Iran on full alert in wake of Israeli raids
 Israeli tanks taking position on the northern border with the Gaza Strip. |
Iran’s Air Force is on alert after the country’s president envisaged major regional developments in the wake of the Israeli raids on Gaza.
The chief Iranian Air Force Commander Brigadier General Hassan Shah-Safi said on Wednesday that the ongoing critical situation in the Middle East has prompted the Iranian military to take necessary measures to ensure readiness in the event of the country becoming the target of an offensive.
“Iran’s Air Force has of late carried out 120 successful sorties along with long-range flights of 2,000 kilometers, and has also conducted unprecedented aerial missions,” Brig. Gen. Shah-Safi said.
The Air Force commander added that the enemy has been closely monitoring Iranian military planes. He went on to say that “unless Iran’s military remains constantly vigilant the enemy will deliver a blow, even a minor one, to our forces”.
The remarks come as Israeli strikes on Gaza entered a fifth day, without an end in sight to the largest assault on the beleaguered strip in decades.
Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Tuesday that the fierce Israeli air assault on Gaza, which “aims to root out Hamas and the Palestinians”, would only lead to the “disintegration of the Israeli regime”.
Facing growing international pressure, Israel’s top leaders have so far rejected the idea of a temporary ceasefire.
Israel is also massing its gunboats near the Gaza port and its ground forces along the border with Gaza in preparation for a possible ground offensive.
Earlier on Monday, a senior Iranian commander floated the idea that the time has come for Muslims to militarily stop Israeli crimes in Gaza.
“Only the military option can save Gaza,” said Brigadier General Mir-Faisal Baqerzadeh, Head of the Foundation for the Remembrance of the Holy Defense
Iranians stage anti-Israel rallies
Fri, 02 Jan 2009 13:18:43 GMT
 Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Iranian cities used the occasion of Friday prayers to voice support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. |
Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators in Iranian cities used the occasion of Friday prayers to voice support for the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
"A continuation of the deafening silence by the international community and leaders of some Arab states is unacceptable," the demonstrators said in a manifesto at the rally in Tehran.
The protesters also said that an alliance of people throughout the world has been formed in support of Gazans, the fire of which "will engulf the regime that pursues atrocities, as well as its Western and Arab supporters."
The protesters also called for the reopening of the Rafah border crossing to Gaza and world condemnation of Israeli crimes against the besieged strip.
Israel began air operations against the Gaza Strip -- home to 1.5 million Palestinians -- on Saturday. The Israeli attacks have so far lead to the death of some 425 Palestinians and the injury of over 2180 people.
Israel says through its military campaign, it seeks to topple the Hamas movement, which took control of the Gaza Strip in June 2007 after winning the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) elections in January 2006.
In retaliation to the attacks on Gaza, Hamas has been launching rocket strikes against Israel. Unlike the state-of-the-art weapons and ammunition Israel holds, the homemade Qassam rockets rarely cause casualties.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, at least 25 percent of the Gazans killed in the Israeli onslaught are civilians -- scores of whom are women and children.
The recent conflict is the latest of a series which started when world powers found a 'land without a people and a people without a land' in 1948 and created Israel.
DB/JG/AA
