EU begins package talks with Iran

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/06/iran.nuclear/  

(CNN) -- European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is in Iran to present a package of incentives and penalties aimed at getting the country to end its uranium enrichment program.

According to Cristina Gallach, Solana was to meet on Tuesday with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and the head Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Ali Larijani.

Six world powers -- Germany and the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council -- last week agreed on a package of incentives if Iran stops uranium enrichment, or penalties if it refuses. Solana is to present the package to Iranian officials during Tuesday's meetings.

Although Washington has no diplomatic relations with Iran -- which President Bush branded part of an "axis of evil" -- the United States last week agreed to join European allies in negotiations with Tehran if Iran suspends its uranium enrichment program and resumes full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Islamic republic says it wants to pursue nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but the United States and the European Union believe it harbors aspirations to be armed with nuclear weapons.

Iran's supreme leader warned the United States Sunday that "misbehavior" aimed at Tehran would disrupt Gulf energy shipments.

"In order to threaten Iran, you say that you can guarantee movements of oil through this region. You should know that the slightest misbehavior on your part would endanger the region's energy security. You are not capable of guaranteeing energy security in this region," said Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

He delivered a speech on the 17th anniversary of the passing Ayatollah Khomeini, who spearheaded the establishment of the Islamic republic in 1979.

Khamenei did not specify what he meant by disruption or misbehavior.

"If you, the United States, make a wrong move regarding Iran, definitely the energy flow in this region will be seriously endangered. We are committed to our national interests, and whoever threatens it will experience the sharpness of this nation's anger," he said.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice deflected concerns about the remarks. "We're not going to react to every statement that comes out of Iran," she told CNN.

"The oil card -- well, let's just remember that Iran is some 80 percent dependent on oil in its budget and so not really able to live without, with a disruption as well."

Sunday's remarks from Iran and the United States come after a week that saw a sharp turn in the U.S. strategy toward Tehran.

"We have set in train a diplomatic process," Rice told "Late Edition." "That diplomatic process needs to work now with Iran being given the proposal that the six parties put together in Vienna, with Iran recognizing that it now has a path ahead that would allow an end to this impasse, but also that the international community is committed to a second path should that first path not work."

Rice refused to lay out a timetable for Iran to respond to the latest overture.

"I don't believe in setting timelines and deadlines," Rice said. "The only point here is that this can't be endless. The Iranian program is progressing, and the international community needs to know if there is a negotiating option that really has life in it."

Rice also rejected assertions by Iranian leaders that the West is trying to prevent Iran from having nuclear energy.

"If what Iran is looking for is civil nuclear technology, a peaceful program with civil nuclear technology, no one is trying to deny them that. In fact, I know they've said from time to time that they have a right to civil nuclear, to a civil nuclear program. We accept that," she said.

"The question is, can they have a civil nuclear program that does not have the proliferation risk associated with having fuel-cycle technologies on, certain fuel-cycle technologies on Iranian territory?"

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday his country is ready to hold "fair and unconditional" talks with the West on Iran's nuclear issue, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Ahmadinejad, a hard-line conservative, has sparked international outrage with some of his previous comments denying the Holocaust and calling for the destruction of Israel.

CNN's Shirzad Bozorghmehr contributed to this report.

Solana Lands in Tehran with EU Incentives

June 05, 2006
The Associated Press
Nasser Karimi

link to original article

The European Union foreign policy chief brought a Western package of incentives and penalties to Iran Monday in an effort to coax the hard-line government to stop uranium enrichment and defuse an international crisis.

Javier Solana told reporters at Tehran airport that the West wanted "to start a new relationship on the basis of mutual respect and trust."

He was to meet Tuesday with Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani.

Mottaki, who returned from Oman shortly before Solana arrived, said the EU and Iran would launch what he termed "shuttle diplomacy" in an effort to overcome differences about Tehran's disputed nuclear program. He did not elaborate.

Solana said he believed the package of rewards and threatened punishments would "allow us to engage in negotiations based on trust, respect and confidence."

The six-nation package offers economic and political incentives if Tehran relinquishes domestic uranium enrichment, which can be used to generate power but can also produce weapons-grade uranium for nuclear warheads.

The offer agreed on in Vienna on Friday by the U.S., Russia, France, Britain and China — the five permanent U.N. Security Council nations — plus Germany, also contains the implicit threat of U.N. sanctions if Iran remains defiant.

In a breakthrough last week, the United States agreed to join in multination talks on the package if Tehran suspends enrichment.

Details of the basket of perks and penalties have not been made public. But an earlier draft shared in part with The Associated Press offered help in building nuclear reactors that produce reduced amounts of waste that could be reprocessed for nuclear arms and a guaranteed supply of fuel as well as an offer to supply European Airbus aircraft for Tehran's civilian fleet.

Diplomats revealed Monday that Washington has sweetened the offer originally drawn up by France, Britain and Germany by saying it will lift some bilateral sanctions on Tehran such as a ban on sales of Boeing passenger aircraft and related parts if Iran agrees to an enrichment freeze.

One of the diplomats also said in the package agreed on Friday, Washington would be prepared to take some "dual-use" technology off its banned list of exports to Iran. The term is used for products and material that have military as well as civilian uses.

Iranian officials have sent conflicting signals on the initiative, reflecting a possible struggle within the leadership on how to react. Additionally, the U.S. offer to join in direct talks with Iran might have caught Tehran's top officials off guard.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, normally a hardline critic of the United States who insists that Tehran has a right to enrichment, said over the weekend that a breakthrough in negotiations was possible and welcomed the U.S. offer to join talks, while rejecting preconditions.

But Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened to disrupt the world's oil supply if Tehran is punished over its nuclear program, reflecting Tehran's nervousness.

Khamenei on the weekend said the United States and its allies would be unable to secure oil shipments passing out of the Gulf through the strategic Strait of Hormuz to the Indian Ocean.

Although other Iranian officials have repeatedly ruled out using oil as weapon, his comments propelled oil prices to $73 a barrel Monday.

Iran is the world's fourth-largest oil exporter and the second-largest producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow urged reporters to withhold judgment on Khamenei's remarks until Iran has had a chance to weigh the package.

"Let people look at it," he said. "I understand why commodities markets may be unsettled by a comment like that, but over time, if this succeeds, the commodities markets are going to be very happy and so should we all be."

Associated Press correspondent George Jahn contributed from Vienna.

How Iran Might Answer the West

June 05, 2006
Time Magazine
Tony Karon

link to original article

The U.S. has opened the door to talks with Iran over the nuclear issue. But how likely is an agreement? Here are five things you need to know about Iran's approach to negotiations.

After weeks of tough talk, the diplmatic standoff over Iran's nuclear program may finally be loosening. European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana is in Tehran to present Iran's leaders with a detailed package of incentives for cooperation over its nuclear program. And the U.S. has offered to join talks with Iran if it halts uranium enrichment. So how is Iran likely respond? Here's what you need to know about the coming negotiations.

1) Never mind President Ahmedinajad; listen to Larijani

Despite his title, Iran's saber-rattling president does not hold executive power and has no direct authority to decide foreign policy or security matters, including the nuclear issue. Those issues are decided by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in consultation with the National Security Council, chaired by Ali Larijani. The EU proposal will be relayed to Larijiani, who will be the point man in negotiations with the West. Ahmedinajad's warning on Sunday that "we will record the talks and we will publish them at the appropriate time, so our people will be informed about the details" seemed a populist warning against compromise to those negotiating on Iran's behalf — a sign of Iran's ongoing internal power struggle. But that doesn't mean Iran's position will necessarily be any more flexible; Larjani is a tough negotiator who, even without Ahmedinajad's pressure, will likely press for a deal that gives Iran more than the U.S. is inclined to concede.

2) Iran might agree to suspend uranium enrichment ... but at a price

Iran's track record suggests it might agree to suspend uranium enrichment, but probably not as a precondition for talks — which they would see giving up leverage with no quid-pro-quo — but rather as an outcome of talks. Tehran did, in fact, suspend uranium enrichment, under monitoring by the IAEA, during the three years of nuclear negotiation with Britain, France and Germany. But those talks went nowhere, and Larijani is reported to believe that Iran surrendered too much leverage and weakened its position. Iranian leaders also believe the open-ended nature of those talks allowed the Europeans to play for time as long as Iran's enrichment program remained suspended. They are likely to see their decision to break off those talks and resume enrichment activities as having been vindicated by the new improved offer from the West.

3) There's room for compromise

Because Washington is demanding only a suspension of enrichment, not the dismantling of whatever enrichment capability Iran currently possesses, Iranian leaders have room to maneuver without appearing to back down. One option would be to simply claim "technical reasons" for turning off Iran's centrifuges until further notice. That would allow the IAEA to verify that no enrichment is currently taking place, creating a window of opportunity for talks. The Iranians would likely signal discreetly that its shut-down will last for a defined period. Conversely, in exchange for a suspension, Iran might demand some symbolic form of political recognition from the U.S.

4) But the Iranians feel they're in a position of strength

Iran's leaders believe the strategic balance has shifted in their favor since the previous talks with the Europeans. Rising world oil prices and the difficulties faced by the U.S. in Iraq have increased Tehran's leverage. Iran is also aware that the consensus reached in Vienna by European leaders and China remains fragile; while the Bush administration insists that no military option is off the table, for example, Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov said the agreement rules out the use of military force against Iran "in any circumstances." These factors could embolden Tehran's negotiating stance in the hope of extracting further concessions.

5) What a "grand bargain" with Iran might look like

If Iran and the U.S. could choreograph their way to the table, could they reach an agreement that satisfies both sides? The negotiations might take years, but such a deal remains possible. The Iranians have repeatedly stressed a willingness to find a solution that addresses the concerns of the international community while upholding its right to nuclear energy. Tehran is reportedly still ready to accept the principle that — at least for defined period — there would be no industrial scale uranium enrichment on its own soil; the fuel for its nuclear reactors would be produced abroad and shipped back when spent. But Iran may hold out for a deal that allows it to maintain its 164-centrifuge enrichment cascade at Natanz for research purposes, under additional supervision if necessary. That cascade is too small to create bomb material, but the U.S. and its allies believe even research-scale enrichment would provide critical know-how and could also camouflage any covert bomb program. The issue of that research facility may be one in which each side tests the other's will over the negotiating table.

The reason the Europeans and others have been so insistent on the U.S. joining the talks is that security guarantees will be central to any eventual deal. European diplomats believe that as long as Iran fears attack by the U.S., hawks in Tehran will have an argument for pursuing a nuclear deterrent. But the U.S. won't offer Iran security guarantees without assurances from Iran on such issues as terrorism. So any negotiations over the nuclear issue would force Washington and Tehran to confront their differences over a number of other issues. The two nations are unlikely ever to kiss and make up, but such comprehensive talks could help manage the conflict between them in the interests of stability.

Iran President May Visit if Team Progress

June 05, 2006
Reuters
Andrew Gray

link to original article

BERLIN -- Iranian team officials have raised the prospect of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad coming to Germany if the side reach the World Cup second round, a visit that would cast a political shadow over the finals.

Ahmadinejad has clashed with the West over Iran's nuclear programme and drawn international condemnation for a series of outspoken comments, including questioning whether the Holocaust took place and calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map".

German officials have said he can expect more criticism if he visits during the world's most watched sporting event, which begins on Friday when the host nation play Costa Rica in Munich.

"If we go to the second stage for sure he (Ahmadinejad) will come to see the team," coach Branko Ivankovic told Reuters before Iran beat a Lake Constance regional squad 5-0 on Monday.

"That will show to my players and to the world that football is very important in Iran."

The head of the Iranian Football Association confirmed the president had been asked to visit the team but appeared less certain he would make the trip.

"We have invited him and he will come if he finds the time," Mohammad Dadgan said.

Iran would have to spring a surprise to make the second round. Portugal and Mexico are favourites to progress from Group D, which also features debutants Angola.

GATHER PACE

Preparations entered their final phase for several of the major teams when they moved to their bases.

Germany arrived at their hotel in Berlin and Michael Ballack, their outstanding midfielder, missed training as a precaution due to a calf strain.

Ballack remained at the team hotel for a solo fitness session, a spokesman for the German Football Association said.

Coach Juergen Klinsmann announced a relaxed approach to running his squad.

"Players can roam around Berlin if they want," he said. "They can go for a meal on their own if they want."

Relaxation was also the order of the day for champions and favourites Brazil.

Their players were given the day off after arriving at their base outside Frankfurt late on Sunday.

England settled into their hotel at Baden Baden after captain David Beckham, central defender John Terry and left back Ashley Cole missed their final training session on home soil.

A team spokesman said all three had only minor injuries which would not cause trouble for coach Sven-Goran Eriksson.

"Sven fully expects all three to be training this week and available for Saturday's opener against Paraguay," he said.

Iran, Syria on US Human Smuggling List

June 05, 2006
BBC News
BBCi

link to original article

The United States has added Iran and Syria to its list of countries that could face sanctions over their failure to tackle trafficking in people. In an annual report, the US State Department said Iran was punishing victims of trafficking with beatings, imprisonment and execution.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington would lead calls for action to end the problem.

The US says up to 800,000 people are the victims of trafficking every year.

Iran and Syria now join Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, Sudan, Cuba, and Burma on Washington's blacklist of worst offenders.

90-day deadline

Launching the State Department's "Trafficking in People" report, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Washington was leading a new abolitionist movement to eradicate this modern-day slavery.

The report highlights concerns that the victims - often women and children - are being sold into the sex trade.

But it also lists individual countries' efforts to tackle the problem.

For the first time, Iran has been included alongside the worst offenders.

Most of the other nations on the black list include well-known critics of US policy such as Cuba and Venezuela, says BBC State Department correspondent Jonathan Beale.

But the US has also once again listed its Arab ally Saudi Arabia among those nations of greatest concern, our correspondent says.

Those countries could now face sanctions if they do not make efforts to tackle the problem in the next 90 days.

The US has also acknowledged it needs to do more itself to tackle issues like prostitution.

It has also highlighted concerns that this month's football World Cup could make Germany a focus for traffickers engaged in prostitution.

Rafsanjani: Iran is Ready to Share its Scientific Achievements

 

http://www.isna.ir/Main/NewsView.aspx?ID=News-729745&Lang=E

ISNA - Tehran
Service: Politic

TEHRAN, June 05 (ISNA)-Iran's Expediency Council chief, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani stated Iran's readiness to share its scientific achievements, especially nuclear technology with other nations if this cycle was completed in Iran.

"The world is propagandizing against our scientific advancement; therefore we currently are in need of a powerful diplomacy so to remove the existing obstacles and Imam Khomeini's guidelines could serve as a solution in current and future situations," said Hashemi Rafsanjani.

This official went on to say that the new threat and encroachment wave which had been raised against Iran was serious, but Iran's government and nation would resist and fight in order to achieve its inalienable rights and to develop its Islamic knowledge.

Rafsanjani also while comparing Iran's Islamic Revolution with those of others expressed that the Iranian nation's all-out support of their revolution was what distinguished this revolution from the others.

Crude Oil Rises as Iran Says U.S. Risks Disrupting Shipments

 

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000006&sid=agOZkJbbjoKM&refer=home

June 5 (Bloomberg) -- Crude oil rose to the highest in three weeks after Iran's supreme leader said the U.S. risked disrupting oil shipments from the Persian Gulf region.

The U.S. could ``seriously endanger energy flow in the region'' by acting against Iran, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday. Iran, the fourth-biggest oil producer, borders the Strait of Hormuz. About 17 million barrels a day is transported through the waterway. Countries along the Gulf produce 27 percent of the world's oil, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

``We're up because there's increased concern about the nuclear standoff with Iran,'' said Tim Evans, an energy analyst at Citigroup Global Markets Inc. in New York. ``Iran might curb exports, attack tankers in the Strait of Hormuz or cause other trouble if the U.S. were to take further action.''

Crude oil for July delivery rose 82 cents, or 1.1 percent, to $73.15 a barrel at 1:40 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Futures reached $73.84, the highest since May 11. Oil touched $75.35 on April 21 and 24, the highest since trading began in 1983. Prices are up 33 percent from a year ago.

Brent crude oil for July settlement rose 94 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $71.97 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures exchange. Futures touched $74.97 a barrel May 2 and 3, the highest since the contract began trading in 1988.

`Within Weeks'

Khamenei didn't say what steps Iran might take to counter U.S. action. Last week, the U.S., China, Russia, the U.K., France and Germany offered Iran incentives to abandon any nuclear weapons development. Iran must respond to the offer ``within weeks,'' U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

Khamenei, in the address carried by the official Islamic Republic News Agency, said Iran is in a stronger position than the U.S. because President George W. Bush is the most unpopular leader in the world. Bush ``faces protests and public wrath wherever he steps on earth,'' Khamenei said, according to IRNA.

The U.S. has accused Iran of using its nuclear research as cover for the development of atomic bombs. Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insists the program is exclusively for generation of power.

In Washington, White House spokesman Tony Snow counseled patience while Iran decides on the offer. ``Commodities markets may be unsettled by a comment like that but over time, if this succeeds, the commodities markets are going to be very happy,'' Snow said.

`Very Dependent'

``We shouldn't put too much emphasis on a threat of this kind,'' Rice said on the ``Fox News Sunday'' program. ``After all, Iran is also very dependent on oil revenue.''

Iran relies on oil for between 80 and 90 percent of the country's export earnings, according to the U.S. Energy Department. It made $31.5 billion in 2004. Sales will rise 23 percent to $55 billion this year as oil prices climb, Hadi Nejad- Hosseinian, Iran's deputy oil minister for international affairs, said May 17.

Iran produced 3.85 million barrels of crude oil a day in April, according to a Bloomberg News survey. Most Iranian oil exports go to Japan, China, South Korea and Europe. The U.S. imports no oil from Iran and has had sanctions against the country since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.

``It is a ratcheting up of the rhetoric, but it's nothing new,'' said Stephen Schork, president of Schork Report in Villanova, Pennsylvania. ``What the market seems to conveniently ignore is that the oil weapon works both ways. Yes, Iran is a major exporter of oil, but it is also a major importer of refined product.''

Iran imported an average 170,000 barrels of gasoline a day in 2005, according to the U.S. Energy Department.

`One Big Pot'

``It's one big pot,'' said Ric Navy, a broker at BNP Paribas SA in New York. ``It doesn't matter that we don't import any oil from them. The world pumps 85 million barrels, so 4 million barrels is a nice little chunk.''

Oil prices more than doubled in 1979 after a revolution in Iran slashed the nation's oil exports. By February 1981 U.S. refiners were paying an average $39 a barrel for imported oil, according to Energy Department figures, or $86.88 in 2006 dollars.

At its narrowest, the Strait of Hormuz consists of two-mile- wide channels for inbound and outbound tanker traffic and a two- mile-wide buffer zone.

Oil has risen 20 percent this year amid disruptions of supply from Nigeria and Iraq and concern that Iranian shipments may be reduced because of the disagreement about the country's nuclear program.

Nigeria

In Nigeria, kidnappers yesterday released eight foreign oil workers they took hostage two days earlier in the Niger River delta. The incident was the fourth kidnapping of foreign oil workers this year in Nigeria, Africa's top oil producer.

Attacks by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta on Nigerian facilities operated by Royal Dutch Shell Plc and others have shut as much as 631,000 barrels a day of crude production this year, more than a quarter of the West African nation's daily output. About 550,000 barrels a day remain shut.

Saudi Arabia's crude oil output fell to 9.1 million barrels a day in April because of weaker demand, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing the Saudi oil minister, Ali al-Naimi. The desert kingdom is the world's biggest oil exporter. Saudi output averaged almost 9.5 million barrels a day in the first quarter, according to the International Energy Agency.

Why Iran Wants War

http://americandaily.com/article/13890
By Slater Bakhtavar (06/05/2006)

"The Iranian nation will wipe the stain of regret on the foreheads of those who want to bring about injustice", President Ahmadinejad scorned at a recent rally in the province of Zanjan. Iran "will cut off the hands of any aggressor" and any attack would be met with a response that is double-fold, including suicide attacks across Europe and the United States, he warned. "Israel should be wiped off the map", the predominately Jewish nation "cannot survive" and is headed "towards extinction" quipped the fanatical President.

If one were to listen to his rhetoric alone, even the most astute political intellectuals would think Iran is a nation equipped with the most dangerous military arsenal capable of challenging any nation. But Iran's rhetoric has little to do with their outdated and dismal military, their fledging economy or their detested government. The root of the government's fiery tone may be traced to their Shi'ite ideology messianic belief in a mysterious, mystical twelfth imam who ventured into hiding over a thousand years ago.

The Hidden Imam is a central concept in the teachings of Shi'ite Islam. Born Muhammad al-Mahdi he ventured into a cave in 941 AD hidden by a gate called the Gate of Occultation. The doctrine of Occultation professes Allah aided the cloaking of the Imam away from the eyes of man so that he could be kept alive until his return. Shi'ites believe that the Twelfth Imam will return to lead the religious battle between good and evil when the world has become consummately nefarious.

According to Shi'ite orthodoxy humans may not force or hasten the return of the Imam, but the Hojjateiehs, a group of which Ahmadinejad is a member, opine that humans may stir up chaos to encourage his return. With his recent rhetoric vowing for the destruction of Israel, demanding deportation of the Jews to Europe and denying the Holocaust that the President seems to be doing just that. In fact, his messianic axiom of the Twelfth Imam and the subsequent suppression of the forces of evil (modern day US, UK, Israel and many other nations) is central to Ahmadinejad's foreign policy. The Iranian government's official policy has undercut efforts of the international community by rejecting a United Nations deadline to suspend Iran's nuclear program, threatening to quit the Non-Proliferation Treaty and vying that "nothing can stop Iran's path to nuclear technology." In anticipation of a stand off with the West Iran recently clinched agreements with eight different Middle East insurgency groups to carry out suicide attacks against Israeli, British and US interests across the world. Ironically this plan is called 'Judgment Day.'

During a private meeting with an Iranian cleric in November, Ahmadinejad claimed that while giving a speech before the United Nations he felt "the atmosphere change and for 27 to 28 minutes the leaders did not blink". "They were astonished”, he said, “t had opened their eyes and ears to the Islamic Republic." He further said that he felt the hand of God upon him as he delivered his omniscient speech. In his egocentric fantasy world the Iranian President likely sees himself as a deputy of the Imam with a divine mission to encourage his arrival. His references to the Imam in conjunction with threats to wipe countries off the face of earth should be taken seriously. Foreign policy experts should examine the Islamic Republic from both a political and religious perspective. To the clerical regime the return of the Imam is not a mere possibility, but a surety. Their attitude towards the international community seems to point at their preparation for that day.

International concerns aside, there are domestic reasons for the regime’s erratic behavior. After 27 years of executions, floggings, stoning, oppression of political dissent, violation of women's rights, oppression of religious minorities, the largest brain drain in the world, rampant prostitution, crime, drug use and mass unemployment the Islamic Republic is domestically quite loathed. In fact, recent student polls show that close to eighty-five percent of the population supports fundamental democratic changes in the regime. Iranian students have consistently poured into the streets in pro-democracy protests only to be violently suppressed, jailed, tortured and often murdered. But dictatorships can only oppress for so long and it's only a matter of time before Iran explodes in a pro-Western democratic revolution. The regime knows that the only way they can leave any kind of legacy is by invoking nationalistic pride by pushing the country into another war and unlike the Iran-Iraq war this time they're paving the way for the return of the Twelfth Imam.

From challenging the world to enhancing Iran's nuclear programs every issue is implemented for the arrival of Mahdi. The Islamic Republic is not vying for war because they're too arrogant to understand they will be crushed. They're vying for war because they believe Mahdi will return to help them defeat the United States and others who dare stand up to them. Ahmadinejad and Company's Armageddon may be coming to a theater near you and it's probably the scariest movie we'll ever see unless we aggressively invest in the overthrow of the regime before its debut appearance.

Experts differ on how to deal with Iran

By Alexis Fabbri
Jun 5, 2006

From Monsters and Critics.com

Middle East News
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1169968.php/Experts_differ_on_how_to_deal_with_Iran

WASHINGTON, DC, United States (UPI) -- Experts are divided in whether Iran will seek to head off a confrontation with the West over its nuclear program.

A conference last week at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, heard conflicting assessments on how Tehran was likely to react to the latest proposals presented to them about dismantling their nuclear program from the United States and the European Union Trio, or EU3 nations of Britain, France and Germany.

Ali Jalali, former Interior Minister of Afghanistan, told the conference said he felt optimistic that Iran would accept some form of compromise.He said he had had had many chances to talk to ordinary Iranians and he believed they were more open-minded than most people in the West think. \'There is room to change the attitude of Iran,\' he said.

Jalali said he could endorse economic sanctions. \'Iran is very vulnerable economically. Without subsidies, people cannot make ends meet,\' he said.

If Iran`s already flailing economy suffers further, it would hurt Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad politically. The outspoken and often outrageous Ahmadinejad gained the support of his people based on promises of economic reform and recovery. Sanctions would undo his popularity, Jalali said.

Another option -- military strikes -- must be ruled out, he said. Even the threat of force could drive Iranians into activating terrorist cells in sensitive areas.

\'Iran has the means to create difficult positions for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan,\' Jalali said. Iran was already funneling money to the Iraqi insurgency and it bankrolled the Shiite Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon, he said.

Armed conflict would also alienate potential U.S. supporters in Iran. Jalali said. \'It`s difficult to imagine that the military solution would be the answer,\' he said.

Avraham Poraz, former interior minister of Israel and a member of the Israeli parliament, told the conference that the Iranians were not likely to accept whatever terms and restrictions that were laid out in the international offer.

\'I`m not so optimistic that (the United States and Europe) are able to convince (Iran),\' he said.

Israel has been the target of much of Ahmadinejad`s vitriol. He has called for Israel to \'be wiped off the map\' and has denied the holocaust ever took place.

The irony was Israel`s own president, Moshe Katsav, was born in Tehran and is fluent in Persian. The two countries` diplomats often sit next to each other at international conferences, where seats are assigned alphabetically (Iran, Israel), Poraz said. They never speak, he said.

Poraz said Israel took some comfort in its proximity to the Palestinian Authority territories since a nuclear weapon launched at Israel would most likely take out some Muslim Palestinians as well.

However, unlike Jalali, Poraz said he would not rule out the military option, even a preemptive strike, he said.

\'The only question is what is happening if crazy leaders have (nuclear weapons),\' he said. \'The reality is that if Iran has nuclear capability they might use it and we should not tolerate that,\' he said. \'I think we should all be worried.\'

Looking at the Iran situation from the Palestinian perspective, Rami Nasrallah, head of the board of directors of the International Peace and Cooperation Center in East Jerusalem, said more military action in the Middle East region would hurt his people. \'The Palestinians are victims of any conflict,\' he told the conference.

Besides, the United States` war scorecard seems to have too many marks in the loss column lately, Nasrallah said. \'If you would like to add Iran to the defeats of the Americans, be my guest,\' he said.

Nasrallah said he supported the idea of a completely nuclear-free Middle East, including Israel.

However, Poraz disagreed. \'The problem with Iran is not related to whether Israel has an atom bomb. Israel has had the atomic bomb for 40 years. It has never used it. The Iranians might use it the next day when they have it. This is the problem,\' he said.

Nasrallah said democracy was the key to change in Iran. \'Israel is a democracy, so (nuclear weapons) are allowed. Iran is not a democracy so it is not allowed. Get Iran a democracy,\' he said.

 

Lavrov: Military Intervention Against Iran Prohibited

Published: Monday, June 05, 2006
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=hotnews&alt=&trh=20060605&hn=33746

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said possible military intervention against Iran was forbidden according to the agreement signed in Vienna last week.

Making a statement to Nezavisimaya newspaper, Lavrov said they reached a consensus during the meeting, to which foreign ministers of important countries in the world participated, on going to Iran with serious suggestions in Vienna.

Sergei Lavrov noted that they have taken some very serious decisions in order to start the negotiations about the problems concerning suspending Iran’s uranium enrichment activities in the frame of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decision.

US Official Warns Iran from Ankara

By Suleyman Kurt, Ankara
June 05, 2006
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=international&alt=&hn=33742

US Deputy National Security Advisor Jack Dyer Crouch, who paid a brief visit lasting a few hours to Ankara, sent a warning to Iran to find a solution to the nuclear crisis.

Crouch said Tehran “will be a part of the process” should it take into consideration the proposal package agreed on by the UN Security Council and Germany.

Crouch had contacts in Turkey’s capital to discuss the issues of Iran, Iraq and the security of the Black Sea, meeting with Foreign Ministry Undersecretary Ali Tuygan and National Security Council Secretary-General Ambassador Yigit Alpogan, and he informed Ankara on the package offered to Iran, terming the proposal as “sincere.”

“I hope the Iranians will accept the proposal and sit at the table for solution,” Crouch said.

Crouch reminded of EU High Representative Javier Solana’s visit to Tehran said, “The EU, too, will make a proposal. We think Iran had better take advantage of these proposals. If they look at our proposals, they will see they will be a part of the process.”

The expectation for Tehran to give a positive reaction was also confirmed in the talks.

Crouch, to join the Black Sea Forum for Partnership and Dialogue-2006 to be held in Romania following his contacts in Ankara, interpreted Turkey’s role in the Black Sea as “a leader” and said this should continue.

Meanwhile, State Minister Besir Atalay representing Turkey in the forum, flew to Bucharest.

Atalay said the initiative of the forum started by Romania will strengthen cooperation in the Black Sea.

Iran's China Syndrome

June 05, 2006
The Washington Post
Jackson Diehl

link to original article

In the middle of a tirade about the pointlessness of talking with the Bush administration, a senior Iranian official I met in Tehran last month abruptly paused and asked if he could speak off the record. Then he said: "What we need is an American president who will follow the example of Richard Nixon going to China."

There in a nutshell is what this Iranian government, and most Iranians I've spoken to, fervently desire from the United States: not the tactical talks offered last week by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice but strategic recognition of Iran as a great civilization and a regional power that must be treated, like China, as a "stakeholder" in global affairs. Grant us that, said the Iranian official I saw, and "just as with China, you'll find a government that is more responsive to your concerns, more willing to play a cooperative role."

It was interesting to hear that pitch from an officer of a government whose president has recently invited the United States, aka "global arrogance," to abandon democracy and accept the dissolution of Israel. It was a reminder that, whatever President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may say in public, obtaining recognition from Washington remains one of the Islamic regime's foremost goals -- and perhaps the most powerful nonmilitary card the West holds in seeking to stop Iran's pursuit of nuclear weapons.

But the Nixon-to-China formulation also explains why U.S.-Iranian talks, though now formally endorsed by both sides, are more likely than not to fail, if they happen at all. That's because Iran and the United States approach the option of dialogue from opposite sides of the spectrum. Iran seeks a strategic encounter, a historic moment of accommodation between two powers. The United States offers pragmatic bargaining over single issues, such as the nuclear program and Iraq.

This disconnect is not new, or limited to the Bush administration. Previous American feelers to Iran, by the Reagan and Clinton administrations, were also aimed at specific problems, such as American hostages in Lebanon. Iranian governments have mostly responded by demanding broad changes in U.S. policy while refusing to engage on what they see as small points. A rare exception was Iran's quiet cooperation with President Bush during the early months of the U.S. intervention in Afghanistan. But Iranian officials now bitterly point out that, in their view, their reward for that tactical coordination was Bush's "axis of evil" speech in early 2002, which affirmed the goal of overthrowing the Islamic regime.

Last week Rice seemed to go out of her way to rule out the kind of engagement Tehran wants. "Let's remember what is not happening here," she said at a press conference. "This is not a bilateral negotiation between the United States and Iran on the whole host of issues that would lead to broader relations between Iran and the United States. . . . This is not a grand bargain."

So what, from Iran's point of view, is to be gained by accepting Rice's offer? There are possible sanctions to be avoided, of course, and a few economic benefits to be collected. There is also, U.S. officials say, a narrow and twisting path that might lead from bargaining over uranium enrichment to Iraq, to terrorism in Israel and democracy in Lebanon, and perhaps finally to some larger U.S.-Iranian detente. No, that's not how China has been treated; but U.S.-Soviet relations were something like that.

At the risk of further infuriating Vice President Cheney and other White House hawks, Rice offered the barest hint of this last week: "The Iranians can, by seriously negotiating about their nuclear program and seriously coming to a civil nuclear program that is acceptable to the international community, begin to change the relationship that it has with the international community, change the relationship that it has with the United States, begin to open the possibilities for cooperation," she said.

Maybe the Iranians will choose to exploit this tiny opening, or at least freeze their nuclear program temporarily so they can avoid a breach with Europe or Russia and provide their restless public with the visual of a U.S.-Iranian handshake. But it's at least as likely that they won't; that they will hold out in an attempt to force the Nixon-to-China gesture they really want.

The question then becomes: Could such a step be in the American interest? Would it be wise for Bush, or any president, to recognize Iran's Shiite Islamic regime as an enduring reality and a regional power whose interests must be accommodated in the broader Middle East? Would such recognition pay off in the form of a stable and democratic Iraq, or an end to Iranian support for Palestinian terrorism, or in the disarmament of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement?

It's hard to find experts on Iran in Washington who believe that it would. Which is why there will be no presidential visit to Tehran anytime in the foreseeable future -- and why an Iranian-American understanding could remain as elusive in the next few months as it has over the past 25 years.

Uppity Minorities

June 01, 2006
The Economist
Middle East & Africa

link to original article

The Islamic Republic's culture minister is under the cosh for reacting tardily to last month's publication of a cartoon, showing a cockroach speaking Azeri Turkish, which sparked rioting across Iran's Azeri-dominated north-west.

Members of the Majlis, Iran's parliament, have threatened to impeach Mustafa Pourmohammadi, the interior minister, for failing to stem lawlessness in the part-Baluch south-east. Cast an eye over western Iran's troubled Kurdish and Arab regions and you may concur with Rahim Shahbazi, an Azeri nationalist based in America, who calls ethnic strife a “nuclear bomb that will blow away the Iranian regime”.

Several days of protests by Iranian Azeris peaked on May 25th, when four demonstrators were killed in the part-Azeri town of Naghadeh. Many Azeris, the biggest minority in a country dominated by ethnic Persians, had not been placated by the banning of the government-owned newspaper in which the offending cartoon appeared, nor by the arrest of the cartoonist and an editor. The killings were only fleetingly acknowledged by the authorities. An official account was hastily withdrawn from the newswire where it was posted.

Iran's Azeris, (perhaps 16m-strong in a population of 70m-plus) are mostly Shia Muslim and have not, compared to Sunni minorities, done badly out of the (Shia) Islamic Republic. Though schooling in Azeri is not permitted and the constitution bans private broadcasting in any language, intermarriage with Persians is widespread and Azeris are well represented in Iran's trading and bureaucratic elite. From the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei (himself of Azeri origin) downwards, Iranian officials have blamed the recent unrest on foreign “enemies”.

At a time when the American government is looking for Iranian opposition groups to support, many Iranians believe such claims. Some Azeri nationalists in neighbouring Azerbaijan and others in America used the internet, radio and television broadcasts to incite protesters during the unrest. By contrast, neighbouring Turkey, which also casts a protective eye over its cousins in Iran, kept mum.

Turkey's restraint is partly due to shared interests. Kurdish minorities straddle the border. Emboldened by the autonomy now enjoyed by Iraq's Kurds, and dispirited by their own nationalist parties, some Iranian Kurds were thrilled last year when Abdullah Ocalan, the jailed leader of Turkey's Kurdish rebel movement, called for a region-wide confederation. Since then, according to Kurds from Sanandaj, the capital of the Iranian province of Kurdistan, scores of recruits have crossed into Iraq to join the Party for Free Life in Kurdistan (PJAK), an Iranian' subsidiary of Mr Ocalan's Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK). Both groups are based in northern Iraq.

Iranian Kurds, especially the Sunni majority, complain that discrimination hurts their promotion chances in the local bureaucracy. In the words of a prominent Iranian Kurdish academic, they “loathe” the state's pro-government Kurdish-language television station. Many Kurds tune in to Roj TV, which carries PJAK propaganda.

The PJAK's popularity has gone up since a Kurdish criminal suspect died at the hands of Iran's security forces last summer, causing much rioting. A Kurdish group says the security forces killed ten demonstrators in a single incident in February.

The Turks were unbothered by Iran's bombardment of suspected PJAK positions in Iraq last month. The Iranians have handed over captured PKK fighters to the Turks, and both countries recently massed troops near the border where Turkey, Iran and Iraq all meet. No government thinks it can seal these mountain border areas, a paradise for smugglers. But the Turks and Iranians aim to intimidate the PKK's Kurdish hosts in Iraq and their American overlords into reining in Mr Ocalan's cohorts.

From one side to the other

At the opposite end of the country, along Iran's border with Afghanistan and Pakistan, the security forces are also being stretched—by dozens of bandit groups and particularly by the savagery of Abdolmalek Rigi, a young Baluch who kills in cold blood in the name of his vaunted ideals, Sunni Islam and Baluchi nationalism. Iran has 4m-plus Baluchis.

Last winter, Mr Rigi's Jundullah, or Soldiers of God, kidnapped nine Iranian soldiers, one of whom they later killed. In March, they held up a convoy and slaughtered 22 people, including officials in the provincial administration of Sistan and Baluchistan. Last month, a similar raid, for which Mr Rigi did not claim responsibility, killed 12 people.

Mr Rigi, who is given publicity by some Arabic TV stations, denies that he trafficks in any of the Afghan opiates that traverse the region in vast quantities; his motives, he insists, are political. According to Mr Pourmohammadi, he flees into Pakistani Baluchistan, where President Pervez Musharraf is struggling to put down an insurgency of his own, with impunity.

In the case of Mr Rigi's attacks, and a series of bomb blasts over the past year in the part-Arab province of Khuzestan, which borders southern Iraq, the Iranians at first blamed the British and Americans—without offering proof. Moreover, the Iranians' lightning response to such atrocities does not suggest painstaking detective work. Not all Iranians were convinced, for instance, by the broadcast confessions of two Arabs later executed for alleged involvement in the blasts in Khuzestan, home to some 2m Arab Iranians. Mr Rigi has appeared on foreign channels to rebut Iranian claims that he has been killed.

Amid daily boasts of captures, deaths and brilliant punitive operations, Iranian officials never admit the role of chronic unemployment and poverty, not to mention Iran's institutionalised distrust of minorities, in stoking the unrest. In Sanandaj, for instance, university graduates may find themselves choosing between manual labour and a life in the hills with PJAK. “Is it surprising”, the academic asks, “that some choose the latter?” It certainly deters would-be investors. Rio Tinto, an Anglo-Australian mining company, recently said it was withdrawing from a gold-mining project in Kurdistan.

“In these cases of minority unrest,” observes a seasoned diplomat from a country bordering Iran, “you see the effects of America's invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq.” Sandwiched between countries in a state of flux, whose own minorities sense an opportunity, Iran's border areas are vulnerable. Crucially, though, the instability has yet to affect Iran's populous central areas, where Persians are a big majority.

In a fractious discussion among Iranian exiles last winter at the American Enterprise Institute, a right-wing think-tank in Washington, it was plain that Iran's mainstream opposition groups are as hostile to minority irredentism as the Islamic Republic is. For all the unrest around its edges, Iran's heartland remains strong, centralised, and unsympathetic to uppity minorities. Iran's nuclear bomb, if it comes, is unlikely to be aimed inwards.

EU's Solana to Present Iran with Nuclear Proposal

June 05, 2006
CNN News
CNN.com

link to original article

The European Union's foreign policy chief is set to meet with Iranian leaders in Tehran in an effort to end a standoff with the West over the nation's controversial nuclear program. Javier Solana will arrive Monday night, according to his spokeswoman, and hold talks the next day with Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki and Ali Larijani, the head Iran's Supreme National Security Council.

Six world powers -- Germany and the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council -- last week agreed on a package of incentives if Iran stops uranium enrichment, or penalties if it refuses.

Solana is to present the package to Iranian officials during Tuesday's meetings.

Washington has no diplomatic relations with Iran, which U.S. President George W. Bush branded part of an "axis of evil."

However, the United States last week agreed to join European allies in negotiations with Tehran if Iran suspends its uranium enrichment program and resumes full cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency.

The Islamic republic says it wants to pursue nuclear power for peaceful purposes, but the United States and the EU believe it harbors aspirations to be armed with nuclear weapons.

On Sunday, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said that any "misbehavior" directed at Iran would serve to disrupt Persian Gulf shipments.

"In order to threaten Iran, you say that you can guarantee movements of oil through this region," he said, referring to shipments that pass through the strategic Strait of Hormuz near Iran and other countries.

About 17 million barrels a day -- 20 percent of the world's daily needs -- leave the Gulf region via oil tankers using the narrow passageway.

The United States "should know that the slightest misbehavior on your part would endanger the region's energy security," he said. "You are not capable of guaranteeing energy security in this region."

Khamenei -- speaking on the 17th anniversary of the death of Ayatollah Khomeini, who spearheaded the establishment of the Islamic republic in 1979 -- did not specify what he meant by disruption or misbehavior.

His comment sent oil prices surging above $73 a barrel.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice deflected concerns about Khamenei's remarks. "We're not going to react to every statement that comes out of Iran," she told CNN's "Late Edition."

"The oil card -- well, let's just remember that Iran is some 80 percent dependent on oil in its budget" and would be unable to handle a disruption, she said.

"That diplomatic process needs to work now with Iran being given the proposal that the six parties put together in Vienna, with Iran recognizing that it now has a path ahead that would allow an end to this impasse," Rice said.

"But also that the international community is committed to a second path should that first path not work."

Rice refused to lay out a timetable for Iran to respond to the latest overture, saying, "I don't believe in setting timelines and deadlines. The only point here is that this can't be endless. The Iranian program is progressing, and the international community needs to know if there is a negotiating option that really has life in it."

Rice also rejected assertions by Iranian leaders that the West is trying to prevent Iran from having nuclear energy.

"If what Iran is looking for is civil nuclear technology, a peaceful program with civil nuclear technology, no one is trying to deny them that," she said.

"They've said from time to time that they have a right to civil nuclear, to a civil nuclear program. We accept that."

"The question is, can they have a civil nuclear program that does not have the proliferation risk associated with having ... certain fuel-cycle technologies on Iranian territory?"

No compromise on enrichment program

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Saturday his country is ready to hold "fair and unconditional" talks with the West on Iran's nuclear issue, according to the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Ahmadinejad, who spoke to thousands gathered at Khomeini's shrine, repeated that Iran will not compromise on its right to enrich uranium for peaceful purposes, the news agency said.

But Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Iran will formally announce its views on the incentives package after it has been studied.

Ahmadinejad, a hard-line conservative, has sparked international outrage with some of his previous comments denying the Holocaust and calling for the destruction of Israel.

Khamenei -- who didn't mention the diplomatic offer from the six nations -- insisted that the country "is not pursuing a nuclear bomb" and said "we have no intention of war with any government."

"We have no plans that would require us to have a bomb. This is against Islamic principles. Building and maintaining a nuclear bomb costs a lot, and we do not need this," he said.

"We are no threat to anyone, but we are dedicated and committed to our national interests and aspirations," he said. "But if anyone wants to stop us, they will feel the wrath and anger of this nation.".

-- CNN's Shirzad Bozorghmehr contributed to this report.

`Next Chapter' for U.S. is Push to Foment Change in Iran

May 31, 2006
Chicago Tribune
Cam Simpson

link to original article

The face of the Bush administration's new favorite weapon against Iran's cleric-dominated regime has the cheekbones of a Vogue cover girl.

Once a week, digital bits carrying new images and the Persian voice of Luna Shad - an Iran-born actress who spent her formative years in Paris, wears knee-high boots and carries a Louis Vuitton handbag - rain down from American-leased satellites and are collected in antenna dishes across Iran.

Although it's probably little more than an educated guess, U.S. officials say up to 2 million Iranians may be watching Shad's 30-minute broadcast, "Next Chapter," as she introduces a story about underground garage bands. It follows her piece on a political psychologist who dissects Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad along with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il and Saddam Hussein.

"Next Chapter," is aimed at Iran's youth. But the demographics aren't about appealing to advertisers. The show's sponsor, the U.S. government, is trying to foment change in Iran.

The Bush administration is moving urgently to deal with Iran, a nation that poses what many believe to be the most vexing foreign policy challenge facing the United States. But it is Shad's U.S.-sponsored broadcast and others like it that are to be the most costly and visible beneficiaries of the administration's latest push, despite questions about their effectiveness.

With Tehran's nuclear program grabbing world attention, the administration is seeking $75 million in emergency funding from Congress to counter the clerics, the ultimate decision-makers in Iran. The request represents a dramatic shift for a White House that previously had all but ignored attempts to influence events in Iran; just three years ago it invested only $1.5 million on "democracy promotion."

About 10 times that amount, or $15 million, would go toward such programs under the current request, mainly via groups that work with reformers. Independent-appearing "surrogate" news media would be seeded with about $20 million more.

The biggest pot, however, would bolster existing Persian-language television and radio programs directly financed by American taxpayers, such as "Next Chapter." Shad's show is produced by the Persian desk of Voice of America in Washington, which would share roughly $30 million of the emergency funding with Radio Farda, another U.S. government-financed Persian service.

The $75 million request is contained in emergency appropriations legislation for Iraq and Hurricane Katrina. The House pared the Iran request to $56 million, but more money for broadcasts such as Shad's remains untouched. The Senate version includes all $75 million.

No matter which one wins out, Washington looks like it wants to spend money on Iran in a fashion not seen since 1953, when Kermit Roosevelt Jr., the grandson of Theodore Roosevelt, passed out CIA-supplied cash on the streets of Tehran to stoke the coup that brought Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to power.

The means today are dramatically different. And Shad, like many of her colleagues, rejects the notion that she's selling regime change.

"What I try to do is just give them information on all sides, so they can just choose themselves," Shad says.

Staffers at Voice of America also recoil at the suggestion they might feel more pressure under the growing gaze of an eager White House.

Yet Shad, so youthful-looking at 34 that she could be mistaken for a teen in her target audience, also says that her "soft approach" of blending politics and culture may be a greater challenge for Tehran than a blatant propaganda campaign, especially given that more than half of Iran's population was born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

"Culture is always the best way to have an impact on people," Shad said during an interview at VOA studios in Washington where her show is taped.

U.S.-financed international broadcasts have bounced about the globe since World War II. They were a Washington favorite during the Cold War, including at the CIA, which funded radio programming as part of its psychological warfare campaign against communists.

But when the Soviet Union collapsed, so did some of the enthusiasm for taxpayer-funded broadcasts.

Washington reinvigorated such broadcasting after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, launching Arabic-language radio and satellite television networks in an effort to burnish America's image across much of the Middle East.

The Government Accountability Office says it now is examining questions about the effectiveness of the two 24-hour operations, Alhurra satellite television (it means "the free one") and Radio Sawa, though the Bush administration strongly supports them.

Well before the administration's current emergency funding request for Persian programming, the growing sense of urgency about Iran had landed at the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversees all foreign broadcasting efforts. Given the political popularity within Washington of the Arabic channels, it seemed inevitable that similar enthusiasm would spread to Persian broadcasts because of the growing confrontation with Iran.

In 2003, the BBG's controversial Republican chairman, Kenneth Tomlinson, called Washington from a board meeting in Prague to urgently order the Voice of America's main Persian-language television show to go daily from once a week. In the fall of 2004, Tomlinson persuaded then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice to push for funding that would allow VOA to boost its Persian-language television programming from just nine original hours per week to 28 per week.

Even without the emergency funding, Shad's show is scheduled to go daily this summer. Executives at VOA envision it also going "newsier," while maintaining its youthful edge. Think Anderson Cooper, in Persian and with Shad, instead of the CNN star.

Emergency funds would allow for other new programs and enhance existing shows like hers. Although these efforts are openly compared within the administration to Cold War anti-communist broadcasts, David Jackson, the VOA chief, insisted in a recent interview that his journalists do not do anyone's political bidding.

Earlier this month, Jackson brought his mantra on VOA's independence to a forum on Iran broadcasting at American University, where he faced skeptical Iranian expatriates.

For some of them the tableau evoked by a Washington-financed media effort includes images from their own tumultuous past, such as American bribes paid to Iranian journalists in the 1950s, and by the more recent experiences in neighboring Iraq. There, the Bush administration allegedly used similar inducements to finance friendly coverage of the occupation.

"Nobody, but nobody, in Iran believes that state-funded broadcasters could act independently," said Roya Kashefi, an Iranian who moderated Jackson's panel. She heads the London office of the Association of Iranian Researchers.

Her group broadcast Jackson's panel on the Internet. She says 31,000 people in Iran tuned in. When it was over, she said, many of them inundated her office with e-mails complaining about Jackson and a State Department official, Alberto Fernandez, who heads Iran public diplomacy efforts.

"It was amazing," Kashefi says.

But Shireen Hunter, an Iranian scholar and expert at Georgetown University, says the broadcasting efforts may be the only tool at America's disposal.

"I'm not against it at all," Hunter said. "It's important that we maintain at least some kind of contact with that society. All I am saying is we shouldn't expect too much from it."

Shad says her major concern about the new attention is that she won't meet her own expectations.

"Right now the quality is very good," she says. "We have to keep it that way."

 Iran: Prominent Journalist Receives Press Freedom Award In Moscow

By Golnaz Esfandiari
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/06/A3E1B276-3994-4E5A-89BE-5F2B6B6986EA.html

 

Akbar Ganji after receiving his Golden Pen award on June 5

(epa)

One of Iran’s best-known investigative journalists, Akbar Ganji, was at a Moscow ceremony today to receive the World Association of Newspapers' (WAN) Golden Pen of Freedom award. Ganji has spent the past six years in jail for articles that implicated senior Iranian officials in the killing of dissident intellectuals in 1998. In presenting the award, the World Association of Newspapers called on Iranian authorities to respect its citizens' right to free _expression. Ganji remains outspoken in his defense of human rights and a free press.



PRAGUE, June 5, 2006 (RFE/RL) -- Ganji dedicated his award to the casualties of the "series" of killings in 1998 and what he suggests is the subsequent cover-up.
 
“This prize should go to those who on the path of fighting for freedom and human rights were slaughtered during the serial murders," he told attendees of today's ceremony.
 
Authorities have blamed the deaths on rogue elements in the Intelligence Ministry. But Ganji -- in articles and in a compilation titled "Dungeon Of Ghosts" -- has implicated senior Iranian officials. They include former President Ali-Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani -- who now chairs the powerful Expediency Council -- and former Intelligence Minister Ali Falahian.
 
Dedicated To The Victims
 
Speaking today, Ganji dedicated his prize to the political prisoners who were executed in prisons across Iran in late 1980s and to other victims of human rights abuses.
 
Ganji and his wife after his release from prison on March 18 (Fars)“This prize belongs to all of those who were tortured and paralyzed merely because they worked in journalism and defended freedom of thought," Ganji said. "The prize should go to all the dissidents who were imprisoned in past years and deprived of their social rights. The prize should belong to all those [critics and independent thinkers] who, because they dare to think differently, have been forced into exile and continue to live while remembering Iran and cannot return to the country.”
 
Ganji also said he accepted the prize on behalf of the groups that are fighting for human rights in Iran.
 
Punished, Not Silenced
 
Ganji was sentenced to six years in prison in 2001 on several charges, including threatening Iranian national security and insulting the country's leaders. He was released in March.
 
He spent most of his prison term in solitary confinement while reportedly being pressured to give up his writing and opinions.
 
Ganji launched a hunger strike in 2005 to demand his release that lasted more than 40 days. While on medical leave last year, he called for a boycott of Iran’s presidential elections.
 
Ganji during his hunger strike in July 2005 (courtesy photo)Ganji published a two-volume book from prison in which he challenged the authority of Iran's supreme leader and said real democracy cannot be achieved under the country's current system.
 
In Moscow today, Ganji said his slogan in fighting oppression and violence is, “Forgive, but never forget." Ganji also urged his audience to remember the conditions that led to the creation of fascism and totalitarianism, and other forms of dictatorship.
 
More Appearances, Then Back To Iran
 
After his trip to Moscow, Ganji is scheduled to continue his international travels for appearances in Germany, Italy, and the United States.
 
In an interview with Radio Farda today, he vowed to return to his homeland, where -- despite his persistent calls for justice and reform in the highest echelons of power -- he does not fear arrest.
 
“Today more than 1,700 representatives of important newspapers and publications were here. They all gave me a warm welcome," Ganji told Radio Farda. "The ambassadors of different countries, even Islamic countries, also expressed their solidarity. And some of them asked me with humor, 'Why is the Iranian ambassador not present?' There is moral international support for Iranian free thinkers; but at the same time whoever fights for democracy, freedom, and human rights in countries like Iran should know that there are threats and there is a price to pay for democracy. I’ve been six years and three months in prison, and I’m used to the life there.”
 
Ganji is the second Iranian journalist to have won the Golden Pen of Freedom award. In 1999, Faraj Sarkuhi received the award. Sarkuhi is the former editor of "Adineh" magazine, and now lives in exile in Germany.
 
Embassy of Iran issued statement on printing caricatures of religious and state leaders of Iran in the Azerbaijani press

 05 Jun. 2006

http://en.apa.az/news.php?id=10618

Embassy of Islamic Republic of Iran in Azerbaijan has issued a statement on printing caricatures of Imam Khomeini, Ayatollah Khamnei, ex and present presidents’ caricatures in Azerbaijani press.

The statement entered APA states that publishing of such humiliating caricatures is not relevant to any divine religion, human religion; this is abuse of media freedom. The embassy evaluates this as continuation of disrespect of Shiah imams’ tomb in Iraq, creating of confrontation in ethical base in Iran, states it as bad deeds of America and Zionist circles. “The embassy is grateful to Azerbaijani government for the urgent measures to prevent such cases and reminds that the better part of Iran people expect the punishment of those committing this act.” /APA/