WarSclerotic

Der Spiegel: Iran could produce nuclear bomb this year – Haaretz – Israel News.

Iran is serious about developing a nuclear bomb and has the ability to produce a primitive, truck-sized version of the bomb this year, the German magaziner Der Spiegel reported on Monday.

An intelligence dossier obtained by Der Spiegel shows that there is a secret military branch of Iran’s nuclear research program that answers to Tehran’s ministry of defense, according to the report.

Officials who have read this document – which is currently under review by the U.S., Germany and Israel – claim that it shows that their nuclear program aimed at producing a bomb is well advanced.

The officials said to Der Spiegel that the truck-sized bomb which they are capable of producing will have to be compressed to a size that would fit into a nuclear warhead for the strategic threat potential they desire.

Der Spiegel also wrote that Israel and the West were alarmed by the dossier’s revelations, as Iran could reach the compressed level of a nuclear bomb between 2012 and 2014.

Tehran has consistently denied that it is enriching uranium for weapons, claiming it is exclusively dedicated to the peaceful use of nuclear technology.

The Associated Press

JERUSALEM —

Israel’s prime minister has called on the international community to band together against enemies calling for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments were clearly directed at Iran.

He spoke Monday at a ceremony held at Israel’s national Holocaust memorial where the blueprints of the notorious Auschwitz death camp were unveiled.

Netanyahu said the lesson of the Holocaust is to “stop bad things when they are small.”

He said: “There is new Jew-hatred in our midst. There are new calls for the extermination of the Jewish state.”

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has repeatedly questioned the Holocaust and called for Israel to be “wiped off the map.” Israel also fears Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

via Nation & World | Netanyahu says world must learn from Holocaust | Seattle Times Newspaper.

Syria, Hizballah preparing for war with Israel.

Pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Monday that Syria has begun calling up reserve military forces in anticipation of a full-scale war with Israel.

Officials in Syria and from Lebanon’s Hizballah terrorist militia have been saying for the past week that they are being threatened by Israeli military maneuvers along the Israel-Lebanon border, and expect the Israeli army to launch a surprise attack on Hizballah positions in Lebanon.

According to UN Resolution 1701 that ended the 2006 Lebanon War, Hizballah is not supposed to have any positions in southern Lebanon, but the international peacekeeping force on the ground there has not enforced those terms.

On Saturday, Israeli cabinet minister Yossi Peled, a former commander of Israel’s Northern Command, said at an event in Beersheva that “we are heading for another round [of battle with Hizbullah] in the north.”

Over the weekend, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office clarified that Israel is not looking for another war on its northern border, and the current chief of Northern Command, Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot said that Arab reports of tension along the border are unfounded.

“Reports in the media about tension in the North is a virtual reality that has no grounds in reality,” said Eizenkot during a ceremony at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. He warned, however, that if the Arabs start something, Israel will respond with disproportionate force.

Also at the weekend, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner acknowledged that Israel is very unlikely to initiate another armed conflict, but warned that Iranian agents might try to escalate the situation on the Israel-Lebanon border in order to divert attention from Iran’s nuclear program.

DEBKAfile – Iran crosses red line, can enrich uranium up to 20pc grade.

January 25, 2010, 11:22 AM (GMT+02:00)

Ahmadinejad throws down another gauntlet

Attaining the ability to enrich uranium up to 20 percent grade brings Iran dangerously close to “break-out” point for a nuclear weapon capability, DEBKAfile‘s intelligence sources report. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad promised the “good news” would be announced during the Feb. 1-11 celebrations of the Islamic Revolution. The “news” also prompted an urgent cabinet meeting in Jerusalem last week.

Ahmadinejad’s announcement is a provocative demonstration of contempt for the six world powers and their offer to trade Iran’s low-grade uranium for 20 pc enriched product overseas. By going public on the banned process and abandoning concealment, Iran’s rulers are throwing down the gauntlet to them and Israel.

DEBKAfile‘s Iranian sources report that the hawks of the Islamic regime led by Ahmadinejad and spiritual ruler Ayatollah Ali Khamenei have won the day for their tactics of jumping ahead of any possible US-led or Israel steps against their nuclear program with its own aggressive initiatives.

The Iranian president’s enrichment announcement at a time that the Obama administration is pondering tough sanctions against the Revolutionary Guards was part of this policy; so were the Syrian and Hizballah declarations of military preparedness for a purported Israeli attack last week, taking advantage of an IDF war game to raise the alarm.

Our political sources predict that Tehran’s provocative move will be met with more of the five months of foot-dragging with which Washington and Jerusalem have met Iran’s contempt for one deadline after another for ending nuclear enrichment.

Both will continue to dither and pretend that stiff sanctions can scotch the Iranian nuclear threat. Tehran has meanwhile made good use of those five months to go forward and achieve a 20 pc enrichment capability.

The only straight talk from any Western leader has come from French president Nicolas Sarkozy.

Saturday, Jan. 23, he told visiting Lebanese prime minister Saad Hariri that France has evidence Iran is developing nuclear weapons contrary to its claims. He warned that Israel “would not stand by while Iran develops nuclear weapons.”

Middle East News | Egypt’s Mubarak defends Gaza border barrier.

Mubarak said Egypt has plenty of documented information” that “rhetoric campaigns” to attack his country were organized in “a sister country”

CAIRO (Al Arabiya, Agencies)

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Sunday defended the construction of an underground barrier on the border with the Gaza Strip as a matter of national security and sovereignty.

“The works and reinforcements on our eastern border are a matter of Egyptian sovereignty. We do not accept a debate on the issue with anyone,” Mubarak said in a speech to mark Police Day.

Eizenkot: Reports of tensions in North ‘virtual reality’ | Israel | Jerusalem Post.

While threatening to use disproportionate force in the event of a new conflict with Hizbullah, OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot downplayed recent media reports regarding Israeli plans to attack Lebanon.

OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkot
Photo: Channel 2

“Reports in the media about tension in the North is a virtual reality that has no grounds in reality,” Eizenkot said during a conference at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, while adding that the IDF was “continuously upgrading and improving its capabilities.”

Eizenkot’s remarks came one day after Likud Minister Yossi Peled said that another war with Hizbullah was inevitable.

On Saturday night, the Prime Minister’s Office also distanced itself from Peled’s remarks and issued a statement that Israel “is not looking for any confrontation with anyone. Israel is interested in peace.”

Eizenkot said that the IDF’s working assumption was that Syria has transferred all types of arms, missiles and weapons in its arsenal to Hizbullah.

“Hizbullah is different today than in 2006,” he said. “It has significantly increased its missile capability and can operate from deep inside Lebanon and penetrate deep into Israel.”

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Eizenkot said that he believed the IDF had the “moral” right to disproportionately attack Hizbullah strongholds inside Lebanese villages in Southern Lebanon if Israel was attacked by the Iranian-backed guerilla group.

In an apparent reference to UNIFIL claims that Hizbullah was no longer present in southern Lebanon, Eizenkot said that it was building up its forces and storing its weapons inside the 160 Shiite villages in southern Lebanon.

“There are holes in UNIFIL’s mandate since it cannot operate in built-up areas,” he said, while stressing that the peacekeeping force has hindered Hizbullah’s ability to move freely along the border with Israel.

“Hizbullah is the one that is turning these areas into a battleground,” Eizenkot said, adding that during the Second Lebanon War in 2006, Israeli warnings to the civilian population allowed senior Hizbullah leaders to escape, including Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah.

Earlier in the day, outgoing UNIFIL commander-general Claudio Graziano denied that arms had been smuggled to Hizbullah in southern Lebanon.

Speaking to Army Radio, Graziano instead criticized Israel for violating UN Resolution 1701, citing IAF forays into Lebanese airspace. The resolution ended the Second Lebanon War and bolstered the UN presence in southern Lebanon to ensure the prevention of renewed conflict between Israel and Hizbullah.

“There are Israeli violations of 1701, and this undermines the credibility of UNIFIL and the Lebanese army,” Graziano said. “Even if Israel says that the flights are a vital step meant to prevent smuggling and provide intelligence, they are a violation of state sovereignty, and furthermore, humiliation.”

In Israel, there are assertions that Hizbullah is getting stronger and continuing to smuggle weapons from Syria and Iran. Proof of this, sources in Jerusalem are reported to have said, include the explosion six months ago of a weapons cache only ten kilometers from the Israeli-Lebanese border in the town of Hirbat Salim – weapons said to have originated in Syria.

During the Army Radio interview, Graziano took issue with the Israeli assessment, insisting that weapons had not been smuggled into southern Lebanon. Graziano did not similarly criticize Hizbullah and he stressed that in recent years there have been no incidents of violence between UNIFIL forces and Hizbullah.

A Beirut cabinet minister was quoted as saying Sunday that the situation in Lebanon was similar to that which preceded the IDF invasion in 1982.

The minister, Ra’azi Eloraidi, called for Lebanese unity in dealing with the “Israeli threats.” He added that the Lebanese people should not be made to pay the price for the Iranian nuclear issue.

Against the background of reports of anxiety in the North, Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon reiterated during a meeting in Jerusalem Sunday with Michael Williams, the UN’s special coordinator on Lebanon, that Israel had no interest in an escalation of tensions with Lebanon or Hizbullah.

“Our first and foremost interest is to preserve the quiet and stability in the North,” Ayalon said. “Therefore we should work together with UNIFIL and the Lebanese army to stop arms smuggling and violations of UN Security Council Resolution 1701.”

Ayalon said that the continued violation of 1701 and the smuggling of arms from Iran and Syria to Hizbullah were the central threats to stability in the north.

Williams, according to Ayalon’s office, welcomed Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s statement Saturday night distancing himself from comments Minister without Portfolio Yossi Peled said that same day regarding the inevitability of another military conflict with Lebanon.

The two men also discussed Ghajar and various proposals for an Israeli pullback from the northern part of the town, which straddles the Lebanese border.

Prior to meeting Ayalon, Williams met Foreign Ministry director-general Yossi Gal, who has been leading the Israeli team negotiating with UNIFIL over a possible withdrawal from the town, which straddles the Lebanese border. Discussions with UNIFIL have centered on how UNIFIL forces would be deployed in and around Ghajar – following an IDF pullback – to prevent Hizbullah from infiltrating men or arms into Israel through the village.

The government has reportedly approved a plan to turn over control of the northern half of the village to UNIFIL. No physical barrier would be built between the northern and southern parts of the village, but rather UNIFIL would patrol both the northern half and the perimeter.

Jerusalem Post staff contributed to the report.