Roadmap to war against Iran #11

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At his monthly media briefing the prime minister said the Iranian regime was "deeply extreme".

He called the Holocaust conference in Iran this week, which had speakers including an ex-Ku Klux Klan leader, "shocking beyond belief".

Mr Blair also played down suggestions current problems in Iraq were caused by US decisions after Saddam's fall.

"Iran is deliberately causing maximum problems for moderate governments and for ourselves in the region - in Palestine, in Lebanon and in Iraq."

He said there was "little point" in including Iran and Syria in regional issues, such as Iraq, "unless they are prepared to be constructive".

'Major challenge'

"There is no point in hiding the fact that Iran poses a major strategic threat to the cohesion of the entire region," Mr Blair told reporters.

There were "major, major problems" in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine, but "all of this is now overshadowed by the issue of Iran".

He said it would be a "major challenge" to deal with Iran.

Describing a "deadlock" over the Palestinian situation, Mr Blair said: "You only have to see what is happening in Iran in the past couple of days to realise how important it is that all people of moderation in the Middle East try to come together and sort out the problems.

"There literally could be nothing more important on the international agenda at the moment than that."


This problem hasn't originated naturally. It's originated as a result of the deliberate outside interference linking up with internal extremism
Tony Blair

Asked about the Iraq Study Group's report, published in the US last week, Mr Blair said it was still the intention to withdraw British troops once Iraqi authorities were able to take over.

"I certainly do not take the Study Group as saying that we should get out, come what may.

"What they are saying is that we have to increase our driving up of the capability of the Iraqi forces, because it's obviously better that the Iraqis themselves take responsibility and indeed the Iraqi government is increasingly saying it wants to take responsibility.

"Then the coalition forces will still be in a support role but it won't be the same as it is at the moment."

Strategy

He said the situation for UK troops in Basra was different from that for US troops in Baghdad, where there was more sectarian violence, but the UK withdrawal would not be affected by US decisions.

"If and when they [US troops] are able to change the situation in Baghdad, then they too will be in a different set of circumstances, but the pace at which both of those things may happen may be different," Mr Blair said.

Mr Blair was also asked about ex-defence secretary Geoff Hoon's suggestion recently that the UK had not wanted the Iraqi army disbanded after Saddam Hussein's fall.

Mr Blair said: "The principal reason we are having a problem in Iraq is because people are deliberately giving us a problem.

"There's sometimes a sense in which, it's as if, if only we sort of had a different post-conflict strategy, somehow we could have avoided this problem.

"This problem hasn't originated naturally. It's originated as a result of the deliberate outside interference linking up with internal extremism."

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"Thanks to people's wishes and God's will, the trend for the existence of the Zionist regime is downwards, and this is what God has promised and what all nations want," he said

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Op woensdag 13 december 2006 00:01 schreef atmosphere1 het volgende:
Erg begrijpelijk dat ze zich gezamelijk gaan wapenen tegen het aggressieve westen .

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Op woensdag 13 december 2006 11:12 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:

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vooralsnog is dat met conventionele wapens, ik geloof dat dat ook vooral van Russische makelij is, Egypte bv. wendt zich hiermee af van Amerika

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Op woensdag 13 december 2006 11:48 schreef icecreamfarmer_NL het volgende:

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egypte koopt VS m1a1 tanks

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But Egypt has begun to look back to Russia for new weapons - something that will not impress its traditional supplier, the United States, our correspondent says.

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"Throughout History, This Religious Group [i.e. the Jews] has Inflicted the Most Damage on the Human Race"

"On a visit to Gilan University, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s advisor Mohammad Ali Ramin said to a group of students in the town of Rasht: 'We Iranians are definitely not, and never have been, nationalistic, and we are not against any ethnic [group]. We certainly do not worship race, nor [are we] against any race, and we nave never perpetrated genocide. This is why Islam, which appeared and advanced [the notion of] equality among nations and among peoples, greatly appealed to us Iranians. We have accepted the [principle] of equality among nations since the days of the Achaemenids. [2] Antisemitism, therefore, has no place in our Iranian [culture]. I myself honestly fight for just treatment of Judaism. Ten years ago, [when] I first brought up the issue of the Holocaust in this country, my intention was to defend the Jews…

"'But among the Jews there have always been those who killed God’s prophets and who opposed justice and righteousness. Throughout history, this religious group has inflicted the most damage on the human race, while some groups within it engaged in plotting against other nations and ethnic groups to cause cruelty, malice and wickedness.

"'Historically, there are many accusations against the Jews. For example, it was said that they were the source for such deadly diseases as the plague and typhus. This is because the Jews are very filthy people. For a time people also said that they poisoned water wells belonging to Christians and thus killed them,' Ramin said.

"Ramin also pointed that powerful people also concocted other plots to mislead public opinion around the world. 'When the Islamic Revolution of Iran succeeded and attracted many people around the world, including Christians, the AIDS epidemic came about, and fear again overtook the world. After the September 11 attacks, the deadly epidemic broke out, which was destroyed when the U.S. invaded Afghanistan. On the eve of the invasion of Iran, the SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) illness broke out, but disappeared after the invasion,' he said."

"Nobody Asks How a Bird Infected with the Flu Could Fly From Australia to Siberia"

"Ramin also claimed that the spread of avian flu was a conspiracy plot cause[d] by the failure of America, Israel and Britain in the Middle East. Ramin pointed out that, to cover up and hide their failures, these countries have spread the news about the bird flu and thus preoccupied and distracted public opinion for some 5 to 6 months. 'Nobody asks how a bird infected with the flu could fly from Australia to Siberia,' he said, adding that even the Iranian minister of health had claimed to have stopped the disease at Iran’s borders. He claimed the holocaust story and bird flu rumors are interrelated. He stated that the killing of millions of chickens was intended to control the price and amount [of] chicken in the market."

"In Order to Deny the Germans the Ability to Increase Their Power, the British andAmericans Present Them as a Human-Burning Nation"

"While acknowledging not knowing the source of these events around the world, Ramin said, 'I only know that Jews have been accused of such conspiracies and sabotage throughout history and have not performed well.' Repeating the president’s claims about the Holocaust, he presented four theories that can be brought in support of these claims:

"The first theory is that, in order to deny the Germans the ability to increase their power, 'the British and Americans present them as a human-burning nation.'

"The second theory is that the Americans and the British have cooked up this story along with the Zionists, so as to create the state of Israel in the middle of the Islamic world and thus control the Islamic world using the pretext of the Holocaust, while also getting rid of the Jews from Europe…

"The third hypothesis relates to the traditional animosity between Christians and Jews. 'The U.S. and Britain, with the cooperation of France, Russia and Germany, and because of their Christian leanings and animosity towards the Jews, initiated the idea of the Holocaust after the Second World War in order to scare off the Jews and send them to what is now Israel in order to get rid of them in Europe and America,' he said. He further said that the movement that created Israel is in fact against the Jews.

"The fourth theory relates to covering up the crimes of the U.S. and Britain. Ramin claimed that Britain killed some 100 million Red Indians in the last 300 years, and the U.S. leveled Hiroshima - which, he said, were the real Holocausts...

"Ramin added that the aim of the Holocaust conspiracy was to facilitate the establishment of the state of Israel, which would, in turn, provoke the Muslims to rise up, confront the Jews, and massacre them. 'This [conspiracy],' he said, 'conducted by Europe and America, would lead to the total annihilation of global Jewry." Ramin added that 'as a religious Muslim, who believes in the equality of all nations, he must alert [people] to the fact that the state of Israel was established as the result of a conspiracy against the Jews...'"

"The Resolution of the Holocaust Issue Will End in the Destruction of Israel"

"Ramin claimed that the Holocaust was the main reason why Palestine was occupied, while Israel was the main cause of crises and catastrophe in the Middle East. 'So long as Israel exists in the region,' he said, 'there will never be peace and security in the Middle East. So the resolution of the Holocaust issue will end in the destruction of Israel.'

"Turning to President Ahmadinejad’s comments on the Holocaust, Ramin said that he criticized the president for making those comments. 'We do not know whether the Holocaust happened or not and so must find out in order to defend the injured party. My suggestion to him,' he said, 'was to set up an investigative committee on this to collect the supporting documents...

"He added that 'before [President] Ahmadinejad placed the issue of the Holocaust [on the global agenda], they [i.e. the West] were always the prosecutors, while we [Muslims] were always [in the position of] the accused. But now Ahmadinejad has enabled us to [take the position of] prosecutors, and challenge the West.

"Ramin also stated that 'many still fail to realize that Iran [now] has an unprecedented and extraordinary opportunity. Raising the issue of the Holocaust will give us a opportunity of global [proportions] to defend the rights of an oppressed nation - [either] the Germans or the Jews - and I hope that lecturers, intellectuals, students and all the Iranian citizens will be aware of this opportunity for change."

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Op woensdag 13 december 2006 14:17 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:

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Rusland is in beeld iig in Egypte
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/6109192.stm

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Op zaterdag 16 december 2006 14:32 schreef pingu_ het volgende:
Vriendelijke landen zoals SA, Egypte en Jordanie waren daar niet echt blij mee.

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Iran and Israel Hold Secret Talks

ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images
While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad spent the better part of 2006 denying the Holocaust and threatening to destroy Israel, his country was sitting down with Israeli representatives to settle old debts. The clandestine talks, first reported by Israeli daily Haaretz this month, concern hundreds of millions of dollars allegedly owed to Iran for oil it supplied to Israel before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, when Iran severed the two countries’ economic ties dating back to the 1950s. According to the report, negotiations over the debt have been on-again and off-again for nearly two decades, and the two sides met recently in Geneva in an attempt to reach an agreement.

It’s unclear why Israeli and Swiss officials are now willing to confirm that the talks are taking place. However, there is one leading theory: The leak was timed to embarrass Iran by publicizing its cooperation with a country it refuses to recognize. And the strategy may have worked. Iran swiftly and vehemently denied it’s secretly talking to the Jewish state. It just goes to show, money talks.

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India Helps Iran Build the Bomb, While the White House Looks the Other Way

RAVEENDRAN/AFP/Getty Images
The U.S. government usually takes a hard line against countries that assist Iran with its nuclear program. In 2006 alone, Washington sanctioned firms in Cuba, North Korea, and Russia for making it a little easier for Iran to develop weapons of mass destruction. But, when the proliferator is a close American ally, the United States seems to take a different approach.

Just after the U.S. House of Representatives voted in July to support a plan to provide India with nuclear technology, the Bush administration quietly imposed sanctions on two Indian firms for supplying Tehran with missile parts. Nor was the White House forthcoming with congress about other blots on India’s proliferation record: In the past two years, two other Indian companies have been penalized for allegedly passing chemical weapons information to Iran, and two Indian scientists who ran the state-run nuclear utility were barred from doing business with the U.S. government after they allegedly passed heavy-water nuclear technology to Tehran. Far from scuttling India’s nuclear deal, the United States seems to have rewarded the country by overturning 30 years of nonproliferation policy in its favor.

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Op zondag 17 december 2006 10:37 schreef retteketet het volgende:

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Vriendelijke landen?

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Op donderdag 21 december 2006 16:04 schreef pingu_ het volgende:

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De VS (en delen van Europa) kunnen het meestal wel aardig met deze landen vinden. Wat ook handig uitkomt op dit moment is dat deze allemaal Shia zijn.

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Saudi Royals Snub Bush, Fund Opposition to US Troops

By Jeffrey Klein and Paolo Pontoniere

New America Media

Thursday 21 December 2006

Early in November, National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley recommended, in a memo leaked to the press, that Saudi Arabia play a leadership role in talks about Iraq's future. But even before the memo landed on Bush's White House desk, the Saudis were positioning themselves to directly influence strategy in Iraq:

* While the debate about negotiating with the Iranians and the Syrians raged in America's leading circles, Vice President Dick Cheney flew to Riyadh for talks. Topic of conversation? The safety of Iraq's Sunni minority should American forces disengage. Simply put: the king read the riot act to the vice president.

* A few weeks later the Iraq Study Group asserted that Saudi private citizens, and probably a few members of the Saudi royal family, have been financing the Sunni opposition in Iraq all along. This is the same opposition that is targeting U.S. troops. Last week, Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah confirmed that his loyalty must lie with Iraq's Sunni tribal chiefs, even if his support also helps insurgents who have been fighting Americans and the Brits.

* Early in November, the Saudis announced their intention to build a $10 billion wall (give or take a few billion) on the border with Iraq, with Raytheon as the top bidder. Raytheon, one of America's premier weapons manufacturers, has close ties to the neocons, including Richard Armitage, former undersecretary of state and Sean O'Keefe, secretary of the Navy during the Reagan administration. Raytheon's stock price is hovering near a seven-year high.

The Saudis are clear about their bottom line: If the United States isn't careful about withdrawing from Iraq, the Sunni kingdom will have no other choice but to arm Iraqi's Sunnis, especially if the Saudi's arch-rival, Iran, which has already destabilized the regional power equilibrium by launching a nuclear program, rushes into a military vacuum left by the Americans.

Last week in Riyadh, at the end of a two-day summit of the Gulf Cooperation Council (a six-country organism including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates), the Saudis announced their interest in developing a joint nuclear energy program. Publicly, Arab officials said the program would be directed at meeting the burgeoning demand for electricity in the region. According to Gulf officials, despite their enormous oil reserves, which power everything from electricity generation to water desalination, the Gulf States need a new source of energy.

"Nuclear technology is an important technology to have for generating power," said Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister, at the conclusion of the summit meeting, "and the Gulf states will need it equally."

Few observers doubt that promoting the idea of a joint atomic energy program between the predominantly Sunni Arab states is a way for Saudi Arabia to send a message to the United States that the Arab state will match Tehran's nuclear power if it needs to.

For years now the international press has been awash with reports about a Saudi collaboration with Pakistan to develop a Saudi nuclear program. Early in 2006, the German periodical Cicero reported that satellite imagery obtained by Germany's secret service indicated that Saudi Arabia has set up in Al-Sulaiyil, south of Riyadh, a secret underground city and dozens of underground silos for missiles. According to Cicero, those silos may be already armed with long-range Ghauri-type missiles of Pakistani origin. This information was corroborated by John Pike, one of the United States' foremost military analysts. According to Pike, a great part of the financing for the so-called Islamic Bomb, Pakistan's nuclear program, has been provided by Saudi financiers.

How hard can the White House push back on the Saudis? It's the Saudis who are now doing the pushing. Last week Saudi financiers showed their political power by forcing Tony Blair to peremptorily cancel his own government's investigation of a slush fund reportedly kicking back 32 percent to Saudi royals on their military purchases from Great Britain. The Saudis reportedly told Blair they'd never buy British weaponry again if their Swiss bank accounts were investigated by the Brits.

"The Saudis think a nasty civil war in Iraq could quickly sour into an even nastier regional war," Pike says, "so they're not in a real patient mood."

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Op donderdag 21 december 2006 19:30 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:

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http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/122106D.shtml

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Op vrijdag 22 december 2006 05:07 schreef Finder_elf_towns het volgende:

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[afbeelding]

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Op vrijdag 22 december 2006 05:07 schreef Finder_elf_towns het volgende:

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[afbeelding]

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News reports based on military sources indicating that the United States plans to move a second aircraft carrier and its supporting ships to the Persian Gulf next month, where it will overlap for several months with the USS Eisenhower, have piqued attention (and anxiety) on the Potomac this week: is the Bush administration laying the groundwork for a spring air war against Tehran, even as it comes under growing domestic pressures to consider talking with Iran and Syria?

The Pentagon announcement of the planned amassing of naval air power in the Gulf coincided with a similar British pledge to move warships to the Persian Gulf, as well as statements from the State Department, President Bush, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair that all focused on Iran's allegedly increasing misbehavior in the region. The Iranian government is “openly supporting terrorism in Iraq to stop a fledgling democratic process, trying to turn out a democratic government in Lebanon, flouting the international community's desire for peace in Palestine -- at the same time as denying the Holocaust,” Blair said Wednesday at a conference in Dubai.

After months of negotiations, the UN Security Council is expected to pass a resolution imposing limited sanctions on Iran as early as today, sources said, barring a hitch. Sanctions would include a limited “travel ban on Iranians associated with the nuclear program, a freeze on their overseas assets, and a ban on nuclear-related exports,” the Guardian reported. They will be the first UN Security Council sanctions on Iran since 1979.

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Are the amassing air power in the region and sanctions signs of looming war? Not yet.

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Op zaterdag 23 december 2006 12:54 schreef Monidique het volgende:

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http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=12349

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Op zaterdag 23 december 2006 13:09 schreef Monidique het volgende:
De Britten in ieder geval, volgens het artikel.

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Iran versnelt nucleair programma

***************************************
` Iran gaat zijn nucleaire programma
versneld uitvoeren.In de kerncentrale
in Natanz worden 3000 ultracentrifuges
voor de uraniumverrijking in gebruik
genomen,zegt Iran.Het is een reactie
op de resolutie van de Veiligheidsraad.

In de resolutie die gisteren aan werd
genomen staat dat Iran geen materiaal
mag importeren dat het kan gebruiken
voor de verrijking van uranium of de
productie van kernwapens.Als dat toch
gebeurt,dan volgen meer sancties.

In de ultracentrifuges in Natanz zal
verrijkt uranium worden geproduceerd.
Dat kan gebruikt worden voor de
productie van kernwapens.
*********************************

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Op zondag 24 december 2006 12:37 schreef SeLang het volgende:
Tsja, Amerika ligt op z'n rug en Iran weet dat maar al te goed en buit dat uit.
Noord Korea zal binnenkort ook wel weer wat olie op het vuur gooien als hun eigen nucleaire programma minder aandacht krijgt in de media.

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Op zaterdag 6 januari 2007 17:07 schreef zakjapannertje het volgende:
b]A.[/b] Henry Kissinger , as Secretary of State in the Ford administration, 1976. Nevertheless the other three all held key national security posts in the same administration, which endorsed Iranian plans for a massive nuclear energy industry. Further, it encouraged a multi-billion dollar deal that would have allowed Iran control of enormous amounts of plutonium and enriched uranium.

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Israel planea ataques nucleares contra iran

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ISRAEL REPORTEDLY PLANNING, TRAINING FOR NUCLEAR STRIKE AGAINST IRAN

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Op zondag 7 januari 2007 02:08 schreef michael2- het volgende:

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- http://www.oem.com.mx/elsoldemexico/notas/n124485.htm
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- http://www.foxnews.com

Oei

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Op zondag 7 januari 2007 02:13 schreef Smoked het volgende:
Is foxnews niet een beetje de sbs6 van Amerika met nepverhalen enz?

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Op zondag 7 januari 2007 02:31 schreef Smoked het volgende:
Aan Bush zal het niet liggen denk ik. Meedoen is een ander verhaal maar hij zal het zeker supporten.