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Ahmadinejad has proclaimed that his country is the “most powerful and independent nation” on earth, at a military parade marking Army Day.
According to the World Military Strength Ranking, Iran is ranked 16. Not even close!
Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, to whose notoriety we have dedicated this site, visited Iraq last month as world leaders and scribes watched tentatively. The visit, a substantial step forward in burying the Iran-Iraq-war hatchet, was dissected thoroughly by analysts who concluded, almost unanimously, that Iran’s widening influence in Iraq is in anyone’s best interests. The Iranian Mullahs are consolidating their influence in Iraq so it can be leveraged at a later point in time.
In the future, Iran might hold the reigns of Iraqi foreign policy. But how? The uninitiated might wonder. Well, rocket scientists (pun intended), it is very simple: if the Iraqi Shiites are asked which country is their favorite other than, of course, Iraq? They will most definitely chant in spontaneous chorus, Iran - without even glancing at the atlas. And these Shiites happen to constitute the majority in Iraq besides running the new populist government there.
The Iraqi Shiites were oppressed under Saddam’s regime, which was made up of Sunni’s. Some of them rose up against the dictator’s atrocities and had to voluntarily go into exile to escape Saddam’s wrath. Their favored destination to serve their exiles was Iran, a Shiite-dominated country that also hated Saddam to the hilt like them. The U.S has been accusing the Mullah regime of fueling the sectarian violence in Iraq by arming and training the guerillas. But Iran had close ties with Iraqi rebel outfits long before the American invasion of Iraq.
There are reports of Iranian sleuths and Revolutionary Guards (elite corps) training the militias in Iraq, in fact, a few arrests have also been made in Iraq. Weapons pompously displaying their Iranian origin have also been recovered from the Iraqi guerillas.
Iran is virtually in charge of a pan-Middle Eastern terror chain. It has ties with nefarious terror groups like Hezbollah and it is more than a cheer leader to these outfits. It can unsettle the tranquility of not only Israel but the entire region including Arab nations that align themselves with the allies. It again takes no rocket science to figure out that the Middle East has endeared itself to the economic stability of the entire world as it supplies almost all the oil and, therefore, an unstable Middle East can make the world economy go belly-up. Iran can destabilize the entire region and bring the world economy down tumbling.
What if all these guerilla outfits, that have tens of thousands fanatic fighters each, decide to go on a pan-Arab guerilla rampage – slaughter, pillage and set oilfields ablaze? This is what they can resort to given a frenzied go-ahead from Iran, which is the world’s newest terror nerve center.
Ahmadinejad’s Mullah Regime is pulling out all the stops in taking Iraq in its clutches. Ahmadinejad extended a $1 billion dollar loan offer to the Iraqi government during his “historic” visit. Iran plans to setup banks in Iraq, they have already reached an agreement over linking their electricity grids, and gas pipelines between the two are in the works. This will entwine Iraq’s economy to that of Iran’s virtually reducing it to a vassal state. It is also feared that Iran might launch a theological invasion of Iraq that will lead to radicalization of the Iraqi government. More of fanaticism, more of mayhem.
Iran can only gain from a sectarian cleft in Iraq as that will keep the allies engaged there giving it enough time to fructify its heinous goals. I fear that Iranian involvement in Iraq might perpetuate the violence there. This is exactly what happened in Afghanistan where Pakistani influence wrecked the country. It has to be remembered that amid all this senseless rage the ones that loose their lives are perfectly normal human beings like you and me.
Many people around the world have grown sick and tired of violence and wars. There have been calls to settle disputes - including the Iran-Nuke issue - amicably, with some room for economic and military sanctions. The U.S government has not been shy of imposing economic sanctions against Iran. But these sanctions might not be producing the desired result, if an Iranian writer is to be trusted.
Hassan Daioleslam, an Iran analyst and writer, has raised his voice and pointed his fingers at the surreptitious Iranian lobby in the U.S which is busy making a mockery of the sanctions in place. You might feel that it is impossible for a company (American or non-U.S) to do business in both Iran and U.S with the sanctions in place. But you will be shocked to hear that reality is contrary to your belief. There are Mafia-style organizations that are working overtime to breach the sanctions. The principle player being the London-based Balli Group PLC, which is owned by two brothers, Vahid and Hassan Alaghband. It has profound business interests in Iran also.
The company is among the three companies to be penalized for the export of three U.S made planes to Iran. The Balli group has partnerships with several U.S companies including Xerox and Caterpillar. The Mullah’s are luring American-Iranian business executives and strengthening their business clout in the U.S. The Iranians have launched their offensive and literally infiltrated the U.S mainland. Do you hear the alarm bells?
The Iranian lobby in the US is financially fed by sources that are conspicuously tangled with Tehran’s interests. One jaw dropping example: Vahid Alaghband (the elder brother) is a major donor (among very few) and an “ambassador and supporter extraordinaire” of US based Parsa foundation.12 -13-14 This group has, in turn, been a principal financial supporter of NIAC in 2007. It is, indeed, a small world! [source]
Iran is clutching on to uranium enrichment that many believe –and have reasons to believe – is a precursor of a full-fledged nuclear program. Ahmadinejad has worked hard to rouse national sentiment against the west and entwine it inextricably with the nuclear program, which also camouflages the true, frail state of the Iranian economy and, most importantly, lends time to the bigoted, dangerous theocracy to burgeon.
As this happens, the UN sanctions don’t seem to ruffle Iranian feathers, mainly because the five permanent security members stand divided on the issue. But Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak believes that the fresh UN resolution will send a clear signal to Iran and widen the sanctions regime. He asked for complete cooperation from Iran and made the resolution sound like a watershed. However, only time will tell, if his words are backed by action.
“When this document is published you will see that it contains clear signals to Iran and anticipates a certain widening of the sanctions regime imposed by the Security Council earlier,” Kislyak told the Interfax news agency.[source]
Iran is a leading exporter of natural gas- with copious gas reserves - but the government has still managed to deprive thousand of Iranians of it when they need it most: during one of the coldest winters the country has experienced in recent times. The winter season in Iran can be usually quite unforgiving. Also the residents of Tehran, the country’s capital, are left to shiver in the cold due to constant nocturnal powercuts (read blackout) that last for hours.
Many Iranians see it is a clear sign of Iran’s tottering economy. They want the government to focus on economic development rather than anti-western rhetoric for a change. The current gas drought is a national ignominy for the gas-rich country and flays the apocryphal rhetoric of the Mullah regime.
The heating crisis in this oil-exporting nation is adding to Iranians’ increasing awareness of the contrast between their growing influence abroad and frailty at home, according to government officials, diplomats and political analysts interviewed here. [source]
There are reports of a rift between Ahmadinejad and Ayatollah Khamenei, the spiritual patriarch of the Islamic Republic of Iran. But then there are two theories doing the rounds. One takes the signs of discord on face value and the other sees it as a hemmy pretense to fool the world.
Anyway, keeping theories aside for a moment, Khamenei implicitly lambasted Ahmadinejad by ordering him to implement a gas-sector law, which Ahmadinejad had repelled. The particular law had become a bone of contention between Ahmadinejad and the Iranian parliament.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei publicly intervened on Monday to end a dispute between Mr Ahmadinejad and parliament by ordering the president to implement a gas-sector law. [source]
Some other analysts believe that the NIE report has led to a domestic dip in Ahmadinejad’s stock. Because many Iranians might have been led to believe that the very nuclear program Ahmadinejad boasts of, as it were a national treasure, is in cold-storage. He certainly has lost the support of the Iranian intellectuals and economists, who have often spelt their dislike for his disastrous economic policies.
Now it is hard to digest that Khamenei has all of a sudden lost faith in Ahmadinejad, a man he has backed to the hilt. Ahmadinejad might have fallen out with the moderate clerics and the economists. As for the NIE report, forget it. The NIE report can’t possibly have an impact on the Iranian masses, not until it pervades the Iranian propaganda wall.
The cold war was fraught with accounts and tales of possibly catastrophic standoffs between the U.S and the Soviet Union - mostly serendipitious fighter jet encounters. The cold war might be over but a tense situation arose in the Strait of Hormuz this weekend when three U.S warships and five Iranian speedboats found themselves in uneasy proximity. What followed was an attemp to set contact and repulse any confrontation.
A video released by the Pentagon shows that these speedboats came within 2 miles of the U.S warships and were lurking in the area at high speeds. A navy personnel can be heard asking the boats to reveal their identity or change course during the radio communication. He asked for their purpose. After numerous such requests, a heavily accented voice can be heard. The voice from the other side intelligibly warns that the U.S warships were going to be blown in a bit. The encounter happened in international waters.
This belligerence could have led the U.S warships to retort with force, as a defensive manoeuvre. So if the radio-guy on the speed boat found his warning signals funny then that speaks volumes about the fools that run Iran. This could have led to a military confronation, if President Bush’s remarks are to be believed. He stated that had the speed boats attacked then it could have led to a dangerous incident.The U.S has lodged a diplomatic complaint against the Iranians.
”We have in fact now prepared and given to the Swiss a diplomatic note formally protesting this incident,” State Department Deputy Spokesman Tom Casey told reporters. [source]
The state of New Jersey has joined California and Florida in the list of state which bar any investments in international companies that ply their trade in Iran, or directly or indirectly have business links with Iran. The law specifically prohibits any investment from the state pension fund, which is worth $80 billion, in businesses having a trade-nexus with Iran. The bill was ratified on Friday.
The commercial isolation of Iran will only be complete when other nations take similar measures. It is important to suffocate the Mullah regime and this can be accomplished when all nations cohesively and comprehensively boycott it.
New Jersey announced Friday it will prohibit state pension money from being invested in companies that do business in Iran. [source]
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