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Provo, Utah - The head of the Iranian opposition group in exile that supplied early intelligence on Iran's clandestine nuclear program says President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has engineered a clever disinformation campaign to convince foreign experts that Iran is eight to 10 years away from developing a nuclear bomb. But in fact, she says, the regime is less than two years away from producing such a weapon, as part of its plan to "create an Iranian empire" in the Middle East. In a wide-ranging weekend telephone conversation from her base of exile in Paris, Maryam Rajavi told me that Mr. Ahmadinejad...

Former Iranian armed forces chief Hassan Firouzabadi, who once accused Western nations of spying on the country using lizards, has died of coronavirus aged 70, local media reported on Friday. Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami praised Firouzabadi's "continuous efforts" to defend "the sacred system of the Islamic Republic of Iran", in a statement published on the Guards' Sepahnews website. A trained doctor, Firouzabadi joined the Basij Islamic volunteer militia during the Iran-Iraq war of 1980-88. Serving in administrative roles, he swiftly rose up its ranks before being named head of the armed forces in September 1989 by Iran's supreme leader...

Vali Reza Nasr, a senior Obama administration advisor on Iran, has come to Iran. Iranian parliament speaker Ali Larijani and former parliament speaker Gholam-Ali Haddad-Adel may be behind the visit. "President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was informed well after Nasr entered the country," Tabnak reported on Wednesday. Nasr was appointed senior advisor to Richard Holbrooke -- the special US envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan. Tabnak and Fararu claim the unannounced trip by the US official to be linked to the recent release of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi.

Green Movement leaders have been particularly incensed by the government's perceived double standards in condemning the Mubarak regime's violent suppression of protests when Iranian security forces used equally brutal tactics to quell mass demonstrations against Ahmadinejad's disputed reelection in 2009, which Musavi and Karrubi say was stolen. The official Iranian line was expressed by the parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, on February 10 when he told Al-Jazeera: "The Egyptians have a peaceful protest. Why are they reacting to them with bullets and violence?"

The speaker of Iran's parliament, the Majlis, has said "massacre" of the people in Libya and Bahrain were taking place on the orders of the US. Ali Larijani, addressing the Majlis open session Sunday, said US officials should be made to pay for their crimes against Muslims. The Islamic Ummah (community) believes the US ordered such "criminal games", Larijani was quoted as saying by IRNA news agency.

Mash’al In Iran: ‘Our Battle Is Your Battle’; ‘Together We Will Liberate Jerusalem’; Iran Will Help Rebuild Gaza; French Leaders ‘Collaborators’ In Zionists’ Gaza Massacres In a speech at the Iranian Majlis, Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al said that Hamas will not stop smuggling weapons, because doing so would be against the armed struggle. He told Iranian MPs: “Our battle is your battle... Your support for the resistance in Palestine is support for yourselves. He called on Europe to adjust its policy vis-à-vis Hamas, and to influence the U.S. to do likewise. He said that Hamas aspires to liberate Jerusalem and...

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran's parliament speaker has criticized U.S. President-elect Barack Obama for saying that Iran's development of a nuclear weapon is unacceptable. Ali Larijani said Saturday that Obama should apply his campaign message of change to U.S. dealings with Iran. "Obama must know that the change that he talks about is not simply a superficial changing of colors or tactics," Larijani said in comments carried by the semi-official Mehr News Agency. "What is expected is a change in strategy, not the repetition of objections to Iran's nuclear program, which will be taking a step in the wrong direction."

What do Iran's ayatollahs, Hamas terrorists, Louis Farrakhan, Jesse Jackson and Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi have in common? They are all pulling for Barack Obama to win the US presidential election. When Israel's disparate foes manage to rally behind a single candidate, it should set off alarm bells for anyone who cares about the Jewish state. If you think this is just Republican scaremongering, consider the following. Last week, Ali Larijani, the hard-line speaker of the Iranian parliament, told a press conference in Bahrain that "we are leaning more in favor of Barack Obama because he is more flexible and...

TEHRAN: The election of a rival to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as speaker of the Iranian Parliament is a strong signal of growing impatience with the president's economic policies and a possible sign of a political shift in the country. The new speaker, Ali Larijani, who resigned as the country's nuclear negotiator in October over differences with Ahmadinejad, is a conservative and an ardent advocate of the Iranian nuclear program but is seen as more pragmatic in his approach and perhaps willing to engage in diplomacy with the West. The post of speaker is normally a powerful one in Iranian politics,...

Members of the eighth Majlis elected Ali Larijani, representative of the holy city of Qom, as the provisional speaker of the Iranian parliament on Wednesday. The 8th Majlis was inaugurated on Tuesday with a message of the Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei. Out of a total of 263 votes, Larijani, the single candidate for the post, won 232 ballots. Larijani had previously served as Iran's top nuclear negotiator. Majlis provisional presiding board would also be elected today. The board would continue its work until credentials of all MPs are confirmed by the legislative body.

January 11, 2007: A US led raid on a consular office in Irbil, Iraq leads to the capture of six Iranians including(link): Hassan Abbassi, a strategist “close to” President Ahmedinejad and the only individual with any diplomatic credentials.Mohammad Jaafari, an aid to National Security advisor Ali Larijani Jalal Sharifi, a professional intelligence officer. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Djafari Sahraroudi, a Kurdish affairs expert wanted by Interpol Mojhadi Safderi, two Revolutionary Guard officers (link).One of the six, (Hassan?) is released. The other five remain in custody.

MUST READ - James Baker Works to Establish Direct Diplomatic USA - Iran Ties Former US Secretary of State Baker Attempts to Bypass Bush White House on Iran Defense & Foreign Affairs Analysis. By Gregory R. Copley, Editor, GIS. Former US Secretary of State James Baker, who co-chaired the recent US Iraq Study Group — the main recommendations of which were rejected by the George W. Bush Administration — is working indirectly and behind the scenes to bring about direct diplomatic ties between the US and Iran. This is in defiance of Bush White House policy which essentially has said...

Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani: Our Response To Sanctions Will Be Painful To the West And Will Make it Shiver With Cold The following are excerpts from a press conference with Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, which aired on Iranian News Channel (IRINN) on August 6, 2006. TO VIEW THIS CLIP: http://www.memritv.org/search.asp?ACT=S9&P1=1225. Ali Larijani: "Iran's nuclear technology is for peaceful purposes. We accept the inspection of the IAEA, and we are NPT members. We are committed to the NPT regulations. We are a country that acts responsibly within the world order. Therefore, we respect...

Iran's top national security official Ali Larijani has met with Palestinian terrorist groups to voice the Islamic republic's "decisive support" for their battle against Israel, state media said Thursday. A report by the official news agency IRNA said Larijani, during a flying visit to close ally Syria on Wednesday, declared "the Islamic republic's decisive support for the Palestinian and the Lebanese resistance against Israel." The report said Larijani had met with "Palestinian movement leaders who are against the peace process", including arab-muslim terrorist groups Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC). The...