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UN Tentatively Backs a Plan for Syria
02/02/2012 07:00 PM
(New York Times) Neil MacFarquhar - Security Council ambassadors reached a wobbly consensus on Thursday backing an Arab League plan for political change in Syria, after they dropped a specific reference to President Bashar al-Assad's ceding of power. Western and Arab ambassadors also jettisoned calls for a voluntary arms embargo and sanctions. It was unclear whether the changes would be enough to persuade Russia, Syria's ally and its major weapons supplier, to back the resolution.

Panetta Believes Israel Could Strike Iran This Spring
02/02/2012 07:00 PM
(CNN) Barbara Starr - U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has come to the conclusion there is a growing likelihood Israel could attack Iran sometime this spring in an effort to destroy its suspected nuclear weapons program, according to a senior administration official. Panetta's views were first reported by the Washington Post's David Ignatius, who wrote Panetta "believes there is strong likelihood that Israel will strike Iran in April, May or June - before Iran enters what Israelis described as a 'zone of immunity' to commence building a nuclear bomb." A "confluence" of intelligence has led Panetta to this conclusion, the official told CNN.

U.S. Fears Iran's Links to Al-Qaeda
02/02/2012 07:00 PM
(Wall Street Journal) Siobhan Gorman - U.S. officials say they believe Iran recently gave new freedoms to as many as five top al-Qaeda operatives who have been under house arrest, including the option to leave the country, and may have provided some material aid to the terrorist group. The men, who were detained in Iran in 2003, make up al-Qaeda's so-called management council. U.S. officials believe that officials in the Iranian government have provided al-Qaeda operatives in Iran with logistical help, money and cars.

Iran Says It Launched Satellite
02/02/2012 07:00 PM
(Washington Post) Thomas Erdbrink - Iran said Friday it launched a microsatellite weighing 110 pounds into space carried by a homemade rocket. Western nations fear the rockets in Iran's space program can be fitted with a nuclear warhead and be used for regional attacks.

Effort to Rebrand Arab Spring Backfires in Iran
02/02/2012 07:00 PM
(New York Times) Robert F. Worth - More than a thousand young Islamic activists were flown to Tehran earlier this week (at government expense) for a conference on "the Islamic Awakening," Tehran's effort to rebrand the popular Arab uprisings of the past year. But no one was invited from Syria, a crucial Iranian ally. As the conference began, a young man in the audience held up a sign with the word "SYRIA?" written in English. Applause burst out in the crowd, followed by boos. Audience members began chanting the slogan of the Syrian protesters: "God, freedom and Syria!" But they were drowned out by others chanting pro-Assad slogans. Soon afterward, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president, took the stage and said: "We must be vigilant: the West is trying to foment sectarian conflict in our societies, as part of their goal of keeping Israel alive." "Today Syria, tomorrow your country." Islamist parties are coming to power in Tunisia and Egypt and Morocco, and they may well do so in Libya, Syria and Yemen. But Iran's system of rule by clerics seems very unlikely to prevail in those countries. Iran's Shiite faith is also a serious obstacle. The Iranian effort to hold up the struggle against Israel as a crucible of Islamic unity comes across to many Arabs as doctrinaire and shopworn, no matter how strongly they sympathize with the Palestinian cause.