Iran: Muslim Nations Should Shun NATO

Iran: Muslim Nations Shouldn't Serve NATO -- UPI

TEHRAN, Sept. 6 (UPI) -- Muslim countries such as Turkey shouldn't serve the interests of the U.S.-European NATO military alliance, a prominent Iranian lawmaker says.

Iranian Member of Parliament Alaeddin Boroujerdi, chairman of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, said Sunday Turkey's announcement it was close to accepting a NATO missile defense shield radar installation was troubling.

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My Comment: The Iranians made this warning because their focus is on this.

The Tory Party In Britain Would Back War With Iran

The shadow defence secretary Liam Fox. Photo: OLI SCARFF/The Telegraph

From The Telegraph:

A Conservative government would support military action against Iran if the rogue state developed nuclear weapons, the shadow defence secretary has revealed.

Liam Fox described the threat posed by Iran as the "single most important issue facing the West" and added that 2010 was the year in which the Islamic state had to be confronted.

Mr Fox said that while military action would be in "no one's interest", he maintained that the use of force was an option which "must remain on the table" if Iran developed nuclear weapons.

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My Comment: As much as some in the British Tory Party may want to go to war, unless there is a nuclear attack by Iran and/or through its surrogates on Israel or Western interests .... no one in the West (Washington included) has any appetite to launch a first strike against Iran .... I repeat, no one.

Iran, NATO In First Talks In 30 Years: NATO

A NATO flag. An Iranian diplomat and a NATO official have had "informal contact" for the first time in 30 years, holding discussions in Brussels about Afghanistan, NATO officials said Thursday. (AFP/File/Ferenc Isza)

From Yahoo News/AFP:

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Iran and NATO have held their first talks since the Iranian revolution 30 years ago, officials at the military alliance said Thursday, in a new sign of a thaw in Tehran's ties with the West.

At allied headquarters in Brussels last week, an Iranian diplomat and a senior NATO official had an "informal contact" focused on Iran's neighbour Afghanistan, where the alliance is battling a stiff Taliban-led insurgency.

"The diplomat met with Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs and Security Policy Martin Erdmann," chief NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.

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My Comment: The key word is .... "informal".

Iran As A Transportation Hub For Nato In Afghanistan?

Image from CNN

NATO: Members May Use Iran For Afghan
Supplies -- Yahoo News/AP

KABUL – NATO's top military commander said Monday he would not oppose any arrangements that individual member nations may strike with Iran to supply their forces in Afghanistan.

Gen. John Craddock's comments came just days after NATO's secretary general, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, urged the U.S. and other members of the Western military alliance to engage with the Shiite nation in a regional approach to combat Taliban militants in Afghanistan.

"Those would be national decisions, nations should act in a manner that is consistent with their national interest and with their ability to resupply their forces. I think it is purely up to them," Craddock, who is NATO's supreme allied commander, told The Associated Press.

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My Comment: I am sure that if this happens (which I doubt) .... but if it does happen, a large number of these supplies will still be going to U.S. soldiers.

On the one hand, I am very skeptical that this deal will happen. But as I had mentioned in the previous post .... people on both sides are talking .... and talking publicly.