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MOSCOW -- Russian industry sources said Iran is examining Russian-origin submarines and could move to the procurement stage in 2010. The platforms were identified as the Project 636- and Amur-1650-class submarines, the subjects of briefings at the International Naval Show-2009 in St. Petersburg.
"Russia's export potential in this market sector is very high thanks to Project 636 and Amur-1650 class submarines equipped with the Club-S integrated missile systems," Russia's state-owned arms export agency Rosoboronexport said.
In a June 24 statement, Rosoboronexport said fourth-generation diesel-electric submarines could be sold to up to 40 foreign clients by 2015. The agency did not identify the clients, but the sources said Iran and Algeria appeared to mark the leading prospects.
Iran has already received Kilo-class submarines. In 2006, Algeria agreed to procure the Project 636 Kilo submarine in a contract that industry sources said has not yet been finalized.
Project 636 Kilo-class submarine has been deemed one of the stealthiest submarines in the world. The platform was designed for operations in shallow water.
Rosoboronexport has also been exporting the Project 677, or Lada-class, diesel submarine. Project 677, the export version of which is known as the Amur 1650, contains a new anti-sonar coating for its hull as well as an extended cruising range and advanced anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons.
Russia has also been offering Club-S submarine cruise missiles, which includes the 3M-54E1 anti-ship missile and the 3M-14E land-attack variant, with a range of 275 kilometers. The missiles were said to be capable of launch from standard torpedo tubes from a depth of up to 40 meters.
"By 2010, the share of naval equipment in Russia's arms exports will reach 15 percent, and by 2011 it will total 20 percent," Rosoboronexport delegation head Oleg Azizov said.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
07/11/2009 14:34 ||
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#1
Well, if you are going to buy soviet submarines, make sure they throw in the rescue gear cause you will undoubtedly need it.
#6
There is a dangerous naval build up happening in the world right now, but unlike the pre-WWI naval build up, this one is mostly of submarines. This is inherently dangerous to peace, and hopefully the USN will develop a plausible deniability program of encouraging unrecoverable accidents in enemy submarines before long.
A group of hardline Iranians gathered in front of the German embassy in Tehran on Saturday to protest against the murder of an Egyptian woman inside a German courtroom, a Reuters witness said.
There is a severe unemployment problem in Iran. How nice that this lot found jobs, jobs that entail working outside in the healthy fresh air and sunshine.
"There were around 150 students and they threw eggs at the main gate of the German embassy," said the witness. "The students chanted 'Death to Germany' and 'Death to Europe'" the witness added.
Marwa El-Sherbiny, 31, mother of a 3-year-old and three months pregnant, was stabbed 18 times by the man she was testifying against during a July 1 appeal hearing in Dresden, German prosecutors said. Her killer also stabbed her husband, who German police then mistook for the attacker and shot in the leg, prosecutors said. German prosecutors said the killer, a German of Russian origin, was appealing against a conviction for insulting Sherbiny by calling her an "Islamist," "terrorist" and "slut" when she asked him to make space for her son to go on the swings at a playground in Dresden.
Sherbiny's murder has incensed public opinion and the media in Iran, where hundreds of worshippers condemned the crime at Friday prayers, and state media called her a "martyr" of Islamic values. Iran summoned German ambassador to Iran Herbert Honsowitz on Friday to protest against the murder, urging Berlin to do more to protect the rights of religious minorities in Germany.
Yes, yes, that will definitely make a difference.
Sherbiny's body was flown to Cairo and her funeral took place on Monday. Her murder angered public opinion and the media in Egypt too.
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Both the US and Israel believe Iran has the technical capacity to build one nuclear bomb within a year if it decides to do so, but both countries also believe the chances that Teheran will indeed make that decision are slim, according to assessments made known to The Jerusalem Post. Let's play "Identify that Assumption" . . . .
According to these Israeli assessments, there is not much difference now between the US and Israel regarding a timeline for a "worst case scenario" on Iran's development of a bomb. At the same time, both Jerusalem and Washington currently believe that "worst case scenario is not likely to materialize."
The assessments come in the wake of comments made Sunday by US Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to the effect that Iran could be as little as a year away from completing a nuclear bomb, while Mossad head Meir Dagan recently surprised many by saying Iran won't have a nuclear weapon until 2014.
"I would be careful about all the declarations on this matter," said one senior government official who deals with the issue, adding that a decision by Teheran to go full throttle toward the building of a bomb was dependent on numerous different decisions the government would have to make, and which it had simply not yet made.
In the meantime, the official said, the Iranians have decided to continue to enrich as much low grade uranium as they can, and to also continue development in the field of ballistic missiles at a level that would not make their situation with the international community much worse than it already is. For peaceful purposes, of course.
Some American and Israeli experts have long argued that, rather than pushing for a bomb the moment they can, the Iranians may want to gain the potential capacity, over a longer period, to build an entire nuclear arsenal - and then stay weeks or months away from final bomb-making but ready to make the ultimate push should they so choose. And we're all sure they haven't started already because of what?
The international community, meanwhile, signaled on Thursday that it was still keeping its eye on the nuclear issue, with the G-8 leaders giving Iran until late September to accept negotiations over the issue.
The US is still waiting for an Iranian answer to President Barack Obama's offer of engagement on the nuclear issue. Let me guess, will it involve delay tactics?
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said the situation would be reviewed at a G-20 meeting of developed and developing countries in Pittsburgh on September 24, and that "if there is no progress by then, we will have to take decisions."
A unilateral attack by Israel on Iran to thwart the Islamic republic's nuclear ambitions would be an "absolute catastrophe," Sarkozy was quoted by AFP as saying on Thursday after the G-8 summit in Italy. That's a worst case. What if even half of the west grows some balls? Problem solved.
From an Israeli perspective, the senior government official explained, the G-8 deadline included both positive and negative aspects.
On the positive side, there has been a degree of concern in Jerusalem since the events that followed the June elections in Iran that the international community would try to push back the timetable on the nuclear issue until the dust cleared in Teheran.
The G-8 statement, the official said, strengthened the sense in Jerusalem that the international community was sending a message that "time is of the essence," and that international stocktaking of Iran's position on the issue would take place regardless of Iran's internal situation.
On the negative side of the ledger from an Israel perspective, however, was that the G-8 deadline was also a sign the international community was sill locked into "engagement" mode, dashing any thinly held hope in Jerusalem that the Iranian regime's brutal repression of the protests there would lead toward immediate sanctions.
According to the senior government official, under the current timetable Iran had until September to give a decision on engagement. If the talks began, then by the end of the year - as Obama said in May during his meeting in Washington with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu - there would be a reassessment of the situation, and a determination whether to continue dialogue or take more serious sanctions.
Regarding the contradictory messages that came out of Washington this week as to whether the US was giving Israel a green light for military action, with Vice President Joe Biden implying that a green light was being given, and Obama categorically denying that, the official said that Obama has been consistent in speaking against an Israeli military action.
What needed to be explained, the official said, were Biden's comments. He can't keep his mouth shut. They're probably indicative of what's really going on.
"Biden's comments seem to have come out of the blue," he said. "There has been no discussion with the US over the last few months about the possibility of an attack." Yeah. The One chose a crazy person to be his running mate. He makes stuff up all the time. His closest advisors are getting ready to have him committed any minute.
The official said it was also not clear how the recent events on the ground in Iran would impact on the nuclear issue.
On the one hand, he said, the protests have highlighted the vulnerability of the regime, which now appears significantly weaker than it was before the elections and their aftermath. It wasn't any stronger before, if you really think about it.
On the other hand, the official said, many believe that Iran's foreign policy and its policy on the nuclear issue will only become more intransigent as a result of the developments.
"There is a contradiction," the official said. "While the regime is more vulnerable than in the past to pressure from the international community, this may lead in the early stages to a hardening of its positions."
"When you are weak domestically, you can't show that you are weak externally as well. The opposite is true," he said. "You have to take a tougher stand with the world so they don't conclude that because you are under domestic pressure, you will fold under external pressure."
According to this logic, if the Iranians were willing to absorb the harsh international criticism that came with cutting down the reformers, then they would also be willing to absorb international censure in going forward with the nuclear program.
The international community, however, is now more prepared to impose serious sanctions on Iran than it was before the recent events, the official added. Sanctions shmanctions.
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Israel orders 1st stealth F-35 squadron Related? Just what is it that you are trying to say? Continued on Page 47
[Al Arabiya Latest] Israel is ready to withdraw from areas of the Golan Heights, but it will not give up large parts of the occupied territory in any peace deal with Syria, a top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday.
In an interview that shored up the contradictions in Israel's foreign policies, National Security Adviser Uzi Arad told Israel's Haaretz newspaper the Jewish state plans to withdraw from some areas in the Golan Heights, Syrian land captured in the 1967, but intends to remain in the strategically key areas.
Arad followed his announcement with a demand that as part of a statehood deal that settles the conflict with the Palestinians, Israel should be granted NATO membership.
The consensus in Israel was that it must keep a strong presence in the Golan Heights for "strategic, military and land-settlement reasons," despite Syria's demand for a full Israeli withdrawal as part of a peace deal which includes normalizing ties with Israel.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said last month peace talks could not resume because Israel was not committed to reaching a deal. Turkey has said it was willing to resume mediating the indirect negotiations.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The Golan is hard fought over high-country which Syria repeatedly used to launch wars and terrorism against northern Israel.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
07/11/2009 15:00 Comments ||
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[Iran Press TV Latest] The G8 summit in Italy draws to a close with US President Barack Obama delivering a blunt warning to Tehran over its uranium enrichment activities.
Obama, speaking at the end of a G8 summit in Italy, said Iran should understand that world countries are "seriously concerned" over its nuclear work, and would not wait "indefinitely" to allow Tehran to develop a nuclear weapon.
He, however, said that G8 countries are united in their decision to negotiate with Tehran to resolve the international standoff over the Iranian nuclear issue.
"...My hope is that the Iranian leadership will look at the statement coming out of the G8 and recognize that world opinion is clear," Obama told the L'Aquila summit.
Obama explained that Iranian officials have time to respond to the offer for negotiations until the G20 summit, which is slated to take place in September in Pennsylvania, ahead of the United Nations General Assembly.
"And I think what that does is it provides a time frame. The international community has said: 'Here's a door, you can walk through. That allows you to lessen tensions and more fully join the international community," said the US president.
"If Iran chooses not to walk through that door, then you have on record the G8 to begin with, but I think potentially a lot of other countries that are going to say, we need to take further steps," he added.
Washington and its European allies accuse Iran of attempting to make nuclear weapons.
Tehran, however, dismisses the allegation, saying its uranium enrichment is aimed at peaceful energy production.
Iranians see nuclear development as a sign of national independence, similar to the oil, nationalized in 1951, in the face of fierce western opposition.
The Mossadeq government, which led the oil nationalization movement was as a result brought down in the 1953 coup d'état engineered by the CIA.
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
They don't need the West to wait indefinitely. Just until they have an unknown number of reliable nukes in their pockets. Testing courtesy of the NorKs.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Tehran police is planning to set up a 50,000-strong special constable-like force called the 'honorary police officers' to provide assistance to the police support units.
Tehran Police Chief Brigadier General Azizollah Rajabzadeh revealed the plans during a press conference on Friday. "After selection and training, these individuals will be equipped and deployed in police stations and with police support units," Rajabzadeh said, Jam-e-jam Online reported.
The voluntary force will be set up first in Tehran, but according to Rajabzadeh the concept might be expanded nationwide. "The police force seeks to utilize people's participation in ensuring security for themselves, and it is with this aim that we are trying to expand the honorary police force up to 300,000 throughout the country," he elaborated.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Fred ||
07/11/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
If you like beating and killing women, Uncle Khamani Wants YOU!
#3
Good question. I think it has to do partly with the hash-up the Iranian central and local governments did with the demonstrations. Despite the government's belief that "their people would never do such awful things" that happened in the recent demonstrations; that radicals and militants were responsible, they can't prove that. The easiest thing to do is to kinda-sorta hide the Basiij, reduce their profile, and put a better trained force in their place.
Another reason could be that it puts a security force in place that's not beholden to the IRGC, nor the mullahs (not to mention being a jobs program of sorts for the non-urban Iranians).
It also could be that it's in imitation of China, where PLA troops have donned police uniforms in order to deal with civic unrest. In this case, reliable elements of the IRGC.
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[Al Arabiya Latest] Israel is ready to withdraw from areas of the Golan Heights, but it will not give up large parts of the occupied territory in any peace deal with Syria, a top aide to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Friday.
[Iran Press TV Latest] Tehran police is planning to set up a 50,000-strong special constable-like force called the 'honorary police officers' to provide assistance to the police support units. 
