Iranian warships coming to Mediterranean and Red Seas
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report January 23, 2011,
Less than 24 hours after the breakdown of its nuclear dialogue with the six world powers in Istanbul, Iran announced plans Sunday, Jan. 23, to senda fleet of warships, including a home-made destroyer, on operational and intelligence-gathering missions to the Red Sea and on to the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal. debkafile’s military sources: Parts of the fleet will in fact be deployed in the three waters around Israel’s southern and western shores.
Tehran is taking advantage of the lack of military and diplomatic momentum on the part of US and Israel for a naval thrust to expand its range of operations and encroach on their areas of control.
It is also a rapid response to the arrival of the USS Enterprise carrier with a strike group carrying 6,000 sailors and marines and 80 warplanes in the Mediterranean at the end of last week on its way to the Arabian Sea opposite Iran. British ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair’s...
Turkel C’tee: Marmara raid was in accordance with int’l law
The Jerusalem Post
According to the concluding remarks of the committee members and international observers,
“The naval blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip – in view of the security circumstances and Israel’s efforts to comply with its humanitarian obligations – was legal pursuant to the rules of international law. The actions carried out by Israel on May 31, 2010, to enforce the naval blockade had the regrettable consequences of the loss of human life and physical injuries. Nonetheless, and despite the limited number of uses of force for which we could not reach a conclusion, the actions taken were found to be legal pursuant to the rules of international law.”
AMEN
Obama’s a toothless tiger
According to this report Congress will withhold funds. But Obama controls the army. Is he going to abandon Lebanon as Bush abandonned Gaza? T Belman
Report: U.S. to end Lebanon aid if Hezbollah takes control
The United States will stop aiding Lebanon if Hezbollah seizes power in the country, the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat quoted a U.S. official as saying Sunday.
Lebanon’s national unity government collapsed in recent weeks after Hezbollah and its allies withdrew from the cabinet to protest against caretaker Prime Minister Saad Hariri’s reluctance to cut ties with the United Nations-sponsored tribunal that is probing the 2005 assassination of his father, former prime minister Rafik Hariri.
Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah fears being implicated by the court’s prosecutor, Daniel Bellemare, who has filed confidential draft indictments to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon’s pre-trial judge, Daniel Fransen.
Hezbollah has warned in the past few...
Lieberman drafts own map of future Palestinian borders
The only thing wrongwith this plan is that the Arabs aren’t buying it. Essentuially only limited sovereignty is being offered. In other words, autonomy. That’s all they are going to get.
- Erekat:map of Palestinian state is a ‘joke’ *
- Abbas warns that failed talks may trigger third intifada but rules out declaration of independence
Lieberman believes Israel must take the diplomatic initiative by proposing a Palestinian state in provisional borders.
By Barak Ravid
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has drafted a map of a Palestinian state in provisional borders. The map would essentially “freeze the existing situation in the territories, with minor changes,” a senior Foreign Ministry official said.
The proposal is meant to show that Israel is genuinely interested in progress toward peace, and to force the Palestinians to say whether they really want a state.
According to the official, Lieberman says Israel must take the diplomatic...
Ted Belman
Jerusalem, Israel
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