“I could draw you a scenario in which this new combination of players leads to the first real talks with Iran in three decades,” one of the key players on the issue for President Obama said last week, declining to speak on the record because the new administration has not even named its team, much less its strategy. “And I could draw you one in which the first big foreign crisis of the Obama presidency is a really nasty confrontation, either because the Israelis strike or because we won’t let them.”In public, Mr. Obama is talking only about the first scenario. On Monday evening, he talked about “looking for areas where we can have constructive dialogue, where we can engage directly with them,” and said he was looking for “diplomatic overtures.” But he cautioned that “there’s been a lot of mistrust built up over the years,” and that after thirty years of a deep freeze, openings are “not going to happen overnight.”
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Olmert says no Israeli government would let Iran get nukes
by News maker (not verified) on Wed Feb 11, 2009 08:49 AM PSTMonday 09 February 2009
Olmert says no Israeli government would let Iran get nukes
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will not allow arch-foe Iran to develop nuclear weapons, no matter what the political make-up of the Israeli government, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday ahead of a national election.
Leading the race to replace the centrist Olmert in Tuesday's ballot is hawkish opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu, who has hinted that Israel, believed to have the region's only atomic arsenal, could attack Iran to destroy means for building a bomb.
Though Netanyahu's Likud will have to consider forming a new coalition government with the more moderate Kadima and Labour parties, Olmert told a visiting French delegation such considerations would be irrelevant to Israel's stand on Iran.
"The prime minister emphasised that Israel will not tolerate a nuclear Iran, and that in this matter Israel has neither government nor opposition, and no future government will change this Israeli position," Olmert's office said in a statement.
Israeli premiers have traditionally secured the approval of opposition leaders for military action of major strategic import, such as the 1981 sneak bombing of Iraq's atomic reactor.
For a similar 2007 sortie which the CIA said destroyed a secret Syrian reactor -- something denied by Damascus -- Olmert first conferred with Netanyahu.
Iranian officials say their atomic ambitions are peaceful and have brushed off the threats of a pre-emptive Israeli attack. Though Iran's nuclear facilities are distant, numerous and fortified, some experts believe Israel could pull off a strike.
The United States is leading international efforts to curb Iran's uranium enrichment through a combination of sanctions and diplomatic overtures but, like Israel, has not ruled out force.
دیدار خامنه ای با رهبر تروریستهای جهاد اسلامی
Ali Geda (not verified)Wed Feb 11, 2009 07:45 AM PST
Wednesday 11 February 2009
دیدار خامنه ای با رهبر تروریستهای جهاد اسلامی
تلویزیون رژیم: رمضان عبدالله دبیرکل جهاد اسلامی فلسطین و هیأت همراه وی امروز ضمن دیدار با حضرت آیت الله خامنه ای رهبر معظم انقلاب اسلامی، گزارش کاملی از جنگ غزه و تحولات مربوط به آن ارائه کرد.
حضرت آیت الله خامنه ای در این دیدار با تبریک پیروزی مردم غزه و مقاومت اسلامی در جنگ 22 روزه تأکید کردند: آنچه که در غزه روی داد حقیقتاً شبیه معجزه بود.
ایشان با تأکید بر اینکه پیروزی در جنگ غزه نتیجه لطف و نصرت الهی بود، افزودند: قضایای غزه در واقع دست قدرت پروردگار بود که به وسیله ایمان، عزم راسخ و جهاد نیروهای مقاومت و مردم غزه عینیت یافت.
رهبر انقلاب اسلامی خاطرنشان کردند: مردم غزه در این جنگ حقاً و انصافاً امتحان خوبی دادند و مسئولان و مدیران صحنه نیز با عملکرد خوب و مواضع متحد و قاطعانه خود، از این امتحان سربلند بیرون آمدند.
ایشان افزودند: بعد از پایان جنگ غزه، دشمن تلاش دارد تا از طریق جنگ روانی و تبلیغاتی بر افکار عمومی مردم غزه تأثیرگذاری و مقاومت اسلامی را مسئول رنج و محنت مردم معرفی کند که باید با آن مقابله شود.
حضرت آیت الله خامنه ای با اشاره به قضایای مربوط به جنگ غزه و بعد از آن، خاطرنشان کردند: این جنگ و تحولات مربوط به آن حقیقتاً جنگ فرقان و آشکار کننده جبهه حق و باطل بود و چهره منافقین (سران کشورهای عربی) را به خوبی مشخص کرد.
رهبر انقلاب با تأکید بر اینکه استحکام در مواضع سیاسی تثبیت کننده پیروزی در صحنه نظامی است، افزودند: در صحنه سیاسی نباید تسلیم شرایط و خواست های دشمن شد .
Breaking Iran Arms Export Ban
by Reporter (not verified) on Wed Feb 11, 2009 07:43 AM PSTDetained Ship Broke Iran Arms Export Ban - Cyprus
AP - World News
Feb 10, 2009
NICOSIA -- A ship detained off Cyprus has breached a U.N. ban on Iranian arms exports, Cyprus' foreign minister said Tuesday.
But Markos Kyprianou refused to specify what had been found on the Cypriot-flagged Monchegorsk, which U.S. officials suspect was delivering arms to Hamas militants in Gaza.
Kyprianou said Cyprus will decide what to do with the cargo once the search of all containers aboard the ship is completed.
Cyprus inspected the Monchegorsk twice after it arrived Jan. 29 under suspicion of ferrying weapons from Iran to Hamas fighters in Gaza. It remains anchored off the port of Limassol under tight security.
Returning the shipment to Iran has been ruled out, but Kyprianou said possible options include confiscating and storing it in Cyprus or another country.
Last week, Cyprus applied for and received guidance from the U.N. Security Council Sanctions Committee on whether the cargo breached sanctions barring Iran from sending arms abroad.
The committee was established in December 2006 to oversee a Security Council-imposed embargo on Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs, an export ban on arms and related material, and individual targeted sanctions including travel bans and an assets freeze.
Iran has denied accusations it is trying to build nuclear weapons, saying its nuclear program is geared toward generating electricity.
Kyprianou said Cyprus would ''turn to friends'' for help if authorities decide against storing the Monchegorsk's cargo on the island.
Britain's Minister for Europe Caroline Flint, who is visiting Cyprus, said her country is ready to help.
''My understanding is that Cypriot authorities are looking into what the situation is, what is the specifications on these weapons that are there,'' Flint said after talks with Kyprianou.
''And I think when we have a better report of that, the U.K. and I'm sure other countries will want to help in whatever way we can to make sure that they are disposed of effectively.''
The U.S. military stopped the ship last month in the Red Sea, and said it found artillery shells and other arms on board. But it could not legally detain the ship, which continued to Port Said, Egypt, and then to Cyprus.
U.S. officials had said the ship was headed for Syria.
Israel launched a 22-day offensive late last month on Hamas-controlled Gaza to try to end militant rocket fire on Israelis and to halt the smuggling of arms into the Palestinian territory.
Ostaad
by Abarmard on Tue Feb 10, 2009 08:09 PM PSTYou said it all.
Israeli, American, Iranian, Pride
by Hamid Y. Javanbakht on Tue Feb 10, 2009 02:48 PM PSTIf they can get close enough for travel without too many restrictions, then we will have passed a milestone.
If an Iranian goes to Israel, they'll be detained and questioned for hours, peace will only come about when they'll be treated as equals, afterall, their shared roots go way back.
"But Abraham was not merely the founder of the Persians, but various authors assert that he was a great Magician, at the head of the Magi, that is he was at the head of the priesthood…in short, the whole of the Jewish system betrays judicial astrology, or, in other words, magic, in every part…There can be no doubt that judicial astrology…was received and practiced by all the ancient Jews, Persians, and many of the Christians, particularly the Gnostics and Manicheans…Eusebius tells us…that Abraham was an astrologer, and that he taught the science to the priests of Heliopolis or On. This was a fact universally asserted by the historians of the East" – Godfrey Higgins (Anacalypsis, Vol. 1)
"Daniel is said to have lived at the court of the king of Babylon, to have been at the head of the Astrologers, Magi, and Chaldeans, and to have flourished both before and after the taking of that city by the Persians" - ibid
//astro-theology.net/astrotheology1.html
History, culture, common goals in the sciences (maybe Israel should work with Iran on nuclear physics, and visit eachothers faculty...separate politics from culture, then gently work on the Palestinian issue.), technology could bring them together enough to overlap without seeming overbearing.
Israelis will settle for what the US settles for.
by Ostaad on Tue Feb 10, 2009 11:05 AM PSTThe notion that Israel can veto the cold peace process between the US and Iran is overblown. That issue was settled when GW told Olmert to back off from unhelpful fantasies of attacking Iran. He even put a radar station manned by US personnel to make sure Israel will not commit any stupid mistakes. In fact I don't subscribe to he argument that Israel will not work towards its own "grand bargain" with Iran. Many Israeli security/military officials have argued Israel can live with a nuclear Iran - nuclear Iran does not mean Iran with nuclear weapons as Iran has consistently announced it will not make nuclear weapons.
What Obama needs to watch for is the right wing Zionist lobby in the US that functions as a front for Israel at the expense of the US national interests. I think Obama realized that fact and that's why he is very cautious and deliberate when it comes to negotiations with Iran.
Israel knows well that it CANNOT attack single-handedly. Israel wants to use the US as its proxy and Obama is not going to go for that. Therefore, Israel's real fear is for the US and Iran to reach some sort of rapprochement while Israel is left out to fend for itself. Israel will do its best to be included in any kind of process. Here's where I disagree with David Sanger, Israel will be more flexible about the outcome rather than mindlessly insisting on attacking Iran.