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Executive Summary Iran News/Articles Update-December 3, 2005
The First and Last Paragraph of Each Articles and Source URL For Complete News/Articles Are Shown



Russia to Sell Antiaircraft Missiles to Iran in Billion-Dollar Deal

By ANDREW E. KRAMER
New York Times
December 3, 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12/03/international/europe/03russia.html
MOSCOW, Dec. 2 - Russia has agreed to sell antiaircraft missiles to Iran as part of a $1 billion arms deal that would significantly increase Moscow's military cooperation with Tehran, Russian news media reported Friday.
The announcement of the sale coincided with a visit to Moscow by R. Nicholas Burns, the American under secretary of state for political affairs, who said in a radio interview that the United States had asked the Russian Foreign Ministry to explain the deal, reported by the newspaper Vedomosti and the Interfax news agency.
"For 25 years, Iran has supported terrorists in the Middle East, and that is why we have very bad relations with them," Mr. Burns said in remarks translated into Russian on the Echo of Moscow radio station. "You can understand why we do not support the sales of weapons."
Under President Vladimir V. Putin, Russia has increased arms sales to developing nations. Last year, with $6.1 billion in agreements, it was second in global arms sales after the United States, according to a study by the United States Congress released in August.

US downplays Russia-Iran missile deal

Press Trust of India
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=59400
Washington, December 3: The United States has taken a low profile position on the reported sale of Russian missiles to Iran saying that it has only seen reports to this effect and was evaluating them.
Washington's lack of instant criticism or comment against Moscow has to be seen against the backdrop of the latter's active role vis-a-vis Iran in the realm of its nuclear activities.

Israel test-fires Arrow missile as Iran nuclear threat looms

By Jonathan Lis, Haaretz Correspondent, Haaretz Service and Reuters
03/12/2005
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/653023.html

Israel carried out a successful test of its Arrow anti-missile system Friday morning, which Defense Ministry officials called a response to the increasing threat of ballistic missiles in the region.

The test launch came as a Russian newspaper reported that Iran has signed a deal to buy Russian tactical surface-to-air missile systems. The reports comes one day after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned of the dangers of a nuclear Iran.

"The success of the test will improve the operational capabilities that already exist today in the Arrow system, which will be able to successfully cope with future threats," said Defense Ministry director general Yaakov Toran.

The simulated enemy missile used in the test resembles the Iranian Shahab-3 and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. The test enemy missile was fired from an airplane over the Mediterranean Sea, from the west. The Arrow anti-missile missile was fired at 10:28 A.M. from an Israel Air Force base in the center of the country, and hit the target.

Several MKs said they thought Ze'evi was saying military efforts would become necessary by April.

"The comments by the head of Military Intelligence convey a harsh, worrying and dark picture," said committee chairman MK Yuval Steinitz (Likud). "Iran is going to become a nuclear power in the region and the world is helpless."

Iran's Relationship with Iraq and United States

Dec. 2 2005
Press Release - United States Institute of Peace
http://www.harolddoan.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7203

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Institute of Peace released a major report today on Iran and Iraq: The Shia Connection, Soft Power, and the Nuclear Factor, which underscores Iran's critical relationship with post-Hussein Iraq. Furthermore, it highlights how Iran's relations with the United States, other countries in the region, and the international community could impact regional stability.

"The greatest threat to regional stability with respect to Iran and Iraq currently revolves around the Iranian nuclear issue," writes Geoffrey Kemp, the report's author. Iran currently works to influence the political environment in Iraq through economic investment and social ties; however, it has built the capacity to retaliate forcefully should U.S.-Iran relations change. "Should the United States up the ante against Iran with respect to nuclear weapons, it will undoubtedly be in Iraq and Afghanistan that Iran retaliates," he writes.

Italy Gets Tough on Iran



by Amy K. Rosenthal
12/02/2005
The Weekly Standard
http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/006/424hcbvs.asp

And the Italians are in a unique position to put pressure on the mullahs.
WHEN THE IRANIAN PRESIDENT Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared last month that "Israel should be wiped off the map," Giuliano Ferrara, director of Il Foglio, a conservative Italian newspaper close to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, took immediate action. He quickly announced a public protest defending Israel's right to exist outside the Iranian Embassy in Rome. (The protest took place on November 3.) Many foreign intellectuals such as Bernard Lewis, Daniel Pipes, and Alain Finkelkraut quickly lent their support. In Italy, over a hundred of the country's most prominent politicians supported the protest, including not only Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini and the European Union Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini--both allies of the center-right Berlusconi-led government--but also center-left opposition leaders such as Francesco Rutelli and Piero Fassino, in what quickly became a bi-partisan event. The emergence of an almost universal consensus in favor of an initiative promoted by a conservative newspaper was a newsworthy event.


U.S. Policy Toward Iran

November 30, 2005
John Hopkins University
Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/pubaffairs/media_events/Media_Advisories/MA2005/nicholasburns05.html

“By seizing the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and holding American diplomats hostage, Iran's hard-liners commandeered the new Iranian state and stripped away the very democratic rights which many Iranians had sought. Those who stood for Iran's democratic future were suppressed. The country's international standing was shattered, as was its long relationship with Washington. Thus began a new era of complex and troubled relations between Tehran and Washington, characterized by direct Iranian support for Lebanese Hezbollah's terrorism against the United States, beginning in the early 1980s.”


Americans share the Iranian people's vision for a prosperous, peaceful and democratic Iran. We are committed to helping them achieve their goal. We are equally dedicated to ensuring that those in the regime who are taking their people down a path with no hope or vision for its people or the region will not succeed. The irrepressible human desire for freedom is clearly imprinted on the hearts of the Iranian people. Working together, we are confident that they will someday prevail.

Emerging Shift in Israel's Iran Policy


December 01, 2005
Stratfor
Geopolitical Diary
http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/login.php?err=3&prodid=&subid=&url=/products/premium/read_article.php?selected=Analyses&id=259173

Various Israeli officials issued statements on Thursday regarding the Jewish state's position on Iran's nuclear program. Israeli leaders issuing statements about the need to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear technology is a routine affair. The remarks, however, were not routine warnings about the threat posed by a radical Shiite Islamist state. Instead, the Israeli government dropped more hints pointing to an emerging shift in its Iran policy.

But this is not something that Israel would want to point out, for reasons having to do with both domestic and foreign policy concerns. This would explain the ambiguity in the statements issued by Israeli leaders on how they would deal with the Iranian nuclear threat. It would also explain the statement issued by the anonymous but senior defense official. Regardless of how the Israelis actually would act, they have begun hinting that there could be circumstances under which they could live with a nuclear-armed Iran.

With Time Short on Iran Nukes, AIPAC Criticizes Bush Approach

December 02, 2005
JTA News
Ron Kampeas
http://www.jta.org/page_view_story.asp?strwebhead=AIPAC%20blasts%20administration%20on%20Iran&intcategoryid=3&SearchOptimize=Jewish%20News

WASHINGTON -- As time dwindles for diplomatic efforts to curtail Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons, the pro-Israel lobby in Washington is criticizing the Bush administration’s handling of the issue. The United States has endorsed a European Union plan that would allow Iran to continue its nuclear development as long as it leaves the final stages of uranium enrichment to Russia.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the hope is that such a deal would keep Iran from bringing its uranium to weapon-grade level.

“We’re prepared to see if the Russians can explore something that may bring the Iranians around to the recognition that they cannot enrich and reprocess on their territory, that they have a credibility problem with the international community as to the fuel cycle,” Rice told USA Today last week. “We’ll see whether it works.”

Within days of Rice’s interview, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee delivered a rare public criticism of the Bush administration.

“Last week’s decision allowed Iran to win a critical round in its game of cat-and-mouse with the international community,” AIPAC said in an email earlier this week headlined “IMPORTANT — AIPAC press statement critical of Administration’s recent decisions on Iran policy.”
Ros-Lehtinen noted that her own Iran sanctions bill has the support of three quarters of her House colleagues, though she’s trying to line up additional co-sponsors.

“By allowing Iran nuclear capabilities, the Europeans are giving the match to the pyromaniac,” she said.

Israel Successfully Tests Anti-missile System

December 02, 2005
Reuters
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10292421/

JERUSALEM -- Israel carried out a successful test of its missile-interceptor system on Friday when an Arrow II missile downed an incoming rocket designed to simulate an Iranian Shahab-3, the defense ministry said. The test, the latest in a series, came a day after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel could not accept the emergence of a nuclear-armed Iran, though he steered clear of threatening military action against the Islamic Republic.


But Sharon reaffirmed Israel’s support for diplomatic efforts, led by the United States and the European Union, to curb a uranium enrichment program in Iran, a country that has called for the destruction of the Jewish state.

Persecution Against Christian Converts in Iran Escalating

December 02, 2005
Christian Today
Eunice Or
http://www.christiantoday.com/news/middle-east/persecution.against.christian.converts.in.iran.escalating/367.htm

Christians in Iran, especially converts from Islam, have experienced growing persecution from the government since the new Iranian President was installed, according to reports. The recent wave of persecution traces back to the kidnapping and stabbing of an Iranian convert to Christianity named Ghorban Tori on Nov. 22. Since Tori’s death, not only was the church to which he belonged raided, but ten other Christians were arrested in other cities, including the Iranian capital, Tehran, according to Compass Direct.

The murdered 50-year-old Tori was a leader of an independent house church of Christian converts in Gonbad-e-Kavus, a town east of the Caspian Sea along the Turkmenistan border. His dead body was found outside of his home in northeastern Iran a few hours after his kidnapping and the police took away Bibles and other banned Christian books from his house, Compass Direct reported.


Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying, "I will stop Christianity in this country."

The Canada-based Christian persecution watchdog Voice of the Martyrs (VOM) has called for prayers for the believers in Iran and the speedy recovery of the persecuted ones. It has also requested prayers for raising up leaders for the growing Church in Iran.