Skip to main content

Iran: Sabre rattling and the reality

Some would say that one ought to be cautious about accepting any report from Iran's PressTV, but as it is reporting AP and referring to a piece in The New York Times, one would hope that what it is being reported here is accurate.   If so, the sabre rattling from certain quarters directed at Iran - plus the sanctions imposed on the country - may well be totally displaced.

"The Associated Press report said Sunday that although Israeli leaders have been charging for years that Iran is trying to build nuclear weapons, their officials have accepted the more nuanced American view.

The US Intelligence Community has said in frequent reports, the latest of which was published in February, that there is no hard evidence showing Iran has decided to build a nuclear bomb.

The report added that several senior Israeli officials, who spoke to AP in recent days clearly, said Israel has come around to the US view that no final decision to build a bomb has been made by Iran.

The officials, who are privy to Israeli intelligence, added that this is the prevailing view in the Israeli intelligence community.

On March 18, The New York Times published a report quoting a former top US intelligence official as saying that both Washington and Tel Aviv have reached a consensus over the peaceful nature of Tehran’s nuclear energy program.

“There is not a lot of dispute between the US and Israeli intelligence communities on the fact” that Iran has not deviated from its nuclear energy program.

The Los Angeles Times reported on February 23rd that 16 US intelligence agencies agree Tehran was not seeking to build nuclear weapons.

The “highly classified” intelligence assessment was reportedly circulated among US policymakers early last year.

The US and Israel have been escalating their war rhetoric against Iran in recent months, claiming that there are diversions in the country’s nuclear energy program towards a military one.
"

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Reading the Chilcot Inquiry Report more closely

Most commentary on the Chilcot Inquiry Report of and associated with the Iraq War, has been "lifted" from the Executive Summary.   The Intercept has actually gone and dug into the Report, with these revelations : "THE CHILCOT REPORT, the U.K.’s official inquiry into its participation in the Iraq War, has finally been released after seven years of investigation. Its executive summary certainly makes former Prime Minister Tony Blair, who led the British push for war, look terrible. According to the report, Blair made statements about Iraq’s nonexistent chemical, biological, and nuclear programs based on “what Mr. Blair believed” rather than the intelligence he had been given. The U.K. went to war despite the fact that “diplomatic options had not been exhausted.” Blair was warned by British intelligence that terrorism would “increase in the event of war, reflecting intensified anti-US/anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim world, including among Muslim communities in the

An unpalatable truth!

Quinoa has for the last years been the "new" food on the block for foodies. Known for its health properties, foodies the world over have taken to it. Many restaurants have added it to their menu. But, as this piece " Can vegans stomach the unpalatable truth about quinoa? " from The Guardian so clearly details, the cost to Bolivians and Peruvians - from where quinoa hails - has been substantial. "Not long ago, quinoa was just an obscure Peruvian grain you could only buy in wholefood shops. We struggled to pronounce it (it's keen-wa, not qui-no-a), yet it was feted by food lovers as a novel addition to the familiar ranks of couscous and rice. Dieticians clucked over quinoa approvingly because it ticked the low-fat box and fitted in with government healthy eating advice to "base your meals on starchy foods". Adventurous eaters liked its slightly bitter taste and the little white curls that formed around the grains. Vegans embraced quinoa as

Climate change: Well-organised hoax?

There are still some - all too sadly people with a voice who are listened to - who assert that climate change is a hoax. Try telling that to the people of Colorado who recently experienced horrendous bushfires, or the people of Croatia suffering with endless days of temps of 40 degrees (and not much less than 30 at night time) some 8-10 degrees above the norm. Bill McKibben, take up the issue of whether climate change is a hoax, on The Daily Beast : Please don’t sweat the 2,132 new high temperature marks in June—remember, climate change is a hoax. The first to figure this out was Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe, who in fact called it “the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” apparently topping even the staged moon landing. But others have been catching on. Speaker of the House John Boehner pointed out that the idea that carbon dioxide is “harmful to the environment is almost comical.” The always cautious Mitt Romney scoffed at any damage too: “Scientists will fig