Iran warns US over Afghan mily bases

http://www.thenews.com.pk/article-54304-Iran-warns-US-over-Afghan-mily-bases

KABUL: Iran on Thursday warned a key international conference that a long-term US military presence in Afghanistan would fan regional insecurity and could plunge the war-torn country back into further chaos.

Representatives from 29 countries gathered in Kabul for the conference, weeks after NATO agreed at a summit in Chicago to stick to plans to withdraw the bulk of 130,000 foreign combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

The Taliban militia leading a 10-year insurgency against President Hamid Karzai's government has begun the annual fighting season with a series of attacks which saw US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta admit that violence was rising.

Karzai sought to reassure neighbours that strategic partnership deals signed by Kabul with several Western powers -- particularly the United States -- to govern relations beyond 2014, would not damage ties.

But the foreign minister of Iran, an enemy of the United States that welcomes NATO's departure from its eastern border, alluded to the Kabul-Washington pact by saying it added to security concerns among Afghanistan's neighbours.

"A particular country intends to prolong its military presence in Afghanistan in pursuit of its extra regional objectives. This certainly adds to the security concerns of Afghanistan's neighbouring countries," said Ali Akbar Salehi.

The strategic partnership deal and efforts to establish foreign military bases in Afghanistan ran against regional and international moves to achieve peace, and "could turn this country once again into scene of security rivalries" he said.

Afghanistan has long been a focus of imperial rivalry and scene of foreign intervention, most recently since the 2001 US-led invasion but also in the 1980s uprising against Russian troops that ultimately helped bring down the Soviet Union.

Washington denies it is seeking to establish permanent military bases in Afghanistan, but American military sources say they envisage around 15,000 forces remaining in Afghanistan after the 2014 withdrawal.

Last month, Karzai warned that tough talks with Washington lay ahead over a security pact that would address the US presence in Afghanistan beyond 2014, including the crucial issue of the legal status of foreign troops.

At the one-day conference, he asked neighbouring and international powers to invest in economic growth and peace in his impoverished country.

He also called on Pakistan, one of the historic sponsors of the Taliban, directly to support nascent efforts to end the 10-year war in Afghanistan.

"Support from these global powers and our neighbours is very important to Afghanistan and to the continued progress of Afghanistan towards stability and economic development," Karzai told delegates.

Karzai is keen to broker a peace deal with the Taliban, but the militants publicly refuse to talk to his government. Earlier this year, it also announced that it had pulled the plug on nascent contacts with the Americans in Qatar.

Karzai said the head of the Afghan High Peace Council would soon visit Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but gave no dates, and urged Islamabad to support peace efforts.

Afghanistan's relations with Pakistan have been clouded by mutual blame for Islamist violence plaguing both countries.

Karzai has consistently called on Pakistan to demolish terror sanctuaries in its semi-autonomous tribal belt.

Last week, Panetta also warned that the United States was running out of patience with Pakistan for not eliminating safe-havens of the Pakistan-based Haqqani network and other militants who attack US troops.

Islamabad denies any support for Haqqani activities and says it is doing everything possible to fight terrorism, saying no country has suffered more.

British Foreign Minister William Hague said he would use talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the sidelines of the conference to press Moscow to use its influence to rein in the Syrian regime.

Monitors say more than 14,100 people have been killed in the 15-month uprising against the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Moscow, long an ally of Damascus, has refused to halt weapons sales.

The next talks on Afghanistan will be in Tokyo next month and will focus on ways to ensure social progress -- governance, economic prospects, health and education. (AFP)

Iran 'designing nuclear submarine'

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/iran/9326126/Iran-designing-nuclear-submarine.html

"Initial steps to design and build nuclear submarine propulsion systems have begun," Admiral Abbas Zamini, the technical deputy navy chief, told the agency.

"All countries have the right to use peaceful nuclear technology, including for the propulsion system of its vessels," he said.

Iran's navy "needs the (nuclear-powered) propulsion system to succeed in realising very long-distance operations."

He did not provide further details.

Iran regularly boasts about advances in military and scientific fields, but in most cases fails to provide proof they were ever carried out. Western military experts regularly cast doubt on its claims.

Just a handful of nations - the United States, Russia, France, Britain and China - have the technology to make their own nuclear-powered submarines. India has a model under development.

The navy official's announcement comes as the P5+1 group of world powers are preparing for a new round of crunch talks with Iran in Moscow on June 18 and 19 over Tehran's disputed nuclear activities.

 Iran is pushing forward with an ambitious nuclear programme despite UN Security Council resolutions demanding a halt to uranium enrichment.

The nuclear programme is at the heart of a decade-long standoff between a defiant Tehran and Western powers that fear the Islamic regime is covertly conducting research for atomic weapons capability.

Source: AP

Iran: Submarine Fixed Without Russian Help

May. 29, 2012 - 10:51AM |     By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120529/DEFREG04/305290008/Iran-Submarine-Fixed-Without-Russian-Help?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

 

TEHRAN, Iran — Iran said on May 29 it has managed to overhaul one of the three Russian-made submarines it has in its fleet, despite Moscow rejecting requests for plans and parts.

“At first it was a very difficult task. But with perseverance and determination, our navy proved that it was a doable task,” the commander of the Iranian navy, Adm. Habibollah Sayari, was quoted as saying by the state television website.

The three Kilo class diesel-electric submarines were bought from Russia two decades ago as centerpieces of a navy that relies on them and a half-dozen frigates or destroyers, most of which were bought before Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution.

The sub that was overhauled, “Tareq,” had various parts changed, including engine components and the diving system, and the ailerons, propellers, pumps and electronic units, with replacements all made in Iran, Sayari said.

The Russians, he added, had refused to supply plans of parts. “They insisted that the submarine’s repair be carried out in their country’s shipyard,” he said.

Iran declined that offer because it wanted independence militarily — and also because “if we had returned this submarine to its manufacturer, perhaps we would not have had Tareq returned,” the admiral said.

Iran’s relationship with Russia is largely based on military purchases.

However, disputes between the two nations have been occurring since 2006, when Moscow signed on to U.N. resolutions calling for Tehran to curb its disputed nuclear program.

In 2010, Russia backed out of a commitment to sell an advanced anti-aircraft missile system to the Islamic republic.

U.S. Attaches Strings to Israeli Iron Dome Funds

Apr. 30, 2012 - 10:39AM |

By BARBARA OPALL-ROME

http://www.defensenews.com/article/20120430/DEFREG04/304300003/U-S-Attaches-Strings-Israeli-Iron-Dome-Funds?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

TEL AVIV — Defense and industry leaders here are discovering that even in a U.S. election year — when bipartisan and bicameral support for Israel is at its peak — some American gift packages still come tied with strings.

In exchange for $680 million for Israel’s Iron Dome short-range rocket defense system, Washington wants “appropriate rights” to the Israeli-developed technology and U.S.-based coproduction of the system’s high-speed intercepting missiles.

According to language included in the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee’s markup for the 2013 defense authorization bill, Defense Secretary Leon Panetta may provide up to $680 million to Israel for Iron Dome procurement over the next 29 months.

The proposed funding, when combined with the $205 million authorized and appropriated under 2011 legislation, brings U.S. taxpayer investment in the operationally proven Israeli system to nearly $900 million. “Yet the United States has no rights to the technology involved,” the committee noted.

As a means of leveraging this investment, House authorizers require the director of the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (MDA) to establish a joint Iron Dome program office to formalize long-term cooperation.

“The committee believes the Director should ensure, prior to disbursing additional funds on Iron Dome, that the United States has appropriate rights to this technology, as is consistent with prior U.S.-Israel missile defenses cooperation,” according to the panel’s authorization bill markup.

House authorizers also want MDA “to explore any opportunity to enter into co-production of the Iron Dome system with Israel, in light of the significant U.S. investment in this system.”

In interviews here and in Washington, government sources say the Pentagon is pushing for similar caveats in markups to come from Senate authorizers as well as appropriators from both houses of Congress. The House defense appropriations markup is expected in the first half of May while the Senate version is expected at the end of June.

Israel has deployed three Iron Dome batteries and a fourth is in final stages of acceptance testing with the Israel Air Force’s Air Defense Command. The first two batteries were funded by Israel’s shekel-based defense budget while the $205 million appropriated by Congress last year were used to fund the third and fourth batteries as well as two additional batteries now being produced by an Israeli industrial team led by state-owned Rafael.

Israeli sources say the proposed $680 million in additional funding will cover another four complete Iron Dome batteries, which include an Eltamultimission radar, Iron Dome launchers, Tamir interceptors and the system’s command-and-control unit.

In an Israeli Independence Day address on April 26, Defense Minister Ehud Barak raised “the initiative of the Pentagon, with the approval of the White House and with bipartisan support in Congress, to legislate additional aid to enable Israel to deploy 10 batteries and thousands of interceptors of the Iron Dome.”

Barak did not make reference to the stings that Washington is attaching to its support of Iron Dome, a system which he has repeatedly referred to as “the fruit of Israel’s indigenous defense industry.”

Iran ‘mobilizing’ for cyberwar with West: experts

By Agence France-Presse on Friday, April 27th, 2012

http://www.defencetalk.com/iran-mobilizing-for-cyberwar-with-west-experts-42038/#ixzz1tEiYJFK4

Iran is busy acquiring the technical know-how to launch a potentially crippling cyber-attack on the United States and its allies, experts told a congressional hearing on Thursday, urging the US to step up its defensive measures.

“Over the past three years, the Iranian regime has invested heavily in both defensive and offensive capabilities in cyberspace,” said Ilan Berman, vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council.

“Equally significant, its leaders now increasingly appear to view cyber-warfare as a potential avenue of action against the United States,” he told a House Homeland Security subcommittee.

Patrick Meehan, Republican chairman of the committee, also sounded an alarm over the cyber-security threat posed by Iran to western nations.

“As Iran’s illicit nuclear program continues to inflame tensions between Tehran and the West, I am struck by the emergence of another possible avenue of attack emanating from Iran — the possibility that Iran could conduct a cyber attack against the US homeland,” he said.

The Republican lawmaker said Tehran has reportedly invested over $1 billion in bolstering cyber capabilities, and is believed by some analysts to be the perpetrator of recent attacks on news organizations.

“Iran is very publicly testing its cyber capabilities in the region and, in time, will expand its reach,” Meehan warned.

He added that he has concluded after consultations with US partners in the Middle East that “Iran is the most destructive and malicious actor in the region and will persist in antagonizing the United States and our allies — especially the state of Israel.”

Meehan recalled Senate testimony earlier this year from Director of National Intelligence James Clapper who testified that Iran’s intelligence operations against the United States, including cyber capabilities, “have dramatically increased in recent years in depth and complexity.”

Experts on the panel said Iran’s desire to target the United States could be fueled by a desire for payback after the 2010 Stuxnet worm attack which disabled the Iranian centrifuges used to enrich uranium, dealing a major setback to Iran’s nuclear program.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack although speculation has centered on Israel and the United States.

Stuxnet and similar cyber-attacks allegedly launched against Iran by the West are likely to have steeled its resolve to launch a cyber-assault of its own, experts said.

“For the Iranian regime the conclusion is clear. War with the West, at least on the cyber front, has been joined, and the Iranian regime is mobilizing in response,” Berman said

http://www.defencetalk.com/iran-mobilizing-for-cyberwar-with-west-experts-42038/#ixzz1tEi6ufMp