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Ahmadinejad: a deal with the United States?
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| By Israel Insider staff December 11, 2007 |
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An Iranian opposition group in exile on Tuesday agreed with the US National Intelligence Estimate that claimed Teheran halted its nuclear weapons development program in 2003, but said that the bomb-making program resumed the following year. The report was therefore misleading in ignoring the evidence of the resumption of the program. "We announce vehemently that the clerical regime is currently continuing its drive to obtain nuclear weapons," said Mohammad Mohaddessin, a spokesman for the Paris-based National Council of Resistance of Iran, or NCRI.
Mohaddessin, at a news conference, said that Iran appeared to have duped US intelligence into that conclusion. "The clerical regime leaks false information and intelligence to Western intelligence services, through double agents," he said.
Mohaddessin acknowledged that Iran shut down the Lavizan-Shian weapons center in Teheran sometime in 2003 under international pressure, and demolished the site. However, he claimed that the Iranian authorities merely shifted their weapons development efforts to other sites around the country, and that work had resumed by 2004. Israeli officials, citing their own sources, have confirmed this scenario.
The NCRI is no friend of the West. It is described as the political wing of the People's Mujahedeen of Iran, an opposition group advocating the overthrow of the government in Teheran. The Mujahedeen are considered a terrorist group by the United States and the European Union as well as Iran. There was no independent verification of the NCRI claims, which Mohaddessin attributed to sources within Iran, including staff at covert nuclear plants. He said the group had checked with its sources in the past week and discovered that the centers were still working.
Four years ago, the group disclosed information about two hidden nuclear sites that helped uncover nearly two decades of covert Iranian atomic activity, according to the AP. But much of the information it has presented since then to back up claims that Iran has a secret weapons program has not been publicly verified.
"These centers are working just now for producing nuclear bombs. This is contrary to the United States' National Intelligence Estimate," he said.
Meanwhile, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday called the report a "step forward" and said more such steps could create an "entirely different" situation between the two countries. "We consider this measure by the US government a positive step. It is a step forward," Ahmadinejad told a press conference. The reassuring and conciliatory tone of his remarks support the more sinister scenario that the Bush Administration "let itself be duped" and greenlighted the highly suspect intelligence report as a way to avoid confrontation with Iran and begin a Saudi-brokered dialogue with Teheran.
In effect, this about-face would represent an abandonment of the United States' leadership of the drive to stop Iranian nuclearization and amount to a sell-out not only of Israel and Lebanon's Seniora government as well as Western European allies. Iran's president seemed delighted, but hinted that there were additional demands yet to be satisfied.
"If one or two other steps are taken, the issues we have in front of us will be entirely different and will lose their complexity, and the way will be open for the resolution of basic issues in the region and in dealings between the two sides," Ahmadinejad said.
Further evidence supporting the scenario of American betrayal is the announcement by Egypt that it plans to to resume diplomatic relations with Tehran, including the dispatch of an emissary from Cairo to Teheran to discuss the resumption of relations after 27 years.
DEBKAfile's Middle East sources report that "this step was part of an initiative for Saudi Arabian, Jordanian and Egyptian leaders to come together in a new summit to embrace the Syrian ruler and bridge their policy differences with the radical Syrian-Tehran line."
In addition, West Bank leader Mahmoud Abbas is also to part of the shift and will be pushed to patch up relations with Hamas and take a much tougher line against Israel, now effectively betrayed and abandoned by its erstwhile superpower ally. Saturday, Abbas dispatch Ahmad Qureia, head of the Palestinian negotiating team with Israel, to Damascus for guidance from Syria on future tactics in the talks. DEBKAfile?s Middle East sources report: "The road to radicalization embarked on by this central Arab bloc is the direct result of the dialogue Washington has opened with Tehran, while also reflecting the ubiquitous Arab drive for unity."
Jordan is also running scared, Debka reports, with Bassam Iwadallah, personal adviser to Jordan?s King Abdullah, also entreating the Syrian officials to let the Hashemit king back into the good graces of the region's most radical elements. Syrian President for life Bashar Assad responded favorably by sending Syrian foreign minister Walid Moualem to Amman Sunday, Dec. 9, where he was personally received by Jordan's ruler Abdullah. Debkafile also reports that he sent the Damascus-based Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal to Riyadh Saturday to get Saudi money flowing to Hamas and ensure a leadership position for Syria in the new radicalization process.
The effect of the US betrayal and reconciliation with Iran is expected to be seen Wednesday, when Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert is expected to meet with Abbas to start talks for a Palestinian state that were kicked off in Annapolis last month.
It is expected that the Palestinian leader will take a new hard line against Israel, refusing all efforts at compromise and taking advantage of the cold shoulder that the United States has suddenly shoved against the Jewish state, knowing well that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will continue her one-side attacks on Israeli policy without demanding concessions on the Palestinian side.
In the end, the fatal concession by Olmert and Livni to allow the US to play the role of judge in all disputes -- and every issue will be irreconcilably disputed -- will effectively allow the Americans to impose a solution on Israel that will produce much pleasure in Teheran and among the most radical circles of the Palestinians and the Islamic world.
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