Thursday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 5.18.2006:

Ahmadinejad: Promises the "end of history in 2-3 years?"

• Haaretz reported that former Military Intelligence chief Aharon Ze'evi claimed that Ahmadinejad has been overheard promising the "end of history in two or three years."

Iran turns down "potential" EU3 carrots.

• Telegraph reported that Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has poured scorn on a European package of incentives designed to persuade the Islamic state to break off its nuclear program, saying that to accept them would be like trading chocolate for gold.

Iran wants to offer the EU3 Carrots instead.

• Xinhua reported that Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said that Tehran would offer economic incentives to the European Union in return for its recognition of Iran's right to enriching uranium for peaceful purposes.

Perm5 + Germany postpone meeting.

• Yahoo News reported that a top-level meeting of the U.N. Security Council's five permanent members and Germany to discuss the Iranian nuclear standoff has been postponed while the United States seeks to harden proposed penalties if Tehran does not give up uranium enrichment.
• China Daily reported that French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy urged the international community to present a united front in confronting Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

Direct Talks with Iran?

• Ilan Berman, The New York Daily News argued that direct talks with mullahs will backfire.
• David Frum, National Post gave six reasons why direct negotiations with Iran are a bad idea.
• Karim Sadjadpour, Patrick Clawson, Council on Foreign Relations also debated: Should the U.S. Negotiate Directly with Iran?

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

• RIA Novosti reported that a deputy speaker of the Russian parliament proposed that Iran be granted full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.
• Reuters reported that Jordanian officials accused Hamas of plotting to stage attacks on its soil using smuggled weapons, including Iranian rocket launchers.
• Yahoo News reported that Iran is enlisting Syria and Hamas as allies in the battle over its disputed nuclear program and why it may not matter.
• Ramin Parham, National Review Online argued that the Islamic regime in Iran has not lost sight its most imminent and present danger to its existence: its own people.