Free Republic

Top News Story SMCCDI Tens have been arrested, in the last days, in several Iranian cities with the approach of Iran-Mexico World Cup soccer game on Sunday June 11th (18:00 Germany's Local time). Plainclothes agents and militiamen have arrested several of those qualified as potential "hooligans or trouble makers", in an effort to avoid any massive popular unrest to take place following the game. Arrests have been made in cities, such as, Tehran, Mashad, Esfahan, Hamedan, Bookan, Rasht, Kermanshah, Shiraz, Marivan and Oroomiah (former Rezai-e). More repressive measures are to take place with the start of the Sunday's game,...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad: the West has been "defeated!" Breitbart.com reported that Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, discussing the West's nuclear proposal, said that the "international monopolists have been defeated."   Iran tries to provoke the West: it begins new nuclear enrichment. The New York Post reported that Iranian researchers began a new round of nuclear enrichment on the same day that a European proposal for ending the crisis over Iran's nuclear program was presented in Tehran.   Diplomats convinced Iran will reject Perm-5 proposal. The Guardian reported that diplomats believe that Iran will reject the Int'l. offer in the...

Top News Story The Perm-5 +1 offers Iran "the world," but fails to give Iran what it really wants. Michael Ledeen, National Review Online pointed out that while some have suggested that we send Bill Clinton to negotiate with the mullahs on our behalf, it isn’t necessary; we’ve just adopted his methods.Khaleej Times Online reported that the United States and other world powers have offered possible guarantees for Iran’s ”terroritorial integrity” as part of its nuclear proposal.Times Online thinks that the world’s latest offer to Iran — a "clever one" — has prompted the most civil response from Tehran...

Top News Story Iran receives the Perm-5 +1 Proposal. Yahoo News reported that EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana handed Iran an international proposal on the nuclear crisis and the two sides held "good" talks.Bloomberg reported that President George W. Bush said Iran's response to a U.S.-backed initiative aimed a resolving a standoff over the Islamic Republic's nuclear program is a "positive" first step.New York Post reported that while the Bush administration offered to join the negotiations with Iran, Ahmadinejad quickly rejected any cessation of enrichment. But the U.S. government is refusing to take no for an answer.Reuters reported...

Top News Story What the Iranian regime really wants. The Washington Post reported that a senior Iranian official said: "What we need is an American president who will follow the example of Richard Nixon going to China."   US makes more offers to Iran. Reuters reported that the incentives to be offered on to Iran include a proposal to allow Tehran to purchase aircraft parts from Boeing Co. and Airbus.   US counting on China as a mediator with Iran? SFGate reported that the U.S. is counting on China as mediator with Iran.   US and Iran in secret...

Top News Story Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji is in Moscow. Moscow Times reported that Iranian dissident Akbar Ganji arrived in Moscow to receive this year's Golden Pen of Freedom award.   Iran's Supreme threatens to cut off the world's oil supply. The Herald reported that the Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said attempts to punish Tehran would jeopardize the world's oil supply.Yahoo News reported that Iran's top leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, warned: "If you make any mistake (and invade Iran), definitely shipment of energy from this region will be seriously jeopardized."Yahoo News reported that Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali...

Top News Story Reuters The former American president, Jimmy Carter, has said that the United States should begin talks with Iran without preconditions. Mr Carter believes prerequisites could present the Iranian Government with too great an impediment to overcome. His comments are significant, given that he was the president when US relations with Iran hit an all-time low. He witnessed the Iranian revolution and the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran in 1979. He struggled for 444 days to release the US Embassy staff held hostage. A failed rescue attempt led by the US military brought about the...

Top News Story Russia and China reportedly will not to oppose sanctions. ABC News reported that a European Union diplomat said: "There is something like a catalog of sanctions and we can pick and choose from them. The agreement reached ... is also that Russia and China can abstain from any sanctions, but not say no."   But military force against Iran "is not on the agenda." The Guardian reported that Britain said that military force against Iran is not on the agenda in the international impasse over Iran's uranium enrichment program.Reuters reported that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov...

Top News Story Perm-5 + Germany agree on Iran. Yahoo News reported that the six world powers agreed on a "significant" package of incentives to convince Iran to halt its uranium enrichment program, British Foreign Secretary Margaret Becket said. "I am pleased to say we have agreed (on) a set of far-reaching proposals."   Iran now on the defense? The Financial Times reported that pressure has mounted on Iran to consider carefully the US offer of conditional talks as world powers met in Vienna.Times Online considered the question: How should we read the Iranian Foreign Minister's declaration, is he...

Top News Story US offers Iran talks, if... Secretary Condoleezza Rice, U.S. State Department published a major statement on Iran: "Thus, to underscore our commitment to a diplomatic solution and to enhance the prospects for success, as soon as Iran fully and verifiably suspends its enrichment and reprocessing activities, the United States will come to the table with our EU-3 colleagues and meet with Iran’s representatives." Full Text.US State Department released a transcript of the Rice interview with Wolf Blitzer, CNN about her statement on Iran.Michael Ledeen, The Corner responded to Rice's offer to Iran.Wall Street Journal examined Condi's...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad: Europeans should side with Iran or suffer only damage. Spiegel published its aggressive interview with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad discussing the Holocaust, the future of the state of Israel, mistakes made by the United States in Iraq and Tehran's nuclear conflict with the West.   Iran: "there is no such country" as Israel! Ha'aretz reported that Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said: "there is no such country" as Israel.   Iran denies it is slowing it nuclear program. Bloomberg reported that Iran said it is pressing ahead with its nuclear program, rejecting reports that it...

Top News Story Iran raises the stakes again: resumes its nuclear fusion research. Reuters reported that Iran is pressing ahead with research tests on nuclear fusion, a type of atomic reaction which has yet to be developed for commercial power generation, but is used to produce thermonuclear bombs.   World leaders agree on incentives and penalties for Iran. Yahoo News reported that Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was quoted as saying that the world's major powers are ready to guarantee Iran's right to develop nuclear energy provided Tehran cooperates fully with the UN nuclear safety agency.CTV reported that U.S., Russian,...

Top News Story Ahmadinejad's strategy. Amir Taheri, The Jerusalem Post reported that while some in Washington still talk of "preemptive war" against "rogue states," Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is practicing what could be labeled "preemptive diplomacy." An examination of the Iranian strategy.   Ahmadinejad speeds to consolidate power. The New York Times reported that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is trying to consolidate power in the office of the presidency in a way never before seen in the 27-year history of the Islamic Republic.   The student protests in Tehran. A must read. Rooz Online provided a detailed report on the...

In response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's May 9, 2006 letter to U.S. President Bush, the well-known expatriate Iranian satirist Ibrahim Nabavi published an open letter to President Ahmadinejad, in the online Persian daily Rooz. The following are excerpts from Nabavi's letter: [1] "Oh Adorable Little Boy Who Makes Noise and Needs Attention!" "...Oh adorable little boy who makes noise and needs attention! "...In your explanation [about this letter], you said that you had written to [President] Bush to present a solution to the problems in the world. What an excellent idea. But have you noticed that the problem in...

Top News Story Payvand Tehran, Iran, May 26 – More than 100 radical Islamists affiliated to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) gathered on Thursday in Tehran’s most famous cemetery vowing to blow themselves up in suicide attacks to kill Americans, Britons, and Israelis. The “martyrdom-seeking volunteers”, most of whom had covered their faces with a chafieh, issued a warning to Washington that they would blow up United States interests around the world if Iran’s nuclear installations came under attack. Mohammad-Ali Samadi, spokesman for the Headquarters to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement, a government-orchestrated campaign to...

Top News Story Reuters BERLIN (Reuters) - Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told Germans they should no longer allow themselves to be held prisoner by a sense of guilt over the Holocaust and reiterated doubts that the Holocaust even happened. In an interview with Germany's Der Spiegel magazine, Ahmadinejad said he doubted Germans were allowed to write "the truth" about the Holocaust and said he was still considering traveling to Germany for the World Cup soccer tournament. "I believe the German people are prisoners of the Holocaust. More than 60 million were killed in World War Two … The question...

Top News Story The Growing Unrest inside of Iran. Eli Lake, The New York Sun reported that while foreign ministers met in London to finalize measures to persuade the Iranian regime to suspend uranium enrichment, the country's ruling clerics will be facing the most determined opposition they have seen in three years. A must read.Iran Press News reported on the anti-regime slogans in the protest gathering of students in Tehran University campus. A must read.Rooz Online reported on the growing unrest in Azerbaijan.Rooz Online reported that during the week that just ended, Iranian society expressed its concealed and suppressed...

Top News Story Student Protests across Iran. Turkish Press reported that two of the Iranian capital's main universities have been rocked by overnight protests and clashes between students and police.Iranian Student News Agency published photos of the protests at Tehran Universities with translations of several signs.SMCCDI reported that sporadic clashes have continued, on Wednesday, in several Iranian universities, such as, Tehran, Hamedan and Zanjan.Yahoo News reported that stone-throwing Iranian students fought police and Islamic vigilante in protest against restrictions imposed by the government of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.SMCCDI reported tbat several students were critically injured during clashes that happened, today,...

Top News Story Iran test launched its Shihab-3 just prior to Bush and Olmert meeting. The Jerusalem Post reported that Iran conducted a test launch Tuesday night of the Shihab-3 intermediate-range ballistic missile, which is capable of reaching Israel and US targets in the region. The test came hours before Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met with US President George W Bush in Washington.   Russia expects unity among Perm-5 on Iran. RIA Novosti reported that Russia's foreign minister said the talks between the EU3 negotiators, the United States, Russia and China would produce a consensus.   Taheri responds to...

Top News Story Iran conducts military exercises, the US & Turkey's start next week. Middle East Newsline reported that Iran has launched another major military exercise. The exercise, entitled "851," began on Sunday and would last three days.The New York Times reported that the United States will hold a joint military exercise using naval, army and air forces with Turkey next week aimed at demonstrating a determination to stop missile and nuclear technology from reaching Iran.   Update on Taheri's report on Iran's plan for its "minorities." Eli Lake, The NY Sun reported that Amir Taheri is sticking to...