WarSclerotic

Ambassador Shapiro: US, Israel have similar goals in regard to Iran | JPost | Israel News.

Rice: Sanctions stay until Iran proves it isn’t seeking a bomb | The Times of Israel.

White House national security adviser says US not willing to let Tehran enrich its own uranium, but has right to enriched material for peaceful use

US National Security Adviser Susan Rice (photo credit: Screen capture: YouTube/CNN)

Despite signals that Iran and the US were working towards a nuclear deal, National Security Adviser Susan Rice said Sunday that sanctions against the Islamic Republic would remain in place until the US and its allies are satisfied Iran is not pursuing nuclear weapons.

“Obviously, we and others in the international community have every reason to be skeptical of that and we need to test it, and any agreement must be fully verifiable and enforceable,” said Rice in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria.

She said it had been clear to Iran that it “had to meet its international obligations under Security Council resolutions and that the sanctions would remain until those obligations were satisfied.”

The White House national security adviser and former ambassador to the UN said the US wouldn’t agree to let Iran enrich its own uranium. She said US President Barack Obama made clear that Washington accepted Iran’s right to use enriched uranium for peaceful energy purposes — apparently from supervised overseas sources — but not to enrich the material itself.

Asked whether the US shared Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s four demands — that Iran halt uranium enrichment, remove already enriched material, close the Fordo nuclear facility, and discontinue the plutonium track in Arak — Rice replied: “Obviously, we are in constant contact and communication with our Israeli allies and other key allies in this process. And we have been largely united in agreeing on the process going forward, and on what is necessary to give us a shared degree of confidence. And when I say us, I mean all of us in the international community, a shared degree of confidence that at the end of this process, that Iran’s nuclear program, if there is to be one, is only for peaceful purposes.”

She said she would not “get into the contours of a negotiation that really hasn’t gotten underway in any meaningful way,” but stressed “that we have been on this program in the P5+1 and with Israel and other partners in the region, and, indeed, within the entire international community, as enshrined in Security Council resolutions on insisting on the steps that need to be taken.”

Concerning the UN Security Council resolution to strip Syria of its chemical weapons, Rice said the demand was worded strongly enough, but noted that military action against Syria in case of noncompliance would require Security Council approval. 

“I think it’s important for people to understand what this resolution accomplishes,” Rice said. ”In fact, it does say, in very clear-cut terms, that if there is noncompliance on the part of the Syrians, there will be action taken under Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter. Chapter 7 is the only chapter of the Charter that calls for — and allows for — enforcement action.”

Rice admitted, however, that before the UN could act under Chapter 7, the Security Council would have to reconvene and approve military action.

“Obviously, in any circumstance, we would need to come back to the Security Council if we sought multilateral endorsement of such enforcement action in the circumstances, [and] have a negotiation about what that action ought to be,” she said.

On Friday, the UN Security Council unanimously voted to eliminate all of Syria’s estimated 1,000-ton chemical weapons stockpile by mid-2014.

Rice said that the threat of further action if Syria doesn’t follow through with relinquishing its chemical weapons was a key aspect that US Secretary of State John Kerry negotiated with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov when they met in Geneva earlier this month.

Besides the UN resolution, Rice warned, the US reserves the right to act of its own accord, including using military force.

“The president has been very clear that we remain postured to act if the choice is taken by him and if the necessity arises,” she said. “We’re not taking any options off the table. And the president has been very clear that, as commander-in-chief, he has the authority to act in the interests of the United States and to use force if necessary.”

Inspectors set to destroy Syria chemical warfare capacity | The Times of Israel.

Unprecedented campaign to disable Assad’s WMD production sites may require sledgehammers, explosives and tanks, official says

This image made from a video posted on Wednesday, September 18, 2013, shows Syrians in protective suits and gas masks conducting a drill on how to treat casualties of a chemical weapons attack, in Aleppo, Syria (photo credit: AP)

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Inspectors who will oversee Syria’s destruction of its chemical weapons said Sunday their first priority is to help the country scrap its ability to manufacture such arms by a Nov. 1 deadline — using every means possible.

The chemical weapons inspectors said that may include smashing mixing equipment with sledgehammers, blowing up delivery missiles, driving tanks over empty shells or filling them with concrete, and running machines without lubricant so they seize up and become inoperable.

On Friday, the UN Security Council ordered the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to help Syria destroy its chemical weapons by mid-2014.

On Sunday, inspectors met with media in The Hague to explain their current plan of action, which is to include an initial group of 20 leaving for Syria on Monday.

The organization allowed two inspectors to speak on condition of anonymity out of concern for their safety amid Syria’s civil war; both are veteran members of the OPCW. Spokesman Michael Luhan said the men “are going to be deeply involved in Syria.”

“This isn’t just extraordinary for the OPCW. This hasn’t been done before: an international mission to go into a country which is involved in a state of conflict and amid that conflict oversee the destruction of an entire category of weapons of mass destruction which it possesses,” Luhan said. “This is definitely a historical first.”

Syria acknowledged for the first time it has chemical weapons after an Aug. 21 poison gas attack killed hundreds of civilians in a Damascus suburb and President Barack Obama threatened a military strike in retaliation. A UN investigation found that nerve gas was used in the attack but stopped short of blaming it on Syrian President Bashar Assad’s regime.

After a flurry of diplomatic negotiations involving the US, Syria, and Syrian ally Russia, Syria made an initial voluntary disclosure of its program to the Hague-based OPCW. Under organization’s rules, the amounts and types of weapons in Syria’s stockpiles, and the number and location of the sites, will not be publicly disclosed.

The US and Russia agree that Syria has roughly 1,000 metric tons of chemical weapons agents and precursors, including blister agents such as sulfur and mustard gas, and nerve agents like sarin. External experts say they are distributed over 50 to70 sites.

One of the OPCW experts with a military background said the “open source” information about the Syrian program is “reasonable.”

Timothee Germain, a researcher at the Center for International Security and Arms Control in Paris, who is not involved with the OPCW project, said that in the early phases of Syria’s civil war, chemical weapons were consolidated into a small number of sites in order to keep them from falling into the hands of rebels. But when the prospect of a US military strike emerged, the weapons may have been redistributed over a larger number of sites to preserve them.

He added that he is skeptical the current timeline can be achieved. “From a technical standpoint, it’s really a long-shot,” he said.

The investigators said members of the initial group of 20 will meet with counterparts from Syria’s Foreign Ministry on Tuesday and begin planning. A week later, the OPCW mission will be expanded to a larger number of investigators who will arrive in waves and begin visiting sites and disabling equipment. At the same time, they will be examining sites for their suitability as places to eventually destroy chemicals and ready-to-fire weapons, which is usually done by incineration.

“At this stage we’re looking at tens of inspectors” for the mission, the OPCW military expert said. The teams will include chemists, military experts and medical personnel trained to deal with the hazards posed by chemical waste.

Protection for OPCW staff will be provided primarily by the Syrian government, with support from the U.N., which has a longstanding working relationship with the OPCW and lines of communication open with rebel groups.

The OPCW expert said access to weapons sites in or near rebel-held territory would be dealt with on a case-by-case basis, with the UN possibly helping negotiate safe passage. “It may be that we are not in a position to go to some of these places,” he said. “Our inspectors are all volunteers. This is not a mission that will be carried out come what may.”

After the initial phase of destroying Syria’s ability to manufacture weapons, the actual destruction phase will take far longer and be more expensive, the second expert said. He added that “at this stage there is no reason to doubt Syria’s commitment” to destroying its weapons, adding that its disclosure was voluntary and credible.

Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.

Iran ready to talk uranium limitations, deputy FM says | The Times of Israel.

Abbas Araghchi says complete halt of enrichment out of the question, but open to discussing how much enrichment, to what level, and at which facilities

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Aragchi (photo credit: Screen capture YouTube/Press TV)

Iran is ready to discuss limiting its production of enriched uranium, Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Sunday, but it will insist on the right to manufacture some fissile material on its own.

“Over the past 10 years, we have insisted that a total suspension of uranium enrichment is out of the question,” said Araghchi in an interview with the Iranian semi-official student news agency. ”We will never accept any precondition that may imply forfeiting our rights,” he was also quoted as saying.

Araghchi suggested, however, that in meetings scheduled for October 15-16 — which aim to resolve Western fears that Tehran is working to produce nuclear bombs — Iran is ready to discuss decreasing enrichment activities: The quantities being enriched; the level of enrichment; and the facilities where enrichment is carried out could all be discussed, he indicated.

But he gave no hint of readiness to send already enriched uranium out of the country, to accept more effective supervision of the Iranian nuclear program, to abandon Iran’s plutonium nuclear track, or meet other key Western demands.

US President Barack Obama said in his address to the United Nations last week that Iran is entitled ”to access peaceful nuclear energy,” but National Security Adviser Susan Rice explained that the president made sure to specify that that didn’t include enrichment.

“We insist that the Iranian government meet its responsibilities under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and UN Security Council resolutions,” Obama said.

Last week, Iran held talks with the foreign ministers of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany in a build-up to the meetings next month.

The meeting between Iran and world powers was meant to test the Islamic Republic’s apparent willingness to reach a deal to resolve international concerns about its nuclear program after years of defiance.

“During the negotiations we could discuss the framework, level, method and site [of enrichment] on condition that this does not undermine enrichment and Iran’s right,” Araghchi said, referring to mid-October talks in Geneva between Iran and the P5+1 group, which is comprised of Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany.

“Iran stands ready to lift any concerns” the West has about its nuclear program, Araghchi said, but added that in return the talks must lead to a lifting of current sanctions.

Last week’s meeting on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly – as Secretary of State John Kerry came face-to-face with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, sat next to him at a U-shaped table, and also had a short private meeting with him — marked the highest-level direct contact between the US and Iran in six years.

Kerry says deal with Iran possible in 3-6 months | The Times of Israel.

Secretary of state says Tehran must open all nuclear facilities to inspection and refrain from producing weapons-grade uranium

US Secretary of State John Kerry (left), and Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif (right) attend a meeting of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany during the 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly at UN headquarters, Thursday, September 26, 2013. (photo credit: AP/Jason DeCrow)

US Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday said an agreement with Iran over its controversial nuclear program could be reached within a three-to-six-month time frame, potentially effecting a dramatic improvement in relations between Washington and Tehran.

“It’s possible to have a deal sooner than that depending on how forthcoming and clear Iran is prepared to be,” Kerry told CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

On Friday, the United States and Iran took a dramatic step toward ending more than three decades of estrangement on Friday when President Barack Obama phoned Rouhani and the two agreed to work to resolve the deep dispute over global suspicions that Tehran is trying to build a nuclear weapon.

Describing the call at the White House, Obama said, “While there will surely be important obstacles to moving forward, and success is by no means guaranteed, I believe we can reach a comprehensive solution.” Iran’s nuclear program has been a major concern not only to the United States but to other Middle Eastern nations — especially Israel — and to the world at large.

During Kerry’s interview Monday, the secretary of state said that if it became evident to “the whole world” that Iran’s nuclear program was peaceful, “the relationship with Iran can change dramatically for the better and it can change fast.”

According to Kerry, in order to prove that its intentions were sincere, Iran would have to open the gates of its nuclear facilities to international scrutiny and refrain from enriching uranium to military-grade levels.

“Iran needs to take rapid steps, clear and convincing steps, to live up to the international community’s requirements regarding nuclear programs, peaceful nuclear programs,” he said. “Words are not going to replace actions. What we need are actions that prove that we and our allies, our friends in the region, can never be threatened by this program.”

Kerry’s statements came a day before a scheduled meeting in Washington between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama, which the White House said would focus on recent developments vis-à-vis Iran and Syria.

Netanyahu landed in New York Sunday morning local time for a four-day visit to the United States, vowing to expose “the truth” in the wake of Iran’s recent overtures to the United States.

Israel is concerned over the thaw in Western-Iranian ties that has been developing at breathtaking pace in the last few days and culminated in Friday’s phone call between the American and Iranian presidents.

“I am going there to represent the interests of the people of Israel, our readiness to defend ourselves and our hope for peace,” Netanyahu told reporters on the plane before taking off for the US. “I will say the truth. In the face of the sweet talk and the smiles one needs to tell the truth. Only the truth, today, is vital to the security of the world, and of course essential to the security of our country.”

Charm is cheap – Israel Opinion, Ynetnews.

Op-ed: Premature exuberance over Rohani signals to rogue states that a few weeks of charm can compensate for decades of terrorism

Noah Beck

With starry-eyed optimism, Western leaders and members of the media have recently fawned all over the new Iranian president, Hassan Rohani, as if he had taken any meaningful steps to reverse Iran’s illicit nuclear program, abysmal human rights abuses, or support for Hezbollah terrorism and Basher Assad’s murderous regime in Syria.

Rohani can thank his predecessor, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, for being so repugnant that virtually anyone succeeding him would be welcomed with relief. But the West’s premature exuberance over Rohani undermines efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions and dangerously signals to rogue states that a few weeks of charm can quickly compensate for decades of terrorism, genocidal incitement, and human rights abuses.

On the core issues, Iran’s behavior is the same, but with a more PR-savvy face. Rohani has continued Iran’s support for the Syrian regime and Iran’s anti-Israel rhetoric and policies. About a month into Rohani’s term, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) declared that Iran’s nuclear program includes “strong indicators of possible nuclear weapon development.”

The program includes developing plutonium-based capabilities for building nukes, installing advanced uranium enrichment equipment that enables Iran quickly to weaponize its nuclear materials without detection by IAEA inspections, enriching uranium in defiance of UN Security Council and IAEA resolutions, and developing nuclear warheads and the missiles to deliver them.

These facts completely discredit Rohani’s repeated claims that Iran’s nuclear program exists only for “peaceful” purposes. His boasts about playing for time (in a 2004 speech) when he served as Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator further undermine his credibility on this issue. In his words: “While we were talking with the Europeans in Tehran, we were installing equipment in parts of the (nuclear conversion) facility in Isfahan.” Moreover, Iran has consistently deceived the international community about its nuclear activities, like when the Islamic Republic concealed its nuclear facility in Qom (which was uncovered by Western intelligence agencies(.

But these facts don’t seem to matter because when Rohani repeatedly drops the word “peace” in his speeches, Western media and diplomats swoon. “At the cost of thoughtful reporting” (as media watchdog CAMERA aptly summarized), Western media have also fallen for the “Twitter charms” reportedly sent by members of the Iranian regime.

And this same naive crowd celebrates the release of 80 Iranian political prisoners — timed for maximum PR effect — while forgetting that Iran has executed more than 170 political prisoners since Rohani’s election and continues to imprison close to 800 (including US citizen and former Marine Amir Hekmati, despite requests to release him from top US officials, including Secretary of State John Kerry). Indeed, a web site documenting Iran’s human rights abuses confirms that — under Rohani’s rule — it’s very much business as usual in Iran, with public hangings, religious persecution, abuse of women, arbitrary arrests, and suppression of dissent. But why spoil the party with such details when Rohani speechifies about “peace” and “friendship?”

Desperate for a sign of progress, delusional optimists point out that Rohani hasn’t actively denied the Holocaust. That this could be considered a sign of Iranian “progress” shows just how pathetically low the bar has dropped (thanks, again, to Ahmadinejad’s fine work). But even by this measure, Rohani just looks more sophisticated (opting to say that “he’s not a historian” instead of unequivocally denying the Holocaust). One Iran expert explained Rohani’s shameful response as a result of local politics, but if Rohani is not even free to acknowledge a historical fact, how can he possibly change Iran’s nuclear policy?

Rohani may have subsequently realized that his media strategy required improving upon his initial answer, but the clarification he attempted in his recent interview with Christiane Amanpour left him plenty of room for Holocaust denial and revisionism. Equally troubling, starting around 4:00 of this video (part of which was suspiciously excluded from CNN’s written interview summary), Rohani goes on to suggest that the Jewish claim to the land of Israel is based only on the Holocaust, and — in equally twisted moral and historical logic — suggests an equivalence between the Holocaust and the Israeli “occupation” of Palestinians.

Only the credible threat of force has ever worked in stopping Iran’s nuclear ambitions, and after Obama’s feckless and spineless approach to a far weaker adversary (Syria), the Iranians have all the more reason to doubt any US military threat — particularly if Obama can be stalled by a diplomatic process that seems to offer progress now that the Iranian wolf has been redressed as a sheep.

While Obama likes to boast that his economic sanctions have brought Iran to the table, the only measure of success is whether Iran is closer to a nuclear weapons capability, and on that score Obama is a complete failure: Iran has been inching closer to nukes every day that Obama has been in office.

Moreover, the dynamics of Obama’s diplomatic efforts reveal who’s actually winning: Obama asked Rohani for a meeting at the UN, only to be rejected. So the US looks like the eager party here, making it that much easier for Iran to manipulate any eventual talks in its favor. Indeed, the more the West appears desperate to welcome Rohani’s new tune, the less Iran has to make any meaningful concessions. In this way, Ahmadinejad’s revolting persona and style made it that much easier for his successor to succeed at playing the “good cop” in any negotiations. And it is actually Iran’s hardline supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final say on Iranian policy, so the Rohani theatrics are ultimately meaningless anyway. While the country’s dictator recently said that Iran can show “heroic flexibility,” he’s not actually beholden to anyone, so he can easily change his mind after buying another 6-12 months of nuclear enrichment time by “negotiating” with the West through Rohani.

To resolve a crisis that could otherwise end up as a massive regional war in the near future, Iran must: 1) stop all nuclear enrichment, 2) dismantle the illicit underground nuclear facility near Qom and the second-generation centrifuges in Natanz, 3) remove all enriched material from Iranian territory, and 4) stop the construction of the heavy water reactor in Arak.

If the international community hopes to stop Iran’s nuclear program before it’s too late, any deal with Iran must ensure that the above four steps are verifiably taken. Any lesser deal would allow Iran to continue developing nuclear weapons capabilities behind a smokescreen of promises, as the North Koreans have done. Will the West be charmed all the way to Armageddon?

Noah Beck is the author of The Last Israelis, an apocalyptic novel about Iranian nukes and other geopolitical issues in the Middle East.

Report: Obama call prevented French strikes on Syria ‘hours before launch’ – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Report: Obama told ‘stunned’ Hollande to put off aerial attack on Syria just hours before launch

Ynet

France was set to launch an aerial attack in Syria in response to the chemical attack on a Damascus suburb until US President Barack Obama called his French counterpart and requested he put off the attack, British newspaper The Independent reported.

According to the report, which quotes the French newspaper Nouvel Observateur, French President Francois Hollande received a phone call from US President Barack Obama on August 31, “hours” before the attack was set to be launched.

According to The Independent, the report in Nouvel Observateur claimed Obama placed a phone call to the French leader in which he informed a “stunned” Hollande that despite a planned US-French strike against Syira, Obama would in fact seek congressional support of an attack, thus effectively lifting the threat despite the two nation’s agreement.

French President Francois Hollande (Photo: AP)

The report claimed that at the time of Obama’s call, Rafale aircraft were prepared for take-off and official statements were already prepared in anticipation of the attack,

“Everything made us think that D-Day had arrived,” a French official is quoted in Nouvel Observateur as saying, adding that the “incredible misunderstanding lasted until the end of the afternoon,” at around 6 pm Saturday when Obama phoned Hollande. According to The Independent, the strikes was suppose to begin at 3 am that night, and were expected to target rocket batteries as well as the command centers of the division responsible for Syria’s chemical arms.

At the time of the call, Hollande was expecting to give the attack the greenlight. His inclination was based on an agreement with the US that the two nations would launch a joint military intervention operation against Syria.

However, despite the agreement between France and the US, Obama ended up changing his mind after allegedly speaking with Denis McDonough, his chief of staff, The Independent reported.

When asked for a response by The Independent on the Nouvel Observateur report, the French Defense Ministry kept mum. However, the paper quoted a retired military official as interpreting the incident as a slight to France’s pride. “President Obama’s U-turn reflects a great contempt by the United States for France,” General Vincent Desportes is quoted as telling the French channel Le Monde in the beginning of September.

Syria ‘will comply’

Earlier Monday, embattled Syrian President Bashar Assad said that Damascus “will comply” with a UN Security Council resolution ordering the destruction of the country’s chemical arsenal, Syrian state news agency SANA reported.

“Of course we will comply with it, and history proves that we have always honored all treaties we have signed,” Assad said during an interview with Italian broadcaster Rai News 24, whose content was published by SANA.

The remarks were Assad’s first since the UN Security Council passed a resolution Friday ordering the destruction of Syria’s chemical weapons and condemning a devastating attack near Damascus.

Resolution 2118, the result of bruising negotiations between the United States and Russia, gives binding force to a plan drawn up to eliminate Assad’s chemical arms.

Israel Navy to receive 3 new Super Dvora fast patrol boats | JPost | Israel News.

The boats will be used for daily patrols and counter-terrorism missions along the coastline.

Gulf States worried about US-Iran rapprochement | JPost | Israel News.

Fears arise that the recent overtures may allow Iran to attain nuclear weapons and consolidate its regional position.

Kerry hopeful of quick US-Iran nuclear agreement | JPost | Israel News.

US Secretary of State John Kerry believes a deal on Iran’s nuclear weapons program would have the potential to dramatically improve the relationship between the two countries.