Reflections by Comrade Fidel

238 REASONS TO BE WORRIED

PART TWO

June 21:

AFP: Brazil refused to go on mediating on the Iranian nuclear subject after the US and other powers rejected the agreement for exchange signed in May by Iran and Turkey, as declared this Monday by Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim to The Financial Times.

June 22:

ANSA: The former head of Mossad between 1989 and 1996, Shabtai Shavit, today stated that Israel should take into consideration a preventive attack on Iran in order to destroy its nuclear plants.

June 22

AFP: This Tuesday the US government urged private businesses to go further in official sanctions against Iran and to cut the controversial ties with Teheran, at the same time as Washington prepares another series of sanctions against the Islamic Republic.

June 23:

ANSA: Today Iran announced that to date it produced more than 17 kilos of 20 % enriched uranium, at the time the supreme guide Ayatollah Ali Khomenei maintained that the arrogant powers are opposed to his country’s nuclear program because they fear Teheran as a symbol of Islamic movements in the world.

June 24:

EFE: The commander of the army of the elite corps of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, General Ali Fadavi today warned that if the US and their allies inspect Iranian vessels in international waters, they will receive a proper answer in the Persian Gulf and in the Straits of Ormuz.

A high-ranking Iranian soldier stated that the US and their allies would not dare to act against the Iranian ships and if they commit such a stupid move, based on the illegal resolution they have passed, they themselves will receive a proper answer from the Guardians of the Revolution in the Persian Gulf and the Straits of Ormuz.

Fadavi added that the Army of the Guardians of the Revolution today have hundreds of ships outfitted with missile launchers.

EFE: The US Senate today approved new unilateral sanctions against Iran, directed at its energy sector, and that would also sanction companies doing business with Teheran.

June 27:

ANSA: Head of the CIA Leon Panetta today warned that Iran has the capability of building two atomic bombs in two years since it now has sufficient capacity of enriched uranium to move forward in that plan, denied by Teheran.

June 30:

REUTERS: Iran issued a warning to members of the European Union about serious consequences due to their decision to impose tougher sanctions against Teheran because of their nuclear program.

This month there were 119 news cables about Iran.

In July, confrontation continued to grow. Before each additional imperialist measure, pressure, sanctions and threats the resolute Iranian resistance continued to strengthen.

July 1

AFP: In a letter to the 15 Council members, thanking Brazil and Turkey for their resistance to political pressures, Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki stated that the new sanctions by the UN Security Council will not prevent Iran from pursuing its peaceful nuclear program.

ANSA: US President Barack Obama today assured that the new law of sanctions by his country against Iran is a blow to the heart of its presumed capacity to develop nuclear weapons…

Obama said that the US was showing the Iranian authorities that their actions had consequences and he accused Teheran of taking on a defiant position…

July 3:

REUTERS: On Saturday, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that the latest sanctions against Iran are pathetic and he warned the world powers that they would regret their threat.

July 5:

AFP: On Monday an Iranian official announced that the airports of Great Britain, Germany and the United Arab Emirates refuse to supply fuel to Iranian passenger planes after the new US sanctions…

The official IRNA agency indicated that Kuwait airport was doing likewise.

They said that this measure was being applied since last Thursday following the US Congress decision that imposes sanctions on the sale of fuel products to Iran.

July 6:

AP: On Tuesday China said that the US and other nations should not be adding their own sanctions to the most recent penalties being imposed by the UN on Iran...

July 7:

AFP: This Wednesday, Iran acknowledged, for the first time, that the new international sanctions might slow down its much-discussed nuclear program, including the enriching of uranium, but he assured that it would not stop it.

DPA: Documents today revealed that Iran is ready to return to international talks about their nuclear program in September, but only if the EU denounces the Israeli nuclear arsenal and shelves its plans to impose greater sanctions on Teheran.

July 8:

AFP: On Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad described the US as the planetary dictator before attacking Israel just after his arrival in Nigeria to attend a D-8 Summit which brings together eight developing Moslem countries.

The US has appointed itself leader of the world and everyone should know that a self-proclaimed authority is a dictatorship…

AFP: US President Barack Obama stated during an interview broadcast on Thursday on Israeli TV that it is improbable that Israel should attack Iranian nuclear installations without previously informing the US.

On Wednesday, Obama stated on Israeli Channel 2 that it is unacceptable for Iran to possess nuclear weapons and that the US shall do all they can to prevent that from happening.

DPA: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured today in New York that an Iran with nuclear weapons would be more dangerous than the USSR during the Cold War.

Netanyahu indicated to the think tank Council on Foreign Relations that the Soviets had thousands of atomic weapons, but that they were rational and predictable, something Iran is not.

July 12:

ANSA: Iran insists that Brazil and Turkey should take part in the re-initiation of negotiations about its nuclear program as emphasized by Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki, and quoted today on Press TV.

July 15:

EFE: The possibility of an Israeli attack against Iran because of this country`s nuclear program has grown stronger, but its consequences would be devastating and would lead to a prolonged war with regional and global implications.

Those were the conclusions of a study entitled `Military Action against Iran: Impact and Effects` by the Oxford Research Group, a British centre which states that the consequences would be so serious that a way must be found to solve that crisis using methods other than military.

July 16:

EFE: The UN Security Council today condemned terrorist attacks perpetrated on a Shiite mosque in the south-east of Iran where at least 20 persons died and more than 100 were wounded.

EFE: Official Japanese sources informed that the foreign ministers of Japan and Brazil agreed today on the necessity of keeping an open window of dialogue with Iran.

July 17:

AFP: This Saturday Iran accused western countries and Israel of being behind the double suicide attack that caused 27 dead on Thursday in the south-eastern part of the country even though both the EU and the US condemned it.

REUTERS: A semi-official Iranian news agency printed on Saturday that a senior commander of the Revolutionary Guard stated that the US would come up against serious negative consequences after a deadly bomb attack occurred in the southeaster part of Iran.

July 19:

EFE: Iranian Parliamentary President Ali Larijani criticizes the unfair structure of power in the international arena, and in his opinion this has led to the instrumentalized use of the international bodies…

July 20:

AP: On Tuesday, the Iranian Parliament authorized reprisal inspections against those countries which inspect cargo on Iranian ships and planes as part of the new UN sanctions because of Teheran`s nuclear program.

July 21:

AFP: On Wednesday Iranian supreme guide Ali Khomenei urged all Moslems to fight against the United States and United Kingdom`s blind and fierce terrorism; he accused these two countries of being behind the double suicide bombing that left 28 dead this month in a Shiite mosque.

July 23:

REUTERS: An Iranian official was quoted on Friday by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying that Iran would be using other currencies than the Euro and the dollar in order to pay for its oil exports.

He said that they were free to choose any currency for the sale of their oil…

July 24:

REUTERS: On Saturday Iran stated that it had plans to build a reactor for experimental nuclear fusion, as reported on state TV, while western powers demand that the Islamic Republic puts a halt to its delicate atomic work.

July 25:

ANSA: Today Iran warned that it would respond with force to the sanctions that the European Union is hastening to ratify tomorrow as an adjunct to the UN Security Council resolution, in the framework of the dispute about the development of nuclear plans.

July 26:

EFE: Iranian Defence Minister, General Ahmad Vahidi, has threatened Israel with total destruction if it should commit an imprudent act against Iran, as informed today by the official Irna news agency.

July 27:

AFP: Russia considers the sanctions against Iran which were adopted outside the UN framework as unacceptable, in a statement on Tuesday by the Russian Minister of Foreign Relations after the approval on Monday of the EU and Canada`s sanctions against Teheran and its energy sector.

July 31:

AFP: China has become the first trading partner of Iran with 21,200 million dollars of exchanges as compared to 14,400 million three years ago, thanks in part to the retreating western companies that had been pressured by their governments.

International sanctions against Iran because of its disputed nuclear program, and above all those decided by the US and the EU countries allowed China to reinforce its presence in the Islamic Republic.

Beijing said that it did not approve of the sanctions decided last Monday by the European Union that mainly aim at the oil and gas sector.

In July, there were 65 dispatches from news agencies dealing with Iran.

August 1:

AFP: On Sunday the head of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff assured that a plan by the US to attack Iran was in the works if Teheran were to have a nuclear weapon, but he stated that he was extremely worried by the consequences the measure might bring.

Admiral Michael Mullen told NBC that a military action against Iran could have undesired consequences difficult to anticipate in an incredibly unstable area.

August 2:

EFE: The political advisor of the elite corps of the Guardians of the Islamic Revolution, General Yadola Javani, today stated that Iran has a plan ready to provide a tough answer for any US or Israeli military invasion.

EFE: China invested some 40,000 million dollars (30,600 million Euros) in the sectors of Iranian oil and gas as informed today by the official China Daily.

According to agreements signed between the two countries, Chinese investment in oil projects for prospecting and extracting, total 29, billion dollars, while the remaining 10 bilions will be destined for petro-chemistry, refineries, pipelines for both oil and gas.

August 4:

ANSA: Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad, made a call to be prepared for an eventual war that Israel wants to start in the Middle East, and warned that the confrontations with Lebanon show the desperate tactics of the Zionist regime and its disorganization.

DPA: Ahmadineyad made a speech in Hamedan in the western part of the country saying that the US can adopt so many different resolutions and sanctions against us, that it will make them sick; the speech was rebroadcast on public TV.

He added that in matters dealing with the nation of Iran, we don`t care and we shall never beg for your products.

August 5:

ANSA: Iran presented a protest to the UN for the declarations in which the head of the US Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullin said that Washington had a strategic plan for an eventual attack on Teheran.

He warned that they would react to any attack…

AP: Two Iranian diplomatic letters to international authorities show that there is little hope for moving forward in the upcoming nuclear negotiations since Teheran is continuing to be defiant and ill-disposed to make any concessions.

AFP: This Thursday China defended its business ties with Iran in spite of US pressure to strictly apply the UN sanctions…

August 9:

EFE: The IAEA confirms that Iran has gone to a second cascade of centrifuges in order to make the process of enriching uranium more efficacious at its Natanz nuclear plant, contradicting the UN resolutions on the matter.

DPA: The Russian-Iranian Bushehr nuclear plant will be inaugurated in September according to the spokesperson of the Iranian Foreign Office, Ramin Mehmanparast.

August 10:

ANSA: Iran will mass produce a copy of the Bladerunner 51, defined as the fastest motorboat in the world, equipping it with missiles and rockets, for use in the Gulf.

Statement made by a commander of the […] Guardians of the Revolution, according to information from the FARS agency.

ANSA: Today an Iranian agency published on its Internet site pictures of excavations it defines as common graves, prepared to bury the bodies of soldiers who try to invade the Islamic Republic.

The images presented by the Fars agency show in the first place the supreme guide, Ayatollah Ali Khomenei speaking to the Iranian troops and then […] it shows the excavations, in a desert area…

August 11:

DPA: Analyst Jeffery Goldberg Israel writes in an article in the September issue of the American journal ‘The Atlantic’ that Israel could attack Iran in the next 12 months even without Washington’s permission in the case that is it deemed to be the only manner of stopping the Iranian nuclear program.

August 13:

EFE: Iran’s first atomic plant, Bushehr, built by Russian specialists on the Banks of the Persian Gulf, will begin operations next August 21st, as announced today by the Rosatom Russian nuclear agency.

August 15:

EFE: White House National Security counsel James Jones said that Obama is getting ready to meet with Ahmadineyad if Iran fulfils certain conditions.

AFP: Iran announces that it will begin to build a new site for enriching uranium in 2011.

August 17:

XINJUA.: Director of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Ali-Akbar Salehi, warns that attacking the nuclear plants is an international crime and he said that any aggression against the Bushehr Plant would be followed by a serious reaction.

August 18:

REUTERS: […] the Islamic Republic will not dialogue with the US about its nuclear program unless the sanctions and military threats are abandoned.

ANSA: The Iranian plan to respond to an eventual American military attack includes closing the Straits of Ormuz, taking hostages from the American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and actions against Israel, according to a senior Iranian official.

EFE: The Rusian state consortium Atomstroyexport, which is in charge of the project, informed that Russia hopes to load the nuclear fuel into the reactor of the Bushehr plant in Iran by the end of September.

August 19:

AP: […] Admiral Mike Mullen, head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other US officials and legislators threatened to use military action under the totally false pretense that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.

Mullen said […] that the US army has a plan to attack Iran […] he pointed out that the risk of Teheran developing an atomic weapon is unacceptable, and he repeated that the military option is still on the table.

August 20:

AFP: Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad stated in an interview printed this Friday in Japan that Iran is ready to immediately participate in a dialogue with the great powers about an exchange of nuclear fuel.

On Wednesday the Supreme Guide Ali Khomenei declared that Iran would only negotiate with states about the nuclear program if Washington were to lift sanctions and stop making threats against Teheran.

AFP: The Treasury Department said that US officials began a tour through eight nations this Friday, among them Brazil and Ecuador in order to insist on the application of the sanctions imposed by Washington and the UN because of its nuclear program.

AFP: Iranian Minister of Defence Ahmad Vahidi announced on Friday that Iran effectuated a test run of a Qiam land-to-land missile, without giving details on the date of the launch. .”

August 21:

AFP: Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad promised an answer on a planetary scale if his country is attacked, in an interview published on Saturday by the Qatar newspaper Al Sharq.

The Iranian president stated that their options will have no limits […] They will take in the entire planet. He was answering a question regarding the eventual reaction of Teheran to an attack.

ANSA: France and Great Britain today recieved with distrust the news from Iran of the Bushehr Nuclear Plant starting operations and they demanded guarantees about the truth of its civilian purposes, while Israel considered the event as unacceptable.

August 22:

AFP: On Sunday, Iranian leaders presented a drone bombing with a range of 1,000 Km at a ceremony destined to show the capacity of the Islamic Republic’s response to an eventual attack against its nuclear facilities.

REUTERS: On Saturday Iran began to load fuel into its first nuclear energy plant, a powerful symbol of its growing regional influence and of its rejection of international sanctions designed to prevent devlopment of an atomic bomb.

DPA: The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs demanded in a communiqué quoted today by Radio Israel that the international community must increase pressure on Iran after the opening of its first atomic plant to prevent it from completing its nuclear program.

August 23:

DPA: The State Department pointed out today that the recent presentation of the first unmanned combat plane manufactured by Iran gave rise to new questions in the US about Iranian intentions, even though the greatest concern still focuses on Teheran’s nuclear program.

August 24:

XINHUA: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad today said that the Islamic Republic places great priority on the broadening of its relations with all Latin American nations.

DPA: …Of course rejected the giving up of enriching uranium after the Bushehr Plant began operations in the southern part of the country last Saturday.

August 25:

DPA: The ISNA news agency informed that Iran showed itself today to be ready send military help to the Armed Forces of Lebanon if Beirut makes an official request,

Lebanon and also the Lebanese Army are our friends and if there should be an official request we would be prepared to help them and cooperate with them as much as possible, ISNA quoted the Minister of Defence Ahmad Vahidi.

August 26:

EFE: Today Russia declared itself to be ready to create with Iran a joint enterprise that would manufacture fuel for the first Iranian nuclear plant, Bushehr, even though it emphasized that enriching of uranium would only take place on Russian territory.

To the list of 238 reasons, one more was added yesterday, and another was added today.

August 27:

DPA: Today the director of the Iranian Atomic Organization, Ali Akbar Salehi, informed that Iran produced 25 kilos of enriched uranium at 20 percent, to be used for medical purposes.

The ISNA news agency quotes statements by Salehi that Iran would try to use the enriched uranium to manufacture fuel. With that purpose, Iran foresees concluding construction of its first facility to manufacture fuel before September 2011.

August 28:

DPA: Today Press TV informed on its web page that Iran withdrew its funds from European banks in response to the latest sanctions decreed by the EU because of its controversial nuclear program.

President of the Central Iranian Bank Mahmud Bahmani described the decision as a precautionary measure in defence of a possible freezing of Iranian accounts; the amount withdrawn was not specified.

From September 7th, the UN Security Council will analyze whether Iran has stopped its nuclear program. If according to the latest resolution, the US or Israel try to inspect any Iranian merchant ship in international waters, they will have to use force. This is where we find ourselves at this time, without a doubt, uncertain.

Whoever has carefully read Jeffery Goldberg’s important article that will be published under the title “The Point of No Return” in The Atlantic journal, knows what this ancient and almost unsolvable contradiction between the two countries means, and no less in this nuclear era.

In my opinion, there is no possibility in the least that the Iranian political and religious leaders would accept that demand.

Fidel Castro Ruz

August 28, 2010

6:18 p.m.