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

DoctorZin reports, 8.10.2006:

Mike Wallace interviews Ahmadinejad.

CBS News reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sat down with Mike Wallace in Tehran in a rare, exclusive interview. Ahmadinejad said that in response to President Bush's failure to answer his 18-page letter: "Those who refuse to accept an invitation will not have a good ending or fate."
The entire report will be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

Tehran Bus Union leader released on bail.

Radio Free Europe reported that imprisoned Mansoor Osanloo, the president of the Syndicate of Workers of the Tehran Bus Company, a prominent leader of Iran's workers movement, was released today from jail on bail after having spent seven months in prison.

Iranian dissident Akbar Mohammadi final letter from prison.

Rooz Online published excerpts of a letter by Iranian dissident Akbar Mohammadi written days before his murder in prison. In the letter he warned: "I believe authorities are preparing to humiliate and kill me..."

An update on Iranian dissident Ahmad Batebi.

Iran Watch Canada reported on Mr. Ahmad Batebi's 12th day of his hunger strike in Evin prison.

Iran preparing a new nuclear policy.

IranMania reported that Iran will announce its new nuclear policy within weeks, following the UN Security Council resolution.

Iran prepared to let the West "shiver with cold."

MEMRI.org published excerpts from a press conference with Ali Larijani, where he said the Iranian response to sanctions will be painful to the West and will make it shiver with cold. Video.

Ayatollah Jannati: "The UN should be closed."

MEMRI.org published excerpts from a Tehran Friday Sermon delivered by Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati. He said: "The Security Council is so weak, so impotent, and is so susceptible to pressure that it in incapable of passing any resolution. ... the gates of the UN and the Security Council should be closed." Video.

Is America waiting to be attacked by Iran?

John Batchelor, The New York Sun considered why is America apparently waiting to be attacked by Iran before acting on the threat?

Is Hezbollah invincible?

Lee Smith, The Weekly Standard questioned whether Hezbollah is an invincible as the media is making it out to be.

The Azadegan movement.

Alan Peters, AntiMullah.com reported on the Azadegan opposition movement is an umbrella leadership organization with an untainted record which is helping to unify the Iranian opposition.

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

People Daily Online reported that Iran has assured Pakistan that no one from the Baluchistan Liberation Army (BLA), a militants' group banned by Pakistan, will be allowed to take refuge in its border areas.
Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, The Weekly Standard reviewed George Michael's new book The Enemy of My Enemy: The Alarming Convergence of Militant Islam and the Extreme Right, about the unlikely alliance between Islamic radicals and the neo-Nazi far right.
Dow Jones Newswires reported that because Iran is ignoring the UNSC resolution on its nuclear program, Japan might have to ditch its plan to secure oil from the massive Azadegan field in Iran.
Cox & Forkum published a cartoon: First Casualty.