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The Alpha-Omega Report's

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Middle East News Spotlight

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For April 4, 2010

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Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah has accused Israel of plotting to destroy the Al-Aqsa mosque in the Old City of Jerusalem, in an interview with Al-Manar television on Wednesday. More details, LINK HERE.

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Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned against a reported Israeli plan to launch a second military offensive against Palestinians in Gaza.

Israeli deputy prime minister Silvan Shalom said Friday that a military operation will soon be launched in response to rocket attacks from Gaza, which involve home-made rockets that usually carry little or no explosive warhead.

On Thursday, a single Qassam rocket landed near the Israeli town of Ashkelon on Thursday and caused some minor damages but no casualties.

Although the Palestinian Resistance movement of Hamas did not claim responsibility for the attack, Israel nevertheless responded to the incident by carrying out six waves of air raids overnight.

"If this rocket fire against Israel does not stop … it will force us to launch another military operation," Shalom told public radio.

Hamas has emphasized that it is looking to calm the situation. In an April 1 phone conversation with the Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, the Chairman of Hamas Political Bureau Khaled Mashaal said: "Hamas is not interested in the escalation of tensions and is taking corresponding measures to prevent missile strikes from the Gaza," reported ITAR-Tass News Agency.

President Ahmadinejad, in a formal speech at the inauguration of the Middle East's biggest iron ore pellet factory in the southern city of Sirjan, warned Israel against making plans for a new offensive against Gazans, who are still reeling from the devastating attack by Tel Aviv two years ago.

They are looking for an excuse to attack Gaza. What I want to say to Zionists and their supporters is 'enough with the crimes. Do not make your load [of sin] even heavier than it is'.

The president said "the myth of an undefeatable Israel was over," adding that Tel Aviv was only trying to maintain its image of a dreaded power to sustain its existence.

"They had created the illusion in everyone's mind that they (the Zionists) can not be defeated. But that myth was shattered after the regime suffered two defeats, once in southern Lebanon and later on in Gaza," he explained.

"Now, they are trying to make up [for those defeats], as they know that they will reach the end if they lose the awe attributed to them and if regional nations no longer fear them."

Ahmadinejad condemned Israel's continued crimes in Palestine and Lebanon, stressing that the Tel Aviv regime is the sole obstacle to the establishment of peace and security in the region.

Referring to Israel's use of foreign passports to assassinate senior Hamas military commander Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, Ahmadinejad said Israel has “clearly been given carte blanche by Western powers “to commit whatever crime it pleases and violate whatever law it deems necessary.”

On a different note, Ahmadinejad said the rising tide of terrorism in the Middle East is a direct result of US military presence in the region over the past decade.

“The ever-increasing presence of US coalition forces in region has contributed to the growing rate of terrorism and violence,” he noted.

The Iranian President said he found the US campaign to isolate Tehran in the region and in the world “most amusing” because he seriously believes that Washington, due to decades of hegemony and political missteps, has grown to become one of the most isolated countries to date.

"We think that those are isolated that cannot talk to nations directly, those who are afraid of nations."

President Ahmadinejad said it was the US not Iran which was isolated, reasoning that American officials only paid unannounced visits to the regional countries.

"They want to visit their military base in a country where they have deployed 160,000 military troops and they go there without announcing in advance. Who is isolated?"

He dismissed US accusations regarding an “Iranian intention to enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels,” adding such claims are highly ironic coming from countries which possess and continue to develop vast nuclear arsenals that have been tested and even used in military confrontations.

Under international law, Ahmadinejad said, Western countries are obliged to provide Iran — without out preconditions — with the specified amount of fuel it requires for the Tehran research reactor, which plays the vital role of producing medical isotopes.

Due to their refusal, Ahmadinejad continued, Iran reserves the right to domestically-enrich uranium up to 20 percent in order to meet the demands of thousands of Iranian patients, who desperately need post-surgery drug treatment with nuclear medicine.

With regards to US efforts to rally worldwide support for gasoline embargoes against Iran, Ahmadinejad said such a move would fail to bring Washington's desired results because the country will soon reach the refining capacity to produce its own gasoline.

Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil exporter but, according to US estimates, the country relies on gasoline imports to meet 40 percent of its domestic demand.

LINK HERE

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Despite the official U.S. Intelligence Report of December 2007, President Obama warned last week that the US has evidence that Iran is developing nuclear weapons. More details, LINK HERE.

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A new CIA Report to Congress warns that Iran is now capable of making a nuclear weapon "if a decision is made to do so."

According to an article in the Washington Times newspaper:

"One U.S. official involved in monitoring nuclear proliferation says that Iran is "keeping the door open to the possibility of building a nuclear weapon. That's in spite of strong international pressure not to do so, and some difficulties they themselves seem to be having with their nuclear program," the official said. "There are powerful incentives for them to close the door completely, but they are either purposefully ignoring them or are tone deaf. You almost want to shout, 'Tune in Tehran."

The CIA's report is but one of many reports of late that concludes Iran is on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon. A recent UN watchdog report provided similar conclusions while other European nations have similarly warned of Iran's capabilities. Recent intelligence reports though are indicating that Iran's nuclear enrichment program has run into serious technical difficulties in producing "weapons-grade" uraniaum for bombs. Iran announced high-grade enrichment production began at the end of February but late reports indicate that such production was repeatedly shut down within two days after the start as spinning centrifuges have malfunctioned and forced lengthy production halts.

The CIA Report to Congress also presented an update on the North Korean nuclear status. The report indicated that the North Koreans can now produced nuclear weapons with a yield roughly equivalent to a couple of kilotons of TNT. Read the full Washington Times article on the CIA Report at this LINK HERE.

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US & Israel Now See


Eye to Eye On Iran


Says White House Official

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An Israeli newspaper reports that a senior White House official met with Jewish leaders on Friday (4/2), stating that there is no crisis between Washington and Jerusalem; and stressed taht Iranian threat is the U.S. National Security Council's top priority.

Dan Shapiro, Director for Near East Affairs at the National Security Council, assured the leaders that Iran is the National Security Council's top priority and that the US is determined to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

When asked about possible sanctions against Iran, Shapiro said that the US was close to achieving the necessary consensus within the UN Security Council. Shapiro said that sanction were unlikely to compel Tehran to cease its nuclear efforts, but added he believed they would demonstrate – to both the leaders and people in Iran – that the Islamic Republic would have to pay a heavy price if it continues on its current path.

As for the persistent rumors of a crisis between Washington and Jerusalem over construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, Shapiro said that "there is no crisis. Media reports are wrong… there is more agreement than disagreement."

Reports suggesting Washington was considering cutting back on its aid to Israel were also wrong, he said, stressing that the subject was not up for debate.

Read the full story, LINK HERE.

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The G-8 Minister's meeting in this week found Secretary of State Clinton scrambling for G-8 support for increased sanctions against Iran in a bid to halt Iran's nuclear program. More details, LINK HERE.

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Palestinian leaders are vowing to escalate their battle with Israel to regain lost territory in the 1967 War. Leaders say that all options are on the table including a renewal of terrorismand or a third intifada. More details, LINK HERE.

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Israel now considers the prospect of another war with the Hamas regime all but inevitable. Officials said the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been briefed by the military on the renewed Hamas threat from the Gaza Strip. They said most of the Cabinet agreed that Israel must be prepared for a major operation in the Gaza Strip.

"Sooner or later we will liquidate the military regime of the pro-Iranian Hamas which controls the Gaza Strip," Israeli Finance Minister Yuval Steinitz said.

In an interview with Israel state radio on March 28, Steinitz, a leading ally of Netanyahu, referred to the spate of Palestinian attacks along the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip. On March 27, two Israeli soldiers were killed in an ambush claimed by both Hamas and the Iranian-sponsored Islamic Jihad.

"I am not setting a timetable, but we will not tolerate this regime continuing to strengthen itself militarily and providing itself with an arsenal of rockets that threaten our territory," Steinitz said.  Full story details, LINK HERE.

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The U.S. military, in a fairly unusual move, is pushing itself into the Middle East peace process over what the Pentagon sees as an erosion of the U.S. military's posture in the region, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin. Details, LINK HERE.

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An Iranian nuclear scientist who has been missing since June of 2009 has defected to the United States and is helping the CIA, ABC news reported on Tuesday. Citing unnamed sources briefed on the defection, the ABC News reports that  Shahram Amiri, a nuclear physicist in his early 30s, defected as part of a long-planned operation to get him to leave Iran and resettle in the United States. A CIA spokeswoman declined to comment. More details, LINK HERE.

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Israeli diplomats are heavily lobbying Red China to support UN sanctions against Iran. More details, LINK HERE.

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Turmoil is beginnning to erupt in Iraq after the general elections in March turned into a near deadlock tie between the current regime and a secularist party. More details on the violence, LINK HERE.

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