Iran takes a hard line

I would rather read of what Iran is threatening from the source - rather than from the source advocating war.


These statements are completely unsourced.

Iran Warns of Pre-Emptive Action in Nuclear Dispute

NY Times,

21 February, 2012

As tension grew in its nuclear dispute with the West, Iran was reported on Tuesday to have struck an increasingly bellicose tone, warning that it would take pre-emptive action against perceived foes if it felt its national interests were threatened, and laying down new conditions for oil sales.

The warnings came as Tehran also appeared to place limits on a visit by a team of United Nations nuclear officials, saying the investigators would not go to nuclear facilities, despite earlier reports that its members had sought permission to inspect a military complex outside Tehran.

In a further extension of a dispute with the European Union over an oil embargo due to come into force on July 1, Tehran also outlined what were termed conditions for future sales to European customers. Iran said Sunday that it had cut off sales to Britain and France and warned on Monday that it might extend the ban to other members of the 27-nation European Union.

Growing tensions over Iran’s disputed nuclear program have provoked speculation that Israel may be contemplating a military strike against nuclear facilities, which Tehran says are for peaceful purposes but which the West suspects are inching toward the capability to produce nuclear weapons.

Without mentioning Israel directly, Mohammed Hejazi, the deputy armed forces head, said on Tuesday: “Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran’s national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions.” Divisions in Iran’s leadership make it difficult to interpret the government’s intentions, but the statement showed a new level of aggressiveness in Iran’s rhetoric.

The statement came a day after a team from the International Atomic Energy Agency arrived in Tehran on Monday for the second time in three weeks. The Associated Press quoted the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Ramin Mehmanparast, as saying the investigators from the International Atomic Energy Agency had no plans to visit the contentious nuclear sites, which the West maintains are part of a covert weapons program.

The inspectors did ask on Monday to see a military complex outside Tehran that is a suspected secret weapons-making location, Iranian radio said, according to The A.P. It was not clear whether the Iranian authorities had specifically turned down the reported request. I.A.E.A. officials did not immediately return calls seeking clarification.

Mr. Mehmanparast took issue with the role of the I.A.E.A. officials saying they were experts, not inspectors. “This is an expert delegation. The purpose of visit is not inspection.”

“The aim is to negotiate about cooperation between Iran and the agency and to set a framework for a continuation of the talks,” he said, adding: “Iran’s cooperation with the agency continues and is at its best level.”

Last week, in a letter to the European Union, Iran called for new talks “at the earliest possibility” with the group of six powers that have negotiated with Iran in the past on the nuclear issue: Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.

As the I.A.E.A. delegation left its headquarters in Vienna late Sunday, its leader, Herman Nackaerts, said the delegation wished to investigate “the possible military dimensions” that Tehran insists the program does not have and that the inspectors’ previous visit did nothing to resolve.

The leader of the delegation of inspectors, Mr. Nackaerts, said “We hope to have some concrete results after this trip.” Though weapons development was the most important question, he said, “We want to tackle all outstanding issues.”

Mr. Nackaerts, the atomic agency’s deputy director general, warned that “this is of course a complex issue, which may take a while,” according to a transcript of his remarks made available on Monday by agency officials.

International tension has been rising steadily, as Iran claims significant technological advances in uranium enrichment and threatens retaliation against countries that pursue sanctions against it, including a boycott of its oil.

Shortly after the I.A.E.A. team arrived for talks with Iranian officials, the Iranian government signaled that it might expand the ban on oil shipments to Britain and France, announced on Sunday, to cover other European powers that it deems “hostile” because of broader economic sanctions by the European Union that are scheduled to come into force on July 1. The ban was apparently announced to pre-empt those sanctions, which include a boycott on new purchases.

Iran’s deputy oil minister, Ahmad Qalebani, said that oil exports to Germany, Greece, Italy the Netherlands, Portugal and Spain might also be banned, state media reported

“Undoubtedly, if the hostile actions of certain European countries continue, oil exports to these countries will be stopped,” Mr. Qalebani, who is also the managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company, was quoted as saying by the Mehr News Agency.

The threat reflected speculation that Iran may be trying to sow division in the 27-nation European Union between the members that do not rely heavily on Iranian oil and those that do.

That speculation intensified on Tuesday when Mr. Mehmanparast, the foreign ministry spokesman, said Tehran had told the ambassadors of six European nations that Iran’s conditions for continued oil sales to them included guarantees of payment and the signing of contracts lasting three to five years that were not subject to “unilateral cancellation” by the purchasers of Iranian oil.

The oil minister, Rostam Qassemi, also spoke to the IRNA news agency about “long term contracts for buying oil from Iran.”

Over all, the European Union buys about 18 percent of the oil that Iran exports. But those exports are much more important to Italy and Spain, which each get about one-eighth of their oil supplies from Iran, or to Greece, which gets one-third, than they are to Britain and Germany, which get only 1 percent of their oil from Iran, or to France, which gets only 3 percent.

Despite Mr. Qalebani’s remarks, Iran may hesitate to compound the economic harm it suffers from existing sanctions by forfeiting significant revenue from oil sales to Europe now. Even so, the standoff between Iran and the West sometimes resembles a poker game with potentially lethal stakes, as both Iran and its adversaries maneuver for advantage with no way of knowing their opponent’s ultimate intentions.

The latest I.A.E.A. visit to Tehran is scheduled to last two days, though it may be extended, as the last one was. Diplomats who were briefed on the discussions held on the last visit said that Iranian officials failed to address the major concerns about Iran’s activities that were raised in a report issued by the agency in November.

Some of the latest Western worries center on a new uranium enrichment plant at Fordo, Iran, which is buried deep underground, making it much harder to monitor or, presumably, to attack.

Iran tried to keep construction of the plant secret, but Western intelligence agencies confirmed its existence in 2009; Iran then insisted that it had intended to make the plant publicly known all along.

In the past, calls for talks from Iran have often been accompanied by warlike statements that it is honing its military capabilities. Iran’s defense minister, Brig. Gen. Ahmad Vahidi, said Monday that the country had begun several projects to build new advanced warplanes, according to Press TV, a state-financed satellite broadcaster.

On its Web site, the broadcaster showed a photograph of what it said was a long-range land-to-sea missile called Qader, or Capable, being fired during war games in southern Iran.

Israel irked by top US officials' opposition to Iran attack

The Israeli regime has condemned recent remarks made by senior US officials critical of Tel Aviv’s threats of attacking Iran, claiming that they "served Iran's interests."

Press TV,

21 February, 2012

In a meeting with US National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, top Israeli officials, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed their displeasure to the high-ranking American official. 

According to a senior Israeli official, Netanyahu and Barak were bitterly irked by the interview given by Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey on Sunday, during which he emphasized that attacking Iran is “not prudent at this point” as it "would be destabilizing," Ha’aretz reported on Tuesday. 

"I'm confident that they (Israel) understand our concerns that a strike at this time would be destabilizing and wouldn't achieve their long-term objectives," Dempsey said. 

"We made it clear to Donilon that all those statements and briefings only served the Iranians… The Iranians see there's controversy between the United States and Israel, and that the Americans object to a military act. That reduces the pressure on them,” the Israeli official said. 

Israeli officials have recently ramped up their war rhetoric threatening Iran with military strikes in case the US-engineered sanctions against the country fail to force Tehran into abandoning its civilian nuclear program. 

The United States, Israel and some of their allies accuse Tehran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear program, using this pretext to impose sanctions against Iran and threaten the country with military attack. 

However, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has never found any evidence indicating that Tehran's civilian nuclear program has been diverted towards nuclear weapons production.