Saturday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 6.25.2005:

Iran’s ruling clerics fear street protests

Iran Focus:

A day after the surprise election of the ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran as the new President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the country'’s security forces were placed on heightened state of alert throughout Saturday to prevent any street demonstrations. READ MORE

July 9th is the anniversary of a bloody crackdown of student. I am told there are large demonstrations scheduled for that date.

Here are a few other news items you may have missed.

• Yahoo News reported that Iran's new president spoke of making Iran a "modern, advanced, powerful and Islamic" model for the world.
• Yahoo News reported Western countries sharply criticized the vote in Iran saying they showed "serious deficiencies.
• Yahoo News reported that exiled Iranian opposition leaders hailed hardliner Mahmood Ahmadinejad's victory saying it would bring Tehran's Islamic regime a step closer to collapse.
• Reza Pahlavi in an interview said, human rights and democracy ... [are the Iranian] system’s Achilles' heel.
• Yahoo! News reported that the US State Department said, With the conclusion of the election in Iran, we have seen nothing that dissuades us from our view that Iran is out of step with the rest of the region.
• BBC Monitoring Service reported that Rafsanjani said, I do not intend to take my complaint about the elections to those arbitrators who have proved that they do not want, or can not, do anything.
• Khaleej Times reported that Britain pressed Iran on Saturday to take quick steps to address mounting concerns over its suspect nuclear program.
• CNN reported that an official with Iran's Interior Ministry has accused Iran's Guardian Council of election fraud and that he was briefly placed under arrest.
• United Press International reported that the election victory Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sets the stage for a tense new confrontation between Iran and the West.
• MSNBC reports that Al-Qaida has found a safe haven in Iran. An under-reported story.
• Global Politician asked, What is Iran's looking for in building nuclear weapons?
• Robert Mayer of PublisPundit posted a few thoughts on the (s)election results.
• Iran Focus provided a profile of Iran's new President, Ahmadinejad.
• Iran Press News reported that China will never permit the Islamic Republic of Iran to gain access to nuclear weapons.
• The Scotsman warns the election outcome may affect the course of Iran's nuclear talks.
• Iranian Alaleh Ashtari writes, the international media is not interested in what the people have to say. Instead they have concentrated on the candidates and the "overwhelming" number of people at the polls.
• Iranian blogger, Hoder back from Iran fears if he returned to Iran they would introduce me to Saeed Mortazavi, the beloved Tehran's chief prosecute and the person responsible for the death of Zahra Kazemi.
• Iranian blogger, Mr. Bedhi said, Bad days to come. I do not want to see myself as war blogger. But these guys will make it easier to happen if they insist in having this nasty nuclear technology the way they want.
• Iranian blogger, Farideh Nicknazar said the true winner is Khamenie himself.
• Michael Ledeen sees a power struggle within the tyrannical elite and said this blog's work is indispensable.
• IntelligenceSummit.org has just created a Web Ring with websites containing valuable information on Intelligence, Homeland Security & Counter-Terrorism.

And finally, today's photos and a cartoon.

• Photo essay: Election fever 24 hours before final round presidential vote. Thirty-nine photos of the campaign.
• Iran election: Special Photo Report. Photos of polling stations around Iran on election day.
• Not too many people for a city of 14 million inhabitants. Web cam photos of the streets of Tehran on election day.
• Election a la Iranian Mullahs A cartoon.