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

DoctorZin reports, 8.25.2006:

Iran has produced 15 P-2 centrifuges?

Reuters reported that an exiled opposition group said Iran has built at least 15 advanced P-2 centrifuges, which could dramatically speed up its production of nuclear fuel needed to create a nuclear bomb, and will have hundreds more ready next year.

Why Americans should furious that the US is letting Khatami speak in the US.

Kenneth R. Timmerman, FrontPageMagazine.com reported that the disgraced former president of the Islamic Republic, Mohammad Khatami, wants to speak in Washington, D.C., next month, and the State Department has already indicated it will welcome his visit. This is pure foolishness. Write the White House and let them know your feelings on this.

Iran's nuclear response is aimed at dividing the UNSC and it is working.

The Wall Street Journal argued that the Ayatollah's answer to the West's nuclear proposal looks like a calculated attempt to conquer the Security Council by dividing its members.
USA Today reported that while the six world powers studying Iran's response to their offer of nuclear negotiations will likely reject Tehran's terms for talks because they do not even touch on the possibility of freezing uranium enrichment.
Boston Herald in an editorial asked: When is a “deal” not a deal, not even worth the paper it’s printed on? When the “deal” is Iran’s latest response to U.N. Security Council.
Reuters reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Iran's response to an international package of incentives meant to persuade it to give up uranium enrichment is not satisfactory. "The decisive sentence is missing (from Iran's response) and this needs to be addressed."
The Times Online reported that Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, is to make his first trip to Iran since President Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be wiped off the map, in spite of strenuous American objections.

Did Hezbollah really win its war with Israel?

Amir Taheri, The Wall Street Journal agues why so many in the Middle East believe that Hezbollah didn't win its recent war with Israel.
Nidra Poller, The Wall Street Journal reported that Jacques Chirac, like Hassan Nasrallah, is always victorious. But France reduced its promise from 3,000 battle-ready soldiers to 200 engineers. The U.S. was fooled by a slick French seduce-and-betray operation.
Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that Israel's relationship with Turkey, its closest ally in the region, has been put under severe strain by the Israeli army's discovery that one route Iran used to resupply Hezbollah in Lebanon ran through Turkey into Syria.

The EU wants an investigation into the death of Iranian dissident Akbar Mohammadi.

News Observer reported that the European Union questioned the circumstances surrounding the recent death of an Iranian student activist, Akbar Mohammadi, and called on Tehran to launch an independent investigation into the case. A little too late.

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

Pamela Bone, The Australian, a feminist, criticized her movement for the lack of concern for the rights of Muslim women in Iran.
Herald Sun reported that Nicole Kidman and 84 other Hollywood heavy weights condemned Hamas, Hezbollah as "terrorist organizations," in a full page ad in the LA Times.
Dr. Raanan Gissin, Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs published a report on the critical importance of Israeli public diplomacy in the war against the Iran-Hezballah Axis of Terror.