Showing posts with label Minister. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Minister. Show all posts

Sunday, 1 July 2012

Iran obtains fresh information on downed US RQ-170 drone: Minister


Press TV
July 1, 2012

Iran’s Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi says the country has obtained new technical information regarding the downed US RQ-170 Sentinel reconnaissance drone.

“Acquiring the details and technical specifications of the RQ-170 is taking its normal course, and new achievements have been made in this respect; however, we do not intend to publicize them,” said Vahidi on Sunday.



On December 4, the Iranian military’s electronic warfare unit announced that the country had successfully downed the US RQ-170 Sentinel stealth reconnaissance aircraft inside Iran with minimal damage.


The aircraft, designed and developed by the American company Lockheed Martin, had crossed into Iran’s airspace over the border with neighboring Afghanistan.



In response to a question about Iran’s 2011 complaint against Russia at the International Court of Justice over Moscow’s refusal to ship S-300 air defense systems to Tehran, Vahidi noted that the issue is under examination at the relevant international legal bodies, adding that it is normal for legal proceedings at the international courts of law to get prolonged.


Under a contract signed in 2007, Russia is required to provide Iran with at least five S-300 air defense systems.


However, Moscow’s continuous delays in delivering the defense system has drawn criticism from the Islamic Republic on several occasions.


Russia has been refusing to deliver the system to Iran under the pretext that the system is covered by the fourth round of UN Security Council resolutions against Iran.



The Iranian defense minister also alluded to Iran’s endeavors to safeguard the security of the Strait of Hormuz, saying the Islamic Republic has so far been the key provider of security in the region and has countered threats against the strategic waterway.


Vahidi pointed to Iran’s vital interests in the Strait of Hormuz and reaffirmed Tehran’s resolve to monitor all the developments across the waterway.


The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow shipping channel that leads in and out of the Persian Gulf between Iran and Oman.


More than a third of the world’s seaborne oil exports pass through the narrow Strait of Hormuz, according to Reuters.



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Tuesday, 26 June 2012

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urges action on Iran after meeting Vladimir Putin

The hypocrisy oozes out of every pore of Israel. But what is interesting is that Israel is being set up to be destroyed. It is being thrown to the wolves circling to devour it like a suicide bomb in the canine's mouth. Russia is being drawn in due to its military interest in the region (Syria and Iran). But the end goal is similar to the Sykes-Picot agreement: Anglo-American interests enforced at the expense of the Arabs, Jews and Russians.


Egypt is fundamentalist extreme 'Islam'; a theocratic state. Anti-semitic to the core. Syria will fall and Assad's secular state will be replaced by a similar regime to Egypt. Iran already has one in place.


Israel is jewish and going more and more to the right building up to an insane nuclear armageddon in the region.


Russia is being brought in to be split in two: pulled by Israel one side, and by the Arabs on the other.


Britain and America are laughing, creating a cauldron of hate...


In his first public comments on the inconclusive round of talks in Moscow last week between world powers and Iran, Netanyahu repeated Israel's three core demands.


"I believe two things must be done now: strengthening the sanctions and also boosting the demands," Netanyahu said, without mentioning the possibility of Israeli military action should diplomacy fail.


The international community must call for the cessation of all uranium enrichment in Iran, the removal of all enriched uranium from the country and the dismantling of the Furdow underground nuclear facility, he added.


At the Moscow talks, Russia, the United States, China, Britain, France and Germany set no date for further political negotiations.


Last month, and again in the Russian capital, world powers asked Iran to close the Furdow facility where uranium is being enriched to 20-percent fissile purity, and to ship any stocks out of the country, demands that come close to those of Israel.


Israel wants all Iranian uranium enrichment to stop, but is uneasy about the West's current focus on halting only higher-percentage enrichment close to a level needed to produce material for nuclear bombs.


European governments on Monday formally approved an embargo on Iranian oil to start on July 1. Debt-ridden Greece had pushed for a delay because it relies heavily on Iranian crude to meet its energy needs, but EU governments said the embargo would go ahead as planned.


"We had an opportunity to discuss the negotiations under way between the international community and Iran," Netanyahu said of his meeting with Putin.


"We agree that nuclear weapons in the hands of Iran represents a grave danger, first of all to Israel, but also to the region and to the entire world," he said.


Putin, in his own comments to reporters at Netanyahu's residence, said they discussed Iran's nuclear programme and the situation in Syria "in great detail". He did not elaborate.


Russia takes a softer tack than the Western nations and opposes any further sanctions against Iran. Putin has said Russia has no proof that Tehran, which denies it is seeking atomic weapons, intends to become a nuclear-armed power.


His trip to Israel, the Palestinian Territories and Jordan is seen as an effort to increase Russia's clout in the region at a time when the West and some Arab nations have criticised Moscow for opposing their efforts to force out Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.


The visit, officially billed as an opportunity to dedicate a memorial in central Israel to the Red Army's battles against Nazi Germany in World War Two, began a day after the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Mursi was declared the winner of Egypt's presidential election.


The outcome of the poll in Egypt, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1979, has raised concerns in Israel.


On Syria, Russia has brushed aside U.S. and Arab calls to stop sending weapons to the government there, saying it supplies only defensive arms. It has also used its veto power in the United Nations Security Council to protect Syria.


Assad has helped Russia keep a foothold in the Middle East by buying billions of dollars worth of weapons and hosting a maintenance facility for the Russian navy, its only permanent warm-water port outside the former Soviet Union.


AP


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