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Pedro Gonçalves

US warns Israel off pre-emptive strike on Iran | World news | guardian.co.uk - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...us-warns-israel-strike-iran

Israel US Iran Nuclear Weapons

shared by Pedro Gonçalves on 01 Nov 12 - No Cached
  • US military commanders have warned their Israeli counterparts that any action against Iran would severely limit the ability of American forces in the region to mount their own operations against the Iranian nuclear programme by cutting off vital logistical support from Gulf Arab allies.
  • The US Fifth Fleet is headquartered in Bahrain and the US air force has major bases in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. Senior US officers believe the one case in which they could not rely fully on those bases for military operations against Iranian installations would be if Israel acted first.
  • "The Gulf states' one great fear is Iran going nuclear. The other is a regional war that would destabilise them," said a source in the region. "They might support a massive war against Iran, but they know they are not going to get that, and they know a limited strike is not worth it, as it will not destroy the programme and only make Iran angrier."
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  • Barak's comments appear to signal that Israel's new red line is an Iranian stockpile of about 200kg of 20%-enriched uranium in convertible form, enough if enriched further to make one bomb. Western diplomats argue the benchmark is arbitrary, as it would take Iran another few months to enrich the stockpile to 90% (weapons-grade) purity, and then perhaps another year to develop a warhead small enough to put on a missile.
  • Israel's defence minister, Ehud Barak, said this week in London that it was the Iranian decision this year to convert a third of the country's stock of 20%-enriched uranium into fuel (making it harder to convert to weapons-grade material if Iran decided to make a weapon) that had bought another "eight to 10 months".
  • Israeli leaders had hinted they might take military action to set back the Iranian programme, but that threat receded in September when the prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, told the United Nations general assembly that Iran's advances in uranium enrichment would only breach Israel's "red line" in spring or summer next year.
  • France's president, François Hollande, met Netanyahu in Paris on Wednesday but rejected the push for military action."It's a threat that cannot be accepted by France," Hollande said, arguing for further sanctions coupled with negotiations. A new round of international talks with Iran are due after the US presidential elections, in which Tehran is expected to be offered sanctions relief in return for an end to 20% enrichment.
  • The UK government has told the US that it cannot rely on the use of British bases in Ascension Island, Cyprus, and Diego Garcia for an assault on Iran as pre-emptive action would be illegal. The Arab spring has also complicated US contingency planning for any new conflict in the Gulf.
  • US naval commanders have watched with unease as the newly elected Egyptian president, Mohamed Morsi, has made overtures towards Iran. US ships make 200 transits a year through the Suez canal. Manama, the Fifth Fleet headquarters, is the capital of a country that is 70% Shia and currently in turmoil.
  • Ami Ayalon, a former chief of the Israeli navy and the country's internal intelligence service, Shin Bet, argues Israel too cannot ignore the new Arab realities."We live in a new Middle East where the street has become stronger and the leaders are weaker," Ayalon told the Guardian. "In order for Israel to face Iran we will have to form a coalition of relatively pragmatic regimes in the region, and the only way to create that coalition is to show progress on the Israel-Palestinian track."
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Middle East | 'No deal' to free Israeli soldier - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...7947624.stm

Israel Palestine Hamas Gilad Shalit Yuval Diskin Ofer Dekel

shared by Argos Media on 17 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Two senior Israeli envoys have returned from indirect talks with Hamas in Cairo without a deal on the release of captured soldier, Gilad Shalit.
  • The talks were part of a final push by outgoing Israeli PM Ehud Olmert to secure a deal before he leaves office.
  • The two envoys, Yuval Diskin, head of the Shin Bet security service, and negotiator Ofer Dekel, are due to brief ministers at a special cabinet meeting on Tuesday afternoon.
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  • Egypt has been brokering the indirect talks. Hamas are demanding the release of more than 400 of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
  • Reports from the talks say one of the issues dividing the sides was Israel's wish to deport some of these prisoners, fearing they would be a security risk if released to the West Bank. Hamas representatives have said the group rejects the deportation proposal on principle.
  • The outgoing prime ministers has also said he wanted to make Sgt Shalit's release a precondition for a wider ceasefire agreement with Hamas, under which Hamas wants the crossings into Gaza fully opened to allow rebuilding after the recent Israeli operation.
Argos Media

Palestinian attack suspected after two Israeli policemen shot dead | World news | guard... - 0 views

www.guardian.co.uk/...-israel-hamas-prisoner-release

Gilad Shalit Hamas Israel Ofer Dekel Palestine Yuval Diskin

shared by Argos Media on 16 Mar 09 - Cached
  • Palestinian attack suspected after two Israeli policemen shot dead • Prisoner-swap deadline on eve of PM's departure• Gazan militants captured 22-year-old three years ago Rory McCarthy in Jerusalem guardian.co.uk, Monday 16 March 2009 01.42 GMT Article history Two Israeli policemen were shot dead in the West Bank yesterday in what Israeli police said they suspected was a Palestinian attack.No Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the shooting, which took place near the mainly agricultural settlement of Massuah, in an area of the West Bank close to the border with Jordan that is under Israeli security control. "The main suspicion points to a nationalistic motive," police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.The attack came as the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, sent two senior negotiators to Cairo yesterday in a final attempt to secure the release of an Israeli soldier captured by Gazan militants nearly three years ago.
  • the Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, sent two senior negotiators to Cairo yesterday in a final attempt to secure the release of an Israeli soldier captured by Gazan militants nearly three years ago.
  • He sent Yuval Diskin, head of Israel's domestic security agency, Shin Bet, and Ofer Dekel, a long-time negotiator and former security official, with a reported offer that would have seen the release of some but not all the prisoners Hamas has demanded be freed in return for the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
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  • Reports suggest Hamas has demanded the release of more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails. Of those , around 450 are considered most important and Israeli reports said the Israeli security officials opposed the release of some and wanted certain others released only if they were immediately deported to another country, probably Syria. Around 10,000 Palestinians are held in Israeli jails.
Argos Media

BBC NEWS | Middle East | Israel: 'No need to finish' W Bank barrier - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8058609.stm

Israel Palestine West Bank

shared by Argos Media on 20 May 09 - Cached
  • The head of Israel's security service has said there is no security reason for continuing construction of Israel's barrier through the West Bank.Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin told a parliamentary committee that Israel had enough capabilities to prevent attacks from the Palestinian territory.
  • The UN has criticised Israel, citing an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice that parts of the barrier built inside Palestinian territory in the West Bank - 90% of the route - are contrary to international law.
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