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President Katsav Holds Radio Chat with Listeners in His Native Iran The Associated Press/ Ha'aretz September 03, 2003 /Iranian-born President Moshe Katsav has hosted an emotional radio talk show with listeners from his native country, even as Israeli and Iranian leaders have traded barbs in recent days over Iran's nuclear program. The broadcast earlier this week on the Persian service of Israel Radio paired President Moshe Katsav with listeners from all over Iran, service director Menashe Amir said Wednesday. Katsav chatted in a mix of Hebrew and Farsi with Iranian listeners who called in during Monday's program, recalling his affinity...

Where are our Friends? By Yossi Olmert http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1062228120045 Aug. 31, 2003 /Persia and Israel shared years of friendship and strategic cooperation until the Shah's regime was overthrown in 1979. Early good relations resulted from the fact that Persian nationalism did not contradict close relations with Israel. The Shah's never conducted a Shi'ite foreign policy, and Arab countries chiefly Iraq were the Shah's implacable enemies. However, under the current Islamic Republic foreign policy is driven not only by Iranian interests but also by Islamicism. With regard to Israel, the Islamic element is dominant and unshakeable. By adopting a vitriolic anti-Israel policy...

Iran's defense minister said Wednesday that his country would strike back with its long-range Shahab-3 missile if Israel attacked its nuclear facilities. Ali Shamkhani was responding to comments made last month by Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, who said Israel wouldn't permit Iran to develop nuclear weapons - a hint it was prepared to take unilateral military action. "We will strike Israel with all weapons at our disposal if the Zionist regime ventures to do so," Shamkhani said in comments carried by the official Islamic Republic News Agency. He said the Shahab-3, able to reach Israel, would be used. The...

Iranian officials have warned Israel that there will be painful consequences if it attacks Iran in any way. The head of the Iranian air force, General Seyed Reza Pardis, told the Mehr news agency on Monday that if Israel launches an attack on Iran, it will be "digging its own grave." President Mohammad Khatami has also warned that Israel would be making a mistake if it carried out its threat to destroy Tehran's nuclear capabilities. The warnings follow comments from Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz last week that an operation to destroy Iran's nuclear capabilities if necessary is under consideration. Speaking...

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...

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...

Israel Defense Minister Converses with Radio Listeners in... Iran Free Iran at ActivistChat.com! This week, Israel’s Iranian-born defense minister Shaul Mofaz made the unique gesture of answering questions from listeners in Iran – in their own language - in a live broadcast over Israel Radio’s Farsi-language service. The questions came thick and fast. In answer to one, he promised everything would be done to protect the environment against radioactive fallout should Israeli forces destroy Iran’s nuclear capability. Shaul Mofaz was only six when his family emigrated from Iran to Israel. His knowledge of Farsi is rudimentary at best. But that...

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...

Missing Israeli Navigator alive and held in prison near Tehran JERUSALEM (AFP) Israeli navigator Ron Arad, missing since his plane came down over Lebanon in 1986, is alive and being detained in a prison near Tehran, three exiled Iranian officials revealed. Top-selling Israeli daily Yediot Aharonot stressed however that it was unable to check the reports, which come at a sensitive time in negotiations for a prisoner exchange between Israel and the Tehran-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah. The newspaper's sources were two intelligence officers and a diplomat who fled Iran in recent years.

Flyer Alive After 17 Years September 28, 2003 Herald Sun Sunday Jay Bushinsky An Israel Air Force navigator missing for 17 years is alive in an isolated Iranian jail, according to a secret report. The family of Lt-Col Ron Arad believed he had died after ejecting from his stricken Phantom fighter-bomber over Lebanon in 1986. Now they have taken court action to force the Israeli Government to reveal findings of the report that Arad is alive. They hope he will be released from Iran next month as part of a prisoner exchange being worked out between Israel and Lebanon's Hizbollah...

IDF Intelligence: Ron Arad Held by Iran September 19, 2003 Arutz Sheva IsraelNN.com A senior IDF intelligence officer was quoted by Israel Radio as saying Ron Arad is being held by Iran, not Hizbullah, explaining that recent irresponsible statements made by politicians regarding an imminent prisoner exchange deal with Hizbullah and questioning the exclusion of Ron Arad only impair efforts towards closing a deal. The unnamed officer reportedly told Israel Radio there is progress in talks towards the release of Elchanan Tannenbaum and the return of bodies of three soldiers, but in the Mideast the report added, one can never...

Embassy Shooting Fuels Iran-UK Tensions September 03, 2003 The Financial Times Najmeh Bozorgmehr and Jean Eaglesham Britain temporarily closed its embassy in Tehran on Wednesday after several shots were fired at the building, amid mounting diplomatic tensions between the two countries. The shooting - in which the embassy's offices were hit but no-one wounded - came two days after a protest outside the building against Britain's role in Iraq. It followed a further deterioration in diplomatic relations between Tehran and London when the Iranian ambassador was recalled home for consultation this week. The recall of the ambassador, Morteza Sarmadi, followed...

Aug. 31, 2003 Where are our friends? By Yossi Olmert http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/A/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1062228120045 Persia and Israel shared years of friendship and strategic cooperation until the Shah's regime was overthrown in 1979. Early good relations resulted from the fact that Persian nationalism did not contradict close relations with Israel. The Shah's never conducted a Shi'ite foreign policy, and Arab countries chiefly Iraq were the Shah's implacable enemies. However, under the current Islamic Republic foreign policy is driven not only by Iranian interests but also by Islamicism. With regard to Israel, the Islamic element is dominant and unshakeable. By adopting a vitriolic anti-Israel policy...

Iran's Successful Missile Test Puts Israel Within Range Ha'aretz ^ | July 04, 2003 | Amir Oren Iran has successfully tested a Shihab-3 missile, which has a range that can reach Israel. The launch last week was the most successful so far of the seven or eight tests of the missile over the last five years, and has increased worries in Washington - which spotted the test with its tracking mechanisms - and in Israel. If the assessment proves to be true that the missile, which was launched from east to west, had an effective range beyond the 1,300-kilometer red...