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Netanyahu promises: I’ll push th… JPost – Iranian Threat – News.

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Israel and Iran hold ‘positive’ nuclear talks in Brussels | World news | guardian.co.uk.

( Are you ready for this? – JW )

Brussels conference could help pave way for full international conference on banning weapons of mass destruction in Middle East

The Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, centre, is among those taking part in the talks. Photograph: AFP/Getty

Israeli and Iranian officials are taking part in a on nuclear proliferation meeting in Brussels on Monday, in the hope of paving the way for a full international conference in the next few months on banning nuclear arms and other weapons of mass destruction from the Middle East.

A handful of officials from both Israel and Iran are involved in the two-day event, ostensibly in their capacity as private citizens, in what was billed as an academic seminar.

But the delegations are led by senior officials and have the permission of their respective governments to take part in an informal discussion with representatives from about 10 Arab states, US officials and European moderators to explore the possibility of holding a UN-sponsored conference on establishing a WMD-free zone in the Middle East.

The Israeli team is led by Jeremy Issacharoff, an ambassador for strategic affairs at the foreign ministry; the chief Iranian representative is Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the country’s long-serving ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna. Also taking part is Jaakko Laajava, the Finnish diplomat tasked by the UN secretary general to organise the planned conference in Helsinki.

In contrast to the ever-worsening sabre-rattling over the Iranian nuclear programme, the mood at the meeting, convened by the EU Non-Proliferation Consortium, was described by one participant as “respectful and positive”.

Mark Fitzpatrick, a non-proliferation expert from the International Institute for Strategic Studies and former state department official, said “there were no fireworks and no denunciations” at the conference. That marks an improvement over a similar event held last year, when the tone was described as mutual finger-wagging. However, it was unclear from the meeting whether the Helsinki conference would go ahead on schedule in December.

Washington has been going out of its way in recent weeks to brief observers that the talks would be postponed, although it was not clear whether that was a tactic to avoid reports emerging in the midst of the election campaign that the US had pressured Israel to sit at the negotiating table with Iran.

Two junior US officials are taking part in this week’s meeting but have so far said little. One source said Washington’s intentions would be clear once the elections were over, but noted that participants had taken to calling the UN-sponsored event the ‘Helsinki conference’, rather than the ‘2012 conference’, as uncertainty increases over its timing.

Israel’s official position is neither to confirm nor deny its widely reported nuclear arsenal, and it would consider signing the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, thereby renouncing its right to have such weapons, only if its existence and its right to exist had been guaranteed by its neighbours and the region was at peace.

Nevertheless, European mediators hope the UN conference will initially represent a way of coaxing Israel into more transparency in return for continued Arab and Iranian abstinence from nuclear weapons under the increasingly strained treaty.

UN: Iran not cooperating on nuclear weapons probe – Salon.com.

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. nuclear chief said Monday that Iran is not cooperating with an investigation into suspected secret work on nuclear weapons.

Yukio Amano told the U.N. General Assembly that talks between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran have intensified this year after an IAEA report in November 2011 said it had “credible information that Iran had carried out activities relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device,” he said.

“However, no concrete results have been achieved so far,” Amano said.

While the IAEA continues to verify that Iran’s declared nuclear material is not being diverted from peaceful purposes, “Iran is not providing the necessary cooperation to enable us to provide credible assurance about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities,” Amano said.

“Therefore, we cannot conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities,” he said.

Iran has repeatedly denied any interest in possessing nuclear arms, but the international community fears that Tehran may turn its peaceful uranium enrichment program toward weapons making — a concern that is growing as the government expands the number of machines it uses to enrich its stockpile of enriched uranium.

As those fears grow, so does concern that Israel could carry out its threats to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities before that nation reaches the bomb-making threshold.

In his annual report to the world body, Amano said he also remains “seriously concerned” about North Korea’s nuclear program, calling its statements about uranium enrichment activities and the construction of a light water reactor “deeply troubling.”

In late 2010, Pyongyang unveiled a uranium enrichment facility that could give North Korea a second route to manufacture nuclear weapons in addition to its plutonium-based program. Earlier this year, satellite images showed that North Korea has made progress in building a light-water reactor to expand its nuclear program.

North Korea is under tough U.N. sanctions, and Amano called on Pyongyang to comply with its obligations under Security Council resolutions and the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and “to cooperate promptly and fully” with the IAEA.

IAEA inspectors were most recently expelled three years ago after the North quit talks with five key nations, including the United States, on halting its nuclear weapons program. North Korea restarted its nuclear facilities and less than a month later. In May 2009, it conducted its second nuclear weapons test.

Iran says three Arab countries let Israel use their air space to strike in Sudan | The Times of Israel.

Tehran’s foreign minister says countries were told in advance of last month’s attack on Khartoum munitions factory

Ali Akbar Salehi (photo credit: CC-BY Parmida76, Flickr)

Three Arab countries allowed Israeli jets to fly through their airspace prior to attacking a military factory last month near Khartoum, Sudan, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi charged on Monday.

Arab countries “knew about the Israeli operation before it was carried out,” Salehi told Kuwaiti newspaper Al Watan. “The planes flew over three countries I won’t name,” he said.

A direct route from Israel to Sudan would not necessarily require overflying three countries, but rather could solely involve Egypt. A more complex route could also involve Jordan, Saudi Arabia or even Libya.

The alleged October 24 attack in Sudan resulted in the destruction of the Yarmouk Complex, and the Sudanese Minister of Information Ahmed Belal Osman blamed Israel for the strike. Israel made no public comment.

Belal said “four planes coming from the east” that “used sophisticated technology” carried out an airstrike on the munitions plant. “We think Israel did the bombing.”

Sudan has threatened to retaliate against Israeli interests.

Some analysts believe the operation may have been a dry run before a possible Israeli strike on Iran – an operation that would require flights of a similar range. Others have said that, if Israel was involved, it was a message to Sudan’s genocidal leader Omar al-Bashir and to Gaza’s terror groups, as well as to Iran.

Salehi, referring to the much-debated notion of Jerusalem ordering a strike against his country’s nuclear facilities, said, “If Israel wanted to attack Iran it would do so without making so much noise” about the plan.

Iran says allowed to build overseas arms facilities – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Tehran halfheartedly admits to backing weapons factory in Sudan; FM Salehi says ‘If Israel was ready to strike Iran it would have done so by now’

Roi Kais

Iran halfheartedly admitted that it had established the Sudanese weapons factory that was destroyed in an air raid last week, defiantly stating that it has the right to build arms facilities overseas.

In a Sunday interview with Qatari newspaper Al-Waten, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was asked about the the Iranian link to Sudanese military complex that was allegedly bombed by Israel.

“Let us assume Iran founded a weapons factory in Sudan; is it forbidden? It is international trades between our countries, governments purchase arms for other countries – it’s natural,” he said.

Salehi was also asked whether Iran plans to build weapon production facilities in other countries, to which he replied: “Under international laws, if a country wishes to buy arms from us we are ready and willing.”

The Qatari journalist challenged Salehi, asking him if Tehran considered the strike in Sudan a prelude for a future attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities.

“That is what we heard over the news,” he said. “But if Israel wanted to strike Iran it wouldn’t have made so much noise about it, but would have simply attacked. Let them try it if they can – if Israel was ready to strike Iran it would have happened by now.”

When asked what, in his opinion, could be causing Israel’s hesitations, Salehi said: “We may suffer from this attack, but the Israelis are afraid of the results of such an attack. We won’t sit idly by if it happens.”

The journalist described how, at one point in the interview, Salehi walked up to a map mounted on the wall in his chambers and pointed to the countries surrounding Israel. “Before the IAF attacked Sudan they passed through the airspace of three countries I do not wish to name. There is no doubt these countries knew about the Israeli strike prior to the execution,” he said.

The journalist suggested Israel disrupted the radar systems in these countries, to which Salehi countered: “If that’s what happened – then it’s much worse.”

Salehi was asked about the Iranian drone launched at Israel by Hezbollah in September, and whether Iran acquired important intelligence regarding IDF bases and Israel’s intentions about a possible strike. “We got hold of confidential information I cannot reveal,” the Iranian FM said.

Asked if by launching the drone Iran provided Israel with a new excuse to strike Lebanon, Salehi replied: “Why is the Zionist entity allowed to send jets to strike Gaza, and while others do the same, there is talk about excuses? It is necessary that Hezbollah will be aware of what is happening there in order to prepare itself.”  

Salehi also commented on the West, mainly US, casting blame at Iran: “There isn’t a single negative thing in the world we were not blamed for by US. It wouldn’t come as a surprise if we were blamed for causing hurricane Sandy.

Israel Hayom | Barak: Ashkenazi said IDF wasn’t able to carry out Iran strike.

Obama’s woman in Tehran – Israel News, Ynetnews.

( Luis was the first to point out to us the importance of this woman to Obama’s policies.  He turned out to be even more correlated than he  knew at the time.  – JW )

One of US president’s senior advisors is secretly making efforts to establish line of communication with Iran

Alex Fishman

A Chicago lawyer is the key player behind the secret talks between the US and Iran. Yedioth Ahronoth reported Monday. A close friend of Michelle Obama, Valerie Jarrett is assisting the US government communicate behind the scenes with the representatives of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

Jarret, who was born in the Iranian city of Shiraz, is a senior advisor to US President Barack Obama.

The US State Department estimated the economic pressure on Iran will peek in February or March, immidiately after the president-elect takes office, rendering the talks over Iran’s nuclear program – in case they materialize – with potentially positive results.

Last month, The New York Times reported that the US government is engaged in secret talks with Iran aimed at establishing a direct line of communication once the US presidential elections are over.

The National Security Council’s spokesperson denied there is any agreement between the US and Iran regarding direct talks, but the following day senior government officials confirmed that talks took place though no future meeting was scheduled.

The US has tried to keep the secret contacts under wraps since some of the countries involved in the public negotiations, such as Russia, were excluded from them.

Israel was originally surprised to learn of the talks, but state officials now reveal that they were going on for several months. The talks, they claim, were initiated and led by Jarret, and took place in Bahrain.