Author: Emil Lazarian

THE BIG RED ONE: POMEGRANATE JUICEIT’S ANTIOXIDANT-RICH. IT’S ALSO HYPE- AND CALORIE-RICH.
By Erika Engelhaupt
For The Inquirer
Philadelphia Inquirer, PA
June 25 2006
First it was red wine. Then green tea. Now pomegranate juice is making
the rounds as the latest good-for-you drink.
Experts say it may help lower blood pressure and even fight certain
cancers, although the research is still preliminary. But beware those
extra calories if you’re swilling a daily dose.
The near blood-red drink is cropping up all over, from chic cocktail
lounges to humble neighborhood delis.
Sales of refrigerated pomegranate juice soared from zero in 2001 to
more than $63 million in 2005, according to A.C. Nielsen, the market
research firm.
Moving beyond the martinis that appeared a few years back, the tart
juice is now sold in blends, combined with everything from mango to
lychee green tea.
At the Latimer Delicatessen near Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia,
four pomegranate blends rub bottles with lowbrow colas and sports
drinks.
Running from $2 to $4 a bottle, the pom is not cheap.
The mover behind the juicy surge is Pom Wonderful, which helped create
the U.S. market for the drink when its 6,000 acres of pomegranates
started bearing fruit in 2002. Stewart and Lynda Resnick, owners
of the Philadelphia area’s Franklin Mint, also manage Pom Wonderful
through their parent company, Roll International, based in Los Angeles.
Apparently, everyone already knows about antioxidants and wants to
imbibe as much as possible, or at least Pom Wonderful’s ad campaign
makes it seem that way.
For those feeling left out, antioxidants are natural substances in
plants and foods that protect cells from marauding oxygen molecules
called free radicals.
Antioxidants stop free radicals from attacking LDL, or “bad”
cholesterol, and combining with cells to form plaque that hardens
arteries.
Research has shown that people whose diets are rich in fruits and
vegetables have a lower incidence of cardiovascular disease and
certain cancers.
A small, 19-person study by scientists at Israel’s Rambam Medical
Center in Haifa showed that pomegranate juice lowered systolic blood
pressure, the upper reading, by 21 percent and prevented thickening
of the arteries for the 10 subjects who drank about two ounces of
pomegranate juice daily for up to three years.
At least half a dozen other studies by the Israeli group and others
show similar effects in mice and humans. Some were funded by a
foundation run by the Resnicks, owners of Pom Wonderful.
Several studies also show that antioxidants in food may help prevent
prostate cancer. One study of pomegranate juice, published in the
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2005, found that
it reduced tumor size by as much as half in mice. More research is
needed to gauge the effects on humans.
Pomegranates pack more than five times the antioxidants of green tea,
and are especially loaded with a potent type called polyphenols.
Long-term studies of antioxidants also suggest that taking antioxidants
in pill form is less effective than eating them in whole foods.
“It’s worth incorporating pomegranate juice into the diet on a regular
basis as part of your armament to prevent chronic disease, and it’s
good for both men and women,” said Lisa Hark, director of nutrition
education at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
Hark said pomegranate juice and other antioxidant-rich foods should
be part of a prevention arsenal, but they’re not a cure. “I can’t see
pomegranate juice reversing heart disease – it’s not going to break
up plaque.”
And not all pom drinks pack the same antioxidant punch. For the
biggest wallop, look for pomegranate high in the ingredient list or
mixed with other antioxidant brews, such as green tea.
Hark also cautions that consumers should balance the healthful benefits
of pomegranate juice against the calories it contains. One 16-ounce
bottle of Pom Wonderful contains 320 calories – more than a Hershey’s
bar. Hark said drinking one bottle gives you the same calories you
would get in more than five servings of fresh fruit.
She recommends diluting the pure juice and drinking four ounces a
day to save on cost and calories. Sparkling water makes a refreshing
spritzer and won’t add calories.
Pomegranates have a fabled history. In Greek mythology, when Persephone
was tricked into eating six pomegranate seeds during a stint in Hades,
she condemned Earth to six months of infertility each year, explaining
the seasons.
Many ancient foods now are getting reviewed. “We’ve rediscovered that
food has medicinal qualities,” said Ara DerMarderosian, a professor of
medicinal chemistry at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
who has studied folk remedies for nearly half a century.
His group has studied medicinal effects of cranberries and
blueberries and has turned to pomegranate juice. The scientist, who
is first-generation Armenian, said he had been eating pomegranates
for years and recommended eating the seeds whole from fresh fruit.
“My mother would labor over these for a long time when I was a kid,
and then we kids would devour them in a minute,” DerMarderosian said.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

JUNE 27 OSKANIAN TO LEAVE FOR WORKING VISIT TO GEORGIA
PanARMENIAN.Net
26.06.2006 16:18 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ June 27 Armenian FM Vartan Oskanian will leave
for Georgia on a working visit, reports the Armenian MFA Press
Service. During his visit the head of the Armenian MFA will met with
Georgian leader Mikhail Saakashvili, FM Gela Bezhuashvili and Speaker
Nino Burjanadze. June 28 the Armenian FM will make a statement on
regional policy issues at the Georgian Foundation for Strategic and
International Research.
The same day the delegation led by the Minister will return to Yerevan.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FOUCHET. IT’S TOO LATE, HMAYAK
Melik Frangulyan
Lragir.am
26 June 06
Recently people have emerged in Armenia, who insist that it is better
to legalize illegality, for there is no other way to tackle it. Such
an Armenian intellectual, Hamayak Hovanisyan was fond of praising our
“superminister” Serge Sargsyan. That allegedly he is strong, very
strong, no one can do anything to him. We must make him a president
and let him wave his sward above our heads.
Recently, however, Hmayak spoke differently: Serge feeds “swine in
Armenia”, in other words, criminal business and criminal members
of parliament. He feeds them to get their support later to become
president. Perhaps, he does not believe that Hmayak will persuade
people to kneel before Serge. Hmayak was so offended that Serge treats
dread and harms our country. Whereas he had been hopeful that Serge
would get furious and clear the country of the unclean.
And Hmayak would tell everyone: look how insightful I am.
He is so deeply sorry that Serge Sargsyan can but is reluctant to
beat the oligarchy and make Armenia a free country. He was so offended
that he even threatened his Fouchet that he would be defeated easily
like that French of Napoleon.
Recently they have asserted righteously that after the secession of
Orinats Yerkir from the coalition everything changed in Armenia. Only
Hmayak did not change. And he did not change for the reason that he
cannot see the change around him. Although, most probably, he can
see but he cannot believe. Because he knows that days will pass and
Hmayaks will not be needed in Armenia any more. But we will not tell
this to Hmayak. We will do something else and quite seriously.
If Hmayak were Serge Sargsyan’s poor relative from the village of
Tegh, it would be possible to understand him as someone who suffered
that everything is so unfair, who wants to live as his relative, the
“superminister”, the Armenian Fouchet. Kinship normally prevents from
perceiving life profoundly: he is dazzled by Fouchet’s glory. But if
the superintellectual Hmayak wants to persuade the citizens that a
person such as Serge Sargsyan can “strike” an oligarch and a criminal
for the sake of someone or something, we have to confess that something
is wrong with his intellect.
But if some crumbs of intellect remain, nevertheless, Hmayak can be
made to understand the simple truth that such political merchants
as Serge Sargsyan managed to emerge and float because they created
hurdles for honest politicians through coercion, venality and plots.
These merchants know that if law and order and an electoral system
of governance is established, they will be locked up for a long time,
where people go for treason.
Everyone except for Hmayak knows that struggle against law and
promotion of unconstitutional elements are the political credo of
serges of different kinds, since power is a source of wealth and
careless life, causing sorrow and hardship to others. They do not want
to work, because they cannot work and create anything. They are not
gifted by God. Therefore they are taking revenge on people because
they are not gifted.
Hmayak is not ungifted, therefore for him it is hard to believe what
ungifted serges, who have a grudge against God, are capable of. But
if he stayed at home and prayed for serges, we would not have even
noticed him. But he is teaching intellect and consciousness to
people, inspiring people all the time that serges can do a lot but
are reluctant. And he does not think that someone may believe him the
intellectual. Believe and never stop serges, believe that they may
become better and beat the oligarchs for the sake of people. It is a
real theory of reincarnation. Maybe he is not conscious of what he is
doing. Hmayak inspires his belief in the inability of the Armenian
people to change anything in their life. He would not realize that
it is unacceptable to instill one’s own inability in other people.
They also say that he does everything to please Serge. Then we should
tell Hmayak that it is not worthwhile. It is not worthwhile because
it is already too late. Also it is too late to understand all those
things that one failed to understand. It is already too late because
one cannot do that thing without being punished. He has to give an
answer, for most people have understood that without such harmful
people as Hmayak it is impossible to allow the political adventures
of such ungifted people as Serge. And if they have realized it, they
will decide what to do with the others, they simply have to be patient.

PRIME MINISTER WILL LEAVE FOR FRANCE
A1+
[01:46 pm] 26 June, 2006
On June 26 RA Prime Minister Andranik Margaryan took a short
vacation. Andranik Margaryan will spend his one-week vacation in
France in order to undergo a prophylactic medical examination.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

BEGINNING FROM JUNE 1 ARMENIANS CAN SEEK JUSTICE AT CONSTITUTIONAL COURT
Armenpress
Jun 26 2006
YEREVAN, JUNE 26, ARMENPRESS: Chairman of Armenia’s Constitutional
Court, Gagik Harutunian, said those Armenians who would like to take
their case to the highest judicial body of the country, should first
of all learn provisions of the revised law on Constitutional Court
that was enforced on June 1.
Under the revised Armenian Constitution, beginning from July 1 all
Armenians can seek justice at the Constitutional Court but only
after exhausting chances to find it in lower courts. Harutunian said
to Armenpress that article 69 of the revised law on Constitutional
Court sets in a clear way mechanisms of how individuals can apply
to the Constitutionals Court. He said the procedure of accepting and
consideration of applications will be developed very soon.
But he predicted the majority of first applications will be those of
unaware applicants, ‘because many people still think they can take
any case to the Constitutional Court.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CONGRESSMEN CALLED ON U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE TO RECONSIDER AMB. EVANS RECALL
PanARMENIAN.Net
26.06.2006 15:04 GMT+04:00
/PanARMENIAN.Net/ Four leading Congressional friends of Armenia, George
Radanovich (R-CA) and Adam Schiff (D-CA), and Congressional Caucus
Co-Chairmen Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), have
strongly encouraged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to reconsider
the recall of Ambassador John Evans, reported the Armenian National
Committee of America (ANCA). In a June 22nd letter, the legislators
noted that “after months of speculation,” the recall of Ambassador
Evans “was confirmed when the President nominated Richard Hoagland
to serve as the new United States Ambassador to the Republic of
Armenia on May 23. While there has been no official acknowledgement
that Ambassador Evans removal was a result of his February 2005
statement that the Armenian Genocide was the first genocide of the 20th
Century, all evidence points to that conclusion.” The Congressional
letter closed with the four legislators expressing their belief that
“the United States must formally recognize the Armenian Genocide,
and we will continue to work towards that goal. Allowing John Evans
to continue as Ambassador to Armenia sends a strong message on the
necessity of Turkish recognition, and will be an important step in
establishing the U.S. position on the Armenian Genocide.”
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

CIS, EURASEC, SCO, CES AND OTHERS: GENESIS OF POST-SOVIET INTEGRATION PROCESSES
Regnum, Russia
June 25 2006
A session of EurAsEC Interstate Council presided by Byelorussian
President Alexander Lukashenko convened in Minsk on June 23. The
agenda has been announced beforehand: the heads of states discussed
Uzbekistan’s access to the organization, creation of the Customs union,
and the concept of EurAsEC’s international policy were discussed.
EurAsEC is an international economic organization whose functions
are to form common external custom borders of its founding countries
(Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Tajikistan),
developing a common foreign economic policy, tariffs, prices, and
other constituents of common market functioning. A treaty on EurAsEC
foundation was signed on October 10, 2000 in Kazakhstani capital
Astana by presidents of Byelorussia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia,
and Tajikistan. In May 2002, a EurAsEC observer status was granted to
Moldavian and Ukrainian leaderships on their request, later Armenia
also received the status.
EurAsEC is an open organization. It could be accessed by any state
that will not only take on responsibilities defined in the Convention
on the foundation of the Community and other conventions effective in
the framework of the Community, but will also take efforts to meet
these obligations. EurAsEC observer status is granted to a state or
an international (intergovernmental) organization on their request.
EurAsEC is a successor of the CIS Customs union that is fully
consistent with the UNO principles and international legal norms. It
is designed to effectively promote the process of creating by the CIS
Customs union member countries of a Common Economic Space (CES) and
coordinating their approaches to the integration into international
economic and trade system.
Among the top near-term EurAsEC priorities are:
1) transport: solving the problem of common tariffs, increasing
commodity traffic, simplifying customs rules, completing internal
official procedures on the signed conventions, and creating
transnational forwarding corporations;
2) power industry: joint exploration of hydro-energy complexes in
Central Asia, solving the problem of energy and water supplies,
and creating a common energy budget;
3) workforce migration: assuring migrants’ social protection, creating
an effective system of regulation and control of workforce migration,
combating migration-related crime, solving problems due to migrants’
and their employers’ taxpaying;
4) agro-industrial complex: coordinating agricultural policies of
EurAsEC member countries, creating a common grocery market of Community
member countries, reducing transporting expenses, and establishing
new market institutions in the field.
Interestingly, EurAsEC creation and functioning is considered one of
the most successful projects within the CIS. On June 7 2006, Community
Secretary General Grigoriy Rapota said that the Minsk session would
become decisive in EurAsEC formation and development.
He also informed that a Customs union contractual base of 12 agreements
had been developed on the expert level, 16 more agreements still were
to be adopted. Discussing access of EurAsEC member states to the WTO
was also planned to be discussed at the meeting. “How the Customs union
can be married to accessing WTO? There are several options,” Rapota
said. “First is to create a Customs union, with its eventual access to
WTO. Another option is to join WTO independently, coordinating member
countries’ positions with all others, thereby minimizing possible
‘damage.'” Rapota also said that almost everything was ready for
the Customs union establishment; time schedules and development pace
remained to be set.
The CIS has essentially accomplished its historical mission. And the
fact that a number of CIS member countries – seriously or jokingly –
announced their intent to exit the organization since the beginning of
2006 is yet another evidence of the trend. Nobody is questioning such
intentions; in fact, Russia’s authorities themselves openly admitted
that the CIS had been created for the “civilized divorce” of the former
union republics. They also pointed out to the fact that it is thanks
to the CIS that former Soviet republics managed to escape repeating
the Balkan-style “blood-bath divorce” on the post-Soviet space.
A lot of CIS “subsidiaries” have been created right inside the CIS
all along its existence: Customs union, Central Asian union, Eurasian
union, the Russia-Belarus Union State, and, of course, GUUAM-GUAM.
For different reasons, the only effective structure within the CIS is
CSTO which is a military, military-political, and military-technical
rather than economic cooperation organization. In other words, at
least for the six CIS member countries, the set of challenges and
risks of the current period appeared to be a better unifying factor
than the desire to join efforts catching up with economic development
of the world “economic locomotives” and improving welfare of their
own peoples.
That is why, frankly speaking, as early as when the projects on
EurAsEC and CES creation started to emerge, they were envisioned
as prototypes of some political and economic future of CIS and all
the integration structures that were created within it. Only with a
greater accent on purely economic aspects, rather than military and
military-related ones, due to the necessity of developing cooperation
in such a sensitive field as establishing national security of member
countries from the viewpoint of joint resisting the attacks of the
terrorist “international.”
The year 2006 is, however, a decisive one in many respects. May be that
is why we sense the tension and hear public apprehension voiced in a
number of western capitals, related directly to the efforts to take
steps towards further EurAsEC development? All the more so, toward the
development of SCO that is, we believe, is also one of the integration
structures that arouse within the CIS, despite the Chinese membership?
The western creature (some argue that it is a purely a U.S.-Turkish
strategic project) in the face of GUUAM kicked the bucket after
the so-called “Andijan events,” when the Uzbekistani leadership got
disappointed in the U.S. tutelage over the “democratic processes”
in Central Asia. First, the leadership almost immediately drew the U.S.
military base out of the Uzbekistani territory. Second, it also did
not hesitate to withdraw from GUUAM, which automatically returned
the bloc to the embryo state. Third, on January 25, it formalized
Uzbekistan’s full-fledged membership in EurAsEC. This was how the
initiative to create and raise a U.S.-Turkish Trojan horse within the
CIS to counterweight the growing Russian influence on the Eurasian
space collapsed.
True, instead of GUUAM-GUAM, the CIS public received a set of two odd
symbiotic structures: the Organization for Democracy and Economic
Development-GUAM (ODED-GUAM) and the notorious Commonwealth of
Democratic Choice (CDC). If one looks at them closely, they will
notice that “geographically speaking,” the only aim of creating
these quasi-structures (whose member countries have very little in
common economically) is imposing strict limits on Russia’s room for
maneuver in the Baltic and Black Sea regions, as well as fencing
these reservoirs from other CIS countries who decided not to put
bets on the openly anti-Russian integration structures created in
the post-Soviet space.
It is hard to believe that the proposed ODED-GUAM and CDC projects
would create “alternative” to Russia suppliers or transit zones of
energy carriers in the post-Soviet space, as is apparently desired
by the Washington gurus of the “Baltic-Black Sea union.” For all the
projects put forward by Baltic, Ukrainian, and Georgian spokespeople
could be at best described as economically unprofitable from the
start. Indeed, they are not at all economic in their nature: they
just broadcast of the anti-Russian political trend that has become so
popular today to the west, north-west, and south-west of the modern
borders of the Russian Federation.
The senseless strategic projects are not viable, no matter how many
states were pushed in their boundaries by the authors of the projects,
and how much money was assigned for the waste paper.
Speaking frankly, today, both the patrons of ODED-GUAM and CDC and the
heads of member states of these structures do not have as much time as
they used to have in the 1990s when foundations for the anti-Russian
strategic projects were laid in the post-Soviet space.
Really well-grounded Eurasian projects mentioned above, like EurAsEC,
CES, and, of course, the SCO are a different story. In fact, CSTO
and SCO have started cooperation, at least, in the issue of joint
resistance to the international terrorism.
Today, it is becoming ultimately clear that in some of their aspects
the original plans of EurAsEC, CES, and CSTO creators also crashed,
since it was assumed that, sooner or later, Ukraine would become
a qualified member of these integration projects. As we can see,
the “revolutionary” leadership of the modern Ukraine is even ready
to induce the emergence of intra-national “demarcation lines,” as
long as it “breaks away” and becomes the updated “sanitary cordon”
designed to “restrain” Russia and her allies. As for the Ukraine’s
desire to trench herself all along the Russian-Ukrainian border, it
is reminiscent of a swift-flowing episode of regressive schizophrenia,
just as the revived talks about Kievan Rus being a historical precursor
of Ukraine, not of Russia.
Therefore, we must give up the hope that the Ukrainian leadership at
some last moment will “jump on a departing train,” realizing that
all the western roads, except for the one to NATO, are blocked by
exactly economical barriers richly seasoned with political reasoning
about the Constitution of the United Europe not being ratified. In
this case, perspectives of EurAsEC and CES, rather than of CSTO,
are more interesting, although these days in Minsk issues are being
discussed at the CSTO, not CES Heads of states’ council.
If we manage to resolve issues impeding activities of EurAsEC member
countries, then, keeping in mind that the Community is in its essence
an expanded CES option, we should also remember that the structure
still remains open for new memberships, i.e., to everyone, including
states that have never been CIS or former USSR members. Comparing
the levels of interstate negotiations, especially for the last 6-8
months, one will notice that countries that have never been former
USSR members are interested not only in SCO but also EurAsEC.
Opinions have already been voiced that the Ukraine itself (apparently,
the country will soon also depart from its observer status in the
Community) could be replaced in the margins of the structure by
Iran who already has an observer status in the SCO and continues to
develop ties and cooperation almost with all the CIS member countries
bordering it.
Thus, the Minsk summits will really become decisive ones. But not
only for the EurAsEC further development. Essentially, the issue at
stake is about what the geopolitical layout in the post-Soviet space
may become on the eve of G8 summit in St. Petersburg coming July.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ARMENIA’S NON-CONSTRUCTIVE STANCE DOES NOT ALLOW RESOLVING CONFLICT
AzerTag, Azerbaijan
June 25 2006
Speaking at the graduation ceremony at Heydar Aliyev high
military school President Ilham Aliyev said that resolution of the
Armenia-Azerbaijan, Nagorno-Karabakh conflict is the number one
problem for Azerbaijan.
“Unfortunately, there is no progress in this sphere. Indeed, the
talks are going on; the talks are being held within some framework.
However, they are all not effective because we cannot achieve any
results” said President Ilham Aliyev in his speech.
According to the Head of State, Azerbaijan’s commitment to the
negotiations for over ten years demonstrates its constructivism.
Despite occupation of Azerbaijani lands and the fact that over 1
million Azerbaijan became refugees and IDPs because of the Armenia’s
policy of ethnic cleansing against Azerbaijan, our country is trying
to take advantage of all the available opportunities for peace.
Therefore, Azerbaijan’s stance in the negotiations is very
constructive. Unfortunately, Armenia’s non-constructive stance does
not allow us to resolve this conflict.
“I reiterate that we highly appraise the efforts of the international
community, their decisions including the activity of the OSCE
Minsk Group. Indeed, they try to secure an agreement. Armenia’s
non-constructive stance, disregard for the international legal norms
do not allow to settle the conflict. In this case, Azerbaijan should
make some corrections in its policy. Our patience is not endless,”
added the President.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

GREEK CYPRIOT AMBASSADOR WAS NOT WELCOME IN AZERBAIJAN
Mehtap Cicekcar (JTW) With Hurriyet 23 June 2006
Journal of Turkish Weekly
June 25 2006
Greek Cypriot Ambassador to Moscow, Leonidas Pantelides, met with
frustration on a trip he took two days ago to the Azerbayjianian
capital of Baku to attempt to block decisions made in support of
Northern Cyprus at a meeting of Islamic Conference Organization
(IKO-ICO) foreign ministers. Pantelides was reportedly unable to
receive a hotel room in Baku, and spent the night going between bars,
restaurants, and the streets of the capital. The Greek Cyprus has
made efforts to prevent any co-operation between the European Union
and Azerbaijan. Azerbaijan had started direct flight to the Turkish
Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) last year.
According to sources in Turkey, Ankara had known that the Greek
Cypriots would be sending a representative to the ICO meeting,
and had contacted Baku authorities to ask that the Greek Cypriot
representative be blocked from the meeting.
When in fact the Greek Cypriot authority did send Pantelides, the Azeri
leadership told him that they would not extend accreditation to him for
the ICO conference, and that all the hotels in the capital were full.
At a previous IKO conference in Yemen, a Greek Cypriot ambassador did
succeed in entering into proceedings, even attempting to participate
in a commemorative group photograph, though he was discovered by the
Turkish delegation at the last moment.
Meanwhile, one of the results from the ICO conference in regards to
Northern Cyprus was a firm proclamation in support of the entity, with
a stress on the necessity of lifting current isolationary blockades
on the northern side of the island.
It is also reported that Azerbaijan is not happy with the close
relations between Greek Cyprus and Armenia. Both states signed
aggrements including military and intelligence co-operation.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

ISRAEL NEEDS A PREEMPTIVE NUCLEAR STRIKE AGAINST IRAN
By Jonathan Ariel
Israel News Agency, Israel
June 25 2006
Evidence of Iran building nuclear weapons.
After Iran stated that it will “wipe Israel off the map” Israel must
now act to defend herself.
Jerusalem —– June 24…… One of the best ways to ensure the world
doesn’t get wobbly over Iran, is to make it understand that although
Israel prefers to regard the rogue Islamic regime as an international
problem, we will, if necessary, do whatever it takes to ensure our
survival, including a preemptive nuclear strike.
In 1936, when Hitler marched into the Rhineland the allies appeased
him, even though they could have been in Berlin in two weeks. In 1938
they once again let him off the hook, even though the allies could
have been in Berlin within two months. Shortly after the appeasement
of Munich, Russia signed a non-aggression treaty with Hitler, setting
the stage for what it hoped would be his defeat of the West, which
would pave the way for Russian domination of Eurasia, from Lisbon
to Vladivostok.
Now we have Iran, a country led by Ahmadinejad, an equally deranged
and evil maniac. He is driven by an ideology combining elements of
Nazism and Mahdism, with a tad of Maoism as well, a lethal cocktail
of three of the most evil ideologies of human political history.
By most current intelligence estimates, by 2008, exactly 70 years
after Chamberlain announced on his return from Munich he had achieved
“peace in our time”, the Iranian Islamo-Nazi regime will have succeeded
in developing an atomic bomb. Although it seems that the international
community has belatedly begun to awaken to the danger, it is still far
from certain that this will actually lead to concrete and concerted
steps to ensure this doesn’t happen.
Moreover, even if the West does get its act together, three is no
guarantee that Russia will not revert to course, enacting a repeat
performance of the Molotov-Ribbentrob pact. Putin seriously mulling
double crossing the West.
This week new and highly disturbing evidence came to light that this
is exactly what Russia is doing. According to a western intelligence
report published earlier this week, satellite images showed large
volumes of heavy Russian weaponry heading towards Iran. The weapons
belonged to Russian military units evacuating Georgia, as part of
the Russian-Georgian agreement signed in March, which calls for all
Russian troops to be withdrawn from Georgian soil.
The Russians were evacuating their two big Soviet-era military bases
in Georgia on the shores of the Black Sea – the 12th base in Batumi
and the 62nd at Akhalkalaki to the north, 19 miles from the Turkish
border. The mages revealed the retreating Russian units moving along
not one but two routes. The first showed small groups of Russian
officers and soldiers heading out of Georgia carrying only their
personal kits, the second was jammed with convoys of trucks loaded
with weapons and logistical systems, radar and ammo.
Freight trains were also pressed into service. This route wound out
of Georgia and headed into Armenia where the vehicles halted at the
Russian base near Gyumri. A Russian military spokesman explained this
relocation by stating that “the property of the 62nd (Akhalkalaki),
Georgia, would be reassigned to replenish Russia’s 102nd base in
Gyumri, Armenia.” He added: “The transfer of this property to any
other party is not envisioned.”
However Armenia was not the “the property’s” last stop. The close
watch on the Russian supplies convoys continued and, lo and behold,
a third route surfaced, this one heading out of the 102nd base in
Armenia and into Iran.
Western military sources have traced the route these weapons took.
>>From Gyumri, the trucks and trains rolled on to the Armenian capital
of Yerevan. There, they were offloaded onto Armenian and Iranian
trucks and trains, which turned south to the Iranian border. The
freight crossed the border and halted at the Iranian town of Sadarak.
Its next stop was the Iranian-Azeri town of Naxcivan and then on to
Tabriz. Subsequent shipments by truck and rail followed the same route,
They included APCs, heavy artillery, Grad rockets, BM-21mm missiles
and anti-aircraft systems.
So far this year, Iran has purchased over $7 billion for arms from
Russia, including anti-air, nuclear-capable Tor-M1 cruise missiles,
considered by experts the most advanced of its kind in the world.
Iran has purchased these missiles to secure the Bushehr atomic reactor
and other nuclear sites. These sources say that Teheran is using the
Georgian weapons deal as bait, to get Moscow to part with weapons
and technologies it has so far refrained from passing over to the
ayatollahs, specifically technology transfers enabling Iran to begin
domestic production of the sophisticated Russian X-5518 nuclear cruise
missiles, known also as Kh-55 or AS-15s.
Tehran already has a dozen of these missiles, which have a 3,000km
range and are capable of carrying a 200-kiloton nuclear warhead. They
were purchased on the black market of Ukraine in 2005. Teheran
has reportedly promised to significantly increase its purchase
of conventional weapons from Russia, if it agrees to the missile
technology transfer.
Despite the uncertainty as to whether Russia (and possibly China as
well) would cooperate with the West regarding Iran, the conventional
wisdom has remained unchanged, namely that Iran is an international
problem, being dealt with accordingly by the international community,
and that Israel should therefore take a back seat.
Nothing could be further from the truth. The world needs to understand
very clearly that Israel cannot and will not allow a Holocaust
-denying regime that openly calls for its destruction to wield a
nuclear bomb. Israel needs to make it very clear that the consequence
of it having to face a nuclear Iran by itself will be a preemptive
strike against Iran.
The more the international community gets the message that the
consequences of appeasement will be worse than those of action,
the better the chances of action. The growing evidence of Russian
perfidy makes it even more important that there be no room for
misunderstandings in this regard. The best way to get that message
across is to make it very clear that if Israel is faced between an
Iran nuclear bomb, or having to launch a preemptive nuclear strike
to prevent that eventuality, it will opt for the latter.
The world must be told loud and clear by Israel that the only way to
avoid the first nuclear strike by a nation since Nagasaki is to take
whatever actions are required to ensure Iran doesn’t get the bomb,
and to prevent an Iranian conventional weapons build up to the point
where a preemptive nuclear strike becomes the only option for dealing
with the rogue ayatollah regime.
Jonathan Ariel, was an advisor to the South African government and
is a former editor-in-chief of the Israel on-line Maariv International.
He has filled numerous positions with well known Israel and
international media organizations such as Maariv, Makor Rishon,
Jerusalem Post, Ha’aretz, The International Herald Tribune, Israel
Radio, SABC and the Independent Foreign Service. These include
Managing-Editor of Makor Rishon and Editor-in-Chief of Maariv
International. He has been interviewed and quoted by leading media
organizations such as the LA Times, The Economist, The Guardian,
The New York Sun, Times of India, The Australian, Sunday Times and
the BBC. His articles have been translated into over a dozen major
languages, including German, Danish, Dutch, Italian, Serbo-Croatian,
Spanish, French, Arabic, Japanese, Korean and Chinese. He has degrees
in Political Science and Journalism. He speaks English and Hebrew at
mother tongue level, French, Dutch (Afrikaans) fluently.
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress