Free Republic

A black hole in the U.S. commitment to transform the greater Middle East hovers over Iran. An attentive newspaper reader can describe the goals that President Bush and Condoleezza Rice, his national security adviser, have in mind with respect to Iraq, Palestine and the Arab political order. On Iran, the jury of two is still out. That is not a bad place for them to be. Iran's volatile internal politics -- and the strategic changes created by U.S. troops camping on Iran's borders and new international pressure on Tehran to give up its nuclear weapons program -- make planning ahead...

Libya's decision to dismantle its secret weapons programme turns the spotlight on the remaining "rogue states" in Washington and London's sights. North Korea is the biggest concern. Pyongyang's Communist regime responded to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein by declaring that a nuclear weapon was the only way to keep the Americans at bay. The country, led by the dictator Kim Jong-il, has a large conventional arsenal and has had a nuclear weapons programme since the late 1970s. The United States claims that North Korea also has advanced chemical and biological weapons and was trying to test-fire ballistic missiles in breach...

Evidence discovered in a probe of Iran's secret nuclear program points overwhelmingly to Pakistan as the source of crucial technology that put Iran on a fast track toward becoming a nuclear weapons power, according to U.S. and European officials familiar with the investigation. The serious nature of the discoveries prompted a decision by Pakistan two weeks ago to detain three of its top nuclear scientists for several days of questioning, with U.S. intelligence experts allowed to assist, the officials said. The scientists have not been charged with any crime, and Pakistan continues to insist that it never wittingly provided nuclear...

After winning concessions from Libya, President Bush urged other nations to recognize that the pursuit of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons brings not influence or prestige, but ``isolation and otherwise unwelcome consequences.'' Bush's remarks alluded to the Iraq war that toppled Saddam Hussein over his alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction and were apparently aimed at North Korea and Iran, still suspected of seeking and developing banned weapons. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Bush, in back-to-back appearances late Friday in Britain and at the White House, announced that Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi had agreed after nine months of...

A Turkish man has admitted he received $50,000 from an Iranian source and sent it to Turkey to finance last month's suicide bomb attacks in Istanbul, a newspaper said on Saturday. Adnan Ersoz, charged with attempting to change "the constitutional order by force of arms" on Friday, had confirmed that an international terrorist organization had given training and cash to members of a Turkish Islamist group, police said in a statement on Friday. Police did not name the international organization. But a report in Hurriyet newspaper said he told interrogators he had breakfast with al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden...

Now that Iran says it will allow outside experts to inspect its nuclear sites, it might behoove other governments to listen to the words of an expert inside Iran. In a public session of the Iranian Parliament on Nov. 24, Ahmad Shirzad, a deputy from the city of Isfahan, attacked the regime's nuclear policies, provoking a controversy that has not yet died down. Mr. Shirzad is no novice in these matters. The son of President Ali Khatami remarked once that "If there are three persons in Iran able to address atomic questions from a specialist point of view, Mr. Shirzad...

France's state-owned television channels reached their highest viewer ratings Wednesday when the nation was invited to witness what one commentator described as "an historic moment." This consisted of a 4,000-word address by President Jacques Chirac, live from the Elysee Palace. With a tricolor in the background to emphasise the solemnity of the occasion, Chirac read his text as if it were a declaration of war. A crowd of 400 "leading citizens," including the prime minister, the entire cabinet, speakers of the two houses of parliament, and heads of the various religious communities, were present in the gilded hall to provide...

Former FBI director Louis Freeh testified yesterday that he believed there was "overwhelming evidence" that senior Iranian government officials financed and directed the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia. Freeh testified as a key witness on behalf of the families of 12 Americans killed in the bombing, who are suing the government of Iran. The former director took particular interest in the investigation into the bombing, traveling to Saudi Arabia soon after the June 25, 1996, explosion. The bombing ripped a dormitory in half and killed 19 Air Force servicemen and servicewomen. Freeh's testimony came at a fragile stage...

The government of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has been urged to halt Iran's nuclear weapons program. A senior Israeli parliamentarian regarded as a leading expert on Iran's strategic programs has warned the Sharon government that it cannot rely on the United States to stop Teheran's nuclear weapons project. The parliamentarian said Iran will achieve independent nuclear weapons capability over the next year. "If we don't act by ourselves, then others won't do anything," Knesset member Ephraim Sneh told a strategic conference in Herzliya on Tuesday. "They will only do something if they know that we will act, providing no...

The head of Iraq's Interim Governing Council says Iran should be paid reparations for the war that Saddam Hussein waged against it in the 1980s. Abdul Aziz al-Hakim said further discussion was needed to decide what if anything Iraq would pay itself. Iran claims $100bn in reparations for the brutal eight-year war that claimed about one million lives. Mr Hakim's remarks may augur improving Iran-Iraq relations now Saddam Hussein is in custody. The prominent Iraqi is also the head of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (Sciri) the most important Shia Muslim party represented on the governing...

Justice Minister Yosef Lapid has urged that all material relating to Jewish property in Iraq and Iran be collected. The purpose would be a future Israeli claim over Jewish property left in those countries. Lapid yesterday met with representatives of Jews who had lived in Arab countries to discuss the issue. He criticized previous Israeli governments that had treated the Jews who immigrated to Israel from the Arab countries as "brothers who returned to their homeland." Lapid said: "At a time when the Palestinians turned into professional refugees, we gave up one of the best arguments that we have... This...

Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has said Saddam Hussein is unlikely to receive a fair trial because he could reveal too many embarrassing details. "Saddam will undoubtedly make statements that will not be pleasing to many people among those who are now standing against Saddam," he said. Iran - which was invaded by Iraq in 1980 - is preparing charges against the ousted Iraqi president. Mr Khatami has said he does not "like the death penalty". Double standards "But I believe if there is one case where there should be an execution, the fairest case would be for Saddam," the moderate...

Iran confirmed it has almost completed a plant which would produce heavy water, an aspect of its nuclear programme which has aroused particular suspicion among arms experts. The announcement came as an Israeli intelligence chief called Iran the "No 1 terror nation" and claimed it was plotting relentlessly to attack Israeli targets. Heavy-water reactors can use natural, non-enriched uranium as fuel, which can then be reprocessed to extract weapons-grade plutonium.

Forty-one Iranians held in Iraq over the past seven months have been released by coalition forces, the Iranian news agency Irna reports. The group was released from Umm Qasr prison in southern Iraq and crossed back into Iran at the Shalamcheh border post near the town of Khorramshahr. Governor Mohammad Ali Shirali told Irna they had been wrongly detained. He said the prisoners were mainly pilgrims and aid workers who went to Iraq "in order to help the Iraqis". He complained that the prisoners had also had their vehicles and possessions confiscated by the coalition forces. Pilgrims The news agency...

For decades the Middle East has been characterized by a reality of strategic parity. At one pole was the conventional military power of the Arab countries, and at the other was Israeli nuclear ambiguity or opacity. Israel has never revealed officially what it does at the Dimona nuclear research center. It allowed the Arabs to guess. Speculation deters. But nuclear ambiguity was not created to counter Arab conventional power. In aggregate the Arab states can field a military coalition that comprises tanks, aircraft and artillery in quantities several-fold in excess of those of Israel. The supply of western arms to...

Iran is the world's "No. 1 terror nation" and is plotting relentlessly to attack Israeli targets, the head of Israel's Shin Bet security service said Tuesday, calling on Western nations to restrain Tehran. Israel has in the past accused Iran of sponsoring militant groups that attack Israel, but the remarks by the Shin Bet chief, Avi Dichter, appeared particularly harsh. Addressing a conference on national security, Dichter said Iran is sponsoring terrorism and developing non-conventional weapons, and poses a strategic threat. "It is clear that because of terror, Iran presents a strategic threat to Israel. And if you connect the...

Iran's clerical rulers are nearing the 25th anniversary of their Islamic revolution under greater pressure than ever from "Great Satan" the United States, as they watch another neighbour swamped with American troops and feel the heat over its nuclear programme. It was a nerve-wracking 2003 for Iran's leaders: the Saddam Hussein regime collapsed in just three weeks under overwhelming US firepower, leaving many here to fear Iran - now effectively surrounded by American forces - could be the next "axis of evil" member to come under attack. In addition, the Islamic republic, founded in February 1979, found itself accused of...

<p>Iran's foreign minister says his country is doing all it can to battle terrorism.</p> <p>Asked in a news conference whether fighters in Iran are crossing the border to Iraq, Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi said, "We certainly will do our best to not allow any terrorist elements to use Iranian territory.</p>

Saddam Hussein is a broken man and has supplied intelligence that helped capture two top wanted men, officials said on Monday, but violence raged on in Iraq despite his arrest and bombings killed nine people. The U.S.-backed Iraqi Governing Council said Saddam would go on trial facing a possible death penalty for his three decades of ruthless rule, and President Bush said it was up to Iraqis to decide his fate provided the court hearing was fair. "I found a very broken man," said Governing Council member Muwaffaq al-Rubaiye, who met Saddam on Sunday with Iraq's U.S. governor Paul Bremer...

A controversial Iranian ex-spy said he has discussed with the Pentagon using some of Saddam Hussein's hidden cash to launch a peaceful revolution against Tehran's clerical regime, Newsweek magazine reported Sunday. Manucher Ghorbanifar told the weekly he has been meeting with senior defense officials to discuss unseating Iran's Islamic regime, and said he knows how to find 340 million dollars in Saddam's cash. Ghorbanifar said he proposed using half the cash to finance an Iranian resistance and giving the other half to the US government, Newsweek said. A Defense official told Newsweek that any discussion about regime change with Ghorbanifar...