WAR in the Middle-East ?

[kensington]

US psywar plan includes 2 hot wars


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the United States and Israel plan to attack two countries in the Middle East as part of a conspiracy to apply pressure on Iran.

"They (Iran's Enemies) have decided to attack two of the regional Arab states, which are our allies, with the help of the Zionist regime to create fear of decision-making in Iran," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying.

The Iranian president did not name the two states, however; political analysts believe Syria and Lebanon could be the targets in the region.

"We have precise information that the Americans have devised a plot, according to which they seek to launch a psychological war on Iran," Ahmadinejad stated in an exclusive interview with Press TV on Monday.

"They plan to attack at least two countries in the region within the next three months," he added.

He said the US seeks to achieve two main objectives with the scheme.

"First of all, they want to hamper Iran's progress and development since they are opposed to our growth, and secondly they want to save the Zionist regime because it has reached a dead-end and the Zionists believe they can be saved through a military confrontation," Ahmadinejad explained.

He also advised US President Barack Obama not to follow the policies of George W. Bush.

In addition, he warned Russian officials to avoid playing into the hands of Washington because that would go against their national interests.

Commenting on the nuclear issue, Ahmadinejad said Iran will resume nuclear talks with the West in September, adding that Iran wants Turkey and Brazil to participate in the negotiations.


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Shameful defeat awaits US in 3rd war

A senior Iranian military official has described a third US war in the Middle East as another heavy defeat for the country in the region.

Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri warns US against a new war in the Middle East.

“The United States, which has already suffered two heavy, disgraceful defeats against Hezbollah and Hamas in the region, can start a new war with a third country to endure another defeat,” Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri told Mehr News Agency on Sunday.

Jazayeri made the statements after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad made mention of the possibility of an imminent US and Israeli war against two Middle Eastern states in the near future.

"They (Iran's enemies) have decided to attack two of the regional Arab states, which are our allies, with the help of the Zionist regime to create a fear of decision-making in Iran," IRNA quoted Ahmadinejad as saying on Friday night.

Political analysts, however, believe Syria and Lebanon could be the two targets of Israel and the US in the region.

The Iranian top military official slammed recent remarks made by the Commander of US forces in Iraq, General Raymond Odierno, who had accused Tehran of training militant groups in Iraq with the aim of what he called destabilizing the volatile state.

"There's a very consistent threat from Iranian surrogates operating in Iraq," AFP quoted Odierno as saying in Baghdad in mid-July.

General Jazayeri reiterated Iran's support for the establishment of peace and security inside Iraq, citing Tehran's support for Baghdad as “strategic.”

“The Islamic Republic's interests in Iraq are actually that of the Iraqi nation,” he concluded.


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[kensington]

Israel needs war to exist


A former Israeli lecturer has said the entity depends on wars for its existence, warning that the hostility only invites disaster for Tel Aviv.

It is only constant confrontations and standoffs which keep the Israeli society from falling apart, said Ilan Pappe, who used to work as a senior lecturer at the University of Haifa in northern Israel.

He also said that the current Israeli government is the result of a colonialist movement. Colonialists, who did not have a country anywhere across the world, were obliged to remain here.

The Israeli regime, therefore, is constantly seeking to ignite new wars; against Lebanon and maybe soon against Iran, but future wars would not succeed and would instead lead the entity into disaster, he added, speaking to the German daily Junge Welt last month.

Israel waged two wars against Lebanon in 2000 and 2006, with the second round of offensives killing about 1,200 Lebanese, most of them civilians. The forces, however, withdrew on both occasions without having achieved any of their objectives.

Tel Aviv, meanwhile, has variously threatened to target Iran, accusing Tehran of leading nuclear activities for military purposes.

An outspoken anti-Zionist, Pappe taught at the university from 1984 to 2007, when he was effectively fired from the university after his book The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine hit the shelves. The publication states that Israel's formation was pre-planned and based on rendering Palestinians homeless.

Pappe says he was dismissed from the scene of post-graduate education in Israel following practical obstructions put in the way of his educational activities.

Israel was formed in 1948, when it militarily invaded vast expanses of the Arab territories. It was subsequently forced to return much of what was captured, but went on to occupy and later annex more portions of land in 1967.

My social studies led to me adopting my anti-Zionist positions, Pappe told the daily, saying that the challenges he was faced with mounted to a point when he could not hold any seminars.

He also favored a one-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, which he said, would actually equal the end of Zionism.

The Israeli society is by no means a uniform one, Pappe said. He also that Jews who have come from Arab lands live in far worse conditions than the European migrants, Pappe said.


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[kensington]

Iran Armed Forces fully prepared

ran's Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi

Iran's defense minister says the country's Armed Forces are in 'the highest state of preparedness' and ready to fully defend the nation.

"The country's Armed Forces have honed their skills through different war games and are in good condition in terms of military equipment and morale," Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi was quoted by the IRIB as saying on Saturday.

He made the remarks in reaction to the introduction of a draft resolution by the US House of Representatives in which dozens of Republicans have voiced support for a possible Israeli military strike against Iran.

The Iranian defense chief said 'the climate of war' they are imposing on the region is just a PR initiative to advance their own interests.

He said Washington is using such propaganda to seem 'successful' in upcoming US elections.

"The Zionist regime is under domestic and international pressure," said the top general, adding "They have proposed the issue to launch a war of nerves to tackle those pressures"

"American and Zionist experts have announced that they (the US and Israel) cannot face Iran's defensive and offensive power," said Vahidi, urging them 'not to stir tension in the region.'


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[kensington]

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Ezer Weizman once said "The nuclear issue is gaining momentum [and the] next war will not be conventional." From the 1950s the US trained Israeli nuclear scientists and providing nuclear technology, including a small 'research' reactor in 1955 under the 'Atoms for Peace' program. The French built a uranium reactor and plutonium reprocessing plant in the Negev desert, called Dimona. The Israelis lied, stating it was "a manganese plant, or a textile factory". In return for uranium, Israel supplied South Africa with the technology and expertise that allowed the white supremacist regime to build the "apartheid bomb".

In 1979 US satellite photographs revealed the atmospheric test of a nuclear bomb in the Indian Ocean off South Africa, Israel's involvement was quickly whitewashed by a carefully selected scientific panel, kept in the dark about important details. Israeli sources have since revealed "there were actually three tests of miniaturised Israeli nuclear artillery shells".

Mordechai Vanunu worked as a nuclear technician at Dimona. A supporter of Palestinian rights, Vanunu believed it was his duty to warn the world about the danger Israel posed. In 1986, he smuggled out photographs showing that the plant was producing enough plutonium to make 10 to 12 bombs a year, and that at least 200 miniaturised bombs had been built.


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Former Israeli nuclear technician Mordechai Vanunu celebrates his release from prison in 2004 at the end of an 18-year prison sentence. Photograph: Pedro Ugarte/AFP/Getty

Whistleblower : Mordechai Vanunu was put on trial in Israel on charges of treason and espionage. The trial, held in secret, took place in the District Court in Jerusalem before Chief Justice Eliahu Noam and judges Zvi Tal and Shalom Brener. He was not permitted contact with the media but he wrote the details of his abduction (or "hijacking" as he put it) on the palm of his hand, and while being transported he held his hand against the van's window so that waiting journalists could get the information.

On 27 February 1988, the court sentenced him to 18 years' imprisonment from the date of his capture. The Israeli government refused to release the transcript of the court case until, after the threat of legal action, it agreed to let censored extracts be published in Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper, in late 1999.

The death penalty in Israel is restricted to special circumstances.
In 2004, former Mossad director Shabtai Shavit told Reuters that the option of extrajudicial execution was considered in 1986, but rejected because "Jews don't do that to other Jews." ( Yeah, right ! )


Vanunu was released from prison on 21 April 2004. He indicated a desire to completely dissociate himself from Israel, initially refusing to speak in Hebrew, and planning to move to Europe or the US[33] as soon as the Israeli government would permit him to do so. Shortly before his scheduled release, Vanunu remained defiant under interrogation by the security service, Shin Bet. In recordings of the interview made public after his release, he is heard saying "I am neither a traitor nor a spy, I only wanted the world to know what was happening." He also said, "We don't need a Jewish state. There needs to be a Palestinian state. Jews can, and have lived anywhere, so a Jewish State is not necessary."[34] "Vanunu is a difficult and complex person. He remains stubbornly, admirably uncompromisingly true to his principles, is willing to pay the price", said Ha'aretz newspaper in 2008.[35]

A number of prohibitions were placed upon Vanunu after his release from jail and are still in force, in particular:

* he shall not be able to have contacts with citizens of other countries but Israel
* he shall not use phones
* he shall not own cellullar phones
* he shall not have access to the Internet
* he shall not approach or enter embassies and consulates
* he shall not come within 500 metres of any international border crossing
* he shall not visit any port of entry and airport
* he shall not leave the State of Israel

Israeli authorities state that their reason of these forbiddances and liberties restrictions is fear of his spreading further state secrets and that he is still bound by his non-disclosure agreement. These stipulate that he must inform the authorities in advance about his place of residence, his movements between cities, and who he intends to meet.[36] While a court found in 2005 that he should be free to go to the Gaza Strip and West Bank, a year later further restrictions explicitly forbade him to visit either, reversing the court's initial decision.-wiki