Free Republic

Top News Story IranFocus Tehran, Jun. 01 - A nationwide survey conducted by an Iranian opposition group showed widespread voter apathy in Iran's upcoming June 17 presidential elections. The People’s Mojahedin Organization of Iran (PMOI) said in a press release that a survey of 1,730 adults eligible to vote showed that 92 percent of voters intend to boycott the elections. The survey was based on interviews conducted between May 27 and May 30, 2005. While the PMOI as an opposition group has clear interests in promoting a boycott of the polls, independent observers also believe that this year’s presidential...

Top News Story Members push tougher line on Iran Geoff Earle, The Hill:Key members of Congress are girding to take a tougher line on Iran by tightening sanctions and taking a high-profile stance against the Iranian government. But despite President Bush's calls for democratic reform in the Middle East, the administration is urging Congress to hold off on legislation out of concern that it might disrupt sensitive negotiations about Iran's nuclear program. The momentum for legislative action in Congress has reached such an extent that the administration has begun voicing its concerns to powerful committee chairmen. Senate Foreign Relations...

Top News Story Rice, Allies Boost Anti-Weapons Program By BARRY SCHWEID The Associated Press WASHINGTON May 31, 2005 — The Bush administration claimed success on Tuesday for its program designed to intercept weapons technology, saying it helped end Libya's weapons program. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Proliferation Security Initiative, an operation conducted jointly with dozens of other countries, provided the "framework" for intercepting centrifuge components bound for Libya and led to Moammar Gadhafi's 2003 decision to dismantle the programs. The program has had 11 successful efforts, including the interception of missile and nuclear technology headed for Iran, Rice said...

Top News Story Join the "Blogosphere Supports Real Democracy in Iran" Campaign Why should the Blogosphere support Real Democracy in Iran? The next few weeks in Iran may prove critical to the efforts of the pro-democracy forces there. On June 17th, Iran has scheduled its Presidential elections and as the LA Times said recently:It was already one of the most important elections in the world this year. It now also promises to be one of the most watched. This time the world will see for itself that the elections in Iran are a fraud. The regime permits only those...

Top News Story Sunday Times via IranFocus IRAQ’S most wanted terrorist has fled the country for emergency surgery after an American airstrike left him with shrapnel lodged in his chest, according to a senior insurgent commander in close contact with his group. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who has a $25m bounty on his head after being blamed for suicide bombings, assassinations and the beheadings of western hostages — including Ken Bigley, the Liverpool engineer — is now believed to be in Iran. He has suffered from bouts of high fever since being wounded by a missile that struck his convoy...

Top News Story Why Europe Is Wrong on Iran Amir Taheri   During his visit to Washington last week, Britain’s Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told his American interlocutors that the European Union’s initiative on Iran, of which his government is a part, was heading for an impasse. But when asked what the next move should be, all that Straw had to say was: Keep talking until after the Iranian presidential election.The Europeans said a similar thing last year when talks on Iran’s alleged nuclear ambitions had hit another brick-wall. At that time the advice was to keep talking until...

Top News Story Rafsanjani with big lead in Iran presidential poll Reuters:Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, an experienced pragmatist portrayed by aides as capable of solving Iran's nuclear standoff with the West, held a big lead in a new opinion poll for June 17 presidential elections, newspapers said on Thursday. But Rafsanjani, 70, who is bidding to regain the post he held from 1989 to 1997, was still well short of the 50 percent support he needs to avoid facing a run-off vote, the poll showed. The survey comes a day after the European Union and Iran agreed to a two-month...

Top News Story Iran's Supreme Leader: Elect Anti-West President The Asssociated Press, Jerusalem Post:Iran's supreme leader called on the people to elect an anti-Western president in the upcoming June elections, accusing Washington of trying to influence the poll. "Look for a candidate with whom enemy is not satisfied. This is one of the criteria. Americans have begun their absurdities saying who should run and who should not run in the election," said Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, speaking to a group of students Thursday. "What is that to you, you ignorants," he said, seeming to direct his comments at...

Top News Story EU Promises Iran New Offer on Nuclear Dispute Reuters:The European Union will offer Iran a detailed proposal by the end of July on how to resolve their differences over Tehran's nuclear program, Iran's chief negotiator Hassan Rohani said on Wednesday. At the end of three hours of talks in Geneva, Rohani said that he was confident a final deal between the sides could be achieved in a reasonably short time. "We believe that we could reach a reasonable agreement within a reasonably short time," he said, adding Iranian negotiators would be reporting back to the Tehran...

Top News Story Rice Tells Mullahs That Democracy On the Way to Iran Eli Lake, NY Sun: Secretary of State Rice yesterday warned Iran's "unelected leaders" that the day will come when their people will demand the same rights and liberties recently sought by Iraqis and Lebanese. Speaking at the annual policy conference for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Ms. Rice said to thunderous applause, "Ladies and gentlemen, the Middle East is changing and even the unelected leaders in Tehran must recognize this fact. They must know that the energy of reform that is building all around them...

Top News Story Is Iran helping Venezuela going nuclear? Douglas Mackinnon, The Houston Chronicle: The most prominent development in U.S.-Venezuelan relations these days involves the case of Luis Posada Carriles and whether he should be extradited from the United States to Venezuela. There he would stand trial for a third time for his alleged involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner. Meanwhile, a story with the potential to be much more important is being ignored: The growing power and global ambitions of Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez. To the minute number of people who understand the threat Chavez...

Top News Story Eye of the Storm: The Buzz in Teheran Amir Taheri, The Jerusalem Post:While the world is focused on Iran's alleged efforts to build a nuclear arsenal, the more immediate debate about its regional strategy may have been sidelined. This, at least, is the opinion of Ibrahim Asgharzadeh, one of the mullahs and politicians who have registered to become candidates in Iran's presidential election next month. In speeches in Teheran this week Asgharzadeh warned that a coalition of military commanders and mullahs is in the making with the aim of provoking "a direct confrontation" between the Islamic...

Top News Story Iran douses hope of compromise in nuclear talks Reuters:Iran said on Saturday it had not considered a proposal that Russia enrich uranium for it -- an idea floated as a way out of a deadlock in talks with the EU over Tehran's nuclear program. Britain, France and Germany were due to resume talks with Iran next week, aiming to persuade it to abandon uranium enrichment -- a process needed to make nuclear bombs -- in return for economic incentives. Though Tehran has said repeatedly that it will not give up uranium enrichment, diplomats said one idea...

Top News Story Iran smuggling graphite compound for nukes-exile 20 May 2005 19:35:24 GMT Source: Reuters By Louis Charbonneau VIENNA, May 20 (Reuters) - Iran has been using front companies to skirt international export controls and purchase a graphite compound that can be used in nuclear and conventional arms, an Iranian exile said on Friday. The latest allegation from Alireza Jafarzadeh, an Iranian dissident who has reported accurately on Iran's hidden nuclear facilities and activities in the past, comes days before the European Union meets Iran's top nuclear negotiator in Geneva to persuade Tehran not to resume sensitive atomic...

Top News Story Official: Iran won't give up nuke programExcerpt: By Ali Akbar Dareini, Associated Press Writer TEHRAN, Iran — Iran will endure U.N. economic sanctions rather than give up nuclear fuel development, the vice president said Wednesday ahead of a new round of meetings with European countries trying to rein in its nuclear program. Iran is vowing to restart its uranium reprocessing activities, an early stage in preparing raw uranium for either power reactor fuel or a nuclear weapon. At the same time, it has agreed to meet with European countries for one last discussion on the issue...

Top News Story Standing Up at the Muslim March Against Terror Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi, FrontPageMagazine.com:Despotic Islamist regimes that brutally terrorize their own people today have no qualms about exporting their brand of terror to the West. Iran serves as a clear example of this phenomenon: Both domestically and internationally, terrorism has become the main policy instrument of the mullahs, who have hijacked Iran’s natural resources to finance their culture of death. These Islamist tyrants recruit innocent and devoted believers who have been coerced into doing their dirty work for them. This was demonstrated only a few weeks ago when Palestinian...

Top News Story Tehran's Conservative Bazaar Now Reject the Whole System Robert Tait, The Guardian:With polling a month away, those in Tehran's conservative bazaar now reject the whole system Sitting in Tehran's grand bazaar, once the spiritual heart and financial lifeblood of Iran's Islamic revolution, the man fidgeting with the prayer beads ventured a fiercely uncompromising opinion of his country's ruling elite. "We won't vote for any of them, they are all robbers," he declared, his voice rising with indignation. "All of them have been lying to us." The trenchant views of Hasan, 50, a textile wholesaler, might have...

Top News Story Iranmania LONDON, May 15 (IranMania) - Commander of the Navy Rear Admiral Abbas Mohtaj said on Saturday Iran has developed advanced cannons and different types of missiles. According to Fars News Agency, Mohtaj, told reporters after the parades of surface, undersea and aerial units of the Navy during Unity-84 Wargames, “We tell the people that they should rely on us as reliable forces in the same way that the armed forces rely on the people as their source of support.“ He noted that the Iranian naval forces are present along the Sea of Oman, Persian Gulf...

Top News Story Iran-EU talks cannot continue without resumption of some nuclear activities Tehran Times Political Desk:The secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said here on Sunday that Iran has made a firm decision to resume some of its nuclear activities. “We cannot continue nuclear negotiations with Europe without resuming some of our nuclear activities,” Hassan Rowhani told the Mehr News Agency. READ MOREOn the European Union’s recent request to hold talks on Iran’s nuclear issue, Rowhani said that the British, German, and French foreign ministers had asked him in a letter to delay the resumption of nuclear...

Top News Story US Citizen wants to become Iran's President? MPG:Hooshang Amirahmadi is leaving the U.S. for Iran to register as a candidate in Islamic Republic's upcoming presidential elections, according to an academic source. Amirahmadi is the president of the American Iranian Council, which has tried to improve relations between Islamic Republic and the U.S. Mr. Amirahamadi who holds American passport in an interview with Farda Radio mentioned, there is no reason for Guardian council to reject his candidacy since he has never done anything against Islamic Republic. DoctorZin:I have been told Mr. Amirahmadi has made a recent appearance...