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By M K Bhadrakumar

TEHRAN – If the snow-covered Elbruz mountains rising just north of Tehran took on an extra glint in the bright wintry sunshine on Wednesday, there was good reason. It was the morning after the dramatic capture of the 31-year-old leader of the dreaded Pakistan-based terrorist group Jundallah, Abdulmalik Rigi, in a stunning operation by Iranian intelligence.

The Soureh Cinema Institute in Tehran and Iran’s Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance are already contemplating making a movie about the capture of Rigi, who headed Jundallah (Soldiers of God), a Sunni insurgent group that operates mostly in Iran’s southeastern province of Sistan-Balochistan against the Shi’ite regime.

The operation had all the ingredients of a thriller. From available details, Iranian intelligence, which has been stalking Rigi for months, grabbed him while he was on a flight from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) to Kyrgyzstan. The aircraft was forced to land in Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran, where Rigi and an accomplice were forcibly deplaned.

However, Rigi’s capture has wider ramifications going well beyond the stuff of high drama. For one thing, the Iranian public was dazzled by the intelligence operation and it has provided a morale boost at a critical juncture when the West is besieging Iran over its nuclear program and the political class in Tehran is more polarized than at any time in the three decades of the Islamic Republic.

Ironically, the Iranian performance stands out in sharp contrast with the fallout from the Israeli intelligence operation in Dubai in the UAE to assassinate prominent Hamas leader Mahmoud al-Mabhouh on January 19. (See Dubai hit exposes Hamas’ weaknesses, Asia Times Online, February 23) Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar made this clear when he said, "Such an operation by the Islamic Republic’s security forces indicates that the country’s intelligence and security have the upper hand in the region."

No doubt, Iranian public opinion will identify with this mood of self-confidence, no matter the political persuasions of various factions at this current juncture as regards the ruling establishment.

In turn, that would have implications for the United States-Iran standoff. But that is only one aspect. The fact is that Tehran has put Washington on the back foot at a critical juncture. Rigi is bound to spill the beans – he may already have begun – and much is going to surface about the covert activities by the US forces based in Afghanistan to subvert Iran by hobnobbing with Jundallah, which, incidentally, is also known to have links with al-Qaeda.

Rigi apparently had a meeting with his US mentors in an American base just a day before his journey to the UAE. It seems he was traveling with a fake Afghan passport provided by the Americans. A lot of highly embarrassing details are trickling in already that will be eagerly lapped up by the so-called "Arab street" and which will make the entire American position on the situation around Iran look rather weak.

The American doublespeak on terrorism comes out all too starkly. The big question is whether Pakistan played a helpful role in Rigi’s capture. Iranian officials flatly insist that Rigi’s capture was "fully carried out" by Iranian agencies, including its "management, operation and planning" and the credit goes "solely to our country’s security and task forces".

Iranian Intelligence Minister Hojjatoleslam Heydar Moslehi, who is also an influential clerical figure, has stated categorically that "no other country had a share in this success".

But Persian is a highly nuanced language. What is significant is that while Iranian officials have unhesitatingly pointed their finger at the US as Rigi’s top mentor, there has not been a single reference direct or implied about Pakistan that could be construed as critical or unfriendly. This must be noted as on several occasions in recent months Iranian officials publicly expressed their anguish that Pakistani intelligence was involved with Jundallah in one way or another, and that Islamabad was not doing enough to live up to its claims of being a friendly neighbor.

Tehran repeatedly passed on intelligence and urged Islamabad to extradite Rigi following the deadly attack by Jundallah in Sistan-Balochistan province in October, which resulted in the killing of 42 people, including several high-ranking Iranian military commanders.

On balance, Islamabad seems to have implied that it did cooperate with Tehran on Rigi’s capture. The Pakistani ambassador in Tehran, Mohammad Baksh Abbasi, took the unusual step of "underlining Islamabad’s support" for Rigi’s arrest. Abbasi held a press conference to affirm, "Rigi’s arrest showed that there is no place for Iran’s enemies in Pakistan." Shorn of diplomatese, Abbasi claimed a share of the credit that Tehran was bent on exclusively hogging. But Maslehi was plainly dismissive about any Pakistani role.

If there was a Pakistani role in Rigi’s capture there would be deep implications for regional security. Most certainly, Islamabad could claim reciprocal "goodwill" from Iran, such as accommodating its own interests in Afghanistan. On the other hand, Iranian officials have made it clear that Tehran is not indebted to anyone, including Pakistan.

Tehran remains deeply concerned about the US strategy in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s role in it. In the Iranian estimation, the US strategy aims at consolidating a long-term North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) presence in Afghanistan and Central Asia. Equally, Pakistan’s growing ties with NATO as the alliance’s South Asian "pillar" have not escaped Iranian attention. There is no denying the fact that NATO-Pakistan ties are fast assuming a strategic character and have exceeded the immediate requirements of practical cooperation in Afghanistan.

Tehran is equally apprehensive that the US’s long-term strategy is to become the "umpire" or arbiter of Asian security involving four major powers neighboring Afghanistan – Iran, India, Russia and China – by exploiting the contradictions in the region. Tehran estimates that Pakistan is collaborating with this and is in many ways becoming a beneficiary of it.

Therefore, Tehran will follow a two-track policy on the Jundallah-Pakistan nexus. On the one hand, it would like to persuade Islamabad at all available levels to be cooperative in curbing the activities of terrorist elements operating out of Pakistani soil. However, Tehran cannot be naive enough to imagine that the Jundallah terrorists are "non-state actors" based in Pakistan and Afghanistan over whom the security establishment in Islamabad has no control.

Tehran would prefer not to harp on about that sensitive aspect and will instead cajole and persuade the Pakistani intelligence and military to be cooperative in countering terrorism directed against Iran from Pakistani soil.

The Rigi episode brings out the complexity of Iran-Pakistan relations in the fight against terrorism. The bottom line is that Iran’s interests in Afghanistan are far too fundamental to be bartered away under any circumstances.

After failing to win support in Russia for tough sanctions against Iran, Israel turns to its closest ally, the United States, for a backup plan to curb Tehran’s enrichment program.

On Tuesday, the Israeli military radio reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak will be travelling to Washington to share his concerns over Iran’s refusal to stop its nuclear activities.

Barak will meet several US officials during his five-day tour, including US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Middle East ‘peace’ envoy George Mitchell.

He is also scheduled to meet the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in New York.

As part of a last-ditch effort to obstruct Iran’s nuclear program, Israel has sought to send high-ranking delegations to a number of countries, particularly Russia and China, to rally support for punitive measures against the Tehran government.

In Russia, Israeli efforts have achieved little with Kremlin officials declaring that it is much too soon to consider stringent measures against Iran.

This has not stopped Tel Aviv’s effort to call for international sanctions against Iran. On the contrary, it has prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to go as far as demanding that the UN Security Council should be sidestepped if it cannot agree to more sanctions against Tehran.

"We must prohibit Iranian oil exports and imports to Iran of refined oil products. No other sanctions will be effective," Netanyahu said in Jerusalem (Al-Quds) at a meeting of delegates from the Jewish Agency, an organization that encourages Jewish immigration to Israel.

Such daring rhetoric by the Tel Aviv regime comes in light of the wide belief that Israel is in possession of over 200 nuclear warheads. Additionally, Israel has refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and is not a member of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Despite its refusal to join any international atomic regulatory agency, Israel has been the most vocal in calling for international sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran for its IAEA-monitored nuclear program.

"We have arrived at a point where the international community has to decide if it seriously plans to stop Iran‘s nuclear program," the Israeli premier added.

This comes as the UN nuclear watchdog released a new report on Tehran’s enrichment program, criticizing Iran for a range of issues, but verifying the non-diversion of declared nuclear material in the country at the same time.

Iran says that is a signatory of the NPT and, unlike Israel, neither believes in atomic weapons nor, as a matter of religious principle, does it intend to access such weapons of mass-destruction. Tehran has also repeatedly called for the elimination of all nuclear arms throughout the globe.

Russia on Wednesday delayed the delivery of S-300 air defense missiles to Iran, citing unspecified technical problems. The announcement comes a day after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in Moscow to urge Russia to take tougher action against Iran’s nuclear program. The delay is expected to further strain relations between Moscow and Tehran.

According to Agence France-Presse (AFP), the delivery of S-300 missiles has not been canceled.

"The delay is due to technical problems. The delivery will be carried out when they are resolved," Alexander Fomin, deputy head of Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation, told the Interfax news agency…. Neither the United States nor Israel have ruled out air strikes in order to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons. Analysts say that S-300s could greatly complicate such air strikes.

On Tuesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned the international community against imposing sanctions following an earlier announcement that Iran would enrich uranium to 20 percent purity. During their meeting the same day, Mr. Putin assured Mr. Netanyahu that Russia did not want to spark an arms race in the Middle East, reports Haaretz.

During his two-hour meeting with Netanyahu, Putin stressed that Russia would refrain from selling any arms to Syria and Iran that would tilt the strategic balance in the region.

Netanyahu and Putin devoted most of their discussions on Russian plans to sell S-300 surface-to-air missiles, as well as the sale of Russian arms to Syria. The prime minister said he told Putin of the need to apply strict economic sanctions against Iran, along with preventing a nuclear arms race in the Middle East.

Just in September, Russia was angrily denying allegations that one of its freighters had been secretly carrying S-300 antiaircraft missiles to Iran. The ship’s official cargo was timber bound for Algeria, the Monitor reported at the time. The following month, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited Moscow to pressure the Russians to find a joint approach to deal with Iran’s alleged drive to obtain nuclear weapons.

Now, Clinton is on a tour of Arab states in the Persian Gulf to lobby against Iran obtaining nuclear weapons, sparking Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to say that "the Americans, once again, have dispatched their agent as a saleswoman to the Persian Gulf to spread lies," state TV quoted Khamenei as saying.

Read more

Russia suspends Iran arms sale following Israeli PM’s visit to Moscow / The Christian Science Monitor – CSMonitor.com

Iran showing fastest scientific growth of any country
12:52 18 February 2010 by Debora MacKenzie
For similar stories, visit the US national issues Topic Guide
It might be the Chinese year of the tiger, but scientifically, 2010 is looking like Iran’s year.

Scientific output has grown 11 times faster in Iran than the world average, faster than any other country. A survey of the number of scientific publications listed in the Web of Science database shows that growth in the Middle East – mostly in Turkey and Iran – is nearly four times faster than the world average.

Science-Metrix, a data-analysis company in Montreal, Canada, has published a detailed report (PDF) on "geopolitical shifts in knowledge creation" since 1980. "Asia is catching up even more rapidly than previously thought, Europe is holding its position more than most would expect, and the Middle East is a region to watch," says the report’s author, Eric Archambault.

World scientific output grew steadily, from 450,000 papers a year in 1980 to 1,500,000 in 2009. Asia as a whole surpassed North America last year.

Nuclear, nuclear, nuclear
Archambaut notes that Iran’s publications have emphasised inorganic and nuclear chemistry, nuclear and particle physics and nuclear engineering. Publications in nuclear engineering grew 250 times faster than the world average – although medical and agricultural research also increased.

Science-Metrix also predicts that this year, China will publish as many peer-reviewed papers in natural sciences and engineering as the US. If current trends continue, by 2015 China will match the US across all disciplines – although the US may publish more in the life and social sciences until 2030.

China’s prominence in world science is known to have been growing, but Science-Metrix has discovered that its output of peer-reviewed papers has been growing more than five times faster than that of the US.

Euro-puddings
Meanwhile, "European attitudes towards collaboration are bearing fruit", writes Archambaut. While Asia’s growth in output was mirrored by North America’s fall, Europe, which invests heavily in cross-border scientific collaboration, held its own, and now produces over a third of the world’s science, the largest regional share. Asia produces 29 per cent and North America 28 per cent.

Scientific output fell in the former Soviet Union after its collapse in 1991 and only began to recover in 2006. Latin America and the Caribbean together grew fastest of any region, although its share of world science is still small. Growth in Oceania, Europe and Africa has stayed at about the same rate over the past 30 years. Only North American scientific output has grown "considerably slower" than the world as a whole.

"The number of papers is a first-order metric that doesn’t capture quality," admits Archambaut. There are measures for quality, such as the number of times papers are cited, and "Asian science does tend to be less cited overall".

But dismissing the Asian surge on this basis is risky, he feels. "In the 1960s, when Japanese cars started entering the US market, US manufacturers dismissed their advance based on their quality" – but then lost a massive market share to Japan. The important message, he says, is that "Asia is becoming the world leader in science, with North America progressively left behind".

If you would like to reuse any content from New Scientist, either in print or online, please contact the syndication department first for permission. New Scientist does not own rights to photos, but there are a variety of licensing options available for use of articles and graphics we own the copyright to.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s top aide has declared that further good news on Iran’s scientific progress will be soon shared with the nation.

"After [the announcement of] news about the great accomplishments made by the Iranian youth and experts in the fields of modern nuclear technologies, laser sciences and stem cells, we will have more good news for the Iranian nation soon," Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, the president’s senior aide and chief of staff, said in Qatar on Sunday.

He said the Iranian nation has endured and resisted against various threats throughout the past 31 years, the Iranian Labor News Agency reported. "Military threats, attacks and other schemes will never stop the great Iranian nation from its resistance."

On the occasion of the 31st anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in February, Iran test-fired the Kavoshgar 3 (Explorer 3) satellite carrier, sending its third explorer — with living organisms onboard — into space.

The Kavoshgar 3 rocket, carrying an experimental capsule, transfers telemetric data, live pictures and flight and environmental analytical data.

President Ahmadinejad’s government has also unveiled three new domestically built satellites called Tolou (Sunrise), Mesbah 2 (Lantern), and Navid (Promising Sign) in addition to a new satellite carrier engine dubbed Simorgh 3.

The developments came after Iran on Tuesday announced that it had started enriching uranium to a level of 20 percent, after potential foreign suppliers failed to provide the required fuel for Tehran’s research reactor, which produces medical isotopes for cancer patients.

On Thursday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran had produced the first stock of 20-percent-enriched uranium at the Natanz enrichment facility.

SF/MB

Iranian Ambassador to the UN Mohammad Khazaee says the Iranian nation will never bow to unmerited pressures and threats posed by a few Western countries.

Iran’s permanent representative to the UN issued a statement saying despite all the threats and pressure, the huge turnout of the Iranian nation in the 31st anniversary of the Islamic Revolution attests to the prevailing state of unity and concord in the country.

The huge turnout indicated "the nation’s determination in maintaining national unity … in the realization of political, economic and social developments and particularly in advancing civilian nuclear technology," read the statement.

“The presence of millions of Iranians in the rallies was a clear manifestation of political power across the international scene,” Khazaee later expounded in an interview with IRNA on Friday.

Rather than clinging to the misguided belief that the Tehran government is disliked and weakened by the opposition, he emphasized, Western officials, particularly those in the US, should open their eyes to the wide-spread support in Iran for state policies.

“The Islamic Republic has now become a powerful and strategic country, where people enjoy a strong sense of unity and solidarity,” said Khazaee. “It is a fact that Western powers must learn to deal with.”

The Iranian offcial also cautioned against the rising tide of anti-Iran propaganda campaign in the West that seeks to portray the Iranian government in a bad light.

Millions of people throughout Iran with many carrying Iranian flags, pictures of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei, and banners in support of the revolution and its late founder, Imam Khomeini, took to the streets on Thursday to celebrate the overthrowing of the ruthless, US-backed Pahlavi monarchy.

As Israel keeps threatening the regional countries with war, Egyptian maritime sources say the Israeli navy has deployed two missile ships to the Persian Gulf.

Citing the sources, Yediot Ahronot reported Saturday that two Israeli missile ships passed through the Suez Canal en rout to the Red Sea on Thursday morning.

The sources said the ships are expected to reach the Persian Gulf within the next four days.

According to the report, Cairo adopted tight security measures to ensure the safe passage of the Israeli ships through the canal.

The waterway, which had not previously been used by Israeli vessels for intelligence reasons, was traversed for the first time in June 2009 when a Dolphin-class submarine (a nuclear German-made submarine) reportedly sailed from the Mediterranean to reach military exercises in the Red Sea.

Report: Israeli warships on way to Persian Gulf

Arab media: 2 Israeli Navy ships passed through Suez Canal – Israel News, Ynetnews

Israeli Navy Ships Crossed The Suez Canal – International Middle East Media Center

Israeli Ships Cross Suez Canal – News Briefs – Israel National News

Citing the sources, Yediot Ahronot reported Saturday that two Israeli missile ships passed through the Suez Canal en rout to the Red Sea on Thursday morning.

The sources said the ships are expected to reach the Persian Gulf within the next four days.

According to the report, Cairo adopted tight security measures to ensure the safe passage of the Israeli ships through the canal.

The waterway, which had not previously been used by Israeli vessels for intelligence reasons, was traversed for the first time in June 2009 when a Dolphin-class submarine (a nuclear German-made submarine) reportedly sailed from the Mediterranean to reach military exercises in the Red Sea

Citing the sources, Yediot Ahronot reported Saturday that two Israeli missile ships passed through the Suez Canal en rout to the Red Sea on Thursday morning.

The sources said the ships are expected to reach the Persian Gulf within the next four days.

According to the report, Cairo adopted tight security measures to ensure the safe passage of the Israeli ships through the canal.

The waterway, which had not previously been used by Israeli vessels for intelligence reasons, was traversed for the first time in June 2009 when a Dolphin-class submarine (a nuclear German-made submarine) reportedly sailed from the Mediterranean to reach military exercises in the Red Sea

TEHRAN (FNA)- A senior Iranian commander on Saturday assured the nation that the Army’s Air Force will surprise enemies by its defensive measures under conditions that it assumes a harsh response is necessary.

"As the Air Force, despite enemy imaginations, acted much beyond expectations during the Holy Defense (8-year Iraqi imposed war against Iran), it will fulfill its responsibility in the best possible way wherever necessary in future," Iranian Army Lieutenant Commander General Seyed Abdolrahim Mousavi said.

Mousavi also reiterated that during the Iraqi imposed war against Iran, the Air Force displayed its power in a way that it could change war equations in the interest of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Elsewhere, he referred to the capabilities of Iran’s Air Force after the Iraqi imposed war, and said that the personnel of the Air Force could enhance Iran’s battle power with their productivity and designing different kinds of aircrafts, radars and sensitive parts.

Tehran launched an arms development program during the 1980-88 Iraqi imposed war on Iran, to compensate for a US weapons embargo. Since 1992, Iran has produced its own tanks, armored personnel carriers, missiles and fighter planes.

Yet, Iranian officials have always stressed that the country’s military and arms programs serve defensive purposes and should not be perceived as a threat to any other country.

Iran successfully tested a home-made radar-evading Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with bombing capabilities in June. Also in 2008, the country’s Defense Industries launched production lines of two well-known home-made fighter jets, namely Saeqeh (Thunderbolt) and Azarakhsh (Lightening).