Saturday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 1.21.2005:

Iran Threatens the West with its biggest weapon, oil.

• The New York Times reported that Ahmadinejad hinted last weekend that Iran might be willing to use the "oil weapon" - that is, curbing oil exports.
• United Press International also reported that Iran's plan for opening an oil bourse in March of this year could threaten the world economy.
  

Iran pulling it funds out of Europe.

• The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran announced Friday it has begun pulling its foreign currency accounts out of European banks.
• Reuters reported that an unnamed senior Iranian official said: "Yes, Iran has started withdrawing money from European banks and transferring it to other banks abroad."
• Reuters reported that Iran's decision to withdraw investments from Europe to shield them from U.N. sanctions has unearthed an array of risks for currency investors.

Nuclear Diplomacy.

• The Jerusalem Post reported that Europe and the United States continue to dismiss the possibility of talks with Iran.
• The Financial Times reported that China is now the greatest obstacle to an international consensus on resolving the crisis.
• Iran Focus reported that Kofi Annan urged Iran on Thursday to suspend nuclear activities.
• The Guardian reported that Italy's foreign minister said that Iran's nuclear program is testing the resolve of the international community, and the world needs a unified approach to the escalating diplomatic standoff.

The Iranian Bomb - Troubling Developments.

• The Jerusalem Post reported that an Iranian exile group claimed that Tehran has acquired banned nuclear weapons machinery that "are able to simultaneously use pressure and heat to produce uranium spheres for production of nuclear bombs."
• Mehran Riazaty reported that The Germany’s BND Foreign Intelligence Service claimed that Iran will have atomic bomb in next several months.

The US Struggle for a new Iran policy.

• The Washington Post reported that at the heart of an informal review of US Iran policy the goal is to change the character of a regime.
• The New York Times reported that the Bush administration and European officials said that they want to avoid causing hardship or more anti-Western resentment in the Iranian public.
• Reuters reported that the State Department is spending millions of dollars to boost democracy in Iran, but added, the U.S. goal was not to overthrow the Iranian government via these grants.
• Vance Serchuk, The Weekly Standadrd argued that there is much the US can do to pressure the Iranian regime to give up its nuclear program.

Is the window closing to support an internal regime change?

• Joe Katzman, Winds of Change.net argued why failure to support an internal regime change inside of Iran will likely lead to at least 10 million dead.

The Military Developments.

• The Washington Times argued that it's not likely that military action short of overthrowing the current regime could eliminate the Iranian nuclear threat.
• Counter Terrorism Blog reminded us that Iran had bought 18 disassembled BM-25 missiles from North Korea which can easily be launched from [a] freighter modified with launch tubes and blast channels.
  

Ahmadinejad's Other Troublemaking.

• Yahoo News reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met in Damascus with the leaders of 10 radical Palestinian movements.
• Zaman.com reported that Iran has reduced the amount of natural gas to Turkey, causing a crisis in Turkey.
• Iran Focus reported that Ahmadinejad appointed, Hojjatoleslam Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, as the new head of the National Security Council. Pour-Mohammadi was a notorious former deputy intelligence minister, whose agents “systematically engaged in extra-judicial killings of opposition figures.

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

• Sanam Vakil, Asia Times argued that Iran's Supreme Leader is using the current crisis in the west with Ahmadinejad to improve his own public image.
• Eli Lake, The New York Sun discussed the opportunity for the academic left to abandon its neutrality in the war between Iranians and the mullahs who hold them captive.
• Francis Fukuyama, The Wall Street Journal reported on a Web site that comes online today and documents the individual stories of the victims of the Iranian regime.
• And finally, Informazionecorretta published a cartoon: Ahmadinejad acts like a Nazi.