Free Republic

Top News Story Khaleej Times Online TEHERAN - Iran would fully go nuclear with the current Persian year, which started simultaneously with spring on March 20, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday. Our enemies try to prevent our scientific progress through wide- spread propaganda but inshallah (God willing) this (new) year will be the year when the Islamic Republic of Iran will fully avail itself of peaceful nuclear technology, Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying by the news agency ISNA. In a meeting with visiting Syrian Vice President Farouq al-Shara, Ahmadinejad said Irans use of peaceful nuclear energy will...

Top News Story IAEA: Iran's nuclear program more advanced than previously thought. Vital Perspective reported that the IAEA now has evidence that Iran's nuclear program is more advanced than previously thought.The Guardian reported that inspectors of the IAEA revealed that the Iranians are in the process of achieving a "technological leap" by making operational a cascade of 164 centrifuges to enrich uranium for power plants or warheads.   China and Russia united on Iran. Reuters reported that China said that Beijing and Moscow are in accord on Iran's nuclear standoff with the West.   Why the Russians are helping...

Top News Story Congress reduces pro-democracy funds for Iran. House Appropriations Committee in a press release announced that the committee did not fund the $75 million requested by the Administration for the promotion of democracy in Iran because it was poorly justified. Instead, $56 million was provided through proven, existing programs that will have an immediate, positive impact on the fostering of democratic ideals in Iran.   Ahmadinejad strengthens ties to Al Qaeda. Adnkronos International reported that an Iranian source close to the reformists confirmed that "With the victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad relations with al-Qaeda have been resumed and...

Top News Story UN Security Council meeting on Iran postponed. ABC News reported that the U.N. Security Council postponed a meeting Tuesday on Iran's suspect nuclear program. The lack of any significant movement after 10 days could lead the Western nations to abandon the presidential statement, in favor of a resolution. This would force Russia and China to approve, abstain or veto action against Iran.The Wall Street Journal reported that with Russia opposed to any punishment for Iran, Britain has privately suggested that Tehran be offered a new package of incentives. The letter warned, "We are not going to...

Top News Story Daylight savings confuses Iran's hardliners. Adnkronos International reported that daylight saving has been abolished by president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on the grounds that when the legal hour changes many faithful have difficulty in knowing when to pray. The Iranian New Year: messages and reports. DoctorZin's Norooz greeting. Photo.Reza Pahlavi's Message On the Occasion of Persian New Year 2006 (Nowrooz 1385).Brooding Persian published a sober Norooz greeting. Photo.Iran va Jahan examined Norooz and its symbolism.SMCCDI reported the start of the Iranian New Year.   Senior Foreign Ministers meet on Iran. Reuters reported that senior foreign affairs officials from...

Top News Story UN Security Council Meet on Iran. The Washington Post reported that Monday top U.N. members will try to break the stalemate on Iran.   BBC signs deal with Iran. Iranian.ws reported that the Iranian regime has signed a huge ad campaign with the BBC.   US students rally in support of Iranian students. The Boston Globe reported that approximately 100 students gathered in Harvard University's Leverett House last night for a concert and rally to denounce repression of students in Iran. More events are scheduled at other campuses.Rooz Online reported that a new wave of attacks...

Top News Story Middle East Newsline Tehran - Iran's largest reformist party called on Sunday for dialogue with the United States and a freeze on sensitive nuclear work to head off an escalating crisis with the international community. The party is the Participation Front, headed by Mohammad Reza Khatami, the brother of Iran's former reformist president Mohammad Khatami They said: "In order to break the international consensus, we are proposing a return to previous policies and the voluntary suspension of all nuclear fuel-cycle work to resolve this crisis and re-establish confidence." The United Nations security council is considering what...

Top News Story Middle East Newsline BAGHDAD -- One of Iraq's most prominent Sunni Arab organizations was fuming on Saturday over a key Shia leader's recent appeal for Iran to open a dialogue with the United States on the situation in Iraq. "We are indignant over the request made to Iran by [Iraqi] political parties to open a dialogue with the Americans on their differences regarding Iraq," said the statement by the hardline Muslim Scholars Association. "The interference of Iran in Iraqi affairs is nothing new," said the statement, explaining that the call "does nothing more than legitimate this...

Top News Story UN Security Council meets on Iran. Bolton "very encouraged." Reuters reported that John Bolton told reporters, "I would describe today's meeting as the best we have had so far. There are still areas of disagreement ... but I am very encouraged."Reuters reported UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said negotiating with Iran over its nuclear program is the toughest test in diplomacy.CBS News reported U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urged Iran to resume negotiations over its nuclear program, while also calling the country a central banker for terrorism.The White House released their National Security Strategy of...

Top News Story DoctorZin reports, 3.15.2006: The day before the UN Security Council meeting on Iran. Reuters reported that the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council failed again on Wednesday to reach agreement on a draft text aimed at reining in Iran's nuclear ambitions after a fifth round of negotiations.Dow Jones Newswires reported that the U.K. is considering a push for a weapons embargo on Iran.MSNBC reported that U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton, compared the threat from Iran’s nuclear programs to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.Reuters reported that the White House said an international...

Top News Story Again the MSM ignores: Massive Iranian defiance of the Islamic Regime. Iran Press News reported that the Iranian regime failed to stop ancient Persian festival & New Year celebrations tonight which the regime considers to be religiously prohibited or unclean.Photos of the festival of fire celebrations in Tehran.SMCCDI reported that Islamic regime's security forces attacked Iranian celebrators/demonstrators in several cities by beating brutally women and especially young kids using clubs, chains and even knives have been used by foreign speaking militiamen.SMCCDI reported that an increasing number of Iranians went into most Iranian into the streets in...

Top News Story UN Security Council deadlocked on Iran? Yahoo News reported that the five veto-wielding members of the U.N. Security Council are deadlocked over the best way to pressure Iran. China's Ambassador Wang Guangya told The Associated Press as he left the meeting. "I think they want to be too tough."   Iran speeds towards a confrontation with the UN. The New York Times reported that Iran has decided to shift course and confront the United Nations head-on. Ahmadinejad portrayed that position not as obstinate or rigid but as a reflection of strength. "We know well that a...

Top News Story Tehran's secret underground bunkers. The Telegraph reported that Iran's leaders have built a secret underground emergency command centre in Teheran as they prepare for a confrontation with the West.   Iranians claim US wants peace talks. US denies. The Times reported that a senior Iranian intelligence official claimed to have a letter in Persian purportedly signed by Zalmay Khalilzad, the US ambassador in Baghdad, inviting Iranian representatives to Iraq for talks. Khalilzad denied the report.   Iran threatens to use the oil weapon, again. Canada.com reported that Iran threatened to use oil as a weapon if...

Top News Story CNN TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iran will not consider a proposal by Moscow to enrich uranium on Russian soil and ship it to Tehran if it means the country must cease all enrichment activity on its own soil, a spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Ministry said Sunday Iran has rejected a similar proposal in the past, and the latest rejection showed mounting international pressure has not changed the government's stance. Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi told journalist Shirzad Bozorgmehr that his country would like to resolve its dispute with the international community "through dialogue" but insisted...

Top News Story Associated Press TEHRAN, Iran -- Iran threatened Saturday to use oil as a weapon if the UN Security Council imposes sanctions over its nuclear program. The country's interior minister raised the possibility of using Iran's own oil and gas supplies and its position on a vital Persian Gulf oil route as weapons in the international standoff. "If (they) politicize our nuclear case, we will use any means. We are rich in energy resources. We have control over the biggest and the most sensitive energy route of the world," Interior Minister Mostafa Pourmohammadi was quoted as saying...

Top News Story Poll: Iranian Support for nuclear technology weakening. Countdown reported on a confidential poll in Iran that claimed, 69% of the Iranians do not recognize the nuclear issue a matter of national aspiration and 86% do not believe that nuclear technology is worth a military conflict.   US Iran Policy U.S. Department of State published the congressional testimony of R. Nicholas Burns, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, where he outlined the long overdue US policy toward Iran.Reuters reported that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Iran is probably the No. 1 challenge to the United States.U.S. Department...

Top News Story Iran now faces the UN Security Council. BBC News reported that Iran's nuclear program is being forwarded to the UN Security Council for consideration of possible punitive action.Reuters reported that the U.N. S.C. is expected to meet on Iran next week.Foreign & Commonwealth Office published a Statement on Iran on Behalf of France, Germany and The UK to the IAEA.   Iran threatens the US in response. Reuters reported that Iran's UN representatives said if the U.N. Security Council took up the issue of Tehran's nuclear research: "The United States may have the power to cause...

Top News Story Little leaking out of closed IAEA talks on Iran. The Jerusalem Post reported that a senior State Department official said unless Iran executes a dramatic about-face and suspends all its nuclear activities, the UN Security Council will intervene "quite actively."Reuters reported that Iran said it could delay industrial-scale enrichment for up to two years, but the EU countered with a demand for a 10-year moratorium on all enrichment activity.BBC News reported that the United States has said it will not accept any deal which allows Iran to enrich uranium.   More Covert Iranian Operations. Reuters is...

Top News Story What kind of "democracy" do Iran’s new leaders want? Iran Press News reported that Ahmadinejad's spiritual mentor, Ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi said: "the only way to protect and promote the ascendancy of the Islamic rule is to set their entire world on fire" and "Islamic rule is not in the majority vote of the people; in general people are too stupid." Plus much more.Itar-Tass reported that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said: “The world will be in the hands of Islam over the next few years.”   Sharansky: what does it mean to bring democracy to the Middle...

Top News Story Media Line Israel is said to have operatives in Iran who are trying to locate the country’s secret uranium enrichment sites, according to the UK-based Sunday Times. An Israeli intelligence source told the paper that several suspected sites were located last year but that “there must be more.” According to the report, Israeli sources say the agents are operating from a base in northern Iraq and are guarded by Israeli soldiers with the approval of the Americans. Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes. However, the international community has been scrutinizing Iran since 2002...