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Showing posts with label nuclear Iran. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nuclear Iran. Show all posts

Monday, July 27, 2015

Iran Won The Negotiations

  • No wonder Iran's Supreme Leader sent around a tweet of Obama pointing a pistol at his own head. Iran's forcing itself on the rest of the world is a central part of Khomeini's Islamic Revolution.
  • The Ayatollahs' wish has long been finally to defeat the divided Arabs, and then to move on to defeat Israel, and then the grandest prize of all -- the "Great Satan," the United States.
  • Worse, apparently a "side deal" -- classified for the Americans but not for Iran -- enables Iran to provide its own soil samples to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to which it has been lying for decades. Even still worse, the parties to the agreement are required to help Iran protect its nuclear facilities should anyone try to attack them or sabotage them -- including, presumably, any disenchanted signatories.
  • Iran will have been rewarded for having violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and been given a red carpeted fast track to complete its nuclear bomb.
If Obama and the others who signed the catastrophic nuclear agreement with Iran on the eve of Laylat al-Qadr, the Eve of Destiny, a few days before the end of the Ramadan fast, had studied a little history, they would know that the Battle of Qadisiyyah in 636, in which the Persians suffered a disastrous defeat at the hands of the Arabs, has not yet ended. They would know that Islam had, in fact, been imposed on the Sassanid Empire by force, and that, in protest, the Persians adopted Shi'a Islam, a form of the religion that deviated from and changed the Islam of the Arabs, as a way of rebelling and continuing the fight.
If the West had studied that important event in Islamic history, they would understand they were enabling Iran to achieve a nuclear bomb and accelerate the national religious war between us, the Arabs, and the Shi'ite Iranians. For Iran's mullahs, the showdown is meant to be apocalyptic.
In that respect, the agreement signed by the American-led powers with Iran's rulers is a milestone along the path they have been praying for. The Ayatollahs' wish has long been finally to defeat the divided Arabs, currently at their weakest point since the beginning of the so-called Arab Spring, and then to move on to defeat Israel, and then grandest prize of all: the "Great Satan," the United States.
The Shi'ite regime of the Ayatollahs in Iran and their proxies are united. And, since the fall of the Shah, they are, sadly, also radical. Between their terrorist wings and influence in the Middle East and abroad, the Ayatollahs are refreshingly open about their determination to defeat the Arabs and achieve religious and national hegemony. Iran's forcing itself on the rest of the world is a central part of Khomeini's Islamic Revolution.
U.S. President Barack Obama has harmed us Arabs by abandoning his own red lines -- against the emphatic advice of his own military advisors -- to accept an agreement that in reality gives the Shi'ites open permission to build nuclear weapons at our expense and, more insanely, to allow Iran intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) that could reach America.
Worse, apparently a "side deal" -- classified for Americans but not for Iran -- allows Iran to provide its own soil samples to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), to which it has been lying for decades. In other words, having the cat guard the milk.
Still worse, the parties to the agreement are required to help Iran protect its nuclear facilities should anyone try to attack them or sabotage them -- including, presumably, any disenchanted signatories. No wonder Iran's Supreme Leader sent a tweet of Obama pointing a pistol at his own head.

On July 25, 2015, Iran's Supreme Leader (right) sent a tweet of Obama pointing a pistol at his own head.

If we try to look at the positive side of the agreement, it is just possible that Obama looked at the Sunni Islamic states, fractured and at each other's throats, and at the ruthless terrorist groups and all the other battle zones gaining ground, and decided that we were too fractious for the U.S. to protect.
Now, one minute before the Iranians would have collapsed under the weight of the economic sanctions, the U.S. has given them a new lease on life, and, supported by the arrival of billions of dollars, is enabling them to return to their broad international terrorist activities and continue developing their nuclear weapons and the ICBMs on which to mount them.
Not only Iran will profit, but also the Turks, the Chinese and the Russians, who have already jumped at the chance to shore up Iran and themselves, both economically and militarily.
America will be now marginalized, as will its allies. What is in store for America is obvious to anyone listening to the hate speech of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. He keeps promising that he will continue fighting against America and Israel, and that Iran will neither stop its nuclear development nor surrender.
Instead of lifting the sanctions, the United States should be increasing them.
When Iran joins the global energy market and strengthens its control of the Gulf maritime route, we, the Arabs, will quickly collapse. The recent visits of the Saudi Arabia foreign minister to American and the American Secretary of Defense to Israel did not help. As the arms embargo and sanctions are lifted, money will begin pouring into Iran. Missiles will be developed that will be capable of reaching first Israel and the Sunni Arab states, then Europe and then the United States. Global terrorism will mushroom. Iran will secretly complete its nuclear project ahead of schedule.
Since the agreement forbids agencies affiliated with America, and now apparently "foreigners," from visiting Iran's nuclear installations, the arms industry of Islamic Republic will flourish, and Iran will have been rewarded for having violated the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and will be given a red carpeted fast track to build a nuclear bomb.
Bassam Tawil is based in the Middle East.

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Israel Has Done More For Middle East Peace Than Any EU Member, Obama Administration Or Other Haters Will Ever Admit. Or Are They Just Ignorant?

5 Ways Israel Keeps the Peace in the Middle East

The Jewish state’s real, behind-the-scenes role.
by
P. DAVID HORNIK
July 8, 2014 - 11:18 pm
Israel keeps the peace? That may seem jarring since when Israel gets in the news—as in the current operation against Hamas terror in Gaza—it’s usually in connection to violence.
But in reality, as a democratic, Western-aligned country and the Middle East’s preeminent military power, Israel has done much over the decades to keep the region from being worse than it is. Israel has used its might—sometimes openly, sometimes discreetly—not only to safeguard its own interests but also those of the West and the more moderate Arab states.

1. Preventing a nuclear Iraq.

When Iraq came to the verge of going nuclear, it was Israel that stopped it.
In the 1970s, France—heavily pro-Arab and dependent on Arab oil—started helping Iraq build the Osirak nuclear reactor near Baghdad. By 1981, with Saddam Hussein in power, Israeli intelligence conveyed its grim findings to Jerusalem: Iraq, a sworn enemy of Israel, was aiming to build nuclear weapons at Osirak and was within a year of doing so.
Israel tried diplomacy with France and the U.S. With the former, it was no-go; Iraq was France’s main customer for weaponry, paying mainly in oil. As for the U.S., it agreed with Israel’s assessments but declined to act, possibly because Iraq was then fighting Iran.
So on June 7, 1981, under orders from Prime Minister Menachem Begin, the Israeli air force dispatched 14 F-15s and F-16s to Osirak. The planes flew low so that Iraq never detected them, and they reduced the reactor to ruins in a minute and 20 seconds.
The attack, of course, was universally condemned at the time. The U.S. suspended a shipment of planes to Israel. But in June 1991, visiting Israel after the Gulf War, then-Defense Secretary Richard Cheney gave General David Ivry, chief of the Israeli air force ten years earlier, his “thanks and appreciation for the outstanding job he did on the Iraqi nuclear program in 1981, which made our job much easier in Desert Storm.”
Desert Storm was a success, pushing Iraq out of Kuwait and maintaining relative order in the Middle East. Although further U.S. measures in Iraq are more debatable, at least they didn’t have to be carried out against a nuclear Iraq.

2. Preventing a nuclear Syria.

Syria is another Middle Eastern country you wouldn’t want to see with nuclear bombs. That, too, came close to happening and was prevented by Israel.
In late 2006 and early 2007, Israeli intelligence found out that North Korea was building a plutonium reactor for the Assad regime in northern Syria. The aim: to put together a nuclear bomb.
In April, Israel conveyed that finding to Washington.  President Bush ordered an inquiry; U.S. intelligence said Israel was right.
The then Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, tried to convince the U.S. to attack, but Washington—already embroiled in Iraq—declined. Olmert told Bush that, in that case, Israel would do it. Olmert interpreted Bush’s reaction as a green light.
Shortly after midnight on September 6, 2007, Israeli planes dropped 17 tons of bombs on the reactor, putting an end to it. This time Israel kept mum, not officially acknowledging the operation (it hasn’t to this day), and criticism was more muted. Considering that, a few years later, the Assad regime showed itself quite capable of using chemical weapons against civilians, Israel again did the world a great favor.

3. Protecting Jordan.

Israel’s neighbor to the east, Jordan, has long been one of the Middle East’s moderate, pro-Western states. That is not to say Israel’s experience with Jordan has always been good, particularly not when it attacked Israel in June 1967 as part of the Six Day War. But the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1994, and Jordan’s security forces quietly cooperate with Israel in keeping the Israeli-Jordanian border quiet.
The relationship, though, goes beyond tacit cooperation; Israel has also been Jordan’s protector against threats from its north and east. It happened in 1970 during Black September, an all-out Jordanian attack on PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) forces that had come to roost in Jordan and were threatening to take it over. When Syria sent in forces from the north to help out the PLO, the threat of an Israeli intervention played a key role in getting those forces to withdraw.
Back then it was Syria; now it’s ISIS, the ferocious terror group that has taken over parts of Iraq and makes no secret of its ambition to take over Jordan—and eventually Israel, too. King Abdullah of Jordan knows that Israel wouldn’t want an ISIS takeover of his country much more than he would, and that Israel’s might is there beside him. A Jordanian diplomatic source told Israel’s Ynet that “there is a very good cooperation between us regarding ISIS’ growing presence in Iraq and Syria.” A Senate staff member told the Daily Beast’s Eli Lake that if attacked by ISIS, Jordan “will ask Israel and the United States for as much help as they can get.”
No wonder Jordan wants Israel to keep its forces in the Jordan Valley.

4. Keeping the Sinai quiet.

The 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty—for which Israel paid a heavy price of totally withdrawing from the Sinai and razing its civilian settlements there—has been a stabilizing factor in the region. Egypt did not turn into a friendly country, and the peace has always been cold. But particularly since Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood regime was overthrown a year ago, Israeli-Egyptian tacit cooperation has kept the Sinai from turning into yet another global-jihad statelet.
For Israel, that has involved another sacrifice—bending the terms of the peace treaty, which made the Sinai a demilitarized zone, and allowing Egypt to send forces there to fight the jihad groups. In late May Al-Monitor reportedon “Israel-Egypt anti-terrorism cooperation at [its] zenith.” With Al-Qaeda setting up camp in the Sinai and forging ties with Israel’s arch-foe Hamas in Gaza, Israel and the anti-Islamist al-Sisi regime in Cairo know they have a common enemy.
An ISIS-style jihadist takeover of the Sinai would be dangerous for Israel, existentially dangerous for Egypt, and pose extreme peril to world commerce by threatening the Suez Canal. You may not hear about it, but along with Egypt, its tacit strategic ally, Israel has been quietly at work making sure none of that happens.

5. Preventing a nuclear Iran—or trying to.

Even more dangerous than nuclear Iraq or nuclear Syria would be nuclear Iran, considering the global-hegemony ambitions of the mullahs in Tehran. Although we can’t know the whole story, Israel has done much over the years to hinder that development.
That has involved a long history of covert operations that reportedly have included sabotage, assassinations of nuclear scientists, and—in cooperation with the U.S.—the Stuxnet virus. But even more important, Israel—and particularly Benjamin Netanyahu—has played a key role in getting the U.S. and other Western governments to take the Iranian nuclear threat seriously and impose sanctions.
It’s now reported that—even with the partial sanctions relief Iran has enjoyed since starting nuclear talks with the West—Iran could be nearing an economic meltdown that would spell the end of the Islamic Republic. What could still rescue Iran is a hasty, unwise nuclear deal by the July 20 deadline that would enable it to recover.
Israel, even with the distractions in Gaza, is watching carefully and hoping that doesn’t happen. If it does, Israel—with its history of containing the region’s most severe threats—reserves other options.

Postscript.

Stopping two dangerous Middle Eastern countries—and hopefully a third, even more dangerous one—from going nuclear; protecting a moderate, pro-Western Middle Eastern country from predators; keeping Sinai from turning into a deadly jihad zone—those are some ways Israel keeps the Middle East from boiling over.
To those can be added, among other things, Israel’s assassinations of deadly terrorist leaders over the years; renowned intelligence capabilities that steadily transmit vital information to the U.S. and other Western governments; and extensive strategic alliance with the U.S. that endures despite the frictions with the Obama administration.
Not bad for a country that still has a pariah status in the region, exists on a tiny sliver of its territory, and, thanks to the mainstream media, has become linked in many people’s minds to strife with the Palestinians and not much else.
*****
image illustration via shutterstock / StockPhotoAstur

Thursday, October 3, 2013

Netanyahu's Speech To The UN-Strong and Unwavering But Was The World Listening Or Concerned? The Answer Is Clearly Illustrated By The Applause At The End Of His Speech.



I The brilliant PM Benjamin Netanyahu speaks before the United Nations. Please listen and watch the video below. Perhaps Winston Churchill and Demosthenes were his equal?

http://israel-commentary.org/?p=7597
“I wish I could believe Rohani, but I don’t” Netanyahu said, speaking before representatives from the whole world. “Rohani is a wolf in a sheep’s skin”. Netanyahu called to keep the pressure on Iran.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke at the UN general assembly this evening, giving a speech that was dedicated to his diplomatic fight against Iran and its nuclear program.
“Rohani, like the Presidents before him, is heading a dictatorship” Netanyahu said. “He led the national security council in Iran in the years in which the slaughter in the Jewish community in Buenos Aires and the terrorist attack against American soldiers in Saudi Arabia were committed. Are we to believe that he knew nothing of these attacks?”
The Iranian delegation to the UN general assembly left the hall in protest during Prime Minister Netanyahu’s speech, which was broadcast live on Iranian television. Netanyahu stressed in his speech that Rohani was among those who planned Iran’s nuclear strategy. “He may not sound like Ahmadinejad, but with anything that concerns the nuclear program – the only difference between them is that Ahmadinejad was a wolf in a wolf’s skin and Rohani is a wolf in a sheep’s skin.”
“I wish I could believe Rohani – but I don’t”
“I wish we could believe that Rohani is being truthful, but we must focus on the Iranian’s actions, and there is great contradiction between his words and Teheran’s actions” Netanyahu continued. “Rohani stood on this stage and praised the Iranian democracy, but the regime he represents assassinates political opposition. He spoke of the tragedy in Syria, but the regime was directly involved in the slaughter Assad is committing against his people. He admonishes terror, but in the last three years alone the regime has initiated 25 terrorist attacks in cities across five continents. I would like to be part of the wave of conciliatoriness, but the only waves are waves of violence and terror. Ladies and gentlemen, I wish I could believe Rohani, but I cannot.”
Netanyahu continued with his indictment of the government in Teheran and attacked the policy of secrecy it has undertaken in the last few years. “In 2002 Iran was caught secretly building centrifuges in an underground facility in Natnaz. In 2009 it was caught again with a nuclear reactor for the enrichment of uranium near Kum. Rohani says that the purpose is not military, but does anyone believe that?”
“Why would a country that wants nuclear ability for peaceful purposes do so in secret?” Netanyahu asked the assembly. “Why would a country with natural resources such as oil need to invest in nuclear capabilities? Why would Iran develop ballistic missiles if not in order for them to carry nuclear war heads? Iran is developing missiles that will be able to reach as far as New York. Why are they doing so? The answer is simple – Iran is developing nuclear weapons.”
“The solution: a combination between sanctions and military threat”
“Subterranean nuclear reactors, advanced centrifuges, heavy water, and ballistic missiles – it isn’t hard to find evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons, what is hard to find is evidence that they are not developing nuclear weapons. In my speech last year I determined a red line. Iran has been careful not to cross it, but has succeeded in staying close to it. Iran is interested in reaching a situation in which they can cross that red line without the international community being able to stop it.”
“There is only one way to stop Iran’s nuclear program – a combination of severe sanctions and real military threat. This idea bears fruit and a lot is done under the leadership of the United States. The sanctions hurt Iran terribly, the currency has plummeted and the banks are finding it difficult. The Iranian people are cracking under the burden and that is the reason Rohani began his smiling campaign – in order to remove the sanctions, but he is not interested in stopping the nuclear program in exchange.”
“Rohani’s tactics is to talk about peace and to pay lip service. He is interested in making sure that Iran still has the infrastructure to race towards the bomb whenever it might be convenient for him. He thinks he can continue in this way because he has succeeded in the past. He is even proud of it. In his book he boasted about managing to create a calm atmosphere while at the same time completing the work in Isfahan. Now he thinks he can do so again. Rohani is convinced that he can eat his yellow cake and leave it whole.”
“Northern Korea also said that it was developing a nuclear reactor for peaceful purposes, and back then they were also empty statements meant to ease the sanctions. As dangerous as North Korea is, that danger pales in comparison to the danger Iran poses. Teheran has the ability to put the world in a chokehold in everything concerning energy stores. It will turn the Middle East into the most unstable and most dangerous and nuclear place in the world.”
“I know that many in the world think I am exaggerating. They hear the calls coming from Iran – calls of death to Israel and the US – and are convinced that it is rhetoric for internal purposes. Have they not learned anything from history? The last century taught us that when such a source wields such power – it ends in disaster.”

I PM Netanyahu to UN

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Iranians Could Wipe Israel in 24 Hours


If someone makes a statement, one must believe what they say. To not do so, is foolhardy. So it goes in the Middle East. The latest blast from Iran is that Israel could be destroyed in 24 hours.  

Anyone who does not listen to the Iranians, has their head deeply stuck in the sand. The world must listen to them and prepare for the unthinkable. Could the Iranians be further along in their nuclear ambitions than has been reported?  Or are they all bluster?

We believe the former.

Conservative Tom


IRANIAN OFFICIAL SAYS COUNTRY NEEDS ONLY ‘24 HOURS AND AN EXCUSE’ TO DESTROY ISRAEL
Iranian Official Says Iran Needs only 24 Hours and an Excuse to Destroy Israel
AP
Words from Tehran about wiping Israel off the map have been launched with abandon in recent weeks. Here’s another one for the lexicon. This time from Hojjat al-Eslam Ali Shirazi, representative for Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to the Qods Force, who not only reiterated the bombastic threat but also added his own twist: that Iran can do the job in just 24 hours.
Specifically, he said all Iran needs is “24 hours and an excuse” to finish off the Jewish state. The Jerusalem Post reports on the interview:
In his first public interview in a year, reported in the Persian-language Jahan News, which is close to the regime, Shirazi said if Israel attacked Iran, the Islamic Republic would be able to turn the conflict into a war of attrition that would lead to Israel’s destruction.
“If such a war does happen, it would not be a long war, and it would benefit the entire Islamic umma [the global community of Muslims]. We have expertise in fighting wars of attrition and Israel cannot fight a war of attrition,” Shirazi said, referring to Iran’s eight-year war of attrition against Iraq.
Iran’s Qods Force is a unit of the Revolutionary Guard that aims to export the Islamic Revolution worldwide, and is reported to be active in the Middle East, Asia and South America. Last year the U.S. accused its operatives of working on a plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington.
The Post reports that Khamenei tapped Shirazi last year as his personal envoy to the Qods Force:
Click here to find out more!
In his interview, Shirazi said that Israel was “close to annihilation” and wanted to attack Iran as an act of desperation.
“Are our enemies intelligent, wise or foolish? They are foolish. It’s also possible that they will do this foolish thing [and attack Iran]. Why do we sometimes say this is the strongest probability? Because today the Israelis are telling us that ‘we are not the Israel of yesterday, we are getting weaker day by day and the Islamic Republic is getting stronger day by day,’” he added.
“Well, when Israel finds itself in danger of extinction, it flails around, and so it’s easy for it to do foolish things and will start a war just to sting Iran.”
Shirazi is in good company. Other statements in just the past week from Iranian leaders in the same spirit as Shirazi’s include:  President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s assertion that Israel has no historical roots in the Middle East and will be “eliminated,” Revolutionary Guard Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari saying a conflict between Iran and Israel will destroy the Jewish state – “the end of the story for them,” and Brigadier General Hossein Salami of the Revolutionary Guard saying a war will provide “a historical opportunity for the Islamic Revolution to wipe them [Israel] off the world’s geographical history.”
All this means we’re unlikely to hear such statements cease anytime soon.