Just look at what Iran has done in the last six months alone, since the framework agreement was announced in Lausanne.

[superbeets]

"Just look at what Iran has done in the last six months alone, since the framework agreement was announced in Lausanne.Iran boosted its supply of devastating weapons to Syria.
Iran sent more soldiers of its Revolutionary Guard into Syria. Iran sent thousands of Afghani and Pakistani Shi’ite fighters to Syria.
Iran did all this to prop up Assad’s brutal regime.
Iran also shipped tons of weapons and ammunition to the Houthi rebels in Yemen, including another shipment just two days ago.
Iran threatened to topple Jordan.
Iran’s proxy Hezbollah smuggled into Lebanon SA-22 missiles to down our planes, and Yakhont cruise missiles to sink our ships.
Iran supplied Hezbollah with precision-guided surface-to-surface missiles and attack drones so it can accurately hit any target in Israel.
Iran aided Hamas and Islamic Jihad in building armed drones in Gaza.
Iran also made clear its plans to open two new terror fronts against Israel, promising to arm Palestinians in the West Bank and sending its Revolutionary Guard generals to the Golan Heights, from which its operatives recently fired rockets on northern Israel.
Israel will continue to respond forcefully to any attacks against it from Syria.
Israel will continue to act to prevent the transfer of strategic weapons to Hezbollah from and through Syrian territory.
Every few weeks, Iran and Hezbollah set up new terror cells in cities throughout the world. Three such cells were recently uncovered in Kuwait, Jordan and Cyprus.
In May, security forces in Cyprus raided a Hezbollah agent’s apartment in the city of Larnaca. There they found five tons of ammonium nitrate, that’s roughly the same amount of ammonium nitrate that was used to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City.
And that’s just in one apartment, in one city, in one country.
But Iran is setting up dozens of terror cells like this around the world, ladies and gentlemen, they’re setting up those terror cells in this hemisphere too.
I repeat: Iran’s been doing all of this, everything that I’ve just described, just in the last six months, when it was trying to convince the world to remove the sanctions.
Now just imagine what Iran will do after those sanctions are lifted.
Unleashed and un-muzzled, Iran will go on the prowl, devouring more and more prey.
In the wake of the nuclear deal, Iran is spending billions of dollars on weapons and satellites.
You think Iran is doing that to advance peace?
You think hundreds of billions of dollars in sanctions relief and fat contracts will turn this
rapacious tiger into a kitten?
If you do, you should think again."

 

[superbeets]

"In 2013 president Rouhani began his so-called charm offensive here at the UN. Two years later, Iran is executing more political prisoners, escalating its regional aggression, and rapidly expanding its global terror network.You know they say, actions speak louder than words.
But in Iran’s case, the words speak as loud as the actions.
Just listen to the Deputy Commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Quds Force. Here’s what he said in February:
“The Islamic revolution is not limited by geographic borders….” He boasted that Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Palestine and Yemen are among the countries being “conquered by the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
Conquered.
And for those of you who believe that the deal in Vienna will bring a change in Iran’s policy, just listen to what Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei said five days after the nuclear deal was reached: “Our policies towards the arrogant government of the United States will not change.”
The United States, he vowed, will continue to be Iran’s enemy.
While giving the mullahs more money is likely to fuel more repression inside Iran, it will definitely fuel more aggression outside Iran.
As the leader of a country defending itself every day against Iran’s growing aggression, I wish I could take comfort in the claim that this deal blocks Iran’s path to nuclear weapons.
But I can’t, because it doesn’t.
This deal does place several constraints on Iran’s nuclear program.
And rightly so, because the international community recognizes that Iran is so dangerous.
But you see here’s the catch: Under this deal, If Iran doesn’t change its behavior, In fact, if it becomes even more dangerous in the years to come, the most important constraints will still be automatically lifted by year 10 and by year 15.
That would place a militant Islamic terror regime weeks away from having the fissile material for an entire arsenal of nuclear bombs.
That just doesn’t make any sense.
I’ve said that if Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country.
But this deal, this deal will treat Iran like a normal country even if it remains a dark theocracy that conquers its neighbors, sponsors terrorism worldwide and chants “Death to Israel”, “Death to America.”
Does anyone seriously believe that flooding a radical theocracy with weapons and cash will curb its appetite for aggression?
Do any of you really believe that a theocratic Iran with sharper claws and sharper fangs will be more likely to change its stripes?
So here’s a general rule that I’ve learned and you must have learned in your life time – When bad behavior is rewarded, it only gets worse.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have long said that the greatest danger facing our world is the coupling of militant Islam with nuclear weapons.
And I’m gravely concerned that the nuclear deal with Iran will prove to be the marriage certificate of that unholy union.
I know that some well-intentioned people sincerely believe that this deal is the best way to block Iran’s path to the bomb.
But one of history’s most important yet least learned lessons is this:
The best intentions don’t prevent the worst outcomes.
The vast majority of Israelis believe that this nuclear deal with Iran is a very bad deal. "

 

[superbeets]

"

And what makes matters even worse is that we see a world celebrating this bad deal, rushing to embrace and do business with a regime openly committed to our destruction.
Last week, Major General Salehi, the commander of Iran’s army, proclaimed this:
“We will annihilate Israel for sure.”
“We are glad that we are in the forefront of executing the Supreme Leader’s order to destroy Israel.”
And as for the Supreme Leader himself, a few days after the nuclear deal was announced, he released his latest book.
Here it is.
It’s a 400-page screed detailing his plan to destroy the State of Israel.
Last month, Khamenei once again made his genocidal intentions clear before Iran’s top clerical body, the Assembly of Experts.
He spoke about Israel, home to over six million Jews. He pledged, “there will be no Israel in 25 years.”
Seventy years after the murder of six million Jews, Iran’s rulers promise to destroy my country.
Murder my people.
And the response from this body, the response from nearly every one of the governments represented here has been absolutely nothing!
Utter silence!
Deafening silence.
Perhaps you can now understand why Israel is not joining you in celebrating this deal.
If Iran’s rulers were working to destroy your countries, perhaps you’d be less enthusiastic about the deal.
If Iran’s terror proxies were firing thousands of rockets at your cities, perhaps you’d be more measured in your praise.
And if this deal were unleashing a nuclear arms race in your neighborhood, perhaps you’d be more reluctant to celebrate.
But don’t think that Iran is only a danger to Israel.
Besides Iran’s aggression in the Middle East and its terror around the world, Iran is also building intercontinental ballistic missiles whose sole purpose is to carry nuclear warheads.
Now remember this: Iran already has missiles that can reach Israel.
So those intercontinental ballistic missiles that Iran is building – they’re not meant for us –
They’re meant for you.
For Europe.
For America.
For raining down mass destruction – anytime, anywhere.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
It’s not easy to oppose something that is embraced by the greatest powers in the world.
Believe me, it would be far easier to remain silent.
But throughout our history, the Jewish people have learned the heavy price of silence.
And as the Prime Minister of the Jewish State, as someone who knows that history,
I refuse to be silent.
I’ll say it again: The days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies –
those days are over.
Not being passive means speaking up about those dangers.
We have. We are. We will.
Not being passive also means defending ourselves against those dangers.
We have. We are. And we will.
Israel will not allow Iran to break-in, to sneak-in or to walk-in to the nuclear weapons club.
I know that preventing Iran from developing nuclear weapons remains the official policy of the international community.
But no one should question Israel’s determination to defend itself against those who seek our destruction.
For in every generation, there were those who rose up to destroy our people.
In antiquity, we faced destruction from the ancient empires of Babylon and Rome.
In the Middle Ages, we faced inquisition and expulsion.
And In modern times, we faced pogroms and the Holocaust.
Yet the Jewish people persevered.
And now another regime has arisen, swearing to destroy Israel.
That regime would be wise to consider this: I stand here today representing Israel, a country 67 years young,
but the nation-state of a people nearly 4,000 years old.
Yet the empires of Babylon and Rome are not represented in this hall of nations.
Neither is the Thousand Year Reich.
Those seemingly invincible empires are long gone.
But Israel lives.
The people of Israel live.
עם ישראל חי. "

 

[superbeets]

"

The re-birth of Israel is a testament to the indomitable spirit of my people.
For a hundred generations, the Jewish people dreamed of returning to the Land of Israel.
Even in our darkest hours, and we had so many, even in our darkest hours we never gave up hope of rebuilding our eternal capital Jerusalem.
The establishment of Israel made realizing that dream possible.
It has enabled us to live as a free people in our ancestral homeland.
It’s enabled us to embrace Jews who’ve come from the four corners of the earth to find refuge from persecution.
They came from war-torn Europe, from Yemen, Iraq, Morocco, from Ethiopia and the Soviet Union, from a hundred other lands.
And today, as a rising tide of anti-Semitism once again sweeps across Europe and elsewhere, many Jews come to Israel to join us in building the Jewish future.
So here’s my message to the rulers of Iran:
Your plan to destroy Israel will fail.
Israel will not permit any force on earth to threaten its future.
And here’s my message to all the countries represented here:
Whatever resolutions you may adopt in this building, whatever decisions you may take in your capitals, Israel will do whatever it must do to defend our state and to defend our people.
Distinguished delegates,
As this deal with Iran moves ahead, I hope you’ll enforce it…how can I put this? With a little more rigor than you showed with the six Security Council resolutions that Iran has systematically violated and which now have been effectively discarded.
Make sure that the inspectors actually inspect.
Make sure that the snapback sanctions actually snap back.
And make sure that Iran’s violations aren’t swept under the Persian rug.
Well, of one thing I can assure you: Israel will be watching… closely.
What the international community now needs to do is clear:
First, make Iran comply with all its nuclear obligations.
Keep Iran’s feet to the fire.
Second, check Iran’s regional aggression.
Support and strengthen those fighting Iran’s aggression, beginning with Israel.
Third, use sanctions and all the tools available to you to tear down Iran’s global terror network.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Israel is working closely with our Arab peace partners to address our common security challenges from Iran and also the security challenges from ISIS and from others.
We are also working with other states in the Middle East as well as countries in Africa, in Asia and beyond.
Many in our region know that both Iran and ISIS are our common enemies.
And when your enemies fight each other, don’t strengthen either one – weaken both.
Common dangers are clearly bringing Israel and its Arab neighbors closer.
And as we work together to thwart those dangers, I hope we’ll build lasting partnerships – lasting partnerships for security, for prosperity and for peace.
But in Israel, we never forget one thing. We never forget that the most important partner that Israel has has always been, and will always be, the United States of America."

 

[superbeets]

" The alliance between Israel and the United States is unshakeable.President Obama and I agree on the need to keep arms out of the hands of Iran’s terror proxies.
We agree on the need to stop Iran from destabilizing countries throughout the Middle East.
Israel deeply appreciates President Obama’s willingness to bolster our security, help Israel maintain its qualitative military edge and help Israel confront the enormous challenges we face.
Israel is grateful that this sentiment is widely shared by the American people and its representatives in Congress, by both those who supported the deal and by those who opposed it.
President Obama and I have both said that our differences over the nuclear deal are a disagreement within the family.
But we have no disagreement about the need to work together to secure our common future.
And what a great future it could be.
Israel is uniquely poised to seize the promise of the 21[SUP]st[/SUP] century.
Israel is a world leader in science and technology, in cyber, software, water, agriculture,
medicine, biotechnology and so many other fields that are being revolutionized by Israeli ingenuity and Israeli innovation.
Israel is the innovation nation.
Israeli knowhow is everywhere.
It’s in your computers’ microprocessors and flash drives.
It’s in your smartphones, when you send instant messages and navigate your cars.
It’s on your farms, when you drip irrigate your crops and keep your grains and produce fresh.
It’s in your universities, when you study Nobel Prize winning discoveries in chemistry and economics.
It’s in your medicine cabinets, when you use drugs to treat Parkinson’s Disease and Multiple Sclerosis.
It’s even on your plate, when you eat the delicious cherry tomato.
That too was perfected in Israel, in case you didn’t know.
We are so proud in Israel of the long strides our country has made in a short time.
We’re so proud that our small country is making such a huge contribution to the entire world.
Yet the dreams of our people, enshrined for eternity by the great prophets of the Bible, those dreams will be fully realized only when there is peace.
As the Middle East descends into chaos, Israel’s peace agreements with Egypt and Jordan are two cornerstones of stability.
Israel remains committed to achieving peace with the Palestinians as well.
Israelis know the price of war.
I know the price of war.
I was nearly killed in battle.
I lost many friends.
I lost my beloved brother Yoni.
Those who know the price of war can best appreciate what the blessings of peace would mean – for ourselves, our children, our grandchildren.
I am prepared to immediately, immediately, resume direct peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without any preconditions whatsoever.
Unfortunately, President Abbas said yesterday that he is not prepared to do this.
Well, I hope he changes his mind.
Because I remain committed to a vision of two states for two peoples, in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state.
You know, the peace process began over two decades ago.
Yet despite the best efforts of six Israeli prime ministers – Rabin, Peres, Barak, Sharon, Olmert and myself – the Palestinians have consistently refused to end the conflict and make a final peace with Israel.
And unfortunately, you heard that rejectionism again only yesterday from President Abbas.
How can Israel make peace with a Palestinian partner who refuses to even sit at the negotiating table?
Israel expects the Palestinian Authority to abide by its commitments.
The Palestinians should not walk away from peace.
President Abbas, I know it’s not easy. I know it’s hard. But we owe it to our peoples to try, to continue to try, because together, if we actually negotiate and stop negotiating about the negotiation, if we actually sit down and try to resolve this conflict between us, recognize each other, not use a Palestinian state as a stepping stone for another Islamist dictatorship in the Middle East, but something that will live at peace next to the Jewish state, if we actually do that, we can do remarkable things for our peoples.
The UN can help advance peace by supporting direct, unconditional negotiations between the parties.
The UN won’t help peace, certainly won’t help advance peace by trying to impose solutions or by encouraging Palestinian rejectionism.
And the UN, distinguished delegates, should do one more thing. The UN should finally rid itself of the obsessive bashing of Israel.
Here’s just one absurd example of this obsession:
In four years of horrific violence in Syria, more than a quarter of a million people have lost their lives.
That’s more than ten times, more than ten times, the number of Israelis and Palestinians combined who have lost their lives in a century of conflict between us.
Yet last year, this Assembly adopted 20 resolutions against Israel and just one resolution about the savage slaughter in Syria.
Talk about injustice. Talk about disproportionality. Twenty. Count them. One against Syria.
Well, frankly I am not surprised.
To borrow a line from Yogi Berra, the late, great baseball player and part time philosopher: When it comes to the annual bashing of Israel at the UN, it’s déjà vu all over again.
Enough!
Thirty one years after I stood here for the first time, I’m still asking:
When will the UN finally check its anti-Israel fanaticism at the door?
When will the UN finally stop slandering Israel as a threat to peace and actually start helping Israel advance peace?
And the same question should be posed to Palestinian leaders.
When will you start working with Israel to advance peace and reconciliation and stop libeling Israel, stop inciting hatred and violence?
President Abbas, here’s a good place to begin:
Stop spreading lies about Israel’s alleged intentions on the Temple Mount.
Israel is fully committed to maintaining the status quo there.
What President Abbas should be speaking out against are the actions of militant Islamists who are smuggling explosives into the al-Aqsa mosque and who are trying to prevent Jews and Christians from visiting the holy sites.
That’s the real threat to these sacred sites.
A thousand years before the birth of Christianity, more than 1,500 years before the birth of Islam, King David made Jerusalem our capital, and King Solomon built the Temple on that mount.
Yet Israel, Israel will always respect the sacred shrines of all.
In a region plagued by violence and by unimaginable intolerance, in which Islamic fanatics are destroying the ancient treasures of civilization, Israel stands out as a towering beacon of enlightenment and tolerance.
Far from endangering the holy sites, it is Israel that ensures their safety.
Because unlike the powers who have ruled Jerusalem in the past, Israel respects the holy sites and freedom of worship of all – Jews, Muslims, Christians, everyone.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, will never change.
Because Israel will always stay true to its values.
These values are on display each and every day:
When Israel’s feisty parliament vigorously debates every issue under the sun,
When Israel’s Chief Justice sits in her chair at our fiercely independent Supreme Court,
When our Christian community continues to grow and thrive from year to year, as Christian communities are decimated elsewhere in the Middle East,
When a brilliant young Israeli Muslim student gives her valedictorian address at one of our finest universities,
And when Israeli doctors and nurses – doctors and nurses from the Israeli military –
treat thousands of wounded from the killing fields of Syria and thousands more in the wake of natural disasters from Haiti to Nepal.
This is the true face of Israel.
These are the values of Israel.
And In the Middle East, these values are under savage assault by militant Islamists who are forcing millions of terrified people to flee to distant shores.
Ten miles from ISIS, a few hundred yards from Iran’s murderous proxies, Israel stands in the breach – proudly and courageously, defending freedom and progress.
Israel is civilization’s front line in the battle against barbarism.
So here’s a novel idea for the United Nations:
Instead of continuing the shameful routine of bashing Israel, stand with Israel.
Stand with Israel as we check the fanaticism at our door.
Stand with Israel as we prevent that fanaticism from reaching your door.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Stand with Israel because Israel is not just defending itself.
More than ever, Israel is defending you. "

 

[superbeets]

Hear, hear

 

[The Guesser]

"To borrow a line from Yogi Berra, the late, great baseball player and part time philosopher":

 

[ScottL]

I hate the Fucking UN. The UN is so anti-Israel that we often forget how anti-American it is as well.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration may allow the U.N. to condemn America's economic embargo against Cuba without a fight, The Associated Press has learned, an unprecedented step that could increase pressure on Congress to end the 54-year-old restrictions.


As it does every year, the U.N. General Assembly will vote as early as next month to demand the embargo's end. But this time, U.S. officials told the AP that the United States could abstain instead of voting against the resolution as it normally does.


It is unheard of for a U.N. member state not to oppose resolutions critical of its own laws. And by not actively opposing the resolution, the administration would be effectively siding with the world body against the Republican-led House and Senate, which have refused to repeal the embargo despite calls from President Barack Obama to do so.


The U.S. and Cuba restored diplomatic relations this year, and leaders of the two countries want to improve commercial ties. But the embargo remains.


"Obviously, we have to obey the law," State Department spokesman John Kirby told reporters Monday. "It doesn't mean you can't take a position that you want the law changed."


No final decision on how to vote has yet been made, said four administration officials who weren't authorized to speak publicly on sensitive internal deliberations and demanded anonymity. White House spokesman Josh Earnest also declined to weigh in because he said the proposed resolution wasn't final. He noted, however, that U.S. policy has changed since the last time the world body assessed the embargo.


The very idea of an abstention prompted immediate Republican criticism.


Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American senator from Florida, said that by abstaining, Obama would be "putting international popularity ahead of the national security and foreign policy interests of the United States." The embargo, he said, denies money to a dictatorship that can be used to further oppression.


General Assembly resolutions are unenforceable. But the annual exercise has given Cuba a stage to demonstrate America's isolation on the embargo, and it has underscored the sense internationally that the U.S. restrictions are illegitimate.


The United States has lost the votes by increasingly overwhelming and embarrassing margins. Last year's tally was 188-2 with only Israel siding with the U.S. Israel would be expected to vote whichever way the U.S. decides.


The American officials said that the U.S. is still more likely to vote against the resolution than abstain. However, they said the U.S. will consider abstaining if the wording of the resolution significantly differs from previous years. The administration is open to discussing revisions with the Cubans and others, they added, something American diplomats have never done before.


The latest U.S. easing of sanctions occurred Friday and was followed by a rare phone call between Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro. Pope Francis, who has played a key role in the rapprochement between Havana and Washington, arrived in Havana a day later. He travels to the U.S. on Tuesday.


Obama and Castro discussed "steps that the United States and Cuba can take, together and individually, to advance bilateral cooperation," the White House said. The Cuban government said Castro "emphasized the need to expand their scope and abrogate, once and for all, the blockade policy for the benefit of both peoples."


Neither statement mentioned the U.N. vote. Yet as it has for the past 23 years, Cuba will introduce a resolution at the upcoming General Assembly criticizing the embargo and demanding its end. Cuba's government wouldn't comment Monday on the new U.S. consideration.


The U.S. officials, however, said the administration believes an abstention could send a powerful signal to Congress and the world of Obama's commitment to end the embargo. Obama says the policy failed over more than five decades to spur democratic change and left the U.S. isolated among its Latin American neighbors.


It's unclear what changes would be necessary to prompt a U.S. abstention.


Last year's resolution cited the "necessity of ending the economic, commercial and financial embargo" and took aim at the Helms-Burton Act. That 1996 law made foreign firms subject to the same restrictions U.S. companies face for investing in Cuba, and authorized penalties for non-U.S. companies operating and dealing with property once owned by U.S. citizens but confiscated after Fidel Castro's revolution.


A report issued by Cuba last week in support of this year's resolution doesn't suggest Havana is toning down its approach.


It says American efforts to ease the embargo are "a step in the right direction but are limited and insufficient in the face of the magnitude and scope of the blockade laws for Cuba and the rest of the world."


The 37-page document says the embargo has cost the Cuban people $833.7 billion — a number the U.S. would never accept. Washington says the communist government has used the embargo as an excuse for its own economic failures.

 

[ScottL]

Netanyahu at UN on Iran: When Bad Behavior Is Rewarded, It Only Gets Worse (Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the UN General Assembly on Thursday:

• After three days of listening to world leaders praise the nuclear deal with Iran, I say: Ladies and Gentlemen, check your enthusiasm at the door. This deal doesn't make peace more likely. By fueling Iran's aggressions with billions of dollars in sanctions relief, it makes war more likely.
• In the last six months alone, Iran boosted its supply of devastating weapons to Syria. Iran sent more soldiers of its Revolutionary Guard into Syria. Iran sent thousands of Afghani and Pakistani Shi'ite fighters to Syria. Iran also shipped tons of weapons and ammunition to the Houthi rebels in Yemen.
• Iran supplied Hizbullah with precision-guided surface-to-surface missiles and attack drones so it can accurately hit any target in Israel. Iran aided Hamas and Islamic Jihad in building armed drones in Gaza. Iran also promised to arm Palestinians in the West Bank and sent its Revolutionary Guard generals to the Golan Heights, from which its operatives recently fired rockets on northern Israel.
• Iran's been doing all of this just in the last six months. Imagine what Iran will do after those sanctions are lifted.
• As the leader of a country defending itself every day against Iran's growing aggression, I wish I could take comfort in the claim that this deal blocks Iran's path to nuclear weapons. But I can't, because it doesn't.
• If Iran wants to be treated like a normal country, let it act like a normal country. But this deal will treat Iran like a normal country even if it remains a dark theocracy that conquers its neighbors, sponsors terrorism worldwide and chants "Death to Israel," "Death to America." When bad behavior is rewarded, it only gets worse.

 

[ScottL]

Sometimes, Silence Speaks Louder than Words - Raphael Ahren
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech at the UN General Assembly on Thursday will be remembered for its long moment of silence, with which he rebuked the nations of the world for having remained silent during the Holocaust and for continuing to remain silent in the face of a "genocidal" Iran.
"Seventy years after the murder of six million Jews, Iran's rulers promise to destroy my country, murder my people. And the response from this body, the response from nearly every one of the governments represented here, has been absolutely nothing," Netanyahu said. "Utter silence. Deafening silence." Then he demonstrated the deafening silence, saying absolutely nothing during 44 seconds that felt like an eternity. (Times of Israel)

 

[HamGlaze]

That stare.

Was a shame stare.


And I agree.

 

[Willie99]

he tells it like it is

while we're lied to everyday about everything

it's sickening

 

[ScottL]

Bahrain Accuses Iran of Training Militants - Peter Wonacott (Wall Street Journal)
Bahrain Chief of Public Security Tariq Al Hasan said Saturday that police and the intelligence services have disrupted a number of attacks by intercepting vessels with weapons from Iran and discovering concealed facilities to make improvised explosive devices, also with material supplied by Iran.
In October, Bahrain recalled its ambassador from Iran and expelled Iran's charge d'affairs, saying Iran supported "sabotage, terrorism and instigation to violence."

Not sure where to put Iran news and opinion anymore. Too many threads.

 

[ScottL]

By ROBERT SWIFT/ THE MEDIA LINE

11/02/2015
Azerbaijan: Israel’s secret Muslim friend

‘To walk in an Islamic country and feel safe like I was in Tel Aviv was amazing’
Liberman, Oren to lead Israeli delegation observing Azeri elections

Israel and Azerbaijan are natural allies since “both countries see Iran as an existential threat.

Azerbaijan went to the polls earlier in the week in an event that was shunned by both the country’s main opposition parties and even by international election monitors. One exception was a group of several Israeli politicians who flew into the oil rich nation to observe the proceedings. Although this is unlikely to improve the poll’s credibility it does demonstrate the intimacy of the relationship between the Jewish state and its closest Muslim ally, experts said.

Location explains Azerbaijan’s standing in the world. Situated on the oil rich Caspian Sea, the state is wooed by Western governments seeking an alternative to Russia as a source of energy imports. Israel is one such customer and in return sells large quantities of sophisticated weaponry to Azerbaijan, partly in exchange for oil.

Much of the oil Israel purchases – about 40% -- travels through the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline, Gallia Lindenstrauss, a research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies, told The Media Line. The BTC runs overland from Baku, the country’s capital on the Caspian Sea, through Georgia, and ends in Turkey. “Historically speaking, Israel put a lot of importance on energy security,” Lindenstrauss said. This caused Israel to pursue a close relationship with the Caucasus state, and led to it recognizing Azerbaijan shortly after it declared independence in 1991.

Equally important to Israel is Azerbaijan’s southern border with Iran, a country with no love lost for Baku, despite both countries’ populations being predominantly Shi’ite Muslim. This makes Israel and Azerbaijan natural allies since “both countries see Iran as an existential threat,” Lindenstrauss observed.

There are ample reasons for Azerbaijan to welcome its alliance with the Jewish state: some with a view toward Iran and others due to Armenia, according to Alexander Murinson, an independent researcher with the Begin-Sadat Center and author of Turkey's Entente with Israel and Azerbaijan. Armenia and Azerbaijan became embroiled in an ethnic conflict following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a dispute which continues to dominate their interactions. “Joint containment of Iran, access to high-tech Israeli military, [and the] blocking of the Armenian diaspora in the United States by the Jewish lobby,” are incentives for Azerbaijan to court Israel, Murinson suggested.

The Azerbaijan-Israel association suits both parties well. The selling of sophisticated weapons to Azerbaijan is “another attempt at psychological pressure on Iran” by the Jewish state, the author explained. Drone and air defense technologies make up the bulk of such exchanges.

But the cooperation goes further than this. Azerbaijan’s location makes it a natural back door into Iran. There are reports suggesting that all of Israel’s covert espionage activities conducted against Iran were based in Azerbaijan, including the assassinations of the nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, Murinson said.

The Iranian foreign ministry has accused Azerbaijan of collaborating with the Israeli foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad, and of acting as a safe house for its operations. Azerbaijan’s proximity to Iran could also enable it to function as an airfield or refueling stop for Israeli jets conducting raids against targets in Iran.

Turkey adds another piece to this complex arrangement. Previously, a triangle alliance was created between it, Azerbaijan and Israel. But following a long term cooling of relations between Ankara and Israel due in large part to the Mavi Marmara incident in 2010, Azerbaijan came under pressure to distance itself from Israel. Nine Turkish activists were killed on the ship when Israeli commandos stormed the ship as it was attempting to circumvent the Israeli blockade and sail to the Gaza Strip.

Although the cultural connection between Azerbaijan and its “big brother” Turkey is extremely close, expediency and regional ambition caused the smaller state to stick to its alliance with Israel, Murinson argued.

In recent years, the under the radar relationship appeared problematic for the United States, too, as Washington was concerned that Israel would use Azerbaijani airfields to strike at Iran, Lindenstrauss said. This would have disrupted attempts to negotiate the nuclear agreement between Iran and Western states that was recently signed, and which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been consistently opposed to.

With an ally able to both provide oil and pressure Iran, Israel doesn’t want to look too closely at the domestic politics of Azirbaijan. This, Lindenstrauss suggested, is a common trend in Israeli foreign affairs where realpolitik is central.

The elections which took place recently, and which comfortably returned incumbent Ilham Heydar Aliyev to power, were boycotted by observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Monitors for the poll had not been guaranteed sufficient access to ensure transparency, the OSCE said. Most members of the opposition boycotted the election as well.

“It’s hard to talk about free and fair elections in a country where freedom of expression and assembly are restricted, and journalists who should be reporting on elections, and NGO activists who should be monitoring them are in jail,” Giorgi Gogia, Human Rights Watch’s researcher for Azerbaijan, told The Media Line.

However there are limits to how far and to how visibly the relationship will go. Although an Israeli embassy exists in Baku, Azerbaijan has never deemed to open a diplomatic headquarters in Tel Aviv. The Azerbaijani government always feared that doing so would make fellow Muslim states less likely to support it in its dispute with Christian Armenia, Lindenstrauss explained.

As for the future of the Israel-Azerbaijan relationship, it is likely to continue unless Israel breaks its long kept silence on the Armenian Genocide, Zeev Levin, a historian with the central Asian and Caucasus research unit at the Hebrew University, told The Media Line. Such a change in stance might drive Azerbaijan away from Israel and into the arms of Ankara.

 

[ScottL]

• U.S. Lawmakers Demand New Iran Sanctions over Iranian-American's Arrest - Jay Solomon
  U.S. lawmakers, angered by the recent arrest of Iranian-American Siamak Namazi, a prominent oil executive, demanded Friday that the White House take a tougher line against Tehran and impose fresh sanctions on the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. "The arrest of Siamak Namazi is the latest show of contempt for America," said Rep. Ed Royce (R-Calif.), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. "This American executive - who has worked to promote closer U.S.-Iran relations - deserves to be home with his family. So do the other four Americans either detained or missing in Iran." (Wall Street Journal)
• Revolutionary Guards Push Back Against Economic Engagement with Outside World - Gerald F. Seib
  Implicit in the nuclear deal with Iran was the hope that economic engagement with the outside world would begin to moderate Iranian behavior. The answer emerging from Iran's security apparatus is that Iranian hard-liners are not only uninterested in deeper economic engagement with the outside world, they may have set out to stop it.
  Iranian security forces arrested recently an Iranian-American businessman, Siamak Namazi. Iran also has arrested Nizar Zakka, a Lebanese information-technology specialist who lives in Washington. At the same time, Iranian businessmen with ties to foreign firms are being harassed by Iran's state-security apparatus. (Wall Street Journal)
  
• An American Hostage in Iran - Again - Robin Wright (New Yorker)

 

[superbeets]

[h=1]Iranian commanders refuse orders to fight in Syria, report says[/h]

Iran’s increasing military involvement in Syria to sustain President Bashar Assad’s regime is costing more and more casualties and top commanders of the elite Revolutionary Guards force have been charged with mutiny and treason for refusing orders to fight there, a pan-Arab daily newspaper reported on Wednesday.

A source quoted by the London-based Asharq al-Awsat daily said several Revolutionary Guard generals from Ahvaz province which has a significant Arab population, have chosen to retire or go into business rather than fight in Syria.

An official investigation has been launched into the large numbers of generals from that region suddenly retiring from service, the source told the paper, which backs Sunni-dominated Saudi Arabia, a rival of Iran’s Shiite regime.

The source said further that a rise in deaths among the Revolutionary Guards’ special Quds force has led its leadership to recruit higher-ranking officers to fight in Syria.

Major General Qassem Soleimani, commander of the elite extra-territorial Special Forces arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, reports directly to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The report could not be independently confirmed.

Ali Alfoneh, an Iran expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies Washington-based think tank, told The Jerusalem Post the real number of Iranian casualties in Syria was not known and Tehran has every reason to downplay the degree of its involvement and losses there.

“My survey of open-source data collected from the Persian language accounts of funerals in Iran, shows that 165 Iranian nationals, 154 Afghan nationals, and 26 Pakistani nationals – all Shiites – have been killed in combat in Syria since January 2013,” Alfoneh said.

He estimates that Hezbollah and Iraq’s Shiite militias have suffered greater casualties than Iran.

“Ever since the first Russian military engagement in Syria on September 30, there has been a marked increase in Afghan and Iranian casualties making October the bloodiest month in the entire course of the civil war for Iranian and Afghan forces,” said Alfoneh.

Thirty-four Iranians were killed in October while Afghan combat fatalities numbered 22.

Funerals have been held for six Pakistani nationals since June 25, “though there is no report of Shiite Pakistani combat fatalities in Syria,” Alfoneh said.

The Revolutionary Guards is increasingly deploying ground forces to Syria, which is a change from an earlier deployment of the Quds Force to that battle zone, Alfoneh said.

“This indicates the Quds Force is spread thin in several regional conflicts and has suffered heavy casualties in Syria,” he said.

“Deployment of the Revolutionary Guards is blurring the functional differences between it (a traditionally domestic force) and the Quds Force, which hitherto has served as the sole expeditionary warfare force.”

He said the Guards were increasingly using Iranian commanders for the Afghan Fatemiyoun Brigade.

“This may be an attempt to improve the leadership of the Afghan Shiite forces, which have suffered extremely high casualties.”

The Guards seem to have stopped using Pakistani nationals on the front line, he noted, attributing this to possible difficulties recruiting Pakistani Shiites for the war effort.

Iran has denied it has ground troops fighting in Syria, saying it has only dispatched advisers to help the Syrian army and Hezbollah.

However, increasing reports of Iranian casualties raise questions about how deep Iran’s involvement really is.

According to a report by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) last week, some 30 Revolutionary Guard officers were killed on the Syrian front in the previous two weeks, citing reports by sources affiliated with the Iranian force.

Iranian media has been full of war propaganda regarding its and its Syrian and Russian allies claimed successes against the rebels in the past few months.

Two officers of the Revolutionary Guards were killed in Aleppo on Tuesday “while serving as military advisers to the Syrian army,”

Iran’s Fars News Agency reported. A report earlier that day said Colonel Ezzatollah Soleimani had died in the same area.
Reuters contributed to this report.

 

[ScottL]

U.S. Detects Flurry of Iranian Hacking - Jay Solomon (Wall Street Journal)
Iran's Revolutionary Guards hacked email and social-media accounts of Obama administration officials in recent weeks, U.S. officials said.
The cyberattacks are the latest sign that the regime has not moderated its hostility toward Washington despite the nuclear accord.
U.S. officials say the IRGC has developed an army of cyberattackers, trained by Russia, who have focused on such targets as Wall Street banks, Saudi oil companies and both internal and external opponents of the regime.

 

[ScottL]

I'm hearing Iran just demanded 9 more new conditions before they'll sign a deal. What a fool we have for a president:

Iran Responsible for Killing 14 Percent of U.S. Troops in Iraq - Adam Kredo (Washington Free Beacon)
At least 196 U.S. service members fighting in Iraq between 2003 and 2011 were killed by Iranian-made explosively formed penetrators, or EFPs, and another 861 were wounded, according to a report by U.S. Central Command.
U.S. military leaders told the Senate that Iranian terror activities have claimed the lives of around 500 U.S. soldiers, which accounts for at least 14% of all American casualties in Iraq.

Killing Americans and their Allies: Iran's Continuing War Against the U.S. and the West - Colonel (ret.) Richard Kemp and Major (ret.) Chris Driver-Williams

 

[ScottL]

• Backlash Against U.S. in Iran Gathers Force after Nuclear Deal - Thomas Erdbrink
  Anyone who hoped that Iran's nuclear agreement with the U.S. portended a new era of openness with the West has been jolted with a series of increasingly rude awakenings over the past few weeks. In addition to arrests of American citizens in Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, said the "Death to America" slogan is eternal. New anti-American billboards in Tehran include a mockery of the Iwo Jima flag-raising photograph. And an Iranian knockoff of the American Kentucky Fried Chicken chain was summarily closed after two days.
• 
  A backlash against the U.S. appears to be underway. State-sanctioned media have been producing a litany of American conspiracy theories including the possibility that the CIA was responsible for downing a Russian jetliner in Sinai, and that a "network of American and British spies" has been rounded up. The head of the Revolutionary Guards, Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari, warned on Sunday that a new sedition was underway involving the U.S. and its "domestic allies." (New York Times)
• 
  
• Anti-U.S. Fervor Alive in Iran Despite Nuclear Deal
  Chanting "Death to America" and burning the U.S. flag, Iranian protesters Wednesday marked the anniversary of the 1979 storming of the U.S. embassy in Tehran with a show of anti-Washington fervor despite the nuclear deal. Demonstrators held placards with slogans including "Down with USA" and "Down with Israel." Prosecutor General Ebrahim Raisi gave a fiery speech attacking U.S. "atrocities" ranging from slavery and the treatment of Native Americans to phone tapping and "the killing of 300,000 Iraqis." (AFP)

 

[ScottL]

Operation CyberDumbAss

Bumbling Iran Hackers Target Israelis, Saudis - David Shamah (Times of Israel)
An Iranian hacker group, the Rocket Kitten gang, that has been targeting Israeli and other Middle Eastern scientists and researchers for the past two years, gave itself away when it failed to take even minimal steps to protect itself, a report issued Monday by Israeli cyber-security firm Checkpoint said.
44% of the attacks were against targets in Saudi Arabia, while 14% were against Israeli targets. Checkpoint researchers located the evidence of who was attacked and when they were targeted in an openly accessible database.
Checkpoint found clear evidence that the attacks originated in Iran and found a database listing the names of the members of the hacking crew - headed by Yaser Balaghi.
In addition, the database included a list of nearly 2,000 targets - with their names, email addresses, and other information - targeted since August 2014.