Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [2/27/06 -3/04/06] major news events regarding Iran. (The reports are listed in chronological order, not by importance) READ MORE

Iran's Nuclear Program.

• Times Online said the IAEA report will likely be tough on Iran.
• The Financial Times reported that Iran said on Sunday that it had struck an agreement with Russia on its nuclear program. But failed to resolve the issue of whether Iran would desist from all controversial nuclear activities.
• CNN News reported that the head of Russia's nuclear agency, Sergei Kiriyenko, said the talks had further to go.
• The Jerusalem Post reminded us that while Iran's agreement to a Russian enrichment program would alleviate immediate fears that it was trying to manufacture nuclear weapons, but would not entirely eliminate it.
• FOX News added that Moscow will insist on resolving the Iranian nuclear dispute within the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency.
• DEBKAfile reported on a split among Russian leaders with President Vladimir Putin preferring to go along with the West, while Kirienko (who led the talks in Iran) leads a Kremlin faction that advocates breaking ranks with Washington and Europe.
• The Washington Post reported that Iran is seeking a guarantee that the US will not attack.
• Rooz Online published some previously undisclosed discussions among the Iranian regime regarding in the Iran-EU Nuclear talks. A must read.
• Vital Perspective published the full text of the embargoed IAEA Report on Iran's Nuclear Program.
• The Financial Times reported that France, Germany and Britain dismissed Tehran’s announcement that it had reached a “basic agreement” with Russia. German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said “The Iranian position is an attempt to split the international community. It will not succeed.”
• Itar-Tass reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Russian proposal "is not isolated, being a component of the possible package, with which all the members of the IAEA board of governors will have to agree."
• Rooz Online reported that with the upcoming March 6 meeting of the IAEA coming soon, journalists are being summoned to the Ministry of Islamic Guidance and threatened on what they write.
• The Los Angeles Times argued that Iran's case is significantly different than the case made against Iraq saying the IAEA has credibility internationally as an impartial analyst.
• BBC News reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki has arrived in Tokyo for talks about Iran's nuclear program.
• CNN News reported that Iran's foreign minister Mottaki said his country's "final target" is to enrich uranium on its own soil, adding: "We are talking about moving together from where we are now and there is no going back."
• Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting reported that Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Secretary Ali Larijani will travel to Moscow on Wednesday.
• The Jerusalem Post argued that even if Iran agrees to the Russian proposal: Does any nation seriously believe that Iran has given up its quest for nuclear weapons?
• Reuters reported that Russian and Iranian negotiators met in Moscow on to reach a compromise on the Russian nuclear proposal.
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that Russia and Iran have failed to achieve any breakthrough in their talks.
• Radio Free Europe reported that President Bush said Iran "shall not have the means, the knowledge, to develop a nuclear weapon."
• The Wall Street Journal reported that a forthcoming report by IAEA Director-General Mohamed ElBaradei on Iran's nuclear programs offers evidence of a cover-up as alarming as anything a pulp novelist could dream up.
• The New York Times reported that in a surprise development, the foreign ministers of Britain, France and Germany have agreed to meet with Iran's top nuclear negotiator to discuss what Iran is describing as new ideas to break the impasse over its nuclear program.
• Iran Press News reported that Ali Zodsar, a member of the Majlis (the Islamic Parliaments Assembly) told reporters: "The Russians and the British are much worse than Americans."
• Yahoo News reported that talks between European Union negotiators and Iran over its nuclear ambitions broke up Friday without any agreement.
• New Press then reported a possible compromise. European diplomats saying that it would allow Tehran to run a scaled-down uranium enrichment program.
• Telegraph reported that Iran's former nuclear negotiator, Hassan Rohani has revealed how Teheran played for time and tried to dupe the West.
• Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported that Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani threatened to leave the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) if it referred Tehran's nuclear program to the UN Security Council.
• The Washington Post reported that the Bush administration is seeking a 30-day deadline for Tehran to halt its nuclear program.
• Voice of America reported that President Bush said the entire world would be in danger if Iran manages to build or possess nuclear weapons.
• Reuters reported that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United Nations Security Council was unlikely to impose sanctions on Iran as a first step.
• The New York Times examined the question: How long will it be before Tehran has the ability to produce a bomb?
• The Power and Interest News Report argued that the United States does not have the leverage to prevent it from pursuing its aggressive nuclear policy.
  

The Bombing of the Shiite Holy Site in Samarra.

• Reuters reported that more than 500 so-called protesters gathered outside the British Embassy in Tehran. The government of Iran has blamed the bombing on the US, Britain and Israel.
• Iran Focus reported that the deputy governor of the Iraqi province of Saladin, where the holy city of Samarra is situated, said preliminary investigation was pointing to Iran’s role in the bombing of the city’s revered Shiite shrine last week.
  

Update on the Tehran Bus Strikers.

• Iran Focus reported that close to a hundred bus drivers and conductors, who have been released recently from Evin Prison, gathered on Monday outside the Tehran Bus Company headquarters to protest against the government’s handling of their case.
• Iran Press News reported that Monday, the spokesman of the striking bus union in Tehran was arrested and summarily transferred to Evin prison.
  

Demonstrators in Iran threatened Christian Armenians.

• Iran Press News reported on an unprecedented violent demonstration in front of a local Armenian church, chanting anti-Armenian and anti-Christian slogans in the city of Tabriz.
  

Iranian Leaders On the Offensive.

• Mehran Riazaty reported that Iran's Supreme Leader said an Islamic government has been formed in Iraq.
• Mehran Riazaty reported that Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi (Ahmadinejad's mentor) published his views on Martyrdom Operations on his website.
• Rooz Online reported that in response to the revelations made several days ago by Hassan Rohani about the Iranian leaderships numerous attempts to hide details of its nuclear program from the IAEA, hard-liners are claiming his words threaten national security.
• Rooz Online reported that Ahmadinejad's government has been asking local governments to focus on "short term" development projects in hope that people would regain their trust in their elected officials.
• Rooz Online reported that Ahmadinejad's ultra-hardline government has decided to review the employment contracts of university professors deemed to be “un-Islamic”.
• Rooz Online reported that Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence has classified domestic and foreign-based Iranian web blogs to determine whether and when a web-blog will be denied access from internet users from inside Iran.
• Iran Focus reported that Ahmadinejad declared in Malaysia that Islam will be the dominant power in the “near future.”
• Yahoo News reported that Ahmadinejad, referring to the west, warned: "Domination and bullying will not last much longer. Bullies and Zionists beware -- you are going to fall."
• Iran Focus reported that Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said of Western leaders: “The decision-makers must be careful not to create hardship for themselves and the region.”
• Iran Focus reported that Iran’s Interior Minister accused the United States of using its infiltrators in al-Qaeda to carry out terrorist attacks.
• Iran Focus reported that a representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared that Islam must “conquer the world” by defeating the West.
  

Power Struggle inside of Iran.

• Rooz Online published some previously undisclosed discussions among the Iranian regime regarding in the Iran-EU Nuclear talks. A must read.
• BBC News reported that ex-Iranian President Mohammad Khatami has called the Holocaust a historical reality.
• Stratfor argued that the fact that Khatami and a newspaper were allowed to criticize Ahmadinejad publicly means Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei probably approved out of a desire to tame the ultraconservatives.
  

Rumors of War.

• Yahoo News reported that Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak said he had advised the United States against attacking Iran.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that, due to recent changes in its program, Israel's Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile system is capable of intercepting and destroying any Iranian missiles.
• Shirin Neshat of Sarbazan, Sarafrazan.net criticized StopWarOnIran.org's petition of protest against a possible war between the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) regime and the West.
  

More Calls for an Internal Regime Change in Iran.

• Peter Kohanloo, Iran va Jahan argued that President Bush to make regime change in Iran the official policy of the US government.
• The National Press Club will host a lecture, March 1st, with Reza Pahlavi, who will discuss "The Current Situation in Iran."
• Reza Pahlavi's Secretariat, PR Newswire Association reported that Reza Pahlavi, at the National Press Club, challenged the ongoing debate between proponents of military action versus diplomacy, instead appealing to the "free world to support the thousand circles of localized dissent and opposition that readily exists in Iran."
• United Press International added that Reza Pahlavi argued in his NPC speech that "[Western diplomats] are operating under the false assumption that the other side wants a solution."
• Ken Timmerman, The Foundation for Democracy in Iran reported that the State Department has created, a long over due, special office to promote democracy-promotion in Iran.
• CNN News reported that the U.S. State Department is creating a special Office of Iran Affairs and a senior official said the office is being created "to facilitate a change in Iranian policies and actions."
• The US Senate Foreign Relations Committee held hearings on Iran. But they still need to take up the issue of the Iran Freedom & Support Act. Call your Senators and ask them to support of this important bill today.
• Senator Santorum's Office released the text of the statement of Senator Rick Santorum to Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the need to support the Iran Freedom & Support Act.
• The Financial Times reported that Reza Pahlavi, the exiled son of the former Shah of Iran called on Iran’s fractious opposition groups to unite against the Islamic regime.
  

Iran's Dissidents.

• Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that Iranian dissident and opposition leader Akbar Ganji is scheduled to be released from Evin Prison in about 20 days, as of Tuesday.
• Iran Press News reported that the Iranian regime's agents in Iranian Kurdistan are threatening to slaughter political activists.
• Iran Press News reported that Iranian political prisoners condemned the Nobel Prize winning Shirin Ebadi for not standing with them in their struggle.
• Iran Press News reported that imprisoned journalist; Mostafa Jowkar was released from prison.
  

The Unrest inside of Iran.

• BBC News reported that two bombs have exploded in the southern Iranian cities of Dezful and Abadan, planted in the governor's offices.
• Middle East Newsline reported Iran has expanded the authority of the Basij militia to include police, defense and relief operations.
• Fibre 2 Fashion reported that textile workers blocked a major highway from the city of Isfahan to Tehran to protest against non-payment of their salaries.
• Iran Press News reported that Bina Darab-Zand, activist political prisoner, in a letter to the warden of Evin prison, refused any more visitors due to the humiliating abuse they receive.
• BBC News reported that a bomb exploded in the southern Iranian city of Ahwaz, hours after two men were hung for an attack last year.
• Iran Focus reported that Iranian authorities are using a fatwa, or religious decree, to ban the use of fireworks during this year’s traditional “fire festival” marking the end of the Persian year.
  

Human Rights/Religious and Press Freedom inside of Iran.

• Rooz Online reported that with the upcoming March 6 meeting of the IAEA coming soon, on what they write.
• Rooz Online reported that a group of Iranian women have decided to ignore an unwritten and illegitimate order that has banned them from attending soccer games.
• Mail & Guardian Online reported two men convicted of carrying out a deadly a bomb attack in Iran's restive oil city of Ahvaz were executed in public early on Thursday.
  

Iran's Economy.

• Reuters reported that Iran is preparing to grant gas contracts to European firms: Total, Shell and Repsol.
• Rooz Online reported that that soon Ahmadinejad’s cleansing process of the banking system will be complete.
• Iran Press News that Dr. Hadi Ghanimi-Fard, an Employment and Labor authority in Iran told ILNA, said: "In Iran there are no opportunities for prosperity for an employer, factory-owner, job creator, job or worker."
  

Iran's Military.

• Middle East Newsline reported that Iran launched a Shihab-4 missile, designed to have a range of 4,000 kilometers. Watch out Europe.
• Iran Focus reported that a senior commander in the Bassij has been named the new head of the IRGC’s secretive Ansar-ol-Mahdi Protection Corps, whose officers are entrusted with weapons of mass of destruction and terrorist activities beyond Iran’s borders.
  

Iranian Troublemaking.

• Iran Focus published a list of 20 terrorist camps and centres run by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
• Rooz Online reported that the Esteshhadiyun group (martyr-seekers) official website in Iran and invites people to register and ready for martyr suicide operations. The website even quotes religious scripts indicating that it is permissible for Muslim women to forego the hijab for a higher purpose and cause.
  

Iran and the International community.

• Telegraph reported that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, dismissed Iranian overtures to take over funding for the new Hamas-led Palestinian Authority.
• Reuters reported that a senior Hamas official said: Iran has agreed to provide a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority with enough money to make up for any cuts in foreign aid.
• David Ignatius, The Washington Post examined why the world is treating India's nuclear program differently than Iran's.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that Israel will find ways to block the flow of Iranian money into the West Bank if Teheran attempts give a Hamas-led Palestinian Authority 250 million dollars.
• BBC News reported that President George W Bush has dropped its staunch opposition to a proposed gas pipeline from Iran to India via Pakistan.
  

Insight into the Iranian people.

• The Guardian examined the nearly universal belief in Iran that the Brits are behind nearly every major event in Iran and why.
  

Interviews.

• Scott Macleod, Time Magazine published part one of an interview with Ali Larijani, Iran's foreign policy chief and top nuclear negotiator.
• Scott Macleod, Time Magazine published part two of his interview with Ali Larijani, head of Iran's Supreme National Security Council.
  

Must Read reports.

• Roya Hakakian, The Wall Street Journal argued that the Iranian regime is using the nuclear crisis to divert global attention to the country's many domestic problems, giving the ruling clerics free rein to devastate opposition with all the brutality they can muster.
  

The Experts.

• Michael Rubin, The Wall Street Journal provided evidence that Iran's Iraq strategy is a repeat of its successful Hezbollah strategy in Lebanon.
• Ken Timmerman, NewsMax published details of a 30-page contingency plan, reportedly from the Strategic Studies Center of the Iranian Navy which outlines the order of battle for shutting down the Strait of Hormuz.
• Ilan Berman, The American Spectator applauded the US administration's C-change in its approach to Iran but warned that Voice of America and Radio Farda suffer from serious systemic dysfunctions.
• Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat reported on a vitally important philosophical debate which lies at the heart of the Iranian regime.
• Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat takes a serious look at how viable is the "Chinese Model", that Iran's hard-liners are fond of discussing?
• Patrick Clawson, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy published his analysis of what he calls: the least bad options for limiting the growing threats from Iran.
• Ilan Berman, The Washington Times reported whether the United States can and should carry out a pre-emptive attack on Iran's numerous nuclear facilities.
• Amir Taheri, The New York Post argued why it's time for Iraq's Ibrahim al-Jaafari to quit.
  

Photos, cartoons and videos.

• Iran Press News published a humorous photo of an Iranian Missile Seen Over Germany.
• Dr. Iman Foroutan & Rahkshan Foroutan, Ishan "Them" released a music video whose theme is "political prisoners must be freed," with important footage of Iranian protests.
• Channel 4 News reported that Iran has granted unprecedented access Channel 4 News and a team of a dozen journalists, cameramen and technicians, to produce a series of live program from Iran beginning on Monday 6 March. Watch the videos.
• Rooz Online reported that a group of 50 or-so women who had gathered outside the Azadi stadium in Tehran to enter the stadium to watch the soccer match and were attacked by Security Forces. See Photo.
  

And finally, The Quote of the Week.

United Press International added that Reza Pahlavi argued in his NPC speech that

"[Western diplomats] are operating under the false assumption that the other side [the Iranian regime] wants a solution."