News items that look towards Ezekiel 38 & 39

[Shammu]

Russia says it may deploy missiles to Belarus
Move could be made in response to U.S. shield plans, general says

Nov. 14, 2007

MOSCOW - Russia may deploy its newest Iskander tactical missiles in neighboring Belarus in response to U.S. plans for a missile shield in eastern Europe, Russian media quoted a senior general as saying on Wednesday.

Asked if the missiles could be deployed in response to the U.S. shield, Major-General Vladimir Zaritsky, head of Russia’s artillery and missile forces, was quoted as saying by Itar-Tass news agency: “Why not? Under the right conditions and with the corresponding agreement of Belarus, it is possible.”

“Any action inevitably causes a reaction,” Zaritsky said. ”And this is just the case with the elements of U.S. air defense in the Czech Republic and Poland.”
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Washington plans to place 10 interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic as part of a shield it says is designed to protect Europe from missile attacks by “rogue states” such as Iran and North Korea.

Russia has said this would upset the strategic balance and pose a threat to its security. In July, Moscow proposed the two countries use the Russian-operated early warning Qabala radar in Azerbaijan as an alternative to the U.S. missile shield.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said during a visit to Moscow last month the Qabala radar could not replace the U.S. missile shield.

The Iskander missile is able to deliver a 1,058 lb conventional payload within a range of up to 250 miles.

Zaritsky said Iskander missiles were now fully in line with the Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF).

But he stressed: “Should Russia take a political decision to quit the INF treaty, we will boost the military capabilities of these missiles, including their range.”

Asked if Russia could eventually raise Iskander’s range to over 500 km, which is banned by the INF treaty, Zaritsky said: ”Who knows what the motherland may order?”

Russia says it may deploy missiles to Belarus

[Shammu]

It's amazing how the world at large continues to ignore the growing threat of Russia. They seem to have passed from flourishing democratic nation on the rise to a flourishing dictatorship on the rise within a matter of a few years. Putin squashes media critics, destroys freedom and liberty, and not a peep from the Western media.

But if the Bush administration detains an al-Qaeda terrorist, they're in violation of the Geneva accords and Bush is evil. This shows how close we really are to going home.

[Shammu]

Iran and China vow to boost ties

By Fredrik Dahl Tue Nov 13, 3:15 PM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran and China vowed on Tuesday to boost ties that Beijing believes will help preserve regional and international peace, official Iranian media reported.

The two countries' pledge to cooperate more closely is likely to irritate Western powers seeking tougher sanctions on oil-producing Iran over its disputed atomic ambitions.

Visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi held talks with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, whose country has repeatedly refused to heed U.N. demands to halt nuclear activities which Washington suspects are aimed at making bombs.

China, which can veto further U.N. sanctions, gets about 12 percent of its oil imports from Iran and wants more.

"Enemies of the two nations must know that high-ranking Iranian and Chinese officials are determined to expand their bilateral ties," Ahmadinejad told Yang, Iran's official IRNA news agency said.

It quoted Yang as saying: "Expansion of ties with Iran has great importance for China's government ... Improving Iran's and China's relations could be helpful in protecting regional and international peace, stability and security."

In Beijing, China's Foreign Ministry said sanctions were not the way to resolve the international confrontation over Iran's nuclear work while also urging Tehran to be more flexible.

Yang described Iran's cooperation with the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency as positive, IRNA said.

He and Iranian chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili emphasized in talks the necessity of resolving the nuclear issue through diplomacy and peacefully, the ISNA news agency said.

SOARING TRADE

In Vienna, diplomats said the U.N. nuclear watchdog is likely to report this week that Iran has improved cooperation with an inquiry into shadowy atomic activity but that it remained unclear whether it was enough to resolve key questions.

The United States and its allies accuse Iran of seeking to develop atomic weapons but Tehran says its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity so that it can export more oil.

Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China are expected to meet on November 19 to assess the report from IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei as well as one from the European Union's top diplomat, Javier Solana.

Iran is defying two U.N. Security Council resolutions since December which imposed mild sanctions.

Iranian analyst Saeed Laylaz said China's trade with Iran was set to soar to around $20 billion this year from just $200 million in the mid-1990s, partly due to U.S. sanctions which have prompted Iranians to turn from the West to Asia for trade.

"Never in the history of Iran have we had such an experience with another country," he said. Iran is selling oil to China while the communist country supplied vehicles and engineering goods to the Islamic state, he said.

Iran and China vow to boost ties

[Shammu]

Putin gives sign that he'll retain power

By STEVE GUTTERMAN, Associated Press Writer Tue Nov 13, 3:45 PM ET

KRASNOYARSK, Russia - President Vladimir Putin said Tuesday that a big win for the dominant pro-Kremlin party in December parliamentary elections would give him the "moral right" to maintain influence in Russia after he steps down next year.

Putin's remarks on a campaign-style visit to Siberia were the clearest sign yet that he intends to retain power and keep Russia on the authoritarian, globally assertive course that he has set during eight years as president.

But Putin, a former KGB officer who uses secrecy and surprise as political tools, kept Russians guessing about just what role he might play after term limits force him from office in May.

Putin has long indicated that he hopes to remain influential after stepping down, and has not ruled out a bid to return to the Kremlin in 2012. He said last month that he might become prime minister. But there have been indications that he would choose an informal path, using an overwhelming electoral victory for United Russia as a mandate to maintain authority as the people's choice for a national leader.

He said last month that he will lead the United Russia party's ticket in the Dec. 2 elections to the State Duma, the lower house of parliament.

The people who lead party tickets do not always take seats in parliament, and the Kremlin has said Putin — who is not a United Russia member — has no intention of doing so. Instead, the party has cast the election as a referendum on the popular president and the course he has set for Russia.

The expected overwhelming victory for the party would give Putin a popular mandate and a loyal parliament to limit the clout of his successor — and possibly lay the groundwork for a return to the presidency in 2012 or sooner.

On his first major trip inside Russia since the parliamentary campaign began — and which the Kremlin says is likely to be his last before the vote — Putin drank tea with workers at a road construction site in Krasnoyarsk, a vast region that reaches beyond the Arctic Circle.

Putin went to the city of Krasnoyarsk — a chaotic sprawl of czarist-era wooden buildings, Soviet-style structures and new apartment towers — to head a meeting with governors and Cabinet ministers on the transport sector. But his remarks to the construction crew in a shed on the snowy steppe outside the city turned the visit into something of a campaign stop.

"If the people vote for United Russia, it means that a clear majority ... put their trust in me, and in turn that means I will have the moral right to hold those in the Duma and the Cabinet responsible for the implementation of the tasks that have been set as of today," Putin said.

"In what form I will do this, I cannot yet give a direct answer. But various possibilities exist," he said. "If the result is the one I am counting on, I will have this opportunity."

He traded a cold-weather coat and fur-fringed hood for a suit jacket to speak to university students and instructors, promising them more attention and cash for education.

Krasnoyarsk voters gave him and United Russia below-average support in the last national election.

With the regional governor and city mayor now United Russia members, a major push is under way to ensure high support in this election. Across the city, United Russia billboards reading "Putin's Plan is Russia's Victory" far outnumber other parties' ads, and smaller United Russia signs are affixed to lamppost after lamppost along the main avenue downtown.

Other parties say the authorities use their power to promote United Russia unfairly and prevent the opposition from getting its message out.

Vladislav Korolyov, the regional head of the liberal Union of Right Forces party, said the authorities have pressured managers of potential campaign event venues not to rent them to the opposition, and police have stopped the distribution of his party's newspaper.

"What kind of moral right can he talk about?" Korolyov said. He said Putin has stifled democracy while coasting on Russia's natural resource wealth, failing to push through economic reforms and lift millions out of poverty.

But Maria Nikitina, 18, an economics student walking downtown, said that Putin's rule has brought improvements and she plans to vote for United Russia in the hope that the trend will continue.

"Russia is rising, the country is moving forward," she said.

With Putin at the helm and the election process tightly controlled, the party should have little trouble maintaining its two-thirds majority in the Duma.

Under new election rules, voters will choose only among parties, not individual candidates. Seats are allocated proportionally to parties that receive at least 7 percent of the vote — and only one party other than United Russia, the Communist Party, appears certain to clear the barrier.

Russia under Putin has enjoyed oil-fueled economic growth and a restoration of its global clout. The president said Tuesday that United Russia was far from perfect, but he suggested that no other party could guarantee stability and continuity.

Yana Grinko, a 21-year-old university student who met with Putin, said she hopes he will not stay out of the Kremlin for good.

"I hope he returns to us in 2012," she said.

Putin gives sign that he'll retain power

[Littleboy]

And, the fact that they are in Alliance with the Countries God said that they would be in Alliance with in the End of Day's.
I say,
Rejoice, The Day Draweth Nigh and is even at the Door,
So come, Come unto our Lord Jesus and find the Joy that comes in KNOWING that you SHALL be Saved from all the wrath that is too Come, Shortly...
YLBD
P.S
He's Putin-up his Dukes and gettin ready for a Fight!

[Shammu]

Iran not in clear if U.N. report only partly good: U.S.
Wed Nov 14, 2007 3:37pm EST

By Mark Heinrich

VIENNA (Reuters) - The United States signaled on Wednesday that partial Iranian cooperation with U.N. nuclear investigators would not be enough to stall steps towards a third round of sanctions against Tehran.

The International Atomic Energy Agency is likely later this week to report some improvements in Iranian nuclear transparency in keeping with Tehran's pledge in August to defuse suspicions it has a covert atomic bomb program.

In a gesture aimed at slowing momentum towards sanctions, Iran has turned over a blueprint showing how to mould uranium metal into spheres to fit into nuclear warheads, fulfilling a key demand in a four-year-old IAEA inquiry, diplomats said.

But the blueprint alone does not resolve outstanding questions about the nature of Iran's program which Tehran says aims only to produce electricity not armaments.

Gregory Schulte, U.S. envoy to the IAEA, said the agency's 35-nation Board of Governors and Security Council members would not be content to "see a little bit more information here, a little more there" from Iran in the report.

"Selective cooperation is not good enough," he told reporters at the U.N. watchdog's Vienna headquarters.

"When we read this report and evaluate Iran's cooperation, the standard we will look for is full disclosure and also a full suspension of their proliferation-sensitive activities."

An IAEA board meeting next week will debate the report.

Iran apparently provided documentation to help explain its work to develop centrifuges that enrich uranium, diplomats said.

But it may not have granted IAEA access to workshops or key Iranian officials for interviews to verify the work did not have military ends, said diplomats monitoring the hush-hush inquiry.

"The operative word there is partial (cooperation). There is a long, long list of questions," said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack.

"Answering one question among several pages worth certainly doesn't, in my book, count as full cooperation which is what the IAEA board of governors said that it is looking for."

Six world powers agreed in September they would have the U.N. Security Council vote on wider sanctions unless reports by the IAEA and the EU's top diplomat showed Iran had come clean on its program and was moving to suspend it.

NO NUCLEAR SUSPENSION ON HORIZON

The European Union's Javier Solana is widely expected to confirm in his report on recent talks with Iran that it remains unwilling to consider a suspension.

Some diplomats said the IAEA report could cite just enough new examples of Iranian cooperation for Russia and China to argue for further deferral of sanctions to allow more time for the transparency process, which has no deadlines, to work.

"The IAEA report won't be too bad for the Iranians," said a European diplomat accredited to the IAEA.

"The end result will make it very difficult for the six (powers) to speak in one voice on the next steps, because the report may be enough to satisfy some, but not satisfy others."

Russia and China, both with Security Council vetoes, want to keep strong trade ties with Iran and say isolating the Islamic Republic could lead to wider Middle East conflict.

"The start of talks between Iran and IAEA is bringing some results," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told a news conference during a visit to Slovenia on Wednesday.

Referring to the imminent IAEA and EU reports, he said: "We all have to concentrate on a positive approach ... rather than on various announcements, prognoses, etc."

McCormack said movement towards a third round of sanctions was not moving as quickly as the United States would have hoped.

"I'm not going to make any secret of the fact that we would have wished that this process had moved forward and we would have already had the third resolution in our rear-view mirror at this point. We don't. We are making some progress," he said.

Iran not in clear if U.N. report only partly good: U.S.

[nChrist]

It's amazing how the world at large continues to ignore the growing threat of Russia. They seem to have passed from flourishing democratic nation on the rise to a flourishing dictatorship on the rise within a matter of a few years. Putin squashes media critics, destroys freedom and liberty, and not a peep from the Western media.

But if the Bush administration detains an al-Qaeda terrorist, they're in violation of the Geneva accords and Bush is evil. This shows how close we really are to going home.

AMEN BROTHER BOB!

The whole world is a powder keg and the fuse is lit. YES - I think that our time here is growing short.

Love In Christ,
Tom

KEEP LOOKING UP!!

1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 NASB
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. Therefore comfort one another with these words.

[Soldier4Christ]

EU 'should expand beyond Europe'

Foreign Secretary David Miliband has suggested the European Union should work towards including Russia, Middle Eastern and North African countries.

He said enlargement was "our most powerful tool" for extending stability.

In his first major speech on the UK's relationship with Europe, he said the EU would not become a "superpower" but should be a "role model" for the world.

It could be a "model power of regional co-operation" dedicated to free trade, the environment and tackling extremism.

He said the EU must "keep our promises to Turkey", adding: "If we fail.... it will signal a deep and dangerous divide between east and west.

"Beyond that we must keep the door open, retaining the incentive for change and the prospect of membership provides."

Mr Miliband made his address at the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium, where Baroness Thatcher delivered her famous warning against "some sort of identikit European personality" almost exactly two decades ago in September 1988.

US 'only superpower'

Mr Miliband said that speech had been "haunted by demons - a European superstate bringing in socialism by the back door".

But he said: "The truth is that the EU has enlarged, remodelled and opened up. It is not and is not going to become a superstate. But neither is it destined to become a superpower."

Instead he said the EU had the chance to be a "model power" which could develop shared values between countries.

"As a club that countries want to join, it can persuade countries to play by the rules, and set global standards. In the way it dispenses its responsibilities around the world, it can be a role model that others follow."

Extremism and insecurity

Mr Miliband said new threats, like protectionism, religious extremism, energy insecurity, rogue and failing states and climate change provided a new "raison d'etre" for the EU.

He outlined four principles for the "next generation" of Europe, for it to remain open to "trade, ideas and investment", to develop shared institutions to overcome religious and cultural divides, to prevent conflict by championing international law and human rights in and outside Europe, and to become a "low carbon power".

He said a successful EU must be prepared to "deploy soft and hard power to promote democracy and tackle conflict beyond its borders".

He said the goal "must be a multilateral free-trade zone around our periphery".

This would be a "version of the European Free Trade Association that could gradually bring the countries of the Mahgreb, the Middle East and Eastern Europe in line with the single market, not as an alternative to membership, but potentially as a step towards it".

And the EU should extend military support to places like Darfur, he argued, to help solve problems of unwanted migration.

'Embarrassing'

He also said European nations had to "improve their capabilities".

"It's frankly embarrassing that when European nations - with almost two million men and women under arms - are only able, at a stretch, to deploy around 100,000 at any one time," he said.

"European countries have around 1,200 transport helicopters, yet only 35 are deployed in Afghanistan. And EU member states haven't provided any helicopters in Darfur despite the desperate need there."

Long-term regulations were needed to phase out carbon emissions in key areas - by reducing vehicle emissions and work towards "a zero-emission vehicle standard across Europe".

He said that by 2020, all new coal-fired power stations must be fitted with "carbon capture and storage".

In a reference to the failed EU Constitution, he said: "The constitutional debate shows that people don't want major institutional upheaval. Unanimity is slow but it respects national identities."

But his Conservative counterpart William Hague said Mr Miliband and his colleagues were "ramming that constitution through under a new name and refusing to give voters a say at an election or a referendum" - a reference to the EU Reform treaty.

"The fact is that if the renamed constitution goes through we will have a more inward-looking Europe," said Mr Hague.

"The treaty's clauses will make the EU more protectionist and less competitive and give the EU more power to interfere with crucial areas like our criminal justice system."

[Shammu]

Pakistan's Musharraf warns on nuke weapons
President defends emergency rule, saying arms could fall into wrong hands

Nov. 17, 2007

LONDON - President Pervez Musharraf, defending his decision to declare emergency rule, has said Pakistan's nuclear weapons could fall into the wrong hands if elections led to disturbances.

The comments, in a BBC interview broadcast on Saturday, come as U.S. envoy John Negroponte visited Pakistan to put pressure on Musharraf to revoke the two-week-old emergency, make peace with opposition leader Benazir Bhutto and hold fair elections.

Musharraf said that if elections were held in a "disturbed environment," it could bring in dangerous elements who might pose a risk to control of Pakistan's nuclear weapons.
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"They cannot fall into the wrong hands, if we manage ourselves politically. The military is there -- as long as the military is there, nothing happens to the strategic assets, we are in charge and nobody does anything with them," he said.

Musharraf, who took power in a coup eight years ago, cited rising Islamist militancy and a hostile judiciary as reasons for declaring emergency rule. He has said a general election will be held before January 9 and he expects to step down as army chief and be sworn in as a civilian president beforehand.

Bhutto's chances of winning dismissed
In the interview conducted on Friday, Musharraf dismissed opposition leader Bhutto's chances of winning elections.

He blamed Bhutto, who has called for him to relinquish power, for ruining chances of a deal which would see her serving as prime minister under his presidency.

"She disturbed the entire environment. She comes on a total confrontationalist approach," Musharraf said of Bhutto, who returned from eight years of self exile last month to lead her Pakistan People's Party in elections.

Bhutto, who was freed after three days of house arrest shortly before Negroponte's arrival, has said she does not trust Musharraf to allow her party a clear run and wants the Election Commissioner replaced.

But Musharraf, who referred to Bhutto as "the darling of the West," said it was the opposition and judges who had been interfering with the democratic process.

"It is she actually who may not be wanting elections in Pakistan and it is she who may want to go on to the agitational mode because her party is not in a state to win at all," he said.

"Therefore I will certainly go for the election despite of any agitation by her."

He promised that political opponents would be released from house arrest "in a few days" but said he was considering all options regarding holding elections under emergency rule.

Pakistan's Musharraf warns on nuke weapons

[Shammu]

Russia readies nuclear fuel bound for Iran

Moscow pushes ahead with plans to supply Tehran with uranium after release of IAEA report, Iran welcomes move, says Russian commitment to its nuclear program 'a matter of principle'

Reuters
Published:    11.16.07, 21:40 / Israel News

Russia on Friday gave the clearest indication yet that it was ready to send uranium to fuel Iran's first atomic power station, upping the stakes in a diplomatic crisis surrounding Tehran's nuclear program.

Russia's state-run nuclear fuel producer said inspectors from the United Nations' nuclear watchdog would later this month start sealing nuclear fuel bound for the Bushehr plant, a major step to shipping the fuel to the Bushehr plant in Iran.

In a report on Iran issued on Thursday, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had "made arrangements to verify and seal the fresh fuel foreseen (for Bushehr) on Nov. 26, before shipment of the fuel from Russia to Iran".

Russia has so far given no concrete date for when it will send the nuclear fuel to Bushehr, but says it would be sent six months before the plant's repeatedly delayed start-up.

According to Russian forecasts, the reactor at the plant could be started up in 2008 and nuclear fuel would have to arrive at the plant six months before that.

Iran: Russian approach encouraging

Iran's ambassador to Russia on Friday said nuclear fuel deliveries to the Islamic Republic were a "matter of principle", and hoped Moscow would send them soon.

"We hope that promises we have been receiving from official Russian representatives on such an important issue ... will soon be carried out and realized," Ambassador Gholamreza Ansari said.

The diplomat was speaking at a news conference held simultaneously with Russia's announcement on fuel inspections.

In Iran, nuclear officials welcomed the fuel delivery developments.

"Russia has formally informed (the IAEA) that it is ready for the Bushehr nuclear fuel in Russia to be checked and sealed on Nov. 26," IRNA quoted Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, as saying.

"This means, from a technical and legal point of view, the fuel for the Bushehr nuclear power plant is ready for transfer to Iran," he said.

The United States, Israel and key European Union nations suspect Iran is trying to build nuclear bombs.

But Russia, a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, says there is no evidence Tehran is seeking atomic weapons.

"Those offers we hear about the Bushehr AES from our Russian friends are encouraging for us," Ambassador Ansari said in Moscow.

"The issue of construction at Bushehr between Russian and Iranian societies is a matter of principle," Ansari said.

Tehran says a report by the IAEA this week has vindicated its repeated statements that its nuclear
      
program was purely civilian and showed that there would be no basis for further discussion of it in the United Nations Security Council.

The IAEA report, released on Thursday, said Iran had made important strides toward transparency about its nuclear activity but had yet to resolve outstanding questions. It also said Iran had expanded uranium enrichment.

Russia readies nuclear fuel bound for Iran

[Shammu]

China deals blow to Western efforts to punish Iran

By Sophie Walker Fri Nov 16, 6:10 PM ET

LONDON (Reuters) - China has dealt a blow to Western efforts to increase diplomatic pressure on Iran over its nuclear program by dropping out of a meeting to discuss tougher sanctions against Tehran.

Russia, which like China opposes further U.N. sanctions against Iran, added fuel to the fire by announcing on Friday that the U.N. nuclear watchdog would soon start inspecting and sealing atomic fuel bound for an Iranian reactor.

The West fears Iran wants to develop atomic weapons but Iran denies this. Tehran says it wants only to generate electricity.

Political directors from Britain, France, Germany, the United States, Russia and China were due to meet on November 19 to assess reports about Tehran's nuclear program from the United Nations and from EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

"I think it's partly related to genuine travel difficulties, but also linked to resistance on the broader question of sanctions from that quarter," a European diplomatic source said of China's decision.

Russian state-owned nuclear fuel producer TVEL said inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) will begin preparatory work on November 26 until November 29 on a shipment of nuclear fuel bound for the Bushehr nuclear plant.

"We are ready to provide IAEA specialists with all the conditions they need to do their work," Konstantin Grabelnikov, deputy head of Russia's Novosibirsk Chemical Concentrate Plant, which is preparing the fuel, said in a statement.

Russia has given no specific date when it will send the nuclear fuel to Bushehr, but says it would be sent six months before the plant's start-up.

Because of payment delays, the plant's start-up has been put back to at least 2008, Russian officials have said.

EU SANCTIONS?

The United States said on Thursday it would work with its allies for a third round of U.N. sanctions after the IAEA reported Iran had made important strides towards clarifying past nuclear activities but also said major questions remained.

But some European diplomats say it may not be possible to persuade Russia and China -- both permanent veto-wielding members of the Security Council like France, Britain and the United States -- to support a third round.

As a result, France is pushing for the European Union to impose its own separate U.S.-style sanctions against Iran.

On Friday, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said the report had done little to clarify matters. "There remain areas of darkness in the operations which for a very long time were hidden by the Iranians in their nuclear development program."

While Russia and China appear to breaking away from the United States, Britain and France, the sixth country involved in negotiations -- Germany -- appeared to take a harder line.

"The foreign minister has made clear that if this is the case we would take up this issue in Europe and consider together what steps could be taken by Europe," spokesman Martin Jaeger told a regular news conference when asked what Germany would do if the Security Council failed to approve tougher sanctions.

Iran called on its Western enemies to apologize because the IAEA report showed Iran had been telling the truth about its atomic plans.

"The latest IAEA report confirms that Iran's nuclear activities are civilian and peaceful so what is the motive behind imposing sanction?" President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Al Arabiya television.

"The Iranian nuclear file is just a pretext ... should the nuclear folder be folded, they would find another pretext."

The United States has not ruled out military action if diplomacy fails to halt Iran's atomic work.

During a joint appearance with Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, President George W. Bush said Washington could "never tolerate" Iran developing nuclear capability.

"They should not imagine that if they wage such a war that the region alone would be set ablaze," said Ahmadinejad. "The region will be exposed to serious dangers and the first whose interests will be harmed are the Americans."

Israel, which in 1981 bombed the Osirak nuclear power plant in Iraq to cripple Saddam Hussein's secret atomic arms program, urged world powers to be tough on Iran.

"Israel believes it is incumbent upon the international community to send a crystal clear message to the leadership in Tehran that their nuclear program is unacceptable and must cease immediately," Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said.

China deals blow to Western efforts to punish Iran

[Shammu]

Ahmadinejad writes to French president

1 hour, 53 minutes ago

TEHRAN (AFP) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has sent a letter to his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy following recent French criticism of Tehran's nuclear drive, a senior official said on Saturday.

"President Ahmadinejad's letter to President Nicolas Sarkozy concerns the current relations between Iran and France and their prospect," the state IRNA news agency quoted Mojtaba Samareh Hashemi as saying.

But Hashemi, a top presidential advisor, said Tehran took exception to what he described as "distorted" reports about the content of the letter.

"Most of the information published about this letter has been distorted," he said.

France's Le Monde newspaper, citing diplomatic sources, said the letter had an "acrimonious" tone and contained "veiled threats".

Ahmadinejad had offered to give advice to the French president whom he branded as a "young and inexperienced" leader, the report said.

"Ahmadinejad has hinted that France and Iran have 'historic ties' and 'common interests', most notably in Lebanon, which would be a pity to reduce to nothing," the French daily added.

Since Sarkozy's election, France has adopted a tougher line with Iran over its nuclear programme, which is feared by the West to cover an atomic weapons drive -- charges that Tehran vehemently denies.

Tehran has also been concerned about France's rapprochement with the United States, whish is leading international efforts to thwart Iran's atomic programme.

Since his June 2005 election, Ahmadinejad has written a succession of letters explaining his world view to world leaders including US President George W. Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Pope Benedict XVI.

Ahmadinejad writes to French president

[Shammu]

 Iran says ready to act if attacked

2 hours, 8 minutes ago

MANAMA (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday Iran was ready to respond if attacked, but played down the prospect of war with the United States.

Ahmadinejad was speaking during a visit to Bahrain which came amid mounting concerns in the Gulf that the United States could launch military action against Iran, although Washington says it is committed to a diplomatic solution to a crisis over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

"We never want any war in this region, but from another front, we have made all preparations, and if there is any suspicion on this matter, then we are ready," said Ahmadinejad, speaking through an interpreter.

"I want to confirm again that we don't think there will be a war in the region," he told reporters, without giving reasons.

Ahmadinejad earlier told Al Arabiya television that the United States had no political, economic or military grounds for attack, and dismissed the U.S. military as "shabby."

The West accuses Iran of trying to build a nuclear bomb, but Iran says its nuclear ambitions are to generate electricity.

In a report on Thursday the U.N. nuclear watchdog said Iran had become more open in outlining its nuclear activities, but key questions remained unanswered. Washington says partial disclosure is not enough, and is pushing for sanctions.

Ahmadinejad challenged labeling the standoff a crisis, and said Iran had cooperated fully with the nuclear watchdog.

"We do not feel there is a crisis in this region ... or do countries in the region ... We think the crisis is in Washington," he said.

Ahmadinejad held talks on bilateral, regional and international issues with Bahraini royals and politicians, he said, but no new initiative to dampen tensions was announced. Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheikh Khaled bin Ahmed al-Khalifa called for more diplomacy.

Saudi Arabia this month proposed to set up a consortium that would provide Iran with enriched uranium for peaceful purposes, but Iran said it would not halt its own enrichment program.

Gulf Arab countries are among those with the most to lose in the event of a conflict between Iran and the West, and have consistently warned against any slide into war.

The Gulf is the world's top oil exporting region, and its economies are booming on a near five-fold increase in oil prices since 2002.

Ahmadinejad called for greater cooperation with Gulf states to work together against what he said were U.S. plans to foster tension in the region. He later left Bahrain to attend an OPEC heads of state summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

Iran says ready to act if attacked

[Shammu]

Inevitable Iran-Turkey-Syria-Russia Alliance

TEHRAN (Fars News Agency)- The Middle East has acquired immense strategic value as one of the determining fulcrums in the global balance of power due to its being the world's largest known storehouse of low-cost energy supplies.
   
The region's geopolitical importance, the kaleidoscopic nature of politics among its states, the presence of volatile social and political forces within them and the interference of world superpowers all insure that the region will remain a potentially explosive source of tension for years.

Emboldened by its military strength after World War II, Moscow prepared to carve up its southern neighbors. It demanded territorial concessions and control of the Bosporus from Turkey and refused to withdraw from northern Iran, which it had occupied in 1941. Turkey and Iran rebuffed Soviet coercive diplomacy with the support of the United States and became key allies in the American effort to contain Soviet expansion.

The Central Treaty Organization (CENTO) was a defense alliance between Turkey, Iran, Pakistan and Great Britain. Originally named the Baghdad Pact, the name was changed when the Iraqi revolution led Iraq to withdraw in 1959. The United States had observer status in the alliance but was not a party to the treaty. The fall of the shah removed the American shield from Iran, sounded the death knell for the anti-Soviet CENTO alliance and sailed Iran towards new horizons.

Now the same faith is on the road for Turkey. The measureless and injudicious backup given by the occupying power in Iraq -- the US government -- to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and to Massoud Barzani, the former tribal leader of the Iraqi Kurds and now the leader of the Iraqi Kurdish region.

Turkey, taking into consideration the ongoing assaults by the PKK terrorists in the southeastern regions and the measureless backup given by US government to Iraqi Kurds, has drawn up a new strategic alliance policy that weakens ties with the US and strengthens relations with Iran and Syria, its millennium-long neighbors.

The US has failed to keep its promise to Turkey to confront the PKK. Turkey now feels that it has no choice but to attack the PKK's sanctuaries in northern Iraq together with Iran.

Iran is also suffering from similar assaults originating from the same terrorist group located in the Kurdish region of northern Iraq under the name of Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK).

The US and Iran are increasingly at odds over a range of issues, and Turkey has stood nearby the US as an old and devoted ally for the past 57 years, but now the sympathy of Turkish people towards the US had fallen sharply over the past couple of years, and it will take decades for US to recover it.

It seems it is now mandatory for Turkey and Iran to form a common cooperative ground in regard to common problems and interests. New and stronger cooperative action in the economic field by Turkey and Iran will play a major role in the eradication of the political distrust and concerns between the two countries. The parties have announced an upcoming doubling of the volume of their trade.

Both countries have already agreed on the elimination of the main source of discord: support for each other's separatist and oppositional organizations. Iran has committed to adding the PKK to its list of "terrorist organizations." Turkey has done the same concerning the anti-Iran terrorist group "Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO)."

The second stage is the escalation of high-level cooperation between Turkey, Iran and Syria and this is moving forward, as well.

Aversion to American global policy, in particular to the actions of the US in Iraq, the common allies of Syria and Iran, and also shared economic interests, will lead to the merging of the political strategies of Russia and Turkey. Countries that were previously historical opponents will turn into partners in the creation of a new Eurasian coalition.

The final effect of the region's aversion to American policies will be the formation of the "union of four:" Russia, Turkey, Iran and Syria. Of course, this rapprochement between Ankara, Moscow, Damascus and Tehran will definitely affect Washington's position in the Middle East.

Inevitable Iran-Turkey-Syria-Russia Alliance

[Shammu]

Jihadists Gain Even More Ground in Pakistan
November 16, 2007

Although Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf's forces continue to crack the skulls--quite literally--of the refomers and pro-democracy demonstrators that have taken to the streets since he declared a state of Emerrgency November 3rd, they may want rest their batons for a second and take a glance to the west. Because in Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province, the Taliban and other assorted jihadists are gaining more and more ground--and the situation there may have reached the point of no return. From the New York Times:

Gen. Pervez Musharraf, the Pakistani president, says he instituted emergency rule for the extra powers it would give him to push back the militants who have carved out a mini-state in Pakistan’s tribal areas.

But in the last several days, the militants have extended their reach, capturing more territory in Pakistan’s settled areas and chasing away frightened policemen, local government officials said.

As inconspicuous as it might be in a nation of 160 million people, the takeover of the small Alpuri district headquarters this week was considered a particular embarrassment for General Musharraf. It showed how the militants could still thumb their noses at the Pakistani Army.

In fact, local officials and Western diplomats said, there is little evidence that the 12-day-old emergency decree has increased the government’s leverage in fighting the militants, or that General Musharraf has used the decree to take any extraordinary steps to combat them.

Instead, it has proved more of a distraction, they said, forcing General Musharraf to concentrate on his own political survival, even as the army starts its first offensive operation since the Nov. 3 decree.

The success of the militants in Swat has caused new concern in Washington about the ability and the will of Pakistani forces to fight the militants who are now training their sights directly on Pakistan’s government, not only on the NATO and American forces across the border in Afghanistan, Western officials said.

After several weeks of heavy clashes, the militants largely control Swat, the mountainous region that is the scenic jewel of Pakistan, and are pushing into Shangla, to the east. All of the sites lie deeper inside Pakistan than the tribal areas, on the Afghan border, where Al Qaeda, the Taliban and assorted foreign and local militants have expanded a stronghold in recent years. In Alpuri, the administrative headquarters of Shangla, a crowd of militants easily took over the police station, despite the emergency decree, Mayor Ibad Khan said.

“They came straight to the police station; it was empty,” he said in a telephone interview. The district police officer had run away. “I am still searching for him,” Mr. Khan said. Asked why the police station was empty, he said, “I am asking myself the same question.”

Jihadists Gain Even More Ground in Pakistan