Iran the Next Battlefield - Thread Renamed

[Sean Osborne]

Sanctions schmanctions. The games afoot and now we have a full blown nuclear showdown and crisis which will reach critical mass in just 3 months time (March 2007).




http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Printable.asp?ID=26150

Showdown

By Kenneth R. Timmerman

FrontPageMagazine.com | December 27, 2006

The nuclear crisis boiling away under the surface for the past three years with Iran has finally erupted.
Over the next three to six months, expect things to get much worse, with a very real possibility of a war that could spread far beyond the confines of the Persian Gulf.

How we got here was entirely predictable – and avoidable. So is the path to a violent future.

We got to this point because the White House essentially caved in to intense pressure from the CIA and the foreign policy establishment, and refused to do the one thing that could have headed off this crisis: that is, to support the rights of the Iranian people and their struggle for freedom against this clerical tyranny. And now, it is almost – almost – too late.


The immediate trigger for the crisis occurred on Saturday, just two days before Christmas, when the UN Security Council finally quit dithering and passed a binding resolution to impose sanctions on Iran because of its illegal nuclear program.


While far from perfect (remember: this is the UN), UNSC Resolution 1737 bans nuclear and missile-related trade with Iran, and includes a short list of Iranian government entities and individuals whose assets could be subject to seizure and who could be banned from international travel.


(The United States had wanted both to be mandatory measures in this resolution, but gave in to a Russian demand to again give Iran more leash).


The UN Security Council passed a similar, binding resolution on July 31 giving Iran one month to suspend its nuclear programs in a verifiable manner, or else…It’s taken all this time since that the earlier deadline expired for China and Russia to exhaust their formidable bag of diplomatic tricks. Now even they have come to acknowledge the obvious, that Iran is using the IAEA as a foil for acquiring all the technologies it needs to make the bomb.


Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad responded typically to the news from Turtle Bay in New York. “This resolution will not harm Iran and those who backed it will soon regret their superficial act,” he said on Christmas Eve.


“Iranians are neither worried nor uncomfortable with the resolution...we will celebrate our atomic achievements in February,” he added.


In earlier statements, he has claimed Iran would have a big nuclear “surprise” to unveil to the world by the end of the Persian year, which ends on March 20. So unless he is just blowing smoke (and I will explain shortly why I don’t believe that he is), then we will be facing very bleak choices in very short order.


Remember, just a few weeks ago, Ahmadinejad announced to the world that Iran had completed its uranium enrichment experiments and was now preparing to install 3,000 production centrifuges at its now-declared enrichment plant in Natanz, in central Iran.


His announcement fell exactly within the timeline that Israeli nuclear experts have derived from Iran’s public declarations to the IAEA, and the on-site inspections by IAEA experts in Iran.


As I wrote after interviews in Israel this past June, the Israelis projected that Iran would complete work on two 164-centrifuge experimental enrichment cascades within six months, and that installation of the 3,000 centrifuge pilot plant would take another nine months. >From then, it would take Iran twelve months more to make its first bomb’s-worth of nuclear fuel.


So far, Iran is right on schedule. This will give it nuclear weapons capability by September 2008 – just in time for the U.S. presidential elections. (And remember: this timeline is not speculative. It is based on information, not intelligence.)


Once the UN Security Council resolution was passed, Ahmadinejad’s top nuclear advisor, Ali Larijani, said the regime now planned to accelerate the installation of the production centrifuges.

“From Sunday morning [December 24] , we will begin activities at Natanz – the site of 3,000-centrifuge machines – and we will drive it with full speed. It will be our immediate response to the resolution,” Iran’s Kayhan paper quoted him as saying.


How is this possible? Well, for one thing, it is likely that Iran has been producing centrifuges in factories and workshops it has not declared to the IAEA. Worse, it may be operating a clandestine enrichment facility buried deep underground already, as many in Israel and U.S. intelligence have long believed.

The Israelis told me this summer this was their “worst-worst case” scenario. But a senior Israeli intelligence official I saw recently said the likelihood of that “worst-worst case” now appeared to be far greater than he or others had previously believed. “There can be no doubt they have a clandestine program,” he said.


And because it’s clandestine, we don’t know the size or shape of it, and therefore can’t make estimates of Iran’s nuclear timeline based on speculation and fear. But now the Israelis, the Americans and the British are beginning to understand – finally – that what they don’t know about Iran could be fatal.

After all, they are facing a president in Iran who has said that the Holocaust never really occurred under Hitler, but that he intended to carry it out himself, by accomplishing Ayatollah Khomeini’s goal of “wiping Israel off the map.”


On December 21 – just two days before the UN Security Council resolution – British Prime Minister Tony Blair gave the bleakest assessment of his entire tenure at 10 Downing Street of the threat posed to the West by the Islamic Republic of Iran.


Speaking in Dubai, he gave an unusually blunt speech that warned of a monumental struggle between Islamic moderates and Islamic extremists, and that labeled Iran as “the main obstacle” to hopes for peace.


For the first time, a key world leader actually uttered parts of the laundry list of Iranian regime misdeeds that people like myself and Michael Ledeen and Iranian dissidents such as Rouzbeh Farahanipour and Reza Pahlavi have been warning about for years.


Blair said there were "elements of the government of Iran, openly supporting terrorism in Iraq to stop a fledgling democratic process; trying to turn out a democratic government in Lebanon; floutting the international community's desire for peace in Palestine - at the same time as denying the Holocaust and trying to acquire nuclear weapons capability.”


Blair expressed surprise that despite these overt deeds, “a large part of world opinion is frankly almost indifferent. It would be bizarre if it weren't deadly serious.”


"We must recognize the strategic challenge the government of Iran poses," Blair added. "Not its people, possibly not all its ruling elements, but those presently in charge of its policy."

While all of this is developing, the United States and Britain have begun a quiet buildup of their naval forces in the Persian Gulf, with the goal of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open to international shipping.

The spark point of open military confrontation could occur in many different ways.

The Iranians, for example, might choose to get directly involved should the U.S. military aid the Iraqi government in a crackdown on the Iranian-backed Mahdi Army and the Badr brigade, two Shiite militias fueling the sectarian violence in Iraq. (A clear sign that Iran is contemplating just such a move was revealed on Christmas day, when the U.S. Acknowledged it was holding four Iranians captured during a raid on the Headquarters of Abdulaziz al-Hakim in Baghdad just three weeks after he met with President Bush in the Oval Office).


Should Iran send troops, or escalate its current level of military involvement in Iraq, the U.S. might choose to take the war into Iran, say by attacking Revolutionary Guards bases near the Iraqi border that were involved in aiding the Iraqi Shi'ite militias.


Should the United States bomb a Rev. Guards base here or there, the Iranians might choose to respond by launching “swarming” attacks against U.S. warships in the Persian gulf, or by attacking a foreign-flagged oil tanker carrying Iraqi or Kuwaiti oil, or by increasing rocket and missile supplies to Hezbollah in Lebanon to spark another diversionary war against Israel.


There are scores of ways this could happen. But where it gets us is to a direct military confrontation with Iran – an Iran which could be a nuclear power, and certainly will be a suspected nuclear power, in a matter of months, if not weeks.


And there is no easy way of walking this back. Even the insane Baker-Hamilton proposal of a direct dialogue with Iran will not get them to abandon their nuclear program, which this regime in Tehran has clearly identified as a strategic asset it is willing to make great sacrifices to develop and protect.

So fasten your seat belts. We are in for a rough ride.

[American Patriot]

Iran lays down a challenge to Arab leaders
ft ^ | January 1 2007 | Roula Khalaf, Middle East Edito




On a recent trip to Bahrain, a self-assured Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran’s foreign minister, professed to have the answer to the Gulf’s troubles.
Speaking to a largely Arab and western audience, he suggested Gulf stability was best achieved by removing American forces, well entrenched across the region, and setting up, with Tehran, a regional security alliance.
The call for more self-reliance in the Gulf has some appeal among ordinary Arabs, resentful of the US and frustrated by their own governments’ over-dependence on American security.


But official circles, in both the Gulf and the US, see his suggestions as a reflection of Iran’s suspected ambition for regional superpower status.

(Excerpt) Read more at ft.com ...

[American Patriot]

Iran vows to 'humiliate' U.S.

POSTED: 9:22 a.m. EST, January 2, 2007

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/....ap/index.html


TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scorned U.N Security Council sanctions imposed against Iran, telling a crowd Tuesday that Iran had humiliated the United States in the past and would do so again.


Speaking in the southwestern provincial capital of Ahvaz, Ahmadinejad said the Security Council's resolution last month was invalid and had left the world body's reputation in tatters.


The council voted unanimously to bar all countries from selling materials and technology to Iran that could contribute to its nuclear and missile programs. It also froze the assets of 10 Iranian companies and 12 individuals related to those programs.


"Let the world know that from the Iranian nation's point of view, this resolution has no validity," Ahmadinejad said.


He said the United States was the main power behind the resolution, and warned Washington: "I want you to know that the Iranian nation has humiliated you many times, and it will humiliate you in future."


The U.S. has led the drive to stop Iran from enriching uranium -- a process that produces the material for either nuclear reactors or bombs. Iran denies that it seeks to build atomic weapons, saying its nuclear program is limited to the generation of electricity.


Ahmadinejad said the sanctions were not important but were part of a campaign of psychological warfare against Iran that was designed to provoke dissent within the country.


Recalling the West's support for Iraq, then ruled by Saddam Hussein, during its eight-year war with Iran in the 1980s, he said: "If all the powers that supported Saddam in his war against Iran were to regroup and confront Iran again, Iranians would deliver a historic slap in their face."


Ahmadinejad said Iran had done everything it could to prove that its nuclear program is peaceful, but the West -- in the name of opposing nuclear weapons -- was trying to thwart Iran's development.


"We have tried all legal, wise and logical ways to convince these corrupt and selfish powers," he said.


While Ahmadinejad has repeatedly attacked the Security Council resolution, he has avoided any public comment on the results of Dec. 15 municipal elections, in which his political allies were heavily defeated.


The polls were seen as an electoral test of Ahmadinejad's presidency, and the success of his opponents suggested that voters want him to pay more attention to domestic issues rather than foreign policy.


Some people in the crowd in Ahvaz on Tuesday tried to remind the president of the need to address domestic problems. State television showed a placard carried by one spectator that read: "Inflation, unemployment, insecurity, drug addiction have desiccated the tree of the revolution."


Inflation is officially at 12 percent but thought to be much higher, and an estimated 3 million people are unemployed.


Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

[American Patriot]

Nuke his ass out of existence.. while we have the chance.

[American Patriot]

Covert US group plots to isolate 'rising' Iran (guess that secret's out)
theage.com ^ | JAn. 2, 2006



Covert US group plots to isolate 'rising' Iran
Farah Stockman, Washington


January 3, 2007
A SELECT group of US officials has been quietly co-ordinating actions for nearly a year to counter the threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, including increasing the military capabilities of Arab allies such as Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.


The group, known as the Iran Syria Policy and Operations Group, is also giving covert help to Iranian dissidents and building international outrage towards Iran by publicising its alleged role in a 1994 terrorist attack in Argentina.


Pentagon officials involved with the group intend to ask Congress as early as next month to increase funding for transfers of military hardware to allies in the Persian Gulf and to accelerate plans for joint military activities. The request is expected to include more advanced missile-defence systems and early-warning radar to prevent or detect Iranian missile strikes.


"There is the perception in the Gulf that Iran is really on the rise," said Emile El-Hokayem, research fellow at the Stimpson Centre, a Washington think tank. "Washington wants to prepare for a potential showdown."


US financing of pro-democracy activities in Iran is expected to double next year, according to the senior State Department official. Last year, $US85 million ($A107 million) was allocated.


The group's workings have been so secretive that several officials in the State Department's Near Eastern Affairs Bureau said they were unaware it existed.


The US has repeatedly said its policy is not to overthrow the Iranian regime, but one former US official who attended a preliminary meeting of the group said he got the impression that regime change was a goal of many participants.


But interviews with half a dozen White House, Pentagon and State Department officials indicated that the group's aims are more modest. Several said that as much as they would like to see the regimes in Tehran and Damascus go, military action in Iraq and Afghanistan had limited their options. The main goal now, they said, was Cold War-style "containment" of Iran in the hopes that Iranians one day would opt to change their own government.


The group's work to isolate Tehran is consistent with the Administration's refusal to reach out diplomatically to Iran and Syria.


"Iran is the key to everything at the strategic level — the biggest problem we have faced in a long time," said a State Department official involved in the group, citing Iran's negative impact on Lebanon, Iraq, Afghanistan, Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.


"These are all things they are doing because they sense weakness on the part of the United States. The best thing for us to project is strength, not 'please talk to us'."


The group is modelled on the Iraq Policy and Operations Group, set up in 2004 to shepherd information and co-ordinate US action in Iraq.
It has raised eyebrows in the State Department for hiring BearingPoint — the same Washington-based private contracting firm used by the Iraq group — to handle its administrative work.


But State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said BearingPoint was hired for its experience and good work on Iraq.


The group is led by a steering committee with two leading hawks on Middle East policy as chairmen: James Jeffrey, who once headed Iraq policy, and Elliott Abrams, deputy national security adviser for "global democracy strategy".

[American Patriot]

Iran's Secret Plan For Mayhem

By ELI LAKE
Staff Reporter of the Sun
http://www.nysun.com/article/46032
January 3, 2007

WASHINGTON — Iran is supporting both Sunni and Shiite terrorists in the Iraqi civil war, according to secret Iranian documents captured by Americans in Iraq.

The news that American forces had captured Iranians in Iraq was widely reported last month, but less well known is that the Iranians were carrying documents that offered Americans insight into Iranian activities in Iraq.

An American intelligence official said the new material, which has been authenticated within the intelligence community, confirms "that Iran is working closely with both the Shiite militias and Sunni Jihadist groups." The source was careful to stress that the Iranian plans do not extend to cooperation with Baathist groups fighting the government in Baghdad, and said the documents rather show how the Quds Force — the arm of Iran's revolutionary guard that supports Shiite Hezbollah, Sunni Hamas, and Shiite death squads — is working with individuals affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq and Ansar al-Sunna.

Another American official who has seen the summaries of the reporting affiliated with the arrests said it comprised a "smoking gun." "We found plans for attacks, phone numbers affiliated with Sunni bad guys, a lot of things that filled in the blanks on what these guys are up to," the official said.

One of the documents captured in the raids, according to two American officials and one Iraqi official, is an assessment of the Iraq civil war and new strategy from the Quds Force. According to the Iraqi source, that assessment is the equivalent of " Iran's Iraq Study Group," a reference to the bipartisan American commission that released war strategy recommendations after the November 7 elections. The document concludes, according to these sources, that Iraq's Sunni neighbors will step up their efforts to aid insurgent groups and that it is imperative for Iran to redouble efforts to retain influence with them, as well as with Shiite militias.

Rough translations of the Iranian assessment and strategy, as well as a summary of the intelligence haul, have been widely distributed throughout the policy community and are likely to influence the Iraq speech President Bush is expected to deliver in the coming days regarding the way forward for the war, according to two Bush administration officials.

The news that Iran's elite Quds Force would be in contact, and clandestinely cooperating, with Sunni Jihadists who attacked the Golden Mosque in Samarra (one of the holiest shrines in Shiism) on February 22, could shake the alliance Iraq's ruling Shiites have forged in recent years with Tehran. Many Iraq analysts believe the bombing vaulted Iraq into the current stage of its civil war.

The top Quds Force commander — known as Chizari, according to a December 30 story in the Washington Post — was captured inside a compound belonging to Abdul Aziz Hakim, the Shiite leader President Bush last month pressed to help forge a new ruling coalition that excludes a firebrand Shiite cleric, Moqtada al-Sadr.

According to one Iraqi official, the two Quds commanders were in Iraq at the behest of the Iraqi government, which had requested more senior Iranian points of contact when the government complained about Shiite death squad activity. The negotiations were part of an Iraqi effort to establish new rules of the road between Baghdad and Tehran. This arrangement was ironed out by Iraq's president, Jalal Talabani, when he was in Tehran at the end of November.

While Iran has openly supported Iraqi Shiite militias involved in attacks on American soldiers, the Quds Force connection to Sunni insurgents has been murkier.

In 2003, coalition forces captured a playbook outlining Iranian intentions to support insurgents of both stripes, but its authenticity was disputed.

American intelligence reports have suggested that export/import operations run by Sunni terrorists in Fallujah in 2004 received goods from the revolutionary guard.

"We have seen bits and piece of things before, but it was highly compartmentalized suggesting the Iranian link to Sunni groups," a military official said.

A former Iran analyst for the Pentagon who also worked as an adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority, Michael Rubin, said yesterday: "There has been lots of information suggesting that Iran has not limited its outreach just to the Shiites, but this has been disputed."

He added, "When documents like this are found, usually intelligence officials may confirm their authenticity but argue they prove nothing because they do not reflect a decision to operationalize things."

A former State Department senior analyst on Iraq and Iran who left government service in 2005, Wayne White, said he did not think it was likely the Quds Force was supporting Sunni terrorists who were targeting Shiite political leaders and civilians, but stressed he did not know.

"I have no doubt whatsoever that al-Quds forces are on the ground and active in Iraq," he said. "That's about it. I saw evidence that Moqtada al Sadr was in contact with Sunni Arab insurgents in western Iraq, but I never saw evidence of Iran in that loop."

Mr. White added, "One problem that we all have is that people consistently conduct analysis assuming that the actor is going to act predictably or rationally based on their overall mindset or ideology. Sometimes people don't.

"One example of a mindset that may hinder analysis of Iranian involvement is the belief that Iran would never have any dealings with militant Sunni Arabs. But they allowed hundreds of Al Qaeda operatives to escape from Afghanistan across their territory in 2002," he said.

[American Patriot]

Iran warns West of 'historic slap' if they launch military action
IMRA/Agence France-Presse ^ | 1-3-07

Iran warns West of 'historic slap' over nuclear drive Agence France-Presse - 03 January, 2007 www.gulfinthemedia.com/index.php?id=274217&news_type=Top〈=en President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has kept up his defiance over Iran's nuclear programme, saying Tehran would deal an "historic slap" to Western nations if they launched military action.

Ahmadinejad also vowed that Iran would press ahead with its atomic drive despite the UN Security Council's decision to impose its first ever sanctions against the Islamic republic.

"Even if all powers who stood behind Saddam Hussein during the sacred defence war are resurrected again against Iran, the Iranian nation will give them an historic slap in the face," Ahmadinejad said in a speech broadcast live on state television Tuesday.

The president was addressing thousands gathered in Ahvaz, the capital of the western Khuzestan province which Saddam Hussein invaded in 1980 and sparked a devastating eight year war with the Islamic republic.

"The Iranian nation stands by its nuclear rights and will do its best to defend them," said Ahmadinejad.

The president shrugged off a resolution passed last month by the UN Security Council imposing sanctions over the Iranian nuclear programme, saying it was illegal and in any case would not hurt the Islamic republic.

"The resolution lacks validity and is completely political and unlawful," he told the cheering audience.

"It is a political resolution adopted under pressure from the United States and Britain, although the content of the resolution is not very significant.

"It was adopted with two objectives. Firstly, to create psychological war and propaganda against Iran and also to give an opportunity to scare some people inside the country under the pretext of a hollow resolution."

Western powers want Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, a process that they fear could be used to make nuclear weapons. Iran insists its atomic programme is entirely peaceful and it has every right to the nuclear fuel cycle.

"The Iranian nation seeks the complete exploitation of nuclear energy as its undeniable right," Ahmadinejad said.

"The nuclear issue is even more important to us than the nationalisation of oil that they (the West) opposed," he said, referring to the nationalisation of Iran's oil resources by the Iranian government in the 1950s.

Ahmadinejad did not reveal how he would respond to a bill passed by parliament that obliges the government to revise its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog in retaliation to the resolution.

But his government spokesman said Tehran was keeping open the option of quitting the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) if Western countries step up pressure on the Islamic republic over its atomic programme.

"If we are put under pressure and deprived of our rights we can use our capacity to decide whether to stay within the treaty or to quit it, Gholam Hossein Elham told reporters.

Elham said the government would decide how to revise its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog based on the attitude taken by the international community over the Iranian nuclear programme.

"We want to move within the framework of the treaties that we have accepted in a transparent way but being part of a treaty is a neutral thing based on duties and rights."

An Israeli newspaper, meanwhile, reported that Israel was on Tuesday to test an underground installation in the Negev desert designed to monitor any attempt by Iran, its arch-foe, to test nuclear devices.

The daily Yediot Aharonot reported that the test will consist of three strong explosions Israel will deliberately set off in the northern Negev using 15 tonnes of liquid explosives, to see how they register on equipment at the underground site.

The facility is equipped with seismographs and other equipment able to detect earth tremors and transmits the data directly to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna, the paper said.

[American Patriot]

In respect of Rep. Ellisons use of a Koran from Jefferson’s research collection for his swearing in."The Ambassador [to England from Tripoli] answered us that it was founded on the Laws of their Prophet, that it was written in their Koran, that all nations who should not have acknowledged their authority were sinners, that it was their right and duty to make war upon them wherever they could be found and to make slaves of all they could take as Prisoners."

Thomas Jefferson and John Adams in their report to Congress
You can't back down, you can't chicken out, you can't be afraid, you got to have faith in Allah, and you got to stand up and be a real Muslim
Keith Ellison

[American Patriot]

Russian Air Defense Sales to Iran, Syria Continue on Schedule
DefenceTalk.com ^



Controversial Russian contracts to sell anti-aircraft weapons to Syria and Iran are being fulfilled on schedule, Russian news agencies cited defense and industry officials as saying Jan. 2.


(Excerpt) Read more at defencetalk.com ...

[American Patriot]

Iran's Supreme Mullah Leader Will Be Dead Soon
Iranian.ws ^ | Jan 2, 2007

Posted on 01/02/2007 8:12:45 PM MST by nuconvert

Iran's Supreme Mullah Leader Will Be Dead Soon

Jan 2, 2007

Iran's Supreme Mullah Leader, Ali Khamenei is seriously ill and will have to be replaced in the coming months as he is no longer capable of holding office, according to Assembly of Experts member mullah Nasseri. The powerful mullah body appoints and oversees the country's supreme leader. "Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei is gravely ill - he can no longer see very well, has difficulty hearing, and is no longer able to properly perform his duties," Nasseri told a women's group.

Iranians have speculated for sometime about Khamenei's health. But talk of the 67 year-old Khamenei's health is taboo and officials have denied he is seriously ill, although United States sources had previously said Khamenei had cancer. He is widely regarded as the figurehead of mullahs' regime. The survivor of an assassination attempt, his supporters call him a "living martyr", and Iranians call him "cholaaq ali gedaa".

The country's supreme leader since 1989, Khamenei succeeded the founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran, infamous mullah Khomeini, as president in 1981 and served two terms. His death or removal from office by the Assembly of Experts will trigger a power struggle within mullahs' regime, according to observers.

The names of three possible successors to Khamenei are currently on the lips of Iranians: Khamenei's son, Mojtaba; Iran's former reformist president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani; and Gholam Ali Mesbah Yazdi, the ultra-conservative ayatollah who is considered the spiritual father of Iran's current hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. All mullahs.

[American Patriot]

Think tank: Israel could attack Iran's nuclear program alone
haaretz ^ | 02/01/2007 | By Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondent and The Associated Press

Posted on 01/02/2007 4:42:07 PM MST by Flavius

The Institute for National Strategic Studies at Tel Aviv University said in its annual report, released Tuesday, that Iran will possess nuclear weapons unless military action is taken against it, and Israel would be capable of carrying out such an attack
"Time is working in Iran's favor, and barring military action, Iran's possession of nuclear weapons is only a matter of time," the institute said in a statement distributed at a news conference where it released its annual assessment of the Middle East's strategic balance.

(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...

[American Patriot]

Iran vows to give West countries "historic slap" if attacked
peoples daily online ^ | January 03, 2007 | na


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned on Tuesday that the Western countries would face a "historic slap" in the face if they confront the Islamic Republic over the disputed nuclear issue.

"The Iranian nation will deliver a historic slap in the world powers' face if they resurrected again against Iran after supporting Saddam Hussein during his war with Iran," the president told a large crowd in Ahvaz, provincial capital of Khuzestan in the southwest.

Ahmadinejad said the West only used the pretext of opposing nuclear weapons to prevent Iran from developing, adding that "we have done everything to convince these corrupt and selfish powers to believe our nuclear program is peaceful."

"The Iranians will do their best to defend the nuclear rights," he stressed, in defiance of the recently passed UN resolution concerning the nuclear issue.

"This is a political resolution adopted under pressure from the United States and Britain," denounced the Iranian president, adding that "from the Iranian people's point of view, it lacks validity."

Ahmadinejad also termed the resolution as "a psychological war and propaganda against Iran", saying it was not so important to Iranians.

The United States has accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons in the name of civilian use and led the drive in the UN Security Council to stop Iran from enriching uranium.

The council adopted Resolution 1737 on Dec. 23, 2006, demanding Iran to "suspend all enrichment-related and reprocessing activities, including research and development, and work on all heavy water-related projects."

The resolution also called on all states to impose a ban on trade with Iran in goods related to its nuclear programs and ballistic missile delivery systems.

It demanded that "all states shall freeze the funds, other financial assets and economic resources" owned or controlled by officials and companies in Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

Shortly after the UN Security Council voted unanimously for the resolution, the Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement lashing out at the resolution as an "illegal measure".

As a response, Iran's parliament last Wednesday passed a bill urging the government to reduce its cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The bill was approved by the powerful Guardian Council immediately and formally became law.

Source: Xinhua

[American Patriot]

IRAN SAYS 2007 COULD BRING ISLAMIC MESSIAH, POSSIBLY THIS SPRING
Joel Rosenberg ^ | 02 January 2007 | Joel Rosenberg


The New Year may not be so happy if Iranian leaders have their way. The Islamic Messiah known as the "Twelfth Imam" or the "Mahdi" may come to earth in 2007 and could be revealed to the world as early as the Spring Equinox, reports an official Iranian government news website. The Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) website says the world is now in its "last days." It claims that the Mahdi will first appear in Mecca, and then Medina. He will conquer all of Arabia, Syria, Iraq, destroy Israel, and then set up a "global government" based in Iraq, interestingly enough, not Iran. Such Islamic eschatology (end times theology) is driving the Iranian regime and helps explains why Iran has no interest in helping the U.S. and E.U. create peace in Iraq or the region, much less in ending its bid for nuclear weapons, the Iraq Study Group Report notwithstanding.

Anticipation of the imminent arrival or "illumination" of the Islamic Messiah has been steadily intensifying inside Iran since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad emerged as president of the country in June of 2005. A television series on IRIB called "The World Towards Illumination" has been running since last November to help answer the many questions Iranians have about the end of the world as we know it. The series explains the signs of the last days and what to expect when the Islamic Messiah arrives. The program also says that Jesus is coming back to earth soon as a Shiite Muslim leader and it denounces "born again Christians" for supporting "the illegal Zionist state of Israel."An Israeli news site was the first to pick up the story and its significance to Israeli national security, noting that the Mahdi will soon "form an army to defeat Islam's enemies in a series of apocalyptic battles" and "will overcome his archvillain in Jerusalem."

Some intelligence analysts are growing concerned by Ahmadinejad's announced plans "to hold the big celebration of Iran's full nuclearization in the current year." Iran's calendar year ends on March 20, which is the usual date of the Spring Equinox. Is Ahmadinejad signaling that Iran will have nuclear weapons by then? Is he suggesting that an apocalyptic war to annihilate Jews and Christians in Israel and the U.S. could come in 2007, perhaps as early as this spring or summer? It is not yet clear, though Ahmadinejad today vowed to "humiliate" the U.S. and continues to vow that Israel will "vanish" soon.

The IRIB series is important in that it offers some intriguing clues as to how Iranian Shiites believe their prophecies will play out. "After [the Twelfth Imam's] uprising from Mecca all of Arabia will be submit to him and then other parts of the world as he marches upon Iraq and established his seat of global government in the city of Kufa. Then the Imam will send 10 thousand of his forces to the east and west to uproot the oppressors. At this time God will facilitate things for him and lands will come under his control one after the other....He will appear as a handsome young man, clad in neat clothes and exuding the fragrance of paradise. His face will glow with love and kindness for the human beings....He has a radiant forehead, black piercing eyes and a broad chest. He very much resembles his ancestor Prophet Mohammad. Heavenly light and justice accompany him. He will overcome enemies and oppressors with the help of God, and as per the promise of the Almighty the Mahdi will eradicate all corruption and injustice from the face of the earth and establish the global government of peace, justice and equity."

The TV series notes that "in our discussion of the world in the last days of the earth we had said in our previous editions of this programme that no source has pointed to the exact date when the Savior will appear and only God knows about the exact timing of the reappearance of Imam Mahdi....There are various versions of the exact day of his reappearance. Some say it would be Friday and the date will be Ashura or the 10th of Moharram, the heart-rending martyrdom anniversary of his illustrious ancestor, Imam Husain. Others say the date will be the 25th of the month of Zil-Qa’dah and may coincide with the Spring Equinox or Nowrooz as the Iranians call. A saying attributed to the Prophet’s 6th infallible heir, Imam Ja’far Sadeq (PBUH) says the Mahdi will appear on the Spring Equinox and God will make him defeat Dajjal the Impostor or the anti-Christ as the Christians say, who will be hanged near the dump of Kufa."

Before the Islamic Messiah appears to the world, IRIB reports, "a pious person...a venerable God-fearing individual from Iran" meets with the Mahdi. This individual will pledge allegiance to the Mahdi as he "fights oppression and corruption and enters Iraq to lift the siege of Kufa and holy Najaf and to defeat the forces of [Islam's enemies] in Iraq." It is not clear whether the program is referring to President Ahmadinejad or someone to come.

Shiite Islamic scholars also say Jesus is coming back to Earth soon. He will not, however, come as the Son of God or even as a leader but will serve as a deputy to the Mahdi to destroy the infidels, they say. "We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, 'the Mahdi will come with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him,'" the series explains. "This indicates that these two great men are complement each other. Imam Mahdi will be the leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against oppression and establishment of justice in the world."

"The apocalypse is a deep belief among humans regarding the end of the world," notes the Iranian documentary. "[O]ne of the characteristics of the West in the current era is obsession with the end of time. Experts say discussions about the savior and the ‘end of time’, have not been so prevalent before as they are now in the west....They believe the Messiah [is Jesus and that He] will reappear and will establish his global rule with its center in [Jerusalem], with the help of born again Christians. This sect's religious leaders in the 1990's strongly propagated their beliefs in the US and European societies. In the past two years dozens of books have been published in this field....These extremist Christians believe that certain events must be carried out by the Protestants in the world so as to prepare the grounds for the Messiah’s reappearance. The followers of this school believe they have a religious duty to accelerate these events, for example planting the illegal Zionist state of Israel for the Jews of the world, in Palestine."

Too many Western analysts are missing the central importance of Shiite eschatology in Iranian foreign policy. They mistakenly believe that Iran's current leadership can be somehow cajoled into making peace with the West. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his cadre of loyal mullahs are not being driven by the same goals and aspirations as are the diplomats in Washington, Brussels or at the United Nations. The President of Iran and his team fervently believe the Islamic Messiah is coming back soon, possibly as soon as this Spring. They are convinced that their divine mission is to create the conditions for the Mahdi's return. As a result, they are committed to instigating more anti--American violence in Iraq, not less. They are determined to obtain nuclear weapons at all costs, not negotiate away their atomic research and development program. What's more, they are deeply committed to building political and military alliances with anti-Western powers, not finding accomodation with the West.

Bottom line: the leaders of Iran are preparing for an apocalyptic war with the U.S. and Israel. It's not a question of "if" but "when." The sooner the White House and our new Congressional leaders realize this and take decisive action to stop this nuclear nightmare, the better.

[American Patriot]

(Avigdor) Lieberman asks new UN chief to revoke Iran's membership
Haaretz, AP ^ | January 2, 2007

Minister of Strategic Threats Avigdor Lieberman on Tuesday sent a letter to new United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon asking him to revoke Iran's UN membership, Army Radio reported.


Lieberman also called to pressure the UN Security Council to impose significant sanctions on Iran, according to the radio. "If the world allows Iran to achieve nuclear capability, Israel will be the first to pay the price," he wrote.


Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad scorned the Security Council's imposing sanctions on Iran, telling a crowd Tuesday that Iran had humiliated the United States in the past and would do so again.

(Excerpt) Read more at haaretz.com ...

[American Patriot]

'Only military action will stop Iran'
Jerusalem Post ^ | 1/2/7 | YAAKOV KATZ

Warning that the war in Lebanon impaired Israel's level of deterrence, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) at Tel Aviv University published its annual Middle East Strategic Balance on Tuesday with one major conclusion: "Without military action, an Iranian nuclear bomb is only a matter of time."

According to the book, whose conclusion concerning Iran was first reported exclusively in The Jerusalem Post, was released to the press on Tuesday. Said to be a "bible" for military analysts, the book claims that the war in Lebanon this past summer against Hizbullah severely damaged Israel's level of deterrence and revealed a number of basic "weaknesses and flaws in the IDF and the decision-making echelon in the Israeli government."

Concerning Iran, Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland - a member of the INSS, formerly known as the Jaffee Center of Strategic Studies - said that if the US or Israel wanted to stop the Islamic Regime's nuclear technological advances, it "should have attacked the nuclear facilities in Iran yesterday, or tomorrow at the latest." A former head of the National Security Council, Eiland said that if Israel did decide to attack Iran, it would need to coordinate the action with the US.

A lack of diplomatic movement on the Palestinian front alongside Iran's continued efforts to obtain nuclear weapons has weakened Israel's strategic standing in the Middle East, claims the book, which was written by INSS head Zvi Shtauber and Yiftah Shapir.

"This year was marked by Israel not finding a solution to the Palestinian issue, not stopping Iran, and the failure in the world's war against terrorism," said Shtauber, a retired brigadier general and Israel's former ambassador to the United Kingdom, during a press conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday.

"The reality did not develop like we had hoped it would," Shtauber said, adding that the United States' failure to stabilize Iraq had also contributed to the dangerous situation brewing in the Middle East.

On the Lebanese front, the report claims that UN Security Council Resolution 1701 has not prevented the rearmament of Hizbullah, which is currently working to topple the government of Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. The book predicts that quiet will prevail along the northern border in the near future, but that the war this past summer has strengthened Israel's enemies and has been viewed as a total failure for Israel.

"Arab states now realize that Israel's strength is limited," said Eiland, a member of the INSS, adding that as a result, these countries might be tempted to take military action that they would never even have considered half-a-year ago.

Regarding Syria, the book claims that while President Bashar Assad is "weak," and it is doubtful that he can "deliver the goods," Israel should still closely examine and consider peace overtures from Damascus.

"Syria is examining its options in order to improve its strategic position," Shtauber said. "One of those ways is by opening negotiations with Israel."

According to the report, Hamas is currently interested in quiet with Israel as part of an effort to stabilize its regime in the Palestinian Authority. But, the report claimed, Hamas has been finding it difficult to rein in splinter Palestinian terror groups that could cause an eruption in violence against Israel.

The report also found that Saudi Arabia was the top arms procurer in the Middle East, with arms deliveries of $19 billion between 2001 and 2004. Israel did not sign any major deals in 2006, the report found, except for the purchase of two new Dolphin-class submarines from Germany, which was first reported in the Post.

Egypt, which alongside Israel is also the recipient of major US military aid, does not, the report stated, appear to be on the verge of new combat aircraft. Major current deals for the Egyptian Navy include $565 million for the acquisition of three fast missile patrol craft under development in the US.

[American Patriot]

DELIVERY SYSTEMS, Anyone??????????

Iran Manufactures Satellite Rockets
fars ^ | 2007-01-02 | Fars News Agency



Chairman of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission Alaoddin Boroujerdi made the remarks in a meeting with a group of religious students and clerics in the city of Qom on Monday.


Also during the meeting, he pointed to Iran's nuclear issue and stressed the need for negotiations as the only way to end the problem.


The MP said that the western countries did not think that Iran could acquire the nuclear fuel production cycle, adding, "Now that we are in desirable conditions, we should continue the path so that they can't bully us any more."


He further pointed to Iran's flexibility in dealing with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in recent years, and stated, "As a result of the same attitude, the IAEA Director-General Mohammad ElBaradei stressed in his official report that Iran has never diverted from the peaceful to military nuclear programs."


"Western countries sought a minimum ten-year-long suspension of Iran's nuclear activities, which was impossible for us to do because such a thing would bring the country's scientific power to a standstill status and destruction," Boroujerdi continued.


He also reminded that the western countries, specially the US, may not be satisfied with the halt of Iran's nuclear activities, saying, "Even if we did so, they would ask us to dismantle our rockets and destroy our missile systems and capabilities as they are seeking to turn Iran into a defenseless country."


The lawmaker further described the launch of operation by a network of 3000 centrifuges as a factor stabilizing Iran's nuclear capabilities, and underlined, "As soon as the westerners find out that Iran's nuclear capabilities are established, they will be forced to negotiate with us, because they are well aware of the fact that if they intend to pressurize Iran, the Islamic Republic will eventually withdraw from the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), and that's what they are afraid of."


"They have the experience of North Korea, where their unilateral pressures led to the production and testing of nuclear bomb by Pyongyang, therefore, they are just seeking to use the UN Security Council resolution as a pressure lever to be used at the time of talks, as we seek the benefit from the country's position, regional conditions and the like for the same purpose.


"That's why the new UN Secretary General, Europeans, China and Russia in separate messages called for the resumption of talks with the Islamic Republic after the Iranian government announced an imminent installation and launch of operation by the new cascade of centrifuges in reaction to the UNSC Resolution 1737," he explained.


The legislative official also reminded that Britain and the United States have started an extensive war against Iran, and said that they are presently spending billions of dollars to form giant and well-equipped mafia gangs to smuggle drug from Afghanistan into Iran in a bid to corrupt the Iranian youth.


He further pointed out that the increase in the plantation and trafficking of illicit drugs into Iran since the deployment of the US and British troops in Afghanistan is meant to serve the same goal.

[American Patriot]

'NATO Interested in Iran's Nukes'

Yaakov Katz, The Jerusalem Post reported that NATO has begun taking a major interest in intelligence information about Iran's nuclear program. An excerpt:

"There are people who want this issue to come up and want NATO to start talking about Iran," the official said. An important organization with great military capabilities, NATO, the official said, should at least begin to discuss the nuclear threat emanating from Iran even without connection to possible military action against the Islamic Republic.

"This should be on NATO's agenda," the official said. "But since NATO works by consensus among its members, countries have the ability to prevent discussions on certain issues."

The full text:

NATO has begun taking a major interest in intelligence information about Iran's nuclear program, according to Israeli defense officials who recently held talks with senior officers in the Western military alliance.

NATO's interest stems from growing concern that diplomacy will ultimately fail, the Israeli officials told The Jerusalem Post this week, and that military action will be necessary to stop Iran's race to obtain nuclear weapons.

Earlier in the month, IDF Military Intelligence (MI) hosted a NATO conference on global terrorism and intelligence, following which high-ranking MI officers said Israel planned to establish an intelligence-sharing mechanism with NATO.

"There is a growing interest on NATO's part regarding the intelligence collected around the world on Iran's nuclear program," a senior defense official said. "They want to get to know the material just in case."

According to the official, Iran was, until now, a "taboo" issue for NATO and was rarely brought up in official functions and talks between member countries. The official said that recently senior military officials in NATO have expressed growing interest in the up-to-date Israeli assessment on Iran.

A diplomatic official said that Iran was a "sensitive issue" for NATO and that while there were certainly countries - like the United States - that would like to see possible NATO involvement on the issue, other members from Europe were so far preventing this from happening.

"There are people who want this issue to come up and want NATO to start talking about Iran," the official said. An important organization with great military capabilities, NATO, the official said, should at least begin to discuss the nuclear threat emanating from Iran even without connection to possible military action against the Islamic Republic.

"This should be on NATO's agenda," the official said. "But since NATO works by consensus among its members, countries have the ability to prevent discussions on certain issues."

In line with the efforts to enhance military cooperation with NATO, the IDF plans to dispatch a Navy officer to Naples in the coming weeks, where he will participate in Operation Active Endeavor.
NATO launched Operation Active Endeavor in the wake of 9/11 and has succeeded in bringing together a number of countries from the Mediterranean that work together in a joint headquarters based out of Naples and share information concerning naval terror.

http://regimechangeiniran.com/2006/1...n-irans-nukes/

[American Patriot]

Iran website heralding 'Mahdi' by springtime
World Net Daily ^ | December 31, 2006



An official state media website in Iran has posted a message heralding the coming of the Shiite messianic figure, Imam Mahdi, noting he could arrive with Jesus by the spring equinox.



"Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will appear all of a sudden on the world scene with a voice from the skies announcing his reappearance at the holy Ka'ba in Mecca," the message says.



The Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting website said in a program called "The World toward Illumination," that the Mahdi will form an army to defeat the enemies of Islam in a series of apocalyptic battles, in which the Mahdi will overcome his archvillain in Jerusalem.

The Mahdi's far sightedness and firmness in the face of mischievous elements will strike awe. After his uprising from Mecca all of Arabia will be submit to him and then other parts of the world as he marches upon Iraq and established his seat of global government in the city of Kufa.


Then the Imam will send 10 thousand of his forces to the east and west to uproot the oppressors. At this time God will facilitate things for him and lands will come under his control one after the other. ...



After his appearance the Imam would remain in Mecca for some time, and then go to Medina. ... a descendant of the Prophet's archenemy Abu Sofyan will seize Syria and attack Iraq and the Hejaz with the ferocity of a beast ... finally Imam Mahdi sends troops who kill the Sofyani in Beit ol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), the Islamic holy city in Palestine that is currently under occupation of the Zionists.

The Iranian series also claims the Mahdi will reappear on Earth with Jesus: "We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, 'the Mahdi will come with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him.' ... Imam Mahdi will be the leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus had himself given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger and will see Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi."

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appearing at "The World Without Zionism" conference Oct. 26, 2005

As WND reported this month, in a greeting to the world's Christians for the coming new year, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he expects both Jesus and the Mahdi, to return and "wipe away oppression."



"I wish all the Christians a very happy new year and I wish to ask them a question as well," said Ahmadinejad, according to an Iranian Student News Agency report cited by YnetNews.com

"My one question from the Christians is: What would Jesus do if he were present in the world today? What would he do before some of the oppressive powers of the world who are in fact residing in Christian countries? Which powers would he revive and which of them would he destroy?" asked the Iranian leader.

"If Jesus were present today, who would be facing him and who would be following him?"

Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of the Mahdi is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions will set the stage for the end of the world.



In a videotaped meeting with Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli in Tehran, Ahmadinejad discussed candidly a strange, paranormal experience he had while addressing the United Nations in New York last September.

He recounts how he found himself bathed in light throughout the speech. But this wasn't the light directed at the podium by the U.N. and television cameras. It was, he said, a light from heaven.



According to a transcript of his comments, obtained and translated by Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, Ahmadinejad wasn't the only one who noticed the unearthly light. One of his aides brought it to his attention.



The Iranian president recalled being told about it by one of his delegation: "When you began with the words 'in the name of Allah,' I saw a light coming, surrounding you and protecting you to the end."



Ahmadinejad agreed that he sensed the same thing.



"On the last day when I was speaking, one of our group told me that when I started to say 'Bismillah Muhammad,' he saw a green light come from around me, and I was placed inside this aura," he says. "I felt it myself. I felt that the atmosphere suddenly changed, and for those 27 or 28 minutes, all the leaders of the world did not blink. When I say they didn't move an eyelid, I'm not exaggerating. They were looking as if a hand was holding them there, and had just opened their eyes – Alhamdulillah!"



Ahmadinejad's "vision" at the U.N. is strangely reminiscent and alarmingly similar to statements he has made about his personal role in ushering in the return of the Shiite Muslim messiah.



He sees his main mission, as he recounted in a Nov. 16 speech in Tehran, as to "pave the path for the glorious reappearance of Imam Mahdi, may Allah hasten his reappearance."



According to Shiites, the 12th imam disappeared as a child in the year 941. When he returns, they believe, he will reign on earth for seven years, before bringing about a final judgment and the end of the world.



Ahmadinejad is urging Iranians to prepare for the coming of the Mahdi by turning the country into a mighty and advanced Islamic society and by avoiding the corruption and excesses of the West.



All Iran is buzzing about the Mahdi, the 12th imam and the role Iran and Ahmadinejad are playing in his anticipated return. There's a new messiah hotline. There are news agencies especially devoted to the latest developments.



"People are anxious to know when and how will He rise; what they must do to receive this worldwide salvation," says Ali Lari, a cleric at the Bright Future Institute in Iran's religious center of Qom. "The timing is not clear, but the conditions are more specific," he adds. "There is a saying: 'When the students are ready, the teacher will come.'"

[American Patriot]

Iran: Mahdi will defeat archenemy in Jerusalem
ynet news.com ^ | Published: 12.31.06, 13:01 | Yaakov Lappin

Posted on 01/01/2007 6:39:27 AM MST by mmanager

State media says, ‘Shiite messiah will kill archenemy in Jerusalem, could come during spring equinox'

Yaakov Lappin Published: 12.31.06, 13:01

A triumphal religious prophecy has appeared on an Iranian official state media website, heralding the return of the Shiite messiah.

According to the website, "Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will appear all of a sudden on the world scene with a voice from the skies announcing his reappearance at the holy Ka'ba in Mecca."

The Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting (IRIB) website said in a program called 'The World Towards Illumination,' that the Mahdi will reappear in Mecca and form an army to defeat Islam's enemies in a series of apocalyptic battles, in which the Mahdi will overcome his archvillain in Jerusalem.

Global Threat

Opposition group: Iran behind 80 percent of terror attacks in world / Yaakov Lappin

Iran opposition group releases detailed brief on Tehran's Qods Force, an 'international Islamic army' exporting attacks worldwide Full Story

The series has been regularly updated throughout November and December.

"The Mahdi's far sightedness and firmness in the face of mischievous elements will strike awe. After his uprising from Mecca all of Arabia will be submit to him and then other parts of the world as he marches upon Iraq and established his seat of global government in the city of Kufa.

“Then the Imam will send 10 thousand of his forces to the east and west to uproot the oppressors. At this time God will facilitate things for him and lands will come under his control one after the other," the website declared.

"After his appearance the Imam would remain in Mecca for some time, and then go to Medina... a descendant of the Prophet's archenemy Abu Sofyan will seize Syria and attack Iraq and the Hejaz with the ferocity of a beast… finally Imam Mahdi sends troops who kill the Sofyani in Beit ol-Moqaddas (Jerusalem), the Islamic holy city in Palestine that is currently under occupation of the Zionists," the IRIB added.

'Jesus will be Mahdi's lieutenant'

According to the Iranian series, the Mahdi will reappear on earth with Jesus: "We read in the book Tazkarat ol-Olia, 'the Mahdi will come with Jesus son of Mary accompanying him.' …Imam Mahdi will be the leader while Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against oppression and establishment of justice in the world. Jesus had himself given the tidings of the coming of God's last messenger and will see Mohammad's ideals materialize in the time of the Mahdi."

"The seat of the Mahdi's global government will be the city of Kufa , where his headquarters will be the Sahla Mosque… From here he will dominate the east and the west to fill the earth with justice," the special series predicted.

The website added that prayers for the Mahdi's return were said daily in Iran: "In our time, many pray for his appearance and each day they renew their allegiance to him. 'O God, make me one of his companions, show me his respected and bright visage, and hasten his reappearance.'"

'Mahdi to come during spring equinox?'

The IRIB website is filled with details of the Mahdi's return, including descriptions of physical attributes of "the perfect human being."

"He will appear as a handsome young man, clad in neat clothes and exuding the fragrance of paradise… He has a radiant forehead, black piercing eyes and a broad chest. He very much resembles his ancestor Prophet Mohammad (SAWA).

“Heavenly light and justice accompany him. He will overcome enemies and oppressors with the help of God, and as per the promise of the Almighty the Mahdi will eradicate all corruption and injustice from the face of the earth and establish the global government of peace, justice and equity."

'The World Towards Illumination' series cites some Islamic sources as saying that the Mahdi's return "may coincide with the Spring Equinox... A saying attributed to the Prophet's 6th infallible heir, Imam Ja'far Sadeq (PBUH) says the Mahdi will appear on the Spring Equinox and God will make him defeat Dajjal the Impostor or the anti-Christ as the Christians say, who will be hanged near the dump of Kufa."

[American Patriot]

Iran Becomes Regional Superpower

Pyotr Goncharov, RIA Novosti
Dec 29, 2006 - 6:30:41 AM

MOSCOW: Iran may become one of the top 10 features of the outgoing year for a number of reasons, including its nuclear dossier and the Holocaust conference, as well as the anti-Israeli rhetoric of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

In short, Iran has made others view it as a regional superpower and the key player in the Middle East.

Its nuclear program remains the top issue, with good reason, because it threatens the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

If Iran implements its nuclear program in the proclaimed format, namely on the basis of its own uranium enrichment technologies, this will deal a death blow to the NPT. Iran's program will trigger the domino effect, encouraging Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to follow suit.

The bomb is not the issue, as Iran will most likely decide against creating it. But it will hover merely one step away from it, forcing Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan to cover the same distance. Tehran promises to share its nuclear technology with Kuwait and Syria, which, taken together with Israel's 200 nuclear charges, will turn the region into a nuclear powder keg.

There are reasons to suspect that Iran's nuclear program is neither peaceful nor civilian. Its Natanz facility will have 54,000 uranium enrichment centrifuges, and it has already put into operation two cascades with 164 centrifuges each. Iran intends to turn on all of the 54,000 centrifuges. What for?

Russian nuclear experts say this number will allow Iran to produce its own nuclear fuel for 20 nuclear power units. So far, Iran plans to turn on only one unit, at the Bushehr nuclear power plant, which is being built with Russia's technical assistance. The unit is expected to be put into operation in September 2007 and start generating electricity in November. The construction of the other 19 units is not planned so far.

On the other hand, the same experts say, given the political will, the 54,000 centrifuges can be used to create five to seven nuclear charges within two weeks at the most.

Therefore, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) cannot issue guarantees of the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program, although it cannot prove its military goals either. The IAEA has questions to Tehran which it has refused to answer so far, keeping the world on nuclear tenterhooks.

The talks on Iran's nuclear program, as well as endless debates by experts, political analysts and other specialists, have turned into a cliffhanger compounded by Iran's intricate diplomatic embroidery. More than three months have passed since the UN's August 31 deadline, by which Tehran should have stopped work on its first cascade of 164 uranium enrichment centrifuges. Since then, Iran has put into operation a second cascade and announced the intention to increase the number of working centrifuges to 3,000 by March 2007.

It is certainly bluffing, as it does not have the necessary capacity for this. Yet it has played a joke on the UN Security Council no other country has dared to play before.

Ahmadinejad's statements to the effect that "Iran has made a crucial decision and is moving honorably along its chosen path," and that Tehran would consider any Security Council resolution on sanctions as a hostile move are most likely just verbal bravado, which the world has learned to regard calmly.

Tehran fears sanctions, or else why did Ali Larijani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, rush to Moscow shortly before the planned stopover in Moscow by U.S. President George W. Bush? Tehran thought President Bush and Vladimir Putin would discuss the Iranian nuclear dossier, and feared that Bush would convince Putin to vote for harsh sanctions against Iran. Tehran needed Russia's support, and Larijani received it. But nothing lasts forever.

Putin later said that Russia's support to Tehran was aimed at encouraging it to maintain relations with the IAEA so as to clarify the nuclear watchdog's questions and restore the world's trust in the peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear programs. But it appears that Tehran is not willing to resume talks, at least not now.

On December 23, the UN Security Council voted on the Iranian resolution. The permanent members of the council, who form, together with Germany, a six-country group on Iran, have coordinated sanctions against Iran. The resolution proposed by the European Trio, which is negotiating with Iran on behalf of the European Union, differed radically from Russia's stand.

Moscow argued that the sanctions should cover only the areas that worry the IAEA - enrichment-related and reprocessing activities and work on all heavy water-related projects, and the development of nuclear weapon delivery systems.

The Security Council heeded the Kremlin's arguments, but future developments are almost impossible to predict, especially considering the "Persian motifs" in Tehran's foreign policy. One way or another, Russia's neighbor, Iran, will continue to play a key role in the region, and this is the main result of the story with its nuclear dossier.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and may not necessarily represent the opinions of the editorial board.