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Increased US military activity in the Gulf is aimed at Iran's "very negative" behaviour, the Bush administration said today. The defence secretary, Robert Gates, told reporters that the decision to deploy a Patriot missile battalion and a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf in conjunction with a "surge" of troops in Iraq was designed to show Iran that the US was not "overcommitted" in Iraq. Speaking in Brussels after meeting Nato officials, Mr Gates said: "We are simply reaffirming that statement of the importance of the Gulf region to the United States and our determination to be an ongoing strong...

President George W Bush has ordered US forces to launch a military offensive against Iranian officials and Revolutionary Guards officers behind a support and funding network for anti-American fighters in Iraq. US troops have been authorised to use force to tackle Teheran's agents, who are believed to support both Shia and Sunni fighters Mr Bush signed the clandestine directive after he was given new intelligence on the scale of Iranian operations to foment violence in Iraq. US troops were operating under the new instructions when they raided an Iranian "liaison office" in northern Iraq last week, detaining five men, in...

ANKARA, Jan 11 (KUNA) -- U.S. F-16 jet-fighters arrived Thursday in Incirlik Air base in southern Turkish city of Adana after, the first time in three years. According to Local Cihan News Agency, at least 16 F-16 jets joined by early warning system AWACS airplane, as well as tanker airplanes landed here at Incirlik coming from an American base in Germany. An official at the U.S. embassy in Ankara announced that the planes arrived here for purpose of conducting exercises with the Turkish military in line with agreements between the two states. Incirlik base was used as a northern recon...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Democratic and Republican senators voiced strong concern on Thursday that the Iraq war could spread to neighboring Iran and Syria if the U.S. military were to chase militants across the border. President Bush, who accuses Iran and Syria of fomenting the violence in Iraq, on Wednesday proposed sending 21,500 more U.S. troops to try to restore security nearly four years after the U.S.-led invasion. Bush sparked worries that the conflict may widen by his comment that "we'll interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing...

ARBIL, Iraq, Jan 11 (Reuters) - U.S. forces raided an Iranian government representative's office in the northern Iraqi city of Arbil early on Thursday and made a number of arrests, Iraq's state television and a Kurdish station reported. There was no immediate comment on the reports of a U.S. raid in Arbil from the American military.

ENVIRONMENTAL contamination could affect the region if Israel goes ahead with reported plans to attack Iran's uranium enrichment facilities or if there is an earthquake, a Bahraini expert warned yesterday. However, Bahrain University physics professor Dr Waheeb Alnaser said things could be much worse if Israel decides to attack the power plant in Bushehr. He said alleged plans by Israel to attack facilities in Natanz, Arak and near Isfahan would result in limited damage to the environment. This is because neither the weapons that would be used nor the uranium located there is highly active. But Dr Alnaser fears that...

Two news reports in two of the world’s most highly respected newspapers caught our eye this morning. Under the headline, “Democrats: Nuclear Iran Unacceptable,” The Jerusalem Post’s Hilary Leila Krieger reported upon her interview with U.S. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Maryland). Krieger joyfully reports on Rep. Hoyer “rejecting assertions that the Democrats would be weaker than the Republicans on Iran.” Hoyer said the Democrats’ position, like that of the Republicans in Congress and the president’s administration, was that preventing a nuclear-armed Iran had to be done firstly through “discussions, negotiations, sanctions.” At the same time, Hoyer said...

President Bush has decided to delay publicly outlining his new Iraq strategy until next month. In many ways, the new plan will represent a more difficult decision than the initial call to go to war in Iraq. Even Mr. Bush has been forced to admit that post-Saddam Hussein Iraq has not turned out as expected. Mr. Bush is also buying time for the Iraqi factions -- Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds -- to figure out whether they can move closer to agreeing on national reconciliation efforts and trying to create a little space for newly minted Defense Secretary Robert Gates to...

One potential military option that would be available to the United States includes the use of air strikes on Iranian weapons of mass destruction and missile facilities. In all, there are perhaps two dozen suspected nuclear facilities in Iran. The 1000-megawatt nuclear plant Bushehr would likely be the target of such strikes. According to the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center, the spent fuel from this facility would be capable of producing 50 to 75 bombs. Also, the suspected nuclear facilities at Natanz and Arak will likely be targets of an air attack. American air strikes on Iran would vastly exceed the...

U.N. Security Council imposes sanctions on Iran 8 minutes ago The U.N. Security Council on Saturday unanimously imposed sanctions on Iran's trade in sensitive nuclear materials and ballistic missiles, in a move aimed at getting Tehran to halt uranium enrichment work.

Ahmadinejad: Israel, US will vanish / News agencies Ahmadinejad says Israel, US, Britain will vanish – 'this is a divine promise;' Iran demands UN Security Council condemn Israel's nuclear development, place Israel's facilities under inspection

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- Former President Bill Clinton on Thursday endorsed the idea of talks with Iran and Syria to help ease the bloodletting in Iraq, saying it would also be in Tehran's interests. Clinton spoke in the Netherlands the day after the Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel that included senior officials from his administration, proposed engaging the two Middle Eastern countries -- and U.S. foes -- in the search for peace in Iraq.

08/12/2006 Despite urging by Iraq report, Bush won't talk with Iran, Syria By Akiva Eldar, Mazal Mualem, Shmuel Rosner and Yoav Stern United States President George W. Bush said on Thursday he has no plans to hold talks with Syria and Iran, despite the recommendations of the Baker-Hamilton Iraq Study Group report. Bush said that the Americans had made clear their position that they would not hold talks with countries that support terrorist activities. "Countries that participate in talks must not fund terrorism, must help the young democracy survive, must help with the economics of the country," Bush said, during...

U.S. officials say they have found smoking-gun evidence of Iranian support for terrorists in Iraq: brand-new weapons fresh from Iranian factories. According to a senior defense official, coalition forces have recently seized Iranian-made weapons and munitions that bear manufacturing dates in 2006. This suggests, say the sources, that the material is going directly from Iranian factories to Shia militias, rather than taking a roundabout path through the black market. "There is no way this could be done without (Iranian) government approval," says a senior official. Iranian-made munitions found in Iraq include advanced IEDs designed to pierce armor and anti-tank weapons....

As the American President George W. Bush steps up threatening rhetoric against Iran to force it suspend its nuclear program, calling for worldwide isolation of Tehran until it “gives up its nuclear ambitions,” experts predict that the coming days would see a much violent step by Washington against the Islamic Republic. What asserts the experts’ fears is the fact that on October 31, two nuclear-powered carriers, the USS Eisenhower and USS Enterprise, arrived in Bahrain, accompanied by their carrier strike groups. And on November 9th, the USS Iwo Jima, and the USS Boxer also arrived. Is President Bush up to...

Just breaking...no info yet.

MOSCOW (AP) - Russian and China indicated that they will not support a draft U.N. resolution imposing tough sanctions on Iran for its refusal to halt its nuclear enrichment program. The comments by Russia's foreign minister and China's U.N. ambassador were the strongest reactions yet to the draft by the two key U.N. Security Council members, and signaled difficult negotiations ahead on the resolution drawn up by Britain, France and Germany. "We cannot support measures that in essence are aimed at isolating Iran from the outside world, including isolating people who are called upon to conduct negotiations on the nuclear...

Oct 19, 2006 Iran President Ahmadinejad: 'I Have a Connection With God, Since God Said That the Infidels Will Have No Way to Harm the Believers'; 'We Have [Only] One Step Remaining Before We Attain the Summit of Nuclear Technology'; The West 'Will Not Dare To Attack Us' In an Iftar address to an audience of his supporters, including members of the Union of Islamic Engineers and supporters of the Khat-e Emam,(1) on October 14, 2006, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad stated that he had a connection with God, and promised that Iran would continue to develop nuclear energy, and would...

<p>I'm sorry folks, but with the ongoing war in the Middle East and the terrorist states North Korea and Iran threatening to hold the world hostage with nukes, how can any person claiming to be conservative (or even American for that matter) even possibly consider sitting out or voting third party in the coming election?</p>

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A senior Shi'ite Muslim cleric who has challenged Iran's system of clerical rule was arrested on Sunday after his supporters clashed with police outside his house in the Iranian capital, Iranian news agencies reported. Ayatollah Mohammad Kazemeini Boroujerdi was detained with several supporters, Iran's student news agency ISNA quoted the deputy governor of Tehran, Abdollah Rowshan, as saying. The Iranian authorities are wary of any challenge, particularly from top clerics, to the system of clerical rule that was established after the 1979 Islamic revolution by revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.