Thursday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 3.09.2006:

Iran now faces the UN Security Council.

• BBC News reported that Iran's nuclear program is being forwarded to the UN Security Council for consideration of possible punitive action.
• Reuters reported that the U.N. S.C. is expected to meet on Iran next week.
• Foreign & Commonwealth Office published a Statement on Iran on Behalf of France, Germany and The UK to the IAEA.

Iran threatens the US in response.

• Reuters reported that Iran's UN representatives said if the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of Tehran's nuclear research: "The United States may have the power to cause harm and pain but it is also susceptible to harm and pain. So if the United States wishes to choose that path, let the ball roll."
• Zee News reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that the world must give in.
• The Financial Times reported that an Iranian official said that the calculations of Iran’s leadership on the nuclear issue were being complicated by a growing concern that the real interest of the Bush administration was not Iran’s nuclear program but in regime change.
• World Tribune.com reported that in a major escalation Iran has deployed elite forces to confront the U.S. military in Iraq.
• Iran Focus reported that Ayatollah Rafsanjani said that the United States was faced with defeat in the Middle East.
  

The US response.

• Reuters reported that the White House rejected as provocative Iran's statement's that the United States could feel "harm and pain" if the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of Tehran's nuclear research.
• The Financial Times reported that the US laid out a step-by-step plan to apply pressure on Iran starting with seeking a binding chapter seven resolution designed to “isolate” the Islamic regime.
• ABCNet reported that the US Government has singled out Iran as among the world's worst human rights abusers.

Israel tells Security Council to stop Iran or it will.

• Reuters reported that Israel's defense minister, Shaul Mofaz, said if the United Nations Security Council is incapable of stopping Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel will have no choice but to defend itself.
  

Iranian people increasingly concerned over nuclear crisis.

• The Washington Post reported that Iranians are expressing unease about the international showdown over their country's nuclear program, as broad public support for atomic power is tempered by growing misgivings about the cost.

The mainstream media ignored the March 8th "Women's Day" Demonstrations in Iran.

• Early reports indicated there were three demonstrations in Tehran and more were reported around the nation and they were met with violence and force.
• Iran Focus reported that hundreds of women gathered Wednesday afternoon in Tehran’s Laleh Park and took part in a demonstration against the Iranian government.
• SMCCDI reported that tens of female demonstrators and a well known poet, Simin Behbahani, were injured due to the brutality used against the demonstrators.
• Samii Shahla reported that a group of about 130 women’s rights activists who gathered in Deneshjoo Park in central Tehran to celebrate International Women’s Day were brutally beaten by the police. Photos.

Brits consider internal regime change in Iran.

• Timothy Garton Ash, The Guardian calls for a European approach to supporting democracy in Iran.

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

• The New York Sun published the full text of Michael Ledeen's testimony on Iran before House Committee on International Relations. A must read.
• Michael Rubin, Amercian Enterprise Institute reviewed Bill Beeman's book, In The "Great Satan" vs. the "Mad Mullahs."
• Defence Talk reported that Iran's armed forces have deployed a new locally-built submarine in Persian Gulf waters.
• The New York Times reported that train services linking Pakistan with neighboring Iran were suspended indefinitely following bombings and rocket attacks on the rail.
• And finally, Cox & Forkum published a cartoon: Made in Iran.