Iran Arrests Student Activists Ahead Of Student Day
Iran has increased its pressure on student activists ahead of the national Student Day on December 7. Throughout Iran a dozen students are reported to have been jailed this week, including eight student activists arrested in Tehran on November 19. - 11/20/09
World Powers to Meet on Iran Nuclear Deal
Representatives of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council: Britain, France, China, the United States, Russia plus Germany, will meet in Brussels Friday to discuss Iran's latest stand on its nuclear program. - 11/20/09
Interview with Gary Sick: Israel is not Going to Attack Iran
Gary Sick was on the staff of the National Security Council under President Jimmy Carter and a White House aide during the Iranian Revolution and the hostage crisis. Currently, he is an adjunct professor at Columbia University and the director of Gulf/2000. He is also on the board of Human Rights Watch. He is the author of All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran. He recently spoke at a symposium at the University of Maryland titled "Iran after the 2009 Elections." -Fariba Amini - 11/20/09
Iran: Regime Seeks to Appoint New "Grand Ayatollahs"
Following the escalation of protests by Iran's senior ayatollahs against the regime, some members of the Qom Seminary Teachers Association (the most important organization of clerics affiliated with the regime) are planning to present a new list of "grand ayatollahs" under the supervision of Mohammad Yazdi, Ahmad Jannati and Mesbah Yazdi. -Ali Farokhi, Rooz Online - 11/20/09
Iran: Continuing Persecution of Student Alumni Group
Iranian authorities have arbitrarily arrested another member of the leading student alumni group ADVAR, and sentenced its spokesperson to an eight-year prison term, while other detained members are being mistreated, unfairly tried and sentenced to jail terms, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran reported today. - 11/20/09
Ahmadinejad sees end of liberal democracy
Amidst persistent protests against the alleged fraud in the June presidential election in Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared today that the participation of 85 percent of the Iranian population in the elections marks the end of liberal democracy. - 11/20/09
Sane Iranians Attacked
I know many of the players involved, in Iran and here, though not very well. They are, so far as I know, the good guys in all this--the people not only trying to find some means to a rapprochment between the U.S. and Iran, but also those who are hoping for a freer, less extreme government in Iran. -Joe Klein, TIME - 11/20/09
Iran falls to 168 in Corruption Perception Index 2009
Iran has fallen from 141st on the list of 180 countries to 168th – one of the most marked declines. Countries where the political and security environment is particularly volatile, such as Yemen, Iran and Iraq rank at the bottom of the list. These countries face the challenge of establishing solid and transparent public institutions, with appropriate mechanisms for accountability: the essential elements for preventing and fighting corruption. Where these are absent, any kind of success is very difficult. - 11/19/09
Shajarian has not been arrested or subpoenaed: Attorney
On Monday, certain Persian news websites published an interview VOA Persian conducted with attorney Mohammad-Hossein Aghasi, in which he announced that the leading Iranian vocalist had been summoned to a building on Jordan Street in Tehran upon his arrival at Tehran's Imam Khomeini Airport after his recent European concert tour in September. - 11/19/09
Prison sentences handed to Iranian political detainees
Two student activists, Omid Lavasani and Alireza Aushouri were also handed six-year imprisonment sentences. Mr. Aushouri is a member of Mousavi campaign and Mr. Lavasani, according to his lawyer, was the web designer for MirHosein.com and not an actual member of the presidential candidate's campaign. - 11/19/09
U.S. Faces Difficult Decisions After Iran Rejects UN Nuclear Plan
The problem is that imposing sanctions through the UN may be impossible. In meetings this week in China, U.S. President Barack Obama heard that he can't rely on Beijing to support sanctions. As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China has the right to veto any of the body's resolutions. - 11/19/09
Rafsanjani Sets Conditions for Friday Sermons
Since July 17, Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who heads the Expediency Council and the Assembly of Experts, and serves as one of Tehran's Friday prayer leaders, has refused to attend the sermons. His absence as Tehran's Friday prayer leader has been riddled with speculation in political circles. - 11/19/09
US Begins Talks on Iran Nuclear Proposal with International Partners
U.S. President Barack Obama says the United States has begun talks with its international partners on the consequences of Iran's failure to respond to a proposed nuclear deal. Speaking in South Korea Thursday, President Obama said a package of potential steps will be developed during the next several weeks with the aim of sending a "clear message" to Iran. - 11/19/09
Iran: Police Confirm Threats against Kahrizak Detention Center Physician Who Died Under Suspicious Circumstances
Ramin Pourandarjani was a brilliant medical student with a promising future, until he was found dead in a dormitory at Tehran police headquarters last week. He is now the new cause célèbre of the Iranian Opposition, with MPs and Western organisations demanding an investigation into the death of a man who knew too much. Dr Pourandarjani, 26, attended a school for gifted children, graduated with distinction from the University of Tabriz and was doing his two-year national service at the Kahrizak detention centre in Tehran during the June protests. - 11/18/09
Five Post-Election Eetainees Sentenced To Death By Iran Judiciary
Iranian judiciary has issued the death sentence for five of the post-election detainees. The court announced that the accused were charged with membership in "anti-revolutionary, terrorist and adversary groups." The names of these convicts are not announced until the sentences are finalized. - 11/18/09
Iranian Death Sentences Seen As Intimidation Move Over Postelection Unrest
Five people have been sentenced to death in Iran in connection with the unrest that shook the Islamic republic following President Mahmud Ahmadinejad's hotly disputed reelection earlier this year. - 11/18/09
Low-enriched uranium stays in Iran: FM
"Iran will not send its 3.5-percent-enriched uranium out of the country," ISNA quoted Mottaki as saying on Wednesday. "That means we are considering to exchange the enriched uranium inside Iran," he went on to explain. - 11/18/09
Iran: Opposition Leader Khatami Says Election Procedures Must Change
Mohammad Khatami, Iran's former president and one of the leaders of the reform movement in Iran, told a group of Tehran University's student activists that the reform movement is "meaningless" without an overhaul of the election process in Iran. - 11/18/09
From Tehran to Toronto for the Times
in many ways, Nazila Fathi's is the story of Iran's recent spiral into lawlessness and, perhaps worse, hopelessness. It's also the story of how, with depressing regularity, Canada is becoming a safe haven for the world's exiled journalists. It's not easy monitoring events from 10,000 kilometres away. But covering Iran from Toronto is still easier than it was in Tehran when Fathi was holed up in her apartment, watched by security agents, her phone and Internet connections compromised. -Toronto Star - 11/18/09
Iran: Death of Kahrizak Detention Center Physician Under Investigation
In the post-election unrest many reports of "murder, torture and sexual abuse" surfaced from Kahrizak detention centre. Mowjcamp, Mir Hosein Mousavi's website reports today that before his death, Dr. Pourandarjani "had revealed the details of Ruholamini's death and other crimes at Kahrizak in the special parliamentary committee probing the post-election violations against detainees and victims." - 11/17/09
Exhibit: Iranian banknotes uprising
Anti-government activists are not allowed to express themselves in Iranian media, so theses activists have taken their expression to another high circulation mass-medium, banknotes. The Central Bank of Iran has tried to take these banknotes out of circulation, but there are just too many of them, and gave up. For the activists' people it's a way of saying "We are here, and the green movement is going on". - 11/17/09
Obama: Iran Must Prove Peaceful Nuclear Aims or Face Consequences
U.S. President Barack Obama says Iran will face consequences if it fails to show its nuclear program is peaceful and transparent.President Obama told reporters in Beijing Tuesday that the U.S and China agree that Iran must provide assurance of its peaceful intentions to the international community. - 11/17/09
Iran: IAEA report refuted West's Fordo claims
"The latest report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei proved that political hype and propaganda about Fordo plant were baseless," Mehr News Agency quoted Iranian Ambassador to the IAEA Ali-Asghar Soltaniyeh as saying on Tuesday. - 11/17/09
Iran Trying to Wage Media Battle Against US
The Iranian parliament is considering a new media outlet in response to U.S. efforts toward Iran. Iran's new media apparatus may be placed in the hands of the hardline Revolutionary Guard, strengthening that already powerful body. - 11/17/09
Iran's Opposition Leader Karroubi Urges His Supporters To Avoid Violence
Mehdi Karroubi, the disputing candidate of Iran's June presidential elections urged Iranian youth to stop "sick people" from leading them into violent behaviour. - 11/17/09
Iran's top general warns of Saudi 'Wahhabism Terrorism'
Iran's top general says the involvement of the Saudi kingdom in massacring Shias in Yemen is the beginning of "State Wahhabism Terrorism." Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said in a statement Tuesday that statesmen in Yemen and Saudi Arabia must realize that the continuation of "Wahhabism Terrorism" would have consequences for the entire region. - 11/17/09
Russian Officials' Remarks on Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant "Are Odd"
The Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee chairman has said that Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko's remarks about the Bushehr nuclear power plant are strange. "The hasty remarks by the Russians do not seem normal," MP Alaeddin Boroujerdi told the Mehr News Agency on Tuesday. - 11/17/09
Iranian FM, Indian PM discuss gas pipeline project
Recently India announced its willingness to join the project which Iran calls the peace pipeline project. India withdrew from the talks last year, citing disagreements about prices and transit fees as well as chronic disputes with Pakistan. In talks with Mottaki on Monday, Singh said India is willing to go ahead with the gas pipeline project. - 11/17/09
Plague of Hatred and Prejudice
Sooner or later as the rule of nature ordains, there will be a change here. After all that this country has gone through in the past 30 years, the devastating state it is going through at the moment, the only thing that may save it from a civil war, revolution and similar bloody experiences repeated on this land and elsewhere throughout the human history, is an extreme alertness combined with 'love of humanity and the mother earth. -Roya Monajem, Tehran - 11/16/09
Iran: Ayatollah Sanei Slams Government Policies
Reformist Shiite cleric Ayatollah Yousef Sanei says the Iranian establishment is trying to divert people's attention from the "poverty, unemployment and social discord," that plagues the country. - 11/16/09
Grave of Neda Soltan desecrated by supporters of Iranian regime
Supporters of Iran's regime have desecrated the grave of Neda Soltan, the student who became a symbol of the opposition after she was shot dead during an anti-goverment demonstration on June 20. -TIMES Online - 11/16/09
Russia Delays Launch of Iran's Bushehr Nuclear Plant, Again
After skirting around the delivery of the S-300 air defense system to Tehran, Russia says it is also running late on the launch of a nuclear plant in southeastern Iran. - 11/16/09
Iran: Suspicious Death of the Notorious Kahrizak Detention Center's Physician
Reformist news outlets report that Ramin Pourandarjani, "physician of Iran's Kahrizak detention centre" died last Tuesday. Norooz website reports that the 26-year-old physician died in his room at the medical building of Tehran's Security Forces. Reportedly, officials announced the cause of death to be "heart failure while sleeping." - 11/16/09
What Middle East Policy to Expect from the New German Government?
On 28 October, a new German government took office. A coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel's still ruling conservative Christian Democratic/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) with the pro-business Free Democrats (FDP) as junior partner replaced the Grand Coalition of conservatives (CDU/CSU) and social-democrats (SPD). -Ali Fathollah-Nejad - 11/16/09
Full Text of Speech by Iran's "First Lady" Azam Farahi at NAM Meeting
First ladies of Non-Aligned Movement states conferred the ways to annihilate poverty and hunger across the world in Rome. Also, Iran's first lady Azam Farahi, delivered speech at the meeting held on the sidelines of UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) meeting on food security - 11/16/09
Iran media plans stir talk of elite force at helm
The portfolio of Iran's Revolutionary Guard keeps on growing. Its troops watch over nuclear facilities, its rocket scientists enlarge Iran's missile arsenal and its engineers have taken on a rail line as their latest big-ticket project. Could media mogul be next? -AP - 11/16/09
Iran's Parliament Speaker Blasts US Actions
Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, has criticized U.S. President Barack Obama, arguing that his promise to change U.S. policy toward Tehran amounts to nothing. Speaker Larijani said after a year of U.S. President Barack Obama's speeches and slogans, it is a "disgrace" the U.S. president's actions are the same as his predecessor. - 11/16/09
Neocons, Islamist Marxists attack Iranian-Americans as way of Getting at Obama
Daniel Luban shows that the assault on the National Iranian-American Council by the rightwing Israel lobbies and their allies in the People's Jihadi Organization [Mojahedin-e Khalq Organization (MEK or MKO)], a Marxist-Islamist political cult is actually an attempt to mortally wound the Obama administration. -Juan Cole - 11/16/09
The Latest on Imprisoned Iranian Women Activists
Unfortunately, although near five months have passed since the elections ,detainment of prisoners still continues , last month Hangameh Shahidi was released on bail only after months of imprisonment and Vahideh Molavi , Raheleh Asgarizadeh and Somayeh Rashidi who had been arrested on Nov.4th were released on third party guaranty -Feminist School - 11/15/09
Iran's Green Movement Spreading Despite Crackdown
The presidential election of June 12, which Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared to have won, gave birth to a grassroots movement that has been evolving politically, embracing broader segments of the population, discovering new methods of struggle, and refusing to die despite widespread government violence. It has bewildered the conservatives, surpassed the political limits of the reformists, and become a wildcard with a potential to change Iran in profound ways. -Behzad Yaghmaian - 11/15/09
Iran police defends its actions against protesters
On November 4, the day Iran's protesters to the alleged fraudulent re-election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took to the streets once more to voice their demands, police and officials in plain clothes attacked the gatherings with tear gas bombs and batons. - 11/15/09
NIAC Stands by its Record of Pursuing Peace Through Diplomacy
NIAC is proud of its work to advance US national security through a smarter and more effective policy on Iran. NIAC rejects the insinuations made by Washington Times that its activities are in violation of tax laws, the Foreign Agents Registration Act and lobbying disclosure laws. - 11/15/09
Obama, Medvedev Discuss New START Treaty, Iran
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Dmitri Medvedev say they still plan to have a replacement START nuclear arms reduction treaty ready by the end of the year. - 11/15/09
Ahmadinejad's wife to attend "NAM first ladies summit" in Rome
Iran President's wife, Azam Farahi, is to take part in Non-Aligned Movement first ladies summit in Rome on Sunday. - 11/15/09
Iran's Parliament Approves Ahmadinejad's New Cabinet Ministers
Iran's state-run media say the country's parliament has approved the remaining three Cabinet nominees proposed by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. - 11/15/09
Obama Presses Iran On Atomic Deal; Tehran Defiant
U.S. President Barack Obama has said time is running out for diplomacy in a dispute over Iran's nuclear program, but a top Iranian official said it was up to the West to show it sincerely wanted a deal. -Reuters - 11/15/09
Iran Opposition Leaders Condemn State Violence
Mir Hosein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, the two chief opposition leaders met at the home of Mr. Karroubi to further discuss the political situation of Iran. They condemned government violence against election protesters and especially slammed the excessive violence used against women protesters. - 11/14/09
Khatami criticizes "martial management" of society
Iran's former president, Mohammad Khatami criticized the "restricted atmosphere" of the country in a meeting with Scientific Society of Elm-o-Sanat University. - 11/14/09
The Fight Over Tehran Metro: Ahmadinejad vs. Hashemi
Following the surfacing of Mohsen Hashemi's speech, in which he strongly criticizes Ahmadinejad for his accusations against Hashemi's family during his election debates, Ahmadinejad is attempting to take the control of the subway system from Tehran's City Hall. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, announced that not only his administration will take over Tehran's subway system; it will also appoint its president. - 11/14/09
Iran: Academy of Arts Members Criticize Modification of Charter by Ahmadinejad to Remove Mousavi as President
Ahmadinejad in an unprecedented act, as the head of the Revolutionary Cultural Council, by issuing a new memo changed the existing constitution of the Academy of Arts so that it would lay the grounds for dismissing Mir Hossein Mousavi as the president of the Academy. - 11/14/09
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