A Tenuous State Of Affairs

‘Fake news’ sparks nuclear threat between Pakistan & Israel

RT

The Pakistani defense minister threatened Israel with nuclear war on Twitter, apparently responding to information from a site known for peddling out-of-this-world conspiracy theories.
Pakistani Minister of Defense Khawaja Muhammad Asif tweeted a thinly-veiled threat towards Israel on Friday, “reminding” it that Pakistan is a nuclear power that will strike back if attacked.

Israeli def min threatens nuclear retaliation presuming pak role in Syria against Daesh.Israel forgets Pakistan is a Nuclear state too AH

— Khawaja M. Asif (@KhawajaMAsif) December 23, 2016

Asif appeared to be reacting to an article from the website AWD, which claimed that Moshe Ya'alon, the Israeli defense minister, threatened to use nuclear weapons on Pakistan if the country sent troops into Syria.

“As far as we are concerned, that is a threat, if, by misfortune, they arrive in Syria, we will know what to do, we will destroy them with a nuclear attack,” Ya'alon said in a presumed AWD exclusive. There are but two problems with the news story. First, Ya'alon left the post of Israeli defense minister back in May.

And second, he never said it, according to the defense ministry's prompt reaction.

AWD itself could not seem to get its story straight, referring to Ya'alon as both “Israeli defense minister” and “the former Israeli Defence Minister” in the article.

Asif, however, apparently chose to be (arguably) safe rather than sorry, and issued his warning to Israel regardless.

The Israeli Ministry of Defense was quick to react to Asif’s statement, pointing out it was based on false information.

Pakistan, meanwhile, developed its own nuclear arsenal in response to India's, and indeed, Khawaja Muhammad Asif had already threatened to nuke India back in September.

Diplomatic relations between the two countries are non-existent: as a Muslim country strongly opposed to the Jewish state, Pakistan does not even recognize Israel, though dialogue does take place through third parties. Although there used to be a small Jewish community in Pakistan, mainly concentrated around Karachi, it gradually disappeared as anti-Israel and anti-Semitic sentiments became more widespread.

AWD News has been described as “extremely dubious” by fact-checking site Snopes, which analyzed one of its articles claiming King Abdullah of Jordan murdered his wife, Queen Rania (who is alive and well).

A quick glance around the site also reveals that Vladimir Putin is dead and Russia is planning an attack on Saudi Arabia, among other things.

And Obama Wants To Negotiate With Iraq? (Eze 17)

  

Iran’s Khamenei sends U.S. message with Obama silhouette suicide tweet


By Kellan Howell – The Washington Times – Saturday, July 25, 2015

Iran’s supreme religious leader Ayatollah Khamenei tweeted a picture Saturday of President Obama committing suicide.

Mr. Khameneitweeted “US president has said he could knock out Iran’s military. We welcome no war, nor do we initiate any war, but…”

The tweet was accompanied by an image of a silhouetted Mr. Obama holding a gun to his head with the caption “We welcome no war, not do we initiate any war, but If any war happens, the one who will emerge loser will be the aggressive and criminal U.S.”
 
The tweet has gained over 500 retweets and nearly 200 favorites so far.

Many commenters mocked the tweet, not taking the threatening image seriously.
 
Last weekend Mr. Khamenei spoke about the Iranian nuclear deal while holding a kalashnikov in his hand. He said U.S. policies in the region were “180 degrees” opposed to Iran‘s. The speech was punctuated with chants of “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.”

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Mr. Khamenei’s speech vowing to defy American policies in the region despite a nuclear agreement with Tehran was “very troubling.”

“I don’t know how to interpret it at this point in time, except to take it at face value, that that’s his policy,” he said in an interview with Saudi-owned Al Arabiya television Tuesday, Reuters reported.
“But I do know that often comments are made publicly and things can evolve that are different. If it’s the policy, it’s very disturbing, it’s very troubling.”

Under the nuclear deal, reached in Vienna last week, Iran will be subjected to long-term curbs on its nuclear program in return for the lifting of Western economic sanctions.

Khamenei: How To Annihilate Israel

Iran’s Ayatollah Khamenei Tweets 9-Point Plan to Annihilate Israel

2:00PM EST 11/18/2014 Mark Andrews | CHARISMA News

 

Iran’s leadership—ever since the shah fell in 1979—has never made any secret of its desire to see Israel wiped off the map.
Previous President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for such an outcome in nearly every one of his speeches in the eight years he served until 2013.

Now, however, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has decided to quantify the supposedly logical reasons for destroying the Jewish nation. Long known for his anti-Israel rhetoric, Khamenei has issued what appears to be his most detailed tirade to date in a Twitter post titled “9 key questions about the elimination of Israel.”

“Why should & how can #Israel be eliminated? Ayatollah Khamenei’s answer to 9 key questions. #HandsOffAlAqsa,” read the introduction to Khamenei’s tweet, posted Saturday. The hashtag #HandsOffAlAqsa referred to the recent tensions between Arabs and Jews at the Temple Mount.
As part of the tweet, Khamenei proposed a referendum that would serve as a means for the elimination of Israel.

In his tweet, the first question the ayatollah seeks to answer is, “Why should the Zionist regime be eliminated?” His answer: “During its 66 years of life so far, the fake Zionist regime has tried to realize its goals by means of infanticide, homicide, violence and iron fist while boasts about it blatantly.”

Another question: “What is the most urgent action to take to militarily confront Israel?” Khamenei’s answer in part, “The West Bank should be armed like Gaza and those who are interested in Palestine’s destiny should take action to arm the people of the West Bank … .”

“So far as I know, Khamenei’s idea of a referendum has not been proposed by the Islamic Republic of Iran until now. It suggests that the Iranian leadership wishes to make common cause with the leftists also wanting to see Israel disappear,” Dr. Daniel Pipes, founder and president of the Middle East Forum, told jns.org.

In addition to the referendum, the Iranian leader called for Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza to fight against Israel, rejecting any U.N.-moderated negotiation.

Earlier this year, Iran had announced that it was increasing its effort to arm Palestinians in the West Bank.

“Arming the West Bank has started and weapons will be supplied to the people of this region,” said Iranian paramilitary network chief Mohammad Reza Naqdi, the Times of Israel reported.

The timing of Khamenei’s tweet also comes as the P5+1 nations—the U.S., U.K., France, Russia, China and Germany—are nearing a negotiated solution with Iran ahead of the Nov. 24 diplomatic deadline. On Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cautioned world powers not to rush into a bad deal with Iran on its nuclear program.

Referencing Khamenei’s plan, Netanyahu said in a statement that he sent a letter to the P5+1 countries that highlights Iran’s desire to destroy Israel.

“[Khamenei is] publicly calling for the annihilation of Israel as he is negotiating a nuclear deal with the P5+1 countries,” Netanyahu said.

“There is no moderation in Iran,” he added. “It is unrepentant, unreformed, it calls for Israel’s eradication, it promotes international terrorism, and as the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) report just said, it continues to deceive the international community about its nuclear weapons program. This terrorist regime in Iran must not be allowed to become a nuclear threshold power. I call on the P5+1 countries—don’t rush into a deal that would let Iran rush to the bomb.”

The Devil And His Endearing Words

Khamenei: The Only Cure for Israel is its Annihilation

By Elad Benari
First Publish: 11/9/2014, 4:24 AM

Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, on Saturday once again called for Israel’s destruction.

Khamenei’s latest provocation came in a series of tweets in which he launched a tirade against the Jewish state and called to arm Palestinian Arabs in Judea and Samaria.

“This barbaric, wolflike & infanticidal regime of #Israel which spares no crime has no cure but to be annihilated,” read one tweet.

“The only means to confront a barbaric regime like #Israel is arming West Bank,” read another tweet by the Supreme Leader.

“We’ve seen 100s of times that #Israel doesn’t abide by #peace.They didn’t even tolerate Arafat who cooperated w/them& poisoned him to death,” charged Khamenei in another post, referring to the death of former Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat.

“#WestBank should be armed just like #Gaza. Friends of Palestine should do their best to arm People in West Bank,” another tweet read.

This is certainly not the first time that Khamenei has called for Israel’s destruction. Last month, the Iranian leader accused Israel of having “no limit or boundaries regarding viciousness, cruelty, and trampling underfoot all human standards and ethnics. Crimes, genocide, mass destruction, the killing of children, women and the homeless…they take pride in.”

He previously said on Twitter that the Israel government was “the most wicked terrorist” in the world.
Khamenei has also called Israel an “illegitimate and bastard regime,” and further called the United States a “smiling enemy” that is not to be trusted.

The latest Twitter rant, ironically enough, comes just days after reports indicated that U.S. President Barack Obama had written a letter to Khamenei in which he indicated that cooperation on ISIS depends on an agreement being reached by the November 24 deadline regarding Iran’s nuclear program.

The White House would not comment on the reports and would only reiterate that Washington’s policy toward Iran has not changed, but Obama’s national security advisor, Susan Rice, on Friday said that Washington was “not engaged with Iran” regarding ISIS.