The Associated Press reports, in an article that’s currently being given top billing by Drudge, that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told CNN he has ruled out a preemptive strike against Iran’s possible nuclear facilities.
Sharon Rules Out Attacking Iran Over NukesJERUSALEM (AP) - Israel will not mount a unilateral attack aimed at destroying Iran’s nuclear capability, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Wednesday in a CNN-TV interview.
Sharon said he did not see “unilateral action” as an option. He said Israel did not need to lead the way on the Iran nuclear weapons issue, calling for an international coalition to deal with it.
The only problem is, reading the actual transcript of the interview in question, Sharon doesn’t actually say any of that!
Here’s the relevant portion of the interview:
BLITZER: A lot of our viewers will remember in 1981, when Israel unilaterally bombed an Iraqi nuclear reactor at Osirak. Are you considering — let me rephrase the question, at what point would Israel take unilateral military action to try to prevent Iran from building a nuclear bomb?SHARON: I remember, of course, that raid in Iraq and was always proud to [have been] a member of the inner Cabinet … I think that decision then has saved many lives. Just imagine what could have happened if Iraq would have had — Iraq under Saddam Hussein — would have had atomic weapons.
I think that here the situation is different. And the problem is different and much wider. And I think that here it should be a coalition of democracies who believe in the danger, led by United States, in order to put pressure upon Iran.
BLITZER: Have you ruled out a unilateral military strike against Iran?
SHARON: We don’t think that’s what we have to do. We’re not going to solve the problems for nobody. And then the thing that — I’d say the danger is so great that it should be an international effort. Altogether, I would like you to know that Israel is not leading the struggle. Of course we exchange intelligence. We exchange views, we discuss these issues, but it’s not that we are planning any military attack on Iran.
Somehow, that bundle of equivocation got mangled by the AP into “Sharon rules out attacking Iran” and “Israel will not mount a unilateral attack.”
Let’s review what Sharon actually said, shall we?
1. “We don’t think that’s what we have to do” is a speculative assertion of fact; it is by no means a blanket statement that any future option has been ruled out. What you “think” can be wrong. Just because you “think” you won’t have to do something, doesn’t mean it will not happen or that it’s no longer an option.
2. “We’re not going to solve the problems for nobody” is somewhat more forceful, but in addition to being gramatically incorrect, it’s also quite vague. What, precisely, are “the problems”? Just how solid is the level of certainty that’s supposed to be implied by the phrase “not going to”? One can draw various inferences, but this statement certainly isn’t an effective disavowal of any and all possible future preemptive options.
3. “[I]t’s not that we are planning any military attack on Iran” is not an assertion that anything has been taken off the table by any means. He’s merely saying that it isn’t being planned, not that it’s no longer an option or that it will not happen. That’s a HUGE distinction.
Bottom line, if Ariel Sharon had wanted to say, “We are taking the preemptive option off the table,” he could have. But HE DIDN‘T. And yet the AP is reporting that he did!
Also, nowhere in the interview transcript does the phrase “unilateral action” appear, and the only phrase that comes close — “unilteral military action” — was spoken by Wolf Blitzer, not Ariel Sharon. Sharon never even uttered the word “unilateral,” according to the transcript. So what is the justification for the first sentence of the second paragraph in the AP article? It reads: “Sharon said he did not see ‘unilateral action’ as an option.” Sharon said no such thing!
Finally, Sharon also didn’t say anything about what Israel “needs” to do, talking only about what “should” happen internationally. He was silent on the question of what Israel would “need” to do if the things that “should” happen, don’t happen. Another potentially significant distinction.
Unless the CNN transcript is badly flawed or I am really missing something, I’d have to conclude that this AP article is badly, badly flawed.
The Associated Press reports that Iran is stockpiling arms and military equipment including armor-piercing snipers’ rifles and night-vision goggles. Iran’s buying spree has raised fears the arms could end up with militants in Iraq:
Much of the military hardware has been hard to hide — sales of tanks and anti-ship missiles by Belarus and China, or helicopters and artillery pieces from Russia have been well documented by U.S. authorities and international nongovernment agencies.
Other weapons are smuggled and may be revealed only by chance — such as the consignment of 12 nuclear-capable cruise missiles delivered by Ukrainian arms dealers to Iran four years ago but divulged by Ukrainian opposition officials only recently.
The smaller weapons and related material Iran is amassing may not be as eye catching. But they are of U.S. concern because of their origin — through U.N.-funded programs or technically advanced western countries — and because they could harm U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan or ultimately Iran (search), which President Bush has not ruled out as a military target.
From California Yankee.
Agence France-Presse reports that Pakistan is going to send used centrifuge parts to the UN atomic agency to help determine the origin of highly enriched uranium contamination found in Iran:
“The centrifuge parts will be sent to the International Atomic Agency laboratory (IAEA) in Seibersdorf” near Vienna, which will analyze and compare them with centrifuge components Khan sold to Iran, a Western diplomat close to the IAEA told AFP.
The IAEA is investigating contamination by microscopic particles of highly enriched uranium (HEU) found in Iran at a workshop in Tehran, at a pilot enrichment plant at Natanz and at other sites where there were centrifuges.
Reuters reports that Pakistan admits Abdul Qadeer Khan, the father of Pakistan’s atomic bomb, provided Iran with centrifuges that can be used to purify uranium for nuclear weapons:
Pakistan has admitted in the past that Khan smuggled nuclear secrets to North Korea, Iran and Libya, but has not given specifics as to what he supplied.
“He has given centrifuges to Iran, but the government was in no way involved in this,” Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told Reuters.
From California Yankee.
Iran and Russia signed a nuclear fuel agreement Sunday, paving the way for Iran to begin operating is first nuclear reactor.Iranian Vice President Gholamreza Aghazadeh and Alexander Rumyantsev, the head of Russia’s Federal Atomic Energy Agency, signed the agreement at the Busher nuclear power plant. The signing, which had been delayed by a day, came after the two senior officials toured the $800 million complex.
This is the latest story. And here is a link to the Farsi language blog that has taken on the responsibility of advocating for the release of Iranian webloggers from prison.
Chester brings us up to speed on “The Technical Collection Game and the Strange Reports from Iran.”
Reuters reports that Iran and Syria said on Wednesday they will form a common front to face challenges and threats:
“We are ready to help Syria on all grounds to confront threats,” Iranian Vice-President Mohammad Reza Aref said in Tehran after meeting Syrian Prime Minister Naji al-Otari.
Otari told reporters: “This meeting, which takes place at this sensitive time, is important, especially because Syria and Iran face several challenges and it is necessary to build a common front.”
[. . .]
Washington has branded Iran part of an “axis of evil” along with pre-war Iraq and North Korea and accuses Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is solely for electricity generation.
President Bush has dubbed Iran “the world’s primary state sponsor of terror” and has warned the United States could use military action to prevent it acquiring a nuclear bomb.
From California Yankee.
The Associated Press reports that Iran will have the knowledge to build nuclear weapons within six months:
“In six months they will finish the tests to have the knowledge to produce weapons of mass destruction,” Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said during a visit to London, repeating long-standing Israeli government warnings about Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
This is not only Israel’s problem, but an international problem, as the long-range missiles can reach Europe.
From California Yankee.
The Washington Post explains that Iran’s UFOs are U.S. reconnaissance drones. In December, Iranians living along the Caspian Sea and on the Iraq border began reporting sightings of red flashes in the sky, streaks of green and blue, and low, racing lights that disappeared moments after being spotted. Iranian air force commanders identified the UFOs as U.S. drones.
According to the Post, the U.S. has been flying surveillance drones over Iran for nearly a year to seek evidence of nuclear weapons programs and detect weaknesses in air defenses:
U.S. officials confirmed that the drones were deployed along Iran’s northern and western borders, first in April 2004, and again in December and January. A former U.S. official with direct knowledge of earlier phases of the operation said the U.S. intelligence community began using Iraq as a base to spy on Iran shortly after taking Baghdad in early April 2003. Drones have been flown over Iran since then, the former official said, but the missions became more frequent last year.
From California Yankee.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Wednesday that Iran must live up to its international obligations to halt its nuclear program or “the next steps are in the offing.”“And I think everybody understands what the ‘next steps’ mean,” Rice told reporters after a meeting with NATO foreign ministers and European Union officials.
“It’s obvious that if Iran cannot be brought to live up to its international obligations that, in fact, the IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) statutes would suggest that Iran has to be referred to the U.N. Security Council,” she said.
Iran has refused to halt its nuclear program, saying it is only intended for peaceful energy production.
I believe the issue the administration intends to focus on is human rights in Iran.If you follow the news on Iran, the administration has begun focusing on the human rights issue as it relates to Iran …
… Europe and the UN have a long history of advocating human rights. Europe has tied increased trade with Iran to improvements in their human rights record. European leaders advocacy for Human Rights in Iran bought them popular political support at home at very little cost.
Europeans are proud of their leaders stand for Human Rights. It was no surprise to Europeans that the Iranian human rights lawyer, Shirin Ebadi, won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize.
If the US makes Human Rights in Iran a centerpiece of its Iran policy, the EU and the UN will have to support it. Russia and China would find it difficult to oppose it.
President Bush’s support for “their issue” will likely be perceived by Europeans generally as a European victory. Popular support could force their leaders to join the US effort.
If Iran refuses to permanently end its uranium enrichment program, as they claim, the EU will have to withdraw its offer of increased trade.
Instead, I would then expect an ever increasing demand of the international community to end all trade (the EU’s only real weapon) until the regime guarantees the Iranian people’s human rights.
Just part of a lengthy analysis. Read the rest.
Reuters reports President Bush will not rule out military action against Iran if that country was not more forthcoming about its suspected nuclear weapons program:
“I hope we can solve it diplomatically, but I will never take any option off the table,” Bush said in an interview with NBC News when asked if he would rule out the potential for military action against Iran “if it continues to stonewall the international community about the existence of its nuclear weapons program.”
From California Yankee.
Reuters reports the Pentagon criticized Seymour Hersh’s New Yorker article titled “The Coming Wars,” that said the U.S. was mounting reconnaissance missions inside Iran to identify potential nuclear and other targets.
The Pentagon’s chief spokesman, Lawrence DiRita said that the Iranian regime’s apparent nuclear ambitions and its demonstrated support for terrorist organizations is a global challenge that deserves much more serious treatment than Hersh’s article provides:
Hersh’s article, published on Sunday, was “so riddled with errors of fundamental fact that the credibility of his entire piece is destroyed,” DiRita said.
Hersh reported that President Bush had signed a series of top-secret findings and executive orders authorizing secret commando groups and other Special Forces military units to conduct covert operations against suspected terrorist targets in as many as 10 nations in the Middle East and South Asia.
DiRita did not comment on that assertion.
Instead, he said, Hersh’s sources fed him “rumor, innuendo, and assertions about meetings that never happened, programs that do not exist and statements by officials that were never made.”
Asked whether U.S. military forces had been conducting reconnaissance missions in Iran, Defense Department spokesman Lt. Col. Barry Venable said, “We don’t discuss missions, capabilities or activities of Special Operations forces.”
From California Yankee.
The Guardian reports U.S. Special Forces are on the ground’ in Iran scouting for U.S. air strike targets on suspected nuclear weapons sites.
The Guardian report is based upon an article written by Seymour Hersh in the latest edition of the New Yorker. According to the Guardian, US commandos have penetrated territory in eastern Iran seeking to pinpoint underground installations suspected of being nuclear weapons sites:
The report in the New Yorker said the Americans have been conducting secret reconnaissance missions over and inside Iran since last summer with a view to identifying up to 40 possible targets for striking should the dispute over Iran turn violent.
From California Yankee.
[by Dan Darling]
The mad mullahs have had some interesting developments of their own today, most notably the apparent extradition of Mustafa Hamza (now being denied by the Iranians), a major figure with in Gamaa al-Islamiyyah and as such commanded the al-Qaeda assassination team that planned to kill President Mubarak in 1995 during a state visit to Ethiopia.
The report of Hamza’s extradition comes from the London-based al-Maqrizi Center for Historical Studies, a source I must admit that I’m not all that familiar with as far as reliability. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that Egyptian security has confirmed that Hamza is indeed in their custody. He is presumably most uncomfortable as I type this.
If it’s true, count Hamza being taken out of circulation as a victory in the war on terrorism. Far more significant are two other revelations contained in the above links:
The march for freedom in Iran continues.
Iranian students have interrupted a speech by President Mohammad Khatami to mark Student Day at Tehran university.Students chanted “Shame on you” and “Where are your promised freedoms?” to express their frustration with the failure of Iran’s reform movement.
A visibly-shaken Khatami defended his record and criticised the powerful hardliners who have closed newspapers and jailed dissidents.
…
But student leader Abdollah Momeni complained that there was is no difference between the president and the authoritarians who thwarted his reform programme.
“Students are very disappointed because they paid a heavy price for supporting Khatami, but in return they got nothing,” he is quoted as saying by Reuters.
A statement distributed by one pro-reform student group at the meeting said: “Unfortunately what Khatami sees as his tolerance was his extreme weakness towards the opponents of democracy”.
Gary Metz has a new Iran briefing up over at Winds of Change, and has a particular focus in the proliferation issue.
The New York Times reports that international inspectors are requesting access to two secret Iranian military sites where intelligence suggests that Tehran’s Ministry of Defense may be working on atomic weapons:
The inspectors at the International Atomic Energy Agency base their suspicions on a mix of satellite photographs indicating the testing of high explosives and procurement records showing the purchase of equipment that can be used for enriching uranium, the diplomats said. Both are critical steps in the development of nuclear arms.
The suspicions were aired here as an Iranian opposition group was preparing to release what it called new information that Iran was secretly developing a nuclear-capable missile whose range is significantly greater than what the Iranians have publicly acknowledged to date.
[. . .]
Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the I.A.E.A., said in an interview here on Wednesday that he had repeatedly asked Iran for access to the two sites, but that it had not yet been granted.
“We are following every credible piece of information,” he said. Understanding the exact significance of what is happening at the two military sites is “important,” he added. “We still have work to do, a lot of work.” He estimated that even with full Iranian cooperation, it would take at least two years to resolve all of the outstanding questions surrounding the country’s nuclear program.
“We’re not rushing,” he said. “It takes time.”
From California Yankee.
From Reuters via News Ltd :
The United States has seen information suggesting Iran is working on the technology to deliver a nuclear warhead on a missile, US Secretary of State Colin Powell said today.”I have seen some information that would suggest they have been actively working on delivery systems … you don’t have a weapon until you can put it in something that can deliver a weapon,” he told reporters during a brief stop in Brazil on his way to an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) meeting in Chile.
“I’m talking about what one does with a warhead,” Mr Powell said.
“We are talking about information that says they not only have (the) missiles but information that suggests they are working hard about how to put the two together.”
The Associated Press reports that Iran has agreed to fully suspend uranium enrichment and related activities:
“Basically it’s a full suspension,” one of the diplomats said on condition of anonymity.
However, the diplomat said Iran had not yet fulfilled a key part of the deal - formally informing the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency of its decision and asking for agency inspectors to police adherence to its commitment.
In October 2003, Iran committed to Britain, France and Germany that it would suspend all uranium enrichment and reprocessing activities.
From California Yankee.
From Reuters via the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) :
Iran said today it was now able to manufacture large quantities of its medium-range Shahab-3 ballistic missile, which defence experts say is capable of hitting Israel or US bases in the Gulf.”We have the capability to mass-produce Shahab-3 missiles,” Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani told reporters.
His comments were confirmed by the Defence Ministry.
[…]
Iran recently announced it had improved Shahab-3’s accuracy and increased its range to 2,000 kilometres.That potentially brought parts of southern Europe within Iran’s reach but Mr Shamkhani said the increased range was merely so that Iran could launch the missile from anywhere within its own borders.
“The change in Shahab-3’s range is based on this concept, not to threaten a certain country,” he said.
Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Iran, courtesy of Reza Torkzadeh.
TOP TOPIC
Other Topics Today Include: Iran processing uranium; Kerry’s campaign connection to the Islamic Republic; Russia completes construction of a nuclear plant in Iran; EU appeases Islamic Republic; Iranian bloggers shut down, arrested; NIAC issues statement on death of Iranian-American Soilder in Iraq; Germany supports Iran’s entrance in the WTO; Armed resistance gains momentum; ActivistChat launches Iran Blog
REUTERS: Iran Given Last Chance to Halt Uranium Enrichment
Senior officials from France, Britain and Germany will meet Iran’s top nuclear negotiator in Vienna Thursday to offer Tehran a final chance to halt uranium enrichment plans or face possible U.N. sanctions.“This Thursday, there will be a meeting of our political directors,” British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told a London news conference with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
“What will be sought Thursday will be discussions about Iran’s compliance — not with any conditions laid down by the three of us, but by the (International Atomic Energy Agency) board of governors,” he said. “A proposal will be put to them.”
REUTERS: Iran Says Its Missiles Can Now Reach 1,250 Miles
Iran has increased the range of its missiles to 1,250 miles, a senior official was quoted as saying on Tuesday.The range would put parts of Europe within reach for the first time. Military experts had earlier put Iran’s missile range at 810 miles, which would allow it to strike anywhere in Israel.
“Now we have the power to launch a missile with a 2,000 km (1,250-mile) range,” the news agency IRNA quoted influential former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani as saying. “Iran is determined to improve its military capabilities.”
“If the Americans attack Iran, the world will change … they will not dare to make such a mistake,” Rafsanjani was quoted as saying in a speech at an exhibition on Space and Stable National Security.
REUTERS: Libya Tells Iran: Be Like us and Comply with IAEA
Libya, which last year renounced its nuclear weapons program, Monday urged Iran to follow suit and comply with the demands of the U.N. nuclear watchdog to stop enriching uranium which can be used to make atomic bombs.“As (IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei) said today, some things have to be fulfilled by Iran,” Libyan Deputy Prime Minister Matouq M. Matouq told reporters after meeting U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham at the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA) annual general conference.
“The Iranians have to meet these obligations because of the agreement with the IAEA, and we hope that we can have another example (of) Iran of fulfilling the obligations and following the IAEA agreements,” he said.
Matouq also said Tripoli’s December 2003 decision to abandon all weapons of mass destruction could be seen as an example for Iran and all other countries.
“Libya has set an example for everybody,” he said.
(Visions of the old “Be Like Mike” Nike commercials floating through my mind, bombing discos and blowing up airplanes… MAKE THEM STOP!)
JERUSALEM POST: Iran recruits ‘human shield’ for nuclear reactor
Iran is seeking volunteers to act as a massive human shield around Iran’s nuclear reactor in case of a military attack against the facility.About two weeks ago Iran announced its plans build more nuclear power plants with Russian help the in southern port city of Bushehr, ignoring US and Israeli concerns that by-products from the plants could be used to manufacture atomic bombs. The US and Israel strongly suspect Iran of seeking nuclear weapons, but Iran has consistently denied the charges.
The Committee for the Commemoration of Martyrs of the Global Islamic Campaign is organizing the human shield campaign to protect Bushehr reactor, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Wednesday.
According to a spokesman for the group, 25,000 people have already signed up to participate in the shield campaign, Army Radio reported.
Tehran Times: IAEA rules, NPT, additional protocol only nuclear criteria: official
TEHRAN (MNA) -- An Iranian official said on Tuesday that the only mechanism for allaying the international community’s concerns about a country’s nuclear program is the observation of legal and technical regulations determined by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and no one has the right to give guarantees or written agreements to Europe and the agency outside this mechanism.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the Mehr News Agency that the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), the additional protocol to the NPT, and the current safeguards agreement are the only criteria for confirming the peaceful nature of Iran’s nuclear program and there has been no breach of these regulations or treaties.
He said that it is a grave mistake to call the report Mohamed ElBaradei recently delivered to the IAEA Board of Governors “positive”, adding that ElBaradei’s report emphasizes negative points and downplays the positive points.
JERUSALEM POST: Iran preparing for second test of Shahab-3
Iran is ready to repeat a test of a new version of its Shahab-3 ballistic missile, a weapon Iran maintains it produced in response to Israeli efforts to improve its own missile power and test-fired successfully last month.Defense Minister Ali Shamkhani said his employees were ready to test the missile “in the presence of observers,” the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported. He did not elaborate.
In August, the Defense Ministry announced the new version of the Shahab-3 _ which already was capable of reaching Israel and U.S. forces in the Middle East _ had been successfully test-fired.
Israeli reports have said the new version of the missile has a longer range than Shahab-3, but Defence Ministry officials have refused to give details about the range.
The Shahab-3, successfully tested before that in 2002 ahead of equipping the elite Revolutionary Guards with it in July 2003, is the Persian state’s longest-range ballistic missile, with a range of 1,296 kilometers (about 810 miles).
Shamkhani on Tuesday was confident the second test also would be successful, IRNA reported. The minister, however, said the tests were no act of muscle-flexing.
“Being powerful does not necessarily mean warmongering,” Shamkhani was quoted as saying.
JERUSALEM POST: Iran says it arrested several nuclear spies
Iran said Tuesday it has arrested dozens of spies, including several people who passed the country’s nuclear secrets to Iran’s enemies, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported.Intelligence Minister Ali Yunesi did not identify those arrested but said members of the armed opposition group Mujahedeen Khalq, played the main role.
“The Intelligence Ministry has arrested several spies who were transferring Iran’s nuclear secrets out of the country,” IRNA quoted Yunesi as saying. He did not provide further details.
“The hypocrites (Mujahedeen) had the leading role in passing information (about Iran’s nuclear facilities) and have already said they were proud of spying against Iran,” Yunesi was quoted as saying.
(Keep this all in mind when the Iranians laud Mordechai “Traitor” Vanunu as a hero and former “prisoner of conscience”)
REUTERS: Iran tests latest Shahab missile
Iran says it has carried out a successful field test of the latest version of its Shahab-3 medium-range ballistic missile, which defense experts say can reach Israel or U.S. bases in the Gulf.Defence Minister Ali Shamkhani said last week Iran was working to improve the range and accuracy of the Shahab-3 in response to Israel’s moves to boost its anti-missile capability.
The Defence Ministry, in a brief statement carried on the official news agency IRNA, said the test of the new Shahab-3 “was carried out successfully … The pre-determined targets were hit in the testing,” it said.
Iran says its missile program is purely for deterrent purposes.
Tehran also denies U.S. and Israeli accusations that it is seeking to develop nuclear warheads which could be delivered by the Shahab-3.
In Washington, the State Department said Iran’s attempts to improve its missile capability were a threat to the region and U.S. interests.
“We will continue to take steps to address Iran’s missile efforts, and to work closely with other like-minded countries in doing so,” State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
Based on the North Korean Nodong-1 and modified with Russian technology, the Shahab-3 is thought to have a range of 810 miles (1,300 km), which would allow it to strike anywhere in Israel.
Shahab means meteor in Persian.
The Arrow Missile Defense System is said to be unable to intercept Shahab-3 systems yet, but upgrades and research are progressing.
Reuters reports that backtracking from a pledge to Britain, France and Germany, Iran has resumed building nuclear centrifuges, which can be used to enrich uranium for use in bombs:
“We have started building centrifuges,” Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi told a news conference.
However he insisted Iran had not resumed enriching uranium, the key part of the process which can either produce fuel for power stations or bomb material.
Iran had previously said it would restart making centrifuges to retaliate against a resolution from the U.N. nuclear watchdog last month deploring Tehran’s failure to co-operate fully with inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
Diplomats say Iran has also restarted work at a uranium conversion facility near the central city of Isfahan. The plant turns processed ore, or yellowcake, into uranium hexafluoride gas which is pumped into centrifuges to form enriched uranium.
[. . .]
“We just want to produce fuel for our plants and we are not after nuclear weapons,” he said.
Washington says Iran’s nuclear program is a cover for seeking atomic weapons.
From California Yankee.
GUARDIAN: Diplomats: Iran Resumes Nuclear Program
Iran is once again building centrifuges that can be used to make nuclear weaponry, breaking the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency’s seals on the equipment in a show of defiance against international efforts to monitor its program, diplomats said Tuesday.Iran has not restarted enriching uranium with the centrifuges - a step that would raise further alarm. But the resumption of centrifuge construction is likely to push European nations, which have been seeking a negotiated resolution, closer to the United States’ more confrontational stance.
The United States accuses Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons and wants the U.N. Security Council to take up the issue. Iran denies the charge and says the centrifuges are part of a nuclear program aimed only at producing energy.
Under international pressure last year, the Islamic republic agreed to stop enriching uranium and stop making centrifuges, in a deal reached with Britain, France and Germany.
But the moratorium ended several weeks ago, when Tehran - angry over international perusal of its nuclear program - broke seals placed on enrichment equipment by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the diplomats told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Iranian officials then resumed assembling and installing centrifuges, which can enrich uranium fuel for generating power or developing warheads, the diplomats said.
JERUSALEM POST: Iran threatens to wipe Israel off map, again
Iran on Monday repeated its threat to “wipe Israel off the map” if Israel attacked the Islamic Republic’s nuclear sites.“The United States is showing off by threatening to use its wild dog, Israel,” Revolutionary Guards Commander Seyed Masood Jazayeri was quoted as saying by the Iranian student news agency ISNA.
“They will not hesitate to strike Iran if they are capable of it. However, their threats to attack Iran’s nuclear facilities cannot be realized. They are aware Tehran’s reaction will be so harsh that Israel will be wiped off the face of the earth and US interests will be easily damaged,” he warned.
A number of stories concerning Iran have come out recently, and I want to have the chance to gather them in one post.
This article discusses the abrupt ending of the trial surrounding the murder of Zahra Kazemi:
Iran’s hardline judiciary abruptly ended the trial on Sunday of an intelligence agent accused of killing a Canadian journalist, prompting angry lawyers to complain key evidence had been ignored or covered up.A verdict is expected in a week or so.
Foreign diplomats and journalists were barred from the third day of the trial of the agent, Mohammad Reza Aqdam, over the death last July of Zahra Kazemi, 54, a photographer of Iranian origin who was detained after taking pictures of a Tehran jail.
Iranian human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel Peace laureate, said the judge had ignored testimony that might have incriminated a judiciary official.
The case has damaged Iran’s relations with Canada, which announced the withdrawal of its ambassador last week, and turned an international spotlight on Iran’s judiciary and prisons.
It has also exposed deep rifts between President Mohammad Khatami’s reformist government and the judiciary which is run by his hardline opponents.
“I’m so angry I cannot speak. They didn’t even pay attention to our evidence and announced the end of the trial,” Ebadi, who was representing Kazemi’s family, said outside the Tehran court.
“This is not a fair trial. The case hasn’t been reviewed. If they issue a verdict it will be unfair,” she added.
This story follows up:
A hard-line prosecutor has ordered Iranian newspapers to censor their coverage of a trial of a secret agent accused of murdering an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist, journalists said Monday.Speaking to government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh after his weekly press conference, several reporters said Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi called their offices and told them to not report on parts of the trial, which ended abruptly Sunday.
One journalist said Mortazavi told him, “It’s in your interest to consider the murder trial over and avoid publishing things that you should not.”
Hard-liners were angered after a legal team representing the mother of slain photojournalist Zahra Kazemi accused prison official Mohammad Bakhshi of inflicting the fatal blow to Kazemi, and accused the hard-line judiciary of illegally detaining her.
Most Iranian newspapers have not published the accusations against Bakhshi and the prosecution, apparently fearing retribution.
“I was afraid to publicly put this to you during the press conference because I was afraid of possible punishment from Mortazavi,” one of the journalists told Ramezanzadeh.
“Mortazavi called our newspaper Sunday to say we have to delete parts of the trial where lawyers implicated Bakhshi in the murder,” she said.
Ramezanzadeh said imposing such restrictions on newspapers was illegal.
“Restricting approved freedoms is against the constitution,” Ramezanzadeh told reporters.
The judiciary ordered two reformist publications to shut down Saturday, when the trial opened. Sources at the newspapers said officials appeared upset with an article one of them published last week about Kazemi’s death.
A former judge, Mortazavi is widely seen as the man behind the closure of more than 100 pro-democracy publications the past four years.
And finally, we have this story concerning the fate of academic dissident Hashem Aghajari:
Iran’s hardline judiciary sentenced dissident academic Hashem Aghajari to five years in prison on Tuesday for saying Muslims should not blindly follow their clerical leaders like “monkeys,” his lawyer said.The sentence marked a major climb down by the judiciary which originally condemned Aghajari to death for blasphemy after making the speech in 2002.
The death sentence, issued by a provincial court in western Iran, sparked some of the largest student protests for years and fueled international concern about restrictions on free speech in the Islamic state.
The blasphemy verdict was finally overturned by the Supreme Court in June after many senior clerics said it was too harsh. A re-trial was held in Tehran earlier this month.
“The Tehran court sentenced him to five years in prison for insulting Islamic values,” Aghajari’s lawyer Saleh Nikbakht told Reuters.
REUTERS: Israel sees “nuclear capable” Iran by 2007
Israeli estimates of when Iran will be able to build a nuclear bomb have been shifted two more years to 2007, an intelligence report said on Wednesday and analysts credited the delay to international scrutiny of Tehran.Security sources quoted the report — delivered to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in private and leaked in part to the media — as saying that within three years Iran would have the means to produce an atomic bomb by itself.
Iran vehemently denies pursuing nuclear weapons, arguing its atomic ambitions are limited to generating electricity.
Here is the latest story on an ongoing issue in Iran:
Iran’s morality police have made several raids in Tehran, in an apparent crackdown on women who flout the strict Islamic dress code. Witnesses said dozens of young women were held in the raids on shopping centres and shops in the capital.Police also confiscated several items of clothing deemed to be too revealing.
After winning parliamentary elections in February, hardliners warned they would not tolerate what they described as social corruption.
However, the clampdown could be the usual summer anti-vice operation, correspondents say.
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran’s laws say all young women must wear the veil and a long coat that conceals their figures, or face fines or even imprisonment.
AP: U.S. Expels 2 Guards at Iran U.N. Mission
The U.S. government has expelled two Iranian security guards at Iran’s U.N. Mission, citing activities “incompatible with their stated duties,” a U.S. official said Tuesday.The language is reserved for cases involving espionage.
The Iranians were caught on three occasions taking photos of infrastructure, transport systems and New York City landmarks, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity. The first incident was in June 2002 and the second was in November 2003; after they were stopped recently while taking photographs, the government asked them to leave the country, the official said.
The pair left the United States in the last few days, the official said.
AP: Khamenei Says Tehran Not Seeking Nukes
Iran’s supreme leader said Monday his country was not seeking nuclear weapons, but he vowed that Tehran won’t give up its program to enrich uranium for fuel in nuclear reactors.“If Europeans and others are really worried that we may acquire nuclear weapons, we assure them that we are not seeking to produce such weapons,” Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in his first remarks since Friday’s rebuke of Iran’s nuclear activities by a U.N. atomic watchdog agency.
“But if they are unhappy about Iran’s access to the outstanding nuclear technology and want to stop this trend, I tell them they should be assured that the Iranian nation won’t give in on this,” he told a gathering of university officials.
CNN: Iran: British vessels confiscated
Iran has confiscated three British vessels that had crossed into Iran’s territorial waters and arrested eight sailors aboard the ships, according to Iranian state television.The Iranian government confiscated weapons and maps from the ships on Monday as well, the Arabic language Al-Alam television reported.
“Iranian forces confiscated the ships and eight military personnel on board,” the report said.
Al-Alam said crew members were carrying maps and weapons, The Associated Press reported.
It also said the ships were confiscated at about 11 a.m. between the Bahmanshir and Arvand rivers, which would put them in the Shatt-al-Arab waterway east of the Iraqi city of Faw, AP reported.
The broadcast gave no further details.
Here is the story:
Toughening its stance in advance of a meeting of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, Iran on Saturday said it would reject international restrictions on its nuclear program and challenged the world to accept Tehran as a member of the “nuclear club.”Foreign Minister Kamal Kharrazi rejected further outside influence on Tehran’s nuclear ambitions two days before the International Atomic Energy Agency board of governors meets to discuss Iran’s highly controversial program.
“We won’t accept any new obligations,” Kharrazi said. “Iran has a high technical capability and has to be recognized by the international community as a member of the nuclear club. This is an irreversible path.”
Iran has repeatedly insisted its nuclear program is geared toward generating electricity, not making weapons, but the United States and its allies say Tehran has a secret nuclear weapons program. The IAEA has wrestled with the dilemma for more than a year.
Iran has already suspended uranium enrichment and stopped building centrifuges. It has also allowed IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities without prior notice, part of the additional protocol to the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty that still must be approved by parliament.
Kharrazi insisted that Iran would not give up its development of the nuclear fuel cycle, the steps for processing and enriching uranium necessary for both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons. Iran says it has achieved the full cycle, but is not now enriching uranium.
JERUSALEM POST: ElBaradei: Too early to tell if Iran making nukes
The chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency said Tuesday his agency has not found proof to date of a concrete link between Iran’s nuclear activities and its military program, but said it was premature to make a judgment.Mohammed ElBaradei, the IAEA director general who addressed a NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting in the Slovak capital, said there was still some work to do regarding Iran.
Agency experts were still probing into whether “the Iranian program has been designated exclusively for peaceful purposes or has a military dimension,” ElBaradei said. He added, “We haven’t seen a concrete proof of a link to the military program, but as I said it’s premature to make a judgment.”
CNN: Strong earthquake rocks Iran
A 6.2 magnitude earthquake has struck northern Iran, centered about 45 miles north of the capital, Tehran, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.Friday’s quake is the first major one to hit Iran since last December’s 6.6 magnitude event that virtually destroyed the ancient city of Bam, killing more than 25,000 people.
Friday’s quake is centered much deeper than the Bam quake — 26 km (16 miles) instead of the relatively shallow 10-km (6-mile) Bam quake. Bam is about 990 km (610 miles) southeast of Tehran.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.
Welcome! Our goal is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today’s “Winds of War” is brought to you by Dan Darling. of Regnum Crucis.
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Other Topics Today Include: Iran Reports; Hezb-e-Islami in upcoming Afghan elections; 2 Taliban commanders captured; Waziristan amnesty suffers a setback; latest sectarian violence was the work of the SeS or LeJ; Hassan Hattab executed by his own lieutenants; Nigerian governor blames al-Qaeda for recent violence; Filippino authorities disrupt al-Qaeda financing; Malaysia deports Abu Jibril; al-Muqrin sez al-Qaeda’s operating in Iraq; Spain busts al-Qaeda recruiters; EU counterterrorism chief notes paradox of the Continent’s relationship with terrorists; Sao Tome as an alternate energy source; and Mexican UFOs turn out to be gas.
REUTERS: Iran to Present Full Nuke Picture to UN Soon-Envoy
Iran has drafted a report aimed at providing a complete picture of its nuclear program and will hand it over to the U.N. nuclear watchdog “very soon,” its ambassador to the United Nations in Vienna said Thursday.
Iran is due to present a complete account of its nuclear activities and plans to the International Atomic Energy Agency by mid-May, ahead of a meeting of the agency’s board of governors next month.“The report is ready,” Iranian envoy Pirooz Hosseini told Reuters.
“After a final review by the experts, we will hand it over very soon to the agency,” Hosseini said.
JERUSALEM POST: Khatami withdraws key reform bills
President Mohammad Khatami formally withdrew two key reform bills Tuesday, while a man reviled by reformers as a killer of press freedom was publicly honored as the “best manager” in the Iranian judiciary - small signs of the waning strength of the reform movement.The bills, which Khatami announced last month he would remove from further parliamentary consideration, had sought to bring democratic change to Iran’s religious theocracy. Abandoning them was an acknowledgment of the failure of the pillars of Khatami’s presidency.
One of the bills was aimed at increasing presidential powers in order to stop constitutional violations by unelected hard-liners. The other sought to bar the hard-line oversight body, the Guardian Council, from disqualifying parliamentary and presidential election candidates.
Khatami withdrew the bills in a letter addressed to the parliamentary speaker, Mahdi Karroubi. The letter was read Tuesday in an open session of parliament and broadcast live on Tehran radio.
While this article indicated the possibility of further cooperation between Iran and the IAEA on the subject of Iran’s nuclear program, this story gives one reason to worry anew:
The International Atomic Energy Agency says Tehran plans to build a heavy-water reactor in central Iran that some say could be part of a nuclear weapons program. Iran says construction work on the reactor is due to start within months.IAEA spokesman, Mark Gwozdecky, says the agency is aware of Iran’s intention to start building a heavy-water reactor near Arak that could produce weapons-grade plutonium.
“In 2003, Iran declared to the agency its construction at Arak of a heavy-water production plant and its planned construction of a heavy-water reactor,” Mr. Gwozdecky said. “Iran provided preliminary design information on the reactor along with preliminary information of the facility intended to manufacture the fuel.”
The head of the IAEA, Mohamed ElBaradei, said in a report issued last year that his inspectors were surprised by the information given by Iran on the Arak reactor.
Meanwhile, the Islamic regime appears to be giving what is at least moral support to the insurrection in Iraq:
Iran’s influential former president, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, on Friday hailed the Shi’ite Muslim militia of firebrand cleric Moqtada al-Sadr as “heroic” for rising up against the U.S. occupation in Iraq.Rafsanjani told worshippers at Friday prayers in Tehran that a distinction should be drawn between Shi’ite fighters, who have battled U.S.-led troops across southern Iraq this week, and insurrectionist supporters of Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party he described as “terrorists.”
“Contrary to these terrorist groups in Iraq, there are powerful bodies which contribute to the security of that nation…among them is the Mehdi Army, made up of enthusiastic, heroic young people,” he told the crowd.
GUARDIAN: Diplomats: Iran Plans New Reactor in June
Iran will start building a nuclear reactor in June that can produce weapons-grade plutonium, diplomats said Wednesday. Although Tehran insists the heavy water facility is for research, the decision heightens concern about its nuclear ambitions.One diplomat said the planned 40-megawatt reactor could produce enough plutonium for a nuclear weapon each year, an amount experts commonly say is 8.8 pounds.
The diplomats told The Associated Press that Iran informed the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency last year of its plans to build a reactor, and Iranian officials have previously suggested the reactor was already being built.
But the diplomats said construction had not yet begun and that Iranian officials announced the June start date for the first time during talks Tuesday in Tehran with Mohamed ElBaradei, director general of the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.
JERUSALEM POST: UN inspector: Iran to stop building centrifuges
Iran will stop building and assembling centrifuges for uranium enrichment this week, the country’s nuclear chief said Tuesday after a meeting with the chief UN weapons inspector.Gholamreza Aghazadeh, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, said the country would “voluntarily” suspend its centrifuge work starting April 9.
Some recent news stories regarding Iran.
1. Not surprisingly, Iranian filmmakers are facing censorship:
A few weeks ago, enigmatic posters of a green reptile sprang up all over Tehran, urging Iranians to cancel their traditional spring holidays and “Wait for the Lizard”.But Iranians are still waiting. “The Lizard”, an award-winning movie comedy, has fallen foul of censors for poking fun at the conservative clerics who run the Islamic Republic.
The film follows the fortunes of Reza Marmoulak (Reza the lizard), a thief who disguises himself in clerical robes and turban to escape from prison. Ironically, the escaped convict proves a big hit as a preacher and brings worshippers flocking back to mosques.
“The Lizard” had audiences laughing at the privileges of the turbaned class as it won the best film award at Tehran’s Fajr International Film Festival in February.
“I laughed so hard I could have split my sides,” said Marziyeh, 20. “I couldn’t believe my eyes.”
But apart from being funny, the film carries an underlying message that God is accessible to all. Conservative movie critics deemed the film insulting.
It had been expected to hit public cinemas on March 18, but the reels are still with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance.
A spokesman, who declined to be named, denied on Thursday that it had been banned, saying: “The screening has only been postponed.”
2. More concern about Iran’s nuclear program:
A committee of senior Iranian officials is overseeing efforts to conceal important elements of Tehran’s nuclear program from international inspectors, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday, citing Western diplomats and an intelligence report.The newspaper said if the allegation was confirmed, it would bolster Washington’s charge Iran was seeking to hide an atomic weapons program.
The United States says Tehran is using its nuclear power program as a front to develop an atom bomb. Iran denies that and insists its program is solely for the peaceful generation of electricity.
The diplomats told the paper Iran set up the committee late last year to coordinate the concealment efforts after inspectors found evidence it had tried to hide elements of its nuclear program, including research on advanced centrifuges that could produce weapons-grade uranium.
The newspaper quoted a diplomat, speaking anonymously, as saying the committee’s work included trying to hide nuclear evidence at almost 300 locations. The committee is said to include senior officials of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization who report to high-level government officials.
3. Finally, a story about one of the leading intellectuals behind the democratization movement in Iran:
IF IRAN’S DEMOCRATIC REFORM movement has a house intellectual, it’s Abdolkarim Soroush. A small, soft-spoken philosopher with fiercely expressive eyebrows, Soroush specializes in mysticism, Sufi poetry, Islamic theology, chemistry, pharmacology, and the philosophy of science. Although he once worked for Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s revolutionary government, he now advances a powerful argument for democracy and human rights — and he does so drawing not only on John Stuart Mill and John Rawls, but also on the deepest intellectual traditions of Shi’ite Islam. Religion must remain aloof from governance, he is fond of saying, not because religion is false and would corrupt politics, but because religion is true and politics corrupts it.Soroush’s work is heady, abstract stuff. And yet, its hold on throngs of young Iranians — hundreds of students show up to the typical Soroush lecture — is so strong that Iran’s ruling mullahs consider him a threat, and pro-clerical militias regularly harass and beat him when he speaks in his native land. That’s why these days, he makes his home at Princeton University, where he teaches a seminar of fewer than 10 graduate students and passes all but unnoticed through the halls of the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Policy.
That is where I met Soroush on Feb. 23, the day the dismal results of the latest Iranian parliamentary election began trickling out. The Guardian Council, a body of clerics with far-reaching powers, had disqualified some 2,000 candidates, mostly reformists, from so much as running for parliament. Unsurprisingly, though the level of voter turnout and hence the strength of the new parliament’s mandate is disputed, the election results were clear: Pro-clerical conservatives packed 156 of the parliament’s 290 seats, with 50 still left to be decided.
But the success of the reform movement, says Soroush, will be measured not in parliamentary seats but in attitudinal shifts, as Iran’s educated youth embrace such notions as “freedom, justice, political participation, and the rights of man.”
“The reform movement actually had two dimensions, if you like, two sides,” he explains as we sit in his bare visiting professor’s office. “One side was the political. Some of the reformists were part of the establishment, of the government. Now they’ve lost their power. But on the other hand, the most important part of the reform movement was intellectual, theoretical, educational.”
That intellectual reform movement finds expression in Soroush’s own work, which attempts to reconcile revelation and reason, religious duties and human rights. Whether or not such a reconciliation is possible is the subject of much debate and experimentation in the Muslim world today. But perhaps no one has attempted to develop so ambitious and unique a philosophical framework for that project as Abdolkarim Soroush.
Read them all.
Reuters reports that yesterday’s winner of Spain’s election will withdraw Spain’s 1,300 troops from Iraq:
“The war has been a disaster, the occupation continues to be a disaster. It has only caused violence,” Zapatero said in his first interview after a surprise triumph on Sunday.
“There must be consequences. There has been one already — the election result. The second will be that the Spanish troops will come back,” he said.
Noted by SR - this posting on a photoblog/discussion board out of Iran
Mar 13, 2004
The demonstrations began some hours ago. Fereydunkenar is a small town in the northern province of Mazandaran. The people attacked and were able to liberate a building used by the Islamic Republic’s security forces (Sentry Post #2). They then started moving to the city of Babolsar, but were soon confronted by Mazandaran’s provincial security forces. They’ve been pushed back into Fereydunkenar and the latest news I’ve heard is that the small town is now divided between the rebels and the security forces and the scene of fierce street battles.At least 5 people have been killed and scores injured.
Numerous photos of street demonstrations are included in the article.
There is also this -
Deadly clashes rocked, today, the northern city of Fereydoon-Kenar located by the Caspian sea in the Mazandaran province. Several protesters have been killed and tens of other wounded and arrested.Several official buildings, including the Security divison, have been damaged as the crowd retaliated to the regime forces extreme brutality and use of lethal force.
The situation is very tense and the regime forces have blocked all accesses to the city in order to avoid the spread of riots to the neighboring cities, such as, Babolsar and especially Amol where sporadic clashes have happened in the last days.
Currently no reflections on the major wire services…
MAARIV: Iran says it foiled terror attack on holy city
Iran announced today that if foiled a terror attack on the holy Shiite city of Qom. The Intelligence Ministry said that the attack was planned to coincide with the recent wave of bombings against Shiite targets in Iraq that killed 181 people.
Some stories pertaining to Iran from the past few days:
This story discusses the quite risky step taken by Iranian reformers in criticizing the Supreme Religious Guide, Ayatollah Khamenei:
In a daring move, more than 100 reformist MPs have accused Iran’s supreme leader of trampling on freedom and basic rights.The MPs, who include deputy speaker Mohammad Reza Khatami, have sent a letter to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei criticising his support for the disqualification of about 2,400 candidates in the parliamentary elections due to be held on Friday.
It is extremely rare that people publicly criticise Khamenei, who is regarded by his supporters as being incapable of error.
“The popular (1979) revolution brought freedom and independence for the country in the name of Islam, but now you lead a system in which legitimate freedoms and the rights of the people are being trampled on in the name of Islam,” the MPs said in the letter.
“Institutions under your supervision, after four years of humiliating the elected parliament and thwarting (reform) bills, have now deprived the people of the most basic right – the right to choose and be chosen,” the letter said.
The letter was sent to Khamenei on Monday. It was not expected to be published in Iranian newspapers.
An MP who signed the letter, Reza Yousefian, said Khamenei has not reacted by this afternoon and he and his colleagues in the outgoing parliament did not expect him to react.
“The state-media have ignored, and will ignore, the letter because the rulers don’t want the nation even to hear criticism of Khamenei. But who doesn’t know in this country that freedom has been slaughtered in the name of Islam by few unelected clerics,” he said.
But President Khatami turns the other cheek:
Reformist President Mohammad Khatami on Monday urged Iranians to turn out and vote in parliamentary elections this week to prevent hard-liners from winning, even if the mass disqualification of pro-reform candidates meant the elections were not fair.“What has happened has satisfied some and angered many others, but this anger should not push people not to take part in the elections,” the embattled president said in a statement carried by the official news agency IRNA.
“Many people have the feeling that in many constituencies, they cannot vote for their preferred candidate. But with a little tolerance, they can search to find those candidates who are closest to their views,” Khatami wrote, adding: “Even if they cannot send the person they want to the Majlis, they can prevent those they do not want from entering.”
In a clear reference to religious hard-liners, he said “nonparticipation in elections would allow a minority to take control of the destiny of the country.
“We must fight with all our strength to defend religious democracy,” said the president.
Other reformers are giving up on the system:
A leading Iranian dissident has launched a new attack on the country’s clerical establishment. In an open letter, jailed academic Hashem Aghajari said efforts to reform the system of government had failed and he called for passive resistance.Mr Aghajari made the comments just before the 20 February elections from which hardline clerics have excluded thousands of pro-reform candidates.
The reformist camp has conceded it is poised for defeat at the polls.
Mr Aghajari said that organising an “unfree election” marked an end for hope of reforms from within.
He blamed reformist President Mohammad Khatami for lacking the “will and courage” to bring about the change that he said most Iranians wanted.
He said the current generation should be given the right to choose its own structure of government and called for “passive resistance” to what he described as totalitarianism.
Mr Aghajari has long been a critic of the establishment. He was sentenced to death two years ago after he questioned the clergy’s right to rule.
The verdict sparked weeks of student demonstrations in his support and the death sentence was later quashed by the supreme court.
Meanwhile, Iran has pledged to sell nuclear fuel to other members of the international community. But when it comes to the question of Iran’s nuclear ambitions, the news is unsettling:
The Iranian government, confronted with new evidence obtained from the secret network of nuclear suppliers surrounding Abdul Qadeer Khan, has acknowledged that it possesses a design for a far more advanced high-speed centrifuge to enrich uranium than it previously revealed to the International Atomic Energy Agency.The centrifuge, called a “Pak-2” because it represents Pakistan’s second-generation design, would allow Iran to produce nuclear fuel far more quickly than the equipment that it reluctantly revealed to the agency last year. But it is unclear that Iran succeeded in building the new equipment, which is the type that the Khan network sold to Libya in recent years.
Some details of Iran’s shift were reported in The Financial Times on Thursday. Iran’s new statements to the agency, which last year compelled the country to open to fuller inspections, are important for two reasons. They provide the first evidence that Iran did not tell the full truth when it turned over to the agency documents that it said described all the important elements of its program to enrich uranium. The enrichment program, Iran admitted at the time, had been conducted in secret and out of the view of international inspectors for 18 years.
The revelation has also touched off a debate within the American and European intelligence communities over whether the Khan network also sold a full weapon design to Iran, similar to the one found in Libya.
“It’s natural to question whether the Iranians got everything the Libyans did,” one senior administration official said. “Why wouldn’t they?”
And consider this story:
Iran failed to declare sensitive designs for uranium enrichment centrifuges to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, calling into question the Islamic republic’s cooperation with the agency, diplomats told Reuters Thursday.Several Western diplomats told the news agency on condition of anonymity that information from Libya and other countries had led to the discovery of the designs, which could be used to develop machines to produce weapons-grade material.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) officials have expressed concerns about the existence of a global nuclear black market that has helped countries under embargo such as Iran, North Korea and Libya skirt international sanctions and obtain nuclear technology that could be used to make weapons.
Bear in mind, as always, that the actions of the Iranian regime, do not reflect the actions of the Iranian people. Via Porphyrogenitus we have this story which speaks to the disconnect between the regime and the populace:
On Revolution Day, the Iranian equivalent of the Fourth of July, Azadi Street was again transformed from east-west artery to carnival midway. Men lined up for free yogurt. Hawkers coaxed women to finger the material of baby clothes. Children clamored for a turn throwing darts at George W. Bush.Hossein Asadi put three darts right between the eyes of the caricature, sketched on a pair of boards mounted in a sideshow tent. He walked away with a new yellow tennis ball but no change in his feelings, which were nothing if not admiring.
“They like me to hit George Bush, so I hit George Bush,” said Hossein, 15. “They say it’s the Great Satan, but I say it’s a great country.
“I’ve seen nothing bad from the Americans.”
Wednesday marked 25 years since an elderly Muslim cleric with eyes the color of coal declared Iran a theocracy. But while religious figures remain firmly in charge here, sweeping aside an entire reform movement last week with the stroke of a pen, another pillar of the revolution appears shakier.
Anti-Americanism is not what it used to be in Iran.
As the United States and Iran edge warily toward possible rapprochement, the Iranian public makes no secret of its appetite for restoring relations formally severed in 1980, after militant students took over the U.S. Embassy here. In recent months, Iranians say, the appetite has grown for an unexpected reason: Iranian pilgrims returning from Iraq are spreading admiring stories of their encounters with American troops.
Thousands of Iranians have visited the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala since the war ended. Many have expressed surprise at the respectful and helpful behavior of the U.S. soldiers they met along the way.
Leila Araki, waiting in the back of a Renault sedan as her husband peddled shoes, recalled that her mother-in-law somehow lost her money on the road to Karbala. She said a U.S. soldier reached into his pocket and handed her taxi fare back to Najaf.
“This is something quite contrary to what we have been told about Americans,” said Araki, 31, who was told of Americans flashing thumbs-up and saying, “Good, Iranians.”
“They were really surprised. I would never be this respected and well-treated even in my country, by my countrymen.”
The Associated Press reports that Pakistan’s president, General Pervez Musharraf has pardoned the scientist who sold nuclear secrets to Iran, Libya and North Korea.
Musharraf accepted the scientist’s plea for mercy after he admitted the leaks in a televised apology.
“There’s a written appeal from his side and there’s a pardon written from my side,” Musharraf said at a news conference.
Details of the pardon were not made public, including whether Khan would have to repay any of the money he received for selling Pakistan’s nuclear secrets.
[. . .]
In a televised apology Wednesday after meeting Musharraf, Khan accepted full responsibility for nuclear leaks he said were made without government knowledge or approval and asked for forgiveness.
Two weeks ago, Musharraf vowed to move against proliferators he condemned as “enemies of the state,” but a decision to prosecute Khan would have outraged many Pakistanis.
On Thursday, Musharraf said he had sought to balance Pakistan’s domestic interests and international demands that proliferation activities be brought to light.
“Whatever I have done, I have tried to shield him,” Musharraf said of Khan, a national hero. But the president said “one has to balance between international requirements and shielding.”
“You cannot shield a hero and damage the nation,” the president said.
Musharraf refused to give further details about the pardon, a decision that he said was made on the recommendation of the National Command Authority — which controls the country’s nuclear assets — and the Cabinet.
Asked about Khan’s motives, Musharraf said: “What is the motive of people? Money, obviously. That’s the reality.”
He said Pakistan wouldn’t submit to any U.N. supervision of its weapons program, and that no documents would be handed over to the U.N. nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. He also ruled out an independent investigation of the military’s role in proliferation.
However, he said the IAEA was welcome to come and discuss the proliferation issue with Pakistan.
“We are open and we will tell them everything,” Musharraf said.
Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, told reporters before the pardon was announced that it wasn’t up to him to comment on “whether he (Khan) would be pardoned apprehended or decorated.”
[. . .]
A trial of Khan could have uncovered embarrassing revelations about top government and military officials — amid widespread skepticism about claims that they didn’t authorize or know about proliferation of nuclear technology and hardware from tightly guarded facilities to countries where Pakistan had strategic interests.
The president said again on Thursday there was no official involvement in proliferation.
[. . .]
Pakistan began its investigation in November after Iran told the U.N. nuclear watchdog it obtained nuclear technology from Pakistan.
Cross-Posted from California Yankee
Lots going on in Iran these days. I think the folks at Oxblog are absolutely right that matters are approaching a critical stage, and that we need to be paying more attention. Lord knows, the mainstream media won’t.
Iranian reformers have warned they may refuse to organise parliamentary elections due to a row over candidates.Full Article from BBC...A spokesman for reformist President Mohammad Khatami insisted on "fair competition for all the candidates".
"Without such a possibility... we cannot go ahead with such elections," spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told Iran's student news agency ISNA.
The Iranian parliament has approved a bill seeking to change election law and overturn a ban on reformist candidates.
An emergency session of MPs decided to intervene in a crisis sparked by the Guardians Council ban on thousands of candidates from next month's elections.
Under the changes, those approved for past elections would be able to run again unless there is strong evidence to prove they are unfit.
Reuters reports that Iran's Foreign Minister, said that Iran would put a dozen al-Qaeda suspects on trial.
According to Rueters:
The most important al Qaeda figure that Western intelligence agencies say may be in Iran is Egyptian Saif al-Adel, the security chief of Osama bin Laden's network.
In addition, Saudi sources said last year that Iran had detained Saad bin Laden, a son of Osama, as well as al Qaeda spokesman Sulaiman Abu Ghaith and Jordanian Abu Musab Zarqawi. The latter has suspected al Qaeda ties and is accused of plotting the murder of a U.S. diplomat in Amman in 2002.
There have been numerous reports that Iran was harboring al Qaeda militants who escaped Afghanistan after the U.S. overthrew Afghanistan's Taliban government after the September 11 attacks. Iran has not identified any of the al-Qaeda suspects.
Cross-posted at California Yankee.
The following links have to do with the current electoral standoff between hardliners and reformists in Iran. The nature of the standoff is discussed here.
This Economist article argues that the hardliners are in trouble:
Indeed, nearly 18 months have passed since President Khatami threw down the gauntlet by insisting on the passage of two bills, one to rein in the conservative judges who had done so much to nullify his reforms, the other to curb the Council of Guardians, the constitutional watchdog that now threatens even greater emasculation of the majlis. Neither bill has been put into effect, yet Mr Khatami has done nothing to precipitate the crisis he seemed to be calling for. It is his brother, a member of the majlis, who appears to be leading the protests. On Tuesday, the president hinted that he might resign, as most of his cabinet and all of Iran’s state governors are threatening to do unless the banning of the moderate candidates is overturned. However, on Wednesday, while criticising the bans, Mr Khatami stopped short of reiterating his threat. He also called on the reformist MPs to end their sit-in—a plea they rejected.So the conservatives may get away with it once more. But they face one short-term danger and one longer-term one. Their immediate worry is that the students will be galvanised by the MPs’ sit-in. Many student leaders have been picked off over the years and are now in jail, but new leaders may well arise in their place. The young particularly resent the bans or restrictions on dancing, movies, videos, alcohol, women’s dress and indeed all social mixing of the sexes. And like most Iranians, they hate being citizens of a country considered by George Bush to be part of the “axis of evil”. They know that in their aspirations for democratic change they have the moral support not just of Americans but of Europeans too—Javier Solana, the EU’s foreign-policy chief, criticised the ban on pro-democracy candidates during a visit to Tehran on Monday. And, thanks to watching illicit satellite broadcasts and to keeping in touch with a huge diaspora of Iranians abroad (about 1m in America alone), they are well informed about events outside their country, including the international opprobrium brought about by their country’s nuclear programme.
The longer-term danger for the clerics also lies in the dissatisfaction of the young, but this discontent is not confined to students. Two-thirds of Iran’s 70m people are under the age of 30, and half are under 20. Religious rule has given them an education and, in the right to vote (at 16), a taste of and for democracy. It has not given them jobs, nor can it do so in sufficient numbers to satisfy all those now leaving school unless it allows economic change—including foreign investment—and, inevitably, political reform too. Whether this week’s row ends in climbdown, compromise or crackdown, it will not have banished the prospect of Iran’s next revolution. On the contrary, it will probably have brought it closer.
By contrast, this article from the Economist says that it is the hardliners who have the upper hand:
IN THE view of Mohsen Mirdamadi, one of Iran’s most senior politicians, it smacked of a coup d’état. On January 11th the Council of Guardians, the iron fist of Iran’s formidable clerical establishment, let it be known that it was barring some 4,000 candidates, including 82 serving deputies, from standing in parliamentary elections due on February 20th.Officially, most of the disqualified candidates are being penalised for their supposed indifference to Islam and to the constitution, and for querying the virtually limitless powers enjoyed by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. No one doubts that they have been chosen because they support the country’s reform-minded president, Muhammad Khatami, and his dangerously democratic ideas.
The Council of Guardians may be hoping to dissuade Iranians from voting. Last year’s council elections, when the reformists lost power in most big cities, showed that a low turnout favours the conservatives. They hope that their stable 15%-or-so of the vote will win them a disproportionate share of parliament’s 290 seats.
Ever since their sweeping victory in the last parliamentary election, in 2000, reform-minded deputies have backed the president in his struggle against Iran’s roundly disliked, but immensely powerful, conservative institutions. Denied much of their legislative clout, parliamentarians have been reduced to using the chamber to highlight—but not, alas, to curb—the conservatives’ abuses of power.
The Council of Guardians duly avenged itself on the biggest party of whistle-blowers, the Participation Front; just two of its 67 serving deputies were cleared to stand. In Tehran 52% of all candidates were barred. In distant Kurdistan, where ethnic nationalism wears reformist colours, the figure was 59%.
Since rumours of mass disqualifications had circulated long before they were made public, the barred parliamentarians had prepared their response. On January 11th about 80 deputies began a sit-in in the parliament building, to go on “as long as necessary”. If the council refuses to back down, says Reza Khatami, one of parliament’s two deputy speakers (and the president’s younger brother), the agitation will grow and will “take new forms”.
To the regime’s external enemies, these words are a portent—of political implosion, perhaps, foretelling the fatal weakening of the Islamic Republic. In Iran, a different view prevails. Rarely, since President Khatami’s triumphant election in 1997, has the establishment seemed so powerful, or its eventual victory so assured.
This article discusses the cracking of the hardline edifice:
Iran’s Guardian Council said Tuesday it had reversed only about 5 percent of its bans on candidates for seats in parliament despite a poll boycott threat by reformist President Mohammad Khatami’s party.
The 12-man unelected conservative watchdog has barred nearly half of 8,200 candidates from participating in the Feb. 20 election. Allies of Khatami, including 80 of the standing 290 members of parliament, have been most affected.Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the last word on all state matters, has urged the Council to review its decisions, but it has been in no apparent rush to lift bans and has until the end of the month to review 3,100 appeals.
“So far … 200 (disqualified) candidates have been approved,” said a statement on the hard-line Council’s Web site. The figure represents about five percent of the bans.
And finally, this article reports that some reformers are resigning their government positions to protest the recent activities of the hardliners:
Several ministers and vice presidents in Iran have handed in their resignations to protest the disqualification by the anti-reformist Guardian Council of nearly half of the candidates for Parliament, a senior government official said today.“A number of ministers and vice presidents have resigned but they are waiting for the outcome” of the revision by the Guardian Council, Muhammad Ali Abtahi, a vice president, told reporters after a cabinet meeting. “All those who have resigned, including the governors and governor generals, are very determined,” he said.
The ministers submitted their letters last week, but Mr. Abtahi’s remarks marked the first time that the resignations were announced by an Iranian official.
Developing . . .
Here is the story:
Iranian reformists walked out of parliament while others staged a sit-in to protest over the conservatives' rejection of election candidates.Exactly how many of the 8,200 hopefuls for February's legislative elections have been barred was unclear on Sunday. However, initial results from several provinces carried by the official IRNA news agency indicated it was between 50 and 60 percent, Reuters said.
Among those disqualified by a conservative watchdog group was a brother of President Mohammad Khatami and head of the Islamic Iran Participation Front -- the Islamic republic's largest pro-reform party.
Parliament members say about 900 of the 1,700 hopefuls for seats in Tehran have also been disqualified from running.
Also posted on my weblog.
Matthew J. Stinson has an interesting post on the subject:
Midrash Shmuel, a Jewish rabbinical maxim based on the events of I Samuel 15, teaches that compassion should only be extended to the worthy, for "He who is merciful when he should be cruel will in the end be cruel when he should be merciful." But the innocent victims of the earthquake in Bam -- unlike Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, or Iran's theocratic leaders -- are worthy of mercy. They're not our enemies, so why the cruelty -- and praise of the virtue of indifference is cruelty -- when the situation merits being merciful? Why the need to hold a multitude of people responsible for the crimes of a few?I can't think of any circumstance where extending aid to victims of natural disasters would not be the right thing to do, so long as we have the financial wherewithal to do so without harm to our own citizens. Even with our high deficits, we can certainly afford to help out in this case.
That said, as to Mathew's argument, I'm not sure that the citizens are entirely innocent here. Surely, the people who allow these regimes to remain in office have some moral responsibility for the consequences that follow? Resisting tyranny is, to say the least, difficult. Still, it has been done time and again. If societies that organize to secure their own freedom are morally praiseworthy, surely those who do not can be faulted?
Cross-post from OTB
Or so the headline reads. Here is the story:
Iran yesterday formally agreed to allow the United Nations' nuclear watchdog greater access to its nuclear facilities.Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, and Ali Akbar Salehi, Tehran's IAEA representative, signed in Vienna an Additional Protocol to the 1968 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty that would allow tougher IAEA supervision, including the right of inspectors to visit Iran's nuclear sites with just two hours' notice.
The agreement follows increased US pressure on Tehran since President George W. Bush last year included Iran alongside Iraq and North Korea in an "axis of evil".
Tehran has denied any interest in nuclear weapons, which Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the country's supreme leader, has said are contrary to Islam.
Mr Salehi said yesterday that by signing the protocol Iran had taken "a great and important step towards revealing its attitude of transparency" and expressed the hope that it would "no more be subject to unfair and politically motivated accusations and allegations".
Iran told European Union foreign ministers in October that it would suspend uranium enrichment as a gesture of goodwill, and has insisted that traces of highly enriched uranium found by the IAEA last summer were due to contaminated imported equipment.
But in a report last month, the IAEA criticised Tehran for a lack of transparency.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
Around 1,000 pro-reform students rallied in the Iranian capital Sunday calling for freedom of speech and the release of political prisoners, witnesses said.The protesters in Tehran chanted "Free all political prisoners" and "Death to despotism" on the annual Student Day, which marks the death of three students during a protest against then U.S. Vice President Richard Nixon's Iran visit in 1953. Students have been at the forefront of protests against the Islamic Republic's clerical establishment in recent years, often clashing with hard-line vigilantes loyal to conservative clerics opposed to any watering down of Iran's Islamic system. Dozens of students have been arrested during major street protests in recent years. Under tight police security, protesters inside the Tehran University campus Sunday carried pictures of their jailed classmates. Students played a crucial part in President Mohammad Khatami's landslide win over his conservative rivals in 1997 and his re-election in 2001 on a platform of liberal political and social reforms. But angry at Khatami's non-confrontational approach and advocacy of gradual change in Iran, the country's biggest student movement, the Office to Consolidate Unity, has withdrawn its influential political support for Khatami and his allies.
"Reformists used our votes as a political tool and in return we got broken promises. They forgot us," Matin Meshkini, a student leader, told Reuters.
(Also linked to on my blog.)
An interesting story can be found here:
As inspectors begin to delve into Iran's nuclear program, the head of the United Nations atomic watchdog agency warned this week that safeguards meant to prevent nuclear proliferation are becoming increasingly battered. Mohamed ElBaradei, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in a phone interview with the Monitor that the discovery of nuclear programs in places like Iran and North Korea has put his organization under increasing stress. "We are acting as a fireman, and a fireman is not sufficient," he says.Mr. ElBaradei wants more countries to sign onto nuclear-inspection protocols. In the long term, he says, all nuclear materials used in commercial programs should come under multinational control. He reminded nuclear-weapons states that the best path to nonproliferation is to address security concerns of countries that may want to go nuclear.
The statements come even as a dozen IAEA inspectors are in Iran to verify last month's pledge by Tehran to suspend its uranium- and plutonium-enrichment programs and allow extensive inspections.
According to IAEA officials, the agreement was reached just before the IAEA released a confidential report saying that Iran repeatedly breached its nuclear safeguard agreements under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). The report found that Iran secretly produced highly enriched uranium and plutonium, the essential ingredients for making a nuclear weapon.
While the amounts were not large enough to produce a nuclear bomb, the program spurred speculation about Iran's nuclear intentions. "We cannot state with certainty that this is a peaceful program, but we do not have proof that it is a weapons program," ElBaradei says. "We need to do much more in-depth work before we come to a conclusion."
(Also linked and discussed on my blog.)
This excellent site is introduced to us via Andrew Sullivan. Be sure to check it out.
Reuters [ Full story »» ] reports:
Iran continues to deceive the U.N. nuclear watchdog and even took the agency's inspectors to a decoy site to prevent them from uncovering an undeclared nuclear workshop, an exiled Iranian opposition group said Wednesday. This allegation comes a day before the U.N. International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) Board of Governors meets to discuss an IAEA report on Iran's 18-year concealment of the full extent of its nuclear program from the U.N. body.
The story can be found here:
The IAEA, in a report circulated on Monday, said Iran had a centrifuge uranium enrichment program for 18 years and a high-tech laser enrichment program for 12 years, both hidden from the United Nations.It also said Iran produced small amounts of plutonium, usable in a bomb and with virtually no civilian uses, and conducted secret tests of enrichment centrifuges using nuclear material.
Despite Iran's secretiveness and the activities possibly associated with weapons, the IAEA said there was no proof to date of an arms program. Iran has always denied the charge.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
The Iranian government has assigned bodyguards to Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi after she has received one or two threatening letters a day following her return home last month. The stepped-up security underlines both the increasingly effective role many in Iran hope Ebadi will now be able to play in encouraging human rights -- and the degree of resistance she faces from hard-liners.Prague, 11 November 2003 (RFE/RL) -- Associates of Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi say the threatening letters began arriving just days after the announcement that she had won the Nobel Peace Prize early last month.
The letters, which have been coming in at the rate of one or two a day ever since, are anonymous but explicit. One is reported to have threatened: "We will not let you enjoy this prize." Unidentified persons also left torn photos of Ebadi outside her Tehran office.
Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, a lawyer at Ebadi's Center for Protecting Human Rights, says that as the threats grew, the organization wrote to the Iranian Interior Ministry, urging it to safeguard her life. The ministry responded this week by assigning her bodyguards and a car, despite Ebadi's own protests that she is not in danger and that she is adequately protected by people who love her.
The stepped-up security around the 56-year-old Ebadi underlines both the increasingly effective role many in Iran now hope the Nobel Peace Prize winner will be able to play in encouraging human rights, as well as the degree of resistance she faces from hard-liners.
(Also posted on my blog.)
This special briefing focuses on Iran, courtesy of D.J. Persia of Project: FREE-IRAN!, with additions from today's Winds of War host Andrew Olmsted.
TOP TOPIC
* "THE REGIME IN TEHRAN MUST HEED THE DEMOCRATIC DEMANDS OF THE IRANIAN PEOPLE." - George W. Bush
* JK: Arash Bateni of Freethoughts.org offers "Iran's Nuclear Plan: A Matter of Fact Review." Very good job, with good links.
Other Topics Today Include: Nukes update; State Dept. perfidity; Freedom & Democracy supporters strike back; Many question Nobel winner Shirin Ebadi; Anniversary of US Embassy seizure; Son of Zahra Kazemi accepts award and rejects Ebadi's help; 1994 car bombing of a Argentine Jewish facility; More demonstrations in Iran; Islamic Reformation; Iranian Freedom & Democracy Movie.
Here is the story:
Iran will refuse requests to extradite captured al Qaeda members to the United States, instead trying them under Iranian law, a top official has said.Seyed Mohammad Sadegh Kharazi, Iran's ambassador to France, also said Tuesday there were "links between al Qaeda and the military elements of the Baath party," the party once run by deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.
He described al Qaeda and the Taliban as "essentially the illegitimate children" of the United States.
U.S. officials blame recent attacks in Iraq on Baath party remnants, members of terrorist groups, and other insurgents.
The United States has called on Iran to send al Qaeda members within its borders to the United States, because of the terrorist attacks the group has launched against the U.S. and its interests overseas.
(Also posted on my blog.)
A pair of rabbits are put in a field and, if rabbits take a month to become mature and then produce a new pair every month after that, how many pairs will there be in twelve months time?
Somewhere around 1200 A.D. an Italian mathematician who went by the pen-name Fibonacci pondered this very problem, a task made a bit easier by his pioneering adoption of the Hindu-Arabic numeric system. The 1,1,2,3,5,8... sequence which resulted is known as the Fibonacci Sequence, and it's connected to both the critical artistic concept of the "golden section" and the "propagating spiral."
Hmmm. Breeding like rabbits, Hindi-Arabic enablement, propagating spirals, game theory. These days, the concepts remind us of nukes, not numbers. Fundamentalist regimes in Iran and North Korea are entering the final phases of their race to atomic weapons, while reports surface of Pakistani exchanges with North Korea and now a weapons program in collusion with Saudi Arabia.
Fibonacci's sequence lives on today in the nightmare form of nuclear proliferation, and all current indications point to the conclusion that nothing of consequence will be done to halt the relentless addition of its sums. Parapundit drives this point home in a series of 2 excellent and well-researched articles, covering the work of Henry Sokolski of the Nonproliferation Policy Education Center on the broken non-proliferation process, and UPI Editor in Chief Arnaud de Borchgrave's report on nuclear agreements between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Here is the story:
Iran today agreed to suspend its disputed uranium enrichment programme and sign an agreement allowing tougher UN inspections of its nuclear sites.The Reuters news agency reported that an Iranian official and a European diplomat had both told it that uranium enrichment would be suspended, but it was unclear for how long.
The French, German and British foreign ministers were today visiting Tehran to attempt to defuse international tensions over Iran's nuclear programme.
The country insists that its facilities are for a civil electricity programme, but the US, UK and other governments claim there is compelling evidence to the contrary.
The UN's nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has given Iran until October 31 to prove that it does not have a nuclear weapons programme.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said he wanted the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme resolved peacefully but did not rule out possible military action.Asked in parliament if he ruled out such action if Iran did not cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog, Straw said: "We wish to see this matter resolved peacefully. I'm not going to predict what is going to happen except to say we have adopted a consistent approach in respect of Iran."
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
Saad bin Laden, one of Osama bin Laden's oldest sons, has emerged in recent months as part of the upper echelon of the al Qaeda network, a small group of leaders that is managing the terrorist organization from Iran, according to U.S., European and Arab officials.Saad bin Laden and other senior al Qaeda operatives were in contact with an al Qaeda cell in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, in the days immediately prior to the May 12 suicide bombing there that left 35 people dead, including eight Americans, European and U.S. intelligence sources say. The sources would not divulge the nature or contents of the communications, but the contacts have led them to conclude that the Riyadh attacks were planned in Iran and ordered from there.
Although Saad bin Laden is not the top leader of the terrorist group, his presence in the decision-making process demonstrates his father's trust in him and an apparent desire to pass the mantle of leadership to a family member, according to numerous terrorism analysts inside and outside of government.
Like other al Qaeda leaders in Iran, the younger bin Laden, who is believed to be 24 years old, is protected by an elite, radical Iranian security force loyal to the nation's clerics and beyond the control of the central government, according to U.S. and European intelligence officials. The secretive unit, known as the Jerusalem Force, has restricted the al Qaeda group's movements to its bases, mostly along the border with Afghanistan.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
Moments after learning Friday that Shirin Ebadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the mother of the Iranian human rights lawyer prayed to Allah. Ebadi's husband, too, gave thanks for what may lie ahead."The reform movement is reborn," said Javad Tavassolian, the husband of Ebadi, the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the peace prize.
Ebadi - who also is Iran's first female judge - was hailed around the world as a courageous champion of political freedom after the Norwegian Nobel Committee honored her for promoting peaceful and democratic solutions in the struggle for human rights.
The prize, announced Friday in Oslo, Norway, also gave hope to the dispirited reformers challenging Iran's ruling clerics that the 56-year-old lawyer's newfound clout and international stature may breathe life into their tired ranks.
"This prize doesn't belong to me only. It belongs to all people who work for human rights and democracy in Iran," Ebadi said in Paris, where she was attending a conference.
Ebadi, who was jailed for three weeks in 2000, has been a forceful advocate for women, children and those on the margins of society.
"As a lawyer, judge, lecturer, writer and activist, she has spoken out clearly and strongly in her country, Iran, far beyond its borders," the Nobel committee said in its citation.
Reformers in Iran may now expect even more: a firebrand willing to directly battle the powerful theocracy in the model of other history-shaping Nobel laureates such as Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa.
"She is an international figure now," said Isa Saharqis, a prominent reformer and editor of the monthly political journal, Aftab, or Sun. "The conservatives cannot close their eyes to this."
Iranian state media waited hours to report the Nobel committee's decision - and then only as the last item on the radio news update.
It was not until late Friday that Iran issued an official statement, with government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh congratulating Ebadi for her prize.
(Also posted on my blog.)
The story can be found here:
It's not strictly necessary to speak to Hossein Khomeini to appreciate the latter point: Every visitor to Iran confirms it, and a large majority of the Iranians themselves have voted for anti-theocratic candidates. The entrenched and reactionary regime can negate these results up to a certain point; the only question is how long can they do so? Young Khomeini is convinced that the coming upheaval will depend principally on those who once supported his grandfather and have now become disillusioned. I asked him what he would like to see happen, and his reply this time was very terse and did not require any Quranic scriptural authority or explication. The best outcome, he thought, would be a very swift and immediate American invasion of Iran.It hurt me somewhat to have to tell him that there was scant chance of deliverance coming by this means. He took the news pretty stoically (and I hardly think I was telling him anything he did not know). But I was thinking, wow, this is what happens if you live long enough. You'll hear the ayatollah's grandson saying, not even "Send in the Marines" but "Bring in the 82nd Airborne." I think it was the matter-of-factness of the reply that impressed me the most: He spoke as if talking of the obvious and the uncontroversial.
(Also posted on my blog.)
"Iran's Atomic Dilemma" writes Amir Taheri. "Stopping Iran's Atomic Quest" writes Canada's National Post in an editorial. Meanwhile, The Bulletin of Atomic Scientists says the window during which Iran could still be stopped could be as short as 6-9 months.
This should be worrying, and not just to the folks in the White House. It should be profoundly worrying to the people of Iran.
Tyler Cowan explains "The Game Theory of Nuclear Proliferation," and why it's so dangerous. Note that in addition to upping the risks of war with the USA, Iran's efforts also up the risk of catastrophe as a result of miscalculation between other nuclear powers - like Israel and Iran, for instance. I've made this point before... but Iranians need to understand the full implications. A regime that owns nuclear weapons directly threatens the personal safety of every Iranian in a way that simply hasn't been true before.
Posted by Winds of Change at 09:11 AM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
Here is the story:
I found the people to be social in Iran, in a way that we are not social in the West. Strangers would actually have meaningful conversations with each other and it gave me a lot of insight into to attitudes of the population. This happened several times when I was traveling with Mr. Azarian in cabs in Tehran.The first time it happened was most memorable. We were in the back of a cab and Mr. Azarian and the driver were engaged in some light political conversation. The passenger in the front quickly and vehemently interjected, flashed an ID card, and went into a tirade, which made me think he was some sort of government official who did not like what he had heard. He went on for quite some time, and he was very irate.
I was not sure what to do, and since I couldn't understand him I wasn't sure if I was reading the situation correctly. I thought maybe I should just ignore him, not give him the satisfaction of an audience. I also thought maybe I should stare him in the eye to let him know he could rant on but I wasn't intimidated by his status. It was actually a little unsettling because of the uncertainty of the situation.
In the end I just tried to absorb the situation and try to read as much as I could about it. I found out later, when he left the car, that he was a government official working in intelligence for the national broadcasting company. But he was not complaining about the conversation in the car, he was the one complaining about the government. His frustration was to the point where he was almost losing control, he needed to vent or he would burst.
Many of the people in the cabs in Tehran had the similar thoughts. "Tell George Bush to come and get rid of the mullahs for us." I was shocked by the openness of that statement. With one fellow I tried to discuss it with him in more detail to see if he really meant it or was just talking. I told him that if George Bush came and got rid of the Mullahs, it would not be to help the people of Iran; he would be coming for the oil. The fellow replied, "He can have the oil, its not doing us any good anyway and at least then we would be free."
[. . .]
I sensed a strong identity with America from many of the people. I think this is because of the success and power of America, and also because of the feeling that in America anyone who wants to work hard can be personally successful, which is a value that they respect. I think many people in Iran feel that their country could and would achieve the same success if not for the leadership of the clerics.
This insight into the way the Iranian people think gave me a new perspective on the foreign policy of the USA. Think about it like this. Let's say that over 50% of the people in Iran would like to get rid of their government of mullahs (I believe the number would really be over 90%). In a democratic system, with over 50% wanting something they would get it. So if an outside influence (USA) helped them get what they want, isn't the outside influence doing the democratic thing?
(Also posted on my blog. Link originally via Tim Blair.)
The story can be found here:
Russia gave explicit public backing on Saturday to a U.N. watchdog's resolution which has given Iran seven weeks in which to let the atomic agency verify it has no secret nuclear weapons program.The clear words from a country that had been seen as trying to counter American pressure on Iran will not be welcomed by Tehran, which says the setting of the October 31 deadline is proof it is the next target of a U.S. invasion.
Following intense U.S. pressure for action against Iran, the 35-nation governing board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) passed a resolution on Friday demanding Iran answer many outstanding questions about its nuclear program.
The resolution implies that if the IAEA still has doubts about Iran's atomic program in November, its board might declare Iran in breach of international obligations and report it to the U.N. Security Council for possible economic sanctions.
(Also posted on my blog.)
The story is here:
The United States accused Iran on Tuesday of violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty but said Tehran had "a last chance" to prove it wasn't running a covert weapons program.Backed by key allies, chief U.S. delegate Kenneth Brill took Iran to task on the basis of a report outlining discrepancies between its past statements on its nuclear program and findings by the International Atomic Energy Agency. The report, by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei, lists the discovery of weapons-grade enriched uranium and other evidence that critics say point to a weapons program.
"The United States believes the facts already established would fully justify an immediate finding of noncompliance by Iran," Brill said at a meeting of the agency's board. Still, he said, the Americans were ready to give "Iran a last chance to drop its evasions" before pushing for punitive action.
The United States accuses Iran of working on a secret nuclear weapons program. Tentative plans to come down hard on Iran at the board meeting were dropped last week after the Bush administration decided it wouldn't find enough support at the conference.
The U.S. delegation had been pushing for a resolution finding Iran in noncompliance a conclusion that would have brought the matter before the Security Council, which in turn could have called for sanctions.
(Also posted on my blog.)
More from NJ.com....LONDON (AP) -- Shots were fired near the British embassy in the Iranian capital Tehran for the second time in a week early Tuesday morning, the Foreign Office said.
Three or four shots were fired at or close to the building, but no one was wounded and it was unclear whether the embassy was hit. The shots were fired from the street at 12.55 a.m. local time and several people witnessed the incident, the Foreign Office said, without giving further details.
It added that the embassy was "carrying out limited functions. ... We're taking it seriously as an incident."
More from BBC...The UN's nuclear watchdog is considering setting a deadline for Iran to fully comply with its obligations under the international nuclear non-proliferation treaty NPT.
A draft resolution - drawn up by Britain, France and Germany - is being considered by the board of governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) at a special meeting in Vienna.
It says Iran should "remedy all failures identified by the agency" and "co-operate fully with the [the IAEA] to ensure verification of compliance with Iran's Safeguards Agreement by taking all necessary actions by the end of October 2003".
Winds of Change.NET Regional Briefings run on Tuesdays & Wednesdays, and sometimes Fridays too. This Regional Briefing focuses on Iran.
Top Topic
* As Dan's Iran Report noted recently, there are reports Iran has chosen Muqtada al-Sadr to lead the Iraqi Hezbollah. Put this together with Dan's link claiming that Imad Mugniyeh has arrived in Iraq to assist the Iranian designs in the country, and a Washington Post story that points toward Iran as the launching point for al-Qaeda's operations in Iraq. Clearly, what we have here is a full-scale proxy war between Iran and the USA in Iraq.
Other Topics Today Include: Nuclear program updates; Iran's dissidents imprisoned, murdered; Pedram's personal 1988 nightmare; Democracy, Islam, argument style, and war; Steppenwolf's blogging satori; Lawyer claims Zahra Kazemi was raped & tortured; Canada does nothing; The Left and Iran; Where are you from?
More from BBC...Iran has announced plans for legislation to let it freeze terrorist-linked assets in line with its United Nations responsibilities.
If - as expected - the bill is ratified by parliament and by the hard-line Guardian Council, it will make Iran a member of the International Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, which was created in 1999 and came into force in 2002.
That commits Iran to banning the collecting of money intended to support terrorist actings, and to answering calls by other signatories for help with tracking terror funds.
But while Al-Qaeda will be included on its list of banned organisations, a government spokesman said, Hamas - the Palestinian extremist group banned by the European Union over the weekend - will not.
Cross-posted to Electric Venom.
More from AP via Yahoo!...VIENNA, Austria - The U.N. nuclear agency's chief on Monday urged Iran to give a full and detailed explanation of its highly enriched uranium and other evidence that could point to a covert atomic weapons program.
The demand came after Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency warned of "unexpected or surprising consequences" if the agency's board, meeting in Vienna this week, presses too hard to open Iran's nuclear facilities to scrutiny.
In a statement to the 35-nation IAEA board, Mohamed ElBaradei said that although Iran has been showing increased cooperation, his experts still don't have enough information to determine the nature of Tehran's nuclear activities.
More from NJ.com...VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- Iran's chief delegate to the U.N. atomic agency warned the United States and other nations ahead of a Monday meeting that nuclear tensions could be aggravated if they put too much pressure on Tehran to open its programs to inspectors.
Ali Akbar Salehi said Iran still was open to negotiating the inspection issue with the International Atomic Energy Agency, but indicated the offer could be withdrawn if IAEA board meeting "disrupted the whole process."
The meeting likely will urge Iran to make its nuclear program accessible by agreeing to a protocol allowing tougher IAEA inspections without notice. Under strong international pressure, Iran last month offered to negotiate the IAEA protocol.
Monday's meeting also will ask Tehran to explain agency findings that the Americans and others say point to the existence of a covert nuclear weapons program.
The Winds of War feature over at Winds of Change.NET is designed to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday.
Today we ended up with 2 briefings - so Kate's Winds of War is at Winds of Change.NET, and the other is here. Dan Darling of Regnum Crucis captains our Command Post Iran Briefing; also Dan's Iraq Briefing, and Dan's War Roundup.
This editorial might make for some interesting reading in the corridors of power at 10 Downing Street. Be sure to take a look.
(Also posted on my blog.)
The British Embassy in Tehran has closed after shots were fired at it from the street.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said five shots were fired at the building, adding it was too early to speculate on who was reponsible or any motive.
She said: "The bullets hit offices on the first and second floors of the building. Nobody was injured but the embassy has been temporarily closed for business."
This report is very interesting:
A pact between the U.S. government and the electronic privacy company Anonymizer, Inc. is making the Internet a safer place for controversial websites and subversive opinions -- if you're Iranian.This month Anonymizer began providing Iranians with free access to a Web proxy service designed to circumvent their government's online censorship efforts. In May, government ministers issued a blacklist of 15,000 forbidden "immoral" websites that ISPs in the country must block -- reportedly a mix of adult sites and political news and information outlets. An estimated two million Iranians have Internet access.
Among the banned sites are the website for the U.S.-funded Voice of America broadcast service, and the site for Radio Farda, another U.S. station that beams Iranian youth a mix of pop music and westernized news. Both stations are run by the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), the U.S. government's overseas news and propaganda arm.
The U.S. responded to the filtering this month by paying Anonymizer (neither the IBB nor Anonymizer will disclose how much) to create and maintain a special version of the Anonymizer proxy which only accepts connections from Iran's IP address space, and features instructions in Farsi.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
A senior European Union official has warned Iran it must accept unannounced snap inspections of its nuclear facilities.Speaking during a news conference in Tehran, E.U. foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the issue is not a bargaining matter. He warned that failure to agree to such inspections would mean "bad news" for Iran.
Iran is under mounting international pressure to sign an additional protocol to the nuclear non-proliferation treaty that would allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to inspect nuclear facilities with little advance warning.
Mr. Solana issued the warning after the head of the IAEA, Mohammed ElBaradei, said Iran has been buying nuclear technology on the international black market. In an interview aired Friday by British television, Mr. ElBaradei also said Iran's nuclear program was much older than the IAEA realized, going back to the mid-1980's.
The United States says Iran has been secretly developing nuclear weapons. Iran says its nuclear program is intended only for peaceful purposes.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Via InstaPundit we have this story:
The Iranian Government has rejected the findings of a judicial inquiry into the death in custody of journalist Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian national.It emerged on Monday that the judge investigating the case had charged two officials from the intelligence ministry with "complicity in semi-intentional murder".
But a government spokesman on Tuesday cast doubt on the legitimacy of the inquiry, describing its findings as having nothing to do with reality.
The BBC's Miranda Eeles in Tehran says the investigation has revealed the bitter nature of the power struggle taking place between reformists under President Khatami and conservatives who dominate the judiciary.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
Iran said Monday that two interrogators had been charged with complicity in "semi-intentional" murder over the death of a Canadian photojournalist in July, the official IRNA news agency said.The death of Zahra Kazemi, 54, who Iranian government officials have said was killed by a blow to the head after her arrest for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison, has sparked a diplomatic row between Canada and Iran.
"The charges leveled against the interrogators, who are said to be members of the Intelligence Ministry, are announced as complicity in semi-intentional murder," IRNA said, quoting a report from the Tehran prosecutor's office.
It said the prosecutor's office had not identified the two.
IRNA said the indictment issued by the investigator in the Tehran prosecutor's office would be sent for approval by a higher-ranking criminal prosecutor, who has five days to issue a decision.
In Ottawa, Canadian Foreign Ministry officials said they would not comment until they had confirmed the IRNA story. Canadian diplomats in Tehran were not immediately available for comment.
Iranian officials initially said Kazemi, a Montreal-based journalist of Iranian descent, died of a stroke. But a government inquiry revealed she had been killed by a brain hemorrhage caused by a severe blow to the skull.
(Also posted on my blog.)
This interview with noted Iranian dissident Abdolkarim Soroush is definitely worth your time. Two passages stand out--the first discussing the nature and origin of the protests in Iran:
These protests are coming entirely from within. They are not because of foreign provocation. Iran has had an explosion in its university population since the revolution, when there were just 200,000 students. Today there are 2 million. They and their families want greater freedoms and I believe the end result will be a reduction in the power of Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, more power to parliament, and greater academic freedom.
The second discusses Soroush's view of scientific and rational inquiry:
My experience in Iran teaches me that a minimum amount of freedom is necessary for the advancement of science, for the advancement of thought. Research cannot flourish if you cannot communicate with your fellow scientists; if you cannot explain your ideas freely, or have to hide part of them lest you be arrested.I am communicating with you now. We can freely chat and freely exchange information. Science is a child of these kinds of conditions. If I hide something from you and you hide things from me, and both of us are obliged to read between the lines, these are not ideal conditions for research to progress.
Read the whole thing.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
Security police and customs officials in the Latvian capital, Riga, have seized what was described as a sizable illegal shipment of weapons reportedly bound for Iran. Experts say the aging gear was likely bound for terrorist groups for the purpose of updating and repairing existing equipment.Latvian police say the shipment, disguised as farm products, actually contained night vision goggles, spare parts for armored vehicles and anti-aircraft systems.
According to the police, the illegal cargo seized at Riga's airport weighs in at 28 tons and has an estimated value of $315,000. Authorities believe the shipment came from Russia and was destined for Iran.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
Iran's former ambassador to Argentina was arrested by British police on Thursday in connection with the 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish center which killed 85 people, Scotland Yard said.Hadi Soleimanpour, ambassador at the time of the attack on the AMIA Jewish Community Center, was arrested on an extradition warrant and would appear before London magistrates on Friday, the British police said in a statement.
Last week, a judge in Argentina issued an arrest warrant through Interpol for Soleimanpour, 47, and seven other Iranian officials in connection with the car bomb attack in which about 200 people were also injured.
Israel and Washington -- which has branded Iran part of an "axis of evil" states that sponsor terrorism -- have long said they suspected Iranian-backed Middle Eastern guerrillas were behind the attack. Iran has fiercely denied any involvement.
Police said Soleimanpour was arrested on a warrant alleging that "on or before July 7, 1994, (he) did conspire with other persons to murder persons at the (AMIA Center)."
He is believed to have been living in the northern English city of Durham since February last year, when he entered the country on a student visa to study at Durham University.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
Two years ago, Hossein Yazdi was looking forward to a quiet retirement. Now he's back at work as one of Tehran's countless unofficial taxi drivers, trying to supplement a monthly pension of $65. "[Two pounds] of meat costs $5 these days; most weeks my wife and I go without," he says. "If things carry on like this, people like us will soon be dying of starvation."Daily conversation here turns with alarming speed to the daily struggle to make ends meet. But what makes such talk baffling is that most economists consider the country to be relatively well managed.
"Iran has huge resources of oil and gas, and the rise in oil prices since 1999 from $10 a barrel to over $26 today has given the economy an immense boost," says Yves Cadilhon, head of the French economic mission in Tehran.
So what are many Iranians complaining about? A powerful group of clerics and merchants who, critics say, have a stranglehold on the economy.
For Saeed Laylaz, an assistant manager at Iran's largest car manufacturer and a supporter of moderate President Muhammad Khatami, the gripes are an effect of political reforms. "People are no longer afraid to speak out: they're not getting angrier, just more vocal," he says.
Jahangir Amuzegar, who was Iran's finance minister in the 1970s, disagrees. "It's the envy factor," he says. "I doubt anybody is getting poorer, but the trouble is that a tiny minority is getting richer very quickly."
(Also posted on my blog.)
Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Here's today's Iran Reports, just part of our overall Winds of War briefing today.
IRAN REPORTS: Aug. 18/03
Here is the story:
Iran's hard-line watchdog council rejected three bills approved by Parliament today that could have expanded civil rights. The move is another blow against the reform movement that has been limping along since 1997.The Guardian Council rejected two bills that required Iran to adopt United Nations conventions on eliminating torture and discrimination against women. The third bill, on elections, was aimed at curbing the Guardian Council's power to bar candidates from running for office.
The council's spokesman, Ibrahim Azizi, said the bills were rejected because they were unconstitutional or against Islamic law.
But the move was widely considered as another blow intended to undercut the reform movement before the next parliamentary elections, scheduled for February 2004.
The council has already set up offices around the country to identify potential candidates and examine their political records. Reformers say the offices are illegal.
"We had predicted that the council would reject the bills because the current structure of the council is like a book that has been printed a million times and everyone is familiar with its contents," said Jafar Golbaz, a member of Parliament, the Iranian Labor News Agency reported.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
Iran's second nuclear reactor will have a capacity of 1,000 megawatts and the government is beginning feasibility studies for a 5,000 megawatt reactor, the official Islamic Republic News Agency reported Thursday.First Vice President Mohamad Reza Aref authorized Iran's Atomic Energy Organization to sign contracts for the construction of a second reactor at the Bushehr nuclear power site with a capacity of 1,000 megawatts, IRNA reported. State television said Wednesday that the plans had been approved, but it did not report the size of the plant.
Iran is building, with Russian assistance, its first nuclear reactor at Bushehr, on the shore of the Persian Gulf. It has a capacity of 1,000 megawatts and should be completed next year.
The United States suspects Iran of developing a clandestine nuclear weapons program and has lobbied for the International Atomic Energy Agency to declare the country in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
Iran denies that it intends to make nuclear weapons and says it seeks nuclear power as an alternative source of energy as its oil reserves diminish.
(Also posted on my blog.)
That's the import of this report:
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami called for the formation of political parties to solve Iran's political ambiguities, the students' news agency ISNA reported.''Individuals get their legitimacy and credit through legal bodies and not vice-versa like it is the case in our country,'' Khatami said yesterday in a meeting with non-governmental organizations in Teheran.
Khatami termed the lack of political parties as a barrier for realizing Islamic democracy in Iran.
''Everybody in the society should clearly know what political stance the president or the parliament deputies are following, and that is only possible through a political party system,'' Khatami said.
Iran has numerous political factions, but there are only two acknowledged political parties in Iran whose political principles are clearly established.
One is the reformist Islamic Iran Participation Front headed by Khatami's younger brother, Mohammad-Reza Khatami. The other group is the Labour Party, which is also reform-oriented. Both parties are also represented in parliament.
Other factions have unclear and constantly changing stances, making their political orientations uncertain. These ambiguities have led to a great degree of scepticism in society, especially among the youth, Khatami said.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
Iran's reformist interior minister ordered the closure of offices set up by hard-liners to screen candidates for next year's legislative elections. Members of the hard-line Guardian Council have vowed to reject reformist candidates who seek major changes, and having the offices would allow the council to learn the views of would-be candidates.Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari told provincial governors to shut down the supervisory offices of the Guardian Council throughout the country, the government-run daily Iran reported Sunday. The council has quietly been establishing the candidate review offices in recent months.
``Activities of the supervising offices of the Guardian Council are a violation of the law because they have not been approved by the Supreme Administrative Council nor the Parliament,'' Lari told the paper a day earlier. ``There is no legal basis for such offices.''
Interior Ministry spokesman Jahanbakhsh Khanjani, contacted by The Associated Press on Sunday, confirmed the report. The elections are scheduled for February.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has made news with his discussion of the road to reform in his country:
Iran's president admitted Tuesday that his program of democratic reforms has largely failed, but said he will not break his promise to voters to promote democracy and freedoms.Iranian President Mohammad Khatami made the remarks amid continuing attempts by ruling hard-line clerics to undermine his reform agenda and deepening public discontent over the country's slow pace toward democratic change.
"Lately, speaking for me has become difficult because I feel many of the ideas and programs I sincerely offered and the people voted for have not materialized," the official Islamic Republic News Agency quoted Khatami as saying.
Last month, Khatami said he would resign if Iranians dissatisfied over his failure to deliver promised reforms want him to.
"Perhaps part of the population, especially the youth, who want quick realization of their demands, have become disappointed," he was quoted as telling the National Congress of Non-Government Youth Organizations in Tehran.
In June, thousands of Iranians held a week of nightly protests, railing not only against their usual targets Iran's unelected hard-liners who control key institutions but also against Khatami for failing to introduce greater political, social and economic freedoms.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Today's Today's "Winds of War" briefing covering the global War on Terror is brought to you by Andrew Olmsted. Today's feature has a substantial Iran-related section, which we're reporducing here. Thanks are also due to Project: Free Iran, who listed this in their "Blog-Iran Chronicles"
IRAN REPORTS
Geitner Simmons notes that more than 150 policy makers from a wide range of agencies are gathered this week at Offutt Air Force Base just south of Omaha for a very big conference on U.S. nuclear strategy. The conference, at the U.S. Strategic Command, is reported to be re-examining both nuclear testing and the possible development of mini-nukes, including earth-penetrating nuclear "bunker busters."
That ought to give the North Koreans and Iranian mullahs something to think about.
Here is the story:
North Korea is in talks to export its Taepodong 2 long-range ballistic missile to Iran and to jointly develop nuclear warheads with Tehran, a Japanese newspaper reported on Wednesday.The conservative Sankei Shimbun, quoting military sources familiar with North Korea, said that the communist state planned to export components and Iran would then assemble the Taepodongs at a factory near Tehran.
The paper, known for its hardline stance on Pyongyang, said North Korea would also send experts to provide Iran with assistance on missile technology and the two states -- both included in President Bush's "axis of evil" -- would jointly develop nuclear warheads.
They have been discussing the plans for about a year and are expected to reach an agreement in mid-October, the Sankei added.
This story has the details on the struggle for women's rights in Iran:
The head of Iran's parliament yesterday sought to defuse a storm of protest by hardline clerics over a bill to improve women's rights, insisting that it will not be adopted if it contravenes Islamic law.The reformist-dominated parliament last week voted in favour of Iran joining the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
The European Union has insisted Iran sign the convention as as part of a human rights dialogue it has with Tehran.
But parliament's decision angered hardline clerics who staged protest marches in the holy city of Qom on Friday and Saturday.
Leading clerics called the convention "colonialist" and said it contradicted scores of Islamic rulings.
"This is just like other stereotyped Western slogans like support for human rights, democracy, political prisoners and, very recently, the war on terrorism," the Isna students news agency quoted Ayatollah Hossein Nouri-Hamedani as saying.
(Also posted on my blog.)
The story can be found here:
Iran's state prosecutor, Saed Mortazavi, has ordered the release of nine student leaders arrested during a wave of pro-democracy demonstrations in June and July.The order, carried by Iran's official news agency (IRNA) on Wednesday, said the nine were part of an initial group being released in accordance with an order by Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
On Tuesday, Ayatollah Khamenei urged the judiciary to show leniency towards the detained students.
Among the nine ordered freed are Mehdi Shirzad, the son of a reformist member of parliament, and prominent student leaders Abdullah Momeni and Reza Ameri Nassab.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
The eldest grandson of the late Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini (pictured) has called on Iranians to launch an attack on the current regime.The London-based Arabic language newspaper "Al-Sharq al-Awsat" quoted 46-year-old Hussein Khomeini as saying: "Iran needs a new democratic regime that does not use religion to suppress the people."
The paper said that Khomeini made the remark from his residence in Al-Najaf, Iraq. Hussein Khomeini said his grandfather's successors in power in Tehran have abused the ayatollah's name to legitimize unjust regimes. He predicted Iran would soon face a new revolution.
The paper said that Khomeini, who sympathizes with the reformists and student protestors in Iran, has moved into a house in Al-Najaf once used by his grandfather when he was living in exile.
The Tehran office of the late Ayatollah Khomeini today vehemently denied the press reports, saying that Hussein Khomeini must have been misquoted.
Meanwhile in Tehran, Iranian President Mohammad Khatami warned today against what he called a danger of Islamic "fascism" in Iran.
(Also posted on my blog.)
Here is the story:
Iran said Monday it won't hand over its senior al Qaeda captives to the United States and denied reports it hopes to swap the detainees for U.S.-held Iranian opposition figures."We hand over al Qaeda operatives who belong to friendly countries or countries we have signed extradition treaties (with). We don't have an extradition treaty with the United States," government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told reporters.
Iranian officials confirmed for the first time last month that the country is holding "a large number of small and big elements of al Qaeda." Tehran did not identify them.
Ramezanzadeh also refused to name any of the detainees, and rejected reports that Tehran may swap al Qaeda members with leaders of the Iraq-based armed Iranian opposition group, the People's Mujahedeen, who are under U.S. control in Iraq.
"We will take members of the hypocrites (Iran's reference to People's Mujahedeen) from America if they offer, but there is no talk of swap. We don't treat the issue of terrorism selectively, nor do we make deals," Ramezanzadeh said.
(Also posted on my blog.)
From the Los Angeles Times [Free Registration Required]
After more than a decade of working behind layers of front companies and in hidden laboratories, Iran appears to be in the late stages of developing the capacity to build a nuclear bomb.
But a three-month investigation by The Times — drawing on previously secret reports, international officials, independent experts, Iranian exiles and intelligence sources in Europe and the Middle East — uncovered strong evidence that Iran's commercial program masks a plan to become the world's next nuclear power. The country has been engaged in a pattern of clandestine activity that has concealed weapons work from international inspectors. Technology and scientists from Russia, China, North Korea and Pakistan have propelled Iran's nuclear program much closer to producing a bomb than Iraq ever was.
Here is the report:
Reporters Without Borders (www.rsf.org/) called on the European Union today to break off the "constructive dialogue" it has conducted with Iran since 1998 until officials responsible for the death of Canadian-Iranian photographer Zahra Kazemi earlier this month had been brought to trial. It said it was "unthinkable" that such talks could continue while such a serious crime remained unpunished. It also called on the EU to back Canadian efforts to have Kazemi's body returned to Canada and for an international commission of enquiry to be set up.The appeal to the EU was made in a letter to the current EU Commission president, Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, to EU external relations commissioner Chris Patten and to Javier Solana, the EU high representative for common foreign and security policy.
After official attempts to cover up the cause of Kazemi's death, Iranian Vice-President Mohamed Ali Abtahi publicly admitted on 16 July that she had been "beaten." An autopsy and a government commission set up by President Mohammad Khatami was not able to provide full details and the origin of the skull fracture that caused her death remains a mystery.
(Also posted on my blog.)
From ABC:
The CIA has determined that al Qaeda's No. 3 leader and top military commander, Saif Al-Adel, has been in custody in Iran for several weeks, U.S. officials told ABCNEWS. The detention of Al-Adel, an Egyptian national who is also thought to be affiliated with the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, is considered to be another major blow to Osama bin Laden's terror organization.Officials say he fled to Iran last year to avoid U.S. forces searching for him in neighboring Afghanistan, but continued to operate.
"He is the person that would be in charge of operations for al Qaeda at this particular moment," said Jack Cloonan, a former FBI agent who is now an ABCNEWS consultant. "He is very close to bin Laden. … He would know where bin Laden is at this moment."
(Also posted on my blog.)
Of course, given the contents of the legislation, it is an open question as to what the legislation will accomplish:
As the questions and concerns continue to mount regarding Iran’s nuclear aspirations, and in the wake of the recent student demonstrations in Tehran, the U.S. House of Representatives last week passed a non-binding version of the Iran Freedom and Democracy Support Act, to serve as a congressional statement of encouragement towards Iranian democratic change. A similar version of the act had already been introduced and passed in the Senate. However, neither version included allocation of money to Iranian opposition groups and satellite TV’s.The original Senate version of the bill, which was introduced by Senator Sam Brownback of Kansas, included a provision to allocate $50 million to fund anti-regime Iranian media outlets, specifically Los Angeles based stations, who broadcast uncensored Persian programs into Iran, and others such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s “Radio Farda.”
That allocation, however, was stricken from the bill before the legislation was allowed to leave committee for a vote by the Senate as a whole. Subsequently, the House version of the bill, introduced by Congressman Brad Sherman of California, also passed without any type of monetary allocation. Sherman and other bill supporters in the House, including Congressman Christopher Cox, also from California, hinted that although the $50 million provision was removed, monetary allocation for pro-democracy Iranian elements could possibly take form within future Commerce, Justice, or State appropriations bills. The bill did, however, provide a non-binding outline for U.S. policy towards Iran centered on supporting pro-democracy forces within and outside the country. The opponents of the bill, who argue that the US should not fund Iranian opposition groups, saw the passing of the watered-down version of the Act as a victory.
(Also posted on my own blog.)
German authorities Friday filed espionage charges against a 65-year-man from Berlin accused of spying for Iran.
The man, who holds both Iranian and German passports, is alleged to have spied on Iranian dissidents in Germany for Iran's VEVAK secret service agency.
The charges were filed at a court in Berlin by Germany's chief public prosecutor, Kay Nehm, the federal prosecutors office in Karlsruhe said.
The man has been in custody since his arrest last month.
JULY 24/03: Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday.
Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Dan Darling of Regnum Crucis, and all Iran-related entries are being mirrored over here at The Command Post.
Visit us to see also: Our Iraq Briefing; 2 new rants from bin Laden; a Saudi fatwa authorizing the use of WMDs against the US; more on the Saudi connection to 9/11; Mauritania coup fall-out; the leader of the Chechen suicide bombers revealed; comebacks for al-Qaeda affiliates in Uzbekistan and Kashmir; Mugabe's latest threat; and an Australian intervention force in the Solomon Islands.
IRAN REPORTS
This story has the details of the recall, which was done to protest the death of Zahra Kazemi.
(Also posted, with commentary, on my blog.)
A commentor to this post asked what the Canadian government was doing in response to the death of Iranian-Canadian journalist Zahra Kazemi. This report covers the Canadian reaction.
Apparently, the European Union is "reviewing" its relations with Iran--with all of the negative connotations that implies:
The European Union on Monday warned Iran its entire relationship with the Islamic republic would be reviewed if the government did not sign an enhanced nuclear inspections protocol demanded by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
EU foreign ministers sent their toughest statement so far to Iran as concern mounted over its potential nuclear weapons capability and further human rights violations.Ministers said the council "decided to review future steps of the co-operation between and EU and Iran in September", when Mohamed ElBaradei, IAEA director-general, presents his second report on Iran's nuclear programme. Dominique de Villepin, French foreign minister, said Iran faced a "strategic choice" over whether or not to accept an IAEA additional protocol. Such a protocol would allow the agency to carry out unannounced visits to registered and non-registered nuclear sites.
Last weekend, the Tehran authorities tested the Shahab 3 missile, reckoned to have a 500km range that could reach Israel. Silvan Shalom, the Israeli foreign minister, meeti ng EU counterparts in Brussels on Monday, said Iran was threatening regional security.
However much the conservatives and reformers want closer trade relations, European diplomats said Tehran had done everything possible to sabotage those negotiations. "It does not matter whether they are reformers or conservatives. They are united when it comes to a national security doctrine," said one British diplomat.
Concern is also growing over human rights abuses, after Zahra Kazemi, a woman photojournalist, died after being interrogated by the security forces - which President Mohammad Khatami, under intense pressure from Canada, the US and EU, admitted last week.
(Also posted on my own blog.)
Reformers in the Iranian Majles (Parliament) are demanding that there be some accountability:
Iranian reformist lawmakers on Sunday called for a top hardline judiciary official to resign or be sacked over the death in custody of a Canadian journalist this month.In a series of blunt verbal attacks MPs accused Tehran Prosecutor General Saeed Mortazavi's interrogators of beating Montreal-based Zahra Kazemi to death and said the former judge was waging an implacable campaign against journalists in Iran.
Officials at Mortazavi's office and the judiciary declined to respond to Reuters' requests for comment on the accusations.
Kazemi, 54, a Canadian of Iranian descent, died of a brain haemorrhage caused by head injuries more than two weeks after she was arrested for taking photographs outside Tehran's Evin prison, where many political dissidents are held.
Kazemi's death has tested previously harmonious relations between Iran and Canada and shed a spotlight on Iran's shadowy security services and treatment of the media.
Reformist deputy Mohsen Armin, in a speech to parliament broadcast live on state radio, said Kazemi told police she had been beaten, particularly on the head, during initial interrogations by officials from Mortazavi's office.
''Mortazavi, instead of respecting the dignity of journalists and the country's prestige...by punishing those who beat her,'' ordered her to stay in detention, Armin said.
This story is also noted on my blog.
This report gives the latest on Iran's efforts to build for itself an offensive missile capacity:
Iran equipped its elite revolutionary guards Sunday with a locally made ballistic missile — the Shahab-3 — capable of reaching Israel and U.S. forces stationed in Saudi Arabia and Turkey.The missile was inaugurated during a military parade before Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is in charge of the country's armed forces, state-run Tehran television reported.
''Today, the Iranian nation and armed forces ... is prepared to stand up to the enemy with a firm resolve anywhere,'' Khamenei was quoted as saying.
The missile's inauguration comes as the United States is accusing Iran of working to build nuclear weapons. Tehran denies the claims, saying its nuclear program is to produce electricity not weapons.
The Shahab-3 has a range of about 810 miles, making it able to reach Israel and U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Turkey.
Also linked to on my own blog.
Not that we should expect otherwise. From Reuters:
Iran said on Saturday reports that enriched uranium was found in samples taken by U.N. nuclear inspectors in Iran were questionable and called on the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to clear up the issue."The issue that samples taken contain enriched uranium is very questionable and we are expecting this issue to become clear in our talks with the IAEA," state television quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi as saying.
Apparently, the Iranian government is even closer to achieving nuclear capability:
U.N. inspectors have found enriched uranium in environmental samples taken in Iran, which could mean Tehran has been purifying uranium without informing the U.N. nuclear watchdog, diplomats said.The diplomats, who asked not to be named, said initial analysis showed enrichment levels possibly consistent with an attempt to make weapons-grade material and high enough to cause concern at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
If Iran, dubbed part of an "axis of evil" by Washington, has been enriching uranium without telling the IAEA, this would deepen U.S. suspicions that its nuclear ambitions go beyond its stated aim of using nuclear energy only to generate electricity.
However, the diplomats said the mere presence of enriched uranium in the samples was not solid proof Iran had done the enrichment itself. Contamination was another possibility, though how it had arisen would have to be explained to the IAEA.
The IAEA declined to confirm or deny the statements of the diplomats, though an agency spokeswoman said IAEA inspectors have been taking samples in Iran.
David Kian of ActivistChat.com writes me to say:
"We are encouraging an effort that will mount increasing pressure on the backs of the Clerics, while strengthening the Student Movement and other Iranian Movements for freedom. We need the world to focus on HUMAN RIGHTS. So we have created a petition that was recently distributed at July 9th actions around the United States. If we the people are to take matters into our own hands and help out our brothers or sisters in other parts of the world while pressuring dictators it is important that all peace-loving citizens of Earth sign this petition.What he said.
We need to UNITE... we definitely need to INFORM... and we need to LEAD!!!! The people will be the ones who push the governments to do what's right in this situation."
Joe Katzman
Winds of Change.NET
"Liberty. Discovery. Humanity. Victory."
Everyone, of course, recalls the famous Mel Brooks line "It's good to be the king." There is no longer any king in Iran--at least not in a technical sense, but that doesn't stop the rulers of the Islamic regime from living like kings, even though such a life is at the expense of their own people.
This is a four part story, but it deserves to be read, and it shows quite clearly that the only religion followed by the rulers of the Islamic Republic is extreme cynicism and hypocrisy.
Also linked here.
My name is Pejman Yousefzadeh. I have been a blogger for nearly a year and a half, and I have my own weblog, Pejmanesque. A lot of my blogging is about foreign policy and national security issues, and much of it centers around Iran--where my family comes from, and whose fate I take a special and deep interest in.
It's my pleasure to accept Michele Catalano's very gracious invitation to begin blogging here (though I will continue to blog over at Pejmanesque as well). The Command Post has rightfully gained the respect and attention of the Blogosphere as a terrific resource for news and information on a lot of issues. You will see me blogging here from time to time on Iran, and on other issues of import, with the posts cross-listed at my own blog as well.
For my virginal post, I want to link to a Tech Central Station article that I wrote on the issue of the revolts in Iran. As I write in the article, it will take a great deal of effort to overcome the ruthless determination of the mullahs to hold on to power in Iran, and I discuss the measures that mullahs have taken to preserve their power, and what can be done to overcome those measures. The cross-listing at my own blog can be found here. I certainly hope that my article can help serve as some kind of guide for how the power of the Islamic regime can ultimately be broken.
U.S. Federal authorities investigating illegal arms shipments to Iran are scrutinizing 18 American companies alleged to have supplied prohibited parts for Hawk missiles, F-14 Tomcat, F-4 Phantom and F-5 fighter aircraft, C-130 Hercules transport planes and military radar. (Hat Tip: Iranian.com)
...Just one of the many items in today's Iran Regional Briefing over at Winds of Change.NET.
Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Today's "Winds of War" is brought to you by Andrew Olmsted. of AndrewOlmsted.com.
TOP TOPICS
* NATO countries are increasingly reluctant to send troops to assist in the occupation of Iraq. Nor is India likely to help pick up the slack, despite efforts to tie India's participation to clearance for its purchase of the Israeli "Arrow 2" THAAD anti-missile system.
* The U.S. is drawing up war plans for North Korea. That's normal given that the Korean War never ended, but recent war plans are shifting in interesting ways. Today's shocker? The Chinese are also making war plans. Their last set concluded that even though NK's border with China was only lightly defended, they didn't have the logistics to race to the DMZ fast enough. Leak with a message? Disinformation op? Stay tuned.
* Iran Gu Brath! When you see and listen to this excellent video collage, you'll understand. The part toward the end is absolutely priceless. (4 MB, link via Bahman Kalbasi)
Other Topics Today Include: German history and Iraq; An al-Qaeda attack in Baghdad?; WMD intel fallout; Iran in Iraq; crossroads for Khatami; Journalists arrested and dying in Iran; Invade Iran - a discussion; An intellectual response to Islamism; Liberia; Kashmir; Homeland security autos; and Officer Kassem(nova)'s 50 women.
We know Iran has a lot of bloggers. Iraniangirl steps up and gives you some hard numbers, then explains why they matter:
"This problem of blocked weblogs isn’t something to be forgotten easily & I think if we don’t do something serious, censure on the Internet will be continued & even get worse.It is. you sure won't hear about it through the BBC.As a great number of Farsi weblogs are on Persianblog & all of them at the time are blocked I think it’s very important for us to provide some true information about it to the world..."
Worth noting - several very good compilations of information on the developing situation in Iran.
Carnival of the Liberties at Winds of Change.Net
Jeff Jarvis' Buzzmachine. Jarvis has been covering the Iran situation extensively for several months now.
If it is breaking in Iran, these sites will probably have information rather quickly, possibly from Iranian bloggers directly. Aside from reports of jamming of Satellite channels, indications are that several weblog/news sites are also being blocked, including Blogspot, by the regime.
TEHRAN, July 9 (Reuters) - Armed Iranian Islamic vigilantes seized three student leaders on Wednesday as they left a news conference where they announced they had cancelled protests to mark the anniversary of 1999 university unrest, witnesses said.[...]
"After the news conference when some of our friends wanted to leave, armed plainclothes men in three cars attacked the students and kidnapped three members of the Office to Consolidate Unity," Matin Meshkini, a student leader, told Reuters.
Other witnesses said some 15 people armed with handguns and with the trademark beards, walkie-talkies and untucked shirts of Islamic vigilantes pushed aside uniformed police who tried to intervene as they bundled the three into waiting cars.
"We cannot call it arrest, it was a kidnapping," Meshkini said.
Remaining student leaders locked themselves in the Office to Consolidate Unity, Iran's main student organisation, fearing for their safety. They left hours later after Tehran's police chief guaranteed they would not be harmed or arrested.
BBC:
Iran has conducted a final test of a missile capable of reaching Israel, the country's foreign ministry has confirmed.
The Shahab-3 ballistic missile, first tested in 1998, has a range of 1,300 kilometres (800 miles).
"The test took place several weeks ago," foreign ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi told reporters.
The test was the final one before the missile is handed over for operation by the country's army, the spokesman added.
He gave no further information on the test.
The Shahab-3 could also reach eastern Turkey, and Pakistan.
ROME - The head of the U.N.'s nuclear agency said on Saturday Iran should sign up to new treaty obligations allowing tougher inspections to make its nuclear power program more transparent.
But Mohamed Elbaradei offered Iran an incentive saying if it did so then restrictions on its access to nuclear technology might gradually be lifted.
"I think it's important that they have to take the first step...a 'peace offensive' to show they have done everything to demonstrate transparency," ElBaradei told Reuters in an interview ahead of his trip to Iran on Wednesday.
Washington accuses the Islamic republic of pursuing a clandestine atomic weapons program, but Iran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity.
Iran has successfully tested a Shihab-3 missile, which has a range that can reach Israel. The launch last week was the most successful so far of the seven or eight tests of the missile over the last five years, and has increased worries in Washington - which spotted the test with its tracking mechanisms - and in Israel.
If the assessment proves to be true that the missile, which was launched from east to west, had an effective range beyond the 1,300-kilometer red line, meaning the range from western Iran to Israel, the Iranians could position the launching pads for the rocket deeper inside their country.
The Iranian threat will be one of the subjects under discussion when Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon visits the Pentagon and U.S. armed forces bases next week. Ya'alon's itinerary is supposed to include the Florida headquarters of two key commands: Centcom and Special Operations at MacDill air force base.
More...
PARIS (AP) -- An Iranian opposition group under scrutiny in France planned to assassinate former members suspected of betraying the movement, according to a report by France's counterintelligence agency.The report by the agency known as the DST also said the group, the Mujahedeen Khalq, recently discussed getting its supporters to commit suicide to draw attention to their cause.
A London-based spokesman for the group said it rejects "every single allegation" in the DST report.
Full article...
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Friday it would continue to limit the operations of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency, setting the stage for confrontation with the world body.The refusal announced by Iran's nuclear chief on state television indicated a hardening of attitude toward the International Atomic Energy Agency.
In its nightly news bulletin Friday, Iranian television said the head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Gholamreza Aghazadeh, would not permit environmental sampling at "some locations." It did not name the locations.
Full article...
VIENNA - Iran's latest rejection of a request from the U.N. nuclear watchdog has raised diplomats' suspicions -- maybe Washington is right that Tehran is trying to acquire the capacity to make atomic bombs as soon as possible.On Thursday the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) reprimanded Iran for repeatedly failing to report nuclear material, facilities and activities as required under its safeguards agreement with the agency.
Its governing board also "encouraged Iran, pending the resolution of related outstanding issues, not to introduce nuclear material at the pilot enrichment plant, as a confidence-building measure."
If successful, the plant at Natanz could give Tehran the knowhow to make highly enriched weapons-grade material useable in a nuclear weapon. The United States has accused Iran of secretly readying itself to make atomic weapons.
But Iran's IAEA envoy, Ali Salehi, told reporters on Thursday Tehran had no intention of either calling off or delaying plans to bring nuclear material to the Natanz plant.
Full article...
CNN:
MOSCOW, Russia -- Iran recently assured Moscow that it has no plans to develop nuclear weapons and will fully comply with the United Nations' nuclear watchdog group, says Russian President Vladimir Putin."Two days ago, I spoke to [Iranian President Mohammad] Khatami... and he confirmed once again to me that Iran does not have any plans to develop nuclear weapons," Putin said Friday, during his annual face-the-press meeting.
"The leadership of Iran is ready to fully join all the protocols and requirements of IAEA [International Atomic Energy Agency]... from the viewpoint of control over its nuclear programs."
Full article...
WASHINGTON/TEHRAN - A top U.S. official said on Friday Washington reserved the right to use military action to stop Iran making nuclear weapons, but Tehran accused the United States of waging a baseless propaganda war.In a further sign of heightened tensions, a senior Iranian cleric warned Washington not to treat Iran like Afghanistan or Iraq and urged courts to impose death sentences on "hooligans" who have staged days of protests against Islamic clerical rule.
Full article...
Italia Uno wants to take what the BBC is doing to the next level. Journalist Mimmo Lombezzi is looking for Iranian students, and webloggers who can hook him up with access to people inside Iran. They'll be publishing the letters & emails they recveive, and also creating TV spots. Here are the full details.
Media dealines move quickly, though, so we need to get the word out. Since many Iranian bloggers don't put email addresses on their sites, other sites seem to be the best way to reach them with this information. That's where you come in...
This is every bit as important as the demonstrations - those letters, blog posts etc. will shape public opinion in the EU, and around the world. It's an outstanding opportunity for Iranian bloggers, and for everyone concerned about liberty in Iran. Please publicize this on your site.
Thanks!
VIENNA - The U.N. nuclear watchdog rapped Iran on Thursday for failing to comply with nuclear safeguards in a critique that was welcomed by Washington even though it fell short of the damning resolution the U.S. had hoped for.After a two-day debate on an internal report, the governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) criticized Iran's failure to comply with agreements aimed at preventing the use of civilian nuclear resources to make atomic weapons.
"The board shared the concern expressed by (IAEA chief) Mohamed ElBaradei in his report at the number of Iran's past failures to report material, facilities and activities as required by its safeguards obligations," the IAEA said.
Full article...
AP:
PARIS - Three more Iranians set themselves on fire on Thursday in European capitals to protest a crackdown on an exile group in France, while police in Paris detained nearly 100 people to prevent further attempts at self-immolation.A total of seven Iranians have set themselves afire in Paris and other cities since massive raids Tuesday on the French offices of the Mujahedeen Khalq, which fiercely opposes the Muslim clerical government in Iran.
Full article...
TEHRAN - A hardline militia organization vowed to defend Iran's Islamic establishment on Thursday as authorities tried to snuff out pro-democracy protests that have lasted nine nights and been warmly applauded by Washington.The Basij militia of Tehran said in a statement the protests against clerical rule had been provoked by the "Great Satan" Washington which was using its "mercenaries" to challenge Iran's Islamic leaders, the official IRNA news agency reported.
"We pledge to defend the sacred Islamic establishment and its achievements as we would our own lives, and will never cease this sacred battle even for a moment," the statement said.
Full article...
From MSNBC:
Scores of police, riot police and hardline Islamic militants patrolled several neighbourhoods of the Iranian capital early on Thursday as authorities tried to snuff out pro-democracy protests that have lasted nine nights.Despite a pledge to protesters from U.S. President George W. Bush that Washington ''stands squarely by their side'' the demonstrations against Islamic clerical rule appeared to have all but fizzled out.
In the working class eastern suburb Tehran Pars, riot police stood at key intersections and hardline militants who are fiercely loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei scrutinised the occupants of cars carrying would-be protesters.
''It's like martial law. You're scared to go anywhere at night in case they stop you and search you,'' said one man as he edged his car nervously through the traffic-clogged streets under the watchful gaze of the bearded militants.
From Khilafah (citing the Evening Standard):
British and American intelligence and special forces have been put on alert for a conflict with Iran within the next 12 months, as fears grow that Tehran is building a nuclear weapons programme.Iran has been constructing a nuclear civil power programme for some years. It is due to start generating significant amounts of electricity for the national power grid in two years.
From CNN.com:
Iranians in Paris and London set themselves on fire Wednesday to protest a French government crackdown on Iranian dissidents opposed to religious rule in Tehran, police in both cities said.
From VOA:
President Bush says the world must rally behind the message that it will not tolerate Iran's acquisition of nuclear weapons.The president made the remarks to reporters Wednesday afternoon at the White House.
Earlier in the day, the United States told the U.N.'s nuclear watchdog agency that Iran's nuclear program is reason for "grave concern."