Tribute to American values & military families on Veterans' Day - L.A.'s Forest Lawn

Acknowledging those who ensure today's freedom- military servicemembers and their families.  Ceremony staged at Hollywood's Forest Lawn cemetery- last Veterans' Day - November 11. 



Chelsea Chavez sings "America the Beautiful,"
Senior Pastor Mike Coopersmith, Our Savior Church, Palm Springs, California
Staff Sergeant Jeremiah Pauley, US Army,  spokesman, Wounded Warriors Project.

Socialists join with Israel-hating Muslims to ascend on the backs of 'Zionists'

Anti-Israel, pro-Hamas rally in L.A. projects Islamists' foibles onto Jews. How they think may surprise you.

French Consulate salutes SoCal Yanks who defeated tyranny, saved world from fascism- Memorial Day ceremony in L.A.

An audience of hundreds of veterans, survivors, and patriots attended a ceremony for Memorial Day,  hosted by Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills cemetery.

French Consul Gen. Axel Cruau awards "Legion of Honor" to
90-yr old WWII vets Reed Grier, Norbert Sizlak and Julius Posner 

Cresenta Valley ROTC cadets bear the flags as thee L.A. Police Department Concert Band performs a medley of each of the U.S. Armed Forces theme songs, as veterans of each branch rise to applause. Honor guard from the LA County Sheriff Department performed a 21-gun, rifle salute to America's fallen.



France's Consul General to Los Angeles, Hon. Axel Cruau, salutes Americans who restored liberty. He awarded 3 WWII veterans (Norbert Sizlak, Reed Grier, and Julius Posner) the highest honor that the French government bestows on non-citizens - the Legion of Honor.


 
Consul General Axel Cruau, explained to DemoCast the esteem his country holds for America in extending "the Legion of Honor," the highest award given to French citizens to foreign national.   The Consul says that French scholastic curriculum teaches the history of the Allied American liberation of France from Nazi occupation. 


Consul General Cruau says that he is personally touched to meet and bestow this award on American veterans of the Allied invasion of Normandy- and those others who fought to restore liberty to his country in 2 separate wars.

Freedom through strength - L.A. ceremony acknowledges those who served in all branches in all times

What price freedom? Veterans Day since WWII reflect & display defenses from Civil War though modern times - at L.A.'s Forest Lawn November, 2011 in DemoCast original video report.



Veterans from World War II (Pearl Harbor through the present) discuss the need and price of defending democracy against tyranny and repression. Veterans' Day cermony and expo held at Forest Lawn, Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles, Friday, 11/11/11.

Memorial Day: We honor those who sacrificed themselves in the defense of liberty

The 42nd Highlanders Pipe and Drum Corps open a tribute to America's fallen defenders from Forest Lawn Cemetery in Hollywood Hills, California. Army Capt. Justin Babcock gives an inspiring tribute to the defenders of freedom.

In this video playlist (advance with lower-center buttons) watch the US Armed Service branch songs performed by the Notre Dame High School marching band, the Blue Eagles Honor Guard, a genuine survivor of the attacks on Pearl Harbor (in which Japan drew the U.S. into World War II) and a real, 12-gun memorial salute.



Interviews with surviving veterans, international military historians, the west-coast head of the African-American Montford Point Marines Association; a veteran of the Battle of the Bulge in 1944; and curator of the American Society of Military History Museum.  Event held on Veterans' Day, 2011 in Los Angeles, California.  Subscribe to new YouTube channel, DemoCast News to receive future news videos via email.

Benjamin Netanyahu to the United Nations: The Iranian Red Line (in One Chart)

Alana Goodman in Commentary Contentions  27 September '12:

At the United Nations this afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu sought to clarify an issue that has confounded President Obama for months — where to place “red lines” on Iran’s nuclear program — by using one simple, easy-to-read chart:



As you can see, that is a drawing of a bomb. It is divided into three stages. Iran has completed the first stage (amassing enough 70 percent-enriched uranium for a bomb), and, according to Netanyahu, can complete the second stage (amassing enough 90 percent-enriched uranium) as soon as next summer. The key here — and this is important — is to stop Iran before it enters the final stage, i.e. the completion of the bomb. Let’s hope the White House was paying attention.

Of course, the bomb drawing got its share of criticism on Twitter, as BuzzFeed reports:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu punctuated his attempt to rally the international community against Iran’s nuclear program with a crude illustration of a bomb in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly in New York today — a move that drew him an immediate wave of mockery, but also reflected an astute grasp of the changing media climate.

The chart wasn’t unserious, it was simple. And it’s precisely what the public needs to see at this point. The White House has been able to drag their feet on the debate, in part, because they’ve portrayed it as murky and complicated. It isn’t. There will be debates, if and when the time comes, over whether Iran has actually reached the red line, and whether the intelligence is accurate or complete. But there’s no question that a clear and firm line needs to be drawn.

Winds of War: Will Israel Strike Iran Soon?

If US talks don't clearly disarm Iran by end of May- will Obama put the world's safety before his re-election?

Chris Mitchell of Christian Broadcasting News in Jerusalem has produced
Winds of War: Will Israel Strike Iran Soon? a video news story with text:

So far, negotiations with Iran and six nations, including the U.S., have produced nothing. Channel 10's Alon Ben-David said the next round on May 23 is crucial.

"I think it's a make or break meeting … and if we won't see a determined international front against the Iranians or some sort of international effort to persuade the Iranians to step down, I don't want to be in the shoes of the Israeli prime minister, but he might have to take a tough decision," Ben-Zion continued.

That decision will take into account the possible outcome of November's U.S. presidential election.

"So I think that Netanyahu fears that after Nov. 12, Obama is not going to be a partner he can count on," he said. "And you can see the rough exchange between those two gentlemen is very little trust between those two leaders unfortunately."

"This is one of the reasons Israel feels that time is running out, that something needs to be decided before November," he said.



"We are getting very close to the moment of truth. There is a school of thought in most of the Israeli leadership that these are the last moments that anyone can do anything about the Iranian nuclear program," Ben-David said.

He emphasized that Iran is not just a danger to Israel.

"Just imagine the kind of organizations that exist in this region and then imagine them with the proliferation of nuclear weapons. That's not a safe world to live in," Ben-Zion concluded. "So I think there's an international interest in preventing Iran from getting that capability."

War games: Israel attacks Iran

Israel Matzav: War games: Israel attacks Iran

Makor Rishon, a right-wing newspaper which is mostly available online outside Judea and Samaria, is running a war games scenario in Thursday's editions. They have some pretty impressive participants. The premise is that the attack will take place on October 15-16, and that Obama will protest and then go silent. The scenarios include an attack downing an Israeli civilian jet liner, Israel deciding not to attack Lebanon or Gaza, despite being bombarded with missiles by Hezbullah, but the nuclear facilities are... well, all I can tell you is that there are pictures of them burning on CNN.
Let's go to the videotape, which is - unfortunately for many of you - mostly in Hebrew.

Christopher Hitchens (1949-2011) defended the Iraq War, opposed Islamism and anti-Semitism

Christopher Hitchens, author and public intellectual, died Friday, 15 December of pneumonia resulting from esophageal cancer in Houston, Texas.

Mr. Hitchens lived one day beyond the ceremony to end the Iraq war. He supported the liberating the Iraqi and Kurdish peoples from Saddam Hussein.

From Wikipedia:

Christopher Hitchens argued the case for the Iraq War in a 2003 collection of essays entitled A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq, and he has held numerous public debates on the topic with George Galloway and Scott Ritter. Though he admits to the numerous failures of the war, and its high civilian casualties, he sticks to the position that deposing Saddam Hussein was a long-overdue responsibility of the United States, after decades of poor policy, and that holding free elections in Iraq has been a success not to be scoffed at. He argues that a continued fight in Iraq against insurgents, whether they be former Saddam loyalists or Islamic extremists, is a fight worth having, and that those insurgents, not American forces, should be the ones taking the brunt of the blame for a slow reconstruction and high civilian casualties.

An updated summary of his views on Iraq and the war on terror can be found in his memoirs Hitch 22. . . .

British politician George Galloway, founder of the socialist Respect Party, on his way to testify in front of a United States Senate sub-committee investigating the scandals in the U.N. Oil-for-Food programme, called Hitchens a "drink-sodden ex-Trotskyist popinjay", to which Hitchens quickly replied, "only some of which is true." Later, in a column for Slate promoting his debate with Galloway which was to take place on 14 September 2005, he elaborated on his prior response: "He says that I am an ex-Trotskyist (true), a 'popinjay' (true enough, since the word's original Webster's definition is a target for arrows and shots), and that I cannot hold a drink (here I must protest)."

Journalist Eli Lake eulogizes Mr. Hitchens in the Daily Beast:

Mr. Hitchens never stopped saying and writing that the (Iraq) war was just and that American arms were needed to end the regime of Saddam Hussein. But Christopher did not arrive at this position simply because his old colleagues at the Nation Magazine did not. He came to support the Iraq war after befriending many Iraqis, and particularly Kurds, who told him about the horrors of that dictatorship. For Christopher, supporting the war was an expression of his anti-totalitarianism. He would later say that the war pitted the anti-totalitarian left against the anti-imperialist left.

'Israeli prisoner swap may be prelude to attack on Iran'- Washington Times from Jerusalem

Is Netanyahu manuevering to attack Iran?
(Photo: Globalhood news)

The Washington Times has published an analysis by Abraham Rabinovich from Jerusalem which theorizes that that Israel's prisoner swap of Gilad Shalit for 1,027 sentenced terrorists may be prelude to attack on Iran.

JERUSALEM — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s decision to execute a 1,000-for-1 prisoner exchange last week despite his frequently voiced opposition to such lopsided deals is seen by several Israeli military commentators as an effort to “clear the deck” before possibly undertaking an attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities. 

Amir Oren, the veteran military analyst for Ha'aretz newspaper, took note of Israel’s exchanging 1,027 Palestinian convicts for army Staff Sgt. Gilad Schalit, who had been captured by Hamas in 2006. Mr. Oren wrote that the price paid by Mr. Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak “can be interpreted only in a context that goes beyond that of the Gilad Schalit deal.” 

He noted that Israeli leaders in the past have shown a readiness to absorb “a small loss” in order to attain a greater success, generally involving “some sort of military adventure.”
Mr. Oren offered another insight that he says may point Mr. Netanyahu toward military action against Iran. 

Although the prime minister failed to make any enduring mark on history during his previous term or so far during his present term, Mr. Netanyahu may see Iran as an opportunity to achieve his Churchillian moment, Mr. Oren wrote. “The day is not far off, Netanyahu believes, when Churchill will emerge from him.”

Former US Defense Sec'y Donald Rumsfeld memoirs resonate for Hollywood patriot, Ed Ames

The David Horowitz Freedom Center presented a conversation with former U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld at its monthly Wednesday Breakfast Club in Los Angeles on 16 March '11. Secretary Rumsfeld is currently promoting his new book, "Known and Unknown: A Memoir."

Although the event was closed to press, the famed TV & Broadway star, Ed Ames ("Daniel Boone," "The Fantasticks") attended and relates exclusively with DemoCast.TV his impressions from Mr. Rumsfeld's conversation with Mr. Horowitz.

Mr. Ames relates that while he didn't recall the subject of Israel's security needs arising in the talk, he believes that Mr. Rumsfeld is conscious of America's reciprocal defense alliance with Israel, a vulnerable democracy surrounded by Islamist antagonism.

Mr. Ames echoes Mr. Rumsfeld's concern that Obama-era leftists are distorting the narrative about America's defense against Jihadism to a degree that gives the Jihadists a front within America.

Former CIA-Director, James Woolsey explains Islamic imperialism's threat to the free world - over the Obama administration's spin

Former CIA Director, James Woolsey, gives informed insights into threats which challenge Western stablity - and coping strategies. He is candid about Iran's President Ahmadinejad implementing the apocalyptic, Hojattieh worldview. Presented by Iranian-American cultural group, 30 Years After, in Los Angeles on Wednesday 28 July.

Memorial Day - inside the visits to the Veterans Cemetery

On Memorial Day, we reprise encounters at the Los Angeles National Cemetery last Veterans Day with:

A Vietnam-veteran grandfather brings his grandchildren to visit their heritage - and instill a sense of American identity ...

... And a journalism co-ed, educated through her family trips to national memorials -  who bemoans the apathy of many college students to commemorate the holiday - while other friends of hers serve and died to defend our freedom.

Israeli navy stations nuclear missile submarines off Iran coast

Sunday Times quotes IDF official saying the 3 German-made long range submarines will gather intelligence, act as deterrent and potentially land Mossad agents.

(Video: Israeli Submarine Fleet)

The Sunday Times of London reports:

Three German-built Israeli submarines equipped with nuclear cruise missiles are to be deployed in the Gulf near the Iranian coastline.

The first has been sent in response to Israeli fears that ballistic missiles developed by Iran, Syria and Hezbollah, a political and military organisation in Lebanon, could hit sites in Israel, including air bases and missile launchers.

INS Dolphin was commissioned in 1999, 
INS Leviathan in 2000. 

The submarines of Flotilla 7 — Dolphin, Tekuma and Leviathan — have visited the Gulf before. But the decision has now been taken to ensure a permanent presence of at least one of the vessels.

The flotilla’s commander, identified only as “Colonel O”, told an Israeli newspaper: “We are an underwater assault force. We’re operating deep and far, very far, from our borders.”

Each of the submarines has a crew of 35 to 50, commanded by a colonel capable of launching a nuclear cruise missile.

The vessels can remain at sea for about 50 days and stay submerged up to 1,150ft below the surface for at least a week. Some of the cruise missiles are equipped with the most advanced nuclear warheads in the Israeli arsenal.

The deployment is designed to act as a deterrent, gather intelligence and potentially to land Mossad agents. “We’re a solid base for collecting sensitive information, as we can stay for a long time in one place,” said a flotilla officer.

Torpedo room with reserve stowage

The submarines could be used if Iran continues its programme to produce a nuclear bomb. “The 1,500km range of the submarines’ cruise missiles can reach any target in Iran,” said a navy officer.

Apparently responding to the Israeli activity, an Iranian admiral said: “Anyone who wishes to do an evil act in the Persian Gulf will receive a forceful response from us.”

Israel’s urgent need to deter the Iran-Syria-Hezbollah alliance was demonstrated last month. Ehud Barak, the defence minister, was said to have shown President Barack Obama classified satellite images of a convoy of ballistic missiles leaving Syria on the way to Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Binyamin Netanyahu, the prime minister, will emphasise the danger to Obama in Washington this week.

Tel Aviv, Israel’s business and defence centre, remains the most threatened city in the world, said one expert. “There are more missiles per square foot targeting Tel Aviv than any other city,” he said.

"Why are we so bad at detecting the guilty and so good at collective punishment of the innocent?" asks Christopher Hitchens

The West's failure to recognize the Islamist, theocratic ideology inciting Islamic rejection of the Jewish State revisits the West through aviation. If we recognize that Jihadists are Muslim 'holy warriors' where we fight them in uniform, when will we acknowledge who they are domestically? Christopher Hitchens writes in Slate, 28 Dec 2009

"What nobody in authority thinks us grown-up enough to be told is this: We had better get used to being the civilians who are under a relentless and planned assault from the pledged supporters of a wicked theocratic ideology. These people will kill themselves to attack hotels, weddings, buses, subways, cinemas, and trains. They consider Jews, Christians, Hindus, women, homosexuals, and dissident Muslims (to give only the main instances) to be divinely mandated slaughter victims. Our civil aviation is only the most psychologically frightening symbol of a plethora of potential targets."

Prof. Victor Davis Hanson explains the Islamist's war against the West in this DemoCast exclusive video:


"The future murderers will generally not be from refugee camps or slums (though they are being indoctrinated every day in our prisons); they will frequently be from educated backgrounds, and they will often not be from overseas at all. They are already in our suburbs and even in our military. We can expect to take casualties. The battle will go on for the rest of our lives. Those who plan our destruction know what they want, and they are prepared to kill and die for it. Those who don't get the point prefer to whine about "endless war," accidentally speaking the truth about something of which the attempted Christmas bombing over Michigan was only a foretaste. While we fumble with bureaucracy and euphemism, they are flying high."

Pentagon pushes bunker-buster bomb back 6-months; Cordesman's conflict scenarios

 A "bunker buster" bomb, with more than 10 times the explosive power of its predecessor, has been rescheduled for availability by the United States December 2010, six months later than previously scheduled, the Defense Department told Reuters on Friday.

Military analysts doubt Israel could disable Iran's nuclear facilities in a raid even with dozens of aircraft. Tehran has had years to build covert facilities, spread elements of its programs and develop options for recovering from an attack."Strong as Israeli forces are, they lack the scale, range and other capabilities to carry out the kind of massive strike the U.S. could launch," Anthony Cordesman, a former Pentagon strategist now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, wrote in September. (Reuters)

An Illustrative Scenario Analysis
By Anthony H. Cordesman

Nov 19, 2007 - The attached briefing provides the material used in a scenario analysis and interactive game that looks at some of the consequences of a future nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran, and the possible impact of its expansion to cover targets in Syria, Egypt, and the Gulf.

There is no way to predict the forces each side will have in the future, or how they might target those forces and use them in war. It does seem clear, however, that both sides would probably be forced to target the other's population centers in any scenario that escalated beyond an initial demonstrative strike.

It also seems likely that such a conflict would quickly become existential in the sense that both sides would seek to inflict the maximum possible casualties on its opponent, and to destroy its ability to recover as a nation.

Veterans Day at the Military Cemetery: Perspectives on the Price of Freedom

Encounters at the Los Angeles National Cemetery on Veterans Day with: a Vietnam-veteran grandfather brings his grandchildren to visit their heritage - and instill a sense of American identity ...

...And a journalism student, educated through her family trips to national memorials -  who bemoans the apathy of many college students to commemorate the holiday - while other friends of hers serve and died to defend our freedom.

"War in the Post Modern World - a review of new laws of conflict (and why they are surreal when seen in a classical context)" speech by Prof. Victor Davis Hanson at UCLA

Using ancient Greece and military history as commentary, Professor Victor Davis Hanson analyzes the legal dilemmas faced by democracies when defending themselves against terrorist entities. From a speech presented to the California Association of Scholars at U.C.L.A. on 12 October 2009.

Victor Davis Hanson is a Martin and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Professor Emeritus of Classics at the California State University at Fresno, noted historian of ancient Greece and preeminent military historian. He is author of more than 170 articles, 16 books, and recipient of many awards, including the National Humanities Medal.  Visit Calif Assoc of Scholars website.

Israel attempts to free Palestinians from Islamist-imperialist oppressors; NY Post calls Jewish State - "Damned if they do, but DEAD if they don't"

Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Likud candidate for Prime Minister, explains Israel's position on enduring 8-years of Hamas rocket attacks against Israeli civilians, more than 3-years since Israel vacated Gaza with Hamas' promises to cease rocket terror. Hamas launches from residential areas to deter retaliation and maximize casualties for PR value.
Video courtesy Fox News Channel.
Ralph Peters writes in the New York Post:

"Israel's airstrikes against confirmed Hamas terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip were overdue, discriminating and skillful. So far, this retaliatory campaign has been a superb example of how to employ postmodern airpower.

Israel's attack aircraft appear to have accomplished that part of the mission. As I write, some 300 terrorist dead have been reported in Gaza, while the propaganda-savvy information office of Hamas has struggled to prove that 20 civilians died.

Given the fact that Hamas adheres to the terrorist practice of locating command sites, arsenals and training facilities in heavily populated areas, the results suggest that the IDF - supported by first-rate intelligence work - may have executed the most accurate wave of airstrikes in history, with a 15-to-1 terrorist-to-civilian kill ratio.

The bad news is that it still won't be enough. While Israel has delivered a painful blow against Hamas, it's still not a paralyzing hit. The only way to neuter such a terror threat - even temporarily - is to go in on the ground and scour every room, basement and underground tunnel in a region.

That would mean high Israeli casualties and, of course, condemnation of Israel's self-defense efforts by every self-righteous, corrupt and bigoted organization and government on earth, from Turtle Bay to Tehran.

What have been Israel's "crimes?" Not "stealing Palestinian land," but making that land productive, while exposing the incompetence and sloth of Arab culture.

Israel's crime isn't striking back at terror, but demonstrating, year after year, that a country in the Middle East can be governed without resort to terror. Israel's crime hasn't been denying Arab rights, but insisting on human rights for women and minorities.

Israel's crime has been making democracy work where tyranny prevailed for 5,000 years. Israel's crime has been survival against overwhelming odds, while legions of Arab nationalists, Islamist extremists and Western leftists want every Jew dead.

But Israel's greatest crime was to expose the global cult of victimhood, to prove that hard work, fortitude and courage could overcome even history's grimmest disaster."

We may sympathize with the average Palestinian family, exploited by generations of corrupt leaders and now caught in yet another round of violence. But let us never forget that Israel hasn't fired thousands of blind rockets into Palestinian cities, that Israeli suicide bombers don't attack Arab restaurants and bus stops, and that Israel seeks to avoid harming civilians - while Hamas seeks to kill as many civilians as possible.

In a world where there are no good answers, Israel just answered as best it could. The world's response? "How dare Jews defend themselves."

Humanity doesn't progress. It just changes clothes."


The Israeli Army sends truckloads of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.


"There is no such thing as a disproportionate response to calls for genocide," published in Sigmund, Carl, and Alfred

From the Hamas Charter:

“Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it…”

“Our struggle against the Jews is very great and very serious … The Movement is but one squadron that should be supported by more and more squadrons from this vast Arab and Islamic world, until the enemy is vanquished and Allah’s victory is realised…”

"Death is coming. O Zionists, hide yourselves!" long-time Hamas Television public-service announcement.

While the UN and much of Europe wring their hands at the heavy Israeli response to rocket fire by the Palestinians into Israel, there is talk of ‘disproportionate response.’

There is no such thing as a ‘disproportionate response’ to calls for genocide. All conflicts end with ‘disproportionate response.’

The Israelis are entitled to defend themselves from those who openly or not so openly call for their annihilation.

Peace among nations is arrived at when the cost of war becomes overwhelming.

Iran officials encourage pre-emptive attack against Israel

Senior Tehran officials are recommending a preemptive strike against Israel to prevent an Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear reactors, a senior Islamic Republic official told foreign diplomats two weeks ago in London.

The official, Dr. Seyed G. Safavi, said recent threats by Israeli authorities strengthened this position, but that as of yet, a preemptive strike has not been integrated into Iranian policy.

Safavi is head of the Research Institute of Strategic Studies in Tehran, and an adviser to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The institute is directly affiliated with Khamenei's office and with the Revolutionary Guards, and advises both on foreign policy issues.

Safavi is also the brother of Yahya Rahim Safavi, who was the head of the Revolutionary Guards until a year ago and now is an adviser to Khamenei, and holds significant influence on security matters in the Iranian government.

An Israeli political official said senior Jerusalem officials were shown Safavi's remarks, which are considered highly sensitive. The source said the briefing in London dealt with a number of issues, primarily a potential Israeli attack on an Iranian reactor.

Safavi said a small, experienced group of officials is lobbying for a preemptive strike against Israel. "The recent Israeli declarations and harsh rhetoric on a strike against Iran put ammunition in these individuals' hands," he said.

Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz said in June that Israel would be forced to strike the Iranian nuclear reactor if Tehran continues to pursue its uranium enrichment program.

Safavi said Tehran recently drafted a new policy for responding to an Israeli or American attack on its nuclear facilities. While the previous policy called for attacks against Israel and American interests in the Middle East and beyond, the new policy is to target Israel alone.

He added that many Revolutionary Guard leaders want to respond to a U.S. attack on Iranian soil by striking Israel, as they believe Israel would be partner to any U.S. action.

Safavi said that Iran's nuclear program is intended for peaceful purposes only, and that Khamenei recently released a fatwa against the use of weapons of mass destruction, though the contents of that religious ruling have not yet been publicized.

Regarding dialogue with the United States and the West, Safavi said Iran's decision would be influenced by the results of the U.S. presidential elections next month, as well as by the Iranian presidential elections in June and the economic situation in the Islamic Republic.

Safavi also said that a victory by U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama would pave the way for dialogue with Washington, while a John McCain presidency would bolster Iran's extreme right, which opposes dialogue. If conditions are favorable following the U.S. election, he said, Iran could draw back from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's declaration that "the nuclear case is closed," and put it back on the agenda.

Safavi said he believed that U.S. sanctions on Iran have run their course, and that there would be no point in strengthening them. Tehran would therefore demand "firm and significant" U.S. measures in return for stopping uranium enrichment. He also said Ahmadinejad is not guaranteed victory in the June 2009 elections, particularly given the dire economic situation in Iran. Still, Iranian experts believe his only real competition is former president Mohammad Khatami, who has not yet joined the race.

Safavi said the inflation rate in Iran is similar to that before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, but that unrest among civilians today is not as strong. This is because the current government uses oil revenues to help the poor, he said. Written by Barak Ravid in Ha Aretz