February 18, 2012, two ships with the Iranian navy have docked in Syria. One destroyer, and one supply ship.
The two Iranian navy ships are docked in the Syrian port of Tartus. They are there to fulfill an agreement signed last year, between Iran and Syria.
Israel’s Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, demanded, on Japanese TV, that Japan cut back on oil imports from Iran. He’s in Japan on a five day visit.
Japanese officials fired backed, basically telling Israel to back off. Japan’s Foreign Minister, Koichiro Gemba, told Ehud Barak that Israel needed to handle Iran’s nuclear issue calmly.
Gemba also told Barak that military options could lead to Arab countries finally uniting against the Zionist state.
Japan’s Prime Minister, Yoshihiko Noda, made similar statements.
A few days ago Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said he would reveal Iran’s latest nuclear achievements.
Today, it was revealed that Iran makes its own nuclear fuel rods, radio-pharmaceuticals, and has added 3,000 centrifuges to its program to produce enriched uranium.
Iranian made nuclear fuel rods were placed in the Tehran Research Reactor. The fuel rods were made under the supervision of the International Atomic energy Agency. This is the last step in Iran’s nuclear fuel cycle.
Iran has also increased the number of centrifuges from 6,000 to 9,000. This increases Iran’s ability to make uranium “yellow cake” by 50%. Iranian officials say that their Isfahan Uranium Conversion Facility is under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Iran has also begun production of several pharmaceutical drugs using radio isotopes (like cancer treatment drugs).
Iran says they don’t trust the latest negative reports from the IAEA, preciously because the IAEA has been openly watching their nuclear program, and has never lodged a formal complaint directly with the Iranian government.
February 15, 2012, confusing reports in the Iranian media. Unofficial sources (like PressTV, it is not an official Iranian media source) are saying that Iran has blocked oil shipments to six European countries.
However, official sources (like Islamic Republic News Agency [IRNA]) say only that ambassadors from six European countries have been summed to the Iranian government, to discuss “issues”.
The six countries are Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal, and Netherlands.
The IRNA is quoting Iran’s Director General of West Europe Affaires at Foreign Ministry, Hassan Tajik: “Our response is that sanctions cannot affect Iranians’ will, rather, it will have an adverse impact on European people. Europe is in a difficult economic condition and is facing a harsh winter. Iran cannot remain indifferent towards EU oil ban. We do not have any problem in terms of finding customers for our oil and selling it to other countries. However, based on humanitarian policies and given the conditions of European countries, we have decided to send a serious message to the Europeans which are parties to oil contracts. We can instantly replace oil customers.”
In other words it seems like Iran has identified which European countries it would cut off, and has given them warning, but they have not actually cut off the oil at this point.
It’s interesting that Iran is implying that violation of human rights within Europe is a main factor in their decision to possibly cut off the oil.
“…are trying to ensure that 20 of the bombs are battle ready, possibly for use against Iran, though officials have been tight lipped on potential targets.”-Fox News
The Wall Street Journal reported that the 30,000 pound bunker buster bombs, known as Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MAP), were designed especially for use against Iran. The 20 MAP bombs have already cost U.S. taxpayers $330 million!
Now Boeing, the contractor who makes the bombs, says they aren’t good enough and need to be upgraded! Pentagon officials say it’s “urgent”, which implies they need the MAP bombs upgraded right now, for war with Iran.
Congress agreed to spend another $82 million to upgrade the MAPs.
I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
Germany’s Defense Minister, Thomas de Maiziere, said in an interview with Frankfurter Allgemeine that if Israel attacks Iran’s nuclear industry: “A success would be highly unlikely, and result in obvious political damage.”
Maiziere said the European Union sanctions should be allowed to go into effect before any military action takes place. The EU sanctions will not be in place until July 2012.
Turkish officials also say war would be a mistake: “A military strike is a disaster. It should not be an option. Especially at a historic turning point in our region, we do not want to see another huge tension.”-Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkish Foreign Minister
“In the nuclear field, major achievements have been made by the Iranian nation in recent years. Today, not only has this nation become nuclear, but it has also succeeded in meeting a large portion of its needs in this field.”-Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, President of Iran
On February 11, 2012, the Iranian President not only praised the nuclear program of Iran, but said that “major nuclear accomplishments” will be revealed in the next few days.
These words will most likely give the warmongers in the United States more ammo in their call for war.
Israel’s Foreign Minister, Avigdor Lieberman, said his country is ready: “Israel has a large selection of ways, when the world of international sanctions fails, to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear program.”
I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
“…if an ordinary submarine can sit in the Persian Gulf’s bed it would be the worst threat to the enemy. That is one of the U.S. concerns since Iranian submarines are noiseless and can easily evade detection as they are equipped with the sonar evading technology…When the submarine sits on the seabed it can easily target and hit an aircraft carrier traversing in the nearby region.”-Rear Admiral Farhad Amiri
February 9, 2012, Iran announced it has completed two more high tech attack mini submarines, designed to patrol the Persian Gulf. They claim the submarines are 100% built in Iran.
The Ghadir class mini submarines are small (some say they look like a submarine made by North Korea), and can fire Hoot supercavitating rocket powered torpedoes, which are far too fast for a ship to avoid. Those torpedoes could be based on the Soviet rocket torpedoes developed during the Cold War.
The latest subs will join at least three other subs that were completed in 2009. Here’s pics of them. Iran has not revealed how many of the mini subs they have, but USAToday estimates they have 12 mini subs (and three big Russian designed submarines).
Russian media claim a Chinese newspaper has published an article that says Iran is sending 15,000 troops to Syria.
The Russians asked several Iranian university and media officials about this: “As far as I know there is not and will not be any program to dispatch Iranian military troops to Syria.”- Reza Moghadasi, Mehr News
“Iran has no troops in the country. Iran has never had troops involved in the problems within Syria. Someone in the Chinese media has been receiving information that is completely false.”-Seyed Mohammad Marandi, University of Tehran
But, so far, there has been no comment from Iranian government leaders.
Despite some U.S. Republican pining over covert military action in Syria, an Israeli military intelligence source (called DEBKAfile) a has already confirmed that indeed, Western and Qatari military forces are already in Syria, helping the Free Syrian Army.
Russian government leaders are accusing the U.S. and Europe of using the Syrian people as pawns in their game of world conquest: “This is a global game; this is about geo-political and geo-economic interests and unfortunately countries like Syria are being held hostage for the geo-political and geo-economic interests of Western countries.”-Konstantin Kosachev, State Duma Foreign Affairs Committee
Then another horse came out, a fiery red one. Its rider was given power to take peace from the earth and to make men slay each other.
I looked, and there before me was a white horse! Its rider held a bow, and he was given a crown, and he rode out as a conqueror bent on conquest.
Iranian media reports that a full scale model of the U.S. RQ-170 stealth drone will be used in upcoming parades celebrating the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution.
Also, Reuters reporting that Iranian officials answered U.S. President Barack Obama’s demands to have the drone sent back to the U.S., by sending him a small hot pink model of the drone instead.
The model sent to Obama is said to have an inscription that reads “we will step on the United States”.
The Iranians say the toy stealth drone is selling like hot cakes in Iran, at $4 per model, they will be sending Obama his toy model via the Swiss embassy: “We made the ‘RQ’ in pink as it is Mr. Obama’s favorite color and we will send it to him via the Swiss embassy.”-Seyyed Saeed Hassan-pour, Aaye Company (they make the toy model)