Thursday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 8.11.2005:

Bush: Iran Leader Likely Will Come to N.Y.

San Francisco Chronicle:

President Bush indicated Thursday that the new Iranian president will receive a U.S. visa to attend an annual United Nations gathering next month and welcomed the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency's warning to Tehran about consequences of its nuclear ambitions.

Bush, who met at his Texas ranch with members of his foreign policy team, also said that U.S. investigators still have not yet determined what role Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have played in the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Even so, Bush said, the United States has separate obligations to other countries as the host nation for the United Nations, which is headquartered in New York.

We need to remind our government officials of Ahmadinejad's long terrorist history and press to deny him entry into the U.S.

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

• The Boston Globe reported that Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji has been on a hunger strike for the past 62 days and the ultraconservatives are trying to manipulate the international news media.
• Reporters Without Borders reported that six more Nobel laureates have called for the immediate and unconditional release of Iranian journalist Akbar Ganji.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that the nuclear talks have hit an impasse with both Iran and North Korea and the Bush administration officials hope their willingness to take negotiations this far has won new credibility.
• The Associated Press, CBS reported that President Bush had a meeting with his defense and foreign policy teams on Thursday at his ranch and discussed Iran.
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that the U.K. has lodged a complaint with the Iranian government after bomb-making supplies were smuggled over the Iranian border into Iraq.
• Mark Hosenball, Newsweek reported that the same NIE report that suggested Iran's ability to produce a nuclear bomb is 5-10 years away, also said regime change in Iran as unrealistic.
• International Herald Tribune reported that the EU3 were close to obtaining consensus for a resolution at the United Nations nuclear agency that would place a September deadline for Iran to resume suspension of its nuclear program.
• The Sun Times reported that Iran resumed full operations at its uranium conversion plant Wednesday, as Europe and the United States struggled to find a way to stop the Islamic republic.
• The Washington Times reported that U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged Iranian and European negotiators to avoid escalating the impasse over Tehran's nuclear program.
• Reuters reported that a draft resolution submitted to the U.N. nuclear watchdog says Iran must resume the full suspension of all nuclear fuel related activities.
• And finally, photos by Rooz Online of hundreds of Ganji supporters outside his hospital.