iran

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... (http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5hc1qLzUeOt9nhRE_yzb8-U7MMaFg)

Israel stressed to Bush that Iran is a nuclear 'threat': general

By AFP


Iran poses a real nuclear threat and Israel made that point clear to US President George W. Bush during his visit this week, an Israeli defence official said Saturday.

"We tried hard to present him the situation as we see it," Amos Gilad, reserve general and political adviser to Defence Minister Ehud Barak, told Israel's public radio.

"From a professional point of view the situation is clear: there is an Iranian nuclear threat," Gilad said.

"After deep scrutiny, the intellience services reached the same conclusion -- Iran is striving to obtain nuclear weapons," he added.

Bush said on Wednesday that Iran posed "a threat to world peace" and should not be allowed to develop the know-how to build a nuclear weapon.

Iran vehemently denies seeking atomic weapons and insists that its nuclear programme is entirely peaceful and aimed at energy generation.

A US intelligence report in December said that Iran halted a nuclear weapons programme in 2003.

Gilad did not rule out a military strike against Iran over its disputed nuclear programme, saying "we must consider all the options."

"For now we prefer the diplomatic option. But as the US president has often said, all options are on the table," he said.

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The US Navy withdraws the allegation that Iranian patrol boats had threatened to blow up a three-ship US convoy in the Hormuz Strait.

"It could have been a threat aimed at some other nation or a myriad of other things," The Washington Post quoted US Navy spokesman Rear Admiral Frank Thorp IV as saying on Friday.

This is while senior US Navy sources have told the BBC that an alleged threat to blow up the US warships 'may not have come' from Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz.

The Pentagon alleged five Iranian boats belonging to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) had harassed three US Navy warships by threatening to 'blow them up' on Sunday.

"No one in the military has said that the transmission emanated from those boats," said Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell.

However, President Bush characterized the incident as 'provocative' and 'dangerous', warning Iran of serious consequences if it happens again.

Iranian officials have dismissed the allegation saying the incident was a routine maritime identification check, which is common between vessels in the Persian Gulf.

Avove article From http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=38370§ionid=351020101

U.S.: Voices on Recording May Not Have Been From Iranian Speedboats

Martha Raddatz and Jonathan Karl – ABC News Jan. 10, 2008

Just two days after the U.S. Navy released the eerie video of Iranian speedboats swarming around American warships, which featured a chilling threat in English, the Navy is saying that the voice on the tape could have come from the shore or from another ship.

U.S. Navy Face-Off With IranThe near-clash occurred over the weekend in the Strait of Hormuz. On the U.S.-released recording, a voice can be heard saying to the Americans, "I am coming to you. You will explode after a few minutes."

The Navy never said specifically where the voices came from, but many were left with the impression they had come from the speedboats because of the way the Navy footage was edited.

Today, the spokesperson for the U.S. admiral in charge of the Fifth Fleet clarified to ABC News that the threat may have come from the Iranian boats, or it may have come from somewhere else.

We're saying that we cannot make a direct connection to the boats there," said the spokesperson. "It could have come from the shore, from another ship passing by. However, it happened in the middle of all the very unusual activity, so as we assess the information and situation, we still put it in the total aggregate of what happened Sunday morning. I guess we're not saying that it absolutely came from the boats, but we're not saying it absolutely didn't."

The Iranians have denied using the threatening language and are saying U.S.-released video is fabricated. Today, the Iranian government aired its own video of the event on state-run TV there. On the audio, the voice that the Iranians say is the communication from their vessel can be heard identifying itself to the American ship, "Coalition warship No. 73 this is an Iranian navy patrol boat."

The incident ended without shots being fired, but senior defense officials told ABC News that the USS Hopper's gunners were within seconds of firing on the Iranians.
http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Story?id=4115702&page=2

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http://presscue.com/node/38692

We'll nuke Iran - Bush promises Israel
Thu, 01/10/2008 - 16:08 - Wire Services

US President George W. Bush promised Israel's opposition leader Binyamin Netanyahu that the United States will join the Jewish state in a nuclear strike against Iran, Israel Radio reported today.

Former Prime Minister Netanyahu, opposition Likud party's hardline chairman who opposes the US-backed Annapolis peace process, reiterated to President Bush his stance, that a pre-emptive nuclear strike against Iran's nuclear installations was the only way to stop the Islamic nation's nuclear weapons ambitions.

"I told him my position and Bush agreed," Netanyahu told Israel Radio.

During their 45-minute meeting at King David hotel in Jerusalem Netanyahu also told Bush that "Jerusalem belongs to the Jewish people and will remain under Israeli sovereignty for eternity."

President Bush issued a stark warning to Iran over Strait of Hormuz incident, saying that "all options are on the table to protect our assets."

“There will be serious consequences if they attack our ships, pure and simple,” Bush said during the joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem. “And my advice to them is, don't do it.”

Bush criticized those who interpret the National Intelligence Estimate, which found that Iran gave up its nuclear weapons program in 2003, as a sign that Iran was no longer a threat.

"Let me remind you what the NIE actually said," Bush stold reporters. "It said that as far as the intelligence community could tell, at one time the Iranians had a military -- covert military program that was suspended in 2003 because of international pressure. My attitude is that a non-transparent country, a country which has yet to disclose what it was up to, can easily restart a program."