Jan 21st, 2007 9:22 AM
by Ezra HaLevi
http://www.raidersnewsnetwork.com/full.php?news=2160

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared today that Iran is now fully prepared for a war with Israel and the United States.

"Today, with the grace of God, we have gone through the arduous passes and we are ready for anything in this path," Ahmadinejad said, according to Iran’s state-run TV.

The comments were in response to the US decision to send the USS Stennis to the Perisan Gulf, joining another such vessel already stationed there. Iranian media is also reporting that 3,000 centrifuges are prepared to go online.

Ahmadinejad responded to criticism from Iranians who say Iran should compromise its nuclear ambitions to avoid a conflict with the Western world and sanctions from the UN. "Unfortunately, some inside the country try to fabricate news and portray a bad image of the great achievement of the Iranian nation," he said. "They prescribe compromise and repeat the words of the enemy. Of course, this will have no effect. Their aim is to frighten Iran and weaken the resistance of the Iranian nation, but they will not succeed.”

Meanwhile, Mohamed El Baradei, who heads the UN’s nuclear watchdog agency, said he was concerned that UN sanctions on Iran could escalate the standoff with the West and called for a resumption of negotiations.

In the eight years following the Egyptian’s appointment to head the watchdog group, it has failed to detect covert nuclear programs in three countries. It also failed to detect the “nuclear supermarket” run by the Pakistani scientist A. Q. Khan.

Meanwhile, the Hashemite King of Jordan told Haaretz that his regime is also seeking to become a nuclear power. As the Hashemite regime is propped up by the West in a country that is majority Palestinian, Jordanian nukes would be only an election away from being controlled by an Islamist group, possibly Hamas.

“The rules have changed on the nuclear subject throughout the whole region,” King Abdullah II said. “Where I think Jordan was saying, 'we'd like to have a nuclear-free zone in the area,' after this summer, everybody's going for nuclear programs. The Egyptians are looking for a nuclear program. The GCC [Gulf Cooperation Council] are looking at one, and we are actually looking at nuclear power for peaceful and energy purposes.”

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Israel warns Russia on Iran arms sale

By yaakov katz and herb keinon,
THE JERUSALEM POST
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1167467745535&pagename=JPost/JPArticle/Printer

Voicing extreme concern over Russia's recent sale of advanced anti-aircraft missiles to Iran, senior diplomatic and defense officials warned Moscow that the deal could have serious security implications that would even "get back to Russia."

Senior officials in Jerusalem said they "were not pleased" with the sale of the anti-aircraft missiles, but that Russia was a sovereign country and they could not intervene. They did, however, issue a warning: "We hope they understand that this is a threat that could come back to them as well."

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said Moscow had sent air defense missiles to Teheran, the first high-level confirmation that their delivery took place despite US complaints. Ivanov did not specify how many missile systems had been delivered.

"We have delivered short-range Tor-M1 missiles to Iran in accordance with the contract," Ivanov told reporters.

The Tor-M1 is an advanced anti-aircraft system that can identify up to 48 targets and fire at two targets simultaneously, at altitudes of up to 6,000 meters.

Defense officials predicted the systems would be used to defend Iran's nuclear facilities, particularly the uranium enrichment center at Natanz. The officials said that while the missiles were advanced and "highly-capable," the Israel Air Force was "well-trained" and knew how to deal with multiple and varied threats.

Russian officials previously said Moscow would supply 29 of the sophisticated missile systems to Iran under a $700 million contract signed in December 2005, according to Russian media reports.

"If the Iranian leadership has a desire to purchase more defensive weapons, we would do that," Ivanov said, without elaborating.

The United States called on all countries last year to stop all arms exports to Iran, as well as end all nuclear cooperation with it, to pressure Teheran to halt uranium enrichment.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said Israel "would be concerned at any arms sales to the extremist regime in Teheran, a regime that has already been sanctioned by the international community because of its ongoing and flagrant violations of UN Security Council resolutions."

Russian officials said the missiles were purely defensive weapons with a limited range, and argued that the Tor-M1 deal, involving conventional weapons, did not violate any international agreements.

"We are developing military-technical cooperation with Iran based on international law," they said.

Russian media have reported previously that Moscow had conducted talks on selling even more powerful long-range S-300 air defense missiles to Teheran, but Russian officials have denied that. Moscow already has a $1 billion contract to build the Bushehr nuclear power plant, Iran's first.