Taiwan Renews Push For F-16 Fighter Jets / Current Taiwan Fighter Force Inadequate To Potential Threat From China: TECRO

Taiwan Renews Push For F-16 Fighter Jets / Current Taiwan Fighter Force Inadequate To Potential Threat From China: TECRO

(NSI News Source Info) March 16, 2009: Taiwan has renewed a drive to buy advanced U.S.-built F-16 fighter aircraft, confronting President Barack Obama with a delicate decision. Detailing its arms shopping list for the first time since Obama took office, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office (TECRO) said Taiwan's current fighter force was inadequate to a potential threat from China. The largest part of Taiwan's air force, F-5 fighters, have been in service for more than 34 years, said TECRO's spokesman.

Taiwanese air force F-16 fighter jets fly in formation as they drop anti-missile deterrents during the second day of the annual Hankuang military exercises, Wednesday, May 16, 2007, off of Ilan, central eastern coast of Taiwan. Wednesday's exercises are to prepare Taiwan's military for a possible sea invasion from rival China during wartime. "The planes now are obsolete and spare parts are difficult to obtain," said spokesman, Vance Chang, in an email response to questions about Taiwan's arms requests. China has built increasingly advanced fighters, the statement said, "therefore our air superiority capability is at a serious disadvantage." "Taiwan's determination to defend itself is indisputable," it added. Taiwan has been trying for 12 years to buy F-16 C/D models built by Lockheed Martin Corp of Bethesda, Maryland. The U.S. government is required by a 1979 law to provide Taiwan sufficient arms to defend itself. Successive U.S. administrations, both Democratic and Republican, have managed the weapons flow to minimize fallout with China. In its final years, former President George W. Bush's administration would not even accept a formal request for the advanced F-16s, said the U.S.-Taiwan Business Council, which represents about 100 companies, including Lockheed Martin. The United States "has an obligation to assist Taiwan to maintain a credible defense of its air space, which includes modern fighters," said council president Rupert Hammond-Chambers. Taiwan wants 66 F-16 C/Ds valued at up to US$4.9 billion to bolster 150 F-16A/B models it bought in 1992. The State Department had no immediate comment on the statement from TECRO. In October, the Bush administration notified Congress of possible arms sales to Taiwan of up to US$6.4 billion, including Patriot "Advanced Capability" antimissile batteries, Apache attack helicopters and Harpoon anti-ship missiles. "We were eager to achieve a golden mean - a robust package of arms sales that met Taiwan's immediate defense needs but was not perceived in Beijing as undermining the progress in cross-strait relations," said Dennis Wilder, senior director for East Asian affairs on Bush's White House National Security Council. "I believe we achieved that goal," he added in an email response to Reuters. TECRO made clear Ma's administration was still seeking UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters built by United Technologies Corp's Sikorsky unit and design work on modern diesel-electric submarines. These two items were cleared for release to Taiwan by Bush as part of a landmark arms offer in April 2001, but left out of the October notification to Congress. The deals were held up for years, largely by partisan hurdles to funding in Taiwan. Wilder said the Bush administration had told Taiwan that it was not denying it any of the weapons approved in 2001, but would leave the decision to Obama.

US Looking To Retool Pakistan Relationship

US Looking To Retool Pakistan Relationship

(NSI News Source Info) WASHINGTON - March 16, 2009: Former president George W. Bush recast the US relationship with India, forging closer ties. Could President Barack Obama do the same for US policy towards its nuclear-armed rival Pakistan? Upon taking office January 20, Obama ordered a sweeping review of the US strategy for fighting the war in Afghanistan, and US military and diplomatic officials say the road to victory there runs through neighbor Pakistan. Obama is set to unveil his new approach before a major international summit on Afghanistan on March 31 in The Hague -- but already the US Congress is looking to shape US military and development aid to steady Pakistan's democracy and bolster its fight against extremists. Obama is set to unveil his new approach before a major international summit on Afghanistan on March 31 in The Hague -- but already the US Congress is looking to shape US military and development aid to steady Pakistan's democracy and bolster its fight against extremists. Lawmakers are trying to learn from past efforts and convince Pakistan's people that Washington has a heartfelt stake in their political and economic fortunes, and is not merely looking out for US interests, experts say. The result is an approach likely to vastly expand US economic aid, while tying military help to pledges from the country's armed forces to do more against extremists as well as promises to stay out of the country's political and judicial life, lawmakers and aides say. ‘This represents the new way the relationship will function,’ Shuja Nawaz, who leads the Atlantic Center think tank's South Asia Center, told AFP by telephone on Friday. A centerpiece of the new approach is likely to be legislation that would triple non-military US assistance to Pakistan to 7.5 billion dollars over the next five years, congressional and administration aides say. To qualify for US military aid, Pakistan would have to show it is doing enough to prevent Al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters from using its territory as a base and that Pakistan's military is not ‘materially interfering’ in the country's domestic political or judicial processes. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee's Democratic chairman, John Kerry, and the panel's top Republican, Senator Richard Lugar, could introduce the measure as early as next week. ‘The big chance is that this is a long-term commitment. Pakistanis have often worried that the United States is here with them only for the short term,’ said Nawaz, who has discussed the legislation with Kerry. With the Kerry-Lugar plan, ‘there is a consistency and a confidence that the aid will continue no matter which government is in power locally,’ the analyst said. This would build on another Obama-backed approach: legislation that aims to use trade-spurred job growth as an antidote to the poverty that fuels extremism in Afghanistan and Pakistan. The bill would give goods from certain restive parts of those countries duty-free access to the US market in a bid to promote legitimate economic activity where poverty fuels terrorist recruitment and the illegal drug trade. The key for Washington is that, taken together, ‘US economic aid packages are not solely designed for the tribal areas. The key is for the United States to be seen as helping the people of Pakistan as a whole,’ said Nawaz. ‘The previous, kind of, fixation on only sending aid packages dealing with the FATA (tribal areas) was really giving the wrong message to Pakistan, that the US was only doing it to protect its own interests,’ he said. Other changes need to occur, such as boosting counter-insurgency training for Pakistan police and perhaps ‘redirecting US military assistance towards that goal,’ said Nawaz. ‘The army can clear areas, the police are better suited to hold,’ he said, a reference to counterinsurgency theory that calls for clearing areas of fighters, holding those areas with the help of the population, and building institutions to prevent the insurgents' return.

Syria-Iran: A Critical Alliance / The Syria-Iran Axis bolsters Bashar al-Assad

Syria-Iran: A Critical Alliance / The Syria-Iran Axis bolsters Bashar al-Assad

by Yoram Ettinger

(NSI News Source Info) March 16, 2009: Irrespective of the Arab-Israeli conflict and Israel's existence, the ties with Iran constitute for the ruthless Assad The root cause of the Syria-USSR axis was Syrian regional concerns.regime an indispensable financial, diplomatic and military means of survival.

The Syria-Iran axis bolsters Bashar al-Assad's policies on the most critical fronts: domestic, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, Turkey, Russia and the USA. Assad's fundamental interests conflict with fundamental US values and interests. Syria's hostility toward the US dates back to the Cold War, when it sided with the USSR. The Syria-USSR axis originated in 1955, when the Golan Heights were occupied by Syria and when the US refrained from supplying Israel with advanced military systems.

The root cause of the Syria-USSR axis was Syrian regional concerns: Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon. The decline of Moscow has raised the profile of Iran as Syria's key strategic ally. Syria and Iran consider each other an extension of their strategic depth in face of mutual historical rivals and threats: Iraq, Turkey and the US.

The US threat is military and political - introducing democracy, which is a lethal threat to the rogue regimes in Damascus and Teheran. Hence, for instance, the Iran-Syria involvement in anti-US Iraqi and Afghani terrorism, aimed at uprooting US military presence from Iraq, Afghanistan and from the Gulf. Damascus fears a stable pro-US Iraq and prefers a chaotic one. Syria and Iran coordinate efforts (probably with Russia) to leverage the expected US evacuation of Iraq, in order to realize Iranian domination of the Gulf and its natural resources, and to advance Syrian inter-Arab aspirations.

Syrian involvement in anti-US terrorism and narco-terrorism precedes its role in the murder of 300 US Marines during the 1983 bombing of US embassy and Marines HQ in Beirut. Iran and North Korea have assisted Syrian nuclear, biological and chemical military efforts. Iran has funded Syria's military procurement from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, China and North Korea, and has supplied Damascus with Iranian missiles, tanks, armored personnel carriers and sophisticated intelligence and surveillance systems.

Iran and North Korea have collaborated in the development of ballistic capabilities; they established, in Syria, plants which manufacture medium-range missiles and missile launchers. They have sent thousands of military and technological advisors to enhance Syrian military performance. Iran has supported - directly and via Hizbullah - the Syrian foothold in Lebanon, which is considered a prime Syrian national security goal. Independent of the Golan Heights, the Assad regime considers the axis with Iran a long-term, strategic interest and not a tenuous, tactical marriage of convenience. For Assad to pry away from Iran, in return for the Golan An Israeli giveaway of the Golan Heights would undermine other US interests in the Middle East.

Heights and US engagement, would require him to de-Assadize himself. The Syrian leopard cannot change its spots; it does, however, change its tactics. An Israeli giveaway of the Golan Heights would undermine other US interests in the Middle East.

It would enable Syria to redeploy a few armored mechanized divisions from the Golan front to the Jordanian frontier, in an attempt to destabilize and topple the Hashemite regime in Jordan, which Damascus considers a Syrian province. Such a development could have ripple effects into Saudi Arabia and the Gulf.

A Golan giveaway would also enable Assad to redeploy a few divisions to the Turkish frontier, agitating anti-Turkish Kurdish terrorism, in his attempt to reclaim Hatay, which used to be Syrian territory, and which constitutes a platform for US surveillance and intelligence installations. A Golan withdrawal by Israel would dramatically enhance the strategic maneuverability of pro-Iran, pro-Russia, pro-China and pro-North Korea Syria - which hosts a multitude of international terrorist organizations, which practices hate-education and which has systematically violated agreements concluded with Turkey, Jordan, Iraq, Lebanon and Israel.

Afghan NATO Supply Terminal Attacked In Pakistan

Afghan NATO Supply Terminal Attacked In Pakistan

(NSI News Source Info) March 15, 2009: Suspected militants attacked a Pakistani transport terminal from which supplies are sent to NATO troops in Afghanistan, burning dozens of vehicles and shipping containers, police said. Rising Taliban attacks have raised doubts about the reliability of critical supply routes through Pakistan, prompting the U.S. and NATO to seek alternatives. Vehicles use to transport NATO supplies to neighboring Afghanistan are set on fire in Peshawar, Pakistan, on Sunday, March 15, 2009. Police said suspected militants have attacked a transport terminal used to supply NATO troops in Afghanistan and burned dozens of military vehicles and shipping containers. About 40 assailants struck the Pak-Afghan Container Terminal near the northwestern city of Peshawar before dawn Sunday, police and witnesses said. Mohammad Asif Khan, an assistant to a driver whose truck was parked at the terminal, said armed men scaled the back wall of the compound and tied up the guards. "I was hiding in a corner, and I saw them throw petrol bombs and fire rockets and shots" at the parked vehicles, he said. Police official Ejaz Khan said the attackers burned dozens of vehicles and shipping containers. An Associated Press Television News cameraman who visited the depot said the charred wrecks included several Humvees. It was unclear if the torched supplies were destined for foreign troops in Afghanistan or for the Western-backed Afghan army, which uses similar imported equipment. Afghan-based U.S. and NATO forces get up to 75 percent of their supplies via routes through Pakistan. Suspected Taliban militants have repeatedly struck transport depots near Peshawar in recent months, destroying scores of military vehicles, while attacks on the road through the Khyber Pass to the Afghan border have repeatedly forced its temporary closure. U.S. and NATO officials insist the attacks have little impact on their operations, but are looking at ways to bring more supplies into Afghanistan through Central Asia.

Pakistan Ex-PM Nawaz Sharif Ignores 'Arrest' / Anti-Government Protests Turn Violent In Pakistan

Pakistan Ex-PM Nawaz Sharif Ignores 'Arrest' / Anti-Government Protests Turn Violent In Pakistan

(NSI News Source Info) March 15, 2009: Pakistan opposition leader Nawaz Sharif has defied an apparent bid to put him under house arrest in Lahore ahead of a "march" on the capital Islamabad. Thousands of supporters joined him after he broke through a police barricade of his home to reach a rally. Police fired tear gas as protesters hurled stones. LAHORE, PAKISTAN - MARCH 15: PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif addresses journalists at his residence whilst under house arrest on March 15, 2009 in Lahore, Pakistan. Violence erupted today after PML (N) leader Nawaz Sharif, under house arrest, called for the people of Pakistan to stand for their rights and continue the long march to Islamabad. Protesters and lawyers clashed with police in the streets, as they congregated near to the High Court of Lahore. Sharif activists later managed to overcome barriers blocking access to the main highway to Islamabad and Mr Sharif left Lahore in a convoy. The Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) supporters plan a "long march" to the capital to demand judges sacked by the former government be reinstated. "It's now a matter of the future of Pakistani nation and coming generations," Mr Sharif said earlier by telephone from his bullet-proof car. "How can we abandon our mission halfway?" Mr Sharif is expected to arrive in Rawalpindi - near Islamabad -in the early hours of Monday. He is due to be joined there by his brother, Shahbaz Sharif, former chief minister of the Punjab, and leaders of the lawyers' movement. Police are said to be surrounding the property in Rawalpindi where his brother is believed to be staying. 'Fascist tactics' Sharif activists used mobile hydraulic lifts, apparently brought along for the purpose, to remove massive containers placed as obstacles on the highway. The house arrest is illegal and immoral, all these decisions are unconstitutional Nawaz Sharif The BBC's Barbara Plett says it is not clear if Mr Sharif will be able to reach Islamabad, given the authorities have blocked routes leading to the capital. Ahead of the protest, the government has also arrested hundreds of opposition activists and banned rallies, saying they could trigger violence. Our Islamabad correspondent says the campaign over the judges has become a power struggle between Mr Sharif and current President Asif Ali Zardari. She says the unrest has alarmed the West, which wants Pakistan to focus on the battle against the Taleban on the Afghan border. President Zardari - the widower of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto - promised to bring back the judges when he took office last year following his wife's assassination. Early on Sunday, riot police blocked access roads to Mr Sharif's home and reportedly baton-charging his supporters. March 15: An activist from Jamaat-e-Islami holds a bamboo stick as he scuffles with a policeman during an anti-government protest march in Lahore. Leaving his home later in the morning, Mr Sharif told a crowd: "The house arrest is illegal and immoral. All these decisions are unconstitutional," reported AFP news agency. Party spokesman Ahsan Iqbal told the BBC: "A government which claims to be a democratic government is coming with such heavy-handed fascist tactics." But interior ministry chief Rehman Malik told the BBC the police were outside Mr Sharif's home for his own protection because of the threat from terrorists. Long-running tensions Mr Sharif was ousted as prime minister in 1999 during a coup by General Pervez Musharraf, who ruled until August 2008. Tensions between Mr Zardari and Mr Sharif date back to the 1990s, but the two formed a brief partnership in government after parliamentary elections in February 2008. Mr Sharif's party later left the alliance, complaining of reluctance by Mr Zardari's Pakistan People's Party to reinstate the judges sacked by the last government. Relations have been further strained in recent weeks by a Supreme Court decision to ban Mr Sharif and his brother Shahbaz from elected office, and President Zardari's decision to put their stronghold in Punjab province under direct rule from Islamabad. But on Saturday, in a move seen as a conciliatory gesture, the government agreed to seek a review of the Supreme Court ruling. The political instability comes as Pakistan faces an economic crisis and a growing militant insurgency based in the north-west.

Russia May Base Bombers In Cuba: Report

Russia May Base Bombers In Cuba: Report

Venezuela also temporarily offers island site as Moscow eyes Caribbean

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Open To Russian Strategic Bombers Using Venezuelan Island....Defense-Technology News March 15, 2009

(NSI News Source Info) MOSCOW - March 15, 2009: A Russian Air Force chief said Saturday that the country could base some strategic bombers in Cuba or on an island offered by Venezuela, the Interfax news agency reported, but a Kremlin official quickly said the military had been speaking only hypothetically. The U.S. and Russia have been trying to reset their relationship, severely strained over U.S. plans to position missile defense elements in Poland and the Czech Republic and by Russia's invasion of U.S. ally Georgia last year. Russia resumed long-range bomber patrols after a 15-year hiatus in 2007 — using aircraft such as this Tupolev 95 Bear. Russia has nothing to gain strategically from basing long-range craft within relatively short range of U.S. shores, independent military analyst Alexander Golts said, calling the military statement a retaliatory gesture aimed at hitting back after U.S. ships patrolled Black Sea waters near Georgia.

The chief of staff of Russia's long range aviation, Maj. Gen. Anatoly Zhikharev, was quoted by Interfax as saying Saturday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had offered "a whole island with an airdrome, which we can use as a temporary base for strategic bombers." "If there is a corresponding political decision, then the use of the island ... by the Russian Air Force is possible," Zhikharev was quoted as saying. Interfax reported he said earlier that Cuba has air bases with four or five runways long enough for the huge bombers and could be used to host the long-range planes. 'Technical possibilities'Officials at both Venezuela's presidential administration and Defense Ministry refused immediate comment on Zhikharev's reported remarks. Cuban government officials could not be reached. But Alexei Pavlov, a Kremlin official, told The Associated Press that "the military is speaking about technical possibilities, that's all. If there will be a development of the situation, then we can comment," he said. Mike Hammer, spokesman for President Barack Obama's National Security Council, said, "We do not comment on hypotheticals." Venezuela and Cuba, traditionally fierce U.S. foes, have close political and energy relations with Russia, which has been working to reassert itself as a military force. Russia resumed long-range bomber patrols in 2007 after a 15-year hiatus. Venezuela hosted two Russian Tu-160 bombers in September for training flights and later joined Russian warships for exercises in the Caribbean. Cuba has never permanently hosted Russian or Soviet aircraft, though Soviet short-range bombers often made stopovers there during the Cold War. In the October 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, Soviet nuclear missiles stationed in Cuba pushed the world to the brink of nuclear conflict after U.S. President John F. Kennedy announced their presence to the world. After a tense week of diplomacy, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev removed the missiles. 'Retaliatory gesture'Golts, the military analyst, said basing Russian bombers in Venezuela or Cuba "has no military sense. The bombers don't need any base." He said the bombers are considered strategic because they are capable of reaching an attacking range of the United States from Russia without the need for stopovers. "This is just a retaliatory gesture," he said, adding that Russia wanted to hit back after U.S. ships patrolled Black Sea waters. U.S. plans initiated under former President George W. Bush to put elements of a missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic had particularly irked Russia, although the United States insists they are intended to counter potential future threats from Iran. Russia has welcomed Obama's apparently more cautious approach to the divisive issue. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Geneva earlier this month to push a symbolic red "reset" button, another sign of the desire for a clean slate. Cuban authorities made no comment last summer when a Moscow newspaper reported that Russia could send nuclear bombers to the island. While neither confirming nor denying the report, ailing former President Fidel Castro at the time praised his brother President Raul Castro for maintaining a "dignified silence" on the report and said that Cuba was not obligated to offer the U.S. an explanation.

Bin Laden Accuses Arab Leaders Of Plotting Against Muslims / Osama Bin Laden Accuses Moderate Arab Leaders Of Plotting With The West Against Muslims

Bin Laden Accuses Arab Leaders Of Plotting Against Muslims / Osama Bin Laden Accuses Moderate Arab Leaders Of Plotting With The West Against Muslims

(NSI News Source Info) March 15, 2009: Osama bin Laden last night accused moderate Arab leaders of plotting with the West against Muslims. The al-Qaeda terror boss also renewed his attacks on Israel, claiming his network of fighters will "liberate" Palestine. The audio message claiming to be from the world's most wanted terrorist, was broadcast on a Middle East TV channel. He urged his followers to prepare for "jihad" - holy war - and called Israel's recent offensive in Gaza "a Holocaust". And he added: "It has become clear that some Arab leaders were complicit with the Crusader-Zionist alliance against our people. These are the leaders the Americans called moderate." Meanwhile, it emerged last night that members of the Taliban have been joining the Afghan Army - so the Americans can teach them how to fight. A senior military source said: "The evidence of infiltration is overwhelming. The US have trained more than 90,000 Afghan soldiers. "But a huge number desert or simply just leave after a year and never return. A significant number are Taliban."

French In Show Of Force In Deadly Afghan Valley

French In Show Of Force In Deadly Afghan Valley

(NSI News Source Info) Sarobi, Afghanistan - March 15, 2009: It is still night when the convoy moves off, winding through hills like a huge snake: around 100 French armored vehicles descend into a valley east of Kabul, their lights lacing through the darkness. More than 500 French soldiers and 300 Afghan police and soldiers, as well a handful of men from the Norwegian Special Forces on all-terrain quad bikes are on the ground for ‘Operation Three Valleys’ in the district of Sarobi. French soldiers with the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) Above, reconnaissance drones and helicopters watch over the only route, a difficult and dusty road that is vulnerable to ambushes. It was just a few kilometres (miles) from here that the French military last August suffered its heaviest loss in 25 years when 10 soldiers were killed in an insurgent attack. ‘We want to show the people and the insurgents that the French army is not here for revenge but that we will go where we want to and when we want to,’ says Colonel Franck Chatelus, who commands the French battalion in Kabul. The Afghan forces lead this push into a sometimes hostile area.‘This is also the time to show that the Afghan army today is not the same one of a few years ago, when it looted the country and maltreated the population,’ Chatelus adds.The area, about 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the capital, is austere, stoney and mountainous; in the valley, small villages of mud-brick houses suddenly appear alongside a few fields. French soldiers take position on the ridges while Afghan troops cover the police as they enter a village called Washa Kalay with a hostile reputation. A quick search of some houses reveals nothing of interest but there is a field of opium poppies a lucrative crop that officials say finances some of the insurgents. Police unenthusiastically uproot some of the shoots with a wooden spade, stamping on others.‘The insurgents who were in the village have gone to the other side of the mountain in Laghman province,’ says Mohibullah Babakar Khel, from the Afghan intelligence service. Later the French colonel addresses elders in the village ‘We offer our hand to the insurgents who agree to give up and cooperate with us.’ ‘Give us your mines and bombs so that we can destroy them otherwise they risk killing or wounding your children.’ The impoverished residents demand a well, electricity, a school. ‘If a school is built, this area has to be secure. And a school would have to be for boys and for girls,’ says a French officer, referring to a tendency to prevent girls getting an education.The French put on an impressive security cover for a visit the next day to the village of Siri Kalay but wait an hour for the police to arrive enough time for any insurgents to hide arms or ammunition.This time only Afghan police enter the village, making for an unoccupied house that is said to belong to a ‘Commander Rostam,’ a member of the radical Hezb-e-Islami faction who has fled to Pakistan. The raid nets police and military uniforms as well some electrical components, perhaps used for detonators. ‘Here the people are all against us,’ says 20-year-old policeman Nasratullah, who earns just 120 dollars a month. ‘Policemen have been killed close by. Without the planes of the international forces, they would have ambushed us.’ The rebels may have been silent but the area is still dangerous on the first day of the operation, mine clearers destroyed three rockets already in their launchers.But the foreign troops part of a steadily expanding NATO-led International Security Assistance Force that now numbers about 62,000 across Afghanistan believe they have made an impression. ‘The outcome of the operation is not material but psychological and moral. Little by little we are gaining the confidence of the population,’ says Chatelus, the French colonel. ‘The insurgents were unable to do anything, they have been discredited in the eyes of the people,’ he says

Kuwait National And Liberation Day, Displaying Military Might

Kuwait National And Liberation Day, Displaying Military Might

(NSI News Source Info) March 15, 2009: US-made M1A1 heavy battle tanks from Kuwait's Armored Brigade, parade in Subhan, 40 kilometers east of Kuwait City, during a Kuwait Defense Ministry air show, Wednesday, March 11, 2009. Kuwait International Airport suspended all commercial air traffic for two hours during the parade, in which different kinds of military aircraft and helicopters took part on the occasion of celebrating National and Liberation Day.

*CORRECTION: The aforementioned photo/image of Kuwaiti Army MBT are Yugoslavia M-84AB and not US-made M1A1 as stated. Thanks to the observation and correction of "SECOND".

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Declares His Country A Space And Nuclear Power

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Declares His Country A Space And Nuclear Power

(NSI News Source Info) TEHRAN - March 15, 2009: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Friday that pressure from Western powers trying to keep Iran in economic isolation have in fact spurred the country to become a space and nuclear power. "Had you not been bad-tempered and blocked the way, the Iranian nation would not have been present in space, and would not have become a nuclear power," Fars news agency quoted Ahmadinejad as saying at the inauguration ceremony of a natural gas deposit in the Bushehr province. Iran put its first communications satellite, Omid (Hope), into a near-Earth orbit on February 2. The research satellite was carried into orbit by a home-made launch vehicle, Safir (Messenger). Iranian Communications Minister Mohammad Soleimani earlier said that the country's scientists were working on the creation of four new satellites to be placed into near-Earth orbit. The Iranian president said Western powers are unable to stop Iran's technological and scientific progress with their "spiteful actions." He also called the international economic sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program a "grave blunder." "Of course, we believe that the Iranian nation can tread the path to progress under God's mercy," he said. Western powers led by the United States, along with Israel, have accused Tehran of attempting to develop nuclear weapons and ballistic missile technology for their delivery. Iran says it needs its nuclear program for electric power generation, and its missile program for space exploration.