Friday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 6.23.2006:

Iranian dissident: There is "no consensus on the nuclear issue in Iran."

• Rooz Online reported that the famed Iranian imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji declared in Paris said, “There is absolutely no consensus on the nuclear issue in Iran and everything that is attributed to be ‘national’ in this regard is merely ideological propaganda.”

Bush: The Iranian people deserve to "determine their own future."

• Voice of America reported that in a recent speech, President George W. Bush called on the Iranian government to accept the proposal and said: "The people of Iran, like people everywhere, also want and deserve an opportunity to determine their own future."

Iran's nuclear negotiator: "The nuclear issue is just a pretext."

• The Guardian reported that Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, said: "The nuclear issue is just a pretext. If it was not the nuclear matter, they would have come up with something else."

EU's Solana to meet with Iran, again?

• Dow Jones Newswires reported that European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he would likely meet with Iran's nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani next week.

China: Iran should respond to the Perm-5 "early."

• People's Daily Online reported that China urged Iran to make early response to the EU's package proposal to resolve the nuclear issue.

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

• DEBKAfile reported that Iran has offered to deploy Revolutionary Guards on the Golan border with Israel by the end of summer.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that many people in Iran fear that Mr. Ahmadinejad could be stoking runaway inflation. Moreover, he has created soaring expectations, particularly among Iran's agricultural and working poor, that could be hard to meet.
• Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that Iran's delegation to the U.N. Human Rights Council faces being isolated by the envoys of free nations this week after it emerged that its leader, Saeed Mortazavi, is one of Iran's most notorious censors and prosecutors of dissidents.
• BBC News reported that forty professors and lecturers from Tehran University in Iran are being retired on Thursday. The move is causing concern that the new government of President Ahmadinejad is purging professors.
• Michael Ledeen, The National Review Online reported that some day we will be forced to deal fully with the war we are in, and when that happens we’re going to discover a lot of very nasty problems about the future of America. Maybe we’d tackle the tough issues if we got that we’re at war.
• Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat asked: Interested in big power games? If yes, reserve a balcony seat to watch a new version of “The Great Game” taking shape in western and central Asia, in which Iran is emerging as an important player.