Cyprus-Forum.com

[pantelis]

quote]I've forgotten one of the strongest trumps of US [/quote]

No, the Iraqi Kurds are a better trump.

"The steps taken by the government of Pakistan ....

Does he mean the military Junta of Pakistan?

For the first time in years, Iran has reported defense and military relations with Russia

These are old "Cold War" ploys, which everyone knows they do not work anymore, but still practice them, partly because they come from the “old” school and partly due to lack of other alternatives in facing US "pressure". Turkey just returned from the same path, which accomplished nothing more than simply a nice tourist trip for a few hundred Turkish businessmen and Turkish “officials” to Moscow.

Both Russia and China are in the US’s “pockets”, right now, or at least they pretend to be there. They both have more to lose from a rift in their relations with the US, than with any other country, alone or as a group. The dollar may be weak, but the American economy can still buy a lot of things.

Iran is going to be next. The US has nothing left to lose, they lost everything already. George and those behind him are un-stoppable now. For him, this is a CALL from God; to fix the world's "problems" and to destroy all that he deems is "evil".

[brother]

Another nutcase who is using religion for his own war mongery.
First we had hitler, stalin, saddam and now george bush but he is as dangerous as hitler was.

[insan]

Iran, Syria reject terrorism allegations


By NASSER KARIMI, Associated Press Writer
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Iran and Syria on Thursday rejected President Bush's charges that they sponsored terrorism, with an Iranian official calling the claims groundless and the Syrian information minister saying the democracy America seeks for the Middle East could not come through force.
Although criticized for his stern words on Syria and Iran, Bush won some praise in the region for calling in his State of the Union address for an independent Palestinian state living side by side in peace with Israel.


------------------


Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) Mohammad Mohaddessin gestures during a press conference on Iran's nuclear weapons program, in Paris Thursday Feb. 3, 2005. Iran is producing the material needed to trigger a fission chain reaction that would detonate a nuclear bomb, an Iranian opposition group charged Thursday, saying the "top secret project" proves that Tehran does not intend its nuclear technology for peaceful purposes alone.


http://www.heraldonline.com/24hour/worl ... 9178c.html

[insan]

Bin Laden calls for war in light of elections

The Associated Press



CAIRO, Egypt - In a clear reference to Iraq's weekend balloting, a statement purportedly made by Osama bin Laden's top deputy says holy war, not ''rigged elections,'' is the only path for reform in Islamic nations.
The written statement, said to have been the transcript of an audio-taped recording by al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri, first appeared on several Islamist Internet sites Tuesday.
''Reform can't be achieved under governments installed by the [foreign] occupier through rigged elections conducted under the supervision of the United Nations and protected by B-52s and Apache helicopter rockets,'' al-Zawahri said. ''There is no reform except through holy war.''
It was not immediately possible to authenticate the statement. A U.S. intelligence official who was able to access the tape said the voice is believed to be that of al-Zawahiri.
Iraq's Association of Muslim Scholars months ago urged Sunnis to shun the polls because of the presence of U.S. and other foreign troops, while insurgents threatened to kill anyone who voted in Sunday's polls.
Islamic militants, led by al-Qaida terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, claimed responsibility for numerous suicide bombings and attacks against polling stations Sunday.



http://www.sltrib.com/nationworld/ci_2550261

[insan]

TEHRAN, Iran Iran's supreme leader says President Bush wants to get rid of Iran's ruling Islamic establishment but that he will fail.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (hah-meh-neh-EE') was responding to Bush's State of the Union address to Congress, in which he accused Iran of being "the world's primary state sponsor of terror."

State-run television quotes Khamenei as saying the U-S is trying "to deny the talented Iranian nation of progress and deprive it of existence."

As he has in the past, Khamenei referred to America as the "global tyrant," and said all U-S presidents since 1979 have sought to overthrow Iran's ruling establishment but failed one after the other.

He told students in Tehran, "This president will also fail."



http://www.kvoa.com/Global/story.asp?S=2897580

[brother]

This U.S-Iran thing is really starting to hot up.

[insan]

Rice says diplomacy can succeed in Iran


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By Anne Gearan

Feb. 4, 2005 | Berlin --


Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined British and German allies pledging Friday to help Israel and the Palestinians seize an opening for peace in the Middle East. They also said diplomacy can neutralize a nuclear threat in Iran.


http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2005/02/ ... ex_np.html

[insan]

Rice blasts Iran, says U.S. has no plans to invade

Published Friday, February 4, 2005
LONDON (AP) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today that a U.S. attack on Iran "is simply not on the agenda at this point," despite the United States’ continued criticism of Iran’s human rights record and suspected nuclear weapons ambitions.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage has expressly said that regime change in Iran is not the U.S. goal. But Rice would not say whether the United States supports a change of government.

Speaking on the plane as she began a weeklong trip, Rice said Iran’s approach to human rights and its treatment of its own citizens are loathsome.

"I don’t think anybody thinks that the unelected mullahs who run that regime are a good thing for the Iranian people and for the region," she said yesterday.

Today she referred to Iran’s leaders as "an unelected few."


http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Feb ... ews013.asp

[insan]

EU fears Iran expects too much too soon
By Daniel Dombey in Brussels
Published: February 4 2005 17:43 | Last updated: February 4 2005 17:43

European Union officials are concerned that Iran is expecting too much, too soon, of a November agreement to suspend uranium enrichment in exchange for economic incentives.


The growing uneasiness follows a meeting this week between Javier Solana, the EU's foreign policy representative, and Gholamreza Aqazadeh, head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organisation, and a Financial Times interview with Hossein Mousavian, Tehran's chief nuclear negotiator. In both Iran called for speedier and more concrete benefits in trade and technological ties from its talks with France, Germany, the UK and Mr Solana.

But the EU says they cannot deliver until it has assurances that the Iranian programme will not be used to develop weapons. Contrary to US assertions that Iran has a military nuclear weapons programme, Tehran maintains its programme is peaceful. "We hope at the end of this process Iran will give concrete guarantees that its programme has only peaceful ends," Mr Solana told the European parliament last week.

Michèle Alliot-Marie, French defence minister, said yesterday: "The Europeans have a sense of urgency and absolute necessity to stop Iran from having nuclear arms."

The EU has little time to win those assurances and little prospect of the US becoming involved in the talks, the progress of which will be reviewed next month.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/d7791432-7626- ... 511c8.html






The Eurasia Union

[insan]

US allies fret at hard line of 'nuclear hawks'
By Guy Dinmore in Washington
Published: February 4 2005 21:14 | Last updated: February 4 2005 21:14

How far the second Bush administration can take its charm offensive in rebuilding its traditional alliances is already being put to the test by newly promoted “nuclear hawks” committed to a hardline approach on arms control and non-proliferation.


Tensions are emerging between the US and its allies over what non-nuclear nations see as a lack of sincerity by the superpower towards nuclear disarmament, even as it pushes for a tightening of the international nuclear regime and a tougher response to the ambitions of North Korea and Iran.

Senior diplomats are concerned that a review of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), a conference held every five years and due to reconvene in New York in May, will produce no outcome.

The “nuclear hawks” or “bomb lovers” as one former official described them include Jack Crouch, named this week as deputy national security adviser; Robert Joseph, expected to be named soon as undersecretary for arms control; and John Rood, who replaces Mr Joseph in the White House as special adviser.

The hawks--supported by Vice-President Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the defence secretary--are known for their scepticism towards arms control agreements, their commitment to missile defence and development of new nuclear weapons, such as “bunker busters”, and an appreciation of covert operations.

http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c2f02ab8-76ef- ... 511c8.html