Door: Marc E. Putto
Februari 2012
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".
Laatste 5 artikelen door Ingezonden
- Het banksysteem in het kort - 15-05-2013
- Landelijke demonstratie 2013 - 12-05-2013
- De euro, de intimidatie en de dictatuur - 09-05-2013
- Dump uw links hier - 30-04-2013
- Vlaanderen en Nederland grootste melkkoeien van de EU - 28-04-2013
Geplaatst door: Ingezonden
op 5 feb 2012. Gearchiveerd onder Ondertussen in Iran.
U kunt de reacties op dit artikel volgen via RSS 2.0.
Reacties en pingen zijn gesloten.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093980/Iran-unveils-new-laser-guided-missiles-warns-response-hostile-action-regretful-destructive.html?ITO=1490
Iran has issued a stark warning to the West vowing that response to any hostile action will be ‘regretful but destructive’.
As tensions over its disputed nuclear programme continue to rise General Masoud Jazayeri, spokesman for Iran’s Joint Armed Forces Staff, said: ‘We will rigorously confront any threat or hostile behaviour, and our response will be definitely regretful and destructive.
‘We hope this (kind of behaviour) would not take place, but if it happens then the history will remember whether the Americans or the Iranians were bluffing.’
The General’s words came as Iran claimed it had produced ‘intelligent’ laser-guided artillery shells which can spot and hit moving targets with very high degrees of precision.
Iran dreigt met wraakacties bij aanval
TEHERAN -- Iran dreigt elk land te treffen dat meewerkt aan aanvallen op haar grondgebied. De ondercommenandant van de Revolutionaire Garde heeft dat zondag gezegd. De waarschuwing gaat verder dan vorige bedreigingen in de oplopende spanning over nucleaire plannen van Iran.
http://www.telegraaf.nl/buitenland/11454123/__Iran_dreigt_met_wraakacties__.html?sn=buitenland
Ik zal dat eens uit zoeken Frik wat die salamiboer te vertellen heeft.
Het is een vast gegeven dat elke mafketel in Iran zijn eigen sprookje verteld en daarmee ook een keer in de picture staat.
Ben op zoek geweest naar de mensen waar Ik het over had en het eerste contact is er weer.
Columnist Charles Krauthammer ziet Israël in dezelfde positie als in 1967 toen meerdere Arabische staten het op ze voorzien hadden. Iran is intussen bijna zover dat ze ongestoord hun gang kunnen gaan met het verrijken van uranium in ondergrondse bunkers zoals bij Qom.
Interview met Krauthammer:
http://www.dagelijksestandaard.nl/2012/02/charles-krauthammer-aanval-isra%C3%ABl-op-iran-is-zeker
Locaties van nucleaire installaties in Iran:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11927720
Dit blog heeft ook vaak nieuws over Iran.
http://empirical-what-you-see-you-get.blogspot.com/
Bedankt voor de link Willem.
Ik ga er in ieder geval gebruik van maken.
Israel and Netanyahu, Pipe Down the Threats of War on Iran
Dit wil je niet horen, de halve gek vind dat Israel Iran niet zo moet bedreigen.
Hoe gek wil je het hebben dat sinds die Ajatollahs daar de dienst uit maken word Israel wel wekelijks bedreigt.
Bibi, Israel, curb your over-the-top war rhetoric toward Iran. I urge this as one who cherishes Israel and values military power. But you’ve got to understand that your constant threats to attack Iran to stop its nuclear program aren’t working. Unending military threats unite Iranians and fire up their resistance. Economic sanctions weaken and divide them—and often produce constituencies for compromise. Give sanctions time to play out.
http://www.cfr.org/israel/israel-netanyahu-pipe-down-threats-war-iran/p27301?cid=rss-iran-israel_and_netanyahu%2C_pipe_dow-020612&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+region%2Firan+%28CFR.org+-+Regions+-+Iran%29
U.S. Toughens Sanctions on Iran’s Central Bank
The U.S. handed down a fresh set of sanctions on the Iranian government Monday in the latest bid to pressure Tehran to end its nuclear program.
The White House announced Monday it was freezing all property owned in the U.S. by Iran or the Central Bank of Iran. President Barack Obama, in an executive order signed Sunday, said the Central Bank of Iran was concealing transactions of sanctioned parties and that Iran was not making progress in halting money laundering.
The U.S. Treasury Department, which is responsible for enforcing sanctions, said in a statement Monday that “Iran now faces an unprecedented level of pressure” and that the new sanctions confirms Iran “will face ever-increasing economic and diplomatic pressure until it addresses the international community’s well-founded and well-documented concerns regarding the nature of its nuclear program.”
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204369404577206973883832002.html?mod=fox_australian
Iran oil exports: where do they go?
Iran has threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz through which 20% of global oil supplies pass through. Which countries does Iran export to and how much of their crude oil supply does it make up?
Iran has threatened to cut oil exports to the West and threatened to close the Strait of Hormuz through which one fifth of global oil supplies pass through -- in bitter retaliation to the Iranian oil embargo agreed by the European Union.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2012/feb/06/iran-oil-exports-destination#_
The return of Ayatollah Khomeini
Your national hero is dead – but you need him to appear at a every important event. What to do? Perhaps the Iranians have found the answer
You know what it’s like. You’re re-enacting an important event in your country’s history, but the national hero you’re commemorating is dead, and such is his stature that it would be disrespectful to replace him with an actor.
What to do? Well, if you’re the Iranian army, and you’re recreating the Ayatollah Khomeini’s return from exile in 1979, it’s pretty simple: solemnly replace him with a massive cardboard cut-out, and let two soldiers parade it around an airport runway. Job done.
But why stop there? The Iranians didn’t. As befits a moment as seminal as this, the paper Ayatollah was then treated to a guard of honour, before being seamlessly swapped for a second, smaller (but nevertheless relentlessly lifelike) incarnation of the great revolutionary leader, who in turn was spirited away by a jeep.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/shortcuts/2012/feb/05/return-of-ayatolla-khomeini
The Cardboard Ayatollah -- in pictures
A look at the bizarre re-enactment of the Iranian spiritual leader’s return to Iran in 1979 accompanied by a few choice selections from the web’s inevitable Photoshopped-response
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/gallery/2012/feb/05/in-pictures-cardboard-ayatollah#/?picture=385463921&index=0
Iran and Syria: A Tale of Two Crises
A year after the revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt ushered in the Arab awakening, the United States still faces the difficult task of forging a new strategy for a new Middle East. While regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya eventually fell, the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Assad has clung to power with grim resolution. The regime has slaughtered its people and ignored pressure from domestic, regional and international actors. Meanwhile, Iran has viewed the Arab Spring as a mixture of opportunity and threat, all the while resisting fierce international demands to end its nuclear enrichment program. In recent weeks, the potential for escalation with one or both of these countries has captured the headlines while the relationship between them has largely been left to the back pages.
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0202_iran_syria.aspx?rssid=iran&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BrookingsRSS%2Ftopics%2Firan+%28Brookings%3A+Topics+-+Iran%29
Iranians feel sanctions bite
As the European Union introduces a ban on crude oil imports from Iran and tightens sanctions on the country’s banks, BBC Persian has been talking to Iranians at home and abroad about the impact on their lives, as Mehrzad Kohanrouz reports.
Fereydoun is a 40-year-old from Karaj, south-west of the capital Tehran. He has just been made redundant after 15 years with the state-owned carmaker, Iran Khodro.
“I used to have a job assembling Mercedes-Benz cars,” says Fereydoun, “but now, because of the sanctions, Daimler has cut its ties with Iran and as a consequence I lost my job. I’m self employed now but I’m struggling to put food on the table.”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16813248
Nasrallah Not So Popular in Syria, Which is a Great Thing
News today from Syria, which is all-but-embroiled in a civil war now, took a turn for the chesty when the secretary general of the Free Syria Army put Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on notice for backing the regime Assad. From Ynet:
The secretary general of the Free Syria Army’s military council warned that Syrian rebels will settle the score with Nasrallah and his group at court once the Syrian leader is deposed.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/nasrallah-not-so-popular-in-syria-which-is-a-great-thing/252365/
Video: ‘Dictator! Say hello to the end!’
The following video promotes the opposition movement in Iran which will take to the streets once again on 14 February. It is titled “Dictator! Say hello to the end!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0eMxmkDjTkM
HRW Says Iran ‘Detaining’ Relatives Of Journalists
Human Rights Watch says Iranian authorities are intimidating and arresting relatives and friends of Persian-language journalists working abroad.
The U.S.-based group said security forces raided the home of a relative of a BBC Persian service employee in Tehran in January, and “arbitrarily detained and held him as a hostage for close to two weeks.”
HRW said the move “seems to be part of a wider campaign to harass Iranian journalists by putting pressure on their families.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/hrw_iran_detaining_relatives_of_journalists/24472627.html
The Stunning Collapse of Iran’s Currency
In a recent two-part series on the tensions between the United States and Iran, my colleague David Lee Smith provided readers with a broad and insightful overview of the unfolding crisis. He discussed the European Union’s newly implemented embargo against Iranian oil, the contentious relationship between Shiite Iran and its Sunni neighbors, and the growing divide between the leadership of Iran and that of Turkey, among other things.
Despite this comprehensiveness, aspects of the crisis remain muddled in anonymity. And one of these aspects involves the recent and sudden collapse of Iran’s currency, the rial. While David paid homage to the issue in the first article of his series, I’ve decided to expand on it here by discussing why it collapsed, and the implications of its doing so.
When currencies collapse
The collapse of a currency is typically a well-publicized event that reverberates throughout the world’s equity markets. The domino-like capitulation of East Asian currencies in 1997, for example, sent equity markets hurtling downward, leading to one of the largest single-day drops in the Dow Jones Industrial Index in history. And the 1998 devaluation of the Russian ruble triggered the demise of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management, immortalized by Roger Lowenstein in When Genius Failed.
Yet this didn’t happen when the Iranian rial collapsed at the beginning of this year. And the question is why? National Security Advisor Thomas Donilon shed a slender ray of light on this question in an interview with Charlie Rose last week. In it, Donilon tacitly implied that the collapse was anything but a mistake. And this would make sense, of course, as the United States is currently using economic measures to pressure the Iranian regime to abandon its nuclear program.
http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2012/02/06/the-stunning-collapse-of-irans-currency.aspx
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel Prime Minister, Tells Cabinet To Stop ‘Chitchat’ About Iran
An Israeli official says the country’s prime minister has told his Cabinet to quit the “chitchat” about Iran.
Israeli political and military leaders have been increasingly candid recently on the subject of Israeli action against the Iranian nuclear program.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/06/benjamin-netanyahu-iran_n_1257860.html
Why does Russia oppose Assad’s fall?
The opposition shown by Moscow these days to a UN Security Council resolution condemning the tough repression operated by the Assad regime in Syria is already highly notorious. Although the resolution is co-sponsored by the EU and the Arab League and its phasing carefully sought to disable all Russian suspicion that it would legitimise a foreign military intervention in that country, Moscow (and China) however chose to veto it on Saturday, February 3. The document proposed the implementation of a so-called Arab plan, according to which Syrian President Bashar Assad would have peacefully surrendered the power to the vice-president who was supposed to organise the dialogue with the opposition as well as the election. Therefore, an inevitable change of regime.
Why is Russia so stubborn about keeping a position that ‘pushes Syria’ to civil war? Why does Moscow continue to say it will keep supplying armament to the Assad regime?
Anyone who addressed the matter tried to identify the reasons behind this particular position Moscow has adopted. Among those the ones that stand out are the fear that the adoption of a resolution by the UN Security Council – even if passed with a single abstention vote from Russia – may facilitate a Western intervention, possibly by NATO, as it happened in Libya in March 2011; the fact that Syria is one of the most important customers of Russian armaments, therefore the risk of losing a profitable market for the Russian weapon industry; the possibility that a post-Assad regime may cancel the agreement on the Russian military base in the Syrian Tartus Port, the only and also very important one it has in the Mediterranean; Russia’s attempt to position itself as an actor in the Middle East in the so agitated context of the transforming developments of the ‘Arab spring’; the loyalty to an allied political regime whose abandoning would be a negative signal for other friendly regimes mainly in Central Asia; the assumed’ and bluntly anti-West trend pursued by the Kremlin regime around the presidential election in Russia in March this year, trying to influence nostalgic conservative voters; possible confidential agreements with local actors in the intricate power game in the Middle East, etc.
http://www.nineoclock.ro/why-does-russia-oppose-assad%e2%80%99s-fall/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097087/Irans-female-ninja-assassins-3-000-women-training-defend-Muslim-state.html?ITO=1490
With hundreds of women brandishing deadly weapons while performing back flips and gravity-defying stunts, these incredible images look like a scene out of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
But this is not the latest martial art film but in fact footage of female pupils practicing their moves at a tiny Ninjutsu club in Iran where the specialist form of martial art has become increasingly popular.
The school opened in 1989 but now has 3,500 women in training to become kunoichi -- female ninjas.
Israeli Ad Jokes About Strikes on Iran’s Nuclear Program
An Israeli cable television company has removed an ad from its YouTube channel making light of a possible attack on Iran’s nuclear facilities by Israel.
The ad, for the cable provider Hot, imagines characters from an Israeli sit-com bungling a covert operation and destroying the Iranian nuclear facility near the city of Isfahan by pressing the wrong button on a Mossad agent’s Samsung Galaxy tablet computer. After the facility goes up in smoke, the culpable Israeli character dismisses it with a shrug as just “another mysterious explosion in Iran,” a clear reference to a string of deadly attacks on Iranian scientists and installations that have been attributed to Israel.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/06/israeli-ad-jokes-about-strikes-on-irans-nuclear-program/?partner=rss&emc=rss
Iranian activists call for release of their peer
A group of 52 Iranian student activists has issued a statement calling for the release of Saeed Razavi Faqih. The former student activist was arrested in December upon his return to Iran. He is reportedly being held in an undetermined state and is probably being subjected to high-pressure interrogations.
The signatories write that Razavi Faqih was committed to reforming the framework of the Islamic Republic regime and its laws.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1065.html
Israeli Cabinet Mulls Response to Iran Threat
Growing tensions between Israel and Iran topped the agenda at the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened the Cabinet meeting by referring to a statement last week by Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who described Israel as “a cancerous tumor that must be cut off.”
Netanyahu said the only way to ensure Israel’s survival in a region where Iran’s ruler talks “about destroying Israel,” is to continue to develop the nation’s military might.
A strong army “is the only guarantee of peace,” he said, “and Israel’s only defense if peace unravels.”
Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes, but Israel and the West believe Tehran is building nuclear weapons that could threaten the existence of the Jewish state. Israeli officials are warning publicly that Iran is close to “the point of no return”- the point where military action to stop Iran from acquiring the atom bomb would be too late.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1059.html
Widespread arrests in southwestern Iran
Iranian security forces have arrested 50 people over the past two weeks in the Arab neighbourhoods of the southwestern province of Khuseztan. Two of the detainees were killed while in custody, writer and human rights activist Yousef Azizi Banitaraf told Zamaneh.
“The security forces are telling elders of the tribes in the region to bring people to the voting booths,” Banitaraf reports; “and the young people are opposed to this.”
The arrests, which have taken place in Shoosh, Ahvaz and Hamidieh, were apparently triggered by a number of youth writing slogans on public walls calling for a boycott of the coming parliamentary elections. The reports indicate that Nasser Alboshokeh Derafshan and Mohammad Kaabi were killed while in custody.
Last March another detainee, Reza Moghamessi also reportedly died in Dezfool Prison under torture.
Yousef Azizi Banitaraf added that the families of the victims have been told to refrain from holding any commemoration services for their kin.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1058.html
Iran: More Arrests Ahead of Elections
While the condition of recently detained journalists remains unknown, more journalists are arrested ahead of the upcoming parliamentary elections. In the latest instance, Reza Jelodarzadeh, editor-in-chief of the recently banned “Sobh-e Azadi” magazine was arrested.
It is not evident which organ has arrested Mr. Jelodarzadeh, who is a wounded veteran of the Iran-Iraq war. Speaking to Rooz, the relatives of this detained journalists said they know nothing about his physical condition or whereabouts.
Three other journalists were arrested immediately before Mr. Jelodarzadeh: Saham Bourghani, Marzieh Rasouli, and Parastou Dokouhaki. Nothing is known about the condition of the former two journalists, but Parastou Dokouhaki told her family members in a short telephone call that she was being held in solitary confinement.
Parastou Dokouhaki is a journalist, blogger, and social activists who was arrested on January 16 at her house and has been in solitary confinement at the Evin Prison since.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1053.html
Lawmakers, ‘Experts’ Spin Tales of Iranian Terror in Latin America
Through its ties with Venezuela and other nations in Latin America, Iran is building an anti-US alliance in the Western Hemisphere that poses a direct, imminent threat to the United States, an influential US lawmaker said Thursday.
The remark from House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairwoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, author of sanctions legislation targeting Iran that was recently passed by a near-unanimous vote, comes amid an increasingly visible campaign by right-wing politicians and allied institutions to build the case for further sanctions and other acts of economic warfare against the Islamic Republic – and, perhaps, set the stage for military action.
The administration of President Barack Obama has implemented stringent sanctions against Iran that have helped cripple its economy and, as the president himself noted in his State of the Union address last month, refused to take the prospect of all-out war off the table.
http://original.antiwar.com/charles-davis-ips/2012/02/03/lawmakers-experts-spin-tales-of-iranian-terror-in-latin-america/
Iran’s Baha’i community targeted with more arrests
Iranian security forces have arrested several members of the Baha’i community in Shiraz.
The Human Rights Reporters Committee announced on Friday that several Baha’is were arrested at their homes today in Shiraz. Details of the arrests have not yet been released, except that the arrests were carried out during sudden and simultaneous raids on the homes of the targeted people.
The crackdown on Iran’s Baha’i community has intensified in recent months. In addition to arresting Baha’i citizens, the authorities have also detained staff and faculty of the BIHE, the Baha’i online university. The BIHE has been denounced as an “illegal” organization lacking any credibility in academic terms.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1033.html
Senior cleric calls for release of opposition leaders
Ayatollah Ali Mohammad Dastgheib, a senior Iranian cleric and a chief critic of the Islamic Republic’s recent domestic policies, has called on the establishment to end the house arrest of Mehdi Karroubi and MirHosein Mousavi, the two opposition leaders who have been detained since last February.
Ayatollah Dastgheib’s website, Hadis-e Sarv, published his statement calling for the release of the opposition leaders and other political prisoners.
Ayatollah Dastgheib has repeatedly criticized the government crackdown on the opposition over the past two years. His criticisms have led to attacks on his office and the Qoba Mosque, where he regularly leads prayers.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/senior-cleric-calls-release-opposition-leaders
US: Iran Keeping Open Option to Develop Nuclear Weapons
Top U.S. intelligence officials say Iran is keeping open the option to develop nuclear weapons, but has not yet made the decision to build a bomb. Analysts say if Tehran makes such a decision, it will be capable of producing a nuclear weapon later this year.
Concern continues to mount over Iran’s nuclear program, as tensions between Western nations and Tehran are escalating.
Tehran says its nuclear plants are used for peaceful energy production. But the International Atomic Energy Agency cites evidence Iran is researching the development and delivery of nuclear weapons.
“They are certainly moving on that path, but we do not believe they have actually made the decision to go ahead with a nuclear weapon,” said U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.
In recent months, Iran has begun enriching uranium at an underground plant. Maseh Zarif of the American Enterprise Institute conducted an analysis of the country’s enrichment program that shows it would not take long to build a bomb.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/US-Iran-Keeping-Open-Option-to-Develop-Nuclear-Weapons-138597169.html
Ik moet zeggen dat Missing peace een duidelijke uitleg geeft over wat speelt tussen Iran Syrie en Israel.
Dat is dus wat Ik al meermalen gezegt heb, Iran zal Assad gaan gebruiken om een reden te hebben om Israel te gaan bestoken met raketten dan wel een grondoorlog te beginnen over Syrie’s grondgebied, ofwel beiden, wie weet??
http://missingpeace.eu/nl/2012/02/retoriek-drijft-crisis-met-iran-verder-op-de-spits/
Staat onder het kopje: Wat andere sites berichten.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097341/Iran-targeting-families-BBC-journalists-try-quit-Persian-service.html
Iranian authorities are increasingly arresting and threatening the families of BBC journalists to force them to quit its Persian news service, its head said yesterday.
Mark Thompson, director-general of the BBC, said he was speaking out to try and embarrass Tehran to end what he said was a campaign of intimidation against Iranian staff who worked outside Iran.
‘This is a growing pattern. It’s systematic and a campaign,’ Thompson told BBC TV.
‘What we have decided to do is to be more public than we have been before in calling for the Iranian authorities to desist from this, to ask for other governments to try and put as much pressure as they can and to hope that the embarrassment of this will get those who are responsible for these actions to think again.’
Syria: live from the frontline in Homs
• Martin Chulov describes intense fighting near Homs
• UN offers to join the Arab League monitoring mission
• More killed on the sixth day of the assault on Homs
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/feb/09/syria-un-helps-homs-assault-live
Iran begins blocking access to Gmail, other sites
When Thomas Erdbrink, The Washington Post’s correspondent in Tehran, logs on to the Internet in Iran, he never knows whether Gmail and Google Reader, The Post or Facebook will open for him. Increasingly, this is the error message he sees instead of the page he was trying to reach:
Iranian bloggers have long used a workaround, by connecting to the Internet and then switching to a special connection that bypasses the country’s extremely effective firewall. But Erdbrink reports Thursday that the software recently has stopped working.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/iran-begins-blocking-access-to-gmail-other-sites/2012/02/09/gIQAlZ0i1Q_blog.html?wprss=rss_world
U.S. and Israel Split on Speed of Iran Threat
Amid mounting tensions over whether Israel will carry out a military strike against Iran’s nuclear program, the United States and Israel remain at odds over a fundamental question: whether Iran’s crucial nuclear facilities are about to become impregnable.
Israel’s defense minister, Ehud Barak, coined the phrase “zone of immunity” to define the circumstances under which Israel would judge it could no longer hold off from an attack because Iran’s effort to produce a bomb would be invulnerable to any strike. But judging when that moment will arrive has set off an intense debate with the Obama administration, whose officials counter that there are other ways to make Iran vulnerable.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/09/world/middleeast/us-and-israel-split-over-how-to-deter-iran.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Iran turns to barter for food as sanctions cripple imports
Iran is turning to barter -- offering gold bullion in overseas vaults or tankerloads of oil -- in return for food as new financial sanctions have hurt its ability to import basic staples for its 74 million people, commodities traders said Thursday.
Difficulty paying for urgent import needs has contributed to sharp rises in the prices of basic foodstuffs, causing hardship for Iranians with just weeks to go before an election seen as a referendum on President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s economic policies.
New sanctions imposed by the United States and European Union to punish Iran for its nuclear program do not bar firms from selling Iran food but they make it difficult to carry out the international financial transactions needed to pay for it.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/09/us-iran-wheat-idUSTRE8180SF20120209?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FworldNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+International%29
Eyeing the Arab spring
Gloom and bloom
What Israelis are making of the yearlong racket on their border
THE Jewish state was founded as paradise for the persecuted. Overshadowed by the terrible legacy of anti-Semitism and bruised by its frequent wars, the country now faces, Israel’s politicians proclaim, the danger of annihilation by Iranian nuclear bombs. Yet for long years Israel has enjoyed one relative comfort. Most of the time its angry neighbours have been conveniently weak and divided.
Could that change? Some Israelis fear the Arab spring is set to produce an Islamist winter. Religiously inspired parties, mostly linked to the Muslim Brotherhood, have emerged as the strongest political force in half a dozen Arab states. The Brotherhood itself now dominates Egypt, the largest Arab nation. Its rise there in effect ends the isolation of the Brothers’ offshoot in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian group Hamas, which has warred with Israel for decades. Jordan’s wobbly king, reliably accommodating to Israel, faces a rejuvenated Islamist opposition. When the smoke clears in Syria, Islamist forces could emerge triumphant there too, seemingly completing Israel’s encirclement by like-minded, hostile governments.
http://www.economist.com/node/21547291?fsrc=rss%7Cmea
Assad pledges reform as siege of Homs continues – Wednesday 8 February
• Bombardment of Homs continues for a fifth day
• US says it won’t arm Free Syrian Army
• Russia calls for an Arab solution to the crisis
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2012/feb/08/syria-assad-siege-homs-live
Ex-Marine sentenced to death in Iran needs U.S. intervention, lawyer pleads
A former U.S. Marine sentenced to death in Iran for allegedly spying for the CIA could be saved if the Obama administration would consider a prisoner swap, his Iranian attorney said Wednesday.
Amir Mirzaei Hekmati, 28, who was sentenced in January to be hanged, could face execution immediately after an appeals court has reviewed his sentence, said lawyer Mohammad Hossein Aghassi. The court’s decision was expected Jan. 25; the reason for the delay is unclear, he said.
Aghassi stressed that it was essential for the Obama administration to do anything within its means to reach out to Iran — including offering a possible prisoner exchange — to save Hekmati, a U.S. citizen of Iranian descent.
Iran has repeatedly asked for the release of Shahrzad Mir Golikhani, an Iranian American sentenced for involvement in an attempt to export night-vision equipment to Iran, who is imprisoned in Florida. In total,Iran has a list of 11 people in U.S. captivity it says are illegally detained.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/ex-marine-sentenced-to-death-in-iran-needs-us-intervention-lawyer-pleads/2012/02/08/gIQAH58EzQ_story.html?wprss=rss_world
Iranian Website Calls for Murder of All Jewish Israelis
This just in from the Department of Non-Ambiguous Iranian Threats to Wipe Out The Jews: A regime-linked website, Alef, has produced an article calling on Iran to use its missile arsenal to kill all of Israel’s Jews, and describes just how this could be done. The author, Alireza Forghani, is linked to office of the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, and the article’s release coincided with Khamenei’s latest “Israel is a cancerous tumor” speech.
http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/02/iranian-website-calls-for-murder-of-all-jewish-israelis/252758/
5 Reasons Why Israel Might Bomb Iran, Or Not
Will Israel bomb Iran or not?
Israel says it hasn’t decided. But top Israeli figures, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak, suggest that the country will have to make a choice soon.
Israel believes Iran will soon have the capacity to make a nuclear weapon. Not everyone shares this assessment, and Iran insists its program is only for civilian purposes.
“The first thing you have to realize is we’re past the time in Iran where there’s the happy answer that doesn’t have consequences,” says James Carafano, director of foreign policy studies at the Heritage Foundation. “There are choices between bad answers and really horrible, terrible answers.”
As this confrontation unfolds, here are five reasons why Israel might — or might not — strike against Iran.
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/08/146545243/5-reasons-why-israel-might-bomb-iran-or-not?ft=1%26f=1009
Israel Training Iranian Terrorists for Assassination Plots: Report
Mossad, Israel’s elite secret service agency, has been training assassins to kill Iranian nuclear scientists, a new report from NBC News claimed.
United States officials told NBC that Israel has been funding, arming and training members of the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK), a dissident group in Iran that is officially listed as a terrorist organization in the U.S.
If true, the report confirms allegations made by Iranian leaders, who have blamed Israel for the recent deaths of a number of nuclear scientists.
In January, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan, a chemistry professor and a director at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility near Isfahan in central Iran, was assassinated in Tehran by two unidentified men on a motorcycle, who planted a bomb on his car.
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/296037/20120209/iran-israel-war-mossad-united-states.htm
Ahmadinejad seeks rebound in Iranian elections
There’s a Persian saying used to describe an under-the-radar political effort: “Driving at night with the lights off.” Allies of embattled President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may be doing just that as they campaign in Iran’s hinterlands in hopes of scoring a comeback in next month’s parliamentary elections.
The voting March 2 should — momentarily, at least — shift attention from Iran’s international standoffs over its nuclear program back to the country’s internal power plays: The ruling system striking back against perceived runaway ambitions by Ahmadinejad and his inner circle.
The battles were Iran’s top political spectator sport just six months ago before being eclipsed by the latest faceoff with the West, including tougher sanctions and widening speculation of a possible Israeli military strike on nuclear facilities. The elections now offer Ahmadinejad — who’s been generally sidelined in the nuclear policymaking — a chance to reclaim some political ground after being smacked hard by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei for openly challenging his authority.
Ahmadinejad’s supporters are favoring stealth tactics for the first nationwide vote in Iran since the chaos after the disputed presidential outcome in June 2009.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57373568/ahmadinejad-seeks-rebound-in-iranian-elections/
Iran’s steel imports collapse under sanctions -- traders
Steel exports to Iran, one of the world’s top importers of billet used in construction, are grinding to a halt as crippling U.S.-led sanctions have left local buyers without access to major currencies, traders said.
“Iran is the only market in the world that can move billet prices and now trading has basically come to a halt,” a steel trader based in Britain said.
New U.S. and EU financial sanctions imposed since the beginning of this year to punish Tehran over its nuclear programme are playing havoc with Iran’s ability to buy imports and receive payment for its oil exports, commodities traders said this week.
http://uk.finance.yahoo.com/news/irans-steel-imports-collapse-under-183208234.html
Hamas drifting away from Iran
Hamas appears to be drifting away from its longtime patron Iran — part of a shift that began with last year’s Arab Spring and accelerated over Tehran’s backing of the pariah regime in Syria.
The movement’s top leader in exile, Khaled Mashaal, wants Hamas to be part of the broader Islamist political rise triggered by the popular uprisings sweeping across the Arab world. For this, Hamas needs new friends like the wealthy Gulf states that are at odds with Iran.
For now, Hamas won’t cut ties with Iran or close its headquarters-in-exile in the Syrian capital of Damascus, officials in the movement said.
However, relations have become increasingly strained.
Hamas has reduced its presence in Iran-allied Damascus in response to Syrian President Bashar Assad’s brutal crackdown on a popular uprising against him. Hamas also rejected Iran’s demand that the group publicly side with Assad, standing firm even when Tehran delayed the monthly support payments Hamas needs to govern the Gaza Strip, according to a senior Hamas official who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss internal deliberations.
At the same time, Hamas is increasingly relying on political and financial support from the Gulf, particularly tiny Qatar, which also has close ties to the West.
http://www.waaytv.com/news/world/story/Hamas-drifting-away-from-Iran/CY0oUxPwtUiuFtFdLYJAgQ.cspx
Iran opposition leader’s daughter banned from job
An Iranian opposition website reported Thursday that authorities have banned one of the daughters of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi from her teaching job.
The report by Kaleme.com said Mousavi’s daughter was omitted from the list of instructors of Al-Zahra University. She was teaching art at the all-women university.
It said security agents also warned all three of Mousavi’s daughters they might be detained.
Kaleme said the ban and the warning came after the children of Mousavi and his fellow opposition leader Mahdi Karroubi urged people to oppose detention of political prisoners. Mousavi and Karroubi have been under a house arrest since last February. The call was made earlier this week in a letter.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2012/02/09/iran_opposition_leaders_daughter_banned_from_job/
Supreme Leader Directly Responsible for Illegal Detentions of Opposition Leaders
Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, should immediately release the three opposition leaders who have spent the last year under illegal house arrest and stop using extrajudicial and inhumane methods to silence political opponents, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.
Today, nearly one year since the house arrest began, the Campaign released a multimedia project containing a detailed timeline, “News of a Kidnapping,” accompanied by a short video and a letter-writing campaign calling for the release of former prime minister Mir Hossein Mousavi, former speaker of Parliament Mehdi Karroubi, and prominent political advisor and university chancellor Zahra Rahnavard.
“Khamenei bears the ultimate responsibility for these house arrests, which indeed are nothing short of a kidnapping,” said Hadi Ghaemi, the Campaign’s spokesperson. “Khamenei is operating above the law of the land, and the intelligence and judicial apparatus are tools of repression in his hands, operating with impunity and without any regard for the law or the constitution,” he added.
These house arrests are illegal under both Iranian and international law. Iranian law does not contain any provisions authorizing house arrests. Any detentions must be followed by proper charges and prosecution in a court of law. Authorities have not applied any of these steps in the cases of Rahnavard, Mousavi, and Karroubi.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1095.html
Their Elections and Our Elections
The elections of the regime have started and are in progress. In fact it has been months since the show campaigns and activities for the fake elections have begin. The rulers of Iran began their games with a democratic institution -- elections -- even before the leader of the Islamic regime said that the forthcoming elections should not turn into a security issue. These included registering the candidates and then engaging in a fake game of approving or disapproving them; threats against political opponents and critics of the existing conditions in the country; illegalizing political reformist groups; summoning and threatening Green Movement activists and reformists, etc. Power mongers inside the regime have used every unlawful tool to mask the regime. Mir-Hossein Mousavi explained this well in 2010 when he said that it took him two months to realize that the infamous televised election debates that were held in 2009 were not for the purpose of driving him or Mr. Karoubi out of the elections process but to completely and permanently remove all opponents of the regime and to monopolize the political system. “I was only one of their targets and obstacles. The ruling gang had been planning to monopolize power for twenty years and it appeared that these elections were the final act. Power mongers acted to remove all critics and opponents from the national picture, something similar to North Korea but with a democratic mask,” he said.
In one of their most recent acts, Iran’s ruling circles shut down Roozgar newspaper because of its publication of an important interview with Mohammad-Reza Khatami. It is surprising that such important comments by a leading member of the reformist Participation Front were published in a domestic newspaper at this time. The closure of the newspaper was a foregone conclusion after the publication. Who has any doubts that such words and cries of protest are displeasing to the power mongers? Particularly as this happened just a few weeks after the reiterated warnings by the supreme leader. His call for a “healthy” election without disruption of the peace and security of the regime means nothing other than calling for a grave silence so that the engineered elections can proceed.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1101.html
Sanctions on Iran: Iranians face shortages of rice, corn, and cooking oil
US and European sanctions are preventing Iran from buying enough rice, cooking oil, and other staples, say commodities traders. Prices for food are rising in Iran.
More evidence is emerging of the crippling impact of new sanctions on Iran, with international traders saying Tehran is having trouble buying rice, cooking oil and other staples to feed its 74 million people weeks before an election.
New US financial sanctions imposed since the beginning of this year to punish Tehran over its nuclear program are playing havoc with Iran’s ability to buy imports and receive payment for its oil exports, commodities traders said.
Iran denies that sanctions are causing serious harm to its economy, but Reuters investigations in recent days with commodities traders around the globe show serious disruptions to its imports. That is having a real impact on the streets of Iran, where prices for basic foodstuffs are soaring.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Latest-News-Wires/2012/0208/Sanctions-on-Iran-Iranians-face-shortages-of-rice-corn-and-cooking-oil
The Economic Crisis in Iran
During the 10 years that the U.S. Army positioned itself next door to Iran, in neighboring Iraq, and Afghanistan, the people of Iran never seriously feared an attack. Despite President Bush’s at times heated war rhetoric, the Iranians shrugged off fears of missile strikes or bunker-busting bombs. These days however, with the U.S. military evacuating Iraq amid plans for a withdrawal from Afghanistan, there is palpable fear of a possible attack. In the past three weeks or so, Iran has been been griped by a panic, which saw the Iranian currency, the rial, fall more than 50 percent against the dollar on the black market.
The governor of Iran’s central bank, Mahmoud Bahmani, announced eight percent devaluation of the rial, from 11,300 to 12,260 to the dollar. Until 2010, the rial had been kept at a relatively stable 9,000 to the U.S. dollar for years. On the black market, where those without connection have to obtain Greenbacks, the rate had shot up to USD 23,000 last week. The collapse of the rial, and the additional economic sanctions placed on Iran by the international community has created such a frenzy among Iranians that out of fear of a famine, they have jammed supermarkets in order to stock pile the bare necessities.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/masoumeh-alinejad/post_2962_b_1260555.html
Iran says U.S. attack would be “akin to suicide”
Iran’s Ambassador in Moscow announced Wednesday that if the U.S. waged a military attack on Iran, the Islamic Republic has the capacity to strike back at U.S. interests all over the world.
The Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported on Wednesday that Mahmoudreza Sajjadi said: “In a situation where the United States is caught up in the Afghanistan quagmire, its hands are stained with the blood of Libyan people and in dealing with a national economic crisis, an attack on Iran is akin to suicide.”
The United States has been busy trying to establish widespread sanctions against Iran in order to halt Iran’s nuclear program.
Western countries claim Iran may have military ambitions in its nuclear activities. Iran denied the allegations and insists that its nuclear program is peaceful.
The United States has repeatedly said that if sanctions fail, the option of a military attack on Iran is still on the table.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/iran-says-us-attack-would-be-%E2%80%9Cakin-suicide%E2%80%9D
Israel Debates Possible Fallout From Attack on Iran
In recent months, Israeli leaders have stepped up their rhetoric about Iran’s nuclear capabilities and increasingly are warning that Israel might attack Iranian nuclear installations to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. Lately they are warning that such an attack could come this year. This is sparking widespread debate in Israel, where memories are still vivid of missile attacks on the country two decades ago during the Iraq war.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Israelis-Debate-Possible-Fallout-From-Any-Attack-on-Iran-139009379.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099142/Mossad-training-terrorists-kill-Irans-nuclear-scientists-U-S-officials-claim--Israels-real-target-Obama.html
Scroll down for video.
Mossad training terrorists to kill Iran’s nuclear scientists, U.S. officials claim… but is Israel’s real target Obama?
Israel funding dissident People’s Mujahedin of Iran, say officials in Tehran.
Last updated at 4:50 PM on 10th February 2012.
U.S. officials confirmed today that Israel has been funding and training Iranian dissidents to assassinate nuclear scientists involved in Iran’s nuclear program.
The claim has already been levelled by the Iranian government who believed that Mossad, Israel’s secret service, have been arming dissidents with the terrorist organisation the People’s Mujahedin of Iran (MEK).
Last month Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, 32, a chemistry expert, was killed in a brazen daylight assassination when two assailants on a motorcycle attached a magnetic bomb to his car in Tehran.
http://www.mo.be/artikel/israel-plant-aanval-op-iran-deze-zomer
Verschillende Europese diplomaten die aanwezig waren op de veiligheidsconferentie in München afgelopen weekend, hebben Israël gewaarschuwd. Ze vrezen dat Israël concrete plannen smeedt voor een aanval op Iran, meer bepaald in juni of juli.
De Amerikaanse senator Joseph Lieberman had ook al een aanwijzing in die richting gegeven. Hij sprak over een consensus onder de Israëlische bondgenoten dat de recente sancties een zichtbare impact moeten hebben op het nucleaire beleid van Iran “voor eind juni” om een militaire aanval te vermijden.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099549/Iran-government-cuts-internet-access-hardline-regime-makes-stand.html?ITO=1490
Iran has demonstrated further evidence of its strict regime after the government cut internet links leaving millions without email and social networks.
Interestingly, the shutdown comes at a time when inhabitants are preparing to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution, with rumours of anti-government protests also planned.
http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2668/Buitenland/article/detail/3173048/2012/02/11/Iran-komt-met-zeer-belangrijke-nucleaire-doorbraak.dhtml
De Iraanse president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad heeft vandaag op de staatstelevisie aangekondigd dat het land binnenkort ‘zeer belangrijke’ prestaties op nucleair gebied bekend zal maken.
In een toespraak die live werd uitgezonden, zei Ahmadinejad dat in de komende dagen ‘de wereld getuige zal zijn van Irans aankondiging van zijn zeer belangrijke en zeer grote nucleaire prestaties’.
Het is niet bekend waar Ahmadinejad op doelt en hij gaf ook geen verdere details. Iran is de laatste tijd onder meer bezig met het verrijken van uranium.
Iran to Reveal Nuclear Progress
Iran will soon unveil “big new” nuclear achievements, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday while reiterating Tehran’s readiness to revive talks with the West over the country’s controversial nuclear program.
Mr. Ahmadinejad spoke at a rally in Tehran as tens of thousands of Iranians marked the 33rd anniversary of the Islamic Revolution that toppled the pro-Western monarchy and brought Islamic clerics to power.
He did not elaborate on the upcoming announcement but insisted Iran would never give up its uranium enrichment, a process that makes material for reactors as well as weapons.
The West suspects Iran’s nuclear program is aimed at producing atomic weapons, a charge Tehran denies, insisting it’s geared for peaceful purposes only, such as energy production.
Four rounds of U.N. sanctions and recent tough financial penalties by the U.S. and the European Union have failed to get Iran to halt aspects of its atomic work that could provide a possible pathway to weapons production.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203646004577216803841921064.html?mod=fox_australian
Severe Internet Disruptions Reported In Iran
Severe Internet disruptions and increased censorship have been reported in Iran this week by Iranians who have complained on social media websites and via messages and telephone calls to RFE/RL’s Persian Service, Radio Farda.
They say their access to Google services has been blocked and that they haven’t been able to access other sites like Facebook even with the usual antifiltering software.
The reason for the disruption is not clear. It could be an attempt by government authorities to prevent a planned silent protest that has been called by the opposition Green Movement for February 14.
http://www.rferl.org/content/severe_internet_disruptions_reported_in_iran/24480371.html
Gaza Hamas Leader Arrives In Iran
The prime minister of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, Ismail Haniyeh, has arrived in Tehran at the start of a three-day visit.
Iranian state television said Haniyeh was set to meet with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Mahmud Ahmadinejad for talks on the latest developments in the Middle East.
He is also scheduled to give a speech at ceremonies marking the 33rd anniversary of Iran’s 1979 Islamic Revolution on February 11.
http://www.rferl.org/content/gaza_leader_in_iran/24480276.html
India, Praising U.S. Ties, Defends Buying Iran’s Oil
Ranjan Mathai, the Indian foreign secretary, made the rounds in Washington last week, describing India’s relationship with the United States as one of growing comfort, depth and candor, if not perfect harmony. On that last point he could have been talking about the recent frictions between the two countries over Iran.
India’s determination to continue buying Iranian oil, despite sanctions and growing political pressure from the United States and Europe, has frustrated officials in Washington at a time when the forward momentum in the United States-India relationship has slowed, with differences over issues including civil nuclear cooperation, trade protectionism and military sales.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/world/asia/india-trumpets-ties-with-us-amid-iran-oil-deal.html?src=mv&ref=world
Iran says its ready for any military strike
Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says the Islamic Republic takes every threat seriously and is prepared for worst-case scenarios.
IRNA reports that the Foreign Minister appeared on state television to address recent western threats against Iran, maintaining that the Islamic Republic was prepared for any military incursion.
In recent weeks there have been reports that Israel is preparing for a military attack on Iran, and the U.S. has repeatedly maintained that resolving Iran’s nuclear question through military action is still on the table.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/iran-says-its-ready-any-military-strike
Speaker defends himself in advance of elections
In another display of infighting in the Islamic Republic’s political arena, Parliamentary Speaker Ali Larijani has rejected recent statements accusing him of having vested interests in Qom that would disqualify him from running for a seat in the next Parliament.
The Mehr News Agency reports that the Qom representative attended a Q&A session with Qom clergy and seminarians on Thursday. He was questioned on recently distributed flyers alleging that Larijani owns large estates in Qom and is involved in a series of questionable development and business projects.
Larijani stressed that he owns no property in Qom save his father’s residence. He assured his audience that he is running in the coming elections at the recommendation of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei.
A few days ago, ILNA quoted Iranian politician Hossein Kanani Moghaddam about the information being disseminated about Larijani in Qom, indicating that it might affect Larijani’s eligibility to run in the March Parliamentary elections.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/speaker-defends-himself-advance-elections
Christian converts arrested in Shiraz
At least 10 Christian converts were arrested on Wednesday in Shiraz at a residential home that was used as a church.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency reports that plainclothes forces raided the home where, according to HRANA, Christians gathered to observe religious practices and ceremonies.
The families of the detainees have not been able to ascertain their location and, so far, have not been informed of the charges against them.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/christian-converts-arrested-shiraz
Analysts: Iran’s Nuclear Program Could Provoke War
The Obama administration is talking with Israeli officials and monitoring developments about a possible Israeli attack on Iran over its controversial nuclear program. Reports say U.S. officials are hoping Israel will give Western sanctions against Iran more time to take effect before resorting to an attack.
Will Israel use its military aircraft to attack Iran? The Jewish state considers Iran’s nuclear program a threat. So does the United States.
“Let there be no doubt -- America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. And I will take no options off the table to achieve that goal,” said President Obama.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Analysts-Irans-Nuclear-Program-Could-Provoke-War-139054239.html
Iran sluit internet af.
Iran has cut off access to the Internet, leaving millions of people without access to e-mail and social networks.
An individual inside the country confirmed this morning that Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo email are no longer available. Ditto for Facebook. So far, the government has not made any announcement about the service interruption.
But cyber-sophisticated Iranians are still able to circumvent the government by using proxy servers over VPN connections.
“The interesting thing is that when asked, they deny the fact that all these services are all blocked,” an Iranian contacted by CNET said. This individual asked to remain unidentified.
http://news.cnet.com/8301-13510_3-57374594-21/iran-cuts-off-internet-access/?tag=mncol;topStories
Ze doen het in hun broek voor de komende verkiezingen, de opstanden bij de overburen en de huidige spanningen over hun nucleaire plannen.
Waarom lees ik niets op het Nederlandse net van de toespraak van de huidige president van Iran, Ahmadinejad, -- correct me if I’m wrong -- wat ik ik wel op CNN en BBC mocht horen, dat die in drie dagen een grandioze breakthrough zou verkondigen in de ontwikkeling van Iranees atoomwetenschap? Moet ik wachten totdat die in mijn tuin valt om erachter te komen?
Rommel je komt er pas achter tot je tuin wegevaagd is als iedere andere tuin, foetsie helemaal niets meer van over, sorry Rommel,
hoop dat je nog wat speciale plandjes naar binnen kunt halen voor de soep enz,
De enigste plantjes die ik voor doomsday naar binnen haal zijn die je kan roken, de rest is voor de konijnen die ik dan weer opvreet. Zo werkt de natuur, rommel staat aan de top van de voedselketen.
jammer niet voor de soep, ik rook ok hen je genoeg om mij rokend te houden
Dat is te lezen Avidia. Dat je ok rook. Vin jij ook dat de maan ven die rare bekke trekt vanacht of hen ji nie gezien? Da heft met Iran te maken! Wan ik je zecht!
Neuken!
Neuken is ook heel belangrijk om je DNA aan de gang te houden. Als ik zo vrij mag zijn. Schroom je niet om jezelf voort te planten. Althans doe daar een vergeefse poging in het rubber of spiraaltje voor. Nooit geschoten is altijd mis. Help deze planeet naar de klote en doe je best nog een mislukkeling als jouw te creëren.
Het kan niet op en je krijgt er nog geld ook voor.
Heb ik het laatste woord?
Goed zo.
Kan ik eindelijk naar bed en me in belangrijkere zaken verdiepen.
Countdown! Iran’s finger on nuclear trigger
Iranian nuclear experts have completed the component for a nuclear bomb trigger, overcoming a major obstacle in obtaining the bomb, according to sources within Iran.
As reported last May, the Iranian nuclear and military industries, under the order of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, were to weaponize at least two warheads with a nuclear payload no later than next month.
Sources within the Revolutionary Guards reveal that the work on the trigger is taking place covertly under the control of the Guards in the cities of Darkhovin and Isfahan.
Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, the main brain behind the Iranian nuclear bomb program, is guiding the project. Fakhrizadeh reportedly reports directly to Khamenei and is under tight security because of the assassination of other Iranian nuclear scientists.
The Islamic regime has rejected several requests by the International Atomic Energy Agency to interview him. The U.N. nuclear watchdog believes Fakhrizadeh was responsible for the project “111,” which would convert highly enriched uranium into metal for a nuclear warhead and its reentry design.
The IAEA last November indicated that Iran had experimented with firing multiple detonators with a high level of simultaneity. The report also indicated that Iran as early as 2003 began a large-scale experiment to initiate a high-explosive charge in the form of a hemispherical shell. This indicates work on a nuclear bomb.
http://www.wnd.com/2012/02/countdown-irans-finger-on-nuclear-trigger/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2099793/Iran-pledges-unveil-big-new-nuclear-achievements.html?ITO=1490
Have they now got nukes? New Iran fear as it warns West: We’ve made a major breakthrough
By Christopher Leake and Damien Gayle
Last updated at 12:08 AM on 12th February 2012
Iran’s leader issued a new threat to the West yesterday – warning that his country would soon unveil ‘big new nuclear achievements’.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad did not elaborate on the announcement – but insisted Iran would never give up its uranium enrichment process.
Western powers, including Britain and the United States, suspect the country’s nuclear programme is aimed at producing atomic weapons.
India: ‘Well-Trained Terrorist’ Behind Israeli Diplomatic Attack
India’s home minister says Monday’s bombing of an Israeli embassy car was targeted at an Israeli diplomat’s wife and carried out by a well-trained terrorist.
Palaniappan Chidambaram said Tuesday the bomb went off within seconds of being planted on the woman’s car by an assailant on a motorcycle. Doctors described her condition as “critical but stable” and that she is recovering from shrapnel wounds and a spinal injury.
The attack occurred in one of New Delhi’s most secure districts, only a few blocks from the prime minister’s residence.
New Delhi police are in the process of studying forensic evidence and closed circuit television footage from the vicinity of the explosion. Israeli authorities are cooperating in the investigation.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/asia/Israeli-Wounded-in-India-Attack-critical-but-stable-139310383.html
Bangkok blasts prompt more accusations against Iran a day after Israelis targeted
Israel renewed its accusations against Iran on Tuesday after a man identified as an Iranian national was involved in a string of explosions in Bangkok. The blasts came a day after bombers targeted Israeli diplomats in two incidents in India and Georgia, stoking concerns in Israel about a possible wave of attacks on its representatives abroad.
The violence comes amid rising tension between Israel and Iran over the latter’s nuclear program and threats by Iran to avenge the deaths of several of its nuclear scientists in attacks it has blamed on Israel.
Though authorities in Thailand said it was unclear whether the Bangkok explosions were linked to Monday’s incidents in New Delhi and the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the three incidents were part of a pattern of attacks orchestrated by Iran and the Lebanese Shiite group Hezbollah, which is backed by Tehran.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/bangkok-blasts-prompt-more-accusations-against-iran-a-day-after-bombing-attempts-target-israelis/2012/02/14/gIQAHqCLDR_story.html?wprss=rss_world
Iran Can Disrupt Key Waterway, But For How Long?
The dispute over Iran’s nuclear program has again rocked oil markets. And Iran is threatening to close the Strait of Hormuz, which is just 34 miles wide yet serves as the passageway for 20 percent of the world’s oil.
This is not a new drama. In fact, it was a recurring issue in the 1980s. Still, there’s been relatively little activity among Gulf oil producers to find alternative routes to get their oil to market.
The United Arab Emirates is one of the few that has made a serious effort. It has completed construction of a new 230-mile pipeline that bypasses the strait, traveling from Abu Dhabi on the Persian Gulf in the west to Fujairah on the Gulf of Oman in the east.
But local energy reporters say there’s less there than meets the eye. Technical problems have delayed use of the line by several months. And even when fully operational, the pipeline won’t even cover Abu Dhabi’s daily production, let alone anyone else’s.
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/14/146866084/iran-can-disrupt-key-waterway-but-for-how-long?ft=1%26f=1009
Iranian Activists, Journalists Receive Threatening E-mails
A number of Iranian activists and journalists based inside and outside the country have told RFE/RL’s Radio Farda they have been threatened in anonymous e-mails.
The e-mails, which have been sent since February 13, warned activists of their “illegal activities” and said they will be dealt with according to Iranian Islamic laws. The e-mails claim that a list has been created including names and e-mail addresses of individuals accused of working for the goals of “foreigners“ and “seditionists,” which are terms used by Iranian officials to refer to the members of the opposition Green Movement.
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran_activists_journalists_receive_threatening_emails/24484213.html
Opposition reports security clampdown in Tehran
Iranian security forces deployed in parts of Tehran on Tuesday after opposition figures called on supporters to hit the streets in protest against the year-long house arrest of their leaders, the opposition website Kaleme reported.
“Azadi (Freedom) Square is surrounded by security forces and their number, as well as the number of citizens, is increasing by the minute,” Kaleme reported, adding that police forces were also conspicuously present in other parts of the capital.
“There was a minor clash between security forces and people in Enqelab (Revolution) street,” the website said, without giving further details. Kaleme’s report could not be independently verified by Reuters.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/14/us-iran-opposition-police-idUSTRE81D16120120214?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reuters%2FworldNews+%28News+%2F+US+%2F+International%29
Iran’s opposition struggles without detained leaders
It has been a year since the leaders of Iran’s opposition Green Movement were placed under house arrest. BBC’s Persian’s Mehrzad Kohanrouz looks at how their absence has affected opposition supporters and gauges their mood.
It was February 2011, and the Arab world was in turmoil.
As the regimes first in Tunisia and then Egypt fell, Iranian opposition leaders saw a chance to revive their own short-lived “Tehran spring”.
Two years earlier, Iranian security forces had crushed protests which erupted after the disputed presidential election.
The two candidates who lost out to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the controversial poll decided it was time to make a move.
Continue reading the main story
“
Start Quote
The Green Movement is alive and successful because it moved beyond the Islamic Republic’s ideology”
End Quote
Kaveh
Email to BBC Persian
Mir Hossein Mousavi, a former prime minister, and Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of parliament and senior cleric, applied for official permission to hold a rally in support of the Arab protesters.
Their request was refused, but on 14 February thousands of people across Iran defied the authorities and took to the streets.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-17028794
Letter Writers Break Iranian Taboo
A letter-writing campaign to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has shattered a taboo against criticizing the country’s top religious and political authority.
The shift comes ahead of protests that could further challenge the Iranian government in the weeks before elections on March 2. Iran’s opposition Green Movement, student activists and the main reform political parties have called for nationwide demonstrations Tuesday to demand the release of opposition leaders under house arrest and call for democracy.
Ahead of the protests, Tehran and other cities were under heightened security on Monday, with more police checkpoints and disruption of cellphone and Internet service.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204642604577214420133674482.html?mod=fox_australian
U.S., Europe consider risky penalty on Iran
The United States and Europe are considering unprecedented punishment against Iran that could immediately cripple the country’s financial lifeline. But it’s an extreme option in the banking world that would come with its own costs.
The Obama administration wants Iran evicted from SWIFT, an independent financial clearinghouse that is crucial to the country’s overseas oil sales. That would leapfrog the current slow-pressure campaign of sanctions aimed at persuading Iran to drop what the U.S. and its allies contend is a drive toward developing and building nuclear weapons. It also perhaps would buy time for the U.S. to persuade Israel not to launch a pre-emptive military strike on Iran this spring.
The last-resort financial effort suggests the U.S. and Europe are grasping for ways to show immediate results because economic sanctions have so far failed to force Iran back to nuclear talks
But such a penalty could send oil prices soaring when many of the world’s economies are still frail. It also could hurt ordinary Iranians and undercut the reputation of SWIFT, a banking hub used by virtually every nation and corporation around the world. The organization’s full name is the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications.
http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/02/ap-us-europe-consider-risky-penalty-on-iran-021412/
Young people in Iran celebrate Valentine’s Day despite ban
Even under the pressure of sanctions, economic difficulties and threat of military attack, love continues to burn hot and glow deep for Iranian youth, who, like their Western counterparts, exchange chocolates and flowers on Feb. 14.
Despite the government’s decision to ban Valentine’s Day gifts — in a bid to discourage the spread of “Western” culture — love is still in the air this Valentine’s day in the Islamic state.
The authorities said that they would take legal action against those who ignore this ban.
Gifts are stacked up in special Valentine’s baskets and on the shelves of local stalls with heart-shaped toys dominating the shop windows in central Tehran.
“It (Valentine’s) is very important for Iran’s youth in the sense that they are looking for an excuse to prove their love to one-another. Valentine’s day is an international day, which has found its place in Iran over the past few years. It has been five or six years that our youth are doing this: buying toys and chocolates for their loved ones,” said shop-keeper Sadegh Saberi.
http://www.citytv.com/toronto/citynews/news/international/article/186961--young-people-in-iran-celebrate-valentine-s-day-despite-ban
Reports of scattered street demonstrations in Tehran
Islamic Republic security measures are tightening all across Tehran while reports of groups chanting “Death to the Dictator!” have been reported in Takht Tavoos Street in Central Tehran.
In Azadi and Vanak Squares, people can be heard chanting slogans. Since last night, citizens have been receiving random text messages saying: “Dear citizen, if you access anti-Revolutionary networks or attend any illegal gathering you will be prosecuted according to the Articles 489. 500 and 508 of the Islamic penal code.”
Plainclothes forces as well as security and police officers are reported along all the major streets as well as the route of the proposed silent March as indicated in the opposition’s rally call.
Anti-riot police and equipment have been deployed, and all businesses along Azadi Street have been warned to close their stores in case of any disturbance.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1144.html
Iranian public warned against joining opposition rally
The Tehran Governor has announced that the authorities are prepared to confront any attempt to hold public demonstrations on February 14.
Morteza Tamaddon dismissed the opposition’s call to rally demonstrators on February 14 as a mere “promotional show.” He said: “Tehran is equipped with all forms of security systems [to confront the demonstrators].”
In an interview with the Young Reporters Club, Tamddon said: “After the sedition of 2009, we have dealt with many such rallies, but this one is just a promotional show by the anti-revolutionary opposition.”
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1134.html
Iranian MP denounces internet service disruptions
Iranian MP Ahmad Tavakoli says the recent blocking of internet and satellite services, causing sudden and unexplained disruptions, is creating widespread discontent that could be “very costly” for the regime.
Tavakoli, who is also the head of Parliament’s Centre for Research, told the Mehr News Agency: “This method of filtering, on the one hand, draws people toward breaking the law and using proxies, and on the other hand, makes the blocking of sites and signals ineffective, because the use of proxies becomes widespread.”
In the past few days, Iranian internet users have not been able to access foreign websites, and even sites like Yahoo Mail, Gmail, Yahoo Messenger and other email services have been sporadically unavailable.
Tavakoli called on officials to clearly explain the current disruptions and to stop “creating a nuisance” in people’s lives.
He added that many websites that contain “useful and specialized information” have also been blocked and need to be reopened to public access.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1135.html
IRANIAN TABOO: A documentary exposing the Islamic regime’s attacks against the followers of the Baha’i Faith in Iran
Iranian Taboo, a documentary by Reza Allamehzadeh, will begin screening in Los Angeles from February 24 toMarch 1 at Laemmle’s Music Hall 3 in Beverly Hills and in DC, San Diego, Atlanta, Orlando, Montreal, Chicago, Toronto, San Francisco andSeattle in the following days.
Reza Allamehzadeh, an Iranian-Dutch filmmaker banned from entering his homeland, enlisted the aid of friends who clandestinely filmed inside Iran in order to explore this century old taboo.
Iranian Taboo tells the story of an Iranian Baha’i woman, Nadereh and her 14-year-old daughter who decide to sell all of their belongings and leave their homeland, to take refuge in the West.
Iranian Taboo takes us across continents from Turkey to Israel, and from the U.S. to Iran and gives us a unique insights into the persecution of Baha’is in Iran from the underground Baha’i University (BIHE) to the oppressed Baha’i peasants of the Eival village in the northern province of Mazandaran. The film includes never seen before interviews with some of the most respected Iranian scholars, authors and politicians, speaking about the persecution of Baha’is in Iran. All scenes within Iran were shot undercover by local contacts of the filmmaker.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1129.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2097252/Kill-Jews-annihilate-Israel-Irans-supreme-leader-lays-legal-religious-justification-attack.html?ITO=1490
‘Kill all Jews and annihilate Israel!’ Iran’s Ayatollah lays out legal and religious justification for attack
Doctrine says Israel would be wiped out in 9 minutes.
A website with close ties to Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has outlined why it would be acceptable to kill all Jews and annihilate Israel.
http://nos.nl/tekst/341293-iran-stopt-olieexport-nederland.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nosnieuws+%28NOS+Teletekst%29
“Iran stopt olie-export Nederland”
Update: woensdag 15 feb 2012, 15:45
De Iraanse regering spreekt tegen dat de olieuitvoer naar 6 Europese landen, waaronder Nederland, is stopgezet. Een Engelstalige Iraanse zender had dat gemeld. Buitenlandse Zaken in Den Haag is er niet van op de hoogte gesteld dat de uitvoer zou worden stopgezet.
De exportstop van Iran zou een reactie zijn op de geplande sancties van de Europese Unie. De lidstaten besloten vorige maand onder meer om vanaf 1 juli de import van de olie te verbieden.
Iran riep vandaag de ambassadeurs van Nederland en de andere vijf landen op het matje om te protesteren tegen de sancties.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2101242/Iranian-patrol-boats-shadow-USS-Lincoln-sails-Strait-Hormuz.html?ITO=1490
Heightened tensions as Iranian fighter jets and patrol boats shadow USS Abraham Lincoln while it sails down Strait of Hormuz
Passage ended a Gulf mission that displayed Western naval power amid heightened tensions with Iran
Tehran has threatened to choke off vital oil shipping lanes
By Associated Press
Last updated at 12:56 PM on 15th February 2012
Iranian patrol boats and aircraft shadowed a U.S. aircraft carrier strike group as it travelled through the Strait of Hormuz yesterday.
The passage ended a Gulf mission that displayed Western naval power amid heightened tensions with Tehran, which has threatened to choke off vital oil shipping lanes.
Officers aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln said there were no incidents with Iranian forces and described the surveillance as routine measures by Tehran near the strategic strait, which is jointly controlled by Iran and Oman.
Scroll down for video
eeuhm, hoort hier natuurlijk niet, maar D.G. je zei net ‘dm’ tegen me op dat getwitter. ik heb geen idee wat dat betekent, maar om daar niet voor een complete voll-idioot aangezien te worden, vraag ik dat natuurlijk niet daar he
zou je me kunnen bijlichten?
Weer fout, maar dit stond nog open. Zucht D.G.
Hadden we Brendel in de hoek en hij gaat pitten…..
@Fubar, daar geantwoord..
Brendel kneep er idd snel tussenuit.
excuses Henk, heeft niks met topic te maken
Sorry daarvoor, maar D.G. heeft het me inmiddels uitgelegd. Ik had in dit stukje al eens uitgelegd dat ik een twitternoob ben: http://fubarfubar.blogspot.com/2011/12/kerstiftar-marcouch-islamiseert-de.html
Nogmaals excuus, maar ik moest het ergens vragen, nietwaar?
En waar anders dan op de onvolprezen Amsterdam Post.
@ DG Fubar
Als het ergens op AP uitgepraat dient te worden waren jullie waarschijnlijk ten alle tijde off topic geweest.
Niks aan de hand hoor.
Daar staat tegenover dat Fubar waarschijnlijk soms ook zal linken naar AP en het zou best kunnen dat deze draad na 2 maart dan meer aandacht krijgt door het getwitter.
Hoewel bijna 1000 vieuws voor een Item wat al ongeveer 1/5 jaar vergeten word door het gross van de gemeenschap wil zeggen dat een aantal lieden toch nog steeds geinteresseerd zijn in hetgeen gebeurt met de Iraanse bevolking.
En dat er dus ook nog mensen zijn die erin geloven dat de buitenlandse politiek op korte of middellange termijn in die hoek van de wereld bepaalt gaat worden.
@Henk der Niederländer: is dit misschien interessant voor u?
http://boinnk.nl/blog/28593/een-profetie-van-jeremia-aangaande-iran/
Je weet dat Ik niet geloof in Koffiedikkijkers Gielah.
En naar Ik aanneem heeft ook Jeremia indertijd dus ook zijn moment of fame gehad met dit soort “voorspelling”
Ik ben voor zo iets en net iets te nuchter Nederlander.
http://tinyurl.com/76yorqy
Aggressive Acts by Iran Signal Pressure on Its Leadership
By SCOTT SHANE and ROBERT F. WORTH
Published: February 15, 2012
WASHINGTON — A string of aggressive gestures by Iran this week — assassination attempts on Israelis living abroad that were attributed to Tehran, renewed posturing over its nuclear program and fresh threats of economic retaliation — suggest that Iranian leaders are responding frantically, and with increasing unpredictability, to the tightening of sanctions by the West.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103358/Iran-stops-oil-exports-British-companies-Hague-warns-Israel-attack-wise.html?ITO=1490
Iran cut off oil sales to British companies yesterday after Foreign Secretary William Hague accused the Islamist regime of promoting terrorism.
The oil ministry in Tehran announced that it had ceased all sales to the UK and France, escalating diplomatic tensions triggered by Iran’s nuclear programme.
The move will have little effect on British firms, which get well under 1 per cent of their oil from Iran since the European Union has already slapped sanctions on the country and has vowed to stop buying all Iranian oil by July. Iran was supplying more than 700,000 barrels a day to the EU last year but this had already been cut back by 300,000 before yesterday’s move.
http://www.mo.be/artikel/iran-zet-deur-op-een-kier-voor-onderhandelingen
Iran zet deur op een kier voor onderhandelingen
WASHINGTON 19 februari 2012
Na weken van oplopende spanningen, vooral tussen Israël en Iran, zijn er signalen in zowel Teheran als Washington dat er serieuze onderhandelingen aan zitten te komen over het controversiële Iraanse nucleaire programma.
President Ahmadinejad woont de onthullingsceremonie bij van een nieuw nucleair project in Teheran, 15 februari 2012. Mogelijk komen nu toch onderhandelingen tussen Iran en het Westen op gang.
De meest concrete stap in de richting van onderhandelingen is een positief antwoord van de Iraanse toponderhandelaar Saeed Jalali op een uitnodiging die vorig jaar oktober uitging van Catherine Ashton, de hoge vertegenwoordiger voor buitenlandse zaken en veiligheid van de Europese Unie. Zij wil een nieuwe ronde gesprekken tussen Iran en de P5+1 (de Verenigde Staten, Groot-Brittannië, Frankrijk, China, Rusland en Duitsland).
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2103746/UN-inspectors-arrive-Iran-key-talks-controversial-nuclear-programme.html?ITO=1490
UN inspectors arrive in Iran for key talks on nuclear programme as Israel prepares to deploy its ‘Iron Dome’ defence system.
Second visit by atomic agency in a month, but officials admit there’s little chance of progress.
Israel fuels speculation of military action after moving rocket interceptor missiles to Tel Aviv region.
Tensions rise after two Iranian warships dock at Syrian port after sailing through Suez.
Britain and U.S. warn of grave consequences if Israel attacks Iran.
By Alex Gore
Last updated at 5:59 PM on 20th February 2012
UN inspectors arrived in Iran today in the latest push to hold key talks with Iranian officials about how far the country’s controversial nuclear programme has come.
Herman Nackaerts, a senior UN nuclear official, said yesterday in Vienna that he hoped for progress, but his careful choice of words suggested little expectation the meeting will be successful.
Their visit comes amid rising tensions after Israel announced it was planning to deploy rocket interceptors from its ‘Iron Dome’ defence system in the Tel Aviv region from today.
Iran Raid Seen as a Huge Task for Israeli Jets
Should Israel decide to launch a strike on Iran, its pilots would have to fly more than 1,000 miles across unfriendly airspace, refuel in the air en route, fight off Iran’s air defenses, attack multiple underground sites simultaneously — and use at least 100 planes.
That is the assessment of American defense officials and military analysts close to the Pentagon, who say that an Israeli attack meant to set back Iran’s nuclear program would be a huge and highly complex operation. They describe it as far different from Israel’s “surgical” strikes on a nuclear reactor in Syria in 2007 and Iraq’s Osirak reactor in 1981.
“All the pundits who talk about ‘Oh, yeah, bomb Iran,’ it ain’t going to be that easy,” said Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, who retired last year as the Air Force’s top intelligence official and who planned the American air campaigns in 2001 in Afghanistan and in the 1991 Gulf War.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/20/world/middleeast/iran-raid-seen-as-complex-task-for-israeli-military.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
Iranian Warships Return Through Suez Canal After Stop In Syria
Two Iranian warships were reported to have passed south through the Suez Canal on February 21 after a stop in the Syrian port of Tartus.
Reports quote Suez authorities as identifying the ships as the same Iranian destroyer and supply vessel that passed through the canal on February 18 on their way to Syria’s Mediterranean port.
http://www.rferl.org/content/iranian_warships_return_through_suez_canal_from_syria/24491680.html
Candidate List Announced For Iran Elections
The powerful Iranian body that vets election hopefuls has approved 3,444 candidates to run in that country’s parliamentary polls on March 2.
More than 5,000 people had applied with the clerically dominated Guardians Council to run in the elections.
Reports suggested it appeared the Guardian Council had barred many potential supporters of President Mahmud Ahmadinejad from running, thus giving a boost to loyalists of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
http://www.rferl.org/content/candidate_list_announced_iran_elections/24491385.html
UN Team In Tehran For Talks, Not Inspections
Iran’s Foreign Ministry says United Nations experts on the second day of a visit to Iran have no plans to visit the Islamic republic’s nuclear facilities.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said the experts from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) would only hold talks with officials in Tehran.
He described the talks as aiming to “accelerate” cooperation between Iran and the UN’s nuclear watchdog.
Earlier, Iranian media reported that the IAEA inspectors hoped to talk with Iranian nuclear scientists and visit the Parchin military complex. That site is suspected of housing a secret underground facility used for Iran’s nuclear program, a claim Iran denies.
http://www.rferl.org/content/un_nuclear_inspectors_continue_iran_visit/24490843.html
Iran Takes Another Step
The prospect of Iran achieving nuclear breakout capability is becoming more imminent. Reports this past weekend indicate that Iran has built the infrastructure needed for operating more efficient and advanced centrifuges at the Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant. The Iranian regime will be able to dramatically shorten the time required to produce fuel for a nuclear weapon once it installs and begins operating these centrifuges. In addition, Iran could expand its stockpile of enriched uranium up to 20 percent faster using advanced centrifuges at Fordow.
The press reports suggest that the infrastructure at Fordow could support several thousand advanced centrifuges. Iran has previously told the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) that it intends to operate around 3,000 centrifuges there. Its current declared inventory of advanced centrifuges, the IR-2 and IR-4, are located at the Natanz Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant. The IAEA noted in its last report that Iran installed a full cascade of 164 IR-2 centrifuges and smaller cascades of IR-2 and IR-4 centrifuges at Natanz. Any additional inventory of advanced centrifuges has not been accounted for in previous IAEA reports, possibly due to Iran’s refusal to grant the IAEA access to facilities where it builds centrifuges. The diplomats briefing journalists on this development also indicated that the reconfiguration of cascades at Fordow for the production of weapons-grade uranium could be completed “within days.”
http://www.irantracker.org/nuclear-program/zarif-iran-takes-another-step-february-20-2012
Iran and the Gulf Military Balance I: The Conventional and Asymmetric Dimensions
The tensions between Iran, the Southern Gulf states, and the US are reaching a crisis point that can easily escalate into military clashes or some form of more serious conflict.
The US is now reshaping its posture in the Gulf to reflect its new strategy, and the need to adjust its force posture to take account of its withdrawal from Iraq. The GCC is now examining military options to improve its capability to deter and defend against Iran. At the same time, Iran is making new threats to “close the Gulf,” carrying out large-scale military exercises, and steadily refining its options for using its forces in asymmetric warfare.
http://csis.org/publication/iran-and-gulf-military-balance-i-conventional-and-asymmetric-dimensions
Iran Developing Cult Of Personality Around Slain Nuclear Scientists
On January 11, Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan became the fourth Iranian nuclear scientist to be assassinated in two years — the latest victim of an apparent covert war aimed at slowing Iran’s nuclear program.
Roshan and the other dead scientists are very much alive, however, to the Iranian regime, which has begun evoking their tragic fate in state-orchestrated events.
During a ceremony on February 14 where President Mahmud Ahmadinejad announced the country’s latest nuclear technology advances, a framed photo of Roshan and his slain colleagues were shown prominently on state television.
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran_nuclear_scientists_cult_of_personality/24487107.html
Exclusive -- Unipec to cut Iranian oil purchases for 2012
China’s Unipec, the trading arm of top Asian refiner Sinopec Corp , will buy 10 to 20 percent less crude from Iran under an annual contract for 2012 than in 2011, a Chinese industry executive with direct knowledge said on Tuesday.
The fall is mostly due to the steep reduction the refiner has already made in imports in the first quarter from the National Iranian Oil Company due to a dispute over credit and price terms for the contract.
Those cuts will pull down the annual average even though the Chinese refiner agreed to restore imports from its third-largest supplier back to last year’s level from April after an agreement was reached last week.
“Things will get back to normal from April,” said the executive. “Overall for 2012, Unipec’s cuts would be between 10 and 20 percent.”
Unipec lifted between 260,000 and 280,000 barrels per day last year under an annual contract, making it the biggest buyer of Iranian oil by company. The supplies included a first-ever term deal of some 75,000 bpd of Iranian South Pars condensate, a super light crude used as a feedstock for petrochemicals.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/exclusive-unipec-cut-iranian-oil-purchases-2012-123531163.html
Iran “winning” on oil sanctions -- top trader
An increase in world oil prices has more than compensated Iran for revenues lost to lower crude exports because of sanctions imposed by the West, the head of the world’s leading oil trader said Tuesday.
Ian Taylor, chief executive of privately-held Vitol, said a decline in the value of the euro versus the U.S. dollar had also lifted the cost of dollar-denominated oil sales to European Union countries.
“The Iranians now want the price as high as possible as they’ve got less volumes to sell. I reckon they are probably quite close to winning based on the numbers. That was what everybody in the industry always thought would be the likely result,” said Taylor.
“The politicians are all avoiding the subject at the moment but as you know oil is extremely expensive, especially in euros,” he said.
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/iran-winning-western-oil-sanctions-vitol-155947510.html
Azerbaijan says it busted pro-Iran terror group
Azerbaijan’s security agency says it has busted an alleged terrorist group working for Iran’s secret services.
The National Security Ministry said in a statement carried Tuesday by Azerbaijan’s state television that it had arrested an unspecified number of people suspected of preparing terror attacks against foreign citizens at Iran’s behest.
The ministry says the group’s members were gathering intelligence and had acquired a large number of weapons and explosives. It gave no further details.
http://www.cbs8.com/story/16984362/azerbaijan-says-it-busted-pro-iran-terror-group
February 14 political detainees on hunger strike
The RAHANA Human Rights House of Iran website reports that 10 detainees who were arrested during the scattered protests of February 14 and are currently being held in Evin Prison have taken up this hunger strike.
The report indicates that the detainees are being held in alcove 7 of Evin Prison among “dangerous” prisoners.
The report adds that Ali Shekarchi began a hunger strike three days ago to protest against the behaviour of the “dangerous” prisoners and has since been moved to solitary confinement.
Nine other detainees from February 14 followed suit and are now also on a hunger strike.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1203.html
Iranian internet users cut off from email again
Iranian internet users are once again unable to access their email today. The Khabar-on-line website reports that users are again cut off from their email, and no one is willing to take responsibility for it.
Meanwhile, internet access is also being disrupted due to the blocking of VPN ports and HTTP protocols.
Access to the internet and email service providers such as Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail has been impossible in recent days, and Iranian authorities have been emphasizing their concern over the lack of security on the web.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1202.html
Iranian journalist sentenced to jail
Iranian journalist Mahsa Amrabadi has been sentenced to a prison term for the second time in the past two years.
The Kaleme opposition website reports that Mahsa Amrabadi has been sentenced to five years in jail for “assembly and collusion against national security.” Four years of her sentence is suspended; however, one year of it must be served immediately.
Amrabadi is charged with refusal to denounce opposition leaders MirHosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, attending the Quran-reading gatherings of political prisoners, giving interviews and writing reports for newspapers, visiting independent members of the clergy and defending the rights of her husband, detained journalist Massoud Bastani.
Amrabadi was arrested for the second time last March by intelligence officers of the Revolutionary Guards and was released on bail.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1207.html
Iranian Student Who Publicly Confronted State Officials Sees ‘Fire Under The Ashes’
“There is fire under the ashes,” says student activist Payam Olad Azimi about the situation at Iran’s universities where, he believes, the increased state repression of the last two years has not managed to silence dissenting voices.
22-year-old Olad Azimi is one of those voices who has been pressured so much by the Iranian authorities, he has been forced into exile.
He talked to Persian Letters on Sunday (Feb. 19) — the same day a video of him publicly criticizing the Iranian establishment was posted on YouTube. He said he made the video available right after fleeing the country.
The amateur video, which was recorded by a cellphone, has already been widely shared on social media. It is from an October event at Iran’s Orumieh University that was attended by an official from the interior ministry.
In the video, Azimi publicly confronts the ministry official, who he identifies as Mahmoud Abbaszadeh Meshkini -- the ministry’s political director. Azimi asks several challenging questions, including why former prime minister Mir Hossein Musavi and former parliament speaker Mehdi Karrubi have both become critics of the establishment and leaders of the opposition movement. Both men have been under house arrest for the past year.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1199.html
Eight Iranian Baha’is Arrested In Mashhad
Islamic Republic security forces have arrested eight Baha’i youth at a craft show held at the home of a Baha’i citizen in Mashhad.
The Human Rights Activists News Agency (HRANA) reports that on Friday, security forces raided the home of a Baha’i citizen where a craft show was being held. The report indicates that after searching the house and interrogating participants, the forces took eight people into custody.
The participants were given forms to fill out, and their identities were recorded.
In recent months, Iran’s Baha’i community has been assailed by the government.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1196.html
Trial Opens In Billion-Dollar Iran Bank Fraud
A Tehran court has begun hearing the trial of dozens of defendants in a $2.6 billion fraud case. The chief prosecutor, Abbas Jafari Dowlatabadi, on February 18 read the indictment against the 32 accused at the opening session at the Revolutionary Court, which deals with cases involving security and organized crime.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1186.html
Iranian Workers Barred From Running In Elections
Alireza Mahjoub, the head of Iran’s House of Workers, says the new election law prevents workers from becoming representatives and getting into Parliament.
The Iranian Labour News Agency says the head of the House of Workers, who is also a representative in the current Parliament, spoke today at Allameh Tabatabai University, criticizing the newly approved election law. “Today, with the additional eligibility criterion that parliamentary nominees must have a graduate degree, only one percent of the population can actually run in elections, and this is completely unfair,” Mahjoub said.
Mahjoub said the elections have become too restrictive, and the Guardian Council should challenge the criteria.
He added that the House of Workers usually endorses candidates from its own ranks, but with the new eligibility criteria, it was not able to find even a handful of candidates in the nationwide workers’ community.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1183.html
What would happen if Iran had the bomb? (+video)
Even as Tehran signals an interest in nuclear talks, many experts have already envisioned what the world would look like if the country got nuclear weapons. It wouldn’t be as dire as many fear, but it would unleash new uncertainties -- and perhaps a regional arms race.
Are you afraid of Iran yet? Shrill warnings of war or imminent apocalypse over Iran’s nuclear program have never been so strident, or so ominous.
A window is closing fast, the narrative goes, to prevent a fanatical and suicidal religious regime from acquiring the ultimate tools of Armageddon: nuclear weapons. Within months, some politicians claim, either Israel, the United States, or both may have no choice but to attack Iran to remove this “existential threat” to the Jewish state.
The world is facing another Hitler, declares Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and this moment of decision is akin to the eve of World War II. Iran is a threat to Israel and “a real danger to humanity as a whole,” warns Israeli President Shimon Peres.
What would happen if Iran had the bomb? (+video)
Even as Tehran signals an interest in nuclear talks, many experts have already envisioned what the world would look like if the country got nuclear weapons. It wouldn’t be as dire as many fear, but it would unleash new uncertainties – and perhaps a regional arms race.
Are you afraid of Iran yet? Shrill warnings of war or imminent apocalypse over Iran’s nuclear program have never been so strident, or so ominous.
A window is closing fast, the narrative goes, to prevent a fanatical and suicidal religious regime from acquiring the ultimate tools of Armageddon: nuclear weapons. Within months, some politicians claim, either Israel, the United States, or both may have no choice but to attack Iran to remove this “existential threat” to the Jewish state.
The world is facing another Hitler, declares Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and this moment of decision is akin to the eve of World War II. Iran is a threat to Israel and “a real danger to humanity as a whole,” warns Israeli President Shimon Peres.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Middle-East/2012/0216/What-would-happen-if-Iran-had-the-bomb-video
Iran puts conditions on selling oil to Europe
The head of the National Oil Company of Iran, Ahmad Ghalehbani, has announced that the Islamic Republic will only sell oil to European countries under contracts lasting two to five years.
“If the European states want to continue importing Iranian crude, they must sign unconditional purchase contracts with terms of two to five years,” Ghalehbani emphasized.
He added that contracts with several European countries have ended, but some other countries have six months left on their old contracts.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/iran-puts-conditions-selling-oil-europe
Iranian protest leaders and one year of house arrests
Marking one year of house arrest for the Iranian opposition leaders, Behrouz Samadbeigi records the events that led to their unprecedented confinement and their ordeals of the past year.
In February 2011, as the government was churning its massive propaganda machine to mark the anniversary of the 1979 Iranian Revolution, the joint letter from opposition leaders MirHossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, inviting people to a rally, drew much attention, and what ensued after the publication of this brief letter brought the Iranian people’s protest movement to a new level.
Karroubi and Mousavi urged the Interior Minister to issue a permit for a public demonstration based on Article 27 of the Islamic Republic Constitution. They proposed a demonstration starting at 3 PM on Monday February 14, 2011, from Emam Hossein Sqaure to Azadi Square, to “express solidarity” with the popular movements in the region, specifically the democratic uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt against despotic governments.
Although the permit was never issued, the demonstration took place. Military and security forces cracked down violently on the demonstrations, and the leaders of the “Green Movement” were forbidden from leaving their homes on that day. So it was that their house arrest began — a house arrest still in place after one year, which triggered another rally on its anniversary.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/iranian-protest-leaders-and-one-year-house-arrests
Khazali collapses after more than a month on hunger strike
Iranian political prisoner Mehdi Khazali has collapsed from heart complications on the 41st day of his hunger strike in Tehran’s Evin Prison.
The Kaleme opposition website reports that Khazali, the director of Hayan publications and a dissident blogger, was admitted last night to Taleghani Hospital.
Khazali has announced that he will not end his hunger strike despite this development.
Khazali began refusing food to protest against his “illegal arrest and detention in prison.”
Many political activists as well as his cellmates and family members have urged him to end his strike, but he published a letter last Monday saying they should instead ask the authorities to end “their imprisonments.”
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/khazali-collapses-after-more-month-hunger-strike
Death sentence proceeds for software designer
The death sentence for Saeed Malekpour has been forwarded to the enforcement branch of the Iranian judiciary.
The Human Rights House of Iran (RAHANA) reports that Malekpour, a software designer charged with creating indecent and pornographic websites, is now in imminent danger of being hanged. His lawyers have reported that his sentence has been delivered for execution.
In June, 2011, Malekpour’s death sentence was annulled after his lawyer disputed the charges against him and criticized the unjust sentencing. The Supreme Court acknowledged the discrepancies in the case and called for further investigation.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/death-sentence-proceeds-software-designer
Intelligence Minister says Iran facing full-fledged war
Iran’s Intelligence Minister says a full-blown and multifaceted war is being waged against the Islamic Republic, and the “enemy” is now taking a new approach.
ISNA reports that Heydar Moslehi spoke to the Islamic Culture and Communications Organization, saying: “From the point of view of the Islamic Republic a full-fledged war from every aspect is being waged against the Islamic Republic, and the widespread plans of the enemy on every front against the Islamic Republic have resulted in threats and vulnerabilities that have created opportunities for them to act on.”
He referred to the “complicated nature of the soft war” against the Islamic Republic, saying: “The soft war silently wages war on the domestic front. It is persistent and has several aims. “
He added that the soft war keeps finding sympathizers while also “creating conflicts and discouragement.”
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/intelligence-minister-says-iran-facing-full-fledged-war
Wife and child of political prisoner abducted
The Baran website reports that Iranian security forces have abducted the wife and daughter of political prisoner Mehdi Khazali.
Baran reports that yesterday afternoon, on February 14, as Khazali’s wife and daughter were driving home along Azadi Street, they were surrounded and detained by security forces and taken to an unknown location. So far there has been no information regarding their location or their fate.
Khazali, the head of Hayan Publications and a blogger, is a staunch government critic, currently on a hunger strike in Evin Prison. On Monday he was transferred to the prison infirmary after his health took a critical turn.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/wife-and-child-political-prisoner-abducted
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2104732/Iran-nuclear-talks-UN-weapons-inspectors-leave-turned-away-Parchin.html?ITO=1490
Iran has denied inspectors from the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog access to a key military site -- ratcheting up tensions between Tehran and the West and effectively ending a working dialogue.
International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors were turned away from a base in Parchin, south east of the capital, where intelligence suggests nuclear weapons could be in development.
It led to the UN declaring a two-day meeting, intended to calm fears over the Islamic Republic’s disputed nuclear programme, to be a ‘failure’.
And it said talks with Iran are now unlikely to be re-started -- as the West continues to step up sanctions against the major oil producer.
Iranians Told To Vote, Don’t Vote, In Next Week’s Election
The head of Iran’s Basij force, Mohammad Reza Naghdi, has congratulated Iranians on their “epic” turnout in the country’s parliamentary elections.
The only problem is that the elections aren’t until March 2.
Naghdi said he is congratulating Iranians beforehand because he believes mass participation in the elections — the first since the disputed 2009 presidential vote — is certain.
The elections are expected to be a showdown between allies of Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and traditional hardliners loyal to Supreme leader Ali Khamenei.
The official week-long campaign began on February 23.
But the elections are also crucially important for the Iranian establishment, which is facing unprecedented international pressure over its controversial nuclear program and public discontent at home.
http://www.rferl.org/content/iranians_told_to_vote_dont_vote_in_next_weeks_election/24494288.html
Getting Iran to back down on its nuclear program
“We are of the opinion that the Iranian regime is a rational actor,” said Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on CNN on Sunday. That sounds right to me, but his comment raises a tricky question: How much pressure will it take to get this “rational” country to curb its nuclear program?
The answer here isn’t comforting: Recent history shows that the Iranian regime will change behavior only if confronted with overwhelming force and the prospect of an unwinnable war. Short of that, the Iranians seem ready to cruise along on the brink, expecting that the other side will steer away.
I count two clear instances when Iran has backed down, and two more “maybes.” These examples remind us that the Iranian leaders aren’t irrational madmen — and also that they drive a hard bargain. Here are the two documented retreats:
● In July 1988 Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini “drank the cup of poison,” as he put it, and agreed to end the Iraq-Iran war. He accepted a U.N.-sponsored truce but only after eight years of brutal fighting, Iraqi rocket attacks on Iranian cities and the use of poison gas against Iranian troops. Khomeini’s decision followed the shooting down of an Iranian civilian airliner on July 3 by the USS Vincennes — unintended but a demonstration of overwhelming American firepower in the Persian Gulf.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/getting-iran-to-back-down/2012/02/21/gIQAMhf8TR_story.html?wprss=rss_linkset
CSIS: Iran’s Growing Missile Capabilities
The Center for Strategic and International Studies on Feb. 22 published “Iran and the Gulf Military Balance -- II” by Anthony Cordesman and Alexander Wilner. The following is an excerpt from the report.
Iran continues to deny it is seeking nuclear weapons but it is much more forthright about its missile programs, and it has made missile test firings a major part of its televised military exercises:
•”Our missiles have tactically offensive and strategically deterrent and defensive features… Our fingers are still kept on the trigger, but the number of these triggers has increased.” – Brigadier General Hossein Salami, Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC, June 28, 2011.
•”We feel to be threatened by no county but the US and the Zionist regime and the ranges of our missile have been designed based on the distances between us and the US bases in the region and the Zionist regime.” – Brigadier General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Division, June 28, 2011.
•“As the enemy’s threats will likely come from the sea, air, and by missiles, the Revolutionary Guard has been equipped to neutralize the enemy’s advanced technology.” – Mohammed Ali Jafari, commander of the IRGC on a new anti-ship ballistic missile that Iran has allegedly developed, February 7, 2011.
•“Iran is mass producing a smart ballistic missile for sea targets with a speed three times more than the speed of sound.” – Major General Mohammed Ali Jafari, commander of the IRGC, February 7, 2011.
•”Those who are hostile to the Islamic Republic of Iran definitely have the right to be concerned about the drills, but we didn’t hear any feeling of concern from the side of the regional countries since our moves and actions have always been in pursuit of defensive goals. We are entitled to the right to growingly strengthen ourselves to protect the Islamic Iran and we naturally increase our power on a daily basis until we acquire full (power of) deterrence.” – General Amir Ali Hajizadeh, commander of the IRGC’s Aerospace Division in reference to Iran’s most recent missile tests, July 9, 2011.
http://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2012/feb/22/csis-iran%E2%80%99s-growing-missile-capabilities
Photos: Satellite Dishes Come Under Attack In Tehran!
Security forces in Tehran province stormed houses in east Tehran province and confiscated satellite dishes and other material deemed un-Islamic and immoral. This activity was performed as part of a plan to “elevate society’s security.”
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1227.html
Iranian opposition is boycotting and calling for free and fair elections
United4Iran, a nonpartisan human and civil rights nonprofit organization, has issued a statement today outlining deep concerns about the escalating crackdown by the Iranian government on expression and assembly ahead of the March 2, 2012 parliamentary elections.
This year more than 100 Iranian citizens have been detained for non-violent activism around the elections. Two have reportedly died in custody. Opposition parties, high-profile political prisoners, and Nobel Laureate Shirin Ebadi said the elections fail to meet international standards and have called for a boycott.
“These are not elections we will be observing in Iran on March 2. The selection of who may or may not be a member of Parliament has already been made by the unelected Supreme Leader and Guardian Council,” said Dokhi Fassihian, senior advisor for United4Iran.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1226.html
http://www.mo.be/artikel/deal-met-iran-nog-steeds-mogelijk-zeggen-experts
WASHINGTON 24 februari 2012
Ondanks de aanzwellende roep om oorlog bieden onderhandelingen met Iran nog steeds een mogelijkheid om uit de nucleaire impasse te raken. Dat zegt de gerenommeerde International Crisis Group.
Volgens het Brusselse instituut is het wel degelijk mogelijk om een overeenkomst met Iran te sluiten die bevredigend is voor beide partijen. Iran zal dan moeten instemmen met voorwaarden die garanderen dat het atoomprogramma niet militair gebruikt kan worden. Ook moet het openheid geven over het oude atoomprogramma, van voor 2003, en moet het uranium dat voor 20 procent verrijkt is ruilen voor brandstofstaven uit het buitenland.
In ruil daarvoor zouden de P5+1-landen – dat zijn de permanente leden van de Veiligheidsraad, plus Duitsland – de zware nieuwe sancties bevriezen, de bestaande sancties afbouwen, en erkennen dat Iran het recht heeft om uranium tot 5 procent te verrijken.
En men blijft toch goedgelovig! Wachteres
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2106195/Iran-expanding-controversial-nuclear-activity-warns-leaked-UN-report.html?ITO=1490
Iran expanding its controversial nuclear activity, warns leaked UN report.
Report shows Iran is expanding Natanz enrichment plant.
By David Williams
Last updated at 1:46 AM on 25th February 2012
A defiant Iran has increased its controversial uranium enrichment drive, a leaked United Nations report revealed yesterday.
The revelation by the International Atomic Energy Agency is certain to further fuel Western alarm over Iran’s ambitions towards the development of nuclear weapons.
In a further blow, the IAEA report says that during its mission to Tehran this week it failed to persuade Iran to respond to allegations the research is aimed at developing weapons of mass destruction.
@ Wachteres.
Zoals Ik al eerder aan gaf men moet voorzichtig zijn met posten en zeker uit dagbladen zoals de Daily mail.
Dat zijn bladen die nog al eens gebruikt worden en gebruikt willen worden om een bepaalde politieke mening te ventileren en de lezers alvast een bepaald standpunt te laten innnemen.
Ik reken daar de Daily mail zeker onder.
Iran and Israel: The Politics of War
Event Summary
Israel and Iran have already been trading covert punches and the overheated rhetoric on both sides raises the potential for further escalation. While much has been said about Israeli military options, cautions from the Obama administration, and the Iranian response, the role of internal politics in both countries is typically left out of the discussion. How do domestic political concerns inside Israel and Iran shape their relationship and the chance of war? Does Israel’s perception of the Iranian threat put it at odds with Washington?
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0229_iran_israel.aspx?rssid=iran&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BrookingsRSS%2Ftopics%2Firan+%28Brookings%3A+Topics+-+Iran%29
U.S. Bulks Up Iran Defenses
Pentagon Plans New Sea, Land Measures to Counter Any Attempt to Close Persian Gulf Oil Gateway
The Pentagon is beefing up U.S. sea- and land-based defenses in the Persian Gulf to counter any attempt by Iran to close the Strait of Hormuz.
The U.S. military has notified Congress of plans to preposition new mine-detection and clearing equipment and expand surveillance capabilities in and around the strait, according to defense officials briefed on the requests, including one submitted earlier this month.
The military also wants to quickly modify weapons systems on ships so they could be used against Iranian fast-attack boats, as well as shore-launched cruise missiles, the defense officials said.
The readiness push is spearheaded by the military’s Central Command, which oversees U.S. forces in the Gulf region, these officials said. It shows the extent to which war planners are taking tangible steps to prepare for a possible conflict with Iran, even as top White House and defense leaders try to tamp down talk of war and emphasize other options.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204778604577243640137724400.html?mod=fox_australian
Iranian Student Who Sewed Lips Together In Protest Arrested
Dariush Jalali, a student at Iran’s Yasuj University who had sewn his lips together to protest the pressure he had been facing over his activism, has reportedly been arrested.
Reports say Jalali had sewn his lips together over the weekend and chained himself to the metal railing outside of his university, which is in southwestern Iran.
Jalali was reportedly sentenced to one year in prison last year after participating in an opposition protest. He had been released after spending three months in jail. University officials had put pressure on Jalali and banned him from classes.
Daneshjounews, a website that covers news related to Iran’s student movement, reported on February 23 that security forces had detained Jalali “violently” and taken him away in a car. His whereabouts are unknown.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1254.html
Dozens of Iranian Mountain Climbers Arrested for Unknown Reasons
Sanandaj Police’s Intelligence Unit raided a meeting of mountain climbing group Chel Cheme in the village of Hassan Abad outside Sanandaj and arrested dozens of meeting participants on 17 February, a local human rights activist told the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran. It is unclear why these individuals were arrested.
The human rights activist also told the Campaign that the previous day, 16 February, security forces arrested three Kurdish citizens-Salman, Sadegh, and Soheila Jafari-after searching their homes and taking some of their personal items. These arrests occurred as part of a raid on the village of Khorooseh near Shooyesheh in Kurdistan Province, during which security forces also stormed the homes of several other village residents and collected satellite dishes. The reasons for these arrests are not yet known.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1241.html
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2105840/Never-mind-Iran-Saudi-Arabia-acquire-nuclear-bomb.html
Both Saudi Arabia and the Gulf Cooperation Council maintain that they want a WMD-free Middle East. However, key members of the Saudi royal elite have recently signalled that if Iran develops a nuclear weapon, then Saudi Arabia will get one too.
Speaking of signalling, they have also long indicated that if Israel were to overfly the desert kingdom to bomb Iranian nuclear sites, they would temporarily turn their radars off.
Saudi Arabia has signed nuclear technology agreements with several states: China, France, Argentina and South Korea, in order to address its need for research reactors, nuclear power plants and so forth. The latter will help slow domestic oil consumption, while boosting the amount of oil available for export. China alone is going to help build sixteen nuclear reactors.
Iran and Israel: The Politics of War
Israel and Iran have already been trading covert punches and the overheated rhetoric on both sides raises the potential for further escalation. While much has been said about Israeli military options, cautions from the Obama administration, and the Iranian response, the role of internal politics in both countries is typically left out of the discussion. How do domestic political concerns inside Israel and Iran shape their relationship and the chance of war? Does Israel’s perception of the Iranian threat put it at odds with Washington?
http://www.brookings.edu/events/2012/0229_iran_israel.aspx?rssid=iran&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BrookingsRSS%2Ftopics%2Firan+%28Brookings%3A+Topics+-+Iran%29
Iran Calls Oscar Win A Success Over Israel
On Monday night, the Iranian film A Separation won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. It marks the Islamic Republic’s first Academy Award, and earned a rare stamp of approval from the Iranian government, which called it a success over Israel. The Israeli film Footnote was also nominated in the category. Audie Cornish talks to The Washington Post’s Thomas Erdbrink in Tehran about the reaction in Iran.
Mischien zou het interessanter zijn om te praten over Nobelprijzen in plaats van filmprijzen.
http://www.npr.org/2012/02/27/147523331/iran-calls-oscar-win-a-success-over-israel?ft=1%26f=1009
Iran’s Hard-Line News Agency Tries To ‘Nuclearize’ Farhadi’s Oscar Speech
When Iranian director Asghar Farhadi’s “A Separation” won the Oscar for best foreign-language film at the Academy Awards on February 26, he said the following in his acceptance speech, according to Iran’s hard-line Fars news agency:
“I proudly offer this award to the people of my country who, despite all the tensions and hostility of recent months between Iran and the West over Iran’s nuclear program, respect all cultures and civilizations.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/iran_asghar_farhadi_oscar_academy_awards_nuclear_program/24498052.html
Why Nobody Will Help the Syrian People
Interessante stelling van Josef Joffe.
When interests meet ideals in the arena of states, ideals lose out. How shall we count the ways? In recent times, there were Somalia, Rwanda and Darfur—the massacres and the ethnic cleansing dwarfing anything happening in Syria or, last summer, in Libya. In more ancient history, the world allowed Japan to grab Manchuria and wipe out Nanking. Mussolini used poison gas to conquer Abyssinia while the League of Nations postured and then fell apart. The U.S. wouldn’t even bomb the train tracks to Auschwitz, the reasons put forward being: We need the ordinance for the war against the Germans. Or the tracks will be rebuilt in the nick of time. Or, God forbid, we might hit the barracks and kill Jews on the way to the gas chamber.
http://www.tnr.com/article/world/100517/syria-military-intervention-human-rights-revolution
KFC Says It Has No Restaurant In Iran
The U.S. fast food chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) has denied reports it has opened a branch in Iran.
In a statement issued following an inquiry by the Persian Service of the BBC, KFC says that it will take legal action against individuals or companies that take advantage of the brand in Iran. The statement also says that that the company has no plans to open a restaurant in Iran.
Last week, Iranian news websites reported that the first Iranian franchise of KFC had been opened in Karaj and more outlets were soon to be opened in Tehran and other major cities.
The hard-line Fars news agency, which broke the story, later removed the news item claiming, “The first branch of KFC opened in Iran with the goal of creating 20 000 jobs.”
http://www.rferl.org/content/kfc_denies_having_branch_in_iran/24497992.html
Experts: Iran ‘struggling’ with new nuclear technology
VIENNA — Iran is still relying on decades-old technology to expand its nuclear program, a fact that suggests it might be having difficulties developing more modern machines that could speed up production of potential bomb material, experts say.
A report by the U.N. nuclear watchdog last week said Iran was significantly stepping up its uranium enrichment, a finding that sent oil prices higher on fears tensions between Tehran and the West could escalate into military conflict.
Israel has threatened to launch pre-emptive strikes to prevent Iran getting the bomb and Defense Minister Ehud Barak has said Tehran’s continued technological progress mean it could soon pass into a “zone of immunity,” suggesting time was running out for an effective military intervention.
——————————————————————————--
But, contrary to some Western media reports in the run-up to Friday’s International Atomic Energy Agency report, Iran does not yet seem ready to deploy advanced enrichment equipment for large-scale production, despite years of development work, experts said.
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/27/10520053-experts-iran-struggling-with-new-nuclear-technology
Youcef Nadarkhani: Iran Denies Pastor’s Execution Order
Iran is denying the existence of the execution order on Christian pastor Youcef Nadarkhani.
Following years of trials, Nadarkhani was reportedly sentenced to death last week. But state news outlet Press TV denied the claim, citing an anonymous source that said a court is still investigating the case.
“Iran’s Supreme Court has not yet handed down its final verdict in the case of the pastor Yousef Nadarkhani in order to allow authorities to further investigate the file and reach the best decision,” the report said.
Nadarkhani was arrested in 2009 on charges of apostasy. A Gilan province court determined that the pastor, who led a congregation of about 400 people from his home, had abandoned Islam as a teenager and should be sentenced to death. The case and its various appeals traveled to the Supreme Court, back down to the provincial courts and eventually to the ayatollahs
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/305471/20120227/iran-pastor-youcef-nadarkhani-execution-update.htm
The Iranian nuclear crisis keeps making the headlines. Last week Israel was warned not to strike Iran by several foreign leaders and officials and was threatened by Iran with a preemptive strike. This was followed this weekend by the publication of a new IAEA report about the Iranian nuclear program.
Lees verder:
http://missingpeace.eu/en/2012/02/isis-report-sheds-new-light-on-existence-of-covert-iranian-nuclear-program/#content
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2107694/Well-attack-Iran-telling-U-S--Israel-America-dark-decides-launch-strike-nuclear-facilities.html?ITO=1490
Israel said it will not warn the U.S. if it decides to launch a pre-emptive strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, American intelligence has revealed.
Officials said they would keep America in the dark so that the U.S. would not be held responsible for failing to stop the attack.
The pronouncement, delivered in a series of private, top-level conversations, sets a tense tone ahead of meetings in the coming days at the White House and Capitol Hill.
The U.S. has been working with the Israelis for months to persuade them that an attack would be only a temporary setback to Iran’s nuclear programme.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak delivered the message to a series of top-level U.S. visitors to the country.
They included the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the White House national security adviser, the director of national intelligence, and top U.S. lawmakers.
Dubai Bank Says It Cut Ties With Iranian Institutions
An Islamic bank in the United Arab Emirates said on Wednesday that it “took pre-emptive action” to end business relationships with some Iranian banks when it learned that the United States planned to apply economic sanctions against those banks.
The episode appeared to be related to efforts by the Obama administration to tighten economic restrictions in the dispute over Tehran’s nuclear program. Western leaders suspect the program is designed to give Tehran the capability to produce nuclear weapons, but Iran insists that it is enriching uranium for civilian purposes.
The decision by the Noor Islamic Bank, based in Dubai, was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, which said pressure from Washington had forced the bank to close off Iran’s biggest single channel for repatriating foreign currency oil income.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/01/world/middleeast/noor-islamic-bank-in-dubai-says-it-cut-ties-with-iran.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss
U.S. Sees Iran Attacks as Likely if Israel Strikes
American officials who have assessed the likely Iranian responses to any attack by Israel on its nuclear program believe that Iran would retaliate by launching missiles on Israel and terrorist-style attacks on United States civilian and military personnel overseas.
While a missile retaliation against Israel would be virtually certain, according to these assessments, Iran would also be likely to try to calibrate its response against American targets so as not to give the United States a rationale for taking military action that could permanently cripple Tehran’s nuclear program. “The Iranians have been pretty good masters of escalation control,” said Gen. James E. Cartwright, now retired, who as the top officer at Strategic Command and as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff participated in war games involving both deterrence and retaliation on potential adversaries like Iran.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/29/world/middleeast/us-sees-iran-attacks-as-likely-if-israel-strikes.html?partner=rss&emc=rss
Three Iranian journalists released from jail, but dozens remain behind bars
Journalists Marzieh Rasouli, Parastoo Dokouhaki and Sahamoddin Bourghani have been released from jail in Iran after securing bail. But it has come at a price
Good news about the situation of journalists behind bars in Iran is rare, especially these days when the regime has stepped up its crackdown on any sign of dissent ahead of Friday’s parliamentary elections.
But here is some good news, of a sort: Three Iranian journalists, Marzieh Rasouli, Parastoo Dokouhaki and Sahamoddin Bourghani -- whose arrests we reported here in January -- have now been released after securing bail, according to opposition websites. But it hasn’t come cheap. Rasouli, a prominent journalist working for a reformist newspaper in Tehran, is reported to have provided the equivalent of almost £100,000.
Since their arrests, the three have had little access to the outside world. Their friends and families who were worried for their safety, can now breathe a sigh of relief. Although it’s not necessarily the end of their troubles. They might yet be summoned to court and face trial.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/iran-blog/2012/feb/29/iranian-journalists-released
Iran Spinning Out of Control
As the Obama administration ramps up the sanctions pressure on Iran to accept meaningful curbs on its nuclear program, it is following a strategy of coercive diplomacy that has a fundamental design flaw. Consequently, President Obama is in danger of achieving the opposite of his intention: Iran may well decide that rather than negotiate a compromise, its best choice is actually to cross the nuclear weapons threshold, with fateful consequences for all.
Obama’s premise is that only by bringing the Iranian regime to its knees, through sanctions on its central bank and concerted efforts to reduce its oil exports, will it give up on its nuclear-weapons aspirations. The fact that Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has now himself labeled the sanctions “crippling,” and that Iran’s nuclear negotiators announced last week that they were ready to come back to the table, have been taken as evidence that the president’s strategy is working. That judgment is at best premature, at worst wishful thinking.
Iran has not slowed its production of enriched uranium. On the contrary, the regime announced earlier this month it was building an additional enrichment plant with more efficient centrifuges. Nor has it cooperated with International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors, who wrongly assumed that the announcement of a decision to come back to the table would result in a greater Iranian willingness to address their concerns.
http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2012/0229_iran_indyk.aspx?rssid=iran&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BrookingsRSS%2Ftopics%2Firan+%28Brookings%3A+Topics+-+Iran%29
Can Diplomacy Solve Iranian Nuclear Crisis?
Talk of war over Iran’s nuclear program has escalated in recent weeks, and Israel and the United States have not ruled out military action to keep Tehran from producing a nuclear bomb. Despite the increasingly sharp rhetoric, all sides are expressing hope that a diplomatic solution can be found to solve the crisis.
Top officials say there is a diplomatic path to avoid a military conflict. Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi says there are two alternatives -- engagement or confrontation.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran, confident of the peaceful nature of its nuclear program, has always insisted on the first alternative,” Salehi said.
“There is time and space for diplomacy. But in order for that to happen Iran has to meet its international obligations,” said US Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta.
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/middle-east/Can-Diplomacy-Solve-Iranian-Nuclear-Crisis-140795273.html
Khamenei’s Son Calls On Opposition Leader To Back Down
Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, met with opposition leader Mir Hossein Musavi about a month ago and asked him to back down on his opposition to the regime because of the “very critical condition” the country is facing, according to a recent report by an Iranian opposition website.
The February 26 report by the Jaras site has been confirmed by Hassan Yusefi Eshkevari, a religious scholar close to the opposition Green Movement who spoke to RFE/RL’s Radio Farda, and also an unnamed source interviewed by the BBC’s Persian Service.
The alleged meeting is said to have taken place at the unknown location where Musavi, who has been under house arrest since February 2011, is held. The report says that the opposition leader and former prime minister reacted defiantly to Khamenei’s request.
http://www.rferl.org/content/musavi_defiant_on_leaders_call_to_compromise/24498620.html
The Fix Is In
Why the coming election in Iran will be the fakest one yet.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei didn’t mince his words during end-of-Ramadan prayers last August. “Elections have always been a challenging issue for our country,” he told worshippers gathered at Tehran University. “We should be careful this challenge does not hurt the country’s security. The various authorities should be vigilant.”
Khamenei spoke for a reason. On March 2, Iranians are once again going to the polls to elect their parliament, the majles. That’s a delicate matter at a moment when many of the country’s citizens are increasingly questioning the legitimacy of the religious despots who run it. The supreme leader is fully aware of this, and his words capture the importance that fundamentalist Shiite clergymen ascribe to ensuring voting goes the way they want it to. Given the growing pressures that Iranian rulers now face, they will be going to extraordinary lengths to prevent any untoward displays of dissatisfaction. The upcoming vote, indeed, is shaping up to be even less free and fair than ones in the past.
These parliamentary elections come at a turbulent time. Domestic mismanagement and international sanctions have reduced the economy to a shambles. Many Iranians blame the ideologically inflexible Shiite theocrats for their nation’s internal woes and global isolation. Iranian youth, who make up over 50 percent of the population, are rejecting clerically-dictated behavioral codes. Even President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, having sensed the shifting winds of popular sentiment, has begun opposing the mandates and mores of his clerical overlords. The political discontent that crystallized around the reformist Green Path of Hope (or Green Movement) during June 2009′s rigged presidential election, only to be violently suppressed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Basij paramilitaries, continues to simmer.
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/02/27/the_fix_is_in
Iranian Kurdish groups call for boycott of elections
Four Iranian Kurdish political parties at a gathering in Soleymanieh have called on the people of Kurdistan and Iran to boycott the parliamentary elections and stay home on Friday March 2.
The Islamic Republic’s elections for the ninth Islamic Parliament are scheduled for March 2.
Radio Zamaneh has been informed that the Democratic Party Iranian Kurdistan, Iran’s Komalah Party, the Kurdistan Freedom Party (PAK) and the Iranian Kurdistan’s Revolutionary Khabat Organization met in Soleymanieh on Tuesday February 28, issuing a unanimous plea to the Iranian public to shun the elections.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1300.html
Warnings to Iran’s Security and Intelligence Leaders: Concerns Over Differences in the Armed Forces
As differences and dissatisfaction among members of Iran’s armed services have been growing, particularly after such events as the disputed tenth presidential elections in 2009, new international sanctions and serious military threats, the head of Iran’s military justice organization expressed his concerns on this and issued a warning.
Speaking at a seminar on “Security and Intelligence” organized by the judiciary of the armed forces, cleric Mohammad-Kazem Bahrami said that “differences and division” were among the most serious security threats. “Espionage and overthrow are not the only issues that hurt the security of the country. Differences most certainly have an even more destructive impact,” he said.
He supported his argument by presenting instances and quotes from the Quran and imam Ali, the highest Shia leader.
Bahrami’s name was recently added to EU’s sanctions list on people who have violated human rights. While saying that “interference in the personal and family affairs of individuals, including other issues unrelated to work, are not justified, all the concerns and actions of a security officer should be to protect the organization and the staff to prevent any harm to them.”
These remarks come as various reports have surfaced during the last two years, indicating divisions and differences among the armed forces of Iran, particularly after the 2009 presidential elections and the numerous protests over its announced results. These differences have been growing and are more visible because of other major events such as the differences between Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and ayatollah Ali Khamenei, newer international sanctions against Iran, and the public military threats against the country.
http://www.payvand.com/news/12/feb/1295.html
Iran says IAEA can visit Parchin base
Iran says it will allow inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to visit its Parchin military base, as IAEA delegates have requested.
Ali Asghar Soltanieh, Iran’s ambassador to the IAEA, told the Russia Today network: “Military bases all over the world have special regulations that the agency needs to consider.”
The IAEA had previously announced its profound disappointment that its inspectors were not allowed to visit the Parchin military base.
A high-ranking IAEA delegation visited Iran twice in recent weeks, with results that were deemed meagre by agency head Yukiya Amano, despite what he called the IAEA’s constructive efforts.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/iran-says-iaea-can-visit-parchin-base
Rights group denounces surge of crackdown in Iran
Amnesty International says Iran’s crackdown on its opposition has surged in the week leading up to the parliamentary elections.
In a report published today, Tuesday February 28, the rights group indicates that the “wave of arrests has targeted a range of groups, including lawyers, students, journalists, political activists and their relatives, religious and ethnic minorities, filmmakers, and people with international connections, particularly to media.”
According to Amnesty International, the situation has become exacerbated as the Islamic Republic approaches the March 2 parliamentary elections.
http://radiozamaneh.com/english/content/rights-group-denounces-surge-crackdown-iran