Sunday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 10.9.2005:

Now we know the truth about Iran, we must act

Con Coughlin, The Telegraph UK:

It was not the outcome the Foreign Office had been planning. When it was announced early last week that a senior British diplomat in Baghdad was flying back to London to give a briefing on Iraq's constitutional referendum, the general expectation in Whitehall was that the following day's headlines would focus exclusively on whether sufficient numbers of Iraqis would turn out to validate the exercise.

Imagine the surprise, then, of Jack Straw and his officials the following morning when they opened their newspapers to discover that the future constitutional arrangements for Iraq had been completely superseded by official British confirmation that Iran's Revolutionary Guards were behind the deadly attacks that have recently claimed the lives of eight British soldiers.

For the past two years it has been a Foreign Office mantra that not a word should be uttered that could in any way be construed as criticising the Iranian government. Having voiced his last-minute opposition to the invasion of Iraq, Mr Straw had taken it upon himself to find a "negotiated solution" to the West's stand-off with Teheran over its clandestine nuclear programme as an alternative to military confrontation. ...

But now the cat is out of the bag. Not realising the sensitivity that Mr Straw attaches to Britain's dealings with Teheran, the unfortunate diplomat unwittingly strayed from his referendum brief and started laying into the Iranians with a gusto not seen in the British diplomatic service for decades.

The Iranians, said the diplomat, were colluding with Sunni Muslim insurgent groups in southern Iraq. They were providing them with deadly terrorist technology that has been perfected by the Iranian-funded Hizbollah militia in southern Lebanon against the Israeli army. And their motivation was to deter Britain from insisting that Teheran abandon its controversial nuclear programme. "It would be entirely natural that they would want to send a message 'don't mess with us'. It would not be outside the policy parameters of Teheran." ...

Perversely, this undiplomatic bout of straight-talking may turn out to have done Mr Straw and the Foreign Office an enormous favour. By baldly stating what the Iranians are really up to in southern Iraq, the diplomat has freed his employers from the obligation of persisting with the charade of constructive engagement with a regime whose only interest in construction appears to be directed at building an atom bomb. READ MORE

This explains alot about Britain's policy on Iran. It is definitely a must read.

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

• Philip Sherwell, The Telegraph UK reported that Iran's new hardline president has placed his country's nuclear program under the control of militant commanders of the Revolutionary Guards.
• The Scotsman reported that a team of military specialists has been dispatched to Iraq to compile a comprehensive dossier of evidence that "Iranian elements" have been arming insurgents engaged in a brutal struggle with British forces around Basra.
• The Observer said that the UK's the 'softly-softly' approach to Iran is a model no more, adding that only threat of force will tame Tehran.
• Nazila Fathi, The NY Times reported that Iran's plummeting stock market, where prices have declined nearly 30 percent since Sept. 24.
• Safa Haeri, Iran Press Service reported that Iran denounced the Nobel Peace Prize being awarded to El Baradei.
• IranMania reported that the Spanish translation of Imam Khomeini's biography was recently published in Venezuela.
• Forouzan Asef Nakhaie, Rooz Online reported that the government has announced there are 90 million ID for 70 million people and they have a theory why.
• Maryam Kashani, Rooz Online asked: Is Being Young, in Iran, a Crime?
• Kuwaiti News Agency reported that Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi said: Why is the United States not destroying its nuclear weapons if these are bad? Why does it not start a global campaign to destroy nuclear weapons?
• Forbes reported that Iran's top nuclear negotiator said Washington is not in a position to go to war against Tehran.
• The Financial Times reported that Iran's top security official yesterday accused international bodies of treating Tehran worse than North Korea.
• Iran Press News reported that blogger, Omid Sheikhaan's trial began on Saturday. He was originally charged with blogging and internet related activities, the sentence is being passed on charges completely unrelated to those issues.
• Iran Press News reported that the commission responsible for fighting smuggled goods and currency has been dissolved.
• Iran Press News reported that hundreds of protesting workers of the FARNAKH and MEHNAKH thread factory once again gathered in protest for continued non-receipt of their wages and blocked the road between the towns of Qazveen and Shahreh San'ati.
• Iran Press News reported that the trial of Dr. Farzad Hamidi reopened Saturday. He is charged with "Action Against National Security."
• Iran Press News reported that the trial against student human rights activist Davoud Jafarpour will begin on December 14th, 2005. He has been charged with "Action Against National Security."
• Iran Press News reported that workers in a slaughterhouse received 91 days in prison for selling Pork.
• Iran Press News reported that a group of hospital employees from Mahdee'yeh Hospital, in the city of Kermanshah traveled to Tehran to protest non-receipt of 10 months worth of their wages.
• And finally, Winston, The Spirit of Man provided links to music by an Iranian Rapper who sings on Freedom, Democracy and Regime Change in Iran.