down with murder inc

Flashback July 1 2005: China, Russia issue joint statement on new world order

"Differences and disputes must be solved through peaceful means rather than through unilateralism or coercion. There should be no use or threatened use of force, says the joint statement. Only on the basis of universally recognized tenents and norms of international law, and under an impartial and rational world order, can problems facing mankind be solved, says the document. All countries should strictly observe the principles of mutual respect for each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity, mutual non-aggression, non-interference in each other's internal affairs, equality and mutual benefit, and peaceful coexistence..." - xinhuanet.com

So what will happen if US/UK coalition attacks Iran?
...Will Russia & China intercede?
Double whammy!

Russia is ready to expand cooperation with Iran - Fradkov

MOSCOW. Oct 26 (Interfax) - Russia is ready to continue its political dialogue with Iran and expand cooperation in all areas, Prime Minister Mikhail Fradkov said at a Wednesday meeting with Iranian First Vice President Parviz Dadwoodi in Moscow.

"We are convinced that under the new Iranian leadership, we will maintain and advance our friendly relations," he said.

"Relations with Iran rely on a solid legal groundwork and have developed into a multifaceted partnership," he said. - interfax.ru

Russia says will defend Syria against UN sanctions

MOSCOW Oct 26 (Reuters) - Russia, Syria's close ally since Cold War times, will do all it takes to block any attempt to slap economic sanctions against Damascus, a Foreign Ministry spokesman was quoted as saying on Wednesday.

The United States and France threatened Syria with economic sanctions earlier this week if Damascus did not cooperate fully with a U.N. probe into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

"Russia will do everything necessary to stop attempts to introduce sanctions against Syria," spokesman Mikhail Kalmynin told Interfax news agency and other Russian media on the sidelines of Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's trip to Israel.

Russia, a veto-wielding permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, angered the United States earlier this year by announcing plans to sell advanced missile systems to Syria, which Washington has accused of having links to terrorism. - reuters

Iran president calls for Israel to be destroyed

TEHRAN, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Israel should be "wiped off the map", the official IRNA news agency reported, dampening hopes Iran could temper its hostility towards the Jewish state.

Support for the Palestinian cause is a central pillar of the Islamic Republic which officially refuses to recognise Israel's right to exist.

"Israel must be wiped off the map," Ahmadinejad told a conference called "The World without Zionism", attended by some 3,000 conservative students who chanted "Death to Israel" and "Death to America".

Under reformist President Mohammad Khatami, whose eight-year tenure ended earlier this year, Iran had shown signs of easing its implacable hostility towards Israel. Officials said Tehran might not object to a two-state solution if that was what the Palestinians wanted.

But Ahmadinejad, a former member of the hardline Revolutionary Guards and traditional religious conservative, said there could be no let-up.

"The Islamic world will not let its historic enemy live in its heartland," he said.

Ahmadinejad, who took office in August, said Israel would be destroyed by a new wave of Palestinian attacks.

"Surely the new wave of (attacks) in Palestine ... will erase this stigma from the Islamic world," he said.

Tehran denies accusations it trains and arms Palestinian militant groups, saying it only offers moral support. - alertnet.org

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Doing Israel's Bidding
Kurt Nimmo | October 27 2005
Israel's Likudites could not ask for more: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, has called for Israel to "be wiped off the map," thus underscoring the Zionist argument that Muslims want to kill all Jews or at least push them into the sea. Of course, this will never happen, nor should it. Most people with common sense simply want Israel to stop punishing the Palestinians for the fact they have lived in Palestine, centuries before European Zionists decided to steal their land. Most rational people want peace between Israel and the Palestinians, that is to say Israel must go back to the 1967 borders and allow the Palestinians to form their own state. This will not happen anytime soon and Ahmadinejad gives the Zionists further excuse to make sure it doesn't, thus prolonging and extending the crisis in the Middle East.
As F. William Engdahl writes (A Century Of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order), the Pahlavi dynasty in Iran was overthrown by British intelligence and the CIA, working on a script devised by the neolib "geostrategic" planner Zbigniev Brzezinski, and Ayatollah Khomeini was installed in 1979 for the simple reason Islam is more easily stage managed than pan-Arab nationalism (as well, the Shah had violated his client status when it was discovered he was about to build German designed nuclear reactors). "Covert connections between the new Iranian theocratic leadership and the incoming Reagan administration in the US were demonstrated by the so-called October Surprise, which spelled the end of Jimmy Carter's presidency, and the guns-for-hostages deal, also known as the Iran-Contra scandal," writes Margo Kingston.
"According to U.S. administration officials, funds for [Hamas] came from the oil-producing states and directly and indirectly from Israel," Richard Sale of United Press International wrote in 2002. "The PLO was secular and leftist and promoted Palestinian nationalism. Hamas wanted to set up a transnational state under the rule of Islam, much like Khomeini's Iran." It should be noted that Hamas evolved from cells of the Muslim Brotherhood (al-Ikhwan al-Muslimeen), a fanatical Wahabbi organization long ago penetrated by British intelligence and then put to use by the CIA.
In fact, the Muslim Brotherhood remains an important asset for the United States, as demonstrated by the fact the "State Department has drawn up a memo calling for direct and permanent political dialogue with the banned Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt," according to the Egyptian newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat. "The memo recommends that after reaching common understandings with the Muslim Brotherhood, Washington should pressure the Egyptian government to let the group members speak out their minds freely and play a role on the country's political landscape, according to the sources." In other words, the United States would likely support a fanatical Wahabbi government in Egypt, same as they supported a fanatical Wahabbi government in Afghanistan (i.e., the Taliban) prior to nine eleven, the same way Israel supported Hamas. - kurt nimmo

Flashback: July 1985 - The Iran Contra Affair II

In July 1985 the Israeli government approached the Reagan Administration with a proposal to get hostages held by Iranian-backed terrorists released. In January of 1986, the Administration approved a plan proposed by McFarlane employee Michael Ledeen, whereby an intermediary, rather than Israel, would sell arms to Iran in exchange for the release of the hostages, with proceeds made available to the Contras.

Flashback: July 2, 2005 Irans president was a hostage taker...?

As part of the propaganda pretext towards a full-scale US military attack on Iran (covert operations and military preparations have have been ongoing for months) the Bush administration, the Associated Press, and a handful of former US hostages (all former CIA and US military officers) have accused Iranian President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of being one of the 1979 hostage-takers.

Michael Ledeen, Rove's "brain," is one of the leading advocates for a US attack on Iran. The Washington Post quoted Ledeen as saying that Rove told him, "Anytime you have a good idea, tell me." - more

Was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad actually one of the 1986 hostage takers?
Was he in on the whole deal?
Is he, like Saddam Hussein, yet another CIA puppet?

Iran launches its first satellite
31/10/2005 - Iran today said it had joined the club of countries enjoying space technology after launching its first satellite last week in a joint project with Russia, state-run television reported.
Sina-1 was launched from Plesetsk launch pad in northern Russia on Thursday, the report said.
"By placing Iran's Sina-1 (Z-S.4) in its designated orbit, we have practically joined the group of countries enjoying space technology. It was a big achievement," the broadcast quoted Telecom Minister Mohammad Soleimani as saying on his return to Tehran from a four-day visit to Beijing.
The sun-synchronised satellite will be used to take pictures of Iran and to monitor natural disasters. Its resolution precision is about 50 metres.
Sina-1 blasted off aboard a Russian Kosmos 3M rocket as a joint project between Iran and Russia. Polyot, a Russian company based in the Siberian city of Omsk, built the 375-pound satellite for Iran. It will be commissioned for three years after it goes into effective operation next month.
It was not clear why the announcement of the launch was delayed.
It took some 32 months to construct the research satellite containing a telecommunications system and cameras that can monitor Iran's agriculture and natural resources.
The launch makes Iran the 43rd country to possess its own satellites.
Iran plans to launch four more satellites by 2010 to increase the number of land and mobile telephone lines to 80 million from 22 million, and Internet users to 35 million from 5.5 million in the next five years. - IOL

Germany step up to the plate

Iran must come clean about nuclear plans - Germany
By Louis Charbonneau and Mark Trevelyan BERLIN, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Iran is not being fully open with U.N. inspectors about its nuclear programme and may still be hiding something from the international community, Germany's designated foreign minister said on Thursday.
"There is a lack of transparency. That is clear," Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at a conference on the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. "We still have some suspicions that there are developments being pursued (by Iran) that go against this principle."
Iran concealed its uranium enrichment programme, which could be used to develop nuclear weapons, from the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency for 18 years (IAEA), fuelling fears among Western countries that it has a covert atom bomb programme. Iran denies pursuing nuclear weapons and insists its atomic programme is aimed solely at the peaceful generation of electricity. It has turned down a U.S.-backed offer by Germany, France and Britain of political and economic incentives if it scraps its uranium enrichment programme.
IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei hopes a deal will be reached within days that will defuse the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme, the nuclear watchdog said in a statement issued at its Vienna headquarters.
Steinmeier, who is expected formally to replace outgoing Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer later this month, said he was hopeful the issue could be resolved through negotiation but urged Iran not to inflame the situation through rhetoric.
"Whoever denies the right of Israel to exist is really jeopardising a peaceful resolution," he said, referring to recent comments by Iran's new President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad that Israel should be "wiped off the map".
UNFORSEEABLE CONSEQUENCES
Tehran had a right to a peaceful nuclear energy programme but must assure the world that it is not pursuing atom bombs, Steinmeier said.
"Iran has a right that the international community accept its sovereign rights, its national pride and honour. But what is more important is that the international community has a right to get objective guarantees that Iran's nuclear programme will be exclusively used for peaceful purposes," he said.
German foreign intelligence chief August Hanning earlier told the same conference: "If the fears prove justified and Iran too comes into possession of nuclear weapons, this would have unforseeable consequences for the security architecture and the spread of weapons of mass destruction in the whole near and Middle East, our direct neighbourhood."
He said existing mechanisms to stop the spread of atomic weapons were coming under increasing strain.
"We look at the future with great concern. More and more states possess the technical and industrial know-how to produce weapons of mass destruction," Hanning said. He said the wider this knowledge spread among developing countries, the harder it became to control it through existing non-proliferation regimes.
Emerging nations were increasingly offering sensitive technology for sale on the world market.
"This so-called horizontal proliferation places the current non-proliferation policy, based on export controls in western industrial countries, more and more in question." - alertnet.org

Iran says bombers linked to Britain
10/11/2005 - Iran said today that investigations have proved Britain's ties to suspects in bombings in southern Iran over the past few months, indicating for the first time that it has evidence linking London to the unrest.
Iranian officials have previously said the explosions that hit Ahvaz city were guided from abroad - suggesting a British role - and said that detained suspects had confessed to having foreign ties.
The accusations follow recent bitter exchanges between Tehran and London, with Britain claiming Iran has given Iraqi insurgents explosives technology to bomb British soldiers and Iran accusing Britain of provoking unrest among the country's Arab minority.
Both countries have denied the respective claims. - IOL

IAEA says Iran received black market uranium documents
18/11/2005 - The UN atomic agency revealed today that Iran received black-market designs to encase weapons-grade uranium and diplomats said they appeared to be part of blueprints for a nuclear warhead.
A senior US diplomat called the find disturbing and other diplomats accredited to the International Atomic Energy Agency said they expected the US and its allies to use it in their push to have Tehran referred to the UN Security Council as early as next week.
The revelations came as Iran said it had begun converting a second batch of uranium into gas, a step that brings it closer to producing the enriched uranium used to either generate electricity or build bombs.
The European Union, with US support, has been calling on Iran to re-impose a freeze on conversion since August. But the nation's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, told state TV the country had started converting a second batch of uranium.
"This job is done and the plant is continuing its activity," Larijani said in the interview recorded late yesterday and broadcast today.
The IAEA said today that Iran received the detailed designs from the network run by Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan's nuclear program. His network supplied Libya with information for its now-dismantled nuclear weapons programme that included an engineer's drawing of an atomic bomb. The document given to Iran in 1987 showed how to cast "enriched, natural and depleted uranium metal into hemispherical forms," said a confidential IAEA report. IAEA officials refused to comment on the implications of the finding. But diplomats close to the agency said it appeared to be a design for the core of a nuclear warhead. The report said Iran insisted it had not asked for the designs but was given them anyway by members of the nuclear network - something a senior official close to the agency said the IAEA was still investigating. The diplomats requested anonymity in exchange for discussing the confidential report obtained by The Associated Press. The document was prepared for Thursday's meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board, which could decide to refer Tehran to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions for violating an international nuclear arms control treaty.
Most board nations are concerned that Iran has resumed uranium conversion - a precursor to enrichment - and has refused to meet all IAEA requests about a nuclear programme that was clandestine for nearly 20 years until discovered three years ago. The US insists Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons, while Iran maintains its programme is strictly for generating electricity.
The chief US delegate to the IAEA, Gregory Schulte, said Washington was "very concerned" about the design, along with the "large cache of documents uncovered by the agency" showing detailed instructions on how to set up uranium enrichment facilities. "This opens new concerns about weaponisation that Iran has failed to address," he told reporters.
Former nuclear inspector David Albright said the design is "part of what you need ... to build a nuclear weapon."
Although it's not a "smoking gun" proving Iran was secretly developing nuclear weapons, the find casts doubt on previous Iranian assertions it had no documents on making such arms, said Albright, now the head of the Institute for Science and International Security in Washington.
The report said Iran had handed over black-market documents revealing detailed instructions on setting up the complicated process of uranium enrichment.
Khan has acknowledged selling secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
The report also suggested Iran had something to hide, saying it continues to refuse access to a sensitive site where it could be storing equipment that could help investigators determine whether the military is running a secret nuclear programme. It said more transparency by Tehran was "indispensable and overdue" as agency inspectors try to determine if Iran's military secretly ran its own nuclear programme parallel to a civilian one. - IOL

Bush and Putin see a way out for Iran - Enriching uranium OK if done in Russia
David E. Sanger, New York Times - Saturday, November 19, 2005
Pusan, South Korea -- Presenting a united front against Iran, President Bush and President Vladimir Putin of Russia have agreed to press Iran to reverse itself and accept a compromise allowing it to enrich uranium, but only in Russia under strict controls. The plan would let Iran enrich uranium only to levels suitable for use in nuclear reactors, using Russian technology.
"We hope that over time Iran will see the virtue of this approach, and it may provide a way out," Bush's national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, told reporters in Pusan on Friday, after the two leaders met.
Until a few days ago, the United States seemed poised to press for a vote on the issue when the International Atomic Energy Agency board meets late next week. But in recent days, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who attended the meeting Friday with Putin, has signaled that she may delay that vote again, perhaps in hopes of gathering more votes.
"The Russians are getting very, very frustrated with the refusal of the Iranians to move to a middle ground," one senior American official said. A senior Russian delegation that went to Tehran last week was unable to persuade the Iranians to consider giving up enriching uranium on their own soil, U.S. officials said.
Bush's meeting with Putin in Pusan, on the edges of the annual Asian economic summit, was partly intended to close differences between Washington and Moscow about how to deal with Iran. But the two men also discussed oil, North Korea's nuclear program and growing American concerns that Putin is rolling back democratic advances that Russia has made in the past decade. Most recently, the administration has been pressuring Putin on new legislation introduced in the Duma last week, by Putin's own party, that would prevent foreign nongovernmental organizations from opening offices in Russia and that would prevent Russian organizations that engage in political activity from getting money from overseas.
Russian officials appear particularly concerned about human rights groups that focus on Chechnya and civil society groups that they worry could help finance a political opposition.
Hadley said the proposed law "was a subject of discussion today," but called the talk "confidential" and said it was best conducted "outside of public view."
Under the nuclear plan proposed by Russia and endorsed by Britain, France and Germany -- which are leading the talks with Iran -- Iran would be permitted to continue to convert raw uranium into a gas form, called UF6. That gas can be enriched if poured into high-speed centrifuges. Under the plan, Iran would no longer be able to enrich uranium on its soil. The Iranian government has said it will never give up its right to enrich, under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. - SF Gate

Blair Warns Iran's Nuke Program Could Threaten 'World Stability'
"Iran is a quite different country from Iraq in many, many ways. It may be that the change in Iran comes from within, ultimately," Blair said.
London (AFP) Nov 22, 2005 - Iran's suspected aim to develop nuclear weapons could pose a "very serious threat to world stability and peace", British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Tuesday. Reiterating angry comments he made last month after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be "wiped off the map", Blair said there was a "real risk" that Tehran's stance could derail the Non-Proliferation Treaty.
"If Iran was to develop nuclear weapons capability then I think it would pose a very serious threat to world stability and peace," he told a quarterly meeting with parliamentary committee chairmen. "I don't think there's any doubt about that at all."
Blair described relations with Iran as "increasingly strained" since Ahmadinejad's October 27 statement, which was condemned outright by the European Union and the United States. Dialogue and working relations were ongoing with Tehran "at some levels", said Blair, who nevertheless added: "Things have definitely got more difficult since the election of the new president."
Blair refused to comment about whether Britain could be dragged into a potential conflict sparked by alleged Iranian incursions into neighboring Iraqi waters. But suspected nuclear weapons, Tehran's refusal to cooperate with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), its support of terrorism and "meddling" in Iraq were all areas where Britain had a "real, genuine cause for concern".
Talks will be held early next month between Iran, Britain, France, Germany and Russia about the Islamic republic's disputed nuclear program, diplomats announced Tuesday.
"No one is talking military action or any of the rest of it," Blair told the liaison committee, which is made up of the heads of all the various committees in the lower chamber of Britain's parliament, the House of Commons. "Iran is a quite different country from Iraq in many, many ways. It may be that the change in Iran comes from within, ultimately," he said. "But it's a concern and a worry for us because they're a powerful country and have a large part of the world's energy resources at their disposal."
Blair stressed that the "long-term spread" of democracy, human rights and cooperation between countries would help improve security in the Middle East. - spacewar

Pollution???

Tehran shut down amid unprecedented smog alert
TEHRAN (AFP) Dec 07, 2005 - Resident's of the smog-choked Iranian capital Tehran were told Wednesday not to go to work for two days in an unprecedented government effort to restore some breathable air to the city.
With the city effectively shut down until Saturday, police were out in force to prevent motorists from entering a large part of the city without a permit. Officials hope that will help clear the suffocating blanket of brown-yellow haze.
"The citizens who violate today's expanded ban on entering restricted traffic areas will be fined," Tehran's traffic police chief, General Hossein Sajedinia, told state television. He said restrictions will continue as long as the pollution alert is on.
Health alerts are becoming increasingly common in the city of around 10 million people, where the air is deemed unhealthy for at least 100 days of the year. Complaints of asthma, allergies and respiratory ailments are also on the rise.
This week the smog is denser than usual due to a total lack of wind, and schools have already been closed and the sick and elderly told to stay indoors.
Many of the two million plus vehicles in the city are more than 20 years old and consume cheap subsidised petrol at an alarming rate. Private car ownership has also exploded, with the public transport system failing to provide adequate coverage.
The government has proposed various steps to resolve the problem, such as phasing out the old cars, mandatory emissions checks and restricting vehicle use on certain days of the week. So far, none has been effectively applied.
"If the pollution continues at this level, the rule of driving on certain days of the week based on even and odd plate numbers of cars will put in force," Sajedinia said. - .terradaily.com

air crash???

One witness, Iraj Moradi, said the plane was apparently circling Mehrabad Airport before he saw its tail suddenly burst into flames, leaving a smoke trail in its wake as it plummeted. He thought the aircraft was going to crash into a petrol station and fled, but turned to see it smash into what he thought was the building's eighth floor. A passer-by, Hassan Hedayati, said he saw the plane's wing hit the building and was among the first on the scene. - Scotsman report Fiery Plane Crash in Iran Kills 115 People
By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer Tue Dec 6 2005
TEHRAN, Iran - A military plane loaded with Iranian journalists crashed into a 10-story apartment building Tuesday as the pilot attempted an emergency landing after developing engine trouble. At least 115 people died, the Tehran police chief said.
The C-130, a four-engine turboprop, crashed in the Azari suburb of Tehran, site of the Towhid apartment complex that is home to air force personnel and near Tehran's Mehrabad airport.
Before firefighters extinguished the blaze, flames roared from the roof and windows in several of the upper floors. Panicked residents fled the building. Police held back a crowd of thousands, many of them screaming and weeping that they had to find friends or loved ones who were in the building. Scuffles broke out and police beat back onlookers and those trying to reach the building to keep the way open for emergency vehicles. Several hours after the crash, the building still was smoldering, with black smoke hanging in the air.

"It was like an earthquake," said Reza Sadeqi, a 25-year-old merchant who saw the plane hit the building. He said he was thrown about nine feet inside his shop by the force of the crash. "I felt the heat of the fire caused by the crash. It was like being in hell," he said.
Witnesses initially said the plane hit the top of the building. But officials, including Police Chief Mortaza Talaei, said one wing of the transport plane hit the second floor as the fuselage crashed to ground, gouging out a huge crater and causing a fire that spread through the structure. Everyone on the plane - 84 passengers and a crew of 10 - was killed. Most were Iranian radio and television journalists heading to cover military maneuvers in southern Iran. Twenty-one people in the apartment building also died and 90 were injured, Tehran state radio said. Only nine of the injured were hospitalized late Tuesday, Talaei said on Iranian television.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was visiting Saudi Arabia, sent condolences.
"Rescue teams are required to employ their maximum capability to save and help the survivors," state-run television quoted Ahmadinejad as saying. He asked one of his deputies to take charge and ensure survivors receive the help they need.
The plane, which belonged to the army air force, had just taken off for Bandar Abbas in southern Iran when it developed engine trouble. As it headed back to Mehrabad Airport, the pilot was unable to maintain sufficient altitude and hit the apartment complex, state-run television said.
The report discounted sabotage or terrorism. Aviation officials were not available for comment.
Witness Iraj Moradin told The Associated Press the plane appeared to be circling the airport when its tail suddenly burst into flames, leaving a smoke trail as it plummeted. He said he fled when he thought the plane was going to crash into a gas station, but turned in time to see it hit the building.
The C-130 is built by Lockheed. The plane may have been sold to the Iranian air force when the United States had close relations with the Iranian monarch, Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, before the Islamic revolution in 1979.
In April, an Iranian military Boeing 707 with 157 people aboard skidded off a runway at Tehran airport and caught fire, killing three people. In 2003, a Russian-made Ilyushin-76 carrying members of the elite Revolutionary Guards crashed in the mountains of southeastern Iran, killing 302 people.
In 2002, a Ukrainian-built aircraft carrying aerospace scientists crashed in central Iran, killing all 44 people aboard. And in 1988, an Iran Air A300 Airbus was shot down by the USS Vincennes over the Persian Gulf, killing 290. - new.yahoo.com

Pollution caused air crash???

source

Pollution caused air crash???

Aircraft crash kills at least 128 in Tehran
By Gareth Smyth in Tehran - December 6 2005
A military transport aircraft crashed in a residential district of Tehran on Tuesday, killing all 94 people on board and at least 34 people on the ground. The US-made Hercules C-130 had taken off from Mehrabad airport before the pilot reported a technical problem. Most of the 84 passengers were Iranian journalists on their way to cover military exercises in the south.
The aircraft landed in the residential district of Azadi, near the airport, where it hit and set on fire an apartment building in a housing estate for air force personnel. Residents said many children were at home from schools shut because of air pollution. Fumes from the millions of vehicles on the streets of Iran's capital have been trapped by lack of wind. State radio had warned the elderly, young people and those with heart or respiratory ailments not to leave their homes. Many residents were wearing masks, and visibility was greatly reduced.
Iran has a patchy air transport safety record. In April, three died when a Boeing 707 left a runway at Tehran, and in 2003 the crash of a Russian-made Ilyushin-76 carrying members of the Revolutionary Guard killed 302. Iran's ageing US-built aircraft, military and civilian, were all bought before the 1979 Islamic Revolution. US sanctions prevent Iran buying new aircraft and, at least directly, spare parts. The Hercules C-130 is made by Lockheed Martin in Georgia.
Unusually, the pollution in Tehran has affected the higher areas in the city's north, home to its more prosperous citizens, as well as the less affluent south, which contains Tehran's enormous bazaar.
Ahmad Sadat-Mousavi, head of parliament's environment commission, told Fars news agency that the government had "not always" informed people about dangerous levels of air pollution. "[The levels of pollution] on most days in Tehran are critical, and the schools in the centre of Tehran should be closed on all such days," he said. "Most residents of Tehran suffer from headaches and tiredness generally caused by pollution," said a general practitioner. "Asthma is high and more serious diseases are also being triggered."
Tehran's congested streets reflect petrol prices that are, at about 10 cents a litre, among the world's lowest. Parliament has shied away from ending high subsidies for fear of increasing inflation above an official level of 15 per cent. But it has recently approved a plan to ration motorists' access to subsidised petrol through the use of smart cards. Although Tehran's population has doubled to about 12m since 1986, public transport is limited. The city has a limited metro service, being expanded by Chinese companies, but most travel is in private cars or taxis. - Financial Times

interesting solution to the Isreal / Palastine 'situation'

Iran's president says move Israel
Iran's conservative president has said that Israel should be moved to Europe. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if Germany and Austria felt responsible for the Jewish Holocaust, they should give up land to make room for Israel.
"You oppressed them, so give a part of Europe to the Zionist regime so they can establish any government they want," he said on a visit to Mecca.
The president's remarks were quickly condemned by Israel and the US. "This is not the first time, unfortunately, that the Iranian president has expressed the most outrageous ideas concerning Jews and Israel," Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. "He is not just Israel's problem. He is a worry for the entire international community," he added.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said the Iranian leader's comments "further underscore our concerns about the regime". "And it's all the more reason why it's so important that the regime not have the ability to develop nuclear weapons," he said.
Mr Ahmadinejad's stance drew condemnation from French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who were meeting in Berlin. "The comments by the Iranian president are totally unacceptable," said Ms Merkel.
'Palestinians paying the price'
In October, Mr Ahmadinejad caused an outcry by calling for Israel to "be wiped off the map".In his latest remarks, he accused European governments of backing Israel because of the Holocaust. "Is it not true that European countries insist that they committed a Jewish genocide? They say that Hitler burned millions of Jews in furnaces... and exiled them," Mr Ahmadinejad said at a news conference in the Saudi Arabian holy city.
"Then because the Jews have been oppressed during World War II, therefore they [the Europeans] have to support the occupying regime of Jerusalem. We do not accept this," he said. "The question is, where do those who rule in Palestine as occupiers come from? Where were they born? Where did their fathers live? They have no roots in Palestine but they have taken the fate of Palestine in their hands," Mr Ahmadinejad added. "Isn't the right to national self-determination one of the principles of the United Nations charter? Why do they deprive Palestinians of this right?"
The president's comments come as Iran is mired in controversy over its nuclear programme, which it says is solely for the provision of fuel, but which the US says is aimed at producing nuclear weapons. An International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report in September said questions about Iran's nuclear programme remained unanswered despite an intensive investigation.
- BBC

CIA front man - Ahmadinejad: Holocaust a 'myth'???

Iran, West head for confrontation
TEHRAN (AFP) Dec 14, 2005 - By repeatedly calling for Israel's destruction and slamming the door on a nuclear compromise, Iran's hardline president has put Tehran on a collision course with the West, diplomats and analysts warned Wednesday.
In his latest anti-Israeli assault, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad dismissed the Holocaust as a "myth" and said the Jewish state should be moved as far away as Alaska -- views that one European envoy posted in Tehran described as "way beyond political incorrectness". "At first, we were tempted to put it down to inexperience or a simple gaffe," he said of the firebrand president's string of outbursts, which began in October with a call for Israel to be "wiped off the map". "But there is now a clear pattern of confrontational, extremist rhetoric apparently designed to upset the international community. And he's succeeding," said the European diplomat, who asked not to be named.
According to the diplomat, "the very radical change of tone in Iran has to be seen in the context of the nuclear issue" -- or fears that Iran is using an atomic energy drive as a cover for weapons development. "This kind of talk from the president is not confidence-building, this is confidence destroying. It undermines all the diplomatic efforts to find a mutually satisfactory compromise on a very serious issue. You can't help but feel pessimistic."
Since his shock election win in June, the president has vowed to restore "revolutionary" values, has purged state institutions of moderates and adopted a more confrontational approach in nuclear negotiations with the European Union.
The president -- a veteran of the Iran's ideological army the Revolutionary Guards -- has also revealed a deeply religious side. He claimed to have been surrounded by an "aura" when he spoke at the UN General Assembly in September and has voiced hope for the imminent return of Shiite Islam's 12th Imam -- who disappeared in the year 873 AD -- to save the world.
"Call him what you like, but you cannot doubt his sincerity. He's a true revolutionary, a true believer who's on a mission from God," said another Western diplomat based in Tehran. "The man is bursting with confidence, and it's like he's saying to Ariel Sharon: 'Go ahead, make my day'. If it goes on like this, it'll end in tears," he said, referring to Israel's premier.
According to Saeed Leylaz, an Iranian political analyst, Ahmadinejad is quite simply "looking for confrontation". "It reinforces his position, because he knows these kind of remarks are welcomed by the working classes in Iran and the Muslim and Arab world. Western public opinion is of no concern to him," Leylaz said.
But other analysts say that ultimately, the real power still rests with Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and that the Islamic republic's complex power structure could -- as it has done in the past with both hardliners and reformists -- return to some form of equilibrium.
"Iran has been in a transitional phase since the elections," an Asian diplomat told AFP. "I think we have to be very careful not to let one man push things out of hand, even if Ahmadinejad is reinforcing the Israeli and American position and there is only a limited window for the nuclear diplomacy."
On Tuesday, Israel's chief of staff Dan Halutz claimed Tehran would have all the necessary knowledge to build a warhead within three months, and some Israeli figures and reports have also pointed to the possibility of a pre-emptive military attack against Iran. Despite all his fiery rhetoric, Ahmadinejad insists Iran's nuclear drive is merely aimed at generating electricity. - spacewar.com

Why did the Bilderberg Group need to fix the German elections?

German intelligence warns Iran has new missiles
16 December 2005 - HAMBURG - German intelligence believes Iran has now bought 18 longer-range missiles from North Korea, giving Tehran the capability to attack targets in central Europe, the German daily newspaper Bild reported Friday.
The study by the foreign intelligence service BND said the BM-25 missiles were being purchased from Pyongyang in the form of kit sets. The mobile missiles, which are based on the Russian SS-N-6 missile for submarine launch, will have a nominal range of 2,500 kilometres.
However it was possible to upgrade them to hit targets 3,500 kilometres away, the Munich-based BND said.
Iran already has Shehab-3 missiles with a range of 1,300 kilometres.
Bild quoted the BND dossier as saying: "Germany and other parts of Europe could be affected in the medium to long term by the Iranian missile programme."
It added: "With longer ranges in the future, combined with the apparent efforts to obtain nuclear warheads, Iran would be in a position to reach all of Israel and parts of central Europe." expatica

Rice: Consensus Grows on Referring Iran to UN Security Council
By David Gollust Washington 05 January 2006
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday an international consensus is growing for referring the issue of Iran's nuclear program to the U.N. Security Council. She gave no time-line but said the need for such action is becoming clearer.
The United States, which maintains that Iran is seeking nuclear weapons, has long held out the prospect of a Security Council referral for possible sanctions if European efforts to persuade Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions fail. In a breakfast talk with State Department reporters, Ms. Rice said a referral is not just an idle threat or saber rattling, and that U.S.-led diplomacy has produced a consensus for such action "at the right time, at the time of our choosing".
"I think that what you're seeing is that people want the Iranians to decide whether or not they're prepared to live with a civil-nuclear structure that does not raise proliferation risks, or not," she said. "And when it is clear, as it is becoming clear, that they are not prepared to do that, I think you'll have a very strong consensus behind a different course of action."
Ms. Rice said she hoped diplomatic efforts short of action in the Security Council are not exhausted. However, she said that by failing to be responsive to nuclear initiatives by the EU-3 - Britain, France and Germany - and an alternate effort by Moscow, the Tehran government is increasing its own isolation. She said that process has been accelerated by threats against Israel and other recent statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who she said has seemed intent on reminding people why Iran never could be trusted with nuclear technology.
Ms. Rice drew a distinction between the current leadership in Tehran and the Iranian people, and said she wished there were ways by which the United States could interact with Iranians. "Nobody wants to isolate the Iranian people," she added. "If there were ways to better engage and reach out to the Iranian people, I would love to see them. You know, soccer matches and musicians and university students and all of those things, because this is a great civilization and these are a great people. They happen to have a leadership that seems at this point to have chosen confrontation rather than cooperation with the international system."
The United States and Iran have not had diplomatic relations since Iran's Islamic revolution in 1979, when student militants invaded the U.S. embassy and held U.S. diplomats hostage for more than a year. The two countries have had occasional political contacts, but cultural exchanges have been minimal. - voa news as psyops

Iran military chiefs killed in plane crash
Mon Jan 9, 6:45 AM ET TEHRAN (AFP) - Several top Iranian military officers were among at least 11 people killed in a plane crash, the local media reported, the second such crash in barely a month.
The military plane came down near Orumiyeh in northwestern Iran near the Turkish border on Monday and all 11 people aboard were killed, the Mehr agency reported. Emergency services chief Farzad Panahi told the Fars agency the plane was carrying 15 people, including eight Revolutionary Guard commanders. Thirteen were killed and two missing, he said.
The crash of the Falcon came barely a month after a decrepit Iranian military transport plane plunged into the foot of a high-rise housing block in Tehran after suffering engine failure. A total of 108 people were killed in the December 6 incident, which raised concerns across the country about the state of the planes used by the military.
Among the dead in Monday's crash were Ahmad Kazemi, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards ground forces, Fars said, and a number of other top commanders, including an intelligence chief. The Fars agency has close links to the Revolutionary Guards, which are known locally as Pasdarans.
A Guards spokesman quoted by Al-Alam television said the plane came down around 8:30 am (0500 GMT), with Mehr reporting the plane crashed after one of its engines stopped working. The area around Orumiyeh, in West Azerbaijan province, is mountainous and weather conditions there notoriously bad during the winter months.
The Revolutionary Guards were set up in the wake of the 1979 revolution to defend the Islamic republic from "internal and external threats". It is now one of Iran's most powerful institutions and counts an estimated 350,000 men.
Iranian media said the Hercules plane involved in December's crash -- bought from the United States before the Islamic revolution nearly three decades ago and starved of spare parts -- had been ordered to fly despite warnings from its pilot. Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najar is facing an impeachment process over that accident.
Since the revolution, clerical-ruled Iran has been subject to tough US sanctions, hindering the purchase of critical spare parts for all US-made planes in its air force, civilian flag carrier Iran Air and domestic airlines. - news.yahoo.com

Iran set to resume nuclear work
10th Jan 2006 - Iran has removed seals from a nuclear facility and will begin research there in the coming hours, the UN nuclear watchdog the IAEA has confirmed.
The move ends a two-year suspension of research, and could result in Tehran being referred to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.
Germany on Monday described Iran's planned move as "very, very ominous".
Western countries fear Iran's nuclear programme could be used to make atomic bombs, but Tehran denies such a goal. It says the project is for the peaceful production of energy only.
Talks between Iran and the EU trio of Germany, France and the UK broke off last August after Iran resumed uranium conversion activity which it had suspended in 2004.
The resumption of research on Tuesday at the Natanz site suggests all of Iran's nuclear activities, apart from uranium enrichment - a key stage in making a nuclear bomb - have been revived.

NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE
Mined uranium ore is purified and reconstituted into solid form known as yellowcake
Yellowcake is converted into a gas by heating it to about 64C (147F)
Gas is fed through centrifuges, where its isotopes separate and process is repeated until uranium is enriched
Low-level enriched uranium is used for nuclear fuel
Highly enriched uranium can be used in nuclear weapons

Iran resumed uranium conversion, an earlier stage in the nuclear fuel cycle, at its plant in Isfahan when negotiations with the European Union broke down in August.
In September the IAEA's board called on Iran to cease all nuclear fuel work, and threatened to refer Tehran to the Security Council. An interim report in November revealed that Iran had information on how to build a key part of an atomic weapon from the network of disgraced Pakistani nuclear scientist AQ Khan. Iran insisted it neither requested the information nor used it. - BBC

stuck record ....

Iran plans 'small scale' nuclear fuel work-IAEA
LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The head of the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, informed his agency's governing board on Tuesday that Iran intends to begin "small-scale" uranium enrichment work, contradicting previous statements by Tehran.
"Iran plans to install a small-scale gas ultracentrifuge cascade in its pilot fuel enrichment plant at Natanz," a Western diplomat said, reading from ElBaradei's report to the 35-nation board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Citing the report, the diplomat said that during its research work on centrifuges -- machines that purify uranium for use in nuclear power plants or weapons -- Iran planned to feed a small amount of uranium hexafluoride into the centrifuges.
A senior Iranian official had earlier denied any suggestion that Iran was resuming the production of nuclear fuel at the Natanz facility in central Iran. - alertnet.org

WWIII, yeah, yeah....heard it all before...in Oct 2005 to be precise...when Iran broke seals on UN

Iran resumes nuclear research, angering West 10 Jan 2006 13:18:01 GMT
By Parisa Hafezi TEHRAN, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Iran removed U.N. seals at its Natanz uranium enrichment plant and resumed nuclear fuel research on Tuesday, drawing sharp Western criticism but no immediate threats of punitive action.
Tehran denies wanting nuclear technology for anything but a civilian energy programme aimed at satisfying the Islamic Republic's booming demand for electricity.
But the United States and the European Union doubt that Iran's atomic ambitions are entirely peaceful and are likely to ask the U.N. Security Council, which can impose economic sanctions, to take up the matter, Western diplomats said. Western powers had called on Iran to refrain from any work that could help it develop atomic weapons.
"Iran's nuclear research centres have restarted their activities," Mohammad Saeedi, deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, told state television. He said work at the research facilities would be under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the United Nations nuclear watchdog. Saeedi told a news conference Iran had come to an agreement with the IAEA on what work Tehran would do. He gave no details.
The IAEA in Vienna confirmed Iran was removing U.N. seals at Natanz, an underground plant in central Iran that Tehran concealed from U.N. inspectors until an Iranian exile group revealed its existence in August 2002.
"The Iranians have begun removing seals at Natanz in the presence of IAEA inspectors," said IAEA spokeswoman Melissa Fleming.
STEP IN THE WRONG DIRECTION
Gregory Schulte, Washington's ambassador to the IAEA, said Iran's move showed its "disdain for international concerns". "The regime continues to choose confrontation over cooperation," he said in a statement. The European Union was quick to denounce the resumption of research, which a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana labelled "a step in the wrong direction".
German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said German diplomats would meet Solana and British and French envoys in Berlin this week to decide "whether there is now any basis for further negotiations with Iran".
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw said: "There was no good reason why Iran should have taken this step if its intentions are truly peaceful".
Russia, which is helping Iran build a nuclear power station at the southern port of Bushehr, said Tehran should abide by international commitments and that its decision to resume research caused concern.
European diplomats have said they would seek an emergency meeting of the IAEA to consider referring Tehran to the Security Council for failing to allay fears it is seeking an atom bomb. It is unclear if Iran will simply test equipment or actually produce small amounts of nuclear fuel in a laboratory. The IAEA did not specify any of the work the Iranians were undertaking.One EU and one non-EU diplomat said Iran was planning to get 164 centrifuges running at Natanz to try to master the technique of producing nuclear fuel. Centrifuges enrich uranium by spinning it at supersonic speed.
However, such a small cascade would take many years to produce enough bomb-grade uranium for a single weapon. If enriched to a low level, uranium can be used in power stations such as the one at Bushehr. If enriched further, it can be used in atomic warheads.
An intelligence source said Iran intended to feed uranium hexafluoride (UF6) into the cascade at Natanz soon, but had not informed the IAEA about this. A Western diplomat close to the IAEA said agency inspectors were at Natanz and would report anything the Iranians did there to the IAEA board of governors. "The facility is fully safeguarded," the diplomat said.
However, Saeedi denied any suggestion that Iran was resuming the production of nuclear fuel at the Natanz facility.
"There is a difference between research and producing nuclear fuel ... The production of nuclear fuel is still under suspension," he told the news conference. (Additional reporting by Louis Charbonneau in Berlin, Mark John in Brussels, Madeline Chambers in London, Kerstin Gehmlich in Paris, Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Guo Shipeng in Beijing) - alertnet.org

timeloop

U.S. says time running out for Iran, warns of serious consequences
Big News Network.com Monday 9th January, 2006
The White House says there is growing international support for action by the U.N. Security Council on Iran's nuclear program.
The Bush administration says Tehran is showing it cannot be trusted to abide by its international obligations.
Iran says it is resuming nuclear fuel research. The Bush administration warns it could face serious consequences.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan says the issue is a matter of trust. "Iran has shown over the course of the last couple of decades that it cannot be trusted," he said. "They have concealed their activities from the international community. They have violated their agreements with the international community. It is time for Iran to come into compliance, to abide by the agreements they have made and to meet the demands of the international community."
Iran says its nuclear program is for civilian use only, but the United States says Tehran is trying to get the technology needed for nuclear weapons.
France, Britain and Germany have been leading negotiations with Iran regarding its nuclear program, and McClellan says the United States continues to support their efforts. But at the same time, he makes clear that U.S. patience is running out.
McClellan says a growing majority on the Board of Directors of the International Atomic Energy Agency has called on Iran to act in good faith and move forward in negotiations with the so-called "European Three." The White House spokesman says if there are no results, the next step may well be a U.N. referral and the possibility of sanctions.
"Then the option before us would be referral to the Security Council and there is a growing majority in the international community that is looking at that," he added.
But Russia and China have indicated they are reluctant to take Iran before the Security Council, where they have permanent seats and veto power. During a briefing for reporters, McClellan said only that discussions with Beijing and Moscow are ongoing.
"We will continue to discuss with all our friends and allies and partners how to move forward to address this issue. his is a serious matter. It is a serious concern," he explained.
At the State Department, spokesman Sean McCormack said one option under consideration is calling an emergency meeting of the IAEA. A senior state department official claimed a high degree of coordination on the matter among the five permanent Security Council members. This official -- who spoke on the condition he would not be identified -- said Russia, China, Britain, France, and the United States are delivering very similar messages to Iran urging Tehran to drop its threat to resume nuclear research and return to negotiations.
- bignewsnetwork

Blair regime exploiting soldiers' deaths: families
Hasan Suroor LONDON: Families of British soldiers killed in Iraq have accused the Government of exploiting their deaths for political purposes by blaming them on Iranian-backed resistance groups.
The claim about Iranian involvement, first made by an anonymous British official and echoed by Prime Minister Tony Blair, has since been proved unfounded.
At a joint press conference with the visiting Iraqi President Jalal Talabani in Downing Street in October last year, Mr. Blair had insisted on Iranian involvement and warned Teheran against "interfering'' in Iraq.
The mother of one of the three soldiers, killed in an explosion in southern Iraq last July, said the Blair Government was exploiting the death of her son.
"They don't like Iran and they are using this for sympathy towards their attitude claiming that they were involved in the murders of our sons... It makes me really angry. "They should be dealing with people who killed our sons and not using it as a weapon,'' said Sue Smith whose son Philip Hewitt was killed in the July incident. - hindu.com

BBC reports Blairs warning like this:

Blair threatens UN action on Iran
UK Prime Minister Tony Blair says Iran's decision to resume its nuclear activities is likely to result in a referral to the UN Security Council. He said Tehran's move had caused real and serious alarm across the world. Speaking in parliament, Mr Blair said European ministers meeting in Berlin on Thursday would decide how to proceed.
But Iran's leader dismissed the threat. He said the research, which some fear is aimed at producing weapons, would go on despite the Western "fuss".
'Spoiling for a fight'
Tehran says it broke the United Nations seals on the Natanz nuclear research facility on Tuesday because it wants to produce electricity, not because it is pursuing nuclear weapons.
IRAN'S NUCLEAR STANDOFF
Sept 2002: Work begins on Iran's first reactor at Bushehr
Dec 2002: Satellites reveal Arak and Natanz sites triggering IAEA inspections
Nov 2003: Iran suspends uranium enrichment and allows tougher inspections
June 2004: IAEA rebukes Iran for not fully co-operating
Nov 2004: Iran suspends enrichment under deal with EU
Aug 2005: Iran rejects EU plan and re-opens Isfahan plant
Jan 2006: Iran re-opens Natanz facility
The UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has said Tehran is about to start small-scale nuclear enrichment.
Addressing MPs in the House of Commons, Mr Blair described the current situation as "very serious indeed".
"I don't think there is any point in us hiding our deep dismay at what Iran has decided to do," he said. "When taken in conjunction with their other comments about the state of Israel they cause real and serious alarm right across the world."
Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said it was a personal disappointment giving him cause for alarm.
Course of action
On Thursday UK Foreign Minister Jack Straw will meet French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy, Frank-Walter Steinmeier of Germany and Javier Solana, the EU foreign policy chief to discuss the crisis. The EU talks could trigger an emergency meeting of the IAEA's board of governors which could refer the matter to the UN Security Council and lead to full-scale sanctions.
But President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would not be intimidated by "all of the fuss created by the big powers".
The BBC's Frances Harrison in Tehran says that Iran's conservative president seems almost to be relishing the sense of looming confrontation - and that those who had suggested Iran was just testing the waters look set to be disappointed. Iran is banking on divisions within the international community, our correspondent says. Its parliament has passed a law obliging the Iranian government to stop short notice visits of its nuclear sites by UN inspectors if it is referred to the UN Security Council. BBC

Isreali news reports it like this:

Blair: 'We don't rule out any measures at all' against Iran
By News Agencies
British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Wednesday he aimed to get international agreement to refer Iran to the UN Security Council after it restarted research into nuclear fuel this week.
"I think the first thing to do is to secure agreement for a reference to the Security Council, that is indeed what the allies jointly decide as I think seems likely," Blair told parliament. "Then .. we have to decide what measures to take and we obviously don't rule out any measures at all," he added.
Blair said Iran's decision to resume nuclear activities caused "real and serious" alarm across the world.
"The decision by Iran is very serious indeed," Blair said. "I do not think there is any point in people, or us, hiding our deep dismay at what Iran has decided to do."
Iran removed UN seals at uranium enrichment research facilities on Tuesday and announced it would resume "research and development" on producing uranium fuel, prompting angry reactions from Washington, the European Union and Russia, as well as Britain.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Britain will meet in Berlin on Thursday to discuss the crisis caused by Iran's move to reactivate a nuclear fuel program mothballed under a November 2004 deal with the EU trio.
Also on Wednesday, German deputy foreign minister Gernot Erler said the European Union cannot continue negotiating with Iran on its nuclear program unless it pledges not to enrich uranium.
However, Erler cautioned on Deutschlandfunk radio against referring the dispute to the UN Security Council, saying it could further destabilize the Middle East.
"I don't know what the three foreign ministers will decide [at Thursday's meeting], but I believe they cannot continue to negotiate without an Iranian assurance that there will be no concrete enrichment activity," Erler said.
He cautioned that referring the matter to the Security Council would likely lead to the "threat of sanctions, and that can lead to an escalation that can get out of control."
"That is the risk, and that is how it was with the preparation for and the road to the Iraq war," said Erler. "That would be in no way reassuring given the other problems we currently have in the greater Middle East." - haaretz.com

UK conservatives report it like this:

Opposition Leader David Cameron presses Blair to act over Iran nuclear threat
David Cameron has increased the pressure on Tony Blair to push hard for a firm United Nations response, after Iran signalled its determination to develop a nuclear weapons potential.
In the Commons, the Conservative Leader highlighted the widespread concern cause by the Tehran government decision to break the seals on an underground nuclear site and resume enrichment work. And he called on the Prime Minister to maximise an international consensus for referring the case to the UN Security Council.
Mr Cameron said that while sanctions have not always been effective in getting countries to comply with their international obligations in the past, action should be taken to ensure they will be effective in this case.
He declared: "The aim we all share is non-proliferation. Iran has not only taken repeated steps to develop nuclear weapons, but has also made threatening remarks about the future of Israel. This underlines the case for stepping up our efforts to encourage pluralism, civic society and a liberal and progressive political culture in Iran."
In response, Mr Blair spoke of his "deep dismay" at Iran's activity and said that after imminent discussions with our EU and American allies, it was likely that the issue would be referred to the UN Security Council.
"The first thing is to secure agreement for a reference to the UN. I don't rule out any measures at all, but it's better to go through the process of discussion and set out the measures we want to take. We have to take immediate steps to protect the security of the world," the Prime Minister told MPs. - conservatives.com

opinion: TALKING-UP A NUCLEAR ARMAGEDDON?
In the last 24 hours the BBC and Channel 4 News (UK) have been doing their bit to ratchet-up the current anti-Iranian propaganda war.
And the quisling, Bliar, has kept his Washington handlers happy by adding his own ("no measures barred") threats to Teheran.
Were it not for the fact that what Bliar is actually doing is to add a 'diplomatic' voice in support of the Bush/Cheney thugs who actively advocate a pre-emptive attack on Iran using nuclear weapons his actions would be no more than those of a discredited right-wing plant of a politician with so much blood on his hands that a little more wouldn't worry him overmuch.
The anti-Iran propaganda war, with similarities to that which led to the invasion of Irak in 2003, is different in that the U.S. threat to use tactical nuclear weapons in a first-strike is either quietly played down or not mentioned at all. Nor is the fact that Iran is the first country to develop a nuclear programme who, once actively supported by the USA to do so (when under the Shah), is now perceived as a 'rogue state' against whom active (nuclear) military measures might be taken for its wishing to continue that programme.
Not only is the anti-Iranian propaganda based upon a brazen, historic lie but, if the western public were to know just what kind of military scenario is envisaged, would be seen as a terrifying imperial escalation in the kind of (nuclear) blitzkrieg tactics that the West and NATO are now prepared to use.
Just now there is an ominous silence emanating from the peace movement. Perhaps those among it who have troubled to find out what an attack on Iran would really mean, ie a nuclear war which could well escalate into a global one, are so horrified at what the Bush regime are preparing for that they have been paralyzed into inaction.
Whatever the reasons for this morgue-like silence, it must be broken and soon. Otherwise the responsibility for the nuclear horrors to come will fall on the shoulders of each and every one of us for not acting when we could. - source