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Carmon said that Iran imports North Korean missiles and renames them to give the impression that they were domestically developed. Every few weeks, Carmonexplained, Iranian media outlets publish baseless stories about the supposed success of their military technology programs. In one notable episode fromJanuary 2013, Irans Space Agency announced that it had sent a monkey into space yet pictures of the monkey before and after the mission did not match up.

Iran does not create any quality military equipment, they only are able to buy from abroad, said Carmon. He addedthat when it comes to threatening US ships, all they are able to come up with is suicide speed boats.

Carmon also pointed out that the Iranians once displayed what they claimed to be domestically built submarines, but when we saw the picture that they put out, we saw that the size would be good for the Baltimore aquarium.Further, in January, Iran conducted a failed ballistic missile test.

Based on all ofthisevidence, Carmon does not think that Iran poses any real challenge to the US or Israel.

If the USor Israel attack Irans nuclear sites and military targets, it will be a done deal, he said.

Look at the figures, Fox News columnist Jonathan Adelman, an international studies professor at the University of Denver,wrotein February. The American GDP of over $18 trillion is more than 40 times the GDP of Iran ($450 billion). Given all this, the fear of Iran getting nuclear weapons still remains real. But even more real is the notion that the biggest power in the world, plus three significant regional powers (Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia), could handle Iran if they would put their minds to it.

Furthermore, Iran has stretched its resources in recent years by spending $6 billion annually in support of President Bashar al-Assads regime in Syria, according toBloomberg News. Iran did getsome financial relief, however, through a $1.7 billion payment from the Obama administration that many believed represented ransom for the release of several American hostages in March 2016. It also received sanctions relief under the nuclear deal with the US and other Western countries.

Dr. Harold Rhode, a distinguished senior fellow at the Gatestone Institute and a former US Defense Department official, told JNS.orgthat while America is strong both militarily and internally, Iran and North Korea appear strong, but are weak and rotten inside.

Rhode pointed out that while Iran is trying to develop nuclear weapons, its government is systematically destroying the country by ignoring domestic problems such as a water crisis. According toa studypublished in March 2016 by the London-based NGO Small Media, Iran faces an unprecedented crisis of water resources that threatens to render vast swathes of the country near-uninhabitable within the coming decades.

Another domestic challenge is Irans rampantopioiddrug problem. Rhode speculated that Iranian authorities could crack down harder on drugs, but refuse to do so in order to keep the people preoccupied so they dont concern themselves with overthrowing the government.

Do we need to have a massive invasion [of Iran]? No. We must show that this regime cannot do what is necessary to keep themselves in power, Rhode said, articulating what he believes the American andIsraeli approach should be.

MEMRIs Carmon said that there are alternatives to actual physical attacks against Iran, such as electronic warfare. Rhode, too, said that there are many options short of putting troops on the ground,including trying to bring about regime change.

We live in very stable societies [and] we expect changes to come slowly, but that is not how it works in totalitarian societies like Iran, Rhode said.The moment the people see the regime has lost its ability and willingness to keep itself in power, the regime will topple very quickly, as happened to the shah in 1979. The shah was not willing to do what was necessary to put down the rioting.

Iran, Rhodesaid, is potentially a paper tiger, and our job [is] to encourage regime change.

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Is Iran a Paper Tiger? - Algemeiner

General Joseph Votel, U.S. CENTCOM commander, testified to the House Armed Services Committee this week that the greatest destabilizing force in the Middle East is Iran, and that the U.S. must be prepared to use military means to confront and defeat the Iranian threat to the region.

No doubt Iran is a pest to U.S. designs in the Middle East. No doubt Iran has its own agenda. No doubt Iran is no friend to Israel. But the greatest destabilizing force in the Greater Middle East? Thats the United States. Were the ones who toppled Iraq in 2003, along with the legitimate government of Iran 50 years earlier.

Iran/Persia has lived in, and sometimes dominated, the Greater Middle East for 2500 years. By comparison, the U.S. is a newcomer on the block. Yet its the Iranians who are the destabilizers, the ones operating in a nefarious grey zone between peace and war, at least according to U.S. generals.

Besides the disastrous U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, which accidentally helped Iran, the U.S. continues to sell massive amounts of weaponry to Irans rivals, most especially Saudi Arabia. U.S. military operations in Yemen, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere in the Middle East have both destabilized the region and created marketplaces for U.S. weaponry and opportunities for economic exploitation by multinational corporations.

Im no fan of Iran and its leaders, but can one blame them for resisting U.S. military and economic incursions into their sphere of influence? Recall how we reacted when the Russians put missiles into Cuba. Look at all the hostile rhetoric directed today against Mexico and its allegedly unfair trade practices vis-a-vis the U.S.

Lets not forget that for 25 years (1953-78), the Shah of Iran was an American ally. The U.S. military loved to sell him our most advanced weaponry, which at that time included F-14 Tomcat fighters and HAWK missile systems. That cozy relationship died with the Iranian Revolution(1979);ally turned to enemy as the U.S. supported Saddam Hussein and Iraq during the bloody Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s.

Yet, despite all this history, despite all the U.S. meddling, all the weapons sales, all the invasions and sanctions, somehow its the Iranians who are the destabilizing force, the ones deserving of more disruptive U.S. military action.

As Americas designs are frustrated in the Middle East, American generals never look in the mirror to see their own faults and failings. Instead, they cast about for new countries to blame and to attack. Iran is seemingly next on the list, a country that General Mattis, Americas Secretary of Defense, said is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East.

Anyone for war with Iran? U.S. generals are ready.

Astore, a retired lieutenant colonel (USAF) and history professor, blogs at Bracing Views.

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Ready For War With Iran? - Huffington Post

Indian state refiners will cut oil imports from Iran in 2017/18 by a fifth, as New Delhi takes a more assertive stance over an impasse on a giant gas field that it wants awarded to an Indian consortium, sources familiar with the matter said.

India, Iran's biggest oil buyer after China, was among a handful of countries that continued to deal with the Persian Gulf nation despite Western sanctions over Tehran's nuclear programme.

However, previously close ties have been strained since the lifting of some sanctions last year as Iran adopts a bolder approach in trying to get the best deal for its oil and gas.

Unhappy with Tehran, India's oil ministry has asked state refiners to cut imports of Iranian oil.

"We are cutting gradually, and we will cut more if there is no progress in the matter of the award of Farzad B gas field to our company," one of the Indian sources said.

Indian refiners told a National Iranian Oil Co (NIOC) representative about their plans to cut oil imports by a fifth to 190,000 barrels per day (bpd) from 240,000 bpd, officials present at the meeting said.

Indian Oil Corp and Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Corp will reduce imports by 20,000 bpd each to about 80,000 bpd. Bharat Petroleum Corp and Hindustan Petroleum Corp will together cut imports by about 10,000 bpd to roughly 30,000 bpd, they said.

In turn, NIOC threatened to cut the discount it offers to Indian buyers on freight from 80 percent to about 60 percent, the officials added.

No comment was available from the Indian companies or NIOC.

Cutting imports from Iran amid an OPEC-led supply cut aimed at propping up the market exposes India's refiners to the risk of struggling to find reasonably priced alternatives.

"We expect that the market is currently undersupplied and that the draws in inventory are coming," U.S. investment bank Jefferies said in a note to clients this week, adding it expected crude prices of around $60 a barrel by the fourth quarter.

Despite this, Indian oil industrials said they saw no major impact from cutting Iranian imports, mainly due to their specific requirements.

"Their main requirement is lighter oil, and light oilwill remain in oversupply despite OPEC cuts, as OPEC cuts are mainly medium heavy sour," said Ehsan ul Haq of KBC Energy Economics.

Prices of light crude have fallen recently, thanks largely to soaring output in the United States, which is not involved in the production cuts led by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries.

From April last year to February 2017, India imported 542,400 bpd from Iran, compared to 225,522 bpd a year earlier. Average oil volumes supplied by Iran over this period were the highest on record.

INDIA'S GAS PLAN

At the heart of the spat is that a group of Indian oil companies headed by Oil and Natural Gas Corp wants to develop Iran's Farzad B gas field.

Iran has yet to hand out a concession that would allow its development.

ONGC Videsh has submitted a $3 billion development plan to Iranian authorities to develop the offshore field estimated to hold reserves of 12.5 trillion cubic feet, with a lifetime of 30 years.

Under sanctions, Iran was banned from the global financial system, preventing the field's development.

India was one of a few countries still supplying Iran with goods, devising a complex payment mechanism to help Tehran access non-sanctioned items including medicines.

As new options have opened up for Tehran since the lifting of sanctions, Iran may now be awaiting better bids for Farzad B.

Link:
India to cut Iranian oil purchases in row over gas field - Moneycontrol.com

By Nathan Layne | NEW YORK

NEW YORK Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani went to Turkey to meet with the country's president and sought meetings with U.S. government officials in an attempt to end U.S. prosecution of a wealthy Turkish gold trader charged with conspiring to violate U.S. sanctions on Iran, Manhattan federal prosecutors said.

The moves were disclosed in a letter on Friday to U.S. District Judge Richard Berman, who is overseeing the case in which the trader, Reza Zarrab, is accused of conspiring with others to conduct illegal transactions through U.S. banks on behalf of Iran's government and other Iranian entities.

The new disclosures highlight the politically charged nature of a case that expanded in scope earlier this week with the arrest in New York of an executive at a Turkish state-owned bank charged with conspiring with Zarrab to evade sanctions.

Zarrab, a dual national of Iran and Turkey, had been arrested in 2013 in a corruption probe of people with close ties to Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was prime minister of Turkey at the time. Erdogan is currently president.

In the letter prosecutors said Giuliani and former U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey - both recently added to Zarrab's legal team - traveled to Turkey shortly after February 24 to meet with Erdogan to discuss ways to end the prosecution. Giuliani informed the office of Attorney General Jeff Sessions about the planned trip, according to the letter.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim in Manhattan said that Mukasey and Giuliani, who is a close ally of President Donald Trump, had also sought to meet with other officials in the U.S. government on the issue. "Mr. Giuliani and Mr. Mukasey's efforts are aimed at reaching a disposition in the case," Kim wrote in the letter.

Kim has sought to question whether Giuliani and Mukasey should be allowed to represent Zarrab given the potential conflicts of interest. Zarrab allegedly victimized at least eight large banks which are current or former clients of Giuliani and Mukasey's law firms.

Kim had called earlier this week for a special hearing to make sure Zarrab understands the potential conflict.

Benjamin Brafman, an attorney for Zarrab, responded in a letter to the court on Friday, saying he would consent to a limited hearing but stressed that he believed the prosecution had no right to question the actions of Giuliani and Mukasey.

"That information quite frankly is none of the Government's business," Brafman wrote.

(reporting by Nathan Layne; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Mary Milliken)

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump has neither a clear White House tax plan nor adequate staff yet to see through a planned tax reform, according to interviews with people in the administration, in Congress and among U.S. tax experts.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON Beijing sought to play down tensions with the United States and put on a positive face on Friday as the U.S. administration slammed China on a range of business issues ahead of President Xi Jinping's first meeting with President Donald Trump.

Originally posted here:
Giuliani sought to end prosecution of Turk in Iran sanctions case - Reuters

Iran's defense ministercalled on the U.S. Thursday to leave the Persian Gulf, apparentlyin response to recent accusations from a top U.S. military official that Iran's foreign policy had a negative influence in the region.

Iranian Defense Minister Brig. Gen. Hossein Dehghan said Washington behaved like an "insane armed robber" by establishing dozens ofbases in the Gulf and conducting military operations on foreign soil, Iran's Mehr News Agency reported. A day earlier,U.S. Army Gen. Joseph Votel, head of the U.S. Central Command,called Iran "the greatest long-term threat to stability" in the Gulf. Dehghan questioned the U.S.role in the region and urged Washington to withdraw.

What are Americans doing in the Persian Gulf? They had better get out of this region and not cause nuisance for the regional countries, Dehghan said, according to a press release published by Iran's Tasnim News Agency.

The U.S. has allied itself diplomatically and militarily with majority-Sunni Muslim Gulf Arab nations such as Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Qatar, all of which have expressed concern over majority-Shiite Muslim Iran's influence in the Middle East. The Gulf Arab faction, especially Saudi Arabia, has been engaged in a proxy war of regional influence with Iran, with both sides sponsoring opposing combatants in conflicts in Syria and Yemen and opposing political movements throughout the region.

Under former President Barack Obama, the U.S. and Iran signed a landmark nuclear treaty that would lift years of sanctions on Iran in exchange for Tehran limiting its nuclear development program. This deal was sharply criticized by conservatives in both countries and President Donald Trump has threatened to renegotiate or abandon it altogether. Dehghan was a proponent ofthis agreement.

Tensions have recently risen between the U.S. and Iran over a series of Iranian missile tests. Both nations have conducted multiple military exercises on opposite sides of the Gulf since the beginning of the year.

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Iran Military Tells US to Get Out of Persian Gulf - Newsweek