HAMAS SMUGGLES IRANIAN ROCKET BLUEPRINTS INTO GAZA

Hamas Smuggles Iranian Blueprints into Gaza for Rocket Upgrades - Avi Issacharoff and Amos Harel (Ha'aretz)
Hamas militants who recently returned to Gaza after training in Iran brought detailed blueprints for upgrading the capabilities of rockets, according to senior PA sources.   The aim is to strike at Israeli communities north of Ashkelon.  The source added that some 200 Hamas militants who received training in Iran, the Beqa'a Valley in Lebanon, and Syria have returned to Gaza.  Hamas and Hizbullah militants are being trained in Iran together, and are learning the same fighting doctrines.

RANGE OF TERROR ROCKETS INCREASES

Israel: Hizbullah Increases Rocket Range - Matti Friedman (AP)
Senior Israeli defense officials said Thursday that Hizbullah has dramatically increased its arsenal of rockets and their range.  The officials said Hizbullah has acquired new Iranian rockets with a range of 186 miles that can hit anywhere in Israel's heavily populated center.

See also IDF: Islamic Jihad Producing Longer-Range Rockets - Hanan Greenberg (Ynet News)
The Islamic Jihad terror group has recently begun manufacturing rockets with a 12.5-mile range, similar to the Grad (Katyusha) rockets already in use by terror organizations in Gaza.  The new rockets are armed with a much deadlier warhead that carries double the amount of explosives carried by Kassam rockets.   Armed groups in Gaza have also recently obtained two new types of Iranian-made mortar shells, some of which can travel up to 6.2 miles.

SEE ALSO: Defense officials: Hizbullah has rockets that can reach Dimona (JPost)

IRAN GAVE SYRIA $1B FOR ARMS PURCHASES

Iran Gave Syria Over $1 Billion for Arms Purchases - Barak Ravid (Ha'aretz)

Iran is making huge efforts to upgrade the Syrian army and provided Syria with more than $1 billion to buy surface-to-surface missiles, rockets, anti-tank missiles and anti-aircraft systems.

Syria is buying more missiles than tanks, on the assumption that attacking the Israeli home front would deter Israel and help to determine the war.

The London-based Asharq Alawsatnewspaper reported in July 2007, during Iranian President Ahmadinejad's visit to Damascus, that he promised Bashar Assad that Iran would finance Russian and North Korean weapons deals for $1 billion.

In exchange, Syria reportedly undertook not to proceed with the peace process with Israel.

Israel is also concerned over Iran's continuing weapon deliveries to Hizbullah via Syria. Recently, Iran sent Hizbullah a number of deliveries, including a large amount of explosives.

IRAN PLANNING TO ASSASSINATE ISRAELI LEADERS

Iranians Put Price on Ehud Barak's Head, Will Sell Donated Kidneys to Raise Funds.... (Weasel Zippers)

'Islamic Student Justice Seekers' declare financial prizes to be awarded to those who kill Israeli defense minister, Mossad Director Meir Dagan, and Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin.

Do Ehud Barak, Meir Dagan and Amos Yadlin need to be worried? In the Iranian capital of Tehran, it was reported that an unprecedented ceremony took place on Sunday in which a price was put on the heads of the top ranking Israeli security officials as revenge for the assassination of Hizbullah arch terrorist Imad Mugniyah last month.

"Following the increase in crimes by the Zionist regime in occupied Palestine and in the Gaza Strip, and in wake of the assassination that this regime carried out abroad of senior members of the resistance front, a ceremony will be held today to set a financial prize for the killing of the organizers of these acts."

The Justice Seekers also called for volunteers to donate a kidney in order to offer the money acquired via the act to increase the financial prize.

The organizers claim that a number of civil groups agreed to take part in the ceremony in order to contribute to the amount of money offered for the heads of the Israeli threesome.

Rest here>>>

HAMAS COMMANDER: WE'RE IRAN'S PROXY

Hamas Commander: We're Iran's Proxy (BackSpin)

Hamas commander confirmed to Sunday Times reporter Marie Colvin that the group is an Iranian proxy:

A senior commander interviewed by The Sunday Times said 300 of the group’s “best brains” had been secretly sent to Tehran.

Half are still being trained by Revolutionary Guards. They are learning how to make explosives from everyday items and produce deadlier rockets.

The rest have already returned from a Revolutionary Guard base in Tehran. Some have been trained as snipers. Others have learnt to use tunnels in attacks on Israeli forces.

“Iran is our mother,” the commander said. “She gives us information, military supplies and financial support.”

Seven separate groups of Hamas militants have spent up to six months in Tehran since the training began in 2005.

The scale of Iran’s operation exceeds Israeli intelligence suspicions that Hamas had dispatched “tens” of fighters to Tehran.

Colvin also filed a separate dispatch with more details.

HAMAS USING U.S. AND IRANIAN WEAPONS AGAINST ISRAEL

Hamas Using U.S. Weapons Against IDF - Khaled Abu Toameh (Jerusalem Post)
According to Palestinian sources in Gaza, most of the gunmen fighting the IDF over the past few days are members of Hamas' armed wing, Izaddin Kassam, with 15,000 members divided into four brigades.

The Hamas gunmen were using many American-made arms seized from the Fatah-controlled PA security forces in June.

Other groups involved in the fighting include Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees, and some splinter factions of Fatah's Aksa Martyrs Brigades, operating in coordination with Hamas. Altogether, these groups have fewer than 1,500 gunmen in Gaza.

Hamas is hoping that once the fighting is over, it will be able to declare "victory, as Hizbullah did after the war in 2006," said a Palestinian source.

Long-range rockets fired from Gaza are Iranian: Israel army (AFP)
The Israeli army on Monday said that all the long-range rockets fired by Gaza militants against southern Israel during the latest round of violence were manufactured in arch-foe Iran.
Speaking to the parliament's powerful foreign affairs and defence committee, a senior military intelligence official said that over 20 Katyusha-type rockets, also known as Grad, were fired against Israel since last Thursday.

"We are talking about regular Iranian-made rockets," an official quoted the intelligence official as saying.

The 122-millimetre rockets have a range of about 20 kilometres (12.5 miles) and carry a large payload which caused heavy damage to buildings in the southern coastal town of Ashkelon, which bore the brunt of the Grad rocket fire.

SEE ALSO: GAZA: RPGS FOUND IN MOSQUES (Atlas Shrugs)

IRAN ORDERED TO PAY $33M TO MURDERED ISRAELI DIPLOMAT'S FAMILY

Iran Ordered to Pay $33M to Murdered Israeli Diplomat's Family
Iran must pay $33 million to the family of a U.S.-born Israeli diplomat killed in a 1992 terrorist attack, a federal judge said Monday. U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle said Iran was responsible for the truck bombing at the Israeli Embassy in Argentina that killed 29 people, including David Ben-Rafael. The ruling allows the family to try to collect Iranian assets, but finding and seizing that money will be difficult. (AP)

IRAN COULD HAVE ENOUGH URANIUM FOR BOMB BY END OF 2008

Iran Could Have Enough Uranium for a Bomb by Year's End - Markus Becker
New simulations carried out by European Union experts come to an alarming conclusion: Iran could have enough highly enriched uranium to build an atomic bomb by the end of this year. When the U.S. released a new National Intelligence Estimate last year, it seemed as though the danger of a mullah-bomb had passed. The report claimed that Tehran mothballed its nuclear weapons program in autumn 2003.

As part of a project to improve control of nuclear materials, the European Commission Joint Research Center (JRC) in Ispra, Italy, set up a detailed simulation of the centrifuges currently used by Iran in the Natanz nuclear facility to enrich uranium. The results look nothing like those reached by the U.S. intelligence community. For one scenario, the JRC scientists assumed the centrifuges in Natanz were operating at 100% efficiency. Were that the case, Iran could already have the 25 kilograms of highly enriched uranium necessary for an atomic device by the end of this year. Another scenario assumed a much lower efficiency - just 25%. But even then, Iran would have produced enough uranium by the end of 2010. (Der Spiegel-Germany)

CHUTZPAH ALERT

Iran Urges UN to Condemn Israel - Edith M. Lederer
Iran urged the UN Security Council on Wednesday to condemn Israel over Prime Minister Olmert's Jan. 14 warning that all options were on the table when it comes to keeping Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Israeli UN Ambassador Dan Gillerman responded: "For a country whose leader describes a member state of the United Nations as a dirty microbe and a savage animal, to complain about others' statements is the height of hypocrisy," noting this was "coming from a country which is the world's major sponsor and exporter of terror." (AP)

Palestinians to report Israeli roadmap violations to US: official
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) - The Palestinians will present monthly reports to the US listing any Israeli violations of the international roadmap peace blueprint, prime minister Salam Fayyad said on Wednesday.

The reports will also list measures taken by the Palestinian Authority to comply with the peace plan, he told journalists in Ramallah.

REPORT: IRAN DEVELOPING NUKE WARHEADS

Iran Developing Nuclear Warheads, Exile Group Claims 
Mohammad Mohaddessin, a representative of the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, claimed Wednesday in Brussels that Tehran had established a command and control center to work on a nuclear bomb and that it was also setting up a center to produce warheads. He said Iran had closed down one center only to open another later with the same purpose, and called the U.S. National Intelligence Estimate "not accurate." He said he had provided the latest information to the International Atomic Energy Agency on Tuesday and urged them to investigate more sites in Iran and interview more scientists. Mohaddessin said the information came from sources within Iran, including from among staff at covert nuclear plants. (AP/International Herald Tribune)

The new command and control center, coded-named Lavizan-2, was established at Mojdeh on the outskirts of Tehran last April, near the site of a previous facility razed after its exposure. Production of nuclear warheads is at a complex code-named B1-Nori-8500 at Khojir, about 20 km. further southeast. Mohaddessin said the Khojir site was under the charge of missile expert Mehdi Naghiyan Fesharaki, who was transferred there two years ago. "This means the regime is getting to the point of connecting nuclear weapons to missiles," he said.

"The Iranian regime is undoubtedly developing the nuclear bomb. None of the essential work has been halted....All three parts have been speeded up," he said, referring to uranium enrichment, weaponization, and missile development. "Time is running out to stop the regime acquiring a nuclear bomb. If we do not act today, tomorrow might be too late." (Reuters)

IRANIAN GUARD LEADER PREDICTS ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION

Iran Guards Predict Israel Demise (BBC News)
Iran's Revolutionary Guards leader Maj.-Gen. Mohammad Jafari wrote to Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah, following the killing of senior Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh, to extend "congratulations and condolences for the martyrdom."
    

"We will soon witness the destruction of the cancerous scum of Israel at the strong, capable hands of Hizbullah," he wrote.

In response, Israel Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said: "We are not harboring any illusions about the Tehran regime's true intentions, nor its extremist agenda."

See also Israel Complains to UN over Iranian General's Remarks - Roee Nahmias (Ynet News)

US INTEL LINKS IRAN WITH NUKE BOMB BID

US Intel Links Iran With Nuke Bomb Bid (SFChron)
(02-14) 11:50 PST VIENNA, Austria (AP) --The U.S. has shared new intelligence with the International Atomic Energy Agency that it claims is evidence Iran was trying to make a nuclear weapon, diplomats said Thursday.

One of the diplomats said Washington also gave the IAEA permission to confront Iran with at least some of the information in an attempt to pry details out of the Islamic republic as part of the U.N. nuclear watchdog's attempts to investigate Iran's suspicious nuclear past.

The diplomats suggested that such moves by the U.S. administration would be a reflection of Washington's' drive to pressure Iran into acknowledging that it had focused part of its nuclear efforts toward developing a weapons program.

The U.S. is leading the push for a third set of U.N. sanctions against Iran. Tehran insists its program is intended only to produce energy and has refused U.N. demands that it suspend its uranium enrichment program — technology that can produce both fuel for nuclear reactors and the fissile material for a bomb.

A recent U.S. intelligence assessment that Iran had a clandestine weapons program but stopped working on it four years ago has hurt Washington's attempts to have the U.N. Security Council impose a third set of sanctions.

IRAN PUTS URANIUM GAS IN CENTRIFUGES

Iran Puts Uranium Gas in Centrifuges
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Iran's new generation of advanced centrifuges have begun processing small quantities of the gas that can be used to make the fissile core of nuclear warheads, diplomats told The Associated Press on Wednesday.

GULF ARAB STATES LOOK TO ISRAEL TO STOP IRAN

Gulf Arabs See Israel Stopping Iran Bomb - Mark Trevelyan (Reuters)

Gulf states believe Israel will destroy Iran's nuclear program rather than allow it to acquire an atomic bomb, an adviser to the Kuwaiti government and Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) said on Tuesday.

If Iran did build the bomb, said adviser Sami Alfaraj, then the Jewish state might be one of the countries - along with the U.S. and Pakistan - Gulf Arab nations would ask to provide a "nuclear umbrella" to guarantee their security.

Alfaraj, president of the Kuwait Center for Strategic Studies, said Israel might bomb Iranian nuclear facilities in the same way it destroyed Iraq's atomic reactor at Osirak in 1981.

IRAN STARTS SECOND NUKE PLANT

Iran starts second atomic power plant: report
MOSCOW (Reuters) - Iran has started building a second atomic power plant in an oil-rich region near the border with Iraq, Iran's Ambassador to Russia was quoted as saying Friday by Itar-Tass news agency.

Gholamreza Ansari said construction had started at Darkhovin in south-western Khuzestan province. Iran has said it would construct a 360 megawatt plant at the site.

"Now we need to think about the fuel for it," Tass quoted him as saying at a news briefing in Moscow. A spokesman for the Iranian embassy confirmed the comment.

The United States, which has been leading a drive through the United Nations to rein in Tehran's nuclear program fearing it could be used to make weapons, said it saw no reason for a second Iranian plant.

"We would not see any need for Iran to build additional nuclear power plants. Not at all," Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said in an interview with Reuters.

US warns Iran over nuclear centrifuges (AFP)
A top US envoy warned Iran Friday that its pursuit of more advanced uranium-enriching technology would intensify the long-running international standoff over its disputed atomic drive.
"Any Iranian attempt at a more advanced centrifuge would be an escalation of Iran's ongoing non-compliance with its obligation to suspend all enrichment-related activities," the US ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency, Gregory Schulte, told AFP.

It would constitute a "further violation of Iran's international commitments, further reason why we are concerned about the nature of Iran's nuclear programme and the intentions of its leaders, and further reason for the Security Council to act," he said.

U.S. INTELLIGENCE CHIEF CORRECTS IMPRESSION GIVEN BY NIE ON IRAN'S NUKES

Don't Worry. Wait, Worry! (WSJ-BOTW)
Remember that reassuring news about Iran's nuclear program from the National Intelligence Estimate? Don't be so reassured, reports the New York Sun:

The director of national intelligence is backing away from his agency's assessment late last year that Iran had halted its nuclear program, saying he wishes he had written the unclassified version of the document in a different manner.

At a hearing yesterday of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, the intelligence director, Michael McConnell, said, "If I had 'til now to think about it, I probably would change a few things." He later added, "I would change the way we describe the Iranian nuclear program. I would have included that there are the component parts, that the portion of it, maybe the least significant, had halted." . . .

Yesterday, Mr. McConnell struck a different tone. "Declared uranium enrichment efforts, which will enable the production of fissile material, continue. This is the most difficult challenge in nuclear production. Iran's efforts to perfect ballistic missiles that can reach North Africa and Europe also continue."

He went on, "We remain concerned about Iran's intentions and assess with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons."

The New York Times, which has been beating the drums for complacency, buries the Iran revelation in paragraphs 12-17 of a story on McConnell's testimony, getting to it only after a section about al Qaeda getting stronger in Pakistan and one on waterboarding. (Ho hum, we're waterbored.)

The mainstream media and elements in the intelligence community may well have succeeded in ensuring that there will not be serious action, military or otherwise, against Iran's nuclear program during the Bush administration. That ought to make John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton nervous, for it is most likely that one of them will have to deal with the consequences.

U.S. Intelligence Chief Corrects Impression Given by NIE on Iran - Demetri Sevastopulo
Admiral Michael McConnell, director of national intelligence, told the Senate intelligence committee Tuesday that the November national intelligence estimate had concluded that Tehran had ceased only efforts to covertly enrich uranium and design nuclear warheads. "The only thing that they've halted was nuclear weapons design, which is probably the least significant part of the program," he said. McConnell said Iran continued to develop uranium enrichment technology and longer-range ballistic missiles. (Financial Times-UK)

See also U.S.: Iran Could Have Enough Uranium for Bomb in 2009, But More Likely After 2010 - Pete Williams
McConnell said the U.S. intelligence community assesses "with moderate-to-high confidence that Tehran at a minimum is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons." The earliest Iran would be technically capable of producing enough highly enriched uranium for a weapon is late 2009, but that's very unlikely, he said. More likely that date would be sometime between 2010 and 2015, he added. (NBC News)

FRENCH ENVOY CONDEMNS IRAN STATEMENTS ON ISRAEL

French Envoy Condemns Iran Statements on Israel (AP)
French Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pascale Andreani confirmed Monday that France's ambassador to Iran, Bernard Poletti, had been summoned to the Iranian Foreign Ministry to protest France's policy toward Iran's nuclear activities.

Andreani said Poletti took advantage of the summons to protest "unacceptable" comments Ahmadinejad made last week during a speech in Bushehr implying that Israel would be destroyed.

Poletti reiterated the French position that "the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Israeli-Lebanese relations cannot serve as a pretext to question Israel's right to exist," Andreani said.

Last week, France's Foreign Ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador to Paris, Ali Ahani, to protest Ahmadinejad's comments.

THE THREAT FROM IRAN

Mossad: Iran Greatest Threat to Israel - Amnon Meranda
Mossad chief Meir Dagan told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday that Iran, Syria, Hizbullah, and Hamas have joined forces against Israel. He said that according to some security estimates, Iran will obtain nuclear capabilities by 2009, while more optimistic estimates say Iran won't go nuclear before the end of 2010. He added that the recent U.S. National Intelligence Estimate may hinder international efforts to impose fresh sanctions on Tehran. (Ynet News)

Iran will have nuclear weapon in three years: Mossad (AFP)
Israel's Mossad spy agency estimates Iran will develop a nuclear weapon within three years and continue to provide rockets to regional armed groups, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Mossad director Meir Dagan, in an intelligence assessment presented to Israel's powerful foreign affairs and defence committee on Monday, said the Jewish state would face increased threats on all fronts, Maariv daily said.

Dagan's estimate of Iran's nuclear ambitions differs sharply from an assessment by the US intelligence community late last year that said Iran had mothballed its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.

That report compiled by 16 US intelligence agencies said the Islamic republic would not be able to attain a nuclear weapon until 2015.

Israel has questioned those findings, claiming that although Iran may have temporarily halted its nuclear drive five years ago it has since relaunched it while pressing ahead with a public uranium enrichment programme.

Iran Launches Research Rocket, Unveils Space Center (FOXNEWS)
TEHRAN, Iran — Iran launched a research rocket Monday and unveiled its first major space center that will be used to launch research satellites, state-run television reported.

The report said the rocket, which is capable of carrying a satellite, was the first launched by Iran "into space," but analysts have expressed doubts about similar technological achievements announced by the country in the past.

Iran launched its first domestically built rocket last February, which soared to the edge of space but did not reach orbit level.

"The first Iranian rocket Explorer-1 was fired into space," state-run television reported Monday.

AHMADINEJAD TELLS WEST: ACCEPT END OF ISRAEL

Ahmadinejad tells West: Accept Israel's 'imminent collapse' (Haaretz)
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called on the West Wednesday to acknowledge Israel's "imminent collapse."

Speaking to a crowd on a visit to the southern port of Bushehr, where Iran's first light-water nuclear power plant is being built by Russia, Ahmadinejad further incited his listeners to "stop supporting the Zionists, as [their] regime reached its final stage."

"Accept that the life of Zionists will sooner or later come to an end," the Iranian president said in a televised speech.

He added, "What we have right now is the last chapter [of Israeli atrocities] which the Palestinians and regional nations will confront and eventually turn in Palestine's favor."

Iran does not acknowledge Israel and Ahmadinejad has in the past sparked international outcry by referring to the systematic murder of six million Jews in World War II as a "myth" and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."

Iran is currently also mediating in the crisis over the Gaza Strip, where Israel has imposed a blockade on border crossings into the coastal territory, barring the entry of supplies into the already impoverished area. Last week, Palestinian militants blew holes in the barrier separating the Gaza Strip from Egypt, prompting hundreds of thousands of Gazans to pour into Egypt in search of supplies.

Ahmadinejad also urged the Western powers to help build nuclear power plants in his country saying it will be too late if they do not decide to do so immediately.

"If you will not come, this nation will build nuclear plants based on its own resources and when you come some four years later it will reject your request and not then give you any opportunity," he said.

"I am addressing leaders of two or three powers; do you remember I sent you message and told you to stop be stubborn? If you think that you can block the movement of Iranian nation, you are wrong," the Iranian president continued.

Also on Wednesday Ahmad Fayyazbakhsh, the deputy head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization told reporters the first Iranian-made light-water 360 megawatt nuclear power plant will go operational in 2016 in the southwestern Iranian town of Darkhovin.

IRAN RECEIVES FINAL NUKE FUEL SHIPMENT FROM RUSSIA

Iran Receives Final Russian Shipment of Nuclear Fuel - Ali Akbar Dareini (AP/Washington Post)
Iran received the final 5-ton shipment of uranium fuel from Russia on Monday for its first nuclear plant at Bushehr, the Islamic Republic News Agency reported. "With the arrival of the final shipment, all 82 tons of initial fuel needed for the power plant together with peripheral equipment has been shipped from Russia to Iran," IRNA reported.