Iranian regime slammed by UN Secretary General at Iran's NAM Summit

Kudos to the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon for speaking harshly against Iran, in Iran, at the Non-Aligned Movement Summit today. Earlier this week Ban faced sharp criticism for even attending the NAM Summit in Iran because his attendance was seen as legitimizing the Iranian government and its many provocative statements. 

However, quite unexpectedly, Ban used the NAM forum to publicly call out the Iranian government by authoritatively stating global objections to Iran's behaviour - objections which the West has been raising for many years. Ban even specifically defended Israel's existence, too, uttering the very name, "Israel", which Iranian government representatives are forbidden from using (preferring instead their pejorative and geographically abstract term "Zionist regime").  

Here are some of Ban's bold, necessary and critical comments against the theocratic Iranian regime. We need more of this from the rest of the world. Iran's nuclear program must be stopped. Faster, please. - R.O.

Tehran, 30 August 2012 - Secretary-General's remarks to the High-Level Segment of the 16th Non-Aligned Movement Summit

UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon

"And from this platform – as I have repeatedly stated around the world -- I strongly reject threats by any member state to destroy another or outrageous attempts to deny historical facts, such as the Holocaust.

Claiming that another UN Member State, Israel, does not have the right to exist, or describing it in racist terms, is not only utterly wrong but undermines the very principles we have all pledged to uphold."

and...

"Assuming the leadership of the NAM provides Iran with the opportunity to demonstrate that it can play a moderate and constructive role internationally. That includes responsible action on the nuclear programme which is among the top concerns of the international community.

This concern has been demonstrated in repeated Security Council resolutions, including under Chapter VII authority, calling for transparency and full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

For the sake of peace and security in this region and globally, I urge the Government of Iran to take the necessary measures to build international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear programme.

This can be done by fully complying with the relevant Security Council resolutions and thoroughly cooperating with the IAEA.

I urge, also, constructive engagement with the P5+1 to quickly reach a diplomatic solution."

Legal Case for Syrian Military Intervention?

Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter discusses "action with respect to threats to the peace, breaches of the peace, and acts of aggression." The story below is the first time the United Nations has discussed Iran breaching Chapter 7 with respect to the Syrian rebellion. Interesting development... - R.O.

UN points finger at Iran over arms supply to Syria

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=282195

UNITED NATIONS - Iran appears to be supplying Syria with weapons, the United Nations said on Wednesday, as the 17-month conflict that began as a popular uprising against Syrian President Bashar Assad slides deeper into civil war.

The UN accusation backs charges by Western officials that Iran is providing funds, weapons and intelligence support to Assad in his bid to crush the opposition. Syrian rebels also say Tehran has sent Revolutionary Guards and Hezbollah fighters.

"The Secretary-General has repeatedly expressed his concern about the armsflows to the two parties in Syria, which in some cases appear to violate resolution 1747 passed by this council banning arms exports under Chapter 7 authority," UN political affairs chief Jeffrey Feltman told the UN Security Council.

Resolution 1747 bans arms exports by Iran under Chapter 7 of the UN charter, which allows the Security Council to authorize actions ranging from diplomatic and economic sanctions to military intervention.

The resolution was passed in response to Iran's defiance of UN demands that it halt its nuclear enrichment program. Iran rejects allegations by Western nations and their allies that it is developing nuclear weapons.

"Both the government and the opposition are focusing on military operations and the use of force, with government forces using heavy weapons on population centers," Feltman told the Security Council during a regular briefing on the Middle East.

"The Syrian people are suffering grievously from the appalling further militarization of this conflict," he said.

The United Nations has said more than 18,000 people have died and some 170,000 people have fled the country as a result of the fighting in Syria. UN aid chief Valerie Amos said last week that up to 2.5 million people in Syria needed aid.

A UN Security Council panel of independent experts that monitors sanctions against Iran has uncovered several examples of Iran transferring arms to Syria's government. Damascus has accused Qatar and Saudi Arabia of arming rebels determined to topple Assad's government.

Egypt's New Leaders Must Accept Reality

The following article poses heavy duty, legitimate questions that must be answered by President Mohamed Morsi with respect to the nature of the Muslim Brotherhood's still emerging government in Egypt. Morsi's denial of facts is disturbing and destabilizing behaviour in a region that needs a foundation of truth moreso than ever before. This is a trend that watchful observers of the Middle East must pay due regard in the months ahead. - R.O.

Egypt’s new leaders must accept reality
By Dennis Ross, Published: August 19

Dennis Ross, a counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, was a special assistant to President Obama on the Middle East and a senior director on the National Security Council staff from July 2009 to December 2011.

A new reality and an alternative reality are shaping up in Egypt. President Mohamed Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood appear firmly in control. Morsi seized on the killing of 16 Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai early this month — an embarrassment for the military andparticularly the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces ( SCAF ) — to remove the most senior military leaders from office. He also unilaterally amended the March 2011 constitution declaration and gave his office executive and legislative powers. In short, with no hint of resistance from the military, Morsi has imposed civilian leadership on Egypt.

Many see Morsi’s move to control the SCAF — he sacked Field Marshal Mohammed Hussein Tantawi; military chief of staff Sami Anan; and the heads of Egypt’s army, navy and air force — as finally giving Egypt’s revolution the chance to remove key remnants of the Mubarak regime and fulfill its promise. Others, particularly non-Islamists, are more prone to see recent actions as the Muslim Brotherhood removing any checks on its power.

Given some of the other moves that Morsi and those around him have made, there is reason to be concerned. Morsi has appointed a new minister of information, Salah Abdul Maqsud; he, too, comes from the Muslim Brotherhood and actively supports the move to replace 50 leading editors and journalists. Charges have been filed against the editor of the independent opposition newspaper al-Dustour for insulting the president. It is probably no accident that the state media’s tone has changed markedly in the past week — and is far more favorable toward Morsi.

None of this means that Egypt’s path of change is foreordained. It does mean that the president, who has largely surrounded himself with members of the Muslim Brotherhood or sympathizers, dominates all of Egypt’s institutions of power. He and the Brotherhood will find it hard to escape responsibility for whatever happens in Egypt. The country faces daunting economic challenges; it will need significant outside assistance and private investment. Morsi and the Brotherhood are seeking outside support for their “renaissance plan” to revitalize the economy; after they resisted the conditions for an International Monetary Fund agreement when they were not in power, Morsi and the Brotherhood now appear eager to not only gain the loan but also to borrow more than the $3.2 billion that the IMF was prepared to offer conditionally.

In this respect, Morsi and the Brotherhood seem to recognize reality. But in another important regard, they appear determined to deny it. Consider that Morsi denied sending Israeli President Shimon Peres a response to a note that Peres had written him after news of the correspondence provoked a backlash in the Brotherhood over Morsi having any such contact with Israel. What makes this particularly noteworthy is that Peres’s office did not release Morsi’s letter publicly until after checking with the Egyptians to make sure it was okay to do so. The outrage among the Brotherhood led Egypt’s president to publicly deny a fact. Similarly, consider that the Brotherhood immediately blamed the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence organization, for the Sinai attack that killed the Egyptian soldiers — something that the Brotherhood knew to be untrue.

What conclusions should be drawn about an organization that cannot admit the truth? That insists on living in its own reality? If nothing else, it’s clear that the group the Brotherhood is wedded to its ideology and cannot admit anything that might call its basic philosophy into question. But the United States and others should not accommodate the Brotherhood’s alternative reality. This is not to say that we have to agree on everything. Policy differences are understandable — but it is not acceptable to deny reality and foster a narrative and policies based on untruths and fictions.

Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood should know this. Egypt’s president and people should also know that we are prepared to mobilize the international community, and global financial institutions, to help Egypt — but that we will only do so if Egypt’s government is prepared to play by a set of rules grounded in reality and key principles. They must respect the rights of minorities and women; they must accept political pluralism and the space for open political competition; and they must respect their international obligations, including the terms of Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel.

The record to date is not good: News reports suggest that more than 100,000 Coptic Christians have left Egypt ; there have been new efforts to intimidate the media, and Morsi has moved armored forces into the Sinai without first notifying the Israelis — a requirement of the peace treaty. The administration’s position needs to be clear: If this behavior continues, U.S. support, which will be essential for gaining international economic aid and fostering investment, will not be forthcoming. Softening or fuzzing our response at this point might be good for the Muslim Brotherhood, but it won’t be good for Egypt.

Taking Iran at its (nuclear) word

Brilliantly unnerving stuff from Jonas. - R.O.

George Jonas: Taking Iran at its (nuclear) word
George Jonas, National Post
Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2012

Criminals confess. They often confess before they perpetrate. They tell us what they’re going to do before they do it, whether in politics, in crime, or in criminal politics.

We rarely listen.

Perhaps “confess” is the wrong word, because it implies admitting guilt, whereas in politics it’s usually a declaration of pride. Some try to be cagey, but most extremists and fundamentalists announce their plans and programs openly. They tell us how they’ll take charge, assume power, change the law, develop the weapons, appoint the judges, restore the moral foundation, get rid of the king, the shah, whoever, the money-changers, the foreigners, the lot. They will rule the land, and make sure we get into paradise.

Extremists telegraph what’s coming. Why not? They think it’s good. They like it. Some tell it in campaign speeches, some offer it in books. It was possible to discern the Gulag in the pages of Marx and Engels’ Communist Manifesto as early as 1848 — and discerning people did.

Stalin perpetrated first, confessed later. His not-so-short Short Course in the History of the Soviet Communist Party (Bolshevik) was a retrospective by the time it appeared in 1939, but Mussolini’s Fascist Manifesto published in 1921 was still prospective, as was Hitler’s Mein Kampf in 1925. Who says Benito and Adolf gave no warning? They hissed, spat and rattled long before they struck.

Others rattled and struck simultaneously. Chairman Mao’s ideas bundled into a little red book became available in English in 1964, and the Ayatollah Khomeini’s instructions emerged in a little green book in 1985.

Unbeknownst to me, I had observed some of Khomeini’s fatwas. He instructed believers not to consume the nasal secretions of camels, for instance. I never did. He also expected followers of the Prophet not to relieve themselves upon the graves of believers unless, of course, they meant it as an insult to them. Doing it on purpose was fine, but not willy-nilly, as it were.

If the little green book came out today, my first reaction would be, “Listen to this, isn’t Mark Steyn funny” — but in 1985, Steyn wasn’t yet publishing political satire. The insights really did come from Iran’s spiritual leader. But while snacking on nasal impurities appeared to me in the same light as it did to the founding father of the Islamic Republic — and he also impressed me with his wise restraint on the matter of graveside micturation — the idea of his regime as an appropriate custodian of nuclear weapons would have struck me as premature.

But that was in 1985. In 2012, is there a nation unqualified to have the same weapons as North Korea? Be serious.

It’s not as if we’re selling Iran a bomb, some decision-makers are saying. They’re making one for themselves. What other qualifications do you need? If, say, France can have a bomb, why can’t Iran? France is a sovereign country, so is Iran; France is a republic, so is Iran; France has had a Napoleon in its history and Iran hasn’t had a Xerxes since it was Persia. So, what’s the difference?

Well, perhaps it’s that France’s current leaders aren’t threatening their neighbours with annihilation. Iran’s leaders are. Threatening annihilation isn’t a confidence builder even on its own, let alone in conjunction with a taste for nasal secretions that requires fatwas to curb.

The threats aren’t new. The syndicated columnist Clifford D. May tells of a private discussion 12 years ago between José Maria Aznar, the former Spanish prime minister, and Iran’s current supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Khomenei. The theocrat explained to the shocked Spaniard that “the mission of the Islamic Revolution always has been and always will be to rid the world of two evils: Israel and the United States.”

May reports that when Aznar was asked whether Khomenei meant “a gradual historical process involving the collapse of the Zionist state, or rather its physical-military termination” his unhesitating reply was, “He meant physical termination through military force.”

Okay, here are our options.

(1) We can believe the supreme leader of Iran didn’t say what Spain’s former prime minister thought he said.

(2) We can believe the supreme leader didn’t mean whatever he did say.

(3) The supreme leader may say and mean whatever he likes, but we can believe he isn’t really a supreme leader, and nobody carries out his commands.

(4) The supreme leader is the supreme leader and he means what he says, but we can believe that if we stand firm he’ll blink, and if he doesn’t, hell, it’s just a nuclear war and we’ll win it anyway, and

(5) if worst comes to worst, we can say Uncle, admit our transgressions, reveal ourselves as little Satan and Satan respectively, and trust that the supreme leader will be merciful.

I don’t think so. There’s a sixth option. The time to look for hidden agendas is when people seem nice. Read between their lines, by all means. But when they’re nasty, read the lines. A fellow who says he’s out to destroy you is out to destroy you. Believe him.

National Post

Israel: Diplomacy with Iran has "failed"

This is the first time an Israeli Minister (Danny Ayalon) has gone on the record to say that diplomatic talks with Iran have "failed." Hugely significant statement, one certainly only made with the approval of Prime Minister Netanyahu. While many times in the past Israel has made threats that it was prepared to take "action" against Iran, this is the first time that Israeli leaders have asked the international community to declare that diplomacy has run its course - implicitly stating that the time for military action has in fact finally arrived. If Ayalon's statement were to be accepted, there are of course very few alternatives to stopping Iran short of targeted air strikes in conjunction with massive cyber attacks against Iranian nuclear and military infrastructure. Intriguing and foreboding development... - R.O.
UPDATE (16/08): Now Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., has also gone on the record stating that diplomacy has "failed". This is now officially the Israeli government's public position.


New York Times: Israeli Minister Asks Nations to Say Iran Talks Have Failed
By JODI RUDOREN
Published: August 13, 2012

JERUSALEM - Amid intensifying Israeli news reports saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is close to ordering a military strike against Iran's nuclear program, his deputy foreign minister called Sunday for an international declaration that the diplomatic effort to halt Tehran's enrichment of uranium is dead.

Referring to the Iran negotiations led by the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany, the minister, Danny Ayalon, told Israel Radio that those nations should "declare today that the talks have failed." After such a declaration, if Iran does not halt its nuclear program, "it will be clear that all options are on the table," Mr. Ayalon said, not only for Israel, but also for the United States and NATO.

Asked how long the Iranians should be given to cease all nuclear activity, Mr. Ayalon said "weeks, and not more than that."

The comments came after a frenzy of newspaper articles and television reports over the weekend here suggesting that Mr. Netanyahu had all but made the decision to attack Iran unilaterally this fall. The reports contained little new information, but the tone was significantly sharper than it had been in recent weeks, with many of Israel's leading columnists predicting a strike despite the opposition of the Obama administration and many military and security professionals within Israel. Articles in Sunday's newspapers also examined home-front preparedness for what experts expect would be an aggressive response not just from Iran but also its allies, the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas.

"Lord help us, would you just do it already and be done with it?" wrote Ben Caspit, a columnist for the newspaper Maariv, referring to the Israeli leadership. "When one looks around the impression received is that it isn't only in Israel that they aren't being taken seriously any longer, but the world refuses to get worked up over them either."

"Maybe they'll bomb Iran in the end just to prove that they're serious," Mr. Caspit added.

Mr. Netanyahu and his top ministers have been saying for weeks that while the sanctions against Iran have hurt its economy, they have not affected the nuclear program, which Iran's leadership insists is for civilian purposes. On Sunday, Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom called on the United States to enact "even more extensive and even more comprehensive sanctions which could overwhelm the Iranian regime and possibly even topple it, or bring it to make the decision to abandon the nuclear program."

The mixed messages from Mr. Shalom and Mr. Ayalon came two days after Mr. Netanyahu called Ban Ki-moon, the secretary general of the United Nations, and urged him not to go to Iran for a meeting scheduled for the end of this month of the so-called nonaligned nations (countries that were not allies of either the United States or the Soviet Union during the cold war).

"Even if it is not your intention, your visit will grant legitimacy to a regime that is the greatest threat to world peace and security," Mr. Netanyahu told Mr. Ban, according to a statement released by his office Friday night. "Not only does it threaten countries throughout the Middle East, not only is it the greatest terrorism exporter in the world, but it is impossible to exaggerate the danger it presents to Israel."

"Mr. Secretary General, your place is not in Tehran," Mr. Netanyahu added.

At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Mr. Netanyahu seemed to be trying to rebut the Israeli newspaper articles questioning domestic preparedness as he bid farewell to the current home-front defense minister, who is becoming ambassador to China.

"There has been a significant improvement in our home-front defense capabilities," Mr. Netanyahu said, according to a transcript released by his office. "One cannot say that there are no problems in this field because there always are, but all of the threats that are currently being directed against the Israeli home front pale against a particular threat, different in scope, different in substance, and therefore I reiterate that Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear weapons."

Time Is Short For Iran Diplomacy

Michael Oren: Time Is Short For Iran Diplomacy – WSJ.com
Israel's starkest warning yet, this time from Israel's Ambassador to the United States. Is the world listening to what Israel is saying? -R.O.

Ahmadinejad calls for annihilation of Israel

(Does the world need any more reason to stop Iran's nuclear weapons program immediately? The Iranian regime is not only insane; it's demonic. Israel continues to make noise about an impending unilateral strike on Iranian nuclear facilities. While the United States has made recent declarations of its willingness to use military force to stop Iran, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamian Netanyahu remains openly and publicly skeptical. Historic precedents suggest overwhelmingly that when the Israelis say they will stop a threat, they mean it. Is the world ready for some fireworks? [For further proof, check out Iran's game of denial and deception.]  - R.O.)

Ahmadinejad calls for annihilation of Israel

By JOANNA PARASZCZUK
08/02/2012 15:49

In Ramadan speech to ambassadors from Islamic countries, Iranian president calls Zionism “plight of world history,” says liberating Palestine would solve all the world’s problems.


Photo: REUTERS/Raheb Homavandi

In a speech published on his website Thursday, Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said the ultimate goal of world forces must be the annihilation of Israel.

Speaking to ambassadors from Islamic countries ahead of ‘Qods Day’ (‘Jerusalem Day’), an annual Iranian anti-Zionist event established in 1979 by Ayatollah Khomeini and which falls this year on August 17, Ahmadinejad said that a “horrible Zionist current” had been managing world affairs for “about 400 years.”

Repeating traditional antisemitic slurs, the Iranian president accused “Zionists” of controlling the world’s media and financial systems.

It was Zionists, he said, who were “behind the scene of the world’s main powers, media, monetary and banking centers.”

“They are the decision makers, to the extent that the presidential election hopefuls [of the USA] must go and kiss the feet of the Zionists to ensure their election victory,” he added.

Ahmadinejad added that “liberating Palestine” would solve all the world’s problems, although he did not elaborate on exactly how that might work.

“Qods Day is not merely a strategic solution for the Palestinian problem, as it is to be viewed as a key for solving the world problems,” he said.

He added: “Anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of the Zionist regime in order to pave the way for world justice and freedom.”

The Iranian president said that Israel reinforced “the dominance of arrogant powers in the region and across the globe” and that Arab countries in particular – he cited Bahrain, Yemen, Libya, Syria and Turkey – were affected by Israel’s “plots.”

Ahmadinejad, who has called the Holocaust a myth, has previously called for Israel’s annihilation, in a 2005 speech in which he used a Persian phrase that translates literally as “wiped off the page of time.”

Iran Preparing Islamic Messiah's "Special Forces"

(Truly terrifying stuff. Is the West prepared to stop Iran's delusional messianic terrorist regime? Israel appears to be. You couldn't write a better thriller script. - R.O.)


IRAN PREPARING MAHDI’S SPECIAL FORCES

Army of operatives planning for terror, destruction of the West

07/30/2012

by REZA KAHLILI

The Quds Forces, a special Iranian unit of thousands of operatives tasked with exporting Iran’s Islamic revolution, are being told to step up preparations for terrorism for the coming of the last Islamic messiah and the destruction of the West.

Ali Saeedi, the Iranian supreme leader’s representative to the Revolutionary Guards, emphasized during a Friday sermon in Tehran that the Islamic republic must directly confront America so that the necessary environment is created for the reappearance of Mahdi, the Shiite’s 12th imam, who will kill all infidels and raise the flag of Islam in all corners of the world.

“In three points of history, God directly confronts the will of unruly humans in which, of course, the Right will overcome the False,” Saeedi said, according to the Sepah News, the Guards’ official publication. “The first point in history was during the era of pharaoh, the second era was Bani Abbas, and the third is our current era in which it seems that God has willed us to enlighten the world with the coming of Imam Mahdi.”

Saeedi, “Many of the signs [necessary] for the coming have taken place during the previous years; however, the main sign will take place right before the coming.”

There are five levels of readiness that have to be prepared for the coming, he said: “Individual readiness, the readiness for creating the environment, systematic readiness, the readiness in the region and the international readiness. This means Occupy Wall Street must take place, the Americans must lose hope with the Democratic Party and others, and lose faith in the U.N., while at the same time the unraveling in the Middle East, which was not ripe before, must have taken place before the coming.”

This is the first time a high-ranking Iranian official has stated on the record that the Quds Forces are not only involved in the region, but also internationally for a final confrontation with the West.

“The Revolutionary Guards are one vehicle for preparation for the coming, and in the current Islamic Awakening [the Arab Spring] in the region and on international arena, the Quds Forces play a major role in preparing the readiness of the human force needed for such an event,” Saeedi said. “The chief commander of the Guards and the supreme leader’s representative are tasked for preparing the individual readiness, regional readiness as well as international readiness for the coming.”

In another Guards’ weekly publication, Sobhe Sadegh, a front-page analysis explains that the opening of Iran’s geopolitics and the empowerment of its Islamic power are a reality in which Iran’s influence has expanded not only in the region, but also in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Asia and even in Europe and America.

As was the fall of socialism and the Eastern bloc, the analysis promises, so will be the fall of the capitalism and liberal democracy.

The analysis refers to the statements of the founder of the Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini:

• “I say with all certainty that the 21st century will be the century of Islam.”
• “I say with all certainty that Islam will conquer all key entrenchments of the world.”
• “I say with all certainty that Islam will defeat all world powers.”
• “I say with all certainty that the 21st century is the century where the oppressed will be victorious over the oppressors.”

While the Quds Forces have recently expanded their operations in shipment of explosives to Latin America, Africa and other places in the world, and at the same time have put terror cells on high alert for terrorist acts, the Islamic regime in Iran has expanded its nuclear program in which over 11,000 centrifuges are now running at two facilities, increasing its enriched uranium stock.

As of the last report in May by the IAEA, Iran had enough enriched uranium for six nuclear bombs, and despite all negotiations and recent sanctions, the Iranian supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, announced days ago that there will be no turning back from the nuclear path.

Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and the author of the award-winning book, A Time to Betray. He is a senior Fellow with EMPact America, a member of the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and teaches at the U.S. Department of Defense’s Joint Counterintelligence Training Academy (JCITA).