VS-Iran (nr 26): Israel: aanval op Iran desnoods zonder de VS

quote:

Iraniërs vrezen Ahmadinejads grote bek voor de VN

Omid Memarian

BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA, 19 september 2008 (IPS) - De Iraanse president Mahmoed Ahmadinejad spreekt volgende week opnieuw de Algemene Vergadering van de Verenigde Naties toe. De meeste Iraniërs hopen dat hun president niet weer nodeloos de internationale gemeenschap op stang jaagt door de Holocaust te ontkennen of het nakende einde van Israël te voorspellen.

Dergelijke uitspraken hebben in de voorbije drie jaren heel wat kwaad bloed gezet in de rest van de wereld. Politoloog Sadegh Zibakalam van de universiteit van Teheran raadt de president aan met geen woord te reppen over het conflict tussen Israël en de Palestijnen, en zeker niet over de Holocaust.

“Hij kan maar beter niets zeggen over de Holocaust of de vernietiging van Israël”, zegt Zibakalam aan de telefoon. “Hij moet evolueren naar een taalgebruik dat uitdrukking geeft aan het respect van de Iraniërs voor de Verenigde Staten en hun leiders, los van of het nu een Democraat of een Republikein wordt. Het zou duidelijk moeten worden dat Iran bereid is met de volgende president ernstig over nucleaire kwesties te spreken.”

Ahmadinejad heeft al bij herhaling verklaard dat hij wil praten met de VS en andere landen. Tegelijk heeft hij enkele resoluties van de VN-veiligheidsraad over het Iraanse atoomprogramma verworpen en Washington herhaaldelijk aangevallen over zijn rol in Irak.

“Er is een soort van tegenspraak tussen de toespraken van Ahmadinejad en zijn eigenlijke beleid”, zegt Ali Mazroui, een voormalig lid van het Iraanse parlement. “Hij heeft vaak gezegd dat hij tot een onderhandelde oplossing wil komen. Maar zijn uitspraken en acties zijn voor het buitenland weinig geruststellend.”

Iran vriend van Israël ?


Opvallend is dat de Iraanse president nog niet heeft gereageerd op de uitspraken van Esfandiar Rahim Mashaie, zijn vicepresident. Die verklaarde dat Iran “de vriend is van alle volkeren, ook van de Israëli’s”. Mashaie oogstte daarop een storm van protest van Iraanse hardliners. Hij voerde later aan dat hij fout was geciteerd en verduidelijkte dat Iran het “Zionistische regime” niet erkent.

Ondanks druk uit conservatieve hoek heeft Ahmadinejad zijn vicepremier nog niet teruggefloten. Het is nog altijd niet duidelijk of Mashaie’s uitspraak bedoeld was als proefballonnetje, dan wel of het gewoon ging om een verbale uitglijder.

Volgens Hooshang Amirahmadi, de voorzitter van de Amerikaans-Iraanse Raad in de VS, zijn de Iraniërs de jaren van sancties hartsgrondig beu. “Ze willen vooral vrede en welvaart. Meer dan negentig procent van de Iraniërs, ook in de regering, wil de relaties met de Verenigde Staten zo snel mogelijk normaliseren. Daarom mag de president bij zijn bezoek geen termen gebruiken die de gastheer kunnen ontstemmen en doet hij er goed aan de Amerikanen met veel respect te behandelen.”

Ahmadinejad zou zijn toespraak voor de VN ook moeten gebruiken om aan te geven dat Iran een vriend van Israël is, vindt Amirahmadi. De kans dat zoiets gebeurt is echter klein. Op een persconferentie deze week in Teheran herhaalde de president nog eens dat de Holocaust, de door nazi-Duitsland georganiseerde volkerenmoord op zes miljoen Europese joden, “een vervalsing” was en dat de joodse staat in geen enkele vorm kan blijven voortbestaan.


IPS(MC, JG)

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Iran zal zich verdedigen tegen westerse machten die willen dat het land geen nucleaire technologie voor burgerdoelen produceert. Dat heeft de Iraanse president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dinsdag gezegd tijdens zijn toespraak voor de Algemene Vergadering bij de Verenigde Naties in New York.

Zoals gebruikelijk haalde Ahmadinejad uit naar de Verenigde Staten en andere machten die volgens hem worden gemanipuleerd door Israël. ,,Het zionistische regime staat op instorten en kan op geen enkele manier uit de zelfgecreëerde poel komen.''

De Iraanse leider voegde toe dat het Amerikaanse rijk in de wereld zijn einde nadert. ,,Er ontstaat weerstand tegen de agressie en het egoïsme van de dreigende landen.'' Het staatshoofd zei eveneens dat toekomstige leiders van de VS hun bemoeienissen moeten beperken tot hun eigen landsgrenzen

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US refused an attack on Iran
Israel seriously considered bombing Iran's nuclear sites earlier this year but U.S. President George W. Bush refused to support such a strike, a British newspaper reported on Friday.

The Guardian said Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert raised the issue with Bush in a private one-on-one meeting on May 14 in Jerusalem.

According to "European diplomatic sources," Bush said he would not support such a strike because of fears of retaliation, possibly on American targets in Iraq and Afghanistan, and concern that the Israelis would fail to fully disable Iran's nuclear facilities, the newspaper said.

Olmert "took it (the refusal of a U.S. green light) as where they were at the moment, and that the U.S. position was unlikely to change as long as Bush was in office," said one source.

The newspaper said that even if Israel had wanted to go ahead without Washington's agreement, its planes would be unable to reach Iran without passing through U.S.-controlled airspace above Iraq.

Iran would assume that Washington had approved the strike, raising the prospect of an attack against the United States, it said.

Israel considers Iran, the world's fourth-largest oil exporter, its greatest threat because of Tehran's nuclear program and repeated statements by its leaders predicting the demise of Israel.

The West accuses Iran of trying to develop nuclear weapons, while Tehran has insisted its program is for peaceful purposes.

"The need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons is raised at every meeting between the prime minister and foreign leaders. Israel prefers a diplomatic solution to this issue but all options must remain on the table," The Guardian quoted Olmert spokesman Mark Regev as saying.

U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said he would not comment on any private conversations the president had.

Washington says it wants a diplomatic solution to the standoff but has not ruled out military action as a last resort (FOX).

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UN nuclear watchdog in poor shape, says chief

IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei.

by Staff Writers

Vienna (AFP) Sept 30, 2008

The UN atomic watchdog needs more cash and powers to meet the growing challenges of proliferation worldwide, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said Tuesday, adding that funding often came with strings attached.
Speaking to a scientific forum here on the future role of the International Atomic Energy Agency, ElBaradei said: "We are not in the best position to cope with the increasing challenges we are facing."

The world had changed dramatically since the watchdog was set up 50 years ago and so had the area of the IAEA's activities, ElBaradei said, referring to proliferation, safety, security or disarmament.

"More and more, we have come to realise that we do not have either the resources or the legal authority to cope with the challenges we are facing," said the Egyptian diplomat, who has headed the IAEA since 1997 and steps down next year.

ElBaradei said "90 percent of the IAEA's funding for its security programme comes from extra-budgetary resources.

"We essentially have to pass the hat and ask for resources. Lots of it comes with conditions attached to it. So we don't have the flexibility to prioritise the way we see in terms of risk," he complained.

He said the IAEA's legal authority was "very limited."

ElBaradei recently commissioned a special panel of eminent people to reflect on the role of the body up to and beyond 2020. Headed by former Mexican president Ernesto Zedillo, the panel presented its findings in May.

"It didn't take them much to realise that we are not in good shape, that lots of things need to be done," ElBaradei said Tuesday.

And all of the panel's recommendations are "doable, if we have the will, if we understand the risks we are facing and if we have the will to move forward," ElBaradei said.

In his opening address to the IAEA's week-long general conference non Monday, the director general told the agency's 145 member countries that "all is not well with the IAEA.

"There is a disconnect between what you, the member states, are asking us to do, and the legal authority and resources available to us. This will hamper our effectiveness, sooner rather than later, it is not addressed."

In 1997, the agency drew up a model "Additional Protocol" giving its inspectors additional powers to search for undeclared nuclear material and activities.

However, 10 years on, "we still have a hundred countries party to the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty) that have not adopted the additional protocol. That, to me, is an abysmal record," ElBaradei said.

There was also a dichotomy in the fact that nuclear-weapon states were refusing to disarm, as they are obliged to do under the NPT, but were telling the nuclear have-nots that they are not allowed to develop atomic weapons, he said.

"How can I go with a straight face to the non-nuclear weapon states and tell them that nuclear weapons are not good for you ... while the weapon states continue to modernise .... This dichotomy makes the system unsustainable."

ElBaradei said member states should not be afraid of redrawing the IAEA's statute if necessary.

"I don't say anything recommended by the panel that goes beyond the statute," he said.

"But I should say the statute is not sacrosanct. The statute is a document that was drafted 50 years ago to regulate the nuclear order. And if we see a need to change the statute, then we should have the courage to go about it."

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Israeli has 3-6 months to hit Iran’s nuclear sites if Moscow sells Tehran S-300 systems

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

October 7, 2008, 11:39 AM (GMT+02:00)

Russian military experts calculate that the window for an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities will shrink to 3-6 months if Moscow sells Iran (and Syria) the sophisticated S-300 system for guarding those sites against air, missile or cruise missile attack. DEBKAfile’s Moscow sources report that Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert failed in the key missions of his Moscow trip to persuade Russian leaders to discuss Tehran’s nuclear weapons program and to refrain from selling this advanced weapon to Iran and Syria.

President Dmitiry Medvedev’s bureau issued a noncommittal statement Tuesday, Oct. 7, saying that his talks with Olmert were “an exchange of opinion on threats, including terrorism and nonproliferation.” The word “nuclear” was avoided.

Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, who the prime minister met Monday, trotted out the standard Russia claim that Moscow had no definite information that Iran is developing a nuclear weapon and is against tougher sanctions.

Prime minister Vladimir Putin was unable to see him.

Moscow’s mainstream media came out Tuesday with a rerun of the statement made on Sept. 17 by Anatoly Isaikin, director of the Russian arms exports agency Rosoboronexport, that his firm is in advanced negotiations with Tehran for the sale of the S-300 missiles. However, on Monday, the same firm disowned knowledge of these missiles having been shipped to Iran, although negotiations for their sale were not mentioned.

Konstantin Makiyenko, from the center for strategic and technological analysis think tank in the Russian capital, said these utterances put Israel on notice to stop selling arms to Georgia and training its army.

Moscow does not conceal its intention of selling S-300 missiles to Syria. A Russian military expert commented: “Our warships if based in Syrian ports will need to be encircled by missile batteries capable of guarding them against air and missile attack.”

According to Russian experts, the system is capable of pinpointing 100 targets and simultaneously intercepting 12 at a distance of 120 km.

Our Russian sources made a point of stressing that Moscow is not subject to embargoes on its foreign arms sales or any international restrictions on supplying defensive weapons to other nations.

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MOSCOW - Outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will seek Tuesday to persuade Russian President Dmitry Medvedev not to sell weapons to Iran and Syria, but with little chance of success, diplomatic sources said.

Jerusalem is particularly concerned that sales of Russia's S-300 anti-aircraft missile system could threaten Israel's air superiority over both states. And if Iran received these missiles, it would be able to protect its nuclear sites more effectively, making an aerial strike on these sites more difficult.

However, Russia's arms export monopoly denied that it plans to deliver the S-300 missiles to either Iran or Syria, the Interfax news agency reported Monday.
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"We have no information of this kind," a spokesman for Rosoboronexport said when asked about potential sales of the sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons to Tehran or Damascus.

The S-300 missile, called the SA-10 in the west, has a range of 150 kilometers (90 miles) and is capable of striking a plane up to 30 kilometers (18 miles) above the ground.

Olmert, who is on a two-day visit to Moscow, is scheduled to meet Medvedev in the Kremlin at midday. Part of the meeting is due to be a tete-a-tete.

During his flight to Moscow Monday, Olmert was asked whether he could influence Russia's policy on arms sales and replied, "I don't want to boast." But his chances of dissuading Medvedev from selling arms to Iran and Syria are widely considered small.

Russian sources told Haaretz there would be no change in Russia's position. They said Russia would not provide any Middle Eastern country with offensive weapons that could disrupt the region's stability, but would consider any request for defensive weapons.

But Israeli sources said they did not know whether Russia has already signed agreements to provide the advanced missile systems to Iran and Syria, or even whether it intends to do so, as the Russian media have reported over the past year.

Olmert landed Monday at Moscow's Domodedovo International Airport and proceeded to a meeting and dinner with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Olmert told the journalists accompanying him that in addition to Russian arms sales to the Middle East, he and his hosts would discuss Iran's nuclear program and Israel's peace talks with the Palestinians and Syrians. He said the Russians "have a special interest" in the peace talks.

However, Russia is not expected to accede to Israel's request that it change its position on Iran's nuclear program. Russia objects to harsher international sanctions on Iran and has already provided low-grade enriched uranium for Iran's nuclear reactor in Bushehr, which is due to begin operating next year. Moscow is also in preliminary negotiations with Tehran to build two more reactors for electricity production in Iran.

Olmert and Medvedev will also discuss the situation in Georgia following its war with Russia in August. However, Israeli sources said, Russia commended Israel for having stopped its arms sales to Georgia completely even before the war and restricted its sales to defensive systems before then. Consequently, this issue is no longer a strain on bilateral relations, the sources said.

Olmert reiterated that Israel would have to give up most of the West Bank and agree to territorial exchanges in any peace agreement with the Palestinians. Asked whether his statement reflected the views of prime minister-designate Tzipi Livni, he said: "My statement reflected my opinion, but this is what the negotiations were based on. She [Livni] was a party to everything, but she does not necessarily agree with every one of my positions."

Asked whether his statements would not bind Livni and the next government, Olmert replied: "I'm not holding Livni to everything I've said, but I believe what I said reflects the negotiations and they will continue in this spirit."

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Iran creates international panic after claiming US plane violated airspace
An Iranian news agency sparked fears of an international standoff and left the Pentagon scrambling to identify its planes today after it reported that a US jet had strayed into its territory and been forced to land.

The semi-official Fars News Agency this afternoon said that five US military officials and three civilians were interrogated at an unnamed Iranian airport after accidentally straying into the Islamic Republic's airspace.

They were released after it was established that the plane had not entered the territory intentionally, the agency said, adding that it did not know when the incident had happened.

After hastily investigating the claims, however, the Pentagon poured scorn on them.


The US said that all of its planes in the Middle East had been identified and none had recently been missing or involved in any incident.

"According to the combined air operations centre, all our aircraft are accounted for and we have no reports of any aircraft landing in Iran," US Lieutenant Colonel Patrick Ryder said.

As the story unfolded, a senior Iranian military official told Iranian state television’s Arabic-language channel Al-Alam that what was said to be a military jet was, in fact, a private Hungarian business aircraft and that no Americans were on board. It added that the incident dated back to September 30.

"The airplane is now being confirmed as a light transport plane with no Americans onboard," US military spokesman Lieutenant David Russell said.

"From what I am seeing, it was a Falcon business jet. We have accounted for all our aircraft and none are missing."

Tensions between Iran and the United States have been running high in recent years with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the hardline Iranian President, refusing to stop enriching uranium.

The US suspects Iran is trying to create nuclear weapons and the UN has imposed sanctions on Tehran. However, Iran says uranium enrichment is for energy use only.

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Bazaars Iran staken tegen btw-heffing

Gepubliceerd: zondag 12 oktober 2008 11:27 UTC
Laatst gewijzigd: zondag 12 oktober 2008 11:27 UTC

Teheran - Steeds meer marktkooplieden in Iran zijn in staking tegen de invoering van btw op hun producten. De belangrijkste bazaar in de hoofdstad Teheran is dicht.

President Ahmadinejad voerde de belastingmaatregel drie weken geleden in. Er barstte een storm van kritiek los op de prijsstijgingen door de btw-heffing. Een week geleden gingen de eerste marktkooplieden in staking en inmiddels is de maatregel voor twee maanden opgeschort. Maar de kooplui eisen dat de btw-heffing helemaal wordt afgeschaft.

Het is de eerste massale staking op de bazaars in Iran sinds 1979. De kooplieden leverden destijds met hun protest een belangrijke bijdrage aan de islamitische omwenteling.

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Op vrijdag 12 september 2008 17:30 schreef Grenadier het volgende:
De Islam zal zegevieren na de Derde Wereld Oorlog, mark my words.

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Bush ontmantelt eigenhandig “as van het kwaad”
Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, 15 oktober 2008 (IPS) - De Amerikaanse president Bush lijkt in de laatste maanden van zijn mandaat druk bezig zijn eigen ‘Bush-doctrine’ af te voeren. Noord-Korea, een van de drie originele ‘schurkenstaten’ wordt geschrapt van het terroristenlijstje van het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken en na de verkiezingen gaat Washington zowaar diplomatieke betrekkingen aanknopen met schurkenstaat Iran.

Bush gaf enkele dagen geleden groen licht om Noord-Korea van de lijst te halen van landen die het terrorisme sponsoren. Pyongyang beloofde in ruil om een nucleaire installatie te ontmantelen en te gaan samenwerken met Amerikaanse en internationale inspecteurs.

Uit het ministerie van Buitenlandse Zaken is intussen ook het nieuws uitgelekt dat de VS na de verkiezingen van 4 november waarschijnlijk een “Interest Section”, een kleine missie voor Amerikaanse belangenbehartiging, gaan openen in de Iraanse hoofdstad Teheran. Dat zou een herneming betekenen van de diplomatieke betrekkingen die al 29 jaar zijn onderbroken.
“Knieval”


De haviken en neoconservatieven die vooral de buitenlandse politiek in Bushs eerste ambtstermijn hebben beïnvloed zijn furieus. “Dit is de genadeslag voor wat ooit een inspirerende inspanning was om iets te doen tegen de verspreiding van kernwapens”, schreef John Bolton, voormalig VS-ambassadeur bij de Verenigde Naties, maandag in de Wall Street Journal.

“En na de knieval voor Noord-Korea, lijkt minister (van Buitenlandse Zaken Condoleezza) Rice geneigd hetzelfde te doen voor Iran, hoewel dat regime uitgebreid betrokken is bij terrorisme en zijn nucleaire programma heeft versneld”, gaat Bolton verder. De uitspraken van de ex-ambassadeur zijn doorgaans een betrouwbare indicator van wat vice-president Dick Cheney stilletjes denkt, maar niet on the record kwijt wil.

De twee dossiers bemoeilijken de positie van de Republikeinse presidentskandidaat John McCain. Terwijl Obama het schrappen van de terroristenstatus van Noord-Korea een “bescheiden stap in de goede richting” noemde, reageerde McCain geïrriteerd. “Ik hoop dat deze regering kan uitleggen hoe dit nieuwe verificatieakkoord de Amerikaanse belangen dient en die van onze bondgenoten”, zei hij. McCain heeft zich altijd tegen het akkoord verzet, en maakte tijdens de campagne wel eens grapjes over bombardementen op Iran.

De koers die de regering-Bush nu vaart lijkt dichter bij de lijn van de Democraten te liggen dan bij die van zijn partijgenoot McCain, ook wat betreft de vredesgesprekken tussen Israël en de Palestijnen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Rusland en zelfs Taiwan. Terwijl McCains adviseurs blijven vasthouden aan harde lijn van de Bushdoctrine die in 2003 leidde tot de inval in Irak, vaart Bush zelf intussen een meer realistische koers, gebaseerd op diplomatie en multilateraal overleg met de bondgenoten.

Realisten aan het roer


De huidige financiële crisis lijkt de realistische positie van Rice en haar collega van Defensie Robert Gates nog te versterken. Het Witte Huis heeft begrepen dat het land is aangewezen op samenwerking met buitenlandse grootmachten om de crisis te bezweren. Daarbij komt de houding van de legertop, die duidelijk heeft gemaakt dat de Amerikaanse troepen niet nog een oorlog erbij kunnen nemen.

In zekere zin herstelt Bush nu de schade die hij tijdens zijn eerste ambtstermijn als havik heeft aangericht. De Verenigde Staten waren er onder president Clinton (1994-2001) al in geslaagd om het Noord-Koreaanse bewapeningsprogramma te bevriezen. In de plaats van dat werk verder te zetten, joeg Bush de Noord-Koreanen op de kast, waardoor het land zich terugtrok uit het non-proliferatieverdrag en in oktober 2006 een atoomproef uitvoerde.

Uiteindelijk stuurde Rice haar vice-minister Christopher Hill naar Pyongyang om de brokken te lijmen. Washington ging uiteindelijk akkoord met veel minder verregaande inspecties dan het aanvankelijk had geëist. Dat leidde tot bittere protesten van de haviken. “Dit is geen diplomatie, maar idiotie”, zei een anonieme ambtenaar aan Stephen Hayes van de Weekly Standard, die ook tot de intimi van Cheney wordt gerekend.

De realisten drongen al langer aan op een herstel van de diplomatieke kanalen met Iran. Voormalig minister van Buitenlandse Zaken James Baker deed dat in 2006 als hoofd van een speciale Irakcommissie, en admiraal Michael Mullen drong in juni aan op een “brede dialoog”. Het voorstel van Rice om een post te openen in Teheran lijkt intussen aanvaard, maar de aankondiging werd onder druk van Cheney uitgesteld tot na de verkiezingen, omdat het de kansen van John McCain zou schaden.

IPS(MC, JG)

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DEBKAfile’s military sources report that the drill beginning Thursday, Oct. 16 in northern Iran, is Tehran’s rejoinder to Israel’s big aerial maneuver last June.

Then, more than 100 Israeli fighter-bombers went through their paces over the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas, roughly the same distance from Israel as Iran.

Tehran’s media claim the exercise will test its air force’s ability to fly to Israel and back without refueling.

The exercise will also test the US-made FBX-T band anti-missile radar system delivered in September and installed at the IAF Nevatim air base in the Negev. The Iranians say they will be practicing their “state-of-the-art military equipment and flight tactics,” meaning an attempt to jam US and Israeli electronics and radar.

According to Iranian media, the entire range of Iran's fighter fleet will take part, including US-made F-4, F-5, F-7 and F-14 fighters and domestic Saegheh fighters. Mid-air refueling will be provided by Boeing 707 aerial tankers.

In mid-August, Iran's Air Force chief, Brigadier General Ahmad Miqani, maintained that its antiquated fighter jet fleet had been overhauled and upgraded to fly distances of 3,000 kilometers without refueling. That would be more than double the distance between Iran and Israel.

That is why Tabriz, in Azerbaijan, at the northwestern corner of Iran, was picked as the starting point of the exercise. The official communiqué said the planes would be flying from air fields in Tehran, Isfahan, Tabriz and Hamadan and Dezful.

Our military sources say that this means that the entire maneuver will take place over Iran and not venture out its air space. The planes will have to fly to Tabriz from bases in the south near the Pakistan border in order to replicate the more than 1,200 km distance between Iran and Israel.

The Iranian Air force also aims at deploying more than 100 warplanes for the exercise, matching the number Israel used in its maneuver four months ago.

Tehran has timed this large-scale drill for just three weeks before the US presidential election on Nov. 4, in response to speculation rife in the West that Israel may use the window between the US election and the swearing-in of the new president in January for an attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.

The Iranians aim to show they have a first and second strike capability - not just with ballistic missiles but also by aerial attack.

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Op vrijdag 17 oktober 2008 14:52 schreef princemm het volgende:
ik ben voor iran

Iranian Army clip

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Op vrijdag 17 oktober 2008 15:51 schreef MoltiSanti het volgende:

[..]

ik ben voor israel

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Op vrijdag 17 oktober 2008 15:58 schreef princemm het volgende:
wie denk je dat er zou winnen?

Iranian Army clip

[..]

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Op vrijdag 17 oktober 2008 15:59 schreef MoltiSanti het volgende:

[..]

ben je een kloon van ahmadinejjad ?

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Op vrijdag 17 oktober 2008 16:04 schreef MoltiSanti het volgende:
Ahmadinejjad

bedoel ik

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Iran en IJsland niet in VN-Veiligheidsraad

Gepubliceerd: vrijdag 17 oktober 2008 16:14 UTC
Laatst gewijzigd: vrijdag 17 oktober 2008 16:14 UTC

New York - De Algemene Vergadering van de Verenigde Naties heeft de vijf landen aangewezen die de komende twee jaar een tijdelijke zetel krijgen in de VN-Veiligheidsraad. Het gaat om Japan, Turkije, Oostenrijk, Mexico en Uganda.

Opvallend was dat ook Iran een gooi deed naar een zetel namens Azië. Maar Iran verloor tijdens de stemming van Japan, met 158 tegen 32 stemmen.

Ook IJsland deed een poging om in de VN-Veiligheidsraad te komen, maar het door de financiële crisis geteisterde eiland verloor in de strijd om twee Europese zetels van Turkije en Oostenrijk.

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US intelligence: Iran will be able to build first nuclear bomb by February 2009

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

October 21, 2008, 8:46 PM (GMT+02:00)

US intelligence’s amended estimate, that Iran will be ready to build its first bomb just one month after the next US president is sworn in, is disclosed by DEBKAfile’s Washington sources as having been relayed as a guideline to the Middle East teams of both presidential candidates, Senators John McCain and Barack Obama.

The information prompted the assertion by Democratic vice presidential nominee Joseph Biden in Seattle Sunday, Oct. 19: “It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama like they did John Kennedy.”

McCain retorted Tuesday, Oct. 21: “America does not need a president that needs to be tested. I’ve been tested. I was aboard the Enterprise off the coast of Cuba. I’ve been there.”)

DEBKAfile’s military sources cite the new US timeline: By late January, 2009, Iran will have accumulated enough low-grade enriched uranium (up to 5%) for its “break-out” to weapons grade (90%) material within a short time. For this, the Iranians have achieved the necessary technology. In February, they can move on to start building their first nuclear bomb.

US intelligence believes Tehran has the personnel, plans and diagrams for a bomb and has been running experiments to this end for the past two years. The UN International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna last week asked Tehran to clarify recent complex experiments they conducted in detonating nuclear materials for a weapon, but received no answer.

The same US evaluation adds that the Iranian leadership is holding off its go-ahead to start building the bomb until the last minute so as to ward off international pressure to stop at the red line.

This development together with the galloping global economic crisis will force the incoming US president to go straight into decision-making without pause on Day One in the Oval Office. He will have to determine which urgent measures can serve best for keeping a nuclear bomb out of the Islamic republic’s hands - diplomatic or military – and how to proceed if those measures fail.

His knowledge of the challenge colored Sen. Biden’s additional words in Seattle: “Remember I said it standing here if you don’t remember anything else I said. Watch, we’re gonna have an international crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy.”

Israel’s political and military leaders also face a tough dilemma that can no longer be put off of whether to strike Iran’s nuclear installations militarily in the next three months between US presidencies before the last window closes, or take a chance on coordination with the next president.

Waiting for the “international community” to do the job of stopping Iran, as urged by governments headed by Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert - and strongly advocated Tzipi Livni, foreign minister and would-be prime minister - has been a washout. Iran stands defiantly on the threshold of a nuclear weapon.

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The Iranian Mystery Ship: Death from the Sea


On August 21st, 2008, the MV Iran Deyant, 44,458 dead weight bulk carrier was heading towards the Suez Canal. As it was passing the Horn of Africa, about 80 miles southeast of al-Makalla in Yemen, the ship was surrounded by speedboats filled with members of a gang of Somalia pirates who grab suitable commercial ships and hold them,, and their cargos and crews for ransom. The captain was defenseless against the 40 pirates armed with AK-47s and rocket-propelled grenades blocking his passage. He had little choice other than to turn his ship over to them. What the pirates were not banking on, however, was that this was no ordinary ship.

The MV Iran Deyanat is owned and operated by the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines (IRISL) - a state-owned company run by the Iranian military that was sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury on September 10, shortly after the ship's hijacking. According to the U.S. Government, the company regularly falsifies shipping documents in order to hide the identity of end users, uses generic terms to describe shipments to avoid the attention of shipping authorities, and employs the use of cover entities to circumvent United Nations sanctions to facilitate weapons proliferation for the Iranian Ministry of Defense.

The MV Iran Deyanat departed Nanjing, China, July 28, and, according to its manifest, planned to sail to Rotterdam, where it would offload 42,500 tons of iron ore and "industrial products" purchased by an unidentified “ German client”. The ship has a crew of 29 men, including a Pakistani captain, an Iranian engineer, 13 other Iranians, 3 Indians, 2 Filipinos, and 10 Eastern Europeans, stated to be Albanians


The MV Iran Deyanat was brought to Eyl, a sleepy fishing village in northeastern Somalia, and was secured by a larger gang of pirates - 50 onboard and 50 onshore. The Somali pirates attempted to inspect the ship's seven cargo containers but the containers were locked. The crew claimed that they did not have the "access codes" and could not open them. Pirates have stated they were unable to open the hold without causing extensive damage to the ship, and threatened to blow it up The Iranian ship’s captain and the engineer were contactd by cell phone and demanded to disclose the actual nature of the mysterious “powdered cargo” but the captain and his officers were very evasive. Initially they said that the cargo contained "crude oil" but then claimed it contained "minerals." Following this initial rebuff, the pirates broke open one of the containers and discovered it to be filled with packets of what they said was “a powdery fine sandy soil”

Within a period of three days, those pirates who had boarded the ship and opened the cargo container with its gritty sand-like contents, all developed strange health complications, to include serious skin burns and loss of hair. And within two weeks, sixteen of the pirates subsequently died, either on the ship or on shore

.News about the illness and the toxic cargo quickly reached Garowe, seat of the government for the autonomous region of Puntland. Angered over the wave of piracy and suspicious about the Iranian ship, authorities dispatched a delegation led by Minister of Minerals and Oil Hassan Allore Osman to investigate the situation on September 4. and they witnessed some of the deaths due to exposure to ‘something on that ship.’


The Somali pirates initially set the ship's ransom at $2 million and the Iranian government provided $200,000 to a local broker "to facilitate the exchange." The $2 million dollar ransom agreement, which was supposedly secured on September 6th, never took place for reasons unknown. After September 10th, sanctions on IRISL were applied specifically because the company was said to engaged in illicit operations on behalf of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.



Serious negotiations were broken off completely. Iranian authorities subsequently denied that it agreed to the price nor had paid any money to the pirates. Nevertheless, after sanctions were applied to IRISL on September 10, Osman says, the Iranians told the pirates that the deal was off. "They told the pirates that they could not come because of the presence of the U.S. Navy." The region is patrolled by the multinational Combined Taskforce 150, which includes ships from the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet.

Subsequently, it was disclosed that the U.S. government had offered to pay $7 million to the pirates to "receive entry permission and search the vessel." Officials in the Pentagon and the Department of State have consistently refused to comment on the situation.

The exact nature of the cargo remains officially a mystery but officials in Puntland and Baidoa are convinced the ship was carrying weapons to Eritrea for Islamist insurgents. "We cannot inspect the cargo yet," Osman said, "but we are sure that it is weapons."

The US Navy (and the French and the Russians) have been hove to off the coast of Eyl, going anywhere once released, it will be seized once it gets to sea. The specific clauses that have been approved in both the UN and in Congress would allow the US Navy to seize the ship under the suspicion clause. The claims that there are weapons onboard, and the possibility there might be chemical weapons, has insured there is at the very minimum, an inspection of the ship by outside authority will be mandated. At this writing, the MV Iran Deyanat is at anchor, watched closely by American, French and Russian naval units.



Although American intelligence and government sources are maintaining a strictly observed silence, the same does not apply to the Russians and so it is that we learn the real story of the MV Iran Deyanat. She was an enormous floating dirty bomb, intended to detonate after exiting the Suez Canal at the eastern end of the Mediterranean and in proximity to the coastal cities of Israel. The entire cargo of radioactive sand, obtained by Iran from China (the latter buys desperately needed oil from the former) and sealed in containers which, when the charges on the ship are set off after the crew took to the boats, will be blasted high into the air where prevailing winds will push the highly dangerous and radioactive cloud ashore.



Given the large number of deaths from the questing Somali pirates, it should be obvious that when the contents of the ship’s locked cargo containers finally descended onto the land, the death toll would be enormous. This ship was nothing more nor less than the long-anticipated Iranian attack on Israel. Not the expected rocket attacks (which could be interdicted by the Israelis) but even more deadly and unexpected attack by sea.. It is very interesting to note that the Israeli government has in the past few weeks, been loudly demanding that the United States establish a naval blockade of Iran.



The reason for this blockade would be to prevent any more Iranian ships with deadly cargos from attacking either Israel or other targets from the sea.

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Op woensdag 22 oktober 2008 11:20 schreef MoltiSanti het volgende:
en nog een veeeel dubieuzer artikel:
[..]

http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a2880.htm#002

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Op woensdag 22 oktober 2008 13:54 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Ja, als het waar is dat Iran een schip vol Chinees radioactief zand voor de kust van een Israelische stad wilde laten ontploffen, maar dat dat weerhouden is door Somalische piraten die allemaal stierven aan een of andere mysterieuze ziekte, alsof Toetankhamon himself in die kist lag, als dat waar is... OMG, , dan is het goed mis.

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Iranian General: Tehran Arming 'Liberation Armies'

TEHRAN, Iran is supplying weapons to "liberation armies" in the Middle East, a top Revolutionary Guards commander said, offering the first official confirmation the country provides weapons to armed groups in the region.

Gen. Hossein Hamedani, deputy commander of a volunteer militia that is part of the elite Revolutionary Guards, did not provide specific details in the report on the state-run Borna news. The U.S. military has accused Iran of arming Shiite militias in Iraq, and Iran is widely believed to provide weapons to Lebanon's militant Shiite Hezbollah group.

"Not only are our armed forces self-sufficient, liberation armies of the region get part of their weapons from us," Hamedani said, according to the report on Borna's Web site late Sunday.

In the past, Iran — a majority Shiite country — has denied arming Hezbollah, saying it only provided political and financial support. The Iranian government has also denied providing weapons or financial support to Shiite militants fighting U.S. forces in Iraq.

But the U.S. military has said it has evidence that elements of the Mahdi army, an Iraqi militia loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, have been armed by Iran.

Hamedani also said Iran has no shortage of advanced missile systems.

"Our chemical engineers have upgraded Iran's missile capability," he was quoted as saying.

Hamedani didn't elaborate, but Iranian officials have said they successfully tested a solid fuel motor for the medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile, a technological breakthrough for Iran.

Experts say solid fuel increases the accuracy of missiles in reaching targets. But many in the West have expressed doubt about Iran's professed military accomplishments.

Iran launched an arms development program during its 1980-88 war with Iraq to compensate for a U.S. weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and a fighter plane.

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Op dinsdag 28 oktober 2008 14:28 schreef princemm het volgende:
ik ben voor iran

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Op woensdag 29 oktober 2008 15:05 schreef indahnesia.com het volgende:

[..]

Dat had je al kenbaar gemaakt.

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Op donderdag 30 oktober 2008 11:59 schreef princemm het volgende:
voor wie ben jij dan ?
[..]

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The impending strike on Iran
By David Fink


Fact. We are in the beginning of a worldwide recession that will last until at least late 2009. This recession will be worse than the "light" recession of 2001-2002, and the "serious" recession of 1990-1991. In scope, it will be a "severe" recession like the one in 1982.

Fact. People will start saving for the first time in a generation. The savings rate will go from a negative 1% to 8-9%.

Fact. Without increases in consumer spending, the government



will have to spend trillions of dollars to restart the economy. The United States is experiencing unprecedented levels of government, corporate, and individual debt. It cannot go through a period of inflation without its economy collapsing. Policymakers know this and they will do anything in their power to prevent deflation and re-inflate the economy. The Treasury and Federal Reserve have literally been printing money in order to float us out of the current crisis in an ocean of liquidity.

This policy has been working for over two decades. However, to inject this much liquidity into the system will create tremendous downward pressure on the dollar. If the dollar falls apart, the United States will no longer have the ability to fix its problems with the printing press.

How will we know if we will be able to get out of this recession in one piece? We will need to know if, a) we are experiencing deflation or inflation, and b) if the dollar is strong enough to keep reproducing itself at this rate.

The price of gold will tell us what type of monetary environment we are in. If gold stays put at $700, or begins to go down from here, then we are in a deflationary period. For the United States to be going through deflation when everybody in this country is over their heads in debt is dangerous. For these two problems to occur during an economic downturn where unemployment could hit 10% is potentially catastrophic. Over the past month, major downturns in the stock market indices have been preceded by huge drops in the price of gold.

The US dollar index will tell us if we can still use the same medicine traditionally prescribed by Alan Greenspan. If the dollar index holds above 70, we can print our way out of this recession. If the index breaks 70, then the dollar could be in trouble. Look for higher interest rates, inflation, and the government's ability to raise debt will be hampered - this could kill future growth.

Gold and the US dollar index have become the two vital signs of the global economy.

If there is a run on the dollar, the US will not be able to borrow enough money to fight two wars, bail out the whole financial system, and initiate a spending program that will end the current recession. Policymakers will have to make difficult choices. This presents a once-in-a-lifetime "opportunity" for President George W Bush.

The smart money has chosen Senator Barack Obama as our next president. If we don't have a currency strong enough to borrow the necessary funds to do everything, I think Obama will try to pull out of Iraq. Given that we are winning the war in Iraq and have pledged to significantly draw down troop numbers in the next couple of years, how hard would it be for Obama to declare victory and pull out now? Politically, this would signal a message to the rest of the world that America has changed course and is ready to work with everybody else.

But that's not why Obama would pull out.

He won't do it for political reasons - he will do it for economical ones. A beaten-down dollar means that spending in one place will mean less money somewhere else. Up until now, Americans have been able to spend in one area, and borrow to finance another one. If president Obama doesn't end the war, monies that are needed at home will not materialize. We will hear stories about how the everyday American can't afford basic health care while we are still fighting in Iraq.

The popularity Obama has enjoyed as a candidate will soon turn to hostility if the average American family had to suffer because he didn't keep his promise to end the war. His decision will be due to economic reality - but it will have very dangerous political, military, and national security implications. Most of all, George W Bush's entire legacy will be wiped away.

Don't you think the Bush administration is pondering this possibility?

A president is definitely most powerful when he is a lame duck who is ceding power to an opposing party. If you are the outgoing president, or a member of the outgoing administration, you are thinking one thing: if Obama wins, November and December would be ideal time to attack Iran.

Consider this:

# Bush is a lame duck. He won't be around to have to deal with any fallout from such a move.

# Obama will never attack Iran. Four years from now, we will not be able to stop Iran from completing work on their bomb. Bush has always had a big sense of destiny in his leadership. If he believes that he is the only one who can save the world, he may decide to do it.

# Obama can fix the damage. The Arab world loves Obama. They view him as a fellow Muslim. After Bush protects the nations of Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait, Dubai, Qatar and half of Europe from nuclear disaster, and these nations openly proclaim their hatred for him, Obama can come to power and spend his first 100 days in office "apologizing" for Bush's "mistakes". The US will literally get a "free pass" for this in the eyes of the world.

# When oil was at $147 a barrel, there was no way the Bush administration was going to risk spiking it to $250 - especially with a presidential election coming up. Come November, oil will be trading at $70 per barrel. A strike on Iran may raise the price temporarily to its 52-week high of $150 per barrel. The election will be over and politically, the Bush administration will have nothing to lose.

# An attack on Iran will force the American military to stay in Iraq for a longer period of time. The immediate Iranian response to an American attack will be to escalate the war. They will "green light" Shi'ite groups in Southern Iraq to go back to war with American forces. They will finance and encourage terrorist groups around the world to hit America wherever and whenever. They will broaden the war in the region by inciting Syria, Hamas in Gaza, and Hezbollah in Lebanon to attack Israel - assuming they don't fire on Israel themselves. America will have to stay at least an extra 2-3 years until things "quiet down" again. This new situation will also insure that the national security infrastructure created after September 11, and nurtured throughout the Bush administration, will not lose any of its powers during the new administration.

# Members of the Bush administration, who left their jobs in the private sector, will soon be returning to the private sector. They all came from the oil industry and they want to make sure that they will be taken care of. Those 433,000 stock options in Halliburton outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney put in a trust before he assumed office - he gets them back January 20. It would be in his best interests if the shares of these companies were trading higher. That goes for the rest of the Bush administration - they will all want to make sure that the heads of the oil industry - their next employers - are happy. Obama has promised to tax the oil industry next year. An attack on Iran will drive oil prices up so that the additional revenue generated by these companies will, at a least, make up for any new tax obligations.

# The aftershocks of the US attack will keep oil prices in triple digits and reinitiate the debate about drilling for offshore oil. A higher price will give big oil new political clout in developing oil fields in areas considered environmentally unsound. A heightened global tension means that the next administration will be forced to maintain current government outlays to the defense industry.

The final three points will force Obama to continue the core policies of the Bush administration whether he likes it or not. If you are viewing the world from the point of view of the Bush administration, you see a lot of very big arguments for attacking Iran now.

From this we can come to a very simple conclusion: America will either attack Iran in the next two and a half months, or it never will.

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Op donderdag 30 oktober 2008 18:55 schreef StateOfMind het volgende:

[..]

Het is geen sportwedstrijd of zo...

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Op zaterdag 1 november 2008 14:12 schreef princemm het volgende:
Ik verheug me er wel een beetje op met zak chips en heineken .
Denjken jullie dat het nog gaat gebeuren?
[..]

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Op zaterdag 1 november 2008 14:12 schreef princemm het volgende:
Ik verheug me er wel een beetje op met zak chips en heineken .
Denjken jullie dat het nog gaat gebeuren?
[..]

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Op zaterdag 1 november 2008 16:16 schreef Triggershot het volgende:
Kunnen we concluderen dat Iran momenteel moslimland is met de meeste - schijnbare - ballen? Theologische standpunt gezien is Iran redelijk alleenstaand in de moslimwereld, maar Iran is zeker geen Irak. Een aanval op Iran zou een grote fout zijn van de VS of Israël.

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Op zaterdag 1 november 2008 16:40 schreef Triggershot het volgende:

[..]

Oh ja, dat mag je vinden, Iran zal het wrs noodzaak vinden omdat Israël & VS ook zwaar bewapend zijn. De een heeft niet meer het recht dan de ander om bewapend te zijn.

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Op zaterdag 1 november 2008 18:12 schreef Kees22 het volgende:

[..]

Dan lijkt het me nog maar helemaal de vraag, wat je onder winnen verstaat. Want ik geloof niet dat de VSvA er een derde oorlog bij kunnen hebben en Israel heeft wel een grote bek en wat atoomwapens, maar zal van Iran toch niet kunnen winnen.
Dus als ze zo stom zijn om aan te vallen, lopen ze gegarandeerd vast.

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Op zaterdag 1 november 2008 18:12 schreef Kees22 het volgende:

[..]

Dan lijkt het me nog maar helemaal de vraag, wat je onder winnen verstaat. Want ik geloof niet dat de VSvA er een derde oorlog bij kunnen hebben en Israel heeft wel een grote bek en wat atoomwapens, maar zal van Iran toch niet kunnen winnen.
Dus als ze zo stom zijn om aan te vallen, lopen ze gegarandeerd vast.

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Op zaterdag 1 november 2008 22:12 schreef Kees22 het volgende:

[..]

Ja, Israel en de VSvA zijn inderdaad landen die een volledige vernietiging als overwinning beschouwen.
En dan noemen ze Iran als deel van de as van het kwaad.
[..]

En atoomprogramma van Iran, is dat net zoiets als de massavernietigingswapens van Saddam?
Hoe kun je nou iets uitschakelen dat er niet is? En je mag niks uitschakelen dat rechtmatig is.

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Op zaterdag 1 november 2008 22:12 schreef Kees22 het volgende:

[..]

Ja, Israel en de VSvA zijn inderdaad landen die een volledige vernietiging als overwinning beschouwen.
En dan noemen ze Iran als deel van de as van het kwaad.

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Iran minister sacked over forgery

breaking news

Parliament in Iran has voted to sack Interior Minister Ali Kordan after he admitted a degree he said he obtained from Oxford University was a forgery.

Mr Kordan said he received the doctorate from Oxford University in good faith, but his certificate was revealed to be a crude fake.

Both conservatives and moderates MPs called for his dismissal.

Correspondents say President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may now have to submit his whole cabinet for a vote of confidence.

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Obama--fresh face for war on Iran

Barack Obama's top advisers are setting the stage for a military action against Iran over its nuclear program, new reports have revealed.

The emerging consensus on Iran in US foreign policy circles underscores the fact that the differences between Obama and John McCain were purely tactical, according to the World Socialist Website.

While millions of Americans voted for the Democratic candidate believing he would end the war in Iraq and address their pressing economic needs, powerful sections of the American elite swung behind him as a better vehicle to prosecute US economic and strategic interests in the Middle East and Central Asia-including the use of military force against Iran.

The report points to Obama's top Middle East adviser, Dennis Ross, as one of the key figures promoting a military action against Iran.

Ross is a key member of the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington-based think tank, which declared in a report in September that a nuclear weapons capable Iran was “strategically untenable” and detailed a robust approach, “incorporating new diplomatic, economic and military tools in an integrated fashion”.

The report said that the US needs to immediately boost its military presence in the Persian Gulf.

“This should commence the first day the new president enters office, especially as the Islamic Republic and its proxies might seek to test the new administration. It would involve pre-positioning US and allied forces, deploying additional aircraft carrier battle groups and minesweepers, [and] emplacing other war materiel in the region,” it stated

MGH/HAR

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The timing of the talks, between two lame duck leaders with only weeks to go before they leave office, is intriguing. Israel has stated repeatedly that it would be unacceptable for an Iranian regime to acquire nuclear weapons. Altough Tehran insists that its uranium enrichment programme is for peaceful purposes, President Ahmadinejad has vowed to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.

During his visit to Washington, which begins on Sunday, Mr Olmert is expected to meet the Vice-President Dick Cheney, the Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Robert Gates, the Defence Secretary.

Intelligence sources have told The Times that the prospect of Israel taking preemptive military action to knock out Iran’s nuclear facilities appears to have become significantly more likely in recent weeks. Such an operation would require at least tacit US cooperation because it would almost certainly involve Israeli warplanes flying through US-controlled airspace in Iraq.

Barack Obama is known to have raised this issue when he visited Israel last summer. Diplomats in Washington have confirmed that he discussed with European leaders concerns that the first months of his presidency could be thrown off-course by such a military crisis.

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The emerging consensus on Iran in US foreign policy circles underscores the fact that the differences between Obama and John McCain were purely tactical, according to the World Socialist Website.

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Op zaterdag 8 november 2008 19:00 schreef SeLang het volgende:

[..]

Je kunt het tussen de regels door al horen. Eerst wilde hij met ahmadinejad gaan praten, maar nu heeft hij die security briefing gehad en trekt hij die keutel weer in. Mijn gok is dat die aanval allang gepland is en dat hij daarover nu is ingelicht.

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Op vrijdag 21 november 2008 09:38 schreef SeLang het volgende:

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Mijn theorie is een andere. Dit schreef ik na de security briefing die Obama kreeg na de verkiezingen.
[..]

Aangezien hij de nasleep van een aanval zal moeten opvangen zou hij totaal ongeloofwaardig worden als hij zijn "weer praten met Iran" retoriek blijft handhaven.

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Iran to launch two new ships, submarine

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's navy is planning to launch two new ships and a submarine later this week, the commander of the navy announced Sunday.

All three vessels were made in Iran, the semi-official Fars News Agency quoted Cmdr. Habibolalh Sayyari as saying.

"On the occasion of Navy Day [November 27], two missile-carrying ships named Kalat and Derafsh, as well as a light submarine, will be launched," he said.

Sayyari repeated a long-standing Iranian threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway, if Iran is threatened.

"We have never said that we will close the Strait of Hormuz. What we did say was that we do have the capability to do so in the event of any aggression or attack," he said.

The United States has said it will not let Iran close the waterway, a vital link in shipping Middle Eastern oil to the world.

Sayyari told reporters that the Iranian navy is monitoring all the movements of foreign ships in the Sea of Oman, the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

He also said that Iran is not planning on expanding its military presence in the Caspian Sea, but: "We have identified 20 percent of the Caspian as our area and will fully protect that area."

Sayyari added that the Iranian navy planned to hold naval maneuvers called "Unity 87" in early December in the Sea of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian and U.S. vessels have occasionally come in close contact in the region, escalating tensions between Tehran and Washington.

Bron: CNN

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Op zaterdag 1 november 2008 21:28 schreef MoltiSanti het volgende:

[..]

winst is uitschakeling van het nucleaire programma imho.

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Op vrijdag 21 november 2008 12:19 schreef Monidique het volgende:
Iran wordt niet aangevallen en Obama zal blijven willen praten met het land. Terecht.

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Op vrijdag 21 november 2008 11:47 schreef B.Honderd het volgende:
Nuke ze maar en dat ik er nooit meer iets over hoef te horen of te zien!

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Op vrijdag 21 november 2008 09:38 schreef SeLang het volgende:

[..]

Mijn theorie is een andere. Dit schreef ik na de security briefing die Obama kreeg na de verkiezingen.
[..]

Aangezien hij de nasleep van een aanval zal moeten opvangen zou hij totaal ongeloofwaardig worden als hij zijn "weer praten met Iran" retoriek blijft handhaven.

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Op maandag 24 november 2008 14:16 schreef Lind het volgende:

Ik denk dat Iraakse leger (zijn ook sjiiten) zich tegen hun amerikaanse bondgenoten gaan keren....

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Iran brings down Israeli spy network
November 24 2008 at 1:28 PM

Iranian security forces have arrested members of an Israeli spy cell that had been conducting data collection operations in the country.

"The security and intelligence division of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) recently identified a network that was spying on the country's military organizations," Fars news agency quoted the IRGC chief commander, Brigadier General Mohammad-Ali Jafari, as saying on Monday.

"The network's link with Mossad was established after extensive intelligence and tracking operations. Members of the cell were arrested during an operation," Brig. Gen. Jafari added.

According to the official, the network was gathering information for Israel about nuclear facilities, the IRGC as well as Iranian military and political figures.

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'Israel spy' put to death in Iran
November 22 2008 at 1:41 PM Ali's knife victim. (Login TryphonTournesol)
Immortal Iran
'Israel spy' put to death in Iran

Iran has hanged a telecoms engineer convicted of spying for Israel, reports from Tehran say.

Ali Ashtari, an Iranian, was convicted in June of spying for Mossad, Israel's intelligence agency. A video said to be of his confession was broadcast on TV.

He was convicted of sending "sensitive information on military, defence and research centres" for three years.

Israeli officials were quoted in June as saying that Israel was not familiar with the case.

Announcing the execution, which reportedly took place on Monday, Iran's official news agency said the case against the 45-year-old was clear and his appeal was summarily dismissed.
"He had spied for Mossad for three years," the state news agency quoted the intelligence ministry's director of counter-terrorism as saying.

"His espionage was so evident," the unnamed official said.
Officials said Ashtari was recruited by Israeli secret services to intercept the communications of Iranian officials working in the military and its controversial nuclear programme.
Broadcasting his apparent confession, state TV showed Ashtari sitting down wearing an open-necked shirt and jumper.
"It was my mistake and perhaps I feared going to the intelligence ministry, and this fear was the reason why I kept choosing the wrong path," he said, speaking into the camera.

"Do not repeat the mistakes that I made."

The case unfolded throughout the year against a backdrop of concerns in Iran that Israel was planning to launch a pre-emptive strike against its nuclear facilities.

Israel is a leading advocate of strong action against Tehran, which it believes is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.
Iran denies that charge, saying its nuclear programme is intended for energy supply only.

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Op zaterdag 1 november 2008 22:12 schreef Kees22 het volgende:

[..]

Ja, Israel en de VSvA zijn inderdaad landen die een volledige vernietiging als overwinning beschouwen.
En dan noemen ze Iran als deel van de as van het kwaad.
[..]

quote:

En atoomprogramma van Iran, is dat net zoiets als de massavernietigingswapens van Saddam?
Hoe kun je nou iets uitschakelen dat er niet is? En je mag niks uitschakelen dat rechtmatig is.

quote:

Israel Preparing to Strike Iran Without U.S. Consent

Israel is drawing up plans to attack Iran's nuclear facilities and is prepared to launch a strike without backing from the U.S., an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday.

Officials in the Israeli Defence Ministry told The Jerusalem Post that while they prefer to act in consultation with the U.S., they are preparing plans that would allow them to act alone.

"It is always better to coordinate," a senior Defence Ministry official told the newspaper. "But we are also preparing options that do not include coordination."

It would be difficult, but not impossible, to launch a strike against Iran without permission from the U.S., as the American Air Force controls the Iraqi airspace Israel's jets would have to enter on a bombing mission.

"There are a wide range of risks one takes when embarking on such an operation," a senior Israeli official told the Post.

Iran, the world's fourth-largest crude oil producer, maintains that its uranium enrichment activities are aimed at making fuel for a network of planned electricity-generating nuclear power plants and not for developing weapons.

However Israel intelligence sources say Iran has sufficient nuclear material to make an atomic bomb.

Last month, amid mounting fears in Israel that the U.S. was doing nothing to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power, Ehud Olmert, Israel's Prime Minister, warned President Bush the last chance of destroying Tehran’s nuclear bomb-making program was passing.

Iran dismisses the possibility of an Israeli strike.

"We think that regional and international developments and the complicated situation faced by Israel itself will not allow it to launch military strikes against other countries," Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi said, according to the Press TV Web site.

"Israel makes threats to promote its psychological and media warfare," Qashqavi said.

A report, published in September in Britain's Guardian newspaper, claimed that Isreali Prime Minister Ehud Olmert requested a green light to attack Iran in May but was refused by Bush.

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Op donderdag 4 december 2008 11:59 schreef Frutsel het volgende:

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Ze doen het echt zonder de VS denk ik... al weten de amis er dan heus wel van
Zie ook --> Israël: Aanval op Iran lijkt onvermijdelijk

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Op donderdag 4 december 2008 12:24 schreef Monidique het volgende:
De landen rondom de Perzisch Golf zijn banger voor een oorlog met Iran en de nasleep daarvan dan voor een nucleair Iran als economische partner.

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Op donderdag 4 december 2008 12:27 schreef Frutsel het volgende:

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Israel haalt de kogels uit het vuur, zij hoeven dan toch nergens bang voor te zijn? En de haat jegens Israel zal nog verder groeien in de regio, plus dat ze geen nucleaire buurman in de regio hebben. 1+1 = 2 plusjes?

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Op donderdag 4 december 2008 12:27 schreef Frutsel het volgende:
Feit is wel dat ALS de Israeliers het echt doen, ik wel verwacht dat Iran dit niet ongestraft laat en samen met Syrie in aktie wil komen. En als dat gebeurd vraag ik me af of de VS blijft stilzitten

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Op donderdag 4 december 2008 12:31 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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Het zal Qatar en Oman een rotzorg zijn of Iran een kerncentrale heeft of niet. Die landen zijn heus niet stom, die weten ook wel dat het weinig uitmaakt. Dus er is in dat geval geen +1. Er is wel een -1, want oorlog is niet goed voor de economie. De regio is al niet zo stabiel, maar een Perzische Golf verlamd door terreur en oorlog is niet goed voor dergelijke landen. En die landen willen gewoon handelen met Iran, want dat brengt geld op.

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Op donderdag 4 december 2008 13:07 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

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koeweit en SA denken daar echter anders over nets als china pakistan etc.

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Op donderdag 4 december 2008 12:31 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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Het zal Qatar en Oman een rotzorg zijn of Iran een kerncentrale heeft of niet. Die landen zijn heus niet stom, die weten ook wel dat het weinig uitmaakt. Dus er is in dat geval geen +1. Er is wel een -1, want oorlog is niet goed voor de economie. De regio is al niet zo stabiel, maar een Perzische Golf verlamd door terreur en oorlog is niet goed voor dergelijke landen. En die landen willen gewoon handelen met Iran, want dat brengt geld op.

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Op zondag 23 november 2008 19:53 schreef GewoneMan het volgende:

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want dat heeft al tot zoveel resultaat geleid

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Op donderdag 4 december 2008 13:15 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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Koeweit en China en Pakistan hebben ook liever een rustig, vreedzaam Iran met een kerncentrale waarmee ze kunnen handelen dan oorlogschaos in het Midden-Oosten en Iran. Saoedi-Arabië, sja...

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Op donderdag 4 december 2008 13:39 schreef damian5700 het volgende:

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Als er vuile bommen in Israëlische steden ontploffen dan hebben deze landen niets gehad aan de blik op de korte termijn, dus denk ik dat zij meerdere scenario's ontvouwen.

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Op donderdag 4 december 2008 12:48 schreef SeLang het volgende:

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Syrie zal zich erbuiten houden want die kunnen sowieso niets. De laatste keer dat Syrie iets probeerde tegen Israel (1981 of 1982) heeft Israel de complete Syrische luchtmacht vernietigd (80 vliegtuigen) zonder zelf één vliegtuig te verliezen.

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Op vrijdag 21 november 2008 09:38 schreef SeLang het volgende:

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Mijn theorie is een andere. Dit schreef ik na de security briefing die Obama kreeg na de verkiezingen.
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Aangezien hij de nasleep van een aanval zal moeten opvangen zou hij totaal ongeloofwaardig worden als hij zijn "weer praten met Iran" retoriek blijft handhaven.

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Op vrijdag 5 december 2008 00:03 schreef Kees22 het volgende:

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Er zijn twee dingen die ik steeds maar niet begrijp.
1) Iran zegt geen kernwapens te willen ontwikkelen, maar kerncentrales te willen hebben. Dat is ook stom, maar wel legaal. Toch wordt er steeds gedaan, alsof ze stiekem toch kernwapens willen bouwen. Vanwaar dat wantrouwen? Projectie? Kwade wil? Een smoesje? Ik zeg niet dat je staten op hun woord moet geloven, maar waarom zou men in Iran harder liegen dan elders? En waarom wil de VSvA wel geloofd worden en mag Iran niet geloofd worden. Zolang er geen bewijs is, is de staat toch onschuldig? (Hoe zat het ook al weer met de massavernietingswapens van Saddam? Wie loog er toen?)
2) De VSvA, Rusland, India, Pakistan, Frankrijk en Israel hebben kernwapens. En China vast ook wel. Van deze landen zijn er tenminste drie erkend oorlogszuchtig: de VSvA, Rusland en israel. De VSvA zijn de enige staat, die die krengen ooit gebruikt hebben. Wie zijn zij om een ander land het bezit van kernwapens te verbieden?

En hoe denkt Israel een oorlog te winnen? Iran heeft ruim 10 keer zoveel inwoners en is veel en veel groter. Goed, de Israeli's hebben laten zien onevenredig veel kapot te kunnen maken, maar dan nog.
En Iraniërs, althans de echte, want er zijn veel verschillende volken in Iran, zijn geen Arabieren.

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Op vrijdag 5 december 2008 09:52 schreef henkway het volgende:
Punt blijft, dat je een land niet mag aanvallen, dat niets fout gedaan heeft, dat gold voor Irak, en geld ook voor Iran, dus zolang Iran zegt dat ze geen Weapons of Massdestruction heeft, en niemand aanvallen, blijf je er met je tengels vandaan

Als Rusland dat land steunt met kernwapens zou ik het heel terecht vinden

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Op dinsdag 25 november 2008 09:19 schreef Clara het volgende:

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Tuurlijk. Als Israel het wil dan hebben we een glasplaat Gaza. Kennelijk willen ze dat dus niet en klopt jouw toeschrijving niet.
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Israël bombardeerde ook al eens een kerncentrale in Irak. Dus zo vreemd is het niet dat de technologie in Iran aanwezig is.Raid on the reactor : delen 1, 2, 3, 4 en 5

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Op vrijdag 5 december 2008 09:58 schreef Frutsel het volgende:

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Wanneer doe je iets fout?
Maar inderdaad, we wachten gewoon tot de eerste terroristennuke, via hezbollah en gesponsord door iran, afgaat in Tel Aviv.