Former IDF chief: Israel must prepare for possible attack on Iran

Gabi Ashkenazi says Israel needs to do all it can to operate under the radar against Tehran, but stresses that military option must be on the table.

Published 17:20 26.01.12
By Barak Ravid and DPA

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/former-idf-chief-israel-must-prepare-for-possible-attack-on-iran-1.409349

Former IDF chief Gabi Ashkenazi said Thursday that Israel must operate under the radar against Iran, but it should also prepare for a possible strike against the Islamic Republic’s nuclear facilities.

During a lecture at the Institute for National Security Studies, Ashkenazi stressed that Israel’s strategy on Iran must be a combination of several approaches.

“Israel must do all it can under the radar and combine that with paralyzing sanctions, but at the same time keep a reliable military option on the table with the willingness to use it if necessary,” Ashkenazi said.

“When the moment comes I don’t know if we won’t be alone, and for this reason Israel must also rely on itself,” he said.

During his term as IDF chief, Ashkenazi was considered a supporter of a more moderate approach on Iran, in which all diplomatic options must be exhausted before any attack is launched.

Earlier Thursday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the new round of economic sanctions by the European Union will be “futile,” and added that his country was ready to resume nuclear talks with the six world powers – the U.S., China, Russia, Britain, France and Germany.

Ahmadinejad appeared to downplay the impact of a new round of EU sanctions on Iran, including a ban on oil imports, saying that trade with EU states made up only $23 billion of Iran’s $200 billion annual trade volume.

“Aren’t you ashamed to get together and make such statements. Where do you think you can get with these steps?” Ahmadinejad said.

“They are saying they (EU) do not want to harm the Iranian people, but the steps they take and the language they use are all against the people,” he added.

The EU sanctions, as well as similar measures taken by the United States to force Iran to curb its nuclear activities, are believed to have already had an impact on the Iranian economy, with the national currency, the rial, falling drastically in recent days.

UK ready to send more warships into Gulf in ‘clear signal’ to Tehran

Kim Sengupta
Wednesday 25 January 2012
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/uk-ready-to-send-more-warships-into-gulf-in-clear-signal-to-tehran-6294112.html

Britain could send military reinforcements to the Gulf in the escalating confrontation with Iran, the Defence Secretary said yesterday as the Tehran regime declared it would “defend the nation” against the threat posed by an EU oil embargo.

Philip Hammond said contingency plans were in place to send extra warships, aircraft and troops to the region if it became necessary. He said the decision to send a flotilla led by the American aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln through the Strait of Hormuz – which Iran had threatened to block – sent “a clear signal about the resolve of the international community to defend the right of free passage through international waters.”

A British frigate, HMS Argyll, and a French warship were part of the convoy, which sailed within a few miles of the Iranian coast. The UK has about 1,500 naval personnel in the Indian Ocean serving on four minesweepers, two frigates, three support ships, a survey vessel and a hunter-killer submarine. A Response Force Task Group of Royal Marines, helicopters and naval vessels set up last year could also be deployed at short notice.

HMS Daring, a destroyer with specialist air-defence capabilities, is already sailing toward Suez on a six-month mission against piracy and drug smuggling and could be diverted in an emergency. HMS Westminster, a frigate used during the Libya campaign last summer, left Portsmouth in southern England on Monday and could reach Hormuz within a week.

The French frigate, La Motte Picquet, which took part in the Hormuz exercise, had departed and there were no plans for further forces to be sent, a spokesman at the Defence Ministry in Paris, Colonel Thierry Burkhard, said yesterday. But he stressed that an infantry battalion of about 650 troops and six Rafale fighter-bombers based in the United Arab Emirates would be available if hostilities break out.

The US has augmented its 5th Fleet at Manama Bay in Bahrain with a second aircraft-carrier, USS Carl Vinson, joining USS Abraham Lincoln. The Pentagon said the enhanced presence would continue and is considered to be adequate for whatever mission is required.

There has been no discernible Iranian military reaction to the Western manoeuvres. Yesterday, the Danish ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Tehran to be told of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s displeasure with the sanctions, which are intended to pressure Tehran into resuming talks on the country’s controversial nuclear program.

“Elements within the European Union, by pursuing the policies of the US and adopting a hostile approach, are seeking to create tensions with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Ali Asghar Khaji, a senior Foreign Ministry official, said. “The behaviour of the EU is irrational and will not stop the Islamic Republic of Iran from defending its national interest.”

A senior official of the Oil Ministry, Alireza Nikzad Rahbar, said the embargo may end up by helping Tehran by creating a shortage in supplies. “Europe will be the loser and we will earn more because of high prices,” he said.

Iran preparing now for Armageddon

Select fighters being described as ‘Soldiers of Imam Mahdi’

Published: 13 hours ago
By Reza Kahlili
http://www.wnd.com/2012/01/iran-preparing-now-for-armageddon/

Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has held several secret meetings with his economic and military advisers in recent days to prepare for the possibility of war with the United States.

Sources report the preparations are to include the execution of those Iranians who oppose the regime.

Khamenei has been heard to say that the coming of the last Islamic Messiah, the Shiites’ 12th Imam Mahdi, is near and that specific actions need to be taken to protect the Islamic regime for upcoming events.

Mahdi, according to Shiite belief, will reappear at the time of Armageddon.

Selected forces within the Revolutionary Guards and Basij reportedly have been trained under a task force called “Soldiers of Imam Mahdi” and they will bear the responsibility of security and protecting the regime against uprisings. Many in the Guards and Basij have been told that the 12th Imam is on earth, facilitated the victory of Hezbollah over Israel in the 2006 war and soon will announce publicly his presence after the needed environment is created.

According to SepahOnline, sources within the Vali’eh Amr, the revolutionary forces in charge of the supreme leader’s protection, report that Khamenei held several meetings in recent days at which the leader instructed his advisers to tighten the grip on anyone who opposes or might oppose the regime in case of war.

These actions include investigations of every person or group that was pro-regime but now hold opinions contrary to regime policies. Also being created is a list, to be presented to Khamenei, to decide the fate of any opponents.

It also was decided that those political prisoners who will not repent will be executed, the sources said.

This action also was taken by the founder of the Islamic regime in 1988, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

In the book, “A Time to Betray,” it is documented when Khomeini announced the campaign, he said, “If the person at any stage or at any time maintains his (or her) support for the opposing groups, the sentence is execution. Annihilate the enemies of Islam immediately.”

The fatwa led to the execution of thousands of innocent men and women of all ages in a very short period.

The list of actions by Khamenei includes investigation of private business owners. If records show that at any time in the past they have not supported the Islamic regime, their businesses and belongings could be confiscated.

Journalists, writers and publishers who are deemed to be against the regime would be arrested and punished. Even high religious authorities who do not fully support Khamenei will be put under surveillance and dealt with if they become outspoken about the direction of the country.

Several journalists already have been arrested in the past week. In a recent speech, Khamenei hinted of a warlike environment and warned those clerics who might doubt his direction of the country that their survival is tied to the survival of the Islamic regime. Many Iranians who resent the regime resent the religion it promotes, so even opposition clerics might not fare well should the regime fall.

The plan by the leader calls for total control of Tehran, the capital where the presence of the Basij and Hezbollah militias would be quite visible so that no one would dare to challenge the regime.

This news comes in light of the formation of the “Removal Committee,” which secretly would eliminate all deemed as opponents, even within the military and the government.

Khamenei’s extraordinary measures are based either on an understanding that war could be imminent or that the regime has decided to announce it has nuclear capability and is getting ready for a possible reaction from Israel or America.

Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, an influential cleric and a radical Twelver, previously had stated that Khamenei ascends to the sky every year to take direction from Imam Mahdi, and sources close to the cleric have disclosed that Khamenei has been ordered by Imam Mahdi to continue with the nuclear program despite worldwide objection as it will facilitate his coming.

Last March, a Iranian secret documentary, “The Coming Is Upon Us,” was revealed to depict Khamenei as the mythical figure who creates the environment for the reappearance of Mahdi by leading Iran to destroy Israel.

Israel to United Nations: Take action against Iran

Prosor: Never has it been so clear that Iran is seeking to build a nuclear weapon; Israeli diplomat also rebukes Jerusalem mufti for reciting hadith calling “killing Jews” a “sacred goal.”

By GIL SHEFLER
01/24/2012 19:01
http://www.jpost.com/DiplomacyAndPolitics/Article.aspx?id=254989

Iran is the single greatest threat to the world and the United Nations needs to take action against it immediately, Israel’s Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor told the Security Council in New York on Tuesday.

“Never has it been so clear Iran is seeking to build a nuclear weapon,” said Prosor speaking at a regular meeting debating the “situation in the Middle East and the Palestinians question.”

“Now is the time to act. Tomorrow is too late. The stakes are too high. The price of inaction is too great,” he said.

Prosor cited the last International Atomic Energy Agency report saying it proved beyond all doubt that the Islamic Republic sought to obtain nuclear weapons. He said Tehran’s efforts to enrich uranium to 20 percent-levels at its reactor in Qom could serve no other plausible aim other than to develop an atomic bomb.

The Israeli diplomat also rebuked Palestinian religious leader Muhammad Hussein who in a sermon broadcast on television last week told believers that killing Jews was “a sacred goal” for Muslims.”

“His comments were deeply disturbing,” said Prosor. “But what was even more disturbing is that no one from the Palestinian Leadership stood up and condemned his comments, denounced his actions or dissociated themselves from his message.”

US ambassador to the UN Susan Rice chose to highlight the start of direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in Amman earlier this month, the first time the two sides have sat down for talks in years.

She thanked Jordan for hosting the event and added “it is necessary we do everything we can to ensure progress.”

The Permanent Observer of Palestine Riyad H. Mansour, who spoke before Prosor, placed the blame for the lack of progress in talks between Israel and the Palestinians squarely on the Israelis.

“We spare no effort for peace despite the many obstacles imposed by the Israeli government,” Mansour said.

He gave a long list of grievances accusing Israel of expelling Palestinians from the Jordan valley and violating human rights of Palestinian “shepherds and children.” He reiterated the Palestinian Authority’s bid to seek statehood status at the UN which is being debated saying it would be part of a two state solution.

During the gathering the US ambassador to the UN also addressed events in Syria where ongoing violence between protesters and security forces have left thousands dead. Rice called again on the government of Bashar Assad to permit the access of observers to the restive country and respect human rights. She added that Washington was “concerned [about] recent reports of shipments of arms and munitions to the Syrian regime,” calling for an arms embargo.

Representatives from Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Togo, India and Iran were also set to speak at the gathering.

Offshore quake causes panic, no tsunami in Chile

By EVA VERGARA | Associated Press – 23 hrs ago
http://news.yahoo.com/offshore-quake-causes-panic-no-tsunami-chile-180941156.html

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — A magnitude-6.2 earthquake struck Monday just off the shore of south-central Chile, the same area devastated by a massive temblor two years ago. But there were no immediate reports of damage and authorities said it would not cause a tsunami.

Monday’s quake was centered 31 miles (50 kilometers) northwest of Concepcion, and relatively shallow at 12 miles (20 kilometers) deep. But Chile’s navy announced that it wasn’t the kind of quake to generate a deadly tsunami of the kind that ravaged nearby coastal cities when an magnitude-8.8 quake devastated Chile in 2010.

The U.S. Geological Service said this quake struck at 1:04 p.m. local time (1604 GMT) with a magnitude of 6.2. Chilean seismologists measured it as a less-powerful 5.8.

Chile’s national emergency office said there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.

Cellphone service was briefly interrupted as people tried to reach loved ones, and radio stations and social networks lit up with comments, including many who said the shaking made them panic. Light fixtures swayed in many homes, but the power remained on.

The much-stronger quake that struck on Feb. 27, 2010, killed 524 and caused 31 disappearances, wrecking 220,000 homes and leaving $30 billion in damage. The disaster agency and the navy shared the blame for a botched tsunami warning then that gave some coastal dwellers a false sense of security.