0 Israel steps up protection ties with China

After a prolonged chill, security ties between Israel and China are warming up.

With Israel offering much-needed technical expertise and China representing a huge new market and influential voice in the international debate over Iran's nuclear program, the two nations have stepped up military cooperation as they patch up a rift caused by a pair of failed arms deals scuttled by the U.S.(Bing)

The improved ties have been highlighted by this week's visit to Beijing by Israel's military chief and a training mission to Israel by the Chinese paramilitary force that, among other things, polices the restive Tibetan and Muslim Uighur regions. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to travel to China in the coming weeks.

After their meeting Monday, both China's chief of staff, Gen. Chen Bingde, and his Israeli counterpart, Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, hailed the growing ties and held out the possibility of even closer military cooperation.

Chen told the official China Daily that China "attaches importance to the ties with the Israeli military and is willing to make concerted efforts with the Israeli side to deepen pragmatic cooperation."

In a statement released by the Israeli military, Gantz mentioned a commitment to developing the relationship, including "joint courses that are scheduled to take place." It did not elaborate.

Such comments are a remarkable turnaround from just a few years ago, when ties deteriorated after the failed arms deals.

Israel and China established diplomatic relations in 1992, and the two countries traded military technology for nearly a decade. Some military analysts believe that Israel helped China develop its J-10 fighter plane during the 1990s, a claim that both countries have denied.(Google)

These ties suffered a blow in 2000 when the U.S. pressured Israel to cancel the sale of a sophisticated radar system to China, fearing it could alter the balance of power with Taiwan. The cancellation infuriated China, cost Israel hundreds of millions of dollars, and frayed ties.

Then, in 2005, the U.S. persuaded Israel not to service spare parts for unmanned aircraft drones already sold to China, concerned that it would upgrade China's airborne anti-radar capability. Israel officials say that Israel has since halted weapons sales to China.

But in recent months, relations have begun to improve. In June 2011, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak traveled to China. Chen, the Chinese military chief, visited Israel in August, and in December, Israel's paramilitary Border Police unit hosted a delegation from the People's Armed Police.

During the monthlong course, "cadets were taught a variety of information, with an emphasis on fighting terror, dealing with disturbances, self defense, open field combat and more," according to an Israeli police statement. It was the first such exercise, police said.

This newfound cooperation has raised concerns among human rights advocates. Israel's Border Police serve on the front lines of anti-Israel demonstrations in the West Bank and have been accused of using excessive force dispersing crowds. It denies the allegations.

The People's Armed Police, or PAP, has also been accused of using excessive force, particularly in Tibet, a western region where the indigenous Buddhist population has pushed for independence.

Policing Tibet is a small part of a challenging mission. Believed to have as many as 1 million members, the PAP is responsible for asserting government control over a rapidly changing society beset by soaring numbers of protests, strikes and ethnic unrest by Tibetans and Muslim Uighurs on China's Central Asian frontier.

Set up in the early 1980s to take over domestic security from the armed forces, the PAP has been derided for much of its history as undisciplined. The units proved unfit to handle the Tiananmen Square democracy demonstrations in 1989, forcing the Communist Party to call in the People's Liberation Army.

In the past decade, the government has launched a full-force upgrade.

It now has rapid-response, counterterrorism, anti-hijacking and other specialized units.(Aol)

Nicholas Bequelin, a China researcher at Human Rights Watch, said PAP units engaged in "widespread abuses" in putting down a mass Tibetan uprising in 2008, using live ammunition against unarmed protesters, disappearances and other acts of disproportionate brutality.

He said the Israeli training "must include a human rights component, such as the principle of proportionate use of force."

Israeli officials rejected any notion of wrongdoing, saying that all cooperation was "transparent" and done with the full knowledge of the U.S. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing a sensitive diplomatic issue.

The Chinese Embassy in Tel Aviv did not respond to a request for comment.

According to Israeli diplomats and analysts, the interests on both sides are clear. Israel has a strong interest in getting closer to a rising world power, while China is interested in Israeli military and technological know-how.

"I'm sure Israel does whatever it can to let the Chinese know that despite limitations on military transfers, Israel still has a strong will to attain good relations," said Yoram Evron, a China expert at Haifa University and the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank.

He said he believes the warming ties were initiated by the Chinese, who were caught off guard by the Arab Spring protests convulsing the region in the past year and a half.

"Due to the Arab Spring, China may have the impression, a stronger impression than before, that Israel is relatively stable compared with other players in the region," he said.

An Israeli diplomat involved in Asian affairs said the security ties are part of a larger blossoming of relations. China is now Israel's third-largest trade partner, after the European Union and United States. Bilateral trade exceeded $8 billion last year, roughly 20 percent higher than the previous year.(Yahoo)

While those figures are minuscule for China, the diplomat noted that China is very interested in some key industries in which Israel has expertise. He cited Israeli water technologies in agriculture, desalination and wastewater management.

He said Israel has signed number of trade agreements with China in recent years, including a new scholarship program to bring 250 Chinese university students to Israel annually. It also has expanded its diplomatic presence in China with a new consulate in the city of Guangzhou, and another one set to open in Chengdu next year.

Israeli officials acknowledged their motives go beyond trade. They said they routinely raise concerns about Iran's nuclear program with China, which is both a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council and which relies on Iran for roughly 10 percent of its oil supply.

Israel, like the West, believes Iran is trying to build a nuclear bomb, and has hinted it will attack Iran if it concludes that international diplomatic efforts to stop Iran have failed. An Israeli attack could disrupt the flow of oil and send global energy prices skyrocketing, a nightmare scenario for China.

So far, the Israeli lobbying has yielded mixed results. China has helped pass four sets of economic sanctions against Iran, but has tried to dilute the language.

"We would like to see them taking more concrete steps because they have clout over Iran," the diplomat said. "We explain that if the issue is not resolved, it might affect stability in the Middle East."

Thanks:thejakartapost.com/news/2012/05/25

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0 U.S. Tattered between Israel’s Nuclear Demands Versus Iran’s

U.S. negotiators going into Iranian nuclear talks today are under pressure to reconcile two fundamental and seemingly irreconcilable demands before the clock runs out on a diplomatic solution.

Iranian leaders want the international community to accept that their nation has a right to enrich uranium on its soil for peaceful use. In Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says the Jewish state will never be safe unless Iran ceases all enrichment so it can’t secretly build an atomic bomb.

That puts the U.S. in a difficult position as it heads into a second round of nuclear talks in Baghdad with its five partners -- the U.K., France, Germany, China and Russia. All six have agreed to demand that Iran provide greater transparency and safeguards against illicit weapons development.

“The U.S. is negotiating on two fronts -- with Iran and with Israel,” Vali Nasr, a former U.S. State Department senior adviser, said in an interview. “A deal that would work with Iran would not satisfy Israel probably,” and the reverse is also true, he said.

The stakes are high for Iran and Israel -- and, politically, for President Barack Obama. Obama is under pressure in an election year to forestall any Israeli or U.S. military strike against Iran, while blunting attacks from Congress and Republican challenger Mitt Romney that portray him as not being tough enough on Iran.

Core Issue

Oil prices declined yesterday on news from Vienna of an Iranian agreement with United Nations atomic inspectors, who are engaged in separate talks from the six-power meeting in Baghdad. Oil for June delivery slid 91 cents to settle at $91.66 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Front-month futures are down 7.3 percent this year, and prices have fallen for 14 of the past 17 days.

A preliminary agreement between Iran and the International Atomic Energy Agency -- which would grant greater access to Iranian sites suspected of housing undeclared nuclear activities -- doesn’t change the core issue of uranium enrichment, which has drawn threats of possible military strikes this year by Israel.

Public and private posturing on all sides has marked the run-up to a second round of nuclear talks, following a meeting last month in Istanbul.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak flew to Washington last week for talks on Iran, following an unpublicized visit by Israeli Military Intelligence chief Major General Aviv Kochavi to Washington and the United Nations headquarters in New York.

Enrichment ‘Right’

Iranian leaders have insisted in state-run media reports over the last month that the world has recognized their right to enrichment activities. U.S. diplomats dispute that.

The U.S. and European Union have stuck to a hard bargaining position: that Iran must meet all international obligations and resolve all concerns about its nuclear program. U.S. and Western officials have said there will be no relief from punishing oil and financial sanctions until a deal is done.

Dennis Ross, Obama’s former chief adviser on Iran, said a deal between Iran and the six powers meeting in Baghdad is achievable over time if Iran were to agree to start implementing certain confidence-building steps.

Those might include halting 19.75 percent uranium enrichment, shipping out stockpiles of that medium-enriched uranium, answering questions about possible military dimensions of the nuclear program and accepting additional transparency measures, said Ross, now counselor at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. While medium-enriched uranium is needed to make medical isotopes to treat cancer patients, it also can be enriched further to fuel a nuclear weapon.

Curtailing Enrichment

In the longer-term, Ross and other analysts suggested, Iran would need to accept steps that would prevent the conversion of a civilian nuclear power program into a weapons effort. Those measures might include forgoing enrichment and receiving fuel from an international fuel bank or accepting strict limits on enrichment at levels of less than 5 percent, restrictions on the number of centrifuges and intrusive inspections.

U.S. and Western diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said the U.S. and its European partners haven’t decided yet whether a low level of domestic uranium enrichment might be acceptable ultimately if Iran were to comply with the rest of the international community’s demands.

Seyed Hossein Mousavian, a former member of Iran’s nuclear negotiating team from 2003 to 2005, said yesterday that the right to domestic enrichment has been understood as a right by every Iranian government dating back to the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran’s last monarch who was deposed in Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

‘Red Line’

“It was a red line under the Shah, who was an ally of the U.S.,” Mousavian, now a scholar at the Woodrow Wilson School at Princeton University, in Princeton, New Jersey, said yesterday. No Iranian government will be in a position “to sell the rights of the nation under the NPT,” he said, referring to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Nuclear specialists debate whether the treaty guarantees the right to domestic uranium enrichment or simply the right to a civilian nuclear program. Iran’s critics say the nation is in violation of the NPT and several UN Security Council resolutions in any case, and therefore forfeits rights it would have under the treaty.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak yesterday reiterated Israel’s demands that Iran halt all enrichment. “In addition, all enriched uranium should be removed from Iran,” he said.

Promises, Actions

The deal announced yesterday to grant UN inspectors expanded access to Iranian military sites “is a net positive, but it is premature to make too much of it” because Iran has a record of unfulfilled commitments, Ross said. “Let’s see the actions, not just the promises.”

U.S. diplomats said Iran’s talks with the IAEA are a separate track from the Baghdad negotiations and insisted they wouldn’t reward Iran’s concessions to the IAEA with relief from oil and financial sanctions.

Rather than relief from oil sanctions, U.S. officials said the six major powers meeting in Baghdad are ready to offer a basket of confidence-building measures to assist Iran’s civilian energy program if Iran were to cease medium-level uranium enrichment.(Google)

Other incentives for Iran’s compliance might include lifting restrictions that have prevented Iran from importing spare parts for civilian aircraft, according to the U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity about private deliberations.

Thanks: bloomberg.com/news/2012-05-23

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0 Iran wishes to demolish Israel - Netanyahu

Iran is seeking atomic weapons to destroy Israel and world powers should not make any concessions over its nuclear program, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says.

Netanyahu made the remarks as the head of the UN nuclear watchdog was in Teheran on a key mission that could lead to the resumption of probes on whether Iran has secretly worked on a nuclear weapon.

Much of the West believe Iran is seeking to develop nuclear weapons, a charge Iran denies. Israel views a nuclear Iran as an existential threat due to frequent calls by Teheran for its destruction along with its support of violent anti-Israel groups and its long-range missile program.(Google)

'Iran wants to destroy Israel and it is developing nuclear weapons to fulfill that goal,' Netanyahu said at a conference for public servants on Monday.

'Against this malicious intention, leading world powers need to display determination and not weakness. They should not make any concessions to Iran,' he said.

Yukiya Amano, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, made a one-day visit to Teheran on Monday focused on getting Iran to agree to terms that will allow IAEA inspections of suspect Iranian sites, including the Parchin military complex where the agency had reported suspicious activities in the past.

His visit comes ahead of talks on Wednesday in Baghdad between Iran and the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

Teheran's uranium enrichment activities at its plant at Fordo, near the holy city of Qom, are of particular concern for Israel because it is dug into a mountain and possibly resistant to attack.

News From: skynews.com.au/world/

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0 US envoy to Israel: US ready to strike Iran

The U.S. has plans in place to attack Iran if necessary to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons, Washington's envoy to Israel said, days ahead of a crucial round of nuclear talks with Tehran.

Dan Shapiro's message resonated Thursday far beyond the closed forum in which it was made: Iran should not test Washington's resolve to act on its promise to strike if diplomacy and sanctions fail to pressure Tehran to abandon its disputed nuclear program.

Shapiro told the Israel Bar Association the U.S. hopes it will not have to resort to military force.

"But that doesn't mean that option is not fully available. Not just available, but it's ready," he said. "The necessary planning has been done to ensure that it's ready."(Google)

Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, like energy production. The U.S. and Israel suspect Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons, but differences have emerged in how to persuade Tehran to curb its program.

Washington says diplomacy and economic sanctions must be given a chance to run its course, and is taking the lead in the ongoing talks between six global powers and Iran.

Israel, while saying it would prefer a diplomatic solution, has expressed skepticism about these talks and says time is running out for military action to be effective.

President Barack Obama has assured Israel that the U.S. is prepared to take military action if necessary, and it is standard procedure for armies to draw up plans for a broad range of possible scenarios. But Shapiro's comments were the most explicit sign yet that preparations have been stepped up.

In his speech, Shapiro acknowledged the clock is ticking.

"We do believe there is time. Some time, not an unlimited amount of time," Shapiro said. "But at a certain point, we may have to make a judgment that the diplomacy will not work."(Bing)

The U.S. envoy spoke on Tuesday. The Associated Press obtained a recording of his remarks on Thursday.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany are gearing up to for a May 23 meeting with Iran in Baghdad. Shortly after the meeting, the U.N. atomic agency is to release its latest report card on Iran's nuclear efforts.

In Tehran on Thursday, top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili warned against Western pressure at next week's talks, which are a follow-up to negotiations in Istanbul last month that all sides praised as positive.(Yahoo)

"Cooperation is what we can talk about in Baghdad," Jalili said in comments broadcast on Iranian state TV.

"Some say time is running out for the talks," he added. "I say time for the (West's) pressure strategy is running out."

Four rounds of U.N. sanctions have failed to persuade Iran to halt its uranium enrichment, a process that has civilian uses but is also key to bomb-making. But recent U.S. and European measures, including an oil embargo and financial and banking sanctions, have bludgeoned Iran's economy by curtailing its ability to carry on economic transactions with the international community.

Israel says a nuclear weapon in the hands of Iran would threaten the Jewish state's survival and has waged a fierce diplomatic campaign against the Iranian nuclear program for years. Israel cites Iranian calls for Israel's destruction, Iran's arsenal of missiles, and its support for anti-Israel militant groups.

Senior officials have expressed skepticism about the sanctions' effectiveness, and believe Tehran is using the talks to stall the international community as Iran moves ever closer to a nuclear bomb.

The United States has urged Israel to refrain from attacking, at least at this point. Tough new economic sanctions are to go into effect over the summer, and American officials fear an Israeli strike could set off a regional war without significantly setting back the Iranian program.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu argues the negotiations will fail unless Iran agrees to halt all uranium enrichment, ship its current stockpile of enriched uranium out of the country and dismantle an underground enrichment facility near the city of Qom.

Maj. Gen. Ido Nehushtan, who until a few days ago commanded Israel's air force, said in a Jerusalem Post interview Thursday that the air force is prepared for any scenario, including striking Iranian nuclear facilities.

Israel's military chief told the Associated Press last month that other countries as well as Israel have readied their armed forces for a potential strike against Iran's nuclear sites.(Aol)

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