← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Gregz
Thread ID: 20784 | Posts: 10 | Started: 2005-10-28
2005-10-28 01:07 | User Profile
JAMES KIRKUP WESTMINSTER EDITOR
Key points ââ¬Â¢ Tony Blair issues a clear military threat to Iran ââ¬Â¢ Follows Iranââ¬â¢s call for Israel to be expelled from UN ââ¬Â¢ EU leaders join Blair in condemning Iran
Key quote "If they carry on like this, the question people are going to ask me is, 'when are you going to do something about this?'" ââ¬â Tony Blair
Story in full TONY Blair last night issued a clear threat to Iran and suggested that military action against the Islamic republic could no longer be ruled out by the international community.
Departing sharply from Britain's previous cautious stance, the Prime Minister expressed his fury at the president of Iran's call for Israel to be "wiped from the face of the Earth".
The president's comments, following growing unease over Iran's continued nuclear programme, its defiance of a UN inspection regime and its alleged interference in Iraq, have sharply increased international tensions.
Speaking after the European Union leaders' meeting at Hampton Court outside London yesterday, Mr Blair declared that Iran would be making "a very big mistake" if it believed Iraq will distract European and US leaders.
Admitting that he has previously come under pressure to rule out military action against Iran, Mr Blair predicted that in the wake of the Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's comments on Israel, he will now face calls to consider that very option.
"If they carry on like this, people are going to believe they are a real threat to world stability," Mr Blair said. "If they carry on like this, the question people are going to ask me is, 'When are you going to do something about this?'"
Describing himself as "very angry" and Mr Ahmadinejad's comments as "a disgrace," the Prime Minister said he held very little hope of Iran changing course without some form of international intervention.
"What they have to do is alter their basic attitude, but the fact that it's being expressed by the president of the country, it doesn't give you a lot of confidence," Mr Blair said. Britain will discuss a response to Iran's "unacceptable" attitude with allies over the weekend.
Israel yesterday called for Iran to be expelled from the UN, and will step up pressure on the US to at least turn a blind eye to any military action it might undertake.
Mr Ahmadinejad, an avowed conservative, earlier this year won the election to replace the moderate Mohammed Khatami. Since then, Iran has been taking an increasingly intransigent line over nuclear issues and Iraq.
Despite repeated warnings from the US, Tehran has persisted with its nuclear energy programme, which Washington says is a cover for atomic weapons research. Until recently, the US has been willing to allow European diplomats to take the lead on the issue, hoping a more emollient approach would pay off.
In recent weeks, however, European patience with Iran has been eroded, both over the nuclear issue and Iraq.
Last month, Britain finally went public with allegations that Iran is training and equipping insurgent forces in southern Iraq, in effect accusing Tehran of colluding in the deaths of UK troops.
Only last month, however, Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, said military action against Iran would be "inconceivable".
Though merely restating what has technically been Iran's policy for more than two decades, there were signs yesterday that Mr Ahmadinejad's remarks could prove a turning point for the international community.
Russia has previously sided with Iran over nuclear issues, even assisting in the building of Iranian nuclear plants. But yesterday, Moscow accepted that Mr Ahmadinejad had gone too far.
Several European nations, including Britain, yesterday made formal diplomatic protests to Iranian embassies, and EU leaders at Hampton Court issued an unusually harsh condemnation of Iran.
"Calls for violence, and for the destruction of any state, are manifestly inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community," the 25 leaders said in a statement.
Ariel Sharon, the Israeli prime minister, yesterday issued a statement demanding Iran's expulsion from the UN: "A state which calls for the destruction of another people cannot be a member of the United Nations."
Israel may have a key role to play in any direct action against Iran. In recent years, US hawks have raised the prospect of supporting the Israelis in mounting such attacks on Iranian targets.
The US has so far tried to avoid being publicly drawn into the row, although the White House said on Wednesday night that the worry over Iran's attitude to Israel "underscores the concerns we have about Iran's nuclear intentions".
Last night, the US State Department ruled out supporting Iran's expulsion from the UN, but insisted that Tehran's agenda must change.
While there was no official response to international criticism from the Iranian government last night, groups close to the leadership in Tehran were unrepentant.
The Revolutionary Guard, a powerful military body to which Mr Ahmadinejad once belonged, last night described Israel as a "cancerous tumour".
"We have no doubts that at the end of the road, the victory of Muslims and the defeat of Israel is inevitable," a guard spokesman told an Iranian news agency, adding that the West should be "afraid".
Europe denounces Iran's 'incitement'
EUROPEAN leaders yesterday condemned "in the strongest terms" a call by Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, for Israel to be "wiped off the map".
They said in a statement: "Calls for violence, and for the destruction of any state, are manifestly inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community.
"Such comments will cause concern about Iran's role. Incitements to violence and the terrorism that it breeds are despicable."
The EU was committed to a solution to the Arab-Israeli dispute based on two states living side by side.
2005-10-28 01:28 | User Profile
I don't get it, I understand why the US is involved in all this "wars of liberations" and that's because of the Neocons in the US government.......but why the British?
I mean, did the Belfoust or Bel something or another where England gave Palestine to the Zionists said anything about supporting the Jews for ever?
We know about the money that we are placing down the black hole in Iraq but no one says anything about the money that we are giving to ours "allies" in order for them to stay with our wars of liberation.
2005-10-28 01:37 | User Profile
[quote=Ponce]I don't get it, I understand why the US is involved in all this "wars of liberations" and that's because of the Neocons in the US government.......but why the British?
I mean, did the Belfoust or Bel something or another where England gave Palestine to the Zionists said anything about supporting the Jews for ever?
We know about the money that we are placing down the black hole in Iraq but no one says anything about the money that we are giving to ours "allies" in order for them to stay with our wars of liberation. '
Balfour. David Balfour. Look it up on Google, then read whichever article you can decipher to understand what he did and why.
One theme that stands out: the oil fields near Mosul.
AE
2005-10-28 02:24 | User Profile
Talk is cheap. Khruschev one time said about the US "we shall bury you." Anyway, I don't give a damn about Israel.
2005-10-28 02:33 | User Profile
[QUOTE=Angeleyes]'
Balfour. David Balfour. Look it up on Google, then read whichever article you can decipher to understand what he did and why.
One theme that stands out: the oil fields near Mosul.
AE[/QUOTE]
Angel? all that I care to know is that Balfour deal was nothing more than a price for getting the US involved in WW, after all wasen't the reazon for WWI that a Jew killed that duque whachamacalled?.......by the way, the fact that I don't pay to much attention to names does not mean that I don't know what was going on.
That Belfour deal was also giving the Zionist a state in Palestine and not a country and it was never approved by the Arabs.
2005-10-28 04:55 | User Profile
The same folks who control the Democratic and Republican parties in the US control the Labour and Conservative parties in Great Britain. Follow the money.
2005-10-28 15:24 | User Profile
Sather_Gate
Indeed, Blair's "Third Way" ideological puppet masters Lord Levy, Gavron, Bernstein and Hollick are all of the sneaky, crooked nosed variety.
"They are cheeky humans and they think that the entire world should obey them. They destroy Palestinian families and expect nobody to object to them," Ahmadinejad said, asserting his comments "are the exact words of the Iranian people." - Ahmadinejad
"Unfortunately the Western countries have remained silent on the increasing inhuman activities of Israel," - Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki
Not only did the Jew build the stolen land on stolen money but also at the expense of the Palestinian nation.
"The combination of a state that supports terrorism, calls openly for export of Islamic revolution, calls openly for destruction of another country and develops nuclear weapons cannot be tolerated any more." - Uri D, Israel
To be fair it is understandable why the Israels aren't exactly enamored with the idea of Iran becoming a nuclear power.
Greg
"'He is a prodigy,' he said at last. 'He is an emissary of pity, and science, and progress, and devil knows what else. We want,' he began to declaim suddenly, 'for the guidance of the cause entrusted to us by Europe, so to speak, higher intelligence, wide sympathies, a singleness of purpose.'" - Heart of Darkness : Joseph Conrad
2005-10-28 15:32 | User Profile
[QUOTE]"The combination of a state that supports terrorism, calls openly for export of Islamic revolution, calls openly for destruction of another country and develops nuclear weapons cannot be tolerated any more." - Uri D, Israel[/QUOTE] In fairness to Ahmadinejad it should be noted that the Israelis and the Bush gang have made numerous threats to the Iranians, threating to bomb them, etc. I can't blame him for firing back at these jerks. Furthermore, a while back the Iranian chief of staff stated that any attack on Iran by the US would be regarded as originating from Israel and they would be held accountable. This occurred after a prolong amount of belligerancy from the Neocons. Ahmadinejad knows the score on this.
2005-10-28 15:34 | User Profile
I'm aquiring an admiration of this Ahmadinejad guy each passing day. When the Zionist British and Americans are this upset at someone, it usually means the man in question is telling the plain truth. This belligerent rhetoric by Western puppets also usually preceeds another one of their disatrous, ham-fisted, self-destructive blows to their respective crumbling, bloated and rotted Empires.
Worse is better! There, I said it!
2005-10-28 15:37 | User Profile
Iran aims to soothe world fury at Israel remarks
Iran has attempted to defuse international anger towards its President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad after he said Israel should be "wiped off the map".
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan condemned the comments, saying they "dismayed" him.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair hinted that action may be taken against Iran.
But the Iranian embassy in Moscow says Mahmoud Ahmedinejad did not mean to speak in "such sharp terms".
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of Iranians have started anti-Israel protests across the country and repeated calls by their ultraconservative president demanding the Jewish stateââ¬â¢s destruction.
Iranians staged multiple protests throughout the capital, Tehran, and in other cities including Mashad in Iranââ¬â¢s east, holding banners and placards carrying anti-Israeli and pro-Palestinian slogans.
Iranââ¬â¢s seven state-run TV stations devoted coverage to programs condemning the Jewish state.
The demonstrations are being held as part of annual al-Quds ââ¬â Jerusalem ââ¬â Day protests, which were first held in 1979 after Shiite Muslim clerics took power in Iran.