Literatures of Resistance: An Afternoon in Solidarity with the People of Iran
Saturday June 11 at Bowery Poetry Club in New york: Join us as these and other artists of conscience bear witness, in poetry and music, to the struggle for democracy in Iran. Readings and performances by: Rana Farhan, Eleanor Wilner, Luis Francia, D. Nurske, Said Sayrafiezadeh, The Tehran-Dakar Brothers, Roger Sedarat, Amir Parsa, Dalia Sofer, Niloufar Talebi and more! - 7/4/09
Human Chain in Toronto and other rallies in Canada in solidarity with the people in Iran
Iranian-Canadians have proven that they will not sit still and will continue supporting their brothers and sisters in Iran in their fight for democracy. People in different Canadian cities came out last week again to let the world hear the cry of Iranians for freedom and equality in Iran. From prior to the recent uprisings, June 26th had already been declared as a day of international solidarity with workers in Iran. -Salam Toronto - 7/1/09
The Walk
Today I saw hundreds of my brothers and sisters with wills made of steel who were visibly showing the V sign of victory; in groups large and small or individually they had taken to the streets and will do so again and again this week and next week and next month until we, the youth of the land of Iran, of the Iranzamin, will shake off all the tyrants of power and demand our right to peaceful demonstrations, the annulment of this charade of an election and move towards more transparency and democratic government and an equal rule of law for a better Iran for all. -Kamand Saba, Tehran - 6/30/09
Photo: Mother and Child in Los Angeles declaring Solidarity with the People in Iran
I am not Persian, or a political activist-- I'm just a photojournalist-- But when the leadership of any country starts clubbing down it's people in the streets, (As I saw it happen here in the United States as child), I know whose side I'm standing on... -Jim Stevenson - 6/30/09
Subsidies for Israel, Sanctions for Iran
President Barack Obama’s fiscal year 2010 budget request for $2.775 billion in military aid to Israel is proceeding smoothly through the Congress. -Antiwar.com - 6/29/09
Academics' Declaration of Support for Iranian Demonstrators
Today the New York-based Campaign for Peace and Democracy circulated the open letter below from academics in support of the demonstrators in Iran. The statement declares that "Khamenei's argument that to make concessions to popular demands and 'illegal' pressure would amount to a form of 'dictatorship'] sounds familiar to anyone interested in the politics of collective action, since it appears to draw on the logic used by state authorities to oppose most of the great popular mobilisations of modern times, from 1789 in France to 1979 in Iran itself. - 6/25/09
Tomorrow is a big day, maybe I'll get killed tomorrow!
I will participate in the demonstrations tomorrow. Maybe they will turn violent. Maybe I will be one of the people who is going to get killed. I'm listening to all my favorite music. I even want to dance to a few songs. I always wanted to have very narrow eyebrows. Yes, maybe I will go to the salon before I go tomorrow! - A blogger in Tehran - 6/20/09
Photos: June 18 Election Protests in Tehran: The Faces
Hundreds of thousands of people marched in the streets of Tehran again on Thursday June 18 to protest the outcome of the June 12 Iran's presidential election. Following photos show some of the faces of the people who took part in this march across the capital city. -Syma Sayyah, Tehran - 6/19/09
Photos: Election Protests in front of United Nation office in Tehran
On Thursday June 18 between 2-3 PM, a few hundred people gathered in front of Tehran UN Office at on Sharzad Boulevard to express to the world, through UN, their discontent and opposition to Iran's recent election results. People from many walks of life were present at this rally. -Syma Sayyah, Tehran - 6/18/09
Iran and Iranians Deserve Better
Today, Thursday June 18, a few hundred people gathered in front of Tehran UN Office at on Sharzad Boulevard between 2-3 PM. They were there to express to the world, through UN, their discontent and opposition to Iran's recent election results. People from many walks of life were present at this rally. They were there protesting together, quietly and determined. Again police was present but only to preserve traffic flow and peace. - 6/18/09
Iran: Land of Imam Zaman (Time) or Devil's Advocates
Recent events starting more or less since the presidency debates makes me wonder constantly whether They know what they are doing and what may be the consequences of their deeds for the country? - An artist, Tehran - 6/18/09
Obama's Doublespeak on Iran
On the US-Iran relationship, President Obama seems to be talking from both sides of his mouth. From one side we hear promising messages of dialogue and a "new beginning" with Iran; from the other side provocative words that seems to be coming right out of the mouth of his predecessor, George W. Bush. -Ismael Hossein-zadeh - 6/11/09
U.S. & Iran: Between Elections & Enrichment
Conference to be held on Capitol Hill on June 17 from 8:00AM-12:10PM -- Part I: Reassessing Inspections and Verification; Part II: A Conversation on the Iranian Elections -NIAC - 6/10/09
Commentary: Iranians favor peace deal with U.S.
In a new public opinion poll before Iran's critical June 12 presidential election, by large margins, most Iranians said they support an American-Iranian rapprochement for bringing a new era of peace to the Middle East. -CNN - 6/9/09
Rigi's brother exposes US ties with Jundullah
Revelations by the brother of Jundullah leader Abdolmalek Rigi confirm reports that the US helped the armed separatist ring carry out terror activities in Iran. -Press TV - 6/9/09
Anand Gopal: US focused on military approach but Iraq tactics can't work in Afghanistan
Anand Gopal, Christian Science Monitor journalist, talks with TRNN Senior Editor Paul Jay about Afghanistan. Gopal became interested in America's foreign policy in Afghanistan and Pakistan after several of his close friends were killed in the Sept. 9/11 attacks. - 6/5/09
Remarks of President Barack Obama: A New Beginning (Cairo, Egypt)
U.S. President Barack Obama says it is time for a new beginning in relations between America and the world's Muslims. The president said they should unite to confront violent extremism and promote the cause of peace. - 6/4/09
Lawmakers Urge Support for Navy Talks with Iran
Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) and Rep. Geoff Davis (R-KY), the two lead sponsors of H.Con.Res.94, delivered speeches this morning on the House floor announcing growing support for an Incidents-at-Sea agreement with Iran. - 6/4/09
Report Ties Dubious Iran Nuclear Docs to Israel
A report on Iran’s nuclear program issued by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last month generated news stories publicizing an incendiary charge that U.S. intelligence is underestimating Iran’s progress in designing a "nuclear warhead" before the halt in nuclear weapons-related research in 2003. -Gareth Porter, IPS - 6/4/09
Obama Begins Mideast Tour With Saudi Visit
U.S. President Barack Obama has arrived in Saudi Arabia for the first leg of his maiden tour of the Middle East, a visit aimed at improving relations between the United States and the Islamic world. - 6/3/09
Smarter Iran Policy Begins With New Attitude
Skill, patience, consistency, logic, and understanding go a long way toward the design of an effective foreign policy. These attributes – perhaps obvious but frequently in short supply among foreign policy decision-makers – build a much firmer policy foundation than rude and emotional outbursts, erratic challenges, public bullying, contemptuous disdain, or efforts to isolate and demonize. -William deB. Mills - 5/28/09
Iran Football Federation OKs friendly with US
Iran's Football Federation (IFF) has agreed to the US request to hold two friendly matches between the two countries' national soccer squads. "We are interested in holding friendly matches against the United States," said the IFF president Ali Kafashian on Tuesday. - 5/27/09
Peace Action West Sends An Organizer To Iran
Rebecca Griffin, Peace Action West's Political Director, will join a grassroots civilian diplomacy delegation to Iran to learn first hand how Iranians feel about prospects for diplomacy with the United States. - 5/27/09
Setting a Higher Standard for Making War
Nations define their relationships based on a number of interactions, but when it comes to going to war there should be only one standard: whether a nation’s very existence or a vital national interest at stake. -Philip Giraldi, Antiwar.com - 5/27/09
New York Times Falsifies Obama-Netanyahu Meeting
What is more disturbing and far more consequential is that the Times made this meeting into a story about Iran. They read into Obama's careful and measured remarks exactly the hostile intention toward Iran and the explicit deadline for results from his negotiations with Iran that Obama had taken great pains to avoid stating. -David Bromwich, Global Research - 5/21/09
Professor Akbar Montaser's Letter to Congresswoman Jane Harman on Balkanization of Iran
I found your recent assertions on the Balkanization of Iran exceptionally offensive to the brave people of my birth land, Iran, the citizens of the United States and the world. As a Persian-American, this I know: It is patently clear that the era of being wined and dined by religious bigots is over in the United States. - 5/20/09
Aipac's hidden persuaders
The Israel lobby is aiming to soften up US public opinion for an attack on Iran. Americans should resist its propaganda. That bogey-nation was everywhere at the Aipac conference. Every keynote speech – if they weren't directly written by that group's staff – seemed unmistakably scripted and "on message", dedicated to the existential threat that Iran poses not just to Israel, but the entire world. -Guardian - 5/20/09
U.S. And Iran Face Common Foe At Sea
The United States believes that areas of common interest involving Iran and the U.S. could yield greater cooperation and understanding between the 2 countries, even as the U.S. continues to emphasize the importance of Iran fulfilling all its international obligations. - 5/20/09
Iran hits back at Obama's war talk
Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman, Hassan Qashqavi, responded to the interview on Monday, saying that Obama's threats do not chime with his oft-stated promises of bringing 'change' to Washington. - 5/19/09
WAR STORIES: A Letter to the Saad Family
The first finder or finders of this letter are kindly requested to deliver its contents in any way possible to the family of "Saad Abd al-Jabbar," a member of the 23rd Battalion of the Special Republican Guard Forces of Iraq; the letter is from the forces under control of the Third Army of Basra. -Habib Ahmadzadeh, Tehran - 5/15/09
Library presentation features Iran trip
Fossil resident Lyn Craig, the director of the Libraries of Eastern Oregon, was among the small group of Americans who left for the tour the day after the U.S. presidential election. - 5/15/09
NIAC Briefing on Capitol Hill: How to Negotiate with Iran
NIAC held a briefing yesterday on Capitol Hill to explore how American policymakers can best pursue dialogue with Iran and to examine the challenges that they will likely confront. - 5/14/09
The Bomb Iran Faction: An Existential Question for the Power Elite?
There is clearly a faction of the power elite that is, and has for some years been pressing, for a U.S. military attack on Iran. It is not advocating a war, at least openly, or an occupation of that vast nation; rather, it is advocating an operation similar in concept to the Israeli attack on Iraq’s French-built Osiraq nuclear reactor in 1981. In a word, it is both advocating an Israeli-like action and justifying it explicitly as one on behalf of Israel. -Gary Leupp, Counterpunch - 5/13/09
WISHING YOU LUCK, MR. OBAMA: Can the Vicious Circle be Broken?
As long as America’s security and strategic best interests are so cunningly dressed to appear inseparable from what suits Israel best, the Obama administration can neither broker a peace agreement between the Israelis and the Palestinians, nor engage Iran in a meaningful dialogue toward a mutually beneficial cooperation. -Kam Zarrabi - 5/12/09
Congress pushing new sanctions that would mean “Iranians are going to die”
Tell Congress to Support Our Diplomats, Not New Sanctions - Last week, 6,000 AIPAC members came to Washington with a message: impose harsh new sanctions against Iran. Congress heard that message and legislation doing exactly that is now gaining momentum. -NIAC - 5/12/09
Security Organizations Praise White House Iran Strategy, Criticize Sanctions Legislation
The National Iranian American Council (NIAC), along with twenty peace and security organizations, issued a joint letter on May 1st, commending the White House for its bold diplomatic strategy for engaging Iran - including its rejection of calls from outside groups to impose deadlines for diplomacy and to impose sanctions before diplomacy is given a chance to succeed. - 5/8/09
A Gallup Study: Who Speaks for Islam?
What do the vast majority of mainstream Muslims really think? Rather than listening to extremists or simply relying on the opinions of individual pundits, why not give voice to the silenced majority? How is this voice different, or similar to, voices from America? -America.gov - 5/6/09
AIPAC Conference Pushes Hard Line on Iran
The annual conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), the powerful and hawkish pro-Israel lobby, wrapped up on Tuesday with a speech from Vice President Joe Biden, capping three days that were primarily devoted to the threat of a nuclear Iran. -IPS - 5/6/09
Iran and the Israel Lobby's Frustration: Dropping the AIPAC Spying Case
On August 4, 2005 American Israel Political Affairs Committee (AIPAC) operatives Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman were arrested on charges relating to espionage on behalf of Israel. This had a lot to do with Iran. -Counterpunch - 5/6/09
Where do we go from here?
Make no mistake about it. The overtures that President Barack Obama has made to Iran since his election in November 2008 are momentous...On the other side of the cognitive divide, President Mahmoud Ahmadinezhad became the first Iranian leader in three decades to officially congratulate a US president-elect, a gesture acknowledged by Obama at a news conference in January 2009. -Arshin Adib-Moghaddam - 5/1/09
German-Iranian "fairytale diplomacy" bewitches foreign ministry
The reception lobby of Germany's Foreign Ministry became the scene of a magical German-Iranian puppet show, the daily Der Tagesspiegel newspaper reported Thursday. German and Iranian pupils, ages 11 through 14, performed a popular German fairytale story, using their own hand-made marionettes. - 5/1/09
The Lobby Wants War with Iran
The Israel lobby has been running into a few problems lately, but it’s nothing they don’t think they can handle: a charge of treason, a strong suspicion of obstructing justice, and a gathering storm of criticism from a few dissident intellectuals and policy types. Nothing to get too exercised about. -Justin Raimondo, antiwar.com - 5/1/09
My Encounter with Iran
Mainstream media in the United States portrays Iran as the raised clenched fist and misguidedly, the masses buy this distorted picture as gospel. For the past six weeks I have met, dined, danced, cried and laughed with Iranians. I am a short fifty-plus, blue eyed American woman who has yet to feel any fear or unease on Iranian soil. -Karla Hansen - 4/29/09
Right time, wrong man
A day does not pass in Iran's state-controlled media without constant glorification of developments in the country's 'home made' nuclear programme. A vast national project started before the Iranian revolution in the 1970s, and then restarted in late 1980s, like many others, is only now beginning to bear fruit. - 4/29/09
For Many, Ties to Peace Corps Service in Iran Remain
Donna Shalala felt like many students after graduating from college. "I was tired of school and I wanted adventure," she recalled in a newspaper interview more than 40 years after serving with the Peace Corps as an English teacher in a remote Iranian village -America.gov - 4/28/09
Iran basketball team set to play a U.S. team
Iran will play a friendly match against an American basketball club, stated Iran's national basketball team coach. "We have negotiated with a U.S. basketball club but cannot unveil the name of the team," Veselin Matic said. - 4/28/09
Iranian Basketball Federation invites Utah Flash to Tehran
The Iranian Basketball Federation has invited the Utah Flash of the National Basketball Association Developmental League to play a few games in Tehran, NBA Commissioner David Stern said. -Bloomberg - 4/22/09
Jesse Jackson wants to visit Tehran
The case of jailed Iranian-American Roxana Saberi has prompted American rights activist Jesse Jackson to plan a visit to Tehran. - 4/22/09
David Hartsough talks about Iran, peace
David Hartsough, 68, has spent most of his life pushing for peace - in Kosovo, Mexico, the former Soviet Union, El Salvador and several other countries including his own, the United States. -SFGate - 4/21/09
Scholar in Tabriz inscribes Iranian peace message to the world
Iranian scholar Eliza Saeedi has created an inscription in the city of Tabriz which conveys the message of peace from Iran to the world. - 4/20/09
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