What Iran is doing with all that money Obama freed by saying he'd remove sanctions
If you're wondering
what Iran is doing with all the money that's being freed as a result of US President Hussein Obama saying he'd remove sanctions, I'm sure you won't be surprised by the answer (Hat Tip:
Melanie Phillips).
According to a Channel 2 report Monday, Israel
has observed an increase in Iran weapons shipments to Hezbollah members
— in Lebanon and on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights. Iran had also
sent weaponry to Hamas rulers in Gaza and was even attempting to arm
Hamas members in the West Bank, the report said.
“Israel warns: Iran is acting in recent days
and weeks to prepare and arm Hezbollah for conflict with Israel, on a
large scale,” Channel 2’s diplomatic correspondent Udi Segal tweeted
later Monday.
The TV report said Israel was alarmed that the
sanctions relief Iran would enjoy if it reaches a deal on its nuclear
program would free up “billions of dollars” for further such weapons
shipments, and for Iranian support for terrorism. The TV report said the
officials added that it was “hard to see” how the deal, so firmly
backed by the US, could help the interests of Israel and other US
allies.
Maybe that's exactly what Obama had in mind by Iran 'rejoining the family of nations.'
And maybe this is somehow connected.
What could go wrong?
Labels: Gaza, Hamas, Hezbullah, Iran, Iran sanctions regime, Islamic terrorism, Lebanon, Lebanon overflights, promoting terrorism, Syria
It starts: Israel strikes convoy on Lebanon-Syria border
Israel is quite serious about keeping chemical weapons out of the hands of the al-Qaeda dominated Free Syrian Army and Hezbullah. JPost is reporting based on a 'western diplomat' and 'three regional security sources' that
Israel struck a convoy on the Lebanese-Syrian border overnight.
The sources, who declined to be named due to the sensitivity of the
issue, had no further information about what might have been hit or
where precisely the attack happened, but the news website Al-Monitor
quoted unnamed sources as saying that the target had been an arms convoy
in Syria, close to the Lebanon border.
A Western diplomat in the region who asked about the strike said "something has happened", without elaborating.
An
unnamed security source told AFP: "The Israeli air force blew up a
convoy which had just crossed the border from Syria into Lebanon."
An
activist in Syria who works with a network of opposition groups around
the country said that she had heard of a strike in southern Syria from
her colleagues but could not confirm.
The IDF has declined to
comment on reports of a strike on the Syrian-Lebanese border. "We do not
comment on reports of this kind," an IDF spokeswoman said.
Reports
of incursions into Lebanese air space and the alleged strike follow a
flurry of international visits by Israel's top brass.
YNet adds:
According to the
report, the jets flew over the En Nakura area for several hours, leaving
Lebanese airspace at around 2 am. The report, citing military sources,
said that the first incursion took place at around 4:30 pm, when two
jets flew over the village of Ramish,
leaving at 9:05 pm.
As the duo was leaving – according to the Lebanese report – two other
IAF jets entered Beirut's airspace, towards En Nakura, leaving at 2 am.
A Lebanese Army
statement said that "Four Israeli planes entered Lebanese air space at
4:30 pm on Tuesday. They were replaced four hours later by another
group of planes which overflew southern Lebanon until 2 am and a third
mission took over, finally leaving at 7:55 am on Wednesday morning."
The statement made no mention of planes entering Syrian airspace.
A western diplomat and a security source said Wednesday that "Israeli
forces have attacked a target on the Syrian-Lebanese border overnight."
Despite the ambiguity of Lebanon's reports, the diplomat – who
declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue – insisted
that "There was definitely a hit in the border area."
The US-based
Al-Monitor website reported Tuesday that IDF Intelligence Chief Maj-Gen.
Aviv Kochavi traveled to Washington for closed-door consultations with
American officials. Israeli officials would not comment on the matter.
Among those Kochavi met with at the Pentagon was Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey, the report said.
According to Al-Monitor The IDF declined comment on the MI
chief's visit, saying that "Israel does not comment on the working
visits of IDF officers."
However, the website qouted an anonymous Israeli official as saying
that "Some people say (the) IDF wouldn’t object to (the) opportunity to
set the record straight vis-à-vis Hizballah... Also, there's the idea of
putting them out of play, as done with Hamas recently."
Better this than a full scale war. If it's enough to keep Hezbullah in line, that's great. But I suspect it won't be....
Labels: chemical weapons, Free Syrian Army, Hezbullah, Lebanon overflights, Syrian air space, Syrian uprising
Hmmm....
Reports from Lebanon's Bekaa Valley indicate that
Syrian helicopters hovered over the Lebanese side of the border on Sunday.
Syrian helicopters on Sunday hovered over the outskirts of the Bekaa border town of Arsal before returning to the Syrian airspace, Future News TV reported.
For its part, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said Syrian military aircraft flew over Syria’s border with Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. It did not elaborate.
On Tuesday, Defense Minister Fayez Ghosn warned that al-Qaida members have entered Lebanon through Arsal “under the guise of being members of the Syrian opposition,” noting that he will raise the issue in cabinet.
During a meeting at his office with a delegation of high-ranking Lebanese army officers, Ghosn said: “We have information that certain operations are taking place at some illegal border crossings, especially in Arsal, where weapons and some al-Qaida terrorist elements are entering (the country) under the guise of being members of the Syrian opposition.”
Hmmm....
Labels: Lebanon overflights, Syria
Wikileaks: Israel offered to stop Lebanon overflights in exchange for 'equivalent intelligence'
Yet another Wikileaks document dump discloses that in the aftermath of the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Israel offered to stop overflights of Lebanon in exchange for '
equivalent intelligence' from the United States.
A cable from 2006, seen by The Daily Star, detailed a meeting between former US Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman and the then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s Personal Representative to Lebanon Geir Pedersen and Special Middle East Adviser Michael Williams.
The dispatch suggested the UN officials met with Israeli representatives to discuss ways of better implementing UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which states that Lebanon’s sovereign borders be respected. The issue of Israeli reconnaissance flights over Lebanese territory arose and UN officials appeared to condone an intelligence swap plan between Israel and the US, according to the cable.
“[Pedersen and Williams] claimed that Israeli officials, whom they had met earlier that week, had hinted at stopping overflights if the [US] could provide equivalent intelligence,” the cable said.
Last week, documents released by WikiLeaks exposed that the US had been operating regular surveillance flights over Lebanon, in what Britain’s The Guardian reported as a plan to provide information on “terrorist” locations.
Why was this never done? The article doesn't say, but I have my suspicions. The United States was deeply disappointed with Israel's performance in the Second Lebanon War. As a result, there was a crisis of confidence between President Bush and Prime Minister Olmert that lasted from the war's end in August 2006
until the alleged Israeli bombing of Syria's al-Kibar reactor in September 2007. My hunch is that the apparent US refusal to share intelligence was part and parcel with that crisis of confidence. Bush saw Olmert (who had taken office in January 2006) as a weak leader, and so long as he did, Bush wasn't going to do anything to help Olmert out.
Labels: Ehud K. Olmert, George W. Bush, Lebanon overflights, Second Lebanon War, UN Security Council Resolution 1701
