Turkey Threatens Syria and Iran

Prime Minister Erdogan Slams Assad

By: Mohammad Noureddine

Source: Global Research
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32290

By: Mohammad Noureddine posted on Thursday, Aug 9, 2012

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has unleashed all kinds of condemnations of Syria and Iran. He questioned whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was really a Muslim, which will likely provoke Alawites inside Turkey and abroad. Erdogan also accused Iran of disloyalty, vowing to fight “the enemies of Turkey” until the end.

Following an iftar (Ramadan feast) held the day before yesterday [August 7], Erdogan sent very strong messages to Iran and “the enemies of Turkey.” He said that “the terrorist organization [The Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK)] is currently in the midst of a battle orchestrated by the enemies of Turkey. However, we will fight the battle against anti-Turkish circles with the highest severity and determination. We will not take a single step back.” Erdogan added that Turkey’s “enemies want to change our priorities.”

Erdogan strongly criticized Iran, saying: “We stood by Iran when no one was at its side. Is it consistent with our beliefs to defend a regime that has killed 25,000 people? The Iranian leadership must first take responsibility for its actions.”

He added: “250,000 Syrians have left the country [Syria]. Is this not the responsibility of Iran? Yet, before Iran takes responsibility for the situation in Syria, it must first hold itself accountable [for its own]. We always take responsibility for our actions.”

Erdogan criticized Assad, asking: “Can we even say that he is a Muslim?”

Erdogan denied interfering in Syria’s internal affairs. He launched an attack on Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the opposition Republican People's Party, describing him as part of an anti-Turkey campaign. He said that “just like there is the Baath Party in Syria, there is the Republican People's Party in Turkey.”

Kilicdaroglu said in response that the current state of Turkey is depriving him of sleep.

“I am deeply saddened and concerned. I cannot sleep because of the situation in the country, while the prime minister is happy about it,” he said. “The prime minister is blind if he cannot see the dire situation facing the country. He is extremely detached from the current reality.”

In an article written in Hurriyet, Cengiz Candar slammed the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) for its Kurdish policy. He said that the countdown to the fall of Erdogan and the AKP has begun, and whether it will be a soft landing is yet to be seen.

Candar notes that “two conclusions can be made regarding what is happening. First and foremost, Turkish leadership in the region cannot be achieved through the government’s current policy toward the Kurds. Secondly, Turkey cannot hinder the emergence of a new reality in the region involving Kurds and Syrians, and its possible implications in Turkey."

He continues, “We have always stressed that a change in Turkey’s Kurdish policy, as well as its Middle Eastern policy, would positively affect the internal situation. I will say it frankly for the first time: the hopes pinned on the desire and ability of the government to achieve such a change are running out. The new reality will not change the fact that Turkey is facing a dilemma. It is trying to operate in a swamp from which it cannot emerge to build a regional leadership.” Candar adds that “the Kurdish problem cannot be solved through the current policy. On the contrary, the opposite could happen, meaning that the AKP’s authority may gradually disintegrate.”

Candar states that “Mount Erciyes in Turkey is 3,916 meters high. Today, it appears that Erdogan is still at the top of the mountain, but no longer at an altitude of 3,916 meters, he is now at 3,900 meters. His descent has begun and will continue until 2014 [when Erdogan runs for reelection]. But given its pace, which is unprecedented in the history of the Middle East, a smooth landing cannot be guaranteed.

“Turkish authorities have an obligation to change their policy adopted more than a year ago, and must stop using the PKK and terrorism as excuses for their actions. As long as the authorities insist on this policy, we will continue to criticize it,” Candar writes.

In Turkish daily Milliyet, Metin Munir criticized Turkey's sectarian policy toward Syria and the region.

“The government is seeking to gain points through its pro-Sunni and anti-Jewish policies. We have started to pay the price for that. Shortly after the start of the events in Syria, Assad became Turkey’s primary enemy,” he said. “Turkey, along with Qatar and Saudi Arabia, started to arm and fund Assad's opponents. Turkey did all it could to bring Assad down. It tried to persuade Washington to support intervention in Syria, as it had in Libya. It also maintained that the departure of Assad would be in the interest of Turkey. However, Turkey was not able to achieve this goal. In fact, Assad’s departure is not in the interest of Turkey, but to the contrary. Syria, just like Turkey, is a country with diverse sects and ethnicities. Its population consists of Arabs, Kurds, Christians, Alawites and Sunnis. Under the authoritarian regime of Assad and his father, the unity of the country was preserved.”

Munir added: “Today, however, Syria is being divided, which poses an extreme threat to Turkey. Assad has begun to use the PKK against Turkey. He has handed the north of the country to the Kurds, and furnished them with heavy weaponry. Fighters have come from the Qandil Mountains [in Iraq] to Syria. Assad has transformed the area that extends from the Iranian border to the Mediterranean Sea into a battlefield against Turkey.”

Munir continues, saying: “Turkey must provide humanitarian aid to the Syrian people, but it should maintain neutrality regarding the Syrian conflict. Although this would be in the interests of Turkey, it has not happened. We have earned the enmity of Assad for no specific reason. He is now hitting us in a painful spot, that is, the Kurdish question. Why should we help Assad’s enemies inflict harm upon us? Do not cry out against the bloodshed of the Syrian people, as we should first work to prevent the bloodshed of our own. As the English proverb goes, charity begins at home.”

For the first time, the Turkish Ministry of the Interior issued a statement on the clashes that have been taking place in the Semdinli and Hakkari regions since July 23. The statement included expressions such as “intensify military readiness,” “ensure full sovereignty” and “continue the fight until the area is cleansed of ​​terrorists."

According to Turkish newspaper Radikal, “these are indications that the PKK seeks to establish an [independent] zone and will not leave it, and that the violent clashes there will escalate in the coming days.”

Will NATO and Turkey become Actively Involved in Syria War? - Interview

By: Rick Rozoff and John Robles

Source: Global Research:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=32279

As the Syrian crisis escalates, Turkey, Syria and Poland are all under NATO's constraint these days. Was a bilateral arrangement of Poland with the US a mistake? Should Poland develop its own missiles interception system integrated into or with NATO?

Interview with Mr. Rick Rozoff, manager of Stop NATO website .

Can you give our listeners an update on what’s going on with NATO?

NATO’s been keeping a very low profile for several weeks. Their website, for example, has not updated for at least three weeks, perhaps a month. I’m not sure what to attribute that to. It may be a conscious decision to keep a low profile as the Syrian crisis escalates. So that should they become involved - a likely scenario, of course, is in alleged defense of Turkey - if border skirmishes develop that they will not have tipped their hand or signaled what they want to do...In terms of a new commander at NATO’s Norfolk command, which is called Allied Command Transformation, it was the first major NATO headquarters – and the only one to date – in the United States...

You talked about defending Turkey. Now Turkey recently made some statements regarding the fact that they’re against a military intervention in Syria.

I believe Turkish officials said that to Russian officials. And I would imagine that’s what Ankara thinks Moscow wants to hear. We should recall that last week Turkey moved 25 tanks as well as missile batteries and armored personnel carriers along with troops to within two kilometers of the Syrian border, allegedly engaging in a military exercise aimed at the Kurdistan Workers' Party, but in fact claiming that a political party on the other side of the border, in Syria, is linked with the Kurdistan Workers' Party and intimating if not stating quite openly that Turkey reserves the right to intervene militarily against supporters of the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers' Party, inside Syria.

So a scenario could come into existence whereby Turkey stages a provocation. You probably saw today's news, John, that Turkey is claiming they’ve killed something like 117 Kurdistan Workers Party fighters in southeastern Turkey near the Iraqi border. So things are heating up there. And if it's the intent, not only of Turkey, but if it's the intent of the West as a whole to stage a direct military intervention into Syria, then the most likely pretext for doing so would be a clash between Turkish and Syrian forces near the border, on either side of the border, and then Turkey once again returning to NATO and asking for assistance from its fellow NATO members.

Do you have any information on what’s going on in Aleppo? Several high officials, I believe, were captured when the Syrian Army took Aleppo back under its control.

An English-language Iranian website mentioned that a Turkish general had been captured by Syrian forces in Aleppo. And I personally spoke with a Syrian émigré whose brother is in pretty influential circles in Damascus and he mentioned that six or seven foreign officers were captured in Aleppo within the last 24-48 hours. And he mentioned them being not only Turkish, but Arabic-speaking, presumably Saudi, Qatari or other Persian Gulf Arab States. This shouldn’t surprise us that, trying to throw together an organized insurgency, funded certainly and based abroad, would also entail having probably special operations officers, maybe of fairly high rank, from Turkey and from Arab Gulf states involved in the fighting in Aleppo and earlier in Damascus.

You’re saying six or seven generals were captured in Aleppo.

The term that was used in my conversation was generals, but I think we're probably safe in assuming they were officers of some ranking, perhaps not generals.

They were commanding officers, but were they from different countries?

That’s correct.

Have you heard anything about training camps that have been set up on borders of Syria?

That’s an established fact. That Saudi Arabia supplied the funding for a training camp for fighters. Roughly, I believe, 40 kilometers from the Syrian border, if I'm not mistaken, inside Turkey. But this has been going on for quite a while. As long ago as, say, last November or October as I recollect even the Daily Telegraph in Britain was quoting an official of so-called Free Syrian Army stating there were 15,000 fighters – he didn’t specify their nationality, incidentally - but 15,000 fighters inside Turkey receiving material support and training. That’s probably a hyperbolical figure. He was probably exaggerating for propaganda purposes. But it’s an indication this has been going on for some time. The Saudis funding the creation of a special training camp inside Turkey that close to the Syrian border is an escalation of the conflict.

Can you tell us about the problems that NATO has had supplying the troops in Afghanistan?

For five days now what was to be the resumption of NATO supplies from Pakistan into Afghanistan has been held up, supposedly because of security concerns, as I understand it, but as recently as yesterday two NATO vehicles were torched in the Pakistani province of Balochistan. So what we're seeing, in fact, is a resumption of attempted supplying of NATO forces in Afghanistan and we're seeing exactly the same situation that obtained at the time they were occurring before the attack on the Pakistani border outpost in Salala last November that killed 25 Pakistani troops. What we’re seeing is that NATO supply vehicles are being attacked and set afire.

What can you say about Polish President’s announcement a couple of days ago? He said that it had been a mistake to agree with NATO on building ABM infrastructure in Poland.

That is a fascinating question. I’ve been trying to make sense of that since the story broke. I’m not quite sure if he was alluding to the earlier George W. Bush administration plan to put Ground-based Midcourse, longer-range, interceptor missiles or if it’s an allusion to what’s called the European Phased Adaptive Approach of the Obama administration, which is planning to put 24 Standard Missile-3, advanced Standard Missile-3, interceptors in Poland by 2018. It’s unclear whether he's talking about the Bush program that's already been superseded or the Obama program that's still in the works. But in any event, the paraphrase of his comments that I’ve read suggested that a bilateral arrangement with the United States was a mistake and that Poland should develop its own missile interception system and integrate it into or with NATO.

He was repeatedly asked who they would be defending themselves against. He refused to answer the question.

Of course he refused to answer because the answer is not one that the United States wants him to provide. That country is Russia. The argument that the original Ground-based Midcourse interceptors were meant to hit Iranian missiles...one has to in one’s imagination conjure up a map of the world and try to imagine, first of all, how Iran would have the capability of launching basically intercontinental ballistic missiles over Poland, presumably over the Arctic Circle to hit the United States. That's an impossibility, fallacious from the very beginning.

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US threatens Syria with more unrest

Source: Press TV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/187296.html

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has issued another threat to the Syrian government, vowing that it will face more unrest unless it implements swift reforms.

In her recent visit to Lithuania, Clinton boasted that the clock was ticking for Syria, demanding for Damascus to “begin a genuine transition to democracy" or face an increasingly organized resistance, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Clinton's remarks come amid Washington's publicity campaign to drum up support for a UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution against Syria.

Russia has repeatedly said it will not support a UN resolution against Syria, stressing that the Syrians should resolve their differences without any outside interference.

Some analysts have cast doubt on Clinton's advocacy of “democracy” in Syria, insisting that it is part of a US effort to impose its hegemony over Syria.

“I think the United States wants a political prize from Syria. They are not interested in reforms inside Syria, because the United States wants to [create a] divide between Iran, Hezbollah and Syria, because it is strategically very important for the United States and Israel,” political analyst Bassam Abdallah said.

Syria has been experiencing unrest in the past months, with demonstrations held both against and in support of President Bashar al-Assad's government. Hundreds have been reported killed when some protest rallies turned into armed clashes between alleged protesters and state security forces as well as organized attacks by well-armed gangs against Syrian police forces and border guards in north of the country.

Meanwhile, in a Thursday address, Iran's Leader of the Islamic Revolution described Syria as a frontline state in the resistance against Israel, insisting that recent unrest in the country has been propped up and actively supported by US and Israeli elements outside the country and that in no way does it resemble recent popular uprisings in the region

“The United States is now looking to withdraw from Iraq and they want to prepare a strategic environment or atmosphere in the region and it is important for them for the oil and we should not forget that there is a competition between the United States, Russia and China on the international level so we should understand that the United States is looking for its interests,” Abdallah said.

“Foreign governments want any reason to take down the Syrian government, but we are happy [with] what we are. We don't need Americans to involve. Look what they did in Libya. They only make problems worse,” said a common Syrian citizen.

Israeli PM threatens new Gaza aid boat

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=128999§ionid=351020202


Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has threatened to halt a boat which is trying to reach the Gaza Strip after Israeli troops attacked an aid convoy earlier this week.

An Irish aid boat, the MV Rachel Corrie, was on course to dock in Gaza at the weekend.

Speaking to top Israeli officials on Thursday, Netanyahu said, "We shall not allow the ships to reach Gaza. Not now and not later on," Israel's Ynet reported.

He also warned that the Israeli forces would direct the Rachel Corrie ship to the Ashdod port.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Andy David in an interview with ABC News confirmed the premier's warning, saying that "the Rachel Corrie will not be allowed into Gaza."

The new vessel is trying to break the three-year-long Gaza blockade after the Gaza Freedom Flotilla, consisting of six international ships, was assaulted by the Israeli Navy on Monday.

The attack, which provoked global anger, left at least 20 activists dead and dozens others injured.

The Rachel Corrie is carrying some 750 tons of aid including medical and school supplies, and 15 people including Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and former UN assistant secretary general Denis Halliday.

The boat is named after Rachel Corrie, a US activist killed in 2003 as she tried to prevent an Israeli military bulldozer from razing a Palestinian home in Rafah.

US demands Chinese action on yuan

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=123825§ionid=3510213


A top US lawmaker has threatened China with trade measures by Washington if Beijing does not raise the value of its currency yuan.

Amid speculations about an ensuing trade war, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Sander Levin says the Obama administration will try to gain global support to pressure China to revalue its currency.

"If it doesn't work, the US will act. I have no doubt about it. I think the administration will act and I think the Congress will act," the Democratic congressman from Michigan said on Monday.

The warning came a weak after Chinese President Hu Jintao told President Barack Obama that the value of the yuan will neither balance Sino-US trade, nor solve America's unemployment problem. Hu reiterated that China will firmly stick to its own path for yuan's reform.

American industry groups have filed a petition saying China is subsidizing its aluminum exporters by depreciating its currency.

They have asked for steep duties on Chinese imports as well, although the US Commerce Department has declined to probe into similar complaints in 10 previous cases.

The Department says it was nearing a decision on Chinese currency probe.

Levin also gave China an ultimatum to increase the value of its currency before the Group of 20 summit meeting in Canada at the end of June or face further measures.

Beijing has frozen the yuan's exchange rate against the dollar since mid-2008.

Beijing's decision not to deviate from its strategy comes in response to market volatility experienced during the global financial crisis and ongoing uncertainty in international markets.

Israel threatens Syria with war

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=123695§ionid=351020202


Israel has tried to justify a war on Syria, claiming it could be attacked by Syrian-supplied missiles of Lebanon's Hezbollah resistance movement.

Based on allegations that Syria is equipping Hezbollah with Scud missiles, Tel Aviv communicated a menace-laden message to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad earlier this month, the British weekly newspaper The Sunday Times reported Sunday.

In the 'secret' message, Israel alleged that Hezbollah may launch an attack on Israel using the projectiles, threatening to engage Syria in a war if such missile offensive by the Lebanese movement materializes.

“We'll return Syria to the Stone Age by crippling its power stations, ports, fuel storage and every bit of strategic infrastructure if Hezbollah dares to launch ballistic missiles against us,” the paper quoted an Israeli minister as saying.

Last week, Syrian Foreign Ministry rejected the Israeli allegations, insisting that the claims were meant to justify military actions against Syria and provide it with the excuse to avoid peace.

Also, Hezbollah Deputy Secretary General Sheikh Naim Qassem on Saturday described the Israeli allegations as "cover-up" for its somewhat uneasy ties with the United States and its nuclear arms program.

Both Syria and Lebanon have areas occupied by the Tel Aviv regime and have invariably supported each others' anti-Israeli stance.

Tel Aviv has recently reinforced the verbal aspersions with action by intruding into Lebanese border town of Abbassiyeh and firing flares over southern Lebanon.

Israeli minister talks of new war on Gaza

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121844§ionid=351020202



A senior Israeli minister has threatened that Tel Aviv will "liquidate" Hamas sooner or later, adding that Israel may even launch a new offensive on the Gaza Strip.

Israel's Finance minister Yuval Steinitz said Tel Aviv has not set a timetable for when it will eliminate the Palestinian movement, but he underscored that it would happen sooner or later.

He said Israel cannot tolerate the movement becoming stronger. Steinitz did not rule out the possibility of a new invasion of Gaza, saying Tel Aviv had no choice, but to take such action.

Israel launched a 22-day war on the coastal strip in December 2008. Over one-thousand-four-hundred Palestinians were killed in the offensive — most of them civilians.

The war also left thousands of Palestinians homeless as entire neighborhoods were flattened by Israeli forces.

Steinitz has also slammed the pressure from the US and the international community on Israel to alleviate the Gaza siege.

"American pressure isn't conductive and isn't fair, because the Netanyahu government made two enormous gestures toward the Palestinians: The opportunity to improve the Palestinian economy, and the settlement freeze," Haaretz quoted the Israeli minister as saying on Sunday.

"The US needs to understand that the atmosphere it created in the Middle East, makes Washington now less friendly to Israel, and isn't making the Palestinians more willing to compromise; it further adds to their rejection of the peace process," he added.

The Israeli minister's claims about Israel's settlement freeze comes as Tel Aviv announced plans to build 1,600 more settlement units in east Jerusalem (Al-Quds), which was occupied by Israel in 1967, a move considered illegal under the international law.

China threatens US over currency rate dispute

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=121383§ionid=351020404


Beijing has threatened to retaliate if the United States declares China a currency manipulator and imposes trade sanctions.

The US Treasury is to rule whether China is unfairly holding down its exchange rate to gain a competitive edge in global markets.

Political pressure is growing in Washington to declare China a currency manipulator. Some US senators have threatened to slap duties on Chinese products if Beijing fails to allow the yuan's value to rise.

Washington says China holds the yuan low so that Chinese goods can enjoy an artificial competitive edge.

Three years ago, Beijing had let the yuan climb 21 percent against the US dollar.

The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have both urged China to let the yuan resume its ascent.

The currency debate has caused tension between the US and China. Relations between Beijing and Washington have been deteriorating over a number of issues, including the Pentagon's arms sales to Taiwan.

Turkey: Israel move threatens ME peace process

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=119541§ionid=351020204


Turkey has warned that Israel's decision to designate two Palestinian locations as Israeli national heritage sites would impede the Middle East peace process.

“We are concerned about the announcement by the Israeli authorities that certain historic artifacts in the West Bank, some of which are of importance to the Islamic world, will be accorded 'Israeli cultural heritage' status,” said the Turkish Foreign Ministry in a written statement.

“This step will create serious distrust between parties and harm the intensified efforts made in this critical period to revive the negotiations for the settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which has been a source of grief for the people of the region for years,” the statement emphasized.

“We invite Israel to abide by international law in Jerusalem and the West Bank and to refrain from unilateral and provocative practices directed toward historic sites, including sacred places for Muslims, that are essentially a part of the Islamic cultural heritage,” it concluded.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced Sunday that the regime is planning to include Rachel's Tomb in Bethlehem and the Cave of the Patriarchs in al-Khalil in a "national heritage plan."

Palestinian authorities have called on the international community to pressure Israel to renege on its decision. The move has sparked Palestinian protests and has drawn criticism from other quarters, including the UN.

Democratically-elected Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has called for uprisings in the occupied West Bank to protest the plan.

Makarov: US anti-missile shield targets Russia

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=118340§ionid=351020602


Nikolai Makarov, the chief of Russia's general staff, brushes aside Washington's statements of reassurance regarding US plans to deploy an anti-missile shield in Europe, saying the system is aimed at targeting Russia.

"The American anti-missile shield targets Russia, despite the official statements from Washington," Makarov said on Tuesday.

According to the Russian official, the development and the implementation of the defense system are actions that threaten Russia.

“It is natural that we view this very negatively, because this to some extent can weaken our missile capability,” he said.

Makarov further pointed out that the US anti-missile system undermines Russia's strategic plans irrespective of what American officials declared.

Despite efforts to improve relations that suffered a post-Cold War low during the Bush administration, Moscow and Washington failed to renew the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) before it expired on December 5, 2009.

Washington's new plan for the defense system's deployment, originally introduced by George W. Bush, has changed the location of the system, but has done little to ease Russia's concerns that the system is a threat to the country.

Syria warns Israel against military offensive

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117787§ionid=351020206


Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem has cautioned Israel against any act of adventurism and launching a war against his country, saying such a move would only endanger the regime's stability.

"Israelis, do not test the power of Syria since you know the war will move into your cities," Muallem told a media conference with his visiting Spanish counterpart Miguel Angel Moratinos in Damascus on Wednesday.

"Return to reason, follow the path of peace ... and implement the requirements of peace fairly and comprehensively," he added.

"If a war breaks out in the region... it will be widespread even if it is waged against [only] southern Lebanon or Syria," Muallem warned.

Under the auspices of Turkey, Israel and Syria have held four rounds of indirect talks aimed at a comprehensive peace agreement. Negotiations, however, reached a stalemate in September 2009.

Syria withdrew from the talks in protest at Israel's December 2008-January 2009 military offensive against the Gaza Strip. At least 1,400 Palestinians were killed and 5,400 others were injured during the three-week long offensive.

Israel threatens to 'use force' against Iran

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117817§ionid=351020104



Israeli Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon says Israel might use force to prevent Iran from developing "nuclear weapons", a claim Iran vehemently rejects.

"Iran's plan will probably be stopped by a regime change or, if there is no other choice, by recourse to force to deprive Iran of its nuclear arms production capabilities," Yaalon told a security conference in Herzliya.

"It is important to continue to make clear to the extremist regime in Iran that all options remain on the table and that ignoring the demands of the international community will probably end in bitter tears for Iran," AFP quoted Yaalon as saying on Wednesday.

Yaalon's reference to force was not new. Israel has consistently voiced its determination to stop Iran's nuclear program even through military options.

Israel which is believed to be the only possessor of nuclear arms in the Middle East accuses Iran of pursuing a military nuclear program.

Iran, a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty has declared that its peaceful nuclear program is being pursued within international regulations .The UN nuclear watchdog has repeatedly announced that it had not found any evidence to support the allegations that Iran is seeking to develop nuclear arms.

US threatens Iran with 'severe sanctions'

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117814§ionid=351020104


US Defense Secretary Robert Gates says Iran faces "severe sanctions” from the US and major world powers over its nuclear program.

Gates noted that US President Barack Obama's warning last week that Iran's statesmen would suffer "growing consequences" if they ignored international obligations meant tough sanctions were in the offing.

"I think in the near term it's more likely to be severe sanctions imposed partly by the UN Security Council and partly by the United States and like-minded countries," Gates told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

He did not specify what financial or other sanctions might be imposed on Tehran.

Tehran has repeatedly declared that it will not relinquish the Iranian nation's legitimate nuclear rights under the West's pressure.

Israel threatens Iran with "heavy price"

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=117640§ionid=351020104


Israeli National Security Advisor Uzi Arad has threatened Iran with 'heavy' measures after reports of US augmentation of forces off Iran's coast.

Uzi Arad, senior advisor to the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, said Monday that he believes the situation with Iran may escalate; Tehran may have to pay a heavy price for what he called defying the world.

"Israel is being silent, on acting in the Middle East's fighting on terrorism, and therefore events that takes place in the region, are on the hype," Arad told a conference in the coast city of Herzliya.

Arad made the remarks as Israeli politicians have masterminded a wave of undercover operations and terror plots in numerous countries, including Jordan, Syria, Lebanon and Iran.

In the latest such incident the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, has been accused of assassinating senior Palestinian commander, Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, in Dubai on January 20.

Hamas officials say they have concrete evidence that Mossad staged the assassination.

Their claims have been somewhat supported by Dubai Police Chief Dhahi Khalfan. "It could be Mossad," AFP quoted police Chief Dhahi Khalfan as saying on Sunday.

The comments also come as Sunday media reports reveal that Tel Aviv's staunch ally has taken steps to increase the capability of land-based Patriot missiles on the territory of some of its Arab allies in the Persian Gulf region.

The buildup is revealed at a critical time in Tehran-Washington affairs. On Thursday, the US Senate passed a bill advocating tough sanctions on any entity, individual, company or even country, which deals in refined petroleum with Iran.

Washington accuses Iran of developing nuclear weapons and has for years levied sanctions and war threats to force the Tehran government into halting its nuclear activities.

Iran which has been under various US sanctions after the Islamic Revolution toppled a US-backed monarch in 1979 rejects the accusations as politically motivated.

Iran's nuclear program was launched in the 1950s with the help of the United States as part of the Atoms for Peace program. After the 1979 Revolution, Western companies working on Iran's program refused to fulfill their obligations even though they had been paid in full.

Iran is a signatory of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and, unlike some of its regional neighbors, has opened its enrichment plants to UN inspection.

Japan threatens if China starts gas production

Source: PressTV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=116364§ionid=351020406


Japan has warned China that it will take action if Beijing starts a gas project in a disputed field in the East China Sea.

Meeting on the sidelines of the Forum for East Asia-Latin America Cooperation in Tokyo, Japanese Foreign Minister Katsuya Okada told his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi that Tokyo will take 'certain' action if Beijing violates an agreement reached in 2008, Japanese media reported Sunday.

Okada suggested that Japan may start development on its own in the area if China goes ahead with gas production in one of the disputed fields, known as Shirakaba in Japan, a Japanese Foreign Ministry official said.

Yang expressed strong opposition to the Japanese official, saying this was unacceptable. The two ministers agreed on the need to continue frequent high-level dialogue.

The accord allows the two countries to jointly explore gas resources in the disputed East China Sea.

China has set up a gas field only four kilometers from the territory claimed by Japan. Tokyo objects to the gas field's development.

Estimated net known reserves in the disputed fields are a modest 92 million barrels of oil equivalent, but both countries have pursued the issue because there may be larger hidden reserves.


Japan, threatens, China, disputed, field, gas, oil