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PUSHING FOR ARMAGEDDON - Inside Iran's New Power Struggle N.Y. Post Amir Taheri June 16, 2006 -excerpt- The theological division among Shi'ites concerns a simple question: What should believers do while the Imam is absent? One doctrine, known as Intizar (waiting) maintains that the best that believers can do is to be patient and wait until the Imam decides to return. Followers of that doctrine are known as Muntazeris (Those Who Wait). That doctrine is opposed by another known as Ta'ajil (To hasten). Its adepts believe that believers should act to hasten the coming of the Mahdi. The Ta'ajilis (Hasteners)...

A power struggle between Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his leading political antagonist Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is complicating the conflict between Iran and the international community over the country’s nuclear program. Both Ahmadinejad and Rafsanjani are trying to use the nuclear issue for their maximum domestic political benefit, helping to stoke international alarm over Tehran’s intentions. Debate on the international response to Iran’s nuclear program has intensified since the April 11 announcement by Iran that it had successfully enriched a small amount of uranium. A day later, Iran’s deputy nuclear chief, Mohammad Saeedi, announced that the country would seek...

Israel will “never dare” attack Iran because Tehran’s hand can reach the Jewish state, the former president of the Islamic republic warned today. “Israel will never dare to attack Iran … because it knows what the result would be,” Hashemi Rafsanjani said during a visit to Kuwait, across the Gulf from Iran. Rafsanjani was responding to a question about possible attacks on Iran if it failed to cooperate with the West and the Security Council on stopping its controversial programme for enriching uranium.

Iranian: U.S. Waging 'Psychological War' By SAMAR KASSABLI, Associated Press Writer Iran's former president accused the United States Sunday of waging "a psychological war" against Tehran and said an American strike against the Islamic republic would not be in Washington's interests. Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani, who heads the Expediency Council, a powerful body that mediates between Iran's parliament and clerical hierarchy, said Western nations' attempts to block Iran's nuclear program were "unjust." "Iran's success in uranium enrichment is for the interest of the region's countries and all Islamic countries," Rafsanjani said. He reiterated the government position that Iran's nuclear...

TEHRAN, Iran - Former Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani said Tuesday that Iran has enriched uranium using 164 centrifuges, a major development in nuclear fuel cycle technology, news agencies reported. Rafsanjani made the comment to the Kuwait News Agency during an interview in Tehran. "Iran has put into operation the first unit of 164 centrifuges, has injected (uranium gas) and reached industrial production," the Kuwait News Agency quoted Rafsanjani as saying. Iranian authorities had promised to announce "good nuclear news" on Tuesday.

In 1995, former Iranian president Ali Hashemi Rafsanjani made a little-noticed trip to the neighboring country of Georgia. He spent several hours in Tbilisi, the capital, and then instead of returning to Iran, he made a secret side trip to the breakaway region of Adjara to visit President Aslan Abashidze. The purpose of the detour was not to visit the balmy, palm-treed tourist sea port resort of Batumi on the Black Sea. His purpose was more sinister. The Iranian president was looking for black market sources of chemicals to enrich uranium for building a nuclear bomb. He found a willing...

Iran’s former President Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Wednesday that the United States was faced with defeat in the Middle East. Addressing an open session of the Assembly of Experts, an exclusively clerical body that designates the country’s all-powerful Supreme Leader, Rafsanjani called for unity among the ruling theocracy’s various factions. “We must pursue our [nuclear] plans on the basis of our desired goals to strengthen internal unity”, Rafsanjani said, pointing out that this should be done regardless of whether Iran is referred to the United Nations Security Council or not. Rafsanjani said that Washington was pursuing a...

TEHRAN 14 Dec. (IPS) One of Iran’s most influential ruling cleric called Friday on the Muslim states to use nuclear weapon against Israel, assuring them that while such an attack would annihilate Israel, it would cost them "damages only". "If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world", Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani told the crowd at the...

By stating his wish to see Ariel Sharon, “the criminal of Sabra and Shatilla dead and joining his ancestors”, the news Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad demonstrated that not only he is genuinely anti-Semite, but he has not the slightest human compassion and feeling. "Hopefully, the news that the criminal of Sabra and Chatilla has joined his ancestors is final", the extravagant, islamo-populist Ahmadinejad told hard line religious students in the holy city of Qom, known as the “cradle” of militant Shi’ism, where he took his cabinet for meeting on Thursday. His remark were so shocking that most of Iranian press,...

TEHRAN 14 Dec. (IPS) One of Iran’s most influential ruling cleric called Friday on the Muslim states to use nuclear weapon against Israel, assuring them that while such an attack would annihilate Israel, it would cost them "damages only". "If a day comes when the world of Islam is duly equipped with the arms Israel has in possession, the strategy of colonialism would face a stalemate because application of an atomic bomb would not leave any thing in Israel but the same thing would just produce damages in the Muslim world", Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani told the crowd at the...

Former Iran leader: Zionists’ days numbered Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani says in meeting with senior Hamas member Khaled Mashal in Tehran, ‘high spirit, resistance of Palestinians people for the restoration of their violated rights are among the factors leading to current situation encountered by the Zionists. Mashal: Politics can only compliment resistance Roee Nahmias The Zionist entity's days are numbered, former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said in a meeting with senior Hamas member Khaled Mashal, according to an Islamic Republic News Agency report. Iran's Plan for Israel Iran: Israel should be moved to Europe / Yitzhak Benhorin...

Tehran, Iran, Dec. 07 – Iran’s former president and strongman Ayatollah Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani told an international trade management show that Iran had come out as the “winner” in the United States-led war on Iraq and Washington had ended up as the loser, the official state-run news agency reported on Wednesday. Rafsanjani said that Washington had set its sights on Tehran, but it never “thought that the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan would be to Iran’s advantage and to its own loss”. “All the recent events in the region, including the meddling by the West and America in Afghanistan...

Wisdom prevailed at UN atomic meeting-Iran cleric Nov 25, 2005 Influential Iranian cleric Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani said on Friday the U.N. nuclear watchdog's latest statement on Iran's disputed atomic program was a step in the right direction but still had elements of "harassment." The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) decided on Thursday not to refer Iran to the U.N. Security Council for possible sanctions in order to give Russia time to broker a compromise deal under which Moscow would enrich Iran's processed uranium. "This time a kind of wisdom, precaution, and an avoidance of adventurism prevailed over the IAEA meeting,"...

"Iran’s stance has always been clear on this ugly phenomenon [i.e., Israel]. We have repeatedly said that this cancerous tumor of a state should be removed from the region.” No, those are not the words of Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, speaking last week. Rather, that was Ali Khamene’i, the Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, in December 2000. In other words, Ahmadinejad’s call for the destruction of Israel was nothing new but conforms to a well-established pattern of regime rhetoric and ambition. “Death to Israel!” has been a rallying cry for the past quarter-century. Ahmadinejad quoted Ayatollah Khomeini, its founder,...

Top News Story Protests, Protests, and more Unrest in Iran over the past few days.Protests: Iran Press News reported on the protest and conflict at Najafabad University. A first hand account.Iran Press News reported that students from the Abbasspour University for Water and Power Industry protested against the regime's guards in their university.Iran Press News reported that an angry mob, protesting the violent and oppressive actions of the disciplinary forces of the regime, attacked governmental bureaus in the Province of Qeshm.SMCCDI reported that drivers of many Iranian Collective Buses refused to validate passenger's tickets, today, in order to protest...

Two recent reports from inside of Iran, if accurate, are very troubling. Iran's Government Seeks Agreement with 12th Imam - in hiding since 13th century?Kamal Tehrani, Rooz Online: a "reformist" website In a formal cabinet meeting chaired by Iran's new president’s first deputy, the ministers printed and ratified an agreement with the Shiites' 12th Imam. In his opening remarks, Parviz Davoudi, Ahmadinejad' first deputy suggested that the cabinet ministers should sign an agreement with 12th Imam, the same way they signed a pact with the new president. The ministers collectively agreed and so there is now an agreement between...

Top News Story Iranmania LONDON, October 16 (IranMania) -Iranian officials said on Sunday they suspected British involvement in a double bomb attack in the ethnic-Arab dominated city of Ahvaz, despite furious denials and condemnation of the attacks from London. Two bombs exploded outside a crowded market late Saturday in Ahvaz, capital of the oil-rich Khuzestan province adjacent to British-occupied southern Iraq. Five people were killed and more than 100 injured, according to the latest official toll. "Since there are British troops present alongside our border, there is a concern over their involvement in the explosions in Ahvaz," Alaeddin Borujerdi,...

Iran's hard-lines admit defeat in IraqIran Press News: Translation by Banafsheh Zand-Bonazzi The regime-run web site, BAZTAB, in a report admitted to the regime's political defeat in soliciting the support of the people of Iraq and the region where dozens of Arab-language media, backed by the regime, including Al Alam TV are being broadcast. BAZTAB wrote: "The Al Alam news channel was supposed to be the mouthpiece for the views of the Islamic Republic of Iran to Arab-speaking countries and was meant to compete with some of these immoral western TV networks, in order to restore the popularity of...

Top News Story UK 'sells' bomb material to Iran DTI is accused of approving controversial exports British officials have approved the export of key components needed to make nuclear weapons to Iran and other countries known to be developing such weapons. An investigation by BBC Radio 4 programme File on Four will disclose that the Department of Trade and Industry allowed a quantity of the metal, Beryllium, to be sold to Iran last year. That metal is needed to make nuclear bombs. Britain has had an arms embargo to Iran since 1993 and has signed up to an international...

Top News Story The al-Zawahiri Letter A window into the mind of the enemy.by Dan Darling 10/12/2005 7:20:00 PM THE FULL TEXT of the just-released letter from al Qaeda second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahiri to Iraqi insurgent leader Abu Musab Zarqawi, dated July 9, 2005, makes it clear that not only are al-Zawahiri and bin Laden symbolic leaders to the global jihad, but they are still active in running their terror network, too. The letter includes references to the fighting in Afghanistan, a peripheral acknowledgement of ongoing al Qaeda-backed insurgencies in Chechnya and Kashmir, and a discussion of the steps the...