Wednesday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 11.16.2005:

Ahmadinejad’s newest proposed oil minister has a US Green Card

Iran Press News: Translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi

Ahmadinejad, in his latest showdown with the Islamic Parliament’s Assembly, introduced Mohsen Tasaloti as his nominee for Minister of Oil. Tasaloti who is Executive Director of the Special economic region of Mahshahr Petrochemical Company is said to have a U.S. permanent residence (Green Card). This is expected to once again trigger another melee between the government and the Parliament.

A reliable source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Tasaloti who supported of Mostafa Moin* in the June elections, does in fact hold a U.S. residence permit (a Green Card) and that this issue is expected to enflame the emotions of members of the Islamic Parliament. READ MORE

The position of oil minister in Iran is one of the most powerful in the Iranian government and can have a major impact on international confidence in Iran's oil industry and thus the economy which is in shambles. Ahmadinejad is in a struggle with the conservative parliament over his nominees. The previous nominees were seen as too inexperienced. This nominee is his third attempt to find an acceptable minister.

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

• Iran Press News published a translation of letter by Iranian prisoners asking for international help.
• Iran Press News reported on workers protests in Tabas, Yazd and Abadan.
• Iran Press News reported that recently clothing manufacturers in Iran have begun marketing a new style of jacket, referred to as Ahmadinejad Windbreakers. The jackets are only $5. Now you can dress like Ahmandinejad.
• Iran Press News reported that the spokesman for the regime's judiciary said: "Ganji has a prison sentence and a few months remain on his sentence; it's not like if foreign countries demand his release, that we would comply!"
• Iran Press News reported that Iran is no longer scared of exacerbating relations with the international community.
• Shahram Rafizadeh, Rooz Online reported that workers strikes are seen as one of the principal challenges that the new hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will have to deal with as the strikes are expected to grow in size.
• Meysame Tavab, Rooz Online reported that a group of Turkemen Iranians asked Ahmadinejad to look into their living conditions and problems, he bluntly responded: “Go to the candidate for whom you voted and ask him to look into your problems.”
• Rooz Online reported that in his harshest words ever, former president Mohammad Khatami, directed an attack on Iran’s hardliners saying their dogmatic and regressive ideology is similar to that of Bin Laden.
• RIA Novosti reported that following talks with Syrian leaders Tuesday, Iran's foreign minister said the country would be in a better position by the upcoming IAEA session.
• Middle East Newsline reported that Iran was said to have nearly completed another intermediate-range missile capable of striking most of Europe. The so-called Ghadr missile was said to have a range of up to 3,000 kilometers.
• Shahram Kholdi, ScanIranic issued the first part of its report: The unending list of Bloggers, Students, and Journalists under Prosecution in Iran.
• Morteza Abdolalian, Iran Watch Canada reported that Akbar Ganji has been awarded the 2006 Golden Pen of Freedom.
• Iran Focus reported that still more of Iran’s military commanders are being appointed to government position by the new administration.
• Iran Focus reported that more than a hundred people have been arrested in the province of north-western province of Ardebil for “disturbing the peace” and “causing trouble.”
• Laura Secor, The New Yorker reported on Iran’s new generation of dissidents and the collapse of the nation’s reformist movement.
• Amnesty International reported that a man was sentenced to death for drinking alcohol.
• Khaleej Times reported that Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi said on Tuesday she has been repeatedly threatened with death.
• ABC News reported that Iran's judiciary said it would ask Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei to pardon 18 pro-reform students.
• Mordechai Abir, The Jerusalem Issue Brief published a report: Iran's New Revolutionary Guards Regime: Anti-Americanism, Oil, and Rising International Tension.
• Gareth Smyth in Tehran, The Financial Times reported that Iran's state-owned Keshavarzi agriculture bank yesterday reduced its lending rate to 9 per cent, a signal that Ahmadinejad is pressing ahead with his populist agenda of "social justice".
• And finally, Newsmax reported that ex-president Bill Clinton urged Israelis not to overreact to comments by Ahmadinejad saying: true peace and security can only come through principled compromise.