NewsTrust - Iran - Most Recent Stories: News (Independent)

Teran again sees protests and violence

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

GlobalPost - By Iason Athanasiadis - Nov. 04 (News Report) - Iran’s opposition movement showed it may have staying power Wednesday as thousands of opposition protesters took to the streets alongside a regime-backed demonstration marking the 30th anniversary of the takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

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NIAC And J Street, Progressive Foreign Policy Groups, Become Political Targets

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:00 -0800

Huffington Post - By Sam Stein - Nov. 03 (News Analysis) - Two relatively new organizations -- each covering distinctly opposite ends on the spectrum of Middle Eastern affairs -- have been the target of withering public relations attacks in recent weeks and months.

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Pentagon Speeding Up Production of Bunker Busters

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Scott Canon - Oct. 23 (News) - This month, the Defense Department awarded $51.9 million to McDonnell Douglas to more quickly adapt a 30,000-pound bunker buster to the B-2 stealth bomber.

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US-Iran talks: Does Green Movement benefit?

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Tehran Bureau - By Muhammad Sahimi - Oct. 15 (News Analysis) - Negotiations between Iran and the P5+1 group -- the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council plus Germany -- began on Thursday, October 1. Iran's negotiating team was led by Saeed Jalili, the hard-line secretary-general of the Supreme National Security Council, who is an ally of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The U.S. team was led by William J. Burns, a career diplomat and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. There is great ongoing debate among Iranians, both in Iran and the Diaspora, on whether these negotiations (1) are helpful to Iran's Green Movement for democracy; (2) should be taking place now, or whether the timing is highly inappropriate; (3) bestow legitimacy upon the government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is facing a domestic crisis of legitimacy; (4) will help sustain gross and systematic violations of human rights in Iran. Many Iranians continue to be angry that President Barack Obama and his administration failed to properly condemn in a timely manner the violent crackdown on peaceful demonstrations in the aftermath of the rigged June 12 presidential election. Thousands have been arrested, beaten, tortured, even raped and murdered in detention -- at least 72 people have been confirmed dead. We must first remember that negotiations between the Islamic Republic and the United States are nothing new. In the past 30 years, the two countries have conducted public and secret negotiations, and there have been plenty of contacts between the two sides. Examples include negotiations from 1980-1981 for the release of the American hostages; the Iran-Contra scandal of the mid-1980s; Iran's cooperation with the U.S. during the first Persian Gulf War of 1990-91, and the fall 2001 war in Afghanistan that overthrew the Taliban; and negotiations over the situation in Iraq. So, if the negotiations with the Islamic Republic give it any legitimacy, it is already a fait accompli. In addition, diplomatic isolation of a terrible government does not improve its behavior. To the contrary, isolation backs the government into a corner and often prompts it to commit even more horrible crimes against its citizens. A good example is Zimbabwe. Isolating the government of Robert Mugabe has only worsened the plight of the vast majority of its people. At the same time, the fact is that the hardliners are afraid of the existence of the U.S. embassy in Tehran, not because they believe that the embassy would become another "nest of spies" -- the name given to the embassy by the leftist students who took it over in Tehran in November 1979 -- but because it would lead to much better people-to-people relations that is ultimately not in the hardliners' interests. In the author's opinion, negotiations with the Islamic Republic neither give it, nor take away, any legitimacy from it. The reason is simple. The legitimacy of a government is bestowed upon it by the people who are ruled over by that government, not by any foreign power. That is the true meaning of a sovereign nation. Therefore, if the Ahmadinejad government lacks legitimacy in the eyes of a great majority of the Iranian -- and, indeed, it does -- then, no degree of negotiations with any foreign power, regardless of how powerful the foreign power may be, will give it any degree of legitimacy. It must, of course, be made clear to the Ahmadinejad administration that the world is well aware of the lack of legitimacy of his government at home, and that the world also respects the principle by which a government earns its legitimacy through the votes of its people. Regardless of how any Iranian feels about it, any international organization or foreign power that needs or wants to deal with Iran, must do so through the only government that it has, namely, the Ahmadinejad government. Given Iran's importance, both regionally and globally, and the urgency that the West attaches to negotiations with Iran because of its rapid progress in setting up the complete nuclear fuel cycle, it would be naïve to think or expect that the West would simply put the negotiations on hold until a government that is acceptable to a majority of the Iranians will emerge in Iran. Most importantly, negotiations between Iran and the United States are in the true national interests of both nations. We must recall that the true national interests of any country are those that are independent of the type of political system that rules that nation. This has been recognized by the Iranians. The best evidence for it is that an overwhelming majority of the Iranians would like to see improvements in relations between Iran and the United States. The question then is which group in Iran can best negotiate a long-lasting agreement with the United States, one that would address most, if not all, of the major issues between the two countries? In my view, hardliners are best positioned to negotiate with the United States. To see why, consider the case of China. The United States vehemently opposed the communist revolution in China, which resulted in the overthrow the pro-West government of Gen. Chiang Kai Shek and brought Mao Zedong and his communist comrades to power in 1949. The U.S. cut off its diplomatic relations with mainland China, and recognized instead the renegade government set up by Gen. Chiang in Taiwan, and looked to it as the sole representative of all of China. Richard Nixon, Vice President to President Dwight D. Eisenhower from 1953 - 1961, and the 37th president of the United States from 1969 - 1974, was one of the most virulently anti-communist figures in America in the 20th century. In 1946 he ran on an anti-communism platform to get elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from California's 12th District (in southern California). Once in Congress, he became a member of the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which mounted a witch hunt of alleged communist sympathizers in the U.S. government. A well known case before HUAC concerned Alger Hiss (1904-1996), a high-ranking State Department official who had been accused of being a communist spy. Nixon showed that Hiss committed perjury in his testimony, and HUAC helped convict him (Hiss served 44 months in jail). In 1950, Nixon ran against Helen Gahagan Douglas, a leftist actress, for a seat on the U.S. Senate, again on an anti-communist, anti-leftist platform, and defeated her. President Eisenhower selected Nixon as his running mate for the 1952 presidential election. Still, once Nixon himself was elected President in 1968, he and his National Security Adviser, Henry M. Kissinger, recognized that re-establishing diplomatic relations with China was in the U.S. national interest. Mao was at odds with the Soviet Union, and hence, China and its long border with the Soviet Union could be used as a counter-weight to the Soviets. Re-establishing relations with a major communist power, especially at the height of the Vietnam War -- a war with another communist regime supported by both China and the Soviet Union no less -- was simply too big a taboo for any Democrat to break. Cuba had fallen to the communists in 1959 and Latin America was in the midst of many communist insurgencies. Only President Nixon, with his long and "impeccable" track record of anti-communism, had the credibility and authority to reestablish ties with China. In 1972, from February 21-28, he went to China and met with Mao, Prime Minister Zhou Enlai, and other communist leaders. He toasted Mao in the official State dinner in his honor, the same Mao whom Nixon had accused many times of killing millions of Chinese people! No one could really attack Nixon for being "soft" on communists. Likewise, for the past 30 years, Iran's hardliners have vehemently opposed the U.S. Anyone who has advocated better relations with the U.S. has been savagely attacked by the hardliners and labeled "soft," or worse, "a U.S. agent." Given these circumstances, only the hardliners have the "credibility" to negotiate with the United States. If the negotiations lead to improvements in bilateral relations, it would be in the true national interests of both nations, and indeed the entire Middle East. Even if Iran's reformist-democratic groups came to power today, they would not be able to carry out negotiations with the U.S., simply because they would be blocked by the hardliners. At the same time, the leaders of the Green Movement -- Mehdi Karroubi, Mir Hossein Mousavi, Mohammad Khatami, and Grand Ayatollah Hossein-Ali Montazeri -- have made it clear that they support negotiations with the United States. On the other hand, if the U.S.-Iran conflict is resolved or lessened, then the hardliners will no longer be able to label the democratic groups as the lackeys of the U.S., nor can U.S. sanctions and threats be used as excuses for repressing and oppressing the Iranian people. That will benefit Iran's democratic movement. Has the time for negotiations really arrived? Aside from the fact that the U.S. and its allies urgently want to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program (and, thus, the negotiations cannot be postponed any longer), the current state of affairs between the two nations, namely, neither war nor peace, is no longer sustainable. One way or another, all the issues between the two nations must be put on the table and negotiated. Negotiations will have a chance for success only if all the issues are on the table. Both the Iranian and American people should demand that negotiations be completely transparent. There should be no secret agreements between the two governments that would hurt the long-term interests of the people of Iran, as well as the American people. Chief among the interests of the Iranian people is respect for human rights, a universal value. Libya is a good example to steer away from. For years, the United States accused the Libyan government of grossly violating the human rights of the Libyan people. But as soon as Libya's dictator, Muammar al-Qaddafi, agreed on Dec. 19, 2003, to give up Libya's ambitions for a nuclear program and nuclear weapons, the United States and its allies stopped raising Qaddafi's gross violations of human rights of the Libyan people. Qaddafi's sins have been forgiven! Iran has signed many international agreements on human rights, including the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The agreements are binding and the government of the hardliners must be held accountable for their obligations under this and all relevant international laws. The Ahmadinejad government must be reminded that it cannot argue that the relevant international agreements have given Iran rights to a complete nuclear fuel cycle, while neglecting its obligations under another international agreement that it has signed, namely, the ICCPR. Some Iranians in the Diaspora, particularly among the monarchists, have advocated imposing economic sanctions on Iran. Not only are sanctions against international law (unless approved by the United Nations Security Council), but they would only hurt ordinary Iranians. The best examples of ineffectiveness of sanctions are illustrated by the plight of the people of Iraq, Libya, and Cuba. Sanctions did not overthrow the regimes of Saddam Hussein, Qaddafi, and Fidel Castro, but only worsened the lives of ordinary people who lived in these countries. In addition, at least 500,000 Iraqi children died as a result of these sanctions in the 1990s. The United States has already imposed some of the toughest sanctions on Iran. Due to its importance and oil wealth, Iran has proven to be very resilient against the sanctions. But, at the same time, U.S. sanctions have been used as an excuse by the hardliners to justify their mismanagement of the economy. This is one reason, in addition to hurting the lives of ordinary Iranians, as to why leaders of Iran's Green Movement are vehemently opposed to the imposition of any sanctions. Imposition of sanctions on Iran will, in fact, benefit the hardliners. The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) already controls a very significant portion of Iran's economy. Imposing sanctions will only tighten the IRGC's grip on Iran's economy by enabling them to control the import of needed materials and products by going around sanctions. Needless to say, more economic power means more political power for the IRGC. The progressives must also recognize that the resolution of the problems between Iran and the United States is not separate from the resolution of several other conflicts in the Middle East, including the Israel-Palestinian issue, Israel's repeated attacks on southern Lebanon, Israel's refusal to give up the Golan Heights and return it to their rightful owners, Syria (Iran's strategic ally in the region), and the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. So unless the Obama administration takes meaningful steps toward the just settlement of these conflicts, the resolution of the problems between Iran and the United States will remain out of reach. One would hope that now that President Obama has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Prize for Peace based on the promise of his presidency (rather than actual concrete achievements), the Prize will induce him and his administration to take the fateful and courageous steps necessary to move the Middle East toward a true, just, and honorable peace for all the people and nations of that region, including Iran and Iranians. The author remains skeptical. These lofty goals will not be achieved unless the United States changes its views about the Middle East and stops acting as an imperial power that must control everything, energy resources in particular. How likely is that to happen? Not likely at all!

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Clinton: Not ‘Either/Or’ Between Negotiating With Iran and Supporting Dissidents «

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Oct. 05 (News Report) - Asked at the George Washington University forum about whether the Obama administration was effectively undermining the Iranian opposition by negotiating with the Iranian regime over its nuclear program, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said the choice was not “either/or.” Citing the U.S. experience throughout the Cold War of “always press[ing]” the Soviet Union on [...]

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Nuclear tightrope in Iran

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By William Dowell - Oct. 01 (News Analysis) - The meeting here in Geneva is being billed as the last chance for a diplomatic solution to what many see as Iran’s race to build a nuclear bomb. In diplomacy, it is a good rule never to say “never,” but there is no question that this time there is a lot at stake. Iran's chief negotiator on its nuclear program is meeting with representatives from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, plus Germany.

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US Story on Iran Nuke Facility Doesn't Add Up

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Inter Press Service - By Gareth Porter - Sep. 30 (News Analysis) - an analysis of the transcript of that briefing by senior administration officials that was the sole basis for the news stories and other evidence reveals damaging admissions, conflicts with the facts and unanswered questions that undermine its credibility.

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China, Iran and Sanctions: What's a Rising Power to Do?

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Huffington Post - By Elizabeth Lynch - Sep. 30 (News Analysis) - Why is China so hesitant to support sanctions against a country that is secretly developing nuclear capabilities? History, geo-politics and economic ties are what set China apart from its Security Council brethren in dealing with Iran. But China's growth as a world power has caused it to become a stakeholder in the current system. With this new-found power, China has begun to realize its actions, or lack of action, does in fact shape the world's future course and as a result, its own global prospects.

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Iran replaces Dollar with Euro in FX

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

presstv.ir - By Editor - Sep. 29 (News Report) - Following the switch, the interest rate for the facilities provided from the Foreign Exchange Reserves will be reduced from12 to 5 percent. Since being introduced by the European Union, the euro has gained popularity internationally and there are now more euros in circulation than the dollar.

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Experts Weigh in on Obama’s Explanation of Iran’s Nuclear Facility

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Washington Independent - By Spencer Ackerman - Sep. 28 (News Report) - Flanked by the French president and the British premier, President Obama on Friday dramatically stated that the “size and configuration” of a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear facility near the clerical city of Qom make it “inconsistent with a peaceful program.” Several independent experts believe the facility is most likely being constructed to support a nuclear weapons program, especially as Iran’s concealment of it comes after years of nondisclosure and obstruction of inspections. But even those experts believe that the “size and configuration” of the facility does not necessarily mean it could only be used to build an atomic bomb.

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Yearning for the Golan Heights: Why Syria Wants It Back

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 00:00:00 -0700

TruthOut - By Julien Barnes-Dacey - Sep. 28 (News) - Syria's cooperation is crucial to the chief goal of President Obama's Middle East policy: Arab-Israeli peace. With ties to three Israeli enemies - Iran, and the militant groups Hezbollah and Hamas - Syria says it can moderate the threats against the Jewish state and thus pave the way for reciprocal Israeli concessions to the Palestinians and their Arab allies.

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UAE seized ship with N.Korea arms bound for Iran

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Ynetnews - Aug. 30 (Special Report) - The United Arab Emirates seized a ship several weeks ago that was bound for Iran and carrying North Korean weapons in violation of a UN embargo, Western diplomats said on Friday.

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Freelance Journalists Are on Their Own - NAM

Sat, 08 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New America Media - By Andrew Lam - Aug. 08 (News Report) - In an era of shrinking foreign bureaus, struggling news organizations are relying more and more on freelance journalists. For the go-it-alone intrepid reporter or photographer abroad, as well as journalists working for non-traditional media and less

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US Confronts the Russia-Iran Alliance

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Consortium News - By Pepe Escobar - Aug. 05 (News Analysis) - While the Bush and now Obama administrations have sought to pressure Iran on its nuclear program, Tehran has been building up a stronger relationship with its historic adversary, Russia, and with other countries outside the U.S. orbit, like Venezuela.

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Iran election: Ayatollah Ali Khamenei appeals to protesters, closes detention centre

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Vancouver Sun - By Parisa Hafezi, Zahra Hosseinian - Jul. 28 (News Report) - Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has ordered the closing of Kahrizak detention centre where some detainees are believed to have been held since Iran's disputed presidential election. Khamenei's order is seen as a move to calm the growing discontent among leading moderates and their supporters, particularly when the clerical establishment faces disputes among its hardline supporters over President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's appointment of his first vice-president.

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In Iran, Khatami wants referendum to settle disquiet

Mon, 20 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

presstv.ir - Jul. 20 (News Report) - Indian ExpressIn Iran, Khatami wants referendum to settle disquiet. Former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami proposes a "referendum" on the legitimacy of the government as a means to end the crisis over the recent presidential election. In a meeting on Sunday with family members of the detainees who protested against ...Ayatollah warns against helping Iran's enemies

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After sermon, Rafsanjani meets Mashhad top clerics

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

presstv.ir - Jul. 19 (News Report) - Amid widely-debated political developments in Iran, influential cleric and politician Ayatollah Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani visits the holy city of Mashhad to confer with senior Iranian clerics. Hashemi-Rafsanjani -- a two-time former president who heads both the top political arbitration body, the Expediency Council, and the clerical body, the Assembly of Experts - paid a visit to Iran's holy city of Mashhad on Saturday to meet with top clerics in the city and discuss the latest political ferment in the country. The visit comes a day after Ayatollah Hashemi-Rafsanjani led the Friday prayers at Tehran University which was attended by hundreds of thousands of people.

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Iranian Protests in U.S. Streets may Save them from Dehumanized War unlike Iraqis and Afghans

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

current.com - By Jon Raymond - Jul. 06 (News Report) - One good thing that these marches do is to show the world and the Iranian government the faces of Iranians, which makes it impossible for the U.S. and other governments, to dehumanize the Iranian people in order to wage war, as the U.S. has done in Iraq and Afghanistan (See: Iran Was an Easier Enemy Before We Saw Their Faces: http://tinyurl.com/kjskql). Iraq War veterans have testified to this fact in the Winter Soldier testimonies on U.S. military racism (http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier), citing how their superiors demean Iraqis, and now Afghans, by routinely referring to them as "hodgie", a slag term for Hajji.

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The Stop War Project ? Iranian Protests in U.S. Streets may Save them from Dehumanized War, unlike Iraqi and Afghan Victims of U.S. Occupation

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

stopwar.lafilmonline.com - By Jon Raymond - Jul. 06 (News Report) - It is a well known fact among scholars (like Dr. Haig Bosmajian, University of Washington in Seattle) that the U.S. military has, as a matter of policy, demeaned the people of entire countries that we have gone to war with, ever since the Korean War when they referred to Koreans as “gooks”, which carried over to the Vietnam War. It is no stretch to call our military racist. But this was also found during WWII when they called the Germans “krauts”. The Germans are especially infamous for their pro-war dehumanization campaign of the Jewish people in calling them “rats”. The purpose of this as government policy is to make it easier for people and troops to accept war, especially the killing and genocide of innocent people.

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Daily Show Iran | Colbert Report Iraq

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

GlobalPost - By Thomas Mucha - Jul. 02 (News Analysis) - It’s been a fascinating few weeks for global news — the real kind, of course — but also for the fake stuff. I’m referring to "The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report," which sent correspondents and producers to locales where comedy shows don't normally operate: Iran and Iraq. Along the way, these two Comedy Central commercial properties cooked up plenty of laughs. But they also produced some insightful — and certainly entertaining — coverage of these two complex and important global stories.

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Six Reasons Why Iran Cannot Be Explained in a Twitter Feed - NAM

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

New America Media - By Jalal Ghazi - Jul. 02 (News Analysis) - The world’s attention is on Iran. But the rhetoric of reformists vs. conservatives and students vs. mullahs cannot capture the complexity of what is happening on the streets of Tehran. Here are six reasons why the situation in Iran cannot be reduced to simplistic headlines or Twitter feeds.

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US in Iran

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Z Magazine - By Francis Boyle - Jul. 01 (News Analysis) - Under former President Bush and Vice President Cheney the US was supporting opposition candidates, and in 2007 Bush authorized a covert "black" operation to destabilize the Iranian government, according to ABCNews.com. You can read a May 22, 2007 report about the operation in www.Global Research.ca.

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Mousavi's Web Site Closed; Manages to send Message to Iranians Abroad

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Informed Comment - By Juan Cole - Jun. 28 (News Report) - CNN says that Iran's National Security Council met recently with opposition leaders Mir Hosain Mousavi, Mehdi Karroubi and Mohsen Rezai. Ismail Kowsari, spokesman for the NSC, is said to have complained to Mousavi that his position, that the presidential election was stolen, is "illogical" and that he should not have repeated it after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei addressed the nation on June 19. Kalemeh, the web site of opposition leader Mir Hosain Mousavi, has been closed down, as the regime tightens the screws in its crackdown on protests against what reformists see as the stealing of the Iranian election.

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America's Secret War With Iran // Current

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

current.com - By Mariana Van Zeller - Jun. 28 (News Report) - America's Secret War With Iran http://current.com/items/89438469_americas... Is the U.S. already at war with Iran? In "America's Secret War in Iran," Vanguard correspondent Mariana van Zeller travels to the Iraq-Iran border to investigate claims that the United States is supporting militant groups that are attacking Iran. In the rugged Qandil mountains, she meets with up with anti-Iranian guerillas who have been launching deadly raids against the Islamic Republic. A good percentage of the fighters are women, and Mariana accompanies a small group of them through what many believe has become the frontline of the U.S.'s secret war with Iran.

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Voice of Iran

Fri, 26 Jun 2009 00:00:00 -0700

Link TV - By Erin Cokin - Jun. 26 (News Analysis) - A propaganda war is underway. Following the extraordinary presidential election, Iran's state-controlled media are aggressively promoting their own version of news events. It is a very different story from the one that is being told in the Western media.

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