U.S. does a double-take: Obama messages Khamenei he is willing to accept civilian nuclear program in Iran provided no nuclear bombs be developed

'Obama signaled to Khamenei that U.S. could accept civilian nuclear program in Iran'
Washington Post's David Ignatius says U.S. president passed a message to Iran, through Turkish PM Erdogan, that he could agree to a civilian nuclear program if Tehran proved it was not building a nuclear bomb.

By Barak Ravid
Haaretz
March 6, 2012
U.S. President Barack Obama has recently passed a message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the Washington Post reported on Friday, which signaled that the United States would agree to an Iranian civilian nuclear program if they proved they were not developing a nuclear bomb.

According to David Ignatius, the Washington Post's senior columnist specializing in intelligence matters, Obama passed Khamenei the message through Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who visited Tehran this week.

U.S. President Barack Obama (R) shakes hands 

with Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan after a 

bilateral meeting in Seoul March 25, 2012.

Photo by: Reuters

Obama reportedly signaled Khamenei that the U.S. would be prepared to accept a civilian nuclear program in Iran, should the Iranian leader take steps that would support his public declarations in February, in which he said that Iran "would never develop nuclear weapons." The U.S., Obama also wrote, would also expect Iranian leaders to prove that Tehran does not have a military nuclear program.

Obama met with Erdogan at the nuclear summit in South Korea for two hours and asked him to pass on the message to Khamenei. Obama told Erdogan that the Iranians must understand that time is running out on a solution for the Tehran nuclear problem and that they must take advantage of the negotiations that will begin with the six world powers on April 13.

According to Ignatius, Obama did not give details as to whether Iran would be allowed to continue enriching uranium on its soil while developing its civilian nuclear program.

Erdogan told Obama that he will transfer the message, and the U.S. administration believes that he did so during the meeting he held with Khamenei in Tehran this week.

Since Obama entered the White House, an alliance was formed between him and Erdogan. The Turkish prime minister is the Muslim leader that is most closely associated with the U.S. president.

Negotiations between Iran and the six world powers are due to begin on April 13, but a location has yet been scheduled.


Related:
Exclusive: What were the six points Obama sent Khamenei through Erdogan?

Off to Iran: An amphibious assault group and 2,000 Marines...already along with 2 carrier strike groups, is invasion imminent?

US gears up for land operation in Persian Gulf?
RT News
Published: 28 March, 2012, 18:40

A helicopter flies near US ship Iwo Jima 
(AFP Photo / Johan Ordones) 

The US is sending an amphibious assault group and a couple of thousand US Marines to the Persian Gulf. With another US carrier making its way to Iran’s doorstep, US military still insist that this is a “regularly scheduled deployment”.

The Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group is comprised of amphibious assault ship USS Iwo Jima, amphibious transport dock USS New York, and amphibious dock landing ship USS Gunston Hall. It is also reinforced with an atomic submarine and a marine helicopter squadron.
The group, which is “a versatile sea-based force that can be tailored to a variety of missions,” left port on Tuesday and is heading to the Gulf, the US Navy says.

Over 2,000 US Marines are to come on board Iwo Jima when the group makes a stop in North Carolina.

Many of those marines are veterans of ground combat in Iraq and Afghanistan making their first shipboard deployment, dailypress.com points out.

The US already has an amphibious group with an expeditionary marine unit in the Gulf region. The Makin Island Amphibious Ready Group was deployed there in January, after Iran’s threat to close the Strait of Hormuz, a crucial route that allows the delivery of around 20 per cent of the world's oil.

Iran has repeatedly reiterated this threat over the last six month, while the US and its NATO partners kept increasing their naval presence in the region.

The US is aware that Iran has enough resources to mine the strait within a relatively short period of time. General Michael Dempsey, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, said earlier that the US must be prepared to reopen the Strait of Hormuz by force.

In March, the US sent another four minesweepers to join those already deployed there, bringing the overall number in the region to eight.

Two US aircraft carrier battle groups, headed by the USS Carl Vinson and USS Abraham Lincoln, are patrolling the waters around the strait. Another carrier, USS Enterprise, is expected to join them next month.

Although many US officials, including President Obama, still insist on using diplomacy and sanctions, they admit that “all options are on the table” to force Iran to drop its nuclear program.
Meanwhile, Israel – the closest US ally in the region – considers nuclear Iran to be “an existential threat,” which needs to be dealt with as soon as possible. Last week, Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak, spoke of a three-month deadline for Iran to give up its nuclear ambitions or face imminent attack.

War with Iran, sure seems like its not a matter of 'if' but 'when'

Gunboats, Super-Torpedoes, Sea-Bots: U.S. Navy Launches Huge Iran Surge
WIRED
Spencer Ackerman
March 16, 2012 | 11:55 am

The Navy practices a mock boarding operation on the U.S.S. Princeton in the Middle East, 2010. Photo: U.S. Navy Fifth Fleet 

Sending more aircraft carriers to the waters near Iran, it turns out, was just the start. Yes, the U.S. currently has more seapower aimed at Iran in the Persian Gulf than in the fleets of most countries on Earth, Iran included. But that was just the Navy cracking its knuckles.

In the next few months, the Navy will double its minesweeper craft stationed in Bahrain, near Iran, from four to eight. Those ships will be crucial if Iran takes the drastic step of mining the Strait of Hormuz, one of the global energy supply’s most crucial waterways. Four more MH-53 “Sea Stallion” helicopters, another minesweeping tool, are also getting ready for Bahrain, to give the U.S. Fifth Fleet early warning for any strait mining.

Then the Navy will prepare to get closer to Iranian shores. Much closer. It’s got five close-action patrol boats in the Gulf right now. Once the Coast Guard returns three that the Navy loaned out, the Navy will have five other patrol craft in the United States. All those boats are getting retrofitted. With Gatling guns. And missiles.

Sure, the guns aboard the two aircraft carriers currently near Iran are the seapower equivalent of high-powered, long-range rifles. “But maybe what you need is like a sawed-off shotgun,” capable of doing massive damage from a closer distance, said Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the Navy’s senior officer. All 10 of those patrol boats, Greenert told reporters at a Friday breakfast in Washington, will get strapped with the Mk-38 Gatling Gun and should make it to the Gulf next year. (Though, alas, they won’t have the Gatling/laser gun mashup BAE Systems is working on.) They’ll also get close-range missiles that can hit Iranian shores from four miles away — the same kinds Navy SEALs use.

Consider it Teddy Roosevelt’s gunboat diplomacy for the 21st century. Over plates of greasy eggs and bacon, Greenert outlined a plan to give the U.S. what is almost certainly the biggest stick the Navy has ever had in the Gulf. The idea, which he didn’t make explicit, is to convince Iran to think long and hard before ever messing with either the U.S.’s Arab allies across the Gulf or disrupting a narrow transit point through which a fifth of the world’s energy supplies flow.

Add up the aircraft carriers, the Gatling-packing patrol craft, the Orions, the Sea Stallions and the minesweepers, and Greenert still isn’t finished with the surge. Then come the new, advanced torpedoes that can compensate for the “turpidity [and] particulate” drags of the Gulf waters. And the drone subs — or, as Greenert put it, “some underwater unmanned neutralization autonomous units” to help hunt mines. And every Navy ship that sails through the strait will come equipped with new, modular “infrared and electro-optical” visibility systems that clarify the foggy Gulf even at night. Extra spare parts and contractor crews will sustain the surge.

And if all that wasn’t enough, Greenert disclosed that he and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta will soon ask themselves if the Navy needs to rotate more aircraft carriers to the Gulf. That decision, so important that it’s Panetta’s to make, will come “in the next few months.”

“I looked in every domain, undersea, surface and air,” Greenert said, “to make sure that we’re doing our best for the guys that are over there.”

Even with the prospect of an Israeli bombing campaign lingering overhead, the Navy has already proven it can get Iran to back off its bellicose rhetoric. Tehran hasn’t attacked the U.S. carriers, and it hasn’t mined the strait. Yet.

Greenert suggested that Iran’s naval forces are too sensible to actually challenge the vastly superior American force nearby. The regular Iranian navy is “professional, courteous [and] good mariners,” he said. Even the radical Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps isn’t “ramping up” in the Gulf and keeping its activities “normal.”

Perhaps true. And once the Navy’s surge forces all get into the Persian Gulf, the Iranian sea forces might not have any choice, if they want to continue existing. But if Iran’s pattern of miscalculation continues, then the larger Navy force nearby might be a provocation — and will have to end a fight quickly if it breaks out.