IRAN PREPARING TO SUPPORT PALESTINIANS AGAINST ISRAEL

"... Ayatollah Ali Khameini in his speech Sunday... issued a fatwa calling on Muslims to stand up and defend Palestinians against Israel. He said "true believers" were "duty-bound to defend" the Palestinians. Khamenei did not spell out what he intended... On Monday, Dec. 29, Day 3 of Israel's Gaza operation, (a) spokesman said Iran had embarked on preparations for operations against Israel in line with the directives laid down by... Khameini... A group of hardline clerics is signing up volunteers to fight "against the Zionist regime" in the Gaza Strip "in either military, financial or propaganda fields"... (as) reported by the semi-official Fars news agency. Iranian lawmaker Ali Motahari told the Iranian news agency IRNA that it was time for Iran and Arab nations to go to war with Israel..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), Tuesday, December 30, 2008
http://www.debka.com/index1.php

RUSSIA IMPLEMENTING CONTRACT FOR S-300 AIR DEFENSE MISSILE SYSTEMS

"... The RIA news agency reported... "Moscow has earlier met its obligations to supply Tor-M1 (short-range) systems to Iran and is currently implementing its contract to deliver S-300 systems"... the highly sophisticated medium-range air defense... S-300 deliveries began two weeks ago... coinciding with the return home of members of Iranian air defense officers from training in Russia... after Iran, Moscow will install the S-300 in Syria, focusing on securing the Russian naval bases going up in the Mediterranean port of Tartous..."
--DEBKAfile (Israel), December 18, 2008
http://www.debka.com/index.php

UKRAINE PROVIDED U.S. WITH A RADAR FROM S-300 SYSTEM

"Ukraine has provided the U.S. military with radar used in the S-300 air defence system... to research ways of counteracting it... Ukraine’s state arms exporter Ukrspetsexport supplied one such radar at the Pentagon’s request..."
http://www.russiatoday.com/Top_News/2008-11-24/How_Ukraine_armed_the_US_against_Iran.html

RUSSIA: IRAN INCAPABLE OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS

"... Vladimir Voronkov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Department of European Cooperation... (contends) that Iran is presently incapable of developing nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them... Russia's word has a notable significance on the matter because it enjoys unparalleled access to Iran's nuclear facilities... Moscow's combined intelligence agencies are in agreement that Iran does not have nuclear-weapons capability... (this) calls for serious rethinking about whether the "crisis" built up over Tehran going nuclear was nothing but a bogey..."
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JL17Ak03.html

IAEA REFUTES FEARS OF IRAN MAKING NUCLEAR WEAPONS

"... (a) false assumption that has been adopted like an article of faith by nearly all the pundits and nuclear experts in the US today, is that Iran is fast approaching a "nuclear breakout capability"... This... is a line of thinking that simply evades the obvious: that is, the fact that Iran's entire stock of enriched uranium is kept in containers sealed by the IAEA and the whole fuel enrichment plant is constantly monitored by the IAEA's surveillance cameras.... any Iranian attempt to tamper with the IAEA seals and or divert some of the stored low-enriched uranium to some clandestine facility would be quickly uncovered..."

"... (Consider) the robust IAEA inspection regime in place at Natanz and other nuclear facilities in Iran, as well as... the IAEA's declared confidence that it has been able to "continue to confirm the absence of any diversion". (Also consider) the IAEA's other important admission that it has not detected any diversion of nuclear material toward the "alleged weaponization studies..."

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/JL06Ak01.html