Iran

[Ryan Ruck]

Thread for the discussion of Iran.

Original threads found here:

• Syria and Iran
• Iran the next battlefield

[Ryan Ruck]

Iran Significantly Enhances Shahab-3 Missile

NICOSIA [MENL] -- Iran has provided the first data of the capabilities of its enhanced Shahab-3 intermediate-range missile.

Iranian officials said the range and accuracy of the Shahab-3 have been significantly improved in 2004 with two flight tests of the enhanced missile. They said the missile underwent a redesign as well as integration of an advanced navigation and targeting system.

As a result, officials said, the Shahab-3 could now reach a range of 2,000 kilometers with a circle of error probability of one meter. Until 2004, the Shahab was said to have a range of 1,300 kilometers and a CEP of about a kilometer.

"We are capable of meeting our defense needs and improving [the Shihab-3's] specifications at any time," Iranian Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said.

Likely with Chinese and possibly Russian help I'm sure.

[Ryan Ruck]

Iran Designs Nuke Warhead For Shihab-3

LONDON [MENL] -- Iran was said to have designed a nuclear warhead for the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile.

The United States has briefed several nations and the International Atomic Energy Agency of an Iranian program to develop a nuclear warhead for the Shihab-3. Diplomatic sources said the U.S. briefers asserted that from 2001 to 2003 Iran designed and developed a circular warhead that could detonate at an altitude meant to ensure optimal damage.

An empty nuclear warhead was said to have been installed on the Shihab-3 for two missile tests in mid-2004. The sources said the warhead appeared similar to a Soviet-based intercontinental missile deployed by Moscow in the 1960s.

The sources said that in August the U.S. delegation briefed such countries as China, India, Russia, and South Africa ahead of last month's IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna. They said the briefing helped persuade some members to either support or abstain in the vote on a British resolution to refer the Iranian nuclear file to the United Nations Security Council. India supported the British resolution, which did not set a date for the submission of the Iranian file.

NOTE: The above is not the full item.

This service contains only a small portion of the information produced daily by Middle East Newsline. For a subscription to the full service, please contact Middle East Newsline at: editor@menewsline.com for further details.

[Sean Osborne]

Iran is now, and has been for sometime, the location of Al Qaeda's senior leadership.

Iran is the controlling force behind both Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. This is the basis for the assessment that Imad Fayez Mughniyeh (Hezbollah Commander) and Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi (Tawhid al-Jihad) have been coordinating their actions in Iraq.

[Brian Baldwin]

Iran is now, and has been for sometime, the location of Al Qaeda's senior leadership.

Iran is the controlling force behind both Hezbollah and Al Qaeda. This is the basis for the assessment that Imad Fayez Mughniyeh (Hezbollah Commander) and Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi (Tawhid al-Jihad) have been coordinating their actions in Iraq.

What's the outlook for invasion? Do you think we'll go in to Iran anytime soon if at all? Personally, I think we need to wrap up the Iraq deal and take out Iran as soon as possible.

Brian

[Brian Baldwin]

Iran calls for Israel to be wiped off the map.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051026/...ea/iran_israel

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran’s hard-line president called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.

“There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called “The World without Zionism.”

“Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury, (while) any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad also repeated the words of the founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who called for the destruction of Israel.

“As the imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map,” said Ahmadinejad, who came to power in August and replaced Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who advocated international dialogue and tried to improve Iran’s relations with the West.

Ahmadinejad referred to Israel’s recent withdrawal from the Gaza Strip as a “trick,” saying Gaza was already a part of Palestinian lands and the pullout was designed to win acknowledgment of Israel by Islamic states.

“The fighting in Palestine is a war between the (whole) Islamic nation and the world of arrogance,” Ahmadinejad said, using Tehran’s propaganda epithet for the United States and Israel. “Today, Palestinians are representing the Islamic nation against arrogance.”

Clock is ticking.

Brian

[Ryan Ruck]

What's the outlook for invasion? Do you think we'll go in to Iran anytime soon if at all? Personally, I think we need to wrap up the Iraq deal and take out Iran as soon as possible.

Brian

You know, I would love nothing more than to be able to wipe these tin pot dictators off the face of the Earth.

The problem is I don't think we can!

Our military, while still top notch, has been emasculated compared to what it was under Reagan's "win on two fronts, hold on a third" doctrine. At one time we could have, with impunity, "taken care of business". Unfortunately, I don't believe that we have the ability to take such action any more. OIF itself has put a fairly moderate strain on our military capabilities. That compounded with the fact that there are few in our "leadership" that have the WILL to do what needs to be done.

And I believe that this can all be traced back to the machinations of the TAA. It is most commonly known as "death by a thousand cuts". We are forced to stamp out these "brush fires" that Russia and China covertly stir up (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, etc.) and each time we are strained further and further. Plus, we must contend with their puppeteering of liberals in positions of power (remember #15 of the 45 Stated Communist Goals - 15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States) who in turn cut our military, take away our 2^nd Amendment rights, and otherwise weaken us internally.

[Brian Baldwin]

You know, I would love nothing more than to be able to wipe these tin pot dictators off the face of the Earth.

The problem is I don't think we can!

Our military, while still top notch, has been emasculated compared to what it was under Reagan's "win on two fronts, hold on a third" doctrine. At one time we could have, with impunity, "taken care of business". Unfortunately, I don't believe that we have the ability to take such action any more. OIF itself has put a fairly moderate strain on our military capabilities. That compounded with the fact that there are few in our "leadership" that have the WILL to do what needs to be done.

And I believe that this can all be traced back to the machinations of the TAA. It is most commonly known as "death by a thousand cuts". We are forced to stamp out these "brush fires" that Russia and China covertly stir up (Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Syria, North Korea, etc.) and each time we are strained further and further. Plus, we must contend with their puppeteering of liberals in positions of power (remember #15 of the 45 Stated Communist Goals - 15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States) who in turn cut our military, take away our 2^nd Amendment rights, and otherwise weaken us internally.

I think with the proper desire, we can do it. First though, we need to get rid of the UN and then call in all the loans owed us. (by doing that we force other nations to suddenly realise the terrorist threat).

But honestly.... Somehow I think the US wants Iran armed nuclear and wants nukes in terroist hands. Best way to get into a war is to be attacked. Be attacked bad enough and patriotism can carry war efforts to new heights. Do I have proof of this? Not at all. Nor would I ever state this opinion of mine as more than an opinion. But I know the art of war... Even the dirty parts.

Brian

[Sean Osborne]

What's the outlook for invasion? Do you think we'll go in to Iran anytime soon if at all? Personally, I think we need to wrap up the Iraq deal and take out Iran as soon as possible.

I doubt there will be an "invasion" of Iran. The handwriting appears to be on the wall which is indicative of strategic strikes against the Islamic regime in Tehran.

Such strikes will disable the Iranian strategic nuclear capability as well as its long-range aviation strike force. Iran will be reduced to its ground power as its only force projection capability - which we and our allies can handle with ground and air siperiority forces currently deployed in the SWA AO.

This is what I believe will happen in due course, sooner rather than later.

There are enough opposition forces within country to topple the regime... unlike the experience in Iraq.

The bellicose words coming from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bespeak hostile intent at Israel, the UK, the US and the Europeans as a whole. The islamic moron is about to get his ass handed to him. Retribution for his role in the US Embassy hostage taking of the late 1970's will be swift and lethal. His braggadocio is exactly what it is... an islamofascist punk talking junk.

[Brian Baldwin]

Air strikes is how I would do it. We have the capability to destroy just about any nation from the air without setting foot on their ground. And with an extended air campaign we can if need be, soften up the ground troops so they would be ineffective should we need to invade.

The only other thing I see is if Iran actually has the gonads to invade Iraq immeadiately after we hit their nuke sites. We'll need to crush them against their own borders before they can spread out. That exposes our backs to Syria and "insurgent" Iraqi forces. Though I believe this is most unlikely since Arab nations have repeatedly shown theirselves to be more talk than action... But all plans look good on paper.

Brian

[Ryan Ruck]

Iran Launches Big Military Exercise

Tehran, Dec 9 - The armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Iran launched biggest ever maritime war-game in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman regions, commander of Iranian Navy, Rear Admiral Sajjad Kuchaki told IRIB Thursday.

The maneuver codenamed "Ashegane Velayat" covers more than 55,000 square kilometers ranging from the strategic Hormuz strait to the port city of Gouater in the southernmost part of the country, he added.

All branches of the military and the Revolutionary Guards including air, land and navy forces as well as Basij voluntary members are participating in the war-game.

The maneuver, he noted, is aimed at sending a message of peace and friendship to the regional countries, adding Iran is ready to work with its neighbors to prevent crisis in the region.

[Sean Osborne]

From the A.Net "World At War" forum

quote:

---

Originally posted by ExpandedMInd:

Al Qaeda leadership in Iran, and Iran going nuclear. Sounds like it's time for action.

How do we take care of this situation?

---

I'm glad you asked the question: "How do we take care of this situation?"


There are two answers:

Answer A. If left soley to the United States Department of State to handle - we will do absolutely nothing until after an American city is nuked.

Answer B. If left to the American, Israeli and other allied governments military leadership who act in concert and resolve and authorize joint pre-emptive strikes on Iran -we will see action within 90 days time, very probably sooner.

Now remember three things in assessing this for yourselves:

1. The US president has unequivocally said that Iran will not be allowed possess a nuclear weapon.

2. The intelligence services of the key allies all agree the window to prevent Iran from gaining nuclear weapons capability is now 90 days or less.

3. Israel does not have the military capability to successfully carry out such a strike on its own.

What do you think will happen, A or B?

[Sean Osborne]

War between the West and the Islamic Republic of Iran is drawing ever closer...

Sweden - of all nations - has severed diplomatic relations with Iran. A host of European nations, led by Germany have called the Iranian ambassor to their nations on the carpet. They will likely follow suit.

Iran has biten off more than it can chew.

Iran's immaturity with nuclear weapons power has caused it to talk and walk like a bigger kid on the block than they are.

The Russian's have hooks in their jaws. Soon the Turks will as well.

[Sean Osborne]

Re: My post above...

http://www.champress.net/english/ind...ow_det&id=1574

Goss warns Ankara to be ready for a possible U.S. aerial operation against Iran and Syria

WASHINGTON, The heads of both the Central Intelligence Agency and the
Federal Bureau of Investigation have recently visited Turkey, leading to
intense speculation in the Turkish media about the topics discussed with
Turkish officials.

On Monday CIA Director Porter Goss met with Milli Istihbarat Teskilati, or
MIT, intelligence service officials for four-and-a-half hours in Ankara.
Goss reportedly brought three dossiers on Iran with him. Accompanied by a
large delegation Goss met with MIT Undersecretary Emre Taner and General
Staff Intelligence Director Lt. Gen. Arslan Guner. Goss also visited Turkish
Security Director General Gokhan Aydiner and Security Intelligence Director
Sabri Uzun.

Topics discussed at the meetings included the fight against the Kurdish
Worker's Party, or PKK in northern Iraq, al-Qaida and possibilities for
exchanging intelligence on Iraqi insurgents. Cumhuriyet reported that Goss
allegedly asked for Turkish support for the Bush administration's policies
on Iran's nuclear activities, telling Turkish officials that Iran has
nuclear weapons, a situation that created a huge threat to Turkey and other
countries in the region.

Goss said that Iran sees Turkey as an enemy and will "export its regime,"
warning Ankara to be ready for a possible U.S. aerial operation against Iran
and Syria.

On Tuesday Goss was driven in his armored BMW escorted by vehicles equipped
with electronic jamming equipment to a meeting with Prime Minister Recep
Tayyip Erdogan.

Turkish officials reportedly told Goss of three topics of concern. First,
that European tolerance for terrorist groups linked to Turkey must be
stopped. The officials also requested that the United States pressure
Belgium to extradite Fehriye Erdal, suspected of the 1996 assassination of
Ozdemir Sabanci and two colleagues. The final Turkish request was U.S.
assistance in halting broadcasts of the Kurdish Roj TV station from Europe.

UPI

[Brian Baldwin]

Sifting through the above I come to the conclusions set therein that America intends to attack Iran and possibly Syria, while seeking backing of Turkey to do so. In return there are "favors" Turkey would like. The first two I can see being done but the last favor would seriously dampen the Iraqi democracy program. Perhaps we can sway them on the first two and a potential "aid" package to get this done?

Turkey was always a decent enough ally in the middle east until recently. The kurds have created a rift between the two nations without intending to do so. Anyone have a creative solution? Because I can see these attacks taking place by late spring/early summer.

A prolonged air campaign until winter would allow us to move troops in there if need be. We don't want to fight in Iran's Deserts during the summer months if it can be avoided. We'd face a better military in Iran than we did in Iraq but the results would be the same. And with the first F-22's fully online it makes me feel this is inevitable at this juncture. I wonder if Iran realises it has signed its own death warrant?

Brian

[Sean Osborne]

Here's a piece from the other side's viewpoint. Interesting read nonetheless.




Global Eye
Persian Fire
By Chris Floyd
Published: December 16, 2005
So now we know: Next time the fire will come in Iran. The blow will be delivered by proxy, but that will not spare the true perpetrator from the firestorm of blowback and unintended consequences that will follow. Even now, the gruesome deaths of many innocent people in many lands are growing in futurity's womb.

The Rubicon of the new war was crossed on Oct. 27. Oddly enough for this renewal of the ancient enmity between the heirs of Athens and Persia, the decisive event occurred on the edge of the Arctic Circle, at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome, where a Russian rocket lifted an Iranian spy satellite, the Sinah-1, into orbit. This launch, scarcely noticed at the time, has accelerated the inevitable strike on Iran's nuclear facilities: Israel is now readying an attack for no later than the end of March, The Sunday Times reports.

The order, from embattled Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, puts Israel's special forces at the "highest stage of readiness" for the strike. While Iran's plan to begin enriching uranium -- which will give it the capability of building a nuclear bomb -- is the precipitating factor, the budding Iranian space program is a "point of no return" for Sharon, and that is what is driving the actual timing of the strike. The Sinah-1 is just the first of several Iranian satellites set for Russian launches in the coming months.

Thus the Iranians will soon have a satellite network in place to give them early warning of an Israeli attack, although it will still be a pale echo of the far more powerful Israeli and American space spies that can track the slightest movement of a Tehran mullah's beard. What's more, late last month Russia signed a $1 billion contract to sell Iran an advanced defense system that can destroy guided missiles and laser-guided bombs, the Sunday Times reports. This too will be ready in the next few months.

There is of course another "precipitating factor": the Israeli elections on Mar. 28. Sharon, who has left the Likud Party to form his own cult-of-personality party, faces a fractious electorate, with his former comrades guaranteeing an attack on Iran's nuclear sites if Sharon is too "weak" to do it before the vote. He may well decide to rally the nation -- and stave off this lunge from the right -- with a blow against Tehran. Such a move would doubtless be popular at home; everyone agrees that Iran cannot be allowed to have the kind of nuclear weapons that Israel itself possesses in such bristling abundance.

The move will be popular in Washington as well. Only a fool would believe that the fools in the Bush Regime have abandoned their bloody-minded ambitions for "full-spectrum dominance" in the Middle East, just because Iraq has turned to goo in their hands. To these schemers, Iraq has always been merely a stepping-stone toward the "far enemy," Iran. Indeed, they used Saddam himself for years as a useful stick to bash the Iranians, until he stepped out of line with his attack on the Bush family's longtime business partners, the Kuwaiti royals. Murder, torture and military aggression are always welcome in the service of Washington's power elites, but defiance is not allowed.

Saddam's defiance lasted only a few months before he was broken in the first Gulf War, but Iran has thumbed its nose at Washington for 25 years. To the Potomac power-junkies, Iran has never been properly punished for dumping their puppet, the Shah, and seizing the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. (The 600,000 Iranians killed by Saddam's U.S.-backed armies don't count in this brutal calculus; the Tehran regime still stands, unrepentant.) Yes, these things matter to those who seek to mask their inadequacies and magnify their importance by identifying their own psyches with some mass, abstract entity -- the nation, the volk, the ummah, the tribe, etc. Like Osama, still smarting from the Crusades, the Bushists are equally willing to kill innocent people to assuage the psychic pain of past "humiliations."

But while this endemic lunacy of our human kind plays its part, the real bottom line for the Bushists is, well, the bottom line. Iran itself is but a stepping-stone to the ultimate goal: putting U.S.-controlled hands on the spigots of Middle Eastern and Central Asian oil, thus providing a brake to control the political rise of China and India, and ensuring a "new American century" of unchallenged profit and privilege. For the elite, of course; as always, the suckers back home will get stuck with the bills and the body bags from these geopolitical games.

A nuclear-armed Iran would lie athwart this golden road to glory like a mighty Persian rampart, so the scaffolding must be swept aside soon, before the walls are complete. The Bush regime has already begun a "low-intensity" covert war against Iran, using the Mujahadeen el-Khalq terrorist group to map potential targets and carry out bombings, Common Dreams reports. MEK is a bizarre Iranian militarist cult that once murdered American officials, then allied with Saddam in the 1980-1988 Iran-Iraq War. Afterwards, they remained in Saddam's employ, acting as brutal enforcers in his crackdowns on Shiites and Kurds; the cruelty of their tortures was legendary. Yet Bush has eagerly taken these Saddamite terrorists into his service, Newsweek reports.

With hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -- yet another made-to-order goon ripe for demonizing -- as frontman for an odious regime, Bush and Sharon will have little trouble whipping up war fever for the attack. In the next few months, we'll see the usual charade of "diplomacy" as military plans are finalized. But the fire is coming; the future is already groaning with death.

http://context.themoscowtimes.com/st...12/16/120.html

[Ryan Ruck]

Iranian Rockets Will Soon Be Able to Reach Berlin

Bild Zeitung quotes BND (German Intelligence) sources saying Iran has purchased 18 kits (BM-25 Mobile missiles) from North Korea. The kits could help extend the range of its Russian SS-N-6 missiles to 3500 km, the distance between Teheran and Berlin. Previously it was only known that Iran had Shehab-3 missiles with a range of 1300 km. The BND warns that Germany and other parts of Europe could be threatened mid to long term by Iran's new first strike capabilities.

The BND has intelligence indicating Iranian scientists are working intensively to attach nuclear warheads to its missiles. Near Täbriz, 600 km North of Teheran, the BND has located a test-pad for silo based missiles.

The BND also warned that China had shipped aluminum rings to Iran which could be used to build multi-stage rockets with a range of 10,000 km and which could reach the United States.

[Brian Baldwin]

Reaching our nation and defeating our nation are two different things. All this shows me is that Iran is racing towards its own destruction. I have few doubts that within the next year we'll begin a bombing campaign inside of Iran and this time we'll destroy them before our ground troops even go over their borders.

Brian

[Backstop]

Well Brian, looks like Iran is racing in the lead position.

Heck of a way to start the new year.

And...how accomodating the Russians are in offering to monitor Iran's reactors on Russian soil...sheesh.

CanadaPress

Iran threatens 'crushing' response to U.S. or Israeli attack

17:09:35 EST Jan 1, 2006

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran warned Sunday of a "crushing" response if its nuclear and military facilities are attacked by the United States or Israel.

Top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said, however, talk of such an attack most likely is "psychological warfare."

"Iran has prepared itself...they will get a crushing response if they make such a mistake," Larijani said on Iranian television late Sunday.

Larijani said Israel would "suffer greatly" if it launched an attack.

"If there is any truth in such talks, Israel will suffer greatly. It's a very small country within our range."

"Our (defence) preparedness is a deterrence," he said.

He also said a Russian proposal the two countries enrich uranium on Russian territory could not ignore Iran's right to carry out enrichment at home.

"It's not logical for a country to put the fate of its nation at the disposal of another country, even if it's a friend. You can meet part of your fuel needs from abroad."

"But is there a guarantee that nuclear fuel producers won't play with you over price or other things? History and experience show that if you don't have technology, you will damage your independence," he said.

Larijani's remarks coincided with Tehran's announcement it had produced equipment for separating uranium from its ore, a fresh development in Tehran's drive to control the whole nuclear fuel cycle - from mining uranium to enriching it for use in atomic reactors.

European news media have indicated in recent days the United States is preparing its allies for a strike against Iran's nuclear and military facilities with the aim of curtailing Iran's nuclear program.

Reports of a strike escalated after comments by Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who called Israel a "disgraceful blot" that should be "wiped off the map" and his call to relocate Israel to Europe or North America.

Recent visits to Turkey by CIA Director Porter Goss, head of the FBI, NATO General Secretary Jaap De Hoop Scheffer and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice have increased speculation about a possible military strike against Iran. NATO member Turkey is Iran's northwestern neighbour.

President George W. Bush has said his administration would not exclude the possibility of using military force against Iran over its nuclear program, which the United States believes is aimed at producing weapons.

Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Seymour Hersh reported in the New Yorker magazine in Janurary last year the Bush administration had been "conducting secret reconnaissance missions inside Iran" to gather intelligence and targeting information. U.S. Defence Department officials said the article was filled with mistakes but did not deny its basic point.

Israel fears Iran is reaching a point of no return in nuclear technology.

Iran has openly said it has already achieved proficiency in cycle of nuclear fuel, a technology that can be used to produce fuel for reactors to generate electricity or materials for a bomb.

The United States and European Union have backed a Russian proposal to move Iran's uranium-enrichment program to Russian territory. The proposal aims to ensure Iran cannot use uranium enrichment to build nuclear weapons. Enrichment is a key process that can produce either fuel for a nuclear reactor or the material for a warhead.

Larijani said Iran needs talks with Moscow to clarify what he described as "ambiguities" but said the proposal can't deny Iran uranium enrichment at home.

"The proposal is too general. If it talks about denying Iran of its rights, no. We have no right to do it," he said.

"But we have to study it and see if Iran's interests can be met. It can be a complimentary."

"There is no reason to reject it before discussions and accurate study," he said.

Larijani is secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, Iran's top security decision-making body that handles Iran's nuclear talks.

He said the Russian proposal will have nothing to do with nuclear talks among Iran and Britain, France and Germany. The talks last month made little progress and are to continue later this month.

[Sean Osborne]

In total... the Iranian response verbalized by their nuke negotiator Ali Larijani is more or less corroboration that they already possess nuclear weapons and the system of delivery to strike targets in Israel or US operations centers in the CENTCOM AO. I've been saying this since March 2005.