The fix is in:
We'll see this week, but all indicators are in place - it definitely appears that the fix is in regarding Iran's nuclear development and a 'deal' with the so-called P5+1 nations - and it is all 'pretend'. Certainly 'the nations' and their leaders can't be this ignorant, so the only conclusion one can draw is that they are happy to leave Israel isolated and vunerable if it fits their personal political agenda. Is this really surprising?
The Iranian delegation to an upcoming round of nuclear talks with the P5+1 nations plans to present a three-stage compromise proposal that would entail Western recognition of the legitimacy of Iran’s controversial uranium enrichment program.
The first stage of the proposal includes a motion that would commit the P5+1 nations – the US, Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany – to defining “the recognition of the uranium enrichment right on Iran’s soil” as a goal of the negotiations, Xinhua reported Sunday.
According to the report, which was based on comments by officials cited by Iran’s semi-official ISNA news agency, the proposal, to be presented this week at negotiations in Geneva, would delineate “mutual steps.”
Diplomats hope the conference will mark a new chapter in Western relations with Iran, officials familiar with the upcoming talks have said.
According to a report Wednesday in the Wall Street Journal, Iran is preparing to offer to limit its production of nuclear fuel in exchange for an easing of international sanctions.
“The Iranians are preparing to go to Geneva with a serious package,” said a former Western diplomat quoted in the Journal. “These include limits on the numbers of centrifuges operating, enrichment amounts and the need for verification.”
Iran is expected to offer “to stop enriching uranium to levels of 20 percent purity, which international powers consider dangerously close to a weapons-grade capability,” agree to ship its stockpile of nuclear fuel to a third country for storage, open its nuclear facilities to more thorough international inspections, and close the enrichment facility near Qom.
The offer is set to create some divisions between the US and its Mideast allies — especially Israel, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — which have warned against easing sanctions and making hasty gestures toward the Islamic Republic.
Reports of an Iranian willingness to compromise come amid an ostensible thawing in US-Iran relations in the wake of conciliatory gestures made by both sides at the UN General Assembly meeting in New York last month.
The mutual show of receptivity culminated in a historic, 15-minute phone conversation between the recently elected President Hassan Rouhani and US President Barack Obama — the first direct contact between the two countries’ presidents in 34 years.
Security forces last week discovered and rendered unusable an underground tunnel linking Gaza and Israel, likely intended to facilitate a terror attack or kidnapping attempt inside Israel, the IDF said Sunday morning.
The tunnel, which an official said was particularly wide and about 2.5 kilometers (1.5 miles) long, started in Abbasan al-Saghira, a farming village near Khan Yunis, in Gaza, and terminated inside Israel about three kilometers from Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, in the western Negev.
It was found on October 7, military officials said.
The military said it waited a week to publicize the discovery because a search for explosives was underway. The army said an elite engineering corps was sent into the tunnel, but no explosives were found.
Abu Ubaida, a nom-de-guerre for the spokesperson of Hamas’s armed wing, wrote on Twitter in Arabic that “The will engraved in the hearts and minds of the men of resistance is much more important than the tunnels dug in the mud. The former will create thousands of the latter.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the discovery and neutralization of the tunnel was part of “an aggressive policy against terror… [that includes] prevention, intelligence activities, preventative measures, actions in response [to attacks] and, of course, Operation Pillar of Defense,” referring to the November 2012 mini-war between Israel and Hamas.
Last Tuesday, IDF Chief Benny Gantz warned that the next war could be sparked by a “tunnel packed with explosives that reaches a kindergarten.”
Earlier reports claimed that the tunnel terminated near a kindergarten in Kibbutz Ein Hashlosha, but the military denied that.
“The tunnel was discovered in time, and disaster was averted,” Jelin, told Ynet News on Sunday.
Despite a months-long lull in terror activity that has made 2013 the quietest year “in more than a decade,” the last several weeks have seen a marked uptick in nationalistic attacks, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday.
“We have seen an increase in terrorist activity over the last few weeks,” Netanyahu said, speaking at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.
The prime minister’s remarks came hours after the IDF revealed it had uncovered and destroyed a 2.5-kilometer (1.5-mile) tunnel from Gaza to Israel, which IDF officials said was likely designed to be used in a kidnapping or attack attempt by Gazan terrorists. The tunnel terminated inside Israel proper, close to a kindergarten, and was filled with explosives, the IDF said.
Netanyahu opened his remarks by praising the IDF for finding and demolishing the tunnel.
The last few weeks have seen a number of seemingly unconnectedattacks on Israelis in the West Bank.
While US politicians grapple with how to reopen their shuttered government and avoid a potentially disastrous default on their debt, the world should consider 'de-Americanising', a commentary on China's official news agency said Sunday.
"As US politicians of both political parties (fail to find a) viable deal to bring normality to the body politic they brag about, it is perhaps a good time for the befuddled world to start considering building a de-Americanised world," the commentary on state news agency Xinhua said.
In a lengthy polemic against American hegemony since World War two, it added: "Such alarming days when the destinies of others are in the hands of a hypocritical nation have to be terminated.
"A new world order should be put in place, according to which all nations, big or small, poor or rich, can have their key interests respected and protected on an equal footing."
China is the biggest foreign holder of US Treasury bonds, worth a total of $1.28 trillion according to US government data.
"Instead of honouring its duties as a responsible leading power, a self-serving Washington has abused its superpower status and introduced even more chaos into the world by shifting financial risks overseas," but equally stoked "regional tensions amid territorial disputes, and fighting unwarranted wars under the cover of outright lies" the commentary said, referring to Iraq.
It added that emerging economies should have a greater say in major international financial institutions the World Bank and International Monetary Fund and proposed a "new international reserve currency that is to be created to replace the dominant US dollar".
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon last week visited the Lockheed Martin assembly factory in Texas and called the new F-35 fighter jet "a cornerstone in building" the Israeli Air Force of the future.
Israel is one of the first countries on the list to receive the F-35 when America begins shipping to its foreign allies.
Like the F-16 before it, Yaalon said he had no doubt the F-35 would be a great asset and "give the Israel Air Force great operational abilities."
In a related development, the Pentagon has made the decision that F-35 pilots will use a helmet developed jointly by Rockwell Collins Inc. and Israel's Elbit Systems Ltd.
The decision knocked out of competition a helmet being developed by a British defense contractor. The Pentagon chose to go with the Rockwell-Elbit helmet following significant improvements and a lower price tag.
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