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Iran to maintain nuke work

Tehran, February 11 - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday pledged to maintain the country's nuclear work, but said he wanted to remain within international rules.

"We are ready for talks but will not suspend our activities," he said in a speech broadcast on state television.

He added that it would be "humiliation" for Iran to abandon its nuclear programme and that UN-imposed sanctions would not harm the country.

Iran plans to install thousands of centrifuges and start "industrial-scale" enrichment. It already runs two cascades of 164 centrifuges at the Natanz underground plant.

Ahmadinejad made the speech as tens of thousands of Iranians took to the streets on Sunday to show support for the country’s nuclear programme.

Tehran's Azadi square was filled with demonstrators shouting "Death to America" and carrying banners saying "Nuclear technology is our right".

Thousands of people also crowded the streets of Mashhad. Attendance in Tehran was expected to reach hundreds of thousands. Agencies via GulfNews

Labels: Ahmadinejad, Berita, Iran, Luar Negeri

Will the world witness the collapse of Israel anytime soon?
AlJazeera.com 4 January

After his remarks calling the killing of two million Jews in the Second World War a” myth” and calling for Israel to be “wiped of the map” sparked international outcry last year, the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad launched a new verbal attack against the Jewish State, this time predicting it will collapse soon and warning its allies face the "boiling wrath" of the people if they continue to support Israel.

In a speech in the southern province of Khuzestan, President Nejad was quoted by the Iranian media as saying:

"I'm sure that soon we will observe the collapse of the 'Zionist' regime (Israel)," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.

The Iranian President also reiterated his denial of the Holocaust saying it "was fabricated by the West in order to reach its goals," state television quoted him as saying.

The renewed assault on Israel by the Iranian President came as tens of thousands marched through Tehran in an annual pro-Palestinian protest.

"This regime (Israel) will be gone, definitely," Ahmadinejad told the protestors.

"You (Israel supporters) should know that any government that stands by the Zionist regime from now on will not see any result but the hatred of the people," he added.

"The wrath of the region's people is boiling."

"Efforts to stabilise this fraudulent regime have completely failed, thank God ... This regime has lost the rationale of its existence," the president said.

Ahmadinejad said that his warning as an "ultimatum" for Israel-supporting powers. "You should not complain that we did not give a warning. We are saying this explicitly now."

"If a hurricane starts be rest assured that the dimensions of this hurricane will not be limited to the geographic borders of Palestine," he added. "This regime (Israel) will take its supporters to the bottom of the swamp."

"The best solution is for you to take all the components of the regime and take it away," Ahmadinejad said.

Nejad has reportedly told delegates at an international conference questioning the Holocaust and held in Tehran last month that Israel's days were numbered:

"Just as the Soviet Union was wiped out and today does not exist, so will the 'Zionist' regime soon be wiped out."

But the political turmoil that hit Israel following the slap it received from Hezbollah and the sinking approval ratings of the Israeli Premier could be another reason that would lead to its end.

Israel’s defeat, despite the U.S. support, in last summer war in Lebanon, prompted many political experts and analysts suggest that the war came just to prove the failed approach of the Israeli government, now led by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

Days after Lebanon’s war, which ended last August, young Israeli reservists began calling on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Amir Peretz and Chief of Staff Dan Halutz to resign, saying they have failed to achieve the goals the government had declared when the battle between the Israeli army and Hezbollah fighters first broke out; i.e. the return of the soldiers captured by Hezbollah, the disarmament of the Lebanese resistance group and its removal from Israel's borders.

"I don't want to be famous or to be a politician. I just want those who are responsible for these failures to go home," said Zvigenbaum to the many reporters who had gathered to cover a march organised to protest against the Israeli government’s failure, following August ceasefire.

Reservists set up tents in front of Olmert's office and called on others to join them. Protests continued for weeks.

Late in August, a survey carried out by Israel’s daily Yedioth Ahronoth found that the government had become a lame duck. Sixty three percent of Israelis believe Olmert failed in the war and should resign, according to the survey. Seventy four percent of those polled said the same about Amir Peretz. Only 19 percent said the government should remain intact.

Following the release of the survey results, many Knesset members demanded appointing a state commission of inquiry, similar to those hired following the 1973 Yom Kippur War and again after the first war in Lebanon in 1983. But the Israeli Prime Minister refused.

"We don't have the luxury of spending years on investigations that have nothing to do with learning lessons and preparing for the future," Olmert claimed, naming three investigating committees he intended to hire.

State inquiries are headed by a Supreme Court judge and nominated by the president of the Supreme Court, whereas the government inquiries like those Olmert launched give the premier a lot of control over the appointees and their work.

"I call it the escape committee," said Member of Parliament Effi Eitam. "It was summoned to help the politicians escape from their responsibilities. It is meant to blame the army, whereas it is clear that you can't investigate the army without checking the orders it got from the state level."

"I want to make one thing clear: The responsibility for the decision to go to war is entirely mine," Olmert said, in an attempt to ease public anger.

"Olmert does not mean what he says," wrote Uzi Benziman, a leading political analyst for the Israel daily Haaretz. "When he declares that responsibility for the war is entirely his, he is pulling the wool over our eyes. His statements are meaningless if they are not accompanied by a practical conclusion," wrote Benziman, calling for Olmert's resignation.

Israel was also rocked by a series of scandals in 2006, with the president locked in a sex scandal, the justice minister quitting over a stolen kiss, the PM charged over a property deal and the country's top general under fire for stock trading.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki referred to the sex scandal that has left Iranian-born Israeli President Moshe Katsav facing possible indictment for rape, saying such "ethical deviation" showed Israel was collapsing.

"The Zionist regime is filled with moral corruption and ethical deviation in its highest ranks. Therefore this regime internally, and regionally from the outside, is cracking and is falling apart."

Labels: Ahmadinejad, Berita, Iran, Israel, Luar Negeri