WarSclerotic

US, Iran clash over Israel nukes.

Discussion meant to take the heat off Teheran says US envoy.

Before the bomb – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Preparations for an encounter with Iran are being conducted in a black box of secrecy. Whatever the Mossad is doing or not doing is invisible to us. So is what the air force is preparing or not preparing, as well as the yeoman’s work being done by our technological wizards. So are the discussions, the arguments, the agonizing. Enormous achievements are invisible too.

By Ari Shavit

If Israel intends to attack Iran, it must carry out the following diplomatic operations during the year preceding such an offensive: position itself anew in the international arena as an enlightened, peace-seeking democracy; tighten its alliances with the United States and the West; forge partnerships of interests with China, Russia and India; make a massive effort to salvage Israel’s deteriorating relationship with Turkey; warm up the cool relations with Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates; work to reach a peace agreement with Syria and embark on a new direction with the Palestinians; quiet down the immediate surroundings as much as it can; and form as broad a coalition as possible for the moment of truth.

If Israel is going to attack Iran, it must carry out the following steps on the domestic level within the year preceding the offensive: set up a national emergency government and a national emergency headquarters to ensure that policy will be carefully considered and calibrated, and precisely executed; verify that the decision-making mechanisms at the government offices in Jerusalem and the Defense Ministry headquarters in Tel Aviv are exemplary; prepare the home front for a blitz of missiles and rockets; harden Israeli society to face a test the likes of which it has not endured since 1948; grow; surpass ourselves; mobilize everything we have at our disposal to stand together and face the challenge of our lives.

If Israel does not attack Iran, Iran will most likely go nuclear. In the year leading up to that, Israel must nevertheless take the following diplomatic measures: reposition itself in the international arena as an enlightened, peace-seeking democracy; fortify its alliance with the United States and Europe; forge interest-based partnerships with China, Russia and India; make a supreme effort to salvage its deteriorating relations with Turkey; thaw chilly ties with Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates; strive for a peace accord with Syria and a different state of affairs vis-a-vis the Palestinians; pacify the immediate surroundings to the greatest extent possible; and create a wall-to-wall coalition as we approach the dramatic end to one era and the dawn of another.

Whether Israel attacks or does not attack, Iran will be on our doorstep – in 2012 or 2013, perhaps even in 2011. Yet thus far Israel has not begun undertaking the required preparations. It is perceiving the Iranian threat in a narrow, mechanical way. The prime minister understands Iran better than any other Israeli, but he refuses to understand that Iran is also the United States, Europe, China, Russia, India, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, the U.A.E., Syria, and Palestine. The prime minister does not grasp that Iran is also the Israeli government and society. Iran is the diplomatic positioning of Israel and Iran is the civil fraternity inside of Israel. Iran is not some pinpoint strategic matter; it is a profound and multifaceted challenge. Iran requires both external changes and internal reforms.

Preparations for an encounter with Iran are being conducted in a black box of secrecy. Whatever the Mossad is doing or not doing is invisible to us. So is what the air force is preparing or not preparing, as well as the yeoman’s work being done by our technological wizards. So are the discussions, the arguments, the agonizing. Enormous achievements are invisible too.

Even if whatever is going on inside the black boxes is very impressive, what is going on outside of them is very worrying. The visible reality is that Israel is approaching a fateful junction in a bad state – on diplomatic, governmental and psychological levels. This is the state of a country that sees what it is facing, but does not face up to what it sees.

Russia: Iran sanctions won’t affect sale of S-300 missiles – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Moscow’s Foreign Ministry clarifies report issued earlier, says fourth round of sanctions would only impact deals regarding mobile missiles.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Thursday that new United Nations sanctions against Tehran over its contentious nuclear program do not oblige Moscow to scrap a controversial deal to deliver surface-to-air missiles to Iran.

The clarification came after Interfax news agency cited a Russian arms industry source as saying Russia would freeze its unfulfilled contract to sell S-300 missiles to Iran after the United Nations Security Council imposed a fourth round of sanctions on the Islamic Republic

	A Russian-made S-300 missile
	Photo by: Kremlin

Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko told journalists, however, that the UN resolution does not apply to air-defense systems, with the exception of mobile missiles.

The report citing an unidentified source in Russia’s arms industry contradicted Russian officials and others who have said the sanctions approved on Wednesday with Moscow’s support would not affect the air-defense missile deal.

“The UN Security Council decision is binding for all countries and Russia is no exception,” Interfax cited the source as saying. “Naturally, the contract to deliver S-300 missile systems will be frozen.”

Russia has used its unfulfilled deal to provide Iran with S-300 missiles as a lever in its delicate diplomacy with Tehran and Western powers seeking to rein in Iran’s nuclear activity, which they say is aimed at acquiring atomic weapons.

Israel and the United States have asked Russia not to deliver the missile systems, which can shoot down several aircraft or missiles simultaneously and could potentially be used to protect nuclear facilities.

Western diplomats in Moscow believe Russia is eager to keep the deal in reserve as a bargaining chip. Iran has expressed increasing frustration over the unfulfilled contract.

Russia’s move toward support for the new sanctions against Iran has been accompanied by repeated assurances that the measures would not affect the S-300 deal.

The latest came on Thursday from the Kremlin-allied chairman of the International Affairs committee in Russia’s lower parliament house. Konstantin Kosachyov said the S-300 is a defensive weapon and would not be affected, Itar-Tass reported.

In Washington, Republican U.S. Senator Jon Kyl criticized the UN sanctions resolution on Wednesday for excluding the S-300 deal and Russia’s construction of Iran’s first nuclear power plant near Bushehr.

Russia has close ties with Iran and has worked with China, also a veto-wielding U.N. Security Council member, to water down Western-backed sanctions resolutions against Tehran, including the latest one.

But Moscow has been increasingly critical of Tehran’s rejection of a proposal to ease concerns about the purpose of its nuclear program by having uranium shipped to Russia for enrichment.

U.S. President Barack Obama has courted Russian support for the new sanctions, and administration officials have pointed to Moscow’s backing as a positive result of a “reset” aimed to improve long-strained ties.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday warned Russia not to side with “Iran’s enemies” by supporting the sanctions.

Officials said Ahmadinejad, unlike last year, would stay away from a summit of a Central Asian security organization led by Russia and China starting on Thursday in Uzbekistan.

Israel and U.S. hail UN vote, as Turkey calls it a ‘mistake’

Israel and the United States hailed the United Nations vote to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran, which immediately vowed to continue with its nuclear program.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the new sanctions a “positive” step, but expressed hope that it would lead countries to take broader economic and diplomatic measures, including sanctions on the Iranian energy sector.

“The UN Security Council resolution passed today, led by the determination of President Obama, is a positive step,” Netanyahu said. “The resolution made clear to Iran that the world’s leading powers oppose its nuclear program.”

“The biggest danger to peace is that the most dangerous regimes in the world will use the most dangerous weapons of all. The international community needs to continue to keep the prevention of this threat at the top its agenda.”

Netanyahu’s words echoed an earlier statement by the Foreign Ministry that described UN Security Council resolution 1929 as an “important step.” “It is of great importance to implement the decision fully and immediately,” the Foreign Ministry statement said.

Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Oren, said the sanctions “can serve as a viable platform for launching very far-reaching sanctions by the United States or like-minded nations against Iran.”

Those sanctions could be aimed at Iran’s ability to import gasoline, he said.

“They have a lot of oil, but not a lot of refined oil or the ability to export oil abroad,” Oren said.

Obama, meanwhile, said the new sanctions send an “unmistakable message” that the international community will not allow Iran to develop nuclear weapons.

Speaking shortly after the Security Council voted to impose some of the toughest sanctions on Iran so far, Obama faulted the Islamic state’s leaders for failing to seriously address concerns about the country’s nuclear activities.

“These are the most comprehensive sanctions that the Iranian government has faced,” Obama said.

Turkey, which voted against the imposition of sanctions, called the UN move a “mistake” and said that together with Brazil it would continue to seek a diplomatic solution to remove concerns over Iran’s nuclear program.
Iran on Wednesday rejected the resolution over its nuclear activities, vowing to continue enriching uranium. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed as “valueless” the resolution, which passed by 12 votes to two with one abstention, saying it should be thrown out.

“This resolution is not worth a penny for Iran and I sent a message to each one of them [UN Security Council members] that your resolution is like a used handkerchief which should go into a garbage can,” the Iran Student News agency quoted him as saying.

“They [world powers] will not be able to harm us,” added Ahmadinejad, who is currently on a visit in Tajikistan.

Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast called the UN Security Council vote to impose a fourth round of sanctions on Iran a “wrong move”.

“It was not a constructive step…to resolve the nuclear issue. It will make the situation more complicated,” Mehmanparast said.

Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, said after the vote that Iran would not halt its nuclear enrichment activities. “Nothing will change. The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue uranium enrichment activities,” Ali Asghar Soltanieh told reporters in Vienna shortly after the UN vote in New York

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

Tags: Iran nuclear US-French-UK air drill

French nuclear-tipped Rafale takes off from USS Truman

The low deterrent effect of the sanctions against Iran adopted by the UN Security Council Wednesday, June 9 were manifest from the moment they attained Russian and Chinese endorsement. But its passage in New York found US and French bombers in the middle of a unique exercise simulating a marine force attack on ground targets with close air support.
US and French bombers took off from each other’s aircraft carriers, the USS Harry S. Truman and the Charles de Gaulle, while the British planes flew in from their bases in England. Together, they practiced their strike capabilities in a real war. The Canjuers training facility near Toulon stood in for an Iranian target.

Rear Admiral Henri Bobin, commander of the French Fleet Air Arm, said the Charles de Gaulle is seen as a potential deterrent to Iran.

Thursday June 10, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and French Defense Minister Hervé Morin were scheduled to visit the French carrier just after it had spent 15 months in dry dock having its nuclear propulsion system refitted and other upgrades performed. French officers say the Charles de Gaulle’ is now “more compatible” with US carriers the adaptation of its steam catapult launch and other systems for take-off and landing.
And indeed, debkafile‘s military sources report, French Navy F3 Rafale fighters capable of carrying nuclear-tipped ASMP/A missiles flew in from the French carrier and performed touch-and-go landings on the vast deck of the Truman, while American F/A 18/FSuper Hornets performed the same exercises on the French carrier.
In another part of the exercise, American crews for the first time flew French Super Etendard fighters, taking off and landing on the Charles de Gaulle, while French pilots landed American Super Hornets on the decks of the Truman before taking off again.
They also flew “intercepts” against each to test their systems and diversify their pilots’ skills.
The simulated landing of a French Rafale F3 landing minus one engine on the Truman deck Friday, June 4, was a dramatic moment:  the US carrier’s workshops handled the replacement of the “damaged” engine with a new one – the first time that American mechanics had performed a job this complicated on a foreign aircraft, using tools sent over from the Charles de Gaulle.
US Rear Admiral Patrick Driscoll, commander of the American strike force, said the Rafale engine refit was a proof of concept intended to test the technical details of moving the French strike fighter around and below deck “in the precise choreography of carrier operations.” This was in keeping with the exercise’s catchword: “Interoperability.”
The Rafele F3 with its nuclear-tipped ASMP/A is due to be declared operational by the first of July.

As part of the refitting of the US and French carriers for greater compatibility, debkafile‘s sources report three French E2C Hawkeye spy planes on the Charles de Gaulle were upgraded to the level of the radar aircraft of the same model carried by the Truman, including the replacement of their four-bladed propellers with a more reliable eight-blade version.

Our sources report that from its joint exercise with the French Fleet and the British air force, the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group was due to leave French waters and head for the Arabian Sea opposite Pakistan and Iran via the Suez Canal. It will be stationed therefore for the next six months. Three of the group’s destroyers will peel off on route for anti-piracy patrol off the Somali coast.

U.S. Navy expands 5th Fleet’s gulf base – UPI.com.

Iran’s Nuclear Weapon Capability: Containment or Military Action | First Things.

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Ahmadinejad: Flotilla raid step towards Israel’s annihilation – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Iranian president tells worshippers at Istanbul mosque, ‘Turkey, Iran are brother nations’ says Israel ‘creating crimes that have been unprecedented in history of mankind’

Exclusive: Mixed Messages, Rising Tensions: The Failure of the Gaza Flotilla “Spin” Operation in Context » Publications » Family Security Matters.

DL Adams

The Gaza “Humanitarian Flotilla” controversies of recent days and its smaller followup, the “MV Rachel Corrie” of Irish origins, were events designed to further the ongoing delegitimization of Israel. This off-shore jihad is further evidence of a raging war for public opinion with the media as the main tool of advancement or defeat. It is unfortunate that many in the media, even the longest serving member of the White House Press pool, Helen Thomas, are fellow-travelers and sympathizers with the jihadists but the so-called “Peace Flotilla” has failed in its mission. It failed not for want of effort on the part of the jihadists but perhaps the deployment of too much effort.

Israeli video of IDF naval commandos boarding the Mavi Marmara, the last ship to be boarded (to enforce the legal Israeli blockade of Gaza) in the flotilla, and the savage violence which met them from the passengers on the “peace ship” entirely undermined the usually successful confused public relations and media spin/reportage that portray the aggressors and their supporters as victims. Close behind the release of the Israeli videos showing the soldiers being attacked as they repelled from their helicopters captured video recorded by the passengers themselves that shows them preparing the weapons they would use to attack the Israeli commandos was posted on the internet.

This “peace flotilla” upon which weapons caches were discovered by the Israelis was in complete contravention of a legal Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. The Israeli footage showed the true motives of the “peaceniks” on the ships, with the captured tapes confirming the point. The shouts of Kyhber, and “go back to Auschwitz” coming from the peace people on the peace ships showed the lie of the entire event. One has to wonder if there were leftist Jews on those vessels, and if there were, would they wonder if they were on the wrong convoy? After all, Israel warned the flotilla that they would not be allowed to land, they warned them that they would not be allowed to break the blockade – Israel kept their promises. The shouts of outrage from the American left and fellow travelers of jihad at the Israeli actions in defending their blockade of a hostile territory now seems completely hollow and bizarre when viewed in contrast with the films from both the Israeli side and the “peaceniks” themselves.

Denunciation of Israel continues apace. It continues from the American left and across the Arab/Islamic world. These denunciations are entirely consistent with the doctrine of Islam in which both the deity of Islam and its prophet hate the Jews for eternity. Falsifying a peace effort that is actually a jihadist support convoy is consistent with the sunna of Mohammed, the perfect example of the perfect human that all Muslims are to follow for all eternity. Mohammed said, “Jihad is deception.”

Narrated Abu Huraira:
Allah’s Apostle called: “War is deceit”.
(Hadith, Bukhari, Volume 4, Book 52, Number 268)

The doctrine of Islam is the foundation of the conflicts now ongoing in the Middle East which ever swirl around the Jewish state. Islam is in permanent jihad-mode against the Jews of the world and all non-Muslims. The great sin in Islam is not murder; it is unbelief.

“They ask thee concerning fighting in the Prohibited Month. Say: “Fighting therein is a grave (offence); but graver is it in the sight of Allah to prevent access to the path of Allah, to deny Him, to prevent access to the Sacred Mosque, and drive out its members.” Tumult and oppression are worse than slaughter. Nor will they cease fighting you until they turn you back from your faith if they can. And if any of you Turn back from their faith and die in unbelief, their works will bear no fruit in this life and in the Hereafter; they will be companions of the Fire and will abide therein.” (Koran 2:217)

Even now a new internal power struggle for supremacy in the Islamic world (the ummah) is arising. The two leading players are Iran and Turkey, the lever is the so-called “Palestinian conflict”, and the method is to outdo the other party in being a more effective jihadist (and Jew hater). All adherents of Islam are obligated to participate in Jihad. Many take this responsibility very, very seriously. In the past few days, two individuals were prevented from flying out of New York on their way to join (and fight with) a jihadist group in Somalia. It is good that these two men were prevented from going to Somalia, for if they had gone – what would they do if they were to return to the United States? These are unpopular questions but gaining a more strident quality as more and more Americans understand that the conflicts of the world centered around Israel are driven by ideology not land issues.

Turkish sponsorship of the false peace flotilla and its subsequent condemnations and threats tell us much about Turkish internal politics. Several months ago leading Turkish military offers, both retired and serving, were arrested and accused of plotting a coup. Military coups are not unusual in Turkey, the party in power is always wary of it.

Recep Erdogan the PM of Turkey was the originator of the famous quote that launched the surprising Swiss ban of minarets, “The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers…: (It is no surprise that he should be supporting jihad vessels pretending to be peaceniks; this time the media play tactic did not work.) But what we see in Turkey now is a serious shift away from the west and away from Israel. Turkey and Israel have had almost normalized relations for many years even involving sales of military hardware. The Turkish/Israeli relationship was hoped by many to be a model of future possibilities but these hopes are all now almost entirely dashed.

Turkey is an Islamic state. The majority of Turks prefer Islam to western values. The military has always been the caretaker and protector of the Kemalist (westernization) revolution of Ataturk. It is understandable that the Islamists who run Turkey should fear a military coup, and that is why the officers were arrested several months ago.

What will the world look like as the Turks and the Iranians try to outdo one another as jihadists? It will likely look uglier and uglier and the conflicts and violence that are centered on the very existence of the tiny state of Israel will likely grow. Not only are these two states vying for the uber-jihadist award, now Egypt has leapt into the fray announcing in a judicial decision that all Egyptian men married to Israeli women will lose their citizenship. This Egyptian ruling is similar to the 1935 “Nuremberg Race Laws” of Nazi Germany that prevented marriage between Jews and Germans. Delegitimizaton of Jews is not a new tactic:

“After the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, a dozen supplemental Nazi decrees were issued that eventually outlawed the Jews completely, depriving them of their rights as human beings.”
(HistoryPlace.com).

One suspects however that (both) couples in Egypt affected by this new attempt at delegitimization of Israel and the Jews will soon leave Egypt for better horizons in Israel.

When one understands that Egypt and Israel are not supposed to be countries in conflict – after all a peace treaty was signed between the two states three decades ago – the bizarre situation becomes an illustrative moment. This peace treaty is a hudna (a purposeful pause in hostilities until such a moment when the Islamic signatory can cancel the treaty by attacking the other party). Though there is a peace treaty in place, Egypt is an Islamic state, the hatred and enmity toward the Jews is endemic and foundational in Islam; no treaty can remove it. (Please see “Al-Yahud: Eternal Islamic Enmity and the Jews”.)

What is particularly important about the false “Gaza peace flotilla”, the determined Israeli reaction to stop it, the violence perpetrated by the peaceniks against the Israeli commandos, and the upping of the ante of Israel hatred in action and words by the “usual suspects” is that this particular flotilla failed in its mission. The propaganda mission of the flotilla failed because Israel defended its blockade and did not cave in to global pressure from the Islamic states or their many apologists particularly in the United States. The condemnation against Israel this time from leftists and jihad fellow travelers was loud, vociferous as during past events of jihad and provocation but also strangely muted; there are only so many spins one can spin when the footage shows clearly that the event was a staged provocation against Israel.

Islamic jihad continues apace and is likely to be ratcheted up. Iran, Turkey, and now Egypt are in competition to see who can hate Israel the most – clearly Iran is winning this particular vile game. [Note: On June 5, 2010, the UK-Guardian reported that Iranian government authorities are threatening to send Iranian military forces to “escort” the next Gaza flotilla. This would be a serious provocation and direct aggression against Israel, would challenge Israel’s legal blockade of Gaza by a hostile nation and could well lead to war.] But in the Islamic world it is not a game at all; it is at the very foundations of existence – hatred of the Jews (and to a slightly lesser extent all non-believers) is fundamental to Islam.

It is difficult to baldy lie when video from Israel and from the “peaceniks” themselves contradict the falsehoods of Israeli aggression and unprovoked violence on the flotilla. This tactic has worked for many decades for the jihadists and it helps that American and western media outlets are sympathetic to them and hostile to Israel. The internet has changed the equation for the dissemination of information. No longer will spin from one or two or even five biased sources be the story itself as so many alternative sources of information now exist. Now, when the biased viewer wants confirmation that what they want to have happened did happen (but not really), they always know where to go for the “story”; but when one wants the truth, there are places to go for that as well. It seems a long time coming, but the power of the internet to disseminate information and provide a balanced narrative for those who care to see it may be in play for perhaps the first time.

It is difficult to approach those fellow travelers of jihadists in the western leftist post-modernist, moral relativist camp about anything that does not fit their world view. Israel does not fit their world view. It is impossible to approach jihadists with such a story because their doctrine prevents them from seeing the truth. But, it is now possible to approach the great American middle who want the truth but haven’t quite known where to look to access it. There are many outlets now carrying this story and the videos have been posted across the web; the truth is out and the lies increasingly difficult to defend.

The reaction to Helen Thomas and her angry, ignorant recent assertion of Jew-hatred has not been supportive of her. Benjamin Netanyahu said after the attack on the Israeli navy commandos by the “peaceniks”, “That was not a love boat. That was a boat of hatred”. There now appears to be a new Israeli vigor in engaging the jihadist and defending their right to exist in both deed and word. The old false spin of Israeli excesses and Palestinian victimhood has been seriously set back by the events of recent days; the old paradigm is perhaps shifting, cracking just a bit. And when the old paradigm falls away finally we can speak the truth and understand that the threat to Israel is truly the same threat to Americans and that which befalls Israel is also our fate. In a war of existential stakes such as the one we are now engaged in -befuddlement by media lies and post-modern, amoral agitprop is not an option.

Amidst the calumny of angry rhetoric and silly lies, ugly spin, jihad terror, and jihad propaganda perhaps there is some light now among all the dark clouds of war.

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor DL Adams is an analyst and historian.

American Thinker Blog: The Turkey-Iranian diversion.

Mladen Andrijasevic
Looking at Erdogan’s moves the last few weeks one could easily conclude that the guy had gone raving mad. Sponsoring a terror attack on Israel with the group of Islamic propaganda kamikaze, and then lecturing Israel in Hebrew ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’, when only a year ago Shimon Peres at Davos read to Erdogan from Hamas’s Article 7 – “Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him”, is chutzpah, to say the least.

But now we hear that he is considering himself joining another attempt to break the blockade. Not only that, but has proclaimed that Hamas is not a terror organization and has considered sending Turkish troops to northern Cyprus in a deliberate escalation of tensions in relations with Israel.

One could be tempted to attribute this rapid succession of virulent anti-Israel moves to the idiosyncrasies of a just liberated jihadi mind, i.e. Erdogan has blossomed into what he always wanted to be, a open Jew hater so to speak, but this explanation does not suffice because the shift is so rapid that it is bound to hurt him politically with NATO and with the US, and he is not that stupid to be so open about it.

So what is it? How come he is willing to do it despite the downsides? The only other explanation is that he sees benefits from Iran just round the corner, very soon. So it could well be that his pal Ahmadinejad and Erdogan have concocted a way to divert the word attention on to Gaza while Iran is putting the finishing touches on the bomb.

While the US will in the words of Defense Secretary Robert Gates ‘withhold judgment until that investigation is complete’, despite all the video evidence, i.e. the US will try to be evenhanded between Hamas which considers Jews as ‘brothers of apes and pigs’ and Israel, its long time strategic ally, the rest of the world has entered a state of anti Israel hysteria, a kind of hypnotic trance, the world’s oldest sickness. The Iranian bomb is all but forgotten.

In other words, the Erdogan- Ahmadinejad diversion is right on track.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

Ahmadinejad to Erdogan: Now it’s our turn to challenge Israel

An Iranian sea convoy will back up the Turkish campaign to break Israel’s blockade of Gaza.

Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assured Turkish leaders whom he met in Istanbul Tuesday, Jan. 8 that the vessels due to enter the disputed waters within days will not shrink from a head-on clash with Israel’s Navy and Air Force exclusion forces. “We’ll breach the Gaza blockade,” the Iranian president vowed. The Iranian Red Crescent vessels will carry “volunteer marines” of the Revolutionary Guards “who will teach the Israelis a lesson.”

Tehran’s “humanitarian convoy” for Gaza will consist of three Iranian vessels flying Red Crescent flags.

debkafile‘s intelligence sources report that he promised Turkish leaders to attach Iranian warships and submarines to the Red Crescent ships for their voyage through the Red Sea, the Suez Canal and into the Mediterranean. For some months, one or two Iranian submarines have been deployed in the Mediterranean using Syrian naval port facilities.

The showdown between Turkey and Israel, said Ahmadinejad, “will change many issues in the world and mark the final countdown for Israel’s existence. It shows that it has no room in the region and no one is ready to live alongside it.”

British Foreign Secretary William Hague condemned Iran’s plan to send aid boats to Gaza, warning that the move would deliberately aggravate an already tense situation. “It is not helpful, and probably it is not designed to be helpful, he said.

Russian Prime Pinister Vladimir Putin, for his part, promised to join Ankara in bringing the Israeli attack on the Turkish flotilla before the United Nations.

The Iranian and Turkish leaders meeting in Istanbul Monday and Tuesday  finalized a plan to synchronize the flotilla’s approach to Gaza’s shores with the UN Security Council vote on sanctions against Iran, whereupon Turkey, Brazil and Lebanon, who are SC members, will halt the procedure and turn the session around to the unfolding sea battle between Iran and Israel. The sanctions vote will be buried by the sounds of war.

Monday, June 7, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predicted “Iran would pull some stunt in the next couple of days” to divert attention from the unity within the Security Council.

According to our sources, the Iranian convoy will consist of a cargo ship loaded with food and other essentials, medicines and building materials; the second will carry the “volunteer” marines; and the third will be a floating hospital to be anchored permanently in Egyptian Mediterranean territorial waters opposite the divided Gaza-Egyptian town of Rafah. Small boats will ferry patients between Gaza and the hospital ship.

Tehran calculates that the Israeli navy will not attack boats carrying sick people and will be constrained from venturing into Egyptian territorial waters to hit the floating hospital. By this means, Tehran will dismantle Israel’s sea blockade while also gaining a military presence off the shores of Gaza.

AS details of this scheme are drawn up in Istanbul, Israeli leaders are spending hour of hour, day after day, quibbling over the format of an inquiry commission for studying the legal aspects of the hapless commando raid they ordered against the Mavi Marmara on May 31.
Have they formed any plans for countering the Iranian-Turkish scheme to drive Tehran’s flotilla through the Gaza blockade? And if so, where will the interception take place? On the Red Sea, where the Iranian Navy has a large presence, at the entrance to the Gulf of Suez or close to Gaza?
An Israel operation against Iranian vessels on any of these sea lanes would pose formidable difficulties.