Hezbollah chief warns Israel against attac… JPost – Middle East

Hezbollah chief warns Israel against attacking LebanonBy JPOST.COM STAFF, REUTERS02/16/2013 18:18Nasrallah rejects idea that Bulgaria probe finding Hezbollah guilty for Burgas attack will prompt Israeli strike: “They know their power plants, airports are under threat”; says Hezbollah doesn’t need weapons from Syria.Hezbollah head Nasrallah speaks at Beirut protestHezbollah head Nasrallah speaks at Beirut protest Photo: REUTERSHezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Saturday rejected claims made by the Lebanese opposition that the Shi’ite group’s implication in July’s Burgas, Bulgaria terror attack would prompt an Israeli attack on Lebanon.The speech came after Bulgaria released its findings of a probe into the attack last week, finding that Hezbollah’s military wing was behind the bombing. Five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver were killed in the terror attack.Related: France mulls labeling Hezbollah a ‘terrorist group’ Iran warns Israel: We’ll avenge Guards commanderSpeaking by video link to a ceremony honoring Hezbollah’s martyrs on Saturday, Nasrallah stated that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu had blamed Hezbollah for the bombing immediately after it took place in July and no Israeli attack had followed.”The ones predicting an Israeli war on Lebanon are unfortunately Lebanese and some Arab figures, which is based on the alleged accusations against Hezbollah,” Nasrallah was quoted as saying by Now Lebanon.”Israel is a country with a project, with certain circumstances, and it does not go into war just because of a simple incident…After the 2006 July War, Israel has [began to think] before going into a war against Lebanon,” he added.”The preparations the Israelis are conducting indicate they expect serious war, not a picnic,” Nasrallah added. “The Israelis are asking themselves: Are we ready for losses like the ones we suffered in 2006?”He warned “the Israeli enemy” that it should “think twice before thinking about attacking Lebanon.”Nasrallah stated that Hezbollah remained prepared and able to fight Israel, despite Syria’s troubles and its current inability to offer support to the organization.”I am warning the Israelis and their allies that the resistance in Lebanon will not keep quiet over any violation that occurs on Lebanese territory…They know that their energy plants and their airports… [are under threat]. Their power plants would require six-months to repair. Lebanon, on the other hand, is used to lack of electricity,” Now Lebanon quoted Nasrallah as saying.Nasrallah’s comments are the closest thing yet to a response to allegations that Israeli jets were targeting a Syrian weapons convoy destined for Hezbollah during a strike near Damascus on Jan 30.World powers fear that as Syrian President Bashar Assad loses control during a 23-month-old civil war, groups such as Hezbollah or Syrian rebels could acquire arms to use against Israel, including chemical weapons.”Everything we need for the next battle we have in Lebanon and we keep in Lebanon,” Nasrallah said. “We do not need to take anything, not from Syria nor Iran.”Damascus has denied assertions by diplomats, Syrian rebels and security sources that Syrian weapons were to be sent to Hezbollah. It said the Israeli air strike hit the Jamraya military research complex on the northwestern fringes of Damascus, 8 miles 13 km from the border with Lebanon.Lebanon has claimed on numerous occasions in recent weeks that Israeli warplanes were conducting mock raids in the country’s airspace.

via Hezbollah chief warns Israel against attac… JPost – Middle East.

Hamas Slams Bulgaria for Expelling its Delegation – Middle East – News – Israel National News

Hamas Slams Bulgaria for Expelling its Delegation

“Zionist pressure” led to a Hamas delegation being expelled from Bulgaria, claims the terror group.

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By Elad Benari, Canada

First Publish: 2/15/2013, 10:36 PM

Hamas terrorists fire rockets at Israel

Hamas terrorists fire rockets at Israel

Flash 90

The Hamas government in Gaza on Friday condemned Bulgaria’s expulsion of a delegation on its behalf that was visiting the country, the Bethlehem-based Ma’an news agency reported.

The terror group reportedly blamed Israeli pressure for Bulgaria’s move.

Bulgarian security forces on Friday raided the hotel rooms of a visiting Hamas delegation, ordering them to leave the country, a party statement quoted by Ma’an said.

“We condemn this act, which reflects the scale of compliance with Zionist pressures,” Hamas spokesman Taher al-Nunu said, according to Ma’an.

Hamas leader and MP Yahya al-Abadseh said the Bulgarian government’s actions were contrary to all diplomatic norms.

Parliament chairman Ahmad Bahar called for Bulgaria to offer a formal apology, saying the visiting deputies were protected by parliamentary immunity.

On Wednesday Hamas said that its delegation arrived in Bulgaria to meet with political officials from the European country.

The visit was lauded by Hamas as a sign that the terror group was being increasingly welcomed across Europe.

However, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry formally denied the news about the visit. A spokeswoman for the ministry that no Hamas visit had been planned and that no Bulgarian politicians and diplomats have been scheduled to meet Hamas officials.

Hamas is recognized as a terror organization by the European Union, of which Bulgaria is a member.

The PLO ambassador in Bulgaria, Ahmed Madbouh, told Ma’an on Friday he was informed by officials in the Bulgarian foreign ministry that they “regret” the presence of the Hamas delegation and took a decision to ask them to leave.

via Hamas Slams Bulgaria for Expelling its Delegation – Middle East – News – Israel National News.

Iran’s Nuclear-Technology Gains Suggest Sanctions Are Backfiring – Bloomberg

Iran’s Nuclear-Technology Gains Suggest Sanctions Are Backfiring

By Jonathan Tirone – Feb 15, 2013 12:18 PM GMT

 

International sanctions designed to punish Iran for its nuclear program may be counter-productive, said scientists and security analysts tracking the decade-long dispute over the Persian Gulf nation’s atomic work.

While trade and financial sanctions have choked off Iran’s access to materials such as aluminum and maraging steel used to make its first generation of nuclear equipment, they have spurred the Islamic Republic to find its own solutions for subsequent technological innovations. Now, Iran is positioned to both build better nuclear devices and export them.

“The serious consequence of all of these sanctions are that you drive the indigenous production of these parts,” Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a physicist at the Monterrey, California- based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies, wrote in response to questions. “This means the proliferator learns more about the technology and so now they don’t only know how to produce the parts, but they could also sell them to other states.”

As embargoes strangle Iran’s ability to import high-quality metals and fibers needed to build nuclear components, the country’s own resources, including oil, sand and zinc, mean it can overcome technical hurdles. Last month, Iran notified United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors it would begin installing 3,000 domestically built centrifuges that can produce more enriched uranium in less time.

Raw Materials

“Most technologies in use are decades-old, well-proven, well-published concepts,” said Andreas Persbo, executive director of the London-based Verification Research, Training and Information Center, a non-governmental observer to the IAEA. “The key thing is to get access to the raw material. If you have the raw material, and a talent base to process them, you can construct whatever you need.”

Iran, with the world’s fourth-biggest proven oil reserves, began in 2011 to make its own carbon fiber, the strong, light material used in wind turbines, airplanes and centrifuges. Like the uranium-enrichment market, which is led by a handful of companies such as Urenco Ltd., Areva SA and Rosatom Corp., carbon-fiber production is driven by a few multinational businesses including Hexcel Corp., BAE Systems Plc and Toray Industries Inc.

“While the sanctions regime certainly slowed down Iran’s technological progress initially, it has also made Iran self- sufficient in a number of key areas,” said Yousaf Butt, a physicist and nuclear non-proliferation analyst who advised the U.S. National Academy of Sciences on Iran’s nuclear work. “Iran is likely the most technologically advanced nation in the Middle East, aside from Israel.”

Self-Sufficient

The Islamic Republic has also achieved self-sufficiency in other vital technology areas touched by sanctions. The country manufacturers and sells Fomblin oil, a lubricant used inside centrifuges, on world markets. At a September IAEA meeting in Vienna, Iran displayed a copy of a domestically made nuclear- fuel panel destined for a research reactor in Tehran.

“If in the past the country needed finished products and technologies for its program which squarely fell under sanctions, now the required level of imported inputs is continuously going down to more simple and basic items which Iran still needs but can upgrade on its own,” according to Igor Khripunov, the Soviet Union’s former arms-control envoy to the U.S. who is now at the Athens, Georgia-based Center for International Trade and Security.

Kazakhstan Meeting

Iran, which maintains its atomic program is peaceful, has ruled out suspending its activities as the UN Security Council demands. It’s willing to discuss its nuclear work when it meets world powers in Kazakhstan next week, Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said Feb. 4. Talks between Iran and IAEA officials that concluded Feb. 13 in Tehran failed to clinch a deal that would give investigators wider access to alleged nuclear sites.

While Iran allowed wider access to sites, including centrifuge-manufacturing workshops, until 2005, it reversed course after accusations about its nuclear work escalated. The first UN sanctions were imposed in 2006. The country hasn’t restricted IAEA access to sites it’s legally bound to let inspectors visit.

Diplomats should focus on returning to greater transparency of Iran’s nuclear facilities rather than trying to enforce a ban on enrichment, said Paul Ingram, executive director of the London-based British American Security Information Council, a policy-advisory group.

“Iran has a sophisticated economy relative to most states outside of North America, Europe and the Far East, so it should be no surprise that they can develop the technologies to substitute for sanctioned materials,” Ingram wrote in reply to questions. “The experience of sanctions proves this time and time again.”

via Iran’s Nuclear-Technology Gains Suggest Sanctions Are Backfiring – Bloomberg.

Iran Supreme Leader: U.S. seeks to show Iran is ready to compromise through negotiations – Trend.Az

Iran Supreme Leader: U.S. seeks to show Iran is ready to compromise through negotiations – Trend.Az.

Iran Supreme Leader: U.S. seeks to show Iran is ready to compromise through negotiations

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16 February 2013, 16:45 (GMT+04:00)

Azerbaijan, Baku, Feb.16 / Trend F.Mehdi/

The Supreme Leader of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has said that the U.S. has proposed negotiations to show that the Iranian nation will be finally ready to compromise.

The U.S. administration is talking of negotiations with Iran, while it has imposed sanctions on the country, he added, the Fars News Agency reported.

We believe that building nuclear weapons is against our religious instructions. Building nuclear weapons is a kind of criminal act which is against human being. If Iran wanted to build nuclear weapons, the U.S. could not ever prevent Iran, he stressed. So, the contradiction between words and actions of U.S. politicians, shows their illogicality, the Leader said.

On February 7, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that the U.S. policy in Middle East has failed, so they need a new winning card, which is to drag Iran to the negotiating table.

His comments came in response to a question about US Vice President Joe Biden’s offer of direct talks with the Islamic Republic.

Speaking at the 49th annual Munich Security Conference in Germany on February 2, Biden said Washington was ready to hold direct talks with Iran over the country’s nuclear energy program.

“I am not a diplomat, I am a revolutionary. So I talk openly and honestly,” Khamenei noted. “Americans take up arms against Iran and now want to negotiate.”

He underscored that the Iranian nation will not be intimidated.

“Some narrow-minded people like the idea of negotiating with America, however negotiations do not solve the problem,” Khamenei noted.

Previously, Iranian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said that the possible direct talks between Iran and the U.S. are meaningless, with sanctions and pressure.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday evening also said that the Islamic Republic will study the US proposal for direct talks provided that Washington makes positive changes in its behavior.

Rebels seize airbase ahead of ‘major battle’ in Syria

Rebels seize airbase ahead of ‘major battle’ in Syria.

Saturday, 16 February 2013

The Free Syrian Army achieved a number of strategic victories on ground in the past week, including the capture of an oil field in the eastern province of Hasaka.(Al Arabiya)

By Al Arabiya with AFP

  A recent video shows Syrian rebels capturing of a military airbase in Deraa on Thursday, as well as seizing a large stockpile of missiles and artillery.

The Free Syrian Army achieved a number of strategic victories on ground in the past week, including the capture of an oil field in the eastern province of Hasaka.

The rebels, from the Islamist Al-Nusra Front and the Muhajireen battalion, overran the base in Sfeira, east of Aleppo international airport, as well as seizing a large quantity of ammunition, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The rebels geared up for a major battle against loyalists as the opposition said it refuses to accept President Bashar al-Assad in talks on the 23-month conflict.

The Britain-based watchdog also reported intermittent clashes around the Aleppo airport itself as well as around Nayrab airbase and another military complex, as the two sides squared up for a major fight.

Rebels seized the base on Wednesday after a battle that left at least 150 dead from both sides, among them senior army officers, according to the Observatory.

Regime tanks, meanwhile, shelled the town of Khan Sheikhun in the province of Idlib, killing at least 11 civilians, the Observatory said, adding that at least 107 people were killed in violence nationwide on Friday.

In Damascus, the army shelled the eastern district of Jobar where rebels have set up enclaves, the Britain-based group said.

It also said more than 100 civilians have been abducted in Idlib province in separate incidents, expressing alarm at what it called “sectarian kidnappings.”

As they have done every Friday, Syrians protested across the country after weekly prayers to denounce what they called the “inaction” of the international community over the Syria crisis.

“In spite of you, O Bashar, we have our freedom!” chanted protesters in Sukkari, a rebel-held district of Aleppo.

State television broadcast footage of what it said was a pro-regime demonstration in Aleppo, and said residents had called for “armed men to leave their city.”

The International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva said the plight of civilians in Syria has reached catastrophic levels.

“After two years with no end to the military conflict, the situation of the civilian population has reached nothing short of catastrophic” proportions, ICRC Director of Operations Pierre Kraehenbuehl told reporters.

The ICRC has been aiding some 1.5 million Syrians, via the Syrian Arab Crescent, in a conflict that the UN says has left some 70,000 people dead.

The United Nations has also said the number of Syrians who have fled the country could hit 1.1 million by June.

Customs officers in Finland, meanwhile, said they had seized spare parts for tanks in a container en route from Russia to Syria on board a Finnish ship docked at Helsinki’s Vuosaari port in January.

The European Union has banned all sales, delivery, transfers and exports of weapons to Syria.

Some secrets are meant to be kept

Some secrets are meant to be kept – JPost – Opinion – Columnists.

( Painfully true… JW )

By BEN CASPIT
02/14/2013 21:22
Against the ultimate evil, one cannot fight with an arsenal of human rights and enlightened values.
I don’t know about you, but I am on the Mossad’s side. I’m keeping my fingers crossed for all the Mossad agents wherever they may be around the world. I pray that all Mossad operations be successful, and that as many as possible of the people or institutions whose aim is to destroy the State of Israel and its citizens just disappear, and I don’t care how.
I am an Israeli, a Zionist, a journalist, in that order.

(And what about a Jew? Yes, I am a proud secular Jew, who does not connect religion to nonholy things. Religion is in the synagogue and in the heart.)

Theoretically, if I chanced upon an incredible story, one that would make sensational international headlines and make me a famous journalist overnight, but at the same time thwart a Mossad operation to, let’s say, destroy Iran’s nuclear program, I would happily forgo the story and I would fall asleep that night with a smile on my face.

By the way, I also wouldn’t try to pass off the story to a foreign journalist, in a shady collaboration that would allow me to then be the first Israeli journalist to quote “foreign sources.” I believe that the State of Israel still has plenty of secrets that should be kept. I know that most of the hair-raising operations carried out by Mossad agents around the world have never been acknowledged and never will be, and that is a good thing.

No, I don’t think that everything should be open for “public discussion.”

Some things are better left unsaid. Some secrets should be taken to the grave. And no, this doesn’t make Israel a dark regime or a dictatorship.

What Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is doing to the Israeli media is much worse. The pursuit after the last strongholds of the free media is endangering our democratic rights much more than an attempt to keep Mossad operations a secret. The fact is, a Mossad operation went wrong. Somebody spoke when he shouldn’t have. Or someone betrayed his country.

And the terrible Prisons Service botch that provided ex-Mossad agent Ben Zygier the opportunity to commit suicide in Israeli prison in 2010 is saddening, but it’s part of life.

The circumstances of the incident need to be investigated behind closed doors, as far as possible from the public eye. No, this is not similar to the 1984 Bus 300 affair, in which Israeli state operatives carried out the most serious criminal offenses, and then afterward lied about it and slandered an innocent officer in an effort to deflect the blame. If we are to assume that Ben Zygier did in fact commit suicide (and was not murdered), then what we have here is a serious operational failure. We must quietly patch things up and move on. Historians in the distant future will be far less interested in an agent who committed suicide than in the Iranian nuclear threat.

Let’s look for a moment at our most important friend, one that symbolizes democracy, human rights and freedom of speech: the United States of America. President Barack Obama is a liberal, enlightened warrior for human rights. In his first-term campaign speeches, he declared that he would shut down the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison.

In this prison, which does not fall under US legal jurisdiction, American personnel try to crack the toughest al-Qaida detainees and use controversial “interrogation methods” to retrieve information.

But lo and behold, Obama reached the end of his first term and was reelected for a second one. And Guantanamo is still operational. Obama has finally understood that in this age of global terrorism, when so many people are striving to kill as many people as possible, and to carry out terrorist attacks, sometimes we have to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty in human sewage.

Things are not always as they seem. The American pursuit of Osama bin Laden proved this.

Against the ultimate evil, one cannot fight with an arsenal of human rights and enlightened values. Period. And if the Americans have reached this conclusion, then we, who are hanging on by a thread in the midst of a hundred million people who hate us, certainly should, too.

Although we are in the Internet age, there are still situations in which state secrets should be kept, and military censorship should be implemented, even though it only affects Israeli media. Israeli journalists have much greater access to state secrets than do foreign journalists, and I am not offended when a foreign journalist publishes state secrets when I couldn’t. Israel is the only country that continues to struggle for its existence and be accepted as a legitimate entity in a world that is becoming more and more dangerous all the time.

And the only thing that is more important to me than the public’s right to know, freedom of information and democracy, is the very existence of our country. Because I still remember how it was before Israel was established, upon the ashes of the six million. And therefore, even though I tend to quarrel quite a bit with the military censorship, at the end of the day I agree that when the publication of a specific item would constitute a real danger to national security, to people’s lives or to the country’s vital foreign relations, it is preferable that the item not be published.

Translated by Hannah Hochner.