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Sat. March 13, 2010 | Breaking News
Israeli ambassador summoned to US State Department Sunday for another rebuke over Jerusalem housing episode • Palestinians lob firebomb at Israeli car driving to Jerusalem on 443 Highway. Two passengers hurt • Another Qassam missile from Gaza explodes in an Eshkol region field • Netanyahu calls inner cabinet to decide on response to spiraling crisis with Washington • ADL's Foxman: "We are shocked and stunned at the Administration’s tone and public dressing down of Israel on the issue of future building in Jerusalem • Four suicide bombings kill 30, injure 50, in S.Afghan town of Kandahar Saturday • US has indicated city was next target for anti-Taliban offensive • Senior US official Saturday says Netanyahu's political position is "perilous" • This is because of divisions in his government over peace moves "sought by Palestinians and US" • DEBKAfile: Washington ups its personal campaign against Netanyahu • EU also rebukes Israel over Jerusalem housing ahead of visit to Israel by its FM Ashton next Wednesday • Palestinians dedicate a Ramallah square to terrorist Dalal Moghrabi Friday, breaking their word to Biden • Palestinian Authority, Fatah and Young Fatah representatives attended the ceremony • Moghrabi was part of Palestinian group which in 1978 blew up and set fire to a civilian bus, burning 35 men, women, children alive • The group was filmed tossing babies into the blaze •
US ponders denying Israel arms needed for conflict with Iran
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report March 13, 2010, 9:53 PM (GMT+02:00)
Tags:  Israel   Obama   US arms for Israel 
Ehud Barak meets Robert Gates in D.C.

Prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu convened his inner cabinet Saturday night, March 12, to discuss the spiraling crisis with Washington and his first response.
debkafile's military and Washington sources report: The Obama administration is considering withholding from Israel military items urgently needed in case of a flare-up of hostilities with Iran and its allies. This would further ratchet up the row over the added 1,600 homes in ...

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Ahmadinejad's message to Karzai
Don't let the US attack Iran from Afghanistan.
more
Obama's New Iranian Venture
Israel, moderate Arabs, some US generals dislike US flirting with Revolutionary Guards.
more
What's in it for the US?
Would the Revolutionary Guards turn against their own Ahmadinejad?
more






Headlines
Clinton warns Netanyahu US-Israeli relations at risk
DEBKAfile Special Report
March 12, 2010, 11:39 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Hillary Clinton   Jewish housing in E. Jerusalem   Joe Biden   Netanyahu 

Hillary Clinton

The crisis in US-Israeli relations took a sharp turn for the worse Friday night, March 12, with a phone call from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warning Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu that the relationship was at risk. debkafile reports: He was given to understand that Israel must make sweeping concessions to prove its interest in renewed talks with the Palestinians, including in Jerusalem, and accept the Obama administration's line on Iran.

...

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Gates clarifies US Iran policy in Riyadh after Biden fails in Israel
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
March 10, 2010, 5:37 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Iran nuclear   Robert Gates   Saudi Arabia 

US defense secretary Gates in Kabul

US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates arrived in Riyadh Wednesday, March 10, flying in unexpectedly from Kabul in Afghanistan, after the Saudis demanded urgent clarifications of the Obama administration's Iran policy. debkafile's military sources report the demand followed the failure of US Vice President Joe Biden's talks with Israeli leaders to resolve their differences on Read more

Jerusalem expansion spurred by Biden's clampdown on Israeli action on Iran
DEBKAfile Special Report
March 10, 2010, 9:16 AM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Jewish housing in E. Jerusalem   Joe Biden 

US Vice President Joe Biden in Jerusalem

debkafile reports: The decision to add 1,600 housing units to Ramat Shlomo in East Jerusalem was taken in protest of the way US Vice President Joe Biden lay down the law on the Iran issue in his talks with Israeli government leaders Tuesday, March 9. The key objective of his visit was clearly to hold Israel back from attacking Iran's nuclear installations even after the US backtracked on its promises of tough sanctions instead.

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Who is Obama engaging now?
DEBKAfile DEBKA-Net-Weekly
March 10, 2010, 12:34 PM (GMT+02:00)
Barack Obama

DEBKA-Net-Weekly's latest issue, out this Friday, reveals US officials are immersed in hush-hush contacts with Iranian regime elements marking the Obama administration's fourth and most dramatic zigzag on Tehran. US military chiefs, moderate Arab governments and Israel are deeply concerned about possible regional repercussions from this radical turnabout.
Don't miss this and other exclusives. To subscribe to DEBKA-Net-Weekly click here.

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Mitchell: Direct Israeli-Palestinian talks to start next week in Washington
DEBKAfile Exclusive Report
March 8, 2010, 10:27 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Mitchell 

Bolling Air Force base near Washington

debkafile's Middle East sources reveal that the US Middle East envoy George Mitchell presented his mission to Israeli and Palestinian leaders Monday, March 8, as getting direct talks between them started without delay and moved to Washington. Their lead negotiators have been appointed. They are the Israeli prime minister's adviser Yitzhak Molcho and the senior Palestinian negotiator Saab Erekat.

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Iraqi PM Maliki sweeps polls, defeats pro-Iranian bloc
DEBKAfile Exclusive Analysis
March 9, 2010, 2:11 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Iran   Iraq   Nouri Maliki   US 

Nouri Maliki wins another term as Iraqi PM

Preliminary Iraqi election results show incumbent prime minister Nouri Maliki returned with a commanding 100 parliamentary seats out of 325 and the ability to form a pro-American coalition with Iyad Allawi's secular alliance and the Kurdish bloc that will be stable enough for US troops to depart Iraq on schedule.

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Gates visits Kabul, beats Ahmadinejad to the post
DEBKAfile Special Report
March 8, 2010, 4:29 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Ahmadinejad   missile   Robert Gates   US-Afghanistan 

Iran's first cruise missile Nasr-1

Despite Tehran's denial, president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delayed his trip to Kabul by 48 hours when US defense secretary Robert Gates arrived suddenly in the Afghan capital Monday, March 8.
The Iranian president had set the scene for his visit by accusing the US of "fabricating" 9/11 as a pretext for invading Afghanistan and unveiling new missile production lines.

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Paper Demonizing the Jews Stirs Muslim World Interest
DEBKAfile DEBKA-Net-Weekly
March 5, 2010, 11:53 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Iran   Palestinians 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Palestinians

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is unmoved by Western media inattention to his hate campaign against Jews and Israel. He is campaigning hard to plant the poison in the Muslim mainstream. Its malevolence recalls Nazi "final solution" propaganda. DEBKA-Net-Weekly first disclosed the existence of this manifesto on March 5, 2010. debkafile now makes it available to the general reader.

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DEBKA-Net-Weekly    A sampling from past issues
Iran Approaches Nuclear "Breakout"
DEBKA-Net-Weekly #431 January 29, 2010

Tags:  Israel   nuclear bomb   US-Iran 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

 

Obama's engagement strategy against Tehran's nuclear armament has failed. From February, Tehran will be able to build a nuclear device if it so chooses. Israeli must decide by May whether or not to take up its military option for knocking out Iran's nuclear installations.

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Iran Has Largest Middle East Missile Inventory
DEBKA-Net-Weekly #432 February 5, 2010

Tags:  Iranian missiles 

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad

 

Ahmadinejad presented a space-cum-missile extravaganza and faked a measure of diplomatic flexibility to obscure the dark days the Tehran regimes faces on the eve of the 31st anniversary of its revolution. China is increasingly helpful to Iran's efforts to beat US restrictions.

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The Dubai Killing Achieved its Goals
DEBKA-Net-Weekly #434 February 26, 2010

Tags:  Dubai   Intelligence 

Mabhouh’s assassins

While eliminating the Hamas' dangerous Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, the perpetrators demonstrated their ability to access any point on the Middle East map, perform their mission and escape unharmed.

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Analysis
Victory eludes key US-led operation in S. Afghanistan
DEBKAfile Special Report
March 1, 2010, 9:36 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Taliban   US-Afghanistan 

US Marines in Helmand

The US-British-Afghan force out to capture the Helmand provincial town of Marjah is still wide of its mark.

Its control does not go much beyond the municipal center and main police stations. But the Taliban has shown only minor resistance, saving its strength for the major showdowns ahead, most likely in Kandahar.

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North Korean yellowcake was bound for Syria when Israel struck plant
DEBKAfile Special Report
February 28, 2010, 9:09 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  North Korea   nuclear bomb   Syria 

North Korean ship heads to Syria

A North Korean shipment of 45 tons of yellowcake, enough for several nuclear bombs, was on its way to the nuclear plant under construction in northern Syria when it was destroyed by Israel in September 2007. Two years later, the consignment turned up in Iran, attesting to their closely integrated nuclear programs and hidden, undeclared stocks of high-grade nuclear fuel.

 

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Barak: If Hizballah attacks, Israel will go after its sponsors
DEBKAfile Special Report
February 27, 2010, 9:52 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Ehud Barak   Hizballah 

Ehud Barak in Washington lecture

Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak warned that Hizballah and its 45,000 rockets - including "some which many sovereign countries do not have" - are directed by Iranian and Syrian civilian and military officials already present in Lebanon.  He termed the differentiation between Hizballah terrorists, the state of Lebanon and their sponsors artificial. Iran's nuclear program aims at jumping straight into the second- or second-and-a-half generation of nuclear warheads."

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Syria, Lebanon host Iranian troops, Qatar also willing
DEBKAfile Special Report
February 27, 2010, 8:57 PM (GMT+02:00)

Tags:  Ahmadinejad   Qatar   Syria 

Triumphant in Damascus

Iran last week further consolidated its anti-US coalition and honed its hard edge against Israel by important defense treaties with Syria (covering Lebanon) and Qatar, home to the biggest US air base outside America. These treaties open doors for Iranian troops to be stationed in all three countries. debkafile's military sources say they have already arrived in Syria and Lebanon.

The Iranian president remarked "the ...

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