WarSclerotic

Iranian Lawmaker Says Obama Proposed Talks – ABC News

U.S. President Barack Obama has called for direct talks with Iran in a secret letter to the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader that also warned Tehran against closing the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a conservative Iranian lawmaker was quoted as saying Wednesday.

Iran has threatened to close the waterway, the route for about one-sixth of the global oil flow, because of new U.S. sanctions over its nuclear program.

Conservative lawmaker Ali Motahari revealed the content of the letter days after the Obama administration said it was warning Iran through public and private channels against any action that threatens the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf.

“In the letter, Obama called for direct talks with Iran,” the semiofficial Fars news agency quoted Motahari as saying Wednesday. “The letter also said that closing the Strait of Hormuz is (Washington’s) red line.”

“The first part of the letter contains threats and the second part contains an offer for dialogue,” he added.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast confirmed that Tehran received the letter and was considering a possible response.

The White House would not confirm the letter Wednesday. National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor pointed to earlier comments from the Obama administration that noted the U.S. had a number of ways to communicate its views to the Iranian government. He said the U.S. remained committed to engaging with Tehran and finding a diplomatic solution to its larger issues with Iran’s nuclear program.

Spokesmen have been vague on what the United States would do about Iran’s threat to block the strategic Strait of Hormuz, but military officials have been clear that the U.S. is readying for a possible naval clash.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, the country’s most powerful military force, says Tehran’s leadership has decided to order the closure of the oil route if Iran’s oil exports are blocked. A senior Guard officer said earlier this month that the decision has been made by Iran’s top authorities.

Iranian politicians have made the threat in the past, but this was the strongest statement yet that a closure of the strait is official policy.

Iran’s regular army recently held naval war games near the vital waterway that were described by hard-liners as part of preparations to close the strait if sanctions are imposed. The Guard is planning major naval military exercises next month in the same region.

The U.S. last month enacted new sanctions targeting Iran’s central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad over Tehran’s nuclear program. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is struggling.

Closing the strait would have immense world economic impact. Iran is OPEC’s second largest oil producer, and oil exports account for 80 percent of Iran’s foreign currency income. To Tehran, an oil embargo would be tantamount to a declaration of war that could provoke the Iranian leadership to block the Hormuz strait.

At issue is Iran’s nuclear program. The U.S., Israel and others charge that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons. Their case was bolstered by a report from the International Atomic Energy late last year, citing evidence that Iran was employing methods and equipment used in making bombs.

Iran has consistently denied that, saying its nuclear program is peaceful, aimed at producing electric power and isotopes for cancer treatment.

———

Associated Press writer Julie Pace in Washington contributed to this report.

.

Iran says in touch with big powers on new nuclear talks, EU denies it – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Iranian politicians say U.S. President Barack Obama had expressed readiness to negotiate in a letter to Tehran; Catherine Ashton spokesman denies there were any fresh discussions with the Islamic Republic.

By Reuters

Iran said on Wednesday it was in touch with big powers to hold fresh talks soon but the European Union denied it, with Britain saying Tehran had yet to show willingness for negotiations on its disputed nuclear work without preconditions.

A year after the last talks collapsed, tensions are rising with the United States and EU preparing to embargo Iran’s lifeblood oil industry over its refusal to suspend a nuclear program that the West suspects is meant to develop atom bombs.

	Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
	Photo by: AP

Iranian politicians said U.S. President Barack Obama had expressed readiness to negotiate in a letter to Tehran, a step that might relieve tensions behind several oil price spikes and growing fears of military conflict in the Gulf.

“Negotiations are going on about venue and date. We would like to have these negotiations,” Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters during a visit to Turkey.

“Most probably, I am not sure yet, the venue will be Istanbul. The day is not yet settled, but it will be soon.”

A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, representing the six powers, denied there were any fresh discussions with the Islamic Republic to organize a meeting.
“There are no negotiations under way on new talks,” he said in Brussels. “We are still waiting for Iran to respond to the substantive proposals the High Representative (Ashton) made in her letter from October.”

Britain was also dismissive. “There are no dates or concrete plans because Iran has yet to demonstrate clearly that it is willing to respond to Baroness Ashton’s letter and negotiate without preconditions,” a Foreign Office spokesman said.

“Until it does so, the international community will only increase pressure on it through further peaceful and legitimate sanctions,” he said.

PROTRACTED IMPASSE

The last talks between Iran and the permanent members of the UN Security Council — the United States, Britain, France, Russia and China — along with Germany stalled in Istanbul a year ago, with the parties unable to agree even on an agenda.

Since then, a UN nuclear watchdog report has hardened suspicions Iran has worked on designing a nuclear weapon and Washington and the European Union have turned to much harsher economic sanctions aimed at pushing Tehran into suspending sensitive nuclear activity and entering genuine negotiations.

EU foreign ministers are expected to approve an embargo on Iranian oil at a meeting on Jan. 23, diplomats say.

“Ahead of (that meeting) Iran is chasing headlines and pretending that it is ready to engage,” a Western diplomat said in reference to Salehi’s remarks.

“If it really is ready to sit down without preconditions the (six powers) would do so. Sadly, at the moment, it seems more interested in propaganda”.

Iran has said it is ready to talk but has also started shifting uranium enrichment to a deep bunker where it would be less vulnerable to the air strikes Israel says it could launch if diplomacy fails to halt the nuclear program.

Western diplomats say Tehran must show willingness to change its course in any new talks. Crucially, Tehran says other countries must respect its right to enrich uranium, the nuclear fuel which, if enriched to much higher levels than that suitable for power plants, can provide material for atomic bombs.

Iran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons and says its activities are for power generation and medical applications.

Russia, a member of the six power group that has criticized the new EU and U.S. sanctions, said the last-ditch military option mooted by the United States and Israel would ignite a disastrous, widespread Middle East war.

“On the chances of whether this catastrophe will happen or not you should ask those who repeatedly talk about this,” Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference in Moscow.

“I have no doubt that it would pour fuel on a fire which is already smoldering, the hidden smoldering fire of Sunni-Shi’ite (Muslim) confrontation, and beyond that (it would cause) a chain reaction. I don’t know where it would stop.”

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on Wednesday any decision about an Israeli attack on Iran was “very far off”.

THREATS, FRIENDSHIP

China, which shares Russia’s dislike of the new Western moves to stop Iran exporting oil, said U.S. sanctions that Obama signed into law on Dec. 31 had no basis in international law.

“As for some countries imposing unilateral sanctions on Iran, that is not international law and other countries are under no obligation to participate,” Li Song, a deputy director-general of the Foreign Ministry’s Department of Arms Control and Disarmament, told an online question-and-answer session.

In reply to Tehran’s threat to close the Gulf’s vital oil shipping lane, the Strait of Hormuz, if sanctions prevent it selling oil, Obama has written to the senior cleric who sits atop the Islamic Republic’s power structure, Iranian politicians said.

While Washington has yet to comment on the reported letter to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, several members of Iran’s parliament who discussed the matter on Wednesday said it included the offer of talks.

“In this letter it was said that closing the Strait of Hormuz is our (U.S.) ‘red line’ and also asked for direct negotiations,” the semi-official Fars news agency quoted lawmaker Ali Mottahari as saying.

“The first part of letter has a threatening stance and the second part has a stance of negotiation and friendship.”

Washington has often said it has a dual-track approach to Iran, leaving open the offer of talks while seeking ever tighter sanctions as long as Tehran does not rein in its nuclear work.

But any fresh opening to Tehran might be a risky strategy for Obama in an election year as Republican presidential candidates compete over who is toughest on a country Washington has long considered a pariah state.

Ray Takeyh, senior fellow for Middle Eastern studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said in a recent column in the Washington Post that there were doubts about Tehran’s sincerity in wishing to return to talks.

“By threatening the disruption of global oil supplies, yet dangling the prospect of entering talks, Iran can press actors such as Russia and China to be more accommodating in an effort to avoid a crisis that they fear,” Takeyh wrote.

“Any concessions that Iran may make at the negotiating table are bound to be symbolic and reversible.”

Iran offered Syria’s Brotherhood power if it agreed to Assad staying on: official.

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

The U.N. has estimated that there are more than 5,400 Syrian civilians, dissidents, protesters who are killed since the beginning of the uprising against the Syrian regime in March. (File Photo)

inShare1

Barak plays down talks of imminent attack against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Ehud Barak, the Israeli defense minister, says that any attack on Iran carried out by his country is ’very far off.’ (File photo)

inShare

Russia says U.S. deserves no explanation on Syria arms, rejects sanctions.

Al Arabiya

Wednesday, 18 January 2012

IDF holds first brigade-level parachute jump i… JPost – Defense.

    In preparation for future conflicts far from Israel, the IDF Paratroopers Brigade held a brigade-level parachute jump late Tuesday night, the first time the military has conducted such an exercise in close to two decades.

The last time such a drill was held was over 15 years ago, even though soldiers in the Paratroopers Brigade, as well as some other IDF units, continue to undergo parachuting training on a regular basis.

In military conflict, the IDF has not parachuted large forces into enemy territory since the jump into the Mitla Pass during the 1956 Sinai Campaign.

Retaining the capability however, is believed to be of extreme importance today particularly in face of a potential future war with Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon or even with Egypt.

“We are restoring a capability that we once had,” Paratroopers Brigade commander Col. Amir Baram told reporters ahead of the jump which was done from Israel Air Force C-130 Hercules transport aircraft over the Negev Desert.

“We cannot know what will happen in the changing Middle East and every western military which respects itself needs to know how to parachute large forces, bring them back together and then launch an attacks,” he added.

According to Baram, dropping large forces behind enemy lines – either by parachute or helicopters – could be done to surprise the enemy as part of the opening act of a war or in the middle, after the fighting has already begun.

During the Second Lebanon War in 2006, for example, the IDF helicoptered large forces deep inside Lebanon as part of a last-ditch effort to weaken Hezbollah before the United Nations-brokered ceasefire went into effect.

Following the war, the IDF also bolstered its fleet of landing craft that can be used to drop forces on the coasts of enemy countries.

The brigade-level parachute jump came towards the end of weeks of training for the Paratroopers Brigade ahead of its deployment along the border with Lebanon and then the Gaza Strip. Earlier in the week, The Jerusalem Post revealed that the IDF General Staff has instructed the Southern Command to complete preparations for a large-scale operation in Gaza that could be launched in the near future.

Ahead of the brigade-level jump, Baram studied the American and British doctrine for such jumps and military sources said that the IDF Operations Directorate was currently working on drafting its own set of commands that could be activated for drills or real military operations.

One of the IDF’s main concerns was that soldiers would be injured during the jump due to the heavy loads they were carrying on their backs which was expected to make the landing harder on their legs and knees. In the end, however, out of around 1,000 soldiers who jumped, only four were hospitalized with injuries to their legs.

Israel’s Decision on Iran Attack ‘Far Off’ – TIME.

Israeli Minister of Defense Ehud Barak (R) and US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta (L) review the honour guard upon the latter’s arrival to the defense ministry in Tel Aviv on October 03, 2011 during an official visit to Israel.

Ehud Barak did not specify when such a decision might be made, in his interview Wednesday with Army Radio.

He also denied Israeli media speculation that Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, would use his visit here on Thursday to pressure Israel not to attack. (See more on tension between Israeli and Iran)

Barak said the U.S. respects Israel’s freedom of action and that the Israeli government doesn’t “have the luxury” to “roll over responsibility” for Israel’s fate to the U.S.

Israel considers Iran its most fearsome enemy and does not believe Tehran’s claims that its nuclear program is designed to produce energy, not bombs.

Op-ed: Economic collapse in Iran, rather than Israeli strike, may trigger regional war

Alex Fishman

The spring of 2012 will be critical for the Middle East. All the regional players are preparing for it at this time already, ahead of April. Everyone – not only in Jerusalem and in Washington – smells the gunpowder in the air.

Behind the tense, escalating statements issued by senior American defense officials lies a menacing reality emerging in Iran. It is for good reason that the US Navy commander admitted last week that he doesn’t sleep well at night as result of developments in the Hormuz Straits. And when the admiral doesn’t sleep well, while the US secretary of defense sets red lines for the Iranians, we can assume that here too our soldiers sleep with their uniforms and shoes on.

Everybody talks about the spring, because everyone is convinced that Israel will be striking Iran at that time, a move that will ignite the Middle East. The scenario is rather banal and emerges in every defense panel in the global media: This year, the Iranians will complete the task of moving their nuclear project deep underground, and from that moment an aerial strike would be much less effective. Hence, a strike appears to be required as soon as is possible.

via Beware Iranian desperation – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

‘Western sanctions against Iran stifling’ – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Russian FM Lavrov warns further sanctions against Tehran may destabilize entire Middle East; says Moscow won’t allow military op against Syria, either

Associated Press

A military attack on Iran would destabilize the region while new sanctions against Tehran would “stifle” the Iranian economy and hurt its population, Russia’s foreign minister said Wednesday.

Sergey Lavrov said that Russia is seriously worried about the prospect of a military action against Iran and is doing all it can to prevent it.

Lavrov accused the West of turning a blind eye to attacks by opposition militants and supplies of weapons to the Syrian opposition from abroad.

“The consequences will be extremely grave,” he said. “It’s not going to be an easy walk. It will trigger a chain reaction, and I don’t know where it will stop.”

Lavrov also warned that sanctions on oil exports considered by the European Union could stymie efforts to solve the Iranian nuclear standoff through talks.

“It has nothing to do with a desire to strengthen the nuclear non-proliferation,” Lavrov said at a news conference. “It’s aimed at stifling the Iranian economy and the population in an apparent hope to provoke discontent.”

Russia has walked a fine line on the Iranian nuclear crisis, mixing careful criticism of Iran, an important trading partner, with praise for some of its moves and calls for more talks.

The EU is weighing whether to impose sanctions on buying Iranian oil, which is the source of more than 80 percent of Tehran’s foreign revenue. The US has already imposed new sanctions targeting Iran’s central bank and, by extension, refiners’ ability to buy and pay for crude.

Lavrov with Iranian President Ahmadinejad (Archives: AFP)

Russia believes that “all thinkable sanctions already have been applied” and that new penalties could derail hopes for continuing six-way negotiations on the Iranian nuclear program, provoking Iranian intransigence, Lavrov said.

He noted that the EU’s consideration of new sanctions comes as Iran plans to host a delegation from the UN nuclear watchdog. “We believe that there is every chance to resume talks between the six powers and Iran, and we are concerned about obstacles being put to them,” he said. “The sanctions could hardly help make the talks productive.”

‘No need for military op in Syria’

Also on Wednesday, Russia warned against military action in Syria, as Lavrov said that Russia will block any attempt by the West to secure UN support for the use of force against Syria.

Lavrov said Russia’s draft of a UN Security Council resolution on the violence in Syria was aimed at making it explicitly clear that nothing could justify a foreign military interference.

Western diplomats said it fell short of their demand for strong condemnation of Syria’s President Bashar Assad’s crackdown on civilians, that has left more than 5,000 people dead.

The Security Council has been unable to agree on a resolution since the violence began in March because a strong opposition from Russia and China. In October, they vetoed a West European draft resolution, backed by the US, that condemned Assad’s attacks and threatened sanctions.

“If some intend to use force at all cost … we can hardly prevent that from happening,” he said. “But let them do it at their own initiative on their own conscience, they won’t get any authorization from the UN Security Council.”

Lavrov also said that Russia doesn’t consider it necessary to offer an explanation or excuses over suspicions that a Russian ship had delivered munitions to Syria despite an EU arms embargo.

Lavrov told a news conference that Russia was acting in full respect of the international law and wouldn’t be guided by unilateral sanctions imposed by other nations.

“We haven’t violated any international agreements or the UN Security Councilresolutions,” he said. “We are only trading with Syria in items, which aren’t banned by the international law.”

Report: Iran planning attacks on U.S. targets in Turkey – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

According to Turkish Zaman daily, a cell of the Quds Unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is planning to attack U.S. embassy in Ankara.

By Avi Issacharoff

The Turkish newspaper Zaman reported Tuesday that Turkish intelligence has warned that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is planning attacks on the American embassy and American consulates throughout the country.

According to the report, Turkey’s security forces have warned police in all 81 districts throughout the country, telling them to remain alert and vigilant.

	In this Sept. 22, 2011 photo, members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard march just outside Tehran, Iran.
	Photo by: AP

The report states that according to Turkish intelligence, it is likely that a cell of the Quds Unit of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is planning to break into the U.S. Embassy or one of its consulates. The intelligence further stated that the cell is planning on staying at a five-star hotel in the city in which the attack is being planned, cautioning forces to focus on foreigners residing in those hotels.

Moreover, the report states that Hezbollah may take part in such attacks against Americans.

According to Turkish intelligence, Iran is attempting to support the operations of small, illegal Turkish organizations in the wake of Turkey’s decision to establish a NATO radar within its territory, and due to Ankara’s condemnation of the Assad regime in Syria.