Posted on 06/26/2005 5:21:07 PM PDT by freedom44
Top News Story
National Nine News
Iran will press ahead with its controversial nuclear program and the Islamic republic has no real need for ties with arch-foe the US, hardline president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said.
In a sign that Friday's surprise election result would prolong decades of enmity between Tehran and Washington, Ahmadinejad and US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld traded negative remarks in their first comments since the vote.
But the ultra-conservative former mayor of Tehran said Iran would not abandon nuclear talks with the European Union although negotiations would be based on the Islamic Republic's "national interest".
Europe shares US suspicions that Iran is seeking to build atomic weapons. Iran, the world's fourth largest oil exporter, insists the program is to meet soaring demand for electricity.
"We need this technology for energy and medical purposes. We shall carry on with it," Ahmadinejad said in his first news conference since beating moderate cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
The president of Iran has little power to change national policy in Iran's system of clerical rule, with the final word in matters of state lying with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. But analysts says the hardliner will influence policy.
Rumsfeld said Ahmadinejad, 48, was "no friend of democracy" and would prove himself unacceptable to Iran's young people and its women. Ahmadinejad, who earlier visited the shrine to the founder of the Islamic state, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, secured many votes from Iran's devout poor as he railed against rich cliques and promised to share out oil wealth.
A Daily Briefing of Major News Stories on Iran:
one word - NEXT!
Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
I hope we don't weary of war before we've fully won it.
Wing and a prayer
Monday June 27, 2005
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/iran/story/0,12858,1515487,00.html
Conservatives and moderates in the Iranian political system, the supreme religious leader, Ayatollah Ali Khameini, has said, are like the wings of a bird. Both must beat if the bird is to stay aloft. It is an image with which many outside observers of Iranian politics, who have for years seen the two tendencies as cooperating and sometimes colluding with one another, would concur. But it does not hold at all today, after the victory in the presidential elections of, a victory which means that the hardliners now have power in every branch of Iran's government. It is not so much that Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani has been defeated, for his claims to reformist status were largely bogus, but that the hardliners could not even reconcile themselves to coping with a skilled old political operator of his kind, or face the prospect of him offering some sort of rivalry to Khamenei.
In the executive, the legislature and the judiciary, as well as in the supervisory institutions and offices they have always controlled, the hardliners are on top. This does not mean that a few reformists will not survive nor, Iranian being Iranians, that there will be no divisions among those in power. Quite apart from the impact of personal ambitions, Iran's dilemmas are so deep that divisions are inevitable, but they will now be between hardline and harder line, rather than between conservatives and reformers.
This is a frightening state of affairs, which has arisen precisely because those who hold most of the power in Iran are very fearful men. They are frightened of the United States, suspicious of Europe, mistrustful of their Middle Eastern neighbours and unready at home to advance even to the halfway house of relative openness and democracy represented by Mohammad Khatami, the outgoing president. The consequences for both Iranians and for the rest of us are likely to be serious, even if the changes may not be as immediately dramatic as some might predict.
Khatami thought, or hoped, that the revolution could be democratised. The new president, by contrast, says that the revolution was not made to bring democracy. It may be that the heirs of Khomeini's revolution are right in believing that the pursuit of democracy would ultimately have unseated them. In any case, they have made it clear they are determined to dominate. The new president will have some initial impetus because of his promises to attack corruption and divide wealth more fairly, but, if he fails in that, as he is likely to, the frayed political connection between government and people in Iran could give way completely.
A state based on the security institutions of the revolutionary guard, the militia, the police, the intelligence services and the regular amed forces will have the allegiance of those in such bodies and of other beneficiaries in the civil service and the judiciary, and the means to suppress the opposition of others.
But it could lose even the acquiescence of the rest of the population and particularly of the educated and skilled classes. It is all very well to speak, as some Iranians do, of a Chinese model in which economic and social freedoms are combined with an authoritarian politics. It is far from clear whether the hardliners in Iran have the capacity to maintain even that tawdry balance.
Externally, one test will be when the Iranians return to the table to talk about nuclear matters with the European Union. The negotiators the EU has been dealing with are, most of them, liberals. If they are replaced or have clearly been rebriefed that would be a clear signal. They may not be. for the Iranian system still has some suppleness and sense, but the chances of an ultimate collision with the United States must have increased with the vote this weekend.
Syria, Iran....Iran, Syria. This Islamofascist seems to be making the decision for us.
Ken Timmerman gave us permission to publish here an important document from his book. There are over 40 pages of such documents featured in the back of his book.Here are a few other news items you may have missed.
Funding Bin Laden:
Ken Timmerman said, Iran had business ties with Osama Bin Laden going back to the early 1990's. This document, presented by the Iranian People's Fedaii Guerrillas ... READ MORE
Video of Explosion in Ahwaz
http://farstec.persiangig.com/al-ahwaz.wmv
Let me know if it works
The group seems to be an arab separatis group with supports from UK
To read today’s thread click here.
Join Us At Today's Iranian Alert Thread – The Most Underreported Story Of The Year!
"If you want on or off this Iran ping list, Freepmail DoctorZin”
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
