Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [9/03/06 - 8/09/06] major news events regarding Iran. (The report is organized by various categories in chronological order, not by importance). Catch up on all the past week's news developments. READ MORE

Iran's Nuclear Program & The UN Security Council.

• The Telegraph reported that Iran brushed aside Kofi Annan's efforts to mediate in the crisis over its nuclear ambitions.
• The Australian reported that Iran's foreign ministry spokesman said the scale of the Holocaust has been "greatly exaggerated."
• Reuters reported that Iran said the threat of sanctions was a "psychological game" aimed at putting pressure on the Islamic Republic over its nuclear program.
• Expatica reported that German Chancellor Angela Merkel has underlined there can be "no military option" for dealing with Iran's nuclear program.
• Die Welt reported that Britain, France and Germany each received a secret letter in response to the demand that Iran cease producing nuclear fuel. 'Some of the other EU states are growing impatient with the secretive handling of the Iran issue by foreign policy chief Javier Solana and the EU's "big three."
• The Times Online argued that an Iranian nuclear capacity would, finally, make a mockery of the United Nations. It would be seen as confirmation that the phrase “Security Council ultimatum” is close to a contradiction in terms.
• The Times Online argued that Moscow is kidding itself if it thinks it has much leverage with Tehran.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• The New York Sun reported that Israeli Benjamin Netanyahu told an audience in New York that President Bush is preparing to ditch the United Nations to take on Iran alone.
• China Daily reported that according to a confidential document, key European nations warned that Iran is trying to weaken international opposition to its contentious nuclear program by stalling on giving a clear response to terms set by six world powers for negotiations.
• Iran Focus reported that Tehran’s chief nuclear negotiator will travel to Paris as part of his previously-unannounced tour of European countries.
• RIA Novosti reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia expects Iran to more fully explain its answer to the group of six proposals on its nuclear program.
• Deutsche Welle reported that the six world powers meeting in Berlin discussed "the next steps in the Security Council," a senior European diplomat said in a clear allusion to possible sanctions against Iran, but there was little sign the powers agreed on what to do.
• YNet News reported that a high-ranking Russian source on Friday said Moscow would stop building Iran's first atomic power reactor if the Islamic Republic expelled UN nuclear inspectors.
• YNet News reported that Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema demanded Friday that Iran respond to the international community’s plea to halt uranium enrichment by Saturday.
  

Former president of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Khatami in the US.

• Iran Press News published two must-read letters about Khatami's visit about Khatami's visit to the U.S.
• SOSIran also published a letter on Khatami's visit to the US called: Khatami - Master of deception.
• Kathryn Jean Lopez, The Corner reported that Governor Mitt Romney today ordered all Massachusetts state government agencies to decline support, if asked, for former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami’s September 10 visit to the Boston area saying: “State taxpayers should not be providing special treatment to an individual who supports violent jihad and the destruction of Israel.”
• A Press briefing will take place in Washington D.C. September 7th on the visit of former President Khatami. Led by torture victims of the Islamic Regime, former political prisoners and opposition figures to the Islamic regime.
• Sardar Haddad reported that Thursday, September 7, 2006 - 6:00pm a protest of Khatami's speech will take place outside of the Washington National Cathedral. Join them if you can.
  
• Joseph Puder, FrontPageMagazine.com reported on Khatami's academic enablers.
• 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.
• Kenneth R. Timmerman, NewsMax.com reported on the press conference of former Iranian political prisoners and their relatives gave grisly testimony of torture under the regime of former president Mohammad Khatami, who is currently visiting the United States.
• Senator Sam Brownback, who attended the press conference, introduced the Iran Human Rights Act, which would establish a State Department special envoy for human rights and democracy in Iran, support Iranian pro-democracy and human rights groups, and reform U.S.-funded broadcasts to the Iranian people.
• U.S. Senator Rick Santorum said regarding former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami’s request for a visa to visit the United States. “I am outraged... Mohammed Khatami is one of the chief propagandists of the Islamic Fascist regime. "
• Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that when Iran's president addresses the U.N. General Assembly later this month, he will not be treated to a one-on-one debate with President Bush, as he has requested, but will be met by a crowd of thousands of protesters.
• PRNewswire reported that seven Jewish-Iranian families have filed suit in an American federal court against former President Mohammad Khatami over charges that he is responsible for the kidnapping and torture of their missing family members. The summons was served on Khatami at a reception hosted by the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
• Paul Gigot, The Wall Street Journal interviewed President Bush on Iran who said he personally signed off on the U.S. visit this week by former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami and said "I was interested to hear what he had to say."
  
• The Weekly Standard reported why the National Cathedral was the perfect setting to welcome Khatami. They also reported Iranian exiles lined the Cathedral sidewalks accusing Khatami of everything from journalistic repression to coddling terrorists to murder.
• Iran Freedom Concert published a call to join them in a protest of Khatami's speech at Harvard.
  

Iran behind Hezbollah's war on Israel - The cease fire.

• Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun Blog reported that Hezbollah published a photo on its website claiming to be the sinking of an Israeli warship. But the photo is exposed to be the decommissioned Australian destroyer-escort HMAS Torrens off the coast of Western Australia in 1998.
  

Ahmadinejad's promised message to the world coming soon... August 22nd?

• Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com published a symposium: Ahmadinejad's Armageddon.
  

Iranian dissident's.

• Iran Press News, World Politics Watch reported that 33 days after the death of activist Akbar Mohammadi, another political prisoner dies in Iranian prison, Valiollah Fayz-Mahdavi.
• Amnesty International expressed its deep concern at the death of political prisoner Valiollah Feyz Mahdavi in Gohar Dasht Prison near Tehran. The death in custody is the second to occur in Iranian prisons in recent weeks.
  

Interesting reports inside of Iran.

• Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat reported that Ali-Akbar Meshkini, the second most powerful Ayatollah in Iran, Meshkini said "Among all the governments in the world, the only legitimate government endorsed by the Almighty is the Islamic Republic of Iran." There cannot be give-and-take between "an extension of God" and an "illegitimate and oppressive regimes." A must read.
• Ardeshir Dolat reported that Seyed Yahya Safavi, the head of the Revolutionary Guards Corps said “The Islamic world will soon become a major world superpower.”
• Iran Focus reported that Iran demanded that United States-led forces leave Iraq.
• Iran Focus reported that Iran suggested that the United Nations headquarters be relocated from New York to a country other than the United States.
• Islamic Republic News Agency reported that Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Farouq Taha conferred here Monday with Iran's Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and said that continued consultations between Iran and Syria has foiled sections of plots hatched by the Americans and the Zionists.
• Bloomberg reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said his government plans to purge liberal and secular faculty members from Iran's universities.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that the Iranian parliament took the first step toward requiring the government to block international inspection of Iran's nuclear facilities if the United Nations Security Council imposes sanctions.
• Yahoo News reported that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and Iran's top nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani will probably meet Wednesday in Vienna.
• 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.
• 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).
• The New York Sun reported that President Ahmadinejad of Iran declared that he intended to attend the General Assembly of the world body on September 19 and to debate his country's nuclear program with President Bush.
  

Human Rights and Freedom of the Press in Iran.

• 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.
• Dallas Morning News reported that Iranian activist Manouchehr Ganji argued that at least 70 percent of Iranians would help the democracy movement succeed if they could be convinced that it has the support of the West for the long haul.
• National Review Online reported on the growing calls to save the lives of Iranian women Nazanin Fatehi, Malak Ghorbany, and many others just like them.
  

The Iranian Military.

• Iran Focus reported that Iran’s air force has begun a series of military maneuvers in the north-western province of East Azerbaijan. During the drills, Iran’s air defense systems also successfully targeted and destroyed “enemy planes” in radar-blackout areas in Iranian airspace.
• International Herald Tribune reported that Iran said it had tested a new air defense system to counter missiles and aircraft during large-scale military exercises.
• International Herald Tribune reported that Iran said that it successfully tested laser-guided bombs during recent large-scale military exercises.
• 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."
• Defense Industry Daily reported on the recent news of Iran's new indigenous Saegheh aircraft which they claim is "similar to the F-18 fighter jet. They shed a more sober and reasoned light on this new development.
  

The Iranian Economy.

• USA Today reported that as Iran hurtles toward a confrontation with the United States over its nuclear program, the nation's economy remains a dysfunctional wreck.
  

Iran and the International community.

• Reuters reported that Iraqi border guards accused Iran on Friday of shelling their territory and taking six soldiers prisoner after a clash on the border northeast of Baghdad.
  

The US Congress on Iran.

• YNet News reported that Benjamin Netanyahu met with 15 American senators, and said he was surprised by the level of their distress and worry over the developments in Iran.
• 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.

Must Read reports.

• Power Line commented on NRO's Corner yesterday, Michael Ledeen drew attention to an article by Steven Knipp on Knipp's two-week visit to Iran. " The bottom line is that the Iranian people love America, and they do not, not, not, like Ahmadinejad."
• President Bush, The White House in a major speech at the Capital Hilton Hotel outlined the National Strategy For Combating Terrorism and said "America will not bow down to tyrants."
• Newsweek International reported on Ahmadinejad: How Popular Is He Really?
• 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."
• 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.
• 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.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that the Bush administration is seeking to isolate a network of European and Middle Eastern banks and companies controlled by the Iranian government that U.S. official's suspect Iran is using to acquire sophisticated weapons technology.
• Marc Sumerlin, The Weekly Standard reported how the new Treasury Secretary can help in a showdown with Iran.
  

The Experts.

• Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat reported that Ali-Akbar Meshkini, the second most powerful Ayatollah in Iran, Meshkini said "Among all the governments in the world, the only legitimate government endorsed by the Almighty is the Islamic Republic of Iran." There cannot be give-and-take between "an extension of God" and an "illegitimate and oppressive regimes." A must read.
• Amir Taheri, Arab News explains why there cannot be a Bush 'Moment' in Iran, similar to Nixon's in China.
• Amir Taheri, Gulf News argued that as the midterm Congressional election campaign gets under way in the United States, Iraq may prove the key factor in deciding who will control the next legislature in Washington. A must read.
• Kenneth R. Timmerman, NewsMax.com reported on the press conference of former Iranian political prisoners and their relatives gave grisly testimony of torture under the regime of former president Mohammad Khatami, who is currently visiting the United States.
• Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat examined the popular assertion that "the British Muslim community" is "seething with anger" against Blair, because of his foreign policy.
• Amir Taheri, The Jerusalem Post reported the state-owned media in Teheran are conducting a psychological campaign to prepare the public for a long crisis if not actual war. He claimed that Iranians are increasingly asking whether the confrontational course adopted by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is the only, not to say the best, strategy. He also examined why Ahmadinejad has chosen this course of action.
• Newt Gingrich, The Guardian outlined his position why a military strike on Iran should be our final option and argued that until the Iranian regime itself is replaced with one that does not sponsor terrorism and does not seek a nuclear program, then the threat will remain and grow.
  

Photos, cartoons and videos.

• Cox & Forkum published a cartoon: Purging 101.
• Cox & Forkum published another cartoon: Charm Offensive.
• SOSIran featured a video interview of Dr. Iman Foroutan on CNN's Headline News with Glenn Beck.
• The People's Cube published a bit of satire: Khatami In Harvard - Mullahs and Liberals Not That Different!
• IranCartoon.com.ir published Ahmadinejad's anti-Holocaust Cartoon Gallery.
• Cox & Forkum published a cartoon: Confronting Terrorism V.
  

The Quote of the Week.

Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat reported that Ali-Akbar Meshkini, the second most powerful Ayatollah in Iran, Meshkini said

"Among all the governments in the world, the only legitimate government endorsed by the Almighty is the Islamic Republic of Iran."