Armada of British/US Naval Forces Mass in the Gulf as Israel Prepares for War with Iran

An armada of US and British naval power is massing in the Persian Gulf in the belief that Israel is considering a pre-emptive strike against Iran’s covert nuclear weapons programme.

Battleships, aircraft carriers, minesweepers and submarines from 25 nations are converging on the strategically important Strait of Hormuz in an unprecedented show of force as Israel and Iran move towards the brink of war.

Western leaders are convinced that Iran will retaliate to any attack by attempting to mine or blockade the shipping lane through which passes around 18 million barrels of oil every day, approximately 35 per cent of the world’s petroleum traded by sea.

A blockade would have a catastrophic effect on the fragile economies of Britain, Europe the United States and Japan, all of which rely heavily on oil and gas supplies from the Gulf…

Read on in The Telegraph.

… just last week Mr Netanyahu signalled that time for a negotiated settlement was running out when he said: “The world tells Israel ‘Wait, there’s still time.’ And I say, ‘Wait for what? Wait until when?’

“Those in the international community who refuse to put red lines before Iran don’t have a moral right to place a red light before Israel.”

 

Ahmadinejad: ‘Enemies Destroy Iran’s Rain Clouds’

Reuters:

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has accused his country’s enemies  of enacting a sinister plan to create a drought by somehow destroying  the rain clouds before they reach Iran, several Iranian websites reported on Tuesday.

Well-known for his  anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric, Ahmadinejad has made similar  remarks before and last year accused the West of devising a plot to  cause drought in the Islamic republic.

“The  enemy destroys the clouds that are headed towards our country and this  is a war Iran will win,” Ahmadinejad said on Monday, according to  several websites including the BBC’s Persian-language site and  http://www.snn.ir…;

Iran has one of the world’s driest climates and officials have warned that a severe lack of rainfall in parts of the country has created drought-like conditions…

Israeli Minister Warns of 30-Day War with Iran

A strike on Iran’s nuclear sites would spark a 30-day war with missile attacks on Israel’s cities and as many as 500 dead, according to the Israeli minister responsible for preparing home defences.

It’s more a matter of when than if now. The Telegraph has the rest.

Israeli school children wear gas masks during a drill organized by the Israeli Home Front Command simulating a chemical missile attack

 

Iran Calls For ‘Islamic Awakening’ To Destroy Israel

Israel National News:

An Iranian official called this week for an ‘Islamic Awakening’ movement to help Palestinian Authority Arabs “demolish the Zionist regime”, the IRNA news agency reported.

The comments were made at a conference in Tehran in honor of Nakba Day – the day of catastrophe – which is what the Arabs call the English date of May 15, when the State of Israel was re-established with a declaration of independence in 1948.

In a brief address at the end of the conference, the official, Hossein Shiekholeslam said, “In success of a revolution three major factors need to play effective roles, and they are the people, the leadership, and the school of thought, or ideology.”

He added, “If we wish success for the Palestinians, the existence of these three factors is necessary, as they did exist in the case of the victory of the Islamic Revolution of Iran.”

Sheikholeslam said that “In near future the Islamic Awakening movement would also swallow the Zionist regime.”

The first speaker at the conference, according to IRNA, was the PA Ambassador in Tehran, Salah Zawawi, who said that the one and only way to soothe the Arabs’ pains and agony is the annihilation of the Zionist regime.

“Turning the Palestinians into homeless people is a Zionist-western plot to enable the illegal Zionist immigrants to settle down at our ancestors’ motherlands, over the ruins of our homes,” he said…

Zawawi emphasized that many political projects have been launched aimed at “liberating Palestine” but that none have borne fruit yet. He said, “The Palestinians would never abandon the Holy Qods, as their capital city and I once again reiterate, political initiatives are not capable of liberating Palestine”…

Meanwhile on Tuesday, at least four Israeli security personnel were hurt in Nakba Day clashes with PA Arabs in Judea and Samaria.

Hundreds of PA residents threw stones and firebombs outside the Ofer Prison adjacent to the Beitunya crossing. The IDF and Israel Police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and other crowd dispersal means.

 

Why I’m Thinking of Cancelling with MTN…

Bribing governments to do business with the evil Iranian regime?

MTN faced a potential lawsuit in the US relating to allegations that it bribed Iranian and South African government officials, the largest cellular operator in Africa said yesterday.

The bribes were allegedly aimed at securing the second GSM licence in Iran. MTN’s 49 percent-owned Irancell won that licence in 2005.

In a statement issued yesterday, MTN said that Turkcell, which was an unsuccessful bidder for the second cellular licence in Iran, had informed the JSE-listed firm that it was looking to bring a case against it and Irancell in a US court.

Turkcell believed that the alleged bribery represented a contravention of US law.

So far no such claim has been filed in the courts or served on MTN.

MTN’s statement said the Turkcell claim alleged that “in approximately 2004 and 2005, in an effort to cause the Iranian government to issue the second GSM licence to MTN rather than Turkcell, MTN made improper payments to an Iranian and a South African government official”.

Turkcell also alleges that MTN encouraged the South African government to take a favourable position towards Iran’s civil nuclear power development programme at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in November 2005. It further alleges that MTN enlisted South African government support for the provision of military equipment to Iran…

How unethical!

I want nothing to do with such a company. When my cellular contract expires, so will my time with them.

 

Israel may Strike Iran this Spring

That’s according to United States Defense Secretary Leon Panetta:

United States Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a growing possibility Israel will attack Iran as early as April to stop Tehran from building a nuclear bomb, according to reports.

The Washington Post first reported that Panetta was concerned about the increased likelihood Israel would launch an attack over the next few months. CNN said it confirmed the report, citing a senior Obama administration official, who declined to be identified.

“Panetta believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June – before Iran enters what Israelis described as a ‘zone of immunity’ to commence building a nuclear bomb,” Washington Post columnist David Ignatius wrote.

“Very soon, the Israelis fear, the Iranians will have stored enough enriched uranium in deep underground facilities to make a weapon – and only the United States could then stop them militarily,” Ignatius wrote.

Ignatius did not cite a source. He was writing from Brussels where Panetta was attending a NATO defense ministers’ meeting.

Panetta and the Pentagon both declined comment on the Post report…

Read on here.

 

Iran Sentences Christian Convert to Two Years in Prison

(Mohabat News) — A Christian convert whom security authorities arrested in her home was sentenced to two years in prison by the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

According to reports sent by reporters of Iranian Christian news agency, Mohabat News, Ms. Leila Mohammadi, a Christian convert who resided east of Tehran, was sentenced to two years of imprisonment after enduring 5 months of uncertainty in notorious Evin prison.

Her trial was held on 18 January in Revolutionary Court in Moalem street where she was charged with “collaboration with foreign-dependent groups, broad anti-Islamic propaganda, deceiving citizens by formation of what is called a house church, Insulting sacred figures and action against national security.” However she was acquitted of collaboration with foreign-dependent groups because the judge believed she had done that unintentionally. For the other charges she was sentenced to two years in prison and the ruling was delivered to her.

After the verdict was issued knowledgeable sources reported that her attorney announced that the case was sent to the high court of Tehran province to be reviewed.

HT

 

Iranian Christianity

That Muslims are converting to Christianity in numbers unprecedented throughout history comes as a (welcome) surprise to most Christians in the West. Every now and then I find someone who has heard about one of these movements, like the tens of thousands of Berbers in Algeria who in the last two decades have converted, or the hundreds each year who are baptized into the Catholic Church in countries like France and Italy. Or perhaps they have heard of the experimental laboratory that is Bangladesh, where there are groups of people who call themselves Christ-followers but don’t use the term Christian or Muslim to refer to themselves.
But one of the most numerically significant movements of Muslims to Christianity is among Iranians. I am not talking about people with Iranian citizenship who come from ethnic groups which are traditionally Christian (Armenians and Assyrians), but about the large ethnic group whose ancestors were Zoroastrians and slowly but surely, century by century converted to Islam. Today there are very few Zoroastrians left in Iran…

Read the full story here.

 

Iran: We’ll Fire 150,000 Missiles at Israel

Iran continues to threaten Israel, this time hinting it will hit it with up to 150,000 missiles if its nuclear facilities are attacked.

Israel National News reports:

In a continuation of its statements from the past several days, Iran on Sunday threatened Israel with a barrage of missiles, if the Jewish State attacks its nuclear facilities.

Iran’s Defense Minister Brigadier General Ahmad Vahidi told the Fars news agency that Israel will not have a minimal chance of survival after attacking Iran.

“The enemy must answer this question, if it attacks Iran, for how long a battle and losing how many of its warships and vessels has it prepared itself?” Vahidi said.

“Why is the Zionist regime making threats (against Iran)? How many missiles have they prepared themselves for? 10,000? 20,000? 50,000? 100,000? 150,000 or more?” he added.

He advised the U.S. and its allies to realize Iran’s incredible might and said that in the event of a war, the Islamic Republic will teach the Americans what war really is and what soldiers are supposed to be like…

… Another senior Guard commander, Yadollah Javani, threatened that Tehran will target Israel’s nuclear facilities if the Jewish state attacks Iran.

“If Israel fires a missile at our nuclear facilities or vital installations, it should know that Israel’s nuclear centers will be the target of our missiles,” Javani said.

Tensions have been rising between Iran and the West since the release of a report earlier this month by the International Atomic Energy Agency, which said that Tehran was suspected of conducting secret experiments whose sole purpose was the development of nuclear arms…

You can read more here.

 

Iran and IAEA

HT