WarSclerotic

BBC News – Iran nuclear crisis: France wants ‘stricter’ sanctions.

France is convinced Iran is developing nuclear weapons and should face “stricter sanctions”, Foreign Minister Alain Juppe has said.

He urged EU countries to follow the US in freezing Iranian central bank assets and imposing an embargo on oil exports.

Iran has dismissed the threat of sanctions. On Tuesday, it denied that a record low of its currency was linked to US punitive measures.

It also denies Western charges that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons.

Tehran says its programme is peaceful – it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity to meet growing domestic demand.

In November, the US, Canada and the UK announced new sanctions against Iran in the wake of the report from the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), that said Iran had carried out tests related to “development of a nuclear device”.

But Iran was not referred to the UN Security Council because Russia and China were opposed to the move.

January deadline

“Iran is pursuing the development of its nuclear arms, I have no doubt about it,” Mr Juppe told French television I-Tele.

“The last report by the International Atomic Energy Agency is quite explicit on this point.”

Mr Juppe said France wanted the sanctions against Iran toughened further.

He said President Nicolas Sarkozy had already proposed “the freezing of Iranian central bank assets, a tough measure, and the second an embargo on Iranian oil exports”.

“We want the Europeans to take a similar step by January 30 to show our determination,” he said.

The UN Security Council has already passed four rounds of sanctions against Iran for refusing to halt uranium enrichment.

Highly enriched uranium can be processed into nuclear weapons.

The US had already sanctioned dozens of Iranian government agencies, officials and businesses over the nuclear programme.

The government in Tehran has dismissed the latest measures imposed in the wake of the IAEA report in November.

However, following a new low recorded on Sunday and Monday in the country’s national currency compared to the US dollar, the government said the dip was not linked to the latest US sanctions targeting the central bank.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the US sanctions “have yet to be put into practice”.

US President Barack Obama signed into law the US bill targeting Iran’s central bank on Saturday. It enters into force in six months’ time.

Military bluster

Iran has also been holding a series of naval exercises in the Gulf, and on Monday said it had successfully test-fired a shore-to-sea Qader cruise missile, a shorter range Nasr and later, a surface-to surface Nour missile.

A medium-range surface-to-air missile was successfully launched on Sunday, Iranian media reported.

Iran has conducted 10 days of exercises near the Strait of Hormuz, through which 20% of the world’s oil passes.

Tehran said on Monday that “mock” exercises on shutting the strait had been carried out, although there was no intention of closing it.

The BBC’s Iran correspondent James Reynolds says Iran is using the exercises to try to show that it owns the Gulf and has the military capability to defend any threat to its dominance.

But, says our correspondent, few believe Iran would carry out its threat to shut the Strait of Hormuz as to do so would be considered too economically, politically and possibly militarily damaging for Tehran.

Arab League Says Syria Monitors Helping, Activists – NYTimes.com.

By REUTERS

BEIRUT (Reuters) – The head of the Arab League said its peace monitors were helping to ease a violent crackdown on anti-government protests in Syria but activists said the organization was being manipulated by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces.

Nabil Elaraby, Secretary-General of the 22-member Arab League, said Syria’s military had withdrawn from residential areas and was on the outskirts of the cities, although gunfire continued and snipers were still a threat.

“The latest telephone report said there is gunfire from different places, which makes it hard to say who is shooting who,” Elaraby said in Cairo Monday.

“Gunfire should be stopped and there are snipers,” he said. “We call upon the Syrian government to fully commit to what it promised.”

Activists said at least 12 people were killed across the country Monday. The grassroots Local Coordination Committees said the Arab League monitors were unable to end the violence or reach an independent assessment of its causes.

“The Arab League has fallen victim to the regime’s typical traps in which observers have no choice but to witness regime-staged events and move about the country only with the full knowledge of the regime,” the LCC said in response to Elaraby.

“This has rendered the observers unable to work or move independently or in a neutral manner.”

Army defectors, whose armed insurgency has threatened to overshadow the peaceful popular uprising, captured dozens of members of the security forces by seizing two checkpoints on Monday, the opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Army defectors also clashed with security forces at a third checkpoint, killing and wounding an unspecified number of troops loyal to Assad, it said.

Assad is struggling to defeat a popular uprising and avoid becoming the latest leader to be toppled by “Arab Spring” revolutions, after those of Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.

After nearly 10 months of violence in which the United Nations says more than 5,000 people have been killed, mostly unarmed civilians, an Arab League monitoring mission has spent the past week assessing Assad’s compliance with a peace plan.

PEACE PLAN

The League’s plan calls for Assad to pull troops and tanks from the streets, free detainees and talk to his opponents.

Elaraby said the monitors had secured the release of 3,484 prisoners and succeeded in getting food supplies into Homs, one of the centers of the violence. “Give the monitoring mission the chance to prove its presence on the ground,” he said.

But many Syrian opposition activists are skeptical that the mission can put real pressure on Assad to halt the violence.

Sunday, the Arab Parliament, an 88-member committee of delegates from each of the League’s member states, called for the monitors to leave Syria, saying their mission was providing cover for unabated violence and abuses by the government.

Five people were killed by gunfire in Homs Monday, and the bodies of another two were handed over to their families, the British-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Five more were killed in Damascus province and two other people were shot dead in Idlib, it said.

TAKING RISKS

Kinan Shami, a member of the Syrian Revolution Coordinating Union activists’ group, said from Damascus that people were taking huge risks by gathering in cities where Arab League monitors were expected, in the hope of talking to them.

“People expected them in Daraya … on New Year’s Day and thousands went to the main square, raised the Independence Flag on a mast and gathered around it. Security forces shot at them and killed two protesters,” Shami said.

“The people are trying to show the monitors the repression and are risking their lives to meet them because everywhere they go the monitors are surrounded by security… Other than getting arrested and beaten or killed, they could easily face endless counts of treason and communicating with foreign powers.”

But Issam Ishak, a senior member of the main opposition Syrian National Council, said the monitors must be given a chance. “Their presence is helping further erode the fear factor and is encouraging the expansion of the protests.”

The reported attacks on military checkpoints came three days after the anti-government Free Syrian Army said it had ordered its fighters to stop offensive operations while it tried to arrange a meeting with the Arab League delegates.

Rami Abdelrahman, director of the Observatory, said Monday’s operation had taken place in the northern province of Idlib. It was not immediately clear how many people had been killed or captured by the rebels.

The government bars most foreign journalists from operating in Syria, making it difficult to verify witness accounts. Assad blames the unrest on foreign-backed armed Islamists who officials say have killed 2,000 security personnel.

The state news agency SANA said a worker at a school in the city of Hama had been killed by armed men who captured her three days ago after her husband, who worked at the same school, refused their demands that he leave his job.

SANA also said a journalist working for state radio had died Monday from wounds sustained when gunmen shot him several days ago in Daraya, in Damascus province.

‘Iran warns departed US carrier … JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

    TEHRAN – Iran will take action if a US aircraft carrier which left the area because of Iranian naval exercises returns to the Gulf, the state news agency quoted army chief Ataollah Salehi as saying on Tuesday.

“Iran will not repeat its warning … the enemy’s carrier has been moved to the Sea of Oman because of our drill. I recommend and emphasize to the American carrier not to return to the Persian Gulf,” Salehi told IRNA.

“I advise, recommend and warn them (the Americans) over the return of this carrier to the Persian Gulf because we are not in the habit of warning more than once,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted Salehi as saying.

Salehi did not name the aircraft carrier or give details of the action Iran might take if it returned.

Iran completed 10 days of naval exercises in the Gulf on Monday, and said during the drills that if foreign powers imposed sanctions on its crude exports it could shut the Strait of Hormuz, through which 40 percent of the world’s traded oil is shipped.

The US Fifth Fleet, which is based in Bahrain, said it would not allow shipping to be disrupted in the strait.

Iran said on Monday it had successfully test-fired two long-range missiles during its naval drill, flexing its military muscle in the face of mounting Western pressure over its controversial nuclear programme.

Iran also said it had no intention of closing the Strait of Hormuz but had carried out “mock” exercises on shutting the strategic waterway.

Tehran denies Western accusations that it is secretly trying to build atomic bombs, saying it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

The United States and Israel have not ruled out military action against Iran if diplomacy fails to resolve the Islamic state’s nuclear row with the West.

The European Union is considering following the United States in banning imports of Iranian crude oil. US President Barack Obama signed new sanctions against Iran into law on Saturday, stepping up the pressure by adding sanctions on financial institutions that deal with Iran’s central bank.

Conflicting reports on withdrawal of Syrian military from cities as death toll mounts.

Al Arabiya

Tuesday, 03 January 2012

Demonstrators in Marrat Hrama hold posters that read: To the Pharaohs of Arab League, no blessing on you and your efforts. (Reuters)

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Israel worried Syria weapons going to terroris… JPost – Defense.

    Concern is growing in Israel over the possibility that Syria’s arsenal of chemical weapons will fall into terrorist hands amid predictions that President Bashar Assad’s regime will fall in the coming weeks.

Syria is believed to have one of the most extensive chemical weapon arsenals in the world, reportedly including sarin, VX and mustard gas.

The concern partially stems from Western intelligence indicating that advanced weaponry has already been moved out of Syria by Hezbollah.

“The same could also potentially happen with chemical weapons,” a senior defense official explained.

While predicting Assad’s regime would fall within weeks, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned on Monday of the new security challenges the IDF would face if that occurs. He said more than 5,000 civilians had been killed in fighting in Syria and that the military was having difficulty quelling protests and preventing soldiers from defecting to resistance forces.

“It is difficult to know what will happen the day after the Assad family [leaves] but either way it will be a hard blow to the Iranian-Syrian-Hezbollah alliance,” Barak told the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

Concern over the stability of Syria’s chemical arsenal comes at a time when only about 60 percent of Israelis are in possession of gas masks. The IDF is currently lacking NIS 1.2 billion to complete the production and distribution of gas masks to the rest of the public.

The Home Front Command and Defense Ministry are in talks with the Treasury in an effort to obtain the remaining required budget. Last month, The Jerusalem Post reported that the distribution of the gas masks will be suspended in February if the funds are not allocated beforehand.

Amid the growing instability in Syria, the IDF’s Northern Command has drawn up a number of operational responses to a wide range of scenarios that could evolve along the northern front.

There is concern, for example, that the IDF will face low-scale and isolated attacks along the border, such as Syrian soldiers opening fire into Israel. The main objective set down by OC Northern Command Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan is to respond based on circumstances but to also make a strong attempt to prevent an isolated incident from escalating into a larger conflict.