APRIL 8th PREDICTION

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European banks bow under US pressure to cut Iran ties

23.05.2006 - 10:07 CET | By Helena Spongenberg

Four of Europe's biggest banks have been strong-armed by the US into cutting ties with Iran in what some western media are calling anti-nuclear sanctions through the "back door."

Pressured by threats of fines and loss of business, UBS and Credit Suisse of Switzerland, ABN Amro of the Netherlands and HSBC of the UK have all started to reduce their links with Iran, the New York Times reports.

Citing terrorist laws, top US officials have stepped up their efforts for banks in the Middle East, Europe and in North America to limit their activities in Iran, stressing the risky nature of dealing with a country that has repeatedly rebuffed EU and US demands to halt uranium enrichment activities.

Banks with branches or headquarters in the US have in the past faced fines for dealing with countries that Washington has sought to isolate and nearly all European banks have an office on US soil which is subject to US law.

Both Brussels and Washington had hoped that the UN security council would impose sanctions on Iran for its failure to comply with demands to stop its nuclear enrichment programme.

But Russia and China are reluctant to endorse sanctions, while enjoying trade partnerships with Iran. Attempts to end the gridlock and reach agreement on a UN resolution ended in failure two weeks ago.

Last week, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the EU could help Tehran with "the best and most sophisticated technology" for civilian nuclear use, if it really was the case that Iran's aim was to produce energy for peaceful purposes only.

http://euobserver.com/9/21671

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Israel's 70th Week?

http://fulfilledprophecy.com/why_it's_possible.html

Why It's Possible

Above is the European Union's (EU) own explanation of it's next financial period. Notice the coming budget will begin on January 1, 2007 and last until December 31, 2013 -- seven years.

In today's news we read about another so-called "strategic partnership" to begin in 2007. This time it's between the EU and Russia (Read about it here)>>>> http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?N...98825&PageNum=0

It's the date of this new agreement I want you to notice.

My point is, the EU's financial period is more than just a budget -- it's the EU's geo-strategic, political program. As far as we students of Bible prophecy are concerned, the seven-year element should already have our attention. But, there's more: We're also seeing what we would expect who believe in a coming revived Roman Empire. And, we're seeing what we would expect if the stage were being set for the coming Roman prince (Daniel 9:27).

Now, this is a pdf document from, of all places, neutral Sweden. Notice the document's title, Financial Perspectives 2007-2013 and EU as a global actor (Read it here)>>>> http://www.aprodev.net/devpol/Files/DevPol...-final-corr.pdf

Below we see the part of the EU's budget that has to do with the Mediterranean region and God's little nation Israel. It's called the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI).

As I've been reporting, the ENPI was created to be revived, or breathe new life, into an older agreement that wasn't working -- the Euro-Mediterranean Partnership for Peace (Euromed).

Euromed is literally a "covenant with the many" -- as described in the prophecy. It was negotiated back in 1995 by the EU's current High Representative, Javier Solana. It was between the then 15 EU member states and 12 Mediterranean states. Today those numbers have changed. As it stands now, Euromed is an agreement between 25 EU states and 10 Mediterranean states -- 35 total.

The ENPI is a seven-year financial and political instrument. It includes action plans in which the Mediterranean nations are to participate in order to reach the Euromed's ultimate goal -- the establishment of a region of free trade and stability by 2010. In other words, a revived Roman Empire. Israel was the first nation to sign its ENPI action plan.

Speaking of 2010, did you hear what Israeli Prime Minister Olmert said yesterday to the U.S. Congress? What he said was, one way or another, Israel will have her final borders by 2010. Do you think there could be a connection?

Perhaps you see why it's possible the 70th week of Daniel could be in view. The stage may be set perfectly for the foretold Roman prince. We have before us a covenant with many waiting to be confirmed for a seven year period. And, a new leader in Israel promising peace and security.

This brings up a good question about the EU. On January 1, who will be in charge?

Stay tuned!

05-25-06

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EU agrees 2009 treaty deadline but rifts remain

28.05.2006 - 18:39 CET | By Mark Beunderman

EUOBSERVER / VIENNA - Foreign ministers have agreed a 2009 deadline for consensus on a new EU treaty, while the European Commission suffered a blow with two of its key proposals failing to win support.

"The sky is clearing up

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EU urges US to end 'anomaly' of Guantanamo

01.06.2006 - 09:56 CET | By Lucia Kubosova

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The EU has appealed to Washington to close it Guantanamo prison for terror suspects, with the Austrian presidency referring to it as an "anomaly" which should be stopped "as soon as possible."

"Guantanamo is an anomaly. Therefore, from our point of view, the US must take measures to close the camp as soon as possible," said Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik in a statement delivered before the European Parliament on Wednesday (31 May).

Mrs Plassnik spoke on behalf of all EU member states, following several attempts by EU ministers the past few months to agree on such a declaration.

The Austrian foreign minister spoke out against the legal vacuum created by the detention of suspects at the Cuban naval base, stressing "human rights must be respected in this fight against terror."

The statement was welcomed by most political groups in the parliament, with several deputies urging Vienna to raise the issue at the EU-US summit in June - set to be attended by US president George W Bush.

MEPs suggested Washington should either release prisoners where there is no evidence against them or try them under international law.

Around 500 prisoners are currently kept at the Guantanamo prison, four years after the first suspects of links with Al Qaida or the Taleban, were brought in.

"How many more reports do we have to read about gross violations of human rights? The latest one from the Committee Against Torture makes the point again: that torture techniques, which should be abhorrent to any decent person, are still being used," said a British Liberal MEP Elizabeth Lynne.

But the German conservative chair of the parliament's foreign committee Elmar Brok, who visited the camp with an MEPs' delegation earlier this month, said the US has made some genuine effort to improve living conditions at the prison.

His Irish fellow member of the centre-right EPP-ED group Simon Coveney said the findings of the MEPs Guantanamo mission should be reflected in a planned European Parliament resolution and announced he would ask for a delay of the vote until June.

The current text of the resolution, backed by most political groups apart from the biggest EPP-ED faction, calls on the US to implement the UN recommendations immediately and stop all 'special interrogation techniques', including methods involving sexual humiliation, 'water boarding', 'short shackling' and using dogs to induce fear.

The parliament will decide whether to vote on the resolution or postpone it on Thursday (1 June).

http://euobserver.com/9/21738

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US to join Europe in Iran nuclear talks

01.06.2006 - 09:57 CET | By Helena Spongenberg

Signalling a major change in US policy towards Iran, Washington has said it will join the EU in direct talks with Tehran if the country suspends its controversial nuclear enrichment programme.

US president George W Bush said his country was taking a "leadership position" to diplomatically resolve the nuclear dispute with Iran, although US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice pointed out that the military option was still on the table, according to media reports.

Ms Rice stressed that Washington was determined to "give diplomacy its very best chance to succeed" in resolving the nuclear crisis with Iran when speaking before the US state department on Wednesday (31 May), reports Reuters news agency.

"Thus, to underscore our commitment to a diplomatic solution and to enhance the prospects for success, as soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the US will come to the table with our EU-3 colleagues and meet with Iran's representatives," she said.

Diplomats in Washington and in Vienna say that the new direction is aimed at getting China and Russia to give up their categorical resistance to UN sanctions against Iran if negotiations turn out fruitless.

"Now the US can get Russia and China's support for sanctions, if this multilateral approach falls apart, they can say,

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MEPs call for travel ban for Iranian president

01.06.2006 - 17:44 CET | By Aleander Balzan

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A coalition of MEPs is calling for an indefinite EU travel ban on Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as a reaction to his calls for Israel's destruction and his questioning of the Holocaust.

75 MEPs from different political groups within the European Parliament have signed a petition on the issue and sent it to the Austrian EU Presidency.

The petition asks that Mr Ahmadinejad be prevented from going to Germany to watch the Iranian football team play in the World Cup and it also asked for him to be banned from travelling to any of the other EU member states.

The same petition was also sent to FIFA, the association responsible for the organization of the World Cup.

"The possible arrival of the Iranian president on European territory is only one additional provocation," said liberal MEP Frederique Ries.

"Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a negator for whom Shoah/Holocaust is a 'myth' and Israel a State having 'to be erased from the map'", she said.

"Any visit by the Iranian leader to Europe will send the wrong signal to the European and international community, and particularly to those oppressed in Iran," said British Conservative MEP Charles Tannock.

"What we want is not a short term solution, we want the European Council to deal with the issue like it dealt with Lukashenko," added Jana Hybaskova, a member of the centre-right European People's Party.

The EU has already declared a travel ban on Belarus' authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko and 30 other top Belarusian officials following the March presidential elections, which the bloc considered unfair.

Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe is also banned from travelling in EU territories.

But any ban on Mr Ahmadinejad is very unlikely, particularly as European world powers - Britain, France and Germany - are insisting on dialogue as the way in which to resolve the Iranian nuclear crisis.

Iran qualified for the World Cup and the president was reportedly considering going to Germany to see the first match of the Iranian team, which will be held in Nuremberg on 11 June.

http://euobserver.com/9/21745

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Solana to talk Iran into new nuclear deal

06.06.2006 - 09:50 CET | By Lucia Kubosova

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana is meeting the Iranian authorities in Tehran in a bid to convince them to resolve a heated dispute over nuclear enrichment and accept a new nuclear package agreed last week.

Shortly after his arrival on Monday evening (5 June), Mr Solana told reporters he hoped the new package would "enable a new phase of relations between Iran and the EU based on mutual respect and trust," according to press reports.

He is scheduled to meet Iranian foreign minister Manuchehr Mottaki and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani to deliver the compromise proposal, hammered out by five permanent members of the UN Security Council

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Solana's Deal

The man presenting the deal to Iran is known. And, there's reason to believe the deal may even be his. The man I'm talking about, of course, is the EU's Javier Solana. The deal is the so-called "package of incentives" agreed upon in Vienna by the UN's big five, and to be presented to the nuclear club wannabe Iran (Read about it here)>>>> http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4771921.stm

If you recall, this on again, off again, negotiations we've been witnessing between the Western world and Iran began over a year ago with the EU3 -- France, Germany and Britain -- taking the lead. And, after succeeding only in being made a fool of, the EU3 invited Solana to help.

So, I suspect the deal we're seeing presented is not only a European deal, it's most likely Solana's European deal. After all, the best person to pitch a deal is the author of the deal.

To further support my theory, at the same time the package is being delivered to Iran, Britain's former negotiator and Foreign Minister, Jack Straw, has been replaced with Margaret Beckett. And, unlike Straw, Beckett has no reputation in matters of foreign policy (Read about her here)>>>> http://www.number10.gov.uk/output/Page1383.asp

Once again, this suggests to me the EU3 aren't in this diplomatic picture -- it's Solana's deal.

This brings up an interesting question. If, like some say, a break-through may be on the horizon, what can it possibly be that Iran wants and Solana has?

I'll tell you what I think: As you know, under Solana's guidance, the EU and the US have entered into a strategic partnership. As I record in my book, a treaty was reached between Brussels and Washington shortly after Solana's new security doctrine, A Secure Europe in a Better World, was delivered to the EU heads in June of 2003. Although the details of this new treaty remained secret, what was known is this -- the EU and the US would fight the war against terror together.

As I've been reporting, NATO is no longer solely an arm of American foreign policy. In only a few short years, NATO has been restructured into an equally European controlled defense system. And, at the center of this new European organ of NATO, we find the 10-nation Western European Union alliance, Solana and the emergency powers granted him by Recommendation 666.

If you recall, the Office Solana now occupies in the EU is also identified with that number. While Solana was still restructuring NATO to make this new European organ of NATO possible, the EU heads met in Vienna and created the Office of High Representative. And, out of over 1150 documents from that summit, this document happened to be numbered 666.

What does this have to do with Solana's deal to Iran? Well, notice who Solana met with first -- Israeli Prime Minister Olmert (Read about it here)>>>> http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid...icle%2FShowFull

Have you wondered why? Do you think it's possible Israel could be part of the deal?

This is the way I see it. The international community wants peace in the Middle East. The EU, under Solana's direction, is seeking to make their Euro-Mediterranean Partnership the foundation for that peace. America, evidently, is now willing to play along.

The goal may be to bring the entire Mediterranean region under NATO's security umbrella. For Israel, this may mean nuclear disarmament.

This could be Solana's deal.

06-05-06

http://fulfilledprophecy.com/solana's_deal.html

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Iran gives 'positive' reaction to nuclear deal

07.06.2006 - 10:00 CET | By Aleander Balzan

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said on Tuesday (6 June) that the proposals presented to Tehran by EU foreign representative Javier Solana contained "some positive steps."

But there are also "ambiguities" that "should be removed," he added, after Mr Solana put forward an offer put together by the five UN security council members - China, France, Russia, the United Kingdom and the US - plus Germany.

"We hope, after we study the proposal in detail, we will have another round of talks and negotiations to achieve a balanced and logical conclusion," Mr Larijani added.

The proposals aim at convincing Tehran to give up its uranium enrichment scheme, with Iran saying it is for peaceful purposes only but which the west fears could give it the bomb.

"The proposals were submitted by Mr Solana and we are going to carefully study them," said Iran foreign minister Manouchehr Mottaki. "Shuttle diplomacy, if it is in good faith, would allow us to find grounds for understanding."

The United States welcomed as a positive sign Iran's first response to the proposals, with US president George W Bush mirroring the Iranian rhetoric and saying: "sounds like a positive step...We will see if the Iranians take our offer seriously."

"The choice is theirs to make. I have said the United States will come and sit down at the table with them so long as they are willing to suspend their enrichment in a verifiable way."

Secret deal

The package, which has not been officially made public, is said by diplomats to offer international support for building a light water nuclear reactor in Iran and giving pledges of exports of enriched uranium.

Support for Tehran to join in the World Trade Organization, lifting embargoes on purchasing aircraft parts from Airbus and Boeing and US agricultural technology could also be on the cards.

If Iran does not comply, the country could face having bank accounts frozen and a visa ban slapped on its officials in echoes of the EU's treatment of Russian ally Belarus.

A light-water reactor would help meet energy demand and is less useful for weapons purposes than the heavy-water facility Iran is currently building and expects to be ready in 2009 press reports say.

http://euobserver.com/9/21786

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EU foreign policy vision reanimates constitution ideas

07.06.2006 - 11:45 CET | By Mark Beunderman

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission is seeking closer co-operation with EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and signaling a renewed interest in the idea of an EU diplomatic service, according to a new paper on the union's role in the world.

A draft of the paper, due to be presented by commission president Jose Manuel Barroso and external relations commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner on Thursday (8 June), is unusually critical in listing a series of defects in current EU foreign policy practice.

"The impact and effectiveness of our action is often hampered by mixed messages as well as slow and complex implementing procedures," the document says.

"Even when there is sufficient political will, the EU's impact falls short when there are unresolved tensions or a lack of coherence between different policies."

There is, for example, no clear "consistency" between external trade policy and agricultural policy, or between trade and human rights objectives, Brussels writes in the paper called "Europe in the world