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Top News Story El Baradei: Iran only months away from a bomb By JPOST.COM STAFF IAEA chairman Muhammad ElBaradei on Monday confirmed Israel's assessment that Iran is only a few months away from creating an atomic bomb. If Teheran indeed resumed its uranium enrichment in other plants, as threatened, it will take it only "a few months" to produce a nuclear bomb, El-Baradei told The Independent. On the other hand, he warned, any attempt to resolve the crisis by non-diplomatic means would "open a Pandora's box. There would be efforts to isolate Iran; Iran would retaliate; and at the...

Top News Story Washington Times Iran OKs Bill to Block Nuclear Inspections Nasser Karimi, The Associated Press:Iran's hard-line constitutional watchdog approved a bill Saturday blocking international inspections of atomic facilities if the nation is referred to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions, state-run television reported. The ratification by the Guardian Council means the bill - overwhelmingly approved by parliament last month - now needs just a presidential signature to become law. It was not clear when that would take place. READ MORE The bill will strengthen the government's hand in resisting international pressure to permanently abandon uranium enrichment,...

Top News Story Iran and Russia sign $1 bln defence deal - reports Fri Dec 2, 2005 2:11 PM GMT By Meg ClothierMOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia plans to sell more than $1 billion worth of tactical surface-to-air missiles and other defence hardware to Iran, media reported on Friday.Moscow is already at odds with the West over its nuclear ties with Tehran but has sought to use its warm relations with Iran to be recognised as a key mediator between the West and the Islamic Republic.The Vedomosti business daily cited military sources as saying Iran would buy 29 TOR-M1 systems...

Top News Story Sucker's Game By MICHAEL LEDEEN December 1, 2005The president gave us an often brilliant assessment of the war in Iraq, along with a welcome outline of his plan for victory over the terrorists there. It was full of vision and grit, both of which have been in alarmingly short supply in what has passed for our national debate, and it paid appropriate tribute to the armed forces - ours, our Coalition allies', and the growing numbers of Iraqi soldiers - deployed against the terrorists. No doubt we are making real progress. No doubt the areas of...

Top News Story State Department rethinking Iran?By Guy Dinmore in WashingtonPublished: November 30 2005 23:01 | Last updated: November 30 2005 23:01Iran’s new president, Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad, is an irresponsible radical who is digging a hole for himself, a senior US official declared on Wednesday. Nicholas Burns, the State Department’s number three official, launched a particularly personal attack in a speech that focused on Iran’s alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, its support for “terrorist” groups, including Hamas and al-Qaeda, and its poor human rights record.“Through his statements and actions, President Ahmadi-Nejad is digging a hole for himself and he appears...

Top News Story NY Sun Earlier this week, following a story in Newsweek that America will restart talks with Iran on stabilizing Iraq, the chief of Iran's revolutionary guard gave a revealing press conference. According to Iran Press News, Major General Yahya Rahim Safavi told reporters in Tehran that America has tried since 1979 to "thwart the export of the revolution." But, he said, "the activities in Lebanon, Palestine, and present-day Iraq, as well as Islamic and freedom-seeking nations of the world proved the opposite." Get that. The man in charge of a military devoted to the violent spread...

Top News Story Iran's President: "I will stop Christianity in this country" Secret police crackdown results in the torture of 10 other Christians.November 28 (Compass) – An Iranian convert to Christianity was kidnapped last week from his home in northeastern Iran and stabbed to death, his bleeding body thrown in front of his home a few hours later. Ghorban Tori, 50, was pastoring an independent house church of convert Christians in Gonbad-e-Kavus, a town just east of the Caspian Sea along the Turkmenistan border. Within hours of the November 22 murder, local secret police arrived at the martyred pastor’s...

Top News Story Iran president had ‘religious vision’ during UN speechBy Gareth Smyth and Najmeh Bozorgmehr in TehranPublished: November 28 2005 19:12 | Last updated: November 28 2005 19:12 A leading website in Iran has published a transcript and video recording of President Mahmoud Ahmadi-Nejad claiming to have felt “a light” while addressing world leaders at the United Nations in New York in September. Baztab.com – a website linked to Mohsen Rezaei, former commander of the Revolutionary Guards – said the recording was made in a meeting between the president and Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, one of Iran’s leading Shia...

Top News Story Teheran 'secretly trains' Chechens to fight in RussiaCon Coughlin(Filed: 27/11/2005)Iran is secretly training Chechen rebels in sophisticated terror techniques to enable them to carry out more effective attacks against Russian forces, the Sunday Telegraph can reveal.Teams of Chechen fighters are being trained at the Revolutionary Guards' Imam Ali training camp, located close to Tajrish Square in Teheran, according to Western intelligence reports.In addition to receiving training in the latest terror techniques, the Chechen volunteers undergo ideological and political instruction by hardline Iranian mullahs at Qom.The disclosure that Iran is training Chechen rebels will not go down...

Top News Story Iran Focus Iraq finds explosives cache on Iran border supplied by IRGC with the full consent of the Iranian govt. Baghdad, Nov. 25 – Iraqi police uncovered a military centre with a large cache of explosives near the Iranian border, a government spokesman announced on Friday. Saleh Al-Shamiri, the police chief in Azizya, 80 kilometres southeast of Baghdad, announced on Friday that more than 300 mortars and explosives used in roadside bombs were discovered in the military centre. Al-Shamiri said that the explosives had been recently brought to the centre. Roadside bombs are the number one...

Top News Story Ansar Hezbollah: “We must do battle with America in Iraq” Iran Press News: Translation by Banafsheh Zand-BonazziYalsarat Al Hussein, the weekly publication of the terrorist group Ansar Hezbollah which is under the direct supervision of Ahmadinejad, in one of its’ recent issues, explicitly called for: “the dispatch of suicide bomber terrorists to Iraq in order to “do battle with America in Iraq. In doing this we must employ the pure tenets of Islam and not heed some suspicious expediencies that are connected to errant movements that have prevaricated. Therefore we must actively battle violators of Islamic...

Top News Story ABC NEWS: China Closer to Supporting U.S. on Iran Excerpt:Washington and its European allies, in a diplomatic coup, are gradually enlisting Chinese support on how to deal with Iran and its suspicious nuclear activities, diplomats and officials said Wednesday. Beijing's backing before a key meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency on Thursday adds additional clout to an ambitious international Iran strategy that has recently seen Russia join the Americans and Europeans in pressuring Iran to give up technology that could make nuclear arms. ... A European official told The Associated Press that "the Chinese are...

Top News Story EU may resume Iran nuclear talks-diplomats By Louis Charbonneau and Mark HeinrichVIENNA (Reuters) - The EU is ready to resume talks with Iran on its nuclear programme provided it agrees to discuss a Russian proposal that it shift plans to enrich uranium to a joint venture in Russia, diplomats said on Tuesday.The talks could take place on December 6, even though Iran has failed to meet an EU demand that it stop uranium conversion -- a stage before enrichment in the nuclear fuel cycle.In a bid to avert a crisis over Iran's atomic programme -- which...

Top News Story Several Must Read Reports: Reuters reported that the EU powers and Washington have suspended their bid to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council instead focuses its efforts on a statement voicing concern about a document received by Iran which contained partial nuclear bomb-making instructions.ABC News reported that Iran has built, with the help of North Korea, dozens of underground tunnels and facilities for the construction of nuclear-capable missiles.Newsweek reported on this week's Iran/Iraq memorandum of understanding to cooperate on sensitive intelligence-sharing matters. A Daily Briefing of Major News Stories on Iran: Iran Press News reported...

Top News Story The Spirit of Man 5000 Islamic Clerics to be sent to the US: Iran's Ayatollah According to BBC Persian and Persian service of IRNA, the hardline ayatollah Mesbah Yazdi has announced that the Iranians living in the US need 5000 Islamic clerics for their religious services. Mesbah Yazdi asks the new Iranian government to finance their trainings! This hardline ayatollah is known as the founder of the shiite version of Taliban in Iran. Given the numerous statements made by several regime's officials regarding the destruction of the US and Israel, it makes me think about the...

Top News Story IRIB Iranian President forbids bullet-proof cars Tehran, Nov 17 - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said here Wednesday, "A long stride will be taken toward fair distribution of the country's budget in the year 1385 (beginning on March 20). According to the presidential office media department, the president who was speaking in a meeting with Friday prayers leaders across the country, added, "We praise the worthy services rendered by the past managers of the nation." He added, "Regarding the country's budget deficit, my suggestion is broad assistance of all those who can assist to solve the problem." President...

Top News Story IranFocus Tehran, Iran, Nov. 20 – A top military commander who has been responsible for recruitment of suicide bombers in Iran’s armed forces was on Sunday promoted to the position of Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). Brigadier General Hossein Salami was appointed as the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the IRGC while Brigadier General Ali Fazli was promoted the position of Director of Operations in the office of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. During an inauguration ceremony, the Commandant of the IRGC,...

Top News Story Iran Ignores Pleas to Halt Uranium Work Dafna Linzer, The Washington Post: An Excerpt:Iran began converting a new batch of uranium at a key nuclear facility yesterday, rejecting international pleas to suspend such work and dismissing a new offer -- sponsored by Russia -- that was designed to ease tensions over the country's nuclear ambitions, U.S. and European officials said. The work at the facility in the town of Isfahan ... was seen as a provocative move just days after Iranian officials reacted coolly to the Russian offer. Coming at a sensitive time, the Iranian moves...

Top News Story U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental AffairsSubcommittee Hearings - Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security Iran: Teheran's Nuclear Recklessness and the U.S. Response -- The Experts' PerspectiveThe purpose of the hearing is to examine the relationship between Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons and its status as a state-sponsor of terrorism. Witnesses Testimony Included: The Honorable Newt Gingrich [View PDF] , Co-Chair, Task Force on the United Nations , United States Institute of Peace The Honorable Alfonse D'Amato [View PDF] , Former United States Senator (New York) The Honorable R. James Woolsey [View...

Ahmadinejad’s newest proposed oil minister has a US Green Card Iran Press News: Translation by Banafsheh Zand-BonazziAhmadinejad, in his latest showdown with the Islamic Parliament’s Assembly, introduced Mohsen Tasaloti as his nominee for Minister of Oil. Tasaloti who is Executive Director of the Special economic region of Mahshahr Petrochemical Company is said to have a U.S. permanent residence (Green Card). This is expected to once again trigger another melee between the government and the Parliament. A reliable source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that Tasaloti who supported of Mostafa Moin* in the June elections, does in fact...