Crossfire War – TEHRAN WATCH – Global Theatre: Tehran – Damascus – Riyadh – Ankara – Muscat – Doha/Washington – Jerusalem – London – Paris – Madrid – Rome; Iran Official States “Nowhere would be safe for America with Iran’s longer range missile…we can fire tens of thousands of missiles every day.”
Night Watch: TEHRAN – Reuters reports that Iran Deputy Interior Minister in Security Affairs, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, gave an indication as to the scale of retaliation Tehran may have planned if the U.S. attacks Iran’s nuclear weapons facilities. “Nowhere would be safe for America with Iran’s long range missiles…we can fire tens of thousands of missiles every day. With long range missiles Iran can also threaten Israel as America’s ally.” Knowing the massive assistance Iran has received from Russian scientists that went south at the end of the Cold War in 1990 and the many Chinese technicians working in Iran’s ballistic-nuclear program, I would not be surprised if Iran possesses thousands of missiles in a variety of ranges.[BAZTAB]
The reason why Tehran can store such a vast number is due to the enormity of the underground facilities constructed by the engineering firm headquarted in San Francisco that went through its London branch office the day after the Gulf War ended in Feb. 1991 as shown on CNN. London was used to avoid Washington’s embargo against Tehran, but obviously, if Iran launched tens of thousands a day at the US-Israel, not only is that hectic but it would reduce Iran’s stockpile very quickly and Tehran would almost have nothing left to launch at India or Vienna, in order to end the investigation into Tehran’s nuclear weapons program.
Some of Zolqhadr’s response may be very personal and not an exact description of Tehran’s exact retaliation strategy, which according to sources of the pan-Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat has been called Judgment Day (4-27-06). The longest known range of the Shahab – 3 is 1,250 miles but it has been mentioned, over Reuters, for at least the past three years Iran has been working on a -4,-5. There was even a quote from an Iranian defense official who stated that once you get into ballistic missiles it is easy to add more stages.
That is why I have always emphasized the immense contribution Beijing has been making for years to Iran’s ballistic missile program. Beijing has inter-continental missiles with a range of 6,000 miles and in the mid-1980’s sold to Saudi Arabia the CSS-2 with its range of 2,500 miles (4,000 km), 50-60 of them. Reuters reported the sale Feb. 15, 2004, though I first found out through Proceedings Magazine, of the U.S. Naval Insitute, an article, I believe in the late 1990’s on missile sales to the Middle East. Beijing would not do less for Iran because they hate the West-India-Russia more than Tehran does.
I suspect Tehran began to manufacture the Shahab immediately after the arrival of the first Scud missiles Iran purchased from Pyongyang during the Iran/Iraq War 1980-88. Of course Beijing encouraged the sale and to continue after the war ended because they also noticed the spread of Khomeini’s radical beliefs throughout the Islamic world and therefore knew if the Jihad were successful three of Beijing’s rivals would be weaker: the West-India-Russia and it would also become more difficult for Japan to have easy access to a lot of raw materials. Therefore, Beijing definately does not want Tehran to launch nearly its entire stockpile of missiles just at U. S. bases in the Persian Gulf or at Israel, one of the most economically insignificant countries in the world.
Zolghadr, a former commander of Iran Revolutionary Guards, needs to be reminded there is no market for salt in the Dead Sea. Perhaps that is why he is a former commander and now confined to matters of internal security that is now concentrating on how women dress. Nor is he with the Foreign Ministry, neither does his hotheaded remarks help Pakistan’s “Action Plan” against India. Perhaps Zolghadr did not meet Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, a realist, when he passed through Tehran in early February and presented Iran with his “Action Plan”, his offensive strategy against India, an extension of the Kargil Probe he executed in 1999. Islamabad is counting on a lot of Iran’s missiles being launched in India’s direction. Riyadh-Ankara-Damascus are more precisely informed as to what Tehran is prepared to do than Zolghadr. Not to mention the command level liaison officer Iranian General Alireza Asqhari, who supposedly disappeared in Istanbul in February. Asqhari was Deputy Defense Mininster from 1997-2005 and is one of Iran’s missile experts who was sent to Turkey to launch the Shahab at Vienna and perhaps other European capitals important in the Allied war effort.
With the West deathly afraid of World War III becoming (f)allout war, something they did not plan when they were so hospitable to the Ayatollah Khomeini during his four month exile in the Paris suburb (1978-79), it seems to be still pursuing a false hope of negotiating its way out of total war with Iran, a myth Tehran encourages the West to entertain, the latest deceptive example having just taken place in Ankara. After more than three years the EU, represented by Javier Solana and Iran’s leading negotiator Ali Larijani are still trying to find an agreeable definition of enrichment suspension. Larijani stated afterward, “Suspension of enrichment is not an order from God.” Missile launchings are however and Vienna is obviously Tehran’s priority target in Europe because the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which has been investigating Iran’s nuclear weapons program is headquarted there. But Vienna can’t be annihilated if tens of thousands are launched against Israel-US. [ASHARQALAWSAT]
In the meantime, Moscow is continuing preparations to end the military standoff with Tbilisi in the South Caucasus, which is the deciding front and the only one where the Allies can confront Tehran directly. The region is a crossroads of energy pipelines and oil-gas fields completely indispensable to the industrialized world.
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