Monday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 2.20.2006:

Iran and EU to meet, guess who will blink first.

• The Financial Times reported that Iranian officials would begin talks on Monday in Brussels and Moscow on their country’s nuclear program.
• Reuters reported that a spokeswoman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said: "It is very important we repeat to Mr Mottaki the position of the EU on a range of issues -- nuclear, the Middle East peace process, democracy and human rights."
• IndyStar that French President Jacques Chirac, countered his own Foreign minister saying that only the U.N. nuclear watchdog could draw conclusions about the goal of Iran's nuclear program.
• Reuters reported that the world's nuclear watchdog chief, ElBaradei, warned there may be no choice but to accept limited uranium enrichment by Tehran.

US intensifies pressure on Iran, is anyone listening?

• Sol Sanders, World Tribune.com found it ironic that at the moment Condoleezza Rice attempted to launch a intensified propaganda directed at Iran, she was largely ignored by US Senators and the American media obsessed with Cheney's gun accident.
• The Peninsula reported that Karen Hughes, US undersecretary of state for public affairs, said: "We are going to support the aspirations of the people of Iran for freedom."

More Interesting Reports out of Iran.

• IRNA reported that another small aircraft, Falcon, with 7-8 passengers aboard crashed at Iran's common border with northern Iraq killing all its passengers. But added there may have been several Israeli's on board.
• Reuters reported that once again a small bomb shook the Iranian oil city of Ahvaz, a center of much unrest.
• Iran Focus reported that a senior Iranian official said Ayatollah Rafsanjani has no say in the Islamic Republic’s nuclear policy.

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

• Kenneth R. Timmerman, News Max reported that a top Pentagon official, responsible for tracking Saddam Hussein's weapons programs, provided the first-ever account of how the Russians "cleaned up" Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction stockpiles.
• John Patrick Quirk, RealClear Politics examined Iran's defensive strategy.
• Salena Zito, The PittsburgLive.com said we are at a defining moment in our history when Islamic fascists are determined to end Western culture and we must act decisively.
• And finally, SMCCDI reported that the theocratic regime has increased the wave of repression to boost the existing fear among Iranians, executing two more Iranians.