Along with North Korea, Iran is a fully paid up member of the "arc of extremism".

Iran threatens Israel, the USA's other client state, with a nuclear holocaust. Not to mention the fact that it has oil fields.

Like Iraq.

Interference in Iran's affairs began in World War II when it seemed that the government might turn pro-Nazi, and disrupt oil supplies.

The Allies invaded.

In 1951 Iranians elected Dr. Mohammed Mossadegh as Prime Minister, and he nationalised the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company. Britain persuaded President Eisenhower to help get Mossadegh removed from power, and to restore the Shah.

Big mistake! Not forgotten!

The Shah ran a police state, and crushed opposition. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini was arrested for opposition to the Shah's rule, and exiled, eventually to France, where he became the focus of those wanting to end the Shah's rule.

By 1978 the Shah's hold on the country declined to the point where he declared martial law, and used the army to disperse demonstrators.

On September 8, 1978 - Black Friday - hundreds were killed, and with their deaths the Shah's support vanished.

The Shah went into exile, and 98 per cent of the population voted for the Islamic Republic which was led by Khomeini.

Saddam Hussein saw the opportunity to recover Iranian territory which he claimed for Iraq, and Iran was invaded on September 22, 1980.

He had some important allies:

Tens of thousands of Iranian civilians and military personnel were killed when Iraq used chemical weapons in its warfare.

Iraq was morally and financially backed by Egypt, the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf, the United States (beginning in 1983), France, the United Kingdom, Germany, Israel, the People's Republic of China (which also sold weapons to Iran), the Soviet Union, and the Warsaw Pact states.

All of these countries provided intelligence, chemicals for biological weapons and other assistance to the Iraqis. Iran's principal allies during the war were Syria, Libya, and North Korea.

Ronald Reagan's Support for Iraq

Iran Set to Turn Off Oil Supply to Europe

Many members of the EU are now heavily dependent on Iranian oil.

Some 500,000 barrels arrive in Europe every day from Iran, with southern European countries consuming most of it.

Greece is the most exposed, receiving a third of all its oil imports from Iran, but Italy too depends on Iran for 13 percent of its oil needs.

If this source were to dry up abruptly, the economic conditions in the two struggling countries could become even worse.

Already on Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned of the economic consequences of the EU's planned embargo.

Stopping deliveries from the world's fifth largest producer could drive up the price of oil by 20 to 30 percent ...

Der Spiegel  26 Jan 2012    Peak Oil    The Merkozy Plan    War on Terror Log

We've been here before – and it suits Israel that we never forget 'Nuclear Iran'

When did all this start?

The Shah. The old boy wanted nuclear power.

He even said he wanted a bomb because "the US and the Soviet Union had nuclear bombs" and no one objected.

Europeans rushed to supply the dictator's wish. Siemens – not Russia – built the Bushehr nuclear facility.

And when Ayatollah Khomeini, Scourge of the West, Apostle of Shia Revolution, etc, took over Iran in 1979, he ordered the entire nuclear project to be closed down because it was "the work of the Devil".

Only when Saddam invaded Iran – with our Western encouragement – and started using poison gas against the Iranians (chemical components arriving from the West, of course) was Khomeini persuaded to reopen it.

All this has been deleted from the historical record ...

Ind  25 Jan 2012    America    Israel    War on Terror Log

Neoliberal Fascism

Iran crisis: Can conflict be averted?

A whole series of events - preparations for stepped-up US and Western sanctions against Tehran, Iran's warning to a US aircraft carrier to stay out of the Gulf, the sentencing to death for alleged spying of an American with dual Iranian-US nationality, and the killing of yet another Iranian scientist, which Iran sees as part of a continuing foreign campaign to sabotage its nuclear programme - all add to the sense of drama and a belief that in some way this crisis is coming to a head ...

BBC NEWS  12 Jan 2012    America    Israel    War on Terror Log

Russian Says Western Support for Arab Revolts Could Cause a ‘Big War’

Adversaries of Iran Said to Be Stepping Up Covert Actions

Iran car explosion 'kills nuclear scientist' in Tehran

A university lecturer and nuclear scientist has been killed in a car explosion in north Tehran, reports say.

Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, an academic who also worked at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, and another unidentified person were killed in the attack.

The blast happened after a motorcyclist stuck an apparent bomb to the car.

Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in recent years, with Iran blaming Israel and the US.

Both countries deny the accusations ...

BBC NEWS  11 Jan 2012    America    Israel    War on Terror Log

Mossad

The Terror War on Iran

Europe Takes Bold Step Toward a Ban on Iranian Oil

A final decision by the European Union will not come before the end of January and would be carried out in stages to avoid major disruptions in global oil supplies.

But the move by some of Iran’s most important oil customers appears to underscore the resolve of Western allies to impose on Iran the toughest round of sanctions to date, increasing pressure on Tehran to stop enriching uranium and negotiate an end to what Western leaders argue is an accelerating program to build a nuclear bomb.

Iran denies any military intent and refuses to stop enrichment of uranium for what it describes as civilian purposes.

But it has responded to the threat of new American and European sanctions with a series of military and diplomatic threats ...

Iran has also said that it wants to reopen talks with the West on the nuclear issue, which was interpreted in Paris as an effort by Iran to buy time to continue its program ...

Israel has warned that time is running out to stop Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, given that Tehran has been moving its enrichment facilities deep into mountains, making it harder to attack them militarily ...

NYT  05 Jan 2012    America    Israel    War on Terror Log

Neoliberal Fascism

Israel's Nuclear Hypocrisy

US agrees sale of $30bn fighter jets to Saudi Arabia

The sale is part of a larger US effort to realign its defence policies in the Persian Gulf to keep Iran in check.

The announcement came as US officials considered a fresh threat from Tehran.

Tehran warned this week it could disrupt traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital Gulf oil transport route, if Washington levies new sanctions targeting Iran's crude exports.

The announcement came as the New York Times reported that the US was pressing ahead with $11bn of arms sales and training to Iraq, despite concerns that the sectarian divide between the Sunni and Shia populations is growing, driven by the Shi'ite-dominated government of prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

The sale is part of a larger 10-year, $60bn arms deal with Saudi Arabia that also includes helicopters, a broad array of missiles, bombs and delivery systems, as well as radar warning systems and night-vision goggles ...

Concerns were raised from pro-Israeli lawmakers about the plan, but US officials reassured Congress that Israel's military edge would not be undercut by the sale.

Additionally, there is now broad agreement among Israel, Arab states in the Gulf, and the west, that Iran poses a significant and unpredictable threat ...

Gdn  29 Dec 2011    America    War on Terror

Iran tests missile during navy war games

America warns Iran that blocking oil route will 'not be tolerated'

Iran

Iran shoots down US drone

Computer failure, or just testing Iran's ground-to-air missile system? It's a tough call.

... a spokesman for Nato's International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan said a surveillance drone flying over western Afghanistan had gone out of control late last week and may be the one Iran said it had shot down over its own airspace.

"The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a US unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. "The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status," an ISAF statement said ...

Gdn  04 Dec 2011    War on Terror Log

Iran

Leon Panetta warns against Iran strike

Iran represents a much greater threat than Iraq did in 2003 ...

Military action against Iran could have "unintended consequences" in the region, the US defence secretary, Leon Panetta, said on Thursday, hours after Tehran warned that an attack against its nuclear sites would be met with "iron fists" ...

Iran has warned that it will respond to any attacks by hitting Israel and US interests in the Gulf. Analysts say Tehran could retaliate by closing the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway where about 40% of all traded oil passes through.

"Our enemies, particularly the Zionist regime, America and its allies, should know that any kind of threat and attack or even thinking about any action will be firmly responded to," Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said on state television ...

Gdn  11 Nov 2011    America    War on Terror Log

Russia: Israeli threat of strikes on Iran 'a mistake'

Israeli tail wagging American dog

Russia's foreign minister ... Sergei Lavrov ... said it was "far from the first time" Israel had threatened strikes against Iran, when asked for his view on Mr Peres' recent comments.

"Our position on this issue is well-known: this would be a very serious mistake fraught with unpredictable consequences," he told reporters.

Mr Lavrov said "the only path for removing concerns is to create every possible condition" to resume the talks between Iran and six world powers - including Russia - which broke down in December last year.

Shimon Peres said on Sunday: "The possibility of a military attack against Iran is now closer to being applied than the application of a diplomatic option."

"I don't think that any decision has already been made, but there is an impression that Iran is getting closer to nuclear weapons," he told the Israel Hayom daily.

He made similar comments to Israeli television on Saturday, saying: "I estimate that intelligence services of all these countries are looking at the ticking clock, warning leaders that there was not much time left ...

BBC NEWS  07 Nov 2011    America    War on Terror

Former Mossad Chief Seeks to Avert Israeli Attack

IAEA claims Tehran working on advanced warhead

Israel

UK military steps up plans for Iran attack

The Ministry of Defence believes the US may decide to fast-forward plans for targeted missile strikes at some key Iranian facilities.

British officials say that if Washington presses ahead it will seek, and receive, UK military help for any mission, despite some deep reservations within the coalition government.

In anticipation of a potential attack, British military planners are examining where best to deploy Royal Navy ships and submarines equipped with Tomahawk cruise missiles over the coming months as part of what would be an air- and sea-launched campaign.

The Guardian has spoken to a number of Whitehall and defence officials over recent weeks who said Iran was once again becoming the focus of diplomatic concern after the revolution in Libya ...

Gdn  02 Nov 2011    Dave's Libya resolution    War on Terror Log

Tony Blair

Israeli army test-fires missile capable of reaching Iran

Iran's nuclear activity under scrutiny

Iran

U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq

Those lovers of freedom'n dumbocracy across the pond have some very dodgy friends

The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats.

That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran ...

With an eye on the threat of a belligerent Iran, the administration is also seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman.

While the United States has close bilateral military relationships with each, the administration and the military are trying to foster a new “security architecture” for the Persian Gulf that would integrate air and naval patrols and missile defense ...

NYT  30 Oct 2011    America    

Panetta’s Pentagon

Liam Fox's friend 'bankrolled by corporate intelligence firm and Israel lobbyist'

Mr Werritty is reported to have paid for travel around the world from a company that received funds from G3 Good Governance Group and Tamares Real Estate, an investment company owned by Poju Zabloudowicz, the chairman of Bicom.

Jon Moulton, a venture capitalist, is also said to have provided money to Pargav Ltd, the firm which is alleged to have bankrolled Mr Werritty.

Over the past few days, speculation has mounted as to how Mr Werritty was able to join Liam Fox on more than 20 overseas trips including official visits, conferences and holidays.

It has now emerged that six different people and companies each paid up to £35,000 to Pargav since last year.

Mr Werritty is said to have withdrawn more than £140,000 from Pargav's bank account to fund his travel around the world to meet up with Dr Fox ...

Mr Zabloudowicz is the head of Bicom, a prominent organisation which promotes Israeli-British relations. His companies have also donated money to the Conservative Party and he is a supporter of David Cameron.

Last night, he confirmed donating £3,000 to Pargav.

A spokesman said: "For many years, Poju Zabludowicz has helped fund not-for-profit organisations, not individuals, due to his passion for the promotion of peace and understanding between peoples in the United States, Europe and the Middle East." ...

Tel  14 Oct 2011

Questions the Cabinet Office will not be asking ...

Craig Murray's email to the UK ambassador to Israel includes the following question ...

10) You and Werritty reportedly both attended an anti-Iranian conference in Israel, as did Fox.

What contact did you have with Werritty at that conference or in its margins? What did you discuss? ...

Craig Murray  14 Oct 2011    Coalition Log    Middle East Peace Process    Westminster Sleaze

Friends in high places     Middle East Peace Process

Downing Street report

Adam Werritty 'plotted with Israel' to topple Iran's President

Firm at centre of Liam Fox allegations also funded Labour trip

The real Adam Werritty and Liam Fox scandal

Liam Fox, Adam Werritty, Lord Bell, Bell Pottinger and Sri Lanka

Adam Werritty set up Liam Fox meeting with Iranian regime lobbyist

Poju Zabloudowicz

BICOM

CFI

AIPAC

Iranian Arms in Iraq Are a ‘Concern’

Those to five star divis - Bush and Blair - did what the Iran-Iraq war failed to do:
push Iraq into the Iranian sphere of influence

Mr. Panetta is the third top American official to raise an alarm about Iranian influence in Iraq in recent days.

The American ambassador to Iraq, James F. Jeffrey, said last week that the United States had “forensic” evidence that weapons and weapons parts from Iran were being used by Shiite militias against American troops.

His remarks were echoed two days later in Washington by Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ...

NYT  10 July 2011

Iran's Influence in Iraq

American supporters of the Iraq war could hardly have been pleased when they saw Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being given the red carpet treatment during his state visit to Baghdad.

Yet they should not have been surprised. That was merely the culmination of a course of events the United States inadvertently set in motion.

From the day that U.S. forces overthrew Saddam Hussein, it was almost certain that Iran would be the main beneficiary.

Saddam had been the mullahs' nemesis for nearly a quarter century.

The two countries had waged an extremely bloody war from 1980 to 1988, and Iraq's Sunni political elite remained Iran's mortal adversary.

Iraq under Sunni rule was the principal regional strategic counterweight to an assertive Iran.

The United States did Tehran a huge favor by removing that political elite, and paving the way for the Shiite-Kurdish alliance that now dominates Iraq's political affairs.

Having taken that step, it does little good now for proponents of the war to whine about Tehran's expanded influence ...

Cato Institute  06 Mar 2008    Chilcott Inquiry    Tony Blair    War on Terror Log    

Tony Blair at Chilcot Iraq inquiry

Iran's influence in Iraq

US fears Iranian influence in Iraq

U.S. Targets Iran's Influence in Iraq

Sudan warned to block Iranian arms bound for Gaza

State department cables released by WikiLeaks show that Sudan was warned by the US in January 2009 not to allow the delivery of unspecified Iranian arms that were expected to be passed to Hamas in the Gaza Strip around the time of Israel's Cast Lead offensive, in which 1,400 Palestinians were killed ...

... in mid-January Israeli planes mounted a long-range bombing attack on an arms convoy in Sudan's Red Sea province.

The Sharq al-Awsat newspaper quoted a US official as saying Sudan had been warned in advance about the shipment.

State department documents record that Khartoum then privately accused the US of carrying out two air attacks in eastern Sudan: one in January 2009, with 43 dead and 17 vehicles destroyed, and another on 20 February, with 45 dead and 14 vehicles destroyed.

"We assume that the planes that attacked us are your planes," a senior Sudanese official said. The US embassy in Khartoum then sought clarification from Washington.

"Should this potentially explosive story somehow leak to the sensationalistic Sudanese press," the cable said, "it could very well turn our security situation here from bad to worse."

Explaining the political background to the confrontation, the head of Sudan's intelligence and security service, Salah Ghosh, told US diplomats of his government's frustration over Washington's support for Israel during the Gaza war.

US actions would "calamitously increase support for violent extremism and [push] Hamas into an alliance with Iran", he warned ...

Guardian  06 Dec 2010    A violent aggressive culture

U.S. Strains to Stop Arms Flow

How to destroy Hezbollah

Mossad keeps Iran as Israel's 'number one priority'

Netanyahu has told the Mossad that Iran should be its number one priority.

It is impossible at this early stage in this story to say whether Israel was involved in this case but it is conceivable.

Israel was almost certainly involved the in assassination of the senior Hizbollah terrorist Imad Mughniyah a couple of years ago in Damascus and in the death of a senior Hamas operative in Dubai earlier this year.

Both of them were in contact with Iranian intelligence when they were killed.

The head of the Mossad for the last eight years, Meir Dagan, emphasized in his tenure that the Mossad had to take action, not just collect intelligence.

As he leaves office, we may have seen his work one more time in operation.

His named successor, Tamir Pardo, has spent years in the Mossad and the Israel Defense Forces in these types of operations and will continue to make them a high priority.

Independent  30 Nov 2010    

Who is killing Iran's nuclear scientists?

Iran agrees to discuss its nuclear program

Bombings Hit Atomic Experts in Iran Streets

Bomb blast blamed on Israel and US

Around the World, Distress Over Iran

There was little surprising in Mr. Barak’s implicit threat that Israel might attack Iran’s nuclear facilities.

As a pressure tactic, Israeli officials have been setting such deadlines, and extending them, for years.

But six months later it was an Arab leader, the king of Bahrain, who provides the base for the American Fifth Fleet, telling the Americans that the Iranian nuclear program “must be stopped,” according to another cable.

“The danger of letting it go on is greater than the danger of stopping it,” he said.

His plea was shared by many of America’s Arab allies, including the powerful King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, who according to another cable repeatedly implored Washington to “cut off the head of the snake” while there was still time ...

... the cables reveal how Iran’s ascent has unified Israel and many longtime Arab adversaries — notably the Saudis — in a common cause.

Publicly, these Arab states held their tongues, for fear of a domestic uproar and the retributions of a powerful neighbor.

Privately, they clamored for strong action — by someone else ...

NYT  28 Nov 2010    A violent aggressive culture

Israel vs Iran: the Washington factor

The [mid-term] elections are a move in the Israeli leadership’s direction, for they have also revitalised the Christian right many of whose supporters believe implicitly that Israel and its survival are at the heart of God's plan for humanity.

The voting power of this constituency far exceeds that of traditional pro-Israel support in the United States, and it will certainly be influential when Barack Obama seeks re-election in 2012.

The mid-term elections have also emboldened Israel’s prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu to adopt a notably more combative tone towards Iran, and to announce the building of new West Bank.

The new political dynamics in the United States tend to suggest that Barack Obama will be more cautious about condemning Israel forcefully in the wake of any attack on Iran than in other circumstances.

In turn they increase anxiety in European Union circles and add to a sense of urgency about engaging with Tehran.

On all sides the decision points are becoming sharper - and the prospect of an Israeli military operation against Iran is again high on the agenda.

openDemocracy  19 Nov 2010    Israel    

The Christian Right

Military Action Against Iran: Impact and Effects

Christian Zionists and neocons

Cash and keeping friendly relations in Afghanistan

Iran benefited in many different ways from the military actions of the US in Afghanistan and Iraq: hostile governments in two neighbouring states were removed, at no cost to Tehran.

Instead, the countries were left weak, and less able to threaten Iran's interests ...

Analysis
Quentin Sommerville    BBC News, Kabul

Cash is king in Afghanistan and so, in many respects, the news that Iran handed over hard currency is unsurprising.

But President Karzai's admission will do little to reassure some of his foreign supporters who have been concerned at corruption within his government, and Tehran's growing influence in the country.

And his lack of precision didn't help matters - "once or twice in a year, Iran has given five hundred, or six hundred, or seven hundred thousand euros," he said, leaving some to ask - where did the money go, and did all of it make its way into the finance ministry's coffers?

Despite receiving billions of dollars in aid, Afghanistan remains one of the poorest countries in the world.

BBC NEWS  25 Oct 2010

BBC NEWS  25 Oct 2010    Afghanistan

Iran Is Said to Give Top Karzai Aide Cash by the Bagful

US missile defence plans could spark EU-Nato tensions

With a crucial Nato summit in Lisbon only a month away, the US is increasing pressure on Ankara.

Defence secretary Robert Gates said this week that Washington would not ask Nato member Turkey to provide new bases for missile systems.

"But we do look to Turkey to support Nato's adoption at Lisbon of a territorial missile defence capability," he said.

Turkey worries the $280m missile upgrade will be seen to be targeted at next-door Iran – which is indeed its main purpose, in American eyes at least.

"We do not perceive any threat from any neighbour countries and we do not think our neighbours form a threat to Nato," said foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu.

As Turkey's neo-Islamist government tries to juggle east and west, Hurriyet commentator Semih Idiz said "an increasingly apparent ideological divide is growing between Turkey and the US in particular, and Turkey and Europe to a lesser extent ... Turkey could easily end up having to choose between the alliance and Iran" ...

Guardian  19 Oct 2010    A violent aggressive culture

Has the West declared cyber war on Iran?

Experts say the computer virus found in a nuclear plant is the work of a foreign power ...

... a new kind of online sabotage has reached its zenith with a self-replicating "worm" that started on a single USB drive and has spread rapidly through industrial computer systems around the world.

So sophisticated that many analysts believe it can only be part of a state-sponsored attack, the Stuxnet worm - or "malware" – is the first such programming creation designed with the specific intention of causing real world damage.

And if the experts are right, it could herald a new chapter in the history of cyber warfare.

The worm ... has now been detected on computers in Indonesia, India and Pakistan, but more significantly Iran; 60 per cent of current infections have taken place within the country, with some 30,000 internet-connected computers affected so far, including machines at the nuclear power plant in Bushehr, due to open in the next few weeks.

Independent  28 Sept 2010    War on Terror

Iran deal with Russia for air-defence missiles scuppered by US and Israel

Russian military chief says sale is off after concerns Tehran would use S-300 weapons system to protect nuclear facilities ...

The US and Israel joined forces in opposing the deal because, they argued, the system could help Iran defend itself against potential attacks on its nuclear facilities.

Israel also warned that the weapon could fall into the hands of Hezbollah guerillas in Lebanon, who are supported by Iran.

The CIA has said that it believes the missiles would be deployed to protect Iranian nuclear facilities ...

Russia angered Israel and triggered an expression of concern from the US last week by announcing that it would go ahead with a $300m sale of Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria, Iran's only Arab ally.

Israel admitted that it had tried but failed to scupper that deal ...

Guardian  22 Sept 2010    

Netanyahu visits Moscow in secret to obstruct Iran missile sale

Iran: a political calculus

The Iranian leadership has managed to reach a situation where negotiation with Washington - and even a limited military attack - could serve its domestic goals and guarantee its survival.

If it chooses to compromise, Iran could in principle offer measures that would lift international sanctions in exchange for less foreign pressure over its internal politics and human-rights situation.

And even if negotiations fail or prove abortive, leading to a United States or Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear sites, the government - fuelled by a strong wave of nationalist sentiment - can use this as an opportunity to establish total control.

A military assault on Iran will have other disastrous effects: it would lead to more human-rights violations, worsen the situation for Iran’s middle class, push Iran further towards dictatorship ...

For the Iranian leadership, there are many positives in this scenario; the elite has prepared for it for a long time and knows how to make the best of it.

In this sense those who support the option of military attack against Iran in Washington and Tel Aviv are Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hidden allies.

The United States has fewer options. But by removing the threat of a military attack, Washington would make the job of Tehran’s hardliners more difficult ...

In the present circumstances, the end of the military option would create space for those in Iran seeking to hold the hardliners in check, and offer an opening to Iranian democracy and the Iranian people.

openDemocracy  08 Sept 2010

Iran, sanctions and war: fuel of crisis

Blair should take responsibility for Iraq. But he won't. He can't

Having conquered Saddam, he wants to conquer Ahmadinejad.

"I am saying that it is wholly unacceptable for Iran to have nuclear weapons capability," he told poor old Andrew Marr.

It was necessary for the Iranians," quoth he, "to get that message, loud and clear."

Thus did our Middle East peace envoy prepare us for war with Persia.

But I rather fear the Iranians got his "message" a long time ago: if you want to avoid threats from the likes of Lord Blair, you'd better buy a bomb pdq ...

Sometimes, Blair sounded like the Israeli foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman.

He and his Israeli boss believe Ahmadinejad is worse than Hitler – which takes some doing – and Lord Blair, as we know, is no appeaser.

Oddly, however – since he's supposed to be our peacemaker between the two sides – "Israel" and "Palestine" were two words that went totally unmentioned, even though Blair blurted out to the Chilcot inquiry that there had been "phone calls" with Israelis during his decision-making conference with Bush over Iraq.

Marr missed out there. What on earth were Blair and Bush talking to the Israelis about as they prepared to take us into this catastrophe? ...

Independent  03 Sept 2010    Israel    Tony Blair    War on Terror

Iran ... a strategy for regional dominance

Should Tony Blair step down from the Middle East Quartet?

Tony Blair, in last night’s interview with Andrew Marr [UK], whilst trying to deflect criticism on the legality of the Iraq war said “we are about to face, in respect of Iran a very similar type of decision.”

No, we’re not. As Marc Lynch, amongst others has argued:

•a military strike is not likely to put an end to Iran’s nuclear potential, or to provide any significant sense of certainty (I do not find Goldberg’s notion of Israeli commandos quickly darting in from Iraqi Kurdistan to check things out especially reassuring).

•the idea Israel has a fixed deadline is not credible. Israeli officials and American Iran hawks have paraded a never-ending series of such immutable deadlines over the last decade — of 2006, of 2007, of 2008, and now of December 2010. None proved quite so immutable.

Blair drew clear red lines around the possibility of a nuclear Iran, on which the following exchange took place:

Marr: But what can we do about it?

Blair: And, um, and um I think we’ve got to be prepared to confront them, er

Marr: Militarily?

Blair: If necessarily militarily

Marr: Militarily?

Blair: If necessary militarily. I – I think there is no alternative to that um if they continue to develop nuclear weapons and and they need to get that message loud and clear.

randomvariable.co.uk  02 Sept 2010    Tony Blair    War on Terror

Iran ... a strategy for regional dominance

Andrew Marr interviews Tony Blair

Master Manipulator

Blair: world leaders need to take urgent action over Iran

Tony Blair accused of putting war with Iran on the electoral agenda

Blair: Iran now a bigger threat than in 2003

David Cameron hopes Turkey can stop Iran's nuclear weapons programme

Prime minister intervenes in Middle East dispute and hopes Turkey can stop Iran's nuclear weapons programme ...

Cameron also said Turkey should use its links with Iran to persuade Tehran to abandon its nuclear weapons programme ...

Guardian  27 July 2010    Israel    War on Terror Log

US was 'high on military' ahead of Iraq war

A tale of three wars

Should Israel Bomb Iran?

An Attack on Iran: Back on the Table

A tale of three wars: Afghanistan, Iraq...Iran

The third war

The idea that an attack on Iran is desirable is found most regularly in neo-conservative circles.

But arguments for the military option are also found in more centrist military and diplomatic thinking, as portrayed by the well-informed Joe Klein.

Meanwhile, an experienced former US ambassador to Israel, Dan Kurzer, takes the view that Israel is more likely to start a conflict with Hizbollah than the other way round ...

openDemocracy  22 July 2010    

Should Israel Bomb Iran?

An Attack on Iran: Back on the Table

Israel's Next War Could Be Lebanon

Israel vs Iran: fallout of a war

The voices in Washington calling for a military strike on Iranian nuclear plants are growing in number and strength.

The cautious attitude of the Barack Obama administration itself in relation to such a course means that direct military action by the United States itself remains on balance unlikely.

But current trends in the middle east suggest that the prospect of Israeli action against Iran in the next few months is coming closer ...

This current moment raises three vital questions for anyone concerned with security and stability in the middle east: whether Israel has the military capability to launch an effective strike on Iran, what form military action would take, and what Iran’s reaction would be ...

openDemocracy  15 July 2010    F-35 Strike Fighter

Leading Oil and Gas Companies Around the World1

Military Action Against Iran: Impact and Effects

Iran could spring a nasty surprise

A Quiet Axis Forms Against Iran in the Middle East

An Attack on Iran: Back on the Table

Israel vs Iran: the risk of war

Israel's shadow over Iran

Iran sanctions 'will not affect' Russia missile deal

Russia agreed to supply Iran with S-300 systems several years ago but has not delivered them.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stressed the missiles were not subject to the limits set by the UN on cooperation with Iran.

He said Moscow was in talks on building further nuclear reactors in Iran.

The US and Israel are concerned the S-300 missiles, designed to counter both aircraft and cruise missiles, might be used to protect Iran's nuclear facilities from possible attack ...

BBC NEWS  10 June 2010    F-35 Strike Fighter    War on Terror    

UN sanctions on Iran: A gift to the regime

The sanctions have been devised to increase the cost paid by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the elite Revolutionary Guards in defying world opinion.

But the architects of the financial curbs failed to address two inconvenient truths: the first is that the opposition movement of Mir Hossein Mousavi also regards uranium enrichment as a national right, and opposes another round of sanctions; and the second is that Mr Ahmadinejad himself will relish them.

Renewed sanctions give him the opportunity of defying the world, and winning ...

raymonddelauney 10 Jun 2010, 1:14AM

But the architects of the financial curbs failed to address two inconvenient truths: the first is that the opposition movement of Mir Hossein Mousavi also regards uranium enrichment as a national right, and opposes another round of sanctions; and the second is that Mr Ahmadinejad himself will relish them.

Meanwhile the UK and the US pollute the Gulf of Mexico with oil .. they wish to continue to deny Iran the right to peacefully develop civil nuclear power.

There's only one country in the world that illegally developed nuclear weapons with the racist Apartheid regime in South Africa ...and that country has only recently been punished by invited to join the OECD.

Double standards all round then..

Guardian  10 June 2010

Gaza blockade: Iran offers escort to next aid convoy

• Aide threatens use of Revolutionary Guard
• Netanyahu warns of Jerusalem missile danger ...

The threat came as the Israeli prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, dismissed a UN proposal for an international commission to investigate last week's commando assault on aid ships, in which nine people died.

Another aid ship, the Rachel Corrie, carrying Irish and other peace activists, was boarded peacefully by Israeli forces on Saturday, escorted to the port of Ashdod, and its passengers deported.

Netanyahu has defended Israel's right to maintain the blockade by arguing that without it Gaza would become an "Iranian port" and Hamas missiles would strike Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. Israel's undeclared aim is to weaken or bring down the Hamas government.

Iran continued to exploit the "freedom flotilla" affair to lambast Israel. Its foreign minister, Manuchehr Mottaki, told the Organisation of the Islamic Conference in Jeddah on Sunday that Israel's crime was "another instance of the Zionist regime's brazen and merciless treatment of Muslims, especially the oppressed Palestinian people." ...

Guardian  06 June 2010    Israel    War on Terror Log

Israeli navy kills four Palestinians off Gaza coast

U.S. Is Said to Expand Secret Military Acts in Mideast Region

The top American commander in the Middle East has ordered a broad expansion of clandestine military activity in an effort to disrupt militant groups or counter threats in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Somalia and other countries in the region, according to defense officials and military documents.

The secret directive, signed in September by Gen. David H. Petraeus, authorizes the sending of American Special Operations troops to both friendly and hostile nations in the Middle East, Central Asia and the Horn of Africa to gather intelligence and build ties with local forces.

Officials said the order also permits reconnaissance that could pave the way for possible military strikes in Iran if tensions over its nuclear ambitions escalate ...

NYT  24 May 2010    War on Terror Log

The Obama administration is accelerating the deployment of new defenses against possible Iranian missile attacks in the Persian Gulf, placing special ships off the Iranian coast and antimissile systems in at least four Arab countries, according to administration and military officials ...

The deployments are also partly intended to counter the impression that Iran is fast becoming the most powerful military force in the Middle East, to forestall any Iranian escalation of its confrontation with the West if new sanctions are imposed.

In addition, the administration is trying to show Israel that there is no immediate need for military strikes against Iranian nuclear and missile facilities, according to administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity ...

NYT  30 Jan 2010

Iran can be bombed says General Petraeus

The US military commander for the Middle East and the Gulf region has confirmed that the United States has developed contingency plans to deal with Iran's nuclear facilities ...

Iran maintains its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes, but the United States and other Western nations fear Tehran wants to acquire nuclear weapons.

Israel has called Iran's nuclear programme the major threat facing its nation. Gen Petraeus declined to comment about Israel's military capabilities, according to CNN ...

Telegraph  10 Jan 2010

Israel

The Obama administration has said that a Times report revealing that Iran has been secretly working on a trigger for a nuclear bomb urgently underscored the case for tough new sanctions against Tehran.

Referring to today's report, which showed that Iran has been working on testing a key final component of a nuclear bomb, a senior US official said: “Now that work may have been done on a trigger mechanism, this certainly gives urgency, in the absence of any meaningful response from Tehran…in terms of additional pressure on sanctions.”

The official added: “The revelations that work has been done [on a nuclear trigger] does add a sense of urgency and these revelations certainly don’t hurt.”

The reaction from the Administration in Washington comes as the US begins a push to get China and Russia to back a tough new set of sanctions against Iran after a year in which Tehran has snubbed President Obama’s overtures to open a diplomatic dialogue over its nuclear programme ...

Calls for a united front came as China backed out of a crucial meeting of the six powers involved in negotiations with Tehran, and Israel used increasingly aggressive rhetoric over the threat from Iran.

Making clear that Israel reserves the right to launch a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, Ehud Barak, the Israeli Defence Minister, warned “all players not to remove any options from the table,” adding: “We do not remove it.”

Mr Barak added: “There is a need for tough sanctions, something that is well and coherently coordinated to include Americans, the EU, the Chinese, the Russians [and] the Indians.” ...

Times  14 Dec 2009

Netanyahu has said often enough that he will never accept an Iranian nuclear bomb. He doesn't believe Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad when he insists that Iran's nuclear program is intended solely for civilian purposes. But he does take Ahmadinejad -- a notorious Holocaust denier -- at his word when he repeatedly threatens to wipe out Israel.

Netanyahu draws parallels between Europe's appeasement of Hitler and the current situation. "It's 1938, and Iran is Germany," he says. This time, however, says Netanyahu, the Jews will not allow themselves to be the "sacrificial lamb."

But even politicians who normally take a less extreme view, like Deputy Prime Minister Dan Meridor, Israel's minister of intelligence and atomic energy, are now realizing that the situation is coming to a head. A narrow majority of the Israeli population currently favors bombing the Iranian nuclear facilities, while 11 percent would consider leaving Israel if Tehran acquires nuclear weapons.

Meridor says that his counterparts in the US government are reporting a sharp increase in the level of concern among Iran's moderate Arab neighbors. "Ninety percent of the conversations between the United States and countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia now revolve around Iran, while 10 percent relate to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he says ...

Der Spiegel  02 December 2009

Europe Reluctant to Pledge More troops

The United States department of defence has confirmed that it is rushing into production the world's largest ever bomb, one designed specifically to destroy underground targets.

The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) weighs just short of fifteen tonnes, more than 80% of which is made up of a massively hardened ferro-cobalt alloy casing.

When dropped from high altitude, the bomb will drive through earth and concrete before two-and-a-half tonnes of explosive are detonated to destroy the target ...

The new weapon, more than ten times as powerful as the current BLU-109 bomb, is planned principally to be delivered from high altitude by the stealth B-2 strategic bomber ... there are clear dangers in the arrival of a weapon of this size and destructive power, not least if it proves difficult or impossible to negotiate a settlement with Iran.

The ambitions and unpredictability of the Mahmoud Ahmadinejad regime, and a regional environment where Israel's concerns and tensions with Hizbollah have ever-present combustible potential, make such deadlock a real possibility.

In the event of continuing deadlock, there would be very heavy pressure on Obama from rightwing sources to take military action - perhaps in the approach to the mid-sessional Senate elections in November 2010.

In those circumstances, the United States air force would be only too willing to utilise the new capabilities in its arsenal - including the Massive Ordnance Penetrator. The very existence of this weapon would most certainly add to the pressure on the president.

openDemocracy  22 October 2009

US 'bunker buster' bomb to be ready soon

Iran, America, Israel: the nuclear gamble

With memories of the 1979 revolution - in which the US lost a friend when the Shah was deposed - still fresh and hurting, Iran has come back into the frame in its role as a threat to the West. Well, Israel actually. With a holocaust denier running the country, Iran doesn't do tact and diplomacy, but underneath the rhetoric there are a number of questions hanging over the new coalition targeting Tehran. Should the West succeed in detaching Russia from supporting Iran, then it will be a matter of time before there is a 'popular' uprising which will end the threat Israel. If not, then expect the 'War on Terror' to open a new front.

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has said "no sane person" would look to attack Iran over its nuclear program "without real concern".

Interviewed on the BBC, he said the UK was "100% committed" to finding a diplomatic solution.

But Mr Miliband refused to rule out military action altogether, declining to say whether it was "inconceivable" ...

Israel's foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman has called for an "unequivocal" response from Western leaders.

"The revelations of this second nuclear enrichment site in Iran prove beyond any doubt that this country wants to equip itself with nuclear weapons", he told Israeli public radio ...

BBC World Affairs correspondent Paul Reynolds:

Iranian ambitions for this site are not known. It could be that they wanted a back-up in case their main plant at Natanz was attacked.

But another fear is that they intended to enrich uranium more highly at the secret plant, to a level suitable for a nuclear explosion.

The discovery will strengthen the demands by the US and its allies for further sanctions to be imposed on Iran unless it suspends all enrichment, as required by the Security Council ...

BBC NEWS  26 September 2009

Iran ducks out of nuclear confrontation

Iran defiant over secret nuclear facility

Iran test-fires short-range missiles

Miliband refuses to rule out military action

U.S. to Demand Inspection of New Iran Plant ‘Within Weeks’

Venezuela Denies Iran Is Helping It

Gates in plea to Israel for 'patience' over Iran

The lurch into recession a year ago wasn’t exclusively down to the collapse of Lehman Brothers and the wider financial crisis. In my view, it was always as much about the spike in oil prices. Shocked by prices at the pumps, American consumers en masse decided to stop spending.

The recovery would be shattered by a further oil price shock of this sort. The effect would be similar to, if not worse than, the Arab oil embargo of 1973. Claims by G20 leaders that thanks to decisive and unprecedented policy action the world has been saved from a second Great Depression would go up in smoke.

Worse, there’s nothing left in the fiscal and monetary cannon to deal with any further upsets. It’s already been all used up.

Telegraph  25 September 2009

Iran defiant amid new nuclear row

World reaction to Iran's nuclear sites

Iran's nuclear plant admission brings sanctions showdown nearer

Revelation may galvanise Security Council

Iran's second nuclear plant 'a vindication for Israel'

Iran: Time to come clean

... an Iranian gas executive told Reuters that international sanctions will not prevent Iran expanding gas production by more than 60 percent in the next five years but they are adding as much as 10-20 percent to project costs.

Iran, with the world’s second biggest gas reserves, plans to boost output to 1 billion cubic meters per day by 2014 from about 600 million cubic meters per day now, National Iranian Gas Company (NIGC) Managing Director Azizollah Ramazani said.

“We need more than $10 billion of investment for each year for reaching that huge capacity of production,“ he said on Saturday in the Tehran offices of NIGC, the state firm that handles the domestic gas industry.

Another firm handles exports.

He said 40 percent of funds were expected to come from foreign financing or investment, adding there was particular interest from Middle Eastern and Chinese firms.

Ramazani said Iran had in the past focused on meeting surging domestic demand, which he said was partly spurred on by subsidies that encouraged inefficient use in homes, industry and power plants.

But he said attention was turning to exports.

“In recent years, the country decided to diversify consumption of gas both for domestic use and also for export,“ the news agency quoted him as saying.

Iran Daily 09 February 2009

Barack Obama, the new US president, will engage in "tough and direct" diplomacy with Iran "without preconditions", the White House has said.

The Obama administration said in a website statement on Wednesday that it aimed to use "the power of American diplomacy" over what it called "Iran's illicit nuclear programme, support for terrorism, and threats towards Israel".

"Seeking this kind of comprehensive settlement with Iran is our best way to make progress," the statement said.

It added that should Iran abandon its nuclear programme the US would offer incentives such as membership in the World Trade Organisation (WTO), economic investment and moves towards normal diplomatic relations.

However, the statement warned that should Iran continue its "troubling" behaviour, the US would step up efforts to further isolate Iran economically and politically.

Western powers have accused Iran of seeking to obtain nuclear weapons but Iran insists its nuclear programme is solely for peaceful energy purposes.

Under George Bush, the former US president, Washington refused to engage in direct negotiations with Iran unless it first stopped enriching uranium, and also led efforts to push for increased economic sanctions against Iran.

Hillary Clinton, the new US secretary of state, faced criticism from Iran after she said during her failed campaign to be president that the US would "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacked Israel.

Al Jazeera 22 January 2009

Barack Obama's BlackBerry

Multinational companies are coming under increasing pressure from the US to stop doing business with Iran because of its nuclear programme.

European operators are facing threats from Washington that they could jeopardise their US interests by continuing to deal with Tehran, with increasing evidence that European governments, mainly France, Germany and Britain, are supporting the US campaign.

It emerged last night that Siemens, one of the world's largest engineering groups and based in Germany, has pulled out of all new business dealings with Iran after pressure from the US and German governments.

This follows the decision by Germany's three biggest banks, Deutsche, Commerzbank, and Dresdner, to quit Iran after a warning from US vice-president Dick Cheney that if firms remain in Tehran, they are going to have problems doing business in the US. ...

The Guardian 09 November 2007

A plan by the Bush administration to launch surgical strikes on Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps has won the support of Gordon Brown, according to a US report, although a presidential "execute order" required for such an operation has yet to be issued.

The report in The New Yorker magazine by the journalist Seymour Hersh states that the White House has concluded that many of its problems in Iraq are the responsibility of Tehran. But rather than conduct an unpopular all-out assault on Iran's nuclear facilities, the US is planning limited air strikes, arguing that they are needed to defend soldiers in Iraq.

The article stated that, "The bombing plan has had its most positive reception from ... Gordon Brown", but this was denied yesterday by some with close ties to the US military.

"It is quite the opposite," said Phillip Giraldi a former CIA counterterrorism officer. "In fact Robert Gates [the US Defence Secretary] was rebuffed during his recent visit to London when the idea was floated.

"Because British mine-sweepers based in the Gulf of Hormuz will be essential to any US action against Iran, US war planners need to have Britain on board," he said. "So far that is not forthcoming." ...

The Independent 02 October 2007

John Bolton, who still has close links to the Bush administration, told The Daily Telegraph that the European Union had to "get more serious" about Iran and recognise that its diplomatic attempts to halt Iran's enrichment programme had failed.

Iran has "clearly mastered the enrichment technology now...they're not stopping, they're making progress and our time is limited", he said. Economic sanctions "with pain" had to be the next step, followed by attempting to overthrow the theocratic regime and, ultimately, military action to destroy nuclear sites. ...

The experts found that Iran's scientists were operating 1,312 centrifuges, the machines used to enrich uranium. If Iran can install 3,000, it will need about one year to produce enough weapons grade uranium for one nuclear bomb.

advertisementExperts had judged that Iran would need perhaps two years to master the technical feat of enriching uranium using centrifuges - and then another two years to produce enough material to build a weapon.

But the IAEA found that Iran has already managed to enrich uranium to the four per cent purity needed for power stations. Weapons-grade uranium must reach a threshold of 84 per cent purity. ...

Telegraph.co.uk 16 May 2007

Blair and Bush are, in their different ways, like the G-men in the early days of the FBI. They love to have a public enemy number one. Sometimes the top slot has been taken by al-Qaeda, sometimes Hezbollah, Hamas or the Iraqi militia leader Moqtada al Sadr. And now they have the ramshackle regime of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to take on.

To reinforce the sense of growing danger from Tehran, Bush has asked his new Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, to dispatch a second aircraft carrier group to the Gulf. This is needed to counter the threat of Iran mining the Straits of Hormuz in response to UN sanctions. To help out, the Royal Navy is sending two more minesweepers to join the international force there. "And yet," warned Blair, in best parsonical finger-wagging mode in Dubai, "a large part of world opinion is frankly almost indifferent. It would be bizarre if it weren't so deadly serious." ...

If they believe they are acting in support of democracy, the Bush-Blair axis is showing pretty bad timing in turning up the rhetoric against Tehran.

In local elections this month, voters in Iran have turned away from Ahmadinejad. They have voted for moderate reformers led by the former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, for places on the council of guidance, and not for the faction of Ayatollah Yazdi, the president's main backer in the clergy. Moreover, students on the campuses are, at last, stirring and have been demonstrating actively against the autocratic ways of the current regime.

The First Post 22 December 2006

Much of the intelligence on Iran's nuclear facilities provided to UN inspectors by American spy agencies has turned out to be unfounded, according to diplomatic sources in Vienna.

The claims, reminiscent of the intelligence fiasco surrounding the Iraq war, coincided with a sharp increase in international tension as the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reported that Iran was defying a UN security council ultimatum to freeze its nuclear programme. ...

The Guardian

According to retired Colonel Walter Lang, senior defense intelligence officer for the United States Defense Intelligence Agency at the time, "the use of gas on the battlefield by the Iraqis was not a matter of deep strategic concern" to Reagan and his aides, because they "were desperate to make sure that Iraq did not lose."

He claimed that the Defense Intelligence Agency "would have never accepted the use of chemical weapons against civilians, but the use against military objectives was seen as inevitable in the Iraqi struggle for survival", however, despite this allegation, Reagan’s administration did not stop aiding Iraq after receiving reports affirming the use of poison gas on Kurdish civilians.

U.N. inspectors investigating Iran's nuclear program angrily complained to the Bush administration and to a Republican congressman yesterday about a recent House committee report on Iran's capabilities, calling parts of the document "outrageous and dishonest" and offering evidence to refute its central claims.

Officials of the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency said in a letter that the report contained some "erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated statements." The letter, signed by a senior director at the agency, was addressed to Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.), chairman of the House intelligence committee, which issued the report. A copy was hand-delivered to Gregory L. Schulte, the U.S. ambassador to the IAEA in Vienna.

The IAEA openly clashed with the Bush administration on pre-war assessments of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Relations all but collapsed when the agency revealed that the White House had based some allegations about an Iraqi nuclear program on forged documents ...

Washington Post 14 September 2006