Another person of influence who thinks there will be a war with Iran soon.

Ron Prosor, the Israeli Ambassador to England thinks that there is going to be a war with Iran.  He said this today:  “At the current rate of progress Iran will reach the technical threshold for producing fissile material by 2009,” he said. “This is a global threat and it requires a global response. It should be made clear that if Iran does not co-operate then military confrontation is inevitable. It is either co-operation or confrontation.” 

So, in Prosor’s eyes (and he has served as Prime Minister Olmert’s senior advisor on Iran), there will be war since it is a fairly good bet to say that Iran will not capitulate to the Security Council’s demands on ceasing uranium enrichment (especially since such demands are illegal and violate Iran’s rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty.  For more on the authority of the UN Security Council to demand the cessation of uranium enrichment in Iran, see this:

https://theradicalmormon.wordpress.com/2007/09/21/iran-not-in-violation-of-un-security-resolution-regarding-its-nuclear-energy-program/

).

This story was found in the Jerusalem Post at:

http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1196847289613&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull

In the meantime, Israel is trying to keep the rhetoric against Iran a live coal saying:

Iran is “a dangerous regime based on an extreme ideology” that speaks “clearly about its vision of wiping a state (Israel) off the map, denies the Holocaust, works with radical elements in order to undermine other regimes in the region and financing terrorist organizations, while it simultaneously tries to achieve nuclear weapons,” Tzipi Livni, Israel’s foreign minister, said during a speech at NATO headquarters in Brussels.

“Have no mistake. This is the Iranian goal.”

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/world/story.html?id=42b0c443-7b67-4d79-9fca-7f844574b7d9&k=67369

US Secretary of Defense also kept up the rhetoric in Bahrain saying:

“Since that government now acknowledges the quality of American intelligence assessments,” Mr. Gates said, “I assume that it will also embrace as valid American intelligence assessments of its funding and training of militia groups in Iraq, its deployment of lethal weapons and technology to both Iraq and Afghanistan, its ongoing support of terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas that have murdered thousands of innocent civilians and its continued research and development of medium-range ballistic missiles that are not particularly cost-effective unless equipped with warheads carrying weapons of mass destruction.”

Interestingly, Gates assumed we are stupid in the following exchange during a QA session:

During a lively question-and-answer period, Mr. Gates was pressed on whether the United States had a double standard in organizing the world community to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons but not working to disarm Israel.

“Israel is not training terrorists to subvert its neighbors, it has not shipped weapons to a place like Iraq to kill thousands of civilians, it has not threatened to destroy any of its neighbors, it is not trying to destabilize the government of Lebanon,” Mr. Gates said.

Hmmmm.  So, I guess that Israeli training of Indonesian troops, teaching them how to murder East Timorese didn’t count.  Mr. Gates must have forgotten the following tidbit of info as well:  “Israeli advisers are helping train US special forces in aggressive counter-insurgency operations in Iraq, including the use of assassination squads against guerrilla leaders, US intelligence and military sources said yesterday.” http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1102940,00.html 

As for shipping weapons to Iraq to kill thousands of civilians, Israel didn’t have to do that… the USA does a great job at killing Iraqi civilians and as is evidenced by the counter on the side of this page, many more than thousands.

As for threatening to destroy it’s neighbors, Iran hasn’t participated in that activity (https://theradicalmormon.wordpress.com/2007/08/11/putting-words-in-ahmadinejads-mouth/), but Israel actively seeks to destroy Lebanon and Palestine with regularity. 

Amazing that Gates can say so many falsehoods in one sentence while defending Israel’s nuclear weapons, and do it with a straight face.  Also interesting is that judging by Gates’ answers, the US is confessing that Israel does have nuclear weapons, something that Israel itself doesn’t confirm. 

And, finally, Iran bleats that it did not have a nuclear weapons program before 2003 either:

Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman on Sunday denied claims by US intelligence agencies that Iran had a military nuclear programme before 2003. “Iran has had no military nuclear programme at any stage, not before and not after 2003, and any claims in this regard are solely baseless assumptions,” Mohammad-Ali Hosseini said in his weekly press briefing in Tehran.

http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/155602.html

Update:  What the New York Times didn’t report when Gates said the Israel nuclear weapons program threatens noone is found in Reuters:

“Asked at the Manama Dialogue conference whether he thought Israel’s nuclear program posed a threat to the region, Gates replied: “No, I do not.”

“The statement was greeted by laughter from a room filled with government officials from Middle Eastern countries.”

That’s more like it.  Of course the New York Times likes to ignore the very real reaction of all in the room and repeat the false statements of US Government officials without question.  It’d be nice to actually attend these meetings instead of listening to our media report them thru the lens of power.