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Ahmadinejad warns against attack
Mr Ahmadinejad warned outside powers to learn from the past
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/7007957.stm
Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has issued a tough warning to any country considering an attack on Iran.
He said Iran's forces were just for defence, but that anybody who attacked would experience nothing but regret.
He urged those he called the occupiers in the region - an apparent reference to the US and its allies in Iraq - to admit defeat and withdraw their troops.
Mr Ahmadinejad was speaking at a huge annual military parade marking the anniversary of the Iran-Iraq War.
On display at the parade was Iran's latest military hardware, including new long-range missiles and Saegheh fighter jets.
According to the Associated Press news agency some of the lorries carrying Iranian missiles bore anti-US and anti-Israeli slogans.
"Those who prevented Iran, at the height of the [1980-88 Iran-Iraq] war from getting even barbed wire must see now that all the equipment on display today has been built by the mighty hands and brains of experts at Iran's armed forces," Mr Ahmadinejad said.
"Learn lessons from your past mistakes. Don't repeat your mistakes," he added.
UN address
His comments come ahead of his high-profile visit to the US next week, where he will address the UN General Assembly in New York, amid continuing tension over Iran's nuclear programme.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44131000/jpg/_44131929_afp203bodyjets.jpg
On display were Iran's new Saegheh fighter jets
Mr Ahmadinejad said that neither threats nor economic sanctions would curb Iran's technological advances.
"Those [countries] who assume that decaying methods such as psychological war, political propaganda and the so-called economic sanctions would work and prevent Iran's fast drive toward progress are mistaken," the president said.
The speech comes at the end of a tense week, with the French Foreign Minister, Bernard Kouchner, warning of the danger of war with Iran over its nuclear programme.
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Tehran says Mr Ahmadinejad believes he is winning the battle for world opinion - a fight he is now taking to the UN General Assembly in New York.
The US has called for a third round of UN economic sanctions to pressure Iran into halting uranium enrichment, which it says is part of a secret plan to acquire nuclear weapons.
Iran has denied the charge, declaring that its nuclear programme is peaceful and solely aimed at producing energy.
Footage of the new iranian jet fighter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jexr944Allg
Iran tests new jet fighters, says scares enemies
The Star Online
September 20, 2007
MYT 8:30:19 PM
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2007/9/20/worldupdates/2007-09-20T175855Z_01_NOOTR_RTRMDNC_0_-296416-1&sec=Worldupdates
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran said on Thursday it had "scared its enemies" by test flying two new generation, domestically-produced jet fighter planes and had shown its battle readiness, the latest riposte to speculation about a war over Tehran's nuclear plans.
French officials, including President Nicolas Sarkozy, have spurred talk about a possible war by saying the failure of diplomacy to resolve Iran's dispute with the West over its atomic programme could result in conflict.
The United States, which has been leading efforts to isolate Iran because it believes Tehran is trying to build atomic bombs, has said it wants diplomacy to end the standoff but has refused to rule out military options if that route fails. Tehran says its nuclear plans are geared to energy production.
Defence Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar told state TV that experts in the ministry and air force had jointly carried out research, design and production of the Saegheh warplane.
"Two Saegheh jets were tested successfully by air force pilots ... The test scared Iran's enemies," Najjar told state television, adding that the two jets would officially join the country's fleet of warplanes on Saturday.
Armed forces chief Ataollah (eds: correct) Salehi also said of the test flights: "Iran, with its advanced equipment and capabilities, is fully prepared for any possible aggression."
Iran said in September last year it had for the first time flown one of the Saegheh planes, describing it then as a modification of a warplane already in its fleet.
It did not say at the time on what plane the Saegheh was based, but images shown of its test flight suggested it might be based around a U.S.-built F-5, a plane bought from the United States when Iran was a U.S. ally before the 1979 revolution.
State television said the Saegheh jet was a new generation of the Azarakhsh (Lightning) fighter, which Iran said in August was now being built on an industrial scale. Tehran says it makes tanks, armoured personnel carriers and missiles and torpedoes.
"We have reached the cutting edge of designing new generation fighter jets," the defence minister said.
Tehran says the Saegheh has similar capabilities to the U.S. F-18 fighter but is "more powerful".
Although Iran regularly says it has made major advances in its weaponry, Western experts say it rarely gives enough detail to confirm the capabilities.
The experts say Iranian weaponry, some of it modifications of equipment bought from China and others, would be no match for U.S. technology but say Iran could still deliver a punch by hitting strategic targets, such as blocking the Gulf waterway.
An Iranian air force commander said on Wednesday Iran had plans for bombing Israel if the Jewish state attacked first.
tbahrain
24-09-2007, 15:24
Would be interesting to hear his speech at UNGA and at Columbia U.
tbahrain
From The Sunday Times
September 23, 2007
Secret US air force team to perfect plan for Iran strike
Sarah Baxter, Washington
Also from Sarah Baxter: Israelis seized nuclear material in Syrian raid | Snatched: Israeli commandos ‘nuclear’ raid | Israelis 'blew apart Syrian nuclear cache' | Alan Greenspan: "Blair was clearly an aide to Brown"
THE United States Air Force has set up a highly confidential strategic planning group tasked with “fighting the next war” as tensions rise with Iran.
Project Checkmate, a successor to the group that planned the 1991 Gulf War’s air campaign, was quietly reestablished at the Pentagon in June.
It reports directly to General Michael Moseley, the US Air Force chief, and consists of 20-30 top air force officers and defence and cyberspace experts with ready access to the White House, the CIA and other intelligence agencies.
Related Links
* The men planning America's next air war
Detailed contingency planning for a possible attack on Iran has been carried out for more than two years by Centcom (US central command), according to defence sources.
Checkmate’s job is to add a dash of brilliance to Air Force thinking by countering the military’s tendency to “fight the last war” and by providing innovative strategies for warfighting and assessing future needs for air, space and cyberwarfare.
It is led by Brigadier-General Lawrence “Stutz” Stutzriem, who is considered one of the brightest air force generals. He is assisted by Dr Lani Kass, a former Israeli military officer and expert on cyberwarfare.
The failure of United Nations sanctions to curtail Iran’s nuclear ambitions, which Tehran claims are peaceful, is giving rise to an intense debate about the likelihood of military strikes.
Bernard Kouchner, the French foreign minister, said last week that it was “necessary to prepare for the worst . . . and the worst is war”. He later qualified his remarks, saying he wanted to avoid that outcome.
France has joined America in pushing for a tough third sanctions resolution against Iran at the UN security council but is meeting strong resistance from China and Russia. Britain has been doing its best to bridge the gap, but it is increasingly likely that new sanctions will be implemented by a US-led “coalition of the willing”.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who arrives in New York for the United Nations general assembly today, has been forced to abandon plans to visit ground zero, where the World Trade Center stood until the September 11 attacks of 2001. Politicians from President George W Bush to Senator Hillary Clinton, the Democratic frontrunner in the 2008 race for the White House, were outraged by the prospect of a visit to New York’s most venerated site by a “state sponsor” of terrorism.
Bush still hopes to isolate Iran diplomatically, but believes the regime is moving steadily closer to obtaining nuclear weapons while the security council bickers.
The US president faces strong opposition to military action, however, within his own joint chiefs of staff. “None of them think it is a good idea, but they will do it if they are told to,” said a senior defence source.
General John Abizaid, the former Centcom commander, said last week: “Every effort should be made to stop Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, but failing that, the world could live with a nuclear-armed Iran.”
Critics fear Abizaid has lost sight of Iran’s potential to arm militant groups such as Hezbollah with nuclear weapons. “You can deter Iran, but there is no strategy against nuclear terrorism,” said the retired air force Lieutenant General Thomas McInerney of the Iran policy committee.
“There is no question that we can take out Iran. The problem is the follow-on, the velvet revolution that needs to be created so the Iranian people know it’s not aimed at them, but at the Iranian regime.”
Checkmate’s freethinking mission is “to provide planning inputs to warfighters that are strategically, operationally and tactically sound, logistically supportable and politically feasible”. Its remit is not specific to one country, according to defence sources, but its forward planning is thought relevant to any future air war against Iranian nuclear and military sites. It is also looking at possible threats from China and North Korea.
Checkmate was formed in the 1970s to counter Soviet threats but fell into disuse in the 1980s. It was revived under Colonel John Warden and was responsible for drawing up plans for the crushing air blitz against Saddam Hussein at the opening of the first Gulf war.
Warden told The Sunday Times: “When Saddam invaded Kuwait, we had access to unlimited numbers of people with expertise, including all the intelligence agencies, and were able to be significantly more agile than Centcom.”
He believes that Checkmate’s role is to develop the necessary expertise so that “if somebody says Iran, it says: ‘here is what you need to think about’. Here are the objectives, here are the risks, here is what it will cost, here are the numbers of planes we will lose, here is how the war is going to end and here is what the peace will look like”.
Warden added: “The Centcoms of this world are executional – they don’t have the staff, the expertise or the responsibility to do the thinking that is needed before a country makes the decision to go to war. War planning is not just about bombs, airplanes and sailing boats.”
http://server33.irna.com/filesystem/86/06/29/890714-55-44.jpg
Saegheh (not armed with weapons)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/FA-18-NAVY-Blue-Diamond.jpg/799px-FA-18-NAVY-Blue-Diamond.jpg
F-18
tbahrain
25-09-2007, 08:08
s3, br.
I do not think Iran is going to go head to head with the attacking forces with conventional weapons such as these aircrafts. Lessons of Vietnam and now afghanistan and iraq would require iran to think of unconventional ways to retaliate. There is iran and there are friends of iran all over the ME ready to show their solidarity and fortunately or unfortunately there are US bases scattered all over there too.
The last conventional war was last fought, I think, in the falklands between argentina and britain and the former lost. Imagne if argentina were to flood the island with their poor and armed them, I believe the war would still be fought until now. Wonder would they too be called terrorists and al-Q?
tbahrain.
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