Text Fwd: Fidel Castro Ruz: The Strategic Counteroffensive

Global Research
The Strategic Counteroffensive
By Fidel Castro Ruz
September 16, 2010
Cuba Debate - 2010-09-10

We Are Living Through an Exceptional Moment in Human History.

The deadlines established by the United Nations Security Council for Iran to yield to the demands imposed by the United States regarding nuclear research and uranium enrichment for medical purposes and to generate electricity will be expiring in these days.

This is the only nuclear use that has been documented in Iran.

The fear that Iran is looking forward to producing nuclear weapons is only based on an assumption.

With regard to this delicate issue, the United States and its western allies, among them two of the five nuclear powers with veto power -France and the United Kingdom- supported by the richest and most developed capitalist powers of the world, have promoted an increasing number of sanctions against Iran, a rich, oil-producing Muslim country. Today, the measures adopted include the inspection of Iran’s merchant vessels and severe economic sanctions aimed at suffocating its economy.

I have been following very closely the grave dangers that may result from that situation, because if a war breaks out in that region, it could very quickly go nuclear, and this will have lethal consequences for the rest of the planet.

In referring to such danger I was not looking for publicity or sensationalism. I just wanted to warn the world public opinion hoping that, being advised of such grave danger it could contribute to avoid it.

At least we have managed to draw attention to a problem that was hardly mentioned by the big world media.

This has made me use part of the time scheduled for the launching of this book, on which we worked diligently. I did not want this to coincide with the dates of September 7 and 9. September 7 marks the end of the 90 days term established by the Security Council to know whether Iran complied or not with the requirement of authorizing the inspection of its merchant vessels. September 9 marks the expiration of the three months term fixed by the Resolution adopted on June 9. Quite possibly the establishment of this last term was what the Security Council intended to do originally.

So far we have only had the weird statement made by the Director General of the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency), the Japanese Yukiya Amano, a man who serves the interests of the Yankees. He added all the fuel to the flames and then, like Pontius Pilate, he washed his hands of the issue.

A spokesperson from the Foreign Ministry of Iran commented his statements with a well earned contempt. According to a news report published by EFE, Amano’s assertion that “‘our friends should not worry, because we don’t believe our region is in the position to engage in new military adventures’ and that ‘Iran was fully prepared to respond to any military invasion’ was an obvious reference to the Cuban leader Fidel Castro, ‘who warned about a possible Israeli nuclear attack against Iran with the support of the United States’”.

News on this topic are pouring and get mixed with others of remarkable repercussion.

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Text fwd: Israel's favored IAEA candidate elected

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Israel's favored IAEA candidate elected
Jul. 2, 2009
HERB KEINON and AP , THE JERUSALEM POST

Israel privately heaved a sigh of relief Thursday at the election of Japan's Yukiya Amano to replace Mohamed ElBaradei as head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The relief comes both because the tenure of ElBaradei, with whom Israel has had a rocky relationship, is about to end, and because Amano beat out South Africa's candidate, Abdul Samad Minty.

While officially Israel had no comment on the development, privately, government sources said Amano was Israel's preferred candidate.

"We hope now that our relationship with the IAEA will be less tense, that the unnecessary friction with the IAEA will disappear, and that we can return to full cooperation," one government source said.

He also said the expectation in Jerusalem was that Amano would be more "neutral" than ElBaradei was when it came to Israel's concerns.

Amano won 23 of the votes at IAEA headquarters in Vienna. One delegate abstained from the vote and the remaining eleven voted for Minty.

Amano, 62, appealed for "solidarity of all member states," and touched on the devastation US atom bombs wreaked on his country in pledging to do his utmost to prevent the spread of nuclear arms. His allusions to the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki pointed to a deep commitment to non-proliferation.

While Amano and Minty were believed to have equivalent technical expertise for the job, South Africa's relationship with Iran is very problematic from an Israeli perspective. For instance, in 2006, when the IAEA finally decided to report Iran to the UN Security Council, South Africa was one of five countries, alongside Libya, Algeria, Indonesia and Belarus, that abstained. Only Cuba, Syria and against.

At the time, South Africa was considered among the most reticent of non-Arab or Muslim countries to join in international condemnations of Iran.

The reasons given for the degree of coziness between Iran and South Africa include historical and business relationships.

Iran was a big backer of the African National Congress during its fight against apartheid, and Iran provides South Africa with cheap oil.

When asked by others who Israel supported, the government source said Jerusalem had not hid the fact it preferred Amano.


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