US, Israel Agree Iran Constitutes Prime Threat To Mideast, Say Must Stop Nuclear Ambitions

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON — The United States and Israel on Monday said Iran is among the "greatest challenges" to stability in the Middle East and reaffirmed their commitment to preventing the country from developing nuclear weapons.

After talks in Washington, senior U.S. and Israeli officials said in a joint statement that Iran's nuclear program, along with its support of anti-Israel militant groups, are of "grave concern," and they pledged to keep Iran from acquiring atomic arms. The discussions were part of the semiannual U.S.-Israel Strategic Dialogue.

"While today's strategic dialogue covered many subjects, it is clear that Iran is among the greatest challenges we face today in the Middle East," said the statement, which was released by the State Department in the names of Deputy Secretary of State James Steinberg and Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon.

"Iran's continued noncompliance with its international obligations related to its nuclear program, as well as its continued support for terrorist entities, are of grave concern to our two countries and the entire international community," they said.

"Continued efforts by the international community to address Iran's actions through both pressure and engagement are critical to changing Iran's strategic calculus and preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapons capability," the statement said.

Read more: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5jLgFsk8pCpHmcVBDrsIt4Jv7KL_g?docId=4875104

[Hardrada]

1. Why do we have to be on Israel's side all the time?

Or on any side in the ME? These costly and needless foreign involvements need to come to end ASAP.

[Chulanowa]

5. Money

Israel's one of our MIC's biggest customers. American organizations such as AIPAC also carry heavy weight with US legislators - there is no Iran lobby in the US. Further, US policy i nthe middle east is still predicated on the notion that Jesus is going to come back and that Israel is integral to that.

[saigon68]

8. the notion that Jesus is going to come back

Its like Ground Hog Day

[McCamy Taylor]

2. Who has killed more Middle Easterners in the last ten years? The US.

WE are the biggest threat to Middle East peace. Iran, Iraq, Israel and the rest have to live there.

[lonestarnot]

3. What he said.

[newfie11]

14. AGREED nt

[RZM]

17. There are far more countries in the ME than these three

Most of the Sunni Arab governments are not at all keen on the Shi'a Persians getting nuclear weapons, since they fear Iran would use this advantage to push them around. Iran has long had ambitions of regional great power status and their nuclear program is in part intended to help bring this about. For all of the anti-Israel rhetoric you hear form Sunni Arab nations, my sense is that they are mostly centered on the Palestinian issue, not larger power games. They don't have a whole lot to fear from Israel -- the 'neighbor' questions were more or less settled in the wars of the 1950s-70s. Though they don't like Israel being there and presumably don't like it having nuclear weapons either, Israel's posture (OUTSIDE of Palestinian/Lebanon issues, which are closely linked) is largely defensive. There is little likelihood of Israel making serious moves against the Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians, etc. However, these nations do not have the same sense of security in regards to Iran, hence their apprehensions about its nuclear program.

[Chulanowa]

18. While you make certain points...

Saudi Arabia certainly doesn't want a nuclear-armed Iran. However... nor does Saudi Arabia want a repeat of Iraq. See, there's the old "Me against my brother, me and my brother against my cousins, and all of us against the world" outlook here. A decade of baby-killing sanctions followed by mass bombings, all on false pretenses is not something the other Muslim nations want to happen to Iran, even though they're not terribly fond of Iran.

Shia and Sunni differences don't count for shit when the fight is between a Muslim nation and a pair of proven abusers from abroad.

[RZM]

19. That doesn't explain Gulf War I

When other Sunni nations (at least their leaders) were more than happy to enable a Western spanking of Sunni-dominated Iraq. My guess is Arab Sunnis certainly don't want the economic headaches that would result from aggression against Iran, but I doubt their concern goes all that far beyond that. For all the hatred of the US and Israel (anchored, IMO, in the Palestinian issue as much as anything else), neither country really represents a concrete threat to the Sunni Arab world in the same way that Iran does. Israel is fundamentally defensive and American Bush-style adventuring in the ME has had its moment. Certainly you can't put Sunni militants in the 'solidarity' category at all. While they grudgingly acknowledge that a powerful Iran might serve as a counterweight to the infidels, they hate the Shi'a almost as much as they hate the West. I attended a talk once where the lecturer pointed out that some of the younger firebrands in Sunni militant circles still refer to Iran by its old Safavid name as a way of pointing out/arguing that the hostile Safavid presence on the Ottoman eastern flank prevented further Sunni gains in Southeastern Europe in the early modern era.

Of course, opinions vary in all of these places. Cold, hard, power calculations are more the purview of elites and intellectuals, while the masses are concerned more with basic emotional and economic issues. Ahmadinajad did get a decent reception in Lebanon recently, but Lebanon also has a high percentage of Shi'a and recent direct experience with the Israeli military. He wouldn't get that kind of reception in too many other places in the region and even in Lebanon it is was something short of a 'hero's welcome.'

[Chulanowa]

20. That one is actually very easy to explain

Saddam had invaded Kuwait - so the Kuwaiti's alignment with the coalition is obvious.
The Saudis feared invasion - Iraqis were right at their border, and despite all their high-tech weaponry, the Saudis had no one who knew how to use it - the Saudi military would have folded in a day.
The UAE had no interest in financial competition with an Iraq that had acquired the capital of Kuwait as well.
And Syria's part was more due to Syria's Baath wanting to undermine Iraq's Baath.
Top it all off with the fact that Saddam, at the time, was a secularist leader and thus easy to demonize.

However, none of these states supported most of what went on in the war. They supported a fight to liberate Kuwait, but heavily opposed the constant bombing of Iraq proper. it was the threat of the Arab states removing their support that kept the US from moving north into Iraq. Further, these same nations stridently opposed the illegal removal of Iraqi territorial sovereignty and the crippling sanctioned levied on the Iraqis.

In short, some sunni muslim states supported the effort to liberate a Sunni emirate from the hands of a secularist aggressor - but vociferously opposed to continued retribution against the people of a majority Shia state.

Neither Iran nor Israel pose much of a threat to the Sunni-dominated middle east - at least not a military threat. Except that Israel has the unquestioning, unwavering support of a nation that, in all honesty, has done more harm to the region than Saddam ever would have. And Israel knows this. If the US were to step out and say "y'alls business is y'all's business" what would happen is that Iranian and Israeli political and economic influence would find an equilibrium, probably with Ruekey either playing kingmaker, or sweeping the board for itself.

And that's basically what you're looking at here. Iran and Israel aren't really frightened of each other from a military angle - The best they could each do is get shot down in the other's airspace, after all - but they are vying for political and economic power in the region. What Israel is using is hoping that the paranoid, Muslim-hating nation it's allied with (that would be us) is dumb enough to fall for "you should bomb them because they have nukes!" line, and thus tip the balance in Israel's favor.

I keep telling people that these aren't complicated conflicts. Everyone refuses to acknowledge this simply because they can't conceive of why simple conflicts like this have been flashing on and off for seventy years now - i.e., they refuse to acknowledge that maybe it's the US' constant involvement and lopsided "peace efforts" that keep fucking the deal up.

[Chulanowa]

4. That's a funny fucking headline.

The two nuclear-armed nations that have contributed the most to middle eastern instability, both of whom funded and aided the nation that invaded Iran i nthe 80's, are saying Iran is the threat.

[jtuck004]

6. Baby, if you are going by the store, would you pick up some FEAR on the way home?

We are running a bit low...

Oh, sure, get some duct tape too. One can never have enough duct tape.

[saigon68]

9. It is often seen misspelled as "Visquine".

Visqueen is a brand of plastic sheeting produced by British Polythene Limited, commonly between 4 and 10 mils (0.1 to 0.25 mm) thick, used as a temporary tarpaulin. It is commonly used to cover concrete as it sets, as a drop cloth when painting, to line decorative ponds, and to cover the ground before applying stone or wood chips to prevent weed growth. Large (100 x 20 ft) sheets of Visqueen are also used during floods to protect levees from wave wash erosion

[jtuck004]

15. + n/t

[on point]

7. Biggest threat to Mideast peace IS USA and Israel!! Not other way round!!

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ixion]

11. Israel and the US are the biggest threats to peace in the Mideast...not Iran

To verify that, you need only look at who is causing the most trouble over there at any given time, and you'll more often than not come up with these two.

[harun]

12. So the two with nukes, uber armies and expansionist foreign polices are not a threat..... hmmm, ok.

[bemildred]

13. Ayalon, the Gaza diet counselor.

And Steinberg, talking to themselves in a corner in an alley.

[Lance_Boyle]

16. Rest of world agrees that Israel, as the region's sole nuclear power, remains the prime threat.

Of course, it's always opposite day when Israel's involved. That "godly" nation can do no wrong.

[JackRiddler]

21. Stop the fucken' presses...

Or the uploads, I should say.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz