{"id":1339,"date":"2006-01-22T22:29:40","date_gmt":"2006-01-23T04:29:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1339"},"modified":"2006-01-22T22:29:56","modified_gmt":"2006-01-23T04:29:56","slug":"iran-turns-up-heat-in-nuclear-war-of-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=1339","title":{"rendered":"Iran Turns up Heat in Nuclear War of Words"},"content":{"rendered":"

Because the Iranian nuclear ambitions cannot be allowed to just simmer<\/a> on the back burner for a day or two.<\/p>\n

Iran yesterday warned Israel it would be making a “fatal mistake” if it took military action against Tehran’s nuclear programme.<\/p>\n

The warning came as part of escalating verbal warfare between the two regional rivals, with Shaul Mofaz, Israel’s Iranian-born defence minister, saying Israel would not let Iran acquire nuclear capability.<\/p>\n

“We are giving priority at this stage to diplomatic action, but we cannot tolerate a nuclear option for Iran and we must prepare ourselves,” Mr Mofaz said.<\/p>\n

Iran’s Foreign Ministry yesterday branded Mr Mofaz’s comments “a form of psychological warfare”.<\/p>\n

A spokesman said: “Israel knows how much of a fatal mistake it would be [to attack Iran]. This is just a childish game by Israel.”.<\/p>\n

But speakers at a seminar in Israel yesterday voiced suggestions ranging from a show of military force to bombing Iran’s nuclear installations.<\/p>\n

“Only a show of force by the entire world, including the United States and, afterwards, Israel, will be effective in doing away with Iran’s acquiring nuclear capability,” said Yitzhak Ben-Rafael, an army reserves general who teaches at Tel Aviv University.<\/p>\n

Ephraim Sneh, an MP from the opposition Labour Party, said: “The state of Israel is on a collision course with the Iranian regime.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One could just as easily make the argument that it would almost assuredly be a fatal mistake for Israel if there were no action taken against Iran.<\/p>\n

The story also included this mildly interesting tidbit.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Muqtada al-Sadr, the radical Iraqi cleric, said yesterday that his Mahdi army would help to defend Iran if it were attacked by a foreign nation.<\/p>\n

“The Mahdi army is beyond the Iraqi army. It was established to defend Islam,” he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This little two-bit thug has been allowed to be a repeated pain in the arse for far too long. There is humor to be found, however, in his delusions of grandeur about his little rabble.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because the Iranian nuclear ambitions cannot be allowed to just simmer on the back burner for a day or two. Iran yesterday warned Israel it would be making a “fatal mistake” if it took military action against Tehran’s nuclear programme. The warning came as part of escalating verbal warfare between the two regional rivals, with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-central-asia","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1339"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1339\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}