May 27, 2008
Fox News
The Associated Press

JERUSALEM -- Rockets and weapons bearing signs of Iranian paint, lettering and serial numbers are making their way into the Gaza Strip and Lebanon — helping Tehran cement its powerful role within militant movements on Israel's northern and southern flanks, senior Israeli security officials say.

The weapons, including an 18-inch fragment of a Grad-type Katyusha rocket seen by The Associated Press, are believed to be reaching blockaded Gaza through a clandestine network: by sea from Sudan to Egypt's Red Sea ports and then by land through the Sinai desert to tunnels that cross into the coastal strip, according to the officials.

Trucks and airplanes also carry Iranian-made rockets across the Syrian-Lebanese border, according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity under military restrictions.

Hezbollah guerrillas bombarded Israel with nearly 4,000 rockets in their 2006 war. After recent clashes across Lebanon killed at least 67 people, Hezbollah forced the weakened Lebanese government into concessions that could free the guerrilla group to bring in even more rockets.

The Israeli claims — although expressed privately by security authorities — have not been backed up by a public display of evidence, leading some analysts to question the extent of Iranian involvement on Israel's borders. Iran, Hezbollah and Palestinian militants all deny an Iranian arms connection, though some Hezbollah militants privately acknowledge getting arms from Tehran.

But it's clear Iran has sharply increased its regional profile after the fall of archrival Saddam Hussein in Iraq and the rise of a Shiite-led government in Baghdad with close ties to Tehran.

The Israel connection isn't new. Six years ago, Israeli naval commandos captured a ship in the Red Sea, the Karine A, that Israel said was carrying 50 tons of missiles, mortars, rifles and ammunition from Iran to the Palestinians.

Egypt has publicly denounced suspected Iranian involvement in the conflict. Its foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, accused Iran of being behind Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza nearly a year ago.

Experts think Iran's wider aim is to indirectly pressure Israel. Establishing proxies on Israel's borders raises the price of any possible Israeli attack on Iranian nuclear facilities and makes it tougher for Israelis and Palestinians to forge a peace pact, they say.

Israel has not explained why it hasn't publicly released serial numbers and other rocket markings to prove Iranian interference. Some analysts suggest Israel is making unsubstantiated claims to keep up world pressure on Iran to trim its nuclear ambitions.

Hamas and other militant factions in Gaza have been firing crude projectiles into southern Israel for years. Israel's high-tech military hasn't been able to stop the rockets, which are increasingly striking closer to Israel's heartland.

Israeli military ballistics experts have identified Iranian origins from paint, toolwork and Latin lettering on weapon fragments, senior Israeli security officials said. Similar rockets produced in eastern Europe look different, they said.

The Grad fragments seen by the AP had threading indicating it was made in Iran, a security officer said. Hezbollah fired similar rockets at Israel during the 2006 war, he added.

Longer-range missiles have hit the town of Ashkelon in recent months, strengthening the suspicion that they are being supplied by Iran.

"Iran is, unfortunately, very much involved in supporting the buildup of the Hamas military machine in Gaza, whether it's in training Hamas operatives in different areas of technical know-how, whether it's in just funding them, whether it's supplying them with munitions, whether it's giving them capabilities to upgrade indigenous defense capabilities," government spokesman Mark Regev said.

The arsenal of Iranian-made weapons improved after Hamas militants blew open the border fence between Gaza and Egypt in January, allowing more arms to enter. Some of the new rockets can travel 25 miles — just 12 miles short of Tel Aviv, the Israelis say.

One rocket that recently slammed into Israel carried a 170mm warhead, officials said. Previous rockets carried 120mm warheads.

An April report by the Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center, an Israeli think tank with close ties to the defense establishment, pointed to a number of recent findings it claimed were examples of Iranian technology used by Gaza militants.

Rockets fired into southern Israel during a recent flare-up in fighting had engines divided into four 20-inch parts "to make it easier for the terrorist organizations to smuggle the rockets into the Gaza Strip by dismantling the sections," the report said.

Iranian weaponry "would seriously increase the risk to Israel," said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Saban Center at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"You then no longer require or are relying on a technician in Gaza to pull the rocket together from indigenous supplies, but actually are getting the entire rocket in, which would mean a more professionally prepared and put-together weapon," Riedel said.

Abu Obeida, a Hamas military leader in Gaza, says Israel is claiming the Iranian connection to mobilize international support for an attack on Gaza.

"The Gaza Strip was always capable of manufacturing the tools it needs for its resistance," added Hamas' deputy leader, Moussa Abu Marzouk, in a telephone interview from his base in Damascus, Syria.

Iranian officials did not respond to calls seeking comment. In the past, Iran has acknowledged giving millions of dollars to Hamas but denied supplying arms.

Experts are divided on whether Iran is directly providing weapons to Hamas.

John Pike, director of GlobalSecurity.org, an Alexandria. Va.-based defense research firm, said he "would not need a great deal of convincing," given Iran's history of support for Palestinian militants.

But David Hartwell, Middle East and North Africa editor at Jane's Country Risk, a London publication, said that while Israel's claims "are not outside the realm of possibility ... without any evidence to back it up, it's very difficult to substantiate any of the Israeli allegations."

Meir Javedanfar, an Iran expert based in Israel, thinks Iran is more likely financing the purchase of the more sophisticated weapons Israel has seen.

"We haven't seen any kind of evidence by Israel, like serial numbers of weapons, or any traces, to prove they are Iranian-made," he said. "Money — I think that's the highest probability."

Tehran is thought to have pledged at least $300 million to Hamas, but it is not clear how much money has been delivered. Israeli security officials cite different numbers, ranging to tens of millions of dollars.

Israel, like many of its Western allies, does not believe Iran's assertions that its nuclear program is meant only to produce energy. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has heightened Israel's alarm with repeated calls to destroy the Jewish state.

Iran needs a deterrent to an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities, said Menashe Amir, director of Israel Radio's Farsi service. "So it built Hezbollah on (Israel's) northern border, and is now cultivating Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in Gaza."

One senior Israeli security official said Iran tightened its ties with Hamas and Islamic Jihad after the Lebanon war because the Iranians "understood that Hezbollah cannot be activated as frequently as they want."

One possible brake on any future Hezbollah action against Israel would be a successful conclusion of newly resumed Syrian-Israeli peace talks. Hezbollah also enjoys support from Damascus, and a peace deal between Israel and Syria could reduce Syrian backing for Hamas as well.

In the meantime, indirect cease-fire talks between Israel and Hamas have been dragging on for months — increasing the prospect that Israel would launch a threatened major military operation there.

A report in March by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon cited Israeli claims that Hezbollah now commands 10,000 long-range rockets and 20,000 shorter-range ones. Other Israeli officials have said the number is much higher. Before the 2006 conflict, Israel estimates, Hezbollah had 14,000 rockets.

But it's not just a matter of numbers, says Israel's military intelligence chief, Amos Yadlin. He told the Haaretz newspaper in an interview published last week that Hezbollah now has weapons that "cover large areas of Israel."

Senior Israeli defense officials say Hezbollah's new Iranian rockets can fly 185 miles. In 2006, the farthest any flew was 45 miles inside Israel.

If another war were to break out, Israel "will face a stronger Hezbollah," Yadlin said.

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Lancement réussi du premier journal chiite au Maroc

lundi 19 mai 2008 - 17h52, par Chawki Freïha - Beyrouth

La "victoire divine" du Hezbollah et le brassage médiatique qui l’a accompagnée et suivie, et les fonds iraniens investis dans l’exportation de la Révolution chiite, inquiètent les pays du Maghreb. Après l’établissement par les autorités marocaines de liens entre le groupe terroriste de Bellarij et le Hezbollah libanais, voici le FIS algérien qui soutient le parti de Dieu.

Pour la fin de cette année*, l’OMV (entreprise pétroliere), envisage de conclure un contrat de 22 milliards d’Euros avec l’Iran. Cet élargissment de relations économiques existentes ferait de l’Autriche et de l’Europe un partenaire stratégique et complice d’un régime politique, qui excerce de la violence à l’intérieur ainsi qu’à l’extérieur, et qui developpe des armes nucléaires qui pourraient atteindre aussi l’Europe. La poursuite systématique du peuple kurde, des Bahai, ainsi que l’exécution d’homosexuels et des représsailles contres les femmes qui refusent de se soumettre au codex islamique sont également des caractéristiques de ce régime, comme les menaces génocidaires contre Israël et la contestation de la Shoa.

Lire l’article sur :http://www.stopthebomb.net/

Flipping last week through the online itinerary of the German Near and Middle East Association (honorary chairman: Gerhard Schröder), I found the following entry: "April 16, 2008, Meeting with the Iranian Vice Foreign Minister S.E. Mehdi Safari in Berlin." I couldn't find anything in the German press about this visit. I turned to Iranian media. It reported that Mr. Safari was in Berlin for three days at the invitation of the German government. He met with officials at the foreign, interior and economics ministries, as well as with lawmakers and businessmen.

David Klein

It is strange, to say the least, that neither the German government nor the media said a word about the visit. Along with the five veto-wielding U.N. Security Council members, Germany belongs to the Six-Power Group, which sets the course of international diplomacy on Iran's nuclear program. Tehran's quest for the bomb is perhaps the only international security issue where German foreign policy has real global relevance. And Mr. Safari is not some low-ranking official from a minor, peaceful power but a representative of a country that could soon trigger a nuclear war. His visit should have sparked wide interest in Germany.

But perhaps it's not so surprising. The country's position toward Tehran seems to be at a crossroads. The "grand coalition" government looks at Iran through different prisms. While Chancellor Angela Merkel argues for tougher sanctions if necessary to stop the Iranian bomb, Germany's foreign policy establishment, including a key advisor to Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, preaches accommodation, even a "strategic partnership" with Iran.

The diplomatic dissonance is striking. In March, Ms. Merkel declared in what has been called a historic speech to the Israeli parliament that she won't shy away from "using additional, tougher sanctions to convince Iran to stop its nuclear program." If we Europeans were to shrink from tougher sanctions, said the Christian-Democratic chancellor, "we would have neither understood our historical responsibilities nor developed an awareness of the challenges of our time." This clear statement was welcomed in Israel and the U.S.

Not so in Germany itself. "Sanctions get us nowhere!" countered Christoph Bertram in the weekly Der Spiegel last month. "Chancellor Angela Merkel should not back every Israeli warning of catastrophe." Mr. Bertram's voice carries weight. He used to head the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London and later the German Foundation for Science and Politics, a think tank that advises the government and parliament on foreign policy. According to Mr. Bertram, the West must recognize "the immense advantage of a close and cooperative relationship with this country [Iran]."

He continued in this vein, asking in a recent article published by the London-based Center for European Reform: "If Russia, China, or Saudi Arabia qualify as 'strategic partners,' why not Iran?" Mr. Bertram's book, "Partners, Not Foes: For a New Policy Toward Iran," will soon arrive in German bookstores.

The arguments in this book will strengthen the position of Volker Perthes, the current director of the Foundation for Science and Politics. As one of the principal advisers of Social-Democratic Foreign Minister Steinmeier, Mr. Perthes has been lobbying for more than two years for a "strategic partnership" with a Holocaust-denying regime that sponsors international terror and suppresses its own people.

The rationale behind the "partner, not foe" approach is apparent. Kinan Jaeger, who teaches political science at the University of Bonn, spelled it out last year in the publicly financed "Der Mittler-Brief," a quarterly newsletter widely read in the German foreign policy community. "Anyone who is capable of bringing Iran to its side," Mr. Jaeger argues, "is not only 'set for life' as far as energy logistics are concerned, but could also face the U.S. in a different way." Iran would through the "attainment of an atom bomb...become a hegemonic power in the Gulf and would be capable of confronting the U.S. in the Gulf region more or less 'as an equal.'"

Amid these politically uncertain times, business relations between the two countries are strong. After slowing between 2005-2007, German exports surged 13% in January. With €3.6 billion of goods going to Iran last year, backed by €500 million of export guarantees from Berlin, Germany is the world's second largest exporter to Iran, and its products crucial for Iran's economic survival.

As Berlin's Federal Agency for Foreign Trade pointed out in last September's brochure "Growth Markets in the Near and Middle East," Germany is Iran's No. 1 supplier of almost all types of machinery except for power systems and the building sector, where Italian manufacturers dominate the Iranian market.

According to the German-Iranian Chamber of Industry and Commerce, "75% of all small and medium-sized factories in Iran are equipped with German technology." As a result, "Iran is certainly dependent on German spare parts and suppliers," as Michael Tockuss, at that time the director of the Chamber, told German weekly Focus in 2006. This dependency means that a German-Italian economic embargo might be enough to paralyze the Iranian economy within a few months and to confront the theocratic regime with the question whether compliance with U.N. Security Council decisions to halt uranium enrichment might not be the better alternative.

Berlin can either follow Chancellor Merkel, who has made Israel's defense a German concern and who promises to use Germany's economic muscle in Iran toward this end. Or it can expand German influence into a "strategic partnership" with Tehran. But this means accepting the Iranian nuclear option and the existential threat it poses to Israel as well as the regime's terror against its own people and the rest of the world.

An unbridgeable gap lies between Ms. Merkel's promise and the geopolitical approach of her domestic opponents, primarily among Social Democrats but also in her own party. While the German proponents of tougher sanctions seek an alliance with the West in order to confront Islamist terror, the "partner" proposal implies a strategic alliance with Islamism and an estrangement -- to say the least -- from America and Israel. While Ms. Merkel emphasizes Germany's historical responsibilities, particularly toward the Jewish state, Messrs. Perthes and Bertram unscrupulously reject such considerations. Economic and strategic interests trump all other concerns.

It is against the backdrop of this foreign policy dispute that Mr. Safari came to Berlin last month. According to Iranian press agency PressTV, he discussed a broad range of issues, but apparently his German partners did not bring up the possibility of tougher sanctions. Instead, "the two sides discussed ways to expand economic cooperation and agreed that a German economic delegation would visit soon to follow up agreements already signed between Tehran and Berlin."

When pressed on the issue, the German foreign office confirmed holding discussions with Mr. Safari but refused to comment on the Iranian reports. So did Tehran and Berlin sign an economic agreement, and if so, what is its nature? Are German economic experts really planning a visit to Iran, now of all times?

The Iranian time bomb is ticking. The chancellor talked a good game in Israel's Knesset. Maybe Ms. Merkel could clear up her government's Iran policy where such decisions ought to be made -- in the German Bundestag.

Mr. Küntzel is author of "Jihad and Jew Hatred" (Telos Press, 2007). Belinda Cooper translated this essay from the German.