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Studio B with Shepard Smith

Iran Nuke Showdown

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Shepard Smith: Well the United States now reports it’s one of the top state sponsors of terror is determined to become a nuclear power. Today, word from Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that its atomic program is almost there, in his words, translated. Now here in Studio B is Alireza Jafarzadeh. He is Fox News’ Foreign Affairs Analyst and author of a brand new book: The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis. Is it here, Alireza?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well the crisis is here, already. I think ever since Ahmadinejad took office as the new president, he’s intent on getting the Iranian regime its first nuclear bomb and also turn Iraq into an Islamic republic and I think he’s on schedule.

Shepard Smith: For both things?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: For both things.

Shepard Smith: Alright, I want to talk about the two of them and popular resistance inside the country. But first, is this a foregone conclusion? Is there a fait accompli here? Are they stoppable?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: I think they are stoppable.

Shepard Smith: How?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: But not the way…

Shepard Smith: Well then how? Just by sitting down and talking?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Absolutely not.

Shepard Smith: Direct contact?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: It doesn’t work that way. Because the Ayatollahs have already determined…

Shepard Smith: They run the place anyway don’t they?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: They run the place anyway, they want to get the bomb at any cost. They feel that the international community is not decisive enough. Therefore they can get away with violating their own commitments with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.

Shepard Smith: You know what maybe we should do quickly? Let’s back up and explain what an Ayatollah is and does.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well the Ayatollah has an agenda in Iran to suppress its own population. But also, it has a global agenda to establish a global Islamic republic elsewhere.

Shepard Smith: All religious?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: All religious.

Shepard Smith: Yet with oil in their palms.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: They have all the resources in their hands. They would dominate the way of thinking of the population. They are telling the Iranian population how to think, how to dress, who to talk to …

Shepard Smith: Is it like a religious mafia sort of controlling the people?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: They are using religion to run their own mafia network. It really, in reality, has no basis in the religion. Islam is not a religion of violence and intolerance.

Shepard Smith: And Ahmadinejad is what in relation to them? As president he is what?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: He runs their operation.

Shepard Smith: He runs the operation for the Ayatollahs.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: For the Ayatollahs. He is their president: he carries out their operations, their messages, and he has been groomed by the Ayatollahs. I went into his own history in my book extensively how he was groomed by the Ayatollahs, especially by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards for many years before he became president. And he believes in the establishment of a global Islamic rule: that was his campaign message during the presidential elections.

Shepard Smith: Of course, and yet, when we look back just a few short years, just before this crisis with Iraq, all you heard from inside sources in Iran was this popular movement against an Islamic regime and for power to the people. And we heard so much about how they might be able to rise up with a little help. Where are we now?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well the problem is that the Iranian regime badly suppressed the Iranian population. The Iranian population got not support from the international community.

Shepard Smith: And I wonder why that is. We were busy with something else kind of, maybe a war in Iraq.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Absolutely, in fact when the nuclear sites were revealed by the Iranian opposition in August of 2002, instead of focusing on the threat from Tehran, the whole world was preoccupied with the coming crisis in Iraq. So the Ayatollahs got away with that.

Shepard Smith: Can that uprising of, by, and for the people, can it be supported now to a degree to which it might be helpful within the country and the region?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: I think it has to.

Shepard Smith: How?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Because first of all there were some four thousand anti-government demonstrations in the past one year.

Shepard Smith: Never hear about them.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Major upheavals in the southern province Khuzestan, northwest of Iran Azerbaijan, the capital Tehran. The younger generation of Iran is vehemently opposed to the Iranian regime. There is an organized opposition both inside Iran that is responsible for some of these revelations, but also outside of Iran.

Shepard Smith: Much like people may understand Cuba and the resistance here in south Florida.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: I think it’s much further than that.

Shepard Smith: But that kind of thing.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Absolutely, but much more deep rooted. Tens of thousands of members and supporters of this movement were executed by the Iranian regime. Yet the State Department, and the International community were silent about it…

Shepard Smith: Why?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Because they thought that if they don’t rock the boat with the Ayatollahs…

Shepard Smith: It will just fix itself?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: It will fix itself or they can find a way of negotiating with the Ayatollahs, that they would eventually be able to change the behavior of the Iranian regime. They tried it for eight years under Khatami, the previous president. And they still haven’t given up with this new president, Ahmadinejad. And I think with the prospect of a nuclear Iran, with what Iran is doing in Iraq, we cannot afford not pursuing a whole new policy that will be focused on empowering the Iranian opposition, removing all restrictions from them, and letting them settle their case with the Ayatollahs.

Shepard Smith: A fascinating take on it all, the book, for those of you interested in the Iran crisis man alive if you’re a student of politics or international politics and all the threats that come, this is one to pick up.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Comes in January, 2007.

Shepard Smith: It’s called The Iran Threat: President Ahmadinejad and the Coming Nuclear Crisis. The crisis is upon us. The book is here in January. Alireza, good to see you.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Thank you, great pleasure to be on your show, Shepard.

Iran‘s End Game

by Alireza Jafarzadeh

The recent fighting that has escalated in southern Lebanon and northern Israel once again highlights the fact that Iran under the Ayatollahs is a serious international threat facing the world. The Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Hamidreza Assefi, was asked about the closely coordinated timing of the kidnapping of the two Israeli soldiers and Iran’s rejection of the package of incentives provided by the five permanent members of the Security Council and Germany. He responded by implicitly confirming the widely believed suspicion that Iran was the main instigator of the crisis and that it acted in an effort to deflect attention from Iran’s nuclear weapons program, spread the scope of Iran’s conflict with the West into Lebanon, and overshadow its extensive destabilizing activities in Iraq. Assefi said that it is natural that Iran would be on the side of the people and the government of Lebanon, as well as Syria.

Ironically, the first Iranian official who traveled to Syria since the crisis broke out was none other than Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani.

The deadly fighting in Lebanon has already postponed Security Council consideration of a draft resolution that would demand a halt to Iran’s sensitive nuclear fuel work. The Security Council was expected to take up the draft resolution this week. But instead of discussing Iran, the council on July 17 met behind closed doors to take up the dangerous Middle East crisis.

“I would have expected that as of this morning, we would have been working on the Iran resolution, but Iran’s proxies in the Middle East, Hamas and Hezbollah, obviously have other work in mind,” US Ambassador John Bolton said on July 18.

Saeed Aboutaleb, a senior Iranian parliamentary member was quoted in the Aftab Yazd newspaper, saying that Lebanon is now the front line of the Islamic world.

In a July 16 interview with the Al-Arabiya, the Dubai-based satellite TV channel, Lebanese Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, described Lebanon as a proxy battleground for Iran in its conflictive dealings with the international community over mounting pressure to curtail its nuclear program.

“The war is no longer Lebanon’s … it is an Iranian war,” said Jumblatt, who is the leader of the Progressive Socialist Party. He added, “Iran is telling the United States: You want to fight me in the Gulf and destroy my nuclear program? I will hit you at home, in Israel.”

In an interview with Iran’s state-run television, General Mohsen Reza’i, former commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), who has long had a hand in exerting Iran’s influence in Lebanon, said that proper grounds have now been prepared for us to “God willing take advantage and wage a new wave against Israel.”

Hossein Shariatmadari, a close confidant of the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and the editor of Khamenei’s mouthpiece, the Kayhan newspaper, said “Iraq is on the tip of our fingers, so is Palestine.”

Ayatollah Ghorbanali Dorri Najafabadi, the Attorney General of the Iranian regime, referred to the current Middle East crisis as an “historic opportunity” for the Iranian regime. General Rahim Safavi, commander-in-chief of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, said that the futures of Syria, Lebanon and Iraq are tied to one another. He added that, if they all join together, they will “dominate the entire Middle East.” Iranian paramilitary Bassij forces (one of the five forces of the IRGC) are an “idol for the entire Islamic world; you should learn from Iranian Bassij,” he said, thus revealing Iran’s bigger agenda to dominate the region as part of its broader design to establish global Islamic rule.

What is now happening in Lebanon did not take shape overnight. To set the stage for this dirty war, Iran stepped up its dispatch of weapons, ammunition and missiles to Lebanon over the course of the past several months. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards forces, long present inside Lebanon were augmented. Former Revolutionary Guards commander, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was propelled to the presidency by Supreme Leader Khamenei precisely in order to execute his road map for production of an Iranian nuclear bomb, dominate Iraq, and expand Iran’s influence across the Middle East and beyond. Since Ahmadinejad’s ascendancy to the Iranian presidency in August 2005, Tehran has been shuttling its officials or its proxies incessantly between Tehran, Damascus, and Beirut to coordinate its activities and implement the road map.

In a speech broadcast on state television on July 16, Khamenei demonstrated the dominant, Big Brother role that Iran plays in Lebanon, when he asserted that Hizballah would not disarm. “The U.S. president says Hizballah must be disarmed. It’s clear that (the U.S.) and Zionists want this, but it won’t happen.”

Speaking to thousands of anti-Israel demonstrators in Tehran’s Palestine Square, parliament Speaker Gholam Ali Haddad Adel warned Israelis: “The towns you have built in northern Palestine are within the range of the brave Lebanese children. No part of Israel will be safe.” Haddad Adel added praise for Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, calling him a “brave lion.”

Meanwhile, in a significant and perhaps unanticipated development, key Arab governments have blamed Lebanese proxy groups and their main sponsor, Iran, for the current crisis. Saudi Arabia, together with Jordan, Egypt, and several Persian Gulf states, chastised Iran and Hezbollah for “unexpected, inappropriate and irresponsible acts” at an emergency Arab League summit meeting in Cairo on July 15. The rare willingness of those governments to defy public opinion in their own countries underscores a significant shift that has been prompted by the growing influence of Iran in Iraq and across the region.

“There is a school of thought, led by Saudi Arabia, that believes that Hezbollah is a source of trouble, a protégé of Iran, but also a political instrument in the hands of Iran,” Adnan Abu Odeh, a Jordanian sociologist told the New York Times. ‘This school says we should not play into the hands of Iran, which has its own agenda, by sympathizing or supporting Hezbollah fighting against the Israelis.” Efforts to strengthen this de facto Arab coalition are key to defeating the Iranian regime’s regional and global agenda.

Iran’s ruling clerics would be the biggest loser were peace in the region and the establishment of democracy in Iraq to succeed. The current situation is the outcome of Western countries turning a blind eye to Iran’s export of terrorism and Islamic extremism for over two decades. Tehran has never paid a price for its decades-long sponsorship of terrorism; instead, it has cashed in on a continuous flow of profits by exacting concessions from the West.

The international community must ensure that Iran’s war mongering in the Middle East comes to an end. To permit Tehran’s terror machine to emerge the victor in this current Middle East crisis would be to court disaster down the road, especially if Iran manages to acquire a nuclear weapons capability. Such an outcome would place the region and the world in a far more dangerous predicament than we currently face.

Jafarzadeh revealed the existence of Natanz uranium enrichment facility, and Arak heavy water facility in August 2002. He first disclosed the details of Iran’s involvement in the Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia, in 1997, and the Jewish Community Center bombing in Argentina in 1993.

Prior to becoming a contributor for FOX, and until August 2003, Jafarzadeh acted for a dozen years as the chief congressional liaison and media spokesperson for the US representative office of Iran’s parliament in exile, the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

Revolutionary Guards Building Secret Tunnel Northeast Tehran

Juliet Huddy: For war on the nuclear standoff with Iran we’ve got, UN nuclear watch dog, the IAEA information on that. They said today “Iran has one month to suspended its uranium Enrichment activities or be referred to UN Security Council.

Mike Jerrick: Here is now Fox News Foreign Affair Analyst, Alireza Jafarzadeh, who in 2002 revealed, remember this, you did this Alireza back in 2002, revealed the existence of these nuclear sites in Iran. Nice job and you are still investigating and talking about it. What’s the latest, I understand you have information about underground tunnels now.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Exactly, I have continued to reveal information ever since 2002. Just a few days ago I came out with information that suggested the Iranian Revolutionary Guards are actually involved in building a tunnel, a secret tunnel in the northeast of Tehran 150ft down and then it leads to four parallel tunnels that are used for nuclear research and development once it is completed. So it is a very serious development because this is the latest in a series of other tunnels Iran has been building. It suggests three things actually: Number one; Iran is increasingly moving its nuclear weapons program under ground and making it more protective, more leak proof. Second, they are increasingly getting the Iranian Revolutionary Guards increasingly in charge of the whole program and third,  they are speeding up the process while they are negotiating with the EU3 and the IAEA supposedly to suspend the program but to the contrary, speeding up the process.

Juliet Huddy: Well backfiring on them though because these are obviously supposed to be secret tunnels but they are being built in neighborhoods, residential areas.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: What they are doing is, they are actually doing that to conceal the existence of these tunnels. This one is right in a residential area to protect it against possible attacks.

Mike Jerrick: Air strikes

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Air strikes absolutely, but I think this is serious because if Iran is allowed to continue with the speed that they are continuing, don’t forget Iran claimed in November of 2004 that they froze all of their enrichment related activities including their activities at the site in Natanz but the reality is that they never stopped it. The construction process in Natanz has continued ever since and they are closer to completing the program than they have ever been.

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

Is Iran’s President a New Hitler

Neil Cavuto: Is the president of Iran a new Hitler? First he wanted Israel wiped off of the map, then he said move Israel to Europe, I kid you not, now he calls the whole Holocaust a “Myth”. Is the only answer for this guy a regime change in Iran? The people in the markets are beginning to question that. Alireza Jafarzadeh says that is exactly what we need to do and we can do it without firing a single shot. He is Fox News Foreign Affairs Analyst.  It is interesting Alireza, what is happing here. Everyday he seams to kind of, that is the Iranian President says more inflammatory stuff. Why is he doing that?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well Neil, he has a strategy, and he is basically executing his strategy. He tested the waters in the beginning by calling Israel to be wiped off the map and nothing happened. There was no international reaction. Then he called for moving Israel to Europe, nothing happened, now he is questioning the whole Holocaust and still nothing happens. He is doing it because he feels the international community is not prepared to confront the Iranian regime. They feel that there is an open field ahead of them and they have this whole ideology of exporting Islamic revolution to the rest of the world. And this is the best opportunity for him to do it.

Neil Cavuto: You know that the reason why we gave the Hitler analogy now is because there is a lot to analyze there…. And the collective European community, kind of ignored Hitler even as he was beginning to take over country after country. I am beginning to wonder, not that Iran is gotten to that point, even with the crazy bellicose statement this guy made that we still get the same kind of treatment that Europe had with Hitler.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well, that is a great analogy, Neil you are drawing, because this is exactly what is happening. There was Chamberlin and people at the time who were making such suggestions. Now the same thing is happening. I  would have expected that Europe and the entire West would be really reacting very strongly, calling at the United Nation Security Council for expelling Iran from the council, or taking some specific measures. Nothing has happened and it is appalling that I think there is no policy here in the United States; the State Department is not reacting properly. They are not reaching out to forces in Iran who want to unseat the Ayatollahs and replace them with a democratic government.

Neil Cavuto: That is always very hard to do. If you go back to the Bay of Pigs with Cuba to take over or unseat a government is a challenge, but do you think because of the war that we are raging in Iraq that Europeans are looking at this and saying, you know you get mixed up in this region and you know it isn’t worth it.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well that certainly acts as an excuse, but that does not justify their inaction.

Neil Cavuto: So what would you do now with the Israelis who know that these guys are building nuclear facilities presumably all over Iran; Should Israel do what he did in 1980 in Iraq and just bomb it or can it?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well what they did in 1981 in Osirak, I don’t think is repeatable regarding Iran because first of all, Iran is a totally different country. Their program is dispersed all throughout the country, moved underground.  I just revealed last month underground tunnels where Iran is hiding its nuclear weapons program. That is why I think there is an easier way that needs to be pursued both by the countries in the region and the United States; that is to reach out to the Iranian people, to the Iranian opposition, empowering them for them to unseat the Ayatollahs. This is something that has not been done in the past.

Neil Cavuto: You might want to empower them and you know this region far better than do I but when you empower the opposition but something shows that you don’t fully support that yet, there is nasty habit of dying in those events so it is going to take a lot more that empowering the opposition.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Certainly it starts by the empowering of the opposition. It is not the end of it but what I am saying is that for the past 25 years, this policy has not being pursued neither by the Europeans nor the State Department. Nothing of this nature has been done; to the contrary isn’t it appalling Neil that the main Iranian opposition who has built a very good relationship with the U.S military on the ground in Iraq, is still on the State Department’s terrorist list when Ahmadinejad is making such inflammatory statements?

Neil Cavuto: That is a very good point.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: That is why I think you need to send a strong signal to the Iranian regime that U.S policy has now shifted and a signal to the Iranian people that the U.S. is now ready to help.

Neil Cavuto: Well Alireza, very good points. We all appreciate it.

November 24, 2005

Is Iran Building Secret Tunnels and

Expanding Nuclear Program?

Jamie Colby: Meantime new accusations about Iran’s nuclear program.  Iran’s military is accused of expanding construction of secret underground tunnels to hide equipment for nuclear capable missiles, and my next guest, Fox Foreign Affairs Analyst Alireza Jafarzadeh, helped expose nuclear facilities in Iran and I want to thank you for joining us and you’ve done this with a bit of risk, haven’t you, getting this information, releasing this information, about what’s going on underground.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Thank you, Jamie, Happy Thanksgiving to you and the great viewers of Fox. Certainly there’s tremendous risk, especially on those who are providing this information, risking their own lives, and some have actually been killed, but the flow of information has continued ever since 2002 when the main revelations came.

Jamie Colby: I know you likely can’t reveal exactly who the sources are, but how many people know what’s going on and what types of people are in touch with you?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well, the information comes from the network associated with the Iran opposition inside the Iranian regime.  These are people who have access to the information, directly to these sites, to these sources, to this information, who have provided information, gotten it through proper ways outside of the country, and that’s how I’ve been getting this information.  It’s a very risky situation, it’s a very secretive operation, but it has been extremely successful in revealing a good portion of Iran’s nuclear weapons program.

Jamie Colby: And should we be concerned not only about Iranian involvement but also North Korea?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Actually, Jamie, that’s a good point you mentioned, because these facilities that I was recently informed about, it’s a huge area near Tehran, in southeast of Tehran, that the military has taken over, and they have built underground tunnels that is used for building nuclear capable missiles and the facilities are built with significant help of North Koreans.  In fact, the North Koreans have provided the blueprint, the know-how and the technology, and if it wasn’t for the North Koreans’ help, I don’t think Iran would have been able to develop it this far.

Jamie Colby: Yes, absolutely, it’s a frightening combination, thanks for bringing us the very latest, happy holidays to you.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Happy holidays to you too.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Are Secret Tunnels in Iran

Hiding Nuclear Missiles?

Neil Cavuto: Well you know Iran is suspected of trying to build nukes, but if my next guest is right, they are doing a lot more than that. It’s actually building secret tunnels all over the region to hide and transport missiles to carry bombs. This would not be the first time that Iranian exile Alireza Jafarzadeh has helped expose nuclear facilities in Iran. He is a FOX News Foreign Affairs Analyst and the President of Strategic Policy Consulting and virtually everything he has predicted from this region has come to pass, so pay attention. Scary stuff if you’re right.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: It is Neil.  This new information is amazing because it shows that under the order of [Iran’s] Supreme Leader Khamene’i the Revolutionary Guards and the Defense Ministry have taken a large portion, about thirty thousand acres of area near Tehran that they have built tunnels and underground facilities that is used now for producing nuclear capable missiles.

Neil Cavuto: So, in other words they can ship these missiles all over the place so even if Israel had the bright idea that they did with Iraq in 1980 and bombed one of them, it’d be like catching cockroaches.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: In fact what Iran has done since the revelations of all of the major nuclear sites of Iran first started in August of 2002 by the Iranian opposition, Iran has shifted strategies in three ways:

First, it has moved the program underground and now in tunnels under the mountains, this is the latest example.   Second, it has brought the program under the control of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards and the Defense Ministry to give it more protection, it also makes it off limits to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspection teams that cannot go to military sites and third it  has sped up the process to get the bomb.

Neil Cavuto: Speeding up for what purpose?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Its whole purpose is to get the Iranian regime its first nuclear bomb as quickly as possible…

Neil Cavuto: For what intention?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Their intention is to dominate the entire region and the entire Muslim world. The Iranian Ayatollahs have made it very clear that they believe in global Islamic rule and they want to dominate the Islamic countries and later they want to expand it to other countries. What Ahmadinejad said in calling for wiping Israel off the map, it was not just an off the cuff [remark].

Neil Cavuto: You’re talking about Iran’s elected leader.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: That’s right.

Neil Cavuto: He and other officials from the government were meeting with Iraq’s leadership and that raised a lot of issues. Just how tight are these countries? Are they?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Absolutely, I think this is very troublesome because Iran has been extensively involved in Iraqi affairs for many years. There was a war for eight years and Iran used to develop proxy groups in Iran and after the invasion of Iraq, Iran has been sending weapons, arms, funding the insurgency there, explosives and training. Intelligence agents from Iran are all over Iraq.

Neil Cavuto: What do they want to do? It’s not just a matter of just taking over Iraq, they want a Muslim state?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Actually what they would like to see is a sister Islamic Republic modeled after Iran, but if they cannot accomplish that…

Neil Cavuto: Which is a super conservative, militant republic right?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: which would be a republic that would first be repressive against its own population, very strict, but also regionally and globally would be vehemently anti-American, anti-Israel and against the Arab countries that are the so called moderate Arab countries that don’t want to see an Islamic republic and I think this is very significant, and a serious threat.

Neil Cavuto: So let me ask you this Alireza, if those who oppose the war in Iraq right now had their way and troops were to be pulled out under an expedited schedule, what would happen then?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well, I think that would certainly pave the way for the more radical elements, who already have the upper hand in many areas there, and in fact their desire…

Neil Cavuto: There in Iraq?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: in Iraq, exactly

Neil Cavuto: So you’d get a country similar to Iran?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: You would have. And Imagine you would have Iran and Iraq with all the resources and all the power and population there, they can easily dominate the entire region and I don’t think it is going to be limited to the region, I think it is going to be expanded to Europe and ultimately to the United States.

Neil Cavuto: So you argue, it is in our interest to keep the troops there for no other reason than to allow this fledgling democracy to take hold?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: What I would argue is actually beyond that. Not only that, I think what the United States needs to do is be really tough on Islamic extremists in Iraq and reach out to the more moderate voices whether Sunni or Shiite in Iraq an close the borders in Iraq.

Neil Cavuto: They’ve tried…

Alireza Jafarzadeh: I don’t think they’ve tried it effectively.

Neil Cavuto: Because they are dealing with Syria and their dealing with Iran. It’s a mess.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: It is a mess only if they allow it to be a mess. I think the Iranian influence in Iraq has not been confronted. Syria is no match for them. I think what they can do is beat the Iranians at their own game. I think the U.S. or the more moderate voices in Iraq can…

Neil Cavuto: Will we some day have to go to war with Iran?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: I think that Iran has a war plan, not necessarily a war planned but a war plan for the United States. But there is no need for that because the United States can reach out to the Iranian opposition, the Iranian people who are already calling for regime change in Iran.

Neil Cavuto: All right Alireza, thank you very much.

Fox News Channel

November 20, 2005

Blueprints for Underground Tunnels near Tehran

Julie Banderas: Now to Iran and their nuclear ambitions. FOX has obtained some blueprints for underground tunnels near Tehran. Tunnels we’re told are directly connected to missile production. Let’s bring in Alireza Jafarzadeh, President of Strategic Policy Consulting and a FOX News Foreign Affairs Analyst. Thanks for being here today.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Good to be with you Julie.

Julie Banderas: On Monday, the Iran Policy Committee will present new information concerning the Iranian nuclear weapons program. Tell us, what is this new information?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well, Julie the information that I’ve obtained from my sources inside the Iranian regime–who were proven accurate in the past–indicate that the Iranian military, the Defense Ministry and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have been involved in an extensive program near Tehran that involves thousands of acres of area that they are building underground facilities, tunnels that are actually intended to develop nuclear capable missiles. So this program has been going on and for the first time the details are going to be revealed on Monday.

Julie Banderas: Interesting, so tell me, how does America stop Iran’s destructive role in Iraq. Does it take more than signing a memorandum of cooperation?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: It does, Julie. Knowing the fact that I think Iran is the biggest threat in the region, given its nuclear weapons program, given its advancement in its missile program and given their involvement in Iraq, I think it is wishful thinking if not ridiculous at best to think that signing memorandum of cooperation with Iran would actually help to stop their involvement. Iran itself is the source of instability, insecurity and violence in Iraq. It is Iranian bombs that are crossing the border to go to Basra, targeting British forces. It’s their bombs, the roadside bombs that target American forces and the Iraqi population. It is their money that is funding these things and it is their intelligence agents who are operating in Iraq. So instead of sharing intelligence with the Iranian regime’s network, what the Iraqi government needs to do is to cut off Iran’s hands, cut off Iranian agents in Iraq. Just a few days ago, a torture center was discovered in Jaderiah area near Baghdad that was run by pro-Iranian elements who were torturing Sunnis and Shiites who are opposed to the Iranian regime. That kind of operation by a government in Iraq is totally unacceptable and needs to be stopped.

Julie Banderas: Alireza, let’s talk about these blueprints for the underground tunnels near Tehran. Of course Tehran has been involved in terrorism and violence in Iraq. So how big of a threat are these blueprints we are looking at right now and how does America protect us from this?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well I think, every day as we get more information from the Iranian nuclear weapons program there is further indication that Iran is pursuing a very ambitious nuclear weapons program both in terms of its missile program which are nuclear capable so it’s part of the nuclear weapons program as well. So, the policy should be focused not just simply on negotiations and going through the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) but also the policy should be one that empowers the Iranian people and the Iranian opposition that are already intending to change the regime which is a threat for the whole region.  Short of military strikes or just limiting yourself to endless negotiations, I think the best policy would be a policy that would empower the Iranian people to take their own destiny into their own hands.

HOST: Alireza Jafarzadeh, thank you so much for talking with us about this today, very insightful.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Thank you very much, great to be here Julie.

26 August 2005

Fox News Channel

New Top Secret Information on Iran’s Nukes

Steve Doocy: Our next guest revealed seven nuclear sites in Iran, now he reveals the new top secret information.

Alisyn Camerota: Alireza Jafarzadeh is a Fox News Foreign Affairs Analyst and the President of Strategic Policy Consulting. He joins us from DC, Alireza tell us, what is this new top secret information you’ve discovered?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Good morning Alisyn, the information I’ve gotten from my sources inside the Iranian regime, who have been proven accurate in the past, clearly shows that Iranian military, particularly Iranian Revolutionary Guards has been extensively involved in the nuclear weapons program of the Iranian regime. I have details that goes back to some nearly 20 years ago, 1986, 1987, top commanders of the Revolutionary Guards have been involved in the nuclear weapons program of Iran and this is in a sharp contradiction with Iran’s claim that their program is for peaceful purposes and its for energy purposes and has nothing to do with their military.

Steve Doocy: And Alireza, I understand you are going to have a press conference revealing a lot of your information today at 10:00 o’clock, here at the National Press Club in Washington, DC. Something else that should prick up the ears of the Europeans is the fact that apparently Iran is also working on a missile that is capable of hitting Europe. And as it turns out it is the Europeans that we’re trusting to get some sort of negotiation going with the Iranians.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: That’s right Steve, the information I’m getting also indicates that Iran is developing a long range missile that has the reach of nearly 3,000 kilometers that brings Europe into the reach of missile range of Iran. This is something that Iran has been working on for the past four years. This is a nuclear capable missile and I would have lots of details on how they managed to develop this, which agencies, which individuals within the military have been involved in this.

And I think this should sound alarms to the Europeans who have been very compromising in the past two years of the negotiations between the EU3 and Iran have going on. They have shown no decisiveness what so ever and now 22 months after the negotiations, we are at the deadlock, Iran has increasingly been getting more and more aggressive, and bolder. And I think this is the time Europe should work together with the United States to call for referring Iran’s file to the United Nations Security Council. Stop offering carrots after carrots to the Ayatollahs because the Ayatollahs would only eat the  carrots and deliver nothing.

Alisyn Camerota: Alireza, we don’t have much time left, but what have your sources told you in terms of how developed this nuclear program is already in Iran?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Well Alisyn, the program is extensive, it’s advanced, it’s far more sophisticated than most experts expected or believed. My sources are telling me that Iran is perhaps somewhere between one to three years away from actually getting the capabilities to get the bomb.

And they have really all they need. They have the know-how, they have the resources they have the technology, they have the sites, they have the extensive program which is spread all over the country- from down south to the central part of the country. And they have camouflaged the whole program under a peaceful energy program.

Steve Doocy: Okay, Alireza Jafarzadeh, Fox News Foreign Affairs Analyst also the President of Strategic Policy Consulting Incorporated. Alireza, thanks for joining us on this Friday.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Thank you very much.

Friday, August 26, 2005

Special Report

With Brit Hume

Bitter battle over Iran’s nuclear ambitions deepens

Jim Angle: The bitter battle over Iran’s nuclear ambitions deepens after Iranian officials met face to face with the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Fox News White House Correspondent Wendell Goler has the details.

Wendell Goler: It sounded like a bluff at first. Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator thumbing his nose at the prospect of UN sanctions after meeting with the nuclear watchdog who could refer his country to the Security Council

Ali Larijani: With the power that Iran enjoys in the region there is no way Iran can be worried about the threat of the Security Council.

Wendell Goler: Larijani Spoke after talks with Mohammad ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency who will issue damning report on Iran next month. Sources say there is evidence that traces of enriched uranium found on equipment of Iran may have been the result of that countries own efforts and not just residue left on the equipment when it was purchased from Pakistan.

But the 35 member IAEA is unlikely to reach the necessary consensus for Security Council action because of divided opinions over Iran’s right to a civilian nuclear program and fears Iran might expel the agency’s inspectors and expand the program. Iranian opposition leaders say the U.S.-backed European efforts to negotiate with Iran have failed.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: “Policy of indecisiveness, appeasement, compromise, whatever you what to call it, has really backfired.”

Wendell Goler: Britain, Germany, and France cancelled an August 31st meeting with Tehran after Iran resumed uranium conversion earlier this month. The Bush Administration has repeatedly said UN sanctions should follow if talks aimed at ending Iran’s nuclear enrichment failed.

Sean McCormack, State Department Spokesman: “We would expect the next step is the issue be referred to the Security Council.”

Wendell Goler: But some US diplomats doubt the Security Council would agree to impose sanctions on Iran anyway. And Iran’s new conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the talks aren’t really dead. He’s preparing a plan, he says, that will enable his country to enrich uranium, but assure the world it’s not making nuclear weapons. Iranians have been protesting in favor of nuclear development and accusing the world of nuclear apartheid.

Ali Larijani: “The way things are moving today, the nuclear fuel is not only a right anymore, it’s a need.”

Wendell Goler: But Iran’s having 10% of the worlds oil reserves, opposition leaders warn its main nuclear interest is for weapons.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: “That’s the trend Iran is going to pursue, they’re number one priority is obtaining their nuclear weapon at any cost.”

Wendell Goler: Iran’s president promises a plan for civilian nuclear program by the end of next month. His hope and the American great fear is that the prospect of that will keep IAEA members from voting to refer Iran to the UN Security Council when they meet a few weeks from now.

Fox & Friends

Is Ahmadinejad a Hostage Taker?

Brian Kilmeade: Former U.S. hostages held in Iran back in 1979 say Iran’s new elected president was one of their captors.  President Bush in his administration wants answers.

Juliet Huddy: We want answers too.  Joining us right now is FOX News Foreign Affairs Analyst, Alireza Jafarzadeh. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Thank you very much

Juliet Huddy: Do you think Iran’s new President elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was one of the captors back in 1979?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Definitely Juliet.  Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was not only one of the captors he was one of the key players who planned the attack and was involved in keeping the hostages.

Juliet Huddy: So what’s the discrepancy?  Why do some people not think this is him?

Brian Kilmeade: Alireza, can you see the monitor right now?  Is that him holding the hostage’s arm?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Yes, [ I can see the monitor] I’ve talked to people who were his high school classmates for two years in the tenth and eleventh grades and this person believes this is him but the person I spoke to was not 100% sure.  The reason for the uncertainty is because this was 25 years ago.  Aside from the picture, I think the issue is not that picture that surfaced a few days ago.  I knew before that and I made it public that Ahmadinejad was part of the student group who took over the embassy, he was one of the five members of the coordinating committee of what was called the Office of the Consolidation of Unity that was the student body that was put together by Ayatollah Khomeini to spread his ideology to the universities; And it was this body that planned and later carried out the attack on the embassy so it is very clear to me and I checked it again with my sources inside Iran and they confirmed 100% that Ahmadinejad was involved.

Juliet Huddy: It’s surprising that there would be any question over this.  You would think the president would have a major background check on him and that everybody would know what is going on.  Let me ask you this, I saw one of the former hostages on the air last night and he was talking about how he saw a web site that appeared to be the personal web site of Ahmadinejad and this website actually mentioned his involvement in the 1979 hostage crisis. Do you know anything about this?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Yes Juliet there are a number of web sites that are run by various groups connected to the Iranian regime that talk about Ahmadinejad’s involvement in the embassy takeover.  Some of this is done in a positive way because that helps his background domestically so there are a number of web sites that talk about his involvement, not just as involvement but that he was involved in the planning, two or three weeks before the attack.

Brian Kilmeade: Here’s the big question, we know these are bad guys and they’ve never paid the price.  Those hostages were taken and there are strong rumors that what happened in Beirut when 200-plus Marines lost their lives, they continue to attack us subversively and we have not done anything. So does it surprise you that this guy it is a hero over there for doing the hostage thing and emerging as their leader?

Alireza Jafarzadeh: You are absolutely right Brian; I think you’ve nailed it.  The question is not whether that picture is of Ahmadinejad or not but clearly he has been a part of the system that has been involved, directly involved with the Revolutionary Guards known as the Jerusalem force that was responsible for the Marine barracks bombing in Lebanon and the Jewish community center bombing in Argentina and they’ve never paid the price for this.  This should be a turning point.

Juliet Huddy: Unfortunately we are out of time, Alireza thank you.

Alireza Jafarzadeh: Thank you very much.