Iran

By Gareth Porter, IPS

WASHINGTON, Sep 24 2012 (IPS) - Iran has again offered to halt its enrichment of uranium to 20 percent, which the United States has identified as its highest priority in the nuclear talks, in return for easing sanctions against Iran, according to Iran’s permanent representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Ali Asghar Soltanieh, who has conducted Iran’s negotiations with the IAEA in Tehran and Vienna, revealed in an interview with IPS that Iran had made the offer at the meeting between EU Foreign Policy Chief Catherine Ashton and Iran’s leading nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili in Istanbul Sep. 19.

Long Knives Target Iran

by Stephen Lendman

Some background:

February 11, 2012 marked the 33rd anniversary of Iran's 1979 revolution. It ended a generation of repressive rule under Washington's installed Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi.

By: NIAC Action Alert

The Senate is poised to commit the U.S. to a red line for war demanded by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and opposed by the Obama Administration.  The resolution by Senators Lindsay Graham (R-SC), Joe Lieberman (I-CT), and Bob Casey (D-PA) expresses support for Netanyahu’s red line for military action against Iran and may come up for a vote TODAY.
 
Please call your Senators to tell them you oppose the Iran red line resolution.  Call 1-855-68 NO WAR to be directed to your Senators offices and tell them to oppose S.J. Res 41.

Learn More & Take Action>>
READ: New Senate Push for Iran War Red Lines as Netanyahu Ups Pressure>> 

Iran War Weekly

September 16, 2012

Hello All – In 1947 the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists first placed a clock on its cover, with the hands at seven minutes before midnight.  Nuclear war was that close, the atomic scientists thought.  And over the past 65 years the hands of the clock have moved back and forth, from two minutes before midnight (1953) to 17 minutes before midnight (1991).  There is no similar clock counting down war against Iran, but if there were, the hands moved back a few minutes this week.

By Andrew Schoerke, member Veterans For Peace

The U. S. Navy is currently assembling four Carrier Strike Groups in the Arabian Sea and when in place it will be the most powerful carrier task force assembled since WW II. Although not yet announced, there is little doubt that the purpose of this sea power is to ride “shotgun” for a multi-nation countermining exercise to be held in the Gulf of Oman beginning September 24. Arguably, the exercise is also intended to show Iran that it should not attempt to close the Strait of Hormuz through which over a third of the world’s oil supply transits.  

The decision by the Harper government to sever diplomatic ties with Iran and to expel all Iranian diplomats from Canada is a dangerous and unwanted escalation of the current crisis. The Canadian Peace Alliance condemns this decision and calls on the government of Canada to normalize relations and to call for a peaceful and negotiated settlement.

This is not the first time that the government of Canada has led the drive to war with Iran. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has stated publicly that Iran is the "greatest threat to world peace." The severing of diplomatic ties shows that, in fact, the Harper government is the real threat to peace and stability.

"The global community is calling for negotiation and dialogue to avert war," said Sid Lacombe, coordinator of the Canadian Peace Alliance. "Keeping diplomatic channels open for that discussion is an absolute prerequisite to finding a peaceful solution to the conflict. The Harper government has just told the world that they don't care for peace and are instead paving the way to war."

Iranian-Canadians also spoke out against the decision to sever ties.

"We are worried that these actions by the Harper government are a sign of imminent attack," said Niaz Salimi, president of the Iranian Canadian Community Council. "We are opposed to any actions which brings us closer to war."

A war with Iran would cause untold civilian deaths and could escalate into a much larger regional conflict. There is no credible evidence that Iran is using nuclear technology to create a weapon, yet the Canadian public is being asked, once again, to put its faith in fictitious claims about Weapons of Mass Destruction. The fact that no weapons were ever found in Iraq - and that the evidence of such a program was deliberately fabricated - renders any accusations against Iran extremely questionable.

This October 6th, Canadians will demonstrate their opposition to the possibility of war against Iran by joining anti-war events across Canada.
For more information, visit http://www.acp-cpa.ca.

Iran War Weekly

September 10, 2012

Hello All – Nuclear talks between Iran and the United States-led “P5+1” remained stalled this week, with expectations that nothing will happen until after the UN convenes later this month.  The P5+1 (the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany) appears to be relying on economic sanctions to force Iran to bargain on terms that would essentially bring Iran’s nuclear program to a halt.  While minor issues, such as the alleged nuclear activity at Iran’s military base at Parchin (see below), continue to be in play, Iran’s offers to resume negotiations have been ignored.

Bogus Iranian Nuclear Threat

by Stephen Lendman

Red lines, timelines, deadlines, sanctions, sabotage, subversion, cyber attacks, assassinations, saber rattling, falsified IAEA hype, ad nauseam warmongering, Netanyahu/Barak bluster, spurious accusations, manipulated to fail P5+1 talks, and inflammatory headlines up the stakes for war.

Fars News Agency Interviews Lendman

Iranian journalist Kourosh Ziabari conducted the interview. Topics included Tehran's successful NAM summit, Iranian/US/Israeli relations, Syria, potential war against both countries, and related issues.

Fars (FNA) calls itself "Iran's leading independent news agency." Its reports shame what appears in Western media.

Questions and answers are below. Some final comments follow.

Total run time: 29:00

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Producer: David Swanson.
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Iran War Weekly

September 2, 2012

Hello All – A report this week on Iran’s nuclear program re-charged the debate on whether Israel should or would attack Iran before the US presidential election in November.  The quarterly report of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) highlighted what it said was a significant jump in Iran’s nuclear enrichment capacity.  However, a closer look at the report (as in several articles linked below) shows that the IAEA’s conclusion is simply not true.  Some analyses of the report, the treatment of the report by the New York Times and other mainstream media, and a critical assessment of what’s actually happening in Iran can be found in the good/useful reading linked below.

NAM Leaders Support Iran

by Stephen Lendman

After six historic days, over 100 participating nations expressed support for common interests as well as host country Iran. The New York Times said NAM "handed….Iran a diplomatic victory."

The Christian Science Monitor suggested efforts to isolate Iran failed. 

Anti-Iranian Rage

by Stephen Lendman

Washington and Israel wage dirty covert wars. Iran's been targeted for years. Imperial aims are prioritized. Rule of law principles don't matter. Israel wants sole regional dominance. America wants it globally. Lawless tactics continue.

"Decision by Netanyahu, Barak to strike Iran is almost final-Israel TV"

        (Times of Israel, August 11)

        "Israeli speculation over Iran strike reaches fever pitch"

        (Guardian, August 14)

Over the past several weeks there has been an eruption of alarming reports, high-level meetings, and public debate over whether Israel is close to deciding—or has already decided—to launch a military assault on Iran before the November U.S. presidential election.

By Alice Slater

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), formed in 1961 during the Cold War, is a group of 120 states and 17 observer states not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc.  The NAM held its opening 2012 session yesterday under the new chairmanship of Iran, which succeeded Egypt as the Chair.

Significantly, an Associated Press story in the Washington Post headlined, “Iran opens nonaligned summit with calls for nuclear arms ban”, reported that “Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi opened the gathering by noting commitment to a previous goal from the nonaligned group, known as NAM, to remove the world’s nuclear arsenals within 13 years.  ‘We believe that the timetable for ultimate removal of nuclear weapons by 2025, which was proposed by NAM, will only be realized if we follow it up decisively,’ he told delegates.”

Yet the New York Times, which has been beating the drums for war with Iran, just as it played a disgraceful role in the deceptive reporting during the lead-up to the Iraq War, never mentioned Iran’s proposal for nuclear abolition.  The Times carried the bland headline on its front page, “At Summit Meeting, Iran Has a Message for the World”, and then went on to state, “the message is clear.  As Iran plays host to the biggest international conference …it wants to tell its side of the long standoff with the Western powers which are increasingly convinced that Tehran is pursuing nuclear weapons”, without ever reporting Iran’s offer to support the NAM proposal for the abolition of nuclear weapons by 2025.

Surely the most sensible way to deal with Iran’s nascent nuclear weapons capacity is to call all the nations to the table to negotiate a treaty to ban the bomb.   That would mean abolishing the 20,000 nuclear bombs on the planet—in the US, UK, Russia, China, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea and Israel—with 19,000 of them in the US and Russia.   In order to get Russia and China to the table, the US will also have to give up its dreams of dominating the earth with missile “defenses” which, driven by corrupt military contractors and a corporate- owned Congress, are currently being planted and based in provocative rings around Russia and China.  

The ball is in the U.S. court to make good faith efforts for nuclear abolition.   That would be the only principled way to deal with fears of nuclear proliferation.   The US must start with a genuine offer for negotiations to finally ban the bomb in all countries, including a freeze on further missile development.  It should stop beating up on Iran and North Korea while it hypocritically continues to improve and expand the US arsenal, with tens of billions of dollars for new weapons laboratories and bomb delivery systems, and fails failing to speak out against the nuclear activities of other nations such as the enrichment of uranium in Japan and Brazil and the nuclear arsenal of Israel. 

Iran War Weekly

August 26, 2012

Hello All – Once again the front-burner drama this week re: Iran’s nuclear program was the debate within Israel about whether it should attack Iran’s nuclear sites, and especially whether Israel would/should attack before the US presidential election.  As noted below, elite opinion in Israel is running strongly against Netanyahu and the bombs-away camp; and increasingly Israelis are accusing Netanyahu of attempting to intervene in the US election to help out Mitt Romney.  While US experts largely discount the possibility of an Israeli attack, I think it’s a pretty unstable situation.

Inventing an Iranian Threat

by Stephen Lendman

Iran threatens no one. Western and Israeli leaders know it. So do over 100 Non-Aligned Movement countries coming to Tehran. They'll be there from August 26 - 31. They'll participate in NAM's 16th summit.

Their presence endorses Iran's legitimacy, extends support, shows disapproval of Western hostility and belligerence, and confers prestige when Tehran most needs it.

War of Words on Iran

by Stephen Lendman

If words could kill, imperial Washington long ago would have returned Iran to its nightmarish Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi days.

Propaganda wars rage daily. Tehran is wrongfully called an existential threat. Imagine a country wanting peace accused of belligerent intents. Repeating it enough times gets people to believe it. Big lies have impact.

U.S. Government Supports the Good Will of the American People
By Dennis Kucinich

Washington D.C. (August 21, 2012) – Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) today issued the following statement after the U.S. Treasury Department announced the issuance of a general license allowing U.S.-based organizations to provide humanitarian assistance to the victims of an earthquake in northwestern Iran. Kucinich led fourteen Members of Congress requesting that President Obama allow the humanitarian aid to flow to those who so desperately need assistance.

“The people of Iran are suffering and we have it in our capacity to alleviate some of that suffering. It is the strength of the American people that we help those in need. I thank President Obama for heeding our call, and the call of the American people to allow humanitarian aid to reach the people of Iran,” said Kucinich.

U.S.-based humanitarian organizations had been prohibited from sending aid to Iran without a general license under current U.S. sanctions against Iran. Today’s announcement by the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control will allow humanitarian organizations to transfer funds to Iran for the purposes of relief and reconstruction activities.

“Our hopes and prayers continue to be with the thousands of people in Iran who have suffered from this tragedy. We are now able to offer real help providing assistance to the people,” said Kucinich. “This is a time for unity. Perhaps this tragedy can create an opportunity for our nations to work together and begin to build trust between our nations.”

Anti-Iranian Hysteria

by Stephen Lendman

Western media, hard right commentators, and pro-Israeli groups feature regular anti-Iranian denigration, slander, misinformation and lies.

Respecting its sovereignty is verboten. Regime change is prioritized. All means are OK, including war, mass killing and destruction. Warmongers relish it. Rhetoric tries justifying it.

AIPAC Wants War on Iran

by Stephen Lendman

AIPAC is an unregistered foreign agent. It calls itself "America's Pro-Israeli Lobby." It's represented Israeli interests since 1953. 

Virtually no one in Congress confronts it. Doing so is a career-ender. It has enormous influence over US Middle East policies affecting Israel, including war and peace.

An uprising within the Israeli establishment is preventing an insane war from being started. In how many other countries could such a thing happen? This is a proud moment for Israel’s democracy.

By Larry Derfner

People don’t realize what a miracle is taking place in this country. A revolt by the Israeli military/intelligence establishment and Israel’s best reporters, helped along by President Shimon Peres and ultimately enabled by the Obama administration, is stopping an insane war from being launched by Israel’s two ideologically insane political leaders, a war they’ve been planning for years.

Dangerous Anti-Iranian Warmongering  

by Stephen Lendman

America and Israel wage aggressive wars of choice. Enemies don't exist so they're created. Belligerence is standard practice. Reckless irresponsibility defines their thinking. 

Ravaging countries to control them is policy. Rule of law principles and human lives don't matter. Wealth and power alone are prioritized. So is thinking might is right and what we say goes.

Israelis Against War on Iran

by Stephen Lendman

Polls show most Israelis and Americans oppose war with Iran. Political leaders pay no attention nor ask why Iran, with or without nuclear weapons, would strike Israel or any other country?

Iran hasn't attacked another nation in over 200 years. It threatens none now. It's not developing or producing nuclear weapons. Washington, Israeli, and most other world leaders know it.

Another Anti-Iranian Hate Group

by Stephen Lendman

America has no shortage. Belligerent groups infest the country. United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) is one of many. Its leaders represent extremist neocon interests. By any definition they’re rogues.

Mark Wallace serves as CEO. He held several Bush administration positions, including UN envoy.

By Dave Lindorff

The concerted and orchestrated campaign to capture Wikileaks founder Julian Assange and ultimately to hand him over to the tender mercies of a kangaroo court in the US, where he would likely be tried for spying and other possibly capital offenses, continues as Britain threatens the Ecuadoran Embassy with a police assault.

We think of the war on Iran as in the future, or we think of an Israeli surgical strike in the future, fantasizing that no wider war would be involved, and pretending that the United States would not be responsible.  But economic warfare is underway.  Deadly sanctions are not a means of avoiding war, but a step into it.  Cyber warfare is openly underway.  Assassinations are announced with a wink and a nod.  Terrorist groups like the MEK are funded and promoted.  And a war in Syria, with the stated goal of weakening Iran, is given U.S. support. 

As much of this sneaks in under the radar, and a fullscale war will strike viewers of "Dancing With the Stars" or "Stars Earn Stripes" as arising out of the blue, the Green Mountain Chapter of Veterans For Peace has compiled a couple of charts.  The first chronicles the escalating rhetoric, including the crime of threatening war.  The second chronicles the extent of the actual war in progress thus far.  As always, keep up on the campaign to stop attacks on Iran at http://DontAttackIran.org And sign RootsAction's petition here.

The news is filled with alarming new threats of attacks on Syria and Iran.  Secretary of State Clinton says the U.S. and Turkey are discussing details for a “No-Fly Zone” over Syria.  We know from the Libyan experience that a “No-Fly Zone” would require massive NATO bombing of Syrian air defenses and huge civilian casualties.  At the same time, State Department spokespeople are targeting Iran and Hezbollah for alleged military support to the Assad government and unsubstantiated terrorist actions.  These claims and increased sanctions are designed to justify increased U.S. intervention.  Israel says Iran is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons.  Israel, whose belligerence was recently rewarded by the U.S. gift of a $680M missile shield (added to the $3.1 billion for military aid this year), has again gone to the airwaves threatening pre-emptive military action against Iran in the near future.

All of this sounds eerily familiar as lead-ups to new wars, when the old ones have not ended.  This is how the public was whipped up and the basis was laid before attacking Iraq and Libya.  Going after Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen, and Libya, causing massive loss of life and destruction, could be small potatoes compared to the conflagration we might see following military intervention in Syria, Iran and Lebanon.  This would also prevent achievement of the promise we witnessed with the Arab Spring uprisings.  All of this stemming from a rapacious drive for imperialist domination of resources and power.