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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert hinted after his meeting with U.S. President George W. Bush Wednesday that U.S. action against Iran is imminent.
While he avoided saying anything clear and specific on the matter, Olmert did mention a "timetable".
"We reached agreement on the need to take care of the Iranian threat," Olmert said after the meeting.
The Washington talks came one day after Olmert issued his toughest warning yet to Tehran, saying Iran's nuclear program must be stopped by "all possible means."
Olmert told members of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that Iran's flouting of the international measures "leave no doubt as to the urgent need for more drastic and robust measures".
Olmert was unwilling to elaborate or give details, saying "I do not think it is appropriate for Iran to know what we are doing."
(INN, Haaretz, BBC, et al 6/5/08)
[Note in this story that on the previous two occasions when the U.S. allowed Israel to share its worldwide radar network, that war was imminent.]
In the face of Iran's continued race towards nuclear power, the United States has agreed to let Israel connect to its worldwide radar system that can provide an early warning of any ballistic missile launched at Israel from around the world, defense officials said Tuesday.
America's decision to allow Israel to connect to the worldwide radar system was reached following visits to Washington over the past month by Israeli Defense Ministry Dir.-Gen. Pinchas Buhris and head of the ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau Amos Gilad.
Israel has connected to the radar system in the past - during the First Gulf War in 1991 and ahead of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003.
(JPost 4/16/08)
In a new round in the war of words between Jerusalem and Tehran, the Iranian army's deputy chief threatened "to wipe Israel off the map" in the event of an Israeli attack on Iran.
"We will be able to wipe Israel off the map, if Israel attacks Iran," Iran's Deputy Chief of Staff Mohammed Rada Ashtiani said Tuesday, according to the Iranian news agency Mehr.
Ashtiani was speaking at a press conference ahead of "Army Day" April 17.
The Iranian officer's comments came after Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin Ben-Eliezer last week warned Iran that "an Iranian attack on Israel will lead to a harsh response by Israel that will cause the destruction of the Iranian nation."
In turn, Tehran blasted Ben-Eliezer's comments as "scandalous" and "insulting" in a complaint to the United Nations.
Iran's ambassador to the United Nations, Muhammad Kazai, said that Israel's threats are "proof of the terrorist and aggressive nature of Israeli society".
(Haaretz 4/15/08)
[Israel has previously projected that the "point of no return" for Iran's nuclearization could come within 6 months to a year. That assessment was based on its use of the P1 centrifuge. With this announcement of a centrifuge that can produce 5 times faster, Israel's level of concern will rise to a near-panic. Note in this story that Israel's office of the Prime Minister is again hinting at the use of force to shut down Iran's nuclear program. Story.]
Iran has for the first time tested an improved centrifuge that works five times faster than the current version, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday evening, following his earlier announcement that Iran had begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.
He called the development a "breakthrough" and the "beginning of a speedy trend to eliminate the big powers" dominance in nuclear energy.
A source in the Israeli Prime Minister's Office responded by calling on the world to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent the nuclearization of Iran.
"Unfortunately the reckless language of the Iranian leadership is matched by their reckless behavior," the source said. "The international community must act today. Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons."
(JPost 4/9/08)
[Inner Circle: An eschatological event was expected to occur on Monday, Kislev 24. The below story appears to be that event. A collective sigh of relief could be heard throughout Israel when this story broke. Unfortunately, this only contributes to the feeling of "peace and safety" that is prophecied to exist right before the End comes.]
The U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, released Monday in Washington, found that Tehran froze its nuclear weapons program in 2003, and that it has remained on hold - despite Iran's continued uranium enrichment.
According to the report, Iran ceased developing military nuclear capabilities in 2003 because of international pressure and is now focused on a purely civilian nuclear program.
"We judge with moderate confidence that the earliest possible date Iran would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon is late 2009, but that this is very unlikely," the report says. A more likely time frame for that production is between 2010 and 2015, it concludes.
The report contradicts earlier U.S. intelligence reports, Israeli assessments, and the conclusions of senior officials in the Bush administration.
Political sources in Israel said Monday night that it appears that the Bush administration has now lost its sense of urgency and determination to carry out a military strike against Iran in 2008.
(Haaretz, CNN 12/4/07)
[Inner Circle: On December 2, 1999, Russia made a unilateral "covenant" with Israel, promising never to do anything that would harm the Jewish state. The Hebrew/Jewish calendar equivalent of November 29/30, 2007, is a multiple of 69-and-one-half weeks from that date. Dan. 9:24-27 suggests that after 69-and-one-half weeks there will be (and in the past has been) the breaking of a covenant. Early November 30 Russian President Putin kept his threat to halt Russia's participation in the CFE treaty. While it is hard to imagine how this action might put Israel at risk, we must remember that there are 10 lost tribes in the House of Israel that remain in diaspora. And they are likely among the NATO countries. Story.]
Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday signed a law suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty, the Kremlin announced.
Under the moratorium, Russia will halt inspections and verifications of its military sites by NATO countries and will no longer be obligated to limit the number of conventional weapons deployed west of the Urals.
The 1990 arms control treaty set limits on the deployment of heavy conventional weapons by NATO and Warsaw Pact countries, to ease tensions along the border between the old Eastern bloc and Western Europe.
According to Itar-Tass "In contravention of the assumed obligations, NATO member states delayed ratification of the adapted treaty and refuse to take other measures to support the viability of control over weapons in Europe" resulting in this action.
(AP, Itar-Tass, et al 11/30/07)
[Inner Circle: Long-time members of this group know that I see the man who brought down the Berlin Wall, Mikhail Gorbachev, as the prophetic leader "who once was, is no more, yet will be again." Although he is 76 years old now, he is as active in politics as ever. His aspirations of an integrated society and non-polarized world are again evident in this story. Note how disarming his words are.]
The leader of the former Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev, has founded a new political movement in Russia.
The Constituent Congress of the National Non-governmental Union of Social Democrats was held in Moscow on Saturday with the former USSR president leading the organizing committee.
"We are fighting for power, but only for power over people's minds," Gorbachev told the 200 delegates gathered in Moscow.
Gorbachev said he is convinced that this social democratic "project" could rid the country of the extremities of left-wing and right-wing (liberal) forces and lead to building an integrated society.
(Itar-Tass, BBC 10/21/07)
[Inner Circle: Iran has previously stated that if it perceives an attack on its country is imminent, it has the right to launch a preemptive attack on the agressors. In this story such a threat is now clear. Furthermore, Israel will take note of the fact that sanctions against Iran are now "dead". This may impell the Jewish nation to also act. Never has the threat of war been higher. Story.]
US officials are mulling a military assault on Iran's Islamic regime after a recent decision by Germany to withhold support for new sanctions against Tehran, Fox News reported Tuesday.
Germany would however "privately welcome, while publicly protesting," a US bombing campaign against Iran's nuclear facilities, it said.
Fox News reported on its Web site that Chancellor Angela Merkel will no longer support further sanctions against Iran by the United Nations Security Council, leading Bush administration officials to believe that sanctions are dead.
Fox reported the Bush administration "has just about had it with Iran," said one foreign diplomat. "They tried the diplomatic process. China is now obstructing them at the UN Security Council and the Russians are tucking themselves behind them. [So] they are looking at other options," the diplomat told Fox.
A senior Bush administration official told Fox that "everyone in town" was discussing the costs and benefits of a military assault on Iran. US officials believe that an attack plan against Iran would involve at least two weeks of sustained bombing and would set Iran's nuclear program back a number of years.
Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told Israel Radio on Thursday the world must act quickly regarding Iran. "There must be no delays," she said.
"The world must take all the necessary action ... While we are talking, Iran is trying to obtain nuclear weapons."
(FoxNews, JPost, et al 9/13/07)
Russian military intelligence services are reporting a flurry of activity by U.S. Armed Forces near Iran's borders, a high-ranking security source said Tuesday.
"The latest military intelligence data point to heightened U.S. military preparations for both an air and ground operation against Iran," the official said, adding that the Pentagon has probably not yet made a final decision as to when an attack will be launched.
He said the Pentagon is looking for a way to deliver a strike against Iran "that would enable the Americans to bring the country to its knees at minimal cost."
He also said the U.S. Naval presence in the Persian Gulf has for the first time in the past four years reached the level that existed shortly before the invasion of Iraq in March 2003.
Col.-Gen. Leonid Ivashov, vice president of the Academy of Geopolitical Sciences, said last week that the Pentagon is planning to deliver a massive air strike on Iran's military infrastructure in the near future.
Officials report the U.S. navy began exercises on Tuesday in the Gulf near the coast of Iran. They said two strike carriers conducted naval and air maneuvers that included mock attacks on Iran.
(RIA Novosti, MENL 3/29/07)
Despite repeated denials by the US administration, preparations for a strike against Iranian nuclear sites are in "advanced" stages, according to informed sources in Washington quoted by The Guardian on Saturday.
According to the Londan-based Guardian's report, the deployment of forces to the Persian Gulf would allow the opening of an Iranian front by the spring.
The sources said Bush had yet to make a final decision on the matter, but Vice-President Dick Cheney and Neo-conservatives, particularly at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, were reportedly pushing the need for action against Teheran for continuing to develop their nuclear capabilities.
Vincent Cannistraro, a Washington-based intelligence analyst quoted by The Guardian said the assessment of the source in Washington was accurate. "Planning is going on, in spite of public disavowals by [Defense Secretary Robert] Gates. Targets have been selected. For a bombing campaign against nuclear sites, it is quite advanced. The military assets to carry this out are being put in place."
He added: "We are planning for war."
(JPost 2/10/07)
Russia's top military chief on Thursday warned the United States against launching a military strike against Iran.
With tension mounting over Iran's nuclear program, Gen. Yuri Baluyevsky, the chief of Russia's general staff, warned that "it is hard to predict how the Muslim world will respond to the use of force against Iran."
"This may stir the whole world, and it is crucial to prevent anything like that [from happening]," he said.
"A military scenario can't be ruled out," Baluyevsky was quoted by Russian news agencies as saying.
Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour Mohammadi said Thursday that Iran "is brave enough to stand against any threats".
(AP, IRNA 2/17/06)
Officials say the U.S. intelligence community has determined that Iran is now capable of enriching uranium and completing the nuclear fuel cycle.
They say the new assessment sees Iran as ready to produce fissile material for its first weapons.
"I would say that Iran does have the capability to develop nuclear weapons and the delivery means for those weapons," Undersecretary of State Robert Joseph said. "We have watched Iran proceed step by step, conversion to enrichment-related activities, in a way that demonstrates very clearly that they are moving [toward] a nuclear weapons capability."
Officials said this was the first time that a senior U.S. official has publicly assessed that Iran has achieved a nuclear weapons capability.
(MENL 2/13/06)
The United States is planning a military attack against Iran's nuclear sites as a last resort to block Tehran's efforts to develop an atomic bomb, the [London] Telegraph reported on Sunday.
The British newspaper reported that pentagon strategists were identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation.
According to the paper, the U.S. plans to use military force if diplomatic efforts fail to thwart Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"This is more than just the standard military contingency assessment," the paper quoted a senior Pentagon adviser. "This has taken on much greater urgency in recent months."
According to the newspaper report, the most likely strategy would involve aerial bombardment by long-distance B2 bombers armed with precision weapons.
The Iranian president on Saturday rejected Western pressure to freeze the country's nuclear program and issued a veiled threat to walk away from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
(Haaretz 2/12/06)
