A Daily Briefing on Iran: Monday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 5.22.2006:

US seeks to build missile shield to stop Iranian missiles.

The New York Times reported that the Bush administration is moving to establish a new antimissile site in Europe that would be designed to stop attacks by Iran against the United States and its European allies.

Iranian dissident in Washington DC seeking regime change.

Times Online on the escape from Iran of Iranian student activist Amir Abbas Fakhravar who was held for 8 months in solitary confinement in Iran. He said he was in Washington to spread one message only: “Regime change.” Photo.

Imprisoned Iranian intellectual accused of seeking a regime change in Iran.

The New York Times reported that the Iranian press accused Mr. Jahanbegloo, the Iranian philosopher and writer who has been detained for three weeks without formal charges, is "an element of the United States who was part of the plot to overthrow the regime under the guise of intellectual work by peaceful means."

US and Iran agree: Security agreements for Iran won't work.

Yahoo News reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. has not offered a guarantee against attacking or undermining Iran's hard-line government in exchange for having Tehran curtail its nuclear program.
Reuters reported that Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said it had little faith in security guarantees from the West, "no one should think that such security guarantees are important."
Turkishpress.com reported that hard-line Iranian newspapers have snubbed European Union efforts to coax the Islamic republic into halting sensitive nuclear work, with one influential daily dismissing the proposed incentives as "worthless".

Israeli PM: Iran just months away from the nuclear bomb.

Bloomberg reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Iran is ``months'' away from being able to make a nuclear weapon, contradicting U.S. assessments.

US ready for talks with Iran on Iraq.

The Jerusalem Post reported that US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the formation of a national unity government in Baghdad has cleared the way for proposed direct talks between the United States and Iran about the situation inside Iraq.

Arabs plan to talk with Iran about its nuclear standoff.

The Star reported that Arab Gulf nations are planning to send a delegation to Iran to discuss its nuclear standoff with the United Nations.

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

Steven Simon and Ray Takeyh, Council on Foreign Relations reported that from the moment the first U.S. warheads detonate over an Iranian nuclear installation, the United States will be at war with the Islamic Republic. They examine various scenarios.
CBS News reported that Iran rejected reports that Tehran has used Chinese uranium gas for enrichment.
Independent reported that Iranian Jews are worried and angered by their President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust, saying his comments caused "fear" in his community.
Cox & Forkum published a cartoon: EU-Bonz.