbi Eliyahu Leon Levi, who frequents the Western Wall every Saturday night to recite Psalms and teach Torah, told his students that there is an "evil decree" of war looming on the horizon. According to the Rabbi, Syria is liable to join Lebanon in firing missiles at the Jewish State in the pending war. The missiles will have a much greater range and carry much larger warheads than the katyusha rockets fired against Israel this past summer in the Second Lebanon War which claimed some 156 lives, he noted. "It's not going to be 'katyushas shmatyushas' this time which have only tens of kilograms of explosives. The enemy will launch, G-d forbid, rockets carrying 500 and 600 kilograms of explosives," Rabbi Levi told his students. On several occasions, Rabbi Levi first alerted Israeli military authorities of security threats and movements of massive amounts of enemy weapons, that were subsequently verified by IDF intelligence. The kabbalist Rabbi said just before the Passover holiday that he does not want to cause panic, but suggested that the Israeli public stock up on two weeks of water, food supplies, candles and matches in case the delivery of basic commodities is disrupted. Rabbi Levi said that though Israel "may, G-d forbid, pay a heavy price initially, the Jewish People would muster strength to crush their enemies leading to a great sanctification of G-d's name through ultimate victory." more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Destruction of Damascus | Official: Discussions on Iran's nuclear program resume after sailor standoff resolved (April 4, 2007) - Discussions about Iran's nuclear program are back on. A European Union official says talks between Iran's top negotiator and the E-U's foreign policy chief resumed hours after Iran's president announced the release of a British navy crew. The official says the two discussed both the seized crew and the possibilities of progress on the nuclear issue. Just before the British crew members were seized last month, the Security Council toughened sanctions against Iran over its defiance of U-N calls to stop enriching uranium. Uranium can be used to make nuclear weapons as well as generate energy. Tehran insists the program is for peaceful purposes. E-U foreign policy chief Javier Solana (hah-vee-EHR' soh-LAHN'-ah) is negotiating on behalf of the permanent U-N Security Council members. | Iran | EU/UN | 4th Kingdom | Solana | 1st Seal | Gold: Western Inaction Pushing Saudi Arabia to Hamas, Hizbullah (April 4, 2007) - For Saudi Arabia, the Israeli–Palestinian conflict is not the main issue; it is rather Iran—and the West’s inaction vis-a-vis the Iranian threat. So writes former Israeli Ambassador to the UN, Dore Gold, in a brief for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs’ Institute for Contemporary Affairs. “What is shaping Saudi Arabia’s new diplomatic activism,” Gold explains, “is the rapidly expanding Iranian threat and the weakness of the Western response.” Gold feels that though expectations were raised that “the Riyadh Arab summit might provide a mechanism for restarting the Arab–Israeli peace process,” it got off to a “bad start when Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal warned Israel that its rejection of the [Saudi complete-withdrawal] plan would leave its fate in the hands of the ‘lords of war.’ Rather than obtaining some flexibility, Israel was handed an ultimatum.” Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah was to have had a mid-April gala dinner with US President George W. Bush at the White House later this month, but abruptly canceled it. This was a clear signal, Gold writes, that the time was far from ripe for a Saudi–Israeli rapprochement under an American umbrella. Why were the hopes of both the US and Olmert government diplomats dashed? Gold quotes the Washington Post that “Riyadh had decided for now to seek common ground with Iran, Hamas, and Hizbullah.” Why? Because the West has responded weakly to the growing Iranian threat. Gold concurs with other experts in positing that Saudi Arabia feels threatened by Shiite-controlled Iran. Haifa University’s Middle Eastern affairs expert Dr. David Bukai said at last month’s Jerusalem Conference, “The main dispute in the Middle East is between the Shiites (10% of the world’s Moslems) and the Sunnis and the so-called moderate nations. The Shiites are more threatening to Saudi Arabia than to Israel.” Iran is committed to “a second Iranian revolution,” Gold writes, referring to a “revival of Iranian efforts to export revolutionary Shiism, wherever possible. In some Sunni-dominated countries, like Sudan and Syria, the Iranians hope to convert Sunnis to Shiism. In the [Persian] Gulf, there are already substantial Shiite populations. more... | Iran | Islam | EU/UN | 4th Kingdom | America | Why Does Tehran Free the Britons But Refuse to Signal the Release of the Three Israeli Servicemen? (April 4, 2007) - The 15 British sailors and marines were seized by a Revolutionary Guards task force Friday, March 23, in northern Gulf waters that have been disputed between Iraq and Iran. Their families saw them alive and well in one Iranian television broadcast after another. In contrast, all three Israeli soldiers were abducted in cross-border raids - Gideon Shalit by a Hamas-led band which crossed from Gaza in June 2006, and Udi Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, kidnapped in Israel by the Hizballah the following the month. None of the three have been seen or heard of since. No international visitors are allowed, no letters or any other access to their hidden places of imprisonment. But the British and Israeli cases do have a common factor: Iran, which captured and freed the British sailors and marines, also has the authority to weigh in for the Israeli captives’ release with its Lebanese proxy and the Hamas-led group of Popular Resistance Committees and al Qaeda Falastin in Gaza. It is in Iran’s power to end the long agony of uncertainty suffered by their families. But Tehran refuses to give the signal. Iran’s leaders appreciate that Israel’s military strength is at least three times that of the British army, air force and navy. The trouble is they do not respect Israel’s prime minister Ehud Olmert. They believe the Lebanon War fiasco has deprived him of international leverage for generating the political and military pressure to force Tehran’s hand. Tony Blair’s campaign to free the sailors was backed by American military might. His declaration Tuesday, April 3, that the next 48 hours would be critical in solving the crisis, was received in Tehran as an ultimatum, after which UK-US military action would be on the cards. Iran’s leaders decided to take no chances. In the nick of time, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was ordered by his more pragmatic superior, the Supreme Ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to announce the captives would be freed “as a gift to the British people.” In contrast, Olmert vowed at the outset of the Lebanon War in July 2006 that Israel would fight on until the two kidnapped soldiers were recovered. His failure to meet this goal - and the war’s other objectives - has irreparably damaged his credibility in the Arab and Muslim world. This showed up clearly in their derisive response to the prime minister’s Eve of Passover call Sunday, April 1, for a peace conference attended by Arab rulers and himself. The prime minister’s office in Jerusalem had no comeback to this response. This inertia is part of a broader malaise: the Olmert government has refrained from action to stem the massive rearmament of Hizballah in Lebanon since the war and the war build-up of the Palestinian Hamas and Jihad Islami in the Gaza Strip since Israel’s pull-back in 2005. It does not seem to occur to Ehud Olmert and his ministers that every ton of war materiel reaching these groups adds to their strength and their determination not to let their Israeli hostages go. Noam Shalit, father of one of the kidnapped soldiers, remarked at one of the many popular demonstrations of support he attended: “I would like to say to the prime minister: This is not a property deal.” more... | Iran | Israel | Islam | 'Iran, Syria prepping for U.S. summer war' (April 1, 2007) - Iran, Syria and the Lebanese Hezbollah militia are preparing for a U.S.-led war this summer, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. "Their preparation is defensive ahead of war. ... They fear a war initiated by the Americans because they understand that there might be an attack against Iran over the summer, but not by Israel," IDF Military Intelligence chief Amos Yadlin told the Knesset today. Yadlin said Iran and Syria believe a war this summer will be initiated by the U.S. and that Israel will be involved. He said Israel has been monitoring Iranian fortification of Tehran's military positions; Syrian military movements and indications of war preparation with the help of Iran; and the large-scale smuggling of Iranian-supplied weapons to Hezbollah. Yadlin noted the war preparations are defensive. He said Israel doesn't expect Iran or Syria to start a confrontation. "What we are seeing is their preparation for the possibility of war in the summer. My assessment is that they are defensive preparations for war," Yadlin told the Knesset. The military intelligence chief, though, said he feared hostilities could break out even without a U.S.-led strike because of "the involvement of many players." WND previously reported Brigadier General Yossi Baidatz, head of the IDF's intelligence research division, said the Syrian army has been placed on high alert for attacks. He said Syrian President Bashar Assad ordered increased production of long-range missiles and instructed the Syrian military to position anti-tank missiles closer to the Syrian border with Israel. Security officials told WND there have been indications Syria is seeking to launch a provocation. Assad has made multiple statements to his state-run media he is preparing his army for war. Also the officials say state-run Syrian media have been broadcasting regular warlike messages unseen since the 1973 Yom Kippur War, in which Syria and Egypt launched invasions from the Golan and the Sinai desert. "The tone [in Syria] is one of preparing the public for a war," said a senior security official. He said any Syrian provocation would likely be coordinated with Iran. Tehran and Damascus, which both support Hezbollah, have signed several military pacts. Also, according to Israeli intelligence officials, Iran and Syria have been smuggling mass quantities of weaponry to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The officials say Hezbollah has regained most of its strength since the militia's war last summer with the Jewish state and that the rate of weapons smuggling has nearly doubled the past few weeks. "The Iranian weapons are coming in so furiously, there are even indications Syria is worried about Israeli deterrent action against Hezbollah," a security official said. WND reported earlier this month Iran has been working with Palestinian groups in Gaza to help improve the range of Palestinian rockets, smuggle in mass quantities of weapons, construct underground bunkers and build guerrilla-like armies. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam |
Iranian President Lauds Suicide Bombers As Invincible (April 1, 2007) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad praised his country's ability to recruit "hundreds of suicide bombers a day," saying "suicide is an invincible weapon." Ahmadinejad made the comments during a visit to a site south Iran used to prepare suicide bombers during the Iraq-Iran war, Iranian state television reported. He praised Hizbullah fighters for their suicidal spirit during last summer's confrontation with Israel. Iran recruited thousands of suicide bombers, many of whom were children, and sent them to the frontline to face Saddam Hussein's army. "Suicide bombers in this land showed us the way, and they enlighten our future," he said. The Iranian president said the will to commit suicide was "one of the best ways of life." | Iran | Islam | U.S. Navy Launches Show Of Force Off Coast Of Iran (March 27, 2007) - The U.S. Navy on Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by a pair of aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran. The maneuvers bring together two strike groups of U.S. warships and more than 100 U.S. warplanes to conduct simulated air warfare in the crowded Gulf shipping lanes. The U.S. exercises come just four days after Iran's capture of 15 British sailors and marines who Iran said had strayed into Iranian waters near the Gulf. Britain and the U.S. Navy have insisted the British sailors were operating in Iraqi waters. U.S. Navy Cmdr. Kevin Aandahl said the U.S. maneuvers were not organized in response to the capture of the British sailors — nor were they meant to threaten the Islamic Republic, whose navy operates in the same waters. He declined to specify when the Navy planned the exercises. Aandahl said the U.S. warships would stay out of Iranian territorial waters, which extend 12 miles off the Iranian coast. A French naval strike group, led by the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, was operating simultaneously just outside the Gulf. But the French ships were supporting the NATO forces in Afghanistan and not taking part in the U.S. maneuvers, officials said. Overall, the exercises involve more than 10,000 U.S. personnel on warships and aircraft making simulated attacks on enemy shipping with aircraft and ships, hunting enemy submarines and finding mines. "What it should be seen as by Iran or anyone else is that it's for regional stability and security," Aandahl said. "These ships are just another demonstration of that. If there's a destabilizing effect, it's Iran's behavior." | Iran | America | Russian intelligence sees U.S. military buildup on Iran border (March 27, 2007) - Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran's borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday. "The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran," the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched. He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran "that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost." He also said the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, said last week that the Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran's military infrastructure in the near future. A new U.S. carrier battle group has been dispatched to the Gulf. The USS John C. Stennis, with a crew of 3,200 and around 80 fixed-wing aircraft, including F/A-18 Hornet and Superhornet fighter-bombers, eight support ships and four nuclear submarines are heading for the Gulf, where a similar group led by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has been deployed since December 2006. The U.S. is also sending Patriot anti-missile systems to the region. | Iran | America |
China Shifts to Euros for Iran Oil (March 27, 2007) - China's state-run Zhuhai Zhenrong Corp, the biggest buyer of Iranian crude worldwide, began paying for its oil in euros late last year as Tehran moves to diversify its foreign reserves away from U.S. dollars. The Chinese firm, which buys more than a tenth of exports from the world's fourth-largest crude producer, has changed the payment currency for the bulk of its roughly 240,000 barrels per day (bpd) contract, Beijing-based sources said. Japanese refiners who buy about 500,000 bpd of Iranian crude, nearly a quarter of Iran's 2.2 million-bpd shipments, continue to pay in dollars but are willing to shift to yen if asked, industry sources and officials said separately. Iranian officials have said for months that more than half the OPEC member's customers switched their payment currency away from the dollar as Tehran seeks to diversify its reserves, but news of the Zhenrong change is the first outside confirmation. The price of the oil is still based on dollar quotes. The shift, being watched closely by foreign exchange traders, comes amid an extended row between Tehran and Washington over Iran's nuclear programme. China, which depends on Iran for about 12 percent of its imported crude oil, has at times used the threat of its United Nations veto to blunt Western measures. more... | Iran | EU/UN | 4th Kingdom |
Iran raises the hostage stakes (March 25, 2007) - THE 15 British sailors and Royal Marines captured by Iranian Revolutionary Guards in a waterway separating Iran and Iraq were yesterday trapped in an outbreak of aggressive political brinkmanship that may mark a bleak turning point in the West’s relations with Tehran. Officials in London and Washington remained publicly optimistic that Iran would respond to international pressure and free them within days, despite claims by a senior military official in Tehran that the captives had “confessed” to illegally entering Iranian territorial waters on Friday in a pair of rigid inflatable boats known as RIBs. Yet there were ominous signs from Tehran that hardline religious elements were seeking to turn the incident into a major confrontation with the West. Several conservative student groups called on the Iranian government not to release the service personnel until five Iranians detained by US forces in Iraq earlier this year were released. The groups also called for the cancellation of United Nations sanctions imposed on Iran after a unanimous security council vote in New York last night. The new sanctions were in response to Tehran’s refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment programme, which may be used to build nuclear weapons. Iran shrugged off the vote and vowed to pursue its nuclear goals. “Suspension is neither an option nor a solution,” said Manouchehr Mottaki, the foreign minister. “I can assure you that pressure and intimidation will not change Iranian policy.” There was also a demonstration by 500 student radicals gathered on the Iranian shore of the Shatt al-Arab waterway, where the Britons were seized shortly after they had completed a routine antismuggling inspection of a dhow laden with vehicles. In a sinister echo of the US embassy hostage crisis in Tehran in 1979, the students chanted “Death to Britain” and “Death to America”. The British captives were said by one Iranian source to have been moved yesterday into the notorious dungeons of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) at the Ghasre Firouzeh military complex in Tehran. more... | Iran | EU/UN | 4th Kingdom | Iran nabs British sailors in Iraq waters (March 23, 2007) - Iranian naval vessels seized 15 British sailors in Iraqi waters on Friday, the Ministry of Defense said. The British Navy personnel were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," and had completed their inspection of a merchant ship when they were accosted by Iranian vessels, the ministry said. "We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and ... the Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office," the ministry said. A Pentagon official said the Britons were in two inflatable boats from the frigate H.M.S. Cornwall during a routine smuggling investigation, said the official, who spoke on condition on anonymity because he was not authorized to speak about the incident. He said the confrontation happened as the British contingent was traveling along the boundary of territorial waters between Iran and Iraq. They were detained by the Revolutionary Guard's navy, he said. A fisherman who said he was with a group of Iraqis from the southern city of Basra fishing in Iraqi waters in the northern area of the Gulf said he saw the Iranian seizure. The fisherman declined to be identified because of security concerns. "Two boats, each with a crew of six to eight multinational forces, were searching Iraqi and Iranian boats Friday morning in Ras al-Beesha area in the northern entrance of the Arab Gulf, but big Iranian boats came and took the two boats with their crews to the Iranian waters." The Britain government said it had demanded "the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment." | Iran | EU/UN | 4th Kingdom | Leader says Iran will retaliate if attacked (March 21, 2007) - Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Wednesday Iran would hit back with everything it has if attacked over its nuclear program, which the United States believes is aimed at making atom bombs. Khamenei, who has previously threatened U.S. regional interests if attacked, was speaking in the northeastern city of Mashhad to mark the Iranian new year, which falls on March 21. "If they want to threaten us and use force and violence against us, they should not doubt that Iranian officials will use all they have in their power to deal a blow to those who assault them," he said in an address carried by Iranian television news. The United Nations Security Council is considering new sanctions against Iran over its refusal to suspend its uranium enrichment program, whose product can be used to make fuel for power generation or, when more highly enriched, nuclear weapons. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, insists the program is peaceful and aimed solely at generating electricity. Khamenei said Iran's nuclear work followed international rules, but if major powers via the Security Council took "illegal actions" and ignored Iran's rights, "we can also carry out illegal actions and we will do that." Washington has said it would prefer a diplomatic solution to the standoff, but has not ruled out military options. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Iran stops inspectors visiting nuclear site: diplomats (March 19, 2007) - Iran stopped UN inspectors from visiting an underground bunker where it is building an industrial-scale plant to make enriched uranium but the inspectors will try again, diplomats told AFP Monday. Iran had however promised "frequent inspector access" to the site in Natanz, the UN watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported in February. The highly sensitive inspections, and talks over how they are to take place, came as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was expected to plead Iran's case this week before the UN Security Council, which is considering tightening sanctions on the Islamic republic over fears that it seeks nuclear weapons. A centre of concern is the uranium enrichment facility at Natanz, in central Iran, where the Iranians are already operating above-ground a pilot plant carrying out research levels of enrichment, the process which makes what can be fuel for civilian nuclear reactors but also the explosive core of atom bombs. A diplomat said Iran had last Saturday refused to let IAEA inspectors into the underground hall at Natanz where the Iranians have set up hundreds of centrifuges in what is to be a 3,000-centrifuge facility for enriching uranium. Centrifuges are the machines used to refine uranium for the U-235 isotope that is valuable for fuel or weapons. Such a facility could make enough highly enriched uranium for an atom bomb in about 10 months, according to the IISS think-tank in London. Other diplomats, all requesting anonymity due to the extreme delicacy of the issue, said IAEA inspectors are set to return this week, possibly Tuesday, to the plant and that delays in inspections were normal and could just be a matter of schedule changes or working out legal issues. Iran's blocking access definitively to Natanz would be a violation of its obligations under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). more... | Iran | EU/UN | 4th Kingdom | Nothing to see here, move along... Iranian Defense Minister in Syria (March 17, 2007) - Iran's Defense Minister, Brigadier-General Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, is in Syria on an official visit, and is scheduled to attend talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. "Expansion of defense and military cooperation between Iran and Syria" was the focus of the first round of talks by the two countries' defense ministers in Damascus on Saturday, according to Iranian news agency Fars. The two ministers also "explored... ways of accelerating implementation of the two countries' agreements." General Najjar arrived in Damascus Friday night on a three-day visit, and was given an official welcome by his Syrian counterpart Lieutenant General Hassan Ali Turkman. The visit follows Turkmani's trip to Tehran last June. Report: Syria stations missiles along Israeli border Syria has stationed thousands of missiles along the Israeli border, Agence France-Presse reported, relying on unnamed military sources who said the rockets are camouflaged or hidden underground and can strike at targets from the Kinneret (Sea of Galilee) to Haifa. IDF officials responded that they have not noted any unusual activity and that Syria is not preparing to attack Israel. They said, however, that increased arms sales from Russia to Syria have brought back bitter memories of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. Then, top military and intelligence advisors convinced Golda Meir, who was Prime Minister, that her fears of war were exaggerated. The day before the Yom Kippur War broke out on the Egyptian and Syrian fronts, "we received a report that worried me," the former Prime Minister wrote in her book 'My Life'. She gathered top officials in her office hours before the beginning of Yom Kippur and told them, "I have a terrible feeling that this has all happened before" - referring to the days before the Six Day War in 1967. At the end of the meeting, the head of intelligence told her aide, "Don't worry. There won't be a war." Several hours later, Syria and Egypt staged a two-pronged attack that caught the country unaware and with its back to the wall. All sources now agree that Syria is arming, but do not agree on why. Russia has proposed a $1 billion sale of advanced anti-tank rockets to Syria, similar to the weapons that Hizbullah has successfully used against the IDF in last summer's war. The weapons have a range of six kilometers (almost four miles), and some of the rockets probably would go to Hizbullah, which Israeli officials have repeatedly insisted is smuggling weapons into Lebanon from Syria. One scenario that discounts war is that Syria simply is preparing its defense against an Israeli attack. Former military intelligence chief Gen. Aharon Ze'evi-Farkash recently said, "In Syria's estimation it is preparing for a war this [coming] summer initiated by Israel, not Syria, and so it is focusing on reinforcing its arsenal." more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | U.N. resolution "torn paper": Ahmadinejad (March 15, 2007) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday dismissed any new U.N sanctions resolution as "a torn piece of paper" that would not stop Tehran's nuclear work, a local news agency reported. "Issuing such torn pieces of paper ... will not have an impact on Iranian nation's will (to obtain nuclear technology)," the semi-official Mehr news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as telling a rally in central Iran. U.S., British, French, German, Russian and Chinese diplomats at the United Nations have reached a tentative deal on imposing fresh sanctions on Iran and hope to introduce the measure at the Security Council on Thursday, providing their governments agree. An earlier sanctions resolution passed by the Security Council in December was derided by Ahmadinejad in similar terms. The new measure, which may be adopted next week, would impose extra penalties on Tehran for refusing to suspend uranium enrichment, which can produce fuel for use either in nuclear bombs or civilian power stations. "What is the aim of issuing such resolutions? Today we are mastering the nuclear fuel cycle completely," Ahmadinejad said. "If all of you (Westerners) get together and call your ancestors from hell as well, you will not be able to stop the Iranian nation." Western nations suspect Iran's nuclear program is a cover for efforts to make atomic weapons. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, denies that and says it wants only to supply nuclear power plants. more... | Iran | EU/UN | 4th Kingdom | Iran's defense minister holds talks with Syrian officials in Damascus (March 10, 2007) - Defense ministers from Iran and Syria on Saturday discussed strengthening cooperation between the two Middle East allies and their armies, Syria's official news agency, SANA, reported. SANA said Iran's Minister of Defense Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, who arrived in Damascus late Friday, also discussed with Gen. Hassan Turkmany the latest developments in the Middle East. The agency did not provide more details. | Iran | Islam |
Syria ready with bio-terror if U.S. hits Iran (March 5, 2007) - An American biodefense analyst living in Europe says if the U.S. invades Iran to halt its nuclear ambitions, Syria is ready to respond with weapons of mass destruction – specifically biological weapons. "Syria is positioned to launch a biological attack on Israel or Europe should the U.S. attack Iran," Jill Bellamy-Dekker told WND. "The Syrians are embedding their biological weapons program into their commercial pharmaceuticals business and their veterinary vaccine-research facilities. The intelligence service oversees Syria's 'bio-farm' program and the Ministry of Defense is well interfaced into the effort." Bellamy-Decker currently directs the Public Health Preparedness program for the European Homeland Security Association under the French High Committee for Civil Defense. She anticipates a variation of smallpox is the biological agent Syria would utilize. "The Syrians are also working on orthopox viruses that are related to smallpox," Bellamy-Decker said, "and it's a good way to get around international treaties against offensive biological weapons development. They work on camelpox as a cover for smallpox." According to the Center for Infectious Disease Research & Policy (CIDRAP) at the University of Minnesota, camelpox is a virus closely related to smallpox, that causes a "severe and economically important disease in camels," but rarely, if ever, causes the disease in humans. WND asked Bellamy-Decker if the Syrians have any history of having used biological weapons. "I believe they are testing biological weapons right now, in Sudan, in the conflict in Darfur," she answered. "There is credible information about flyover activity in Darfur, where little parachutes have been dropped down on the population. This is consistent with dispersal methods in bioweapons attacks. I've also seen evidence of bodies that have been recovered from Darfur that look as if they had been exposed to biological weapons." President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran met with Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in Khartoum Feb. 28 to exchange expressions of support and solidarity. "The Syrians now consider biological weapons as part of their arsenal," Bellamy-Decker said. "The Syrian military is also beginning to plan the eventual integration of biological weapons in its tactical and strategic arsenals." She referenced an April 2000 article published by Syrian defense minister General Mustafa Talas, titled "Biological (Germ) Warfare: A New and Effective Method in Modern Warfare." The article was republished in a Farsi translation in Tehran. more... | Iran | Israel | Islam | New York: Targeted By Tehran? Newsweek (March 5, 2007 edition) - Increasing tensions between Washington and Tehran have revived New York Police Department concerns that Iranian agents may already have targeted the city for terror attacks. Such attacks could be aimed at bridges and tunnels, Jewish organizations and Wall Street, NYPD briefers told security execs last fall, according to a person with access to the briefing materials who asked for anonymity because of the sensitive subject matter. NYPD officials have worried about possible Iranian-sponsored attacks since a series of incidents involving officials of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations. In November 2003, Ahmad Safari and Alireaza Safi, described as Iranian Mission "security" personnel, were detained by transit cops when they were seen videotaping subway tracks from Queens to Manhattan at 1:10 in the morning. The men later left New York. "We're concerned that Iranian agents were engaged in reconnaissance that might be used in an attack against New York City at some future date," Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told NEWSWEEK. A spokesman for the Iranian Mission in New York said he was aware of the allegations but had no immediate comment. | Iran | America |
Russia Moves in Support of Syria, Iran, Hamas-led PA
(February
27, 2007) - Russia’s announcement Tuesday [February 27]
that it would work to promote international support for the
Hamas-led Palestinian Authority [PA], its intention to supply
missiles to Syria, and its opposition to sanctions against Iran
present a worrying trend for Israel. Russian officials said that
the agreement reached between the leaders of Hamas and PA
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen] to incorporate the latter’s
Fatah terrorist organization in the PA governing coalition is
sufficient cause to end the international boycott of the PA. The
Western nations imposed the financial boycott of the PA in
January of last year, when the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas
organization swept the majority of the seats in the PA
parliament in a landslide election victory. 'Devastating response' if Iran nukes attacked (February 26, 2007) - Iran is anticipating a U.S. or Israeli military strike on its nuclear facilities and has been providing Palestinian terrorists and other regional allies with contingency plans for attacks against the Jewish state and American regional interests in the event of war, according to Palestinian terrorist leaders. A senior leader of the Islamic Jihad terror group, which Israel says is backed by Iran, told WND Tehran is expecting to be attacked, but he didn't provide a time frame in which Iran anticipates a strike. He claimed during any attack his organization has been directed by Iran to "wreak havoc" on Israel with suicide bombings, rocket attacks and "special surprises." He said rocket attacks would be launched from both the Gaza Strip and from the West Bank, which borders Jerusalem. He threatened his terror group will target American interests in the Middle East whether any purported strike against Tehran is carried out by Israel or the U.S. "The Zionists and the Americans are coordinated 100 percent. It doesn't matter who attacks Iran, we are planning to hit them both," said the Islamic Jihad leader, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he said the topic was "very sensitive." He said overall Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah has been coordinating war plans with Iran, Syria and the Iranian-backed Hezbollah Lebanese militia. Shallah resides in Damascus and travels frequently to Tehran. Abu Ahmed, the northern West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades terror organization, told WND all major Palestinian militant organizations are preparing to work together in the event Iran is attacked. "Our strategy is not to leave the Islamic alliance (Iran) alone against the enemy. All Palestinian organizations will work together in shooting rockets, suicide bomb attacks and other steps and actions decided closely." The Brigades is the declared military wing of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Party. Together with Islamic Jihad, the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has taken responsibility for every suicide bombing in Israel the last two years, including a bombing last month in Eilat and an attack in Tel Aviv last April that killed eight Israelis and American teenager Daniel Wultz. Israel says major Brigades cells in the Gaza Strip and West Bank receive Iranian funding through contacts with Hezbollah. Abu Ahmed said in his terror group's estimation Iran will indeed be attacked. "It's not a question of if, but when. The campaign now in the American media is just like the campaign before the invasion of Iraq," he charged. A senior leader of the Popular Resistance Committees terror group, speaking on condition of anonymity, told WND his group has also been preparing for what he called "the upcoming war." The Committees is a coalition of terror organizations operating in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank responsible for hundreds of anti-Israel rocket and shooting attacks. It is accused of bombing a U.S. convoy in Gaza in 2003 in which three American government contractors were killed. "We are preparing the tomb that Allah is digging for the Zionists and Americans," said the Committees leader. He claimed during any U.S. or Israeli military strike against Tehran, a response will be directed against Israel and American interests by Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists. "The war will be a war on more than one front. It will be everybody against everybody. Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and the Palestinian organizations will work together. War with Iran is coming and it means the Middle East will not remain the same after it," the Committees leader said. Syria and Iran signed a military agreement in which either will respond if the other is attacked. Israeli security officials told WND Israel is not currently planning to strike Iran. Speaking theoretically, they said if any war breaks out involving Iran, they expect Syria, Hezbollah and Palestinian terrorists to join the fray and attack Israel. The security officials said the greatest threat Syria poses to the Jewish state are the country's missiles. They noted Syria recently test-fired two Scud-D surface-to-surface missiles, which have a range of about 250 miles, covering most Israeli territory. The officials said the Syrian missile test was coordinated with Iran and is believed to have been successful. It is not known what type of warhead the missiles were armed with. In addition to longer range Scuds, Syria is in possession of shorter range missiles such as 220mm and 305mm rockets, some of which have been passed on to Hezbollah. According to information received by Israel, Russia is set to conclude a deal worth several hundred million dollars transferring thousands of advanced antitank missiles to Syria. Antitank missiles used by Hezbollah during Israel's war in Lebanon this past summer devastated Israeli tanks and caused the highest number of Israeli troop casualties during the 34 days of military confrontations. Last week, a senior officer from the intelligence unit of the Israeli Defense Forces announced Hezbollah is stronger today than before the 2006 Lebanon war. "Hezbollah has reinforced and it is stronger today than it was before the war in Lebanon," General Yossi Beidatz, head of the IDF's intelligence research department, told the Knesset. During the war in Lebanon, Hezbollah fired more than 3,000 rockets into northern Israel, killing 39 civilians and devastating many northern towns. Beidatz also said Syria is reinforcing its military to prepare for the possibility of a new armed conflict in the region. According to reports in the Israeli media, Syria, aided by Iranian officers, has been boosting its army and navy. The reports, denied by Damascus, claimed Syria last week was moving troops closer to the border with Israel. The claim by Palestinian terrorists Iran is preparing for war come as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday his country's nuclear program cannot stop while a deputy foreign minister vowed Tehran was prepared for any eventuality, "even for war." "Iran has obtained the technology to produce nuclear fuel and Iran's move is like a train ... which has no brake and no reverse gear," Ahmadinejad said, according to Iranian state media. Manouchehr Mohammadi, a deputy at Iran's foreign ministry commented, "We have prepared ourselves for any situation, even for war." Iranian military commanders have said recent war games, the latest of which involved testing several missiles this month, show Iran's readiness to counter any attack. Meanwhile U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney said over the weekend Iran's atomic ambitions must be curbed. He told reporters "all options" were on the table. During a visit to Australia, Cheney said it would be a "serious mistake" to allow Iran to become a nuclear power. An Australian newspaper quoted Cheney endorsing comments by U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., that the only thing worse than a military confrontation with Iran would be a nuclear-armed Iran. Iran ignored last week's United Nations deadline to halt uranium enrichment, a process that can be used to fuel for nuclear power plants or produce material for warheads. Tehran claims it wants to negotiate but has repeatedly ruled out suspending its atomic program. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam |
Report: Hizbullah readying for war (February 26, 2007) - The Shiite group Hizbullah is building a new line of defenses in the United Nations-controlled zone in south Lebanon in preparation for a potential conflict with Israel, the Times of London reported Monday. Hizbullah gunmen have been guarding valleys and hillsides north of the Litani River where a military build-up is taking shape, merely six months since the end of last summer's confrontation with Israel. United Nations Resolution 1701, which ended the fighting, mandated a 12,000-strong international peacekeeping force to deploy south of the Litani River and stipulated that the Shiite group should have no visible presence there. The Times reported that Christian and Druze-owned land is being purchased by a Shia businessman, a move Hizbullah's opponents believe is aimed at creating a Shia-populated belt south of the Litani where the group can operate safely. “The state of Hizbullah is already in existence in south Lebanon,” the Druze leader and arch Hizbullah critic Walid Jumblatt told The Times. “There have been no instances of attempts to smuggle weapons into the area,” said Milos Strugar, a senior adviser for the UN force in Lebanon, adding that no armed fighters had been seen since September, the Times said. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam |
Israel seeks all clear for Iran air strike (February 25, 2007) - Israel is negotiating with the United States for permission to fly over Iraq as part of a plan to attack Iran's nuclear facilities, The Daily Telegraph can reveal. To conduct surgical air strikes against Iran's nuclear programme, Israeli war planes would need to fly across Iraq. But to do so the Israeli military authorities in Tel Aviv need permission from the Pentagon. A senior Israeli defence official said negotiations were now underway between the two countries for the US-led coalition in Iraq to provide an "air corridor" in the event of the Israeli government deciding on unilateral military action to prevent Teheran developing nuclear weapons. "We are planning for every eventuality, and sorting out issues such as these are crucially important," said the official, who asked not to be named. "The only way to do this is to fly through US-controlled air space. If we don't sort these issues out now we could have a situation where American and Israeli war planes start shooting at each other." As Iran continues to defy UN demands to stop producing material which could be used to build a nuclear bomb, Israel's military establishment is moving on to a war footing, with preparations now well under way for the Jewish state to launch air strikes against Teheran if diplomatic efforts fail to resolve the crisis. The pace of military planning in Israel has accelerated markedly since the start of this year after Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service, provided a stark intelligence assessment that Iran, given the current rate of progress being made on its uranium enrichment programme, could have enough fissile material for a nuclear warhead by 2009. more... | Iran | Israel | Peretz urges Israel to avoid verbal escalation with Syria (February 22, 2007) - Responding to a Haaretz report that Syria is boosting its army and moving troops closer to its border with Israel, Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Thursday that Israel should refrain from making further statements regarding Syria, and urged officials to avoid a verbal escalation of tensions. Speaking at his weekly meeting with Defense Ministry officials, Peretz said that the situation would be assessed based on concrete information, and that the army would prepare itself as necessary. Earlier Thursday, Israel Radio quoting Syrian parliament member Mohammed Habash as denying the Haaretz report. According to the radio, Habash told the Dubai-based Al Arabiya satellite channel that nothing has changed in terms of troop size along the border, but "Syria is fully prepared for any situation [that may develop]." Habash warned that should "Israel decide to do something stupid, it would pay a heavy price." Addressing the charge that Syria's military buildup is being funded by Iran, the radio quoted Habash as saying that the "cooperation between Damascus and Tehran is no secret, as both are being faced with a direct threat." The Syrian armed forces are being strengthened in an unprecedented way in recent memory with the help of generous funding from Iran and its troops appear to be moving closer to the border with Israel. The Syrians are bolstering their forces in all areas except the air force, which has been believed to be weak for some time. The main emphasis of the efforts has been missiles and long-range rockets to compensate for the weak air force. The Syrian navy, after years of neglect, is also being reinforced with an Iranian version of a Chinese anti-ship missile, similar to the one used by Hezbollah during the second Lebanon war to strike the Israeli destroyer INS Hanit. In addition to the overall strengthening of the armed forces in Syria, there has been a redeployment of forces along the front lines. It appears that the Syrians have moved forces closer to the border with Israel on the Golan Heights. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam |
Turkish PM Lauds Great Progress In Iran-Turkey Ties (February 21, 2007) - Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan remarked here Tuesday evening that Tehran-Ankara ties have witnessed great progress in recent years. During a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on the sidelines of the 19th session of the Iran-Turkey Joint Economic and Trade Commission, he said bilateral relations had never enjoyed such a boost in the past many years. Underlining the need for further expansion of trade cooperation between the two states, Mottaki said there were great potentials in both countries for advancement of ties. He stressed that the two countries have set a target of USD 10 billion in trade exchanges for the near future. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Islam | US 'Iran attack plans' revealed (February 20, 2007) - US contingency plans for air strikes on Iran extend beyond nuclear sites and include most of the country's military infrastructure, the BBC has learned. It is understood that any such attack - if ordered - would target Iranian air bases, naval bases, missile facilities and command-and-control centres. The US insists it is not planning to attack, and is trying to persuade Tehran to stop uranium enrichment. The UN has urged Iran to stop the programme or face economic sanctions. But diplomatic sources have told the BBC that as a fallback plan, senior officials at Central Command in Florida have already selected their target sets inside Iran. That list includes Iran's uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. Facilities at Isfahan, Arak and Bushehr are also on the target list, the sources say. BBC security correspondent Frank Gardner says the trigger for such an attack reportedly includes any confirmation that Iran was developing a nuclear weapon - which it denies. Alternatively, our correspondent adds, a high-casualty attack on US forces in neighbouring Iraq could also trigger a bombing campaign if it were traced directly back to Tehran. Long range B2 stealth bombers would drop so-called "bunker-busting" bombs in an effort to penetrate the Natanz site, which is buried some 25m (27 yards) underground. The BBC's Tehran correspondent Frances Harrison says the news that there are now two possible triggers for an attack is a concern to Iranians. Authorities insist there is no cause for alarm but ordinary people are now becoming a little worried, she says. more... | Iran | America | Preparing Armageddon Herb L. Peters (February 17, 2007) - John Walvoord points out that there are four blocs of nations that will converge on Israel in the final days of end-time prophecy. They are a southern alliance of nations (in relation to Israel), a northern alliance, an eastern alliance, and a western alliance (The Nations in Prophecy, page 103). What strikes me about today's news is, that's exactly what appears to be forming. Let's begin with the new military alliance being formed by a powerful king south of Israel. In our first report we read: Pakistan will play a pivotal role in a Saudi-devised strategy to build a strong Sunni block to counter the perceived growing influence in the Middle East of Shiites led by Iran, diplomatic sources in Islamabad have told Adnkronos International (AKI). The strategy includes the creation of a multinational Muslim peacekeeping force comprising troops from core Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) member states Saudi King of South. I've also been reporting how Putin's Russia has been pursuing a new, more aggressive strategy in the Middle East. In this report we read: Russia is returning to the [Middle East] region with a visage that bears hardly any resemblance to the Soviet era. Russia today is vastly leaner, more agile, resourceful and imaginative than previously. It has evidently done a lot of homework as to where things went wrong in the Soviet era. Putin's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan in the past week harnesses a one-year period of extraordinary success in Russia's Middle East policy Russian King of North. In the east we find a new alliance forming against American interests between China, India and Russia. Here we read: In the communique issued at the end of the meeting, the foreign ministers of China, Russia and India call for the democratization of international relations. They praised multi-polarization based on equality among all countries, and mutual respect of each other's sovereignty and territory integrity China and India, Kings of East. And at the same time, we find a new European leader from an alliance of nations to Israel's west calling for much the same things as the leaders in the east. The western leaders says: The nature of the problems thrown up by globalisation mean there is no alternative to multilateral co-operation. But we need new forms, which reflect the problems and power distribution of today's world rather than that of 1945. For us in the West, it also means making space at top tables. At the UN Security Council of course. But also in terms of IMF votes. And, why not, G-8 membership? EU King of West pdf As I thought about these four blocs, I realized that all four include nuclear powers. And, all four are very interested in securing for themselves the important energy supplies of the Middle East. It's really no wonder that we're seeing these alliances now forming. And preparing Armageddon. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | EU/UN | Russia straddles Sunni-Shi'ite divide (February 17, 2007) - "We see that new 'Berlin Walls' are being erected. Instead of a common space, what we see is that this 'Berlin Wall' is simply being shifted further east and that new bases are being established." These were Russian President Vladimir Putin's words in a media interview in Moscow last week. Never before had Putin come so close to acknowledging that he has heard the drumbeat of the "cold warriors" in the West. That Putin chose an Arab media outlet to make such a stark description should come as no surprise. Of all regions, it is in the Middle East that the tensions that have been accruing in Russia-US relations over recent years have begun outstripping other turfs - the Black Sea, the Caspian, the Caucasus, Central Asia. The Middle East is also a region where it is to Russia's advantage tactically to differentiate its policies from those of the West. Russia-US discord in the Middle East has picked up the thread from where the two powers left off some two decades ago. But Russia is returning to the region with a visage that bears hardly any resemblance to the Soviet era. Russia today is vastly leaner, more agile, resourceful and imaginative than previously. It has evidently done a lot of homework as to where things went wrong in the Soviet era. Putin's visit to Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Jordan in the past week harnesses a one-year period of extraordinary success in Russia's Middle East policy. It all began last March when a Hamas delegation led by Khaled Meshaal was hosted by Moscow. The event was a loud declaration that Russia was returning to big-time politics. Israel promptly protested that the Russian act was a "real knife in the back". But Moscow was undeterred. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov affirmed, "The talks in Moscow are not a one-off action." more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam |
Abbas Sends Warmest Greetings to Iran’s Ahmadinejad (February 12, 2007) - At a time when Iran is being isolated by most of the world for its nuclear program and its calls for the destruction of Israel, Palestinian Authority [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas [Abu Mazen] has sent a telegram of effusive greetings to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Iran’s national holiday. According to the PA daily Al-Hayat Al Jadida, Abbas’s greeting earlier this week also wished for "further progress and prosperity" for Iran. The following is the paper’s account of the message: “The president said in the greeting: ‘I am happy to express to your excellency and, through you, to your honorable government and to your brother people, on behalf of the Palestinian people and their leadership and on my behalf personally, the warmest, most heartfelt wishes, in a prayer to Allah, that He shall bestow on you on this holiday further progress and prosperity. We wish you and your people happy holidays.’ President Abbas expressed the greatest wishes of wealth, health, and joy to the President of Iran, and to his people and his sister country, continuous respect, glory, and well-being.” | Iran | Islam | Iran Consults With Russia On Security (February 9, 2007) - Yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin met in the Kremlin with Ali Akbar Velayati, the personal envoy of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Tehran is making a concerted effort to convince Moscow to lend its support in Iran's standoff with Washington. To show the seriousness of its intentions, Iran yesterday carried out a test of a Russian anti-aircraft Top-M1 missile system, and the country's top spiritual leader threatened to strike "at American interests around the world." Tehran is making its bid for the goodwill of the Russian president on the eve of an international security summit in Munich, at which President Putin is scheduled to give the keynote address. Yesterday in Moscow Ali Akbar Velayati, a former foreign affairs minister who is one of Iran's most experienced diplomats, met with a number of top Russian foreign policy officials, including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and National Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov, before meeting in the evening with President Vladimir Putin. And while the official line from the Russian negotiators was neutral and cautious, Mr. Velayati was effusive in his compliments: "The steps that Russia is taking have the unconditional support of Iran," declared the Iranian leader's official envoy. "Russia, as an important world power, and Iran, an important regional power, in the future will play a key role in the evolution of this sensitive region." more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Ahmadinejad warns of 'deterioration' (February 7, 2007) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Israel's excavation work at the Mugrabi gate near the Temple Mount was a "provocative action which would lead to the deterioration of hostilities in the region," the Fars news agency reported Wednesday evening. The Iranian president added that "destruction, conflict and tension constitute the nature of the Zionist regime." He also called on the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and the world Muslim states to "foil the devilish plot of the Israeli regime," and slammed the United Nations over what he described as "their silence in the face of the incident." Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Mohammad Ali Hosseini echoed Ahmadinejad's statement, claiming that "the destruction of al-Aqsa was part of a premeditated plot against Muslims." A few hours earlier, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei condemned the Jerusalem excavations and called on Islamic nations to retaliate against Israel. ''The world of Islam should show a serious reaction to the Zionist regime's insult to Al-Aqsa Mosque,'' Iranian state television quoted Khamenei as saying during a meeting with Ramadan Abdullah Shallah, leader of the Islamic Jihad organization. "Silence is not an option given these actions, the Muslim world must respond," said Khamenei. Khamenei did not say what sort of response he intended, but said Israel should be made to ''regret'' what it is doing. Khamenei also addressed the violent clashes within the Palestinian Authority: "Everyone, including the Palestinian factions and Islamic states, needs to make an effort to agree on a ceasefire soon so that the enemy's plot will fail." "Hizbullah's victory, the successes of Hamas and Iran's achievements all fulfill Allah's promises and fill the hearts of Muslims with hope and determination," said Khamenei. Meanwhile Damascus also condemned the Mugrabi works on Wednesday. A Syrian Foreign Ministry official told the state-run news agency that, "Syria strongly condemns these violations, and considers them a blatant affront to Muslim waqfs and the feelings of Muslims worldwide." Jordanian King Abdullah also had harsh words regarding the works on Tuesday: "Israeli excavation works near the al-Aqsa mosque in the holy city of Jerusalem have led to a dangerous rise in Middle East tensions and could derail revival of Arab-Israeli peace talks. "What Israel is doing in its practices and attacks against our sacred Muslim sites in Jerusalem and al-Aqsa is a blatant violation that is not acceptable under any pretext," the monarch was quoted by the state news agency Petra as saying. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Iran 'Prepared to Teach a Lesson to Possible Aggressors ... to Make Them Repent Forever' (February 6, 2007) - Iran's defense minister reportedly warned the U.S. that if it attacks, Tehran is ready to teach Americans a lesson that will make them "repent forever." Defense Minister Mostafa Mohammad-Najjar, quoted Tuesday in an interview with the Algerian News Network, charged that U.S. troop presence in the region creates "crisis" and "insecurity" in the region, and called for the removal of American presence in the region. The Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) carried the defense minister's remarks on its Web site. Iran is "fully prepared to teach a lesson to possible aggressors," Mohammad-Najjar said. Iran is ready and willing to "confront any threat" from the U.S., and its "hostile approach" toward the country's nuclear installations, he added. "By resorting to psychological war, the U.S. attempts to exert pressure on Iran. But such methods will rather increase the problems and complications facing the American forces in the region," he said. Click here to read Islamic Republic News Agency version of the story. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | America | Iran-Pakistan: Musharraf Presents Action Plan to Ahmadinejad (February 5, 2007) - President General Pervez Musharraf on Monday proposed a plan of action to bring about unity in the ranks of the global Muslim community, the Ummah, and to address decisive issues in the region particularly Palestine, Lebanon and Iraq. The President in his talks with the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad at the presidential complex in Teheran said unity among the Ummah will also help defuse confrontation between Iran and the United States. President General Pervez Musharraf is visiting Iran and Turkey to discuss with them the situation in Middle East, particulary with a view to resolve the Palestinian issue. The two leaders held formal talks which lasted about seventy five minutes. The Iranian President welcomed Musharraf's action plan and assured him of all possible assistance on the part of Iran to make it a success. Giving details about the talks Pakistan's Ambassador to Iran Shafqat Saeed said bilateral matters between Pakistan and Iran, particularly the gas pipeline project, were also discussed. The Iranian President expressed the willingness to initiate implementation of the project immediately. Since the two countries have worked out the thorny issue of a pricing mechanism Iran and Pakistan will discuss an early implementation of the pipeline project. The two leaders also discussed other regional issues including security in the Gulf and Afghanistan. After a working lunch, the Iranian President accompanied President Pervez Musharraf to meet the Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who welcomed Pakistan's efforts to strengthen unity amongst the Muslim countries. Later, the Pakistani leader, accompanied by foreign minister Khurshid Kasuri and foreign secretary Riaz Mohammad Khan, left for Turkey. Musharraf recently visited Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Syria and the UAE, as well as Malaysia and Indonesia, to try to develop a strong, united Muslim voice to address the lingering dispute of the Palestinian people. | Iran | Islam |
Iran: Giant achievements coming soon (February 4, 2007) - Ahmadinejad: On February 11, Islamic Republic's nuclear rights 'will be established' "Giant achievements" by Iran will be unveiled by its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in the coming days, the Iranian Fars news agency reported on Saturday. The Iranian news agency said an upcoming dramatic announcement on Iran's nuclear "rights" would be made on February 11. The report was accompanied by a series of announcements heralding alleged Iranian technological and medical breakthroughs, including an "AIDS cure." Ahmadinejad's "administration is going to publicize the country's remarkable progresses and achievements within the coming days," the Fars news agency said. "The Iranian president also reiterated that February 11 is the day when the Iranian nation's inalienable right to access and use nuclear technology will be established," the agency added. "The Iranian nation will celebrate stabilization and establishment of its nuclear rights during the Ten-Day Dawn, (sic)" Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying. The "ten-day dawn" in early February marks the date of the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979. "When a nation decides to stand on its own feet to climb up the peaks, God helps it and that nation will embrace victory," Ahmadinejad said. The Iranian government's boasts of "great achievements" included an announcement on Saturday that Iranian scientists have "introduced an AIDS cure". more... | Iran | Islam | Just Connecting Dots Herb L. Peters (February 2, 2007) - We all have dots. The problem is connecting them. But, it's my job to try. I don't believe the street fighting between Hamas and Fatah is independent from what happened at the Quartet meeting in Washington. I notice that the on again, off again, cease-fire is being negotiated by Fatah in Gaza and Hamas, not in Gaza, but Hamas' supreme leader in Syria. This report says: The cease-fire agreement was announced late Friday on the deadliest single day of battles between the two sides, who have been fighting for control of the Palestinian government since the Islamic militant Hamas ousted Fatah from power in last year's elections. Palestinian officials said the deal was approved by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Hamas' supreme leader, Khaled Mashaal. But the cease-fire - the second announced this week - showed no signs of taking hold Read about it here. Then at yesterday's gathering of the so-called Quartet, Russian's Sergey Lavrov surprised other members of the group with an off key solo. Lavrov insisted both Syria and Hamas had to be included in the negotiations for the creation of a Palestinian state Read about it here. The interesting thing here is, Russia has recently entered into new security arrangements with Syria. In other words, Syria has become a Russian proxy and Hamas a Syrian proxy. Now, if on the side Russia is singing trio with Syria and Hamas, what would Russia be wanting from the Quartet? Perhaps this interesting piece provides a possible answer. Quoting Lavrov: "There are alarming developments. The balance of conventional weapons in East and West has shifted considerably," he [Lavrov] said, noting most former members of the Soviet-aligned Warsaw Pact had joined NATO since the break-up of the Soviet Union. "And ultimately the military presence of the United States in Europe is becoming a strategic factor," he added. Lavrov reiterated Russian concerns about U.S. plans to site a missile defence system in Poland and the Czech Republic and noted there was little to separate this technology from systems that could be used for offensive purposes. "This is creating a completely new situation," he said. "We want to be told quite clearly why this is happening. We don't see any objective reason for this step" Read about it here. For the Israeli and the Palestinian people the sad fact is, even in the Quartet, the group of important international players that was created to bring peace to the tormented Middle East, personal interests remain the bottom line. Hamas wants to destroy Israel, Syria wants its way in Lebanon and the return of the Golan Heights, and Russia wants the growing strategic alliance between America and the EU to back away from her doorstep. That's why I suspect the fighting between Hamas and Fatah may be related to what happened at the Quartet meeting. For peace in the Middle East, a few more deals must be made. Just connecting dots. | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam |
Quartet Statement (February
2, 2007) - The Quartet Principals - Russian Foreign
Minister Sergei Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza
Rice, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, High
Representative for European Foreign and Security Policy Javier
Solana, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and
European Commissioner for External Relations Benita
Ferrero-Waldner - met today in Washington to discuss the
situation in the Middle East. The Quartet welcomed UN
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the representative of the EU
Presidency, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
Recognizing the critical need to end the Palestinian/Israeli
conflict, which would contribute to security and stability in
the region, the Quartet pledged to support efforts to
put in place a process with the goal of ending the
occupation that began in 1967 and creating an
independent, democratic and viable Palestinian state, living
side-by-side in peace and security with Israel, and reaffirmed
its commitment to a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace
based on UNSCRs 242 and 338. The Quartet expressed
the hope that the result-oriented dialogue initiated between
Israeli and Palestinian leaders will continue in the framework
of a renewed political process with the aim of launching
meaningful negotiations. The Quartet undertook to give active
follow-up to these meetings and to remain closely engaged at
this moment of increased activity and dialogue. The Quartet
reaffirmed its commitment to meet regularly at both the
principals and envoys level according to an agreed calendar,
including with the parties and other regional partners, to
monitor developments and actions taken by the parties and to
discuss the way ahead. The Quartet noted its support for
renewed dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian leaders and
welcomed the December 23 meeting between Israeli PM Olmert and
PA President Abbas, and the subsequent implementation of some
steps discussed at that meeting. The Quartet urged the parties
to implement fully steps discussed at the December 23 meeting,
to refrain from taking any measures that could predetermine
the number of issues that will be resolved in negotiations, to
meet their respective obligations under phase one of the
Roadmap and under the Agreement on Movement and Access, and to
seek to fulfill their obligations under the Sharm el-Sheikh
Understandings of 2005. more...
|
Iran |
Gog/Magog |
Israel |
Islam |
EU/UN | Solana
|
America
|
Iranian Weapons Experts Arrested in Gaza, Ceasefire in Tatters ( February 2, 2007) - Five Iranian weapons experts were caught in a raid by Fatah loyalists late Thursday night, according to PA sources. One Iranian committed suicide during the operation. An Iranian general was reportedly one of those captured in the raid at the Islamic University in Gaza City, long considered a Hamas stronghold. No names or photos of the Iranian operatives have been released. Fierce battles between Hamas and Fatah continued on Friday, and at least another seven Gaza men were reported killed. Hamas operatives first killed two Fatah intelligence officers, and shortly afterwards, a number of Force 17 men stationed in a Fatah outpost were reported seriously wounded. Hamas fired mortar shells on Fatah positions throughout Gaza early Friday afternoon. Some 25 PA residents were wounded overnight as Fatah and Hamas warred for control of the government, tearing the ceasefire to tatters. Palestinian Authority officials called for Gazan residents to donate blood to help treat the many wounded. On Thursday, the Fatah forces also stormed and took control of Hamas-controlled PA government offices as well as setting fire to a building at the university. Between six and nine Palestinian Authority residents, including terrorists, were killed, and some 1,400 guns and missiles were found in the university and confiscated. Fatah officials said Ahmad Ja’abri, a Hamas commander believed to have planned the raid in which IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit was kidnapped last June, was seriously wounded during the raid. Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said Friday morning that Iran has been “very intensely involved [in] upgrading the professional capacity of the terrorist groups” in Gaza. Meanwhile, an Israeli security source sided with the Fatah version of yesterday's clash that left six Gazan Arabs dead. The Israeli source told Arutz-7's Haggai Huberman that the Egyptian truck convoy that entered Gaza in fact contained no weapons - just as Fatah had claimed. The convoy contained logistical equipment such as tents, chemical lavatories and cars, the source said. Hamas had claimed that the convoy contained weapons destined for Fatah, and therefore mounted a large-scale attack upon the trucks and guards. Five Fatah terrorists and one child were killed, and a dozen Fatah men were kidnapped. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog | Israel | Islam | Don't mess with Israel, open letter to Iranians says (February 1, 2007) - Israeli citizens write letter reading, 'Your current leadership will be held responsible for the destruction of the Iranian nation'; initiators hoping to get 100,000 Israelis to sign letter, distribute it to Ahmadinejad's blog, Iranian Mission to the United Nations and official Iranian internet sites. "People of Iran, beware. Your leaders are taking you down a dead-end street. If they continue, it will end in a terrible blow to the Iranian people and their country and bedlam in the whole region, an open letter written by a group of Israeli citizens begins. The writers of the letter are hoping to get 100,000 Israelis to sign the letter and then plan to send it to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ran Porat, deputy editor and security affairs reporter at internet site Omedia, who came up with the idea for the letter, explains: "It is about making a statement – for the Israeli public, instilling the feeling that there is something we can do, and for international public opinion, so they realize that we, in Israel, are taking this problem seriously." In addition, he says, the letter is making a statement to the Iranian public. "We are separating the Iranian public from their leadership. We support the Iranian people in their struggle to release themselves from an oppressing regime, and we know that they are not looking for war with us," Porat says. The writers of the letter are telling the Iranian people that Ahmadinejad is "leading a monstrous and shameful attempt to vilify the memory of the six million Jews who were destroyed in the Holocaust, with a dubious academic excuse. By doing this he is viewed by the nations in a ridiculous light and he is giving Iran the image of a racist, boorish country, that propagates hatred and lacks basic humanitarian values. "Your regime is working diligently to acquire nuclear capabilities for military purposes. It would appear that they would not shy away from methods that could cause the death of thousands or even millions of you and others," reads the letter. more... | Iran | Israel | Serious Thinking About the Middle East (January 30, 2007) - Are things moving in the right direction in the Middle East? Most Americans, I think, would say no. But perhaps they should ponder a trio of interesting columns. Two weeks ago, the military historian Edward Luttwak wrote a column in the Wall Street Journal arguing that George Bush's policies have created a Middle East much more hospitable to American goals. Here is his summation: When the Bush administration came into office, only Egypt and Jordan were functioning allies of the U.S. Iran and Iraq were already declared enemies, Syria was hostile, and even its supposed friends in the Arabian peninsula were so disinclined to help that none did anything to oppose al Qaeda. Some actively helped it, while others knowingly allowed private funds to reach the terrorists whose declared aim was to kill Americans. The Iraq war has indeed brought into existence a New Middle East, in which Arab Sunnis can no longer gleefully disregard American interests because they need help against the looming threat of Shiite supremacy, while in Iraq at the core of the Arab world, the Shia are allied with the U.S. What past imperial statesmen strove to achieve with much cunning and cynicism, the Bush administration has brought about accidentally. But the result is exactly the same. The implication is that this happy state of affairs came about by accident. Last week in the Washington Post David Ignatius wrote a column based on an interview with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in which he described a "realignment" toward the United States that came about in large part because of the administration. Rice said the new approach reflects growing Arab concern about Iran's attempt to project power through its proxies: "After the war in Lebanon, the Middle East really did begin to clarify into an extremist element allied with Iran, including Syria, Hezbollah, and Hamas. On the other side were the targets of this extremism–the Lebanese, the Iraqis, the Palestinians–and those who want to resist, such as the Saudis, Egypt, and Jordan." America's recent show of force against Iran–seizing Iranian operatives in Iraq and sending additional warships to the Persian Gulf–was part of this broader effort to reassure the Saudis and others that, despite its troubles in Iraq, America remains a reliable ally against a rising Iran. "The U.S. has to demonstrate that it is present in the gulf, and going to be present in the gulf," Rice told me. Ignatius also mentions possible downside risks. more...| Iran | Islam | America | Iran: Even military actions won't prevent us from obtaining nuclear technology (January 30, 2007) - Iran's ambassador to Syria, Hassan Akhtari, said that "a military action will not bring to a halt Iran's acquisition of nuclear technology for peaceful purposes." In an interview to Iranian news agency Fars, the ambassador said that an attack by the United States or Europe might "damage Iran, but will cause much more damage to themselves." | Iran | Putin Sends Message To Iran's Supreme Leader To Strengthen Ties (January 28, 2007) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has sent a message on expanding mutual ties to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the official IRNA news agency reported on Sunday. The message was submitted on Sunday to Khamenei by Russia's Security Council Secretary Igor Ivanov, who arrived in Tehran Saturday night for talks with Iranian officials, IRNA said. During his meeting with Ivanov, Khamenei said that Iran and Russia can serve as partners in the political, economic, regional and international domains. "The Islamic Republic of Iran welcomes all-out promotion of relations with Russia, believing that capacity for expansion of ties between the two sides is higher than expected," Khamenei was quoted as saying. The Iranian supreme leader pointed out that Iran and Russia hold half of the world's total gas reserves and "the two countries through mutual cooperation can establish an organization of gas exporting countries like the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC)." For his part, Ivanov said that Putin believes the two countries should use all their capacities for promotion of strategic relations and cooperation at bilateral, regional and international levels. Calling his talks in Tehran "positive," Ivanov said Moscow believes prospect of cooperation between the two countries is "very good and promising." However, the IRNA report did not mention whether Khamenei and Ivanov discussed Iran's controversial nuclear issue, although the Russian security chief's visit came amid increasing international tension over Tehran's atomic program. more... | Iran | Gog/Magog |
Washington Soon to Release Evidence of Hostile Iranian Activity
in Iraq (January
26, 2007) - US ambassador to Iraq,
Zalmay Khalilzad and State department spokesman Sean McCormack
said the US would soon present evidence of Iran’s hand in the
violence besetting Iraq. The spoke as US-Iran military tensions
over Iraq continued to rise. The ambassador stressed too that
the charges against the Revolutionary Guards al Quds Brigade
agents detained at the Iranian “liaison center” in Irbil on Jan
11 would be made public. The detainees are still in custody.
McCormack spoke of “solid evidence” that Iranian agents sent by
the Iranian government are working with individuals and groups
in Iraq. He quoted President Bush who vowed to confront the
networks and individuals “trying to harm our troops.” Eight days
after the US raid on Irbil, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 286 exclusively
revealed some of the evidence referred to by the two US
officials of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards’s direct involvement in
terrorist operations in Iraq. Quote: Their biggest catch was
Iranian colonel Fars Hassami, No. 3 in the Revolutionary Guards
al Quds Brigade’s hierarchy, two below the Brigades commander,
General Qassem Sulemaini. Officers of the al Quds Brigade also
serve with Hizballah combat units in Lebanon and Hamas in the
Gaza Strip. The interrogation of Hassami and his four fellow
detainees yielded some eye-openers, supplemented by sweeps of
their offices and computers. 1. Col. Hassam was
found to have been in charge of Iranian operations in northern
and central Iraq - from Kurdish Irbil down to the northern
outskirts of Baghdad – and all links with Iraq’s Shiite
militias, including Moqtada Sadr’s Medhi Army, and Sunni
insurgent groups. Hassam was the live wire behind Iran’s
military, intelligence and logistic operations in the
violence-stricken towns of the northern half of Iraq, Tal Afar,
Mosul, Haditha, Kirkuk, Samarra, the Banji refinery town, Tikrit,
Ramadi, Falluja and Baquba. more...
Woolsey Warns of Global Jihad at Herzliya Conference
(January
23, 2007)
- Two Islam experts warned participants at the Herzliya
Conference on Monday that global jihad is on the rise -- and
must be taken seriously. Islamic expert and historian Bernard
Lewis spoke back-to-back with former CIA director James Woolsey
at the Herzliya Conference Monday, sounding the alarm on the
global Jihad and dismissing the concept of a Palestinian state.
“In the self-perception of the Muslim world, their primary
identity is to deliver Islam to the world – to not keep it
selflessly to themselves but to give it to mankind,” explained
Lewis. He added that the Islamic revolution in Iran in 1979
signified the first major victory in the global Islamic push
toward that goal. “There are competing leaders to take this
fight ahead,” he said. “The Sunni Wahabi cause is represented by
Bin Laden. Another is the Shi’ite version, which began with the
first Iranian revolution, and the second Iranian revolution,
taking place at this moment. The whole Arab and Muslim world is
experiencing the second stage of the Islamic revolution in Iran.
“I have been told by Iranian friends that Ahmadinejad is indeed
crazy, but not stupid,” Lewis warned. “He really believes in the
end of days that he is heralding. There is a widespread belief
among Shi’ites that that time has come. Mutually assured
destruction is not a deterrent to Ahmadinejad, but an
inducement.” James Woolsey, former director of the United States
Central Intelligence Agency, addressed the conference next.
Unlike many of the speakers, Woolsey, a guest of the Jerusalem
Center for Public Affairs was present the previous day and
attended nearly all of the conference’s Sunday sessions. more...
Iran: Israel, US will soon die
(January
23, 2007)
- Israel and the
United States will soon be destroyed, Iran's President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad said Tuesday during a meeting with Syria's foreign
minister, the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB)
website said in a report. Iran's official FARS news agency also
reported the comments. "Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad… assured that the United States and the Zionist
regime of Israel will soon come to the end of their lives," the
Iranian president was quoted as saying. "Sparking discord among
Muslims, especially between the Shiites and Sunnis, is a plot
hatched by the Zionists and the US for dominating regional
nations and looting their resources," Ahmadinejad added,
according to the report. The Iranian president also directly
tied events in Lebanon to a wider plan aimed at Israel's
destruction. He called on "regional countries" to "support the
Islamic resistance of the Lebanese people and strive to enhance
solidarity and unity among the different Palestinian groups in a
bid to pave the ground for the undermining of the Zionist regime
whose demise is, of course, imminent." Ahmadinejad has
threatened the State of Israel with annihilation several times
in recent months, and has recently added the US and Britain to
the list of countries he says will be destroyed. Syria's Foreign
Minister, Wailed Mualem, accused the US of attempting to carry
out a "massacre of Muslims" and of sowing "discord among Islamic
faiths in the region." Mualem called on "regional states to pave
the ground for the establishment of peace and tranquillity…
while preventing further genocide of the Muslims," the IRIB
website said.
A buzz of secret talks in the Middle East
(January
23, 2007)
- Some progress in the
Israel-PA-Syria standoff may be in the works, as reported by
sources ranging from the
Jerusalem Post to
WorldNetDaily and others. A lot of the leaks may be
misleading, to prevent the secret talks from being blocked by
premature publicity. Nevertheless, some of the elements seem to
be: 1. A big US-Israeli effort to separate Syria from the
"Shiite crescent" --- the alliance from Shiites in Iraq, to
Iran, to Hezbollah in Lebanon. The weak link is Syria, which has
a Shiite-like minority regime. Israel is willing to demilitarize
the Golan Heights and cede it back to Syria, on the same lines
as the peace agreement with Egypt, which demilitarized the Sinai
desert. The United States is key, in part because it provides
the security force in the Sinai to monitor the agreement with
Egypt. The US and/or NATO would have a similar role on the Golan
Heights. Strategically, such a move would cut the Shiite
crescent, and isolate Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iranian expansion
would be hindered in the Levant. 2. Saudi Arabia and the
Gulf sheikdoms are openly concerned about Iranian aggression.
Saddam Hussein is no longer there to be the balancing scorpion
against Ahmadinejad. The Saudis are not afraid of Israel,
because there is no threat from there. An incentive for the
Saudis might be joint control over the El Aqsa Mosque in
Jerusalem, which is now run by the Jordanian-influenced Muslim
Waqf. 3. Parts of the Jerusalem may be accorded
extraterritorial status by Israel, as an incentive to the
Palestinian Authority and to the Saudis to have a Vatican-like
enclave there. The PA could claim that its capital is Jerusalem,
just as Israel does. A dual capital is not unprecedented: Berlin
had such a status during the Cold War. There would be few
security implications for Israel, any more than the Vatican
poses a security threat to the Italian government in Rome.
more...
The
Damascus meeting / Waiting for the Quartet (January
22, 2007) - The two
grooms had already enjoyed a piece of Palestinian wedding cake, even
before the wedding actually took place. The two are Syrian President
Bashar Assad, who extended the invitation to Palestinian Authority
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to visit Damascus, and Ali Larijani, chairman of
the Iranian National Security Council, who visited the Syrian capital
yesterday. Thus did Syria manage to send out the message, even if for a
short while, that the center of gravity in the handling of the
Palestinian problem had moved to her turf, and that her role was much
greater than her "modesty" in merely playing host to the leadership of
the Palestinian factions. For its part, Iran had also made it clear that
it too is an essential player in the regional conflicts, not only in
Iraq. Palestinian sources said yesterday that had it not been for active
Syrian involvement, it is unlikely that the meeting between Abbas and
Khaled Meshal, the Hamas political bureau chief, would have taken place.
In the end, the two did meet, as a gesture of good will toward their
hosts. Also active were Saudi Arabian officials, who held intensive
meetings with the Syrian president and with Abbas and Meshal, in an
effort to reach an agreeable formula that can serve as a platform for a
Palestinian national unity government. An unusual common denominator was
reached, linking the Saudis, Syria, Jordan, Egypt and Hamas, all of
which agreed that there is no need for early elections in the
Palestinian Authority. Hamas wants to avoid a possible defeat at the
polls, whereas the others are afraid of yet another electoral victory
for the radical Islamic organization. This was the motive for pushing
Abbas toward a compromise solution on the formation of a national unity
government. But herein also lies the main problem, which is the
political platform of a unity government and its willingness to accept
the Arab League resolution that was agreed upon during the Beirut summit
of 2002 - or at least a version of that resolution that would appear to
be a recognition of Israel and an agreement to honor previous
Palestinian accords with it. more...
Defense official: Time to break Iran-Syria alliance
(January 21, 2007)
- VIDEO
- Israel must sever the alliance between Tehran and Damascus
within the next year, senior Defense Ministry official Amos
Gilad said Sunday evening during a session of the Herzliya
Conference. "Israel must uproot the Iran-Syria alliance, either
by diplomacy or through military means, within the next year,"
said Gilad, the director of the Defense Ministry's
Political-Military Bureau. He added that the alliance between
the two countries was based purely on common interests, and that
"the Iranians do not like the Syrian regime." Outlining Syria's
capabilities, Amos said Damascus could "bring down the Lebanese
government, and destroy the legitimacy of international forces.
Syria can and does support Hamas and Islamic Jihad with weapons
and finances, and can collapse the Palestinian Authority," he
added, saying such factors meant that Syria's union with Iran
must be severed. Gilad said Arab Sunni states had reached a
point of "deep fear" of Iran, and have begun talking about
creating their own nuclear programs to counter the Iranian
threat. "In the Middle East, when you start talking, you don't
know where it can lead," he said, adding that Israel was faced
with an ideal opportunity to form an alliance with Egypt,
Jordan, and other Sunni Arab states to confront Iran. more...
Ahmadinejad Says Ready for War With US & Israel
(January 19, 2007)
- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared Thursday that
Iran is now fully prepared for a war with Israel and the United
States. "Today, with the grace of God, we have gone through the
arduous passes and we are ready for anything in this path,"
Ahmadinejad said, according to Iran’s state-run TV. The comments
were in response to the US decision to send the USS Stennis to
the Perisan Gulf, joining another such vessel already stationed
there. Iranian media is also reporting that 3,000 centrifuges
are prepared to go online. Ahmadinejad responded to criticism
from Iranians who say Iran should compromise its nuclear
ambitions to avoid a conflict with the Western world and
sanctions from the UN. "Unfortunately, some inside the country
try to fabricate news and portray a bad image of the great
achievement of the Iranian nation," he said. "[They] prescribe
compromise and repeat the words of the enemy. Of course, this
will have no effect. Their aim is to frighten Iran and weaken
the resistance of the Iranian nation, but they will not
succeed.” Meanwhile, Mohamed El Baradei, who heads the UN’s
nuclear watchdog agency, said he was concerned that UN sanctions
on Iran could escalate the standoff with the West and called for
a resumption of negotiations. In the eight years following the
Egyptian’s appointment to head the watchdog group, it has failed
to detect covert nuclear programs in three countries. It also
failed to detect the “nuclear supermarket” run by the Pakistani
scientist A. Q. Khan. Meanwhile, the Hashemite King of Jordan
told Haaretz that his regime is also seeking to become a nuclear
power. As the Hashemite regime is propped up by the West in a
country that is majority Palestinian, Jordanian nukes would be
only an election away from being controlled by an Islamist
group, possibly Hamas. “The rules have changed on the nuclear
subject throughout the whole region,” King Abdullah II said.
“Where I think Jordan was saying, 'we'd like to have a
nuclear-free zone in the area,' after this summer, everybody's
going for nuclear programs. The Egyptians are looking for a
nuclear program. The GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] are looking
at one, and we are actually looking at nuclear power for
peaceful and energy purposes.”
Iran Promotes Anti-US Axis (January
16, 2007) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared: "'Iran,
Nicaragua and Venezuela and other revolutionary countries
are together and we will resist together." Mr Ahmadinejad
was in Ecuador last night after visiting Nicaragua, where
he met newly elected leader and old US enemy Daniel
Ortega. He had earlier visited Venezuela. US President
George W. Bush has sent the Iranian leader a warning as he
said a US failure in Iraq would empower Iran and threaten
world peace. "If we catch your people inside (Iraq)
harming US citizens or Iraqi citizens, you know we will
deal with them," Mr Bush warned Mr Ahmadinejad. But the
Iranian leader replied: "They want to cover their failures
by other means, but they have been discredited, and they
can't recover from that," he said. The US has accused five
Iranians it arrested in Iraq of running arms and money to
militants. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali
Hosseini demanded their release, saying they were
diplomats. Iraq has said the mission did not yet have
consular status but had approval to operate.
Bush Speech Seen as Preparing for War with Iran
Joel C. Rosenberg
(January 14, 2007) - “Our
best-case scenario is for missiles to be hitting us in the next
year or two. Either the West goes to war to stop Iran from going
nuclear, and Iran fires conventional missiles at us in
retaliation, or the West waits too long and Iran launches a
nuclear first strike at us. Either way, a terrible war is
coming. It cannot be avoided.” That’s the sobering assessment a
senior Israeli political leader shared with me over breakfast
this week. In that context, US President George W. Bush’s
recalibrated Middle East strategy is resonating positively here.
The combination of 20,000 more US troops in Iraq, a second US
nuclear-powered aircraft carrier headed toward the Persian Gulf,
the buildup of more anti-missile batteries near Iran, and a
flat-out rejection of appeasement talks with Iran and Syria
indicates that the White House is not only serious about
defeating the forces of radical Islam in and around Baghdad, but
may in fact be gearing up for a military showdown with Iranian
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his fanatic disciples in 2007.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, here in the region this
week, downplayed that view somewhat, saying in Jerusalem that
“the US is simply responding to Iranian activities that have
been going on for a while now that endanger our forces.” But
there is no question that the Arab and Iranian press are
interpreting the president’s moves as a step toward war. I’ve
been in Israel for the past 10 days filming an “Epicenter”
documentary for network broadcast and nationwide release later
this year. Picking up on the themes from the book, the film will
focus on the urgency of the Iranian nuclear threat; how Shiite
eschatology is driving Iranian foreign policy; why Russia is
selling Iran missiles, submarines, and nuclear technology; the
differences between Islamic conceptions of end-time prophecy and
Judeo–Christian expectations of the last days; and how
evangelical Christians and Israeli Jews can work together in
light of this common enemy. This week, I conducted exclusive
interviews with Benjamin Netanyahu, former prime minister and
current Likud leader; Natan Sharansky, former deputy prime
minister and founder of OneJerusalem.org; Moshe Ya’alon, former
Israel Defense Forces chief of staff; and Dore Gold, former
Israeli Ambassador to the UN, president of the Jerusalem Center
for Public Affairs, and author of the forthcoming book, “The
Fight For Jerusalem.” I asked Netanyahu how much time the West
has to stop Ahmadinejad. “Not much,” he said, noting that when
he was prime minister both India and Pakistan tested nuclear
weapons to the shock of all Western intelligence agencies and
that Iran could be much closer to getting the bomb than anyone
realizes. “Nothing else matters–not Iraq, not the peace process
with the Palestinians–if Iran is allowed to obtain nuclear
weapons. They must be stopped.” Sharansky warned that action
needs to be taken in 2007, or it could be too late. Ambassador
Gold told me that Ahmadinejad’s cult of “Twelvers”–Shiites
feverishly preparing for the coming of the Twelfth Imam, or the
“Mahdi”–recently claimed to have pre-positioned sleeper cells of
Mahdi warriors in Jerusalem and that Messianic fever is sweeping
the Shiite crescent from Iran and southern Iraq to Lebanon.
more...
Arrested Iranians tied to group arming Iraqis: U.S. (January
14, 2007) - The U.S. military said on Sunday that five
Iranians held by its troops in Iraq are linked to Revolutionary
Guards who are arming and funding Iraqi militants but Tehran
called them diplomats and demanded they be released. The five
were arrested on Thursday in a U.S. dawn raid on an Iranian
government office in the Kurdish city of Arbil. The raid
underlined the challenges Baghdad faces in striking a balance
with Washington while building relations with neighbors the Bush
administration accuses of fueling violence in Iraq. Iraq's
President Jalal Talabani, an ethnic Kurd, was due to travel on
Sunday to Syria,
which the Bush administration says allows weapons and fighters
to cross its border into Iraq in support of the anti-U.S.
insurgency there. Talabani's visit to Damascus is the first by a
senior Iraqi official since the two countries resumed diplomatic
ties last month after more than two decades of boycott after
Syria sided with Iran
during the Iraq-Iran war in 1980s. Aides said Talabani will
discuss security and ask Damascus to control its borders and
stop insurgents moving into Iraq. Both Syria and Iran deny that
they provide support to militants operating in Iraq.
more...
Russia Slams US Sanctions on its Military Firms Ties with Iran
(January
7, 2007) - "This is by far not the first time the US
resorts to illegal attempts to spread its internal legislation
on foreign companies and force them to abide by the US rules,"
Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The Federal
Register, a record of US policy actions, published a State
Department notice on Friday listing 24 businesses -- including
four in Russia and others in China, Iran, Iraq, Malaysia,
Mexico, North Korea, Sudan and Syria -- that it said engaged in
actions that triggered the sanctions. The sanctions went into
effect Dec. 28, the notice said, and will remain in place for
two years unless the secretary of state lifts them. The notice
said the 24 incurred sanctions under the Iran and Syria
Nonproliferation Act by providing materials that could
contribute to the development of weapons of mass destruction or
cruise or ballistic missile systems by Iran or Syria. A call for
comment to the US State Department was not returned on Saturday.
Rosoboronexport, one of the world's biggest arms traders, has
recently won control of the Russian firm VSMPO-Avisma, the
world's largest titanium producer. It is a key supplier of
titanium parts to US aviation giant Boeing and Europe's EADS. In
August, Washington slapped sanctions on Rosoboronexport and
warplane maker Sukhoi under a US law that penalizes companies
for working with Iran. In November, Washington formally lifted
the sanctions against Sukhoi, which is developing the Russian
Regional Jet with Boeing. Moscow said the latest US sanctions
against its arms firms were again groundless and added, "And yet
once again, the United States is embarking on this vicious
circle. more...
Revealed: Israel plans nuclear strike on Iran
(January
7, 2007) - ISRAEL has drawn up secret plans to destroy
Iran’s uranium enrichment facilities with tactical nuclear
weapons. Two Israeli air force squadrons are training to blow up
an Iranian facility using low-yield nuclear “bunker-busters”,
according to several Israeli military sources. The attack would
be the first with nuclear weapons since 1945, when the United
States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The
Israeli weapons would each have a force equivalent to
one-fifteenth of the Hiroshima bomb. Under the plans,
conventional laser-guided bombs would open “tunnels” into the
targets. “Mini-nukes” would then immediately be fired into a
plant at Natanz, exploding deep underground to reduce the risk
of radioactive fallout. “As soon as the green light is given, it
will be one mission, one strike and the Iranian nuclear project
will be demolished,” said one of the sources. The plans,
disclosed to The Sunday Times last week, have been prompted in
part by the Israeli intelligence service Mossad’s assessment
that Iran is on the verge of producing enough enriched uranium
to make nuclear weapons within two years. Israeli military
commanders believe conventional strikes may no longer be enough
to annihilate increasingly well-defended enrichment facilities.
Several have been built beneath at least 70ft of concrete and
rock. However, the nuclear-tipped bunker-busters would be used
only if a conventional attack was ruled out and if the United
States declined to intervene, senior sources said. Israeli and
American officials have met several times to consider military
action. Military analysts said the disclosure of the plans could
be intended to put pressure on Tehran to halt enrichment, cajole
America into action or soften up world opinion in advance of an
Israeli attack. Some analysts warned that Iranian retaliation
for such a strike could range from disruption of oil supplies to
the West to terrorist attacks against Jewish targets around the
world. more...
Iran
Warns Against Attacking After Report Says Israel Planning
Nuclear Strike
(January
7, 2007) - Israel is denying a report in a British
newspaper that the country has drawn up secret plans to target
Iran's nuclear facilities with tactical nuclear weapons.
Speculation has been rife about an Israeli pre-emptive strike
against Iran since the Iranian president threatened to destroy
the Jewish state. Robert Berger reports from the VOA bureau in
Jerusalem. Israel's Foreign Ministry denied a report in London's
Sunday Times that said the Israeli air force is training for a
tactical nuclear strike on uranium enrichment facilities in
Iran. Quoting Israeli military sources, the paper said the
secret plan involves using low-yield nuclear "bunker busters."
The report said Israeli pilots have flown to Gibraltar in recent
weeks to train for the 3,000-kilometer round-trip flight to
Iranian targets. But, in a brief statement, the Foreign Ministry
said Israel prefers diplomacy, including full implementation of
U.N. sanctions on Iran. At the same time, Israel believes those
sanctions are not strong enough. Israeli analyst Cameron Brown:
"They are very, very light sanctions, and very limited in scope.
Sanctions that have been imposed are totally insufficient to
convince the Iranians that the price is far too high to bear,"
Brown says. Brown says what is needed is a series of sanctions
... "...that are going to have to become much, much more
comprehensive, and going to have to be much more penetrating, if
they are going to have any chance of success at all," he says.
More than a year ago, the Iranian president threatened to wipe
Israel off the map, and, since then, Israeli officials have said
repeatedly that they cannot allow Iran to acquire nuclear
weapons. The Israeli air force destroyed Iraq's nuclear reactor
in 1981, but an attack on Iran is much more complicated. Iran's
nuclear facilities are spread out and fortified deep underground
in concrete. Therefore, some experts believe the only way Israel
can destroy Iran's nuclear facilities is with tactical nuclear
weapons. more...
Clouds of War: The Year Ahead for Israel
(January 2, 2007) -
On its northern border, Israel watches Hezbollah regroup
and grow in power after last summer's four-week war. On its
southern border near the sea, chaos reigns in Gaza - one of the
world's chief collecting points for terrorists and weapons. To
the north and east is Syria, stocked with chemical weapons and
eager to make mischief against Lebanon and Israel. And finally,
from the Persian Gulf sits Iran bidding to be nuclear, dedicated
to Israel's destruction, and eager for the Islamic re-conquest
of Jerusalem. Just five months from now, Israel will mark the
40th anniversary of the six-day war, when Israeli soldiers
expanded the nation's borders and put Jerusalem under Jewish
control for the first time in 2,000 years. In 2007, Israel's
enemies will try to advance their jihadist plan to take back
Jerusalem and Israel for Islam. At the forefront is Iran, which
funds Islamic terrorist groups and militias, and by the account
of most experts is one to four years away from making nuclear
weapons. "Israel would like to see sanctions imposed on Iran
before it tests a nuclear device. But in addition to pessimism
about the effect of those sanctions, Israel is also planning for
the possibility they may go at it alone militarily against Iran
and launch a military strike. And that day may come," said
Yaakov Katz, military reporter for the Jerusalem Post. Iran's
proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah, is now the strongest political
force in the country. Israel's military sees the re-arming of
Hezbollah from the Syrian border, but can do little about it.
"One way to stop that would be bomb the trucks, bomb the
convoys," said Katz. "But there would be major diplomatic
backlash as a result of that, which Israel at this point isn't
able to risk." While some in Washington call for dialogue with
Israel's enemies, some Middle East analysts, such as author and
lecturer Michael Widlanski, warn that such a move would send the
wrong signal. "If we try to placate Syria and Iran, it'll be
like trying to placate a fire by throwing more twigs on the
flames. The fire isn't gonna be convinced, it'll just get
bigger," said Widlanski. Widlanski says the Islamists are
feeding off of the perceived defeats of the U.S. in Iraq and
Israel in Lebanon. more...
Iran
Says 2007 Could Bring Islamic Messiah, Possibly This Spring
Joel C. Rosenberg
(January 2, 2007) - The New Year may not be so happy if
Iranian leaders have their way. The Islamic Messiah known as the
“Twelfth Imam” or the “Mahdi” may come to earth in 2007 and
could be revealed to the world as early as the Spring Equinox,
reports an official Iranian government news Web site. The
Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Web site says the
world is now in its “last days.” It claims that the Mahdi will
first appear in Mecca, and then Medina. He will conquer all of
Arabia, Syria, Iraq, destroy Israel, and then set up a “global
government” based in Iraq, interestingly enough, not Iran. Such
Islamic eschatology (end-time theology) is driving the Iranian
regime and helps explains why Iran has no interest in helping
the United States and European Union create peace in Iraq or the
region, much less in ending its bid for nuclear weapons, the
“Iraq Study Group Report” notwithstanding. A television series
on IRIB called “The World toward Illumination” has been running
since last November to help answer the many questions Iranians
have about the end of the world as we know it. The series
explains the signs of the last days and what to expect when the
Islamic Messiah arrives. The program also says that Jesus is
coming back to earth soon as a Shiite Muslim leader and it
denounces “born-again Christians” for supporting “the illegal
Zionist state of Israel.” An Israeli news site was the first to
pick up the story and its significance to Israeli national
security, noting that the Mahdi will soon “form an army to
defeat Islam’s enemies in a series of apocalyptic battles” and
“will overcome his arch villain in Jerusalem.” Iran’s calendar
year ends on March 20, the usual date of the Spring Equinox. Is
Ahmadinejad signaling that Iran will have nuclear weapons by
then? Is he suggesting that an apocalyptic war to annihilate
Jews and Christians in Israel and the US could come in 2007,
perhaps as early as this spring or summer? It is not yet clear,
though Ahmadinejad today vowed to “humiliate” the US and
continues to vow that Israel will “vanish” soon. The IRIB series
is important in that it offers some intriguing clues as to how
Iranian Shiites believe their prophecies will play out. [Go to
Rosenberg’s blog site to read details about their beliefs.] Too
many Western analysts are missing the central importance of
Shiite eschatology in Iranian foreign policy. They mistakenly
believe that Iran’s current leadership can be somehow cajoled
into making peace with the West. Nothing could be further from
the truth. more...
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