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Obama Denies Agreement With Iran For Direct Talks After Election, Israel Says it Knows Nothing (+video)

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By Paige Winfield Cunningham and Dave Boyer. The White House denied a report that it set up direct talks with Iran about its nuclear program, but that didn’t halt a flurry of speculation Sunday.

Democrats said the talks, if they are happening, prove that sanctions supported by President Obama have worked; Republicans accused the Iranians of using the U.S. election to buy time for their nuclear weapons development.

Iran has agreed to directly negotiate with the U.S., but with the caveat that talks not take place until after the Nov. 6 presidential election, according to a weekend report by The New York Times. While Iranian officials cited uncertainty about the election as a reason for delaying talks, Sen. Lindsey Graham said that’s just a “ploy” allowing them to use the election cycle “in a pretty clever way.”

“I think the Iranians are trying to take advantage of our election cycle to continue to talk,” the South Carolina Republican told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.” “I think the time for talking is over, we should be demanding transparency and access to their nuclear program.”

With the presidential election just 15 days away, there’s little the White House does that isn’t being viewed through a political lens — and that’s especially true when it comes to foreign policy, with GOP candidate Mitt Romney and other Republicans criticizing how Mr. Obama has handled touchy situations in countries like Iran, Libya and Afghanistan. Read more from this story HERE.

Today, Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu commented on the report of the Obama Administration’s direct talks with Iran. He stated that he believes Iran is continuing to use bad faith negotiations as a tool to delay while it develops its nuclear capability:

Video: Netanyahu’s anti-Iran UN Speech-`The Hour is Getting Late . . . Very Late’

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Prime Minister Netanyahu lays out his case against a nuclear-armed Iran. No one could have said it better:

Video: Netanyahu Ads Being Run by Conservative Group in Florida

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Watch the anti-Obama ad that’s being run by a conservative group in Florida. In it, Netanyahu confronts Obama’s failure to address the Iranian threat.

Romney & Netanyahu: “Two Peas in a Pod”

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Photo credit: DonkeyHotey

Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s comments expressing doubt about Palestinians’ commitment to peace again highlight the closeness of his position to that of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Romney has sometimes echoed hardline Israeli positions similar to those of Netanyahu, although not always intentionally in public.

In a newly disclosed video clip of a private fundraiser in May, Romney tells wealthy supporters that Palestinians “have no interest” in peace with Israel and that the conflict “is going to remain an unsolved problem.”

The video’s disclosure comes at a time when the Israeli leader, a personal friend of Romney since they worked together in Boston financial houses as young men, has been closely involving himself in the U.S. presidential race.

Netanyahu increasingly has criticized allies including President Barack Obama who have failed to agree to declare a “red line” for Iran — one that could trigger a U.S. military response if crossed.

Read more from this story HERE.

Netanyahu Circumvents Obama, Makes Direct Appeal to US Voters Regarding Iran Nukes (+video)

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a direct appeal to American voters on Sunday to elect a president willing to draw a “red line” with Iran, comparing Tehran’s nuclear program to Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh and reminding Americans of the devastating repercussions of failed intelligence.

His remarks were an impassioned election-season plea from a world leader who insists he doesn’t want to insert himself into U.S. politics and hasn’t endorsed either candidate. But visibly frustrated by U.S. policy under President Barack Obama, the hawkish Israeli leader took advantage of the week’s focus on unrest across the Muslim world and America’s time-honored tradition of the Sunday television talk shows to appeal to Americans headed to the polls in less than two months.

Tehran claims its nuclear program is peaceful. Netanyahu said the U.S. would be foolish to believe that, using football metaphors and citing example of past terrorist attacks on U.S. soil to appeal to his American audience.

“It’s like Timothy McVeigh walking into a shop in Oklahoma City and saying, ‘I’d like to tend my garden. I’d like to buy some fertilizer … Come on. We know that they’re working on a weapon,’” Netanyahu said.

The past week, Netanyahu has called on Obama and other world leaders to state clearly at what point Iran would face a military attack. But Obama and his top aides, who repeatedly say all options remain on the table, have pointed to shared U.S.-Israeli intelligence that suggests Iran hasn’t decided yet whether to build a bomb and that there would be time for action beyond toughened sanctions already in place.

Read more from this story HERE.

Obama Set to Meet Muslim Brotherhood While Snubbing Netanyahu

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President Obama invited Muslim Brotherhood-backed Egyptian President Mohammad Morsi to meet him in New York next week, right after publicly snubbing a request from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to meet with him and discuss the escalating crisis over a nuclear Iran. The Egyptian president’s invitation follows upon repeated protests at the U.S. embassy in Cairo.

The initial protest at the Cairo embassy began on the eleven-year anniversary of the September 11th attacks, and led to the compound’s breach. An official U.S. flag was confiscated and burned. Renewed clashes with Egyptian protesters have led to more American flag burnings and the firing of tear gas to disperse the crowd.

Oddly enough, several protesters spotted at the Cairo embassy were wearing Guy Fawkes masks, which are popular with members of anarcho-socialist movements. It should be noted that the Muslim Brotherhood is an organization that can be justifiably described as a blending of socialist and Islamist traditions.

Even though the political situation in Egypt is fluid, President Obama forgave a billion dollars owed to the U.S. by the Egyptian government and guaranteed a billion dollar infrastructure loan for the country. A recent intelligence report disclosing increasingly closer ties between Egypt and Iran is a red flag that all effective military aid to the country should undergo further State Department review.

The reaction of the Cairo embassy has been a cause for concern for the Obama administration, which has separated itself from the besieged embassy’s public relations campaign. The Cairo embassy originally condemned “the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions.”

Read more from this story HERE.

Al Qaeda Releases Video of American Hostage Captured in Pakistan (+video)

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By Muhammad Lila. Al Qaeda has released a new video of American hostage Warren Weinstein delivering a personal message to Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu.

In the video, Weinstein, 71, believed to be held in the tribal regions along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, appears healthy and calm, speaking in a soft, controlled manner.

“Unfortunately President Obama and the American government have shown no interest in my case,” Weinstein says in the video, seated on a chair with his back slightly slouched, wearing a thin white t-shirt.

“Therefore, as a Jew, I’m appealing to you, Prime Minister Netanyahu, the head of the Jewish state of Israel, one Jew to another, to please intervene on my behalf.”

Weinstein, a former Peace Corps and USAID official, was kidnapped from his home in an upscale neighborhood in Lahore in August 2011 after gunmen tricked his security guard into letting them enter the premises. At the time, Weinstein was working as the country director for J.E. Austin Associates, a consultancy firm whose website states its goal is to “improve productivity, to enhance competitiveness, to strengthen management and strategy implementation, and to facilitate economic development.” According to the website, the company works with government and non-government organizations. Read more from this story HERE.

This ABC News Report includes segments from the Al Qaeda video:

US to Iran: ‘In Case of Israeli Strike, Please Don’t Fire on Our Bases’

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The United States has no intention of joining in a preemptive Israeli strike on Iran and expects the Islamic Republic to refrain from attacking US targets in the case of such an attack, senior Washington officials told their Iranian counterparts, according to a report in Yedioth Ahronoth on Monday.

In recent days, senior administration officials reportedly sent messages to Iran, through diplomats from two European states, addressing the possibility that Israel would launch a unilateral strike and establishing that the US expects Iran to not draw it into a conflict by firing on American army bases and aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf.

Monday’s report came amid widespread debate over the level of coordination between Israel and the US on halting Iran’s nuclear program, which — despite assurances by US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro on Sunday that the relationship is as good as ever — appeared to be strained.

While Israel has warned that the Iranians are quickly approaching a potential weapons capability and that the use of force must be seriously considered, the US says sanctions and international diplomacy must be given more time to work.

Highlighting the disagreement between the two countries on the use of force were reports of a scaling-down of joint US-Israel missile defense exercises in October, and public comments by the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, who said last Thursday that he did not want to be “complicit” in an Israeli attack on Iran.

Read more from this story HERE.

Israeli TV: Decision by Netanyahu, Barak to strike Iran is almost final

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak have “almost finally” decided on an Israeli strike at Iran’s nuclear facilities this fall, and a final decision will be taken “soon,” Israel’s main TV news broadcast reported on Friday evening.

Channel 2 News, the country’s leading news program, devoted much of its Friday night broadcast to the issue, detailing the pros and cons that, it said, have taken Netanyahu and Barak to the brink of approving an Israeli military attack despite opposition from the Obama administration and from many Israeli security chiefs.

Critically, the station’s diplomatic correspondent Udi Segal said, Israel does not believe that the US will take military action as Iran closes in on the bomb.

The US, the TV report said, has not provided Israel with details of an attack plan. President Obama has not promised to attack Iran if all else fails. Conditions cited by Defense Secretary Leon Panetta for an American attack do not calm Israeli concerns. And Obama has a record of seeking UN and Arab League approval before action. All these factors, in Jerusalem’s mind, underline the growing conviction of Netanyahu and Barak that Israel will have to tackle Iran alone, the TV report said.

Israel’s leaders have also noted that president George W. Bush vowed repeatedly that North Korea would not be allowed to attain a nuclear weapons capability — a vow that proved empty.

Read more from this story HERE.