Persia Israel Pakistan Crisis Update

I don't believe AQ , do you?

Friends, I have said on numerous occasions that the Saudis do not need to develop the bomb, they simply can buy it. The father of Pakistan’s nuclear program, A.Q. Khan, has dismissed reports that his country has reached a secret deal to provide Saudi Arabia with nuclear warheads in the event that Iran produces a bomb.

Rumors of a deal have long circulated in the Middle East, amid Saudi anxiety at its principal regional rival Iran developing a “Shia bomb”.

Citing American intelligence reports and a former Pakistani security officer it has been reported that nuclear weapons made in Pakistan for Saudi Arabia were ready for delivery.

But AQ Khan, who has admitted running a proliferation ring supplying secrets to Iran and Libya, said neither Pakistan nor Saudi Arabia had anything to gain – and a lot to lose by being ostracized by the international community and slapped with sanctions.

“Saudis may be ‘camel drivers’ but not idiots,” said Dr Khan, who remains a hero to many Pakistanis.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and General Hamid Gul, a former head of the ISI intelligence service dismissed the allegations as "baseless." Saudi officials have long told their American allies that they planned to obtain atomic weapons if Iran went nuclear.

The latest reports suggests they could be ready even sooner.

Amos Yadlin, a former head of Israeli military intelligence, told a conference in Sweden last month that if Iran got the bomb, “the Saudis will not wait one month. They already paid for the bomb, they will go to Pakistan and bring what they need to bring”.

Pakistan has never signed non-proliferation agreements and has an expanding arsenal, with some estimates saying it has as many as 110 nuclear weapons with enough fissile material for more than 200.

The security of its warheads has long been of concern to the US, which has even developed plans to seize the weapons if it believed terrorists were closing on the country’s nuclear facilities.

Saudi Arabia and Pakistan have longstanding ties and the Kingdom has financed a range of infrastructure projects, mosques and defense contracts.

A senior Pakistani, speaking confidentially confirmed the broad nature of the deal and said: “What did we think the Saudis were giving us all that money for? It wasn’t charity.”

Gary Samore, who served as President Barack Obama’s counter-proliferation adviser until earlier this year, also said, “I do think that the Saudis believe they have some understanding with Pakistan, that in extremis they would have claim to acquire nuclear weapons from Pakistan.”

However, such a deal would have dire costs for both countries. An alternative might be for Pakistan to offer Saudi Arabia protection under its “nuclear umbrella”.

A recent report by the Center for a New American Security, concluded that both countries would face huge problems with a proliferation deal, undermining ties with the US and jeopardizing billions of dollars in assistance.

There are profound security and economic disincentives cutting against Riyadh’s motivation to seek a bomb from Islamabad – as well as considerable, though typically ignored, strategic and economic reasons for Pakistan to avoid an illicit transfer.

 

Netanyahu is extremely angry with Obama

As delegations from Iran and six leading nations were locked in negotiations in Geneva, the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was continuing to complain about dealing with Tehran. Over the weekend, Netanyahu called British PM David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel to promote Tel Aviv’s position.

“I told them that according to the information reaching Israel, the deal that appears to be in the offing is bad and dangerous,” Netanyahu said. “Not just for us but also for them. I suggested that they wait and give it serious consideration, and it’s good that that is indeed what was decided. We will do everything we can to convince the leaders not to reach a bad agreement.”

“I asked them what was the rush? I suggested they wait,” he said in remarks.

Netanyahu spoke on the phone to French President Francois Hollande on the Iranian talks. France took the lead in stalling negotiations with Iran this weekend, and the French leader is to visit Israel next Sunday.

Netanyahu himself is to visit Moscow on November 20 just as talks are to resume in Geneva.

Israel will also be able to voice its objections to a delegation of senior US officials, led by Wendy Sherman, the U.S. Undersecretary of State for political affairs, which is due to arrive in Jerusalem on Sunday. The officials are to update Netanyahu’s government on the developments in Geneva.

In addition to lobbying President Obama’s administration, Israel is planning a lobbying campaign aimed at the US Congress. Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett said “Before the talks resume, we will lobby dozens of members of the US Congress to whom I will personally explain during a visit beginning on Tuesday that Israel’s security is in jeopardy,”

Iran was engaged inn marathon talks with the P5+1 group of nations in Geneva this week, which it was hoped would produce an agreement on Tehran’s nuclear power program. Iran was expected to offer more honesty and agree to limitations on uranium enrichment in exchange for an eventual lifting of crippling economic sanctions imposed by the US and the EU.

Netanyahu’s government has been extremely vocal in objecting to the Obama administration’s rapprochement with Iran after the election of Hassan Rouhani as the country’s new president.

“In another two and a half years there will be someone else in the White House, but we will still be here,” Israel’s deputy Defense Minister, Danny Danon, told public radio Sunday.

A failure to strike a deal that would at least partially lift economic sanctions against Iran may also undermine Rouhani’s power base at home. The conservative section of the Iranian establishment is far from approving his policy towards the US, and a lack of concrete results in the talks may cost the Iranian president support.

The possible recovery of Iran, a leading Shiite nation in the Middle East, is also viewed with disdain by the Sunni monarchies such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. US Secretary of State John Kerry will fly to Abu Dhabi to meet his counterpart in the UAE, Sheikh Abudllah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and will discuss the Iran negotiations.

Israel has forged an alliance with Sunni Saudi Arabia and the Sunni Persian Gulf States and they are united in their common goal to undermine Shia Iran.

God says the following about this Persian crisis: Luke 19:27  But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me. 

Luke 19:43  For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side.