Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [5/21/06 - 5/27/06] major news events regarding Iran. (The reports are listed in chronological order, not by importance) READ MORE

Iran's Nuclear Program & The UN Security Council.

• 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".
• 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.
• CBS News reported that Iran rejected reports that Tehran has used Chinese uranium gas for enrichment.
• RIA Novosti reported that Russia's foreign minister said the talks between the EU3 negotiators, the United States, Russia and China would produce a consensus.
• Xinhua reported that Afghan ambassador to Iran denied press reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is to offer mediation between Iran and the United States.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that China defended its nuclear cooperation with Iran following a British Broadcasting Corp. report that traced Tehran's newly announced ability to enrich uranium to Chinese assistance.
• Reuters reported that world powers made progress but failed to reach consensus in talks on a package of incentives and threats to prevent Iran from being able to build a nuclear bomb.
• The Guardian reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said talks on perks and penalties meant to stop Iran from pursuing nuclear activities that the West fears could produce a bomb produced ``good progress,'' suggesting the United Nations could act soon if Tehran remains defiant.
• Karl Vick and Dafna Linzer, The Washington Post reported that Iran has followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent letter to President Bush with explicit requests for direct talks on its nuclear program.
• The State.com reported that President Bush's spokesman said the United States will not negotiate directly with Iran on its nuclear program.
• Reuters reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Iran's nuclear ambitions posed "the test of our time" and urged swift international action to meet what he termed a threat to the existence of the Jewish state.
• The Telegraph reported that the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said that it is all but impossible to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons.
• Hindustan Times reported that US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have agreed on a timetable for American intervention to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear capability.
• Yahoo News reported that President George W. Bush said he would consider providing incentives to Iran if it agreed to resume a suspension on nuclear enrichment activities.
• The Washington Post reported that Foreign ministers from six key nations will likely meet late next week. U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said that Washington was "very pleased" at the "very productive, very constructive" talks.
• Jerusalem Post reported that the chief of Russia's Security Council is set to visit Iran over the weekend for talks with officials.
• Reuters reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair said. "We don't want a conflict with Iran, we have got enough on our plate doing other things."
• 10 Downing Street released the text of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Speech at Georgetown University in which he said: "I don't believe we will be secure unless Iran changes."
• BBC News reported that Russia's defence minister has confirmed that Moscow intends to honour a controversial deal to supply Iran with 30 surface-to-air missile systems.
  

The Unrest in Iran.

• Reuters reported that thousands of Iran's Azeri minority hurled stones in violent protests, enraged by a newspaper cartoon they said insulted them.
• Yahoo News reported that the government closed one of the country's top three newspapers, detaining its editor and cartoonist for publishing a caricature that caused members of Iran's Azeri minority to riot in protest. Photo's of the demonstration.
• Turkish Press reported that two of the Iranian capital's main universities have been rocked by overnight protests and clashes between students and police.
• Iranian Student News Agency published photos of the protests at Tehran Universities with translations of several signs.
• SMCCDI reported that sporadic clashes have continued, on Wednesday, in several Iranian universities, such as, Tehran, Hamedan and Zanjan.
• Yahoo News reported that stone-throwing Iranian students fought police and Islamic vigilante in protest against restrictions imposed by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• SMCCDI reported that several students were critically injured during clashes that happened, today, in several Iranian universities. Slogans, such as, "Down with Dictator", "Down with Islamic Republic", "Freedom, Freedom" were shouted by the students.
• Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that while foreign ministers met in London to finalize measures to persuade the Iranian regime to suspend uranium enrichment, the country's ruling clerics will be facing the most determined opposition they have seen in three years. A must read.
• Iran Press News reported on the anti-regime slogans in the protest gathering of students in Tehran University campus. A must read.
• Rooz Online reported on the growing unrest in Azerbaijan.
• Rooz Online reported that during the week that just ended, Iranian society expressed its concealed and suppressed feelings and senses through three major events. Events that revealed the deep tornado that is buried deep in a nation.
• Sheema Kalbasi, Zaneirani argued that revolutions don't wait for calendar dates and many times they happen over seemingly unimportant things.
• More Photos of the anti-government protests at an Iranian university.
• MEMRI reported that several media outlets in Iran reported, albeit in a restricted and censured fashion, that there has been rioting on several university campuses in Tehran for the past four days. Eyewitnesses reported that students were chanting anti-regime slogans, such as "We don't want nuclear energy" and "Forget Palestine - think of us."
• Iran Focus reported that at least six anti-government protestors were killed by security forces during clashes in the north-western town of Naqadeh as more than 1,000 Iranian Azeris took part in a rally outside the governor’s office.
• SMCCDI reported that tens of Islamist militiamen have taken over the Tehran's College of Law in an effort to increase terror and smash any protest action.
• Amir Taheri, Arab News reported on the unrest in Iran's provinces.
  

Iranian regime preparing to force Islamic dress on Iranian people?

• Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that Amir Taheri is sticking to his story that the mullahs were readying legislation that would require Jews and other religious and ethnic minorities to wear distinguishing markers.
• Amir Taheri, Benador Associates responded to queries about the dress code story in Iran.
• Human Rights Watch published a report on Iran's current discriminatory legislation regarding Non-Muslims.
  

Iranian President seeks to join Russia and China's Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

• World Tribune.com reported that Iran aims to form an axis of powerful nations against the United States. Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi said the alliance would include nuclear powers. "China, Russia, India and Iran are capable of establishing a pole of major powers in Asia, opposing the policies of America."
  

Iran's leaders latest statements.

• Stratfor reported that Ahmadinejad not only rejected the European proposal -- he ridiculed it. "They say they want to offer us incentives. We tell them: Keep the incentives as a gift for yourself."
• Radio Free Europe reported that Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said that Iran has mastered the entire nuclear fuel, "from start to finish."
• The Telegraph reported that the Iranian president has warned that his nation's enemies will receive a "historical slap in the face" in return for any show of aggression towards the Islamic state.
• Yahoo News reported that Iranian cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said: "We still expect the world power seekers to have sense and not to create chaos and unrest in our region."
• ABC News reported that Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been quoted as saying European nations should stand by his country in the dispute over its nuclear program or suffer damages.
• Reuters reported that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they should stop feeling a sense of guilt over the Holocaust.
• Yahoo News reported that Iran's supreme leader said the United States would fail to provoke ethnic strife in the Islamic republic.
• Iran Daily reported that Iran's Supreme Leader said Iran should not succumb to pressures over its nuclear activities and any form of retreat will cause 100 percent harm.
  

Iranian leaderships unity weakening?

• Rooz Online reported that with five months into the elections of The Experts Assembly, responsible for monitoring the performance of the leader of the Islamic regime and choosing his successor), some hardline clerics in Qom, led by reactionary ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, are determined to use this election to end the political life of Hashemi Rafsanjani.
  

Iranian Dissidents.

• 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.
• 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."
• Free Ganji published Akbar Ganji's latest: Message for the Celebration Iran's dissident poet: Ms. Simin Behbahani.
• Reuters reported that Iranian journalist and political dissident, Akbar Ganji, has been awarded the annual Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA).
• The Telegraph interviewed Iranian dissident, Roya Tolouee, who told of the assaults and threats against her and her children during 66 Days in an Iranian jail.
  

Human Rights and Freedom of the Press in Iran.

• 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.
• Rooz Online reported that while the public relations director of Tehran’s revolutionary and regular judiciary have said that news dissemination must be in accordance with legal rules and be respectful to people, apparently this does not apply to Iranian dissidents.
• Rooz Online reported that the hardline minister of culture of Iran expressed dissatisfaction over a number of publications and criticized their attitude towards Ahmadinejad's government. The press has been put under check by the events and unrest in the provinces.
• Bahai.org reported that Iranian officials have arrested 54 Bahá'ís in the city of Shiraz.
• Reporters Without Borders condemned the closure of the governmental daily Iranian newspaper.
  

Rumors of War.

• 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.
• 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.
• Middle East Newsline reported that Iran has launched another major military exercise. The exercise, entitled "851," began on Sunday and would last three days.
• The New York Times reported that the United States will hold a joint military exercise using naval, army and air forces with Turkey next week aimed at demonstrating a determination to stop missile and nuclear technology from reaching Iran.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran conducted a test launch Tuesday night of the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which is capable of reaching Israel and US targets in the region. The test came hours before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with US President George W Bush in Washington.
• Hindustan Times reported that US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have agreed on a timetable for American intervention to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear capability.
• Foxnews.com reported that 34 nations kicked off a large military exercise in Turkey to practice intercepting weapons before they reach a country like Iran.
• 10 Downing Street released the text of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Speech at Georgetown University in which he said: "I don't believe we will be secure unless Iran changes."
• US News & World Report reported Sen. John Warner, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has called for North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries to plan a military "ring of deterrence" to contain Iran if negotiations fail.
  

Support for Internal Regime Change in Iran?

• The Christian Science Monitor reported that Bush's "regime change" strategy is being countered by a revival among the "realists."
  

Iran's Troublemaking.

• Iran Focus reported that Iran will launch a new suicide-bombers garrison.
• Ynet News reported that a group of Iranian students announced they were setting up a fund to destroy Israel. But the response to the call for donations was hardly overwhelming. About 10 students dropped money into the box.
• Iran Press News reported that the secretary-general of a terrorist organization of the Islamic regime said: "Hezbollah cells are being dispatched throughout the world and being prepped to face crisis".
• The Jewish Week reported that the organized Jewish community sent out a “security briefing update” amid reports that the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terrorist organization has sleeper cells in New York and other major American cities.
• Iran Press News reported that a regime-run newspaper said: "We should terrorize young European sissies as payback for the blood of our Islamic martyrs."
• Yahoo News reported that a hardline Iranian group announced the creation of a new "battalion" of "martyrdom seekers" -- or suicide attackers.
• Iranian President's Website quoted the President saying that "martyrs serve as models to the third generation of the Islamic Revolution."
  

US/Iran talks?

• 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.
• Charles Krauthammer, New York Daily News argued why direct talks between the US and Iran would be a huge mistake.
  

Iran and the International community.

• The Star reported that Arab Gulf nations are planning to send a delegation to Iran to discuss its nuclear standoff with the United Nations.
• The New York Times reported that prodded by the United States with threats of fines and lost business, four of the biggest European banks have started curbing their activities in Iran.
• BBC News reported that a group of Israeli diplomats wants to sue Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide.
• Reuters reported that Gulf countries plan to hold talks with Iran over concerns that Tehran's nuclear program could pose an environmental threat to them.
• The Middle East Media Research Institute published Arab Media reaction to Iran's nuclear project.
• The Globe and Mail reported on "Tehranto," what many call Toronto one of the world's largest communities of Iranian exiles and what they think of the crisis with Iran.
• Iran Press News reported that German Neo-Nazis have begun organizing anti-Israel demonstrations on June 21, during the football match between Iran and Angola in support of Ahmadinejad's statements about Israel and the holocaust.
• China Economic Net reported that North Korea and Iran, locked in nuclear standoffs with the United States, celebrated their friendship and said their opposition to "global dominators" made their relationship stronger.
• FoxNews reported that an Iranian-owned company, based in Turkey, has illegally shipped alleged guided missile parts as well as "dual use" nuclear-related material to Iran.
• ABC News reported on Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, trip to Baghdad on Friday.
  

Must Read reports.

• The Financial Times reported that David Jackson, director of Voice of America said VOA is not in the business of persuading Iranians to overthrow their government.
• Lee Smith, Weekly Standard asked: Who's Really Afraid of Iran? Hint, it's not Israel.
• Dan Darling, The Weekly Standard reported that there appears to have been little progress made by the U.S. intelligence community in learning more about the information brought to light by the 9/11 Commission report, despite commissioners having argued that it deserved more attention. Particularly so since most of Al Qaeda's senior operatives operate freely inside of Iran.
• The Washington Institute for Near East Policy exposed the myth of Iranian-Turkish amity.
• Mehdi Khalaji, The Washington Institute evaluated the impact outside pressure would have on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration and its ability to overcome internal political and economic challenges.
• PrayForIran.org reported that in response to the current crisis surrounding Iran, over 120 Iranian church leaders have pledged to 40 days of prayer and fasting.
• Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com published it's Symposium: Iran: To Strike or Not to Strike?
• Amil Imani, The American Thinker argued that while the world views Iran's President as a zealot, fascist, fanatic, anti-Semitic, lunatic and more, he is far from unhinged.
• Richard Miniter, Investors Business Daily reported that the proof of Al-Qaida's links to Iraq are just too strong to be dismissed.
• MEMRI published Iraqi News Agency Aswathura's Exclusive interview with Grand Ayatollah Montazeri. A valuable read.
  

The Experts.

• Amir Taheri, The New York Post examined Iraq's new government.
• Michael Ledeen, National Review Online argued that if you want to know what the mullahs want you to think, just read the “reporting” by the Washington Post’s own Karl Vick.
• Kenneth R. Timmerman, News Max reported how dozens of self-avowed supporters of the MEK, a group on the State Department's list of international terrorist organizations, met Thursday in a public building in Washington, D.C., to call on the Bush administration to legalize the activities of their group.
• Amir Taheri, Arab News reported on the unrest in Iran's provinces.
  

Photos, cartoons and videos.

• Cox & Forkum published a cartoon: EU-Bonz.
• Yahoo News reported that the government closed one of the country's top three newspapers, detaining its editor and cartoonist for publishing a caricature that caused members of Iran's Azeri minority to riot in protest. Photo's of the demonstration.
• Iranian Student News Agency published photos of the protests at Tehran Universities with translations of several signs.
  

The Quote of the Week.

Stratfor reported that Ahmadinejad not only rejected the European proposal -- he ridiculed it.

"They say they want to offer us incentives. We tell them: Keep the incentives as a gift for yourself."