Door: Marc E. Putto
Augustus 2011
Door: Ingezonden
Dit is de voortzetting van de nieuwsdraad, welke ooit op www.joostniemöller.com begon, over het verzet van de groene beweging in Iran. Tevens worden hier links, video's en nieuwsberichten gepost over ontwikkelingen rond de nucleaire ambities van dit land. De draad wordt per 2 weken vernieuwd. Een chronologisch overzicht kunt u vinden in de categorie "Ondertussen in Iran".
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Geplaatst door: Ingezonden
op 2 aug 2011. Gearchiveerd onder Ondertussen in Iran.
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Reacties en pingen zijn gesloten.
http://regimechangeiran.blogspot.com/2005/05/join-blogosphere-supports-real.html
A Daily Briefing on Iran
Join the “Blogosphere Supports Real Democracy in Iran” Campaign
hoewel k grote twijfels heb over veel artkelen op Xandernieuws en ook niet weet welke bronnen hij gebruikt, heeft hij wel vaak rake nieuwsberichten,
“Een groot deel van de wapens die Groot Brittannië en Frankrijk aan de rebellen in Libië hebben gegeven om te vechten tegen Muammar Gadaffi, zijn hoofdzakelijk in het geheim verkocht aan vertegenwoordigers van Hamas, Hezbollah en Iran, die de wapens vervolgens via Egypte rechtstreeks naar de Gazastrook smokkelden. Ondertussen heeft een team van de Iraanse Revolutionaire Garde in Gaza de training afgerond van het eerste Hamas commandoteam dat speciaal bedoeld is om tegen het Israëlische leger te vechten.”
http://xandernieuws.punt.nl/?id=636891&r=1&tbl_archief=&
Bij Xander worden wel meer samenzweringtheorien verkocht.
Een van de redenen dat Ik daar maar zelden kom.
Hoewel die indirecte wapenleveranties niet geheel onwaar zijn dat weet Ik.
Ik ben al meerdere berichten tegen gekomen in de internationale dagbladen hierover en Ik zie Iran er ook wel voor aan om hier met liefde en plezier bij betrokken te zijn, omdat duidelijk is dat het Iraanse Regime op alle fronten in alle landen van het midden oosten zijn invloedsfeer wil breiden.
Ik heb al meer aangegeven dat als er weer een groot conflikt komt in het midden oosten Iran daar direkt bij betrokken zal zijn en op die manier een reden zoekt om een oorlog te beginnen tegen Israel.
De fout die de Iraanse machthebbers maken in deze is dat de beste wetenschappers nog altijd in Israel zitten en het IRGC het moet doen met gekochte en gesmokkelde technologie want ondanks dat Iran goede Universiteiten heeft komt er niet echt iets nieuws vandaan.
Daarbij komt als het voor Israel echt gaat wringen en de situatie echt kritiek gaat worden voor het land ze waarschijnlijk toch wat atoombommen zullen gaan gebruiken als een soort laatste redmiddel.
En ze hebben dan ook niet veel meer keuze als ze weer een oorlog gaan krijgen met het hele midden oosten versterkt met Iran.
U.S. sees dramatic drop in Iran-backed attacks in Iraq
Attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq by Iran-backed militia have fallen sharply thanks to U.S. and Iraqi military operations and diplomatic engagement with Tehran by Baghdad, top U.S. military officials said Monday.
The upbeat assessment signals a shift from only three weeks ago when visiting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta strongly urged Baghdad to do more against Shi’ite Muslim militias responsible for making June the deadliest month for U.S. forces in Iraq since 2008.
He warned that the United States would take unilateral action if necessary.
Admiral Mike Mullen, the top U.S. military officer, credited U.S. and Iraqi actions as he arrived on an unannounced visit to Iraq, possibly his last before stepping down as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the end of September.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/01/us-iraq-usa-attacks-idUSTRE7704NN20110801?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FworldNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+International%29
Hard Times for Hizbullah
Some good news, for those of you who find Hizbullah a particularly egregious terror organization (I certainly do): From Shimon Shapira:
Five years after the Second Lebanon War, a war whose results Nasrallah considers both a “veritable miracle” and a “divine victory” that God bestowed on his party, Hizbullah has currently reached one of its lowest points. Nasrallah is confronting a genuine crisis that poses a significant challenge to Hizbullah’s status in Lebanon.
Two major reasons account for this strategic reversal:
•The endangered survival of the Assad regime in Syria.
•The international tribunal in The Hague has demanded the extradition of four Hizbullah members suspected of murdering Prime Minister Hariri. Heading the group is Mustafa Badr al-Din, who replaced Imad Mughniyeh as head of the military and security wing and is part of the Hizbullah leadership.
The threat to the Assad regime’s survival is having a direct impact on Hizbullah’s strategic position in both the internal Lebanese arena and vis-à-vis Israel. It is true that Iran gave birth to Hizbullah as a small militia during the era of Hafez Assad, but during the reign of Bashar Assad it matured and attained the dimensions of a state in social, economic, and military terms, one that threatens the very existence of the Lebanese state. Syria represents the womb in which Hizbullah was born and it served as the militia’s adoptive mother that suckled and nurtured it, together with Iran, since its establishment.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/07/hard-times-for-hizbullah/242812/
Verdict For 2 Americans In Iran Within Week
The lawyer for two Americans jailed in Iran on charges of espionage said Sunday the court will announce its verdict within a week, dashing hopes for their immediate release after a final hearing in the case.
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, have been held in Iran’s Evin Prison since shortly after their arrest along the border with Iraq exactly two years ago on Sunday. The case has added to tensions between the United States and Iran that were already high over issues like Tehran’s disputed nuclear program.
The Americans’ lawyer, Masoud Shafiei, had hoped that Sunday’s final court session would result in their immediate release because it coincided with the two-year anniversary of their arrest and came near the start this week of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, when pardons are traditionally handed down.
http://www.npr.org/2011/07/31/138869725/verdict-for-2-americans-in-iran-within-week?ft=1%26f=1009
Iranian Woman Spares Attacker Acid Punishment
An Iranian woman who was blinded and badly disfigured in an acid attack has stopped a retributive blinding sentence from being carried out on her attacker at the last moment.
“He was standing in the hospital operating room and the doctor was about to put acid in his eyes. It was that moment when I said, ‘No, I don’t want this,’” Ameneh Bahrami told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda.
The sentence of “retribution in kind” called for five drops of sulfuric acid to be put in each of Majid Movahedi’s eyes for the 2004 incident, when the spurned suitor poured a bucket of acid on Bahrami, ultimately leaving her blind and forcing her to undergo at least 17 operations.
But as the acid was about to be applied by a doctor in a live broadcast on Iranian state television, Bahrami forgave her attacker and spared him the punishment.
“The Koran gives you the right to retribution,” Bahrami told RFE/RL. “But this very Koran also encourages you to pardon, since pardoning is one of the highest moral standards.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/iranian_woman_spares_attacker_acid_in_eyes/24283843.html
Dit gaat over Syrie; ik zet het toch maar hier neer:
http://tinyurl.com/3cw2r45
‘No appetite for military action’: Hague rules out intervention in Syria despite 140 protesters dying as government launches ‘full armed warfare’ on the people
Foreign Secretary says there must be ‘additional
sanctions’ to pressure Bashar al-Assad’s regime
Government tanks shelled city of Hama, say residents
Dawn raid follows siege lasting weeks
Electricity and water cut to some districts
Obama calls the reports ‘horrifying’
@ Wachteres.
De westerse mogendheden hebben het lef niet om de Syrische bevolking te helpen omdat men goed weet dat Assad geruggesteund word door Iran en spannen dus liever Israel voor het karretje om in een later stadium de kastanjes uit het vuur te halen.
Ik zal utleggen hoe Ik dat bedoel.
Assad word gesteund door Iran en Iran heeft Syrie nodig om Israel dwars te blijven zitten en de druk op Israel te blijven houden.
Israel daarentegen bekijkt het hele gebeuren nogal koel omdat men daar weet dat men door het westen steeds meer in de steek gelaten word en wacht dus gewoon af op welk moment en op welk gebied ze in zullen grijpen, in het midden oosten.
Mocht het zijn dat er weer een oorlog tegen Israel gaat komen zal Israel zich uiteraard met alle macht verdedigen maar het zal moeilijker worden omdat het risico erin zit dat Iran en Turkije zich ermee zullen gaan bemoeien wat de situatie voor Israel aanzienlijk zal bemoeilijken.
Ik schat in dat als Israel een aankomende oorlog niet met de traditionele wapens zal kunnen winnen tegen twee grootmachten en daarom zijn kernmacht zal inzetten.
De Israelische regering weet goed genoeg dat ze dan de hele wereld tegenover zich zullen krijgen (politiek) maar is in ieder geval niet van plan om collectieve zelfmoord te plegen.
Met andere woorden wat veel mensen niet begrijpen is dat we dichter bij WW3 zijn dan menigeen in wil zien.
Ik weet het het nieuws is niet goed maar goed nieuws bestaat de laatste decennia niet meer.
Baha’is Arrested In Several Iranian Cities
Iranian state media have reported the arrests of an unspecified number of Baha’is in cities across the country, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
Arrests were reported in Tehran, Karaj, Esfahan, Shiraz, Mashhad, Yasouj, and Larestan.
The state Fars News Agency reported on July 31 that the arrested Baha’is belonged to an “international corruption network” engaged in “promoting and propagandizing the Baha’i cult through sex appeal and homosexuality.”
The names of the arrested Baha’is were not made public.
Abdolkarim Lahiji, vice president of the Paris-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, told RFE/RL the Iranian regime has brought new charges against the Baha’i followers in order to justify its persecution of them.
http://www.rferl.org/content/bahai_arrests_several_iran_cities/24284790.html
Is the Israeli Air Force Agitating for an Iran Attack?
The targeted strikes have been one component of a wider effort against Iran’s atomic activities that also included last year’s computer-based strike with the Stuxnet malware, Israeli intelligence insiders said.
Elements of the Israeli armed forces — particularly commanders in the country’s air force — consider such clandestine activities insufficient and have advocated increasingly for airstrikes against Iranian targets, the first Israeli source said. The adequacy of targeted killings as a means of slowing Iran’s nuclear advancement has proven controversial, Haaretz has reported.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/08/is-the-israeli-air-force-agitating-for-an-iran-attack/242970/
Drawing the Line on Iranian Enrichment
How much Iranian nuclear capability is too much? The simplest answer is that any amount is unacceptable. By learning how to enrich uranium, Iran has given itself the potential to eventually produce enough weapons-grade material for one or more atomic bombs. That risk can only be removed if all Iranian enrichment programmes are eliminated. This belief has long been a mainstay of U.S. rhetoric, if not policy, towards Iran.
But it is far from clear that zero enrichment is a realistic goal. Indeed, despite recent setbacks, Iran’s leaders appear determined to continue improving and expanding Iran’s enrichment programme; they may even have already decided to eventually build a bomb. The important question, then, is how much Iranian nuclear capability is too much, given the limited (and often costly) options available for curbing Iran.
http://www.cfr.org/iran/drawing-line-iranian-enrichment/p25573?cid=rss-iran-drawing_the_line_on_iranian_en-080211&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+region%2Firan+%28CFR.org+-+Regions+-+Iran%29
The Enemy of Iran’s Enemy
Despite the alarmist headlines, no one should have been shocked by last week’s U.S. Treasury Department designation of a Syrian based in Iran as a conduit for sending money and personnel to al Qaeda.
Iran has had links to members of what became known as al Qaeda since the early 1990s, when both had a presence in Sudan. What many may not know is that the United States missed several opportunities to divide the two and gain custody of senior al Qaeda figures and relatives of Osama bin Laden.
Al Qaeda, with its militant Sunni ideology that despises Shiites as worse than apostates, is hardly a natural ally for the world’s only Shiite theocracy. Iranian officials indignantly denied the Treasury Department’s allegations; one official, speaking on condition of anonymity, noted that Iran opposes al Qaeda adherents in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Iran’s leaders, however, share al Qaeda’s hatred of the United States and Israel, and both have a long history of grievances against the West.
Their tactical ties were forged in Khartoum, when the Sudanese capital was a virtual resort for Islamist militants and agents of rogue states, including bin Laden; members of Hezbollah, Iran’s Lebanese protégé; and Iran’s Quds Force, the external arm of the Revolutionary Guards. According to the 9/11 Commission, in the 1990s the Iranians and al Qaeda reached an “informal agreement to cooperate in providing support — even if only training — for actions carried out primarily against Israel and the United States. Not long afterward, senior al Qaeda operatives and trainers traveled to Iran to receive training in explosives.”
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/01/the_enemy_of_irans_enemy?page=full
To Punish Iran, Seize Its Embassy
LAST week, the Treasury Department accused the Iranian government of aiding Al Qaeda and blacklisted six Qaeda operatives for funneling money through Iran. Although Treasury’s announcement, coupled with existing sanctions, has put some pressure on Tehran, much more can be done. Indeed, the White House should take action in its own backyard.
In February, the Obama administration embarked on a real estate project that directly impacts Iran’s interests in the United States. The State Department began refurbishing Iran’s Washington embassy on Massachusetts Avenue, 31 years after the last Iranian diplomat set foot in it. While the government has thus far respected and protected Iran’s property rights and permitted Iranian officials an unparalleled level of freedom, Washington should now seize outright all Iranian assets in the United States and bar as many Iranian officials as possible from our soil.
Tehran remains the legal owner of several buildings in Washington, although the United States government has taken them over. The State Department has become the legal guardian of the embassy and three residences, renting them out and using the proceeds to maintain them.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/02/opinion/to-punish-iran-seize-its-embassy.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Israel Will Bomb Iranian Nuclear Sites Next Month, Ex-CIA Agent Predicts
Huffington Post.????
Robert Baer, a former CIA agent in the Middle East, predicted on a radio show today that Israel will bomb Iran’s nuclear facilities next month, before the Palestinians go to the United Nations for statehood recognition.
MJ Rosenberg of the Huffington Post writes that Baer “didn’t name sources for his prediction of an Israeli attack, but the few he did cite are all Israeli security figures” who have come out against such an attack, like former Mossad chief Meir Dagan, who has warned that an Israeli attack on Iran is both imminent and “stupid.”
Baer—whose memoir was the basis of the 2005 film Syriana, starring George Clooney—says that an Israeli attack on Iran would drag the United States into a massive, costly war in the Middle East. And the U.S. military, he alleged, is not opposed.
http://www.businessinsider.com/israel-will-bomb-iranian-nuclear-sites-next-month-ex-cia-agent-predictss-2011-8
Tehran Prosecutor’s Illegal Actions Against Political Prisoners Should be Stopped
Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi, has turned the absolute legal rights of Iranian political prisoners, imprisoned journalists, and prisoners of conscience into special privileges that can only be granted a prisoner upon Mr. Dolatabadi’s decision. In order to use these absolute and legal rights, families of political prisoners have to pursue them vigorously and to pass many administrative and bureaucratic hurdles in order to secure the Prosecutor’s permission. This is because Mr. Prosecutor has sacrificed the prisoners’ rights in favor of his partisan interpretations of the laws.
For example, journalist Bahman Ahmadi Amouee, a prisoner of conscience currently at Evin Prison, has not been granted an in-person visit with his family during the past year. The Prosecutor has not agreed to his in-person visit with his family, and he has only been able to visit with them through a booth. Regular prisoners such as drug traffickers are routinely granted in-person visits, while Bahman Amouee has been deprived of them. The law has not stipulated any exceptions to this right for political prisoners, journalists, or prisoners of conscience.
Written requests to the Prosecutor for permission to have in-person visits, a procedure unspecified by the law, is one of the procedures currently in place that have created a long backlog, addressed on a per-case basis by the Prosecutor, where he applies his personal taste and preference in the process. Over the past year, the Prosecutor’s personal taste and preference has not been in favor of Bahman Ahmadi Amouee’s case, according to his family. Amouee remains in a difficult situation inside prison where he is deprived of his most basic rights, including permission to make phone calls.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1017.html
Iran, Where A Water Fight Can Land You In Prison
Eindelijk eens een keer echte zware CRIMINELEN opgepakt in Iran en vastgezet.
Als het maar geen residivisten zijn, want dan is pas echt de staatsveiligheid in gevaar.
Yet again, a number of young people have been arrested in the Iranian capital.
Their crime: engaging in a water fight.
The evidence: water guns and bottles.
The accusations against them: violating Islamic principles and norms.
It sounds absurd, but sadly it’s the reality in the Islamic Republic of Iran where, among other things, having a bit of fun can also land one in prison.
The young women and men had gathered last week in a Tehran park, ironically named the Garden of Water and Fire, and splashed water at each other.
The event, planned and organized on Facebook, had reportedly attracted around 800 people. Pictures of the event show happy girls and boys soaked with water, carrying colorful water guns.
http://www.rferl.org/content/persian_letters_water_fight_can_land_you_in_prison/24285467.html
Report: Iranian Minister Supports Release Of Jailed U.S. Citizens
Iran’s Fars news agency quotes Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi as saying he hopes the trial of two U.S. citizens jailed in Iran on spying charges “will proceed in a manner that will result in their freedom.”
Officials say a verdict from the trial of U.S. citizens Shane Bauer, Josh Fattal, and Sarah Shourd, arrested near the Iran-Iraq border two years ago, will be announced soon.
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran_american_hikers_trial_spying/24288671.html
Turkey Says Intercepts Arms Shipment From Iran To Syria
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has confirmed that government authorities have intercepted an arms shipment from Iran to Syria, state-run Anatolian news agency said.
Asked about a report that a truck containing weapons had been intercepted by Turkish authorities, Davutoglu said: “We have this information and the necessary investigations are being made. … I will give detailed information when necessary.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/turkey_syria_iran_arms_shipment/24288517.html
Iranian Academic Charged As ‘Enemy Of God’ Brands Court Illegal
A former chancellor of Tehran University charged with waging war against God has told the court hearing his case that it is illegal, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
Mohammad Maleki, who is accused of undermining Iran’s Islamic system, was summoned to Tehran’s Revolutionary Court over the weekend.
Maleki told Radio Farda on August 3 that at first he refused to appear in court because he considers the sentences the court hands down unlawful. He wrote to Judge Moghiseh of the 28th branch of Tehran’s Revolutionary Court to explain that decision, but Moghiseh rejected his explanation.
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran_academic_charged_as_enemy_of_god_brands_court_illegal/24286612.html
Green Movement Council warns Iran regime, sides with Syrian protesters
The Coordinating Council of the Green Path of Hope, the Green Movement’s highest decision making body, has issued a statement in solidarity with pro-democracy protesters in Syria, while calling on Iranian authorities to cease their support for the Assad regime’s deadly suppression of dissenters.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, since the start of demonstrations in the country, the regime has sought to quell the protests with brutal force, killing around 1,650 civilians and imprisoning thousands of protesters.
Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu has already confirmed that Turkish authorities have intercepted an arms shipment from Iran to Syria, according to state-run Anatolian news agency.
http://en.irangreenvoice.com/article/2011/aug/06/3231?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+irangreenvoice%2FEn+%28Iran+Green+Voice+-+English%29
Iranian students to take on oppressive regime through water gun fights
Iranian students have resorted to water gun fights to protest against Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s oppressive regime.
The large-scale water fight organized by students at Abo Atash Park in Tehran had led to a crackdown by the authorities and culminated in several arrests.
However, the students, unfazed by regime threats, are once again geared to take on the regime by organizing another water fight on September 2.
Facebook event ‘Tehran’s Water Gun Fight’ has been instrumental in spreading the word of protest.
An Iran Solidarity movement activist Milani has aided the creation of an English version of the Water Gun Fight Facebook page to link and unite the rest of the world to Tehran.
http://in.news.yahoo.com/iranian-students-oppressive-regime-water-gun-fights-075502684.html
Ahmadinejad gives interview on opposition, recent disputes
In an interview with euronews network, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the Iranian judiciary as an independent organ free of political interference, adding that opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi have their issues with the judiciary.
Last night, in an interview with John Davis in the English section of the euronews, Ahmadinejad said recent uprisings in the region are completely different from the Iranian protests that followed his re-election in 2009. Ahmadinejad’s re-election was marred by allegations of vote fraud, which triggered widespread protests that were violently suppressed by the government.
Ahmadinejad insisted that Iranian elections are completely free and open but “attacking buildings, people and cars is prohibited in any country.”
Ahmadinejad addressed the issue of free speech for the opposition, including opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, who have been under house arrest since last February and cut off from the outside world. “They have their issues with the judiciary,” Ahmadinejad said. “The judiciary is independent, and I do not have the right to interfere in the workings of the judges.”
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1046.html
Turkey Says Farewell To The Generals
There was a time when to be a senior commander in Turkey’s military was to be above all else in a state forged and shaped, after all, by a soldier, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
But no longer. If Ataturk is still exalted — at least officially — the stock of his modern-day comrades-in-arms has fallen dramatically.
The impotence of the army — an institution that once made and broke Turkish governments — was amply demonstrated on July 29 when its four top commanders, including the chief of staff, General Isik Kosaner, resigned in protest at the detention of 250 fellow officers accused of plotting to topple the government of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Kosaner, who quit along with the heads of the ground, naval, and air forces, expressed his feelings of powerlessness in his resignation statement. “It has become impossible for me to continue in this high office because I am unable to fulfill my responsibility to protect the rights of my personnel as the chief of general staff,” he said.
At the heart of Kosaner’s anguish is the continued presence of 173 serving and 77 retired military personnel in jail, mostly on charges of trying to overthrow Erdogan’s socially conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) government in a coup, known as Operation Sledgehammer.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1043.html
Daughter of former reformist lawmaker murdered
The murder of Fatemeh Bagherinejadianfard, the daughter of a former reformist MP, has caused a stir in Iranian Parliament, with MPs calling for an immediate inquest.
The daughter of a former Kazeroon MP was kidnapped in Tehran last week, and 24 hours later her body was found near Shahr-e Rey, the Aftab news website reports.
One hundred MPs have signed a petition to urge immediate action in finding her kidnappers and murderers.
In the controversial 2009 presidential elections, Mohammadbagher Bagherinajadianfard supported MirHosein Mousavi, the opposition leader who is now under house arrest. Fatemeh Bagherinejadianfard also participated in the street demonstrations sparked by allegations of fraud in the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/daughter-former-reformist-lawmaker-murdered
Baha’is In Iran ‘Summoned’ To Intelligence Ministry
Dozens of Baha’is in cities across Iran are reported to have been summoned to the Intelligence Ministry in recent weeks because of their activities in the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE), RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
Diane Ala’i, the community’s representative to the United Nations in Geneva, told Radio Farda that some of the Baha’is were interrogated and some detained for having helped Baha’i students who wanted to pursue their higher education.
http://www.rferl.org/content/bahais_in_iran_summoned_to_intelligence_ministry/24291867.html
Iran Knows How To End The Violence In London
Following three days of riots in London, Iranian lawmaker Hossein Ebrahimi has told the semi-official Fars news agency that parliament is ready to send a human rights delegation to Britain to investigate human rights abuses, while Iran’s Foreign Ministry has called on the U.K. government to listen to the demands of the protesters.
“We ask the government of England and those in charge of the [U.K.] Embassy in Tehran to pave the way for the presence of human rights [experts] in that country without making false excuses,” Ebrahimi said.
Ebrahimi, who is the deputy chairman of the parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, added that Iranian human rights investigators want to speak to Britain’s “political prisoners” and prepare a report about the treatment of “protesters” for international organizations.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast, meanwhile, urged the British government to order the police to stop their violent confrontation with the protesters and begin a dialogue to calm the situation.
This from Tehran, where force was used to end peaceful opposition protests in 2009 and a crackdown on all dissenting voices continues.
http://www.rferl.org/content/persian_letters_iran_knows_how_to_end_london_violence/24292021.html
Iran News Round Up August 8, 2011
•Presidential crisis:
◦Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addresses representatives of the government’s three branches: “Such unprecedented events in the region and in the world have provided the Islamic regime with great opportunities, but if there is no realistic assessment of the conditions of the state, those opportunities may be wasted or even become threats… In the political, economic and cultural fields, there have been some weaknesses, shortcomings and problems most of which are due to not living up to responsibilities.”
http://www.irantracker.org/roundup/iran-news-round-august-8-2011
Iran News Round Up August 9, 2011
Politics
•Newly appointed Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi selects Amir-Hamed Sohrabi his chief of staff.
•Rafsanjani addresses the employees of the Expediency Council while breaking the fast:
◦”This month [of Ramadan] is a good opportunity for us. If we have committed mistakes, we should correct it… Recognizing mistakes and faults is something from which no class and group is exempted, especially those who have public responsibilities. In case they have committed mistakes and faults… they should consider the path of correcting themselves.”
http://www.irantracker.org/roundup/iran-news-round-august-9-2011
Jailed Iranian Journalists Sound ‘Tyranny’ Alarm Bell
Fourteen jailed journalists are warning the Iranian public of grave societal danger, saying the house arrest of the opposition leaders and their wives is an frightful indication of what’s to come.
In a statement published yesterday, the journalists called attention to “the oppressive force hanging heavily over Iranian society and pushing it toward all-out tyranny.” They were referring to the detention of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi and their wives Zahra Rahnavard and Fatemeh Karroubi, and the forced closure of prominent Green Movement newspapers Etemad-e Melli (National Trust) and Kaleme Sabz (Green Word).
The statement, published yesterday to coincide with Reporter’s Day in Iran, is signed by journalists jailed in Evin and Rejaishahr Prisons: Alireza Beheshti Shirazi, Ali Malihi, Siamak Ghaderi, Alirez Rejai, Nahmad Ahmadi Amouyi, Massoud Bastani, Massoud Lavasani, Nader Karimi Joni, Saeed Matinpour, Mohammad Sedigh Kaboodvand, Mohammd Davari, Saam Mahmouudi Sarabi, Keyvan Samimi and Issa Saharkhiz.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1092.html
Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karoubi: The Two Forgotten Men
Life is going on as normal in Tehran and other cities in Iran, with most residents occupied with concerns about inflation and the escalating cost of living. But aside from economic anxieties and worries over shortages of electricity and basic goods, the summer has been a time of confrontation for the Iranian people with the government’s “Outfit Police.” In western countries, the term “fashion police” is an adopted name for respected experts in fashion who have the authority to “correct” the fashion and stylistic errors of celebrities and other folks. But in the Islamic Republic, the fashion police is the exact opposite; they must “correct” residents if they are fashionable, and they do so by force, with minibuses available to take any offenders away to detention.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/camelia-entekhabifard/mir-hossein-mousavi-and-m_b_920388.html
Increased jail term for journalist “mark of leader’s personal vendetta”
The son of jailed journalist Issa Saharkhiz has spoken out publicly against his father’s treatment by the judiciary and aimed a warning directly at Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.
Mehdi Saharkhiz’s statements to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran come three days after his father’s sentence was increased by two years.
“I want to personally tell Mr. Khamenei that he should learn from the fate of [ousted Egyptian president] Hosni Mubarak… Iranian statesmen will also reap what their actions have sown, like Saddam, Ghaddafi and Hosni Mubarak. I wish to tell them to beware their fates in this world and remember that they will not always be in power.”
Issa Saharkhiz, who was the head of domestic press in the Ministry of Culture and Guidance during the reformist administration of President Mohammad Khatami, was arrested after the controversial 2009 presidential elections
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/increased-jail-term-journalist-mark-leaders-personal-vendetta
Hard-Line Iranian Media Demonize Western ‘Cultural Threat’
Gekker kunnen we het niet maken wel Shiítischer.
The hard-line daily newspapers “Kayhan” and “Resalat” have called for a new round of “media purification” in Iran, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
The two dailies were responding to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s characterization of the “cultural invasion” of the country’s media by the West as the “key threat” to the Islamic republic.
In the editorial “Den of Charlatans” published in “Kayhan” on August 10, Hossein Shariatmadari, the supreme leader’s representative, holds Iranian journalists responsible for the unrest that followed the controversial June 2009 presidential election.
http://www.rferl.org/content/conservative_iran_media_demonize_western_cultural_threat/24294088.html
Martial Arts Expert Leaves Iran Rather Than Train Basij
Iranian martial arts expert Ahmad Fouladizadeh says he has left the country rather than agree to train Basij volunteer paramilitaries and plainclothes police how to neutralize participants in street protests, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
Fouladizadeh (aka Fouladi) told Radio Farda from Sweden that he has applied for political asylum there.
He said that a few months ago the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRCG) asked him to serve as a trainer at a physical education club belonging to the IRGC in the southwestern city of Shiraz
http://www.rferl.org/content/martial_arts_expert_leaves_iran_rather_than_train_basij/24293839.html
The dangers of secularism in the Middle East
Amid Arab Spring unrest, Western analysts tout secularism, fearing the rise of Islamists in the Middle East. But stability will come from including, rather than excluding, religious groups in politics.
Notre Dame, Ind., Washington, and Cambridge, Mass.
Since the Arab Spring began last December, Western analysts have voiced a recurrent fear: that a long era of Arab stability will be replaced not by secular democrats but by Islamic theocrats.
In Egypt, they warn, the Muslim Brotherhood will overtake the young secular activists who bravely brought down dictator Hosni Mubarak. In Syria, they have claimed, Bashar al-Assad’s dictatorship may be brutal, but it is a lesser evil than a Sunni majority that will oppress Christians, Shiites, and women. Such anxiety plays perfectly into the ruling rationale of the region’s secular sultans, who have resisted popular governance with the argument that it spells theocracy.
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Opinion/2011/0811/The-dangers-of-secularism-in-the-Middle-East
Waar anderen afhaken (jaja ik weet het) gaat Henk stug door! Klasse!:)
In new affront, authorities say they will bury an Iranian Baha’i as a Muslim
In an outrageous new incident of religious discrimination, authorities in the city of Tabriz, Iran, have refused to allow Baha’is to bury a relative in accordance with Baha’i law -- and instead have promised to entomb the deceased woman without a coffin under Muslim rites.
“To anyone who understands the culture of the Middle East, the idea that the government would force a family to bury their loved one according to the rites of another religion is beyond the pale,” said Diane Ala’i, the representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.
She noted that according to Baha’i rites of burial, the deceased must be interred in a coffin, whereas under Muslim law, no coffin is used.
“This incident demonstrates the almost unbelievable length to which Iranian authorities are willing to go to express their prejudice and animosity against Baha’is,” she said.
The incident began on Monday when authorities in Tabriz told the family of Mrs. Fatemeh-Soltan Zaeri that they would be unable to bury her in the local cemetery according to Baha’i law. Instead, they said, she would have to be interred according to Muslim customs.
The family objected, noting that the cemetery has always been accessible to members of all religions in the area to bury their dead as they wished.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1104.html
Dank P.
Het duurt inderdaad lang maar Ik zal nooit iemand een verwijt maken.
Mensen hebben hun eigen gezin waar ze ook aandacht aan moeten besteden en deze last heb Ik niet.
Begrip is ook een menselijke emotie.
Khamenei won’t support Assad to the end
Hypocryte Arschloch.
Iran and Syria have long been allies, yet as if Khameni realises Assad’s situation is not salvageable, he will abandon him
For President Bashar al-Assad, the situation in Syria is becoming worse every day. In the middle of the biggest crisis his regime has faced, he has had one friend on whom he could rely: Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei.
Khamenei has been Assad’s steadfast friend, providing him with political as well as material support. But as Assad’s position worsens, he will need to rely on Khamenei’s regime more, especially since an increasing number of Assad’s neighbours are turning against him.
First was Turkey, which used to be a close ally. Now, the Turkish government is putting pressure on Assad and warning him to stop killing demonstrators and to implement reforms as soon as possible. And then the Saudis joined in by telling Assad to stop “his killing machine” and withdrawing their ambassador. A number of other Gulf states followed suit.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/aug/13/khamenei-support-assad
‘Iran will do everything to stop UK’
A senior Iranian lawmaker says the Islamic Republic will spare no effort to stop the UK government’s crackdown on British protesters.
“Iran will use all of its potentials to stop the repression of the disadvantaged in the UK and [to secure] the release of political prisoners,” Fars News Agency quoted Chairwoman of the Human Rights Committee of the Iran’s Majlis (parliament) Zohreh Elahian, as saying on Saturday.
She said the UK must make the necessary preparations for Majlis human rights observers to visit the country.
Elahian also said some of the parliamentarians are to join a protest rally, which is to be held by Iranian university students in front of the British embassy in Tehran on Sunday.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/193803.html
Iran continues to target critical journalists
The Committee to Protect Journalists is concerned about a rise in the number of imprisoned journalists in Iran and the continuing deterioration of their health. In recent days, Iranian authorities increased a prominent journalist’s prison term by two years and arrested a critical journalist who had just finished serving a prison sentence. Other journalists have suffered from declining health as a result of substandard conditions, extended periods in solitary confinement, and intentional abuse, according to news reports.
“Iran continues to defy its own laws as well as international legal norms by engaging in systematic neglect and abuse against journalists and the arbitrary denial of their basic rights,” said Mohamed Abdel Dayem, CPJ Middle East and North Africa program coordinator. “Authorities continue to routinely deploy punitive measures and physical violence against journalists who refuse to toe the government line.”
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1116.html
Another Iranian political prisoner in critical condition
Iranian political prisoner Ghassem Sholeh Saadi is in critically poor health and is being denied medical care, opposition media report.
The Kaleme website reports that Evin Prison physicians have declared that Sholeh Saadi is not fit to serve out his sentence, but prison authorities refuse to attend to his case.
Kaleme adds: “This prisoner has not been allowed to be transferred to a hospital outside the prison and he has also been denied medical leave and he is often denied family visits.”
Sholeh Saadi,a professor at Tehran University and a former lawmaker, was arrested last April at Mehrabad Airport in Tehran while returning from Shiraz.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1113.html
Former prisoners prepared to testify on rights violations
A number of former Iranian political prisoners have written to Ahmad Shaheed, the United Nations’ special human rights rapporteur for Iran, to say they are prepared to testify about what they’ve seen and experienced in Iranian prisons.
The signatories claim there is “widespread violation of human rights in Iran” and call on Ahmad Shaheed to closely investigate the “mistreatment” of political prisoners all across the country.
Over the past two years, after protests erupted around allegations of vote fraud in the re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, thousands of Iranians have been arrested and hundreds have been sentenced to prison terms.
The letter indicates that political prisoners are subjected to inhumane treatment, especially since the 2009 election protests.
Ahmad Shaheed was appointed as the UN special rapporteur for Iran in June, and his mandate officially began on August 1. Islamic Republic authorities have condemned the United Nations’ decision and have announced that they will not allow Shaheed to enter Iran for his investigation.
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/former-prisoners-prepared-testify-rights-violations
Faezeh Hashemi to be put on trial on Sunday
Faezeh Hashemi, the daughter of Expediency Council head Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, will be put on trial on Sunday August 14.
The Fars News Agency reports that Hashemi’s trial will be presided over by Judge Salavati in branch 5 of the Tehran Revolutionary Court.
While her charges have not been formally announced, in May, Iran’s Prosecutor General Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei said new charges were pending against Faezeh Hashemi for “insulting Islamic Republic officials.” The charges were related to her interview on the Roozonline website.
Hashemi criticized the actions of the Iranian government in that interview and said the country was being run by “hoodlums and thugs.”
Mohseni Ejei reacted by saying portions of Faezeh Hashemi’s statement could make her subject to prosecution.
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/faezeh-hashemi-be-put-trial-sunday
Uitstekend en helder arikel op Keizers & Kleren:over de vrees van Iran over de nauwere samenwerking tussen Azerbedjan en Israël.
Een puik stukje inzicht in realpolitiek.
http://www.islamofobie.nl/index.php/blog/meer/over_de_verstandige_real-politiek_van_israel/
Iran Declines Comment On Baku’s Islamic Activist Accusations
The Iranian Embassy in Baku has declined to comment on Azerbaijani allegations that Islamic activists arrested last week had set up a radical religious group with financial support from Baku’s Cultural Center of Iran, RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service reports.
A court in Baku on August 13 remanded the three members of the banned Islamic Party of Azerbaijan in pretrial detention for two months on weapons- and drug-possession charges.
The three men — party Deputy Chairman Arif Qaniyev, party member Abgul Suleymanov, and Ramin Bayramov, editor of the news website islam-azeri.az — were arrested on August 11.
They have been charged with illegal possession of weapons and drugs, crimes that are punishable by up to three years in prison.
But according to a joint statement on August 12 by the National Security Ministry and the Prosecutor-General’s Office, they are also suspected of unspecified “hostile activity against Azerbaijan.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran_declines_comment_baku_islamic_activist_accusations/24297463.html
Humanities courses cut at Iranian university
Journalism and communication studies are among 13 undergraduate degrees which have been removed from the prospectus of one of Iran’s universities this year.
This year Allameh Tabatabayee university offers 6 undergraduate degrees in the field of humanities studies as opposed to 19 last year.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-14512745
Prospects for U.S.-Iran Diplomacy
•What are the prospects for progress this year in diplomatic efforts?
There is little chance for a major breakthrough in negotiations with Iran in 2011, or for that matter 2012. Three major obstacles will prevent this.
First, the political crisis in Iran itself, which suggests a serious struggle for power between the parliamentary conservatives and the president’s office and the parallel struggle between the president and the supreme leader.
Second, the United States will be entering an election cycle. The Republican candidates throughout the fall of 2011 and into the early months of 2012 will, with the exception of Ron Paul, be strongly opposed to any concessions to Iran. In fact, they are likely to put great pressure on President Obama to do more to confront the regime, including sanctions, isolation, and rhetoric about a military strike, (although realistically, a military strike at a time of economic crisis is a highly unlikely contingency).
http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2011/aug/15/prospects-us-iran-diplomacy
900 Channels of the Great Satan
Humor.
For years, most Iranians have understood the United States through expat tales, condemnatory sermons about the Great Satan — and the Spider-Man films. This year, however, they have a new show called Satellite that offers an unfamiliar and bizarrely twisted portrayal of an America so tawdry that charlatans hawk their own mothers for $20 and sex-chat-room perverts aspire to political leadership of Iran. Set in an imagined Los Angeles among the city’s large Iranian diaspora, Satellite, an hourlong show that’s available on YouTube as well as on DVD in corner stores everywhere in Iran, offers a burlesque parody that is not merely shocking but also depressingly revealing about the state of establishment Iran’s once-proud attitude toward its expat community. Iran has long had its highly publicized version of the Ugly American; now, it seems, the country is embracing something else entirely: the Ugly Iranian-American.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/08/15/900_channels_of_the_great_satan
Verdict soon on US hikers: prosecutor
Iran’s prosecutor general said yesterday that the verdict in the case of three Americans arrested two years ago on espionage charges would be issued “soon,” Mehr news agency reported. “The final verdict will be issued soon,” Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejeie said. When asked whether there was a possibility of pardoning the three during Ramadan, he said he had “not heard such a rumour.”
http://www.gulf-times.com/site/topics/article.asp?cu_no=2&item_no=452943&version=1&template_id=37&parent_id=17
Iran snipers in Syria as part of crackdown
Iranian snipers have been deployed in Syria as part of an increasingly brutal crackdown on protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad, according to a former member of the regime’s secret police.
The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity to avoid reprisals, crossed the border into Turkey last week after being ordered to shoot to kill, bringing with him sickening details of increasingly desperate measures to end five months of demonstrations. He said he had beaten prisoners and fired on protesters in Damascus. At times during the past two months he was aware of Iranian troops – confirmed by senior officers – alongside his team in the Syrian capital.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/syria/8702466/Iran-snipers-in-Syria-as-part-of-crackdown.html
Clerical Regime Looks To Impose Control Over Iran’s Sunni Seminaries
The Shi’ite clerical regime of Iran appears to be intensifying its repression of the country’s Sunnis under the guise of “reorganizing” their seminaries.
This is being done through the full implementation of a memorandum issued in 2008 by Iran’s Supreme Cultural Revolution Council, a Qom-based conservative-dominated body whose 41 members are appointed by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
President Mahmud Ahmadinejad chairs the body, although any decisions made by the council can be overruled by Khamenei.
In 2008, the council issued a memorandum titled “Bylaws of the Council for Planning Curricula of Sunni Seminaries” (CPCSS), which has 10 articles and four addendums. According to one of the articles, all Sunni seminaries must be managed by the council under the guidance of Ayatollah Khamenei’s representatives.
On June 21, Hojatoleslam Abbas Farzi, the secretary of the CPCSS, told Fars news agency that 98 percent of Sunni seminaries in the country had been reorganized, restructured, and registered. “The aim of the CPCSS is to give services to Sunni clerics…[by] evaluating their qualification, issuing appropriate certificates…and increasing their allowance from September this year,” he said.
Based on an edict of Ayatollah Khamenei, he added, “all [Sunni] seminaries, as well as maintaining their own traditions, should be equipped with up-to-date knowledge of the world.”
Prior to the formation of the CPCSS, the clerical establishment, at Khamenei’s behest, established two Grand Islamic Centers in the provinces of Kurdistan and Golestan with the aim of paving the way for “the cooperation of Sunni clerics with representatives of the supreme leader.”
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1137.html
Inflation rates on the rise in Iran
Iran’s Central Bank has announced that the national inflation rate as 16.3 percent, ending a two-month delay in revealing where inflation stands.
Mahmoud Bahmani, the head of Iran’s Central Bank, expressed hope that the inflation rate would fall, predicting that the country would move to a single-digit rate in the coming year.
Iran’s inflation rate has gone from 8.8 percent in May of 2010 to 12.8 percent last March. The new report indicates there was a further increase of four percentage points over the past four months.
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/inflation-rates-rise-iran
Iran, Where A Water Fight Can Land You In Prison
August 03, 2011
Yet again, a number of young people have been arrested in the Iranian capital.
Their crime: engaging in a water fight.
The evidence: water guns and bottles.
The accusations against them: violating Islamic principles and norms.
http://www.rferl.org/content/persian_letters_water_fight_can_land_you_in_prison/24285467.html
Arrestatie door de zedenpolitie wegens het onkuis kleden (haar niet geheel bedekt):
Betogers in Syrië verbranden posters van Khomeini and Hezbollah
Ho eplaats je hier en video?leider Nasrollah
Prominent Iranians Call For Release Of Green Movement Leaders
Hundreds of Iranian political and civil activists have signed an open letter to international organizations demanding help in securing the release of opposition leaders Mir Hossein Musavi, Mehdi Karrubi, and their wives, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
The four have been under house arrest for six months, since Musavi and Karrubi called on Iranians to participate in a rally on February 14 in support of the democratic uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt.
The letter, published on the opposition Kaleme website on August 16, states that “During this period, not a single person associated with the Iranian state, judiciary, or security forces has accepted responsibility for these transgressions and violations of the law [regarding the cases of Musavi and Karrubi and their wives].”
http://www.rferl.org/content/prominent_iranians_call_for_release_of_green_movement_leaders/24299622.html
Briton Arrested for Plotting Water Fight by BlackBerry
In a demonstration of the kind of zero-tolerance policing of modern criminality that will no doubt impress Iran’s morals police as much as Egypt’s military rulers, officers outside London announced on Monday that they had arrested a man for sending text messages encouraging people to take part in a mass water fight.
According to a statement posted on the Essex police force Web site — under the headline: “Police Reassure Residents They Are Working to Keep County Safe” — a 20 year-old man, “who allegedly sent messages from a BlackBerry encouraging people to join in a water fight,” was arrested and charged under a provision of “the Serious Crime Act.” The man was released on bail, ahead of a court appearance on Sept. 1.
The police statement also explained that the force’s officers “have vowed to take a robust approach to anyone who uses social networking sites to stimulate fictitious rumors.”
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/briton-arrested-for-plotting-water-fight-by-blackberry/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Living and Loving Underground in Iran
SHORTLY before she began shooting the film “Circumstance,” her first experience in front of a camera, the law student and soon-to-be actress Sarah Kazemy flew from her home in France to visit relatives in Iran. She anticipated that the movie, which focuses on the lesbian romance of two Tehran teenagers rebelling against a puritanical Islamic theocracy, would make it difficult for her to return there for the foreseeable future, and she wanted to say her farewells to people and a country that she loves.
“I’m proud that this movie shows a bit of the underground life there,” even if it offends the mullahs, “because people have no idea that such a thing even exists, and it’s bigger than what you can imagine,” Ms. Kazemy said during a recent interview in Manhattan. “I used to go to Iran every summer until I was 17,” she added, “so I had to go there one last time.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/21/movies/circumstance-a-film-of-underground-life-in-iran.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
The dramatic moment a machine gunner on a Royal Navy warship opens fire on speedboat ‘suicide bombers’
Confronted by an unidentified speedboat powering straight towards them, this is the dramatic moment the crew of a Royal Navy warship fear they are under attack from Iranian suicide bombers.
Sailors on HMS Iron Duke rush to action stations and train their machineguns on the unmarked vessel as it maintains its menacing course in the Persian Gulf.
Concerned the small boat is packed with lethal explosives, British troops hold their nerve until it is just 300ft away -- and rattle off two fearsome bursts of gunfire.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2027872/Royal-Navy-warship-opens-speedboat-Iranian-suicide-bombers.html?ITO=1490
Iran’s covert war with Israel in Caspian
A senior Iranian general has warned zerbaijan about getting too close to Israel, underlining fears in Tehran that the Jewish state could use Iran’s northern neighbor to launch pre-emptive strikes against Iran’s nuclear program.
Israel has been quietly building intelligence and military links with oil rich Azerbaijan, a largely secular Muslim state, since the collapse of the Soviet Union two decades ago.
The Israelis sell significant amounts of weapons and unmanned aerial vehicles to the government in Baku, on the Caspian Sea, as its intelligence services dig in along the border with Iran.
That gives Israel a forward operating base to monitor Iran, particularly its contentious nuclear program, which Jerusalem views as a major existential threat.
Over the last two years, tensions have escalated as Azerbaijan has become part of the shadowy intelligence war between Iran and Israel. It has become even more important to Israel since its May 2010 rift with former ally Turkey, which also borders Iran.
http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Irans_covert_war_with_Israel_in_Caspian_999.html
Jailed Iranian blogger beaten in prison
Hossein Ronaghi Maleki, jailed Iranian blogger has been reportedly beaten by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards in prison.
Zoleykha Mousavi, mother of Ronaghi Maleki told Campaign for Human Rights in Iran yesterday: “Today they called us from Prison and told us that an intelligence officer of the Guards has beaten our son in a meeting. We were told that he had passed out and after some hours, he had been transferred to Taleghani Hospital.”
Mousavi speculated that the jailed blogger was beaten for having written a letter to Tehran Prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi to complain about the judiciary’s indifference to his physical condition and refusing to grant him leave to get treatment outside prison.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1164.html
Delays in verdict for Americans called a violation
The lawyer for two Americans detained in Iran says the case judge is violating court regulations by delaying the verdict beyond the one-week limit.
Massoud Shafii said Iranian law requires the courts to issue their verdict one week after the final trial. Shafii told the Campaign for Human Rights in Iran: “Once the judge announces the end of the trial, he must run sentence right there or at most take a week to do so. Therefore, in this case, I have to say that the judge is in violation.”
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/delays-verdict-americans-called-violation
Twee Amerikaanse wandelaars zijn in Iran veroordeeld tot elk acht jaar cel. Het tweetal is volgens de rechter op illegale wijze het land binnengedrongen en heeft zich schuldig gemaakt aan spionage. Dat meldde de staatstelevisie vandaag.
Shane Bauer en Josh Fattal (beiden 28 jaar oud) werden samen met een derde Amerikaan, die eerder werd vrijgelaten, op 31 juli 2009 aan de grens met Irak aangehouden.
Het drietal wandelde in Irak en verklaarde per ongeluk de grens met Iran te zijn overgestoken.
Bauer en Fattal kregen elk drie jaar voor het illegaal binnengaan van Iran en vijf jaar voor spionage. Het is niet bekend of de twee jaar die zij inmiddels vastzitten van de strafmaat wordt afgetrokken. De twee hebben twintig dagen de tijd om tegen het vonnis in beroep te gaan.
http://www.trouw.nl/tr/nl/4496/Buitenland/article/detail/2857283/2011/08/20/Acht-jaar-cel-voor-Amerikaanse-wandelaars-in-Iran.dhtml
Eencelligen die op vakantie naar Irak gaan verdienen niet beter. Wandelende neukfouten die daarbij ook nog is de Iraanse grens oversteken verdienen een islamitische euthanasie. Kan er geen medelijden mee hebben. Het zullen wel weer een paar van die groene linkse loopsukkels zijn. Wat heb je daar in hemelsnaam te zoeken? Behalve problemen.
Onzin Rommel.
Het is in ieder geval duidelijk dat Shane Bauer en Josh Fattal nu het middelpunt gaan vormen in een politiek spel.
Dat was me al duidelijk toen de zaken telkens maar weer opgeschort werden.
Naar alle waarschijnlijkheid zal het wel een politiek steekspel worden tussen Iran en de USA om de steun aan Israel.
Een dingetje wat zelfs Obama goed uit gaat komen.
Zal het lekker doen in de media en ten gunste van de verkiezingen in Amerika.
Minder steun voor Israel voor de vrijlating van deze twee.
Let maar op mijn woorden.
Boek verschenen over de connecties tussen de 11/9 kapers, Binladen/Al Qaida en Saoedi Arabië, maar ook Iran.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8712299/911-al-Qaeda-didnt-act-alone.html
“Onzin Rommel.”
Nou Henk, vertel mij dan maar is wat er zo grandioos is aan Irak om daar voor je lol op vakantie te gaan. Misschien kan je me ook verlichten over de motivatie en het plezier om een wandeltocht midden in de woestijn naast de Iraanse grens te beginnen. Het feit dat jij en ik al inzien dat ze door Iran als wisselgeld gebruikt gaan worden had hun al bedenkingen moeten geven. Sorry hoor, ik zie dat soort mensen, net als die NL postzegelhandelaar die bij een bezoek aan N-Korea een paar weken mocht blijven logeren in een cel, bedelaars voor moeilijkheden. Kan er geen medelijden mee hebben.
Dat het een politiek steekspel wordt doet niks af van het feit dat een stel sukkels zijn. Wie gaat er nu in een oorlogsland langs de grens met een ander Amerika-vijandig land wandelen?
Dan ben je bijzonder naïef of je hebt andere bedoelingen.
Een wandeltocht doe je in de Alpen of Ardennen, desnoods in het Amsterdamse Bos. Maar fucking hell toch niet onbegeleid met zijn tweetjes in de woestijn? En dan ook ook nog is in Irak richting Iraanse grens. Ik zie me al sjokken daar in die zandbak van Iran en de Iraanse veiligheidsdienst houdt me aan en vraagt wat ik hier doe. “Ik ben een stukje aan het wandelen, genieten van die mooie woestijn van u.” Dom en dommer.
Droogte in Iran moet wel erg groot zijn. Nu willen ze Irak droogleggen. 1ste wateroorlog?
http://www.thememriblog.org/blog_personal/en/40244.htm
Ik denk Willem dat dit weer een politiek spelletje is van het Iraanse regime.
Ik ben namelijk niet vergeten dat ahmadinejad wist te vertellen dat wij in het westen de regenwolken leeg maken en daardoor geen regen genoeg meer valt in Iran, paar maandjes terug gebeurt.
@ Rommel
Je kunt niet voor andere mensen uitmaken waar ze hun vacantie door brengen
Zoals je weet zijn er mensen die zelfs boven op het dak van de wereld willen komen.
Andere mensen gaan in Afrika de bush in waar het soms ook tot gevaarlijke situaties komt
Weer anderen gaan het Braziliaanse oerwoud in volkomen onvoorbereid, wat ook niet het slimste is.
Uiteraard hadden deze drie kunnen bedenken dat als er iets mis zou gaan ze een politieke speelbal zouden kunnen worden, maar zoals al duidelijk is geworden zijn ze min of meer ontvoerd door Iraanse grenswachten Iran in, dus de situatie is een beetje anders als je hier voor stelt.
Jailed Iranian Lawyer Declines Family Visits
A prominent human rights lawyer jailed in Iran has refused prison visits by her family after they were roughly treated by prison staff, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
Nasrin Sotoudeh’s husband Reza Khandan told Radio Farda that he visited his wife two weeks ago along with their children and her sister.
Khandan said that during that visit, a member of the prison staff illegally tried to grab his notebook from him. Another staff member tried to take away Sotoudeh’s sister’s cell phone by force, he added.
When they protested that treatment, all four were detained for several hours, Khandan said. No food was provided for the children — an 11-year-old daughter and 4-year-old son — during that time.
http://www.rferl.org/content/jailed_iranian_lawyer_declines_family_visits/24306509.html
Captured Taliban Commander: ‘I Received Iranian Training’
A Taliban commander captured in southwestern Afghanistan claims to have received military training in Iran to target a major dam in the region.
The claim was made by Mullah Dadullah, who was captured recently in the Lash-e Zoveyn region of Farah Province, close to the Iranian border.
“I was trained in Iran for three months. Our trainers were a mix of Pakistanis, Iranians, and Arabs,” Dadullah, the head of a group of some 150 Taliban fighters, told journalists under police supervision on August 23 in the provincial capital, Farah.
“Ali Talibi and Hussein Rezai were two of my Iranian instructors. They taught me to fire rockets and to plant mines,” he added. “I was trained in setting up remote-controlled mines and planting antitank mines. Even developed countries would have been unable to discover the mines I planted.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/captured_taliban_commander_claims_trained_in_iran/24305674.html
U.S. Terrorism Report: State Sponsors
The State Department’s recently released Country Reports on Terrorism cites Iran as the most active state sponsor of terrorism. An excerpt:
Overview: Designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984, Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2010. Iran’s financial, material, and logistic support for terrorist and militant groups throughout the Middle East and Central Asia had a direct impact on international efforts to promote peace, threatened economic stability in the Gulf, and undermined the growth of democracy.
In 2010, Iran remained the principal supporter of groups implacably opposed to the Middle East Peace Process. The Qods Force, the external operations branch of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), is the regime’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad. Iran provided weapons, training, and funding to Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups, including the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC). Since the end of the 2006 Israeli-Hizballah conflict, Iran has assisted Hizballah in rearming, in direct violation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701. Iran has provided hundreds of millions of dollars in support of Hizballah in Lebanon and has trained thousands of Hizballah fighters at camps in Iran.
http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2011/aug/23/us-terrorism-report-state-sponsors
US hikers jailed in Iran for spying to appeal against sentence
Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal’s eight-year sentence has put further strain on relations between Iran and Washington
The lawyer for two Americans convicted of spying in Iran has said he will appeal against their eight-year sentences. The verdict shocked their families, who hoped to see them freed after more than two years already spent in Evin, Tehran’s most notorious prison.
Shane Bauer, 28, and Josh Fattal, 29, were arrested in 2009 on the border with Iraq, where they said they were hiking. They were found guilty of illegal entry and espionage at their closed trial, which ended on 31 July. The verdict is likely to further strain Iran’s already poor relations with Washington.
“We have 20 days to appeal and I will try my best to use all legal means to annul the sentence,” lawyer Masoud Shafiee told Reuters.
“It was my belief, and still is, that they are innocent and I have not seen any evidence that shows they are guilty.”
“Josh and Shane were informed about the verdict yesterday,” Shafiee said on Sunday, adding that he had not seen them in person. The two years they had already served would count towards their eight-year sentences, he said.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/21/appeal-hikers-iran-jailed-spying
More arrests and Bibles seized in Iran
Christians in Iran are facing increasing hostility from authorities in the officially Islamic country.
Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) has received reports that a pastor has been arrested for a second time on August 17.
Abdolreza ‘Matthias’ Haghnejad, a pastor in the evangelical Church of Iran denomination, was reportedly re-arrested by Iranian authorities in Rasht whilst making a pastoral visit.
His family are in the dark about why he has been arrested and his whereabouts.
There are also concerns that he does not have access to an attorney.
Pastor Haghnejad was arrested previously in 2006. Earlier this year, he was charged with activities against the order and rounded up by authorities along with 10 other members of his denomination. He was released when the authorities dropped the charges.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/more.arrests.and.bibles.seized.in.iran/28492.htm
Audacity and Lunacy in Iran
It’s not a good sign when you can no longer differentiate between lunacy or rationality in Iranian foreign policy. The real question, though, is who is to blame. Thus is the case when we examine two foreign policy developments in Iran, both dealing with purported espionage.
In the first, we saw that an Iranian court convicted Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, two Americans, of crossing from Iraq into Iran illegally in 2009, as well as spying for US intelligence. The duo was sentenced to eight years in prison, and it appears that circumstances surrounding prosecution of the third traveler -- Sarah Shourd – who did not return to Iran while out on bail, are still up in the air. The second case involves an Iranian – Majid Jamali Fashi -- who the state accuses of being a trained Israeli agent tasked with killing multiple Iranian targets, one of which he followed through with on 12 January 2010: a Tehran University physics professor, Massoud Ali Mohammadi. The state argues that Fashi killed Mohammadi with a motorcycle-borne bomb placed outside of his house.
http://foreignpolicyblogs.com/2011/08/24/audacity-and-lunacy-in-iran/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=audacity-and-lunacy-in-iran
Harsh sentence for US hikers could spell trouble for Iran’s Ahmadinejad
A day after two American hikers received an eight-year jail sentence for allegedly crossing the border illegally into Iran and spying for the United States, it appears the men may now be victims of Iran’s internal political tensions.
Iran has held Shane Bauer and Joshua Fattal in prison for more than two years. In the weeks leading up to their sentencing, senior Iranian officials close to the president made comments to local media outlets that fueled speculation that the two men would likely be released. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had himself urged the court to make a light ruling.
Within the world of Iranian politics, however, a lighter sentence would have created the impression that the judiciary had caved to political pressure from the Ahmadinejad administration.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2011/0822/Harsh-sentence-for-US-hikers-could-spell-trouble-for-Iran-s-Ahmadinejad
Iran Tries To Exit Information Superhighway
The Iranian government has been working hard to deny the Iranian people access to the internet.
The Iranian government has been working hard to deny the Iranian people access to the internet. It has blocked websites, slowed internet speed, upgraded and expanded its filtering capabilities, established a cyber police force targeting antigovernment websites and political dissidents; it has also jailed prodemocracy bloggers, sentencing several to long prison terms.
Now the government is proceeding with its most ambitious plan to thwart the Iranian people’s access to the free flow of information and ideas. According to Iran’s communication and information technology minister Reza Taqipour Anvari, the first phase of the government’s plan for a national internet, also referred to as a “clean” or “halal” internet, will get under way at the end of August. The new national internet will have its own search engine in 2012 called Ya Haqh, meaning, “Oh Justice.” Mr. Anvari said the national internet will “better manage national emails and information gathering with the country and. . . .improve security.”
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1221.html
New reports of human rights violations highlight situation of Iran’s Baha’is
Iran’s treatment of its Baha’i citizens has been identified as a major area of concern in three important new surveys carried out by international human rights organizations. The reports have recently been issued by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Minority Rights Group International (MRG) and Amnesty International.
The highlighting of the situation of Iranian Baha’is within the broader framework of international human rights violations has been welcomed by the Baha’i International Community.
“Each of these reports surveys a major issue area -- minorities, women prisoners, or the Middle East in general -- and each accordingly places the ongoing persecution of Baha’is in that context, demonstrating the interconnected and interrelated nature of rights violations,” said Diane Ala’i, the representative of the Baha’i International Community to the United Nations in Geneva.
“We likewise express our grave concern about human rights violations directed at other groups in Iran, such as women, journalists, and human rights defenders, as well as ordinary citizens seeking the right to freedom of expression,” said Ms. Ala’i.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1226.html
@Henk 72
Ja natuurlijk, ik zit echt te wachten op dit heerlijke vakantieweer. We hebben ons portie regen wel gehad deze zomer.
Jailed Lawyer: ‘No Fair Political Trials’ In Iran
Jailed Iranian lawyer and human rights activist Mohammad Seifzadeh has written an open letter to former President Mohammad Khatami detailing extensive violations of judicial rights, RFE/RL’s Radio Farda reports.
Seifzadeh argued that Iran’s revolutionary courts are illegal. He noted that not a single one of the defendants in 6,000 political and media-related cases examined by 21 lawyers since Khatami was elected president in 1997 received a fair trial in accordance with Iran’s Constitution.
He added that none of his 180-200 fellow prisoners in Ward 350 of Tehran’s Evin prison received a fair trial either. He said their sentences were not commensurate with the actions for which they were tried.
With one exception, the same holds true for prisoners in Evin’s Ward 209, which is run by the Intelligence Ministry, Seifzadeh continued.
Seifzadeh signed his letter as a “member of the Center for Human Rights Defenders, former judge, lawyer, and current prisoner.” He said the only way out of the current situation is the “dissolution of such illegal authorities” and “structural reform of the judiciary.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/jailed_iranian_lawyer_no_political_fair_trials_in_iran/24307851.html
Hikers’ sentence in Iran a miscarriage of ‘justice’
THE SECRET TRIAL in Iran of two young American hikers, detained near the Iran-Iraq border in 2009, was a parody of justice, and the sentences they received — eight years for illegal entry and espionage — are a travesty. Not a speck of evidence has been publicly presented to substantiate the charges. The two supposed spies speak not a word of Farsi and were carrying nothing more incriminating than cameras.
In fact, Shane M. Bauer and Joshua F. Fattal, imprisoned now for more than 750 days, are simply the latest American hostages to be seized by Iran. Their continued confinement as bargaining chips for some yet unspecified concession is indefensible.
The trial took place after two years of imprisonment and intermittent ill treatment that has left Mr. Bauer and Mr. Fattal looking thin, pale and haggard. Mr. Bauer was beaten at least once, according to Sarah E. Shourd, Mr. Bauer’s fiancee, who gave an account to Amnesty International this spring. Ms. Shourd was arrested with the two men and released last September on medical grounds.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hikers-sentence-in-iran-is-a-miscarriage-of-justice/2011/08/26/gIQAkJy8gJ_story.html
Iranian activist missing after arrest
Iranian officials have so far refused to acknowledge they are holding Kouhyar Goudarzi, whose mother was also arrested
Human rights groups have expressed concern over the fate of Kouhyar Goudarzi, a prominent Iranian activist who was arrested last month by plainclothes security forces.
Goudarzi, 25, an active member of the Committee for Human Rights Reporters (CHRR) in Iran, was picked up from a friend’s house in Tehran on 31 July, but authorities have so far refused to acknowledge they are holding him.
Neighbours said Goudarzi was taken away with two of his friends by people believed to be from Iran’s ministry of intelligence. His whereabouts are unknown but speculation is rife that he has been taken to Evin prison.
A day after Gourdarzi’s arrest his mother, Parvin Mokhtareh, was detained in the southern city of Kerman. She has been accused of insulting the supreme leader, propaganda against the regime and acting against the national security. Amnesty said the charges stemmed from an “interview she gave when her son was imprisoned in 2010 in relation to his peaceful human rights activities”.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/26/iran-activist-arrest-kouhyar-goudarzi
Iranian doctor murdered after examining rape victims, says his son
Abdolreza Soudbakhsh murdered after work at Kahrizak detention centre, where mass torture and rape was alleged
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/25/iran-doctor-murder-kahrizak-rapes
Love ‘is banned’ in Iran
I think, my dear friends, you will agree with me that love is a wonderful feeling. It enlightens a person’s life, making it better, more beautiful, filled with wonderful feelings and moments of life. What could be more beautiful than love between a man and a woman? But, alas, our government has encroached on it, too!
It seems that any sane person cannot deny love. But members of our ruling regime can. Officials of the Culture Ministry have announced that music videos about love may be banned from TV! Also, performers of these songs will be banned from performing concerts, as it is “bad”. Naturally, no one took time to provide an explanation for this decision. Maybe this is natural, since only an idiot may ban singing about love in music videos in a country known for its love poetry and beautiful women. But, in principle, there are enough idiots in our government…
http://www.news.az/articles/politics/43194
Iranian opposition leader Karroubi moved to another location
Fatemeh Karroubi, the wife of Iranian opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi, has told Saham News that security forces have moved her husband to a separate one-bedroom apartment.
Fatemeh Karroubi told Saham News today that the apartment is reportedly very small; therefore, she has not been allowed to join her husband, who is being held under the supervision of a number of security officials.
Mehdi Karroubi and his wife were put under house arrest on February 14, after he and MirHosein Mousavi called a rally to demonstrate in support of Arab uprisings in the region.
Mehdi Karroubi had protested against the occupation of his residential complex because it kept his neighbours from entering their units, and he had asked to be moved to a house that his sons had prepared for him in north of Tehran.
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/iranian-opposition-leader-karroubi-moved-another-location
Ebadi urges Iranian Bar Association to support persecuted lawyers
Iran’s Nobel Peace laureate, Shirin Ebadi, has compiled a list of 41 lawyers who have been subjected to government persecution since June 2009 for carrying out their legal duties.
Ebadi, who has given the list to the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran, said that the Iranian Central Bar Association has failed to maintain its independence, leaving it unable to defend its members in the wake of government attacks.
Ebadi stated: “One of the main responsibilities of the association is to oversee the performance of lawyers and to protect them legally. But lawyers are the least protected professional group in Iran.”
The Campaign goes on to add that the Central Bar Association has been ineffective in defending its members because its lacks independence from the judiciary, which in turn has come more and more under the control of the Ministry of Intelligence over the past two years.
The report adds that nearly all the lawyers on Ebadi’s list have represented political prisoners and prisoners of conscience, and their persecution centres around their advocacy for their clients and their demand for adherence to human rights and the rule of law in Iran.
The Campaign adds: “Of the 41 lawyers, 32 have been subjected to judicial prosecution, and nine have been subjected to official persecution. Of the 32 prosecuted lawyers, eight are currently in prison, two have completed their prison terms, another 21 are awaiting their final sentences and one had all charges against him dropped.
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/ebadi-urges-iranian-bar-association-support-persecuted-lawyers
INTRUPTED LIVES: Portraits of Student Repression in Iran -- P1/2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=RuO7gA50ets#!
Syria and Iran’s Power Calculus
Iran’s close ties to Syria mean that if the government of President Bashar al-Assad were to fall after months of opposition and a brutal crackdown, “it would be a tremendous blow to the Iranian regime,” says Iran expert Karim Sadjadpour. Syria is the country that allows Iran to supply its “crown jewel” in the Middle East, the Hezbollah movement in Lebanon, Sadjadpour explains. He also says despite comments by Iran’s foreign minister suggesting that Syria should consider the views of the protest movement, Iran is doing everything in its power to ensure the survival of the Assad regime and is likely counseling the Syrian government that to give in to protestors “doesn’t alleviate the pressure, but it projects weakness and might invite even more pressure.”
http://www.cfr.org/iran/syria-irans-power-calculus/p25719?cid=rss-iran-syria_and_iran_s_power_calculu-083011&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+region%2Firan+%28CFR.org+-+Regions+-+Iran%29
Iran frees 100 political prisoners
Tehran pardons prisoners in effort to ease tense political atmosphere before parliamentary elections in March
Iran has pardoned 100 political prisoners in an attempt to appease the country’s opposition and reduce tensions seven months before parliamentary elections.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, ordered the release from jail of a number of prisoners recommended to him by the head of the judiciary, Sadeq Larijani, to mark Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim festival at the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
Iranian media reported that almost 70 political prisoners out of the hundred had been freed in the past few days, and others had their sentences reduced or suspended. They are thought to have been arrested after Iran’s disputed presidential elections in 2009, but state news agencies described them as “prisoners convicted of security-related crimes”. Some agencies said other prisoners have also been granted clemency.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/30/iran-frees-100-political-prisoners
Iran inches closer to nuclear weapons
Iran has acknowledged that it possesses new technologies that could bring it closer to developing nuclear weapons and more advanced missiles. The international community is finding it more and more difficult to restrain Tehran, and increasing the country’s political and technological isolation could have dire consequences.
Smuggling to evade sanctions
Iran is now capable of producing carbon-plastic composite materials in violation of UN sanctions. Iran’s Defense Minister Ahmad Wahidi said his country is among ten nations in the world that can manufacture them. Associated Press quoted Wahidi as saying that this new capability will eliminate a bottleneck in Iran’s production of modern military systems.
Carbon-plastic composites play a key role in the production of modern solid-propellant rocket engines. Given Iran’s efforts to develop long-range solid-propellant missiles, Wahidi’s ostentatious announcement should worry detractors.
http://en.rian.ru/analysis/20110830/166311085.html
Dozens of Post-Election Political Prisoners Released; Is there a Chance for Hundreds More?
Last Saturday, Tehran Prosecutor Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi announced that on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei will pardon 100 political prisoners. According to various sources, more than 30 inmates have been released over the past two days, among them a few students and political activists arrested in the aftermath of the 2009 presidential election.
Only hours after Dolatabadi’s announcement, the state-owned Fars News Agency wrote that some of the 100 pardoned prisoners were those whose detention was related to the 2009 presidential election. Kaleme, a website close to Mir Hossein Mousavi, wrote that several of these prisoners’ sentences would have been fully served within the next few weeks, and another group of them have also served half of their prison terms, qualifying them for conditional release according to Iranian law. “Among these 100 individuals, the sentences of 8 were suspended, and 12 other prisoners’ sentences were reduced,” said Dolatabadi. It is expected that the release of political prisoners will continue.
http://www.payvand.com/news/11/aug/1284.html
Riot police attacked
Iranian opposition says government faces legitimacy crisis.
Ardeshir Amirarjmand, a spokesman for the opposition’s Coordination Council for the Green Path of Hope, has made a provocative proclamation: “A government that is faced with a legitimacy crisis is in fear of everything and sees threats everywhere: the rejoicing of youth and the breaking of the fast in public parks, and even the water levels of Lake Oroumiyeh become a security concern.”
Amirarjmand is referring to the administration of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, which has faced a legitimacy crisis since the 2009 presidential elections were marred by allegations of vote fraud.
http://www.radiozamaneh.com/english/content/iranian-opposition-says-government-faces-legitimacy-crisis
The Dangers Of Conducting Live Interviews On Iranian State Television
Live interviews are rare on Iranian state television, for obvious reasons. Going off-script means there’s a chance to evade the censors, which give the audience only the version of the news that is approved by authorities.
Yet, live interviews are, indeed, aired on some Iranian news channels, which can lead to problems, as an anchor with the News Network channel experienced recently while interviewing a Kabul-based analyst.
“Lenziran” has posted a video of the interview (in Persian, above). Here is a quick translation of the exchange:
The anchor asks the Afghan analyst in Kabul about the role of countries in the region vis-a-vis Afghanistan.
“Countries in the region, including Pakistan and Iran, don’t want a democracy to exist in Afghanistan,” says the analyst, who adds that, instead, Iran and Pakistan want to see war and instability in the country.
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran_state_television_live_interviews_afghanistan/24313338.html
Latest developments in Arab world’s unrest
LIBYA
SYRIA
IRAN.
Iran’s top leader warns the Arab world not to allow Western powers and Israel to “confiscate” the region’s pro-reform uprisings, in comments that appear to reflect the Islamic republic’s unease about their standing in a profoundly altered Middle East. Iran has tried to walk two paths since the pro-democracy rebellions began in February -- lauding the popular revolts as modern-day heirs to Iran’s 1979 Islamic revolution, while maintaining relentless pressure on opposition groups at home. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in a speech broadcast on Iran’s state TV to mark the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, reflects the added worries that the West and its allies could gain ground in the Arab Spring.
BAHRAIN
ALGERIA
http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/15370168/latest-developments-in-arab-worlds-unrest
Summary Box: Hack may have hit people in Iran
THE SUSPICION: Experts say the Iranian government may have been behind a hacking attack, allowing it to read Google email from dissidents who thought they were using secure connections.
http://www.seattlepi.com/business/article/Summary-Box-Hack-may-have-hit-people-in-Iran-2149673.php
Sarkozy bedreigt ook Iran
De Franse president Nicolas Sarkozy heeft Iran gewaarschuwd voor een mogelijke preventieve aanval op de nucleaire Iraanse sites, in het geval Teheran niet afwijkt van zijn veronderstelde nucleaire ambities (het vermoeden dat Iran aan een kernbom zou werken).
http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/960/Buitenland/article/detail/1312384/2011/08/31/Sarkozy-bedreigt-ook-Iran.dhtml