“Preintroduction” to war

February 1st, 2009 § 0 comments § permalink

antiwar.com:

After ordering a cameraman to turn off his camera, Israeli Ambassador to Australia Yuval Rotem engaged in a very frank discussion about the recent Israeli war in the Gaza Strip, calling it “a preintroduction” to an attack on Iran that Israel apparently expects within the year.

Before the camera was turned off, Ambassador Rotem said “the best thing to do is to have a very open dialogue if there are no reporters or journalists here,” adding “I am far more reserved in the way I am saying my things (on camera).” Unbeknownst to him however Sarah Cummings, a reporter for Australia’s Seven News service, was actually in attendance at the meeting after having been “accidentally” invited.

Israel has repeatedly threatened to attack Iran, and while its officials have repeatedly attempted to tie the Iranian government to its war on the Gaza Strip this is the first time one of their officials has publicly (if inadvertently so) suggested that the attack on the strip was a warm-up to its long talked about attack on Iran.

Via

Double Standards again

September 26th, 2007 § 0 comments § permalink

There will not be peace in the world if the international community falters in the face of the proliferation of nuclear arms

The whole source piece is about Irans’ nuclear ambitions, but once again, how can “The West” go on about the proliferation, or non-proliferation, while there are countries re-arming themselves or denying ownership (to mention just two, 1, 2).

The NPT is effectively dead.
What serious efforts have the nuclear nations taken to get rid of nuclear weapons, and I do not mean by stopping non-nuclear countries acquiring them.

Ahmadinejad’s visit to NY

September 25th, 2007 § 0 comments § permalink

Not sure what to make of the Iranian presidents’ visit to New York.

First of all I’m surprised he got a visa, and the American press really need to look up the meaning of ‘dictator’. That’s at least the second democratically elected president of a country they’ve incorrectly called a dictator (the other being Hugo Chavez, and the UK press isn’t much better, if at all).

There this report from Asia Times that is quite favourable, saying he made his points calmly and wasn’t swayed at all by the prvocative questions and language used by the host, and then there’s this one, from the Guardian, which is not so nice, that goes on about his denial of a nuke weapons programme and not having any homosexuals in Iran (ok, fair point).

Unprovoked Defence

September 25th, 2007 § 0 comments § permalink

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino has lambasted Iran’s latest statements against Israel, calling Tehran’s pledge to strike back at Israel if attacked by the Jewish state as “totally unprovoked”. Perino said, “I can’t tell you why someone in Iran would say something like that about Israel. It’s totally unprovoked and unnecessary.”

Unprovoked? What about…

Citing two unnamed sources the magazine called knowledgeable, the magazine quoted David Wurmser, until last month Cheney’s Middle East advisor, as having told a small group of people that “Cheney had been mulling the idea of pushing for limited Israeli missile strikes against the Iranian nuclear site at Natanz – and perhaps other sites – in order to provoke Tehran into lashing out.”

According to the report, “The Iranian reaction would then give Washington a pretext to launch strikes against military and nuclear targets in Iran.”

or…

Ha’aretz, on April 21, 2006, explicitly endorsed the idea of Ahmadinejad’s assassination, arguing that “his elimination is likely to contribute more to stability than to detract from it”.

or…

January 21, 2006, Mofaz had stated publicly: “We are preparing for military action to stop Iran’s nuclear program.”

or…

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, told the press in April that “nobody is ruling out” a military strike on Iran by Israel, adding: “It is impossible perhaps to destroy the entire nuclear program, but it would be possible to damage it in such a way that it would be set back years … it would take 10 days and involve the firing of 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles.”

Source

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