Epstein Secrets

s. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta recently repainted America's red line: "We will not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapon." Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad EFTA_R1_00537945 EFTA02029064 recently reaffirmed his objective: "Anyone who loves freedom and justice must strive for the annihilation of the Z

ih Idiz August/10/2012 -- Syria has made a mockery of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu's "zero problems with neighbors" policy. Just two years ago Ankara was going out of its way to court Bashar al-Assad, in apparent defiance of the West. It was also courting Iran in a similar fashion at the time. A

06 EFTA02691533 20 Article 5. The Washington Post The rise and fall of Iran's Ahmadinejad Karim Sadjadpour July 14 -- While Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's demagoguery and Holocaust revisionism on the world stage have earned him alarmist comparisons to Adolf Hitler, his recent, ignoble fall from gra

s to be Lebanon's reluctance to annoy Turkey, which believes it has a crucial interest in the island's decisions. This belief dates from 1974, when Ankara ordered the invasion of Cyprus in order to protect the Turkish- speaking minority. Several thousand Turkish soldiers still occupy positions in the

e, will stoke internal and foreign animosities in order to survive; it can no more abandon such tendencies than a leopard can change its spots. And Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has taken such strategic zealotry to an obscene level -- to the point where his oft-expressed desire to see Zionism wiped off the map makes it see

her rallied Syrian Kurds behind him by arming the Kurdish rebellion movement in Turkey. But that assistance subsided with warming relations between Ankara EFTA_R1_00225768 EFTA01840712 and Damascus in recent years. In the meantime, the region is looking much less hospitable to Turkey than it did t

opinion polls, believe that the Holocaust never happened, that it's a Jewish invention and trick to win the world's sympathy and support. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran is similarly minded; he has said so countless times. In the West, speaking of the Holocaust, most leaders and EFTA_R1_00229077 EFTA018422

, 2012 -- Hardly a day goes by that an Iranian official doesn't threaten Turkey. Take for instance Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi's recent warning to Ankara: "Turkey must radically rethink its policies on Syria, the NATO missile shield and promoting Muslim secularism in the Arab world, or face trouble

m, typically used to refer to the Supreme Leader] basically decided that we would not have negotiations with America." He also portrayed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as ignorant and naive about the nuclear issue, and implied that Iran had missed opportunities to resolve the nuclear crisis with Washington and it

After the Persian Gulf War, Saudi Arabia, along with Egypt and Syria, banded together in hopes of creating a new Arab order. Damascus, no ally of Ankara at the time, was able to frame many of its narrow fights with Turkey as pan-Arab concerns. Down the Euphrates from Turkey, for example, Syria was

eam of an alternative to it. SCO meetings bristle with anti-Western sentiments. For example, when Iran's EFTA_R1_02207733 EFTA02722656 President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed the group in 2011 in Shanghai, no one rebuffed his conspiracy theory about 9/11 being a U.S. government inside job used "as an excuse for

ing Afghanistan and Iraq and for killing and wounding over a million people." Conversations with senior Turkish political operatives familiar with Ankara's political culture and negotiating style suggest a three-part explanation: frustration with the long EU accession process, bluffing, and the need

fling of Iran's long-standing and poisonous anti-Zionism. Perhaps Mr. Ban entertains a hope that he can single-handedly persuade Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to end their quest for nuclear weapons. That assumes that the United Nations leader has more clout than

ned that trend." For years,Turkey had been forced to wait at Europe's gate, but now the country has found a new self-confidence. The government in Ankara has said that EU membership remains a EFTA_R1_00298540 EFTA01884059 long-term goal, but that it won't come at any price. "We still believe that

initely have complicated consequences," said Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast. In the past, Erdogan has often called President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "my good friend," and he recently opposed new U.N. sanctions on Tehran's nuclear program. But when push came to shove, Erdogan sided with Turkey's

ortrayed himself as a neo-Ottoman savior. "Believe me, Sarajevo won today as much as Istanbul, Beirut won as much as Izmir, Damascus won as much as Ankara!" he told cheering crowds at a victory speech in the capital. "The West Bank and Jerusalem won as much as [Turkish Kurdistan's leading city] Diyarb

re. The Erdogan government is now saying explicitly something it had implied for the last two years—that Washington has to choose between two allies, Ankara and Jerusalem. The Arab Spring, especially events in Syria, and the planned U.S. withdrawal from Iraq have catapulted Turkey to an unprecedented leve

--- PAGE BREAK --- 23 Article 6. Guardian Israel should be wary of celebrating the ‘Shia crescent' setback Jonathan Spyer 7 September 2011 -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's backing of the Syrian regime during the recent upheaval has damaged his standing in the Middle East. Photograph: Abedin Taherkenareh/EPA In recent y

orcible regime change. But the increased hostility exhibited by Turkey, Syria's most powerful and best-connected neighbour, may yet prove decisive as Ankara assumes a crisis leadership role. Until the uprising tore apart old certainties, the Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, had invested consi

t to improve relations. Critics say this engagement strategy went too far during the 2009 Green Movement uprising against the reelection of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, when the Obama administration was reluctant to overtly back the protesters. Since then, the administration has instituted a number of new sanctions