Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [8/28-9/03] major news events regarding Iran. (The reports are listed in chronological order, not by importance)

Iran's Nuclear Program.

• Nasser Karimi, San Jose Mercury News reported that Iran on Sunday rejected what it termed conditional negotiations with Europe over Tehran's nuclear program.
• Itar-Tass News Agency reported that Iran does not count on Russia and China’s power of veto at the UN Security Council, should its nuclear dossier be taken to the Council.
• Chicago Tribune reported that this week Mohamed ElBaradei is expected to report to the agency's board of governors that Iran has failed to heed demands to halt its uranium-conversion activities, setting the table for a week or two of intense diplomatic poker.
• The Jerusalem Post responded to calls by some to respect Iran's honor in dealing with Iran's nuclear ambitions.
• Claude Salhani, UPI, Monster & Critics reported that Iran's Revolutionary Guard commander met secretly with A.Q. Khan, the father of Pakistan`s atomic bomb, in an effort to acquire nuclear-capable missiles.
• Reuters reported that Chirac said Iran must suspend its nuclear plans or face UN referral.
• Yahoo News reported that Iran has made another breakthrough in its nuclear program by successfully using biotechnology to extract purer uranium from its mines.
• IranMania claims that the EU may hold off immediately calling for sanctions if Iran is brought before the UN Security Council.
• Iran Press News reported that Ali Larijani stated: "Mohammad El Baradei has requested that we suspend our nuclear activities in our Esfahan plant but since that is something that needs to happen voluntarily... he needs to accept that this is only our business."
• Iran Press News reported that the new Minister of Defense of Ahmadinejad's cabinet stated that the Shahab 3 Missile program would be expanded.
• The Financial Times reported that Britain, France and Germany are seeking international support to refer Iran to the United Nations Security Council for a reprimand.
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that European Union foreign ministers will assess the possibility of drawing Iran back into talks on its nuclear program during a two- day meeting opening Thursday.
• Reuters reported that Iran's top nuclear negotiator held talks with Indian leaders on Wednesday to garner support for Tehran's controversial nuclear program.
• Voice of America reported that U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says there is a "litany of questions" that need to be answered by Iran.
• Francois Murphy, Reuters reported that Iran obtained from China a substantial amount of a metal that can also be used in an atomic bomb.
• Daniel J. Gallington, The Washington Times anticipates elements to our evolving policy toward Iran's nuclear weapons program.
• Reuters reported that the IAEA's report is expected to confirm Iran has resumed sensitive nuclear work and is not convinced Iran's atomic ambitions are peaceful.
• The Associated Press reported the Bush administration is trying to rally other nations to agree to impose U.N. sanctions on Iran.
• The Associated Press reported that the European Union yesterday urged Iran to return to the negotiating table to discuss its nuclear program and threatened to take Tehran to the U.N. Security Council for sanctions if it did not.
• Times of India reported that Iran has resumed uranium enrichment which was suspended under a deal with the European Union.
• The LA Times reported that the IAEA's report on Iran documents the nation's continuing unwillingness to fully explain its nuclear activities.
• Politics.co.uk reported that Britain's Jack Straw told journalists: Nobody is proposing military action in regard of Iran.
• The New York Times reported that despite an intense two-and-a-half year investigation by the IAEA, key elements of Iran's nuclear program remain shrouded in mystery.
• The Associated Press reported that Iran has produced about seven tons of a gaseous compound that can be used for uranium enrichment since it restarted that process last month.

Akbar Ganji.

• Rooz Online reported that Akbar Ganji's wife said she is expecting her husband to be freed soon.
• Iranian blogger, Kamal Tehrani, Rooz Online reported that the new Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance issued a warning over reprint of some books such as those by Akbar Ganji and has ordered a publishing house's popular café and cyber café to shut down.
• Iranian blogger, Reza Bayegan, Ekbatan Observer argues that while we should support Akbar Ganji release from prison, we should not support some of his ideas.
• Iran Press News reported that Akbar Ganji's wife is once again concerned for her husband physical health and that her husband has been barred from receiving visitors.
• Patrick Devenny, FrontPageMagazine.com exposed Amnesty Internationals half hearted concern for Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji.
  

The unrest against the regime spreads in Iran.

• Reuters reported that a gunman shot an Iranian judge in the eye and hand outside his Tehran home, seriously wounding him, a justice minister said on Sunday.
• Reuters reported that Iranian judges are to carry handguns after a judge was seriously wounded on Sunday in the fourth attack on a judiciary official in the last four weeks.
• Rooz Online published a brief history of assassinations of judicial Officials in Iran.
• Iran Focus reported that Iran’s State Security Forces have arrested 442 “trouble-makers” in the coastal province of Gilan.
• SMCCDI reported two members of the Bassij paramilitary force were stabbed to death yesterday in the Iranian Capital.
• SMCCDI reported an armed clash erupted, late afternoon, in Emamzadeh-Hassan area located in Greater Tehran.
• Iran Press News reported that one of the regime's Intelligence service agents stationed in Tehran was shot and severely injured.
• Iran Press News reported that Attorney General of the Islamic Republic, Saeed Mortazavi Effective said: immediately, coordinated efforts will be under way to purge Tehran from evildoers and elements of corruption.
• SMCCDI reported that several prisoners have been killed in another prison riot.
• Iran Press News reported that Tehran is preparing to install loud speakers and cameras in 140 neighborhoods throughout Tehran, meant to broadcast the call to prayers (5 times a day), but it is also meant to broadcast directives to the populace and photograph them during times of escalation of conflict in order to contain resulting hostilities.
• Iran Press News reported that Iranian citizens clashed with disciplinary forces in Sardasht, Province of Azerbaijan.
• SMCCDI reported that two more militiamen have been killed in the last two days in the provincial cities of Zabol and Sari.
• SMCCDI reported that three Oil Wells have exploded near the southeastern City of Ahwaz. The explosions which are act of sabotage.
• Iran Press News also reported on the explosions adding that the representative from the Dashazadegan region to the Parliament said: "These actions are planned and lead by 'London'."
• SMCCDI reported that several hundreds of individuals qualified as "trouble makers" have been arrested in the last days in Iran with the official ISNA announcing the official number of 1,000 for Tehran arrests alone.
• Daily Times confirmed earlier reports that small bombs damaged 15 pipelines and one oil well in restive southwest Iran on Thursday, but quick repairs meant crude output from OPEC’s second exporter was unaffected.
  

Ahmadinejad.

• Khaleej Times Online that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is expected to present new Iranian proposals at the United Nations summit September 14-16.
• NY Press points out Amir Taheri's report that Ahmadinejad is planning on destroying 20,000 villages and relocating some 30,000,000 residents.
• Iran Focus reported that Ahmadinejad is planning to woo Iranian exiles living in the United States.
• WorldNetDaily reported that Ahmadinejad will pay respects to Castro, Chavez before going to U.N.
• The Billings Gazette reported that Iranian Americans are protesting the Iranian president's September visit to UN.
• World News Tonight, ABC News reported that the State Department says Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is a terrorist, but will grant him a visa anyway.
• WorldNetDaily, reported that U.S. "investigators" never bothered to interview any of the former hostages who made the charges against Ahmadinejad.
• Rooz Online says Ahmadinejad wants to propose the "International Year of Human Kindness".
• Albawaba reported that Ahmadinejad is planning to appeal to US-Iranian citizens in his upcoming appearance before the United Nations’ General Assembly in New York in September.
• The Economist cites evidence that Mr Ahmadinejad is a newcomer to Iran's treacherous national politics. It shows.
• SMCCDI announced the "Iran U.N. Protest 2005" coalition is going to hold a Telethon this Saturday and Sunday in Los Angeles (CA)to gather the necessary funds for the organization of a massive demo at the United Nations (UN) on September 14th.
• Khaleej Times reported that Iran's new government has adopted a high-risk policy: pursuing its controversial nuclear programme at the price of losing its European allies.
• Khaleej Times Online reported that Iran denounced as an ugly act the US decision to deny visas to an Iranian parliamentary delegation to attend the annual UN General Assembly session in New York.
  

Who is Who in Iran.

• Rooz Online disclosed the author of Hezbollah's statement of "slaughtering" the opposition. Surprisingly, it is a wealthy technocrat.
• Iran Focus reported that Ahmadinejad is planning to appoint his close confidante Ali Saeedlou as director of the country’s central bank, after he was denied the cabinet post of oil minister by the parliament.
• Forbes reported that Ahmadinejad has appointed an interim head of the oil ministry..
• Xinhuanet reported that the Chief of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization (IAEO) Gholamreza Aqazadeh has been reappointed by President Mahmud Ahmadinejad.
  

The Power Struggle inside of Iran.

• Iranian blogger, Omid Memarian, Rooz Online reported that Emad Afrough, chairman of Majlis’(Parliament) Cultural Committee called it a risk to confirm Pourmohammadi, president Ahmadinejad’s nominee as the Minister of the Interior. Conservatists now fear Conservatists.
• Iranian blogger, Maryam Kashani, Rooz Online published an interview with Emad Afrough, one of the conservative MPs who spoke of the weaknesses of Ahmadinejad's cabinet candidates.
• Iranian blogger, Farnaz Ghazizadeh, Rooz Online reported that the hardline daily Keyhan has warned Mehdi Karrubi that he may join the other isolated clerics if he insists on launching his own satellite television network.
• The Financial Times reported that the Iranian government is facing a new security challenge from a small, armed Iranian Kurdish group, Pejak or the Party for a Free Life.
• Iranian blogger, Farnaz Ghazizadeh, Rooz Online reported that three figures of the Guardian Council have joined the new government. This is raising a new controversy regarding the separation of powers in the Islamic Republic.
  

Iran's Troublemaking.

• Iranmania reported that Iran's Supreme Leader hailed Palestinian militants for expelling the' Zionist regime from Gaza and called for the continuation and fortification of resistance and Jihad.
  

U.S. Policy.

• Center for Security Policy criticizes not only the National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) projection but also the Director of National Intelligence's choices of Ambassador Kenneth Brill to run the newly created National Counter-Proliferation Center and Thomas Fingar, his senior Deputy for Analysis.
• Los Angeles Times reported that the US State Department says evidence indicates that Russia, Iran, North Korea and Syria all continue to maintain biological weapons programs.
• Robin Wright, The Washington Post reported that the Bush administration plans to launch a new effort at the United Nations this month to tighten the squeeze on Syria, backed by France along with new evidence of Syria's involvement in the murder of Hariri.
  

The Iranian Economy.

• The Christian Science Monitor reported that the Iranian government's plans to create an oil exchange fit into a strategy of weakening US economic hegemony.
• IranMania reported that the Minister of Iran's Economic Affairs and Finance Davood Danesh-Jafari said Iran's Parliament needs to help check inflation.
• Iran Press News reported Iran's central bank has announced that the total foreign debt in 2004 hit the $40 Billion mark.
• Iranian.ws reported that Larijani said here Friday: The issue of exporting Iran's Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) to India has been finalized.
• Hindustan Times also reported that ignoring objections from the US, India and Iran on Saturday decided to go ahead with the proposed $7.4 billion dollar pipeline project.
  

Human Rights/Freedom of the press inside of Iran.

• SMCCDIreported that social and political conditions are worsening in Iran as the Islamic republic regime is increasing the repression.
• Iran Press News reported that Iranian blogger, Majid Rezaii who was arrested by the regime's judiciary and was sentenced to 20 months.
• Iran Press News reported that Shuana Ghadri's brother, Aboubakr Esfrem, in Iraqi Kurdistan and spoke of the brutal torture that his brother endured.
• Sheffield Today reported that a 14-year-old Kurdish Iranian girl died after setting herself on fire in protest over her right not to wear the hijab headdress.
• Reporters Without Borders welcomed the release of online journalist Mojtaba Lotfi and Mohamad Reza Nasab Abdolahi. But voiced concern that both still have prison sentences hanging over their heads.
• Iran Press News reported on a proposal in Iran's parliament to fine women who are charged with improper veiling.
  

Protests inside of Iran.

• Iran Press News reported that a group of women who are permitted to teach gathered in front of the Islamic Assembly of the Parliament today.
• Iran Press News reported on a protest in Sanandadj for lack of pay.
• SMCCDI reported dozens gathered, today, at Khavaran cemetery located near Tehran in order to pay tribute to thousands of activists and dissidents executed in 1988 by the Islamic republic regime. Photos below.
  
• Iran Press News provided more details of the massacre of the innocent people of Kurdistan and added that one of the commanders of the massacres was Mostafa Mohammad Najjar, Ahmadinejad's Minister of Defense.
  

Iran and the International community.

• Kenneth R. Timmerman, The National Review Online The Mullah's old friend, German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, is twenty points down in the polls just one month before the September 18 general election, and he is up to his old tricks.
• Safa Haeri, Asia Times Online reported that Pakistan and Israel dealt Iran an historic blow. The foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan met in Istanbul in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon described as a setback for Iran. Others suggest this could be the beginning of a political current in the region that could result in all other Arab and Muslim nations recognizing the Jewish state.
  

Can You Believe This?

• Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzzi, Iran Press reported that Mullah Khamnei said: Women's hijab must be much more severe than those of men's. Why? Because nature and women’s softness was at the core of 'creation' and IF we do not want society to lead to corruption and degenerate, we must keep these "goods" in their wrapping.
• Reuters reported that Iran is to create a $1.3 billion "love fund" to encourage poor young people to marry.
• Iran Press News the regime's media outlets wrote today that the residents of the bigger cities in Iran will now only have permission to use running tap water a few hours a week.
  

Must Read reports.

• Dan Darling, WindsOfChange.net responded to the claim that the evidence was pretty thin that al-Qaeda leaders are in Iran directing operations.
• The Telegraph UK takes a look at Dan Fried, Assistant Secretary of State for European Affairs, and reconsiders US efforts to support democracy in the Middle East.
• F. Michael Maloof, The Washington Times sees parallels with Iran's ancient assassins and the present.
• Harlan Ullman, The Washington Times suggested that if the nation is to be safer and more secure, the president must be even bolder.
• The Washington File, Embassy of the U.S., London published the State Department’s Daniel Fried lecture in France on how America and Europe must work together to support democratic development throughout the broader Middle East, just as they supported the democratic aspirations of pro-democracy movements in central and Eastern Europe.
• The Washington Times reported that since last February, the Bush administration and France set aside the ill feelings created by the war in Iraq and began to work together for reform in the Muslim world.
• Marzeporgohar.org suggested that if there is one thing that the Western countries need to realize, it is that they best not interfere with the Persian pride.
  

The Experts.

• Amir Taheri, Newsweek International reported on the world wide intentions of the Islamic Republic of Iran, calling it a Clash of Civilizations. A Must Read.
• The Heritage Foundation argued that Iran is simply too radical, unstable, and contemptuous of both international law and basic standards of decency to be allowed into the nuclear club.
• Michael Barone,senior writer for U.S.News & World Report supports the Iranian pro-democracy movement in Iran and this blog.
• Amir Taheri, NY Post reported that the recent tragic deaths of 1000 Iraqi's trampled under foot in a stampede or drowned in the Tigris River is having an unexpected result. Sunnis watching from the neighboring Azamiyah district of Baghdad jumped into the river to save the screaming Shiites from drowning. It appears to be drawing Shiite and Sunni's together.
• Dr. Jack Wheeler, To The Point News reported that the war between Persia and the West is very ancient, well over a thousand years older than the war between Islam and Christianity. It is a valuable brief history of Iran's war with the west and why a civil war in Iran is not in Iran's best interest.
  

Photos and cartoons of the week.

• Rooz Online has another cartoon: The regime fighting Satellite TVs.
• Rooz Online published another cartoon, this time on: The demise and death of Publications & Papers in Iran.
• Iranian.com published: Pictures of a gathering at Khavaran cemetry.
  

And finally, The Quote of the Week.

Iran Press News reported that Iran's Supreme Leader doubts Islamic terrorists exist, saying:

We are very doubtful of the existence of people who are supposedly followers of a backward form of Islam... bombing buses and metros... adding: do these groups and elements actually exist?

A Personal Note: As a result of the tremendous outpouring of support from my fellow bloggers and readers, I now have a new laptop. It will make this work much easier. Thank you very much!

The Laptop has arrived!

The long awaited MX series laptop from Portable One arrived today.

It is an excellent laptop and will make a huge difference in my ability to publish these reports.

Having seen first hand how the folks at Portable One deal with their customers I encourage you to take a look at their laptops if you are in the market. For instance, when I called their office I spoke with a real person immediately who actually wanted to help, even when it made more work for them. They went above and beyond the call of duty to provide this excellent laptop. Their customer satisfaction rating is well deserved.

Again, I want to thank all those that made this purchase possible. It is much appreciated. I will use it well.

DoctorZin

Saturday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 9.3.2005:

Michael Barone Recommends Our Blog

Michael Barone,senior writer for U.S.News & World Report:

You have probably been reading in the press stories that even the EU3–Britain, France, and Germany–which have been negotiating with Iran over nuclear installations are dissatisfied with the response of Iran's mullah regime and are considering referring the matter to the United Nations Security Council, as the United States has urged in the event these negotiations fail. But UNSC action is uncertain, and even an embargo may not persuade the mullahs to stop the nuclear program.

What else can we do? Well, we could try to encourage the advocates of peaceful change inside Iran in the way that we encouraged, verbally and by concrete actions, Solidarity in Poland (which is just celebrating its 25th anniversary) and other anti-Communist activists in Eastern Europe in the 1980s. The mainstream media have been portraying Iran as a country increasingly under the iron control of the mullahs. But mainstream media have not been able to send many reporters into Iran. To get a better picture, you might want to consult weblogs that present news from Iranians. Here are two such weblogs. www.daneshjoo.org and www.regimechangeiran.com. I haven't been reading these closely, but I intend to, and my first read suggests that "iron control" is not a good description of what is going on in Iran today.

I hope to return to this issue in the days and weeks to come.

Welcome to our site, Michael.

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

• Amir Taheri, NY Post reported that the recent tragic deaths of 1000 Iraqi's trampled under foot in a stampede or drowned in the Tigris River is having an unexpected result. Sunnis watching from the neighboring Azamiyah district of Baghdad jumped into the river to save the screaming Shiites from drowning. It appears to be drawing Shiite and Sunni's together.
• Dr. Jack Wheeler, To The Point News reported that the war between Persia and the West is very ancient, well over a thousand years older than the war between Islam and Christianity. It is a valuable brief history of Iran's war with the west and why a civil war in Iran is not in Iran's best interest.
• Times of India reported that Iran has resumed uranium enrichment which was suspended under a deal with the European Union.
• Daily Times confirmed earlier reports that small bombs damaged 15 pipelines and one oil well in restive southwest Iran on Thursday, but quick repairs meant crude output from OPEC’s second exporter was unaffected.
• Iranmania reported that Iran's Supreme Leader hailed Palestinian militants for expelling the' Zionist regime from Gaza and called for the continuation and fortification of resistance and Jihad.
• The LA Times reported that the IAEA's report on Iran documents the nation's continuing unwillingness to fully explain its nuclear activities.
• Marzeporgohar.org suggested that if there is one thing that the Western countries need to realize, it is that they best not interfere with the Persian pride.
• Politics.co.uk reported that Britain's Jack Straw told journalists: Nobody is proposing military action in regard of Iran.
• The New York Times reported that despite an intense two-and-a-half year investigation by the IAEA, key elements of Iran's nuclear program remain shrouded in mystery.
• The Associated Press reported that Iran has produced about seven tons of a gaseous compound that can be used for uranium enrichment since it restarted that process last month.
• Iranian.ws reported that Larijani said here Friday: The issue of exporting Iran's Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) to India has been finalized.
• Hindustan Times also reported that ignoring objections from the US, India and Iran on Saturday decided to go ahead with the proposed $7.4 billion dollar pipeline project.
• Khaleej Times Online reported that Iran denounced as an ugly act the US decision to deny visas to an Iranian parliamentary delegation to attend the annual UN General Assembly session in New York.
• And finally, Safa Haeri, Asia Times Online reported that Pakistan and Israel dealt Iran an historic blow. The foreign ministers of Israel and Pakistan met in Istanbul in what Prime Minister Ariel Sharon described as a setback for Iran. Others suggest this could be the beginning of a political current in the region that could result in all other Arab and Muslim nations recognizing the Jewish state.

Michael Barone Recommends Our Blog

Michael Barone,senior writer for U.S.News & World Report:

You have probably been reading in the press stories that even the EU3–Britain, France, and Germany–which have been negotiating with Iran over nuclear installations are dissatisfied with the response of Iran's mullah regime and are considering referring the matter to the United Nations Security Council, as the United States has urged in the event these negotiations fail. But UNSC action is uncertain, and even an embargo may not persuade the mullahs to stop the nuclear program.

What else can we do? Well, we could try to encourage the advocates of peaceful change inside Iran in the way that we encouraged, verbally and by concrete actions, Solidarity in Poland (which is just celebrating its 25th anniversary) and other anti-Communist activists in Eastern Europe in the 1980s. The mainstream media have been portraying Iran as a country increasingly under the iron control of the mullahs. But mainstream media have not been able to send many reporters into Iran. To get a better picture, you might want to consult weblogs that present news from Iranians. Here are two such weblogs. www.daneshjoo.org and www.regimechangeiran.com. I haven't been reading these closely, but I intend to, and my first read suggests that "iron control" is not a good description of what is going on in Iran today.

I hope to return to this issue in the days and weeks to come.

Welcome to our site, Michael.

Iraq: Tragedy & Turning Point

Amir Taheri, NY Post:

THEY had been coming from all over Iraq in their thousands for days, being joined on arrival by thousands more from a dozen other countries. It was the 26th month of Rajab on the Muslim lunar calendar: a special day for Shiites throughout the world. For it marked the death by poisoning 1,206 years ago of Moussa bin Jaafar, the seventh Imam of the 12 Shiite Imams.

Each of the 12 Imams is known for one particular gift he can bestow on the believers. Moussa bin Jaafar's gift is patience — hence his sobriquet of Kazim (The Tamer of Anger). A day at his shrine in the Kazimiyah suburb of Baghdad will provide the pilgrim with a whole year of spiritual repose. It gives the sick the patience to endure pain. The poor obtain from it the serenity of hope. Girls who cannot find husbands return from the pilgrimage with the assurance that they will not die spinsters.

And in these hard days of uncertainty and terror, patience is what Iraqis need most.

And, yet, on Wednesday, the Serene Imam, the Tamer of Anger, was unable to save his people from the worst. Before the sun had set, at least 1,000 people — mostly women and children — were dead, trampled under foot in a stampede or drowned in the Tigris River into which they had jumped from a bridge jam packed with pilgrims.

Then something unexpected happened: Sunnis watching from the neighboring Azamiyah district of Baghdad jumped into the river to save the screaming Shiites from drowning. READ MORE

"Our Sunni neighbors saved hundreds of lives," Muhammad Jawad, a teacher in Sadr City (the Shiite slum on the river's eastbank), who was present on the scene, told Arab TV channels. "Many Sunni brothers also drove their cars to the river to take the wounded to hospital."

The tragedy has pushed Iraq to the edge. Some radical Shiites have called for revenge. But the conclave of Shiite grand ayatollahs, meeting in Najaf on Thursday, called for "calm, patience and serenity in grief," the gifts that the Imam was supposed to bestow.

"This tragedy should bring all Iraqis, Shiite and Sunni, Arab and Kurd, closer together," a spokesman for Grand Ayatollah Ali-Muhammad Sistani, the primus inter pares of the Shiite clergy, said Thursday. "We must not allow enemies of Islam and of Iraq to exploit this tragedy for their evil ends."

Similar sentiments came from Harith al-Dhari, the Grand Mufti of the Iraqi Sunni Arabs. "Those who died are martyrs of the Iraqi people as a whole," he said.

"Far from pushing Iraq towards civil war, as some in the West suggest, this tragedy could bring Shiites and Sunnis closer together," says Ghazi al-Yawar, Iraq's vice president and leader of the nation's largest Sunni Arab tribe. "The Shiites saw how many Sunnis risked their own lives by jumping into the river to save theirs. They saw Iraqis coming to help other Iraqis."

Shiite leaders must bear part of the responsibility for the tragedy. They know that in Iraq today, any gathering of Shiites becomes a target for non-Iraqi Arab militants who have come to Iraq to cause death and desolation.

In the past three years, more than 700 Shiites have been killed by suicide operations and car-bomb attacks organized by non-Iraqi Arab terrorists. The terrorists hope to provoke the Shiites into revenge killings against Sunnis, thus triggering the civil war that al Qaeda has long dreamt of for Iraq.

The wisest course for the Shiites is not to give the terrorists the opportunities they need to realize that dream. One way to do that is to decide a moratorium on mass pilgrimages at least until after the Oct. 15 constitutional referendum.

Since liberation in 2003, Shiites have organized mass pilgrimages both to mark their demographic strength and to make up for decades during which they were not allowed to perform the rites under successive despotic regimes. For many Shiites (including some secular ones), these amounted to a catharsis, marking the end of a nightmare symbolized by Saddam Hussein. More than three years after liberation, however, there is no longer any valid reason for such — especially when it could lead to tragedy.

Iraq has now accepted a political process in which matters are resolved through elections, in the parliament and the newly created media rather in the street. Even most Sunni Arabs now wish to pursue their political goals through this new process, rather than via the terrorist insurgency that falsely speaks in their name.

The government cannot, indeed should not, intervene to ban mass pilgrimages. So it is incumbent on the grand ayatollahs, especially Sistani, to take the lead. They should issue a fatwa (opinion) imposing a moratorium on mass pilgrimages for at least the next two months. If they don't, they may well be held responsible for future tragedies — for Iraq lacks the trained staff and the materiel needed to guide, protect and control huge crowds.

What Iraq needs is a period of calm and introspection as it ponders its future as charted by the draft constitution proposed by its elected representatives.

Amir Taheri is a member of Benador Associates.

Another amazing report.

The Persian Ratchet

Dr. Jack Wheeler, To The Point News:

The war between Persia and the West is very ancient, well over a thousand years older than the war between Islam and Christianity. READ MORE

Western Civilization originated in a strip of land 90 miles long and 30 miles wide along the Mediterranean coast of Asia Minor (Turkey today) known as Ionia. The Greeks who settled there in the 9th and 8th centuries BC colonized such cities as Ephesus and Miletus, where the first philosophers in history (like Thales, 635-543 BC) offered natural explanations of the world rather than superstition and myth.

The founder of the Persian Empire, Cyrus the Great (576-529 BC), incorporated Ionia within his rule but gave it autonomy. This freedom vanished under the tyranny of Darius I (550-486 BC), Ionia revolted in 502, Darius crushed the revolt, then invaded and attempted to conquer all of Greece.

On September 21, 490 BC, on the beach at Marathon, under the command of the Athenian general Miltiades, the Greeks destroyed Darius’ army, with 6,400 Persians killed versus 192 Greek hoplites.

Ten years later Darius’ son Xerxes (519-465 BC) was back for revenge. The largest army the world had ever seen (perhaps one million or more soldiers) swept through the Greek peninsula, overwhelmed the Spartans at Thermopylae, and burned Athens to the ground. Then the Athenian general Themistocles lured Xerxes’ gigantic navy into the Bay of Salamis, and on September 28, 480 BC, the quick little Greek triremes cut the Persians to ribbons.

146 years later the Greeks enacted their revenge. In 334 BC with a small army of 40,000, Alexander the Great invaded Persia and conquered it entire, from the Nile to the Indus, burning the royal palace of Persepolis in recompense for the destruction of Athen’s Acropolis so many years before.

After a hundred years of Greek rule, a Persian tribe called Parthians reestablished the Persian Empire.

The conflict with the West resumed with the Romans, who fought the Parthians for 300 years and finally wiped them out in 198 (all dates now AD).

A third Persian Empire was built by folks called Sassanids, and the war with Rome was back on. In 259, King Sharpur I captured Roman Emperor Valerian, and after killing or enslaving 70,000 Roman soldiers, flayed Valerian alive and kept his skin as a trophy.

Sassanid wars with Rome and Constantinople continued for 350 years, culminating in the Persian army of Khosrau II destroying Jerusalem in May, 614, slaughtering 90,000 Christians in cold blood and demolishing the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

This prompted Emperor Heraclius in Constantinople to invade Persia in 621, wiping out Khosrau’s army at the Battle of Nineveh in December 627, and terminating the Sassanids. Unfortunately for mankind, the resultant anarchy made it easy for wild tribes to pour out of Arabia and seize Jerusalem, the whole Middle East, and Persia in the name of Islam 20 years later.

Islamicized Persia did not interact with the West much for another 12 centuries. In 1797 a tribe called the Qajars took over Persia. Their first Shah, Fath Ali (1771-1834), went to war with Czar Alexander I of Russia and lost very badly. In desperation, Fath Ali turned to England for protection.

The Brits helped him hold off the Russkies but didn’t take much interest until oil was discovered in 1908, whereupon they created the Anglo-Persian Oil Company (now British Petroleum) to siphon off the oil and manipulate the Qajars.

After World War I, the Brits decided the current occupant of the Peacock Throne, Ahmad Shah, was impossibly incompetent, and in February 1921 ended Qajar rule and installed a peasant officer in the Persian Cossacks Brigade, Reza Khan Merpanj (1877-1944) in his place.

Reza Khan declared himself Shah in 1925, changed his name to Pahlavi after an ancient Persian language, and to curry favor with the new Nazi regime in Germany, in 1935 without warning or explanation, decreed that Persia would henceforth be known as Iran, meaning Land of Aryans.

Hitler was quite pleased that a country would rename itself as the original homeland of his Aryan Master Race, so an alliance was formed, resulting in a joint British-Russian invasion of Tehran that kicked out Reza and installed his son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919-1980) as the new shah in 1941.

The 22 year-old Shah turned to America for support against the Russian Soviet Union and endlessly perfidious Albion, which he received until he was sold straight down the river by Jimmy Carter, who allowed the Islamofascist revolution of Ayatollah Khomeini to overthrow him in January, 1979.

We could call the ebb and flow of Persia vs. the West for two and a half millennia the Persian Ratchet, as over the centuries it ratchets up and down.

This prelude should put in perspective that the ancient fight between Persia and the West has now ratcheted up once again, this time against us, with America demonized as the Great Satan. Once again, it is a duel to the death – for that it is what the Mullahs who run Iran have decided it must be, and so it shall be.

The Mullahs are ratcheting it up at an ever faster pace recently, and finally George Bush last week decided to respond in kind. He publicly announced on August 12 he would consider a military attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities – “All options are on the table” – and gave the green light for a major Time Magazine story Inside Iran’s Secret War For Iraq (August 22 issue, on newsstands Monday August 15).

“Green light” means that GW authorized the Pentagon and US intelligence agencies to provide Time with a massive amount of intel. It was no coincidence that Bush made his “all options” threat on the eve of the story’s publication – any more than it was a coincidence that stories on Bush’s threat and one entitled Unrest in Iran’s Kurdish Region Has Left 17 Dead appeared on the same day (August 13) in the New York Times.

(Yes, Virginia, Time Magazine and the New York Times are capable of mutual backscratching with the Bush White House.)

Just as Time says, Tehran is waging a war to split Iraq apart and create a Greater Iran Empire by incorporating Shia Iraq. What the story doesn’t discuss is how suicidally stupid is such an attempt.

Iraq breaking apart will inevitably lead to Iran breaking apart. This is because less than half the people in Iran are Iranian – that is, ethnic Persian.

Note the New York Times story above is about Kurds in Iran – not Iraq. The Kurds are a separate ethnic identity, neither Arab nor Persian nor Turk. There are more than five million Kurds in Iraq (20% of the total population of 26 million) – but there are more than six million Kurds right across the border in Iran (9% of 67 million).

The riots and unrest that the NYT reports have been going on for weeks now confirm that, if Iraqi Kurdistan splits from Iraq, Iranian Kurdistan will very violently split off from Iran and join it. An organization has been formed to do just that: The Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan.

We all know that an independent Iraqi Kurdistan terrifies the Turks, because all of southwest Turkey adjoining Iraq and Iran is Kurdish (14 million or 20% of 70 million), so Turkey would be dismembered. It should terrify the Mullahs in Tehran as well, for it would be only the start of the break-up of Iran.

To Iran’s north along the Caspian Sea is the former Soviet colony and now independent Republic of Azerbaijan. The folks who live here are Azeris, a Turkic people converted to Shia Islam by the Persians and stayed that way even after Czar Alexander I (remember him?) kicked the Persians out of the northern third of Azeri territory.

That northern third is Azerbaijan, with a population of eight million. The southern two-thirds is northwest Iran, inhabited by three times as many Azeris – over 24 million or 36% of the total population of Iran. They hate the Persians as much as the Kurds do, and have now organized a secessionist movement – The South Azerbaijan Liberation Movement (SALM) – to break off northwest Iran to create a Greater Azerbaijan.

Then there are the two million Baluchis in southeast Iran who hate the tyranny of Persian Tehran and want to join Pakistan’s province of Baluchistan, and the three million Turkmen who would like the Iran-Turkmenistan border shifted south to encompass them.

Now let’s add to all these enmities the biggest of all: Shia Arabs (they’re in Iraq) vs. Shia Persians (they’re in Iran). Persians and Arabs hate each other whether Sunni or Shia. Shia Islam began in Iraq, with Karbala and Najaf the most revered pilgrimage sites. The Persian Shias’ attempt to replace them as the Shia holy cities with their city of Qom is despised by Iraqi Shias. There is no way Tehran is going to successfully colonize Shia Iraq.

So if the Mullahs are crazy enough to crank up the Persian Ratchet by going after Shia Iraq, George Bush may be happy to crank it all the way until Iran shatters. As he does so, his message to the Persian people will be whispered into their ears:

“The only way to stop Iran torn asunder is to conduct a democratic revolution and get rid of the Mullah Tyranny before it is too late.”

A valuable brief history of Iran's war with the west and why a civil war in Iran is not in Iran's best interest.

Iran resumes uranium enrichment: IAEA

Times of India:

Iran has resumed uranium enrichment which was suspended under a deal with the European Union and critical questions remain about its atomic programme, the UN nuclear watchdog said.

In a new report, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) confirmed that Tehran has resumed its uranium enrichment programme and asserted that questions remained about its atomic programme. It confirmed that Iran has pushed ahead with nuclear fuel work which the IAEA had called on it on August 11 to halt, in order to save talks with the European Union on guaranting Tehran's atomic programme is peaceful. READ MORE

The agency said it was still not in a position to conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials or activities in Iran. "In view of the fact that the agency is not yet in a position to clarify some of the important outstanding issues after 2-1/2 years of intensive inspections and investigation, Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue", the report by IAEA chief Mohamed El Baradei said.

The report is likely to heighten tensions between Iran and the West, a week before a critical meeting of the IAEA board which could refer the issue to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions.

Iran maintains that its programme is purely for peaceful uses but the US believes Tehran is secretly pursuing a nuclear weapon development programme. The report, distributed to IAEA board members yesterday, is still confidential but its contents have been leaked to select Western media.

Bombs damage pipelines and oil well in Iran

Daily Times:

Small bombs damaged 15 pipelines and one oil well in restive southwest Iran on Thursday, an official said on Saturday, but quick repairs meant crude output from OPEC’s second exporter was unaffected.

Ahmad Tahampesar, operations manager of the state’s Karun Oil and Gas Exploration Company, denied earlier media reports that saboteurs had shut down five wells in the southwestern province of Khuzestan, Iran’s oil heartland.

“It was repaired by last night,” he told Reuters, when asked about the damaged well.

Khuzestan parliamentarian Nezam Mowlah Hoveizeh said separatist guerrillas from Iran’s Arab minority were responsible for the bombings.

Iran has long feared that insurgents from the Arab minority, some three percent of the population, would direct their anger against the Islamic Republic’s oilfields. Iran is the world’s fourth biggest crude producer with output capacity of around 4.2 million barrels per day. Mowlah Hoveizeh linked the attacks to Arab ethnic unrest that flared in Khuzestan in April, when five people were killed and some 200 arrested.

Later, bombs targeting government buildings in the city of Ahvaz just before Iran’s presidential election in June killed seven people and wounded dozens.

“This latest sabotage is connected to the Ahvaz explosions ... the role of the separatists has been revealed,” Mowlah Hoveizeh told the Sharq daily.

Following the argument of many conservative commentators, he added British agents were stirring the Arab unrest. “These incidents originate in London,” he added. The original unrest was sparked by rumours that Tehran wanted to relocate Arabs from Khuzestan to other provinces.

A recent UN report has commented that Iran’s Arabs, despite living on top of the country’s oil wealth, live in among the worst conditions in the country.

Iran's Leader calls for Jihad against Israel

Iranmania:

Iran's Supreme Leadery hailed Palestinian militants for "expelling the' Zionist' regime from Gaza" and called for the "continuation and fortification of resistance and Jihad," or holy struggle.

"The only way to confront the 'Zionist' enemy is the continuation and fortification of resistance and Jihad," Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was quoted as saying in a meeting with the militant group Islamic Jihad's secretary general Ramazan Abdullah, according to AFP. READ MORE

"Although the retreat of the 'Zionist' regime from Gaza is short of Palestinian rights and demands, it is however a big victory that shows the inability of the occupier regime of Qods (Jerusalem)," the ISNA news agency quoted Khamenei as saying.

He added that "with the cooperation of Jihadi groups", further "success is also possible in other parts of the occupied territories".

Iran is frequently accused of funding and supplying Palestinian militant groups, but the clerical regime says it only provides "moral" backing. Tehran also refuses to recognise Israel.

India, Iran to go ahead with gas pipeline project

Hindustan Times:

Ignoring objections from the US, India and Iran on Saturday decided to go ahead with the proposed $7.4 billion dollar pipeline project to supply much-needed natural gas through Pakistan and sign a framework agreement by December this year for the purpose.

"If all goes well there can be a tripartite meeting of the concerned ministers of (India, Iran and Pakistan) to finalise a framework agreement by December 31," External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh said after holding wide-ranging talks with his Iranian counterpart Manouchehr Mottaki in Tehran.

In another major deal, Singh said Tehran has agreed to supply five million metric tonnes of liquid natural gas to India annually. India had asked for 7.5 million tonnes of natural gas supply.

Report Documents Iran's Reticence on Nuclear Disclosure

LA Times:

Iran has failed to provide crucial information about its efforts to obtain nuclear technology and has restarted some activities it had suspended under an agreement with the European Union, according to a report issued Friday by the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency.

Although the report makes no new accusations against Iran, it documents the nation's continuing unwillingness to fully explain its nuclear activities. READ MORE

The report, sent to members of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors, helps provide the basis for intensive diplomatic maneuvering by the EU and the United States to persuade the board to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible censure.

The IAEA board will meet Sept. 19 in Vienna. European officials said that unless Iran suspended nuclear activities again, they had little choice but to seek a referral to the Security Council.

One European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the report revealed a "policy of concealment" on Iran's part.

"It seems to me this report is unlikely to alter the European view that a report to the Security Council will be necessary when the board meets, unless between now and Sept. 19, Iran reestablishes full suspension."

The agency stated that it remained unable to "conclude that there are no undeclared nuclear materials."

"In view of the fact that the agency still isn't in a position to clarify some of the most important outstanding issues after 2 1/2 years of intensive inspections and investigations, Iran's full transparency is overdue," the report says.

However, senior officials close to the agency seemed largely convinced that traces of highly enriched uranium found in centrifuges in Iran were left over from the previous user of the equipment, Pakistan, and were not signs that Iran had been able to produce highly enriched uranium.

Iran's suspension of all nuclear activities was the basis for negotiations with the European Union for economic aid, technological assistance and security guarantees. Those negotiations came to a halt in August when Iran announced that it was restarting the plant in Esfahan where it processes uranium yellowcake into gas, an early step in the fuel cycle that can lead to the production of highly enriched uranium, which can be used in bombs.

"The whole [Esfahan plant] is operating," said a senior official close to the nuclear agency.

Typically, the IAEA board strives for consensus, but many countries are reluctant to censure Iran because they too would like to develop nuclear fuel cycles to generate electricity. They fear setting a precedent that could limit their own pursuit of nuclear energy.

Because the EU referral request appeared unlikely to gain a consensus, officials in the bloc are considering asking for a vote, thus forcing countries to take a public position on Iran's activities.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator said Friday that the country would continue to cooperate with the IAEA.

"This report has both positive and negative points," Ali Larijani told state television. "Because of the close cooperation with the agency … fortunately many of the questions have been answered from a legal and technical point of view.

"There are some minor questions remaining, and our cooperation with the agency will continue in order to answer those questions," he added.

Iran maintains that it wants to acquire nuclear technology for the purpose of generating electricity. However, because many aspects of its program had been shrouded in secrecy until some of the activities were unmasked by an exile group in 2002, the United States and other Western countries suspect that Iran might be trying to build a bomb.

Questions remain about the extent of Iran's efforts to obtain uranium enrichment equipment, particularly centrifuges, and how far Iran has advanced in its efforts to develop a nuclear fuel cycle.

The government and Iranian companies appear to have entertained several offers to sell them fuel cycle designs and equipment, but it is unclear how much equipment was obtained and how much work was actually done. The report says there is still little information about any work Iran may have done between 1995 and 2002.

Also unclear is what activities Iran might have undertaken at sites in Lavisan-Shian and Parchin. The Lavisan-Shian site was razed before IAEA experts could inspect it, and agency requests to interview scientists and others who worked there have gone unanswered.

The agency also requested permission to undertake additional inspections at Parchin, a military installation, but received no response.

The report urges Iran to be more forthcoming.

"Given Iran's past concealment efforts over many years … transparency measures should extend beyond the formal requirements … and should include access to individuals, documentation on procurement and dual-use equipment," it says.

Islamic Republic’s Nuclear Program and Persian Pride

Marzeporgohar.org:

If there is one thing that the Western countries need to realize, it is that they best not interfere with the Persian pride. The course of history has shown that the one major factor for the survival of the Iranian Nation has been the strong presence of nationalistic sentiments as well as its ancient identity.

Few countries have been the target of so many invasions and yet have come out even stronger. After the Arab Invasions, Iran was the only country which was able to maintain its identity. These facts are readily observed when looking at the Iranian history.

However, one should differentiate between Islamic Republic and Iran. In the eyes of the Iranians, the Islamic Republic stands for the mullahs who have invaded Iran and terrorized Iranians for 27 years, while using Iran and all its resources to support and export militant Islam.

Islamic Republic is the number one sponsor of international terrorism, and with Ahmadinejad as the president, there are no longer any attempts to hide their agenda. Islamic Republic is determined to export the Islamic way of living to the world whether the International Community likes it or not.

Judging from the events of September 11, the London bombings and the insurgency situation in Iraq, it seems that the Islamic Republic mullahs are quite capable of reaching their goals.

In order to create a new Islamic world order, the Islamic Republic has to ensure their existence by acquiring Nuclear weapons. Once this goal is achieved the Islamic Republic will have no financial problems in increasing the support to its sub-sections in the world. In the meantime the leaders of the Islamic Republic continue their “nuclear talks” simulation with their E.U. trading partners, while doing exactly what they have to do.

The leaders of the Islamic Republic figure that eventually their case might be referred to the UN Security Council where it will be vetoed by either China or Russia or both. Worse case scenario, the $65+ per barrel will have to compensate for sanctions which seem unlikely if Islamic Republic’s trading partners in E.U. and elsewhere have anything to say about it.

The international community is unwilling or incapable of stopping the Islamic Republic and the US who has been trying to prevent a nuclear Islamic Republic has failed due to erroneous foreign policies and divisive internal politics.

Very recently a report from the CIA stated that Iran is not in a pre-revolutionary state. Ironically, the very same report was made in 1978, one year prior to the revolution.

Whether the information was sold to CIA by the Islamic Republic or if it was obtained any other way the information could not be further from the truth. There have been numerous uprisings against the regime in the past few months in cities such as Mahabad, Mian-do-ab, Ahvaz as well as several other towns in Kurdistan regions of Iran just to name a few.

Even though the Islamic Republic and the biased Western Media outlets such as the BBC would like to make these movements seem like they are part of a separatist movement, one can state with certainty that these are clear signs of another Iranian pre-revolution.

The most potent weapon Iranians and the Western countries have against the Islamic Republic is the Persian Pride. Islamic Republic has discovered this fact hence they have started to refer to the nuclear project as “Iranian” rather than Islamic Republic. The mullahs are well aware that they can use the Iranian sentiment for their own benefit as they did during the Iran-Iraq war. READ MORE

When the western media and the government officials use Iran instead of Islamic Republic they are in fact serving the mullahs to take advantage of the Iranian sentiment. Marze Por Gohar party encourages everyone to use the term Islamic Republic when referring to mullahs.

Islamic Republic is aware of the fact that in order to gain minimal support from Iranians for its nuclear activity it has to gain the emotions and sentiments of the Iranians. However, it is obvious that it would be the end of Iran and Iranians if the invaders get their hands on nuclear weapons.

It is one thing for Iran and Iranians to have nuclear technology but having mullahs and Islamic Republic with nuclear technology would mean the end for the world and its order as we know it today.

Recently there has been lot of talk about banning Iranian Soccer team from the World cup in order to pressure the Islamic Republic. We have a hard time understanding this concept. Instead of banning the Iranian soccer team which would upset a proud nation and hence serve the Islamic Republic, why doesn’t the US administration start with denying the visa to the head of the Islamic Republic?

It seems that the European Countries as well as the US Administration and all its peripheral think-tanks have a long way to go. The Mullahs are dictating the play in the game as they wish to such opponents.

We Iranians have had 27 years of direct experience with the mullahs and we are the only ones with a remedy.

May be now that everything else is failing, the chance should be given to the genuine opposition to deal with the mullahs. It seems that the experts have miscalculated yet again: time is running out sooner than many may think.

Mani Aryamand
Secretary General
Marze Por Gohar Party
Iranians for a secular republic

The author makes an important point. The Islamic Republic has from the beginning tried to ban any sense of national pride and replace it with its Islamic identity. The Islamic Republic hates Iranians interest in their pre Islamic Republic history and achievements. For example, Iranians that give their children Persian names instead of Islamic names have been harshly treated. The regime only appeals to national pride in times of crisis. Therefore, for the regime to now appeal to national pride on the nuclear issue shows its weakness on this issue.

This provides us with a great opportunity encourage Iranian national pride in its historic achievements. There regime is vulnerable on this point. We need to support for instance, the human rights of the Iranian people by reminding them of their past freedoms. Thousands of years ago, Cyrus the Great was the author of one of the first human rights declarations. Supporting the Iranian people in their quest for those human rights that have a object of Iranian national pride is an opportunity the international community should take advantage, now.

Straw Rules Out Military Action Against Iran

Politics.co.uk:

After wide-ranging talks with the EU’s 25 foreign ministers in Newport, south Wales, Mr Straw told journalists: "Nobody is proposing military action in regard of Iran." "This is an issue that needs to be resolved, and can only be resolved, by diplomatic means." READ MORE

Tehran faces the prospect of being referred to the United Nations’ Security Council if it fails to shelve its uranium enrichment programme at its Isfahan plant.

Critics claim Tehran is secretly developing nuclear weapons.

Mr Straw said he preferred to resolve the apparent nuclear brinkmanship by diplomatic means.

After wide-ranging talks with the EU’s 25 foreign ministers in Newport, south Wales, Mr Straw told journalists: "Nobody is proposing military action in regard of Iran."

"This is an issue that needs to be resolved, and can only be resolved, by diplomatic means."

"We want to see these talks resumed because we not only believe this is in the interests of the international community but also in the interests of Iran.”

Britain, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, France and Germany – Europe’s so-called Big Three – have led diplomatic talks with Iran to secure a non-military resolution to the matter since late last year.

In a quid pro quo with Iran, the EU offered expertise and technology in exchange for an end to urnaium enrichment.

The US is thought to be increasingly irked by the Islamic republic’s apparent desire to acquire nuclear weapons.

Iran says its nuclear programme is for the peaceful production of domestic electricity.

Meanwhile, a report Iran by the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed Iran has failed to suspend nuclear fuel work.

Author of the report, IAEA chief Mohamed el-Baradei, said Iran's full transparency was "indispensable and overdue".

He also said about four tons of yellowcake - uranium ore - had been fed into the conversion process at Isfahan.

The findings may prompt some to call for UN Security Council sanctions.

European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said the EU was willing to go to the Security Council for possible sanctions.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's external affairs commissioner, said: “We may have some very difficult decisions to make. Nobody wants to go to the Security Council, but it might become unavoidable if they don't co-operate. Nothing can be ruled out."

The IAEA's board of governors meets in Vienna on September 19th to discuss the matter.

A resolution asking for sanctions could be sent ahead of the talks.

U.N. Says It Hasn't Found Much New About Nuclear Iran

Mark Landler, The New York Times:

Despite an intense two-and-a-half year investigation, key elements of Iran's nuclear program remain shrouded in mystery, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations' watchdog.

The confidential report, distributed Friday to members of the board, is likely to heighten tensions between Iran and the West two weeks before a critical board meeting here.

While it casts some new light on suspicious uranium contamination at Iranian sites, the report mostly summarizes the government's reluctance to resolve questions surrounding its acquisition of nuclear equipment and the nature of activities at several facilities. READ MORE

Officials in Washington said they were still analyzing the report.

Earlier in the week, however, some officials said they had hoped the report would contain enough concrete evidence of Iranian misconduct that it would persuade wavering members of the board to censure Iran when they meet on Sept. 19, and to refer the questions about its nuclear program to the Security Council for possible sanctions.

European officials hold out hope for a revival of talks between Iran and Europe, though they, too, are frustrated.

"Two and a half years have passed, and patience is wearing thin," said an official close to the agency, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report was not being made public.

The report also confirmed that Iran has begun processing nuclear fuel, ending a voluntary suspension of such activity during talks about its program with Britain, France and Germany.

Diplomats have been eagerly awaiting the report, by the agency's director general, Mohamed ElBaradei, because some hoped it would give them fresh ammunition to take tougher steps against Iran.

Much of the information, however, was in the agency's last major report on Iran, in November 2004. And the agency's conclusion - that it is not in a position to say whether the government is pursuing a clandestine nuclear program - remains unchanged.

A copy of the report was provided by a diplomat who wanted its contents made public before the board meeting on Sept. 19.

What the document does disclose is mounting frustration within the agency about its inability to get answers to questions, despite repeated requests and visits to Iran by its inspectors.

Departing from its carefully neutral tone, it concludes, "In view of the fact that the agency is not in a position to clarify some important outstanding issues after two and a half years of intensive inspection and investigation, Iran's full transparency is indispensable and overdue."

Among the mysteries is how Iran first obtained centrifuges used to enrich uranium. The government presented the agency with a one-page handwritten document that Tehran says related to an offer it received in 1987 of blueprints and components for 2,000 centrifuges. Despite requests, Iran has not produced any other documentation about this offer, which it said came from a foreign intermediary.

The agency also cannot determine whether Iran was conducting nuclear research at a site in Tehran called Lavisan-Shian; it was demolished in 2004. The agency would like to interview scientists who worked there.

The government continues to resist the agency's efforts to conduct a full inspection of a site in Parchin, where Iran is suspected of nuclear activities. Inspectors on limited visits have not found nuclear material.

The agency said there were also discrepancies in information provided by Iran about its plutonium research. Plutonium, like highly enriched uranium, can be used to make nuclear explosives.

Iran, which contends its nuclear program is peaceful, said the report had both "positive and negative points." Pledging to cooperate with the agency, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali A. Larijani, said Friday on state television, "Many of the questions have been answered from a legal and technical point of view."

The report, however, referred to only a couple of areas where it had gathered more information since November. One that is likely to benefit Iran is the report's investigation of sites that were contaminated by highly enriched uranium and low-enriched uranium.

These sites had housed centrifuge equipment obtained from the clandestine network operated by Pakistan's former chief nuclear scientist, Abdul Qadeer Khan. The contamination raised suspicion that Iran was enriching uranium beyond the level necessary for civilian uses.

The Iranian government contends the equipment was contaminated in Pakistan before it was exported to Iran. After interviewing Pakistani scientists and taking environmental samples in Pakistan and Dubai, where the parts were stored en route to Iran, the agency said Iran's explanation was convincing - at least as it applied to the evidence of highly enriched uranium.

"We are not yet sure everything is O.K., " said the agency official. "But in a big picture, yes, it tends to support their statement."

Some of the disclosures in the report could provide ammunition to both critics and defenders of Iran.

For example, it notes discrepancies in Iran's account of its plutonium research activities, which critics have recently cited as evidence that Iran is trying to conceal a weapons program.

Iran claimed its plutonium-separation experiments began in 1988 and ended in 1993. But the agency found plutonium solutions in bottles that appeared to be "younger," that is, prepared after 1993.

Iranian officials have since explained that they were "purifying" this plutonium for other research purposes. The agency, after investigation, concluded that the explanation was plausible, though the official said purification and separation were closely related.

The agency also concluded that Iran had tried but failed to buy beryllium, a metal that can be used in nuclear explosives.

Before the report was released, Britain's foreign secretary, Jack Straw, said he hoped talks between Iran and Europe could be rekindled. "We want to see these talks resumed because we not only believe this is in the interests of the international community, but also in the interests of Iran," Mr. Straw said to reporters at a meeting of European foreign ministers in Newport, Wales.

His task will be complicated by Iran's decision to resume the conversion of uranium at a plant in Isfahan. According to the report, Iran has fed about 4,000 kilograms of uranium into the conversion process.

Steven R. Weisman contributed reporting from Washington for this article.