Week in Review

DoctorZin provides a review of this past week's [5/21/06 - 5/27/06] 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.

• Yahoo News reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. has not offered a guarantee against attacking or undermining Iran's hard-line government in exchange for having Tehran curtail its nuclear program.
• Reuters reported that Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid Reza Asefi said it had little faith in security guarantees from the West, "no one should think that such security guarantees are important."
• Turkishpress.com reported that hard-line Iranian newspapers have snubbed European Union efforts to coax the Islamic republic into halting sensitive nuclear work, with one influential daily dismissing the proposed incentives as "worthless".
• Bloomberg reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Iran is ``months'' away from being able to make a nuclear weapon, contradicting U.S. assessments.
• CBS News reported that Iran rejected reports that Tehran has used Chinese uranium gas for enrichment.
• RIA Novosti reported that Russia's foreign minister said the talks between the EU3 negotiators, the United States, Russia and China would produce a consensus.
• Xinhua reported that Afghan ambassador to Iran denied press reports that Afghan President Hamid Karzai is to offer mediation between Iran and the United States.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that China defended its nuclear cooperation with Iran following a British Broadcasting Corp. report that traced Tehran's newly announced ability to enrich uranium to Chinese assistance.
• Reuters reported that world powers made progress but failed to reach consensus in talks on a package of incentives and threats to prevent Iran from being able to build a nuclear bomb.
• The Guardian reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said talks on perks and penalties meant to stop Iran from pursuing nuclear activities that the West fears could produce a bomb produced ``good progress,'' suggesting the United Nations could act soon if Tehran remains defiant.
• Karl Vick and Dafna Linzer, The Washington Post reported that Iran has followed President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's recent letter to President Bush with explicit requests for direct talks on its nuclear program.
• The State.com reported that President Bush's spokesman said the United States will not negotiate directly with Iran on its nuclear program.
• Reuters reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Iran's nuclear ambitions posed "the test of our time" and urged swift international action to meet what he termed a threat to the existence of the Jewish state.
• The Telegraph reported that the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) said that it is all but impossible to stop Iran developing nuclear weapons.
• Hindustan Times reported that US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have agreed on a timetable for American intervention to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear capability.
• Yahoo News reported that President George W. Bush said he would consider providing incentives to Iran if it agreed to resume a suspension on nuclear enrichment activities.
• The Washington Post reported that Foreign ministers from six key nations will likely meet late next week. U.S. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said that Washington was "very pleased" at the "very productive, very constructive" talks.
• Jerusalem Post reported that the chief of Russia's Security Council is set to visit Iran over the weekend for talks with officials.
• Reuters reported that Prime Minister Tony Blair said. "We don't want a conflict with Iran, we have got enough on our plate doing other things."
• 10 Downing Street released the text of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Speech at Georgetown University in which he said: "I don't believe we will be secure unless Iran changes."
• BBC News reported that Russia's defence minister has confirmed that Moscow intends to honour a controversial deal to supply Iran with 30 surface-to-air missile systems.
  

The Unrest in Iran.

• Reuters reported that thousands of Iran's Azeri minority hurled stones in violent protests, enraged by a newspaper cartoon they said insulted them.
• Yahoo News reported that the government closed one of the country's top three newspapers, detaining its editor and cartoonist for publishing a caricature that caused members of Iran's Azeri minority to riot in protest. Photo's of the demonstration.
• Turkish Press reported that two of the Iranian capital's main universities have been rocked by overnight protests and clashes between students and police.
• Iranian Student News Agency published photos of the protests at Tehran Universities with translations of several signs.
• SMCCDI reported that sporadic clashes have continued, on Wednesday, in several Iranian universities, such as, Tehran, Hamedan and Zanjan.
• Yahoo News reported that stone-throwing Iranian students fought police and Islamic vigilante in protest against restrictions imposed by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
• SMCCDI reported that several students were critically injured during clashes that happened, today, in several Iranian universities. Slogans, such as, "Down with Dictator", "Down with Islamic Republic", "Freedom, Freedom" were shouted by the students.
• Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that while foreign ministers met in London to finalize measures to persuade the Iranian regime to suspend uranium enrichment, the country's ruling clerics will be facing the most determined opposition they have seen in three years. A must read.
• Iran Press News reported on the anti-regime slogans in the protest gathering of students in Tehran University campus. A must read.
• Rooz Online reported on the growing unrest in Azerbaijan.
• Rooz Online reported that during the week that just ended, Iranian society expressed its concealed and suppressed feelings and senses through three major events. Events that revealed the deep tornado that is buried deep in a nation.
• Sheema Kalbasi, Zaneirani argued that revolutions don't wait for calendar dates and many times they happen over seemingly unimportant things.
• More Photos of the anti-government protests at an Iranian university.
• MEMRI reported that several media outlets in Iran reported, albeit in a restricted and censured fashion, that there has been rioting on several university campuses in Tehran for the past four days. Eyewitnesses reported that students were chanting anti-regime slogans, such as "We don't want nuclear energy" and "Forget Palestine - think of us."
• Iran Focus reported that at least six anti-government protestors were killed by security forces during clashes in the north-western town of Naqadeh as more than 1,000 Iranian Azeris took part in a rally outside the governor’s office.
• SMCCDI reported that tens of Islamist militiamen have taken over the Tehran's College of Law in an effort to increase terror and smash any protest action.
• Amir Taheri, Arab News reported on the unrest in Iran's provinces.
  

Iranian regime preparing to force Islamic dress on Iranian people?

• Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that Amir Taheri is sticking to his story that the mullahs were readying legislation that would require Jews and other religious and ethnic minorities to wear distinguishing markers.
• Amir Taheri, Benador Associates responded to queries about the dress code story in Iran.
• Human Rights Watch published a report on Iran's current discriminatory legislation regarding Non-Muslims.
  

Iranian President seeks to join Russia and China's Shanghai Cooperation Organization.

• World Tribune.com reported that Iran aims to form an axis of powerful nations against the United States. Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi said the alliance would include nuclear powers. "China, Russia, India and Iran are capable of establishing a pole of major powers in Asia, opposing the policies of America."
  

Iran's leaders latest statements.

• Stratfor reported that Ahmadinejad not only rejected the European proposal -- he ridiculed it. "They say they want to offer us incentives. We tell them: Keep the incentives as a gift for yourself."
• Radio Free Europe reported that Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said that Iran has mastered the entire nuclear fuel, "from start to finish."
• The Telegraph reported that the Iranian president has warned that his nation's enemies will receive a "historical slap in the face" in return for any show of aggression towards the Islamic state.
• Yahoo News reported that Iranian cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said: "We still expect the world power seekers to have sense and not to create chaos and unrest in our region."
• ABC News reported that Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been quoted as saying European nations should stand by his country in the dispute over its nuclear program or suffer damages.
• Reuters reported that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they should stop feeling a sense of guilt over the Holocaust.
• Yahoo News reported that Iran's supreme leader said the United States would fail to provoke ethnic strife in the Islamic republic.
• Iran Daily reported that Iran's Supreme Leader said Iran should not succumb to pressures over its nuclear activities and any form of retreat will cause 100 percent harm.
  

Iranian leaderships unity weakening?

• Rooz Online reported that with five months into the elections of The Experts Assembly, responsible for monitoring the performance of the leader of the Islamic regime and choosing his successor), some hardline clerics in Qom, led by reactionary ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi, are determined to use this election to end the political life of Hashemi Rafsanjani.
  

Iranian Dissidents.

• Times Online on the escape from Iran of Iranian student activist Amir Abbas Fakhravar who was held for 8 months in solitary confinement in Iran. He said he was in Washington to spread one message only: “Regime change.” Photo.
• The New York Times reported that the Iranian press accused Mr. Jahanbegloo, the Iranian philosopher and writer who has been detained for three weeks without formal charges, is "an element of the United States who was part of the plot to overthrow the regime under the guise of intellectual work by peaceful means."
• Free Ganji published Akbar Ganji's latest: Message for the Celebration Iran's dissident poet: Ms. Simin Behbahani.
• Reuters reported that Iranian journalist and political dissident, Akbar Ganji, has been awarded the annual Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders (MEA).
• The Telegraph interviewed Iranian dissident, Roya Tolouee, who told of the assaults and threats against her and her children during 66 Days in an Iranian jail.
  

Human Rights and Freedom of the Press in Iran.

• Independent reported that Iranian Jews are worried and angered by their President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's denial of the Holocaust, saying his comments caused "fear" in his community.
• Rooz Online reported that while the public relations director of Tehran’s revolutionary and regular judiciary have said that news dissemination must be in accordance with legal rules and be respectful to people, apparently this does not apply to Iranian dissidents.
• Rooz Online reported that the hardline minister of culture of Iran expressed dissatisfaction over a number of publications and criticized their attitude towards Ahmadinejad's government. The press has been put under check by the events and unrest in the provinces.
• Bahai.org reported that Iranian officials have arrested 54 Bahá'ís in the city of Shiraz.
• Reporters Without Borders condemned the closure of the governmental daily Iranian newspaper.
  

Rumors of War.

• The New York Times reported that the Bush administration is moving to establish a new antimissile site in Europe that would be designed to stop attacks by Iran against the United States and its European allies.
• Steven Simon and Ray Takeyh, Council on Foreign Relations reported that from the moment the first U.S. warheads detonate over an Iranian nuclear installation, the United States will be at war with the Islamic Republic. They examine various scenarios.
• Middle East Newsline reported that Iran has launched another major military exercise. The exercise, entitled "851," began on Sunday and would last three days.
• The New York Times reported that the United States will hold a joint military exercise using naval, army and air forces with Turkey next week aimed at demonstrating a determination to stop missile and nuclear technology from reaching Iran.
• The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran conducted a test launch Tuesday night of the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which is capable of reaching Israel and US targets in the region. The test came hours before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with US President George W Bush in Washington.
• Hindustan Times reported that US President George W Bush and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have agreed on a timetable for American intervention to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear capability.
• Foxnews.com reported that 34 nations kicked off a large military exercise in Turkey to practice intercepting weapons before they reach a country like Iran.
• 10 Downing Street released the text of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Speech at Georgetown University in which he said: "I don't believe we will be secure unless Iran changes."
• US News & World Report reported Sen. John Warner, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has called for North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries to plan a military "ring of deterrence" to contain Iran if negotiations fail.
  

Support for Internal Regime Change in Iran?

• The Christian Science Monitor reported that Bush's "regime change" strategy is being countered by a revival among the "realists."
  

Iran's Troublemaking.

• Iran Focus reported that Iran will launch a new suicide-bombers garrison.
• Ynet News reported that a group of Iranian students announced they were setting up a fund to destroy Israel. But the response to the call for donations was hardly overwhelming. About 10 students dropped money into the box.
• Iran Press News reported that the secretary-general of a terrorist organization of the Islamic regime said: "Hezbollah cells are being dispatched throughout the world and being prepped to face crisis".
• The Jewish Week reported that the organized Jewish community sent out a “security briefing update” amid reports that the Lebanese-based Hezbollah terrorist organization has sleeper cells in New York and other major American cities.
• Iran Press News reported that a regime-run newspaper said: "We should terrorize young European sissies as payback for the blood of our Islamic martyrs."
• Yahoo News reported that a hardline Iranian group announced the creation of a new "battalion" of "martyrdom seekers" -- or suicide attackers.
• Iranian President's Website quoted the President saying that "martyrs serve as models to the third generation of the Islamic Revolution."
  

US/Iran talks?

• The Jerusalem Post reported that US Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad said the formation of a national unity government in Baghdad has cleared the way for proposed direct talks between the United States and Iran about the situation inside Iraq.
• Charles Krauthammer, New York Daily News argued why direct talks between the US and Iran would be a huge mistake.
  

Iran and the International community.

• The Star reported that Arab Gulf nations are planning to send a delegation to Iran to discuss its nuclear standoff with the United Nations.
• The New York Times reported that prodded by the United States with threats of fines and lost business, four of the biggest European banks have started curbing their activities in Iran.
• BBC News reported that a group of Israeli diplomats wants to sue Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for incitement to genocide.
• Reuters reported that Gulf countries plan to hold talks with Iran over concerns that Tehran's nuclear program could pose an environmental threat to them.
• The Middle East Media Research Institute published Arab Media reaction to Iran's nuclear project.
• The Globe and Mail reported on "Tehranto," what many call Toronto one of the world's largest communities of Iranian exiles and what they think of the crisis with Iran.
• Iran Press News reported that German Neo-Nazis have begun organizing anti-Israel demonstrations on June 21, during the football match between Iran and Angola in support of Ahmadinejad's statements about Israel and the holocaust.
• China Economic Net reported that North Korea and Iran, locked in nuclear standoffs with the United States, celebrated their friendship and said their opposition to "global dominators" made their relationship stronger.
• FoxNews reported that an Iranian-owned company, based in Turkey, has illegally shipped alleged guided missile parts as well as "dual use" nuclear-related material to Iran.
• ABC News reported on Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, trip to Baghdad on Friday.
  

Must Read reports.

• The Financial Times reported that David Jackson, director of Voice of America said VOA is not in the business of persuading Iranians to overthrow their government.
• Lee Smith, Weekly Standard asked: Who's Really Afraid of Iran? Hint, it's not Israel.
• Dan Darling, The Weekly Standard reported that there appears to have been little progress made by the U.S. intelligence community in learning more about the information brought to light by the 9/11 Commission report, despite commissioners having argued that it deserved more attention. Particularly so since most of Al Qaeda's senior operatives operate freely inside of Iran.
• The Washington Institute for Near East Policy exposed the myth of Iranian-Turkish amity.
• Mehdi Khalaji, The Washington Institute evaluated the impact outside pressure would have on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration and its ability to overcome internal political and economic challenges.
• PrayForIran.org reported that in response to the current crisis surrounding Iran, over 120 Iranian church leaders have pledged to 40 days of prayer and fasting.
• Jamie Glazov, FrontPageMagazine.com published it's Symposium: Iran: To Strike or Not to Strike?
• Amil Imani, The American Thinker argued that while the world views Iran's President as a zealot, fascist, fanatic, anti-Semitic, lunatic and more, he is far from unhinged.
• Richard Miniter, Investors Business Daily reported that the proof of Al-Qaida's links to Iraq are just too strong to be dismissed.
• MEMRI published Iraqi News Agency Aswathura's Exclusive interview with Grand Ayatollah Montazeri. A valuable read.
  

The Experts.

• Amir Taheri, The New York Post examined Iraq's new government.
• Michael Ledeen, National Review Online argued that if you want to know what the mullahs want you to think, just read the “reporting” by the Washington Post’s own Karl Vick.
• Kenneth R. Timmerman, News Max reported how dozens of self-avowed supporters of the MEK, a group on the State Department's list of international terrorist organizations, met Thursday in a public building in Washington, D.C., to call on the Bush administration to legalize the activities of their group.
• Amir Taheri, Arab News reported on the unrest in Iran's provinces.
  

Photos, cartoons and videos.

• Cox & Forkum published a cartoon: EU-Bonz.
• Yahoo News reported that the government closed one of the country's top three newspapers, detaining its editor and cartoonist for publishing a caricature that caused members of Iran's Azeri minority to riot in protest. Photo's of the demonstration.
• Iranian Student News Agency published photos of the protests at Tehran Universities with translations of several signs.
  

The Quote of the Week.

Stratfor reported that Ahmadinejad not only rejected the European proposal -- he ridiculed it.

"They say they want to offer us incentives. We tell them: Keep the incentives as a gift for yourself."

Sunday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 5.28.2006:

Ahmadinejad's advice to Europe.

• ABC News reported that Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been quoted as saying European nations should stand by his country in the dispute over its nuclear program or suffer damages.
• Reuters reported that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they should stop feeling a sense of guilt over the Holocaust.

Senator Warner: NATO should contain Iran.

• US News & World Report reported Sen. John Warner, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee has called for North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries to plan a military "ring of deterrence" to contain Iran if negotiations fail.

The Unrest in Iran.

• SMCCDI reported that tens of Islamist militiamen have taken over the Tehran's College of Law in an effort to increase terror and smash any protest action.
• Amir Taheri, Arab News reported on the unrest in Iran's provinces.

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

• The Telegraph interviewed Iranian dissident, Roya Tolouee, who told of the assaults and threats against her and her children during 66 Days in an Iranian jail.
• Yahoo News reported that Iran's supreme leader said the United States would fail to provoke ethnic strife in the Islamic republic.
• Iran Daily reported that Iran's Supreme Leader said Iran should not succumb to pressures over its nuclear activities and any form of retreat will cause 100 percent harm.
  

Islamist militiamen take over the Tehran's College of Law

SMCCDI (Information Service):

Tens of Islamist militiamen have taken over the Tehran's College of Law in an effort to increase terror and smash any protest action.

The militiamen are intending to arrest the students who were involved in the anti-regime actions of this week. Several students, identified as un-Islamic, have been beaten by the brutal Islamists.

The streets and avenues around all the colleges of Tehran have been placed under controlled.

Iran: Restive Provinces

Amir Taheri, Arab News:

One of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s election promises was that he and his ministerial team would visit all of Iran’s 30 provinces within their first year in office. The idea was to settle long standing local problems in a single sitting of the Cabinet. However, as Ahmadinejad prepares to mark the first anniversary of his presidency it looks increasingly unlikely that he could keep that promise.

So far Ahmadinejad has a record of visiting nearly half of the provinces and is determined to do some more soon. Nevertheless, quite a few provinces have become no-go areas for the president. The reason is increasing ethnic and sectarian tensions in parts of the country. READ MORE

The latest province to be affected is East Azerbaijan, which Iranians refer to as “Iran’s head”.

Last week Tabriz, capital of East Azerbaijan, was the scene of anti-government demonstrations that, despite claims by some exile groups, were largely spontaneous. The trigger for the protests was a cartoon published in a government-owned newspaper depicting Azeris, Iran’s largest ethnic and linguistic minority, as “dumb cockroaches.”

No one knows how many Iranians have Azeri roots. However, official statistics indicate that Azeris form a majority in four provinces: East Azerbaijan, West Azerbaijan, Ardebil and Zanjan. Taking into account Azeris living in other provinces, at times for generations, the community may be 15 million strong.

For centuries, Azeris have played a leadership role and served as the vanguard of such historic events as the 1906 Constitutional Revolution. Their Shiite faith and passionate attachment to Iranian nationhood have made them the backbone of the modern Iranian nation-state.

Azeris also played a crucial role in sweeping the late Ayatollah Khomeini to power in 1979. Immediately after the revolution, however, Khomeini moved to stop the rise of Azeri influence in his newly created Islamic republic.

One such move was to defrock Grand Ayatollah Kazem Shariatmadari, an eminent Azeri theologian and one of the most respected Shiite leaders of the last century. Most Azeris saw the move as a direct attack on themselves. They were also outraged by the fact that Khomeini had forgotten that he owed his own title of ayatollah to a decree signed by Shariatmadari in 1963.

What was perceived as the Islamic republic’s anti-Azeri stance came into sharper focus in 1989 when the then President Hashemi Rafsanjani flew to Baku, capital of Soviet Azerbaijan, to call on the population not to seek independence from the USSR.

Rafsanjani’s visit came at a time when Baku was still trying to recover from a crackdown launched by Soviet troops, including naval units, on Mikhail Gorbachev’s orders. Iranian Azeris had expected Tehran to support their fellow-Shiites in Soviet Azerbaijan rather than invite them to remain under Soviet colonial yoke.

In the years that followed matters worsened, as far as Azeris were concerned. In the war over the enclave of High Qarabagh, the Islamic republic supported Christian Armenia against Shiite Azerbaijan. Tehran also incited the Sunni minority in the Talesh area of the former Soviet Azerbaijan against the Shiite government in Baku.

There is also tension in the province of Kurdistan, on the border with Iraq, and the Kurdish-majority districts of West Azerbaijan.

Some Kurdish opposition groups, including an outfit known as Pejak and an older Communist group known as Komaleh have already embarked on a guerrilla campaign against the Islamic regime. Both groups maintain bases inside the autonomous Kurdish region of Iraq, and are believed to have ties with the Kurdish Workers Party (PKK), a guerrilla movement fighting Turkey.

However, what worries Tehran most is the rising tide of protest by unarmed populations in some Kurdish cities.

During the past six months at least 30 people have been killed by the security forces during anti-regime demonstrations in various Kurdish cities. According to Kurdish opposition sources, hundreds of people have been arrested, often without charge. The government has also closed many Kurdish language publications.

In most cases, the protests appear to have been spontaneous or locally organized. Nevertheless, they have been deemed promising enough for some Kurdish parties to try to assume their leadership. One such is the Kurdish Democratic Party of Iran whose leader Ghani Bolourian has just left Europe for Iraq and is busy setting up a coordination committee to lead what he believes is a burgeoning popular revolt.

President Ahmadinejad is unable to visit any of the three provinces where ethnic Kurds form either a majority or a substantial segment of the population. (Overall, ethnic Kurds account for nine percent of Iran’s population of almost 70 million.)

Another province that faces increasing unrest is Khuzestan that produces almost 80 percent of Iran’s oil. The province is home to most of Iran’s estimated 3.2 million ethnic Arabs. Although ethnic Arabs account for fewer than 40 percent of the province’s population, there are districts, such as Dasht Mishan and Susangerd, where they represent up to 80 percent.

Here, too, ethnic and linguistic grievances, combined with dissatisfaction with Tehran’s economic and social policies, have created an explosive situation, which the authorities have tried to control by force. Over the past six months at least 18 people have been killed by security forces and hundreds injured. Khuzestani opposition groups claim that over 400 people have been abducted by government forces and taken to unknown destinations.

Numerous groups are active in the Khuzestani movement, including the Front for the Liberation of Al-Ahwaz (FLA) and the Ahwaz Human Rights Association and the Khuzestan Prosperity Party. However, it is not clear whether such groups are able to provide overall leadership for what is a largely spontaneous local revolt against oppressive policies and economic hardship.

The real no-go area for Ahmadinejad, however, is the southeastern province of Sistan and Balochistan, a vast region of mountains and deserts bordering Pakistan and Afghanistan. In Tehran they call it “the wild frontier” if only because it has been the scene of frequent battles between security forces and armed insurgents. Last month alone 20 Iranian security men were killed by what Tehran has called “bandits”, said to be operating from Pakistan.

Some of the violence in Sistan and Balochistan may be the work of armed drug smugglers and contraband networks backed by local tribes. Nevertheless, at least two political groups, the Baloch Liberation Front (BLF), a leftist outfit, and the Baloch Protection Council claim to be active in the province. Both had headquarters in Baghdad before 2003 and may now have transferred to Pakistan.

Two other regions may become flash points.

One is the arc of steppes on Iran’s northeast frontier with the Republic of Turkmenistan. There, ethnic Turkmen, representing two percent of Iran’s population, form a majority and, being Sunni Muslims, have never warmed up to the government set up by Shiite mullahs. Iran’s Turkmen were the first to rise against the Islamic republic in 1979 when, with the help of a Marxist-Maoist guerrilla group known as People’s Fedayeen, they set up a short-lived people’s republic of their own. The “people’s republic” was crushed by Khomeini at the cost of hundreds of Turkmen lives. The other possible flash point is the Iranian Talesh on the Caspian Sea.

There Sunni Muslims, speaking non-Persian dialects, form a majority of the 1.5 million population. They never warmed up to the regime of Shiite mullahs, and have staged periodical revolts that often provoked a harsh response from Tehran.

Taken together Iran’s ethnic, linguistic and religious minorities account for some 40 percent of the population. Most are strategically located along Iran’s long borders, and thus vulnerable to outside manipulation.

While in Indonesia this month, President Ahmadinejad spoke of his ambition to unite and lead the Muslim world in a “clash of civilizations” against the “infidel”. Many in Iran believe that he should first address the grievances that have made it impossible for him to visit so many provinces, and before it is too late.

Khamenei: Ahmadinejad's Letter to Bush was, Indeed, a Very Good Initiative

Iran Daily:

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei said on Sunday Iran should not succumb to pressures over its nuclear activities and any form of retreat will cause 100 percent harm. The leader made the remark after receiving parliamentarians, IRNA reported. READ MORE

“Young Iranian scientists guaranteed the Iran’s future energy needs with great success and this accomplishment should not be lost by any means,“ he said.
He emphasized that the hearts and minds of the people must become resistant to the enemies’ pressures and plots.

Ayatollah Khamenei stressed that sowing seeds of ethnic dispute is the last stratagem of the enemies.

“The enemies of the Iranian nation have openly announced that they have allocated funds specially for confronting the people. But like always, they have entered a region, which is dominated by the Islamic Revolution, following a wrong analysis. Therefore, this move is also doomed to fail,“ he said.

The leader referred to the important role played by Iranian Azaris in the Constitution Movement and the victory of the Islamic Revolution.

“The enemies do not want to recognize Azarbaijan, because the Azaris have always been unparalleled in defending the values of the Islamic Revolution and the territorial integrity and independence of the country,“ he said.

The leader referred to the increasing popularity of the Islamic Revolution in the Muslim world as a strong point.

“President Ahmadinejad’s letter to the American president was, indeed, a very good initiative, because the top priority on the global scene is to be innovative and courageous,“ he said.

Ayatollah Khamenei stressed that the serious and successful endeavors of Iranian youth in the arena of science are another strong point of the Islamic state.

“One more strong point that we have right now is the unity among the three branches of power. Ever since the victory of the Islamic Revolution, the Imam (Khomeini, the late founder of the Islamic Revolution) and his followers stressed the need to maintain solidarity, but at certain instances the enemies tried to harm this unity. Today the good omen is that the nation, government and the officialdom stand more united than ever,“ he said.

Ahmadinejad: Germans Should Stop Feeling Holocaust Guilt

Erik Kirschbaum, Reuters:

Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by a sense of guilt over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the Holocaust even happened. In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Ahmadinejad said he doubted Germans were allowed to write "the truth" about the Holocaust and said he was still considering traveling to Germany for the World Cup soccer tournament.

"I believe the German people are prisoners of the Holocaust. More than 60 million were killed in World War Two ... The question is: Why is it that only Jews are at the center of attention?," he said in the interview published on Sunday. READ MORE

"How long is this going to go on?" he added. "How long will the German people be held hostage to the Zionists?... Why should you feel obligated to the Zionists? You've paid reparations for 60 years and will have to pay for another 100 years."

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other leaders have said his previous remarks questioning whether the Holocaust happened were unacceptable. Denying the Holocaust is a serious crime in Germany punishable with a prison term of up to five years.

Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their allies in concentration camps.

In the rare interview with Western media, Ahmadinejad said if the Holocaust really happened Jews should be moved from Israel back to Europe.

"We say if the Holocaust happened, then the Europeans must accept the consequences and the price should not be paid by Palestine. If it did not happen, then the Jews must return to where they came from."


WORLD CUP

He said he was still considering going to Germany to support Iran in the World Cup despite protest stirred by a "worldwide network of Zionists."

Iran's first World Cup match is against Mexico in Nuremberg on June 11 two days after the tournament starts and German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble says he would be welcome to come because Germany wants to be a good host.

The invitation sparked protests from other political leaders and groups who said his anti-Israeli comments were unacceptable.

"My decision (on whether to go) depends on a lot of different things," said Ahmadinejad, a soccer fan. "Whether I have time, whether I want to and some other things."

He said he could not understand why his possible visit had caused such debate but was not surprised by the row.

"I was not at all surprised because there is a very active worldwide network of Zionists, also in Europe," he said in the rare interview with Western media that was published on Sunday.

Ahmadinejad's latest comments were condemned by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. Rabbi Marvin Hier, a founder and dean, called on Merkel to keep him out of Germany.

"On a day when the Pope is in Auschwitz to remind the world of the horrors of the Holocaust, Ahmadinejad questions it again," Hier said. "For him to be at the World Cup and sit in a VIP seat would be a desecration of the memory of the Holocaust."

Asked by Der Spiegel, in its cover story entitled "The man the world is afraid of," whether he stood by his earlier view the Holocaust was a myth, Ahmadinejad said: "I only accept something as the truth if I am truly convinced of it.

"In Europe there are two opinions on it. One group of researchers who are by and large politically motivated say the Holocaust happened. There is another group of researchers who have the opposite view and are by and large in prison for that."

Supreme Leader: U.S. Will Fail to Spark Unrest

Nasser Karimi, Yahoo News:

Iran's supreme leader said Sunday the United States would fail to provoke ethnic strife in the Islamic republic after several days of protests over a cartoon that insulted the country's largest minority. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also said in a speech broadcast by state-run television that "trying to provoke ethnic and religious unrest is the last desperate shot by enemies." READ MORE

He referred to a Bush administration request to Congress for $75 million to promote democracy in Iran, saying: "Enemies of the Iranian nation have earlier announced that they have allocated some money for this purpose."

Earlier, hundreds of Azeris demonstrated in front of the Iranian parliament to protest the cartoon, which was published by a state-owned newspaper two weeks ago.

"Coward legislators, support the Azeris!" chanted the protesters, who urged parliament to punish those who published the cartoon and release people detained in previous protests over the issue.

On Wednesday, the government closed the newspaper and detained its chief editor and cartoonist for publishing the drawing, which showed a cockroach speaking Azeri.

Azeris, a Turkic ethnic group, are Iran's largest minority, making up about a quarter of Iran's 70 million people, dominated by ethnic Persians. Azeris speak a Turkic language shared by their brethren in neighboring Azerbaijan.

Khamenei paid tribute to the role of Azeris in the 1979 revolution that brought Islamic clerics to power. He said Iran's Azeri region was "was the axis of the (1979) revolution" and that trying to provoke unrest there showed "the folly of the enemies."

Following Azeri protests in the northwestern city of Tabriz and other towns, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last week accused the United States of seeking to provoke ethnic tensions in Iran.

One Man's plan for Iran

Linda Robinson, US News & World Report:

All the tough talk coming out of Iran these days about its secret nuclear program has prompted Virginia Sen. John Warner, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, to propose a deterrence plan to deal with the threat. In recent speeches to the Atlantic Council and the Council on Foreign Relations, Warner called for North Atlantic Treaty Organization countries to plan a military "ring of deterrence" to contain Iran if negotiations fail. The five-term Republican, who is also a former secretary of the Navy, shared his views with U.S. News last week. Excerpts: READ MORE

Why are you calling on NATO to consider a plan to restrain Iran's nuclear ambitions?

Here is a nation [Iran], which is striving to gain pre-eminence in the region and which wants to belong to that club that allegedly has the potential to prepare and build weapons to establish their pre-eminence. I just don't think NATO can sit there without taking notice of that. ... Let me make very clear, I still remain confident that negotiations can resolve this. But I think as a part of the negotiation, just the simple announcement that NATO is now going to sit at the table and make a plan would be wise because they're entrusted with the security of Europe, and clearly the rhetoric and other facts point to Iran posing a military threat.

How and when would this plan be carried out?

Well, the first thing we'd do would be to call the North Atlantic Council together and have it as an agenda item, for all 26 nations. Let them express their views. And I can't help but believe that they would not ... at least instruct the military side to devise the plan. And then just leave it on the table. I wouldn't suggest that [the plan] begin to go to implementation until it was clear that the negotiation track had resulted in failure and [that we had] a more positive framework of facts that Iran is moving toward the production of a military fissionable weapon.

What would such a plan look like if it were actually implemented?

Initially, it could be ... naval [forces] in international waters and air in international airspace. I didn't envision an encirclement of ground installations. You must remember there's Turkey--Turkey's a member of NATO--there's Afghanistan, which shares a common border.

Is it correct that you favor leaving open the option of bilateral talks, but you are opposed to sanctions?

I think the imposition of sanctions would take us off the fork in the road from negotiation to confrontation ... I think it's far too early to take steps that would be construed as confrontational, because I do believe [the Iranians] want to be respected in the region as a strong, emerging power. At this point in time to go into a posture where it's sanctions and confrontation, I think the hard-liners would get a firmer grip on that power.

Some may regard your own proposal as confrontational. What do you say?

I would simply say [to the NATO leadership], "Are you not entrusted with the security of Europe? Is that not your fundamental charter?" Iran has boasted that they have weapons that can hit you, they're making all kinds of antagonistic rhetoric--or at least the president is--toward the free world. If I were the military commanders in NATO, I'd say, "Wait a minute, you'd better at least sit down and devise a plan from our experience with the Cold War and see whether or not those principles are applicable."

You were recently in Afghanistan. How are things going there?

The situation there is very dangerous. Certainly, it has exceeded what we had been led to believe here in the Congress--that things were proceeding. ... Suddenly, here in the last several months, you've seen significant engagements with the security forces of Afghanistan and the security forces being provided by the United States and NATO.

What about Iraq's new government and the security climate there?

You've got to give this new government a reasonable time within which to seize the reins of full responsibility of a sovereign nation. But I do believe that we should be examining quietly, if they do not succeed in coming to grips with the full responsibilities of a sovereign nation--namely, provide the security for its people and also the infrastructure for people to have a daily life--then what do we do? I think you've got to begin to think out of the box a little bit ... as to how you would let the parts begin to function themselves, with still--hopefully--some central form of government. You've got to have that, because without a fair allocation of resources from the oil ... you will certainly find a civil war will break out.

I do not want to see our forces sucked into this trap of sectarian strife and being caught between the bullets flying to and from, in respect to Shia and Sunni. I don't want to see that. That's not what we sent our troops to do.

Ahmadinejad: Europe Must Back Iran or Suffer

ABC News:

Iran's President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has been quoted as saying European nations should stand by his country in the dispute over its nuclear program or suffer damages. According to an excerpt of an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel news magazine Mr Ahmadinejad also says he still has not decided whether to visit Germany during next month's World Cup soccer tournament.

"They are losing their reputation," Mr Ahmadinejad said, referring to European nations that have worked with the United States to hinder Iran's nuclear ambitions.

In the nuclear conflict, the Europeans "should stand on the side of Iran", Der Spiegel quotes him as saying.

Otherwise "they will carry the damages from that". He did not elaborate. READ MORE

But Mr Ahmadinejad adds Iran is interested in improving what he calls "already good relations" with Europe.

Iran says it has a right to a nuclear program, and denies US accusations it is trying to build an atomic bomb.

It says it only wants to enrich uranium to a level suitable for use in nuclear power reactors.

Holocaust remarks

Mr Ahmadinejad, who has been criticised in Europe for anti-Israel remarks in the past, has also repeated previous statements about doubts on whether the Holocaust happened.

Six million Jews were killed by the Nazis and their allies in the Holocaust.

"I only accept something as the truth if I am truly convinced of it," he said.

Iran is one of the 32 teams to qualify for the World Cup, and Mr Ahmadinejad says he has not yet made up his mind about attending the tournament.

Some German leaders, including Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, have said he should be allowed to come because Germany wants to be a good host while others say he should not be allowed into Germany for questioning Israel's right to exist.

Dissident Tells of Assaults and Threats Against Children During 66 Days in Jail Run by Iran's Cleric

Philip Sherwell, The Telegraph:

A leading Iranian pro-democracy and women's activist, who was jailed on trumped-up charges last year, has revealed how the clerical regime cynically deploys systemic sexual violence against female dissidents in the name of Islam.

Roya Tolouee, 40, was beaten up by Iranian intelligence agents and subjected to a horrific sexual assault when she refused to sign forced confessions. It was only when they threatened to burn her two children to death in front of her that she agreed to put her name to the documents.

Perhaps just as shocking as the physical abuse were the chilling words of the man who led the attack. "When I asked how he could do this to me, he said that he believed in only two things - Islam and the rule of the clerics," Miss Tolouee told The Sunday Telegraph last week in an interview in Washington after she fled Iran. READ MORE

"But I know of no religious morality that can justify what they did to me, or other women. For these people, religion is only a tool for dictatorship and abuse. It is a regime of prejudice against women, against other regimes, against other ethnic groups, against anybody who thinks differently from them."

Miss Tolouee's account of her ordeal confirms recent reports from opposition groups that Iranian intelligence officials use sexual abuse against female prisoners as an interrogation technique and even rape young women before execution so that they cannot reach heaven as virgins.

Few women from the Islamic world are willing to discuss such matters, even with each other, but Miss Tolouee said that the regime routinely committed sexual attacks against female detainees.

She dropped her voice to a whisper and sobbed quietly as she described her experience, hoping not to upset her six-year-old son, Nima, as he picked at a piece of pizza in a hotel restaurant.

But he tried to comfort her. "I don't like it when my mummy talks about prison. It makes her cry," he said sadly. Miss Tolouee, who founded a women's group in Iranian Kurdistan and then launched a monthly magazine that was closed down by the judiciary last summer, was detained in the city of Sanandaj in August after taking part in anti-regime demonstrations that spread across Kurdish areas.

"Four armed men and three armed women barged into my house at night and took me away," she said. "My kids were terrified and crying. I was questioned all night by different interrogators and then thrown alone into a cell."

She was held in solitary confinement in the prison of the feared internal intelligence service, with only a blanket and a cup that often had to serve as a lavatory.

For the first six nights, she was taken to a basement where interrogators demanded that she admit to organising the protests, and also that she identify co-conspirators on a list of names they put to her.

"When I wouldn't do what they wanted, they slapped me. But after the sixth night, the routine changed. I was left alone in a small dark room with two men. One was the assistant prosecutor and called himself Amiri. The other had a filthy mouth and said terrible things. They started slapping me again. For the rest of the night they did to me what no woman should ever experience. Amiri said, 'I'm going to hang you, but before I hang you, I will make an example of you so that no woman will dare to open her mouth here again'." He then sexually assaulted her.

When she asked Amiri how he could act like that, he told her that only Islam and clerical rule were important to him. The attack left her badly bruised and bleeding internally, but she refused to sign the papers they put before her. To her assailants' fury, she demanded to see a lawyer and cited international treaties on human rights.

The following night they did not sexually molest her again as she was still bleeding - and hence "unclean". Instead, they told her that they would kill her children by setting them on fire before her eyes.

Finally, she admits, she cracked. "I threw myself at Amiri's feet and begged him not to harm my children. I said I'd do anything they wanted. Whatever they wanted, I would sign." She admitted to conspiring against the regime by giving interviews to the foreign media and leading the protests, but said that she did not implicate others.

After several more nights in solitary confinement, Miss Tolouee was moved to a general women's prison, where she saw horrendous festering wounds inflicted by lashings on other detainees.

Trying to maintain her dignity and strength, she taught the women about their basic human rights and helped to secure the provision of sanitary supplies for the first time. "We had a great feeling of camaraderie," she recalled.

Miss Tolouee was released on bail after 66 days in jail because, she said, "The regime had got what it wanted". But she still feared for her children's lives and decided to flee. She made it first to neighbouring Turkey with Nima and then her daughter Shima, 14, was smuggled out to join them.

Fearful of the reach of regime agents, who have killed exiled dissidents, an opposition group called the Alliance of Iranian Women helped them to reach the United States last month.

Miss Tolouee has been granted political asylum and intends to maintain her campaign against Teheran. She still has relatives in Iran - she does not want to go into details for reasons of security - but says that they have given her their blessing to speak out, despite the possible consequences.

The world's attention is currently focused on Iran's nuclear ambitions under its hardline president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who came to office while Miss Tolouee was in prison. But inside Iran, she says, little has changed.

"Sometimes the regime seems a bit better, sometimes a bit worse, but for the people of Iran, the suffering continues," she said.

We need your help!

DoctorZin:

This site is self funded. Frankly it is frustrating that at the time when we can have our greatest impact we lack the funds to get the under-reported stories of Iran's struggle for real freedom and democracy out to Western readers.

I hope soon to make an announcement of several campaigns to take this work to the next level. But it requires that those who support the Iranian pro-democracy movement inside of Iran to join us in the work. At the moment the most important way you can help is to contribute to our efforts. Your support will make a difference. Either click the link below:

Or you may also mail contributions to:

Gary Metz
Regime Change Iran
P.O. Box 3373
Tustin, CA 92781

Please make checks payable to Gary Metz.

Update: We are in need of more volunteers to assist is in a number of projects. We can use both English speaking volunteers and Persian fluent help. Please email me with your contact information and background.

We would also greatly appreciate corporate and foundation support.

Saturday's Daily Briefing on Iran

DoctorZin reports, 5.27.2006:

34 nations in military drills near Iran.

• Foxnews.com reported that 34 nations kicked off a large military exercise in Turkey to practice intercepting weapons before they reach a country like Iran.

More on the Unrest in Iran.

• MEMRI reported that several media outlets in Iran reported, albeit in a restricted and censured fashion, that there has been rioting on several university campuses in Tehran for the past four days. Eyewitnesses reported that students were chanting anti-regime slogans, such as "We don't want nuclear energy" and "Forget Palestine - think of us."
• Iran Focus reported that at least six anti-government protestors were killed by security forces during clashes in the north-western town of Naqadeh as more than 1,000 Iranian Azeris took part in a rally outside the governor’s office.

Rafsanjani warns the west.

• Yahoo News reported that Iranian cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said: "We still expect the world power seekers to have sense and not to create chaos and unrest in our region."

Blair: we will not be secure unless Iran changes.

• 10 Downing Street released the text of Prime Minister Tony Blair's Speech at Georgetown University in which he said: "I don't believe we will be secure unless Iran changes."

Iran seeks to form a new "Axis" against the US.

• World Tribune.com reported that Iran aims to form an axis of powerful nations against the United States. Maj. Gen. Yahya Rahim Safavi said the alliance would include nuclear powers. "China, Russia, India and Iran are capable of establishing a pole of major powers in Asia, opposing the policies of America."

Russia's deal with Iran for its missile defense system still on.

• BBC News reported that Russia's defence minister has confirmed that Moscow intends to honour a controversial deal to supply Iran with 30 surface-to-air missile systems.

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

• Kenneth R. Timmerman, News Max reported how dozens of self-avowed supporters of the MEK, a group on the State Department's list of international terrorist organizations, met Thursday in a public building in Washington, D.C., to call on the Bush administration to legalize the activities of their group.
• MEMRI published Iraqi News Agency Aswathura's Exclusive interview with Grand Ayatollah Montazeri. A valuable read.
• FoxNews reported that an Iranian-owned company, based in Turkey, has illegally shipped alleged guided missile parts as well as "dual use" nuclear-related material to Iran.
• ABC News reported on Manouchehr Mottaki, Iran's foreign minister, trip to Baghdad on Friday.
• Charles Krauthammer, New York Daily News argued why direct talks between the US and Iran would be a huge mistake.

Report: Missile Parts, 'Dual-Use' Materials Illegally Shipped to Iran Through Turkey

FoxNews:

An Iranian-owned company, based in Turkey, has illegally shipped alleged guided missile parts as well as "dual use" nuclear-related material to Iran, including high-strength aluminum tubes, according to a recent Turkish government report obtained by The Associated Press on Friday. READ MORE

The company imported the material to Turkey, the supposed end-user, from dozens of firms around the world, including the United States, and then shipped them to Iran apparently after falsifying documents to hide the nature of the material, customs inspectors said in the report dated May 12.

Turkish authorities would not comment on the report, which was first published by Cumhuriyet and Milliyet newspapers Friday. A government official provided a copy of the report to the AP.

On Friday, Turkey hosted a multinational exercise to practice intercepting weapons materials before they reach a country like Iran, Turkey's neighbor. Warships from the United States, Turkey, France and Portugal participated in the maneuvers, said to be the largest so far of the Proliferation Security Initiative, or PSI, a program started in 2003 by U.S. President George W. Bush.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has credited PSI with several successes already in intercepting shipments of missile and nuclear technology headed to Iran, but she did not elaborate on details.

CountryWatch: Turkey

The reported Turkish crackdown on the activities of the Istanbul-based company Step Standard Technical Part has highlighted the importance of Friday's exercise, but also revealed the need to increase scrutiny of shipment of "dual-use" material which can either be used for civilian purpose or to make weapons. A sister company Multimat Import and Export was also involved.

The companies' Iranian owners denied that they had given guarantees to foreign companies that the end-user would be Turkey, the report said adding, however, that "their statement was not true." Company officials could not be reached for comment.

One particular sensitive shipment that reached Iran early this year contained aluminum tubes, which were of the proper size and material listed as "dual-use" material, the report said. Such equipment could possibly be used to construct centrifuges for uranium enrichment.

In another shipment, the companies bought from France an equipment called "gyros," which can be used to increase the sensitivity of the guidance system of missiles and directly transferred them to Iran in 2004, the report said.

"It is believed that the two companies have escaped from strict export controls by listing Turkey as the destination," the inspectors said. They said they have asked customs authorities in Germany, the Netherlands, Britain, France, the United States and Canada to launch investigations into shipments that originated from those countries.

Turkish authorities have also recently stopped a shipment of aluminum material to Iran at the last minute, seizing the material at Gurbulak border point with Iran.

The report said authorities have confiscated documents and computers from the companies and that the investigation was still underway. Most of the shipments to Iran by the companies included dual use material of aluminum, steel and iron products and electronic equipment which can be used in defense industry, it said.

The government report recommended that prosecutors file charges against three Iranians for smuggling and falsifying official documents, but it was not clear whether any of them were in custody. It also suggested the confiscation of the assets of both companies involved.

The U.S. and European Union accuse Iran of using its civilian nuclear program as a cover to produce nuclear weapons and want it to halt all enrichment-related activities. Tehran has denied the charges saying its nuclear program is geared toward generating electricity.

Uranium enriched to a low level is used to produce nuclear fuel. Enriched further it becomes suitable for use in a nuclear bomb.

Russia to honour Iran arms deal

BBC News:

Russia's defence minister has confirmed that Moscow intends to honour a controversial deal to supply Iran with surface-to-air missiles.

The contract for up to 30 missile systems would be fulfilled except in "extraordinary circumstances", Sergei Ivanov said, without elaborating. READ MORE

He stressed that, because of their technical characteristics, the missiles could not be used by terrorist groups.

The $700m (£380m) deal, signed last year, has been condemned by the US.

Washington wants all countries to stop exporting weapons to Iran. Russia insists its short-range Tor-M1 system is purely defensive.

"As far as Russia's position is concerned, we strictly abide by all non-proliferation regimes, and when we hear reproaches that Russia is secretly helping Iran - it is just propaganda," the Interfax news agency quoted Mr Ivanov as saying.

He made the comments following a meeting with his German counterpart, Franz Josef Jung in St Petersburg.

Russia, along with China, is strongly against attempts to impose United Nations sanctions on Iran, which the US accuses of pursuing nuclear weapons.