WarSclerotic

Iran presented ‘no serious proposals’ at nuke talks, US officials tell Israel | The Times of Israel.

Minister Yuval Steinitz heading to Washington amid Israeli concern that the US will prematurely ease economic pressure on Tehran

By Times of Israel staff and Yoel Goldman October 19, 2013, 1:09 am

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) and Minister of Strategic Affairs Yuval Steinitz during the weekly cabinet meeting, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, on October 13, 2013. (photo credit: Marc Israel Sellem/POOL/Flash90)

Iran made “no serious proposals” during the two days of talks on its nuclear program in Geneva this week, senior US officials reportedly told their Israeli counterparts. The talks were “exploratory” rather than substantive, the US officials told Jerusalem, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported Friday night.

Israel, nonetheless, is wary that Iran’s position at the talks — where it is said to have offered to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent, and to convert the country’s current 20% stockpile into fuel rods, among other measures — may prompt the international community to consider partially easing economic sanctions. The New York Times said Friday that the Obama administration was weighing a graduated unfreezing of Iranian oversees assets without rescinding the sanctions themselves,

With that concern in mind, Israel’s Minister for Strategic and Intelligence Affairs, is set to travel to the US next week — both to be briefed on what was said in Geneva, and to warn Washington against being duped into premature concessions to Iran. His visit comes in the framework of the ongoing strategic dialogue between the two countries.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will also discuss the Iranian issue with US Secretary of State John Kerry when the two meet in Rome next week.

A report in Al Monitor on Friday quoted an Iranian source, with purported knowledge of the two-day talks between his country and the P5+1 countries, saying Tehran was ready to stop enriching uranium to 20%, convert its existing stockpile into fuel rods, relinquish spent fuel for the still-to-be completed Arak heavy water reactor, accept surprise inspections by the International Atomic Energy Agency, and convert its Fordo underground enrichment facility into a fully-supervised research facility.

Israel’s position is that those ostensible concessions would still leave Iran with the infrastructure for a nuclear weapons program, Channel 2 reported. Netanyahu has repeatedly demanded that Iran be stripped of its entire “military nuclear” program, with Arak and Fordo closed, all capacity to enrich uranium removed, and already enriched uranium shipped out of the country.

The Al-Monitor report was denied by Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javad Zarif.

Zarif also accused Israel of trying to undermine what he described as progress in Tehran’s nuclear talks with world powers. He posted on his Facebook page that “there is a high possibility the talks would be disturbed through various efforts” on the part of Israel. Zarif said these efforts reflect Israel’s “frustration and warmongering.”

Egypt ‘looking to Russia’ for arms after US aid freeze | The Times of Israel.

( Another foreign policy “achievement” to add to Obama’s growing list. – JW )

‘Historic achievement’ under which Cairo came into Washington’s orbit after 1979 about to ‘go down the drain,’ Israeli TV report claims

Egypt’s Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy speaks during a meeting with foreign media in Cairo, Egypt on Saturday, August 3. (photo credit: AP Photo/Hassan Ammar)

Egypt is looking to Russia to supply it with arms now that the US has frozen much of its military aid to the Egyptians, Israeli television reported Friday night.

The “historic achievement,” under which the US brought Egypt into its orbit in the years since the 1979 Camp David Israel-Egypt peace treaty, is about to “go down the drain,” the Channel 2 report said.

It referred to comments earlier this week by Egypt’s Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy, who said ties between Cairo and Washington were in “turmoil” and told CNN that Egypt would have to “find other sources” to meet its national security needs.

By “other sources,” said the TV report, Fahmy was referring to Russia, with whom Egypt was now looking to conclude a major arms deal.

This would represent a major change of orientation for Egypt, since its entire army had been built on US equipment for the past three decades.

The news came four days after reports that Israel had argued “directly and bluntly” with the Obama administration against US aid cuts to Egypt, telling Washington it was making “a strategic error” in reducing financial assistance to Cairo in the wake of the military’s ouster of president Mohammed Morsi.

The unusually frank Israeli intervention, a Channel 2 report said on Monday, was partially successful, in that US funding of relevance to military strongman Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s fight against Islamist terrorists in the Sinai is not being affected by the cutback.

However, other planned cuts in aid to the Egyptian military are going ahead, to Israel’s open dismay, the report said, quoting unnamed Israeli government sources.

Dissatisfied with Egypt’s progress toward reinstating a democratic government, the US announced last week that it was freezing a sizable portion of the $1.5 billion it provides Egypt each year. US officials said the aid being withheld included 10 Apache helicopters, at a cost of more than $500 million, and M1A1 tank kits and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. The US had already suspended the delivery of four F-16 fighter jets and canceled biennial US-Egyptian military exercises.

The US will continue to provide support for health and education and counterterrorism, spare military parts, military training and education, border security and security assistance in the Sinai Peninsula, where near-daily attacks against security forces and soldiers have increasingly resembled a full-fledged insurgency.

Israeli officials told their US counterparts that it was “a strategic error” to cut aid to Egypt, and that the US needed to look at “wider interests,” the Monday report said. Officials urged Washington to cancel the cut altogether, and if that was not possible, to at least redirect military funding for planes and tanks to instead bolster the fight against terror. This advice was ignored, but the funding already in place for fighting terror was not cut, as it might otherwise have been, according to the report.

Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, April 2013 (photo credit: AP Photo/Jim Watson/Pool/File)

The Israeli officials reportedly told their American counterparts that undermining El-Sissi might simply lead him to seek military assistance instead from Gulf states and Saudi Arabia.

The TV report did not specify which Israeli officials raised their concerns with which American counterparts.

However, last Tuesday, Israel’s Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon held talks with Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel at the Pentagon.

Turkey: Israeli efforts behind spy-ring smear campaign – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Days after WP reports Turkey sold Israeli operatives to Iran, Turkish official claims ‘Israeli effort behind media campaign’, citing Netanyahu’s reluctance to pay Turkey compensation for Marmara deaths, Erdogan’s connections with Hamas

Ynet

While reconciliation efforts between Turkey and Israel remain “stuck“, Israel’s relations with Turkey have reached a new low point as the two countries exchange accusations over Turkey’s reported disclosure of an alleged Israel spy ring to Iran.

Speaking with the Turkish daily Hürriyet, an intelligence official slammed the Washington Post report, and claimed that “We (Turkey) see this media campaign as an attack and there might be an Israeli effort behind it.”

On Thursday, David Ignatius, a senior Washington Post reporter, claimed Turkey had disclosed to Iranian intelligence the identities of up to 10 Iranians who had been meeting inside Turkey with their Mossad case officers.

While Israel dubbed the Turkish disclosure of the spy ring – which speculations believe was comprised of Iranian Kurds – a “betrayal”, Turkey has taken offence of what it says is an organized smear campaign against it and Hakan Fidan, its intelligence chief.

According to Turkey, the Washington Post story is just one in a larger campaign against the country. According to Ankara, the campaign began with a Wall Street Journal story about Turkish intelligence chief Hakan Fidan, in which it was claimed that Fidan was acting “independently” in Syrian operations, thus jeopardizing Western interests.

The story also claimed that Fidan had taken a soft stance on al-Qaeda .

Erdogan, Fidan, Kerry, Obama (Photo: White House, Pete Souza)

In addition to the central claim, in the Post’s report, Ignatius also personally named Fidan as being behind the disclosure, citing his “friendly” links with Tehran. Ignatius also claimed that the intelligence chief acted independently and has “rattled Turkey’s allies by allegedly passing to Iran sensitive intelligence collected by the US and Israel.”

In Saturday’s report in Hürriyet, the official hinted that Israel is behind the report, which cited only “knowledgeable sources,” and the smear campaign against Fidan: “Especially after the Washington Post story on October 17 and the follow-ups with Jerusalem bylines.”

According to the official, Israel’s motivation for slandering Turkey is Prime Minster Benjamin Netanyahu‘s desire to avoid paying compensation for the Turkish deaths during the IDF raid on the Mavi Marmara.

In addition, Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan’s close relations with Hamas are also cited by Saturday’s report as being the cause for Israel resentment at Turkey. In this regard, the report noted that on October 9th, the very same day that the WSJ report was published, Khaled Mashaal was received by Erdoğan in his office in Ankara.

Breaking the rules

In an interview to USA Today, former Mossad head Danny Yatom said that “If true … what (Turkey reportedly) did breached all rules of cooperation between intelligence organizations.”

According to Yatom, the move would damage Ankara’s ties to the West, and the US’s intelligence efforts in regards to Iran “because we will be much more reluctant to work via Turkey because they will fear information is leaking to Iran,” Yatom said. “We feel information achieved (by Israel) through Turkey went not only to Israel but also to the United States.”

Ilhan Tanir, Turkish paper Vatan’s Washington correspondent, told USA Today that Fidan, like Erdogan is “the kind of guy who wouldn’t be quiet if his guy is targeted,” hinting at possible retaliation on the regime’s part.

USA Today also spoke with Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA officer who was active in the region, handling Iranian intelligence sources in Turkey. According to him, it is doubtful that the Iranians who were compromised were crucial Israeli assets.

“The Israelis would not be sharing sensitive foreign intelligence assets with the Turks,” he said. “They might share reporting but not operational details that would allow them to identify the assets… (Turkish intelligence) is not the kind of service you get intimate with,” he said.

“I can’t imagine any Western country ever ever cooperating with the Iranians to compromise and kill Israeli agents. That would never happen,” he told USA Today adding that “If anything is going on with the Turks that you don’t want the Iranians to know about, it should be stopped.”

Turkey: Israel behind smear campaign against Erdogan’s intelligence chief | JPost | Israel News.

Hurriyet quotes intelligence sources in Ankara.