WarSclerotic

Iran blames Israel after nuclear scientist killed.

The Associated Press
Monday, November 29, 2010; 5:01 PM

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s president accused Israel and the West of being behind a pair of daring bomb attacks that killed one nuclear scientist and wounded another in their cars on the streets of Tehran on Monday. He also admitted for the first time that a computer worm had affected centrifuges in Iran’s uranium enrichment program.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and other Iranian officials vowed that the nuclear program would not be hampered by what they described as a campaign to sabotage it – whether by assassination or by the computer virus. The United States and its allies say Iran is seeking to build a nuclear bomb, a claim Tehran denies.

The two bomb attacks occurred when assailants on motorcycles attached magnetized bombs to the cars of two nuclear scientists as they drove to work in separate parts of the capital Monday morning. They detonated seconds later, killing one scientist, wounding another and wounding each of their wives, who were in the cars, Tehran’s police chief said.

At least two other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years, one of them in an attack similar to Monday’s.

The wounded scientist, Fereidoun Abbasi, is on a list of figures suspected of links to secret nuclear activities in a 2007 U.N. sanctions resolution, which puts a travel ban and asset freeze on those listed. The resolution describes him as a Defense Ministry scientist who works closely with Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, believed to head secret nuclear projects. Iranian media said he was a member of the Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s strongest military force.

Majid Shahriar, the scientist killed in the bombing, was involved in a major project with Iran’s nuclear agency, said the agency’s chief, Vice President Ali Akbar Salehi, though he did not give specifics.

“Undoubtedly, the hand of the Zionist regime and Western governments is involved in the assassination,” Ahmadinejad told a press conference. He said the attack would not hamper the nuclear program.

Salehi, who was a former teacher of the slain scientist, wept as he went on state TV later to talk of the killing. “They (Iran’s enemies) are mistaken if think they can shake us,” he said.

Asked about the Iranian accusations, Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev said Israel did not comment on such matters. In Washington, U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said, “We decry acts of terrorism, wherever they occur. And beyond that, we do not have any information on what happened.”

Meanwhile, Ahmadinejad also acknowledged for the first time that a computer worm affected centrifuges in Iran’s uranium enrichment program, which the United Nations has demanded Tehran halt.

Iran has previously acknowledged discovering the Stuxnet worm, which experts say is calibrated to destroy centrifuges by causing them to spin out of control, at its nuclear facilities. But Iranian officials – including Salehi – said it was discovered and neutralized before it could cause any damage, and they accused the West of trying to sabotage Iran’s program.

But Ahmadinejad told reporters, “They managed to create problems for a limited number of our centrifuges through the software … installed on electronic parts. But this (virus) was discovered and the problem was resolved.”

He said Iranian experts had learned from the attempt and “this became an experience that stops the path for (sabotage) forever.”

Earlier in November, U.N. inspectors found Iran’s enrichment program temporarily shut down, according to a recent report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog. The length and cause of the shutdown were not known, but speculation fell on Stuxnet.

Iran’s enrichment program is of international concern because the process can create both fuel for an electricity-generating reactor and nuclear warhead material. Iran insists it wants to enrich only to run a nuclear reactor network.

The latest attacks come a day after the release of internal U.S. State Department memos by the whistle-blower website WikiLeaks, including several that vividly detail Arab fears over Iran’s nuclear program. In some memos, U.S. diplomats say Arab leaders advocated a U.S.-led attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.

Ahmadinejad dismissed the leaks as “mischief” aimed at damaging Tehran’s ties with the Arab world.

Monday’s bombings bore close similarities to another in January that killed Tehran University professor Masoud Ali Mohammadi, a senior physics professor. He was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded near his car as he was about to leave for work.

In 2007, state TV reported that nuclear scientist, Ardeshir Hosseinpour, died from gas poisoning. A one-week delay in the reporting of his death prompted speculation about the cause, including that Israel’s Mossad spy agency was to blame.

There are several active armed groups that oppose Iran’s ruling clerics, but it’s unclear whether they could have carried out the apparently coordinated bombings in the capital. Most anti-government violence in recent years has been isolated to Iran’s provinces such the border with Pakistan where Sunni rebels are active and the western mountains near Iraq where Kurdish separatists operate.

Tehran police chief Hossein Sajednia said no one has been arrested in connection with Monday’s attack and no one has so far claimed responsibility.

The bombings both took place in the morning, in locations in north and northeast Tehran that lie about a 15-minute drive apart, without traffic. There were conflicting reports on what time each attack took place.

The slain scientist, Shahriari, was a member of the nuclear engineering faculty at Shahid Beheshti University in Tehran and cooperated with the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said Salehi, who heads the organization.

“He was involved in one of the big AEOI projects, which is a source of pride for the Iranian nation,” Salehi said, according to IRNA, without giving any details on the project. The AEOI is in charge of Iran’s nuclear activities, including its uranium enrichment program.

A pro-government website, mashreghnews.ir, said the wounded scientist, Abbasi, is a Revolutionary Guard member who is a laser expert at Iran’s Defense Ministry and one of few top Iranian specialists in nuclear isotope separation – a process needed for a range of purposes, from producing enriched uranium fuel for a reactor, to manufacturing medical isotopes to producing a bomb.

Alan Dershowitz: There Will Never Be Peace if Iran Gets the Bomb.

Now that the WikiLeaks reveal widespread Arab support for the military option against Iran’s nuclear facilities to be put on the table, the time has come to reassess United States policy toward the Ahmadinejad regime.

Even if Israel freezes settlement building, the Palestinians come to the negotiating table and an agreement is reached about borders, refugees and Jerusalem, there will still be no real peace in the Middle East — if Iran continues on its determined path toward developing deliverable nuclear weapons. And despite noble efforts by the United States to bring Israel and the Palestinians to the peace process, the inability to achieve a real peace will be largely the fault of the deeply flawed American policy toward Iran.

The policy of the United States seems to be that a nuclear Iran is inevitable, that sanctions may delay but not prevent the Iranians from developing the bomb, and that a policy of containment is the best we can hope for. But containment is not a policy; it is an admission of failure. A nuclear Iran cannot be contained, because it operates largely through surrogates such as Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist groups. It can direct these surrogates to take actions that do not leave Iranian fingerprints. Currently these actions are limited to Hezbollah aiming rockets at Israel’s heartland and Hamas firing improvised rockets at Israeli civilians. If these groups — which oppose any peace with Israel — could operate under the protection of an Iranian nuclear umbrella, they would constantly provoke retaliatory and preventive military actions. These actions might well force the Palestinian Authority to violate agreements they made with Israel. Moreover, an Israeli population constantly under the threat of a nuclear Holocaust from a nation whose leader has called for Israel to be wiped off the map may demand that preventive military action be taken. Any such action by Israel would provoke an immediate response from Hezbollah and Hamas, if not from the Palestinian Authority.

Nor would a nuclear Iran limits its mischief to Israel. Now that it has obtained medium range ballistic missiles from North Korea, it might feel adventurous enough to export nuclear terrorism to other parts of the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. President Barack Obama understated the threat when he said that a nuclear Iran would be “a game changer.” It would be unmitigated disaster, threatening world peace, putting an end to any hope of nuclear non-proliferation, and engendering the greatest arms race in modern history.

The fault for this disaster would be equally shared by the Bush and the Obama administrations. Under George Bush’s watch, the United States issued its notorious National Security Estimate of November 2007, which essentially denied that Iran was seeking to develop nuclear weapons. This report was known to be false at the time it was issued since American intelligence became aware of the nuclear weapons facility at Qum before the report was issued. The publication of this report sent a powerful message to Iran: The Americans have fallen for your bait and switch game in which you hide your capacity to develop nuclear weapons under the cover of purported civilian use. This has encouraged the Iranians to move full-throttle ahead on their program. At the same time the Bush Administration changed Israel’s green light to yellow and then to red, as it related to United States approval of an Israeli strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The end result was that Iran felt no real constraints on continuing to develop its nuclear weapons capacity in a pretextual civilian context.

The Obama administration appears to have taken any military option off the table, relying instead on its enhanced package of sanctions. Secretary of Defense Gates has been explicit about this and the Iranians have been listening. It makes absolutely no sense to take the military option off the table, even — perhaps especially — if one is reluctant to deploy it. As George Washington taught us in his first address to Congress: “To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.” Israel’s Prime Minister echoed President Washington when he recently said, “The simple paradox is this: If the international community, led by the United States, hopes to stop Iran’s nuclear program without resorting to military action, it will have to convince Iran that it is prepared to take such action.” What is it that American policymakers don’t seem to understand about this self-evident proposition?

The man most responsible for both the Bush and Obama administration’s failure with regard to Iran is Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, whose tenure has straddled both the issuance of the false National Security Estimate and the decision to take the military option off the table. He is Iran’s favorite American facilitator. Although he soon plans to leave office, there are no signs — certainly none visible to Iran — that his failed policies with regard to Iran’s nuclear program will end with his too long tenure.

The Biblical prophet cautioned “peace, peace and there is no peace.” This tragic prophecy will become a sad reality if Israel and the Palestinian Authority make great sacrifices in an effort to bring peace to their people, only to see that peace shattered by a short-sighted American policy that allows Iran to hold a nuclear sword of Damocles over the entire region.

Professor Alan Dershowitz’s latest book is a novel, The Trials of Zion.

US Embassy Cables from Tel Aviv, “Israeli Intentions regarding the Iranian Nuclear Program”.

* * *

Excerpts from Other US Embassy Cables
about the Israeli Intentions

CODEL ACKERMAN’S MEETING WITH OPPOSITION LEADER BINYAMIN NETANYAHU: ECONOMIC SQUEEZE ON IRAN AND HAMAS; SCENARIOS FOR A NEW GOVERNMENT; RIGHT OF RETURN AS ACID TEST OF ARAB INTENTIONS

Ambassador Richard H. Jones

07TELAVIV2652, U/S BURNS’ AUGUST 17 MEETING WITH ISRAELI MOSSAD CHIEF MEIR DAGAN

Ambassador Richard H. Jones

The US embassy cables above, first released by WikiLeaks, are available at <cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2005/03/05TELAVIV1593.html>; <cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2007/04/07TELAVIV1114.html>; <cablegate.wikileaks.org/cable/2007/08/07TELAVIV2652.html>.  Other cables about Iran may be viewed at <cablegate.wikileaks.org/tag/IR_1.html>

WikiLeaks builds case against Iran – CNN.com.

Washington (CNN) — Some say that the WikiLeaks document dump has embarrassed the United States government.

Agreed — it is probably no fun to be the U.S. official in charge of calling Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi to admit that our government noticed his Russian business dealings.

But here’s who really should be embarrassed:

• Those who pooh-poohed George W. Bush’s “axis of evil.” WikiLeaks confirms that Iran and North Korea have for years been sharing weapons technology.

• Those who suggest that it’s some “Israel lobby” or Jewish cabal that is driving the confrontation with Iran. WikiLeaks confirms that the region’s Arab governments express even more anxiety than Israel about the Iranian nuclear weapons program.

WikiLeaks: Public has ‘right to know’

Rubin: WikiLeaks an ‘attack’ on govt.

Dept. of Justice statement on WikiLeaks

Ahmadinejad: Leaked info not valuable

• Those who have condemned Israel for inspecting or impeding Red Crescent ambulances. WikiLeaks confirms that during the 2006 Lebanon war, Iran smuggled weapons to Hezbollah in Red Crescent vehicles, including ambulances.

• Those who have appeased Red Crescent demands that Israel’s Red Magen David be excluded from international Red Cross organizations. The Red Crescent has been thoroughly penetrated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and is regularly used as a tool of Iranian foreign policy.

• Those who lamented that Israel’s interception of the Turkish blockade-runner Mevi Marmara would alienate Turkey as a key U.S. ally: The U.S. government itself has for years regarded the Turkish government as trending on its own impetus toward anti-Western Islamist radicalism.

• Those who look blank-faced at the origin of cyber-attacks on Google and other crucial U.S. networks. WikiLeaks documents U.S. awareness that at least one cyber-attack on Google was ordered at the highest levels of the Chinese government.

This is not to deny that WikiLeaks has done enormous harm. The leakers or hackers or whoever it was who obtained and published this information have put individual lives at risk. Toby Harnden of the Telegraph notes that one of the released documents names a U.S. informant in the region. The document identifies him as a U.K.-educated engineer from a prominent pre-revolution Isfahan family who once owned a large factory in Iran and is a former national fencing champion of Iran, a former president of the Iran Fencing Association and a former vice president of an Azerbaijan sports association. Harnden aptly asks: How many such persons do you think are out there?

But here’s the ghastliest irony of the leak. If it was Julian Assange’s intention to use information hacked from U.S. computer systems to protect Iran from U.S. military action, he has very likely massively failed at his own purpose.

The leak makes military conflict between Iran and the United States more likely, not less. The leak has changed the political equation in ways that reduce the restraint on U.S. policy.

Revealing secrets online

Public opinion in all U.S.-allied countries can now see that the dread of the Iranian nuclear program is not some artificial emotion whipped up by Israel, but a widespread fear among Arab and European governments. It’s Iran’s Gulf neighbors who have begged most urgently that the United States hit Iran’s nuclear sites.

Iranian recklessness and duplicity has been widely publicized — as has Iran’s contemptuous rejection of all diplomatic approaches.

President Obama’s hand has been strengthened inside the United States. Members of Congress can see the intimate details of the administration’s determined effort to restrain Iran by peaceful means. And they can see in equally intimate detail that the effort has failed, and failed entirely because of Iran’s obduracy.

If any doubt remains that a nuclear Iran would massively destabilize the region, WikiLeaks alleviates it: It’s there in black and white, according to Israeli sources, that Saudi Arabia would seek a nuclear weapon. And it’s a good question whether an increasingly anti-Western Turkey would likely soon pursue a nuclear weapon too.

I am not saying that a U.S. attack on Iran has suddenly become likely. Just that it has become more politically feasible than it was 72 hours ago.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Frum.

‘By Whatever Means Necessary’: Arab Leaders Want Iran Stopped – Raymond Bonner – Politics – The Atlantic.

Iran admits cyber attack on nuclear plants | Reuters.

TEHRAN (Reuters) – Iran admitted Monday that its controversial uranium enrichment centrifuges had been affected by a malicious computer virus, as reported by Western diplomats last week.

Hours earlier, car bombs killed a top Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran and wounded another.

Both events may color a resumption of talks on nuclear issues next week with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a news conference Iran would attend the talks on December 5, but restated its position that its uranium enrichment program, which it says is purely for power generation, was not negotiable.

Major Western powers as well as Israel and Russia have become increasingly concerned that Iran’s program may soon give it the capacity to build and launch a nuclear bomb, despite four rounds of U.N. sanctions.

Israel and the United States have not ruled out pre-emptive military strikes. But the emergence of Stuxnet, which some experts believe was aimed specifically at Iran’s nuclear installations, shows Tehran’s foes may no longer be restricted to conventional diplomatic and military options.

CENTRIFUGE PROBLEMS

Ahmadinejad did not specify whether he was referring to the Stuxnet virus identified by Western security experts, but said:

“They succeeded in creating problems for a limited number of our centrifuges with the software they had installed in electronic parts. But the problem has been resolved.”

International talks on Iran’s nuclear program have made little or no progress and been stalled for more than a year.

Russia’s RIA news agency quoted Iran’s ambassador to Moscow as saying the latest round would be held in Geneva.

Ahmadinejad said Iran was ready to discuss nuclear cooperation and international problems, but not enrichment.

“The complete enrichment cycle and the production of fuel are basic rights of (IAEA) member states and are non-negotiable,” Ahmadinejad said.

A senior Western diplomat in Tehran whose country is involved in the talks said no major breakthrough was expected.

“Iran has always tried to evade pressure by expressing its readiness for talks. But we want to discuss sensitive issues like enrichment,” the diplomat told Reuters on condition of anonymity.

Ahmadinejad: US planned Wikileaks release to pressure Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Monday that leaked American diplomatic cables recounting Arab calls for the US to launch a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities were intended to stir “mischief.”

According to the cables released Sunday by online whistle-blower Wikileaks, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia repeatedly urged the United States to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear program and to stop Teheran from developing a nuclear weapon.

“We don’t give any value to these documents,” Ahmadinejad told a news conference “It’s without legal value. Iran and regional states are friends. Such acts of mischief have no impact on relations between nations.”

Ahmadinejad alleged the leaks were an “organized” effort by the US to stir trouble between Iran and Arab neighbors. When asked to comment on the documents, he said “the material was not leaked, but rather released in an organized way,” according to a Press TV report.

“The US administration released them and based on them they pass judgment …. [The documents] have no legal value and will not have the political effect they seek,” Ahmadinejad was further quoted as saying. He went on to say that the Wikileaks “game” is “not worth commenting upon and that no one would waste their time reviewing them.”

The comments came after Lebanese Prime Minister Sa’ad Hariri told Ahmadinejad that his country would not be part of any international group that aims to pressure Iran over its controversial nuclear program, seemingly in reaction to the Wikileaks exposure.

Among the first-published documents on Sunday night were nicknames for a number of world leaders. Ahmadinejad was referred to as “Hitler,” French President Nicolas Sarkozy as a “naked emperor,” the German Chancellor was called Angela “Teflon” Merkel and Afghan President Hamid Karzai as “driven by paranoia.” Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, an “Alpha Male,” while President Dmitry Medvedev is “afraid, hesitant.”

Israel says WikiLeaks vindicates its Iran focus | Reuters.

By Dan Williams

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – WikiLeaks disclosures about U.S.-led diplomatic efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear program are a surprise public relations windfall for Israel, a former Israeli national security adviser said Monday.

The secret cables leaked by the whistleblower website on Sunday showed Israel trying to prod a sometimes skeptical Washington into tougher action — such as sanctions, subversion, and even a military strike by 2011 — against Tehran.

But the documents also described Saudi Arabia urging the Americans to “cut off the head of the snake” by attacking Iran, a hawkishness echoed by other Arab leaders, and outline suspicions that North Korean missiles may have given the Iranians the range to reach western Europe and beyond. “These (disclosures) don’t hurt Israel at all — perhaps the opposite,” said Giora Eiland, a retired Israeli general who served as national security adviser to former prime ministers Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert.

“If there is something on the Iranian issue that, in my opinion, happens to help Israel, it is that these leaks show that Arab countries like Saudi Arabia are far more interested in Iran than they are in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, for example,” Eiland told Israel Radio.

Commentator Sever Plotzker, writing in Israel’s biggest newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, said “a single picture, sharp and clear” had emerged: “the entire world, not just Israel, is panicked over the Iranian nuclear program.”

Speaking ahead of the Wikileaks release, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to anticipate the potential embarrassment for Sunni Arabs who fear the rising Shiite power.

“In such matters (diplomacy) there is usually a gap between what is said in public and what is said in private. In Israel the gaps aren’t so large, but in some of the other countries in the region the gaps are very large,” Netanyahu told reporters.

MILITARY OPTION

Israel, which is reputed to have the region’s only atomic arsenal, sees itself as uniquely threatened by the prospect of an Iranian bomb, but has long lobbied for foreign intervention.

Some analysts believe Israel lacks the armed clout to pull off a preventive strike, and may be reluctant to trigger a new Middle East war with Iran, which denies seeking nuclear arms.

According to Wikileaks, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was asked in a closed meeting in February about a possible Israeli attack and responded “that he didn’t know if they would be successful, but that Israel could carry out the operation.”

Another cable from May 2009 recounts Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak telling U.S. Congress members there was a six to 18-month opportunity to hit Iran without incurring “unacceptable collateral damage.” Barak’s deadline now looms.

While Eiland acknowledged that Wikileaks had reflected a degree of Israeli “exaggeration” but no major indiscretion.

“For now, at least, no state secret has come out here about operational plans, on intelligence capabilities,” he said.

(Editing by Jon Hemming)

Gloria Center: Wikileaks Confirm Our Analysis of U.S. Policy and Middle East Politics [Article].

Please forgive me for saying this, but what really amazed me in reading the Wikileaks was how thoroughly they proved points I’ve been making for years. I wouldn’t have had the nerve to say that except that readers have been telling me the same thing.

1. Iran steadily smuggled arms to Hizballah using various means including in ambulances and medical vehicles during the 2006 war. This violates the laws of war. At times, the media has condemned Israel for attacking ambulances though it showed Hamas was also using such vehicles for military and arms-smuggling operations. Moreover, the postwar UN force proved consistently ineffective in stopping smuggling while the U.S. government did not denounce Iran, Syria, and Hizballah for breaking the ceasefire arrangements.

2. Israeli leaders have repeatedly made clear in diplomatic discussions their acceptance of a two-state solution but warned that the Palestinian leadership sought Israel’s destruction.

3. Arab states have constantly been warning the United States about the threat from Iran as their highest priority, even urging the United States to attack Iran itself. Note that Arab leaders did not condition their oppositon to Iran or call for a U.S. attack on settling the Arab-Israeli or Israel-Palestinian conflicts. This is contrary to what Administration officials, academia, and parts of the mass media who argue these issues are basically linked and that is why the conflicts must be “solved”  before doing much else. As I’ve told you, the Arab regimes worry first and foremost about Iran and have greatly downgraded their interest in the conflict or antagonism toward Israel.

4. Iran and North Korea cooperated to provide Tehran with long-rang missiles that were shipped to Hizballah.

5. One week after President Bashar al-Asad promised a top State Department official that he would not send “new” arms to Hizballah, the United States complained that it had information that Syria was providing increasingly sophisticated weapons to the group. Yet the U.S. government did not take strong action.

(Reminds me of how Bashar promised the Bush Administration that he would stop buying oil from Iran in violation of UN sanctions but continued doing so; and how Yasir Arafat promised that he had nothing to do with terrorism and arms smuggling from Iran and then was shown to have lied. Is there a pattern here?)

6. Israel has been warning the United States about how Iran obtaining nuclear weapons would destabilize the region, not just create a danger of an Ian-initiated attack on Israel.

7. U.S. Officials in Turkey think that the current government is in fact an Islamist one, though the U.S. government (and media) keeps insisting it is some kind of democratic-reform-minded centrist regime.

8. The U.S. government ignored repeated pleas from Israel to press Egypt to block smuggling of military equipment into the Gaza Strip.

Here are some sources for the raw materials:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/240364

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40405218/ns/world_news-the_new_york_times/

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/209599

http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2010/11/wikileaks-bombshells-get-early-release.html

http://www.israellycool.com/2010/11/28/wikileaks-israel-related-cables/

http://cablegate.wikileaks.org/

Israel says Wikileaks vindicates its Iran focus.

TEL AVIV — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday leaked U.S. diplomatic cables had exposed widespread Arab fear of Iran’s nuclear programme and vindicated his priorities in peacemaking.

While viewing the Wikileaks publication on Sunday as a potential damper to secret coordination between Washington and its allies, Netanyahu said he hoped Middle East leaders would make public their concerns over Iran.

“For the first time in modern history, there is a not inconsequential agreement in Europe and in the region – in Israel and countries in the region – that the main threat stems from Iran, its expansion plans and its weaponisation steps,” Netanyahu said in a speech to newspaper editors.

Israel says an Iranian bomb would embolden those opposed to Middle East peace and endanger its existence.

The huge Wikileaks trove of U.S. diplomatic documents included accounts of the Saudi king urging the Americans to “cut off the head of the snake” by attacking Iran. One Arab dignitary likened Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Hitler.

Netanyahu said he hoped Arab leaders would be “courageous enough to say publicly what they think secretly”.

“It would be a real breakthrough … first and foremost for peace, because we must change the narrative – the bogus argument that it is Israel that is threatening peace and security in the region, while everyone knows where the real danger lies,” he said.

Netanyahu’s rightist government is formally committed to U.S.-sponsored peace talks with the Palestinians but progress has been slight. The Palestinians blame Israel’s continued settlement of the occupied West Bank.

The Israelis argue the problem is in Palestinian refusal to recognise the Jewish state – especially from the Gaza Strip, whose Islamist Hamas rulers enjoy Iranian support.

CLOUT IN DOUBT

The leaks further outline U.S. suspicions that North Korean technology may have boosted the range of Iranian missiles to western Europe and beyond.

Israel, which is reputed to have the region’s only atomic arsenal, sees itself as uniquely threatened by Iranian uranium enrichment and has long lobbied for foreign intervention.

Some analysts believe Israel lacks the armed clout to pull off a preventive strike, and may be reluctant to trigger a new Middle East war with Iran, which denies seeking nuclear arms.

According to Wikileaks, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates was asked in a closed meeting in February about a possible Israeli attack and responded “that he didn’t know if they would be successful, but that Israel could carry out the operation”.

Another cable from May 2009 recounts Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak telling U.S. Congress members there was a six to 18-month opportunity to hit Iran without incurring “unacceptable collateral damage”. Barak’s deadline now looms.

Giora Eiland, a former Israeli national security adviser, said that while the leaks may have reflected a degree of “exaggeration” by Israel, they betrayed no major indiscretion.

“These don’t hurt Israel at all – perhaps the opposite,” he told Israel Radio. “For now, at least, no state secret has come out here about operational plans, on intelligence capabilities.”

Netanyahu, a two-time premier at times dogged by media exposes, said Wikileaks had compromised the discretion required for delicate policymaking.

“Secrecy is built into diplomacy, and exposure is built into the media, and the effect of what happened now with Wikileaks is that it will be harder for you to do your work and more difficult for us to do our work,” he told the editors.

© Copyright (c) Postmedia News

 

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