Olmert sounds alarm: Iran has crossed red line for developing a nuclear
weapon. It’s too late for sanctions
22 Oct. This is the message prime minister Ehud Olmert is carrying
urgently to French President Nicolas Sarkozy Monday and British premier
Gordon Brown Tuesday, according to DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence
sources.
Last week, Olmert placed the Israeli intelligence warning of an Iranian
nuclear breakthrough before Russian president Vladimir Putin, while Israel
’s defense minister Ehud Barak presented the updated intelligence to
American officials in Washington , including President Bush.
Olmert will be telling Sarkozy and Brown that the moment for diplomacy or
even tough sanctions has passed. Iran can only be stopped now from going
all the way to its goal by direct, military action.
Information of the Iranian breakthrough prompted the latest spate of
hard-hitting US statements. Sunday, Oct. 21, US vice president Cheney
said: "Our country, and the entire international community, cannot stand
by as a terror-supporting state fulfills its grandest ambitions.''
Friday, the incoming Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael
Mullen said US forces are capable of operations against Iran ’s nuclear
facilities or other targets. At his first news conference, he said: “I
don’t think we’re stretched in that regard.”
Olmert reveals Hizballah handed over a letter missing Israeli navigator
Ron Arad wrote to his wife Tammy shortly after his capture
22 Oct. Hizballah withheld the letter for 21 years until the latest swap
deal.
Maj. Gen Avi Mizrahi assumes command of Israel’s Ground Forces
22 Oct. Outgoing commander Maj. Gen Benny Gantz is named IDF military
attaché in Washington .
Bush and Putin Rough out Breakthrough Strategic Deal for Dumping Iran
23 October: The outline of the American role in the deal surfaced in
Prague Tuesday, Oct. 23, when US secretary of defense Robert Gates
suggested a possible delay in activating the proposed US missile
interceptor project in Poland and radar station in the Czech Republic -
until an Iranian threat was “definitely proved.”
Gates added that the US would proceed with plans to build the sites, but
possibly wait before putting them in working order.
"We would consider tying together activation of the sites in Poland and
the Czech Republic with definitive proof of the threat — in other words,
Iranian missile testing and so on," Gates said.
The proposal has already been presented to the Russians who have expressed
interest. Gates described a related proposal that might mean permitting a
Russian presence at US missile defense bases, including at the Polish and
Czech sites.
US president George Bush spoke a short while later at the National Defense
University in Washington . He said the US-led missile defense system in
Europe is urgent, but spoke positively about Putin’s offer of missile
defense facilities in Azerbaijan and southern Russia . The entire project,
said the US president, is “part of a broader effort to move beyond the
Cold War.”
DEBKAfile’s military sources add: If this deal goes through, it would
dramatically reduce Iran ’s strategic options to abandoning its nuclear
ambitions or else facing crippling penalties.
Lebanon will be a second Iraq, says Hizballah in strident threat against
US bases
23 Oct. Lebanese and Israeli military sources advise taking the threat by
Hizballah’s Nawaf Mussawi seriously. Its gunmen will violently oppose the
American plan for its military and instructors to provide the Lebanese
national army with an edge against the Hizballah militia. They will also
fight tooth and nail any American bid to implement UN Security Council
Resolution 1559 ordering the disbanding of Hizballah, and no doubt receive
orders from Tehran to pre-empt a US military presence and bases in Lebanon
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The Shiite extremists’ bellicose response follows exclusive disclosures in
DEBKA-Net-Weekly and DEBKAfile of the master plan developed by US CENTCOM
chief, Adm. William Fallon, for upgrading and augmenting the Lebanese
army.
Nerves in Beirut are growing tauter: US military projects move forward, on
the one hand, while on the other, Tehran and Damascus are pro-active in
Lebanon ’s military and political affairs. The repeatedly delayed disputed
presidential election, now postponed to Nov. 12, hangs over Lebanese
heads.
Fatah-al Aqsa claims Palestinian drive-by shooting which injured two
Israelis, a soldier seriously, on West Bank
24 Oct. The shooters’ van zigzagged wildly down the road, raking Israeli
vehicles with gunfire. At Ariel, the van U-turned and fired at the
soldiers waiting at the Ariel hitchhikers’ post on the Trans-Shomron
Highway before disappearing. Six vehicles were hit by flying bullets.
DEBKAfile’s military sources: There were no Israeli roadblocks on the road
either to halt the lethal vehicle or hold up its escape from the scene of
attack, because of Israeli concessions to Palestinian leader Mahmoud
Abbas..
Tuesday night, Mubarak al Hasnat, 37, a member of the Popular Resistance
Committees, was killed in an Israeli air strike. He was a key controller
of the latest, escalated spate of Qassam rockets against Israeli targets
from the Gaza Strip.
During the day, Gazan Palestinians fired eight missiles and eight rockets
at Israeli targets. One exploded near a strategic facility in southern
Ashkelon , aimed at the power station (which also supplies current to the
Gazan population). The eighth hit and destroyed a house in Sderot. Ten
were fired Monday.
Washington unveils extra-tough sanctions for Iran Thursday
25 Oct. DEBKAfile’s Iranian sources recall that the Islamic regime
announced in advance that approval of these extra-tough measures would be
deemed an American declaration of war on Iran and call forth retaliation.
Tehran would target US interests in the Persian Gulf, Iraq and Afghanistan
or Israel by means of Special Groups, i.e. Iran ’s foreign intelligence
networks, Hizballah or Hamas.
DEBKAfile’s sources reveal that since the supreme ruler, Ayatollah Ali
Khamenei is commander-in-chief of Iran’s armed forces, including the IRGC
and its al Qods Brigade, Tehran cannot afford to let Washington’s
accusations against them as sponsors of terror and proliferators of WMD go
unanswered.
The new sanctions package includes US financial penalties for world firms
trading with the IRGC. The Iranian economy is already hard hit by
Washington ’s systematic blockage of its access to international banks.
Iran has appealed urgently to Indonesia for gasoline and heavy
oil,
because it has run out of currency to pay for imported refined
oil
products.
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