VIENNA - Arab diplomats signaled on Tuesday they would seek to step up pressure on Israel over its assumed nuclear arsenal but the Jewish state said any attempt to "bash" it would be counterproductive.
Arab countries, angry at the lack of movement in efforts to move towards a Middle East free of nuclear weapons, have served notice they plan to target Israel for criticism at the UN atomic agency's annual member state gathering in September.
"We need to raise our frustration, we need to raise our concern about this issue," one Arab envoy in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is based, said.
Israel's ambassador to the IAEA, Ehud Azoulay, told Reuters that Arab states "are taking a counterproductive route by raising this issue ... and trying to bash Israel".
In a letter to IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano, posted on the UN agency's web site, 18 Arab member states asked for "Israeli nuclear capabilities" to be included as an agenda item of the Sept. 16-20 gathering in the Austrian capital.
The IAEA meeting "must take appropriate measures to ensure that Israel places all its nuclear installations under agency safeguards and accedes to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons," the letter, dated in June, said.
Arab countries are considering putting forward a non-binding but symbolically important resolution on the issue after refraining from doing so at the previous two annual gatherings of the IAEA's 159 member countries, Arab diplomats said.
Such a move would likely draw a rebuke from the United States and its Western allies, which argue that singling out Israel for blame could undermine broader steps aimed at banning weapons of mass destruction in the volatile region.
Israel is widely believed to possess the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal, drawing Arab and Iranian condemnation. It is the only regional country outside the global Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to prevent the spread of atomic arms.
Israel and the United States regard Iran as the world's main proliferation threat, accusing Tehran of covertly seeking a nuclear arms capability, something the Islamic state denies.
An Egyptian plan for an international meeting to lay the groundwork for creating a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction was agreed at an NPT review conference in 2010.
But the United States said late last year that the conference would not occur as planned in December 2012 and did not make clear when, or whether, it would take place. The United States, Britain and Russia are co-sponsors of the meeting.
"We are disappointed but we are still eager to convene the conference," the Arab envoy said.
US and Israeli officials have said a nuclear arms-free zone in the Middle East could not be a reality until there was broad Arab-Israeli peace and Iran curbed its nuclear program.
Israel's Azoulay said "the atmosphere in the Middle East" was not conducive to such a conference now. "You see what is happening in Syria, in Libya, in Iran, now in Egypt as well," he said, alluding to instability and bloodshed around the region.
Jerusalem Post
MOSCOW, July 9 (RIA Novosti) – Russia’s new aerospace defense system will ensure guaranteed detection of enemy ballistic and long-range cruise missiles at blastoff, a top military official said Tuesday.
General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov said the system would feature advanced information-gathering, data-processing and attack capabilities with an early-warning radar system to be deployed along the entire Russian border.
Other measures will include the modernization of existing surface-to-air missile systems and the provision of advanced S-400 and S-500 air defense systems, “capable of reliably protecting critical installations against air and missile attacks,” he said.
That will significantly enhance the survivability of Russia’s strategic nuclear forces, he added.
Priority in the organizational development of Russia’s armed forces through 2020 will be given to the strategic nuclear forces and the aerospace defense system, Gerasimov said.
Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces will continue to be equipped with advanced Yars ballistic missile systems featuring higher capabilities in overriding enemy missile defense systems, he said.
In mid-June, Russia’s prototype medium-range air defense system that should replace the S-300 was demonstrated to President Vladimir Putin. The Vityaz system, manufactured by the Almaz-Antei corporation, which will have a more advanced radar and a launcher with 16 missiles, compared with only four on the S-300, should enter service next year, Almaz-Antei chief designer Igor Ashurbeili previously told RIA Novosti.
The Vityaz will complement the Morfey, S-400 and S-500 air defense systems in Russia’s future aerospace defense network to engage targets at ranges from five to 400 kilometers, and at altitudes from five meters to near outer space.
In late May, Russia’s Aerospace Defense Forces conducted a series of snap drills that checked the combat readiness of aerospace defense units, air force units and air defenses in the Western Military District, as well as military transport and long-range aviation command. The exercises involved 8,700 people, 185 aircraft and 240 military vehicles.
RIA Novosti
(CNSNews.com) – Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said in a press release Friday that insufficient government spending, caused by Republican "austerity policies" is hurting the U.S. economy and preventing a quicker recovery.
“We need to continue advancing policies that spur growth and create jobs," Reid said. "It's time for Republicans to let go of their failed austerity policies that weigh down our economy and prevent a speedier recovery. We simply can't cut our way to prosperity."
During President Barack Obama's first three years in office (2009, 2010, and 2011), according to the White House Office of Management and Budget, the federal government spent 25.2 percent, 24.1 percent, and 24.1 percent of GDP. That level of federal spending was unprecedented during a period when the nation was not in a World War.
During the eight years that George W. Bush was president for example (2001-2008), the federal government spent 18.2 percent, 19.1 percent, 19.7 percent, 19.6 percent, 19.9 percent, 20.1 percent, 19.7 percent, and 20.8 percent of GDP. At no time, during the Bush years, did federal spending hit even as high as 21 percent of GDP.
In 2012, under President Obama, federal spending was 22.8 percent, down from the 24.1 percent the federal government spent in 2011, but still at a very high level. Since World War II, there have been only two years--other than when Obama was president--that the federal government spent more than 22.8 percent of GDP. Those years were 1982 and 1983, when the government spent 23.1 percent and 23.5 percent.
Despite the high level of federal spending during the Obama administration, the U.S. has also experienced an unprecedented stretch of high unemployment. As CNSNews.com recently reported, May was the 54th straight month that the national unemployment rate, as reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was 7.5 percent or higher. Those 54 months began in January 2009, the month Obama was first inaugurated. That is the longest stretch of unemployment at 7.5 percent or higher since BLS started reporting the monthly national unemployment rate in 1948.
See more at: http://cnsnews.com/news/article/harry-reid-insufficient-government-spending-hurts-us-economy#sthash.53TSOJdI.dpuf
Emboldened by the recent Supreme Court decision striking down the Defense of Marriage Act, gay activists are clamoring louder than ever about everything, from how teachers describe marriage to Hollywood films that come against its homosexual agenda.
Of course, the former is nothing new, but the latter is just one example of what we can expect to see—and see more of—as radical gay activism seeks to exert its minority force on all spheres of society.
While I understand the uproar over Alec Baldwin’s online outburst—what some are calling a “homophobic rant,” after a Daily Mail reporter suggested his wife was tweeting during Soprano's actor James Gandolfini's funeral last month—the move to boycott Harrison Ford’s latest film is absurd.
Gay rights activists have targeted Ender’s Game, calling for a boycott because the sci-fi thriller’s author, Orson Scott Card, doesn’t buy into gay marriage.
It seems radical gay activists are taking exception to Card joining the board of the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), which was birthed in an effort to combat Proposition 8 legislation banning gay marriage in California.
“Do not buy a ticket at the theatre, do not purchase the DVD, do not watch it on-demand. Ignore all merchandise and toys. ... By pledging to skip Ender's Game, we can send a clear and serious message to Card and those that do business with his brand of anti-gay activism—whatever he’s selling, we’re not buying," a post on Geeks OUT’s website reads. The film is set to debut in November.
The gay agenda already worked to get Card fired from DC Comics for his beliefs. DC Comics shelved Card’s part in a Superman project indefinitely in response to the gay agenda’s intimidation. So why not go after the Harrison Ford film and anything else that gets in the way of LGBT momentum too?
Can you see it? We are moving into an era where anyone who disagrees with what the gay agendawants is muzzled, shut down and downright boycotted.
Of course, gays boycotting brands didn’t start with Ender’s Game. The gay agenda made headlines last year for boycotting Chick-fil-A. Gov. Mike Huckabee counteracted that boycott with Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day that caused the chicken chain to post a world record sales day.
But that was last year. This is now.
With a fresh wind of boldness courtesy of the U.S. Supreme Court, you can expect to see radical gay activists rush to the fore with boycotts on anything and everything that refuses to bow down to its moves to further reshape our culture in the name of tolerance.
Charisma News
Russian experts have found that Syrian militants fighting against the government of President Bashar al-Assad made sarin nerve gas and used it in a deadly attack outside Aleppo in March.
Press TV
