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Prison Planet.com » Iran Threatens To Torpedo US Aircraft Carriers.

Three US warships stationed in waters near Strait of Hormuz

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Wednesday, January 18, 2012

A senior Iranian military commander has warned that Iran has the capability to sink US aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf using detection-evading submarines that can fire torpedoes.

Lieutenant Commander of the Iranian Army’s Self-Sufficiency Jihad Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri, “Stated that Iran’s submarines are able to ambush and hit enemy vessels specially US Aircraft carriers from the seabed throughout the Persian Gulf,” reports the Fars News Agency ^[1].

Amiri said that while the United States was focused on Iran’s surface capabilities, the greater threat was posed by its fleet of submarines which, “Are noiseless and can easily evade detection as they are equipped with the sonar-evading technology and can fire missiles and torpedoes simultaneously.”

Amiri added that the submarines could “easily target and hit an aircraft carrier traversing in the nearby regions.”

After the US sailed the USS John C. Stennis aircraft carrier through the Strait of Hormuz in the midst of Iranian wargames, Iranian Army Commander Major General Ataollah Salehi warned America to keep its warships out of the region.

The US has made it clear that should Iran try to block the Strait of Hormuz, a key oil choke point, a “red line” will have been crossed.

Three US aircraft carriers are now stationed just outside Iranian waters, in addition to 15,000 troops that were sent to Kuwait at the end of last week.

A massive joint naval drill between the US and Israel that was set to coincide with Iranian wargames later this month was postponed earlier this week ^[2], with explanations varying as to why the exercise was called off.

Russia, which has its own warships stationed in the region, today reiterated its opposition to a military strike on Iran, with foreign minister Sergei Lavrov warning ^[3] an attack would be a “catastrophe” for relations between Sunni and Shiite Muslims in the Middle East.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has stated ^[4] that Israel is still “very far off” a decision on whether not not to attack Iran over its nuclear program.

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com ^[5]. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a regular fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show and Infowars Nightly News.

Dempsey to Gantz: I’m here to assure you of US commitment –.

By JPOST.COM STAFF AND YAAKOV KATZ
01/20/2012 10:29

IDF chief meets US counterpart at Kirya; Gantz: “I know our countries share same interests, values… I hope we can work it out,”; Dempsey visits in effort to convince Israel to give Iran sanctions more time.

  Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the United States Joint Chiefs of Staff assured IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz of US commitment to Israel, in a meeting between the two at the Kirya Military Headquarters in Tel Aviv Friday morning.

“The simplest message of all is, my presence here, I hope reflects the commitment we have with each other and I’m here to assure you that’s the case,” Dempsey said to Gantz.
“I do know that both our countries share the same interests and values, and I’m sure that we can somehow work it out together,” said Gantz to Dempsey earlier in the conversation, seemingly referring to the issue of the Iranian nuclear threat.

Former OC Manpower Maj.-Gen. (res.) Gideon Shefer on Friday morning said that Dempsey was probably here to “stop” Israel from attacking Iran.

Dempsey arrived in Israel on Thursday evening with his wife, and dined with Gantz.

Dempsey will later meet with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, after which he will travel to Jerusalem where he will meet Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres.

The US general’s visit comes amid rising tension between Jerusalem and Washington over Israeli frustration with the US and Europe’s reluctance to impose tougher economic sanctions on Iran.

While there are differences between the countries as to the type of steps that need to be taken to stop Iran, both Israel and the US share the same intelligence assessments regarding the status of Iran’s nuclear program.

As reported last month in The Jerusalem Post, Israeli and American intelligence believe that while Iran has mastered all of the technology it requires to build a nuclear weapon, the regime has yet to make the decision to do so.

Ahead of Dempsey’s visit, Barak tried to ease tensions with Washington, saying that an Israeli military strike against Iran is still “very far off.” Barak said that Israel was coordinating with the US on how to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

“We haven’t made any decision to do this,” Barak told Army Radio, adding, “This entire thing is very far off. I don’t want to provide estimates [but] it’s certainly not urgent.”

Dempsey is expected to try and reassure Israel that the Obama administration is committed to stopping Iran’s nuclear program, even if it ultimately comes down to using military force. Top US officials have recently said that the US will not allow Iran to build a nuclear weapon.

Meanwhile Wednesday, Gantz warned NATO military commanders to “prepare for the worst” in the wake of the ongoing upheaval in the Middle East and the proliferation of weaponry throughout the world, especially when those arms fall into the hands of terrorist organizations.

Addressing a meeting of NATO military commanders at the western military alliance in Brussels, Gantz said that the world needed to “strengthen moderate elements and weaken the radicals.”

“Only through joint work combining tough and soft power can we deter and in the long term overcome these radical elements,” Gantz said.

Earlier in the day, Gantz met with the Canadian and Italian chiefs of staff.

Gantz said that NATO’s decision to establish a missile defense system throughout Europe was a demonstration of the severity of the threat non-conventional weapons pose to the world.

“Ballistic missile defense systems need to be the last line of defense and the initiative needs to come earlier by exhausting all of the available means to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction,” he said.

On Tuesday, Gantz called on NATO military commanders to think up new strategies for dealing with the growing instability in the Middle East and the subsequent increase in threats.

“We are today in a different and more dramatic reality that includes new threats and a period of instability requiring all of us to reassess,” he said during a meeting with General Knud Bartels, the chairman of the NATO Military Committee.

Gantz also met with Britain’s Chief of Staff General Sir David Richards and Russia military chief Nikolai Makarov, as well as the chiefs of staff of France, Spain, Australia, Greece and Poland.

‘Sanctions not only option against Iran’ – Israel News, Ynetnews.

US ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro says Washington has alternatives ready should sanctions on Islamic Republic fail

Maor Buchnik

US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro said Thursday that Washington has prepared a set of alternative options to deal with Iran‘s nuclear program, should the financial sanctions prove futile.

Shapiro made the remarks ahead of US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey ‘s first visit to Israel.

Shapiro, who took part in Haifa University’s America Day, reiterated the assertion that Iran’s atom program is aimed at developing nuclear weapons, adding that financial pressure against the Islamic Republic must be stepped up in order to make Tehran understand that its actions have a price.

The ambassador noted that when it comes to the Iran, the ties between Washington and Jerusalem have improved since President Barack Obama came to power. “It’s natural for friends to disagree occasionally,” he added.

Addressing the turmoil in Israel’s neighboring nations, Shapiro said that the situation has turned unpredictable. He said that while the US cannot decide who will rule Syria and Egypt, there is a chance that the revolutions there will take a dangerous turn.

“We must make sure that Israel can deal with these changes,” he said.

Shapiro also tackled the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, stressing that the two-state solution serves both sides’ interests. He said that progress on the issue can only be made through dialogue, and that any such progress would reassert Israel’s legitimacy within the international community.

Top U.S. General to meet with IDF chief on joint Israel-U.S. security challenges – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

IDF says joint discussion with senior IDF staff would deal with cooperation between the two countries’ armies and the joint security challenges they face.

By Gili Cohen

The Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, will meet with his Israeli counterparts on Friday in a bid to coordinate steps and clarify Israel’s intentions with regard to a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear installations.

Gen. Dempsey arrived in Israel on Thursday on his first visit to the country. He will meet on Friday with Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, followed by a meeting with the head of the IDF planning division, Maj. Gen. Ido Nechushtan, and the head of the IDF’s intelligence division, Maj. Gen. Aviv Kochavi.

	Joint Chiefs Chairman Army Gen. Martin Dempsey.
	Photo by: AP

The IDF said the joint discussion with senior IDF staff would deal with cooperation between the two countries’ armies and the joint security challenges they face.

Gen. Dempsey will also meet with Defense Minister Ehud Barak, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, and will pay a visit to the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial and museum.

On Thursday, evening Dempsey had dinner in Tel Aviv with Gantz. The two also met earlier in the week at the NATO headquarters, where they discussed enhanced regional cooperation to prevent weapon smuggling in the Middle East.

DEBKA.

USS Abraham Lincoln

A mosquito came to the lion one day with a challenge. The mosquito said to the lion, “I am not afraid of you, for you are not stronger than me. You don’t agree? Well, what kind of strength do you have? Claws to scratch with and teeth for biting? I am, in fact, far stronger than you. Let’s go and fight it out. The mosquito sounded his trumpet and flew onto the lion’s face, biting the lion around the nose where his face was not covered with hair. The lion could only wear himself out by scratching about with his claws in vain, until he finally admitted defeat.
This old fable is an apt allegory for the contest between Iran and the United States.
Iran’s leaders see overwhelming force piling up around them but retain their arrogant pose of superiority. Three US aircraft carriers, the USS Stennis, the USS Carl Vinson, the USS Abraham Lincoln and their strike forces are cruising around their doorstep and thousands of US Marines are on their way to the Gulf region as reinforcements.
The Israeli Defense Forces – IDF is getting set to strike the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program. Tuesday, Jan. 17, even the Israeli ex-Prime Minister Ehud Olmert added his voice to the advocates of military action by stating Israel has the resources and ability to go it alone.
Tehran also suspects a sting operation in the cancelling of the joint US-Israeli Austere Challenge 12 military exercise. The ten-day gap between the first joint communiqué of Jan. 5 on the landing of thousands of US troops and equipment for the exercise, and the announcement of its postponement, has led Iran’s strategists to believe that no exercise was in fact planned. It was just a cover story to camouflage the concentration in Israel of US military assets for attacking Iran, either by America or Israel.
Tehran is not put off by US emphasis on Iranian weaknesses
This buildup was followed by a flood of Western accounts of Iran’s weaknesses.
Tehran was depicted as isolated and plagued by factional infighting with its top figures, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, at daggers drawn. Iran’s Islamic leaders were said to be more scared of the March elections to the Majlis than of an impending military confrontation, because they know that it will be much harder to fake the election results this time than it was in 2009.
Iranian military prowess is also derided. The important Saudi website Arabnews.com ran an analysis by a former Saudi naval officer who maintained that Iran does not have the warships, submarines, planes and pilots for closing the Strait of Hormuz, only old iron equipped with outdated electronics.
The Saudi officer wrote: “In the military sense, Iran could float empty barrels in the middle of the navigation channel and declare to the world that they are mines.”
Instead of being downcast by the scorn heaped on their heads, Iran’s leaders welcome it as bolstering their Mosquito-beats-the Lion stance, say DEBKA-Net-Weekly‘s Iranian sources, or what Western military experts refer to as “The Iranian Swarming Tactic.”
Superior military prowess is not an issue because no Iranian war planner contemplates a large-scale naval battle No one in Tehran has any intention of pitting the Iranian fleet against US naval might for a major battle over the Strait of Hormuz. Even if a clash gets out of control, they don’t intend sinking a US aircraft carrier for fear of bringing American nuclear fury down on their heads.
Pinpoint harassment against superior military might
What the war planners in Tehran are charting is a mosquito-like campaign of pinpoint harassment against superior military might: an electronic trap for downing another US drone like the RQ-170 stealth drone Iran captured on Dec. 4, 2011, or the launching of one of their thousands of speedboats manned by suicide bombers against a small US or Gulf emirate warship.
These speedboats are not berthed at Iranian Revolutionary Guards naval bases. Disguised as fishing boats they mingle with the packs of fishermen and smugglers frequenting the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Horn of Africa, and are available at any moment to dart in for sudden strikes against warships or big oil tankers. The volunteer crews are willing to die in the fires they set if they cannot escape.
Iranian strategists are not overly scared of an American or Gulf Arab troops landing on their soil. They take it for granted that the any ground troops sent in by the US, Israel or an emirate will not seek to occupy Iranian territory. Even if battles ensue, Iran will hold the moral high ground of a defending power. Hitting an enemy aircraft or vessel can be magnified by its propagandists as a great Islamic Republican victory. Any fires set at its facilities will produce striking images to feed Iran’s propaganda machine.
That machine is already ticking over. Official Iranian rhetoric has been impregnated in the past month with blowhard arrogance, fist-shaking and crude threats.
Iran gambles on the American lion having no answers for the Iranian mosquito
Turkish intelligence was frankly fed information about Al Qods Brigades cells heading for Turkey to attack the US embassy and consulates Tuesday, Jan. 17, the day before Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi arrived in Ankara for the third round of high-level Iranian-Turkish talks since Jan. 5.
His arrival coincided with a harsh warning to Ankara to stop meddling in Syria in the Iranian Revolutionary Guards weekly Sobh’eh Sadeqh.
The paper accused Turkish troops of crossing into Syria as part of a Western campaign to destabilize the regime of President Bashar Assad: “Should Turkish officials insist on their contrary behavior and if they continue on their current path, serious issues are sure to follow. We will be put in the position of having to choose between Turkey and Syria. Syria’s justification in defending herself along with mirroring ideological perceptions would sway Iran toward choosing Syria.”
Tehran is setting the Syrian scene, therefore, for an Iranian-Turkish clash of arms.
The higher the flames of confrontation, the more profit Iranian leaders bargain for. They are gambling on the American lion failing to come up with an answer for the tactics of the Iranian mosquito.

DEBKA.

Binyamin Netanyahu

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stated that Iran has already decided to become a nuclear state. He urged action before it is too late, indicating that Iran must be stopped before it crosses the threshold to complete the construction of a nuclear weapon.
This statement came at the end of his talks in Holland with Dutch leaders Thursday, Jan. 19. It reached Gen. Martin Dempsey, who had just arrived on his first visit to Israel as Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, and gave him due notice of the subject of his conversation with the prime minister the next day.
This was also the message conveyed to President Barack Obama.
Because Netanyahu has kept the Iranian cards close to his chest, his words caught his own ministers, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, wrong-footed when in the last 48 hours they asserted that Iran had not yet decided whether to build a nuclear bomb and there was still time for US-led sanctions to work.
In any case, DEBKA-Net-Weekly‘s sources in Jerusalem and Washington advised taking these assertions with a large pinch of salt for two reasons:
1. When an informed Israeli official talks about Iran not yet building a nuclear weapon, he means that Tehran has not yet begun fitting a combat-ready nuclear warhead atop a missile.
2. None of the spokesmen or pundits on the Iranian issue knows exactly where Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stands on the Iranian nuclear program or is in a position to judge whether, when or how he may order the Israeli Air Force and missiles to go into action against Iran’s nuclear sites.
Netanyahu’s only confidant on his military plans is Defense Minister Ehud Barak. But our sources say that even he has been kept in the dark on Iran.
Netanyahu keeps his own counsel on Iran
Barak’s only card is that the prime minister is constitutionally barred from picking up the phone to the IDF chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, or any other general, and giving them direct orders, the way the US President as commander-in-chief can call top American generals. Netanyahu can only communicate instructions to the chief of staff after first obtaining the defense minister’s consent and approval.
But Netanyahu did not have to check with the defense minister before he informed President Barak Obama in their late-night phone conversation Thursday, Jan. 15, that Israel was canceling the Austere Challenge 12 joint US-Israeli war game scheduled for April.
So when word of the exercise’s postponement was announced from Washington last weekend, it sent shock waves through Israel’s military and security establishment. They had received the impression that the Obama administration had made the decision, which was unprecedented in the history of US-Israeli joint drills.
They received their second shock when the US was seen halting the transfer to Israel of substantial numbers of troops who were scheduled to take part in joint practices of anti-missile systems including highly sophisticated interceptors.
It looked to Israel’s defense and military chiefs like a serious and dangerous diversion of US military plans for war with Iran and/or a potential regional flare-up in its wake.
Israel’s security elite received its third shock Tuesday, Jan. 17, when debkafile‘s military sources revealed for the first time that it was Netanyahu who called off the exercise – not President Obama.
Netanyahu does not trust sanctions to work or Obama to strike
On Wednesday, Jan. 18, Defense Minister Barak tried to limit some of the damage to US-Israel relations. He told an Armed Forces Radio interviewer that the government was still “very far from a decision” about attacking Iran over its nuclear program.
He was trying to smooth the path to the talks ahead of Gen. Dempsey with Israel’s security and military chiefs.
But Washington is fully aware that until the US general hears these words from the horse’s mouth, i.e., Prime Minister Netanyahu neither he nor Washington can be sure whether Barak spoke for himself or represented Netanyahu.
As to the prime minister’s motives in calling off the joint exercise, DEBKA-Net-Weekly‘s sources report that it was his way of “banging on the table” over what he sees as US procrastination on Iran on several counts:
1. Netanyahu does not trust American and European sanctions to produce the desired result of slowing Iran’s momentum toward a nuclear weapon, or believe that President Obama will ever give the order to strike Iranian nuclear sites. And even if he does at some point, it will be too late: Once Iran starts building its first nuke, it will have the capacity to produce at least three more every year and build a veritable nuclear arsenal.
The prime minister is utterly convinced that Israel cannot afford to let Iran attain nuclear weapons. He is also aware of the solemn pledges he made in his 2008 election campaign and thereafter to stop Iran going nuclear. Breaking this pledge after nearly three years at the helm would discredit him in the eyes of the Israeli voter and very likely cost him his chances of being returned to power in the 2013 general election.
Washington neglects to pick up Iran’s gauntlets
2. Netanyahu feels that Israeli understandings with the US on the Iranian nuclear issue are eroding Israel’s defense credibility and deterrent strength. A high-ranking Israeli source complained this week that President Obama and his Iranian policy strategists have chosen to ignore the gauntlets the Iranians keep on throwing down at their feet, starting from the downing of the US RQ-170 stealth drone over Iran on December 4.
Tuesday, Jan. 17, Tehran after ignoring President Obama’s demand Dec. 12 for the drone’s return, made a sneering offer to send Washington a small toy model of the missing drone in red plastic.
The Obama administration also turned the other cheek to the announcement on Jan. 9 that 20-percent grade uranium enrichment had begun at the underground Fordo plant.
For three weeks, Washington has avoided challenging the threat made on Jan. 3 by Lt.-Gen. Ataollah Salehi, commander of the Iranian Army, to forcibly bar the USS Stennis aircraft carrier or “any enemy ships” access to the Strait of Hormuz.
So far, no American aircraft carriers have put the Iranian threat to the test, notwithstanding Defense Secretary Leon Panetta‘s definition of freedom of navigation through the strategic strait as a red line for the United States.
The Iranians didn’t bother to answer the letter President Obama sent their Supreme Leader last week.
Israel committed to action after Fordo went on stream
Israel finds it hard to understand why Obama administration officials made such a hullabaloo about the assassination of the senior Iranian nuclear scientist Prof. Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, deputy chief of the uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, in North Tehran on Jan. 11. Their emphatic condemnation and denial of responsibility implicitly directed the finger at Israel.
3. Three months ago, Defense Minister Barak warned twice that Israel would not be able to live with the wholesale transfer of Iran’s forbidden nuclear facilities underground, starting when Fordo went on stream. Barak noted that from that moment on, neither the US nor Israel would have access to those sites for surveillance. They would find themselves totally in the dark about Iran’s nuclear activities. Before that happened, he warned, Israel would have to take action.
Netanyahu is of the opinion that Israel cannot afford to lose credibility in the eyes of Iran. He also thinks that by letting these Iranian provocations go by without response, Washington is not only encouraging Iran to persevere in its course but also strengthening the hands of its allies, Syrian President Bashar Assad and the radical Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
(See a separate item in this issue on Syria).
Tehran for its part does not credit the US-Israel rift and believes it is an exercise in deception to pull the wool over Iranian eyes. (More on Iran’s take in a separate article.)

The Bibi-Obama clash – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Analysis: Israel-US ties hit another nadir over disagreements on response to Iran threat

The Iranian theater is simmering these days. Iran’s economy is in trouble, the ruling conservative camp is threatened domestically and internationally, and the regime is anxious. Even though almost all sides are not interested in a confrontation, the situation may very well boil over and lead to military escalation. That’s what happens when the interests of the major players contradict each other, even on the same side of the court. Israel and the United Statesare facing a head-to-head clash the likes of which we’ve rarely seen, as part of an ongoing crisis stemming from lack of faith between the two countries’ leaderships.

But first we must understand the Iranian interest: To reach the so-called “nuclear threshold” while at the same time completing the missile program and fortifying Tehran’s nuke sites to make them immune, or almost immune, to an aerial strike. Iran aims to achieve all this without facing stifling economic sanctions already formulated by the US and the West but not yet imposed. In a few months, Tehran’s ally Bashar Assad may be able to overcome Syria’s domestic uprising. Then, Iran’s ability to threaten Israel and the West via the immense arsenal of missiles and rockets handed over to Syria, Hezbollah and the Palestinians in Gaza will be doubled.

n short, Iran is playing for time. To that end, it waves carrots and sticks in the West’s and mostly in America’s face. The major stick is a blockade of the Hormuz Straits. The threat is meant to boost oil prices, a move that will undermine the unstable European economies and America’s recovering economy, while at the same time enriching Iran’s coffers, which are desperate for cash. The Straits are also a national symbol and placing it at the eye of the storm is meant to rally the Iranian nation around its leadership.

On the carrot side, Iran has suddenly informed that International Atomic Energy Agency of Tehran’s willingness to respond to the IAEA’s “questions” regarding nuclear arms development. Thus far, Iran refused to discuss relevant information, claiming it was fabricated. Moreover, IAEA inspectors were invited to visit Iran’s new uranium-enrichment facility, deep underground in a Revolutionary Guards base near the city of Qom. These two developments are supposed to take place towards the end of the month, with at least two months elapsing before the IAEA drafts a report.

The Iranians are also signaling their willingness to re-launch negotiations with the Europeans, Russia, China and the US on the nuclear program, which Tehran says is meant for peaceful purposes. However, Iran presented a condition: No sanctions during the negotiations.

Israel’s interest is to thwart Iran’s plans. The concern here is that not only will Tehran advance its nuclear program, but also manage to fortify it and move its facilities so deep underground that an Israeli strike would be ineffective. It’s also clear that if only they decide to do so, the Americans possess the resources to paralyze Iran’s nuclear program, even if an Israeli strike only achieves partial success. The critical question is what would happen if the Iranians fail to stop despite the paralyzing sanctions. Will officials in Washington decide to strike under such circumstances? There’s no certainty at all.

The oil factor

By the time the Americans weigh their options and make a decision, the Iranians may complete their fortification project, thereby causing Israel to miss the last chance to launch a successful, effective preventative strike. This is the reason why Israel pushes the US and Europe to impose the gravest possible sanctions on Iran in the coming weeks, while also proceeding full steam ahead with the secret war on Tehran.

Israel claims that only should the West exert heavy pressure, which would make Iran’s regime fear for its very survival, there would be a slight chance for practical results. Hence, Israeli officials at all levels of government are aiming to convince the West that a military option must be a realistic threat. For that reason, Jerusalem is also aiming to show that it would not hesitate to launch a strike, even at the price of a missile attack on our home front. By the way, Israeli experts estimate that the response would be must less devastating and bloody that what is commonly believed.

Israel is not willing to coordinate a strike with the US in advance, justifying the refusal by showing concern for America’s global status and interests – so that if Israel strikes alone, the US would not be accused of collaboration. It is very possible that these types of considerations prompted Israel to postpone the major missile defense drill planned for April. Despite this, should Netanyahu decide to strike, he will give the Americans enough time to put their forces in the Persian Gulf on alert, so that they don’t suffer great harm as result of the Iranian response.

The intelligence information available to Israel and to the US is very similar. Hence, America’s top officials do not reject Israel’s assessment regarding the pace of the Iranian nuclear project’s development. However, the US has a variety of vital regional interests that must be secured. Moreover, the means possessed by the Americas for handling the nuke threat are much more effective and powerful than Israel’s. Hence, the ObamaAdministration’s “Iran strategy” and the timetable for executing it almost necessarily clash with the moves desired by decision-makers in Jerusalem.

The essence of America’s strategy is to prevent Iran from securing nuclear arms but at the same time do everything to avoid military conformation, as not to cause oil prices to skyrocket. Such blow, at the time of economic recovery, would hurt Obama’s re-election chances in November. Iran can also disrupt America’s efforts to put a dignified end to the military intervention in Afghanistan.

American double standard

This is the core of the conflict. The Americans want to give their strategy a chance and more time, and show patience in respect to the imposition of stifling sanctions. Obama and his associates also demand that Israel refrain from striking, coordinate its moves, and where possible avoid any step that could infuriate the Iranians and push them away from the negotiating table, including assassinations of nuclear scientists and mysterious explosions attributed to Israel.

For that reason, Secretary of Defense Panetta, who approves mass assassinations of Taliban and al-Qaeda members by drone, rushed to condemn the latest killing in Tehran and even hinted to Israel’s involvement. All of it was apparently done in order to appease the anxious Iranians and bring them to the negotiating table.

The story is different in respect to the Hormuz Straits, where the Iranians managed to complicate matters. As opposed to its advice to Israel, the US shows zero tolerance to an Iranian threat against the West’s energy sources and Arab oil producers. In a letter sent to Iran’s supreme leader Khamenei, Obama announced that should the threat materialize it would be perceived as a declaration of war, thereby prompting a commensurate response.

The double standard shown by the US regarding the Iranian issue outrages Israel’s forum of top eight government ministers and pushes the ties between the administrations to yet another nadir. Indeed, the confrontation has almost become open. Netanyahu’s angry statement regarding the need to immediately impose painful sanctions on Iran was uttered even though it clearly undermined Obama’s campaign.

The Americans are sensitive to the president being portrayed as indecisive and as one who fears the imposition of sanctions, an image that may also harm him among Jewish voters. Hence, Washington made sure to hit back. The decisive message has been conveyed via the media as well, for example through Roger Cohen’s latest column in the New York Times which urged Netanyahu to refrain from striking Iran and interfering in American politics.

This week, the US Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dempsey, will arrive for talks with senior Israeli security officials. He will aim to convince Israel to show restraint and coordinate its moves by making note of the generous, almost unprecedented military aid offered to Israel by the Obama Administration. Another American card will be general clarification as to US military plans and preparations to curb Iran’s nuclear project. Should all else fail, Dempsey may also share the extreme scenario that would prompt the US to act.

In response, the American general will ask, and apparently not get, an Israeli pledge to coordinate any unordinary operation. However, Jerusalem is expected to offer a pledge to act responsibly and show restraint as long as Washington and its allies firmly utilize their strategy for curbing Iran’s nukes. After all, when Israel’s strategy clashes with what’s good for America’s economy and with the re-election chances of a serving president, officials in Jerusalem better think twice. Moreover, even here officials admit that the pressure on Iran is starting to bear fruit.

PM: Iran already decided to becom… JPost – Diplomacy & Politics.

(WTF ? ! Why is Netanyahu letting the Iranians know we’re going to hit them, and soon?  I have commented that I believed the conflict with the US and the statements by Barak were targeted disinformation.  Why show your hand?  I’m completely confused as to what’s “really” going on. – JW)

    Iran has already decided to become a nuclear state, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said Thursday during a visit to Holland.

Netanyahu told reporters that action should be taken before it is too late, and that sanctions on Iran must be intensified.

A day earlier, Netanyahu called the Iranian nuclear threat “the issue that most concerns Israel” and said that the Netherlands and Israel “stand together in opposing Iran’s feverish pursuit of nuclear weapons while declaring its intention to wipe Israel off the map.”

“Nuclear arms in Iran are a threat to Israel, the region and the world,” he said in a speech in Amsterdam. “Sanctions should be applied to Iran’s central bank and its oil exports – and they should be applied now.”

“I want to thank the Netherlands for its support for strong sanctions on Iran,” Netanyahu added.

He also reiterated his call to PA President Mahmoud Abbas to “start negotiations for peace with no preconditions” and lauded the Dutch Parliament for passing a motion last year calling on the Palestinian Authority to recognize Israel as the Jewish state. “The persistent [Palestinian] refusal to accept a Jewish state within any boundaries is the core of the conflict,” he said.

Netanyahu commended Holland’s wartime record, which this month became the subject of a heated public debate in the Netherlands.

“The people of the Netherlands can be proud that despite their small size, they possess the second highest number of Righteous Gentiles of any country – thousand of righteous who risked their lives and the lives of their families, their own children to save Jews,” Netanyahu said.

Bloomberg contributed to this report.

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 19, 2012, 6:56 PM (GMT+02:00)

US top soldier, Gen. Martin Dempsey with Defense Secretary Leon Panetta

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Thursday night, Jan. 19 that Iran had decided to become a nuclear state. He urged action before it was too late to stop Iran completing the construction of a nuclear weapon. His statement at the end of a visit to Holland gave Gen Martin Dempsey, on his first visit to Israel as Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the message he will be asked to take back to President Barack Obama. It also contradicted Defense Minister Ehud Barak’s statement that Tehran had not yet decided to go nuclear.

On Dec. 22, 2011, debkafile first revealed Tehran had reached a decision to go ahead and build a nuclear weapon.
Netanyahu has kept the Iranian cards close to his chest. His statement therefore caught wrong-footed the Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, who in the last 48 hours had asserted that Iran had not yet decided whether to build a nuclear bomb and there was still time for US-led sanctions to work.

debkafile reported earlier Thursday:

Gen. Martin Dempsey begins his first visit to Israel as Chairman of the Joint US Chiefs of Staff amid a major falling-out between the two governments over the handling of Iran’s nuclear weapon potential. debkafile‘s military and Washington sources confirm that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stands by the view that Iran is advancing its plans to build a nuclear bomb full speed ahead, undeterred even by the threat of harsher sanctions. Netanyahu therefore stands by his refusal of President Barack Obama’s demand for a commitment to abstain from a unilateral strike on Iran’s nuclear sites without prior notice to Washington.
The US president repeated this demand when he called the Israeli prime minister Thursday night Jan. 13. Netanyahu replied that, in view of their disagreement on this point, he preferred to cancel the biggest US-Israel war game ever staged due to have taken place in April. The exercise was to have tested the level of coordination between the two armies in missile defense for the contingency of a war with Iran or a regional conflict.

The prime minister was concerned that having large-scale US military forces in the country would restrict his leeway for decision-making on Iran.
In an effort to limit the damage to relations with the US administration, Defense Minister Ehud Barak struck a conciliatory note Wednesday, Jan. 18, saying, “Israel is still very far from a decision on attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities.”
Striking the pose of middleman, he was trying to let Washington know that there was still time for the US and Israel to reach an accommodation on whether and when a strike should take place.

debkafile‘s sources doubt that President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu are in any mood to respond to Barak’s effort to cool the dispute. Obama needs to be sure he will not be taken by surprise by an Israel attack in the middle of his campaign for re-election, especially since he has begun taking heat on the Iranian issue.

Republican rivals are accusing him of being soft on Iran.  And while the economy is the dominant election issue, a majority of Americans disapprove of his handling of Iran’s nuclear ambitions by a margin of 48 to 33 percent according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll this week.
Wednesday (Thursday morning Israel time), President Obama responded by reiterating that he has been clear since running for the presidency that he will take “every step available to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.”

Echoes of Barak’s arguments were heard in the words of US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, Wednesday night: “We are not making any special steps at this point in order to deal with the situation. Why? Because, frankly, we are fully prepared to deal with that situation now.”

Panetta went on to say that Defense Minister Barak contacted him and asked to postpone the joint US-Israeli drill “for technical reasons.”
Before he took off for a short trip to Holland, Netanyahu instructed Barak and IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz not to deviate in their talks with Gen. Dempsey from the position he took with the US president, namely, no commitment for advance notice to Washington about a unilateral strike against Iran.

The Israeli prime minister is convinced that, contrary to the claims by US spokesmen and media, that current sanctions are ineffective insofar as slowing Iran’s advance toward a nuclear weapon and the harsher sanctions on Iran’s central bank and oil exports are too slow and will take hold too late to achieve their purpose.

In any case, say Israeli officials, Washington is again signaling its willingness to go back to direct nuclear negotiations with Tehran, although past experience proved that Iran exploits diplomatic dialogue as grace time for moving forward on its nuclear ambitions.
US spokesmen denied an Iranian report that a recent letter from the US president to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei proposed opening a direct channel for talks.

Still those reports persist. American and European spokesmen were forced to deny a statement by Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi Wednesday on his arrival in Ankara that Iran and the big powers are in contact over the revival of nuclear negotiations.

Netanyahu fears that dialogue between Iran and the five powers plus Germany (the P5+1) will resume after bowing to an Iranian stipulation that sanctions be suspended for the duration of the talks. Once again, Tehran will be enabled to steal a march on the US and Israel and bring its nuclear weapon program to conclusion, unhindered by economic constraints.

Shapiro: US, Israel coordinated on Iran … JPost – International.

    US Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro said Thursday that the US and Israel were in complete coordination in efforts to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. While speaking at an event in Haifa, Shapiro said that the US and Israel were “focused on the same goal,” the prevention of a nuclear-armed Iran.

Shapiro stated that sanctions to reduce the amount of revenue Iran receives from its oil industry were “getting stronger everyday.”

The US envoy alluded to the possibility of military action against Iran, saying “all other options are still available,” but he added that there was still a lot of progress to be made on stopping Iran’s nuclear drive through sanctions.

Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor also addressed US strategic policy on Iran Thursday, saying that the United States’ leadership role within the international community is being threatened. Speaking in an interview with Army Radio, Meridor said that “the United States is perceived as a weakened country. Others don’t believe that it can provide the type of defense and security that is required of it.”

Referencing the ongoing Iranian nuclear pursuit, Meridor added that “if, in the end, Iran ends up becoming a nuclear power, that scenario will say something not only about Iran. It will also tell us a lot about the United States’ international standing, particularly within the Arab world where they are asking the US to stop Tehran.”

Meridor also spoke about the level of coordination between Israel and the United states on Iran’s nuclear program. He said that though the two allies share a common goal, “Israel is waging one campaign while the United States is waging a completely different one.”