Door: Marc E. Putto
November 2011
Door: Ingezonden
Dit is de voortzetting van de nieuwsdraad, welke ooit op www.joostniemöller.com begon, over het verzet van de groene beweging in Iran. Tevens worden hier links, video's en nieuwsberichten gepost over ontwikkelingen rond de nucleaire ambities van dit land. De draad wordt per 2 weken vernieuwd. Een chronologisch overzicht kunt u vinden in de categorie "Ondertussen in Iran".
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op 2 nov 2011. Gearchiveerd onder Ondertussen in Iran.
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057210/Iran-ready-war-Tehran-vows-retaliate-Israel-West-attack-nuclear-plants.html?ITO=1490
Iran ‘is ready for war’: Tehran vows to retaliate if Israel and the West attack nuclear plants.
Foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi spoke on visit to Libyan city of Benghazi.
Warns that West would be ‘punished’ if it seeks collision course.
Ook op deze draad mogen we best even lachen:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2057226/Iranian-footballers-Nosrati-Rezaei-lashed-pitch-buttock-squeeze-celebration.html?ITO=1490
The two Iranian football players who engaged in the ‘inappropriate’ celebration of buttock squeezing may face a public lashing in the centre of the pitch.
Members of the Iranian Parliament have called for the ‘swift punishment’ of Mohammad Nosrati and Sheys Rezaei who played for the Tehran-based Pesepolis club.
The ‘offence’ took place during a match last weekend when one of the pair’s teammates scored the winning goal to end a losing streak.
Analysts Believe Israel is Moving Closer to Iran Strike
Haaretz is reporting a new diplomatic initiative by Israel to convince Western countries to increase sanctions on Iran. The work comes ahead of an IAEA report to be released on November 8, which is expected to detail the scope of Iran’s nuclear program and submit evidence that Iran is attempting to build a nuclear bomb:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/analysts-believe-israel-is-moving-closer-to-iran-strike/247666/
Iran’s Internal Political Fray
In recent months, Iranian domestic politics have been dominated by sharp disagreements within the conservative camp that put President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad “and his tight group of advisers or supporters in conflict with all other institutions of the Islamic republic,” says Iran expert Farideh Farhi. The conflict stemming from protests after 2009′s disputed reelection of Ahmadinejad has been managed “but not resolved through severe repression of the Green Movement,” and could depress voter turnout on the March 29, 2012, parliamentary elections. A new multibillion-dollar banking scandal is suspected to involve highly placed officials within Ahmadinejad’s government. Farhi sees little likelihood of a dialogue between Iran and the United States any time soon, contending the United States cannot engage and threaten at the same time. “In order to have a conversation with Iran, there has to be not only change of conduct on the part of the Iranian government but also a change of conduct on the part of the American government,” Farhi says.
http://www.cfr.org/iran/irans-internal-political-fray/p26387?cid=rss-iran-iran_s_internal_political_fray-110111&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+region%2Firan+%28CFR.org+-+Regions+-+Iran%29
Turkey’s Rising Clout Leaves Iran Fuming on Sidelines of Arab Spring
Once friends, Turkey and Iran are finding that their reactions to the Arab Spring revolutions are driving them apart and renewing an old regional rivalry.
One sign of the deepening divide was obvious from the attendee list for an international conference on Afghanistan security that opened today in Istanbul.
Every primary player is here: 14 regional nations, with the presidents of Afghanistan and Pakistan in attendance, as well as more than a dozen other countries, including the United States. But Iran had planned to send just its low-ranking deputy foreign minister, despite its long border with Afghanistan and claims of being a regional superpower.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/1102/Turkey-s-rising-clout-leaves-Iran-fuming-on-sidelines-of-Arab-Spring
A Big Week Coming on the Israel-Iran Front
A report by the UN’s nuclear watchdog due to be circulated around the world next week will provide fresh evidence of a possible Iranian nuclear weapons programme, bringing the Middle East a step closer to a devastating new conflict, say diplomats.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/a-big-week-coming-on-the-israel-iran-front/247789/
Is Britain Preparing to Attack Iran?
If this report in the Guardian is true, or even something close to true, there are various Arab princes (and one Israeli prime minister) who are very happy today:
Britain’s armed forces are stepping up their contingency planning for potential military action against Iran amid mounting concern about Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, the Guardian has learned.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/is-britain-preparing-to-attack-iran/247805/
Satire in Iran
Mocking the mullahs
THEIR irreverent sense of humour is a source of pride to Iranians, a way to puncture the gloom of successive repressive regimes. It is no surprise that a satirical television programme called “Parazit” that delights in skewering Iran’s politicians is going down a storm.
“Parazit”, meaning “static” in Persian, itself a dig at the government’s tendency to block seditious broadcasts, came on the air shortly before the disputed presidential election of 2009. It is produced by Voice of America (VOA), the state-funded international broadcaster. Despite—or perhaps because of—its tie to the Great Satan, the programme has proved enormously popular in Iran.
http://www.economist.com/node/21536654?fsrc=rss%7Cmea
Iran’s politics
President v supreme leader
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is fighting tooth and nail to keep his presidency
THE feud between Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, is becoming increasingly bitter and public. Mr Khamenei has hinted that he may abolish the presidency altogether, replacing it with an honorary post elected by members of parliament rather than directly by the people. It was a pointed reminder that the supreme leader has the final say.
Mr Ahmadinejad seems reluctant to take the hint. He responded with a defiant speech of his own, declaring that anyone who defied the will of the Iranian people would be “destroyed”. Months of simmering mistrust had already boiled over in April when Mr Ahmadinejad sacked Heydar Moslehi, Iran’s intelligence minister, only to see him promptly reinstated by the supreme leader.
Mr Ahmadinejad is fighting his corner with tenacity. But his support has been ebbing. The recent exposure of a banking fraud involving $2.6 billion may have fatally weakened his grip on the presidency. Several of his close allies are implicated. His opponents scent blood.
http://www.economist.com/node/21536660?fsrc=rss%7Cmea
Iran warns US to avoid clash over nuclear programme
Iranian foreign minister says America has ‘lost its wisdom and prudence’ as tensions mount over Tehran’s enrichment efforts
Iran has warned the US not to set the two countries on a collision course over Tehran’s nuclear enrichment programme, as diplomatic tensions reflected growing concern that the Middle East might be on the verge of new conflict.
The Iranian foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, spoke amid reports that the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has been trying to rally support within his country for an attack.
The Guardian revealed that the UK was advancing contingency plans for joining American forces in a possible air and sea campaign against military bases in Iran.
The revelations led to Nato insisting on Thursday that it would play no part in any military action, and provoked the rebuke from Salehi, who insisted that any attack by either Israel or the US would provoke immediate retaliation. He also accused Washington of recklessness.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/03/iran-warns-us-clash-nuclear
Iran’s nuclear ambitions have already started a war with west – a covert one
A secret campaign of surveillance, sabotage, cyberattacks and assassinations has slowed but not stopped Tehran’s programme
The covert war on Iran’s nuclear programme was launched in earnest by George Bush in 2007. It is a fair assumption that the western powers had been trying their best to spy on the Islamic Republic since the 1979 Iranian revolution, but the 2007 “presidential finding” put those efforts on a new footing.
Bush asked Congress to approve $400m for a programme of support for rebel ethnic groups, as well as intelligence gathering and sabotage of the nuclear programme. Part of that effort involved slipping defective parts such as centrifuge components into the black market supply to Iran, designed to blow apart while in operation and in so doing bring down all the centrifuges in the vicinity. The UK, Germany, France and Israel are said to have been involved in similar efforts. Meanwhile, western intelligence agencies stepped up their attempt to infiltrate the programme, seeking to recruit Iranian scientists when they travelled abroad.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/03/iran-nuclear-ambitions-secret-war
Your Latest Iran Nuclear Round-Up
Most people outside of Israel don’t seem to realize this, but there’s a full-on crisis over there about plans — or non-plans — to bomb Iran’s nuclear program. I’ll round-up more of this news as it comes over the transom, but this struck me as particularly interesting: Polls by Haaretz show that the Israeli public is split on the matter. On the issue of the attack itself, the results are split with 41% of Israelis (both Arabs and Jews) in favor of a strike, 39% against it, 20% undecided. Most definitively, 80% of Israelis believe that a strike on Iran will draw Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon into a war with Israel, with 59% responding that scenario playing out would be highly likely, the other 21% responding that it would be only fairly likely.
However, to Prime Minister Netanyahu, this last scenario is much less interesting. In his view, the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iran would inevitably draw Israel into conflict with Hamas and Hezbollah because both groups would be able to operate more freely against Israel with a nuclear Iran behind them. From my cover story in the Atlantic last September:
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/your-latest-iran-nuclear-round-up/247833/
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: the last president of Iran?
Ahmadinejad has brought pain to many, yet plans to abolish Iran’s presidency would be a crushing blow to democracy
The elections that gave Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a second term as president of Iran in 2009 caused so much turmoil that finding a way to prevent a repetition has become essential for the Islamic republic.
Two years from the next vote in 2013 – when Ahmadinejad would not be able to run for a third term according to the constitution – some Iranian politicians have come up with a rather radical solution: to abolish the presidency itself.
Initial thoughts on such a move came from a member of parliament, Hamidreza Katouzian, who was quoted by local news agencies as saying: “A notion has been recently discussed among the country’s political commentators, that in a country blessed with the supreme leader, there is no need for a president.”
Katouzian, a Tehran MP, even went as far as elaborating on the new political system: “As for the head of the government, the country can have a prime minister appointed by the parliament.”
Iran has not had a prime minister since 1989, but scrapping the post of directly elected president and instead restoring that of prime minister – appointed by the parliament rather than directly elected – would kill two birds with one stone.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/04/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-last-president-iran
Ex-Mossad Chief: Radical-Right Jews More Dangerous than Iran
A former chief of Israel’s intelligence service, the Mossad, says that ultra-orthodox Jews in Israel pose more of a threat to the Jewish state than Iran. Ephraim Halevy pooh-poohed the threat from Iran, even as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak were said to be rounding up support for a unilateral attack on Iran. Halevy said Iran is “far from posing an existential threat to Israel.”
http://www.thenation.com/blog/164424/ex-mossad-chief-radical-right-jews-more-dangerous-iran
Russia: Israeli threat of strikes on Iran ‘a mistake’
Military action against Iran would be a “very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences”, Russia’s foreign minister has warned.
Sergei Lavrov said diplomacy, not missile strikes, was the only way to solve the Iranian nuclear problem.
His comments come after Israeli President Shimon Peres said an attack on Iran was becoming more likely.
The UN’s atomic watchdog is expected to say this week that Iran is secretly developing a nuclear arms capability.
Diplomats say the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report, due for release on Tuesday or Wednesday, will produce compelling evidence that Iran will find hard to dispute.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15617657
In Iran, longtime ‘reformers’ stifle true revolution
The common view is that violent repression shut down Iran’s peaceful Green Movement in 2009, when protesters took to the streets over rigged presidential elections. But Iran’s entrenched ‘reformers’ deserve much of the blame. And they still stand in the way of change.
A wave of revolution is sweeping through the Middle East. But not in Iran, whose people tried their own uprising two years ago and failed.
The common view is that mass arrests, violent repression, and a telecommunications blackout shut down the peaceful Green Movement in 2009, when protesters took to the streets over rigged presidential elections. But Iran’s own “reformers” deserve much of the blame. And they still stand in the way of change.
By reformers, I don’t mean the wide swath of Iranians who demanded their vote be counted. I am referring to those who participated in the 1979 revolution to overthrow the shah, and who are – or have been – part of the strict theocratic regime that emerged. The revolution was led, in part, by democrats, but went hard-line after a violent coup.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/1107/In-Iran-longtime-reformers-stifle-true-revolution?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feeds%2Fcsm+%28Christian+Science+Monitor+%7C+All+Stories%29
That IAEA Report on Iran
Iran may be building an atomic bomb, or at least developing all the technology needed to do so, but there are at least two components of the soon-to-be-released report from the International Atomic Energy Agency that deserve skeptical treatment.
The first, initially reported by the Washington Post, involves is certain to revive memories of Colin Powell’s 2003 address to the UN Security Council, in which he presented detailed evidence, including photographs, of what he said were mobile laboratories used by Iraq to develop biological weapons. No such labs existed. In this case, the Post reports, the IAEA has “acquired satellite photos of a bus-size steel container” used to field test “the kinds of high-precision conventional explosives used to trigger a nuclear chain-reaction.” The IAEA may be right, but those photographs ought to raise hackles among experts who were burned once, and badly, over Iraq’s nonexistent WMD program.
The second questionable piece of evidence involves aid reportedly provided to Iran by a former Soviet nuclear scientist. Reports the Post today:
http://www.thenation.com/blog/164437/iaea-report-iran
Iran used foreign expertise for atom work: diplomats
A U.N. nuclear watchdog report is expected to show concern that Iran benefited from foreign expertise to help develop technology that could be used to build atomic bombs, Western officials said on Monday.
Tehran is “clearly trying to reach out to nuclear scientists around the world,” a Western diplomat accredited to the U.N. agency in Vienna said, suggesting it was a case of Iran contacting individuals rather than their governments.
Other Western officials painted a similar picture of suspected foreign involvement in providing know-how for activities seen as geared to developing a nuclear weapons capability, but it was unclear how extensive it had been.
The Washington Post reported that Iran has received assistance from experts abroad, including a former Soviet weapons scientist, to overcome technical hurdles in mastering the critical steps needed to build nuclear weapons.
The Vienna-based diplomat said concern that Iran had tried to work with foreign scientists was likely to be reflected in a keenly awaited report this week by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. atomic body.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/07/us-nuclear-iran-foreign-idUSTRE7A641620111107?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FworldNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+International%29
An imminent Israeli strike on Iran nuclear program? Not likely.
Israel’s fear of a nuclear Iran is deeply felt, and an IAEA report this week could add to it. But it’s still hard to see a military strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities any time soon.
Leaked portions of an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report scheduled for release tomorrow indicate that Iran’s nuclear program is closer to a weapon than previously suspected by the watchdog.
In the run-up to the release there’s been plenty of breathless speculation about whether Israel is planing to take matters into their own hands and bomb Iran. Yesterday, Israeli President Shimon Peres called Iran “the greatest danger, both for Israel and for the entire world.” There’s been a furious Israeli public debate over a possible air attack on Iranian nuclear facilities for the past week, and US officials have been sending up smoke signals that they’re worried about it.
The Russians have been more direct. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said today that an air strike “would be a very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences.”
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Backchannels/2011/1107/An-imminent-Israeli-strike-on-Iran-nuclear-program-Not-likely?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+feeds%2Fcsm+%28Christian+Science+Monitor+%7C+All+Stories%29
Russia Cautions Against Strike On Iran Amid Israeli Warnings
Tensions continued to rise ahead of a report in which the UN atomic watchdog is expected to publish fresh evidence suggesting that Iran is seeking to build a nuclear weapon.
Tehran has accused Israel and the United States of seeking world support for a military strike on its nuclear facilities, which Russia warned would be “a very serious mistake.”
The comments came after Israeli President Shimon Peres said that an attack on Iran was increasingly likely.
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia_iran_military_strike/24383546.html
Tehran Says Upcoming IAEA Report Based On ‘Counterfeit’ Claims
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said in comments published today that a crucial upcoming IAEA report on Iran’s nuclear program is based on “counterfeit” claims.
The report is expected to be released to members of the International Atomic Energy Agency on November 8 or 9.
Diplomats at the UN nuclear watchdog say the report alleges Iran did theoretical modeling on nuclear warheads and is developing missiles to carry them.
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran_iaea_salehi_counterfeit_claims_nuclear_weapon/24382673.html
UN Body Expresses Concern Over Iran’s Human Rights Record
The UN Human Rights Committee has voiced concerns over Iran’s record on guaranteeing the rights of religious and ethnic minorities as well as the rising number of executions in the country.
http://www.rferl.org/content/un_body_expresses_concern_over_irans_human_rights_record/24381075.html
U.S. Hangs Back as Inspectors Prepare Report on Iran’s Nuclear Program
An imminent report by United Nations weapons inspectors includes the strongest evidence yet that Iran has worked in recent years on a kind of sophisticated explosives technology that is primarily used to trigger a nuclear weapon, according to Western officials who have been briefed on the intelligence.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/world/middleeast/us-hangs-back-as-inspectors-prepare-report-on-irans-nuclear-program.html?src=mv&ref=world
Will Israel attack Iran’s nuclear capabilities?
The final decision will depend on the confidence of the Israeli military and intelligence leadership that it can destroy Iran’s retaliatory capability through a pre-emptive strike, says B Raman.
A PSYWAR (psychological warfare) has been mounted from Israel regarding the strong likelihood and imminence of an attack on Iran’s nuclear enrichment capabilities should the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna [ Images ] report --as it is widely expected to— that Iran has repaired the damages suffered by the computer network of its enrichment complex as a result of a virus (Stuxnet) allegedly planted by the Israeli intelligence and has resumed its enrichment operations full steam with the objective of acquiring weapons grade enrichment capability.
Such a report would mean that Israel’s sabotage operations to paralyse the enrichment facilities on which it was relying as an alternative to direct military strikes have failed to produce the desired results leaving it with no other option but direct military strikes to destroy the enrichment facilities that Iran has built up.
Should Israel undertake a military strike and if so, when? This question is being debated now in Israeli political, military and intelligence circles. It is apparent that any Israeli military strike may have to be unilateral because the West—-including the US— are not prepared to support a military strike. They feel that paralysing sanctions should be given an opportunity to force Iran to see reason and make Iran give up its plans for achieving a capability for weapons grade enrichment.
http://www.rediff.com/news/report/will-israel-attack-irans-nuclear-capabilities/20111107.htm
Russia and China warn America against Iran strike as tensions rise ahead of damning atomic agency report
Fears mount that Iran could be ‘nuclear ready’ in a matter of months
UN intelligence suggests Iran was helped by foreign experts -- including rogue Russian scientist
Russia foreign minister says any military action would be a ‘serious mistake’
Condoleezza Rice: ‘We must do everything we can to bring Iran down’
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remains defiant
Russia and China have expressed growing concern about a possible American military strike against Iran over its nuclear programme.
And this week the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is to publish a damning report with ‘compelling evidence’ that Iran is secretly building an arsenal of nuclear warheads.
Fresh details suggest that Iran could even be ‘nuclear ready’ within months.
And laying bare the disturbing extent of the country’s atomic weapons programme will increase calls in the United States for pre-emptive action against the Islamic state.
And that plays into the hands of Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who is said to be pushing for an airstrike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2058579/Russia-China-warn-America-Iran-nuclear-strike-tensions-rise.html
Iranian Political prisoners warn against participating in “illegal” elections
Thirty-six Iranian political prisoners have issued a statement calling on “the Green Movement and the reformists” to support the elections only if they are “open and free” and in any other case to refrain from allowing their participation to “legitimize an illegal election process.”
In an announcement issued on Saturday November 5, the prisoners refer to the Iranian Parliament as a “sham” akin to the Egyptian Parliament during the rule of former president Hosni Mubarak.
“For a long time, the blatant interference of the government, and especially that of security and military forces, have turned elections into an elaborately staged show” the political prisoners write. “And the resulting Parliament has become a sham parliament, one that is even unable to defend its own rights and to ascertain the execution of its own legislation.”
The prisoners continue: “Parliament has been humiliated on several occasions by the executive branch, and the president and has remained silent in the face of all attacks against the rights of its representatives.”
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1058.html
Obama, Erdogan Find Shared Interests
Only last year, U.S.-Turkish relations were in tumult, with disagreements on a number of issues — such as Turkey’s relations with Israel and how to deal with Iran’s nuclearization — undermining Washington’s historical bond with Ankara.
Today, however, the United States and Turkey are on a honeymoon, with President Obama and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan having formed what is probably the best relationship between a U.S. president and a Turkish prime minister in decades. The shifting political winds across the Middle East are also bringing Turkey and the United States closer than they have been since their falling-out in 2003 over the Iraq war.
Obama and Erdogan seem to have really hit it off: Turkish media outlets reported that after Erdogan’s mother died last month, Obama was among the world leaders who called him and that the two “spoke for 45 minutes about their feelings.” This personal rapport is the foundation of the new U.S.-Turkish relationship.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC06.php?CID=1753
Iran’s Nuclear Program: “Credible” Evidence of “Continuing” Work on a Bomb
The much-anticipated International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report on Iran has been released with a damning indictment: “The Agency has serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear programme” and that credible information “indicates that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device…and that some activities may still be continuing” (read a PDF of the report).
Of equal concern is the IAEA’s judgment that Iran’s work on its Shahab-3 missile “concluded that any payload option other than nuclear…could be ruled out.” The report notes that when Iran was challenged on this, it dismissed the evidence as being “an animation game.” Tehran has consistently denied that its nuclear program is intended for military purposes. The report should help Washington, using diplomatic and economic sanctions, to force Iran to fully explain its nuclear program and to curtail its military dimensions.
http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC06.php?CID=1751
Powers nearing deal on IAEA Iran resolution
World powers are narrowing their differences and getting closer to an agreement on how to respond to a U.N. watchdog report that aired intelligence suggesting Iran has been working on designing a nuclear weapon, Western diplomats said Wednesday.
They said officials from the six big powers — the United States, Russia, China, France, Germany and Britain — were in intense talks on drafting a resolution on Iran for a November 17-18 board meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
“I’m even more optimistic now,” one diplomat said, suggesting a text that all six could agree on should be ready in time for the two-day meeting of the 35-nation IAEA board.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/16/us-nuclear-mideast-iaea-idUSTRE7AF1IM20111116?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FworldNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+International%29
Is Iran already under covert attack?
Assassinations of nuclear scientists, a sophisticated cyber-attack, and now, last weekend, a mysterious blast at a munitions base that has killed the “godfather” of Iran’s ballistic missile programme.
The explosion at the Bid Ganeh base was so powerful, it killed 17 Revolutionary Guards Corps soldiers and rattled windows in Tehran several miles away.
Iran says it was an accident, but few who follow events there are convinced.
The recent talk may be all about a future, desperate last-ditch military strike by Israel to destroy Iran’s suspected nuclear weapons programme, but to all appearances, a covert “black ops” campaign to disrupt it has already been under way for some time.
At least three Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in the past two years, and last winter, a computer virus codenamed Stuxnet was introduced into Iran’s nuclear enrichment centrifuges, causing havoc and setting back the programme by several months.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15741989
This Should Be the Beginning, Not the End, of Israel’s Negotiations With Hamas
For over a quarter of a century Prime Minister Netanyahu had promised, boldly and unequivocally, both in writing and in speech, that he would never make any concessions to terrorists. Now, in one fell swoop, with the negotiated release of Gilad Shalit, all that is gone. The Prime Minister himself cast it as a momentous choice, an instance of decisive and historic leadership.
But the reason Netanyahu that gave for his decision, namely that “circumstances had changed”, betrays considerably more anxiety. Indeed, the phrase is marked by its very passivity, and an unmistakable suggestion that Israel was reacting to shifts in the region. Of course, the more operative question right now is not what motivated Israel to negotiate, but rather how much the experience of negotiations will now motivate Israel. Yes, “circumstances had changed,” but it’s more important to consider the role Israel should play in shaping regional circumstances going forward.
http://www.tnr.com/article/world/96457/gilad-shalit-release-netanyahu-hamas-negotiations
Is an Attack on Iran’s Nuclear Program a Bad Idea?
Yes, an attack on Iran’s nuclear sites is a bad idea. So is the idea of an Iran with nuclear weapons. Hence, a dilemma.
James Fallows has a characteristically thoughtful post up about the latest Iran brouhaha, and comes to the conclusion (actually, he came to the conclusion quite some time ago) that bombing Iranian nuclear sites — either by America, Israel, or some combination of states to be named later — is a bad idea. We don’t really disagree on this basic point. I think it would be reckless for either Israel or America to try to preempt by force the Iranian nuclear program now (as I wrote in this column, it would be smart to continue, and intensify, the sabotage programs that have already apparently slowed-down the Iranians, and tightening sanctions on Iranian banks, in particular, might have some impact). I tend to think now that an Israeli strike would be very ineffective and dangerous no matter what point in the future it is launched, in part because Israel’s capabilities are so much more limited than America’s.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/is-an-attack-on-irans-nuclear-program-a-bad-idea/248148/
Obama and Netanyahu Need to Fix Their Relationship Quickly
President Obama’s open-mic slip the other day — in which he responded to President Sarkozy’s bitching about Benjamin Netanyahu by saying, in essence, that Netanyahu is a pain in the ass — falls in the category of truths that journalists like to repeat — and should repeat — but nevertheless make the world a more difficult place, once that particular truth is unleashed.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/obama-and-netanyahu-need-to-fix-their-relationship-quickly/248493/
That’s right, Iceman. I am dangerous
A game-changing report by the UN’s nuclear watchdog could be the prelude to a strike on Iran. Or maybe not.
WESTERN governments have long been convinced that Iran is pursuing military objectives with its secretive nuclear programme. But until this week the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), jealous of its credibility as a non-political, science-led body, said it had no unambiguous proof of Iran’s intention to build a bomb. A report it published on November 8th still falls just short of that proof, but nonetheless marks a watershed.
The IAEA’s report says that it “has serious concerns regarding possible military dimensions to Iran’s nuclear programme. After assessing carefully and critically the extensive information available to it, the agency finds the information to be, overall, credible… that Iran has carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.”
http://www.economist.com/node/21538177?fsrc=rss%7Cmea
Leon Panetta warns against Iran strike
US defence secretary says military action against Iranian nuclear sites could have unintended consequences for the region
Military action against Iran could have “unintended consequences” in the region, the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, said on Thursday, hours after Tehran warned that an attack against its nuclear sites would be met with “iron fists”.
Panetta, who took over the Pentagon’s top job in July, said he agreed with the assessment of his predecessor, Robert Gates, that a strike on Iran would only delay its nuclear programme, which the west believes is aimed at making an atomic bomb.
“You’ve got to be careful of unintended consequences here,” Panetta told reporters at the Pentagon.
“It could have a serious impact in the region, and it could have a serious impact on US forces in the region,” he said. “And I think all of those things, you know, need to be carefully considered.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/11/leon-panetta-warns-iran-strike
Israel reported ‘behind blast’ that killed Iran’s missile chief
Time magazine quotes ‘western intel source’ as saying Mossad carried out blast at missile base near Tehran
Time’s correspondent in Jerusalem, Karl Vick, is reporting that Israel was responsible for the huge blast on Saturday at a Revolutionary Guard missile base, about 35 km west of Tehran. Vick quotes a western intelligence source as saying that Mossad carried out the sabotage attack, adding that more such attacks are to be expected -- “There are more bullets in the magazine.”
If true, it would be the most damaging blow to date in the covert war against Iran’s nuclear weapons programme. It killed 17 Iranian revolutionary guardsmen, including the head of the missile programme, General Hasan Moghaddam, decribed in the Iranian press as “a pioneer” of Iran’s missile project [Farsi]. His official job description was head of the ‘self-sufficiency department” for munitions. The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was at the funeral today.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/julian-borger-global-security-blog/2011/nov/14/iran-nuclear-weapons
Je kon erop wachten dat er berichten zouden komen dat de Mossad erachter zou kunnen zitten.
The Nuclear Options
Barack Obama’s Iran policy is frustrating, slow-moving, and fraught with uncertainty. But have you taken a look at the alternatives?
President Barack Obama arrived in office determined to make a sharp break with George W. Bush’s policy on nuclear nonproliferation. Obama and his team believed that the only way they could get allies to support a tough line against countries like Iran or North Korea that were seeking to acquire nuclear weapons was to comply with the United States’ own obligation under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to reduce its nuclear stockpile. One of Obama’s leading nonproliferation experts admitted to me in the early days of the administration that this sounded very much like “an article of faith” adopted by untested idealists. “These are propositions that have to be demonstrated,” he said. “The administration will be going to these countries to say, ‘We’re doing our part; now you have to do your part.’”
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/11/the_nuclear_options
Report: Russian Expert Advised Iran On Nuclear Program
A Washington-based nongovernmental organization has says Iran apparently had the help of a Russian scientist in developing a detonator and high explosives for its nuclear program.
In a report released on November 13, the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS) identified the Russian scientist as being 76-year-old Vyacheslav Danilenko.
The ISIS report said Danilenko worked at Iran’s Sharif University.
The ISIS based its conclusion on the findings of a report issued last week by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
http://www.rferl.org/content/report_says_russian_expert_advised_iran_on_nuclear_program/24390955.html
Larijani: Israel not linked to explosion
Iranian Parliamentary speaker Ali Larijani Wednesday called baseless reports Israel was behind an explosion at a Revolutionary Guards base that killed 17.
“The enemies instead of showing [the realities] of the incident have concocted stories about it,” Larijani said at a ceremony honoring members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards killed in Saturday’s explosion.
Larijani also denied reports claiming the blast was related to nuclear tests or the transport of missile warheads, the semi-official Fars news agency said.
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/11/16/Larijani-Israel-not-linked-to-explosion/UPI-50211321447684/
Principlists Respond to Official Threats: With Ahmadinejad in Office, Iran Needs no Other Enemies
The threats that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his allies have been making about possessing incriminating documents against public figures and officials have resulted in an angry response from the Principlist, a group that at one time supported the president but since the climax of his differences with supreme leader of Iran earlier this year have broken ranks with him.
The threat of revealing these documents are said to be what changed the votes in the Majlis last week to give a vote of confidence to cabinet minister of economy who was widely believed to be on his way out of office. In a letter addressed to the president, a Principlist Majlis representative writes that with Ahmadinejad around and the kind of language that he uses in his discourse and statements, there is no longer any need for the Islamic to have an enemy.
After Ahmadinejad first threatened to expose some Principlists (his former allies and supporters) and publish incriminating documents against them, Principlists have launched more criticism against him for his remarks.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1161.html
Iranian Parliament penalizes travel to Israel
Iran’s Parliament has passed new legislation approving prison sentences of two to five years for Iranians who travel to Israel.
Iranian MPs also voted to withhold a passport from Iranians caught traveling to Israel for a period of three to five years, on top of the two to five years in prison. The motion was passed 131 to 3 with 11 abstaining.
Previously, the law stated that an Iranian passport was valid for travel to all countries except where banned by the government for particular reasons.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1159.html
Khamenei’s Power Consolidation Gambit
Recent comments by Iran’s Supreme Leader have sparked intense debate inside the Islamic Republic. When Ayatollah Ali Khamenei hinted at abandoning Iran’s presidential system three weeks ago, a flurry of commentary followed. Some interpreted his remarks as a concerted push towards absolute power, while others warned against further damaging the country’s republican institutions. It is now clear that the Supreme Leader has embarked upon a sustained strategy of eliminating political opposition; decreasing turbulence during his reign, and shaping Iran’s long-term political development around his rule.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1154.html
We Are Spies
The Islamic Republic of Iran interprets journalists and journalism as spies and espionage. In its eyes, we journalists are spies. Where have we received our training? Colleges of journalism (places that they claim have brought the deviant sciences to Iran). Where do we work? At newspapers (which they portray to be enemy bases).
So what is our crime? Dissemination of news. We believe in the free flow of information. We interview, write reports, gather news, etc (all of which are acts of espionage in the eyes of the Islamic republic). What is our punishment? Arrest and summons. Not once or twice, but repeatedly. We are subjected to continuous interrogations (just look at Mahsa Amrabadi, and others). What is our sentence? Flogging. Not one slash, not 5, or 10, but 50 (look at Samie Tohidloo and others). Imprisonment not just for one year, two years etc. but for dozens of years (look at Ahmad Zeidabadi and others). Ban from work. Not for one year or 5, but for 30 years (look at Jila Bani-Yaghoub).
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1139.html
Video: Letters from Iran -- The aftermath of Iran’s Green Revolution
While winds of change have been blowing through the Arab world this year, Iranians have been forced to wait for political reform.
In 2009, in the aftermath of an election that saw Mahmoud Ahmadinejad controversially returned to power as president of the Islamic Republic, millions took to the streets of Tehran to protest against the result. But the demonstrations were brutally repressed and the hopes of the “green revolutionaries” were dashed.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1127.html
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16116722
Iran claims to have arrested 12 CIA agents and accused them of planning to strike at Iranian interests.
IRNA state media quoted an influential politician as saying that the agents were working in collusion with Israel.
Parviz Sorouri, who sits on the powerful foreign policy and national security committee, said the spy network aimed to damage Iran’s security, military and nuclear sectors.
“The US and Zionist regime’s espionage apparatuses were trying to damage Iran both from inside and outside with a heavy blow, using regional intelligence services,” said Sorouri.
“Fortunately, with swift reaction by the Iranian intelligence department, the actions failed to bear fruit.”
The lawmaker did not specify the nationality of the alleged agents, nor when or where they they had been arrested.
http://tinyurl.com/d9nou2b
Iranian woman blinded with acid by spurned admirer to sue after losing compensation for showing mercy to her attacker.
Ameneh Bahrami, 34, offered chance to exact retribution by dropping acid into his eyes but -- at the last minute -- spared him.
What happened next, though, has enraged her.
For Iranian authorities have declared Ms Bahrami no longer has a right to the compensation Majid Movahedi was ordered to pay by the courts. She needs the money to pay for more plastic surgery to her disfigured face and body.
Panetta Throws a Brushback Pitch as Israel Inches Closer to an Attack
Anshel Pfeffer writes in Tablet that an Israeli attack on Iran is not only a foregone conclusion (he goes farther down this path than a certain writer did in a certain magazine story last year), but would represent the opening not of a first front but a second front in the Israeli-Iran war:
When that attack happens, most likely in the early spring, Israel’s second Iranian war will officially begin. The first has been going on through much of the last decade in the battles Israel has been fighting with Iran’s local proxies--Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip--and in the secret war being waged against Iran’s nuclear program. The front lines of this war extend thousands of miles, from Bandar-Abbas, an Iranian port on the Persian Gulf, to the eastern Mediterranean and in the Arabian Peninsula, northeast Africa, and north into Turkey. This secret war involves the interdiction of Iranian arms bound for Hezbollah and Hamas and of vital components bound for Iran’s nuclear facilities. Few of these operations, such as the commandeering of cargo ships carrying missiles, are ever revealed as official Israeli actions.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/11/panetta-throws-a-brushback-pitch-as-israel-inches-closer-to-an-attack/248745/
Iranian judiciary officials try to arrest top aide to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
President’s media adviser, Ali Akbar Javanfekr, put in handcuffs while conducting press conference at newspaper, say reports
Judicial authorities in Iran have attempted to arrest a close ally of the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in what is widely being viewed as the latest twist in the struggle for power at the top of the Iranian regime.
A group of officials raided the offices of the daily government newspaper Iran on Monday in order to arrest Ali Akbar Javanfekr, the president’s media adviser. Javanfekr is also the head of the state news agency, Irna.
At the weekend, a court in Tehran had sentenced him to one year in jail and a three-year ban on working for the press after “publishing materials contrary to Islamic norms”.
According to the semi-official Mehr news agency, Javanfekr was handcuffed but his arrest was “temporarily halted” after government officials intervened. Mehr did not specify who had stepped into the dispute, but some accounts attributed the intervention to Ahmadinejad.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/21/iran-arrest-attempt-adhmadinejad-ally
Iran ‘arrests 12 CIA agents’
Influential politician says US spies had been gathering intelligence on military units and nuclear activities
Iran has arrested 12 people it claims were working undercover for the CIA inside the Islamic republic, further raising tensions in its already strained relationship with the US.
On Wednesday, the Irna state news agency quoted a senior Iranian official as saying that the spies it claimed to have arrested had been gathering intelligence from Iran’s security and military units as well as its highly sensitive nuclear programme.
“The main mission of this act of espionage was related to Iran’s progress in the fields of nuclear technology and also military and security activities,” said Parviz Sorouri, a member of the parliamentary committee on national security and foreign policy, in quotes carried by Irna.
Sorouri told the agency that the network had been uncovered by an operation involving the Iranian ministry of intelligence. “The US and Zionist regime’s espionage apparatuses were trying to damage Iran both from inside and outside with a heavy blow, using regional intelligence services,” he said. “Fortunately, with swift reaction by the Iranian intelligence department, the actions failed to bear fruit.”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/nov/24/iran-claims-arrests-of-cia-agents
Azeri journalist dies after stabbing
Azerbaijani writer and journalist Rafiq Tagi has died four days after being stabbed several times in a late-night attack.
Tagi, a noted critic of the Azerbaijani government, neighbouring Iran and political Islam, died in the Baku hospital where he was taken following the 19 November attack.
After surgery 61-year-old Tagi had been reported to be in satisfactory condition. An hour before his death he was filmed telling a reporter that he was recovering well.
Some his friends had complained about a lack of security at the hospital and urged the government to take measures, but Tagi said he did not feel in danger.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2011/nov/24/journalist-safety-azerbaijan
The deafening silence on a good man’s death
The murder of Rafiq Tagi reveals the west’s cowardice in the face of religious extremism
The “international community” showed no grief about the assassination of Rafiq Tagi. An unknown coward stabbed him in the back, then ran away. He “was very nervous and did not say a word,” Tagi said before his injuries overwhelmed him. Index on Censorship tried to sound an alarm. But as Tagi’s murderer was in all likelihood a supporter of religious rather than political tyranny, the death of the 61-year-old Azerbaijani journalist and literary critic passed almost without comment.
As the Arab Spring turns to winter, more should take notice. Men and women such as Tagi are everywhere under attack. In Tunisia, the religious right in the form of the Ennahda party wins a plurality of the vote in the first elections after the fall of the dictatorship. The BBC and the Guardian hail its leaders as “moderate Islamists”. The Islamists then display their moderation by attacking a TV station that broadcast Persepolis, the animated version of Marjane Satrapi’s story of the subjugation of women in Iran, and sending it to the courts to face charges of undermining “sacred values and morals”. In Egypt, the demonstrators in Tahrir Square start to realise that the Muslim Brotherhood is not their ally, and even western optimists begin to see the wolfish looks on Islamist faces as they gaze at Egyptian Christians and think of a pogrom. Meanwhile, in Azerbaijan a nervous man stabs Rafiq Tagi in the back and leaves him for dead without saying a word.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/nov/27/nick-cohen-azerbaijan-murder-islamism
More half-measures from Obama administration on Iran
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION pledged that Iran would suffer painful consequences for plotting to assassinate the Saudi ambassador in Washington and for refusing to freeze its nuclear program. Key European allies and Congress — not to mention Israel — are ready for decisive action. But on Monday the administration unveiled another series of half-steps. Sanctions were toughened on Iran’s oil industry, but there was no move to block its exports. The Iranian banking system was designated “a primary money laundering concern,” a step U.S. officials said could prompt banks and companies around the world to cease doing business with the country. But the administration declined to directly sanction the central bank.
The result is that President Obama is not even leading from behind on Iran; he is simply behind. At the forefront of the Western effort to pressure Tehran is French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who issued a statement Monday calling on the European Union, the United States, Japan, Canada and “other willing countries” to “immediately freeze the assets of Iran’s central bank” and suspend purchases of Iranian oil. France rejects the Obama administration’s view that these steps would cause a counterproductive spike in oil prices. In any case, higher oil prices are preferable to allowing an Iranian bomb — or having to take military action to stop it.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/more-half-measures-from-obama-administration-on-iran/2011/11/22/gIQADXxLmN_story.html
Vote Expresses Fury at Britain
Two days after the British government announced it was cutting off all transactions with the Central Bank of Iran and other Iranian banks, Iran’s Parliament on Wednesday voted to scale back diplomatic relations with Britain, with one lawmaker calling for the British ambassador to be expelled.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/24/world/middleeast/iran-vote-expresses-fury-at-britain.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Iran Denies Involvement In Attack On Azerbaijani Writer
The Iranian Embassy in Azerbaijan has released a statement denying any Iranian participation in the stabbing of writer and journalist Rafiq Tagi, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reports.
“We refute the groundless claims, at odds with reality, spread by some persons and media outlets of the Azerbaijan Republic linking the attempt on Rafiq Tagi’s life to the Islamic Republic of Iran,” the statement read.
“We construe such actions aimed at creating a negative atmosphere as Zionist-American sabotage [in a bid] to undermine Iranian-Azerbaijani strategic relations. We regard these attempts as a failure and a defeat.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran_denies_involvement_in_attack_on_azerbaijani_writer/24399092.html
U.S. Says Iran Weaker Since Obama Took Office
U.S. President Barack Obama’s top national security aide says Iran has become weaker since Obama took office in January 2009.
Speaking November 22 at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, national security adviser Tom Donilon said Iran’s influence in the Middle East and elsewhere in the world has been reduced by international sanctions designed to punish Iran over its nuclear program, internal divisions among the leadership in Tehran, and the developments of the Arab Spring pro-reform movements.
Donilon also spoke of U.S. efforts to isolate Iran diplomatically and to strengthen U.S. military cooperation with Persian Gulf states as having increased the pressure on the Iranian regime.
http://www.rferl.org/content/obama_adviser_says_iran_weaker_since_obama_in_office/24399139.html
Iranian Lawmakers Consider Retaliation For Sanctions
Iranian lawmakers have drafted an emergency bill calling on the Foreign Ministry to expel the British ambassador to Tehran after Britain joined other Western powers to impose fresh sanctions on Iran over that country’s disputed nuclear program.
The bill is to be reviewed and voted upon by parliament on November 26.
If passed, it would downgrade diplomatic relations to the level of charge d’affairs.
Britain this week announced it was cutting financial ties with all Iranian banks in a move aimed to pressure Iran over its nuclear drive.
The United States and Canada also announced sanctions targeting Iran’s financial sector.
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran_lawmakers_to_vote_on_retaliation_for_sanctions/24399695.html
Italy Wants To Persuade Its Energy Firms To Drop Iranian Oil
Italy says it believes sanctions should be tightened against Iran, and is seeking to persuade its companies to stop buying Iranian oil.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Maurizio Massari told Reuters in Rome on November 25 that “we are deeply convinced that we need to strengthen the pressure of sanctions on Iran and we are ready to discuss sanctions measures with our partners.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/italy_wants_to_persuade_its_energy_firms_to_drop_iranian_oil/24402018.html
Iranian Parliament Votes To Downgrade Ties With Britain
Iran’s parliament has approved a draft bill calling for a reduction in diplomatic and economic relations with Britain in retaliation for Britain’s decision to increase sanctions against Tehran.
Reportedly 179 of the 290 deputies in parliament voted in favor of the bill with four voting against and 11 abstaining.
The bill also gives the government two weeks to expel Britain’s ambassador to Iran, appointed only in October, and leave the British Embassy to be run by the charge d’affaires.
http://www.rferl.org/content/iranian_parliament_votes_to_downgrade_ties_with_britain/24403487.html
Iran expels Britain’s ambassador to Tehran calling ‘death to England’
Iran erupted in a fresh frenzy of animosity towards its old imperial foe on Sunday as MPs chanting “death to England” voted to expel Britain’s ambassador to Tehran and threatened his mission with a reprise of the 1979 hostage crisis.
Dominic Chilcott, who took up the position of ambassador just a month ago, could be forced to leave the country within weeks after a motion to downgrade Iran’s diplomatic ties with Britain was passed overwhelmingly by the Islamist republic’s parliament.
The step was taken after Britain, Canada and the United States announced fresh sanctions against Iran last week in the wake of a report by UN weapons inspectors which provided the most compelling case yet that Tehran is trying to build a nuclear bomb.
Britain was singled out, however, after it became the first state to impose direct sanctions on Iran’s central bank. Financial institutions in the City were also banned from doing business with their Iranian counterparts.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/8918875/Iran-expels-Britains-ambassador-to-Tehran-calling-death-to-England.html
Iran threatens to hit Turkey if US, Israel attack
Iran will target NATO’s missile defense installations in Turkey if the U.S. or Israel attacks the Islamic Republic, a senior commander of Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard said Saturday.
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the head of the Guards’ aerospace division, said the warning is part of a new defense strategy to counter what he described as an increase in threats from the U.S. and Israel.
Tensions have been rising between Iran and the West since the release of a report earlier this month by the International Atomic Energy Agency that said for the first time that Tehran was suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose was the development of nuclear arms.
The U.S. and its Western allies suspect Iran of trying to produce atomic weapons, and Israel, which views Tehran as an existential threat, has warned of a possible strike on Iran’s nuclear program. Iran says its program is for peaceful purposes.
“Should we be threatened, we will target NATO’s missile defense shield in Turkey and then hit the next targets,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted Hajizadeh as saying.
http://williamsondailynews.com/bookmark/16568997
IRGC Official: Iran To Target Israel Nuclear Facilities If Attacked
A senior military commander says if Israel fires even a single missile at Iranian nuclear facilities, every inch of the entity will be the target of Iran’s missiles.
Referring to recent anti-Iran rhetoric by the US and Israel, Brigadier General Yadollah Javani said on Saturday that Iran will not just repel enemy attacks and is capable of countering hostile attempts within enemy territory.
“If Israel fires a missile towards our nuclear or critical facilities, it should know that every inch of Israel including its nuclear centers are a target for our missiles [to hit] and we have this capability today,” the Iranian general said.
“Today, our enemies have reached a dead-end which they cannot escape from and this is why they say things without noticing [they are making] contradictory statements,” ISNA quoted Javani as saying.
“They threaten with military attack which they are incapable of [launching it]… if an entity repeatedly threatens with attack but does not have the capability to carry it out, its threats will be rendered inert,” he added.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1276.html
Iranian security forces welcome hackers’ skills
The Iranian task force for IT crimes has announced that police will enlist the aid of computer hackers. Colonel Toraj Kazemi, the deputy head of the IT crimes task force, told ISNA that it has divided hackers into three groups: “white hats, pink hats and black hats.”
The hackers who illegally enter computer systems to damage or steal something are the black hats. Those who hack into systems to show off are referred to as pink hats, and those who do it to determine the weaknesses of security systems for marketing purposes are referred to as white hats, according to Kazemi.
He said the so-called pink and white hats are not considered criminals, adding that police welcome hackers to share their skills and add to police expertise in the field of cyber information. He added that 50 percent of Iranian hackers are under 25 years of age.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1270.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066959/Iran-threatens-bomb-Turkey-U-S-Israel-attack-nuclear-installations.html?ITO=1490
Iran threatens to bomb Turkey if U.S. or Israel attacks its nuclear installations.
Iran will bomb Turkey if the U.S. or Israel tries to destroy its nuclear installations, a senior military commander warned today.
General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the aerospace division of the powerful Revolutionary Guard, threatened to target Nato’s missile defence shield in the neighbouring country.
The system which Turkey only agreed to install in September, is designed to prevent Iranian missile attacks on Israel.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2066996/Death-England-British-ambassador-Iran-kicked-backlash-sanctions.html?ITO=1490
‘Death to England’: British ambassador to Iran kicked out in backlash over sanctions.
Packing his bags: Dominick Chilcott has been given two weeks to leave Iran after a vote in the nation’s parliament.
Amid chants of ‘Death to England’, Iran’s parliament voted overwhelmingly yesterday to expel the British Ambassador.
Dominick Chilcott, who took up the post only recently, was given two weeks to pack his bags.
A stage-managed protest against London’s latest sanctions against Iran is due today outside Britain’s fortress-like embassy in central Tehran, the scene of violent anti-Western demonstrations in recent years.
There were fears that angry Iranians could storm the compound as they did the U.S. embassy in 1979.
London infuriated Iranian politicians this month by taking out sanctions against Iran’s central bank, which Britain accused of helping to fund the country’s nuclear weapons programme. Tehran warned that other countries ‘behaving in a similar manner’ would also be punished.
De vraag is nu gaan we naar eenzelfde situatie toe als met de gijzeling van de Amerikaanse Ambassade in november 1979
‘Gijzeling in Britse ambassade’
TEHERAN -- Zes personeelsleden van de Britse ambassade in Teheran zouden dinsdagmiddag zijn gegijzeld door Iraanse demonstranten. Eerder drongen tientallen betogers de ambassade binnen.
http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/11025657/___Gijzeling_in_Britse_ambassade___.html?sn=buitenland
Iranian Students Storm British Embassy in Tehran
Student protesters loyal to the government stormed the British Embassy in Tehran and its residential compound on Tuesday, in the most serious security breach of a diplomatic site there since the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in 1979.
Live television footage from Iran’s state broadcaster showed angry mobs climbing on a wall of the British Embassy building in downtown Tehran and two young men attempting to break the lock on the iron gate of the compound. They took down the Union Jack flag and raised Iran’s, Iranian news media reported, and took hostages, who were later released.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204449804577067912218983018.html?mod=fox_australian
Iranian mobs storm British diplomatic compounds in Tehran; UK warns of ‘serious consequences’
TEHRAN, Iran — Hard-line Iranian students stormed British diplomatic sites in Tehran on Tuesday, bringing down the Union Jack flag, burning an embassy vehicle and throwing documents from windows in scenes reminiscent of the seizing of the U.S. Embassy compound in 1979.
The act drew a sharp rebuke from London. British Prime Minister David Cameron called it “outrageous and indefensible” and warned the Iranian government will face “serious consequences” for “its unacceptable failure” to protect diplomats in line with international law. He said those measures would be considered in coming days.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle-east/hard-line-iranian-students-storm-british-embassy-in-tehran-amid-rising-diplomatic-tensions/2011/11/29/gIQANjfK8N_story.html?wprss=rss_world
Tehran embassy seizure, as in 1979, highlights rift with West
When Iranian student militants seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, the ostensible aim was to demand that the United States send the deposed shah back to Iran to face justice. That goal was never realized. Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi underwent treatment for cancer in New York and Texas before moving to Panama and, eventually, Egypt, where he died in July 1980
But the militants also had an officially unstated objective, one that outlived the shah and was achieved with far-reaching success. They wanted to undermine the relatively moderate government of Prime Minister Mehdi Bazargan and scuttle relations with the United States, ending a U.S. effort to build new connections with Iran despite the Islamic revolution that had ousted the shah, a longtime American ally.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/tehran-embassy-seizure-as-in-1979-highlights-rift-with-west/2011/11/29/gIQAfPzP9N_blog.html?wprss=blogpost
Storming of British Embassy in Tehran Broadcast Live on State Television
Last Updated | 1:48 p.m. Iranian state television showed live images of student protesters breaking into the British Embassy in Tehran on Tuesday and hurling rocks and Molotov cocktails, my colleagues Alan Cowell and Rick Gladstone report.
Press TV, Iran’s official English-language satellite channel, reported that militant students pulled down the British flag at the compound on Ferdowsi Avenue in the Iranian capital. The embassy is about a mile from the site of the former American Embassy, which was seized by students in 1979.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/29/storming-of-british-embassy-in-tehran-broadcast-live-on-state-television/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Iranian protesters storm British embassy
Iranian protesters have re-entered the British embassy compound in Tehran, shortly after police chased out a group of more than 20 demonstrators who had stormed the mission.
The protesters back inside are scattering papers taken from the embassy and setting them on fire, witnesses told AFP.
Police fired tear gas at the protesters inside the embassy grounds to disperse them late Tuesday, the Fars news agency reported. It added that several protesters had been injured, one critically, as had several officers.
Tehran police chief General Hossein Sajadi-Nia was at the scene, ordering the protesters to end their action.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Foreign Office is urging its citizens in Iran to ‘stay indoors’ and ‘keep a low profile’ after protesters stormed Britain’s embassy and another diplomatic compound.
http://www.skynews.com.au/topstories/article.aspx?id=691008&vId=2884510
Iranian students storm British Embassy in Tehran
Foto’s
http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/world/53012702-75/embassy-iran-british-tehran.html.csp
@ 69 nog meer info hierover.
http://nos.nl/artikel/317775-bezetting-britse-ambassade-iran-beeindigd.html
http://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2011/11/29/iraanse-studenten-bestormen-britse-ambassade-teheran/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2067613/BREAKING-NEWS-Iranian-students-storm-British-Embassy-Tehran.html?ITO=1490
War Will Hurt The Genuine Social Movement Of The Iranian people: A Statement By A Group Of Activists Inside Iran
1. Wars have been the most terrifying phenomena people have confronted since the istant past. In our society, millions of Iranians have been living under the ominous shadow of the eight-year war with Iraq.
The reminiscences of air raid sirens, damp shelters, overnight power cuts, nameless bodies, severed limbs, mothers who lost their children, children who lost their fathers, famine and hunger, homeless refugees and dozens of other frightening pictures at the back or forefront of our minds, vividly or vaguely, whether like a nightmare or a constant fear, is weighing down on everyone of us.
2. In the last years, the mainstream media have tried to downgrade wars to computer games and their visual expressions. A red point starts to blink on the radar screen of NATO modern fighter jets, then there is an apparently small explosion; this is the picture inculcated into the audience by these media. But the reality is more repulsive and bloody; certainly, the story is not the explosion of one red point on the radar screen of a fighter jet; it is about a family sitting at the dinner table in Tripoli, or the tired soldiers who are forced to be in an army center in Baghdad, or a school in Yugoslavia where children are studying , or a local market, lively and crowded, in a Kabul neighborhood, … or every other thing in which life was going on until last moments and now has turned into ashes. We have to put this ugly reality before their very eyes more clearly than before, to reveal the obnoxiousness of war.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1304.html
Iran Threat Is a Tactic: Main Goal Is to Checkmate Syria
The international scene has been recently witness to various threats by Israelis, Americans and certain European countries against the Islamic Republic of Iran. Although such threats, especially from the Israelis, had started before release of the recent Iran report of International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on the country’s nuclear program, they became more serious after IAEA director general, Yukiya Amano, published his report. The report has been assessed by most experts as being purely motivated on political grounds. In that report, IAEA claimed that it is in possession of information which proves the existence of a military dimension to Iran’s nuclear activities. Interestingly, Israeli and American officials knew all about the content of the report before it was officially circulated and orchestrated an intensely negative propaganda campaign against Iran. According to IAEA Statute, the content of the reports, which is considered confidential, cannot be revealed before they are released to all members of the Agency.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/nov/1302.html
Iran ‘Regrets’ Storming Of U.K. Compounds
Dozens of Iranian protesters stormed two British diplomatic compounds in Tehran on November 29, prompting strong condemnation from Britain and the international community and an uneasy apology from the Iranian government.
Protesters first attacked the British Embassy in Tehran, smashing windows and burning the British flag.
An angry crowd numbering in the hundreds outside the embassy walls during the incursion shouted “Death to England! Death to three terrorist countries: America, Israel, and England!”
A second British diplomatic compound, located in the north of the capital, was stormed by at least 100 protesters. The semi-official Fars news agency reported that six British diplomats who had been holed up for more than two hours in a building inside the diplomatic compound had been able to get through protesters after intervention from diplomatic police.
A statement from Britain’s Foreign Office confirmed “an incursion by a significant number of demonstrators into our embassy premises, including vandalism to our property.” It expressed “outrage” and condemned the assault as “utterly unacceptable” and said senior British officials had urged Iranian authorities to bring the situation under control and obey international obligations to protect foreign diplomatic missions.
http://www.rferl.org/content/uk_embassy_in_tehran_stormed/24405767.html
Thanks voor support Wachteres.
@ 76 You’re welcome, Henk. My pleasure!
http://www.destentor.nl/nieuws/algemeen/buitenland/9973666/Britten-en-Iran-op-ramkoers-na-bestorming.ece
http://www.elsevier.nl/web/Nieuws/Buitenland/323700/Iraanse-politie-bevrijdt-gijzelaars-Britse-ambassade.htm
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16120101
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Iran Warned By Hague After Embassy Raid Ends
10:20pm UK, Tuesday November 29, 2011
Foreign Secretary William Hague has said Iran faces “serious consequences” after the British Embassy in Tehran was stormed by hardline students.
Rocks and petrol bombs were reportedly thrown and documents were removed from offices and burnt in an attack branded a “disgrace” by David Cameron.
The break-in came after hundreds of students gathered outside the embassy as part of a protest against what they described as London’s “hostile policies” against Iran.
Protesters reportedly set fire to the Union Flag as they chanted “Down with Britain”, “Down with America” and “Down with Israel”. There was extensive damage to property.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/william-hague/8924460/William-Hague-warns-Iran-it-faces-serious-consequences-for-British-embassy-attack-in-Tehran.html
William Hague warns Iran it faces ‘serious consequences’ for British embassy attack in Tehran
The Foreign Secretary said that the attack put staff at risk and caused damage to property.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2067613/Iranian-students-storm-British-Embassy-Tehran-staff-taken-hostage.html
Death to England! Iran mob storms British Embassy as terrified staff cower from rioters and police stand by.
Hostages freed by police after a brief struggle with demonstrators at Britain’s other diplomatic facility several miles away.
‘We hold the Iranian government responsible,’ says William Hague.
British Foreign Office ‘outraged’ by ‘utterly unacceptable vandalism’.
White House condemns unrest in ‘strongest possible terms’.
Demonstrators clash with riot police before ransacking building.
Students chant ‘death to England’ as they burn the Union Jack and tear up pictures of The Queen.
Attack comes two days after Iran approves bill to reduce diplomatic relations with Britain.