Iran, Israel and the UNSC: Press Picks
The Likudniks are war-mongering again, and have been for some time, towards Iran. Scott Ritter joins Seymour Hersch in issuing warnings about the neocon war plans which we can not let happen.
Book: Israel, Lobby Pushing Iran War, The Forward, 29 Dec, 2006
A former United Nations weapons inspector and leading Iraq War opponent has written a new book alleging that Jerusalem is pushing the Bush administration into war with Iran, and accusing the pro-Israel lobby of dual loyalty and “outright espionage.”
In the new book, called “Target Iran,” Scott Ritter, who served as a senior U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991 to 1998 and later became one of the war’s staunchest critics, argues that the United States is readying for military action against Iran, using its nuclear program as a pretext for pursuing regime change in Tehran.
“The Bush administration, with the able help of the Israeli government and the pro-Israel Lobby, has succeeded,” Ritter writes, “in exploiting the ignorance of the American people about nuclear technology and nuclear weapons so as to engender enough fear that the American public has more or less been pre-programmed to accept the notion of the need to militarily confront a nuclear armed Iran.”
Later in the book, Ritter adds: “Let there be no doubt: If there is an American war with Iran, it is a war that was made in Israel and nowhere else.”
“If Iran does make a political decision to develop nuclear weapons, it will take them a decade and it won’t go undetected,” Ritter said. “But it will take the U.S. only five weeks to build up a force capable of destroying Iran by air strikes. It’s a timeline of five weeks compared to a decade, so I’m not worried about taking a risk.”
As for Israeli and American fears regarding Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president who vowed to “wipe Israel off the map,” Ritter dubbed the leader a “sick joke” and asserted that he does not make the decisions in Tehran.
Ritter argues that the Bush administration knows that inspections can solve the Iranian nuclear problem but, at the urging of Jerusalem and its American allies, is in reality pursuing a different goal: regime change in Tehran.
“Israel has, through a combination of ignorance, fear and paranoia, elevated Iran to a status that it finds unacceptable,” Ritter writes in his book. “Israel has engaged in policies that have further inflamed this situation. Israel displays arrogance and rigidity when it comes to developing any diplomatic solution to the Iranian issue.”
Read rest of article here
Also see:
***Brigadier General (Res.) Oded Tira, What to do with Iran? We must coordinate independent strike with US, prepare for Iranian response, Y-Net, 30 Dec 2006
***Dilip Hiro, 2007: Tehran on the rise, Guardian, 29 Dec 2006
***Jorge Hirsch, The Meaning of the UNSC Iran Vote: Were Russia and China given private assurances by Bush?, AntiWar.com, 26 Dec, 2006
***Joshua Holland, Pressuring Israel May Prevent a ‘Generational’ Mideast War, AlterNet, 23 Dec, 2006
***Sarah DiLorenzo, Iran: U.N. Ignoring Israeli Nuke Program, AP News, 23 Dec 2006
***AP, Israeli think tank says only military strike will stop Iran: Report, IHT, 22 Dec 2006
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