Forward Reports: Iran has been helping Syria bypass the international sanctions imposed on it  for massacring civilians, according to documents from the Syrian president’s  office obtained by Haaretz.

The documents show that Iran has given the Syrian regime more than $1  billion, which would help it overcome the oil embargo and other moves including  restrictions on flights and sanctions against the central bank.

The documents were leaked following a cyber-attack by hackers known as  Anonymous against the e-mail server of the Syrian president’s office.  Seventy-eight employees in President Bashar Assad’s office had their e-mail  hacked. One of these accounts belonged to the minister of presidential affairs,  Mansour Azzam; it included two documents signed by him that dealt with relations  between Syria and Iran.

The two documents were authored two months ago and detail discussions by  senior Iranian delegations visiting Syria. The documents are written in  ambiguous language and only in a number of places do they detail ways Syria  would be aided to bypass sanctions. The document repeatedly refers to Syria’s  wish to “learn from the Iranian experience in this area.”

The United States, Turkey, the European Union, the Arab League and other  countries have imposed severe sanctions on Syria due to the regime’s attacks on  civilians. As part of the sanctions, all Arab League members have ceased contact  with the Central Bank of Syria, and commercial flights from Arab countries to  and from Syria have stopped. The European Union has imposed an oil embargo on  Syria.

Around 20 percent of Syria’s gross domestic product derives from oil sales,  with 90 percent of Syrian oil being exported to the EU.

CNBC Reports: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday that the Islamic Republic, targeted by tougher Western sanctions, would soon announce advances in its nuclear program.

He was speaking on the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic revolution that toppled the U.S.-backed Shah.

Tens of thousands of Iranians joined state-organized rallies to mark the occasion.

“In the coming days the world will witness Iran’s announcement of its very important and very major nuclear achievements,” Ahmadinejad told a crowd at Tehran’s Azadi (Freedom) Square in a speech relayed live on state television.

Demonstrators carrying Iranian flags and pictures of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei chanted “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.” Ismail Haniya, who heads the Islamist Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, also attended the ceremony.

Ahmadinejad gave no details of how Iran’s nuclear work, which Tehran says has only peaceful purposes, has progressed.

The United States and Israel, a country which Iran does not recognize, have not ruled out military action if sanctions fail.

Leon Hadar: A few Israeli and American military experts have warned, a military strike on Iranian facilities would not achieve the declared Israeli goal of ending Iran’s alleged nuclear military program and the expected costs in terms of Israeli casualties could be very high. Moreover, if Iran gives the green light to its Shiite Hezbollah allies in Lebanon to attack Israel and mobilize the Shiites in Iraq and the Persian Gulf to retaliate against American and Saudi targets, Tehran would be in a position to strengthen its regional power. The ayatollahs would also be able to exploit an Israeli attack to ignite Iranian nationalism and win support even from those Iranians who actually oppose the ruling clerics and would like to see them removed from power.

Jweekly Reports: The question of whether Iran will respond to escalating international pressure over its nuclear program with terrorist attacks on overseas targets is a source of growing worry to Jewish communities, with security professionals warning of potential threats to Jewish institutions around the world.

As tensions mount, and with intense speculation over how Iran would respond to a possible Israeli or American strike against its nuclear facilities, experts already are citing a series of recent foiled plots, allegedly connected to Iran or its proxies, against Jewish and non-Jewish targets.

Sources close to law enforcement say there is no specific threat of an attack, although the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security in recent weeks have intensified their monitoring of possible threats.

ABC News, citing an Israeli internal security document, reported Feb. 3 that Jewish and Israeli institutions in the United States are on high alert over concerns they will be targeted by Iran or one of its proxies.

In a letter, the head of security for the Israeli consul general for the mid-Atlantic states reportedly wrote that the security threat has increased on “guarded sites” such as Israeli embassies and consulates and “soft sites” such as synagogues, Jewish schools, restaurants and community centers, according to ABC.

ABC reported that local and regional law enforcement and intelligence officials in U.S. and Canadian cities such as New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Toronto have increased security at Israeli and Jewish institutions, and that federal officials also have increased vigilance in looking for imminent attacks.

“In the past few weeks, there has been an escalation in threats against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world,” ABC quoted a U.S. regional intelligence document as saying. “Open Source [a provider of foreign intelligence] has reported many demonstrations against Israel are expected to be concentrated on Israeli embassies and consulates. Such demonstrations have occurred internationally as well as domestically. These demonstrations could potentially turn violent at local synagogues, restaurants, the Israeli Embassy and other Israeli sites.”

An Israeli intelligence report warned that forged Israeli passports might be used by potential terrorists to leave the Middle East and enter the United States and Canada.

“The people that want to come after Israel overseas will look at Jewish targets in the host nations, as well,” said Paul Goldenberg, national director of the Secure Community Network, an effort funded by the Jewish Federations of North America that works to strengthen security for Jewish institutions. “They will look not just at embassies, but at synagogues and JCCs as secondary targets.”

In unclassified testimony submitted to the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence, national intelligence director James Clapper cited only the alleged plot revealed in October to assassinate Saudi ambassador Adel al-Jubeir in Washington, D.C. The attack allegedly had the backing of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Haaretz Reports: In a newly launched Facebook page, Israeli fans of U.S. pop megastar Madonna are pleading Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to hold off any such plans to strike Iran until the Queen of Pop’s planned show in Tel Aviv on May 29.

The group, simply and directly enough was named, “Bibi don’t start a war with Iran until after Madonna’s show on May 29.”

While the, currently relatively unpopulated, Facebook page could seem like a case of dealing with trivialities in the face of all-out war with Iran,” Israeli Madonna fans’ fears are not unsubstantiated, with a distinguished list of artists bailing out on Israeli shows in the last minute over political crises and wars.

In 2006, electro band Depeche Mode famously cancelled its planned show in Tel Aviv during what later became known as the Second Lebanon War, over the production’s apparent inability to convince its technical support team to make the trip.

The U.K. band later made it up to its Israeli fans by opening its 2009 world tour in Tel Aviv.

Iranian Synagogue

NPR Reports: As tensions between Israel and Iran ratchet up, one community is caught in the middle: Iranian Jews living in Israel. Many of them maintain strong ties with their homeland, and with the possibility of war looming, they’re uniquely conflicted.

In a small, cluttered apartment in Jerusalem, Naheet Yacoubi cooks a  traditional Persian meal for her Shabbat dinner. Originally from Tehran,  she moved to Israel when she was a child. It’s easy to find Persian ingredients here, she says.

Some 250,000 people of Persian descent live in Israel, and that migration continues. But Iran still has the second-largest community of Jews in the Middle  East, and the two communities are close, says Aaron Yacoubi, Naheet’s husband.

“We can call them directly, and they can call us,” he says, noting that family members can come and visit.

Iranian Jews travel to Israel via Turkey, with special documents from the Israeli Embassy there that let them enter the country undetected by Iranian authorities.

Aaron says his cousin visited from Tehran just two months ago. Unfortunately, he says, he can’t travel to Iran because he only has an Israeli passport.

Aaron says he is proud of his Persian ancestry, yet he’s also loyal to the Jewish state. But lately, he says, because of the tension with Iran, he feels conflicted about what could happen next.

There are fears that Israel could strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities. Israel says Tehran wants to develop nuclear weapons; Iran maintains that its nuclear program has only civilian uses. There have been four rounds of U.N. sanctions against Iran, as well as harsher measures taken by the U.S. and the European Union.

Aaron says it’s all taking its toll. He says he feels terrible for people in Iran, where life is getting difficult.

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/02/07/jews-with-ties-to-iran-and-israel-feel-conflicted/feed/ 0 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/02/07/go-at-it-alone-u-s-turned-down-uk-help-in-recent-hormuz-run/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/02/07/go-at-it-alone-u-s-turned-down-uk-help-in-recent-hormuz-run/#comments Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:59:10 +0000 Yossi Gestetner http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=8118 U.K. Telegraph Reports: Americans only relented and allowed a  Royal Navy frigate to join the [anti-Iran] mission following an intervention from Nicolas Sarkozy, the French president. The revelation that US defence chiefs saw little military value in UK   participation will raise new questions …

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ABC Reports: The executive order states that all assets of the Iranian government and banks held in the United States are “blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn  or otherwise dealt in.” The sanctions were included as an amendment to the defense authorization bill that Obama signed into law at the end of 2011.

ABC Via Yahoo Repors: As United States and Israel grow increasingly concerned over Iran’s nuclear program, the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee is cautioning that a pre-emptive strike by Israel could spell trouble for America.

“If Israel does a unilateral strike, this could be a real problem for the national security interests of the United States,” Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said today on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

This statement comes days after Defense Secretary Leon Panetta expressed concern that Israel would bomb Iran in an unattributed comment run in a column in the Washington Post.  Rogers said recent tension between the United States and Israel has come over a breakdown of trust when it comes to dealing with Iran.

“Israel has been a little bit distrustful of the United States and I think that’s caused a little bit of friction,” Rogers said.

Financial Times Via CNBC Reports: Iran has indicated that its threat to cut oil supplies to European states in order to pre-empt a European Union oil embargo that comes into effect in July may be only a symbolic one.

Rostam Ghasemi, Iran’s oil minister, on Saturday said that any cut-off in Iranian oil supplies would target “hostile states” and should not harm European people in winter.

“We will certainly cut [oil exports] to some European states,” Mr. Ghasemi said, but gave no indication on timing and failed to name any
of the “hostile” states to be targeted by punitive Iranian action.

By hostile European states, Iran usually refers to Britain, France, and Germany, three countries which buy only token amounts of Iranian oil and which led last month’s move to ban European Union member states from buying Iranian crude with the aim of putting pressure on Iran to halt its nuclear program.

The EU’s July deadline is intended to allow time for Greece, Spain, and Italy, Iran’s biggest European customers, to find supplies from other oil producers such as Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Iraq. Saudi Arabia, Iran’s main regional rival has already said it can meet any shortage in the oil market.

Politico Reports: The prospect of war in the Middle East stoked media attention Thursday after a Washington Post editorial writer claimed Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes that Israel may attack Iran this spring.

“Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June — before Iran enters what Israelis described as a ‘zone of immunity’ to commence building a nuclear bomb,” Ignatius wrote from Brussels, where Panetta is currently attending a conference at NATO headquarters.

“Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon — and only the United States could then stop them militarily,” Ignatius added. “‘You stay to the side, and let us do it,’ one Israeli official is said to have advised the United States.”

Panetta later added fuel to the fire by refusing to shoot down Ignatius’s article.

“No, I’m just not commenting,” he said, according to the AP, when asked about Ignatius’s column. “What I think, and what I view, I consider that to be an area that belongs to me and nobody else.”

The Pentagon refused comment, according to Reuters.

Ignatius’s column has been widely picked up as fact by television networks, American newspapers and foreign news outlets.

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/02/02/panetta-deos-not-deny-reports-that-he-thinks-israel-will-hit-iran-within-months/feed/ 0 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/31/top-us-spy-warns-iran-willing-to-attack-the-us-on-its-own-soil/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/31/top-us-spy-warns-iran-willing-to-attack-the-us-on-its-own-soil/#comments Tue, 31 Jan 2012 21:12:33 +0000 Mark Hirshberg http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=7594 The Hill Reports: Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned a Senate panel that a 2011 plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, which U.S. officials say was hatched in Iran, indicates that Iran Supreme Leader Ali …

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(Photo Credit: AP)

The Hill Reports: Director of National Intelligence James Clapper warned a Senate panel that a 2011 plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the United States, which U.S. officials say was hatched in Iran, indicates that Iran Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and his government are willing to launch attacks in the United States.

“The 2011 plot to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador to the United States shows that some Iranian officials — probably including the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei — have changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack on the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime,” said Clapper in prepared testimony before the committee.

 “Iran’s willingness to sponsor future attacks in the United States or against our interests abroad probably will be shaped by Tehran’s evaluation of the costs it bears for the plot against the ambassador as well as Iranian leaders’ perceptions of U.S. threats against the regime,” he said. Clapper’s testimony and questions from lawmakers highlighted changing perceptions about threats to the United States. The annual hearing on worldwide threats to the United States was the first since Osama bin Laden and other top al Qaeda leaders were killed, and it suggested that Iran is now clearly seen as the leading threat to the United States and its allies, such as Israel.

“When you’re viewing it from the Israeli standpoint, it clearly, I think, reaches the level of perhaps the number one challenge of 2012, as the chairman has indicated,” said Sen. Dan Coats (R-Ind.).

Read More: The Hill

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Bloomberg News: International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors are due to end a mission to Iran today, as the organization seeks to ease international tensions over the country’s nuclear program.

The delegation arrived in the Iranian capital on Jan. 29 with Chief Inspector Herman Nackaerts expressing hope that the trip would allow for a “dialogue.”

In a November report, the IAEA cited “credible” sources as saying the country has studied how to make a nuclear bomb. Iran has repeatedly rejected accusations that its nuclear work is aimed at building weapons, and says documents in the IAEA’s possession are forged.

Reuters Reports: Iran called on staunch ally Syrian President Bashar al-Assad Sunday to hold free elections and allow multiple political parties to operate in the country, but said he must be given time to implement these reforms.

Iran had at first wholeheartedly supported Assad’s hardline stance against the 10 months of popular protests that have called for an end to his leadership.

It has since tempered its rhetoric as the uprising has dragged on and international pressure has risen, although it condemns what it calls foreign interference in Syrian affairs.

“They have to have a free election, they have to have the right constitution, they have to allow different political parties to have their activities freely in the country. And this is what he has promised,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said at a news conference on the sidelines of an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.

“We think that Syria has to be given the choice of time so that by (that) time they can do the reforms,” said Salehi, whose country is an observer state at the AU and has said that strengthening ties with the AU is a foreign policy priority.

Syria has said it will hold a referendum on a new constitution soon, before a multi-party parliamentary election that has been much postponed. Under the present constitution, Assad’s Baath party is designated as “the leader of the state and society.”

The United Nations said in December more than 5,000 people had been killed in the protests and crackdown. Syria says militants have killed more than 2,000 security force members.

AP Via ABC Reports: Iran’s semi-official Fars news agency says a U.S.-made F-14 Iranian fighter jet has crashed in Bushehr province in southern Iran.

Provincial governor Mohammad Hossein Jahanbakhsh says both the pilot and the co-pilot were killed in Thursday’s crash.

The Fars report says the fighter plane crashed due to technical failure and that authorities have recovered the wreckage outside Bushehr, a port city with the same name as the province. Bushehr is known as the location of Iran’s first nuclear power plant.

Iran purchased many U.S.-made planes, including F-14s before the 1979 Islamic Revolution and during the rule of the late pro-Western Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

JTA Reports: An international Jewish organization of Russian-speaking Jews was launched to influence governments to join the fight against Iran.

The World Forum of Russian Jewry was inaugurated Wednesday at the United Nations during a ceremony commemorating International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 70th anniversary of the Babi Yar massacres with the participation of nearly 600 American Russian-speaking Jews and Holocaust survivors.

Alexander Levin, president of the Greater Kiev Jewish Community, will head the organization.

“Our goal is to bring together Russian-speaking Jews from around the world in order to save ourselves and other people from the next catastrophe and genocide, to preserve the world peace, and protect our national land at the State of Israel,” Levin said.

Reuters Reports: Iran is unlikely to move toward building a nuclear weapon this year because it does not yet have the capability to produce enough weapon-grade uranium, a draft report by the Institute for Science and International Security said on Wednesday.

The report by the institute founded by nuclear expert David Albright offered a more temperate view of Iran’s nuclear program than some of the heated rhetoric that has surfaced since the United States and its allies stepped up sanctions on Tehran.

“Iran is unlikely to decide to dash toward making nuclear weapons as long as its uranium enrichment capability remains as limited as it is today,” the report said.

JTA Reports: All options are on the table for Iran, but a diplomatic solution to the impasse over its nuclear weapons program is still a possibility, President Obama said in his State of the Union speech.

Obama said Iran was more isolated than ever because of the intensified sanctions he has introduced or encouraged.

“Let there be no doubt:  America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal,” he said.  “But a peaceful resolution of this issue is still possible, and far better, and if Iran changes course and meets its obligations, it can rejoin the community of nations.”

Obama also referred to the defense alliance with Israel, but did not mention — as he has in past speeches — his efforts to achieve an Israeli-Palestinian peace.

“Our iron-clad, and I mean iron-clad commitment to Israel’s security has meant the closest military cooperation between our two countries in history,” he said to a standing ovation.

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/25/obama-all-options-including-diplomacy-still-on-with-iran/feed/ 0 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/23/israel-praises-eu-for-oil-embargo-on-iran/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/23/israel-praises-eu-for-oil-embargo-on-iran/#comments Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:20:14 +0000 Yossi Gestetner http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=6930 AFP Reports: “Today the European Union decided to impose sanctions on Iran’s oil exports,” Netanyahu said at the start of a meeting of his ruling right-wing Likud party. “I think it is a step in the right direction,” he said, …

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Reuters Via Yahoo Reports: The carrier USS Abraham Lincoln completed a “regular and routine” passage through the strait, a critical gateway for the region’s oil exports, “as previously scheduled and without incident,” said Lieutenant Rebecca Rebarich, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Fifth Fleet.

The Lincoln, accompanied by strike group of warships, was the first U.S. aircraft carrier to enter the Gulf since late December and was on a routine rotation to replace the outgoing USS John C. Stennis.

The departure of the Stennis prompted Iranian army chief Ataollah Salehi to threaten action if the carrier passed back into the Gulf.

“I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf. … We are not in the habit of warning more than once,” he said.

]]> http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/22/u-s-aircraft-carrier-enters-strait-of-hormuz/feed/ 1 http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/22/iran-dismisses-sarkozys-allegations-as-baseless/ http://gestetnerupdates.com/2012/01/22/iran-dismisses-sarkozys-allegations-as-baseless/#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2012 20:59:51 +0000 Yossi Gestetner http://gestetnerupdates.com/?p=6882 Tehran Times Reports: Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehman-Parast deplored Sarkozy’s claim that Tehran is seeking to develop a nuclear weapon, describing his remarks as “baseless and far from reality”. “Apparently by making false claims, the French president wants to …

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Xinhuanet Reports: The followings are mixed reactions to new round of sanctions on Iran:

Turkey

The Turkish government seeks to increase trade volume with Iran to 30 billion U.S. dollars in 2015, a move to boost ties with the Islamic republic despite the new round of Western sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear program, the Turkish environment and urban planning minister said Thursday.

“Iran and Turkey’s relations saw a 70 percent rise in 2011 and I hope that new steps will be taken within the framework of the joint commission to help increase the trade volume to 30 billion U. S. dollars in 2015,” Erdogan Bayraktar said at a joint economic meeting held in Ankara.

Turkey pledged not to comply with the new U.S. sanctions targeting the Iranian oil industry and calling for sanctions against financial institutions doing business with Iran’s state banking institutions, saying Ankara is only bound by the UN sanctions.

China

Caution should be called for in metering out sanctions in international affairs, said China’s Permanent Representative to the UN Li Baodong Thursday when addressing a Security Council open debate on the question of justice and rule of law.

“Sanctions should be only carried out on basis of facts and evidence. Double standards must be avoided. Impacts against civilian lives and social economic development must be minimized,” Li said.

EU

The European Union (EU) has not decided on further sanctions against Iran, an EU spokesman told Xinhua on Jan. 12, 2012.

Michael Mann, spokesman of EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, denied earlier reports that the EU would postpone oil import ban against Iran for six months and the petrochemical product ban for three months, because the EU needs to receive repayments in oil for debts currently owed by Iranian firms.

Iran exports some 2.6 million barrels of oil per day (bpd), among which 500,000 bpd goes to the EU. Greece, Italy and Spain respectively import about 25 percent, 13 percent and 10 percent of their oil from Iran.

France

French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe on Jan. 3, 2012 asked the European community to impose further tough sanctions against Iran after its recent threat to block the strategic oil passage of Strait of Hormuz.

Japan

Japan said it will seek to lower its reliance on Iranian oil, but has asked the United States to take into account the adverse affects of last year’s twin disasters in March on the nation’s economy.

Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda and Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba have both voiced concern about the possible negative impact joining the U.S.-led sanctions on Tehran could have on Japan’s economy, especially in light of the increased oil needed to fuel power stations as most of the country’s nuclear plants are still offline following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami-triggered crisis.

India

India has said it will continue buying Iranian oil despite the United States sanctions imposed on Tehran, according to local media on Jan. 18, 2012.

“We have accepted sanctions which are made by the United Nations. Other sanctions do not apply to individual countries,” Indian Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told local media on Jan. 18, 2012. “We continue to buy oil from Iran.”

Russia

Russia opposes any military strikes or unilateral sanctions against Iran, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Wednesday.

“I don’t even want to make any guesses as to when a military conflict (in Iran) might happen because we are doing all we can to prevent it. The consequence might be very serious,” Lavrov told reporters.

Reuters Via Yahoo Reports: Iran’s deputy U.N. ambassador Eshagh Al Habib said there was a “high suspicion that … terrorist circles used the intelligence obtained from United Nations bodies, including the sanctions list of the Security Council and interviews carried out by IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) with our nuclear scientists, to identify and carry out their malicious acts.”

Ahmadi-Roshan recently met with IAEA inspectors, Al Habib told the Security Council, “a fact that indicates that these U.N. agencies may have played a role in leaking information on Iran’s nuclear facilities and scientist.”

He also accused the world body of failing to observe secrecy over its inspections of nuclear facilities.

JTA Reports: An Israeli attack on Iran is “very far off,” Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.

“We haven’t made any decision to do this. The entire thing is very far off,” Barak said during an interview Wednesday with Israel’s Army Radio after being asked whether the United States was calling on Israel to be informed before any planned attack against Iran.

Barak did not specify what “far” meant, but said that “it certainly is not urgent.”