Carefully hear a viewpoint iranian....
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Friday, February 1, 2013
Suicide blast kills guard at US Ankara embassy may be payback for Israel’s Syria airstrike
A Turkish security guard was killed and several others injured in a huge explosion set off by a suicide bomber at a side entrance of the US embassy in Ankara Friday, Feb. 1. Embassy staff dove into fortified shelters as smoke and debris rose in clouds over the fortified compound. Local TV showed damage to a compound wall and a smashed embassy building window. No organization has taken responsibility for the attack.
DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources initially estimate that the attack was the work either of al Qaeda, Syrian intelligence or Hizballah, possibly as part of the payback for Israel’s air strike Wednesday against the Jamraya military complex near Damascus. That complex served both Hizballah and the Syrian army and Syria has already threatened retribution on the scale of an earthquake.
It may also have been retaliation for the stationing of US Patriot missiles on the Turkish Syrian border or the meeting arranged for US Vice President Joe Biden with the Syrian opposition leader Mouaz Alkhatib in Munich, Germany.
Plenty of warnings have issued from Tehran on all three counts.
On Dec. 15, Iran’s armed forces chief Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi warned that the deployment of American anti-missile batteries in Turkey could cause a world war. Last Saturday, Jan. 26, Ali Akbar Velayati, a close aide of the Iranian supreme leader, declared that attacking Syria was tantamount to attacking Iran.
Israel’s air strike may have been the last straw for Tehran, which warned the “Tel Aviv regime” would suffer “grave consequences.”
By targeting the US embassy in Turkey, the Iranians and their allies may have been starting to hit back for all these grievances at the same time: the Israeli attack, the Patriots and Washington’s support for the Syrian opposition.
If that is so, then the US embassy bombing won’t be the last act of terror planned by Syria, Hizballah and Iran.
It is not the first time that the Iranian-Syrian-Hizballah alliance has targeted US interests in Turkey for terrorist attacks. On Aug. 21, 2012, seven months ago, a large bomb car blew up in the southern Turkish town of Gaziantep near the Syrian border, killing eight people and injuring at least 66.
No findings were ever released from the investigation of that incident. According to our sources, the bomb car was rigged by a terrorist cell serving Syrian military intelligence in collaboration with Hizballah, like many other political hits carried out in Lebanon over the years.
The Gaziantep attack was directed against the command center established in that town for US intelligence and special forces alongside a Free Syrian Army center.
DEBKAfile
Israeli warplanes fly over Lebanon
Israeli warplanes flew over Lebanon again on Friday, two days after air strikes targeted a convoy of arms or a weapons research base inside Syrian territory.
Andrea Tenenti, a spokesman for the UN forces in Lebanon, Unifil, confirmed that Israeli forces had continued to violate Lebanese airspace, but said this was routine. "On Tuesday [ahead of the air strikes] there were a high number of violations, but since then it has not been unusual," he told the Guardian.
Under UN security council resolution 1701, passed following the 2006Israel-Lebanon war, Israeli planes are forbidden from flying over Lebanon.
Israel has maintained silence over Wednesday's bombing, despite a statement from the Syrian regime that a "scientific research centre" between Damascus and the Lebanese border had been hit. Reports described the centre as a large military complex with training and communications facilities. Western diplomatic and security sources said Israel's target was a convoy of trucks carrying Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles from Syria to the Hezbollah militia in Lebanon.
Concern about possible retaliatory action was fuelled by comments made by an Iranian legislator. "Damascus retaliation against the illegal move of the Zionist regime is a right of the Syrian people," said Mohammad Hassan Asafari. If the Syrian regime failed to deliver a "proper response", Israel would not hesitate to carry out further attacks, he added.
The Israeli foreign ministry declined to comment on reports that its embassies and missions worldwide had been placed on a heightened security alert, and the Israeli Defence Forces declined to say whether leave had been cancelled for troops based in northern Israel and the Golan Heights.
Many Israeli analysts thought that the chances of immediate retaliation were low, with some suggesting that any response was more likely to be targeted at Israeli assets or citizens abroad rather than rocket attacks or other military action aimed at Israel itself.
"The combination of strategic circumstances in the region at the moment makes the chance of a direct Iranian response unlikely," wrote Amos Harel, Haaretz's defence correspondent. "A Syrian military response seems even less likely, though neither possibility can be ruled out. The most worrying unknown since Tuesday night concerns Hezbollah's reaction … Hezbollah is a sophisticated enemy operating in a tough environment. Complete restraint over the long term to Israel's actions could be considered weakness by Hezbollah, so we should expect some form of response, even if not immediately and not necessarily a broad rocket and missile attack on Israel."
Yedioth Ahronoth's defence analyst Alex Fishman wrote: "Something major went down in Syria, but a heavy smokescreen is already blurring the tracks … If the signal sent to the Syrians and to Hezbollah by whomever produced this show – telling them to stop the unmonitored circulation of the weapons held by the Syrian army – is not picked up, then the next operation will not be able to leave such a vague address. And this will bring the region into an open and violent clash.
"Missiles may not fly at Israel this time. It seems that this time, we will get through the storm safely. And the proof: the defence minister allowed himself to leave for a conference of defence ministers in Germany. But Israel should prepare for the possibility of acts of revenge overseas, in the style of the terror attacks that took place in the past."
The Guardian
Iran to unveil new indigenous fighter jet
The Iranian Defense Ministry has announced that the country will unveil a new advanced fighter aircraft.
The domestically-designed and developed fighter jet, codenamed Qaher-313 (Conqueror-313), will be put on display on Saturday on the occasion of the Ten-Day Dawn celebrations commemorating the victory of 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and a number of high-ranking military officials will attend the unveiling ceremony.
Brigadier General Mohammad-Reza Karshki said in February 2011 that the Islamic Republic of Iran Air Force was collaborating with the Defense Ministry on an extensive project to design and build an advanced fighter jet.
The fighter jet is said to be similar to the US-built F/A-18, although its appearance looks similar to F-5E/F Tiger II. The new single-seat bomber will have the ability to track down enemy aircraft, engage in combat, target locations on the ground, and carry a payload of assorted weapons and ammunition.
In recent years, Iran has made great achievements in the defense sector and gained self-sufficiency in essential military hardware and defense systems.
Azarakhsh (lightning) is Iran's first domestically-manufactured combat jet.
Saeqeh (Thunderbolt) fighter jet is a follow up aircraft, derived from the Azarakhsh. Iran unveiled its first squadron of Saeqeh fighter-bombers in an air show in September 2010.
Tehran has repeatedly assured other nations, especially regional neighbors, that its military might poses no threat to other countries, stating that its defense doctrine is merely based on deterrence.
Press TV
Worst Not Over For Spain Banks After Losses
Spain's largest banks have reported dismal results over the past 24 hours, hit by toxic real estate assets, and according to analysts, the results highlight the desperate need for Spain's banks to raise more capital.
"The problems for Spanish banking are far from over," Ashok Shah, chief investment officer at wealth management firm London & Capital, told CNBC on Friday.
"The underlying real estate market is only half-corrected,so when it fully corrects over the next year of two, the non-performing loans are going to keep spiking up which will keep eating into the tier-one capital so the need to raise more equity is going to be enormous and very, very pressing indeed."
BBVA reported that profits fell 44 percent in 2012 as it made 9.5 billion euros($13 billion) in provisions on bad real estate loans from the 2008 Spanish property crash. The gloomy picture continued elsewhere as Caixabank reported that profits tumbled nearly 80 percent last year to 229 million euros ($311 million) as provisions doubled during 2012 to over 12 billion euros ($16.4 billion).
Banco Popular Espanol reported its biggest ever net loss of 2.46 billion ($3.36 billion) euros in 2012, compared to a forecast of 2.38 billion euros made by analysts polled by Reuters.
The news followed Thursday's earning miss from Banco Santander (Mercado Continuo: SAN-ES) which showed that the bank's net profits had more than halved as it put aside almost 19 billion euros ($26 billion) for non-performing loans and property assets.
On January 1, Spain's Central Bank revised solvency rules and set a new core capital-ratio target for Spanish banks of 9 percent. It also said that it will require a quarterly breakdown of what Spanish banks are including as core capital. New regulations from the Basel Committee on banking regulations have also called for more stringent minimum capital levels, so banks maintain sufficient assets to face future financial crises.
Chris Wheeler, bank analyst at Mediobanca, told CNBC that Santander would be forced to "sell more businesses" in its attempt to raise more capital.
"One of the issues we're concerned about with Santander is that we think they have an issue with capital at the parent group level. They look perfectly well-capitalized but a lot of that capital is sitting in Mexico or Brazil, it's not actually sitting in Spain," he said.
Spain received 37 billion euros ($46 billion) from the euro zone to recapitalize four of its struggling banks in 2012. As part of a general restructuring of the Spanish banking sector, lenders were forced to transfer billions of dollars' worth of toxic real estate assets to a so-called "bad bank" at steeply discounted prices.
The average write down on the banks' property loans was 45.6 percent and 63.1 percent on foreclosed properties.
Spain's Banks Not Alone
Spanish banks aren't the only ones to suffer impairment charges. French bank Credit Agricole warned on Friday that its latest earnings would be hit by 3.8 billion euros in writedowns. It said that the charges reflected the tighter regulatory environment. Dutch banking insurance group SNS Reaal is being nationalized at a cost of 3.7 billion euros to the state.
Yahoo
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