2007: Israeli-Iranian face off?! (REPOST)

2007: Israeli-Iranian face off?!
1/23/2007 11:30:00 AM GMT

By: Emile Tyyep

"The free world has the power to provide a response to the Iranian
threat, and that response exists: 2007 is the decisive year," Deputy
Prime Minister Shaul Mofaz told an Israeli security conference earlier
this week, following his meeting with visiting U.S. Under Secretary of
State Nicholas Burns.

But Iran seems ready for any possibility in the standoff over its
nuclear program.

Last Thursday, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad lashed back
over the U.S. military buildup in the Gulf, stressing that his country
is ready for any possibility in the standoff over its nuclear program.

"Today, with the grace of God, we have gone through the arduous passes
and we are ready for anything in this path," state-run television
quoted the Iranian leader as saying.

As revealed by numerous media reports, the United States has sent an
aircraft carrier to the Gulf this week, the second to be deployed in
the region, apparently, as described by Defense Secretary Robert Gates,
intended to impress on Iran that the four-year war in Iraq has not made
America weak.

And most recently, Iran conducted a series of war games. The four-day
exercise southeast of Tehran, were apparently in response to the U.S.
decision to send second warship to Gulf waters.

"Ground forces of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards are completely
ready to tackle any kind of foreign threats," said artillery commander
Majid Ayeneh on Monday.

But as the current international tension over Iran's atomic programme
grows, Israeli politicians on the other hand, appear readying the
public for military conflict with Tehran.

Last week, Bibi, or Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli opposition leader
told a security forum in Herzliya that individual states and companies
should begin taking tougher measures against the Islamic Republic than
the sanctions that had been imposed recently by the United Nations
Security Council to force Iran end its nuclear activities.

The first step, according to Netanyahu would be to invoke financial
sanctions to "divest genocide" and "delegitimise the regime of Iran
through economic and political pressure".

"Either it will stop the nuclear program without the need for a
military operation, or it could prepare for it. When we are talking
about rallying public opinion on genocide, who will lead the charge if
not us? No one will come defend the Jews if they do not defend
themselves. This is the lesson of history," the hawkish Likud leader
who was once the Israeli Prime Minister said.

However, and while speaking to reporters, Bibi doubted the Iranian
regime, which he described as "genocidal" was "deterrable," which is
what Shmuel Bar, an Islamic specialist at the Herzliya centre, stressed
when he said that Washington and Iran were engaged in "very dangerous
brinkmanship".

"The conspiracy theory goes that the U.S., with the UK and Israel, will
take action to topple the Islamic regime, and that this has nothing to
do with the nuclear issue," Bar said.

The United Nations Security Council's decision on Dec. 23 to impose
sanctions banning the trade of goods related to Iran's nuclear
program doesn't seem to have achieved Washington's goal of
intimidating Iran.

http://islamonline.com/cgi-bin/news_service/middle_east_full_story.asp?service_id=13264


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