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Posted 14/3/2007 @ 14:12:30 GMTAhmadinejad Says World is Isolated, Not Iran!TEHRAN -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad renewed his claim to Iran's right to nuclear power on Wednesday and said it is the world, not Iran, that is isolated. Ahmadinejad made the remark in a fiery speech in the central Iranian city of Yazd amid chants from the crowd of "Death to America," the Alalam news agency reported. more By United Press International

Posted 14/3/2007 @ 14:7:27 GMTLarijani: Iran Strongly Insists on Nuclear ProgramSecretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Larijani on Wednesday bitterly criticized the Security Council interference in Iranian nuclear program when Iran upheld Non-Proliferation Treaty and Safeguards Agreement of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). more By Islamic Republic News Agency

Posted 14/3/2007 @ 14:0:24 GMTTracking the Enemy, Angleton on Ali Reza Asgari“I mean, what difference does it make if he was snatched or if he defected? It’s the same guy, right?” more By National Review Online

Posted 14/3/2007 @ 13:13:49 GMTThe Possibility of Easing Tension Between the US and IranPROVO, UTAH -- "It may be an icebreaker." That is the way diplomats in Washington are describing the weekend regional talks in Baghdad that brought US and Iranian diplomats face to face for a hand-shake. more By The Christian Science Monitor

Posted 14/3/2007 @ 13:7:11 GMTIran's Eye-poking Rulers will Get what's Coming to ThemI give Iran's leaders another year or two of poking their fingers into the eyes of their perceived enemies, uttering absurdities, dispensing repression, flirting with nuclear disaster and generally making a nuisance of themselves...Then, ideally on the 30th anniversary of the revolution that toppled the Shah, the Iranian people will assert themselves. more By The Orlando Sentinel

Posted 14/3/2007 @ 12:27:59 GMTTwo Busted Flushes: The U.S. and Iranian NegotiationsU.S., Iranian and Syrian diplomats met in Baghdad on March 10 to discuss the future of Iraq. Shortly afterward, everyone went out of their way to emphasize that the meetings either did not mean anything or that they were not formally one-on-one, which meant that other parties were present. Such protestations are inevitable: All of the governments involved have substantial domestic constituencies that do not want to see these talks take place, and they must be placated by emphasizing the triviality. Plus, all bargainers want to make it appear that such talks mean little to them. No one buys a used car by emphasizing how important the purchase is. He who needs it least wins. more By Stratfor Geopolitical Intelligence Report

Posted 14/3/2007 @ 9:29:35 GMTAhmadinejad Defiant as Iran Faces New AnctionsTEHRAN -- Iran's president voiced defiance on Wednesday as world powers hoped to put the finishing touches on a draft text imposing new sanctions against the Islamic Republic, saying the country would not surrender. "You all sit together and exchange papers," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech at a rally in Yazd province in central Iran, broadcast live on state television. more By Reuters

Posted 13/3/2007 @ 10:49:24 GMTPetraeus: Iran Training, Arming MilitantsThe top U.S. commander in Iraq said in an interview released Monday that it's "indisputable" Iran is training and arming militants to fight against U.S.-led troops in Iraq. Gen. David Petraeus also told ABC News that suicide bombers are streaming across Iraq's border from Syria and making their way into the country's volatile western Anbar province. more By The Associated Press

Posted 14/3/2007 @ 9:16:2 GMTIran Blasts '300'Iran blasted Hollywood's latest blockbuster yesterday, saying it spreads lies about a 2,500-year-old battle in order to launch a cultural war against Iranians. more By New York Post

Posted 14/3/2007 @ 9:11:53 GMTIranians Outraged by `300' MovieTEHRAN, Iran -- The hit American movie "300" has angered Iranians who say the Greeks-vs-Persians action flick insults their ancient culture and provokes animosity against Iran. more By The Associated Press

Posted 14/3/2007 @ 9:3:27 GMTIranian Bank Note Stirs Chain ReactionTEHRAN -- A new 50,000-rial note going into circulation this week was meant to showcase Iran's technological ambitions and boost national pride just before the Persian New Year next week. more By Los Angeles Times

Posted 13/3/2007 @ 17:35:42 GMTAJC Study Exposes Iran's Shameful Human Rights Conditions NEW YORK -- The American Jewish Committee is urging the international community to focus attention on the deplorable human rights situation in Iran. The widespread persecution of Iranians for their ethnicity, religion, political beliefs, and gender and sexual orientation is documented in a new AJC study, Human Rights in Iran, 2007. The study is available at http://www.ajc.org/site/c.ijITI2PHKoG/b.851561/apps/nl/content2.asp?content_id={9FB119CA-61EA-45CE-AAF1-298C9EBAFCA8}&notoc=1. more By American Jewish Committee

Posted 13/3/2007 @ 17:26:12 GMTRussia Urges Iran To Fulfill UN Demands To Freeze EnrichmentMOSCOW -- Russia has urged Iran to fulfill the U.N. demand to freeze its uranium enrichment program and to cooperate with a U.N. nuclear watchdog, officials said Tuesday. more By Dow Jones Newswires

Posted 13/3/2007 @ 16:29:22 GMTIranian Government Daily: 'Mild Cold War Heats Up'In a March 8, 2007 analysis titled "Mild Cold War Heats Up," the Iranian English-language daily Tehran Times, which is affiliated with Iran's Foreign Ministry, wrote that Russia was trying to reassert itself as a rival to the U.S., and that the Cold War was on again, albeit in a more moderate incarnation. more By The Middle East Media Research Institute

Posted 13/3/2007 @ 14:16:14 GMTIsrael Says Hundreds of Hamas Men Trained in IranHundreds of members of the radical Palestinian Hamas movement receive military training in Iran every year, the head of Israel's internal security service was quoted as saying on Tuesday. "Hundreds of Hamas men are sent for training in Iran, and not for short trainings of a week or a month, but for long sessions," MP Zvi Hendel told reporters after hearing Shin Beth chief Yuval Diskin brief parliament's influential foreign affairs and defence committee. more By Agence France Presse

Posted 13/3/2007 @ 13:50:51 GMTNations Close on Iran SanctionsThe United States and three European nations moved closer to agreement with Russia and China on another package of sanctions against Iran that is much less harsh than Washington and its allies would have liked. more By The Associated Press

Posted 13/3/2007 @ 11:35:16 GMTWar Clouds' Silver LiningsWord from Saudi insiders who were privy to recent talks in Riyadh between King Abdullah and Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is encouraging, but it will almost surely disappoint those who favor bombing Iran's nuclear installations. Speaking privately, not for attribution, one Saudi topsider confided the Iranian president flew back across the Gulf "a much chastened and worried man." more By The Washington Times

Posted 13/3/2007 @ 11:4:33 GMTIran, Russia: Nuclear Reactors and GeopoliticsRussian President Vladimir Putin on March 12 jumped into the dispute over Russia's construction of a nuclear reactor in Iran, explicitly telling state press that all work will be suspended until the Iranians resume their payments. The message between the lines is clear: Russia will not complete the Bushehr reactor -- or at least not while Putin remains president. more By Stratfor

Posted 13/3/2007 @ 10:32:46 GMTThe Defection of an Iranian General Takes a Bizarre TurnIn the arcane vocabulary of spycraft, the process of spiriting an agent out of hostile territory is known as an 'extraction'. Until yesterday, all the evidence in the mysterious case of Ali Reza Asghari - the senior Iranian general who disappeared from Tehran, turned up in Istanbul last month and then disappeared again - pointed to an intricately plotted extraction involving more than one intelligence agency. more By The First Post

Posted 13/3/2007 @ 10:24:23 GMTRelatives of Missing Iranian General Accuse US of KidnapClaims by western intelligence to have scored a coup by securing the defection of a senior Iranian general were contradicted yesterday by the man's relatives, who claimed he had been kidnapped by US or Israeli agents. more