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The consensus among Israel's political and military leaders as we near our 60th anniversary of independence is that modern Israel has never been as threatened as it is today. Given the wars of survival it had to fight in its first quarter century, that's a profoundly troubling assessment. Although Syria has all of Israel within missile range, Hizbullah has rearmed and the quantities of weaponry flowing into Gaza risk turning a major irritant into a grave concern, the key focus of potentially devastating confrontation is the Islamist regime in Iran - itself, of course, the key state player behind Hizbullah...

The United States has the combat power to strike Teheran if needed, Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff warned Friday. He alleged Iran was ratcheting up its support for militias in Iraq by providing them with newly manufactured weapons and bringing them across the border to receive training from members of Teheran's Republican Guard. Mullen said the military is preparing to roll out evidence, including date stamps on newly found weapons caches, to prove that recently made Iranian weapons are flowing into Iraq at a steadily increasing rate. He would not detail the evidence, which...

The nation's top military officer said yesterday that the Pentagon is planning for "potential military courses of action" as one of several options against Iran, criticizing what he called the Tehran government's "increasingly lethal and malign influence" in Iraq. Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said a conflict with Iran would be "extremely stressing" but not impossible for U.S. forces, pointing to reserve capabilities in the Navy and Air Force. "It would be a mistake to think that we are out of combat capability," he said at a Pentagon news conference. Speaking of Iran's intentions, Mullen...

THE failure of diplomacy to stop Iran’s nuclear program became obvious this week, when President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad revealed the installation of 6,000 new centrifuges at the country’s main uranium enrichment complex. His announcement was accompanied by the now customary assertion that outsiders can do nothing to stop Iran from fulfilling its nuclear destiny. Once, not so long ago, this kind of boast would elicit clear American declarations that Iran would never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. Everything, President Bush would say ominously, is on the table. This time he has been quiet. I wish I believed that it is...

Assume for a moment: It's January, 2009, and Barack Obama has just been inaugurated as President of the United States. Ahmadi-Nejad explodes his first Bomb; he now has that itchy finger on the button as long as the mullahs stay in power. The Middle East goes wild --- with abject fear among the Saudis, and loud celebrations among terror supporters. The day of revenge against the Jews and the Crusaders has finally arrived. What would President Obama do? He has only two basic options. Option1:Stick with his electoral promises, fly to Tehran, and "talk to the mullahs." What will the...

President Bush and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain expressed mounting impatience Thursday with Iran for proceeding with its nuclear enrichment work in defiance of the international community. Earlier, the prime minister met with the three presidential candidates, but he smilingly side-stepped a question about which he might feel more affinity for. While Tehran argues that its nuclear program is purely for civilian purposes, Mr. Bush told reporters that it “is, in my judgment, naïve” to think that the know-how that Iranians are developing could not be transferred to military efforts to produce an atomic weapon. Iranian leaders, he said,...

Iran is engaging in a proxy war with the United States in Iraq, adopting tactics similar to those it has used to back fighters in Lebanon, the United States ambassador to Iraq said Friday. The remarks by the ambassador, Ryan C. Crocker, reflected the sharper criticism of Iran by President Bush and his top deputies over the past week, as administration officials have sought to trace many of their troubles in Iraq to Iran. Mr. Crocker said in an interview that there had been no substantive change in Iranian behavior in Iraq, despite more than a year of talks between...

New satellite imagery exposed a site where Iran was developing long-range ballistic missiles, the Times of London reported Friday. According to the report, on February 4, Iran announced it had launched a "research rocket" as part of its space program. Experts have estimated since then, however, that the rocket launch was in fact a field test of Shihab-type ballistic missile. But four days after the launch another intriguing feature of the test became apparent: analysis of photographs taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite indicated that the launch site of Kavoshgar 1, as the Shihab missile was dubbed by the...

The hours of congressional testimony, the speeches and the press conferences this week were all, nominally, about Iraq. But another, equally explosive question - what to do about Iran - loomed over the presentations by Army Gen. David Petraeus, the American military commander in Iraq, over U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker and over U.S. strategy for the Middle East. Petraeus and Crocker, arguing that there has been progress in stabilizing Iraq since President Bush ordered a troop build-up there last year, fingered Iran's support for Shiite militias in Iraq, which they called "special groups," as the No. 1 threat...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- A Mideast peace agreement will require "painful concessions" by Israelis and Palestinians who must work together to defeat those "committed to violence," Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday. After meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Cheney stressed the U.S. commitment to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, saying it was "long overdue." "Achieving that vision will require tremendous effort at the negotiating table and painful concessions on both sides," said Cheney, whose stop in Ramallah came just two months after President Bush's trip to the West Bank. Abbas, a moderate, controls the West Bank...

It’s not a script for the next science-fiction thriller, but renowned British scientist James Lovelock is giving human civilization less than 32 years before all hell breaks loose because of the effects of global warming. Lovelock said the impact of climate change is irreversible regardless of what mankind does. “By 2040, the world population of more than six billion will have been culled by floods, drought and famine,” Sarah Sands of The Daily Mail (U.K.) wrote in an article published on March 22. “The people of Southern Europe, as well as South-East Asia, will be fighting their way into countries...

Commentary by Daniel T. Zanoza, Executive Director, RFFM.org Are these the end times? Judeo-Christian Scripture tells us there will be signs and wonders at the end of the age, but I'm not sure the Bible had hard core politics in mind. Some may be shocked at the title I have given this piece. To be honest, it took me about ten seconds to decide whether asking the ultimate question would violate some kind of Christian ethic. Let's just say I wrote this column with my tongue almost firmly planted in cheek. The truth is, during the last six months, I...

(IsraelNN.com) "Jews! We have already dug your graves," declared Hamas official Mushir al-Masri at a half-million strong rally of support for Hamas in Gaza’s central square Saturday. Al-Masri said that Hamas was eager to combat the IDF in any upcoming conflict. “The enemy’s exit from Gaza will be nothing like its entrance,” he said. “Gaza will become a graveyard for its soldiers.” The Hamas official was joined by the terrorist group's top brass, some via teleconference, at a massive show of support for the Islamist movement that unequivocally broadcast a message of support for terrorism and the ongoing war with...

One madman with a gun can hold off a hundred cops. The difference is who is more willing to lose his life. Such is the situation between the Khomeini regime and those it has directly threatened. Beginning with Khomeini's rise to power after 1979, the regime has constantly threatened others, and celebrated its own readiness for martyrdom --- which it amply proved in the war with Saddam Hussein. Today Tehran's mortal enemies' list goes far beyond Israel to include Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States, Jordan, Lebanon, France, Britain, and the United States. Yet Max Boot points out in the...

Iran tested a newly-developed ballistic missile on the day of the Annapolis conference, Channel 10 reported Wednesday. The Ashoura missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers and is capable of reaching Israel, US Army bases in the Middle East and eastern European cities, including Moscow, said the TV channel. According to the report, the new missile is an improvement on the existing Shihab-3 missile. The Ashoura uses solid fuel instead of the Shihab's liquid fuel, giving it a significantly faster launch sequence which is harder to detect. Iranian Defense Minister Gen. Mostafa Muhammad-Najjar had announced the development of the new...

Iran on Sunday remained defiant in the standoff over its nuclear programme after the latest talks with the European Union ended in failure and world powers agreed to step up moves for further sanctions. Foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said more UN Security Council sanctions would not deter Iran from pressing ahead with its nuclear drive, which the United States alleges is aimed at making an atomic weapon. "If these powers are trying to deprive Iran of its rights, then resolutions and sanctions will be fruitless," he told reporters. His comments came two days after the latest round of...

Egypt, Jordan, Palestinians try to win over skeptics before U.S. conference SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians sought Thursday to persuade skeptical Arab nations to attend a U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference, insisting it could open the door to a Palestinian state in the next year. Saudi Arabia and Syria remain the most important holdouts. Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak held a mini-summit with the leaders of Jordan and the Palestinians in this Red Sea resort, bringing together the strongest Arab supporters of next week’s conference in Annapolis, Md. Their meeting came ahead of a key gathering of...

Reversing the earlier-held American position that the Annapolis conference will deal exclusively with the Israeli-Palestinian issue, the US has sent out clear signals in recent days that if Syria wants, it can raise the Golan Heights issue at the meeting. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told reporters Wednesday that other disputed issues could be raised at Annapolis, including the Golan Heights. Indeed, one of the three sessions to be held at the conference's plenary session on Tuesday will deal with "comprehensive peace." Assistant Secretary for Near Eastern Affairs David Welch said at a press briefing in Washington on Tuesday...

(IsraelNN.com) The Bush administration is putting pressure on the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's government to go beyond freeing 500 Arab terrorists and prisoners and halting building permits in Judea and Samaria. It now wants Israel to freeze all building, including units under construction in areas covered by previous understandings to be included as part of Israel after final borders are decided for the proposed new Arab state. American Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has put her reputation on the line by planning a conference on the Middle East to be held in Annapolis, Maryland. However, most Arab nations still have...

Palestinians: We will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state at Annapolis Published: 11.11.07, 20:41 / Israel News The Palestinian negotiating team has rejected the option of referring to Israel as a Jewish state in the Annapolis Declaration. Jerusalem is worried that the Palestinians will renege on their commitment to fight terror after the conference. A meeting between the two negotiating teams set for Sunday evening was cancelled when the lead Palestinian negotiator, Former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) was delayed at a military checkpoint on his way to Jerusalem. It now appears that the groups will meet...

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Monday assured the Palestinians that she aims to wrap up an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal in the remaining year of the Bush administration, offering a target date that falls just short of a formal deadline. The Palestinians had sought such a deadline, arguing that negotiations cannot be open-ended after more than a decade of failed attempts. Israel has rejected the idea, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday that he expected "real accomplishments" within Bush's term. In a joint news conference with Rice, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said he had received "encouraging signs"...

(IsraelNN.com) Israel’s Chief Rabbis and the Chief Rabbi of Haifa have been invited to the White House for pre-Annapolis talks to explain the Jewish connection to the Temple Mount. Chief Rabbis Yonah Metzger and Shlomo Amar, as well as the Chief Rabbi of Haifa and Chairman of the Chief Rabbinate Communications Committee Rabbi She'ar-Yashuv Cohen departed Saturday evening for a series of meetings to clarify to US leaders that the Temple Mount is Judaism's holiest site. Ahead of the Annapolis Conference, the Bush administration is trying to gauge Israel’s “red lines” and examine the possibility of relinquishing the Temple Mount...

http://www.thekingiscoming.com/telecast/1516.asx

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday laid out his most specific demands for the borders of a future independent state, calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from all territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war. Abbas' claim comes as Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams are trying to hammer out a joint vision for a future peace deal in time for a U.S.-hosted conference next month. With Israel seeking to retain parts of the West Bank and east Jerusalem, Abbas' comments appeared to set the stage for tough negotiations, which are expected to include complicated arrangements such...

Tony and Susan Alamo were photographed with scores of their followers in 1974, at the height of their power. Today, Tony Alamo is back. Photo by Gilbert B. Weingourt/Zuma Press LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Clad in matching T-shirts with bejeweled cross logos, members of Tony Alamo Christian Ministries are once again saving souls on Hollywood Boulevard. Since the late 1960s, followers of notorious cult leader Tony Alamo have recruited and distributed literature on this star-studded sidewalk. On this sunny summer afternoon, they're handing out heavily footnoted, paranoid screeds proclaiming the end of the world is nigh and branding the U.S....

RAMALLAH, West Bank - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice glossed over differences between Israel and the Palestinians about whether an upcoming peace conference will tackle the hardest issues in their six-decade conflict, saying Thursday the U.S.-sponsored session will be a serious push toward forming an independent Palestinian state. The Palestinians want the fall international conference to yield an outline for a peace deal, complete with timetable, while Israel wants a vaguer declaration of intent. "We need a meeting that advances the cause of a Palestinian state," Rice said following talks with Palestinian leaders in the West Bank.

Michael Moore Wannabe by: Bethany Stotts, September 13, 2007 The infamous far-left blogger, Max Blumenthal, perhaps best known for his harassment of Michelle Malkin at the 2007 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), has persevered in his online posting of pseudo-documentaries. Once again, Blumenthal has chosen the Christian Right as his target, seeking to expose what he describes as the “politically extreme, outrageous, or bizarre” events of the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) 2007 Washington-Israeli Summit. This reporter was also there and can fill in the part of the story that Blumenthal leaves out. In true Michael Moore fashion, Blumenthal deletes,...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Israel and the Palestinians on Thursday to talk about the key issues that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state. The most troublesome of these are the so-called final status matters -- the future of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state and the right of return for refugees. Israel is balking at such a broad commitment at this stage. But Rice noted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had said he was ready to discuss fundamental issues leading to a Palestinian state, though she gave no details....

      The more dangerous Israel’s position gets, the more its primary ally pressures it to retreat. Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice stepped up the pressure on Israel when she stated, “The occupation of the West Bank will have to end,” attributing the demand to a recent speech by President George W. Bush. Rice was speaking with the U.S.-sponsored Arabic radio station Radio Sawa prior to her current Middle East tour. Arutz Sheva reported July 26, “By stating so clearly that ‘the occupation of the West Bank will have to end,’ Rice has set a...

TONY BLAIR is expected to inspect a prospective new home - known locally as a palace - when he travels to Jerusalem tomorrow on his first trip to the Middle East as a peace envoy. He is said to be keen to take over the one-time residence of the British High Commissioner for Palestine, with its ballroom and spectacular view of the golden dome of Al-Aqsa mosque. The house, built of Jerusalem stone in 1931, was once the pride of British diplomacy and occupies a commanding position in West Jerusalem on the inauspiciously named Hill of Evil Counsel, where Judas...

Many evangelical Christians throughout the United States support a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and seek "justice" for both sides, reads an open letter to US President George W. Bush published in Sunday's New York Times. The letter, signed by several dozen evangelical clergy and activists, urged the Bush administration not to "grow weary" in its attempt to negotiate a "lasting peace" in the region. The letter's authors sought to correct what they called a "serious misperception" that all American evangelicals objected to the establishment of a Palestinian state, and said they hoped that the awareness of a large...

Published: 07/26/07, 11:51 AM Secy. Rice: Israel Must End Occupation of 'West Bank' by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) Speaking with Arabic-language Radio Sawa, based in Washington and Dubai, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice went further in her demands on Israel than President Bush did in his recent speech on Israel. Rice, about to depart for the Middle East to prepare an upcoming international meeting of regional leaders, said that President Bush recently stated "very clearly that Israel's future will rest in Israel, in places like Galilee and in the Negev - and that the occupation of the West Bank will...

WASHINGTON - President Bush is set to announce new aid to help the embattled Palestinian president create a viable state that can co-exist with Israel, administration officials said yesterday. “The president sees there is an opportunity there now to show the Palestinian people a choice between the kind of violence and chaos under Hamas in Gaza and the prospect ... for an effective, democratic Palestinian state,� said national security adviser Stephen Hadley. Taking on a more personal, high-profile role in the conflict, Bush planned to speak today at the White House about U.S. financial and diplomatic support for President Mahmoud...

IT'S GLOBAL COOLING... AND IT'S DEADLY By: Phil Brennan Unless you've been living in an igloo in some desolate arctic region bereft of any form of communication with the outside world it should become obvious that the world has been undergoing some pretty violent episodes of extreme weather, destruction by fire of vast forest areas, and incredible amounts of rainfall resulting in floods of an unprecedented magnitude from Texas to England and just about everyplace else. If you've been following my series on global cooling starting in 1997, none of this will come as a surprise. These are all symptoms...

JERUSALEM: Renowned British scientist Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics and astronomy, predicted the world would end in 2060. He made the prediction in a 1704 letter that went on show in Jerusalem on Sunday. A famed rationalist, who secured a royal exemption from the ordination in the Church of England that was normally expected of academics of his day so he would not have to follow its teachings, Newton nonetheless based his prediction on a Biblical text. Working from verses in the Book of Daniel, the elaborator of the classical laws of gravity, motion and optics argued...

Divide and rule was an old maxim of Britain's Empire. In the Middle East today, there's certainly no shortage of division. But who is ruling as a result? Any lingering hopes of a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians evaporated last week as the Islamist extremists of Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip. President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of the more secular Fatah party, now finds himself president of the West Bank only. The next Middle Eastern peace plan will have to be a three-state solution: Israel, Hamastan and Fatahland. Did I say three? I...

Forty years later, Moscow's role in engineering and exacerbating the crisis is revealed. June, 1967. War clouds had been building for months. The Israelis found themselves increasingly surrounded by Soviet-backed forces of the Arab and Islamic world, all of whose leaders were vowing to "throw the Jews into the sea," and the Israelis were considering a first strike. The element of surprise might be their only hope of survival, they figured. But President Lyndon Johnson had warned Israeli Prime Minister Levi Eshkol in no uncertain terms that such a move would be a serious mistake. As historian Michael B. Oren...

The Prince of Wales was a "most likeable person", President Gaddafi a "mad clown" and Michael Jackson was "surprisingly shy". The private diaries of Ronald Reagan, which are about to be published for the first time, reveal a US president who was worried about imminent Armageddon but who also fretted about how he would handle chopsticks in front of the Chinese. The man who was credited with ending the Cold War reveals that he was "lonesome" when his wife, Nancy, was away and refused to talk to their son, Ron Junior, after he hung up on him. His carefully handwritten...

TROY, MICHIGAN The Bible teaches that in the end times there will be 'wars and rumors of wars.' While popular Bible prophecy teacher Jack Van Impe has no control over the first part of that statement, he definitely believes he can contribute to the last part, and thus plans now to devote his ministry to the spread of 'rumors of wars.' "I feel it is my calling and my duty to hasten the end times." Said Van Impe. "I can't start a war. I'm not the leader of a nation. But I can start 'rumors of wars,' and that's what...

Christian-Arab Predicts World Islam Takeover - Unless... by Hillel Fendel (IsraelNN.com) "When will you Westerners realize that half-measures don't work with people who are willing to die by the thousands for Allah to achieve their goal?" This was the upshot of a recent conversation between a Holocaust survivor living in Herzliya and a Christian-Arab living in the Galilee. Following are excerpts from the Christian-Arab's remarks, based on article by Solly Ganor for FrontPage Magazine: "I have to tell you something which very few of you seem to comprehend. Your [Israel's] bungling war against a few thousand Hizbullah fighters which you...

Apocalyptic talk about global warming has stirred the sediment of old fears - the mushroom cloud has returned to haunt us. But, Thornton McCamish writes, the last great fright was a little different from the new one. LAST year felt a bit like Armageddon all over again. It began on TV. Jericho was first: the sinister snickering of geiger-counters, the ICMBs flaming across the American evening sky. Then came Heroes, in which one of the characters, who can paint prophetic images, starts depicting New York under nuclear attack. On the latest 24, the terrorists upgraded to A-bombs. It spread to...

Despite the daily carnage on the streets of Baghdad and other Iraqi towns and cities, despite worldwide and nationwide public exhaustion with the war which has degenerated into a civil war— between two warring Islamic factions— despite the defeat of his Republican Party in the midterm elections last Novembxer as a result of public disenchantment with the war, United States President George W. Bush continues to enjoy the support of some 35 percent of the American adult population of 209 million. That translates into 73 million adult Americans who are unwavering Bush supporters. Not by coincidence, that number is only...

The Shape of ArmageddonSure, the world will end. What will rise up to take the place of human civilization? The years 2004 and 2005 brought global disasters enough to gladden the heart of any prophet of doom. With the tsunami, earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, famine, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, suicide bombers, and bird flu, all the biblical signs are there to suggest that the end of the world is at hand. But that should be qualified by saying that the end of the world as we know it may be at hand - civilization, we call it. Human life will...

Top News Story YnetNews State media says, ‘Shiite messiah will kill archenemy in Jerusalem, could come during spring equinox' A triumphal religious prophecy has appeared on an Iranian official state media website, heralding the return of the Shiite messiah. According to the website, "Imam Mahdi (may God hasten his reappearance) will appear all of a sudden on the world scene with a voice from the skies announcing his reappearance at the holy Ka'ba in Mecca." The Islamic Republic of Iran broadcasting (IRIB) website said in a program called 'The World Towards Illumination,' that the Mahdi will reappear in Mecca...

DOHA, Qatar, Dec. 2 (UPI) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says Israel is an "enemy" created to "penetrate the heart of Muslim land." The remarks were reported by The Jerusalem Post, quoting the official Islamic Republic News Agency. Describing Israel as a "threat" that is "on the verge of disappearing," Ahmadinejad told Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, "As everybody knows, the Zionist regime was created to establish dominion of arrogant states over the region and to enable the enemy to penetrate the heart of Muslim land." The two leaders were meeting for talks in Qatar. Haniyeh, a senior Hamas leader,...

Last update - 00:12 20/11/2006 The largest city in the ancient world By Ran Shapira The Early Bronze Age temple was initially discovered at Tel Megiddo a decade ago. When part of it was first unearthed in 1996, the researchers realized this was a very impressive structure. Since then, evidence accumulated supporting the estimated dimensions: In 2000, two large column bases were excavated. Then last summer, most of the structure was excavated, and the researchers were surprised. The temple, it emerged, was built on a larger area than had been previously assumed, and is an artful construction of excellent materials....

VIENNA — The head of the UN nuclear agency warned Monday that as many as 30 countries could soon have technology that would let them produce atomic weapons “in a very short time,” joining the nine states known or suspected to have such arms. Speaking at a conference on tightening controls against nuclear proliferation, Mohamed ElBaradei said more nations are “hedging their bets” by developing technology that is at the core of peaceful nuclear energy programs but could quickly be switched to making weapons. Dr. ElBaradei, chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, called them “virtual new weapons states.” The...

I don't want to sound alarmist here, but North Korea has just conducted its first nuclear weapons test. This is not good. Imagine Adolf Hitler with a nuclear weapon. That would be the moral equivalent of Kim Jong-il with one. There is no difference. Kim is a mass murderer, possibly on the scale of Hitler. The only difference, so far, is that Kim has killed millions of his own people through starvation, forced labor camps and executions – more in the style of Josef Stalin. But Kim's dream, like his Stalinist father's, remains reunification of his country through military force....

August 22, 2006, Tuesday, ARMAGEDDON In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of “word for the day”. Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the “word of the day”; in a sentence. The sentence must, in some way, relate to the news of the day. Practice makes perfect.....post on.... Subbie Slip has her whip, handcuffs and legcuffs today. Tomorrow I’m bringing in chains, so beware.The rest of the stuff is locked up in my drawer. I’m just letting all the new students know that we behave...

Iran's state television today said the military would launch a series of large-scale exercises on August 19. State television quoted army deputy commander General Mohammad Reza Ashtiani as saying that the upcoming maneuvers "aim at introducing Iran's new defensive doctrine."Ashtiani reportedly said the exercises would involve both ground and air forces and would go on "for an unspecified period of time." Addressing reporters at a news briefing on August 16, Ashtiani said the war games would take place in West and East Azerbaijan, Kurdistan, Baluchestan va Sistan, and Khorasan provinces. Most of those peripheral provinces also have large ethnic minority...