Report by Uri Yablonka: “Lieberman to cooperate with NATO against Iran”]
Eight months after being appointed Israel’s supreme coordinator in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat, Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman has devised a practical plan of operation.
Israel, NATO, and the EU are considering cooperation in the establishment of television and radio broadcast stations and websites that will air anti-government messages to the Iranian public in a bid to destabilize its government.
Ma’ariv has learned that the plan will include, among other things, the establishment of an Azeri-language television station, since Azeris, whose loyalty to the radical regime in Iran is not absolute, make up 25 per cent of its population. Moreover, the new broadcast stations will appeal to young people in Iran, particularly students, in an effort to encourage elements already critical of the regime to take practical measures to topple it. The aim of the project is to undermine the radical regime by imparting values of democracy and peace to the local population in Iran.
Lieberman’s bureau did not comment on the report Thursday evening, but it has been learned that these steps were discussed in Lieberman’s talks with senior diplomatic sources in Europe during his visit there this week. At the beginning of the week Lieberman left for a comprehensive round of meetings in Madrid and Brussels, where he also met NATO Deputy Secretary General Alessandro Minuto Rizzo. On 28 June, Lieberman said he had emerged optimistic from the meetings, where he says he discussed, among other issues, the possible inclusion of Israel into NATO and the assignment of a NATO force to the Gaza Strip. Although Lieberman did not receive an answer on the spot, on 28 June he said that it was his strong impression that there is a chance this proposal would ultimately be accepted.
(Source: Ma’ariv, Tel Aviv, in Hebrew 29 Jun 07 via BBC Monitoring/R Netherlands meia Network Weblog)