South Africa Overrides Sanctions, Helps Nuclear Iran Channel 10 Did South Africa serve and support Iran's nuclear program diplomatically, in exchange of a license for a large telecommunications company? South Africa's elite Hawks police unit has opened an investigation to check whether a huge company called MTN, the most important mobile phones company in South Africa and the world, has used its influence on the Government of South Africa in regards to Iran's nuclear program. It has likely started between years 2005-2006, and since then, South Africa tried to thwart or hinder the diplomatic initiatives of the sanctions against Iran. This large company is trying to conclude a contract to purchase a mobile license in Iran, and it succeeded in obtaining it. Yet a civil claim was filed in the US by Turkish operator Turkcell accusing MTN of bribing Iranian and South African officials with cash and promises of American defense equipment in order to secure the license originally awarded to Turkcell. The probe and the civil claim in the US are still investigating with witnesses, so were the US sanctions being overridden by the South African company? ـــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــــ Gantz: Ready to fight on all fronts, Syria's situation is Bad Channel 7 "IDF" Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz spent the day briefing the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday. "The likelihood of war initiated by our enemies is low," he stated, but the situation could have the potential to become explosive. He said the "IDF" was ready on all front as a result of "the regional turmoil taking place in Middle Eastern countries. " However, he warned, "the situation is very volatile... The shakeup is like a virus, each country reacts to it differently." Gantz added, "the problem with Egypt is Sinai, a sabotage action or a missile crisis could ignite from that region." "When there is a low possibility of war, the challenges are high," he said. Regarding Syria, Gantz said that "Syria is busy with the upheaval it is undergoing, but its [military] abilities have not been impaired." "The Arab street impact is growing, and the decisions taken aren't limited to the leaders anymore," he added. Gantz said that Iran is still aspiring to achieve a nuclear weapon but has yet to take the decision to cross the threshold, for its own strategic reasons. "This is due to Iranian strategic considerations, including: diplomatic and political international isolation, economic pressures, and disruptions, so we must be prepared," Gantz explained. He stressed that said that there is "too much babble" about Iran". "Very few people know what is and what isn't, what is possible and what is impossible," said Gantz. "There are many people showing off [their knowledge] when they don't really know, and there are those who once were in the know, but are no longer. There is a very large gap between professional discourse, which is worthy of being conducted in the proper forums, and public discourse." Addressing Syria in his survey, Gantz said, " The Syrians and us are concerned about weapons transfers between Syria and "Hizbullah" today more than ever because when the system breaks up, more materials can change hands. " "We observe increasing instability near the Golan Heights as a result of what is taking place in Syria, including the borders", he added, " things are not extremely dangerous, but they could be in the future." "If Assad falls, and I expect him to, this will be a crack in the radical axis," Gantz told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. "If Assad remains, he will be weakened and we'll find ourselves in the same boat of instability," Gantz explained. There is a price for instability in our region, and we will meet more activity along the fence with Syria. No good will come out of it." On Gaza, Gantz said there are two heads there, "Hamas and the Islamic Jihad", and according to him, the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt is strengthening its ties with Hamas in Gaza. As for the infiltrators, the army's chief of staff said that their numbers will decrease after closing the fence, and some clashes might occur since some will try to breakthrough". Gantz also spoke of "price tag" events, and called for fighting against it. Head of manpower planning policy division, Brigadier General Gadi Agmon referred to the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox, pointing out that: "The rate of those obtaining the exemption, whose faith is their profession, is 18% and it is expected to rise to 20% among all recruits. As for the General Staff Chief, the "Israeli" army has the exclusive right to recruit anyone it wants, and Arabs or ultra-Orthodox will serve in the civil service." Chief of Staff, said on the recruitment of ultra-Orthodox: "the effects of the big security effort done are obvious." Source: Hebrew Press |
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