Zawahiri (al Qaeda #2) videotape surfaces

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1143498852647&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

Mashaal meets with al-Qaida leader

Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST Apr. 14, 2006

(snipped)

In an another sign of the Palestinian leadership growing alliance with al-Qaida, Damascus-based Hamas head Khaled Mashaal recently met in Yemen with a representative of Osama bin Laden's organization who is wanted by the US for his involvement in supporting and funding global terror, The Jerusalem Post has learned. . .

"The US has credible evidence that Zindani, a Yemeni national, supports designated terrorists and terrorist organizations," a statement released by the US Treasury Department said. "Zindani has a long history of working with bin Laden, notably serving as one of his spiritual leaders. In this leadership capacity, he has been able to influence and support many terrorist causes, including actively recruiting for al-Qaida training camps."

Senior IDF officers have confirmed that al-Qaida has already established terror cells in the Gaza Strip and has begun working on creating a similar infrastructure in the West Bank. Maj.-Gen. Yitzhak Harel, head of the IDF's Planning Directorate, told the Post recently that al-Qaida was operating within the PA territories.

"Al-Qaida is about money," he said. "There is always a flow of funds to terrorism in the territories and it is difficult to get our hands on the money."

Last week, the London-based Al Hayat newspaper reported that 10 al-Qaida activists who had recently entered the Gaza Strip from Egypt had been captured by PA security forces. Citing Jordanian security sources, the paper said that the cells were in the midst of planning "large-scale" terror attacks on sensitive and strategic targets - possible the crossings from Gaza into Israel.

Those statements are absolutely delusional. I don't care who made them. Maybe he was put up to it. There is a reason why Rumsfeld is loathed.

That's like saying that even though the President's poll numbers are the lowest in his term, lower than Clinton's during impeachment, and now within a stone's throw of all-time lows (Truman and Nixon), and Congressional disapproval ratings are even worse than right before the 1994 landslide that ended 60 years of democrat rule in the House (59-40 Americans now want a Democrat Congress), that because Cynthia McKinney's race-baiting tactics backfire on her, that democrats as a whole have suffered a strategic defeat.

That's some serious "spin".

I think maybe the General needs to call the "home office" and "coordinate" his story.

If for some bizarre reason there actually is a justification to "spin", then at least everyone should be on the same sheet of music.

Al Qaeda cannot simultaneously be leaving Iraq in "strategic defeat" while also being "real threats" that are "ruthlessly devastating" to the people of Iraq and the region. Gen. Lynch's remarks below (dated Monday) are more accurate.

That being said, al Qaeda is shifting its focus. But not because it is failing to achieve its strategic goals.

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Apr2006/20060410_4774.html

Zarqawi, al Qaeda Threaten Iraq, Military Spokesman Says
By Steven Donald Smith
American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2006 – A senior military spokesman in Baghdad today dismissed as untrue a U.S. newspaper article claiming the U.S. military launched a propaganda campaign to exaggerate terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's significance in Iraq to turn Iraqis against him and sway American public opinion.

"A recent article citing a military briefing from 2004 has called into question the threat that Abu Musab Zarqawi and al Qaeda in Iraq pose to Iraq, dismissing it as 'propaganda' - nothing could be further from the truth," Army Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, a Multinational Force Iraq spokesman, said in a written statement rebutting today's Washington Post story.

Zarqawi and al Qaeda in Iraq have openly declared war on the democratic process in Iraq and are responsible for the overwhelming majority of suicide attacks against the Iraqi people, Lynch said.

In addition, statements made by Zarqawi over the past year attest to the threat and the indiscriminate nature of his attacks, he said.

"He has called for foreign fighters to come to Iraq and join the jihad; stated that in order to kill infidels it is acceptable to kill women and children in the attacks; declared 'all-out' war against the Shiia and told other religious and tribal groups to join his anti-government cause or face attacks; and has called for increased attacks during Ramadan in order to secure victory and to establish a Muslim nation in Iraq," Lynch said.

The general went on to say that Zarqawi and al Qaeda in Iraq might represent a relatively small portion of the overall insurgency, but their impact has been ruthlessly devastating.

"The terrorists and foreign fighters that he recruits, trains and equips carry out more than 90 percent of the insidious suicide attacks against the men, women and children of Iraq - attacks that have killed or injured thousands of Iraqis in the last year alone," he said.

Lynch cited a letter from Osama bin Laden's deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, to Zarqawi, which clearly outlines al Qaeda's goal of becoming the dominant influencing power throughout the Middle East, as proof of their intent.

"Make no mistake, (Zarqawi) and al Qaeda in Iraq are real threats to the citizens, security and stability of Iraq, and we continue to conduct aggressive operations to eliminate the threat they pose not only to Iraq, but also to the rest of the region," Lynch said.

The Shura Council may be supplanting Zarqawi's political leadership. But it demonstrates that the al Qaeda plan set out by UBL (several years ago calling for such a council to be formed at some point on "liberated" Islamic land) is succeeding and allowing them to "go west"

As the home-grown Iraqi insurgency stands up, al Qaeda will stand down.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060403/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_zarqawi;_ylt=AtHBh.EuZ_6ilJ9_9NqhKfpvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA5aHJvMDdwBHNlYwN5bmNhdA--

Claim Raises Speculation About al-Zarqawi
By SALLY BUZBEE, Associated Press WriterMon Apr 3, 1:40 PM ET

Terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi has sharply lowered his profile in recent months, halting his group's Internet claims as the number of big suicide bombings in Iraq — his infamous signature form of attack — has fallen.

Now, a man with close ties to Iraqi insurgent groups claims al-Zarqawi was shunted aside as political leader of a recently formed coalition of militants because they were angry at his propaganda efforts and embarrassed by his group's deadly attack on hotels in Jordan.

But others caution that the claim is hard to verify — and that perhaps the insurgents are just changing tactics.

Even if the report is true and al-Zarqawi has a lesser role, that does not mean the deadly violence in Iraq will decrease, Maj. Gen. Hussein Kamal, Iraq's deputy Interior minister for intelligence affairs, said Monday.

"Al-Zarqawi or others have a terror agenda against the Iraqi people. This will not change by changing names and people. They will push ahead with their agenda," Kamal said in a telephone interview.

In Baghdad, a U.S. military spokesman, Lt. Col. Barry Johnson, said the report about al-Zarqawi was "nothing we can verify."

Some experts have long cautioned that al-Zarqawi's role may have been exaggerated and that some of the attacks claimed by his group — or that U.S. and Iraqi officials blamed on him — may have been carried out by others.

Iraq's insurgency has always been made up of several disparate groups, and some of them, including Ansar al-Sunnah Army and the Islamic Army of Iraq, have been nearly as violent as al-Zarqawi's al-Qaida in Iraq.

The Jordanian-born militant, however, seized most of the attention because of his relentless Internet propaganda efforts, the brutality of his attacks — including hostage beheading videos put on the Web — and a series of suicide car bombings that targeted mostly Shiites.

Then came a November triple suicide bombing against hotels in Jordan that killed 63 people, mostly Arab Muslims. That sparked a backlash against al-Zarqawi in Jordan, where there had been some sympathy for the insurgency. Even some fellow militants called for halting attacks on civilians.

In January, al-Zarqawi's group said in a Web statement that it had joined five other Iraqi insurgent groups to form the Mujahedeen Shura Council, or Consultative Council of Holy Warriors. Since then, al-Zarqawi's group has stopped issuing its own statements, a sharp contrast to its previous frequent postings, and al-Zarqawi has not issued a Web audiotape since January.

Instead, the Shura Council has put out daily statements listing its "operations" — including bombings of U.S. Humvees and trucks, shootings of Iraqi Shiite security forces and assassinations of Sunni Arabs cooperating with the government.

On Sunday, Huthayafa Azzam, believed to have close ties to Iraqi militants, told The Associated Press that al-Zarqawi had been confined to a military role within the coalition, specifically barred from making public statements and from any political or propaganda role.

It was not clear how Azzam, a son of one of Osama bin Laden's spiritual mentors, had learned the information, which could not be independently verified. The claim by Azzam, a Jordanian of Palestinian origin, could also simply be a sign of squabbling among insurgent factions.

Azzam said Iraqis in the Shura Council had demanded al-Zarqawi give up his political role — particularly in propaganda — because he had "embarrassed" them with beheading videos and statements about regional politics and al-Qaida's activities. Azzam said al-Zarqawi agreed and "pledged not to target Iraq's neighbors, mainly his native Jordan, because that has harmed the Iraqi resistance's relations with the Arab world."

The political duties were handed over two weeks ago to the council head, an Iraqi called Abdullah Rashid al-Baghdadi, said Azzam.

Kamal, the deputy Iraqi interior minister, said officials do believe there have been meetings in the last few months between al-Zarqawi's group and other groups, to unify efforts. He called it possible, but unknown, if those groups had rearranged their ranks and given al-Zarqawi a different assignment.

"After the losses they suffered in the west of Iraq and the popular anger against their presence, they could be trying to find an Iraqi facade," he said, noting al-Zarqawi's Jordanian nationality.

Kamal said he did not recognize the name of the supposed new political leader, Abdullah bin Rashed al-Baghdadi, and that it was probably a pseudonym.

In the past few months, the number of multiple-death car bombings in Iraq — many of them suicide attacks — has dropped dramatically in a possible sign of either al-Zarqawi's waning influence or a simple change in tactics.

Such bombings, identified with al-Zarqawi but also carried out by other groups, reached a high of 136 a month last May but fell to just 30 in December, 30 in January and 22 in February, according to statistics compiled by the Brookings Institution in Washington.

In contrast, the number of overall bombings, which also includes roadside bombs, is still running at high levels.

The U.S. military has attributed the drop in car bombs to its efforts to destroy several car bomb-making centers between Baghdad and the Syrian border.

___

Associated Press reporters Mariam Fam in Baghdad, Iraq, and Jamal Halaby in Amman, Jordan, contributed to this report.

http://www.menewsline.com/stories/2006/april/04_06_3.html

ZARQAWI MOVES INTO PA ARENA

WASHINGTON [MENL] -- Al Qaida network chief Abu Mussib Al Zarqawi has lowered his profile in Iraq to focus on operations in the Levant.

Western intelligence sources said Al Zarqawi has increased activities in such countries as Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority. They said Al Zarqawi has sought to lay the groundwork for an Islamic war against Israel.

"Zarqawi is very busy these days," an intelligence source said. "But his attention is moving from Iraq to the Gaza Strip."

The sources said Al Zarqawi has been forming ties with Palestinian insurgents in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They said Al Zarqawi has begun to cooperate with the head of the military wing of Hamas, Mohammed Deif. They said that in 2006, about a dozen Al Qaida operatives entered the Gaza Strip to form cells. . .

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-236/0604146066132940.htm

Speakers from 9 states in Tehran to attend Palestine confab
Tehran, April 14, IRNA
Iran-Palestine Conference

Parliament speakers from nine countries have so far arrived in Tehran to attend the `International Conference of Holy Qods and Support for the Rights of the Palestinian Nation', it was reported here Thursday.

The three-day conference will open in Tehran on Friday, April 14, on the initiative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

Parliament speakers from Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Algeria, Cuba, Venezuela, Sierra Leon, Guinea, Mauritania and Madagascar have arrived in Tehran, IRNA reported quoting sources close to the officials in charge of organizing the conference.

Speakers from Qatar, Indonesia, Sudan, Syria, Sri Lanka and Comoros are scheduled to arrive in Tehran on Friday, according to the report.

Libya, Morocco, the Philippines and Palestine will send their vice-speaker to the Palestine conference.

The Lebanese Speaker Nabih Berri arrived at Mehrabad International Airport on Thursday.

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=11852171&src=rss/topNews

Ahmadinejad says "Zionist regime" a threat
Fri Apr 14, 2006 10:47 AM ET

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's president said on Friday that the existence of the "Zionist regime," Iran's term for Israel, was a threat to the Islamic world, days after declaring Iran had become a nuclear power by enriching uranium.

"The existence of the Zionist regime is tantamount to an imposition of an unending and unrestrained threat so that none of the nations and Islamic countries of the region and beyond can feel secure from its threat," Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a conference on the Palestinian cause.

http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/menu-236/0604144558161350.htm

Defending Palestine, top priority of Islamic world, official

Tehran, April 14, IRNA
Palestine-Conference-Mohtashamipour
An Iranian official said here Thursday night defending the oppressed Palestinian people would be the most important issue of the Islamic world.

Secretary of the third international conference in support of Palestinians' right , Ali-Akbar Mohtashamipour, made the remark while addressing the conference participants at the mausoleum of the Founder of the Islamic Republic, the late Imam Khomeini.

The conference, dubbed `Support for Holy Qods and the Rights of Palestinian People', is to kick off in Tehran Friday afternoon upon the initiative of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei.

The conference would be continued until April 16.

Mohtashamipour stressed the importance of providing all-out support for the oppressed Palestinian people and making efforts to free the first kiblah of Muslims.

He added the late Imam Khomeini named the last Friday of the holy fasting month of Ramazan as the International Qods Day and encouraged holing the international conference in support of the Palestinians.

He laid emphasis on following the late Imam's path until freedom of Palestinians from the oppression of the Zionist regime and liberation of the Holy Qods.

http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=41994&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs

Iran Rafsanjani meets radical Palestinian leaders

Friday, April 14, 2006 - ©2005 IranMania.com

LONDON, April 14 (IranMania) - Iran's influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani met with leaders of the radical Palestinian groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad as well as the head of the Shiite Lebanese Hezbollah movement, Iranian sources said, according to AFP.

Rafsanjani is on a four-day visit to the Syrian capital amid worldwide alarm over Iran's announcement Tuesday that it had successfully enriched uranium, a process that can lead to the production of fuel for nuclear power plants or the fissile core of an atomic bomb.

"The Palestinian resistance has today reached a new phase which requires the support of all Muslim countries... to reach victory," Rafsanjani said, according to an Iranian source who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rafsanjani met Hezbollah chief Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah late Wednesday at the Iranian embassy in Damascus, the source said.

Nasrallah said that Iran's ability to enrich uranium would "be a large moral boost to the resistance."

An Iranian diplomatic source also said that on Wednesday night Rafsanjani met Hamas's political supremo Khaled Meshaal and Islamic Jihad's secretary-general Ramadan Shaleh, AFP noted.

"The Muslim world is proud that Tehran has acquired nuclear technology," Meshaal reportedly said during their meeting.

"Uranium enrichment provides a great deal of moral support to the Palestinian people and heroes of the resistance," he said.

Rafsanjani assured that Iran would continue its support for the Palestinian resistance and criticized "Western states that have suspended aid the Palestinian Authority."

Rafsanjani also met with Syrian Prime Minister Naji Otri and Foreign Minister Walid Muallem over "external pressures confronting Syria and Iran," the official SANA news agency said.

On Wednesday, Rafsanjani vowed Tehran would not give in to UN pressures to halt its enrichment of uranium, which he hailed as a great achievement.

Tehran's announcement put Iran on a collision course with the UN Security Council, which has given the country until April 28 to accede to demands that it halt enrichment or face possible sanctions.

Iran insists that its nuclear program is aimed purely at producing nuclear power, but the country is widely suspected of using it to conceal efforts to develop atomic weapons.

Asked about international pressures on Syria over issues ranging from its alleged interference in neighboring Lebanon to alleged support for Iraqi rebels, Rafsanjani said Wednesday: "Iran and Syria are in the same boat."

Rafsanjani, who heads Iran's powerful Expediency Council, is slated to hold talks with President Bashar al-Assad at some point during his visit.

On Friday, Rafsanjani is to visit the tomb in Qarhaba of the president's father and predecessor in office, Hafez al-Assad. The following day, he is set to visit Shiite Muslim holy sites in Damascus before heading home.

http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=705948&contrassID=1&subContrassID=0&sbSubContrassID=0

Last update - 19:41 14/04/2006
Iranian president: 'Rotten' Israel will be annihilated by 'one storm'
By News Agencies

TEHRAN - Days after announcing that Iran had successfully enriched uranium, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Friday called Israel a "rotten, dried tree" that will be annihilated by "one storm."

Opening of a conference in Tehran on supporting the Palestinians, Ahmadinejad fired a series of verbal shots at Israel, saying it was a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated, and again questioning the validity of the Nazi Holocaust against Jews in World War II.

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihiliation," Ahmadinejad said. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm," he said.

"The existence of the Zionist regime is tantamount to an imposition of an unending and unrestrained threat so that none of the nations and Islamic countries of the region and beyond can feel secure from its threat," Ahmadinejad said.

The president provoked a world outcry last October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map." On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"

The land of Palestine, he said, referring to the British mandated territory that includes all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, "will be freed soon."

He did not say how this would be achieved, but insisted to the audience of at least 900 people: "Believe that Palestine will be freed soon."

In February, Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had said Ahmadinejad's October 2005 comments had been misunderstood and that he had been speaking about the Israeli "regime," not the country. Mottaki had said a country could not be removed from the map.

The president spoke days after two Israeli generals spoke of the military potential of Iran's nuclear program. (For more on Iran, read the Iran Time Saver on Rosner's Domain)

The chief of Israeli military intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin, was quoted Wednesday as saying Iran could develop a nuclear bomb "within three years, by the end of the decade."

The day before Ahmadinejad had announced that Iran had successfully enriched uranium using a battery of 164 centrifuges, a significant step toward the large-scale production of enriched uranium required for either fueling nuclear reactors or making nuclear bombs.

The United States, France and Israel accuse Iran of using a civilian nuclear program to secretly build an atomic bomb. Iran denies this, saying its program is confined to generating electricity.

The United Nations Security Council has given Iran until April 28 to cease enrichment. But Iran has rejected the demand.

Khamenei calls on Islamic world to back Hamas against Israel
Also Friday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei called on the Islamic world to support Hamas and its resistance against Israel.

"The Islamic world is obliged to help [Hamas] in all possible ways and support continuation of this holy path [of resistance against Israel]," Khamenei said in the opening ceremony of the conference.

One of the main aims of the international conference is to raise funds for the Palestinian Authority, which has lost much of its international aid since Hamas formed the new Palestinian government. Hamas refuses to renounce violence, accept Israel's right to exist or abide by peace agreements signed by the previous PA government.

The Ayatollah called on the United States and the West to respect the democratically-elected government in Palestine and control Israeli aggression.

"Like the U.S. failed in gaining victory in Iraq, the Americans will also fail in realizing their aim of a Zionist-dominated Middle East," said Khamenei, who constitutionally has the final say on all state affairs in Iran.

Iran is a fierce supporter of Hamas and had termed the group's victory in last January's parliamentary elections as "Palestinians' democratic choice for resistance."

"I don't know enough about the military to give an educated opinion. I did happen to catch Gen. Batiste on a CNN show last night. Batiste said he decided to speak out against Rumsfeld after Rumsfeld didn't attend Shinseki's retirement party."

Well, I'm not military, but I'm not going to take sides on the debate de jour in the media (whether he should stay or go). I was reacting to the "spin" on Iraq (which I think is very destructive to the long-term support at home and coming from the civilian side). It doesn't matter if you are civilian or military (politician or general), when you reach that level, you almost by definition have to have an outsized ego (because you are very good at what you do to get where you are and you know it). And you are *very* "political" (even if a general). And they throw sharp elbows, and sometimes knives. Rumsfeld wins, and some of these guys didn't like losing. So they've carried their grudges into retirement.

That being said, there are military professionals who have solid reasons for anger. The thing with Shinseki wasn't about the party but the perception that his career ended because he told Congress the truth (in closed session that has since leaked out) - - that you cannot do this with 150,000 but need something closer to 400-500,000. (And the army isn't that big)

So what we are seeing (the disintegration of Iraq) was preordained. We may yet turn it around, but the happy talk isn't helping. And everybody is happy as a clam when things are going well (like driving into Baghdad three years ago), but the finger pointing begins when things go south.

In any case, Iraq isn't a war, it is a long battle (like Afghanistan) in a much longer war. And there will be other battles. We will have good years and bad years. The first couple years after 9/11 were "good years" (taking down the Taliban and taking down Baghdad). The last couple years have been very bad years. At home it has been quiet. Soon we will lose more people in our cities like on 9/11. Then it will be quiet again.

But we will outlast them. We aren't going anywhere. And we will kill many times more of them than they will of us. They killed thousands of us, but we have killed tens of thousands of them. And when they kill tens or hundreds of thousands . . . I'm sure you can imagine what will happen next.

And in the end, the math (and the right) will come out on our side.

I read somewhere that in the American Revolution, we lost more battles than we won (I think we lost twice as many as we won). And a few years into it, it looked pretty hopeless. But we turned it around (despite suffering some crushing defeats in the process) and won in the end.

Lincoln had to fire many of his generals before things turned around for the Union. Whether you are the Secretary of Defense or a General, it is part of war.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2006/04/15/1144521544495.html

'One storm' decoded as nuclear hit
By Tim Butcher
April 16, 2006

PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has issued Israel with a veiled threat of a nuclear attack, describing it as a "rotten, dried tree" that would be annihilated by "one storm".

In his most vitriolic and anti-Semitic attack to date, Mr Ahmadinejad warned on Friday that Israel faced imminent destruction.

While he did not refer explicitly to nuclear weapons, his reference to the "one storm" that would do away with Israel was seen as a code for nuclear Armageddon.

Iran does not yet have nuclear weapons but Tehran is widely believed to be bent on developing its own nuclear military capability, in defiance of international protocols and peace treaties. Friday's outburst will only worsen the stand-off between Iran and the big powers over its nuclear ambitions.

President George Bush, like many US leaders before him, is an ardent supporter of Israel and his Administration would not stand by if Iran posed a threat to it.

Israel has warned it would not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear capability. Israel is the only Middle Eastern country with nuclear weapons although it never publicly admits this.

Speaking at the opening of a conference in Tehran to support the Palestinian cause, Mr Ahmadinejad repeated earlier anti-Semitic attacks on Israel, questioning the scale of the Holocaust and attacking Zionism.

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," he said. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm."

He poured scorn on the established history of the Holocaust, saying an atrocity committed in Europe should be settled in Europe.

"If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"

The land of Palestine, he said, referring to the British mandated territory that includes all of Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, "will be freed soon". He did not say how.

Mr Ahmadinejad was speaking days after Israel's chief of military intelligence, Major General Amos Yadlin, said Iran could develop a nuclear bomb "within three years, by the end of the decade".

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1143498859737&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

IDF: Too late to stop Teheran diplomatically

Yaakov Katz and Herb Keinon, THE JERUSALEM POST Apr. 16, 2006

With projections that Iran could develop a nuclear bomb within the next two-and-a-half years, a high-ranking IDF officer from Military Intelligence told The Jerusalem Post over the weekend that the successful enrichment of uranium announced last week proved that diplomatic efforts to stop Teheran's race to the bomb had failed.

"The way it looks now, it is doubtful that the United Nations and the international efforts will succeed in stopping Iran," the high-ranking officer said. "Iran spit in the world's face but the world hasn't done anything."

On Friday Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad fired a series of verbal shots at Israel, saying it was a "permanent threat" to the Middle East that will "soon" be liberated, and questioning the validity of the Holocaust.

"Like it or not, the Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation," Ahmadinejad said at the opening of a three-day conference in support of the Palestinians attended by Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal and other Hamas members. "The Zionist regime is a rotten, dried tree that will be eliminated by one storm," he said.

Although Israel had no official response to Ahmadinejad, Shimon Peres said that the Iranian president's words were reminiscent of those of Saddam Hussein, and that his "end will be similar."

Peres issued a statement saying that Ahmadinejad "represents Satan, and not God." History, he said, has denounced "madmen and those who wave the sword, and all those who acted this way ended their careers accordingly."

With that, Peres said that Israel needed to let the US and the international community lead the campaign to protect the world from the Iranian leader.

In an Israel Radio interview, Peres said Saturday that "Iran is a United Nations member state threatening another UN member state, and the international organization will not let this go unheeded."

"The Iranian president is uniting the entire world against him," he said. "Israel is following his statements and actions closely, but does not wish to respond to them."

Indeed, the Foreign Ministry had no response Saturday night to Ahmadinejad's comments.

On Tuesday, Ahmadinejad announced that Iran had passed one of the major hurdles in its race to obtain nuclear power and had, for the first time, successfully enriched uranium.

But while only a battery of 164 centrifuges was used to enrich the uranium to 3.5 percent, according to the IDF officer it was only a matter of time before Iran obtained technology allowing for the operation of thousands of centrifuges over a period of several months which could produce highly-enriched uranium at 90% - the amount needed for a nuclear bomb.

The officer noted that Iran was in the process of developing nuclear arms in a separate program run parallel and alongside the Islamic republic's publicly-known and claimed-to-be civilian nuclear program.

"It is more probable that they have a second and secret plan [to develop nuclear arms] and they will copy the technology they are now developing in the open and use it in a secret location," the officer said.

Iran, the officer predicted, would obtain independent research and development capabilities - sometimes referred to as the "point of no return" - in a matter of months, technically allowing it to move forward with its nuclear program without external assistance.

"Once they succeeded in enriching uranium at 3.5% there is nothing really technologically stopping them from enriching at 90%," he asserted.

But after successfully enriching uranium, Iran's next test would be to operate thousands of centrifuges for more than just a few days. "The goal is to keep them going for several months without breaking down or falling apart," he explained. "The fact that they know how to do it for several days is not enough."

While Israel needed to fear a nuclear attack by Iran, the threat was shared by the entire world and needed to be taken care of appropriately, the officer said. Tough and immediate sanctions could still potentially suspend and stop Iran's nuclear program, he added.

"The diplomatic efforts made until now have been exhausted," he said, "and it is now time for a diplomatic process with sharp teeth."

The Iranian president provoked a world outcry last October when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."

On Friday, he repeated his previous line on the Holocaust, saying: "If such a disaster is true, why should the people of this region pay the price? Why does the Palestinian nation have to be suppressed and have its land occupied?"

The land of Palestine, he said, "will be freed soon." He did not say how this would be achieved, but insisted to the audience of at least 900 people: "Believe that Palestine will be freed soon."

"The existence of this (Israeli) regime is a permanent threat" to the Middle East, he added. "Its existence has harmed the dignity of Islamic nations."

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