Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [4/23/06 - 4/29/06] major news events regarding Iran. (The reports are listed in chronological order, not by importance) READ MORE

Iran's Nuclear Program & The UN Security Council.

• Reuters reported that Soltanieh, Iran's envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency, said that Iran and Russia have not reached uranium enrichment agreement.
• Elaine Shannon, Time reported that ahead of this week's U.N. Security Council deadline for Iran, U.S. officials have been mapping a plan to hit the defiant regime. But the attacks will be financial, not military.
• Los Angeles Times reported that Iran's key ally in the current nuclear crisis is not Russia or China. It's oil.
• Telegraph reported that Robert Joseph arms control chief warned that Iran is "very close to the point of no return" in acquiring the technological expertise to make a nuclear weapon and "that the Iranians have put both feet on the accelerator."
• IranMania reported that leaders of oil-rich Persian Gulf Arab states will hold their annual mid-year "consultative" summit on May 6 with the Iranian nuclear crisis on the agenda.
• Bloomberg reported that Ahmadinejad rejected a United Nations deadline to suspend Iran's nuclear program, threatened to quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty if the UN doesn't recognize Iran's right to nuclear technology.
• The Washington Post reported that the chairman of the House Intelligence Committee acknowledged "we really don't know" how close Tehran is to developing a nuclear weapon.
• U.S. News reported that the West is seriously considering a "Plan B" for Iran: Sanctions that Bite.
• The New York Times reported that Iran has told the IAEA that it will refuse to answer questions about a second, secret uranium-enrichment program.
  
• Reuters reported that Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, Ali Larjani, said Iran would suspend its relations with the IAEA if sanctions were imposed.
• BBC News reported that Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said Iran is ready to share its nuclear technology with other nations.
• The Guardian reported that Ali Larijani, the top Iranian nuclear negotiator threatened to hide its nuclear program if the West takes ``harsh measures.''
• Rooz Online reported that Dr. Ali Zabihi, Mahmoud a presidential advisor to Ahmadinejad claims that the international community would not impose sanctions on Iran.
• Casper Star Tribune reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the credibility of the U.N. Security Council will be in doubt if it does not take clear-cut action against Iran over Tehran's nuclear program.
• SFGate.com reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States is concerned over Iranian threats to share the nuclear technology it is developing with other countries.
• UPI reported that British Prime Minister Tony Blair again refused to rule out the possibility that he would support military action against Iran.
• TVNZ reported that China rejected a US proposal to order Iran to suspend uranium enrichment work under a legally binding measure under the Chapter 7 provision of the UN Charter.
• Reuters reported that eleventh hour talks between ElBaradei and Iran's nuclear energy chief ended without public comments.
• Rooz Online reported that Iran has another surprise likely tomorrow, as the UNSC meets: the discovery of vast resources of uranium some where in the south of Iran.
• View London reported that the prime minister's spokesman said that Downing Street is taking the threat posed by Iran "very seriously."
• Reuters reported that Jack Straw said that China's backing on Iran is crucial.
• Rooz Online discussed: Is the current slogan and rhetoric advanced by the government media, “nuclear energy is our absolute right" a true reflection of the needs of the people?
• Rooz Online published an interview with French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy.
• Deutsche Welle reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad remained defiant saying his country "will not bow to injustice and pressure," the day before a UN deadline to stop sensitive nuclear work expires. "Thanks to God, we are a nuclear state."
• The Financial Times reported that Russia and China on Thursday warned against escalating the dispute over Iran’s nuclear program.
• Silive.com reported that Germany's foreign minister suggested that the United States and Iran could hold direct discussions on the Islamic republic's nuclear standoff with the West if Tehran agrees to talk to Washington about the chaos in Iraq.
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that France wants any U.N. resolution on Iran's nuclear program to come under Chapter 7 of the U.N. charter, allowing for sanctions or possibly military force.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that the U.S. had already asked for a Security Council meeting for next Wednesday to discuss the IAEA report due out Friday and how to respond to it.
• Haaretz reported that Iran has purchased surface-to-surface missiles from North Korea with a range of 2,500 kilometers. The new weapons pose a threat for countries in Europe and are able to carry a nuclear warhead.
• Yahoo News reported that Iran's president said: "Those who want to prevent Iranians from obtaining their right should know that we do not give a damn to such resolutions."
• Islamic Republic News Agency reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that Iran has potentials to become an international superpower speedily.
• Vital Perspective published the long awaited IAEA report on Iran and an analysis. Full text of IAEA report.
• My Way News reported that the IAEA said ran has defied a U.N. Security Council call for a freeze on enriching uranium and its lack of cooperation with nuclear inspectors was a "matter of concern."
• The Washington Post reported that President George W. Bush said about the Iran crisis after a meeting with Azeri President Ilham Aliyev, Bush said his desire is "to solve this problem diplomatically and peacefully."
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said in a statement. "We continue, nevertheless, to say to Iran that the door to negotiation is not closed."
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said: "We maintain that the only solution is a diplomatic one."
• Dow Jones Newswires reported that China's UN Ambassador Wang Guangya "All we want is to work for a diplomatic solution because this region is already complicated, there are a lot of problems in the region, and we should not do anything that would cause the situation (to be) more complicated."
• Reuters reported that Senator John McCain warned Russia and China on Friday of damage to their relationship with the United States if they refused to go along with sanctions against Iran. "There will be a reaction in the U.S. Congress."
• Peter Brookes, RealClearPolitics.com reported on the implications of Tehran offering to share its nuclear know-how with others.
• The Wall Street Journal reported that a funny thing happened on the way to the Iranian bomb: The more alarming the mullahs' behavior, the more nonchalant the rest of the world seems to be about it. But one development may give even the most adamant pooh-poohers pause.
• Chron.com reported on the next steps in attempts to pressure Iran.
• Eitb24 reported that an Iranian nuclear official said Tehran was ready for a conditional return to intrusive inspections but that uranium enrichment will continue, "if the issue is returned to the International Atomic Energy Agency."
• The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. and European officials said they now would press the U.N. Security Council to swiftly pass a Chapter VII resolution.
• The Washington Post reported that the US and the European Union struck different tones on how to respond to Iran's nuclear defiance.
• Kenneth R. Timmerman, NewsMax.com published highlights from the latest IAEA report.
  

Iranian regime threats.

• CBS News reported that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said "The Americans should know that if they invade Iran, their interests around the world would be harmed. Iran will respond double-fold to any attack."
• Mehran Riazaty reported that two years ago, the Ansar of Hezbollah said the same thing as what Ayatollah Khamenei said today. “If enemies attack interests of Iran, no matter how small this attack would be, we will endanger all of their interests all over the world.”
• Asharq Alawsat published what they claim is Iran's secret plan if attacked by US codenamed "Judgment Day."
  

Ahmadinejad tries to score points with Iranian women.

• Reuters reported that Ahmadinejad said women should be allowed into sports stadiums for the first time, reversing the Islamic Republic's code preventing them watching men playing sports.
• The Financial Times reported some of Iran’s most senior clerics issued rulings this week condemning a decision by President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad allowing women to sit in the stands at top matches.
  

Iran's Dissidents.

• Rooz Online reported on the increase of executions by the "Compassionate Government" of Ahmadinejad.
• Iran Press News republished a statement by political prisoners in Iran who condemned, Iranian Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shirin Ebadi, saying that her interviews, speeches, articles and reports have taken on a very conservative tone.
  

The Unrest inside of Iran.

• SMCCDI reported the assassination of a top Pasdaran Corp. (Islamic Revolutionary Guards) commander in the religious city of Ghom.
• Iran Focus reported that a young man was hanged in prison charged with killing a local Iranian police commander.
• SMCCDI reported that the Islamist prosecutor of the City of Shadgan was seriously wounded during an armed attack by an unknown masked commando.
  

Rumors of War.

• FOX News reported that their latest poll indicates that the U.S. should have Iran war plans ready.
• Asia Times claimed a former Iranian ambassador and Islamic Republic insider provided intriguing details about alleged US covert operations inside Iran aimed at destabilizing the country and toppling the regime.
• REGNUM News Agency reported that Iranian Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani said in an interview said US “Reconnaissance units are acting in Azerbaijan, their activity is aimed against the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
• MosNews reported that the Secretary of Iranian Supreme National Security Council Ali Larijani accused the United States of using the territory of Iran’s neighbor, Azerbaijan, against the Islamic republic.
  

Support for Internal Regime Change in Iran.

• Vital Perspective reported that the Iran Freedom Support Act overwhelmingly passed in the House by a margin of 397-21. When will the Senate act on its version on the bill?
  

Iran's economy in serious trouble.

• The Washington Post reported that Iran is scrapping a $1.2 bln deal with foreign firms. Conservative parliamentarians had argued that Iranian firms could carry out the project more cheaply. Analysts believe this could trigger a flight of engineering companies from Iran.
• Iran Press News reported that workers representative of the Pokdasht townships said: “The problems of 228 workers from Sazmayeh mining company have not been resolved and they are owed 15 months of wages and benefits."
• The Wall Street Journal reported that Iran's new Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said that the country may ease the restrictive rules under which foreign oil companies can invest in the nation.
• TMCNet reported that Oil Minister Kazem Vaziri Hamaneh said that the Oil Stock Exchange will be launched in Iran in the next week.
  

Iran's Troublemaking in Iraq.

• Iran Press News reported that Tehran’s regime has been found to be behind plans to create chaos in Jordan in order to block the conference being organized by King Abdullah II of Jordan; the national reconciliation conference will bring Iraqi Sunni and Shiite leaders together in order to primarily discuss Tehran’s incessant meddling in Iraqi affairs.
• IndyStar.com reported that the most important fact about Iraq's new prime minister, Jawad al-Maliki's election is that it's a modest declaration of independence from Iran.
  

Iran vs. Israel.

• Advfn.com reported that Ahmadinejad said that Israel "cannot survive", adding that migrants to the Jewish state should go back to where they came from.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that Interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned that Teheran's ambitions threaten not only Israel but all of Western civilization.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israeli Defense Forces, fearing an Iranian missile attack, has raised the level of vigilance of its Arrow 2 anti-ballistic missile defense system.
• Ha'aretz reported that a top secret comprehensive report produced by a military-civilian committee warned that other Muslim countries in the Middle East could follow Iran in equipping themselves with nuclear weapons.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that something very important is happening that is changing the Middle East dramatically: the decline of the Arab world, the development of a major conflict between Sunni and Shi'ite Arabs, and the rising power of Iran.
• Telegraph reported that Israel's defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, said: "Of all the threats we face, Iran is the biggest. The world must not wait. ... Since Hitler we have not faced such a threat."
• Reuters reported that Israel successfully launched on Tuesday a highly accurate imaging satellite which will enhance its ability to spy on Iran.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Iran has given close to 10 million dollars to Palestinian terror groups in Israel since the beginning of the year.
• Mercury News reported that Iran's U.N. ambassador denounced Israel's election as a vice-chair of the U.N. Disarmament Commission. The same commission that Iran was elevated to last week despite its ignoring the UNSC call to halt its nuclear enrichment and offering to share its nuclear technology with other nations.
• Ireland Online reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed confidence that the West will prevent Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction and compared Iran’s president with Adolf Hitler.
  

US/Iran talks on hold? Or have they been held already?

• Iran Focus reported that Ahmadinejad ruled out direct talks between the Islamic Republic and the United States over Iraq. He said: “Right now, we think that with the presence of a permanent government in Iraq there is no longer any need.”
• The Financial Times reported that Philip Zelikow, counsellor at the US State Department said: "The US position has been that at this time we don't see value in having direct talks with the Iranians about, say, the nuclear issue." He added: "The fallacy in a lot of the arguments about security assurances . . . is the assumption that the agenda of the current government in Iran is fundamentally entirely defensive."
• Yahoo News reported that U.S. and Iranian officials held talks on Iraq in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region "a while ago." But U.S., Iranian and Iraqi officials could not confirm the report.
  

Insight into the Iranian people.

• Amil Imani, Amilimani.com, an Iranian blogger argued it is ironic that while President Bush is sinking in the polls in his home country, his popularity is climbing in Iran. But he asks: Is the United States serious about Iran?
• Rooz Online discussed: Is the current slogan and rhetoric advanced by the government media, “nuclear energy is our absolute right" a true reflection of the needs of the people?
• CNN News reported on the immense pride that many Iranians feel having joined the global nuclear club.
• The New York Times published a report of a former "hostage taker" and "reformist" who says his country is intoxicated by oil wealth and headed toward "social collapse." "The situation is now more like the situation in the Soviet Union before the fall of Communism."
  

Iran and the International community.

• Iran Press News reported that Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela in a speech in Caracas last week, said: “I am sure that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not producing nuclear weapons" and added that Iranian Presidents Khatami and Ahmadinejad are his "brothers."
• Rooz Online reported that France has refused to agree on the new appointment of Ali Ahani as Iran's new ambassador to their country.
• Paulo Casaca, Member of the European Parliament and fellow members refused a demand by the Islamic Republic of Iran to change the name of the "Delegation for Relations with Iran" by "Delegation for Relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran" saying the vast majority of the members of the European Parliament that do not agree with the appeasement policies of the European leaderships to the islamo-fascist dictatorship.
• Money Control reported that Pakistan would honor sanctions on Iran if adopted by the U.N. Security Council.
• Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian Foreign Affairs department says a Iranian-Canadian professor has been arrested in Iran.
  

US Congress.

• The Wall Street Journal reported that the Bush administration is intensifying efforts to cut off funding to Hezbollah, the Shiite organization the U.S. believes is Iran's principal vehicle for conducting terrorist attacks globally.
• Vital Perspective reported that the Iran Freedom Support Act overwhelmingly passed in the House by a margin of 397-21. When will the Senate act on its version on the bill?
• The Washington Post reported that the US House overwhelmingly approved legislation to tighten sanctions against Iran, rejecting administration arguments that tougher sanctions could be an obstacle to international efforts to prevent the Tehran government from developing nuclear weapons.
  

How did Iranian nuclear negotiator get to Washington and who is he meeting with?

• The Washington Times reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice expressed concern yesterday about the case of a high-ranking Iranian official who arrived last month in the United States on a green card.
  

Must Read reports.

• The Guardian published anti-Iraq war columnist who argued that Iran does pose a threat in every way Iraq did not.
• The Herald reported that three former Iranian national footballers warned Iran may try to exploit the World Cup.
• Anne Bayefsky, The National Review reported that the UN honored with a 2006 "Champion of the Earth" award, the former spokesperson for the US Embassy hostage takers in Tehran.
• Walid Phares, LebanonNewsWire warned that Syria and Iran still control Lebanon.
• Richard Miniter, The New York Sun reported that Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, America's chief nemesis in Iraq, boldly emerged from the shadows in an unprecedented videotape released yesterday.
• Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi is reporting that the controversial Iranian Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi is going to be on Oprah Winfrey. Iranian opposition groups are organizing efforts to stop the broadcast.
• The Guardian reported that the Simon Wiesenthal centre called on Germany to ban the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, from attending the World Cup.
• Middle East Newsline reported that the Center for Strategic and International Studies said the Iranian military has failed to procure the platforms or weapons required to block the Straits of Hormuz.
• The Guardian reported that the US State Department branded Iran public enemy number one, calling it one of the world's most active sponsors of terrorism.
• The Independent reported that some in Iran fear that Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi (Ahmadinehjad's radical mentor) aspires to become Supreme Leader himself.
  

The Experts.

• Amir Taheri, Arab News reported on the Middle East's undeclared war and the question of whose regime will change first, the US's or Iran's.
• Natan Sharansky, The Wall Street Journal argues that President Bush is a rare breed of politician, "a dissident president." But has some suggestions on how to succeed in the Middle East.
• Amir Taheri, The New York Post reported on Iraq's new prime minister, Jawad al-Maliki, and believes the West has reason to be encouraged.
• Kathryn Jean Lopez, The National Review published a valuable interview with Iran expert Michael Rubin on how the US should deal with Iran.
• Amir Taheri, Asharq Alawsat compared a self-styled “holy warrior” who made a bit of a splash in the 19th century by launching a “Jihad” and Osama Bin Laden.
• US Department of State released its "Country Reports on Terrorism 2005."
• Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Wall Street Journal reviewed the book "Guests of the Ayatollah," Mark Bowden.
• William Kristol, The Weekly Standard responded to all the talk in DC that "Iran is not Iraq."
  

Photos, cartoons and videos.

• Memri published a video and translation in which Ahmadinejad elaborates on his plan for the Jews.
• No Blood for Sauerkraut published a parody of the DontAttackIran.org website.
• A cartoon: Ahmadinejad has a solution for Iran.
• A cartoon: Ahmadinejad's Peaceful Nuclear Program.
  

The Quote of the Week.

Yahoo News reported that Iran's president said:

"Those who want to prevent Iranians from obtaining their right should know that we do not give a damn to such resolutions."

Tags: iran, news, iraq, nuclear, military,

Sunday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 4.30.2006:

Iran makes an offer, if the IAEA handles its case.

• Eitb24 reported that an Iranian nuclear official said Tehran was ready for a conditional return to intrusive inspections but that uranium enrichment will continue, "if the issue is returned to the International Atomic Energy Agency."

But the West still seeks a Chapter 7 Resolution.

• The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. and European officials said they now would press the U.N. Security Council to swiftly pass a Chapter VII resolution.
• The Washington Post reported that the US and the European Union struck different tones on how to respond to Iran's nuclear defiance.

Highlights of the IAEA Report.

• Kenneth R. Timmerman, NewsMax.com published highlights from the latest IAEA report.
  

US: Iran is public enemy #1.

• The Guardian reported that the US State Department branded Iran public enemy number one, calling it one of the world's most active sponsors of terrorism.

Former hostage taker says Iran is headed towards "collapse."

• The New York Times published a report of a former "hostage taker" and "reformist" who says his country is intoxicated by oil wealth and headed toward "social collapse." "The situation is now more like the situation in the Soviet Union before the fall of Communism."

Iran's secret response to an attack. Codenamed "Judgment Day."

• Asharq Alawsat published what they claim is Iran's secret plan if attacked by US codenamed "Judgment Day."

Israeli PM: The West will prevent Iran.

• Ireland Online reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed confidence that the West will prevent Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction and compared Iran’s president with Adolf Hitler.

US/Iran Iraq talks happened "a while ago?"

• Yahoo News reported that U.S. and Iranian officials held talks on Iraq in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region "a while ago." But U.S., Iranian and Iraqi officials could not confirm the report.

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

• US Department of State released its "Country Reports on Terrorism 2005."
• Paulo Casaca, Member of the European Parliament and fellow members refused a demand by the Islamic Republic of Iran to change the name of the "Delegation for Relations with Iran" by "Delegation for Relations with the Islamic Republic of Iran" saying the vast majority of the members of the European Parliament that do not agree with the appeasement policies of the European leaderships to the islamo-fascist dictatorship.
• The Independent reported that some in Iran fear that Ayatollah Mesbah-Yazdi (Ahmadinehjad's radical mentor) aspires to become Supreme Leader himself.
• Money Control reported that Pakistan would honor sanctions on Iran if adopted by the U.N. Security Council.
• Globe and Mail reported that the Canadian Foreign Affairs department says a Iranian-Canadian professor has been arrested in Iran.
• Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Wall Street Journal reviewed the book "Guests of the Ayatollah," Mark Bowden.
• William Kristol, The Weekly Standard responded to all the talk in DC that "Iran is not Iraq."

Tags: iran, news, iraq, nuclear, military

"Iran Is Not Iraq"

William Kristol, The Weekly Standard:

"We are committed to a diplomatic course [to stop Iran's nuclear program] that should, with enough unity and with enough strength and with enough common purpose, make it possible to convince the Iranian government [to change its course]. . . .

"Let me go right to the crux of the question. The United States of America understands and believes that Iran is not Iraq. The Iraq circumstances had a special character going back for 12 years of suspended hostilities after a war of aggression which Saddam Hussein himself launched. . . .

"It goes without saying that the United States believes and others believe that, in order to be credible, the U.N. Security Council, of course, has to act. . . . The Security Council is the primary and most important institution for the maintenance of peace and stability and security, and it cannot have its word and its will simply ignored by a member state."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Europe last week,
from Glenn Kessler's April 28 account in the Washington Post, "U.S. Tries to Calm Fears in Europe on Using Bases"

SAY IT AIN'T SO, CONDI!

In fact, Condi and her colleagues will try to say--privately and off the record--that it ain't so. READ MORE

They'll explain to Bush supporters here in Washington that the administration hasn't really gone soft on Iran. The State Department is just doing its job, reassuring the Europeans so as to keep them on board. Sure, hawks will worry that proclaiming "Iran is not Iraq" signals that the Bush administration is now terrified even to threaten the use of force against terror-sponsoring dictatorships seeking weapons of mass destruction. But all options, at least theoretically, are still on the table. And Ahmadinejad is doing such a good job scaring the Europeans. This is no time for Washington to be scary!

No, it's time to be reassuring. That doesn't mean we don't do some finger-wagging when Ahmadinejad taunts and challenges us, saying one day he's going to destroy Israel, the next that he's going to transfer nuclear technology to Sudan, and meanwhile buying more long-range missiles from North Korea. But it would be simple-minded to rise to his bait, and to think that we really have to do something tough in response to him.

After all, he's just hurting himself! At some point the Iranian government will figure out that aggressiveness and bellicosity don't really produce victories. They'll come to understand that the momentum Tehran seems to have built up in the last several months is misleading. If it looks as though Iran is suddenly being treated with more fear and more respect throughout the Middle East, and beyond--that's just temporary. Deep down, the Iranians know, as the State Department knows, that what really matters is that they're running a risk of getting pretty darn isolated from the international community. And meanwhile, we're arm in arm with the Europeans again.

As for the statement, "The Security Council is the primary and most important institution for the maintenance of peace and stability and security"--of course that's not true. But what's the harm in saying it? It creates goodwill as the United States goes through the Security Council process. Sure, that process won't lead anywhere. But then the Europeans will finally see that they've got to join us in serious sanctions. They will be very targeted sanctions, which won't affect ordinary Iranians, because that would be counterproductive. But a signal of resolve will have been sent to Tehran, nonetheless. They will know that if they don't change, we and the Europeans will remain united behind these targeted sanctions. And you can't argue with this: Our relations with the Europeans are much better than they were during that nightmarish first term.

* * *

Yes, that's the view from Foggy Bottom. And it's true the Europeans don't fear the Bush administration any more.

Nor, unfortunately, do others. One might also note that, despite all the goodwill built up by our outreach to the capitals of Europe, President Bush seems much weaker today than he was in the bad old days of unilateralism and bellicosity, and so does the United States. But the State Department is popular, and at least we don't look like Neanderthals in the drawing rooms of Europe and Georgetown.

Condi and her colleagues may come home and say, privately, it ain't so. But it is so. Much of the U.S. government no longer believes in, and is no longer acting to enforce, the Bush Doctrine. "The United States of America understands and believes that Iran is not Iraq." That's a diplomatic way of saying that the United States of America is in retreat.

West will stop Iran getting WMDs, says Israeli premier

Ireland Online:

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert expressed confidence that the West will prevent Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction and compared Iran’s president with Adolf Hitler for calling for Israel’s destruction. READ MORE

The remarks were published in Germany’s Bild newspaper today – a day after the UN nuclear watchdog said Iran had failed to observe a deadline for halting uranium enrichment activity.

“The West – above all under the leadership of the United States – will ensure that Iran under no circumstances comes to possess unconventional weapons,” Olmert was quoted as saying in an interview.

“The president of the US is a very brave man who understands that very well,” Olmert said.

Olmert wouldn’t say whether he thought a military conflict with Iran could become inevitable.

However, he said Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s repeated calls for the destruction of Israel underlined the need to limit Iran’s military strength.

“Ahmadinejad talks today like Hitler before he seized power” in Germany in the 1930s, Olmert said.

“We are dealing with a psychopath of the worst kind. … God forbid that this man ever gets his hands on nuclear weapons,” Olmert was quoted as saying.

Iran will accept inspections if its program returns to IAEA

Eitb24:

An Iranian nuclear official said Saturday that Tehran was ready for a conditional return to intrusive inspections but that uranium enrichment will continue.

In an apparent bid to keep it's nuclear program from coming to a sanctions vote in the U.N. Security Council, an Iranian nuclear official said Saturday that Tehran was ready for a conditional return to intrusive inspections but that uranium enrichment will continue.

"If the issue is returned to the International Atomic Energy Agency, we will be ready to allow intrusive inspections," Mohammed Saeedi, Iran's deputy nuclear chief, told state-run television Saturday. READ MORE

Mohamed ElBaradei, the IAEA chief, confirmed in a report Friday that Iran has successfully produced enriched uranium and has defied a U.N. Security Council deadline to halt all activities related to uranium enrichment. The IAEA report brought swift reactions Friday from nations concerned with Iran's nuclear development.

U.S. President George W. Bush said the world was concerned about Iran's "desire to have not only a nuclear weapon but the capacity to make a nuclear weapon." Bush added he was not discouraged by Iran's vow to defy world pressure, saying: "I think the diplomatic options are just beginning."

U.S. Ambassador John Bolton took a tough line, saying "the IAEA report shows that Iran has accelerated its efforts to acquire nuclear weapons although, of course, the report doesn't make any conclusions in that regard."

"We're ready to proceed; we're ready to move expeditiously," Bolton said. "And what comes after that is largely in Iran's hands. They have to comply or the Security Council is free to take other steps."

ElBaradei's report may spark a divisive debate in the Security Council when foreign ministers of its five permanent members plus Germany meet at U.N. headquarters in New York on May 9 to discuss the next step.

France and Britain have joined the U.S. in supporting strong action against Iran, while Russia and China want the IAEA to take the lead in finding a diplomatic solution.

Russia's deputy U.N. ambassador Konstantin Dolgov told the Itar-Tass news agency, "Sanctions are not the way of resolving the Iranian problem, at least at the current stage, bearing in mind the information available."

Iran warned Saturday that it "does not respond well to pressure." Iranian ambassador to the United Nations Javid Zarif said his country was seeking to resolve the crisis over its nuclear program.

"There are a multitude of possibilities for reaching a solution, if we start from the basic assumption that Iran has the right to nuclear power and Iran should not develop nuclear weapons," Zarif told the British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Uranium enrichment

Iran barred intrusive inspections of its nuclear facilities in February after it was referred to the U.N. Security Council over its nuclear activities that several Western countries suspect are aimed at producing nuclear warheads. Tehran denies the accusations, saying its program is only for peaceful purposes. Saeedi said Saturday Iran was also ready to address the concerns of the U.S. and its allies over Iran's nuclear program in negotiations.

"What is up for negotiation is to remove concerns of probably few countries in negotiations," Saeedi told Iranian television. Iran was installing two more 164-centrifuge cascades at its uranium enrichment plant in Natanz, central Iran, Saeedi said.

"Uranium enrichment in Natanz is continuing its work well, two other cascades of 164- machine centrifuges are being installed," he said.

Iran successfully enriched uranium for the first time earlier this month using 164 centrifuges, a significant step toward large-scale production of a material that can be used to fuel nuclear reactors or to build atomic bombs.

The Iranian nuclear negotiator said his country had told the IAEA in a letter Thursday that it was ready to answer outstanding questions if its dossier was returned to the agency for investigation. "The letter could be a turning point for those who want to resolve the issue through diplomatic means," he said Saturday.

Saeedi said ElBaradei's report "was not totally satisfactory" but it showed that IAEA, not Security Council, was competent to probe Iran's nuclear activities. "It was not totally satisfactory. It could have been drawn up better. It shows that the agency still has the necessary capacity to investigate Iran's nuclear issue" he said.

ElBaradei's report gives formal notice that Iran failed to abide by a March 29 Security Council demand that it halt all activities related to uranium enrichment. Accordingly, it opens the way for further council steps, including imposing sanctions or authorizing military action if Iran continues to defy the international community.

Top Iranian officials, including President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have repeatedly vowed that Iran will not to halt enrichment activities. Saeedi said Iran has already answered the IAEA's main questions, including those about the discovery of traces of weapons-grade enriched uranium. Only a "few questions" remained to be answered, he said.

Pakistan would honor sanctions on Iran

Carol Giacomo, Money Control:

Pakistan would honor sanctions on Iran if adopted by the U.N. Security Council but they could do more harm than good and it is too soon for this kind of action, Foreign Secretary Riaz Khan said on Friday. READ MORE

In a wide-ranging interview with Reuters, he said the Bush administration again turned down Islamabad's request for a nuclear energy deal like the one it agreed to with India but his country would continue cooperating in this area with China.
Khan spoke after talks with U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns. The talks were the first in a new strategic dialogue agreed when President George W. Bush visited Islamabad last March.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks, Pakistan has been a key U.S. ally in the war against terrorism, and Washington has hoped for Pakistan's support in persuading Iran to halt nuclear activities the West says are aimed at developing weapons but Tehran says are for energy production.

Pakistan and Iran have good relations and are discussing a pipeline project that would carry gas from Iran and Turkmenistan to India.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Friday that Iran has flouted a U.N. Security Council call to suspend uranium enrichment and is speeding up its program instead, spurring Western powers to urge tougher U.N. action including possible sanctions.
Khan said Pakistan believes Iran must abide by international nuclear obligations, but the world must "exhaust all (diplomatic) possibilities" before imposing sanctions that could provoke "undesirable consequences," such as Iran leaving the nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

There is broad international resistance, including by heavyweights China and Russia, to sanctions and to military action, which Bush has refused to rule out.

BINDING SANCTIONS

If the security council did impose sanctions, "they are binding on all members of the U.N., so we'll have to respect" them, Khan said, but "there is no military solution."
During his Islamabad trip, Bush opposed giving Pakistan the same kind of nuclear cooperation deal just reached with India that opens the door to transfers of U.S.-made nuclear fuel and reactors for the first time in three decades.

Khan said he raised the issue again with Burns, citing the energy needs of Pakistan's expanding economy and the fact that nuclear "is the energy source of the future."
But U.S. officials told Reuters they remain opposed largely because of proliferation concerns highlighted by the nuclear black market once headed by top Pakistani scientist A.Q. Khan.

Pakistan has had a long relationship with China and some experts say the two countries will expand their nuclear cooperation if Islamabad cannot obtain energy-generating technology from America.

"We have (nuclear) cooperation with China. We have cooperation with others ... All the developed countries, even the United States, depend quite heavily on nuclear power generation ... So this is one area where you cannot shut out som
e countries. It is not possible," Khan said.

The talks with Burns also touched on U.S. efforts to encourage India and Pakistan to resolve their conflict over the Himalayan region of Kashmir. Khan stressed the need to take advantage of imporving India-Pakistan ties to resolve the Kashmir issue.

'Professor Crocodile' eyes the leadership

Angus McDowall in Qom, The Independent:

Qom, the spiritual capital of the Islamic Republic of Iran, feels like the centre of some vast, international conglomerate, administered entirely by clerics in the corporate uniform of turban and long robe.

Outside each seminary school is a long line of mopeds. Qom has long set the ideological mood for Iran - even the reformist movement was conceived here by liberal mullahs working among the city's concrete minarets and onion domes. On city radio, a quiz show host interrogates listeners about the Shia imams.

These days the mood is a throwback to the early years of the revolution. Arch-conservatives are again on the rise, their torch carried aloft by the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who secured an election victory last summer wrapped in the flag and professing the pious homilies of the people's man. And at the heart of this revolutionary city, there is one conservative ayatollah who has benefited from Mr Ahmadinejad's victory more than almost anybody else. He may even be positioning himself as a contender for the ultimate prize - the supreme leadership of the country.

With the reptilian nickname "Professor Crocodile", Ayatollah Mohammed Taqi Mesbah-Yazdi is seen as the real ideological force behind the president. His long face and white beard - and the fact that his name rhymes with crocodile in Farsi - gave rise to his nickname, coined by a cartoonist who was later imprisoned. He has sometimes been referred to by Iranian reformists as "the theoretician of violence".

"[When] things go out of government control and Islam is jeopardised, there is no way but using violence," he said a few months after the 1999 student demonstrations when members of the Basij militia attacked a dormitory, killing at least one student and badly beating many others. Liberals fear his rise spells the end of the tentative steps towards reform taken over the past nine years.

"For Mesbah-Yazdi and the President, democracy and republicanism are not important," said a senior liberal cleric in Qom. "They think legitimacy only comes from God. That doesn't bode well for our future.

Mr Mesbah-Yazdi is a supporter of Tehran's tough line on the nuclear issue. Last year, he praised the nuclear negotiators for making "the adversaries of the Islamic republic retreat from their position".

He also believes in a draconian interpretation of Islamic law and supports suicide attacks against Israeli civilians. In a lecture published on his website, the cleric endorsed Palestinian suicide attacks, saying "when protecting Islam and the Muslim community depends on martyrdom operations, it is not only allowed, but even is an obligation".

Even civilians who have "announced their opposition to their government's vicious crimes" are legitimate targets if they stand between the martyr and the forces of occupation, he said.

The ayatollah's relationship with the President is fuzzy but there is no doubt they enjoy strong mutual respect. Mr Mesbah-Yazdi was the only cleric to openly support Mr Ahmadinejad's election campaign last year. And the rumour mill in Qom says that one of the cleric's key aides has been appointed spiritual adviser to the President.

Mr Mesbah-Yazdi heads the Imam Khomeini Research Institute, the most hardline of Qom's seminaries. The centre teaches traditional subjects such as law and philosophy as well as modern disciplines such as sociology and management.

Later this year, with the election of the Assembly of Experts, a body of senior clerics who have the power to appoint the Supreme Leader, the 71-year-old Mr Mesbah-Yazdi could become more influential than ever. Reformists in Qom say "Professor Crocodile" hopes to bring about the election of political allies who could force the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to become more conservative. Some fear Mr Mesbah-Yazdi aspires to become Supreme Leader himself. READ MORE

"In the Assembly of Experts, things may move in a direction where those who were not exactly enthusiastic about the revolution may take the initiative," said the former president Mohammed Khatami. "That is dangerous."

Iran's Secret Plan if Attacked by US Codenamed "Judgement Day"

Ali Nouri Zadeh, Asharq Alawsat:

Eight fundamentalist Islamist organizations have received large sums of money in the last month from the Iranian intelligence services, as part of a project to strike U.S military and economic installations across the Middle East Asharq Al-Awsat has learned.

The plan, which also includes the carrying out of suicide operations targeting US and British interests in the region, as well as their Arab and Muslim allies, in case Iran is attacked, was drawn up by a number of experts guerilla warfare and terrorist operations, and was revealed by a senior source in the Iranian armed forces' joint chief of staff headed by the veterinary doctor Hassan Firouzabadi.

The source added that the forces of the Revolutionary Guards’ al Quds Brigades, under Brigadier General Qassim Suleimani is responsible for coordinating and providing logistical support for the groups taking part in the execution of the plan, codenamed al Qiyamah the Islamic word for "Judgment Day".

The plan includes three steps, which Asharq al Awsat has examined in earlier reports. The source gave more details about how the plan will be implemented. He said, “Most of Iran’s visitors in the last four months, including the leaders of revolutionary groups in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the heads of Hezbollah cells in the Persian Gulf and Europe and North America were asked, when they met with the Iranian intelligence minister Gholamhossein Mohseni Ezhei and his aides: are you ready to defend the Islamic revolution and vilayat e faqih? If you agree to take part in the great jihad, what would you need to be ready for the great fight?

Amongst the leaders who visited were the head of one of the Iraqi armed group who was very clear and honest. He said his men would transform Iraq into a hell for the Americans if Iran were attacked.

The source also said that the military training camps of the Guards were opened for the fighters of the Mehdi army in Iran to receive the necessary training. Iran had also increased its financial assistance to Moqtada al Sadr to more than 20 million dollars.

The same applied to Islamic Jihad in Palestine which has received large sums of money, large quantities of arms and military training for its cadres in Isfahan, including street fighting methods.

As for the Lebanese Hezbollah, several loads of arms have been sent to; they include rockets, explosives, and guided missiles. Hezbollah's arsenal includes more than 10 thousand rockets short-range rockets and missiles including Fajr, Nour, Arash, Hadid.

An estimated 80 members underwent private training last year on how to carry out suicide operations from the air (through the use of kite planes) and undersea operations using submarines.

While denying that Hamas had joined the list of organizations ready to help Iran in its likely war with the U.S, the source indicated that the external success of the movement, which enjoys considerable Iranian support both financial and military, was strengthened following the latest visit by its leaders to Tehran. This was translated in the Palestinian masses’ support for Iran, against Israel and the United States .

According to Iran, the latest military plan includes:

1- A missile strike directly targeting the US bases in the Persian Gulf and Iraq , as soon as nuclear installations are hit.

2- Suicide operations in a number of Arab and Muslim countries against US embassies and missions and US military bases and economic and oil installations related to US and British companies. The campaign might also target the economic and military installations of countries allied with the United States .

3- Launch attacks by the Basij and the Revolutionary Guards and Iraqi fighters loyal to Iran against US and British forces in Iraq , from border regions in central and southern Iraq .

4- Hezbollah to launch hundreds of rockets against military and economic targets in Israel .

According to the source, in case the US military attacks continue, more than 50 Shehab-3 missiles will be targeted against Israel and the al Quads Brigades will give the go-ahead for more than 50 terrorists cells in Canada, the US and Europe to attack civil and industrial targets in these countries.

What about the last stage in the plan?

Here, the Iranian source hesitated before saying with worry; this stage might represent the beginning of a world war, given that extremists will seek to maximize civilian casualties by exploding germ and chemical bombs as well as dirty nuclear bombs across western and Arab cities. READ MORE

EU and US Strike Different Tones on Iran

The Washington Post:

The United States and the European Union struck different tones on Saturday on how to respond to Iran's nuclear defiance while insisting they were in full agreement. Speaking at a transatlantic conference, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said no one was considering military action over Tehran's refusal to halt uranium enrichment and Europe did not want to join a "coalition of the willing" against Iran. READ MORE

Influential U.S. Senator John McCain told the Brussels Forum in a speech on Friday night: "There is only one thing worse than military action, and that is a nuclear-armed Iran."

He said the United States would not stand by and let Iran wipe out Israel, as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinjenad had called for.

The Islamic republic, a major oil and gas producer, denies it aims to build a bomb and says its programme is purely for civilian energy purposes.

Former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Richard Holbrooke, a leading Democratic foreign policy expert, said the response to Iran's nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at making weapons, was a defining issue for transatlantic relations.

"Iran is THE test case about whether we'll have effective transatlantic cooperation," Holbrooke said.

The more divisions there were in the West and with China and Russia over Iran, the more likely it was that the United States would face the terrible choice painted by McCain, he said.

UNITED?

Solana, who has been involved in efforts by the EU's three main powers, Britain, France and Germany, to negotiate a solution with Tehran, said he did not believe there were differences between the United States and Europe on Iran.

NATO and EU foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, had debated the issue at a meeting in Sofia on Thursday and "nobody at that point in time considered the possibility of a military solution in Iran."

He said he did not believe anyone was seeking a "coalition of the willing" to act against Iran and no European country wanted that.

U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Dan Fried said the next step was a strong U.N. Security Council resolution.

"I cannot predict how things will come out, but that is where we are headed, united with Europe," he told reporters.

Asked why he was unwilling to talk of military action unlike McCain and Holbrooke, Solana said that he held political office and did not have the same freedom of speech.

The most important thing was to work with Russia and China to build the broadest possible consensus on a United Nations resolution raising pressure on Tehran to comply with international demands to halt nuclear enrichment.

The U.N. nuclear watchdog delivered a report on Friday saying Iran had done little or nothing to prove it was not developing nuclear arms.

It had hampered checks by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency and rebuffed requests to stop making nuclear fuel, the report by IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei said.

US and Iranian Officials Met in Iraq

Yahoo News:

U.S. and Iranian officials held talks on Iraq in Iraq's northern Kurdistan region "a while ago," Iraq's Al-Sharqiya television quoted President Jalal Talabani as saying on Saturday. U.S., Iranian and Iraqi officials could not confirm the report. READ MORE

According to Sharqiya, Talabani told Iraqi and Arab writers during a spring cultural festival that the talks took place in the lakeside mountain resort of Dukan and that discussions were "dedicated to the Iraqi issue."

It said Talabani, a Kurd, expected such meetings to continue to be held, but provided no more details.

Iranian and U.S. officials have said in the past that they would hold talks to discuss Iraq, without giving a date.

A spokesman at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad said he was unaware of such a meeting. A spokesman at Talabani's office also said he knew nothing about the reported talks in Dukan, where Talabani frequently holds political meetings. Talabani was not immediately available for comment.

There was no immediate comment from Tehran.

The United States accuses Iran of fuelling sectarian violence in Iraq, a charge dismissed by Tehran, which says the presence of U.S. troops is to blame.

Both sides had said any such talks would only cover Iraq, although some analysts said it could open a conduit for discussion of other issues, particularly the dispute over Iran's nuclear program.

Iran and Iraq fought a war from 1980-88 and, until Saddam Hussein was toppled by the U.S. invasion in 2003, had a frosty relationship.

Radical Islam's Eruption

Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Wall Street Journal:

In 1985, when I first visited the Iran desk in the Directorate of Operations of the Central Intelligence Agency in Langley, Va., my attention was quickly drawn to the Iranian-published volumes of the CIA and State Department cable traffic that had been seized by the Iranian "students" who took over the U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1979. That was the year, lest we forget, of the shah's overthrow and the victory of the Ayatollah Khomeini.

The Iranians, post-takeover, had painstakingly reassembled most of the embassy's CIA cables and diplomatic telegrams -- paper that had been insufficiently burned or shredded by the besieged American diplomats. (The U.S. government developed much better shredders in response.) At Langley six years later, an old woman -- a real-life, chain-smoking Le Carré sort who had amazing recall of the CIA's operations -- was reviewing the volumes for sensitive material. No one else on the Iran desk seemed to care.

The desk was plastered with posters of the Ayatollah Khomeini and various references to nefarious clerical behavior, but the Islamic Revolution's defining moment was mostly forgotten history. And little wonder. Officers who had served in Iran before the revolution -- the CIA station had once been fairly large -- were usually disconnected from the place, since virtually none of them spoke any Persian and most, in the course of their time in Tehran, had pursued "third country" targets (Soviets, East Europeans, communist Chinese), not Iranians.

In "Guests of the Ayatollah," Mark Bowden revivifies this crucial episode by parachuting us back to 1979 and enveloping us in the thoughts and experiences of the American hostages -- the diplomats, security officers, U.S. Marines and spooks seized and abused by the "Students Following the Line of the Imam," as they called themselves. The hostages numbered 66 in all; 14 were released before the end of the crisis, which lasted 444 days. Three were held in the more civilized confines of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. (Mr. Bowden does some of his finest writing recounting the increasingly surreal existence of this second small group, who became "guests"-cum-prisoners.) READ MORE

Mr. Bowden subtitles his book "The First Battle in America's War With Militant Islam" -- and he is certainly right in underscoring the entire saga as a formative moment for contemporary Islamic militancy. Sunni fundamentalism, as an ideology inclined to see terrorism as a legitimate activity, predated the rise of the Shiite Khomeini. But the Ayatollah's triumph over the shah and over his primary foreign backer -- the U.S. -- globally supercharged Islamic radicalism.

Mr. Bowden does not spend much time delving into radical Islam or the Persian side of the Islamic Revolution. He describes the force that overwhelmed the embassy (and would later strike us on 9/11) as "totalitarianism rooted in divine revelation." This phrase, although roughly accurate in its gist, may be a bit overloaded for what happened under Khomeini.

The Islamic Revolution was a ghastly time in Iranian history, but there were mitigating influences in Persian Islamic culture, and they were not without effect: Thousands died in the revolution, but it never reached the blood-soaked frenzy that was seen in the Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin, or in China during Mao's long reign, or even in Algeria after the French. But Mr. Bowden is right: Something horrible was unleashed in Iran by Khomeini -- a divinely sanctioned fanaticism that made decent people into monsters. The aftershocks of that event still torment and inspire Muslims world-wide.

Mr. Bowden is pre-eminently a storyteller, not a theologian. He has a sensitive eye for both people and places. This talent isn't an easy thing to exploit with the Iranian hostage crisis since Mr. Bowden is essentially giving us a variation of prison literature, where the solitary internal struggle must compensate for the unchanging scenery. Yet he accomplishes his task sublimely well -- the book is suspenseful, inspiring, mordant and, perhaps most of all, affectionate toward those who had to endure such trying circumstances. He shows unfailing respect for the hostages, many of whom gave him extensive, intimate and at times embarrassing access to their memories. Mr. Bowden lets you feel, above all else, the fear and anger of the Americans during their long imprisonment.

This is perhaps the most striking and underreported part of the hostage crisis: how angry the Americans became toward their jailers. Some of the Americans were treated very roughly indeed -- periodic beatings, mock executions -- and they lived with the constant fear that in the end they were going to die. But the Iranian actions led to ever more American defiance.

John Limbert, an academically trained, Persian-speaking diplomat -- who probably has the softest heart for Iran among the hostages -- is in solitary confinement in the city of Isfahan, 200 miles from Tehran, after the failed Desert One rescue mission. (President Carter, after long delay, had sent fuel-tanker planes, gunships and helicopters to recapture the embassy; in a night-vision-goggle debacle set into motion by a sandstorm, a helicopter and a plane collided in the desert; the aborted the mission left the burnt remains to be toyed with by revolutionary clerics.) Mr. Limbert has no idea regarding the whereabouts of his compatriots until an Iranian guard, whom he is tutoring in English, asks him the meaning of the words "raghead," "bozo," "mother-" and "c-sucker." "Limbert laughed," Mr. Bowden writes. "It warmed his heart. Someplace nearby, his captors were still coping with the United States Marine Corps."

Mike Howland, a Persian-speaking security officer marooned in the Foreign Ministry, starts to wander naked around the building at night, to show his disrespect for those who were keeping him in confinement and to give him an advantage if spotted by bashful Iranian guards. Anticipating an eventual rescue mission, Mr. Howland cleverly figures out a way of sabotaging his guards' guns.

The most brazen and hard-edged of the hostages is Michael Metrinko, a street-wise former Peace Corps volunteer and Persian-speaking diplomat who declares war on the gerugangirha, the hostage-takers. Using his vast knowledge of Persian culture, psychology and slang, Mr. Metrinko fights back. Beaten repeatedly, held in solitary confinement, hooded, tied up and denied food, he never stops searching for means to annoy and emasculate his captors. At one point he tries to derail the interrogation of an Iranian friend before him by baiting his interrogators to beat him (he succeeds). Even on his last day of captivity, on the bus to the airport, Mr. Metrinko verbally lashes out at a guard's offensive behavior by making a very Persian reference to the guard's mother and the procreative act; he is again beaten and then thrown off the bus. (A last-minute intervention by Iranian officials gets him on the plane to Germany.) Throughout, Mr. Metrinko is a proud, outraged man whose anger grows more intense precisely because he loves Iran so profoundly.

To verify some of Mr. Bowden's reporting, I sent an email to Mr. Metrinko, who is now working in Afghanistan. A short, rough, not particularly handsome fellow, Mr. Metrinko remarked that he hoped that this book, like Mr. Bowden's "Black Hawk Down" (1999), would become a movie. He really wanted Brad Pitt to play him, since "that's the way I would really like to remember myself." Mr. Pitt should be so lucky as to play such a part.

For many of us -- not least those of us who have known Iran and Iranians over the intervening years -- Mr. Bowden's book is the first opportunity to put the Iranian hostage crisis into perspective. It scarred both Iran and the U.S. -- though the Iranians probably more deeply, since it helped to propel them down an ugly, dictatorial path. The current rulers of Iran, such as Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Ali Khamenei, were zealous backers of the hostage-seizing. Some of the hostages believe that Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, was one of their "student" captors. Such figures do not seem less like zealots with the passage of time.

The hostage crisis has been seen as a test of American resolve, a test that America failed under the wobbly leadership of Jimmy Carter. There is some truth to this, but it is also true, as Mr. Bowden notes, that Mr. Carter's White House worked constantly behind the scenes for the hostages' release, embracing the doomed Desert One rescue operation when other options had been exhausted. Ineffective Mr. Carter may have been, but he was not complacent.

Mr. Bowden performs a great service by pulling us back in time, to the dawn of an awful age when America was low and radical Islam triumphant. But "Guests of the Ayatollah" also calls on us to remember that good and brave men -- in the American embassy in Tehran, in Desert One's Special Forces and in President Carter's White House -- did their nation proud.