WarSclerotic

Israel Hayom | ‘When Ahmadinejad wants a nuclear bomb, he will build one’.

If Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to build a nuclear bomb, “he will build one,” Ahmadinejad said, referring to himself in the third person, during an interview Tuesday with German public television station ZDF.

Commenting on accusations by the West that Iran is seeking to build a nuclear weapon, Ahmadinejad said, according to a Bloomberg translation of comments posted on Tuesday on ZDF’s website, “If Ahmadinejad were to build a bomb, he would announce it — and he would not be afraid of anybody.”

Asked whether Iran intends to build a bomb, the Iranian president was quoted as saying that atomic weapons were immoral and “belong to the last century,” and that, “We would never build an atomic bomb — but if we did build one, we wouldn’t be afraid to …”

“What does a country do if it’s attacked? What would the Americans do?” Ahmadinejad added, according to Bloomberg. “They would defend themselves, clearly. That’s what we would do.”

The Iranian president also said Israel’s establishment was “a colonialist plan that was born out of a lie. [The Jews] never controlled this land, they invented a blood-libel story called the Holocaust and the Palestinians are the ones who have to pay the price.”

On the occasion of the Persian New Year, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also delivered a speech to the country in which he addressed the nuclear issue. “We said that we do not have nuclear weapons in our possession and we will not build a bomb, but if there is any attack on us from our enemies, the U.S. or the Zionist regime, we will attack them with the same force with which they have attacked us.”

Khamenei added, “In time, when countries in the West are not able to get any more oil and gas, they will be forced to make concessions and this will be catastrophic for them.”

Meanwhile, Iran’s ally Russia is trying to persuade Israel and the U.S. to take the military option off the table on Iran. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on Tuesday about concerns that Iran might attack Israel, saying, “I am absolutely convinced that Iran will never decide to do this, if only because the threat to destroy Israel will also destroy ‘Palestine.’”

Despite Russia’s calls to abandon military options against Iran, Defense Minister Ehud Barak was expected on Wednesday to sign an agreement in Berlin according to which Germany will provide Israel with a sixth Dolphin submarine. According to foreign reports, the submarine can carry weapons, including nuclear warheads, and also enables Israel to launch a “second strike” on Iran in the event of a nuclear attack. The submarine fleet also enables Israel to conduct intelligence-gathering missions in areas far from its borders and to defend its waters. The estimated cost of the submarine is about 400 million euros (about $530 million).

Germany said on Tuesday that it would sell Israel the sixth military submarine and shoulder part of the cost, although it warned its ally that any military escalation with Iran could bring incalculable risks.

German Defense Minister Thomas de Maiziere said he shared Israel’s fear of a nuclear-armed Iran, and he was convinced Tehran aimed to make nuclear weapons, but he called for caution.

“I recommend all sides show urgent restraint, both in their rhetoric and their action. A military escalation would bring incalculable risks for Israel and the region, to the detriment of Israel,” he told reporters at a press conference in Berlin with Barak.

Barak, in contrast, said all options regarding Iran should remain on the table, apart from containment. “To accept a nuclear Iran would be inconceivable and unacceptable to the whole world,” he said.

Israel is threatening to take military action, with or without U.S. support, if Iran is deemed to be continuing to defy pressure to curb its nuclear projects. Iran insists its nuclear energy program is purely non-military.

Dialogue between Israeli and U.S. officials, meanwhile, continues over the Iranian nuclear threat. Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, who is visiting the U.S. and Canada, met Tuesday with his U.S. counterpart, Chairman of the Joints Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey. After their meeting, Dempsey wrote on his Facebook page, “Regular and candid dialogue is critical as we face common threats and challenges.”

Obama assails Iran’s ‘electronic curtain’ in video message

Speaking on the occasion of Nowruz, the Persian New Year, U.S. President Barack Obama accused Iran on Tuesday of imposing an “electronic curtain” on its citizens and promised new U.S. steps aimed at helping to ease the Iranian people’s access to the Internet and social media.

Speaking directly to ordinary Iranians in a video message marking the celebration, Obama acknowledged “continued tensions between our two countries,” which stem mostly from Iran’s defiance over its nuclear program.

But he insisted that the U.S. wanted a dialogue with Iran. “There is no reason for the United States and Iran to be divided from one another,” he said.

Obama’s overture to the Iranian people was the latest step in Washington’s push to ratchet up pressure on Tehran. He has urged Israel to hold off on any attack on Iran’s nuclear sites to allow more time for sanctions and diplomacy to work.

Renewing accusations of Iran’s suppression of its people, Obama said Iranians were “denied the basic freedom to access the information that they want.” He cited blocking of television and radio signals, monitoring of computers and cell phones and censoring of the Internet.

“Because of the actions of the Iranian regime, an electronic curtain has fallen around Iran,” Obama said in the video address, which was transmitted in Farsi as well as English. “Today, my administration is issuing new guidelines to make it easier for American businesses to provide software and services into Iran that will make it easier for the Iranian people to use the Internet.”

The steps appeared relatively modest, and it was unclear how much could be done without Iran’s cooperation.

The U.S. Treasury said its Office of Foreign Assets Control had spelled out a range of Internet services and software that could be exported to Iran, including online personal messenger services and supporting software, as well as browsers, document readers, personal data storage and mobile applications.

In his video message, Obama alluded to the Arab uprisings that have swept the Middle East over the past year, sometimes fueled by communication on social networking sites.

“We have learned once more that suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away,” he said.

Mass protests erupted in Iran in 2009 against the disputed re-election of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. But the demonstrations were crushed by Iranian security forces, who jailed scores of activists.

Obama urged Iran to respect its people’s rights “just as it has a responsibility to meet its obligations with regard to its nuclear program.” He said Iran would be “welcomed once more among the community of nations” if it met those commitments.

This entry was posted on March 21, 2012 at 4:46 PM and is filed under Uncategorized. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.