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

DoctorZin reports, 5.10.2006:

EU nations want to offer Iran security guarantees?

The New York Sun reported that ambassador John Bolton, responding to the difficulty the UNSC is having in drafting a new resolution on Iran, said: "We're not going to drop it," he said, adding that if Russia and China fail to agree, a vote might be forced before the end of the week.
The New York Times reported that the foreign ministers of major powers failed to come up with a joint strategy for dealing with Iran. A senior U.S. official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said: ``I think the prospects for an agreement this week are not substantially good.'' ``Clearly we had a ways to go.''
Reuters reported that Western nations on the UNSC had planned to offer the package after the U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution demanding that Iran halt nuclear activities. French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said if Iran cooperated it could be rewarded with an "ambitious package -- in the domain of civilian nuclear energy, in the domain of trade, in the domain of technology and -- why not-- in the security domain."

Iran now says it will not withdraw from the NPT, but...

Chron.com reported that Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani said that Tehran had no intention of withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty. He added: "The additional protocol is one thing and the NPT is another."

More on Iran's letter to Bush.

The CFR posted the full text of Iranian President Ahmadinejad's letter to President Bush.

Iran seeks to change the world order.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Brig.-Gen Yosef Kuperwasser, head of the IDF Military Intelligence's research division said: "Iran is interested not only in turning into a superpower, but also in changing the world order."

Americans don't trust Iran.

FOX News released the finds from a new poll in which 85 percent of Americans say they do not trust Iran to tell the truth about their nuclear technology program.

Iranian missiles used in Iraq?

Telegraph reported that the British Army now believes that the Lynx helicopter shot down over central Basra at the weekend was most probably hit by a surface-to-air missile, obtained possibly from neighboring Iran.

Iranian opposition criticizes Ebadi.

Amil Imani, The Persian Mirror said Noble Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi, instead of becoming the voice of the voiceless and using her Noble status to speak about the atrocities of the Islamic Republic has used her platform to speak against the war on terror, and to criticize the United States.

Still more unrest in Iran.

SMCCDI reported that a senior Islamist militia commander was killed, on Saturday, by 'unknown assailants.'

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

Amir Taheri, The Wall Street Journal examined the various "engagement" strategies used by past Presidents and what we can learn from them in dealing with Iran.
Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported on the recent escape of Amir Abbas Fakhravar and his relationship with Richard Perle and their appeal to the world to support the cause of Iranian freedom.
Cox & Forkum published a cartoon: From Iran With Hate.