Posted on 04/14/2006 4:40:38 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
TEHRAN (AFP) - Iran said it could defeat any American military action over its controversial nuclear drive, in one of the Islamic regime's boldest challenges yet to the United States.
"You can start a war but it won't be you who finishes it," said General Yahya Rahim Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards and among the regime's most powerful figures.
"The Americans know better than anyone that their troops in the region and in Iraq are vulnerable. I would advise them not to commit such a strategic error," he told reporters on the sidelines of a pro-Palestinian conference in Tehran.
The United States accuses Iran of using an atomic energy drive as a mask for weapons development. Last weekend US news reports said President George W. Bush's administration was refining plans for preventive strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities.
"I would advise them to first get out of their quagmire in Iraq before getting into an even bigger one," General Safavi said with a grin.
"We have American forces in the region under total surveillance. For the past two years, we have been ready for any scenario, whether sanctions or an attack."
Iran announced this week it had successfully enriched uranium to make nuclear fuel, despite a UN Security Council demand for the sensitive work to be halted by April 28.
The Islamic regime says it only wants to generate atomic energy, but enrichment can be extended to make the fissile core of a nuclear warhead -- something the United States is convinced that "axis of evil" member Iran wants to acquire.
At a Friday prayer sermon in Tehran, senior cleric Ayatollah Ahmad Janati simply branded the US as a "decaying power" lacking the "stamina" to block Iran's ambitions.
And hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told AFP that a US push for tough United Nations sanctions was of "no importance."
"She is free to say whatever she wants," the president replied when asked to respond to comments by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice highlighting part of the UN charter that provides for sanctions backed up by the threat of military action.
"We give no importance to her comments," he said with a broad smile.
On Thursday, Rice said that faced with Iran's intransigence, the United States "will look at the full range of options available to the United Nations."
"There is no doubt that Iran continues to defy the will of the international community," Rice said, after Iran also dismissed a personal appeal from the UN atomic watchdog chief Mohamed ElBaradei.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief must give a report at the end of April on Iranian compliance with the Security Council demand. In Tehran he said that after three years of investigations Iran's activities were "still hazy and not very clear."
Although the United States has been prodding the council to take a tough stand against the Islamic republic, including possible sanctions, it has run into opposition from veto-wielding members Russia and China.
Representatives of the five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany are to meet in Moscow Tuesday to discuss the crisis.
In seeking to deter international action, Iran has been playing up its oil wealth, its military might in strategic Gulf waters and its influence across the region -- such as in Iraq, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories.
At the Tehran conference, Iran continued to thumb its nose at the United States and Israel.
"The Zionist regime is an injustice and by its very nature a permanent threat," Ahmadinejad told the gathering of regime officials, visiting Palestinian militant leaders and foreign sympathizers.
"Whether you like it or not, the Zionist regime is on the road to being eliminated," said Ahmadinejad, whose regime does not recognise Israel and who drew international condemnation last year when he said Israel should be "wiped off the map."
Unfazed by his critics, the hardliner went on to repeat his controversial stance on the Holocaust.
"If there is serious doubt over the Holocaust, there is no doubt over the catastrophe and Holocaust being faced by the Palestinians," said the president, who had previously dismissed as a "myth" the killing of an estimated six million Jews by the Nazis and their allies during World War II.
"I tell the governments who support Zionism to ... let the migrants (Jews) return to their countries of origin. If you think you owe them something, give them some of your land," he said.
Iran's turbaned supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, also accused the United States of seeking to place the entire region under Israeli control.
"The plots by the American government against Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon aimed at governing the Middle East with the control of the Zionist regime will not succeed," Khamenei said.
There was no immediate reaction from Washington, but French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy severely condemned Ahmadinejad for his latest remarks on Israel.
"As I have had occasion to do before, when the Iranian president made similar statements, I condemn these inacceptable remarks in the strongest possible terms," Douste-Blazy said in a statement.
"Israel's right to exist and the reality of the Holocaust should not be disputed," he added.
More like BEGGING for it.
Exactly so!
Agreed. When we went into Iraq it just made sense that Syria or Iran would be next. I have no qualms about attacking either one, or even both at the same time if we have to--plenty of justification exists.
The intensity of the attacks on Bush and Rumsfeld has increased because the pantywaist generals and Democrats know this, too, and they're scared to death that Bush will actually do something and look good doing it.
It is a problem that it sapped our will. But the Iraq war was necessary, I was originally for the Iraq war largely because Iraq is the key to Iran. From Iraq you just take Kuzestan, and Iran is done. Now we have them surrounded. We have Afghanistan, Iraq and the good old USN. Iraq tried to take Kuzestan, but failed, of course considering how we rolled over the Iraqi army bodes well for us. Plus the Iranians had air superiority, which they would not against us. Kuzestan is Iran's big weakness. They can talk all they want, but they know it. It is flat desert, so the Iranians will have to come out of their mountains to defend it, and on a open field like that, our air and artillery can wipe them out. Just move forces to the border, Iran pours everything it has into Kuzestan like they did against Iraq. A good test for the MOAB. Plus white phosphorus proved great in Iraq, and firebombs and thermobaric weapons great in Afghanistan. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard thinks it's Sierra Hotel, but lets see how they like burning in fires like Hell. I almost feel sorry for them. Burning to death is supposedly a horrible way to die. But that can be beneficial, the horror will break them, force them to retreat, or die. Not pretty but war never is.
Excerpts;
Mr. Talbott jump-started his career after a brief stay in Moscow in the summer of 1969, where he had gone with his Oxford roommate Bill Clinton, and met up with a well-known KGB asset named Victor Louis.
Strobe Talbott and the Shahab missile
I have testified in various committees on Iran's Shahab and Kosar missile programs, which would not exist without direct assistance from the government of Russia. The Shahab-3 missile in particular, which is now deployed in southwestern Iran and is capable of targeting Israel with nuclear, chemical, or biological warheads, should in my view have Strobe Talbott's name written all over it.
Mr. Talbott's consistent refusal to confront the Russians over their missile technology transfers toIran illustrates once again a series of opportunities we missed to prevent post-Cold War Russia from going down the dark paths where we encounter her today.
The warnings were visible early on, and they were ignored. Initial information on Russian assistance to the Shahab missile programs in Iran came from Israeli agents in Russia in 1995 and 1996. The Israelis felt confident enough of their information to present a detailed briefing to Mr. Talbott in Washington in September or October of 1996. According to one of the Israelis who took part in the briefing, whom I interviewed in Tel Aviv the following year for Reader's Digest, Mr. Talbott told them not to worry: he had the situation with Russia "under control."
Strobe Talbot again...
OCTOBER SURPRISE, Part 6 Iran's hidden U.S. cash stash $2 billion in military spare parts could cover terror victims' losses
excerpts;
At the time, Talbott was toying with the notion of a "grand strategic bargain" with Iran of Kissingerian proportions. Talbott's partners in the scheme were Vice President Al Gore and National Security Advisor Tony Lake.
To woo Iran away from buying nuclear technology from Russia that could advance Iran's clandestine nuclear weapons program, the U.S. would offer to resume diplomatic and full trade relations, while sweetening the pot with the return of Iran's frozen assets in the U.S.
Never mind that Rafsanjani quoted a figure -- $17 billion -- that was a good $6 billion higher than any previous Iranian government estimate of the monies frozen in the United States since the time of the shah. It was a negotiating position. And more importantly, it was a reply to Talbott's question: What would it take to get the ball rolling?
At the end of the shah's reign, in January 1979, Iran had $12 billion worth of weapons orders in the pipeline. Iran had a positive balance of $400 million in the FMS account when President Carter froze Iran's assets in November 1979.
OCTOBER SURPRISE, Part 4
Clinton shields Iran from U.S. justice Blocks restitution to families of victims murdered by state-sponsored terrorists
excerpt;
In an extraordinary move, Clinton exercised that waiver on Oct. 21, 1998, in Presidential Determination No. 99-1, "Determination to Waive Requirements Related to Blocked Property of Terrorist-List States."
In that document, President Clinton acknowledged for the first time in writing that his administration was engaged in a secret diplomatic overture to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which required him to protect Iran's assets in the United States.
While it is not a greater threat than Iraq was under Saddam the Treason Media, Party of Treason and Hysterical Right have undermined the President to such an extent he cannot act without destroying the GOP in the fall.
If Bill Clinton was the best friend the PRC ever had in DC, then surely Armand Gore and Strobevitch Talbottev were the best friends Mother Russia ever had there.
But the Iran question would be moot without the unsurpassed treason and betrayal of Peanut Carter and Zbigniew Brzezinski.
 |
 |
Thank you Jimmy Carter.
I really like that one.
He could stall for time and lie to the UN and the IAEA, he could lie and say he welcomes future relations with Israel, he could lie and keep us away for years.
But no, he is threatening and baiting, practically saying "please bomb me now". Definitely makes you wonder what he has planned...and what he has.
My take on all his daily ranting is that he is is deathly afraid of something. His irrational outbursts are deflecting something perceived as painful or dangerous or both.
Below is the real history/legacy of Jimmy Carter, the man who hated America and still does.
This article is full of Liberal talking points.... Quagmire in Iraq etc.... The fear I have is that the Liberals evil plans to drive wedge issues in the GOP like Immigration reform have caused the Conservative base to split and seeing polls like the one here on FR that over half will stay home or not support conservatives in the fall is proof that their plan is working.. In the fall after the Liberals win back the House our country is doomed. The President will be fighting against continuous barage of impeachment proceedings and no legislation will ever see the light of day. This weakness will embolden Iran further and they will acquire Nukes and they will use them. Israel will be obliterated... that may pull us collectively together or it may not... MSM much too interested in Valerie Plame, illegal Wiretaps, Bush Lied, Losing wars.... The bottom line the Left hates Bush so much they will sell the country down the river in order to stomp on him.... The only President in recent history with the Balls to do something about the problems in the Middle East, the problems with Immigration and the problems with our social programs here at home and he is constantly criticized... Our country is filled with hate... no doubt the left will reap what they sow but at the expense of how many innocent Americans....
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.