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Top News Story Underreported US Senate Resolution on Iran reveals a lack of conviction DoctorZin:Last Friday, the day after millions of Iraqi's voted in an historic election, the US Senate passed a resolution condemning the recent alarming statements by Iran's President. Surprisingly, the mainstream media ignored the resolution while the international press has been avidly covering similar resolutions adopted by countries around the world. Unfortunately, the story behind the resolution revealed a disturbing lack of conviction by some in the US Senate. The resolution, authored by US Rick Santorum, was in his words "a mild condemnation" version of the...

Top News Story New Limits on Travel Abroad Adnkronos International:Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has issued a circular warning all ministers and state bodies that "no official may go abroad, on a mission or for personal reasons, without prior authorisation and without coordinating with the foreign ministry". In the circular, signed by the deputy president Parwiz Davoodi, no reason is given for the decision. "The aim is to avoid misunderstandings," a presidential source told the Iranian news agency Fars. Since the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad last July, there has been an increasing flow of financial and human capital to neighbouring...

Top News Story What is behind Ahmadinejad’s anti-Israel remarks? Mehran Riazaty: a former Iran analyst for the Central Command of the Coalition Forces in Baghdad in the office of Strategic Communication. Ahmadinejad could not tie his shoe-laces without supports of powerful Ayatollahs such as Khamenei, Rafsanjani, Janati, Kashani, Mesbah Yazdi his mentor, and many others in Iran. The main question is why Ahmadinejad made these comments? These comments are not definitely made by accident. During Khatami’s presidency, Hassan Rohani, who used to be Iran’s Supreme National Security Chief, wrote a letter to him and explained Iran’s Political Strategy: Creating...

Top News Story Deutsche Presse-Agentur German Intelligence Warns That Iran Has New Missiles Deutsche Presse-Agentur:German intelligence believes Iran has now bought 18 longer-range missiles from North Korea, giving Teheran the capability to attack targets in central Europe, the German daily newspaper Bild reported Friday. The study by the foreign intelligence service BND said the BM-25 missiles were being purchased from Pyongyang in the form of kit sets. The mobile missiles, which are based on the Russian SS-N-6 missile for submarine launch, will have a nominal range of 2,500 kilometres. However it was possible to upgrade them to hit targets...

Maryam swept expertly down the mountainside before swivelling to a halt, sending a spray of snow over her male companion who was waiting for her by the chair lift at the base of the slope. The 21-year-old lifted her Raybans from her eyes, ran her fingers through her bleached blonde tresses and leant towards him for a congratulatory kiss. Such coquettish behaviour, although officially banned, has become commonplace on the ski-slopes of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The country's middle classes fear that under the hardline fundamentalist presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was elected in June, their freedoms will soon...

Top News Story Ministers of Murder: Iran's New Security Cabinet Human Rights Watch: Iran’s new Minister of Interior is implicated in grave human rights violations over the past two decades, possibly including crimes against humanity in connection with the massacre of thousands of political prisoners, Human Rights Watch said in a briefing paper released today. Human Rights Watch also said that the new Minister of Information should be investigated for his possible involvement in a dissident’s killing. The briefing paper, Ministers of Murder: Iran’s New Security Cabinet, details credible allegations that Minister of Interior Mustafa Pour-Mohammadi and Minister of...

Iran and Russia have prepared and approved an agreement project on the purchase of the Russian surface-to-air missile complex Pechora-2A in the second half of 2006. ...

WASHINGTON -- Lest you get carried away with today's good news from Iraq, consider what's happening next door in Iran. The wild pronouncements of the new Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have gotten sporadic press ever since he called for Israel to be wiped off the map. He subsequently amended himself to say that Israel should simply be extirpated from the Middle East map and moved to some German or Austrian province. Perhaps near the site of an old extermination camp? Except that there were no such camps, indeed no Holocaust at all, says Ahmadinejad. Nothing but ``myth,'' a ``legend'' that...

Top News Story Denying the Holocaust for Political Advantage? Michael Scott Moore, Spiegel Online:Should Israel move to Alaska? Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad once again called for Israel to be moved on Wednesday. And this time, he went ahead and denied the Holocaust as well. But why? SPIEGEL ONLINE went to Iran expert Ali Ansari for answers. Once again, the international response was swift and unequivocal. "Shocking and totally unacceptable," said Germany's new foreign minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier. "Thank God Israel has the means to end the extremist regime in Iran," said Raanan Gissin, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon....

Top News Story State Dept. Rules Out Guarantee on Iran Barry Schweid, The Associated Press:The Bush administration is ruling out a guarantee not to attack Iran to induce it to halt development of nuclear weapons. Iran must first act like a responsible member of the international community and stop violating its agreements, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Monday. "That would represent a sea change in its behavior," Ereli said. "Then maybe other kinds of notions might be more palatable." "But right now, I don't think people should be asking the United States, 'Why don't you do this or...

Top News Story State Department: Iran's referral to UNSC "just a matter of time" The Jerusalem Post:Reporting Iran to the UN Security Council for defiantly pressing ahead with its suspect nuclear program is just a matter of time, a senior US State Department official suggested Monday. "Clearly our patience is limited. We're now talking 'when' or 'how' rather than 'whether' we will report them to the Security Council," which has the power to slap Iran with sanctions, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the issue with journalists. Iran is engaged...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration is ruling out a guarantee not to attack Iran to induce it to halt development of nuclear weapons. ADVERTISEMENT Anderson Cooper Iran must first act like a responsible member of the international community and stop violating its agreements, State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said Monday. "That would represent a sea change in its behavior," Ereli said. "Then maybe other kinds of notions might be more palatable." "But right now, I don't think people should be asking the United States, 'Why don't you do this or why don't you do that?'" the U.S. official said. Ereli's...

Top News Story Israel readies forces for strike on nuclear Iran Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv, and Sarah Baxter, Washington ISRAEL’S armed forces have been ordered by Ariel Sharon, the prime minister, to be ready by the end of March for possible strikes on secret uranium enrichment sites in Iran, military sources have revealed. The order came after Israeli intelligence warned the government that Iran was operating enrichment facilities, believed to be small and concealed in civilian locations. Iran’s stand-off with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over nuclear inspections and aggressive rhetoric from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who...

Top News Story Iranian Ayatollah Supports His President The Jerusalem Post:Iran's supreme ruler came out in support of his maligned president on Saturday, who created an international storm by demanding Israel be moved to Europe and casting doubt on whether the Holocaust happened. "The unusual sensitivity of Zionists and their American supporters toward Iran's stance over the Zionist state reveals their increased weakness and fear about the level of attention given by Islamic nations to the Palestinian issue," state-run Iranian radio quoted Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as saying. "Despite the Zionist's campaign, the struggle against the occupiers has become an...

Top News Story Iran’s strategic role in the Islamic world Mehr News:Iran’s active participation at the third extraordinary summit of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC), which was held last week in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, once again showed that the Islamic Republic of Iran always has strategies to resolve the impasses the Islamic world faces from time to time. Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad and his delegation offered a series of proposals at the December 7-8 summit that drew the attention of Islamic leaders. Ahmadinejad proposed establishing an Islamic common market, an Islamic rapid reaction military force to respond...

Top News Story Opposition in Iran Showing Signs of Unity By ELI LAKE - Staff Reporter of the Sun December 8, 2005 CAIRO, Egypt - In the aftermath of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's ascendancy to the presidency of Iran, the country's opposition is beginning to show signs of unifying as the clerical regime wages a war against internal dissent.Yesterday, the regime closed all schools in Tehran, citing poor air quality, after word leaked of the first major demonstrations since the summer. Nonetheless, a rally at Tehran University attracted 300 demonstrators amid a heavy police presence on campus. Of note is that...

MORE NEWS FROM IRAN Speaking of Islamic dictatorships, the president of Iran is once again speaking his mind. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said yesterday that he doubted the Holocaust took place and that Israel should be moved to Europe. That's at least a step up from wanting to destroy it. Kofi Annan condemned the statements, which may be a first. This in addition to the cancellation of his trip to Tehran after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wanted to wipe Israel off the map. Now given Iran's desire to get rid of Israel, and that regime's previous call for the destruction of the...

Akbar Ganji, Iran's most outstanding dissident, is in renewed danger. LAST March, during the Persian New Year holiday, Akbar Ganji, Iran's best-known political prisoner, was cracking jokes into his mobile phone at the edge of the Iranian desert. Chubby from festive dishes of polov (rice, often with lamb) and delighted to be surrounded by his family, he showered this correspondent's two-year-old son with kisses before speeding off to keep an appointment with a dissident ayatollah and return to Tehran's Evin prison by the end of his holiday probation. Nine months on, he is a sick man, severely weakened by the...

Top News Story Iran's Ahmadinejad says Israel should be moved to Europe Dec 08 11:51 AM US/Eastern Iran's hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said that if Germany and Austria feel responsible for massacring Jews during World War II, a state of Israel should be established on their soil. Ahmadinejad, who sparked an international outcry in October when he said Israel "must be wiped off the map", also repeated his view Thursday that the Jewish state was a "tumour". "Now that you believe the Jews were oppressed, why should the Palestinian Muslims have to pay the price?" the hardline president asked...

Top News Story Ticking Tehran Bomb An Excerpt: Wall Street Journal:Once Iran gets its uranium enrichment plant at Natanz up and running, it will likely be months away from having a nuclear weapon. So said International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) chief Mohamed ElBaradei this week in an interview with The Independent newspaper of London. We were surprised enough by the quote from the hyper-careful Mr. ElBaradei that we called his spokeswoman Melissa Fleming to confirm. While she cautioned that it would probably take two years before Natanz was fully operational, she said the IAEA assumed that any country that...