Yes thanks for the pic. I know Mofaz, apparently he also met with Khatami beside KatsavOriginally Posted by Camera
@IRN34:
On an out of topic note, Shaul Mofaz, the new coalition partner of Netanyau, was born in Iran and he speaks Farsi very well. He was a former IDF COS and a former Defense Minister of Israel.
He is on the left in the picture taken with Ashton.
If you refer to the sanction that denies the sell of spare parts for US made civilian aircraft, it was taken unilaterally by the US. I don't really remember when this sanction started and for what reason.
(I may be wrong, but I think this sanction was imposed following the MIA bombing in Buenos Aires by Al-Quds and Hezbollah terrorists.)
I know this sanction is problematic for Iran's aviation. Iran negotiators should discuss with the US to get it lifted.
Iran installing more centrifuges before Baghdad talks
By REUTER$
05/16/2012 19:03
Western diplomats say new centrifuges not yet enriching uranium, supply of 20 percent uranium appears constant; halt of higher-grade enrichment a priority for West.
VIENNA - Iran is installing more centrifuges in an underground plant but does not yet appear to be using them to expand higher-grade uranium enrichment that could take it closer to producing atom bomb material, Western diplomats say.
They say Iran's production of uranium refined to a fissile concentration of 20 percent, which it started two years ago, seems to have remained steady in recent months after a major escalation of the work in late 2011 and early this year.
CONTINUED: http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/N...aspx?id=270232
Heading Into Talks With Iran, U.S. Sees Hopeful Signs
By MARK LANDLER
Published: May 18, 2012
WASHINGTON — American negotiators, heading into a crucial round of talks with Iran over itsnuclear program next week in Baghdad, are allowing themselves a rare emotion after more than a decade of fruitless haggling with Tehran: hope.
With signs that Iran is under more pressure than it has been in years to make a deal, senior Obama administration officials said the United States and five other major powers were prepared to offer a package of inducements to obtain a verifiable agreement to suspend its efforts to enrich uranium closer to weapons grade.
These gestures, the officials said, could include easing restrictions on things like airplane parts and technical assistance to Iran’s energy industry, but not the sweeping sanctions on oil exports, which officials said would go into effect on schedule in July.
The oil sanctions, which the Iranians are seeking desperately to avoid, are one of several factors that American officials believe may make Tehran more amenable to exploring a diplomatic solution. In addition, the recent decline in oil prices has magnified the pain of the existing sanctions on Iran; a new government coalition in Israel has strengthened the hand of its hawkish leader, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; and Americans believe that recent blustery statements from Iranian officials are laying the groundwork for concessions by Tehran.
None of this guarantees success. Several officials played down the prospect of a major breakthrough from the meeting on Wednesday, which will include Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China, in addition to the United States. Mr. Netanyahu on Friday repeated his skepticism that there would be any progress.
But American officials said that at a minimum, the Baghdad meeting should be a genuine test of Iran’s willingness to do more than talk. “They’re nervous enough to talk,” said a senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the negotiations. “Whether they’re nervous enough to act, we don’t know yet.” Another senior official said, “We have a tail wind going into this.”
(…)
“The Iranians are in the position of needing to pursue diplomacy, if anything, even more than they did before,” said Dennis B. Ross, one of Mr. Obama’s senior advisers on Iran until last year and now at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “It’s not like they have any other good news right now.”
Moreover, Mr. Ross said, Iran’s recent statements signal that its leaders are preparing their domestic audience for concessions. Iranian officials have declared that the West has effectively endorsed Iran’s right to enrich uranium, a step they portrayed as a major strategic coup. American officials insist the United States has not done that and has been deliberately ambiguous about whether it would ever grant Iran the right to enrichment.
Still, as Mr. Ross said, “if you’re looking for a way to present a compromise, you want to present it as a victory.”
CONTINUED: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/19/wo...ef=global-home
@IRN34:
It seems the US would offer as an incentive the easing of the restrictions on the civil aviation.
Parchin will open up for inspectors
Iran is on the verge of allowing UN nuclear inspectors into its most sensitive military site for the first time in nearly seven years, Western diplomats said Friday.
http://www.timescolonist.com/news/Ir...#ixzz1vGvSLIxb
Seems very good news. Hope the talks coming wednesday will be useful. I read that the new sanctions got blocked at the US congress. Has it something to do with the upcoming negotiations ?
Last edited by IRN34; 05-19-2012 at 10:21 AM.
The additional sanctions were proposed by the Democrats. The Republicans blocked the bill for more study. So I don't think there's a relation.
Israel struck by mixed feelings amid optimism in West that Iran nuke talks in Baghdad could end in agreement
http://m.jpost.com/HomePage/FrontPag...98270774&cat=1
This is ridiculously bad PR.
Israel inches closer to compromise on Iran uranium enrichment, officials say
By Barak Ravid | May.21, 2012
Senior Israeli official says that publicly, Israel will continue to talk tough on Iran to make sure the six powers don't rush into an agreement with Tehran.
With the second round of nuclear talks between Iran and the six major powers due to begin in Tehran on Wednesday, senior Israeli sources say Jerusalem may be more flexible about Iranian low-level uranium enrichment than it is currently willing to let on.
Though Israel has been expressing zero flexibility regarding a possible deal with Iran, Defense Minister Ehud Barak a few weeks ago issued a written statement that Israel would consent to Iran's continuing enrichment of uranium to a low level of 3.5 percent, as well as to allowing a few hundred kilograms of 3.5-percent enriched uranium to remain in that country.
CONTINUED: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomac...s-say-1.431579
PM says Iran’s chief of staff vowed Sunday to eliminate Israel
By TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF
Netanyahu urges international community not to capitulate to Tehran
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged the international community Monday not to capitulate to Iran over its nuclear program, saying the Islamic Republic wants to destroy Israel, is closing in on the means to do so, and is a threat to world peace.
Speaking as the IAEA chief Yukiya Amano held talks in Tehran ahead of Wednesday’s resumption of international negotiations with Iran in Baghdad, and amid reports of a possible deal over the Iranian program, Netanyahu quoted remarks that he said were made Sunday by a top Iranian military leader. “The Iranian chief of staff,” said Netanyahu, “declared that Iran is committed to the complete destruction of Israel.”
Netanyahu was referring to a defense gathering in Tehran, at which Iran’s army chief, Maj. Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi, was quoted as saying: “The Iranian nation is standing for its cause and that is the full annihilation of Israel.”
The Israeli prime minister, speaking at a civil service conference in Jerusalem, continued: “Iran wants to eliminate Israel and it is working to attain nuclear weapons in order to achieve that ambition.”
He urged the international community to show strength and purpose in its dealings with Tehran, “not weakness.” There must “no capitulation,” he insisted.
Specifically, he said, Iran must halt all enrichment of uranium, must ship out of the country all uranium enriched so far, and must dismantle its covertly built military facility near Qom. “That is Israel’s position, and it will not change,” he said.
Netanyahu’s remarks Monday evening came amid reports in Israel that Iran is indicating a willingness to consider allowing IAEA inspections of the Qom facility, and possibly, according to a Channel 2 report, to stop enriching uranium to 20%.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/pm-says...minate-israel/
Wikileaks: Israel destroyed Iran’s nuclear program last year
Millions of emails by analysts at US intelligence company Stratfor are published, with claims that Israelis and Kurds covertly attacked Iran
I
sraeli agents collaborating with Kurdish operatives destroyed Iran’s nuclear infrastructure last year, according to an unnamed Israeli intelligence source cited in communiques between intelligence analysts uncovered by Wikileaks on Monday.
The leaked emails also contain assessments that Europeans want a military strike against Tehran to divert attention from the euro crisis and that Henry Kissinger believes a panicking Israel will indeed attack the Islamic regime.
Under the headline “The Global Intelligence Files,” the whistleblower website Wikileaks on Monday published more than five million emails by analysts belonging to the Texas-based intelligence company Stratfor between July 2004 and December 2011. Stratfor, which calls itself a “provider of geopolitical analysis,” is believed to provide intelligence to corporations and government agencies, such as the US Department of Homeland Security and the US Defense Intelligence Agency.
Though rumors circulated on the Internet after the emails were leaked that Stratfor founder and CEO George Friedman had resigned, he remains at the helm of the firm, the company tweeted.
While many of the leaked emails, which are available on the Wikileaks site, deal with internal American affairs, a large number deal with Israel and tensions over Iran’s nuclear program.
On Monday, Stratfor released a statement calling the leaks “a deplorable, unfortunate — and illegal — breach of privacy.” The statement further said that while some of the emails might be accurate others could be forged. “We will not validate either. Nor will we explain the thinking that went into them. Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them.”
http://www.timesofisrael.com/israel-...igence-claims/
How a reasonable agreement should look like?
Director of the INSS, former IAF commander and MI commander, Major-General Amos Yadlin is well aware with the issue:
Yadlin: Don't rush to declare Iran talks a failure
As new nuclear inspection agreement with Iran is announced, former military intel chief says results of negotiations should be analyzed, adds that any potential Israeli strike would need US backup
Ron Ben-Yishai
"Israel's political and military leadership has done the right thing by preparing a realistic military option (for attacking Iran)," former Military Intelligence chief Maj.-Gen. (res.) International Atomic Energy Agencyannounced that it had reached an agreement with Security Council members should not be written off as a failure, but studied thoroughly. "We need to see if the summer of 2012 brings us a reasonable deal, or if we will need to exercise other options," he said.
(…)
Yadlin assessed that a strike on Iran would delay its nuclear program by three to five years. After that, he said, it would be necessary to continue pressuring Tehran, and Israel could not do that alone. Yadlin added that the current talks in Germany between Iran and the five UN Security Council members should not be written off as a failure, but studied thoroughly. "We need to see if the summer of 2012 brings us a reasonable deal, or if we will need to exercise other options," he said.
Yadlin, a former IAF commander, was referring to a possible Israeli strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. He proposed three criteria by which the latest round of talks should be analyzed:
a) The removal of some six tons of uranium enriched to 4.5% to a place from which Iran wouldn't be able to use it would be insufficient, Yadlin said, since the since the uranium enriched to 20% is the material that poses a danger to world peace and would allow Iran to assemble a number of warheads.
b) The existence of the nuclear site adjacent to the city of Qum, Yadlin argued, allows uranium to be brought into the "zone of immunity" and enriched to the highest level without the risk of being attacked. "Closing (this) facility closes the immunity zone," he stressed.
c) Well-specified arrangements to be supervised by the IAEA
"Any agreement that includes these three elements is a reasonable one," Yadlin said, a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak called for much harsher measures. The former Military Intelligence head said he believed that if no reasonable agreement were reached, Israel would have international legitimization to use other options.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7...232724,00.html
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/N...aspx?id=271006Barak: Iran is fooling West with readiness to reach deal
Iran is fooling the West in its apparent readiness to reach a deal on its nuclear program, Defense Minister Ehud Barak warned on Tuesday."The Iranians appear to be trying to reach a technical deal that will create an appearance as if there is progress in the talks to remove some of the pressure ahead of the talks in Baghdad and to postpone an escalation in sanctions," Barak said during a meeting at the Defense Ministry.
Israeli response to the alleged deal is clear. Once it is signed, Israel looses the last hope for international / US-lead strike against the Iranian military nuclear program. It will be very easy for Bibi-Barak-Mofaz to justify an Israeli strike to the people.
Yup. Did you read my post 2 posts up? Supposedly wikileaks states that Kurds and Israel attack its facilities last year. Not sure why this publicity stunt is happening now.
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