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

DoctorZin reports, 9.7.2006:

Bush ramps up the rhetoric on Iran.

John Pohoretz, The New York Post reported that President Bush just delivered what may be the most important speech of his presidency. The time has come, the president all but said yesterday, to take the gloves off with Iran.
The Wall Street Journal reported that in a major speech President Bush quoted extensively from recent threats by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad such as his call for "a world without the United States and Zionism."

Ahmadinejad threatens Bush and the American people.

Khaleej Times Online reported on a veiled threat from hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to US President George W. Bush.
Reuters reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad urged the West to turn to God's path and said that failure to do so would tempt fate.

Khatami bashes Bush.

RegisterGuard reported that Khatami is using his visit to the US to bash Bush but still refuses to take questions from the media at these events.
Iranian Solidarity Congress published a statement condemning Mullah Mohammad Khatami’s crimes against the Iranian people.

Iran's defiance is harming the UN.

Reuters reported that Germany said Iran could not be allowed to harm the United Nations by pursuing its nuclear program. But Merkel made clear that military action against Iran was not an option.
The Telegraph reported the casual contempt with which Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, rejected Kofi Annan's attempt to mediate in the stand-off over Teheran's nuclear ambitions is alarming and that the UN is in danger of becoming an expensive irrelevance.
The Australian reported that talks to kickstart negotiations on Iran's nuclear ambitions between Iranian and EU officials had been postponed.

Russia finally supports sanctions on Iran.

The Jerusalem Post reported that Russia's foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said his country supports placing sanctions on Iran, in hope that implementing sanctions would rule out the possibility of military action against Iran.

Poll: US and France support military action against Iran as a last resort.

Reuters reported that a major transatlantic opinion survey showed most French and Americans would support military action against Iran as a last resort if other means fail to stop it acquiring nuclear weapons.

Iranian military unveils new fighter and bomb.

Forbes reported that Iran unveiled its first locally manufactured fighter plane, similar to the American F-18 fighter plane, but "more powerful."
DNA India reported that Iran announced that it has developed a 900 kg guided bomb named Ghased, or "Messenger."

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

Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that the editor of the Weekly Standard, William Kristol proposed a resolution authorizing force against Iran for its defiance of a U.N. deadline to end uranium enrichment. The proposal received a lukewarm reaction at the White House.
The Boston Globe reported on the visit of Khatami to the US and argued that when it comes to Iran, the Bush administration has been consistent only in its inconsistency. Time and again it has condemned the Tehran regime and time and again it has failed to back up those condemnations with action.
Stanley Kurtz, National Review Online reported that Iran may soon have nuclear weapons and argued Iran may soon dictate that its neighbors treat it as a de facto nuclear power and that will change the world.
Rooz Online published an interview with Majlis (Iran's Parliament) representative from Tabriz Akbar Alami who complained of restrictions that have been placed on MPs and said that nothing except a posh building façade remains of the Majlis (Iran's Parliament).
Rooz Online reported that Iran's Ministry of Islamic Guidance, which controls the media in this country, issued a directive to press publications which in practice bans them from quoting all available news sources in their reporting.
Cox & Forkum published another cartoon: Charm Offensive.