Defense official: Israel readying for attack on Iran By Amos Harel, Anshel Pfeffer and Jack Khoury, Haaretz Correspondent and Haaretz Service Tags: Iran, Israel news, Red Sea
Israel's recent deployment of warships across the Red Sea should be seen as serious preparation for an attack on Iran, an Israeli defense official told the Times of London on Thursday.
"This is preparation that should be taken seriously. Israel is investing time in preparing itself for the complexity of an attack on Iran. These maneuvers are a message to Iran that Israel will follow up on its threats," the official was quoted as saying.
Earlier this week, two Israel Navy gunboats openly sailed through the Suez Canal into the Red Sea. Advertisement The ships that passed through the Suez Canal on Tuesday were two Sa'ar 5 gunboats, the Hanit and the Eilat. This follows a similar incident in late June, when an Israeli Dolphin-class submarine passed through the canal, later returning the same way.
The move, apparently coordinated with Egypt, is seen as a warning message to Middle Eastern radicals, first and foremost Iran.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit confirmed the crossings and said that Cairo's agreements with Jerusalem permit Israeli military ships to transit the canal. He declined to speculate on whether the voyage was meant as a warning to Iran or anyone else.
While Israeli naval ships have gone through Suez before, the last such occurrence was at least a year ago.
An Israeli diplomat told the Times that Israel's has been bolstering its ties with certain Arab nations just as wary of the Iranian nuclear threat. In particular, the diplomat cited a "shared mutual distrust of Iran" between Israel and Egypt.
Though neither side says so publicly, there is ongoing security coordination between Israel and Egypt, which could be expanded if necessary in the future.
Israel has an interest in a naval presence in the Red Sea for two reasons: the effort to halt arms smuggling from Iran to the Gaza Strip - which, according to international media reports, mainly takes place by sea from Iran to Sudan, and then overland via Egypt, and the effort to bolster its deterrence against Iran in the event of a direct conflict breaking out.
Israel warships move within cruise-missile range of Iran Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:45:00 GMT Tel Aviv takes a step closer to war with Tehran as two Israeli warships sail through the Suez Canal within cruise-missile range of Iran.
Earlier this week, two Israel Navy warships, the Hanit and the Eliat, passed through the Suez Canal and across the Red Sea.
In a Thursday interview with the Times, a senior Israeli defense official said the move should be seen as serious preparations for a long-expected attack on Iranian nuclear sites.
"This is preparation that should be taken seriously. Israel is investing time in preparing itself for the complexity of an attack on Iran," said the Israeli defense official, who was speaking on condition of anonymity.
Iran confirms three Americans are being detained Iranian officials tell the Kurdish government that two men and a woman crossed into Iranian territory 'without permission.' The group apparently was on a hiking trip. By Liz Sly
8:31 AM PDT, August 1, 2009
Reporting from Baghdad — Iran confirmed today that it is holding three Americans who apparently strayed across the Iranian border while on a hiking trip in the northern Iraqi region of Kurdistan, according to Kurdish officials.
The Iranian authorities have told the Kurdish government that the three were detained because they crossed into Iranian territory "without permission," said a senior Kurdish intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Americans, two men and a woman, had left the Kurdish town of Sulaimaniya for the scenic border area of Ahmed Awa on Thursday, and after spending the night there set out on Friday morning in the direction of the Iranian border.
At around 1 p.m., the group telephoned a friend who had remained behind in Sulaimaniya and told him they were surrounded by armed men. The friend raised the alarm, and the three haven't been heard of since, said Qubad Talabani, the Kurdish Regional Government's representative in Washington, who is currently in Kurdistan.
The Kurdish intelligence official said the Iranians had informed the Kurds that the three are currently being held in the Iranian border town of Marivan.
There was no official confirmation of the detentions from Iran. The U.S. embassy in Baghdad said it was still investigating reports that the three were missing and couldn't confirm any details.
Though most of Iraq is considered too dangerous for tourism, the self-governing enclave of Kurdistan is almost entirely safe, and the region has tried hard in recent years to encourage tourists to visit. The area where the three went missing is one of outstanding natural beauty, noted for its pristine waterfalls and thick forests of pistachio trees. But the border with Iran is not clearly marked.
Asso Ahmed contributed to this report from Sulaimaniya.
Israeli official: Iran will have nuclear capacity by late ‘09
August 4, 2009
NEW YORK (JTA) -- Iran will reach the nuclear threshold by the end of the year, Israel's military intelligence chief said.
Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, speaking Tuesday at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said that by late 2009 the Islamic Republic will have reached the point where obtaining a nuclear weapon will hinge on the decision of its leadership, the Jerusalem Post reported, citing Israel Radio.
Baidatz said he believed the international community has come to terms with a nuclear Iran.
In a related development, the London Times reported Monday that Iran's supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has not yet decided whether to give the go-ahead to build a nuclear weapon.
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TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Top Iranian military officials have called for even faster prosecutions and demanded "swift retribution" for post-election detainees, despite more than 100 Iranians going through mass trials this month, Iranian media reported. Suspected opposition supporters (in grey) attend their trial in Tehran, Iran, on August 16.
Suspected opposition supporters (in grey) attend their trial in Tehran, Iran, on August 16.
The detainees were among those arrested amid protests against the disputed election, in which hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the overwhelming winner. The protests sparked a brutal government crackdown that led to thousands of arrests, scores of injuries and at least 30 deaths.
Most of those arrested were released, judiciary officials said, although several dozen face charges as part of the mass trials.
"Iran is not in a situation where it can afford to lose time for prosecuting rioters," said Brig. Gen. Seyyed Massoud Jazayeri, deputy chief of Iran's armed forces, according to state-run Press TV. "National security calls for swift retribution for rioters."
Jazayeri warned against even small demonstrations, echoing hard-line accusations that protests are part of a "velvet coup" to overthrow the government.
Iran has until late September to respond to the latest international proposal aimed at stopping the Islamic Republic from developing a nuclear weapon. Under the proposal, Iran would suspend its uranium enrichment program in exchange for a U.N. Security Council commitment to forgo a fourth round of economic and diplomatic sanctions.
But if diplomacy fails, the world should be prepared for an Israeli attack on Iran's suspected nuclear weapons facilities. As Adm. Michael Mullen, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, recently acknowledged: "The window between a strike on Iran and their getting nuclear weapons is a pretty narrow window."
If Israel attempts such a high-risk and destabilizing strike against Iran, President Obama will probably learn of the operation from CNN rather than the CIA. History shows that although Washington seeks influence over Israel's military operations, Israel would rather explain later than ask for approval in advance of launching preventive or preemptive attacks. Those hoping that the Obama administration will be able to pressure Israel to stand down from attacking Iran as diplomatic efforts drag on are mistaken.
The current infighting among Iran's leaders also has led some to incorrectly believe that Tehran's nuclear efforts will stall. As Friday's International Atomic Energy Agency report on Iran's nuclear programs revealed, throughout the political crises of the last three months, Iran's production rate for centrifuges has remained steady, as has its ability to produce uranium hexafluoride to feed into the centrifuges.
So let's consider four past Israeli military operations relevant to a possible strike against Iran.
In October 1956, Israel, Britain and France launched an ill-fated assault against Egypt to seize control of the Suez Canal. The day before, Secretary of State John Foster Dulles grilled Abba Eban, Israel's ambassador to the U.S., about Israel's military buildup on the border with Egypt, but Eban kept quiet about his country's plans.
In June 1967, Israel initiated the Six-Day War without notice to Washington, despite President Johnson's insistence that Israel maintain the status quo and consult with the U.S. before taking action. Only days before the war began, Johnson notified Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in a personal message: "Israel just must not take preemptive military action and thereby make itself responsible for the initiation of hostilities."
On June 7, 1981, Israeli fighter-bombers destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak shortly before it was to be fueled to develop the capacity to make nuclear weapons-grade plutonium. Again, Washington was not informed in advance. President Reagan "condemned" the attack and "thought that there were other options that might have been considered."
A few days later, Prime Minister Menachem Begin told CBS News: "This attack will be a precedent for every future government in Israel. ... Every future Israeli prime minister will act, in similar circumstances, in the same way." more
Obama Urged to Ready Tougher Iran Sanctions, Military Strike
By Janine Zacharia
Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. should begin preparing crippling sanctions on Iran and publicly make clear that a military strike is possible should the Iranian government press ahead with its nuclear effort, a bipartisan policy group said.
“If biting sanctions do not persuade the Islamic Republic to demonstrate sincerity in negotiations and give up its enrichment activities, the White House will have to begin serious consideration of the option of a U.S.-led military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities,” said the study from the Bipartisan Policy Center in Washington.
The report was written by Charles Robb, a former Democratic senator from Virginia; Daniel Coats, a former Republican senator from Indiana who also served as ambassador to Germany, and retired General Charles Wald, the former deputy commander of U.S. European command. Their assessment comes as the U.S. prepares to participate in preliminary talks with Iran on Oct. 1 designed to gauge its commitment to address concerns about its nuclear aims.
The report echoes the Obama administration’s conclusion that Iran’s atomic work is approaching a destabilizing point at which it may be able to build a bomb.
Coats, Robb and Wald write that Iran will have enough fissile material for a nuclear weapon by next year, “leaving little time for the United States to prevent both a nuclear- weapons capable Islamic Republic and an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities.”
Gasoline Sanction
The authors back a bill that would sanction foreign companies that export gasoline to Iran, if negotiations fail. They say the administration should have prepared “sufficient financial, political and military pressure” before agreeing to negotiations.
The U.S. will dispatch its undersecretary of state for political affairs, William Burns, to the Oct. 1 meeting with U.S. allies and Iran without conditions. Iran has said its nuclear program is closed for discussion. The State Department said yesterday it will use the meeting to outline the consequences of Iran proceeding with a nuclear program.
The U.S. and its allies on the United Nations Security Council plus Germany have pushed Iran to accept a suspension of sanctions in exchange for Iran’s halt to uranium enrichment.
Iran has expanded its nuclear stockpile to 1,430 kilograms of low-enriched uranium hexafluoride compared to 75 kilograms in December 2007, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency. It has also almost doubled its number of centrifuges at its uranium enrichment facility at Natanz since 2007.
Deadline Proposed
The authors say a deadline of 60 days should be set for determining Iran’s seriousness once it commits to negotiations. If those negotiations fail, the administration should toughen sanctions and “prepare overtly for any military option.”
Such preparations could include deploying an additional aircraft carrier battle group to the waters off Iran and conducting joint exercises with U.S. allies.
In the absence of U.S. action, Israel is more likely to strike, the authors argue, saying that an Israeli strike “entails more risks than a U.S. strike.”
Israeli officials say that a nuclear-armed Iran would pose a threat to their country’s existence.
To contact the reporter on this story: Janine Zacharia in Washington at jzacharia@bloomberg.net.
MOSCOW, October 4 (RIA Novosti) - A confidential report by the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said that Iran had had enough information to produce a nuclear bomb, the New York Times reported on Sunday.
Western powers suspect Iran of attempting to build atomic weapons, but Tehran says its nuclear program is aimed at generating nuclear energy for civilian purposes.
Iran has "sufficient information to be able to design and produce a workable" nuclear weapon, the paper quotes the report as saying.
The report, produced in consultations with nuclear weapons experts both inside and outside the IAEA, stresses in its introduction that the conclusions are tentative and are subject to further confirmation.
The report, titled "Possible Military Dimensions of Iran's Nuclear Program," says Iran's Ministry of Defense runs a complex program "aimed at the development of a nuclear payload to be delivered using the Shahab 3 missile system," with a range of 2,100 km (1,300 miles).
"The atomic agency's report also presents evidence that beyond improving upon bomb-making information gathered from rogue nuclear experts around the world, Iran has done extensive research and testing on how to fashion the components of a weapon," the paper said.
According to the report, the program apparently began in early 2002. The report does not specify how far that work has progressed, however.
According to the country's semi-official Iranian Students News Agency, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei arrived in Iran on Saturday to discuss inspections of the country's controversial second uranium enrichment facility. The visit comes two days after talks in Switzerland between Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, and representatives of six world powers.
The meeting with the 'Iran Six' was convened soon after news of Iran's second uranium enrichment site in Qom led to calls for harsher sanctions against Tehran.
Opposition protesters returned to the streets of Tehran Wednesday for the first time in nearly two months, clashing with security forces just blocks from a government rally to mark the 30th anniversary of the U.S. Embassy takeover.
The scenes of defiant chants, tear gas and baton-wielding police recalled the unrest that followed the disputed presidential elections in June. But the latest marches drew far fewer demonstrators and suggested the relentless pressure by authorities could be taking a toll on the opposition.
It also displayed the pinpoint counter strategy of opposition groups: staging rival marches during key state-backed events to gain maximum exposure as they try to reassert their voice.
The contrasts were vivid on a day of major symbolic importance to the Iran's leadership.
People chanted "Death to America" and walked over U.S. flags outside Washington's former embassy. Meanwhile, hundreds of opposition marchers in nearby Haft-e-Tir Square denounced President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad with cries of "Death to the Dictator" and trampled a poster of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, witnesses said.
Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1100627.html 
