Following the success of the love initiative between Israelis and Iranians on Facebook, it’s time for a face to face meeting. Israelis and Iranians attending a number of meetings in Berlin the last few weeks, due to produce a first joint demonstration on Saturday. The purpose of this demonstration is to protest against the voices calling for war, the sanctions imposed on Iran, and in support for a nuclear demilitarization of the Middle East. The organizers are eight Iranians and 13 Israelis, amongst them left-wing activists Itay Naor and Dana Rothschild. The meetings were not photographed because of concerns for the welfare of the families of the Iranian activists. For this reason, they also use aliases on Facebook. – Haaretz Via Forward
Category Archives: Iran - Page 2
Israel Gets 4th Nuke-Capable German Submarine
Israel on Thursday received its fourth German-made submarine capable of launching nuclear warheads, expanding a fleet that experts say could be used in an attack on Iran. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said that the submarine would increase Israel’s capabilities and strength “in the face of the growing regional challenges.” The Dolphin-type military submarine is one of six Israel has ordered from Germany, which subsidizes the submarines. Each submarine costs half a billion dollars. The sub was presented to Israeli officials in Hamburg, Germany, on Thursday and is expected to arrive in Israel in 2013, following final tests. – AP
The Embargo on Iran is Working Great, Besides for $560M in Arms Imports
Iran imported weapons worth over $560 million over a three-year period despite being the target of a United Nations arms embargo, The Telegraph reported Thursday, citing data published the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Anna MacDonald, the Control Arms campaigns manager for Oxfam, was quoted by the British daily as saying that the Islamic Republic’s success in tapping the international arms market showed the ineffectiveness of current restrictions. Russia and China, the report said, who prevented the UN from imposing a comprehensive embargo, are thought to have been the principal suppliers of weapons to Iran between 2007 and 2010. – Ynet
Top Israeli Ministers: Election Won’t Affect Iran
Both Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Deputy Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon said in published comments on Wednesday that policy toward Iran will be based solely on strategic interests. Israel believes Iran is developing a nuclear bomb and has repeatedly hinted that it might attack Iranian nuclear facilities in the coming months. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled this week that he may call parliamentary elections a year ahead of schedule — casting additional uncertainty over any Israeli military plans. – AP Via ABC
IMF Rejects Call to Cut Ties with Iran
The IMF said its account with Bank Markazi is simply related to Iran’s membership in the IMF and does not contravene sanctions placed on Tehran to pressure it not to develop nuclear weapons. The advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, a group of US ex-diplomats and government officials, said that the IMF needed to shut down its account with Bank Markazi, a specific target of the sanctions, or suspend Iran’s membership in the fund. It also criticized the IMF managing director, Christine Lagarde, for meeting with Bank Markazi’s chief during the IMF’s spring meeting last month in Washington, and for allegedly “lavishing praise on Iran and Bank Markazi.” – AFP
Iran Condemns Quran Burning by US Pastor
Reuters: Israeli Election Talk Drowns Out Iran Debate
Reuters Reports: Yuval Diskin, ex-chief of the Shin Bet domestic security service told a public forum on Friday that Israel’s leaders were unfit to tackle Tehran’s nuclear program, suggesting they could start a pre-emptive war out of “messianic feelings”. Government officials, while implying Diskin had political ambitions or was bitter over being snubbed for a promotion, said he had also potentially set back Israel’s lobbying for tougher international diplomacy to curb Iran.
“The reason why the Europeans and other countries are coming aboard (on sanctions) is not their concern about the Iranian nuclear program, but their concern that Israel might do something about that program. Europe works to thwart military action, not to promote it,” a senior Israeli official said. Read more »
Iranian Naval Admiral: ‘If Needed, We Can Move to Within Three Miles of New York’
Daily Caller Reports: The Islamic Republic of Iran said it has the ability to position a naval vessel within three miles of the East Coast of the United States.
“The power of our naval forces is such that we have a presence in all the waters of the world and, if needed, we can move to within three miles of New York,” Rear Admiral Ali Fadavi said Tuesday during a speech to the students of the University of Yazd in Iran. His remarks were quoted by an Iranian student news agency.
This naval saber rattling represents a stark escalation in Iran’s war rhetoric, as the West weighs the question of whether to impose new economic sanctions or directly attack the Islamic regime’s illicit nuclear facilities.
“The Americans’ only tool to rule the world is their naval dominance of the Persian Gulf,” Fadavi added, “and they will face any other power that threatens their status.”
DRUMS OF WAR: Reports: DOD Deploys F-22 Fighters Near Iranian Border
As tensions continue to rise between Washington and Tehran, the White House upped the ante this month by sending a squadron of advanced U.S. fighters to Iran’s doorstep. The Air Force has reportedly begun rotating a squadron of F-22 Raptors to Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates. UAE is directly to the south of the Iranian coastline, separated by the Straits of Hormuz. Aviation Week first reported the details of the Raptor deployments. – The Hill
Panetta: I Hope Army Chief Is Right on Iran
Leon Panetta, the U.S. defense secretary, said he hoped Israel’s top soldier was “correct” in assessing that the Iranian regime was rational. “I would hope he’s correct and he knows something more that I do,” Panetta was quoted as saying Thursday by AFP, the French news service, during a visit to Chile. Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, the Israeli military chief of staff, said in a Haaretz interview this week that he believed Iran’s leadership was “rational” and that would lead it to consider the consequences of developing a nuclear weapon. – Forward
Briton Accused in Iran Missile Scheme Released From U.S. Custody
Reuters Via Yahoo Reports: A federal judge in Texas released British millionaire Christopher Tappin from custody on Wednesday, but ordered him to remain in the state while awaiting trial on charges he attempted to sell missile parts to Iran.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Castaneda ordered Tappin to surrender his British passport after going through the security checkpoint at the El Paso airport for a flight to Houston, where he will live with one of his attorneys, officials in the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
The judge urged Tappin to follow court rules that include monitoring of any e-mail and he stay within five minutes of his attorney’s home in suburban Houston. He will wear an electronic monitor so officials can track his whereabouts, they said.
Tappin, 65, of Orpington, Kent, was required to put down $50,000 cash to secure his $1 million bail, the U.S. Attorney’s office said. He is charged with attempting to buy 50 batteries for Hawk surface-to-air missiles and ship them to Iran.
Tappin, who has pleaded not guilty, was extradited to the U.S. in February following a lengthy legal battle.
Iran’s Gift to Netanyahu
Alon Liel, a 30-year veteran of the country’s foreign ministry, where he once served as director general, told GlobalPost he believes the Iranian issue is expedient for Netanyahu both internationally and domestically. Abroad, he is vulnerable to accusations that he is not moving toward peace talks with the Palestinians. Internally, he needs to shore up his right flank ahead of elections. “In Netanyahu’s political circles, and even beyond that, it is very comfortable for him to lift the issue of Iran to high decibels. He needs to address internal political realities and consolidate an Israeli consensus, and also, internally and externally, to postpone the Palestinian issue,” he said. “He is much more comfortable talking about the Iranian danger than he is addressing the crisis with the Palestinians.” – Noga Tarnopolsky
POLL: 40% Germans See Israel as a Major Threat to World Peace
Forty-eight percent of Germans see the Islamic Republic of Iran as the greatest threat to world peace, according to a survey published in the Die Welt newspaper on Saturday. Eighteen percent of those questioned said Israel was the main danger to peace. Twenty-two percent said that both Iran and Israel represent a danger [22+18=40]. Fifty-eight percent of the respondents said that Iran’s nuclear program was a threat to the existence of the Jewish state. The Infratest dimap pollsters questioned German voters spanning the political spectrum in the Federal Republic. – JPost
Iran Says They are Building Copy of Captured US Drone
AP Via My Way News: Iran claimed Sunday that it had reverse-engineered an American spy drone captured by its armed forces last year and has begun building a copy. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, chief of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guards, related what he said were details of the aircraft’s operational history to prove his claim that Tehran’s military experts had extracted data from the U.S. RQ-170 Sentinel captured in December in eastern Iran, state television reported.
Among the drone’s past missions, he said, was surveillance of the compound in northwest Pakistan in which Osama Bin Laden lived and was killed. Tehran has flaunted the capture of the Sentinel, a top-secret surveillance drone with stealth technology, as a victory for Iran and a defeat for the United States in a complicated intelligence and technological battle.
Bibi, Peres Invoke Iran Threat During Holocaust Ceremony
JTA Reports: Israel’s prime minister and president invoked the Iranian threat during remarks at the annual Yom Hashoah ceremony at Yad Vashem.
Israel began the observance of Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day with the national ceremony Wednesday night at the Yad Vashem memorial. Yom Hashoah continues through sundown on Thursday. Read more »
On Iran Issue, @MittRomney Leads @BarackObama by Fourteen Points
Israeli MK: ‘Jew Boys’ From Brooklyn May Drive Israel to Iran War
While discussing the influence Diaspora Jews exert in Israel, MK Zahava Galon, head of Meretz expressed frustration at the possibility of “Jew-boys” (the derogatory word is Yehudonim in Hebrew) deciding Israel’s fate. Galon continued, “If 10 mandates [in Knesset] are enough to change how Israel determines whether to go to war with Iran or not. Organized groups will come from Brooklyn and get the right to vote. All the decisions about life and death here, whether to evacuate the territories, whether to authorize outposts, those sitting in New York or Brooklyn will decide for us? “Groups of Jew-boys… Jews, organized in the Diaspora, will decide how we live here?” Galon continued, quickly correcting her mistake. – Israel National News.
AP: European Jewish Congress Fears Israel-Iran Backlash
Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, said he feared a minority of angry, extremist European Muslims who live in impoverished neighborhoods might use an Israeli attack as a pretext to hit local Jews, particularly in France and Great Britain. “If Israel attacks Iran, it will be a dramatic increase of anti-Semitic, very violent attacks against Jews,” Kantor said. “And the vehicle for the realization of the attacks will be these enclave communities, where the level of hatred is very high and they are prepared to attack enemies inside their countries,” he said. – AP Via ABC News
VIDEO: Iranians Block Ahmadinejad’s Vehicle Demanding Resolutions to Their Plight
H/T Times of Israel Via Drudge Report. This video makes you wonder why Obama did not topple him in 2009 when thousands rose up. It gets more dramatic at minute mark 2:00.
DRUMS OF WAR: Defense Minister Says Israel Never Ruled Out Attacking Iran
The comments, in which Barak said that a diplomatic push to reach a compromise with Iran was a waste of “precious time,” further exposed a rift between Israel and the U.S. over how to deal with the Islamic Republic and its nuclear program. Israel, arguing that a nuclear Iran would pose an existential threat, has said it will not allow Tehran to acquire a nuclear weapon. It cites Iranian calls for Israel’s destruction, Iran’s support for Arab militant groups and its development of long-range missiles capable of striking the Jewish state. – AP Via VIN
Iranian Nuclear Experts Visited N. Korea to Watch Test
Haaretz Via Forward Reports: A dozen Iranian nuclear experts visited North Korea last week to observe its failed rocket launch on Friday, South Korean state news agency Yonhap’s Washington correspondent reported. “On March 31, 12 Iranians of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group (SHIG) arrived in North Korea. “The Iranians undoubtedly were there to observe the missile launch and receive test data from North Korea,” the correspondent quoted a diplomatic source, who wished to remain anonymous, as saying.
Defying international pressure, Pyongyang launched a long range missile, but U.S. and South Korean officials said it crashed into the sea a few minutes after launch, dealing a blow to the reclusive state. The launch of the three-stage Unha-3 rocket took place at 7:39 A.M. local time on Friday, according to South Korean officials. Pyongyang has claimed that the launch was meant to place a communications satellite in space, but the U.S., Japan, South Korea and other nations view it as part of North Korea’s attempt to advance its military ballistic missile capacity.
Opinion: Diplomacy Will Dampen Iran War Talk
Justyna Pawlak Writes: Renewed diplomacy on Iran’s nuclear program will muffle what Barack Obama last month called the “drums of war”, but the beat will soon get louder if warm words do not lead swiftly to action that can defuse the decade-old dispute. Read more »
Iranians Demand American Commitment Against Military Strike as Long Talks Continue
Haaretz Reports: The round of nuclear talks between the six major world powers and Iran ended on Saturday in Istanbul without a significant breakthrough but with an agreement to reconvene next month. Sources close to the talks told Haaretz that the Iranians are demanding an American and European commitment not to carry out a military attack on their country as long as the talks continue.
Western and Turkish diplomats said Saturday’s meeting, which involved the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council – the United States, Russia, Britain, France and China – in addition to Germany and the Iranians, was held in a positive atmosphere. Read more »
CIA REPORT TO CONGRESS: Iran Expanding Nuke Program
Washington Free Beacon: The report on arms proliferation covering 2011, made public by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), reveals that Iran has produced 4,900 kilograms of low enriched uranium. “Iran continued to expand its nuclear infrastructure and continued uranium enrichment and activities related to its heavy water research reactor” contrary to U.N. resolutions, the report says. Read more »
Obama Opposes Unilateral Iran Strike
“It’s our very strong belief, as President Obama conveyed to the Israelis, that it is not in anyone’s interest for them to take unilateral action,” Clinton said in an ABC News interview on Tuesday. Clinton noted the intelligence cooperation between the United States and Israel, and she reiterated that “the U.S. has worked very hard with Israel on all levels from the military, intelligence, strategic, and diplomatic level to make sure we were sharing information.” – JTA Via Forward
