Bush: World Should Take Iran's Threats 'Very
Seriously'
May
07, 2006
Agence France Presse
Yahoo News!
link to original article
The
world community should take Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's threats concerning both
its nuclear program and Israel "very seriously,"
US President George W. Bush said in an
interview. Speaking to the German weekly Bild am
Sonntag, the US president reiterated that he
preferred a "diplomatic solution" to the
conflict over Iran's nuclear ambitions and
threats against Israel, but said that "all
options should be placed on the table,"
including military action.
When Ahmadinejad says "that he wants to destroy
Israel, the world should take that very
seriously," Bush said, shortly after meeting in
Washington with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
"It's a specific threat against an ally of the
United States and Germany," he told Bild am
Sonntag.
After a meeting with Bush in Washington on
Thursday, Merkel said the two countries were in
"total agreement" that Iran should be prevented
from having nuclear arms, but said it was
"crucial" to create the broadest possible
international front.
Russia and China, both members of the UN
Security Council and opposed to sanctions
against Iran, on Saturday stuck to their demands
for major changes to a draft Franco-British
resolution currently being discussed at UN
headquarters in New York.
The Council is due to meet again Monday in New
York to discuss Iran followed by a dinner
bringing together the foreign ministers of the
five permanent member countries -- the United
States, France, Britain, China and Russia -- and
Germany.
The current draft would oblige Iran to suspend
uranium enrichment, the process that creates
fuel for nuclear reactors and -- potentially --
the core of an atomic bomb. It warns, in cases
of Iranian non-compliance, of unspecified
"further measures" requiring another resolution.
Iran
Rejects Annan's Call for Direct Talks With U.S.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000085&sid=aze.xNw1R6Qo&refer=europe#
May
7 (Bloomberg) -- Iran, which has the world's
second- largest oil and natural gas reserves,
rejected a call by United Nations
Secretary-General Kofi Annan for the U.S. to
hold direct talks with the Islamic Republic
about its nuclear program.
``The U.S. isn't prepared to have talks on a
one-to-one equal basis,'' Foreign Ministry
Spokesman Hamid Asefi told a press conference in
Tehran today, broadcast on state television.
``They are following the politics of threat. So
under these conditions we see no necessity to
start talks with them.''
Annan on May 5 said Iran might be more willing
to negotiate in direct talks with the U.S. The
U.K. and France, backed by the U.S., proposed a
resolution to the UN Security Council on May 3
demanding Iran cease uranium enrichment, and
said they would seek sanctions should the
government in Tehran fail to comply.
Iran
won't accept a resolution that fails to
recognize its right to a peaceful nuclear
program, Asefi said today. Should the Security
Council adopt the proposed resolution it would
decrease Iran's willingness to cooperate, he
said. The U.S. suspects Iran's nuclear program
is aimed at building weapons.
``Halting and suspension is definitely not on
Iran's agenda,'' Asefi said.
UNSC fails to reach agreement over Iran
07 May 2006
http://www.rte.ie/news/2006/0507/iran.html
An informal
meeting of the United Nations Security Council
to discuss a draft resolution on Iran's nuclear
program has ended without agreement.
Russian and China
refused to back the draft text unless major
changes are made to it.
Foreign ministers
from the five permanent members of the security
council will meet in New York on Monday to try
to resolve the issue.
The US ambassador
to the UN, John Bolton, said no action would be
taken without going back to the UN.
Iran
president's threats must be taken seriously-Bush
Reuters
Sunday, May 7, 2006
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/07/AR2006050700209_pf.html
BERLIN
(Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's threats to destroy Israel should
be taken seriously and suggest he could target
other countries as well, President Bush told a
German newspaper.
The United States
and Europe believe Iran is pursuing an atomic
bomb and have reported the country to the U.N.
Security Council, which could impose possible
sanctions.
"When he says that
he wants to destroy Israel, the world needs to
take it seriously," Bush said in an interview
with German weekly Bild am Sonntag.
"This is a serious
threat, aimed at an ally of the United States
and Germany. What Ahmadinejad also means is that
if he is ready to destroy one country, then he
would also be ready to destroy others. This is a
threat that needs to be dealt with."
Ahmadinejad has
said Israel should be "wiped off the map" and
referred to the Holocaust, in which 6 million
Jews died at the hands of the Nazis, as a myth.
Because Bild could
not immediately furnish English quotes, Bush's
comments were translated from the German. The
paper said the White House planned to release an
authorized English version of the interview on
Monday.
While reiterating
that all options for stopping Iran from
obtaining nuclear weapons were on the table,
Bush said he believed a diplomatic solution was
possible if the international community worked
hard and remained united.
"Iran represents a
challenge. And I want your readers to know that
I want and believe that we can solve this
diplomatically," Bush said.
Tehran
says its nuclear program is purely for peaceful
energy purposes. On Sunday, it said any punitive
measures taken by the Security Council risked
stoking confrontation and damaging chances for
cooperation.
Bush, who held
talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel in the White
House last week, called the German leader a key
partner in the international drive to curb
Iran's nuclear ambitions.
"Absolutely,
absolutely," Bush said, when asked whether he
viewed Germany as a "partner in leadership" -- a
term used by his father, President George Bush,
during the Cold War.
"We are seeing
this on the Iran question. Chancellor Merkel has
been strong so far. It is very important that
the Iranians know that Germany is working with
others to send Tehran a clear message."
Bush also said he
understood Germany's decision not to participate
in the Iraq war, which severely strained
relations between Washington and Merkel's
predecessor Gerhard Schroeder.
"The Germans today
simply don't like war -- regardless of where
they are on the political spectrum. And I can
understand that," Bush said. "There is a
generation of people whose lives were thrown
into complete disarray by a horrible war."
New
CIA chief will find agency hobbled on Iran
U.S. has, at most, a few spies on the ground in
a critical intelligence target
By SCOTT SHANE
New York
Times
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/3845946.html
WASHINGTON
- As the CIA undergoes its latest round of
turmoil, legislators and former intelligence
officials say that serious gaps in the United
States' knowledge of Iran are among the most
critical problems facing a new director of the
agency.
A year after a presidential commission gave a
scathing assessment of intelligence on Iran,
they say, U.S. spy agencies remain severely
handicapped in their efforts to assess its
weapons programs. Whoever takes the helm of the
CIA after the resignation of Porter Goss on
Friday will confront a critical target with few,
if any, American spies on the ground and sketchy
communications intercepts, the experts say.
"How many years
are they away from having a nuclear weapon?"
asked Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., chairman of the
Senate intelligence committee, in a recent
interview. "We don't know, and the people
providing the answers don't know."
Intelligence
watchers say the uncertainty complicates the
task of persuading the U.N. Security Council to
impose sanctions or take other measures.
A senior U.S.
intelligence official, authorized to speak only
on condition of anonymity, did not quarrel with
the bleak assessments, but said the government's
Iran specialists were working to improve it.
"It is a hard
target, but we are not complacent," the official
said. "On a daily basis we're trying to recruit
new sources."
Indeed, the doubts
about intelligence on Iran persist despite some
successes, including revealing data from a
laptop provided by an Iranian exile that U.S.
officials say casts new light on Iran's nuclear
program.
Also, in January,
John Negroponte, the director of national
intelligence, appointed a veteran CIA analyst,
S. Leslie Ireland, as the first "mission
manager" for Iran.
With no U.S.
embassy in Tehran, CIA officers cannot operate
under diplomatic cover inside Iran. And because
U.S. sanctions ban most business and academic
ties, infiltrating spies under what is known as
nonofficial cover is difficult.
"I can't think of
many people who'd go in under nonofficial cover
and pitch senior officers of the (Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Corps)," said a former CIA
operations officer with experience in Iran.
Without diplomatic immunity, an unmasked spy
could be imprisoned or worse, said the veteran,
who was granted anonymity to discuss
intelligence methods.
Operating in the
1980s from a CIA base in Frankfurt, CIA officers
managed to build a network of agents inside
Iran. But Iranian counterintelligence broke up
the ring in 1989, former intelligence officers
say. Since then, operations have been directed
from CIA headquarters in Langley, Va.
The National
Security Agency's efforts to intercept Iranian
government communications were hampered in the
last two years because Iran learned that the
United States had broken its codes and changed
them. Unmanned aerial vehicles are flown into
Iran to sniff for gases that would provide clues
to nuclear processing, former intelligence
officials said.
But such
technology cannot remedy Americans' ignorance of
Persian language and Iranian culture, said Ahmad
Karimi-Hakkak, director of the Center for
Persian Studies at the University of Maryland.
Just 300 to 400 university students nationwide
are studying Persian, he estimated.
"The problem of
the failure to understand Persian culture has
been with us since before the revolution in
1979," Karimi-Hakkak said. "But its consequences
have never been more serious than today."
|
Iran
might try disrupting oil flow if US
attacks |
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=42594&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
LONDON,
May 6 (IranMania) - Iran may be planning to
share the pain of any US attack with the world's
oil markets, according to Bloomberg.
A strike against
Iran's nuclear program would probably be met
with an effort to choke off oil shipments
through the Strait of Hormuz, military planners
and Middle East analysts say. The goal would be
to trigger a market disruption that would force
President George W. Bush to back off.
The Iranians hope
the mere threat of such action may lead
oil-consuming nations to pressure the US to
resolve the dispute short of a military
confrontation. About 17 mln barrels of oil,
representing one-fifth of the world's
consumption, is shipped through the strait every
day.
Roiling the
markets would be part of a broader retaliation
that would include terrorist attacks against US
forces or other interests in Iraq and worldwide,
said Michael Eisenstadt, an Iran expert at the
Washington Institute for Near East Policy and a
former Central Command analyst.
"They will not
allow us to limit the conflict to `tit for tat',
us hitting their nuclear facilities, and they
restricted to hitting deployed American
military,'' Eisenstadt said in an interview.
General John
Abizaid, the top US commander in the Middle
East, said in a written statement to the House
Armed Services Committee on March 15 that Iran
is expanding naval bases along its shoreline and
now has ``large quantities'' of small, fast-
attack ships, many armed with torpedoes and
Chinese-made high- speed missiles capable of
firing from 10,000 yards.
"Iran's
capabilities are focusing on disrupting oil
traffic through the straits,'' Army Colonel Mark
Tillman, a professor at the National Defense
University in Washington and former Central
Command planner, said in an interview. "Why else
would they have these things?''
Relying on
Diplomacy: The Bush
administration has said it will rely on
diplomacy to persuade Iran to halt its nuclear
program, which Iran says is designed to produce
electricity but the US suspects is aimed at
producing a bomb.
John Bolton, US
ambassador to the United Nations, told Congress
on May 2 that those diplomatic efforts so far
have been frustrated by Iran's clout as the
world's fourth-largest oil supplier.
"The Iranians have
been very effective at deploying their oil and
natural-gas resources to apply leverage against
countries to protect themselves from precisely
this kind of pressure, in the case of countries
with large and growing energy demands like
India, China and Japan,'' Bolton said.
Iran's
top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, has said
his nation won't rule out cutting oil exports in
response to pressure over the nuclear dispute.
Rising Prices:
Escalation of the
dispute has helped to boost oil prices by 17%
over the past two months. The current price of
about $70 reflects potential disruptions over
the next six to 18 months, said Jamal Qureshi,
lead oil industry analyst for PFC Energy, a
risk-analysis firm in Washington.
Oil prices Friday
rose to $70.63 as threats to Iranian supplies
halted the biggest two-day decline in almost a
year.
Even with that, a
military conflict would shock the system so
"you'd very likely get a quick spike that could
very easily go to $100 a barrel,'' until the
U.S. releases oil from its strategic reserve,
Qureshi said in an interview. "It could get
messy real quick.''
While Iran
probably couldn't close the Strait of Hormuz,
which lies between Iran and Oman and is 34 miles
at its narrowest point, it could cause havoc by
threatening or attacking individual oil tankers
or terminals, analysts said. Oil from Iran,
Iraq, Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates,
Kuwait and Saudi Arabia is shipped through the
Strait.
Iran's
Revolutionary Guard-controlled navy "has been
developed primarily to `internationalize' a
conflict by choking off oil exports through the
Strait,'' Abizaid,
head of the U.S. Central Command, told
lawmakers.
'Pressure the US':
Kenneth Katzman, a
terrorism and Middle East analyst for the
nonpartisan Congressional Research Service, said
that even if Iran can't block the strait, it
"can create a sense of crisis to drive up the
price of oil, and presumably'' the nations that
consume all that oil "would pressure the US to
stand down or shrink from confrontation or end
it quickly,''
Iran supplies
China with 4% of its oil; France, 7%; Korea, 9%;
Japan, 10%; Italy, 11%; Belgium, 14%; Turkey,
22%; and Greece, 24%, according to Clifford
Kupchan, a director of the Eurasia Group in
Washington, a global risk-consulting group.
These figures
"tell me that Iran for the foreseeable future
will have considerable 'petro-influence' over
prospective US allies,'' Kupchan said in an
interview.
Terrorist Attacks:
Eisenstadt said
disrupting world oil markets might not be Iran's
"preferred avenue of response'' if attacked. "I
think they are more likely to respond
in Iraq by
launching terrorist attacks,'' he said.
"Disrupting oil shipments is a far second or
third, but this is something we have to prepare
for.''
W. Patrick Lang,
formerly the chief Middle East analyst at the
Defense Intelligence Agency, said Iran "could
unleash the Shiites en masse in Iraq, and
kicking that up would place us in a very
different position there. You would have a lot
of people out there in the streets with
rifles.'' Shiite Muslims make up 89% of Iran's
population, and are a majority in Iraq.
Rear Admiral John
Miller, deputy commander of US naval forces in
the Persian Gulf, said, the US has "the
capability to keep the straits open and clean
them up if that should be required.''
"We understand the
importance of keeping all the choke points''
open ``and commerce moving,'' Miller said in a
telephone interview May 3 from Manama, Bahrain.
Missiles and
Seals: The US and
coalition partners have about 45 vessels in the
Persian Gulf and Red Sea region, including the
USS Ronald Reagan, the Navy's newest aircraft
carrier, and five escorts, including the USS
Tucson, an attack submarine that can fire new
tactical Tomahawk cruise missiles and launch
Navy Seal commandos.
Lang said the US
military, in a conflict, "would be all air and
naval, with no ground operation.''
"Iran might
surprise the US by sinking a tanker in the
Persian Gulf or something and then the US Navy
would beat the bejesus out of them, but they
could cause a spike in oil prices for a month or
two,'' Lang said in an interview.
Iran
vows to respond to any enemy assault
http://www.iranmania.com/News/ArticleView/Default.asp?NewsCode=42618&NewsKind=Current%20Affairs
LONDON,
May 7 (IranMania) - Commander of the Islamic
Revolution's Guard Corps (IRGC) Major General
Yahya Rahim Safavi said Iran and its armed
forces are prepared to face the enemies' various
scenarios, including political and economic
pressures, IRNA reported.
Speaking at
ceremony to introduce his newly appointed deputy
Brigadier General Morteza Rezaei and the head of
IRGC's protection and information department, he
declared IRGC's readiness to play a multifaceted
role under all conditions to confront both
foreign enemies and their domestic subversive
agents.
According to a
report released by IRGC Public Relations
Department, Safavi referred to the current world
security as unstable and insecure, and said
given the present era of mistrust, the Middle
East is now in a political, security and even
economic transition.
"We are now facing
an extremely sensitive, complicated and decisive
situation. Therefore, special attention should
be paid to IRGC duties and missions under the
current global, regional, peripheral and
domestic security conditions," he noted.
Turning to the
present sensitive conditions in the region, he
urged the IRGC to be fully prepared to face any
situation.
The appointment of
a member of Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh, as the new
Palestinian prime minister, has given the
'Zionist' regime, the US and European states a
shock.
"This has made the
'Zionist' regime and its new prime minister
broaden their attacks on the West Bank and Gaza
Strip," he added.
He pointed to the
brilliant background of Brigadier General Rezaei
during his service at IRGC and said that during
his term as the head of IRGC protection and
information department Rezaei converted it into
an integrated organization.
Safavi hoped that
in his new term as deputy commander of IRGC,
Rezaei will also succeed in managing its day to
day affairs.
Two detained Swedes in Iran charged with
espionage
By DPA
May 7, 2006
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1161811.php/Two_detained_Swedes_in_Iran_charged_with_espionage
Teheran - Two detained Swedes in the southern
Gulf port of Bandar Abbas were charged with
espionage Saturday by a local court, the news
agency ISNA reported.
ISNA
quoted the head of the revolutionary court in
Bandar Abbas, Ahmad Kamranzadeh, as saying that
the final verdict would be presented in due time
to the lawyer for the two Swedes.
The
revolutionary court in Iran usually deals with
offences violating national security.
ISNA
said that the Swedish Ambassador to Iran,
Christopher Gyllenstierna, was present in the
court session.
According to the report, the two Swedes, whose
have not been named but are reportedly both aged
between 30 and 40, had been arrested in February
while taking photos of \'sensitive military
sites\' in the Qeshm island near Bandar Abbas.
Gyllenstierna had told Swedish radio last month
that the two Swedish building workers were
sentenced to three years imprisonment in Iran
for taking unauthorized photos of naval
buildings in Qeshm.
Also
currently imprisoned for illegal trespassing are
one German and one French national. The two were
arrested in November near the strategic island
of Abu Moussa, after they had accidentally
entered Iranian waters while fishing in United
Arab Emirates waters in the Gulf.
A
court in Bandar Abbas convicted the two of
illegal trespassing and handed down 18-month
prison terms. An appeal court in March
reportedly confirmed the first sentence and
transferred the two to Tehran, where they are
still in the Evin prison.
Iran jails top academic, charges Swedes
http://www.bangkokpost.com/breaking_news/breakingnews.php?id=95173
Teheran (dpa) - Iran has announced that academic
Ramin Jahanbeglu has been charged with
espionage, the Fars news agency reported and
faces death or a long prison term.
And two detained Swedes in the southern Gulf
port of Bandar Abbas were charged with
espionage, the news agency ISNA reported.
(details below)
"Jahanbeglu has been jailed by the justice
officials for contact with foreign elements and
will be interrogated by the secret service,"
said the report, citing Iranian intelligence
chief Gholam- Hussein Mohseni-Edjehi.
Jahanbeglu, who was arrested April 27 at Teheran
airport as he was about to catch a flight to
Hungary via Vienna, was due at Budapest's
Central European University. He is one of the
country's leading academics, specialising lately
in studies of non-violence, especially by
Gandhi.
A spokeswoman for the Hungarian academy reported
that the Hungarian embassy in Teheran was
notified of Jahanbeglu's arrest by his wife.
Meanwhile, Iran rejected European Union charges
of human rights violations in Iran, especially
over executions in Iranian prisons, state news
agency IRNA reported.
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Hamid-Reza Assefi
branded the EU charges as "illogical and
improper", as executions in Iran were defined
according to religious criteria and in line with
international conventions on civil and political
rights for extreme crimes.
Assefi added that all cases leading to
executions are first evaluated by initial legal
courts, later by appeal courts and finally
approved again by the Supreme Court.
The EU on Friday expressed serious concern about
the human rights situation in Iran, particularly
over 10 executions reportedly carried out last
month at Iran's Evin prison and the indictment
of human- rights defender Abdolfattah Soltani.
The spokesman called the EU statement "an
unacceptable, blatant interference in Iran's
internal affairs and the judiciary system."
Assefi voiced Iran's concern over an "increase
in racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia,
Islamo-phobia and mistreating the immigrants and
minorities in Europe."
ISNA quoted the head of the revolutionary court
in Bandar Abbas, Ahmad Kamranzadeh, as saying
that the final verdict in the Swedish case would
be presented in due time to the lawyer for the
two Swedes.
The revolutionary court in Iran usually deals
with offences violating national security.
ISNA said that the Swedish Ambassador to Iran,
Christopher Gyllenstierna, was present in the
court session.
According to the report, the two Swedes, whose
have not been named but are reportedly both aged
between 30 and 40, had been arrested in February
while taking photos of "sensitive military
sites" in the Qeshm island near Bandar Abbas.
Gyllenstierna had told Swedish radio last month
that the two Swedish building workers were
sentenced to three years imprisonment in Iran
for taking unauthorised photos of naval
buildings in Qeshm.
Also currently imprisoned for illegal
trespassing are one German and one French
national. The two were arrested in November near
the strategic island of Abu Moussa, after they
had accidentally entered Iranian waters while
fishing in United Arab Emirates waters in the
Gulf.
A court in Bandar Abbas convicted the two of
illegal trespassing and handed down 18-month
prison terms. An appeal court in March
reportedly confirmed the first sentence and
transferred the two to Tehran, where they are
still in the Evin prison.
Iran's
sinister aims
By Jim
Saxton
May 7, 2006
http://washingtontimes.com/commentary/20060506-112355-6653r.htm
Iran's
vast oil and gas resources undermine the Iranian
regime's claim it needs a nuclear program for
domestic energy needs. Iran has the world's
third-largest known oil reserves and
second-largest natural gas reserves. However,
support for terrorism and economic mismanagement
have damaged oil and gas development in Iran.
Importantly, Iran is a founding member of
the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting
Countries (OPEC) and participates in the
cartel's restrictive output practices which
drive up prices and affect Americans at the
pump. As the oil price has surged, Iran's net
oil export revenue has reached record levels,
nearly doubling from $23.7 billion in 2003 to
$46.6 billion in 2005. Much of this capacity is
sucked up by China and Japan. The United States
buys no Iranian oil.
For three decades, OPEC has manipulated the
oil market. The major Middle Eastern
protagonists, including Iran and Saudi Arabia,
together with countries such as Algeria and
Venezuela, are part of the cartel. These radical
nations openly collude to restrict oil output
and massively inflate the cost. For 50 years,
until the oil embargo of 1973, Arabian Light
crude sold for less than $2.50 per barrel.
Thirty years later that same barrel costs under
$5 to produce and sells for well over $70. This
cartel is simply extorting the American people.
Oil alone would easily support Iran's energy
requirements for many, many decades. However,
they need not worry. They also own the abundant
reserves of natural gas. Only Russia holds more
natural gas. Despite this abundance, the regime
has developed less than 40 percent of its
natural gas reserves. Iran is clearly not
starving for energy sources.
Iran's gas production has more than doubled
in the last 10 years. The South Pars gas field
in the Persian Gulf is the largest natural gas
deposit in the world. Developing South Pars is
Iran's single largest energy project, which
already has attracted more than $15 billion in
investments from China, Russia and elsewhere.
Natural gas now accounts for close to half of
Iran's total energy consumption.
Domestically, Iran sets low prices for oil
products and natural gas. A gallon of gasoline
sells for less than 40 cents; in the U.S. it
goes for well more than $3.
Iran has announced new projects in
exploration, pipelines, liquefied natural gas
and petrochemicals. So where is the rationale
for Iran's claim that it requires nuclear
energy? There is none.
The facts clearly illustrate there is
absolutely no peaceful requirement for Iran to
pursue its nuclear program. Without question,
the greatest immediate threat to the
international community is the Iranian
leadership, led by President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad, a former member of the Iranian
Revolutionary Guard Council (IRGC).
Military experts report that the IRGC
controls Iran's weapons of mass destruction
(WMD). This includes biological and chemical
weapons stockpiles, as well as warheads that can
deliver a WMD attack.
As we continue to unearth diverse terror
cells, and bore deeper into their finances and
recruitment, it is becoming clearer that Iran is
an epicenter of unremitting extremist violence.
Iran is a rogue state, which will soon have
nuclear weapons.
Iran has an enormous energy stockpiles. Yet
the regime insists on aggressive politics,
pursues threatening nuclear technology,
manipulates the international oil price through
OPEC, and drives a wedge between energy demand
and supply at home by limiting consumer prices
while impeding foreign investment. Iran does not
need nuclear energy; it needs to reconnect with
the world, realign its disjointed priorities and
develop its vast oil and natural gas resources.
Jim
Saxton, New Jersey Republican, is chairman of
the congressional Joint Economic Committee and
of the House of Representatives' Armed Services
Terrorism and Unconventional Threats
Subcommittee.
Iran's
Jews Face Growing Climate of Fear
May
06, 2006
Scotsman
Annette Young
link to original article
For the dwindling Jewish community in Iran, a
sacred ritual is observed at 6.30 every evening
as shortwave radios are switched on to listen to
the daily Farsi broadcast from Israel. Since
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad came to power last June,
life for Iran's 25,000 Jews has become even more
precarious as the president defiantly pursues a
nuclear policy while declaring Israel should be
"wiped off the world map".
Israel has long identified Iran as its biggest
threat, and these concerns have grown amid
repeated calls by its hard-line president for
Israel's destruction.
Last Thursday, Israeli prime minister Ehud
Olmert issued a strongly worded warning that the
Jewish state took seriously Iranian threats to
wipe out Israel and would defend itself against
a country the West suspects of seeking nuclear
weapons.
His remarks also came as Western powers sought
action by the United Nations to curb Iranian
uranium enrichment and other key nuclear
processes. "It is becoming a serious matter of
concern for Iranian Jews should there be any
military action between Iran and Israel," said
Israeli broadcaster Menashe Amir.
"The Iranian regime says it does distinguish
between Judaism and Zionism, but the local
Jewish community knows that is a lie since it
has been frequently written by extremists in
religious circles that 'every Jew is a
Zionist'."
While it is still the largest Jewish community
in the Middle East outside Israel, a vast number
of the population have fled Iran.
The first major movement came in 1948 when the
state of Israel was established and the number
of Jews in Iran stood at about 150,000. The
Islamic revolution in 1979 prompted another
movement.
"Every Iranian Jew who had the financial
possibility or courage has already left, but
there's still a small but flourishing
community," said Amir, who moved to Israel from
Iran at the age of 20 in 1959. He has been
broadcasting for 46 years in Farsi for Israeli
state radio.
He is all too familiar with the precarious
position of Iranian Jews who are called on by
the government to declare their public support
for the country's nuclear policy.
"Not to mention, every time Iran publicly
condemns Israeli actions in the Palestinian
territories, the Jewish community is expected to
issue a statement of support," he said.
Even though the regime officially recognises
Judaism as an official religious minority and
the Jewish community is even allocated a seat in
the Iranian parliament, the reality on the
ground is different.
Jewish leaders are reluctant to draw attention
to incidences of mistreatment of their
community, due to fear of government reprisal,
along with fear of being arrested or accused of
being spies. In 1999, 13 Jews were arrested in
the city of Shiraz and charged with spying for
Israel. While eventually all were pardoned, it
exposed the fragile position of the country's
Jewish community.
"While there are Jewish schools, the principals
and most of the teachers are Muslim, the Bible
is taught in Farsi, not in Hebrew, and the
schools are forced to open on Saturday, the
Jewish Sabbath," Amir said, as he played Hebrew
music for his listeners.
"So while the regime declares that there is
freedom of religion, it is all just for the sake
of appearances."
While it is impossible to gauge the programme's
popularity, whenever listeners are asked to call
in from Iran - courtesy of a toll-free number in
Europe patched through to the Jerusalem studio -
the lines are jammed.
Amir said many of those calling were clearly not
Jews but Muslim Iranians, disgruntled with the
regime and curious to know more about the
Zionist enemy.
While the programme broadcasts items about
Israel and the Jewish world, its news reports on
events in Iran itself capture the listeners'
interest.
Amir was quick to point out that the connection
between the two countries extends back some
2,700 years when Jews were exiled to Persian
territories.
But in 537 BC, after the overthrow of Babylonia,
the Persian king, Cyrus the Great, freed the
Jewish slaves and gave them permission to return
to their native land.
"We are very aware of this, that without Cyrus
the Great, Judaism today would either not exist
or would be of an entirely different character,
so the Jewish people owe a moral debt to Iran in
memory of Cyrus's actions," he said.
But with Iran seen to be funding Palestinian
militant groups including Hizbollah and Hamas,
while developing its latest Shihab missile
technology with the aim of reaching cities in
Europe, Amir highlighted how much had changed
since the revolution.
"Before 1979, ties between the Iran and Israel
were so close that both worked together in
developing missile technology," he said.
Concern Rises Over Baha'is in Iran
May
06, 2006
Philadelphia Inquirer
Kristin E. Holmes
link to original article
The father of immigration attorney Nahid Wilf
died in an Iranian prison in 1983. Wilf, of
Chadds Ford, doesn't know the medical cause, nor
the circumstances, surrounding his death. There
is one thing Wilf is sure of, however. Her
father was imprisoned because he was a Baha'i.
He believed in a faith that the government in
Iran considers heresy.
Wilf's father is one of about 200 people who
Baha'i officials believe have died as a result
of persecution since the Iranian revolution of
1979.
Over the last year, concern has increased after
a series of troubling incidents, prompting
members of the U.S. Baha'i community to speak
out in an effort to encourage the international
community to do the same.
"All we are asking is that the Baha'is in Iran
be allowed to practice their faith and have the
same human rights as any other Iranian citizen,"
said Bani Dugal, the principal representative
for the Baha'i International Community at the
United Nations.
In December, Dhabihu'llah Mahramic, a Baha'i,
died in an Iranian prison where he had been held
for 10 years. He had refused to denounce his
Baha'i faith in favor of Islam, Dugal said. An
initial sentence of death was reduced to life in
prison after international pressure.
The State Department condemned "the persecution
and imprisonment" of Mahramic and other
religious minorities in Iran in a statement
released after his death.
In March, a representative of the U.N.
Commission on Human Rights released a statement
about an October letter from the commander of
Iran's armed forces to several of the country's
government agencies that called for Baha'is in
Iran to be identified and monitored.
"They think they can get away with the
human-rights violations if the world is silent,"
Wilf said.
There are more that five million Baha'is
internationally. India has the largest Baha'i
community, with two million; Iran is second with
300,000. About 150,000 live in the United
States, with 1,000 in the five-county
Philadelphia area and South Jersey. Locally,
Baha'is are divided among six spiritual
communities called "assemblies." The National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is, the group's
administrative body, is headquartered near
Chicago. The international headquarters is in
Israel.
Followers believe in the unification of humanity
into a single community that breaks down
barriers of "race, class, creed and nation."
They believe in one God who has sent a series of
messengers or prophets representing religions
that are each a progressive revelation from God.
They include Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, Jesus
and Muhammad. Bahaullah, the founder of the
Baha'i tradition, is another in that line of
prophets, followers believe.
The religion was founded in the mid-19th century
in what is now Iran. Baha'is in Iran have been
subjected to some degree of harassment and
persecution since then because Baha'is believe
that the faith's founder is a prophet and
Muslims believe that Muhammad was the last
prophet. Christianity and Judaism technically
are recognized by the government. The Baha'is,
the largest religious minority, are not.
"The Iranian human-rights record is atrocious,
as is the human-rights record of any country
including the U.S. - given Guantanamo Bay and
Abu Ghraib," said Hamid Dabashi, a professor of
Iranian studies at Columbia University.
"Religious, ideological and political minorities
are persecuted, and the condition of women is
terrible. But this is not specific to Iran. It
is endemic in other countries as well."
Since the revolution, Baha'is in Iran have lost
jobs and property and have been jailed and
killed, Baha'is say. Students have been forced
into underground schools to continue their
education after high school.
The brother of Montgomeryville engineer Ramin
Eshraghi is one of them. His brother attended
classes taught by Baha'i teachers in the homes
of Iranian Baha'is until the government stopped
them, Eshraghi said. Eshraghi's father lost his
job, and his whereabouts were monitored by
government officials. His family's house was
stoned.
Eshraghi immigrated to the United States in the
mid-1980s and received asylum as a Baha'i. Many
in his family still live in Iran, including his
brother.
"He works as an appliance repairman because he
couldn't continue his education," Eshraghi said.
"He is a dedicated Baha'i and wants to stay. He
feels, if he leaves, it's like a defeat."
Eshraghi and Wilf were among a group of about 90
Baha'is who gathered last Saturday to observe
the 12-day Baha'i festival of Ridvan
commemorating Bahaullah's prophethood.
The afternoon included prayer chants, a flower
ritual involving children, and readings from
Baha'i sacred texts.
"We want the international community to know
what is happening," Wilf said. Perhaps things
will be different, she said, if the Iranian
government "knows the world is watching."
Rice Presses Russia on Iran Nuclear Resolution
May
06, 2006
The Associated Press
MSNBC.com
link to original article
MOSCOW
-- Russia’s foreign minister and Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice talked about Iran’s
nuclear program on Saturday after Russia and
China opposed the latest draft of a U.N.
Security Council resolution that could
eventually lead to sanctions of the Islamic
republic.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said in a terse
statement that Sergey Lavrov’s phone
conversation with Rice “focused, among other
issues, on the search for a diplomatic solution
of the Iranian nuclear problem.”
The State Department had no immediate comment on
the discussion.
The conversation came after Russia and China
complained Friday about a draft Security Council
resolution prepared by the United States,
Britain and France.
Resolution
calls for compliance
Under the proposed draft, the Security Council’s
late March demand for Iran to stop enriching
uranium would be made mandatory, and Tehran
would be given a short period to comply. If Iran
refused, the resolution said, the council would
consider “further measures” to ensure
compliance.
Enrichment can be used to develop fuel for a
nuclear reactor or fissile material for a
nuclear weapon.
Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, said
Friday that Moscow opposed the sponsors’ push
for the resolution to be adopted under Chapter 7
of the U.N. Charter, which can be enforced by
sanctions or, if necessary, military action.
“It is too early to say which changes should be
made to the draft resolution to satisfy Russia,”
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak
said Saturday in Moscow, according to the RIA
Novosti, ITAR-Tass and Interfax news agencies.
“At present consultations are ongoing.”
He did not elaborate.
Impasse over
proliferation risk
The draft also includes a declaration that the
“proliferation risk” posed by Iran constitutes a
threat to international peace and security.
China and Russia both said they oppose putting
the resolution under Chapter 7 or referring to
Iran as a threat to international peace and
security.
The U.S., Britain and France had been hoping
that the Security Council would adopt the draft
before a meeting on Monday in New York between
foreign ministers of six key nations trying to
negotiate with Iran. Germany, which has been
leading European negotiations along with Britain
and France, helped draft the resolution.
It became clear after meetings at the United
Nations on Friday that Russia and China opposed
the measure and bridging the divide would be
difficult.
The Security Council agreed to hold an informal
meeting on Saturday afternoon to go over
members’ concerns about the text.
Russia offers
to host program
The International Atomic Energy Agency last week
said Iran had not complied with a Security
Council call for it to abandon uranium
enrichment. Russia has joined calls for Iran to
stop its enrichment activities, and has proposed
hosting the Iranian uranium enrichment effort.
The plan is intended to dispel international
fears that Iran could divert uranium to a
weapons program.
The Iranian Embassy in Moscow said Friday that
it was still considering Russia’s enrichment
proposal, but Iran has refused the Russian
proposal’s link to a suspension of its domestic
enrichment effort, and chances for a compromise
appeared low.
In Saudi Arabia, six of Iran’s Persian Gulf
neighbors urged Tehran on Saturday to be frank
with them about its nuclear program.
The kings and emirs of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia,
Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates
met privately in Riyadh in what a Gulf
Cooperation Council statement described as a
“consultative” summit.
The gathering discussed developments in Iran,
Iraq and combatting terrorism, United Arab
Emirates Foreign Minister Sheik Abdullah bin
Zayed Al Nahyan told journalists on behalf of
the GCC leaders after talks ended.
“Iran should be transparent in dealing with the
region,” regarding its nuclear program, Al
Nahyan said.
The Gulf nations will seek guarantees against
“environmental hazards” potentially posed by
Iranian nuclear reactors, he added.
US does not rule out strike against Iran
By Khalid Hasan
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2006%5C05%5C07%5Cstory_7-5-2006_pg7_8
WASHINGTON: A senior State Department official
has said that when it comes to Iran “we do not
take options off the table,” military or
diplomatic.
In a speech on Friday to the American Jewish
Committee, Philip D Zelikow, Counsellor of the
Department of State, said, “In the case of Iran,
we are often asked about military options. Our
answer is that we do not take options off the
table. But those options are diplomatic too.”
He added, “A diplomatic path now means showing
Iran that there can be real penalties if it
chooses to become an international outlaw. Iran
is a large, advanced country, dependent on
commerce and outside investment. The Iranian
people – and perhaps some of Iran’s leaders –
worry about isolation. They wonder if such an
Iran really is more likely to deliver the future
they want for their country, and for their
children. Now the world faces a test. If
diplomacy is to work, Iran must see it will pay
a price for defiance. The test is beginning now
in the work that has begun at the United
Nations.”
Zelikow said, “Iran’s quest for religious purity
carries over into scorn for all the neighbouring
Muslim countries that do not share their own
brand of ‘Islamic correctness.’ Iranian agents
are active elsewhere in the Persian Gulf.
Instead of a helping hand, they foment unrest.
In Lebanon, Iran remains a major force trying to
pull down creation of a stable national compact.
In the Palestinian territories, Iranian money
can be found behind the most extreme terrorist
groups, like Palestinian Islamic Jihad. While
their recent predecessors were at least
grudgingly prepared to support whatever peace
might satisfy Palestinians, the current regime
despises such peacemakers. “
The US official said Iran’s policies and actions
had resulted in a “broad basis for concern.” He
called Iran a “revolutionary dictatorship,
oppressive at home and with an agenda of
aggression and subversion beyond its borders.”
It was a regime that “proudly takes the most
extreme positions toward Israel or the country
it calls ‘the Great Satan’ – the United States
of America.” He added, “Islamist extremism mixed
with plenty of millenarian zeal, where some of
Iran’s hardline conservatives openly prepare for
an apocalypse they think can be hastened by
human hands. A regime that sponsors a kind of
modern-day ‘Comintern’ for Islamist extremists,
with its formal international relations
conducted by diplomats the regime’s leaders
privately regard with contempt, while they
conduct their real international relations
largely underground, using agents of the
Revolutionary Guards placed across the Middle
East.”
Zelikow charged that Tehran’s extreme goals are
matched by a readiness to use extreme means,
including terrorism of every kind, harboured at
home and sponsored abroad. Because of that
background Iran cannot be allowed to have
nuclear weapons, he stated. “Iran cannot build a
serious civil nuclear energy programme without
foreign assistance. Its current posture insures
it cannot receive such assistance. In other
words, while claiming it just wants an
alternative source of energy, Iran is proceeding
in a way that makes such large-scale energy
production impossible.”
US
could attack Iran next month
May 7, 2006
http://www.thebusinessonline.com/Stories.aspx?US%20could%20attack%20Iran%20next%20month&StoryID=BE9D448E-BFCD-42D2-8F8D-FB492E5CBD2B&SectionID=F3B76EF0-7991-4389-B72E-D07EB5AA1CEE
Tehran’s
vow to hand nuclear technology to its allies
gives Bush a powerful reason to act
WITH the re-referral of Iran to the UN Security
Council by the International Atomic Energy
Authority (IAEA), the international community
has signalled its concern – but no more.
There are even deep divisions over imposing
meaningful sanctions. But US Vice President Dick
Cheney has long spelled out quietly, but
clearly, that Tehran will simply not be allowed
to acquire nuclear weapons.
It would be entirely out of character for Cheney
and the US administration to issue threats and
then back down on an issue they consider vital
to US security, particularly in the face of Iran
ratcheting up the rhetoric and going out of its
way to be provocative, stepping up its limited
uranium enrichment.
President Mahmoud Ahma-dinejad and other
officials have also threatened to withdraw from
the nuclear non-proliferation treaty; ban
further IAEA inspections, and export nuclear
technology to their allies. This last sinister
threat was made by Iran’s Supreme Leader,
Ayatollah Khamenei, to Sudan’s rulers. They have
also threatened to launch attacks against US and
allied interests – presumably in Iraq and
possibly Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and the West Bank
– in retaliation for any American or Israeli
attacks on nuclear facilities.
Iran
has said it will cut back oil production, a
threat that sent prices soaring in a speculative
frenzy wholly unwarranted by current production
levels, which comfortably exceed demand despite
the refinery shortage.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s rhetoric has been stepped
up against Israel as a “failed regime” destined
for destruction and a call issued for the return
of Jews to Europe in deliberately anti-Semitic
language.
Ahmadinejad claims that Iran has passed the
point of no return in its uranium enrichment
programme, and will operate 3,000 centrifuges by
this time next year, with 50,000 eventually
being assembled.
Few observers take this seriously. But some
officials in Washington argue privately that the
point of no return could be June, while the
Israelis put it at the end of the year.
For internal reasons, Ahmadinejad craves an
Israeli attack, or failing that, an American
one, so as to seize complete power.
Ayatollah Khamenei’s more militant line is
deeply ominous, suggesting that he is bending to
the President’s views. Iran’s moderates, led by
former President Hashemi Rafsanjani, have been
uncharacteristically silent in recent weeks. The
intricacies of Tehran’s power struggle are hard
to analyse, but Ahmadinejad seems just as likely
to be reinforced if the West gives way to his
threats as if it stands up to him.
The threats from Tehran seem to give the Bush
administration little room for manoeuvre if it
is to retain its credibility without resort to
military action. The British, under former
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, have rejected
military action as “nuts”, but Straw’s stance
seemed aimed primarily at Prime Minister Tony
Blair, who would back a US strike.
The outcry against Blair from his Labour party
would be such that he would have to seek
Conservative support, which might or might not
be forthcoming under new leader David Cameron.
The US would not seek United Nations
authorisation for such action, because it would
have no need for a complex coalition-building
process and military build-up that preceded the
full-scale invasion of Iraq.
What is contemplated is an unexpected strike
lasting a few days at most. This would be
presented to the world as a fait accompli in a
presidential broadcast stating the seriousness
of the threat – as President Bush senior did for
the invasion of Panama.
The American range of military options is
limited. Recent talk of using tactical nuclear
bunker-busting weapons can be dismissed as
disinformation designed to unsettle the
Iranians. Washington would not use such weapons
against a non-nuclear target. None of Iran’s
nuclear facilities is so crucial or so deeply
embedded that nuclear arms would be required.
Conventional bunker-busting bombs would destroy
the giant cave at Natanz, which is only 50 feet
under ground. The Isfahan facility is on the
surface. Others are too small to require nuclear
attack.
The nuclear disinformation is just an answer to
Tehran’s disinformation that it already has a
bomb which it would use in the event of a
conventional raid.
The options currently being considered by the US
are:
* An overnight raid from carriers in the Gulf
and air bases in Iraq, involving 600-1,000
sorties. While this would do damage, it would
not be enough to justify the furore it would
generate.
* More extensive raids lasting several days to
cripple Iran’s nuclear effort for several years.
This would involve substantial attacks against
air defence facilities, and calibrated attacks
on non-nuclear military targets such as military
and intelligence headquarters. If Tehran
retaliated, more attacks would follow.
* An option gaining support in the Pentagon
involves paratroops landing to seize military
installations and defend them while nuclear
facilities were thoroughly destroyed.
This would involve US – and probably also
British – forces on Iranian soil, though it
would not amount to invasion as the forces would
be withdrawn as soon as the job was done,
preferably after only a few hours.
The military effort would be considerable, and
the troops would be exposed to enemy fire and
capture. The Iranians might use their old tactic
of massing “human shields” against the allied
forces. The military trade-off between doing the
job less well with less risk, or more completely
at more risk would come into play for
Washington.
The Bush administration is concerned about the
possibility of a retaliatory Iranian-backed Shia
uprising in southern Iraq and Baghdad, as well
as the prospect of Iranian air strikes to
disrupt oil exports from the Gulf, and an
Iranian oil embargo.
But some in the White House argue that these are
empty threats because they would backfire much
more on Iran. To counter oil moves, the US would
release some of its strategic petroleum reserve,
as the Saudis used some of their spare capacity.
While the Bush administration is sticking to its
formula of “diplomacy for now, but all the cards
are on the table”, Washington has quietly
ratcheted up the rhetoric.
|
Iran
to respond if sanctions are imposed -
pres
07.05.2006
http://www.itar-tass.com/eng/level2.html?NewsID=7727437&PageNum=0
|
|
TEHERAN,
May 7 (Itar-Tass) - Iran will respond in
an adequate way if the UN Security
Council clamps down sanctions on it,
said on Sunday Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad.
“If they
(West) want to impose restrictions on
us, we shall also respond with
restrictions,” the Iranian chief
executive warned. He also promised “to
nail to the wall” a statement of the UN
Security Council if it contains a threat
to Iran’s interests. “If international
organizations operate irrespective of
laws and the will of other states, speak
the language of force as before, and
take decisions, containing any threats
to Iran’s interests, we shall nail their
statements to the wall,” the Iranian
president said, as quoted by the ISNA
national news agency.
Ahmadinejad lashed out at the
International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA) and the UN Security Council,
noting that “if their functions lie only
in interpreting words of some powers
which speak from the position of
strength, Iran does not need them”.
|
|
 MSNBC.com |
Why Iran Is Driving Oil Up
Tehran could
calm jitters by toning down its nuclear
rhetoric—if the regime didn't need the money
more.
By Christopher Dickey and Maziar Bahari
Newsweek
International
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/12667614/site/newsweek/
May 15-22, 2006
issue - Shahpour Madani, feeling flush, was
cruising electronics shops on Tehran's Jomhuri
Street earlier this month for a flat-screen
digital television. He figured he could afford
either a sleek new Sony, or a refrigerator for
his wife. Decisions, decisions. "I haven't had
so much money in a long time," said Madani, an
accountant at the Ministry of Agriculture who
got a raise last month and bonuses in March.
"It's really fun to watch soccer games on a big
TV." And there were so many home-entertainment
possibilities to choose from. Up and down
Jomhuri Street, you see masses of Malaysian DVD
players, Japanese sound systems, Chinese VCRs, a
consumer paradise the likes of which Iranians
haven't come across for decades.
Of course, what
you're really looking at is oil money that's
been turned into the kinds of goods that keep
people happy, or quiet, or both. While cutting
back controls on imports, Tehran has jacked up
salaries, pumped up pensions and doled out extra
benefits from charities like the Imam Khomeini
foundation. For Iran's body politic, the cash
infusion is like a drug. With the enormous surge
in world petroleum prices, about $50 billion was
injected into the country last year alone. And
if the government's spending has created a kind
of public euphoria, it's also creating an
addiction. Some Iranian economists talk of a
"disease." What's certain is that the regime's
pathological craving for continued high oil
prices has become a key factor in the crises
that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is helping to
fuel, from the showdown at the United Nations
over Iran's nuclear program to the exploding
cost of a gallon of gas. Many factors are to
blame for high oil prices—but Iran's increasing
dependence on those revenues looms large among
them.
The global oil
market is extremely tight. About 85 million
barrels are burned up every day, and that's
sometimes just a little more or less than the
whole world can manage to pump out of the
ground. "We're in an era of just-in-time
production capacity," says David Fyfe, an expert
on oil supplies for the International Energy
Agency in Paris. Any supply disruption—or
potential disruption—makes traders jump out of
their seats and prices go through the ceiling.
Hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico, guerrillas in
Nigeria, political grandstanding in Latin
America, war and sabotage in Iraq: all have
helped propel the vertiginous price rise from
less than $20 a barrel at the end of 2001 to
more than $70 a barrel today.
But as a price
pusher, Iran is in a class by itself. The
country has the second largest proven oil
reserves in the world, and on a good day exports
about 2.5 million barrels. Think about a
confrontation that threatens to cut off those
supplies: say, talk of U.N. sanctions,
speculation about Iranian retaliation, rumors of
war. All have been part of the international
chorus since Ahmadinejad came to office last
August and announced that Iran would crank up
its nuclear research. No wonder the markets are
twitchy.
Now look at Iran's
neighbors, especially Saudi Arabia, which has
the largest proven reserves in the world and is
currently pumping about 9.6 million barrels a
day. Much of its oil, as well as production from
Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and the United Arab
Emirates, passes through the Strait of Hormuz,
which runs along Iran's southern shore. Threaten
these suppliers or supply routes and you can
really make the market jump. Thus statements
like the one from Iranian Interior Minister
Mostafa Pourmohammadi a few weeks ago when asked
about threats from the United States: "We're
rich in energy sources. We have the control of
one of the main energy routes in the world. If
they want to use any other option, they have to
know that our potential is not lower than
theirs."
Tehran's
rhetoric is calculated. Iran has pursued its
nuclear program behind the shield of high
prices, and so far the policy has worked. At the
United Nations Security Council not a single
member, including the United States, has
proposed boycotting Iranian oil. And while
Washington may not have taken military options
off the table, it hasn't put them on it, either.
The mullahs, who are first and foremost
interested in the survival of their regime, have
gambled that eventually they can replace their
oil shield with a nuclear one—and meanwhile the
petro-billions will just keep rolling in.
But it's a
dangerous game, longer-term. Iran's oil
industry—hampered by years of mismanagement and
U.S. sanctions—is a mess; the country hasn't
been able to make its OPEC quota since last
year, and its refineries are so inadequate that
it has to import almost half the gasoline it
uses. Rather than reinvesting oil revenues in
new production capacity, Iran's government (like
the corrupt elites of other oil-rich countries)
prefers to pay off the public with big subsidies
for political gain. Thus gas prices are
subsidized so Iranians pay only about 10 cents a
liter, which people use (or misuse) as they
like. At a service station on Tehran's Pakistan
Street, customer Farid Eshaghi slops about half
a liter of gasoline onto the ground while
filling up his tank. "Why should I be worried
about wasting gas when we have so much oil in
our country?" he asks.
With Iran awash in
money, economist Saied Laylaz notes, the
country's spending of foreign exchange has gone
up from $20 billion in 1997 to $50 billion this
year. There's less control over corruption,
which was already rampant: government auditors
used to scrutinize any transaction over $10
million, says Laylaz; now the limit is $50
million. Domestic manufactures have declined as
foreign imports have increased. Privatization
has essentially come to a halt as the government
finds it politically convenient to throw good
money after bad to subsidize decrepit national
industries. And worst of all, in the view of
many Iranian liberals, Ahmadinejad has bought
off much of the public, stifling dissent and
frustrating democracy.
A drop in oil
prices could very quickly become the regime's
greatest weakness. "If there's a decrease to
lower than $40 a barrel," says Laylaz, "that
would create chaos in the Iranian economy." But
for now, the job of talking them up is easy,
thanks to all the troubles in the region. And
Shahpour Madani is happy to thank Iran's
president for the money with which, finally, he
decides to buy his wife that new fridge. "To
tell you the truth, I didn't vote for Mr.
Ahmadinejad," says Madani. "But it seems that he
is the first president who thinks about the
well-being of the people." Of course, many an
addict thinks his dealer cares about him, too.
|
Iran
threatens to pull out of NPT
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=293434&sid=WOR
|
|
|
|
Tehran,
May 07: The Iranian parliament
threatened in a letter to UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan today to force the
government to withdraw from the nuclear
non-proliferation treaty if the United
States continued pressuring Tehran to
suspend uranium enrichment.
"It's clear that should the UN Secretary
General and other members of the UN
Security Council fail in their crucial
responsibility to resolve differences
peacefully, there will be no option for
the Parliament but to ask the government
to withdraw its signature for the
additional protocol (to NPT that allows
intrusive, snap inspections) and review
Article 10 of the nuclear non
proliferation treaty (that outlines the
means for signer to the agreement to
withdraw)," according to the letter by
the lawmakers that was read on state-run
radio today.
Iran already has stopped snap
inspections by the UN International
Atomic Energy Agency, which monitors
compliance with the treat.
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Leading Intellectual and Journalist Arrested
May
06, 2006
Reporters Without Borders
RSF
link to original article
Reporters Without Borders voiced outrage today
at the imprisonment of pro-reform intellectual
and journalist Ramin Jahanbeglou, who was
arrested at Tehran airport on 28 April after
criticising the Iranian government in a series
of interviews for Canadian, Spanish and French
newspapers in recent weeks. He was transferred
yesterday to Evin prison.
“We call for the immediate release of
Jahanbeglou, who is being held illegally,” the
press freedom organisation said. “We fear that
the Iranian authorities, after closing down
around 20 newspapers and issuing summonses to
dozens of journalists since the start of the
year, is now planning a wave of arrests of
journalists.”
Jahanbeglou was detained as he was about to
catch a flight to attend an international
conference on Iran. His arrest was kept secret
until 3 May. It was only after reports were
posted on websites and broadcast on foreign
radio stations that Tehran deputy prosecutor
Mahmoud Salarkia confirmed that Jahanbeglou was
being held, without explaining why.
The 27 April issue of the French daily Le Monde
carried comments by Jahanbeglou criticising the
policies of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and
his government.
Jahanbeglou, who has a PhD from the Sorbonne
University in Paris, heads the “Modern Thought”
group at the Centre for Iranian Cultural
Research in Iran. He used to contribute to
several pro-reform newspapers such as Gardonn
and Kian that were closed by the authorities,
and he has written many books on democracy,
secularism and non-violence.
He is also a contributor to several foreign news
media including the BBC and the French magazines
Esprit and Etudes et Projets.
Iran is the Middle East’s biggest prison for
journalists and bloggers, with a total of six
persons currently held. President Ahmadinejad
and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei are both on the
Reporters Without Borders list of press freedom
predators.
Friends Fear Detained Iranian-Canadian has Been
Tortured
May
06, 2006
CanWest News Service
Allan Woods
link to original article
OTTAWA
-- Close friends of a world-renowned
Iranian-Canadian academic detained in Tehran
believe he may already have been tortured.
Houchang Chehabi, a Boston University professor,
was one of many friends of Ramin Jahanbegloo in
North America's tight-knit Iranian community who
broke their silence in order to draw attention
to the troubling detention.
The case developed a particular urgency Friday
as it emerged that the scholar and philosopher
has been seen at least twice in the medical
clinic at Tehran's notorious Evin prison for
political prisoners.
"It's a bad sign because it may mean he's been
tortured," Chehabi said in an interview.
He said that Jahanbegloo's mother has taken his
arrest very badly, but his wife is "being very
strong about it." Jahanbegloo also has a young
son, two or three years old.
His family had urged friends to remain silence
in the early days, but the order came down
Friday to fan out to the world's media and keep
the noted philosopher's name in the spotlight.
"In the beginning, his family had said that they
didn't want the international press to get
involved because it might have been just a
routine affair and to make it seem more
important might have endangered him," Chehabi
said.
"Now that he's been kept for 11 days this means
that they're not about to release him, and since
they're not about to release him one might as
well go all the way."
The situation also prompted calls from Stephan
Hachemi, the son of murdered Montreal
photojournalist Zara Kazemi, for the Canadian
government to step up their efforts to secure
Jahanbegloo's release.
In 2003, Kazemi was detained, tortured and
killed at the same prison now holding
Jahanbegloo.
"I hope that his Canadian citizenship is
valuable and that the Canadian government is
going to do something for him," Hachemi said in
an interview from Montreal. "From what I've
heard so far, there's not any reason that he's
been detained in jail."
But Jahanbegloo's case seems to be frustrating
Canadian officials as well. In Quebec City,
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay admitted
Friday that Ottawa was making little headway
with the Iranian regime, even as "like-minded"
countries registered their concern.
"The department is working hard with all the
officials to obtain his freedom," MacKay said,
"but the Iranian government is not giving us
much information."
Jahanbegloo, a former University of Toronto
professor who also taught at Harvard University
and studied at Paris's Sorbonne, has been in
prison now for 11 days without charges being
laid and with no access to a lawyer.
Local press reports have quoted officials saying
that he is suspected of spying or violating
national security.
"There have been allegations against him
appearing in an ultra-Conservative newspaper
accusing him of counter-revolutionary ties,"
said Hadi Ghaemi, an Iran researcher with Human
Rights Watch in New York.
"It is not unusual in cases of arbitrary
detention to be exactly like this."
Some have suggested that Jahanbegloo, who was
working as the director of Tehran's Cultural
Research Bureau, a private sector
non-governmental organization, was detained
after writing an article in a Spanish newspaper
criticizing Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad for denying the holocaust.
"He has never participated in any organized
political activity," Chehabi said. "He has never
joined any organization that opposes the regime.
He has always worked within the system. He has
always called for dialogue."
Canadian Academic in Iranian Prison Clinic
May
06, 2006
The Toronto Star
Graham Fraser
link to original article
OTTAWA
-- Iranian-Canadian academic Ramin Jahanbegeloo
has been hospitalized for a medical condition,
not for any mistreatment in prison, a friend
said yesterday. Jahanbegeloo, who was recently
arrested and detained in Tehran, has been
hospitalized in the prison clinic, Shahram
Kholdi, a Canadian-Iranian who studied under
Jahanbegeloo at the University of Toronto, told
the Toronto Star.
"Ramin is hypoglycemic," said Kholdi, now a
graduate teaching fellow at the University of
Manchester, England. "That's why he was
hospitalized. There was a decrease in his blood
sugar."
Jahanbegeloo, who has joint Canadian and Iranian
citizenship, taught at U of T for several years.
Kholdi took courses from him while doing his
master's degree in political science.
"He was a very approachable teacher, very
engaging and extremely popular," Kholdi said,
adding that many students had expressed support
for his staying at U of T, but Jahanbegeloo had
decided there was a lot of work to be done in
Iran.
"He is a philosopher of non-violence," he said,
pointing out he had done his Ph.D. thesis on
Mahatma Gandhi. "He has practised what he
preached. That is why we were caught off-guard
when he was arrested."
Maryam Aghvami, a Toronto friend, stressed that
Jahanbegeloo was not a partisan person.
"He wasn't political at all," she said. "He
wasn't affiliated with any group or party. He
was into ... very civil and non-violent ways to
democracy for Iran. He loves Iran."
Reports that he had been hospitalized led many
to fear he might have been mistreated while in
custody. Canadians are still haunted by the
memory of Canadian-Iranian photojournalist Zahra
Kazemi, who died in July 2003 after having been
taken into custody in Tehran. A doctor who saw
her testified later he had seen unmistakable
signs of torture.
News of Jahanbegeloo's arrest emerged after he
failed to show up a week ago at a conference in
Belgium. Those who know him and are familiar
with the approach the Iranian regime has taken
toward those it sees as a threat have been
walking on eggshells, trying to ensure their
comments do not make his situation worse.
Liberal MP Michael Ignatieff
(Etobicoke-Lakeshore), a friend of Jahanbegeloo,
stressed he must not be seen as a dissident.
"Ramin went back to Iran because he loves his
country," he told the Star. "He can't be
construed as an enemy of the regime, or in the
service of a foreign country. ... It's a million
miles from the truth."
He said Jahanbegeloo works for a
non-governmental organization that specializes
in promoting dialogue between Persian and
non-Persian culture.
Jason Kenney, the parliamentary secretary to
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, said yesterday he
could not reveal any information about the case.
"We are in contact with the Iranian officials.
It's a delicate matter," he told reporters.
"Canadians can rest assured that this government
will actively and appropriately defend the
interests of Canadians abroad ... but we're
being very careful not to discuss details both
for reasons of prudence as well as Privacy Act
reasons."
Additional articles by Graham Fraser
PKK Threatens Attacks on 'Devious' Iran
May
06, 2006
AFP
Aljazeera.net
link to original article
Kurdish separatists have threatened hit-and-run
attacks on Iran, which it says plans to bomb
their positions in Iraq to gain Turkey's support
against the US. Cemil "Cuma" Bayik, the de facto
leader of the Kurdistan Worker's Party (PKK),
said: "We have the right to launch attacks
against Iranian forces."
The PKK has fought Turkey for years in its
battle to establish an independent state in the
majority Kurdish southeast of the country.
He said recent Iranian artillery shelling of PKK
camps in Iraqi Kurdistan meant that the rebel
group's battle could spread to Iran.
"We are on the defence. If we're not attacked we
won't either. We believe politics and democracy
are a better path," Bayik said.
But Bayik said PKK "intelligence reports"
suggested that Iran was preparing to shell rebel
positions again.
"We aren’t capable of facing them in open
battle. We'll make hit-and-run raids with our
Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades, machine
guns and mortars," he said.
Women's
equality
The PKK consists of thousands of male and female
Kurdish fighters who profess a "democratic
socialist" philosophy, under which women's
equality plays an important role.
To join, members have to renounce material
possessions and cut links with the outside world
in their quest for Kurdish independence and a
new social order in which women will no longer
be "enslaved", Bayik said.
Bayik saw the offensive by Iran as part of a
devious strategy by Iran. He said it was born of
Iran's desire to please Turkey, its neighbour
and a Nato member, as Western pressure mounts
over Tehran's nuclear programme.
"They will do anything to make sure Turkey is
not with the US in a fight against Iran," said
Bayik, who commands the rebels in Iraq and
Turkey while PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan serves
a life sentence in a Turkish prison.
Applauded
attacks
Turkey applauded the attacks against the PKK
camps, which lace a series of steep winding
valleys in a region close to Turkey and Iran
where the adjoining territories are all majority
Kurdish.
An estimated 25 to 35 million Kurds live in
Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.
Ankara has long urged Iraqi and US forces to
root out the PKK from Iraq's northern region,
which they have occupied since the war between
Iran and Iraq in the 1980s.
Turkey says that about 5,000 PKK fighters have
found refuge in northern Iraq since 1999.
Bayik said the figure was lower but would not
provide a specific number, saying it was a
"military secret".
He said the Iranian attacks were also intended
to put pressure on Baghdad as it struggles to
form a government.
Oil-rich city
Kurdish leaders in Iraq have promised to work to
integrate the oil-rich Iraqi city of Kirkuk into
a Kurdish autonomous zone after a cabinet is
formed.
Bayik said Iran is "trying to help some factions
in Iraq work against the Kurdish nation so that
Kirkuk doesn't join [the autonomous zone]".
"This is happening as the new government is
being created and the Kirkuk problem is
discussed," he said.
But on Friday, Iraqi Kurdistan's Sulaimaniyah
province administrator, the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK), warned the PKK against using
Iraqi territory to attack Iran or Turkey.
"They should think of all of Kurdistan," Bayik
said.
"We are not against the PUK having good ties
with the Turkish and Iranian governments, but
these relationships should not go against the
Kurdish nation."
Iran:
Top Scholar Detained Without Charge
May
05, 2006
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights News
link to original article
One
of Iran’s most prominent scholars, Ramin
Jahanbegloo, is being held in Tehran’s notorious
Evin prison, where he is at risk of being
tortured, Human Rights Watch said today. Iranian
authorities must immediately release
Jahanbegloo, who is being held without charge
after nearly a week in incommunicado detention.
A prominent philosopher who has written
extensively on cultural and philosophical
topics, Jahanbegloo is director of Contemporary
Studies at the Cultural Research Bureau, a
private institution in Tehran. His academic
writings include more than 20 books in English,
French and Persian. He has also written for
newspapers and magazines in Iran and abroad.
“The arbitrary arrest of Ramin Jahanbegloo shows
the perilous state of academic freedom and free
speech in Iran today,” said Joe Stork, deputy
Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.
“This prominent scholar should be celebrated for
his academic achievements, not interrogated in
one of Iran’s most infamous prisons.”
The authorities detained Jahanbegloo at Tehran
Airport on or around Thursday, April 27.
Officials refused to acknowledge his detention
until Wednesday, May 3, when Tehran’s deputy
prosecutor general, Mahmoud Salarkia, confirmed
Jahanbegloo’s detention in an interview with the
Iranian Students News Agency.
Also on Wednesday, the Fars News Agency quoted
the chief of prisons in Tehran Province, Sohrab
Soleimani, as saying that Jahanbegloo is being
held in Tehran’s Evin prison. Neither official
gave any reason for Jahanbegloo’s arrest. An
unnamed Judiciary official told the daily
Etemad-e Melli that charges against Jahanbegloo
“will be announced after the interrogations.”
“Iran’s Judiciary is notorious for coercing
confessions by means of torture and
ill-treatment,” Stork said. “We hold the Iranian
government entirely responsible for
Jahanbegloo’s well-being.”
