The Mission of Iran’s New Majlis

The make up of Iran’s new parliament following the March 14 elections, though still a work in progress, has already solidified the rule of the most belligerent, suppressive faction. The new Majlis can best be described as a den of henchmen and torturers.
Supreme Leader Ali Khamene'i described the new parliament as "committed, opposed to Western arrogance, and powerful.” A day later, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad described the vote as "safeguarding the right to acquire nuclear energy with exemplary prowess."

In Tehran, which had 30 seats up for grabs, 18 of the 19 candidates who made it through the first round belonged to the Ahmadinejad faction. The nineteenth, an occasional critic of Ahmadinejad, is nevertheless a staunch supporter of Khamene'i.
One of the newly elected deputies, Ruhollah Hosseinian, lauded the former deputy Intelligence Minister, implicated in the murder of dozens of intellectuals in the 1990s, as a "great martyr." Another, a female deputy named Fatima Alia, has been identified by eyewitnesses as collaborating in the torture of many women political prisoners affiliated with the main Iranian opposition, the Mujahedin-e Khalq. Morteza Agha Tehrani, a cleric, is a ringleader of the plain-clothes agents responsible for the beating and arrest of many students. He is also known as a mentor to the henchmen in Ahmadinejad's cabinet.

The post shows Iran adding officials to there (cabinet). Amadineajad thinks having these new officials will also help in the nuclear program.

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Iran Moves to Join Shanghai Cooperation Organization

Iran has lodged a bid to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) that comprises Russia, China and the four ex-Soviet Central Asian states, the country's foreign minister said on Monday.
The Islamic Republic, which currently holds an observer status in the regional security group, has long sought to become a full member of the SCO, seen as a counterbalance to U.S. and NATO influence in the region.

"Tajikistan supports us in this issue," Manouchehr Mottaki said after a meeting with the foreign ministers of SCO member Tajikistan and Afghanistan, which is another SCO observer along with India, Pakistan and Mongolia.
The bloc - which primarily addresses security issue but has recently moved to embrace energy projects - has indefinitely postponed accepting new members, but pledged closer cooperation with the observer states.
Both China and Russia have, however, major commercial interests in Iran. The energy-hungry Asian nation wants Iranian oil and gas and to sell weapons and other goods to the Islamic Republic. Moscow also hopes to sell more weapons and nuclear energy technology to Tehran. The Kremlin also needs Iran's endorsement for a multinational arrangement to exploit the Caspian Sea's energy resources.

Iran is still trying to form better ties with many other nations. This could posibaly be because of their growing nuclar program. This move was smart on behalf of the Irannians.

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Iran suspends pilgrim tours to Iraq

Iran has suspended pilgrim tours to Shi'ite Muslim holy sites in Iraq because of rising violence there, state television reported on Thursday.More than 130 people have been killed and hundreds wounded in Iraq since Tuesday, when the U.S.-backed government launched an operation against Shi'ite militias in the southern city of Basra. Fighting has since spread across southern Iraq.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini protested earlier against what he said was the fingerprinting of Iranian pilgrims entering Iraq by U.S. troops, the official IRNA news agency reported.He said pilgrims went to Iraq under an agreement between the two neighbours and with "appropriate coordination between Iranian and Iraqi officials and (hence) there is no need for another party's interference".The United States has accused Iran of stirring up violence in Iraq by funding, training and supplying weapons to Iraqi militias, a charge Iran dismisses. Tehran blames the presence of U.S. troops for the instability and says they should quit Iraq.

This shows how Iran is taking preventive measures and trying to protect its citizens. This does prevent many Iranians from going on religious journeys though.


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Egypt Concerned About Iranian Influence

Egypt has become increasingly concerned by Iran's growing influence in the Gaza Strip since Hamas breached the Gazan-Egyptian border in January. In practice, President Hosni Mubarek told a senior European diplomat recently that because of the situation that has developed there Egypt has a common border with Iran.

President Mubarek compared Gaza to Lebanon and said that "in both places the problems and the crises stem from Iran's growing influence."

Israeli Government officials say that Egypt's attitude to the situation in Gaza has significantly altered and Cairo is now relating much more seriously to cross-border arms smuggling by Hamas and Islamic Jihad, especially since Iranian supplied Grad rockets were fired onto the Israeli city of Ashkelon...

Arab Governments are worried by Iran's growing influence but are unwilling, with few exceptions, to become unpopular and openly criticise Teheran when domestic opinion in most of their countries generally supports Iran, local reports add.

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Iran continues to be in conflict with other countries: this time, they're having problems with Egypt. Iran's strong influence in the Gaza Strip is making Egypt uncomfortable. Will Egypt be drug into conflict with Iran?

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Confusing Iran with Iraq

Do you have trouble keeping Iran and Iraq straight? Don't worry -- so do folks at the Pentagon, sometimes.

A Defense Intelligence Agency publication available as recently as yesterday on its Web site noted "an Israeli F-16 raid to destroy an Iranian nuclear reactor" in 1981.

Just one problem: publicly-known history includes no Israeli raid on an Iranian nuclear reactor in 1981. Israel did attack an Iraqi facility at Osirak that year, however.

"I cannot exclude, of course, that the DIA detected an operation which no one else knows of to this day," wrote the man who apparently caught the error, Israeli historian Gideon Remez, in an e-mail to DIA March 24.

However, "today's preoccupation with Iran's nuclear program seems to have been projected onto the events of 27 years ago," Remez noted dryly.


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Because Iran and Iraq both pose a threat to United States security, the two countries are easily confused. American people have even confused the two countries in regards to historical occurences.

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A Bitter Bombing Is Likely

The odds of Bush bombing Iran have gone up dramatically this week.

There's just no other way to rationally interpret the resignation of Admiral William Fallon as head of Centcom.

Fallon resigned, and more likely was pushed out, after Esquire published an article on him entitled "The Man Between War and Peace." It said he was the one standing in the way of Bush bombing Iran...


What's more, according to U.S. News, "two U.S. warships took up positions off Lebanon earlier this month." The Pentagon "would want its warships in the eastern Mediterranean in the event of military action against Iran to keep Iranian ally Syria in check and to help provide air cover to Israel against Iranian missile reprisals," the story said. "One of the newly deployed ships, the USS Ross, is an Aegis guised missile destroyer, a top system for defense against air attacks."

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As was to be expected, William Fallon's resignation has led to a dramatic increase in U.S. and Iranian tension. With Bush's strong penchant for bombing Iran, will we go to war?

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U.S. commander: Iran still meddles in Iraq

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, said Iran continues to support Iraqi insurgents and Syria is allowing foreign fighters passage into Iraq.

In January, Petraeus said attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq with bombs believed linked to Iran -- known as explosively formed penetrators (EFPs) -- had risen sharply after several months of decline. But that came after several months of decline in Iranian involvement.

The Bush administration and the military have long maintained that Iranian agents, particularly the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, have been arming and training Iraqi insurgents.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited Iraq earlier this month and pledged to help Iraq with energy supplies, while denouncing U.S. statements about Iranian involvement with Iraqi insurgents.

Differences with the Bush administration over Iran were reported to be behind the resignation of Petraeus' boss, Adm. William Fallon, earlier this month, but Petraeus on Wednesday said he and Fallon have been seeing eye-to-eye on Iraq in recent months."

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This article shows the United States continuing distrust towards Iran. Even though Iran denounces claims that the country is "meddling" in Iraq, the United States continues to maintain that its claims about Iran's intervention are true.

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Signs of Iran's Hand in Iraq

"One of the armor-piercing roadside bombs in Iraq has a nickname among the militants who place the device. They call it the Najadia, a short variation on the long name of Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. "My group and I believe honestly in fighting the Americans — and getting financial benefit out of it," says Hussein Ali, an Iraqi Shi'ite guerrilla who recounted a journey to Iran for training in explosives in an interview with TIME. "We became very professional in planting and using the mine called BMZ2, which is a Russian mine modified in Iran for use against the American armor."

Despite a drop in violence across Iraq, U.S. officials in Baghdad and Washington have kept up accusations against Iran, saying Tehran is involved in nothing less than training and funding a shadow army of Shi'ite militants set against U.S. forces in Iraq. In the face of these U.S. assertions, the Iraqi government publicly says it has no evidence of an Iranian training program for Iraqi militants. "We don't have the proof that the American have," says Iraqi government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh. "Normally the intelligence information the Americans have is not allowed to circulate." The issue was also not discussed, al-Dabbagh says, in official talks during Ahmadinejad's recent visit to Baghdad, where the Iranian leader enjoyed a warm reception that reflected deepening ties between Iran and Iraq. Iran has offered unflinching denials of subversive and anti-U.S. activity in Iraq.

According to U.S. claims, Iraqi recruits from the Mahdi Army of Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr and other militias have traveled in groups numbering between 20 and 60 to Iran in a training program organized by the Quds Force that dates back to 2004. Handlers from the Quds Force, an elite paramilitary wing of the Iranian army, allegedly transport recruits to training camps near Tehran."

This article discusses alleged claims by the U.S. that Iran is training militants to fight the U.S. forces in Iraq. Iran denys any anti-U.S. activity in Iraq. The Iraqi government states that it has found no evidence realating to militant training camps. Though the U.S. still believes in its claims, there is very little evidence to support it.

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Iran rep details nuclear program

"On the evening of March 19, the promise of a unique seminar drew throngs of students and professors into a packed lecture hall at Prague’s University of Economics. Hours before flying home to celebrate the Persian New Year, diplomat and nuclear physicist Ali Asghar Soltanieh, the Iranian ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna — a United Nations watchdog organization — candidly discussed the details of his country’s nuclear research program.

Adamant that Iran was using the enriched uranium for peaceful energy projects, Soltanieh rebuked the latest regulations. By outlining the program’s diplomatic and technical history from Iran’s perspective, he pledged to “remove ambiguities and questions, so that those ill-minded people cannot … manipulate and give biased information to the public and then make it into an excuse for an invasion.”

In the latest report, circulated to the Board of Governors (the IAEA’s policymaking body) Feb. 22, agency Director General Mohamed ElBaradai commended Iran for cooperating with the IAEA on a series of inspections. He also announced that a majority of questions — including the “most important issue” exploring the “scope and nature” of Iran’s enrichment program — had been resolved.

Soltanieh said he once escorted inspectors to a site flagged by a two-year CIA project as an undeclared uranium mine and conversion facility. After several fruitless days of searching, it was revealed that the undeclared facility was actually a stone-cutting workshop, which had recently built a few extra lavatories for their newly employed workers, Soltanieh said. “It was very embarrassing for the IAEA inspectors,” he added."

Soltanieh's seminar rebuked U.N. claims about Iran's nuclear program. Soltanieh affirmed that the country is following the rules of the security council and not using its program for militaristic means.

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U.S. punishes Bahrain bank for its Iran ties

"WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States Treasury Department announced sanctions Wednesday against a Bahrain bank accused of helping Iran's alleged nuclear proliferation activities.

The Treasury Department said Future Bank B.S.C. is controlled by Iran's Bank Melli, which has already been sanctioned "for facilitating Iran's proliferation activities."

Future Bank was started in 2004 in a joint venture between Bank Melli; Bank Saderat, also an Iranian bank; and a private bank based in Bahrain.

Under the designation, any bank accounts and financial assets in the United States must be frozen, and American citizens will not be permitted to do business with the bank.

Bahrain "has taken responsible steps to try to prevent Future Bank from abusing the country's financial system," Levey said." '

Abuse of Future banks funds in Bahrain is not very good. Giving the funds to Iran's nuclear program is even worse. This will ruin the the reputation of the bank among western countries against Iran's nuclear program.

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Iranians vote in general election

"Voting has been taking place in Iran, with conservatives expected to win after opponents of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were barred from running.

The authorities in Tehran have called for a big turnout in the parliamentary polls, to defy the US and other countries they say are Iran's enemies.

The BBC's Tehran correspondent Jon Leyne says a lack of choice, due to widespread disqualifications of reformist candidates, could discourage people from voting.

With the field narrowed, he says, the only question is how seats will be shared out between competing conservatives.

The reformists seem to have given up the fight after many of their candidates were disqualified on the grounds of alleged lack of loyalty to Islamic values, says our correspondent.

They made up the bulk of around 1,700 candidates barred from running by Iran's Guardian Council - an unelected body of clerics and jurists that vets election candidates."

Though the parliamentary elections are expecting a large voter turn-out, voters will be discouraged by so few candidate choices. The conservative victory will only have one problem: how to share the seats in parliament.

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FIFA Ranking: Iran sink to third in Asia

Only a dozen or so international matches have been played, producing no more than a ripple on the latest instalment of the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking.
The top 14 positions remain the same as last month, with Argentina, Brazil and Italy all maintaining a fairly comfortable advantage over their pursuers.
Honduras (43rd, up 7) are the biggest movers in the top 50, whereas the highest climbers of the month are to be found in the middle of the ranking, namely Equatorial Guinea (64th, up 14), Oman (86th, up 12), Guyana (113th, up 19) and Grenada (157th, up 11), with the two CONCACAF teams enjoying some success in recent weeks. Equatorial Guinea and Oman, meanwhile, have benefited from the devaluation of matches from last year from which they emerged either empty-handed or did not score highly.
Due to the low level of movement up and down the ranking, the composition of the top 50 also remains unchanged compared to last month: UEFA has 27 teams, whereas Africa, South America, Asia and the CONCACAF countries have nine, six, five and three representatives respectively.



This post shows that Irans soccer team is not so good.


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Iran to build $230 million hydroelectric dam in Nicaragua

A state-owned Iranian company will build the $230 million Bodoke project on the Tuma River in the Jinotega province with financing by Iran's export bank, Energy Minister Emilio Rappaccioli told Nicaragua's Channel 2 on Thursday."The construction will take place once both sides reach an agreement on a series of factors that have to studied further," Rappaccioli said.

The visit came just a week after U.S. Ambassador Paul Trivelli warned the Central American nation about its increasingly close ties with Iran. But Trivelli also said that the relationship would not endanger the United States' "good relations" with Nicaragua.

Under the Iran-Nicaragua pact, Iran will fund a farm equipment assembly plant, 4,000 tractors, four hydroelectric plants, five milk-processing plants, a health clinic, 10,000 houses and two piers in the western port of Corinto. In exchange Nicaragua will export coffee, meat and bananas to Iran.
The planned dam is part of Nicaragua's plan to shift toward renewable energy sources. Currently 80 percent of the country's energy needs are met by oil imports.


The Iranians are now trying to help out the South Americans. This seems strange because the Iranians seem to be "buddying up " with county's closer to the U.S.A. This article also explains that this project is one of many projects talked about by the Iranian government.

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Golamreza Ansari, Iran's Ambassador to Russia: "We don't have such missiles"

The Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipo­ten­tiary of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Russia Golamreza Ansari told our correspondent about the Iranian nuclear program, missile technologies, Russian-Iranian military cooperation, and the current political situation in Iran. Before his appointment to Moscow, Ansari worked in the Head office of the Foreign Ministry in Tehran and then as Iranian Ambassador in London.

What is your opinion concerning the worries of some countries about the nuclear program of Iran?
Presently the most important global problem in the world is the nuclear program of Iran. Many scientists and politicians in the world worry about this program. There are three aspects of this problem: technical, political, and international law. Only the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) can make any conclusions about this problem. Article 4 of The Non-Proliferation Treaty speaks about the balance of security issues and social-economic circumstances in developing countries.
According to this agreement each country that has signed the Treaty has the right to carry out studies, produce, and use nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. No country has the right to force another country to refrain from using nuclear energy. For more than 50 years, since the founding of the IAEA in 1957, as a result of political pressure this organization has not been able to reflect the interests of developing countries, as outlined in the IAEA Charter.

What is your attitude about the current situation in Iraq?

The Islamic Republic of Iran respects the territorial integrity of Iraq, advocates for unity and solidarity of all Iraqi people, parties, and influential clans. The development and prosperity of Iraq, the strengthening of central authority, clear and exact plans and a date of withdrawal for foreign troops from Iraq - are the main principles of our policy concerning Iraq.

The Iranian ambassador to Russia answered questions that many people were curious about. The Russians were also concerned about the nuclear program . If you look back over the last year though the Russians have been shipping the Iranians uranium.

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Zimbabwe Receives Aid From Iran

The Islamic Republic of Iran will continue to assist Zimbabwean educational and cultural institutions for the development and promotion of education and culture between the two countries, a senior Iranian Embassy official said on Tuesday.

Speaking at the presentation of a book donation worth more than $35 billion to the University of Zimbabwe Library yesterday, the Head of the Cultural Section at the Iranian embassy Mr Mohammed Hassan Ipakchi said he hoped the books would benefit the people.


"Our country is ready to co-operate with various educational and cultural institutions in Zimbabwe. "The books we are donating are from a list we received from the University of Zimbabwe and we hope they are going to benefit the people of Zimbabwe as a whole," said Mr Ipakchi. The acting Pro Vice Chancellor of the University of Zimbabwe, Dr Witmore Mujaji thanked the Embassy of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its long-standing support to the University.

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This article shows Iran in a gentler, more benevolent light. Though Iran has been having several problems with the United States and Israel, they have been active in assisting Zimbabwe with cultural and educational expansion.

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Getting Out the Vote in Iran

"She is known as the mother of two shahids, (martyrs) and is sometimes called "commander" by her "sisters." In a neighborhood close to the bazaar district in southern Tehran, Aghdas Moradi, better known as "the mother of Shahid Mohammad Mehdi Abolghasemi," is scurrying around with her black chador flailing around her, giving orders to the men on the other end of her walkie-talkie.

As an activist of the Islamic Alliance Party, perhaps the most hard-line of Iran's conservative factions, she is hard at work running a weekend of programs commemorating the martyrdom of three of the most venerated figures in Shi'ite Islam, the Prophet Muhammad, his grandson Imam Hassan and the only one of Shi'ism's original twelve imams buried in Iran, Imam Reza.

The speaker at this evening's event is the cleric Hojjatoleslam Gholamreza Mesbahi-

Moghaddam, a candidate of the United Principalists' Coalition (UPC) in Iran's March 14 parliamentary elections. About 700 women, all clad in black chadors, are seated on red carpets in the women's tent, with about the same number of men on the other side.
Everyone is offered tea and dates upon arrival and urged to pick up the UPC's list of 30 candidates for Tehran's share of seats in the Majlis, the national parliament.

Abolghasemi is the leader of 300 basij women, a network of volunteers allied with the Revolutionary Guard and political conservatives. It was the grassroots efforts of groups like hers that helped conservatives take control of the legislature from reformists in 2004, and swept President Ahmadinejad to victory in the 2005 presidential election."

This article shows the United Principalists' Coalition (UPC) preparing for Iran's march 14th parliamentary elections. It is ironic that even though Iran keeps women at a very low social level, a party from the country that is very conservative still has many supporters that are women.

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Resignation of US Admiral Does Not Signal Policy Change in Iran

The resignation of the commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan does not signal a policy change on Iran, US Defence Secretary Robert Gates says.

Admiral William Fallon said on Tuesday he was stepping down because of public perceptions of a rift with Mr Bush.

A recent article said Adm Fallon opposed military strikes against Iran...

The affair centres on an article in the April edition of Esquire magazine which described the admiral as "the strongest man standing between the Bush administration and a war with Iran"...

He said the idea, suggested in the article, that Adm Fallon's departure would indicate that the US was planning to go to war with Iran was "ridiculous".

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The fact that the strongest force against a war with Iran has resigned is frightening. What does William Fallon's resignation mean for the future of U.S. and Iranian relations?

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Assessment Complete

Let's Stop Iran!

BRUSSELS (AFP) — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice insisted Thursday that world powers would continue to offer Iran incentives to get it to suspend uranium enrichment, even after Iran rejected further talks.

"The six ... continue to follow a dual track strategy," she told reporters at NATO headquarters, referring to the pursuit of sanctions at the United Nations and the offer of talks led by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

"We are continuing to talk about what the path would look like for Iran, should it choose the path of negotiation," Rice said...

On Wednesday, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected any new talks with Solana, saying Tehran would in the future negotiate only with the UN nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

"Iran will not negotiate with anyone outside the (UN atomic) agency with regard to its nuclear issue," he said, according to state news agency IRNA.

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The United Nations and the EU are both trying to persuade Iran to "suspend uranium enrichment." Iran, however, has rejected further talks with the EU and states that in the future, they will only negotiate with the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN's "nuclear watchdog."

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Financial sanctions "painful" for Iran-US official

Targeted financial sanctions have been effective in isolating Iran, causing a "painful" situation for Tehran's leaders and raising questions about the Iranian administration, a U.S. Treasury official said on Thursday."Iran has found itself increasingly isolated from the international financial system as banks around the world decide that maintaining their Iranian clientele is not worth the risk of unwittingly facilitating (weapons) proliferation or terrorism," Treasury Under Secretary Stuart Levey said in remarks prepared for delivery to an American Bar Association conference in Miami.

"That self-imposed isolation combined with the Iranian regime's mismanagement of their country's economy is beginning to generate a debate about the wisdom of the current regime's policies," he added.

Recent U.S. financial measures targeting specific financial institutions have been more effective in applying pressure than sanctions aimed at an entire state, Levey said."Rather than grudgingly complying with, or even trying to evade these measures, we have seen many members of the banking industry in particular voluntarily go above and beyond their legal requirements because they do not want to handle illicit business," he said.

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This post shows that not is there conflict with Iran and the U.S but also the private banks within.

Gay Iranian fights deportation move

A gay teenager who sought sanctuary in Britain when his boyfriend was executed in Iran is battling authorities who want to return him to his home country.Mehdi Kazemi, 19, came to London to study English in 2005 but later discovered that his boyfriend had been arrested by the Iranian police.

Mr Kazemi was told by his father in Tehran that his boyfriend had been questioned about his sexual relationships before his execution in April 2006 and named him under interrogation.
Mr Kazemi claimed asylum in Britain, fearing for his life if he returned to Iran.His case was refused late last year so he fled Britain for the Netherlands where he is now being detained.He appeared before a Dutch court to fight his return to Britain, where he fears authorities will send him back to Iran.

In a letter to the British Government, Mr Kazemi told Home Secretary Jacqui Smith: "I wish to inform the Secretary of State that I did not come to the UK to claim asylum. I came here to study and return to my country."But in the past few months my situation back home has changed. The Iranian authorities have found out that I am a homosexual and they are looking for me. If I return to Iran I will be arrested and executed like my former boyfriend."

Peter Tatchell, of the gay rights campaign group Outrage, who described the Government stance as "shameful" said a Dutch appeal court was expected to decide soon whether to grant him permission to apply for asylum in Holland or send him back to Britain.
A Home Office spokeswoman said it did not comment on individual cases, but if an application is refused there is a right of appeal to an independent judge.

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This post shows that there are no rights for gays in Iran. Also there is curruption in their police force. This shows there is not a very legitimate police force.

Sanctions Will Not Hinder Iranian Oil Production

TEHRAN, March 6 (Reuters) - Iran's oil minister said on Thursday the latest U.N. sanctions on Tehran over its disputed nuclear plans would not affect the oil sector in the world's fourth-largest crude producer.

Gholamhossein Nozari was also quoted as describing this week's OPEC meeting in Vienna as positive and said the impact of the cartel's decision to keep production unchanged would be seen in coming weeks.

OPEC ministers agreed to hold output steady and said oil prices which hit an all-time high on Wednesday were driven by factors beyond their control. U.S. crude surged to a record $104.95 a barrel in late Wednesday trade...

But he said: "The impact of OPEC's decision on oil prices will become clear in future weeks and one should see how the price growth develops in future weeks."

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Eariler this week, Iran wanted to cut back oil production. However, according to this article, OPEC ministers have agreed to keep output at the current amount. Though the U.S. continues to place sanctions on Iran, this Middle Eastern country plans to reign as the "world's fourth-largest crude producer."

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U.S. v. Iran: Running Out the Clock

Nobody on any side of the Iran nuclear dispute believes that yesterday's U.N. sanctions vote is going to break the deadlock. Faced with continuing Iranian defiance of the demand that it suspend uranium enrichment until concerns over the intent of its nuclear program can be resolved, the Security Council passed a package that incrementally tightens existing sanctions. It banned travel by certain officials of Iran's nuclear program, freezed the assets of certain companies and barred Iran from importing certain dual-use technologies. But Iran has made quite clear that it has no intention of complying with the U.N.'s demand, which it deems "illegal," and it is more than capable of absorbing the very limited pain inflicted by the new measures. Indeed, the package agreed upon on Monday reflected the lowest-common-denominator consensus between countries such as the U.S., Britain and France, which wanted tougher sanctions, and countries such as Russia and China that want to avoid measures with real bite, both because of their own commercial ties with Iran and because they believe putting Iran's back against the wall will simply exacerbate the conflict.

So, despite being the subject of a new sanctions package adopted by the overwhelming consensus at the Security Council (Indonesia's abstention was the only discordant note), Iran is not feeling particularly isolated or pressured. The Council vote came on the same day that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad concluded his historic state visit to Baghdad, where he was feted and hailed as a friend by a government entirely dependent on the U.S. for its security. Nor is Iraq alone among Arab states in ignoring Washington's calls for Iran's isolation. Ahmadinejad was the personal guest of the Saudi king during the recent Hajj pilgrimage, and even Egypt is responding to Iranian diplomatic initiatives aimed at ending almost four decades of hostility with the Islamic Republic. It's not that Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt are simply ignoring the sources of tension with Tehran: instead theirs is a regional realpolitik that sees a cooperative relationship as a more productive way of addressing those issues than the more confrontational stance of the U.S.

Similarly, on the nuclear issue, Britain's ambassador to the U.N., John Sawers, told reporters that the Security Council would hold firm in the demand for Iran to suspend enrichment, but would pursue that goal through ongoing negotiations even as the limited sanctions are put into effect. Last year's U.S. National Intelligence Estimate, which concluded that Iran does not currently have a nuclear weapons development program has, in effect, removed the sense of looming crisis that had once driven the issue, and rendered the option of a U.S. military strike to destroy Iranian facilities highly improbable. (It is acknowledged, however, that Iran's current nuclear activities would put such capability within easy reach if the leadership in Tehran should opt to pursue such weapons.)

This article shows the continuing standoff between the U.S. and Iran over uranium enrichment. The U.S. continues to believe that they have evidence Iran is planning to build nuclear weapons and Iran continues to deny that claim by accepting any sanctions by the U.N.

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Iran may still be seeking nuclear bomb: British diplomat

Iran may not have ended efforts to develop a nuclear weapon, despite a US intelligence report that Tehran shelved its atomic arms plans in 2003, a senior British diplomat was quoted as saying Thursday.The diplomat, cited by British newspapers, questioned the US National Intelligence Estimate, which caused surprise last year by saying that Iran's atomic goals had been exaggerated.

"Many of us were surprised by how emphatic the writers of it were. That all the activities stopped in 2003 and had not resumed," said the diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity.
"I haven't seen any intelligence that gives me even medium confidence that these programmes haven't resumed. So we just don't know," he added, cited by the Independent and Guardian dailies.

The US intelligence report released in December said Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003, although it cautioned that the Islamic republic could be able to make a nuclear weapon sometime between 2010 and 2015.The assessment was seen by some as weakening the justification for military strikes against Iran, although US President George W. Bush refused to rule out an attack and vowed to step up pressure on Tehran despite the report.The British diplomat said the US report "had an impact on the international debate, but I don't think it ever took the military option off the table," adding that the Iranians "continue to pursue a dangerous path.

Iran was searched in 2003 and showed no sign of continuing their missile dovelorment program. Britan still dosn't belive Iran and is not quite done searching Iran. This shows that the U.S. isn't the only country trying to keep Iran from makeing missils.

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Will OPEC Increase Output?

VIENNA, Austria (AP) — OPEC has all but ruled out pumping more oil to ease record-high prices, key oil ministers signaled Tuesday on the eve of a key meeting...

Kuwait and Libya are among OPEC members who have said the cartel should maintain its current output, estimated at about 31.5 million barrels a day — roughly 40 percent of daily world demand.

However, Iran and Venezuela — both hawkish on prices — have pressed for a cut in output. Analysts said it was doubtful that the rest of OPEC would go along with that, since it would push prices even higher in the short-term...

"Global markets are well supplied," Iranian Oil Minister Gholam Hussein Nozari said Tuesday, saying the weak U.S. dollar was a greater concern.

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Kuwait and Libya want OPEC to continue producing crude oil at the current rate, but Iran and Venezuela wish to cut back on oil production. The Iranian oil minister stated that markets around the world were "well supplied." Iran's stronghold on crude oil and their awareness of this advantage could have a huge impact on international oil trade.

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Iran rejects new EU nuclear talks

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has refused to enter into any new talks with the European Union about Iran's nuclear programme.

Mr Ahmadinejad said from now on Tehran would only discuss the issue with the UN's nuclear agency, the IAEA.

After imposing a new set of sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, world powers on Monday called on Iran to hold more talks with the EU's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana.

In a strongly worded statement to the IAEA, the three countries said Iran's response to the agency's questions about its alleged weapons development activities had been "dismissive and unsatisfactory".

Britain's ambassador to the IAEA, Simon Smith, warned: "As long as Iran's choice remains one of non-cooperation, we for our part will remain determined to demonstrate the costs and consequences of that choice." '

This stance taken by Iran shows the country's continuing mistrust towards the U.N. Iran's unwillingness to negotiate will continue to keep its nuclear program ambiguous towards western countries.

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Iran's president: No one likes Americans

"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, heading home after a two-day visit to Iraq, again touted his country's closer relations with Iraq and reiterated his criticism of the United States.

"No one likes them," Ahmadinejad told reporters prior to returning to Iran, referring to the predominantly U.S. makeup of coalition forces in Iraq.

"We believe that the forces which crossed oceans and thousands of kilometers to come to this region should leave this region and hand over the affairs to the peoples and government of this region," Ahmadinejad said.

His visit follows trips to Iran last year by top officials of Iraq's Shiite-led government, which has been fostering a closer relationship with predominantly Shiite Iran since the Saddam Hussein regime was toppled by U.S.-led forces in 2003.

His visit was greeted warmly by Iraq's Shiite Muslim leaders, whose links to Iran predate the overthrow of Hussein."

This visit by Ahmadinejad shows his continuing desire to advertise his country's dislike towards the United States. Spreading this news in Iraq during times of transition of power in the country will make it harder for the United States to leave Iraq.

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Iran and Iraq: United

BAGHDAD -- Iran and Iraq are two united neighbors and “no event can break the brotherly ties” between them, President Mahmud Ahmadinejad said on Monday in a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari.

Over the past 50 years there have been many attempts for harming the brotherly relations between the two countries, but they were unsuccessful, Ahmadinejad stated.

“We should use our maximum potential for improving ties and helping one another,” he said.

The Iranian president started a landmark two-day visit to Iraq on Sunday.

In their meeting, Ahmadinejad and Zebari discussed demarcation of borders, the issue of Iranian pilgrims visting holy sites in Iraq, and the Iran-U.S. talks on security condition in Iraq.

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Iraq and Iran want to strengthen their ties and "help one another". This is bad news for the United States, who is currently at war with Iraq. The U.S. and Iran have already experienced a period of increased conflict. Will the bond between Iraq and Iran cause a fresh outbreak of tension?

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