PINGNaval Interdiction Exercise Said Planned for Persian Gulf [Excerpt] A senior U.S. official insisted the exercise is not aimed specifically at Iran, although it reinforces a U.S. strategy aimed at strengthening America’s ties with states in the Gulf, where Tehran and Washington are competing for influence. "It’s an effort to bring a lot of Gulf states together to demonstrate resolve and readiness to act against proliferation," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Proliferation Security Initiative, established in 2003 under President George W. Bush, is a voluntary association of countries that agree to share intelligence information and work against the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, including through military exercises that practice interdiction techniques and coordination. Bahrain and Kuwait are expected to be among the participating countries along with the United States, France and Britain.America's Iran-watchers flock to Dubai, on Iran's doorstep [Excerpt] "We don't intend to reopen our embassy anytime soon," said Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, describing plans for the Iran office in March. "But we do plan to put more people, better trained, on the job of watching Iran." The office is the first U.S. diplomatic mission aimed at Iran since 1979, when revolutionaries seized control of the U.S. embassy in Tehran and held 52 diplomats hostage for 444 days. The CIA, however, has long been believed to have people monitoring Iran from the Emirates.
US Approves Sale of Jetliner Engine Spare Parts to Iran
[Excerpt] State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack said the decision is purely a matter of civil aviation safety and not connected with the difficult U.S.-Iranian political relationship. He said that absent the repairs, the engine issue could have posed a significant threat to the safe operation of the jetliners and that was something the United States wanted to avoid if at all possible. "It is the assessment of the experts, the companies, that this was something that was needed, and the United States certainly was not going to be in the position of threatening civil aviation, safety for the Iranian people," he said.
US slams Iranian interior minister’s rights record [Excerpt] WASHINGTON - The United States on Wednesday denounced Iranian Interior Minister Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi as a ”notorious human rights violator” and urged Iran’s judiciary to hold him to account for his actions. “The United States condemns the Iranian Government’s ongoing abuse of the rights of its people,” the State Department said in a statement. “Pour-Mohammadi’s history of human rights abuses in Iran includes his reported leading role in the 1988 mass execution of several thousand political prisoners at Tehran’s infamous Evin prison, and his involvement, as Deputy Intelligence Minister, in the 1998 murders of writers and dissidents throughout Iran,” the statement said. “We call on the Iranian judicial system to hold Pour-Mohammadi to account for his actions,” the statement said.
BBC to launch TV channel for Iran
[Excerpt] "We will be the first international broadcaster to deliver a Farsi tri-media news service under a single brand - the BBC." He said television was "increasingly dominating the way that millions of Iranian people receive their news" and promised the Farsi channel would be "editorially independent of the UK government". The BBC claimed about 2m Iranians listened to its existing customised radio service for Iran.
Why does that term make me think of Miss Lewinsky?
PINGHave you by any chance, worked in Laurel, Maryland before? ;-)