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Avigdor Liberman speaks at the Saban Forum. (photo credit:SABAN FORUM)

After a schedule released Friday showed Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman sharing the stage with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif Sunday morning at the Munich International Security Conference, organizers have hurriedly rearranged.

The two leaders from enemy states were set to take part in a session entitled Old crises, new Middle East along with Saudi Arabias Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

The presentation was announced Friday despite the fact that Israel currently does not have diplomatic relations with Iran or Saudi Arabia. While Israel's connection with Iran is a hostile one, Israel has an informal connection with Saudi Arabia due to their shared interests on the issue of threat posed by Iran.

Now, instead of having the four speakers together for a single session, with the BBCs Lyse Doucet moderating, organizers have cancelled the session and replaced it with four separate statements by the leaders.

Zarif is now set to speak at 9 am, with a panel on US policy following at 9.20am and Liberman speaking at 10.05 am with Cavusoglu and Jubeir after.

Speaking to Channel 2 news from Munich on Friday, Liberman said he had been looking forward to the panel, hoping to say exactly "what I think about the Ayatollah's [supreme leader] regime in Tehran."

"I hope he will be in the hall when I'm speaking and hear what I think about the ayatollah's regime in Tehran, and everything I said to the other defense ministers whom I met - the greatest danger to the stability of the entire Middle East is Iran."

During the conference Liberman is also set to meet with British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon,

German Defense Minister Dr.Ursula von der Leyen, Canadas Minister of Defense Harjit Sajjan, and Singapores Defense Minister Dr. Ng Eng Hen. Liberman will also meet the foreign ministers of Russia Sergei Lavrov and Moldovas Andrei Galbur, as well as President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, the minister of Bavaria Horst Seehofer Lorenz, and the President of Lockheed Martin Marillyn Hewson.

According to a statement put out by his office, Liberman will discuss strengthening security cooperation between Israel and those countries as well as jointly dealing with the threat of regional terrorism.

Radical Islamic terrorism has long been not just a regional problem faced by countries in the Middle East, but a global problem that affects different countries, almost indiscriminately, as part of an insane fanatical campaign against the free world, the statement quoted Liberman as saying, adding that one of the most important factors in dealing with this threat is cooperating across borders and continents, between all governments and relevant security agencies.

On Friday morning Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman met with his American counterpart Gen.James Mattis in Munich for the first time since Mattis assumed his position as Secretary of Defense.

During the meeting, the two discussed several matters, with Iran first and foremost among them. A statement released by Libermans office said that the three central problems facing the two countries and that must be dealt with were "Iran, Iran and Iran."

Lieberman stated that there is a need to build a genuine and effective coalition to deal with the terrorism that Tehran was spreading throughout the world, including the development of ballistic missiles and its continued attempts to develop nuclear weapons.

Israels Defense Minister also stated that North Korea and Iran are two ends of the axis of evil that also includes Hezbollah and the Assad regime and Iran is the common thread.

Mattis and Liberman agreed that they must act decisively against Iran, a statement put out by Libermans office read.

During their meeting, the two also discussed other security issues related to developments in the Middle East and ways to strengthen cooperation between Washington and Jerusalem in dealing with them.

The two concluded the meeting stating that the two countries are true allies and that they will continue to work together to maintain common interests of the two countries and agreed to meet again soon.

Liberman and Mattis have previously spoken only by phone.

The Munich Security Conference is held every year and hosts heads of state, foreign ministers, and defense ministers from around the globe. Over 30 heads of state of government and 80 foreign and defense ministers along with other officials are expected to attend the conference which opened on Friday.

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Liberman panel with Iranian, Saudi FM at security conference cancelled - Jerusalem Post Israel News

He also said that the agreement with Iran to limit its nuclear program -- brokered in 2015 by the US, Iran and five other world powers -- will stay in place, despite noises to the contrary from members of US President Donald Trump's administration.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, Zarif said there was an international consensus not to let the agreement -- which took two years to negotiate -- unravel.

"I believe everybody, including experts in the United States, know this was the best deal possible for all concerned, not just Iran but the US too," he said.

"It was a triumph of diplomacy over coercion, because coercion doesn't work any more."

Regarding Syria, where Iran is in alliance with Russia in supporting the government of President Bashar al-Assad, the 57-year-old Iranian diplomat said it was the US "occupation" of Iraq that had created ISIS.

"We cannot commit to solutions that are part of the problem," he said. "I believe that the presence of foreign troops in Arab territory is a recipe for those extremists to rally behind and gain new fighters from disenfranchised youth."

Zarif said that sanctions won't work with Iran.

"Everybody (in) the past who has tested Iran know we don't respond well to threats. We respond well to mutual respect and mutual interests."

Zarif said the Obama administration tried to use economic sanctions to curtail Iran's nuclear program, but eventually failed, with Iran increasing their number of nuclear centrifuges tenfold in that period.

"The reason Obama came to the negotiating table was because sanctions did not work," Zarif told CNN.

Zarif said Trump's proposed, but currently stalled, travel ban on seven mainly Muslim countries including Iran "was an affront to the entire nation."

"You cannot find any Iranian who has committed a single act of terror against Americans, in any of these atrocities that have taken place," he said. "Iran has always condemned every single terrorist incident in the United States since 9/11."

Zarif said the ban was a departure from previous US policy that took issue with the government but not the Iranian people, and added that Iranians were among the most successful immigrants to the US.

"They (the US) don't understand in a globalized world you cannot contain threats to one locality. Syria is now a training ground for terrorists creating havoc everywhere," Zarif said.

Amanpour asked the Iranian Foreign Minister why Tehran chose to intervene in Syria on behalf of President Assad. "There are 500,000 people dead, there are twelve million refugees, there is torture, there is mass hanging -- it is not my impression, those are the facts," she said.

"Mistakes were made in Syria, as in the past mistakes have been made," he replied. "The same people who armed Daesh [ISIS], armed the terrorist groups, were the same people who armed Saddam Hussein, were the same people who created and armed al Qaeda."

"We should not continue to repeat history and then blame people who were on the right side."

Responding to a question about people fearing Iran -- partly because of its support for Hezbollah -- Zarif said the Lebanese Shia militia entered Syria on the request of Assad "to prevent these extremist forces (ISIS and other Sunni Islamist groups) from infiltrating into Lebanon, which would be a threat against all of us."

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Iran: No to US troops in Syria, nuclear deal to stay - CNN.com - CNN

New York Times

Why the Iran Nuclear Deal Must Stand New York Times WASHINGTON Standing next to Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, at a news conference Wednesday, President Trump inveighed against the nuclear agreement with Iran, declaring it one of the worst deals ever made. On this matter, Mr. Trump ... US, Israel at one against regional threat of IranThe Australian Benjamin Netanyahu largely correct on Iranian missiles with Hebrew-language threatsPolitiFact Trump to host Netanyahu in meeting focused on Iran, Middle East talksABC News Voice of America -CBN News all 3,839 news articles »

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Why the Iran Nuclear Deal Must Stand - New York Times

On Sunday 26 February, the night of the Oscars, were transforming Trafalgar Square into Londons biggest cinema, says Sadiq Khanin a publicity video for the screening of Irans Oscar-nominated film, The Salesman.

I want to welcome people from all across the capital and beyond, the Khan adds khan in Persian is aptly the daddy, godfather, don, the head of the village to share in this celebration of London as an international hub of creativity and as a global beacon of openness and diversity.

But hold on why is London doing this when Tehran is holding one of its citizens in jail over unclear charges and refusing her urgent medical care?

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratfliffe, the 38-year-old charity worker from north London detained arbitrarily last April, has suffered solitary confinement, gone on hunger strike, been threatened with losing custody of her two-year-old daughter who she refused to keep in prison, and was recently handed a five-year prison sentence. Movement in her arms and neck is restricted and a prison doctor has recommended she see a neurologist but she is inhumanely being denied access to one.

Benjamin Netanyahu urges Theresa May to back fresh sanctions for Iran

If there is one thing she is guilty of it is not being a panda were she, by now she would be a household name and calls for her release would be as robust as they were for the UK sailors captured by the Ahmadinejad government in 2006.(The Blair government, for all its faults, rightly regarded Iran as a terrorist state and demanded their unconditional release.) And that is what is required now Nazanin must be released.

If Theresa May and Boris Johnson are content to do nothing but have their subordinates limply raise the issue in the buffet queueat the next oil conference, it is Sadiq Khans moral duty to step up. With this in mind, Ive started a petition urging the Mayor to use his screening of The Salesman which is expected to draw a crowd of 10,000 and is backed by the likes of Mike Leigh and Lily Cole to demand Nazanins release. Sadly, though, City Hall has toldMetro that this is not its job, its the Foreign Offices.

It remains a mystery why a director who is not British and whose film is not about Britain is a more pressingconcern to the Mayor than one of his own citizens wrongly jailed in Tehran.

In fact, why is it Londons responsibility to screen this film at all? Had Asghar Farhadi been banned from the US it would make sense, but Farhadi is boycotting the Oscars because he cannot countenance the ifs and buts that might accompany special provisions to ensure his presence in Tinseltown he is choosing not to go.

How is that Londons business? If its a matter of championing Muslims, is there a shortage of talented UK Muslims? And why choose the relatively privileged Iranians over Somalis or Sudanese?

Nazanin is sadly a victim of the lefts hypocrisy. If the Mayor was to screen an Israeli film in the name of diversity, charged and angry protests would take place.

Irans human rights abuse is, like its filmmaking, world class yet there is no BDS movement to hound Khans decision to, lets face it, roll out the red carpet for the new Saudis, despotic Islamists whose crimes we choose to ignore.

If the Mayor will not speak out for Nazanin he must surely, on behalf of Londoners, invite her husband Richard Ratcliffe to speak at the screening. Foreign Offices job? Do a John Bercow. If he fails to do so, I will be campaigning for Iranians, starting with Farhadi, to disavow this event, to boycott it.

Click here to sign the petition

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While a Londoner languishes in prison in Iran, Sadiq Khan thinks it's a good idea to invite an Iranian director to ... - The Independent

Tehran is keen to produce its own jet fightersbut designing and manufacturing advanced combat jets poses formidable technological challenges difficult for an isolated industrial base to resolve on its own. Nonetheless, the Iranian air force has prominently showcased its development of several domestic fighter jets since the turn of the century, most notably the HESA Saeqeh (Thunderbolt), which Iranian media have claimed to be superior to the F-18 Hornet.

But performance specifications and technical details for these aircraft have remained either vague or nonexistent. This may be less due to secrecy than because additional details would likely be unimpressive, because the Saeqeh is a reverse-engineered American F-5 Freedom Fighter with a new tail and upgraded avionics.

The F-5 Freedom Fighter traces it lineage to a 1950s-era Northrop project that yielded the two-seat T-38 Talon trainer still serving in the U.S. Air Force today. A single-seat variant, however, evolved into the F-5, a lightweight supersonic fighter for export to less wealthy military allies of the United States. Initially priced at just $756,000 per plane (around $6 million, adjusted for inflation), the elegant little fighter could carry more than six thousand pounds of bombs on five hardpoints, as well as two Sidewinder heat-seeking air-to-air missiles on the wingtips. The later F-5E Tiger II variant added radar, lengthened the fuselage to carry additional fuel, enlarged the stubby wings for improved maneuverability and upgraded the J85 turbojets, boosting maximum speed to Mach 1.6. Freedom Fighters went on to see extensive combat over the skies of Vietnam, Ethiopia, Iran, Kuwait and Yemenand are actively being used in ground-attack missions today by the air forces of Tunisia and Kenya.

Iran received nearly three hundred Freedom Fighters of various models from the United States between 1965 and 1976, including 166 of the more advanced F-5Es and F Tiger IIs in the 1970s, and fifteen RF-5A Tigereye reconnaissance aircraft reportedly used for U.S. spy flights into Soviet airspace. These saw extensive use as ground attack aircraft in the Iran-Iraq War, but still engaged in a number of air battles, scoring an even 4-4 kills against faster Iraqi MiG-21 fighters and even damaging a MiG-25 Foxbat with cannon fire.

However, the fallout from the Iranian Revolution brought an end to the flow of spare parts, replacement aircraft and missiles from the United States needed to maintain the F-5 fleet. The Iranian air force improvised new components and cannibalized older planes for spare parts, and today it is estimated there are still thirty to fifty operational F-5s in the Iranian air forces inventory.

In 1997, Iran announced that the Iranian Aircraft Manufacturing Industrial Company (HESA) was developing a domestically-produced jet fighter called the Azarakhsh (Lightning) which supposedly was entering mass productionwhich is to say, between four and six appear to have been built in the subsequent decade, out of a planned thirty. The Azarakhsh, at least in its original form, was evidently a reverse-engineered F-5E, with uprated thrusters, reinforced wings, modified radar and improved weapon capabilities. The Azarakhsh doesnt appear to have reached operational units, and the program was terminated in 2010.

By 2004, the new Saeqeh fighter was featured on state TV. It has also been variously named the Saeqeh-80 and the Azarakhsh-2. This also appeared to be an F-5but with two instead of one vertical tail stabilizers, canted outwards like those on F-18 Hornet. To drive the comparison home, the Saeqehs were painted navy blue and yellow, so that they resembled the Blue Angels aerobatics team. The Saeqehs also have additional wing strakes, and some sport new square jet intakes. The aircraft were inspected by then president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and fired rockets at targets in a 2007 war game.

The Saeqehs twin-tail stabilizers are believed to give the better turning and takeoff performance than the F-5E, making it a superior low-and-slow plane. Upgrading the F-5 to carry advanced weapons would be an obvious improvement, but so far photos of Saeqehs only show them armed with short-range Sidewinder air-to-air missiles and unguided air-to-ground bombs and rocket pods. Most assume the Freedom Fighters two twenty-millimeter cannons have been retained.

Modernized avionics and radar would be another obvious upgrade, but again, details of such modernization are scant. The Saeqeh supposedly has a domestically-produced countermeasure and navigation system, and new cockpit instruments possibly obtained from Russia or China. However, the Saeqeh cockpit shown in this video still looks pretty similar to the basic F-5E cockpit.

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Why Iran's Fighter-Jet Ripoff Is Just Fake News - The National Interest Online (blog)