Thursday, March 22, 2007

MORE SENIOR IRANIANS DISAPPEAR. DEFECT?

"At least" five senior Iranian officers "disappear" in Turkey - TV Excerpt from report by Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv on 22 March [Report by Gad Shimron: "Foreign reports: Five Iranian officers kidnapped"] At least five senior Iranian officers disappeared over the past few days during a visit to Turkey. The report, which is based on reports in the Turkish press, said it is believed that the five defected to the West. According to the information, which has so far not been confirmed by any official source, among the Iranians who have disappeared are officers with the rank of brigadier general.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alan,
I looked up Ma'ariv but it's in Hebrew. I don't know anyone who can read Hebrew.

If one of the readers of this your blog could translate a couple of paragraphs of the article I would be very grateful.

wolfline said...

Here's the translation from Ma'ariv: Two weeks ago there were reports of two Iranian officers missing: Col. Amir Mahmad Shirazi and Brigadier General Mahmad Soultani, commander of the Revolutionary Guards Corps in the Gulf region. The official newspaper of the Corps accused Israel and the US of kidnapping the two and threatened to kidnap American and Israeli officers and to "throw them in the cockfighting arena". "Iran is on the defense", stated yesterday Nicholas Burns, US Under Secretary for Political Affairs, who also mentioned that Russia's refusal to supply uranium for the Bushar nuclear reactor, as well as the tightening economic sanctions on Iran, proves that "international pressure is working". It is worth mentioning that the Bush administration has decided to undermine the current Iranian government, and that the reports of mass desertions/defections (sorry, same word in Hebrew) of senior officers could be part of the psychological war waged against the ayatollah regime. In addition, a German news agency reported, quoting Novosty (Russian news agency), that the US is poised to attack targets located in Iran in two weeks' time. This information is based on Russian military experts' analysis, who claim that Washington has already decided to launch the attack on Friday, April 6th, and that within ten hours different types of missiles (including cruising ones) will pound 20 nuclear facilities in Iran. Also to be attacked are the central command of the Iranian army, Revolutionary Guards, and Iranian Navy bases, in order to prevent Iran from blocking the Straights of Hurmuz.

Well, they have just blown the surprise element, haven't they...

Anonymous said...

Many thanks for the translation Wolfline

Best
-GM

wolfline said...

My pleasure. Please let me know if you need anything else translated:
www.busywolf.blogspot.com