U.S. Reportedly Planning Bomb Sales in Gulf to Counter Iran Read more: http://www.fo

Slyhunter · Nov 10, 2011

The Obama administration has quietly drawn up plans to provide a key Persian Gulf ally with thousands of advanced "bunker-buster" bombs and other munitions, part of a stepped-up U.S. effort to build a regional coalition to counter Iran.

The proposed sale to the United Arab Emirates would vastly expand the existing capabilities of the country's air force to target fixed structures, which could include bunkers and tunnels-the kind of installations where Iran is believed to be developing weapons.

The move represents one way the Obama administration intends to keep Iran in check, as it struggles to find adequate backing for new United Nations sanctions-even after a report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog concluded this week that Tehran has been developing the technologies needed to produce a nuclear weapon.

The oil-rich U.A.E. traditionally has had strong trade relations with Iran. But the ruling al Nahyan family in Abu Dhabi, the Emerati capital, is seen as one of the most hawkish against Iran among the monarchies in the Persian Gulf, and the country's leadership has openly expressed fear of an Iranian nuclear weapon.

Tehran also has regularly claimed sovereignty over three of the U.A.E.'s Persian Gulf islands, though it denies its nuclear program is for anything but peaceful purposes.

The proposed package for U.A.E. is expected to be formally presented to Congress in the coming days and would authorize the sale of up to 4,900 joint direct attack munitions, or JDAMs, along with other weapons systems.

The sale reflects the Obama administration's focus on curbing Iranian influence as it pulls the last U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of the year. U.S. defense officials say the U.S. will have an estimated 40,000 troops in the region after the pullout.

The U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency in a report this week concluded Iran has conducted research on developing nuclear weapons, a finding putting pressure on the Obama administration to take new steps against the country's rulers.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...-sales-in-gulf-to-counter-iran/#ixzz1dMkZ7NIw
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Let's arm all Iran's neighbors and invite them to "shove Iran's regime into the sea!" or wipe them off of the map.

MrRelevant · Nov 11, 2011

Slyhunter said: ↑

Let's arm all Iran's neighbors and invite them to "shove Iran's regime into the sea!" or wipe them off of the map.
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Has any of Irans neighbors actually publically threatened Iran?

See I was saying just yesterday the US had plenty of nations,besides Israel, willing to purchase US made goods.

waltky · Nov 11, 2011

Uncle Ferd says ya gotta watch dem Chinese - dey sneaky lil' Shiites...

China: Iran's New Best Friend
November 10, 2011 | Following this week's International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report concluding that Tehran appears to be well on its way to developing the possibility of manufacturing a nuclear weapon, the next step for world powers is to seek tougher sanctions in the United Nations Security Council.

But meaningful restrictive measures are not likely to happen, say many analysts, considering China's close relationship with Iran, in part to satisfy China's great thirst for oil. Today, Chinese and Russian diplomats announced that they believe no new sanctions on Iran are necessary. The Chinese-Iranian relationship has, in fact, been deepening over the last few years, notes Michael Singh, a former senior director for Middle East affairs at the National Security Council during the Bush administration. The Chinese government not only dilutes the sanctions in the United Nations Security Council by sort of providing Iran with diplomatic cover, but it doesn't enforce the sanctions it even does agree to in the Security Council."

China is Iran's largest trading partner, and this year alone business between the two is estimated at $40 billion, enough of an incentive, say analysts, to block any meaningful Security Council action. Some in Congress are calling on the Obama administration to try and do more. "What China's doing, as I understand, it is avoiding the kind of economic squeeze we want to put on Iran that could force it not to go forward on nuclear weapons and that's a disgrace and we ought to be much tougher with China than we've been," New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer told Fox News.

The influential and powerful senior senator blasted the Chinese, saying they "keep putting themselves first, they keep ignoring the danger to the world of their actions. They even ignore the danger to themselves in the long run, as long as they get a quick benefit in the short run. I think we need to be much tougher with China up and down the line. They are not a positive force in the world scene, whether it comes to Iran, trade, intellectual property or human rights. Walid Phares, a Fox News Middle East analyst, says "by not containing the Iranians we are allowing the Iranians to tell the Chinese that they have interest in backing them." He tells Fox News that "Beijing, by sustaining a sort of a support of any form to the Iranian regime, is basically damaging not just the national security of the United States with its own interests in the region, but in the long term they are damaging their own interests as well."

Yet a number of Chinese firms have been accused of secretly helping Iran build its nuclear program. In New York, one Chinese company was indicted on 118 counts of providing illicit missile and nuclear technology to Tehran, while other Chinese companies have been sanctioned by the U.S and its allies for aiding the Iranians. Michael Singh tells Fox News that "Chinese companies have been found supplying Iran with critical parts like carbon fiber, for example, for its centrifuges. In addition, China has been involved in Iran's ballistic missile program -- which remember, is part of a nuclear weapons program which is part of a nuclear weapons program, according to the IAEA reports." Yet the Chinese say they are doing nothing illegal.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/11/10/china-irans-new-best-friend/#ixzz1dRl9x5uG
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See also:

Analysts: Russia, China Ready to Block New UN Sanctions on Iran
November 11, 2011 - This week, the U.N.s nuclear watchdog agency released its toughest report yet on Irans nuclear program, saying it appearsTehran has worked on designing an atom bomb. While Russia and China seem to agree there are legitimate concerns about Irans nuclear ambitions, the two powers appear ready to block any new move to impose additional sanctions in the U.N. Security Council.

The U.N.s most powerful organ, the 15-member Security Council, has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran from 2006 to 2010. The latest report from the International Atomic Energy Agency has raised the prospect that Irans nuclear file could come back to the Security Council for a possible fifth round of economic, financial or military sanctions. But Moscow and Beijing have already tried to head off any move in that direction. The Russian Foreign Ministry dismissed the IAEA report as having no new information and warned that it is being used to undermine efforts to reach a political and diplomatic resolution to the issue. While Beijing has repeated its call for dialogue and said sanctions would not resolve the matter. Analysts say the two powers do not necessarily want to see Iran become a nuclear weapons state, but preventing it is not their top priority.

Matthew Kroenig is the Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington, DC. He says Russia and China are less threatened by the thought of a nuclear armed Iran than the United States for several reasons. When the United States is thinking of all the things that could go wrong if Iran got nuclear weapons, it is thinking about how it is going to affect its Gulf partners -- whether it is going to have to extend security guarantees to countries like Saudi Arabia; what it means for Israels security - a close partner; what it means for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, Kroenig said. But he says Russia and China have a much shorter list of concerns, so they are less willing to take tough measures to halt Irans nuclear progress. They also have close economic and trade ties with the Islamic Republic, which is the worlds fourth largest oil producer, and would be wary of jeopardizing those interests.

American University International Politics professor David Bosco says the U.N. Security Council is running out of sanctions options and only the toughest remain - including targeting Irans Central Bank or its oil and gas exports. We are at the stage where the natural next steps would really be quite coercive steps that could be aimed at crippling Irans entire economy and I dont think Russia and China would go along with that, Bosco said. Russia and China did not use their veto power on the previous four rounds of sanctions, but they also used their influence to make sure the sanctions were not as strong as Western powers wanted them to be. In an effort to avert new measures, Russia is promoting a plan where Iran would cooperate on inspections to alleviate questions about the nature of its nuclear program in return for a gradual lifting of existing sanctions. Iran insists its nuclear ambitions are purely peaceful and has dismissed the IAEA report as a fabrication, calling the agency a tool for U.S. political objectives. Iran has also said recently it is willing to return to the negotiating table to settle the matter.

But after several bad experiences with Tehran, is there enough trust in the international community to engage the Iranians in dialogue? Ilan Berman of the conservative Washington research organization, the American Foreign Policy Council, says the time for talk has passed, especially after the latest IAEA report. There is a sense that Iran is attempting through all these different measures -- working through China and Russia and also by offering negotiations only to complicate them later down the road -- is trying to run out the clock on its nuclear effort. I think the time for returning to negotiating table with the Iranians has passed. The question is now that we know that the clock is ticking, what are we willing to do to really put the screws to the Iranians?, Berman said. The analysts agree that there are unilateral measures the United States and its European partners could take to try to slow Irans proliferation progress - such as an economic embargo or sanctions on Irans oil and gas exports -- but they say strong, unified action is unlikely soon at the United Nations.

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waltky · Nov 18, 2011

Pentagon denies its enormous bunker-busting bomb is intended for Iran nukes...

Pentagon Receives Massive Bunker-Busting Bombs, Denies Targeting Iran
November 16, 2011 | Pentagon officials speaking publicly about new 30,000-pound 'massive ordnance penetrator'

Pentagon officials are speaking publicly about the military's new 30,000-pound massive ordnance penetrator, or MOP, known now as the biggest "bunker-busting bomb" in the world. The Air Force has already received an undisclosed number of these bombs from Boeing, all designed to fit exclusively with the B-2 and B-52 bombers. "It gives us a far greater capability to reach and destroy an enemy's weapons of mass destruction that are located in well protected underground facilities... to a magnitude far greater than we have now," Pentagon Spokesman Capt. John Kirby said at a briefing Wednesday.

But, strangely, Kirby denied these bombs are designed to target Iran, the only country known to have buried its nuclear weapons program. "The system is not aimed at any one country, it's to develop a capability we believe we need," Kirby said. That remark was met by audible groans and various comments of disbelief from the Pentagon press corps. It has been widely reported that Iran has buried it's nuclear weapon production facilities at least 90 meters underground at locations in Natanz and Qom. This new bomb is ideal for addressing that threat.

According to Boeings website the MOP includes a GPS navigation system and more than 5,300 pounds of explosives. It measures 20 feet long and is designed specifically to attack hardened concrete bunkers and tunnel facilities. Boeing successfully tested the bomb on March 17, 2007 at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico. Pentagon Spokesman George Little says the MOP is far more powerful than its predecessor, the BLU-109. Some estimate its as much as 10 times more powerful. The Pentagon says it has contracted for a total of 20 bombs from Boeing, some of which were delivered in the fall. But, for purposes of operational security it wont disclose how many.

On August 2, 2011 the Air Force signed a contract for eight more, meaning it's unlikely it has more than 12 bombs. News that this new 15-ton MOP is now ready for use comes just days after it was revealed that the U.S. sold the United Arab Emirates smaller, but very lethal bunker buster bombs. Public saber rattling from Israel about potentially conducting a strike of its own against Iran also has Pentagon officials deeply concerned, forcing them to make contingency plans of their own.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/201...es-operational/?test=latestnews#ixzz1e2xbPDXe
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Iron River · Nov 18, 2011

These bombs are fine for people who don't have the heavy hitting weapons that we can deploy against Iran if we need to attack them.

ICBM delivered high energy kinetic warheads can be delivered at seeds so high that the warhead will not need an explosive charge to cause massive damage when it hits the ground. Pitch the thing up to about three hundred miles above the Earth at 30K MPH before we turn in back to the Earth with some additional boosters to bring it close to its melting point and the energy of a super heated depleted uranium spear weighing a couple of tons will disintegrate a few hundred feet below the surface transferring all of that energy to the surrounding environment.

Kinetic energy magnifies geometrically while chemical energy looses energy the bigger it gets. One 500 pound bomb does less damage than two 250 pound bombs.

Margot · Nov 18, 2011

MrRelevant said: ↑

Has any of Irans neighbors actually publically threatened Iran?

See I was saying just yesterday the US had plenty of nations,besides Israel, willing to purchase US made goods.
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No they haven't and NONE will support an attack on Iran.. They want to prevent war.

Abu Sina · Nov 18, 2011

Margot said: ↑

No they haven't and NONE will support an attack on Iran.. They want to prevent war.
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Huge armies and military all over the ME.

Who exactly is the enemy? because for sure it isn't Iran

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