WarSclerotic

A grim outlook for both intervention in Syria and sanctions on Iran – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

U.S. and allies face opposition to sanctions from nations dependent on Iranian oil; Syrian opposition strapped for cash.

By Zvi Bar’el

With Less than a week left on the Arab League observer mission’s timetable, it is already clear that their mission to Syria had been a failure. On Friday, one of the observers, Anwar Malek of Algeria, who has withdrawn from the monitoring team, said the Syrian regime pressured him and his colleagues, interrupted their work, planted cameras in their rooms, listened in on their conversations and even attempted to entice them to give a favorable report in various ways, including by providing them with women.

11 of the observers, including two Kuwaiti officers, were hurt when they were pelted by stones in Deir al-Zour.

	Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrives at Tehran’s Mehrabad airport after a visit to Latin American countries.
	Photo by: Reuters

A second observer mission slated to leave for Damascus, has meanwhile been postponed, while the Arab League awaits guarantees on their safety.

The Syrian opposition has reported the Assad regime, which has yet to be affected by the observers’ presence, is planning to escalate its crackdown on demonstrators, warning tens of thousands may be slaughtered.

In the face of this looming escalation, the opposition doesn’t have much to offer other than ask more sanctions be placed on the Syrian regime such as the denial of entry to Western countries to the wives of regime leaders, including Bashar Assad’s wife Asma, who holds a British passport, and the wife of Maher Assad, Bashar Assad’s brother who is orchestrating the military campaign against demonstrators.

With no serious international measures in sight and with the Arab League still dawdling and in no hurry to ask the UN to impose a no-fly zone over Syria, the Syrian military is operating completely freely in its drive to equip itself for the next round of fighting.

According to reports coming in from Lebanon, where over 500 defectors from the Syrian army have found refuge, the main problem facing the Syrian opposition is with obtaining weapons. Turkey isn’t allowing weapons through its border with Syria, and the Iraqi-Syrian border, through which the passage of goods and persons goes largely unfettered, is apparently not enough to provide the rebels need for weapons, perhaps because Iraqis are arming in preparation for an additional round of violence in the country themselves.

Lebanon is still the main supply depot for the Syrian opposition, and it looks as if business is booming. The price of a Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifle has recently skyrocketed from USD 1,200 to 2,100 a piece. A hand grenade now costs USD 500, and a rocket propelled grenade (RPG) launcher’s price is now USD 900. These prices require steady and substantial funding and it’s not clear who will provide the sums needed to arm not only the defectors but also the droves of civilians who wish to join in the fight.

According to brigadier general Mustafa Ahmed El-Sheik, the highest ranking officer to defect from the Assad’s army thus far, the free Syrian army will need at least a year, possibly a year and a half to topple the Syrian dictator.

The free Syrian army is planning to conscript 30 thousand defectors from the Syrian army, and deploy them in small six to seven person squadrons which will fight the Syrian regime employing tactics of a war of attrition.

Judging by Friday’s demonstrations held under the banner “For the Free Syrian Army,” in which at least 25 people were killed, the army of deserters will be able to achieve its objective if it will find a way to provide the equipment and ammunition required to arm such a large force.

Meanwhile, weapons and munitions continue to pour in to Syria. On Friday a Russian ship laden with about 60 tons of military equipment arrived at the Tartus port, on the Syrian Mediterranean coast. Russia claims it isn’t violating any sanctions on the rogue regime since the deal was signed before they were imposed. Cyprus, in which the ship had stopped to fuel en route, claimed that it couldn’t stop the shipment as it didn’t have the authority to inspect the cargo.

Russia will apparently oppose all international measures to impose further sanctions or attack Syria, and while the west tries to obtain the support of Syria and China for further action, it will be the Syrian demonstrators who will pay the price.

Who will impose the sanctions?

While the U.S. tries to garner support for more sanctions on Iran, it and its European allies know that even if they agree on more robust sanctions and circumvent the Security Council, they will still be short some key countries’ cooperation. Japan, for example, is still ‘mulling’ its participation; India had already announced it will not stop trading with Iran; and Turkey, which obtains a third of its oil supply from Iran, said it wouldn’t impose further sanctions unless impelled to do so by UN resolution. China, which imports 25 million tons of its oil from Iran annually, and whose dependence on Iranian oil is only expected to grow, as its consumption increases by 7.5 percent every year, could also be added to the list.

Turkey has been offering its services as negotiator between Iran and the Security Council’s five permanent members and Germany. The group had agreed to hold meetings in Turkey later this month, in an attempt to stop Iran’s uranium enrichment.

Iran on its part has been exhibiting “unusual” willingness to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors into its facilities, trying to convince the world it isn’t perusing a military nuclear program. But this is an empty gesture because even if inspectors are allowed into all of its facilities, at most, they will only be able to inspect its centrifuges and uranium enrichment procedures as it is generally believed Iran currently does not hold any nuclear weapons.

Turkey, which is trying to avoid the perception it working against the west on this issue, tried to convince the speaker of the Iranian parliament, Ali Larigani, who was on a state visit in Ankara and who in the past himself had been responsible for holding the negotiations with the west, to agree to a deal that would prevent another round of sanctions, but according to the statements coming out from Turkey, in the last few days, no real progress has been made.

A big question looming is how the Iranians would respond to the imposition of further sanctions. Will they realize their threat to blockade the straits of Hormuz or simply offer its remaining customers substantial discounts?

Saudi Arabia and its oil producing neighbors had already expressed their willingness to substantially raise the production of oil to make up for any shortage the sanctions may cause.

Washington sent a resolute and direct message to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warning him not to order the closing of the Hormuz Straits.

Despite this, the question remains, will Iran back down in the face of international pressure, with elections to the Iranian parliament slated for March. Is it conceivable that the incumbent Iranian ruling party will show signs of weakness in the face of the “Great Satan,” while a political campaign is ensuing in the country?

Iran warns Gulf countries not to replace its oil – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Iran tells its neighbors not to cooperate with Western efforts to sanction its oil exports; Saudi Arabia has said it is ready to meet any increase in consumer countries’ demand for oil.

By Reuters

Iran warned its Arab neighbors on Sunday not to raise crude output to replace Iranian oil in the event of an embargo by the European Union, Iran’s OPEC Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi was quoted as saying.

“The consequences of this issue are unpredictable. Therefore, our Arab neighbor countries should not cooperate with these adventurers and should adopt wise policies,” Khatibi said in an interview with the Sharq newspaper.

European Union countries have agreed in principle to embargo imports of Iranian oil as part of the latest Western efforts to step up heat on Iran.

They will look to other oil exporters to increase output to make up for the shortfall and Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali al-Naimi said on Saturday his country was ready to meet any increase in consumer countries’ demand.

Iran, OPEC’s second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia with output of about 3.5 million barrels per day, faces trade hurdles over its nuclear program, which the United States and  its allies say is aimed at building bombs.

Iran says it needs nuclear technology to generate electricity.

EU countries have proposed “grace periods” on existing contracts of one to 12 months to allow companies to find alternative suppliers before implementing an embargo.

Iran has threatened to block the vital oil shipping route of the Strait of Hormuz in the Gulf if sanctions imposed on its oil exports.

US looking for assurances Israel… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

    Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, will visit Israel next weekend as part of a reported new and concerted American effort to prevent Israel from taking unilateral military action against Iran.

Dempsey’s visit – reported in The Jerusalem Post last month – comes as US concern is growing over the possibility that Israeli military action is being planned for the near future. It will be Dempsey’s first meeting with IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz as the US’s highest ranking military officer.

In a recent interview, Dempsey said Israel would likely not update the US ahead of such an operation.

On Friday, The Wall Street Journal reported on contingency planning by the US in preparation for a possible Israeli military strike.

According to the report, the phone conversation between US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday was one of a series of messages warning Israel of the consequences of military action.

Israel and the US have reportedly been at odds recently regarding the preferred timetable for a strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities. The US has said military action will become a real option only after the Islamic Republic begins building a bomb. According to some reports, Israel has warned of other so-called red lines, such as the activation last week of the new underground uranium enrichment facility near Qom.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and other officials have failed to receive assurances from Israel that it is not planning a military strike soon.

Israel and the US are also working to finalize plans for the largest-ever missile defense drill that the two countries will hold later this year in Israel.

The drill, which will involve the deployment of thousands of US troops in Israel, will last around a week and will be the first time that a top US military commander will participate in the simulations.

Called “Austere Challenge,” the parties will simulate missile defense scenarios with the objective of creating a high level of interoperability so that, if needed, US missile defense systems will be able to work with Israeli systems during a conflict.

This year’s drill is unique in its size and scope and will also be the first time that commander of the US European Command, Adm. James Stavridis, will participate in the simulations. In the event of war, the EUCOM commander will be responsible for approving Israeli requests to deploy US missile defense systems in Israel.

On Friday, The New York Times reported that the US had used a secret diplomatic channel to tell Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameneni that closing the Strait of Hormuz would constitute crossing a “red line.”

Blocking the strait, a strategic shipping lane linking the Gulf of Oman with the Persian Gulf, would constitute a “red line” for the US, as would Iranian efforts to build a nuclear weapon, Panetta said last week.

During a briefing to reporters in Washington, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, “The United States and the international community have a strong interest in the free flow of commerce and freedom of navigation in all international waterways. We have consistently communicated our views on that subject and concerns on those issues to the Iranians and to the international community broadly.”

He added, “We are engaged in the kinds of diplomatic efforts that you would expect in a situation like this.”

In an interview with The Australian over the weekend, Netanyahu said he believed that international pressure and sanctions had influenced Tehran. “For the first time I see Iran wobble,” he told the Sydney-based newspaper.

“If these sanctions are coupled with a clear statement from the international community led by the US to act militarily to stop Iran if the sanctions fail, Iran may consider not going through the pain. There’s no point in gritting your teeth if you’re going to be stopped anyway. In any case, the Iranian economy is showing signs of strain,” he told the paper.

He added that Iran was now enriching uranium in two facilities. “I believe this is a great danger to the peace of the Middle East and the world as a whole,” the prime minister said.

Report: Mossad killed Iranian scientist – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Western intelligence sources tell Time Mossad behind assassination of nuclear expert last week; ‘I don’t feel sad for him,” Israeli official says

Dudi Cohen

Israel’s Mossad was behind the recent killing of a senior Iranian nuclear scientist, Western intelligence sources told Time Magazine.

“Like three previous Iranian scientists ambushed on their morning commute, the latest nuclear expert to die on his way to work was a victim of Israel’s Mossad,” Time reported Saturday.

Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan was killed by a bomb placed on his car by a motorcyclist in Tehran on Wednesday, prompting officials in Iran to blame Israel for the assassination.

“Yeah, one more,” a senior Israeli official reportedly told Time in reference to Roshan’s killing. “I don’t feel sad for him.”

Intelligence sources told the magazine last week’s attack “followed the pattern of previous operations planned by Mossad and carried out over the past two years by Iranians trained and paid by Israel’s spy agency.”

Speaking in Cuba, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad commented Thursday on the latest assassination, saying that Iran was “being punished for no reason.”

Speaking before students at Havana University, Ahmadinejad said: “Have we ever attacked anyone? Have we sought more than we need? Never. We only want to pursue justice.”

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Thursday that those behind the killing of a nuclear scientist in Tehran would be punished.

ElBaradei pulls out of Egyptian presidency race | Reuters.

(Note: Not Iran related, but says more about the failed Egyptian spring than anything else I’ve read.  I wanted my readers to know about it. – JW)

(Reuters) – Mohamed ElBaradei pulled out of the race to become Egyptian president on Saturday, the Nobel Peace Prize winner saying “the previous regime” was still running the country which has been governed by army generals since Hosni Mubarak was deposed.

“My conscience does not permit me to run for the presidency or any other official position unless it is within a real democratic system,” said the former head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog, once seen a frontrunner for the post Mubarak held for three decades.

ElBaradei has been a vocal critic of the military council which has been governing Egypt since Mubarak was toppled in February, swept from power by mass protests that were driven by demands for accountable and democratic government.

The military council’s opponents say it is seeking to preserve power and privilege in the post-Mubarak era and do not believe the generals’ repeated promises that they will surrender power to civilian rule at the end of June.

A favourite of Egyptian liberals and initially seen as a leading candidate, the withdrawal of the International Atomic Energy Agency’s head until 2009 was, in part, an admission that he could not win, experts said.

“ElBaradei acknowledges he may not have the grassroots support to win in this presidential election,” said political analyst and activist Hassan Nafaa. “He also realizes that the next president will not have full powers and will be bound by the current system,” he added.

“By pulling out of the presidential race, he is aligning himself with the youth movement and the liberals, who have been sidelined in the interim process by Islamists.”

The bespectacled lawyer’s campaign had been weakened by divisions. In November, some of his campaign staff quit, saying he had become cut off from his grassroots base.

ElBaradei took aim at the way the transition was being managed. “The randomness and the mismanagement of the transitional period are pushing the country away from the aims of the revolution,” he said in a statement.

His remarks added to a recent wave of criticism targeting the generals. Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said this week they looked unlikely to surrender all of their powers by the middle of the year, as promised.

His Carter Center, which has been monitoring the legislative elections, said the council’s lack of transparency had created “uncertainty about their commitment to full civilian leadership.”

Headed by Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the man who was Mubarak’s defense minister for two decades, the military council says it has no interest in government and is working to move Egypt towards democracy.

BROTHERHOOD MEETS PM

Egypt’s strongest political force, Islamist groups, have dominated elections for the lower house of parliament which got underway in November and are now coming to a close.

The Muslim Brotherhood, founded in 1928, says it has won 46 percent of the seats, with the more hardline Nour Party winning some 23 percent of the seats. The Brotherhood, entering politics in the shape of the Freedom and Justice Party, supports the military council’s transition plan.

FJP leaders on Saturday discussed their legislative agenda with Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri, appointed by the council in November. The FJP says it will work with the Ganzouri government, due to stay in office until the middle of the year.

“We aim to find common ground between the government and parliament,” Saad el-Katatni, the FJP secretary-general, told Reuters, adding: “We have not decided on who we will join forces with once parliament convenes.”

One of Egypt’s main liberal political parties said on Monday it would boycott upper house elections later this month in protest against what it says were violations committed by Islamist parties in earlier voting rounds.

ElBaradei said he would now work to help Egypt’s youth become part of the political process.

Reflecting on the achievements of the uprising, he said: “The most important gain is that the barrier of fear has been broken and that the people have regained their faith that they are capable of change.”

In a move typically undertaken by a head of state, Tantawi will go to Libya on Monday, his first diplomatic mission since the end of parliamentary elections. An official source told Reuters Tantawi plans more diplomatic missions in the region.

There has been speculation that the army chief might run for president, effectively extending the army’s grip on power. A campaign backing him for president was launched in October. Tantawi has denied any such plan.

(Additional reporting by Lin Noueihed; Writing by Tom Perry; Editing by Matthew Jones and Ben Harding)

Countering Iran’s Menacing Persian Gulf Navy – Jeffrey Goldberg – International – The Atlantic.

Jeffrey Goldberg

The United States is warning the Iranians not to provoke a conflict in the Persian Gulf. U.S. officials are preoccupied by the threat posed by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, which controls a large fleet of speedboats that could harass shipping in the Gulf:

The secret communications channel was chosen to underscore privately to Iran the depth of American concern about rising tensions over the strait, where American naval officials say their biggest fear is that an overzealous Revolutionary Guards naval captain could do something provocative on his own, setting off a larger crisis.
“If you ask me what keeps me awake at night, it’s the Strait of Hormuz and the business going on in the Arabian Gulf,” Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert, the chief of naval operations, said in Washington this week.

I wrote about the Revolutionary Guard Navy threat last October in my Bloomberg View column; here’s an excerpt:
This February (2011), a U.S. Navy P-3 Orion surveillance plane, on routine patrol over the Persian Gulf, drew some unwelcome attention. An Iranian aircraft made such a close pass that the American pilots reported that they could see the faces of their Iranian adversaries. The Pentagon was quickly notified of the near- collision.

Two months later, the British warship HMS Iron Duke, patrolling the waters off Bahrain, was suddenly challenged by an approaching speedboat. Every sailor in every Western navy is acquainted with the al-Qaeda suicide-boat attack on the USS Cole in Yemen in 2000, in which 17 Americans were killed, so the Iron Duke’s crew was quickly ordered to fire warning shots to the side of the speedboat. The two men in the approaching craft took the suggestion to heart, and sped away. The identities of the men are unknown, but some British and U.S. officials reached the highly plausible conclusion that they were part of the growing navy of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps.

Yes, the Revolutionary Guards have their own navy — a bigger one, in fact, than Iran’s traditional navy. (The traditional navy has 18,000 sailors; the IRGC’s navy reportedly has 20,000 personnel, as well as a large fleet suitable for waging the sort of asymmetric warfare it favors.) And the guards — protectors of Ayatollah Khomeini’s dystopian vision for a radicalized Muslim world, enthusiastic exporters of terrorism, and rulers of a state within a state — are becoming ever more aggressive in the Gulf.

This year has seen a spike in such encounters. Western ships in the Gulf are now regularly shadowed by the smaller crafts of the Iranians. When U.S. strategists make lists of the many challenges posed by Iran, the capabilities of the IRGCN, as it is known, quickly rise to the top. The Gulf, of course, is indispensable to the smooth flow of energy resources (in 2009, more than 15 percent of oil traded worldwide moved through the Strait of Hormuz, the chokepoint between the Gulf and the Arabian Sea), and the Iranians are well aware of their ability to strangle the global economy.

Only Iran’s nuclear program — the one its leaders claim is entirely peaceful in nature even as they develop the technology to make triggers for nuclear weapons — is a greater preoccupation.

The Navy Is Depending on Dolphins to Keep the Strait of Hormuz Open – Global – The Atlantic Wire.

If Iran closes the Strait of Hormuz, the U.S. Navy has a backup plan to save one-fifth of the world’s daily oil trade: send in the dolphins.

The threat of Iran closing the strait has reached a fever pitch, reports today’s New York Times, with U.S. officials warning Iran’s supreme leader that such moves would cross a “red line” provoking a U.S. response. Iran could block the strait with any assortment of mines, armed speed boats or anti-ship cruise missiles but according to Michael Connell at the Center for Naval Analysis, “The immediate issue [for the U.S. military] is to get the mines.” To solve that problem, the Navy has a solution that isn’t heavily-advertised but has a time-tested success rate: mine-detecting dolphins.

“We’ve got dolphins,” said retired Adm. Tim Keating in a Wednesday interview with NPR. Keating commanded the U.S. 5th Fleet in Bahrain during the run-up to the Iraq war. He sounded uncomfortable with elaborating on the Navy’s use of the lovable mammals but said in a situation like the standoff in Hormuz, Navy-trained dolphins would come in handy:

KEATING: They are astounding in their ability to detect underwater objects.

NPR’s TOM BOWMAN: Dolphins were sent to the Persian Gulf as part of the American invasion force in Iraq.

KEATING: I’d rather not talk about whether we used them or not. They were present in theater.

BOWMAN: But you can’t say whether you used them or not.

KEATING: I’d rather not.

The invasion of Iraq was the last time the minesweeping capability of dolphins was widely-touted. “Dolphins – – which possess sonar so keen they can discern a quarter from a dime when blindfolded and spot a 3-inch metal sphere from 370 feet away — are invaluable minesweepers,” reported The San Francisco Chronicle. In 2010, the Seattle Times reported that the Navy has 80 bottlenose dolphins in the San Diego Bay alone. They are taught to hunt for mines and drop acoustic transponders nearby. The photo above shows a dolphin with a tracking device attached to its fin. According to a report in 2003, the dolphins only detect the mines. Destroying them is left up to the Navy’s human divers. Still, the mammals are large enough to detonate a live mine, a prospect that doesn’t delight animal rights groups.

When this was an issue in 2003, lobbying for the rights of dolphins was much more politically sensitive given that scores of U.S. men and women were being sent into battle as well. “We’re not going to second-guess the Navy at a time of war,” said Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist with the Humane Society. “But we don’t support the use of marine mammals for military use.” According to the Chronicle, the two groups emphasized that “they were not placing the lives of animals above those of troops. But they questioned the ethics and wisdom of using wild animals to ensure safe passage through hostile waters.” Petitions have also been sent to the Defense Department protesting the use of dolphins:

[Since] forces regard the Navy dolphins as enemy dolphins, there might be attempts on the dolphins lives. There is also the risk of indiscriminate killing of wild dolphin populations because any dolphin can potentially be an enemy dolphin. Also, the inherent danger that a dolphin may be injured or killed in mine-hunting operations remains a very real threat.

Back in 2003, Tom LaPuzza, a spokesman for the San Diego-based Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center, cast aside the skepticism about how the dolphins were treated:

By nature, dolphins are naturally reliable and trustworthy animals who seem to enjoy pleasing their human handlers, LaPuzza said. When they are released into the ocean for missions, “they come back to the handler, the trainer” ashore or on a ship.

Nasrallah responds to Ban: Hezbollah won’t… JPost – Middle East.

( A chip off Khamenei ‘s block… – JW)

    Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah shot back at UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon Saturday, saying that Hezbollah will not give up its weapons and that the top UN official’s concern over its armament “pleases” him.

During a visit to the Lebanese capital over the weekend, Ban said he was “deeply concerned about the military capacity of Hezbollah and … the lack of progress in disarmament.” Nasrallah responded a day later, “We want you (the UN), the US and Israel to be concerned.”

“Our concern is that our people are comforted that there is a resistance in Lebanon and we will not allow a new occupation or another violation,” Nasrallah said in a video message to a Shi’ite religious event.

The Hezbollah leader added that he will not disarm or slow the group’s armament, saying that path is the “only guarantee” to safeguarding Lebanon. “We confirm that our choice is the path of resistance and the arms of the resistance,” he added.

“The resistance,” Nasrallah boasted, “is here to stay. Its power and its readiness will continue to grow.”

Ban Ki-moon demanded on Friday the disarmament of the anti-Israel movement, which had said his visit to Lebanon was not welcome.

“I am deeply concerned about the military capacity of Hezbollah and … the lack of progress in disarmament,” he told a news conference after meeting Lebanese leaders.

“That is why we discussed this matter very seriously and I strongly encouraged President (Michel) Suleiman to initiate a convening of this national dialogue to address these issues…All these arms outside of the authorized state authority, it’s not acceptable,” Ban declared.

The UN secretary-general’s trip to Lebanon made waves even before he arrived, with one Hezbollah leader saying he was not welcome, a stance criticized by Lebanese politicians opposed to the armed Shi’ite Islamist movement and its Syrian and Iranian patrons.

Hezbollah accepted an expansion of the UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) in the south after its devastating 2006 war with Israel, but rejects a UN Security Council resolution that demands that it lay down its military arsenal, as all other Lebanese armed groups did after the 1975-90 civil war.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Israeli official: Report of Mossad agents posing as CIA spies ‘absolute nonsense’ – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News.

Senior Israeli government official issues complete denial of Foreign Policy report that Mossad agents posed as CIA officers to recruit Pakistani terrorists to carry out attacks in Iran.

By Amir Oren

A senior Israeli government official has called “absolute nonsense” a Friday report in Foreign Policy that Mossad agents posed as CIA officers in order to recruit members of a Pakistani terror group to carry out assassinations and attacks against the regime in Iran.

Quoting U.S. intelligence memos, Foreign Policy’s Mark Perry reported that the Mossad operation was carried out in 2007-2008, behind the back of the U.S. government, and infuriated then U.S. President George W. Bush.

Perry quoted a number of American intelligence officials and claimed that the Mossad agents used American dollars and U.S. passports to pose as CIA spies to try to recruit members of Jundallah, a Pakistan-based Sunni extremist organization that has carried out a series of attacks in Iran and assassinations of government officials.

Israel generally refrains for responding to reports on alleged Mossad activities. However, in the wake of Perry’s report as well as the official U.S. condemnation of the killing of an Iranian nuclear scientist in Tehran earlier this week, Israeli officials were quick to issue a complete denial of the report.

The concern was that leaving Perry’s report without a response would revive tensions that existed between the U.S. and Israeli intelligence communities following the Jonathan Pollard affair in the 1980s. Pollard was sentenced to life in a U.S. prison after being convicted of spying for Israel.

The senior Israeli government official said that if there were any truth the claims in Perry’s report, Meir Dagan, the head of the Mossad at the time of the alleged operation, would have been declared a persona non grata in the U.S. and that “Dagan’s foot would not have walked again in Washington”.

Qatar emir suggests sending troops to Syri… JPost – Middle East.

    BEIRUT – The emir of Qatar has suggested sending Arab troops to halt the bloodshed in Syria, the first Arab leader to propose such a move, in an interview to be broadcast on CBS’s “60 Minutes”.

Asked if he was in favor of Arab nations intervening in Syria, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani said: “For such a situation to stop the killing … some troops should go to stop the killing.”

CBS said on its website that the interview would be broadcast on Sunday.

Qatar’s prime minister heads the Arab League committee on Syria and has said killings have not stopped despite the presence of Arab monitors sent there last month to check whether the authorities are complying with an Arab peace plan.

In the preview of the interview on the website, the emir did not spell out how any Arab military intervention might work.

US official says Iran arming Syria to suppress protests

A recent visit of the heads of the Quds force to Syria is the “strongest indication yet” that Iran is supplying the Assad regime with weapons, AFP quoted a senior US official as saying Saturday.

Major-General Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds force, visited Syria this month, AFP reported. “We think this relates to Iranian support for the Syrian government’s attempts to suppress its people,” the senior US official said.

“We are confident that he was received at the highest levels of the Syrian government, including by President Assad,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “The US government believes Iran has supplied Syria with munitions” for use in the military crackdown.

The United States has long suspected Iran of supplying Damascus with weapons as Assad struggles to cope with mass protests against his rule.

Earlier in the week, Turkish customs officials intercepted four trucks suspected of carrying military equipment from Iran to Syria.

Iran officially denied reports about arms shipments to Syria. A statement by the Iranian embassy in Turkey obtained by CNN Friday stated: “We deny such claims and we would like to state that the Islamic Republic of Iran sees people’s demands to be paid attention to as a way of providing domestic security and stability and believes that dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition is the way out from the current situation.”

The United Nations has said that more than 5,000 civilians have been killed in the unrest which erupted in March, inspired by Arab revolts elsewhere. Authorities accuse armed Islamist militants of killing 2,000 members of the security forces.

The crackdown against protest has been ongoing despite an Arab League monitoring mission, now about 165 strong, which began work on December 26. Its task is to verify if Syria is complying with an agreement to halt the crackdown. Some reports indicate that the killing of protesters has actually increased since the arrival of the League monitors.