Election over; now it's Iran's turn!

[Spiffor]

What Sandman says

[lord of the mark]

Re: Election over; now it's Iran's turn!

Originally posted by techumseh
I believe the current visit of Ehud Barak to Washington

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by Sandman
First thing to do, before exchanging missiles, is to exchange ambassadors. It's absolutely ridiculous that Iran and Israel don't have normal diplomatic relations.

Fixed.

[Kuciwalker]

That the ultimate goal of the Bush administration is an attack on Iran, I've never had any doubt.

Even tass isn't this ****ing paranoid.

[techumseh]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

It's absolutely ridiculous that Iran and America don't have normal diplomatic relations.

You know, there might still be some ill will over what happened to our last embassy staff...

Yeah, and the coup that overthrew Iran's elected government and brought in the Shah probably chafes a bit too.

[techumseh]

...Olmert reiterated Israel's intention to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.

"We have reached the pivotal moment of truth regarding Iran," the prime minister said. "It would be an unbearable sin to future generations to allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons."

Jerusalem Post, Nov 15, 2006

However, he did talk about building a coalition of "moderate" Arab countries to oppose Iranian ambitions. The irony is that the main bulwark against Iran was Saddam Hussien's Iraq. Now it's their greatest opportunity.

So perhaps 2 weeks is too soon. But they've been clear for some time that a nuclear Iran wll "not be tolerated".

[techumseh]

Re: Re: Election over; now it's Iran's turn!

Originally posted by lord of the mark

Just a brain fart late at night, LotM. Glad you enjoyed it, though.

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by techumseh


Yeah, and the coup that overthrew Iran's elected government and brought in the Shah probably chafes a bit too.

Except most of the left opposition that in 1979 were the spiritual heirs of Mossadegh, have been crushed by the Islamist regime.

[lord of the mark]

Re: Re: Re: Election over; now it's Iran's turn!

Originally posted by techumseh


Just a brain fart late at night, LotM. Glad you enjoyed it, though.

Ive mistyped things, but for anyone who follows Israeli politics at all, confusing Ehud Barak with Ehud Olmert is really quite something.

[techumseh]

Once you've seen one Ehud, you've seen them all.

[techumseh]

Originally posted by lord of the mark


Except most of the left opposition that in 1979 were the spiritual heirs of Mossadegh, have been crushed by the Islamist regime.

It's just another example of how the west's constant interference has undermined the secular leadership of the Arab world, leading directly to the rise of Islamism.

[Darius871]

Originally posted by Drake Tungsten

It's absolutely ridiculous that Iran and America don't have normal diplomatic relations.

You know, there might still be some ill will over what happened to our last embassy staff...

Hey, all we need to do this time is build a bunker lined with pillboxes, and maybe an escape fleet of armored buses covered in concertina wire and running chainsaws like in the Dawn of the Dead remake. Now that's what I call diplomacy!

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by techumseh


It's just another example of how the west's constant interference has undermined the secular leadership of the Arab world, leading directly to the rise of Islamism.

excuse me? Im talking about leftists who survived the Shah, participated in the '79 revolution, and then were driven out by the Khomeinists. The secular leadership was there, it wasnt undermined by the west, it just got outmaneuvered by radical islamists.

And constant interference? If youre talking about Mossadegh, you do know that happened in 1954,dont you? Im one of the older folks at this forum, and that was before I was born.

Oh, and Iran is not Arab, BTW. Or was that another brain fart? Have you considered mental beano?

[lord of the mark]

Originally posted by techumseh
Jerusalem Post, Nov 15, 2006

However, he did talk about building a coalition of "moderate" Arab countries to oppose Iranian ambitions. The irony is that the main bulwark against Iran was Saddam Hussien's Iraq. Now it's their greatest opportunity.

Who shortly after fighting off Iran, turned on Kuwait. Never an ideal bulwark. At all. Which is neither here nor there on whether the invasion of Iraq was justified, but lets not get into thinking that the status quo of 1989 was the ideal strategic situation.

[DRoseDARs]

And more sources saying Iran does not seem to be (currently) setting us up the bomb.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticleNew.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2006/November/middleeast_November354.xml&section=middleeast&col=

CIA analysis finds no Iranian nuclear weapons drive: report
(AFP)

19 November 2006


WASHINGTON - A classified draft CIA assessment has found no firm evidence of a secret drive by Iran to develop nuclear weapons, as alleged by the White House, a top US investigative reporter said on Saturday.

Seymour Hersh, writing in an article for the November 27 issue of the magazine The New Yorker released in advance, reported on whether the administration of Republican President George W. Bush was more, or less, inclined to attack Iran after Democrats won control of Congress last week.

A month before the November 7 legislative elections, Hersh wrote, Vice President Dick Cheney attended a national-security discussion that touched on the impact of Democratic victory in both chambers on Iran policy.

“If the Democrats won on November 7th, the vice president said, that victory would not stop the administration from pursuing a military option with Iran,” Hersh wrote, citing a source familiar with the discussion.

Cheney said the White House would circumvent any legislative restrictions “and thus stop Congress from getting in its way,” he said.

The Democratic victory unleashed a surge of calls for the Bush administration to begin direct talks with Iran.

But the administration’s planning of a military option was made ”far more complicated” in recent months by a highly classified draft assessment by the Central Intelligence Agency “challenging the White House’s assumptions about how close Iran might be to building a nuclear bomb,” he wrote.

“The CIA found no conclusive evidence, as yet, of a secret Iranian nuclear-weapons program running parallel to the civilian operations that Iran has declared to the International Atomic Energy Agency,” Hersh wrote, adding the CIA had declined to comment on that story.

A current senior intelligence official confirmed the existence of the CIA analysis and said the White House had been hostile to it, he wrote.

Cheney and his aides had discounted the assessment, the official said.

“They’re not looking for a smoking gun,” the official was quoted as saying, referring to specific intelligence about Iranian nuclear planning.

“They’re looking for the degree of comfort level they think they need to accomplish the mission.”

The United States and other major powers believe Iran’s uranium enrichment program is ultimately aimed at producing fissile material for nuclear weapons.

Iran insists it will use the enriched uranium only to fuel nuclear power stations, something it is permitted to do as a signatory to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

The major powers have been debating a draft United Nations resolution drawn up by Britain, France and Germany that would impose limited sanctions on Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile sectors for Tehran’s failure to comply with an earlier UN resolution on halting enrichment.

On Wednesday, Israel’s outgoing US ambassador Danny Ayalon said in an interview that Bush would not hesitate to use force against Iran to halt its nuclear program if other options failed.

“US President George W. Bush will not hesitate to use force against Iran in order to halt its nuclear program,” Ayalon told the Maariv daily.

Israel, widely considered the Middle East’s sole if undeclared nuclear power, views Iran as its arch-foe, pointing to repeated calls by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to wipe the Jewish state off the map.