Middle East Update

‘You need us more’
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has threatened Europe if they follow the recent example of the US in imposing stricter sanctions on Tehran for its renegade nuclear program.

“If they plan to cooperate with the enemy of the Iranian nation, we cannot interpret this as a friendly behavior. We will show reaction,” [...]

China unlikely to support stiffer UN sacntions
Urging Beijing to “think about the grave implications” of a nuclear Iran, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni wrapped up her diplomatic junket to China on Tuesday October 30, but appears to have failed to persuade the permanent member of the UN Security Council to support stiffer sanctions against [...]

Russian news agency Novosti reported that Iran has signed a deal with China for the purchase of 24 J-10 fighter jets by the year 2010. These design of the jets were based on the technology of Israel’s Lavi fighter jet, which was sold to China against US wishes. The J-10 has a range of 2,940 [...]

Washington has imposed new sanctions on more than 20 Iranian companies, banks and individuals, as well as the defense ministry in an effort to stop Tehran’s renegade nuclear program and curb “terrorism activities.” The sanctions target Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its Ministry of Defense, Armed Forces Logistics, and Quds Force, all of whom [...]

Matthew Barakat

“We will not allow Iran to have a nuclear weapon,”

Vice President Dick Cheney told the Washington Institute for Near East Policy on Sunday October 21.

“Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions,” he said. (AP/Washington Post)

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Israel’s sense of urgency over Iran increasesDuring Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s whirlwind trip to Russia on Thursday October 18, he pressed on Russian President Vladimir Putin the urgency of preventing a nuclear Iran.

Tens of thousands of Iranians marched through Tehran on Friday October 5 proclaiming solidarity with Palestinians and chanting “Death to Israel” in Iran’s annual protest against the Jewish state. Colored bibs were handed out to protestors with the legend “Death to Israel, Death to United States.”

A report on October 4 reveals that Iran is showing concern over the failure of the Syrian air defence systems, which Israel/USA was able to render ineffective. One report claims Israel used an electronic device installed in a plane that circled the area.

Reuben F. Johnson
The Sa’eqeh (Lightning), the first military aircraft to ever be designed and produced in Iran, is not a modern-age weapon system.
It is based almost entirely on the old Northrop F-5 fighter, the chief U.S. export fighter of the 1960s and 70s, 166 of which were sold to Iran before the revolution.

by Gil Ronen
Former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton told Conservative Party delegates in Britain on Sunday September 30, that UN efforts to negotiate with Iran had failed and that he saw no alternative to a pre-emptive strike on suspected nuclear facilities in the country. Influential conservative thinker Norman Podhoretz told a British [...]