blog.Tribulationperiod.com

Come into My Parlor, said the Spider to the Fly!

April 2, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I realize the so-called “silent majority,” which the religious leaders tried so desperately to awaken in the last century, has slowly but surely been transformed into the “vocal minority” over the last thirty years. I have watched the results of applied appeasement policies since the thirties on tyranny, and am now waiting for the next administration to implement a new set of appeasement

policies for this generation, knowing it will produce the same results in the Middle East as it did in Europe in the last great war.

I just can’t help thinking how horrible it would be if Nancy Pelosi got on one of the daily flights from Damascus to Tehran by mistake, which are described in the second article

from the DEBKAfile.

On second thought, maybe that would be a good thing, after all, she most likely also has the same ‘great hope’ for reviving relations with Iran and changing its behavior, as she does for Syria.

Begin Article 1 from Jerusalem Post

Pelosi shrugs off criticism of her planned trip to Syria

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

April 3, 2007

US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday shrugged off White House criticism of her coming trip to Damascus, saying she had “great hope” for reviving relations with Syria and changing its behavior.

Begin Article 2 from DEBKAfile

DEBKAfile Exclusive: Damascus airport has become the hub for thousands of Hizballah, Hamas, Jihad Islami fighters heading out to Iranian training camps

April 2, 2007, 6:05 PM (GMT+02:00)

According to DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources, in the last several weeks, Damascus international airport main has become the main transport hub for a stream of Lebanese and Palestinian terrorists heading for Revolutionary Guards installations in Iran. Hence Israel military intelligence chief’s pessimistic briefing to the Israeli cabinet Sunday, April 1. (See separate item on this page) Damascus airport is also the transit point for returning terrorists to gather and pick up their assignment for various Middle East countries, as well as Lebanon, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Syrian military intelligence and Iranian RG officers have set up a joint depot at the Syrian airport for directing the incoming and outgoing traffic – much of it ferried by Syrian Airways.

A high-ranking Western intelligence source in the Middle East told DEBKAfile that the number of such terrorist-trainees commuting between Damascus and Tehran has grown to more than three times the volume of Muslim and al Qaeda fighters heading out from Syria into Iraq.

This source calculates Iran is running a crash program to prepare an army of trained terrorist strength to retaliate for a potential US attack on its nuclear installations. That will be the signal for these men to ignite a regional war of terror across Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and out to Sinai and Egypt.

Four Iranian command centers have been set up at home, in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, to coordinate the movements of fighting men and the arms consignments that are being shipped through marine smuggling routes to their various destinations.

According to our intelligence and military s

ources, new training methods are employed for the new intake of terrorists.

They are no longer being trained at special facilities provided for them at the camps run by the Al Quds Brigades, the RGs international branch.

From the beginning of 2007, they have been integrated in regular RG training facilities and are taking basic training along with Iranian recruits in line with a revised Iranian military doctrine. The entire Middle East is deemed henceforth a single integrated line designed to defend the ayatollahs’ regime in Tehran in case of American attack. This line will be manned entirely by units which underwent training in the same combat tactics and operate the same weapons systems and communications.

Syria’s high command and military intelligence are pivotal to the construction, administration and control of this new fighting-terrorist machine. The personal say-so of president Bashar Assad would have been necessary for this project.

Damascus airport facilities are a pivotal link in the mechanism wiring Tehran to the terrorist groups and transporting them from training centers to operating bases ready to fight for the Islamic Republic.

Without Damascus’ aid, the operation would have taken much longer.

Israel’s AMAN chief, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin views this burgeoning war-cum-terror machine as a dangerous element that could tip the region over into a full-blown conflict without prior warning. No one outside Iran, even seasoned military intelligence observers, can know for certain when, why or for which location, some high-up in the wildly-radical Revolutionary Guards will decide to push the button to activate it.

End of DEBKAfile Article 2

You know, the more I think of it, what a wonderful pair to close out the wicked age of the Gentiles as American’s President and Speaker of the House at the battle of Armageddon, none other than Clinton and Pelosi, the Dynamic Duo of Doomsday.

Romans 11:25 – For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

I Thessalonians 5:3-5 – For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape.

[4] But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

[5] Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

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Ly in

g through His Teeth!

April 3, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I once heard a young minister ask an old minister how he knew another minister was lying, and he replied, “Because his lips were moving.” At the time I thought that was a good answer, but I was told it is possible to hold one’s lips apart without moving them while speaking through teeth that are clenched together.

It is referred to as “lying through the teeth.”

There is one thing in which Palestinian Ministers are always consistent – they are consistently lying.

I know the PA Foreign Minister is lying through his teeth, in the article which follows, in order to get more money to kill all their enemies in the future.

The last two short paragraphs in the first article, which follows, has to rate in my book of memories as the most ridiculous statement I am able to recall as passing through the clenched teeth of a Palestinian.

And the horrible reality of it all is that some of the European nations, such as France, actually believe it. It is difficult to believe there are countries and liberal loonies who want to restore funding to a Hamas controlled Palestinian Authority, absolutely naïve enough to not understand they are contributing to their own destruction by Islamic fanatics.

I was 20 years old the first time my foot touched the soil of the Holy Land in 1952.

Since that time I have worked, lived, and visited there in a variety of capacities. I have known, trained, and been trained with, and by, a wide variety of nationalities during the 54 years that followed that first time among Israelis, Arabs, Persians, and Europeans.

I have learned a lot about the people and the gods of the East

and the West by experience and training in Institutions of Higher Learning, and many things in Seminaries and 40 years of preaching out of the Old and New Testaments. So, for better or for worst, out of it all I have reached the following two general conclusions on who to trust in the Middle East and Europe.

Sorry that these two conclusions are not earth shaking and you probably reached them long ago, but at least maybe it will be nice to have someone agree with you.

I do not trust the Arabs, Persians, and most Continental Europeans.

I trust the Israelis and their God.

Now, the two previous conclusions had to be general, because I do trust a few continental Europeans, and a handful of Arabs and Persians I have known over the years, but most I trusted are dead. However, the next three conclusions are quite definite, and I will carry them to my grave.

There can be no lasting peace until Israel’s God returns.

He will not return to earth to bring that peace until Armageddon.

The final war that ends at Armageddon is not a distant event.

Incidentally, Israel’s God is also my God, Jesus Christ, their Messiah.

As I stated previously, the last two short paragraphs in

the Jerusalem Post, which follow, are pure Tommy Rot, the biggest bunch of baloney that ever came down the pike!

Begin Jerusalem Post Article

PA foreign minister: Hamas undergoing ‘massive’ change

Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST

April 2, 2007

Hamas is undergoing a massive transformation and is “ready to change,” the Palestinian Authority foreign minister said in an interview published in a French newspaper Monday.

Ziad Abu Amr, on a three-day visit to France, met Monday with French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy and was holding talks Tuesday with Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin.

Speaking to the French daily Le Monde, Abu Amr said he hoped the visit would yield both financial aid and political support for the Palestinian’s new coalition government.

Abu Amr, an independent, said he thought Hamas was willing to change its ideology in order to remain a political player.

“I must admit I’m both surprised and impressed with the speed and the magnitude of Hamas’s transformation,” he is quoted as saying.

He cited Hamas’s willingness to accept a future Palestinian state contained within territory Israel occupied in the Six Day War as an example of the movement’s ideological shift.

“One year ago, the movement would never have accepted a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders,” he said. “When things move with such speed in one year, it makes me think the movement is ready to change.”

He urged the international community to regard the Hamas-Fatah coalition government as a single entity.

“What counts is the coalition government, not any particular faction,” he said.

Begin Article Extracted from YNet News. com

Hamas prepares ‘rocket war’ in ex-settlement

Terrorists use evacuated lands to test weapons targeted at Israel

Aaron Klein, WND

Palestinian terrori

st groups on Monday used the former Jewish settlement of Neve Dekalim, which was evacuated by Israel in 2005, to test new explosives and rockets for use against the Jewish state, senior members of Hamas’ so-called military wing told WorldNetDaily.

The Hamas members said they set up an explosives testing zone in Gush Katif, Gaza’s former slate of Jewish communities evacuated by Israel 17 months ago.

They said among the explosives Hamas tested Monday in Neve Dekalim were what they called new “Yassin” rockets, which they said were improved versions of Russian-made rocket propelled grenades.

The Hamas members said the rocket was named after late Hamas spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was assassinated by Israel in 2004.

Hamas would not describe the specifics of the purported new rocket, but a Hamas member said his group was preparing for a “rocket war” against Israel.

The use of Neve Dekalim as an explosives training zone is the latest in a string of WND exclusive reports of Gaza’s former Jewish communities being utilized for terror.

Abu Abdullah, considered one of the most important operational members of Hamas’ Izzedine al-Qassam Martyrs Brigades, Hamas’ declared “resistance” department, said in an interview Hamas turned lands in Eli Sinai and Dagit are being used for “physical shape exercises; use of weapons training; practice lands for ambushes of Israeli forces; courses for the reading of maps and (production and use of) explosives and many other trainings; military techniques, fighting in open fields and in built and populated areas; and rockets shooting.”

Abu Abdullah called the utilization by Hamas of the former Jewish towns for anti-Israel activity “proof that the resistance works.”

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There is no Honor among Islamic Dictators!

April 2, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

One of the surest signs that we are headed for a major war in the ever turbulent Middle East is the scurrying of the so-called “moderate” Arab rift-rat Islamic leaders. They are seeking for a position that will allow them to come out as good buddies with whoever happens to come out as the winner in such a conflict.

Arab Moderates are covering their tails in the event Arab Extremists should win the next major Middle East Conflict!

To trust a so-called “moderate” Islamic nation is like trusting a snake that warns you by rattling before it strikes, and isn’t as venomous or aggressive as other dangerous snakes. A war is brewing across the turbulent Middle East, and the rulers of the moderate nations are trying to establish relations with the fanatical nations, in order to be allowed to stay in power should fanatical Islam win the war.

Israel’s mistake in trusting Nations around her rather than her God has usually caused her eventual defeat as a consequence.

II Kings 18:21 – Now, behold, thou trustest upon the staff of this bruised reed, even upon Egypt, on which if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it: so is Pharaoh king of Egypt unto all that trust on him.

Israel has been historically guilty in Bible times of trusting in alliances with a stronger nation to protect her from other nations rather than trusting in her God to protect her. Do you remember the promises ole buddy Egypt made to Israel if she would go along with its brokered plan to get

Israel to pull out of Gaza? Consider what Egypt has done, in the following article, since Israel pulled out of Gaza.

Begin Middle East News Letter from Independent News Review Analysis.

EGYPT QUIETLY ABANDONS GAZA

March 27, 2007

TEL AVIV [MENL] — Egypt’s military has quietly abandoned the Gaza Strip.

Israeli sources said the 100-member Egyptian military advisory delegation that arrived in the Gaza Strip in mid-2006 has been recalled.

They said two generals have remained, but spend most of their time in Israel to ensure their safety from Palestinian attacks.

“The Egyptians have lost influence with the Hamas government and found that they were under constant threat,” an Israeli source said. “Under such conditions, it was better to pull out the advisers.”

The sources said an Egypti

an security delegation formally remains in Gaza Strip.

They said the delegation, led by Maj.

Gen.

Burhan Hamad, was comprised of a handful of personnel attached to the Egyptian Representative Office in Gaza City.

End Middle East Newsletter

Now please consider the scramble of “moderates” to position themselves in the event of an “extremist” Islamic victory over Israel in the war they know is on the immediate horizon.

Begin DEBKAfile Article

Iran Mends Fences with Arabs – Starting with Saudis

April 1, 2007, 7:44 PM (GMT+02:00)

The live wire at last week’s Arab League summit in Riyadh was undoubtedly the non-Arab guest of honor, Iranian foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki.

He breezed around the Arab delegations hard-selling the notion of a mutual defense treaty between Iran and the Arabs on the lines of the Tehran-Damascus pact.

Mottaki argued that a treaty of this kind would allay Arab fears of an Iranian nuclear threat, put a stop to a Middle East nuclear arms race, provide the Arabs with a protective umbrella against Israeli aggression and set up an Arab-Islamic front against US and other foreign intervention in the region.

The Iranian diplomat’s proposition fell on willing ears.

DEBKAfile’s Middle East sources report that he had a long conversation in Riyadh with Saudi foreign minister Prince Saudi al-Faisal, at which they looked the treaty plan in some detail and agreed that their defense ministries would assign special teams to explore it further.

The Iranian minister argued that the joint effort of Riyadh and Tehran to pacify Lebanon and reconcile the internal differences among its rival factions could work as well for the Palestinian Authority. He said increasing Saudi-Iranian cooperation in joint diplomatic-strategic projects across the Middle East ought to extend to the military sphere.

Our source also reported exchanges between the Iranian and Egyptian delegations to the Arab summit last week on the resumption of diplomatic ties.

Saturday, March 31, Iran’s chief of staff Gen. Hassan Fayrouz Abadi, prodded the Arabs again; he urged them to hurry up and join Iran in a defense treaty because, he claimed, Israel threatened a war offensive in summer, two months hence. According to the Iranian general, Israel was bent on a “suicide assault” against a number of Arab states to save the Americans from having to pull their troops out of Iraq.

Before the conference ended, the Saudi foreign minister arranged a four-way meeting between King Abdullah, Mottaki, and the two Palestinian leaders, Mahmoud Abbas and Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas. Together they discussed how Iran and Saudi Arabia could work together to apply the Mecca reconciliation accords which established a unity government between Fatah and Hamas. This was taken by Iran as Riyadh’s approval of the military assistance Tehran gives the Palestinians and a formal, collective Arab endorsement.

DEBKAfile’s political analysts take this step as a mark of Saudi contempt for Israel, and further, the collapse of the Saudi initiative led by national security adviser Prince Bandar bin-Sultan for direct Saudi-Israeli talks. Instead, the Saudi-Iranian rapprochement led by Saudi al-Faisal has prevailed. The Israel-Palestinian issue has been shifted to the Saudi-Iranian ken by the Faisal faction which has attained ascendancy in Riyadh and argues that the time has come for the Arabs to take their fate in their own hands and drop their dependence on foreign powers, namely the Americans.

DEBKAfile’s sources have learned that talks for the resumption of Egyptian-Iranian diplomatic relations have already begun.

Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak entertained for breakfast in Cairo last week Iranian ex-president Muhammad Hatami, who now heads the Institute for Dialogue among Cultures. Present too was Egyptian prime minister Ahmed Natif. Relations were broken off in 1979, the first year of

the Islamic revolution, after Ayatollah Khomeini praised the murderers of President Anwar Sadat and a Tehran thoroughfares for one of the assassins, Muhammad Islambouly.

Hatami pressed his host to seriously consider resuming diplomatic relations, maintaining that the Muslim world is beset by a crisis caused by Western domination. Muslim powers must therefore work together to recover control of their own countries. He spoke highly of Egypt’s importance in the Arab and Muslim worlds. By working together, the two governments could make a difference, he said.

After the meal, Hatami and Natif put their heads together and agreed that a high-rank ing Iranian delegation would visit Cairo

in April to set up arrangements for the two embassies to re-open. The Iranian leader made a similar attempt to restore relations in 2001 when he was president. It broke down when Iranian extremists refused to take down Islambouli’s street name as demanded by Cairo.

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from which we extracted it.

2007 Summer Ends a 40 Year Jerusalem Temple Mount Generation!

April 2, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

Things seem to be building up to another battle royal this summer, but I suspect the major conflict will not occur until some point in time between 2008 and 2012.

Remember the 1967 conflict

?

June 12, 1967

In the summer of 1967, Arab leaders met in Khartoum in response to the war, to discuss the Arab position toward Israel. They reached consensus that there should be:

No recognition of the State of Israel.

No peace with Israel.

No negotiations with Israel.

The Hamas position is pretty much the same today!

The two articles which follow, one from the Jerusalem Post and one from the DEBKAfile, have some duplication of information, but give an excellent overview of the current Middle East situation and future war potential possibilities. There has not been a question in my mind, since we entered this century, that the final war of this age was looming in the immediate future, the only question being how immediate. Those who have read my blogs know my guesstimate has been that the final war will begin at some point in time between 2008 and 2012.

I rather doubt it will begin before 2008.

However, the fact that the end of the June 1967 forty year generation will occur this summer, would cause me to not be surprised if war were to begin before the Fall.

Begin Jerusalem Post Article 1

‘Iran, Syria, and Hizbullah preparing for Summer War’

HERB KEINON and YAAKOV KATZ, THE JERUSALEM OIST

April 1, 2007

Iran, Syria and Hizbullah are preparing defensively for a war in the summer, although they are more worried about an attack from the US than from Israel, OC Military Intelligence Maj.-Gen. Amos Yadlin told the cabinet on Sunday.

Yadlin said that Israel was following these moves very carefully, and needed to pay close attention to its steps so that they were not misinterpreted and lead to a miscalculation by the other side. Yadlin stressed that the preparations were not for a military offensive against Israel, but rather were of a defensive nature.

The IDF is noticing however “an increase in potential for instability” in the Middle E ast due to

a number of processes including the United States failure in Iraq.

The IDF has also begun drawing up plans for the day after the US withdraws its forces from Iraq. The ramifications a premature US withdrawal would have on Israel are defined as “dangerous” and are a major source of concern for the Israeli defense establishment. Assumptions are that following the withdrawal, anarchy would break lose in Iraq and would spread across the Shi’ite-Sunni world.

Yadlin’s comments at the cabinet came during a wide-ranging briefing he gave the ministers following the Riyadh summit. He said that the summit was an indication that Saudi Arabia has moved from a passive to active role in the region, and were taking the diplomatic lead in the Arab world.

Yadlin said that this was the first Arab League summit in years where the leaders left feeling that there were positive results.

The over-riding feeling, he said, was that the Arabs have thrown the ball into “Israel’s court,” and that Israel now needed to respond.

The most important player at the summit, Yadlin said, was Damascus-based Hamas head Khaled Mashal. Yadlin said that everything done at the summit that had anything to do with the Palestinians was coordinated with him.

He said that this was in marked contrast to the last Arab League summit in Khartoum, where Hamas was not present, and the Palestinians were represented by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Yadlin said this was a good indication of Hamas’ changed status.

Yadlin pointed out that both Mashal and PA Prime Minster Ismail Haniyeh have taken a very strident stance since the summit, saying that if the isolation of Hamas did not end, there would be a “third intifada.”

Hamas has recently increased its involvement in terror activity and according to the IDF was behind last week’s shooting attack along the Gaza security fence in which an Israeli was moderately wounded. Due to the increase in arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip by Hamas, the IDF has drawn up plans for an invasion into the Palestinian Authority.

Yadlin said that Hamas’ presence in Riyadh presented it with a “complex situation.” On the one hand Hamas did not want to place itself outside the Arab consensus, and as a result did not attack the resolution accepting the Arab Peace Initiative, but it also did not support this resolution.

The Arab Peace Initiative calls for a complete Israeli withdrawal to the 1967 lines, the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital, a “just solution” for Palestinian refugees based on UN General Assembly resolution 194, in exchange for normal relations with Israel.

Yadlin also said that Syria was satisfied by the results of the summit and feels that its isolation in the Arab world has been broken, and that its international isolation is weakening as well.

The IDF does however believe that the “greatest danger” in northern Israel currently originates in Syria where the level of alert has been raised although forces have not been beefed up in the Syrian side of the Golan Heights.

With the increase in the threat, the IDF does not have intelligence information indicating that Syria plans to attack Israel.

Yadlin said that there were indications of a split inside Hamas, with some believing that Mashal’s positions have become too “moderate” of late. Among those leading these line were Hamas’ military wing in Gaza, and the PA’s former foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar.

Yadlin also said that the Hams military wing has recently renewed its military activity “very carefully.” He also said that last week there were some 20 kassam attacks from Gaza, compared to about five attacks each week for the last few months. He attributed this increase partly to the Riyadh conference.

Regarding Iran, Yadlin said the UN’s recent decision to clamp additional sanctions on Iran caused concern in Teheran, but did not create the “critical mass” needed to get Iran to stop its nuclear program. Yadlin said that the economic sanctions being pushed ahead by the US outside the UN framework were proving more of a concern for the Iranians than the relatively “soft” UN sanctions.

Begin DEBKAfile Article 2

Israeli military intelligence chief predicts Iran-Hizballah-Syria attack on Israel in summer

April 1, 2007, 9:50 PM (GMT+02:00)

In his briefing to the Israeli cabinet Sunday, April 1, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, AMAN chief, reported that Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas expect the United States to attack Iran in the summer and they are preparing to retaliate by going to war with Israel. In Yadlin’s view, a proliferation of players and a many imponderables could ignite a conflict, which none of the parties wants – as happened in the Six Day War of 1967.

DEBKAfile analysts note five salient points in Gen. Yadlin’s briefing:

1. His comments came one day after Iran’s chief of staff, Gen. Hassan Fayrouz Abadi, urged the Arabs to hurry up and join Iran in a defense treaty because, he claimed, Israel threatened a war offensive in summer, two months hence. According to the Iranian general, Israel was bent on a “suicide assault” against a number of Arab states to save the Americans from having to pull their troops out of Iraq (sic).

2. Iran, Syria, Hizballah and Hamas may be presumed to be acting on some piece of intelligence that point to a forthcoming US attack some time between April and early September 2007.

Therefore, the Middle East faces at least five months of incendiary military instability during with everyone braced for an axe to fall.

3. A coordinated Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah-Hamas attack would lay Israel open to four warfronts and the common weapon to them all: missiles – anti-tank, short-range surface, medium range ballistic and surface-to-air.

4. Hamas threatens to launch the third Palestinian uprising (intifada) against Israel within three months unless the international blockade is lifted and funds are released to the Palestinian Authority.

The cabinet was informed that the IDF would start operating behind Gazan lines against the massive Palestinian military build-up.

For five months, the Olmert government’s policy was one of military restraint at the behest of US and European governments. This week, Israel’s leaders watched British discomfiture as the United States, the UN and the Europeans turned aside when asked for help to free 15 sailors seized by Iran in the Persian Gulf. It is obvious that Israel must be ready to stand alone and defend itself if attacked on four fronts.

5. Neither the chief of AMAN nor the ministers discussed the state of Israel’s armed forces’ preparedness. Asked about this, DEBKAfile’s military sources said their readiness was only partial as yet: The air force, some of the combat divisions are ready; other parts of the military, such as some reservist brigades, the Navy and the home front are not.

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Rumble? Ruse? Rhetoric? Or Real?

April Fool’s Day, 2007

http://www.tribulationperiod.com/

I remember from my days in the NSA that it was not uncommon to slip a false report into enemy intercept channels in order to get a favorable reaction in a particular crisis. Could this piece of intercept be such a piece of work, perhaps to influence Iran

to release the 15 Brits? Time will tell!

US ready to strike Iran on Good Friday’

Jerusalem Post Staff and AP, THE JERUSALEM POST

April 1, 2007

The United States will be ready to launch a missile attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities as soon as early this month, perhaps “from 4 a.m. until 4 p.m. on April 6,” according to reports in the Russian media on Saturday.

According to Russian intelligence sources, the reports said,

the US has devised a plan to attack several targets in Iran, and an assault could be carried out by launching missiles from fighter jets and warships stationed in the Persian Gulf.

Russian news agency RIA Novosti quoted a security official as saying, “Russian intelligence has information that the US Armed Forces stationed in the Persian Gulf have nearly completed preparations for a missile strike against Iranian territory.”

The Russian Defense Ministry rejected the claims of an imminent attack as “myths.” There was no immediate response from Washington.

The reports come as the Iranian chief of staff, Hassan Fayrouz Abadi, was quoted on Saturday by Iran’s Fars news agency warning leaders of Arab countries that Israel plans to open a “suicidal attack” on its neighbors this summer, to “prevent the withdrawal of the US troops from Iraq and the area.”

“I warn the dear leaders and Muslim brothers in the neighboring countries of the occupied territories that this suicidal attack of the Zionists is threatening them,” he said.

The countries in danger, he said, were “Lebanon and Syria, and later Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.”

Also on Saturday, Russia urged Britain and Teheran to resolve the dispute over 15 British sailors and marines captured by Iran last week, a local news agency reported.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mikhail Kamynin urged the two sides to provide

the United Nations with their own assessments as to what happened and where exactly the detention occurred so that the body could conduct an independent probe.

“We hope these actions will provide a foundation for the soonest possible resolution of the crisis,” Kamynin was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahm adinej

ad insisted that the captured British sailors and marines trespassed in Iranian waters and called world powers “arrogant” for failing to apologize, the country’s official news agency reported.

“The British occupier forces did trespass our waters. Our border guards detained them with skill and bravery.

But arrogant powers, because of their arrogant and selfish spirit, are claiming otherwise,” IRNA quoted Ahmad inejad as say

ing during a speech in the southeastern city of Andinmeshk.

The European Union grappled with a double bind over Iran Saturday – the country’s nuclear program and its seizure of the British troops – and reported no progress on either issue.

A debate about Iran’s nuclear ambitions had been scheduled as a key agenda item but “was overshadowed to a certain extent by the issue of the sailors and marines,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said after hosting a two-day EU foreign ministers meeting in Bremen, Germany.

The Foreign Ministry in Iran dismissed the EU’s “biased and meddlesome” comments on the captured troops, saying the dispute solely involved the governments of Iran and Britain.

Speaking to reporters in Bremen, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett urged Iran to resolve the crisis over the military personnel peacefully, saying London remains open to dialogue.

“We encourage Iran to peacefully resolve this issue,” she said.

“We continue to express our willingness to engage in dialogue and discussions with Iran,” she added. “That is very much in the best interest of our people and that is our foremost concern.”

“I think everyone regrets that this position has arisen,” she said. “What we want is a way out of it.”

AP contributed to this report.

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