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MOSCOW, January 16 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has completed deliveries of Tor-M1 anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran, the defense minister said.
“We have supplied modern anti-aircraft short-range missile systems under a contract. Iran is not under any sanctions,” Sergei Ivanov said, adding that Moscow will continue to develop military and technical cooperation with Tehran.
Anti-aircraft short-range missile
systems (RIA Novosti)
Russia undertook to supply 29 Tor-M1 missiles to Iran under a $700 million contract signed at the end of 2005. The United States protested the deal, which it feared could bolster the military capabilities of the Islamic Republic, classified by Washington as a “rogue state” and part of “the axis of evil.”
AsiaTimes (By Gareth Porter) Jan. 17 – WASHINGTON – US President George W Bush’s seemingly aggressive policy of taking direct action against alleged Iranian “networks” involved in attacks on US troops in Iraq, combined with the deployment of a second aircraft-carrier group off Iran’s coast, has triggered speculation that it is related to a plan for an attack.
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The Bush speech coincided with an attack by an unidentified US military unit on the building used by Iranian consular officials in Irbil and the seizure of six Iranian officials in the compound. But all indications are that the US military has no real intelligence on any Iranian direct involvement in supplying lethal weapons to insurgents.
US forces raided the Iranian liaison office in Irbil
The statement issued by the US military but clearly written in the White House said the detainees, who were not identified as Iranians, were “suspected of being closely tied to activities targeting Iraqi and coalition forces”. That statement shows that the seizure was not based on any prior evidence of the officials’ complicity in insurgent attacks. US troops also seized documents and computers, indicating that the attack was really nothing more than an intelligence operation, launched in the hope of finding some evidence that could be used against Iran.
LONDON (The Times) Jan. 16 – Britain is joining an American military campaign to blunt Iranian influence in Iraq and the Gulf.
In a move likely to heighten tension in an already volatile part of the world, US forces have been ordered to detain Iranian agents in Iraq and to strengthen substantially America’s military presence in the Gulf.
Two Royal Navy minehunters have arrived in the Gulf to reinforce a naval frigate on patrol in the area.
“We are going after their [Iran’s] networks in Iraq,” Zalmay Khalilzad, the outgoing US Ambassador to Baghdad, said. The aim was to change the behaviour of the Islamic regime in Tehran, he added.
Robert Gates, the US Defence Secretary, accused Tehran of “very negative behaviour”.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
