Iran the news again...................

[Shammu]

Navy Fires Warning Flare as Iranian Boat Approaches in Persian Gulf

Friday , April 11, 2008

WASHINGTON —
The U.S. Navy says one of its ships encountered a small Iranian high-speed boat in the central Persian Gulf. The Navy says the boat stayed away after the ship fired a flare.

Two other similar Iranian boats in the area did not approach as closely.

The USS Typhoon tried unsuccessfully to establish radio contact with the Iranian boat after it came within an estimated 200 yards of the Typhoon on Thursday, outside Iranian territorial waters. A Navy official says the ship then fired the flare and continued on its way northward without incident.

The official said Friday that the Iranian boats did not appear to have been armed.

It was at least the second U.S. Navy encounter with an aggressive Iranian high-speed boat this year. In January, Iranian boats made what the Navy called provocative moves near a U.S. ship in the Strait of Hormuz.

Navy Fires Warning Flare as Iranian Boat Approaches in Persian Gulf

[Shammu]

Iranian missile development site revealed

The Times reports new satellite photographs show secret site where Iran is suspected of developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching targets in Europe; expert says recent launching of Kavoshgar missile from site did not demonstrate any significant advances in Islamic Republic's ballistic missile technology
Ynet

New satellite photographs have revealed the secret site where Iran is suspected of developing long-range ballistic missiles capable of reaching targets in Europe, The Times reported on Friday.

According to the British newspaper, the imagery pinpointed the facility from where the Iranians launched their Kavoshgar 1 “research rocket” on February 4, claiming that it was in connection with their space program.

Experts who analyzed the photos, which were taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite four days after the launch, said they revealed a number of intriguing features that indicate that it is the same site where Iran is focusing its efforts on developing a ballistic missile with a range of about 6,000km (4,000 miles), The Times said in its report.

The Kavoshgar 1 rocket that was launched in the presence of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who said Iran was in need of an "active and influential presence in space".

'An important strategic facility'

The Times quoted one expert as saying that said the Kavoshgar launch did not demonstrate any significant advances in ballistic missile technology “but it does reveal the likely future development of Iran's missile program”.

The report said that the site, about 230km southeast of Tehran, and the link with Iran's long-range program, was revealed by Jane's Intelligence Review after a study of the imagery by a former Iraq weapons inspector.

Geoffrey Forden, a research associate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was quoted by The Times as saying that there was a recently constructed building on the site, about 40 meters in length, which was similar in form and size to the Taepodong long-range missile assembly facility in North Korea.

According to Forden, the examination of the launch site revealed that it was part of a large and growing complex “with very high levels of security and recent construction activity”. It was clearly “an important strategic facility”, he said.

Jane's Intelligence Review claimed that the satellite photographs prove that the Kavoshgar 1 rocket was not part of a civilian space center project but was consistent with Iran's clandestine program to develop longer-range missiles.

The Time reported that during a meeting on February 25 between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Iranians, UN inspectors confronted them with evidence of design studies for mounting nuclear warheads on long-range missiles. The Iranians denied any such aspirations.

Iranian missile development site revealed

[Shammu]

'We can speed up enrichment 5-fold'
GIL HOFFMAN and AP
THE JERUSALEM POST
Apr. 8, 2008

Iran has for the first time tested an improved centrifuge that works five times faster than the current version, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday evening, following his earlier announcement that Iran had begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz.

Ahmadinejad toured the Natanz facility in ceremonies marking the second anniversary of the day Iran first enriched uranium in 2006. On that day, "Iran stepped into a path that will put the country in a more deserving position in the world," Ahmadinejad said, according to state-run television.

"The president announced the start of the phase of installing 6,000 new centrifuges in Natanz," state television reported.

Later in a nationally televised speech, he announced the testing of the new, more effective centrifuge.

Ahmadinejad said a "new machine was put to test" that is smaller but five times more efficient than the P-1 centrifuges that are currently in operation at Natanz. He provided no further details on the new device or on how many Iran had.

He called the development a "breakthrough" and the "beginning of a speedy trend to eliminate the big powers" dominance in nuclear energy.
The Iranian president lauded Iran's achieved proficiency in the cycle of nuclear fuel despite UN sanctions and pressures imposed by the world's big powers.

The announcement of the installation of the new centrifuges, which Western officials said could not be immediately confirmed, represented a major bid to expand enrichment, a process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead. Iran currently operates 3,000 centrifuges at its underground nuclear facility in Natanz.

A diplomat following Iran's nuclear program at the Vienna, Austria-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said Ahmadinejad's statement appeared to be "a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing."

"It seems to be little more than a publicity stunt," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized comment publicly.

But Western nations appeared divided on how to respond. France called for UN sanctions already imposed on Iran to be "reinforced."

But Russia, an ally of Iran, said the West should instead put forward a new package of economic incentives aimed at persuading Teheran to halt enrichment. Teheran rejected one such European package last week.

A source in the Prime Minister's Office responded by calling on the world to take whatever steps were necessary to prevent the nuclearization of Iran.

"Unfortunately the reckless language of the Iranian leadership is matched by their reckless behavior," the source said. "The international community must act today. Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons."

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Iran to accept a deal and halt enrichment.

"Iran faces continued isolation in the international community because it will not take a reasonable offer from the international community to have another way," she said in Washington. "The six parties have put forward, I think, a very generous set of incentives should Iran agree to live up to the obligations that any state has when a Security Council resolution is passed."

Gregory Schulte, the US representative to the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency, said Tuesday's announcement by Iran "reflects the Iranian leadership's continuing violation of international obligations and refusal to address international concerns."

"This approach has not brought Iran international respect or accolade, but rather increasing censure and sanction," he said in a written statement.

The UN has passed three sets of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment. Teheran insists its nuclear program is focused on the peaceful production of energy, not the development of weapons as claimed by the US and many of its allies.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner called the announcement of new centrifuges "dangerous" and said UN sanctions should be increased.

"If that continues, we must reinforce sanctions, but we also must continue dialogue," Kouchner told a news conference in Paris. "I fear that we will have to continue on the road toward sanctions if we do not encounter responses from the Iranians."

But Russia's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, said there was no need for new sanctions. Instead, he told Ekho Moskvy radio that diplomats from the US, Russia, China, Britain and France, along with Germany, would offer Iran new economic, energy and security incentives to halt uranium enrichment.

"We must focus on drafting new positive proposals now," Lavrov said.

He also reaffirmed Moscow's strong warning opposing the use of force against Iran, saying that it would exacerbate the crisis in the Middle East and make a peace settlement impossible.

"A negotiated settlement is the only possibility," Lavrov said. "Any attempt to use force will trigger a series of unsustainable crises in the Middle East."

Britain's Foreign Office said Iran had "chosen to ignore the will of the international community," accusing Teheran of "making no effort to restore international confidence in its intentions."

The workhorse of Iran's enrichment program is the P-1 centrifuge, which is run in cascades of 164 machines. But Iranian officials confirmed in February that they had started using the IR-2 centrifuge, which can churn out enriched uranium at more than double the rate.

Iranian state television didn't say if the installation of the 6,000 new centrifuges included the older P-1 or the advanced IR-2 centrifuges.

A total of 3,000 centrifuges is the commonly accepted figure for a nuclear enrichment program that is past the experimental stage and can be used as a platform for a full industrial-scale program that could produce enough enriched material for dozens of nuclear weapons.

Iran says it plans to move toward large-scale uranium enrichment that ultimately will involve 54,000 centrifuges.

'We can speed up enrichment 5-fold'

[Shammu]

Iran to open uranium processing plant
Thu. 10 Apr 2008

The Associated Press

By ALI AKBAR DAREINI

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran will inaugurate a new uranium ore processing plant in less than a year in Ardakan, central Iran, a top nuclear official said Wednesday.

The nuclear facility will complete one of the early stages necessary for uranium enrichment — a process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or material for a warhead. Iran is looking to dramatically expand its enrichment program despite U.N. demands that it stop.

Hossein Faghihian, deputy head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran in charge of nuclear fuel, said the Ardakan Yellowcake Production Plant would open before the end of the current Iranian calendar year, which is March 20, 2009.

The plant will process ore extracted from uranium mines into uranium ore concentrate, known as yellowcake.

In the next stage, at the Uranium Conversion Facility in Isfahan, central Iran, the yellowcake is processed into uranium hexaflouride, a gas that is the feedstock for enriching uranium. The gas is taken to the Uranium Enrichment Plant in Natanz, where it is injected into centrifuges for enrichment.

Iran announced Tuesday that it had begun installing 6,000 new centrifuges for enrichment, a move that would triple its number of centrifuges.

Faghihian said the new plant at Ardakan is to have a capacity to produce 70 tons of yellowcake a year.

Iran has a smaller ore concentrate plant near the southern port city of Bandar Abbas, which opened in 2006. Authorities have not said how much ore the Bandar Abbas plant can produce, though it is believed to be less than the planned new facility.

"With the inauguration of the facility, the country's needs for uranium ore concentrate will be met," the state television's Web site quoted Faghihian as saying Wednesday.

Uranium enriched to low grades is used for fuel in nuclear reactors, but further enrichment makes it suitable for atomic bombs.

The United States accuses Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, but Tehran has denied the accusation. It says its nuclear program is geared solely toward generating electricity with reactors.

The U.N. Security Council has imposed three sets of sanctions against Iran for its refusal to suspend uranium enrichment.

Faghihian said Iran has so far pumped out about 360 tons of the gas it needs for uranium enrichment and keeps the materials at the Isfahan facility.

Iran has discovered at least three other uranium reserves in central parts of the country. The largest discovered reserve is at its Saghand Uranium Mine in central Iran, not far from the Ardakan facility.

Faghihian said officials were preparing a comprehensive map of Iran's uranium reserves to pave the way for thorough exploitation.

Iran to open uranium processing plant

[Shammu]

Iran complains to UN about Ben-Eliezer
Jpost.com staff and AP
THE JERUSALEM POST
Apr. 11, 2008

Iran has lodged a complaint with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon over National Infrastructures Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer's remarks this week that Israel would destroy Iran if it were attacked first.

"An Iranian attack will prompt a severe reaction from Israel, which will destroy the Iranian nation," Ben-Eliezer said on April 7, as the nation conducted the largest home front security drill in its history.

Teheran, the minister added, "is definitely aware of our strength. Even so, they are teasing us with their alliances with Syria and Hizbullah, and supplying them with many weapons, and we have to deal with that."

In a letter to Ban, Iran's UN envoy, Muhammad Khazei wrote that "The Israel regime continues to make impudent threats against Iran...[Ben-Eliezer], in his April 7 remarks, which blatantly violated international law and the UN Charter, threatened the Iranian nation with destruction." Khazei's letter did not mention Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's statement that Israel should be "wiped off the map," or any other Iranian threats against Israel. The Iranian leader has also denied the Holocaust.

These "shameless remarks," Khazei's letter continued, followed earlier claims by other Israeli officials and constituted a serious breach of the United Nations Charter. The charter forbids the use of force by a country against another nation, Khazei pointed out.

The Iranian envoy urged the Security Council to respond to Ben-Eliezer's remarks and keep Israel from "threatening" another state in the future.

The Iranian ambassador told the Security Council that Israel "has continued with its insolent, outrageous and unprovoked threats against the Islamic Republic of Iran ... in yet another manifestation of the terrorist, aggressive and criminal nature of the Israeli regime" and in violation of the UN Charter.

"The inaction of the Security Council in this regard, has emboldened the regime to pursue this dangerous course," Khazee said.

"Therefore, the Security Council should react to these vicious statements by unambiguously condemning them and calling on the regime to cease and desist immediately from the threat of using force against members of the United Nations," he added.

Iran complains to UN about Ben-Eliezer
~~~~~~~~

Iran threatens to wipe Israel off the map and Israel responds with a "defensive" statement and Iran cries foul. And people wonder why, I call Ahmadinejad "ImaNutjob".

[Shammu]

Deadly blast strikes Iran mosque
12 April 2008

At least nine people have been killed and more than 100 wounded in an explosion at a mosque in Iran, local media reports say.

The blast reportedly occurred during an address by a prominent local cleric in the southern city of Shiraz.

The city's Law Enforcement Force commander, Col Zamani, told the semi-official Fars news agency that the explosion had been caused by a bomb.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast.

Fars quoted a hospital official as saying at least nine people had been killed and 105 injured. An initial Iranian TV report said scores had been killed, but later revised its death toll to "several".

Weekly meeting

A police official said a home-made bomb had been planted in the mosque, Fars reported.

The agency said the explosion occurred at around 2100 (1630 GMT) and could be heard a mile (1.5km) away. The Irna news agency said it broke the windows of many nearby houses.

Most of those inside the Hoseyniyeh Shohada mosque were young boys and girls affiliated to the Rahpoyan-e Vesal Association, which "holds weekly meetings every Saturday regarding misguided groups, including Wahhabis and Bahais", Fars added.

Wahhabism is a strict version of Sunni Islam practised throughout the Arabian Peninsula, most notably by Saudi Arabia's ruling family, while the Bahai faith is viewed as heretical by Iran's religious authorities.

Members of the Law Enforcement Force and the Basij militia have placed a cordon around the mosque. Ambulance and fire crews are said to be at the scene assisting the victims.

Television channels urged people in Shiraz to donate blood for the injured, adding that all nurses in the city had been called in on duty.

Shiraz, about 900km (560 miles) south of the capital Tehran, is a major tourist destination because of its closeness to a number of important ancient sites.

It has not been, however, a target of the isolated bomb attacks which have occurred in Iran in recent years.

The last major bombing, in the south-eastern city of Zahedan in February last year, is believed to have been carried out by the Sunni Baluchi militant group, Jundallah.

Thirteen members of the Revolutionary Guard Corps were killed when a car bomb exploded next to the bus in which they were travelling.

The south-western city of Ahwaz, close to the Iraqi border, has seen sporadic anti-government violence since 2005, allegedly by its ethnic minority Arab population.

Deadly blast strikes Iran mosque

[Shammu]

If no one takes responsibility for this bombing, I'm sure the Israelis along with America will be blamed for this bomb. Some may think this wrong to say, but if it was a bomb, then they are finally getting a taste of their own medicine.

[nChrist]

If no one takes responsibility for this bombing, I'm sure the Israelis along with America will be blamed for this bomb. Some may think this wrong to say, but if it was a bomb, then they are finally getting a taste of their own medicine.

Hello DreamWeaver,

Brother, just think about how many of their own people they've killed over the years, and I'm talking about innocent women and children who are their own countrymen. Realistically, blood-thirsty barbarians killing innocents should be making all kinds of enemies every day. They don't even need Israel or America as enemies. Their own worst enemies SHOULD BE their own people - the relatives of the innocents they've been killing for years. After all, most of the death and injury from the SENSELESS BOMBING IS AND ALWAYS HAS BEEN THEIR OWN COUNTRYMEN!

They probably will try to blame Israel or America, but most with any common sense will know that THIS IS NOT the work of Israel or America. This is more work from COWARDLY TERRORISTS!

[Shammu]

Ahmadinejad: Israel weak, collapsing

Iranian president calls on Muslim countries to support Palestinians, slams 'Israeli crimes'

Dudi Cohen
Published: 04.10.08, 17:51
Israel News

Eternal optimist: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that the State of Israel is weak and collapsing, Iranian news agency IRNA reported.

"The time has come to see the weakness and collapse of the Zionist regime and its supporters," Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying. "They are doing everything in order to save it, but they will not succeed."

In a meeting with Senegal's President Abdoulaye Wade, Ahmadinejad called for Muslim countries to support the Palestinians and added that "the most despicable crimes against humanity are taking place in Palestine today."

"The crudest trampling of rules is being undertaken in an inhumane manner," he said.

The Iranian president has made his views on the Palestinian issue known numerous times in the past and expressed his support for the armed struggle waged by Palestinian terror groups. In his meeting with Senegal's president he stressed that the Palestinian issue was the most important and complex in the world.

"The only solution to the Palestinian question is in turning to the voices of the Palestinian people," Ahmadinejad said. President Wade reportedly agreed with the remarks and emphasized the need for a united Muslim front in backing the Palestinians and condemning "Zionist crimes."

Earlier, the Iranian President slammed Western powers and said that the "corrupt global leadership" must be wiped out.

"The Iranian people will not surrender until the corrupt global leadership will become extinct," he said. "Our enemies should know that threats, sanctions, political pressure and economic pressure would not force us to step back."

The Iranian president again characterized United Nations Security Council decisions as no more than "pieces of paper."

Ahmadinejad: Israel weak, collapsing

[Shammu]

Ted Turner, Jane "Hanoi Jane" Fonda,  ImaNutjob (Ahmadinejad), Kim Jong Il and Chavo Chavez are like those Whack-a-moles. They are prone to feeling neglected so pop their heads up occasionally to be seen and heard.

ImaNutjob will probably find out 1st hand how our Lord deals with people like him. Iran's destruction will be incredible, as the Bible tells us.....

[Shammu]

Iran preparing package to help resolve world problems: FM
Tehran, April 13, IRNA

Iran-Philippines-FMs
Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said on Sunday that Iran is preparing a package to help resolve the regional and international problems.

He made the remarks in a joint press conference with his visiting counterpart from the Philippines, Alberto Romulo.

"Since the Middle East region and the entire world are suffering from a variety of crises, Tehran is preparing a package to put forward for the settlement of regional and international problems and present it publicly," Mottaki noted.

"We think all sides, including the Group 5+1 would make use of the package."
The Group 5+1 -- United States, Britain, France, Russia and China plus Germany -- are to meet in Shanghai, eastern China, on April 16.

The meeting, to be held at the level of political directors of the Group, is expected to discuss Iran's nuclear standoff with the West.

Iran preparing package to help resolve world problems

[Shammu]

Maybe it's another one of their lame brain lies: Iran wants to develop enough nuclear "energy" to fuel the whole middle east. They're a "peaceful" nation, remember. They just want to be able to "warm every body up."

Just sitting waiting for the show to begin........

[Shammu]

Iran smuggling arms into Gaza by sea
Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon
THE JERUSALEM POST
Apr. 17, 2008

Iran has stepped up its efforts to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip by using floatable devices that it drops near the waters off the Gaza coast to be picked up by Palestinian fisherman, senior defense officials have told The Jerusalem Post.

According to defense officials, Iran is now sending rockets and other advanced weaponry to Hamas and Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip by sea as well as via tunnels dug under the Philadelphi Corridor and connecting the Sinai peninsula with Rafah.

Officials said that the Navy is doing a fairly effective job in curbing the smuggling by sea, but that there are some shipments Israeli forces did not succeed in intercepting.

"They throw the weapons overboard in waterproof, sealed tubes which then float into the Gaza waters and are picked up by fishermen," one official said. "Sometimes Navy boats intercept them and sometimes they get through."

In recent months, the IDF has noticed an increase in Iranian-made weaponry in the Gaza Strip, including rockets and mortars. Terror groups in Gaza recently were equipped by Teheran with two different types of mortar shells made in Iran - one 120 mm with a range of 10 kilometers like a Kassam rocket and another with a range of six kilometers. Defense officials told the Post that in recent weeks thousands of mortars have been smuggled into Gaza.

Officials in Jerusalem said some of the weaponry now in Gaza was far too large to have been smuggled through tunnels burrowed from Sinai into Gaza, and that there was obviously an alternative route that was being used to smuggle weaponry into the area.

In addition to providing weaponry, Iran is also training Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists, who have used the periodic openings at the Rafah Crossing with Egypt, as well as the collapse of the border with Egypt in January, to travel to Iran and train there in terror and guerrilla warfare.

Officials said the weapons could take several routes from Iran to Egypt. One possibility is that the weapons are taken by boat from Iran to Egypt and then are smuggled into Gaza through tunnels or thrown into the waters off the coast and near the border.

Another possible route is that the weapons are transferred by Iran to Syria, and then to Lebanon, where Hizbullah ships them by boat to Egypt.

A branch of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards - called the Quds (Jerusalem) Force - is believed to be responsible for overseas operations, such as training Hizbullah and Palestinian terrorists and providing them with weapons.

Meanwhile, a full closure was imposed Thursday on Gaza and the West Bank, effective midnight Thursday, for the duration of Pessah.

A terror infiltration into the Kerem Shalom Crossing into Gaza was thwarted on Thursday by the IDF. Military sources said that three armed terrorists were spotted on their way to the crossing - the main conduit for food and medical supplies transferred to Gaza - and were intercepted by a force from the Bedouin Desert Battalion that was stationed nearby.

One terrorist was killed and another was wounded in an ensuing gunfight.

The foiled infiltration followed heavy violence on Wednesday when three IDF soldiers and close to 20 Palestinians were killed in clashes in Gaza.

On Thursday, 10 rockets were fired into Israel, including a Grad-model Katyusha rocket that hit an open field south of Netivot. No one was injured in the attacks.

Earlier in the day, two Islamic Jihad operatives were shot dead in the West Bank town of Kabatiya near Jenin. The IDF said troops surrounded a home in which the operatives were hiding and called on them to come out. The suspects refused and were killed in an ensuing exchange of fire.

Iran smuggling arms into Gaza by sea

[Shammu]

This is like saying the sky is blue on a clear day. It's a given, and has been all along.

IMO, this is another 'media planted story' to prepare us for what may be occuring soon.

I have a feeling that things are going to get awfully ugly, awfully soon.

Let's pray and hope Jesus comes for us before it happens.

[Shammu]

Seven historic synagogues in Tehran destroyed

Tehran, 15 April (AKI) - Seven ancient synagogues in the Iranian capital, Tehran, have been destroyed by local authorities.

The synagogues were in the Oudlajan suburb of Tehran, where many Iranian Jews used to live.

"These buildings, which were part of our cultural, artistic and architectural heritage were burnt to the ground," said Ahmad Mohit Tabatabaii, the director of the International Council of Museums’ (ICOM) office in Tehran.

"With the excuse of renovating this ancient quarter, they are erasing a part of our history," said Tabatabaii.

He called for the government to intervene to stop the work commissioned by the local authorities.

A group of residents of Oudjalan have also sent a letter to the mayor of Tehran asking him to suspend the renovation work being carried out in the suburb.

Seven historic synagogues in Tehran destroyed