Archive for November 11, 2009

Hezbollah: All of Israel within our range

November 11, 2009

Hezbollah: All of Israel within our range – Israel News, Ynetnews.

In response to Ashkenazi’s warning of Israeli retaliation in face of attack, Hezbollah says, ‘Enemy knows any attack will bring about its total defeat that will result in end of its entity’

Roee Nahmias

Published: 11.11.09, 16:31 / Israel News

 

A day after the chief of staff warned against an increasing threat from the north, Hezbollah bragged, “All cities, military bases, factories, and settlements in Israel are within the organization’s firing range.”

 

Hezbollah’s political bureau chief Mahmoud Qomati was responding to the statements made by IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi in the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday. Ashkenazi said that Hezbollah is armed with tens of thousands of missiles that can even reach Dimona. “Some of them reach a range of 300 km (about 185 miles),” he said.

According to the chief of staff, the missiles are ready for use. “There is a paradox. On the one hand, there is quiet, but when you raise your head over the fence, you see strengthening and arming. If Hezbollah carries out an attack to avenge the death of Mughniyeh, this will obligate Israel to respond. This can lead to deterioration.”

Qomati said Wednesday that if Israel attacks the Hezbollah stronghold in Beirut’s Dahiya neighborhood, the organization will respond with an all-out shelling of Tel Aviv. Qomati dismissed Ashkenazi’s statements: “Ashkenazi’s threats are empty statements made in a bid to restore the initiative to his hands after the enemy’s defeat in Lebanon and Gaza.”

Qomati continued, “The enemy knows that any offensive initiated under the current conditions will ensure his total defeat, will change the balance of power in our favor, and will bring about the end of its entity.

Ahmadinejad to Obama: Choose between Israel and Iran

November 11, 2009

Ahmadinejad to Obama: Choose between Israel and Iran – Haaretz – Israel News.

Last update – 11:12 11/11/2009
Ahmadinejad to Obama: Choose between Israel and Iran
By Haaretz Service and News Agencies
//
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday that the U.S. must choose between supporting Israel or Iran, the official Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.

Ahmadinejad addressed the 25th Session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation (COMCEC) of the Organization of the Islamic Conference in Turkey, saying that U.S. President Barack Obama should make a choice in order to fulfill his campaign promise of change.

The Iranian president said that in order to make change, big decisions must be made, and they are awaiting the U.S. president’s correct decision regarding which country he supports, IRNA reported.


Ahmadinejad added that Iran cannot accept the extended hand of a country which clasps Israel’s hand as well, referring to the U.S.’s traditionally close ties with Israel.

The Iranian President criticized the West for classifying non-Western nations as “second class societies.” Turkey, Iran and Asia are all cradles of civilization, while many European countries have killed millions in world wars, he said.

During the conference Ahmadinejad also congratulated Turkey on entering the European Union, and said that it was in the best interest of the EU to incorporate the country.

Erdogan promises Iran Turkish intelligence aid against Israel

November 11, 2009

DEBKAfile – Erdogan promises Iran Turkish intelligence aid against Israel.

November 10, 2009, 5:04 PM (GMT+02:00)

Turkish PM and Iranian president: Close friends

Turkish PM and Iranian president: Close friends

In the secret part of their talks in Tehran on Oct. 28, DEBKAfile‘s military sources reveal that Turkish prime minister Tayyep Recep Erdogan and Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad struck military cooperation deals which promised Iran Turkish military intelligence and air force assistance against a possible Israeli attack on its nuclear sites.

Their understandings have bound Turkish to pass intelligence data to Tehran on potential Israeli preparations for a strike and on US military movements in the Middle East for providing backup. Our sources report that the details finalized in meetings between the Turkish and Iranian military specialists in Istanbul Monday, Nov. 9, were due to be sealed by presidents Abdullah Gul and Ahmadinejad Tuesday. The Iranian president is to be in Turkey as guest of the Islamic Conference.

The Turkish prime minister has not only buried his country’s longstanding military and intelligence ties with Israel but climbed aboard the adversarial axis confronting the Jewish state. Turkey has agreed to round out the forward surveillance outposts encircling Israel’s borders: Hamas from the southwest in Gaza, Syria in the east, Lebanon in the north and now Turkey from the northwest. Tehran is banking on this encirclement for early warning of an approaching Israeli strike and any supportive American movements.

According to Western intelligence sources in Ankara, heads of the Turkish army objected to their government’s strategic turn to Iran and the cutoff of its ties with Israel. However its pro-Islamic leaders, which have gradually eased the army out of policymaking, have forced them to accept operational ties with the military of an anti-Western Middle Eastern nation as being in the nation’s best interests.

Erdogan’s most compelling argument is that President Barack Obama’s secret proposal for Iran to deposit 400 kilos of its enriched Iran in Turkey for safekeeping in charge of International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, had elevated Turkey to an enhanced role as a broker between the US and Iran, sanctioned by Agency director Mohamed ElBaradei. If Turkey, a member of NATO, was able to gain the Iranian regime’s trust, the Turkish prime minister maintained, it was only thanks to the military understandings he reached in Tehran.

DEBKAfile‘s military sources report that word of the Turkish-Iranian military collaboration deal landed with shocking effect in Washington and Jerusalem. They had not forewarned by their intelligence services that Erdogan was willing to go as far as this to ally Turkey with the Islamic regime.