Iran
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived on Wednesday for a visit to Afghanistan, after Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said he was wary of Tehran's influence in the country. With careful timing that Gates described as "clearly fodder for all conspiratorialists," Ahmadinejad arrived in Kabul just before Gates departed at the end of his own three-day visit. Earlier this week, Gates accused Tehran of playing a "double game" in Afghanistan, professing support for President Hamid Karzai's government while trying to undermine the U.S.-led military effort that protects it. Speaking to reporters before departing on Wednesday, Gates said he had told Karzai Washington wanted Kabul to have "good relations with all of its neighbors." "But we also want all of Afghanistan's neighbors to play an up front game dealing with the government of Afghanistan." Washington, which will have 100,000 troops in Afghanistan by the end of the year, says it believes Iran provides some support for militants there, although not nearly on the same scale as in Iraq, another Iranian neighbor where U.S. troops are fighting. - Reuters
All options "should remain on the table" to force Iran to stop its nuclear program, Israel's top general said on Tuesday during a visit to New York. Gabi Ashkenazi, chief of staff of Israel's armed forces, said Iran was the main threat to world peace and accused the Islamic Republic of trying to create instability in the Middle East by funding and equipping militants. "These reflect the Iranian attempts to harvest regional instability through its proxies -- Hezbollah, Hamas and other terrorist organizations," Ashkenazi told a dinner hosted by the Friends of the Israeli Defense Forces, "Therefore the international community must stop the Iranian nuclear program for its own sake, while all options should remain on the table," he said at the event, which drew about 100 pro-Palestinian protesters. In November, an Israeli official said Ashkenazi told a parliamentary panel that Israel was readying all options to try to force Iran to halt its nuclear program and had suggested diplomatic or economic sanctions may also help. - Reuters
Israel's oldest civil servant, 83-year-old Ministry of Defense adviser Uri Lubrani, has spent his career defying conventional wisdom on Iran. Today, Israel's political and military establishment appears to be tilting toward one of his long-ignored views: Israeli support for Iran's opposition movement—and not a military strike—is the best way to combat the regime in Tehran. Israeli officials have regularly suggested the country is ready to attack Iran to curb its nuclear program, which some Israelis view as a threat to the country's existence. After the rise of the Iranian protest movement following disputed elections in June, Israeli leaders toned down the rhetoric. In February, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, visiting Moscow, said Israel wasn't "planning any wars" against Tehran. Instead, U.S. and Israeli officials are pushing for tough economic sanctions they hope will drive a bigger wedge between President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the opposition. – Wall Street Journal
Israeli officials are beginning to signal impatience with the slow pace of diplomacy aimed at restraining Iran's nuclear ambitions. In Jerusalem on Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu stressed the need for the international community to join a U.S. sanctions push aimed at limiting Iran's nuclear program. He suggested the Iranian leadership's days could be numbered if it continues to seek nuclear capability. "The stronger those sanctions are, the more likely it will be that the Iranian regime will have to choose between advancing its nuclear program and advancing the future of its own permanence," Netanyahu said. He added: "I think that the international community and the leading countries in the international community have to join the American effort. And Israel has been helping out with key countries and continues to do so." Netanyahu's message is being reinforced by his deputy foreign minister, Daniel Ayalon, who arrived in Washington on Tuesday for urgent meetings on Iran with senior State Department and White House officials, including Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg, Undersecretary of State William J. Burns and White House nuclear expert Gary Samore. Ayalon traveled to Washington to emphasize Israel's growing displeasure and nervousness with the sanctions debate at the U.N. Security Council, according to a senior Israeli official who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive diplomacy. – Washington Post
The outlook for imposing tough new U.N. sanctions on Iran is increasingly grim, as Russia and China work to slow down a U.S. and European drive for swift action, Israel's U.N. envoy said on Tuesday. The United States, Britain, France and Germany have agreed on a watered-down proposal for a fourth round of U.N. sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program and given it to Russia and China for comments. Russia's initial reaction has been negative and China has not reacted, Western diplomats say. "It now seems that Russia and China are still dragging their legs and they are still looking to the diplomatic track," Israel's U.N. Ambassador Gabriela Shalev told reporters at U.N. headquarters. "We are more than suspicious because these diplomatic overtures took over the last years and the Iranians are mocking them," she said. Western diplomats say they had hoped to get a sanctions resolution through the Security Council next month but that timeframe is now looking increasingly unrealistic. - Reuters
Iran's conservative-dominated parliament has slashed much of hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's proposed energy and food subsidy cuts, intensifying a battle over legislation that has the potential of stoking more unrest in the country. The parliament approved $20 billion in cuts, or just half of the savings demanded by Ahmadinejad's government. Lawmakers have said they feared the full $40 billion in cuts would have prompted a 50 percent surge in inflation. Iran's economy is already struggling under double-digit inflation, high unemployment and sanctions imposed by world powers suspicious of Tehran's nuclear program. The proposed reductions aim at cutting by 40 percent the amount the government spends on subsidies per year. The vote late Tuesday in parliament followed a refusal by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to take sides, effectively giving lawmakers the green light to move ahead. – Associated Press
Ever since the disputed victory of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the June elections led to wide-scale protests, Iran's leaders have been cracking down on the tech-savvy opposition movement with the Revolutionary Guard and police blocking millions of foreign and domestic Web sites, including some Google services, CNN and the BBC. Iran's leaders say these measures are necessary to counter efforts by the United States and other Western countries. "They are trying to defeat the Islamic republic through the Internet," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, said in January…Iranian authorities have created cyber-intelligence units that are developing new methods to seek out and snare the opposition, including fake Facebook accounts. Authorities also are contemplating the creation of a national Internet that would approve which sites could be available in the Islamic republic. The government has also enacted a law that threatens bloggers with jail time if they "defame sanctities" -- a broad accusation in Iran -- in their postings. – Washington Post
After keeping a careful distance for the last year, the Obama administration has concluded that the Iranian opposition movement has staying power and has embraced it as a central element in the U.S.-led campaign to pressure the country's clerical government. Administration officials and some allied governments believe that a combination of domestic unrest and international sanctions targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guard offers the best hope for forcing Tehran to yield on its nuclear program, and could even lead to a change in the government. The administration has made the shift at a time when it is facing sharp domestic criticism over President Obama's failed initiative to launch negotiations with Iran and its perceived unwillingness to strongly back the opposition movement. Meanwhile, the protests sparked by June's disputed presidential election in Iran grew despite a tough crackdown. – Los Angeles Times
Calling Washington’s ties to Israel “unshakable,” Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. opened talks with Israeli leaders on Tuesday, part of a concerted American effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and keep Israel focused on sanctions against Iran’s nuclear program rather than unilateral military action. On a five-day visit to the Middle East, Mr. Biden is also expected to meet Palestinian and Jordanian leaders and give a speech at Tel Aviv University expressing American solidarity with Israel — a theme that was apparent from the beginning of his discussions here. Mr. Biden met Tuesday with President Shimon Peres and wrote in a guestbook at the president’s residence that “the bond between our two nations has been and will remain unshakable. Only together can we achieve lasting peace in the region.” In a conversation with Mr. Peres in front of reporters, Mr. Biden reinforced the point, saying: “There is absolutely no space between the United States and Israel in terms of Israel’s security. None.” Mr. Biden was meeting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later. George J. Mitchell, the administration’s Middle East envoy, announced Monday in Jerusalem that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to start indirect negotiations and that he would be back next week to continue structuring those talks. – New York Times
Michael Jacobson writes: In the coming weeks, the United States and its allies will attempt to push additional Iran sanctions through the UN Security Council. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has indicated that "the United States and like-minded countries" could also impose at least some additional sanctions on their own. Although stronger sanctions are certainly needed to deter Iran on the nuclear issue, they alone are unlikely to pressure Tehran into changing its behavior. Just as important are efforts to plug the gaps and loopholes in the current sanctions regime. – Washington Institute for Near East Policy
The Heritage Foundation has prepared 10 policy proposals to undermine the Iranian regime, and bolster the democratic opposition.
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