Thursday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 1.5.2005:

Iran: Tehran issues new threat to Europe

Adnkronos International:

The head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani, who is also the man behind Iran's foreign policy, has warned Europeans "not to force the Islamic Republic to cut short the dialogue process and to opt for another scenario". Speaking on Tuesday night on state television he said: "We are for a strategy based on dialogue, but if the counterparty Europe plays dirty, then we will pass onto another plan that we have worked out and then there will be problems for the Europeans."

Without specifying the nature of the other plan and the other scenario, Larijani has compared the talks on Iran's nuclear programme to a chess game.

"In this game, we are for a result that will be satisfactory to both Iran and Europe," said Larijani adding that "if we lose, the same will also happen to the other party (Europe) and they will have to prepare themselves to live in a hell."

But Larijani used even stronger words for the United States. "A small error on the part of USA or the Zionists will be enough to induce us to unleash hell," said Larijani. "They know this very well and for this they haven't gone further than a verbal or psychological war," he said. READ MORE

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

• Iran Press News reported that Turkey turned down a visit by Ahmadinejad.
• Iran Press News reported that Tehran's Bus drivers are continuing to demand release of their union leader.
• Iran Press News reported that the Islamic regime has threatened the South Korean government, demanding that they do not vote against the Islamic regime in the March meeting of the IAEA or else.
• Iran Focus reported that Iran’s state-run media gave unusual prominence to a historically confused news report of a Saudi King telling FDR in 1954 that Israel should be moved to Europe. Problem is both men were dead in 1954.
• Jeannine Aversa, Associated Press reported the Bush administration acted to tighten the financial clamps on two Iranian companies.
  
• Roxana Saberi, Channel NewsAsia reported on how young Iranians are being hit hard by surging property prices.
• AFP, Oman Observer reported that Iran's judiciary confirmed that a German arrested along with a Frenchman during a fishing trip off the coast of southern Iran will go on trial today.
• Middle East Newsline reported that Turkey has quietly agreed to join a U.S.-led effort against Iran's nuclear weapons program.
• Hurriyet reported that Turkey said that newspaper reports that the US had asked Ankara for permission to use military bases in Turkey for possible attacks on Iran, are not connected to reality.
• CNN reported that Arabic-language network Al Arabiya has aired video of what it said were Iranian soldiers recently kidnapped near the Iran-Pakistan border.
• The New York Times is noticing that the EU3/Iran talks are in turmoil as Iran restarts its Nuclear Projects.
• Peter Ackerman and Ramin Ahmadi, International Herald Tribune reported that there is positive news on Iran, that the world should not miss: civic defiance against Ahmadinejad's authoritarianism is increasing.
• Radio Free Europe reported that an influential right-wing U.S. think-tank rated Iran as one Of the World's Least Free Economies.
• Adnkronos International reported that the leader of the MKO/MEK, Massoud Rajavi is under house arrest in Iraq.
• Kevin A. Hassett, Bloomberg.com reported that Iran, not Iraq, may be the big story of 2006, both politically and economically.
• Josh Meyer, The Los Angeles Times reported that in a clumsy effort to sabotage Iran's nuclear program, the CIA in 2004 intentionally handed Tehran some top-secret bomb designs laced with a hidden flaw that U.S. officials hoped would doom any weapon made from them.
• The Times reported that now that Iran has dropped the pretense, the IAEA must respond to Iran’s nuclear challenge.
• Omid Memarian, Rooz Online reported that former Iranian President Khatami warned of an attempt to control the Experts Assembly by those that "neither believes in the supreme leader nor in the constitution.”
• And finally, ABC News published a video report on the young people in Iran.