U.S. Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta says Israel is ready to bomb Iran this Spring!

Iranian Supreme Leader Speaks to Babylon

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said during Friday prayers that Iran would help any group or nation that confronted Israel. Photograph: Reuters
Iran will help any nation or group that confronts the "cancer" Israel, the Islamic republic's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said.

In remarks delivered to worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran and broadcast on state TV, he said the country would continue its controversial nuclear programme, and warned that any military strike by the US would only make Iran stronger.

Khamenei warned that Tehran would reveal a letter sent by the US president, Barack Obama, to the Iranian leadership in an attempt to end the nuclear standoff. Khamenei said it showed the US could not be trusted. The White House denied that such a letter exists.

Iranian officials have consistently reacted defiantly to indications by the US and Israel that they might at some point take military action against Iranian nuclear facilities.

Any statement by Iran's supreme leader, who has the final say on all matters of state, makes it all the more unlikely that Tehran will switch tack.

Khamenei affirmed that Iran had assisted militant groups like the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas – a well-known policy, but one that Iranian leaders rarely acknowledge explicitly.

"We have intervened in anti-Israel matters, and it brought victory in the 33-day war by Hezbollah against Israel in 2006, and in the 22-day war" between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, he said.

Israel's large-scale military incursion against Hamas in 2008-09 in Gaza ended in a ceasefire, with Israel claiming to have inflicted heavy damage on the militant organisation. The war in Lebanon ended with a UN-brokered truce that sent thousands of Lebanese troops and international peacekeepers into southern Lebanon to prevent another outbreak.

"From now on, in any place, if any nation or any group confronts the Zionist regime, we will endorse and we will help. We have no fear expressing this," said Khamenei.

He said Israel was a "cancerous tumour that should be cut and will be cut".

An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman said he wasn't surprised by Khamenei's remarks. "It's the same kind of hate speech that we've been seeing from Iran for many years now," Yigal Palmor said.

Khamenei said the US would suffer defeat and lose standing in the region if Washington decided to use military force to stop the country's nuclear programme.

"Iran will not withdraw. Then what happens?" asked Khamenei. "In conclusion, the west's hegemony and threats will be discredited" in the Middle East. "The hegemony of Iran will be promoted. In fact, this will be in our service."

Both the US and Israel have not ruled out a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, which the west suspects are aimed at developing weapons technology.

Iran says its nuclear activities are geared towards peaceful purposes such as power generation and medical isotopes.

Another potential military flashpoint is the Strait of Hormuz at the mouth of the Persian Gulf. Iran has threatened to close the strait in response to US and EU sanctions targeting the country's oil exports.

Khamenei warned that Iran might reveal a letter that it claims to have received from President Obama, which he implied contained promises that Washington had not offered.

"The US president sent a letter to us and we replied. Then they showed reaction and took action. The letters one day will be revealed to the public and people will find what their words are. One of our essential jobs is to be aware about their deceptions in their promises and smiles," he said.

Khamenei did not say when the letters had supposedly been exchanged.

An Iranian politician claimed in January that Obama had asked for direct talks with Iran in a secret letter, which also warned Tehran against closing the Strait of Hormuz.

Obama administration officials have denied there was such a letter. Tehran and Washington cut diplomatic relations after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution.

Half of Khamenei's nearly two-hour speech was delivered in Arabic, an apparent nod to the Arab world. Iran has applauded the victory of Islamist groups in elections in 2011 and 2012 following the toppling of authoritarian regimes in Egypt and Tunisia.

The supreme leader said the Islamist electoral victories would weaken and isolate Israel, and that they represented the failure of what he said was US policy based on "anti-Islam" propaganda.

Source-UK GUARDIAN


Source-Google news.com/NeoCon Communist seek complete destruction of Iran

(AFP) – 1 day ago 
WASHINGTON — The United States should deploy more warships to the Gulf, arm Israel and issue tough warnings to convince Iran it is serious about possible military action to stop Tehran's nuclear program, former US lawmakers and experts said Wednesday.
The bipartisan group criticized President Barack Obama's administration for downplaying the likelihood of US military action in public statements, saying it undercut efforts to pile pressure on Iran's leadership.
Diplomacy and sanctions designed to persuade Iran to abandon its nuclear ambitions would only have a chance to succeed if backed up by more "visible, credible preparations for a military option," the bipartisan group said in a report.
"The United States needs to make clear that Iran faces a choice: it can either abandon its nuclear program through a negotiated arrangement or have its program destroyed militarily, by the United States or Israel," said the report by a panel led by former senator Chuck Robb, a Democrat, and Charles Wald, a retired US general.
"The risks of inaction are too high. We must stop Iran?s nuclear clock," it said.
The authors found fault with the Obama administration's declarations on Iran, saying "administration officials seem to be conditioning the American public not to expect a military strike."
The group recommended sharper public rhetoric that would leave no doubt about Washington's readiness to use force and then to flex US military muscle in the region to drive home the point.
The US military should preposition supplies, carry out exercises with Gulf allies and deploy additional ships -- including minesweepers and an additional aircraft carrier battle group -- to the Gulf and off Oman's coast, it said.
The US Navy already has a substantial presence in the Gulf, with two aircraft carriers often deployed.
The task force called for expanding arms sales to Gulf allies, including more "offensive" weapons, while seeking a "strategic partnership" with Azerbaijan on Iran's border.
Although the report did not advocate Israel taking pre-emptive military action, it said the United States should do more to make Israel's threat credible.
The group urged providing Israel with more advanced bunker buster bombs, which are designed to penetrate underground sites, as well as to supply two to three mid-air refueling tanker aircraft to extend the range of Israeli aircraft in any air raid.
The authors acknowledged a myriad of grave risks in the case of US or Israeli military action, including casualties, rallying Iranians around the regime, retaliation against US and allied targets, a possible temporary closure of the Strait of Hormuz and a spike in oil prices.
But the report argues the United States had to be prepared to use force because the long-term dangers posed by a nuclear-armed Iran outweighed the short-term fallout come from military strikes.

United States Secretary of Defence admits Israel ready to strike(BOMB) Iran this Spring!

Source-      UK TELEGRAPH


Leon Panetta 'believes Israel could attack Iran in the spring'
US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta believes there is a "strong possibility" that Israel will strike Iran's nuclear installations this spring, it was reported today.




11:38PM GMT 02 Feb 2012
A column in the Washington Post newspaper claimed the Pentagon chief believes that a Israeli strike could go ahead within months.


When asked about the opinion piece by reporters travelling with him to a Nato meeting in Brussels, Mr Panetta did not deny the claim.


"I'm not going to comment on that. David Ignatius can write what he will but with regards with what I think and what I view, I consider that to be an area that belongs to me and nobody else," he said.



"Israel indicated they're considering this (a strike), we've indicated our concerns," he added.


The Post columnist said Mr Panetta "believes there is a strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June before Iran enters what


Israelis described as a 'zone of immunity' to commence building a nuclear bomb."


President Barack Obama and Panetta are "said to have cautioned the Israelis that the United States opposes an attack, believing that it would derail an increasingly successful international economic sanctions program and other non-military efforts to stop Iran from crossing the threshold," he said.


"But the White House hasn't yet decided precisely how the United States would respond if the Israelis do attack."


Mr Panetta said Sunday in an interview with CBS that Iran needed "about a year" to produce enough enriched uranium for a nuclear weapon, and one or two more years to "put it on a deliverable vehicle."


Iran insists its nuclear project is peaceful and has threatened retaliation over the fresh sanctions, including possibly disrupting shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz.


Israeli media reported in October last year that the option of pre-emptive air strikes on Iran was opposed by the country's intelligence services but favored by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Ehud Barak.


Israeli television said Mossad chief Tamir Pardo raised the possibility of a unilateral strike on Iran during a visit last week to Washington.

Tamir Pardo in SECRET TALKS YESTERDAY and TODAY-ONGOING???

Source-Haretz.com/Tamir Pardo in secret talks

Mossad chief holds secret U.S. meetings on Iran nuclear threat, Senate panel reveals
During a broadcasted meeting of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, CIA Director, panel Chairperson indicate they met Tamir Pardo in Washington this week; U.S. official: Iran willing to attack U.S. targets if threatened.
By Barak Ravid
Tags: Iran threat Iran nuclear Mossad

Mossad chief Tamir Pardo held secret talks with top U.S. officials in recent days, cursory comments made during a public Senate hearing indicated on Tuesday.

The clandestine Washington visit was exposed during a hearing of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, which was participated by CIA Director David Petraeus, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, and Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate panel.

During the meeting, Feinstein asked Clapper whether or not Israel intended to strike Iran's nuclear facilities, with the top U.S. intelligence official answering that he would rather discuss the issue behind closed doors.

Feinstein then indicated that she had met Mossad chief Pardo earlier in the week in Washington, with Petraeus adding that he too met Pardo and cited what he called Israel's growing concern over Iran's nuclear ambitions.

The CIA chief also said that it was important to note that Israel considered a nuclear Iran as an existential threat.

The entire exchange was broadcasted live on American television.

Referring to the Iran's nuclear progress, Clapper told the Senate panel that "Iran's technical advancement, particularly in uranium enrichment, strengthens our assessment that Iran has the scientific, technical, and industrial capacity to eventually produce nuclear weapons, making the central issue its political will to do so."

"These advancements contribute to our judgment that Iran is technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon, if it so chooses," Clapper added, saying that the U.S. judged "Iran would likely choose missile delivery as its preferred method of delivering a nuclear weapon."

Clapper also indicated that the 2011 Iranian plot to assassinate the Saudi envoy to the U.S. indicated that the Iranian leadership "changed their calculus and are now more willing to conduct an attack in the United States in response to real or perceived U.S. actions that threaten the regime."

"We are also concerned about Iranian plotting against U.S. or allied interests overseas. Iran's willingness to sponsor future attacks in the United States or against our interests abroad probably will be shaped by Tehran's evaluation of the costs it bears for the plot against the ambassador as well as Iranian leaders' perceptions of U.S. threats against the regime," Clapper added.

News of the Mossad chief's reported Washington visit came as, also on Tuesday, President Shimon Peres said that Iran's "evil" leadership mustn't be allowed to obtain nuclear weapons capability.

Referring to Iran's contentious nuclear program, the president called the issue "ours and the world's central problem at this time, accusing Iran of attempting to achieve regional and "even global hegemony."

"Nuclear weapons mustn't be allowed to fall into the hands of Iran's Ayatollah regime," Peres said, calling Iran's religious leadership the "most morally corrupt regime in the world."

Hinting at the possibility of a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities, the president reiterated the Israeli stance, according to which "no option should be ruled out in our dealing with the Iranian danger. This is an existential threat."

"It is the duty of the international community to prevent evil and nuclear [weapons] from coming together. That is the obligations of most of the leaders of the free world, one which they must meet," Peres said.

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