Persian Gulf & Middle East Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
According to senior Houthi official Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, Houthis were going to fight back against Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf Arab allies with all possible means.


SANAA (Sputnik) – Houthi rebels who have become the target of an international military operation launched by Saudi Arabia against the militants in Yemen are determined to strike back with all means available, Mohammed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthi governance board, has told Sputnik.

"This is a declaration of war against the Yemeni people, we will fight those who fight against us."

The official added that Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf Arab allies will regret having launched a military operation against the Houthis.

"They attacked, they started this, so they will answer to Allah and the people for the consequences. This attack is a surprise to us and we will respond to it with all means that are available to us."

Earlier, al-Bukhaiti reportedly warned of a "wide war" that could start in Yemen following Saudi Arabia and its Persian Gulf Arab allies' "aggression."


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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Pentagon Declassifies Documents Confirming Israel Has Nukes


In the latest example of the strained relationship between the United States and Israel, the Pentagon has quietly released a classified document which reveals the extent of Israel’s nuclear program. A program the Israeli government has long denied even exists.

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu accepted the controversial invitation to speak before the US Congress and warn against "a nuclearized Middle East and the horrific consequences…to all humanity."

The speech received, perhaps, the largest round of applause heard in the Capitol since Republicans took control of both houses of Congress. President Obama was less enthused, calling the address "nothing new."

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Coincidentally or not, Netanyahu’s speech coincided with the Pentagon’s decision to declassify a top-secret document which proves that despite Bibi’s warnings about a "nuclearized Middle East," the region is already a host to nuclear weapons. Namely: Israel’s.

The 386-page report, entitled "Critical Technological Assessment in Israel and NATO Nations," dates back to 1987 and critical details on a nuclear program Israel has never admitted having.

"[Israel is] developing the kind of codes which will enable them to make hydrogen bombs," the Department of Defense report reads. "That is, codes which detail fission and fusion processes on a microscopic and macroscopic level."

Even more damning, the report calls Israel’s nuclear ability "an almost exact parallel of the capability existing at our National Laboratories," and calls Israel’s labs "equivalent" to US installations in Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Oak Ridge.

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Los Alamos, of course, was where Robert Oppenheimer conducted the bulk of the Manhattan Project experiments.

"As far as nuclear technology is concerned the Israelis are roughly where the US was in the fission weapon field in about 1955 to 1960," the report reads.

To break that down, a Pentagon document states that 28 years ago, Israel was already as advanced in nuclear development as the United States had been shortly after testing its first hydrogen bomb.

The timing of the document’s release is certainly suspicious. Originally requested three years ago by a US journalist under a Freedom of Information Act request, the Pentagon had been slow to respond. A ruling by a District Court judge ordered the Defense Department to reply.

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It’s also worth noting that while the declassified document revealed key aspects of the Israeli nuclear program, the Pentagon took pains to block out sections only other allied countries, including France, Italy, and West Germany.

On Tuesday, a Wall Street Journal report also alleged that Israel was spying on the P5+1 nuclear negotiation. While the prime minister’s office denied these claims, the newspaper cited senior US officials who said that Israeli intelligence was eavesdropping on the international talks.

Barely a week into his new term and Netanyahu already has radioactive egg on his face.
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it is now confirm that Israel posses nuclear bombs too....

here is the document
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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
No
This is bad news

He is very dangerous for the Presidency
:mad:
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Iran Spymaster Qasem Suleimani for President?


Iranian media have been buzzing with the notion that Qasem Suleimani, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ expeditionary Quds Force, could be the country’s next president.

Headlines have praised his achievements as a military leader—crediting him with freeing the town of Amirli from the grip of the so-called Islamic State and providing Syria’s Bashar al Assad with essential support. They’ve also marveled at his wider political efforts to promote Shia expansion.

But whether or not the commander extends his reach beyond the military realm is not really the point. For many, it is what he symbolizes that really counts: a strong leader with a solid record and absolute devotion to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei—and an ability to combine political intelligence with military might.

Such speculation is not new. Hardliner analyst and Tehran University professor Mohammad Sadegh Kooshki first raised the prospect of Suleimani as a presidential contender back in October 2012. But over the last year or so, Suleimani has enjoyed greater media attention, lending the theory more credibility than ever before.

In the 2013 elections, he did not appear on any surveys listing the top 10 public figures in Iran, but now he comes top of the list alongside the current President Hassan Rouhani and Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.:(

Suleimani’s emergence as a public figure, even a celebrity, is a marked change from his previous image as an influential figure behind the scenes. Over the last year, Suleimani has appeared on television regularly, addressed large audiences and grieved publicly for members of the Iranian military killed by Islamic State.

On February 16, 2014, the commander signaled that his ambitions involve more than just initiating effective military operations. During a speech at a Revolutionary Guards base, he outlined Islam’s long history, from its reach into Andalusia and its later decline, to its recent resurgence thanks to Ayatollah Khomeini and Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Islamic influence and power, he said, was once again on the rise and Iran is in a particularly strong position to lead the revival of Shiism, making it a political, religious and economic powerhouse and ensuring its borders are safe and secure.

Hardline Iranian media are more than ready to see Suleimani as the leader of this new era of change.

Suleimani’s emergence as a public figure, even a celebrity, is a marked change from his previous image as an influential figure behind the scenes.
On August 8, 2014, the website “Nuclear Iran,” which is edited by Mehdi Mohammadi, a nuclear negotiator under former President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, published an article that claimed that, when it came to regional politics and military operations, Suleimani had the last word, often shaping Iran’s official stance on a range of matters.

The article went on to describe his accomplishments: “(1) Managing the political crisis in Iraq, keeping the Shiite coalition together and the premiership of Haider al-Abadi [who replaced Nouri al-Maliki]; (2) creating a new faction in the Iraqi parliament led by Ibrahim al-Jaafari [prime minister of Iraq from 2005 to 2006]; (3) bringing the Kurds into the fight against Islamic State; (4) Improving relations between the Kurds and the Shia central government in Iraq; and (5) Keeping Nouri al-Maliki as a political asset in Iraq.”

And, according to Sadollah Zarei, an analyst with close ties to the Iranian military, Suleimani also gives the Saudis a reason for concern. Speaking to Defa Press on September 20, 2014, he said, “the Saudis are extremely worried that with developments in Yemen…the case of Saudi Arabia will be passed on to Commander Suleimani.”

The idea that Suleimani is a potential contender in 2017’s presidential elections has also been dismissed as a false notion dreamed up by Western media or reformists. But looking at the trajectory of his media presence shows that hardline media and politicians have invested in this narrative, and Suleimani has to some extent engineered it himself.

“Capable, a good manager, polite and moral,” is how Mohammad Sadegh Kooshki described Suleimani in 2012. He is formidable against foreign enemies and challenges, he wrote, but also respects the law. “He knows his boundaries.” And, in addition to this, Kooshki said, ”the more famous he becomes around the world, the more humble he becomes towards the regime and the Supreme Leader”—an attitude that no doubt gains him wide support among hardliners.

Acording to Kooshki, an Iranian president must “enforce the law, obey the Supreme Leader, have a coordinated executive team, accurately understand the regime’s big plans and goals, and be faithful to them. His record must be free of the slightest taint of standing against the Leadership or ignoring his announced directives and policies.”

Citing other praise for him in the media, he called Suleimani a “thoughtful and deep strategist” and an “international figure,” somebody “who is not starving for negotiations and relations. And his friends know that he would not exchange an approving smile from the Supreme Leader for the world.”

Hardliner media has been especially fond of documenting Suleimani’s travels around Iran. Photographs of the commander smiling as he greets the people of one province or another have become a staple of Iran’s news cycle, reminding the public of the commander’s popularity, moral qualities, and bravery.

Although hardliners would like Suleimani to one day be president, the recent media hype is more about presenting the Quds leader as a symbol, an icon that represents all that an Iranian president should be. It is about reminding reformists, the public and independent journalists that military and political power are intertwined in Iran.

Whether Qasem Suleimani can be president one day is not really the question. In Iran, complex political games begin with the most ordinary and simple moves or seemingly unimportant events. Perhaps he will move towards the presidency, or perhaps one of his close associates will move in that direction. For now he is playing a very important role: encapsulating what many in the country believe Iran needs, a strong leader with solid devotion to the regime, the Supreme Leader and the project of pushing Shia Islam into the wider world. It is the sort of narrative and image, they believe, that gives Iran’s political system such strength and resilience.

This article is adapted from one that originally appeared on IranWire, a partner of The Daily Beast.

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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Iran to Test Intercontinental Ballistic Missile in 2015 -
US Defense Agency



The US Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has assessed that Iran will be capable of testing an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) this year, US Missile Defense Agency Director James Syring said.



WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The US ground-based interceptors based in Fort Greely, Alaska and Vandenberg Air Force Base in California are sufficient to protect the United States homeland against “the future Iranian ICBM threat should it emerge,” Syring stated.


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“The DIA’s assessment is that Iran is capable of flight-testing an ICBM in 2015,” Syring told members of the US Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.


“There’s not a likelihood expressed with that assessment,” Syring said, adding that the DIA will further evaluate the likelihood of an Iranian flight test in an assessment it will conduct later in 2015.

The United States has 30 ground-based interceptors deployed on its West Coast, and will be adding an additional 14 by 2017.

The United States also has 33 Aegis warships with mobile ballistic missile defense capabilities, and will upgrade to 35 ships by the end of 2016, according to the Missile Defense Agency.


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Pentagon Declassifies Documents Confirming Israel Has Nukes

Not sure how significant this is. It has been an open secret for decades that Israel had nukes since the 1960s. The real question with today's Middle East conflicts is whether or when the Saudis and Iran will get an operational nuclear capability, which of course everyone else is trying to prevent. That may not be realistic though if we look at the cases of India and Pakistan, or even North Korea, getting their nuclear capabilities, if a country determines that it is facing enough of a threat then it will pursue it until success.
 
Two articles from Jane's somewhat pessimistic about the chances for success of the Saudi led intervention in Yemen. I disagree with the comparison with previous Saudi and Egyptian interventions.

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1) Military technology has developed a lot and makes a much bigger difference than at the time of the previous interventions. The Saudi coalition is in possession of or will likely receive assistance from many modern military technologies while the Houthis remain a mostly light infantry force with some mechanization, artillery, and armor but minimal modern military equipment and practically nothing against up-to-date airpower even before what air forces and air defenses they had were taken out.

2) The Saudi coalition also has naval forces which the Houthis practically cannot touch.

3) This time Saudi Arabia and Egypt are on the same side, against the Houthis.

4) The Houthis are geographically isolated from any external aid, the Saudis have already announced what amounts to be an air and naval blockade while any potential overland routes have to go through territory controlled by rival Yemeni factions and Saudi territory.

So for all these reasons I think this Saudi led intervention is likely to be successful, certainly more so than previous military interventions in Yemen.
 

ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Iran is building a non-nuclear threat faster than experts 'would have ever imagined'

In just over two years, the Iranian government has managed to build up a sophisticated cyberarmy that experts now say is capable of crippling key global infrastructure.

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"Five years ago, I would have never imagined Iran to be where they are today," cybersecurity expert David Kennedy, founder of information security firm
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, told Business Insider. "Iran was once considered a D-grade cyber threat. Now it's almost on the same level as Russia or China."

Iran has increased its cybersecurity spending 12-fold since President Hassan Rouhani assumed office in 2013, according to a
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released Monday by British technology research firm
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Vowing to ramp up the country's cyber capabilities, Rouhani has given the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) an annual cybersecurity budget of roughly $19.8 million.

While Iran's initial cyber efforts were focused on countering internal dissidence, the government put its cyber experts on the offensive after an American computer worm, Stuxnet, infiltrated Iranian government servers and ruined
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of the country's nuclear centrifuges in June 2010.

By November 2010, the Basij Cyber Council had trained 1,500 cyber-warriors who, according to IRGC commander Hossein Hamedani, "have assumed their duties and will in the future carry out many operations," according to a report released in 2013 by the
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.

“Out of any country on the planet, I can’t think of a country that has been more focused than Iran from the high levels of government on cyber, and that includes the United States,” Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founder of cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike, told
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back in November.

And they'll only get better.


"In 10 years time, Iran's cyber capabilities will be more troubling than its nuclear program," geopolitical expert Ian Bremmer, president of the Eurasiaa group,
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earlier this week. He also noted that aggressive cyber operations by the US can be
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on them by weaker adversaries.

The US government is now at a severe disadvantage when it comes to protecting the country's critical infrastructure from foreign hackers, especially given the current global political climate. The US' ongoing nuclear talks with Iran and its frosty relationship with Russia — a major Iranian ally — have made conditions ripe for Iran to try and use its cyber capabilities as negotiating leverage.

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REUTERS/StringerIran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (R) speaks with Russia's President Vladimir Putin during an official meeting in Tehran



"Russia has probably helped Iran a lot in stepping up its cyber capabilities in the event of a conflict with NATO," Kennedy said. "If they [the Iranians] want to topple the US' financial sector, or cripple the military's ability to communicate, they can do that."

Kennedy noted that while Chinese and Russian hackers are typically motivated by competitive advantage or monetary gain, Iranian hackers are trained to infiltrate servers so that they can destroy them.

"Iran's cyber warriors ask themselves one question," Kennedy said. "Can I entrench myself in key sensitive areas and take the US down in the event of a conflict?"



Most likely, they can. Cyber security and hacking has become a booming industry in Iran — as a result, more and more Iranian students are choosing to study computer network defense, exploitation, and warfare in high school and college.

"At the
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, which is like the MIT of Iran (Second only to university of Tehran*), students are participating in cyber 'capture-the-flag' games to hone their hacking skills," cyber-jihad expert
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, chief intelligence officer of cyber intelligence firm
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, told Business Insider. "They compete to see who can find security holes and break through servers' encryptions and firewalls the fastest."

Colleges and universities in Iran also offer their students internships with notorious Iranian hacker groups, according to Bardin, who they then go on to work for after they graduate.

"It's all highly institutionalized," Bardin said. "The irony is that, after looking at some of the professors' resumes, you'll see that most of these cyber experts teaching students how to hack were initially trained in the US or UK."


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ShahryarHedayat

Junior Member
Russia to Help Palestine Become Independent State – Putin

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his address to the Arab League summit participants that Russia will continue contributing to the attainment of Palestine’s independence.

A plainclothes officer from Egypt's Republican Guard conducts a detection of explosive device search for explosives around a car ahead of the Arab Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, in the South Sinai governorate, south of Cairo, March 28, 2015.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Russia will help Palestine in achieving its goal of becoming an independent state with the capital in East Jerusalem, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Saturday in his address to the Arab League summit participants.

“Russia will continue contributing to the attainment of this goal [Palestine’s independence], working through bilateral channels and through multilateral channels, including in the ‘Quartet’ of international mediators,” Putin said.

The Quartet comprising Russia, the United States, the United Nations and the European Union, was established in 2002, aiming to reach a long-term peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians.

EU Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, left, speaks during a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Under Pressure: Allies Coming Down Hard on Israel Over Palestine Talks
The Russian president stressed on Saturday the need for closer cooperation between the Quartet and the Arab League, and highlighted Moscow’s readiness to cooperate with the league further.

Palestinians seek the creation of an independent state on the territories of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, partially occupied by Israel, as well as on the Gaza Strip. Palestinians have designated Jerusalem as its capital and called on Israel to withdraw from the Palestinian territories it took after the 1967 war.

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