WarSclerotic

Southern Israeli Residents Struggle Under ‘Nightmarish’ Rocket Fire.

Young Ashkelon resident, Liz Sheetrit stands in front of her rocket-damaged home. Photo: Anav Silverman.

Sixteen-year-old Liz Sheetrit and her family stand in their home with shell-shocked expressions as they point to their burnt front yard and shattered kitchen window. “I can’t believe this happened to us,” Liz exclaims. A Grad rocket fired from Gaza struck the family’s street on Saturday night, damaging four homes in their neighborhood, leaving a splattering of shrapnel holes, shattered glass, and pieces of metal piercing the housing exterior.

Liz says she feels only slightly lucky. She and her family were thankfully not home at the time of the explosion but her dog, which was home at the time of the explosion, was wounded in the attack.

The Sheetrit family and the other neighborhood families are lucky for another reason as well. They live in relatively new homes, all of which have bomb shelters. “Our neighbors entered their shelter as soon as the alarm went off. If they had been anywhere near the kitchen or living room, someone could have been seriously injured,” Liz’s father said.

More than fifty percent of Ashkelon’s residents live in older buildings that were built without shelters, according to a municipal spokesperson, Yossi Assoulin.

“But thanks to the Iron Dome, residents here, even during Grad rocket attacks from Gaza, haven’t lost their sense of security,” explains Assoulin.

The Iron Dome is a mobile air defensive system that was developed in Israel to intercept incoming Palestinian rockets through radar detection. Although the system has been criticized for its steep operating costs, it has become an important tool in defending Israeli civilians by successfully shooting down countless rockets. Israel plans to invest $1 billion in the Iron Dome missile defense system in coming years, of which the US Congress has pledged to provide $205 million.

However, the defense system offers no guarantees.

On the same day that the Sheetrit family’s home was struck by rocket shrapnel, an Ashkelon man, Moshe Ami, a father of four, was killed in a rocket attack on his way home. The air raid siren, which gives Ashkelon residents about 25 seconds to find cover, went off as Ami was driving home in the heart of the city along Rabin Road. Unable to make it to the shelter in time, a piece of shrapnel from the rocket explosion struck Ami. He later died of his wounds in Ashkelon’s Barzilai Medical Center.

Shrapnel impact from rocket explosion in front yard of Ashkelon residential home this past Saturday. Photo: Anav Silverman.

In addition to Ashkelon, a city of over 120,000, the barrage of Grad missiles also struck Be’er Sheva, Ofakim, and Ashdod, considered major metropolitan areas of Israel’s south.The rockets hit an Ashdod school and caused extensive damage to countless buildings and homes in residential neighborhoods across the region. Twenty Israelis were hospitalized for shock and injury including a baby.

A total of 35 projectiles including Iranian-made Grads and mortar shells struck Israel this past Saturday.

Elad, an Ashkelon taxi driver, who was born and raised in the city, said that Saturday night was a nightmarish experience. “Working as a taxi driver during these kinds of terror attacks is the worst experience. While everyone else stays at home and in their shelters, we have to go out to make our living.”

“There’s no way we can make peace now,” the Israeli taxi driver continued. “There is no one to make peace with. How many more rocket attacks are needed to prove that?”

Ashkelon’s mayor Benny Vaknin said on Sunday that the type of missiles fired on Saturday caused much greater destruction than past rockets. “These types of rockets are much more accurate and capable of great devastation, damaging concrete building and roads. Within six months, we have experienced three rounds of destructive rocket attacks, in late April, August and now, October. We need to rethink how to address this situation.”

Vaknin refused to allow Ashkelon students to attend schools on Monday, for the second day in a row. On Sunday, over 200,000 students in Be’er Sheva, Ashkelon, Ashdod, Kiryat Malachi, Sderot and other communities stayed home as schools were closed because of continued rocket threats. Although, Israel’s Home Front Command declared that safety precautions had been lifted on Monday, and that students could once again attend school, Vaknin did not want to take any chances.

Most of Ashkelon’s schools are not protected against rocket attacks. The city has close to 30,000 students in its education system including 6,000 college students at Ashkelon’s Academic College.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for most of the rocket attacks during the weekend. According to an analysis by the Jerusalem Post’s Khaled Abu Tomeh, the Islamic Jihad organization has become a major player in Gaza thanks to the financial and military help of Iran and Syria. Hamas has taken up a secondary role during the current fighting, allowing Egypt instead to mediate a cease-fire between Islamic Jihad and Israel. “Some Palestinians in the Gaza Strip said on Sunday that Hamas is probably afraid of violent confrontation with Islamic Jihad, whose members have managed to smuggle into the Gaza Strip new weapons stolen from Libya,” wrote Abu Tomeh.

Islamic Jihad’s leader in Syria, Ramadan Abdullah attended Iran’s Fifth International Conference in Support of the Palestinian Intifada earlier in October, where he stated that jihad and resistance are the only “options” for the Palestinians. Islamic Jihad has called for the destruction of Israel on numerous occasions.

The Israel Defense Forces were able to identify and strike an Islamic Jihad rocket cell in Gaza earlier on Saturday, killing five terrorists, including a senior commander responsible for rocket production facilities. Israel’s Channel 10 reported late Saturday night that Islamic Jihad’s Quds Brigades said the first wave of rockets was its “initial response” to the strike on its rocket cell, and that “the enemy should expect the worst in the coming hours.”

Meanwhile, Liz Sheetrit hopes that life will return to normal for her family and neighbors. “We are trying to get back to a routine, but no one can guarantee that rockets won’t strike here once again.”

Anav Silverman is an international correspondent based in Jerusalem, Israel. She writes for numerous news sources including the Huffington Post, Jerusalem Post, Sderot Media Center, The Center for Near East Policy Research, and YNet News.

Iran: A Continuing Threat to Peace and Security » Publications » Family Security Matters.

Iran’s Proxy War from Gaza | Israel Right Side News.

[Note: the writing of this article required an intermission for a rocket attack on Beersheva from Gaza.]

On Monday the Palestinians were overwhelmingly voted into UNESCO—the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. It’s a pity. Palestinian “education” consists largely of anti-Semitic hate, their scientific achievements are nil apart from importing ever more sophisticated weapons, and as for their culture…Israelis have again been getting a taste of that in recent days.

Since Wednesday, on and off, the Israeli south has again been under a barrage from Gaza. One man has been killed and eight people wounded, along with extensive property damage including nine cars blown up in a parking lot. Some 200,000 children have been kept home from school. The Israeli air force has killed ten terrorists in retaliatory raids that amount to little more than tit-for-tat.

So far, though, not one of the 40-plus rockets and mortars fired from Gaza appears to have been fired by Hamas, its ruling organization. All, or nearly all, have been fired by another group, Islamic Jihad. Palestinian “culture” being what it is, you sometimes need a scorecard to keep up with the various Palestinian terror movements. But Islamic Jihad is not just another of those small, global-jihadist, Al Qaeda-linked groups occasionally heard from in Gaza.

Israeli military analyst Ron Ben-Yishai writes that Islamic Jihad has lately

accumulated (with the active support of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards) military power that is equal to—and in some cases greater than—Hamas’s military capabilities.

Islamic Jihad has more long-range rockets than Hamas, thousands of activists, and some 10,000 supporters and collaborators….

And Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh, a Palestinian-affairs expert, concurs, noting that

Today, [Islamic Jihad] poses a serious challenge to the Hamas government.

With the help of Iran and Syria, Islamic Jihad has become a major player in the Palestinian arena….

It’s almost certain by now that Islamic Jihad—which is viewed by some as being more radical than Hamas—will one day rise to power in the Gaza Strip.

As for why Islamic Jihad chose now to heat things up, accounts vary, but all agree that it’s at Iran’s (and probably also Syria’s) prodding. Abu Toameh writes that “According to informed Palestinian sources, relations between Hamas and the Iranians and Syrians have deteriorated because of the movement’s refusal to publicly support the embattled regime of President Bashar Assad.”

Iran and its friends are probably also unhappy about Hamas’s drift toward Egypt and the boost to its popularity from securing the release of so many Palestinian murderers (Palestinian culture again) in the Shalit deal. Solution: tell Islamic Jihad to start shooting at Israel and recoup lost points.

Where does all this leave Israel?

Clearly, whether Iran throws its weight behind Hamas as it did formerly, or Islamic Jihad as it is doing at present, the barrages from Gaza stem ultimately from an Iranian strategy aimed at weakening and eventually destroying the Jewish state. The Netanyahu government’s reluctance to deal decisively with Gaza terror—more and more reminiscent of the preceding Olmert government, which tolerated almost three years of bombardment before launching the inconclusive Operation Cast Lead—presumably reflects, in part, the need to look at the larger strategic picture.

Speculation—and, reportedly, American apprehension—about a possible Israeli strike on Iran has reached an unprecedented level. It would make sense to go for the root instead of getting tangled up in one of the branches. Or, if such speculation again proves baseless, it is hard to see what excuse remains not to cut off the branch.

Egypt: Israel agreed to delay expanding Gaza offensive for 24 hours – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Egyptian official says Cairo asked for 24 hours to try to bring all factions into informal cease-fire and Israel agreed to give Cairo until around midnight Tuesday

Associated Press

An Egyptian official said Tuesday that Israel has agreed to briefly delay expanding its military operations in the Gaza Strip to give Egypt time to try to persuade Palestinian factions to halt rocket fireon southern Israel.  IDF aircraft have targeted rocket squads in Gaza in recent days, but the Egyptian official says Israel has also planned a wider operation. The official says Egypt asked for 24 hours to try to bring all factions into an informal cease-fire and Israel agreed to give Cairo until around midnight Tuesday. IDF tank near Gaza (Archive photo: George Ginzburg)   The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss Egyptian mediation. The Israeli defense ministry had no immediate comment.   But on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuwarned from the podium of the Knesset that Israel would operate “vigorously and resolutely” against those who would threaten its security.  “A security philosophy cannot rely on defense alone,” Netanyahu said. “It must also include offensive capabilities, the very foundation of deterrence.”  At least 10 terrorists and an Israeli civilian have been killed in recent days in the worst violence in the area in months.  The Islamic Jihadfaction had led the attacks that began last week, but on Sunday agreed to stop the violence if Israel also did. Rocket fire that drew retaliatory Israeli airstrikes persisted afterward, but it was claimed by a different group.  Gaza’s Hamas leaders have not directly been involved in the attacks but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all violence from the territory.

NATO chief rules out no fly-zone and intervention in Syria.

Al Arabiya

Monday, 31 October 2011

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen has said there is no intention “whatsoever” to intervene in Syria. (Reuters)

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NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen ruled out the possibility of a no-fly zone for Syria, in remarks to an AFP correspondent as he travelled Monday to Tripoli to mark the end of the alliance’s air war in Libya.

“It’s totally ruled out. We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria,” Rasmussen said when asked if there was a possibility NATO would now spearhead a no-fly zone in Syria.

Rasmussen landed unannounced in Tripoli hours before NATO’s mission in Libya was due to end officially, seven months after Western powers fired the first barrage of missiles against Muammar Qaddafi’s forces in an air war that played a major role in ousting the veteran dictator.

“We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria,” he insisted, saying the conditions there were different to those in Libya.

“First of all we took on the responsibility for the operation in Libya because there was a clear U.N. mandate, because we had strong and active support from the countries in the region,” Rasmussen said.

“Actually they contributed actively to Operation Unified Protector. None of these conditions are fulfilled in Syria. And besides, one case is not like the other. We have to take decisions on a case-by-case basis. From an overall perspective, you can’t compare Libya and Syria,” he said.

Syrian activists have appealed on the international community to impose a no-fly zone on Syria to protect civilians and encourage army deserters opposed to the autocratic rule of President Bashar al-Assad.

Rasmussen strongly condemned the Syrian regime’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters which has killed more than 3,000 people, most of them civilians, according to a U.N. toll.

“Obviously I strongly condemn the security forces’ crackdown on civilians in Syria. It’s absolutely outrageous. And the only way forward in Syria, like in other countries, is to accommodate the legitimate aspirations of the Syrian people, introduce democratic reforms,” Rasmussen added.

His remarks came as the Arab League said it awaited Monday a response from Damascus to a proposed roadmap for peace, after talks Sunday in the Qatari capital with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem.

Repeating previous warnings, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani told reporters after the meeting that Assad risks forcing an international intervention if he allows the violence to continue.

“The entire region is at risk of a massive storm,” Sheikh Hamad said.

Pro-democracy activists have urged the Arab League to freeze Syria’s membership from the 22-member organization.

U.S. and Iran discuss Syrian crisis in back-channel diplomacy: report.

Al Arabiya

Monday, 31 October 2011

Iran is in talks with the United States over Syria after the fall of Assad. (File photo)

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Syria ignores Arab-proposed roadmap to end bloodshed; more protesters are killed.

Al Arabiya

Tuesday, 01 November 2011

Demonstrators protesting against President Bashar al-Assad march through the streets in Homs. (Reuters)

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The Arab League did not receive any reply from the Syrian regime on its proposed plan to end bloodshed in the country that has been rocked by anti-government protests since March, Al Arabiya reported on Tuesday.

As many as 13 people have been killed on Monday as security forces fired at protesters across the country, Al Arabiya reported citing the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights. “Around nine deaths were reported in the protest hub city of Homs,” activists said.

The Arab League on Monday revealed its roadmap to end violence in Syria, as NATO ruled out the possibility of a no-fly zone over the country.

The roadmap calls for tanks to be withdrawn from Syrian streets and for talks between the embattled regime of President Bashar al-Assad and its opponents, League chief Nabil al-Arabi told AFP in the Qatari capital.

The head of the Arab League said the group’s foreign ministers were awaiting a response after putting the proposals to a Syrian delegation led by Foreign Minister Walid Muallem during talks in Doha on Sunday.

The talks came amid growing fears among regional leaders that unchecked Syrian bloodshed could further inflame the Arab world.

“The Arab proposal to Syria calls for withdrawing tanks and all military vehicles to bring an immediate end to the violence and give assurances to the Syrian street,” said Arabi.

The peace plan also calls for dialogue to take place in Cairo between Syrian regime officials and opposition figures, he added, before leaving Doha without indicating if a response had been received from Assad.

The Syrian delegation also left Doha later without making any statements.

New constitution

Haitham al-Maleh, chairman of the Syria Salvation Conference. (File)

A Syrian opposition figure told Al Arabiya on Monday that killing was running in the blood of the Syrian regime and all the country’s laws give legitimacy to the crimes committed there.

“Damascus authorities have no right to create a new constitution or to amend the current constitution. The regime should step down, giving way for a peaceful transfer of power through elections,” Haitham al-Maleh, chairman of the Syria Salvation Conference.

Maleh’s remarks to Al Arabiya came as a national committee began work Monday “to draft a new constitution for Syria” in Damascus.

A new constitution was one of the key demands of the Syrian opposition at the start of the anti-government protests in March. Now they are demanding Assad’s ouster.

No fly-zone over Syria

NATO chief Anders Fogh Rasmussen, meanwhile, ruled out the possibility of imposing a no-fly zone over Syria, in remarks made to AFP en route to Libya, where the alliance conducted an air war that helped to oust dictator Muammar Qaddafi.

“It’s totally ruled out. We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria,” Rasmussen said.

“We have no intention whatsoever to intervene in Syria,” he insisted, saying the conditions there were different to those in Libya, where the coalition had a “clear U.N. mandate.”

Repeating previous warnings, Qatari Foreign Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem al-Thani said Assad risked forcing an international intervention if he allows the violence to continue.

“The entire region is at risk of a massive storm,” Sheikh Hamad told reporters after Sunday’s three-hour meeting.

Assad must take “concrete steps,” he said, to end the unrest that according to the United Nations has claimed more than 3,000 Syrian lives since March.

Sunday’s Arab ministerial meeting “agreed on a serious proposal to stop the killing and all forms of violence in Syria,” said Sheikh Hamad.

A follow-up meeting will be held Wednesday in Cairo, “whether or not there is an agreement,” he added.

Assasd’s warnings

Assad warned in a newspaper interview that any Western intervention in Syria would cause an “earthquake” across the Middle East.

“Any problem in Syria will burn the whole region. If the plan is to divide Syria, that is to divide the whole region,” Syria’s embattled president told Britain’s Sunday Telegraph.

The Daily Telegraph quoted Assad Monday dismissing the Syrian opposition as unrepresentative elements who did not deserve his time.

“I wouldn’t waste my time talking about them,” he said. “I don’t know them. It’s better to investigate whether they really represent Syrians.”

The Doha talks came as Syrian activists put mounting pressure on the Arab League to suspend Syria’s membership of the 22-member bloc and organized protests across Syria on Sunday calling for the League to “freeze the membership” of Syria and as the death toll in Syria rose.

Meanwhile, dozens of students demonstrated at the University of Qalamun in the Damascus region demanding the fall of the Baath party regime.

“Bashar go away, there shall not be a dialogue,” they chanted according to a video posted on You Tube website.

Almost 100 people were killed in Syria on Friday and Saturday, the two bloodiest days yet of the uprising, among them 30 Syrian security agents and dozens of civilians, according to Observatory.

UN probe unveils new suspected Syrian nuclear facility – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Investigators identify previously unknown complex in northwest of country, bolstering suspicions of nuclear ties between Assad regime and the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb.

By The Associated Press

U.N. investigators have identified a previously unknown complex in Syria that bolsters suspicions that the Syrian government worked with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, to acquire technology that could be used to make nuclear arms.

The buildings in northwest Syria closely match the design of a uranium enrichment plant provided to Libya when Muammar Gadhafi was trying to build nuclear weapons under Khan’s guidance, officials told The Associated Press.

	Syria nuclear facility
	Photo by: Reuters / Archive

The U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency also has obtained correspondence between Khan and a Syrian government official, Muhidin Issa, who proposed scientific cooperation and a visit to Khan’s laboratories following Pakistan’s successful nuclear test in 1998.

The complex, in the city of Al-Hasakah, now appears to be a cotton-spinning plant, and investigators have found no sign that it was ever used for nuclear production. But given that Israeli warplanes destroyed a suspected plutonium production reactor in Syria in 2007, the unlikely coincidence in design suggests that Syria may have been pursuing two routes to an atomic bomb: uranium as well as plutonium.

Details of the Syria-Khan connection were provided to the AP by a senior diplomat with knowledge of IAEA investigations and a former U.N. investigator. Both spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Syrian government did not respond to a request for comment. It has repeatedly denied pursuing nuclear weapons but also has stymied an investigation into the site bombed by Israel. It has not responded to an IAEA request to visit the Al-Hasakah complex, the officials said.

The IAEA’s examination of Syria’s programs has slowed as world powers focus on a popular uprising in the country and the violent crackdown by the government of President Bashar Assad.

Syria never has been seen as being close to development of a nuclear bomb. There also is no indication that Damascus continues to work on a secret nuclear program. If the facility in Al Hasakah was indeed intended for uranium production, those plans appear to have been abandoned and the path to a plutonium weapon ended with the Israeli bombing.

But Mark Hibbs, an analyst at the nuclear policy program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who has spoken to IAEA officials about the Al-Hasakah complex, said it is important to learn more details about the buildings.

“What is at stake here is the nuclear history of that facility,” Hibbs said.

“People want to know what did they intend to do there and Syria has provided no information.”

Syria has reasons to seek a nuclear weapon. It has been in a Cold War for decades with Israel, a country believed to have a sizable nuclear arsenal.

“A nuclear weapon would give Syria at least a kind of parity with Israel and some status within the region,” says Anthony Cordesman, a national security analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

For years, there has been speculation about ties between the Syrian government and Khan.

A hero to many in Pakistan for developing the country’s nuclear bomb, Khan is considered the world’s most prolific nuclear merchant. He supplied Iran with the basics of what is now an established uranium enrichment program that has churned out enough material to make several nuclear weapons. Libya also bought equipment and a warhead design from Khan for a secret nuclear program that it renounced in 2003.

In 2004, Khan confessed on TV to selling nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya, but he has never spoken of Syria. Khan later said Pakistani authorities forced him to make the confession.

The former investigator says Syria acknowledged to the IAEA that Khan made at least one trip to Syria to deliver scientific lectures, as the Los Angeles Times reported in 2004.

The former official said he has seen letters from Issa, then a deputy minister of education, written on official letterhead shortly after Pakistan’s 1998 nuclear test congratulating Pakistan for Khan’s achievement. In subsequent correspondence, Issa suggested cooperation with Khan and requested a visit by Syrian officials to Khan’s laboratory, the former official said.

Issa, who later served as the dean of the faculty of sciences at Arab International University, could not be reached for comment.

In a 2007 interview with an Austrian newspaper, Syrian President Assad acknowledged having received a letter that appeared to have been from Khan, but said his government had not responded and did not meet Khan.

IAEA investigators homed in on the Al-Hasakah facility after an intensive search of satellite imagery in the Middle East sparked by a belief that Khan had an additional government customer, which had not yet come to light. They identified the site, the largest industrial complex in Al-Hasakah, after a 2006 report in a Kuwaiti newspaper claimed Syria had a secret nuclear program in the city.

Satellite imagery of the Al-Hasakah complex revealed striking similarities to plans for a uranium enrichment facility that were seized during a Swiss investigation related to Khan.

The Swiss were looking into the Tinner family, Urs Tinner, his brother Marco and their father Friedrich, who are suspected of playing a crucial role in Khan’s smuggling network.

Another set of the same plans was turned over to the IAEA after Libya abandoned its nuclear program. Libya told the IAEA that it had ordered 10,000 gas centrifuges from Khan, most of which it intended for a facility that was to be built according to the plans. Centrifuges are used to enrich uranium.

The investigator said the layout of the Al-Hasakah facility matches the plans used in Libya almost exactly with a large building surrounded by three smaller workshops in the same configurations. Investigators were struck that even the parking lots had similarities with a covered area to shield cars from the sun.

But the investigator said he had seen no evidence that centrifuges were ever installed there. The Hasakah Spinning Co., has a website that shows photos of manufacturing equipment inside the facility and brags about its prices.

The IAEA asked to visit the site more than two years ago. But it has not pressed the issue, focusing its efforts on the site bombed by the Israelis.

Nor has the agency ever cited the Al-Hasakah facility in its reports. Three other sites have been mentioned, but they are believed to have been related to the bombed reactor, not the Al-Hasakah plant.

IAEA inspectors were allowed to visit the bombed reactor site once, but have not been allowed back for nearly three years. They issued a strongly worded assessment in May that said the targeted site was in fact a nearly built nuclear reactor. The agency’s board subsequently referred the issue to the UN Security Council, effectively dismissing Syrian denials as untrue.

Syrian officials again refused new inspections after talks with the IAEA in Damascus last week, diplomats told the AP. The officials said they would provide new evidence that the bombed site was non-nuclear. Agency officials remain skeptical because Syria did not describe the new information or say when it would be provided.

Iran’s mystery banker in Canada – JPost – Opinion – Op-Eds.

    As details of the Iranian plot to blow up the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC, becomes clearer, the US and other Western allies will look to punish Iran. One of the most powerful ways to influence Iran is through the banking sector. Through an interesting turn of events, Canada is in a position to exert significant financial leverage through one individual in particular.

One of the world’s most important international bankers currently resides in Toronto. After fleeing his country of birth Mahmoud Reza Khavari served until recently as head of Iran’s Bank Melli, an institution notorious for assisting in Iran’s proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and financing of terrorism. Canadian authorities have yet to take action against Mr. Khavari, who represents a potential gold mine of information about how Iranian banks raise and move money around the globe.

According to Iran’s semiofficial Mehr news agency, Khavari flew to Canada on September 28 after Iran issued arrest warrants for 22 top-level bankers in what appears to be the largest embezzlement scheme in the country’s history.

Khavari is accused of facilitating fraudulent payments – totaling over $2.6 billion – on behalf of Bank Melli. Many of Iran’s political elite, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad himself, have been linked to the scandal. Khavari’s banking career has been nothing short of brilliant.

According to international press reports and Khavari’s own resume, available online at Bank Melli’s website, he has been with the bank since 2009.

Before that, he held a variety of positions, including that of chairman of Bank Sepah’s board of directors from December 2003 until at least March 2005. He has also worked at Iran’s Bank of Industry and Mine and served as a member on the Teheran Stock Exchange’s board of directors.

Many of the companies and financial institutions Khavari has been affiliated with have been blacklisted by the United Nations and members of the international community.

BEGINNING IN 2007, the UN ordered member states to cease doing business with Bank Sepah and its affiliates under any circumstances. It later placed restrictions on two other banks, Melli and Saderat.

The EU and countries around the world followed suit, including Canada, Australia and the United States, and they have published their own list of blacklisted Iranian banks. For example, Canada has blacklisted four Iranian financial institutions, including the Melli, Mellat and Saderat banks, as well as the Export Development Bank of Iran (but not Bank Sepah, in seeming contradiction of international law).

Banks Sepah and Melli – two financial institutions where Khavari held senior posts – are particularly guilty of involvement in illicit international activity. The UN Security Council blacklisted Sepah and its subsidiaries under resolution 1747 and placed restrictions on Melli under resolution 1803.

Both financial institutions were implicated in contributing to the proliferation of sensitive nuclear activities or to the development of Iranian nuclear-weapon delivery systems.

These banks have also reportedly been involved in providing banking services in support of Iran’s nuclear drive and its elite Revolutionary Guards.

Khavari’s connections to Canada are noteworthy. To begin with, he and his immediate family are reportedly Canadian citizens. As recently as 2007, he purchased a CAD 2.93 million home in one of Toronto’s most exclusive neighborhoods, Bridle Path. In 2001, he bought a home with his wife in Toronto’s North York neighborhood, taking out a mortgage of CAD 615,000. At a certain point, Khavari also owned a Toronto-based company called Soaring Properties (it is unclear if he still owns it).

There are a number of steps Canadian authorities can take immediately. First, Khavari is apparently in violation of the Special Economic Measures (Iran) Regulations for having worked and provided financial services on behalf of a designated Canadian entity. In all likelihood, Khavari is also in violation of Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act, along with Part II.1 of the Criminal Code (Section 83.05). This section has provisions that prohibit the financing of terrorism. It also lists individuals or entities which, there are reasonable grounds to believe, have participated in or facilitated terrorist activity, or knowingly acted on behalf of, or associated with, an entity involved in terrorism.

Under Section 83.05, Canadian authorities may even have the right to freeze Khavari’s assets.

Canada should make a legal determination regarding whether to freeze his assets in the country. Once they have done this, authorities might be able to uncover the full extent of Bank Melli’s involvement in Iran’s proliferation of nuclear weapons and terrorism financing.

Khavari possesses critical information on Iran’s banking network and the extent to which Iran abuses the international financial sector for illicit purposes. The intelligence gathered from Khavari should be shared with international partners both on a bilateral basis and at the UN Security Council.

While Canada has certainly been a staunch ally of members of the international community that have tried to implement sanctions against Iran to stop its nuclearization, it does appear that Canada is out of compliance with international law in this case. According to Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, all member states are obligated to blacklist Bank Sepah. Canadian lawmakers, and in particular, the governor in council, should rectify this loophole as quickly as possible; Bank Sepah was blacklisted by the UN as far back as March 2007.

Through existing legislation, the Canadian government has made it clear that there is a cost for doing business with Iran.

Going forward, Canadian policymakers should move expeditiously in regard to Khavari. As one of Iran’s top bankers, he could be of great use to any nation that is intent on stopping Iran from getting the bomb.

The writer is a former US Treasury official and on the Advisory Board of United Against a Nuclear Iran (UANI). He is also the author of Iran’s Dirty Banking: How the Islamic Republic Skirts International Financial Sanctions (2010).

Clinton urges Turkey to smooth ti… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

    WASHINGTON – Turkey must do more to cement democratic gains and smooth prickly ties with neighbors such as Israel if it is to emerge as a guarantor of Middle Eastern stability, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.

Clinton, speaking to the American-Turkish Council in Washington, said the “Turkish miracle” had seen that country’s economy triple in size over the last decade as reforms opened up both the political and economic sectors to new competition.

But she said Ankara — which hopes to draft a new constitution by the first half of 2012 — must be careful to ensure that human rights are respected, minority groups are included and media freedoms are guaranteed.

“Turkey’s ability to realize its full potential depends upon its resolve to strengthen democracy at home and promote peace in the neighborhood,” Clinton said in prepared remarks.

Clinton was scheduled to travel to Istanbul for an international conference on Wednesday, but canceled the trip due to her mother’s ill health.

The United States and Turkey have seen trade and diplomatic ties expand as NATO-member Turkey assumes a more prominent regional role. Ankara agreed in September to host an early-warning radar system to help spot missile threats coming from outside Europe, including from Iran.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s government also played an important role in the NATO-led alliance that helped Libyan rebels topple longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi, and has been an outspoken critic of President Bashar Assad’s bloody crackdown on protests in neighboring Syria.

But Turkey has also alarmed Washington with its sometimes brash muscle-flexing, which has seen its relations with fellow US ally Israel lurch into crisis. It also entered into a dangerous maritime spat with Cyprus over gas drilling.

“Reducing tensions with neighbors and increasing stability in the neighborhood is a recipe for expanded growth and influence,” Clinton said.

“Turkey’s leaders understand this. But it will take bold choices and strong political will to leave the past behind and embrace the future Turkey deserves.”