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The F-35 (recently named the Lightning II) is due to enter service soon. While the F-22 is widely seen as the ultimate air-to-air machine, the F-35 is described as a multi-role aircraft. How does the F-35 compare in the air-to-air mission against likely competitors like the French Rafale, the Swedish Gripen, and the multi-national Eurofighter? The Rafale, Gripen, and Eurofighter are all in service or expected to enter service in 2006. All of them boast some of the best electronics suites ever to appear in combat aircraft. All have top speeds approaching 2,000 kilometers an hour. All three aircraft carry...

Top News Story Payvand Tehran, May 17, IRNA-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad intends to write another letter but it will not be for a political figure, "informed sources" were quoted on Wednesday. The Persian-language daily, Tosse'e, quoted the sources as saying Ahmadinejad's second letter is expected to be sent next week. According to the daily, the president, in an April 24 interview, said that he "will again send messages to leaders of certain world powers calling their attention to the state of the world and inviting them to imbibe the message of the Divine Prophets which happens to be also the...

Top News Story EU considers giving Iran a nuclear reactor. Yahoo News reported that European nations are considering adding a light-water reactor to a package of incentives meant to persuade Tehran to give up uranium enrichment.   China approves of the idea. The New York Times reported that China said it supported European efforts to create a new package of incentives for Iran as a way of resolving the standoff over its nuclear program. The report added that Europe would not offer Iran security guarantees against potential threats by its neighbors.   The CIA's history of over estimating the...

Top News Story The under reported "Achilles heel" of the Iranian Regime: Its workers. Amir Taheri, Arab News challenged the perception that the internal opposition to the present Iranian regime is marginal. Pointing to recent new reports, Iran's urban working class that has just started to flex its muscles. It showed its force with the biggest May Day demonstration ever seen in the Middle East. The participants made no secret of the fact that they were unhappy with the Khomeinist system as a whole.   Hitchens: Bush should speak directly to the Iranian people. Christopher Hitchens, Slate argued that...

Top News Story Iran preemptively says NO! to EU3. Reuters reported that EU foreign ministers will meet on Monday to agree initiatives on Iran's nuclear program.Chron.com reported that Iran's president said Sunday that any European proposal that demanded an end to his country's uranium enrichment activities would be unacceptable.   Pressure builds for direct talks with Iran. CNN News reported that Zbigniew Brzezinski, the national security adviser under former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, said Sunday that the United States should open direct talks with Iran over its nuclear program.Rooz Online reported that "reformist" analysts believe the US will likely...

Top News Story TheStar Zbigniew Brzezinski — former Canadian and a McGill alumnus who rose to be Jimmy Carter's national security adviser — knows a thing or two about the broader Middle East, including Iran, having lived through the American hostage crisis on his watch. I first met him in the 1980s in Pakistan while returning from Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, where he had helped initiate American support for the Afghan resistance. On cutting off aid to the Palestinians for having elected Hamas, he said: "I think the American foreign policy is mindless. "When Likud came to power in 1977, it...

Top News Story Judeoscope IRNA: Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez prays for Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Venezuela’s visiting President Hugo Chavez said here Friday Caracas supports the Islamic Republic of Iran. Vienna - Speaking to IRNA on the sidelines of the EU-Latin America Summit, Chavez said, "We pray to `Allah’ that no war would be launched against Iran!" The Venezuelan President added, "We believe the Iranian nation’s campaign is our own nation’s, and we ask the world countries to respect Iran’s independence." He concluded stressing, "We are on the side of the Iranian nation and pray for President Ahmadinejad." The EU-Latin America-Caribbean...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad warns that Israel will one day "vanish," and so will the U.S. Khaleej Times Online reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday that Israel “one day will vanish.” But he has also said the same thing about the US. Photo.   Iranians students clashing with regime over democracy. Iran Press News reported that a seminar on democracy and daily life that was organized by the association of social sciences faculty of school of Social Sciences of Tehran University has been cancelled under pressure and threats from the ministry of intelligence and security.Iran Press...

Top News Story China won't veto sanctions on Iran and Russia may not either? Rooz Online reported that while the UNSC has not reached a consensus on the next step on Iran, they said the Chinese foreign minister said that it would not veto a UN Security Resolution, while his Russian counterpart told Iran’s foreign minister Manoutchehr Mottaki, “We have not promised to veto sanctions against Iran.”The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. and its allies will slow their push for U.N. Security Council action against Iran and develop a new list of incentives and punishments. They said...

Top News Story EU nations want to offer Iran security guarantees? The New York Sun reported that Ambassador John Bolton, responding to the difficulty the UNSC is having in drafting a new resolution on Iran, said: "We're not going to drop it," he said, adding that if Russia and China fail to agree, a vote might be forced before the end of the week.The New York Times reported that the foreign ministers of major powers failed to come up with a joint strategy for dealing with Iran. A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: ``I...

Top News Story Iran's President sends a letter to Bush... about Islam not nukes. MyWay.com reported that Iran's leader had written to President Bush proposing "new solutions" to their differences in the first letter from an Iranian head of state to an American president in 27 years.Reuters reported that U.S. intelligence Chief John Negroponte said a letter Iran sent to President George W. Bush over its nuclear ambitions may have been timed to influence a UN Security Council debate on Iran.DEBKAfile claimed that Iranian sources revealed the contents of - not one but two - letters Iran’s Ahmadinejad has...

Top News Story UNSC discussions on Iran reach a "decisive phase." IranMania reported that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the ongoing row over Iran's nuclear program have reached a "decisive phase."   Iran to Kofi: No! Bloomberg reported that Iran rejected a call by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the U.S. to hold direct talks with the Islamic Republic about its nuclear program.   Iran threatens to withdraw from the NPT... again. Yahoo News reported that the Iranian parliament threatened to force the government to withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty if the West continues pressuring Tehran...

Top News Story Gulf countries express fears over Iran. Reuters reported that Gulf Arab countries have a number of public and private concerns about the nuclear program in Iran.Al Jazeera reported that Gulf Arab leaders have called on Iran to do more to show it was not trying to obtain an atom bomb, thereby saving the region from another war.   As the UNSC ponders its Iran resolution... Rooz Online reported that on the eve of the Security Council's decision on Iran, Tehran is changing its tone.InsightMag reported that Vice President Dick Cheney has privately warned that the United...

Top News Story Bangkok Post Moscow (dpa) - Russia on Saturday affirmed its opposition to the draft resolution on Iran's nuclear programme currently under discussion at the United Nations Security Council in New York. The document in its current form, proposed by Britain, France and the United States, needed "significant corrections," news agency Interfax quoted Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak as saying in Moscow. Talks on the issue at UN headquarters in New York would continue, Kislyak said. Analysts however said agreement on the issue was not expected before a meeting of Security Council foreign ministers on Monday. The...

Top News Story Russia's moment of truth on Iran. The Los Angeles Times reported that as the U.N. Security Council meets this week to discuss how best to stop Iran's march toward nuclear weapons capability, Russia has the potential to serve as a bridge between the West and the Islamic Republic. This is "a moment of truth for Russia."The Financial Times reported that Russia’s stance on Iran’s nuclear program took centre stage on Thursday, as the United States and the European Union sought to win Moscow’s support for a hard-hitting United Nations Security Council. The Russian government fears the...

Top News Story A Chapter 7 Resolution on Iran introduced to the UN Security Council. Reuters reported that the United States, Britain and France prepared on Wednesday to brief the U.N. Security Council on a draft resolution aimed at pressuring Iran.ABC News reported that Britain and France introduced a U.N. Security Council resolution Wednesday demanding that Iran abandon its uranium enrichment program. Detail included.   Updates on the amazing May Day demonstrations in Tehran. Iran Press News published an update on the May Day demonstrations. According to reports between 18 to 20,000 people participated in the demonstrations. They chanted:...

Top News Story The UNSC to consider a new US/EU resolution. The New York Times reported that the United States, Britain and France have drafted a binding Security Council resolution requiring Iran to stop key nuclear activities. The Americans and the Europeans want to move swiftly.Reuters reported that Iran's foreign minister claimed that Russia and China had officially informed Tehran they would not support sanctions or military action over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program.The Financial Times reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel will urge US President George W. Bush not to press too quickly for international sanctions against Iran...

Top News Story Reza Pahlavi preparing to overthrow the Islamic Republic. Human Events published an interview with Reza Pahlavi, son of the late Shah of Iran, who hopes in the next few months to finalize the organization of a movement aimed at overthrowing the Islamic regime in Tehran and replacing it with a democratic government. A very interesting read.   A Roundup of News on "the Other" major labor demonstration ... this one in Tehran! DoctorZin published an extensive report on thousands of Iranians that joined in the May Day or International Workers Day march to express their anger...

Top News Story Iran artillery attacks Kurds in Iraq. The Jerusalem Post reported that the Iraqi government said that Iranian artillery fired more than 180 shells into northern Iraq, targeting Kurdish rebel bases.   Iran provides Iraqi insurgents sophisticated bombs. Telegraph reported that a multi-charged roadside bomb, developed by Hezbollah in Lebanon, is being used against British and American soldiers by Iraqi insurgents linked to Iran.   Iran admits to development on advanced centrifuges. Telegraph reported that Iran is developing an advanced centrifuge that would allow it to accelerate its controversial uranium enrichment program.The Age reported that an Iranian...

Top News Story Daily Times LONDON [MENL] -- Iran was said to have developed an advanced centrifuge that could accelerate the production of enriched uranium. The Iranian opposition movement asserted that Teheran has begun testing the P-2 gas centrifuge. The movement said the P-2 centrifuges were being operated in two locations in Iran. At a Paris news conference on April 27, the National Council of Resistance of Iran said the P-2 centrifuge would help Iran accelerate its nuclear weapons program. The council said P-2 research was taking place in Natanz and Ab-e Ali and overseen by the Defense Ministry....