Iran and Egypt

The air transport agreement signed recently by Egypt and Iran met with US objections. The Americans argue that the agreement is in breach of the UN Security Council sanctions on Iran, although the sanctions only ban air transport of nuclear substances destined for use in Iran's nuclear research programme. But everything to do with Iran's relations with Egypt or the Arab world is under close scrutiny by the Americans and the Israelis these days -- whether it has to do with UN resolutions or not ››read more

President Ahmadinejad welcomes President Chavez to TehranIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez have underlined the need to expand cooperation in fighting imperialism. ››read more

Bushehr Nuclear Reactorwww.RaceForIran.com recently reproduced five reasons why Gareth Evans, QC, former foreign minister of Australia, has come to the conclusion, see here, that Iran’s Islamic leaders do not intend to acquire nuclear weapons, in breach of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). To those five reasons, all of which are persuasive, could be added the following ››read more

Mathew Cassel

Media in the west paint Islamic figures from Iran to Hezbollah with a broad "anti-western" brush that neglects their origins
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European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton has announced that the new round of nuclear talks between Iran and the P5+1 group will take place from November 15 to 18.
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In short Islam – particularly Shi’i Islam – is taking over the clothes of the European early Renaissance (before the Enlightenment); Islam stands, for many Muslims, for a humanism and a respect for justice, human dignity and defiance of tyranny that Europe once espoused. Of course, few in the West will see it in these terms: they have been too busy creating an inverted mirror image of what they perceive still to be western ‘virtues’ – and call it Iranian ‘theocracy’. ››read more

The new Iran NIE has been delayed a number of times because of conflicting demands from the CIA analysts involved and from the White House. The analysts, badly burned by the heavily politicized 2002 NIE on Iraq, which led to a war, and also nervous about the barrage of criticism of the 2007 NIE on Iran, want the estimate to be completely credible and very tightly analyzed and reviewed. The Obama Administration wants, instead, a document that will give it whatever option it seeks to pursue vis-à-vis the Mullahs. ››read more

Twenty years ago, Harvard’s Joseph Nye famously coined the term “soft power” to describe what he saw as an increasingly important factor in international politics—the capacity of “getting others to want what you want”, which he contrasted with the ability to coerce others through the exercise of “hard” military and/or economic power. The question of soft power, when it comes to Iran, is contentious. ››read more

President Sleiman welcomes President Ahmadinejad“Lebanon appreciates Iranian support in the confrontation with Israeli aggression, particularly after the July 2006 war which enabled Lebanon to withstand the enemy. That was by virtue of [Lebanon’s] army, people, and Resistance and its abilities, which the Lebanese state works to strengthen and place within a comprehensive defensive strategy,” President Michel Sleiman told his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in remarks delivered at a televised lunch in Baabda Palace on Wednesday afternoon. ››read more

Recently, The Politic—the “Yale Undergraduate Journal of Politics”—asked us to sit for an interview about Iran, focusing on the nuclear issue. Founded in 1947, The Politic “has served Yale and the larger intellectual community by providing top-notch analysis of international relations, domestic politics, strategic-military affairs, and the art of statecraft for over fifty years”. ››read more

A billboard welcomes President AhmadinejadIranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's emphasis on the resistance and consolidation of unity among the Lebanese has outraged Israel, says Iran's ambassador to Beirut. "President Ahmadinejad's visit to Lebanon is aimed at fostering unity among the Lebanese and calling all Lebanese to stand beside each other for resistance and that is why Israel is furious and has threatened Lebanon," Ghazanfar Roknabadi told Lebanon's al-Jadid TV late Sunday. ››read more

war with Iran

When Obama administration officials, like those of the Bush regime before it, say “all options are on the table,” they are threatening nuclear war and that is prohibited by international law, says Francis Boyle, professor of international law at the University of Illinois at Champaign. ››read more

Iran is increasingly under siege. From cyber-attacks on its nuclear infrastructure to biting economic and financial sanctions, to overt support for (armed) opposition groups, to a military build-up of neighbors, it appears that outside powers are making a concerted effort at regime change in the Islamic Republic.
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Honduran people protest against the US-sponsored coup in June 2009It would be hard to find a better test of the integrity of the establishment U.S. media than in their comparative treatment of Iran and Honduras over the past couple of years (2009-2010). ››read more

Israel's purchase of 20 Lockheed Martin F-35 stealth fighters, the world's most advanced combat jets, significantly enhances the Jewish state's ability to defend itself "by itself," in the words of U.N. Ambassador Michael Oren. His comment following Thursday's contract signing in New York, is a clear reference to possible conflict with Iran, against whose nuclear installations Israel has threatened to launch pre-emptive strikes. ››read more

Sara Flounders and John Parker, leaders of the International Action Center in New York and Los Angeles, will be joining a people-to-people delegation to visit Iran on Oct. 9. The purpose of the trip is to express solidarity with the people of Iran, in the face of continuing U.S. threats to attack a nation of 75 million people. ››read more

ChomskyIn Western policy-making circles and among political commentators, 2010 is called “the year of Iran.” The Iranian threat is considered to pose the greatest danger to world order and to be the primary focus of U.S. foreign policy, with Europe trailing along politely as usual. It is officially recognized that the threat is not military: Rather, it is the threat of independence. ››read more

South Korea has appointed two state-run banks to finance commerce with Iran and revive business ties damaged by sanctions in an effort to protect US$10B in annual trade with Tehran.
“Iran’s central bank is not the target of sanctions, so transactions through the bank are legal,” said Kim Jong-woo of Woori Bank. “We do not worry about any possible sanctions by the US against us.” ››read more

Levey says that sanctions are meant to press Iran to engage in serious diplomacy witht the United States and the international community. But, he has, in effect, created a sanctions policy which will be very difficult for the United States to walk back, even as part of a process of negotiation and prospective rapprochement. We suspect that this is precisely what Levey intends. That President-elect Obama moved so rapidly to retain Levey was a sad indicator of how internally contradictory and incoherent the Obama Administration’s Iran policy would turn out to be. ››read more

Hooman Majd

Iran has suffered for more than 30 years because of its central foreign policy tenet, and Iranians know it. Yet there is still tremendous support for the nuclear program in Iran, not just because of Persian pride, which President Obama recognizes, but because it has become the very symbol of Iranian independence from East and West, and a symbol of the country’s resistance to what many Iranians consider unreasonable foreign demands.

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