WarSclerotic

Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood chief urges Jihad for Jerusalem.

( How many billions is Obama giving these people? – JW )

Thursday, 11 October 2012

Israeli riot police take position at Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa Mosque compound during scuffles with Palestinian stone throwers. (AFP)

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Khamenei: West the aggressor, bu… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

Khamenei threatens Iran’s enemies, as Western powers plan new diplomatic push | The Times of Israel.

‘Reformulated’ proposal will offer Tehran relief from crippling sanctions, should the Islamic Republic agree to limit uranium enrichment

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, right, speaks with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon during the latter’s trip to the Islamic Republic in August (photo credit: AP/Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader)

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran’s supreme leader says the readiness of the country’s military is such that it will dispel any “thoughts of invasion” by the enemies of Iran.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted by state TV on Friday as saying that Iran would never “give in” to foreign attacks or any “act of aggression.”

The remarks came during Khamenei’s visit to an army base in the country’s northeast.

Khamenei says Iran’s readiness has weakened warmongering among the country’s enemies and limited an appetite for attacking Iran.

Britain’s The Guardian reported Friday that the so-called p5+1, a grouping comprised of the US, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China, plans to launch a new diplomatic drive to defuse the Iranian nuclear crisis in the next several months, after the US elections.

According to the report, a “reformulated” proposal will offer the Islamic Republic some relief from crippling economic sanctions in exchange for Iran’s limiting the level of uranium enrichment.

“We recognize that the Iranians need something more with which they can sell a deal at home, and we will expect real change on the other side,” said one European official regarding the new diplomatic initiative.

“If Iran is prepared to do enough, sanctions will be on the table,” said another Western diplomat, who added, “Sanctions are biting in Tehran and we’re not going to lift them without making solid progress on our concerns.”

Officials involved in negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program believe there’s a window of opportunity for diplomacy between the US elections on November 6 and next spring. Last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he did not discount the possibility of an Israeli or American attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities before spring 2013, “if [Tehran] continues at the current rate” of enrichment.

Israel considers a nuclear-armed Iran to be an existential threat, and despite the Islamic Republic’s repeated denials, Western powers suspect that Iran is pursuing a nuclear-weapons program.

IDF on guard for Iranian-Hizballah drones from Palestinian Gaza.

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report October 12, 2012, 1:32 PM (GMT+02:00)

Remains of the Iranian drone downed by Israel

The Hizballah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s threat Thursday night of more UAV’s over Israel aroused concern in the Israeli high command that Iranian drones had been smuggled into the hands of the Palestinian Hamas extremists ruling the Gaza Strip.

He implied that Tehran or Hizballah might ask Hamas to release them over Israel, possibly in coordination with UAV intrusions from Lebanon.
After rolling out Hizballah statistics claiming Israel had violated Lebanese airspace 20, 864 times (!), Nasrallah said in his televised speech: “This is our natural right and we will send them whenever we want and this will not be the last time.”
The successful penetration of two Iranian stealth drones – one from the Gaza Strip and one from Lebanon – would be celebrated in Tehran and Beirut as a major feat against the Zionist enemy, say debkafile’s military sources – especially after last Saturday, Oct. 6, when an Iranian UAV, which Nasrallah named “Ayyoub,” managed to fly over strategic Israeli sites including the nuclear reactor in Dimona before it was brought down.
Israeli surveillance has noted unusual Hamas activity of late to camouflage certain sites in the Gaza Strip, raising the suspicion that Hamas or the Iranian-backed Jihad Islami had taken delivery of a drone, drones or the disassembled components thereof.
If so, IDF sources would expect the Palestinian extremists to refrain from assembling those components for fear that a large flying object would be quickly spotted by Israeli surveillance and destroyed forthwith. Those sources believe, however, that Hizballah officers have arrived in the Gaza Strip to show Hamas technical crews how to assemble the drones at speed and launch them before Israeli intelligence watchers catch on.
As to the method of smuggling, military sources assume the parts were brought into Gaza piecemeal in small sections carried in the luggage of Palestinian officials flying to and from Beirut through Cairo international airport.  The Hamas delegation which visited Beirut and Tehran last month and signed military cooperation pacts with Hizballah will not have missed the chance of importing large UAV segments into the Gaza Strip on their return home.
In their talks with Nasrallah, Hamas leaders agreed to take active part in the Shiite terrorists’ covert operations inside Israel, as well as open hostilities by Iran, Hizballah or Syria against the Jewish State. That consent would have covered the launching of unmanned aerial vehicles from the Gaza Strip.

Report: Netanyahu agreed to full Golan Heights withdrawal – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Yedioth Ahronoth reports that in late 2010 PM, Barak conducted secret indirect talks with Assad; US documents reveal Israel agreed to return to June 4, 1967 lines in exchange for peace deal; negotiations were interrupted by uprising against Syrian president

Shimon Shiffer

The onset of the rebellion against Bashar Assad in January 2011 interrupted intense negotiations between the Syrian president and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, during which the latter agreed to a full Israeli withdrawal from the Golan Heights in exchange for a peace agreement, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Friday.

In the spring of 2010, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Baraklaunched secret indirect negotiations with Assad through American mediator Frederick Hoff, a former commander in the Marines and an expert on border demarcation in disputed areas.

Earlier this week Hoff resigned from his post as special US envoy to the Middle East. According to the Yedioth Ahronoth report, documents written by Hoff suggest that the negotiations were based on Netanyahu’s willingness to return to the June 4, 1967 lines, giving Damascus full control of the entire Golan Heights area. Israel captured the territory in the 1967 Mideast war.

American businessman and Netanyahu associate Ronald Lauder reportedly negotiated a similar deal in 1998, during Netanyahu’s first term as premier. At the time, Netanyahu denied that claim.

Netanyahu’s successor, Ehud Barak, also offered a Golan withdrawal for peace, but the talks failed.

Golan Heights (Photo: Reuters)

According to American sources, Netanyahu and Barak agreed to withdraw to the 1967 lines in exchange for a comprehensive peace deal that would include an Israeli “expectation” for the severing of ties between Syria and Iran. However, the sources said, the burgeoning deal did not include an explicit commitment by Assad to severe ties with the Islamic Republic.

The report said the sides did not agree on a timeline for the Israeli withdrawal: Syria wanted the agreement to be implemented within one and a half to two years, while Israel asked for more time before pulling out of the region.

Yedioth quoted a senior American official as saying that the negotiations were serious and far-reaching and would have likely ended with an agreement had they not been interrupted by the uprising against Assad. The official estimated that Netanyahu resumed the talks with Assad to justify the stalemate in the negotiations with the Palestinians and because he viewed Syria as the weak link in the so called “axis of evil,” which also includes Iran, Lebanon and Hezbollah.

According to the documents written by Hoff, the discussions were held at the prime minister’s official residence in Jerusalem. Netanyahu and Barak kept the talks a secret, but in early 2011 a Kuwaiti newspaper reported that special US envoy Dennis Ross met Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem and said that Damascus was willing to resume talks with Israel and that the Jewish state was willing to return the Golan Heights. The Prime Minister’s Office denied the report.

Yedioth said US President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden were aware of the negotiations, as were Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and Dennis Ross. Syria’s representative to the talks was FM Moallem, but Hoff also met with Assad, the report said.

Netanyahu’s office said Thursday that “this initiative was one of many proposed to Israel over the past few years. At no point did Israel accept this American initiative. The initiative is irrelevant, and its publication at this time stems from political considerations.”

AP contributed to the report