WAR ON IRAN BEFORE APRIL?

    The Kuwait-based Arab Times reported on Sunday that the United States might launch a military strike against Iran before April 2007.

    The report, written by the daily's editor-in-chief Ahmed al-Jarallah citing a reliable source, said that the attack would be launched from the sea, while Patriot missiles would guard all Arab countries in the Gulf.

    The unidentified source claimed that Bush had recently held a meeting with Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other aides in the White House, where they discussed the plan to attack Iran in minute detail.

    He indicated that participants of the meeting agreed to "impose restrictions on the ambitions of Iranian regime" before April without exposing other countries in the region to any danger.

    Claiming the attack will be launched from the sea and not from any country in the region, he said, "The United States and its allies will target the oil installations and nuclear facilities of Iran ensuring there is no environmental catastrophe or after effects."

    The United States has started sending its warships to the Gulf and the build-up would continue until Washington has the required number by the end of this month, he said.

    According to the source, the Bush administration believes that attacking Iran will create a new power balance in the region, calming down the situation in Iraq and paving the way for its democratic project, which have to be suspended due to interference of Tehran and Damascus in Iraq.

    NEW DEFENSE SYSTEMS FOR IRAN

    In what could be a sign of the Iranian beefing up of military preparation in face of the U.S. sabre-rattling, Iran obtained new anti-aircraft missile systems from Russia.

    Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov confirmed on Tuesday that his country had delivered the Tor-M1 missile defense systems to Iran under a deal signed in 2005 and would consider further requests by Tehran for defensive weapons.

    "We have delivered modern short-range Tor-M1 air defense systems to Iran. We are developing our cooperation with Iran based on the provisions of international law and if Iran needs to procure defense weapons, we are ready for such cooperation," Ivanov was quoted by the Russian Interfax news agency as saying.

    Moscow struck the one-billion-U.S.-dollar deal with Tehran in November 2005 to supply it with Tor-M1 missiles.

    Russian officials described the missiles as air defense systems that are used only to bring down aircraft and guided missiles at low altitudes but cannot strike ground targets.

    Interfax said that Tor-M1 is capable of simultaneously tracing up to 48 targets and firing at two targets flying at altitudes ranging from 20 to 6,000 meters.

U.S. says it not planning to invade Iran

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The United States said on Tuesday that it is not planning to invade Iran and stressed diplomacy in trying to resolve Iran's nuclear issue.

U.S. criticizes Russia's delivery of missile defense systems to Iran

    WASHINGTON, Jan. 16 (Xinhua) -- The United States criticized on Tuesday Russia's delivery of TOR-M1 surface-to-air missile defense systems to Iran and said the delivery sent a wrong signal.

Iran says ready to hold talks with U.S. under suitable conditions

    TEHRAN, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- Iran has voiced its readiness to hold talks with the United States under "fair and suitable" conditions, the official IRNA news agency reported on Monday.

New U.S. defense chief tough on Iran

    BRUSSELS, Jan. 15 (Xinhua) -- The new U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday was tough on Iran, indicating that it is not the right time to engage with the Islamic republic.