Sabre-rattling over Iran

[nrupatunga]

Obama: Iran more than a year away from nuclear weapon

 

[nrupatunga]

Israel to grill Obama over possible military strike on Iran

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will have one key question for President Barack Obama when they meet Wednesday: If push comes to shove, will America attack Iran to stop the Iranians from developing a nuclear bomb?

Obama has a question of his own, just as critical. Will Israel promise not to attack Iran without American approval?

 

[SajeevJino]

Iran will 'annihilate' cities if Israel attacks: Khamenei​

Iran will "annihilate" the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Haifa if it comes under attack by the Jewish state, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned on Thursday.

Every now and then the leaders of the Zionist regime threaten Iran with a military attack," Khamenei said in a live televised speech from the northeastern holy city of Mashhad, referring to Israel.

"They should know that if they commit such a blunder, the Islamic republic will annihilate Tel Aviv and Haifa," he said.

Iran is said to possess ballistic missiles capable of reaching Israel. It also has close relations with Israel's foes in the region, including Lebanon's Hezbollah and Palestinian militants in the Islamist-ruled Gaza Strip.

Khamenei spoke with little sign of an easing in Tehran's position in its confrontation with the West over its disputed nuclear programme of uranium enrichment.

Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's sole but undeclared nuclear power, suspects that Tehran is seeking atomic arms, a fear shared by the United States and Western powers, and has not ruled out a military strike.

Washington has also refused to rule out the military option, but insists it prefers a diplomatic solution to the nuclear stand-off.

US President Barack Obama in Israel on Wednesday accepted that the Jewish state would not cede its right to confront Iran's nuclear threat to the United States.

Iran will 'annihilate' cities if Israel attacks: Khamenei – The Express Tribune

 

[asianobserve]

It's always refreshing to hear a "religious leader" issue threats to kill thousands of lives (not all combatants)... "I love the smell of napalm in the morning..."

 

[SajeevJino]

US says door still open on Iran nuclear talks but not forever​

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday world powers would pursue further talks with Iran to resolve a decade-old dispute over its nuclear programme, but stressed the process could not go on forever.

World powers and Iran failed again to bridge the gap at weekend talks in Kazakhstan, prolonging a stand-off that could yet spiral into a new Middle East war. No new talks were scheduled between Iran and the six powers.

"This is not an interminable process," said Kerry after arriving in Istanbul on Sunday on the first leg of a 10-day trip to the Middle East, Europe and Asia.

He said U.S. President Barack Obama was committed to continuing the diplomatic process despite what he called the complicating factor of an Iranian presidential election in June.

"Diplomacy is a painful task ... and a task for the patient," Kerry told a news conference.

Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz urged the powers on Sunday to set a deadline of weeks for military action to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear enrichment activity.

Steinitz, who is close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, told Army Radio action should be taken within "a few weeks, a month" if Iran did not stop its sensitive nuclear programme, which Israel sees as a potential threat to its existence.

Western powers suspect Iran is trying to develop the means to produce nuclear weapons behind the guise of a declared civilian atomic energy programme. Iran denies the accusation.

Tehran accuses Israel of threatening peace in the region and refuses to recognise the Jewish state, which is widely believed to harbour the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal.

European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, who represents the United States, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany in talks with Iran, said the two sides failed to resolve key differences during the two-day talks in Almaty.

"... It is important to continue to talk and to try to find common ground," Kerry said. "So we hope that out of Almaty will come a narrowing of some of the differences. We remain open and hopeful that a diplomatic solution can be found."

The six powers want the Islamic Republic to suspend its higher-grade uranium enrichment work in return for modest relief from international sanctions, an offer Iran did not accept.

Some diplomats and experts have said Iran's June presidential election has raised uncertainty in the West over the Islamic Republic's strategy for nuclear diplomacy.

"Obviously there is an election and that complicates the choices with respect to the politics of Iran, and we are aware of that," Kerry said.

"But we will continue. The president (Obama) has determined to continue to pursue the diplomatic channel ... We remain open and hopeful that a diplomatic solution can be found."

US says door still open on Iran nuclear talks but not forever | Reuters

 

[SajeevJino]

Israel can only rely on self against Iran threat: PM​

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel cannot rely on any other country, even an ally, when it comes to facing up to the perceived nuclear threat from Iran.


"We appreciate the efforts of the international community to halt Iran's nuclear programme," Netanyahu said in a speech on the eve of Holocaust Day.

"But at no stage will we abandon our fate into the hands of other countries, even our best friends," he said, in an apparent reference to the United States whose Secretary of State John Kerry flew in to Israel on Sunday.

US President Barack Obama warned last month during his own visit to Israel that a nuclear Iran could never be contained and pose a danger to the entire world, reiterating he would not rule out military action.

Israel can only rely on self against Iran threat: PM – The Express Tribune

 

[SajeevJino]

Senate Resolution: U.S. Will Go to War With Iran if Israel Does​

In recent years Congress, with the Israel lobby's eager assistance, has coupled salutations and congratulations with increasingly strident language about terrorism, Palestinians, and now, Iran.

If the Government of Israel is compelled to take military action in legitimate self defense against Iran's nuclear weapons program, the United States Government should stand with Israel and provide, in accordance with United States law and the constitutional responsibility of Congress to authorize the use of military force, diplomatic, military, and economic support to the Government of Israel in its defense of its territory, people, and existence.

The problem here is not that Congress is saying that the United States would support Israel if there was any chance that it might be defeated in a war with Iran or anyone else. That is obvious and has been since 1973 when the United States military was placed on its highest alert following the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack on Israel.

MJ Rosenberg: Senate Resolution: U.S. Will Go to War With Iran if Israel Does

 

[W.G.Ewald]

Pentagon redesigns its 'bunker buster' Massive Ordnance Penetrator to combat Iran - Telegraph

The newspaper reported that engineers had installed cyber warfare capabilities and new explosive targetting designs on the 30,000 lbs device, the Massive Ordnance Penetrator.

Videos of the secret tests of a previous version of the device have been shown to Israels as Americans attempt to explain the changes.

The new bunker buster has a fusing system that intensifies its burrowing power as well as sophisticated new stealth and electronic guidance technology to overcome recent advances in Iran's air defences and electronic warfare systems, the newspaper said.

 

[SajeevJino]

Reports of explosions in Iran spooking markets​

One of the reasons being tossed around to explain the wave of risk aversion is a report from BBC Persian that three explosions were heard by residents in Tehran.


The market is jittery about the Middle East after Israel attacked Syrian targets on Friday.

I'm a bit skeptical that this is directly the reason for the turnaround in sentiment because the reports have been circulating for more than an hour but it's one of the ideas that's out there.

Reports of explosions in Iran spooking market | ForexLive

Checked this @BBC Persian tweets I can't read the Arab scripts

=========================================================

There are also the reports of UN peacekeepers being abducted in the Israel-Syria border region.UN peacekeepers seized near Syria border - Middle East - Al Jazeera English

 

[SajeevJino]

Iran says will turn Golan into 'Fatahland'​

After alleged Israel attack on Syria, Iran issues war-like declarations, orders Assad army to protect homeland, according to Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper. 'Front open to Syrians, Palestinians, to all who wish to fight Israel'


On Wednesday, the Hezbollah-identified Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar quoted Iranian officials who claimed that Iran received a message from the United States and Russia stating that the alleged Israeli airstrike was not an attempt to launch a war against Syria.

Iranian officials have warned that their reaction to preceived aggressions would likely would be expressed in one of two ways. The first, one of the sources said, would be "a blow below the belt in more than one location," both within and outside of Syria, as they approached "the Day of Judgment."

The same source indicated that "a final decision has been taken to turn the Golan Heights into the new 'Fatahland' and the front will be open to "Syrians, Palestinians and to all who want to fight Israel."

The report also said that Nasrallah recently participated in more than one session of the Hezbollah's "Jihad Council." The newspaper claimed that during these meetings, the secretary-general stated, "Israel believes that if it attacks facilities and strategic stockpiles, it changes the resistance capabilities. This is an erroneous assessment." He said,"The reason being that the stocks of the resistance have been filled with all that it needs."

Nasrallah also warned, "If Israel attacks any (arms) cache of Hezbollah in Lebanon, the response will be immediate and total war."


Iran says will turn Golan into 'Fatahland' - Israel News, Ynetnews

 

[SajeevJino]

Iran's President Will Not Face Flogging – Spokesman​

An Iranian government spokesman has dismissed a media report claiming President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could face 74 lashes for breaking the country's election rules, the official IRNA news agency said on Monday.

Britain's Daily Telegraph reported on Sunday that Iran's Guardian Council, a constitutional watchdog run by senior clerics, would seek possible charges against the president, after he accompanied his chief of staff Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei when Mashaei registered as a candidate for Iran's June 14 presidential election.

The Council claims that by doing so, Ahmadinejad tried to promote his protégé Mashaei as his successor. Iran's constitution bans the incumbent president from supporting a successor.

Footage of the two men together during Mashaei's registration was broadcast by Iranian state television on Saturday. If convicted, Ahmadinejad could face 74 lashes or six months behind bars, the report said.

Spokesman Gholam-Hossein Elham said the president did not break election rules as he attended the registration of candidates as an individual and not as the country's leader.

Elham also claimed that according to the law, the election campaign in Iran only officially starts after candidates are approved by the Guardian Council.

A total of 686 candidates have registered for Iran's forthcoming presidential election, the country's Interior Minister Mustafa Mohammad-Najjar said on Saturday. Among them is former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, 78, a leading reformer, Al Jazeera reported.

Iran's President Will Not Face Flogging – Spokesman | World | RIA Novosti

 

[SajeevJino]

An Iranian government spokesman has dismissed a media report claiming President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad could face 74 lashes for breaking the country's election rules, the official IRNA news agency said on Monday.

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/west-asia-africa/9039-sabre-rattling-over-iran-39.html#post731915

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was arrested and held for seven hours Monday and warned to keep his mouth shut about matters detrimental to the Islamic regime before he was released, according to a source within the Revolutionary Guard's intelligence unit.

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/west-asia-africa/50772-irans-president-ahmadinejad-arrested-revolutionary-guard.html#post727190



Was Iran Administrated by President or the Clerics with Khomeni ..

 

[SajeevJino]

US targets Iran rial, gold imports in sanctions pressure​

The US is aiming to block gold sales to Iranians to boost pressure on the rial currency, as it steps up sanctions over the country's alleged nuclear weapons program, officials said Wednesday.

Top officials of the US Treasury and State Department said in Congressional testimony that sanctions were having a deep impact on Tehran, interrupting oil exports at a cost of $3-5 billion a month and contracting the economy.

The next step, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen said, was to increase pressure on the currency, which has lost half of its US dollar value in the past year.

"We will continue to identify ways to isolate Iran from the international financial system," Cohen told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

"In particular, we are looking carefully at actions that could increase pressure on the value of the rial."

That includes trying to prevent sales of gold to the Iranian government and Iranian citizens, he said.

"There's a tremendous demand for gold among private Iranian citizens, which in some respects is an indication of the success of our sanctions," Cohen said.

"They are dumping their rials to buy gold as a way to try to preserve their wealth, that is I think an indication that they recognize that the value of their currency is declining."

From July 1, he said, under new US sanctions legislation, Washington is forbidding gold sales to Iranians by anyone, including goldsellers in neighboring Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.

"We have been very clear with the governments of Turkey and the UAE and elsewhere as well as the private sector that's involved in the gold trade, that as of July 1st all must stop, not just the trade to the government."

Cohen told the committee that sanctions were having repercussions on the Iranian economy, putting pressure on the country's leaders to give way to international pressure over its suspected nuclear program.

He said the US Treasury estimates the economy contracted five to eight percent last year because of a 50 percent decline in oil export volumes since 2011

He also said the rial had fallen to 36,000 to the dollar on the open market from 16,000 at the beginning of 2012, forcing the Iranian central bank to tighten foreign currency supplies and driving inflation to more than 30 percent.

In separate testimony, US State Department Under secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman said that attempts to block Iran's oil exports, its key source of foreign exchange, were biting.

Fourteen of 20 importers of Iranian oil have ended their purchases, and the other six -- China, India, Turkey, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan -- have significantly reduced their imports, she said.

"We are continuing, of course, to press them for further significant reductions as is required under the law."


US targets Iran rial, gold imports in sanctions pressure - FRANCE 24

 

[shom]

US planning surprise bunker-buster attack on Iran?

Bad move indeed,,,,creating new era of colonization,,,, stop bullying man,,

 

[W.G.Ewald]

News from The Associated Press

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal has warned against the danger of Iran's nuclear program to the region's security and said Iran should not threaten its neighbors since countries in the region harbor no ill-intentions to the Islamic Republic.

"We stress the danger of the Iranian nuclear program to the security of the whole region," Prince Saud said Saturday in a joint news conference with Indian External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid in the city of Jiddah.

 

[SajeevJino]

Iran begins 'massive' deployment of long-range missile launchers​

As the Islamic Republic of Iran prepares for presidential elections next month it is fielding a "massive" number of new long-range missile launchers, Iranian media reported on Sunday


Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi was quoted as saying the new weapon systems give Iranian forces the ability to "crush the enemy" with the simultaneous launching of long-range surface-to-surface missiles, according to Fars, the semi-official Iranian news agency.

The report did not specify the type of missile that would be fired, or provide details on the number of launchers allegedly deployed.

Irans military does possess surface-to-surface missiles that are capable of traveling over 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), able to reach of targets inside Israel and US bases in the region.

Vahidi did not specify who was the "enemy," and emphasized that Iran would never start a war.

Although Tehran occasionally announces military achievements that cannot be independently verified â€" like the claim it developed a state-of-the-art stealth drone capable of evading enemy radar â€" they come in the face of relentless external pressure.


The stand-off resulted in a tense military parade as the US sent three full US carrier groups, each accompanied by dozens of support vessels and carrying more aircraft than the entire Iranian air force, to participate in the Hormuz exercises. Tehran watched with apprehension as the fleet came and went


Iran begins 'massive' deployment of long-range missile launchers — RT News

 

[arnabmit]

Shia Iran needs to be helped to build up conventional weapon systems to counter Wahabi Sunni countries that it is surrounded by. Once the Shia & Sunni powers are balanced, they would be too busy keeping each other in check and let the rest of the world be at peace.

Iran begins 'massive' deployment of long-range missile launchers​

As the Islamic Republic of Iran prepares for presidential elections next month it is fielding a "massive" number of new long-range missile launchers, Iranian media reported on Sunday


Defense Minister Gen. Ahmad Vahidi was quoted as saying the new weapon systems give Iranian forces the ability to "crush the enemy" with the simultaneous launching of long-range surface-to-surface missiles, according to Fars, the semi-official Iranian news agency.

The report did not specify the type of missile that would be fired, or provide details on the number of launchers allegedly deployed.

Irans military does possess surface-to-surface missiles that are capable of traveling over 2,000 kilometers (1,200 miles), able to reach of targets inside Israel and US bases in the region.

Vahidi did not specify who was the "enemy," and emphasized that Iran would never start a war.

Although Tehran occasionally announces military achievements that cannot be independently verified â€" like the claim it developed a state-of-the-art stealth drone capable of evading enemy radar â€" they come in the face of relentless external pressure.


The stand-off resulted in a tense military parade as the US sent three full US carrier groups, each accompanied by dozens of support vessels and carrying more aircraft than the entire Iranian air force, to participate in the Hormuz exercises. Tehran watched with apprehension as the fleet came and went


Iran begins 'massive' deployment of long-range missile launchers — RT News

 

[SajeevJino]

Obama Authorizes New Iran Sanctions Targeting Currency​

President Barack Obama is targeting Iran's currency for the first time under sanctions authorized yesterday as the U.S. increases economic pressure on the Islamic Republic to halt its nuclear program.

Obama signed an executive order that would impose penalties on "foreign financial institutions that knowingly conduct or facilitate significant transactions for the purchase or sale of the Iranian rial," according to a statement yesterday from White House press secretary Jay Carney. It was the ninth executive order that Obama has signed sanctioning Iran, which will hold presidential elections June 14.

While the rial has lost half of its value since the beginning of 2012 as a result of our comprehensive sanctions, this is the first time that trade in the rial has been targeted directly for sanctions," Carney said.

Iran has been hit by financial and trade sanctions as the U.S. and the European Union accuse its government of seeking to build a nuclear weapon. Iran, with the world's No. 4 proven oil reserves, contends its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes and has refused to back down from what it calls its right to pursue the technology.

Iran's economy has suffered under the international sanctions. The currency has plunged and inflation has surged to 32.3 percent in the past year while oil output is the lowest since the 1980s. Iran exported 1.1 million barrels a day in March, about 50 percent less than a year earlier, according to International Energy Agency estimates. Iran's oil revenues fell 27 percent last year, the U.S. Energy Department said April 26.

Obama Authorizes New Iran Sanctions Targeting Currency - Bloomberg

 

[amoy]

Any other countries transact in Rial? Isn't India paying in Rupee or bullion for crude?

Will it impact India's C port project?

Sent from my 5910 using Tapatalk 2

 

[SajeevJino]

Any other countries transact in Rial? Isn't India paying in Rupee or bullion for crude?

India Pays for Iranian Oil in Gold

India Drops the Dollar and Pays for Iranian Oil in Gold

Will it impact India's C port project?

Don't know about this Project being hit by sanctions