Sunday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 1.29.2005:

Tehran Bus Driver's Strike: reports.

• SMCCDI reported that tens of Tehran's Collective Bus drivers, technicians, workers and wives have been wounded by brutal militiamen as a result of Saturday's strike.
• SMCCDI added that several buses have been damaged as angry crowds protested against the presence of Bassij Para-military appointed drivers attempting to break the strike.
• SMCCDI also reported that a fire forced the closure of a Tehran Metro Station, believed to be an act of arson on the same day that many of Tehran's Collective Bus drivers observed a protest action. Metro Station workers were heard shouting slogans by calling for solidarity with the Bus company's strikers.

US Senate Begins to Focus on Iran?

• ABS-CBN News reported that the US Senate on Friday unanimously passed a resolution condemning Iran for its nuclear program.

Iranian General Threatens a Missile Attack, again.

• Telegraph reported that the head of Iran's Revolutionary Guards, once again, has warned America and Britain that Teheran will respond with its missiles if attacked.

US Holding Firm on Iran.

• Agence France-Presse reported that the US cautioned that is was not 100 per cent supportive of Russia's proposed compromise.
• The Associated Press reported that the US ruled out any contact with Iranian delegates before next week's showdown vote.

Hamas to establish an Iranian Embassy in the Palestinian Territory.

• Debka Files reported that Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal promised Tehran an Iranian embassy in Ramallah very shortly after its victory.

Another call for a Regime Change in Iran.

• Robert Kagan, The Washington Post reported that despite the Iranian threat and the Iranian people's desire for real democracy in Iran, the Bush administration has done little to push for political change or to exploit the evident weaknesses in the mullahs' regime.

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

• Mortimer B. Zuckerman, US News & World Report reminded us that while Russian President Vladimir Putin has been supporting the Iranian regime, the author in an interview several years ago with him before the Iraq war said: "the real threat is Iran."
• Ha'aretz reminds us that Iran is radical Islam with sovereignty seeking a nuclear capability and the ruling mullahs there take their ideas seriously and back them up with money and action.
• Amir Taheri, Arab News took a look at Iran's ethic unrest and reminded us that encouraging secessionism in the Iranian periphery could only mobilize mainstream nationalism of Iranians who despise the Iranian regime.
• The Guardian reviewed the EU's use of "soft" power and reminds us that it is an American invention that at its core involved the promoting the US as a beacon of prosperity and openness.
• And finally, Jeffrey Bell, The Weekly Standard suggested that the defining test of Bush's war presidency will be Iran.