Syria – Page 80 – Infinite Unknown

Venezuela’s President Chavez: ‘Genocidal’ Israel will be put in its place

June 28, 2010 by Infinite

Related video: UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez speaks during a meeting with his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad at Miraflores Palace in Caracas June 26, 2010. (REUTERS)

CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez described Israel on Saturday as a genocidal state that acted as an assassin for the United States, predicting the Middle East nation would one day be “put in its place.”

The socialist Chavez is a harsh critic of both Israel and the United States and cut relations with Israel after accusing it of “holocaust” for its 2009 offensive in the Gaza Strip.

“It has become the assassin arm of the United States, no one can doubt it. It is a threat to all of us,” Chavez said, during a visit by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Chavez said he supported a peaceful struggle for the return to Syria of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in 1967.

“The territory will one day return to the Syrian hands,” Chavez said. “Of course we want it to be peaceful because we don’t want more war.”

“But one day the genocidal state of Israel will be put into its place, and let’s hope that a really democratic state emerges there, with which we can share a path and ideas.”

Leaked UN report: North Korea ‘is exporting nuclear technology’

June 4, 2010June 4, 2010 by Infinite

And here are the criminals that gave the nuclear technology to North Korea:

– Nuclear War Between Koreas: Brought To You By The US Government

Leaked UN report says Pyongyang is using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology to Iran, Syria and Burma

South Korean president Lee and Wen Jiabao
South Korean president Lee Myung-bak (left) and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao. The revelations came just hours before Wen arrived in South Korea for a three-day visit. (Reuters)

International efforts to avert a full-blown crisis on the Korean peninsula were given greater urgency today after a leaked UN report claimed that North Korea is defying UN sanctions and using front companies to export nuclear and missile technology to Iran, Syria and Burma.

The report, by a panel that monitors sanctions imposed after Pyongyang conducted nuclear weapons tests in 2006 and 2009, said the regime was using shell companies and overseas criminal networks to export the technology.

The revelations came just hours before the Chinese premier, Wen Jiabao, arrived in South Korea for a three-day visit certain to be dominated by mounting tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang.

At a meeting today, Wen told the South Korean president Lee Myung-bak that China would not “harbour” anyone over the sinking of a South Korean warship in March, in which 46 soldiers died.

But he added that China has not yet concluded that North Korea was responsible. Pyongyang has denied involvement.

Report: Israel threatens to ‘return Syria back to the Stone Age’

April 19, 2010 by Infinite

According to report in Sunday Times, Israeli minister said if Hezbollah dares to attack with ballistic missiles, responsibility will fall on Syria’s shoulders, Israel will mercilessly attack strategic targets. ‘Assad playing with fire,’ says minister, according to British paper

After Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman threatened that Syrian President Bashar Assad will lose his power should he provoke Israel, recent reports of advanced missiles being transferred from Syria to Hezbollah have led to more serious threats being made.

“We will return Syria back to the Stone Age,” an Israeli minister was quoted as saying in British paper, the Sunday Times. The paper reported that this sentiment was communicated to Damascus via a third party.

According to the report, the minister, speaking off the record, warned last week that Israel will do so by “crippling its power stations, ports, fuel storage and every bit of strategic infrastructure if Hezbollah dare to launch ballistic missiles against us.”

Syria will defend Iran if Israel attacks

December 17, 2009December 17, 2009 by Infinite

Regional war? An attack on Iran would start WWIII.

If Israel does attack Iran’s nuclear facilities, it will undoubtedly result in a regional war after Iran and Syria signed a mutual defense agreement on Sunday.

Kuwaiti media reported that the agreement was signed at the weekend while Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi was visiting Damascus.

Speaking to Syrian media, Vahidi said the agreement was a strong deterrent to an Israeli strike on his country’s nuclear facilities. Vahidi said that in addition to a Syrian response, Iran would retaliate for any strike on its nuclear facilities by firing ballistic missiles at Israel’s nuclear facilities.

Monday, December 14, 2009 Israel Today Staff

Source: Israel Today

Paradise Lost: Fertile Crescent will disappear this century

July 30, 2009 by Infinite

fertile-crescent
The Fertile Crescent is left dry as Turkish dams reduce the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to a trickle (AP)

Is it the final curtain for the Fertile Crescent? This summer, as Turkish dams reduce the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to a trickle, farmers abandon their desiccated fields across Iraq and Syria, and efforts to revive the Mesopotamian marshes appear to be abandoned, climate modellers are warning that the current drought is likely to become permanent. The Mesopotamian cradle of civilisation seems to be returning to desert.

Last week, Iraqi ministers called for urgent talks with upstream neighbours Turkey and Syria, after the combination of a second year of drought and dams in those countries cut flow on the Euphrates as it enters Iraq to below 250 cubic metres a second. That is less than a quarter the flow needed to maintain Iraqi agriculture.

Tensions have been growing since May, when the Iraqi parliament refused to approve a new much-needed trade deal with Turkey unless it contained binding clauses on river flows. But Turkey appears in no mood to compromise. In July, it announced the final go-ahead for yet another dam, the Ilisu on the Tigris.

Meanwhile, according to Hassan Partow at the UN Environment Programme, Iraq’s hydrological misery is compounded by Iran, which is also building new dams on tributaries of the Tigris. “Some of these rivers have run completely dry,” he told New Scientist. And Iraq itself is set to worsen the problem with its own dam building, he says. This year construction is set to begin on another Tigris tributary at Bekhme Gorge in Iraq’s northern province of Kurdistan. At 230 metres it will be one of the world’s tallest dams.

Paradise lost

In ancient times, the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers through Iraq were bountiful – irrigating fields that sustained civilisations like Sumer and cities like Babylon. But the combination of drought, dams and Iraq’s own desire to revive its agriculture is placing huge pressure on the last remnant of that bounty, the Mesopotamian marshes, which form where the Tigris and Euphrates meet and flow to the sea.

Catastrophic Fall in 2009 Global Food Production

February 15, 2009 by Infinite

“Global food Catastrophe”

“The world is heading for a drop in agricultural production of 20 to 40 percent, depending on the severity and length of the current global droughts. Food producing nations are imposing food export restrictions. Food prices will soar, and, in poor countries with food deficits, millions will starve.”

This article is a must-read.

After reading about the droughts in two major agricultural countries, China and Argentina, I decided to research the extent other food producing nations were also experiencing droughts. This project ended up taking a lot longer than I thought. 2009 looks to be a humanitarian disaster around much of the world

To understand the depth of the food Catastrophe that faces the world this year, consider the graphic below depicting countries by USD value of their agricultural output, as of 2006.

Now, consider the same graphic with the countries experiencing droughts highlighted.

The countries that make up two thirds of the world’s agricultural output are experiencing drought conditions. Whether you watch a video of the drought in China, Australia, Africa, South America, or the US, the scene will be the same: misery, ruined crop, and dying cattle.

China

The drought in Northern China, the worst in 50 years, is worsening, and summer harvest is now threatened. The area of affected crops has expanded to 161 million mu (was 141 million last week), and 4.37 million people and 2.1 million livestock are facing drinking water shortage. The scarcity of rain in some parts of the north and central provinces is the worst in recorded history.

Report: Secret order OKs U.S. raids overseas

November 10, 2008 by Infinite

N.Y. Times: U.S. targeted al-Qaida fighters in Syria, Pakistan and elsewhere

WASHINGTON – The U.S. military has conducted nearly a dozen secret operations against al-Qaida and other terrorist groups in Syria, Pakistan and other countries since 2004, The New York Times reported in Monday editions.

Meantime, Pakistan’s president said he expects U.S. President-elect Barack Obama to re-evaluate American military strikes on al-Qaida and Taliban targets on its side of the Afghan border.

Citing anonymous U.S. officials, the Times story said the operations were authorized by a broad classified order that then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld signed and President Bush approved in spring 2004. The order gave the military authority to attack al-Qaida anywhere in the world and to conduct operations in countries that were not at war with the United States.

One such operation was the Oct. 26 raid inside Syria, the Times reported. Washington hasn’t formally acknowledged the raid, but U.S. officials have said the target was a top al-Qaida in Iraq figure. Syria has asked for proof and said eight civilians were killed in the attack.

In another mission, in 2006, Navy SEALs raided a suspected terrorist compound in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

The raids have typically been conducted by U.S. Special Forces, often in conjunction with the Central Intelligence Agency, the newspaper said. Even though the process has been streamlined, specific missions have to be approved by the defense secretary or, in the cases of Syria and Pakistan, by the president.

US admits raiding Syria to kill terrorist leader

October 28, 2008 by Infinite

Syrian men carry the body of a relative killed in the raid on Sukkariya yesterday

Senior US officials claimed last night that the head of a Syrian network responsible for smuggling foreign fighters, weapons and cash into Iraq had been killed in Syria during a raid by US special forces that sparked strong condemnation from Damascus.

The Syrian foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem said the raid had killed eight civilians and was an act of “criminal and terrorist aggression.” Speaking at a news conference in London, he warned that Damascus would defend itself against any such future attack.

Sunday’s raid, 10km from the Iraqi border, took place in daylight and therefore was “not a mistake,” he said.

The rare attack into Syria marks an unexpected expansion of the war in Iraq and comes as the level of fighting drops to its lowest level for four years.

“We are taking matters into our own hands,” said a US officer in Washington, confirming that American commandos had entered Syria on Sunday evening to attack a network of guerrillas linked to al-Qa’ida.

U.S. confirms strike on Syria that killed eight

October 26, 2008 by Infinite

A U.S. military official confirmed late Sunday an American helicopter attack in an area along Syria’s border with Iraq, which left 8 people dead and three people wounded.

Syria condemned the attack, which it called “serious aggression.”

The raid indicated the desert frontier between the two countries remains a key battleground, more than five years into the Iraq war. The U.S. official said the attack targeted elements of a robust foreign fighter logistics network and that due to Syrian inaction the U.S. was now “taking matters into our own hands.”

A government statement carried by the official Syrian Arab News Agency said the attack occurred at the Sukkariyeh Farm near the town of Abu Kamal, five miles (eight kilometers) inside the Syrian border. Four helicopters attacked a civilian building under construction, firing at the workers inside shortly before sundown, the statement said.

Russia test-fires Topol missile, Georgia desperately cries for NATO membership

August 28, 2008 by Infinite

Russia’s strategic and space troops successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile Topol (RS12M).

The missile is designed to avoid detection by anti-missile defense systems. The launch was performed at 2:36 p.m. Moscow time from Plesetsk space port, RIA Novosti reports.

The missile successfully covered the distance of almost 6,000 kilometers and hit a hypothetical target on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

Russia says ready to supply Syria with defensive weapons

August 22, 2008 by Infinite

MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) – Russia is ready to supply Syria with defensive weapons, the Russian foreign minister said on Thursday following a meeting between the two countries leaders in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi.

Russian Aircraft Carrier heads for Syria

August 21, 2008 by Infinite

The Russian aircraft carrier “Admiral Kuznetsov” is ready to head from Murmansk towards the Mediterranean and the Syrian port of Tartus. The mission comes after Syrian President Bashar Assad said he is open for a Russian base in the area. The “Admiral Kuznetsov”, part of the Northern Fleet and Russia’s only aircraft carrier, will head a Navy mission to the area. The mission will also include the missile cruiser “Moskva” and several submarines, Newsru.com reports.

Syria test fires series of long-range missiles

August 20, 2008 by Infinite

Syria has recently test launched a series of surface to surface missiles and rockets, Channel 2 news reported Monday.

The test launch was detected by Israel’s radar systems, including the Oren Yarok (green pine) and Oren Adir (magnificent pine) radars which activate Israel’s Arrow anti-ballistic missiles, Channel 2 reported.

Syria has some 1,000 models of Scud missiles with a range of 300 to 700 kilometers. The Syrian missiles are capable of striking targets anywhere in Israel. The Syrian military can fit the missiles with chemical warheads, and may have conducted experiments with biological warheads as well.

In addition to the Scud missile arsenal, Syria also possesses SS21 missiles with a range of 80 kilometers but with much higher precision than the Scuds.

The biggest threat facing Israel, however, is Syria’s arsenal of thousands of rockets with a range of nearly 100 kilometers, some of which can reach as far as the Haifa bay. The rockets are more accurate than the Scud missiles.

In response to Syria’s drill, the Israel Defense Forces and the Israel Air Force anti-aircraft unit conducted an exercise simulating a possible Syria missile attack.

The Summer Olympics And World War III

August 14, 2008 by Infinite

Earl Of Stirling

The Olympics are what is right about the world. On this last Friday, the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth year of the new millennium we witnessed a fantastic spectacle, a peaceful gathering of the many nations of our small blue planet; a competition of the best young athletes from all over the world. The Olympics make us proud to be humans; proud to be citizens of Earth.

Sadly, on this same day, we saw what future historians will count as the day that the Third World War began. It was designed this way, by the evil people who worked hard to begin the war under the cover of the Olympics.

We all like to be right, myself included, but sometimes it is not so wonderful. I have written a series of articles over the last few weeks on the coming nightmare centered on the neo-con grand strategy. I predicted the outbreak of hostilities in Georgia and Russia and said that there is a strong link between what is happening there and to what is about to happen against Iran. I said that the war in Georgia was intended as a strategic distraction for Russia as America, the United Kingdom, France, Israel, and others assemble their large naval blockade of Iran, but a strategic distraction that would backfire. I also described the massive US Naval armada headed for Iran; the make-up of this extremely large and powerful force is as I described it several days ago (this has now been confirmed by Israeli sources).

Russia’s new Great Game

July 28, 2008 by Infinite

Vladimir Putin (left), then the president of Russia, met with Muammar Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, in April to discuss arms, energy and debt. AFP

Employing strategies redolent of a new Great Game, Russia has stepped up its diplomatic and trade activities in the Middle East and North Africa in a bid to enhance its geopolitical clout and gain access to, and at least partial control over, the region’s oil and gas reserves.

Among the former global superpower’s tactics: linking arms deals and debt-forgiveness to energy deals.

The strategy has been most apparent in former client states of the Soviet Union including Libya, Iraq and Syria, although by no means limited to such countries. Moreover, Moscow has not shied away from courting the authoritarian regimes of countries such as Iran, Syria and Libya that are or have been shunned by the US and other western governments.

Syria tells UN: Israel burying nuclear waste in Golan Heights

July 8, 2008 by Infinite

Syria has complained to the United Nations about a series of alleged Israeli wrongdoings in the Golan Heights, including burying nuclear waste and discriminating against the region’s Druze residents.

The complaint was made in a report Syria handed to a UN fact-finding committee comprised of Senegal, Sri Lanka and Malaysia’s ambassadors.

How Israel Is creating the war on Iran

July 8, 2008 by Infinite

Jews in Palestine stirring up War

Shaul Mofaz, Israeli Minister of Defense:

“On the same US trip, Mr. Mofaz told a pro-Israeli lobby group that a nuclear Iran was “intolerable.” “The implicit message of his statements was that if the Iranian nuclear program is not stopped in the next number of months, Israel will have to take action of its own – perhaps even to attack – to prevent nuclear weapons from falling into Iranian hands,” analyst Amir Rappaport wrote in the Ma’ariv newspaper.” (Nicole Gaouette ‘Israel: Iran is now danger No. 1′); “In November, Israeli media reported that Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, on a trip to Washington, told US officials that “under no circumstances would Israel be able to abide by nuclear weapons in Iranian possession.”

” Israeli Minister of Defense, Shaul Mofaz, affirmed that in view of Teheran’s nuclear plans, Tel Aviv should “not count on diplomatic negotiations but prepare other solutions”.” (James Petras ‘Israel’s War Deadline: Iran in the Crosshairs’). A month later, “Israel’s defense minister hinted Saturday that the Jewish state is preparing for military action to stop Iran’s nuclear program, but said international diplomacy must be the first course of action. “Israel will not be able to accept an Iranian nuclear capability and it must have the capability to defend itself, with all that that implies, and this we are preparing,” Shaul Mofaz said.” (Talk of military action in Iran standoff’); “And Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz went further, speaking directly to Iran’s president: “I address you as someone who leads his country with an ideology of hate, terror, and anti-Semitism. I suggest you look at history and see what happened to others who tried to wipe out the Jewish people. … Israel is not prepared to accept the nuclear arming of Iran, and it must prepare to defend itself, with all that implies.” ” (Quoted in Patrick J Buchanan ‘Bush’s Dilemma: Iran vs. Israel’); “Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was asked whether Israel was ready to use military action if the Security Council proved unable to act against what Israel and the West believe is a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program. “My answer to this question is that the state of Israel has the right give all the security that is needed to the people in Israel. We have to defend ourselves,” Mofaz told Reuters after a meeting with his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung.” (Louis Charbonneau ‘Israel will have to Act on Iran if UN Can’t’).

Uzi Arad, director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy:

“Iran has a clandestine nuclear program that is very ambitious,” says Uzi Arad, director of the Institute of Policy and Strategy in Herzilya. “That country thinks big and fast and … poses a threat that is very real. Should it acquire nuclear weapons or even come close, it would completely alter the Middle East. It’s a very ominous threat.” (Nicole Gaouette ‘Israel: Iran is now danger No. 1′)

Meir Dagan, director of Mossad:

“Meir Dagan, director of Israel’s external intelligence agency, the Mossad, told a parliamentary committee this month that Iran posed an “existential threat” to Israel, according to the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper. He reportedly assured committee members that Israel could deal with this threat.” (Nicole Gaouette ‘Israel: Iran is now danger No. 1′)

A Declaration of U.S. Independence from Israel

June 30, 2008 by Infinite

This is a talk given at the Nassau Club in Princeton by Chris Hedges, former New York Times Middle East bureau chief:

Israel, without the United States, would probably not exist. The country came perilously close to extinction during the October 1973 war when Egypt, trained and backed by the Soviet Union, crossed the Suez Canal and the Syrians poured in over the Golan Heights. Huge American military transport planes came to the rescue.

They began landing every half-hour to refit the battered Israeli army, which had lost most of its heavy armor. By the time the war as over, the United States had given Israel $2.2 billion in emergency military aid. The intervention, which enraged the Arab world, triggered the OPEC oil embargo that for a time wreaked havoc on Western economies. This was perhaps the most dramatic example of the sustained life-support system the United States has provided to the Jewish state.

Israel was born at midnight May 14, 1948. The U.S. Recognized the new state 11 minutes later. The two countries have been locked in a deadly embrace ever since.Washington, at the beginning of the relationship, was able to be a moderating influence. An incensed President Eisenhower demanded and got Israel’s withdrawal after the Israelis occupied Gaza in 1956.

During the Six-Day War in 1967, Israeli warplanes bombed the USS Liberty. The ship, flying the U.S. Flag and stationed 15 miles off the Israeli coast, was intercepting tactical and strategic communications from both sides. The Israeli strikes killed 34 U.S. Sailors and wounded 171.

The deliberate attack froze, for a while, Washington’s enthusiasm for Israel. But ruptures like this one proved to be only bumps, soon smoothed out by an increasingly sophisticated and well-financed Israel lobby that set out to merge Israel and American foreign policy in the Middle East.

Israel has reaped tremendous rewards from this alliance. It has been given more than $140 billion in U.S. Direct economic and military assistance. It receives about $3 billion in direct assistance annually, roughly one-fifth of the U.S. Foreign aid budget. Although most American foreign aid packages stipulate that related military purchases have to be made in the United States, Israel is allowed to use about 25 percent of the money to subsidize its own growing and profitable defense industry. It is exempt, unlike other nations, from accounting for how it spends the aid money.

Top US commander briefed on IDF’s four-front strategy in potential Iran war context

June 29, 2008 by Infinite

Top US commander Adm. Michael Mullen sees for himself

The visiting Chairman of the US Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, carried out a guided tour of Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip over the weekend. It was led by the IDF chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi and OCs Northern and Southern Commands, Maj. Gens. Eisenkott and Galant.

He was briefed on IDF tactics in a war on all these potential flashpoints in the context of a comprehensive conflict with Iran and then held long conversations with defense minister Ehud Barak and Ashkenazi.

DEBKAfile‘s military sources report that it is very unusual for the top American commander to carry out a close, on-the-spot study of Israel’s potential war fronts. It was prompted on the one hand by skepticism in parts of the US high command of Israel’s ability to simultaneously strike Iran’s nuclear installations and fight off attacks from three borders while, at the same time, Adm. Mullen showed he was open to persuasion that the IDF’s prospective tactics and war plans were workable.

Military circles in Washington, commenting on the large-scale air maneuver Israel carried out with Greece earlier in June, have opined that 100 warplanes are not enough for the Israel Air Force to destroy all of Iran’s secret nuclear sites; more than 1,000 would be needed. Israel military tacticians in contact with US commanders have countered that, while Iran’s secret nuclear locations are scattered and buried deep, still, every chain has weak links and is therefore vulnerable.

The tough threats issued by Iranian Revolutionary Guards commander Mohamed Ali Jafari on Saturday, June 28, were prompted by the Adm. Mullen’s Israeli border tour, word of which was flashed to Tehran by Syrian-Iranian observation posts inside Syrian and Lebanese borders.

(The Sunday Times added that Iran moved its ballistic Shihab-3 missiles into launch positions, with Israel’s Dimona nuclear plant among its possible targets.)

Saturday, DEBKAfile reported:

The IRGC chief, Mohammad Ali Jafari issued Tehran’s toughest and most explicit threats yet in response to recent reports of Israeli preparations to strike Iran’s nuclear installations.

Hinting at an American attack, he said: “If there is a confrontation between us and the enemy from outside the region , definitely the scope will reach the oil issue.”

After this action (of imposing controls on the Gulf waterway), the oil price will rise very considerably,” he said.

US Congress approves Israel aid increase

June 28, 2008 by Infinite

(The economy is falling apart, the former middle class is living in their cars, the U.S. are broke but….

The US Congress has approved a 170 million dollar increase in security assistance to Israel as part of its new 10-year, 30 billion dollar defense aid commitment to the Jewish state.

The money for Israel was part of a larger supplemental spending bill that included 162 billion dollars for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The legislation gained final approval in a 92-6 Senate vote late Thursday.

America’s pro-Israel lobby, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, welcomed the congressional action, saying it would increase US aid to Israel to 2.55 billion dollars in fiscal year 2009, up from 2.38 billion dollars this year.

“The US commitment to maintaining Israel’s qualitative military edge is the cornerstone of American policy in the region,” AIPAC said in a statement Friday.

…and this is how Israel will spend the money:

– Israel flexes muscles with Iran attack drill

– Israel launches ‘Iran Command’ for war

– A human rights crime in Gaza By Jimmy Carter

– Israeli siege leads to soaring anemia in Gaza newborns

– Israel Causes UN Food Aid Relief For Gaza to Halt

– U.N. chief condemns Israel after Gaza clash

…What should be done? Michael Scheuer, Former Head of the CIA Bin Laden Unit:

– ISRAEL is NOT WORTH A SINGLE AMERICAN LIFE OR DOLLAR

– The Infinite Unknown)

“This year’s package holds heightened significance for US security interests, as the US and Israel face new challenges from Iran’s drive to acquire nuclear weapons as well as the growing influence of radical anti-western forces to Israel’s south in Gaza and to the north in Lebanon.”

The package was unveiled by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on July 30 as part of a new military pact with US allies in the Middle East in a bid to “counter the negative influences” of militant groups Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah as well as arch enemies Iran and Syria.

The aid includes a 20 billion dollar weapons package for Saudi Arabia, a 13 billion dollar package for Egypt, and reportedly arms deals worth at least 20 billion dollars for other Gulf states.

The military aid to Israel reflected an increase in value of more than 25 percent, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said, describing the package as a considerable improvement and very important element for national security.

Israel flexes muscles with Iran attack drill

June 21, 2008 by Infinite

Israeli aircraft have conducted a long-range mission designed to prepare for a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities and to send a message to the world that it is ready to take military action if diplomacy fails to halt Tehran’s atomic programme.

An Israeli political official familiar with the drill, held early this month, said that the Iranians should “read the writing on the wall . . . This was a dress rehearsal, and the Iranians should read the script before they continue with their programme for nuclear weapons. If diplomacy does not yield results, Israel will take military steps to halt Tehran’s production of bomb-grade uranium.”

Mohamed ElBaradei, Director-General of the United Nations nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that he would be forced to leave his position if Iran were attacked. “A military strike, in my opinion, would be worse than anything possible,” he told al-Arabiya television station. “It would turn the region into a fireball.It will mean that Iran, if it is not already making nuclear weapons, will launch a crash course to build nuclear weapons with the blessing of all Iranians, even those in the West.”

Western states suspect Iran of secretly aiming to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran insists that its nuclear facilities are intended to produce electricity.

More than a hundred Israeli F16 and F15 fighter jets took part in manoeuvres over the eastern Mediterranean and Greece to prepare for possible long-range strikes. The central command for the Greek Air Force said yesterday that it had taken part in “joint training exercises” with Israel near Crete.

Israeli Ministers Mull Plans for Military Strike against Iran

June 18, 2008 by Infinite

The Israeli Air Force is known for its “inventive solutions to military problems,” says Bruce Riedel, a Middle East expert who has strong contacts to Israel. “Israeli military planners tell me it is mission doable.”

The Israeli government no longer believes that sanctions can prevent Iran from building nuclear weapons. A broad consensus in favor of a military strike against Tehran’s nuclear facilities — without the Americans, if necessary — is beginning to take shape.

Dani Yatom, a member of the Israeli parliament, the Knesset, was invited to attend a NATO conference in Brussels last year. While reviewing the agenda, Yatom, a retired major general, was surprised to see that the meeting was titled “The Iranian Challenge” and not “The Iranian Threat.”

When a speaker with a French accent mentioned that a US military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities would be the most dangerous scenario of all, Yatom said, politely but firmly: “Sir, you are wrong. The worst scenario would be if Iran acquired an atom bomb.”

Yatom, 63, has spent most of his life in the military. He was a military adviser to former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and, in the mid-1990s, was named head of Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. Nevertheless, Yatom, a member of the Labor Party, is not some reckless hawk. Unlike most Knesset members, he flatly rejects, for example, a major Israeli offensive against the Islamist Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

But Yatom’s willingness to strike a compromise ends when he is asked what he considers to be the best response to the Iranian nuclear program. “We no longer believe in the effectiveness of sanctions,” says Yatom. “A military operation is needed if the world wants to stop Iran.”

When Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz, a former defense minister, expressed similar sentiments 10 days ago, they were viewed, especially in Europe, as the isolated opinions of a card-carrying hardliner seeking to score points with the electorate in a bid to succeed Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. In truth, however, there is now a consensus within the Israeli government that an air strike against the Iranian nuclear facilities has become unavoidable. “Most members of the Israeli cabinet no longer believe that sanctions will convince President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to change course,” says Minister of Immigrant Absorption Yaakov Edri.

The one question over which Israel’s various political groups disagree is the timing of an attack. The doves argue that diplomatic efforts by the United Nations should be allowed to continue until Iran is on the verge of completing the bomb. That way, Israel could at least argue convincingly that all non-military options had been exhausted.

Turkey, Syria eye nuclear energy cooperation: agency

June 14, 2008 by Infinite

ISTANBUL (Reuters) – Turkey and Syria are considering setting up a joint energy company and could build joint nuclear power plants for electricity, Syria’s oil minister was quoted as saying on Friday.

Turkey’s state-run Antolian agency quoted Oil Minister Sufian Alao as saying that the two countries will announce the establishment of a joint energy company in the coming days, which could explore for oil in Turkey, Syria and in third countries.

“We could also enter into cooperation in the nuclear field. I spoke to (Turkish Energy Minister Hilmi Guler) Mr. Guler on cooperation. In the future we could found joint nuclear power plants for electricity production,” he was quoted as saying.

Washington released intelligence in April which it said showed Syria secretly built an atomic reactor with North Korean help. Damascus, a U.S. foe and ally of Iran, denies any covert nuclear activity and has said it would cooperate with a U.N. investigation into the allegations.

Turkey, a NATO ally of the United States, is already under pressure from Washington because of its natural gas cooperation with Iran, whose secretive uranium enrichment program has been under scrutiny since 2003.

The general director of Turkish state energy firm TPAO, Mehmet Uysal, was also quoted as saying the two countries had decided to set up a joint energy company and that a deal could be signed by the end of the year, but did not mention cooperation on nuclear energy.

(So what now? Bomb them all? -The Infinite Unknown)

Fri Jun 13, 10:57 AM ET

Source: Reuters

Israeli hawks pushing for strikes on Iran

June 13, 2008June 13, 2008 by Infinite

JERUSALEM – Six months ago, after American intelligence agencies declared that Iran had shelved its nuclear-weapons program, the chances of a U.S. or Israeli military strike on the Islamic Republic before President Bush left office seemed remote.

Now, thanks to persistent pressure from Israeli hawks and newly stated concerns by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the idea of a targeted strike meant to cripple Iran’s nuclear program is getting a new hearing.

As Bush travels across Europe to gain support for possible new sanctions against Iran, Israeli leaders have been working to lay the psychological foundation for a possible military strike if diplomacy falters.

In public threats and private briefings with American decision-makers, Israeli officials have been making the case that a military strike may be the only way to thwart Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“Temperatures are rising,” said Emily Landau, an Iran specialist at the Institute for National Security Studies, an independent Israeli research center.

Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have met twice in recent weeks for extended talks on Iran. America’s intelligence chief, Mike McConnell, has traveled to Israel for private briefings, and Israeli Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz publicly declared that a military strike on Iran may be “unavoidable.”

In Germany on Wednesday, Bush said that “all options are on the table” if Iran doesn’t abandon its uranium enrichment programs.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad greeted Bush’s initiative by mocking the latest international efforts.

Carter says Israel has arsenal of 150 nuclear weapons

May 27, 2008 by Infinite

Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter has said Israel holds at least 150 nuclear weapons, the first time a U.S. president has publicly acknowledged Israel’s atomic arsenal.

Asked at a news conference at Wales’s Hay literary festival on Sunday how a future U.S. president should deal with the Iranian nuclear threat, Carter put the risk in context by listing atomic weapons held globally.

“The U.S. has more more than 12,000 nuclear weapons, the Soviet Union (Russia) has about the same, Great Britain and France have several hundred, and Israel has 150 or more. We have a phalanx of enormous weaponry … not only of enormous weaponry but of rockets to deliver those missiles on a pinpoint accuracy target,” he said, according to a transcript of his remarks.

Carter also condemned Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip as “one of the greatest human rights crimes now existing on Earth,” according to the Agence France-Presse news agency.

Carter said in reference to the situation of Palestinians in Gaza that, “There is no reason to treat these people this way.”

The 83-year-old was subjected to criticism on a recent visit to Israel for his meetings with officials from Palestinian militant group Hamas as well as his trip to Syria where he met with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Hamas leader Khaled Meshal.

He has also in the past branded a “crime and an atrocity” the Israeli blockade of Gaza, imposed in response to ongoing rocket attacks launched from the territory.

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Last update – 21:23 26/05/2008

Source: Haaretz.com