WW3 - ISRAEL/IRAN threaten PRE-Emptive Strikes/Hamas Holy War

ISRAEL/IRAN threaten PRE-Emptive Stikes – WW3

Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh will lead a “million-man rally” scheduled for Friday in Cairo “to save the Al-Aqsa mosque” in Jerusalem “from repeated breaches by Zionist extremists”, according to the Hamas Website.

Among the Egyptian figures joining Haniyeh will be Salah Sultan, Secretary General of the Jerusalem Committee of the World Association of Muslim Scholars. Sultan told Hamas’s Cairo correspondent that Haniya will delivered a speech at the end of Friday prayers to save Al-Aqsa. Sultan called on all Egyptians and Muslims to join the demonstration and called to open the door to jihad (Islamic holy war), to support the Palestinian Authority struggle and to break the siege on Gaza.

(Isreali Paratroopers prepare for war with Iran Feb 23, 2012)

Peres on Iran: When We Say ‘All Options,’ We Mean It

President Shimon Peres addressed the Iranian threat Thursday in a speech before the annual Jerusalem meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.

“The state of Israel is a sovereign one and it has the right and the ability to defend itself from every threat,” he said. “When we say all options are on the table, we mean it!”

“A nuclear Iran is a strategic threat not only on Israel but on the entire world. Iran is a center of moral corruption and world terror,” he added.

Peres may have been trying to carry out “spin control” following a report in Haaretz, according to which he intends to tell President Barack Obama that he opposes an Israeli raid on Iran. 

“Recently, we have seen an escalation of the sanctions against Iran under the leadership of President Obama and we witnessed his ability to lead a coalition with partnership from Europe and other countries against Iran,” Peres said. “I appreciate this and I know full well that those partners share our outlook [and favor] stepping up sanctions while at the same time keeping all options open.”

The President added that he had spoken with the leaders of Russia, France and Germany and got the feeling that “they are well aware of the great danger in the combination of the ayatollahs’ leadership and their possession of a nuclear bomb.”

Iran threatens to use ‘all means’ in pre-emptive strike on Israel

Iran threatened to launch pre-emptive action against Israel yesterday in the event of an attack on its nuclear facilities.

Mohammed Hejazi, the deputy head of Iran’s armed forces, hinted that Tehran could order proxy militant groups in Gaza and Lebanon to fire rockets into Israel.

“We are no longer willing to wait for enemy action to be launched against us,” he told Iran’s Fars news agency. “Our strategy now is that we will make use of all means to protect our national interests.

“We enjoy the ability to show them all types of confrontation in case of a foolish act by the Zionist regime.”

Iran has steadily built up the rocket arsenals of Hezbollah, the Shia militant group in Lebanon, and Hamas, the Palestinian movement whose stronghold is the Gaza Strip, after both were depleted during military operations by Israel in 2006.

The two movements are believed to have tens of thousands of rockets capable of reaching cities deep inside Israel.

The threat comes amid growing concern in Washington that Israel is preparing to launch unilateral military action against Iran’s nuclear facilities within months. US and British officials, including William Hague, the UK foreign secretary, have publicly urged Israel to avoid the use of force and instead give American and EU sanctions against Iran’s central bank and energy sector time to work.

But Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, and Ehud Barak, his defence minister, have told US officials that pleas for restraint are “playing into Iran’s hands”, according to Israel’s ‘Haaretz‘ newspaper.

Separately yesterday, the country defiantly pledged to press on with its efforts to develop atomic energy as the United Nations nuclear watchdog started a second day of meetings in Tehran to clarify aspects of the country’s activities.

SOURCES:

Israelinationalnews.com

Independent.ie

Israelnationalnews.com