Bloomberg News' Jeffrey Goldberg interviewed US President Obama:
OBAMA:I believe that President Abbas is sincere about his willingness to recognize Israel and its right to exist, to recognize Israel’s legitimate security needs, to shun violence, to resolve these issues in a diplomatic fashion that meets the concerns of the people of Israel. And I think that this is a rare quality not just within the Palestinian territories, but in the Middle East generally... Read the whole article and interview HERE
An ex-Russian passenger plane (Tu-154), previously owned by the state-run 'Iran AirTours' airlines is now converted by the 'Iranian Aircraft Manufacturing Industries' as a military testbed. Look closely at the tail section of the above aircraft and you'll be able to see a nose section (orange cone) of an F-5A fighter jet. The caption from the original photo says this airplane will be able to carry/test UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles) in the future. This jetliner was located at the IRGC's ramp in Tehran's Mehrabad airport.
On a mini tour of Canadian cities Calgary and Toronto last Wednesday and Thursday, John Bolton, America's former Ambassador to the UN spoke of dire consequences for America's position in the world if Barack Obama is elected to a second term.
"It's not American strength but American weakness that our enemies find provocative," warned Bolton, a current adviser to Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.
Barack Obama is the first US president in history to effectively renounce American exceptionalism, a term first described by the Frenchman Alexis de Tocqueville. The desire to be liked seems foremost in Obama's foreign policy goals, but Bolton observed it's easy to get one's adversaries to like you if you make concessions to them. Obama is a president who is happy to make concessions to Russia and China who have both stymied American interests repeatedly under his presidency. They have blocked sanctions against Iran and Syria and have provided diplomatic cover for North Korea.
Regarding the Iranian push to acquire a nuclear weapon, were Obama to be reelected, that would be a near certainty. Sanctions may be hurting Iran`s economy, but they are having no affect on its nuclear program and military action or regime change there is the only way of preventing their getting a nuclear bomb.
Iran`s largest embassy in the world is in Venezuela, not because of long-standing cultural ties, as Bolton noted, but because the authoritarian regime of Iranian ally Hugo Chavez is helping Iran launder oil money to circumvent international banking sanctions.
American military strength is at its weakest since Jimmy Carter, whose policies Obama has been increasingly replicating. If Bolton is correct, an unhindered Obama, who was disclosed to have promised Russian President Medvedev that he would have ` more flexibility` to make further concessions and weaken American missile defenses in a second term, would lead the United States down a disastrous path given the opportunity.
ISTANBUL—The point man for the Obama administration's financial wars on Iran, North Korea and al Qaeda, Stuart Levey, has decided to leave his senior U.S. Treasury Department post at what is turning out to be a particularly critical time.
Mr. Levey's departure will leave President Barack Obama without the principal architect of Washington's economic-sanctions campaign against Tehran, just as that campaign is likely to be ramped up following the breakdown of talks among Iran, the U.S. and a bloc of global powers on Saturday.
The negotiations, held in Turkey, were aimed at curtailing Iran's nuclear program. With no date set for a resumption of the dialogue, American and European diplomats acknowledged here that they would likely need to put in place more of the economic penalties against Iran that Mr. Levey's office has been central to implementing over the past year. Lawmakers on Capitol Hill, meanwhile, are vowing to increase pressure for more punishing sanctions.
Iranian authorities mocked the recent blacklisting of eight Iranian senior officials by the US.
Speaker of the parliament, Ali Larijani announced that US plan on freezing the assets of eight Iranian officials and refusing US visas to them is a “meaningless child play in the international arena.”
The US targeted eight Iranian officials for alleged human rights abuses in the widespread protests to the controversial re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last summer announcing that they have included their names in their list of sanctions.
By the order of Barack Obama, all US organizations and bodies are prohibited from having any dealings with these individuals while their assets are to be frozen and travel restrictions are also to be set against them.
Iranian Interior Minister, Mohammad Najjar, who is one of the eight people on that list, announced: “US actions with regards to human rights are highly contradictory.”
“They can have my nonexistent assets wherever they are,” Najjar added; “…furthermore, I never had any plans to travel to America.”
Iran has been preparing for the new round of sanctions, just announced by the European Union. The latest round, broadened to include gas and oil products, the mainstays of its economy, are designed to pressure Iran into resuming negotiations about curbing its nuclear program. Canada announced similar sanctions today, bringing them in line with those already implemented by the United States.
But in what may be an attempt to surreptitiously circumvent the sanctions on the international arms embargo and on other items, the BBC reported that Iran has been setting up shipping companies in the Isle of Man. These Iranian ships would be formally registered to that jurisdiction, a tiny UK Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea which has its own laws and an ancient parliament.
Ownership of The Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line (IRISL) vessels have been quietly been transferred to six Manx companies over the last two years. In November, Israel seized a huge Iranian arms cache on a Manx ship. Read more from the BBC here.
