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29/04/2008

US confrontation with Iran 'unlikely'

THE chances of the United States "stumbling" into a confrontation with Iran through skirmishes in Iraq "are very low", US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said today. When asked on CBS television if such a scenario was inevitable the longer US troops stayed in Iraq, he said: "I think the chances of us stumbling into a confrontation with Iran are very low. "We are concerned about their activities in the south. We are concerned about the weapons that they are sending in - that they continue to send into Iraq. "But I think that the process that's underway is, as I said, headed in the right direction."

Author :
Source : The Australian

10/04/2008

Fisk: Hizbollah turns to Iran in war on Israel

The Shia “martyrs" of this hill village are normally killed in the dangerous, stony landscape of southern Lebanon, in Israeli air raids or invasions or attacks from the sea. The Hizbollah duly honours them. But the body of the latest Shia fighter to be buried here - from the local Hashem family - was flown back to Lebanon last month from Iran. He was hailed as a martyr in the village Husseiniya mosque but the Hizbollah would say no more. For when a Lebanese is killed in live firing exercises in the Islamic Republic, his death brings almost as many questions as mourners. Yet it is an open secret south of the Litani river that thousands of young men have been leaving their villages for military training in Iran. Up to 300 men are taken to Beirut en route to Tehran each month and the operation has been running since November of 2006; in all, as many as 4,500 Hizbollah members have been sent for three-month sessions of live-fire ammunition and rocket exercises to create a nucleus of Iranian-trained guerrillas for the “next" Israeli-Hizbollah war.

Author : Robert Fisk
Source : RINF

10/04/2008

Ahmadinejad: US Used 9/11 As `Pretext' For Invasions

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad accused the U.S. Tuesday of using the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 as a "pretext" to attack Afghanistan and Iraq. "On the pretext of this incident a major military operation was launched and oppressed Afghanistan was attacked. Tens of thousands of people have been killed until now," he said in a speech broadcast on state television. "Poor Iraq was attacked. According to official figures ... 1 million people have been killed."

Author :
Source : NASDAQ/AFP

10/04/2008

Defiant Iran to boost nuclear capacity

Iran said on Saturday it would press ahead with plans to expand its nuclear programme, after diplomats in Vienna said Tehran was installing advanced centrifuges in its key uranium enrichment plant. The government spokesman also rejected any idea of halting work the United States suspects is aimed at building nuclear bombs in return for trade, technology and other benefits. Speaking a few days before the Islamic Republic's annual National Nuclear Technology Day on April 8, Gulam Hussain Elham said he hoped for "good news" on that day but did not elaborate. The world's fourth-largest oil producer says it needs to produce nuclear fuel for a planned network of power plants to satisfy soaring electricity demand.

Author :
Source : Gulf News/Reuters

10/04/2008

Murdering Iranians

errible rumors from Russia continue to swirl around the Middle East that the Cheney-Bush junta has decided to bomb Iran on April 4th or 6th, targeting not only nuclear-power research facilities but ships, planes, antiaircraft installations, and the Iranian pentagon. Apparently the nuclear-power reactor being built by Russian companies will be spared, but not much else. Will it happen? Certainly the neocon hate network is working overtime to make it so. Bush fired the anti-neocon Admiral Fallon. One thing we know for sure: it will be the typical Bush administration snafu, with horrific consequences for the region and the world, not to speak of the Iranian people, and reap much trouble for the US empire. Indeed, it could mark the end of the empire if, as Bill Lind worries, the Iranians in retaliation cut off water-food-ammo supply routes to US troops in Iraq, and, with the help of Shiite militians, capture large numbers of them. Need I mention that Ron Paul, our champion of peace, is the leading opponent of war on Iran?

Author : Lew Rockwell
Source : Information Clearing House

10/04/2008

The Secret American-Iranian Security Deal In Iraq

Arab online newspaper published in London, is the only newspaper to report this a week ago but I waited few days to see if there is any development provides evidence to the newspaper claims, and the military campaign in Basra was what i am waiting for.Arab online says that there are secret Iranian - American negotiations at Ahmadinejad's visit to Iraq [please remember there were other developments in this week period, like the U.S. embassy refused to meet the Iranian delegation.etc] The report contains details and names of people who attended the meeting from both sides which we don't need here, so this is what the newspaper said in short: Ahmadinejad offered to calm the situation in Iraq, using the three days attacks-free visit to Iraq as a demonstration of what can Iran do, the second offer is to accept the long term Iraqi - American agreement

Author :
Source : RINF

10/04/2008

Arab media warns Bush wants Iran war

The Arab media has raised US-Iran confrontation alarms, saying the US has a proxy war with Iran going at the tail end of the Bush administration. The UAE-based newspaper, Gulf News, in its Friday's editorial said that with George W. Bush in office the Washngton is effectively maintaining low intensity warfare with Iran and the potential exists to ratchet it up to more open hostilities. The source asserted that the recurring visits by the US Vice President Dick Cheney and John McCain to Iraq and occupied Palestine are surely not 'coincidences' but a means to ensure Israel remains fully in the picture for any "plans the US could have against Iran"

Author :
Source : Payvand's Iran News

10/04/2008

What next after failed sanctions on Iran?

The approval of fresh sanctions on Iran marks the third time that the United Nations Security Council has been galvanized to stem the Islamic Republic's feared uranium enrichment efforts. Unfortunately, the new sanctions are unlikely to be any more effective than the first two rounds. Consider the two earlier Security Council resolutions. The December 2006 resolution curbed international assistance to Iran in mastering the nuclear fuel cycle. The March 2007 resolution called for "vigilance and restraint" in the sale of heavy weapons to Iran and avoidance of new grants, financial assistance or concessional loans. Neither moved the country's ruling mullahs. Few expect a different outcome from the new sanctions, which authorize international interception of Iranian contraband and tightened monitoring of the regime's financial institutions, along with travel limitations and asset freezes applied to people and companies involved in Iran's nuclear program.

Author : Bennett Ramberg
Source : Todays Zaman

10/04/2008

And the biggest winner is ... Iran

The invasion had one clear purpose - the removal of a tyrant. But the consequences have been far more complex, throwing up a new regional power, intensifying Sunni-Shia divisions, and prompting a painful US rethink On a brisk spring morning four years and 11 months ago, a truck driver on the Iraqi-Turkish border killed time in a queue at customs by telling a Western reporter of the terrible consequences of the fall of Baghdad a month earlier. At the time, his doom-laden predictions of civil war and regional chaos seemed far-fetched. Now they seem far less so. From the distant, tsunami-struck tip of Sumatra to Wall Street, from the specialist world of counter-terrorism to that of contemporary feminist literary criticism, the war, the occupation and the continuing conflict in Iraq have left their mark. The effects will not be known for some time, but some broad effects are already all too evident. The Iraq of the Nineties - run by a nationalist, broadly secular Sunni Muslim elite; brutalised and terrorised, but stable under Saddam Hussein - has been replaced by a weak, violent, unstable state racked by a largely communitarian civil war and crime. Where once the fear in Ankara, Riyadh, Tehran or Tel Aviv was of an unpredictable dictator, now it is of a spillover of chaos.

Author : Jason Burke
Source : The Observer

10/04/2008

Iran faces power play after vote

On the face of it, the victory was fairly overwhelming. By Sunday evening, conservatives had won four times as many seats as the reformists, retaining control of the Iranian parliament. No doubt they will take it as an endorsement of their uncompromising view of Iran's Islamic system, of the nuclear programme, and of Iran's assertive foreign policy. No doubt they will conveniently forget that a large proportion of the reformist candidates were disqualified.

Author : Jon Leyne
Source : BBC

10/04/2008

Iran: 'Bounty' put on heads of three top Israeli officials

Iran's Students for Justice Movement has gathered a million dollars to be awarded to whoever manages to kill three top Israeli figures including defence minister, Ehud Barak, hardline journalist Forouz Rajaifar announced. The hardline student group is offering a 400,000 dollar bounty for the slaying of Barak, 300,000 dollars to kill Mossad spy agency chief Meir Dagan, and the same sum for the assassination of military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin. Whoever kills these three criminals will receive these sums, and if acts of martyrdom are involved, the money will be paid to their families, Rajaifar told Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Author :
Source : AKI

10/04/2008

World against intervention in Iran

Britain and America are flying in the face of world public opinion as they push for tougher measures against Iran over its controversial nuclear programme, according to a BBC World Service poll which shows that opinion worldwide is overwhelming in favour of a diplomatic solution. It says that support for economic sanctions or military action has dropped “`significantly" in most countries, including India, since a similar poll in June 2006. Worldwide, options of economic sanctions or military strikes were rejected in 27 out of 31 countries, covered by the poll. Instead, the most preferred approach was to either use only diplomatic efforts or not put any pressure on Iran at all.

Author : Hasan Suroor
Source : The Hindu

10/04/2008

Iranian youth uninterested in parliamentary elections

"What election?" On the ski slopes just outside Tehran, few of the young skiers say they will heed a call by Iran's religious leaders to vote in Friday's parliamentary election. "I'll never vote. I'll come here to ski instead," said Babak, a university student in his early 20s enjoying the sunny weather and good skiing conditions in the resort of Darbandsar. "It won't change anything," agreed his female friend Maniya, sporting Western-style ski wear as well as pink lipstick and nail varnish. Like others critical of the government, they were wary of giving their last names.

Author :
Source : The Peninsula Qatar / Reuters

08/04/2008

IRI ready to study proposals on N-cooperation

Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said on Sunday that the Islamic Republic of Iran will consider any proposal offering cooperation in its nuclear program. In response to a question made by the reporter of Christian Science Monitor regarding some proposals about uranium enrichment in Iran, Mottaki said "More than two years ago President Ahmadinejad offered a proposal to establish a consortium for uranium enrichment in Iran."

Author :
Source : IRBM

08/04/2008

Iran will ask for compensations while halting nuclear activities

Iran will ask for compensations during the halt of its nuclear activities for more than two years, the Secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council Saeed Jalili said on Sunday. Jalili made his comment to local media when he was attending an International Conference on Iran's Peaceful Nuclear Program and Activities, adding that "those who made us stop uranium enrichment based on false accusations will have to pay for compensations as a result." The Iranian official also expressed readiness for dialogue with the western powers, noting that "Tehran welcomes any talks on the issue, however dialogue must come with conditions," but he did not mention what are those conditions.

Author :
Source : KUNA

24/01/2008

Ahmadinejad to challenge US influence with visit to Iraq

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is set to become the first Iranian leader since the revolution to visit Baghdad after the Iraqi foreign ministry announced he had accepted an invitation, at a time of high tension in the Gulf. The visit was confirmed by the Iranian president's office, but no firm date has been agreed. The visit would mark a breakthrough in relations between Iran and Iraq, which fought an eight-year war in the 1980s that cost hundreds of thousands of lives. It would also represent a challenge to American influence in Iraq, at a time when the US and Iran are vying for regional supremacy. US warships in the Gulf have fired across the bows of Iranian patrol boats once and come close another two times over the past two months.

Author : Julian Borger
Source : The Guardian

24/01/2008

Rice offers conciliatory message to Iran

Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday held out the prospect of a better relationship with Iran, a day after the US and other world powers drafted a fresh United Nations resolution against Tehran. The US Secretary of State used an appearance at the World Economic Forum to offer the prospect of a more normalrelationship between the two countries should Iran end its uranium enrichment programme. Ms Rice went on to say she would meet her Iranian opposite number any place, any time, anywhere to talk about anything. Critics asked why the US would not engage Iran's government diplomatically, she said, but why won't Tehran talk to us? There have been diplomatic contacts between Tehran and Washington over the past 10 months to discuss the situation in Iraq and Ms Rice has previously held out the prospect of improved relations. Her address on Wednesday said any improved relationship could include growing co-operation, expanding trade and exchange, and the peaceful management of differences The US had no desire for a permanent enemy in Iran she said. We believe we can resolve this problem through diplomacy.

Author : Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson
Source : FT

24/01/2008

Draft deal reached on new Iran sanctions

World powers ended weeks of deadlock over whether to press ahead with a fresh raft of sanctions against Iran by agreeing to a new United Nations draft resolution that is weaker than the US might have wished but leaves the international community united. The resolution, agreed at a meeting of foreign ministers from the permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany in Berlin on Tuesday, represented a moderate tightening of the sanctions regime against Tehran, diplomats said. Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German foreign minister, said Britain, France and Germany would table the resolution at the Security Council in the next few days. The foreign ministers of China, Russia which had been reluctant to support any new action against Tehran and the US, who were also present in Berlin, supported the draft text. European diplomats indicated that the agreement had been reached because all sides had been willing to compromise. They argued that the US now accepted last month's assessment by US intelligence that Iran had abandoned its plans to militarise its nuclear capability in 2003 made a tough new resolution impossible. But at the same time, Russia and China accepted that the international community would look weak if it failed to press home its concerns about Iran's continued uranium enrichment.

Author : Hugh Williamson
Source : FT

24/01/2008

Rice setback as Iran policy envoy resigns

The US diplomat at the heart of the Bush administration's Iran policy is to leave his post, in a move that represents a setback for Condoleezza Rice, US secretary of state. Nicholas Burns, the number three at the state department, has been a close colleague of Ms Rice for almost 20 years, and has been trusted by her as the point man not only on US policy on Iran, but also on Kosovo and the US's nuclear pact with India. Mr Burns announced on Friday that he was retiring for personal reasons, making him the latest in a series of senior officials to leave the administration as it enters its final year. He first worked under Ms Rice at the National Security Council during the presidency of George H. W. Bush. He will leave office in March, although Ms Rice said he would continue to work on the agreement with India after that

Author : Daniel Dombey
Source : FT

24/01/2008

'Pray next US president bombs Iran'

A senior advisor to Rudy Giuliani says the next US president must discharge President Bush's 'responsibility' of waging war on Iran. Writing for the February edition of Commentary, Norman Podhoretz said if the next US president doesn't have the 'courage' to attack Iran, the outcome will be catastrophic for Washington. We had all better pray that there will be enough time for the next president to discharge the responsibility that Bush will have been forced to pass on, Podhoretz added. If not - God help us all - the stage will have been set for the outbreak of a nuclear war that will become as inescapable then as it is avoidable now, continued the 78-year-old politician.

Author :
Source : RINF

24/01/2008

Endgame for Iran

The great chess match in Iran seems to be moving towards the endgame, and this may prove the most momentous world event of 2008. To everyone's surprise, the United States has been reduced to a passive observer, while the remaining players are Iran, Israel and Russia. A dazzling act of sabotage directed against the Republican Administration by Democratic sympathizers within the intelligence agencies (see: "NIE report is folly or treason," Dec.18, 2007) has almost totally paralyzed American policy towards Iran. What matters is less that an American preventive strike against Iran's nuclear sites has been ruled out (it was never very likely), but that even hard-hitting economic sanctions which might have forced Iran to halt its nuclear program, and which the countries of Europe and even China were beginning to favor, are out of the question. After publication of the NIE, Bush would make himself a laughing stock if he called for them now. In short, the U.S. is out of the game, leaving Israel alone to confront an Iran which, in full view of the rest of the world, is acquiring uranium enrichment technology. Moscow's supplying of the TOR-M1 anti-aircraft missile system to Iran made any attempt at a preventive strike by Israel highly problematical, but it retained the capacity to launch an effective missile strike at least against the key centrifuge complex in Natantz. Until 5 December (NIE publication), Israel could also hope for support from the far more daunting technological capacity of its American elder brother. On December 26, just 3 weeks after the scandalous publication of the NIE and a week after the fourth meeting of the Russo-Iranian intergovernmental commission on military technology cooperation, Iranian Defense Minister M. Madzhar made an announcement that radically changed the strategic situation in the region. Russia was to deliver C-300 ground-to-air missile systems to Iran.

Author : Andrei Piontkovsky
Source : Insight

24/01/2008

What Happened in the Strait of Hormuz?

How to prevent a naval war with Iran. Just how serious was the half-hour standoff Sunday morning between three American warships and five Iranian speed boats in the Strait of Hormuz? Did we come close to war? Was there any provocation? Was the Pentagon's version of events, as the Iranians claim, a fake? In response to the Iranians' charge, the Defense Department released excerpts from a videotape of the incident. In response to that, the Iranians issued their own video. Both clips are strange. They are also very different from each other. There's a good reason, however, for the strangeness and the contradictions. The Pentagon's footage shows five speed boats making provocative maneuvers a couple of hundred yards from an American warship. Speaking in English over the standard radio frequency, a U.S. Navy officer identifies his ship. Suddenly, an Iranian voice, in heavily accented English, is heard saying, "I am coming to you. You will explode in [unintelligible] minutes." The voice sounds superimposed; it is much louder than the other voices; there's also no background noise of engines or waves, as there would be if the speaker were on one of the speed boats.

Author : Fred Kaplan
Source : Slate

24/01/2008

Iran 'could restore ties with US'

Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has said relations with the US could be restored in the future. In a speech to students, he said the time was not right to restore ties, but if it were ever in Iran's interests he would endorse such a move. The US and Iran cut their diplomatic ties after the 1979 Islamic revolution and the subsequent takeover of the US embassy by militants in Tehran. Relations have been further strained by the row over Iran's nuclear programme. "We have never said these relations should be suspended indefinitely," said Ayatollah Khamenei.

Author :
Source : BBC

24/01/2008

Mischievous 'Filipino Monkey' could have triggered latest US-Iran row

A heckling radio ham known as the Filipino Monkey, who has spent years pestering ships in the Persian Gulf, is being blamed today for sparking a major diplomatic row after American warships almost attacked Iranian patrol boats. The US navy came within seconds of firing at the Iranian speedboats in the Strait of Hormuz on January 6 after hearing threats that the boats were attacking and were about to explode. Senior navy officials have admitted that the source of the threats, picked up in international waters, was a mystery.

Author : Matthew Weaver
Source : The Guardian

24/01/2008

Russia delivers first nuclear fuel to Iran

Russia has delivered the first shipment of nuclear fuel to Iran's Bushehr atomic power station, a step both Moscow and Washington said should convince Tehran to shut down its disputed uranium enrichment program. But a senior Iranian official said his country would under no circumstances halt its efforts to enrich uranium -- fuel it says it needs for other power plants but which foreign powers fear could be used in a nuclear bomb. Western nations led by the United States had urged Russia not to deliver fuel to Bushehr, a plant in southern Iran that Russian engineers are building under a $1 billion contract. In a change of tactics apparently the result of consultations between Moscow and Washington, the White House signaled that the arrival of the fuel could help international efforts to curb Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Author : Christian Lowe
Source : Reuters

24/01/2008

Russia and Iran agree nuclear power station timetable

Russia and Iran have settled all differences over the construction of the Bushehr nuclear power station and agreed on a timetable for its completion, the Russian contractor building the station said on Thursday. Russia's role in building Bushehr, Iran's first nuclear power station, is a key element in a diplomatic dispute over Iran's nuclear ambitions. "We have resolved all the problems with the Iranians," said Sergei Shmatko, president of state controlled Atomstroiexport, which is building the Bushehr plant on the Gulf. "We have agreed with our Iranian colleagues a timeframe for completing the plant and we will make an announcement at the end of December," Shmatko told reporters.

Author : Guy Faulconbridge
Source : Reuters

24/01/2008

Both Tehran and Washington must swallow the rhetoric and seek a deal

If the US can reach an accommodation with Iran before quitting, there is still the chance of a tolerable outcome in Iraq A few months ago, I suggested here that all of us who are sceptics about Iraq should subject ourselves to regular brain scans, just in case we were wrong. That is to say, enthusiasm to see George Bush's nose rubbed in his follies must never tip over into eagerness for US failure in Iraq. Its consequences for the world, and above all for the Iraqi people, are far too grave to indulge schadenfreude. There are three reasons today to revisit our thinking about Iraq even if, at the end of the process, we end up back where we started. James Forysth rightly remarked in the Guardian's media pages yesterday that the British press has under-reported the success of the US troop surge. It is a notable achievement by General David Petraeus and his forces that insurgent attacks have fallen by two-thirds, and civilian fatalities have declined steeply. Second, Gordon Brown told British troops outside Basra at the weekend that their role is almost over. Within weeks responsibility for security in the southern province will pass to local Iraqi forces. Finally, last week's amazing US national intelligence estimate, which declared that Iran has no current nuclear weapons programme, could carry critical significance for Iraq. It removes the overriding obstacle to dialogue between Tehran and Washington, which itself is indispensable to stabilising Iraq.

Author : Max Hastings
Source : The Guardian

24/01/2008

So Iran's not a nuclear threat any more? All the more reason for Bush to unleash Armageddon

Bush is so fact-phobic that he might as well declare a war on reality, in which anything palpably authentic is the enemy So let's get this straight. A US intelligence report decides that Iran isn't as big a threat as once feared, and Bush decides this proves that, actually guys, I think you'll find it is. You've got to admire his steadfast refusal to acknowledge anything that doesn't complement his monochromatic world view. He's a true tunnel visionary. Awkward facts simply ricochet off him, like peashooter pellets bouncing harmlessly from an elephant's hide. He knows what he wants to believe, and he'll carry on believing it until it kills him. Or us. Preferably us. He can always recant and say, "Oops, I was wrong" in his bunker. We'll be long gone by then, so what does he care? Very little, in all probability. Bush is a bit like an unhinged iconoclast who has arbitrarily decided he doesn't believe in cows, and loudly and repeatedly denies their existence until you get so annoyed you drive him to a farm and show him a cow, and he shakes his head and continues to insist there's no such thing. At which point it moos indignantly, but he claims not to hear it, so in exasperation you drag him into the field and force him to touch the cow, and milk the cow, and ride around on the cow's back. And, finally, he dismounts and says, "That was fun'n'all, but dagnammit, I still don't believe in no cow." And then he shoots it in the head regardless, just to be on the safe side. Just so it isn't a threat.

Author : Charlie Brooker
Source : The Guardian

24/01/2008

Young woman doctor who fell foul of Iran's 'love police' was strangled

GP dies in custody after arrest for sitting with her fiancé in the park - and the police say it is suicide Nothing about Zahra Baniyaghoub's life suggested she would have wanted to end it. With a flourishing career as a doctor and a stable relationship with a man she loved, she seemed to have everything to live for. But when she died suddenly in the custody of Iran's morals and virtues police - an organisation empowered by the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to enforce Islamic behavioural standards - officials reported it as suicide.

Author : Robert Tait
Source : The Observer

24/01/2008

Iran, the United States and Europe: the nuclear complex

The mystery of Iran's nuclear plans has deepened, and the prospects of war seem to have receded, with the publication of a new United States intelligence report. But this is only one episode of an unfolding story The status and intentions of Iran's nuclear-energy plans are again at the top of the international agenda, and in a dramatic and unexpected way. The publication of the latest United States national-intelligence estimate (NIE) on 3 December 2007 - in the declassified digest released to the public - contained the striking assessment that Iran halted its nuclear-weapons programme in 2003 "in response to international pressure"; a judgment, moreover, backed with "high confidence". The report, which gathers material from the US's sixteen leading intelligence agencies, does admit: "We do not know whether (Iran) currently intends to develop nuclear weapons." But the tenor of the report is - as has been instantly understood around the world - to challenge the narrative of an Iranian nuclear danger that the George W Bush administration and its supporters has assiduously been building, and to make more difficult the argument for armed confrontation with Iran as a way of resolving the perceived problem.

Author : Jan De Pauw
Source : Open Democracy

24/01/2008

Gates says Iran still a threat

Iran poses a threat to the United States and the Middle East despite a U.S. intelligence assessment that Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on Saturday. In a speech to the Manama Dialogue security conference in Bahrain, the Pentagon chief argued Iran still has the capability to restart its weapons program and continues to enrich uranium, an essential part of atomic weapons development. He also accused Iran of actively supporting insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan as well as Islamist groups Hezbollah and Hamas, and that its missile program poses a wider threat throughout the region.

Author : Kristin Roberts
Source : Reuters

24/01/2008

Saudi king urges Iran to avoid escalating tensions with West

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah urged Iran to avoid escalation in its standoff with the West over its nuclear program as Israel's deputy prime minister called for the resignation of the head of the UN nuclear watchdog. King Abdullah called for a solution that would allow Tehran to use atomic energy for peaceful purposes

Author :
Source : Daily Star

24/01/2008

Bush and Merkel discuss Iran sanctions

German Chancellor Angela Merkel told U.S. President George W. Bush on Saturday she would be willing to support a third round of U.N. sanctions against Iran if Tehran continues to resist demands to halt sensitive nuclear work. Merkel, in a visit to Bush's ranch in Crawford, also said she would consider possible cuts in her country's brisk trade flows with Iran should other efforts fail to secure Tehran's cooperation over its nuclear program. Bush agreed with Merkel that diplomacy was the best way to resolve the standoff with Iran. "We were at one in saying that the threat posed through the nuclear program of Iran is indeed a serious one," Merkel said at a joint news conference with Bush.

Author : Caren Bohan
Source : Reuters

24/01/2008

New diplomatic push over Iran row

Senior officials from the permanent five members of the UN Security Council and Germany are meeting in London to discuss the next steps over Iran's nuclear programme. The gathering comes at another crucial juncture in the long-running stand-off, in which Western countries say they suspect Iran of seeking to develop nuclear weapons, and the Iranians repeatedly deny the charge. As a backdrop, Saudi Arabia has said it and its Gulf allies have proposed as a compromise setting up a consortium with Iran to enrich uranium in a neutral country.

Author : Nick Childs
Source : BBC News

24/01/2008

Rice: Iran Resolution Doesn't OK War

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday she does not believe a Senate resolution authorizes President Bush to take military action against Iran. ``There is nothing in this particular resolution that would suggest that from our point of view. And, clearly, the president has also made very clear that he's on a diplomatic path where Iran comes into focus,'' Rice said. The Senate in late September voted 76-22 in favor of a resolution urging the State Department to designate Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist organization. While the resolution, by Sens. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., attracted overwhelming bipartisan support, a small group of Democrats said they feared labeling the state-sponsored organization a terrorist group could be interpreted as a congressional authorization of military force in Iran.

Author :
Source : The Guardian/AP

24/01/2008

Thirty Years War

Brown should be blunt about al-Qaeda and Afghanistan It is a slightly strange but perhaps appropriate arrangement that Remembrance Sunday is followed by the Lord Mayor's Banquet. At one level there is a disconnection between the sombre ceremonies witnessed yesterday and the feast in Guildhall tonight. At another, however, it is right that ceremonies to mark the sacrifice of those who died in conflict precede an event at which the Prime Minister makes an annual address on international relations. The tragic truth is that war is part of foreign policy, even if peace and prosperity are the long-term goal. And that harsh reality must be recognised by Mr Brown. The attention this evening will probably be on the words and tone that Mr Brown adopts concerning Iran. This is perfectly understandable. The consequences of Tehran acquiring the bomb would be profound. It is right that the Prime Minister has not ruled out any course of action on Iran - including a military response - because a lack of resolve would only encourage extremists there to seek nuclear weapons. If that ambition is not rebuffed, then at some point difficult decisions may have to be taken.

Author :
Source : The Times

24/01/2008

Top Pentagon Brass reluctant to wage war on Iran

While US attack plans against Iran are in an advanced state of readiness, there are growing divisions between the military and the White House regarding these attacks. "U.S. defense officials have signaled that up-to-date attack plans are available if needed in the escalating crisis over Iran's nuclear aims, although no strike appears imminent .... Among the possible targets, in addition to nuclear installations like the centrifuge plant at Natanz [are] Iran's ballistic missile sites, Republican Guard bases, and naval warfare assets that Tehran could use in a retaliatory closure of the Straits of Hormuz, a vital artery for the flow of Gulf oil." (AP, November 8, 2007) These ongoing war preparations are consistent with official statements and political threats directed against Iran by the US president and vice president. On October 12, President Bush dropped a bombshell by intimating that the confrontation with Iran could lead to a "World War III". In a recent TV interview Bush clarified that the reason he mentioned World War III was "because this is a country [Iran] that has defied the IAEA.." This statement is a barefaced lie by the US head of State. The IAEA confirmed in an August report the civilian nature of Iran's nuclear program.

Author : Michel Chossudovsky
Source : Scoop/Global Research

24/01/2008

President Ahmadinejad is enriched by ambition of bickering critics

The next five days will show whether President Ahmadinejad gets what appears to be his wish: a growing row with the West over Iran's nuclear ambitions. Despite deep unease within the regime about his taste for confrontation, the chances are that he will. There is good news for those who want Iran to back down: factions within the top leadership are now fighting with each other about whether to risk defiance of the United Nations Security Council. The bad news is that none of them, even the so-called moderates, appears to want to give up uranium enrichment, the work that could give Iran nuclear weapons. The worse news is that the countries trying to curb Tehran are even more divided among themselves than are Iranian leaders. On Monday a meeting in Brussels of the five permanent members of the Security Council may well show that the US, Britain and France do not have support from China and Russia for more sanctions, and will have to try their best alone.

Author : Bronwen Maddox
Source : The Times

24/01/2008

Gordon Brown threatens Iran's oil interests unless it curbs nuclear ambition

Gordon Brown last night proposed a worldwide ban on companies developing Iran's oil and gas fields if it failed to curb its nuclear ambitions. He promised to take the lead in seeking tougher penalties through the United Nations and the European Union as Britain and the United States seek to increase the pressure on Tehran. In his first major speech on foreign policy the Prime Minister said that Iran had a choice confrontation with the international community and stringent sanctions against it; or dropping its nuclear plans, ending support for terrorism and having a transformed relationship with the world. Unless imminent reports from the EU and the International Atomic Energy Agency suggested movement from Iran, there would be stronger sanctions, including on oil and gas investment and the financial sector. Iran should be in no doubt about our seriousness of purpose, he said.

Author : Philip Webster
Source : RINF

24/01/2008

US urges more sanctions on Iran

The US has vowed to push for further UN sanctions against Iran, following the latest report on its nuclear programme. The UN's nuclear watchdog said Tehran had made moves towards transparency, but was continuing to enrich uranium in defiance of the Security Council. The White House said "selective co-operation" was "not good enough". The US and its allies fear Iran is building a nuclear weapons capability. Tehran denies this and insists the report gave it a clean bill of health.

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Source : BBC

24/01/2008

British aid mocks sanctions threat against Iran

The government faces a diplomatic row with America over disclosures that it has provided the Iranian regime with financial support worth about £290m while at the same time calling for sanctions. The money was offered by the Export Credits Guarantee Department (ECGD) to support British firms exporting to Iran, mainly to the country's petrochemical industry. Many of the loans were being negotiated while British ministers were threatening sanctions against Iran for creating a nuclear enrichment facility to make atomic weapons.

Author : Jonathan Leake and Sarah Baxter
Source : The Sunday Times

24/01/2008

Ditching the dollar

Some OPEC mavericks want to switch to the euro as oil's pricing basis. But analysts say there are several factors keeping the greenback in the game. Despite calls from Iran and Venezuela - OPEC's steadfast bashers of the U.S. government - experts say there's little chance the cartel will shift from pricing oil in dollars to something like the euro. At a summit of leaders from Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, over the weekend, Venezuelan head Hugo Chavez and Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad indicated the historic link between crude oil and the dollar should be severed.

Author : Steve Hargreaves
Source : CNNMoney.com

24/01/2008

US Agrees to New Talks With Iran

The United States has accepted an Iraqi proposal to hold new talks with Iran about the security situation in Iraq, the State Department said Tuesday. The as-yet unscheduled meeting would be the fourth round of talks between Ryan Crocker, the U.S. ambassador to Iraq, and his Iranian counterpart. Two previous sessions ended inconclusively with Iran rejecting U.S. allegations that Iran is supporting Shia insurgent groups in Iraq by providing bombmaking material responsible for the deaths of American troops. Amid a decline in attacks involving such devices, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Washington had responded favorably to a suggestion from the Iraqi government that it was now ``the appropriate time'' for another meeting at the ambassadorial level in Baghdad.

Author : Matthew Lee
Source : The Guardian/AP

24/01/2008

Bush plays down WWIII warning

US President George W. Bush on Tuesday played down his warning of "World War III" if Iran gets nuclear arms but refused to rule out using force to keep Tehran from getting atomic weapons. "I think it's very important for us to pursue our objectives diplomatically. I also know it's important for all options to remain on the table, and they are on the table," Bush told ABC television in an interview. "No one wants to use military force to achieve any objective. But, but it's important for all parties to understand that, you know, while I'm optimistic we can solve it diplomatically, options are available to the president," he added.

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Source : Channel News Asia

24/01/2008

Fear of Iran is common motivator for major players in U.S. peace meeting

The most important player in the push for Mideast peace that President George W. Bush launches with a high-stakes conference next week may be one that is not on his long list of invited guests. For varying reasons, Iran is a force driving the United States, Israel, the Palestinians and their Arab backers to seek a deal now. Many other motives come into play, but the growing influence and uncertain aims of Tehran provide rare unity of purpose among states that are key to solving the six-decade Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The United States has asked nearly 50 nations and organizations to attend next week's coming-out party for what U.S. diplomats say will be serious, continuing set of negotiations to establish an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

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Source : International Herald Tribune/AP

24/01/2008

UK 'behind US/Iran U-turn'

British intelligence was behind the US' altered assessment of Iran's nuclear intentions, the Guardian newspaper claims. On Tuesday a new US national intelligence estimate (NIE) said it believed Iran had ceased its active pursuit of a nuclear weapons capability in 2003, contradicting its previous belief that Iran was interested in an atomic bomb. According to the Guardian a Washington source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said GCHQ intercepted Iranian communications on which the intelligence was eventually based.

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Source : View London

24/01/2008

Officer: Iraq Groups Supported by Iran

There's been no letup in attacks and weapons-smuggling by Iranian-backed Shiite militants in some parts of Iraq's capital, the area's top U.S. commander said Monday. The comment by Army Col. Don Farris contrasts with suggestions in recent weeks that Iran was slowing the flow of bombs, money and other support to Shiite extremists in Iraq. Farris is commander for coalition forces in northern Baghdad, an area including the huge Shiite slum of Sadr City, which he called ``really a hub for these activities coming from Iran.'' It also includes the Sunni neighborhood of Azamiyah. Despite a 75 percent decline in overall attacks in his area, there was an increase last month in the most lethal kind of roadside bombs - the explosively formed projectiles (EFPs) that officials say come from Iran, Farris said.

Author : Pauline Jelinek
Source : The Guardian/AP

24/01/2008

US wages covert war on Iraq-Iran border

The United States-led war in Iraq has hardly affected the residents of Sidikan, a small Kurdish town nestled in the mountains where the borders of Iraq, Iran and Turkey converge, but the surrounding area has fast become the frontline of another conflict. In recent weeks, residents say, Iranian artillery shells have been heard almost daily, raining down on the nearby hills where anti-Tehran guerrillas of the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK) are based on both sides of the Iran-Iraq border. Since August, thousands of Kurdish villagers on the Iraqi side of the frontier have been forced to flee their homes as a result of the barrage. "Iran is creating a lot of problems for the Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG]," said the chief of security police in the nearby town of Soran, who only revealed his first name, Gafar. "Border areas are being shelled every day." The KRG is the governing authority of the predominantly Kurdish region of northern Iraq, or Iraqi Kurdistan.

Author : Nelson Rand
Source : After Downing Street/Asia Times

24/01/2008

Iran leader dubs summit a failure

· Bush hopes for progress despite press scepticism · US to monitor parties' compliance to road map George Bush formally relaunched Israeli-Palestinian negotiations yesterday, inviting Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas to meet again at the White House the morning after the Annapolis summit showcased US determination to bring peace to the Middle East despite near-universal scepticism about the prospects. In the face of Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, Hamas rocket fire into Israel, violence in the West Bank and Iranian taunts that his policies had failed, the president was keen to show he was serious about supporting the search for a two-state solution in his remaining 14 months of office.

Author : Ian Black
Source : The Guardian

24/01/2008

Forget War With Iran

That's the main implication of the startling new intelligence estimate that Tehran isn't working on a bomb. But the long-term impact is just as significant. A look at the winners and losers. President Bush, in his news conference today, said "nothing's changed" about the U.S. approach to Iran. On the contrary, everything has. What the U.S. president failed to acknowledge was that there had been an earthquake in Washington, which came in the form of this week's new National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) on Iran. The most immediate impact is that the NIE resolved the big question hanging over the last 12 months of Bush's troubled tenure as president: will he attack Iran? The answer now is almost certainly no. The report also means that a host of international actors who are not necessarily friendly to America from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Russia's Vladimir Putin to Mohamed ElBaradei, the controversial head of the International Atomic Energy Agency come out looking like winners. America's reputation in the world is the biggest loser.

Author : Michael Hirsh
Source : Newsweek

24/01/2008

Relax? Don't. Iran can still build its bomb

Iran says that a newly published US intelligence report proves that its intentions for its nuclear programme are benign. So does Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the United Nations watchdog, who has greeted the report as if it confirms what he has always maintained that a resolution of the row with Iran is within reach. However, the offers no reassurance; on the contrary, it supports fears that Iran could soon have nuclear weapons. It argues that Iran has been deterred from pursuing them mainly by the fear of US military action, a fear that has now faded. That may seem like support for the case for tough action against Iran, and yesterday Downing Street and President Bush were keen to emphasise the seriousness of the threat. But it seems that the report's conclusions will be even more easily appropriated by the doves, partly because ElBaradei has thrown his weight behind that interpretation.

Author : Bronwen Maddox
Source : The Times

24/01/2008

World reaction to Iran nuclear report

A report by US intelligence agencies has contradicted Washington's claims that Iran is actively pursuing a nuclear weapons programme, concluding instead that such work stopped four years ago. Reaction to the surprise findings has been varied:

Author :
Source : The Guardian

24/01/2008

US: Iran Halted Weapons Program in 2003

A new U.S. intelligence report concludes that Iran's nuclear weapons development program has been halted since the fall of 2003 because of international pressure - a stark contrast to the conclusions U.S. spy agencies drew just two years ago. The finding is part of a National Intelligence Estimate on Iran that also cautions that Tehran continues to enrich uranium and still could develop a bomb between 2010 and 2015 if it decided to do so. The conclusion that Iran's weapons program was still frozen, through at least mid-2007, represents a sharp turnaround from the previous intelligence assessment in 2005. Then, U.S. intelligence agencies believed Tehran was determined to develop a nuclear weapons capability and was continuing its weapons development program. The new report concludes that Iran's decisions are rational and pragmatic, and that Tehran is more susceptible to diplomatic and financial pressure than previously thought.

Author : Pamela Hess
Source : The Guardian/AP

24/01/2008

The Iran Threat

In 2001, 83% of the Pakistanis supported the Taliban[i]. Six years later, in a 2007 World Public Opinion poll[ii], 84% of the Pakistanis thought attacks on civilians for the purpose of reaching a political goal was justified. Given that there are radicals who support terrorism with the possibility of gaining access to nuclear bombs in a country that is currently under emergency rule, common sense demands that world leaders turn their attention to Pakistan. Yet, inexplicably, the United States continues to hand out aid to its 'ally' Pakistan while quietly upgrading special stealth bomber hangars on the British island of Diego Garcia in preparation for a military assault against Iran[iii]. What motivates the United States to take such paradoxical action? America and Israel have accused Iran of intending to diversify its program - they allege that Iran is using its civilian program as a cover to build nuclear bombs. This supposition begs the question why Iran would place itself in the spotlight instead of renouncing the energy program for history has shown that having an operating nuclear power reactor is no longer a prerequisite or even a necessary condition of obtaining fissile material which can be used for the development of nuclear materials. South Africa was able to develop five nuclear bombs without having a nuclear energy program. North Korea was able to acquire enriched uranium with mundane centrifuges and other technologies to constitute the critical mass needed for a low-yield "dirty" bomb (Meshkati[iv]).

Author : Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich
Source : Payvand's Iran News

24/01/2008

Noam Chomsky on U.S. Policy Towards Iran

Noam Chomsky interviewed by Paul Jay

Author : Paul Jay
Source : The Real News Network

24/01/2008

US 'has no stomach for Iran war'

UK Minister of State at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Kim Howells says the US is reluctant to invade Iran, despite its rhetoric, PressTV reported. The Pontypridd MP warned that the ongoing standoff between Iran and the West would have dire consequences for the international community. He added that another US-led military attack would spark opposition in the British Parliament. It's not fashionable to say it, but I didn't meet anybody in the States who wants to invade Iran. The US was heavily involved in Iraq and Afghanistan and could do without a further war in Iran,? the British official said in a meeting with members of the Foreign Affairs Select Committee. We certainly never threatened Iran with military action and we have no intention of doing so," he said. "I can't speak for other countries in the world, but no one has said they think it would be a good idea to take military action in Iran, and quite frankly I don't think there is any requirement for it,? Howells concluded

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Source : IranMania

24/01/2008

Iran welcomes US nuclear report

Iran has welcomed a major US intelligence report that suggests its government is not currently trying to develop nuclear weapons. The latest National Intelligence Estimate says it is now believed Iran stopped its weapons programme in 2003. Tehran has always maintained its nuclear programme is being developed purely for peaceful purposes. But the US and other Western powers say Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapons capability.

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Source : BBC

24/01/2008

Iran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003, US agencies say

Iran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003 and has not restarted it since, a stunning new assessment released yesterday by intelligence agencies in the United States has found. The findings contradict an assessment by US intelligence officials two years ago that Tehran was seeking nuclear weapons and appear to undercut President Bush's repeated warnings about Iran becoming a nuclear power. As recently as August Mr Bush warned that Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology could lead to a holocaust and that the US will confront this danger before it is too late. In October he said that a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to a third world war. Last night, however, Mr Bush's closest aides claimed that the finding was vindication for the White House's muscular but diplomatic approach. Stephen Hadley, Mr Bush's National Security Advisor, said that the White House was only told last week about the new assessment of Iran's nuclear programme.

Author : Tim Reid
Source : The Times

24/01/2008

EU disappointed after nuclear talks, Iran digs in

The European Union said it was disappointed after talks with Iran on Friday seen as a last chance to avert U.S. pressure for tougher international sanctions over Tehran's disputed atomic program. The absence of a breakthrough at the London talks means six world powers meeting in Paris on Saturday will try to agree new penalties to propose to the United Nations, despite differences in their approach to halting Iran's nuclear program. "I have to admit that after five hours of meetings I expected more. I am disappointed," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana told reporters, adding he would talk to Iran's negotiator Saeed Jalili again before the end of December.

Author : Parisa Hafezi and Adrian Croft
Source : Reuters

24/01/2008

Iran says will soon hold talks with U.S. on Iraq

Iran has agreed to hold a new round of talks soon with the United States on how to improve security in Iraq, Iran's foreign minister said on Tuesday. Ambassadors of the two old enemies, deeply at odds over who is to blame for the violence in Iraq as well as over Tehran's disputed nuclear ambitions, have held three meetings in Baghdad since May on Iraq, but the last one was three months ago. Washington accuses Iran of arming, funding and training Shi'ite militias in Iraq. Tehran blames the sectarian violence, which has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis, on the U.S.-led invasion to topple Saddam Hussein in 2003.

Author : Zahra Hosseinian
Source : Reuters

24/01/2008

Iraqi fighters 'grilled for evidence on Iran'

Interrogator says US military seeks evidence incriminating Tehran US military officials are putting huge pressure on interrogators who question Iraqi insurgents to find incriminating evidence pointing to Iran, it was claimed last night. Micah Brose, a privately contracted interrogator working for American forces in Iraq, near the Iranian border, told The Observer that information on Iran is 'gold'. The claim comes after Washington imposed sanctions on Iran last month, citing both its nuclear ambitions and its Revolutionary Guards' alleged support of Shia insurgents in Iraq. Last week the US military freed nine Iranians held in Iraq, including two it had accused of links to the Revolutionary Guards' Qods Force.

Author : David Smith
Source : The Observer

24/01/2008

Bombing Iran will ensure world peace

Three people explaining why it's essential we start a war with Iran

Author : Armando Iannucci
Source : The Observer

24/01/2008

Russia raps Saudi atomic fuel proposal for Iran: RIA

Russia's nuclear chief on Friday said only full nuclear powers should create centers for enriching uranium, in a swipe at a Saudi proposal for Arab states to help supply Iran with enriched uranium. U.S.-allied Gulf Arab states are ready to set up a body to provide enriched uranium to Iran in a bid to defuse Tehran's stand-off with the West over its nuclear plan, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister told a magazine this week. Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries -- Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates -- have proposed creating a Middle East consortium for users of enriched uranium, Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told the Middle East Economic Digest (MEED).

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Source : Reuters

24/01/2008

Bahrain accuses Iran of nuclear weapons lie

A polished silver Spitfire on the desk of Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa recalls two centuries of close and cordial ties between Britain and Bahrain. But even its most powerful friends cannot guarantee the security of this strategic island caught in the Gulf between worsening Iranian threats and deadly serious talk of a US military strike. It is not a position from which to mince words. In an interview with The Times the Crown Prince has become the first Arab leader to jettison the language of diplomacy and directly accuse Tehran of seeking nuclear weapons. While they don't have the bomb yet, they are developing it, or the capability for it, he said the first time one of Iran's Gulf neighbours effectively has accused it of lying about its nuclear programme.

Author : Giles Whittell
Source : The Times

24/01/2008

Iran's anti-Arab racism

Iran treats its Arab minority as second-class citizens. Now it is planning to hang six of them after rigged trials held in secret. President Bush justifies his imposition of sanctions against Iran on the grounds that Tehran supports the insurgency in Iraq and is seeking nuclear weapons. Not a word from Washington about the way the Iranian regime is abusing the human rights of its own people. Bush doesn't care about their fate. In this sense, he mirrors the Iranian state. The charge sheet against Tehran includes the probably true allegation that it is supplying Iraqi insurgents with weapons that are being used to kill US soldiers. But it doesn't include any mention of Tehran's murder of its own citizens. Surprise. Surprise. US policy on Iran is dictated primarily by selfish geo-political interests. Concern about terrorism and nuclear weapons is, in part, a populist cover. It disguises a secret neo-imperial agenda. Washington's real goal is to extend its sphere of influence, remove a non-compliant regime and guarantee its access to already diminishing global oil supplies (of which Iran holds about 10% of the world's known reserves).

Author : Peter Tatchell
Source : The Guardian