Free Republic

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Pakistan's initiation of high-level talks with Israel prompted fury from Islamic hard-liners who stormed out of Parliament on Friday and called protests in major cities across the country. But despite fiery rhetoric, the rallies held after Friday prayers were poorly attended, and newspaper commentators gave the landmark meeting between Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom and his Pakistani counterpart Khursheed Kasuri a cautious welcome. Thursday's meeting in Turkey was the first high-level contact between the two countries — a direct response to Israel's recent removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip. However, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammed Naeem...

Iran has carried out its threat to restart its nuclear programme, removing the seals on a uranium-conversion plant. The UN's nuclear watchdog has issued a resolution expressing “serious concern” at the move, but the case will not yet be sent to the Security Council. European offers of incentives to dissuade the Islamic Republic from building atomic bombs have not proved enticing enough. Is a more aggressive approach called for? THESE are particularly edgy times for anyone concerned about the spread of nuclear weapons. On Sunday August 7th, the latest round of six-country talks over North Korea’s nuclear programme ended in...

With bone-cracking brutality, the waves of baton-wielding police seemed to confirm what the already demoralised Iranian reform movement had been dreading: the dawn of a new era of political repression. Several hundred pro-reformists had gathered outside Tehran University to demand the release of a jailed dissident journalist, Akbar Ganji, who is in the fifth week of a hunger strike, when they were confronted by massed ranks of officers. In the melee, large numbers of demonstrators, including several women, were hurt. Among the injured were a former reformist MP, Mousavi Khoeini, who had a broken rib after being hit with an...

When the leaders of the world's industrialized nations meet today in Scotland, they would do well to take time out from their policy debates to focus on the fate of Akbar Ganji, who is becoming known as the Iranian Vaclav Havel. He is the journalist and dissident entering his 27th day of a hunger strike inside Evin Prison. Over the July 4th weekend, the chief of Iran's society of journalists told IRNA that Ganji was in critical condition. If Bush meant anything when he proclaimed in his second inaugural, "As you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you,"...

Watching ABC, CBS, or NBC news, you would never know that Iranian civilians are now being killed while protesting against their country’s Islamist dictators. You probably wouldn’t know that Iran is considered to be the “world's ‘most active state sponsor of terrorism.’” You most surely haven’t heard that between 10,000 and 15,000 Iranians risk life and liberty to run web logs (“blogs”) opposing their government. Maybe you’ve heard that Iran’s rulers are secretly building nuclear weapons, but did you know that Britain, France, Germany, and Russia have sold nuclear technologies to Iran? Have you heard that Iran now has ballistic...

why on earth would Kerry tell the Council on Foreign Relations in December that, if elected, he would abandon the president's war on terror, begin a dialogue with terrorist regimes and apologize for the "years of mistakes by the Bush administration"? In an article in the March issue of Insight magazine, author Kenneth R. Timmerman described the meeting: "Kerry promised to spend the first 100 days of his administration traveling the world to denounce his predecessor, apologize for his ‘radically wrong' policy, and seek ‘cooperation and compromise` with friend and foe alike." Timmerman cited a seven-page e-mail, "confirmed as authentic...

'Lame duck' Khatami concedes defeat to Iran's hardliners By Behzad Farsian, in Teheran and Robin Gedye (Filed: 18/03/2004) The reformist President Mohammad Khatami of Iran conceded that he had reached the limits of his powers and would be a lame duck head of state until his term ends next year. He said he was withdrawing two bills that sought to limit the power of the ruling conservative hardliners "so that the few powers that the president still has are not eliminated. "I have met with defeat," he said. President Khatami: powerless One of the bills was intended to increase presidential...

HARD LINERS WANT THE HEAD OF ALI AKBAR MOUSAVI-KHO’EINIA Iran Press Service March 8th 2004 Paris, France TEHRAN, 8 Mar. (IPS) Mr. Ali Akbar Mousavi-Kho’einiha, a reformist lawmaker came under strong attacks from the conservatives-controlled media on Monday for his remarks in the Majles on Sunday, criticising the Assembly of Experts for not doing its job properly in controlling the actions and performances of the leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameneh’i. As Mr. Kho’einiha was addressing the outgoing House, accusing the leader-controlled institutions such as the Council of the Guardians of trying to transform the Majles into a rubber stamp parliament, hard...

The Iranian Deception February 24, 2004 The Wall Street Journal Review & Outlook Now is precisely the time for Mr. Bush to show solidarity with the majority of Iranians who want greater freedom, just as Ronald Reagan spoke up for the people of Poland in the early 1980s. The only way to stop Iran's despotic regime from getting nuclear weapons is to help Iranians change the regime. So when are President Bush's critics, including those in his own State Department, going to concede that he was right all along to include Iran in the "axis of evil"? Now would seem...

Iran conservatives 'in the lead' Supporters of clerical rule had urged people to vote Early results from Iran's general elections suggest that conservative supporters of clerical rule are heading for a sweeping victory. This had been widely predicted after more than 2,000 reformist candidates were disqualified from standing. Much attention has been focused on the size of the turnout. First indications are that it was lower than in elections four years ago that saw a reformist majority elected to Iran's parliament, the Majlis. Turnout in the capital Tehran was 28% of eligible voters, one election official was quoted as saying...

Iran's Hard-Liners, Reformists Claim Wins Saturday February 21, 2004 11:16 PM By BRIAN MURPHY Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - Islamic hard-liners and reformists both claimed victory in Iran's elections Saturday, with returns showing conservatives ahead in the race for parliament but a reformist boycott limiting voter turnout. Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said the winner of the election was the Iranian nation. He was upbeat about voter turnout, even though it marked a drop from previous elections. ``The loser of this election is the United States, Zionism and enemies of the Iranian nation,'' he told state media.A reformist...

Middle East - AP Khatami Offers to Resign if Iran Wants 1 hour, 34 minutes ago By ALI AKBAR DAREINI, Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran - President Mohammad Khatami (news - web sites) said in a speech he would resign if people want him to, amid growing public dissatisfaction over his failure to meet promises of democratic reform, a newspaper reported Saturday. It was the first time Khatami has publicly offered to resign. Iran's formerly popular president has come under increasing pressure in recent months to stand firm against unelected hard-line clerics and fulfill election promises of freedoms and democratic...

Hardliners 'make Iran risk fate of dictator' By Robin Gedye, Foreign Affairs Writer (Filed: 08/05/2003) Reformist Iranian MPs warned the country's powerful and entrenched clerics yesterday to give way to reforms and normalise relations with the outside world or suffer the fate of Saddam Hussein. An open letter, signed by 153 deputies in the 290-seat Majlis and read out in the chamber, said Iran was in "a critical situation" and the ruling establishment risked losing the support of the people, who had overwhelmingly voted for reform. The appeal reflected concerns in the region over the ease with which the coalition...

Hardline conservative clerics in Iran are preparing for a takeover of power to save the Islamic regime from internal collapse. Official sources inside the establishment say the hardliners, supported by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader, have resolved to reject controversial legislation championed by Mohammad Khatami, the moderate president, and face the consequences should he carry out his threat to resign. The country's political crisis is deepening against a backdrop of student unrest, but the con- servatives appear confident. Hardline clerics hope Mr Khatami's departure, or his continued presence as a powerless figurehead, will finish the reformist movement for which...

Vigilantes accuse dissidents of undermining regime Conservatives threaten to drive out democracy, campaigners after confrontations triggered by death sentence on popular professor TEHRAN: Hard-line vigilantes, best known for disrupting reformist gatherings and beating up students, declared a “holy war” Wednesday to rid Iran of reformers who promote democracy and challenge the country’s supreme leader. The declaration in the weekly newspaper of the hard-line group Ansar-e-Hizbullah, the chief organization of the vigilante movement, appeared to be a direct challenge to Iran’s reformist president, Mohammad Khatami. Masoud Dehnamaki, a vigilante ideologue, also said Wednesday that Iranians who try to appease Iran’s enemies...

TEHRAN: Iran's powerful former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has called on members of the hardline Basij militia to stay on alert to foil enemy plots, the official news agency IRNA said Sunday. "The current social circumstances mean that we need a strong Basij to counter threats against the system," Rafsanjani was quoted as saying, telling the volunteer army to "always be ready to foil enemy plots." His comments, which come amid heightened political tensions between Iran's religious hardliners and moderates, were made during discussions between Rafsanjani and university professors and Basij members. Iran's universities were the scene of student...

HARDLINE French Socialists have said that they aim to seize the leadership of their party and move it to the Left to win back support. Still dazed from the humiliation of Lionel Jospin in the presidential race in the spring, and the general election defeat in June, the leftwingers founded a Socialist movement called New World at a gathering last weekend in the Mediterranean resort of Argèles. The movement, which said that it would seek to wrest the party leadership from François Hollande at a congress next year, believes that voters rejected M Jospin and his Government because they had...

TEHRAN, Sept 24 (AFP) - Iranian President Mohammad Khatami will have no choice but to resign if the Islamic republic's powerful conservative camp continues to stall his reforms, his brother warned Tuesday. "The president is seeking to find legal solutions to the problem," Mohammad-Reza Khatami, who heads the Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF), told reporters after a parliament session marked by a reformist bid to boost presidential powers. But if they (the conservatives) wish to hold the president back with tension and political crisis he will have no choice but to resign," he added, reiterating a frequent threat from the...

TEHRAN, Sept 2 (AFP) - Iran's reformist government has thrown down the gauntlet to its conservative opponents with a direct assault on their powers to vet candidates for parliament and other public bodies, parliamentary sources said Monday. A government bill lodged with parliamentary business managers this week would sharply reduce the powers of a conservative-controlled constitutional watchdog body to pronounce on the fitness of candidates for election, the sources said. The bill, which has yet to be formally put on the parliamentary agenda, would limit the Guardians Council to a "supervisory role" in elections and give significant oversight powers to...

TEHRAN, Aug 28 (AFP) - President Mohammed Khatami blasted Wednesday the trial of political opponents and the suspension of newspapers by the hardline conservative judiciary, saying these moves were unconstitutional. "Some suspensions of newspapers, some arrests, and this trial are certainly unacceptable," Khatami told a press conference, referring to the jailing in late July of 33 members of the Iran Freedom Movement (IFM). "Many of these actions were contrary to the constitution, and we are opposed to them," he said, pointing indirectly to the judiciary and its clamp-down on political opponents and the reformist press. "The constitution lays down for...