The Iranians Walk

Posted on 14/12/2013 by terrortrends

The Washington Free Beacon is reporting something that the so-called “mainstream” media has chosen to ignore, namely that the Iranians have pulled out of nuclear talks with the P5+1 nations after the US further tightened sanctions on the Islamic Republic, as had been planned for some time.

It will be interesting to say the least to see if the Obama administration “blinks” in order to get the Iranians back to the negotiating table. Up to this point the Iranians have played the Obama administration like a fiddle in the negotiations. Other nations, most notably Red China and Russia, are already moving to ease sanctions on Iran based on the prior announcement of a deal with the Iranians, in return for which the Ayatollahs essentially gave up nothing of note.

It is also very important to note that the $7 billion figure for sanctions relief being thrown around is just the tip of a politico-economic iceberg. Opening up Iran’s oil and gas exports will produce a bonanza many times that figure for the Ayatollahs. Anyone who says any different is either lying or ignorant.

Iranians Pull Out of Nuke Talks

Iranian negotiators abruptly ended nuclear talks with Western powers in Vienna on Friday just a day after the Obama administration announced tighter sanctions on Tehran.

Iran had threatened that new or tighter sanctions would nullify the recently reached Geneva interim deal, which is not yet in effect.

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However, Carney said that the administration continues to oppose new sanctions.

“Let’s be clear also that we continue to oppose passage of new nuclear-related sanctions,” Carney said.

http://freebeacon.com/iranians-pull-out-of-nuke-talks/

 

Filed under: China, nuclear program, nuclear talks, Obama, Russia, sanctions, United Nations, USA | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a comment »

The Other Threat Obama and Kerry Ignored: Ballistic Missiles

Posted on 27/11/2013 by terrortrends

334241_Iran-Qadr-missile

 

For over a decade, Iran has had a robust, active ballistic missile development program. There are new developments on this front that are being covered ably by the crew over at the Free Beacon. Before we link those, here are the basics of the Iranian ballistic missile program…

Iran has several types of ballistic missiles, ranging from Short Range Ballistic Missiles (SRBM) to Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBM). Some are imported systems, some are domestic copies of foreign systems and some are indigenous systems. Iran is also known to be working on ICBMs–Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles.

According to the Obama Defense Department’s “Annual Report on the Military Power of Iran,” published in April of 2012, US intelligence estimates indicate that Iran will be capable of testing Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles in 2015.  A May 2009 joint US-Russian assessment published by the East-West Institute estimated that Iran was 6-8 years away from fielding an ICBM. The United States Institute of Peace estimates that Iran will have an ICBM capable of striking the US by 2020.

Iranian Short-Range Ballistic Missiles

Fateh-110

This solid-fueled, mobile missile system was developed jointly with Red China, North Korea and Syria as a replacement for SCUD missiles. It entered production in 2002 and has a range of 185 miles. This is far enough to hit targets into US installations in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Qatar.

Shehab-1

Developed from the Soviet-era SCUD-B, this mobile, liquid-fueled rocket has a range of 185 miles. This is far enough to target US bases in Afghanistan, Kuwait and Qatar.

Shehab-2

Developed as an improvement from imported North Korean SCUD-C ballistic missiles, this liquid-fueled, mobile missile system has a range of 435 miles. This is sufficient range to reach US bases in Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar.

Tondar-69

This is the name given by Iran to its CSS-8 rockets acquired from Red China. This solid-fueled, mobile missile has a range of 90 miles and is more of a battlefield rocket, though it could reach targets outside Iran if fired near Iran’s coast or borders.

Medium Range Ballistic Missiles (MRBM)

Shehab-3

This mobile, liquid-fueled missile was developed from North Korea’s NoDong 1 missile. Estimate’s of the Shehab-3’s range capabilities vary; some estimates place it in the IRBM category, rather than the MRBM category. The range estimates vary between 550 and 1500 miles. The upper end of this range would include all of Israel, as well as the eastern Mediterranean, all of Turkey, parts of Greece and all of Saudi Arabia. The lower end of the spectrum would place much of Saudi Arabia within range. There are several variants of the Shehab-3 with different names.

Intermediate Range Ballistic Missiles (IRBM)

Sajjil

There are at least three generations of this ballistic missile. It is a solid-fueled, mobile rocket and represents a significant advancement in Iranian capability because it is two-staged and thus lays the foundation for intercontinental flight. Also, because it is solid-fueled, it can be launched relatively quickly with little preparation. Range estimates vary from 1200 to 1800 miles, potentially putting targets as far as parts of Poland and parts of Italy within range.

Iranian Space Rocketry

Of particular significance and concern are Iranian efforts at space rocketry, through which it is in the process of mastering the multi-stage rocketry that is required for long-range Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles capable of hitting the US from Iran. Readers may recall that North Korea has also used the cover of a space program to develop ballistic missile technology.

Iran’s Safir rocket was used to place a satellite in orbit in 2009. That launch displayed a new level of capability in propulsion and multi-stage rocketry that the Iranians had previously not demonstrated. The rocket appears to be a development of the Sajjil with greater length but a similar diameter.

Iran has unveiled a prototype of a larger, more capable multi-stage rocket known as the Simorgh, designed to achieve higher orbits with heavier payloads than the Safir. Thus far, the Simorgh has not flown.

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We provide this background because of announced developments by Iran’s ballistic missile program that have coincided with the Obama-Kerry-Ayatollah Agreement.

This morning, Bill Gertz of the Free Beacon detailed the latest on Iranian-North Korean cooperation on ballistic missiles. House Republicans revealed that US intelligence is warning them that Iran and North Korea are developing new engines for ballistic missiles at the same time that Obama and Kerry are asking Americans to back an agreement on nuclear technology with the Ayatollahs:

Iranian collaboration with North Korea on a new rocket booster for long-range missiles undermines the deal with Tehran on its nuclear program, key Senate and House Republicans said on Tuesday.

“While the president was undertaking his secret negotiations—which Congress wasn’t informed of—he had to know Iran and North Korea were testing new engines for ballistic missiles to target the United States,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R., Ala.) chairman of the House Armed Services subcommittee on strategic forces.

The chairman, whose subcommittee is in charge of overseeing U.S. strategic weapons, ballistic missile defenses, and space programs, made the comments in response to a report Tuesday revealing that Iran is covertly working with North Korea on a new 80-ton rocket booster that can be used in both nations’ long-range missile programs.

In the Senate, Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) also criticized the Iran nuclear deal for not addressing the threat of Iran’s ICBM program.

Reports of Iran-North Korea ICBM collaboration follow new anti-America and anti-Israel outbursts from the Islamist regime in Tehran, Cruz said.

http://freebeacon.com/iran-north-korea-missile-cooperation-undermines-recent-geneva-nuclear-deal/

On the heels of Gertz’s article, Adam Kredo posted an article about a report directly from Iranian state-run media quoting an announcement on ballistic missile technology from a leader of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC):

A top Iranian military leader announced late Tuesday that Iran has developed “indigenous” ballistic missile technology, which could eventually allow it to fire a nuclear payload over great distances.

Brigadier General Hossein Salami, the lieutenant commander of Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), made the critical weapons announcement just days after Iran and the West signed a deal aimed at curbing the country’s nuclear activities.

Salami claimed that “Iran is among the only three world countries enjoying an indigenous ballistic missile technology,” according to the state-run Fars News Agency. [Editor’s note: this claim would no doubt come as a surprise to Great Britain, France, Red China, India, and Israel.]

Of particular interest and significance from Kredo’s article are these passages from Michael Rubin:

Former Pentagon adviser Michael Rubin said that the United States is not paying great enough attention to Tehran’s military advancements.

“Perhaps, [Secretary of State] John Kerry believes that Iran only wants ballistic missiles for peaceful purposes,” said Rubin, author of Dancing with the Devil: The Perils of Engaging Rogue Regimes.

“The fact of the matter is that Kerry and crew left both ballistic missiles and the nuclear warhead trigger experimentation at Parchin [military site] off-the-table” during talks in Geneva, Rubin said. “It’s the diplomatic equivalent of installing a burglar alarm system in your house but leaving the keys in the door.”

http://freebeacon.com/iran-announces-development-of-ballistic-missile-technology/

 

 

 

Filed under: ballistic missiles, IRGC, John Kerry, missiles, nuclear program, nuclear talks, Obama, space program, U.S. Congress | Tagged: , , , , , , , | 3 Comments »

Report: Iran accuses White House of lying on nuke agreement

Posted on 27/11/2013 by terrortrends

Given Obama’s track record, it’s tough to know where the truth lies here. But either way, the news is bad.

Either Obama lied and made an even worse deal with the Ayatollahs than he is telling us, or he is telling the truth and the Ayatollahs have already decided to re-interpret the agreement in such a way as to allow maximum overdrive in their continued quest for nuclear weapons.

It doesn’t really matter which at this point because Obama already opened Pandora’s Box with this terrible agreement. The Ayatollahs have broken down decades of work by Republicans and Democrats alike in America to do our best to isolate Iran economically through sanctions. Perhaps even more than Obamacare, that will be Obama’s legacy: Atomic Ayatollahs–the world’s most active state sponsor of terrorism armed with nuclear weaponry.

Thanks to Obama and his disgraced Secretary of State John Kerry, the Iranians will very soon have billions of additional dollars with which to develop nuclear technology, build ballistic missiles and sponsor Jihadist terrorism around the globe.

From the Free Beacon article:

Iranian officials say that the White House is misleading the public about the details of an interim nuclear agreement reached over the weekend in Geneva.

The White House released a multi-page fact sheet containing details of the draft agreement shortly after the deal was announced.

However, [an] Iranian foreign ministry official on Tuesday rejected the White House’s version of the deal as “invalid” and accused Washington of releasing a factually inaccurate primer that misleads the American public.

Afkham and officials said that the White House has “modified” key details of the deal and released their own version of the agreement in the fact sheet.

Iran’s right to enrich uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon, is fully recognized under the draft released by Tehran.

http://freebeacon.com/iran-white-house-lying-about-details-of-nuke-deal/

It is clear that Iran knows that uranium enrichment is key to its quest for nuclear weapons and they have every intention of continuing that activity. What is not being discussed in the so-called “mainstream” media in the US is the fact that Iran’s uranium enrichment operations are already in violation of UN Security Council Resolutions and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, to which Iran is a party.

Why does anyone think that the Ayatollahs would suddenly begin playing by the rules now?

It is once again worth noting that we have seen this scenario before. Way back in 1994, in a deal referred to as the “Agreed Framework,” Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter combined to forge a deal with North Korea that was supposed to prevent that country from building nuclear weapons. It failed. In fact, Jimmy Carter can rightly be referred to as the Father of the North Korean Atomic Bomb. North Korea took the largesse that that deal provided and kept up its work on building bombs. Clinton and Carter to this day continue to lie about what the Agreed Framework accomplished. What it actually accomplished was to provide the cover necessary for a rogue nation to become a nuclear power. It is significant that the Agreed Framework was fashioned in such a way as to avoid the necessity for Senate ratification.

Today, the Obama-Kerry-Ayatollah agreement does the exact same thing. It bypasses the Senate’s constitutional authority and responsibility to ratify foreign treaties. And the inevitable result will be Iran as a nuclear power. This will be a gargantuan problem that successive presidents will have to deal with long after Obama steals away in the dark of night from his work at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Filed under: ballistic missiles, Jihad, John Kerry, missiles, North Korea, nuclear program, Obama, sanctions, Terrorism, United Nations, Useful Idiots | Tagged: , , , | Leave a comment »