Hard-line Iran prez bats for co-ed colleges

July 11, 2011 By Leave a Comment

TEHRAN: Iran’s political power struggles have brought no shortage of cutthroat intrigue with careers ruined, government officials arrested and even accusations of black magic. And now this — firebrand president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as the voice of liberal dissent.

That’s the latest twist in the showdown between Ahmadinejad and Iran’s ruling clerics. Ahmadinejad — reviled by the opposition as a figurehead of hard-line rule — is now temporarily in the reformists’ corner by opposing plans to segregate male and
female students at Iranian universities. “It is necessary to swiftly prevent these backward, shallow-minded actions,” Ahmadinejad wrote in an order addressed to members of his Cabinet.

It also nudged the political dramas further into territory that’s surprising even by Iran’s roughneck standards, where potshots and bitter quarrels are common fare in parliament and elsewhere. This time, the battle is Ahmadinejad versus the theocracy that once backed him.

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Iran will react if ships inspected: Ahmadinejad

July 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Iran will react swiftly if its commercial shipping or aviation are subjected to inspection, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Sunday.

A U.N. Security Council resolution on June 9 imposed restrictions on Iranian shipping and other sectors to try to persuade Tehran to curb its nuclear enrichment activities.

Under the latest sanctions, countries would have the authority to inspect cargo ships heading to or from Iran.

“You should know whoever takes a decision against the Iranian nation, such as the so-called inspection of the Iranian ships or so-and-so toward its aircraft, will immediately receive Iran’s reaction,” told a conference in a speech broadcast live on radio.

Earlier this month, the European Union banned more planes operated by Iran Air from flying into the airspace of the 27-country bloc on safety grounds.

It denied reports there was a ban on Iranian commercial airliners refueling in Germany and Britain as a result of U.S. sanctions. However, some oil companies have stopped jet fuel supplies to Iranian aircraft outside Iran.

Restating that the Islamic state did not seek hostility with any country, Ahmadinejad said: “We are in favor of friendship and logic.”

Iran, the world’s fifth largest oil producer, has been the subject of four rounds of U.N. sanctions over its defiance to suspend its uranium enrichment activities.

Iran says its nuclear program is designed to produce electricity and sanctions will not bring about any change.

(Writing by Hashem Kalantari, Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

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Iranian prosecutor urges Islamic dress checks

July 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Iran’s prosecutor called on Sunday for tighter checks on women who fail to observe Islamic dress code in public, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported.

Under Iran’s Sharia law, imposed after the 1979 Islamic revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes. Violators can receive lashes, fines or imprisonment.

“Unfortunately the law … which considers violation of the Islamic dress code as a punishable crime, has not been implemented in the country in the past 15 years,” said general prosecutor Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei.

“Under the law, violators of public chastity should be punished by being sentenced to up to two months in jail or 74 lashes.”

Strict dress codes were enforced in the years after the revolution but in recent years clamp downs have tended to last just weeks or months in summer, when women wear lighter clothing such as calf-length trousers and colored scarves.

Young women in urban areas often defy the limitations by wearing tight clothing and colorful headscarves that barely cover their hair. The codes are less commonly flouted in rural regions.

Enforcement of codes governing women’s dress have become stricter since President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in 2005, promising a return to the values of the revolution.

The president’s hardline supporters, who say Islamic attire helps protect women against the sex symbol status they have in the West, have pressed for tighter controls on “immoral behavior.”

“It is up to the judge to decide whether to punish violators by only fining them,” said Mohseni-Ejei.

(Writing by Ramin Mostafavi; Editing by Janet Lawrence)

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Hardliners target moderate Iranian opposition figures

June 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Hardliners attacked the car of a moderate Iranian opposition leader and surrounded the home of a senior cleric in the Shi’ite holy city of Qom on Sunday, the opposition Kaleme website reported.

World

The cleric, Yousef Sanei, had backed moderate defeated candidates Mehdi Karoubi and Mirhossein Mousavi in last year’s June presidential vote, which the opposition says was rigged to secure the re-election of hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Sanei strongly criticized the hardline establishment for suppressing opposition supporters during the post-election unrest. The authorities say the vote was the healthiest election in the Islamic republic in three decades.

“A hardline group surrounded Grand Ayatollah Yousef Sanei’s home when Karoubi visited him,” the website quoted an unnamed sources as saying.

“They are still there and are chanting slogans against Mousavi, Karoubi and Sanei,” the source said.

Karoubi’s son Hossein told the Kaleme website that his father’s car had been totally destroyed by the hardliners outside of the cleric’s house.

The opposition Jaras website also said the houses of Sanei and late Grand Ayatollah Hossein Ali Montazeri were attacked by the same group.

“Their houses were attacked. Windows were smashed and the group chanted slogans against the opposition leaders,” Jaras quoted Montazeri’s son Saeed as saying.

The reports could not been confirmed independently.

POST-ELECTION PROTESTS

Sanei’s office in Qom was attacked by hardline Basij militia in December, when opposition supporters used a Shi’ite Muslim mourning ceremony to revive anti-government protests, during which eight people were killed in Tehran.

The post-election street protests, the worst unrest since the Islamic republic was founded in 1979, were put down violently by the elite Revolutionary Guards and its affiliated Basij militia forces. Mass detentions and trials followed.

Two people were hanged and scores remain in jail.

Saturday’s first anniversary of the disputed vote saw minor clashes between security forces and opposition supporters in Tehran. A senior police official said 91 suspicious people had been arrested, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

Mousavi and Karoubi have called for immediate release of the detainees, Kaleme reported.

Authorities banned an opposition rally planned for Saturday, and reformist leaders urged their supporters to stay home, fearing for people’s lives in any crackdown.

The authorities accuse say the opposition are part of a Western plot to overthrow the Islamic republic and have repeatedly said they will prevent any revival of the protests.

Opposition leaders say their reform movement is alive and that they will continue to fight for a more democratic Islamic state.

At least a dozen pro-reform publications and most opposition websites have been blocked since the vote, making it hard for the opposition leaders to communicate with the public.

(Writing by Parisa Hafezi, Editing by Jon Boyle)

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Ahmadinejad says China-Iran ties unhurt by sanctions

June 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

(Reuters) – Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said China’s support for the latest U.N. sanctions against it would not harm ties, but slammed Beijing along with other nuclear powers for wanting to monopolize the technology.

World | China

Ahmadinejad, speaking during a visit to China’s commercial capital of Shanghai on Friday, dismissed Wednesday’s resolution, triggered by a nuclear program the West believes is aimed at developing atomic weapons, as “a piece of worthless paper.”

Asked if Tehran was upset by China’s vote, he highlighted the strength of ties with a country that buys millions of barrels of Iranian crude each year, had opposed new restrictions for months and together with Russia watered down the package voted on.

“There is no reason to control or weaken the relationship (with China). The main problem is the United States,” he told a news conference after visiting the city’s flagship World Expo.

“The U.S. administration is abusing power in the (U.N.) Security Council in order to impose its hegemony on other nations,” the president said, speaking through a translator.

The resolution extended punitive measures against Iran over its protracted refusal to suspend sensitive uranium enrichment activity and open up to U.N. nuclear inspectors.

Ahmadinejad was in Shanghai to attend the Iran day at the ongoing World Expo, and both China and Iran said the visit was purely related to that event.

The president lavished praise on cultural ties and shared values and targeted most of his criticism at Washington, though China was included in a sweeping attack on the U.N. Security Council.

“Five members have the veto rights, nuclear bombs and nuclear energy in their company and they want to monopolize all this technology for themselves,” the president said.

The five permanent members, the only ones able to block resolutions, are the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France.

IAEA INSPECTORS CAN STAY

He said Iran would not suspend cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) over the sanctions.

“There is no reason (for inspectors) to leave Iran. We have no problem with our peaceful nuclear program,” he said, adding that Iran would push ahead with making its own enriched uranium and sanctions would act only as a spur to developing technology.

He also thanked Brazil and Turkey, which have negotiated with Iran in recent months, for voting against the sanctions, saying their support signaled the formation of a “new front of independent countries.”

The latest resolution received the least support of four meted out against Iran since 2006.

A senior German legislator said earlier this week Turkey and Brazil made a “big mistake” by voting against the sanctions since this may have encouraged Tehran to think it was not isolated.

Ahmadinejad slammed U.S. policy as deceitful and misguided and said the country’s leader was naive about foreign affairs.

“Maybe he is very immature. I think Mr (Barack) Obama does not know the world very well,” he said, adding that the U.S. president was particularly in the dark about Iran and its people.

The U.S. Congress is expected to pass additional sanctions on Iran, possibly as early as this month, and European leaders may agree next week on the need for further restrictions.

(Additional reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Ben Blanchard)

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Iran’s Ahmadinejad says UN resolution “valuless”-report

June 10, 2010 By Leave a Comment

June 9 (Reuters) – The new U.N. sanctions resolution against Iran has no value and should be thrown in the waste bin like a used handkerchief, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday.

“These resolutions have no value… It is like a used handkerchief that should be thrown in the waste bin,” he told reporters when asked about the fourth round of the U.N. Security Council sanctions resolution imposed on Iran.

He was speaking during a visit to Tajikstan. (Reporting by Roman Kozhevnikov, writing by Parisa Hafezi)

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Turkey hosts Eurasian summit amid Israel storm

June 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Turkey, seething with anger after an Israeli raid on an aid ship bound for Gaza, hosts leaders from Russia, Iran, the Arab world and beyond this week for a Eurasian security summit that may further isolate Israel.

The guest list for the meeting in Istanbul of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia (CICA), reads like a “who’s who” of leaders from world hot spots, with participants from the Middle East, South Asia and the Korean Peninsula.

Israel is one of 20 members of the forum, but has decided to send a diplomat from its consulate, an Israeli embassy official said on Sunday, rather than expose a more senior figure to the fury generated by the killing of nine Turkish pro-Palestinian activists in the Israeli commando operation last Monday.

Turkey is expected to try to raise pressure on Israel to end the four-year old blockade of 1.5 million Palestinians in Gaza during a conference on Monday which precedes Tuesday’s full summit.

The diplomatic momentum will continue on Wednesday, as Arab League foreign ministers gather in Istanbul for the Turkish-Arab Cooperation Forum.

Turkey, NATO’s only Muslim member, has sought to raise its international profile in recent years. Positioned next to countries along the Gulf and Caspian Sea, where most of the world’s oil and gas is found, Turkey holds geostrategic value in a conflict-prone region.

It wants to join the European Union and become a major regional power, shedding the straitjacket of its Cold War era role as ally of the West.

Critics caution that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan’s Islamist-leaning government risks tilting too far in trying to forge stronger ties with Middle East governments the West does not trust.

EIGHT PRESIDENTS

While CICA aspires to ideals of collective security to minimise threats of conflict within its region there are several hard core enemies of Israel among its diverse membership.

Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas are among eight presidents participating in the Eurasian summit. President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, though not a member, is attending as a guest.

Plenty of discussion is expected to focus on Israel and the blockade it says is necessary to prevent weapons from falling into the hands of Hamas militants in Gaza. But other topics, including Afghanistan, will also be debated.

“Afghanistan and Gaza are equally test cases for us,” Turkish Foreign Ministry Deputy Undersecretary Unal Cevikoz told a news conference on Saturday.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai is to meet Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi before the summit in a trilateral spearheaded by Turkey to build confidence between two deeply suspicious neighbours who are both fighting Taliban militants.

Cevikoz said he did not expect the meeting to focus much on Iran’s nuclear programme, despite momentum for a new sanctions resolution against the Islamic Republic in the U.N. Security Council.

Turkey, with Brazil’s help, brokered an accord with Iran last month for a nuclear fuel swap, in the hope of heading off sanctions against a fellow Muslim neighbour, major trading partner and key supplier of gas.

There will be an inevitable focus on any exchanges between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Ahmadinejad, after the Iranian leader sharply criticised the Kremlin for supporting a draft sanctions resolution.

China will be represented at the Istanbul summit by State Councillor Dai Bingguo, a high-ranking foreign policy official, while India is sending a trade minister.

CICA was first established in the early 1990s by Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, whose country hosted the only two previous summits, the last one four years ago.

(Editing by Noah Barkin)

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International reaction to flotilla intervention

June 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Here is some international reaction to the incident:

PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS:

– “What Israel has committed on board the Freedom Flotilla was a massacre.”

He declared three days of official mourning for the dead.

TURKISH PRESIDENT ABDULLAH GUL:

– Gul said in a statement that Ankara is demanding an inquiry into the violent interdiction of the Turkey-backed convoy and the punishment of the culprits.

– Turkey said on Monday it had called for an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.

ARAB LEAGUE CHIEF AMR MOUSSA:

– Amr Moussa called on Monday for an emergency meeting to discuss what the body that groups 22 Arab states described as Israel’s “terrorist act.”

“The Arab League strongly condemns this terrorist act.”

IRANIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD AHMADINEJAD:

– “The inhuman acts of the Zionist regime against Palestinians and preventing humanitarian aid to the Gaza people does not show the strength of the Zionist regime but shows its weakness,” Ahmadinejad told state broadcaster IRIB. “All these acts indicate the end of the heinous and fake regime and will bring it closer to the end of its existence.”

FRENCH PRESIDENT NICOLAS SARKOZY:

– “The President of the Republic expresses his profound emotion in the face of the tragic consequences of the Israeli military operation,” Sarkozy’s office said. “He condemns the disproportionate use of force and addresses his condolences to the families of the victims,” it said.

ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER FRANCO FRATTINI:

– “I deplore in the strongest terms the killing of civilians. This is certainly a grave act.”

BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY WILLIAM HAGUE:

“I deplore the loss of life during the interception of the Gaza Flotilla…We have consistently advised against attempting to access Gaza in this way, because of the risks involved. But at the same time, there is a clear need for Israel to act with restraint and in line with international obligations…”

GERMAN GOVERNMENT SPOKESMAN ULRICH WILHELM:

– “The German government is shocked by events in the international waters by Gaza…”

– “Every German government supports unconditionally Israel’s right to self defense,” said Wilhelm, but added that Israeli actions should to correspond to what he described as the “basic principle” of proportionality.

EUROPEAN UNION:

– “High Representative Catherine Ashton expresses her deep regret at the news of loss of life and violence and extends her sympathies to families of the dead and wounded,” said a spokesperson for Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief.

– “On behalf of the European Union she demands a full enquiry about the circumstances in which this happened… The continued policy of closure is unacceptable and politically counter-productive. She calls for an immediate, sustained and unconditional opening of the crossing for the flow of humanitarian aid, commercial goods and persons to and from Gaza,” the spokesperson said.

NORWEGIAN PRIME MINISTER JENS STOLTENBERG:

– “This underlines that the blockade of Gaza should be ended as soon as possible,” Stoltenberg told reporters. “This type of military action is unacceptable. The shootings must be investigated and documented. It is clear that this is a use of force against civilians.”

SPANISH SECRETARY OF STATE DIEGO

LOPEZ GARRIDO:

– Spain unequivocally condemns the Israeli attack on the humanitarian flotilla and it does so as a country and as the acting president of the EU Council. Spain has summoned the Israeli ambassador to ask him for explanations of the attack.

DUTCH FOREIGN MINISTER MAXIME VERHAGEN:

– “I want the Israeli ambassador in The Hague to provide clarification today on this,” Verhagen said in a statement. “The Netherlands wants an investigation specifically into how this could have happened.”

GREEK DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER DIMITRIS DROUTSAS:

– “There is no excuse. The level of violence cannot be excused … we condemn it and this is exactly the message I conveyed this morning to the Israeli ambassador.

–”Israel must provide us with all the information demanded and (guarantee) the safety of the Greek citizens.

THE VATICAN:

– “This is a very painful fact, in particularly because of the loss of human lives,” said chief Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi. He said the Vatican was against violence “from whatever side it comes.”

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Iran and Russia clash in worst row for years

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Iran and Russia clashed on Wednesday over Kremlin support for draft U.N. sanctions against the Islamic Republic, in one of the worst rows between the two powers since the Cold War.

The public clash indicates growing concern in Tehran after the United States said Russia and China, the closest thing Iran has to big-power allies, had agreed to a draft sanctions resolution to punish Iran over its nuclear programme.

In unusually strong criticism of Russia, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad admonished the Kremlin for bowing to what he said was U.S. pressure to agree sanctions and bluntly warned President Dmitry Medvedev to be more cautious.

“If I were the Russian president, when making decisions about subjects related to a great nation (Iran) … I would act more cautiously, I would think more,” Ahmadinejad said in a televised outdoor speech.

He said that Russian support for the United States was unacceptable and that Moscow should rethink its decision or face being viewed as an enemy by Tehran.

Within hours, the Kremlin’s top foreign policy adviser dismissed Ahmadinejad’s criticism, telling the Iranian president to refrain from “political demagoguery”.

“No one has ever managed to preserve one’s authority with political demagoguery. I am convinced, the thousand-year history of Iran itself is evidence of this,” Sergei Prikhodko said in a statement read out by a Kremlin spokeswoman.

“The Russian Federation is governed by its own long-term state interests. Our position is Russian: it reflects the interests of all the peoples of greater Russia and so it can be neither pro-American nor pro-Iranian,” he said.

ROW WITH RUSSIA

The spat between two of the world’s biggest energy producers — with a personal tirade by a president against a Kremlin leader — is the worst in many years, analysts said.

Though trade ties have grown over the past two decades, Russia is still regarded with deep distrust in Iran after several wars between Persia and the Tsarist Empire, followed by rocky relations with the atheist Soviet Union.

Russia has been dismayed by Tehran’s failure to disclose full details about its nuclear programme and diplomats say privately that Kremlin leaders have been burned several times while attempting to get Iranian leaders to resolve the dispute.

Prikhodko issued a clear rebuke to Tehran over its failure to allay fears about its nuclear programme.

“Any unpredictability, any political extremism, lack of transparency or inconsistency in taking decisions that affect and concern the entire world community is unacceptable for us,” he said.

“It would be good if those who are now speaking in the name of the wise people of Iran … would remember this.”

Since the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union, trade has grown, reaching $3 billion last year. Russia has struck deals to build Iran’s first nuclear power station and sell billions of dollars of weapons.

But the row with Moscow could hurt Russian plans to start the nuclear reactor at the Bushehr power plant in August and Iran is unlikely to see a Russian delivery of the S-300 surface-to-air missiles it agreed to sell Iran.

“Moscow has repeatedly saved Iran from very tough sanctions, so Ahmadinejad’s defiance is quite frankly out of place,” Pyotr Goncharov, a Moscow-based specialist on the Gulf, told Reuters.

“It is simply the latest attempt by the Iranian president to lay the blame for his own problems at someone else’s door.”

(Writing by Guy Faulconbridge in Moscow and Robin Pomeroy in Tehran, additional reporting by Denis Dyomkin and Moscow and Ramin Mostafavi in Tehran; editing by Andrew Roche)

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Q+A – Why did Russia fall out with Iran?

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Iran’s tirade against Russia on Wednesday for supporting fresh U.N. sanctions showed how the former allies have now publicly fallen out.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad issued a rare public rebuke to his Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev, telling him he should “act more cautiously” and “think more”. The Kremlin replied that Ahmadinejad should refrain from “political demagoguery”.

Below are some questions and answers on why and how Moscow has shifted its position on Iran:

WEREN’T IRAN AND RUSSIA ALLIES?

Russia is a significant trading partner with Iran. Bilateral trade reached $3 billion last year, with Moscow selling the Islamic Republic nuclear technology, aircraft and other goods.

Iran and Russia are also among the world’s top oil and gas producers and have cooperated in this area.

In the diplomatic arena, Russia had resisted in 2008 and early 2009 fresh U.N. sanctions against Tehran and played down suggestions Iran was using its nuclear programme to build bombs.

HAS RUSSIA OPPOSED AN IRANIAN BOMB?

Russian officials have always insisted Moscow — which has a big problem of its own with Islamist terrorism — does not want to see a powerful Islamic state near its troubled southern borders acquire nuclear weapons. But until last year, Russia didn’t believe American assessments that it was likely to happen.

DIDN’T PUTIN DISMISS ANY NUCLEAR THREAT FROM IRAN?

In October 2007 while still president, Vladimir Putin became the first Kremlin leader to visit Iran since Stalin, delivering smiling support to Ahmadinejad, warning the United States against any military action and upholding Iran’s right to pursue a civilian nuclear programme.

DID RUSSIA BELIEVE IRAN WAS PURSUING A BOMB?

U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates recounted a meeting he had in 2007 with Putin:

“When I first met with President Putin and talked about this, he basically dismissed the idea that the Iranians would have a missile that would have the range to reach much of Western Europe and much of Russia before 2020 or so,” he said in testimony to the U.S. Senate last year.

“And he showed me a map that his intelligence guys had prepared. And I told him he needed a new intelligence service.”

WHEN DID THIS START TO CHANGE?

In the two years after that meeting, Russia started to change its assessment of the Iranian programme. However, in June 2009 Moscow was still happy to welcome Ahmadinejad to a summit of BRIC nations in Siberia and congratulate him on his disputed re-election. The real shift in policy towards Iran appears to have started over the course of last summer in Moscow.

DID OBAMA’S ELECTION ALTER ANYTHING?

When President Obama came to power in January 2009, he vowed to “reset” relations with Russia. This meant concessions to Moscow such as scaling back Bush-era missile defence plans in eastern Europe and accepting Russian influence in the former Soviet Union, in return for Moscow’s help on tackling international problems such as the Iranian nuclear programme and Afghanistan. Ties between the two nations improved dramatically.

BUT WASN’T RUSSIA RESISTING SANCTIONS ONLY LAST YEAR?

Despite headlines from Russian officials apparently resisting Western pressure on Iran, Western ambassadors in Moscow were talking confidently last year about how helpful and supportive Russia had been on Iran. It appears that Moscow was giving private assurances of support to the West on Iran some time before it changed its public position.

The West’s announcement in September that it had discovered a new secret Iranian nuclear fuel plant near the Muslim holy city of Qom further undermined Moscow’s confidence in Iran. Russia said the plant violated U.N. Security Council decisions and was a “source of serious concern”. In November 2009, Moscow supported an IAEA resolution condemning the move.

DID MEDVEDEV MAKE A DIFFERENCE?

Medvedev’s strong personal relationship with Obama has made it easier for the two leaders to agree a common position on Iran. The Russian president first started talking of fresh sanctions against Iran last September and mentioned them again during a visit to the United State the same month.

After signing a nuclear arms reduction treaty with Obama last month, Medvedev said he regretted that Iran was not reacting to constructive proposals on its nuclear programme. Iran has complained that Russia is caving in to U.S. pressure.

ISN’T RUSSIA STILL PROVIDING NUCLEAR TECHNOLOGY TO IRAN?

Moscow has a $1 billion contract with Tehran to build and start up a nuclear power plant at Bushehr. The plant is planned to start up in August after numerous delays — which a senior Iranian lawmaker said were the result of Russia using Iran as a pawn in dealings with other powers such as the United States.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton complained about Bushehr’s planned summer start-up when she visited Moscow in March, but Western diplomats say privately Russia has offered satisfactory safeguards against the plant being used for military purposes.

AND WASN’T RUSSIA GOING TO SELL IRAN AN AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM?

Moscow signed a contract in 2007 to sell Iran the S-300, a modern surface-to-air missile system that can be used to shoot down multiple hostile rockets and aircraft. However Russia has not yet fulfilled the contract and Western envoys say they have private assurances from Moscow that it will not do so.

WHAT MADE RUSSIA AGREE TO SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN THIS TIME?

A senior Kremlin official said earlier this month that if Washington wanted Moscow’s support for fresh sanctions against Iran, it needed to drop U.S. bans on trade with four Russian arms companies. Washington dropped the bans on Friday last week, though U.S. officials continue to deny any direct linkage with the Iran sanctions issue.

(Editing by Ralph Boulton)

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Kremlin tells Iran to stop ‘political demagoguery’

May 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Kremlin’s chief foreign policy adviser on Wednesday told Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to refrain from “political demagoguery” after Tehran admonished Russia for supporting new sanctions.

The public clash came after Ahmadinejad chided Russia for bowing to U.S. pressure over new sanctions against Tehran and bluntly warned Kremlin chief Dmitry Medvedev to be more cautious.

But Medvedev’s top foreign policy advisor, Sergei Prikhodko, dismissed the criticism, saying Russia was neither pro-American nor pro-Iranian and that Moscow’s policy was governed by the national interest.

“No one has ever managed to preserve one’s authority with political demagoguery. I am convinced, the thousand-year history of Iran itself is evidence of this,” Prikhodko said in a statement.

“The Russian Federation is governed by its own long-term state interests. Our position is Russian: it reflects the interests of all the peoples of greater Russia and so it can be neither pro-American nor pro-Iranian,” he said.

In a clear rebuke to Tehran over its failure to allay fears about its nuclear programme, Prikhodko said that Russia could not accept inconsistency and a lack of transparency in resolving major world issues.

“Any unpredictability, any political extremism, lack of transparency or inconsistency in taking decisions that affect and concern the entire world community is unacceptable for us,” he said.

“It would be good if those who are now speaking in the name of the wise people of Iran… would remember this,” Prikhodko said.

(Reporting by Denis Dyomkin, writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Conor Humphries)

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Russian support for sanctions “not acceptable”-Iran

May 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Wednesday Russian support for new U.N. sanctions against Iran was unacceptable and called on President Dmitry Medvedev to rethink his support for Washington’s stance.

“We shouldn’t see, at sensitive times, our neighbour (Russia) supporting those who have been against us, have shown animosity to us for 30 years. This is not acceptable for the Iranian nation. I hope they will pay attention and take corrective action,” Ahmadinejad said in a televised speech in the south-eastern city of Kerman.

He also said a deal Iran made with Turkey and Brazil to ship some of its enriched uranium abroad was a “great opportunity” that U.S. President Barack Obama should seize. (Reporting by Robin Pomeroy; Editing by Charles Dick)

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Iran opposition leader says new sanctions will hurt

May 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

New U.N. sanctions will hurt ordinary Iranians, opposition leader Mirhossein Mousavi said on Sunday, blaming the hardline government for provoking major world powers into action.

The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council agreed a draft of new sanctions last week after months of pressure from the United States to punish Iran for nuclear activities that Washington says are aimed at making a bomb.

“In recent days, the issue of sanctions has been raised against our nation. Although we think this situation arose from tactless and adventurous foreign policies, we are against it because it will affect people’s lives,” Mousavi said in comments carried on his website Kaleme.

Mousavi, who lost to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in last June’s presidential election which the opposition leader says was rigged, said Iran was facing an economic crisis whose full impact has yet to be felt.

A 0.5 percentage point fall in GDP growth last year to 1.8 percent — according to IMF figures — was “like undergoing a massive attack by foreign enemies”, Mousavi said.

“The pressure of this fall is on entrepreneurs and it will be followed by a heavy unemployment and poverty … turning back towards the people is the only solution and then you will see that again there is a backdrop of hope,” he said.

Some Iran analysts say only major economic hardship could weaken Ahmadinejad’s tight grip on power.

The government stamped out massive opposition protests after the election, jailing thousands of people. It said post-election “riots” were backed by foreign powers hoping to unseat it.

Opposition leaders have called on supporters to take part in peaceful election anniversary rallies on June 12.

Later this year, the government will begin phasing out fuel and food subsidies, which may pose an inflation risk and could prove unpopular, although the policy includes direct cash payments to help people cope with higher prices.

(Editing by Maria Golovnina)

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French woman to be cleared of spying-Iran lawyer

May 15, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The lawyer for a French teaching assistant who was arrested on spying charges after Iran’s disputed June election said on Saturday she would be acquitted by Sunday.

“The case of Clotilde Reiss is finished. The court will acquit my client of charges by Sunday,” Mohammad Ali Mahdavi-Sabet told Reuters.

Reiss, who has been out of jail on bail and staying at the French embassy, was accused of taking part in a Western plot to destabilise the Iranian government after the June 12 vote in which President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was re-elected.

Her case has raised tensions between France and Iran, already at odds over Tehran’s nuclear programme. France says Reiss is innocent and has demanded her immediate release.

She was arrested in Tehran in July when preparing to leave the Islamic state after a five-month stint working at the University of Isfahan.

She was among thousands of people detained over widespread post-election unrest. Most of them have been freed.

Defeated moderate candidates say the election was rigged to secure Ahmadinejad’s re-election. The authorities deny this.

(Reporting by Hossein Jaseb, Writing by Parisa Hafezi; Editing by Charles Dick)

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Iran welcomes Turkish, Brazilian nuclear fuel ideas

May 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Iran gave an upbeat assessment of Turkish and Brazilian mediation efforts in its nuclear dispute with the West, welcoming “in principle” ideas aimed at reviving a stalled U.N.-backed atom fuel swap deal with major powers.

“New formulas have been raised about the exchange of fuel … I think we can arrive at practical agreements on these formulas,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in remarks published by the Iran daily on Saturday.

“That is why we welcomed the proposals in principle … and left the details for more examination.” He did not elaborate on the content of the proposals.

His comments appeared part of an Iranian attempt to avert a possible new round of U.N. sanctions on the Islamic state over a nuclear programme the West fears is designed to develop bombs.

Turkey and Brazil are currently non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council.

Analysts say Iran may be trying to buy time and to split the six world powers — the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — which are discussing additional punitive measures against the Islamic Republic.

Iran, the world’s fifth-largest crude exporter, says it only seeks to generate electricity and has repeatedly refused to bow to international demands to halt sensitive atomic activity.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this week agreed “in principle” to Brazilian mediation on the proposed fuel swap exchange, Iranian media reported.

The powers see the plan as a way to remove much of Iran’s low-enriched uranium stockpile to minimise the risk of this being used for atomic bombs, while Iran would get specially processed fuel to keep its nuclear medicine programme running.

But the proposal broke down over Iran’s insistence on doing the swap only on its territory, rather than shipping its LEU abroad in advance, and in smaller, phased amounts, meaning no meaningful cut in a stockpile which grows day by day.

“ULTIMATELY POSITIVE”

Turkey and Brazil have been trying to revive the fuel deal in a bid to stave off further sanctions. Iran has also put forward a counterproposal, dismissed by Western officials.

The United States is lobbying U.N. Security Council members to back sanctions including proposed measures targeting Iranian banks, shipping and the country’s all-important energy sector.

But Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told Reuters on Friday his country saw a window of opportunity and a willingness by Iran to reach a negotiated solution over its nuclear programme. He met Ahmadinejad in Tehran last week.

Russia and China, veto-wielding members of the Security Council which have significant commercial links with Iran, have said they are willing to give Turkey and Brazil more time to resuscitate the fuel proposal.

Brazil favours a mooted compromise in which Iran could export its uranium to another country in return for higher-enriched fuel for a Tehran research reactor. Iran has so far insisted the exchange must take place on its territory.

“The framework set out by the countries (Turkey and Brazil), alongside our own country’s recent proposal, has the potential from the perspective of Iran for arriving at a final common point and becoming operational,” Mehmanparast said.

“At any rate, we believe the efforts being undertaken by friendly countries, such as Turkey and Brazil, can ultimately be positive,” he added.

(Writing by Fredrik Dahl; editing by Matthew Jones)

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Iran sees Turkish, Brazil nuclear ideas as positive

May 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Iran can work with proposals put forward by Turkey and Brazil to try to revive a stalled U.N.-backed nuclear fuel swap deal, a senior official said in remarks published on Saturday.

“New formulas have been raised about the exchange of fuel … I think we can arrive at practical agreements on these formulas,” the Iran daily quoted Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast as saying. He did not give details.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad earlier this week agreed “in principle” to Brazilian mediation on the proposed fuel swap exchange with world powers, aimed at allaying Western suspicions over Tehran’s atomic ambitions.

The West fears Iran is seeking to develop nuclear bombs. Iran, the world’s fifth-largest crude exporter, says it only aims to generate electricity and has repeatedly refused to bow to international demands to halt sensitive atom work.

(Reporting by Hashem Kalantari; Writing by Fredrik Dahl)

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Osama bin Laden in ping pong duel between US, Iran

May 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 6 (ANI): Toying with America’s view on security seems to be the flavour of the month as far as Iran is concerned.

While Iran President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told ABC “I heard that Usama bin Laden is in Washington, D.C.,” State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley jocularly retorted, “Over the past few hours, we””ve done an intensive search here at the Department of State — every nook and cranny, every rock, and we can safely report that Usama bin Laden is not here.”

Asked if a check had been done of the greater Washington area, Fox News quoted Crowley, relieved by the laughter elicited from the comment, as saying no, but that he was “pretty confident” Ahmadinejad is inaccurate.

Pressed about reports that bin Laden is in Iran, Ahmadinejad told ABC, “Maybe you know, but I don””t know.” (ANI)

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America-hater Ahmadinejad may visit New York in May

April 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 29 (ANI): Controversial Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is scheduled to visit New York for a nuclear conference.

Ahmadinejad’s anti-America fulminations are well known. He is also infamous for denying that the holocaust ever took place.

During Ahmadinejad’s previous visit to New York, Manhattan residents had staged demonstrations and held up traffic causing inconvenience.

According to The Telegraph, Iran has applied at the US Embassy in Switzerland for a US Visa for its delegation.

The UN meeting on the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, held every five years, will last through May 28. It will be a pivotal event for the US who is looking to slap a new round of UN sanctions against Iran’s nuclear programmes. (ANI)

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Iran president on controversial visit to Zimbabwe

April 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad began a visit to Zimbabwe on Thursday condemned by President Robert Mugabe’s opponents as a meeting of despots which could further isolate Harare.

Ahmadinejad, whose government is pursuing a nuclear programme despite threats of more United Nations sanctions, was invited by Mugabe to open Zimbabwe’s annual trade fair.

There was no official indication of any link between the two-day visit and Iran’s nuclear programme, but Zimbabwe does hold uranium deposits which have yet to be exploited.

Zimbabwean state media said Ahmadinejad’s visit was part of a drive to strengthen ties between countries at odds with the West.

Ahmadinejad was met at Harare’s international airport by Mugabe, cabinet ministers and diplomats, amid singing and chants from hundreds of Zimbabwean muslims waving Iranian flags.

Mugabe’s old foe, Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, and ministers from his Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) did not attend the welcoming ceremony.

The MDC has called the visit a “colossal political scandal” and it could increase tensions in the power-sharing government set up last year to try to end a decade of political crisis.

The Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) attacked Ahmadinejad over his record on human rights and other issues.

“He has made his reputation as a warmonger, a trampler of human rights, an executioner of those with dissenting voices and leader of questionable legitimacy,” it said in a statement.

The party said Ahmadinejad’s visit would send the wrong message about Zimbabwe at a time it was trying to show the world it was working to restore democracy. Elections won by Mugabe in 2008 were condemned around the world.

“Inviting the Iranian strongman to an investment forum is like inviting a mosquito to cure malaria,” it said.

“PARIAH STATE”

Government media said Ahmadinejad’s visit was part of a drive to strengthen relations between countries targeted by Western powers.

“These countries have declared Zimbabwe a pariah state and Iran an ‘axis of evil’ for daring to defend the interests of the citizens and scuttling the West’s bid to plunder the resources of our two nations,” said the official Herald newspaper.

“The West’s neo-colonial agenda should only make us stronger,” it added.

Mugabe and his top officials face Western travel restrictions aimed at trying to force change.

Iran faces a possible new round of U.N. sanctions over its refusal to halt uranium enrichment. The West accuses Tehran of trying to build nuclear weapons. Iran says it aims only to generate electricity.

Zimbabwean and Iranian ministers discussed cooperation ahead of Ahmadinejad’s visit, including on energy, but the focus was on coal and hydroelectric power rather than nuclear energy.

Northern Zimbabwe has uranium deposits, but no exploration contracts have been awarded so far and the size of the deposits has not been made public. The state mining company has formed a joint venture with a Chinese firm to explore for uranium.

Mugabe and Ahmadinejad are expected to witness the signing of agreements, including one for a tractor assembling plant.

“While we understand Mr Mugabe’s shared values with Ahmadinejad … we call upon the inclusive government to desist from associating our peace-loving country with despots,” the MDC said.

(Additional reporting by Cris Chinaka and Nelson Banya, Editing by Giles Elgood)

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