Iran And Turkey Join Syria Peace Envoy

Beirut, Lebanon — Iran declared support on Wednesday for the new Syria peace envoy’s cease-fire proposal, joining Turkey in a rare moment of accord between two of the regional powers backing opposite sides in the 19-month conflict that has pitted the Syrian government against an array of armed opponents.

But the Syrian government expressed skepticism that rebels would honor a cease-fire, and the peace envoy,Lakhdar Brahimi, who represents both the United Nations and the Arab League, said a temporary halt to the fighting would constitute only a tiny step toward resolving the conflict, which has left more than 20,000 people dead.

A veteran Algerian statesman who has been on the job for less than two months, Mr. Brahimi has spent the last several days conferring with Middle East leaders about ways to break the Syria impasse. His predecessor, Kofi Annan, resigned in frustration at the end of August after his proposed peace plan slipped into seeming irrelevance.

On Monday, Mr. Brahimi proposed a cease-fire during the three-day Muslim holiday of Id al-Adha, which begins Oct. 26, hoping that a religious reprieve universally respected by Muslims could be the basis not only for a pause in the fighting but perhaps the beginnings of a dialogue in Syria.

Sunni Muslims constitute most of the Syrian population and virtually the entire insurgency, while President Bashar al-Assad is a member of the ruling Alawite sect, a Shiite offshoot. The country is home to a variety of other religious minorities, including a significant Christian population.

Both Turkey and Iran publicly endorsed Mr. Brahimi’s effort on Wednesday. Those endorsements were significant because Iran is the most influential regional supporter of Mr. Assad’s, while Turkey supports Mr. Assad’s armed adversaries, is host to more than 100,000 Syrian refugees and has repeatedly called on Mr. Assad to resign.

In the past few weeks Turkey also has banned Syrian aircraft, moved armed forces close to its 550-mile border with Syria and engaged Syrian gunners in sporadic cross-border shelling, raising fears that the conflict in Syria could turn into a regional war.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who met this week with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey at a regional summit meeting in Baku, Azerbaijan, was quoted by Iran’s state-run news media on Wednesday as saying he supported the Syria truce proposal and “any group that derives power through war and means to continue war has no future.”

The Turkish foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, was quoted by the semiofficial Anatolian News Agency of Turkey as saying a holiday cease-fire was desirable but that any longer-term truce would require “certain measures for its sustainability.”

Mr. Brahimi, who was visiting Lebanon on Wednesday, called on the Syrian government to back the cease-fire, saying he had guarantees from rebel leaders that they would observe it if the government acted first. But a Syrian government newspaper expressed doubt that insurgent units, who lack a unified command, would or could simultaneously uphold a cease-fire.

In Damascus, the Foreign Ministry spokesman, Jihad Makdessi, said in a statement released by the official Syrian Arab News Agency that his government would welcome any “constructive initiative” from Mr. Brahimi, who was widely expected to travel to Syria.

But the very modesty of Mr. Brahimi’s proposal seemed to be an indication that in recent months the conflict has drifted further from resolution. Random responses from ordinary Syrians reached by telephone seemed to reflect a similar assessment.

A resident in the embattled northern city of Aleppo, who gave only a nickname, Abu al-Hassan, said he believed neither side was willing to stop shooting. “What does this even mean?” he asked. “That instead of 40 martyrs we will have 20 martyrs a day?”

A Syrian businessman based in Damascus said Mr. Brahimi’s efforts would be better spent persuading the Syrian authorities to release the thousands of people arrested or abducted by pro-government militias during the conflict. “We got used to the gunfire — no need to cease it — but we will never get used to the absence of the detained and kidnapped people,” he said.

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EU Imposes Toughest Sanctions Against Iran

LONDON — European Union governments Tuesday imposed their toughest sanctions on Iran over its nuclear program. EU and U.S. officials say sanctions are vital to curbing Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions. But some analysts say the sanctions have failed to do that and are causing Iranians to suffer as the value of Iran's currency plummets.

Shuttling across the narrow Strait of Hormuz are Iran's high speed smugglers.

Using boats equipped with 200 horsepower engines, they take goods - everything from luxury perfume to livestock - from Oman across to Iran, avoiding import duties on the way.



But the plunging rial currency is hitting even this illicit trade. The smugglers say Iranians can no longer afford their goods.

"It's very intense, over there, on that side, it's very intense. It's really hurting the people. The authorities are really hurting everyone and everything," said one teenage smuggler.

Century Fox News: Iran stated, "Israel attack could trigger World War III."

European Union ministers decided on Monday to expand sanctions against Iran and on Tuesday listed more than 30 Iranian firms as being targeted. Iran insists its nuclear program is for civilian purposes and denies it is trying to develop an atomic bomb.

The West says sanctions are the main way to pressure Iran and forestall military conflict.

"We have decided on a further package of sanctions, to increase pressure and make negotiations more substantial, in the areas of trade and banking, transport and energy,"  Westerwelle said. "In addition we will enforce measures to put an end to bypassing sanctions," said Guido Westerwelle, Germany's foreign minister.

Iran's economy, both legitimate and clandestine, is suffering. And on Tuesday, Iran slammed the EU sanctions as "inhuman and ineffective."

The plunging currency has sparked protests in Tehran.

"This is hitting the Iranians hard in the pocket. Also with the restrictions on imports, there's growing food shortages. That was seen especially around Ramadan with shortages of chicken for instance which again affected the ordinary Iranians incredibly. We're going to see this sort of thing increasing more and more," said Jamie Ingram, a Middle East Analyst at IHS Global Insight.

Analysts say sanctions targeting Iran's oil industry have hit hard and the country is scrambling to find new markets.

Iran's Energy Minister Majid Namjoo visited New Delhi last week and expressed hope that Indian businesses would invest in Iran.

Century Fox Exclusive: Face to Face interview with the Iranian President

"This opportunity will benefit India, enabling its private sector and private companies to obtain good prices from our country," Namjoo said.

Critics say the sanctions on Iran have failed to halt its nuclear program, while causing the people to suffer. Again, analyst Jamie .

"A large part of the social bargain between the ruling mullahs, the government and the people is based on the provision of services. This is going to become increasingly embarrassing for the government and the pressure could tell eventually," Ingram said.

With few signs of a diplomatic breakthrough, analysts say the latest round of EU sanctions will tighten the economic stranglehold on Iran's economy even further.


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'US Dismissed Iranian Plan To Resolve Nuclear Crisis

New York Times reports Tehran offered Washington nine-step plan to relinquish nuclear program in exchange for West lifting all sanctions, but US found proposal 'unworkable'

WASHINGTON – The United States has reportedly chosen to dismiss a nine-point plan offered by Iran to resolve the nuclear crisis, the New York Times reported Friday.


According to the report, Tehran presented Washington with a nine-step plan that would see the Islamic Republic relinquish it nuclear endeavors in exchange for the US gradually lifting the international sanctions that are crippling its economy.

The United States reportedly rejected the offer, citing it called for so many concessions by the West, to the point where Washington said it was "unworkable," and that it was made with the intent of creating nothing but a media buzz.

Century Fox Report: Iran gathers Nuclear weapons inspite of UN warning.

US officials told the newspaper that the proposal indicated that Iran was crumbling under the crushing impact of the sanctions, particularly those imposed on its oil industry.

'Khamenei is too erratic'

According to the NYT, the proposal was presented to US officials during the Iranian mission's visit to the UN General Assembly in New York City.


"Within the intelligence community, I think it’s fair to say that there is split opinion about whether the upper level of the (Iranian) regime is getting seriously worried,” a senior intelligence official was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, he added, may be feeling the pressure, but "He's erratic, and we’ve seen him walk up to the edge of deals before and walk away."


The Iranian plan is said to be based on a proposal made to European Union officials in July.


It calls for a gradual lift of the sanctions, as Iran simultaneously ends work at one of two sites, known to be uranium enrichment facilities.

The Iranian plan is said to be based on a proposal made to European Union officials in July.


It calls for a gradual lift of the sanctions, as Iran simultaneously ends work at one of two sites, known to be uranium enrichment facilities.


But the Iranian plan stated that only after step number nine is reached, i.e. - after all the sanctions have been lifted and Iran sees its oil revenues recover – would Tehran "suspend" medium-enriched uranium production at Fordo.
 White House officials told the NYT that it was more likely the proposal was "meant to generate headlines, but would not guarantee that Iran cannot produce a weapon."


The plan's outline "means you can move the fuel around, and it stays inside the country… yet we’re supposed to lift sanctions that would take years to re-impose, if we could get countries to agree," a senior Obama administration official said.

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Panic And Scare Grips Israel

The Haaretz Internet site published a survey on Thursday showing that half of Israelis are concerned for the survival of the country in the event of a confrontation with Iran.

 The public, it appears, isn’t worried any more about the casualty toll that the rockets could produce, or the destruction of our economy. These are small potatoes for the public. According to the poll, we have gone one stage further.

Now the public fears for the actual existence of Israel. It’s possible, according to public opinion, that the State of Israel could cease to exist following this much-hyped war with Iran. In short, the second Holocaust is here. Put out your hand and touch it. Another two or three historic speeches from the prime minister and we are there.

Century Fox Report: Iran warns that it will demolish Israel.

This is the primary achievement of Binyamin Netanyahu’s policy. Panic as diplomacy. Some 64 years of blood, sweat and tears, unprecedented achievements of a state established on the ashes of the Holocaust, which became a regional superpower with huge strength, have gone up in the smoke of rhetoric.

Before his address to the UN General Assembly on Thursday, he could pat himself on the back. The Israeli public has demonstrated that if you repeat something enough times, as exaggerated as it is, it will finally be absorbed. Even though the reality, by the way, is nothing close to the situation he describes.

A war with Iran will not pose any danger to the existence of Israel. Iran, at least for now, does not have the ability to cause Israel significant strategic harm. Its missiles, whose that can penetrate the various defense mechanisms that Israel has developed (which, obviously, no other country has) would cause only limited damage.

More News: Iran-"Israeli strike may lead to World War III"
Hezbollah’s arsenal would inflict much more damage, but this too would not result in anything we haven’t encountered before. The 1948-49 War of Liberation was much more dangerous, the Six Day War was much more scary, the surprises of Yom Kippur were much more disastrous, and the second intifada was not a pleasant afternoon stroll either.

Israel knows how to deal with problems, better than any other country in the world. The damage that we can cause to the other party is so much more. Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah knows that he he fires his ammunition at us, Lebanon will be destroyed. They know this in Gaza, too.

And the expected damage in Iran in the case of a confrontation with Israel would be much heavier than the damage caused here.

And yet, half of Israeli citizens, almost 4 million women and men, fear that Israel could stop existing if a war breaks out with Iran. Really.

What is so fateful here? Relations with America. They are really crucial to our future. Without the United States to lean on, without the F-15s and F16s and the jets that go under the radar, the Apache helicopters and the spare parts and the bombs and the missiles from the huge US arsenal that are already here and represent an insurance policy for the future, without the intelligence and the economic deterrent, without the technological and moral support, and without the knowledge of the whole world that America stands behind Israel in every scenario and in any weather, that we and they are one, we really are in existential danger.

It is difficult to imagine Israel in the past few decades without America. It is more important, even, than the Iranian nuclear program. Think about it. It is important in the event that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons (because this presumably will happen only thanks to America), and it is so much more important if Iran does, ultimately, become a nuclear power (in which case, America’s back will turn into a real rock of our existence).

And it is this, if you haven’t noticed, that Netanyahu is harming. Never has an Israeli prime minister been so unwanted a personality among the US administration as Netanyahu is today.

We can only hope that we will be able to find a way to live with this.

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Face To face With The Iranian President 'Mahmoud Ahmadinejad'

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad speaks during an exclusive interview with Associated Press editorial staff during his visit to the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly 

NEW YORK — After an hour of fielding questions about Syria, sanctions and nuclear weapons, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had enough. Now, he said, it was his turn to choose the topic — his "new order" which will inevitably replace the current era of what he called U.S. bullying.

Continuing his hectic pace of media appearances and diplomatic meetings, Ahmadinejad presented an air of boredom when it came to the hot topic on everyone's mind — Iran's nuclear program and the possibility of impending war. Whether it was feigned or sincere, he said he would much rather be talking about his vision of what the next world order might be.

Conveniently, it would be an order in which the U.S. and the traditional powers play a smaller role and every country has equal standing (though the state of Israel, he often predicts, will soon become a historical footnote).

"God willing, a new order will come and will do away with ... everything that distances us," Ahmadinejad told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview Tuesday, speaking through a translator. "All of the animosity, all of the lack of sincerity will come to an end. It will institute fairness and justice."

He said the world was losing patience with the current state of affairs.

Century Fox News: UN concerned by Iran's Nuclear programme
"Now even elementary school kids throughout the world have understood that the United States government is following an international policy of bullying," he said. "I do believe the system of empires has reached the end of the road. The world can no longer see an emperor commanding it."

The interview was held on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly — Ahmadinejad's last as president of Iran. He was to address the assembly Wednesday morning.

He also discussed solutions for the Syrian civil war, dismissed the question of Iran's nuclear ambition and claimed that despite Western sanctions his country is better off than it was when he took office in 2005.

Earlier Tuesday, President Barack Obama warned Iran that time is running out to resolve the dispute over its nuclear program. In a speech to the General Assembly, Obama said the United States could not tolerate an Iran with atomic weapons.

Ahmadinejad would not respond directly to the president's remarks, saying he did not want to influence the U.S. presidential election in November.

But he argued that the international outcry over Iran's nuclear enrichment program was just an excuse by the West to dominate his country. He claimed that the United States has never accepted Iran's choice of government after the 1979 Islamic revolution.

"Everyone is aware the nuclear issue is the imposition of the will of the United States," he said. "I see the nuclear issue as a non-issue. It has become a form of one-upmanship."

Ahmadinejad said he favored more dialogue, even though negotiations with world powers remain stalled after three rounds of high-level meetings since April.

He said some world leaders have suggested to him that Iran would be better off holding nuclear talks only with the United States.

"Of course I am not dismissing such talks," he said, asked if he were open to discussions with the winner of the American presidential election.

Israeli leaders, however, are still openly contemplating military action again Iranian nuclear facilities, dismissing diplomacy as a dead end. Israel and many in the West suspect that Iran is seeking to acquire nuclear weapons, and cite its failure to cooperate fully with nuclear inspectors. Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only.

Ahmadinejad also proposed forming a new group of 10 or 11 countries to work to end the 18-month Syrian civil war. Representatives of nations in the Middle East and elsewhere would meet in New York "very soon," he said.

Critics have accused Tehran of giving support to Syrian President Bashar Assad in carrying out massacres and other human rights violations in an attempt to crush the uprising against his rule. Activists say nearly 30,000 people have died.

Ahmadinejad said the so-called contact group hopes to get the Syrian government and opposition to sit across from each other.

"I will do everything in my power to create stability, peace and understanding in Syria," Ahmadinejad said.

Earlier this month, Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi announced the formation of a four-member contact group with Iran, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. But Saudi Arabia so far has not participated.

Ahmadinejad denied Iranian involvement in plotting attacks on Israelis abroad, despite arrests and accusations by police in various countries. He also vehemently disputed the U.S. claim that Iranian agents played a role in a foiled plot to assassinate the Saudi ambassador to the United States last year.

Century Fox Report: Israeli strike could trigger World war III
Ahmadinejad will leave office next June after serving two four-year terms. He threw out numbers and statistics during the interview to show that Iran's economy and the lives of average Iranians have improved under his watch. Since his 2005 election, he claimed, Iran went from being the world's 22nd-largest economy to the 17th-largest; non-petroleum related exports increased sevenfold; and the basic production of goods has doubled. Median income increased by $4,000, he said.

It was not possible to immediately verify his figures.

"Today's conditions in Iran are completely different to where they were seven years ago in the economy, in technical achievement, in scientific know-how," Ahmadinejad said. "All of these achievements, though, have been reached under conditions in which we were brought under heavy sanctions."

Iran has called for the U.S. and its European allies to ease the sanctions that have hit its critical oil exports and left it blackballed from key international banking networks.

Ahmadinejad said he had no knowledge of the whereabouts of Robert Levinson, a private investigator and former FBI agent who vanished in Iran five years ago. He said he directed Iranian intelligence services two years ago to work with their counterparts in the U.S. to locate him.

"And if any help there is that I can bring to bear, I would be happy to do so," he said.

He also claimed never to have heard of Amir Hekmati, a former U.S. Marine who is imprisoned on espionage charges in Iran. Hekmati was arrested while visiting his grandmothers in Iran in August 2011, and his family has been using Ahmadinejad's visit to New York to plead for his release.

In spite of Ahmadinejad's assertions on the importance of dialogue and respect for others, he has presented a hard line in many areas in this week's media appearances.

He refuses to speak of the state of Israel by name and instead refers only to the "Zionists." And when asked on Monday about author Salman Rushdie, he made no attempt to distance himself from recent renewed threats on the author's life emanating from an Iranian semi-official religious foundation.

"If he is in the U.S.," said the president of Iran, "you should not broadcast it for his own safety."



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Iran President Dismisses Threats On Nuclear Programme

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad gestures as he attends the high level meeting on rule of law in the United Nations General Assembly, at U.N. headquarters.

NEW YORK (AP) — Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday dismissed threats of military action against Iran’s nuclear program, arguing that his country’s project to enrich uranium is only for peaceful purposes and saying that Iran has no worries about a possible Israeli attack.

Ahmadinejad spoke before a group of editors and news executives after his arrival in New York for the annual U.N. General Assembly. He told the group that it was not too late for dialogue with the United States to resolve differences.

Century Fox Report: White House to prevent Iran from acquiring Nuclear weapons

But in his remarks, Ahmadinejad sought to delegitimize U.S. ally Israel’s historic ties to the Middle East and its political and military power in the region and the world, saying that Israelis ‘‘do not even enter the equation for Iran.’’

‘‘Fundamentally, we do not take seriously threats of the Zionists,’’ said Ahmadinejad. ‘‘We believe the Zionists see themselves at a dead end and they want to find an adventure to get out of this dead end. While we are fully ready to defend ourselves, we do not take these threats seriously.’’

Ahmadinejad declared Israel has no place in the Middle East, saying that Iran has been around for thousands of years while the modern state of Israel has existed only for the last 60 or so years. ‘‘They have no roots there in history,’’ he said.

Century Fox Report: Iran gathers Nuclear weapons inspite of UN warning.

White House press secretary Jay Carney responded to Ahmadinejad’s remarks, telling a midday news briefing, ‘‘Well, President Ahmadinejad says foolish, offensive and sometimes unintelligible things with great regularity. What he should focus on is the failure of his government of Iran to abide by its international obligations, to abide by United Nations Security Council resolutions.’’

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon had met with Ahmadinejad on Sunday and ‘‘urged Iran to take the measures necessary to build international confidence in the exclusively peaceful nature of its nuclear program,’’ U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said. The U.N. chief also raised the potentially harmful consequences of inflammatory rhetoric ‘‘from various countries in the Middle East,’’ Nesirky said.

On other topics in his meeting with editors, Ahmadinejad said that Iran favors a negotiated settlement to the civil war in Syria, and denied that Tehran is providing weapons or training to the government of President Bashar Assad, as Assad’s opponents and others have alleged.

‘‘We like and love both sides, and we see both sides as brothers,’’ he said. He referred to the conflict in Syria as ‘‘tribal’’ fighting and said that international ‘‘meddling from the outside has made the situation even harder.’’ He refused to say whether Iran would accept a government not led by the Assad regime, which for years has been Iran’s closest ally in the Middle East.

Ahmadinejad met journalists in the mid-town hotel where he was saying. It was Ahmadinejad’s eighth visit to the U.N. gathering held each September, which he cited as proof that he is open to understanding other countries’ views.

More: Iran warns that it will demolish Israel.

In spite of his assertions on the importance of dialogue and respect for others, Ahmadinejad presented a hard line in many areas. He refused to speak of the state of Israel by name and instead referred only to the ‘‘Zionists,’’ and when asked about author Salman Rushdie he made no attempt to distance himself from recent renewed threats on the author’s life emanating from an Iranian semi-official religious foundation. ‘‘If he is in the U.S., you should not broadcast it for his own safety,’’ Ahmadinejad said.

He said this would be his last trip to New York as president of Iran, because his term is ending and he is barred from seeking a third consecutive term. But he did not rule out staying active in Iranian politics and said he might return as part of future Iranian delegations to New York.

Ahmadinejad said the argument over Iran’s nuclear program was a political rather than a legal matter and needs to be resolved politically.

‘‘We are not expecting that a 33-year-old problem between America and Iran to be resolved in speedy discussions, but we do believe in dialogue.’’

Later in the day, Ahmadinejad took aim at both the United States and Israel while addressing a high-level U.N. meeting promoting the rule of law, accusing Washington of shielding what he called a nuclear-armed ‘‘fake regime.’’ His remarks prompted a walkout by Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor.

‘‘Ahmadinejad showed again that he not only threatens the future of the Jewish people, he seeks to erase our past,’’ Prosor said in a statement. ‘‘Three thousand years of Jewish history illustrate the clear danger of ignoring fanatics like Iran’s president, especially as he inches closer to acquiring nuclear weapons.’

Ahmadinejad also alluded to the amateur anti-Islam video made in the U.S. that has caused protests across the Muslim world, accusing the United States and others of misusing freedom of speech and failing to speak out against the defamation of people’s beliefs and ‘‘divine prophets.’’

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Iran: "Israeli Strike Could Trigger World War III"

Revolutionary Guards commander says war would be "historic opportunity" to destroy Israel and "reclaim Palestine."

Senior Iranian military commanders repeated threats made over the past few weeks that Tehran will destroy Israel if it launches an attack on Iran either with or without the US.

Brig.-Gen. Amir-Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’s aerospace division, told state-owned Al-Alam TV that an Israeli strike on Iran could “trigger World War III.”

Iran would target US bases in the region should Israel attack, Hajizadeh added.“It is impossible to imagine an independent war between Iran and the US or the Zionist regime [Israel],” he said, adding that other countries in the region would likely side with Iran or Israel in case of war.

Referring to a deadly attack by Taliban gunmen against a US Marine base in southern Afghanistan earlier this month, in which five aircraft were destroyed, Hajizadeh warned that an attack by Israel on Iran could extend war to the region.

“One should not imagine that the countries in the region would declare neutrality if a war breaks out,” he said according to a report by Iran’s Press TV.

Also on Sunday, Deputy Commander of the Revolutionary Guard Brig.-Gen. Hossein Salami said Iran is no longer concerned about threats from Israel.

“We have crossed the line of worrying about threats from the Zionist Regime [Israel],” Salami said according to Sepah News, the Revolutionary Guard’s official news site. He added that in its wars over the last decade Israel has encountered harsh retaliation from the Islamic Republic’s “regional branches” and is no longer considered a threat to Iran.

“If the Zionists really do strike Iran, it would provide a historic opportunity for the Islamic Revolution to wipe [Israel] off the face of the earth,” he said adding that Iran would then “reclaim the lands occupied by Israel for the Palestinians.” Salami added that an infantry battalion would be able to “break Israel’s back” within a day.

“The Regime [Israel] is only 24 kilometers wide in parts,” he explained.

Salami said that Iran was known as a great power and was capable of fighting on many fronts.

“We do not intend to start a war, but if someone starts a war against us, we will respond offensively and strike everywhere and will not stop,” he added, noting that the Revolutionary Guard’s strategies and tactics are offensive, not defensive, in nature.

“Our enemy will begin the war, but we will be the ones to end it,” he added.

Century Fox report: Iran Warns that it will demolish Israel

Salami said that Iran had gained knowledge in weapons manufacturing, including modern missile technology.

The Islamic Republic has missiles capable of destroying enemy bases in the region, he added.

Referring to Iran’s recent announcements of new military developments, Salami noted that Iran had unveiled its Ra’ad (“Thunder”) air defense system during its annual military parade on Friday.

The Ra’ad system is equipped with domestically made Taer (“Bird”) missiles, which have a range of 50 kilometers and can hit targets at 22,000 meters, according to the Iranian state media.

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Deadly Air Strike At Syrian Gas Station Killing More Than 30

BEIRUT - Regime airstrikes hit a gas station in northern Syria Thursday, setting off a fiery explosion that killed at least 30 people and wounded dozens, opposition activists said. Amateur video showed thick black smoke engulfing the scene.

Earlier Thursday, a Syrian military helicopter crashed near the capital of Damascus, and Syria's Information Ministry said the helicopter went down after accidentally clipping the tail of a Syrian passenger plane with 200 people on board. The larger aircraft landed safely at Damascus International Airport and no one was hurt, the Information Ministry said.

The airstrikes and the close call in the sky underscored the growing turmoil and violence in Syria. The country is embroiled in a civil war between forces fighting for President Bashar Assad and those trying to topple him. More than 23,000 people have been killed in the conflict, according to activists.

In recent weeks, Assad's regime has stepped up airstrikes in northern Syria in an attempt to dislodge rebels from areas they control there. Activists said Thursday's airstrike hit near the town of Ain Issa, about 25 miles from the Turkish border. A day earlier, rebel fighters had seized control of a border crossing north of the town.

Rami Abdul-Rahman of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said witnesses counted at least 30 bodies and said dozens of people were wounded.

Amateur video showed thick black smoke rising near the gas station, which was partially intact. Several vehicles, including a bulldozer and pickup trucks, were on fire. The video, whose authenticity could not be confirmed independently, also showed several damaged cars. A man could be heard shouting "your son is dead."

Another group of anti-regime activists, the Local Coordination Committees, reported intense attacks by warplanes on the gas station.

The group did not give a death toll, saying only that many people were killed and more than 70 wounded people were taken to a hospital in the provincial capital of Raqqa.

Abdul-Rahman quoted one witness as saying the blast was caused by an airstrike but said the Observatory could not independently confirm that.

Century Fox Report: Syrian war continues, Damascus blast kills 5 Police officers

The helicopter crash near Damascus came after the aircraft clipped a Syrian Arab Airlines jet, the state-run news agency SANA quoted Syria's Information Ministry as saying. This seemed to quell speculation that anti-regime fighters might have downed the helicopter.

Rebels in Syria are fighting mostly with light weapons. Opposition fighters have claimed to have shot down helicopters and warplanes in the past, although the regime blamed most of the problems on mechanical difficulties.

Syrian officials did not report any casualties in the helicopter crash, saying only that it went down in Adra, a Damascus suburb. Adra is near the Douma district, which has witnessed repeated military crackdowns to purge the rebels.

"We heard the sound of several explosions and some gunfire, and a few minutes later, we were told that a helicopter had crashed," Mohammad Saeed, an activist in Douma, said via Skype.

The helicopter went down in a district known as Tal Kurdi, near a factory for household items, he said, adding that Syrian MiG warplanes and helicopter gunships had been flying low over the area before the crash.

After 18 months, the Syrian conflict appears to have reached a stalemate. The rebels are holding some territory despite the government's military superiority but have been unable to score decisive victories. At the same time, the international community is averse to getting involved militarily and instead hopes economic sanctions will squeeze the Assad regime.

Century Fox News: Syrian President appears confident of victory.

On Thursday, a coalition including the United States, the European Union and the Arab League met in the Netherlands to search for new ways of isolating the Assad regime. The group called "Friends of the Syrian People" was set up in February after the U.N. Security Council was unable to agree on a resolution condemning Syria's government, due to opposition from Russia and China.

Financial experts joined representatives of the group at their meeting in The Hague to help member countries understand how Syria may be using dual-use technologies and front companies to get around the existing sanctions, which include an embargo on oil and arms trade with Syria by participating nations.

Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said the sanctions are having an effect, despite non-participation by Russia, China and Iran, citing a sharp fall in Syria's oil exports. Syrian opposition leaders have warned that sanctions alone will not topple Assad.

Elsewhere in northern Syria, meanwhile, shelling and gunfire echoed across a border region with Turkey, a day after rebels seized control of the strategic Tel Abyad border crossing there. Tel Abyad is about 25 miles north of where the gas station was struck Thursday.

Syria's rebels have captured several other crossings into Turkey and one into Iraq, but Wednesday's seizure of the Tal Abyad post is believed to be the first time they have overrun a frontier post in the northern province of Raqqa. 

In Akcakale, on the Turkish side of the border, a large explosion was heard and in the distance in Syria, military vehicles were seen rushing toward the blast scene as smoke billowed from the area.

Tension was high as Turkish police vehicles escorted reporters covering the events in Syria away from the border. Turkish security forces were also seen moving local residents and cordoning off the area closest to Syria. Some irate Turkish residents lunged and threw stones at a car carrying an AP cameraman and at least two other media vehicles. It was not immediately clear what caused their anger.

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Iran Warns That It Will Demolish Israel

TEHRAN— The top commander in Iran’s powerful Revolutionary Guard warned Sunday that ‘‘nothing will remain’’ of Israel if it takes military action against Tehran over its controversial nuclear program.

Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari said Iran’s response to any attack will begin near the Israeli border. The Islamic Republic has close ties with militants in Gaza and Lebanon, both of which border Israel.

Iran has in the past made reference to the destruction of Israel but his comments at a Tehran news conference were unusually strongly worded and detailed.

Century Fox Report: U.S not setting deadlines for Iran

He also said that Iran warned that oil shipments through the strategic Strait of Hormuz will be in jeopardy if a war breaks out between Iran and the United States. Iranian officials have previously threatened to close the waterway, the route for a fifth of the world’s oil, but less frequently in recent months.

Gen. Jafari also told a news conference in Tehran Sunday that if it is attacked, Iran will no longer be committed to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, under whose terms U.N. inspectors visit Iranian nuclear sites. He said however that this does not mean that Iran would build a nuclear weapon.

More: Iran gathers Nuclear weapons inspite of UN warning

The U.S and Israel have both left open the possibility of a strike on Iran if diplomacy fails to stop what it says is a push for a nuclear weapon. Tehran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.

Gen. Jafari however said that Iran believes the United States won’t attack Iran because it is very vulnerable and its military bases in the Middle East are within the range of Iran’s missiles. Jafari also said Israel is very unlikely to take unilateral action.

Israel believes that any attack would likely unleash retaliation, in the form of Iranian missiles as well as rocket attacks by Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas on its northern and southern borders.

Report: Hezbollah:"Iran will strike U.S, if Israel attacks."

Jafari’s comments come as U.S.-led naval forces from the West and Arab allies gather for naval maneuvers in the Persian Gulf that include mine-sweeping exercises.

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Iran Gathers Nuclear Weapons, Inspite Of UN Warning

VIENNA — The 35-nation board of the U.N. nuclear agency overwhelmingly rebuked Iran on Thursday for refusing to heed demands that it take actions to diminish fears that it might be seeking atomic arms, a move hailed by the United States as demonstrating international pressure on Tehran to compromise.

Century Fox Report: U.S not setting deadlines for Iran

Only one country — Cuba — voted against a resolution brought before the International Atomic Energy Agency board and drawn up by the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany. Ecuador, Tunisia and Egypt abstained, while the 31 other nations supported the resolution.

Iran denies any interest in nuclear arms. But it has refused to comply with U.N. and IAEA demands to stop activities that could be used to make such weapons and to allow a probe of suspicions it worked on an arms program.

Robert Wood, the chief U.S delegate to the IAEA, said he hoped he board's near-solid backing for the resolution would serve as a wake-up call for the Islamic Republic to heed international demands to replace its words with actions that prove it has no interest in nuclear weapons.

"What we are hoping is that this resolution will keep ... diplomatic pressure up and convince Iran that it has really no other option than to comply with its international obligations," he told reporters.

But the resolution has its limitations, despite the broad support it received.

As 11 others before it, the document cannot be enforced by the IAEA board, and as such, may be shrugged off by Tehran, which already is ignoring U.N. Security Council sanctions and other increasingly harsh international penalties meant to force it to compromise.

Century Fox Report: UN concerned by Iran's nuclear programme

Iran appeared unimpressed Thursday. The country's chief IAEA delegate, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, said pressure on his country came from "a few Western countries, especially the United States (which) are trying to change the IAEA into a mere U.N watchdog" trying to penetrate countries' national security.

Because it is largely symbolic, the document is also unlikely to persuade Israel that diplomacy is working. Israel views a nuclear-armed Iran as a mortal threat, citing Iran's persistent calls for the destruction of the Jewish state, its development of missiles capable of striking Israel, and Iranian support for Arab militant groups.

Israeli government leaders have become increasingly strident in suggesting that only military action will stop Iran from getting nuclear arms. For the six powers sponsoring the resolution, the onus at the Vienna meeting was thus to prove that unified international diplomatic pressure could still be exerted on the Islamic Republic — even if it was largely symbolic.

More: Iran could strike U.S if Israel attacks.

Israeli chief delegate Ehud Azoulay questioned whether the resolution would have its intended effect, telling the board that "Iran's race towards the nuclear bomb has not been slowed down by well-meaning resolutions."

Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes only. But it refuses foreign offers of reactor fuel if it stops making its own through uranium enrichment. Enriching uranium is a process that worries the international community because it could be used to arm nuclear warheads too.

The IAEA also suspects that Iran has worked secretly on nuclear arms — allegations Iran dismisses as based on fabricated U.S. and Israeli intelligence.

The six powers behind the resolution included Russia and China — which often speak out against harsh punishment for Iran — as well as the United States, Britain, France and Germany, and Western diplomats described the backing of Moscow and Beijing for the resolution as an example of unity.

In exchange, however, the four Western powers had to settle for compromise language in the text of the resolution, which was weaker overall than the last one in November.

While expressing "serious concern" over continued Iranian uranium enrichment in defiance of the U.N. Security Council, the six nations say they back the "inalienable right" of countries that have signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. That is a bow to arguments by Iran, an NPT signatory, that it has a right to enrich uranium.

The resolution "stresses" that the IAEA has not reported any nuclear material missing from Iran sites it is monitoring. Missing material could mean that Tehran is using it elsewhere for weapons purposes.

The language is also weaker than it could be because it only "notes" that the agency cannot conclude there is no hidden nuclear activity going on because of "lack of cooperation" by Iran on agency requests that it be given greater powers to monitor.

Western nations have for years chastised the Islamic Republic over fears about its nuclear intentions. But the tone of their statements Thursday was unusually harsh. That appeared to reflect concerns that continued lack of diplomatic progress in persuading Iran to compromise could give a greater platform for Israeli hawks.

Ahead of the vote on the resolution, Wood, the chief U.S. envoy, urged board members to send the message "that Iran's continued behavior is dangerous and unacceptable."

"This board must not allow Iran to continue its pattern of deception, deceit, and flagrant flouting of its international nuclear obligations while continuing its delaying tactics," he told the closed meeting in remarks made available to reporters.

The European Union asserted that the Islamic Republic was stalling the IAEA in its attempts to probe Tehran's nuclear activities. It also said Iran was failing to comply with U.N. Security Council demands that it stop activities that could lead to the manufacture of nuclear arms. An EU statement called such conduct "unacceptable."

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